of the biftorical parts of fcripture, the clear explanation of the Types and Metaphors, the Parables and Prophecies; the illuftrations of the TRUTHS, Doctrinal and Practical, to be found in his elaborate and voluminous Expofition of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT; fufficiently fhew, that this eminent minifter of the gospel had, by an uncommon bleffing upon his labours, attained to a large compass of useful knowledge.-Great was his acquaintance with the facred fcriptures; with Jewish learning; the Oriental tongues; the Rites and Customs of Eastern nations; Greek and Roman Poets and Hiftorians; the liberal Arts and Sciences; Ecclefiaftical History; the writings of the Fathers, and the feveral Controverfies carried on in defence of Christianity. His writings were, not only received with great approbation in these kingdoms, but alfo in various parts of America. Many were the Letters he received from the ministers and others in those parts, expreffing the high efteem they had for him and his works, and the great benefit they received from his labours. He was much folicited to cultivate an extenfive correfpondence; but this he was obliged to decline, as it would have proved too great an avocation from his ftudies. His controverfial tracts abundantly difplay his confummate ability and skill in pointing out the evil nature and tendency of erroneous principles. The weakness and fallacy of the arguments brought to fupport them, and the inconclusiveness of the objections railed against the truth: and in clearly ftating and folidly defending the gofpel, fo as to filence its adverfaries, and confirm the faithful in their adherence to Chrift and his Religion. The numerous SERMONS published by him, are fraught with rich, folid, evangelical truths; deep chriftian experience; and the moft cogent motives to every good word and work. The Body of Doctrinal and Practical DIVINITY, which he lived to see finished and published, fhews his profound, clear, and extenfive understanding in the mysteries of God; the refpective branches of practical religion; the nature, use, and extent of the divine law; and the pofitive inftitutions of Jefus Chrift. Notwithstanding his exalted attainments, he was meek and bumble, of a tender and fympathizing fpirit; weeping with thofe that wept; and rejoicing with them that rejoiced ever ready to acknowledge, that all he had, of parts, learning, and grace, was freely bestowed upon him by that God, from whom comes every good and perfect gift. His converfation quite through life, was honourable and ornamental; such as became the gospel of Chrift, which he profeffed and laboured in. His last labours, among the people of his care, was from that part of the fong of Zachariah, the first chapter of Luke, the latter part of the 77th verfe, and and former part of the 78th verfe. By the remiffion of their fins,-through the tender mercy of our God. This was the laft text he preached from. His health had. been on the decline for fome time; and he himself thought his work was done. The decay of nature was, however, very gradual. His complaint was lofs of appetite; and frequently a violent pain in his ftomach: his appetite continued to fail more and more, till at laft, for fome time before his death, it was totally loft. He bore his vifitation with great patience, compofure, and refignation of mind to the divine will; without uttering the leaft complaint; without ever faying to God, What doft thou? He could have wifhed to have finished the fong of Zacharias; and also the dying fong of good old Simeon, in which, he thought, there was fomething fimilar to his own cafe. And efpecially he longed to be at his nunc dimittis; Now lettest thou thy fervant depart in peace, with what follows. This was much upon his mind, and he thought, should he live to go through that, it might be, God would then give him his difmiffion, and let him alfo depart in peace.—But his decline increasing daily upon him, he grew weaker and weaker; so that he could not proceed in his delightful work and yet, notwithstanding he was rendered incapable of appearing in public, he continued to be employed in his study, till within two or three weeks of his death; and always appeared calm, ferene, and chearful. His faith was fteady, and his hope firm, to the laft.-To a relation he thus expreffed himself: " I depend wholly and alone upon the free fovereign, "eternal, unchangeable and everlasting love of God; the firm and everlasting cove"nant of grace, and my interest in the perfons of the Trinity; for my whole salva tion: and not upon any righteoufness of my own, nor any thing in me, or done by "me under the influences of the holy Spirit; nor upon any fervices of mine, which I "bave been affifted to perform for the good of the church; but upon my interest in "the persons of the Trinity, the perfon, blood and righteousness of Chrift, the free "grace of God, and the bleffings of grace streaming to me through the blood and righteousness of Chrift; as the ground of my hope. These are no new things with but what I bave been long acquainted with; what I can live and die by. "And this you may tell to any of my friends. I apprehend I shall not be long here” He expreffed himfelf nearly in the fame manner to other friends. To one that vifited him, he faid, "I have nothing to make me useafy:" and repeated the following lines from Dr WATTS, me; He rais'd me from the deeps of fin, The gates of gaping hell: And fix'd my standing more fecure Than 'twas before I fell. This This tranquillity of foul, and inward joy and peace of mind, never left him. The laft words he was heard to speak were, "O my Father, my Father." And > then gently fell asleep in Jefus, without a figh or groan, on the 14th day of October, 1771, at his houfe in Camberwell, Surry; aged feventy-three years, ten months and ten days. [ What follows is drawn by another hand. ] SUCH were the indefatigable labors, fuch the exemplary life, and fuch the comfortable death, of this great and eminent perfon. If any one man can be supposed to have trod the whole circle of human learning, it was Dr GILL. His attainments, both in abftrufe and polite literature, were (what is very uncommon) equally extensive and profound. Providence had, to this end, endued him with a firmness of conftitution, and an unremitting vigor of mind, which rarely fall to the lot of the fedentary and learned. It would, perhaps, try the constitutions of half the literati in England, only to read, with care and attention, the Whole of what he wrote. The Doctor was not one who confidered any fubject fuperficially, and by halves. As deeply as human fagacity, enlightened by grace, could penetrate, he went to the bottom of every thing he engaged in. With a folidity of judgment, and with an acuteness of, difcernment, peculiar to few, He exhausted, as it were, the very soul and substance of most arguments he undertook. His file, too, resembles himself; it is manly, nervous, plain: conscious, if I may so speak, of the unutterable dignity, value, and importance of the freight it conveys; it drives, directly and perfpicuously, to the point in view, regardless of affected cadence, and fuperior to the little niceties of profeffed refinement. Perhaps, no man, fince the days of St Austin, has written fo largely, in defence of the fyftem of GRACE: and, certainly, no man has treated that momentous subject, in all its branches, more closely, judiciously and fuccessfully. What was faid of Edward the Black Prince, That he never fought a Battle, which he did not win; What has deen remarked of the great Duke of Marlborough, That he never undertook a Siege, which he did not carry; may be justly accommodated to our great Philofopher and Divine: who, fo far as the Diftinguishing DOCTRINES of the Gospel are concerned, never befieged an Error, which he did not force from its strongholds; nor ever encountered an Adverfary, whom did not baffle and fubdue. VOL. I. d His His learning and labors, if exceedable, were exceeded only by the invariable fanctity of his life and conversation. From his childhood, to his entrance on the ministry; and, from his entrance on the ministry, to the moment of his diffolution; not one of his moft inveterate oppofers was ever able to charge him with the leaft fhadow of immorality. HIMSELF, no less than his writings, DEMONSTRATED, that THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE DOES NOT LEAD TO LICENTI OUSNESS. Thofe, who had the honour and happiness of being admitted into the number of his friends, can go ftill farther in their teftimony. They know, that his moral demeanor was more than blameless: It was, from first to last, confif tently exemplary. And, indeed, an undeviating Confiftency, both in his views of evangelical Truths; and in his obedience, as a fervant of GOD; was one of those qualities, by which his caft of character was eminently marked. He was, in every respect, a burning and a shining light. Burning, with love to God, to Truth, and to Souls: Shining, as "an enfample to Believers, in Word, in "Faith, in Purity; a pattern of good works, and a model of all holy converfation and godliness. The Doctor has been accused of Bigotry, by fome, who were unacquainted with his real temper and character. Bigotry may be defined, Such a BLIND and TURIOUS attachment to any particular principle, or fet of principles, as difpofes us to WISH ILL to those persons who differ from us in judgment. Simple Bigotry, therefore, is, The Spirit of perfecution, without the power: and perfecution is no other than Bigotry, armed with force, and carrying its malevolence into act. Hence it appears, that to be clearly convinced of certain propofitions, as true; and to be ftedfaft in adhering to them, upon that conviction; nay, to affert and defend thofe propofitions, to the utmost extent of argument; can no more be called Bigotry, than the shining of the Sun can be termed Oftentation. If, in any parts of his Controverfial Writings, the Doctor has been warmed into fome little lects of ceremony toward his affailants; it is to be afcribed, not to Bigotry (for he poffeffed a very large share of Benevolence and Candor) but to that complexional fenfibility, infeparable, perhaps, from human nature in its prefent ftate; and from which, it is certain, the Apostles themselves were not exempt. neg His Doctrinal and Practical Writings will live, and be admired, and be a Itanding bleffing to pofterity; when their oppofers are forgot, or only remembered by the refutations he has given them. While true Religion, and found Learning, have a single friend remaining in the British Empire, the Works and Name of GILL will be precious and revered. May 1 May the Readers of this inadequate sketch, together with him, who (though of a very different denomination from the Doctor) pays this last and unexaggerated tribute of justice to the honored memory of fo excellent a perfon; participate, on earth, and everlaftingly celebrate in heaven, that SOVEREIGN GRACE, which its departed Champion fo largely experienced to which He was fo diftinguished an ornament-and of which He was fo able a defender! JULY 29, 1772. The following Latin Infcription is engraved on the DOCTOR'S Tomb in Bunhill-Fields. IN HOC CEMETERIO DEFENSORIS FIDEI CHRISTIANE STRENVI QVI INGENIO ERVDITIONE PIETATE ORNATVS IN CHRISTO PLACIDE OBDORMIVIT ETATIS SVE LXXIV. |