Jones, of Holywell, in English, from 1 Kings viii. 38, 39, and the Rev. Ο. Owens, of Rhes-y-cae, in Welsh, from 1 Cor. xv. 58. In the afternoon, by the Rev. J. Pearce, of Wrexham, from 1 Cor. iii. 22; and the Rev. W. Williams, of Wern, in Welsh, from Prov. xxi. 4. 27. In the evening, the Rev. Dr. Raffles, from Psalm cxix.; and the Rev. T. Jones, of Llangollen, in Welsh, from 2 Cor. vi. 1. Sermons were preached the preceding evening by Messrs. Williams, of Wern, and Price, of Ruthin. The devotional parts of these interesting services were conducted by Rev. T. Jones, Newmarket; Rev. J. Saunders, of Buckley, &c. The collection made on the occasion, toward the expense of erecting the chapel, was £18. The interest of the Redeemer in Mold, has been established by the Independent denomination about twenty years. The place in which the church and congregation have hitherto met, is an old building, fitted up, and which, of late, became both too small and much dilapidated. The size of the new place of worship, is 48 by 57 feet, with front and side galleries; the ground is freehold; the premises and building vested in the hands of Trustees, and legally enrolled. The expense of ground and erection is about £800. The neighbouring ministers and friends of the Congregational Union, in the counties of Flint and Denbigh, have been frequently consulted upon the propriety of this erection, and have been of one mind, for years, that a new place of worship was much wanted at Mold. The friends of the attempt in the town and neighbourhood, have liberally exerted themselves, but still a considerable debt remains, for which an appeal will be made to the liberality of the Christian public. On May 14th, the Rock Chapel in Treleach, Carmarthenshire, was re-opened, after extensive repairs and enlargement, being now 50 feet by 34, with an appro priate gallery, when, after the Welsh manner, the following ministers preached. In the morning, the Rev. D. Peters, Carmarthen: T. Griffiths, Hawen; and Dr. Davis, Sardis. In the afternoon the Rev. James Phillips, Bethlem; and W. Jones, Rhydybont; and, in the evening, the Rev. W. Davies, Rhydyceisiaid; and R Powell, Cross Inn. The congregations were very large and attentive. On May 15th, Peterwell Chapel, having been built for the accommodation of a part of the same church, was opened for divine worship, when the following gentlemen preached; Rev. H. G. George, Bryn; James Griffis, Rochad; and Moses Rees, Pencader; D. Davies, Panteg; and Isaac Harris, Mould. The church and the congregation have laudably exerted themselves to collect £500. by which an appeal to the public for assistance will not be required. RECENT DEATH. On July 30th, 1828, died, after a short and painful affliction, the Rev. WILLIAM HAWARD, late pastor of the Independent Church, Rendham, Suffolk, where he had faithfully and diligently laboured twenty-one years in the service of the people committed to his care.. His upright, peaceable, and useful life procured for him, not only the deserved respect of his friends, but also of the neighbourhood generally, in which he resided. He was cut off " in the midst of his days," and of his usefulness. As the deceased was a widower, his five surviving children, two sons and three daughters, the youngest of which is ten years of age, are left parentless, and also dependent on a benevolent public. Should benevolent individuals feel disposed to afford them assistance, their communications will be gratefully received and faithfully applied, by the Rev. Rowland Morgan, Vicar of Rendham; the Rev. John Dennant, of Halesworth; or the Rev. Thomas Pinchback, of Woodbridge, Suffolk. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. COMMUNICATIONS have been received during the past Month from the Reverend John Thornton - Robert Ashton--James Turner-Thomas Pinchback-Joseph Croft -Algernon Wells--George Moase--James Matheson--George Redford--Thomas Keyworth-Charles Hyatt--John Hoppus--Ebenezer Miller--Thomas Adkins, and Joseph Fletcher. Also from Messrs. H. M. Richards and William Carpenter--Observer--P. C.--L. H. G. H. D. has transcribed a portion of a tract by good Matthew Henry, which, though very excellent, would not suit our pages. We beg to inform several Correspondents, that it is a principle with us, in conducting this work, not to insert anonymous Reviews. The concluding part of the review of Mr. Stewart's work on the Hebrews, with several other interesting articles, we have been compelled to defer till our next. We cannot pledge ourselves to publish a series of papers such as Mr. Richards contemplates, and we have therefore left his Essay, as desired, at our Publishers'. THE CONGREGATIONAL No. 46. N. S.] OCTOBER, 1828. [VOL. XI. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE SUCCESSIVE PASTORS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT BOCKING, ESSEX. THE REV. JOHN THOROWGOOD. To have found a place in the midst of portraits, even in this humble form, would perhaps have constituted a prospect rather appalling to the retired and unassuming, but eminent subject of this biographical sketch. We are not, however, to venerate the feelings of the dead at the expense of an injury to the living: an injury which must inevitably result from an oblivion of such examples of goodness as a world of imperfection and sin is seldom privileged to behold. Mr. John Thorowgood, who was one of twins, was born at Basingstoke, in Hampshire, in the year 1748. One of the little companions was speedily dismissed from this probationary state, while the other was for many years retained in it for purposes of labour and usefulness. The parents of Mr. T. were respectable persons, and Protestant Dissenters, who attended the ministry of the Rev. Joseph Barber. Mr. T. was baptized by Mr. B., and after an interval of several years, that excellent minister had the gratification of receiving him, whom in infancy he had consecrated to God, to the fellowship of the Church over which he subsequently presided in London. N. S. No. 46. on m In common with many excellent Christians, and with a large number of eminent christian ministers, Mr. Thorowgood was deeply indebted to the instruction and care of his mother: she, availing herself of the advantages for communicating instruction early, so eminently possessed by the female parent, endeavoured, in the season of childhood, to implant in his mind sentiments of piety and virtue. A supposed precocity of talent is seldom followed by a life of eminence or usefulness. In such cases, if talent really exist, it is regarded by the forward youth, or by his friends as superseding the necessity of cultivation: or it is rendered useless, even odious, through the pride and vanity which are created by an injudicious applause. But most frequently the supposed talent is an assurance which ought to be corrected rather than an endowment which ought to be admired. Happily for Mr. Thorowgood and for society, though his childhood presented favourable indications of a future love of knowledge, his friends appear to have escaped the silliness of regarding him as a prodigy. At seven years old, it is said, he cried that he might be permitted to learn Latin. His desire was gratified, and gratified in cir 3 T cumstances which secured him the advantages of a sound education, His native town contained a grammar-school, superintended by a competent master, and here Mr. T. laid the foundation of the respectable classical attainments he was known to possess. But though, at his own desire, Mr. Thorowgood had received the ru.. diments of a liberal education, it does not seem to have been granted him with a direct view to the christian ministry, for, on finishing his education at school, he was sent to the neighbouring town of Whitchurch, to learn the business of a clothier. The period at which the religious impressions of Mr. T. commenced does not appear, but it is evident that he "feared the Lord from his youth." Probably, like the generality of Christians, who, after a religious education, and an abstinence from grosser violations of morality, " remember their Creator in the days of their youth," his conversion was effected by the gradual and imperceptible influence of domestic instruction and of religious ordinances, both attended by a divine blessing. Mr. Thorowgood's residence at Whitchurch, by the opportunity it afforded of intercourse with some eminent Christians; and particularly of a pious female, greatly contributed to his improvement in religion. To a mind constituted as was that of Mr. Thorowgood, who carried his love of learning from the grammar school to the factory, the engagements of business were not likely to prove very agreeable; and now that his piety was advanced, and his desires of usefulness consequently increased, it is not surprising that he should choose a profession which would at once afford facilities for the improvement of his own mind, and for advancing the present and eternal interests of his fellowcreatures. When about the age of eighteen he determined on the profession of the christian ministry. With a view to the improvement of his qualifications for that office, he went, with the consent of his parents, and the approbation of his pastor, to the Academy then at Mile End, but which, during the period of Mr. Thorowgood's residence, was removed to Homerton. To say that Mr. T. availed himself diligently of the advantages which he enjoyed in the Academy, would furnish an inadequate view of the course of exertion to which he saw fit to subject himself. Few young men, while prosecuting their academical course, excepting on the subjects immediately connected with their lectures, find leisure to read to any great extent; but Mr. Thorowgood was not only a very extensive reader, but, aided by memory, by method, and by labour, he retained a large portion of what he read. He allowed himself but little sleep, and a still smaller proportion of recreation. The Merchants' Lecture, then at Pinners' Hall, was at that time an object of considerable attraction: it was attended by many ministers, and all the students were expected to be present. Το the generality of the young men, the remainder of the day, with a licence very allowable to those who, during the rest of the week, were diligently employed in their studies, was a time of recreation, and was usually engaged in visiting their friends in town. Mr. T. attended the lecture, but no recreation was allowed to follow: instead of visiting his friends, his usual practice was to run back to Homerton, a race which our student briskly maintained till he found himself seated at his be loved desk, and surrounded by his folios.* A regard to mental improvement not only rendered Mr. Thorowgood more careful of time then even the studious are usually acknowledged to be, it also rendered him very abstemious in his diet. He not only denied himself animal food, but even wine, spirits, and beer. Bread, vegetables, and water became his daily support. Some have denied themselves the use of animal food, from benevolent, and even from conscientious motives-an abstinence which is perhaps rather to be desired than practised; rather in common with a total abstinence to be considered as a blessing of a future state, than to be realized as an attainment of this; but the abstinence of Mr. T. appears to have arisen from a desire to avoid a repletion, which is inconsistent with a vigorous exercise of the mind. Considering the rigidly studious course in which Mr. T. was now engaged, it was perhaps happy for him that he practised the abstinence which we have described; but yet nature began to sink under such a union of abstinence and exertion, and Mr. T. was induced " to believe, that he had a body to take care of, as well as a mind to cultivate." Still the course which he had pursued, entailed on him a debility which continued through life, and which at length brought him to his grave. Mr. T. usually spent his academic vacations with his friends at Basingstoke; but, if these were seasons of comparative leisure, they were not allowed to be seasons of indolence. A nobleman's park in the vicinity of Basingstoke was frequently his study: thither he took his books and his writing materials, and there he spent many happy days in perusing the works he had with him, in recording the subjects of his reading or reflections, and in that higher intercourse of which the world is ignorant; but which far surpasses, in its nature and in its consequences, every literary, every scientific employment. The conduct pursued by Mr. T. on these occasions was far more judicious than that which he followed while at the academy: there his seclusion was so extreme, that it is said to have been but on one occasion that he reached the lower part of the academical garden.* Books are not the only instructors, nor the study the only place adapted to promote an enlargement of knowledge-truths of which the excellent subject of this memoir became sensible in his maturer years. From the advantages which Mr. T. had enjoyed in childhood, and from his diligence in the pursuit of learning in the season of his youth, we may conclude, that at the close of his term in the academy, he must have attained a greater portion of knowledge than generally falls to the lot of young men when entering the sacred calling; but the modesty which is usually an attendant of real talent and extensive knowledge prevented an immediate entrance on the work to which he was devoted; and for some time after the close of the ordinary period of residence, he continued at Homerton. A similar diffidence is felt less frequently now than at some former periods; a diffidence which, though in certain instances it may have been indulged to an excess, yet it was an excess more honourable both to the understanding and to the heart, than the unthinking precipitancy with which many have rushed into a work so greatly important and so tremendously responsible. And when, at last, the subject of this memoir quitted the academic retreat, he sought the retirement of a country village. Sutton Ashfield, in Nottinghamshire, was the scene of his earliest ministerial labour. Here he continued for a year, and at the close of that period supplied the pulpits of several vacant churches. At length, Divine Providence directed him to the place where he was to enter into the pastoral relation, and where he was continued useful and beloved till the period of his death. In the year 1776, he was invited by the church at Bocking, to assist their aged pastor, the Rev. T. Davidson. In the capacity of an assistant, Mr. Thorowgood continued for seven years; at the expiration of that time, he was invited to the co-eldership of the church, and was inducted to that office on 11th of November, 1788. Mr. Davidson survived this close connection more than four years: between the venerable pastor and his younger associate there existed a high and reciprocal regard; and at the death of the former, the whole charge devolved on Mr. Thorowgood. When this estimable individual entered on the ministry, he continued the studious habits of his former years: throughout life he was an extensive reader, and, in common with many extensive readers, he possessed the art of becoming master of the subjects of a book, without reading every word which it contained; he was accustomed to * The writer had this anecdote from the late Dr. Fisher, who was Tutor at Homerton, during the period of Mr. T.'s continuing in the Academy. * Information of the late Dr. Fisher. say, he did not read the little words. This, however, is a plan of reading by which no man can do justice to an author, and by which few men can do justice to themselves. Not only must the beauty of language, which in a great measure depends on a skilful position of words, be lost, both in regard to pleasure and in regard to improvement in such a reader; but the full force of an argument, or the full energy of a representation, which often depends on some very minute particular, or even on a single word, must frequently elude his attention. With Mr. Thorowgood, reading had almost grown into a vice, and by few things, it is said, could he be subjected to a severer mortification than by the mention of a book which he had never read. After his entrance on the ministry, Mr. Thorowgood began to derive pleasure from the study of botany. He was well ac quainted with the writings of Linnæus on this branch of natural history. This pursuit drew him from his study to his garden, which he frequently çultivated with his own hands, and it gave additional interest to the rural walks which his pastoral duties necessitated. A studious man is happy if he can find amusement in botany; for it is not only a science, which can be pursued with less expense than any other-a consideration of some importance to the generality of students; but it is a pursuit which, at the same time, promotes his health, and leads his mind to the Being whose character and providence are displayed by the whole vegetable world. But we are contemplating Mr. Thorowgood at that period of his life when he discharged the duties |