REV. ANDREW, a distinguished preacher and theological writer of the Baptist denomination, born Feb. 6, 1754, at Wickham, a village in Cambridgeshire, about seven miles from Newmarket. He received the rudiments of his education at the free school of Soham. His father was a small farmer, whom he assisted as soon as he was able; till he was twenty years old. In childhood and youth he indulged in profane language and in lying, but was remarkably free from the vices of licentiousness. He had, however, strong "compunctious visitings" which never left him (some brief intervals excepted), till he was completely brought under the influence of Christian principle. He has left on record an interesting account of the commencement and progress of his spiritual life, which was greatly impeded by the contracted views of the religious people among whom he was brought up. His moral and intellectual nature was, however, composed of strong elements, and worked its way through formidable obstacles; no doubt, much of the strength and vigour it afterwards displayed was owing to the struggles and conflicts of his early manhood, or as he called them, "the gall and wormwood of his youth." In his seventeenth year he became a member of the Baptist church at Soham, and in the course of four years, after giving proofs of his abilities for public speaking, he was chosen to the pastoral office, which he filled for more than seven years, receiving from three different sources a stipend of only L.21 per annum, which he endeavoured to eke out, first by a small shop and afterwards by a school, in order to maintain himself with a wife and four children. In 1782 he removed to Kettering, in Northamptonshire, after a protracted deliberation of not only months but years, from a scrupulous dread of forsaking the path of duty, though with the prospect of absolute poverty if he remained. His conduct on this occasion (it has been justly said), "exhibits the rare spectacle of a man capable of making any sacrifice of selfish interest to his sense of duty to God and to his fellow-mortals." In his new position he was brought into frequent intercourse with several eminent ministers of his own denomination (among whom were Robert Hall and his venerable father), some of whom had enjoyed greater advantages of education than himself—who, though of characters in many points strikingly diverse, were men of deep piety, and addicted to theological inquiries. At that time the Calvinism prevalent in the Baptist denomination was mingled and overlaid with many crudities which the Genevan reformer would have disowned as foreign to his system. The writings of the great transatlantic divine Jonathan Edwards had just been introduced into Britain principally through the medium of Dr Erskine of Edinburgh; these were studied with avidity by Mr Fuller and his associates, and contributed largely to the correction and enlargement of their Fuller, religious views. Before leaving Soham, Mr Fuller, then in his twenty-sixth year, had written a treatise entitled, *The Gospel worthy of all Acceptation*, which was designed to counteract those Hyper-Calvinistic notions which had perplexed his own mind. This he sent to the press soon after his settlement at Kettering, and was involved by it in a controversy with writers who differed as much from one another as from himself. But the works on which his reputation as a theologian mainly rest are two; the first published in 1793, *The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems Examined and Compared as to their Moral Tendency*, which was attacked by Dr Toumin and Mr Kentish, to whom Fuller replied in a pamphlet entitled, *Socinianism Indefensible on the Ground of its Moral Tendency*. His second important work appeared in 1809, *The Gospel its own Witness; or the Holy and Divine Harmony of the Christian Religion contrasted with the Immorality and Absurdity of Deism*. These two treatises have lately been reprinted, with a memoir by the author's son, and form a volume of Bohn's Standard Library. Fuller also published *Expository Lectures on Genesis*, and prepared a similar volume (though not of equal interest), on the Revelation, which was published after his death. His *Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Pearce of Birmingham* will always hold a high rank among religious biographies. The greater number of his works are small in bulk, being chiefly single sermons or pamphlets, but in their last collected form fill 1000 pages royal 8vo. They all bear the stamp of a masculine, acute, and logical intellect; they are the productions of a man who thought for himself; who was deeply impressed with the majesty and worth of religious truth, and who when, after earnest search, he believed himself to possess it, held the conclusions he had reached with an unflinching tenacity. But the productions of his pen constitute only a portion of the labours of his life: he was not less a man of action than of meditation. In the year 1792 the Baptist Missionary Society was formed at Kettering by thirteen individuals, of whom Fuller was one. He was appointed secretary, and some of the brightest and palmiest days of the Society were under his administration, adding one more to the innumerable instances of the advantages (with some drawbacks) resulting from a scheme of operations being placed under the direction of one master-mind. "Friends talk to me" (he once remarked to a confidential friend), "about coadjutors and assistants, but I know not how it is, I find a difficulty." Our undertaking to India really appeared to me on its commencement to be somewhat like a few men who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine which had never before been explored. We had no one to guide us, and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, 'Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.' But, before he went down, he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us that while we lived we should never let go the rope. You understand me; there was great responsibility attached to us who began the business, and so I find a difficulty." The correspondence he maintained; the journeys he undertook (among which were five to Scotland, and one to Ireland); the pamphlets he wrote in its defence, and the discourses he preached on its behalf, a frame less robust, physically and mentally, than his could not have sustained, and his frame at last sank under these complicated and unremitting toils. He died May 7, 1815, in his sixty-second year.

In private life, Fuller's character was marked by unbounding integrity; and notwithstanding a certain uncouthness and sternness of manner, he had a heart capable of ardent and self-denying friendship, and of the tenderest affection in the domestic circle. His judgments of other men might often lean to the side of severity, but it must be recollected that he never spared himself. By one who knew him well and revered his character (the late Robert Hall), he was thought to attach too much importance to a speculative accuracy of sentiment, and to be too prone to infer the character of men from their creed; yet, in extenuation, it may be alleged that his creed was no mere formula of articles of faith, it was the perennial feeder of his moral and religious life; what wonder then that he attached a similar importance to the avowed belief of others?

It is a proof of the estimation in which Fuller's writings are held, that there have been three collected editions of them, besides American reprints. The first in ten 8vo vols.; the second in five; and the last in one royal 8vo. A memoir, principally compiled from his own papers, was published about a year after his decease by his most intimate friend and coadjutor in the affairs of the Baptist mission, the late Dr Ryland of Bristol; a second edition, with corrections and additions, appeared in 1818. A second biography, with a critical notice of his writings, was written by the Rev. J. W. Morris; and a third was prefixed by his son, the Rev. A. G. Fuller, to the second and third editions of his works. With some additional matter, it appears to be based on Dr Ryland's memoir. In the second volume of Coleridge's *Notes on English Divines* (London 1853), are a few marginalia on the "Calvinistic and Socinian Systems compared," pp. 238–243.

Thomas, one of the wittiest and most original divines of the English Church, was born in 1608 at Aldwincle in Northamptonshire. His father, who was minister of St Peter's Church in that village, conducted his education personally, and so well that Fuller was admitted of Queen's College, Cambridge, in his thirteenth year. In 1624 he took his degree of B.A., and four years later that of M.A. Shortly after taking orders, he was chosen minister of St Bennet's, Cambridge, where he attained great popularity as a preacher. In 1631 he was chosen fellow of Sidney College, and made a prebendary of Salisbury. This year is also memorable in his life as that which witnessed his maiden publication. It was a poem—now extremely scarce—entitled *David's Heinous Sin, Hearty Repentance, and Hearty Punishment*. Shortly after this he was presented to the rectory of Broad Windsor in Dorsetshire, where, as one of his biographers remarks, "he began to complete several works he had planned at Cambridge." To complete his happiness he married about this time, but had the misfortune, in 1641, to lose his wife after she had given birth to a son. Wearied with the monotonous routine of rural life, and anxious to be near the principal scene of public affairs, Fuller repaired to London, where his fame as a pulpit orator secured for him the lectureship of the Savoy. In 1640 he published his deservedly celebrated *History of the Holy War*, which brought him in both money and a great increase of repute. He was a member of the Westminster Convocation of 1640, and has left an interesting account of its proceedings in his *Church History*. In 1642 he preached a sermon in Westminster Abbey which gave great offence to the Parliamentarians. The day happened to be the anniversary of the king's inauguration, and the preacher chose for his text the words, "Yea, let him take all, so that my lord the king return in peace." The sermon, which was in the same loyal spirit as the text, involved the preacher in no little odium with the Puritan party. In the same year Fuller published his most popular and in some respects his best work, entitled *The Holy and Profane State*. Declining, on grounds of conscience, to take the oath to Parliament, he now left London and joined the king at Oxford. His majesty was desirous to hear him preach, and Fuller immediately obeyed the royal order, but so little in the spirit of a partizan that the king was disgusted and the royalist party indignant at his calm moderation. His neutral policy was singularly ill-adapted for these troublous times, and he was soon to feel in a manner to him exquisitely galling the rancour of party spirit. questation was pronounced against him, and embittered by the loss of all his books and manuscripts. Two royalist noblemen, Lord Beauchamp and Cranfield Earl of Middlesex, generously repaired this misfortune by making over to Fuller such remains of their private libraries as had escaped the ravages of the civil war. Induced to identify himself with the royal cause, and anxious to clear himself of the charge of lukewarmness, he sought and obtained, through Sir Ralph Hopton, a chaplaincy in the king's army. This office put at his disposal a good deal of time, which he turned to account by collecting materials for his Worthies of England. His numerous marches and counter-marches through the country enabled him to amass many valuable details which might otherwise have been lost. Having espoused the royal cause, he threw himself into it with vigour, and gave a memorable proof of his zeal in the defence of Basinghouse, when he was besieged there with a small party of royalists. For he animated his little garrison to so vigorous a defence that the parliamentary commander, Sir William Waller, was obliged to retire from the place with loss. When the royal forces were afterwards driven into Cornwall, Fuller took refuge in Exeter, where he preached regularly to the citizens. About this time he was appointed chaplain to the infant princess, Henrietta Maria, and presented to the living of Dorchester. During his stay at Exeter he is said to have written his work entitled Good Thoughts in Bad Times. When at length the town surrendered to the Parliament, Fuller repaired to London, where he found his Savoy lectureship occupied by another, but readily obtained in its room that of St Clement's, and subsequently of St Bride's. His appointment to these offices, however, was merely nominal, as he was "forbidden (to use his own language) till further order the exercise of his public preaching." This rigour, however, did not prevent the Earl of Carlisle from offering him in 1648 the rectory of Waltham Abbey in Essex. In this same year he published at Cambridge his Holy State, and two years later at London his Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testaments, acted thereon. His literary history of the next two or three years exhibits nothing beyond a few tracts and sermons of temporary interest, which have been long forgotten. In 1654 he married a lady of noble family, the sister of Viscount Baltinglass, and in the following year made himself notorious by persisting in the discharge of his ministerial functions, notwithstanding Cromwell's prohibition of all persons from preaching or teaching schools who had been adherents of the late king. In this year also he published his Church History of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the year MDCXLVIII., to which was appended the History of the University of Cambridge, and the History of Waltham Abbey. The Church History called forth some strictures from Heylyn in his Examen Historicum, to which Fuller replied in a tract entitled Appeal of Injured Innocence. In 1658 Lord Berkeley made him his chaplain, and presented him to the rectory of Cranford in Middlesex. It is also said that this nobleman took him over to the Hague, and introduced him to Charles II. there. Certain it is, that after the Restoration Fuller regained his lectureship at the Savoy, and was reinstated in his prebend of Salisbury. He was also appointed chaplain extraordinary to the king, made a doctor of divinity by Mandamus, and was within sight of a bishopric when a rather sudden death brought his earthly prospects to a close, 15th August 1661. He was buried in his church at Cranford, in the chancel of which a monument was erected to his memory.

The principal attribute of Fuller's genius is unquestionably wit; though, as Coleridge has well observed, "this very circumstance has defrauded him of his due praise for the practical wisdom—for the beauty and variety of the truths into which he shaped the stuff." His wit shows itself in the strangest forms, and whatever be the subject under discussion, it is sure to be presented in the wittiest guise. Sometimes it shows itself in a torrent of sarcasms so good-natured that the very person at whom they are levelled could not but join in the laugh against himself. At other times it exhausts itself in facetious stories, humorous illusions and illustrations and puns, more frequent and preposterous than those of Shakspeare himself. Even where a "lamentable accident" falls to be recorded, it is so mirthfully described that we feel ourselves more moved with laughter at the event than sympathy with the sufferers. A distressing catastrophe that befell a congregation of Catholics at Blackfriars is thus described—"The sermon began to incline to the middle, the day to the end thereof, when on a sudden the floor fell down whereon they were assembled. It gave no charitable warning groan beforehand, but cracked, broke, and fell all in an instant. Many were killed, more bruised, all frighted. Sad sight to behold the flesh and blood of different persons mingled together, and the brains of one on the head of another. One lacked a leg, another an arm, a third whole and entire, wanting nothing but breath, stifled in the ruins." In Fuller's treatment of serious or sacred subjects, however, whatever may be the appearance of profane or indecorous levity, there is never anything of the reality of it. It would, perhaps, have been safer, had he employed a less jocose phraseology when discussing grave subjects; but the whole tenor both of his life and writings proves him to have been a man of genuine religious sensibilities, not one of those who talk lightly on divine things because they feel lightly. But though one of the wittiest of men, Fuller was not merely witty. His fancy was only less characteristic and fertile than his wit, and was brilliant enough to have made the reputation of any inferior writer. But his indulgence of the dominant faculty of his mind has defrauded both his fancy and his wisdom of the admiration fairly due to them. Another faculty which Fuller possessed in rare perfection, that of memory, must not be here omitted. It is said that he could repeat five hundred strange words after once hearing them, and could make use of a sermon verbatim under the like circumstances. Another still more memorable instance of this power is recorded elsewhere. It is said that he undertook, after passing once from Temple Bar to the end of Cheapside, to tell at his return every sign as it stood in order on both sides of the way, and that he succeeded perfectly. Neither of these instances must necessarily be taken as strictly true (though far more wonderful ones are on record); but they both point to the fact that Fuller's memory was an uncommonly powerful one. As a writer, Fuller possesses many excellent qualities. Though a man of extensive erudition, he was absolutely free from all the forms of learned pedantry. His style is far more idiomatic than that of his illustrious contemporaries, Donne, Jeremy Taylor, Browne, and Burton; and he seems to have studiously avoided the Latinisms which form so large an element in their style. His sentences are simpler and shorter than theirs, and the majority of the words that compose them are of Saxon origin. This homely simplicity is to be accounted for by the fact that he used to collect the materials for his historical works, not by poring over dusty tomes in libraries, but by gossiping with the common people and listening for hours to their prolix accounts of local traditions and family legends. Though they do not display any great vigour of reasoning or wide command of principles, they are yet highly valuable as collections of admirably-told stories, reflecting quite as successfully as the most elaborate history the social spirit of that age. But though from their arrangements they are not immediately available as histories, they are a mine of wealth to more systematic and less eccentric writers. The moral spirit of Fuller's writings is admirable. His calmness and impartiality in discussing various delicate points of English ecclesiastical history contrast very favourably with the spirit of fierce partizanship displayed alike by most churchmen and dissenters of that age. It was in reference to this that Coleridge pronounced him "incomparably the most sensible, the least prejudiced great man of an age that boasted a galaxy of great men." He was a firm friend of the Established Church, and sometimes testified his attachment to it by flattering its chief dignitaries in terms unnecessarily fulsome. But it was with the deepest sorrow that he beheld the indignities practised against the Puritans, and wherever he could do so he did his best to screen and aid them.

In addition to the works already mentioned, Fuller wrote some others of less importance. These are—Andronicus, or the Unfortunate Politician, 12mo, Lond. 1646; Good Thoughts in Worse Times, 12mo, Lond. 1647; Mixt Contemplations in Better Times, 12mo, Lond. 1650; The Speech of Birds, also of Flowers, partly moral and partly mystical, 8vo, 1650. The most of Fuller's works have been several times reprinted.