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could have the means of forming only an imperfect estimate of what he was in the days of health and vigour. Yet enough remained to impress the mind with the conviction, that the sufferer was no ordinary man. Retentiveness of memory, which in occasional hours snatched from business, or from nightly rest, enabled him to lay up a store of information that in a great measure compensated for the want of a fiberal education in early life, -vigour of judgment which rendered that information really useful, as the means of forming correct and enlarged opinions on the most interesting topics, and a readiness and propriety of utterance, the sure indication of a well-furnished and wellordered mind,-were at all times discoverable even in the latter days of our departed friend. In some respects, the calamities which pressed heavily upon him, were the means of exhibiting his true character. His unshaken firmness of principle and power of endurance could not otherwise have been so fully manifested; nor, had his piety been spared the severity of the trial, could we have known the depth of his humility and the completeness of his resignation to the will of Heaven. Grievous indeed it was to behold the indications of intense suffering, and yet it was often truly delightful and edifying to witness how Christian principles and hopes triumphed over all. We had thus a striking demonstration, that though the outward man failed, the inner man was renewed day by day, and that, as his life had been regulated by the gospel precepts, his latter days were cheered by its rich consolations."

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Dec. 16, at Collumpton, in Devonshire, the Rev. JOHN DAVIS, Minister of the Unitariau congregation in that town. His death was sudden and unexpected, although he had for many years had but very delicate health. He preached twice the Sunday of the week in which he died, visited a sick friend on Monday, taking a long walk for that purpose, and attended his pupils until the evening of Wednesday, and died the night of the following day at about 11 o'clock, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. It were improper, I think, to suffer such a man to sink into the grave without some statement of his character and conduct, which I presume to forward to you at the instance of some of his friends in Devonshire.-Mr. Davis, being a native of Wales, had his grammar education in Caermarthenshire, under the learned Mr. David Davis, who is still living; and was sent at the usual age to the

Dissenting Academy at Caermarthen, then under the care of the Rev. Robert Gentleman; but not being satisfied with the opportunities there afforded for improvement, he soon afterwards entered at Daventry, where the Rev. Thomas Belsham was then Tutor. There he continued two or three years, where his Tutor testifies to his conduct being most exemplary.→ Although brought up in the faith called Orthodox, whilst at Daventry he imbibed the principles of Unitarianism. This his excellent Tutor lamented at the time; yet he himself afterwards was led, by extended and temperate inquiry, to adopt the same opinions. When he left the Academy at Daventry, he settled in Cumberland for some years, where his conduct did him the highest honour. His congregation was, however, small, and not very harmonious, so that he at length judged it best to leave it. Whilst in Cumberland, he kept a school; and it is no small proof how highly his pupils esteemed him, that one of them, now living at Cheshunt, for many years, aud to the present time, never failed to remit him a very handsome and liberal donation twice in the year, lest his income should be too small for one in his delicate state of health. This friend of Mr. Davis, like himself, is a man of modest and retiring character, and best beloved by whom he is best known. Such was the delicacy he exercised in this affair, that he did not send Mr. Davis the monies directly from himself, but employed the agency of one who was proud of being numbered amongst the friends of both.-Mr. Davis was a man of sound learning and of great application; but he never became a popular preacher. As to the arts of popularity, he abhorred the practice of them; but neither his voice, manner nor action, was attractive, so that he was only admired by the judicious few. He carefully wrote his discourses; and he had a habit, arising from his diffidence of himself, when he determined to compose a sermon, of reading some treatise on the subject; which I often lamented, thinking that he thus insensibly imbibed other men's thoughts, and relied too little on his own. It had been better, perhaps, to have written his discourse first, and then read on the subject the works of others. favourite English author was Dr. Lardner (and with whom, who ever read his works, is he not a favourite?). Of the writings of his contemporaries, he appeared to prefer those of Dr. Priestley, whose opinions he greatly approved, and in one particular whom he greatly resem bled-a particular which many will regard as an excellence, and some as an infirmity that was, the decisiveness of his

His

conclusions. His mind was strong and clear, but it was not subtile enough to pierce and confound its own conclusions. He attached great importance (some of his friends thought too great an importance) to the prevalence of his religious opinions, which of course made him in some sort a propagandist; yet he uniformly asserted, that a sound morality was the end of all true religion, and held the value of opinions without this in the most perfect scorn. The doctrine of the Trinity, in itself, seems merely harmless nonsense; but, as connected with such doctrines as the atonement and imputed righteousness, it assumes a more serions and mischievous aspect. He used to say, that this last doctrine of imputed righteousness was like putting a white shirt over the dirty robes of a chimneysweeper; and he held that Orthodox Christianity was more absurd than any of the Heathen superstitions; for if an irrational service was offered to the Heathen gods, the gods themselves were, at the best, but imperfect men, or worse: whereas the Christians offered to a Being of consummate intelligence, the most puerile and ridiculous service; exclusively levelling their God to the rank of idiotism. He ever seemed to have the most unshaken confidence in the ultimate provisions of the Deity for universal good, and fully expected that the end of the great drama of existence would be universal happiness. How glorious would every thing appear, if the phenomena of nature and the language of the New Tes tament warranted this conclusion! However, this was HIS conclusion, and quite unshaken by whatever evil he himself suffered or saw around him.-Whenever he had to determine upon any point of conduct, his first inquiry was, whether it was consistent with DUTY; and that once clearly impressed upon his mind, he never ceased to obey its dictates.-No one more anxiously wished for, and few more sanguinely expected, a great amelioration of the state of society in this world, at some distant period, than Mr. Davis; yet no one was more zealous for the security of property, or more adverse to tumultuary proceedings, as he thought society could only advance with the advance of mental cultivation, without which men can neither combine nor steadily act for the accomplishment of improvements. Neither the fear of man, nor any wish to please him, ever induced him to do that, of which he did not approve. It was pronounced over the grave of John Knox, "that he never feared the face of man :" the same might justly be said of Mr. Davis, who had the firmness of Knox without one grain of his

ferociousness. He had, indeed, the spirit of a martyr, and in other times would have been one. He could act, and would have suffered, like Latimer.-Mr. Davis being a single man, lived two years together in my house, and never was a man better adapted for domestic life. So easy to be accommodated, so considerate of the accommodation of others; so quiet, peaceful and courteous, that he was in domestic life inestimable. He thought that three great powers, in a good degree new, were in action for the amelioration of the condition of man-the free use of printing, general education, and the bent of men's minds towards experimental research. Certainly, these are great powers, and cannot be without effect. Experiment is the sole foundation of knowledge. Much may be imagined, much believed; but without experiment nothing can be KNOWN, Europe was for centuries diverted from turning to this source of knowledge by that stupendous system of fraud, the Catholic Church.It appears that the activity and usefulness of Mr. Davis were continued to him until the last day of his life; and I know that if he had had the final ordering of his departure, this was ever his wish and desire. His congregation, and the disposition to attend to his ministry in his neighbourhood, had of late years increased, and with these, his usefulness had extended, which gave him great pleasure. He was not much acquainted with worldly affairs, and had studied Man more in the elements of his nature, than. in active life. He was, in one word, the rarest of all characters, a Christian indeed, in whom there was no guile; and his common designation in the West of England, "HONEST JOHN DAVIS," is proof enough that the purity and simplicity of his character were duly appreciated. I will adopt, on this occasion, four lines, with the alteration of a word or two, of Johnson's beautiful poem on Lovett:

"Well tried through many a circling year, See Davis to the grave descend; Judicious, innocent, sincere,

Of every friendless name the friend."
HOMO.

[Another Correspondent (D.) gives us the following pleasing information con. cerning Mr. Davis: "The uniform tenor of his life obtained for him the general respect of his neighbourhood. By his flock he will be remembered with affection and veneration. It should be noted, for the encouragement of others, that by unremitting endeavours to do his best for the cause of truth, (although for many

years afflicted with a painful disorder,) he lived to see the fruit of his labours. He has left a congregation increasing in zeal and in numbers. It was thought worth the trouble to inquire concerning the religious opinions of so worthy a man, and it was found that he could give a reason for the faith that was in him. About two years since he felt it his duty to attend in the vestry on Wednesday evenings to deliver lectures, and to converse with any who might be sufficiently interested to hear what he had to advance in favour of his views of the gospel doctrine. For some time, very few came to be instructed; but with peculiar steadiness he held on in what he thought the path of duty; and his hearers increased. His last lecture, delivered a few days before his death, was thought to be particularly interesting, and his auditors had then increased fourfold."]

Dec. 22, at Tedfold House, Billingshurst, Sussex, aged 70, Mr. WILLIAM EVERSHED, a truly worthy and useful man, and a support and ornament of the General Baptist Church at Billingshurst. His residence for many years previous, had connected him with the congregation of the same denomination at Mead Row, near Godalming.

1825, Jan. 6, at Taunton, aged 38, after a severe and protracted illness, ELIZABELLA, wife of Mr. MEADE, Solicitor of that place. Her death is generally and sincerely regretted. An intimate acquaintance with the human mind and its principles of action, perfect candour, active benevolence, enlightened and ardent piety, and uniform moral rectitude, strongly marked her character, and commanded the esteem and love of the circle of friends in which she moved. In the domestic relations of life, her cheerfulness, her evenness and sweetness of temper, though she was almost constantly labouring under bodily indisposition; her unremitting and anxious endeavours to discharge her various and important duties as a wife, a parent, a daughter, and a sister,-deeply endeared her to her now disconsolate husband, to her bereaved children, to an aged mother, and to an affectionate brother, whom she has left to mourn the irreparable loss which they suffer by her apparently untimely removal from the present scene. That she should have been thus prematurely withdrawn from so much usefulness, affords another instance of the inscrutable nature of the Divine dispensations. To employ her own words, but a few days before her dissolution, The ways of Providence are indeed

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mysterious, but what we now know only in part, we shall fully know hereafter." The religious sentiments, which she embraced after a diligent and impartial perusal of the sacred writings, were strictly Unitarian. But while it was her aim to entertain correct views of the leading doctrines of Christianity, she did not neglect to cultivate its spirit and to practise its precepts. Revering truth of every kind, but more especially religious truth, what she conscientiously believed, she never felt ashamed to avow. In the course of the painful and severe illness which closed her days on earth, she afforded the clearest proof, that scriptural views of the paternal character of God have power to compose the mind to resignation, and to give it peace and hope in the nearest views of death. R. K. M.

Mrs. JONES, of St. Mary Axe, the lady who was taken from this life in a manner so awfully sudden in the Chapel in Jewin Street, on Sunday January 9th, during the solemnity of prayer, was consigned to the family vault in Goodman's Fields on the Monday se'nnight following. The Rev. S. W. Browne, Minister of YorkStreet Chapel, St. James's Square, attended on the melancholy occasion with her mourning friends: and performed the funeral obsequies; this lady having been a constant attendant on divine worship, for several years, at the Chapel in Monkwell Street. The Rev. gentleman pronounced over the lifeless body the discourse here given, closing the solemn duty with selections so made from the beautifully impressive service of the Common Prayer-Book for the burial of the dead, as to make them harmonize with that pure form of Christianity, which prevailed in the first age of the church, when "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, above all, through all, and in all," formed the divinely simple religion of the followers of the Saviour of the world from sin and death. A part of the 90th Psalm was first read.

"All things on earth dissolve and perish: all the external objects of human complacency come to an end; grandeur fades; distinctions cease; riches vanish; pleasures pall; we are bereft of our dearest and long-loved friends: thus is the fashion of this world passing away, and we are continually changing. Soon, in the common course of nature, do we descend to the grave, even when not hastened thither by those causes which terminate in an early death: but it may be said to any of us, 'This night thy

life shall be required of thee;' what then can stand more fully unveiled to our view than the vanity of the world? We see it in the gorgeous palace; we see it in the lonely cottage. These considerations come more fully home to our feelings at the present hour of mourning. We here consign to earth the honoured remains of one who was snatched from life, in an instant of time, ere her sur rounding friends could say 'She is dying!' Her last thought was probably an aspiration to heaven; for the minister of religion was at that time engaged with the congregation in the solemn duty of prayer: a momentary confusion came over her mind, she sat down, her last respiration was heard, and she fell lifeless into the arms of the eldest of her beloved daughters. Ought not such an event to rouse us from our supineness; and dispose us to finish the work of him that sent us, while it is day? for the evening of death may close in on us ere we are aware. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants-Be ye therefore ready also,' adds the holy Jesus, .' for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.' This consolation we have amid our heaviness of heart. She whom we mourn was impressed with a strong sense of the truth and importance of religion, which she evinced by a regular discharge of the duties of piety. In her intercourse with the world she had a warm, sympathizing heart, totally free from the exclusive spirit of bigotry. In the daily duties of her station her activity was kept up to the last hour of life: and she was distinguished by an amiable anxiety for the welfare of her family and friends: and we trust that, through the Divine mercy, she will be everlastingly happy in the enjoyment of that reward to which our faith leads us to aspire; for the comparatively light afflictions of the world, work for us a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory.'-From this awfully sudden close of an earthly existence, we must be impressed with the conviction that in the midst of life, we are in death. Of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who knowest the secrets of our hearts? Shut not thy merciful ears to our prayers: but spare us, O holy and merciful Father! thou supreme Judge of all, and suffer us not at our last hour to be without hope, or to fall from thee.'"

January 16, at Hackney, Mrs. ANNA DAVIES, aged 69, eldest daughter of the late Rev. Philip Davies, (Mon. Repos. V. 88, 89,) long the head of a respectable establishment for female education. (See also Mou. Repos. XVII. 640.) Her independence of mind and Christian consistency of conduct will ever be remembered with respect by her friends, and especi ally by such as were placed under her care.

Addition.

JOHN HOLLIS, Esq., who died Nov. 26, at High Wycomb, Bucks, aged 81. (Mon. Repos. XIX. p. 754.) “He was the last descendant in the male line of an opulent Dissenting family, well known in other counties, as well as in Buckinghamshire, for their zealous attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and for their liberal support of it. The Hollis family left Yorkshire about the middle of the 17th century, and established in the Minories, London, a trade in what is called hard-ware, by which they acquired very considerable property. Of this family was the celebrated republican Thomas Hollis, who left his fortune to his friend Thos. Brand, on whose decease, in 1804, the gentleman whose death we now record felt sorry at not being remembered by a legacy, and communicated some anecdotes of his family to this (the Gentleman's) Magazine (see Vol. Ixxiv. p. 1098; Vol. lxxv. p. 117). These anecdotes were censured by another correspondent in pp. 8, 519. The late Mr. Hollis was himself distinguished by his ingenuous love of truth and eager and anxious search after it, by his zeal in the cause of freedom, and by his kindness and beneficence. Those who knew him well, the poor in his neighbourhood and many persons in various situations, who received his benefactions without knowing their benefactor, will long expect in vain, if they should expect, that his place in society will be supplied to them.”—Gent. Mag.

[Mr. Hollis was always spoken of by those that knew him as a truly good man. It needs not be concealed, however, that he professed to doubt of some of the great truths that are received by the whole of the Christian world, and that he entertained dark views of the magnitude and prevalence of Evil. He printed, some years ago, a little volume, entitled (we write from recollection) "Thoughts on Scepticism." It occurs to us that we have seen also a pamphlet from his pen.]

INTELLIGENCE.

Evangelical" Declaration of War legal process; except they adopt the more

against Unitarians.

THE "Evangelical Magazine" ushers in the new year with sounding the warwhoop of bigotry and persecution. For a long time this work represented the "Socinians" as dwindled to nothing; with but few chapels, (places of worship, they would hardly be called,) and those nearly empty. This artifice failing, and in despair of answering Unitarian arguments, it is now seriously proposed to the Evangelical world to try to rob Uni

tarians of their meeting-houses!

The notable project has been started in Lancashire, in the course of a newspaper controversy growing out of the report of proceedings at the dinner given to Mr. Grundy at Manchester. (See Mon. Repos. XIX. p,574.) It is taken up deliberately in the "Evangelical" for this month, in an article of Intelligence headed (not Socinian, but) "Unitarian Chapels," from which we shall now extract a passage (pp. 23, 24,) to which we beg the reader's attention.

"In the management of the controversy, the Orthodox party have wisely abstained from theological discussion, as unsuited to a newspaper. They have confined their attacks principally to two distinct points, shewing by reference to historic facts, first, That Unitarians are not entitled to that claim of candour, of liberality, and of steadfast adherence to the principles of civil and religous liberty, of which they boast; and, secondly, That however respectable they may be in their private commercial concerns, they do, as a body, most flagrantly violate the principles of moral integrity, by the mal-administration of trusts, appropriating to the support of their own system numerous chapels, with endowments and funds to a vast amount, originally intended for orthodox purposes. In confirmation of this charge, the list of chapels occupied by Unitarians in Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, is reported to be eighty: of these sixty-nine were origi. nally orthodox; three are doubtful; and eight only of Unitarian origin.

Should this controversy hereafter ap. pear in the form of a pamphlet, it will deserve a careful review. It has already, we are informed, produced a very wide and powerful impression; and, we ap. prehend, it will ultimately lead to the rescue of property to a considerable amount, from the trust of Unitarians, by

honourable alternative of voluntarily surrendering it to the purposes for which it was originally intended."

Having recorded this specimen of intolerance and persecution, as far as the mind of the conductors of the Evangelical Magazine is concerned, we are contented. It would be ridiculous to argue against the principle assumed in the menace; it would be worse than ridiculous to say a word upon the result of the meditated "legal process." Let the Calvinists begin their holy war, and they will then But the only thing of consequence, at understand the signs of the times." present, is to set down in print the memorable design. Here, in the 19th century, in the metropolis of Great Britain, in a Magazine supported chiefly by Protestant Dissenters, a Magazine too which professes to be by way of distinction "Evangelical" and to be devoted peculiarly to vital Christianity; in this work, at this time of day, it is proposed to drive a multitude of Protestant Disseuting congregations (not less than 70 in one district) out of their places of worship inherited from their fathers, because, it is alleged, they do not believe all that their fathers believed! It is intended of course that the emptied chapels shall be occupied and their endowments be enjoyed (here is the temptation) by the true believers; for dominion is founded upon grace. The iniquity of the scheme may pass; but the cool-blooded assurance with which it is announced is instructive. This is the "Evangelical Magazine;" this is the spientitled to consider as the effect of Culrit of some Calvinists; and this we are vinism, unless the Dissenting Ministers, whose names are published as the contributors to the work and the distributors of Editor's project of contending with Uniits gains, come forward and disavow the tarians by "legal process," and of upholding and enriching Calvinism by a sweeping ejectment and spoliation!

Opening of the Unitarian Chapel at
Bramfield, Suffolk.

THE circumstances which led to the opening of this place of worship, are briefly these.-Mr. Thomas Latham, who had been for several years settled as the pastor of a Baptist Church at Laxfield, near Halesworth, in Suffolk, having seen reason, from reading the Scriptures, to relinquish the orthodox systemi, avowed

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