IL-2 
 B-6442j 
 
 2io 
 
fi 
 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Division ..II. j^., , ^ _ 
 
 Section -^y^ 
 
 Number •...6..4-.4-2. \ O 
 
J i/i/ .'/ Jfrr/'/im 
 
 ' I r7Y////7W ^ y(2/'f'M 
 
AN 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 MR. ABRAHAM BOOTH, 
 
 LATE 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH 
 
 IN 
 
 LITTLE PRESCOT-STRfiET, GOODMAn's FIELDS, LONDON. 
 
 By WILLIAM JONES. 
 
 " Of his learning and his talents, he had exhibited such decisive and 
 brilliant proofs, as to place above question his uncommon aquisitions and 
 powers, and, undoubtedly, to make him the centre of an extended circle 
 of admiration." Dr. Symmons's Life of Milton. 
 
 ' LIVERPOOL, 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BY JAMES SMITH ; 
 
 And sold by W. Button, and J. Burditt, Patornoster-row; also by Williams and 
 Smith, Stationer's Court, London ; by J. Uunn, Nottingham; Guthrie and Tail, 
 Edinburgh; J. and A. Duncan, Glasgow; James Thompson and Son, and 
 Mrs. Richardson, Manchester; and by Woodward and Alderson, Caslle-street, 
 Liverpool. 
 
 PRICE FOUR SHILLINGS. 
 
 1808. 
 
TO 
 
 HIS MUCH HONOURED 
 PEXEFACTOR AND FRIEND, 
 
 MR. JOSEPH CRANE: 
 
 AS A 
 SMALL, BUT VERY SINCERE 
 
 TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE, 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 MANY OBLIGATIONS HE OWES HIM; 
 
 THIS ESSAY 
 
 IS 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS OBEDIENT SERVANT, 
 AND KINSMAN, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 HOPE-PLACE, 
 
 Liverpool, January 20, 1808. 
 
ADVERTISEM. 
 
 ^heJoUowing pages have been compiled from sue ft 
 materials as the writer has been supplied with, bu 
 some personal knowledge of Mr. Booth, an intimate 
 acquaintance with his writings, and the additional 
 information collected from his surviving friends. 
 To Dr. Rippon^s Memoir, he also confesses himself 
 under considerable obligations. He is fully sensible 
 of the disadvantages he has laboured under, not only 
 in consequence of his remote residence from the 
 Metropolis, but also from the inadequacy of his 
 talents, to do justice to the task which has been im- 
 posed upon him. The only merit he claims is that 
 of impartiality. Having never had any religious 
 connection with Mr. Booth, or with any society 
 belonging to the denomination of English Baptists, 
 his pen has not moved at the impulse of party zeal; 
 and if he have spoken favourably of the character 
 which he undertook to delineate, he wishes the rea- 
 der to understand, that what he has said is the 
 award of an unbiassed and disinterested mind. For 
 
VI. 
 
 the rest^ he throws himself upon his candour and 
 indulgence. 
 
 What reception this tract may meet with from the 
 public^ the writer^ though not wholly indifferent 
 about it^ does not undertake to conjecture. To him- 
 self, indeed, it owes nothing ; for., under circumstances 
 of deep and complicated distress, he has found, in the 
 contemplation of so many virtues as were concentrated 
 in the subject of his memoir, an asylum for his 
 thoughts against the hateful shafts of treachery and 
 malevolence, and, what is worse, against the chilling 
 blasts of black ingratitude. 
 
 When our countryman, Milton, under the loss 
 of his sight, was reviled by his enemies, as ^^ a 
 miserable old man," he very properly replied, that 
 *' that man alone was miserable, who could not bear 
 adversity with fortitude." Were it in the power of 
 the writer of this Essay to command the return of any 
 portion of his past days, notwithstanding the frown 
 of the world, his attention would in all probability, 
 be first directed to the few weeks which have been 
 spent in tracing the history, and in recordi?ig the vir-^ 
 tues, of the venerable Abraham Booth. 
 

 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 MR. ABRAHAM BOOTH, 
 
 xxMONG the many advantages which result from 
 recording the lives and actions of such persons as 
 have filled conspicuous stations in the world or in 
 the church, it is certainly none of the least that 
 their biography, when properly related, eminently 
 serves to assist us in that important science the 
 STUDY OF MAN. It is equally true, that those 
 characters in biography are the most instructing 
 and animating, in which we see persevering efforts 
 overcoming the most formidable obstacles, and 
 distinguished eminence gradually rising out of ob- 
 scurity and depression. Such, indeed, is the dis- 
 cipline through which some of the greatest names 
 among mankind have passed; and it may be assert- 
 ed, that none of the original favourites of nature and 
 fortune have attained a* superiority so solid and 
 
 A 
 
4 
 
 durable as that acquired by such a course of pro- 
 l)ation. The apphcation of these remarks to the 
 subject upon which we are now about to enter, will 
 appear sufficiently obvious from the sequel. 
 
 Mr. Abraham Booth, the well-known author 
 of the Reign of Grace, was born at Blackwell, 
 in Derbyshire, on the 20th of May, 1734, O. S.* 
 While he was in the first year of his age, his fa- 
 ther removed, from Blackwell, to a small farm be- 
 longing to the Duke of Portland, situated at An- 
 nesley Woodhouse, a small hamlet in the parish 
 of Annesley, in Nottinghamshire. Of a numerous 
 family of children, Abraham was the eldest, and 
 here he passed the hrst fifteen or sixteen years of 
 his life, assisting his father in the management of 
 the farming business. To whatever circumstance 
 it were owing, whether to the inability of the fa- 
 ther to give his son the common advantages of 
 education, arising from the largeness of his family, 
 connected with his limited means, or, as is more 
 
 * As the account here given of the earlier part of Mr. Booth's 
 history will bo found to diflcr in several particulars from that 
 given by Dr. Rippoii, in his JMcnioir, published soon after Mr. 
 B.'s death, it is proper to state, that the present narrative is 
 founded upon the very best authority, viz. that of Mr. Robert 
 Booth, brother of the deceased, who is now living at Kirby 
 Wuodhouse, at a personal interview with the writer^ 
 
probable, to there being no school in the neigh- 
 bourhood, the fact is unquestionable, that he did 
 not enjoy those advantages; for, until the period of 
 his relinquishing the farming business, he never 
 spent six months at school. He was indebted for 
 the knowledge of the English alphabet to his parent 
 alone, whose practice it was, unless prevented by 
 the urgent calls of business, to hear him his lesson 
 every day after dinner. The disadvantages, how- 
 ever, which he was thus subjected to, in the ac- 
 quisition of the first rudiments of education, were 
 easily surmounted. The activity and energy of 
 his mind, which were so eminently conspicuous 
 throughout every period of his life, began very early 
 to develope themselves. To his own industry he 
 was indebted for the attainment of the art of writ- 
 ing, in which he made considerable proficiency, as 
 well as in the science of arithmetic. What circum- 
 stance gave occasion to his relinquishing- the pur- 
 suit of agriculture, does not appear. It has been 
 stated that, " when he commenced the work of the 
 ministry, he thought he should be more indepen- 
 dent, and better able to command his time, by 
 learning to work in the stocking frame." But this 
 statement is incorrect, for he began to apply him- 
 self to this latter business two or three years before 
 he commenced public speaker. It is not at all im- 
 
 A a 
 
6 
 
 probable, however, that he was induced to change 
 his mode of life, by the hope of being more at H- 
 berty to prosecute his studies, and with less inter- 
 ruption, — an object to which, at this period, he 
 became visibly devoted ;* many of the hours which 
 were by the rest of the family spent in sleep, being 
 occupied by him in the acquisition of knowledge. 
 The parents of Mr. Booth were professedly mem- 
 bers of the established church, which he himself 
 also attended for worship until he was about ten 
 or eleven years of age. At this juncture, his own 
 attention, and that of his family, were arrested by 
 the discourses of some plain, illiterate, and self- 
 taught preachers, belonging to the denomination of 
 General Baptists, who occasionally visited Annes- 
 ley. Mr. Booth gave early marks of piety, and 
 when very young was frequently overheard in pri- 
 vate prayer. It has been mentioned by himself, 
 that he had a solemn and abiding concern for the 
 salvation of his soul when he was about eleven 
 years of age. The impressions on his mind were 
 lasting, and increased as he grew to years of man- 
 
 * The account given by Mr. Venn of Mr. Booth's early 
 history, appears very incorrect. He says " he M'as put ap. 
 prentice by his father," — and speaks of " serving out his time, 
 &c." The fact is, as we are assured, that he learnt the busi- 
 ness of a stockinger, without being an articled apprentice. 
 
hood. At length he determined to take his lot 
 with the General Baptists, and accordingly was 
 baptised at Barton, by Mr. Francis Smith, ou a 
 personal profession of his faith. 
 
 As Mr. Booth possessed good natural abilities, 
 and appeared qualified to assist in the spreading 
 of the Gospel, his friends soon urged him to join 
 them in the sacred work. He complied with their 
 desires, and was, in a short time, considered as a 
 leading person among them. They proceeded with 
 great zeal and success in spreading the glad tidings 
 of salvation amongst their ignorant neighbours. — 
 Multitudes in the adjacent towns and villages were 
 roused to a sense of their lost condition, and direct- 
 ed to look to a dying Saviour for deliverance. In 
 this labour of love, he bore an active and useful 
 part. To use the words of one of his associates, 
 yet living, who had the honour to be baptised with 
 him,* "He was well approved in the churches; was 
 a solid, good preacher; and zealous for the good of 
 souls, and the cause of Christ. He frequently was 
 at Melbourne, Barton, Loughborough, Diseworth, 
 and other places, preaching the freeness and fulness 
 of the Gospel, in villages, twenty, thirty, or forty 
 miles from his own home.^' 
 
 * Mr William Corah, of Longwhatton. 
 
8 
 
 Nor ought the disinterestedness which was so 
 conspicuously displayed by Air. Bootli and his as- 
 sociates in these benevolent exertions, to be passed 
 over without notice. For several years their labours 
 were restricted to the poor and careless inhabitants 
 of country cottages, who neither invited nor desired 
 their instructions; and from whom, therefore, they 
 could rationally expect no other recompense than 
 ridicule, calumny, and persecution. Till societies 
 were formed, their exertions were gratuitous; and, 
 like the first preachers of the word, their o'jjn hands 
 ministered to tJieir necessities. 
 
 But Mr. Booth was not likely to continue a me- 
 chanic. When arrived at the age of twenty-three 
 or twenty-four years, he married Miss Elizabeth 
 Bowmar, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, 
 by whom he had a numerous issue; almost every 
 revolution of the Seasons, for the space of nine or 
 ten years after their marriage, bringing him the 
 addition of a son or daughter to his family. The 
 powers of his mind, however, which had hitherto 
 been vigorously employ-ed in the acquisition of use- 
 ful knowledge, had now attained a considerable 
 degree of maturity; and he concluded that it would ' 
 be conducive to his own improvement, as well as 
 more congenial to his disposition, to employ him- 
 self in imparting that knowledge to others. He, 
 
9 
 
 therefore, opened a school at Sutton Ashfirld, ahout 
 two miles distant tVom Kirby, in conducting which 
 he was materially assisted by Mrs. Booth, who, 
 having had considerable advantages of education, 
 was qualified, beyond most young women of her 
 rank in life, for instructing the female part of the 
 seminary in the useml branches of needle-work. 
 They pi'oposed taking boarders also, but this part 
 of their plan met with slender encouragement, 
 for the number rarely exceeded three. 
 
 In 1760, the religious profession in which Mr. 
 Booth was now engaged, had so far extended it- 
 self, that it was thought adviseable to form distinct 
 churches, under the care of those preachers whose 
 local situation, &c. enabled them to watch over 
 particular districts with more convenience. The 
 society of Kirby Woodhouse was of course sub- 
 mitted to the superintendence of Mr. B. who con- 
 tinued to labour among them, for several years, w itli 
 considerable acceptance and success.* And in 
 
 * It is necessary again to correct a statement of Dr. Rij)- 
 pou's, who says, he was ordained over this Society. But the 
 fact is, that Mr. B. was not ordained over that or any other 
 society, except the one in Prescot-strcet, Goodman's Fields, 
 London, among whom he laboured till tiie day of his death. 
 And it is the more needful to set this matter right, as from the 
 ambiguous note which occurs at the bottom of page 5'i of the 
 
10 
 
 the regulation of these newly formed societies he 
 Avas highly instiumental. In the same year, he as- 
 sisted at the ordination of Messrs. F. Smith and T. 
 ]*arkins over the General Baptist church at Mel- 
 bourne; and delivered an impressive and useful 
 charge to the pastors, from Acts xx. 28. Take 
 heed unto ijourselves, and to all thejlock, &c. 
 
 And here we are brought to notice a memorable 
 circumstance in the history of Mr. Booth, viz. the 
 change which took place in his religious sentiments. 
 Hitherto he had held the doctrine of Universal Re- 
 demption^ and was a strenuous advocate for the 
 universality of divine grace. In the ferv^our of his 
 zeal for what he at that time esteemed truth, he 
 wrote a poem " on Absolute Predestination," in 
 which he vehemently opposed the doctrine of elec- 
 tion, reproaching it in terms of the bitterest en- 
 mity and contempt. Of this production, he, how- 
 Doctor's Memoir, some might be led to suspect that Mr. Booth's 
 removal from Sutton Ashfield to Londou, bore some affinity 
 to the practices, which, we are sorry to say, are too often 
 found among dissenters, of ministers quitting their pastoral 
 charge, solely for filthy lucre's sake. In this instance, the 
 character of Mr. B. is out of the reach of suspicion. He had 
 »o pastoral charge to relinquish, and of course it was unne- 
 cessary for Dr. R. to apprise his readers that his removal was 
 conducted in " a truly honourable way." 
 
11 
 
 ever, afterwards thus records his own judgment* 
 " As a poem, if considered in a critical light, it 
 is despicable ; if in a theological view, detestable ; 
 as it is an impotent attack on the honour of divine 
 grace, in respect to its glorious freeness, and a 
 bold opposition to the sovereignty of God, and as 
 such I renounce it." The piece is, indeed, richly 
 entitled to all that Mr. B. has said of it; and the 
 only apology that can be offered, if such a farrago 
 of impiety can admit of apology at all, is, that he 
 wrote it when only twenty years of age.^ It serves, 
 however, by way of contrast, to demonstrate the 
 revolution which afterwards took place in the au- 
 thor's judgment, upon the most important of all 
 subjects, the character of the Supreme Being ! 
 There is a natural curiosity in the human mind 
 to inquire by what means a change of this na- 
 ture was produced; but Mr. Booth himself, has 
 given us no clue in his writings to direct our re- 
 searches. He has been accused, by one of his con- 
 temporaries, of imbibing a part of his religious sen- 
 timents from Sandeman; but let us inquire dis- 
 passionately into the justice of this accusation, and 
 see to what it will amount. The " Letters on 
 Theron and Aspasio" were first published in the 
 year 1757, and excited considerable attention 
 throughout England. It is natural to suppose that 
 
 B 
 
12 
 
 a person of Mr. Booth's character, continually 
 athirst for knowledge, would be eager to look into 
 a work which was, for a time, the universal topic of 
 conversation among religious parties. That he had 
 perused the publication with attention, is suffici- 
 ently apparent from the Reign of Grace ; nor is it, 
 in the smallest degree, derogatory to his character, 
 to suppose that it might lead him to review his 
 religious sentiments, and call his attention to the 
 oracles of truth. The views of Divine Grace, 
 in its sovereignty, riches, and freedom, so clearly 
 stated, so strikingly illustrated, and supported by 
 such invincible force of argument, throughout the 
 Reign of Grace, may also be found in the Letters 
 on Theron and Aspasio ; but are they not also to 
 be found in the Old and New Testament 1 It would 
 be difficult to show in what other material respect 
 the sentiments of the two writers exactly coincide. 
 Assuredly, not on the article oi justifijing faith ; 
 for while Mr. Sandeman insisted that it was nothing 
 more than the bare belief of the bare truths Mr. 
 Booth uniformly connected with it, and as enter- 
 ing into its essence, the idea of trust and reliance. 
 But if on this subject they w^ere differently minded, 
 still less will it be pretended, that Mr. Booth 
 adopted Mr. Sandeman's views of the ordinance of 
 Baptism, or the general order of a Christian church. 
 
13 
 
 The fact is, that he was an original thinker; he 
 read, compared, and judged for himself; and he 
 possessed a mind too upright and independent to 
 become the follower of any man, any further than 
 he perceived him following Christ. The change 
 in his religious sentiments, then, was the honour- 
 able fruit of deep conviction, and thus we find his 
 own pen recording it. " The doctrine of sovereign, 
 distinguishing grace, — as commonly and justly 
 stated by Calvinists — it must be acknowledged, is 
 too generally exploded. This the writer of these 
 pages knows by experience, to his grief and shame. 
 Through the ignorance of his mind, the pride of 
 his heart, and the prejudice of his education, he, 
 in his younger years, often opposed it with much 
 warmth, though with no small degree of weakness; 
 but after an impartial inquiry, and manij prayers, 
 he found reason to alter his judgment ; he found 
 it to be the doctrine of the Bible, and a dictate of 
 the unerring spirit. Thus patronized, he received 
 the once obnoxious sentiment, under ^full convic- 
 tion of its being a divine truth." * 
 
 The consequences of this change of mind, on a 
 doctrine which enters so deeply into the whole 
 system of revealed truth, the reader will easily 
 
 * Death of Legal Hope, &c. p. 45. 
 b2 
 
14 
 
 anticipate. Hoio shall two walk together^ except 
 they be agreed^ especially upon a subject so im- 
 portant as the character of the object of their wor- 
 ship \ The change was soon observed, and pro- 
 duced considerable uneasiness in the minds of his 
 friends. They valued his character, and approved 
 his ministry. Several meetings were held, to 
 examine the difference that subsisted between 
 them, and each party produced what arguments 
 they were able in defence of their respective tenets ; 
 but as neither could convince the other, they mu- 
 tually agreed to part. But although an end was 
 thus put to Mr. Booth's public ministrations among 
 the General Baptists, and to all religious fellowship 
 between him and them, he carried with him a 
 warm esteem for the friends from whom he had 
 separated, which he retained till his death, and 
 which they returned as cordially during his long 
 and useful life. In vindication of the principles 
 of Christian integrity which governed his conduct 
 on this occasion, he chose, as the foundation of his 
 farewell sermon, part of the parable of the unjust 
 steward ; which naturally led him to observe that 
 fraud and concealment of different kinds may ob- 
 tain the friendship of man — that when friendship 
 is obtained by such means, he who gains it, and 
 they who grant it, are chargeable with injustice 
 
15 
 
 peculiarly to be execrated; and, that scripture, 
 reason, and conscience, join their authority in re- 
 commending univei'sal fidelity to accountable crea- 
 tures, and especially to the ministers and profes- 
 sors of religion, in prospect of the final audit, 
 when they must all give up their stewardship, and 
 be no longer stewards. 
 
 Mr. Booth's separation from the General Baptists 
 occasioned a temporary interruption to his public 
 labours ; but in a little while he began again to 
 preach in a room at Sutton Ashfield, called Bore's 
 Hall, which was licensed for that purpose. At 
 this place, in process of time he collected a small 
 society of the Calvinistic, or Particular Baptist 
 denomination, and there it was that he composed 
 that excellent treatise — The Reign of Grace. 
 The substance of it was originally delivered in a 
 series of discourses, first at Sutton Ashfield, and 
 many of them afterwards at Nottingham and Ches- 
 terfield, at both of which towns he for some years 
 was in the practice of preaching on alternate sab- 
 baths. During this period, the exertions of Mr. 
 Booth must have been truly astonishing. When 
 we consider that he had, throughout the week, to 
 labour for the support of a family every year in- 
 creasing, and now become numerous ; that he had 
 to go a distance of twelve or fifteen miles to preach 
 
16 
 
 every Lord's day, for which, the only remuneration 
 he receiv ed was barely the expenses of horse hire, at 
 no time, it is believed, exceeding ten pomids a year; 
 and when we take into account that it was under 
 these unfavourable circumstances he found time 
 to write the Reign of Grace, we may not im- 
 properly apply to him, what the Apostle Paul 
 says of himselt^ — that he laboured mot^e abimdaniltj 
 than thcif all ; and may we not with equal pro- 
 priety add, as the Apostle does upon the same 
 occasion, yet not he^ but the Grace of God which 
 zcas xith him. And here we may take occasion to 
 remark, as one of the peculiar excellencies of the 
 Gospel of the Grace of God, — as what displays its 
 glory, and manifests its power, — that the more the 
 mind is filled with it, humbling the sinner, emp- 
 tying him of all his self-sufficiency, and reducing 
 him to an entire dependence on the grace and 
 strength that are in Christ Jesus, the more it dif- 
 fuses into the mind solid joy and happiness, and 
 excites to the most vigorous exertions — to spend 
 and be spent for the Saviour's sake. So it was 
 with the Apostle Paul. The love of Christ, in 
 giving himself up to the death of the cross for his 
 salvation, appeared marvellous in his eyes, and 
 took deep hold of his heart and affections. It in- 
 flamed his love to the Divine Saviour, and to his 
 
17 
 
 fellow sinners, for the Saviour's sake ; it raised him 
 above himself, and led him to count his own life 
 not dear unto him, so that he might finish his 
 course with joy, and the ministry he had received 
 of the Lord Jesus to testily the gospel of the 
 Grace of God. And such, in a measure, were 
 the effects which the discovery of the love of God 
 in our redemption, had upon the mind and con- 
 duct of Mr. Booth. When we look into the Reign 
 of Grace, and examine which were the subjects 
 that occupied his public ministrations at that time, 
 viz. the nature and properties of Divine Grace ; 
 when we behold him tracing that Grace, in all its 
 glorious progress and rich aboundings, as reigning 
 in our Election — Effectual Calling — -Justification 
 Adoption — Sanctification — Perseverance — and at 
 last crowning the sinner with Eternal Glory, we 
 may safely conclude that " the word of Christ 
 dwelt richly in him," and that he spoke of these 
 things out of the abundance of his heart, bringing 
 forth that which was good to the use of edirying, 
 and which ministered Grace to the hearers. 
 
 The circumstances which more immediately led 
 to the publication of this work, arc sufliciently in- 
 teresting: to be here recorded. When the autlior 
 had prepared his manuscript, one of his friends, 
 who had probably heard him deliver the sub- 
 
18 
 
 stance of the work from the pulpit, and could 
 appreciate its value, happening to be at Hudders- 
 field, in Yorkshire, called upon Mr, Henry Venn, 
 a clergyman of Evangelical sentiments, and of 
 considerable respectability, to whom he mentioned 
 Mr. Booth's intended publication, and gave such 
 an account of it as excited in Mr. Venn an eager 
 desire to peruse it. It was accordingly transmitted 
 to him, and so highly was he led to approve the 
 work, and to value the author, that he made a pur- 
 posed-journey from Huddersfield to Sutton Ash- 
 field, in Post-chaise, that he might enjoy the 
 pleasure of a personal acquaintance with him. — 
 And here commenced an intimacy which ripened 
 into friendship, and which subsisted with unabated 
 ardour through lil'e. The liberal mind will con- 
 template with pleasure, the attachment which sub- 
 sisted between these worthy men. Mr. Venn 
 some time alterwards removed into Huntingdon- 
 shire, and Mr. Booth to London, but no change 
 in tiicir situations produced any diminution of 
 their friendship. They kept up a correspondence, 
 and whenever Mr. Booth had occasion to visit that 
 quarter of the country where his friend lived, he 
 never failed to call upon him, and take up his 
 abode at the Parsonage house. Nor was the good 
 \ icar less inclined to call upon Mr. B. when in 
 
19 
 
 London. Indeed, to prove the mutual esteem and 
 attachment in which they held each other, no 
 other evidence need to be adduced than the reci- 
 tal of the following anecdote, whicli Mr. Booth has 
 often been heard to relate with much apparent 
 pleasure. On one of his visits to Mr. Venn, 
 after his removal to Huntingdonshire, the latter 
 gentleman expressed great anxiety to hear his 
 friend preach, but was some time at a loss how to 
 get it accomplished. At length, he addressed him 
 in the following manner : " I dare not introduce 
 you into my pulpit — but I will make you a pulpit 
 in my own kitchen, and procure you a congre- 
 gation, and there you shall preach to us." The 
 project was immediately carried into effect, and 
 the author of the Essay on the Kingdom of Christ 
 — the determined opposer of all religious estab- 
 lishments, was seen and heard holding forth the 
 divine testimony under the roof of a dignitary of 
 the national church ! 
 
 But to return from this digression. The pubh- 
 cation of the Reign of Grace was warmly urged 
 by Mr. Venn, who wrote a recommendatory pre- 
 face to the book, which accompanied the first and 
 second editions, but which, when the work began 
 to be extensively known, it was thought unneces- 
 sary to continue. The publication first made its 
 
 c 
 
20 
 
 appearance in April, 1768, and attracted general 
 regard. The particular Baptist church in Prescot- 
 street, Goodman's Fields, London, at this juncture 
 lost their pastor, Mr. Samuel Burford, and were 
 consequently led to look out for a successor. — 
 Some of the members of the church accidentally 
 meeting with the Reign of Grace, were highly 
 pleased with the performance, and came to the 
 resolution of taking a journey to Sutton Ashfield to 
 hear him. As Mr. Booth had it in contemplation 
 to visit London shortly after, they invited him to 
 spend a Lord's day or two among the people with 
 \^'hom they stood connected, to which he acceded, 
 and in the month of June, preached three Sab- 
 baths for them. When about to leave, he was 
 invited to grant them further assistance, with 
 which also he complied ; and after visiting his own 
 family, he returned to London, and preached four 
 weeks more among them. The result was, that 
 on the 18th September, " the Church unanimously 
 agreed to give him a call to the pastoral office.^' 
 In a letter dated October 1, 1768, he accepted 
 the call, and on the 16th February, 1769, he was 
 ordained by the laying on of haiids^ which mode 
 of induction to the Pastoral office he always en- 
 couraged, considering it essential to a regular or- 
 dination, wherever the means of enjoying it could 
 be obtained. 
 
21 
 
 Mr. Booth's removal to London may be consi- 
 dered as forming a new and important epoch in 
 the history of his life. The change which he un- 
 derwent in his translation from a country village 
 to the metropolis of the kingdom, must have been 
 striking even to himself. From preaching to a 
 small body of unlettered peasants, in a country 
 barn, or humble school-room, to be called to the 
 discharge of the Pastoral office, over one of the 
 most respectable congregations in London, must 
 have deeply impressed him with the importance of 
 the trust, and have stimulated a vigorous mind to 
 the improvement of its faculties. What effects 
 such a change might have had upon the spirit and 
 conduct of many weak but well meaning men, 
 we may form some tolerably correct judgment of, 
 from instances that have occurred to our own ob- 
 servation. There is as much truth as beauty in 
 the Poet's exclamation : — 
 
 " Oh! how portentous is prosperity! 
 
 How, comet-like, it threatens while it shines." 
 
 Night Thoughts. 
 
 To preserve ourselves from pride and high-mind- 
 edness, while the world is smiling upon us, re- 
 quires something more than the dictates of nature, 
 or the lessons of Philosophy; and Mr. Booth's 
 deportment, under these circumstances, demon- 
 
 c2 
 
22 
 
 strated that his conduct was regulated by nobler 
 principles. Convinced that there yet remained 
 much for him to learn, he rejoiced that Providence 
 had now favoured him with auspicious opportunities 
 of increasing his knowledge, and, forgetting his pre- 
 sent attainments, he became almost insatiable in 
 his thirst for information ; so that he seems to have 
 formed the determination which Dr. Owen for- 
 merly made, that if learning were attainable, he 
 would, by the blessing of God, possess it. Hi- 
 therto, his acquirements had carried him little 
 beyond the rudiments of English Grammar; but 
 after his residence in London, he was considerably 
 indebted to the erudition of an eminent classical 
 scholar, who had been a Roman Catholic Priest. 
 The tutor came in a morning to visit his pupil, 
 and alter breakfasting together, they usually re- 
 tired into the study for business. Of the talents 
 of this gentleman, Mr. Booth was accustomed to 
 speak in very high terms; and we maybe fully 
 assured that, thus aided, the improvement of the 
 pupil would be very rapid. This, indeed, was the 
 only assistance, worth mentioning, that Mr. B. 
 ever enjoyed, and with this exception, he might 
 be fairly denominated a self-taught scholar. 
 
 In devoting his leisure hours to the attainment 
 of the languages, however, he never lost sight of 
 
23 
 
 the important ends of his office, as a minister of 
 the Gospel. He uniformly acted upon a plan, 
 keeping his attention steadily fixt upon those 
 studies, which he knew his peculiar situation as a 
 Christian Pastor, would enable him to convert to 
 the most useful purposes. To become a profound 
 metaphysician, or an adept in the higher bran- 
 ches of the mathematics, was never the object 
 of his ambition. He made no pretensions to the 
 character of an accomplished Hebrean, or to any 
 intimate acquaintance with the Oriental languages. 
 But he perused, and obtained an easy access to 
 the exhaustless stores of Theology, published 
 upon the Continent of Europe, and especially of 
 those that are to be met with in the voluminous 
 writings of the most eminent professors who have 
 filled the chairs of foreign universities among the 
 reformed churches, such as Witsius, Turretine, 
 Stapferus, Vitringa, and Venema. Few men of 
 his time could pretend to be so deeply read in 
 the Popish controversy; and the fruits of his read- 
 ing may be seen in the dexterity with which he 
 has employed the best arguments, by which the 
 Reformation was defended, in favour of his own 
 sentiment as an Antipaedobaptist. He was fami- 
 liarly acquainted with the writers of Ecclesiastical 
 History— Dupin, Cave, Bingham, Venema, Span- 
 
24 
 
 heim, and the Magdeburg Centuiiators. As to 
 Jewish Antiquities, he made Lewis, Jennings, 
 Reland, Spencer, Ikenius, Carpzovius, Fabricius 
 of Hamburgh, and other writers of the same class, 
 very much his own. It ought also to be recorded, 
 that, among his favourites at home. Dr. John 
 Owen, formerly Vice Chancellor of Oxford, was an 
 author to whose learned works, and evangelical 
 writings, he has, in various ways, often acknow- 
 ledged himself to be indebted. That his acquaint- 
 ance with these elaborate writers, and others of 
 equally distinguished celebrity, was not that of 
 a mere sciolist, consisting in names and dates, is 
 clearly demonstrable by the use he made of them 
 in discussing the Baptismal controversy, which 
 will remain, for ages, a lasting memorial of the 
 extent of his reading, as well as of the depth of 
 his own penetration. 
 
 What exertions, both bodily and mental, it 
 must have cost him to make his way through the 
 long and toilsome road to the temple of knowledge, 
 but few readers are capable of estimating. He is 
 said to have committed to memory all the English 
 part of Littleton's Latin Dictionary, a drudgery 
 which, of itself, would have occupied the whole 
 lite of a man of ordinary memory. Nor ought we 
 to wonder if, on a review of the tedious path he 
 
 ■TV 
 
25 
 
 had trodden, and generally without companion or 
 guide, he was at times tempted to lament, in the 
 language of the celebrated Dr. Johnson, that his 
 studies had not been conducted under Academical 
 bovvers. But his first connexions, early marriage, 
 a growing family, and other incidents, placed this 
 desideratum out of his reach. Yet, under greater 
 disadvantages than perhaps fell to the lot of any 
 of his contemporary brethren, we behold him ris- 
 ing above them all, and bearing away the palm of 
 superior attainments. " Fame," says the author 
 of the Rambler, " is not conferred but as the re- 
 compense of labour; and that labour, vigorously 
 continued, has not often failed of its reward." — 
 Let his example teach others, that a body of use- 
 ful knowledge and learning may be attained, in 
 almost any situation, by unremitted diligence and 
 perseverance, if the Lord please to grant health 
 and vigour, even when the regular, the easiest, 
 and most direct means of acquiring them, are not 
 to be enjoyed. 
 
 But the talents of Mr. Booth, thus matured, 
 were not destined, as is, aias ! too often the case 
 with men of eminent attainments, 
 
 " To waste their fragrance on the desert air," 
 
 much less were they applied to the baneful pur- 
 poses of corrupting the heavenly doctrine of divine 
 
26 
 
 grace, and thereby injuring the immortal interests 
 of his fellow sinners. They were consecrated to 
 the service of his Divine Master, as will be abun- 
 dantly manifest from a concise review of the dif- 
 ferent publications with which he favoured the 
 world after his settlement in London. 
 
 In the year 1770, appeared the first edition of 
 a tract entitled, " The death of Legal Hope., the 
 life of Evangelical obedience" intended, no doubt, 
 as a supplement to " The Reign of Grace." This 
 treatise is an elucidation of Gal. ii. 19, /, through 
 the law^ am dead to the law, that I might live unto 
 God; and is dedicated to the church over which 
 he was pastor. His leading object, in this dis- 
 course, is to evince that a sinner must become 
 dead to the law, as a covenant of works, or as to 
 all hope of procuring acceptance with God through 
 his own righteousness, before he can possibly live 
 unto God in acceptable obedience. Having illus- 
 trated this doctrine by a chain of connected and 
 masterly reasoning, he proceeds to show, that 
 believers are not without law to God, but under 
 the law to Christ; that the moral law, which is 
 the unalterable standard of righteousness, and the 
 sum of whose requirements is perfect love to God 
 and man, must, under every dispensation, main- 
 tain its obligation, and be the rule of duty to 
 rational beings. 
 
27 
 
 " Nor," as he justly observes, " has the true believer any 
 objection to it, or any fears from it, thus considered. It 
 is no longer a jiery law, thundering out anathemas, and 
 flashing vengeance against him. No ; it is mild and gentle. 
 He sees that its precepts are highly salutary, and its prohi- 
 bitions exactly right. He does not wish to have them al- 
 tered. Love to God and our neighbour is a compendium 
 of its precepts : and in the exercise of that love he desires 
 to abound. As to its prohibitions, he knows that the things 
 forbidden would be an injury to him, were they pursued; 
 therefore, he esteems it his happiness to abstain from them. 
 The new disposition, received in regeneration, expresses it- 
 self in love to God, and in obedience to his law, as pure 
 and holy. The Gospel furnishes him with the strongest 
 arguments, and the most winning motives to abound in 
 obedience; while it is h's earnest prayer, that the Spirit 
 of Grace would aftbrd effectual assistance for tlie perform- 
 ance of every duty. It is his greatest grief, that he does 
 not more constantly, and more perfectly, transcribe the 
 sacred precepts into his conduct, and cause them to shine 
 in his own example. 
 
 " Besides, the believer beholds the law, not in the hands 
 of Moses, and as surrounded with the flames of Sinai, but 
 in the hands of that Prince of Peace who is King in Zion. 
 He sees that the dear, adorable, and ascended Jesus, hav- 
 ing fulfilled its high demands as a covenant, and released 
 him from its awful curses, now employs it as an instrument 
 of his benign government, for the good of the redeemed, 
 and the glory of his own eternal name. As in the Iiand of 
 Christ, it is a friend and a guide, pointing out the way iu 
 
38 
 
 which a Christian should walk, so as to express his gratitude 
 to God for his benefits, and to glorify the Redeemer. It 
 shows him, also, how imperfect his own obedience is ; and 
 so is a happy mean of keeping him humble at the foot of 
 Sovereign Grace, and entirely dependent on the righteous- 
 ness of his Divine Sponsor." 
 
 Thus did he contend for the perpetual obligation 
 of the divine law, as the rule of righteousness in 
 the Redeemer's kingdom; and thus did he, by 
 sound doctrine, put to silence the ignorance of 
 foolish men, — for such have been found, in all ages 
 of the church, disputing about the law, under- 
 standing neither what they say, nor whereof they 
 affirm. 
 
 About this time, a controversy was set on foot, 
 which continued for several years, on the subject 
 of the Divinity of the Son of God. Several cler- 
 gymen of note, in the Church of England, resign- 
 ed their livings, because they could not consci- 
 entiously conform to Trinitarian worship. Mr. 
 Booth, whose attention was always awake to what- 
 ever regarded the glory of his Divine Master, re- 
 published a valuable treatise, entitled *' The Deity 
 *of Jesus Christ essential to the Christian ReUgio7i.^^ 
 The work was originally written by Dr. Abbadie, 
 in French, and was in the highest estimation among 
 the Protestants on the Continent. It is an elabo- 
 
29 
 
 rate treatise, and enters deeply into a refiitation 
 of the whole Soeinian hypothesis. An English 
 translation had already appeared, many years before, 
 in this country; but Mr. Booth, by revising, cor- 
 recting, and in some places abridging the work, 
 conferred upon it a superior degree of perspicuity 
 and energy, which much enhanced its value and 
 acceptableness with his countrymen. 
 
 In 1778, he pubHshed " An Apology for the 
 Baptists, in which they are vindicated from the 
 imputation of laijing an unwarrantable stress on 
 the ordinance of Baptism; and against the charge 
 of Bigotry, in refusing communion at the Lord^s 
 table to Pcedobaptists." About the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, some few Baptists in Eng- 
 land, of whom John Bunyan was one of the first, 
 introduced the practice of what is called mixed 
 or free communion, — contending that the want of 
 baptism ought to be no bar to communicating in 
 the Lord's supper, and acted in conformity with 
 that opinion. This practice, which had prevailed 
 more or less among some Baptist societies ever 
 since Bunyan's days, was now apparently gaining 
 ground. Two pieces had recently been published, 
 in favour of the practice, under the feigned names 
 of Pacificus and Candidus, but in reality by 
 Mr. D. Turner, of Abingdon, and Mr. Johx 
 
 d2 
 
30 
 
 Ryland, of Northampton, both ministers of the 
 Baptist persuasion. In support of this opinion, 
 those writers urged the propriety, the utility, and 
 the necessity of bearing with one another's mis- 
 takes in matters that are not essential^ among which 
 they included the ordinance of baptism. Mr. 
 Booth, to exculpate himself, together with a great 
 majority of his brethren, of the Baptist denomi- 
 nation, from charges of an odious nature, endea- 
 vours to show that they cannot receive Paedobap- 
 tists into communion, at the Lord's table, without 
 doing violence to their principles as Baptists ; and 
 answers the principal objections which their oppo- 
 nents allege against them. " While our brethren," 
 says he, " revere the authority by which the 
 Apostles acted, and while they believe that infant 
 sprinkling is not baptism, they are obliged, in vir- 
 tue of those ancient precedents, and by all that is 
 amiable in a consistent conduct, to admit none to 
 communion, at the Lord's table, whom they do 
 not consider as really baptised, according to the 
 command of Christ." 
 
 In this publication, Mr. Booth displayed not 
 only the extensiveffess of his reading, but very 
 extraordinary talents as a disputant. Nor ought 
 that to be considered as the least valuable part of 
 his treatise, in which he enters his protest against 
 
31 
 
 that illegitimate charity^ the idol of thousands in 
 all ages, which is equally complaisant to truth and 
 falsehood, — which esteems sincerity in error as equi- 
 valent to soundness in the faith. As the piece has 
 now been long out of print, and is probably known 
 to few only, we shall be excused in here introdu- 
 cing an extract or two from it. 
 
 " It should be observed, that forbearance and love, not 
 less than resolution and zeal, must be directed in the whole 
 extent of their exercise, by the word of God ; else we may 
 greatly offend and become partakers of other men's sins, 
 by conniving when we ought to reprove. If the divine 
 precepts, relating to love and forbearance, will apply to 
 the case in hand ; or so as to justify our connivance at an 
 alteration, a corruption, or an omission of baptism ; they 
 will do the same in regard to the Lord's supper. And 
 then we are bound to bear with sincere Papists, in their 
 mutilation of the latter ; and to exculpate our upright 
 friends the Quakers, in their opposition to both. For it 
 cannot be proved that baptism is less fundamental than the 
 sacred supper. — * There is a false, ungodly charity,' says 
 a sensible Paedobaptist writer, ' a strange fire, that proceeds 
 not from the Lord ; a charity that gives up the honour of 
 religion, merely because we will not be at the pains to de- 
 fend it. — Vile principles can easily cover themselves with the 
 names of temper, charity, moderation, and forbearance ; 
 but those glorious things are not to be confounded with 
 lukewarmness, self-seeking, laziness, or ignorance. — As 
 there is a cloak of covetousness, so there is a cloak of fear 
 
32 
 
 and cowardice. — You are never to make peace with men at 
 the expense of any truth that is revealed to you by the 
 great God ; because that is offering up his glory in sacrifice 
 to your own. — Do not dismember the Christian religion, 
 but take it altogether: charity was never designed to be 
 the tool of unbelief. See how the Spirit has connected both 
 our principles and duties. " Follow peace with all men, 
 and holiness^ without which no man shall see the Lord." ' — 
 ' I know not that man in England,' says Dr. Owen, ' who is 
 willing to go farther in forbearance, love, and commu- 
 nion with all that fear God, and hold the foundation, 
 than I am : but this is never to he done by a condescension 
 from the exactness of the least apex of gospel truth.' 
 
 Again, in reference to the immediate subject of 
 debate, he inquires — 
 
 ** But why should our brethren so earnestly plead for 
 believers receiving the Lord's supper, while they treat bap- 
 tism as if it were a mere trifle ; an appointment of Christ 
 that might very well have been spared ? What is there of 
 obligation, of solemnity, of injportance, in the former, 
 that is not in the latter ? Have they not the same divine In- 
 stitutor, and the same general end ? Were they not intend- 
 ed for the same persons, and are they not equally permanent 
 in the church of God ? And as to baptism, was [not the 
 administration of it by John, one of the first characteristics 
 of the Messiah's appearance, and of the gospel dispensation 
 commencing ? Did not the King Messiah submit to it, asi 
 an example of obedience to all his followers; and most 
 strongly recommend it to their judgment and conscience, 
 their affections and practice, when he said, Thus it b€' 
 
33 
 
 Cometh us to fulfil all righteousness? which, by the way, 
 is more than can be asserted concerning the sacred supper ; 
 for though he instituted it with great solemnity, yet we do 
 not read that he partook of it. Was not the administration 
 of baptism so honoured at the river Jordan, when the great 
 Immanuel submitted to it ; when the eternal Father, by an 
 audible voice, declared his approbation of it; and when 
 the Divine Spirit descended on the head of Jesus, just 
 emerged from the water, as no other institution ever was ? 
 And does not the divinely prescribed form of words that is 
 used in its administration, show, that there is a peculiar so- 
 lemnity, an excellence, an importance in it ? while, at the 
 same time, it suggests arguments of unanswerable force 
 against those Antitrinitarian errors, which now so much 
 abound. For no man who has been baptised at his own 
 request, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost, can deny that fundamental doctrine 
 of the Trinity, without giving the lie to his baptism. 
 
 Once more: when I consider how much more fre- 
 quently baptism is mentioned in the New Testament, than 
 the sacred supper ; how often repenting and believing siji- 
 ners are exhorted, by the apostles, to be baptised; how 
 soon that ordinance was administered to Christian converts 
 after they believed ; what exhortations are given to professing 
 Christians, on the ground of their being baptised ; and 
 when I reflect, that the Holy Spirit commends them that 
 were baptised by John, as justifying God; while he severely 
 censures others, as rejecting the counsel of God against 
 themselves, because they slighted the solemn appointment ; 
 I cannot but wonder at the language and conduct of our 
 
 »,^ 
 
 rft«^ 
 
34 
 
 opponents. — Their very singular conduct appears to me 
 still niore extraordinary, and yet more unwarrantable, when 
 I reflect, that baptism is a divine institution, to which 
 a believer submits but once, and a branch of divine worship, 
 that he is required to perform but once; in which respect 
 it greatly diflers from every other appointment in the wor- 
 ship of God, under the Christian economy. For, this 
 being the case, one should have imagined, if notorious and 
 stubborn facts had not forbidden the thought, that evert/ 
 winisltr of Jesus Christ, and everi/ church of the living 
 God, would insist on a submission to what they consider as 
 real baptism, in all whom they admit to the Lord's table." 
 
 Mr. Booth was, shortly after this, called to take 
 up his pen in defence of the ordinance of Baptism 
 itself. The circumstance which gave rise to this, 
 was the publication of a posthumous work, on 
 the subject of infant baptism, from the pen of the 
 celebrated Matthew Henry; edited, if we recollect 
 rightly, by Mr. Robins, of Daventry. The po- 
 pularity of Mr. Henry's name, had conferred on 
 this tract a degree of consequence, which rendered 
 it improper, on the part of the Baptists, to permit 
 it to pass without an answer. The Monthly Re- 
 viewers had pronounced it " the most popular de- 
 fence of infant baptism, and of the mode of 
 sprinkling, that had appeared." In the year 1784, 
 therefore, Mr. Booth published " P.edobaptism 
 EXAMINED, on the Principles^ Concessions^ and 
 
35 
 
 Reasonings of the most learned Pcedohaptisfs.'^* 
 He gives us an account of the origin of the work 
 in the following words, which we extract from the 
 preface : 
 
 " Having observed, for a course of years, that many of 
 the most learned and eminent Pccdobaptists, when theologi- 
 cal subjects are under discussion, frequently argue on such 
 principles, admit of such facts, interpret various texts of 
 scripture in such a manner, and make such concessions, as 
 are greatly in favour of the Baptists ; I extracted a number 
 of passages from their publications, and made many refe- 
 rences to others, which I thought might be fairly pleaded 
 against infant sprinkling. On reviewing these quotations 
 and mtmoranda, I concluded, merely for ray own private 
 use, to employ some leisure hours in transcribing and ar- 
 ranging them under diiferent heads of the Pccdobaptist con- 
 troversy. 
 
 " When I had made a considerable progress in the work 
 of transcription and arrangement, Mr. Henry's Trealise 
 on Baptism fell into my hands. Prepossessed of a high 
 regard for the character of that worthy author, I perused 
 tJie treatise with care. Not convinced, however, by any 
 thing contained in it, that the sprinkling of infants is an 
 appointment of Christ; and being fully persuaded that Mr. 
 Henry had employed his learning and zeal in defence of an 
 unscriptural ceremony ; I detennincd to prosecute the sub- 
 ject with greater application, and to publish the result of 
 my inquiries and thoughts concerning it. Such was the 
 occasion of this publication." 
 
 E 
 
30 
 
 Mr. Booth's plan of treating the subject, if not 
 perfectly original, was in a great degree so. He 
 meets his opponents upon their own ground, avails 
 himself of their own weapons, and with the ut- 
 most knowledge and dexterity, turns them against 
 themselves. To adopt the language of one of his 
 Reviewers, " He sets them together by the ears, 
 and leaves them to overthrow the very cause, in 
 defence of which they professed to take the field." 
 This is, by far, the most elaborate of all his pub- 
 lications ; in it he has displayed an immense fund 
 of knowledge and reading, and it will remain, for 
 ages to come, a monument, not only of his in- 
 dustiy and application, but of extensive learning 
 and profound disquisition. In short, it has estab- 
 lished his reputation upon an indisputable basis, as 
 one of the first scholars, and most acute reasoners 
 of the age; at the same time that jt has placed 
 the subject of baptism in such a state, as leaves 
 little more to be said upon it by any succeeding 
 controversialist. We shall, therefore, lay before 
 the reader, the contents of the work, adding a few 
 extracts from the close of it, bv which he will be 
 enabled to form some faint idea of its importance 
 and magnitude. 
 
 " Chap. I. Concerning the nature, obligations, and im- 
 portance of positive institutions in religion. II. The sig- 
 
37 
 
 nification of the terms baptise and baptism. III. The de- 
 sign of baptism, or the facts and blessings representetl by 
 it, both in regard to our Lord and his disciples. IV^. The 
 practice of John the Baptist, of the Apostles, and of the 
 church in succeeding ages, in regard to the manner of ad- 
 ministering the ordinance of baptism. V. The present 
 practice of the Greek and Oriental churches in regard to 
 the mode of administration. VI. The design of baptism 
 more fully expressed by immersion than by pouring or 
 sprinkling. VII. Concerning the reasons, rise, and pro- 
 gress of pouring or sprinkling, instead of immersion. VIII. 
 No express precept or precedent in the New Testament for 
 PaBdobaptism. IX. No evidence for Paedobaptism before 
 the latter end of the second or the beginning of the third 
 century. X. The high opinion of the Fathers concerning 
 the utility of baptism, and the grounds on which they pro- 
 ceeded in administering that ordinance to infants, when 
 Paedobaptism became a prevailing practice. XI. The mo- 
 dern grounds of Paedobaptism, namely Jewish proselyte 
 baptism. — External covenant's relation, — Jewish circumci- 
 sion, — ^particular passages of Scripture, and apostolic tra- 
 dition, examined. XII. Concerning infant baptism and 
 infant communion, as mtroduced about the same time, and 
 supported by similar arguments." 
 
 The whole concludes with general remarks to 
 illustrate and confirm the main argument. 
 
 The following extract may suffice to give the 
 reader some general idea of the reasoning, and 
 Mr. Booth's method of conducting it. 
 
 " It is very observable, that so many Pajdobaptists 
 e2 
 
38 
 
 themselves, have admitted the facts on which we reason; 
 and that they have eitlier expressly rejected the texts nsually 
 pleaded against us, or so explained them, as rent^^rs their 
 application in support of infant baptism quite impert'nent. 
 They have admitttd the facts on which we reason. Do we 
 mainiain, for instance, that baptism is a positive institution, 
 and that positive rites depend entirely on the rev^ealed will 
 of -God, in regard to the manner of performin*^ them, the 
 persons to wliom they belong, and the signification of them? 
 All this they readily grant. Do we insist that the terra bap- 
 tism, properly signifies immersion ? They expressly allow 
 it. Do we assert that the principal thing intended by the 
 ordinance is a representation of our communion witli Christ, 
 in his death, burial, and resurrection? It is cheerfully 
 granted. Do we maintain, that immersion was the apostolic 
 practice, and that, except in extraordinary cases, it was 
 the general custom for thirteen hundred years? They con- 
 firm our sentiment. Do we occasionally observe, that im- 
 mersion is the present practice of the Geeek and Oriental 
 churches, and that those churches include about one half 
 of the Christian world? Tiieir own pen bears testimony for 
 us. Do we insist that plunging is more expressive of the 
 great things intended by the ordinance, than pouring or 
 sprinkling? They accede to our opinion. Do we assert, 
 that the first instance of pouring or sprinkling, instead of 
 immersion, which is expressly recorded, was about the 
 middle of the third century, and then condemned; that 
 the apostate church of Rome, all sovereign as her claims 
 are, introduced pouring to common practice; and that the 
 Protestant churches received it from her polluted hands ? 
 
39 
 
 These being stubborn facts, are all acknowledged. Do we 
 maintain that, in ordinary cases, immersion is not prejudi- 
 cial to health? Pa^dobaptist physicians, without a fee and 
 medical practice, without Jiesitation, confirm oar opinion. 
 Do we assert, that no power on earth has authority to alter 
 the law of Christ, or to depart from apostolic examjjle, in 
 regard to immersion ? So do they, in efi'ect, when disputing 
 with Papists concerning the sacred supper. Do we contend 
 that there is no express comntPand, nor plain example, in 
 the New Testament, relating to infant baptism? It is 
 granted by them. Do we plead that there is no evidence of 
 Pasdobaptism being practised before the conclusion of the 
 second, or beginning of the third century? This also is 
 readily granted, even by some of those who were the great- 
 est adepts in Christian antiquities. Is it our opinion, that 
 the extravagant notions of the fathers, in the second, and 
 beginning of the third century, concerning the great utility 
 of baptism, and their misunderstanding of John iii. 5, laid 
 the foundation of Pasdobaptism ? It is allowed. Do wc 
 consider the aiguments from proselyte baptism, an external 
 covenant, and circumcision, as of no avail to the cause of 
 infant baptism ? They concur in our opinion. Do we 
 treat with contempt the plea of pretended apostolic tradition^ 
 unsupported by scripture? So do all Protestants, except 
 pifidobaptism, episcopacy, or something similar, solicit 
 their ixitronagc. Once more: do we maintain that infant 
 baptism and infant communion Avere introduced about the 
 same time; that they are supported by kindred arguments ; 
 that they were equally common for a course of ages ; and 
 that they are still united in the practice of half the Christian 
 
40 
 
 world ? We have the happiness to find, that these facts are 
 confirmed by tlieir learned pens. 
 
 " Again: In regard to passages of scripture, usually 
 pleaded against us, we have the pleasure to see that various 
 eminent Paedobaptists either expressly reject them, as hav- 
 ing nothing to do in the controversy, or so interpret them, 
 as renders their application to infant baptism quite imper- 
 tinent. Do we, for example, consider Mat. xxviii. 19, as 
 requiring instruction previous to baptism ? So do they. — 
 Do we maintain that Gen. xvii. 7, speaks of a two-fold seed, 
 carnal and spiritual ? They freely allow it. Do we under- 
 stand Ezek. xvi. 20, 21, as regarding the Israelites on the 
 foundation of the Sinai covenant? They acquiesce. Do we 
 assert, that Mat. xix. 14, is no proof of infant bap- 
 tism? They coincide with us. Do we insist upon it that 
 our Lord, in John iii. 5, is not speaking about the necessity 
 of baptism ? So do they. Do we assert, that Acts ii. 39, 
 is impertinently cited in proof of infant baptism ? Thej 
 confirm our assertion. Do we consider the baptizing of 
 households as equally unavailing, when produced against 
 us? So do they. Do we interpret the words of Paul, Rom. 
 xi. 16, as foreign to the cause of paedobaptism ? They 
 agree with us. And, finally, do we explain 1 Cor. vii. 14, 
 as relating to lawful marriage and a legitimate offspring ? 
 Even here we are not entirely deserted by them, but some>* 
 of them afford us their friendly suff"rage. In a word, there 
 is not, that I recollect, one topic of argument, nor one 
 text of scripture, usually pleaded in favour of infant bap- 
 tism, by the more judicious of our opponents; but it is 
 dther expressly cashiered, as having nothing to do with the 
 
41 
 
 controversy, or so understood, as to be of no service to the 
 cause. We have the honour, therefore, to agree with 
 many of them as to a great part of our premises ; and with 
 some of them respecting the whole. Yes, amazing as it 
 may seem, we are honoured with having some of them for 
 our associates in almost every thing except the conclusion. 
 Here, indeed, we are utterly deserted by them. Nor can 
 it be otherwise, while they are Paedo, and we Antipaedo, 
 Baptists. However, whether our conclusion or theirs be 
 right, it is manifest that, notwithstanding the number of 
 evidences usually subpoenaed against us, when the validity 
 of infant sprinkling is to be publicly tried ; and notwith- 
 standing the formidable appearance they frequently make 
 in the eye of a superficial observer, yet, when those very 
 evidences are impartially examined by Paedobaptists in pri- 
 vate, without being perplexed with captious queries, they 
 have not a word to say for infant sprinkling; but all their 
 depositions are directed to prove doctrines and facts of a 
 quite different nature. 
 
 " Further, If you ask Paedobaptists zchose infants are to be 
 baptised, on wliat ground, and for what purposes:^ thcj 
 will be found extremely divided. Do you inquire trhose 
 infants are entitled to baptism ? many of them will answer, 
 ' Those of believers.'' This, however, is rejected by mul- 
 titudes, as a narrow notion, and an uncharitable restriction. 
 It is cashiered, as placing the children of nominal Christians 
 in a worse predicament than that of the infants of ungodly 
 Jews, under the former dispensation, in regard to circum- 
 cision. Do you inquire what is the principal ground of 
 pasdobaptism ? Cyprian, its great patron, and others in 
 
42 
 
 former times, considered a supposed wikersality of Divine 
 Grace, and (he t?tcessitj/ of baptism, as the main foundation 
 on which they proceeded ; Austin, and others, the faith 
 of the churcfi ; our English establishment, a profession of 
 faith by the sponsors. Dr. Hammond rejects the ancient 
 rite of circumcision, on which many lay a considerable 
 stress, and seems to view the Jewish proseli/te bathing as 
 the best ground of infant baptism ; while Sir Norton 
 Knatchbull reprobates the proselyte plimging, and recurs 
 to circumcision as a proper support for Paetlobaptisra. Dr. 
 Priestley says, ' I consider the baptising of my children, 
 not as directly implying that they have ani/ interest in it, 
 or in tJie things signified hy it^ but as a part of my own 
 profession of Christianity.' Mr. Baxter makes the faith 
 of ill e parent the condition of the children's church-mem- 
 bership, and of their salvation. Mr. Henry considers a 
 profession of faith made by the parent as the ground of 
 an hifant's title to baptism. Others directly oppose this, 
 particularly Mr. Perkins and Archbishop Leighton. Wit- 
 sius, Vitringa, Veneraa, and others, consider the children 
 of believers as in a relaii-ce state of grace ; and so make 
 that the main foundation of paidobnptisra; while Bishop 
 Prideaux maintains that infants are to be baptised, because 
 ' they have the faith of the cccenant, though not the faith 
 of covenantees.^ 
 
 " Do you ask for what purposes infants are to be bap- 
 tised.' The Church of England will tell you, that by 
 baptism they are made members of Christ, children of God,, 
 and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. Others deny 
 this, and maintain that the children of believers are to be 
 
43 
 
 considered as interested in those high and heavenly blessings 
 ^rior to their baptism. The Roman Catholics make it 
 necessary to salvation; the Church of England makes it 
 generally necessary to final happiness; with which esta- 
 blishment the Lutherans agree : of which opinion was the 
 late Mr. G. Whitfield ; and so is Mr. J. Wesley. Multi- 
 tudes of Pjedobaptists, however, deny this regeneruting 
 energy and high necessity of infant baptism, though they 
 consider many and great benefits as connected with it. 
 Many of them assert its necessity to initiate them into the 
 church; but others insist upon it, that the offspring of be- 
 lievers are entitled to baptism, because they are members 
 of the church. So greatly are they divided among them- 
 selves! What now can be the reason of this astonishing 
 difference among the Paedobaptists, concerning their com- 
 mon cause ? Pardon me, reader, if I should answer, 
 Because they all differ, in that affair, from the won! of 
 God. For, as Dr. Beattie observes, " They who allow 
 themselves to contradict matter of fact, either in conversa- 
 tion or in writing, will find it no easy matter to avoid con- 
 tradicting themselves ;" and it will be morally impossible 
 for them to avoid contradicting one another. Tlie scripture 
 being profoundly silent about infant baptism, they are 
 obliged to argue in its defence from general principles, and 
 moral considerations ; from notions of expedience/, fitness, 
 and utiliti/, to the administration of a positive appointment. 
 Thus uniting in one common mistake, they depart from 
 the true nature of the subject about which they inquire: 
 for that subject is a, positive rite; the whole being of which, 
 and all its legitimate connections, depend on the sovereign 
 
44 
 
 pleasure of God. Now though moral duty may be fairly 
 argued from general principles and moral considerations, 
 that lie at a great distance from the particular case which is 
 to be proved ; and though the same natural duty, may be 
 inferred from a thousand texts of scripture, where that 
 particular duty is not mentioned, and of which the inspired 
 writers had no thought when penning those texts ; yet the 
 case is widely different when a ritual duty is the subject of 
 discussion : for then we have nothing at all to guide our 
 inquiries besides positive law, and the example of inspired 
 men, relating to the matter of investigation. To such pre- 
 cepts and precedents, therefore, we must adhere, or perpe- 
 tually wander in a maze of uncertainty, and be continually 
 differing one from another." 
 
 The reader will observe that all these particulars 
 are discussed distinctly, and at large, in Mr, 
 Booth's pages; but, for the sake of brevity, we 
 have omitted, in the foregoing extracts, the refer- 
 ences which he makes to the respective chapters of 
 the work in which the various subjects are handled. 
 — The work concludes with the following remarks, 
 which are here quoted as a specimen of that fund 
 of pleasantry and good humour, which pervade 
 all Mr. Booth's controversial writings: — 
 
 " Having examined Pa3dobaptism according to the plan 
 at first proposed, a remarkable declaration of Bishop Tay- 
 lor's occurs to remembrance. The declaration to which I 
 refer, was made by him when taking a retrospect of the 
 arguments usually produced on both sides of this dispute, 
 
45 
 
 and is as follows : — * I think there is so much to be pretended 
 against that [Paedobaptisra] which I believe to be the truth, 
 that there is much more truth than evidence on our side.* 
 Reflecting on this language of the learned prelate, I am 
 pleased, lam puzzled, I am discouraged, lampkasedy 
 greatly pleased, to hear a person of the bishop's erudition 
 and penetration acknowledge, that much^ so much may 
 be said against infant baptism. I am yet more pleased to 
 hear him tacitly confess, that greatly preponderating evi- 
 dence is on our side. — I am puzzled^ however, extremely 
 puzzled ; — for I cannot imagine how the riglit reverend 
 author, notwithstanding all his learning and all his acumen, 
 discovered truth without evidence. This, it must be con- 
 fessed, is a wonderful secret ; and he would certainly have 
 laid posterity under great obligations, had he but made the 
 arcanum public. Mankind might have reaped a harvest of 
 benefits from the discovery of such an invention ; because 
 it would have been of admirable use in many a pinching 
 case besides Paedobaptism, to which it is here applied. I 
 am equally nonplused when thinking of truth and evidence 
 taking opposite sides of a controverted subject. Having 
 never heard of any quarrel between them, either before or 
 since the flood ; I took it for granted that they were leagued 
 in eternal friendslwp : whereas it now appears, on the word 
 of a Bishop, that they cannot agree about infant baptism. 
 This being the case, I am greatly discouraged, in respect 
 of an issue to the present controversy. For as truth and 
 evidence do not depend on the pleasure of man, they are 
 stubborn things ; and we may justly presume they will not 
 easily quit their stations, out of complaisance to either side. 
 
 f2 
 
46 
 
 While, therefore, each abides by his party, the Baptists, it 
 is likely, will plead preponderating evidence, and firmly in- 
 sist upon it as a maxim of logical prudence, that our assent 
 should always be proportioned to the degree of evidence. — 
 On the other hand, we need not wonder if Paedobaptists 
 exult in the possession of truth, because it is a precious 
 jewel ; and such truth especially as is obtained zcUhout evi' 
 dence, must be precious indeed, it being so extremely scarce. 
 Despairing, therefore, of putting an end to any contro- 
 versy where truth and evidence take different sides, I must 
 here lay down my pen." 
 
 The very favourable reception which this work 
 experienced from the public, made a new edition 
 requisite in a very little time; and, accordingly, in 
 1787, the second edition of Paedobaptism Exa- 
 mined appeared, enlarged from one to two thick 
 volumes. The author had made but little altera- 
 tion as to the chapters which formed the basis of 
 the first edition, but the number of quotations 
 were more than doubled in the second edition, 
 and the illustrations and reasonings augmented 
 throughout the whole performance. It was im- 
 proved also by the addition of a very valuable in- 
 dex, as well as a list of the authors quoted, with 
 suitable references. 
 
 It may be easily conceived, that this publication 
 of Mr. Booth's must have spread considerable 
 consternation through all the camp of the Paedo- 
 
47 
 
 baptists, and that they would feel the necessity of 
 preparing something in the shape of a reply. This 
 was furnished in a few months after the second 
 edition, by Dr. Edward Williams, a Psedobaptist 
 minister, then of Oswestry, in Shropshire, but 
 since master of a Seminary for the purpose of 
 training up young men for the Ministry, at Roth- 
 erham, in Yorkshire. Of Dr. Williams, we feel 
 no disposition to speak disrespectfully, nor to dis- 
 parage his abilities ; but we have always been of 
 opinion, that it was peculiarly unfortunate for the 
 cause of Paedobaptism, that its defence should have 
 devolved upon him. His frequent violations of 
 the rules of grammar and syntax, might have been 
 excused in any but a Doctor of Divinity, on the 
 ground that the language in which he wrote was 
 not his mother tongue. But the strange principles 
 upon which he attempted to advocate the cause, 
 and the inconclusive reasoning by which those 
 principles were accompanied, tended to render his 
 publication rather injurious than serviceable to it. 
 We can scarcely conceive two combatants more 
 unequally matched, than Dr. Williams and Mr. 
 Booth ; and had the former gentleman, even after 
 his publication, conducted himself with common 
 prudence, he had, without much difficulty, escaped 
 from the unfortunate situation (unfortunate we 
 
48 
 
 mean for his reputation) in which his indiscretion 
 soon involved him. But justice to the cause of 
 truth and to his own character, compelled Mr. 
 Booth to resume the controversy, and the reasons 
 will be best learnt from the Preface to a volume 
 which he published in 1792, entitled " A De- 
 fence OF P^DOBAPTISM EXAMINED: OR Anim- 
 
 advei'sions on Dr. EftiCard Williams^s Antipcedobap- 
 tism Examined'^ Thus he speaks. 
 
 *' Tlie performance of my opponent having made its ap- 
 pearance, I purchased and perused it with care. But 
 thougli I plainly perceived, in Antipcedobaptism Examined, 
 a variety of novel ideas expressed with an air of confidence ; 
 yet, not considering the general principles on which my 
 reasoning in Pcedobaplism Examined proceeds, as being in 
 the least subverted, nor my arguments on those principles 
 as having received even a plausible answer, I resolved to 
 make no reply. Such was my unwavering determination 
 for more than two years ; and in that determination I should 
 probably have still continued, had it not been for credible 
 intelligence which struck me as very extraordinary. 
 
 " A gentleman in the country, who is professedly of the 
 Baptist persuasion, sent me a letter, in which he informed 
 me of a friendly interview that he had with Mr. (now Dr.) 
 Edward Williams, and of some particulars which passed 
 in conversation, relative to Anlipccdobaptisni Examined. 
 Among otluT things, he mentioned the following: ' Mr. 
 Williams said, Mr. Booth confessed that Ids Book was 
 ¥NANSWERABLE. At this I was much surprised, ajid im- 
 
49 
 
 mediately asked, Why, then, does not Mr. Booth declare 
 for infant baptism ? Mr. Williams replied ; The disadvan- 
 tages attending an open declaration of sentiments^ render it 
 inexpedient and imprudent to do so at all times: — or to that 
 effect.' 
 
 " On reading this, I paused— I was astonished — and said 
 within myself; Of what superlative excellence, in tlie esti- 
 mate of its author, must Antipcedobaptism Examined be 
 possessed ! What a compliment he pays to my integrity ! 
 If my opponent, when conversing with one whom he 
 knows to be an avowed Baptist, cannot restrain the ebulli- 
 tions of self-congratulation, relative to his perfoniiance, 
 nor forbear exclaiming, lo triumphe! in what sublime 
 strains of self-complacency, and ui what ample manner, 
 must he express himself, when conversing with his Ptedo' 
 baptist brethren ! It is time for me to put an absolute ne- 
 gative on his totally unfounded assertion; to chastise his 
 unparalleled vanity ; and to vindicate my integrity against 
 his implicit, but odious charge ! 
 
 '^ A repeated perusal of Antipcedobaptism Examined, far 
 from producing that strong conviction of which Dr. Wil- 
 liams was pleased to boast, had an effect quite the reverse. 
 For the principles on which he endeavours to support in- 
 fant sprinkling, are many of them so novel, so paradoxical, 
 and so extremely foreign from every idea suggested by the 
 law and practice of baptism, as recorded in the New Tes- 
 tament ; that I received additional confirmation of my avow- 
 ed sentiments. Nay, so far from being convinced, in the 
 manner he fondly believed and rashly asserted, I could not 
 forbear suspecting that even many Paidobaptists themselves, 
 among the Dissenters, and especially among our Conpc- 
 
50 
 
 gafional Brethren, must be ashamed to see their cause de- 
 fended on sucli principles, and to find such effects attributed 
 to baptism, as various of those are with which they meet in 
 Antipcedohaptism Examined^ 
 
 This defence, which comprises a volume of 
 513 closely printed pages, must have been, like 
 his former publication, an Herculean labour! It 
 abounds with quotations from English, Latin, and 
 Greek authors, whose opinions are brought to bear 
 upon the subject under discussion. In none of 
 his writings, has the author evinced more exube- 
 rance of fancy, greater fertility of imagination, or 
 stronger powers of reasoning, than in his reply to 
 Dr. Williams. While his candour, as a disputant, 
 is everywhere conspicuous, he has interspersed, 
 throughout the work, such happy strokes of plea- 
 santry, as renders a subject, which in the hands 
 of most writers would have been intolerably dry 
 and fatiguing, in a very high degree entertaining 
 and instructive. We cannot afford room to enter 
 into any analysis of the contents of the volume, 
 and the reader must rest satisfied with the follow- 
 ing quotation from the close of it: 
 
 " I shall now conclude my animadversions on AntipcB' 
 dohaptism Examined, by giving a summary of iho^ pecu- 
 liarities which are contained in it, and comprehend the 
 principal grounds of Dr. W.'s argumentation. On the 
 following particulars, I therefore desire my reader to fix his 
 
51 
 
 attention. In doing which he may perhaps be able to 
 judge, whether many of them be not, in this controversy, 
 absolute novelties; and whether the use of such data, in de- 
 fence of infant sprinkling, be not a strong presumption, 
 that either the cause itself is bad, or that it is handled in- 
 judiciously. 
 
 " Dr. W. maintains, then, that baptism is not a merely 
 positive institute; but partly positive, and partly moral — 
 That none of the Mosaic rites were entirely positive — That, 
 in certain cases, local customs and national decency may 
 be permitted to influence the administration of a divine, 
 positive institute — That a wise and righteous legislator docs 
 not always intend to have his laws completely understood 
 and obeyed — That the baptismal statute is not determinate 
 and plain, either as to mode or subject — That the baptism 
 of John was one of those ancient Jewish washings, whicli 
 are mentioned by Paul to the Hebrews ; a national purifica- 
 tion; and the repentance required, not a personal, but a 
 national confession of sin — That Jesus Christ was equally 
 liable to ceremonial pollution with the Jews in common ; 
 and that, when baptized, he was legally purified — That 
 Christian baptism is a ceremonial purification — That it 
 washes away the filth of the flesh— That it is not a duty, 
 but a benefit— That whatever prigileges belonged to the 
 former Dispensation, flow on to the present, if not expresslj/ 
 repealed— That, not the law of baptism, but the gospel 
 revelation, is the rule of baptizing— That the administration 
 of baptisni is a discretionary trust, and at the option of a 
 minister, equally as the subjects of his public discourses — 
 That the mode of administration may be varied according 
 
6fl 
 
 to circumstances, and referred to the private judgment of 
 the person or persons concerned — Tliat a revelation of di- 
 vine mercy is an external covenant to man — That many 
 deja^reesof relative holiness now exist; and that Jews, Ma- 
 hometan?, and Hottentots, partake of the tirst degree — 
 That there are degrees of church-membership, relative to 
 infants, even though they be not admitted to the Lord's 
 table — That the qualifications of infants for baptism, as 
 veil as adults, are entirely moral ; being no other than those 
 which God, as the moral governor and judge of the world, 
 requires of all mankind, indiscriminately, considered as 
 immortal and accountable creatures — That tliere is no dif- 
 ference between the members of the Christian church, and 
 ihat of the ancient Israelites — That the Jews, having for- 
 feited their national adoption, the Gentiles in general have 
 succeeded to it — That Christian kingdoms are the Lord's, 
 in a sense perfectly similar to that in which the kingdom of 
 Israel was his — That unrcgencrate persons are warranted to 
 call Jehovah their God, and themselves his people — That 
 the national form of the Jewish church is transferred to that 
 of the New Q^conomy — That the kingdom of Christ, though 
 not of this world, comprehends whole nations as such — 
 That National churches might be so constituted as to suit 
 the Congregational plan of ecclesiastical government — 
 That the Christian church consists, in a great measure, of 
 infants and children — That, in a Christian country, it is 
 incumbent on every unbaptised profligate and infidel to be 
 baptised — That if the scripture be not decisively express 
 against infant baptism, we are to conclude the Apostles 
 practised it — That infants have a legal right to the Lord's 
 
53 
 
 stipper; and that infant communion is merely an impro- 
 priety, prudential reasons lying against it — That the Jews 
 owed their Bible to circumcision — That baptism ratilies the 
 promises, and authenticates Divine Ilevelation — That bap- 
 tism gives a legal title to read the scripture, to all the con- 
 tents of that sacred volume, anil to all the means of con- 
 version — That tlie obligation to repentance, to holiness, 
 and to obedience, results from being baptised — That those 
 who were baptised in their infancy, have a stronger and 
 more indubitable title to numerous blessings, than those 
 that were baptised on a personal profession of faith — And, 
 finally, That if a person, as baptised, he not privileged 
 with /<«r/;/g JEHOVAH for his God, it may be justly 
 questioned whether the sun ever yet shone upon 
 Britain. 
 
 "As Dr. W. began by announcing his decided opinion, 
 and by indicating its vast importance; so I conclude with 
 recounting his new discoveries, and with showing his su- 
 perlative confidence.'' * 
 
 * It may be expected that some notice should here be taken 
 of a pamphlet which was published against " Pajdobaptism 
 Examined," under the title of " Candid Reasons for renoun- 
 cing the principles of Anfipa'dobaptism : l)y Peter Edwards:" 
 and the rather as Mr. Booth declined publicly entering the 
 lists with that writer. Mr E. was originally a Paidobaptist, 
 but renounced his principles as such, and became, for several 
 years, the Pastor of a Baptist church. In process of time, 
 however, he reverted to his former opinion on the subject, 
 and published what he calls " Candid Reasons" for his con- 
 duct. Tho Baptists, as is well known, contend that there is 
 
 G 2 
 
54 
 
 Having thus given some account of Mr. Booth's 
 different labours in defence of the ordinance of 
 believer's baptism, which, as relating to one sub- 
 ject, we hav^e connected together, we now return 
 to notice his " Essay on the Kingdom of 
 Christ," the first edition of which appeared in 
 1788. In the early part of the last century, Mr. 
 John Glas, minister of the parish of Tealing, se- 
 
 ncither precept nor example, in the New Testament, for bap- 
 tising infants — one of which, they insist, is necessary to war- 
 rant the administration of that ordinance. Mr. Edwards 
 takes up this argument, and labours to sliow, that the Bap- 
 tists act inconsistently with their own principles in admitting 
 females to the Lord's supper, for which, he contends, there is 
 neither the one nor the other. In prosecuting his attack, had 
 he conducted himself with the temper of a Christian, and the 
 manners of a gentleman, there can be no doubt but that Mr. 
 Booth would have endeaToured to show him, that " the prin. 
 ciples of Antipasdobaptism and the practice of female com- 
 munion, were completely consistent." But when, instead of 
 confining himself to that temperate and sober discussion which 
 alone deserves the name of religious controversy, he descends 
 to scurrilous and abusive language, fit only for a heroine of 
 Billinsgate, he at once absolved Mr. Booth from every obliga- 
 tion to dispute with him. He was not insensible of what was 
 due to his own character, and he might recollect the maxim 
 of Dr. Young, that- " every author lives or dies by his own 
 })en." Besides, he might think himself warranted to hope 
 that he who had changed and rtxhangcd, might, like the ca- 
 
55 
 
 parated from the church of Scotland, and pubHshed 
 his reasons in an excellent treatise entitled " The 
 Testimony of' the King of Martyrs" &c. a most 
 judicious and scriptural illustration of Christ's 
 good confession, which he witnessed before Pon- 
 tius Pilate, concerning his kingdom, as distin- 
 guished from the Jewish theocracy, the kingdoms 
 of this world, and the false churches that now 
 bear that name. Mr. Glas's book is well known, 
 
 melion, change again ! The " Candid Reasons," however, 
 were answered by several of Mr. Booth's friends, and parti- 
 cularly in a pamphlet given to the world by his friend Mr. 
 DoRE, entitled " The Principles of Antipasdobaptism, and 
 the practice of female communion completely consistent," 
 with a preface and notes by the editor; printed for Button, 
 1795, price Is. 6d. By whom tliis tract was written, the 
 intelligent reader, who has perused, with attention, the vo- 
 lumes of " Pajdobaptism Examined," will find little difficulty 
 in deciding. It may not be amiss, also, to mention a paper 
 inserted in the " Theological Repository," New Series, vo- 
 lume 2, page 132, entitled " Strictures on Mr. Peter Ed- 
 wards' Candid Reasons," &c. in which the argument is handled 
 with great perspicuity and critical skill, and the subject placed 
 in the clearest and most satisfactory light. The writer of it, 
 Dr. James Watt, a Physician in Glasgow, Avas, when an An. 
 tiburgher minister, convinced of the divine institution of be- 
 liever's baptism, by reading Mr. Booth's Pa>dobaptism Exa- 
 mined; and having resigned his connection with that body, 
 became one of the elders of the Baptist church in Glasgow. 
 
56 
 
 and has been much circulated in Scotland, where, 
 we have no doubt, it has been the means ol" lead- 
 ing very many into just views of this important 
 subject; but, in this country, the work has never 
 obtained much notice, owing, probably, to the 
 disadvantages of its style, which is diffuse, in- 
 volved, and careless. Dr. Owen, to whom, no 
 doubt, Mr. Glas himself was much indebted, had 
 published several things connected with this sub- 
 ject more than a century ago, but his writings are 
 but ill adapted to the generality of readers in the 
 present day, being, in general, too elaborate and 
 learned. It might, therefore, justly excite one's 
 surprise, that, previous to the appearance of Mr. 
 Booth's Essay, there was nothing to be found, 
 among the English Dissenters, that was immedi- 
 ately ad rem. Bishop Hoadley, it is well known, 
 had alarmed all the clergy of the establishment 
 by a sermon preached before his Majesty king 
 George the I. on the Slst of Maich, 1717, upon 
 the subject of Christ's confession before Pontius 
 Pilate, M If kingdom is not of this xi^orld ; but this 
 has been considered, by many, merely as a poli- 
 tical manoeuvre, intended, by its author, to check 
 the insolence of the Tory party, which, at that 
 time was gaining a powevful ascendency in the 
 state. What else, indeed, can we suppose a lord 
 
57 
 
 Bishop to have meant by proclaiming " that the 
 kingdom of Christ, and the sanctions by which it 
 is supported, were of a nature wholly intellectual 
 and spiritual — that the church, taking- the term in 
 its utmost latitude of signification, did not, and 
 could not, possess the slightest degree of autho- 
 rity under any commission, or pretended commis- 
 sion, from him — and that the church of England, 
 and all other national churches, w^ere merely civil 
 or human institutions, established for the purpose 
 of diffusing and perpetuating the knowledge of 
 Christianity?" &c.* What was this but to sap 
 
 * The divine right of Episcopncy or of Presbytcrianism, 
 or indeed of any other form of religions worship, to an 
 exclusive toleration by the civil magistrate, are matters 
 rarely insisted on by their respective advocates in the pre- 
 sent day. The gradual progress of religious knowledge, 
 and the striking evidence of facts, have combined to banish 
 from among us those high and intolerant claims, which a 
 century and a half ago, were the source of so much ran- 
 cour and animosity among the professors of Christianity. 
 The friend of toleration and of peace, cannot but be gra- 
 tified at finding, even amongst the dignitaries of the na- 
 tional church, the sober language of truth, of mercy, and 
 of conciliation, so strikingly gaining ground. The con- 
 cessions of the venerable Watson, Bishop of Landaff, and 
 of the liberal and enlightened Paley, are well known ; let 
 
58 
 
 the very foundation upon which the whole fabric 
 
 us join to their suffrages in favour of toleration, the testi- 
 mony of the amiable biographer of the immortal Milton. 
 
 " To the politician," says Dr. Symmons, " who contem- 
 plates, in this coantry, the advantages of a church-establish- 
 ment, and sees it in union with the most perfect toleration — 
 the plan recommended [by Milton, of abolishing tithes, and 
 of allowing every pastor to be supported by his own imme- 
 diate flock] would appear to be visionary or pernicious; and 
 we should not hesitate to condemn it, if its practicability and 
 inoffensive consequences were not incontrovertibly established 
 by the testimony of America. From Hudson's Bay, with the 
 small interruption of Canada, to the Mississipi, this immense 
 continent beholds the religion of Jesus, unconnected with the 
 patronage of Government, subsisting in independent yet friend- 
 ly communities, breathing that universal charity which consti- 
 tutes its vital spirit, and offering, with its distinct yet blending 
 tones, one grand combination of harmony to the ear of its 
 Heavenli) Father." 
 
 In the above extract, the intelUgent reader will discover 
 the language of truth ; we appeal to him whether the fol- 
 lowing passage, from the same learned pen, do not display 
 an equal portion of candour : 
 
 " I am strongly attached to the Church of England, from 
 whose lap I sprang, and at whose bosom I have been fostered: 
 but my attachment to her is not that of instinct but of reason. 
 I love her, not merely because she is my mother and my nurse, 
 but because she is deserving of my love. — I give her my most 
 ardent affection, when I contemplate her as mild and liberal, 
 as uniting order with toleration, as the patroness of learning, 
 
59 
 
 of episcopacy is reared. So indeed it was under 
 
 and the encourager of inquiry, as the determined enemy of 
 persecution for opinions, whether it be avowed by the stern 
 republic of a presbytery, or by the unfeeling policy of a pon- 
 tifical conclave. Such is the ground on which I rest my atfec*. 
 tion to my native church : but if I saw her actuated by a 
 narrow and ferocious spirit, guarding her own temporal ho- 
 nours with more jealousy than the vital principles of Christ's 
 religion ; doing evil with the flagitious pretence that good may 
 be the result; mounted on a sanguinary tribunal, to suppress 
 opinion with overwhelming punishment; and hearing with de- 
 light the groan that issued from a bosom hostile to herself — if 
 I saw her in this sad state of desertion from her own character, 
 and of apostacy from the religion of her Master, I should no 
 longer recognise her as the object of my filial reverence; I 
 would renounce her with indignation; and, throwing her dis- 
 graceful favours at her feet, I would retire, beyond her cor- 
 ruption and her power, to some uncivilized region, where I 
 might vindicate the name of Jesus from its impious profana- 
 tion, and show him to be the author of blessings and not of 
 misery to man." 
 
 For laying before the reader these truly liberal and Chris- 
 tian sentiments, clothed in such classical purity of style, it 
 is hoped no apobg-y will be required; nor can we take 
 leave of this most elegant and interesting piece of biogra- 
 phy, — a work, of which it is diificult to say whether it 
 reflects more honour on the poet or upon his historian, — 
 tvithout enriching the pages of this pamphlet with his 
 strictures on the character of that relentless and cruel bigot^ 
 Archbishop Laud. 
 
 H 
 
60 
 
 stood , by the watchmen of the holy city, who set 
 
 *' The church of England, at this unfortunate crisis, could 
 boast, among her prelates, of a Williams, a Darcnant, a 
 Hall, and an Usher; — men illustrious for their talents, emi- 
 nent by their learning, amiable for their virtues, and venerable 
 for their piety ; but, unhappily, at their head was placed a 
 prelate, Avhose views vrere narrow, whose superstition was 
 abject and intolerant, and who was pleased to be the suppor- 
 ter of that despotism Mhich supported his own. Much as I 
 dislike the principles and the temper of the unfortunate Laud, 
 I would willingly believe that the conduct which produced 
 such ruinous consequences to his cause, and to the whole 
 community, was the offspring of good motives ; and that he 
 intended well as a Christian, though he acted perniciously as 
 a politician. His bigotted observance of ceremonies might be 
 considered, in those times, as an inoffensive display of little- 
 ness. His support of an arbitrary court is as easily to be 
 pardoned, by the liberal and comprehensive mind, which can 
 allow for the effects of education, or for the natural, and, of 
 course, venial corruption of office, in its influence on the 
 understanding and the heart. But when I see him confound- 
 ing the cause of Christ with that of the prelate;- when I 
 observe him persecuting, with merciless rigour, men of exem- 
 plary lives, united with him in every point of Christian faith, 
 and whose sole crime was a conscientious opposition to the 
 hierarchal dignity, and a regard to what they deemed to be 
 the simplicity of the gospel ; when I contemplate him on the 
 judgment seat, uncovering his head, and thanking God on the 
 passing of a cruel sentence, which he had himsalf dictated; 
 when I see him afterwards, in his closet, recording, with calm 
 rancour and cold-blooded exultation, the execution of these 
 
61 
 
 themselves by hundreds, in battle array, to protect 
 the craft by which their wealth was gained, and 
 to repel the assailing hand of the rude bishop. 
 The latter, indeed, was soon aware that he had 
 carried this doctrine a little too far, and therefore 
 proceeded to guard the subject on the other side, 
 by proper explanations, and prudently to measure 
 back his steps. Mr. Booth's Essay w^as directed 
 to the same object as Bishop Hoadley's sermon; 
 and to engage the reader's attention to it, he be- 
 gins his preface by remarking, that 
 
 *' The Kingdom of Christ is a subject of great impor- 
 tance : for, according to the views we have of that King- 
 dom, will our conclusions be, respecting various branches 
 
 judicial barbarities; when I behold him insulting the age of 
 the mild and liberal Abbott, and spurning him from his throne, 
 to obtain premature possession of the Metropolitan power; 
 when I remark him ruining, with rengeance as ungrateful as 
 it was unrelenting, the first patron of his fortunes, bishop 
 Williams, whose hand had placed the mitre on his head — my 
 charity must necessarily falter, and I cannot immediately de- 
 cide that he stands accountable for nothing more than erro- 
 neous judgment. He wished, indeed, for the prosperity of 
 the church; but only as it was blended with the splendour of 
 the hierarchy; and he laboured for its aggrandisement, as 
 Philip laboured for that of Macedon, or Frederic for that of 
 Prussia, that it might form the broader and more elevated pe- 
 destal to his own individual greatness." 
 
 Dr. Symmons' Life of Milton, p. 172, &c. 
 h2 
 
62 
 
 of religious conduct. If those views be imaginary, these 
 conchisions must be false. By the former, the glory of 
 Messiah's regal character will be obscured : by the latter, 
 his worship will be corrupted: whereas the true doctrine 
 concerning this holy empire, may not only be the mean of 
 preserving from those evils, but of presenting us with data 
 for the decision of many disputes among the professors of 
 Christianity. A competent acquaintance, therefore, with 
 its nature and laws, its emoluments and honours, is closely 
 connected with our duty and our happiness ; which ac- 
 quaintance must be derived from divine Revelation. 
 
 " Important, however, as the subject manifestly is, it has 
 been but seldom professedly discussed. This consideration 
 was a leading motive to the present attempt. To illustrate 
 the nature of our Lord's Kingdom, and to infer the conclu- 
 sions flowing from it, constitute the design of this Essay. 
 
 " The Author has expressed his thoughts with great free- 
 dom ; yet, without intending the least offence to any party 
 of Christians, or to any person, from whose notions and 
 practices he conscientiously differs. In the course of dis- 
 cussion, he animadverts, indeed, on some particulars, with 
 a degree of severity: but then they appear to him in the 
 light of poiilical artifces, which either impeach the domi- 
 nion of Christ in his own kingdom, or degrade and cor- 
 rupt that worship which he requires. Now, in cases of 
 this kind, the writer is of opinion, that allegiance to the 
 King Messiah, and true benevolence to man, demand the 
 language of marked opposition." 
 
 Small as this publication is, we think it ex- 
 tremely valuable, though by no means so rich in 
 
63 
 
 doctrine as Mr. Glas's Testimony of the King of 
 Martyrs. It draws a striking contrast between 
 the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of this 
 world, in the latter of which, all national establish- 
 ments of religion are included : 
 
 " The church of England," says he, " is manifestly a se- 
 cular kingdom. For it is established by human laws, and 
 acknowledges a political head ; nor is it esteemed material 
 whether that head be male or female. It is a creature of 
 the state, supported by the state, incorporated with the 
 state, and governed by a code of laws confirmed by the 
 state — a code, very diftferent from the sacred canons of the 
 New Testament ; those being quite foreign to its constitu- 
 tion. Its principal officers are appointed by the crown; 
 and, in virtue of ecclesiastical station, are lords of Parlia- 
 ment. Nay, even the doctrines professed, and the worship 
 performed, in that establishment, are all secularized. Its 
 creeds and forms of prayer, its numerous rubrics, and va- 
 rious rites, are adopted and used under the sanction of civil 
 authority. Its Liturgy, therefore, may be justly consi- 
 dered as an Act of Parliament respecting- religious affairs. 
 It must, therefore, be considered as a kingdom ' of this 
 world.'" 
 
 Nor does the author stop here; he animadverts, 
 in the most pointed language, upon various cor- 
 ruptions which but too much prevail among dis- 
 senting churches of the present day, not sparing 
 even those of his own connection. 
 
64 
 
 ** Some, of different communions," says he, " have 
 deliberately acted as if the preacher's work were a mere 
 trial of skill, and as if a pulpit were the stage of a harle- 
 quin. To display the fertility of their invention, they 
 have selected for texts mere scraps of scripture langua«fe; 
 which, so far from containing complete propositions, have 
 not, in their dislocated state, conveyed a single idea. 
 Upon those they have harangued ; while the ignorant mul- 
 titude have been greatly surprised that the preacher could 
 find so much, where comm.on capacities perceived nothing. 
 Sometimes these men of genius will choose passages of scrip- 
 ture expressive of plain historical facts, which have no 
 connection with the great work of salvation by Jesus Christ; 
 and handle them (not professedly by way of accommoda- 
 tion, for then it might occasionally be admitted) but as if 
 they were sacred allegories. Such historical facts being 
 spmtualized, as they love to call it, doctrines, privileges, 
 duties, in abundance, are easily derived from them. Nay, 
 so ingenious are preachers of this turn, that it is no hard 
 matter for them to find a great part of their creed in almost 
 any text they take. Thus they allegorize common sense 
 into pious absurdity — It might, perhaps, be too barefaced, 
 though it would certainly suit the vanity of such preachers, 
 were they frequently to address their hearers on the prono- 
 minal monosyllable /; and there are two passages of sacred 
 writ where it occurs in the most apposite manner. The 
 former would make an admirable text ; the latter, a noble 
 conclusion : and they are as follow : ' Such a man as / — 
 Is not this great Babylon that / have built?' 
 
 " Others, and often the same persons, frequently use the 
 
65 
 
 gestures of the theatre, and the language of a mountebank: 
 as if their business were to amuse, to entertain, and to make 
 their hearers laugh. Extravagant attitudes and quaint ex- 
 pressions, idle stories, and similies quite ludicrous, appear 
 in abundance, and constitute no small part of tlie entertain- 
 ment furnished by such persons. But in what a state must 
 the consciences of those preachers be, who can deliberately 
 and with premeditation act in this manner! Or, what 
 must we think of their petitions for divine assistance, in 
 addressing the people, when they intend thus to treat them ! 
 — I called it entertainment ; and, surely, they themselves 
 do not consider it in a religious point of light. For can 
 any man, who is not insane, deliberately adopt measures 
 of this kind, when really aiming, either to produce, or to 
 promote, a devotional and heavenly temper in the hearts of 
 his hearers? Yet that is the general end of preaching. 
 Or can the preacher have any devotion, while showing the 
 airs of a mountebank*? and when, if the bulk of his audi- 
 tory had no more decency than himself, there would be a 
 burst of laughter throughout the assembly ? Whatever 
 such declaimers may think, where there is no solemnity, 
 there is no devotion : and we may venture Ui add, that a 
 person habitually destitute of devotion in Jiis own heart, 
 while pretending to teach others the doctrine of Christ, is 
 a wretched character in the sight of God, and has reason 
 to tremble. Such a man serves not our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 but, in some form or other, his own interests. He may 
 •wish for popularity, and perhaps may obtain it from the 
 ignorant multitude ; but people of sense and of piety will 
 consider him as disgracing his office, as affronting their 
 
66 
 
 understandings, and as insulting the majesty of that Divine 
 Presence in which he stands. For where or when upon 
 earth are we to expect solemnity, if not in a worshipping 
 assembly, and in hiiu that leads the public devotion? In 
 such a situation, a man should be solemn as death." 
 
 These remarks cannot be too generally enforced 
 among preachers of every denomination, whether 
 Baptist or Paedobaptist, Conformist or Dissenter. 
 The piece was considerably improved by Mr. Booth 
 in a second edition; and we have no doubt will 
 long continue to rise in estimation among the 
 friends of primitive Christianity, 
 
 The next publication which occupied the pen 
 of Mr. Booth was his " Glad Tidings to pe- 
 rishing Sinners," the object of which is to 
 prove that " The Genuine Gospel contains a com- 
 plete -isi'arrant for the Ungodly to believe in Jesus 
 Christ" the first edition of which appeared in 
 1796. The design of this work is not very dissi- 
 milar to that of the Reign of Grace ; but the 
 author had powerful inducements for resuming 
 the subject, which it may not prove uninteresting 
 to glance at. 
 
 About this time there evidently appeared, among 
 some leading ministers of the Calvinistical per- 
 suasion, a growing partiality for the sentiments 
 and writings of the American divines, particularly 
 
67 
 
 those of Bellamy and Hopkins of New England. 
 These authors, although many good things are to 
 be found in their writings, have certainly verged 
 into a dangerous extreme on other points, in their 
 opposition to Arminian and Antinomian specula- 
 tions. Mr. Hopkins contends that regeneration 
 consists whollij in a change of the iml/^ or hearty 
 and not in the intellect or faculty of the under- 
 standing, and that, in this operation, the Spirit is 
 the only agent; that the word of God is not, in 
 ani) degree^ a mean by which tliis change is effected ! 
 Men, according to his theory, are first regenerated 
 in order to introduce light into the mind; conse- 
 quently, that they are not regenerated hij light, 
 or " the truths of God's word." He further 
 maintains, that a person must not only be con- 
 vinced of his guilt, and the just condemnation 
 due to it, but he must have the true knowledge 
 of God, and a new, a humble, and a contrite 
 heart, to hate sin as such, and to love God and 
 delight in his law ; — and all this, not only previous 
 to his justification, and in order to it, but even 
 previous to his knowledge of the Mediator, and 
 of faith in him; while he scruples not to affirm, 
 that those who have never been reconciled to God 
 and his holy law in any other way, but by first 
 seeing and believing in the grace of God through 
 
 I 
 
68 
 
 Christ, are yet ignorant of the true grace of God, 
 and enemies to it. Such are the sentiments which 
 were gaining ground among the dissenters in Eng- 
 land, when Mr. Booth published his " Glad 
 Tidings."* 
 
 * Much as the writer of this Essay approves of the design 
 and general execution of this treatise, a regard to truth obliges 
 him to confess that there are a few things pertaining to it, 
 which he could have wished otherwise. I. He dislikes the 
 term *' warrant" in the title-page, because, in his opinion j 
 it militates against the free grace of the gospel. A warrant, 
 strictly speaking, implies an authority or right to do any 
 thing. Now the gospel certainly does authorise or empower 
 any one who hears the gospel to believe it; but this is saying 
 very little indeed of its free and inviting aspect to the guilty. 
 It commands^ entreats^ and beseeches every one who hears it, 
 in the most earnest manner, to believe unto the saving of the 
 soul, at the same time that it threatens and denounces con- 
 demnation on every soul of man that rejects it. II. The 
 author's view of justifying faith, although it may comport with 
 the use of the term " warrant," is not supported by the 
 tenor of the New Testament. " By believing in Jesus Christ," 
 says he, page 3, " is intended receiving him, as exhibited iu 
 the doctrine of divine grace; or depending upon him only, as 
 revealed in the gospel, for pardon, peace, and life eternal." 
 But these things are the eifccts of faith, and not faith itself; 
 and it may be added, that not one of the texts io which Mr. 
 B. refers, prove that faith is any thing more than belief, or 
 the ci'editing of a report founded on testimony. The limits of 
 9, note will not allow a full discussion of this subject — let the 
 
That a man who had the honour of the gospel, 
 
 reader impartially consult a Sermon, by Mr. M'Lcan, of 
 Edinburgh, entitled " The Belief of the Gospel saving Faith:'' 
 See his Works, vol. 4, Dis. I. III. Mr. Booth's method of 
 excnlpating himself from the assumption of having a leaning 
 towards the Sandemanian heresy, has always appeared to this 
 writer nncandid. Mr. S. is indirectly accused of " gross mis- 
 representation, illiberal censure, and of sarcastical contempt," 
 p. 7. Were we disposed to enter upon a Tindication of the 
 character of that writer, we might surely be allowed to ask 
 for proof of the justice of those charges, which, we confess, 
 we have never yet seen satisfactorily made out. It has too 
 long been the fashion to rail, where we ought to confute. — 
 But this is not all — Mr. Booth has introduced an extract of a 
 single page from the two volumes of " Palaemon's Creed re- 
 viewed," which is certainly not incompatible with the doctrine 
 contained in his " Glad Tidings," though it might probably have 
 been very difficult to have selected as much more from the whole 
 of the volumes that would have suited his purpose; — but how 
 easy would it have been for him to have extracted from the writ- 
 ings of Mr. Glas or Mr. Sandeman, page after page, of the 
 most rich and precious doctrine, most full and express to the 
 subject immediately discussed in his work. This conduct, we are 
 aware, is become fashionable, but to us it appears difficult to 
 reconcile it with Mr. B.'s usual candour and integrity. Amicus 
 Soct^ttesj Amicus Plato, sed magis Arnica Veritas. The late 
 Dr. Erskine, of Edinburgh, many years ago, set an example 
 of the same conduct in the preface to his " Theological Dis- 
 sertations." It would puzzle all the critics in the universe to 
 
 I ^ 
 
70 
 
 and the welfare of the churches so much at heart 
 as he uniformly had, should remain passive on 
 this occasion, was not to be expected. The sen- 
 timent which animated the great apostle of the 
 Gentiles, on another occasion, fired his bosom; 
 and however respectable the authors by whom 
 such doctrines were propagated, either in America 
 or England, Mr. Booth was ready to say with his 
 illustrious predecessor, To whom we gave place 
 bif subjection, no not for an hour, that the truth of 
 the gospel might continue zcith you. To the confu- 
 tation of these principles, the work of which we 
 are treating, was immediately directed, and the 
 grand question discussed is, " whether the gos- 
 pel itself be a complete warrant for the most 
 ungodly person to believe in Jesus, without any 
 holy disposition being necessary for that purpose." 
 Mr. Booth takes the affirmative side of this ques- 
 tion, and supports it with his usual ability; main- 
 taining that the gospel is a message of peace to 
 guilty man, proclaiming redemption to the chief 
 of sinners, through the atonement finished upon 
 
 show the slightest difierence between the learned doctor's view 
 of *' Faith " and Mr. Sandeman's; yet he has discovered the 
 most terrible appreheusiou of being suspected of Sandema- 
 
 masm 
 
71 
 
 the cross, and calling upon the most ungodly to 
 believe and be saved. He enters at considerable 
 length, into a refutation of the sentiments of Dr. 
 Hopkins, both as they respect regeneration and 
 justification, which he shows were calculated 
 only to " corrupt the gospel," and were fraught 
 with a most " pernicious tendency." A second 
 edition of the work, with considerable additions 
 and improvements, was published in 1800.* 
 
 Having briefly noticed Mr. Booth's larger works, 
 we now return to glance at those minor produc- 
 tions of his pen, which the dictates of humanity, 
 the existing state of the Christian profession, or 
 the love of truth extorted from him. 
 
 About the year 1792, the attention of the peo- 
 ple of England w^as excited in no common degree 
 
 * To the reader who would see these strange, and we may 
 add, pernicious sentiments satisfactorily confuted, we would 
 earnestly recommend the perusal of a small piece published in 
 1802, by Mr. Archibald M'Lean, of Edinburgh, entitled, 
 " A Reply to Mr. Fuller's Appendix to his book on the Gos- 
 pel worthy of all Acceptation: particularly to his doctrine of 
 antecedent Holiness, and the nature and object of justifying 
 Faith:" sold by Button, price Is. 6d. Of this small tract, it is 
 not too much to say, that it is worth many a folio volume of 
 religious controversy. It discusses and confutes some of tiic 
 most subtle and deceitful glosses which perhaps have ever been 
 propagated in the world on the important article of justifica- 
 
72 
 
 towards the state of our sable and oppressed bre- 
 thren, on the Continent of Africa, as well as in 
 our West India colonies; and petitions to the le- 
 gislature and the throne, for the abolition of " the 
 accursed trade in man," crowded in from every 
 quarter of the kingdom. To suppose Mr. Booth 
 an inactive spectator, or insensible to the pro- 
 gress of this benevolent work, would betray great 
 ignorance of his character. It was a subject in 
 which the interests of humanity were deeply con- 
 cerned, and he well knew that he who does not 
 feel as a man, could never act as a Christian. — 
 The cries and tears of the oppressed Africans 
 pierced every fibre of his soul — their pitiable case 
 took deep hold of his heart, and became much the 
 subject of his entreaties at the throne of grace, 
 both in public and private. And here we may 
 
 tion ; and we are clearly of the mind of the late Dr. Erskine, of 
 Edinburgh, than whom a more competent judge could scarcely 
 be found, that " it exhibits one of the most finished pieces of 
 polemical divinity, that is to be found in the English lan- 
 guage; and, considered as the production of one who had 
 attained to nearly his 70th year, it deserves to be considered as 
 one of the most extraordinary productions of the age. " We 
 have been the more particular in adverting to this tract, as 
 we do not find it inserted, (for what reasons we know not,) 
 in any of the four volumes of the new edition of the author's 
 M orks now publishing. 
 
73 
 
 notice a singularity in the tenor of his pubHc 
 prayers, which is worthy of being recorded. When 
 addressing the throne of Grace in behalf of his 
 pastoral charge, his petitions were generally put 
 up to the Supreme Being in his paternal character, 
 calling him Floly, Heavenly, or Righteous Father; 
 but in his intercessions for his native country, the 
 human race in general, or the poor oppressed 
 Africans in particular, he invoked him, as Isaac 
 and Jacob did of old, in the character of GOD 
 ALMIGHTY. 
 
 But his exertions for the accomplishment of this 
 benevolent object, were not confined merely to his 
 prayers. He took an active part in forwarding the 
 petitions to the legislature. A collection was 
 made amongst his own congregation, in aid of the 
 society which was established for effecting the 
 abolition of that infernal traffic, and to excite his 
 hearers to a liberality corresponding to the magni- 
 tude of the occasion, he delivered a most judicious 
 and impressive discourse from Exodus xxi. 16, 
 which was afterwards printed at their request, 
 and circulated by the society to a very great 
 extent. Mr. Booth's text upon that occasion, 
 was certainly a very memorable one, and could 
 not fail to strike the attention of the most su- 
 perficial reader. He that stealeth a man and sel- 
 
74 
 
 letli htrn^ or if lie he found In his hand, he shall 
 sareli) be jjiit to death. When we recollect that 
 the most daring attempts were made by the advo- 
 cates of the African slave-trade, to justify this 
 most inhuman and barbarous traffic on the grounds 
 of the Jewish law, we shall see a striking pro- 
 priety in the text made choice of by Mr. Booth 
 on this occasion as the ground of his reasoning. 
 It led him immediately to the consideration of the 
 practices resorted to by the slave dealers and cap- 
 tains of ships, for the purpose of procuring them 
 at first, and denounced the divine vengeance 
 against them. After showing that the law men- 
 tioned in the text, though given to the ancient 
 Hebrews as a body politic, proceeds upon a moral 
 ground, and explaining both the grounds and the 
 extent to which slavery was permitted among 
 them, he states, in a clear and striking point of 
 view, the difference that existed between their 
 slavery and that of modern Europeans, showing 
 that, supposing God had permitted the Israelitish 
 people to traffic in the human species, and to en- 
 slave the Gentiles to a much greater degree than 
 he did, it would not have authorised the conduct 
 of Europeans towards the Africans. As a speci- 
 men of the liberal, enlightened, and benevolent 
 sentiments which abound in this excellent sermon^ 
 the reader may take the following extracts: — 
 
75 
 
 *' As to that part of tlie Jewish law, which is, properlj 
 and strictly speaking, moral, the obligation of which ex- 
 tends to all mankind, in every age; it forbids nothing to 
 an African, that is equitable in the conduct of a European. 
 It knows no more of a while man buying and enslaving a 
 black one, than it does of the latter so treating the former. 
 In its impartial estimate, and under its commanding power, 
 Africans and Europeans, Pagans and Christians, are all on 
 a level. Must the right under consideration, then, be in- 
 ferred from what is called the law of nature? But that is 
 the same in Africa as it is in Europe ; entirely the same 
 over all the globe. According to this law, be the station 
 of an innocent Negro ever so obscure, his poverty ever so 
 great, his manners ever so rude, or his mental capacities 
 ever so contracted, he has an equal claim to personal liberty 
 with any man upon earth. For the rights of humanity, 
 being common to the whole of our species, are the same in 
 every part of the world. 
 
 "It follows, therefore, that if the lawfulness of purchasing 
 innocent persons for the most degrading and cruel slavery 
 exist among men, it must be a common right, and equally 
 possessed by all nations : nor can the exercise of it have 
 any limitation from principles of a moral nature. No 
 limits can be here assigned, except those of power, of 
 policy, or of inclination. It would, consequently, be 
 quite as equitable, benevolent, and humane, for the Afri- 
 cans, laden with produce of their own country, annually 
 to visit our English ports, as we do theirs, and for similar 
 purposes. Yes, they might, if it were in their power, 
 with equal justice, and with less dishonour, fit out a hun- 
 
76 
 
 dred and eighty, or two hundred ships, for the port of 
 London, of Bristol, and of Liverpool — ships adapted to the 
 stowage o/ MAN, and furnished with a frightful apparatus 
 to render the confinement of Britons completely miserable, as 
 tvell as perfectly secure. When this commercial, this man" 
 trading fleet arrived, if cargoes of men, women and child- 
 ren were not prepared, the officers belonging to each ves- 
 sel might practise all their arts, to excite a spirit of covet- 
 ousness and of cruelty in our governors and fellow-subjects, 
 in order that, by an armed force, the peaceable inhabitants 
 of whole villages might be captured — that, in our courts 
 of justice, innocent persons, for the advantage of their 
 judges, might be convicted — ^that private individuals might 
 kidnap whomsoever tliey could, and thought saleable — ^that^ 
 by all these infamous means, the ships might be freighted, 
 at every returning season, with forty thousand Britons — 
 antl, finally, that all who survive their miserable confine- 
 ment while on board, might be taken to tlie best market 
 for the human species; exposed, in the most indecent man- 
 ner, to public sale; handled and examined, like so many 
 head of cattle, by their purchasers ; consigned over, with 
 their unborn posterity, to the most abject and cruel slavery, 
 from generation to generation; and all for — what? Here 
 let humanity blush, let mercy weep, and let justice be 
 toused into indignation : but let not Britons forget, that 
 this is a picture, in miniature, of their own behaviour 
 toward the Africans ! 
 
 " Once more: Were the conduct of our man-merchant* 
 lawful, neither the principles of morality, nor those of re- 
 ligion, could lie in th« way of their buying, and selling for 
 
77 
 
 slaves, the innocent natives of Holland, or France, or anj 
 other neighbouring nation. For as it is impossible to prove 
 that the natural rights of humanity are not equally sacred 
 in Africa, as they are in Europe ; so the cruel and bloody 
 hand of rapacity might with equal justice lay hold of tlie 
 Dutchman, or the Frenchman, as of the swarthy Guinea- 
 man. Nor, other things being equal, is there the least 
 reason for us to imagine, that the white skin of a European 
 would afford any more protection against a violent seizure, 
 than does the black skin of an African. No; had the 
 trader in man an equal opportunity of gratifying liis cruel 
 avarice; were he equally sure of impunity, and no more 
 exposed to infamy, in the one case than in the otlier ; the 
 same disregard to justice, and the same principle of avarice, 
 would have a similar operation on the persons of neigh- 
 bouring Europeans, as they have on the poor Negroes. — 
 Nay, he who is, by profession, a negro-merchant ; whose 
 business it is to buy and sell his fellow-creatures, without 
 regard to their guilt, or their innocence ; who has been in 
 that practice for a course of years ; who is habituated to it, 
 and hardened In it, so that he carries on his iniquitous 
 commerce, without remorse or shame, in the face of the 
 sun ; cannot be considered as restrained by any religious or 
 virtuous principles, though he never attempted to purchase, 
 for West Indian slavery, any of his peaceable neighbours 
 in this country. No ; would the laws and customs of the 
 land permit, as in former times, he would no more scruple 
 to encourage kidnapping in England than in Africa ; and 
 be equally ready to buy a native of his own parish, as he 
 would the inhabitant of a remote continent.--It appears, 
 
 J 2 
 
78 
 
 therefore, with superior evidence, that tlic European com- 
 merce in man, and the slavery connected with it, are abso- 
 lutely indefensible on the grounds of the Jewish law." 
 
 The Sermon closes with the following pathetic 
 appeal to the hearts of his hearers : 
 
 " Having discussed my subject according to the plan 
 proposed, I shall now conclude with a few exhortations 
 relative to our own duty. As being professedly the fol- 
 lowers of Christ, and the friends of mankind, I would ex- 
 hort you, ray brethren, earnestly and frcquenlli/ to yray 
 for the interposition of Proxidtnce to abolish the detestable 
 traffic in man. That it is our indispensable duty to pray 
 for the enlargement of our Lord's visible kingdom among 
 men, is plain; that the despised Africans are naturally as 
 capable of being made the spiritual subjects of Jesus Christ 
 as ourselves, ought not to be questioned; and that the 
 Slave-trade is, at present, an effectual bar to tlie propagation 
 of Christianity among them, appears with decisive evidence. 
 Nay, it is an insuperable obstruction to the progress of 
 civilization among them, and to an honourable commerce 
 with them. Zeal for the honour of Christ, and love to 
 our fellow-creatures, ought therefore to inspire us with ar- 
 dent prayer, that the horrid impediment may be removed, 
 and that Christ may be glorified among them. Nor ought 
 we to pray, merely, that God would abolish the infamous 
 commerce in man, on the shores of Africa; but also for 
 the gradual emancipation of oppressed Negroes in the West 
 India islands : that slavery of innocent persons may cease 
 to exist, and sink under the detestation of all Euroj>e. For 
 
79 
 
 what must the enslaved Africans in those islands think of 
 Christians, of Christianity, and of Christ, under the tuition 
 of ttieir oppressors ? 
 
 " Again: Let your ardent and frequent prayers be ac- 
 companied with prudent, peaceable, and steady/ efforts^ in 
 order to procure the total abolition of that criminal traffic, 
 afid of the cruel slavery consequent upon it. This is mani- 
 festly enjoined by that law of the Lord, Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself. A divine precept this, which requires 
 us to do to others, as we might reasonably wish them to 
 treat us, where we in their situation, and they in ours. — 
 When reflecting on this branch of moral duty, with refe- 
 rence to the case before us, I have sometimes been struck 
 with the following supposed case. I have imagined myself, 
 my family, and all my dearest social connections, with 
 many thousands of my countrymen, to have been kidnap- 
 ped, bought, and sold into a state of cruel slaverj-. I have 
 imagined the inhabitants of my native country in general, 
 to have received authentic information of the iniquitous 
 manner in which we were captured, transported into a foreign 
 land, and there enslaved. I have still further imagined, 
 that extremely few among Britons had any compassion for 
 us ; that only here and there one would remember us in their 
 prayers, or exert any endeavours, either to relieve our dis- 
 tresses, or to prevent many thousands of equally innocent 
 persons from falling, year after year, into similar miseries. 
 I have then supposed, that, in such a situation, I should 
 consider Britons as quite insensible to the honour of natloiial 
 character, to the claims of private justice, and to tiie tincr 
 feelings of civilized humanity. Nay, I have imagined, that, 
 when under paroxysms of pain, I should reflect on their 
 
80 
 
 merciless conduct with indignation ; consider them as devoted 
 to the gain of oppression ; as filling up their measure of na- 
 tional guilt; and as the destined objects of divine vengeance. 
 
 *' On the other hand, I have supposed all those myriads 
 of Negroes in our West India islands, that are groaning 
 under cruel slavery, to be acquainted with the true God, 
 and with the prayers of thousands in this country, in order 
 to procure a speedy abolition of the horrid traffic in man on 
 the coasts of Africa, and a total, but gradual abolition of 
 slavery in our West India islands. I have then thought of 
 the gratitude which must, on such a supposition, abound 
 in the bosoms of those Negroes toward their compassionate 
 friends; of the ten thousand times ten thousand prayers 
 which they must address to the Father of mercies, that suc- 
 -^less may attend the cause of justice and of humanity in 
 which their friends were sincerely engaged; and of the 
 numerous benedictions which, from their hearts, they must 
 pronounce on the persons, the families, and all the lawful 
 pursuits, of those that were seeking to do them good. 
 
 *' On my own mind these thoughts have sometimes made 
 a strong impression, and have roused attention to the natural 
 rights of oppressed Africans. For though they are ignorant 
 of the true God, and unacquainted with our concern to pro- 
 mote their happiness ; yet they are meti^ and our brethren of 
 the human race: agreeably to that saying, God hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men. — Few of them, indeed, can 
 either speculate on our conduct respecting a melioration of 
 their state, or pray for us ; yet they are no less the proper 
 objects of benevolence, but rather deserve a greater degree 
 of our compassion on that account. 
 
 " As it IS our design at this time, to make a collection for 
 
81 
 
 promoting the general design of that worthy Society which 
 has existed for some years in this metropolis, in order to 
 efect the abolition of the Slave-trade, I would earnestly ex- 
 hort you to make a liberal contribution for their assistance. 
 The members of that benevolent society have done worthily. 
 They deserve the assistance and the thanks of every friend 
 to moral justice, and to humanity. Let us, therefore, en- 
 deavour to strengthen their hands, and to promote the 
 righteous cause in which they are united : not doubting but 
 the wisdom, the rectitude, and the benevolence of our Bri- 
 tish legislature will, ere long, be manifested in totally abo- 
 lishing the English commerce in man; and in providing 
 for the gradual emancipation of Negro-slaves in our West 
 India islands." 
 
 A practice having existed for many years among 
 the ministers belonging to the Particular Baptist 
 denomination resident in the metropolis, of hold- 
 ing a monthly meeting at each others place of 
 worship, with the view of promoting love and 
 unity; it was agreed, in the year 1800, to give a 
 set of discourses on the different branches of the 
 Lord's prayer. Dr. Jenkins took the lead with a 
 sermon on the words " Our Father, who art in 
 heaven;" and it fell to the lot of Mr. Booth to 
 close the whole with a discourse on the word 
 " Amen," which was delivered at Mr. Button's 
 Meeting, in Dean-street, Southwark, November 
 20th, and published, probably at the request of the 
 
82 
 
 hearers, in the following year, under the title of 
 " The Amen to social Prayer illustrated 
 
 AND improved." 
 
 The attentive reader will recollect, that Mr. Booth 
 had entered his protest in very strong terms, against 
 the practice of " selecting for texts mere scraps of 
 scripture language," and has even ridiculed the 
 idea of preaching from a single word, in the quo- 
 tation already introduced into this narrative from 
 his Essay on the Kingdom of Christ.* It may ea- 
 sily be imagined, therefore, that the task allotted 
 him upon this occasion, w^ould excite no inconsi- 
 derable share of merriment among his friends. He 
 obviously felt the delicacy of his situation, but his 
 good sense and sober judgment extricated him 
 from the embarrassment of it with httle difficul- 
 ty. The following extract from the introduction 
 to his sermon, is sufficiently explanatory of the cir- 
 cumstances alluded to, and prevents the necessity 
 of further comment: 
 
 " Tlie graciously condescending character of God, wluch 
 constitutes (he introduction to this Divine Pattern of prayer ; 
 the various petitions contained in it ; and the doxology sub- 
 joined; having all been discussed by my brethren, in the 
 course of this monthly exercise; the concluding and em- 
 pliatical term Amex, and that only, now remains for our 
 
 * See page 64. 
 
8d 
 
 consideration. But, so concise and so singular is my Text, 
 that, it is highly probable, I should never have appeared 
 with it in any pulpit, had it not been chosen for nie on the 
 present occasion. Nay, Avlien I first heard that this de- 
 tached and single word was allotted for me, 1 could not for- 
 bear to hesitate : because I have long detested the thought 
 of selecting any part of sacred scripture, to be the sub- 
 ject of a trial of skill, in order to excite popular curiosity, 
 and to afford amusement. For sucliconduct deserves the 
 most marked reprobation ; as being a disgrace to the pul- 
 pit, and a profanation of the sacred ministry. — But when 
 I reflected on the meaning of the word Amen; on the so- 
 lemn connection in which it stands; and on its being, of 
 itself, a sentence ; I acquiesced in the choice which my 
 brethren had made for me. Because, though the Text 
 be extremely concise, and very singular; yet the subject 
 is of considerable importance, to both ministers of the 
 word, and private Christians. Totally banishing from 
 our minds, therefore, all vain curiosity, and every trifling 
 thought; let us, with devout solemnity, and as in the 
 presence of God, proceed to consider the meaning of the 
 expressive term, as here used; and the edifying truths 
 which are suggested by it." 
 
 In this truly excellent sermon the preacher 
 remarks, that 
 
 " It was customary in the Apostolic churches, when he 
 who led the worship concluded a devotional address to 
 God, for all the Christians that composed the assembly to 
 unite, either audibly, or mentally, in saying Amen—T\\\\i 
 this was practised, not only by churches which consisted 
 
 K 
 
S4 
 
 iprincipally of Jewish converts, who might be supposed to 
 have transferred tlie usage from the synagogue worship ; 
 but also in the Gentile churches ; of which number was the 
 church at Corinth — And that it had the sanction of divine 
 authority: for the inspired writer argues on this very 
 ground, when reproving the misapplication of an extraor- 
 dinary spiritual gift. — This practice in the primitive chur- 
 ches receiving a' divine sanction, as relating to New Testa- 
 ment worship, has the force of an express apostolic i)recept, 
 or of divine law : and, consequently, being of a moral nature, 
 it must be equally the duty of those individuals who con- 
 stitute a worshipping assembly now, as it was of the church 
 at Corinth, to unite in subjoining their solemn Amen, at 
 the close of a devotional address to God." 
 
 It is remarked by Dr. Rippon, who must have 
 intimately known the mind of his friend on such 
 a subject as this, that " when others conducted 
 public prayer, where he was present, he was ac- 
 customed at the conclusion, softly, yet audibly,, to 
 subjoin his Amen — this practice he wished might 
 prevail in all our congregations, and at our prayer 
 meetings; but his example and influence, consi- 
 derable as they were, have not yet rendered it 
 general." 
 
 Having ascertained with precision, the meaning 
 of the term, he proceeds to state the edifying 
 truths suggested by it; and here a wide field, in- 
 deed, opens itself to his view, into which he has 
 
86 
 
 entered with great animation and power. Seldom 
 have the nature, the importance, and the privilege 
 of prayer been handled with greater ability. We 
 would gladly persuade ourselves, that this first-rate 
 sermon is so well known as to render any detailed 
 account of its contents unnecessary from us. — 
 There is in it a rich savour of genuine Christian 
 experience, which must powerfully recommend it 
 to the approbation of those, whose religion does 
 not consist in empty speculations — of the truth of 
 which, the following extract is a sufficient proof: 
 
 " It is evident, from what has been said, that when any 
 one appears as the organ of an assembly, to present their 
 united requests to God, the situation in which he stands is 
 peculiarly solemn. Of this, I trust, not only my brethren 
 in the ministry now present ; but many others in this con- 
 gregation, have been long apprized: and yet, perhaps, 
 none of us have realized the fact as we ought. — Is a minister 
 of Christ under indispensable obligations, wherl expound- 
 ing the divine oracles, to be conscientiously cautious, that 
 he do not misinterpret and misapply the language of God 
 to men? and is he not bound to be cautious of misrepre- 
 senting the character and state, the wants and supplies, the 
 fears and the hopes, the sorrows and the joys of his fellow- 
 men, when unitedly speaking to God ; that those who are 
 devout in the exercise may feel their interest, more or less, 
 in all he expresses ? — Besides, voluntarily and professedly 
 to appear before the Divine Majesty, guilty, corrupt, and 
 unworthy, as we are — To approach Him, in whose pre- 
 
 k2 
 
86 
 
 sence those morning stars, those children of light and love, 
 the Seraphim, veil their faces and cover their feet — To 
 draw near to Him, though as on the throne of grace, and 
 by the blood of Jesus, vvhow a consuming fire — To address 
 Him in prayer, not as a detached individual, but as pre- 
 senting the confessions, requests, and thanks, of the whole 
 assembly; as directing the intercessions of each worshipper 
 in the congregation, for all the churches of Christ upon 
 earth — for the civil Government under which we live — for 
 the millions of our fellow-mortals that lie in wickedness ; 
 and all this with a view to the united and solemn Amen of 
 the whole assembly; must constitute a situation that is very 
 solemn, and very important. So solemn and so important 
 is it, as justly to excite similar feelings with those of the re- 
 vering Patriarch, when he said; how dreadfulis this place! 
 this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate 
 of heaven. Surely, then, my ministering brethren, when- 
 ever thus employed, we must stand in the greatest need of 
 grace, or of Divine influence, that we may serve God ac- 
 ceplai)ly ; and be the happy means of exciting, promoting, 
 inflaming, devout affections in the hearts of all those who 
 unite with us! 
 
 *' Yes, my brethren, we, in a particular manner, are 
 under an imperious necessity of having Divine assistance 
 in the sacred service, lest, in leading the public devotion, 
 we should sink into habitual formality — lest we should be 
 contented with employing our gifts in prayer, as ndnisters, 
 without exercising our graces in prayer, as Christians. — 
 For dreadful is the state of that minister, who is not much 
 pn his guard, in this respect! because the frequent recurs 
 
S7 
 
 rence of seasons for conducting social prayer, not only in 
 public, but also in his own family, in the families of his 
 friends, and when visiting the sick; has, through natural 
 depravity, a tendency to produce an unhallowed famU'uiriii/ 
 with prayer, and with God — a familiarity, without self- 
 abasement, without faith, without fervour, and without 
 delight. 
 
 " My brethren will not be offended, if I should add, 
 there is great reason to suspect, and to mourn over the sus- 
 picion, that the inattention and formality in our assemblies, 
 when we are leading their devotion, are too often partly 
 owing to our own want of deep solemnity, of holy ardour, 
 and of spiritual savour, in the exercise. Though dvly 
 constrained to lament the want of more spirituality in our 
 secret devotions, and bound to labour for it; we should 
 be still more solicitous in public prayer, when leading the 
 worship, to possess a large degree of clearness in our con- 
 ceptions; of reverence in our adorations; of self-abasement 
 in our confessions; of earnestness in our petitions; of gra- 
 titude in our thanksgivings; and of sacred unction (hroncch 
 the whole : because the devotion of many others is much 
 concerned, on such occasions, in the apparent frame of 
 our hearts ; in the language of our lips ; and, perhaps, on 
 reflection, in our example. 
 
 " Nor is it, under God, of small importance to our 
 usefulness, when officiating as the mouth of a congregation, 
 in prayer, that the rectitude of our conduct, and the piety 
 of our character, be unimpeached and unsuspected, by 
 those who are present, and should add tlieir solemn Amen. 
 For if the conduct of a minister be stained by known 
 
immorality, or his religious character be considered as 
 doubtful ; tliose wlio unite with him, whatever appearance 
 of devotion there may be in his prayers, will probably have 
 many unpleasing tlioughts at the time, arise in their minds 
 respecting him, that will greatly interfere with a devotional 
 frame. 
 
 " Of all the religious professors on earth, none have so 
 many powerful motives to holiness of heart and life — to 
 spirituality and heavenly-mindedncss; or to lead the exer- 
 cises of social supplication with deep devotion, as a mi- 
 nister of the word. For as, to suitable petitions in prayer, 
 the habitual dispositions of any man's heart, and the tenor 
 of his conduct, ought always to be in complete unison; so 
 should it be, in a more especial manner, with regard to a 
 professed minister of Christ. Because, whether he stand 
 up in a congregation to interpret the Divine Oracles, or to 
 be the mouth in prayer, he should appear, and be recog- 
 nized, as A MAN OF GOD — much more venerable for his 
 Christian character, than for his ministerial office. The 
 former being permanent, and stamping his destiny for 
 eternity: the latter transient, and maybe annihilated in a 
 moment. — How it is with you, my ministering brethren, I 
 do not know; but, as to myself, when reflecting on the 
 numerous obligations under which I am, to be entirely de- 
 voted to God ; and on the multiplied motives I have, to 
 exemplary holiness, and hcavenly-mindedness — motives 
 arising from my Christian profession, my public ministry, 
 my pastoral office, my hoary liairs, and from a vast variety 
 of other sources; my own Sermons reprove me; my daily 
 praj^ ers reprove me ; and I feel myself deeply convicted 
 
89 
 
 before God. Were it not, therefore, for that relief which 
 is administered by the atonement and intercession of Jesus 
 Christ, I should be utterly confounded — I should sink in 
 despair. 
 
 '* It is evident from the nature of things, that prayer, in 
 the present state, is an indispeitsable duty, and essential to 
 real godliness. Totally to neglect it, therefore, suits the 
 character of none but an Atheist : because it is a tacit de- 
 nial of the Divine dominion, and the Divine existence. — 
 Nor is prayer, whether social or secret; whether stated, 
 occasional, or ejaculatory, a mere duty. It is also a pri- 
 vilege. Yes, on evangelical principles, it is a very impor- 
 tant privilege. For it is a grand mean of spiritual edification ; 
 or of invigorating the graces of Christianity, Avhen produ- 
 ced in our hearts. No ordinance of holy worship, nor any 
 exercise of the human mind, being more adapted to cul- 
 tivate the principles of real piety, in any person that is 
 born again. It must, therefore, be considered, as an ad- 
 mirable mean of promoting holiness, and of increasing 
 happiness, in this evil world. 
 
 " Solemn and frequent prayer is adapted, for instance, 
 To maintain on the mind a devout sense of our entire depen- 
 dence on God ; of his dominion over us ; and of our ac- 
 countablenesS to him, as the Moral Governor of the world — 
 To excite reverence of his majesty, his justice, and his 
 purity — To promote the exercise of self-abasement, of con- 
 trition, or of godly sorrow for sin, before him — To endear 
 the atonement and intercession of Jesus ; being conscious that 
 we are sinners, and knowing that he, to whom we pray, 
 is a consuming Jire — To increase our desire of sanctifying 
 
90 
 
 influence, and of conformity to the Redeemer's image — To 
 prepare our hearts for a thankful reception of the blessings 
 that are necessary for us — To promote, by interceding for 
 others, the exercise of brotherly love, to real Christians; 
 and of the social, benevolent affections, toward all man- 
 kind — To habit ; te and familiarize ourselves in filial com- 
 munion with CJod — To be a mean of enjoying those hea- 
 venly foretastes, those refined pleasures, which nothing but 
 fellowship with the Father and the Son can possibly afford 
 — To prepare us, as well for arduous duties, as for painful 
 conflicts, here ; and to mature us for a joyful departure 
 hence, into the state of celestial blessedness. For, as be- 
 fore observed, ' he who prays as he ought, will endeavour 
 to live as he prays.' 
 
 " Such being tlie happy tendencies of real prayer, to 
 promote the vigour of true piety; were our hearts perfectly 
 right with God, all our mental powers, and all the energies 
 of our souls, would unite their exertions, from day to day, 
 at the throne of grace. But though, at some bright in- 
 tervals, in our devotions, we feel ourselves near to God, 
 and our hearts enlarged with holy affections toward him, 
 as revealed in Jesus; though, at such seasons, we behold 
 his glory — are delighted in his presence — and sink, as it 
 were, into nothing before him; rejoicing that he reigns — 
 that wc are in his hands — that he always executes his own 
 pleasure — that our immortal happiness depends entirely on 
 his favour — and that He is the Eternal All: yet, alas! 
 how soon are those beatifying moments elapsed ! Nay, 
 my brethren, too frequently, when addressing the Father 
 of mercies, our minds are dark, and our pious aflections 
 
91 
 
 aire dormant. The sources of godly sorrow seem to be ex- 
 hausted, and the joys of communion with our heaVcnly 
 Father are far from us. We treat him m ithout reverence, 
 without confidence, and without delight; as if he were 
 little superior to a dumb idol, that neither cares, nor knows, 
 how he is worshipped. Thus we make work for bitter 
 grief, and sorrowful confessions. — Or, if not sunk so low 
 in devotional exercises, our thoughts are frequently so vo- 
 latile, so unmanageable, and so wandering ; our endeavours 
 to rouse the principles of devotion into exercise, are so feeble 
 and so inefficacious; that there is very little which savours 
 of true piety in our prayers, except the conflict with our 
 own corruptions, and perhaps a concluding, God be mer" 
 ciful to me a sinner ! or the ardent exclamation of an Apos- 
 tle; O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death ? Such is the undistorted representa- 
 tion of the manner in which our devotional duties are too 
 frequently discharged. 
 
 *' Butj shall I, my brethren, or shall you, when conscious 
 of these abominations in our prayers, content ourselves with 
 saying; ' Alas! we are so depraved, that, without divine 
 assistance, we cannot do otherwise;* without watching, 
 supplicating, agonizing against them? Far be it! The 
 fault is in us — even in our very hearts — and, therefore we 
 should take the shame. The blame belongs to us^ and 
 therefore we should condemn ourselves. Instead, then, 
 of consoling ourselves, when convicted of such evils, by 
 adverting to the language of our Lord, Without me ye can 
 do nothing ; we should first endeavour to humble ourselves 
 in the dust before God, on accoant of that innate corruption 
 
92 
 
 which renders divine assistance absolutely necessary for us; 
 and then seek the encouragement that is exhibited by sove- 
 reign grace." 
 
 The next publication which we are called to 
 notice, is a Sermon, preached by our author in 
 Mr. Timothy Thomas's Meeting-house, near De- 
 vonshire-square, at the Baptist Monthly Meeting, 
 Sept. 22, 1803, and published soon afterwards, 
 under the title of "Divine Justice essential to 
 THE Divine Character;" — from Ps.lxxxix. 14. 
 It would be fastidious to attempt to conceal, that, 
 to the consideration of this important subject, he 
 was led by the publication of certain peculiar sen- 
 timents, by one of the ministers of his own deno- 
 mination, — Mr. Andrew Fuller, of Kettering. — 
 This writer, by several tracts which he had at dif- 
 ferent times sent into the world, and by the very 
 leading part he had taken in regard to the Baptist 
 Mission to Bengal, had certainly acquired a consi- 
 derable share of popularity among the Dissenters, 
 nor is it meant to deny that many valuable things 
 are to be found in his writings. It must at the 
 same time be owned, that, of late years, he has 
 alarmed many of his friends, by what has been 
 thought, a verging, if not to Arminianism, yet 
 certainly into Baxterianism. In the earlier part of 
 his life, he had defended the doctrine of particular 
 
03 
 
 Redemption against the advocates of the Universal 
 scheme, with invincible force of argument,* prov- 
 ing, from the promises made to Christ, of the 
 certain efficacy of his death — from the characters 
 under which he died, viz. that of a Shepherd, a 
 Husband, a Surety, and a Sacrifice — from the 
 circumstance, that the effects which are ascribed 
 to the death of Christ, do not terminate on all man- 
 kind — from the tenor of the new covenant — from 
 the intercession of Christ, as well as from the 
 scripture doctrine of Election, and the character 
 of the Redeemed in the world above, that there 
 was a certain, absolute, and consequently limited 
 design in the death of Christ, securing the salva- 
 tion of all those, and only those, who are final- 
 ly saved. But, notwithstanding these important 
 grounds of argumentation, in a late edition of his 
 " Gospel worthy of all Acceptation," in discussing 
 the question wherein consists the peculiarity of 
 Redemption, he discards them all, and fixes it 
 solely "in the sovereign pleasure of God with 
 regard to its application." 
 
 This sentiment appeared to Mr. Booth, as it 
 certainly does to many others, a virtual denial of 
 
 * See his " Defence of a Treatise entitled the Gospel worth/ 
 of all Acceptation," &c. particularly the reply toPhilanthropos, 
 page 46 — 75. Buckland, 1787. 
 
 l2 
 
9* 
 
 the doctrines of Election and Redemption ; or at 
 least a denial that there is any inseparable connec- 
 tion between Redemption and its application — ' 
 between the death of Christ and the salvation of 
 all for whom he died. His grand object, therefore, 
 in this discourse, is to show that *- justice is essen- 
 tial to the divine character" — that the death of 
 the Son of God is to be viewed under the notion 
 of a sacrifice for sin, the proper effect of which 
 is atonement — that it was the ransom price of re- 
 demption, and that in his awful and complicated 
 sufferings unto death, he sustained the punishment 
 due unto his people's iniquities, yielding a com- 
 plete satisfaction to divine justice for the bound- 
 less evil of their transgressions. In this part of 
 the Sermon, the author has evidently in view a 
 confutation of the Socinian hypothesis; but hav- 
 ing discussed those positions, he next proceeds to 
 prove, ** from the doctrine of divine justice, as it 
 respects the atonement of Christ, that Redemp- 
 tion by his blood is not general, but particular, and 
 peculiar to the chosen of God.^' It is, however, 
 in an Appendix to his Sermon, that he applies 
 himself more immediately to the examination of 
 Mr. Fuller's sentiment. After stating the doctrine 
 Avhich is the subject of his animadversions, he 
 prpceeds to remark, 1. That this reconciling e^ic-? 
 
pedient confounds the atonenient itself with its 
 application to the sinner — whereas the term appli- 
 cation always supposes the existence of the thing 
 applied — that the atonement, therefore, must be 
 considered as existing^ either actually, or in the 
 divine decree — before it can be applied to the sin- 
 ner. 2. That this position confounds the work 
 which is peculiar to Christ, in the execution of 
 his priestly office, with the work of the Holy 
 Spirit-^the fruit of sacrificial blood with the effect 
 of a sacred energy. The atonement, he very pro- 
 perly observes, was ipade without us ; the applica- 
 tion of it is by a work within us. 3. That if " the 
 particularity of the atonement consist in the sov- 
 ereign pleasure of God, with regard to its applica- 
 tion; we are necessarily led to conclude, that we 
 have more abundant reason to admire the love of 
 the Divine Father in the gift and work of the Holy 
 Spirit, than in the gift of his own Son, and in 
 delivering him up to the death of the cross — 
 whereas, all the declarations of the holy Apostles 
 run in a counter direction." These and other ar- 
 guments adduced by Mr. Booth, appear to us to 
 confute most effectually, the novel hypothesis of 
 his opponent, and he has illustrated and enforced 
 them with great energy and perspicuity. Mr. 
 J^yller had contended, " that the principal design 
 
D6 
 
 of our Lord^s atonement was, t1ie manifestation of 
 God^s hatred to sin; in order to render the exercise 
 of mercy consistent with justice." " This," says 
 Mr. Booth, " I recollect the Dutch Arminians 
 told us long ago. But before we adopt the senti- 
 ment, it should be observed, that though the atone- 
 ment made by Jesus the Son of God and the Lord 
 of Glory, both plainly supposes, and strongly im- 
 plies the divine abhorrence of sin ; yet this is far 
 from being the first, the most prominent, the 
 characteristic idea of our Lord's death on the cross, 
 or that on which Jesus and his Apostles, when 
 speaking of the atonement, principally dwell. — 
 No: the grand idea suggested to an enlightened 
 mind by the atonement of Christ, and to which 
 the New Testament abundantly directs our atten- 
 tion, is, not God's hatred to sin, but his love to 
 sinners — not the purity of his nature, but the 
 compassion of his heart — not his inclination to 
 punish, but his determination to pardon." The 
 admirers of Mr. Fuller — and we too admire his 
 talents — may extol his prowess, and boast that he 
 has put all his opponents into the back ground, 
 but they must pardon us if we are hardy enough 
 to affirm on the other part, that neither with Mr. 
 Booth, nor with his Northern antagonist, has he 
 hitherto reaped any thing but defeat. 
 
97 
 
 The last production with which Mr. B. favoured 
 the world, was his " Pastoral Cautions." The 
 substance of these was addressed in 1785, in a 
 charge to the late Mr. Thomas Hopkins, when or- 
 dained pastor of the church, in Eagle-street, Red 
 Lion Square, London — but now greatly enlarged 
 for publication, and calculated for more general 
 utility. The subject is not only worthy of the 
 pen of Mr. Booth, but it is a subject also which 
 few men living were more competent to handle 
 than himself. He had now been fifty years en- 
 gaged in the work of the ministry, and more than 
 thirty-five of that time, Pastor of the church, in 
 Prescot-street, Goodman's Fields. His age, his 
 experience, his talents, and his virtues, all united 
 in demanding the attention of his younger bre- 
 thren in the ministry, to his Pastoral Cautions. 
 / said daijs should speak, and multitude of years 
 should teach wisdom. Job. xxxii. 7. / write not 
 these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons^ 
 I WARN YOU, 1 Cor. iv. 14. -Imagination can 
 scarcely figure to itself a more interesting spectacle 
 than that of the venerable Booth, advanced nearly 
 to the age of threescore years and ten, standing 
 as it were upon the brink of the grave — his heart 
 filled with concern for the welfare of those churches 
 which he was about to leave, and conscious how 
 
98 
 
 much their prosperity stood connected with the 
 prudent and exemplary conduct of their pastors 
 and teachers — calling upon the latter individually, 
 in the language of the x\postle, " Take heed 
 UNTO THYSELF." It is the aged parent unbosom- 
 ing his mind to his children and friends — warning 
 them by his counsel, animating and encouraging 
 them by his own example, and pointing out to 
 them how they ought to behave themselves in the 
 house of God, the church of the living God — the 
 pillar and ground of the truth. Let us listen for 
 a few moments to his warning voice. 
 
 ** Take heed that your pastoral office prone not a snare to 
 your soulf by lifting you up with pride and self-im- 
 portance. Forget not, that the whole of your work is 
 ministerial ; not legislative — That you are not a lord in the 
 church ; but a servant — That the New Testament attaches 
 no honour to the character of a pastor, except in connection 
 with his humility and benevolence, his diligence and zeal, 
 in promoting the cause of the Great Shepherd — And, that 
 there is no character upon earth which so ill accords with a 
 proud, imperious, haughty spirit, as that of a Christian 
 Pastor. 
 
 " If not intoxicated with a conceit of your own wisdom 
 and importance, you will not, when presiding in the ma- 
 nagement of church affairs, labour to have every motion 
 determined according to your own inclination. For this 
 would savour of ecclesiastical despotism ; be inconsistent 
 with the nature and spirit of G)ngregational Order ; and 
 
99 
 
 implicitlj grasping at a much larger degree of power, and 
 responsibility, than properly falls to your share. 
 
 " Nor, if this caution be dulj- regarded, will you con- 
 sider it as an insult on either your ministerial wisdom, or 
 your pastoral dignity, if now and then, one or another of 
 your people, and even the most illiterate among them, 
 should remind you of some real or supposed inadvertency 
 or mistake, either in doctrine or in conduct; no, not though 
 it be in blunt language, and quite unfounded. For, a 
 readiness to take offence on such occasions, would be a bar 
 to your own improvement; and, perhaps, in articles, rela- 
 tively considered, of great importance. Nay, in such 
 cases, to be soon irritated, though not inconsistent with 
 shining abilities, nor yet with great success in the ministry ; 
 would, nevertheless, be an evidence of pride, and of your 
 being, as a Christian, in a poor, feeble state. For, to be 
 easily shoved out of the way, pushed down, as it were, 
 with a straw, or caused to fall into sin, by so feeble an im- 
 pulse, must be considered as an undoubted mark of great 
 spiritual weakness. Because the health of the soul, and 
 the vigour of the spiritual life, are to be estimated, not by 
 our knowledge and gifts, but by the exercise of Christian 
 graces, in cheerfully performing arduous labours; in sur- 
 mounting successive difficulties ; and in patiently bearing 
 hardships, for the sake of Jesus. Yes, and in proportion 
 to the degree of your spiritual health, wiU be your meek- 
 ness and forbearance under those improprieties of treatment, 
 by one and another of your people, with which you will 
 undoubtedly meet. 
 
 <' Take heed to yourselj, respecting your temper 
 
 M 
 
100 
 
 AND CONDUCT IN GENERAL. Evciy ODC that calls himsclf 
 a Christian should fairly represent, in his own dispositions 
 and behaviour, the moral character of Jesus Christ. The 
 conversation of every professor should not only be free from 
 gross defects ; it should be worthy of general imitation. — 
 But though each member of this church be under the 
 same obUgations to holiness, as yourself; yet your spiritual 
 gifts, your ministerial office, and your pastoral relation, 
 suggest a variety of motives to holiness, which your people 
 do not possess. Make it your diligent concern, therefore, 
 to set your hearers a bright example, formed on that perfect 
 model, the temper and conduct of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Yes, my brother, it is required that Pastors, in their 
 own persons and conduct, especially in the discharge of 
 ministerial duties, give a just representation of the doctrine 
 they preach, and of Him in whose name they dispense it. 
 But, in order to do this, though in an imperfect manner, 
 what integrity, benevolence, humility, meekness, and zeal 
 for the glory of God ; what self-denial and readiness for 
 bearing the cross; what mortification of corrupt affections 
 and inordinate desires of earthly things ; what condescen- 
 sion and patience ; what contempt of the world, and hea- 
 venly mindedness, are necessary; not only the scripture 
 declares, but the nature of the thing shows. 
 
 " Take heed to yourself, with regard to that success, 
 
 AND THOSE DISCOURAGEMENTS, WHICH MAY ATTEND YOUR 
 
 MINISTRY. Should a large degree of apparent success, 
 through the Hivour of Heaven, accompany your labours; 
 there will be the highest necessity to guard against pride 
 and self-esteem. A young man, of good ministerial abili- 
 
101 
 
 ties, and honoured with great usefulness, is in a delicate 
 situation, respecting the prosperity of his own soul; for, 
 through the want of experience and observation, such con- 
 currence of pleasing particulars has proved to some very 
 promising characters, the innocent occasion of disgrace 
 and ruin. Shining abilities, and a blessing upon their 
 labours, have rendered them popular. Popularity has in- 
 toxicated them with pride. Pride has exposed them to 
 various temptations. Temptations have prevailed; and, 
 either precipitated them into some enormous offence, or 
 laid the foundation of a gradual departure from the truth, 
 and from the practice of real piety. If the former, their 
 character has been killed, as by the stroke of an apoplexy. 
 If the latter, their comfort and usefulness have been de- 
 stroyed, as by a consuming hectic. Agreeable to that 
 saying, * Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty 
 spirit before a fall.' 
 
 *' Remember, therefore, my brother, that though it is 
 your indispensable duty to labour and pray for prosperity 
 in your work; yet, that a season of remarkable success, 
 will generally prove an hour of peculiar temptation to your 
 own soul. — Take heed to yourself, at such a time, and 
 watch the secret motions of your own heart. The number 
 of your hearers may increase, and your church may flou- 
 rish ; while, in your own breast, devotional affections and 
 virtuous dispositions are greatly on the decline : nor need I 
 inform you, that every degree of such declension has a 
 tendency to final ruin. 
 
 " Besides, if there should be an appearance of extensive 
 utility attending your labours, for which I sincerely pray; 
 
 M 2 
 
102 
 
 you may do well to remember the old proverb, ' All is 
 not ffold that flitters.' Numbers there are that seem to 
 * receive the word with joy,' who, ' in tirae of temptation, 
 fall away.' Many evangelical and popular preachers, I 
 am very suspicious, have greatly over-rated the usefulness 
 of their own labours. For, the longer I live, the more 
 apprehensive I am, that the number of real converts, 
 among those who profess the genuine gospel, is compara- 
 tively very small ; according to the import of that alarming 
 declaration. Many are called, but few are chosen. 
 
 " On the other hand, should you meet mth many and 
 great discouragements, take heed that you do not indulge a 
 desponding temper, as if you had been of no use in the 
 ministerial work. With discouragements you certainly 
 will meet, unless Providence were to make your case an 
 exception to the general course of things ; which you have 
 no grourid to expect. Very painful discouragements, for 
 instance, may sometimes arise, from the want of liberty 
 and savour in your own mind, when performing public 
 service. This, there is reason tq suppose, is jDot uncom- 
 mon. I, at least, have had frequent experience of it; and, 
 once, to such a degree, that I began to think very seriously 
 of giving up the ministry ; supposing that the Great Shep- 
 herd had nothing further for me to do, either in the pastoral 
 oflBce, or in preaching the word at large. — This exercise of 
 mind, though exceedingly painful for some weeks, was 
 both instructive and useful. Before that well-recollected 
 season, I had frequently talked about the necessity of divine 
 influence, to render a minister savoury in his own mind, as 
 well as profitable to others; but then I felt it. 
 
103 
 
 *' Be not discouraged, then, ' as tliough some strange 
 thing happened unto jou,' that never befel a real minister 
 of Christ; if a similar trial should occur in the course of 
 your ministry. For it may be to you, as I trust it was to 
 me, of no inconsiderable benefit : because I reckon, that 
 whatever curbs our pride, makes us feel our insufliciency, 
 and wsends us to the throne of grace, is at least the occasion 
 of doing us good. — Seldom, alas! have I found any re- 
 markable degree of savour, and of enlargmcnt in public 
 service, without experiencing, more or less, of self-elate- 
 ment and self-gratvdation on that account. Instead of 
 complaining, therefore, that I have not more liberty in my 
 work, nor more success attending the performance of it ; I 
 have reason to wonder at the condescending kindness of 
 God, in that he gives to my extremely imperfect labours 
 the least saving effect, and that he does not frequently 
 leave me to be confounded before all my hearers. Such, 
 brother, have been the feelings and reasonings of my own 
 mind, and such my confessions before God, many a 
 time." 
 
 This is merely a specimen of the wise and sa- 
 lutary counsel with which this aged servant of 
 Christ addresses his ministering brethren, in his 
 " Pastoral Cautions," — a work, in which, though 
 dead, he will continue to teach and admonish 
 them through succeeding generations. 
 
 Mr. Booth was indebted to the Creator's good- 
 ness for a sound constitution of body, possessing 
 a considerable portion of stamina, and conferring 
 
104 
 
 upon him as great a measure of good health as 
 falls to the lot of mortals in general. During the 
 far greater part of his days, he was seldom inter- 
 rupted in the discharge of his pastoral duties. 
 But when he had advanced beyond the age of 
 sixty, the effects of his intense application to stu- 
 dy began to be perceptible upon him. He was 
 increasingly afflicted with the asthma, year by 
 year, until at length, his winters, and especially 
 the last three that he passed in this world, were 
 severe and threatening; and he became impressed 
 with the conviction that the time of his departure 
 was at hand. He had sustained a severe shock 
 about four years previous to his own dissolution, 
 in the loss of his dear partner in life ; yet so much 
 resigned was he to the will of God, under the trying 
 dispensation, that it surprised several of his friends. 
 One of them having remarked the circumstance 
 to him, he made the following memorable reply: 
 " There is great reason for my composure and 
 serenity. About twenty-three years ago, my wife 
 had a severe lying-in, which so debilitated her, 
 that we feared she would never recover her strength. 
 Her indisposition continued about two years, which 
 occasioned our removing so near the meeting- 
 house. Soon after, the Lord was pleased to send 
 the scarlet fever into the family; wife and all were 
 
105 
 
 ill, except myself. Her faculties were deranged ; 
 and the Doctor said, ' I fear, Sir, your wife is not 
 likely to recover/ I attended them all myself as 
 well as I could. The Bible was then sweeter to 
 me than ever; yea, when I could only snatch a 
 few verses: and I well remember one solemn 
 transaction. In the evening I retired for private 
 prayer, and besought the Lord that I might find 
 an entire resignation to his will. When I arose 
 from my knees, 1 felt peculiar satisfaction in the 
 perfections of God, and had such full persuasion 
 of his righteousness, his justice, his mercy and 
 love, that I lifted up my eyes to heaven, and said, 
 * I give my wife, my children, my all, to thee, 
 O God.' And, if ever I prayed in my life, I 
 prayed at that time. Seeing, then, he has given 
 her to me for twenty-three years, in answer to 
 prayer, dare I murmur now? God forbid! All 
 recovered but the nurse; she went away, had the 
 fever, and died." 
 
 In the view of his departure out of this world, 
 he made his will, the introductory part of which 
 may here be inserted, as it serves to show the 
 calmness and serenity of his mind, as well as the 
 ground of his hope, in the view of appearing be- 
 fore the Judge of all. 
 
 " I, Abraham Booth, Protestant Dissenting 
 
106 
 
 Minister, in the parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel, 
 London, reflecting on the uncertainty of life, do 
 make this my last Will and Testament, in manner 
 following: 
 
 " Being firmly persuaded that those Doctrines 
 which have constituted the grand subject of my 
 public ministry, for a long course of years, are 
 Divine Truths; being deeply sensible that all I 
 have, and all I am, are the Lord's, and entirely at 
 his disposal; and being completely satisfied that 
 his dominion is perfectly wise and righteous; — 
 I, in the anticipation of my departing moment, 
 cheerfully commend my Immortal Spirit into his 
 hands, in expectation of Everlasting Life, as the- 
 Gift of Sovereign Grace, through the Mediation 
 of Jesus Christ; and my Body I resign to the 
 care of Providence in the silent grave, with a 
 pleasing hope of its being raised again at the last 
 day, in a state of perpetual vigour, beauty, and 
 glory." 
 
 Some months previous to his dissolution, he 
 was taken ill in his way home from a meeting of 
 his ministering brethren in the citv. Mr. Gray, 
 his friend and assistant in the ministry, somewhat 
 alarmed at hearing of it, went to see him; and 
 asking him how he felt his mind? he instantly 
 replied, with a firm tone, " 1 have no fear about 
 
107 
 
 my state," and this was his answer to the affec- 
 tionate inquiries of several of his fellow-labourers. 
 Indeed, through his whole affliction, he was gra- 
 ciously supported in his soul. He felt no raptures, 
 nor have we any reason to believe that he even so 
 much as wished for them. He was generally se- 
 rene, breathing after heaven, expressing his earn- 
 est desires after conformity to the image of Christ, 
 and submission to the will of God; daily blessing 
 him for a good hope, through grace, and waiting 
 for the coming of his Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 But though he was mostly laid aside from his 
 public labours, the chief part of several months 
 before his death, he employed himself in revising 
 and completing an essay on the Love of God to his 
 chosen people ; and another, on a Conduct and Cha- 
 racter formed under the Influence of Evangelical 
 Truth; which have been since published. Thus 
 he continued better and worse in his health, ge- 
 nerally according to the state of the weather. But 
 even in the course of his last week, he wrote two 
 letters to his brothers in the country, taking his 
 leave of them. Yea, he attended the Monthly 
 Meeting for prayer and a sermon, at his own place 
 of worship, the very Thursday before his death, 
 though with much feebleness. He was worse oa 
 
 N 
 
Friday, but said tb two of his dear friends, " I now 
 live upon what I have been teaching others;" and 
 was capable of arranging many of his papers, which 
 he did with perfect composure. Even on the 
 Lord's day, he was sitting up in his study. But 
 apprehensions being entertained that his dissolution 
 was very near, several of his friends went to see 
 him, as they supposed, for the last time. They 
 found him in the sweet enjoyment of the Lord's 
 presence, and Satan kept at a distance from him. 
 To one, he said, " Ah, Jesus Christ is, indeed, a 
 good master." To another, in whose family he 
 was remarkably esteemed and loved, he said, 
 " But a little while, and I shall be with your dear 
 father and mother." He also affectionately drop- 
 ped a word, and then another, to several of his 
 young friends, who longed just to see him. To 
 one, " I have often borne you on niy heart before 
 the Lord ; now you need to pray for me, and you 
 must pray for yourself." Soon after, to a son of 
 his most intimate friend's, " Take care of your 
 precious soul ; take care that you be not merely 
 half a Christian." Referring to a well-known So- 
 cinian minister, he solemnly said to another young 
 
 friend, " Beware of 's sentiments." Seeing 
 
 him in the depths of affliction, a benevolent sister 
 of the church asked him how it was with his 
 
109 
 
 mind I he answered, in broken parts of one of Dr. 
 Watts's verses, 
 
 " The Gospel 
 
 A faithful and unchanging God 
 
 Lays the foundation for my hope, 
 
 In Oaths, and Promises, and Blood." 
 
 But it does not appear, that even then he thought 
 his departure to be so near at hand as his family 
 apprehended it to be; for when his friend Gut- 
 teridge, at parting, on the Lord's day afternoon, 
 said to him, " The Lord be with you; and if I 
 don't see you again, I trust we shall meet in the 
 better world!" he replied, " I expect to see you 
 again in this." Nor did he express any thing to 
 the contrary, when two of his dear children, with 
 their husbands, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Granger, 
 were with him on the Lord's day evening, and 
 took their leave of him, after one of them had 
 engaged in family prayer with him. He was, how- 
 ever, put to bed about nine o'clock in the evening, 
 and laid down, not to rise any more. On the 
 next day, he was mostly deprived of his speech, 
 it is thought not of his reason: but just at nine 
 o'clock, Mr. Gray and Mr. Granger, thinking that 
 they did not hear him breathe, went to the bed 
 side, and saw him lay himself quite back; when, 
 in a moment, he most gently expired, without even 
 
 n2 
 
110 
 
 a struggle or sigh. This was Monday, January 
 27, 1806. He was in the 72d year of his age, 
 and had been pastor of the church in Goodman's 
 Fields, nearly thirty-seven years.* 
 
 Thus his Master, from above, 
 When the appointed Lour was come, 
 Sent the chariot of liis love, 
 To convey the Stranger home. 
 
 Saw ye not the wheels of fire. 
 And the steeds that cleft the wind? 
 Saw ye not his soul aspire, 
 When his mantle dropp'd behmd ? 
 
 ^> 
 
 Ye that caught it as it fell, 
 Bind that mantle round your breast; 
 So in you his meekness dwell, 
 So on you his Spirit rest. 
 
 Grave ! the guardian of his dust, 
 Grave ! the treasury of the skies, 
 Every atom of thy trust 
 Rests in hope again to rise. 
 
 Hark!— the judgment trumpet calls — 
 Soul, resume thine house of clay; 
 Immortality thy walls. 
 And Eternity thy day. 
 
 * Rippon'i Memoir. 
 
Ill 
 
 Thus lived, and wrote, and died, Mr. Abraham 
 Booth; to give any adequate delineation of whose 
 character is a task, the difficulty of which must 
 be felt by every one who knew him, and who 
 would attempt his biography. A faint outline is 
 all that the present writer presumes to offer. 
 
 His imagination was fertile and lively ; his un- 
 derstanding vigorous and acute, and his learning 
 profound and various. His piety was unfeigned, 
 and his deportment in all the different relation- 
 ships he filled, whether as a husband, father, or 
 member of civil society, was amiable and exem- 
 plary. His manners were gentle and unassuming, 
 and his temper cheerful and serene. Though can- 
 did in his Opinions of other men, uprightness and 
 integrity were prominent features in his character. 
 He abhorred deceit and flattery, and his conduct, 
 whether in the world, in his own family, or in the 
 church, was regulated by the precepts of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 " His preaching much, but more his practice Avrought, 
 A living Sermon of the truths he taught." 
 
 He was a firm friend to religious toleration, and 
 the sacred rights of conscience, at the same time 
 that he was a dutiful subject to the powers that be. 
 He never engaged in the political controversies of 
 the times, nor lent his breath to blow the flames 
 of contention. Content with that security of his 
 
in 
 
 person and property which is the great end of 
 civil government, and thankful for the privilege 
 of worshipping his Maker agreeably to the dictates 
 of his own conscience; he considered it his duty 
 to submit himself to every ordinance of man for 
 the Lord's sake; rendering unto all their dues, not 
 merely through fear of wrath, but for conscience 
 sake. It is, however, under the two-fold view of 
 an Elder or Teacher in the church of Christ, and 
 in that of an author, that we shall at present con- 
 template his character. In order to which, a few 
 reflections on tlie more prominent features of the 
 Christian minister, as delineated in the sacred 
 writings, may assist us in forming a proper esti- 
 mate of his worth. * 
 
 Being called to labour in the word and doctrim, 
 his great object should be " rightly to divide the 
 word of truth, giving to each their portion in due 
 season." It is manifest, that in order to a due 
 discharge of this important duty, it is absolutely 
 necessary that he be, himself, " a scribe well in- 
 structed in the mysteries of the kingdom of hea- 
 ven," possessing an intimate acquaintance with 
 divine revelation, and having the " word of Christ 
 dwelling in him richly in all wisdom," so as by 
 sound doctrine he be able not only to convince 
 gainsayers, and put to silence the ignorance of 
 foolish men, but, also, to hold forth the word of 
 
118 
 
 life, in all its glofy and excellency, proclaiming 
 " the unsearchable riches of Christ."* A just, a 
 distinct, and comprehensive knowledge of the 
 holy scriptures, must, therefore, be ever held, in 
 point of acquired intellectual qualifications, the 
 first and most essential in the ministerial character. 
 It is this alone that can make an able minister 
 
 *' That a learned education is not essential to the character 
 of a Gospel minister, but that a good store of biblical know- 
 ledge, of almost every kind, has frequently been found of 
 vast utility in the sacred work, are facts, "which Mr. Booth 
 very clearly stated and maintained, in a sermon before the 
 Baptist Education Society, in London, preached in Carter 
 Lane, Southwark, in May, 1805, on Luke x. 2: Pray ye 
 therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth 
 labourers into his harvest. It is much to be regretted that this 
 discourse, on a peculiarly interesting subject, is for ever lost 
 to the public ; but one part of it will long be of m arm recol- 
 lection among the genuine friends of the distinct Personality 
 and proper Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, who heard it; 
 I mean that part in which the devotional preacher, as a dying 
 man, most affectionately and solemnly exhorted the society, 
 and all other his serious auditors, particularly to regard the 
 command which is given in the text, by the Infinite Redeemer, 
 not only to pray, but to pray to himself, — the Lord of the har- 
 vest, that HE who promised to send the Spirit, v:oidd also send 
 forth labourers into the harvest; as his thrusting them out 
 would certainly be their highest qualification, and ensure to 
 them every part of their best success.'" Rippou's Memoir. 
 
114 
 
 of the New Testament. The sacred writings are 
 the magazine, or storehouse from whence he must 
 draw all the materials for the discharge of his mi- 
 nistry, and the fund is both rich and inexhaus- 
 tible. All the foundations of true eloquence, 
 such as extraordinary actions, rich expressions, 
 interesting examples, comparisons and figures, are 
 found in them in the greatest abundance. It 
 may, therefore, be affirmed on the most solid 
 principles, that a preacher will excel just in pro- 
 portion to his acquaintance with the holy scrip- 
 tures. Connected with this knowledge, however, 
 there must be an aptness to teach, or a talent for 
 communicating it to others, and both these were 
 found in an eminent degree, in Mr. Booth. Of 
 his intimate and extensive acquaintance with the 
 sacred writings, he has left us the most indubitable 
 proof in his various publications, which are all of 
 them deeply imbued with the unction of divine 
 truth. " His sermons," as Dr. Rippon truly re- 
 marks, " were always good, often truly great, and 
 mostly directed to the conscience; while more 
 than a few of them, with a felicity of combination, 
 interested the mind, the conscience and the heart, 
 at the same moment. And, if they had not all 
 the accompaniments of a modern elocution, of 
 which he was, in a proper degree, unambitious; 
 
115 
 
 they were delivered with that dignified solemn 
 energy which gave a forcible effect to all he said 
 — we have heard him, when every word told. — 
 And, as all his discourses were studied, those 
 which he delivered in the freest manner, unem- 
 barrassed by laboured recollection, were remark- 
 ably acceptable. As he entered into his sermon, 
 and advanced, his hearers were constrained to 
 say, " this man is in earnest; he believes what he 
 says, and says what he believes." There are few 
 men living, to whom the following description of 
 an apostolic preacher, by the amiable Cowper, 
 could be applied with less impropriety: — 
 
 " Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, 
 Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, 
 Paul should himself direct me. I would trace 
 His master strokes, and draw from his design. 
 I would express him simple, grave, sincere; 
 In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, 
 And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste, 
 .. And natural in gesture; much impress'd 
 Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, 
 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
 May feel it too ; affectionate in look, 
 And tender in address, as well becomes 
 A messenger of Grace to guilty men." 
 
 Nor- was he less excellent in the gift of prayer, 
 than in tiiat of preaching. His prayers did not 
 
partake of the nature of sermons, but were solemn 
 addresses to Jehovah, never incoherent, nor en- 
 tirely immethodical — full of confession of sin, and 
 much resembling that of the Publican, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner— -yet often marking the lan- 
 guage of one who was drawing near to the altar 
 of God, to God his exceeding joy. He had his 
 errand before he went to the throne of grace, and 
 he applied with it. It was the remark of a student 
 from one of the colleges in America, who had 
 been to hear Mr. Booth preach, that " when he 
 returned home, he should have the pleasure of 
 assuring the President and students of the college, 
 that while in England, he had heard several mi- 
 nisters preach, but that he had heard one minister 
 pray.^' 
 
 ** 'Twas thus with meek and unaffected graccj 
 His looks adorned the venerable place. 
 Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, 
 And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray." 
 
 But the discharge of the duties of the Christian 
 pastor, is far from being confined to the labours of 
 the pulpit and the closet. He is called to watch 
 for the souls of his flock, as one that must give 
 an account to the Great Shepherd, and is anxious 
 that he may do it with joy and not with grief. — 
 Here, indeed, it is that the character of the truly 
 
117 
 
 Christian minister appears in all its amiableness ; 
 for as one properly remarks, " if he be the real, 
 as he is the official friend of the whole society, he 
 need not hunt after praise, nor stoop to pick it up; 
 it will follow him, and affix itself to his name, and 
 his name alone will stand for a compound of ex- 
 cellences, the bare sound of it exciting ideas 
 that refresh the soul." It is under this view more 
 especially that we are called to consider him as the 
 follower of Christ, and as reflecting the impression 
 of the character of Him, who came into this 
 world to seek and to save that which was lost. What 
 humility, meekness, gentleness, patience, and. 
 self-denial is the man of God not called to the exer- 
 cise of, in discharging the trust committed to him. 
 He is to set an example to the flock in every Chris- 
 tian virtue, and to walk before them in all the 
 self-denied obedience of the gospel. Not lording 
 it over them or usurping dominion, but, like the 
 apostle, enduring all things Jor the elect's sakes^ that 
 they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus 
 with eternal glory. In fulfilling the labours of love, 
 which his office more immediately calls him to, 
 how essential is a spirit of sympathy and kindness 
 — that congenial feeling that melts the soul at the 
 distress of others, and cannot be gratified without 
 contributing every thing in its power for their 
 
 o3 
 
118 
 
 relief. Where this disposition is noanting^ the most 
 amiable distinction of humanity is sought in vain. — 
 Few, comparatively, can supply the wants, and 
 fewer still remove the pains, the disquietudes, the 
 distresses, of their fellow mortals. In innumer- 
 able cases every human effort is vain ; but there 
 is no station in life that furnishes not, more or less, 
 occasions for the exercise of this amiable affection, 
 and to no persons do these occasions more fre- 
 quently and seasonably occur than to the Christian 
 pastor. In visiting his flock, he has opportunities 
 of becoming acquainted with the temper and cir- 
 cumstances of the people among whom he labours, 
 and of knowing from what events in the order of 
 Providence their various distresses may have arisen, 
 and when that assistance, advice and admonition, 
 would be acceptable or useful, which at another 
 time would be rejected or judged officious. Times 
 of prosperity and ease, as they elate the mind 
 from a mistaken notion of independence and su- 
 periority, too often render it inaccessible to cor- 
 rection, or the most friendly and interesting ad- 
 monitions, which thwart present views and pur- 
 suits. Men have then an object in possession 
 or in hope, that fills, as it were, their very souls, 
 and leads them to draw their expectations from 
 that quarter. But a state of distress, arising from 
 
119 
 
 external calamity, or internal disorder, quite alters 
 the scene. The pillar on which we had leaned, 
 hath sunk under us — vain hopes deceive us no 
 longer — every proud and angry passion is silenced 
 — a cloud hangs over the world — every avenue to 
 the heart is opened, and it is become tender and 
 susceptible.* At such a moment, the faithful 
 minister has an opportunity of throwing open all 
 the treasures of humanity; of distributing liberally 
 where the case requires it, of expressing his 
 fellow sympathy, and by every tender regard, 
 attempting to wipe the tear from the eye of sor- 
 row 1 What heartfelt lectures may he not read on 
 such occasions! What cordials may he not. ad- 
 minister to the sinking spirits! What strength 
 
 * See, on this subject, some very judicious remarks in an 
 elegant little volume, entitled " The Refuge, by the author 
 of the Guide to Domestic Happiness," page 229, &c. Though 
 these volumes have now been long before the public, and have 
 experienced the most flattering reception, and although they 
 are productions which almost any writer would be proud to 
 own, yet has the modesty of the author prevented him from 
 giving his name to the public. The writer of tliia memoir will 
 not, therefore, offend his delicacy by stripping the Teil from 
 his face, but he hopes for his pardon in here recording, what 
 he knows he cannot reflect upon without satisfaction — that he 
 had the pleasure of numbering among his confidential friends, 
 the late Mr. Abraham Booth. 
 
120 
 
 may he not communicate to the weak hands, to 
 the feeble knees, and to the fearful heart 1 What 
 healing to the wounded conscience ! In a word, 
 what seasonable, what suitable consolation may 
 not an affectionate and able minister of the New 
 Testament pour into the afflicted and disquieted 
 mind ! Pleasant words ^ says the wise man, are as 
 an honeijcomb; sweet to the soul, and health to the 
 bones. 
 
 How exemplarily Mr. Booth deported himself 
 in these respects, we may take from the testimony 
 of Dr. Rippon. " As an Elder, or Christian 
 Bishop, the people of his charge are prepared with 
 gratitude, cheerfully to declare, that he was a 
 pastor according to God's own heart, which fed 
 them with knowledge and understanding. — The 
 members of his church found that he had the 
 bosom of a Shepherd, and the heart of a Father. 
 In some of their families, he was received and 
 consulted as a parent by his offspring. All recog- 
 nised in him a friend ; and to the children of afflic- 
 tion and distress he was remarkably affectionate, 
 remembering that when we have leaf gold to han- 
 dle, we must do it tenderly. He was eminently 
 attentive to the poor of his flock, and could always 
 find time to call and visit them. Hence they. have 
 since his death mentioned it, with affectionate 
 
121 
 
 gratitude, that if he stayed in their humble cot- 
 tages but ten minutes, half the time was usually 
 employed in prayer. Yea, he sympathized with 
 the afflicted families belonging to other congrega- 
 tions. He visited many of us, and prayed with us 
 as if we had been his own charge. Some of his 
 prayers which he offered to God, under my roof, 
 in seasons of affliction, can never be forgotten." * 
 
 *' Thus in his duty prompt at every call, 
 
 He watch'd and wept, he prayed and felt for all. 
 
 And as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
 
 To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies; 
 
 He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, 
 
 Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way." 
 
 It is remarked by Dr. Jortin, concerning Archbi- 
 shop Tillotson, that " among many things which 
 may be mentioned in his favour, this should not 
 be forgotten, that of those who have passed their 
 judgment upon him, there never was a son of 
 absurdity, who did not dislike, or a sensible reader 
 who did not approve, his writings." This, however, 
 is not exactly that kind of praise which the friend 
 of Mr. Booth would be desirous of claiming in behalf 
 of his publications. To deny that, among those 
 who are disaffected to the doctrines of divine 
 
 * RippoD's Memoir, pag;e 70. 
 
122 
 
 grace, there may not be found many men of good 
 sense and even of great learning, would be both 
 uncandid and unjust. Christ crucijied, has always 
 been a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolish- 
 ness to the Greeks. But that is the leading topic 
 in all our author's doctrinal writings, and the mo- 
 tive from which he never fails to deduce the prac- 
 tice of godliness and humanity. 
 
 " He preach'd the joys of heaven and pains of hell, 
 
 But on ETERNAL MERCY lOTCd to dwell." 
 
 The Deity and atonement of the Son of God, the 
 perfection of his sacrifice, and the Divine good 
 pleasure manifested therein as the import of his 
 Resurrection, — the necessity of Divine influence 
 to make the truth effectual in the regeneration 
 and sanctification of sinners — the spiritual nature 
 of Messiah's kingdom — his laws, institutions and 
 worship, were the leading topics of his ministry, 
 and the subjects for which he contended in his 
 writings. His publications are all of them impor- 
 tant and interesting. They contain nothing that 
 is vain, or childish, or trifling — no airy speculations 
 which merely amuse the fancy, and in which the 
 heart has no concern. That a great proportion of 
 them are controversial cannot be denied, but let 
 it be remembered, that into all those he was invo- 
 luntarily and reluctantly drawn; he acted not as 
 
123 
 
 the aggressor, but as one upon whom necessity 
 was laid to contend earnestly for the faith, or the 
 purity and simplicity of the institutions of Christ. 
 Such as are acquainted with the ecclesiastical 
 history of this country during the last fifty years, 
 need not be told that there has scarcely been an 
 attempt made during that period, to corrupt the 
 doctrines of the everlasting gospel, or the laws 
 and ordinances of the kingdom of heaven, against 
 which the pen of Mr. Booth was not employed 
 to defend them. Nor let it be supposed for a mo- 
 ment, that there was in his disposition any fond- 
 ness for controversy, any thing congenial to the 
 temper of a fierce and sturdy polemic. The writer 
 speaks from the best authority when he asserts, that 
 long before his pen was laid to rest, he was wont 
 to lament that so great a portion of his short life 
 had been spent in the irksome task of controversy, 
 and that he hoped never to lift it again on such an 
 occasion — yet that happened to him more than 
 once afterwards. But who shall apprctiate the 
 importance of his various exertions in this de- 
 partment — to his own denomination in regard to 
 the despised ordinance of baptism, and to the 
 Calvinist dissenters in general, as they respect 
 some other articles of religious controversy? In 
 illustration of this position, we might instance the 
 
 p 
 
124 
 
 noble stand he made, a few years ago, almost sin- 
 gle and alone, in defence of the importance and 
 value of TRUTH, against the favourite sentiment 
 of the late Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge,* viz. 
 the innocence of mental error. " We remember 
 him," says Dr. Rippon, " at our monthly meeting 
 
 * The biographer of Mr. Booth, it is hoped, may be al- 
 lowed the freedom of saying a few words respecting this in- 
 genious, but very eccentric man. Perhaps no writer of the 
 age has so miserably disappointed the expectations which his 
 earliest friends had formed concerning him as Robert Robinson. 
 To all who knew him, it is unnecessary to say that he pos- 
 sessed talents of no ordinary cast. From a follower of George 
 Whitfield he became connected with the Calvinistic Baptists, 
 and for many years was looked up to, by the whole denomi- 
 nation, as a leading man amongst them. Not only his resi- 
 dence in Cambridge, the seat of an University, but his very 
 superior qualifications, rendered him one of the most popular 
 preachers among the Dissenters. To a most graceful elocution, 
 there were joined in him, exuberance of fancy, and fertility 
 of invention, very superior powers of oratory, and a consi- 
 derable portion of learning. Perhaps few people could ap- 
 pretiatc his attainments better than Mr. Booth. He has been 
 heard to say, that were he to chuse a companion for the live- 
 liness of his wit, the urbanity- of bis manners, and the stores 
 of general information which were treasured up in his mind, 
 of all men living that he knew, Robinson would be the object 
 of his choice; but that, notwithstanding these acknowledged 
 advantages, the leading feature in his character was duplicity ! 
 
125 
 
 of ministers, on that text, Buy the truth and sell 
 it not, — stating with an energy of mind, and a 
 force of argument never to be forgotten, that if 
 
 ERROR BE HARMLESS, TRUTH MUST BE WORTH- 
 LESS ; and with a voice, for him unusually elevated, 
 
 Indeed, we are very much afraid that the person who shall im- 
 partially review the general tenor of his life and writingSj will 
 find himself impelled to the same disagreeable conclusion. — 
 His Notes upon " Claude's Essay," M'hich are a perpetual 
 source of amusement and instruction, discover a strong affach- 
 ment to the Calvinistic doctrines of divine grace; and his " Plea 
 for the Divinity of Jesus Christ," may be ranked amongst the 
 ablest confutations of Socinianism, which the last century has 
 produced. He undertook to write " the History of Baptism," 
 which was designed to show that the original mode of admi. 
 nistering the ordinance was by immersion, and that the proper 
 subjects of it were adult believers ; but he ended with an at- 
 tempt to prove, in his " Ecclesiastical Researches," that the 
 first Christians were Unitarians or Socinians, and the last 
 sermon he preached was from the pulpit of that redoubtable 
 champion of Socinianism, Dr. Priestley ! It will perhaps be 
 urged in his defence, that all this may be rationally accounted 
 for upon the principle of the gradual illumination of his mind. 
 Those who think so are very welcome to indulge their opinion, 
 but to us, a spirit of scepticism, is discernible in many of his 
 writings. The reader who would wish to see the various in- 
 consistencies which pervade his publications pointed out, has 
 only to turn to Mr, Booth's " Pa;dobaptism Examined," vol. 
 2. — 2nd edition, pages 514 to 521, and he may be gratified ia 
 the highest degree. The whole is much too long to be ex. 
 
 p2 
 
126 
 
 declaring that every partisan of the innocency of 
 mental error, is a criminal of no common atrocity, 
 but guilty of HIGH TREASON against the Majesty 
 of Eternal Truth/^ Who can presume to say, 
 what would have been the state of the religious 
 
 tracted in this place, but we shall add a short quotation in 
 reply to his position, that there is no moral turpitude in menial 
 error. 
 
 *' Were the innocence of error, which this Gentleman ascribes 
 to an inspired Apostle, worthy of regard, we might justly con- 
 sider the conduct of Pilate, when he asked, zchut is truth? but 
 waited not for an answer, as deserving imitation, rather than 
 censure. For though philosophers talk about the beauty of 
 truth J though theologians dispute about the articles of truth; 
 though inspired writers unite in displaying the glory of truth; 
 and though the Son of God became incarnate that he might 
 bear witness to the truth; yet, after all,. this very truth deserves 
 not a serious inquiry. A sentiment this, which becomes none 
 but a sceptic. Persons of that character have laboured to sink 
 the value of truth, and to exculpate error from every suspicion 
 of harm; bat that a Christian minister should boldly assert, 
 and hold it as a kind of theological axiom. That menial error 
 has no moral turpitude in it, is very extraordinary. For we 
 may venture to affirm, that allegiance to Divine Truth requires 
 us to abjure the principle as absurd in itself, and as deistical 
 in its natural tendency. The language of Infidelity, when 
 addressing the Great Supreme, is an echo to the maxim of this 
 writer: for thus the author of Essays oti the Principles of 
 Morality and Religion: ' What mortals term sin, thou [the 
 Most Holy] pronouucest to be only error; for moral evil 
 
127 
 
 profession among the Dissenters in England at this 
 moment, had the pen of Mr. Booth been dormant. 
 But he has laboured, and others have entered into 
 his rest ! 
 
 It was once observed by a Royal Personage, 
 concerning that great legal luminary, Sir Edward 
 Coke, " that he had a peculiar talent in all his 
 speeches, of mixing the pleasant with the profit- 
 
 ranishes, in some measure, from before thy more perfect 
 sight,' (In Dr. Witherspoon's Essays^ vol. 1. p. 59 — 60,) 
 Dr. Witherspoon remarks, that " though Infidels always set 
 out on a pretence of searching impartially after truth; yat 
 they have unanimously agreed in putting truth and error en- 
 tirely on the same footing, both as to worth and inlluencc.' 
 {Ibid. p. 95.) — How far the following observation, from the 
 ■same sensible writer, will justly apply to the author upon 
 ■whom I animadvert, is left with my reader. ' If freedom of 
 inquiry be a blessing at all, it can be so for no other reason 
 than the excellence and salutary iafluence of real truth, when 
 it can be discovered. If truth and error are equally safe, 
 nothing can be more foolish, than for a man to waste his timu 
 in endeavouring to distinguish the one from the other. What 
 a view does it give us of the weakness of human nature, that 
 the same persons so frequently hold inconsistent principles! 
 How many will say the strongest things in favour of an im- 
 partial search after truth, and with the very same breath tell 
 you. It is of no consequence at all, either for time or ctcrnifj/, 
 whether ^ou hold one opinion or another. Ut supra, Adver- 
 tisement, p. 4, 5. Edit. 2d.' 
 
128 
 
 able, of embellishing his reading by his wit, and 
 of recommending his reasoning by his spirit. Thus 
 though he spoke often, he was always heard with- 
 out satiety; though he talked with learning, he 
 was understood with ease."* How applicable 
 these remarks are to the subject of this memoir, 
 will be readily acknowledged by every candid mind 
 who has read his controversial writings. The stu- 
 dent who may differ from him in judgment, re- 
 specting the ordinance of Baptism, will nevertheless, 
 find in a careful perusal of his volumes on that 
 controversy, a rich and perpetual source of enter- 
 tainment and instruction ; and, in the issue, be 
 amply compensated for his labour, even though 
 he should not be induced to embrace his opinions. 
 If we examine the qualities of his style, it will 
 be found, that perspicuity and vigour are its promi- 
 nent excellences. His meaning is always so ob- 
 vious, that you not only may understand, but it 
 is next to impossible that you should mistake it. 
 It is to be regretted, however, that in his Reign of 
 Grace, he seems to have too much imitated the 
 inflated style of the celebrated Hervey's Medi- 
 iations. There is occasionally a display of or- 
 nament, arising from an exuberance of epithet, 
 
 * Guthrie's History of England, vol. 3, page 757. 
 
129 
 
 which no reader of taste and discernment will 
 ever approve, and which ill assorts with the nature 
 of the subject on which it is bestowed. How 
 simple, and yet how majestic is the style of the 
 Evangelists and Apostles, speaking unto us the 
 great things of God! It may be added, too, how 
 preposterous is the idea of enhancing the subli- 
 mity of the truths of the everlasting gospel, by 
 the meretricious tinsel of rhetoric. Who would 
 be so absurd as to think of encreasing the bril- 
 liancy of the diamond by daubing it over with 
 paint? It is more than probable, that IMr. Booth 
 himself, in his riper years, was aware of the incon- 
 gruity alluded, to ; for, certain it is, that we find 
 much less of it in his later publications than in 
 the Reign of Grace. They all of them, however, 
 display a vigorous mind, and an understanding 
 highly cultivated. His language is richly polished, 
 and his sentences at once full and harmonious. 
 And when to these excellences, we take into con- 
 sideration, the valuable sentiments contained in 
 them, no doubt can be entertained, that for suc- 
 ceeding ages and generations, they will engage 
 much of the attention and esteem of the church 
 of God, and be valued as a rich legacy bequeattica 
 to them by their worthy author. 
 
 Mr. Booth was not only a Protestant Dissenter, 
 
130. 
 
 but he was a dissenter upon principle, from many 
 tilings which arc in too high estimation among his 
 own brethren. Dr. Rippon giv^es us to understand, 
 that the honours of one of the American colleges 
 long awaited his acceptance, and were only kept 
 back from an apprehension that they would have 
 been refused by him. It is pleasing to think that 
 his religious principles were so well understood, 
 even iji America. The reader who has perused his 
 " Essay on the Kingdom of Christ" with attention, 
 will not need to be informed how hostile he was 
 to the assumption of literary titles, and to thes 
 claims of clerical importance. Quoting his favou- 
 rite author, Dr. John Owen, he says, " For the 
 title oi Reverend, I do give notice that I very little 
 value it, ever since I considered the saying of 
 Luther; Nunquam periclitafur Religio nisi inter 
 Revei'cndissimos,''^ so that [any one may] as to me, 
 forbear it for the future, and call me as the Quakers 
 do, and it shall suffice." The words of his Divine 
 Master were to him authoritative; Be ye not called 
 Rabbi, for one is your master even Christ, and all 
 ye are brethren. Whosoever of you will be the 
 chief est, shall he servant of all. And thus he 
 exemplified in his own conduct, that self-denial, 
 
 * Religion is never in anj^ danger except nmong the most 
 KEYTREfit) Gevtlemcnl Essay, page 43, note. 
 
131 
 
 lowliness of mind, and disconformity to the course 
 of this present evil world, which the sayings of 
 Jesus Christ inculcate upon all hisfolloxcers. 
 
 But on a subject so copious as this, the writer 
 must check himself; and he shall, therefore, close 
 this very imperfect account by subjoining a short, 
 but interesting, and it is believed, upon the whole, 
 very faithful sketch of the character of Mr. Booth, 
 as given by one of his own brethren in the mini- 
 stry, soon after his much lamented death. 
 
 " As a Christian^ he vvas pre-eminent, fearing 
 the Lord above many. Called by divine grace 
 when about twelve years of age, he experienced, 
 no doubt, in the long course of threescore years, 
 many changes of trials and temptations, many al- 
 ternations of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow. 
 Yet, with respect to his personal interest in the 
 divine favour, he seems to have been carried on 
 in an even tenor, without many remarkable eleva- 
 tions or depressions. His common conversation 
 breathed much of a devotional spirit, and disco- 
 vered the strong sense he had of his own sinfulness 
 before God, and the simplicity of his dependence 
 on the influences of the Holy Spirit. Firm in his 
 attachment to his religious principles, he despised 
 the popular cant about charity, and cultivated 
 genuine candour; which is alike remote from the 
 
132 
 
 laxity of latitudinarians, and the censoriousness 
 of bigots. He was conspicuous for self-denial, 
 and contempt of the world; walking humbly with 
 God. His moral character was pure and unble- 
 mished. Perhaps there never was a man of more 
 stern, unbending integrity: he would have been 
 admired and revered by Aristides the Just. Sin- 
 cerity clear as crystal, consistency with himself, 
 and unbroken uniformity of conduct were always 
 to be seen by the ten thousand eyes that were 
 continually fixed upon him. He was temperate, 
 even to abstemiousness: in fortitude " bold as a 
 lion.^' Caution was interwoven with the texture 
 of his mind; yet he would sometimes say, ' \^^e 
 have need of caution against caution itself, lest 
 we be over-cautious.' He once observed, that 
 ' in morals, integrity holds the first place, bene- 
 volence the second, and prudence the third. — • 
 Where the first is not, the second cannot be; and 
 where the third is not, the other two will often be 
 brought into suspicion.' In his attendance on 
 public worship, he was remarkable for an exem- 
 plary punctuality. In the weekly meeting of mi- 
 nisters, and the monthly meeting of ministers and 
 churches, if he were not with them precisely at 
 the appointed hour (which very rarely happened) 
 they did not expect him at all. His manners were 
 
133 
 
 simple, grave, and unaffected; frequently enlivened 
 w^ith an agreeable pleasantry. It was edifying 
 and delightful to observe how he perpetually, 
 breathed after more conformity to Christ — more 
 heavenly-mindedness. That man must either have 
 been extremely wise or extremely fooMsh, who 
 could spend an hour in his company without being 
 made wiser and better. 
 
 " As a Divine, he was a star of the first magni- 
 tude. A Protestant, and a Protestant Dissenter, 
 on principle, and one of the brightest ornaments 
 of the Baptist denomination to which he belonged. 
 A Calvinist, and in some particulars approaching 
 what is called High-Calvinism, but he has some- 
 times declared, as many other great men have 
 done, that he never saw any human system, which 
 he could fully and entirely adopt. Prom the pul- 
 pit, his sermons were plain and textual, not sys- 
 tematic, highly instructive, always savoury and 
 acceptable to persons of evangelical taste; for, the 
 Glory, the Gover:.ment, and the Grace of Christ 
 were his favourite themes. Pie aimed to coun- 
 teract, with equal care, self-righteous legality on 
 the one hand, and on the other, Antinomian licen- 
 tiousness. Such was the excellence of his per- 
 sonal character, that he needed not the arts of the 
 orator and the graces of elocution to gain attention. 
 q2 
 
134 
 
 His 'audience listened with profound veneration^ 
 and hung upon his Ups. He had the gift of prayer 
 in a very high degree, and whoever heard him was 
 powerluUy impressed with the idea that he was a 
 man who prayed much in secret. — From the press, 
 he appeared- to the greatest advantage. Nor will 
 it be denied by any, that his writings are very ela- 
 borate and exquisitely polished. No bagatelles, 
 no airy speculations — all solid and useful. His 
 " Reign of Grace" and indeed all his works, will 
 continue to instruct and delight the Christian 
 world to the end of time. 
 
 " As a Christian Pastor, he slione with distin- 
 guished lustre. Every member of the church in 
 which he presided, had a share in his affection. 
 The poor were as welcome to his advice and as- 
 sistance as the rich: and his faithful reproofs were 
 given, without partiality to either, as occasion re- 
 quired. It was justly remarked at his grave, that 
 he has unintentionally drawn his own picture, in 
 his sermon, entitled, " Pastoral Cautions." He 
 was not a lord over God's heritage. It has been 
 said that he appeared always willing to give up 
 almost every thing to the decision of the church; 
 and the consequence was, the church gave up 
 almost every to his decision. His attention to the 
 poor and the afflicted of his congregation was 
 
135 
 
 highly exemplary. Nor did he content himself 
 with saying, " Be ye warmed, and be ye filled," 
 but liberally contributed to the supply of their 
 wants, according to his ability. The economical 
 system he established at home, furnished him with 
 a considerable fund for charitable uses abroad. — 
 His charity was never ostentatious — none but the 
 omniscient eye knew the extent of it, and there- 
 fore it is impossible to say how many of the sons 
 and daughters of affliction have lost, by his death, 
 a most generous benefactor. 
 
 " As a Literarif 31an, he was generally acknow- 
 ledged to belong to the first class among Protestant 
 Dissenters. Without the advantages of a liberal 
 education, he had cut his own way, by the force 
 of a strong, keen mind, through rocks and deserts. 
 His memory was amazingly tenacious; his reason- 
 ing powers acute; his apprehension quick; his 
 deliberation cool and patient; his determination 
 slow and decided. His application must have 
 been very intense ; to which his vigorous and ro- 
 bust constitution of body was happily subservient. 
 Though he perused a prodigious multitude of 
 books, and respected the opinions of wise and 
 learned men, he ever maintained a sublime inde- 
 pendence of mind, and thought for himself. His 
 knowledge of languages was very considerable. 
 
136 
 
 Not many of the literati of this country have had 
 so intimate an acquaintance with the grace and 
 force of words, or have written w'lXh. such correct- 
 ness and energy united. Yet he has been heard 
 to say, that he had a wife and family before he 
 knew any thing of the theory of English grammar. 
 He was not unacquainted with the Greek and 
 Roman classics; they were, however, by no means 
 his favourite authors. It would surprise the public 
 to know what loads of ponderous latin quartos he 
 read of French, Dutch, and German Divines! 
 The Greek Testament he went through nearly fifty 
 times, by the simple expedient of reading one 
 chapter every morning, the first thing, not so 
 much for the purpose of criticism as of devotion. 
 General science and literature claimed a share of 
 his attention, and every one was astonished to ob- 
 serve the fund of information he possessed on all 
 subjects. In History, civil and ecclesiastical — in 
 antiquities, Jewish and Christian — in theological 
 controversy and the creeds of all denominations, 
 he was equalled by few, and excelled by none, — 
 It is pleasing to recollect, that all his learning was 
 solemnly consecrated to the cross of Christ; and 
 that, while he was disgusted, as he often was, with 
 the illiteracy and ignorance of books which he per- 
 ceived even among educated preachers in many 
 
137 
 
 instances, he was very far from supposing human 
 literature to be essential to the gospel-ministry. 
 
 " As a universal J^riend and counsellor^ he was ex- 
 ceedingly beloved. His extensive and diversified 
 knowledge, his well-tried integrity, his penetra- 
 tion, prudence and benevolence, occasioned num- 
 berless applications for his counsel, not merely 
 from the Baptists, but from Christians of almost 
 all parties. Difficult texts of scripture, knotty 
 points of controversy, disputes in churches and 
 private cases of conscience were laid before him 
 in abundance. Seldom was there an appeal made 
 to the judgment of any other man. It was like 
 " taking counsel at Abel, and so they ended the 
 matter." Yet he was no dictator. When he had 
 patiently heard the case, and candidly given his 
 opinion, he would usually say, ' Consult other 
 friends, and then judge for yourself Such a de- 
 gree of majesty attended him, plain as he was in 
 exterior, that if he sat down with you but a few 
 minutes, you could not help feeling that you had 
 a prince or a great man in the house. It would 
 sometimes appear to strangers that he was deficient 
 in that winning grace which accompanies softness 
 and sweetness of manner; but those who were 
 most intimately acquainted with him, are fully 
 
138 
 
 prepared to say, there was in general, the greatest 
 delicacy of genuine politeness in his conduct. — 
 Many young ministers, will long deplore their 
 loss. Never surely can they forget how readily he 
 granted them access to him at all times — how 
 kindly he counselled them in their difficulties — 
 how faithfully he warned them of their dangers ! 
 With a mournful pleasure they shall often recollect 
 his gentleness in correcting their mistakes — his 
 tenderness in imploring the divine benediction 
 upon them — his cordial congratulations when he 
 witnessed their prosperity ! " * 
 
 Of the high estimation in which Mr. Booth was 
 held by the Church of which he had long been the 
 faithful and laborious pastor, ample proof was 
 given at the settlement of Mr. Stevens, their pre- 
 sent minister: and the writer of these Memoirs is 
 happy in having it in his power to transmit to the 
 world, a testimony not less honourable to the 
 church, than respectful to the memory of the man 
 whom Christians of every denomination united to 
 esteem. 
 
 " My attention," said a respectable Officer of 
 the Church, " is naturally directed on this occa- 
 
 * Newman's Strmox on the Work and Howard of faithful 
 "Dewolis. Appendix, page Jl. 
 
139 
 
 sion, to the death of our late venerable Pastor, 
 Mr. Abraham Booth; — an event which, although 
 not wholly unexpected, was a providence of a 
 truly afflictive nature. Yes, the departure from 
 this world, of him who, for more than thirty-six 
 years, had broken the bread of life within these 
 walls, must have been felt as a separation painful to 
 his surviving friends, and especially to his bereaved 
 people; and pregnant with important consequences 
 in various respects. — His mortal remains are now 
 cold in death! No more is that voice to be heard, 
 which had so faithfully warned the sinner to flee 
 from the wrath to come ! which had so zealously 
 asserted the honours of divine grace in the salva- 
 tion of the guilty! and so strenuously maintained 
 the necessity of holiness to form the Christian 
 character! Many around me can testify the zeal 
 and integrity which marked his conduct, and that 
 he filled up his every station with honour to his 
 own character, and with benefit to others. As a 
 Christian, he was iruly exemplary. Like Enoch 
 He walked zmth God. As a Minister, he was fer- 
 vent and devotional — a burning and a shining light, 
 — not a meteor to dazzle and expire, but a steady 
 flame increasing in brightness, shining more and 
 more unto the perfect day. As 2i Pastor, you, my 
 brethren, who knew and rightly valued his excel- 
 
140 
 
 lences, can bear witness to his worth. The poor 
 of his flock can testify his kindness and attention : 
 his ear was open to their complaints, and his heart 
 devising means for their rehef ! — Genuine benevo- 
 lence directed his willing feet to the abodes of 
 sickness and distress ! Nor less did his praijers and 
 advice tend to comfort and animate the heart that 
 was sorrowful and afflicted. This truly apostolic 
 man considered the poor of his flock as essential 
 to its being a Church of Christy agreeable to those 
 words of our Lord, The poor ye have alwaijs with 
 you. — His Deacons are bound to acknowledge that 
 marked respect and confidence to which he thought 
 them entitled. His whole conduct towards them 
 was an exemplification of that saying, " from 
 henceforth I call you not Servants, but Friends." 
 May not every one of this church unite in bearing 
 their testimony to his affectionate regard towards 
 them — to his disinterested exertions in the cause 
 of his Divine Master, and to his ardent desire to 
 promote the happiness of his peculiar charge, even 
 of the lowest member of this Christian society. — 
 A^iewed in all his relations towards us, we may 
 truly say of him in the language of Jeremiah, 
 He was a Pastor according to God^s heart, who 
 Jed his people with knowledge and understanding} 
 But I forbear — his image still lives in many of our 
 
141 
 
 hearts, nor do we need the aid of monumental mar- 
 ble to record his worthy whilst memory continues 
 to do its office ! — When such a man dies, who but 
 must exclaim, A great man is fallen to-daij in 
 Israel! — Who, that knew, and could appretiate 
 his value to the Church of God, but must feel a 
 pang on hearing that he is no more ! — not on his 
 own account, for he has joined the society of the 
 blessed, but on the account of the interest and 
 welfare of Zion. He was a Father and a Friend 
 not only to this part of the family of God — not 
 only to the denomination which had the felicity 
 to call him their own; but to every lover of the 
 Lord Jesus, however distinguished among men — 
 to the cause of humanity and religion in every 
 clime. How often have many of us heard him, 
 with ardent devotion, pour out his supplications 
 to God Almighty, on behalf of the oppressed 
 inhabitants of Africa. — Nor less fervent was he in 
 pleading for the fulfilment of the divine promises, 
 in an event equally sure, though more rernote, 
 the calling in of the Jews, the seed of Abraham, 
 the friend of God. These great and important 
 objects were on many occasions the subject of his 
 earnest intercession at the throne of grace — but 
 our fathers where are theij, and the prophets do theii 
 live for ever! Mortals die — the must eminent — 
 
 R 2 
 
142 
 
 the most useful go to the house appointed for all 
 living; but the Great Eternal lives. Jesus the 
 King of Zion is still the Great Shepherd of the 
 Sheep. He watches over his flock, and leads 
 them to living fountains of water. He is at no 
 loss for instruments to carry on and accomplish 
 the designs of his providence in building up his 
 Church, until the top stone shall be brought forth 
 with shoutings of Grace — Grace — unto it." 
 
 As few individuals were more respected through 
 life than the subject of this Memoir, so it may be 
 truly added, that not many have been more deeply 
 lamented in quitting the stage of it. His death 
 was improved, not only by all the ministers who 
 belong to the Baptist Monthly Meeting in London, 
 but many others, both in town and country, en- 
 deavoured to impress the solemn and affecting 
 dispensation upon their respective congregations. 
 — The loss of him, indeed, to the church on 
 earth, will not readily be supplied; but, to his 
 friends, it is a comfortable reflection, that, as to 
 him, to live was Christ, so, to die was his un- 
 speakable gain : for Blessed are the dead who die 
 in the Lord — they rest from their labours^ and their 
 works do follow them. 
 
143 
 
 As a testimony of esteem for this eminent ser- 
 vant of Christ, the Church has erected a neat 
 marble Tablet, with the following inscription, in 
 the chapel in Little Prescot-street, Goodman's 
 Fields, in which he had so long officiated as 
 their pastor : 
 
 THIS TABLET 
 
 was erected by tlie Church, in grateful Remembrance 
 
 of their beloved and venerable Pastor 
 
 ABRAHAM BOOTH: 
 
 who, with unremitted Fidelity, discharged his ministerial Labours 
 
 in this place, tliirty-seven Years. 
 
 As a Man, and as a Christian, he was highly and deservedly e'steemed : 
 
 As a Minister, he was solemn and devout : 
 
 His addresses were perspicuous, energetic, and impressive : 
 
 they were directed to the Understanding, the Conscience, and the Heart. 
 
 Profound Knowledge, sound Wisdom, and unaflFected Piety, 
 
 were strikingly exemplified 
 
 in the Conduct of this excellent Man. 
 
 In him, the poor have lost a humane and generous Benefactor; 
 
 the Afflicted and the Distressed, a wise and sympathetic Counsellor; 
 
 and this Church, 
 
 a disinterested, affectionate, and faithful Pastor : 
 
 nor will his name, or writings be forgotten, 
 
 while Evangelical Truth shall be revered. Genius admired, or Integrity respected. 
 
 He departed this Life on the 27th January, 1806, 
 
 In the 72nd year of Uis Age. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
JAMES SMITH, Printer, Liverpool.