One blot which deforms this part of the work we would gladly efface,—an invocation of the Divine displeasure against the Church of Rome, conceived in terms hardly consistent with the spirit of the Gospel of peace, especially against those whom he was bound, in conformity with his own most just and liberal principles, to receive as fellow-disciples and fellow-Christians. In passing judgment, however, on this, and some other passages of a like character which are found in his writings, we must remember that Foster lived a hundred years nearer than ourselves to the time when Popery was, not without reason, the grand object of alarm and dread to all lovers of civil and religious liberty, and make allowance for the prevailing spirit of the age, of which, though such spirits as his might be expected to take the lead, they could not always escape the influence.
This work was published by subscription, and the list of subscribers, extending to nearly two thousand names, comprises many of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom for rank, and every kind of eminence; a circumstance the more remarkable, because the author, in this as in most of his other writings, though he does not bring his religious peculiarities frequently or prominently forward, neglects no suitable opportunity of illustrating the intimate connexion of the duties and eternal interests of man with what he considers as just and scriptural views of revealed truth.
