blies, the homage of the representatives of foreign nations, the condescensions of royal favour on the part of crowned heads and of princes of the blood, the general estimation of the wise and good, yet all this abated not the lowly estimate he formed of himself. He was proof against the fascination of the high-born smile,' which dissolved not his steadfast virtue, nor betrayed him into vain-glorious display, or obtrusive presumption. He knew his place, and modestly kept it, and God honoured him in it with a high measure of usefulness. In my own hearing, a venerable prelate of the episcopal church once said to him, in a public company, 'Mr. Townsend, if you come to our city, and take up your quarters any where but in the bishop's palace, I shall be quite affronted with you.' And this was not the only instance in which the episcopal portals were open to receive him, by express invitation."

Yet, amidst it all, he never attempted to conceal his humble origin, and he once adverted, with evident emotion, at a meeting of the City of London Auxiliary Bible Society in the Egyptian Hall, to the circumstances of his childhood, when he came there on the Easter Monday, with the other boys of the Blue Coat School, to receive a plumb-cake and a silver sixpence, at the hands of the magistrates who successively filled the civic chair, during the progress

of his education.

He was unceasingly alive to every benevolent project, of which he gave a public proof but a short time before his death. A correspondent in the Evangelical Magazine, suggested, that some plan might be devised for erecting a number of alms-houses, for poor aged ministers, who might be superannuated. This immediately revived in Mr. Townsend's mind, that part of his original plan, in connection with the Congregational School, which he was compelled to abandon, and he published, in that useful miscellany, the following reply, which we gladly transcribe, to excite increased attention to a subject which demands the notice of the Congregational body.

"I was pleased to see, in your last Number, the article respecting some kind of retreat for aged and worn-out ministers. I have often turned my attention to this subject; I wished, indeed, to have connected an Asylum for Aged Ministers with the Congregational School, but could not carry the measure. I write this short letter, Mr. Editor, to say I will most cheerfully join in any plan which is suited to carry this benevolent measure into immediate execution, either upon a mixed or restricted principle. When it is recollected how many very excellent institutions, for the support and comfort of aged widows and decayed tradesmen, have been formed by the zeal and liberality of individuals, who have left by will, or have devoted in their life-time, enough to purchase a suitable building, and also an annual allowance of money and coals; it is to be lamented that no individual among our rich friends have properly felt this question. Many Christians have died so very rich, that they might have provided most amply for their own families, and yet not have forgotten and neglected this desirable object. As soon as I have heard of the death of a very rich Christian, I have hoped and expected something of this kind; but hitherto I have been disappointed, and therefore I am anxious to see something done by smaller donations and annual subscriptions.

"J. TOWNSEND."

But this he was not permitted to accomplish. He had done enough to render his name fragrant on earth, and doubtless to obtain the approbation of heaven.

We must now avail ourselves of

the affecting narrative of his closing days, which Mr. G. Clayton gives in his funeral sermon, to which, indeed, we are already indebted for several preceding particulars.

"The last Sabbath he preached, he delivered two sermons from the same text: "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." One was preached in the morning, at Orange Street, and the other at his own chapel in the evening.

"During his illness, his sufferings were very severe, not being able to remain in

bed more than two or three hours out of in a chair all night; but the Christian twenty-four, and frequently obliged to sit character was strongly exemplified through the whole of his sufferings, in his gratitude, humility, gentleness, and resignation

to the divine will.

"He repeatedly acknowledged his own unworthiness, and often said he was over

whelmed with shame, when he considered how much God had done for him, and how little he had done for God; that he should have been destitute of peace, if it were not for the conviction that he rested his hope alone upon the finished work of salvation; and that the Gospel he had so long preached to others was the only solace to his mind, in the prospect of eternity.

He remarked how mercifully God had dealt with him, in making him acceptable and useful as a preacher, and giving him favour in the eyes of his fellowcreatures, and his brethren in the ministry.

"On one of his family asking him how he felt, resting his arm on his Bible, (his usual custom,) he replied, Here I am safe; I know it is a finished righteousness' and, on another occasion, The promises contained in this book are my sheet-anchor.'

"When enduring excruciating pain, he would repeat those lines,

My suff'rings are not worth a thought,
When, Lord! compar'd to thine,'

and would then call to the recollection of those present the agonies of Christ in the garden and on the cross. In one of the paroxysms of extreme pain, a few nights before his death, he said, 'Human nature cannot bear this long;' and exclaimed, What must have been the sufferings of the martyr's at the stake! What must have been the Saviour's agony, when, in the prospect of death, he cried out, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done!' and immediately said, 'What are my sufferings, compared to the Saviour's in the garden, when he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood?' Then, with peculiar emphasis, never to be forgotten, he prayed, Father of mercies, hear my poor prayer, if not to relieve, help me to bear and suffer;' at another time, It is the band of the Lord; I desire to bow with submission; this suffering is all necessary to loosen my strong attachment to my beloved family.' On seeing one of them in tears, he desired them not to weep, but to remember the Lord was a strong-hold in the time of trouble.'

"A young friend (who is looking forward to the Christian ministry) expressing to him his firm conviction that the promises of God were very sweet to him in his affliction, Yes,' he replied, they are my support; indeed, I find them to be yea and amen in Christ Jesus. I have no extatic joy; but I have a sure hope and peace in God." His young friend said,

You have been faithful unto death, you shall receive a crown of life.' He replied, I have done little for God; I wish I had done more.' He reminded him

:

again, that he had begotten many sons in the Gospel he said, 'Yes, I thank God, I have met with many such instances; and when I look at my own unworthiness, and the talents I possessed as a minister of Christ, I am inclined to wonder that 1 have been made an instrument of so much good. This is a plain proof that it is not the most eloquent address, or the greatest talents, which render the word of God most successful. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord;' and then concluded by saying, Remember, from the lips of a dying man you are charged to preach the Gospel of our Lord and Sa

viour.'

"It was the privilege of the preacher to observe, during a short interview with him, some passages of the closing scene. The fixed posture of the mind was that of penitent prostration. He mourned over what he termed his short comings, his unprofitableness,' the defects of his purest motives, and best performances.' He had, it was evident, a hope full of immortality; but it arose not to a confident assurance. When reminding him of the prospect of meeting, in glory, many to whom he had been instrumental of good, on earth, he said, in a tone of unpretending modesty never to be forgotten, 'I hope so.' And having mentioned the promised crown, purchased by the blood of the Mediator, as waiting for him, he exclaimed, It is well for me that it is a blood-bought crown, or I could never expect to wear it.'

"The peace and prosperity of his church lay near his heart, and he often prayed that they might be directed and blessed. On the Wednesday preceding the first Sabbath in the month, he appeared much better, and told one of his family that, if it were the Lord's will that he should continue as well as he then was till the Sabbath afternoon, he would be led over to the meeting, and give an address at the Lord's table. When she replied,' I do not think you must attempt that,' he said, 'I might, my dear, just go in and say, Little children, love one another,'

"His exhortations to his grand-children, to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, were frequent and

earnest.

"To a dear relative, who was much agitated and cast down at the prospect of their separation by death, he said,

You must be still, and remember it is the will of the Lord.' To another he said, As a minister of Christ, let usefulness be your continual aim.'

"He observed to his much-loved partner, You have made an idol of me, and God is taking me from you; but you must look up; God will take care of you.' To the friends and relatives who saw him in his illness his constant charge was,

to show her the utmost attention and kindness after his removal.' He was talking to her, without the least appearance of the approach of death--laid his head upon her shoulder, and expired without a groan or a struggle."

Thus he finished his course, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 7th, 1826, in the 69th year of his age.

Although Mr. Townsend was free from all the vanity of authorship, yet, during his long public life, he printed many sermons and pamphlets, which are very respectable specimens of his powers of thought and composition. We believe the following is a correct list of them.

1. A Sermon on the death of Dr. Henry Peckwell, preached at Orange Street, 1786. 8vo.

2. The Happiness and Misery of a Future State, a Sermon. 8vo. 1789.

3. The Peaceable and Glorious Tendency of the Gospel, a Fast-day Sermon, 1795. 8vo.

4. Remarks on the Charge of Bishop Horsley, to the Clergy of St. David's, 1796. 8vo.

5. Three Sermons, addressed to old, middle-aged, and young people, 1797. 8vo. 6. Nine Sermons on Prayer, 1799. 8vo. 7. The Gospel Testimony, a Sermon on Acts xx. 24. 1800.

8. A Letter to the Bishop of Rochester, on Sunday Schools and Itinerant Preaching, 1801. 8vo.

9. A New Year's Gift for the Children of Charity and other Schools, 12mo. 1803. 10. The goodness of God to Israel, and also to Britain, a Fast Sermon. 8vo. 1803. 11. Lord Nelson's Funeral Improved, Sermon. 8vo. 1806.

a

12. The Christian's Life and Hope, a Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Dunkin, 1806. 8vo. 13. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress abridged. 12mo, 1806.

14. The great importance of Peace and Prosperity to Christian Societies, a Sermon at the settlement of the Rev. W. Chapman. 8vo. 1808.

15. Christ, the Life and Death, the gain of true Believers, a Sermon on the death of Mrs. Hawkes, 1808. 8vo.

16. An Address to Lying-in Women. 12mo. Also a translation of Monsieur Claude's Defence of the Reformation, in 2 vols. 8vo. which he re-published, with a sketch of the author's life, including some observations on the spirit of Popery, in 1815.

where there was not the capacity and the learning required, for descending triumphantly into all the details of this "great argument." But the times are strangely altered, and your present correspondent is obliged to fear, that it is but a small minority, even of our teachers, who have ever seriously applied themselves to the study of a

controversy demanding as much of acuteness, and more of historical acquisition, than any other by which the peace of the world, or the church, has ever been affected. Should the spirit of debate lately evinced by certain members of the Catholic communion, lead to a more adequate attention on our parts to the points at issue, the result will doubtless be our more intimate acquaintance with the ancient land-marks of the church

of God, and a more fixed abhorrence of the papal usurpation.

In the discussions adverted to, allusion has been more than once made to the costly zeal of papal Missionaries in the cause of our Saxon ancestors. And our present abandonment of much which our fathers were taught to believe and to revere, has been so wrought up by the skill of the polemic, into a crime involving all the guilt of a most unprincipled ingratitude, of a filial apostacy. It requires, however, but a slight knowledge of casuistry, or of the original documents relating to the AngloSaxon period of our history, to expose the futility of this oftenrepeated charge. It is admitted that the claims of antiquity bear a charm along with them, from which the most gifted minds have often found it next to impossible sufficiently to guard. In reply to the above accusation, it is to be observed, that he who, in a review of the past, shall be found wisely to separate the precious from the vile, affords the best evidence not only of intellectual strength and honest prowess, but of that state of feeling also which is ever due to the cause of humanity and truth. For there are duties incumbent upon us with respect to the unborn, which are quite as sacred as those which relate to the departed. The praise of gratitude to past generations is therefore too dearly purchased, if at the cost of benevolence, with regard to such as are yet to appear.

On the question before us, we have the best authority for concluding, that had the papal Missionaries failed to reach the shores of Saxon Britain, the faith of the Gospel would have become known at no distant period to our ancestors, and that in a less objectionable form, than as imported from Rome. The civil or religious benefits resulting from the Christianity known in England, previous NEW SERIES, No. 17.

to the conquest, may be viewed as considerable; but it is an important fact, and one by no means sufficiently attended to, that in the year 664, when the Gospel was professed by nearly the whole island, it had been introduced and maintained in at least twothirds of it, by Scottish Missionaries, men who knew how to spurn the growing usurpations of the pontiffs, resting their own claims to a religious office on higher authority. The states of the Octarchy had their separate apostles; these belonging to different nations, each introduced among his converts, the forms which had been sanctified by the practise of his own communion. The people of Kent, Wessex, and East-Anglia, renounced their ancient superstitions under the direction of teachers from Rome or Gaul. The East Saxons, the Mercians, and the tribes of Bernicia, and Deiri, whose territories stretched from the mouth of the Thames and of the Severn, to the Friths of Edinburgh, were all led to their profession of the Gospel by Scottish preachers, or by such natives as were indebted to them for education.* From this diversity of customs, and among such of these as became the more frequent sub

*Bede, Hist. iii. 17. 21, 22. The portions of Saxon Britain evangelized by the last mentioned teachers, included

the

following counties :--Essex, Middlesex, Leicestershire, Northampton, Lincoln, Rutland, Huntingdon, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Chester, Derby, Nottingham, Lancaster, York, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland. To which must be added, parts of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and the South of Scotland. Of the remaining counties, Cornwall and part of Devon were yet in possession of the Britons, who still retained their profession of Christianity, while the SouthSaxons, inhabiting Sussex, had not yet renounced their ancient superstitions. Usher. Prunord. c. xii. p. 394. Whitaker's History of Manchester, lib. ii. c. 4. p. 88. Turner's Anglo-Saxons, Book iii. c. iv. 2 H