FOSTER, JAMES, a nonconformist divine, highly celebrated for his pulpit eloquence and erudition, was born at Exeter in the year 1697. At the age of five he was put to the free school of that city, where his progress in the acquisition of grammar was so rapid that his master boasted of him as the most eminent genius in his school. From this seminary he went to the academy where young men designed for being clergymen in the dissenting interest were educated, and here his progress was equally great. His apprehension was remarkably quick, his judgment solid, his memory retentive, his eloquence commanding, and his talents for argumentation truly admirable; but above all, his piety was genuine, and few men possessed candour, modesty, liberality, integrity, tenderness, and benevolence, in so remarkable a degree. He commenced preacher at the age of twenty-one, and was much admired where he occasionally officiated. But the doctrine of the Trinity, which was then much agitated in the west of England, did not accord with the notions of Mr Foster, and the honesty and openness of his heart would not suffer him to conceal his opinions, which, in fact, brought so much odium upon him from the orthodox party, that he retired to another scene of action. He became pastor of a congregation at Milborne-port, in Somersetshire; but as soon as his hearers became zealously attached to what was deemed the orthodox opinion, he retired to Ashwick, under the Mendip Hills, in the same county. In this asylum he preached to two congregations at a little distance from each other, the united contributions of which did not amount to £15 per annum. In this state of poverty and obscurity he lived for some years, submitting patiently to the privations which were occasioned by his determined uprightness and sincerity. In 1720 he gave the world his Essay on Fundamentals, the design of which was to check an uncharitable and intolerant spirit, at that time extremely prevalent, by showing that the Trinitarian notion is not a fundamental article of Christianity, or made an express condition of salvation in the sacred Scriptures. A sermon accompanied this essay, entitled The Resurrection of Christ proved and vindicated, against the most important objections of the ancient Jews or modern Deists. From Ashwick, Foster removed to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where his congregation did not usually exceed twenty or thirty persons.
By reading Dr Gale's treatise on infant baptism, he became a convert to the doctrine, that immersion is the true scriptural rite, and was accordingly soon afterwards baptized in London in conformity to that mode. This unreserved manner of adopting whatever his conscience believed to be truth, excluded him from almost every religious party amongst whom he might otherwise have expected preferment. But whilst he deliberated with himself
whether he should abandon the ministry, and acquire the knowledge of some mechanical employment, Mr Robert Houlston received him into his house in the capacity of chaplain, and here his circle of acquaintances became wider and more respectable. In 1724 he was appointed to succeed Dr Gale in the Baptist congregation in Barbican, London. In 1728 he commenced a Sunday evening lecture in the Old Jewry, which he continued till within a short time of his death, with a degree of popularity which few dissenters at that time enjoyed. In 1732 appeared his work entitled The Usefulness, Truth, and Excellency of the Christian Revelation, defended against the objections contained in a late book, called Christianity as old as the Creation. In this reply Mr Foster exhibited no ordinary share of talents and ingenuity, and it was admired by the candid and judicious of every description. Dr Tindal, against whom it was written, is said to have always spoken of it with great respect. He published a volume of sermons in the year 1734, followed by three other volumes, the last of which appeared in 1744. At this time he was appointed successor to Dr Jeremiah Hunt, in the protestant congregation at Pinner's-hall. In 1746 he attended the Earl of Kilmarnock when under sentence of death for high treason, after which he published an octavo pamphlet, containing An Account of the Behaviour of the late Earl of Kilmarnock after his Sentence, and on the day of his Execution.
Foster received from Marischal College, Aberdeen, the degree of doctor in divinity, accompanied with handsome letters from the Principal and Professor Fordyce. "We beg," said the latter, "that you will be so good as to accept of the diploma, as a small mark of the sincere veneration we have for you, and of the sense we entertain of the eminent services you have done to the cause of liberty, religion, and virtue, by your writings as well as public instructions." The first volume in quarto of his Discourses on all the principal Branches of Natural Religion and Social Virtue, was published in the year 1749, and the second appeared in 1752. They were published by subscription; and to evince the high estimation in which his talents and virtues were held, two thousand names were contained in the list, many of them those of persons distinguished by their rank and literary abilities.
In the month of April 1750 he was seized with a violent distemper, from the effects of which he never thoroughly recovered; yet whilst at all able to officiate, he continued to preach till the beginning of 1752, when he had another attack, which seems to have been of a paralytic nature. After suffering for some time, he expired on the 5th of November, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. His private and public life were alike irreproachable. Foster, it appears, would have died in indigent circumstances, had it not been for the numerous subscriptions to his discourses on natural religion.
Besides the works above noticed, Dr Foster published three funeral sermons, one of which was intended for Mr Emlyn; together with a number of essays which appeared in the Old Whig.