Shower, John

Shower, John, an eminent Dissenting minister, was born at Exeter, England, in 1657, and received his early education at that place., At the age of fourteen he removed to the academy of Mr. Warren, at Taunton, and some time after was placed under the care of Mr. Morton, Newington-green, London. He preached his first sermon in his twentieth year; and in 1678, when an evening lecture against popery was established in Exchange Alley, he was one of the lecturers. In the following year he was privately ordained, and chosen assistant to Mr. Vincent Alsop. In 1683 he traveled on the Continent with Mr. Cornish, the nephew of Sir Samuel Barnardiston, where he became acquainted with many Protestant divines. Returning to England, he resumed his lectures in Exchange Alley, but, owing to measures pursued by James II, he retired to Holland, where he was chosen evening lecturer to the English Church. Returning to London in 1690, he labored with Mr. Howe, but soon took charge of a Church in Old Jewry, which, under his labors, greatly prospered. He died June 28, 1715. He published, Mourner's Companion (1692, 1699, 12mo): — Family Religion (Lond.1694, 8vo): — Funeral Discourses (1699, 2 vols. 12mo): — Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity (1699, 8vo), of which there are many editions: — Heaven and Hell (1700, 12mo): — Sacramental Discourses (1702, 8vo): — Winter Meditations (1709, 8vo). See Tong

[Wm.], Memoirs and Funeral Sermon (1716, 8vo); Bennett, Hist. of Dissenters (Lond. 1833), 2, 331.