CHAPTER XII.

Reflections on Mr. Townsend's most prominent Characteristics.

Ir has been asserted in private-charges have been delivered from the pulpit, accusing those who are active and zealous in aiding the general and universal interests of religion, of neglecting their studies, not fulfilling their pastoral duties, forgetting their sick and afflicted, with many similar aspersions from the less ardent and less zealous servants of the same Master. But the writer of this memoir can affirm, that, as a pastor, Mr. Townsend was exemplary. His church had been organised by himself, on the form he believed most scriptural,-that of Congregational Dissent; and the firmness of his character secured to him that peace, which so many pastors in the same denomination never find.

He always urged on his people the necessity of prayer, with the utility and duty of attending meetings for this devotional exercise. Whatever his other engagements might be, this part of divine worship was neither forgotten nor neglected, and was, perhaps, never performed with more touching solemnity, and more deep humility, than by our excellent friend.

The privilege of coming to the sacrament was constantly exhibited in his sermons: he encouraged the timid, and pointed out the obligations they were under, to obey the dying injunction of their Redeemer. His conviction of the sin that attends those who live in the neglect of this ordinance, induced him to publish a tract "On the great neglect of the Lord's Supper."

When the members of his church were ill, he was ever ready with his sympathy and his prayers, though in this part of his pastoral obligation he found an occasion for greater self-denial than in some others. Still he esteemed it so primary a duty, that no committee was allowed to interfere with it. He frequently went, when sinking under extreme debility, to visit such claimants, who were resident some miles distant. His affectionate disposition, united with much judgment, eminently qualified him for visits to the house of mourning his consolations were soothing, his conversation instructive. To the aged and the young he was alike acceptable.

He was ever anxious to know the wants and necessities of his people; but his visits to the tables of his congregation were rare, as they did not enter into the list of what he considered pastoral duties. An unexpected summons to a committee, or to preach a charity sermon, would make him relinquish the most agreeable social interview; and a biscuit and draught of cold water, taken in London, were frequently substituted for the well-spread board, at which he would have been a welcome guest.

The schools attached to the chapel received a large share of his attention: he found time, not merely to catechise the children, but to exhort and warn them of sins, incidental to their age and circumstances.

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In the pulpit, Mr. Townsend had been singularly useful to persons in almost every rank of life. His sermons were plain, simple, unadorned; having neither the aid of rhetoric nor imagination. They had all the comprehensiveness of vigorous thought, with little abstractedness, their tendency being obvious to the meanest capacity. He always cultivated simplicity in preaching, as he believed it characterised the primitive teachers. Order and arrangement were evident-his materials were full and clear-his manner impressive and grave. From the Bible he brought his arguments; his reasonings, his appeals; and never did he enter on any of the abstruser points of doctrine, without supporting his assertions with a quotation from Scripture. The understanding, the conscience, the heart, were the objects of his attack-he convinced, awakened, and comforted. His doctrines were orthodox, and he never separated them from duties, but insisted on the necessity of practical religion arising from evangelical principles, and each truth of the Gospel was displayed in his sermons. The free and sovereign grace of God was the favourite theme of his preaching, but the effect he displayed as necessarily arising from the reception of such grace, was pure and undefiled religion, which had its seat in the heart, and its birth in the love of God. He taught that faith in Christ must

necessarily produce love, from which obedience arises, with a conformity to the divine image. The doctrines of justification by works, and of baptismal regeneration, were frequently assailed in his sermons, as he believed they set aside the righteousness of Christ, and the influences of the Holy Spirit. He delighted in the exhibition of the consolations of religion; but he could strike his hearers with awe and terror, when he felt it his duty to rouse the lethargic, or to recal the wandering.

Mr. Townsend has been aptly styled "the apostle of charity;" such in very truth he was. The sphere of his philanthropy was so large, and embraced so great a variety of objects, that the relation would be tedious. He had not only commenced and reared two lasting monuments of his benevolence and perseverance, but he belonged to almost every society that embraced either religious, moral, or physical relief to his fellow men. The perusal of the accompanying sketch will give an imperfect view, which is more fully developed in the selections from the Diary. There are, however, some acts of beneficence, to be related only by those, who knew him in his more private habits. With a limited income, he allowed aged persons a small stipend to assist them in the winter, at which season he distributed coals; giving not merely to those of his own congregation, but extending his liberality to the poor of his neighbourhood. So early as the year 1786, he had established a society for visiting the sick; and the love and respect shown him by the miserable

and destitute of his own vicinity, equalled the tribute of admiration which he was ever receiving from the noble and the wealthy. He was sometimes honoured by being appointed almoner; but this never superseded the usual draft upon his own funds, which was extended with every increase of income.*

His distribution of tracts was very extensive : he never left home without a supply, and he embraced every opportunity of sending them abroad. An agent was constantly employed by him, to convey these useful little messengers of mercy to prisons, hospitals, and workhouses.

Mr. Townsend possessed a clear and vigorous understanding. His conceptions were neither striking nor imaginative, but he had great originality and accuracy of thought. His intellectual endowments were not numerous, but he had a mind well informed on all subjects, connected with the general interests of the world and of the Church.

Prudence was a prominent feature in his cha racter; and to this valuable gift, with his extraordinary energy and perseverance, may be attributed much that he effected. His caution never allowed him to communicate, in his private circle, aught that had transpired in committees, or in his pastoral visits.

He had a singular power of abstracting himself

* Mr. Townsend having met with a loss of property, his old and tried friend, Mr. Hawkes, bequeathed to him a sum which was an ample equivalent.

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