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Mefnoirs of Dr . James Foster . S
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had met with great acceptance about the country , and he was in high esteem with many , but with none more than with Mr . Pierce , soon felt the spirit of the times ; he had embraced the obnoxious opinions , and the clamour ran high against him * In deference to the judgment and advice of some friends , he removed from the county of Devon , and accepted an invitation to Milbourn Port 5 in Somersetshire . He continued in this situation for a short time , till it was made uneasy to him by some of his hearers who had caught the infection . Driven away by their misguided and unhallowed zeal for orthodoxy , he found a friendly asylum and a calm retreat , at the house of the Rev . Nicholas Billingsley , at Ashwick , under the Mendip Hills . Here he formed an intimacy with the Rev . Mr . Stogdon , another young minister , who sought peace and the liberty
of inquiry under the hospitable and friendly roof of their liberalminded protector . In this retreat , Mr . Foster pursued his studies with close application , and preached to two po © r plain congregations , which he served with great cheerfulness , though both together , the one at Colesford ^ the other at Wookey , near Wells , did not raise him more than the yearly salary of 15 L cC His chief view / ' said a worthy divine who knew him well , was to maintain his own integrity , and promote the honour of his great Lord ; bearing difficulties with a rational firmness and calm submission to the Divine will . " His poverty , it has been justly observed , ought to be considered as in the highest degree honourable ; for it was solely the effect of his upright adherence to what he regarded as the cause o £ religious truth ^ .
From Ashwick he removed to IrowbrKlge , and officiated with a Presbyterian congregation in that town , which did not ordinarily consist of more than 20 or 30 persons . Here his finances were so low , that he had an intention to quit the ministry , and to learn the trade of a glover , from Mr . Norman , a respectable person in that line , with whom he boarded . But other prospects opened before him : Ci for , while he resided in that connection , he was convinced , " says Dr . Fleming , " by reading Dr . Gale < , that baptism by immersion was most proper ; ' * or , as Mr , Bulkley states it , " being convinced that there was in the New Testament no foundation for the baptism of infants , but that the adult only were the proper subjects of that ordinance , he declared against the one and in favour of the other , and was himself baptized in London / ' Though this change in his sentiments made no differenaebetween him and his people , yet his expectations of worldly advantages were brought by it * The British Biography , V . *? 1 * 36-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/3/
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