m by
the agents for the ministry in the time of a general opposition, he had
virtue sufficient to withstand the temptation, though his circumstances
at that time were far from being easy. Mr. Miller often confessed to
some of his friends, that this was the fiery trial of his constancy. He
had received by his wife a very genteel fortune, and a tenderness for
her had almost overcome his resolutions; but he recovered again to his
former firmness, when upon hinting to his wife, the terms upon which
preferment might be procured, she rejected them with indignation; and he
became ashamed of his own wavering. This was an instance of honour, few
of which are to be met with in the Lives of the Poets, who have been too
generally of a time-serving temper, and too pliant to all the follies
and vices of their age. But though Mr. Miller would not purchase
preferment upon the terms of writing for the ministry, he was content to
stipulate, never to write against them, which proposal they rejected in
their turn.

About a year before Mr. Miller's death, which happened in 1743, he was
presented by Mr. Cary of Dorsetshire, to the profitable living of Upsun,
his father had before possess'd, but which this worthy man lived not
long to enjoy; nor had he ever an opportunity of making that provision
for his family he so much sollicited; and which he even disdained to do
at the expence of his honour.

Mr. Miller's dramatic works are,

I. Humours of Oxford, which we have already mentioned.

II. The Mother-in-Law, or the Doctor the Disease; a Comedy, 1733.

III. The Man of Taste, a Comedy; acted in the year 1736, which had a run
of 30 nights[2].

IV. Universal Passion, a Comedy, 1736.

V. Art and Nature, a Comedy, 1737.

VI. The Coffee-House, a Farce, 1737.

VII. An Hospital for Fools, a Farce, 1739.

VIII. The Picture, or Cuckold in Conceit.

IX. Mahomet the Impostor, a Tragedy; during the run of this play the
author died.

X. Joseph and his Brethren; a sacred Drama.

Mr. Miller was author of many occasional pieces in poetry, of which his
Harlequin Horace is the most considerable. This Satire is dedicated to
Mr. Rich, the present manager of Covent-Garden Theatre, in which with an
ironical severity he lashes that gentleman, in consequence of some
offence Mr. Rich had given him.

Mr. Miller likewise published a volume of Sermons, all written with a
distinguished air of piety, and a becoming zeal for the interest of true
religion;