Beyond the Commentary: The Lesser-Known Works of John Gill

John Gill (1697–1771) was an English Particular Baptist minister and theologian, best known for his nine-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments. But if you think roughly 7,500 pages of commentary is enough Gill for anyone, think again. His other works include historical investigations, literary criticism, controversial theology, and some other rather unusual subjects.

Funeral Sermons and Doleful Ditties

Take funeral sermons. In An Essay on the Original of Funeral Sermons, Orations, and Odes (1729), Gill traces the custom from ancient Egypt through Greece and Rome. Along the way, he encounters professional mourners: women hired to sing at funerals, making a trade of their "doleful ditties." He also objects to the extravagance of funeral elegies, wishing their accounts of the deceased were more just.

He then turns to a sermon preached by Mr. Harrison on the death of Lady Page, which receives a thorough dressing-down: Gill declares that it contains "neither law nor gospel, good learning, nor good sense." Harrison had also published an ode for the same occasion, and Gill's verdict is wonderfully dry:

“I confess, Sir, I have but little judgment in poetry, yet I'm ready to conclude, 'tis the best of these his performances.”

The ode, apparently, was the best of Harrison's efforts. One wonders what Gill made of the rest.

And Beyond

Then there’s singing. In A Discourse on Singing of Psalms as a Part of Divine Worship (1734), Gill defends congregational psalmody and considers what singing actually is—including whether the tuneful notes of birds (and, apparently, the grunting of a hog) qualify.

Or perhaps you’d prefer 282 pages on Hebrew. His Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points, and Accents (1767) is exactly what it sounds like. Some men have hobbies.

One of Gill’s most revealing works, however, was written near the end of his life. In Dying Thoughts (published posthumously in 1773), he begins by examining what readiness for death is not before methodically explaining what it is—a habit of Gill's at which Charles Spurgeon would later affectionately poke fun in Lectures to My Students.

The Exposition is only the beginning. For those looking to venture beyond it, Dying Thoughts is an excellent place to start.