successor of Baxter at Kidderminster. Some of these became greatly distinguished in their day for their genius and classical scholarship; their attainments in theological science and bellesettres; their advocacy of the Christian faith, and of evangelical doctrines; their illustrations of the Scriptures, and of practical piety; their diligence and zeal in the promotion of the divine glory; and the persuasiveness of their pulpit oratory.

The religious feature of the age of Doddridge, does not, on the whole, afford a very cheering theme for the contemplation of the pious mind. While it was an epoch memorable for its speculative tendencies in theology, the grand doctrines of practical Christianity were comparatively little regarded by the great majority of professing Christians of all denominations. There seems,

in fact, to have been a general decay of religion. As an indication of its low state in those days, it has been said, that piety was no longer considered essential, even by many among the dissenters, for an admission to the Christian ministry. The excellent Bishop Burnet, while lamenting the decline of Christianity in the church to which he belonged, says: 'I cannot look on without the deepest concern, when I see immment ruin hanging over this church, and by

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consequence over the whole reformation. outward state of things is black enough, God knows; but that which heightens my fears, rises chiefly from the inward state into which we are unhappily fallen.' He also tells us that candidates for ordination were commonly quite unacquainted with the Bible, and unable even to give an account of the statements in the church catechism. And in regard to many who reäppeared before the bishop to obtain institution to a living, it was still evident that they had not read the Scriptures, nor any other good book since they were ordained. In the words of a late writer, Genuine piety, Scriptural knowledge, ardent zeal, were no longer deemed essential to the sacred office, and were ridiculed as puritanical and degrading. Multitudes pressed into the Christian ministry who were utterly destitute of all those qualities which can give efficiency and true dignity to that office.'

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The low degree of religion in England at that time, attracted the attention of foreigners. Montesquieu, the celebrated French author, who visited England in 1729, protested (though very unjustly), that the English had no religion at all. If any one,' he said, spoke of it, everybody laughed.' And as low as religion

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had sunk in France, he confessed that he himself had not enough of it to satisfy his countrymen; and yet he found that he had too much to suit English society.'

In the Christian ministry, the spirit of earnestness, zeal, piety, and devotion, which animated the great and heavenly-minded preachers of the seventeenth century, and which pervaded their invaluable practical writings, seemed to have passed away, to be succeeded by a cold, speculative form of Christianity, without the life and power of godliness. 'A cold system of ethics,' says Mr. Morell, 'scarcely superior to the morality of the Pagan world, superseded the faithful and energetic preaching of former times.'

Various reasons have been assigned as some of the causes of this general decay of religion; such as violent political feelings; the circulation of a licentious literature; infidel writings; the degenerate character of the Christian ministry; a controversial spirit among Christians; and 'the withdrawment of the attention of the ablest and most learned Christian divines from the essentials of the gospel, to an elaborate vindication of its evidences in their controversy then carried on with deists and infidels.' But the grand reason of this lamentable state of

things in the religious world in England during the earlier part of the eighteenth century was, doubtless, the withholding of the Spirit of God from the churches; that Spirit which, when once poured out, causes even the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad; and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Doddridge was one of those few who sincerely grieved at the great decline of religion in those times; and during the course of his ministry, one of his principal efforts was to produce a revival of true religion. This was the governing principle of his life, the supreme object of his heart's desire, to which all his labors, whether as a pastor, a tutor, or an author, were solemnly consecrated.' How noble, how glorious an object! And how was the honest and good heart of Doddridge gladdened, a little before the close of his life, to know that a great change for the better was taking place in Great Britain and America. By the blessing of Heaven on his earnest labors, and those of his eminent and pious companions in the vineyard of the Lord, a series of remarkable revivals commenced the great awakenings of the eighteenth century.

These prosperous times, in the church of God, commenced in New England under the

searching and powerful preaching of Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, and in New Jersey, under the ministry of the Tennants. Then were truly verified the words of Isaiah respecting Zion the field which the Lord hath blessed It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.'

During the early period of Doddridge's career, there was not only a low state of religion in England, but also a general prevalence of infidelity. In the almost universal degeneracy in morals after the great civil war, this poisonous stream seems to have flowed in a more rapid, widening, and desolating course. It is true that some time before the civil war, the devout George Herbert, and other kindred souls, complain of the wickedness and growing atheism' of their age; but it was not till the early part of the eighteenth century that infidelity attained its full growth in England; and, with unhallowed hands, dared so openly and boldly to attack the citadel of the Christian faith.

Infidelity and atheism prevailed especially among the higher classes of society. When Doddridge was a boy, the gifted Lady Mary