return to town, he preached frequently at the Tabernacle, and was greatly attended. Mr. Whitefield renewed his application. He declined. In this voyage he lost one of his crew, a promising youth, who was drowned. On his third voyage to town, his congregations were prodigiously crowded; and Mr. Whitefield pressed on him the duty of leaving a maritime employment, and being de voted wholly to the ministry. Mr. Joss had on board a younger brother, by the same father, a pious man, who was very dear to him on many accounts, and thought, if ever he should change his views, it would be a good situa tion for him. He was so far prevailed upon, as to send his brother, who was then mate, this trip, while he supplied the Tabernacle; but, lo! in going down the river, he fell over the side of the ship, and was drowned. Mr. Whitefield then addressed him in a very solemn manner, saying, “Sir, all these disasters are the fruits of your disobedience; and, let me tell you, if you refuse to hearken to the call of God, both you and your ship will soon go to the bottom." Overcome by the voice of Providence, he yielded; and, on his fourth voyage, quitted the compass, the chart, and the ocean, for the service of the sanctuary. This was late in 1766. Immediately he entered into close connection with Mr. Whitefield, who, to the day of his death, continued to him his affection, and intrusted him with his confidence. In this change of situation, he could not have been actuated by motives of a pecuniary nature; for his prospects in trade were by far more flattering than in the ministry. His sermons, in the former years of his residence in town, were not only attended by large auditories, but with energy to the conversion of many souls; nor did God leave him withQut many witnesses to the close of his ministerial labours. He generally spent four or five months in the year out of London, for the purpose of itinerating. In this period he regularly visited South Wales, Gloucestershire, Bristol Tabernacle, and occasionally other parts of the kingdom. In Pembrokeshire the Welsh followed him in multitudes; and, on the Lord's day, would travel from one to twenty miles round Haverfordwest to hear him. To not a few of these he became a spiritual father; and, indeed, wherever he exercised his talents, though but a few weeks, he left some seals of his apostleship behind. Mr. Joss was always subject to an ulcerated sore throat; and, and, for several winters past, had been much afflicted with an asthma. Of the latter complaint he had been confined a whole month, previous to his last illness. On the second of April he was so far recovered as to assist at the administration of the Lord's supper. While at the table, many were witnesses to the fervour with which he prayed to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb in Heaven. On Tuesday the eleventh, he met the society at the Tabernacle, and after singing, "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah ! Pilgrim through this barren land, I am weak, but thou art mighty, he expatiated largely upon this couplet in the hymn, I will ever give to thee.". He mentioned, that he knew the man who composed that hymn, and that he was lately gone to sing songs of praises before the throne. He then referred to several other wellknown characters, who were joining in the same blessed employment; and, after relating somewhat of his own experience, said, he should shortly unite his praises with their happy company. He closed the service of the evening with the last verse, of the abovementioned hymn: "Musing on my habitation, Musing on my heav'nly home, Lord I long to be with thee." The people, as well as himself, found it good to be there; but how would their pleasures have been imbittered, had they thought this was the farewell address of their aged minister! On Wednesday morning, at breakfast, he was uncommonly well and cheerful. This exciting the notice of Mrs. Joss, she said, "My husband, I think you are remarkably well to-day; and, as it is a fine morning, I would have you take a walk, and call on some of your friends." Not many minutes after, while shaving himself, he was sud denly seized with an unusual shivering. This fit, after continuing about three hours, was succeeded by a violent VOL. III. No. 55. P fever, fever, first of the inflammatory, and then of the putrid kind. On the first attack of the disorder, an uncommon lassitude and debility immediately ensued. So rapid was the progress of the disease, as to baffle all the attempts of his medical friends, and on Monday April 17, 1797, about noon, he departed. During his illness, he was sometimes exceedingly comfortable; his confidence was never shaken; he enjoyed a solid peace; was remarkably resigned and patient; had much of the spirit of prayer, and would often, with a patriarchal najesty and devotion, bless the friends who waited on him. About an hour after his seizure, the Lord Jesus indulged him with a peculiar manifestation of his gracious presence; which blessing he enjoyed most of the day. In the evening, a friend, hearing of his indisposition, called to see him, to whose enquiries he answered, "I am very ill; but my Master has given me a sweet smile, such an one as I never recollect to have had before. I suppose I must go in the strength of this forty days." Here he was agreeably mistaken; for this was only a foretaste of immediate bliss, in the full vision of his Redeemer's face in glory everlasting. When he was carried to bed, he said to a friend, "I did not expect my Master would lay me by this Easter; but he will do all his pleasure, and it is right he should." During the whole night he was restless, and sometimes wandering. In the morning he said, "Mr. Newton is six years older than I am, and yet how strong is he to labour! but I will not complain." About an hour before he died, Mrs. Joss said, "You are going to Heaven, to leave me behind!-What shall I do?" Do!-do !" replied he," you have nothing to do, but to be as passive clay in the hands of the Potter." After he had committed her to God, he said, "I can only give you a transient look, my pilgrimage is at an end." The last word he was heard to speak was, "Archangels." In a few minutes after, he lifted up both his hands, and similed, and died. On the following Saturday his remains were carried to Tottenham Court Chapel, followed by twelve mourning coaches, where they were interred. Messrs. Draper, Durant, Eyre, Dr. Hamilton, Messrs. Knight, and Wilks bore the pall. Mr. Scott delivered the oration, Mr. Edwards read the lessons, and Mr. Hill interred, and concluded with prayer. Mr. Knight preached the funeral sermon on the next morning, at Tottenham Court Chapel, from Acts xiii, 36. "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers." In the evening, Mr. Wilks preached at the Tabernacle, from Acts xx. 24. "That I might finish my course with joy." "The Saint's entrance into Peace," a funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of the rev. Thomas Adams, was the only piece he ever published. نار JUNIUS, FRANCIS, descended from a noble family in France, was born at Bourges in that kingdom, May 1, 1545. His mother had a most difficult labour; and her life, together with that of her son, was for some time despaired of He was long afterwards so infirm that his friends never expected his continuance to manhood; though, as it proved, he survived most of his family. His constitutional in firmity was increased by an excessive and over-weening care in nursing; and, at length, the morbid matter, either the cause of his incessant disorders, or the consequence of them, terminated in an ulcer of the leg, which, though healed, was always affected by any occurring ailments to the end of his days. Under a kind and learned father he received the rudiments of his education. His parents did not choose to venture him at a public school, on account of his weakness. Yet, with all this weight of disorder, in his most tender age he discovered great wit and parts, and a certain hilarity of disposition, which often created much amusement, as well as expectation to his friends. He discovered early, a high sense of honour and love of fame, a great quickness of temper, and for his age a solid judge ment in matters which came before him, insomuch that his mother used jestingly to say of him, "that he certainly would be another Socrates." He had likewise such an invincible modesty, that, throughout his life, he appeared to common observers under a peculiar disadvantage, and could scarcely speak upon the most common subjects with strangers without a suffusion in his countenance. About his twelfth year he quitted the private education of his father for the public one of a school; as a preparation for the study of the civil law, for which he was designed. His friends, indeed, wished for him to prosecute his fortune at court; but his love of learning and the bashfulness of his temper soon diverted that design. He had the unhappiness of impetuous and tyrannical preceptors, who, if his love of letters had not been uncommonly ardent, were sufficient to have extinguished it; as hath been too often the case in many others. After some time, he was removed to Lyons for his farther improvement. Here he had great leisure, and as many books as he could desire, which he began to read with avidity; not selecting his authors, but taking them indiscriminately as they fell in his way. The president of the college, Bartholomew Anulus, observing this wild pursuit, took an opportunity of hinting to him its impropriety and waste of time, assuring him, "that he would rather injure than inform his mind by that mode of reading; that, on the contrary, he should have some proposed end before his eyes in the course of his studies, to which they should be principally directed; and that neither the life of man, nor the mind of man, would suffice for all kinds of learning at once, but the attempt might shorten the one while it only confounded the other." This caution he never forgot, but found it of use to him ever afterwards. Lyons was then, as well as since, a very dissolute city; and the placing a raw youth there, without the authority of parents or guardians, who could take care of his morals (as was the case with Junius), was exposing him to a torrent of temptations. Two women, in particular, having conceived a regard for his person, haunted him with oblique testimonies of their affection, and, forgetting the modesty of their sex, pursued him with their solicitations. Whether from aversion to their indecent conduct, or from the natural bashfulness of his temper, God's providence however preserved him from seduction; and he overcame this temptation. But he fell under a sad temptation of another kind, till the mercy of God restored him. This evil was downright Atheism, into the espousal of which he was drawn by the sophistry of a bad companion, and his own indiscretion or inexperience. Junius was reading Tully's books upon Laws, in which the vile proposition of Epicurus is cited," That God is without all care both for his own affairs, and for those of other beings.' His evil counsel This passage is cited by Marcus, in Cic. de legibus, lib. 1. |