{"id":18473,"date":"2023-07-05T00:14:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T00:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=18473"},"modified":"2023-07-05T00:15:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T00:15:11","slug":"the-life-and-death-of-joseph-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2023\/07\/the-life-and-death-of-joseph-hart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Death Of Joseph Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

J. A. Jones, \u201cBunhill Memorials: Sacred Reminiscences Of Three Hundred Ministers And Other Persons Of Note, Who Are Buried In Bunhill Fields, Of Every Denomination\u201d (1849):<\/strong>[1]<\/sup><\/p>\n

Joseph Hart, Independent. In memory of the Rev. Joseph Hart, late minister of the gospel in Jewin Street, who died May 24th, 1768, aged 56 years.<\/p>\n

HeadStone, E. And W. 32,\u2014N. And S. 54.<\/p>\n

This worthy minister was born in London in the year 1712. He w’rites concerning himself, \u201cAs I had the happiness of being born of believing parents, I imbibed the sound doctrines of the gospel from my infancy; nor was I without touches of heart, checks of conscience, and meltings of affection, by the secret strivings of God\u2019s Spirit with me while very young: but, the impressions were not deep, nor the influences lasting, being frequently defaced and quenched by the vanities and vices of childhood and youth. About the twenty-first year of my age, I began to be under great anxiety concerning my soul. The spirit of bondage distressed me sore; though I endeavoured to commend myself to God\u2019s favour by amendment of life, virtuous resolutions, moral rectitude, and a strict attendance on religious ordinances. I endeavoured to reconcile myself to God by sorrow for my faults; which, if attended by tears, I hoped would pass as current coin with heaven, and then I judged myself whole again. In this uneasy, restless round, of sinning and repenting, dreading and working, I went on for about seven years.\u201d Mr. Hart then proceeds to narrate, at some length, the sad declining state in spirituals he became the subject of. He says, \u201cHardness of heart, was, with me, a sign of good confidence; carelessness, went for trust; empty notions, for great light; a seared conscience, for assurance of faith; and rash presumption, for Christian courage.\u201d After this he fell into great distress and anguish of soul, attended with much infirmity of body; till in the year 1757, happening to go to the Moravian chapel, in Fetter Lane, the minister preached from Rev. 3:10. \u201cI was hardly (says he) got home from hearing that sermon, when I felt myself melting away into a strange softness of affection, which made me fling myself on my knees before God. My horrors were immediately dispelled, and such light and comfort flowed into my heart as no words can express. The alteration I felt in my soul, was as that which is experienced by a person almost sinking under a heavy burden, when it is immediately removed from his shoulders. Tears ran in streams from my eyes, and I was so swallowed up in joy and thankfulness, that I hardly knew where I was. I threw myself willingly into my Saviour’s hands; I lay weeping at his feet, wholly resigned to his will; and only begged that I might, if he was graciously pleased to permit it, be of some service to his church and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hart did not begin to preach till towards the year 1760; and is said to have delivered his first sermon at the old Meeting-house in St. John\u2019s Court, Bermondsey. As he commenced preacher late in life, his ministerial course was but short, little more than eight years; the principal part of which he spent in Jewin Street. There his services were very acceptable; and he had a crowded congregation. He died May 24th, 1768, aged 66 years. His funeral in Bunhill Fields, was attended by a larger number of persons, probably, than ever assembled there on any similar occasion. Mr. Andrew Kinsman, of Plymouth Dock, at that time preaching at the Tabernacle, Moorfields, pronounced the oration over his grave. Mr. Hart published a volume of hymns, his own composition; which, though perhaps destitute of much poetical merit, have been for many years held in estimation on account of the store of Christian experience which they contain.\u2014W.<\/p>\n

——————————-
\n[1] The reader is encouraged to visit Bunhill Fields, a nonconformist cemetery located at 38 City Road, London, England.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This worthy minister was born in London in the year 1712. He w’rites concerning himself, \u201cAs I had the happiness of being born of believing parents, I imbibed the sound doctrines of the gospel from my infancy; nor was I without touches of heart, checks of conscience, and meltings of affection, by the secret strivings of God\u2019s Spirit with me while very young: but, the impressions were not deep, nor the influences lasting, being frequently defaced and quenched by the vanities and vices of childhood and youth. About the twenty-first year of my age, I began to be under great anxiety concerning my soul. The spirit of bondage distressed me sore; though I endeavoured to commend myself to God\u2019s favour by amendment of life, virtuous resolutions, moral rectitude, and a strict attendance on religious ordinances. I endeavoured to reconcile myself to God by sorrow for my faults; which, if attended by tears, I hoped would pass as current coin with heaven, and then I judged myself whole again. In this uneasy,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":18474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1287],"tags":[1226],"class_list":["post-18473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joseph-hart","tag-gospel-preachers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18475,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18473\/revisions\/18475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}