ACCOUNT OF SHIPMAN. 525 and endeavour to speak to them. One Lord's day he happened to be at West Bromwich, and Mr. Coughland preached. By some means he got intelligence, that Mr. Coughland would take young men desirous of entering the ministry, with him to some place abroad. Well, he made application, and it was agreed on for his embarking, and over he came to Upton to take a final leave. We found him absolutely determined to go. We all shook hands and parted; and I was going to mount my horse for market, when a thought came into my head of offering him to go to Oxford University. I came in and made it; he accepted it, and put by his intended voyage. We put him under the tuition of a serious clergyman for some time, and he entered the University one term, and was expelled the next. I made use of this severe act to turn his thoughts from the ministry, and tried by all the arguments I was master of, to get him in trade again; and that not availing, I used threats, and told him the trustees and I were resolved he should never have one shilling in money; but it all did not signify. Lady Huntingdon wrote him a letter of consolation at this time. He made his case known to her, and she very kindly invited him to Tunbridge; and off he was going without sixpence in his pocket. [God] would not suffer me to continue my cruelty to him. I had no rest, and I went to Eversham just before he set off, and gave him cash, &c. My brother continued with my lady about a year and a half, and preached at Brighthelmstone, Tunbridge, and in various parts of Wales; but something happened that he separated from her, and went to Mr. Whitfield's people at Bristol, &c. His zeal and earnestness in preaching carried him beyond his natural strength, insomuch that he generally was used to knock himself up in about four or six months. Then he would 526 ACCOUNT OF SHIPMAN. come home to be nursed, and so set off again. Great, yea, very great, was his love to souls; never was he pleased but when in the work, and had his strength been equal to his will, he never would have ceased a day from publishing the glad tidings to poor, lost, and perishing sinners. At Harford, April 1, 1770, he burst a bloodvessel, occasioned by preaching the day before with too much energy, on the resurrection of Christ in the morning, and saints and sinners in the afternoon, which brought on the consumption of which he died. The vast quantity of blood he then expended brought him to death's door, and it was with much difficulty we got him thence. At this time his soul was very lively, and he employed what little time he could in writing farewells to the societies, &c. He had been at home but five weeks when you and Mr. Rowland Hill came and took him from us. Soon after his arrival in Bristol, I received a sweet letter, in which he said, I would to God I could describe to you, the tenth part of that unspeakable delight and comfort I find in God since I have been here. Surely God heareth the prayers and tears of my dear Bristol friends. I feel a blessed abasement of soul at the Redeemer's feet. I tell him how vile I have been; I enlarge upon my barrenness and my ingratitude, and lie as low at his feet as possible. But he stretches out the golden sceptre of peace; he tells me the wonders of his love, and fills my soul, and at times almost overpowers my weak body with his rich consolations. Oh! brother, my heart even now panteth after God; I long to behold his glory and see him face to face.' A deal more such blessed experience is in the letter. These very strong consolations did not last long. In another letter he told me 'God has abridged my comforts greatly, but continues my con ACCOUNT OF SHIPMAN. 527 fidence unshaken.' After five weeks stay at Bristol, and we had got him home, the [Lord] seemed to withdraw his sensible presence from his soul, and thus he was left to linger through many a wearisome hour, with only now and then a rich consolation, for thirteen weeks; but still through all, a firm, fixed, unwavering faith was preserved, with much confidence in God. In this state he was led to see and feel himself the chiefest of sinners. At the end of the above time, and about fourteen days before his death, he began to spit blood, and everything seemed to intimate that another vessel was broken. It came up moderately for several days, but on a sudden a cough seized him, and in a moment the blood poured up through his mouth and nose so astonishingly, that we expected every minute to be his last. It put his body in violent tremblings, cold sweats, &c., and his mind in the utmost confusion, so that he cried out, 'Surely I am like a wild bull in a net;' but in a short time the tremblings left his body, the blood a little subsided, and his soul was all calm and serene, but still every mouthful of blood we expected would suffocate him. The very affecting scene made us weep, but at intervals he said, 'Do not cry; God is with me, God is with me, I am happy, I am happy, I am upon the sure foundation, I am going to heaven.' He voided near two quarts of blood before it ceased, and the Lord was pleased to give him a night beyond our expectation. In the morning, how did the dear creature pine and moan to think he was come back into the world again. The blood still continuing to come up in little quantities, made him. conclude and say, 'I believe I shall be strangled in my own blood; but never mind, for all will be well if I am.' On Thursday, the 31st of October, the awful period We had helped him up in the bed for dinner, came. and asked him how he was, to which he answered, 'brave,' when in an instant the blood began in a fearful manner to run up through his mouth, &c., in such amazing quantities as choked him in a few minutes, having only just time to lift up his dear hands and eyes to heaven." "Character of my dear friend, the late Rev. Mr. Talbot, Rector of St. Giles's, in Reading. From the Reading paper. 'He was a man remarkable for the practice of every virtue. No one ever attended more diligently to the duties of his public and private stations. Besides performing the common offices of the Sabbath, he established a weekly lecture, which was well attended. He was a moderate Calvinist, and generally preached extempore to crowded congregations, who heard him with exquisite pleasure. His doctrine was truly evangelical. His public exhortations were seconded by private admonition, and both enforced by the purity of his example: nor was he more singular for the attention he paid to the spiritual, than to the temporal wants of mankind. Philanthropy was the guide of his steps, and the mainspring of all his actions. He never failed to wipe away the tear from the eye of the unhappy, nor to banish want from the dwellings of the poor who came under his cognizance. He delighted in visiting the abodes of the wretched, that he might be the means of making them happy. His income, which was large, was spent in such benevolent actions. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited the sick, in the last of which kind offices he caught a fever, which deprived society of a very valuable member, and Reading of its best friend." These records of the departed were kept by Sir Rich WRITINGS OF SIR Ꭱ . HILL. 529 ard Hill in the early part of his religious course, with a view of stimulating himself to press forward towards the prize they had obtained. He was also, throughout his whole life, eminently distinguished by that invariable accompaniment of genuine piety, love of the brethren, which he manifested towards them in perpetual acts of the highest benevolence. In noticing the writings of Sir Richard Hill, it will not be necessary to review all his various pamphlets, the more especially as the most striking have already been abundantly referred to. His use of the pen was incessant, and he wrote always with extreme facility, frequently with great power and piety; but sometimes without sufficient caution. Almost all the numerous works he was continually sending to the press, displayed considerable reading, illustrated by great originality of thought; and had he carefully corrected what he threw off with spirit and rapidity, he would have been a very powerful writer. As it was, whatever he published attracted much attention, and was often instrumental of good, though he frequently adopted a mode of argument it was impossible to justify. Unless, however, we place ourselves in imagination amidst the scenes it was his lot to witness and deplore, we cannot form any fair judgment or make proper allowances for what in these days would be much less excusable. He saw wickedness equally triumphant in every grade of society; and as soon as it pleased God to convince him of the evil of sin, all his faculties were engaged in exhibiting its dangers and in endeavouring to correct it. Religion had shewn him the true nature of the ungodly pursuits of mankind, and zeal for the sacred cause of truth urged him to an unqualified declaration of his own views, and an uncompromising denunciation of the pomps, the |