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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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62 : Memoirs qf ZV . James Jfoster .
Untitled Article
" But seethe aocQmp } ish , qfi £ > mtqr appear , / i . Re fined rKis language , and . his reason cleac ! t TKouj Foster , p nly , h ^ t ^ tbd pje ^ i ng ^ rt , . ^ , f j \ t onfce to charin the ear , and ^ mend the JiearL "
Dr . Foster , amidst all this popularity and eclat , w&s modest and humble . His zeal for the promotioriof every personal and social virtue kept pace with his increasing' fame . What he aimed at was * as he himself assures us , * the advancement of the glory of Christ , and the exaltation of his divine religion : and I take this opportunity ^ ' * says he * , " to declare , in an age in which scepticism prevails to a high degree , that I esteem it an honour to be & , firm believer * and , from devotedness of mind , a preacher and public advocate for the Christian institution j aiad think all those justly chargeable with great baseness , pusillanimity , and hypocrisy , who either preach 6 r pro * fess it for the sake of popularity , or any worldly consideration whatsoever without being themselves real and hearty Christians . "
I 7 I 1 S civil principles were full of loyalty to the Hanover Family , and he laboured to disseminate sentiments of piiblit Virtue apd true patriotism ; but he discarded the authority of the magistrate in religion . " The magistrate ' s authority in matters of conscience /* says he , in his chapter on government , € m must be nothing , unless it be unlimited and absolute in all instances ; to assert which would be to abolish reason , conscience , and integrity altogether , and to exclude the government of God himself . To allow the magistrate a right t 6 impose the minutest article in religion is directly calculated , and the experience of the world shews * that it has no other tteual effect than , to produce ignorance , slavery , and misery . A public leading in religion has usually been the bstne of knowledge and rational piety , and continues at this day , in almost all nations , to be no better than the establishment df fklsfhotid and iniquity by law /'
Tjie ; writer of this memoir recollects , that Dr , Foster was spoken of as distinguished by his humanity and co ' Aipiissionate sympathies . Jn the goodness of his spirit , Dr . Flertiing traces the reafgroxanfls of his popularity , ^^ ivlthough his fine geiiius , his liy ^ Iyjmaginatioh ^ had , " says he , ^ the aid of art uricomlnor ^ fiffl ig ^ y * 1 ^^ ai ? ^ vivacity in his address , as well as the decbratio ^ s ^ of chosen diction , masterly ^ pr ^^ ioii , ' k £$ d sWblirrte i de ^ i . ^ V , ( the generosity of his , spirit gave the cB ^ fei't& ^ tii / iVing touc ^ p ^ i ^ all hift composition ^ . His maiily zymp&th j&b had in thrm tlie fire , the energy , that so irresistiblv charms . His be-1 Conrlatkm , ¦ Jk'i 3 Jirtit « ys , ^ bl . i . p . ^^ - - UM ' ''
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1807, page 62, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2377/page/6/
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