Melancholy State of Mr. Ingham--Lady Huntingdon and Mr.
Venn--Illness and Death of Lady Margaret Ingham--Letter from
Mr. Ingham--Letter from Mr. Romaine--Mr. Ingham’s Treatise on
the Faith and Hope of the Gospel--Mr. Riddell--Lady Huntingdon
sends Students to Yorkshire--Letter from Mr. Riddell--Mr. Joseph
Milner, of Hull--Attends Lady Huntingdon’s Preachers--Begins
to preach the Gospel--Mr. Tyler--Letter from Lady Huntingdon
to Mr. Romaine--Mr. Tyler’s Labours at Hull--Letter from Lady
Huntingdon to Mr. Milner--York--Mr. Wren--Letter from Lady
Huntingdon--Letter from Mr. Wren--Mr. Glascott--Mr. Wells--Mr.
Powley--Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel at York.
The almost total dispersion of the Yorkshire Churches, caused by the
introduction of the Sandemanian principles, had a sad effect on Mr.
Ingham’s mind. He was liable to sudden transitions from the highest
flow of spirits to the utmost depression, and the peculiar character
of his temperament was an extreme accessibility to sudden attacks of
melancholy. It was his belief that calamity was connected with the
conviction of sin and the desert of punishment. “We are verily guilty
concerning our brother, therefore is this distress come upon us.” “The
thing” which, like Job, he had “greatly feared,” was come upon him--he
was deserted by his spiritual children, and the thought reduced him
to a most distressing state of mind. “‘He is lost! He is lost!’--this
(writes Mr. Venn) is his despairing cry.” Lady Huntingdon wrote to her
afflicted relative, and her words were blessed to his most sorrowful
and anguished spirit. “A thousand and thousand times (he tells her
after his recovery) do I bless and praise my God for the words of
comfort and consolation which your Ladyship’s letters conveyed to my
mournful heart, dismayed and overwhelmed as it was by the pressure of
my calamities. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments.”
He was soon tried still further, for the health and strength of Lady
Margaret Ingham now sensibly and visibly declined; to the last she
continued to exercise those Christian graces--faith, patience, and
resignation to the will of her Heavenly Father--for which she had
been long distinguished. Of herself and her efforts her view was ever
humble, and any reference to her usefulness she met with grateful
acknowledgments of the sovereignty of that grace that made her the
instrument of good to others. Her end, though painful, was triumphant.
She welcomed the hour--she longed to receive the prize of her high
calling. Mrs. Medhurst and Miss Wheeler repaired to Aberford, and
witnessed her release from the flesh: to both she exclaimed, with all
her wonted energy, “Thanks be to God! thanks be to God! the moment’s
come, the day is dawning!” and thus in holy extasy she winged her way
to glory. Miss Wheeler announced her death to the Countess, who wrote a
letter of consolation to Mr. Ingham; from the reply to which we quote,
as a further illustration of her Ladyship’s happiness in the hour of
trial:--
“When she had no longer strength to speak to me (writes Mr.
Ingham), she looked most sweetly at me and smiled. On the
Tuesday before she died, when she had opened her heart to me,
and declared the ground of her hope, her eyes sparkled with
divine joy, her countenance shone, her cheeks were ruddy; I
never saw her look so sweet and lovely in my life. All about her
were affected; no one could refrain from tears, and yet it was a
delight to be with her.”
Lady Margaret died on the 30th of April, 1768, in her 68th year; she
was borne to the grave by devout men, and wept by the tears of the
Church.
Mr. Romaine, in a letter to Mrs. Medhurst, says--
“I got a good advancement by the death of Lady Margaret, and
was led into a sweet path of meditation, in which I went on
contemplating till my heart burned within me.... Many a time my
spirit has been refreshed with hearing her relate simply and
feelingly how Jesus was her life.”
Her marriage with Mr. Ingham had increased his means, but before that
event his benevolence was no less remarkable than his liberality
afterwards. His purse supplied the expenses of almost all his
preachers. He survived her Ladyship only four years. In person he is
said to have been extremely handsome--“too handsome for a man,” and the
habitual expression of his countenance was most prepossessing. He was
a gentleman; temperate, and irreproachable in his morals; as a public
speaker, animated and agreeable, rather than eloquent; studious of the
good conversation of his people, and delicately fearful of reproach to
the cause of Christ. His son Ignatius, by his wavering faith, caused
some uneasiness and regret to the friends of his distinguished parents.
Soon after the establishment, by Lady Huntingdon, of a College in
Wales, Mr. Edward Riddell, a pious Dissenter, who, having made a casual
visit to Hull, was, by a series of providential events, induced to
remain there, wrote to her Ladyship to request her to send down to him
some of the students; for he and others had separated from the Church
with which they had been connected, and a new place of worship was
much wanted in Hull. Her Ladyship complied in this, as in all cases,
where the means of spreading the holy Gospel were within her reach.
The names of the first students at Trevecca who went down to Hull are
irrecoverably lost, but their doctrine is known to have created a deep
feeling in that town. Rich and poor thronged the chapel to hear of
human depravity, of atonement for sin by the sacrifice of Christ, of
justification freely given by grace, of imputed righteousness, and of
the Spirit’s work in regeneration, sanctification, and comfort. Among
the converts Mr. Riddell mentions in a letter to Lady Huntingdon, full
of gratitude for the generous aid she had lent his “infant society,”
a Mr. Milner, head master of the grammar-school, and lecturer of the
principal church in Hull. “He is constant in his attendance on the
ministry of your Ladyship’s students, of whom he has made particular
enquiries concerning your Ladyship’s College in Wales, the teaching
of its president and tutors, and also concerning the chapels at Bath,
Brighton, &c.” Mr. Riddell requests her Ladyship will write to Mr.
Milner, and also urges a visit from one of her Ladyship’s chaplains,
and, after due acknowledgment for all Lady Huntingdon’s efforts in the
cause of the Gospel, says, “The land is still before you, in which the
seed has never yet been sown.” The Mr. Milner here alluded to was a
native of Leeds, born of parents who, if not great or noble, were the
ornaments of the sphere in which they moved. Joseph, their son, owed
much of his deep religious feeling to his mother, a constant hearer
of the Rev. John Edwards. He was introduced by his parent to the Rev.
Christopher Atkinson, of Thorp Arch, near Tadcaster, one of the first
Methodists when at Oxford, and a correspondent of Whitefield, the
Wesleys, Ingham, Hervey, &c., and to his son, the Rev. Myles Atkinson,
afterwards vicar of Kippax, and minister of St. Paul’s, at Leeds. He
became assistant in the school of Mr. Atkinson, and also in the care
of his church; but Mr. Milner has himself declared that he did not
then feel the true faith, but preached himself, rather than Jesus.
His great ambition was literary fame and the applause of his hearers.
His first sermon at Hull was much applauded, but years afterwards
he took that very discourse into the pulpit, dwelt upon its errors,
exposed its fallacies, and contrasted its doctrines with those he then
avowed. Even the early Methodists themselves were similarly misled;
for they had then scarcely got beyond the natural, though erroneous
hope, of saving themselves by a rigid observance of the law--by a
superstitious excess in abstinence, nay, fasting, instead of simply
looking to the Lord Jesus for righteousness and strength, and making
his merits the sole ground of their justification before God. Mr.
Milner, who was a favourite with his patrons, the Mayor and Aldermen,
had happily secured his election to the school and lectureship before
any outward manifestation had been given of his inward change. Had it
been otherwise his aged mother might have died for want, his niece and
nephew have remained destitute orphans, his brother[164] have laboured
with his hands through life, at the manufactures in Yorkshire--nay, the
town of Hull might have continued without the sound of the Gospel from
the pulpits of the Established Church, ere one vote would have been
given to him for either school or lectureship.
His moral character was without spot; he was regular, temperate, and
decorous, orthodox and loyal, admired for his preaching as well as
for his learning, and eagerly entrusted with the education of the
children of the chief inhabitants of Hull, with whom he was extremely
popular. It was then that the students of Lady Huntingdon’s College
at Trevecca, by their preaching in Hull, opened the eyes of his mind
to its darkness, and impressed him with the truth of that saying,
“that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief
of sinners.” They proved to him that he was in the condition of the
unregenerate; and as the light shone on his mind, he poured it out upon
his people, discovering error by the gradual revelation of the truth as
it is in Jesus. It was clear to all that he was in earnest, and that
because he had believed, therefore had he spoken; yet conviction of his
truth did not persuade others. The man who had become intolerable in
the pulpit soon became an unwelcome guest at table, and the “Methodist”
Milner fell out of favour with the men of the world. Except once a
year, when he preached officially as chaplain to the Mayor, few of the
superior rank ever attended his ministry, but the common people heard
him gladly, and his large church was crowded. The “enthusiast” Milner
became the subject of scandal and foul-faced reproach, and the victim
of intolerable though petty persecution. Now he was described as an
oily hypocrite, courting, by an affected sanctity, the patronage of the
Earl of Dartmouth, Chief Baron Smythe, the Countess of Huntingdon, “and
other notorious enthusiasts;” at another time he was said to be spurred
on by the love of popular applause; and at another the cry was, that
“Milner was a madman!”
At this moment, Mr. Harris, minister of Dagger-lane Chapel, had
occasion to leave Hull for a period, and at his request Lady Huntingdon
sent down the Rev. William Tyler to supply his place. Mr. Tyler was
about the same age as Milner, and the latter attended his ministry as
one might be expected to do who had been called at the same time and by
the same means, and they found mutual support and improvement in their
communications, which led to an enduring friendship. Lady Huntingdon
soon commenced a correspondence with Mr. Milner, who had thus been
converted by the ministry of her students. In a letter to Mr. Romaine,
her Ladyship says, “I have some students at Hull whose ministry has
been remarkably owned. Dear Mr. Milner writes me word that he has
reason to bless God for putting it into my head to send ministers to
Hull, as the plain preaching of the Gospel of Jesus, not with words and
reasoning which man’s wisdom teacheth, but as the Holy Ghost teacheth,
God has been pleased to honour and bless, in convincing him of the
great necessity he was under of securing an interest in Christ.”[165]
Mr. Tyler was, like Mr. Milner, descended from honest but poor
progenitors; his father, a pious and industrious man, had him
instructed in the ordinary branches of education, and at fourteen
years of age he was bound apprentice to a watchmaker in London;
but his master dying in the first year of his service, young Tyler
returned to his father’s house, which he quitted no more until, in his
twenty-fourth year, he was called to preach the Gospel. The habits of
virtue he had acquired beneath the parental roof had been shaken in
London, where evil company, especially some of the singers and dancers
at Sadler’s Wells, led him into some excesses. With such a party he had
joined, to create a riot at the Tabernacle; but no sooner was the text
uttered, than feelings of home and heaven rushed upon his heart at the
same instant, and he resolved at once to leave for ever the associates
who had misled him. This resolution he had strength of mind to keep,
and his return home occurred in happy time to prevent any backsliding
or yielding of the spirit. He eagerly accepted the offer of the good
Lady Huntingdon, to whose notice he had been recommended, to go to
her Ladyship’s College, at Trevecca. Here he would fain have acquired
that knowledge from which the scantiness of his early instruction had
excluded him, especially the original languages of the holy Scriptures;
but no sooner had he arrived in Wales than his hand was put to the
plough, and his time was devoted to preaching in different parts of the
country. He was continually travelling, and his sermons were, for the
most part, studied on horseback.
He had not been a long time resident in Hull before Mr. Milner proposed
to him to go to Cambridge; and as he had been a Dissenter less by
choice than circumstances, to extend his usefulness by obtaining
Episcopal ordination. Mr. Milner devoted himself to the task of
instructing his friend in the necessary preparatory knowledge, and
recommended him to a benevolent society, at whose expense he was sent
to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in November 1778. He took a Bachelor’s
degree, and was ordained deacon in the Temple Church, by the Bishop
of London, on Trinity Sunday, in the year 1782. His title was to the
churches of Partney and Dulby, in Lincolnshire; and by the patronage
of Lord Monson he became perpetual curate of the latter. The rector of
Partney, after three years’ service, dismissed him from his curacy for
holding prayer-meetings in his own and other houses; but in 1786 he was
presented by the Lord Chancellor to the living of Braytoft, where he
laboured for twenty years, serving three churches, and riding sixteen
miles every Sunday, in rain and snow, as well as in sunshine, through
the worst roads in England. In 1806, Dr. Fowler gave him the living of
Ashby, near Spilsby, where he continued till July 14, 1808, when the
Lord dismissed him from this world of sin and sorrow, in the sixtieth
year of his age, leaving a widow and one daughter to lament his loss.
It will be asked, doubtless, what part Lady Huntingdon took when Mr.
Tyler, at Mr. Milner’s suggestion, left Trevecca, and her Ladyship’s
religious Connexion, to go to the University and to seek ordination?
The following letter to Mr. Milner will answer the question:--
“It is no consolation, my dear Sir, that you have so honestly
and so heartily embarked in the cause of good men, of angels,
and of God. Recollect, ‘it is good to be zealously affected
always in a good cause.’ Blessed be God that you have put your
lip to the Gospel trumpet and sounded salvation to the guilty.
Be not deterred by the shafts of ridicule, or the opposition
of the profane. Remember, the God whom you serve ‘rides on the
whirlwind and directs the storm.’ Your progress may be retarded,
but your triumph is secure. Though earth and hell combine their
force against you, yet you shall do the work the Great Head
of the Church has marked out for you. Labour earnestly, for
you shall not labour in vain. Up and be doing, in the name and
for the sake of Christ! slumber not at your post. Be thankful,
highly thankful, that the Lord will condescend to let you do
anything for him and the furtherance of his kingdom among men.
Go on, my good Sir, go on with your blessed work, for it will
not cover you with confusion in the last great day. By and by
you will reap the fruits of your faith and labour of love,
and hear your great Master say unto you--‘Well done, good and
faithful servant.’
“Universal good to all is my only object upon earth; and I only
look for further light to promote more extensively the honour
of Christ and the best interests of the multitude everywhere
perishing for lack of knowledge. From your most just and
forcible representation, I feel it expedient to relinquish my
claims on the services of Mr. Tyler. Of his abilities you are
capable of judging; and I can supply you with every honourable
and satisfactory testimonial in favour of his piety, temper, and
conduct. With exemplary devotedness and zeal he has laboured
in my plan, and his ministry has everywhere been accompanied
with the converting power of divine grace. His steadfast
faith, his ardent and exalted zeal and singleness of heart,
and his superior merits and talents, qualify him for occupying
a distinguished place amongst the preachers of the Gospel.
Actuated, I trust, by the noblest motives by which the human
mind can be swayed, he has devoted himself to the work of the
ministry; and with the enjoyment of the approbation of his
Great Master, which will ever be his best and highest reward,
may he see also the accomplishment of his heart’s desire--the
conversion of souls to God and Christ.
“With respect to the work amongst us, of which you seem anxious
to be informed, I have the pleasure to tell you it is very
generally on the increase; and very many in the large towns
where I have chapels have felt the saving efficacy of redeeming
love and the quickening grace of the Holy Ghost. The Sun of
Righteousness has risen, in many villages and country places,
with healing on its wings. There is a trembling and shaking
among the dry bones--sinners are enquiring the way to Zion with
their faces thitherwards--multitudes are a living comment upon
the truths which they believe--and a great success which hath
attended the labours of the ministers and students loudly
proclaims that the ‘fields are white already to the harvest;’
and the Spirit of the Lord whispers in our ears--‘The time to
favour Zion, yea, the set time is come.’
“It affords me the most cordial satisfaction to see a goodly
number of godly young men offering themselves to the service of
our adorable Saviour, of whose talents and piety I judge most
favourably. The school of the prophets at my beloved Trevecca
affords great advantages to young men, as preparatory to the
work, and so easy of access; but the labourers are still few
and the harvest plenteous. In private and in public, my dear
Sir, unite with the Israel of God in imploring the Lord of the
harvest more copiously to pour out his Spirit on the assemblies
of his saints, powerfully constraining a host of willing
labourers to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
“It is my ardent wish and prayer to God that you may be enabled
to press forward with increasing ardour in the glorious cause.
You are a living witness that Jesus Christ has power to forgive
and to subdue sin. Glory to God! Take heed unto yourself and
unto your doctrines; continue in them, for in doing this,
through the divine blessing, you shall both save yourself, and
them that hear you Sabbath after Sabbath; and from day to day
rehearse to your people, and to all you can collect together,
the joyful tidings which the Gospel proclaims. Persuaded that
you are connected with many wrestling souls, I cannot conclude
without proffering to them and you an earnest request for my
unworthy self and those devoted souls who serve God in the
Gospel of his Son--‘Pray for us.’ That you may be wise to win
souls, and may have many who shall be your joy and crown when
the Chief Shepherd of the sheep shall appear, is the earnest and
affectionate prayer of, my dear Sir, your sincere friend and
well-wisher in Christ,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
During Lady Huntingdon’s visit to York (with Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Madan,
Mr. Venn, Captain Scott, &c.), before alluded to, a site for a chapel
was selected. It was in College-street, so called from the religious
brotherhood of the Collegiate Church of St. Wilfred. This chapel was
regularly supplied by the students of Trevecca until 1779, when the
Rev. W. Wren was invited from Lincolnshire, by Lady Huntingdon, to fill
the place of the student then on the spot, who happened to be ill. He
preached his first sermon from Peter’s question to Cornelius--“I ask,
therefore, for what intent you have sent for me?” His services were
most acceptable; and such was his contempt of labour, and zeal for
the calling of perishing sinners to Christ, that while filling this
cure of souls, he contrived to raise and maintain a congregation at
Barrow, first in a barn, and afterwards in a chapel built for that
purpose.[166] The following letter from Lady Huntingdon exhibits her
Ladyship’s estimate of the devotedness of Mr. Wren in his new sphere of
duty:--
“I have a letter from Mr. Hubback[167] that has occasioned my
heart to rejoice, that our gracious Lord appears for our labours
in York. Go on, my good young man, as one faithfully devoted to
his blessed service, and fear neither men nor devils. I have
experienced his continued mercies for more than forty years, in
the midst of contempt, malice, persecution without the Church;
and false brethren, treachery, ingratitude, and greater evils
than in the world, within the professing Church; yet no weapon
formed against me has prospered. I can, therefore, in the
confidence of a faithful friend to you, speak good of our King
of kings and Lord of Lords. And for ever blessed be his glorious
name, the Gospel is flourishing and spreading from east to west,
from north to south, under our poor unworthy labours; and thus
while we are testifying that _Jesus is exalted as a Prince
and a Saviour, to grant repentance and remission of sins_.
Mercy is our only joy that will ever last. Its praises will be
sounded in the courts of heaven by the redeemed to all eternity;
and in this exercise I would fain be foremost to glorify that
mercy which could save such a poor, lost, sinful soul as mine.
While the Lord seems to bless you, I hope you will not think of
stirring. Let me know when you think your message is over at
York, that I may have time to appoint a suitable student in your
place. I have a letter from the people you mention at Barrow. I
have many heart-aching prayers, occasioned by the calls I have,
from the fields being white unto the harvest, and the labourers
so few. Alas! some past days make me ready to weep, to find that
any poor thirsty souls want the waters of life, and that there
should be no ministration of them, through the want of a poor
earthen vessel to convey them by. Pray, pray in private, pray
in public, that our gracious Lord of the harvest would thrust
out labourers. We find none willing but such as he makes so for
his work. There are many willing for their own work, who say,
‘Lord! Lord!’ but he knows them not. I have reason to praise him
for his tender mercies; the deaths of many, in various parts of
our Connexion, would revive the most drooping hearts. And now
I faithfully commend you to the love, protection, and guidance
of Him who is able to make you wise in all that is good, and to
preserve you blameless to the day of his appearing. In these
prayers for you, I, as ever, remain, your never-ceasing friend,
for the Lord Christ’s sake,
“S. HUNTINGDON.”
“Spa-fields, January 4, 1780.”
The chapel at York continued to be served by students from Trevecca,
in rotation. In the summer of 1781, the Rev. Cradock Glascott, on his
tour through the north of England, visited York, and preached twice in
her Ladyship’s chapel there. At Leeds, at Kirkburton, at Almondbury,
at Rotherham, and at other places, he also preached to the people
assembled at funerals, &c., as well as in the churches, with great
effect: his introduction everywhere being the name of Lady Huntingdon.
In the summer of 1785, Mr. Wills visited York. At Bradford, Mr. Cross
offered him the church of which he was vicar, but Mr. Wills, fearing to
involve him in any difficulty with his diocesan, declined the offer. At
Leeds, he preached in the White Chapel, formerly belonging to the Rev.
Mr. Edwards, and lately supplied by one of Lady Huntingdon’s senior
students, the Rev. Edward Parsons. At Heckmondwick, he preached in the
rain to several hundred people, including his old college friend, Mr.
Rowley, and seven or eight other ministers of the Establishment, and
of other creeds. At Wakefield, he preached in Mr. Bruce’s academy, one
day; on another, on Hunslet Common. At York, he preached, one evening
in the chapel, and the next at the Market-cross; several of the better
sort listened from their windows to his testimony, and though the bells
of a neighbouring church were kept ringing, the multitude held on and
profited. In 1794, Mr. Wydown visited York. He was of Lady Huntingdon’s
Connexion, and worshipped for some time in College-street, but on the
28th Dec, 1796, his increased congregation built him a separate chapel,
which was opened by the Rev. E. Parsons, of Leeds, and the Rev. H.
Howell, of Knaresborough, The congregation soon formed itself into
an Independent Church, and on the 18th April, 1797, Mr. Wydown was
ordained pastor.
We have thus brought to a close the history of Lady Huntingdon’s
exertions in Yorkshire, and may conclude the present chapter by
recording the names of her ministers who remained in that county. Mr.
Parsons settled at Leeds; Mr. Povah, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Parish, and Mr.
Dawson, at Sheffield; Mr. Barnard, Mr. Arbor, and Mr. Morley, at Hull;
Mr. Mather, at Beverley; and Mr. Beard, at Scarborough.