Death of the Hon. Henry Hastings--Lady Huntingdon’s exertions
at Brighton--Joseph Wall--Mr. Whitefield’s First Visit to
Brighton--Lady Huntingdon sells her Jewels--The Chapel opened by
Mr. Madan--Mr. Romaine--Oathall--Captain Scott--Anecdotes--Old
Abraham--Letters from Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Romaine--Christian
Perfection--Mr. Maxfield and Mr. Bell--Letter from Mr.
Romaine--Mr. Madan--Letters from Messrs. Berridge, Romaine, and
Venn--Mr. Jones (of St. Saviour’s).
The Hon. Henry Hastings, fourth son of the Countess of Huntingdon, was
born December 12, 1739, and departed this life at Brighton, September
13, 1757, aged eighteen. The only record of this event is found in the
following extract from a letter of Mr. Whitefield to Lady Huntingdon:--
“I burnt, but I believe I shall never forget the contents
of your Ladyship’s letter. Who but the Redeemer himself can
possibly describe the yearnings of such a tender parent’s heart?
Surely your Ladyship is called to cut off a right hand and
pluck out a right eye; ‘_but it is the Lord, let him do what
seemeth him good_.’ This was the language of Eli, whose sons
were sinners before the Lord exceedingly. This hath often been
the case with the best of people and the greatest favourites of
heaven; but none know the bitterness of such a cup but those who
are called to drink it. If not sweetened with a sense of the
love and mercy of God in Christ, who could abide it? O! what
physic, what strong physic, do our strong affections oblige
our Heavenly Father to give us! What pruning knives do these
luxuriant branches require, in order to preserve the fruit and
delicacy of the vine! Blessed be God, there is a time coming
when these mysterious, dignified providences shall be explained.
I am glad Mr. L. is with your Ladyship; he has a friendly heart.
May the Lord Jesus raise up your Ladyship many comforters! Above
all, may he come himself. He will--he will! O! that I could
bear your heavy load! But I can only, in my feeble way, bear
it on my heart, before Him who came to heal our sicknesses and
bear our infirmities. That your Ladyship may come out of these
fiery trials, purged and purified like the brightest gold, is
the earnest prayer of, ever honoured Madam, your most dutiful,
obliged, sympathizing, and ever ready servant for Christ’s sake,
“G. WHITEFIELD.”
The illness of her son had brought the Countess from her house in
Park-street to Brighton, where, during her stay, she felt seriously
concerned for the spiritual interests of its inhabitants, and
especially for the company that frequented that place of fashionable
resort, and used her utmost exertions to bestow upon them some
spiritual gift, by carrying to the houses of the nobility and the poor
the welcome tidings of salvation through faith in a crucified Redeemer.
In the course of her ever-frequent visits of mercy and benevolence at
Brighton, she entered the lodgings of a soldier’s wife who had been
delivered of twins; and having first relieved the temporal wants of the
poor woman, conversed with her on spiritual subjects, affectionately
pointing her to the Fountain of atoning blood opened in the clefts
of the “Rock of Ages.” In the performance of this duty, her Ladyship
displayed an admirable mixture of discretion and zeal, solemnity and
sweetness; and no sooner did she begin to speak of her awful state,
by nature and by practice, and the imminent danger of her soul, if
she died unpardoned, unrenewed, unwashed in the Saviour’s blood, than
the poor soldier’s wife burst into a flood of tears under a sense
of her guilt and misery, and began to call on the Lord with all the
earnestness of which her dying frame was capable; and manifesting
an anxious desire to hear more of that precious salvation which is
provided for the guilty and the lost, she induced the Countess to
repeat her visits. The apartment was contiguous to a public bakehouse,
and the people that came to the oven heard, through a crack in the
partition, her Ladyship conversing on spiritual subjects. This soon
became noised abroad, and other poor women, feeling a desire to
hear such things, attended at the lodgings of the soldier’s wife at
appointed times for that purpose. Her usual method was to converse with
them about the one thing needful, to read and expound the Scriptures,
and to pray with them. In a little time the number of her hearers
increased, and as often as they could be collected she joyfully
proclaimed to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. The affectionate
and fervent manner in which she addressed them was an affecting
proof of the interest she took in their spiritual concerns. There
was an energy in her manner that was irresistible. Her subject--her
language--her gestures--the tone of her voice--and the turn of her
countenance, all conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart.
On one of these occasions, a blacksmith, named Joseph Wall, a man
notorious for his profligacy, having been directed to the place of
meeting, obtained admittance, though none but females had hitherto
attended. Lady Huntingdon coming in, felt much surprise at seeing him
in a corner of the room, and hesitated in her mind whether to request
him to withdraw, or to refrain from speaking to him. At length she
determined to take no notice of him, and to proceed in her usual course
(which she considered was the path of duty), by praying with these poor
women, and setting before them the “things which accompany salvation.”
The word thus spoken was applied by the power of the Holy Spirit to
the heart of Joseph Wall, and from that time he became a distinguished
monument of the power of divine grace, so that all who knew him were
constrained to acknowledge the marvellous change. For a period of
twenty-nine years he adorned the doctrine of God his Saviour by a life
of holiness, and through every period of his religious life appeared
as a pilgrim and stranger in the world. He told a friend, a day or two
before his departure for glory, “that he longed to be dissolved, that
he was very happy, had not a doubt of his salvation, and would not
change his state with the king.” About two hours before he expired,
every breath appearing as though it would be the last, his lips were
observed to move, and his anxious and affectionate daughter, bending
her head, heard him slowly but distinctly utter--“Come, Lord Jesus!
come quickly!” The Great Shepherd of the people heard and answered his
prayer, and took him to the heavenly fold the latter end of June, 1786.
While the Countess was thus usefully and actively engaged, a
gentlewoman, who lived in the vicinity of Brighton, dreamed that a tall
lady, whose dress she particularly noticed, would come to that town,
and be the means of doing much good. It was about three years after
this dream that Lady Huntingdon went down thither. One day the above
person met her Ladyship in the street, and on seeing her exclaimed, “O,
Madam, you are come!” Lady Huntingdon, surprised at the singularity of
such an address from an entire stranger, thought at first the woman
was deranged. “What do you know of me?” asked the Countess. “Madam
(replied the person), I saw you in a dream three years ago, dressed
just as you appear now;” and related the whole of the dream to her. In
consequence of the acquaintance which was then formed between them,
Lady Huntingdon was made instrumental in her conversion, and she died
about a year afterwards in the confidence of faith.
It was thus that her zeal and piety prepared the way for the more
public ministrations of Mr. Whitefield, who visited Brighton in the
year 1759, and at first preached under a tree in a field behind the
White Lion Inn.[168]
The awakened people began to increase in numbers, and a small
Christian society was afterwards established, whose members met for
prayer and praise, and the reading of the Scriptures. This promising
state of things induced Lady Huntingdon to erect a small but neat
chapel contiguous to her house, on the site of the present one in
North-street, the expense of which she either wholly, or in part,
defrayed by the sale of her jewels, to the amount of six hundred and
ninety-eight pounds fifteen shillings.[169]
The chapel was opened in the summer of 1761, by the Rev. Martin Madan.
To Mr. Madan succeeded Messrs. Romaine, Berridge, Venn, and Fletcher,
who severally took the charge of a congregation and people for whom
they soon learned to cultivate the sincerest affection. Instant in
season and out of season, these apostolic men diligently performed
the work of evangelists, and lost no opportunity of proclaiming the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Here, as in other places, they laboured
together for the welfare of the Church of God; and as they worshipped
often together in the courts below, they are now doubtless worshipping
in the courts above, and enjoying the felicity of those, “who, having
turned many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and
ever.”
No sooner had these apostolic men unfolded the standard of the true
cross, than a violent clamour was raised against them and their
doctrines, and frequent attempts were made to intimidate them from
preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. But, regardless of the torrents
of reproach which were continually rolling on them from every quarter,
they prosecuted their labours in the most undaunted manner; and the
Great Head of the Church bore testimony to the words of his servants,
and confirmed it by awakening and converting many souls under their
ministry. If God will work, none can let it; the cause is his, and he
must and will conquer; and any instrument is sufficient, though it were
but the jaw-bone of an ass, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon the
appointed Samson.
The connexion of Mr. Romaine with the Countess of Huntingdon, as
her chaplain, exhibits the interesting picture of two characters of
exalted excellence striving together for the hope of the Gospel--the
one by her influence and wealth, the other by his zeal and diligence.
And, to the honour of Mr. Romaine, his long and active labours were
without the least expectation of any remuneration; and all he ever
got from Lady Huntingdon barely paid his journeys and his expenses.
Notwithstanding the basest stories, neither he nor Mr. Whitefield were
ever a shoe-latchet the richer for any service done her Ladyship. Not
that this is meant to impeach her boundless liberality: never perhaps
did mortal make a nobler use of what she possessed: her time, her
talents, her soul and body were consecrated to God. She knew that it
was laudable to feed the hungry and clothe the naked: but all inferior
considerations seemed to be lost in her superior concern for the
everlasting happiness of perishing mortals.
“Never (says the late Rev. John Eyre, one of her senior
ministers) shall I lose the strong impression which was made
on my mind in a conversation I had with her about the wants of
a family who appeared to be in great distress:--‘I can do for
them (said she) but very little. I am obliged to be a spectator
of miseries which I pity, but cannot relieve. For when I gave
myself up to the Lord, I likewise devoted to him all my fortune;
with this reserve, that I would take with a sparing hand what
might be necessary for my food and raiment, and for the support
of my children, should they live to be reduced. I was led to
this (continued she) from a consideration, that there were many
benevolent persons who had no religion, who would feel for the
temporal miseries of others, and help them; but few, even among
professors, who had a proper concern for the awful condition of
ignorant and perishing souls. What, therefore, I can save for a
while out of my own necessaries, I will give them; but more I
dare not take without being guilty of sacrilege.’”
The value of such a life can never be ascertained till the heavens and
the earth be no more. And then, when temporal happiness and misery
shall have vanished like the illusion of a dream, thousands and tens
of thousands will be thankful that she lived so long the faithful
servant of God, and the happy instrument of their conversion. All could
see her zeal and her devotion, but herself. The Churches of Christ
honoured her as the chief of saints, but she always confessed herself
to be the chief of sinners. Her life was a better comment than all
that was ever written by expositors on those words of Christ, “Make to
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail
they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” What an innumerable
multitude, who had never seen her face in the flesh, were waiting with
rapture to receive her happy spirit into mansions of everlasting glory!
Another house of prayer was the next work of her Ladyship’s hands.
An old gentleman of the name of Warden, a justice of the peace for
the county of Sussex, a man well known, then occupied the mansion
of Oathall, which had formerly belonged to a branch of the house of
Shirley,[170] from which her Ladyship descended. Hearing of her wish
to carry the Gospel into the wilds of Sussex, he waited on her at
Brighton, and offered to let her the house for a term of years for the
very purpose she meditated. The agreement was immediately adjusted, she
entered upon the premises--fitted up a large hall for the chapel, and
furnished the upper rooms for her own residence, and for the ministers
she brought with her. There, Messrs. Romaine, Venn, Madan, Berridge,
Shirley, Townsend, Toplady, and Haweis, with many others, yielded their
services, and there were they blessed with some singular tokens of
divine favour, among a people in whom much of the simplicity of the
Gospel was apparent.
Captain Scott, son of Richard Scott, Esq., of Betton, in the county
of Salop, an ancient and highly respectable family, having received a
polite education, embraced the profession of arms in his seventeenth
year. He began his military career as cornet, and was promoted to the
rank of Captain in the 7th regiment of Dragoons. He was present at the
famous battle fought near Minden, on the 1st of August, 1759, attached
to the cavalry of the right wing, commanded by Lord George Sackville.
The danger to which, as a soldier, he was exposed, was seriously
impressed upon his mind. This led to a train of thought and a
succession of resolutions, which appear to have been preparatory to his
acquiring self-knowledge, to his reception of the Gospel, and which
eventually led to the conversion of his soul.
It was daily his practice (though felt as a toilsome duty) to read the
psalms and lessons of the day--a practice well known to his brother
officers: but as his conduct in other respects conformed to theirs,
they gave him no opposition, but were used pleasantly to ask him,
“Well, Scott, have you read your psalms and lessons to-day?” But while
he continued to strive to make himself righteous by his own works, he
necessarily laboured in vain. Happening to be quartered somewhere in
the neighbourhood of Oathall, and being out on a shooting party, he
was driven by a storm for cover to the house of a farmer, with whom
some horses of the regiment were at grass. There he found several
labourers, who had taken shelter in the same cottage. The farmer being
a pious man, and Captain Scott happening at this time to be in one of
his “religious fits,” as he was accustomed to call his periods of good
resolution, he entered into conversation, and heard him speak on divine
subjects in a way that astonished him. This naturally produced the
enquiry, where they had collected their information and the sentiments
they expressed. They told him at the hall yonder, where there was now
a very famous man, a Mr. Romaine, preaching for Lady Huntingdon, and
they importunately invited him to come and hear for himself. This he
determined to do the following Sunday. Thither he accordingly repaired,
and he was particularly struck with the neatness and solemnity which
pervaded the congregation, as well as with the impressive manner in
which the service was conducted. Mr. Romaine preached on our Lord’s
words, in John xiv. 6--“_I am the way_.” The truth then delivered
was exactly suited to the case of Captain Scott; and God, who, in
his good providence, had brought him to hear it, by the power of his
grace made it effectual to the everlasting benefit of his soul. From
that time the happy change commenced for which hundreds have since had
reason to bless God, who have been called under his ministry.
He continued a soldier, but his altered conduct exposed him to many
annoyances in the army; and as he was marching through Leicester with
his regiment, he opened his commission as a minister of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A pious person, to whom he was introduced, having, probably,
been informed of his usefulness in holding meetings with some of the
men in his regiment, put him into a parlour, and left him with no other
company but a Bible, a hymn-book, and his God, telling him that he must
preach there that evening. He complied with the earnest request, and
thus entered into that work to which the Great Head of the Church had
chosen him, and in which he honoured him with abundant success.
Having put his hand to the plough, he never turned back, but preached
in his regimentals wherever he was stationed. Mr. Fletcher, in a letter
to Lady Huntingdon, says--
“I went last Monday to meet Captain Scott, one of the
first-fruits that have grown for the Lord at Oathall--a captain
of the truth--a bold soldier of Jesus Christ. God hath thrown
down before him the middle wall of bigotry, and he boldly
launches into an irregular usefulness. For some months he has
exhorted his dragoons daily; for some weeks he hath preached
publicly at Leicester, in the Methodist meeting-house, in his
regimentals, to numerous congregations, with good success. The
stiff regular ones pursue him with hue and cry, but I believe he
is quite beyond their reach. God keep him zealous and simple! I
believe this _red-coat_ will shame many a black one. I am
sure he shames me.”
In a subsequent letter he adds:--
“Captain Scott set out last Monday for York, after making a
great stir for good in Shrewsbury--he hath been a prophet to
several in his own country.”
Mr. Whitefield gave some account of him in the Tabernacle pulpit, and
said--
“I have invited the Captain to come to London, and bring his
artillery to Tabernacle-rampart, and try what execution he can
do here.”
He was one of the supplies there for upwards of _twenty_ years;
and, it should be noticed, to the praise of Mr. Romaine’s liberality,
that he not only gave him encouragement to preach, but was particularly
active in bringing him to that place. A tremendous storm of thunder and
lightning, which took place as he was entering London, was construed
by him as a probable indication of the divine displeasure, and caused
him to fear that the case of the old prophet misleading the young one
was exemplified in his present circumstance. He, however, persevered,
and came to the Tabernacle, where an immense congregation was assembled
to hear him; but when the season for addressing them arrived, he was
absorbed in tears, and his utterance completely failed him; at length
he became composed, and was enabled to deliver his message in a manner
that laid the foundation of his future popularity in London.
After a while, Captain Scott sold his commission, and quitted the army
for the ministry of the Gospel; and thus ended all the brilliant views
of military rank and fame to which, had he continued in the army, he
might have aspired. He was well qualified for a military command. His
mind was fertile, his apprehension quick, his utterance ready, and his
fortitude great. The way to worldly honour was open before him. He
had a prospect of obtaining what was once the object of his highest
ambition; but the great Sovereign of the world and the Church had
destined him to more important services and higher honours than any
that mere military heroes can ever perform or attain.
Another fruit of the ministry of her Ladyship’s chaplains at Oathall
was an old man, called Abraham. He was born in Sussex; being an idle
youth, he enlisted for a soldier, and after fifty years’ service,
obtained his discharge, and with his wife settled near Oathall.
He grew serious, sought after truth, attended at church, and, not
quite satisfied with what he heard at home, went round to the
neighbouring churches; but what he heard seemed very unsatisfactory
and contradictory to what the Church prayers he read seemed to speak.
Uncertain what was truth, he roamed about, till providentially the
chapel opened by Lady Huntingdon at Oathall awakened attention; and
though he did not like the Methodists, he resolved for once to go and
hear. He was then just _a hundred years old_, but still hearty,
and in the perfect use of his faculties. Mr. Venn was at that time
with Lady Huntingdon, and preached at Oathall the morning old Abraham
attended. The truth struck his mind with an evidence and power he
had never before felt. He listened with the deepest attention and
delight--he could hardly contain himself; and as soon as the service
was ended, he laid his hand upon the shoulder of a neighbour who was
next him, “Ah! (says he) neighbour, this is the very truth of God’s
word which I have been seeking, and never heard it so plain before.
Here will I abide.”
From that day his conversation bespoke the blessed Spirit he had
received. He spoke of that day as the day of his birth, and used to
say that he was a child born at a hundred years old. He attended all
the ministers whom Lady Huntingdon sent, and continued to make happy
advances in knowledge and experience. His age and white head made him
very distinguished, and his conversation rendered him very precious to
all the serious persons round the neighbourhood.
One day Lady Huntingdon was talking with him, and he was giving an
account of his little trials to her:--“Ah, my Lady (says he), ’tis my
grief that my old partner is a little too apt to run ahead sometimes:
but I will tell ye what happened the other day--when that remarkable
darkness and tempest came over us here, she was terribly frightened,
and thought it was the day of judgment, and in she ran with an old
gossip of hers, who was of her mind and against me, and down they fell
upon their knees upon the floor, and said ‘Abraham, come and pray
for us.’ So said I, ‘What is the matter, dame?’ ‘O (said she), it is
the day of judgment! it is the day of judgment! Ar’n’t you afraid?’
‘Afraid! no (said I); what should I be afraid of? If it is the day of
judgment, then I shall see Christ Jesus my Lord, and that will be a
joyful sight.’ So, my Lady, I began to sing a hymn. By and by the storm
was over, and then they both forgot the fright it had put them in.” He
died in the 106th year of his age, persevering in the Christian walk,
and adorning the doctrine of our Saviour in all things; and, as a ripe
sheaf in the day of harvest, was gathered into the bosom of our Saviour
in peace by a gentle dissolution, old and full of days.
The summer of 1762 Lady Huntingdon spent principally in Yorkshire,
where her active spirit was engaged in forming fresh plans for erecting
the standard of Immanuel “amongst the thickest ranks of his enemies.”
The “little cloud” at Brighton, which at the first was “no bigger than
a man’s hand,” had gradually increased, and diffused such a copious
shower of blessings as fertilized the hearts of many in that part of
the vineyard. Anxious that the progress of the Gospel should still
continue to increase--that the banner of redeeming love should be
unfurled wider, and the sound of the Gospel trumpet wax louder and
louder in that favoured place, she continued her exertions in procuring
suitable supplies, and sought the aid of those apostolic labourers who
were fired with zeal for their Master’s honour, to convey this best
of blessings to the many yet enveloped in the shades of ignorance and
perishing for lack of knowledge.
Mr. Fletcher was obliged to decline her Ladyship’s invitation, as will
be seen by the following extract from a letter dated Madely, 26th July,
1762, and addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon, Knaresborough,
Yorkshire. “I humbly thank you for your obliging invitation to wait
for your Ladyship at Brighthelmstone. It was the more welcome, as it
hath removed the fear I had that my wish was presumptuous. Hitherto I
have been closely tied to my parish: no clergyman chose to have any
intercourse with me, and I have not yet preached out of my church. Of
late, blessed be the precious name of Jesus for it, the work deepens
in the hearts of those that have been convinced, and I begin not to
be at a loss for the company of some sincere fellow-travellers to our
Jerusalem above. One is now entering that glorious city through the
gate of death, with the steadiness of faith and the joy of hope which
attended dear Mr. Jones[171] in his last moments. May our latter end be
like theirs!”
Mr. Romaine says--
“I have so managed my matters as to be able to set out for
Brighthelmstone on Monday morning next: and, God willing, shall
stay there till Michaelmas. O! join your prayers with ours, that
the Lord of the harvest would be with us, and bless our labours
in this part of his harvest-field. By all accounts, the desires
of the people are very pressing for my coming down to help them,
which I hope is of the Lord’s doing, and is a good token for us.
But be that as it will, it is ours to sow the seed--to rain and
shine upon it, and to give the increase, is God’s part. To him
we must leave it.
“I should be glad to hear from your Ladyship about any part of
my work in Brighthelmstone, and anything you would have me to
do relating to your house or affairs while I am there. It would
be a pleasure to me to hear from you. I am, with my wishes for
yours and Lady Selina’s health, your faithful friend and servant
for the Lord’s sake,
“August 21, 1762. “W. ROMAINE.”
“I breakfasted this morning with Sir Charles Hotham, who is, I
think, in good spirits, and all his friends.”
About this time Mr. Wesley’s doctrine of the perfection of the
Christian character was taken up and carried to extravagant enthusiasm
by several ministers, of whom Mr. Fletcher speaks in the following
extract:--
“I have a particular regard for Maxfield and Bell; both of them
are my correspondents, I am strongly prejudiced in favour of
the witnesses, and do not willingly receive what is said against
them; but allowing that what is reported is one half mere
exaggeration, the tenth part of the rest shows that spiritual
pride, presumption, arrogance, stubbornness, party spirit,
uncharitableness, prophetic mistakes--in short, that _every
sinew_ of enthusiasm is now at work in many of that body. I
do not credit any one’s bare word, but I ground my sentiments on
Bell’s own letters.
“May I presume, unasked, to lay before you my mite of
observation? If I had it in my power to overlook the matter, as
you have, would it be wrong in me calmly to sit down with some
unprejudiced friends and lovers of both parties, and fix with
them the marks and symptoms of enthusiasm; then insist, at first
in love, and afterwards, if necessary, with all the weight of
my authority, upon those who _have them_, or _plead for
them_, either to stand to the sober rule of Christianity, or
_openly_ to depart from us?”
Matters every day became more desperate; and when Mr. Maxfield was
excluded from preaching in the chapels of Mr. Wesley, he took one for
himself, and drew away several hundreds of the society. The conduct of
George Bell and his followers drew great odium on the whole body of
the Methodists. Their wildness and enthusiasm daily increasing, Lady
Huntingdon hastened to London, to endeavour to stop the plague by every
means in her power.
Her Ladyship had frequent opportunities of speaking to Mr. Maxfield
and others: and her conversation seems to have had some effect upon
that gentleman, for from that time he became more settled and more
Calvinistic in his sentiments. Soon after the change in his opinions,
he published an answer to Mr. Wesley’s Narrative, which Mr. Wesley was
far from approving. “It was (says he) at the pressing instances of Mr.
Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon that he wrote that wretched book against
me.” Mr. Fletcher did not consider it a wretched performance, for,
after a critical examination of it, he says--
“Mr. Maxfield’s reply to Mr. Wesley’s answer seems to me just in
_some_ points, and in _others_ too severe. Mr. Wesley
is, perhaps, too tenacious of some expressions, and too prone to
credit what he wishes concerning some mistaken witnesses of the
state of fathers in Christ. Mr. Maxfield, perhaps, esteems too
little the inestimable privilege of being perfected in that love
which casts out fear. But, in general, I conceive, if I do not
presume of myself in answering your question, that it would be
better for babes, or young men in Christ, to cry for a growth in
grace, than to dispute whether fathers in Christ enjoy such or
such privileges.”
Mr. Romaine’s visit to Brighton, and the effects of his ministry, were
peculiarly useful at this time, for some of these enthusiastic notions
on the doctrine of perfection, which had caused such mischief in
London, had crept amongst the society there, and threatened to disturb
the peace and tranquillity of the Church of Christ in that place. Mr.
Romaine’s letter to Lady Huntingdon, dated Lambeth, Nov. 11th, 1762,
details the particulars of what occurred on this occasion:--
“Madam--As you have got Mr. Madan down with you, I hope the Lord
Christ will make his ministry useful, and that his stay may be
as long as he chooses. I will undertake for any duty at the
Lock, or for all the duty, if he would let Mr. Haweis go his
intended journey. Although this be inconvenient for me, yet I
don’t mind that. I find my heart very closely knit to the little
church at Brighthelmstone, and would do anything to promote
their true happiness. My love to them would turn inconvenience
into a pleasure. Since I came to town several things have
happened to make the people more dear to me than when I was
among them. I find they are not to live long in peace--they are
going on too well to meet with no disturbance. The enemy has
begun to attack them, and has in part succeeded. He sees how
safe they are while they make Jesus all their salvation and all
their hope--and how happy while they live wholly by faith upon
him; and this vexes old Satan. Since he cannot dethrone our
exalted Head in heaven, he shows his malice against his members
upon earth. The temptation with which, at this day, he disturbs
them, is to hinder them from living upon Christ, as poor, needy,
helpless sinners, and from finding by faith all they want in
his fulness. This exalts the Saviour too much, and makes them
too safe and happy; therefore Satan would persuade them to
get riches, strength, and a clean heart, quite without sin in
themselves; so that then they may look inward with complacency
and delight, and look outwards on others of supposed smaller
attainments with a ‘STAND BY--I AM HOLIER THAN THOU,’
and look upwards with a ‘_God, I thank thee that I am not as
other men are_.’ Thus you see pride enters in, and Christ is
thrust out.”
Mr. Madan appears to have remained at Brighton nearly three months,
with much utility to the cause of God in that town. Desirous of
supplying his place with the services of some able minister, her
Ladyship wrote to Mr. Berridge, Mr. Romaine, and Mr. Venn, inviting
them to Brighton, to proclaim the “unsearchable riches of Christ” to a
rapidly increasing congregation.
Mr. Berridge says, in a letter dated Everton, Nov. 16, 1762--
“I cannot see my call to Brighthelmstone; and I ought to see
it for myself, not another for me. Was any good done when I
was there? It was God’s doing: all the glory be to him. This
shows I did not then go without my Master, but it is no proof
of a second call. Many single calls have I had to villages,
when some good was done, but no further call. I am not well
able to ride so long a journey, and my heart is utterly set
against wheel-carriages in these roads. Indeed, I see not my
call--I cannot think of the journey; and therefore pray your
Ladyship to think no more of it. I write thus plainly, not out
of forwardness I trust, but to save your Ladyship the trouble
of sending a second request, and myself the pain of returning
a second denial. You threaten me, Madam, like a pope, not like
a mother in Israel, when you declare roundly that God will
scourge me if I do not come: but I know your Ladyship’s good
meaning, and this menace was not despised. It made me slow in
resolving, and of course slow in writing; it made me also attend
to the state of my own mind during its deliberation, which was
as follows:--Whilst I was looking towards the sea, partly drawn
thither with the hope of doing good, and partly driven by your
_Vatican Bull_, I found nothing but thorns in my way; but
as soon as I turned my eyes from it, I found peace; and now,
whilst I am sending a peremptory denial, I feel no check or
reproof within, which I generally do when I am not willing to go
about my Master’s business.”
Mr. Venn observes, in a letter dated Huddersfield, December 10, 1762--
“In March or April I may be able to visit you and give you some
little assistance. I do love to minister to the dear flock at
Brighton; and, in order to do this, may the Spirit of God open
the eyes of my understanding more and more to see my need of
a Saviour, and to behold the suitableness, the freeness, and
fulness of redemption, which was wrought out by the Lord of Life
and Glory. O help me with your prayers, for truly I need them. I
thank you ten thousand times for all your repeated marks of love
and generosity to me and mine. Continue to pray for me, and the
Lord will return it to you sevenfold.”
Mr. Romaine says, under date of Lambeth, Dec. 28, 1762--
“Dear Madam--I have received the enclosed in a letter from Mr.
Grimshaw, and being engaged to preach on Saturday evening at
the Lock, I could not send it till this day’s post. My heart
and my prayers are with you; but the Lord does not make a way
for me to visit you. To him I submit in this (although it be
a great self-denial), as well as in other things. His will is
always good, and it is always good for us to be resigned to
it; but when the Spirit is willing, the flesh is often weak;
therefore the Lord repeats lesson upon lesson, line upon line,
to teach us to submit to his blessed and holy will. I am a poor
dull scholar, but he is a kind Master, and through him I get on,
though halting and slowly. Such am I, and such is he, that I can
be telling of nothing else but of his salvation all the day long.
“I cannot forget the dear little church. I think they must be
better for my fervent prayers. The Lord Christ keep them all,
and add to their number. I hear Bateman has left you, but I
have not seen her. This life itself is changing, and therefore
we need not wonder all things in it change. But Jesus is the
same--He changeth not; and the happiness derived from Him is
the only unchanging happiness. May this be your portion and
mine! More we cannot ask, more we cannot have. I am, with great
respect, for the Lord’s sake, your servant.”
On the departure of Mr. Madan for London, his place was supplied by
Mr. Fletcher, who continued some weeks at Brighton, and was succeeded
by Mr. Howel Davies. The labours of these excellent men contributed,
with the divine blessing, to the restoration of peace and the healing
of those divisions which had caused Lady Huntingdon and her friends
so much uneasiness and anxiety. By the recent death of Mr. Jones, of
St. Saviour’s, she was deprived of a valuable and useful auxiliary
in the great work in which she was engaged. He had often preached at
her Ladyship’s in London, and she had calculated on his services at
Brighton and Oathall. His first awakening was by the gradual working
of the law upon his conscience; and his inward convictions of sin,
wrought by the Spirit of God, were very deep and distressing. While
under this concern Lady Huntingdon’s acquaintance with him first began;
and her great intimacy and friendship gave her a constant opportunity
of being a witness of God’s gracious dealings with his soul. He was
greatly strengthened and established in the faith of the Gospel by her
Ladyship’s advice and conversation. He had great gifts and great grace;
and he needed both for the work to which Providence called him. His
sweetness of natural temper, eminently great as it was, would never
have supported him under the numberless insults he met with, had it
not been strengthened, as well as adorned, by a sublimer influence.
It was this, and only this, which enabled him to overcome evil with
good, as well as to have, not the _form_ only, but the _power of
godliness_.
“Dear Mr. Jones (observes her Ladyship) lived happily and died
rejoicing. He was long the subject of affliction, and often at
death’s door; but he was refined in the furnace of affliction,
and his growth in grace and knowledge of the Saviour great and
remarkable. My foolish heart fondly looked to his ministerial
labours at Brighton; but our glorious Head has frustrated my
views in this, as well as in many other ways, to humble me, and
teach me to look more constantly to Him who doeth what seemeth
him best.”
Mr. Jones exchanged this lower world of sin and sorrow for the pure
unmixed joys of God’s eternal kingdom above on the 6th of June, 1762,
in the thirty-third year of his age.