Philip Doddridge.

BORN A. D. 1702.-DIED A. D. 1750.

Few names stand higher in the estimation of the British public, for genius and piety, for eloquence, charity, and evangelic zeal, than that of Philip Doddridge. He was the son of a London merchant, and the grandson of a non-conforming rector. He was born on the 26th of June, 1702, and became an orphan at an early age, but not before his tender mind had received some salutary impressions from the instructions of his parents. His guardian having dissipated the small fortune which had been left him by his father, he was indebted to the kindness of Dr Samuel Clarke of St Alban's for the means of pursuing his studies. In 1716 he began to keep a diary, in which he regularly accounted for every hour of his time. It was his custom at this period, although only fourteen years of age, to visit the poor, and discourse with them on religious subjects, occasionally administering to their necessities out of his own slender allowance. In 1718 he went to reside with his sister, the wife of Mr John Nettleton, a dissenting minister at Ongar in Essex. His uncle, who was steward to the duke of Bedford, soon afterwards procured him the notice of some members of that nobleman's family. The duchess offered to support him at the university, and to procure him preferment in the church, if she should live until he had taken orders; but Doddridge felt compelled to decline this kind proposal, on account of his scruples as to the thirty-nine articles. In the attainment of his favourite object, that of becoming a dissenting preacher, he met with serious obstacles. "I waited," he says, "on Dr Edmund Calamy, to beg his advice and assistance, that I might be brought up a minister, which was always my great desire. He gave me no encouragement in it, but advised me to turn my thoughts to something else.' He received this advice with great concern, but resolving "to follow Providence, and not to force it," he was soon afterwards about to embrace an advantageous opportunity of entering upon the study of the law; but before coming to a final resolution on the subject, he devoted one morning to earnest solicitation for guidance from the Almighty; and, while thus engaged, a letter was brought to him from Dr Clarke, in which his benefactor offered to assist him in preparing for the pastoral office. Regarding this communication, to use his own words, "almost as an answer from heaven," he hastened to St Alban's; whence, after passing some time with his generous friend, he removed in October, 1719, to a dissenting academy kept by Mr John Jennings, at Kibworth, and afterwards at Hinckley, in Leicestershire, where he pursued his studies with extraordinary diligence and success; being not only very ardent but admirably methodical in his pursuit of knowledge. He began his regular ministerial labours at Kibworth, preferring that retired village, with the larger opportunities for study which it afforded, to a more public situation. From large congregations in Worcester, Coventry, and London, he received repeated solicitations to become their pastor. Some of these he positively declined on account of the narrowness or exclusiveness of the opinions which were known to pre

vail amongst them. With a modest distrust of his own qualifications, and from the high standard he had formed to himself of ministerial excellence; from a determination also to give himself in his early years to diligent study, and a generous affection to the people with whom he was first connected, he resisted all the temptations of fame and influence so flattering to one of his ardent temper, and resolutely remained for more than seven years at Kibworth and in its neighbourhood, where, as he tells us in one of his letters, his morning-audience seldom exceeded forty persons, and his annual salary was only £29.

In December, 1729, he felt himself at liberty to accept a call from Northampton, and was ordained to the pastoral charge of a church there in March, 1730. In the following December he married a lady named Maris, a native of Worcester. He had in his youth, before experience and matrimony had taught him judgment, been a great sufferer under that painful dispensation, which, beyond all the exactions of a Levitical or a ceremonial law, gendereth to bondage, early and unrequited love. His exercises of mind under this trial have been recently laid bare to the public gaze, with either a thoughtless or an unfeeling hand, by a descendant of the venerated man himself, who has edited two volumes of Dr Doddridge's juvenile correspondence, for the purpose of proving that the doctor was a much more liberal and indulgent sort of personage than his evangelical brethren of the present day. These letters are, what they purport to be, the familiar letters of a young man, chiefly upon subjects of the most personal description, and written at a period of life when the ardour and the weakness of the character are most in danger of being betrayed. "They undeniably contain some things, and indeed not a few, that will surprise those who have associated only the images of sanctity and spiritual-mindedness with their idea of this amiable man. And even those, who, from the impartial life of him by his pupil, Dr Kippis, and from the letters of Mr Orton, may have been led to anticipate that admixture of infirmities to be found in the wisest and the best of our race, will yet regret the prominence here given to emotions of which the existence may be always safely enough inferred without the expression. In truth, no inconsiderable part of the collection before us, is made up from the earliest love-letters of Doddridge, in some of which the endearments of the tenderest affection, the hopes and fears, the suspicion or distrust, resentment and forgiveness, joys and agonies of his love, are uttered with a singular fulness and simplicity. And notwithstanding the large indulgence to be allowed for the period at which they were written when he was between nineteen and twenty-seven-notwithstanding the private and the confidential nature of the correspondence, intended surely for no eye but that of the lady addressed, we are left to some wonder at the writer, and to much more at the publisher, who, after the lapse of a century, has chosen to bring into light what only a common respect for the name of his ancestor, and a common share of the prudence that dwells with discretion, should have constrained him to suppress, or rather to destroy. We would not, however, be understood as implying, that these letters exhibit much that is absolutely discreditable to the pure fame of their author. Many of them will reflect an added lustre to his character. But the sin of exposing without cause the infirmities of good men, we hold to be scarcely inferior to that of indulging the

infirmities themselves. Let it not, however, be forgotten, that amidst all that with a less susceptible spirit might pass for weakness, or that might justly bring into question the solidity of his judgment, Mr Doddridge never lost sight of his high and generous aims, of the claims of his profession, or of his habitual piety. At this very period he was a conscientious and faithful pastor, and, as fully appears from the memoirs both of Kippis and Orton, was preparing himself, by diligent study and the improvement of all his powers, for the usefulness and honour to which he was destined. These petty entanglements and disappointments of his heart-somewhat numerous, we confess, and perplexing for a wise man to suffer were but passing clouds, that could not long obscure the beauty or the brightness of his ascending sun."'

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In the year of his settlement at Northampton and marriage, he published a treatise, entitled, 'Free Thoughts on the most probable means of Reviving the Dissenting Interest, occasioned by the late inquiry into the Causes of its Decay;' in 1732, Sermons on the Education of Children;' in 1735, Sermons to Young Men;' in 1736, Ten Sermons on the Power and Grace of Christ, or the Evidences of His Glorious Gospel;' in 1739, the first volume of his Family Expositor,' of which he produced a second in the following year. In 1741 appeared his 'Practical Discourses upon Regeneration;' and, in the two following years, Three Letters to the Author of a Treatise, entitled, Christianity not founded in Argument.' In 1743 he published The Principles of the Christian Religion expressed in Plain and Easy Verse, divided into Lessons for the Use of Children and Youth;' in 1745 The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul;' in 1747 Remarkable Passages in the Life of Colonel James Gardiner;' in 1748 the third volume of his Family Expositor; and, also The Expository Works and other Remains of Archbishop Leighton.' His last production, published in his life-time, was 'A Plain and Serious Address to the Master of a Family, on the important subject of Family Religion.' He left the manuscript in short hand, but partly transcribed for the press, of the last three volumes of his Family Expositor;' which Orton published in 1754 and 1756. In 1763 appeared his 'Lectures on the Principal Subjects of Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity,' which were republished by Dr Kippis, with extensive additions, in 1794.

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His

Dr Doddridge's genius was by no means an original or powerful one. He cannot for a moment be placed by the side of such men as Baxter, and Howe, and Owen, and the glorious company of theologians of the seventeenth century. In his criticisms he is seldom original, nor is he always to be regarded as a sure guide for the religious inquirer. catholicism and freedom from uncharitableness were carried to a dangerous excess, especially for a theological tutor; and the consequences became apparent, even in his own life-time, in the academy over which he presided as theological tutor. "Once I remember," says Dr Kippis, some narrow-minded people of his congregation gave him no small trouble on account of a gentleman, in communion with the church, who was a professed Arian, and who otherwise departed from the common standard of orthodoxy. This gentleman they wished either to be excluded from the ordinance of the Lord's supper, or to have his attendance

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American 'Christian Examiner.'

upon it prevented. But the doctor declared, that he would sacrifice his place, and even his life, rather than fix any such mark of discouragement upon one, who, whatever his doctrinal sentiments were, appeared to be a true Christian." He expresses, in one of his letters, his admiration of the catholic sentiments of his own theological tutor, Dr Jennings, who "does not," says he, "entirely accord with the system of any particular body of men; but is sometimes a Calvinist, sometimes a Baxterian, and sometimes a Socinian, as truth and evidence determine him." The fruits of the doctor's system were those which might have been anticipated. We shall give them in the words of one of his Unitarian admirers: "Notwithstanding the tutor's well-known attachment to what are usually denominated evangelical principles, or to a qualified form of orthodoxy, very many of his pupils imbibed under his care the most liberal sentiments; and, as they advanced in their profession, became, both by their preaching and their publications, distinguished advocates of Unitarian Christianity. Of these, one of the most eminent was Dr Kippis himself, the accomplished author of the Biographia Britannica,' and entitled to honour, not more for his classical literature, than for his high place among the dissenting ministers of his time. Another, and among the first who entered his school, was Dr Hugh Farmer, author of the Essay on the Dæmoniacs of the New Testament,' of the Dissertation on Miracles,' of the 'Inquiry into the Nature of our Lord's Temptation,' and of other learned and able treatises. Nor can we omit the name of Newcome Cappe, whose Practical Discourses' are much read among us, and to whose youthful genius, industry, virtue, and promise, Dr Doddridge himself bears affectionate testimony." We are persuaded that the doctor erred considerably in his mode and spirit of lecturing to young men in an age far more remarkable certainly for its speculative than its practical tendencies; yet, most assuredly, his indulgence towards error originated in no coldness of heart or blindness of understanding to the truth. His first acknowledged publication was directed to enforce the preaching of evangelical doctrines in a plain and experimental manner, as the only effectual means for preserving churches from religious decay, or reviving them when languid and declining. And that, when duty required, he could assume the part of a controversialist and contend zealously for the truth, is abundantly evident from his letters to the author of Christianity not founded on Argument.'

Dr Doddridge's most valuable treatise, and that by which he is most familiarly known, is his Rise and Progress of Religion.' His Family Expositor' is his principal work in point of extent. Biblical criticism

has made great advances since the period in which the 'Expositor' was compiled; it was in fact but in its infancy then, and the life of Doddridge was too actively spent, moreover, to admit of his giving that time to study which would have been required in the full employment of such critical materials as did then exist. The principal charm and value of this work is its truly devotional and practical character. It has been translated into almost every European language. His Evidences of Christianity' have long constituted one of the examination-books at St John's college, Cambridge.

2 See an excellent sketch of the religious features of the age referred to in Mr Morell's introductory essay to Doddridge's Miscellaneous Works,'

A cold, caught in travelling to St Alban's to preach a funeral sermon for his friend and benefactor Dr Clarke, laid the foundation of that illness which ultimately terminated the life of this good and great man. By the advice of his physicians he repaired to Lisbon, in September, 1751, for change of air; but he died within a fortnight after landing in Portugal. "The name of Doddridge," says Mr Morell, "must be ever dear to all who cherish a cordial attachment to practical Christianity. His character and writings may be depreciated by the zealot who can only breathe in the turbid element of theological controversy, or by the sectarist who cannot look beyond the pale of his own narrow inclosure ; but assuredly they will long continue to be revered and honoured by all who prefer scriptural truth to human systems, and in whom fervent piety is combined with the benignant spirit of the gospel. Though attached both by education and principle to one denomination of Christians above the rest, this distinguished philanthropist may be regarded as the property of the universal church, on every portion of which he has conferred incalculable benefits."

Conyers Middleton.

BORN A. D. 1683.-DIED A. D. 1750.

THIS learned and celebrated person was born at York towards the close of the year 1683. He was the son of the Rev. William Middleton, rector of Hinderwell, near Whitby, in Yorkshire. His father possessed an easy competence, and gave him a very liberal education. At seventeen years of age he was admitted of Trinity college, Cambridge; and two years afterwards was chosen a scholar upon the foundation. He took his degree of A. B. in 1702; and having entered into orders, officiated for some time as curate of Trumpington, in the neighbourhood of his university. In 1706 he was elected a fellow of his college, and next year commenced A. M. About three years after this he married a widow-lady of large fortune, and took a small rectory in the isle of Ely, which was in the gift of his wife; but he resigned this charge within little more than a year, finding that the situation was unfavourable to his health.

On the occasion of George the First's visit to his pet university, in 1717, Middleton was one of those who were created doctors of divinity by mandate. He had already come into collision with Bentley, by joining the fellows of his college in their petition to the bishop of Ely against the tyrannical master; but his marriage, by divesting him of his fellowship, withdrew him for a time from the scene of warfare. He was now, however, destined to lead the assault against the indomitable Bentley, and he did so with a vigour and pertinacity before which the mighty master' almost quailed. We have already noticed the immediate cause of this renewed strife, namely, Bentley's demand of an unusual fee of four guineas for the presentation of the doctors of divinity created on the occasion of the royal visit, and how the master of Trinity, after bullying and nicknaming all around him, was condemned for contumacy, suspended from his degrees, prohibited from acting as professor, and finally degraded from all his academical honours