THE Evangelical Magazine, FOR AUGUST, 1802. MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. T. WILLS, A.B. WHEN the great Master of the Harvest is pleased to call bis labourers from the field to their eternal rest and reward, Faith cannot but rejoice in their exaltation, whilst Friendship drops the tear of sensibility over their bier. -Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. eye The Rev. Thomas Wills, the subject of this Memoir, who has now finished his course, and gone to the bosom of his God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, was long a burning and shining light in the church, and blessed with eminent usefulness, as his ability was considerable, and his labours wide and unwearied. He was born at Truro, in Cornwall, of respectable parents; and being early left an orphan, under the care of his mother's maiden sisters, he was brought up with particular tenderness, and guarded against the feats of hardihood to which school-boys are usually inured, being kept much at home, under the of his aunts. He was early placed under the care of the able master of Truro School, Mr. Conor; and made the usual proficiency in classical knowledge, which boys designed for the university are expected to attain. The education at that school was also remarkable for a particular attention to the communication of religious knowledge; and he was obliged constantly to attend the ministry of that great servant of Christ, Samuel Walker. But, during all these years of his school-boy education, though preserved from the outward vices which in many schools too early infect the youth, his heart had remained unaffected with any sensible divine impressions, and indifferent to the concerns of his soul, or the profession for which he was designed. He was sent at the usual time to Oxford; and entered a commoner at Magdalen Hall. The present Dr. Haweis was then a commoner at ChristChurch; and having preceded Mr. Wills at the TruroSchool, and often acted as usher to the younger boys, when VOL. X. Q q at at the head of the school, while Mr. Wills was in the lower forms, to him Mr. Wills was particularly recommended to introduce him to a respectable acquaintance. From the same school, and the tuition of Mr. Walker, Mr. Haweis had carried to college a deep sense of divine truth; and abandoning the profession of Physic, to which he had been bred, had determined, with the warm approbation of Mr. Walker, to addict himself to the ministry of the Word. With such happy impressions on his mind, his active spirit soon began to diffuse a savour of the same divine truth into the minds of many of his fellow-collegians; and a few of them, desirous of profiting by his superior knowledge, used to assemble and drink tea in his rooms, read the Greek Testament, converse on divine subjects, — and, before they parted, join in prayer. It was one of these little social meetings to which Mr. Wills, when he came to college, was introduced; and the first time he had ever kneeled in such a society was in the cloisters of Christ Church. He was struck with the prayer, and, on looking back, could perceive no book; which sur◄ prized him more. The impression of what he heard, however, fixed on his mind; and from that time he attached himself to his friend, and constantly attended his instructions and ministry; and their connection grew closer by the removal of Mr. Haweis, as a gentleman commoner, to the same house as Mr. Wills, soon after the former had entered the ministry. Here, with two others, they very often breakfasted alternately, in each other's room; and the intercourse became mutually profitable. The reproach of the cross soon followed; and Mr. Wills, with the others who attended Mr. Haweis's ministry, soon became marked men. During this time his profiting evidently appeared, his diligence in study, and his advancement in the divine life went hand in hand; and, as soon as his age admitted, he entered into the ministry, and was placed as curate to Mr. Walker's brother at St. Agnes, one of the most populous parishes in the county of Cornwall. His two predecessors in that cure, had been truly good men; but were providentially soon removed by death. Mr. Wills, therefore, entered upon his labours, where the sound was not unknown of Evangelical truth; and where a very large society of Mr. Wesley's Methodists had been formed. But he soon rose superior to his predecessors; his life was so exemplary, his labours so unwearied, his preaching in a style so popular, and his doctrine so clear, that he soon filled the church from door to door. His education, acquaintance, and reading, had fixed his views decisively respecting the Thirty-nine Articles; which he embraced in the sense called Calvinistic; and though many of the Methodists who attended his ministry were differently minded as Arminians, yet he won the universal suffrage of his hearers, by a faithful address to the conscience, and studiously avoiding all the asperities of controversy. He endeavoured to commend the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God; and though he kept back nothing of the whole counsel of God, he never provoked those who differed from him in opinion, by harsh censure or distance, but gave the right hand of fellowship to every man that he believed had really given his heart to Christ. The very wide boundary of a mining parish, the visiting the sick, and other parochial duties, made it a very laborious cure. His services at the church were frequent; and in his own house, and from house to house, he ceased not to preach and teach Jesus Christ. Many now living, many gone to their eternal rest from that congregation, are witnesses to the divine power, which, through the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven, attended his ministrations. Though but a curate, perhaps never man had more personal weight and influence with his congregation. His presence every where inspired awe and reverence, and his advice was heard with filial deference. In the village called Churchtown, nine out of ten houses are public ones, for the various purposes of the miners. On the Lord's Day they were, during divine service, shut; he sometimes visited them, and if any person perceived him coming, he instantly fled, and waited not his rebuke. His income was but scanty, but his mind was always liberal, and his disposition to be so, sometimes exceeding his ability. Hardly ever man was more beloved or feared by his parishioners than the curate of St. Agnes. The indefatigable Lady Huntingdon, in her peregrinations, visited him in that dreary abode amidst the Tin Mines; and a connection commenced by the marriage of her niece, Miss Wheeler, which grew up into particular intimacy she knew the value of such a minister, and he felt himself honoured by her attention, and the connection she had formed. Her invitation to him to join her, and move in the more extended sphere of her numerous chapels, with other reasons, I shall not here detail, after many years of successful labours at St. Agnes, engaged him |