66 HIS SUPERIOR AND [Sect. it in the path of holiness, and with your whole soul seek the salvation of the Gospel as the sum of human wisdom. 'Did you never see a man of unquestioned powers of mind, and true genius, and great learning, taking up the Scriptures of God and saying, "Through thy precepts 1 get understanding." This is the volume-here are the treasures of knowledge! Did you never hear (for the greatness of his mind and the sincerity of his religion take care that you shall not see that) -did you never hear of such a man, when he had been conversing with the works of the mighty masters, and stretching into the highest sublimities of science, bowing his knees before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his mind before the volume of God's inspiration-and praying that the great Author of all, the Father of the human Mind, the Fountain of knowledge, would give him the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and enable him to understand the covenant of Salvation? And is not such a fact, better than a hundred sophisms, to prove that the faith of Jesus Christ, though it be despised by the proud and not understood by the conceited, is still the wisdom of God, and a graceful ornament to the human intellect." In such a masterly manner did this able advocate uniformly quit himself, on every subject that he touched. He had no doubt his preferences and peculiar capabilities ; nor will it perhaps fail to occur to any reader of these Memoirs, that, among other discriminating qualities, criticism and catholicism were prominent features in hi character. But throughout the general walks of science he was happily conversant; and very honourably exempli fied the combination of piety and learning in a high degree. An intelligent friend* has thus expressed his sentiments of his character. "From my first introduction to Mr. Jefferson, I entertained a high regard for him, and both hoped and expected that he would become an eminent and useful member of the Dissenting body, and a blessing to the Christian Church in general. He who knows the end from the beginning has, for wise and good reasons, thought fit to disappoint these expectations; but the Publication you have announced will, I trust, convince the public that a plant of no small promise has been cut down by this untimely stroke. It was always my wish, and that of many respectable and intelligent friends, to have him for our Minister; but there was something of a mysterious nature, which seemed to frustrate our reasonable hopes. It is not for us to attempt to explain the unsearchable proceedings of the Most High; but perhaps this was, in more than one respect, a dispensation of mercy." *Mr. Youngman, of Norwich, the Editor of "The Miscellaneous Works of the late Rev. Thomas Harmer, Author of "Observations on various passages of Scripture, &c."—pp. 328. price 10s. 6d., 1823; and also the writer of a life of that celebrated Independent Minister, for the Script.Mag, of the present year. HIS INDEPENDENCY, [Sect. It must be maintained, that though so short lived, Mr. J. was 66 a useful member of the dissenting body, and a blessing to the Christian Church in general." In this connection he took his standing, from conscience and principle. It was bis enlightened conviction, that he could best promote the general interests of the latter, by his particular association with the former. His declarations of Non-conformity to the Endowed Church of England, and of decided preference for Independency have already been given; and may be safely referred to every candid examiner. He beheld in this system of ecclesiastical procedure, the principle of every voluntary society-the very fundamental plan of all our modern Institutions: a system, which alone is congenial with the spirit of universal benevolence and literature—which holds in sacred recognition the claims of universal freedom and justice, political and religious-which is adapted to every country, age, and climate-which constitutes the exclusive honour of the Christian religion-and which is destined to be permanent and triumphant. Imperatively obligated, therefore, did the subject of this biography regard himself, to cherish and display a "Bacon says, that if St. John were to address an Epistle to the Church of England, as he did to those of Asia, it would certainly contain that clause, 'I have a few things against thee.' I am not of his opinion, said Dr. Jortin; 1 am afraid the clause would be: I have not a few things against thee."-Method. Mag. for Sept. 1815. The Father's MSS. No. xii. p. 127. vi.] AND CATHOLICISM. truly Catholic disposition. "His sentiments," says a gentleman,* who had the best opportunity of knowing him, "were so strong and warm, as to find a field for their exertion in relation to communions widely diverse from his own. Thus while, in common with many Catholics themselves, he detested the tyranny of the Court of Rome, he could not see in the Latin Church, those abominations which so many Protestants discover.† He lamented, what he thought, the unfairness of most arguments," commonly heard among us on this subject. He revered the fabric of that Church, as having so long preserved the essential tenets of the Gospel, and as so many ages the chief depository of the Holy Scriptures. His poetical and romantic turn of mind led him to admire the character of many of her Institutions, and the sublime mysticism which pervades her theology. He admired her as the nurse of a large and honoured member of saints and martyrs; and as the sole channel of modern • W. Cowper Maclaurin, A. M. now of Homerton College; in a letter Sept. 8th, 1826. + Comparison of the Churches of Rome and England. Sir R. Steele, in dedicating his "Account of the state of the Roman Catholic Religion, &c. to the Pope, observes :-"The most sagacious persons have not been able to discover any other difference between us, as to the main principle of all doctrine, government, worship and discipline, but this one, that you cannot err in any thing you determine, and we never do. That is, in other words, that you are infallible and we always in the right! We cannot but esteem the ad. vantage to be exceedingly on our side in this case, because we have all the benefits of infallibility without the absurdity of pretending to it; and without the uneasy task of maintaining a point, so shocking to the understanding of mankind."-Dr. Furneaux's Letters, &c. p 16, 17.-Memor. xiii. p. 16. HIS INDEPENDENCY, [Seet. ministerial power: and he ardently hoped for the time, when purified from all the effects of secularizing influence she might again receive into "one fold" those various branches, as he was wont to call them, of the Church Catholic, from which a sad necessity had estranged her. As a natural effect of these sentiments, he detested the low notions, as he thought them, regarding ecclesiastical matters, which are so dear to many Non-conformists of this country. "He considered the Apostolic model as presenting to our view one church, to be preserved by a succession of ordained ministers, and intended amid many different rites and even of opinions, to continue one communing church, till the second coming of its Founder. He lamented that the practical communion was for a time gone : the theoretical he regarded as remaining. To this body, so continued by successive ordination, he applied the promises of Christ's presence to bless his own institutions and preserve from fundamental error. "All this was in his mind perfectly consistent with the two great principles of Congregationalism-the right of a Christian people to elect their own Bishop or Pastor— and the entire independence, as to discipline, of each church with its ordained Elder. "The death of so valued a friend was a loss, on very many accounts, deeply deplored by me: but neither is it altogether a private grief, for I am sure he would ever have |