METHODIST MAGAZINE, FOR THE YEAR 1801: BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE ARMINIAN MAGAZINE, FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, A. M. CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF EXTRACTS AND ORIGINAL TREATISES, ON GENERAL REDEMPTION. VOLUME XXIV. LONDON: Printed at the Conference-Office, North-Green, Finfbury-Square; Methodist Preaching-houfes in Town and Country. 1 THE METHODIST MAGAZINE, For JANUARY, 1801. MEMOIRS of the principal Oecurrences which have paffed in the feven and thirty Years Experience of ROBERT MILLER, Minifter of the Gofpel. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" "Almost infinite are the advantages of Biography, as it unfolds "the motives and fources of human conduct, and displays the "minute and hidden fprings of the heart." THES TO THE READER. HESE Memoirs are not put into your hands as the Word of GOD, but as the word of a fallible creature like yourself; confequently, your receiving or rejecting them will not affect your falvation. The Writer has not intentionally made a miftake, or painted the circumstances he has mentioned, with a falfe or high colouring: He wifhed fimply to relate the Dealings of Go with him;the trials he has met with;-how his mind has been affected under them;-how he has been liberated, and the means he made ufe of for his deliverance. The reader may afk, What induced the writer to trouble the world with the experience of a poor infignificant Methodist preacher? To which he would anfwer, Firit, that the great goodnefs and mercy of God manifefted to him may be made known. Secondly, that the children of God may avoid the rocks upon which he has been in danger of fpliting. Thirdly, that if there be any who are as bad as he has been, (if they repent,) they may be encouraged to expect forgiveness of all their fins. Fourthly, the writer has found biographical narrations profitable to himfelf, and hopes. thro' the divine bleffing, this may be profitable to all who will give it a ferious and candid perusal. VOL. XXIV. January, 1801. i was I was born at Rugby, in Warwickshire, April 1, 1763. My father was a tradesman and farmer: But fo fluctuating was buffnefs, and fublunary things fo very uncertain, that his fteps thro' life were often attended with trials of a myfterious and complicated nature. He was first married about the year 1738, to a refpectable farmer's daughter, at which time their principal amounted to about £300, a fum which in thofe days was thought very well to begin the world with. But in lefs than three years, their prinicpal was reduced to £20, by the grub eating the corn each of thofe feafons. He then began the wool-combing, yarn-making, and ftuff-manufacturing trades, all of which he was well acquainted with; and he laboured in the evenings and mornings at the bufinefs, but in the day time managed his farm; and this he did till he had more than retrieved his loffes. He then took another large farm, but poor, and for ten years ftruggled (with an increafing family,) till he made it fome of the beft land in the parith, fo that it cleared him 100 per annum. But tho' fortune feemed to fimile, and profperity crowned his induftry, thofe pleafing days were foon fucceeded by a very dark night of adverfity. He had feven horfes, eight fine milch-cows, and 120 theep, which died in one winter and fummer, at the time the diforder was fo fatal among the cattle in the nation. Soon after these misfortunes, he met with another of a very trying nature; the greatest earthly comfort he was bleffed with, one who fhared with him in the trials of life, and fympathized with him under them all, was fuddenly taken from him: Alas! one of the best of wives, and tenderelt of mothers, a few hours after bearing him the roth child, was fnatched from his foul, and, from a number of dependent children. I have often heard him fay, That if he had not at thofe times been fully perfuaded of a fuperintending, tho' unfathomable Providence, that could not do wrong, he should have funk under thefe complicated afflictions. He was now left with feven children, (three out of the ten having already entered Paradife,) and the eldeft not adequate to manage the bufinefs, or bring up a family; a variety of motives induced him about a year after, again to enter the marriage ftate; and this he did with a perfon who made a good mother to his children, and a faithful and careful wife. But afflictions ftill awaited him; for an Act of Parliament being obtained to enclose the field, when near ten years of his leafe were unexpired, and as there was no agreement in his lease about the field's being enclosed, the unjust landlord fold it to fome rich men in the town who had fet their hearts upon it, which was near one thousand pounds lofs to him. He then purchased a fmall farm, but turned most of his money into trade, by which he cleared twenty pounds a month. But in tefs than a year after the commencement of the American war, the bufnels was not worth following, and this was the reafon of his entering into the malting bufinefs, which he continued in, till his foul foul returned to GOD. He was rigidly just in his dealings; his word was his bond; I never knew him tell a lie, or make use of evalion or equivocation in his converfation. He often read the Scriptures, and religious books, and regularly attended the fervice in the establishment. He prayed every evening by himself; and I have often seen him much affected in his devotions: had the gofpel been preached in the town or neighbourhood, I have every reafon to believe he would gladly have received the joyful found. I had but one brother who lived to be a man; he was dilobedient to his father, married against his confent, and never profpered thro' life. Four of my fifters were married prior to my father's death, and one of them died foon after, who, I-believe, was upon her death-bed, convinced of fin; but as I knew nothing of those things at that time, I can fay but little as to her experience; only I know the faid, "That the clergyman who attended her, neither understood her diforder, nor how to adminifter confolation to her wounded fpirit." She gave me fome good advice during her affliction, which for a time made ferious impreffions on my careless mind, but I foon finned them away. With respect to myfelf, I was one of the vileft of the vile. I was put to school very young: But my father being much engaged in business, my will was not broken as it ought to have been: At fchool I was neither taught fubmiffion nor good manners, nor was any care taken of my infant mind. When about ten years of age, I was fent to a fecond fchool, and when about thirteen, to another: But I had contracted fuch a diflike to fchools and books, that as often as I could, I gave my fchoolmafter the flip, and stayed playing with other wicked boys like myfelf. My father then engaged a perfon to come an hour every day to inftruct me in arithmetic, &c.; but my mind was conftantly running after boyish plays, fo that I made but a very flow progrefs, which was no fmall grief to him. He then informed me if I would not give myfelf to learning, he would put me to bufinefs, which he had intended not to have done for fome years: This pleafed me much, as I wanted to be my own mailer; and fo intent was I upon it, that in little more than one year, I had learnt every branch of it: But with the bufinefs I learnt many low prejudices, as well as to fwear, tell lies, and play at cards. And here I would obferve, that learning a trade in a factory, or aflarge fhop, among a fet of vile wicked inen, is almost like being in an infernal academy, to learn to be factors for the devil! Thofe monfters of iniquity uled to flatter my vanity, by telling me, That as I could now get my bread in any part of England, and fhould make a better mafter than my father, if they were in my place, they would not be controuled by any father in the world. Thefe fpeeches worked fo upon my ignorant and inexperienced mind, that I thought them my real friends, and my father |