The Life and Legacy of Philip Doddridge, Part One

BreakPoint WorldView » November 2008

PROTECTING THE HEIRLOOM OF FAITH

Bohemia, 1626:

John Bauman, a young Lutheran scholar worked by candlelight, plaiting a hundred pieces of gold into a leather girdle. The girdle, commonly worn by peasants would be part of the disguise Bauman would use to escape his war-torn country. For several years, battles associated with what would come to be known as the Thirty Years War had ravaged his land. Even the ruler, Frederick V, had fled, fearing for his life, following defeat at the Battle of White Mountain. Looking back on his tragically short reign, people would remember him as “the Winter King.” But Protestants who had been under his protection knew it was but a matter of time until a terrible wave of persecution reached their door.

Bauman wasn’t going to wait for that. When all was in readiness, he slipped quietly out of his home, taking one last look at Prague, the proud city that had been his home. Aside from the gold, he carried another priceless keepsake well-hidden—a copy of Luther’s translation of the Bible. It was a book he knew well, for it had imbued him with a faith for which he was willing to risk his life.

Bauman would undertake this hazardous journey on foot. It meant a longer trek, but then little notice was likely to be paid to one among so many thousands of peasants. He would lose himself among them and eventually pass beyond Bohemia’s borders.

But that first night after his escape, Bauman nearly came to ruin. Taking shelter in a nondescript roadside inn, he left the next day without the leather girdle. He was not used to wearing it, and once he had set it aside in his room, it was out of sight, out of mind.

But, he had not gone far before he realized his grievous mistake. The girdle contained the only means he had of purchasing food. He might also need money to bribe his way past corrupt officials, intent on capturing hated Protestants like himself. One thing was certain, he could not get anywhere without that gold.

Returning to the inn, Bauman learned that a servant-girl had indeed found the weather-stained girdle, only to discard the seeming rubbish among a pile of firewood—or so she told him. Bauman then decided to take a great risk. Promising the servant-girl a reward, he persuaded her to search for the girdle. In so doing he might have given himself away, but he had no other choice.

To Bauman’s everlasting relief, the servant-girl returned a short time later with the girdle in hand. She had found it in a staircase cupboard where firewood was commonly kept. He gratefully paid the girl, breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving, and set out once more.

Slowly, with infinite care, Bauman made his way through Saxe-Gotha and other parts of Germany before eventually finding sanctuary in England. Only when he felt himself to be truly safe did he reveal the other items he carried on his person: several letters of recommendation he had obtained from reputable Protestant leaders in Germany. With these testimonials to commend him, and a quick mastery of the language of his new homeland, Bauman eventually became Master of the Free School at Kingston upon Thames. Through many years of hard work and conscientious service, he earned the respect of all who came to know him. He died in 1668.



PASSING ON THE HEIRLOOM OF FAITH
This was the heritage Philip Doddridge’s mother taught him when he was a boy—stories of how her father had survived great trials to find sanctuary in a new land, stories of how his faith had sustained him. They were stories young Philip Doddridge would never forget.

His mother was a woman of deep faith in her own right—a faith that by Philip’s recollection was winsome, not dour or severe. As he later told his friend Job Orton, she invested herself in his education by seeking to make “some good Impressions upon his Heart.” She taught him lessons from the Old and New Testament by pointing out stories from the Bible depicted on the blue Dutch tiles that lined the family fireplace. She had a gift for making these stories come alive in a way that captured her son’s imagination. Looking back on that time, Doddridge told Orton that the “good impressions” his mother had imparted to him “never wore out.” She had caused the flame of belief to flicker in his heart, and it was to burn brightly there ever after. As he grew older, family and friends also noticed young Philip’s gentle disposition, genuine faith, and signs of a natural aptitude for study.

Sadly, there were far too few bright chapters in Doddridge’s childhood. In the years leading up to his birth, his parents experienced a series of devastating bereavements that recall the sufferings of Job.

Philip was one of only two children out of 20 who survived to adulthood (the second child being his beloved sister Elizabeth). The circumstances of Philip’s own birth were harrowing.

On that 26^th of June, 1702, Phillip arrived, wrinkled and wet, and without one sign of life. Not a cry or whimper was heard as his mother’s attendant laid him gently aside. The Doddridge household would mourn the passing of another still-born, or so it would seem. But as his mother’s attendant moved to go, she thought she saw some faint motion. Acting quickly, she restored him to his mother and in so doing saved his life. Had this midwife not acted so quickly, the world might have been deprived of one of the greatest clergymen of the eighteenth century.

One cannot imagine how the deaths of 18 children affected Doddridge’s parents—or the family as a whole. No written record touches upon this, and it is to be expected—for how could one begin to describe or even make reference to a grief that ran so deep. What we do know is that somehow, amidst a grace known only to them and to God, their faith as a family endured. In turn, this faith brought God’s grace to a world that needed it. For Philip Doddridge was to have a profound influence on eighteenth century Britain and America. His writings would prove a catalyst for many conversions—none more celebrated than that of William Wilberforce, whom Dr. Os Guinness has described as “the greatest reformer in history.”

Other tragedies were to come. Doddridge’s father died when Philip was 13. With terrible swiftness, his mother died soon after. Years later, in a beautiful sermon called “The Orphan’s Hope,” he wrote about this: “I know the heart of an orphan; having been deprived of both my parents at an age [when] a child should be most sensible of such a loss.” He never forgot the pain and the needs that he then felt. When he was an adult and had the financial resources, he gave generously to charities for orphans. Many years later, William Wilberforce read Orton’s Life of Doddridge, and was deeply moved by the spirituality of this “wonderful man.” It is clear as well that Wilberforce was guided in his pursuit of philanthropic works by Doddridge’s example.

After the deaths of his parents, Doddridge was entrusted to the guardianship of a family friend named Downes, who enrolled him in a non-conformist school in St. Albans. It was a happy choice, for soon after his arrival Doddridge met Dr. Samuel Clarke (1684-1750), the minister of the local Presbyterian church. Clarke is still remembered today as the author of Scripture Promises, a book Isaac Watts considered of “such transcendent worth…that it can never be too much recommended to the world.”

Doddridge found a second father in Clarke—a deeply affectionate man as well as an accomplished scholar. He began to faithfully attend Clarke’s church and felt himself increasingly drawn to “the beauty of holiness and the blessedness of a religious life.” By the age of 18, Doddridge ardently desired to become a pastor himself.

However, he now encountered what appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle. His guardian, Mr. Downes, though a kindly, well-intentioned man, was not fit to discharge the trust reposed in him. Through a series of unwise investments, he lost Doddridge’s entire inheritance and his own money as well. Confined in a debtor’s prison, Downes was released only through the sale of the Doddridge family china. What little Doddridge had been left by his parents was gone. His future was once again anything but certain. Would the faith entrusted to him—a treasure far-more precious than china—be preserved for another generation?

Part Two of “The Life and Legacy of Philip Doddridge” will chart the amazing set of circumstances that would transform the life of a nearly penniless young man into one of the most learned scholars and respected clergymen of his time. Though these “divine appointments” he would come to understand the power and meaning of the phrase: “a gracious hand leads us in ways we know not.”

Kevin Belmonte is author of William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity.