26 



DODDRIDGE. 



Doddridgt. public et*n." The incessant application, which these 

 > ""V P ' various labours rcmiired, often excited the apprehensions 

 it' hi.- trie-nil- ; ami at length ini|>nirvil his naturally de- 

 licate frame to such n degree, tliat it was tumble to stand 

 the attack of disease. In December 1750, he went to 

 M A llun- to preach the funeral sennon of his venerable 

 benefactor Dr Clerk ; and in the course of his journey, 

 he contracted a cold which brought on a fatal pulmo- 

 nary complaint As long as lie apprehended no im- 

 mediate danger, he could not be induced, by all the re- 

 monstrance- of hi- friends and physicians, to decline the 

 various sacred employments in which he so much de- 

 lighted ; and he wan particularly anxious to complete 

 the transcript of his Family Fxpositor. He was at 

 length obliged to desist from his labours, and with- 

 drew to the house of his friend Mr Orton at Shivw--- 

 bury, where he seemed to be a little recruited by the 

 retirement which he enjoyed. In the autumn of 1751, 

 he was advised by his medical attendants to make trial 

 of the Bristol waters ; but the physicians of the place 

 gave him little hope of deriving much benefit from their 

 use ; and it was recommended to him as the last resort, 

 to pass the winter in a wanner climate. By the gene- 

 rosity of his friends he was enabled to proceed to Lis- 

 bon, and was provided with every possible advantage 

 and accommodation. But soon after his arrival, the 

 rainy season came on with such uncommon violence as 

 precluded all benefit from air or exercise, and greatly 

 aggravated his complaints. On the 24th of October, 

 he was seized with a colliquative diarrhoea, which 

 speedily exhausted his remaining strength ; but he still 

 preserved the same composure, vigour, and cheerfulness 

 of mind, which he had uniformly possessed throughout 

 the whole period of his distress. He desired the most 

 affectionate remembrances to be conveyed to his chil- 

 dren, his congregation, and his friends in general ; and 

 expressed a variety of devout sentiments, which Mrs 

 Doddridge was too much affeeted to recollect with suf- 

 ficient distinctness. On the day preceding his death, 

 he lay in a gentle slumber, and at last, having appear- 

 ed somewhat restless during the space of an hour, 

 he died on the morning of the 26th of October, 

 , 1751. Agreeably to his own desire, his body was 

 opened after his death ; and his lungs were found in so 

 extremely ulcerated a state, as to render it surprising 

 that his speaking and breathing had not been more 

 painful to him than they were even to the last. His 

 remains were interred in the burying ground of the 

 British Factory at Lisbon ; and a handsome monument 

 was erected to his memory by his congregation in his 

 meeting-house at Northampton. He left behind him 

 lour children, three daughters, and one son named Phi- 

 lip, who was bred to the law, and settled as an attorney 

 at Tewksbury. 



Dr Doddridge was not handsome in his person, 

 which was very thin and slender, rather above the 

 middle size, and stooping considerably from the shoul- 

 ders ; but when he was engaged in conversation or in 

 preaching, there was a remarkable sprightliness and vi- 

 vacity in his countenance and manner. He possessed 

 what are rarely united in one person, great quickness of 

 apprehension, a remarkable strength of memory, and an 

 uiieoininon application in the prosecution of his studies. 

 I le was surpassed by few in the extent of his learning, 

 and the variety of useful knowledge which he had ac- 

 i|iiired. Though he could not be called a profound 

 linguist, he was sufficiently versed in the learned lan- 

 guages to read with pleasure the most valuable produc- 

 tions of antiquity ; and though his disposition inclined 



him to polite literature, rather than to the more abstruse DoiMridge. 

 scii-nees, he was far from being a stranger to mathcma- T"~' 

 tical and philosophical studie-. Hut it wits to divinitv, 

 in the largest sense of the word, comprehending all the 

 subjects nf natural and revealed religion, the c\ idi 

 of the Jewish and Christian revelation- -lieal 



history, the writings of the lathers of the three first 

 centuries, and the different sy.-tem- of theology, that he 

 chiefly applied hi- mind, and that he attained the high- 

 e-t excellence. The stores of information which he 

 had collected, were well arranged in his mind ; his own 

 ideas of the parts which he had studied were clear and 

 distinct ; and he possessed an uncommon facility both 

 in -|>caking and writing upon the subjects with which 

 he was acquainted. Hence, as a preacher, he was often 

 able, when in the full flow of spirit-, to speak with little 

 preparation, and with great eloquence and effect ; and 

 when he employed greater care in the composition of 

 his sermons, his method was perspicuous, and his senti- 

 ments naturally arranged. He studied at least to con. 

 chide his discourses with an animated and affectionate 

 application ; and his mode of delivery, like his ordinary 

 style of conversation, was full of vehemence and vivacity. 

 In his younger years particularly he gave proofs of con. 

 siderable poetic power- ; of which his celebrated para- 

 phrase on his family motto, " Dum vivimus rii<amus,~ 

 which Dr Johnson has specified as one of the fme.-t 

 epigrams in the English language, may be given as a 

 specimen : 



" Live, while you live," the epicure would sy, 

 * And seize the pleasures of th* present day." 

 " Live, while you live," the sacred |>rencher cries, 

 " And give to God each moment as it Hies." 

 Lord, in my \ ic s let both united be ; 

 I live in pleasure, while I live to thee. 



Of his moral and religious character, it is scarcely 

 possible to speak in too high terms ; and it may almost 

 be affirmed of him in his own words, " that it is hard 

 to say where, but in the l>ook of God, he found his ex- 

 ample, or where he has left his equal." His piety was 

 ardent, uniform, and unaffected ; and was particularly 

 displayed in the resignation, serenity, and cheerfulness 

 with which he sustained his afflictions. The nearer that 

 his dissolution approached, his improvement in a spiri- 

 tual and heavenly temper became remarkably conspicu- 

 ous ; till at length he seemed to have completely risen 

 above the concern- of this world, and to be daily breath- 

 ing after immortality. This devout disposition was 

 accompanied by the wannest benevolence to his fellow 

 creatures, which was abundantly manifested in the most 

 active exertions for their welfare, in his tendency to 

 overrate the merits of others, in his candour and mo- 

 demtion towards those who differed from him in senti- 

 ment, and in the mild and forgiving temper with which 

 he bore the most unkind and unmerited treatment. He 

 was distinguished by the humility with which he re- 

 garded his own attainments, tl>e condescension which 

 he shewed to the meanest persons, and the patience 

 with which he submitted to the words of reproof. In 

 the private virtues of friendship and domestic life, he 

 was remarkably amiable ; and his deportment in com- 

 pany was strikingly jwlite, affable, and pleasing. He 

 has sometimes been blamed for the accommodating 

 style of his language in addressing persons f different 

 sentiments, the over complimentary strain of his epistles, 

 the fondness which he -hewed for universal applause, 

 anil the ostentation with which he sometimes spoke of 

 the multiplicity of his engagements; but notwithstand- 

 ing these slight imperfections, (and they are oil that 



