FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY sets Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://archive.org/details/pdoddridgeOOstou ,c9 ^ « A CENTENARY MEMORIAL-. ft S ', $ Jiiin«'» CLl !, (UL W, ^JL™.yu AUTHOR OF "SPIRITUAL HE HOES," ETC, BOSTON: d?nnl& atti Tinrnln .VJ WASHINGTON STREET. ^Sn of Nr«^. SEP S3 1931 PH [LIP D0DDMD8fes«wt«ni^ HIS LIFE AND LABORS. CENTENARY MEMORIAL. • BY JOHN STOUGHTON, AUTHOR OF "SPIRITUAL HEROES," ETC. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY JAMES G. MIALL, FROM THE "FOOTSTKPS OF OUR FOREFATHERS." BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 1853. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S52, by GOULD & LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. CONTENTS -♦-»-•- PAGE Advertisement 5 American Publishers' Advertisement 8 Introductory Chapter 9 INTRODUCTION. Dissent in the Reign of William III 19 CHAPTER I. Doddridge's Early Days 41 OHAPTEK II. Preparatory Scenes and Studies 51 IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. PAGE His Public Career : The Minister 76 The Tutor , S3 The Author 107 The Man of Influence 130 CHAPTER IV. His Social Retirement 139 CHAPTER V. His Spiritual Life 151 CHAPTER VI. His Last Days 163 CHAPTER VII. Result of his Labors 1*12 POSTSCRIPT. The Three Colleges 191 ADVERTISEMENT. It was resolved, that at the autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union of England and "Wales, held this year, in the month of October, at Northampton, there should be a tribute of respect paid to the memory of Dr. Doddridge, with whose name the place is so intimately as- sociated. The fact of the meeting being held there, just a century after his death, gave addi- tional interest to the arrangement. The author, several months before the meeting, received a re- quest from the Committee to prepare the Memo- rial : — an honorable task, which, though he felt himself unworthy to fulfil, he the more willingly attempted, because there had previously been a purpose in his mind to write something in rela- tion to Doddridge, as a sequel to the book on " Spiritual Heroes." The acceptance which the Memorial met with from the meeting equally delighted and surprised the writer ; — but, on reviewing the work for the press, he is more than ever convinced, that the effect produced was mainly to be ascribed to its being presented in the place where Doddridge VI ADVERTISEMENT. labored, from the pulpit in which he preached, and to persons sitting in the very pews once oc- cupied bjr the congregation of that eminent man. The silent voice of the genius loci was more effec- tive than what fell in audible tones from the author's lips. On this account he fears that some who now read the book will feel disap- pointment. But the publication is in accordance with the request of the meeting ; and it is now sent forth from the press, with the earnest hope that it may be the means of inspiring in some cases, — of reviving in others, — that beautiful, earnest, and practical piety of which Doddridge was such an illustrious example. Having been favored with the use of unpub- lished letters and documents, the author hopes he has succeeded in obtaining some few original illus- trations of Doddridge's life and history, in addi- tion to those already so largely supplied in his Me- moirs and published Correspondence. To Joshua Wilson, and Charles Reed, Esqs., he is so largely indebted in this respect, that he cannot but make grateful mention of their names ; he would with pleasure particularly allude to others, but for the fear of too far extending the present Advertisement. Much appears in the body of the work not read at Northampton for want of time ; where, for the same reason, the Introduction was en- tirely omitted. Some account, compiled from ADVERTISEMENT. Vll the original records of the three collegiate insti- tutions, recently united, is now subjoined as an appropriate Postscript ; because one was a con- tinuation of that which Doddridge established at Xorthampton ; and another, through the early history of a Society which supported it, stands connected with his name. The Postscript is the more appropriate, as Xew College, erected in consequence of that union, was opened the very month distinguished by the centenary commem- oration of the celebrated theological Professor to whose memory these pages are intended to do honor. Being restricted to historical notices of such of the old academies as are associated with the name of Doddridge, the author has been pre- vented from tracing the rise and progress of other Colleges in different parts of the country ; but he would take this opportunity of saying, that their prosperity he hails with joy, and for their con- tinued progress he devoutly prays. For ven- turing to include in this volume so much correla- tive matter, he is gratified that he can plead the authority of his respected friend and predeces- sor, Mr. Conder, who, in his Memorial of ATatts, has so gracefully introduced the rise and pro- gress of English Psalmody. AMERICAN EDITION. PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. ' The Publishers do not feel that an apology is required, for inserting as a suitable introduction to this interesting volume, an extract from Mr. Mi all's late work, in which allusions are made to the character and services of Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Miall's work has reference to the struggles of the Nonconformists of England for the bless- ings of religious liberty, and his allusions take therefore that direction. They furnish, however, so just a view of the character of Dr. Doddridge, and references so graphic to the scenes of his labors, that they will be regarded as equally in place in the present connection, and will serve to increase the pleasure with which the following pages will be read. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, FROM THE "FOOTSTEPS OF OUR FOREFATHERS, BY JAMES G. MIALL. r^v^§y^ he name of Dr. Doddridge is one on which all who have sympathy with the generous, the benevolent and the devout, will ever delight to linger. Though deeply engraven in the annals of protestant noncon- isr— ;& formity, it is the exclusive prop- erty of no creed. Doddridge was no genius, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, and no one thing which he did transcended other things of a similar kind done by others. His learning has been often surpassed ; his pulpit oratory was not resplendent ; his poetry, though pleasing, bore no traces of inspira- tion ; his power over the minds of others was not su- preme. Yet there was in him such a combination of excellences as to lift him at once out of all vulgar mediocrity. Commencing with a youth which was fuller of a sportive playfulness than can be comprehended 10 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. by the dull, and which exposed him to reproof from the cynical, though it was remote from vice and abhorrent from hypocrisy, the growth of his character was like the gradual ripening of a rich harvest, at length reaching the point of full maturity and ample abundance. The diligence of his self-cultivation, the integrity of his heart and frankness of his manners, the variety of his attain- ments, the judiciousness and pertinence of his conduct, and his unwearied industry, all united to fervor of de- votion and an insatiable thirst for usefulness which have never been surpassed, give him a just claim to be re- garded as belonging to the first rank among those whose nobility will be the most conspicuous, and whose honors the most enduring. , Such have been the thoughts of many, as they have looked upon the pleasant and well-built town of North- ampton. Not a few have probably directed their first inquiries, on entering it, to the vestiges of the author of " The Family Expositor," and of " The Rise and Pro- gress of Religion in the Soul." Doddridge's meeting-house still stands on the Castle- hill, — h spot not to be visited without a crowd of his- torical reminiscences. Northampton is well known as one of our oldest fortified towns, dating from a period, at latest, soon after that of the Conquest. Compared with Windsor or with Nottingham, there is nothing in its appearance which would seem to claim eminence for it. It has no bold, projecting, almost inaccessible rock, INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 11 and the river which flows through it is far from impos- ing. But the town is built upon very high ground, and the Castle-hill, which is a considerable elevation, over- looks a marshy tract, calculated to give great security to its ancient fortress. As we stand upon this hill, what crowds of varied historical associations rush upon the mind ! Beauty and chivalry, conquest and defeat, tales of joy and sorrow, empires lost and won, have dated from this spot their all-varying fortunes. It was here that one of the most celebrated scenes occurred in the contest waged by Henry II. with the Roman hierarchy, when that king, under the constitutions of Clarendon, cited Thomas a Beckett to appear before a council of the states, and when the primate, blazing in all the splendors of his archiepiscopal pomp, refused to submit to the royal jurisdiction ; and it was from this town that Beckett fled, in the disguise of a monk, to take refuge in Flanders. It was here that King John was besieged Ly his barons ; and here that the same king met the papal nuncios, by whom, failing to make sufficient con- cessions, he was excommunicated. Here, also, Henry III. besieged his factious barons, under the conduct of the younger De Moutfort. Here was held the splendid court of Edward I. ; and through this town the king followed his beloved Eleanor. Here, too, a parliament was held, to consider the coronation and marriage of Edward II. Beneath these walls Henry VI. lost his kingdom in a battle with the Earl of Warwick. The 12 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. poll-tax, which occasioned the insurrection of Wat Tyler, was passed by a parliament assembling in this town. It was in this castle that Richard III. determined to seize the crown of England from the infant hands of Edward V. Elizabeth, Charles I., Cromwell, Charles IT., all have their memorials here. The castle was de- molished in the year 1662 ; and though a few remains of the ancient building exist, its principal site is now occupied by edifices of a less imposing and more peace- ful character. " Time has seen, — that lifts the low, And level lays the lofty brow, — Has seen this broken pile complete, Big with the vanities of state. A little rule, a little sway, A sunbeam in a winter's day, Is all the proud and mighty have. Between the cradle and the grave.'** We think with pleasure how the spot, once resound- ing with the histories of the great, is now consecrated by the memory of the good. It was after a considerable conflict of opposite emo- tions, that Doddridge, then twenty-seven years of age, came, in the year 1729, to the conclusion that it was his duty to settle at Northampton ; and it was within the walls of the Castle-street meeting-house that, during twenty-two years, he fulfilled the duties of a " good and faithful servant." His chapel, which would be deemed * Prior. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13 a large one for that period, is neat and commodious ; and, though the lower part of it has been considerably- renovated, the pulpit and the pewing of the galleries are still unchanged. A marble monument, in the most profuse style of mural decoration, bears an inscription to the memory of Doddridge, more verbose than powerful. But there is no part of this building altogether so in- teresting to the visitor as the vestry. Here are the chair in which Doddridge sat ; the table at which he wrote his " Expositor ;" the original invitation addressed to him to become the pastor of the church, with his re- ply ; the drawing of the monument erected to his memory in the cemetery of Lisbon, where he died. These walls have been, doubtless, familiar with many of those communings of ardent devotion which rendered him so powerful in the pulpit and from the press ; and here he often verified the sentiment, that " Solitude has nothing gloomy in it w r hen the soul points upwards." When Doddridge undertook — as he did immediately before his coming to Northampton — the formation of a dissenting academy, the course was not without its perils. This aspect of the case presented itself to the mind of Dr. Watts, who was consulted respecting the project. " Are the hands of enemies," writes Watts, " so effectually chained up from offering us any violence, that they cannot indict or persecute you, under the pre- tence that your academy is a school ?"* * Doddridge's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 481. B 14 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. There were sufficient reasons for such a question. Since the Restoration, the nonconformists had been ex- cluded from the benefit of the English universities, and their schools had been conducted in private, under the management of such individuals as were considered competent. One of the most eminent establishments was conducted by Mr. Morton, at Newington Green. At this school Defoe, Samuel Wesley, and many minis- ters, received their first training. Another was under the discipline of Mr. Kerr, of Bethnal Green. But these seminaries did not pass unmolested. Morton was ex- posed to perpetual annoyances from spies and informers ; till, at length, worn out by vexations, he abandoned his country, and took refuge in New England. A little later, a still more eminent establishment was kept by Mr. Doolittle, who preached at Monk well-street, and lived at Islington. Many men of considerable noncon- formist eminence received their education under his roof; amongst the rest, Matthew Henry and Dr. Calamy. But he was compelled also to break up his establishment at Islington, and to remove first to Battersea, and after- wards to Clerkenwell.* Indeed, no dissenter could at that time exercise the functions of a teacher without ex- posing himself to dangerous penalties. Roger Rosen, for teaching a few little children to read, was cited to Chester, excommunicated, and was in great danger of starvation. * Calamy's Life and Times, vol. i. pp. 11 3-138. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15 In one of these academies, — that, namely, kept by Morton, — Samuel Wesley, father of the celebrated foun- der of Methodism, received, as we have said, his educa- tion. A book, bearing his name, but published probably without his consent or authority, was put forth, which contained severe strictures on the mode of education adopted by protestant dissenters. The work drew forth a reply, to which Wesley added a rejoinder, containing severe reflections on the nonconforming body. This was a cruel blow, especially at a time when dissenters with difficulty maintained a tolerated position. " When all is done, gentlemen," said Defoe, in his strictures on the work, " why do we erect private academies, and teach our children by themselves \ Even for the same reason that we do not communicate with you, because you shut us out by imposing unreasonable terms. * * But while you shut our children out of your schools, never quarrel at our teaching them at those of our own, or sending them into foreign countries; since, wherever they are taught, they generally get a share of learning at least equal to yourselves, and, we hope, partake of as much honesty ; — and, as to their performances, match them, and outpreach them, if you can. I wish that was the only strife between us." Even after the accession of the house of Hanover, oc- casional riots, stimulated by the party who were favora- ble to the Pretender, menaced the dissenters in various parts of the kingdom, and were stimulated by a celebra- 16 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. ted sermon, preached March 31, 17 17, by Bishop Hoad- ley, on the nature of the kingdom of Christ, in which he asserted " that Christ is the sole law-giver to his subjects, and the sole judge of their behavior in the affairs of con- science and eternal salvation ;" and that, " to set up any other authority in his kingdom, to which his subjects are indispensably obliged to submit their consciences or con- duct in what is properly called religion, evidently de- stroys the rule and authority of Jesus Christ as king." Sherlock charged Hoadley with endeavoring to prepare the way for the repeal of the Test Act ; and the Convo- cation declared his sentiments subversive of all govern- ment and discipline in the church of Christ. This was the last bond fide sitting of this body. They have never been permitted to transact business since that period. Such were the circumstances under which Doddridge first instituted, on his settlement at Northampton, his academy. He was, in many respects, in a favorable position for doing so. The dissenters were in high favor at court, and their adversaries in a position of declining influence. But they had, on many occasions, given great annoyance to Doddridge and his students, and at length they proceeded to systematic hostility. At a visitation in Northampton, in the year 1*752, Reynolds, the chancellor, told the church-wardens of DocMridge's parish " that he was informed that there was a fellow in this parish who taught a grammar-school, as he sup- posed, without any license from the bishop," and com- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17 manded them, if they found such to be the fact, to pre- sent Doddridge, that he might be prosecuted according to law. Nor was such a prosecution in those days an unusual event ; for Doddridge tells us that he knew twenty such attempts within less than so many years. Whilst this case was pending in the ecclesiastical court, and at the time of a general election, in which a Jacobite member was returned, a riotous attack was made on Doddridge's house, which was connived at by the mayor of the town. DODDRIDGE S HOUSE, NORTHAMPTON'. By the express intervention of George II., who de- clared that, in his reign, there should be no persecution, the suit was quashed. The progress of dissenting liberty during the reign of Geo. III. and his successors, the contests respecting the Corporation and Test Acts, and Catholic Emancipation, which were terminated in 1828 and 1829 by the repeal of those oppressive enactments, the bill of Lord Sidmouth, in 1811, which sought to limit " the liberty of prophesy- B* 18 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. ing" by demanding securities of dissenting ministers, and which was resisted and defeated by the whole body of the nonconformists, are matters of such modern his- tory as scarcely to need repetition. The spirit of an es- tablishment is, we thankfully own, becoming every day more enlarged and tolerant ; but until — all bounties and penalties apart — the state shall retire within the province which alone she can legitimately occupy, and until the rights of man shall be as distinctly acknowledged in the meanest dissenter who worships in his barn as in the haughtiest churchman who wears his mitre, the war for religious liberty will not be ended. INTRODUCTION. DISSENT IN THE EEIGN OF WILLIAM III. The booming of the cannon on the beach of Torbay, November 5, 1688, was a joyous signal for the Protes- tant Dissenters of England. The Prince of Orange landed as the deliverer of the oppressed, the champion of civil and religious liberty. " Since the English na- tion had ever testified a particular affection to his con- sort and himself, he could not but espouse their intere-ts, and contribute all that in him lav for maintaining both the Protestant religion and the laws and liberties of these kingdoms." So ran the manifesto of William; and many a group of anxious citizens might be seen reading the document, as it was fastened, still wet, to the column of some old market-cross ; and there were eager eyes at the same time tracing its lines as it was brought into the dwelling of some nonconforming burgess. The declaration was not very strong, and only by implication gave hope to the Protestant sufferers for conscience' sake. But it was doubtless interpreted with the full knowledge that the Prince of Orange considered 20 DISSENT IN THE REIGN conscience to be God's province, and had found by ex- perience in Holland that toleration was one of the wisest measures of human government.* "Welcome indeed was the hope of religious quietude after such times as the Dissenters had seen. The worst and most infamous of mankind had been hired to accuse them : the com- mission of perjury, convictions without juries, and the summary punishment of the accused, had been common things. Goods rifled, estates seized, property embezzled, houses broken open, and families disturbed, often at midnight, in the absence of any cause or shadow of cause, if only a malicious villain happened to suspect a meeting there — are the atrocities enumerated by the calm and candid Howe, just as the storm of intolerance was passing away.f William was in religion of a catholic spirit ; his ec- clesiastical policy was large and liberal. He came to England with the purpose of establishing toleration, and with the hope of accomplishing more even than that. He was anxious that Dissenters should be admitted to offices of trust and power, thinking, with the illustrious divine just named, that for the State to deprive itself of the services of such men, " for anything less consider- able than those qualifications are by which they are use- ful, was like a man tearing off' from himself the limbs * Burnet's History of His Own Times. t John Howe's " Case of Protestant Dissenters Represented and Argued." — Life by Rogers, p. 356. OF WILLIAM III. 21 of his body for a spot on his skin." And further, he was decidedly favorable to such a modification of the Established Church as would have allowed a number of the Presbyterian body to enter within its pale. But he was completely thwarted in these latter views : the High Church party would not consent to their emoluments being now shared by the men to whom they had suc- cessfully looked for sympathy and aid when Popery, rampant under James, had threatened the ruin of the entire Protestant cause.* As to the Dissenters them- selves, they would in general have been glad of the re- moval of such tests as excluded them from office, but great numbers of them were by no means favorable to a comprehension. Policy on the part of some of the Presbyterians induced them to oppose the measure ; principle on the part of all the Independents must have prevented them from sharing in its advantages. The wall of partition between the endowed Episcopalian and other sects stood as strong and lofty as before ; and the gateway * Seven attempts were made to alter what is imposed by the Church of England, so as to remove the scruples of Dissenters. "The first was the Hampton Court Conference, in the reign of James I. Bishop Ushers scheme for the reduction of episcopacy, was a second measure of the kind in the time of Charles I. After the restoration of Charles II., proposals for a comprehension were four times brought forward. Tliis, under William III., was the seventh. Ever since the affair has laid dormant." — Touhnia. His- torical View, p. 66. — It should be added, however, that the thing was much talked abuut in 1748. Dr. Chandler had an interview with the Bishop of Norwich on the subject. — Doddridge's Correspondence, vol. v. p. 41. 22 DISSENT IN THE REIGN to the honors and rewards of the State continued to be formidably flanked by the Test and Corporation Acts. Before any one could become a civic magistrate, he was required to receive the Lord's Supper in the Church of England. Some Dissenters did not object to occa- sional communion in the Establishment, among whom were two celebrated aldermen of London, Sir II. Ed- win and Sir Thomas Abney. The latter had frequently communed in the parish church, when, in 1700, he was elected to serve the office of Lord Mayor. Feeling no scruple about joining in the episcopal service under common circumstances, he came to feel no scruple about that act as a qualification for office — a view of the mat- ter which, however conscientious it might be, was cer- tainly of a nature to awaken suspicion in the minds of those who were not much imbued with the love that thinketh no evil. Some Dissenters, especially Defoe, condemned the practice with extreme severity. A con- troversy on the subject arose, in which Mr. Howe was involved. After the accession of Queen Anne, a very different kind of opposition was made to the practice by the High Church party, who sought, by what was termed the occasional conformity bill, to exclude from office such men as Sir T. Abney.* Freedom of worship, however, was ceded to all ex- * Sir H. Edwin, however, not only continued to attend, during his mayoralty, his own place of worship, but ventured to take the City regalia with him. OF WILLIAM III. 23 cept the Papists, and those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. " We may justly deem this act a very scanty measure of religious liberty ; yet it proved more effectual through the lenient and liberal policy of the eighteenth century ; the subscription to articles of faith, which soon became as obnoxious as that to matters of a more indifferent nature, having" been practically dis- pensed with, though such a genuine toleration as Chris- tianity and philosophy alike demand, had no place in our statute-book before the reign of George III. ,? * South did not like it, and Sacheverell afterwards condemned it as unwarrantable ; yet the Act of Toleration was passed with surprising ease, and the Dissenters through- out the land rejoiced in the appropriation of their new- found liberty. If, in some quarters, an indecent exulta- tion was bet-rayed on account of this victory over the spirit of oppression, generally a more sober feeling was evinced ; and where counsels of moderation were needed by highly-excited minds, they were tendered with be- coming wisdom and exceeding beauty in Howe's " Re- quests both to Conformists and Dissenters, touching their temper and behavior to each other upon the lately- passed indulgence." AVhile William was under sail for the shores of Eno-- o land, a little incident occurred, of which a memorandum in MS. is preserved,! illustrative of the unsettled nature * Hallam's Constitut'onal History, vol. ii. p. 327. t Wilson MSS. — Dr. \Villiam3' Library. 24 DISSENT IN THE REIGN of the times, and the fears which haunted Dissenters in their religious services. Joseph Hussey, a promising young man of the Puritan stamp and the Independent order, sought the rite of ordination from Dr. Annesley (then minister of Little St. Helen's) and certain other divines. But not in the meeting-house did the parties dare to assemble : they retired to the Doctor's " private house in the Spitalfields of London, in an upper cham- ber." There, on the 24th October, the young candidate was secretly examined " in the parts of learning by the elder, who took the chair, and talked in Latin." The next day he passed through the ordeal of defending a thesis, and on the 26th he was ordained. The whole proceedings, we are informed, were begun and fin- ished in that private upper chamber in Spitalfields — a neighborhood which, it is interesting to remember, was just then fast losing the last lingering vestiges of verdure, under the encroachments of the weavers, who, driven from France by the ^evocation of the edict of Nantes, there sought refuge, and soon filled the place with lines of humble-looking houses, and the cheerful clack of their busy looms. Upon the testimonials signed there were obvious indications of the furtive way in which the business had been done. Five gave their names, but the sixth would not. " Domino Anonymo" is the title bestowed on the worthy, whoever he was, with the addition, " He was sine, because of the cloud- OF WILLIAM III. 25 ness of the times, and would neither subscribe, nor be known to me. w * And even after the Toleration Act had been passed four years, it appears, from the story of Calaniy's ordi- nation, that there were still some ministers very chary of making such ecclesiastical proceedings public. Earn- estly did he beseech the assistance of John Howe on the occasion. Before the latter could agree to it, he said he thought it requisite to go up to court, " and wait upon my Lord Sommers, and inquire of his lord- ship whether such a proceeding would not be ill taken, and might not draw ill consequences after it." Ulti- mately he declined. Dr. Bates did the same, as also Mr. Mead. At last, others of lesser name were pre- vailed upon to take part in the service, and Calamy and six others were ordained, not " within a chamber in Spitalrields," but before a congregation, in Dr. Annes- ley's own meeting-house in Little St. Helen's, it being the first public service of the kind ever held since the restoration.! Some of the Presbyterians did not then, nor for some time afterwards, abandon all hope of a comprehension, as appears from the old title-deeds of * Wilson MSS. — Dr. Williams' Library. The certificate given to Matthew Henry, who .was ordained pri- vately the same year, also indicates great wariness : — '' We, whose names are subscribed, are well assured that Mr. Matthew Henry is an ordained minister of the gospel. Sic teslor. — W. Wickens ; Fran Talients ; Edwd. Lawrence; Jsath. Vincent; James Owen ; Richard Steele." t Calamy's Life, vol. i. p. 344. c 2G DISSENT IX THE REIGN meeting-houses, still in existence/" Perhaps this feeling might also induce them to avoid widening the breach between the Dissenters and the Episcopalians, by prac- tically committing themselves on the very delicate ques- tion of ordination. Independents, one would suppose, could only be checked in this matter by fear of bavins J a their liberty abridged. While, however, their ordina- tions continued private, they were conducted at church- meetings, and the power of the people in the election of the pastor was distinctly recognized.f By degrees both denominations became more bold, and ventured on the full exercise of their religious rights. If some of the old Puritan congregations melted away, especially in villages where an ejected minister had worn out his days and left no successor, or the original supporters of the persecuted cause had died off without bequeathing to survivors their opinions as well as their property, many new dissenting churches were formed, especially in towns, where large populations afforded scope for their increase, and greater freedom of social * Provision was made for disposal of the premises, in case of such an event. t Oalamy insisted upon being ordained a minister of the Catholic Church, without any confinement to a particular flock, or any one denomination. — Life, vol. i. p. 341. In the Wellingborough church-book, it is recorded: "3 Sept. 1691. — We held a church-meeting, with fasting and prayer, for the choosing of elders and setting them apart. When we had chosen, by the lifting up of the hands of the church and the testification of their desires, we ordained them." — Here the power of ordaining was exercised. WILLIAM III. 27 action encouraged tlieir efforts. Vigorous exertions were made in the building- of places of worship ; and though, in many cases, the inelegance of these struc- tures, and their concealed position, showed a want of taste, the existence of poverty, or the experience of fear, some few were of a character to redeem the denomina- tions in these respects, of which the commodious and handsome old meeting-houses at Stepney and Xorwich may be cited as examples. The energies which had patiently borne persecution were not likely to slumber now that the time for activity had come, although the sagacious Burnet had predicted "that Nonconformity could not last long, and that, after Baxter, Bates, and Howe were laid in tlieir graves, it would die of itself." The latter wisely replied to this far-seeing prelate, "that id existence depended much more on principles than persons.*' The science of statistics is quite a modern discovery ; hence we are without data on which to decide the num- ber and proportions of different sects at the time now under consideration. It is quite certain, however, that the Presbyterians had a very large majority. In lTlo, it is computed that the Presbyterians were in relation to the Independents as two to one. In the early part of William's reign, probably the proportion on the Presbyterian side was still larger. For some time after the restoration, Nonconformity included in its ranks a considerable number of titled names, and could point to 28 DISSENT IN THE REIGN others still more illustrious as the friends and patrons of its early ministers. They continue till towards the close of the century to adorn the dedications prefixed to the works of dissenting divines ; and traces of aristo- cratic hospitality, and constant or occasional attendance at the meeting-house, may be found at the same time ; but these signs of connection between the Nonconformist cause and the great ones of the earth become at length few and far between, till they pretty nearly vanish. The days went by when Philip Lord Wharton might be seen in his pew at Silver-street, and Howe used to go down on horseback to Woburn, to see his friend the Duke of Bedford, and old Lady Hewley's lumbering coach rolled to St. Saviour's-gate meeting-house, in the city of York. But if Dissent lost some of its dignified allies, it experi- enced no lack of steady supporters among respectable merchants, tradesmen, and artisans, or among decent yeomen and their dependents. The loss of caste at court was made up by the favor it found among the commonalty. The Independent principle of church government, considered simply in itself, is a sort of centrifugal force in the ecclesiastical universe, but there has commonly been associated with it in the minds of its adherents, that loving sympathy with other Christians which has proved a centripetal power. Hence, Congregationalists early sought to promote union between their several churches, and to maintain fellowship with their Presby- OF WILLIAM III. 29 terian brethren. Desire for the latter was expressed in a very decided form in the year 1690, when metropoli- tan pastors of the two denominations arranged certain articles of agreement,* resolving to call themselves thenceforth by the name of the United Ministers. For carrying out the design, frequent meeting's, mostly pri- vate, were held in London ; sympathy being felt in the country, meetings for the same objects were held there, less often, but more public. Exeter has of late become notorious as the scene of an episcopal synod : it attained a humbler, but more worthy distinction, in the seven- teenth century, as the seat of Nonconformist assemblies. Indeed, as early as the year 1655, the ministers of Devon and Cornwall there held fellowship together, after the model of the Worcestershire Association, under Bax- ter's pastorate at Kidderminster. George Hughes, of Plymouth, was the first moderator. The assembly was revived in 1691, when the holy Mr. Flavel preached and presided. The " heads of agreement" framed in London, were adopted in the west, much to the satisfac- tion and joy *of that good man, whose last public act was to take part in the meeting, a few days after which he died. " In the articles of concord, they agreed that they should not intermeddle with politics, nor the affairs of civil government, nor pretend to exercise church cen- * Cotton Mather says, that " the management of affairs then agreed upon to be observed in future by the two denominations, had been manv years exemplified ia the churches of New England." C* 30 DISSENT IN THE REIGN sures ; but only to assist, advise, and counsel each other as it regarded the propagation of truth and holiness, and the preservation of their churches from illiterate minis- ters and profane and scandalous communicants. A friendly intercourse was by this means maintained among the ministers and congregations in the two as- sociated counties. When any persons offered them- selves to the work of the ministry, the assembly exam- ined their testimonials, assigned a subject for a thesis to the candidates, and appointed the ministers who were to ordain them." Similar associations were formed in Norfolk,* Hampshire, and Cheshire.f The formal coali- tion of the two parties in London was of short continu- ance. It terminated under painful circumstances, owing to a controversy which arose out of the re-publication of Dr. Crisp's works.]; Toulmin states, that " the two denominations of Presbyterians and Independents be- came distinct communities, and acted separately with respect to their own denominations." But this state- * Harmer's Remarks on the Congregational Churches of Norfolk and Suffolk. t Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters, p. 387. £ The case is fully stated in Rogers' Life of Howe. — Efforts were also made for the establishment of some plan of extensive intercom- munication. " About this time, 1698,'-' says Calamy, " the method of a better correspondence among the Dissenters throughout the kingdom was under consideration, as it had been some time before. Had it taken effect, it might have prevented several disorders and inconveniences afterwards complained of; but an unaccountable sort of timorousness and indolence prevented it.*' — Life of Calamy, vol. i. p. 408. OF WILLIAM III. 31 merit, as affecting our general view of the Nonconformist churches at that time, must be somewhat modified. " The dispute about Dr. Crisp's works disturbed the har- mony of the meetings in London, but it does not appear to have had any effect on the county associations." We are driven to look at the controversies of an age, if we would discover its opinions ; yet, by this means, we often miss the exact attainment cf our object ; for, in the heat and dust of polemic strife, men exaggerate their own views and distort those of their opponents. The agitation of questions as to the precise relation of Christ to his people, involving several aspects of the Calvinistic theory, arose at the period now under re- view, in consequence of the re-printing of " Crisp's Works." Crisp was an ultra-Calvinist, of an earlier pe- riod, whose works had been burnt by order of the Westminster Assembly. Baxter, whose " iconoclastic zeal" had through life assailed with pre-eminent indig- nation the idols of Antinomianism, though now enfee- bled by disease and age, once more vigorously seized his iron mace to dash in pieces the old image afresh set up. Dr. Williams, a Presbyterian of Baxter's school, followed him in the attack, and succeeded that noble champion in a long and earnest warfare against what he deemed Antinomian errors. But certain things in his works displeased Dr. Chauncey and others, who happened to be Independents. These now proceeded to assail the opponents of Crisp. Men, substantially agreed, thus 32 DISSENT IX THE REIGN unhappily fell into antagonism ; and from a mere acci- dent, views relating to doctrine came, in the estimation of some, to distinguish persons who had hitherto differed only in discipline. The Independents were thought to have a leaning to high Calvinism, and the Presbyterians to belong to the Arminian school. But this was incor- rect. "Williams was not Arminian, nor was Chauncey Antinomian ; neither was the first a type of all Presby- terians, any more than the latter was of all Independ- ents. The controversy was a singularly unfortunate one, and placed the parties in a false position. Stilling- fleet, Bishop of Worcester, was appealed to by the com- batants as a sort of umpire. One part of his reply is worthy of notice, as placing this, and some other theolo- gical discussions, in their true light. u There is," said he, u a remarkable story in the history of the Synod of Dort, which may not be improper in this place. There were, in one of the universities of that country, two pro- fessors, both very warm and extremely zealous for that which they accounted the most orthodox doctrine ; but it happened that one of these accused the other before the synod of no fewer than fifty errors, tending to Socin- ianism and Pelagianism ; and wonderful heat there was on both sides. At last a committee was appointed to examine this dreadful charge ; and, upon examination, they found no ground for the charge of Socinianism, or any other heresy ; but only that he had asserted too much the use of ambiguous and scholastic terms, and OF WILLIAM III. 33 endeavored to bring the way of the schoolmen into his writings. Therefore the synod dismissed him, with this prudent advice — Rather to keep to the language of Scripture than the schools." This was quite in the temper of Stillingfleet's earlier and better days, when he wrote his " Irenicum," and pleaded for peace ; but hardly agreed with the spirit of later years, when, in his " Mis- chief of Separation," he made a virulent attack on his Nonconformist* brethren. However, his notion of this controversy, as between Williams and others, seems to have been as fair as the application of the Dort story was felicitous. And we may add, there is abundant rea- son to believe that, at the end of the seventeenth century, both Presbyterians and Independents held in substance the evangelical views of the Puritans. The Arian con- troversy did not commence till some years afterwards. The preaching of the Nonconformist ministers at that period was orthodox. The doctrines of the New Testa- ment were embodied in their discourses. Still, they differed from their fathers. In form they differed. The divisions in their discourses were less numerous and per- plexing. The bones were not so visible. The limbs were fuller and more roundly molded. This was a decided im- provement. But in spirit, too, some of them also began to differ. The sermons had in them less of fire, and coldly fell upon the people's consciences. This was a sad defect. * Williams's writings, as a caveat against the extravagances of Crisp, were, at that time, no doubt very valuable. 34 DISSENT IX THE REIGN Nevertheless, there were men who preached with as much of unction as orthodoxy, and any one in those days visiting the "ancient and fair city of Chester," might find a superior specimen of both combined in the ministry of good Matthew Henry. In the venerable old meeting-house, still remaining, that eminent expositor and divine ministered to a rather large congregation, of whom ultimately no less than 350 were in church- fellowship, including among them some of the city mag- nates. Strangers to the late habits of these degenerate times, they were to be seen assembled in their large deep oaken pews, as early as nine o'clock on a Sunday morn- ing, when the service began by singing the 100th Psalm, in the version of Sternhold and Hopkins, the singers dwelling on the notes rather longer than we moderns are wont to do. We fancy, as we look on the preacher's portrait, that we see him in the pulpit sur- mounted by a sounding-board, standing erect with portly form, full face, and dignified mien, set oft' a little by Genevan cloak and well-curled wig. The Psalm finished, a short prayer follows, and then comes an exposition of a chapter in the Old Testament. It is no arbitrary se- lection, but what arises in course ; for this man of method having begun at Genesis, goes on with persever- ing regularity till he reaches the end of Malachi The matter and manner may be easily seen on turning to his popular commentary : no doubt many a reader has al- ready a vivid conception of both. Another psalm and OF WILLIAM III. 35 a longer prayer succeed, and from Henry's work on the subject of prayer every one will see how eminently he excelled in devotional exercises. Then follows an hour's sermon, which had need to be engaging ; and so it generally is, — full of good and useful thoughts, arranged in quaint devices, rather more in the Puritan fashion than common, for Matthew has received the mantle as well as the spirit of his father Philip. What is said of the sire may be said of the son : u Many a good thought has perished, because it was not portable, and many a sermon is forgotten, because it is not memorable ; but like seeds with wings, the sayings of Henry have floated far and near, and like seeds with hooked prickles, his sermons stuek in his most careless hearers. His tena- cious words took root, and it was his happiness to Bee, not only scriptural intelligence, but fervent and i tent piety spreading among his people.''* Singing and praying wind up the service, after it has lasted some three hours. This would be deemed by some almost sufficient for one day ; but in the afternoon the same thing exactly is repeated, the exposition of the Xew Testament in order being substituted for that of the Old. "We are apt to pity the men who performed or endured such lengthened exercises ; but surely they felt it no hardship, or they would have shortened them. Modern pastors fancy that under this weight of six sonu-. six prayers, two expositions, and two sermons on a Sunday, * Life of Matthew Henry, by Hamilton. 36 DISSENT IN THE REIGN besides preaching in the week, in all seven or eight times, they would utterly break down ; yet Matthew Henry seems to have borne the whole of it very well ; and, judging from his picture, gave no visible signs of wasting through fatigue. It seems past all question that the numerous extra calls and claims of ecclesiastical and religious business, now so full of the agitating excite- ment of the nineteenth century, operates with more ex- hausting wear and tear upon the powers both of mind and body, than the quiet, calm, and regular engage- ments of our Nonconformist fathers in the days of William and Anne. Perhaps, too, the numerous public occasions of religious service on the week-day, at present, may the more indispose us to think with complacency of the protracted Sunday exercises then. After all, how- ever, it deserves inquiry whether our habits of religious thought and feeling are as vigorous and steady — have in them as long sustaining power — as those of the men be- longing to that by-gone age ? It is very refreshing to think of the Sunday nights at home which crowned these earlier hours. In many a farm-house or city dwelling the master called his family around him, and bringing out the " big ha' bible, once his father's pride," reverently read its sacred pages, and catechized upon the sermon the whole circle round, from the old servant to the little boy or girl who sat beside and leaned within the folds of mamma's ample and ornamented apron. Perhaps the discourse of some old good divine was also OF WILLIAM III. 37 read, with the additional offering of a domestic psalm or prayer. The little folks might look somewhat sleepy before all was done, and some of the larger ones might not keep quite awake ; but still there were men and women of strong minds and hearts, who could then say, with the Henry family at Broad-oak, — " If this be not heaven, it is the way to it." The relation in which the pastor stood to his flock was felt in those times to be peculiarly intimate and sacred. He was in many instances consulted as the counsellor of his people, and his advice, tendered with affection, was received in the same spirit. Families grew up looking to him as their friend from childhood. The connection of a minister with a church was more generally of long continuance than at present. The bond was felt to be of that nature which nothing but death, or the visibly outstretched ringer of providence, could break. The support rendered, though often inadequate, was not so small* as the figures employed to denote it would indicate, according to the value of money at the time, and pleasing entries belonging to that date may be foimd in some of our old church books, illustrative of * Upon Calamy's being appointed assistant at Hand Alley Meeting, be says: "There was a distinct subscription made of £40 per an- num, besides what they allowed Mr. Sylvester before ; and I often experienced the kindness of the people in private presents which they made me ; but at length the income fell considerably short." Sometimes the whole income was not above =£80. At that time a la- borer could support his wife and two children on £15 a year : meat was not more than twopence a pound. D 38 DISSENT IN THE REIGN respectful and delicate attentions paid to those who were in the office of the ministry.* Ministers generally were supported hy the freewill offerings of their living flocks ; but endowments from the property of the dead for the support of a pastor were not uncommon. To these no objections were then suggested ; on the contrary, they were hailed as un- mixed benefits. But experience has corrected our judg- ment on this question, and therefore, though we would not fail to honor the posthumous beneficence of wealthy men in that day, we can with much more pleasure celebrate the liberality of those who, before their death, contributed not merely to support the man whose ministry they enjoy- ed, but who aided in increasing the incomes of others. The fund board established for this purpose com- * The following is an extract from the church books belonging to the Meeting House of Guestwick, Norfolk. In 1694, the people there were anxious to secure a Mr. Mills as their pastor, and accordingly a deputation was sent to bim. — "Tbej set forward for London about the beginning of the month Oct. -94. and from thence to Chalfont in Bucks, with letters both from Mr. James, and several others. These persons promised in the name of the church, that if Mr. Mills would come, the church would comply with what he desired. This impor- tunity and promise did very hardly prevail, yet at last they got his consent; the tidings of which, Mr. Eli Durrant was sent to bring to the church. Mr. John Springall tarried to accompany Mr. Mills and his family down, who came by coach, and were met by several of the brethren at S waff ham the first of November, and arrived at Guest- wick the second, at night. The charges which the church and other friends were at for this expenditure amounted to near <£20." In the church book at Yarmouth I remember noticing an entry, at a later date, relative to a coach and four being sent for the conveyance of a new minister to the place. OF WILLIAM III. 39 menced soon after the Revolution, and out of its pro- ceeds assistance was rendered to poor ministers, and aid also was given to young men preparing for the ministry. " Two thousand pounds were raised every year in this manner by the Presbyterians, and nearly seventeen hundred by the Independents."* Of the moral and religious character of the early Nonconformists gratifying testimony is borne by a com- petent and truthful witness. Watts remembered well what he had heard and seen of dissent in his early days. No doubt we look on a by-gone age with some preju- dice in its favor. A soft transparent haze mellows the picture of memory ; perhaps fancy, unconscious of illu- sion, adds some enriching tints of its own. How more than halcyon were the times of the Confessor as seen from the distance of the reign of Rufus ! Yet, after all, there was much of truth in the Saxon's estimate of a former generation as happier than his own. So, un- questionably, there is truth in the review of the state of primitive Nonconformity, on which Watts dwells with so much delight. No doubt he refers mainly to an earlier period than that embraced within this introduc- tory chapter, yet the light and beauty of Puritanism's autumn day could not have expired while Owen, Bax- ter, and Howe survived. " Our ancestors, the Puritans and Nonconformists," remarks Dr. Watts, in his " Humble Attempt towards * Bogue and Bennet's History, vol. ii. p. 272. 40 DISSENT IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. the revival of practical religion," " distinguished them- selves by their great reverence of the name of God, and keeping a holy jealousy and watchfulness over their words, lest they took that holy name in vain." — " They were much distinguished from the bulk of the nation by observing the Lord's day with greater strictness." — Re- ligious discourse and conference upon themes of virtue and practical godliness was another thing whereby Dis- senters heretofore were used to distinguish themselves." — " They distinguished themselves from many of their neighbors in the towns and villages where the} r lived, by keeping more regular hours for the various duties to God and man ; in abstaining from vain company and much wine ; in preserving better order in families, and in a more religious concern in governing their house- holds ; in maintaining the daily worship of God, and in training up their children and servants to the knowl- edge and fear of God." — " May I mention frugality in expenses and industry in their particular callings as a remarkable pair of virtues among our predecessors ?" — " I proceed now to the last thing wherein the Protestant Dissenters were wont eminently to distinguish them- selves, and that is in their abstaining from those gayer vanities and dangerous diversions of their age, which border so near upon vice and irreligion, that sometimes it is pretty hard to separate them." In these respects as in others, modern Dissenters may learn some im- portant and needful lessons from their fathers. CHAPTER I. Doddridge's early days. The city of London must have been the scene of no small political excitement in the summer of 1*702. William III., whose policy abroad was to check the am- bitious projects of Louis XIV., and the object of whose administration at home was, by establishing* the prin- ciples of the Revolution, to give stability to the throne, and freedom to the people, had, in the early spring of that year, gone down to the grave. His sister-in-law, Anne, had just succeeded him, with a determination, in- deed, to carry on the great continental war, but showing, by her tory principles, and high-church predilections, that she was inclined to depress the cause of civil and religious liberty. We can easily imagine how the Lon- don citizens of that year, as they paced the arcades of the Exchange, or sat in their wainscotted parlors, would eagerly discuss topics so intimately connected with the fate of the nation : nor could the Dissenters fail to par- ticipate deeply in the prevailing excitement, especially as over their prospects events rolled like lowering clouds. 42 doddridge's early days. The three denominations had with rather heavy hearts gone up to court to present an address to the new sovereign, while their ears were assailed by rumors that meeting-houses would shortly be pulled down ; and they were told of one already attacked at Newcastle-under- Lyne. Watts, then the new successor of Dr. Chauncey in Mark Lane, had just poured forth a laudatory dirge over the hero of the Revolution ; — Burgess was, probably, with increased earnestness, denouncing from his pulpit in Brydges Street, Covent Garden, all Jacobinism and tyranny; — Howe was continuing his pure and lofty ministrations in Silver Street, a little ruffled by Defoe's rough attempt to plunge him into a dispute touching occasional conformity ; — Calamy, co-pastor with Dr. Williams in Hand Alley, Bishopsgate Street, already an ecclesiastical annalist, was recording in his diary some rather doleful memoranda ; — when, two days after mid- summer, a gentle spirit entered the world, designed by Providence to rank with the first named of those four worthies in noble fellowship of effort for the revival of spiritual religion in connection with Protestant dissent. When Watts had attained his twenty-seventh year, Doddridge was born. His birth-place was some un- known house in the labyrinth of London streets, where his father profitably plied the trade of an oilman. The worthy shopkeeper was united to the daughter of a Bo- hemian clergyman, who had been expelled from his native country as early as 1G2G, and was for some time Doddridge's early days. 43 master of the Free School at Kmgston-upon-Thames. From this union sprang- a family of twenty, of whom the boy named Philip was the last. So feeble was the spark of life in the infant child, that he w r as at first laid aside as dead, and the constitution thus originally deli- cate in the extreme never attained to robustness. Hence Doddridge's life w r as one of a thousand proofs how much of mental and spiritual energy may be lodged in a physical frame, frail to a great degree. His mother was a woman of singular good sense and piety. Like the mother of Alfred, who enticed her boy to the study of letters by exhibiting before him the pic- tures of an illuminated missal, Mrs. Doddridge en- couraged the child of her age in the study of Scripture history, by pointing out, and amplifying, with a mother's loving simplicity and graphic power, the scenes of Holy Writ depicted on the blue Dutch tiles, which, according to the fashion of the day, lined the chimney corner. That domestic incident has long been looked on as a sort of poetic legend in Nonconformist biography, as it well may, when one remembers that the little fellow, leaning on his mother's knee, and following the direction of her finger, and listening to her simple, easy words, was the destined author of the "Family Expositor." Nor can we doubt that, as he sat on the hearth-ruo; bv the winters fire, she would tell of ancestral names and deeds, and how her good father suffered for conscience' sake, and withdrew from Prague by stealth, in the 44 doddridge's early days. habit of a peasant, -with a hundred pieces of gold plaited in his leathern girdle, and a copy of Luther's Bible in his pocket. The son inherited the old book, and kept it as a holy heir-loom. With the girdle a curious story was associated, which the mother, in some of her pleas- ant talks at eventide, would love to tell. We think we hear her relating how the refugee, the first night after his escape, left it at an inn on the road, and, discovering the loss, went back in suspense to seek for his treasure ; and how the servant had thrown it away amongst some lumber, supposing it of no value, and had forgotten where it was ; and then, how, induced by the promise of reward, she searched for it, and found it in a cupboard under the staircase, and restored the girdle, to the owner's no small joy. And we cannot help imagining, as she went on to remark how the sufferer for conscience' sake regarded himself in this event as under the care of a gracious Providence, that thereby were sown the seeds of that love of religious liberty, and that trust in Divine guardianship, which were such powerful elements in Doddridge's character. On the paternal side, too, there were memorials of worth. His grandfather was John Doddridge, one of the ejected ministers. Speaking of this ancestor, in a letter to a friend, he observes : — u He had a family of ten children unprovided for ; but he quitted his living,* which was worth to him about two hundred pounds per * Shepperton, Middlesex. Doddridge's early days. 45 annum, rather than lie would violate his conscience in the manner he must have done, by submitting to the subscriptions and declarations required, and the usages imposed by the Act of Uniformity, contrived by some wicked politicians to serve their own interest, and most effectually humble those who had been most active in that general struggle for public liberty in which the family of the Stuarts had fallen." Calamy, in his bead- roll of Bartholomew confessors, marks down this worthy as "an ingenious man, and a scholar, an acceptable preacher, and a very peaceable divine." In addition to which, Orton assures us that he had seen some of his sermons, which were "judicious and serious." In a collateral branch of the same line of ancestry was Sir John Doddridge, one of the judges of the Court of Kind's Bench in the reio-n of James I. To his le^al attainments he added large stores of general erudition, which are duly celebrated amidst the rich emblazonry of his quaint-looking monument in Exeter Cathedral, where, as Price says, in his " Worthies of Devonshire," " he lieth in his scarlet robes, with a court roll in his hand." A scrap from one of his speeches indicates his integrity of purpose, though we grieve to say it was de- livered in defence of a judgment supporting the extreme prerogatives claimed by his misguided and unhappy sovereign : — " It is no more fit for a judge to decline to give an account of his doings, than for a Christian of his faith. God knoweth I have endeavored to keep a good 46 doddridge's early days. conscience, for a troubled one who can bear ? I have now sat in this court fifteen years, and I should know something : surely if I had gone in a mill so long, dust would cleave unto my clothes. I am old, and have one foot in the grave; therefore will I look to the better part as near as I can. But ' omnia habere in mernoria et in nullo erraro divinum potius est quam humanum? " The ancestral legends on the father's side, though less romantic and exciting than those on the mother's, were still of a nature to influence an ingenuous mind like young Philip's, and to spur him on in the pursuit of learning, honor, and religion. Early drilled in the elements of literature by Mr. Stott, a long since forgotten minister who kept an acad- emy in London, Doddridge was removed, at ten years of age, to Kingston, to study within the walls of the old Grammar School, where his good grandfather had once been master. Mr. Mayo then presided over the estab- lishment, and Doddridge, in a note to one of his ser- mons on education, expresses his gratitude to this early preceptor, for the advantages he derived from his cate- chetical lectures, and for many " excellent instructions in public and private." After he had spent three years at Kingston, he lost his father, and soon his amiable mother was taken away. But amidst bereavements which lacerated his tender heart, he could say, " God is an immortal Father ; my soul rejoiceth in him : he has hitherto helped me and provided for me ; may it be Doddridge's early days. 47 my study to approve myself a more affectionate, grate- ful, and dutiful child I" He very touchingly observes, in his sermon entitled " The Orphan's Hope," " I am under some peculiar obligations to desire and attempt the relief of orphans, as I know the heart of an orphan : having been deprived of both my parents at an age in which it might reasonably be supposed a child should be most sensible of such a loss." In the old town of St. Alban's, so famed for the re- mains of its noble abbey, there lived, in 1 7 1 7, the learned Mr. Nathaniel Wood, who, like many of his ministerial brethren of that day, had to betake himself to the du- ties of a schoolmaster ; and in the same place, the min- istrations at the Presbyterian meeting-house were effi- ciently conducted by the Rev. Samuel Clark, the author of " Scripture Promises," a gentleman who, with ample means, possessed a large heart, and to extensive erudi- tion added unaffected piety. Doddridge, about the time of his father's death, was placed under the care of that reverend tutor, and attended the ministry of that scholar-like divine. Being painfully reduced in circum- stances, by the imprudence of the person who had the control of his pecuniary affairs after his father's death, he found in Mr. Clark a friend indeed ; for, with char- acteristic generosity, that excellent man became a second parent to the forlorn young stranger, and assisted him to struggle with the rough necessities of his orphan lot. His conduct at St. Alban's was exemplary ; his predilec- 48 Doddridge's early days. tions were manifest. In his diligent study of the Scrip- tures we may discover an early pledge of the future theological professor and Biblical critic ; and in his painstaking visits to the poor, for their religious benefit, we discern an early prophecy of the future model pastor of Northampton. No doubt being entertained of his piety, he was admitted to the church in his nineteenth year, when his hallowed ambition to become one of the shepherds of Christ's earthly fold began to manifest itself with unmistakable distinctness. An offer from the Duchess of Bedford, whose husband's steward was Philip's uncle, presented an opening into the Church of England, with flattering prospects ; but such an offer, though the young man received it with gratitude, he felt compelled to decline with respect, as he could not satisfy his conscience to comply with the terms of min- isterial conformity. To preach the gospel in connection with those who were despised by the proud and worldly, but whom he honored for their conscientiousness, was his fervent desire. But the way in that direction was for awhile closed up ; and the writer of this memorial can well remember, how, some two-and-twenty years ago, he read this portion of Doddridge's instructive his- tory, with a sympathetic and trembling heart, and was not a little strengthened in faith and hope, as probably many others in like manner have been, by the successful issue of this good man's early trial. The youth went to town with a palpitating heart, to call on the influential 49 and dignified Dr. Calamy for advice and assistance, but found no encouragement in that quarter. He carried the richest buddings of promise, but returned with a cruel blight upon his hopes. There seemed no alterna- tive but to accept a lucrative proposal, made to him by a friend, to enter on the study of the law, but he was unwilling to take a decisive step without fervent prayer ; and while on his knees, the postman's thundering knock announced the arrival of a letter. It bore the hand- writing of Mr. Clark, and contained an offer from him to receive Doddridge under his roof, and to afford him aid in preparatory studies for that holy office which had kindled in him such pure and strong desire. We fancy we see the tall and delicate youth, with ardent counte- nance and moistened eyes, folding up the precious epis- tle, and sitting down to write in his diary, "This I looked upon almost as an answer from heaven, and while I live shall always adore so seasonable an interpo- sition of Divine Providence. I have sought God's direc- tion in this matter, and I hope I have had it. My only view in my choice hath been that of more extensive ser- vice, and I beg God would make me an instrument of doing: much o-ood in the world." Next to the honor of a successful ministry itself, is the distinction of being instrumental in the introduction of another to such a course ; and the story of Doddridge should be regarded as a caution to the masters of our Israel, not hastily to repress in the bosom of a gifted E 50 doddridge's early days. and ingenuous young man aspirations after the holiest of all employments. What a loss would the church have sustained at that critical period, had Calamy's re- pulse not been neutralized by Clark's encouragement ! CHAPTER II. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. As the subject of this memorial was intended, by the providence of God, to become pre-eminently distinguished as a divinity professor, it seems proper, in connection -with the commencement of his student-life, to advert to the history and character of those institutions in one of which he received his ministerial education. Seminaries for Dissenting* students had not then attained the title of colleges, but were known by the humbler appellation of academies, and were, in fact, establishments of a dif- ferent order from those which now adorn our denomi- nation. Several of the ministers ejected from the Church of England on the black day of Bartholomew, were as distinguished by their erudition as by their piety. With attainments which would have fitted them for conspicuous posts in the republic of learning, some of them were glad, for the sake of a subsistence, to de- scend to the drudgery of initiating boys into their Greek and Latin accidence. Ralph Button, Canon of Christ Church, and Orator of the University of Oxford, a man 52 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. of illustrious scholarship, was obliged, in order to buy his daily bread, to open a little school, and that stealthily, for the sons of his friends, first at the town of Brentford, and then at the village of Islington ; and the great Dr. Gale, the author of the " Court of the Gentiles," in like manner sought his livelihood by performing scholastic toils in a sequestered nook of the then rustic Newington Green.* Other men of classic taste and literary skill, less known to fame, such as Mr. Woodhouse, Mr. War- ren, Mr. Morton, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Shut- tlewood, and Mr. Veal, had their private establishments in different parts of the country, and thus blended their instructions in the learned languages with the higher teaching of Christian theology, shedding over the whole the soft and winning light of a holy life. They educa- ted youths for secular employments ; and at first — just after the Restoration, in those troublous times when the walls of our free ecclesiastical city began to be built, * The following was an interesting occurrence in the life of this learned worthy : — The Restoration having stripped him of his pre- ferments, he travelled with two sons of Lord Wharton. On his re- turn to England, as he approached London, he was alarmed with the sight of the city in flames. Amidst sympathy for the sufferings of others, the fear of personal loss rushed into his mind. He had left his papers in the possession of a friend, whose house he soon found to he involved in the general calamity. But he was delighted widi the grateful tidings, that his desk, containing the labors of many years, had been thrown into a cart as an article just sufficient to make up the load." — Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters, vol. i. p. 325. — There was the MS. of the " Court of the Gentiles," — so near was that monument of learning to the ignoble fate which con- sumed so manv other treasures. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 53 and the prospects of Nonconformity were dark and for- bidding — this seems to have been their chief design. But as the Established Church showed no disposition to conciliate, as the cause of the conscientious dissentients grew in numbers and vigor, — as congregations, in spite of penal enactments, gathered around the earnest-minded confessors of a doubly-reformed faith, the need was felt of a fresh race of ministers to hand down to another age the lighted torch of liberty and truth. The houses of these instructors gradually became schools of the prophets. Few, perhaps, at the time of entering under their roof, felt what we should recognize as a sufficient call to the Nonconformist ministry ; but there, in the family of some godlike man, through the influence of that wisdom and piety which watched like guardian and inspiring angels over their opening minds, they were gently and graciously inclined to choose that voca- tion which, away from the paths of affluence and power, led them, through humble and sorrowful scenes, to the attainment of a Divine reward and immortal honors. Not originally, and by design, did these good men, in the first instance, constitute seminaries for the express purpose of educating men for the Christian ministry, but gradually the boys' school came to assume the more important character of a ministerial college. And for a long time, up to Doddridge's commencement as a tutor, and even afterwards, the Nonconformist academy was an affair resting entirely on the personal responsibility E* 54 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. of the minister who conducted it. There was no con- stituency, no regular subscribers, no council or commit- tee, but the entire management devolved on the indi- vidual who chose to open his house for the reception of pupils. Payment was made by parents and friends. In several cases, permanence was given to an establishment by a succession of tutors ; in others, it ceased when the founder died. Nor were any inquiries instituted re- specting the personal piety of the young men admitted to the academies, until the King's Head Society was formed in 1*730. They laid down as a general principle, that a person ought to be a Christian before he was ad- mitted to be a student in divinity. u Plain as this principle is, it will not be found in the voluminous pages of ecclesiastical history that it was ever acted on in any age, or in any part of the Christian church, till the King's Head Society made it the ground-work of their plan."* As Nonconformist ministers, before the Revolution, were constantly subject to the oppression of the govern- ment, it is no wonder that in their capacity as tutors they were liable to molestation. Button was sent to gaol for three months. Morton was harassed by eccle- siastical processes, and finally compelled to abandon his academy altogether. Even the accession of the Prince of Orange, which brought toleration to the pastor of a N onconformist church, left the head of a Nonconformist seminary open to vexatious proceedings. An attempt * Some farther notice will be found of this Society in the Postscript. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 55 was made after the Revolution to suppress Mr. Frank- land's academy in the north, which from the beginning spent a migratory sort of existence ; being driven about from place to place by the stormy weather of persecu- tion. Sharp, Archbishop of York, was requested by some of the clergy to crush the good man's work. He consulted Tillotson as to the best method of procedure, and received this reply : — " His instructing young men in so public a manner in university learning, is contrary to his oath to do, if he hath taken a degree in either of our universities, and, I doubt, contrary to the bishop's oath to grant him a license for doing it ; so that your Grace does not, in this matte]*, consider him at all as a Dissenter. This I only offer to your Grace as what seems to me the fairest and softest way of ridding your hands of this business.'"'' To explain this advice, it is proper we should remark, that in the middle ages, fac- tions arose at Oxford and Cambridge, and hosts of stu- dents, under some favorite professors, would march off to Northampton or Stamford, to set up rival schools and grant degrees. Hence an oath came to be required of the university graduates, to the effect that, in no other places than in those favored retreats on the Isis and the Cam, would they ever establish a scholastic lecture. It was in harmony with Tillotson's characteristic wariness to give such cautious counsel, but it was hardly worthy of his reputation for gentleness and catholicity, to put * Life of Archbishop Sharp, vol. i. p. 359. 56 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. the disconcerted prelate up to the trick of masking the batteries of intolerance, under the specious cover of an- tiquated and obsolete precedents. The academies were also assailed from the press ; and one grieves to see the name of Samuel Wesley, the father of John, appended to a pamphlet, dated 1703, entitled, "A Letter from a Country Divine to his Friend in London, concerning the Education of the Dissenters in their Private Academies in several Parts of the Nation ;"* containing an attack as unjust as it is virulent. He depreciates the learning, and impugns the loyalty of the Dissenters, at the same time traducing their schools as nurseries of immorality and irreligion. This course was the more abominable, from his having been formerly a Dissenter himself, and one which received a merited exposure, and a truthful condemnation, in the reply written by Samuel Palmer, of Southwark. But Nonconformist seminaries only mul- tiplied and prospered under these assaults, when, in 1714, the unprincipled Bolingbroke, on the eve of his fall, planned the infamous Schism Bill, Atterbury, the Corypheus of the high church fanatics, sitting at his * Mr. Wesley after this defended his first pamphlet, which was followed by a second reply from Mr. Palmer : to this Mr. Wesley published a rejoinder. Dr. Calamy notices the controversy, and says : — " Mr. Wesley, after his conforming, drew up and published a letter concerning the education of the Dissenters in their private academies. Mr. S. Palmer writing in defence of the Dissenters, (though he himself thought fit afterwards to desert them and turn con- formist) Mr. W. wrote a reply, and discovered an unbecoming bitter- ness towards his quondam friends."' — Life, vol. ii. p. 505. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 5 7 elbow helping in the concoction. ■ It was to prevent any one in Great Britain from keeping public or private schools, or acting as tutor at all, without subscribing a declaration of conformity, and obtaining a license from a bishop. To make the provision most effectual, the license was not to be granted until the party produced a certificate of having received the sacrament in the Church of England, within the last year, and taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Violators of this law were to be committed to prison without bail. This measure, which transferred the whole education of the country into clerical hands, and pointed a pistol at the throat of religious liberty, was actually carried, and was to be put in operation on the 31st of August ; but poor Queen Anne, on whose frail life the success of the cause of intolerance had come to depend, died that very day. The act remained a dead letter, and was repealed a few years afterwards. The character of the education given to candidates for the ministry in these institutions may be inferred from the pre-requisites for ordination noticed by Samuel Pal- mer. The young man had to undergo an examination in the learned languages, in logic, ethics, and meta- physics. He was to defend a thesis in Latin, and the examiners, we are informed, put " nice and curious ques- tions," and required grammatical and theological criti- cisms on difficult places in the Greek Testament. It is rather amusing to find it stated, that " if the candidate £8 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. were fearful of his performance in Hebrew, he was ad- mitted upon his promise to spend a year in the study of that language."* Seeker, who at the time was read- ing his Greek lessons to the Presbyterian minister at Tewkesbury, the learned Samuel Jones, details a very respectable curriculum as he gives an account of his studies in a letter to Dr. Watts, little thinking that he and his schoolfellow Butler were one day to have their brow T s bedecked with mitres.f At the time when young Doddridge was aiming at the ministry, there were several academies in existence. Henry Grove, who retains a respectable, though not brilliant place in our theological literature, was, in con- nection with Mr. James, pursuing his work as a tutor amidst the scenery of Taunton, a town not less dear from its association with Joseph Alleine's holy memory, than attractive from its vale-embosomed borders. John Rey- nolds, too, whose warm-souled piety threw a glow over his learning, was, with Dr. Gyles, superintending the studies of a few young men in the thrifty borough of Jo JO Shrewsbury, which we cannot help linking with the name of Orton, Doddridge's biographer: — and Caleb Rotherham was just beginning the same kind of work at Kendal ; while many honorable compeers were scat- tered up and down the country, including Moore, of * Defence of the Dissenters' Education, 1703, p. 4. t Jeremiah Jones, the learned author of the " Canon/' — often con- founded with Samuel Jones, — was a fellow-student with Seeker. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 59 Bridgewater, and his namesake at Watterfield ; Tow- good, of Shepton Mallett ; Owen, of Warrington ; and Hill, of Findern, a village in Derbyshire. In the Metropolis there were at that time two academies — one existed, even then, amidst the very imacademic scenes of Hoxton — under the care of Dr. Oldfield, Mr. Lorimer, and Mr. Capel. Another was conducted by Dr. Ridgely, the famous author of a " Body of Divinity," and by John Eames, a fellow of the Royal Society — a friend of Sir Isaac Xewton, and the subject of an eulogium by Watts, who pronounced him the most learned man he ever knew. A third was commenced some years later, by Dr. Abraham Taylor. In addition to all the rest, there was one in the county of Northampton, in the quiet village of Kibworth, more quiet now than ever, since railways have drawn away its intermitting streams of coach and wao-on traffic. The master of the seminary was John Jennings, brother of David Jennings, of Jewish antiquarian renown — himself a man of considerable attainments and highly cultivated taste, whose " Two Discourses on Preaching Christ," were thought worthy by two English prelates of a public recommendation in their charges to their clergy.* In the straggling street of Kibworth, where, * The original edition of these sermons was published in 1723, with a preface by Dr. Watts, from which the following- passage is well wortlw of being transcribed : — " Let us consider how little hath been our success in comparison of the multitudes converted by our fathers in the days of their ministry. Hath not this been matter of GO PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. amidst rustic dwellings, a few aristocratic abodes lifted up their heads, there stood, on the site of the present Crown Inn, the academic dwelling of Mr. Jennings ; close to which, now within the yard of the hostelry, is the site of what was a place of worship — probably some barn-like structure, which was burnt down in 1759. There Jennings preached to his pupils, and to the rustic church and congregation of which he was pastor. Thither Doddridge travelled from St. Albans, as the brown leaves were falling in the October of 1*719, and there we see him warmly welcomed, and established as a student in what he calls his " dear light garret at Kibworth," commanding a lovely prospect of fields from which had just been reaped the fruits of Leicester- shire husbandry. Mr. Jennings remained at Kibworth only three years after Doddridge was placed under his sore complaint these many years past ? Now it is worth our inquiry, whether it may not be ascribed to the absence of Christ in our ser- mons? And what reason indeed can we have to expect the pres- ence and influence of the Spirit of Christ, if we have his person, his offices, his grace, and his gospel, out of our discourses, or give but a slight and casual hint at these glorious subjects, which ought to be our daily theme ? This is what our author would put us in mind of in his first discourse. And perhaps another cause of our want of success has been this — that we have too much left off the way of our forefathers, in distinguishing the character of our hearers, and divi- ding the word aright to saints and sinners, to the stupid and the pro- fane, the awakened and convinced, the mournful and penitent, the presumptuous and obstinate, the deserted and despairing. This method appears eminently in the labors of a former agQ. This is a great part of what the second discourse here recommends to us, under the title of Experimental Preaching." Doddridge, no doubt, owed much to a tutor so evangelical. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. Gl care, and then accepted a call from the church at Hinck- ley. The academy was removed with its tutor, and in the month of September, 1722, we find the young stu- dent lamenting the change of scene, especially the loss of the agreeable retirements, " the meadows and arbors" of his former abode ; for Mr. Jennings was a man of taste in horticulture as well as literature, and had made the garden at Kib worth " a right pleasant place," ac- cording to the fashion of the times. But in January of the next year, we see the young student snugly ensconced by the fireside in the best chamber of the new house, dotting down, in one of his letters, an inventory of his furniture — " a blue camlet bed" — " an elbow chair" — " half a dozen little ones" — " a black table, a chest of drawers, and a large looking-glass." He is dressed in a dark " blue calimanco gown," of " eighteen pence a yard," which has " lasted a couple of years," and been " turned and mended a good many times." He has just exchanged an old Hebrew Bible, in a very tattered and scurvy condition, for a perfect copy, which, with Spanheim's " Eleuchus," and Dupin's " Ecclesiastical History," also newly added to his little book stock, is gladdening his heart as with the joy of one who findeth spoil. A most indefatigable pupil in his academic preparations ; studying the classics, and the original Scriptures, with taste and accuracy ; commenting upon Homer, and annotating on the Testaments New and Old, he also manages to read, in the short space of six F 62 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. months, as many as sixty volumes, including Patrick's " Commentary," Tillotson's "Works, and the " Boyle Lectures." And, for the comfort now of poor students be it told, he is far from being flush with money, and sorrowfully records how four guineas have just melted away — the half gone in articles of dress — the greatest part of another in necessary journeys, one to Leicester, to take the oaths, and subscribe the articles, which cost six shillings, and another to Mount Sorrel to a meeting of ministers. But Doddridge, while in circumstances he answered the description, in spirit practised the advice of the Roman poet — "Rebus angustis animosus atqne Fortis adpare." He bore up against pecuniary difficulties ; and, what is especially worthy of note, he so husbanded with wise economy his little stores, as to avoid the burden, and escape the disgrace, of debts he could not pay. Of his student life he would often talk, in after-days, to Mrs. Doddridge, in the quiet parlor at Northampton, by the snug fire on a winters night, and she, treasuring up all such precious reminiscences, after she had, lost the light of her dwelling, thus writes to Job Orton, who was pre- paring his Memoirs : — " Some spice too, you will find, I have sent of his exact manner of keeping his accounts, to which permit me to add, that I have often heard him say, that during the years he was at school, and after- PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 63 wards a pupil, he never contracted any debts, and though his income was small, he never wanted money, but at the close of every year had always some cash in hand — that he always made it a rule to content himself with the table kept for the family, and never spent any money either in wine or tea, or any other unnecessary expense."* Unaffected courtesy was blended with literary refine- ment, and the poor student could hardly be mistaken for anything but what he was, — the polished gentleman. Overtaken one day by bad weather at Newport Pagnell, he called at the house of Mr. Hunt, the pastor of the dissenting church there, when his son, struck with the interesting appearance and bland manners of the visitor, offered him the loan of a great-coat. Mrs. Hunt, good careful soul, questioned the wisdom of putting such gen- erous confidence in an unaccredited stranger ; but the son, who could read character better than the mother, replied, " I am sure he is a gentleman and a scholar." The answer was overheard by Doddridge, and he never forgot this expression of his new friend's trustfulness, and this reward of his own courteous demeanor. An intimacy sprung up between him and young Hunt, who succeeded Ins father in the ministry at Newport The town became a place of interest to Doddridge, and after he attained to celebrity an opportunity offered for show- ing a practical concern for the welfare of the church. " The meeting-house having been erected on an estate * MS. letters in the possession of Charles Reed, Esq. G4 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. which was the property of one of the principal people in the congregation, no conveyance of the ground on which it stood had ever been made to proper trustees, and the owner of the estate becoming a bankrupt, it was seized by the creditors; this was in 1*740. Dr. Doddridge then generously came forward and purchased the meeting of them and conveyed it to proper trustees, and by his zeal and influence the money was soon raised."* After being examined by Mr. Some, Mr. Bridger, and Mr. Norris, three neighboring ministers remarkable alike for learning and good sense, as well as for candor and catholicity, Doddridge received a certificate of satisfac- tion, and in July 22d, 1*722, began to preach. The first sermon is a grand epoch in ministerial life, and in the case of a successful preacher is reviewed by himself and his friends with intense interest in all after-years. The scene of early effort becomes clustered round with sacred associations ; and if fruit speedily appear, " and the treader of grapes overtaketh him that soweth seed," sweet is the song and rich is the joy of the vintage. In the present instance we can picture the place and trace the result. Nichols, in his "History of Leicestershire," tells us of the old meeting-house at Hinckley, and states, that behind the pulpit, and on either side, are two small galleries not unlike the boxes of a playhouse, pur- * Brief Narrative of the Independent Church at Newport Pagnell, by the Rev. T. P. Bull. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 65 posely designed for Mr. Jennings' pupils, the rest of the building being on the model of the old meeting-houses a hundred and thirty years ago. The building still exists. It is now occupied by Unitarians. There Dodd- ridge first preached the gospel from the words, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha." The result is recorded by himself : — " I find in his diary," says Orton, "that two persons as- cribed their conversion to the blessing of God attending that sermon, with which he appears to have been much affected and encouraged." As the termination of his studies at Hinckley ap- proached, he had two settlements offered, one at Coven- try, over a congregation of 1200 people, and one atKib- worth, over his tutor's former flock. He chose the latter. Orton justly observes, that ministers in general have been too unwilling, even at their entrance on their work, to live or preach in small country places ; but Doddridge afterwards reflected with pleasure, that he had spent so many years in a country retirement. How very different might have been his career had he re- solved to plunge at once into ministerial publicity, in- stead of laying up in retirement large stores for future usefulness. The professor, expositor, and divine might have been lost amidst a limited and ephemeral popu- larity. In one of his merry moods he describes his congrega- tion as the most unpolite he ever knew, consisting of F* 66 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. farmers and graziers, and their subaltern officers. U I have not," he adds, " so much as a tea table* in my whole diocese, although above eight miles in extent, and but one hoop petticoat within the whole circuit." In a graver hour, he tells a friend, " I am now with a plain, honest, serious, good-natured people ; I heartily love them myself, and I meet with genuine expressions of an undissembled affection on their side. I would hope that God is among us, and I desire to mention it with a great deal of thankfulness, that I already see some encouraging effects of my poor attempts to serve them. I do not go very much abroad, and when I am at home I can con- veniently spend twelve hours a day in my study. I have now many good books of my own, and my friends that are still better furnished, are very ready to oblige me with the use of theirs. As to the salary, though it does not certainly amount to forty pounds a year, it is a tolerable subsistence for a single man ; and I believe I shall never marry while I stay here." The private life of Doddridge, during his pastoral novitiate, is fully unveiled to the world in his published correspondence ; and we not only follow him from one rural lodging to another — from the substantial farmers' house at Stretton, three miles from Kibworth, to Burton Overy with its chalybeate springs, and back again to his former abode — we not only see him preaching in his meeting-house, or rambling in his garden, or hard at * The use of tea was a rare luxury in those days. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES- OV work in his study — we have not only an account of his most trivial affairs and adventures, but his youthful thoughts are all divulged. Xo heart, throbbing with early affections, without wisdom at the time to repress or guide their boisterous gushes, was ever so laid bare to the broad gaze of all posterity. The result, in some quarters, has been what an enemy would desire. " Seme of his letters," says Croker, u have been recently pub- lished, with no great advantage to his tame." Ma- caulay observes of Warren Hastings, that the splendor of his lame would bear many spots. Without subscrib- ing to the doctrine that virtue can afford to be inconsis- tent, we may remark of Philip Doddridge, that the blemishes of the bud may well be forgotten as we look at the beauty of the opened flower. Still there are few, we apprehend, who, regarding simply the interests of literature and religion, will attempt to justify the printing indiscriminately of a whole mass of boyish letters, many written in strict confidence to friends of his own age. Some of these letters exhibit him as a rather gallant young man, according to the fashion of that period — addressing certain favorites among the fair under roman- tic names, sometimes with professions of regard far too ardent to be deemed platonic, yet evidently not meant to express that passion which the author does not name, but presumes his readers know. Other letters discover an enthusiasm of feeling not to be mistaken. The whole indicate that our voting friend was sometimes indiscreet, 68 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. but always frank. There must have been in him some lack of prudence, or he never would have carefully pre- served copies of such trifling correspondence, and left them to his descendants as an heirloom ; though, indeed, the most suspicious of mankind could hardly have im- agined that any one would ever shoot large bundles of such productions into the press, to be set up in type for- ever. However, here the letters are. An excuse for the formal style of many of them may be found in the manners of the early part of the Georgian era, well symbolized by broad hoops and powdered wigs ; and so, also, some palliation of the freedom of address which appears in others, may be found in that less restricted intercourse of the sexes, which then prevailed from the court downwards. Certain of them exhibit the blossom- ing of affections, which, after the gay and garish leaves were shed, set in beautiful and mellow fruit. But with these qualifications we cannot but deeply regret that Doddridge's warm and cheerful heart should have be- trayed him into some imprudences ; far less, perhaps, than those of many men, who, through jealousy of their own reputation, or forbearance on the part of friends, have had their juvenile failings prudently covered up and concealed. In his letters and diary, at a subsequent date, he laments his early errors. It is very interesting, in connection with this part of his life, to read the fol- lowing extract from a letter, written after his decease by Mrs. Doddridge to Job Orton : — PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 69 " We were neither of us strangers to the natural gaiety of his temper, which sometimes cast a shade over his otherwise excellent qualities ; and these things may, perhaps, be vet remembered by some, when those may be overlooked and forgot. But mingled, as I fear you will find his early diaries and other papers, with thing's of this kind, I doubt not but you will also there find those seeds of piety, which, by his indefatigable care, under the blessing of Heaven, were growing up and gradually improved, till they shone out with such bright and distin o-uishino- rays ; and amidst his o-avest scenes in early life, will here be found the foundations, early laid, for those important and extensive schemes of his future usefulness, many of which, by the Divine favor, he lived to execute, and others (and still more, perhaps) were broken off"."* It should be added, in reference to the collection of his early letters, that there are many of them which in- dicate the highest excellence. Some are written with exquisite propriety and beauty, especially one to a Miss Horseman, on an accident she had met with, and another to a young lady on going abroad. A few of the earliest indicate habits of theological thinking, eminently vigor- ous and clear. It is apparent, from Doddridge's correspondence, that he was not at first in perfect sympathy with what was called the orthodox party among Dissenters. The Alias * MS. letters in the possession of Charles Reed, Esq. 70 PREPARATORY SCENES AXD STUDIES. controversy was at that time hotly waged. The conten- tions at Exeter about Mr. Pearce, and the debates at Walters' Hall about subscriptions, excited deep interest far and near ; and, in some quarters, kindled the " wrath of man, which worketh not the righteousness of God." Reports of a violent spirit and harsh proceedings, found occasionally on the orthodox side, might prejudice a man like Doddridge against the party, though he ad- mitted in the main their distinctive principles. More- over, there might be theories entertained about the mode of the Divine existence ; and representations made of scripture facts, together with the use of certain cur- rent and fondly-cherished phrases, which, without much wonder, would be counted exceptionable by a thoughtful young scholar, encouraged by his associates to indulge in free inquiry. In a letter quoted by Orton, Doddridge refers to those who were charged with heresy ; and he candidly acknowledges that, between the year 1723 and 1730, he was more inclined to some of their sentiments than he afterwards became ; yet, from the earliest period, he seems to have kept to the broad outline of scripture truth, and refers, in his diary, to " the atonement and intercession of God's dear Son," and to the " powerful assistance of Almighty grace." The evangelical tone becomes much more decided and pervading after the period to which the above confession relates. In 1725, Doddridge was chosen assistant to Mr. Some, of Market Harborough, but continued to preach at Kib- PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 7 1 worth alternately with the other place. A new kind of employment soon followed. He had been a favorite pupil of Jennings. The tutor saw, in the varied talents and extraordinary diligence of his young friend, the promise of future eminence ; and wisely considered, in case of his own early decease, that here was the man to perpetuate and improve the scheme of education in which he had been trained. That excellent person, ac- cording to a presentiment he expressed, was cut off in the midst of his days. Soon afterwards, a paper which Doddridge had written, on the best manner of conduct- ing the studies of young men intended for the ministry, coming under the notice of Dr. "Watts, that eminent divine, together with other individuals, urgently advised him to add to his ministerial employments the occupa- tion of tutor. Encouraged by Mr. Some and Mr. Clarke, — formally requested by a meeting of ministers at Lutterworth, — and feeling in his own mind a convic- tion that the thing was of God — that it was a special vocation to which he was called by Providence — he was resolved to enter on the important enterprise, and, ac- cordingly, opened an academy at Market Harborough in 1729. It is amusing to observe, in the Life of Dr. Watts, the statement that, in looking over Doddridge's paper on the qualifications of a tutor, the former suggested whether it might not be better that the tutor should remain single. " This was my tutor's practice," he remarked ; " and, 72 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. after all, if it be possible to find a tutor so admirably qualified as the author describes, it is five hundred to one if he meet with the one only pious, prudent, and invalu- able partner." The chivalry of our young divine fired up at this ; and here is his characteristic annotation on the passage : — " In answer to this terrible query, I must observe, that I know but one family in which a tutor and his pupils could conveniently board ; while I know half-a-dozen of the fair sex who do in the main answer the necessary character. I shall probably remain single while I reside here ; but should Providence remove me, I shall prefer the example of my own tutor, whose wis- dom and happiness I knew, to that of the Doctor's, to whom I am a perfect stranger." His removal from Market Harborough was now not far distant. His was a light which could not be hid ; and many churches coveted the waxing luminary. The Hertford deacons, who must have been ne plus ultra Nonconformists, were indeed, when sent to Kibworth on a mission of observation and discovery, sadly scanda- lized at seeing the ten commandments written on the walls, and on hearing the preacher repeat the Lord's Prayer, and the clerk pronounce a sonorous Amen. But, from London and Nottingham, from Pershore and Brockfield (near North Walsham), came urgent calls for the privilege of his teaching and oversight. Two congregations at Nottingham wished to have his services. This greatly perplexed young Doddridge. PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. 73 He, with his usual amiableness, endeavored to avoid dis- pleasing either party, and sought, if possible, to heal the breaches existing between them ; but finally, as might have been expected, he missed his aim altogether, and abandoned the idea of settling in the town. I have been favored by my friend, the Rev. S. McAll, with some extracts from the Congregational Church books of that date, which show how very sore some of the people were at the loss of so promising a candidate. But He who holdeth the stars in his rio-ht hand, had chosen that the people of Northampton should walk in the light of an orb so brilliant ; and therefore, when the invitation was sent from that place, after deliberating three months, amidst conflicting ideas of duty, — the love for Harborough matching the desire for Northampton, — he decided at last in favor of the latter, his fatherly col- league in the former church coming to a reluctant ac- quiescence in the result. At first he had resolved " to lay down his good friends at Northampton as gently as he could," but subsequent events altered his mind, of which he gives the following account : — " Having on the previous Saturday evening" (Novem- ber, 1729) "been much impressed with 'the tender en- treaties of my friends, in my secret devotions I laid the affair before God, although as a matter almost deter- mined in the negative ; appealing to Him, that my chief reason for declining the call, was the apprehension of *74 PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. engaging in more business than I was capable of per- forming, considering my youth, the largeness of the con- gregation, and that I had no prospect of an assistant. As soon as this address was ended, I passed through a room of the house in which I lodged, where a child was reading to his mother, and the only ivords which I heard distinctly were these, ' As thy days, so shall thy strength be? These words were strongly impressed upon my mind, and remained there with great force and sweetness ; yet I still persisted in my refusal. But that very evening, happening to be in the company of Mr. Bunyan, one of the deacons of the congregation, he en- gaged me to promise to preach his father's funeral ser- mon, from a particular text, upon a timely notice of his death, which it was imagined would take place in a few weeks. It pleased God to remove him that night, which kept me there until Wednesday. In the mean time, I saw those appearances of a serious spirit which could not but be very affecting to me ; many persons, also, attended the funeral who were not stated hearers there, and expressed the greatest satisfaction in my la- bors, in which I had very extraordinary Divine assist- ance. During the whole of this interval I was besieged by the friendly importunities of the congregation ; and when, before I went away, the young people came to me in a body, and earnestly entreated me to come among them, promising to submit to all such methods of in- struction as I should think proper, I found my heart so PREPARATORY SCENES AND STUDIES. io much melted with their affectionate fervor, that I was no longer master of myself, and agreed to take the affair into consideration again. Upon the whole, I was per- suaded in my conscience that it was my duty to accept their invitation ; and God is my witness, that when I did accept it, which was on the Saturday night afterwards, it was with the utmost reluctance. I acted, indeed, without the advice of almost any of my friends, and di- rectly contrary to that of some for whom I had a very high regard ; but I thought myself obliged in conscience to act according to my own views, as it is certain that I must answer for myself another day."* * Doddridge's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 2. CHAPTER III PUBLIC CAREER, THE MINISTER The Congregational church, assembling in Castle-hill Meeting-house was organized at an early period. It probably owed its existence to the ministry of Jeremiah Lewis, incumbent of St. Giles', who was ejected from that parish by the Act of Uniformity. Mr. Blower was their pastor in 1694, the year of his death, having been a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and having sub- sequently held the living of Woodstock : he was also one of the ejected band of worthies. The name of Thomas Shepherd next occurs, whose term of service w r as short, and whose history is buried in silence,* save that he seems to have been a prosperous servant of his Divine Master. Under his pastorate the present meet- ing-house was erected, on a plot of ground near Castle- * The ceremony of marriage was performed in those days by Nonconformists :-- " December 11. — I married Mr. Buswell's son and daughter, of Kettering, in our meeting-house. — Thomas Shepherd. " THE MINISTER. i i hill, devastated some years before by a tremendous fire, which had threatened the destruction of the whole town. The labors of Mr. Shepherd terminated in 1698, and he was succeeded by Mr. Hunt, a man of considerable tal- ents, who, in 1709, removed to Newport Pagnell, and died at Tunstead, in Norfolk, 1730* Mr. Hunt's re- moval was an exchange with the minister at Newport ; for Mr. Thomas Tingey, previously pastor there, was publicly recognized at Northampton on the 2 2d of February, 1709. "He was an evangelical and able minister, and very zealously exerted himself, even be- yond his strength, to preach the gospel in the destitute towns and villages around."f Mr. Tingey removed to London in 1728. It was on this vacancy that Philip Doddridge was elected to the pastorate. He was ordained on the 19th of March, 1730. " The afflicting hand of God upon me hindered me from mak- ing that preparation for the solemnity of this day, which I could otherwise have desired, and which might have answered some valuable end. However, I hope it hath long been my sincere desire to dedicate myself to God in the work of the ministry ; and that the views with which I determined to undertake the office, and which I this day solemnly professed, have long since been fixed. The work of the day was carried on in a very honorable * He was the father of the young- man mentioned in p. 57. t See interesting account of the History of the Church at North- ampton, in the Congregational Magazine for March and April, 1830. 18 PUBLIC' CAREER. and agreeable manner. Mr. Goodrich, of Oundle, began with prayer and reading the Scriptures. Mr. Dawson, of "YVinehly, continued the exercise. Then Mr. Watson, of Leicester, preached a suitable sermon from 1 Tim. iii. 1 : — ' This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.' Mr. Xorris, of Welford, then read the call of the church, of which I declared my acceptance. He took my confession of faith and ordination vows, and proceeded to set me apart by prayer. Mr. Clark, of St. Alban's, gave the charge to me, and Mr. Saunders, of Kettering, the exhor- tation to the people. Then Mr. Mattock, of Daventry, concluded the whole solemnity with prayer." " I have some cheerful hope," he adds, " that the God to whom I have this day been more solemnly than ever devoting my service, will graciously use me, either in this world or a better ; and I am not solicitous about particular circumstances, where or how. If I know anything of my heart, I apprehend I may adopt the words of the Apostle, ' that it is my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that Christ shall be magnified, whether it be by life or by death ; that to me, to live is Christ, and to die, un- speakable gain.' "* His ordination day he ever after- * Orton's Life of Doddridge, p. 65. — The following is a copy of the certificate of his ordination, pasted, probably with his own hand, in his own copy of the Expositor, preserved in the library belonging to the Coward Trust : — " We whose names are hereto subscribed do hereby certify all THE MINISTER. 79 wards observed with peculiar solemnity in his secret devotions. His entrance on the Northampton pastorate dates the beginning of a second book in his spiritual biography, far nobler than the first. Though we do not think that Doddridge's heart was ever the seat of a doubtful piety, or his mind of an order to become under any circum- stances rusty and inactive, yet his separation now from former unfavorable influences, the sense of augmented responsibility attendant upon an introduction to a larger sphere, and especially a serious illness which befell him about this time, seem to have given him new views of spiritual life and ministerial labor. The lamp of godli- ness freshened up into amazing lustre ; and his energies whom it may concern, that Mr. Philip Doddridge, of Northampton, having addressed himself to us, Ministers of the Gospel, desiring to he ordained a Presbyter, we, being sufficiently assured of the un- blamableness of his conversation, and proficiency in his studies, pro- ceeded solemnly to set him apart to the office of the ministry, and the pastoral care of the church of Northampton, by the laying on of hands, with fasting and prayer, at the town of Northampton aforesaid, on the 19th day of March, 1729-30 ; and therefore esteem and de- clare him to be a lawful and sufficiently authorized Minister of Jesus Christ, and heartily recommend him and bis ministry to the Divine blessing. " Witness our hands, " J. Norris, Welford. " S. Clark, St. Alban's. " Present and consenting, " J. Watson, Leicester. "J. Brogden, Wigton. " Edward Brodhurst, Birmingham " R. Dawson, Hinckley." " T. Saunders, Kettering. " J. Drake, Yardley. " N. Hunt, Newport. " Dan. Goodrich, Oundle. 80 PUBLIC CAREER. for the great work God had given him to do, began to move with intenser force, like the burning wheels in Ezekiel's vision. Doddridge's habits of careful composition, and stores of knowledge secured at Kibworth, facilitated the dis- charge of his pulpit labors at ^Northampton. Orton, who evidently listened with fond delight to his reverend tutor, informs us, that he sometimes " only wrote down the heads and leading thoughts of his sermons, and the principal texts of scripture he designed to introduce. But he was so thoroughly master of his subject, and had such a ready utterance, and so warm a heart, that perhaps few ministers could compose better discourses than he delivered from these short hints." Andrew Kippis, who entered the academy seven years after Orton, a man of colder temperament, more critical mind, and further removed from Doddridge's evangelical news, makes some abatement from the encomium. "When the preparation was considerable, he admits the discourses were excellent in a high degree, but he intimates that at other times, as might be expected, they were not so valuable. Of course, Doddridge could not, any more than other men, preach by inspiration and without la- bor, except on rare and stirring occasions. One such is mentioned, when the poet Akenside made his appear- ance unexpectedly in the Castle-hill Meeting-house, and the Doctor, though slightly furnished for the service, roused his powers, " and spake with such variety and THE MINISTER. 81 eloquence as must have impressed the visitor with a high opinion of his abilities." In support of the qualification which Kippis appends to Orton's eulogy, he says, that once the students complained to their tutor, that while his lectures were admirable, his sermons were not suffi- ciently correct models of pulpit composition. Dodd- ridge, the most candid of men, he observes, took this kindly, and his sermons became far superior to what they had been. Orton informs us that he had an earn- estness and pathos in his manner of speaking, which, as it seemed to be the natural effect of a strong impression of Divine truth upon his own heart, tended greatly to affect his hearers, and to render his discourses more ac- ceptable and useful than if his delivery had been more calm and dispassionate. His pronunciation and action were by some judges thought rather too strong and vehement : but to those who were acquainted with the vivacity of his temper and his usual manner of conver- sation, they appeared quite natural and unaffected. The four volumes of sermons published twenty years ago, perhaps afford a fair sample of his better preaching. In matter evangelical ; in arrangement lucid ; in imageiy, generally tasteful, sometimes felicitous ; in diction always perspicuous, and occasionally eloquent, they must have been heard -with uncommon interest. Never very great, they were always very good, and goodness in a sermon, meaning by that the power to edify, is better than great- ness. Doddridge's discourses do not remind you of 82 TUBLIC CAREER. Alpine mountains ; they have no massive and daring arguments tinged with poetic hues, like the glorious range of the Oberland at sunset, — no confounding ex- postulations, like torrents from some glacier cavern; there is nothing to astonish, — entrance, — enthrill. But they remind you of English valleys ; they are full of rich, useful, refreshing thoughts, like cornfields, orchards, and gardens ; — they abound in earnest persuasive appeals, like brooks of living water ; — they have much to feed the soul and inspire calm delight. Doddridge entered the pulpit not to dazzle, but to teach ; not to amaze, but to convince ; not to gratify," but to reform ; not to be thought great, but to do good. This was his motto : " May I remember that I am not to compose an harangue to acquire to myself the reputation of an eloquent orator, but that I am preparing food for precious and immortal souls, and dispensing the sacred gospel which my Re- deemer brought from heaven, and sealed with his blood."* * Mrs. Doddridge, writing to Mr. Clark, in 1754, thus refers to her husband's ministrations : — " Nor does it give me less joy to hear you speak so highly of ex- perimental preaching. It was often said by the ever dear deceased, that one sermon preached to the heart was worth ten to the under- standing. ... I think you will with pleasure read those sermons of my dear Mr. D., which I am now getting transcribed. He formed his first plan of preaching, as I have often heard him with delight ex- press, on this principle ; and I cannot but think, considering the variety of subjects on which they treat, as well as exhibiting a speci- men of his general manner of preaching, many of them would be very acceptable to the public, and possibly would be more useful than those which have been so long published I was glad I had the power of putting the transcript of one sermon into your hands. THE MINISTER. 83 Doddridge's gift in prayer was eminent ; his adminis- tration of the Lord's Supper exemplary. A season of memorable enjoyment must the sendee often have been, judging from the sacramental meditations, which we sincerely thank the spiritually-minded administrator of the ordinance, for recording in his diary. On the Sun- day evening did the good people of Castle Hill, in those times, show forth their Lord's death, availing themselves of moonlight nights, for the convenience of such as lived in the adjacent villages. One can picture them, their minds filled with the holy things their much loved doe- tor had been saying, wending their way in rustic con- veyance, or trudging on foot through Northampton's It was the first sermon my ever dear Mr. D. preached after his re- covery from that violent fever in '45. in which no person expected his life — the title, ' Paul given back to the Church in answer to the prayers of his Christian friends.' A second Paul was given back, and I must esteem it a great mercy, as I know not how his place could have been supplied. You see almost in every page the heart of the dear author ; and mine can accompany him, and add many others from the recollection of many things which my eyes saw and ears heard, who was so often a witness to his lively faith and zeal for the glory of his God and the salvation of souls, particularly those in a more immediate manner committed to his charge, taking every opportunity in season and out of season, making use of every occurrence, whether of a public or private nature, to lead on their meditation from one Sabbath to another, and endeavoring to lead on and fine doicn their minds to the grand concerns of their own salvation : and to thisj-ou will here find the kindness of his heart and the overflowing benevo- lence, which did not stop here, but ran more or less through all his conduct towards them, enforcing his sermons by a suitable life and conversation."* * MS. letters in possession of Charles Reed, Esq. 84 PUBLIC CAREER. silent streets, and the still more silent roads, looking up to the pale blue ocean-sky, and the moon floating there with her silver sails, and her train of starry barks; musing, perhaps, on the beautiful hymn in which their pastor has embalmed the spirit of his discourse on " God the everlasting Light of the Saints above." " Ye golden lamps of Heaven, farewell, With all your feeble light ; Farewell, thou ever-changing moon, Pale empress of the night. • Ye stars are but the shining dust Of my divine abode, The pavement of those lovely courts, Where I shall reign with God. " The Father of eternal light Shall there his beams display : Nor shall one moment's darkness mix With that unvaried day. " There all the millions of his saints Shall in one song unite, And each the bliss of all shall view, With infinite delight." The preacher and the pastor are sides of ministerial character, which sometimes, unhappily, do not accord. They look opposite ways, like the double face of Janus. Heavenly and earnest in his Sunday work, the man presents a total reverse in his week-day walk. No sus- picion of that sort can rest on Doddridge. He kept a list of all his members, with some memorabilia of their religious standing, a sort of spiritual domesday book, ex- THE MINISTER. 85 hibiting how much of the holy inheritance in ImmanuePs land each one might actually possess. The people were scattered, but once or twice a-year he contrived to visit them all. He was not more the messenger of God in the pulpit than he was in the rich man's parlor, or in the poor man's kitchen. "When festivals and wakes gathered a rustic concourse, there was he to preach a suitable dis- course ; and when some member in a neighboring village died, away he went to improve, for the benefit of sur- vivors, the memory of the departed. He catechized the children with special care, and formed religious associa- tions for the young people. Finding himself overspent with labor, he called in the aid of suitable persons in the Church, under the name of elders, to help him in his pastoral visits of inspection and loving care. He was as Moses, and they were as the helpers suggested by Jethro. With all his gentleness of spirit, he aimed at maintaining purity of discipline ; and among other edifying entries in his church books, is one well worthy of universal adoption as a law, — namely, that a man failing in business must be cut off from the body, unless, within two months, he can prove that his fall was not owing to his sinful folly. Congregational fasts accom- panied acts of discipline, and relies of a more olden time appeared in his days of godly prayer and humiliation, when the divine work seemed at a stand-still. And then, besides all this, how he labored outside the church, to found the charity-school and county hospital, on the H 86 PUBLIC CAREEPv. basis of public voluntary contributions, — the novelties of that age, preparing for what have happily become the common-places in the benevolence of this. Yet, this good man did not reap ail the success which might have been expected. His richest harvests were gathered in during the earlier years of his spiritual hus- bandry in Northampton. Not long before his death he writes with a heavy heart : " In looking over the account for five years, 1749, I find that twenty -two have been admitted, and twenty-two removed by death or otherwise, so that we are just as at the beginning of the five years, — in all 239." Under the year 1*747, he says in his diary : — " We are not so well attended as formerly ; several places appear empty on a Lord's-day, (though the lec- tures are generally pretty full) ; and which greatly troubles me. We have had few additions to our church, only thirteen in all the last year, and we lost twelve members — eight by removals, as indeed several then left us to live in London or elsewhere, and none came in their room ; so that, upon the whole, I think it evi- dent that our interest declines, notwithstanding a great deal that I have certainly done to promote its increase. To all this is to be added the great lukewarmness and indifference of most professors, especially in any consid- erable stations, and the scandalous behavior of some." On reading these discouraging entries, we cannot re- press the thought, that much as we may deplore the THE MINISTER. 87 present limitations of ministerial success, the accessions to the church of many a humble pastor, present a favor- able comparison with the small increase, and with the occasional decline, in the society over which the great and good Dr. Doddridge presided. Albeit to labor on, without seeing what comes of all their toil, is the trying condition which the Lord of the vineyard, for wise reasons, imposes on many a laborer whom he loves. Whether to us, though far less worthy, he allots a larger measure of ministerial success, or leaves us, like him whose memory we celebrate, to struggle on in our pastoral vocation amidst huge discouragements, still be it the purpose of each God-called pastor with firm step to march along the rough high-ways of duty, chanting with strong voice, aud stronger heart, that noble Psalm of Life, — " Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sand of time ; Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing shall take heart again ; Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate, Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor, and to wait." 88 PUBLIC CAREER, THE TUTOR The academy opened at Kibworth was continued by Dr. Doddridge with ever-increasing success and celeb- rity till the time of his death. It is apparent that it was a kind of school for young men intended for differ- ent professions, and was entirely under his own control. The students paid what he required, and the whole re- sponsibility of the undertaking rested with himself. Students for the ministry were sometimes assisted by private friends, or out of funds collected or bequeathed for religious purposes.* Several were under the pat- ronage of Mr. Coward and his trustees. Their connec- tion with Doddridge's academy consisted simply in their supporting a certain -number of students there, according to the provisions of the benefactors' will, and in their bestowing occasionally extra grants. Doddridge, in his capacity of tutor, was, a few years after he came to reside at Northampton, exposed to per- * I have been favored by the Treasurer with the following ex- tracts from the records of the Congregational Fund Board: — " 1738. Students sent by the Board to Dr. Doddridge. " 1739, Ordered Dr. Doddridge, tutor at Northampton, for an as- sistant, per ann. £10. " 1743, Dr. Doddridge's report of eight students read." Sometimes he gratuitously superintended the studies of candidates for the ministry : speaking of young Steffe, whose life he wrote, he says, " I gave him his education, which I only mention as an argu- ment that I am thoroughly convinced that he deserves encourage- ment. 1 ' — Corresjjondence, iii. 260. THE TUTOR. 89 sedition, and that not unattended by violence. It is often supposed, that after the Revolution Dissenters were not molested in carrying out their principles. But authentic records of their history tell another tale. Not only were they exposed to vexatious proceedings on the part of the Church, but they had to endure assaults at the hands of popular fury. At the time of the trial of Sacheverell, in the reign of Anne, meeting-houses in London were ransacked, and bonfires made of pulpits and pews. After the accession of George I. in 1715, riots occurred in Staffordshire and other counties, in which places of worship were pulled down or their fur- niture demolished.* Doddridge suffered both from the spiritual court and an infuriated populace. In 1732, the chancellor of the diocese, not out of any ill-will, as he professed, but purely to establish and vindicate the authority of his court, instituted a prosecution to compel him to take out an ecclesiastical license for his academy. "The wisest parties I have yet consulted in town or country, look upon these proceedings as a very artful scheme to bring us under ecclesiastical inspection, more than we have ever been, and they think as I do, that it is trusting our academies and schools to the impartiality of a party which has not always shown the nicest honor, not to touch upon its integrity." Thus Doddridge wrote in reference to the subject, and made a stand against * An account of damage done in these riots is preserved among the Wilson MSS., Dr. Williams's Library. 90 PUBLIC CAREER. this exercise of tyranny. The cause was tried in the civil court. Westminster Hall decided in his favor. The judges ordered a prohibition, which, as he thought, would secure him from further trouble in that quarter ; but he was mistaken ; proceedings were continued ; however, they were soon cut short by the interference of the king, George II., who had laid down as a maxim, on ascending the throne, that in his reign there should be no persecution for conscience' sake. In September, 1 1733, the academic house was attacked by a mob : the ringleaders were discovered and brought to justice ; but it would appear that the chief magistrate of the town did not in the affair deal out even-handed justice, for the Earl of Halifax in a letter to Doddridge, says, " I am entirely of your opinion, that such poor artifices as the mayor has lately practised, will be rather a disservice to his friend than otherwise."* In what part of the town he lived at the time his dwelling-house was assaulted by the mob, I do not * My friend, Mr. Bennett, who now worthily occupies the pulpit of Dr. Doddridge, has kindly, at my request, searched the file of the "Northampton Mercury" of that period, for an account of the riot; but in vain. Many of these old chronicles do not contain a particle of Northampton news, and never more than four or five lines. They are chiefly occupied with births and deaths, county alliances by mar- riage, "cocking matches," advertisements of eminent horses, long despatches anent the doings of " Thomas Kouli Khan," and the " Sultan Achmet," lofty odes in praise of " Caroline and the god-like George ;" and now and then an allusion to the proceedings of what, in its opening address, it calls ".that admirable and excellent mys- tery, their honors the corporation." THE TUTOR. 91 know. That lie removed latterly to another house, large and commodious enough to contain all his students, with two or three exceptions, we are informed by Kippis. That house still remains : it stands in Sheep Street ; it is now divided into four tenements, but the front, with its row of pilasters in the Georgian style of architecture, (if style it may be called,) still preserves the external unity of the old academic abode. The homes and haunts of genius, learning, and piety, are hallowed spots. The poetry embodied in the lives and actions of great souls seems inscribed on the walls in lines of sympathetic ink, to which congenial, though far inferior minds, give visibility, and read the glowing stanzas with corresponding admiration^ In the present clay such taste seems more widely diffused than ever. At no period have the shrines of England's best heroes been visited as they are at present by troops of loving pilgrims. The house in Sheep Street, Northampton, is worthy to rank among these relics. The rambler on the banks of the not far off lily-bordered Ouse, if he has any reverence for British bards, will turn aside into the quiet streets of Olney to look on the now dilapidated habita- tion and summer-house, once occupied by the gentle and gifted author of the " Task." And he who follows the windings of the Nen, if he have any love for English divines, will hardly fail to thread the thoroughfares of Northampton, and find out the building, still undecayed, 92 PUBLIC CAREER. in which once lived the learned and laborious author of the "Family Expositor."* Identifying the locality, we can give form and sub- stance to his manner of life as a theological, and indeed almost universal professor, — so minutely and reverentially traced by two distinguished pupils. Behold, then, his tall and slender form enrobed in academic costiune, and his large features and good-humored countenance en- compassed by the curls of a flowing wig, and an ample supply of snow-white collar, turned down over the shoul- ders, as he meets his young men at six o'clock on a summer morning, to open the day with short and solemn prayer. Later, at family worship, they read a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, Orton and Kippis, and such prom- ising lads, performing the exercise with commendable diligence, but some of the idler fellows slurrino- over the task by slily placing the English translation beside the original, which the professor, who is very short-sighted, is unable to detect.f The reading, well or badly done, he goes on with his accustomed perspicuity to expound the paragraph, and to aid the young linguists by the light of his own ever-ready critical learning. After * The house is now occupied by Mr. Olive, surgeon, a descendant of that excellent man, Risdon Darricott, '-the star of the west." Jt was courteously opened to the inspection of visitors during the sit- tings of the autumnal assembly. t This infirmity sometimes led the Doctor into blunders. Once in company he addressed an unknown lady in a tone of loving compli- ment, supposing it was Mrs. Doddridge. This little circumstance, his last surviving pupil, the llev. Mr. Taylor, used to relate. THE TUTOR. U3 breakfast comes the grand business of lecturing, and forthwith he unfolds a formidable string of " proposi- tions," " scholias" and M lemmas," bearing on some branch of ethics or divinity, which he illustrates by references without number to learned works, and erudite opinions : — all of these are at his finger ends, and as he reads or talks, the listening alumni jot down in Rich's shorthand the substance of what they hear.* Civil law, hiero- glyphics, mythology, English history, and nonconformist principles, logic, rhetoric, mathematics,f anatomy, and the rudiments of other sciences, together with antiquities, Jewish and ecclesiastical, we are told all came in for luminous treatment by this man of large intelligence. Critical lectures, containing the germs of his " Exposi- tor," are delivered weekly ; and jDolite literature, hereto- fore but little regarded among nonconformists, but for which Doddridge, through mental predilection, and the training of Mr. Jennings, had acquired a decided taste, is not neglected in this wonderful hive of intellectual in- dustry. Pastoral theology and the composition of ser- mons have a course of lectures devoted to them ; and never does the warm-hearted professor appear more in his element than when, with vehement energy, he incul- cates upon his students the necessity of "preaching Christ." One day is set apart for reading and exainin- * The teaching of the classics chiefly devolved on Dr. Doddridge's assistant in the academy. t A small MS. volume, containing a treatise on algebra by Dr. Dod- dridge, is preserved in the library of the Coward trustees. 94 PUBLIC CAREER. ing themes, homilies, outlines, analyses, and translations ; and on the Saturday previous to the communion day, he spends much time with his young men in devotional en- gagements, delivering some solemn discourse on the evil and danger of neglecting the souls of men ; and never does his heart appear more strongly affected than at these seasons. Another of his eno-ao-ements above all we like, and think it worth a good many of his lectures. Entering his well-stored library, we see him surrounded by groups of listeners, going from shelf to shelf, and giv- ing a viva voce catalogue, which displays a surprising extent of knowledge, and recommending at what period of their course, and with what special views, particular books should be read, and which of them it is desirable they should be most familiarly acquainted with, when settled in the world. - And now, in he comes, with a merry laugh and a ludicrous anecdote. A little girl has just been playing with a dog and nursing it in her lap, as he sat on the old-fashioned window-seat. And " do you know," she gravely asked, " who made you ?" A look of blank wonder from the questioned animal was of course all that followed. " Shame on you," proceeded the young interrogator, with grave reproof; "you Dr. Doddridge's dog, and not know who made you ?" " And if," after relating the comical story, he adds, " so much is expected from my dog, what may be expected from my students !" We drop into his study, and find that there the youths have access, and come with filial con- THE TUTOR. 95 fidence to state a difficulty, and ask advice. The family meal is improved and enlivened by his intelligent con- ion, and his searching yet considerate questions. Like the surgeon, who, not content with' the theoretical instructions of the lecture-room, takes his pupils to walk the hospital, so he invites his ministerial students to ac- company him to the houses of his people, when he visits the sick or performs a private baptism. He brings them acquainted with the poor of his flock, that they may learn how to address those of a lowly condition — ever cautioning them not to despise the common people, nor think condescension unworthy of a scholar. On a Sunday night, when, if at any time, a Christian heart should be more than usually tender, he takes them separately into his study, converses with them concern- ing the state of religion in their soul, and gives them suitable counsel and encouragement.- Though by no means a strict disciplinarian at home — indeed a little at fault in this respect — yet it is his custom, when some grave offender has been detected, solemnly to arraign him at family worship, and publicly pronounce the sen- tence of expulsion. Lamentations steeped in tears form that day's diary. But over others how joyous are the boundings of his heart ! He has just been to hear a promising young pupil. Here is the record : — " This day Mr. preached one of the best sermons I ever heard, concerning the happiness of the children of God. I had preached one on the subject some time before, but 96 PUBLIC CAREER. when I considered how much superior his was to mine, it shamed and humbled me ; yet I bless God it did not grieve me. If any stirrings of envy moved, they were immediately suppressed ; and as soon as I came home I solemnly returned my acknowledgments to God, for having raised up such a minister to His church, and honored me with his education. I recommended him to the Divine blessing with the tenderest affection, leaving myself in the hand of God ; acquiescing in the thought of being eclipsed, of being neglected, if He shall so ap- point ; at the same time, adoring Him, that, with ca pacities inferior to a multitude of others, I have been providentially led into services superior to many of those, in comparison with whom, my knowledge and learning is but that of a child." And now another who has gone through his whole curriculum with honor, is to leave the institution for some pastoral charge, and on the occasion a religious service is held ; the elders take part in the exercise, and brethren from the neighborhood are invited to share in the tutor's satisfaction. And yet another — having for a year or two tasted the anxieties of the ministerial life, and panting for the sympathy and counsel of the wise — wends his way to Northampton^ and calls at Sheep-street, and there a greeting of no common sort awaits him ; Doddridge's house is to him as a father's house, and the young visitor, timid and modest, feels himself at home. Well might Job Orton say, " After this account of THE TUTOR. 97 his behavior to his pupils, and concern for their useful- ness and happiness, the reader who knows anything of human nature, and the attractive influence of love, will not wonder to he told, that they in general loved him as a father, and that his paternal advices and entreaties weighed more with them than the commands of rigid authority, or the arguments of a cooler mind, when the affection of the heart was not felt, or not tenderly expressed."* Doddridge's pupils, on the average, were in number thirty-four; and as Le sustained his office for two-and- twenty years, about two hundred young men passed under his academic care, among whom were one hun- dred and twenty ministers. Some were preparing to serve in the church of Scotland, and one young man who was intended for the English establishment, sought the benefit of a year or two's tuition from the noncon- forming professor. Cecil used to say of Raleigh, " I know that he can toil terribly." And on looking at the list of subjects in which Doddridge instructed his young men, we are per- fectly astounded at the diligence which the variety of his knowledge evidently involved. Indeed, at every turn of his life, we see that the man must have toiled terribly. Yet with all his toil, it was impossible that he should make himself such a master of universal sci- ence as to be thoroughly competent to teach the whole, * Orton's Life, p. 118. I 98 PUBLIC CAREER. or have strength enough, to go regularly round a circle of tuition so wide and varied ; and therefore, we cannot help congratulating the rising ministry, that the altered circumstances and spirit of the age have enabled us to introduce the great economic principle of a distribution of labor into our college system, and to allot to several vigorous and sanctified minds distinct departments of instruction, suited to their different intellectual tastes and literary attainments. Looking at the doctor's herculean efforts throughout one of his academic sessions — the occupations of pastor, author, and tutor being combined — we cannot doubt that welcome indeed must have been the summer recess, allowing him some change of scene, and some little sips of recreation. As we read his life and letters, and fully charge our mind with the image of this model of earnest diligence, we are really so oppressed that we feel relief, sympathetic with his own, in thinking of his vacations. We are glad to go with him on one of his trips. Forth- with we sally out, in imagination, along the bad roads of the last century, by some " flying" coach, which man- aged to compass the distance between Northampton and London in a couple of days, till we arrive at Mr. Coward's house at Walthamstow, who entertains us with hearty cheer, and cordially drinks Mr. Doddridge's health after dinner. Getting into a post-chaise with him and Mr. Ash worth, we count with him, "thirty- five gates made fast with latches between the last mar- THE TUTOR. 99 ket-town and Stratford-on-Avon," where the doctor makes a pilgrimage to Shakspeare's grave. Xext we go with him down to the hospitable mansion of the "Welmans, " the glory of the Taunton Dissenters," who receive him with "princely elegance," at "a table fit for an arch- bishop." Then we slowly travel on to Plymouth, and see our friend " in a little boat dancing on the swelling sea," " or feeding a tame bear with biscuits ;" and then on his way home we peep into his room at Lymington, where he sits on Saturday night, in a silk night-gown which Mr. Pearson has lent him, writing letters to his beloved Mercy ; or, opening one of them from Ongar in Essex, we find that he has turned angler : " I went a fishing yesterday, and with extraordinary success, for I pulled a minnow out of the water, though it made shift to get away." The excursion over, Ave must go back to the lecture room. As to the Doctor's system of instruction, " objec- tions have been made, and not without reason, to the scholastic and technical form in which the materials are arranged : the blending together in one series of lec- tures, and a connected train of propositions, metaphysics, ethics, and divinity ; the disproportionate attention given to the evidences of natural and revealed religion, com- pared with the narrow space allotted to the statement and vindication of Christian doctrines ; and the employ- ment, for the most part, of abstract general reasonings, instead of making a constant and final appeal to the 100 PUBLIC CAREER. authority of Holy Scripture."* But graver considera- tions arise in reference to Doddridge's mode of teaching divinity. Job Orton, who, on the whole, was evangeli- cal in his views, observes that his venerated master never expected nor desired that his pupils should blindly follow his sentiments, but permitted and encouraged them to judge for themselves. " To assist them herein," we are informed, " he laid before them what he appre- hended to be the truth with all perspicuity ; and impar- tially stated all objections to it. He never concealed the difficulties which affected any question, but referred them to writers on both sides, without hiding any from their inspection." Kippis says, "He represented the arguments, and referred to the authorities, on both sides : the students were left to judge for themselves, and they did judge for themselves, with his perfect con- currence and approbation, though no doubt it was natu- ral for him to be pleased when their sentiments coincided with his own. Where this was not the case, it made no alteration in his affection and kind treatment, as the writer of the present narrative can testify." The state- ment by Kippis is rather stronger than that by Orton, but they are substantially the same. They seem to intimate that the professor just placed before his pupils all that could be said for or against a given tenet, and then left them to choose between conflicting evidence. * Mr. Morell's Introductory Essay to Dr. Doddridge's Miscellane- ous Works. THE TUTOR. 101 On turning to the lectures published under the editor- ship of Kippis, we find, however, that while objections to the proposition laid down are candidly stated, an- swers are given to the objections, and they are treated as thereby set aside ; so that the proposition is left to stand as having a satisfactory amount of proof in its favor. The written lectures do not appear to place the- ological doctrines before the student exactly in the light in which the two pupils of the illustrious master seem to represent. The lectures pronounce decisive judg- ment, noticing objections only to answer them. Xot that it is intended hereby to express approval of the method, even in the printed book, if the author of these lines may speak frankly in reference to the productions of one whom he so highly venerates ; for the method :s somewhat of a dry and frigid embodiment of truth, like the skeleton-looking leaves of a hortus siccus. But we must not forget that a great deal was added viva voce, when the lectures were delivered in the class room. In these portions of the exercise, we suppose that Dodd- ridge pursued a course in agreement with the report of Orton and Kippis. If at all, he then assumed, or ap- proximated to, the impartiality of the judge, who, with no personal interest in the cause in question, and ap- pealing to those equally indifferent to the result of the trial, states both sides, pro and con., with all the digni- fied coldness of judicial candor. But this, we appre- hend, is not the way to teach either religion or theology. 102 PUBLIC CAREER. Religion appeals to the eye of faith, and is as true an assemblage of tilings in the perception of that spiritual eye, as any assemblage of other things can be to the natural eye. As such, the discoveries of revelation ought to be ever referred to. A thoroughly earnest soul, in speaking of them, should take his standing on the side of their truth and reality ; and when these are disputed, reiterate the assertion of them, as he would the objective existence of the sun, if a blind man were to question whether there be such a thing at all. Free- dom must be allowed to every man to speak as he thinks ; to deny that freedom, is to compel hypocrisy. But while such liberty of speech is granted, and a kind spirit and loving mien shown to the speaker — if he utter error, then must there stand up a calm, dignified intol- erance of that error — intolerance the most decided. Error we are always to treat as an enemy. Xever are we to show it quarter. Life is to be spent in striving to kill it. It is a devouring dragon, in whose vicinity none are safe. It is a poisonous snake, which must be slain. The pilgrim and the soldier must be united in every one of us. Pilgrims to truth's temple should we be, lovingly showing all companion travellers the way. But, then, we must be also soldiers on truth's field — fiohtino- to the last the hell-born error which, demon- like, ventures to claim standing on that holy ground. Theology, the science of religion, is distinguishable from religion itself. It has its definitions, syllogisms, and in- THE TUTOR. 103 ferences. There is the scientific expression of pri- mary facts, the philosophical statement of principles, and the logical deduction of conclusions. The human is here mingled with the divine — in the last two, more than in the first. Conviction cannot be equally strong in reference to all. Conviction in reference to the fun- damental portions of theology, must be stronger than in reference to the edifice built upon them. But con- viction, so far as it really exists — conviction in the de- gree in which it is present to the mind, ought surely to be expressed with corresponding boldness and decision. Looking at theology as the science of truth, in its most momentous forms — truth binding up man's well-being and God's glory — we cannot consistently propound what we have conscientiously excogitated, in the shape of theological doctrines, in any other than a positive, decided, earnest, hearty spirit, showing that we regard as wrong and mischievous all counter-theories. As theologians, we must take a side in all grand theological questions, and show that we have taken a side. And in theology, as in religion, surely there should be intol- erance of what is conscientiously deemed to be error, hand in hand with a perfect, hearty tolerance of the persons holding erroneous opinions. Looking at the account given of Doddridge's lecturing, his mistake seems to have consisted in overlooking this : in supposing that candor and love towards heterodox men required him to deal gently with heterodox jirinci- 104- PUBLIC CAREER. pies — that intolerance in reference to persons, is involved in the intolerance which has reference to things. If by dogmatism be meant the habit of making asser- tions without proofs, — of requiring faith on the ground of an ipse dixit, such dogmatism is to be condemned ; but if by the dogmatist be meant one who is earnestly positive in what he asserts — being prepared to give a reason for what he believes, and trusting only to that for the acceptance of his dogmas, — every theologian should be a dogmatist. We protest not only against scepticism, but the appearance of scepticism, where we see our way to a conclusion. In short, we plead with boldness for a positive theology. No doubt can be cast on the earnestness of Doddridge's religious convictions. These he most warmly asserted in his homiletic class, and at family worship, with what effect sometimes, in certain of the young men, the follow- ing passage from an unpublished letter will show : — " I was last night expounding the 1st of John in the family, and insisting on the importance of remembering and maintaining the Deity and satisfaction of Christ, when some of our good preaching seniors were pleased to ex- press their contempt of what they heard, by laughing, and almost making mouths. You will probably guess at the persons, yet they are those whom some of our wise people would contrive to fix where Mr. Some and Mr. Norris were."* All could not be right in an academy * MS. letters in the possession of Josh. Wilson, Esq. THE TUTOR. 105 where sucli things occurred. The grand defect in Dod- dridge seems to have been that, in reference to scientific theology, he considered the interests of moderation and charity required him sometimes to modify the utterance of his opinions in the presence of those whose sentiments differed from his own. The effect likely to be produced on any occasion by the absence of a positive tone in theological teaching, where positive conclusions have been actually reached, is an impression that those con- clusions are either suspected of being unsound, or are felt to be unimportant. We fear some such impressions were occasionally received by certain of Doddridge's students.'" Doddridge was certainly not heterodox in his opinions upon the redeeming work of Christ, and the regenerating operations of the Spirit. His views on these points were moderately Calvinistic. It is also clear that he fully believed in the incarnation of a Divine nature in Jesus Christ, but his mode of conceiving of that great mystery somewhat resembled the scheme of Sabellius.f * It is very refreshing to read Doddridge's declarations of his own honesty of purpose, under the uncharitable imputation some threw upon him. " The reflections which have been thrown upon me, as a double-dealer and an inconsistent man, have often put me upon sub- mitting myself to the scrutiny of the all-searching Eye ; and in my most serious and solemn moments. I have — I thank God — a constant sense of the uprightness of my hear before Him, and can say with that good man of whose afflictions He has caused me in this instance to partake, ' Thou knowest that I am not wicked.' Religion is with me an inward thing ; and if it were not, it could not have supported me, as it hath done, in the nearest view of the Divine tribunal." t He says (Def. lxxix.) — ; - The word ' person" commonly signifies one single, intelligent, voluntary agent, or conscious beiug ; and this 106 PUBLIC CAREER. He also believed in the pre-existence of the created soul in Christ.* It should, however, be remarked, that he was not of the speculative turn of mind which distin- guished his eminent and holy friend Dr. Watts. He did net dwell, as that divine was prone to do, on the more mysterious bearings of theological truth. His at- vve choose to call the philosophical sense of the word ; hut in a politi- cal sense it may express the different relations supported by the same philosophical person ; i. e. the same man maybe father, husband, son, &c. ; or the same prince, King of Great Britain, Duke of Brunswick, and treasurer of the empire." " Corollary : One philosophical person may sustain a great number of persons in the political, or, as some call it, the modal sense of the word. " Proposition exxviii. — God is so united to the derived nature of Christ, and does so dwell in it, that, by virtue of that union, Christ may properly be called God ; and such regards become due to him as are not due to any created nature, be it in itself ever so excellent/' — Miscellaneous Works, p. 427. Sabellius converted the real distinction of persons into a distinction of mere modes. God is called Father as the Creator of the world, and legislator ; Son in relation to»the work of redemption ; and Huly Spirit, as the sanctifier of men. Hence, he regarded these three modes of manifestation (according to Athanasius) as a nyarvveoOai or ixTtiveaBai of it. — Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, vol. i. p. 244. Some resemblance exists between Doddridge's explanation of the word " person" and the language of Sabellius, but we question whether he would have adopted the mode of expression reported of the latter. * He thus expresses his belief in the pre-existence of the soul of Jesus Christ : — " Forasmuch as, in several of the preceding scriptures, there is such a change and humiliation asserted concerning Christ, as could not properly be asserted concerning an eternal and immutable being ; as such, there is reason to believe that Christ had, before his incarnation, a created or derived nature, which would admit of such a change, though we are far from saying he had no other nature, and that all the texts above refer to. this." — Lectures: Miscellaneous Works, p. 422. THE AUTHOR. 107 tempt to search into the mode of the Divine Existence was not so daring as the gaze of his brother of the eagle eye and pinion ; vet he did venture to look into that in- sufferably glorious secret, and no wonder that when he did, his eye blenched, as the eye of mortal must, and that he talked strangely, as if not knowing what he said. Though Doddridge was very far from P'oino- to such an extreme, it may not be impertinent to notice that some men, in their speculations upon the mysterious, have thereby completely lost themselves in the subjects they have sought to understand. They remind us of the fable of Aristotle's death, who drowned himself, as we are told, in the waves of the Euripus, because he could not dis- cover the philosophy of its tides, exclaiming, as he com- mitted the suicidal act, " Since I cannot comprehend you, you shall comprehend me." Certainly, we should bear in mind that, to draw a clear line in our theological maps between the terra cognita and the terra incognita, is a primary problem which every divinity student should set himself to solve. THE AUTHOR. It is proper to preface our notice of Doddridge's writ- ings by some reference to the state of religion among Dissenters at the time his authorship commenced, as we there find certainly the occasion of his first publica- tion, and probably a circumstance which powerfully con- 108 PUBLIC CAREER. tributed to guide his choice of practical divinity in his whole literary career. The great lights of Nonconformity were almost all extinguished before the close of the seventeenth century. Of the illustrious triumvirate, Owen, Baxter, and Howe, the last outlived it just five years. Men of reputation, but of inferior rank, were the Dissenting leaders during the early part of the eighteenth century, — Mead, Annesly, Sylvester, Williams, Pomfret, Bennet, M. Clark, M. Henry, and Tong. The place of such men was occu- pied when Doddridge entered the ministry, by Harris, Calamy, Wright, Neale, Saml. Clark, and Watts, the last name far outpeering all the rest in lustre. Just before this period, Arianism began to lift up its head. The Exeter controversy commenced in 1718. The Sal- ter's Hall conference followed the beginning of the next year. Among Presbyterians the revival of heterodox sentiments produced sad ravages. And if they did not find their way to any extent into Congregational pul- pit?, yet the close intercourse at that time between the two denominations could not fail to bring Congrega- tional churches within the range of this withering blight. In many cases where the positive errors of Arianism were not adopted, their paralyzing touch was felt. The counties of Devonshire, Lancashire. Cheshire, and War- wickshire, were most affected. London, also, suffered considerably, though not in the same proportion.* The * " The writer of the London MS. Bpecifies the sentiments of all THE AUTHOR. 109 efforts of Crisp and others, on the side of Antinomianism, tended to produce a reaction in favor of an opposite class of sentiments. Men, to avoid the tropical heat of a supra-lapsarian creed, plunged into the polar regions of Pelagian unbelief. "But as in the irruption of a tempest, it is often narrow in its span, while it is length- ened in its course, so was it with the inroad of heresy, and numerous and flourishing communities existed on either hand of its line of desolation.' 7 * It appears, on comparing a list of Dissenting congre- gations throughout the kingdom, drawn up in 1716, with another list made in 1760, that the numbers had been diminishing through that period. A comparison of a list of the metropolitan churches in 1695, with another in 1730, also shows a slight decrease. This sign of decay was perceptible to those who did not discern the more delicate, but not less serious symp- toms. In 1730 an anonymous pamphlet was published, entitled " An Inquiry into the Causes of the Decay of the Dissenting Interest."! The writer manifested his ignorance of the root of the evil, by chiefly complaining that the orthodox party were so bigoted, — that sermons the Dissenting ministers in London about the year 1730. The Pres- byterians he classes thus : — Nineteen Calvinists, thirteen Arminians, and twelve Baxterians. All the Independents, he says, were Cal- vinists ; twenty-seven thoroughly, and one somewhat dubious — three inclined to Antinomianism, and two who were disorderly did not de- serve any particular remark."' — Bogue and Bennett, ii. 300. * Milners Life of Watts. t The author was Mr. Gough, who afterwards conformed. K 110 PUBLIC CAREER. were so exceedingly long, and prayers were so very short — and by then suggesting, as the grand remedy, that Dissenting ministers should cultivate polite and gentlemanly habits.* Many vainly wondered at the decay they witnessed. They saw that the descendants of Puritan heroes fell far short of their fathers' achieve- ments, and " wist not that the Lord was departed from them." Dissent is not an end, but simply a means to an end. Congregationalism is intended to lead to something further — nobler — brighter than itself. It is an instru- * The author questions the assumption of extensive decay, notic- ing " in the metropolis several of the congregations, within these few vears, that have been raised almost from nothing, as there may be others which have sunk considerably below what they were." Among the causes of existing decay, he mentions the following : — Putting youths to high-church schools ; decay of trade ; neglect of ministers, and their occasional immoralities ; encouragement to strol- ling Scotch ministers ! neglect of the rising generation ; mismanage- ment when vacancies happen ; and the carriage of senior ministers to young men. The following remarks are worthy of notice : — " The case with many youths of considerable merit and great modesty is pretty much the same as with a tender plant. A warm and kindly sun, temper- ate air, and proper watering, will nourish and bring it to maturity ; but a nipping frost and bleak wind will go very near to kill it, if they do not quite do it. Thus it is in the case mentioned. A senior min- ister who acts the part of a father, instils into them good advice with tenderness and affection, and countenances and encourages them, if he can do no more, will be a means of confirming them and fixing them amongst us. But if, instead of this, they are treated with se- verity — if they see worthless, confident fellows preferred before them, and especially if they have ill turns done them, and are ill used, — they will certainly be discouraged, and in danger to be drawn from us." THE AUTHOR. Ill merit to promote spirituality of character, purity of con- versation, distinctness from the world, union of hearts, and combination of efforts. Its purpose gives it value. If its framework could be kept in perfect order without being employed for these holy ends, it would be only like a piece of machinery in a show-room, deserving of inspection, but of no practical worth. Congregational- ism is not an originating impulse ; but a scheme to be worked by wise and holy power. It must be impelled by faith, devotion, and zeal ; and must be guided by knowledge, prudence, and integrity. One of its dis- tinctive attributes, as a system of voluntaryism, resolves itself simply into the absence of coercion. The Dissen- ter is left to act according to his conscientious convic- tions — he is not compelled by the dictum of his eccle- siastical governors. The impelling power must be sought in simple, earnest piety. " The spirit of the living creature must be in the wheels."' Ecelesii organization cannot of itself command God's blessing. Evangelical truth and personal holiness are, in God's sight, incomparably superior to all positive institutes. " To obey is better than sacrifice ; to hearken, than the fat of rams." The system may be kept intact, may be squared with the nicest accuracy, according to the prim- itive model ; but, should the gospel be corrupted — should it be only imperfectly preached — should personal piety, in pastor or people, sink to a low ebb, the integ- rity of ecclesiastical order will avail nothing. Piety, 112 PUBLIC CAREER. then, is everything to Dissent. It stands to it in the relation of both means and end. The improvement and diffusion of piety form its purpose ; the existence and exercise of piety, its principle. From beginning to end it supposes spiritual life. Whether its churches be re- garded as moral gardens, schools, or homes, they sup- pose life in what is there planted or placed, for culture, training, or comfort. This was Doddridge's view. The publication of the "Inquiry" excited his attention, and called forth from him a reply. In 1730 he published "Free Thoughts on the Best Means of reviving the Dissenting Interest."* Kippis says it is " a model of candor and politeness." "No doubt it is ; but it has incomparably greater excel- lences to recommend it to the friends of spiritual religion. Doddridge peeled off the rind, and pierced the mischief to the core. " We are concerned," he says, " for this in- terest, not merely as the cause of a distinct party, but of truth, honor, and liberty; and I will add, in a great measure, the cause of serious piety too." He suggests, therefore, the reflection, whether the decline of Dissent, so far as it obtained, did not arise very much from a de- clension in godliness among Dissenters. Adding, " If we find, upon inquiry, that this our glory is departing, it surely deserves to be mentioned as one cause, at least, * Mr. David Some, of Market Harborough, to whom Doddridge was assistant, wrote on the subject the year before. ,; The Humble Attempt towards the Revival of Practical Religion," &c, by Dr. Watts, was published the year after. THE AUTHOR. 113 of the decay of our interest ; and that all who sincerely wish well to it, should express their affection by exerting themselves, with the utmost zeal, for the revival of prac- tical religion amongst us." As to the means of improvement, he wisely suggests a strain of preaching, not drily orthodox, but full of ear- nestness and unction ; evangelical in its tone as well as in its creed, and marked by that prime feature of excel- lence — adaptation to the popular mind of the age. He rightly considers that the mass of the common people are the strength of Dissenting churches, and describes and urges such a kind of public ministration as is suited to them. This he does with a clearness and a force well worthy of the devout consideration of the whole Christian ministry in the present day. He makes the observation — which, however trite, is happily still so true — (and woe be to us if we heed it not !) " He who would be generally agreeable to Dissenters, must be an evangelical, an experimental, a plain, and an affectionate preacher." With equal pertinency he also recommends consistency of Christian life, the care of the young, and a conciliatory temper towards all Christ's followers. In this first work by Doddridge we may discover the key to his whole literary career. The purpose of his first pamphlet was the purpose of every book he wrote — to revive, strengthen, and develop spiritual life. He was, according to the standard of attainment at that day, a scholar, critic, and philosopher; but not in any of K* 114 PUBLIC CAREER. those characters does he claim, or did he seek, the palm of pre-eminence. A fame — if not so brilliant in the re- public of letters, yet illustrious indeed in the holy king- dom of the Lord of truth and love — belongs to him as a practical divine. He was a man of literary and scien- tific tastes, He had, from the cast of his mind and the course of his education, a keen relish for that refined en- joyment which is found in the pursuit of elegant litera- ture. He was sensible of the charms presented in the classical poets, philosophers, and orators. The desire which animates the genuine scholar was in his breast no unwonted feeling ; and the ambition which haunts such an one was to him no strange lure. It would have pleased him, as a man and a student, to have won wreaths in the games of the intellectual Olympia. All this is evident from confessions in his letters, and from allusions in his works. But he mortified his taste ; he repressed his predilections ; he resisted classic charms ; he overcame intellectual ambition ; he left Olympia for that race-course in which the day of Christ will show he did not run in vain. In the following passage from his sermon on The Evil and Danger of neglecting Souls, this tone of holy self-denial more than vies with its felicity of illustra- tion : — " You must judge for yourselves, but permit me to say, that, for my own part, I would not for ten thou- sand worlds be that man who, when God shall ask him at last how he has employed most of his time while he THE AUTHOR. 115 continued a minister in His church, and had the care of souls, should be obliged to reply, ' Lord, I have restored many corrupted passages in the ancient classics, and illustrated many that were before obscure ; I have cleared up many intricacies in chronology or geography ; I have solved many perplexed cases in algebra ; I have refined on astronomical calculations, and left behind me many sheets on these curious and difficult subjects, where the figures are ranged with the greatest exactness and truth ; and these are the employments in which my life has been worn out, while preparation for the pulpit, or ministrations in it, did not demand my immediate attendance.' Oh, sirs ! as for the waters which are drawn from these springs, how sweetly soever they may taste to a curious mind that thirsts for them, or to an ambitious mind which thirsts for the applauses they sometimes procure, I fear there is often reason to pour them out before the Lord with rivers of penitential tears, as the blood of souls which have been forgotten, while these trifles have been remembered and pursued." The religious spirit of Doddridge's literary career was very noble. It was not the heroic age of Dissent, nor an heroic age in any sense. It was an age of frost, not fire. There was at least a dash of the sublime in the man who sought to melt the ice. A large portion of his works is composed of sermons, in all of which it is evident enough that he aims to shine simply as a guiding-star to Christ. His Sermons on the 116 PUBLIC CAREER. Education of Children, published in 1732, and those ad- dressed to young people, which issued from the press in 1735, were adapted, Avith eminent skilfulness, to the par- ticular kind of holy use indicated by their titles. " Your Sermons to Young People," said Warburton, in one of his letters, " were extremely agreeable to me on many accounts. I have a favorite nephew, to whose use I par- ticularly design them. It is my way, after I read a book, to give the general character of it in some celebrated lines or other of ancient or modern writers. I have characterized the author and his sermons in these two lines, written on the blank leaf before the title-page : — ' O friend ! to dazzle let the vain design ; To mend the heart, and raise the thoughts, be thine.' " The Sermons on " the Power and Grace of Christ," and the " Evidences of the Glorious Gospel," which were produced in 1736, contain a touching and tender exhibi- tion of the mystery of the cross for the comfort of sor- row-stricken souls, and an argument for the Divine origin of Christianity, conducted with so much wisdom and love, that it seems as if it must shut up the unbe- liever to the faith which is in Christ Jesus. The scrip- tural doctrine of " Salvation by Grace," and the " Prac- tical Discourses on Regeneration," which were given to the public in 1741, are admirable exhibitions of the grand method by which omnipotent mercy redeems and renews the sinful children of men. Besides these volumes THE AUTHOR. 117 of homiletic theology, he published a number of de- tached discourses on particular occasions, all of which glow with the fire of his wonted loving zeal.* His Memoirs of Colonel Gardiner exhibit the charac- ter of that soldier and saint in perfect sympathy with, the deep-toned piety of him whom they commemorate; and it should not be overlooked that its publication, as indeed he might expect it would, brought upon him criticisms of no flattering order to human pride, from worldly circles, into which his name had found its way with a high reputation for learning and ability.f The life of the Rev. Thomas Steffe, a beloved pupil, is a beautiful sketch of a youthful minister of Christ, of exemplary devotedness ; and the book is evidently in- tended to arouse the Christian ministry to a more earn- est discharge of their holy duties. " The Rise and Pro- gress of Religion in the Soul,' 1 which has so widely * Besides the pieces included in his works, he wrote a Dedication of the Rev. D. Brainerd's Journal to the Honorable Society for Pro- moting Christian Knowledge. Also a Preface to a small piece by Mr. Some, respecting inoculating for the small-pox, with a view to remove religious scruples. Further, he revised and edited Leighton's Works, and translated his later productions. t " I assure you, my omitting to write did not proceed from dis- respect, for 1 really look upon you as my superior in every respect in which superiority is to be valued in knowledge, and piety, and good works. But what could I have said to you if I had wrote to you ? Could I have told you that I thought it a good performance, and such as would be of use to the world ? That I could not. after the many reflections that I heard the world make upon it. I could only have told you how much I wished that you had never published it." — From the Rev. Dr. Ayscough, tutor to George III. 118 PUBLIC CAREER. spread the fame of Doddridge, is the working out of an original conception for the guidance of spiritual inqui- rers. No work of that kind existed at the time, and some such a manual was much needed. The first con- ception, however, was not his own ; it arose in the mind of his reverend friend, Dr. Watts ; " but, compelled by his growing infirmities to abandon his purpose, he relin- quished the task to Dr. Doddridge, who after some hesi- tation yielded to his importunity, and completed the performance."* The prosecution of such a task fell in with the ruling passion of his life, and it is very inter- esting to notice the union of these two holy minds in so congenial a work, — the one like an inventive archi- tect drawing the plan, and the other like a skilful builder executing the design of a spiritual lighthouse for the guidance of perplexed mariners into the calm haven of redeeming mercy ; and great indeed will be their sym- pathy in joy, when they become acquainted with the full number of the souls which together they shall have thus saved from the worst of shipwrecks.f The book is not faultless. A more predominant ex- hibition of the gospel remedy would have been more apostolic, and it Avould have prevented an evil which some have experienced on reading it, who have entan- * The Poet of the Sanctuary, by Josiah Couder, Esq., p. 129. t Dr. Watts said, in a letter to the Rev. D. Longueville, minister at Amsterdam, " If there were any man to whom Providence would permit me to commit a second part of my life and usefulness in the Church, Dr. Doddridge should be the man." THE AUTHOR. 119 gled themselves in its technical details, and who, in their anxiety to keep the track of the rise and progress, have forgotten that, after all, the grand object is to reach the cross. But with every reasonable abatement it is the best book of the eighteenth century, and, tried by the test of usefulness, we doubt if its equal has since ap- peared. Rendered into the leading languages of Eu- rope, it has been read by few without impression, and, in the case of vast numbers, that impression has been enduring.* Doddridge's " Principles of the Christian Religion, in Plain and Easy Verse," another of the many lamps he lighted up in Zion's highway, was also kindled at Watts's torch, and shows how, like his hon- ored friend and model, he condescended or aspired to be a teacher of babes.f His hymns, condensing the principal thoughts of his discourses, are relics choicely * North British Review. t la an unpublished letter of Doddridge to his wife, he says — " I have been amusing myself with making some little verses for the children. 'Tis a work Mr. Clark, of St. Alban's, proposed to me, — that I should draw up a little summary of religion in verse, for the use of little children, pretty much in sense the same with Dr. Watts's Second Catechism, which is the best short compendium I ever saw for matter and method. I have insensibly crept on through about a third part of the whole, and hope to end in a fortnight more." This little work was presented, through Dr. Ayscough, his tutor, to George III., then a boy. The tutor says, Feb. 16, 1745—" I must tell you, Prince George (to his honor and my shame) has learned several pages in your little book of verses, without any direction from me." I have been informed by my friend, the Rev. W. Legg, of Fakenham. that his uncle, who held an appointment in Windsor Castle, was once told by the King, '' If I know anything of religion, I owe it to Dr. Ayscough, and that at an early age." 120 PUBLIC CAREER. transparent, and truly rich. And well have they been compared to "spiritual amber fetched up and floated off," from sermons long since lost in the depths of by- gone time.'* His great work, the " Family Expositor," is in perfect harmony with his other books. The desire to purify and refresh the soul of the reader, gushes out with a blessed fulness at the end of every section, in the form of an " Improvement," and sparkles ever and anon in living rivulets, under the hedges of a fruitful criticism, which border every page ; and the prefaces too, espe- cially the earlier ones, indicate the deeply devout spirit in which each volume was prepared, and the definite and supreme purpose of the author, throughout to promote family religion. Hence Warburton, when he received the first volume, afresh applauded the useful turn of his friend's great talents : — " Before I left the country, I had the pleasure of receiving your ' Expositor.' My mother and I look at it by turns. She, who is superior to me in everything, aspired to the divine learning of the ' Improvements,' while I kept grovelling in the hu- man learning in the notes below. The result of all * They were not published till after his death. Mrs. Doddridge says to Mr. Orton, May 4, 1755 — " I have the pleasure to find, so far as this book as yet has been known, it has met with pretty general acceptance. Many of my best friends consider it as a valuable sup- plement to Dr. Watts, and, as such, are solicitous to introduce it into their respective congregations, along with his. I think I can truly say, I more wish this may be generally done, from the hope I have they may do something to revive religion in the world, than from any personal advantage." — Unpublished Correspondence. THE AUTHOR. 121 was, that slie says she is sure you are a very good man, and I am sure you are a very learned one."* The only thing that Doddridge published of a strictly controver- sial kind, was in answer to a pamphlet entitled " Chris- tianity not founded on Argument." The work to which Doddridge replied, very strikingly resembles some of the pernicious speculations of the present day, inasmuch as the writer, while professing reverence for our religion, denies that^it can ever be proved by historical evidence, and asserts, that when it is believed, it can be so only as the effect of personal inspiration. Through the whole texture of Doddridge's strong reasoning in reply, there run those golden threads of thought and emotion which only pious minds can weave, and at the end these are again displayed in a beautiful tissue of elaborate and con- vincing arguments, expiatory and defensive, of those views of Divine influence commonly believed among us. * " Dr. Doddridge, while engaged with his ' Expositor,' was in the habit of consulting one of the old members of his church on those texts of Scripture which contain in them the heights and depths of Christian experience — conduct equally complimentary to the Doc- tor's condescension and the venerable man's piety. The Doctor, though a pious man himself, knew that experimental religion was progressive in its character and operations, and beheld his hoary audi- tor as having many years the advance of him — beheld him like mel- low fruit, ready to drop off, or to be plucked for heaven. He was aware that he himself wanted age and experience for several passa- ges; and, although he brought all that he possessed to bear upon them, he suspected there was still something beyond. To his own head, he required the advantages of the old man's heart ; and united, knowledge and experience tell upon the understandings and affections of others." — Rev. James Everitt. L 122 PUBLIC CAREER. Thus a spirit of earnest piety animates all his produc- tions. This gives them their chief, but not their only charm. They exhibit traits of literary excellence, per- taining to a high order. The works which would occupy in this respect the principal place, are the "Expositor," the " Lectures, 1 ' and the controversial piece last noticed. The " Family Expositor" was the chef-d'oeuvre of Dod- dridge, and carefully and slowly he piled up the stores of this enduring monument of his learning # and ability. "I am drawing up," he says, as early as 1724, "but only for my own use, a sort of aiialytical scheme of the contents of the Epistles of the New Testament." Un- consciously he was then laying the foundation of his great work. Twelve years afterwards, the result of his studies had shaj>ed itself into decided form, and, with all the trembling interest of an ^ithor, contemplating the publication of the main labor of his life, he divulges his plan to his friend Dr. Clark. But just as he was on the eve of printing the first volume, it was in danger of being destroyed, for some papers in his study having ac- cidentally caught fire, the flames reached this, his most precious MS.* The alarm excited by the discovery was, however, succeeded by gratitude for the kind care of Providence ; for though the papers were scorched at the * A portion of the MS. of the "Expositor,'' bearing on its burnt edges signs of this accident, is, I am informed, in the possession of Mr. Bealby, North Brixton Volumes of copious notes, in shorthand, containing the materials for the " Expositor," are preserved in the Library of the Coward Trustees. THE AUTHOR. 123 edges, and bathed in molten wax, the written contents were all preserved, — a circumstance which called forth from the pious author expression of devout praise. In 1739 the first volume appeared;* the others fol- lowed at intervals, — the preparation of the work forming his early employment before breakfast, and absorbing all the moments he could spare from his other numerous toils. Tradition says, that in the room over the gate- way of the academic dwelling in Sheep-street, this busy student pursued his expository labors ; and as one muses in the old chamber, fancy pictures him there poring over folios of learned lore, dotting down memoranda of judi- cious criticism, or, with a heavenly smile, guiding his * In a letter to Mrs. Doddridge, Feb. 1738, he says, " Hett hath bid me four hundred guineas for my 'Family Expositor on the Evange- lists,' and will take all the trduble and charge of the impression on himself, and pay me the money down.'' — The first volume, however, was published by subscription. Ten years afterwards, we find him in treaty for the publication of the fourth volume, on the Epistles. Mrs. Doddridge says, July 28, 1748, '• I rejoice your journey has here- tofore been on all accounts so pleasant. Permit me to congratulate you on the good end you have made of that troublesome affair. Eighty guineas is more than I expected, as things stood." It may be worth while to add another extract from the same letter : — " I wish my dear a pleasant interview with my Lord Archbishop. Indeed, you are so much taken up amongst these great people, that I do not know how you will condescend to converse with us poor mortals when you return. * * Our country is grown so good, that our judges have scarce any business, and would, of course, have been at full leisure to have enjoyed the pleasure of your company, had you been here ; it is a little unlucky that the persons you most wish to see, generally come when you are absent. Baron Parker officiated at the crown bar last night, and Judge Abney will, I believe, have done be- fore noon to-day." — Unpublished Correspondence. 124 PUBLIC CAREER. pen, while it leaves behind it copious streams of rich, fervid eloquence. It appears from Orton's Preface to the sixth volume of the " Expositor," published after the author's death, that he had commenced the former one, beginning with the Epistle to the Romans, under the impression that " the time of his departure was at hand." The feeling pervaded his mind throughout the subsequent execution of his large design — it prompted him to unwearied dili- gence — induced him to work at his holy task wherever he might be, at home or abroad, without a day's cessa- tion, and no doubt contributed to enable him to com- plete the first copy in the space of exactly two years after beginning it. Every reader is familiar with the story of Gibbon's pacing his favorite walk at Lausanne, on the enchanting banks of Lake Leman, that memorable night when he had penned the last sentence of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." With emotions more enviable did Doddridge write — " Through the good hand of God upon me, which I desire most thankfully to ac- knowledge, I ended the first copy of the ' Family Exposi- tor,' Dec. 31, 1748, exactly two years after I began to write upon the Romans, having pursued it during that time without the interruption of one single day ; such health and such resolution did it please God to give me amidst the various scenes of business, danger, and amuse- ment through which I passed. May His grace raise Himself a monument of praise from this feeble effort to THE AUTHOR. 125 explain, illustrate, and enforce His Word." — " I ended my notes on the books I had thus paraphrased and im- proved, August 21, 1*749, having daily pursued the work in like manner, whether at home or abroad."* Though far inferior to the expository labors of Calvin and Beza, those of Doddridge will bear very favorable comparison with the efforts of preceding English authors in the field of biblical criticism. Less profoundly learned than Hammond or Patrick, and less acute than Whitby, he, excelled them most decidedly in the perception of the true spirit of the Scriptures. With this prime pre- requisite for his work, he brought to it also a measure of scholarship far superior to that of Henry or Pool ; while at the same time, the liveliness of his manner ap- pears in striking contrast with the leaden qualities of Dr. Gill. Doddridge is still cited as an authority in our critical Digests, and is spoken of with great respect in our best works of critical erudition. The Bishop of Durham goes so far as to say, " I know of no expositor who unites " It appears that Dr. Doddridge intended to produce a work on some parts of the Old Testament, on the plan of the " Family Exposi- tor." Mr. Morell, in his introductory Essay to Doddridge's Mis- cellaneous "Works quotes the following lines from a MS. on the Minor Prophets, found among Doddridge's papers: — " A new Translation of the Minor Prophets, with a short Paraphrase on those passages which seemed most to require it, divided into proper sections, with a practical improvement of each, for the use of families, and with large contents to each. Began Hosea, Oct. 1, 1750 ; Joel, Oct. 29 ; Amos, Nov. 9 ; Obadiah, Dec. 3 ; Jouah, Dec. 7 ; Micah, Dec. 20 ; Nahum, Jan. 7 ; Hab., Jan. 22 ; Zeph., March 8; Hag., March 25; Zech., April 1 ; Mai., May 14. The whole ended June 5, 1751," (about five months before his death). T* 126 PUBLIC CAREER. so many advantages as Doddridge." The course of Lectures which, from their mathematical form, exclude the graces of composition, must be judged of according to the research they indicate, and the reasoning they embody. The former appears to have been surprisingly great ; the range of reading necessary for such a produc- tion must have been immense. The latter is luminous and strong, placing the lecturer's opinions always in a clear light, and generally on grounds quite satisfactory. To the form, however, exceptions may be taken, not merely on the score of taste, but because, mathematical and moral reasoning being essentially distinct, the form of the one is not strictly applicable to the other. The letters in answer to " Christianity not founded on Argument," reflect bright honor on the Doctor's acute- ness and skill in argument. Rarely has a controversial work appeared of equal ability. It deserved the ap- plause which it soon received. It was fraught with power more than sufficient for its task, and quite equal to its superlative temper. Precision, order, clearness, continuity, force, all on the same high level, distinguish this masterly production from beginning to end ; and well would it repay careful perusal, now that the infidel controversy is being revived in a similar form, and under the same specious but intolerably false pretences.* * This piece was much applauded by Mr. (afterwards Lord) Lyt- telton. — See Doddridge's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 191. I feel it my duty here to observe, that on comparing the MSS. of Doddridge's letters with the correspondence published, it appears that very THE AUTHOR. 127 A remarkable evenness appears in Doddridge's com- positions. They do not present much to provoke or invite criticism. Their faults are not such as to call for severe censure, nor their excellences such as to extort rapturous praise. In reading his works we are not de- tained, either by glaring imperfections or by glowing beauties, but we glide on quietly, pleased in a high de- gree by the calm loveliness of the whole prospect. Doddridge compared Baxter to Demosthenes ; Kippis has paid Doddridge the compliment of comparing him to Cicero. The compliment betrays partiality, espe- cially as it regards the diction of the English divine, which lacks the perfect finish and peerless rhythm of the classic model. There is a polish, however, in Dodd- ridge's style, such as we miss in most of his noncon- formist and many of his episcopal predecessors. He had studied in the Addisonian school, but he suffered himself to indulge in too great a redundancy of expres- sion ; yet many happy turns of language show his power over that instrument of thought, and several of his hymns, while they pretend not to the higher character- istics of poetry, are eminent examples of that mastery over words which makes a skilful versifier. His famous lines on the family motto, won the warm eulogium of great liberties were taken by the editor. The passage containing Mr. Littelton's commendation is taken out of one letter and connected with another. Letters are thus pieced together. Many passages are left out. Some sentences also are introduced by the editor that have no existence in the originals. 128 PUBLIC CAREER. the old king of critics, as one of the finest epigrams in the English tongue.* 111 philosophizing on human minds one can hardly help throwing them into a twofold classification — minds in which some one faculty stands out in overshadowing prominence, and minds distinguished by the harmony of their powers. Taylor, Edwards, and Butler, are illus- trious types of the former class, and Howe and Hall of the latter. Doddridge differed essentially from the former. He had nothing like Taylor's golden mouth, pouring forth ravishing strains of imaginative eloquence ; nor could he, with the skill of Edwards, forge and tem- per logical weapons, or with his dexterity wield them when prepared; neither could he, after Butler's man- ner, sink a shaft into the deepest strata of thought, and exhaust the spring. The cast of his mind differed from theirs, — differed in toto. But the same cannot be said * " Live while yoa live, the epicure would say, And seize the pleasures of the present day. Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, And give to God each moment as it flies. Lord, in my life, let both united be, I live in pleasure, when I live to thee !" For the following lines I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Charles Reed :— " Written by Dr. Doddridge when his daughter wounded her foot by treading on a thorn. Oft I have heard the ancient sages say, The path of virtue is a thorny way ! If so, dear Caelia, we may know, Which path it is you tread, which way it is you go." THE AUTHOR. 129 on comparing him with Howe and Hall. It is well known lie admired Howe, and Hall admired him. In- ferior to them in degree, he resembled them in his mental idiosyncracy. His mind was essentially of the same order Avith theirs. No power beamed out with an eclipsing brightness, but all shone in harmonious and equal conjunction, like the soft influences of Pleiades, those seven fair sisters of the sky. Doddridge's mind had not that intensity of power which becomes creative, but it had in it that appetency for knowledge which leads to the large acquisition of mental wealth. If not born into the aristocracy of ge- nius, he brought into the world endowments which enabled him to become a first-rate capitalist in the com- monwealth of talent. If not to be ranked amidst the coroneted peers of English science or song, he attain- ed to a leadership among the commoners of learning and practical wisdom. ISor did he hoard his treas- ures, but liberally dispensed them, according to the maxim of the Hebrew sage ? and the strain of the Brit- ish bard. " AVisdom that is hid, and treasure that is hoarded up, what profit is in them both ? Better is he that hideth his folly, than he that hideth his wisdom." " Heaven does with us as, we with torches do, — Not light them for themselves, for if our virtues Did not go forth of us — 't were all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched But for fine issues — nor nature ever lends 130 PUBLIC CAREER. The smallest scruple of her excellence, But like a thrifty goddess she determines Herself the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and use."* THE MAN OF INFLUENCE. Great as Doddridge's talents were, varied as was his learning, and eminent as was his piety, the reputation in which he was held by contemporaries seems rather to exceed even the high estimate of his excellence formed on the study of his life, his letters, and his works. Fame presents a reflection of his image still larger and more brilliant. In an age when compliments formed no small part of the staple of correspondence, the num- ber of persons who wrote to Doddridge seemed to vie with each other in the praises of his worth. That such a man would stand high in his own de- nomination was to be expected, and he did so ; yet, even in that quarter, he found envious detractors ;f but * The two extracts are combined by Trench on the Parables. t Mrs. Doddridge observes, in a letter from Bath, August 19th, 1746 : — " I hope my dear will not suffer his mind to be much ruffled by the seeming neglect of friends, or unjust calumny of enemies ; for my part, whilst I am so happy as to be esteemed and loved by the man whose regard is capable of giving me the highest pleasure of anything in the world, the smiles and frowns of others sit lightly upon me." * * * — Unpublished Correspondence. " As for the unmanly flirts, and ungenerous reflections of those who are not worthy to carry your books after you, it puts me in mind of a dog barking at the moon, which, after all his impotency shines, and is still very far out of his reach." — Letter from the Rev. J. Barker, Correspondence, vol. v. p. 19. THE MAN OF INFLUENCE. 131 the detraction was small compared with the admiration. His writings were valued, his books publicly read, ;/f his visits warmly welcomed, his services earnestly sought, his labors fervently applauded. In his annual excur- sions he preached to large and admiring assemblies, and was sometimes escorted from place to place by two or three brethren, with respect bordering on homage. He was consulted on their affairs by churches not only in different parts of this kingdom, but on the continent,! But the honorable name of Doddridge was known, re- vered, and cherished beyond the boundaries of the sect to which he belonged. Clergymen of the Church of England courted his friendship. The author of the " Divine Legation of Moses," at the commencement of his remarkable correspondence with the Dissenting di- vine, acknowledges with gratitude " the honor of so con- siderable a patron." Referring to the second volume of the " Expositor," he remarks, " The greatest thing I can * With respect to Colonel Gardiner's Life, the Rev. R. Pear-ill, of Taunton, says, " I gave notice that I would read it in public, and did so two evenings a week for five weeks, till the whole was fin- ished." — Doddridge's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 57-2. + I have obtained, through the kindness of my friend the Rev. B. Slight, entries from the church books at Rotterdam, relative to Dod- dridge. He was frequently consulted by the good people there. In 1748, this entry occurs : " For a book as a present to Dr. Doddridge, 80 florins," (about £6 14*.). M. Rocquetto acquainted the consistoiy that Dr. Doddridge, in a letter to him, assured him he had received the books they sent him. together with their letter. At the next va- cancy in the pastorate his opinion about a successor was sought : they joined in sending " a letter to Dr. Doddridge at Lisbon." At a sub- sequent meeting his death is noticed. 132 PUBLIC CAREER. say of it is, that it is equal to the first ; and the truest thing I can say of both, that they surpass anything of the kind." "The learned claim you," cries the great Churchman, while good-humoredly chiding him for his praise of Hervey. Bishops, and other dignitaries, besides some of the nobility, are numbered among his familiar correspondents, and persons of noble name were his most intimate friends. On a visit to Cambridge he received marks of attention extremely flattering,* while his lite- rary reputation travelled over Europe, and brought him home assurances of great esteem.f Kippis intimates that he was elated by the eminence to which he rose. It is also said he was not insensible to the incense of flattery ; and Barker, in a clever letter, "* " Dr. Doddridge spent a couple of days here last week. I showed him all the civility I could ; at first, indeed, merely as a friend of yours, but it soon became the result of my own inclination. He fa- vored me with much curious conversation, and if I judge right, is a man of great parts and learning, and of a candid and communicative temper. I now reckon him amongst my acquaintance, and thank you for him." — Mr. Caryl to Dr. Warburton. — Dr. Doddridge says to Mrs. Doddridge, " Dr. Middleton showed me several very fine curi- osities ; and I, on the other hand, had the pleasure of informing hini of several very curious and valuable MSS. in the library of which he had the charge ; of which neither the Doctor himself, nor any of the gentlemen of the university that I saw, had ever so much as heard, though they are the oldest monuments relating to the churches of Italy." t All this involved a large correspondence : " I marshalled my un- answered letters, and found them one hundred and six, near one quar- ter of which reached me since Friday noon (and it was then Monday evening), and all this though I have written between fifty and sixt}' letters the last fourteen days, with my own hand, having no secre- tary." THE MAX OF INFLUENCE. 133 hits at what he deemed his errors ; all of which, how- ever, as he enumerates them, certainly leaned on virtue's side. " Are you aware what a creature you are ? I love you beyond expression, and admire your abilities, furni- ture, and spirits, more than you imagine, and not a man in the world rejoices more in your usefulness than I do; and yet I often make myself merry with your character and conduct. I will give you a sketch of it. You are so entirely devoted to God, to truth, and holiness, that it is very easy to impose upon you, under the appearance of any of these, and are so perfectly made up of candor and good nature, that a pious enthusiast or a godly dunce is welcome to your table and heart* You are so good yourself that you think everybody else ten times better than they are, see merit in the darkness of midnight, cannot see faults without a noon-day sun, forgive injuries before they are confessed, confer favors as a reward for affronts, and will never believe but that all who are in good earnest in religion, and enter into the belief, prac- tice, lite, ami spirit of it, are to be embraced by you. be- cause Christ receives them, let their opinions or de- nominations be what they will. You — but I will not oblige you any further now, but thank you for that ser- mon on candor, which is the very picture of your mind, * Such a man was likely to be imposed upon. "Indeed," he says, when smarting under one of the frauds to which he was subject, •'• I have been so often imposed upon, that I am the less excusable in this instance, and have very little but the goodness of my intention to plead in my behalf.'' — Correspondence, vol. v. p. 109. M 134 PUBLIC CAREER. and highly relished by your faithful and affectionate brother Barker."* But Doddridge never availed himself of his reputation, or exerted his influence, for any sordid or selfish ends, but from first to last employed the whole in the cause of humanity, and the service of his adorable Redeemer. He once, by employing his influence with the great, saved a deserter from being shot. Another time he labored for the deliverance of an Irishman condemned to be hanged in Northampton, and so attached to him the unhappy creature, that the latter on his road to the gallows paused, by permission, at the Doctor's door, and knelt down to pray with tearful earnestness for his piti- ful benefactor.f He helped others in schemes of useful- ness, and tried to set on foot schemes of his own. He * The Rev. John Barker, one of the most eloquent preachers of that day. was a very intimate friend of Doddridge. He was pastor of the church at Hackney ; but in 1741 became minister at Salters' Hall. Here Doddridge was invited to join him. Mrs. Doddridge thus writes in a letter dated June, 1741 : — " I am concerned to hear of good Mr. Narnan's death ; I allow the temptation is very strong, and I think if you can withstand it, as I believe you will, it is one of the greatest proofs of your affection for Northampton that you may perhaps ever have it in your power to give ; as I believe there is hardly a person in the world that you would think yourself so happy in joining with as good Mr. Barker.'* — Unpublished Correspondence. t It may here be noticed that at the time of the rebellion in support of the Pretender, Dr. Doddridge encouraged persons in his congrega- tion to enlist in the royal army, under the Earl of Halifax, who raised a regiment at Northampton. One of the Doctor's pupils, a son of Lord Kilkerran, volunteered his services, and carried the colors under the patriot Earl. Doddridge printed, at his own expense, a friendly letter to the soldiers. THE MAN OF INFLUENCE. 135 advised Wcaley, in a long letter, what books it was de- sirable preachers should read ; and Mr. Benjamin For- fitt, one of the founders of the Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor, by distributing Bibles, Testaments, and other books, says, in a letter to him, " I do not know, dear sir, whether justice does not oblige me to inform you that if the world receives any advantage from this design, it is indebted to Dr. Dod- dridge for it." In 1741, he devised an extensive plan for the advancement of the gospel at home and abroad.* It was a missionary association, the first of the kind we ever read of. Cromwell resolved to set up a council for promoting the Protestant religion throughout the world. Richard Baxter advocated the erection of a college to teach students the languages of the heathen, with a view to qualify them for missionary labors. Robert Boyle supported and encouraged John Elliot, the apostle to the Indians. Societies were formed in England, Scotland, * The details are given in the dedication of the sermon on " The Evil and Danger of Neglecting the Souls of Men.'' The dedication of this very solemn discourse, worthy of being read in connection with Baxter's •' Reformed Pastor,'" is addressed to the ministers in Norfolk and Suffolk, particularly those with whom the author had an interview at Denton. June 30, 1741. One who was present on that occasion says, " He entertained us with an excellent discourse, from 2 Peter v. 6. A remarkable day indeed, when the presence of God filled our assembly; and not myself only, but many others have with pleasure owned it was one of the best days of our lives. Though the season was hot. the auditory very much crowded, and between four and five hours spent in the public worship, none thought the hours tedious, and wished for a dismission." — Funeral Sermon on the Death of Dr. Doddridge, preached at Yarmouth, by Richard Fro.-e of the cinder-circled crater, saw through the opening the vine-covered slopes of Orotava, and the orange gardens, and bananas of the coast. And how, on that hallowed spot to which we have just referred, did our spiritual pilgrim catch enchanting views of spir- itual things — of regions the sight of Avhich refreshed his cloud-covered soul, and filled him with unutterable delight ! At the Lord's table did he, with pre-eminent energy, endeavor to lift up his soul to God for his own purifica- 156 HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. tion and comfort, himself feeding upon the spiritual provision which he proceeded to distribute among his flock. Sometimes the ingushing of his joy was too im- petuous even for his large heart to hold, — like Arnold, who told his wife, three weeks before his death, that he felt " quite a rush of love in his heart towards God and Christ." The morning of one of his sacrament days he mentions in particular, as a period when God was pleased to meet him in his secret retirement, and to pour into his soul such a flood of consolations, in the exercise of faith and love, as he was scarcely able to sustain. It would have been a relief to him, he said, to have been able to utter strong cries of joy. These days were, in- deed, as the days of heaven dropped down on earth — transfiguration days, when, in the bright cloud, and his Lord's presence, he could cry with Peter, " It is good to be here." From one of the beautiful landing-places in his heavenly ascent, which such seasons afforded, we find him taking a survey of his spiritual duties ; and how sweetly he talks of them, as they lie spread around him, like a delightsome land ! — " It is pleasant to read, pleas- ant to compose, pleasant to converse with my friends at home, pleasant to visit those abroad — the poor, the sick — pleasant to write letters of necessary business, by which any good can be done — pleasant to go out and preach the Gospel to poor souls, of which some are thirsting for it. and others dying without it — pleasant in the week-day to think how near another Sabbath is; HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. loi but, oh ! much more pleasant to think how near eternity is, and how short the journey through this wilderness, and that it is but a step from earth to heaven." At a later period he states, in a letter to his wife — M Last LordVday was our sacrament day, and indeed it was a most comfortable one to me ; my joy at that ordi- nance was so great, that I could not well contain it. I had much ado to forbear telling all about me, as well as I could — for it would have been but in a very imperfect manner — what a divine flame I felt in my soul, which, indeed, put me greatly in mind of Mr. Howe's - full stream of rays.'' \Yere it possible to carry such impres- sions throuo-h life, it would give the soul a kind of inde- pendence far too high for a mortal existence. It was in- deed, in the most literal and proper sense, a "joy un- speakable and full of glory.'"* * He often in verse expressed his devout feelings. Tbe following lines, written on Christmas-day, 1742, are a specimen. They are given me by Mr. Charles Reed, and I insert them because they have never been published before : — On the Xativifij of Christ. (From Luke xi. 10-12.) " Hail ! Progeny Divine ! Hail ! Virgin's wondrous Son ! "Who, for the humble shrine. Didst quit the almighty throne. Thee, infant Lord ! our voices sing, And be the King of grace adored. " Ye princes, disappear, And boast your crowns no more ; Lay down your sceptres here, And in the dust adore. Where Jesus dwells, the manger bare In lustre far your pomp excels."' o lo» HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. Sometimes his vigorous fancy, roused by rapturous ex- citements, would create in the still hours of night, holy and beautiful dreams. One in particular he had, after a conversation with Dr. Clark, on the state of the soul after death. He dreamed that he was dead, and that his spirit soared away into those deep regions of the infinite, which oftentimes awaken our trembling curiosity. He felt, as he lost sight of this noisy, busy world, how vain and empty are the objects which excite its inhabitants so much ; and while musing on the theme, and committing himself to the care of the Divine pilot, as he embarked on the ocean of immensity and sailed amidst islands of stars, he fancied he was met on the shores of heaven by an angel guide, who conducted him to a palace which had been assigned for his abode. The dreamer won- dered at the place, for it made him think that heaven was not so unlike earth as the teachings of Scripture had led him to expect ; but he was told that there he was to be gradually prepared for unknown glories aftewards to be revealed. In the inner apartment of the palace stood a golden cup, with a grape-vine embossed on it, which he learned was meant to signify the living union of Christ and his people. But as he and his guide were talking, a gentle knock at the door before him announced the approach of some one, when, the portals unfolding, revealed the majestic presence of the Redeemer of the Church. The now glorified disciple immediately fell at the feet of his gracious Lord, but was raised with assur- HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. 159 auces of favor, and of the kind acceptance which had been vouchsafed to all his loving services. Then taking up the cup and drinking out of it, the Saviour put it in his servant's hands, inviting him to drink, who shrunk from the amazing honor ; but was told, " If thou drink it not, thou hast no part with me." He was ready to sink under the transport of gratitude and joy which was thus produced, when that condescending One, in con- sideration of his weakness, left him for a while, with the assurance he would soon return, directing him in the meanwhile to look and meditate upon the objects which were around ; and lo ! there were pictures hung all about, illustrative of his own pilgrim life — scene after scene of trial and deliverance, of conflict and victory, meeting his eves, and filling his heart with love and wonder. And as he gazed on them, he thought, — what we often fancy will be the saint's first thought in heaven — how all the perils of his former life were now forever over. Exulting in his new-found safety, a burst of joy broke the enchantment of his celestial dream, and he woke again, amidst floods of tears, to the conscious- ness that he was in the body still. Under the inspiration of this dream, he wrote that favorite hymn — While on the verge of life I stand, And view the scene on either hand, My spirit struggles with its-clay, And longs to wing its flight away. Where Jesus dwells, my soul would be ; It faints my much loved Lord to see ; 160 HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. Earth twines no more around my heart; For oh ! r t were better to depart. Come, ye angelic envoy, come, And lead the willing pilgrim home : Ye know the way to that bright throne, Source of my joys, and of your own. That blessed interview, how sweet ! To fall transported at His feet ! Raised in His arms to view His face, Through the full beaming? of His grace ! To see heaven's shining courtiers round, Each with immortal glories crown'd : And while His form in each I trace, With that fraternal band embrace. As with a seraph's voice to sing ! To fly, as on a cherub's wing ! Performing, with unwearied hands, A present Saviour's high commands. Yet, with these prospects full in sight, I'll wait thy signal for my flight : And in thy service here below, Confess that heavenly joj s may grow. The secret of all spiritual life is faith in the unseen. Very diversified have been the gifts and attainments of holy Christian men ; very various their idiosyncrasy of character ; but here we touch the meeting-point, the centre of unity among them all. A firm and living be- lief had they in the spiritual verities revealed in the Gospel of Christ. Peter was ardent, and John was gentle ; Luther was bold, and Melancthon bland ; Baxter was controversial, and Howe contemplative ; Whitfield HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. 161 was ever excited, and Wesley was ever calm; but in them all there was striking down into the lowest depths of the soul the mighty power of faith, even as, all the globe over, in zones torrid and temperate — in the old world and the new, — under every part of the earth's prolific vegetation — under the palm and under the pine — under the olive and under the oak — there are the same enduring rocks of schist, basalt, and granite. And so with Doddridge, that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, was the grand substratum that bore up ali the beauty and power of his spiritual life and holy character. He had a heart-penetrating faith in the truths of the Christian revelation, and it had been cultivated by deep thought- fulness and study, by long-repeated patient meditation, by musing again and oftentimes upon the same truth, till the shadows melted from it, and it came up before the mind a distinct and living thing. And in the intensity and vigor of his spiritual life, so nourished and sustained, was the secret of his efficiency in Christian labor. A negative, dark, cold, inert state of mind with regard to the Gospel — a state of mind, which, if not amounting to c?/s-belief, is of the nature of tin-belief — sadly impairs the power of a man's ministra- tions, and makes him speak with a sort of paralytic muttering, instead of the bold, articulate tones in which souls enjoying a healthy manhood talk of Divine things. The minister in such a state, trying to do what Dod- 162 HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE. dridge did, will fail because he is not what Doddridge was — even as the Egyptian magicians foiled when they tried, with their poor enchantments, to effect what Moses and Aaron achieved through the inward working of a Divine power. Doddridge spake with earnestness, out of the fulness of his heart, and hence the force of his ministrations. He was a living soul, and therefore God employed him, as he does such souls, not after the man- ner of a mere instrument, but after the manner of an honored agent. He employed him, not as he used Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, and men of that stamp — like implements of labor like such things as axes and saws, rods and staves, — things which, when they are done with, are cast away and burnt, — but as he employ qd Paul and John, workmen honored while in their office, and rewarded with costly distinctions when their toils were over. CHAPTER VI. HIS LAST DAYS. A cold caught in December, 1*750, as he was g to preach Dr. Clark's funeral sermon, laid the founda- tion of Doddridge's fatal illness. He recovered consid- erably and then relapsed ; pulmonary disease appeared, and he was more and more indisposed. The end of his exemplary labors now rapidly approached. The last ordinance came, and the holy man, having preached about the general assembly and church of the First Born, talked very sweetly at the table of Him who holds the stars in his right hand and walks among the golden candlesticks, expressing confidence in his care and love, and dropping hints relative to his own disso- lution, so that those who listened to his voice feared they should soon see his face no more. Then came the last sermon at Northampton, from that glorious text, u Whether we live, therefore, or die we are the Lord's " full of sanctified thought and elevated feeling, exactly such as might have been expected from one who seemed conscious he was just entering under death's dark arch- 104: HIS LAST DAYS. way, but saw that city, which is ever suffused with di- vine sunlight, lifting up its gates on the other side. And then came the last sendee of all, at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Adams, at Bewdly. Next came the parting visit to the loved and faithful Orton, at Shrews- bury, when Doddridge received from Barker the won- derfully impassioned letter, which surely no one can read without mingling his tears with those in which Doddridge bathed it as he read the burning lines: — " Consent and choose to stay with us a while longer, my dear friend, if it please God. This is not needful to Northampton and its adjacent towns and villages, but desirable to us all, and beneficial to our whole interest. Stay, Doddridge, oh stay, and strengthen our hands, whose shadows grow long. Fifty is but the height of vigor, usefulness and honor. Don't take leave abruptly. Providence hath not directed thee yet on whom to drop thy mantle. "Who shall instruct our youth, fill our va- cant churches, animate our associations, and diffuse a spirit of piety, moderation, candor, and charity, through our villages and churches, and a spirit of prayer and supplication into our towns and cities when thou art removed from us ? Especially who shall unfold the sacred oracles, teach us the meaning and use of our Bibles, rescue us from the bondage of systems, party opinions, empty, useless speculations and fashionable forms and phrases, and point out to us the simple, intel- ligible, consistent, uniform religion of our Lord and HIS LAST DAYS. 165 Saviour ? Who shall — but I am silenced by the voice of Him who says, ' Shall I not do what I will with my own ? Is it not 1113- prerogative to take and leave as seemeth me good ? I demand the liberty of disposing of my own servants at my own pleasure. He hath la- bored more abundantly. His times are in my hand. He hath not slept as do others. He hath risen to nobler heights than things below. He hopes to inherit glory. He hath labored for that which endureth to eternal life, — labor which, the more it abounds, the more it exalts and magnifies its objects, and the more effectually answers and secures its end. It is yours to wait and trust, mine to dispose and govern ; on me be the care of ministers and churches. With me is the residue of the Spirit. Both the vineyard and the laborers are mine. I set them to work, and when I please, I call them and give them their hire.' With these thoughts my passions subside — my mind is softened and satisfie 1. I resign thee, myself, and ail to God, saying, ' Thy will be done.' " Then came the visit to Bath and Bristol, and the ineffectual use of the hot-wells, amidst expres- sions of sympathy and proofs of delicate attention from persons of high rank ; friends at Northampton all the while meeting three times a week to intercede for him with the only Preserver of men. But it was in vain. The hoarse cough, the low voice, were unmistakable premonitions. But his mind was peaceful. "I bless God," he says, " that I have the powerful supports of 166 HIS LAST DAYS. Christianity ; nor is it any grievance of heart to me, but, on the contrary, an unspeakable pleasure, that I have spent my life among the Protestant Dissenters, and sacrificed to honor, liberty, and conscience, those consid- erations which persons devoted to avarice and ambition think great and irresistible." Not to neglect the last hope, it was resolved he should go to a warmer climate. Then came the journey to Falmouth, to embark for Lisbon. As fancy sees the falling leaves and rain, and hears the autumnal wind of that year, just a century since, how they seem to drop and sweep with sad prophetic significance round the old-fashioned chariot and four which bears the languid frame of our dear Doddridge through the rough wet roads of Devonshire ! We feel, as we ride along with him, as if the hearse were not far behind. Violent symptoms at the place of embarkation suggest the pro- posal, " Shall he return ?" He answers, " The die is cast, and I choose to go." We go with him on board the commodious packet-boat secured for him by his friend Warburton ; and, as Ave are touched to the heart by the patience of the sufferer, we are equally affected with admiration at the heroism and tenderness of the brave-hearted woman his faithful wife. The last letter is dispatched : — " Let us think of this as a momentary state, and aspire more ardently after the blessings of that. If I survive my voyage, a line shall tell you how I bear it. If not, all will be well, and (as good Mr. HIS LAST DAYS. 167 Howe says) I hope I shall embrace the wave, that, when I intended Lisbon, should land me in heaven. I am more afraid of doing what is wrong than of dying." The vessel looses from her moorings, and sails out to sea, when the soft air and fresh breeze revive the sufferer. Sitting in his easy chair, as the September sun plays on the water, and comes pouring in at the cabin window, he whispers to his wife, " I cannot express to you what a morning I have had. Such delightful and transport- ing views of the heavenly world is my Father now in- dulging me with as no words can express." And then the rapture of his countenance seems to utter the lines of his own hymn — When death o'er nature shall prevail, And all its powers of language fail, Joy through my swimming eyes shall break, And mean the thanks I cannot speak. After being becalmed some days in the Bay of Biscay, where the intensity of the heat threatens his speedy dis- solution, he reaches the coast of Portugal. The heights of Cintra, the church and light-house of Nossa Senhora de Guia, the convent of St. Antonio, and the town of Cascaes come in view. A rare scene of beauty and grandeur is the entrance to the Tagus : — " Convents and quintas, gray olive yards, green orange groves, and greener vineyards ; the shore more populous every mo- ment as we advance, and finer buildings opening upon us ; the river, bright as the blue sky, swarming with 168 HIS LAST DAYS. boats of every size and shape, with sails of every imagi- nable variety ; innumerable ships riding at anchor far as the eye could reach, and the city extending along the shore, and covering the hills to the furthest point of sight"* The day is so fine, the air so soft, the scene so novel, that they impart fresh strength and spirits to the invalid voyager, who for two hours continues upon deck, and is so refreshed as to indulge in flattering hopes of recovery. « But these promising appearances are illusive. Landed at the port, and hospitably entertained at the house of Mr. King,f the son of one of his old members, he gradually sinks. He is removed into the country, but the rainy season comes on and produces a change which cuts off all expectation of recovery .J The spirit * This description of the Tagus is taken from " Southey's Life and Correspondence," vol. ii. + Dr. Doddridge, in a letter dated August 12th, 1746, alludes to some news he had received from this gentleman : — '• Mr. King writes me word that the Portuguese looked on the English govern- ment as quite overthrown ; upon which the common people began to think it was not necessary to keep on terms with heretics, and the Papists, though protected there by us, threatened soon to wash their hands in the blood of Protestants. Yet he says many of them have lost vast sums of money by the prodigious wagers they have laid of the success of the rebellion." — Unpublished Correspondence, in the possession of Josh. Wilson, Esq. X The following passages from an unpublished letter from his wife, give a particular account of Dr. Doddridge's illness : — " My time, after the first day, was chiefly employed great part of the night in writing letters, as I had no time for this in the day. which was in a great measure taken up in looking after lodgings, which I was not able to procure till Wednesday evening. And as the Doctor was very desirous we should get into the country as soon as possible, we purposed to have went to them on the Thursday ; but I was taken so HIS LAST DAYS. 169 rises in joy as the body sinks in death ; and at last, on the 26th of October, 1751, a gentle sleep falls on the worn-out frame, a harbinger of more tranquil slumbers to remain unbroken till the judgment bell shall toll time's requiem, and ring in the morning of eternity. All that is mortal of Doddridge sleeps in the burying- ground of the British factory ;* but the immortal spirit, violently ill in the night, as not to be able to stir out of my room for three days. — On the Thursday the dear deceased was seized, and we were both too ill to be able to move"our quarters ; but on the Mon- day, as we were hoth better, we went to our lodgings, though I was so weak as hardly able without help to walk across my room. Our lodgiugs were about three miles out of Lisbon ; and though he was conveyed in a sedan-chair and carried very slow, yet he was so ex- tremely fatigued that he wanted to have gone to bed as soon as he got in ; but notwithstanding the repeated charges that had been given, and the promises of the person of the house, that the rooms and beds should be thoroughly aired, when I came to examine bis bed, I found it so damp that I was forced to have large fires made, and every part of the bedding aired ; so that he could not be got to bed for more than three hours. — What still increased this ruelancholy sceue was my maid's being taken ill, I think the very next day, and incapable of doing anything for us for several days. The sudden change of weather, which came on soon after we got into our lodgings, cut oft' everything I had to hope from air and exercise, and by the man- ner in which it ali'ected him, I doubt not was the appointed instru- ment of Providence to cut shorter his few remaining days. He never was out of his room but once after the first night be was put to bed, which was on the Wednesday about the middle of the day ; the weather being fine, he walked, with my helping him, into another large airy room that we had joining to our lodging-room." * A simple monument was erected over his remains. This, in the course of time, became decayed ; but the Rev. Mr. Miller, the British chaplain in 1814, had the stone cleaned at his own expense, and the letters recut. In 1S-28, the Rev. Mr. Taylor caused a new marble tomb to be erected, of which a drawing now lis s before me. It bears the following inscription : — " Philip Doddridge, D.D., died October 26th, 1751, aged 50." P 170 HIS LAST DAYS. the man himself, is where they no more sleep than die, for " there is no night there." A beautiful letter from Mrs. Doddridge, inserted in the correspondence, but too long to be introduced here, shows the Christian magnanimity with which she bore the heavy trial thus laid upon her by her heavenly Father in a land of strangers. She soon returned to her desolate home, and devoted herself, with characteristic energy and wisdom, to the formation of the character of her four surviving children. They had from their in- fancy been mainly dependent upon her instruction and influence, their father's numerous public engagements having interfered with the maintenance of much paren- tal oversight and instruction on his part. The son was sixteen years of age at the time of his father's death, when he was sent to Dr. Ashworth's academy to study for the ministry. Letters still preserved show, that be- fore his studies were completed he became conscious the ministry was not the office to which he had received a vocation, and, relinquishing his early prospects, and dis- appointing, probably, a mother's hope, he adopted the study of the law. Miss Doddridge was married to John Humphreys, Esq., of Tewkesbury, to which town Mrs. To this — according to the " Congregational Magazine" for 1830 — is added : — '• With l\igh respect for his character and writings, this stone of re- memhrance was raised upon a former one in decay, in the month of June, 1828, at the desire and expense of Thomas Taylor, of all his nu- merous pupils the only one living." HIS LAST DAYS. 1 71 Doddridge retired with her two unmarried daughters, Mary and Anna Cecilia. This excellent lady lived to a good old age, and distinguished by noble qualities of mind and heart, and after passing through fresh domes- tic trials in her last days, entered her everlasting rest in 1790, at the age of eighty-two. Her children seem all to have been possessed of vigorous minds, and in this respect to have inherited their mother's endowments ; especially Mary, whose mental qualities were evidently of a very superior order. She died at Bath in 1809, at the age of seventy-five.* * A lineal descendant survives in the person of Mr. John Dod- dridge Humphreys, son of the editor of the Correspondence, grandson of Mr. Humphreys, and great-grandson of the doctor. He was present at the meeting in Northampton when this memorial was read. CHAPTER VII. RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. Doddridge's ministry extended over tl>e space of nearly thirty years. We have seen what was the state of things among Dissenters towards the close of the first decade. Evidence remains that no general improvement took place during the latter portion of his life. A comparison of such imperfect statistics as it is in our power to consult, shows a diminution in point of num- bers. Pedobaptist congregations, including both Pres- byterian and Congregational, are reported in a MS. in Dr. William's library, as being 843, in the year 1715.* In 1773 they sink down to 729. The decrease was in the Presbyterian congregations. Several probably be- came Independent. The great defect was, that Dissen- ters generally did not take proper means to meet the spiritual wants of the age, by the employment of mis- sionary eflorts.f F GW meeting-houses had been built, or new churches formed, since the first excitement occa- * But the Baptists increased from 24<> to 391. t The Fund Board and the King"s Head Society, as will be seen from the postscript, were not inactive. RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 1 73 sioned by the Toleration Act. Nonconformists had been resting on their oars ; churches, meant to be lights of the world, had been shut up and hidden ; the four walls of the meeting-house had been, in too many instances, as a bushel or a bed to conceal the candle. Doddridge evi- dently saw the mischief of this, and sought to remedy the evil. He was projecting large schemes in reference to it, when death put a stop to all his zeal in this world. But the state of numbers is not the only or the chief con- sideration. As in the Establishment of that period, so among some of the Dissenters, the distinguishing truths of the gospel were laid aside, or rarely inculcated. Daniel Neal, in 17-10, complains that evangelical preach- ing, according to the moderate Calvinistic type, was much out of fashion in the metropolis. Barker, three years afterwards, laments that the state of things was much the same as it had been ; that the disposition to charity continued amongst Protestant Dissenters, but* he could not say much as to their faith. He observes, that some charged their fathers with having put believing in the place of doing ; he wished the men of his day might not put giving in the place of believing. In the follow- ing year, 1744, the same writer exclaimed, "The Dis senting interest is not like itself." He hardly knew it. It used to be famous for faith, holiness, and love. He had known the time when he had no doubt, into what- ever place of worship he went amongst Dissenters, his heart would be warmed and comforted, and his ediflca- p*. 174 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. tion promoted. " ISTow," lie says, " I hear prayers and sermons I neither relish nor understand. Primitive truths and duties are quite old-fashioned things. One's ears are so dined with reason, the great law of reason, the eternal law of reason, that it is enough to put one out of conceit with the chief excellency of our nature, because it is idolized and almost deified. How prone are men to extremes ! What a pity it is, that when people emerge out of an ancient mistake, they seldom know where to stop ! Oh for the purity of our foun- tains, the wisdom and diligence of our tutors, the hu- mility, piety, and teachableness of our youth !" The period has justly been designated one " of gath- ering gloom and spiritual decay ;" yet the lamentations of Barker and others, together with the appeals of Dr. Conder, in his " Serious Address," occasioned by the decline of ministerial piety, published in 17 To, and other expostulations of the same nature, show there were men who, Elijah-like, were zealous for the Lord of Hosts. Nor should it be forgotten, that it is possible they were a little like Elijah in another point of view, — that they might draw too unfavorable conclusions in reference to the state of religion in those times. Yet, with every abatement that charity can suggest, a large indictment, sufficiently sustained, lies against the spir- itual condition of that age. Historic truth compels us to add, that Arianism, at the time we are now speaking of, was considerably on the increase among the Presby- RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. lTo terian Dissenters. Moral decorum, politeness of de- meanor, affability of intercourse, and intelligent instruc- tion on general religious topics, sufficed to recommend the minister and to secure his influence. The absence of evangelical truth, the want of an earnest, positive strain of teaching, paved the way to the denial of Christ's proper divinity, and with that the rejection of the rela- ted truths of the atonement, justification by faith, and renewal through the Spirit, The ministry, in many cases, went gliding down into Socinianism ; and Priestly, in his Memoirs, with singular candor traces the progress of the descent. Nor would this negative and lifeless scheme of Christianity have sufficed to keep together the people who professed it, or to have secured support for the ministry, had not endowments, those pillowy props of heterodoxy and formalism, preserved the sys- tem in existence. To the churches of the Congregational order these statements, in reference to the growth of heterodoxy, do not at all apply. There is no evidence of their departure from the evangelical creed. But it is to be feared, that though the Arian and Socinian heresies were repelled from the borders of the Congregational department in the church, the dull, soporific, and death-like spirit which those heresies engendered, inflicted its torpedo touch on not a few of the pastors and people. Orthodoxy was preserved, but it was cold. Truth was watched over, defended, cherished, but it was truth asleep. 176 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. Yet to some Independent congregations happily this charge of lakewarmness did not apply ; neither were all the Presbyterians infected with error, and smitten with the palsy which it brings. The doctrines of the Puri- tans continued to be proclaimed from certain pulpits, both Presbyterian and Independent, with an unction and fervor which would have been distinguished even in earlier and better days. Darracott and Fawcett,* * The following able sketches of these two worth}- men are taken from the article in the "North British Review," before noticed: — " With moderate scholarship, and with nothing brilliant in his thoughts, his eager aspect and glowing countenance gave to troths oft-told a freshness equal to originality, and even to the coarsest minds there was something irresistibly captivating in the suavity of his spirit and the refinement of the Christian gentleman; and as that gospel which he preached had a constant exponent in an eye ever beaming, and in a frame ever bounding with active benevolence, it is not wonderful that the common people heard him gladly. When he perceived any one unusually attentive or solemnized, it was his plan to write a letter or pay an early visit, in order to urge the im- pression home ; and he was unwearied in his efforts to bring amiable or awakened hearers to the grand decision which divides the church from the world, and formality from faith. His paramount zeal for his Master was nobly displayed in his anxiety to bring to Wellington preachers more powerful than himself, and a visit which he secured from Whitfield was the means of a memorable and salutary excite- ment in that little town. It was chiefly among the poor and illiterate that Mr. Darracott's ministry prospered ; but among preachers and vagrants, foreign mountebanks and clod-poles, who could not read the alphabet, as well as among farmers and tradesmen, he saw many triumphs of the all-transforming gospel." Another like-minded pupil was Benjamin Fawcett. " His sphere for five-and-thirty years was Kidderminster, and the charge immortalized by the name of Baxter. ]\ ever had a minister a more kindred successor. JN T ot only did Mr. Fawcett adopt the Baxteriau theology, and attain a goodly measure of the Baxteriau importunity and pathos in preaching, but it was the labor of his leisure to abridge such works as the 'faint's Rest/ and RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 177 and afterwards Lavington are names in the history of evangelical dissent, during the second half of the last century, which shine with a brilliant lustre. On the whole, Doddridge's indefatigable and zealous labors for reviving spiritual life in the Dissenting interest, do not appear to have produced immediate results. The decline over which he mourned at the beginning of his ministry, continued at its close ; and clouds of thicker gloom were gathering in certain quarters. Still it would not be just to estimate the immediate effect of his efforts, by looking at them simply in reference to his own de- nomination, or by confining our attention to the recorded history of his influence at large. Of his efficiency as a preacher, we most not judge by the number of his con- gregation at Northampton; nor of his efficiency as a :. by the nan. red in his church-books; nor of his efficiency as a tutor, by the recorded worth and usefuln - - of his students ; nor of his efficiency as an author, by the expressions of obligation preserved in letters. Incorrect also would it be to suppose, that his immediate success was confined to his own section of the church. Looking beyond that ecclesiastical tribe, the ' Call to the Unconverted,' and : Converse with God in Solitude.' — In his own ministry, Mr. Fawcett was eminent for his abundant la- bors and physical energy. In his hale constitution and hardihood only he was not a successor of Baxter. Like his tutor, he used to rise every morning at live, and, even in the coldest weather he never had a fire in his study ; and three sermons on Sabbath, with several through the week, seemed only to have the effect of a wholesome exercise." 178 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. upon whose muster-roll his own name was inserted, he sought to promote the welfare of the whole common- wealth of Israel ; and thus catholic in conception, his spiritual exertions were catholic in their consequences. They told upon the church at large. Conformist and Nonconformist went to hear him preach ; and in far more numerous instances sought to profit by his printed works. Dissenting pastors and the established clergy were both instructed by his learning, and stimulated by his piety. But beyond all this, the manifold labors of his life must have achieved advantages of which there are no memorials ; while that life itself, so gentle, holy, cheerful, and consistent, must have exerted an influence where no traces of it remain. We can weigh the gravity of the atmosphere, and measure the intensity of heat; but moral influence is not a ponderable power, nor have we appliances sufficiently refined for constructing an accurate scale of its degrees. Unable precisely to determine its amount in given cases, we are equally unable perfectly to distinguish between its different kinds, or to define their relative proportions. But, notwithstanding our inability to demonstrate posi- tive facts in the history of moral influence, perhaps we shall be approximating the truth in the case of Dod- dridge if we say that, however much of spiritual good sprung from his labors while he was living, they have yielded a vast amount since he has been dead. He ap- RESULTS OF filS LABORS. 179 pears to us to differ from his illustrious contemporary Whitfield, — as in the method of his service, so in the nature and period of its efficiency and success. If in the former respect Whitfield was like the herald angel in the Apocalypse, flying through the midst of heaven, and Doddridge was like the seraph sentinel in the tem- ple, watching and searching into the treasures of the Ark — in the latter respect we may compare that I evangelist to the exciting Aurora, which marvellously illumines while it lasts ; and that honored practical di- vine, to the calm, shining planet which continues night after night its place in the heavens, and, by its prolonged lustre, surpasses its early brightness. "Whitfield's direct influence was great for a while, but only for a while. His was the priesthood of the pulpit, in which a man cannot continue long by reason of death. Doddridge's direct influence has lasted through a hundred years with uninterrupted constancy and force. His is the priest- hood of the press, in which the mind of a man may continue to officiate centuries after he has put off this body. Conspicuous is Doddridge's fame in theological literature, and large the circulation of his books. In posthumous influence he is to be classed with Owen and Baxter, Howe and Bunyan, Flavel and Watts. His thoughts are ever entering the minds of posterity. " He being dead yet speaketh." His works are " household words." No expositor is more frequently cited. His name is of constant occurrence in our critical Digests; 180 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. Ids authority promotes a tone of evangelical interpreta- tion. Countless are the sermon-makings to which he has administered guidance, hints, and impulses. Morn- ing and evening, at many a fireside, a domestic group is by him aided in meditation, quickened in prayer. His hymns are still vehicles of holy praise, not only in the dissenting meeting-house but in the parish church ; for it is curious to notice that the first of the four hymns for the Holy Communion, found in the prayer-boohs, is his composition.* His " Life of Gardiner" is in the barrack library ; his " Rise and Progress of Religion," on the cotters shelf. "Wilberforce reads it, — it stimulates his mind to holy thought, and contributes to produce his " Practical View ;" then out of that there come the conversion of a Legh Richmond, and beautiful, world-known tracts, and good of all kinds — living, growing, and multiplying, like a handful of corn on the tops of the mountains.f Fos- ter's mind, in his last hour, is so struck with Doddridge's sermon on " The Incapacity of an Unregenerate Soul for relishing the Enjoyment of the Heavenly World," that he desires his daughters to promise him to read it every month, saying " that he thinks no one can read it often without a salutary effect." * It is the hymn beginning with " My God, and is thy table spread.'' No. 171 in the collection. t Dr. Chalmers was greatly benefitted by Wilberforce's " Practi- cal View." It is remarkable that, before he adopted evangelical sen- te, he denounced the "Itise and Progress' - from the pulpit. RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 181 High, too, was the estimate which that deep thinker formed of the " Rise and Progress," and in his own char- acteristic style of illustration he thus traces its manifold usefulness : — " The immense number of impressions have engaged the attention, lesser or more, of hundreds of thousands of persons. Each of these copies has had its own par- ticular destination ; and many of them have, doubtless, been attended with remarkable circumstances, though to us unknown. If some of the more memorable could be brought to our knowledge, in connection with the indi- vidual and still existing copies which they befell, what an interest would be attached to those books bearing those memorials of the past ! Imagine by what a strange diversity of persons, as to disposition, mental en- dowment, conduct, age, — in what a variety of situa- tions, — under how many peculiar conjunctions of recur- rence — and with what dissimilar impressions and results, the book has been perused or noticed. It is striking, to a degree even awful, to reflect what such a book must have done ; to how many it may have imparted thoughts new and affecting, and which nothing could expel ; how many it may have been made the means of leading into a happy life and a happy end ; how many it has arrest- ed, disturbed, and warned, whom it could not persuade ; of how many it has aggravated the responsibility more than influenced the conduct. So great a number and diversity of accountable beings, unknown, for the most Q 182 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. part, to one another, scattered here and there, over more than one country, and over a space of time approaching to a century, have come into some certain relation to this one book ! Among them, many a single instance might, if the case could be fully brought to our knowledge, ex- hibit a remarkable history of a train of thought and emotion, of determination and practical result, — possibly including singular incidents, opportune and auspicious, or of disastrous influence. And who shall presume to cast any thought toward an assignable duration of the effect resulting to so many persons, from their attention having fallen on this work, when that effect is gone, or is to go, into the interests of eternity ? Let the index of its unknown prolongation be combined with that of the number of beings experiencing it, and it would be no extravagant fantasy to believe, that the pious author may find it one of the amazements of his future enlarg- ing knowledge, to have a manifestation in some wav un- folding itself to him, of even a minor part of the conse- quences of what he wrote."* His works have been translated. The " Expositor" has been rendered into German. The sermons on " Re- generation," " Salvation by Grace," and the " Power and Grace of Christ," as well as a letter on family prayer, are read in Dutch. The Memoirs of Colonel Gardiner are in the same language, and also in French, and Ger- * Foster's Essay on Doddridge's '• Rise and Progress," p. 29. RESULTS OF HIS LAEORS. 183 man, while the " Rise and Progress" is circulated in all these tongues, and in Danish besides.* Doddridge, in his young days, when writing to a friend, expressed the desire that, if prolonged, his passage through this life might not be like that of " an arrow passing through the air, which leaves no trace or impres- sion behind it." Though his career was cut short when it had just passed the meridian, he was spared long enough to accomplish some of the noblest purposes of existence. His wide-spread influence, and the conspicu- ous fame to which we now do honor, prove that He who says " All souls are mine" granted to Doddridge abun- dantly the fulfilment of his early wish. Doddridge served his own generation according to the will of God. God gave him something to do, and he did it, because, as we learn from what we can see of his inward spiritual life, God, by his grace, had showed him something that he should be, and he was it. God also calls each one of us to cultivate a certain character, and to fill a certain office. By His Word he says — This must be your spirit ; by His Providence he says — That must be your mission. In enforcing this lesson, there are two observations suo-o-ested : the one relating to oo * In the correspondence of Mrs. Doddridge with Mr. Orton there are references to a project by a Swiss gentleman, for translating her husband's hymns into French. 184 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. the resemblance, the other to the difference, between the days of Doddridge and our own. 1. In addition to the broad features which stamp a general resemblance on all the ages of the world, we can hardly fail to recognize a notable coincidence between the middle of the seventeenth century and the middle of the eighteenth, in this respect — that, as now on the one side Papistry give signs of revival from the opera- tion of ecclesiastical causes, so then it gave signs of re- vival from the operation of political causes — the intrigues and projects of the Jacobite party being to it then what the activity and Jesuitism of the Tractarian party are to it now. And further, as on the other side, scepticism now largely imbues our current literature, leading to doubts about the historical character and objective na- ture of Christianity, and reducing it in the book to a myth, and in the mind to an idea; then it was de- veloped in the cognate form of denying the Divinity of Christ, or denying the divinity of the gospel. Dod- dridge laid hold on both the serpents ; and while, by ever preaching up the truth, he sought to preach down these fatal errors, he failed not distinctly to expose each — the first in a volume of Lectures, the MS. of which I now hold in my hand — the second in his mas- terly Letters in answer to a pamphlet entitled, "Christi- anity not founded on Argument." We almost think the day will come when the antagonism of superstition and infidelity will lead to the destruction of both, accom- RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 185 plishing for principles what Achilles wished in reference to persons, when, looking out on the battle of the ships, he desired that Trojans and Greeks might destroy one another, and leave the field open for better men. But in the meantime we must do battle with both, and that not for mere victory, much less with any vindictiveness, but for the well-being of souls, and in the spirit of love. Instead of carrying the temper of controversialism into all our labors, we are to carry the meek temper of charity into all our controversies, as Doddridge did, say- ing to the erroneous — not " L will crush thee, thou fiend !" — but " I will strive to save thee, my friend." 2. In relation to the difference between the times in which Doddridge lived and those in which Providence has cast our lot, it is almost superfluous to observe that society, civilization, and literature have undergone chan- ges which require corresponding modifications of reli- gious effort. The wants of this ao-e are not to be met, and the minds of men now are not to be moved exactly after the same method as was fitting a century ago. Spiritual truth is the same — the evidences of Christi- anity are the same — the arguments for repelling error, and superstition, and priestcraft, the same ; but adapta- tion to the altered habits of our countrymen, and to the now prevalent forms of thought and expression, must be attempted by all who aim at usefulness, and must be at- tained before they can insure success. Indeed, to adapt ourselves to the age in which we live, is but to walk in Q* 186 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. the footsteps of the illustrious example before us. But we would especially glance at the alteration, or rather the advance, which has taken place in the position of Nonconformists. The old Presbyterian body has been long on the decline. It has been so ever since the time when it became imbued with Socinian sentiments. Con- gregationalists have been increasing. The Independents, who, a hundred years ago, perhaps, could not count more than 500 churches, now number nearly 2000 ; while the Baptists, in proportion, have made more rapid growth, and the Methodists, in their several branches have, with reference to the multiplication of members, surpassed the sister sects.* Even allowing for the in- crease of population, still the proportion of orthodox Dissenters to the attendants on the parish church is much larger now than ever. Nor is there any compari- son between the contented stationariness of most Dissent- ing communities then, and the efforts at extension in the way of public instruction and appeal on the great subject of spiritual religion which they now employ. Sabbath schools, Home Missions, Christian Instruction Societies, and Chapel-Building Associations, are all the outgrowth of a zeal which has blessedly sprung up since Doddridge reached his home in Leaven. The almost universal acknowledgment in our churches, of the obliga- * Paedo-Baptist churches, including Presbyterian and Independent, were estimated, in 1773, at 7-29, and the Anti-Paedo-Baptists at 391, making together 1120. These, with the Quakers and Methodists, in- cluded almost all the Protestant Dissenting communities. Now, ac- RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. IS' tion to make aggressive movements on the world around, is of itself a great point gained. A fulcrum is it on -which main* a lever may be laid, to upheave society into a better position. The organization of Christian la- bor — the gathering of the members of our ecclesiastical commonwealth into companies of spiritual workmen — the establishment of schemes whereby some give, and some toil, and numbers do both, — are signs of decided improvement. They show a great advance upon the ex- cording to the statistics furnished to a Committee of the House of Commons, this year, hy Mr. E. Baines, they are as follows : — DENOMINATIONS. Number of Preaching Sta- tions in villages having either School-rooms or Hired Rooms. Number of Chapels. Wesleyan Independent : England 1.965 Wales 607 Baptist Primitive Methodist Calvinistic Methodist Bihle Christian Society of Friends Wesleyan Methodist Association Methodist New Connection Unitarian Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Scotland 12 Free Church ditto 77 United Presbyterian 61 Lady Huntingdon's. 1,101 1.000 1,384 3,-393 110 186 100 2.572 1,9-13 1.662 778 415 330 322 281 260 150 30 Totals . 13,193 188 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. ertions of a few rare, isolated spirits, who a century since sought to do something towards the spiritual regenera- tion of their country. The combination of many Con- gregational churches in the form of a Union for England and Wales — a combination which, while it hinds them together by intercourse, sympathy, mutual counsel, and common operation, does not m the slightest degree trench on their much-prized independency, — is also a fact which to many will appear a subject of congratula- tion and a ground of hope. A rudimentary framework is it, which by wise heads, and honest, zealous, loving hearts, might be worked up into a system of fraternal action and aid, whereby the strong might help the weak — the rich might help the poor — the city might help the village — and all might mutually help to fulfil their proper and much-needed mission to the whole em- pire, domestic and colonial, without the exercise or the assumption of any central control over the internal affairs of Christian churches — without, in short, the least viola- tion of the principles of scriptural Congregationalism. To ascertain precisely the spiritual status of a church at any given period, and to determine its exact relation to a state of things existing at an earlier or a later age, is always difficult, and sometimes impossible. But per- haps it is an approximation to the truth to say, that there is a wider surface of scriptural piety in Congrega- tional churches now than there was a hundred years RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. 189 since,* combined certainly with a larger amount of general intelligence. Xor need we fear to say that, if the education of the ministry amongst us, in comparison with the scholarship of the age, be not higher, except in a few instances, than it was then, yet much more of spiritual fervor is generally diffused, and we have a larger number of energetic, influential minds. Intellec- tual temptations hem round the thoughtful and imagi- native of the ministerial class, even as temptations, gen- erally the same, but specifically different, imperilled the studious in the days of Doddridge ; but we would hope that there is a sound and manly spirit of positive Chris- tian faith amongst us, that will suffice to repel or throw off the evils of the present rationalistic tendencies in the theological world. These facts, united, are instructive and animating to all evangelical Nonconformists — some of them to us in particular. They suggest certain modes of usefulness we should adopt ; they point to forms of associations of which we may take advantage ; while, by indicating growth and increasing vigor, they remind us of augmented responsibility, and at the same time inspire us with courage and hope. In conclusion, to serve succeeding generations was Doddridge's hiah. distinction ; but the privilege of doin^ 1 so is awarded to but few. To shine as lights whose rays shall dart through centuries — to stand as examples, " Whether that could be Fait] of us, in comparison with the churches of the earlier Nonconformists, is another question. 190 RESULTS OF HIS LABORS. to guide remote generations — to speak as oracles, to whose voice unborn millions will listen with rever- ence — is a pre-eminent honor reserved by the Father of Spirits for rarely-gifted minds ; but to serve one's own generation — God makes the faculty as universal as the function. And if our work, though humble, be holy — ■ if what we do be the expression of what we are — if our activity be the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in us — then, though no memorial of us should remain, and we die in obscurity, and our names sink into silence, He, the only one whose praise we should supremely covet, will, beyond all doubt, say to us at last, " Because thou hast been precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee." POSTSCRIPT THE THREE COLLEGE (Eovoavb. The academy, which for twenty years had been so prosperously conducted at Northampton, was, after Dr. Doddridge's death, removed to Daventiy, where Caleb Asli worth, whom he had nominated as his successor, lived in the affections, and labored for the welfare of his flock. The church had been originally gathered in the days of the Puritans, under rather remarkable circum- stances ; and as the institution whose history we propose to continue, became connected for a while with the Daventry congregation, the story of the manner in which it was commenced, as Dr. Ashworth used to re- late it, may here be appropriately introduced. When Charles II. was on the throne, and spiritual religion was much discouraged, it happened that one day a minister, rather advanced in life, was on his way to London, and put up for the night at the town of Daventry, under the 192 THE THREE COLLEGES. hospitable roof of the old Swan inn. The good man was taken ill, and detained at the place for more than a week, during which period Lindsay the host, and all his family, paid him the kindest attention, and completely won his heart. The house was conducted with a regu- larity which was singularly remarkable in those times, when the hostelries of England were almost all scenes of unrestricted indulgence and boisterous merriment. The traveller, being restored to health, summoned into his chamber the kind-hearted people of the inn, the night before he resumed his journey, and particularly thanked them all for their great civility and kindness. But after expressing this, as well as his satisfaction with the order established in the house, he added : — " Some- thing leads me to suspect there is not the fear of God among you, and it grieves me to see such honest civility, economy, and decency, — and yet religion is wanting, the one thing needful." So, he entered into close and faithful conversation on the importance of inward piety, and closed the interview by telling them that he had in his saddle-bags a little book, lately printed, which he would give them, earnestly requesting that they would read it with attention and care. He then made them a present of Baxter's " Poor Man's Family Book," and went on his way. He did not tell them who he was, nor did they ever fully ascertain his name ; but the sus- picion on their minds, afterwards, was very strong, that the stranger was no other than Richard Baxter himself; THE THREE COLLEGES. 193 and that indeed they had entertained an angel unawares. The book was valued and read, and other works of the great and earnest-souled Puritan were procured and studied ; the result of which was, that the innkeeper and some of his children became decided Christians. Weary of the mode of life he had pursued, and having acquired a competence, Mr. Lindsay retired to a house in the middle of the High Street, having a small close be- hind it, at the extremity of which, upon the back lane opposite the inlands, there stood some outbuildings. These premises, in the fulness of his zeal, he forthwith converted into a meeting-house. His neighbors came, a congregation was gathered, and a pastor chosen. It was the intention of the owner to put the building in trust, but the thing was neglected, and the good people had in a few years to purchase for themselves the hum- ble structure. There they continued to worship till 1722, when Mr. Mattock, then the minister of Daventry, built another place. Dr. Ashworth, who presided over this interesting church, had been a favorite pupil with Doddridge, and the high opinion which the latter entertained of the former is apparent, from his strongly expressed wish that Ashworth should succeed him. But little can be gathered respecting his character, beyond the impression that he was a man of good natural talents, of considera- ble learning, of orthodox opinions, and of unquestioned piety. His career was not much longer than that of R 194 THE THREE COLLEGES. his illustrious predecessor, for lie died in l'llo, in his fifty-fifth year :* a premature termination of life, it is supposed, occasioned by a too intense application to study, and the other duties of his double office. Mr. Toller, of Kettering, was a student under Dr. Ash worth, and from the following passage in Mr. Hall's Life of that distinguished minister of Christ, it would appear that the religious state of the seminary was unsatisfactory in the extreme : — " At the time of Mr. Toller's admission into the Daventry academy, the literary reputation of that seminary was higher than that of any among the Dis- senters ; but, partly owing to a laxness in the terms of admission, and partly to the admixture of lay and divinity students, combined with the mode in which theology was taught, erroneous principles prevailed much, and the majority of such as were educated there became more distinguished for their learning than for the fervor of their piety and the purity of their doctrine. The celebrated Priestly speaks of the state of the acad- emy, while he resided there, with great complacency ; nothing, he assures us, could be more favorable to the progress of free inquiry, since both the tutors and the students were about equally divided between the ortho- dox and Arian systems." Mr. Hall goes on to speak of * There is a funei'al sermon for him hy Mr. Palmer, hut by Ash- worth's request scarcely anything is said of a personal nature. I have seen two sermons by Dr. Ashworth : the one on the death of Dr. Watts, the other on the death of Rev. S. Clark. The doctrinal sentiments introduced are of an evangelical character. THE THREE COLLEGES. 195 the theological professor as priding himself on the steady- impartiality with which he held the balance betwixt contending opinions, seldom or never interposing his own, still less betraying the slightest emotion of antipa- thy to error or predilection to truth. Priestly, however, states that Dr. Ashworth was earnestly desirous to make his pupils as orthodox as possible. He also says, "Our tutors were of different opinions ; Dr. Ashworth, taking the orthodox side of every question, and Mr. Clark, the sub-tutor, that of heresy." Certainly, the preposterous notions about moderation and candor which then pre- vailed, must have banefully operated at Daventry, seeing that they permitted the continuance of an instructor who openly avowed unorthodox opinions. As to the extent of theological error produced by this state of things, Dr. Priestly informs us, where he says, " Notwithstanding the great freedom of our debates, the extreme of heresy among us was Arianism, and all of us, I believe, left the academy w T ith a belief more or less qualified of the doc- trine of the atonement." Dr. Ashworth was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Robins, and the following notice of this individual by Mr. Hall, contains the chief information we have respect- ing his character* " Of Mr. Robins, Mr. Toller was often heard to say, that he considered him as the wisest and best man he ever knew. Among many other men- * Mr. Hall fell into an error in speaking of Mr. Robins as Dr. Ashworth's assistant. 196 THE THREE COLLEGES. tal endowments, he was remarkable for delicacy of taste and elegance of diction ; and perhaps my reader will excuse my observing, that the first perception of these qualities which the writer of these lines remembers to have possessed, arose from hearing him preach at Northampton on a public occasion. It is to be la- mented that he has left none of those productions behind him, which a correct and beautiful imagination, em- bodied in language of the most classic purity, rendered so impressive and delightful. The qualities of his heart corresponded with those of his genius ; and though long before his death, his bodily infirmities obliged him to relinquish a commanding station and retire into obscu- rity, he retained to the last such an ascendency over the minds of his former pupils, and such an interest in their affections, as nothing but worth of the highest order can command." On the retirement of Mr. Kobins, the Rev. Thomas Belsham, who had been his assistant, succeeded as theo- logical tutor ; but after being educated in Calvinistic sentiments, and having early professed them, he at length forsook the faith of his fathers, and openly avowed his adoption of Socinianism. Whatever mistaken candor, laxity of sentiment, or Arian errors, had been manifested by the previous instructors of the young men at Daven- try, no one had ever proceeded as far as Mr. Belsham ; and this gentleman, feeling that the change which had THE THREE COLLEGES. 197 taken place in his views rendered his position in that academy untenable, honorably relinquished his office. The care of the pupils was next transferred to the Rev. John Horsey of Northampton, to which place the institution was restored. As the object in this brief sketch is not to furnish lives of the tutors, but simply to trace the progress of the academy itself, noticing the characters of the instructors only to illustrate their influ- ence on the institution, it will be sufficient to observe, that the minister now mentioned was remarkable, to an astonishing degree, for concealing his sentiments on doctrinal points. A writer in the " Monthly Reposi- tory" strangely commends him for his judicious and exemplary mode of instruction, inasmuch as he was so anxious not to give an undue bias to his youthfnl audi- tors, that it was very difficult to ascertain in the lecture- room his own precise views on the more controverted subjects." After what has been said on this method of instruction in a former part of this volume, nothing need be added but to record the fact that it proved, as might be expected, most pernicious to the welfare of the rising * I have now before me several letters of Mr. Horsey to the trus- tees of Mrs. Jackson's charity. What they contain beyond business topics illustrates the cautious habits of this peculiar man. He ex- presses his desire that whatever evils existed in connection with the academy should be remedied, and justly alludes to the impropriety of young men being sent to him as students for the ministry at the age of sixteen. He la.ys some blame on the times in which he lived; " The world," he says, "has never been in a state anything like the present since we came into it."— Letter, dated October, 1797. 193 THE THREE COLLEGES. ministry. It is quite clear that Mr. Horsey cannot be charged with teaching Socinian sentiments, nor would he ever permit himself to be called an Unitarian. Whatever dubiousness or vacillation he might have ex- perienced in the course of his mental history, it is pleas- ing to be able to state that, shortly before his death, he expressed the following decidedly evangelical senti- ment : — " Whenever the summons shall arrive to call me from time to eternity, I wish to leave the world in the character of a penitent believer, lying at the foot of the cross, imploring Divine mercy through the merit and mediation of Christ, the great Redeemer and Sa- viour of the lost." Though the academic vessel which Doddridge had once steered had never actually struck on the rocks of Socinianism, yet certainly it had come in sight of them, and had for some considerable period been sadly tossed by conflicting currents, because left to a pilotage wanting in a fixed aim and steady hand. It was therefore high time for the parties on whom the seminary was mainly dependent for support,* if they would rescue those com- mitted to their care from the great perils that surrounded them, to introduce some very decided change. This they did in the year 1789. To understand the nature of that change, we must go back to an early period, and briefly advert to the history of the trust by which the * It may be mentioned that students were sent to Daventry and Northampton by the trustees of Mrs. Jackson. THE THREE COLLEGES. 199 Da vent it and Northampton academy had been chiefly maintained. References have been made in an early portion of this work to Mr. Coward. He was a London merchant, who, like many of his honored class, reaped a goodly fortune. His residence was in the quiet village of Wal- thamstow, — in his time a famous place of resort for Dis- senters of the Presbyterian and Cono-reo-ational order, as Edmonton is for Quakers at this day.* There he had a comfortable mansion and extensive grounds, where he employed his genius in digging canals, erecting stately edifices, and planting gardens ; while, to adorn the rest of his works, as well as to display his patriotism and love of liberty, he bought and set up a statue of William III. on horseback. He was amazingly punctual in his habits, and, enacting in his establishment a sort of cur- few law, he zealously guarded his house against the ad- mission of visitors after eight o'clock ; nor would he al- low a dinner guest to enter if he came after the hour ap- pointed for the meal. He had a good many odd ways, and seems to have been always rather obstinate, and sometimes a little testy, for which perhaps " the cramp in his legs" might have been pleaded in excuse. But along with much that was eccentric and infirm, he pos- sessed a most liberal disposition, and devoted a large * At the Presbyterian meeting-house, in Hugh Farmer's time, tra- dition says thirty -six carriages might be seen at the door, — a majority of one over the number which, it is said, at the same period swept up to the Clapham place of worship. 200 THE THREE COLLEGES. portion of his property to charitable objects, — especially to the promotion of the interests of orthodox and evan- gelical religion. He was a patron of the Bury Street Lecture, and was ever anxious to support the " preach- ing of Christ direct ;" and with a view to the effective and permanent progress of Nonconformist piety, he wisely directed his thoughts to the education of young men for the ministry. He thought of founding an academy at Walthamstow, and of making Dr. Dod- dridge the tutor; but the scheme fell through, and he never established an academy at all. He, however, con- tinued through life to provide for young men studying for the ministry, sending some to Northampton, and others to Dr. Taylor, at Deptford, and to Mr. Eames. He died in 1*738, and by his will created a trust for educating candidates who sought to enter the ministry among Independents, and also for the bestowment of other benefactions, committing the administration of the trust to the Rev. Dr. Watts, Dr. Guyse, Nathaniel Neal, and his son, Mr. Neal, a layman. They and their suc- cessors, in carrying out Mr. Coward's design, continued to send youths to the seminary conducted by Doddridge. Feeling their own responsibility, they made inquiries, and received reports, respecting the conduct and pro- gress of their pupils ; and occasionally they went down to Northampton to examine them, the Doctor, as exist- ing letters to his wife fully testify, taking care to afford his official guests most hospitable entertainment, and to THE THREE COLLEGES. 201 make their visit an enviably pleasant one. Upon the removal of the Institution to Daventry, the Coward trustees sent students there, feeling the same responsi- bility and maintaining the same supervision as before. So things went on, till Mr. Belsham's resignation, when the trustees requested Mr. Horsey to be the tutor. The unsatisfactory condition of the seminary continuing after its return to Northampton, they at length determined to withdraw their support from it altogether, and conse- quently it was broken up. The new arrangements they adopted, will be noticed presently. In the mean time it is proper to observe, that the trustees continued, as Mr. Coward had done, to send students to other seminaries. Immediately after his death, there were young men supported by them at Dr. Taylor's, and at the academy conducted by Mr. Eames and Mr. Densham. Their connection with Dr. Taylor lasted a very short time, but they went on patronizing the other tutors just mentioned; and when, in 1744, Mr. Eames died, they appointed Dr. Jennings as his successor. After his decease, in 1762, Dr. Samuel Mor- ton Savage became the Divinity Tutor, with whom were associated, as instructors in other branches of learning, the Rev. Drs. Kippis and Rees. During Jennings' life the students resided in private families, and attended daily at a house in Wellclose Square, where the library was kept and the lectures were delivered. That place was left in 1762. when a house was taken at Hoxton for 202 THE THREE COLLEGES. Dr. Savage, and the students were lodged under his roof. The religious history of this institution resembled that of the other. Heterodoxy had crept in under the cover of candor and moderation. The tutors differed in sentiment ; the students halted between two opinions ; the trustees were dissatisfied. First Dr. Kippis retired, in 1*784 ; in the following year both his colleagues imi- tated his example, and the seminary was dissolved. Yet the decline of these seminaries into error — so far as they did decline — was not for want of the specific state- ment of a creed ; for Mr. Coward fixed as his standard, — and directed that his students should be instructed in its doctrines, — the Westminster confession. The history just given shows the inefficiency of such means to pre- serve orthodoxy, where a tone of evangelical sentiment, and zealous, earnest, spiritual piety are wanting. Mere verbal creeds, however exalted and defended, whether only tacitly admitted or formally subscribed, have ever proved feeble barriers against the aggression of error. Ecclesiastical history is full of melancholy examples of the ingenious way in which men have contrived to evade their meaning and frustrate their design. When, fourteen years after the cessation of the acad- emy at Hoxton, it was found necessary to discontinue the support of Mr. Horsey's academy, the trustees de- termined on taking premises sufficiently large for the accommodation of all their students, and on appointing tutors who should wholly devote themselves to their THE THREE COLLEGES. 203 care. By such means the institution came entirely under the control of the trustees, who thereby sought the better to fulfil the purposes of Mr. Coward. A con- venient house was sought ; and it affords a remarkable illustration of the insecurity of travelling at that time, to notice, among the minutes, that in a journey which the gentlemen took to Oakingham, to see an estate there which was thought suitable, they were all, just before they entered the town, robbed by highwaymen, at noon- day, of their money and watches. This was as late as 1799. In that year Yv'ymondley House, near Hitchin, was taken, and the Rev. Mr. Parry and Rev. H. F. Burder appointed tutors. A more prosperous era opened with the commencement of the Wymondley Academy. It continued for thirty-three years progres- sively to nourish under the successive presidency of the Rev. Mr. Parry and Mr. Morell, supplying the Congre- gational churches with men of ability and learning, and of unquestionable evangelical sentiments. It was then removed to Torrington Square, London, under the desig- nation of Coward College, and the students were sent to University College, for instruction in secular learning. Mr. Morell remained Professor of Divinity till his death, when he was succeeded by Dr. Jenkyn. The Rev. Dr. Burder, formerly tutor, is now associa- ted, in the administration of the Coward trust, with the Rev. Thomas Binney, J. Piper, Esq., and the Author of this volume. 204 THE THREE COLLEGES. II. Domcrtou. The origin of the Congregational Fund Board has been alluded to in the Introduction. It was established seven years after the Revolution, and the object, accord- ing to the statement made at the first meeting, was " to encourage the preaching of the gospel in England and Wales." Not only did the excellent persons who formed it purpose to afford assistance to poor churches and min- isters, but they established lectures in towns where the inhabitants were destitute of evangelical instruction, and encouraged young men to go out into the ministry ; of which their persuasions addressed, and then assistance offered, to young Isaac Watts, in 1696, is a notable in- stance. The efforts of this band of worthies, so soon as " the churches had rest," evince that the Nonconformists of that early period were not totally destitute of a mis- sionary spirit, though the sphere of their exertions, for very obvious reasons, was confined to their own country. The education of young men for the ministry forming an essential part of their design, they placed them under the care of accredited ministers, in London and else- where.* In 1743 they had eighteen students under * The following illustrations are taken from the minutes : — "6th April, ]f.9C— Students first sent to Mr. Forbs :— " 13th. — Mr. Lanc;ston written to about taking students. THE THREE COLLEGES. 205 their patronage, — eight with Dr. Doddridge, six with the Rev. E. Davies, and four with Mr. Eames. The next year, though continuing, as they had ever done, to sup- port the education of young men in the country, they formally appointed, as their tutor for London, Dr. Zepha- niah Marryatt, a man of such astonishing powers of ap- plication, that he is reported to have read through the whole compass of Greek and Latin literature, including the Fathers and the chief writers of the middle ages. All the students to he educated in the metropolis were accordingly sent to him,* and he continued to sustain this relation to the Board till 1754, when a new ar- " 27lh. — That Mr. Forbs shall have sent him, in consideration of his training up his two grandchildren for the ministry, £20. '• Mr. Paine, Jan., of Saffron Walden, appointed to receive students. Also Mr. Howe. " October. — That Mr. Mead, Mr. Nesbitt, Dr. Chauncey, and Mr. Yonge, discourse with Mr. Goodwin about educating young students. " That Mr. Paine have thirty guineas for erecting three studies for three students with him. " That Mr. Forbs be allowed the same for Bowes, King, and Wilson/' Other entries for allowances appear. "Nov. 2.— That Mr. Mather, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Yonge, Mr. Larner, Mr. Nesbitt, and Mr. Boddington be appointed to consider of the disposal of students, where they shall be educated, being such as are ordered to be taken care of by the messengers. " That Mr. Taylor be desired to write to Mr. Nicholson, to acquaint him that, if he and his son be not free, that his son should be disposed on as this Board shall think fit, they shall take no further care about him.' ! * From this period the Fund Board discontinued sending students to Doddridge's Academy, now under Dr. Ashworth, at Daventry. They confined themselves to Dr. Marryatt's Institution in London, the west of England Seminary, and one in Wales. s 206 THE THREE COLLEGES. rangement was made, for the correct apprehension of which, we must here pause to notice another society, which had for some years been engaged in similar labors. This was the King's Head Society. A hundred and twenty years ago, Sweeting's Alley — which derives its name from an eminent grocer of the Ward of Bishops- gate Without, " who was possessed of a plentiful estate at the east end of Royal Exchange" — was a very differ- ent place from what it is now. Instead of displaying its present amplitude, it was a narrow thoroughfare, lined by old-fashioned houses, with beetling brows, which nodded under the shadow of the second Royal Ex- change — the phoenix that sprung from the ashes of the first — and there stood a dwelling from whose front pro- jected the swinging sign of the King's Head.** The landlord was a godly man, named Edward Munday, and he, with several others like-minded, about the beginning of the year 1730, were much concerned about the state of evangelical religion, and earnestly panted for its pure revival. They reverently loved the old theology of Owen, Charnock, and Bates, and did not at all relish the new notions which were becoming rife. A sym- pathy drew them together, they very wisely sought to turn it to practical account ; so they projected a weekly meeting at the house of Mr. Munday, with whose sign, * The Society, after leaving Sweeting's Alley, met at the King's Head, in the Poultry. THE THREE COLLEGES. 207 forthwith, this religious association became rather oddly identified. And there they talked things over, and prayed, and took counsel respecting the advancement of Christ's kingdom. They soon began to act; and one thing they did was to establish a monthly lecture, of which those delivered at Lime Street, and afterwards published, were the first-fruits. But, like Mr. Coward, they especially felt the importance of looking to the rising ministry. They saw that one great evil of the times was, that young men were taken into academies before their views were at all formed, or their piety ascertained. They felt persuaded that persons who aspired to the ministry of the gospel ought themselves to believe, feel, love, and practise its saving truths. They, therefore, determined to assist in the preparation of such — and only such. The King's Head Society thus became an educational society for ministerial can- didates. They kept up the Monthly Lecture, and did other good deeds ; but the care of hopeful young men was their special work. They were not heedless about talent — they paid due regard to soundness of opinion — but above all they looked for decided piety. The young- men under their patronage, from 1731 to 1735, were sent to the Rev. Samuel Parsons, an exemplary and well-qualified minister at Clerkenwell, a portion of which suburban appendage then retained much of its rural character. From that period to 1740, the Society sent their youths down to Deptford, to study under Dr. 208 THE THREE COLLEGES. Abraham Taylor, who, though both orthodox and learned, was by no means an amiable or consistent man. Afterwards they were transferred to Stepney, where their studies were superintended by the Rev. Thomas Hub- bard, the able and beloved pastor of the venerable church " which had enjoyed the gifts of Greenhill Mead, and Mitchell." This new arrangement gave the Society great joy; but their excited hopes were speedily crushed by the untimely death of good Mr. Hubbard. Dr. John Walker had been appointed his assistant, a man whose connection with the King's Head Society, as one of their trustees, long continued, and whose memory was ever fragrant to his students. With a view to advance the spiritual welfare of the young men, it was the practice of the Society to depute certain of their number to converse with them on the state of their minds, as it regarded experimental godli- ness.* It is probable, also, that subscription to articles of faith, expressing the views contained in the Lime Street Lectures, was exacted from both members and students, at the earliest period of the history of the So- ciety. These articles were printed in 1732 ; and it ap- pears, from the records preserved, which go back no * January 17, 1737. — '-Pursuant to the vote of last Thursday Mr. Hitchin and Mr. Nathaniel Field reported that they, with others de- puted by the Society, had conversed with the young men under Dr. Taylor's care. — that they gave a very satisfactory account of them- Belves, and they had comfortable hopes that they made progress iii ex- perimental religion." THE THREE COLLEGES. 209 further than 1737, that such subscription was then re- quired. The Fund Board received only such students as possessed a competent classical education, previous to their entrance on theology, which latter course extended over four years. But the new society, if satisfied with regard to the religious character of the candidate, took him with inferior attainments, and allowed him support through a longer term — extending it as tar as six years. On the death of the Rev. J. Hubbard, in 1743, they re- quested Dr. Marryatt to attend to the tuition of the young men at Stepney, a duty which, on account of his age, he informed them he could undertake only for the present. With him Mr. Walker, already the assistant tutor, was associated. Among the minor arehreolotfical celebrities of London was Plasterers' Hall, in Addle Street. It early passed out of the hands of the Pinners, on whom Stowe could not help making the pun, that " they were not worth a pin," and came into the possession of the Plasterers, who, like some other companies, parted with their civic gathering-place, that it might be transformed into a Dissenting meeting-house. The old building, which had for a while been vacant, was selected in 1744, as a lec- ture-room for Dr. Marryatt and Mr. Walker, where, under their superintendence, the students prosecuted their course of ministerial preparation, residing, however, not with their tutors, but in the houses of worthy Dis- senting citizens, hard by. 210 THE THREE COLLEGES. Both the Fund Board and the King's Head Society had now come to send their students to the same parties, but no formal union took place between them till the year 1754. At first, the latter did not find favor in the sight of the former ; but when they saw the benefits re- sulting from the religious terms of admission to the academy, and from the careful spiritual oversight after- wards maintained, their jealousy subsided, and they were prepared to co-operate with their former rivals. At the date last-mentioned, a joint committee was formed, to take into their most solemn consideration such things as might conduce to the flourishing state of the Academy in London, and promote the interests of re- ligion between the two bodies. But Dr. Marryatt was now very old, and the grasshopper had become a burden. He was, moreover, seriously ill, and to the anxious in- quiries made respecting his health, he returned the touching answer, that " he deemed himself a dying man, and had no expectation of ever returning to his work as a tutor." The joint committee, availing themselves of this occasion, determined to increase their staff of in- structors ; and, accordingly, they selected the Rev. John Conder, for the theological department, and the Rev. Mr. Gibbons, in connection with Mr. Walker, for the other branches of tuition. A plan was then arranged, which existed through many years, whereby the Fund Board, according to its original constitution, supported only those who were engaged in theological studies, THE THREE COLLEGES. 211 while the King's Head Society took under their patron- age the youths who were occupied in receiving prepara- tory tuition in classical and general learning. At this period of union, when Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Conder was appointed, premises were taken at Mile End, opposite Bancroft's Almshouses ; and this was done, as it plainly appears from the minutes of the So- ciety, not by tutors, but by the committee themselves : so that this may be regarded as the era when the entire management of the Academy was taken into their hands. From the beginning, the orthodoxy of the ministers employed as tutors, both by the Board and the Society, was beyond suspicion ; and while some were very emi- nent for endowments both natural and acquired, none were defective in these respects. The influence of the good men who met at the King's Head, no doubt, ten- ded greatly to raise the tone of evangelical feeling in the Academy ; nor can we hesitate to regard them as hav- ing introduced a practical reform, of vital importance to the interest of the Church of Christ. Upon the union of the two bodies, increased prosperity appears to have attended the removal of the seminary to Mile End, and the distribution of educational labor among three pro- fessors. Dr. Walker died in 1770, and at the same time Dr. Conder's health began to fail from advancing age. He therefore retired from the anxieties of the resident tutorship, and the Rev. Dr. Fisher, of Warminster, was invited to succeed him. The premises at Homerton had 212 THE THREE COLLEGES. been purchased two years before. Thither the Academy- was removed. There Dr. Fisher lived, and Dr. Conder, as for as his strength would admit, went on to labor ; but his useful and honorable career terminated in 1781, when Dr. Fisher became Theological Professor, and filled that office till the year 1803. Dr. Benjamin Davies be- came classical and resident tutor in 1*781, and Dr. Gib- bous was succeeded by Dr. Mayo, in 1*785.* Upon the death of the latter, in 1793, the vacancy was not filled up. Dr. Davies was followed by the Rev. John Fell, in the year 1787. They remained united in office nine years, and like their predecessors were men of high character ; but they were unlike in temper and talent, Dr. Fisher being extremely grave, regular, and punctil- ious, while Mr. Fell was " a person of great vivacity, veiy ingenious, and of unusually quick and irritable tempera- ment."f From the. keenness of his susceptibilities and other circumstances, his term of office was by no means peaceful and happy; and having retired in 1796, he died the following year. The Rev. Mr. Berry was for four years classical tutor, and upon his resignation there became connected with the seminary that illustrious * There are a few pages of Dr. Gibbons' Diary in the Red Cross street Library, from which I should judge he was a very spiritually- minded man. t Watford' s Autobiography, p. 158. Mr. Walford was a student at Homerton at the time. My revered friend, whose loss I shall ever lament, gives no very flattering view of the literary advantages then enjoyed at Homerton. Great improvements were afterwards made, to which he largely contributed. THE THREE COLLEGES. 213 scholar, whose extensive fame will ever shed a halo round the long, prosperous, and happy years of office he spent at Homerton — the Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith. He was associated with Dr. Fisher till his death, taking charge of the classical department. In that position he continued, while the Rev. James Knight filled the chair of Divinity till 1805. For one year, with the assistance of Mr. Alfred Bishop, a senior student, he conducted the entire business of the seminary. In 1806 he was elect- ed theological professor, a station which he filled and adorned till the Institution was merged in New College. During that period he had several colleagues. From 1806 till 1813, the duties of classical tutor were dili- gently discharged, though much interrupted through affliction, by the Rev. Thomas Hill. The Rev. William Walford was his successor, to whose distinguished talent, learning, and piety, the writer of these lines has attempt- ed elsewhere to pay some few words of honor, gratitude, and love.* His sad sorrows compelled him to retire in 1830, after which period the Rev. D. G. Bishop, the Rev. H. L. Berry, and that distinguished scholar. Dr. William Smith, successively occupied the office of Greek and Latin Professor. Some changes took place from time to time in the form of management. On several occasions distinct committees were appointed by the Fund Board and the * Mr. Walford was very active in promoting the erection of the new building at Homerton. 214 THE THREE COLLEGES. King's Head Society. In 1808 a visiting committee was formed, distinct from the managing committee. This created inconvenience. In 1824 the two commit- tees were merged in one. A more important alteration took place in 1817, when subscription to the Articles was abolished. It had never been required from the Fund Board students, but only from the King's Head students. The persons who then took counsel together, felt the mischief of the invidious distinction, and, more- over, perceived that the orthodoxy of the institution had not been secured by the process of subscribing articles, but by the care which had been taken as to the personal piety of the young men. The step they took was amply justified by subsequent experience, for never were the sentiments of persons educated at Homerton more truly evangelical than subsequently to the abolition of the verbal test. III. fligljburn. The last Institution to be noticed commenced in 17*78. It originated with a society called the Evangelical So- ciety, not unlike that which, about fifty years before, beo-an at the Kind's Head. The members were warm- hearted men of the Establishment, as well as Dissenters, who had caught the fire of a holy zeal under Whitfield's THE THREE COLLEGES. 215 awakening ministry. They longed to diffuse evangeli- cal religion, and began their labors by supporting itiner- ant ministrations. But they soon saw that a measure of preparation was needful, even for the humblest em- ployment in the Christian churches, and therefore they agreed together to establish an Academy. Mr. Benja- min Mills was the first secretary. Mr. Thorn; - Wilson, the first treasurer. The literary culture of the students was not with these worthy persons by any means a leading object of regard. " We seek to make preachers " said they, u not scholars." Hence, very unpretending was the curriculum, described by the Rev. George Bur- der. " They are to be instructed in English Grammar, and in a course of Divinity, and to be assisted in under- standing some of the more difficult parts of Scripture, and in the best methods of studying for the pulpit." While we look at such a very limited course of educa- tion, we should remember that the founders knew there were other institutions where learning was cultivated ; and they only meant their little bark, with a few hard rowers, to run beside gallant vessels more ably manned.'* The Ptev. Messrs Barber and Brewer were first appointed the instructors of the young men, and afterwards Mr. Kello was added. Lectures were given on three days of the week ; only candidates resident in London were admitted ; " and in cases which rendered it necessary * It was intended chiefly to supply the urgent spiritual necessities of the villages, and other destitute places in the country. 216 THE THREE COLLEGES. the students were supported partly by the Society, and partly by their own occupation. ' Who hath despised the day of small things V — Its beginning- was small, its latter end has greatly increased." Something more exr tensive and permanent was soon adopted. The Society took Grove House, Mile End, and invited Dr. Adding- ton, one of Doddridge's students, a laborious and holy man, to be the resident tutor. He came, and worked successfully, till his health broke down under his intense exertions. In 1791, they purchased the premises at Hoxton, recently vacated by Drs. Savage, Kippis, and Rees, who had been supported, as the reader will remem- ber, by the Coward trustees. The Rev. Robert Simp- son, D.D., was chosen in 1791 to succeed Dr. Adding- ton, and zealously did he toil, for many years, to train up an earnest race of ministers ; inspiring many a youth, who sat at his feet, with his own bold and burning energy. " When he entered on his office, he had but three young men under his charge. In 1794, there were thirteen. In 1798, the numbers had increased to twenty; in 1801, to twenty-live; and in 1803, to thirty. " On the death of Thomas Wilson, Esq., the treasurer, which occurred in March, 1 794, his son, the late Thomas Wilson, was chosen to succeed him in his office, who applied himself with singular devotedness to the busi- ness of the Academy, laboring incessantly to promote its interests. He gave his sanction and support to other THE THREE COLLEGES. 21 7 institutions which had for their object the glory of God and the salvation of souls; but he lived for this. 'I de- termined,' he said, ' to devote myself to its duties ; and to do this more effectually, I gave up my connection with business in the year 1798.' On this determina- tion he acted through his whole life, with unabated ar- dor and untiring zeal. He rilled the office of treasurer to his death, a period of nearly fifty years. To his incessant labor, his unwearied watchfulness, and his munificent liberality, the Institution owes much of the favor it found with the public, and the blessing it proved to the churches." As the number increased, and the views of the Society supporting the Institution enlarged, a classical tutorship was added, which was first filled by the Rev. G. Col- lison, then by the Rev. J. Atkinson, and, subsequently, by the Revs. John Hooper, Dr. Halley, and Dr. William Smith. In 1807, the Rev. II. F. Burder was associated with Dr. Simpson and Mr. Hooper, as professor of men- tal science and English literature ; and continued, most advantageously to the students, and honorably to him- self, in the discharge of such duties till the year 1830. Dr. Simpson was succeeded in the chair of Divinity by Dr. Harris. " Under the presidency of this excellent man, the premises at Hoxton, after several enlargements, and such improvements as could be effected, being still found inadequate for the purposes of the Institution, it was determined, in the year 182-1, to seek a more suita- T 218 THE THREE COLLEGES. ble locality, and to erect a more commodious building. Highbury was selected, and the new building was opened for the reception of students in September, 1826. To Mr. Wilson's indefatigable labors may be mainly attributed the success of the undertaking. How much his heart was set on the work, and how elated he was, when he anticipated the increase of the Redeemer's kingdom that would thereby be effected, may be seen from a letter, bearing date March, 182V, in which he says : — ' We expect to send out ten ministers annually ; and will not a hundred ministers, in ten years, do much for the increase of Christ's kingdom ?' " Dr. Harris died in 1830, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Henderson, who still lives to enjoy the high reputation which throughout Europe he has earned as a Christian and a scholar. Under such men as the So- ciety employed, and with the views they constantly maintained, the Seminary flourished as a nursery for simple, faithful, evangelical preachers. The Author loves his Alma Mater, and rejoices in the many honored names with which, in the course of fifty years, it has be- come associated.'* We have now reached the meeting point of the three colleges. For a long time there had been a conviction, * In the year 1822, no fewer than seventy-one new congregations in different parts of the country had been originated by ministers edu- cated at Hoxton. The number has much increased since then. THE THREE COLLEGES. 219 extensively entertained, that an union of this kind was very expedient and desirable. In the year 1849, after much anxious deliberation and prayer, on the part of those representing the three institutions, this object was accomplished in perfect consistency with existing trusts. Into the history of the proceedings we cannot enter. The result was the establishment of New College, on the plan of the students, who are both ministerial and lay, being non-resident. The professors chosen were the Rev. Dr. Harris, principal, the Rev. J. H. Godwin, P. Smith, F. Jenner, and W. Smith, Esq., LL.D., and E. Lankaster, Esq., M.D., F.R.S. ; and under such men it is reasonably hoped that, with the Divine blessing, the comprehensive institution will prosper. The first stone of the new building in St. John's AVood was laid in May, 1850, by R. Mills, Esq., and the elegant edifice was opened for the reception of the students in the month of October last. The Fund Board, which was the elder parent of Homerton College, and the Coward trustees, a hundred years ago, united in the support of Dr. Doddridge's academy, which embraced lay pupils. It is also re- markable that, in 1744, negotiations took place for com- bining both the Board and the Trustees in the main- tenance of Dr. Marryatt's institution in London, whose students were non-resident. In the recent union, then, two bodies, which had before touched each other, have, 220 THE THREE COLLEGES. upon their original plan, become, in their educational efforts, again associated, only more intimately. The last, hut not least, of the tria juncta in uno was not in existence at that period, but some years ago the idea was entertained of uniting Homerton and Highbury. Long may all three remain entwined in beauty and strength, verifying the maxim, " A threefold cord is not quickly broken." The patriarchs attached great importance and value to their wells, because they supplied their flocks with water. "And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father." What these wells were to the patriarchs our colleges are to us, — the fountains from which we are to look for a ministry which shall be as streams of intelli- gence and piety, for the purification and refreshment of our churches. Our fathers digged these, wells ; let us preserve them, and build them up, and keep them pure. Colleges do not form the most conspicuous and popular objects of regard among us. But this fact speaks little for our prudence and far-sightedness*. Missions, in their various branches, and other holy plans of usefulness, strike the public mind as more brilliant things than quiet, and retired seminaries for the education of the ministry, — but the former depend upon the latter. In short, all that exists among us in the way of spiritual missionary action, so far as it depends on the ministry, THE THREE COLLEGES. 221 is related to collegiate institutions, as the deep-laid and hidden roots out of which it grows. A wise generation would look to them as the first objects to be supported — to be watched over — to be prayed for. If the child be father to the man, surely the student is father to the minister ; and, therefore, in securing an efficient educa- tion for students, Congregational churches are preparing for an efficient race of ministers. On the 6th of September, 1620, there lay in Plymouth Harbor a little vessel which has since acquired a world- known fame. Not freighted with this world's wealth, but with what is incomparably richer, — true, noble, spiritual, heroic men, bent on the accomplishment of a great enterprise. It sailed out, unnoticed and uncared for, on its far-bound voyage across the Atlantic, save by the few despised Puritans who sympathized with these brethren, and who " kindly entertained and courteously used them during their brief sojourn." In that ship were the germs, the foundation-stones, of great colonies that have since risen to a height, and breadth, and gran- deur, at which the world marvels. That vessel was an instrument of preparation for wonderful results. What the " Mayflower" was to America our colleges are to our country and the world. However slighted, they bear a freightage of souls destined to build or repair those re- ligious communities, which will prove so many spiritual colonies in the midst of the world. If our colleges con- 222 THE THREE COLLEGES. tain and send forth men right-minded, sound-hearted, and well-trained, they will prove to evangelical Christen- dom boons of matchless value, — argosies laden with en- during wealth, to be remembered, and celebrated, and held in honor bv the remotest generations. THE END. RELIGIOUS PROGRESS; DISCOURSES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. BY WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D. D. 12/no., Cloth; price, 85 Cents. From II. J. Ripl y, D. D., Prof of Sacred Rhetoric, $c, Norton Theol. 7/irt. Strong conceptions, suggested by earnest conviction, arrest the reader's attention in this volume, no loss than the author's characteristic beamy of thought and language. Historical and other illustrations of senti- ments are apt and abundant ; every page almost betraying the wide com- prehension of knowledge which distinguishes the author. These Dis- courses cannot fail to make the heart better, while they inform the under- standing and gratify a cultivated taste. " This book is a rare phenomenon in these days. It is a rich exposition of Scripture, with a fund of practical, religious wisdom, conveyed in a style so strong and so massive, as to remind one of the English writers of two centuries ago; and yet it abounds in fresli illustrations drawn from every — even the latest opened — field cf science and of literature." — Methodist Quarterly. " His power of apt and forcible illustration is almost without a parallel among recent writers. The mute page springs into life beneath the magic of his'radiant imagination. But this is never at the expense of solidity of thought or strength of argument. It is seldom indeed that a mind of so much poeticaj invention yields such a willing homage to the logical ele- ment. He employs his brilliant fancies for the elucidation and ornament of truth, but never for its discovery." — Harpers' 1 .Monthly Miscellany. " With warm and glowing language, Dr. Williams exhibits and en- forces this truth, every page radiant with 'thoughts that bum,' and leave their indelible impression upon the candid and intelligent mind." — JV. Y. Com. Advertiser. u The strength and compactness of argumentation, the correctness and beauty of style, and the importance of the animating idea of the dis- courses, are worthy of the high reputation of Dr. Williams, and place them among the most finished homiletic productions of the day. We could wish their judicious thoughts and animated periods might secure the study of every Christian." — J\T. Y. Evangelist. "This work is from the pen of one of the brightest lights of the American pulpit. We scarcely know of any living writer who has a finer command of powerful thought and glowing, impressive language, than he. The present volume will advance, if possible, the reputation which his previous works have acquired for him." — Albany Ecening Atlas. "Dr. Williams has no superior among American divines, in profound and exact learning, and brilliancy of style. He seems familiar with the literature of the world, and lays his vast resources under contribution to illustrate and adorn every theme which he investigates. Wc wi