my pilot! I have met with no storm-all is peace-all is well." While the family were around him, he took an affectionate leave of them, saying, "God bless you!-God be with you!-Farewell!-Farewell!" Then lifting his hand, added, "God bless you!-Soon we shall meet in the paradise of God. I have finished my course with joy!" His son then said, "May I finish my course like you-May my last end be like yours!" He replied, God grant that it may be better and more glorious! I have laid the foundation, may you build upon it; mind. the same things, walk by the same rule, and the God of peace will be with you!-Farewell-I am going-all is joy! Blessing, and glory, and salvation, and praise unto God, and unto the Lamb for ever." Mr. Mends died April 5, 1799, having completed the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was fifty-eight years a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; fifty-six years in the Gospel ministry; and thirtyeight years pastor of the church of Christ in Plymouth. His remains were committed to the family vault in the meeting, on the ninth in the morning. His pall was supported by six ministers, and the corpse borne by eight of the members of the church. The rev. Isaiah Birt introduced the funeral service with prayer and reading the Scriptures; and the rev. John Jones delivered a pathetic oration over the grave. The Lord's day following, the rev. William Evans preached a sermon on the solenin occasion from 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8; a passage of Scripture which the deceased had chosen for the subject of his funeral discourse many years before. Thus did this venerable servant of Christ labour and live, teaching and warning all men, visiting his flock, not despising the meanest cottages of the poor, but publicly, and from house to house, preaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus. The lambs of the flock partook of his care; they were instructed and nurtured in the knowledge of Christ and salvation. He was a minister of pure and undefiled religion, for he visited the fatherless and widow in their affliction; and in all his labours it was his chief endeavour to save their souls. The doctrine which he preached was the genuine doctrine of the Gospel, equally distant from Pharisaical pride and self sufficiency on the one hand, and from Antinomian licentiousness on the other. He was conscientious in his preparations VOL. III-No. 66, 3 B for for the pulpit, and studied his subjects with care: he ge nerally made use of the help of notes, always leaving pr room in his compositions for what he was wont to call pul-gh pit thoughts, and the enlargements of a warm and affecti-vards onate heart. The following inscription was placed on his tomb: purst y ste 5.00 Having "fought the good fight,di MIDDLETON, ERASMUS. In the early part of his life, he was suffered to wander under the influence of orignal depravity, far from God and from happiness. In the appointed time, however, he was sought out and brought back by the compassionate Shepherd and Bishop of souls. The saving change of his heart did not take place till about the twenty-second year of his age; and the late ness of the period furnished him, through life, with ma terials of bitter regret, that the prime of youth should have been blighted by folly and sin. He had occasion often to say with St. Paul, of several of his brethren, that they were all men " of note in the churches of the saints;" but, which filled him with the deepest concern, that “they also were in Christ before him." After his conversion he gave himself, like the primitive believers, to the Lord and to the church, by the will of God. It was to a society of Christians at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, the place of his nativity, in the fellowship of the late rev. J. Wesley, that he first joined himself as a church member. With them he walked; and, for a few years, occasionally exhorted among them. Feeling his mind inclining him powerfully to the ministry of the word, he wished to consecrate him. self to the work of the Lord in the communion of the Established Church. With this view he accepted the friendly invitation of the rev. Mr. Townsend, of Pewsey; and under his affectionate tuition, regained and considerably improved his classical learning; which during the time of RECO his apprenticeship, had, in a great measure, been lost. Through the generous aid of this worthy minister, he afterwards entered a student at Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he pursued his academical studies with avidity and exemplary steadiness. It was here that he became acquainted with five young men, who were distinguished by personal religion and correspondent regularity of manners. It seems, they were in the practice of associating together, in a private house, for the purpose of prayer, reading, expounding the Scriptures, and singing hymns. They were charged also with holding tenets called Methodistical, which, in fact, were no other than the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel, of the Reformation, and of the Church of England. Their meeting together for extempore prayer, singing hymns, &c. was judged an irregularity of such importance, as, if permitted, might produce dangerous consequences; and, in order to deter others, it was thought expedient, by the vice chancellor and heads of houses, in March 1798, to expel them from the universityt. Mr. Middleton had already incurred his father's displeasure However criminal the singing hymns in an university might be deemed, the same practice in a camp was not thought reprehensible by a noble general. The late duke of Cumberland, who, when in Germany, happened one evening to hear the sound of voices from a cave, at a little distance, asked the centinel, what noise it was?—he was answered, that it was some devout soldiers, who were singing hymns. Instead of citing them to appear before their officers, ordering them to the halberts.to be whipped, or commanding them to be drummed out of the regiment, he pleasantly said, "Are they so? Let them go on then, and be as merry as they can." In this he acted wisely; for he knew, and found by repeated experience, as did other commanding officers, that singing and praying, in these private societies, did not hinder, but rather fitted and animated these pious soldiers to fight their country's battles in the field; and it may be presumed, that if these students had not been expelled for singing hymns, &c. they certainly would not have been less, but, in all probability, much better prepared for handling the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and fighting therewith, either from the press or the pulpit, the battles of the Lord of Hosts. See Mr. Whitefield's Letter to Dr. Durell, Works, vol. iv. p. 309. This event occasioned a long and unpleasant controversy, in which Dr.Nowell and sir Richard Hill were principal combatants. The apology offered by the friends of the expulsion was, that the young men had broken the statutes of the university, which would have been pleaded with a better grace, had the same zeal for discipline appeared in the expulsion of a few young men for swearing, gaming, and intoxication, 3 B 2 pleasure by his connection with the Methodists; and now found himself cast upon the wide world, without human protection or support, and, in the judgement of the university, disgraced: but never could a man more justly accommodate to himself the words of David than our friend, at this season of darkness and dereliction: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." His exalted Saviour, at whose girdle hangs the key that opens human hearts, graciously opened the hearts and doors of several benevolent and hospitable friends for him and his fellow-sufferers. Among these, the late William Fulier, esq. banker, "whose private acts of generosity," to use Mr. Middleton's own words, "were much more numerous than the world were acquainted with," made him an unsolicited offer of support, in the further prosecution of his studies. This liberal offer, liberal both in respect of its amount, and of its being made by a regular and conscientious dissenter to an episcopalian, he very thankfully accepted; and, in 1769, entered King' College, Cambridge, where he finished his academical career, and was admitted to the degree of bachelor of divinity. Finding it difficult, on account of the odium of the expulsion, to obtain ordination in England, he went over, by the advice of his friends, with suitable letters of introduction to the right rev. Dr. Trail, bishop of Downe, in Ireland, by whom he was admitted to holy orders. Soon afterwards, he accepted the pastoral charge of a small episcopal congregation, at Dalkeith, in Scotland; where he lived in habits of close intimacy with evangelical ministers in the Establishment and in the Secession; particularly with the late pious and affectionate Mr. Linderleath, then minister in Dalkeith; of whose paternal counsels and instructions he ever spake with much gratitude and warmth. cation, which were certainly not less irregularities than extemporary praying, singing hymns, and expounding the Scriptures. It seems, one of the heads of houses observed upon this occasion, that " as these six gentlemen were expelled for having too much religion, it would be very proper to enquire into the conduct of some who had too little;" but his motion was over-ruled for obvious reasons; and the issue exposed the university to a great deal of ridicule, particularly in the "Shaver's Sermon," which was written by the late Mr. Macgowan and was not only very popular at the tinie, but has been repeatedly reprinted." By By the care of that good man and able divine, our friend's views of the plan of redemption, through the atonement and obedience of the Son of God, became more scriptural, simple, and clear. The rubbish was removed; and his entire confidence for remission of sin, and the future grandeur and felicity of his nature, was placed on the foundation which God's wisdom, and not man's arrogance, hath laid in Zion. While at Dalkeith, he married the daughter of the late sir Gilbert, and sister of sir Robert Grierson, bart. Mr. Middleton, when he left Dalkeith, became curate, first, to the late rev. Mr. Romaine; and after serving him several years, to the hon. and rev. Mr. Cadogan †, rector of St. Luke's, Chelsea; with whom he continued till that excellent man's death. The religious views, and the temper of his successor, were found ill to accord with Mr. Middleton's. A separation was soon found to be indispensably necessary. This trial he bore with exemplary patience. Indeed, the suffering virtues shone ever bright in his character. Mild, sympathetic, gentle, forgiving, resigned, he followed in silence the footsteps of his divine Master. Beside the consolations of an approving conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had conducted himself, it pleased God to afford to him, in a very unexpected manner, the relief which the sympathy of the good, and the liberality of the generous, eyer bring to the weary and the dejected soul. The friends of the Gospel at Chelsea, as soon as his resignation was known, set on foot and promoted a subscription in his behalf. His Diocesan, the right rev. the bishop of London, hearing of what had happened, wrote to him a letter truly pastoral and episcopal; in which he expressed his desire of giving him some mark of the regard he had for his piety and attention to his duty, requested his name to be added to the subscription; and in a few days after, inclosed a draft on his banker for fifty pounds. It is proper to add, that afterwards, his lordship understanding that Mr. Middleton's health was on the decline, and that his native air had been recommended, sent him twenty pounds to clear the expence of his journey; and twenty pounds more soon after the death of Mrs. Middleton. Such considerate See the following article. † Whose life see above, vol. 1. p. 452. kindness |
