MAID-LANE.-Presbyterian, Extinct. and believed and practised what he preached to others. He lived in a firm persuasion of the invisible world, and in preparing himself and others diligently for it. Humility was his clothing and ornament; and prayer and praise his constant delight. The holy scriptures were his continual study, in comparison of which he counted all other learning but dross; yet he took great delight in the writings of the two Alleines, of Mr. Corbet, and other Puritans. The Lord'sday, and the solemn worship of God were his delight. He considered the life of a minister in some respects scandalous, if it were not exemplary, and managed with greater strictness than that of ordinary Christians. His serious piety was crowned with extensive charity; for which purpose he made conscience to lay aside a fit proportion of whatever the providence of God dispensed to him. He was a sincere lover of all good men, in whom he could discern any thing of real goodness, and did not confine the church of Christ to a party. As a minister, his heart was in his work; his whole aim being the honour of Christ, and the salvation of souls. Although he was well qualified, with very little preparation, to speak pertinently and usefully upon any subject; yet he made conscience not to give to God that which cost him nothing. He would not utter any thing in public which he had not considered, digested and prayed over; nor would he presume, in the name of Christ, to vent raw and indigested notions, or to entertain his hearers with any loose and rambling thoughts as they came into his head. His style was neither loose nor affected. He never meddled with controversies in the pulpit, and in opening and applying the truth of the gospel carefully avoided extremes. Whilst he exhorted men to work out their own salvation with diligence, he cautioned them to rely only on the mediation and righteousness of Christ for salvation. He did not make morality to be the whole duty of man, nor yet deceive the people by saying, that Christ repented and believed for them. Whilst he magnified the special grace of God in the conversion of MAID-LANE.-Presbyterian, Extinct. a sinner, he preached repentance towards God as necessary to forgiveness, with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, without curiously determining which is first, when both are needful. The whole stress of our salvation he laid on Jesus Christ, and ascribed all spiritual good entirely to the free grace of God. At the same time, he charged the condemnation of sinners on their own wilfulness and impenitence. His extraordinary application and diligence in his work hastened his death. Of this, some of his friends took notice, and amongst others, that good man Mr. Richard Baxter, by whom he was greatly esteemed. "That Mr. Baxter loved him," says Mr. Shower, "I reckon to his honour, he was one of many who thanked God for the assistance he received as a Christian, and as a minister, from the useful books, preaching, and conversation of that excellent man. And I, adds Mr. Shower, freely concur with him therein, having reason to thank God upon the like account." Mr. Oldfield languished long with pain and weakness, till God was pleased to take him to himself.* DURANT.-A manuscript list of Nonconformist ministers in London, in 1695, mentions a Mr. Durant, as an assistant to Mr. Nathaniel Oldfield. He must have been a young minister, but we know nothing further respecting him. THOMAS KENTISH.-Mr. Oldfield was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Kentish, an excellent young minister, who descended from ancestors eminent for piety and ministerial usefulness, and many of them sufferers for nonconformity. His grandfather, Mr. Thomas Kentish, was ejected from the valuable living of Middleton, in the bishopric of Durham. He brought up three sons to the ministry, who all quitted their stations in the church, on Bartholomew-day, Shower's Funeral Discourses, Part ii. p. 223, &c. MAID-LANE.-Presbyterian, Extinct. in 1662. One of these, Mr. Thomas Kentish, was cast out of Overton, in Hampshire, and afterwards became pastor of a congregation in Cannon-street, London, where he died in 1695. He was the father of Mr. Thomas Kentish, of Maid-lane. He is supposed to have studied university learning under Mr. Charles Moreton, of Newington Green; and about the year 1696, succeeded Mr. Oldfield at this place. He was an useful, acceptable preacher, and during his time there was a large congregation. But it pleased God, whose ways are unsearchable, to take him away in the midst of his labours, and in the prime of life. This was in the year 1700. He had a younger brother, Mr. Joseph Kentish, who preached for a few years to a large congregation at Bristol, and died there in the meridian of life, in 1705. JOSHUA OLDFIELD, D. D.-This eminent Divine, brother to Mr. Nathaniel Oldfield, before-mentioned, was born about the year 1656, at Carsington, in Derbyshire, where his father, Mr. John Oldfield, was at that time minister, and from whence he was afterwards ejected for nonconformity. His mother was the sister of Mr. Porter, another ejected minister, of distinguished worth, in Nottinghamshire She lived to a great age, and sustained an excellent character as a Christian. Mr. Joshua Oldfield was the second son of his pious parents, and received his school learning under the immediate inspection of his father. The improvement he made at this early period induced an expectation of something very extraordinary; and he did not disappoint the hopes that were entertained of him. It pleased God, also, to bless the instructions and example of his pious parents, so as to affect his mind early with serious religion; and his impressions never wore off, but preserved him from the vanities of youth, and the entanglements of riper life. He studied philosophy under Mr. Reyner, of Lincoln, and afterwards removed to Christ's College, Cambridge, in the |