London. Mr, Mills made a probationary residence for se veral months among them, and received an harinonious and urgent invitation from that people, "to take the oversight of them in the Lord." With this call he complied; and was solemnly set apart to the pastoral charge at Walworth, May 29, 1793. Nothing can equal the joy with which he was received by the people at Walworth, but the regret felt and expressed by the people at Dorchester on his removal from them. By a letter from a gentleman, dated March 4, 1796, it appears that he carried with him to his grave the esteem and affection of all who attended his ministry there, especially of those to whom it was blessed; and that the news of his death filled their eyes with tears, and their hearts with concern. He had not lived long at Walworth, until he won the hearts of his connections there, as was visible on the faces of his auditory, which greatly increased during his residence among them. His life and labours, however, were to be but of short duration. Being 'naturally of a consumptive habit, and afflicted with a nervous complaint, he was of late years subject to a great depression of spirits, which was much increased by his intense application to study. There were too principal occurrences which, under the permission of Providence, tended to shorten his earthly course. One was, his breaking a blood vessel, whilst he was preaching in the market place at Wareham, in Dorsetshire, where he dropped down, and was carried into a neighbouring house. Although he recovered soon from this alarming illness, there is reason to think that it laid the foundation of future complaints, as, frequently afterwards, he was subject to a pain in his side, and spitting of blood. The other concurrence, referred to above, was an act of ill-judged humanity to a near relative, which forms a practical comment on Solomon's doctrine concerning suretyship for a friend (Prov. vi. 1, &c.) This affair brought him ultimately into embarrassments, from which, in endeavouring to extricate himself, he undesignedly involved some of his best friends. That his temporal ciroumstances deeply affected his mind, and tended not a little to injure his health, may be concluded from that pensive gloom which he discovered, even in company, and which some of his friends were at a loss to account for. Pity it was that he allowed his incumbrances to crush crush him so sorely; for had he had courage to have submitted the whole extent to his friends, they might have been easily put into a train of settlement, more expeditious than that which he proposed to himself. Weakness and disease, however, made rapid advances: no medical advice, no change of air, no relaxation from the fatigues of office, could arrest their progress. Pale death now visibly approached, and paved gradually the way for his entire and ultimate conquest. The issue being no longer dubious, Mrs. Mills wrote to her friends at Dorchester; one of whom a relation from whom Mr. Mills had considerable expectations), came to Walworth to see him before he died, and to do the needful offices of attention and sympathy to his afflicted family *. On the morning of Jan. 11, 1796, he finished his course, and entered into his Master's joy, in the thirty-third year of his age, and the thirteenth of his ministry. So slow, so silent, so imperceptible was his passage through the dark valley, that it may be literally said, he fell asleep in Jesus. He was interred in the burying ground behind his meeting house, Jan. 20. His endowments, natural and acquired, were considerable for his years; his understanding was vigorous; his imagination lively; his memory retentive; his composition accurate; and his delivery in the pulpit peculiarly sweet, engaging, and impressive. His natural temper, though rather close and reserved, was mild and gentle. He was humane and charitable, perhaps to a fault: such were his tender feelings towards the indigent, that, in relieving their difficulties, he seemed sometimes as if he had forgotten his own. Conviction, not education, made him a dissenter from the Church of England. Considerable inducements to join the Establishment were held out by some rich relations, who themselves were churchmen; but these could not prevail to make him swerve from what he conceived to be the path of truth and duty. MILNER, JOSEPH, was born at Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His parents, though neither great It is not a little remarkable, that the relation alluded to above, soon after Mr. Mills's decease, when she designed to return home to Dorchester, was taken ill, died in a few days after, and (by her own particular request) was interred in the same grave with him. VOL. III.-No. 67. 3 D nor nor noble in this world, were ornaments in that station in which an all-wise Providence had placed them. His early discovery of taste for literature induced his friends to send him to the Free Grammar School, and afterwards to Cambridge, where he made such proficiency as to obtain an honorary prize, the reward of his classical attainments. Upon his entrance into the ministry, there appeared in him great integrity and earnestness. At this season his religious sentiments were orthodox rather than evangelical. Convinced, however, that religion was more than a form, the ministry more than an office of honour and emolument, and that without holiness no man can see the Lord," he laboured with much assiduity, if possible, to establish his own righteousness; and, he sometimes remarked, few persons could conceive what a difficulty it had been to him to unlearn what before it had cost him such pains to acquire. His prevailing desire was to be right; and, therefore, in him was verified the truth of our Lord's remark, that “if a man will do his will, he shall know of his doctrine whether it be of God." Comparing his religious sentiments with the word of truth, he began to suspect that all was not right; the deeper he searched, the more his suspicions were increased and confirmed. This gradually brought him to sit at the feet of Christ, that he might learn the truth from his mouth. About this time Luther's comment upon the Epistle to the Galatians fell in his way; a work which was not only then rendered particularly useful to him, but for which he retained the greatest respect to the day of his death. He now saw himself to be in that very state, in which the word of God represents all the unregenerate; and with him it was not a speculative nicety, but a subject of infinite importance, how a guilty sinner could be justified before a holy God. The truth as it is in Jesus, accompanied with its divine evidence and energy, gradually prevailed against those strong holds of prejudice with which his mind had been hitherto fortified. He received it as "a faithful saying, and worthy of all his acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of sinners." This important change of sentiment and of heart took place some years after he had been settled in Hull, as lecturer and master of the Free Grammar School. Instead of this, as he received it of the Lord, so he delivered it to them, discovering discovering error by a gradual display of truth. It might be said of him, both as a Christian and as a minister of the Gospel, that "his path was as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." So forcibly and so effectually did he commend himself to every man's conscience, as, in the sight of God, that his greatest opponents could not but revere his honest sincerity. To all it was evident, that whether, they supposed him right or wrong, he was in earnest; and, that because he believed, therefore had he spoken. His whole heart was in his work. In the service of the Gospel he was assiduous and gentle, as a faithful shepherd seeking the good of all. While in the graces of the Christian he flourished as the palm tree, he was deep rooted in knowledge and experience as the cedar of Lebanon. To know Christ and him crucified was his daily study, and to make him known was the grand subject of his public ministry. He preached Christ Jesus the Lord, and held himself the servant of the people, for Christ's sake. For many years he rode every Saturday afternoon.to Welton, where in the evening he prayed, and expounded the Scriptures, and the people flocked to the house where he lodged, to hear him. On the Lord's day morning, he preached at North Ferriby, of which he was vicar and afterwards returned to Hull, where, in the afternoon, he published the Gospel to a very crowded and attentive audience. Every other Wednesday forenoon he delivered a lecture in the church; and on a Thursday he read prayers and expounded the Scriptures in Lister's Hospital. Not only the poor upon the charity, but persons of great respectability attended. His labours in this place were, perhaps, as much owned of God for general and abiding usefulness as any in which he engaged. Here he delivered himself with the greatest freedom, faithfulness, and affection; and a peculiar savour and blessing attended the word. In whatever he engaged, he made it evident that conscience was concerned. As a preceptor, his aim was at once to furnish the minds of his pupils with useful knowledge, and to cultivate their hearts. Every possible oppor It was through the interest and patronage of Mr. Alderman Wilberforce, grandfather to the present member for the county of York, Dost of his preferments in the church, in the earlier part of his life, were received. tunity was seized to enforce good morals, and to illustrate truth, by leading their minds to God as the source of all science, and to Jesus Christ as the fulness of all truth. Ia conversation he was so affable and instructive, that probably he never left any company, but they were constrained to admire either his learning as a man, his piety as a Christian, or his fidelity as a minister, But with all his excel-ce lencies, like others, he had his imperfections. Perhaps some of his greatest conflicts were with himself. For he not only preached, but felt the deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart; and his natural temper being rather irritable, though this might be seldom visible to any but himself, yet he found by experience, that it required all the influence of Divine grace to soften and meliorate his spirit. Upon the death of the rev. Thomas Clarke, D. D. Mr. Milner was inducied to the vicarage of the Holy Trinity, Hull. This he enjoyed but a very short season; for, scarcely had he entered upon his new residence before he was called up to his heavenly mansion. The catarrh under which he had frequently laboured, greatly increased; and, attended with other complaints, threatened a speedy dissolution. During his illness he was much in prayer for the flock committed to his charge; and though for a season he had great soul conflicts, to an intimate friend he afterwards said, "Satan cannot bring one charge against me now, but I am able to answer it." Toward the close of life he slumbered much; and, on Nov. 15, 1797, aged fifty-three, he finally closed his labours, and entered into his eternal rest, In 1781 he published, "Gibbon's Account of Christianity considered, with some Strictures on Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion."-About 1785 appeared, "Some remarkable Passages in the Life of William Howard;"-and, in 1789, Essays on Religious Subjects, particularly on the Influences of the Holy Spirit."-The first volume of his "History of the Church," was published in 1794; the year following appeared the second volume; a third he left nearly ready for the press; and he brought that down to about the time of the Reformation. MOODY, JAMES, was descended from pious ancestors, who resided at Paisley, in Scotland: his grandfather and grandmother were the first of the family who removed to London; where Mr. Moody was born in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, April 2, 1756. When a child, he discovered |
