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actions which he imagined to be the least religious ; and its substantial peace experienced when he thought least about it . We , at least , see more of true religion in some of his gayest letters to his young friends than in the following retrospections , which it is but justice to extract , after having exhibited some of an opposite character : " In the prayer I had much communion with God , in the sermon little or none , but so much in the sacrament that my very heart wa& almost swallowed
up . A variety of plain , solid , and natural thoughts sprung in upon my mind like water from a fountain , and gave unutterable pleasure . Many of them are vanished away , some few remain ; the substance of which is as follows . " ( In all this we sympathize , and would readily approve , if the thoughts were , as he says , " plain , solid , and natural ; " but none such do we find in the abstract of his discourse , which is too long to be here given . The sentiments are flighty to an extraordinary degree . He goes on , ) " Such were the workings of my heart at this most delightful and edifying ordinance . O I
that it may not prove only a transient blaze of spirits ; but that the happy consequences of it may go along with me into all the devotions and all the services that lie before me this month , and that I may be prepared for all the will of God !"—" This , like yesterday , has been a day of unmerited , unbounded goodness . I can hardly express the sweet communion with God which I had in his house and at his table . I had been discoursing on communion with him , and through grace I have felt it . A sermon composed
under great deadness , which when I composed it I thought very meanly of , was delivered with great seriousness , spirit , and pleasure . It was the language not merely of my tongue , but of my heart . I had communion with God as my compassionate , wise , almighty , bountiful Friend ; with Christ as my atonement , righteousness , intercessor , head , and forerunner ; and adored the divine grace fur such manifestations to so guilty and wretched a creature . "—Pp . 342 , 344 .
We have referred to mistaken views of the design of prayer , and , therefore , we are unwilling to pass over this part of our subject without notice : but it is one of peculiar delicacy , and one on which we should scarcely have ventured to pronounce in the case of such a man as Doddridge , had not our astonishment been excited by the record before us of his vestry retirements . How such minute considerations of time and circumstance could coexist with passionate devotion we can scarcely imagine : and still less what good
consequences could be expected to arise from communion so pre-arranged , and limited , and regulated . Such regulations are the necessary condition at present of social worship ; but why they should be brought into arbitrary connexion with private devotion , whose very essence is freedom , and how any wise man can attempt to determine his own precise state of feeling at any future moment , — how he can resolve at what hour to be penitent , at what to rejoice for others , at what to mourn for himself , while , at the same time , devotion is made professedly to consist in impulses , we do indeed wonder . A few words from the Diary will suggest all we would say . Alone
in the vestry , " Till near one , I addressed myself to God in suitable thanksgivings , humiliations , and confessions ; then nearl y three quarters of an hour was spent ii ) prayer for the increase of the church ; in pleading many select promises before God , and interceding for my brethren and their societies , as well as for my own ; nor shall it I trust be altogether in vain . Then till twenty
minutes past two , I drew up some maxims agreeabl y to what I had intended to think of in relation to my daily conduct in general , and as to my behaviour as a husband , father , master , tutor , pastor , and correspondent , and some miscellaneous purposes , which then I turned into prayer , beseeching , of God resolution and prudence ; and concluded by recommending to him the labours of to-morrow . "—P . 622 .
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324 Dr . Doddridge ' 8 Correspondence and Diary .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/36/
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