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OBITUARY.
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
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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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Obituary.
OBITUARY .
Untitled Article
Mr . John Foster . The following is an another instance , In addition to the many which have been recorded in the Monthly Repository , of the power of Divine truth to carry conviction to the ingenuous mind , though trained to far different views , to produce the best fruits of holiness and Christian charity , and , at the same time , to afford the richest consolation in the season of
affliction and the hour of death : it can scarcely fail to afford both interest and edification to the reader ; so true it is , that the gospel in its purity is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe . 1830 . Dec . 29 , at Royston , Herts , Mr . John Foster , in the 72 d year of his age . His father , Mr . John Foster , of
Arrington , m Cambridgeshire , who rented a large farm of the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke , was a pious , benevolent , and iudustrious man , and much respected ; his mother , a daughter of Mr . Thomas Hawkes , of Rockells , in the county of Essex : they were Dissenters , and members of an Independent Calvinistic Church at Melbourne , in Cambridgeshire , under the pastoral care of the Rev . Richard Cooper . Mr . Foster died , leaving a
widow , with two sons and two daughters , the eldest , the subject of this memoir , being only nine years of age . When the two sons left school , Stephen , the youngest , being disposed to devote himself to the ministry , was educated at the College at Homer ton , and was afterwards chosen pastor of a large congregation of Dissenters at Maiden , in Essex , where he continued his ministry till his death . He was much beloved for his amiable and
excellent qualities . The two daughters were the subjects of early piety , were both married , and died in the county of Essex . John , the subject of this memoir , observed of himself , " When I left school I was inexperienced , but virtuous in purpose and in conduct , with a deep reverence for religion , in which I
had been earl y initiated by my parents . " At this period he had frequent opportunities of listening to the conversation of ^ religious persons who visited the family , some of whom were Dissenters of the Calvinistic persuasion , and others , converts of the late Rev . John Berridge , of Everton . From the religious excitement existing in the neighbourhood , the
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favourite subject of these conversations was the conversion of sinners , or the new birth , and from what he heard on these occasions , he was induced to look and wait for a sudden change to be wrought supernaturally within him , independently of any religious knowledge he might be able to obtain by the diligent perusal of the Scriptures . Conscious that he had never experienced such a change , although at this period he was
well disposed towards religion , and sincerely desirous of becoming what its true priuciples require ; and having been taught that nothing really acceptable to God could originate in himself , he was greatly perplexed ; and from such notions , meeting with nothing but obstructions and discouragements in the good course he was inclined to pursue , he unhappily turned his atteution to other pursuits , in which the seed-time of life was lamentably wasted .
Under the guidance of a kind Providence , he left Cambridgeshire , and occupied a farm at Royston , where several old friends of his family resided , who sought his society and took a lively interest in his welfare ; and in the course of two years he married a Miss Cooper , the daughter of an eminent surgeon in London : these new and improving connexions were the means of rendering him a more settled and domestic
character . In this situation he lived several years , when the farm being sold , he removed to Kelshall , about four miles distant , and entered upon another , with his accustomed ardour and industry . At this period , however , the agricultural interests suffered a lamentable depression ; his expectations were disappointed , and his spiiits , which were constitutionally
strong and buoyant , became much dejected—receiving no support from those just and salutary views of the merciful designs of Providence , which both reason and the Scriptures inculcate . In the midst of these anxieties he was suddenly deprived of his only daughter , the pride
of his heart and the idol of his soul , as good as she was amiable ; and by this affliction he experienced a shock , a destitution , which he had never before felt . Overwhelmed with calamity , he looked up to Him who is the refuge of the distressed in the time of trouble , and , as he observed , found in God a hiding-place
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C 493 )
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/61/
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