zeal and rage against these men. It has always been a maxim with me not to believe any flying story to the prejudice of those whom I had apparent reason, from what I knew of them, to esteem. I am ready to hope and believe the best of those who seem to have the cause of religion so much at heart. But I am very far from justifying them in all the steps they have taken, or approving all the lengths they run; and with their anathemas and uncharitable censures I am greatly displeased. I see some of them running into extravagancies, which grieve me to the heart: and if any will be so unjust as to impute these things to me, because I dare not join in reviling, censuring, and judging them, as some do, amidst their acknowledged infirmities and mistakes, I must wait quietly till the day of the Lord and I humbly hope that he will, in the mean time, appear to support my character, as far as his glory, and the good of souls is concerned in it; and further than that I am not anxiously concerned about it." By acting in this tender, candid manner, he might perhaps, commend and encourage some who appeared to be zealous for the salvation of souls, before he had sufficient opportunities of knowing what their principles and views were; or the accounts he had received of the success of their labours might be exaggerated; or they might represent him as encouraging them more than he did. He might also think some of their errors of much less consequence than his brethren did. But these are often the weaknesses of the best minds; and, as a good judge of human nature says, “Ut quisque est vir optimus, ita difficillime esse alios improbos suspicatur.* The better a man himself is, the less will he be inclined to suspect others of bad designs."

Cic. Ep. ad Q. Fratr.

SECT. III.

HIS CATHOLICISM, MODERATION, AND FRIENDLY BEHAVIOUR TO PERSONS OF DIFFERENT SENTIMENTS AND PERSUASIONS.

DR. DODDRIDGE had diligently studied the gospel, and had just ideas of the extent and importance of Christian liberty. He had impartially examined the controversy between the Established Church of England, and the Protestant Dissenters, and thought it his duty to adhere to the latter. He thus wrote to one of his fellow students on this subject; "I am now more fully studying the business of Conformity and for that purpose am reading the controversy between Bishop Hoadley and Dr. Calamy; as indeed I think it necessary to examine into the affair, before I determine upon being ordained among the Dissenters. Upon the whole, I must say, that, as nothing hath had a greater tendency to confirm my belief of Christianity than the most celebrated writings of Jews and Deists; and my adhering to the Protestant cause, than the Apologies of many of the Roman Catholics; so the study of the best defenders of the Church of England, which I have yet seen, hath added a great deal of weight to my former persuasion, not only of the lawfulness, but expediency of a separation from it. Yet, when I see how many plausible arguments may be advanced on the contrary side, I am not inclinable to censure those who yield to the force of them." His generous heart never confined truth and goodness to one particular sect, nor in any other respect appeared bigoted to that, or uncharitable to those who differed from him. The principles on which he acted will be seen by the following extracts from his writings. "I look upon the dissenting interest," saith he, "to be the cause of truth, honour, and liberty; and I will add, in a great measure, the cause of serious piety too. It was not merely a generous sense of liberty (which may warm the breast of a

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deist, or an atheist,) but a religious reverence for the divine authority, which animated our pious forefathers to so resolute and so expensive an opposition to the attempts which were made in their days to invade the rights of conscience, and the throne of God, its only sovereign. And if the cause be not still maintained on the same principles, I think it will hardly be worth our while to be much concerned about maintaining it at all."* In his dedication of a sermon to the pious Mr. Hervey, he thus expresseth himself; " You being, I doubt not, persuaded in your own mind, that diocesan episcopacy is of divine original, and that the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith, have solemnly declared that belief; and, in consequence of it, have obliged yourself to render canonical obedience to those, whom you thereby acknowledge as governing you by an authority delegated from Christ; that thus you may be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, and thereby approve your submission to him. I have declined that subjection; not from any disrespect to the persons of the established ecclesiastical governors, (many of whom I hold in the highest esteem, and number among the most distinguished ornaments of our common Christianity,) and least of all, from an unwillingness to yield subjection where I apprehend Christ to have appointed it; for, so far as I know my own heart, it would be my greatest joy to bow, with all humility, to any authority delegated from him. But I will freely tell you and the world, my non-conformity is founded on this, that I assuredly believe the contrary to what the constitution of the church of England requires me to declare, on the above-mentioned heads, and some others, to be the truth. And I esteem it much more eligible to remain under an incapacity of sharing its honours and revenues, than to open my way to a possibility of obtaining them, by what would, in me, while I have such an apprehension, be undoubtedly

* Free Thoughts, in Tracts, &c. vol. ii. p. 266.

an act of prevarication, hypocrisy, and falsehood; reverencing herein the authority of God, and remembering the account I must shortly give in his presence." Yet he behaved with the utmost candour to the members of the established church. "I will be far," saith he, "from confining all true religion to the members of our own congregations. I am very well aware, that there are a multitude of excellent persons in the establishment, both among the clergy and laity, who, in their different stations, are burning and shining lights; such as reflect a glory on the human nature and the Christian profession." He always spoke of the established religion of our country with respect. In explaining those texts of Scripture in his Family Expositor, in which he could not avoid showing his sentiments in some points of discipline, different from those which generally prevail, he conscientiously abstained from all reproaches; "to which indeed," saith he, "I am on no occasion inclined, and which I should esteem peculiarly indecent, where the religious establishment of my country is in question; and above all, where a body of men would be affected, many of whom have been, and are, among the ablest advocates and brightest ornaments of Christianity. I have been also careful to adjust my expressions with as much tenderness and respect, as integrity, and that reverence which an honest man would owe to the judgment of his own conscience, were it more singular than mine, would admit." He never made any petulant objections against the worship or discipline of the church of England, nor uttered any severe or unkind reflections upon it. Indeed he very seldom mentioned the grounds of the difference between it and the dissenters in the pulpit; and when his subject naturally led him to it, he took occasion to show, how small the things in debate were, compared with those important principles and truths, in which they agreed.

He always spoke in the most respectful terms of the

*Expositor, vol. iii. Pref. p. ix.

worthy clergy of the established church; thought himself happy in the intimate friendship of some of them; and kept up a friendly correspondence with others, even with some of the highest rank in it. Upon the same principles, he rejoiced, when he had opportunity, as he sometimes had, of serving any of them in their secular or ministerial interests. He deeply lamented, that a separation from the communion of that church was, in his apprehension, and that of many other good men, made so necessary. He heartily wished and prayed for a greater union among Protestants; and longed for the happy time when, to use his own words, "the question would be, not how much may we lawfully impose, and how much may we lawfully dispute? But on the one side, what may we wave 2 and on the other, what may we acquiesce in ? from a principle of mutual tenderness and respect, without displeasing our common Lord, and injuring the great cause of original Christianity, which he hath appointed us to guard.” Having mentioned to one of his friends a candid letter he had received from a bishop, he adds, "Oh, that God would open a way to a stricter union among Protestants of every denomination! But the darkness of our minds, the narrowness of our hearts, and our attachment to private interest, make it, I fear, in a great measure impracticable." "I greatly rejoice," saith he, on another occasion, "when I see in those whom, upon other accounts, I most highly esteem as the excellent of the earth, that their prejudices against their brethren of any denomination are subdued, as mine against the writers of the establishment early were, and that we are coming nearer to the harmony, in which I hope we shall ever be one in Christ Jesus." One of his correspondents had informed him of a report spread in London, in 1750, that he was about to conform to the Church of England; to which he thus answereth: "Assure those, who may have heard of the report, that though my growing acquaintance with many excellent persons, some of them of great eminence, in the establishment, increases those candid, re