Academy at Northampton, under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Horsey. Here he pursued his studies with diligence, and by his regular habits, and the intelligence and fidelity with which he performed his duties, secured the confidence of his tutors, and the respect and affection of his fellowstudents.

In 1795, he left the Academy, and went to Kidderminster, to superintend a school endowed by the late Mr. Pearsall, where he remained nearly two years. But his venerable father, feeling the infirmities of declining years, was anxious to receive the assistance of his son. In compliance, therefore, with his father's wish, and with that of the congregation, Mr. Blake removed from Kidderminster to Crewkerne to assist his father, and preached his first sermon there on the first Sabbath in August, 1797. At this period he also supplied the congregation at Yeovil. But his father's health continuing to decline, that respectable minister resigned his connexion as pastor, and took leave of his congregation in that capacity in an affectionate farewell discourse from 1 Cor. xv. 58, on July 29, 1798. He did not, however, wholly withdraw from the service of the pulpit, till the October following, when the rapid progress of his disease confined him, first to his house, and then to his bed, and on March 29, 1799, terminated his mortal exist

monition to his public discourses. By this means he fixed and received attention, while he engaged and won the affections. Both in public and in private life he discovered that the gemuine principles of the holy religion he taught, influenced his mind and regulated his whole conduct. His piety was unaffected, and accompanied by such an amiable simplicity and suavity of manners, as made it sit easy and graceful upon him. In social life he was a kind and tender husband; an affectionate, indulgent parent; a sincere and warm friend; and he was candid, generous, benevolent and humane towards all. No man ever made more charitable allowances for the prejudices, imperfections, frailties and faults of others, who took such pains to be free from them himself. Though grave and sedate he ever discovered an habitual, decorous cheerfulness, and such equanimity, that few, if any, ever saw his temper ruffled or his mind discomposed."

On his father's resignation, Mr. Blake was unanimously chosen sole pastor of the congregation at Crewkerne, where he remained till his death, having spent a period of twenty-four years in uninterrupted harmony with his congregation, every individual of which honoured him as a minister and loved him as a friend. The disease which, on Feb 18, 1821, put a period to his existence, in the prime of life, in the midst of his usefulness, and while he was enjoying and diffusing much happiness, attacked insidiously: many days it proceeded in its work of destruction before it excited his own apprehension, or the serious fears of his family; yet too soon, alas, it gave dreadful proof that the stroke it had inflicted was mortal! It was with a bitterness of anguish which, but for the solaces of religion, would have been truly terrible, this awful truth was perceived by his near relatives, and the intelligence of his death spread consternation and sorrow through the town and neighbourhood. His remains were followed to the tomb by a long train of mourners, who wept for him as for a friend and brother. The solemn service was performed by the Rev. T. Thomas, of Wareham, and on the Sunday following the Rev. Samuel Fawcett, of Yeovil, delivered a funeral

him acquainted even with the bitter ness of sorrow, and put his trust in the wisdom and goodness of God to a severe test. But with humble and dutiful resignation he did submit to the Divine will, and exemplified in himself the efficacy of those principles to soothe and sustain the wounded spirit, which he so well knew how to recommend to others. About a twelvemonth ago, death a second time entered his family. There was one most engaging child to whom by peculiar circumstances his parents were endeared in an uncommon manner. After brief warning, he was taken from them: the stroke was severe, and severely it was felt; but the mourners remembered, that He who gave in mercy, in mercy took away, and the feelings of humanity were moderated and sustained by the principles of Christianity. Ah, little did she who then wept such bitter tears, imagine that she should so soon be called to endure another and a deeper woe! Unlooked for the dreadful affliction came. It is past. Yes, the bitterness of anguish is past! She has looked for solace to the God of all consolation, and, blessed be his name, she has not looked in vain!

The character of Mr. Blake as a minister was no less exemplary than his conduct as a man. He was faithful in declaring what he conceived to be the whole counsel of God. His own mind was strongly impressed with a sense of the great truths of the gospel, and, glowing with love and gratitude to God and benevolence to man, he spake from the heart to the heart. He had a deep conviction that piety is not a rapturous feeling, but a fixed and steady principle arising from just views of the perfections and providence of God, affecting the heart at all times, and regulating the conduct under all circumstances; and that a preparation for heaven must be obtained, not by trusting in the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ, but by obeying his precepts, by imitating his example, by controlling the selfish and cherishing the generous affections, and by seeking personal happiness in the promotion of the happiness of others. And these truly Christian principles he not only laboured to impress upon his hearers in earnest and affectionate language, but he lived the precepts which he taught. His character, indeed, was

uniformly and impressively consistent with his office. And out of the pulpit he was quite as much the pastor of his flock as in it. Whenever any of his people were in sickness or affliction, his attentions to them were most kind and soothing. Over the poor he took a special charge. And, indeed, to the poor in general he was such an intelligent, zealous and powerful friend, and in all seasons of peculiar severity and distress the services he rendered them were so eminent, that the feeling is universal in the neighbourhood, that his place, now, alas, vacant, cannot be speedily filled!

When he left the Academy, his theological opinions probably approximated most nearly to those of Arianism, at least respecting the pre-existence of Christ; but a more close examination of Scripture terminated in his conviction of the truth and importance of proper Unitarianism.* And this is abundantly manifest from the devotional services for the public worship of the one true God, which he selected and published, and which he used in the congregation at Crewkerne. His views, indeed, of the Divine nature and character, of the object of worship, of the Divine placability, of the government of the Deity, and of the tendency of his dispensations to produce, and their efficacy to secure, the ultimate purity and happiness of the human race, were in perfect unison with the doctrines of this enlightened and benevolent system. And deeming these opinions of unspeakable importance to the best interests of mankind, it was the frequent object of his discourses to explain and defend them, and to shew, that though they are sometimes termed controversial, yet that of all opinions, these have the best claim to the name of practical. And yet the strain of his preaching was by no means controversial. Plain, serious and scriptural, it was eminently calculated

• By this it is by no means intended to insinuate, that any speculation respecting the pre-existence of Christ, and the rank he holds in the creation, can honourable name of Unitarian. He who exclude a person from his claim to the believes that there is but one God, in one person, and that that God alone is the proper object of worship, is, in the writer's judgment, a Unitarian.

to inspire the mind with the profoundest reverence and love of the Supreme Being, and to give it the most just views of human nature and of human duty; and the longer he lived, and the more he reflected, the stronger his conviction became, that this is the best means of inculcating virtue and of cherishing piety. That the doctrines common to all Christians, and the duties and hopes arising out of these, must and ought to form the most frequent subject of the discourses of the Christian minister, there can be no doubt; but surely no reflecting person will deny, that there are other opinions which ought occasionally to be discussed in the pulpit, with all possible plainness and freedom. Abstaining from all harsh censure of others; abstaining even from every expression which, though in itself strictly just, will be deemed offensive, especially when the same idea may be conveyed in language which will give no offence; it must at the same time be the imperative duty of the minister of the gospel, to state clearly and to defend fearlessly, every opinion which he may consider true and important, whether it be popular or not popular, and whether it tend to conciliate favour or to occasion clamour: for truth is of still greater value than peace. *

* And it ought never to be forgotten, that the Sunday is the only day on which there is any certainty that the minds of the people will be directed to these subjects and that, at all events, the public services of the Sunday afford the Christian minister the only opportunity he is sure of, in which he can make the people acquainted with the prevailing and most pernicious corruptions of their religion, and with the evidence on which are established the pure and cheering doctrines of genuine Christianity. In the degree, therefore, in which Christianity is of value; in the degree in which an uncorrupted Christianity is necessary to accomplish the moral and spiritual purposes of its institution, in this degree it is indispensable that these topics should be sometimes discussed in the pulpit. For how, in any other manner, can the people be secured from the general and unwearied exertions which are made to mislead them, by those who possess the public ear, and who have on their side all the influence afforded by long-established and popular systems, supported by splendid establishments? By what means is this

That the pious and excellent minister whose loss we now deplore was deeply convinced of this truth, that he thoroughly understood the importance of religious inquiry, and the duty of a fearless avowal of religious opinion, he has left an unquestionable and valuable proof. *

"An ardent love of truth," he says,+ "a determination to follow wherever she may conduct the mind, and to obey her dictates whatever may be the consequences; a zealous attachment to that pure and sublime Christianity

almost overwhelming power to be resisted, if ministers are not to declare to their own people, their own convictions, and the reasons by which these convictions have been induced? It is sometimes

objected, indeed, that to treat of such subjects in the pulpit, is to occupy the time which ought to be devoted to moral and religious instruction, in the discussion of speculative opinions; but to this it is replied, that it is precisely because the opinions alluded to are pre-eminently practical, that the frequent consideration of them is contended to be of paramount will any one say, that the Calvinistic importance and of indispensable necessity. doctrine of Election, for example, has nothing to do with moral feeling and moral conduct; that it is a mere barren speculation, and that it is not the duty of the Christian minister to give his hearers what he conceives to be enlightened and scriptural views concerning it? O, whatever prejudice and error may fear, and fear suggest, surely in the serious review of the manner in which he has performed the duties of his ministry, in that solemn hour when his ministry and his life are about to close, that man will feel, and will have the best reason to feel, self-satisfaction, who is conscious to himself that, to the utmost of his ability, he has studied the sense of Scripture; and that, without hesitation, without reserve, and without fear, he has uniformly and faithfully stated that sense to his people, in language too clear and precise to be misunderstood,

See The Right and Duty of Private Judgment and Free Inquiry, on Religious Subjects, asserted and enforced, in a Discourse, delivered at Poole in Dorset, on Wednesday, June 27th, 1810, before a Society of Unitarian Christians established in the South of England for promoting the genuine Knowledge of the Scriptures and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books. [See Mon. Repos. VI. 177.]

+ Ibid. p. 45.