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Published May 11826. for the Congregational Magazine, by B.J. Holdsworth. 18 St Pauls Church London.

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THE venerated subject of this brief memoir was born in London, March 24th, 1757. His parents were in humble life, but happily possessed of those principles which impart dignity to the character, irrespective of the distinctions of a world which passeth away. The father of Mr. Townsend had indeed, in his youth, enjoyed brighter earthly prospects, but in consequence of his conscientious at tachment to the ministry of the Rev. G. Whitefield, he was disinherited, and doubtless found the blessedness of those who are persecuted" for righteousness' sake." His son John was admitted, at a proper age, as a scholar, into Christ's Hospital, one of the noblest institutions of which the metropolis can boast, and here a solid foundation was laid for those respectable attainments which, by his own industry, he was afterwards to acquire. On the term of education expiring, he was apprenticed to his father, who was employed in a mechanical business, and who probably retained his son beneath his own roof, from a solicitude that he should attend that gospel ministry for which he had suffered, and by which he had enjoyed so much. With him, therefore, he constantly heard at Tottenham Court Chapel and the Tabernacle, and was often seriously impressed by the faithful and heart-stirring ministry with which NEW SERIES, No. 17.

that connexion was at that period blessed.

At length the set time arrived, when a permanent effect was produced on his mind, by a sermon upon Psalm ciii. 19. "Like as a father pitieth his children," &c. from Dr. Peckwell, then a very popular and eloquent preacher amongst the Calvinistic Methodists. He subsequently joined the communion at the Tabernacle, and was introduced to one of those societies which then existed amongst the young men, for prayer and reading the scriptures. It was usual, on these occasions, for each member to deliver his sentiments on some passage of Holy Writ, which, while it doubtless often betrayed the crude and ignorant notions of many a self-possessed but uninformed mind, yet also elicited those talents for public instruction which might otherwise have remained concealed from observation.

The ministerial gifts of Mr. Townsend were thus discovered by a friend, to whose christian advice and instruction his introduction to the ministry may be attributed. By him he was induced to visit Mitcham, in Surrey, where he preached his first sermon, which proving acceptable, he was encouraged frequently to exercise his gifts as a preacher.

Having been introduced, in 1779, to supply the chapel at 2 G

Lewes, in that county, for six weeks, he continued there for eight months; which season of seclusion was connected with circumstances highly favourable to his ministerial improvement. At that period the Rev. R. Cecil possessed two small livings in that neighbourhood, the united annual value of which did not exceed £80. Here, however, in the spirit of Christian disinterestedness, which so peculiarly characterized that eminent minister, he laboured abundantly whilst his health permitted, and it was Mr. Townsend's privilege to hear him preach twice every week: and he could not hear such a man in vain. Not only was his heart made better, but an impulse was given to his mind highly favourable to its improvement. Under this excitement, he providentially discovered, in an upper room of the house where he boarded, put away as useless lumber, a good selection of old divinity books; from which, to use his own expression, he procured "many a precious morsel." With such a tutor, and such an academical library, his leisure was most advantageously occupied; for what devoted young minister could hear Cecil, and read the Puritans, without advancement in knowledge and piety? At the close of eight months, he was compelled to return to London, much to the regret of himself and the people amongst whom he had laboured.

He was now invited to Kingston in Surrey, where he preached for fifteen months, as a candidate for the ministerial office, and was ordained, in 1781, as the pastor of the Congregational church in that town. At the close of three years he felt it his duty to resign his charge, as the Antinomian heresy, at that period, begun very seriously to disturb the peace of that and many other churches in the neighbourhood.

In 1783, the ancient Presbyterian congregation, Jamaica Row,

Bermondsey, in which those able ministers and eminent confessors, James Janeway and Thomas Rosewell, had presided, became extinct, through the ill health and Arian sentiments of their last pastor, Dr. Flaxman; upon whose resignation, the meeting-house was taken by some Independents, and the following year Mr. Townsend was invited to become their minister; and, in 1784, he was set apart for the pastoral office amongst them.

In 1787, the late excellent Mr. Hawkes purchased the lease of Orange-Street chapel, formerly the church of the French Protestant refugees, and subsequently an episcopal chapel, in which the Rev. Messrs. Toplady, Cecil, Foster, and Eyre succesively laboured. This chapel was opened on the Calvinistic Methodist plan, March 25, 1787; and, in consequence of the failure of one of the ministers engaged for that service, Mr. Townsend was, at a short notice, prevailed upon to preach in the evening; and it pleased God to bless the discourse he delivered to the conversion of a female, who attended the chapel expecting to hear the preacher who had been previously announced.

This encouraging incident led the managers of that chapel to form a regular engagement with him; and from that time, to the last Sabbath of his ministry, he occupied their pulpit four times in each month: a fact which is at least creditable to his catholic spirit, seeing that he was a conscientious dissenter from the liturgical services of the national church.

He was, doubtless, encouraged iu these extra-pastoral duties at Orange-street by the peculiar success with which his ministry there was blessed. He has been frequently heard, in his own modest way, to state that he had known more than one clergyman, and several Dissenting ministers, who

had acknowledged that they received their first religious impressions through his labours in that place.

Mr.

It was early in the summer of 1792, when a lady, in the neighbourhood of London, first suggested to Mr. Townsend the necessity of establishing an Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. Her own son, who was born with that humiliating imbecility, had been, by scientific instruction, very considerably relieved; and she felt solicitous that for such cases, fearfully aggravated by poverty, a public asylum should be founded. The idea was wisely suggested to the man who had benevolence and energy to realize it. Townsend consulted Mr. Henry Thornton, who pledged his assistance. He then drew up and published, both in the newspapers and as a circular, an address to the public, in which he expresses a hope, that their liberal assistance "will raise another lasting monument to the munificence of the English nation." The project was patronized, and a meeting was held at the Paul's Head, Cateaton-street, Aug. 30, 1792, H. Thornton, Esq. M. P. in the Chair, for the establishment of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, to which his beloved friend, the Rev. H. C. Mason, was appointed gratuitous Secretary. The formation of this important institution, brought to view a far greater number of indigent deaf and dumb, than it was at first imagined could be found, and which rendered the erection of a large and appropriate Asylum necessary. In 1808, this was accomplished, and with such persevering zeal did Mr. Townsend prosecute this favourite object, that by his own individual efforts and personal applications, he brought a sum of more than £6,000 to its funds. At first, there were many who thought the success of this attempt very doubt

ful, but it is no longer problematical, as may be witnessed by visiting the Asylum, where it will be found, that those who were once deaf, and dumb, and ignorant, are receiving a course of moral and religious instruction, and enabled to speak, read, write, cypher, and comprehend the meaning and grammatical arrangement of words, and also to understand and practice the arts of mechanism and handicraft, so as to carry on several manufactories as part of the establishment. Enviable, indeed, must have been the feelings of our venerable friend, when he first heard the feeble accents of the emancipated tongue, and first witnessed the bright dawning of intelligence in the countenance which seemed destined to undeviating inanity and dulness.

It was Mr. Townsend's privilege to be engaged in the formation and establishment of nearly all those important moral and religious institutions, which have arisen to adorn and bless our country during the past half century. He was one of the little band that met in the apartments of the late excellent Joseph Hardcastle, to direct the formation of the Bible Society, to which, indeed, it was his happiness to give its very appropriate and expressive title. The writer of this article remembers to have heard him refer to this circumstance at a public meeting, when, with the amiable pleasantry by which he was characterized, he remarked, "that though he was a Dissenter, yet he once stood godfather, for when, at a provisional meeting, it was asked what the Society should be called, he replied, call it the British and Foreign Bible Society."

In a note to his funeral address at the grave of Mr. Hardcastle, he thus tenderly alludes to those benevolent deliberations:

:

"I scarcely ever pass over London

Bridge, without glancing my eyes towards those highly-favoured rooms appertaining to our departed friend's counting-house, at Old Swan Stairs, and feeling a glow of pleasure at the recollection, that there the London Missionary Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Hibernian Society, &c. formed those plans of Christian benevolence on which Divine Providence has so signally smiled. This pleasure is greatly heightened, when I also recollect, that in those favoured rooms was brought forth that gigantic agent of moral and spiritual good--the British and Foreign Bible Society. These rooms, in my judge ment, are second to none but that in which the disciples met after their Master's ascension, and from whence they went forth to enlighten and to bless a dark and guilty world."

The reputation which Mr. Townsend had necessarily acquired by his philanthropic labours, brought under his notice the privations of many of his brethren in the Dissenting ministry, who naturally applied to one possessed of extensive influence, which he evidently consecrated to the cause of benevolence. He therefore, in September, 1810, published a circular letter, addressed To the Ministers, Officers, and all other Members and Friends of the Congregational Churches in England; in which he thus developes another benevolent project he had formed:

"Whilst our ministers have taken a most active and liberal share in these works of faith and labours of love, and some even beyond their ability, it is eviIdent to the writer, as well as to many others, that something is needful to be done towards supplying their necessities, and lightening their cares. Some of them have already spent, and others are cheerfully and laboriously spending, their time, their strength, and their talents, for the cause of God, and the advantage of their fellow-men, whilst the interests of their own families are not adequately provided for. Much has been said upon the subject, and many ways proposed for their relief; but it is time that something of an adequate and permanent nature was actually done.

The advocate of this new object has long had his eye and his heart fixed upon this work of mercy; but the time and labour required to nourish and bring to maturity his first and darling child, have hitherto prevented.* Providence having

* Asylum for Deaf and Dumb.

now accomplished that object, far beyond his most sanguine expectation, he has determined, by the assistance of the Almighty, to devote all the time and strength which can be spared from other necessary and important avocations, to the formation of an institution, to be denominated the Congregational Asylum; to embrace, 1st. The education and boarding (and clothing, if possible,) of 80 or 100 children of ministers of the above denomination; aud, 2d. To provide a comfortable retreat for 10 or 12 aged ministers, worn out in the honourable and arduous service of the Christian sanctuary.

"In proportion as the exertions in favour of religion increase and prosper, and the churches of course are multiplied, the number of our public teachers must also increase; and it is a fact, too well known to need any enlargement or proof in this Circular Letter, that the pecuniary circumstances of the generality of our ministers are far from being what they ought to be but few of them can provide for their families more than food and raiment; to lay by to meet the peculiar necessities some scarcely these. As to any surplus, of old age, or decently educate their children, with too many it is utterly impracticable.

"The children of Dissenting ministers are shut out from all those schools which are under the influence of the Establishment. Is it not, then, much to be re

gretted that, as yet, there has been no better provision made for them among their own denominations? The want of this

accounts for their being, generally, so illeducated As to Dissenting ministers teaching their children themselves, that is next to impossible, owing to the multitude and variety of their avocations; and to provide them with suitable private schools is nearly as difficult, arising, in general, from the smallness of their in

comes.

66 Although the individual who, in an humble dependence upon God, has taken upon himself the laborious task of raising and establishing this temple of mercy, and on whose exertions and zeal it must ma

terially depend, at least for some time, is

a minister of that denomination for whose advantage it is formed; yet he feels great Providence has placed him out of the gratification in being able to say, that reach of deriving any advantage from it himself, either now or in future. He is, of course, necessarily exonerated from even the suspicion of having any interested motive in devoting himself to this needful and important service.

"In making this appeal to the liberality of Christians, the writer thinks he may especially and most confidently reckon upon the zealous co-operation, not only of the ministers and officers of Congregational Societies, but he also

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