the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[193] Mr. Foster withdrew, and removed to Pinners' Hall, where he continued till his increasing infirmities disabled him from preaching. His argument in favour of Catholic or open communion may be seen in a letter addressed to the Rev. W. Foot, of Bristol, some years after this time, a copy of which is inserted in the Christian Reformer for February, 1832. After arguing strongly in favour of the practice from the reason of the thing, and the propriety of allowing every man to act upon the conviction of his own mind, on a point in which so many wise and excellent men have differed, he adds, ‘With respect to the scripture rule, let us but follow the same method that we are always recommending to our Paedobaptist brethren, namely, not to frame duties by inferences, and to admit of nothing as such without the express command and institution of Christ himself, and this matter will be wholly decided. For then we shall not, I think, imagine we have a sufficient warrant for confining communion to baptized believers only, unless we can produce an express rule that none but they shall be admitted to communion in any age of the Christian church, however circumstanced; and that all Christians, however sincere, pious, and exemplary in their lives, for only mistaking the nature or subjects of baptism, shall be for ever kept at a distance, and excluded from it. Alas, indeed, if this be true Christianity!’

In the year 1746, Mr. Foster was called upon to perform a melancholy office, in attending on the Earl of Kilmarnock, who was then in the Tower under sentence of death for high-treason, to assist him in preparing for his last moment