His Temper and Behaviour under unjust and unkind Treatment.

HE State of the World must be much altered for the better, and the Malice of the Accufer of the Brethren and his Influence upon Mankind, much leffened in modern Times, if a Person who discovered fo much Piety, and Zeal for the Happiness of Men, as Dr. Doddridge did, fhould pass thro' Life without Perfecution; at leaft by thofe milder Methods, which alone the Lenity of our Laws allows, but which the Law of Chrift abfolutely condemns. He knew the Hiftory of Man and the State of the World too well, to expect the Efteem and good Word of all, even for the most upright and friendly Intentions and Attempts. He thought that the Obfervation of St. Paul, that all who will live godly in Chrift Jefus, shall Suffer Perfecution, was not to be confined to the primitive Age, but was verified in the beft of Men in every Age. He expected his Share of this Kind of Trouble, as many of his Fathers and Brethren had theirs; and he prepared himself to receive and improve it with a chriftian Temper. The following Extract from a Letter to a Friend, will fhew what were his Sentiments on this Head.

I fettle it as an esta• blished

* Family-expofitor, Vol. II, § 176, note (e).

⚫blished Point with me, that the more diligently and faithfully I ferve Chrift, the greater Reproach, and the more Injury I must expect. I have drank deep of the Cup of Slander and Reproach of late; but • I am in no wife difcouraged: No, nor by, what is much harder to bear, the Unfuccessfulness of my Endeavours to mend this bad World. I confider it as my great Care, to let my dear Master (who hath bought me with his precious Blood) fee, that I • have a grateful Senfe of his Benefits, and that his • Name and Caufe lie near my Heart. If the Labours ' of many Years, whether they do or do not fucceed, may fecure this, it is well. Nay indeed, in this 'Cafe, Labor ipfe Voluptas. I fhall not be furprized

if more Afflictions come upon me: I need them all; and the Cup is in the Hand of my wife and gracious Father; for that GOD is fuch, I affuredly know. Let us give Diligence to feize every Opportunity we have of ferving his Intereft, in that of his Son, while we are here; and then nothing in Life or Death needs much to move us.' -The ill Treatment he met with might have been paffed over in Silence, were it not fo commonly the Lot of the most active, useful Men, and an Affliction, which perhaps they find it more difficult to bear than any other. Some Account of his Sufferings of this Kind, his Reflections upon them and Behaviour under them, may properly be given; as they illuftrate his Character, fhew his Companions in the Tribulation of Christ, that their Cafe is not fingular, and may fuggeft to them the proper Behaviour under it.

No fooner was he fettled at Northampton, with the pleafing Profpect of great Ufefulness, by his Relation

to

to fo large a Congregation and the Increase of his Academy, than he met with injurious Treatment from his Neighbours. Not to mention fome Infults which he and his Family fuffered from the Vulgar, thro' the Influence of a Party-Spirit, a more formidable Attack was made upon him from another Quarter, whence he expected more Candour and Moderation. A Profecution was commenced against him in the ecclefiaftical Court, by fome Dignitaries of the Church of England for teaching an Academy. Persons of the best Sense among different Parties were furprized at this Step; and several Gentlemen of the established Church of confiderable Rank and public Characters, warmly declared their Difapprobation of it. Nay, the very Perfon, in whofe Name the Prosecution was carried on, came to the Doctor to affure him of his Abhorrence of it; and to know, before it commenced, whether he could with Safety to himself, being then Church-warden, refuse to fign the Presentment, or in any other Way make the Matter easy to him. But the Clergy seemed determined to carry on the Prosecution with Vigour; notwithstanding many Acknowledgments they made of his Learning and Moderation, and many Compliments they perfonally paid him on that Account. This gave him a painful Alarm, left his Usefulness as a Tutor should have been entirely prevented, or greatly leffened; or he should have been obliged to remove from his Congregation to fome other Part of the Kingdom, where he might have been out of the Reach of his Perfecutors. But his loyal, peaceable and moderate Principles and Character, being fairly reprefented to his late Majefty, by fome Perfons of Rank and Influence, who had Accefs to him and were well

ac

acquainted with the Doctor, a Stop was, by his exprefs Order, put to the Prosecution; agreeably to the noble and generous Maxim he had laid down, that during his Reign, there should be no Perfecution for Confcience fake.

He met with injurious Treatment from fome, who denied the Truth of Christianity; which he could no other way account for, than from the Zeal he had fhewn in its Defence: While others, on the contrary, were offended at the Respect with which he had treated fome Perfons, who were thought to make light of the Gospel or deny fome of its diftinguishing Tenets, because he faw in them some amiable Qualities, efteemed them valuable Members of Society, or had commended their Writings, as containing many Things excellent and calculated for Usefulness.-But, ftrange as it may feem, the worft Treatment he received, and which continued longeft, was from fome of his Bre thren in the Miniftry; which I believe arofe partly from hence, that he fet them a Pattern of Diligence and Activity, which they were not difpofed to imitate *; but principally from this Circumftance, that he was not of their Party, or would not run all their Lengths in oppofing and judging others. Many Controverfies concerning fome chriftian Doctrines, had

been

*It hath been obferved, that it is fomewhat natural for Clergywien, to be more eafily irritable at fuch of their Brethren, as rife above them, in apparent Concern for Religion and Zeal for promoting it, than at thofe who fall below them. The firft are a Reproach to their own Conduct and Character; the other are a Foil to it. So that every one, who efpoufes any bold or vigorous Meafure, may lay his Account with a fenfible Coldness, even from fuch of his Brethren as are in the next immediate Degree ' below him. Dr. Witherspoon's Effays. Vol. II. p. 254.

been warmly agitated; and there had been feveral Divifions in diffenting Congregations arifing from different Sentiments about them. It is no wonder that each Party fhould be folicitous to number a Person of fo much Learning, Piety and Reputation, among their Adherents. But he chofe not to be distinguished by any Party-name, and to keep as clear as poffible from any invidious Distinction. He thought it his Duty to go as far as he honeftly could with both Sides, and endeavour to bring them nearer to one another in chriftian Affection, if he could not unite them in Sentiments. He was defirous to become all Things to all Men, as far as, with a good Confcience towards God, he could; to commend what was good in each Party, and to keep-up a Friendship with the most valuable and moderate Perfons of it. He imagined himself fully juftified in this Conduct, by the Behaviour of our blessed Lord and his Apoftles, and by the prudential and pacific Maxims of the New Teftament. His Sentiments on this Head, as he hath published them to the World, deferve, in this Connection, a peculiar Regard. When a fierce and haughty Senfe of Liberty is the reigning, darling Character of Minifters, and a Determination to fubmit in nothing, to oblige in nothing; as the firft Elements of the chriftian Temper feem as yet to be unknown, there is great Reason to believe, that the Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel will not, cannot, be fuccefsfully taught *.-Again, Let none of us be difpofed to difpute, merely for the fake of disputing; nor unneceffarily oppofe the Judgment and Taste of our Brethren, whether out of an Affecta• tion

26

6

* Family-expofitor, Vol. III. p. 254..