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LONDON Published for the European Magazine by Asperne 32. Cornbill Decisi

The Rev William Bengo Collyer).

Engraved by Meyer from an original Painting by Drummond Eq. RA

MEMOIR OF THE

REV. WILLIAM BENGO' COLLYER, D.D. F.A.S.

MINISTER

OF HANOVER CHAPEL, PECKHAM, AND OF SALTERS' HALL, LONDON, VICE-PRESIDENT, AND HONORARY MEMBER, OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; ETC. ETC. ETC.

(WITH A PORTRAIT, ENGRAVED BY HENRY MEYER, FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING BY SAMUEL DRUMMOND, ESQ. A.R.A.]

"Much impress'd

Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly, that the flock he feeds
May feel it too;-Affectionate in look;
And tender in address, as well becomes
The messenger of grace to guilty men.
- Behold the picture!"-

XALTED in the scale of nations by

COWPER.

bliss beyond it, and which unfold to

E those many blessings conferred by man the knowledge of his duties here

Heaven upon herself alone, England may indeed be proud of all those immunities, which, like the rocks and seas encircling her happy Isle, seem to divide her from every land beside, and to fix our Britain," A world within itself." -Through all her vicissitudes of fate, and all the changes of Time, and all the difficulties of peril, still have those blessings been as it were by miracle preserved, an evidence of past protection, and a pledge for future confidence. Yet amidst that magnificence of Fame, which pours its floods of splendour round her brow, there is a ray more pure, more bright, more permanent, than all those, which Valour can bestow, or Victory can consecrate. In England, Religion's sacred light sheds upon all around its holy influence, and, like the pillared fire of Israel, beams at once her guide, her protection, and her glory. Even in the darkest periods of her history, and the most appalling moments of her danger. and the gloomiest hours of her apprehension, still has the distant horizon been illumined by its beacon flame, and still have her hopes been cheered, and supported, and realized beneath its heavenly influence. In Britain, the sanctuaries of her Faith have been the bulwarks of her Rights, and Freedom, and those altars which have witnessed the Christian's worship of his Creator, have also made sacred the Briton's loyal vow of fealty to his Sovereign, and of attachment to his country.

From England, even to the extremes of the four winds of creation, has gone forth the Angel-song of "Peace on earth, and of good will to man.". From her stores of wisdom has been sent over every sea, and unto every shore, that blessed word of Truth, whose precepts teach defiance to the fear of Death, by pointing to an eternity of

and of his hopes hereafter.-England, famed in the annals of the World, for all that is great in valour, and renowned in enterprise, and mighty in achievement,-whom Providence has ever blest with a peculiar care, and gifted with a peculiar favour,-the rampart home of exiled Liberty, when' driven out from all lands else,-the sanctuary of the slave,-the refuge from oppression, and the Palladium of many a realm's last hope! -- all distinguished as she justly is for these, yet is England more celebrated for that piety, which shall embalm the memory of its possessors with a radiance, that will endure when sun and stars are blotted from the map of Nature, and when all the pageants of this earth are perished, and forgotten, as though they had not been.

Emanating from this sacred source, the example, and the effects of British philanthropy, have been extended to the remotest verge of human population,

have spread its sympathies over the whole brotherhood of man, and amidst the wilderness,-the desarts, and the mountains of other climes, have scattered the peaceful virtues of Christian benevolence, and have softened into repose the savage horrors of uncivilized barbarity, by the mild and hallowed influence of Christian kindness. — To this pure source also may be traced that charity, which blest, and blessing as it flows, has given an example to every other nation of the world, and has raised the character of our country higher among the kingdoms of the earth, than all her triumphs ; — has ennobled her with a fame, compared with which, the conqueror's glories sink into obscurity, and laurels, nurtured with the blood of war, fade blighted from that wreath, where flourish only those Elysian Bowers of Para

--

dise, no age can wither, and no storm destroy.

Nor is Great Britain less renowned for the exemplary conduct of their characters, who are the teachers of her holy religion, and the dispensers of her sacred rites. Amongst the clergy, of all sects, are very many, whose genius, whose piety, and whose attainments, would have ranked high, even amidst those great names, which were so justly the pride of each past age in which they lived, and whose memories have received the homage, the reverence, and the admiration, of all succeeding generations. The churches of our venerable Establishment are distinguished by num bers, who are indeed the ministers of their God, and who well deserve to be the spiritual successors of those, who, on the scaffold, and amidst the flames, bore witness to the truths they taught. -In the Church of Scotland,-the impassioned eloquence, the fervid devotion, and the commanding talents of a CHALMERS, Well sustain that blaze of reputation which the virtues of her sons have thrown around it, and that eminence of piety for which it has been so long conspicuous. From the planetary orbs of Heaven, he has drawn down another ray of light, and of intelligence, to earth, and the starry worlds of astronomy have, by the uncontrouled power of his genius, shed a new, and an hitherto unknown effulgence upon the Christian revelation. Amongst the dissenters from our Na. tional Church, are also many, whose unaffected devotion, and superior learning, are at once an honour to their age and country, and a blessing to the congregations entrusted to their charge.High in this bright enrolment stands the name of COLLYER; and in narrating a brief detail of his history, we feel convinced of all our readers estimating as we do, his distinguished talents and deserved fame.

WILLIAM BENGO' COLLYER, the only surviving son of Thomas and Ann Collyer, was born on the 14th of April, 1782, at Deptford, in Kent, where his father was a builder, and in the vicinity of which village his respected parents Jet reside. Out of four other children, none having lived to attain the age of two years, the hopes of the family became centred all in him, towards whom they naturally looked, as the last stay of their declining age,-the last promise of sustaining their name

and memory. Excepting an eager anxiety and prepossession for the ministry, which developed itself with the earliest of his childish propensities, and has never since varied, nothing particu lar is to be noticed of his boyhood. Many anecdotes might indeed be related of his infantine wit and learning, but they would be only those which the parental fondness of every mother treasures of her child, and which, perhaps, the intuitive penetration of maternal partiality only can discover. At the very early age of three years, he was sent to school, principally with the view of removing him out of hearing of the profanity of his father's work. men, who were at that period extremely numerous, and whose unrestrained conversation was very unfit to meet the ears of childhood. In the course of the following three years, he was removed to a superior school, and at the age of eight, was admitted into the public seminary belonging to the Leathersellers' Company, on Lewisham Hill. The juvenile studies of William Collyer were there distinguished by that love of reading which he still so ardently retains, and all his little store of pocket money was expended in purchasing books of history and science, to gratify a curiosity, which every additional volume only the more excited. With the Roman history, and Heathen mythology, he was deeply and peculiarly interested; and there was laid the foundation of those classical acquirements, which have been since so eminently distinguished in the research of Eastern antiquity, and Scripture criticism. Then it was that he afforded to his family the promise of repaying all their cares, in the dawn of that genius which gladdened his parents' hearts with the prospect of his one day becoming, their boast and ornament. At that public school he continued until nearly thirteen years of age; when, early in 1795, he was placed as an academic candidate, at the Old College, Homerton, under the care of the late Rev, John Fell, as preparatory to his admission into that seminary, when be should attain the age prescribed for students. In 1798, he was entered as a scholar, and admitted to the Divinity Lectures, after successfully passing the ordeal of a scrupulous examination in the Greek and Latin Classics, when scarcely sixtecu. The subsequent three years and an half were passed under the care of the resident tutors of the College,

aided by the instructions of the late Rev. Dr. Fisher, then Divinity Professor. Dr. Collyer, however, owes much of his present celebrity to the private friendship and valuable information of the late Rev. Dr. Henry Hunter, of the Scots' Church, London-wall; a man whose memory must be ever dear, while piety and literature are respected, and whose illustrious talents, and energetic benevolence, will be held sacred, when his monument has mouldered over the dust it covers. An extract from the "Remains of the Rev. Ebenezer White," will scarcely require an apology for its insertion here, as it will be at least so far interesting, as it presents the author's recollections of Dr. Collyer a few years previous to the period now mentioned, and expresses in affectionate, if not in poetic num. bers, the faithful reminiscences of early friendship.

"But One I prized with tenderness and love,

Whom sense and piety alike adorned.
Thou wast all life and action, thy fair form
Could, as thy sprightlier genius,-frisk
along,

And make the dull spectator stand aghast!
And what were froth, and silly sport in

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name

The Christian Cicero!-my Collyer still,"

During the vacations at Homerton, and indeed as early as at thirteen years of age, Dr. Collyer was in the habit of teaching at various Sunday schools, within nine miles of his father's residence on Blackheath Hill, and of publicly addressing the children, their parents, and such of the villagers as chose to attend, at the close of the instructions. In the year 1800, and when little more than eighteen, he opened his ministry at Peckham, after having previously preached several sermons in London, and in different parts of Kent. The congregation was at that time exEurop. Mag. Vol. LXXII. Nov. 1817.

tremely small; but having rapidly increased after his first regular attendance, he, in 1801, received an unanimous invitation to become their Minister, and was ordained there in the following December. After two successive enlargements, in 1803 and 1808, the chapel being still very inadequate to the accommodation of those numerous families who were anxious to become hearers of Dr. Collyer, the old building was, in 1816, entirely taken taken down, and an elegant and commodious structure, called "Hanover Chapel," erected partly upon the same site, and partly upon an additional plot of ground purchased for that purpose. The ancient edifice having been originally reared in 1717, and the present building finished, and opened in June 1817, a precise century was then completed from its first establishment as a church at Peckham; but we may venture to assert, that during that extended lapse of years, its pulpit has never been occupied by talents more splendid, or piety more sincere, than at the present moment.-The new chapel was attended, at its opening, by H.R.H. the Duke of SUSSEX, and is calculated to contain upwards of 1300 persons.

Upon the decease of the late cele brated Rev. Hugh Worthington, Dr. Collyer received an invitation to become his successor as Minister of the Church at Salters' Hall. This request was, of course, referred to the congregation at Peckham, their concurrence being considered as essential to a measure, which must necessarily involve some change of arrangement. That, however, being readily effected by a slight alteration in tire times of service, Dr. Collyer was thus enabled to blend the duties of both chapels, and entered upon his charge at the former place on the first Sunday in 1814, where he still continues preaching, on each Sabbath afternoon, to an increased and increasing congregation of the highest respectability. With respect to Dr. Collyer's religious sentiments, as dissenting from our National Establishment, it is only necessary to observe, that they have never, for a moment, alienated his regard from those who differ from him in opinion, and that his principles of Christian piety have been constantly exemplified by the practice of Christian benevolence. That those principles are conscientious, we have abundant proof 3 G

in his refusal of that high church preferment, which in 1808, and at several subsequent periods, was, to our certain knowledge, offered for his acceptance, and in declining which, from motives such as these, has graced his character with a dignity which no clerical elevation could have bestowed. In his habits of intimacy, and correspondence with the late Bishops of London, Peterborough, and St. David's, has also been evinced the highest testimony of their appreciation of his worth and talents, an expression of opinion, which is amply confirmed by the friendship of some of the most dis tinguished prelates who now dignify the bench. Of the noble, as well as princely patronage, with which, on various occasions, Dr. Collyer has been honoured, it is unnecessary to enter into any detail, because we are well aware, that such Royal condescension had its origin in some of the purest feelings which animate the human breast, and was neither offered to administer to pride, nor accepted to gratify vanity. The exercise of Royal kindness is never more graceful than when its influence is extended to exalt virtue, or to advance learning; and we are satisfied, that in the present instance, both those objects have been completely attained. The acknowledgment of Dr. Collyer's merits has not, however, been confined to the metropolis, or to England. In the year 1808, he received from the University of Edinburgh, a diploma of Doctor in Divinity, as a compliment to his celebrated volume of Lectures on Scripture Facts:" a distinction valuable indeed in itself, but doubig estimable when thus conferred.

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Few remarks are necessary to conclude, and those few will be anticipated by all who are acquainted with our subject. As a preacher, Dr. Collyer ranks among the most popular of the present day; and though we by no means consider this as an unerring proof of excellence, yet public opinion is here supported by the concurrent testimony of the wise and good. Both his Sermons and Lectures are distin guished by a depth of research, a fidelity of doctrine, and a closeness of argument, which are rendered doubly interesting by a superior elegance of style, and an unusual amplitude of illustration. Objections have, we know, been made to that species of oratory,

which we are now regarding as an excellence; but those who censure such attention to the choice of language, forget that there are numbers, whose tastes must be captivated before their judgments are assailed, and with whom, the graces of elocution, and the charms of composition, are the indispensible harbingers of that more impressive plainness, which produces conviction, and enforces truth, by appealing to the heart. Surely, however, even such perverted imaginations are not entirely to be neglected, nor ought such corrupted tastes to be regarded as unworthy of all attention. The solemn lessons of Christianity are certainly not diminished in importauce when arrayed in the garb of eloquence; and those who attempt to imitate the zeal of Paul, would do well if they endeavoured to imitate his learning also. Pleasing in his person, and graceful in his manner, the plaintive and feeling tones of Dr. Collyer render his eloquence peculiarly interesting; and though his language and his expressions may occasionally require more extent of variety, and a greater choice of selection, yet this defect arises only from being too readily satisfied with doing well, what he is capable of doing so much better.-As an author, his merits have been already amply discussed by abler pens than our's; and the restricted limits here, permit us not to enter, either into their examination of their eulogy. His various discourses have been equally admired from the press, as from the pulpit; and a sale as rapid as it has been extensive, has at least evinced their popularity. We subjoin a list of the most important of those works for which the world is indebted to the labours of Dr. Collyer.

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Fugitive Pieces for the Use of Schools." 2 volumes, 1803.

"Lectures on Scripture Facts,”—

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