תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that believing ye might have Life through his name.

First American Edition.

HARTFORD:

PRINTED BY LINCOLN & GLEASON.

1807.

JOHN.

55049

1807

V.l

MEMOIRS

OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF

PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D. D.

D

R. PHILIP DODDRIDGE was descended from a respectable family in Devonshire. His great-great-uncle was sir John Doddridge, knt. a justice of the King's bench, in the reign of James I. His grandfather, John, rector of Sheperton in Middlesex, was ejected, by the act of uniformity, in 1662*. Mr. Daniel Doddridge, his father, an oilman in London, married the daughter of the Rev. John Bauman, of Prague, who, in consequence of the troubles which followed the expulsion of the Elector Palatine from Bohemia, came to England, and, having brought ample testimonies from many German divines, was appointed master of the Free-school at Kingston-upon-Thamest. Mr. Daniel Doddridge had twenty children, all of whom died young, except one daughter, and our author, who was the twentieth child, and was born in London, on the 26th of June, 1702. So destitute was he at his birth, of the signs of life, that he was thrown aside as dead. But one of the attendants thinking she perceived some motion in him, cherished with such assiduous care the almost expiring flame of existence, that it was happily preserved. From his infancy young Doddridge had an infirm constitution, and a thin consumptive habit, which rendered both himself and his friends apprehensive that his life would be short. He frequently was accustomed, therefore, especially on the returns of his birth-day, to express his wonder and gratitude that his years were so long continued. His parents brought him up in the early knowledge of religion. His first initiation in the learned languages was in a private school in London. In 1712, he was removed to Kingston-upon-Thames, and placed at the school there under his grandfather Bauman. Here he continued till 1715,

At that time, he had ten children unprovided for; notwithstanding which, he quitted a benefice of 2001. a year, rather than violate the dictates of his conscience.

This gentleman likewise gave a great example of integrity. That he might enjoy the free exercise of the Protestant religion, he quitted the possession of a considerable estate, and withdrew, on foot, in the habit of a peasant; carrying with him nothing but a hundred broad pieces of gold, plaited in a leathern girdle, and a bible of Luther's translation.

« הקודםהמשך »