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Mr . Dodson was born at Marlborough the 20 th or 21 st of September , 17 $% and educated partly under
that soon after his appearance as a barrister in the Court of King ' s Bench , one of the judges inquired of an officer of the court for his name , and that the judge , beinginformed lhat he was the son of Mr . Foster of Marlborough , immediately said , * Then he is the son of one of the honestest men in England . ' The above-mentioned sermon , in the hand-writing of Dr . Morgan , is in my possession . " Mr . Dodson ' s Note to his " Life of Sir Michael Foster , " edited by Dr . Disney . 1810 . Pp . 1 , 3 .
Dr . Thomas Morgan was probably the immediate predecessor of Mr . Dodson ' s father . In 1724 , Dr . M . was still resident at Marlborough , from whence he dated , May 13 in that year , the last article of " A Collection of Tracts , ' * published in 1726 , c relating to the Right of private
Judgment , the Sufficiency of Scripture , and the Terms of Church Communion upon Christian Principles , occasioned by the late Trinitarian Controversy . " He was already M . D . In this Collection , which advocates the Avian doctrine , there appears nothing inconsistent with a belief in revelation .
The following passage is in reply to Mr . Bradbury , who asserted , that * laying ^ isi de the evidence of revelation , the doctrine ( of satisfaction } is so far from being * true , that it is ridiculous . "
Dr . M . remarks , 6 C Jf the Christian doctrines , abstracted from the evidence of revelation , are in themselves , and in the nature and reason of things , so far from being true , that they are ridiculous ^ it is certain lhat no revelation can make them
otherwise tlian ridiculous . Revelation is the light that renders thing's risible , that could not be discovered by the naked eye of unassisted reason ; it is like a telescope , that brings the object nearer , which was before too remote , and places it in a distinct and proper point of view : but then it represents things as they are , and reason is still the eye by which they must be perceived and judged of . " Collection , p . 57 .
The Moral Philosopher was not published till 1737 . In 1741 , when probably the quondam Christian minister would have wished his former occupations to have been forgotten , Dr- Chandler , in his < c Vindication of the History of the Old
Testament , " largely quoted the Confession Of ' Faith of " the Rev . Mr . Thomas Morgan , once a Dissenting minister at Marlborough , now living , though now no loug * er extant in that character ?* This Confession is in a strain of orthodoxy far above the Collection ; and indeed fully accords with the Assembly ' s Catechism . ]
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the care of his fattier , and partly at the grammar-school of that town but his great proficiency in biblical learning he chiefly owed to his own voluntary and subsequent application . Under the direction of his maternal
uncle , Sir Michael Foster , * one of the justices of the Court of King ' s Bench , Mr . Dodson was brought up to the profession of the law . He was accordingly admitted of the Middle Temple , London , August 51 , 1754 , and practised many years , with
considerable reputation , as a special pleader . His natural modesty and diffidence t discouraged him from attending the courts , ajid , therefore , he did not proceed JfPoe called to the bar till July 4 , 1783 . This measure contributed , and was intended to
contribute , more to the diminution than to the increase of professional business . He was appointed one of the commissioners of bankrupts in 1770 , during the Chancellorship of Lord Camden , and was continued in . that situation till the time of his death .
* [ The early history and the honourable life of this eminent lawyer serve to shevr how Nonconformity may he sacrificed * to probable views of worldly advancement , while the valuable habits and many of the liberal sentiments which it encourages , are happily retained . This son of the
eminent Dissenter , just described , was horn Dec . 10 , 1 ( 589 , " and " May 7 , 1705 , " before he had attained the age of 16 , was matriculated at Oxford , ( Life , pp . 1 , 3 , ) having * , ag an indispensable preliminary , subscribed , ex ammo , the Thirty-nine
Articles , ( comprehending a condemnation of the principles of his education , ) or as Milton says , subscribed , slave ; for after all the attempts of her more enlightened children to make the liberty they do not find 5 " yet it cannot be denied , tnat Sacheverel , and not Hoadley , was a true son of a the Church of Eng-land , as by law established " though she has certainly derived no small share of her reputation from her illegitimate offspring . !
-f [ I had once an occasion to discover this diffidence in Mr . Dodson , on asking- him , in 1792 , at the request of some common friends , to preside at a large political meeting , to the object of which he was quite
friendly , and in which his ^ ears , Jtnowtedg-e and respectability eminently fitted ]» im to take fiie lead . He was , indeed , disturbed at the mere possibility of swell an appearance in public , that 1 regretted having made the proposal . ]
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602 Memoir of Michael Dodson , Esq .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1818, page 602, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2481/page/2/
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