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in the fields surrounding that town, he was observed suddenly to fall. Medical aid was instantly procured but the spark of life was extinguished, beyond hope of its revival by human skill. At first there was some reason to suppose that he had been precipitated to the ground by an obstacle which he encountered in his path, and that he had received, in consequence, a mortal blow: on a closer examination of the circumstances attending the event, it was more probably considered as the effect of an apoplectic seizure; a complaint with which he had been once alarmingly attacked, many years before, and against which, no repetition of it being apprehended, no immediate precaution had been taken. On Sunday, August 26, he was interred, among his ancestors, in the Dissenters' burial-ground at Wrexham.

The sensation produced in his family and friends at Exeter by the intelligence of his death can more easily be conceived than represented. In every place, indeed, to which the information was conveyed, it excited the deepest sorrow of those who had known him: but it was natural that he should be most lamented in that city which had been the principal scene of his labours and his happiness, and where he was most respected and beloved. One of the members of his late congregation thus wrote, upon the occasion, to the author of this memoir:

"As a friend, a minister and a tutor, Mr. Kenrick was the cause of our rejoicing, and the ground of our most sanguine hopes and expectations;and he will live in our memories while our memory shall last. The recollection of him draws from us the tear of affection and gratitude: the sorrow which the event has occasioned among us must be seen to be conceived of: but then we weep not for him: we know it is well with him-but we weep for ourselves and for our families. When we look back on his labours of love among us, we seem unable to calculate the extent of our loss."

By another respectable correspondent the feelings of affection and regret were forcibly expressed in the following paragraph:

"The late mournful event has bereaved us of a friend as dear as a brother; one whose memory I shall have reason to bless to the end of my days, and to whom I indulge the pleasing prospect of a re-union, when the sleep of death is over, never more to suffer the pangs of a separation."

The united congregations of Protestant Dissenters in Exeter made it their unanimous request to Mrs. Kenrick, "that she will consent to have published the Expositions on the New Testament delivered by their late pastor, and also two volumes

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of his Sermons*.' They justly considered that they could not erect a nobler monument to his memory; and their letter, accompanying the resolution which contained this request, is highly honourable to their principles and feelings. While they deplore the awful and afflictive dispensation which has bereaved them of a much endeared friend, and of "a minister whose learning and piety commanded their esteem and veneration-and the world of a character which, by its superior excellence, challenged distinguished respect:"—they add,

"It is our duty, and will be our interest, to endeavour to recollect those just and sublime views of the divine perfections and government which our beloved pastor was accustomed to set before us, and which appeared to have so happy an effect upon his own mind. And we would hope that many of his surviving charge will have reason for blessing his memory to the end of their days, on account of the various instruction and solid comfort he so ably and faithfully imparted."

Mr. Kenrick's knowledge was various and welldigested. With the several branches of theology he had an intimate acquaintance, which he was constantly improving. His favourite employment seems to have been the interpretation of the scripWhatever investigation he undertook, he was indefatigable in pursuing it, and was able to

tures.

Preface to Discourses, p. v.

communicate, with clearness and order, the result of his inquiries. The principal features of his mental character were a sound and discriminating judgment and a habit of deliberate attention. His stile, though seldom ornamented, is usually neat, and always remarkably simple and perspicuous; and it was evident in his conversation, as it is in his writings, that he was no common place thinker and obscrver.

In a moral and religious view, he attained to great eminence of character. Firm, upright, independent, he was, at the same time, kind and tender in his feelings, candid in his judgments, cordial and stedfast in his friendships, and generous and beneficent in his various intercourses with the world. The purity of his mind, his disinterestedness and self-denial, and the zeal which he constantly exercised for the accomplishment of important objects, were the genuine fruits of Christian piety and faith. His devotion was a principle and habit; and his consistency of conduct procured him general respect; while, united with the valuable qualities already enumerated, it cemented and increased the attachment of those who had the happiness of knowing him in private life.

Nothing so much distinguished him from the bulk of the professors of Christianity, and even from many of his brethren in the ministry, as his ardent love of religious truth. To discover and

communicate the pure doctrines of the gospel, and to promote their efficacy upon the human character, were purposes for which he spared neither time nor ease, neither early prepossessions nor personal comforts and expectations. A sound understanding enabled him to form a satisfactory and mature judgment upon points of theological dispute: his inquiries into religious subjects were carried on in the spirit of religion; and it was some presumption of the truth of the doctrines which he zealously enforced, that they were embraced by a person of such qualifications and in such circumstances. While he avowed them with fortitude, he inculcated them in love. No man was less disposed to censure others for using that liberty of private opinion which he claimed and exercised himself: but no man was more hostile to dishonourable concealment and accommodation; no one was more faithful to the obligations of Christians and Protestants; and he might truly have said, with the excellent Dr. John Jebb, "It is not my nature to give way to expediency at the expence of right. Moderation, when real, I honour: but timidity, or craft, under that appearance, I detest*."

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The sermons of Mr. Kenrick were plain and scriptural; intelligible to hearers of humble capacity and attainments, but instructive and acceptable likewise to men of reading and reflection ; and they treated, with happy variety, upon de

* Memoirs, (p. 185.) prefixed to the first Vol. of his Works

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