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MEMOIK
OF THE
LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS
OF
PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D. D.
WITH
A SELECTION FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE.
COMPILED BY REV. JAMES W. BOYD, A.M.,
EDITOR OF ENGLISH POETS, WITH NOTES, ETC.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
165437
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
1900.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by the American Tract Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
DODDRIDGE'S ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS.
His grandfather and father — His mother the orphan daughter of a Bohemian refugee — Rev. John Baumann — His flight to England — Beautiful incident of his childhood— His grammar-school train- ing— Early loss of both parents — Attendance at school in St. Albans — Profession of religion— Resolves to study for the min- istry— Serious obstacle interposed — Declines the offer of a uni- versity education— Dr. Calamy's advice — Proposal to study law — Generous assistance of Dr. Clarke of St. Albans — Remarks of Rev. J. Stoughton — Doddridge's acknowledgment 11
CHAPTER II.
DODDRIDGE'S THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.
Enters on theological studies at Dr. Jennings' academy — Method of reading and study at Kibworth — Letter to Rev. Samuel Clarke — To Mr. Hughes — Great regard to the Scriptures — Rules for his conduct — Social temper —Remarks of Mrs. Doddridge— His first sermon — Social position and theological training — Description of his study— First pulpit performances — Examination of stu- dents— His gentlemanly bearing and reciprocation of kindness — Pious reflections —School expenses — Examination for licensure — Habit of strict economy — His gown — Dr. Samuel Clarke's advice — Grateful acknowledgments to Dr. Clarke — His abode near Kibworth — Farm-house life — Want of congenial society — Longing for his sister's recovery and society — Letter to Mr. Da- vid Some — Account of his studies — Foundation of the Family Expositor — Remarks on the method of studying — Observations on Baxter — Rules for ministerial duties at Kibworth — A gentle reproof — Pope's Homer's Iliad — Remarkable deliverance — De- tails of classical studies — Pliny's Epistles — Laconic letter to Dr. N. Wood — Expressions of ardent friendship — Remarks on Pliny and Addison — Daily labors and pleasures as a Btudent
4 CONTENTS.
• — A striking characteristic — The vanity of human desires — Dependence on divine influence — Desires to learn every new phase of infidelity — Burnet's History of the Reformation — Criti- cism on a sermon desired — Burnet, Lucretius, and Howe — Reflec- tions on the death of Mr. Some — Complaint of his own pride — Rev. Thomas Saunders — Proposal to become an academical in- structor— Letter to Miss Horseman — Correspondence with Mr. Whittingham on the Deistical Question — Mr. Jennings' method of education — Habits as a preacher — Conscientiousness in mak- ing the most of time - 22
CHAPTER III.
INSTITUTION OF DODDRIDGE'S THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY —EARLY PASTORATE AT NORTH- AMPTON.
Death of Dr. Jennings — Letter of Dr. Isaac Watts in favor of Dod- dridge— His appointment — Correspondence — Letter of accept- ance— Removal to Northampton — Days of special devotion — His ordination and installation — Letter to Miss King — Domestic life — His marriage to Miss Mercy Maris — Letter to Dr. Watts — Letters illustrating his paternal tenderness — Death of his eldest child — Letters to Mrs. Doddridge — Persecution of Doddridge — His visit to Cambridge — Complimentary letter of Dr. Warburton — Favorable reception by a synod at Exeter — Solicitude for his wife's recovery — His devotional feelings — A communion Sabbath — Thoughts on the anniversary of his birth — Birthday letter to Miss Doddridge — Kind counsels — His tenderness as a husband ■ — Education of his children — Demeanor towards his servants — His character as a friend — Honor bestowed on him by his friends — Methods in which his friendship was displayed — Letters illus- trative of friendship — His conversational powers — Dr. Abraham Taylor — Doddridge's happy administration of reproof 113
CHAPTER IV.
DODDRIDGE'S MINISTRY AT NORTHAMPTON.
Northampton a sort of Mecca — Doddridge visits the families of his congregation — Pulpit preparation — Favorite topics — Wide range of subjects — Popularity and usefulness accounted for — His excel- lent temper — Derives lessons from the providence of God — Be- fore sermon expounds a portion of Scripture — Affecting anecdote — Composition of hymns — Expository lectures — Sacramental sea-
CONTENTS. 5
boiis— Power as a preacher— Faithfulness in Christian discipline —Special care for children — Zeal for religion at home and abroad — Pastoral visitation — Case of Connell the prisoner — His pastoral labors— Mr. Williams — Letter of Mr. Pearsall on the reputation of Dr. Doddridge — Appoints an eldership— Letter of instruction — Establishes a charity school — Earnest self-culture — His services appreciated— Faithful love to his people— Extract from his last will — Letters presenting him as a model pastor — Letter to Rev. Samuel Wood— Correspondence with Miss Scott— Her marriage and death 188
CHAPTER V.
DR. DODDRIDGE'S ACADEMICAL AND THEOLOG- ICAL INSTRUCTIONS.
Prosecution for teaching without a license — His fame at cour Letters on the prosecution — Method of education — The place for literature and science — Courtesy towards his students — Care that they might be good men — Letters to parents — Mr. Coward — Religious culture of his students— Secures their confidence and affection— Degree of Doctor of Divinity— Letter to Dr. Samuel Clarke— Letter to Rev. B. Fawcett — Trouble occasioned by stu- dents who were not pious— His affection to his students — Model of earnest and laborious diligence — Sketch from the North Brit- ish Review 269
CHAPTER VI.
DODDRIDGE AS AN AUTHOR.
Diligent in pursuit of knowledge, and apt in communicating it — Classical literature — Theological investigations and writing — " Thoughts on the best means of reviving the Dissenting Inter- est"— His published sermons — Favorable criticisms — Bishop Warburton — "Discourses on Regeneration" — West and Lyttcl- ton — Dr. Watts' criticisms — John Foster's estimate of "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul"— Dr. Watts' agency in it— Let- ters relating to this work — Its beneficial influence — Sir James Stonehouse — "Remarkable Passages in the Life of Col. James Gardiner"— Sketch from North British Review — Letter from Col. Gardiner — His extraordinary story — Letter to David Gardi- ner—Letter from Lady Frances Gardiner — Col. Gardiner — Thomas Gardiner — Letters on Doddridge's Life of Gardiner — "The Fam- ily Expositor" — Its preparation and publication — Its escape from
6 CONTENTS.
fire — Letter to Eev. S. Wood — Criticisms — Letters appreciative of it — Interest for the aborigines of America — Archbishop Leigh- ton's works — Hymns — Dr. Watts' estimate of Doddridge — Stoughton's views - 817
CHAPTER VII.
PROMINENT TRAITS OF DR. DODDRIDGE.
I. Untiring application to the duties of life — Rules of life — Review of a year — Economy of time — Large correspondence — His method of relaxation. II. Candor and kindness — Conduct towards members of the Established church — Not blind to the errors of Popery.
III. Good influence beyond his own congregation — Missionary spirit — Lively interest in the labors of Whitefield and of Lady Hunting- ton— Letters of Lady Huntington — Account of her in a letter to Mr. Fawcett — Count Zinzendorf— Aid to the Protestants of France.
IV. Benevolence, courtesy, and public spirit — Too favorable estimate of others — Free from a covetous spirit — Liberal in his hospitali- ties— An almoner of the rich — Loyalty and patriotic exertions in 1745 — Gratuitous education of many — Sympathy for persons in adversity. V. Exemplary conduct under ill treatment. VI. Humil- ity and dependence on God— Favorable estimate of others. VII. Pa- tience, fortitude, and cheerfulness under affliction — Sufferings through relatives and other friends. VIII. Eminently devotional character — Spiritual meditation — Efficacy of prayer — Days of devotion — Devout social intercourse — Pious spirit of his correspondence — His spirituality even in dreams - 386
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LAST DAYS OF DODDRIDGE.
His last funeral-sermon — Last administration of the Lord's supper — Last sermon — Last public service — Sympathy in his illness — Hot Wells of Bristol — Kind reception — Failing strength — Pro- posal of a voyage to Lisbon — Evidences of sympathy — Patience and cheerfulness — His last journey — Last letter in England — Embarkation for Lisbon — Kind entertainment there — His last hours — His burial — Monuments — His personal appearance— Mr. Tayler — Letter of Mrs. Doddridge to her children — Poem to his memory — President Davies — Dr. Doddridge's family — Lines writ- ten in his study - — ---.---... = -, 489
The Memoirs of the Life, Character, and Writings of Dr. Doddridge, presented in this volume, have been drawn from the five volumes of his Corre- spondence and diary, copied from his own manu- scripts, and first published in London in 1831 ; from his life as written by Orton and by Kippis, two of his endeared students ; from the Centenary Memorial prepared by the Rev. John Stoughton, and partly delivered before the Congregational Union from Doddridge's own pulpit in 1852; from a splendid article of the Rev. Dr. Hamilton in the North British Review, and from other sources.
The wide-spread and deserved reputation of Dr. Doddridge as a writer and as a Christian, especially by means of his " Family Expositor," and his " Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," naturally awakens a desire to become more acquainted with him through his Correspondence, in which, not only in the letters he wrote, but in those addressed to him, we discover those admirable qualities of mind and heart, those high attainments and benevolent
8 PREFACE.
activities, which made him so generally respected in life, so extensively honored at death, and now so gratefully remembered, even after the lapse of a cen- tury.
The Letters found in this volume will compare favorably, in point of style, with those of Pope, Gray, and others of about the same period, while in sentiment they commend themselves with surpassing interest to the pious and thoughtful mind. They are given as choice selections from the mass of Dod- dridge's Correspondence, which constitutes the great- er part of the five large volumes above noticed, edited by his great-grandson John Doddridge Hum- phreys, Esq.; and they are here inserted in such con- nections as render them illustrative and commemo- rative of the public and private life, opinions, and character of the distinguished and excellent author. Among his correspondents were several gentlemen of high rank in social, literary, and theological cir- cles, and some talented and estimable ladies, whose letters will be read with great satisfaction.
The view which this Correspondence gives of the Christian household, as illustrated in the home of Doddridge, is calculated to elevate the aims, purify the life, and promote the happiness of those who would enjoy the highest blessings of the family circle; the light which it throws upon his pro-
PREFACE. 9
fessional character as a theological instructor, and as a pastor, must interest those fulfilling the duties of these stations, or who have them in prospect; while the happy illustrations of religious character and experience are adapted to profit all classes of persons: to comfort the afflicted, to guide the per- plexed, to animate the negligent or desponding, and assist all in fulfilling the responsibilities of life, and preparing for the heavenly state. The letters of sympathy addressed to Dr. Doddridge and his lady in the trying season preceding his death, when ex- treme anxiety pervaded the hearts of God's people in city and country, are among the most touching to be found in the annals of friendship.
The influence of Dr. Doddridge, like that of Dr. Watts, in promoting the great revival of the work of God towards the middle of the last century, in which Whitefield and others bore so conspicuous a part, will here be seen to have been great and salutary, in the calm evangelical light which, in a period of pro- found spiritual darkness, God enabled him to spread far and wide by his publications, his theological in- structions, his correspondence, his personal influence as a pastor and counsellor, and his bright and holy example.
It is a curious fact that of almost all his Corre- spondence, he kept an accurate copy in shorthand,
10 PREFACE.
filling three manuscript volumes, from which the five London volumes above referred to are printed. From these and other voluminous materials exam- ined, only those select and condensed portions are here given which are believed to be adapted to pub- lic and general interest and usefulness.
J. R. B.
MEMOIE
OF
PHILIP DODDPJDGE, D. D.
CHAPTER I.
HIS ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS.
At a remote period, the Doddridge family occupied a prominent position in Devonshire. Sir John Dod- dridge distinguished himself by "his learning, his abil- ity as a jurist, and as an author, and occupied with credit the high positions to which he was elevated by James the First. The nephew and heir of this gen- tleman, and bearing the same name, was Recorder of the ancient city of Bristol, and for many years a prominent member of the Long Parliament. His cousin, the Rev. John Doddridge of Shepperton, in Middlesex, a learned and acceptable preacher, vol- untarily deprived himself and his large family of a living worth about two hundred pounds a year, equivalent to more than twice that amount at the present day, rather than submit to the tyrannical
12 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
requisitions of the Act of Uniformity, in 1662. An enlightened conscience, and not sordid interest, was his guide. This worthy man had only two sons who survived him, Daniel and Philip : the latter was bred to the legal profession ; the former became a merchant, and acquired some property in London, but deserves especially to be mentioned as the father of the dis- tinguished subject of this memoir.
The mother of Philip Doddridge was the orphan daughter of a worthy Bohemian refugee, the Rev. John Baumann, who fled from Prague in consequence of the persecution suffered by those who held the Protestant faith. At the sacrifice of early associa- tions, the friendships of youth, the charms of his na- tive country, and a considerable estate which he was just beginning to enjoy, this young and godly pastor, in the disguise of a peasant, on the emergency of the moment, was compelled to leave his home, with no other means of travel and of subsistence than a hun- dred pieces of gold, 'stitched into a leathern girdle for safe keeping. Besides this sum of money, the only possession which he could carry with him, and which he valued above all things, was a copy of the Bible in Luther's translation.
This worthy minister seems to have been a man of uncommonly profound habits of thought, rendering him less careful than most men of matters connected with external comfort. We are told that, on one of the first nights of his journey, having slept at an ob- scure inn, and rising very early to pursue his way, in the hurry of the moment he forgot to buckle on the belt, and remained unconscious of the loss until the
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS. 13
shades of evening again encouraged him to seek a second place of refuge, when he found himself with- out the means of sustenance, and consequently without the hope of escape.
Even at the peril of being taken by his pursuers he at once began to retrace, under cover of the night, his weary steps to his last lodging-place, where he learned from the domestic servant that she had thrown the old belt away, supposing it to be of no value. Upon his offering a reward she made search, and found it under a staircase where useless articles were ordinarily thrown. The joy at its recovery inspired lasting gratitude to God, and greatly animated him in his subsequent journeys.
Having spent some time in Saxony, and in states adjacent, he proceeded to England in 1646, and be- came master of the grammar-school at Kingston upon Thames. In 1688 he died, leaving one daughter, who subsequently married Daniel Doddridge, the Lon- don shopkeeper before referred to, and became the honored mother of Philip Doddridge.
It is worthy of remark that the German Bible, the
companion and solace of Pastor Baumann's exile, is
still preserved in the Doddridge family, forming two
volumes in black morocco, deeply indented with gilt
ornaments. Upon the fly-leaf of the first volume, Dr.
Doddridge wrote:
" P. Doddridge, 1724.
" These Bibles my honored grandfather Mr. John Baumann brought with him from Germany his native country, when he fled on foot from the persecution there on account of the Protestant religion. 'For
14 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
he had respect to the recompense of reward.' Heb. 11 : 26. ' The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.' Psa. 119:72. 'Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' Heb. 6 : 12."
The day of the birth of Philip Doddridge, which occurred in London on June 26, 1702, seemed for a while likely to prove also the day of his death; for the evidences of animation were so slight, and the anxious care which the mother required was so ab- sorbing, that the infant was laid aside as dead ; but, soon afterwards, one of the attendants was providen- tially led to a closer examination, when a very slight heaving of the chest being observed, efforts at resus- citation were earnestly pursued ; and thus was saved to the world a life which proved of incalculable value.
He was his mother's twentieth child, all the others but one, and that a feeble daughter, having died early. Eaised himself as from the grave, and ex- pected, probably, to add another at no distant day to the sad instances of early death in the family, this only son was naturally regarded by his pious parents with especial solicitude and love. We are therefore not surprised to learn that he was most carefully trained up in the knowledge and service of Christ. Dr. Doddridge, in one of his letters, thus relates this beautiful incident connected with the period of his childhood : " I was brought up in the early knowledge of religion by my pious parents, who were in their character very worthy of their birth and education;
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS. 15
and I well remember that my mother taught me the history of the Old and New Testaments before I could read, by the assistance of some blue Dutch tiles in the chimney-place of the room where we commonly sat ; and the wise and pious reflections she made upon these stories were the means of enforcing such good impressions on my heart as never afterwards wore out."
A valuable lesson of maternal wisdom and affec- tion is conveyed in this incident ; and with gratitude should it be considered that the means of interestine; and of instructing childhood in recent years are im- measurably superior to these rude pictures, which proved so serviceable in the case of young Philip Doddridge.
Having gained an elementary knowledge of the learned languages at the private school of the Rev. Mr. Scott, a pious minister in London, he was sent, at the age of ten, in 1712, to the grammar-school at Kingston upon Thames, formerly under the charge of his grandfather Baumann. Here, in the formation of his character, and in the confirmation of the religious impressions received under the paternal roof, he was greatly indebted to the kind regard and pious coun- sels of the Rev. Mr. Mayo, whose ministry he at- tended.
Having been connected with the school in Kings- ton only three years, his filial love was severely tried by the death of his worthy father. The reflections which he placed on record at the time, show the res- ignation with which the trial was endured : " God is an immortal Father; my soul rejoiceth in him: he
16 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
has hitherto helped me and provided for me ; may it be ray study to approve myself a more affectionate, grateful, and dutiful child."
Great as was this affliction, he was soon called to one greater — the loss of his truly excellent mother. One of Dr. Doddridge's sermons, entitled "The Or- phan's Hope," contains a touching allusion to this event: "I am under some peculiar obligations to de- sire 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 be reasonably supposed that a child would be most sensible of such a loss."
The orphan boy was soon removed to St. Albans, twenty miles north of London, where he attended the private school of the learned and pious Nathaniel Wood, some of whose letters will be found in the present work. While connected with this school, his conduct and attainments deserve honorable men- tion. Not only was he a close student, but he took delight in assisting other students whose advantages were inferior to his own ; he conversed with them on religious subjects, and encouraged social meetings for prayer ; and his walks for exercise were turned to a benevolent and pious account. Often did he call at the cottages of the poor, that he might read to them the Scriptures and other religious books, and con- tribute, from his slender funds, to the supply of their temporal necessities. Thus early did he lay the foundation of those habits of practical usefulness to which his professional life was so ardently devoted.
It was among the richest blessings of his lot,
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS. It
while at St. Albans, that he made the acquaintance, and gained the affectionate esteem, of the Rev. Sam- uel Clarke, the well-known author of "Scripture Promises," whose ministry he regularly attended, with great practical benefit.
When sixteen years of age, Philip Doddridge was received into the church, of which event, and of the exercises of his mind at the time, his own interesting record has been preserved.
"I rose early this morning, and read that part of Mr. Henry's book on the Lord's supper which treats of a due approach to it. I endeavored to excite in myself those dispositions and affections which he men- tions as proper for that ordinance. As I endeavored to prepare my heart according to the preparation of the sanctuary, though with many defects, God was pleased to visit me, and to give me sweet communion with himself, of which I desire always to retain a grateful sense. I this day, in the strength of Christ, renewed my covenant with God, and renounced my covenant with sin. I vowed against every sin, and resolved carefully to perform every duty. The Lord keep this in the imagination of my heart, and grant I may not deal treacherously with him.
"In the evening I read and thought on some of Mr. Henry's directions for a suitable conversation after the Lord's supper, and then prayed, begging that God would give me grace so to act as he requires, and as I have bound myself. I then looked over the' memorandums of this day, comparing the manner in which I had spent it, and in which I designed to spend it; and, blessed be God, I had reason to do it
13 PniLIP DODDRIDGE.
with some pleasure, although I found cause for hu- miliation."
Soon after making this public profession of relig- ion, he resolved to devote himself to the service of God in the work of the Christian ministry, in the prosecution of which design he bestowed unusual care upon the study of the learned languages, and wrote comments on a portion of Scripture every morning and evening. He also committed to writing an abstract of every sermon which he heard, and added reflections of his own.
Not far had he proceeded in this course of prepa- ration for the ministry, when Providence seemed to interpose an insurmountable obstacle. The property left to him by his parents was utterly lost by the failure of an unfaithful guardian, so that he found himself without the means of prosecuting his studies. It was a severe disappointment, but years afterward he regarded it as one of the most beneficent arrange- ments of Providence for his spiritual well-being and usefulness. To provide for this emergency he went to London, that he might consult with his brother-in- law, the Rev. John Nettleton, and with Mrs. N ,
his beloved sister. The Duchess of Bedford in some way becoming acquainted with the young man's em- barrassments, made him, while in the city, the liberal offer to educate him at either of the Universities, provided he would leave the Dissenters, and connect himself with the Established church. To a youth ardently devoted to learning, and singularly apt in its acquisition, the trial was great, as his conscience forbade his subscription to all the articles and for-
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS. 19
mularies lie would be required to adopt. Over a regard to ease, to honor, and to wealth, his conscien- tiousness prevailed. He resolved to struggle with all the difficulties of the case, entertaining the hope that he might meet with encouragement from some of his dissenting brethren. One of the most eminent of that class of ministers was applied to for aid. The response was sufficiently discouraging. "I wait- ed," says the modest youth, "upon Dr. Edmund Calamy, to beg his advice and assistance, that I might be brought up a minister, which has always been my great desire. He gave me no encourage- ment in it, but advised me to turn my thoughts to something else. It was with great concern that I received such advice; but I desire to follow provi- dence, and not to force it. The Lord give me grace to glorify him in whatever station he sets me : then here am I ; let him do with me what seemeth good in his sight."
It is possible that the discouragement of his design by Dr. Calamy may have proceeded from a view of the great delicacy of young Doddridge's constitution, "which at this period was evinced by a tall and sin- gularly slender form, combined with that languid fulness of the eye, and mantling flush upon the cheek, which are too frequently the heralds of premature dissolution." In consequence of the discouragement now incurred, he turned his attention to the study of the law, having received a lucrative proposal from a celebrated counsellor in London.
Here again was offered a strong inducement to turn aside from his long cherished design of becom-
20 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
ing a humble minister of the gospel. Wealth and honor beckoned him on in the new path thus unex- pectedly opened to his ardent mind. But to this new impulse he did not hastily commit himself; he sought counsel of God, and of an enlightened con- science. One of his letters relates to the interesting result :
"Before I returned my final answer, I took one morning solemnly to seek of God direction; and so it was, that even while I was thus engaged, the post- man called at the door with a letter from Mr. Clarke, in which he told me that he had heard of my diffi- culty, and offered to take me under his care, if I chose the ministry upon Christian principles, and there were no other that in those circumstances could invite me to such a choice. This I looked upon almost as an answer from heaven; and while I live I shall ever adore so seasonable an interposition of divine Providence."
This generous provision was offered by his be- loved pastor at St. Albans; in respect to which, John Stoughton, in the discourse he delivered in Doddridge's pulpit at Northampton, a century after his death, very properly observes :
"Next to the honor of a successful ministry itself, is the distinction of being instrumental in the intro- duction 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 and ingenuous young man, aspira- tions after the holiest of all employments. What a loss would the church have sustained at that critical
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS. 21
period, had not Dr. Calamy's repulse been neutralized by Mr. Clarke's encouragement ?"
To this good and generous man Dr. Doddridge in after-life often expressed his obligations, and at length, in pronouncing a funeral discourse upon him, he observes, " I may properly call him my friend and father, if all the offices of paternal tenderness can merit that title. To him I may truly say that, under God, I owe even myself, and all my opportunities of public usefulness in the church — to him, who was not only the instructor of my childhood and youth in the principles of religion, but my guardian when a help- less orphan, as well as the generous, tender, faithful friend of all my advancing years."
22 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
CHAPTER II.
DODDRIDGE'S THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.
Gratefully availing himself of the timely offer of his friend and pastor, the Rev. Samuel Clarke, Doddridge promptly returned to St. Albans, where he enjoyed such advice, instructions, and use of books, as might best tend to prepare him for his theological course of study at Kibworth in Leicestershire, at the academy of the celebrated Rev. John Jennings, author of the learned work on "The Antiquities of the Jews," highly esteemed by the ministers of that period. Of that excellent academy he became a member in Octo- ber, 1719.
The academies, of the class conducted by Mr. Jen- nings, were founded on the broad basis of non-sub- scription to denominational formulas of faith, were accessible to persons of all religious parties, and were resorted to even by such of the clergy and laity of the Establishment, as found the universities too expensive. Chaplains and tutors to families of rank were often educated in these academies. No testimonial or qual- ification for entrance was demanded, but the evidence of possessing a good moral character, and the mastery of a prescribed amount of classical and other prepara- tory studies. It must here be acknowledged as a great evil, and goes far to show the low state of relig- ion at the time when Doddridge and others were raised up in the providence of God for its revival, that even among many of the Dissenters of England,
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 23
personal piety was not then considered essential to an entrance on the duties of the ministry.
During his residence at Kibworth no one applied himself with greater diligence to study, to devotion, and to the best improvement of time, than Philip Dod- dridge. From a paper in which he kept an account of his pursuits, it appears that, besides attending and studying the academical lectures, and reading the authors to which his tutor referred in illustration of his lectures, he read in one half year sixty volumes, some of them large, and about an equal number in the same period subsequently. The manner in which he read deserves remark : it was not hasty and super- ficial, but with profound attention. Some volumes he took pains to abridge ; from others he made large extracts in his commonplace-book ; every remarkable interpretation or illustration of texts of Scripture he transferred to his interleaved Bible. At this period he devoted himself to a more extended course of Greek studies, not only reading the Greek authors, but writing his own observations upon them, either for the illustration of the authors themselves or of the Scriptures, and selecting passages which might with advantage be introduced into his sermons. His ob- servations upon Homer were sufficiently copious to make a considerable volume.
How he was situated at Kibworth, his student-life, its employments, its joys and sorrows, are well de- scribed in the letters, or parts of letters, which we shall introduce in their appropriate order. To Mr. Clarke, his early patron, and his most trusted coun- sellor in after-life, he made frequent reports of his
24 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
studies, and of his expenditures and wants. In return he received valuable letters of counsel, and prompt attention was given to his pecuniary necessities.
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"January 3, 1721. " In my last, sir, I sent you an account of the course of our public studies for this last half year, and you will perceive that they are of such a nature as to require a considerable exercise of thought, and that the references are generally long, and conse- quently that we have less time for our private studies than we ever had in any of our former half years ; however, I generally find about an hour and a half in a day for the study of the Scriptures. The New Tes- tament I read in the original without any commenta- tor, but more of my time is spent in reading the Old, for I would willingly finish 'Patrick's Commentary' before it is taken from Kilworth, which will be in a few months. I have read all but the second book of Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles ; and design to begin ' Lowth on Isaiah and Jeremiah ' when I have done with these, and ' Dr. Prideaux's Connec- tion/ which I am now reading with a particular view to the prophecies. I do not entirely neglect the clas- sics, though I have but little time for them. Since my last mention I have read some of Horace, with Dacier's Commentary, and a few of Tully's delightful works. I am ashamed to think how little I am acquainted with the Greek, and heartily wish I had been more careful in studying it when I was with you at St. Albans. However, sir, that I might not forget the little I know, besides the New Testament, which
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 25
I mentioned, I have read some portions of Socrates, Homer, Lucian, and Xenoplion, since last Whitsun- tide.
" In English, besides many other works, I have lately read ' Burnet's Theory/ which I took up with the expectation of meeting with some new philosophi- cal discovery, in which respect, indeed, I was sadly disappointed. I am now reading ' Lord Shaftesbury's Works/ which, as far as I can judge by the half I have dispatched, contain a strange mixture of good sense and extravagance.
" My good tutor continues to treat me with a great deal of kindness, and lets no opportunity slip of oblig- ing me at home, or promoting my interest abroad. When I am speaking of his goodness, I cannot forget that I owe even that to you, who have placed and supported me here. I know, sir, that you do not like compliments, and I would never deal in them; yet still I hope you will give me leave to tell you, with a great feeling of plainness and sincerity, that if I did not frequently reflect upon the favors I have received from you, I could not keep on good terms with my- self. I have nothing left to ask, but the continuance of your prayers that I may have the wisdom and grace to behave myself, both here and in the after- part of my life, so that neither you nor my other friends may have reason to repent the benefits you have done me."
To the same.
"Kibworth, Dec. 13, 1721. " I am extremely pleased to find that you are so well satisfied as to my care in managing my expenses.
Doddridge. 2
26 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
I acknowledge, sir, that you have always been very indulgent to me upon that head ; and I think myself so much the more obliged to study frugality, lest I should seem to abuse your goodness and the confi- dence which you have in me. Besides, I know how difficult it is to obtain supplies, and am heartily con- cerned to think of the trouble you are at on my account ; and yet, notwithstanding all my precaution, I find my stock decreases apace.
" As for my studies, we have almost finished Pneu- matology and Ethics, and proceeded a good way in Critics. These Critics are an abridgment of a con- siderable book by Mr. Jones, on such subjects as the antiquity of the Hebrew language, its points, the Masora, Talmud, and Cabbala. We have several Latin, French, and English versions of the Bible, and have continually large references to Prideaux, Bux- torf, etc. Our Ethics are drawn up by Mr. Jennings from Puffendorf and Grotius. Once a week we have a pneumatological disputation, and consequently each of us makes in turn a thesis in a month. We have the liberty of choosing our own subjects; and mine have been, the seat of the soul, polygamy, and God's prescience of contingencies ; and I am now preparing one in defence of the soul's immortality.'7
To Mr. Hughes.
"KlBVTORTH, 1721.
" I think the Spectator somewhere tells us that no music is so sweet to a man as his own praise: me- thinks he should have excepted the pleasure that an honest and generous mind takes in hearing a friend commended. One thing I can confidently affirm, that
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 21
though I passed the holidays very pleasantly, at least some of them, in the company of a very agreeable lady — and you know I was always an admirer of the sex — yet nothing gave me so much satisfaction as a few minutes' conversation with Mr. Benyan, when the discourse turned upon you.
" He told me, among other things, that you were making yourself master of the French language. I am heartily glad to hear it, because it will give you an opportunity of entertaining yourself with some of the finest writers in the world. Many of them had certainly very great genius, and were intimately acquainted with the ancients, those great masters of eloquence and poetry. Of all their dramatic poets I have met with none that I admire so much as Racine. It is impossible not to be charmed with the pomp, eloquence, and harmony of his language, as well as the majesty, tenderness, and propriety of his senti- ments. The whole is conducted with a wonderful mixture of grandeur and simplicity, which sufficiently distinguished him from the dulness of some tragedi- ans, and the bombast of others. One of his principal faults is, that the jingle of his double rhyme frequently offends the ear. I have lately met with the Arch- bishop of Cambray's Reflections on Eloquence, which I think one of the most judicious pieces I have ever seen. There are some fine criticisms at the end of it, which well deserve your perusal.
" As for French sermons, they are, as far as I can judge, very much inferior to those of our English divines. Bourdaloue's, though much regarded, ap- pear to me little better than empty harangues. Che-
28 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
minais7 are many of them very good ; but I never met with any that are to be compared with those of M. Superville, the Protestant divine at Rotterdam: he especially excels in the beauty of his imagery, descrip- tions, and similes ; and has some of the most pathetic expostulations I ever read."
As a theological student, Mr. Doddridge at this period gave great attention to the study of the Scrip- tures, and of the best writers in practical divinity. " He furnished himself," says Orton, " with Clarke's 'Annotations on the Old Testament/ for the sake of many valuable interpretations, a judicious collection of parallel texts, and the convenience of a large margin on which to write his own remarks ; and with an interleaved Testament. In these he inserted illustra- tions of Scripture, which occurred to him in reading, conversation, or reflection; together with practical remarks, which might be drawn from particular pas- sages, their connection with others, or the general design of the sacred writers; especially those which might not, on a cursory reading, appear so obvious, but on that account might be more striking and use- ful. He laid it down as an inviolable rule, to read some practical divinity every day. He labored assid- uously to attain the gift of prayer. For this purpose he made a collection of proper expressions of suppli- cation and thanksgiving, on common and special occa- sions, both from Scripture and devotional writers, that he might be qualified to perform this part of public service in a copious, pertinent, and edifying manner."
In the cultivation of personal religion, he was pre-
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 29
eminently faithful, assiduous, and earnest. Among: his papers was discoyered a solemn form of covenant with God, written and subscribed with his own hand about this period, wherein he not only states his yiews aod resolutions concerning the care of his heart, and the management of his entire conduct, but devotes himself, his time, and abilities to the service of God, for this life and the life to come. This covenant he expressed a purpose to read over solemnly, as in the presence of God, once a month, to ascertain how faith- fully he had adhered to it, and to refresh his recollec- tions of the various duties and obligations to which he had pledged himself therein. [See " Rise and Progress," chapter 17.]
We" have also a delightful view of this young man's student-life and character, in the rules which he framed for the regulation of his conduct, and which he inscribed in his interleaved Testament, for the convenience of frequent review, and of comparison with his daily practice.
RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF MY CONDUCT WHILE A STUDENT.
1. Let my first thoughts be devout and thankful. Let me rise early, immediately return to God solemn thanks for the mercies of the night, devote myself to him, and beg his assistance in the intended business of the day.
2. In this, and every other act of devotion, let me recollect my thoughts ; speak directly to Him, and never give way to any thing internal or external that may divert my attention.
30 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
3. Let me set myself to read the Scriptures every morning. In the first reading, let me endeavor to impress my heart with a practical sense of divine things ; and then use the help of commentators. Let these rules, with proper alterations, be observed every evening.
4. Never let me trifle with a book with which I have no present concern. In applying myself to any work, let me first recollect what I may learn by it, and then beg suitable assistance from God; and let me continually endeavor to make all my studies sub- servient to practical religion and ministerial useful- ness.
5. Never let me lose one minute of time, nor incur unnecessary expenses, that I may have the more to spend for God.
6. When I am called abroad, let me be desirous of doing good, and receiving good. Let me always have in readiness some subject of contemplation, and endeavor to improve my time with good thoughts as I go along. Let me endeavor to render myself agree- able and useful to all about me by a tender, compas- sionate, friendly behavior, avoiding all trifling and impertinent stories, and remembering that all impru- dence is sin.
7. Let me use moderation at meals, and see that I am not hypocritical in prayers and thanksgivings at them.
8. Let me never delay any thing unless I can prove that another time will be more fit than the present, or that some other more important duty re- quires my attendance.
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 31
9. Let me be often lifting up my heart to God in the intervals of secret worship, repeating those peti- tions which are of the greatest importance, and a sur- render of myself to his service.
10. Never let me enter into long schemes about future events, but in general refer myself to the divine care.
11. Let me labor after habitual gratitude and love to God and the Redeemer. Let me guard against pride, remembering that I have all from God's hand, and that I have deserved the severest punishment.
12. In all my studies, let me remember that the souls of men are immortal, and that Christ died to redeem them.
13. Let me consecrate my sleep and all my recrea- tions to God, and seek them for his sake.
14. Let me frequently ask myself what duty or what temptation is now before me.
15. Let me remember that, through the mercy of God in a Redeemer, I hope I am within a short space of heaven.
16. Let me frequently survey these rules, and my conduct as compared with them.
17. Let me often recollect which of these rules I have present occasion to practise.
18. If I have grossly erred in any one of these particulars, let me not think it an excuse for erring in others.
A briefer series of practical directions drawn up about this time by Doddridge, for the government of his own conduct, is worthy of preservation.
1. Begin the day with God.
32 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
2. Be conscientious and diligent in the business of the day.
3. Be moderate and innocent in the recreations of the day.
4. Carefully remark and wisely improve all prov- idential dispensations.
5. Guard against the temptations of the day.
6. Govern your thoughts when alone.
7. Guard your tongue when in company.
8. In every thing depend on the assisting grace of God. Whatever be the work in hand, whether sacred or civil, whether temple work, domestic work, public work, or closet work, seek divine assistance.
9. Close the day with self-examination and prayer. Any one who shall conform, in a good degree, to
rules like these, is no common man ; and yet we have reason to believe that Doddridge habitually, and with an unusual degree of success, made them the guide of his energetic, self-denying, and useful life. Devia- tions from one or another of these, there doubtless may have been; but it was a pledge of high excel- lence in all the grand and noble aims of life, that he set distinctly and visibly before him rules of such uncommon strictness, and that he applied his active and prayerful and persevering mind to the fullest exemplification of them in his daily life. An enlarged piety and philanthropy evidently had already pos- session of his heart, and constituted his grand prin- ciples of action.
In the latter part of his student-life, and in the earlier years of his ministerial course, it must be con- fessed, that his buoyant, gay, and social temperament
IIIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 33
led him into a style of epistolary correspondence not in sufficient harmony with the rules by which he had so earnestly purposed to govern his conduct.
When the Rev. Job Orton was about to undertake the office of biographer, Mrs. Doddridge, after the decease of her excellent husband, thus writes :
" We were neither of us strangers to the natural gayety of his temper, which sometimes cast a shade over his otherwise excellent qualities; and these things may perhaps be yet 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 things 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 im- proved, till they shone out with such bright and distinguishing rays ; and amid his gayest scenes in early life, will there be discovered 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."
These hints apply more particularly to some of the earlier portions of his correspondence, as it ap- pears in the voluminous London edition; yet it may be affirmed that the letters are well written, and that many of them display some of the finest quali- ties of thought, of style, and of moral excellence. Many even of his early letters show that he had, while still a youth, formed habits of clear and vigo- rous reasoning on theological subjects.
2*
34 PHILIP DODDPtlDGB.
Having pursued his studies for three years, under Mr. Jennings, at Kibwo-rth, he followed his tutor in his removal to Hinckley in 1722, that he might com- plete his studies preparatory to being licensed to preach the gospel. His licensure took place just after he had completed his twentieth year. The fol- lowing letters will form the best narrative of the circumstances connected with this period of his life.
To his Sister, Mrs. Nettleton.
" Hinckley, July 30, 1722.
"I preached my first sermon on Sunday morning
to a very large auditory, from 1 Cor. 16:22: 'If
any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema, Maranatha.' It was a plain and practical
discourse, and cost me but a few hours study ; but as
I had the advantage of a very moving subject, and a
good-natured, attentive people, it was received much
better than I could have expected. There was one
good old woman that was a little offended to see
such a lad get up into the pulpit ; but I had the good
fortune to please her so well, that as soon as I had
done, she told Mrs. Jennings that she could lay me
in her bosom."
A happy result is reported of this first sermon :
" I find in his diary," says Mr. Orton, " that two
persons ascribed their conversion to the blessing of
God attending that sermon, with which he appears
to have been much affected and encouraged."
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
" Hinckley, Sept., 1722.
" If I were to regard only my own personal con- venience, I should very much regret our leaving Kib-
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 35
worth; for we have none of those agreeable retire- ments without doors that we had there, as meadows, gardens, arbors, and grottos.
"As for the company in the town, it can but little interrupt my studies. If I expect elegant and polite entertainment, I must look for it within doors. Our neighbors are persons of an ordinary education, but some of them have native good sense, and many of them a great deal of piety; and they often take an unaffected prudent freedom in discoursing on relig- ious subjects, which is very agreeable, and I hope may be improving.
"Mr. Jennings encourages the greatest freedom of inquiry, and always inculcates it as a law, that the Scriptures are the only genuine standard of faith. We have gone through many important doc- trines since Whitsuntide, such as the preexistence and divinity of Christ, the Trinity, the nature of angels, the Adamic covenant, the imputation of the sin of our first parents, the satisfaction made by Christ, and the abolition of the Mosaic law. Once a week we make a thesis. I have already composed two : one on the inspiration of the New Testament, the other on the absurdity charged upon the Mosaic history of the creation and fall.
"For ecclesiastical history we read Dupin's Com- pendium. But then we take in the assistance of Le Clerc, Spanheim, and Bibliotheca Patrum. We have already gone through the first twelve cen- turies."
36 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
To Mr. Hughes.
"September 22, 1722.
"We are settled at Hinckley, which is a populous place, and our number of pupils is considerably in- creased ; but how gladly would I exchange this new company for a few days or hours with you. Pardon these expressions of a fondness which I cannot con- ceal.
" There are many dissenters in this town, who all treat me with a great deal of respect. Some of them have natural good sense, but there is little politeness among them, and so one cannot expect the more ele- gant entertainment of conversation. I am fixed in a very pretty little chamber, but I do not like it so well as my old garret at Kibworth, because it is more ex- posed to the noise of the house ; and 1 have no oppor- tunity of reading aloud, nor room to walk about in it. We are now in a great hurry of building, and I have no very delightful prospect ; for if I look out at the window, I see nothing but lime and bricks, and sand and timber, the materials of our new meeting-place. And then for music I hear the noise of axes, the din of hammers, and the creaking of saws. I am so much entertained with these soothing sounds, that I could not but mention them; and hope that amidst all this harmony you will pardon a little nonsense.
"I beg that you will not delay writing, if you would not have me believe that you have forgotten the most affectionate of your friends, and the hum- blest of your servants."
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 31
To the same.
"Hinckley, 1722. "I do not know what character my friends may have given you of my sermons, but I am sure, if it be a very advantageous one, it will be my most prudent way to take care not to undeceive you by preaching before you ; for if I may be permitted to be any judge of my own performances, they will by no means an- swer your expectations. They are all upon the plainest and most practical subjects ; and it is happy if they be at all calculated, as I am sure they were principally intended, to inform the judgment and awaken the consciences of the people, and to fix their resolution for a course of rational, steady, and indis- pensable piety. It is not because I despise the charms of eloquence, that I have entirely laid them aside, but because I know that I am not at all master of them, and so choose rather not to attempt them, than by an awkward imitation to darken the subject to the plainer part of an audience, without approv- ing myself to the nicer judgment of the more polite. In short, I am grown very familiar with the old Pu- ritans, and consequently I am a great favorite with the old women! Pray congratulate me on this good fortune, which is entirely beyond my expectation and my hope."
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"December 1, 1722. "Mr. Jennings' pupils never preach anywhere out of the verge of their own congregation, till they have been examined by a committee of the neighbor- ing ministers, who are chosen for that purpose at a
38 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
general county meeting. The time of this examina- tion is in the pupils' choice. Now I leave it to your determination whether I shall be examined imme- diately after Christmas, or defer it to the last month of my course. Mr. Jennings is for hastening it, be- cause he thinks, by preaching abroad, I may get a better acquaintance in the neighborhood. Kibworth is not yet provided with a minister, and they are pretty urgent for occasional supplies from our house. And then he thinks riding will be good for my health. I am sure there is at least one considerable objection to these arguments, and that is, that I have neither great-coat, boots, spurs, nor whip, nor so much as a Bible big enough to hold my notes; and so I am but poorly equipped for an itinerant preacher.
"I should be glad to hear in your next, how you intend to dispose of me after I have finished my course here : whether I am to spend a few months more with Mr. Jennings, or may hope to have my education carried on at some other place ; whether, if neither of these plans can be brought about, I am to be fixed in a private family, and preach now and then, or am likely to be more constantly engaged. I should be very well pleased with any of the for- mer, but have no inclination for the last, if it can conveniently be avoided.
"I do not know that I have ever been more fru- gal in my expenses, since I came to Mr. Jennings', than I have been of late, and yet I have been forced to take four guineas since the date of my last. One half guinea was spent in articles of dress, and the
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 39
greatest part of another in necessary journeys ; one to Leicester, to take the oaths and subscribe the articles,* which cost me six shillings, and another to Mount Sorrel to a meeting of ministers.
"I have made two theological theses — one about original sin, and the other on the worship of Christ ; and four more sermons: one on maintaining contin- ual communion with God, Psa. 73:23; two on the omniscience of God, from Prov. 15:3; 1 Cor. 2:9; and the last on a regard to the invisible world, from 2 Cor. 4:18. The people were, generally speaking, calm and attentive; not bigoted to any particular subjects or phases, but heartily pleased, with the as- surance of honesty and seriousness ; and it is princi- pally owing to this, that these plain, artless dis- courses have met with much better acceptance than I could have expected.
"Long lectures, disputations, and sermons do not leave us much spare time; but most of that which remains is spent in the Scriptures, and practical di- vinity, and some volumes of Boyle's Lectures in vin- dication of revealed religion. The classics, the Spec- tator, essays, poems, and travels serve for the enter- tainment of our idle hours. I ask your pardon for detaining you so long, but I write the more at large that I may not trouble you so often."
To Miss Clarke.
" January 5, 1723.
"All my present happiness is treasured up in my
friends; and for that very reason, you cannot im-
* A legal qualification, without which a non-conforraist could not then preach in safety.
40 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
agine how frequently they discompose me. I feel their afflictions more than my own, and am tormented with a thousand imaginary fears upon their account, which my fondness, and not my reason, suggests. Every thing that looks like a slight or a neglect from them touches me to the quick; and while I imagine they are out of humor, I am so far from being cheerful, that I can hardly be good-natured.
"And now, if the inordinate love of the most excellent creatures has so many fatal consequences, how just your reflections : If our souls are formed for love, let us learn to place our supreme affection upon our Creator; for it is that alone which can afford us lasting satisfaction. And certainly, if we could per- suade ourselves to love the blessed God as we ought, the happiness of this life, as well as the hope of the next, would be fixed upon the most solid basis; we should have all the transports of unbounded passion without any of its anguish and perturbation. He has no sorrow to be condoled, no unkindness to be sus- pected, no change to be feared. The united powers of the creation cannot give him one moment's un- easiness, nor separate us one moment from his pres- ence and his favor; but the dear object of our wishes and our hopes would be for ever happy, and for ever our own. We may converse with him in the most intimate and endearing manner, in every place and in every circumstance of life. Every afflic- tion would then be light, and every duty would be easy. How ardently should we embrace every op- portunity of doing something to testify our respect and affection for him ; and what a relish would it
HIS THEOLOGICAL STITDIE-S. 41
give to every common enjoyment of life to consider that it came from his hand, and that he sent it as a token of his love, and as the pledge of something infinitely more valuable. Death itself would be unspeakably desirable when we could consider it in this view — but as retiring with the best of our friends into a nobler apartment, to spend an eternity in his delightful presence, without the least interval of sorrow, absence, or indifference. It is a happy condition; but, alas, when shall we arrive at it? I have often thought that affectionate tempers, like yours and mine, are well turned for the most ele- vated devotion. But we cannot expect it, at least for any continuance, till we have regulated and sub- dued every meaner passion.
"I heartily join with you in lamenting the di- visions of the London ministers, and beg that God would pour out a better spirit upon them, a spirit of love and a sound mind — orthodoxy of temper, as well as orthodoxy of belief."
To his Sister, Mrs. Nettleton.
"January 26, 1723. "I really want company. This looks like a strange complaint in such a family as ours. But I will assure you that it is not without reason. Mrs. Jennings [with whom he boarded] is either busy or tired ; and as for my fellow-pupils, some of them have but a moderate share of common-sense ; some of them are of a very unhappy natural temper, and most of them are perfect strangers to every thing that looks like goodbreeding and politeness : so that,
42 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
though I keep upon very civil terms with all, I am intimate with nobody but Mrs. Jennings.
"I am to be examined to-morrow by a committee of ministers chosen for that purpose at the general meeting. I know the temper of the men, and the nature of the thing so well, that I have no uneasy apprehensions about it.;
;;
The above extract suggests an incident well re- lated by Mr. Stoughton, who observes that in Dod- dridge, "unaffected courtesy was blended with liter- ary refinement, and the poor student could hardly be mistaken for any thing 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 inter- esting 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 generous 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 Dod- dridge, 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 his father in the ministry of Newport. The town be- came a place of interest to Doddridge, and after he attained to celebrity, an opportunity offered for showing a practical concern for the welfare of the
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 43
church. The meeting-house having been erected on an estate 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 be- coming a bankrupt, it was seized by the creditors ; this was in 1740. Dr. Doddridge then generously came forward and purchased the meeting-place of them, and conveyed it to proper trustees, and by his zeal and influence the money was soon raised."
The subject of another portion of the last letter is more fully unfolded in the following one :
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
" January 28, 1723.
"I am very much obliged to you for the tender concern you express for me, and the excellent and seasonable advice which you give me. May I always so digest and retain it as ever to carry about with me an humble sense of my own insufficiency, a cheerful dependence upon the assistance of divine grace, and an affectionate concern for the glory of my Redeemer, and the happiness of my fellow-creatures. It is true that my good tutor, whom I shall always respect as one of my best friends, is always ready to give me such cautions and admonitions as he thinks necessary ; and he has that happy art, which so few besides Mr. Jennings and Mr. Clarke possess, of giving the plain- est and most sincere advice with all the good-nature and decorum that one could desire or imagine. How- ever, sir, I hope you will not write the seldomer on that account. You may sometimes fall into reflec- tions which I have not heard from him ; and when it
44 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
happens otherwise, it will be a pleasure and an ad- vantage to me to observe how exactly you concur in sentiment.
" One reason for my answering your letter sooner, perhaps, than I should otherwise have done, is to transmit to you the following bill, which I received from Mr. Jennings presently after Christinas: 'To Christmas, 1722, half-a-year's board and tuition, eight pounds, ten shillings; 'Spanheim's Elenchus,' five shillings and three pence ; exchange of a Hebrew Bible, four shillings and sixpence; 'Dupin's Eccle- siastical History/ ten shillings and sixpence ; for a gown, one pound, fourteen shillings, and twopence ; in money, three pounds, three shillings, and fivepence, payable to Mr. Clarke of London.' The books are such as we read in our course; and which Mr. Jen- nings thought proper to provide for us himself. My old Hebrew Bible was in a very sad condition, as it had been used as a school-book before it came into my hands. In some places it was hardly legible, and therefore I dare say you will not blame my parting with it. My gown had lasted me two years, and had been turned and mended several times, and was at first but an ordinary calimanco of eighteen pence a yard, so that it was very necessary to have another. I am not aware of any considerable expense that could have been retrenched. I have always endeav- ored to avoid every thing that looks like extrava- gance; and you may depend upon it, shall continue to do so. I shall be obliged to be pretty often abroad this half-year ; but I have some friends in the congregation who will sometimes accommodate me
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 45
with their horses, and I hope that most of my jour- neys will pay their own charges.
"Last Thursday my class-fellow Mr. Some and I were examined by his father, Mr. Bridgen, and Mr. Norris, three neighboring ministers, remarkable for their affability, candor, and Catholicism, as well as their learning and good-sense. They were pleased to declare themselves thoroughly satisfied; and we are to receive a certificate of approbation and recom- mendation from all the ministers of the county next general meeting. In the mean time we take our turns with two more for the supply of Kilworth."
The habit of strict and conscientious economy, which we learn from these and numerous other let- ters was practised by Doddridge while dependent on the liberality of his generous patron, is deserving of notice and of commendation, and is worthy of being imitated by all in similar circumstances. It was not connected, however, either now or subsequently, with penuriousness. He was accustomed, years before, to divide with the poor peasantry, among whom his walks were taken, the little sums on hand, which others would probably have regarded it as a duty to expend upon their own increased comfort.
It may be also remarked that the gown worn by the non-conformist ministers at that day was often of a dark blue color, in imitation of the color of the cloak used at Geneva — that famous asylum of the reformers, and strong-hold of the Protestant faith in the days of Calvin and afterwards. We are told that one of the family pictures represents Dr. Dod- dridge as wearing a gown of this sort, and a flowing
46 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
wig. Let us here, once for all, encourage and instruct the poor student of our owe day, by copying a few lines from the excellent widow of Doddridge, when writing to Orton his biographer, while preparing his memoir : "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- wards as 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."
From the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"St. Albans, 1723.
" Whatever acceptance you meet with as a preach- er, I trust you will consider as an argument to en- courage your endeavors after a still greater improve- ment of your talents.
"One thing that young ministers have particular reason to study is humility. Many are their tempta- tions to vanity; especially if they have the advan- tages of superior ability and acceptance. Indulgence in this weakness will be a bar to the divine influence, for God resisteth the proud, but gives more and more grace to the humble. It also lessens a man very much in the eyes of judicious persons, who, whatever artful methods are taken, will still be able to discern and despise it. It ordinarily also takes off from the vigor of a man's endeavors to make further advances
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 47
to improve himself. It is good, therefore, to have our eyes very much upon our own defects, and to think how much we fall short of those excellent patterns which we should be always proposing for our imita- tion. Let us not value ourselves upon, nor be much concerned about, the opinions of men ; but labor above all things for the divine approbation.
"It is also of great importance, in all our minis- terial performances, to have continually in view one great end, which is the advancement of the interests of religion, and the salvation of souls ; and not only in the general, but in every particular ministration to awaken in our minds a very sensible concern about these matters.
" I continue to recommend you and your studies to the divine blessing ; and heartily pray you may have the honor to be employed by our great Lord and Master considerably to advance his kingdom in the world ; to see which will be an abundant recompense for whatever trouble I have been at on your ac- count."
To Miss Hannah Clarke.
"April 27, 1723.
"I have lately received an invitation to settle at Kibworth, and Mr. Clarke has given his consent; but some things have since occurred that consider- ably perplex, and will at least retard the affair. I am at present in a very uneasy agitation of mind ; and earnestly beg you, as a dear and Christian friend, to join me in prayer to that God who is the author of every good and perfect gift, that he would give me wisdom to direct my way, and providentially bring
48 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
the affair to such an issue as may be most for his glory, and my improvement and usefulness."
From Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"St. Albaxs, May 11, 1723. " I have received yours, in which you give me an account of the prospect you have of an invitation to settle at Coventry. The acceptance Providence fa- vors you with, makes it necessary that you should be very much upon your guard against ebullitions of pride and vainglory, which are so natural to us all, and especially when we first come abroad into the world with advantage. Humility is the best ornament to valuable gifts. The shade it casts upon them makes them appear the more lovely, and gives them a greater efficacv. Let vour heart be full of a sense of those manifold defects which an inward acquaintance with yourself will easily discover. Have often before your eyes the nature and importance of the work you are engaged in, and the account you have to give, and you will then always find reason to say from your heart, with the blessed apostle, " Who is sufficient for these things?"
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"May 25,1723.
"I heartily thank you, good sir, for the excellent
advice you give me relating to humility ; and I must
be extremely unacquainted with my own heart, if I
thought I did not need it. I am fully convinced in
my own judgment, that popularity is in itself a very
mean, as well as an uncertain thing ; and that it is
only valuable as it gives us an opportunity to act for
God with greater advantage ; and yet I find, by the
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 49
little I have tasted, that it is of an intoxicating na- ture. I desire not to be solicitous about it, and hope I can honestly say, that when I think I have been instrumental in making or promoting good impres- sions upon the hearts of some of my hearers, it gives me a much nobler and more lasting satisfaction than I ever had in the approbation with which my plain discourses have sometimes been received.
"And now, sir, I cannot but reflect, as I very fre- quently do, that, under God, I owe this pleasure to the goodness of my friends, and to your generosity and kindness. If God had not wonderfully provided for me by your means, instead of this honorable and delightful employment which I am now entering upon, and which I should from my heart choose be- fore any other in the world, I should in all prob- ability have been tied down to some dull formal duties, in which I should not have had any of these advantages for improving my mind, or so comfortable a prospect for usefulness now and happiness here- after. The only return I can make for all this goodness, is my thanks and my prayers. You have certainly the greatest claim to them ; and I hope, sir, you will continue to remember me in yours."
To Miss Clarke.
" July 15, 1723.
" Great revolutions have happened in my little affairs since I wrote to you. On the first of June I removed from Hinckley, and am come to a little vil- lage in the neighborhood of Kibworth, where I am settled, and have laid aside all thoughts of going to Coventry, though I have been much solicited to do so
T)or1dri<l(t«. 3
50 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
since my coming hither. My settlement here is, on some accounts, pleasant, but on others, disagreeable enough.
" You know I love a country life, and here we have it in perfection. I am roused in the morning by the chirping of sparrows, the cooing of pigeons, the low- ing of kine, the bleating of sheep, and the neighing of horses. We have a mighty pleasant garden and orchard, and a fine arbor under some tall shady limes, that form a kind of lofty dome, of which, as a native of the great city, you may perhaps catch a glimmer- ing idea, if I name the cupola of St. Paul's. And then on the other side of the house there is a large space which we call the wilderness, and which, I fancy, would please you extremely. The ground is a dainty green sward ; a brook runs sparkling through the middle, and there are two large fish-ponds at one end. Both the ponds and the brook are surrounded with wil- lows ; and there are several shady walks under the trees, besides little knots of young willows inter- spersed at convenient distances. This is the nursery of our lambs and calves, with whom I have the honor to be intimately acquainted. Here I generally spend the evening, and pay my respects to the setting sun, when the variety and beauty of the prospect inspire a pleasure which I know not how to express. I am sometimes so transported with these inanimate beau- ties, that 1 fancy that I am like Adam in Paradise; and it is my only misfortune that I have none but the birds of the air and the beasts of the field for my companions. I am very frequently alone twenty-one hours in the twenty-four; and sometimes breakfast,
♦HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 51
dine, and sup by myself. I cannot say that this her- mit life, as multitudes would call it, is very agreeable to my natural temper, which inclines me to society. I am therefore necessarily obliged to study hard; and if it were not for that resource, my life would be a burden."
To his Sister, Mrs. Nettleton.
"Stretton, August 25, 1723.
"I am now settled to my business ; and while I am engaged, am easy enough ; but at other times, am like a fish out of water. I have had so much good company at London and St. Albans, and especially at Hampstead, that I hardly know how to bear up under the loss of it ; and the solitude to which I am condemned is a thousand times more disagreeable than it was a few weeks ago.
"I do not know how to express my concern for the ill state of your health. I am really sometimes afraid, and I speak it with a very sad heart, that I shall never see you any more ; and God knows that, if I lose you, I lose the dearest friend I have in the world. I leave you, and all my other concerns, in the hands of that God who will certainly do that which is best for us both ; but I assure you, that if my prayers, and the prayers of a great many excellent friends hereabout, can keep you a few years longer out of heaven, you will not be there very soon."
To Mr. David Some. [Occasioned by the death of his brother Thomas.]
" October 22, 1723.
" Dear Sir — I thought it would not be convenient
to speak to you at Harborough, or to wait on you at
52 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
Bowden, so soon after I came from Mount Sorrel, and therefore I take this way of assuring you that I sin- cerely condole with you upon that melancholy prov- idence which you and your good family are now mourning under. Those transports of grief which you could not conceal when I saw you last, as well as the greatness of your loss, and the known tenderness of your temper, persuade me that it is not at all un- seasonable to give you a caution against that excess of sorrow which too frequently prevails in the best of men, when, like you, they are weeping over the dust of a dear relative and an amiable friend.
" I know, sir, that your own reason and good sense, and especially those religious principles which through the grace of God so apparently prevail in your mind, will furnish you with the noblest supports upon such an occasion, and therefore it is not needful that I should particularly remind you of their im- portance. I only desire that you would turn your thoughts that way, and instead of fixing them upon the aggravating circumstances of your affliction, would lay your bosom open to those strong conso- lations which reason and grace are so ready to ad- minister ; otherwise, besides a great many other in- conveniences that would attend their neglect, you may seem to overlook those comforts which God has still continued to you, especially in the lives of those excellent parents, whereas both mine were removed many years before I came to your age.
" Consider, my dear brother, that you have an interest in an almighty Friend, a friend whom you can never lose, but who will stand by you and sup-
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 53
port you when all earthly comforts forsake you; and consider that you are hastening to a glorious and happy world, where you will meet with this lamented brother again, and for ever converse with him upon terms of much greater advantage. When your heart is warmed with such reflections as these, you will see the highest reason to acquiesce in the divine deter- mination, and to bless God for his compassion and goodness in providing such rich and reviving cor- dials for his mourning and afflicted children.
" Instead of indulging immoderate sorrow, let us be careful to learn those useful instructions which such an awful providence is designed to teach. Let us learn not to amuse ourselves with the fond expec- tation of any certain happiness in this lower world, since God can so suddenly remove the dearest of our enjoyments, or even in a moment change our own countenance and send us away ; for in that day all such thoughts will immediately perish. Let us rather be forming great and generous designs for the glory of God and the good of the world around us ; and then, if Providence should see fit to remove us while we are young, our honest intentions shall be kindly rewarded, though we had not an opportunity of put- ting them into execution.
"As we see that neither youth, nor health, nor courage, nor the promise of the most extensive use- fulness, could be anv securitv to our deceased friend, let us be holding ourselves in a constant readiness for that important change, which may so soon surprise us ; and let us with the utmost vigor and application be doing the work of Him who sent us into the world,
54 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
while it is day, before the night comes, and darkness overtakes us, in which no man can work.
" P. S. Give me leave, good sir, to recdhimend to you an experiment which I have often tried myself, namely, to read over 1 Cor. 15:12-58. Consider, as you go along, that it is as certainly the word of the God of truth, as if it were pronounced by a voice from heaven, and apply this glorious promise of a glorious resurrection to your brother and yourself; and I believe it will have a happy tendency to com- pose your mind, and awaken hope and joy. I was so impressed with it, when I heard it read over your poor brother's grave, that really I could only weep that I was left behind. 2 Cor. 5 : 1-9, and 1 Thess. 4:13-18, are also very proper to be consulted upon such an occasion, and in the same view. My most humble respects to your good father and mother, upon whom I intend shortly to wait at Bowden."
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"Burton, Oct. 22, 1724. "I have at present a great deal of time for study, which I rejoice in as a great happiness. I have books enough to furnish me constantly with agreeable em- ployment. At present my thoughts are principally taken up with divinity and the study of the Scrip- tures. I am going on with Mr. Baxter's works, which I cannot sufficiently admire. I have been looking over his 'Reasons for the Christian Religion/ and I find a great many curious and important thoughts, which have not occurred to me in any of the Boylean Lectures which I have seen. I am now reading 'Pearson on the Creed,' and as I go along, compare
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 55
it with Barrow, article by article. After I have de- spatched these works, I intend to read ' Burnet on the Thirty-nine Articles/ which I have hitherto only con- sulted occasionally. As I consider the books I am now reading very valuable, I go over them with a great deal of care and attention ; take extracts of all the most curious passages, and compare them with Mr. Jennings' theological lectures, that they may be ready for use, as I have occasion.
"I have now before me another business, which takes up not a little of my time. I am drawing up, but only for my own use, a sort of analytical scheme of the contents of the epistles of the New Testament. I have already gone through the Romans, and the greatest part of the first of Corinthians. I hope I now understand the connection of these parts of St. Paul's writings a great deal better than I did before. But I am afraid I have frequently been mistaken, having often been embarrassed by the different views in which the same passage may be considered. There are indeed a great many difficulties which I have not yet been able to make my way through, at least to my own satisfaction; and where I have clearly seen the intended argument, I have found such objections against its validity as have been very perplexing, and will require a fuller examination, and about which I shall be desirous of your thoughts. Upon the whole, I am ready to hope that this scheme, defective as it is, may be of some service to me, especially in helping me to open the connection of any particular view which I may have occasion to discourse from, without the trouble of a long previous examination. My plan is,
56 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
to take in the sense of every clause ; and so, as the thoughts lie thick, and the connection is very obscure, the contents are frequently as large as the chapter. I intend to contract them at last, and to form a second scheme, which will indeed be a kind of skeleton, where I shall omit all illustrations, digressions, transitions, devotional reflections, and practical quotations; and only exhibit in a very few words the propositions and proofs of the argumentative part of these writers. As I go along I make use of those four commentators which I have. I find Locke of far greater service to me than any of the rest. I own I cannot fall in with his exposition of many particular texts ; but I have very little to except against his general scheme, and his division of the matter, which seems to me to throw an additional light upon the whole.'7
It is worthy of remark that we here discover the origin or basis of that great work, the "Family Ex- positor," upon which more than twenty years were subsequently expended, in connection with other duties.
Scarcely had Doddridge entered on his regular ministerial duties at Kibworth, before pressing invi- tations were addressed to him to visit other much larger and wealthier churches, as a candidate for the pastorate. Congregations in the city of Coventry, at Pershore in Worcestershire, and in London, all strove to obtain his labors, and many temptations of various kinds might have allured him away, had not a strong sense of duty compelled his continuance with his small and poor flock. His answer to all of
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 5T
them was substantially the same: he was but in his twenty-second year, his mental furniture was compar- atively small, and he needed much study and expe- rience to prepare him for situations of so much importance and magnitude.
To his Brother, the Rev. John Net tie ton.
"Burton, Dec. 8, 1724.
"I received yours and my sister's of November the 7th, with abundant satisfaction. The very superscrip- tion revived me, as it gave me ocular assurance that you were still in the land of the living ; a fact of which I began to be in some doubt. I heartily accept your apology, as I know both you and her too well to mis- take your silence for unkindness. My temper does not incline me to uneasy suspicions, nor will the agreeable and friendly manner with which you have always treated me, leave any room for them.
"I find it most useful to join reading and reflec- tion, and would not entirely depend either on myself or others. I find there are many in the world who make a considerable figure, not only as preachers, but as writers, who subsist entirely upon transcribing other men's thoughts. This is a degree of humility to which I have not yet attained. In short, I consider books as a food we ordinary sort of animals cannot live without ; and yet we may possibly be overcharged, if we cram ourselves with more than we can digest. I have a pretty keen appetite, and would rather take up with any than with none; and yet, as I have a great variety at command, I am pretty nice in point of choice. I have latelv been reading 'Barrow's
3*
58 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
Works/ and 'Pearson upon the Creed/ which I have studied with great care. I have now before me 'Burnet on the Articles/ in which I meet with very agreeable entertainment.
" Baxter is my particular favorite. It is impossi- ble to tell you how much I am charmed with the de- votion, good sense, and pathos which are everywhere to be found in that writer. I cannot, indeed, forbear looking upon him as one of the greatest orators that our nation ever produced, alike with regard to copi- ousness, acuteness, and energy ; and if he has describ- ed the temper of his own heart, he appears to have been so far superior to the generality of those whom we must charitably hope to be good men, that one would imagine God had raised him up to disgrace and condemn his brethren, by showing what a Chris- tian is, and how few in the world deserve the char- acter."
It is pleasant to see here how Doddridge had im- proved in his piety and theology during the three years which had elapsed since he wrote, "In practical divinity, Tillotson is my principal favorite, and next to him Barrow and Scott. We have some of Good- win's works in the library, and some of the great Dr. Owen's ; but you know I am not very fond of such mysterious men."
In addition to the general rules of conduct which Mr. Doddridge had prescribed to himself at an earlier period, the following rules were laid down by him in regard to his ministerial duties at Kibworth :
"1. I will spend some extraordinary time in pri-
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 59
vate devotion every Lord's day, morning or evening, as opportunity may offer, and will then endeavor to preach over to my own soul that doctrine which I preach to others.
" 2. I will take every second evening in the week, in which I will spend half an hour in devotional exer- cises on such subjects relative to the congregation as I think most suitable on that occasion.
" 3. At the close of every week and month, I will spend some time in its review, that I may see how time has been improved, innocence secured, duties discharg- ed, and whether I advance or lose ground in religion.
" 4. When I have an affair of more than ordinary importance before me, or meet with any remarkable occurrence, either merciful or afflictive, I will set apart some time for contemplation and to seek God upon it.
" 5. I will more particularly devote some time every Friday to seek God, on account of those who recommend themselves to my prayers, and to pray for the public welfare.
" 6. In all the duties of the oratory, I will endeavor to maintain a serious and affectionate temper.
"I am sensible that I have a heart which will in- cline me to depart from God. May his Spirit strengthen and sanctify it, so that I may find him in such seasons of retirement, and that my heavenly Father may ac- cept me here, and at length openly reward me through Jesus Christ. Amen."
To his Sister, Mrs. ISTettleton.
" Burton, February 17, 1725. " I would not put you to so much confusion as would probably arise from the mention of the words
60 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
brother and sister, which might perhaps lead your thoughts to recollect a sort of distant relationship between us. that I once thought myself exceedingly happy in possessing. I therefore take the liberty humbly to insinuate that a few lines from your fair hand in answer to two quarto pages which I sent you about a quarter of a year ago, would be exceedingly agreeable to
"Your most obedient servant,
"PHILIP DODDRIDGE."
To his Brother, the Hev. John Ne ttleton.
"Burton, August 5, 1/25. "I continue to spend an hour a day on Baxter, whom I admire more and more. And I spend another on Homer, which I read in the original, with Pope's translation and notes. I have as yet read only to the end of the eighth Iliad ; but, as far as I can judge, this is one of the finest translations in the English lan- guage, and what is very extraordinary, it appears to the best advantage when compared with the original. I have read both carefully so far, and written remarks as I went along ; and I think I can prove that where Pope has omitted one beauty, he has added or improv- ed four."
The Rev. Job Orton, Doddridge's first and princi- pal biographer, states that his remarks on Homer were sufficient to form a considerable volume.
We seldom read the lives of distinguished ser- vants of God without being impressed with the divine goodness in preserving them from death in seasons of imminent danger. Doddridge furnished no exception
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 61
to this remark. In 1725 he had paid a visit to his sister in the neighborhood of London, and on his re- turn, under the date of September 22, he wrote to her, describing the dangers in which he had been placed, and his remarkable deliverance. After telling her of his being one afternoon thrown twice over the head of his horse, he goes on to say, "As we were going, on Thursday morning, from Newport to Bedford, I escaped a much greater danger, and desire to acknow- ledge it with hearty thanks to the care of Providence which preserved me in it. We were coming along in a narrow lane, and met with I know not how manv wagons of coals. I was aware of the difficulty, and endeavored to guard against it; but my horse being a little frighted at the ditch on one side, started and came too near the wagons on the other. There was a sudden turn in the road which I did not ob- serve, which just at the time threw the wagon on towards me, so that my foot was caught in one of the wheels and whirled round with it for a part of its course, and the other came so near me after I was entangled, that all the lower part of my right side and my horse's shoulder were covered with its dirt ; and yet, through the goodness of God, I got not the least harm, not so much as a strain or bruise."
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"Harborough, June 11, 1726. " I generally spend two hours a day in the classics, one in Greek and the other in Latin. I have lately been reading: some of the 'Orations of Demosthenes/ which gave me very agreeable entertainment. 'Vir- gil's iEneid' charms me more than it ever did before.
62 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
I am wonderfully taken with the ease and elegance of 'Pliny's Epistles,' and with the description he gives of his own temper and behavior, which seems to me very amiable and instructive. There are indeed some admirable epistles in the Latin, which one can hardly bear to read in English ; for though the thoughts are retained, and the translation is sometimes almost literal, an affectation of humor and drollery makes many passages mean and nauseous, which, in Pliny, are exceedingly pleasant, and yet perfectly elegant and genteel. I think this observation may be applied to most of the English translations of the comedies, especially to those from Terence.
"My very humble service waits upon your good lady. Pray assure her that there is no one woman in the world that can destroy my esteem for her sex, while she, and so many others whom I have the hap- piness of being acquainted with, are doing so much to establish and increase it. I am exceedingly obliged, sir, for the favor of your invitation to St. Albans. I am sure I do not want inclination to comply with it, but I am chained down to the care of two congrega- tions which are for a while fallen into my hands, so that I hardly know whether I shall be able to break loose for one Lord's day this summer. However, you may depend upon it that I will attempt it, if it be possible."
To the Rev. Nathaniel Wood, D. D.
" June 11, 1726. "Pray remember Philip Doddridge, or he will do his best to forget you."
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 63
To Mr. Hughes.
"June 28, 1726. Midnight.
"As for yours of the 20th of April, I have run it over so often that I can say a good deal of it by heart. I am essentially obliged to you for your correspond- ence. You know that I am naturally of a social temper, and you continue, in the abundance of your humanity, not only to give me pleasure in perusing your letters myself, but enable me to entertain my friends by communicating them ; for I read the greater part of them to all the persons of taste and politeness with whom I am conversant, and they all seem to be charmed with the sentiments. Indeed, though they become perfectly familiar to me, I always read them with new pleasure, and am as much transported with the twentieth rehearsal as I am at the first perusal.
• ■ You recommended Pliny. I immediately pro- cured him, and there is seldom a day in which I do not read two or three of his epistles. I had before heard several very high encomiums upon him, but nothing gave me so lively an idea of his excellence as to observe the perfection to which you have arrived by studying him, for every letter of yours is a pane- gyric upon Pliny, though you do not mention his name. Let me entreat you to go on thus to recom- mend him, and to increase those pleasing expectations with which I take him into my hand. However, take care you do not so far exceed him as to spoil my relish, for then you would rob me of one of the most elegant amusements of my life ; nor can I imagine how you would be able to make me amends in any other way than by the frequency of your own letters. "
64 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
To the Rev. John Nettletop.
" Harborough, June 9, 1726. ) Wednesday morning, 8 o'clock. )
" Dear Brother — I was up at live o'clock this morning, and I have been all this while studying the connection of a short section in the Romans and writ- ing letters. Nay, at this very moment Demosthenes is waiting to entertain me with one of his Philippics, and Virgil is bringing back JEneas to his camp, where I have long been waiting in pain for his absence. Dr. Tillotson has also prepared an admirable sermon, which he will quickly deliver in my chamber with his usual grace and sweetness. And then Gerard Brant will go on with his history of the Persecution of the Remonstrants, after their condemnation at the Synod of Dort. In the afternoon I expect to hear from Pliny, who generally favors me with two or three epistles in a day, though a stranger and a heathen; while you, a Christian minister and my brother, will hardly write once in a quarter of a year. Dr. Potter is instructing me in ' Grecian Antiquities ;7 but I fear I shall hardly have time to speak with him to-day. However, I will, if possible, attend upon my tutor Cradock in the morning, who is lecturing on the epistles with great accuracy and solidity. Besides this, I have a little kind of a sermon to preach in the family, according to my daily custom, and three or four letters to transcribe into shorthand.
" Now I will leave you, who are one of the great- est clerks I know, to judge whether all this business will leave me time to say any more than, How does my dear sister ? Give my service to her."
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 65
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
" September 20, 1726.
" Just as I was writing this, good Mrs. Jennings came into my study. I know not what trifling occa- sion brought her hither, but I am sure it was a happy accident for me. I have now, for half an hour, been entertained with as much piety and good sense, and expressions of generous, undissembled friendship, as could be crowded into so little time. She told me — ■ what I am so much charmed with that I cannot con- ceal it from you, nor could I hear it, nor indeed can I write it, without tears — that she is ' relying on my conversation and friendship as one of the greatest pleasures of her life, and that she is often blessing God for the kind providence that brought me into her family.' Do not impute it to any vanity that I repeat this language, for I really think such a feeling has no part in the matter. She indeed thinks more favorably of me by far than I deserve : but that mis- take is my happiness. You, sir, that are blessed in the enjoyment of Mrs. Clarke, know the exquisite pleasure of being esteemed by a woman of an amiable charac- ter ; and as I rejoice that you have such a wife, so I am willing that you should take part in the satisfac- tion I have in the society of such a friend. With how much pleasure do I think that Providence has favored me with an opportunity of serving her in those interests which above all others are dear to her, the instruction of her children and her spiritual edification. As I question not that yon are often praying for me, so I beg you would join with me in
66 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
returning thanks to that God who has made such a gracious and indulgent provision for my happiness.
" While I am above in my study, I find such enter- tainment in my books that I think I should be happy though I lived in a wilderness, and had no human creature to converse with; and when I come down stairs, I am ready to forget that I have a study, and to think I might daily grow wiser, though every book but my Bible were in another country. The lines are indeed fallen to me in pleasant places; and I often think that two such friends as Mrs. Jennings and Mr. Clarke are more than one man can reasonably expect, and I heartily wish that I may be enabled to behave so that neither you nor she may have reason to repent of that share in your esteem and affection with which you have honored your most obliged and most affectionate humble servant,
"PHILIP DODDRIDGE."
To Mr. John Massey.
"November 20, 1726.
"You urge me to send you some directions upon the management of your studies.
" Let us remember, my dear friend, that we are to place our point of life, not in an attempt to know or do every thing, which will certainly be as unsuccess- ful as it is extravagant, but in a care to do that well which Providence has assigned us in our peculiar sphere. As I am a minister, I could not answer it to God or my own conscience, if I were to spend a great deal of time in studying the depths of the law, or in the more entertaining though less useful pursuit of a nice criticism of classical writers. I would not be
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 6t
entirely a stranger to these things, and there are twenty others I would just look into, although each of them alone, or indeed any single branch of either, might be the employment of a much longer life than I can imagine Providence has assigned to me. Should I suffer my few sheep in the wilderness to go astray, in an ignorance of their Bible and in a stupid neglect of their eternal salvation, while I was too busy to reclaim them, God would call it but laborious idle- ness, and I must give up my account with shame and confusion.
" The thought, my friend, may be applied, with a very little variation, to you. It is in the capacity of a tradesman that you are to serve your family and country, and, in them, your God ; and therefore, although I would not have so fine a genius discour- aged from entertaining itself with the refined pleas- ures of a student, yet it would be imprudence towards yourself and an injury to the world to spend so much time in your closet as to neglect your warehouse, and to be so much taken up with volumes of philosophy, history, poetry, or divinity, as to forget to look into your ledger. But above all, sir, let it be your constant concern that study may not interfere with devotion, nor engross that valuable time which should be conse- crated to the immediate service of your God. God is the Father of our spirits, and it is upon this sacred influence that they depend for an improvement in knowledge as well as in holiness. Now if we are abandoned by Him, our genius will flag, and all our thoughts become languid and confused; and it will be in vain that we seek the assistance of books : for
68 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
when He ceases to act by them, the most sprightly writers will appear dull, the most perspicuous ob- scure, and the most judicious trifling ; whereas, if we entertain a continual regard to Him in the constant exercise of lively devotion, we shall engage his assist- ance and blessing in our studies, and then our success will quickly appear to ourselves and to others; the most difficult task will be easy, and we shall dispatch more in an hour than we could otherwise have done in a day.
" But, what is still more desirable, when we are conversing with God we are preparing for that world of light where our capacity will be most gloriously improved; where we shall be surrounded by the wisest and best society, who will be opening daily new scenes of knowledge, and where God will reveal fresh objects by a more direct influence upon our spirits than any which we have hitherto known in our brightest or serenest moments. Let us he diligent and zealous in the service of our God, and we shall be excellent scholars a thousand years hence; while those who have made the greatest improvement in human knowledge, living in the neglect of God, are forgot- ten, or rather, are consigned to the gloom of ever- lasting darkness. Let us remember that by every hour which we unduly take from God to give to our books, we forfeit some degree of future happiness, which might have been the reward of that hour had we spent it aright. And when we consider that knowledge is a part of the happiness of heaven, we shall certainly find that, in the long run, we lose a great deal more than we gain by such sacrilegious
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 69
encroachments, even though our studies should sue ceed much more prosperously than we have reason to expect."
To Mr. George Hughes.
" November 27, 1726.
" I begin with petitioning you for a favor, which I hope to obtain without much difficulty. Nothing can conduce more to our present tranquillity and future happiness than a steady and affectionate belief of a continual force in the principles of natural and re- vealed religion; and I have found my faith in them much confirmed by an examination of those parts of the subject by which the patrons of infidelity have endeavored to destroy it. An atheist or a deist is a monstrous kind of creature, which in the country we only know by report ; but I infer that you gentlemen of the town meet with them too frequently. Now I desire, sir, that if you should hear any of them reflect upon religion in general, or Christianity in particular, as an irrational enthusiasm, you will please inquire into their reasons for such a censure ; and if you find any thing new or curious in them, do me the favor to transmit them to me. I shall be glad to pursue the thought as far as I can, and will most cheerfully submit my reflections to your examination and amend- ment.
" Besides this, sir, I desire that you would favor me with an account of any book which you think of value, or which bears a character in town ; and I, on the other hand, will freely communicate my sentiments as to any that I have an opportunity of perusing.
" I have no room to add any thing but my most
10 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
affectionate wishes and prayers that the divine favor may attend us both in every circumstance of our present and future existence, and that there may be the same security to you as there is to me that the correspondence we are entering into will be managed so as may be most conducive to our mutual entertain- ment and improvement. We are to answer to God for the time we spend in writing to each other, as well as in other employments and amusements. May we be able to give up this account with comfort and cheerfulness, as having devoted our common friendship principally to the service of that most indulgent Benefactor to whom we are obliged for all its pleasures."
To the Rev. Mr. Hughes.
" November 30, 1726.
"I have not time to mention the books I have lately read, and will only tell you that I have gone over the three volumes of Burnet's History of the Reformation with a great deal of care. I likewise read the records at the end, if they seemed to prom- ise any thing curious, and was exceedingly entertain- ed by several. Hardly any thing charmed me more than the letters at the end of the first volume, which passed between the most celebrated reformers in Eng- land and at Zurich. You will hardly believe it, but I assure you it is my settled judgment, that Jewell writes with almost as much simplicity, elegance, con- sistency, and spirit, as Pliny himself; indeed, there seems to be a very remarkable resemblance in their manner.
" I return your sermon, and will reform so much upon your late admonition, as not to say a word by
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. U
way of panegyric ; and it is a happy rebuke that de- livers me from a task to which my capacity is by no means equal. I must, however, add, that when I read it last night, by way of taking my farewell, it kept me awake, as the victories of Miltiades did Themis- tocles.
" I likewise send you my sermon, which I have left Master Arthur Jennings to transcribe from my notes. It was preached in my usual way, and has little to recommend it to your approbation. I send it to you to be examined and corrected, and then returned. If you would see it to the best advantage, let Mr. Wood read it at some leisure hour. He heard it, and can witness for me that it is just as I delivered it. I have this comfort in sending it to you, that the best judges are always the most candid, and that your friendship will so dazzle your eyes that you will either find or make beauties."
To the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
" I have lately been reading the three folios of Burnet's History of the Reformation in England, with more pleasure than I can express. He appears to be one of the most masterly writers ; he always retains a sense of the dignity of his subject, and writes with a majesty worthy of it. He does not study the orna- ments of style, but expresses himself with plainness and propriety, and always appears to have a most sincere regard to truth, even when it is least honor- able to the character of the bright hero of his history. The third volume is a supplement to the former, and contains many valuable passages. He there corrects all the mistakes which in thirty years he had discov-
T2 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
ered in the former parts, and states them with an air of candor that establishes his character for veracity on the surest foundation, and reflects honor on the other parts of his performance, of which it would not other- wise be susceptible. The records which he throws into the appendix are admirable testimonials of the truth of his history, and illustrate the circumstances of many facts and characters.
" I have been reading ' Lucretius ' with much care. He is indeed, as he is commonly esteemed, a charm- ing poet, but he is a most contemptible philosopher; nor have I yet met with a writer whose descriptions are finer, and whose arguments were meaner. I think he was no fitter to write 'De Rerum Natura,' than a fine landscape painter would be to compose a treatise on anatomy. Creech's translation is so sorrily done, that I should wonder at the applause it has met with in the world, if I did not know it is a common thing to give a character of a translation without compar- ing it with the original.
"I have lately read ' Howe on the Spirit.' There are many very useful observations in it. He every- where breathes a most excellent temper ; and I think one may see more of the man, and of his way of preaching by this than by any other of his works which I have yet perused."
To the Lady Russell.
" April 10.
" It grieves me to be the messenger of such news
as will afflict Ladv Russell ; but Mr. Some wishes me
to inform your ladyship that it has pleased God to
remove my dear friend, his son, in the afternoon of
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDILo. 13
yesterday. He had lain se'veral days in a very com- fortable and cheering frame of mind ; and a few min- utes before his death, expressed a very cheerful hope of future glory. He has appointed me to preach at his funeral, which will be on Wednesday, from Psalm 73:26, 'My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever ;' a pas- sage which he often repeated with great pleasure in the near view of an eternal world.
" To reflect that God is the portion of our friends who are sleeping in death, and that he will be our everlasting portion and inheritance, is certainly the noblest support under such afflictions — a support of which I question not that your ladyship has often felt the importance ; and yet, madam, though this consid- eration may moderate our sorrows, it will not entirely silence or dispel them. For my own part, though I have been in daily expectation of my friend's death for several months together, yet it strikes me more deeply than I can easily express, and gives me for the present a disrelish to all those employments or thoughts which do not immediately relate to that world to which he is gone. Yet, in the midst of my sorrow, it is with pleasure that I reflect on the goodness of God in continuing to me so many other excellent friends, and among them the good Lady Russell, who is an extensive blessing to the world, and an ornament to that exalted station in which Providence has placed her. May mankind be as ready to imitate your char- acter as they are to applaud it, and then I shall hard- ly be able to wish them any greater good."
Doddridge. 4
74 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
To Mrs. Hannah Clarke.
" April 19, 1727.
" On Lord's-day evening, as I returned from Kib- worth, I called to see a dear and intimate friend, Mr. David Some, who used frequently to accompany me thither, and who had been for a considerable time in a delirious state, when, to my unspeakable grief, I found him dead. It is impossible for me to express how much it struck my mind. Never have I seen in any person of his age, which was only twenty, such an agreeable mixture of piety, wit, learning, honor, politeness, sweetness of temper, modesty, prudence, universal charity, and the most endearing friendship : in one word, he had every quality that could adorn the Christian, the scholar, or the man. You will then easily believe that he must have been unusually beloved in life and lamented in death.
" What can you then imagine me to have felt, who was of all others, except his parents, his most intimate companion and friend ? We were brought up togeth- er at Mr. Jennings', and in the same class, and we there formed a most endearing friendship, which has been ever since increasing. He used to accompany me to Kibworth on the Lord's day, and surely he could not receive more advantage from the best of my sermons than I did ever from his conversation on the way. I could not forbear making repeated visits to the corpse while it yet lay unburied; and though, from a bloom and regularity of beauty which I have seldom observed, it has withered to a skeleton, yet I hardly knew how to leave it, but could have dwelt for hours together on those dear cold lips. When I
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 75
followed him to the grave, I almost thought I should have shared it with him, for I was nearly strangled in striving to repress those external marks of inward anguish which might seem indecent in one of my sex and character ; but all my efforts were vain, and while I was in the church I could not forbear bursting into such a flood of tears as I have never shown upon any other occasion. My spirits were so exhausted with sorrow, that I should have been utterly unfit for social conversation for the rest of the evening: how hard then was my task, when I was obliged to go from his grave into the pulpit, and to preach to one of the most numerous auditories I ever saw. You will be surprised to hear, that while I was preaching I did not shed a tear ; yet I think I could have died to re- store him to the world, which has sustained so inex- pressible a loss by his death."
Among the ministers in the neighborhood of Kib- worth with whom Doddridge had already formed a ministerial friendship, was the Rev. Thomas Saunders, who had settled as pastor of the Congregational church at Kettring, in 1721 . He was a lineal descendant from the martyr of the same name, who was burnt in the reign of the bloody Mary, and was himself in early life a servant of the Lord Jesus. He labored with much success at Kettring till 1736, when, at the age of forty-two years, he was called to his gracious and eternal reward. We shall often meet with him as the correspondent and counsellor of Doddridge.
?6 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
To the Rev. Thomas Saunders.
" December 2, 1727. "How was it possible for you to write such a let- ter as I received last night? You are always kind and good, and always more partial in favor of my character than any other person I know in the world ; and to tell you the plain truth, I would have you con- tinue to be so; for if it were not for that happy partiality, you would hardly think me worthy of your friendship. You can never displease me by expres- sions of tenderness, for I love you so well that I would have as much of your heart as one creature ought to have of another's, and I look upon your fond regard as my glory. But, my dear friend, you must forbear these expressions of unreasonable esteem.
"I have this# morning been humbling myself before God for the pride of my heart. It follows me whith- ersoever I go : into my study, into the conversation of my friends, and what is most dreadful of all, into the presence of my Maker — of that God who is the fountain of all perfection, from whose hands I have received all, and from whom I have deserved an ag- gravated condemnation. Such is the subtilty of this insinuating mischief, that I can recollect instances in which I have been proud of having exposed the de- formity of pride with success, while perhaps it was only another instance of my degeneracy to imagine that I had so succeeded. Why then must your com- plaisance add fuel to a fire which I sometimes fear will burn up all my grace and my religion? How hard is it to keep self in self-subjection. This you
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 77
have taught me as well as man can teach it, but God alone can make the excellent lesson effectual. I can not lay a scheme for the honor of my God and the benefit of the world, but self intrudes itself, and that sometimes to such a degree as to make me doubt whether the governing principle be not wrong, and whether many of my most valuable actions and de- signs be not spkndida peccata. Alas, such is your 1 pious and excellent ; friend.
"You compliment me on the learning and accuracy of my views. How are you deceived ! I have hardly looked into many of the most excellent treatises of the ancient and modern commentators, and have only dipped into some others so far as to see that there was a great deal that I was not capable of compre- hending, at least without a long course of preparatory study. There is hardly a chapter in the Bible which does not puzzle me, nor, in short, any considerable subject of human inquiry in which I do not perceive both my ignorance and my weakness.
"Were there any thing which could seem a just excuse for my vanity, it would indeed be, that you and some other such excellent persons profess not only to love, but to respect me; but I am persuaded, nay, I certainly know it is only because a great portion of my ignorance and folly lies hid ; otherwise you would all but pity or despise me. And when I consider your humility in admitting me to such an intimate friend- ship, and in thinking so honorably of me, I see the greater reason to be abashed at the reflection that I have learned no more of that amiable grace, with so bright an example before me, and in one whom I love
18 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
so well that it might be expected that I should imi- tate him with a peculiar pleasure.
" Let me beg your pity and your prayers ; love me as well as you can, but pray that I may deserve your affection better.'7
From the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
"December 18,1727. "As to the proposal of your teaching academical learning, though I doubt not that the furniture you now have, together with what you might acquire in a few years of continued study, would abundantly quali- fy you to undertake it, yet as God has given you a genius and abilities peculiarly fitted for the pulpit, it seems most desirable that you should be in a situation where those talents may be improved and employed to the greatest advantage, and which would, in all probability, be rather obscured by the other course of life. If therefore Providence should open a way for your settling in London, or any other considerable town, I think it should not be rejected for the sake of any views of the other sort."
To Miss Horseman.
" December 20, 1727.
" I have just received the melancholy news of your accident, and the sad consequences with which it has been attended ; and indeed I cannot set myself to any other business until I have taken a few minutes to tell you how sensibly I sympathize in your sorrows.
" I knew that my friendship for you was both sin- cere and tender, but I was not fully apprized of its degree, until it pleased God to visit you with the
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 79
affliction which now lies so heavily upon you, and gives you a title to the compassion of strangers, and how much more to that of your friends. But alas, how vain is the compassion of human friends in a case like yours ; and indeed friendship, when left to herself, too frequently can only sit down and weep over the calamities which she knows not how to relieve. Therefore, madam, I would most importu- nately recommend you to the compassion of that God who can raise you out of all your sufferings, and can even make your affliction the means of your happiness. How happy should I esteem myself if I might be in any degree an instrument in his hand of promoting so excellent a service as the spiritual improvement of this afflictive providence.
"Permit me, madam, humbly to attempt it, and hastily to mention a few serious hints, which I imag- ine may be peculiarly suitable to your present cir- cumstances.
"Allow me then to urge that submission to the Divine will which becomes us under every chastisement. But this is, no doubt, your frequent reflection and dis- course. I am fully persuaded, madam, that you do not allow yourself to murmur and repine against the Lord who smiteth you. But pardon me if I inquire whether you be not too ready to forget your obliga- tions to love and praise. I consider it as one of the greatest defects in the character of some good people, and as the foundation of many visible irregularities, that they do not more delight in the contemplation and praise of God. Too much is this excellent work neglected in the midst of health and prosperity ; but
80 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
when affliction comes, and especially when it comes in so fearful a form as this which has lately visited you, a Christian is too ready to imagine that it is enough to be quiet and resigned, and that he is fairly excused from such delightful exercises of soul, which seem un- suitable to so gloomy a season. But let us learn to correct so unreasonable a thought, and surely a little reflection may teach us so to do.
" With regard to your present circumstances — you are exercised by an injury, the anguish of which may probably exceed the imagination of those who have not known it by experience; but is it not a just foundation of joy and of praise that your life is still prolonged ? It is true that your behavior, so far as I have had the opportunity of observing it, has been such as could not deserve so much as the tender- est reproof of friendship; but you will humbly ac- knowledge, what indeed no human creature can deny, that an omniscient and holy God has seen many of- fences, even in a life which to men has appeared most unexceptionable and most amiable. And you are not to learn that the smallest violation of his sacred law may justly expose us to all the miseries of a future state. And is it not then a matter of praise, that you are yet in the land of the living, and within the reach of pardon and hope ? Nay, I do verily believe that through divine grace you are already in a state of reconciliation and favor with God, and in the way to everlasting happiness; and when you think of the glory that shall be revealed, and think of your own interest in it, surely your heart might overflow with thankfulness and joy, though your present agonies
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 81
were multiplied upon you. These, madam, are noble resources of consolation, which should not be forgot- ten in your most painful moments — that God is your Father, Christ your Saviour, and heaven your eternal inheritance.
"But further, when you attentively survey the present painful dispensation, you will certainly find that there is a mixture of mercy in it ; and is not that mixture of mercy in a proportionable degree a matter of praise ? You have suffered deeply ; but had not mercy interposed, you had not survived to have been sensible of that suffering. A very small alteration in the circumstances of your fall might have made it fatal to your life. You are made to possess days of anguish, and wearisome nights are appointed unto you ; but does not an indulgent Providence surround you with comforts, which assuage your sense of that distress? I need not insist upon those instances which so grateful a heart cannot overlook. You recollect the piety and tenderness of your excellent parent ; you observe the respect and affection of many other agreeable and valuable friends ; you review that affluence of worldly possessions which, through the divine goodness, is flowing in upon you, and furnishes you with the most judicious advice, the most proper remedies, and the most agreeable accommodations and entertainments which your present circumstances can require or admit; and in the force of these united considerations you will own that it is reasonable, even now, to praise the Lord, who is daily loading you with benefits, and vastly overbalances your afflic- tion with mercy.
4*
82 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
"But what if I should proceed still further, and maintain not only that it is your duty to praise God for his other mercies, though he has afflicted you, but even to praise him for this affliction, as in itself a mercy. I should then say no more than the Scripture warrants, when it exhorts us 'in every thing to give thanks/ and tells us that 'all things work together for good to them that love God.7
"I know, madam, and I persuade myself that you seriously consider that the interests of the soul are vastly more valuable than those of the body. Now it is certain that such a calamity as this may be the means of great improvement and advantage to your soul. It may wean your heart from the world, and fix it upon God ; it may make you a more lively and zealous Christian, and consequently more happy and useful in this life, and more glorious throughout the ages of eternity. And if it has a tendency to pro- mote so exalted an end, you have certainly reason to bless God for it, though it be attended with some trying circumstances; as you would approve and be thankful for the setting of a broken bone, though it were a very painful operation, since it was so subser- vient, and indeed so necessary, to the future pleasure and usefulness of life.
"As all afflictions have, by the divine blessing, a tendency to lead the mind into serious reflections ; so every particular trial has its own peculiar advantages, which it is proper for us to study while we are under its pressure.
"That I may give my dear and excellent friend all the assistance I can, I will mention some heads of
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 83
religious contemplation which occur to my thoughts as peculiarly proper to be dwelt upon while we are actually in pain. And if it please God to impress them deeply upon your mind, you will find that it will be worth your while to have borne the smart of an affliction which may prove so instructive and bene- ficial.
"1. It is now peculiarly proper to consider how insupportably dreadful the wrath of God must be. If one drop of the divine displeasure, or a single stroke, which he inflicts in love upon his child, be sufficient to throw us into so much distress, Oh, what must it be to fall into the hands of God, as an irrec- oncilable enemy, and to stand the shock of that horrible tempest which he shall pour out upon the finally impenitent? If it be so difficult to bear the dis- order of one single limb, when other circumstances around us are just as we could wish them to be, and the tenderest friends are doing their utmost to sup- port us under our sorrows, what must it be to dwell for ever in that region of horror, when every member of the body and every faculty of the soul shall be- come the seat of torment, and every surrounding creature and circumstance conspire to aggravate and inflame it? Fly, Oh my soul, from so dreadful a con- demnation; abhor the thought of any thing which might expose thee to it ; and adore the riches of that redeeming love, by which thou art delivered from going down into the pit.
11 2. Another very proper reflection in our hours of pain may be, how rich was the love of Jesus Christ, who would endure so much suffering for our salvation.
84 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
Do I find it, you will say, so difficult a matter to bear up under ray present anguish, though only one mem- ber of my body suffers? what then did my Saviour feel when he was expiring under the agonies of the cross? What was it to have the tenderest parts of his body pierced with thorns and with nails, and to be stretched out upon the cross, as on a rack, until almost every joint was dislocated, which you know, madam, was the common pain of crucifixion ; besides all that intolerable torment which threw him into a bloody sweat, where no human cause of agony was near him. Little, 0 my Redeemer, little can I con- jecture of the bitterness of thine agonies from the pain I now feel ; but since what I now feel is so acute and so grievous, let me take a few moments from my sor- rows and my groans to admire and celebrate thy inconceivable love, which bore that sorrow which was infinitely more dreadful.
" 3. When we feel ourselves in pain, it is pecul- iarly proper to reflect on the great mercy of God in having formerly given us so much ease. How many have been continued in life while surrounded with innumerable calamities and accidents, which might not only have been painful but mortal to me; and in this present year, how many days and how many weeks have there been in which I have enjoyed unin- terrupted ease, or rather, how few hours and moments have there been in which I have felt even the slightest uneasiness. If God has changed the clispensatiou of his providence towards me, may I feel the value of that mercy of which I was then so insensible. Let me now praise him for that ease and comfort which I
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 85
formerly enjoyed, but undervalued; since it might probably be the design of this present affliction to rebuke my former insensibility, and recover that trib- ute of praise which I had neglected immediately to pay.
"4. When we feel pain taking hold of us, we may reflect how much reason we have to pity the pains and the sorrows of others. I have too often been forgetful of them when absent, and have been too negligent in praying for them, though perhaps their case has been attended with very lamentable circum- stances. Now I know, by my own experience, a part of what they felt, and perhaps no more than a part. Let me learn then, after the example of my Redeem- er, by my own sufferings, to sympathize with my brethren in this ; and let me impart such compassion to them as I now desire from those who are around me.
"5. When we are under pain of body, it is proper to reflect how vain is every thing in this world, and how infinitely preferable an interest in the Divine fa- vor. One such day, indeed, as many of those which you have lately passed, may serve better than a thou- sand arguments to convince you of this fact. How has the accident of a moment impaired your relish for many entertainments which were before exceedingly agreeable. Those things in which the greater part of mankind place their supreme happiness, are little or nothing in these afflictive moments. The delicacy of food, the ornaments of dress, nay, even the conver- sation of friends, are not now what you esteemed them a few days ago. But you find, madam, that
86 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
jour God is still the same; and that the thought of your interest in him grows more and more delightful, in proportion as the charms of created objects fade and disappear. Yet, when your health and strength are completely restored, as I pray they may speedily be, may not created vanities again grow too charm- ing, and tempt your heart to forgetfulness of God? But then, madam, I hope you will recollect the view in which they appeared in the days of weakness and of pain ; and the more carefully you attend to such considerations now, the more likely will you then be to recollect them with advantage.
"6. In your present affliction, it is peculiarly proper for you to think of that heavenly world which is, I verily believe, the great object of your hope, and may, through grace, be your eternal inher- itance. All the storms and troubles of life should but force us into that blessed harbor. And I am persuaded that our views of heaven would be more affecting, if we were to consider it as a place where we shall be free, not only from afflictions in general, but from that particular affliction which at present lies so heavily upon us, and is therefore apprehended in all its aggravations. It is indeed delightful, under such sorrows, to reflect upon that world where pain shall never come. 0 my soul, dwell upon the thought, and in that view breathe after it, and rejoice in its expectation.
"If these thoughts, which appear so proper in your present circumstances, be seriously attended to and pursued, you will soon perceive their advantage. Your heart will come like gold out of a furnace of
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 8t
fire, 'purified seven times;' and, upon the whole, you will reap such happy fruits, both for time and for eternity, from this calamitous event, that you will no longer have room to question whether it be not the proper subject of your praise.
"I am surprised to see, that before I was aware my letter has swelled into a sermon. But I find in
•/
this, as in other instances, that it is easy to speak out of the abundance of the heart; which I am sure I ever do, when I give an utterance to my sentiments of friendship towards you. There is perhaps a plain- ness and freedom in what I have written, which, to some other persons, I might think necessary to excuse : but I will not make any apology to you ; for I am sure you have so much good sense as to see, and so much candor as to believe, that this freedom proceeds only from respect and tenderness.
"I am, dear madam, your most affectionate and
humble servant,
"PHILIP DODDRIDGE."
To Mr. Whittingham.
[On his entertaining some doubts concerning the Christian Re- ligion.]
"Harborough, Feb. 18, 1728.
"It was with a great deal of pleasure that I saw the name of my very agreeable friend Mr. Whitting- ham at the bottom of a letter I received on Wednes- day morning; and I am not at all 'disgusted at the subject7 he proposes to be debated in our future cor- respondence.
"It does not 'terrify me' to hear that a person whom I sincerely love, and for whose character I have
88 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
the truest regard, has entertained some doubts which he cannot entirely get over, concerning a book which his earliest instructors recommended to him as the word of God. It is certainly the duty of every ra- tional creature to bring his religion to the strictest test, and to retain or reject the faith in which he has been educated, as he finds it capable or incapable of a rational defence. I perfectly agree with Lord Shaftesbury in his judgment, that religion has not so much to fear from its weighty adversaries who give it exercise, as from its fond nurse who overlays it out of an excess of tenderness. I therefore do not only allow, but entreat you to urge all your strongest ob- jections to Christianity, and to represent them in the most forcible light ; and if then, upon the whole, I am convinced in my judgment that they are more than a balance to those arguments which support it, I will frankly confess myself a deist, and rather throw my- self on Providence, and the charity of my new breth- ren, than purchase the most comfortable maintenance at so dishonorable a price as contradicting the con- viction of my conscience, and speaking lies in the name of the Lord. On the other hand, I must entreat you, sir, to enter upon the inquiry with a solemnity and composure of mind answerable to its awful impor- tance; remembering that we are searching into a matter in which our views for immortality are con- cerned— those pleasing, or dreadful views, before which all the hopes and fears that relate only to this transitory life fade away and disappear, like twinkling stars in the blaze of the meridian sun; considering, also, that if it be really true that God has sent his
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 89
own Son into the world to recover a race of degen- erate creatures at the expense of his own blood, and to fix them in a state of everlasting perfection and glory, it must be infinitely fatal to desert his relig- ion, and to treat him like an impostor, without the most serious and impartial examination. Nay, though, after all, Christianity should only prove an agreeable dream, yet, as it pretends to the authority of the Supreme Being, and is supported with argu- ments which have at least some plausible appearance, it will argue a want of reverence to Him, and con- sequently may expose us to His high displeasure to reject it lightly, before we clearly see into the falsehood of its pretensions. Persist therefore in your resolution to weigh the ques tion in an impartial balance, and avoid a precipitate judgment. Above all, let me indulge my friendship to you so far as to remind you of what a person of your wisdom cannot but know, that our faculties are weak, and that we are exceedingly apt to be imposed upon by false rep- resentations. Let that fact engage you to humility, and so to depend upon divine illumination, and ear- nestly pray to the God of truth that he will not suffer you to fall into error, but will guide your reason in such a manner as may establish your mind in an un- shaken tranquillity.
"Every sober and rational deist must own there is no enthusiasm in such advice ; and if it be pursued, and the whole tenor of your life be agreeable to such principles, I am confidently persuaded you will never be undone by speculative mistakes.
"With regard to your future letters, I must desire
90 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
you to let me know, in the first place, how far your scruples proceed; whether they extend only to the inspiration of the Scriptures, which is all that your letter imports; or whether they relate to the truth of the facts on which Christianity is built, or to the whole system of divine revelation? I take it for granted in this letter, that you believe the existence and perfections of God, and in the certainty of a fu- ture state ; but if your doubts extend to these points also, it is evident that they must be examined in the first place, before we can proceed with the other ques- tions to any purpose.
"I have nothing further to add, but that I desire the cause of religion may not suffer by my incapacity to defend it to the greatest advantage ; and that after all I shall have said, if you remain unsatisfied, you would have recourse to some other more competent correspondent.'7
From Mr. Whittingham.
" London, Jan. 3, 1728.
"I received your kind and generous letter, which I had answered sooner, but that I have lately been informed of the bad consequences arising from a gen- tleman's corresponding with his friend freely on this subject, whose letters were found in the closet of that friend after his decease. It is for this reason that I omit subscribing my name to this, and desire, by the same post that brings your reply, you would in- close it, not in your answer, but in a blank cover, directed to me as below.
" I would offer, by way of apology for the defects you will find in the method of my reasoning, or the
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unaptness of the expressions that I may make use of, that disputation is what I am the greatest novice in, and that my pen has hitherto been only employed in the quaint style that is used in business ; but knowing your good-nature, why do I make excuses?
" I agree with you that the premises must be first settled before we can argue to advantage. I do therefore own that there is a Being of infinite perfec- tion, the origin and cause of all things, whom I call God. But that the authors of the several books con- tained in the Old and New Testaments were inspired by Him, I am not so clear in.
"I shall not inquire into the evidence which sup- ports the several facts related in them; it being perhaps impossible, at this distance of time, to come to a fair view of the circumstances on which the proof of them depends. My objection lies against the whole scheme of what is called the divine revelation.
"1. I argue from the perfections of God's nature, that he would not make such a revelation to his crea- tures which they had not faculties to examine. Now this examination, I apprehend, must be made by com- paring what is said to be revealed with the natural notions which we cannot but entertain of the divine perfections.
"2. From the same perfections in the nature of the divine Being, I infer that nothing can belong to Him which is either capricious or malicious. If, there- fore, any thing is ascribed to Him which can proceed from nothing but a disposition either partial, cruel, or vindictive, I am taught by the aforesaid natural idea of Him, to reject it.
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"Now, because the scheme before us contains things of the above-mentioned kind, it wants, with me, the most proper inducement to a belief of its au- thority. For however a thing may appear attested by human evidence, in relation to God, I can pay no respect to it, if its principles are unworthy of God.
"Now the assumed revelation in question, if I un- derstand it, sets forth that God did, by design, create a race of creatures who he knew would offend him ; for which offences lie designed everlastingly to punish them ; excepting some few, whom, for no other reason than his own good will and pleasure, he resolved to save, by sending his own Son to die for them, leaving the rest to feel the effects of his vengeance to all eternity.
"3. A being capable of this, I cannot think be- nevolent, consistently with any natural ideas of good- ness or justice ; nor can I pay him the true worship of love and esteem. I may, indeed, as the Indians are represented to adore the devil, stand in awe and fear of such malevolence, lest it should destroy me.
"If you can prove to me that I have mistaken the scheme, or that it is agreeable to the best notion man can form of a Deity, then shall I own that a consider- able objection is removed.
" So, begging your answer to this as soon as your convenience will permit, together with your compli- ance with the request I make in the beginning of it, I remain, dear sir, your most humble servant."
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To Mr. "Whittingham.
" Harborough, Jan. 1G, 1728.
"I shall endeavor to conform to the directions you give me as to the management of your letters; and have accordingly sent back the first which I received. I hope you will pardon me that I keep the other a few days longer, till I have leisure to answer it more fully than my affairs will now permit me to do. The apology you make for a confusion of thought, and impropriety of expression, is so very needless, that I shall take no further notice of it, than to tell you that I rejoice in the hope of seeing those admirable talents which God has given you, employed at length in the defence of that revelation which you now scru- ple to admit.
"I very readily acknowledge that you have fallen on a considerable difficulty in the Christian scheme. You seem to apprehend that our assumed revelation represents God as a cruel or a capricious being. As I am directly of the contrary opinion, I propose very carefully to consider all that you have urged for the proof of your assertion; but as this will require rather more leisure than some other circumstances will at present allow me to bestow upon it, I must beg your patience for about a fortnight ; and I rather choose thus to trespass upon it than to offer any loose and indigested thoughts on so important a subject and to so ingenious a correspondent.
"At present I shall content myself with offering a remark upon a hint which you drop in the preface, which appears to me of far greater importance than you, sir, seem to be aware of.
94 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
"When you decline inquiring into the evidence which supports the several facts related in Scripture, it is with this insinuation, that it may perhaps be im- possible at this distance of time to collect a fair view of the circumstances on which the proofs of such facts must depend ; and so you seem to take it for granted, as a first principle, that there is no external evidence in support of Christianity which can give sufficient satisfaction to an inquisitive mind ; and that therefore, by a natural consequence, you have nothing to do but to consider it as an hypothesis, and so may be fairly excused in rejecting it without any further inquiry, if you can fix upon it any one unanswerable difficulty.
" This, sir, is a very easy way of thinking ; but par- don me if I say that I apprehend it to be a mistake of the utmost importance. I have, indeed, some right to say that your supposition is very ill-grounded, for it has been one great business of my life, for several years, to inquire into the evidence of those facts which you suppose incapable of any convincing evidence at all; and I do faithfully assure you that the more I have examined them, the more reason I have found to be- lieve them, and that I have never met with any thing in the most celebrated writings of Jews or Deists which has been able to overturn them.
" I hope you will not imagine that I say this to persuade you to rest upon my judgment, and believe it on my word ; that would be a favor which it would be as shameful for me to ask as for you to grant, but I imagine the declaration I have made will be to you, who think so much better of my understanding than it deserves, an engagement not to throw by the exam-
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 95
ination in this indolent way, on a presumption that it is impossible to come at any satisfaction in it.
"I imagine that nothing could be more proper in the present circumstances than for you to consider, with the utmost seriousness, what our most celebrated divines have said upon the subject. It is the happi- ness of the present age to abound with some of the most learned and judicious defences of Christianity which the world has ever seen. I would not trouble you to peruse them all, but Dr. Clarke's Sermons at Boyle's Lectures, Mr. Chandler's Discourses upon the Miracles, and Mr. Butler's, which he calls the Reason of Christ and his Apostles Defended, are so short and so plain that they may easily be perused in about a fortnight, or at most a month; and I imagine that from any one of them, and much more from all, you will find arguments which no Deist can possibly an- swer to the satisfaction of a diligent and impartial inquirer. I am at least confident of this, that a man of your candor will readily allow, on that examina- tion, that the arguments for Christianity are not des- picably weak, but that there are some difficulties in rejecting it which a serious and prudent man will not easily get over. Now as you, sir, are a rational crea- ture, and certainly answerable to God for your con- duct in this most important affair, it must be your concern to embrace that side of the question which, on the whole, is loaded with the least difficulty and supported by the best evidence ; and it is the principal design of this letter to remind you of this duty.
"If you still urge that you cannot yield to any evidence in a case pregnant with unanswerable diffi-
96 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
culties, I entreat you to review that matter a little more attentively. You firmly believe the existence of a God, whom you think of as a being infinitely perfect. Now I am confident that I could propose a catalogue of difficulties relating to several of the di- vine attributes, which must certainly belong to a self- existent being, which it is not in the power of human reason to solve, and which are perhaps beyond the understanding of any creature. I am sure they are to me far more considerable than any difficulties peculiar to Christianity ; yet we believe in the exist- ence of God, notwithstanding this mixture of obscu- rity and ignorance, because the difficulties of the atheistical scheme are greater than those; and I do persuade myself that you will readily allow, on the same principle, that if the evidence of Christianity be really important, it ought in like manner to take the place of Deism, though there may be twenty unac- countable peculiarities in the scheme.
"To make you more sensible of the justice of this reasoning, which I fear is too generally forgotten, give me leave to mention one case which is so nearly allied to the objection you urge against Christianity as to be on that account peculiarly proper on this occasion.
"Suppose yourself to have existed before the crea- tion of this lower world, in some heavenly region where you had only been acquainted with purity and happiness, and seen God shine forth upon his creatures with the beams of the mildest and most uninterrupted benevolence. Imagine that in these circumstances you had met with another spirit of the like character and condition with yourself, who had brought you the
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news of the creation of the earth, and who, after hav- ing described it in all the original perfection in which it appeared when it came immediately out of the hand of God, had presented you with two different plans for the conduct of Providence towards the human race which was then rising to take possession of this delightful abode.
" Imagine that in the first of these plans you had seen every thing beautiful and every thing glorious, and this beauty and glory permanent and unfading. Suppose it had represented mankind as flourishing in immortal vigor, surrounded by all the ornaments and pleasures of which earth can be the scene, and man a thousand times happier than any external accommo- dations could make him, in the just poise and regula- tion of his passions, and a constant obedience to the dictates of reason. Suppose it had represented all the inhabitants of the peopled world as of one lan- guage and of one heart, all overflowing with mutual benevolence to each other, every one consulting the happiness of all, and all animated by the most lively gratitude and love to the great Author of their being and their felicity, and consequently always regarded by him as his children ; defended from the assaults of every thing that might either injure or seduce them, and in one word, continued through a long succession of ages in all the pleasures of innocence and paradise till they were transported by some gentle and delight- ful passage to nobler abodes, there gradually to im- prove in perfection and glory through all the ages of an eternal existence.
"Suppose that the other scheme had represented
F)n<l<Hn«tge. ft
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mankind in a state of degeneracy, confusion, and misery. Imagine that in surveying the plan, you had seen some numerous nations of savage barbarians, who appeared to retain little more than the shape of men ; and thousands more lost in superstition, and de- basing the faculties of the rational nature in the vilest and most stupid idolatry. Suppose you beheld the desolation of war in one country, of famine in another, and of pestilence in a third; or perhaps all these united calamities prevailing on the same unhappy spot ; and besides all this, had discovered by far the greater part of mankind, in the most temperate cli- mates, the most civilized nations, and the most peace- ful times, neglecting and perhaps despising religion and violating all the plainest precepts of humanity, every one eagerly pursuing his own private interests with all the restless anxieties of hope and fear, desire and sorrow, and each in subserviency to the mean design of supplanting and defrauding, annoying and reviling all whom he apprehends to stand in his way. In one word, imagine that you saw, in this mental picture, all that irregularity and meanness, that vil- lany and torment, which you cannot but see in your extensive acquaintance, or within the circle of your own intelligence.
"And then imagine that after this attentive review your companion had left it to you to judge which of these schemes would probably have taken place under the government of a Being infinite in power, in wis- dom, and in goodness ; can you believe that you would have hesitated one moment about it ? You would, no doubt, have been ready to laugh with indignant scorn
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 99
at any one who could imagine that God would prefer the latter to the former; and yet you see, upon the whole, that he has preferred it; unless you will say he could not prevent misery and sin ; and then the dis- pute turns upon another footing, quite different from the present question.
" The plain consequence of this is, that it undoubt- edly appears that in fact a scheme which has very great difficulties attending it exists; may not then another, which merely in idea appears very improba- ble, nevertheless be a true scheme, and ought it there- fore to be rejected merely on account of its difficulties without examining the evidence which accompanies it? This observation, as well as the instances by which I have endeavored to illustrate it, has a pecul- iar weight in questions relating to the divine gov- ernment, when, if we are not distracted with an arro- gant conceit of ourselves, we must allow that there may very probably be a great many things which lie entirely beyond our present reach.
" You will easily see that the tendency of this rea- soning is only to engage you in that inquiry which I be- fore recommended. I heartily wish you success in it."
To the Rev. Thomas Saunders.
"Harborough, Nov. 1728. " Mr. Some informed me some time ago that you desired *an account of Mr. Jennings' method of aca- demical education, and as I was one of the last pupils my dear tutor sent out, I suppose he thought I might have his scheme fresh in my memory, which is the only reason I can give for his applying to me to write to you on the occasion.
100 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
" Our course of education at Kibworth was the employment of four years, and every half year we entered upon a new set of studies, or at least changed the time and order of our lectures.
" The first half year we read geometry or alge- bra thrice a week, Hebrew twice, geography once, French once, Latin prose authors once,' classical ex- ercises once. Our academical exercises were trans- lations from some of the Latin authors into English, or from English into Latin. Many passages in the Spectators and Tattlers, both serious and humorous, were assigned to us upon those occasions. For He- brew we read Bythner's grammar.
"The second half year we ended geometry and algebra, which we read twice a week. We read logic twice, civil history once, French twice, He- brew once, Latin poets once, exercises once, ora- tory once. We had a collection of readings on the subject of every lecture, which frequently employed us in our closets for two or three hours, and we were obliged to give an account of the substance of these references at our next lecture. We were often set to translate Tillotson into Sprat's style, and vice versa. At other times we used to reduce arguments which
CD
were delivered in a loose, and perhaps a confused manner, into a kind of algebraic form, by which the weakness of many plausible harangues would very evidently appear at the first glance. Our other ex- ercises were principally orations, of which the mate- rials were suggested by Mr. Jennings himself, or from some books to which we were referred. 'Bacon's Essays' were often used on this occasion, and our
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exercises were a kind of comment on some remarka- ble sentences which they contained. On Tuesday nights we used to spend an hour in reading the Bible, sermons, or poems, purely to form ourselves to a just accent and pronunciation, One would hardly imag- ine if one had not heard the alterations which three or four of these evenings have made in a youth's reading.
" The third half year we read mechanics, hydro- statics, and physics twice ; Greek poets once ; history of England once ; anatomy once ; astronomy, globes, and chronology once; miscellanies once; and had one logical disputation in a week. Our logical dis- putations were in English, our thesis in Latin, and neither the one nor the other in a syllogistic form. One of the class made the thesis, each of the rest read an exercise, which was either in prose or in verse, in English or Latin, as we ourselves chose. I think English orations were most common, and turned, I believe, to the best account.
"The fourth half year we read pneumatology twice a week, the remainder of physics and miscel- lanies once, 'Jewish antiquities' twice. Our Pneu- matology contained an inquiry into the existence and nature of God, and into the nature, operations, and immortality of the human soul, on the principles of natural reason. This, with our divinity, which was a continuation of it, was by far the most valuable part of our course.
" The fifth half year we read ethics twice a week, critics once, and had one pneumatological disputation. Our ethics were a part of pneumatology : the princi-
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pal authors referred to were Grotius and Puffendorf. Our critical lectures were not criticisms upon any particular texts, but general observations relating to the most noted versions and editions of the Bible.
" The sixth half year we read divinity thrice a week, Christian antiquities once, miscellanies once, and had one homily on a Thursday night. In divini- ty we had references to authors of all opinions, but Scripture was our only rule. Our homilies were dis- courses delivered from a pulpit. They were confined to subjects of natural religion, and we had no quota- tions from the Scriptures otherwise than for illustra- tion, most of our citations being taken from the an- cient poets and philosophers. They cost us abun- dance of pains, and were reviewed by Mr. Jennings before thev were delivered.
"The seventh half year we read divinity thrice, ecclesiastical history once, had one sermon, and one theological disputation. Mr. Jennings examined our sermons himself; we preached them to our own fami- ly, and sometimes to the people in his hearing.
" The last half year we read divinity once a week, history of controversies once, miscellanies once, and had one theological disputation. These miscel- lanies were a second volume, containing a brief his- torical account of the ancient philosophy, the art of preaching, and the pastoral care ; on which heads Mr. Jennings gave us very excellent advice, with some valuable hints on the head of non-conformity. We preached this last half year either at home or abroad, as occasion required, and towards the beginning of it were examined by a committee of the neighboring
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ministers, to whom that office was assigned at a pre- ceding general meeting.
"Mr. Jennings never admitted any into his acad- emy till he had examined them as to their improve- ment in school learning, and on their capacity for entering on the course of studies which he proposed. He likewise insisted on satisfaction as to their moral character, and the marks of a serious disposition.
"The first two years of our course we read the Scriptures in the family from Hebrew, Greek, or French into English. Mr. Jennings drew up a scheme which comprehended the whole of the New Testament, and the most useful parts of the Old, by which we pro- ceeded. He expounded about ten lessons in a week, sometimes in the morning, and sometimes in the even- ing. On those days when he did not expound, we read the lessons over again which had been formerly expounded, and so went over the most important parts of the Scriptures twice, at a convenient distance of time. These expositions were all extempore, but very edifying; and it is with a great deal of satisfaction that I often review some hints which I sometimes took of them.
" Once a month, on a Friday before the Lord's sup- per, we laid aside all secular business to attend to de- votion. Those who thought proper, as several did, observed it as a fast. About ten in the morning we all met, and Mr. Jennings gave us a lecture which he had carefully prepared for the purpose; he wrote it out in long-hand, and allowed us to transcribe it if we thought fit. I have copies of all of them, which I set a great value upon. His two discourses of ' Preach-
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ing Christ/ and ' Experimental Preaching/ were com- posed and delivered on such an occasion, and the sub- jects of the text were accommodated to our characters and circumstances of life.
" Every evening an account was taken of our pri- vate studies. We repeated to him immediately after prayer something which we had met with, which we judged most remarkable. By this means all enjoyed some benefit from the studies of each. It engaged us to read with attention, and the reflections our tutor made, and the advices he gave were well worth our observation and remembrance. We were obliged to talk Latin within some certain bounds of time and place- If any case of difficulty happened we exam- ined into it, and often had long pleadings on both sides, and at last the cause was determined bv the votes of the majority. The time of these debates was immediately after we had given an account of our private studies.
" Every Lord's-day evening Mr. Jennings used to send for some of us into the lecture-room, and dis- coursed with each apart about inward religion. The discourse was generally introduced by asking us what we observed as most remarkable in the sermon. He took this opportunity of admonishing us of any thing- he observed amiss in our conduct, and he alwavs did it in a most engaging manner. After this we met at seven for family prayer. Before prayer one of us either repeated the sermon we had heard, or read some portion of a practical writer which we ourselves chose. And then, after singing and prayer, Mr. Jennings examined those of the first class in the
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'Assembly's Larger Catechism/ in which he gave us a historical account of the belief of other parties of Christians relating to the several articles which are matter of controversy.
" Mr. Jennings allowed us the free use of his library, which was divided into two parts: the first was common to all, the second was for the use of the Seniors only, consisting principally of books of philos- ophy and polemical divinity, with which the Juniors would have been confounded rather than edified. At our first entrance on each we had a lecture, in which Mr. Jennings gave us the general character of each book, and some hints as to the time and manner of perusing it. We had fixed hours of business and recreation. After reading, expounding, and singing, one of the pupils went to prayer ; immediately after prayer we took breakfast; then the first class went into the lecture, and the rest afterwards in their turns. Each lecture began with an examination, by which Mr. Jennings could easily judge of our care or negligence in studying the former. Lecturing gener- ally employed Mr. Jennings the greater part of the forenoon. Immediately after lecture we went in to our studies. At twelve we dined ; at two we gener- ally retired to our closets again, but were not con- fined to that hour, for the times of private study were left to our own choice. At seven we were called to supper, immediately after which one of the classes had a lecture. At half past eight we were called to reading, exposition, and singing; afterwards Mr. Jen- nings himself prayed in the family. Accounts of pri- vate studies, cases, and conversation employed us till
5*
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about ten, when we generally retired to bed. Thurs- day morning was always vacant.7'
Here would seem to be a fitting place to introduce an account of the entrance of Doddridge upon the work of a theological tutor, adopting as his model the excellent and laborious course of his own theo- logical instructor, which is so well portrayed in the preceding letter to Mr. Saunders ; but it is a matter of mucli interest to inquire into the habits which he had already formed as a preacher. There is the fullest evidence that he was a thoroughly honest and sincere man. He earnestly sought to avoid the reproach, "Physician, heal thyself." What he preached to others he preached as solemnly to himself, and thus pursued the best course for attaining great power and influence over the minds of his hearers, and thus also did he preeminently qualify himself for the la- borious and useful post of a theological instructor. He became a model preacher and pastor.
Under date of July 23, 1727, his papers contain this interesting record of private reflections:
"I this day preached concerning Christ as the physician of souls, from Jer. 8 : 22 ; and having, among other particulars, addressed to those sincere Chris- tians who, through the neglect of a gospel remedy, are in a bad state of spiritual health, it is evident to me, upon a serious review, that I am of that number. Therefore, with humble shame and sorrow for my former indifference and folly, I would now sincerely attempt a reformation. To this purpose I would re- solve,
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"1. That I will carefully examine into my own soul, that I may know its constitution, and its partic- ular weakness and distempers.
" 2. I would apply to Christ, as my Physician, to heal these diseases, and restore me to greater vigor in the service of God.
" 3. I would remember that he heals by the Spirit ; and would therefore pray for his influences to produce in me greater devotion, humility, diligence, gravity, purity, and steadiness of resolution.
11 4. I would wait on him in the study of the Scrip- tures, in prayer, and the Lord's supper. 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.7 Thou hast given me a degree of bodily health and vigor far superior to what, from the nature of my constitution, I had reason to expect; yet I here record it before thee, that I desire spiritual health abundantly more.
" I would also consider my concern in this subject as a minister. God has provided a remedy. He has appointed me to proclaim, and in some measure, to apply it. Yet many are not recovered; and why? I can appeal to thee that I have faithfully warned them. I have endeavored to speak the most impor- tant truths with all possible plainness and serious- ness ; but I fear, 1. 1 have not followed them sufficient- ly with domestic and personal exhortations. 2. I have not been sufficiently careful to pray for the suc- cess of my ministerial labors. It has been rather an incidental thing than matter of solemn request. 3. I have lived so as to forfeit those influences of the Spirit, by which they might have been rendered more effec- tual. I resolve, therefore, for the time to come, to be
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more close in applying to them in their own houses, to pray for them more frequent!)7, to set a greater value on the cooperating Spirit, and take care to avoid every thing which may provoke Him to with- draw himself from my ministrations. Such caution may I always maintain; and Oh, may the health of my people be recovered.'
)j
"Nov. 12, 1727. I preached this day from these words, ' I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.' I endeavored to fix on unconverted sin- ners the charge of not loving God, and described at large the character of the Christian, in several ex- pressions of that assertion. My own heart convicted me of being deficient in many of them. I humbled myself deeply before God ; and do now, in the divine strength, renew my resolutions as to the following particulars :
" 1. I will endeavor to think of God more frequent- ly than I have done, and to make the thoughts of him familiar to my mind in seasons of leisure and solitude.
" 2. I will labor after communion with him, espec- ially in every devotion through this week. For this purpose I would recollect my thoughts before I be- gin, watch over my heart in the duty, and consider afterwards how I have succeeded.
" 3. I will pray for conformity to God, and en- deavor to imitate him in wisdom, justice, truth, faith- fulness, and goodness.
"4. I will rejoice in God's government of the world, and regard his interposition in all my per- sonal concerns.
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"5. I will pray for zeal in my Master's interest, and will make the advancement of his glory the great end of every action of life.
"6.1 will cultivate a peculiar affection to Chris- tians as such.
"7.1 will study the divine will, and endeavor to practise everv duty.
" 8. I will be diligently on my guard against every thing which may forfeit the favor of God and provoke his displeasure.
" I resolve particularly to make these things my care the ensuing week, and hope I shall find the bene- fit of it, and perceive at the close that my evidences of the sincerity of my love to God are more stable and flourishing than they at present are."
The method of faithful dealing with his own soul, in respect to the discharge of personal and official responsibilities, as developed in the extracts just furnished, prepares us to anticipate a corresponding fidelity in promoting the spiritual interests of all who came within the sphere of his appropriate labors. Accordingly, we learn that he was assiduous in avail- ing himself of every opportunity of doing good, and that he sought such opportunities. The children and servants of the family with whom he boarded were objects of special religious care. On the Sabbath he generally conversed with them in private upon their spiritual interests and obligations.
One fact relating to Doddridge should be told as a hint to not a few Christian ministers of the present time. He made it a standing rule never to refuse to
110 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
preach, however comparatively unprepared, whenever he was solicited to do so, believing that every such invitation was a call from his great Master to attempt to do good. He used to say, that if on any occa- sion he was asked to preach merely by way of compli- ment, he always did so, thus practically teaching his friends not to ask for his services when they did not really desire them.
He was conscientious and exact in making the most of time, and anxious to avoid the waste of it in frivolous pursuits or in indolence. Through the year it was his practice to rise at five o'clock, and to this valuable habit he ascribed a good part of the pro- ficiency which he made in learning and in his perform- ances as an author. See Family Expositor: note on Rom. 13 : 13. He is often found expressing deep sor- row and humiliation before God in reviewing those hours in which he may have made some unnecessary visits, or visits in which he had neglected to intro- duce conversation of a profitable character ; and also in reviewing the hours which he had not turned to as good account as seemed desirable and proper.
To guard against a waste of time in future, he formed at the beginning of every year a well-digested plan of reading and of business, of subjects upon which he would prepare discourses, and of methods of doing good among his people. At the end of every month he compared his conduct and attainments with the plan laid down, noted deficiencies, examined causes of failure, and roused himself to new resolution to accomplish what he had purposed. On New-year's day, and on his own birthday, he instituted a more
HIS THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. Ill
careful and solemn review of the manner in which the intervals of his time had been occupied, exciting him to humiliation, on the one hand, over any failures which he might thus discover, and to gratitude on the other, so far as he had accomplished any part of his extended scheme of useful labor and acquisition. These two days of the year he was accustomed to appropriate entirely to careful self-examination and closet devotion. He reviewed the record which he regularly kept of any particular favors of divine Providence which he had received, of the sins and infirmities in which he had indulged, and of the prom- inent events in his personal history and experience. This led to a renewal of his solemn covenant and resolution to endeavor in future to conduct himself more agreeably to the views of duty now entertained.
Before he set out on a visit among his friends, or undertook a journey, it was his custom to inquire of himself respecting the opportunities that might thus be offered him of doing good, so as to prepare himself to use them; also respecting the temptations which he might encounter to his disadvantage, so as to arm himself to meet them. On his return home he exam- ined himself upon the behavior which he had pursued, to ascertain wherein he had erred, and wherein he had conformed to what was right — following these investigations with appropriate acts of humiliation and of gratitude before God.
In 1729 Mr. Doddridge began to preach at Mar- ket - Harborough and Kibworth alternately, having resided for some years at the former place. His tal- ents and acceptableness as a preacher became known
112 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
to several congregations much larger than those by whom his services as a pastor were importunately solicited. It is highly interesting to read those por- tions of his correspondence which relate to invitations which he received, as we have already stated, from London, from Coventry, from Nottingham, and else where, and to discover the enlightened and conscien- tious regard to his highest usefulness which is therein displayed. The application made subsequently by an important congregation in Northampton, and some of his correspondence relating to it, will be considered hereafter, when we shall have laid before the reader some of the circumstances connected with his entrance upon the arduous duties of a theological tutor, which occurred about the same period.
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. 113
CHAPTER III.
INSTITUTION OF DODDRIDGE'S THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY —EARLY PASTORATE AT NORTH- AMPTON.
The death of the Rev. John Jennings, who was greatly and deservedly lamented, created an impor- tant vacancy in the department of theological instruc- tion among the Independents of England ; and great difficulty was apprehended in filling it to the satisfac- tion both of the more sternly Calvinistic and of the other portions of that body. Previous to his decease, Mr. Jennings had expressed to Doddridge, his most esteemed pupil, a strong desire that he would review the compendium of instruction pursued by him, with a view to render it more complete, and to supply it, from his reading and reflections, with more varied illustrations. The occasion of making this suggestion was the hope, that in the event of his own decease the appointment to his place might be secured for Doddridge, whom to a few individuals he had repre- sented as better qualified than any other of his pupils to carry out effectively and satisfactorily the scheme which had been introduced and pursued in his acad- emy. Doddridge was not apprized, however, of this design of Mr. Jennings, until communicated to him after the decease of his venerated instructor. Yet for years he had been diligently acting upon the plan suggested, and the above letter to Mr. Saunders shows
114 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
even in its abridged form an intimate acquaintance with the course of instruction through which he had passed, in preparing to preach. This letter was taken to London bv the Rev. Mr. Some, and submitted to the Rev. Dr. Isaac Watts, partly with a view to ascer- tain his opinion of the scheme, and to secure his nom- ination of a successor to Mr. Jennings.
Upon returning the letter to Mr. Some, Dr. Watts accompanied it with the following observations :
" 1. How wonderful and extraordinary a man was the late Mr. John Jennings ! The little acquaintance I had with him made me esteem and love him; but my love and esteem were vastly too low for so elevat- ed a character. The world and the church know not the mournful vacancy which they sustain by his death.
" 2. How necessary it is that two persons at least should be engaged to fill up all the parts of that office which the ingenious writer of this letter has made to devolve upon one. The diversity of genius, the vari- ety of studies, the several intellectual, moral, and pious accomplishments, the constant daily and hourly labors necessary to fulfil such a post, can hardly be expected from an}7- one person living.
" 3. Yet if there be one person capable of such a post, perhaps it is the man who has so admirably de- scribed this scheme of education ; and as he seems to have surveyed and engrossed the whole comprehen- sive view and design, together with its constant diffi- culties and accidental embarrassments, and yet sup- posed it to be practicable, I am sure I can never think of any person more likely to execute it than himself; although if an older person joined with him, for the
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. 115
reputation of the matter at least, it would be well. The beauties and congruities of the scheme are so man}r and various, that if I should have made any remarks upon them — as I have done, en passant, upon some little improvables — I must have filled a quire instead of a sheet of paper."
Having received unsolicited so favorable a tes- timony from Dr. Watts in favor of Doddridge, Mr. Some easily secured a public acknowledgment from all the neighboring ministers, that his young friend was highly qualified to undertake the arduous post which now was to be occupied. Thereupon, at a gen- eral meeting of non-conformist ministers held at Tut- ter worth, April 10, 1729, to pray for a revival of re- ligion, Mr. Some, having delivered an earnest public discourse upon the means best adapted to promote that object, suggested the expediency of establishing a theological academy at Harbor ough, and of placing it under the charge of Mr. Doddridge. The suggestion was unanimously adopted ; all due encouragement and assistance was promised ; and during the summer the enterprise was commenced, on a moderate scale, only a few being received of the pupils that were offered.
While the question of entering upon it was yet in agitation, Doddridge wrote of the matter in the fol- lowing just terms :
" I do most humbly refer this great concern to God, and am sincerely willing the scheme should be disappointed if it be not consistent with the greater purposes of his glory, yea, will not be remarkably subservient to them. I depend on him for direction
116 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
in this affair, and assistance and success if I under- take it. While I am waiting his determination, I would apply more diligently to my proper business, and act more steadily by the rules I have laid down for my conduct. May He grant that in all my schemes relating to public service, I may, as much as possible, divest myself of all regard to my own ease and repu- tation, and set myself seriously to consider what I can do for the honor of the Redeemer and the good of the world.'7
As he was entering upon the undertaking, his re- flections were exceedingly appropriate and impressive :
"Providence is opening a prospect of much great- er usefulness than before, though attended with vast labor and difficulty. In divine strength I go forth to the work, and resolve upon the most careful and vig- orous discharge of all the duties incumbent on me, to labor for the instruction and watch for the souls of my pupils. I intend to have some discourse with them on the Lord's-day evenings on subjects of inward religion. I will endeavor to give a serious turn to our conversation at other times, and always bear them on my heart before God with great tenderness and affection. I will labor to keep such an inspection over them as may be necessary to discover their capacities, tempers, and failings, that I may behave in a suitable manner to them. In all, I will main- tain a humble dependence on Divine influences, to lead me in the path of duty and prudence, and enable me to behave in a way answerable to the character in which I appear, and those agreeable expectations which many of my friends have entertained of me.
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. lit
" Considering the work before me, I would set myself with peculiar diligence to maintain and in- crease the life of religion in my own soul, and a con- stant sense of the Divine presence and love ; for I find, when this is maintained, nothing gives me any con- siderable disquiet, and I have vigor and resolution of spirit to carry me through my labors. When I am conscious of the want of this, and any inconsistency of behavior towards the divine Being, it throws a damp on my vigor and resolution ; yea, on all the other pleasures of life. In order to maintain this habitual, delightful sense of God, I would frequently renew my dedication to Him, in that covenant on which all my hopes depend, and my resolutions for universal, zealous obedience. I will study redeeming love more, and habitually resign myself and all my concerns to the divine disposal. I am going to ex- press and seal these resolutions at the Lord's table; and may this be the happy period from which shall commence better days of religion and usefulness than I have ever yet known."
Having entered upon the work with these com- prehensive views and earnest dependence on God, he diligently reviewed his course of academical studies, he corresponded with Dr. Watts and other celebrated divines upon the subject, and gathered works on edu- cation which furnished him with instructive hints, which he reduced to writing; indeed, he employed every judicious method of improving his means of usefulness in this new direction of his active mind and devout heart.
It was about this time that a proposition was
118 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
made to Mr. Doddridge to go to Northampton and take charge of the congregation meeting on Castle Hill. Of this, and of his settlement at Northampton, we here give a short account.
The dissenting congregation worshipping at Castle Hill in Northampton, being destitute of a pastor, Mr. Doddridge, with other neighboring ministers, occa- sionally supplied them ; and so acceptable did his ser- vices prove, that the congregation were determined upon endeavoring to secure his removal from Har- borough to Northampton. This was strongly opposed by his earnest friend the Rev. Mr. Some, who had been most active in locating the theological academy at Harborough, where he himself resided, and rejoiced in the society of Doddridge. He went to Northamp- ton to endeavor to persuade the congregation that it was not right for them to press their application for Doddridge's pastoral services; but, during his visit, was so impressed with the earnest zeal of the people to secure this advantage, that he changed his views and acquiesced in the design. The following corre- spondence will set this matter in the best light, illus- trating the careful and conscientious manner in which the young candidate for the place conducted his de- liberations and decisions.
From the Rev. David Some.
" October, 1729.
" I doubt not that you are impatient to know the
result of my negotiations at Northampton. I preached
from these words : ' Have salt in yourselves, and have
peace one with another.' Mark 9 : 50. I managed
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. 119
the argument in the best way I could, with a view to present circumstances. After the sermon we had a full vestry, when I opened the debate with a frank acknowledgment of the warmth of my own temper, and begged that we might there consider one another as only provoked unto love and to good works. I represented the former scheme of the academy, and the engagements you were under, in the strongest light. Upon the whole, the hearts of the people are moved altogether as the trees of a wood when bent by the wind ; and they are under such strong impres- sions about your coming to them, that it is impossible for a man to converse with them without feeling something for them. The mentioning of your name diffuses life and spirit through the whole body, and nothing can be heard but ' Mr. Doddridge.'
" I find myself in the utmost perplexity, and know not what to say or do. I believe you will hear of them again in a little time. I apprehend that you will wonder at what I write, but I think I am like Saul among the prophets, and that the same spirit which is in the people begins to seize me also. What shall I say ? Is this a call from God to break former measures? or is it a divine rebuke upon you for too unguarded a way of talking ? The matter requires the closest consideration."
To the Rev. Dr. Wright.
" November 3, 1729.
" The affair of Northampton is now come to such
a crisis that I think it highly proper to lay it before
you, and beg the favor of your advice upon it. The
congregation there, which is very numerous, has given
120 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
me a unanimous invitation to come to settle among them ; and their conduct has been marked with every expression of affection that can be imagined, and the subject has been urged again and again, after repeat- ed denials, with an importunity which nothing could have supported but an apprehension that it was the will of God that they should pursue this attempt to the utmost.
" They willingly consent to my bringing my little academy with me, and engage to leave me my morn- ings and evenings to be employed in studying and in lecturing, contenting themselves with so much visiting as I can find time for in the afternoons. They make the most generous proposal to facilitate the circum- stances of my removal, and cheerfully offer to indem- nify Mrs. Jennings for any expense she may have been at, in providing for the accommodation of my pupils. They also urge that if I do not come they shall be utterly at a loss for a minister, and have no hope of joining so unanimously in any other person.
"On the other hand, there are several objections against accepting this call, which I cannot by any means get over, and which I desire you to take into most serious consideration, and I believe vou will think them of considerable weight. I am not certain that I could conform myself so far to the taste of the people, which is very different from what I have been accustomed to, as to please them long either in con- versation or in the pulpit. Again, if there be any thing in my preaching which is above the lowest taste and genius, it will certainly be lost to nine parts out of ten of that auditory. But the grand objection, and
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. 121
that which weighs with me more than any other, is what relates to the academy. I have been several years preparing for the business of a tutor, and my full acquaintance with Mr. Jennings' scheme seems to give me some advantages for pursuing it beyond some others who are much my superiors both in genius and in learning. I am now entered on a preparatory course with all the agreeable circumstances I could wish. Should I remove with my pupils to Northamp- ton, the advantages peculiar to Harborough must not only be given up, but most of them must be exchanged for contrary circumstances.
" On the whole, sir, I do not ask you whether you would advise me to accept of Northampton and to lay down the business of a tutor ; for the great pleasure I find in it, and my hope of much usefulness in that character, and my repeated engagements to devote myself to its duties, both in the pulpit and to those friends who have sent me their sons, prevent my entertaining a thought of that nature : the only ques" tion is, whether under present circumstances you would advise me to undertake both, or to send an absolute refusal to Northampton.
" I beg that you would communicate this letter to Dr. Calanry, and any other friend whom you may think it proper to consult. I desire the favor of a speedy answer, and a continued remembrance in your prayers."
The result of Mr. Doddridge's correspondence and reflections upon this important question, will be seen in the following excellent letter.
Doddridge. 6
122 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
To the Congregation at Northampton.
"December 6, 1729.
" My dear Friends — After a serious and impartial consideration of your case, and repeated addresses to the great Father of light for his guidance and direc- tion, I can at length assure you that I am determined, by his permission, to accept of your kind invitation, and undertake the pastoral care of you, with the most ardent feelings of sincere gratitude and affection.
" You will easily apprehend that I could not form this resolution without a great deal of anguish, both with regard to those friends whom I am called upon to resign, and in reference to that great and difficult work which lies before me, in the care of your large con- gregation and my academy. But I hope that I have sincerely devoted my soul to God and my Redeemer ; and therefore I would humbly yield myself up to what, in present circumstances, I apprehend to be his will. I take this important step with fear and trembling, yet with a humble confidence in Him, and with the hope that, in the midst of these great difficulties, he will not leave me entirely destitute of that presence which I desire to prefer to every thing which life can bestow.
" As for you, my brethren, let me entreat you, that if there be any consolation in Christ, if any com- fort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bow- els of mercy, fulfil ye my joy. Let me beseech you to remember that, by accepting your call, I have entrust- ed the happiness of my life into your hands. Prepare yourselves, therefore, to cover my many infirmities with the mantle of your love, and continue to treat
HIS THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY. 123
me with the same kindness and gentleness as those dear and excellent friends have done whom I am now about to leave, in compassion to your souls ; for God knows that no temporal advantage you could have offered would have engaged me to relinquish them.
" May my heavenly Father comfort my heart in what is now determined, by giving an abundant suc- cess to my ministrations among you, so that a multi- tude of souls may have reason to praise him on that account ; and let me beg that you will bear me daily on your hearts before his throne in prayer, and seek for me that extraordinary assistance, without which I must infallibly sink under the great work I have thus undertaken.
" I shall continue to recommend you, my dearly
beloved, to the grace of Almighty God, the great
Shepherd of his sheep, with that affection which now
so peculiarly becomes your most devoted friend and
servant in the bonds of our common Lord,
"PHILIP DODDRIDGE."
Only a few days before this letter was written, he had concluded to remain at Harborough, and yet felt it a duty " to lay down his good friends at North- ampton as gently as he could." Accordingly, he went over there and preached from the appropriate words, "And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, say- ing, The will of the Lord be clone." Acts 21 : 14. By a providential circumstance he was detained there until the following Wednesday, during the whole of which interval, he says, " 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,
124 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
and earnestly entreated me to come among them, promising to submit to all such methods of instruction as I should think proper, I found my heart so 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 after- wards, it was with the utmost reluctance. I acted, indeed, without the advice of almost any of my friends, and directly 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 I must answer for myself another day."
At the time Mr. Doddridge was invited to North- ampton, that church was partly Presbyterian, and partly Congregational. As the female members had no vote in the choice of a pastor, tradition has pre- served the fact, that such was their desire to obtain his services, that before the brethren met to consider the matter, they held a solemn meeting for prayer, and sent two venerable ladies to the brethren to ex- press their earnest and unanimous desire that a call should be sent to him. It is said that this circum- stance solemnly impressed the minds of the brethren, and afterwards had considerable influence on the de- cision of the pastor elect.
The diary of Doddridge says, "I began house- keeping about the 13th of January, and took posses-
PASTORATE AT NORTHAMPTON. 125
sion of that character in which I hope to spend most of the remaining studious hours of my life."
On this occasion he called together several of his friends to spend an evening in prayer for the presence and blessing of God in his new abode : he expounded to them Psalm 101 ; and made known his solemn pur- poses and resolutions respecting the government of his family.
He entered deeply into an examination of his own heart, and discovering that practical religion had therein declined, in consequence of the interruptions and anxieties attendant upon leaving Harborough, and preparing for a new scene of action, he addressed himself to the recovery of his spiritual strength and devotion. Among other methods adopted for this purpose, he set apart a day for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to animate his own soul, and engage the Divine blessing on his family, studies, and labors. On such days of special devotion he proposed to himself the following course of action :
" The Saturday immediately preceding the Lord's day on which the Lord's supper is to be administered, I propose to spend as a day of extraordinary devotion. I will endeavor to have all my business dispatched, and whatever is necessary to my preparation for such a day, on Friday night ; particularly I will look over my diary, and other memorandums, which may be of use to me in the fast itself. I will rise early; en- deavor, while rising, to fix on my mind a sense of God and my own unworthiness, and will then solemn- ly address myself to God for his assistance in all the particular services of the day, of which I will form a
126 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
more particular plan than this. I will then read, and afterwards expound in the family some portion of Scripture peculiarly suitable to such an occasion, and will make a collection of such lessons.
" After family worship, I will retire and pray over the portion of Scripture I have been explaining. I will then set myself to revive the memory of my past conduct, especially since the last season of this kind. I will put such questions as these to myself: 'What care have I taken in the exercises of devotion ? What regard have I maintained to God in the intervals of it? What diligence have I used in regarding provi- dence, and redeeming time ? What command have I exercised over my appetites and passions ? What concern have I had to discharge relative duties? How have I relished the peculiar doctrines of the gospel? And upon the whole, how am I advancing in my journey to a better world V I will then record my sins with their peculiar aggravations, that I may humble myself before God for them ; and my mercies, with the circumstances that set them off, that I may return fervent thanks for them. Having made a cat- alogue of hints on both these subjects, I will spend some time in meditation upon them, and having read some psalms or hymns which speak the language of godly sorrow, I will go into the presence of God, par- ticularly confessing my sins and the demerit of them, solemnly renouncing them, and renewing my covenant against them. I will then consider what methods are proper to be taken, that I may avoid them in future.
"A devotional lecture to my pupils will be an important part of the work of this day. I will, after
PASTORATE AT NORTHAMPTON. 12T
that, spend some time in prayer for them, my family, and people. The remainder of my work shall be praise, with which I think I ought to conclude even days of humiliation ; though sometimes a larger or a smaller space of time shall be allotted to this work, as peculiar circumstances require. After a little refreshment, I will converse with some of my pupils privately about inward religion, which I may do with some peculiar advantages, after having been lecturing them on such a subject, and so particularly praying for them. I would spend the evening in grave con- versation with some pious friends with whom I can use great freedom as to the state of their souls ; and at night review the whole, and conclude the day with some religious exercises suited to the work in which I have been engaged, and the frame of my own soul, and will keep an account of what passeth at these seasons. My God, assist me in this important duty. Make it so comfortable and useful to me, that I may have reason to praise thee that my thoughts were directed and my resolutions determined to it."
In the review of all the circumstances attendant on this important removal, we are struck with Dod- dridge's firm adherence to what he judged to be the path of duty. With this step the lady who for many years had bestowed upon him the fostering care of parental tenderness was much dissatisfied, and her daughter, in whom, with the confiding security of mu- tual affection, his future hopes of domestic happiness had fondly centred, united with her mother in oppo- sition to it. Some of his endeared clerical friends
128 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
also, he says, "blamed me exceedingly; so that I never spent any days in my life in such deep, bitter, uninterrupted anguish, as those which preceded my removal from Harbor ough."
After his settlement, and previous to his ordina- tion, with a view to prepare himself for the arduous pastoral work which he had undertaken, he studied the best treatises relating to the qualifications and duties of pastors, such as " Chrysostom on the Priest- hood," " Bowies' Pastor Evangelicus,'7 " Burnet on the Pastoral Care," and " Baxter's Reformed Pastor." He consulted the memoirs of distinguished ministers, and was particularly profited by that of Philip Henry. From these books he carefully selected and recorded, and often reviewed, the most important counsels, re- flections, and motives of action which he found. He also collected various maxims of prudence and discre- tion, which, if acted upon, were adapted to promote a minister's reputation and usefulness.
About two months after commencing his labors at Northampton, they were arrested by a severe and dangerous illness of several weeks. From this ill- ness he had but partially recovered when the day arrived that had been fixed for his ordination, the proceedings of which are preserved in the following account from his own pen :
" Northampton, March 19, 1730. " The afflicting hand of God upon me hindered me from making that preparation for the solemnities of this day, which I could otherwise have desired. However, I hope it hath long been my sincere desire to dedicate myself to him in the work of the minis-
PASTORATE AT NORTHAMPTON. 129
try ; and that the views with which I determined to undertake the office, and which I this day solemnly professed, have long since been seriously impressed on my heart.
11 The work of the day was fulfilled in a very honor- able and agreeable manner. Mr. Goodrich of Oun- dle commenced the service by prayer and reading the Scriptures. Mr. Dawson of Hinckley continued those exercises; and then Mr. Watson of Leicester preached a suitable sermon froml Tim. 3*1,' This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.' After the sermon, Mr. Norris of Welford read the Call of the Church, of which I de- clared my acceptance : he then received my confession of faith and ordination vows, and proceeded to set me apart by prayer : Mr. Clarke of St. Albans gave the charge to me, and Mr. Saunders of Kettering the exhortation to the people ; then Mr. Mattock of Dav- entry concluded the solemnity with prayer.
" I cannot but admire the goodness of God in thus accepting me in the office of a minister, while I do not deserve to be owned by him as one of the mean- est of his servants. I firmly determine, in the strength of divine grace, that I will be faithful to God and the souls committed to my charge, and thus perform what I have so solemnly sworn.
" The severe indisposition under which I labor gives me some apprehension that this settlement may be very short; but, through mercy, I am not anxious about it, for I have a cheerful hope that the God to whom I have this day devoted my services, with more solemnity than ever, will graciously accept them, either
6*
130 PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
in this world or in a better, and I am not solicitous where or how. If I know any thing of