Philip Doddridge

“ Sickness obey'd his healing hand,
And devils fled at his command!
The lame, for joy around him leap;
The dead he wakens from their sleep!
⁠Through all his life his doctrine shines,
Drawn in the plainest, fairest lines;
And death at length he did sustain,
Our pardon, and our peace to gain;
That sinners, who condemned stood,
Might gain salvation by his blood.
All honour then ascribed be
To him who liv'd and dy'd for me!
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ Nothing can more effectually tend to humble the enemies of a state, than that such maxims should universally prevail in it; and if they do not prevail, the worthiest men in an army or a fleet may sink under repeated discouragements, and the basest exalted, to the infamy of the public, and perhaps to its ruin.
In the midst of all the gentleness which Colonel Gardiner exercised towards his soldiers, he made it very apparent that he knew how to reconcile the tenderness of a really faithful and condescending friend with the authority of a commander. ”

“ Every Infant-Year increases the Pleasure, and nourishes the Hope. And where is the Parent so wise and so cautious, and so constantly intent on his Journey to Heaven, as not to measure back a few Steps to Earth again, on such a plausible and decent Occasion, as that of introducing the young Stranger into the Amusements, nay perhaps, where Circumstances will admit it, into the Elegancies of Life, as well as its more serious and important Business? ”

“ The knowledge of God and our duty to be learned from the Bible.
HOW shall a little infant learn
This great this infinite concern,
What my Almighty Maker is.
And what the way this God to please?
Shall some bright angel spread his wing,
The welcome message down to bring?
Or must we dig beneath the ground.
Deep as where silver mines are found?
I bless his name for what I hear;
The word of life and truth is near:
His gospel sounds through all our land,
Bibles are lodg'd in every hand ”

“ My praises began from a renewed view of Him whom I saw pierced for my transgressions. I summoned the whole hierarchy of heaven to join with me, and I am persuaded they all echoed back praise to the Most High. Yon, one would have thought the very larks joined me with emulation. Sure, then, I need not make use of many words to persuade you, that are his saints, to join me in blessing and praising his holy name." He concludes, "May the blessing of the God of Jacob rest upon you all! Adieu. Written in great haste, late and weary." ”

“ Every Affliction hath in its Degree this kind of Tendency, and ’tis the very Reason for which we are thus chastened, that we may profit by our Sorrows, and be made Partakers of God’s Holinessb. But this Dispensation is peculiarly adapted, in a very affecting Manner,—to teach us the Vanity of the World,—to warn us of the Approach of our own Death,—to quicken us in the Duties incumbent upon us, especially to our surviving Children,—and to produce a more intire Resignation to the Divine Will, which is indeed the surest Foundation of Quiet, and Source of Happiness. ”

“ It is with all solemnity that I now deliver it down to posterity as in the sight and presence of God; and I choose deliberately to expose myself to those severe censures which the haughty but empty scorn of infidelity, or principles nearly approaching it, and effectually doing its pernicious work, may very probably dictate upon the occasion, rather than to smother a relation, which may, in the judgment of my conscience, be like to conduce so much to the glory of God, the honour of the gospel, and the good of mankind. ”

“ I conclude, therefore, with humbly acknowledging the wisdom and goodness of that awful Providence which drew so thick a gloom around him in the last hours of his life, that the lustre of his virtues might dart through it with a more vivid and observable ray. It is abundant matter of thankfulness that so signal a monument of grace, and ornament of the Christian profession, was raised in our age and country, and spared for so many honourable and useful years. ”

“ For surely you still have abundant Reason to rejoice in that Grace, which gives your own Lives to you as a Prey, and has brought you so near to that blessed World, where, hard as it is now to conceive it, you will have laid aside every Affection of Nature, which interferes with the Interests of God, and prevents your most chearful Acquiescence in every Particular of his wise and gracious Determinations. ”

“ How often is the Christian prompted to holy actions, drawn to his duty, restored, quickened, persuaded, in such a manner, that he would be unjust to the Spirit of God to question his agency in the whole! Yes, on my soul! there is a Supreme Being, who governs the world, and is present with it, who takes up his more special habitation in good men, and is nigh to all who call upon him, to sanctify and assist them! ”

“ No nation under heaven appears to me so well furnished with helps for the Christian education of children as our own. I heartily pray that parents may be diligent in using them and that they may inforce their good instructions with a suitable example: and then I doubt not but through the divine blessing, the happy fruits will be visible; nor will a gracious God, who taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his people, forget the least pious and benevolent attempt, for promoting a good work. ”

“ Eternal Glory, my Friends, is so great a Thing, and the compleat Love and Enjoyment of God so unutterably desirable, that it is well worth our while to bear the sharpest Sorrows, by which we may be more perfectly formed for it. ”

“ He imagined he saw his blessed Redeemer on earth, and that he was following him through a large field, following him whom his soul loved, but much troubled, because he thought his blessed Lord did not speak to him, till he came up to the gate of a burying-place, when, turning about, he smiled upon him in such a manner as filled his soul with the most ravishing joy, and on after reflection animated his faith in believing that whatever storms and darkness he might meet with in the way, at the hour of death his glorious Redeemer would lift up upon him the light of his life-giving countenance. ”

“ Jesus inthron'd in light appears,
Circled with angels, bright as stars!
"Rise we that sleep!" the Lord shall say:
And all the earth, and all the sea,
Yield up the nations of the dead,
For ages in their bowels hid. ”

“ There is surely no imaginable Situation of Mind so sweet and so reasonable, as that which we feel, when we humbly refer ourselves in all Things to the Divine Disposal, in an intire Suspension of our own Will, seeing and owning the Hand of God, and bowing before it with a filial Acquiescence. ”

“ Nor can all the tenderness of the most affectionate friendship, while its sorrows bleed afresh in the view of so tragical a scene, prevent my adoring the gracious appointment of the great Lord of all events, that when the day in which he must have expired without an enemy appeared so very near, the last ebb of his generous blood should be poured out, as a kind of sacred libation, to the liberties of his country, and the honour of his God! ”

“ The Removal of our Children by such awful Strokes may warn us of the Approach of our own Death.
Hereby God doth very sensibly shew us, and those around us, that all Flesh is as Grass, and all the Glory and Loveliness of it like the Flower of the Fieldg. And when our own Habitations are made the Houses of Mourning, and ourselves the Leaders in that sad Procession, it may surely be expected that we should lay it to Heart, so as to be quicken’d and improved by the View. ”

“ On the whole, if habitual love to God, firm faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a steady dependence on the divine promises, a full persuasion of the wisdom and goodness of all the dispensations of Providence, a high esteem for the blessings of the heavenly world, and a sincere contempt for the vanities of this, can properly be called enthusiasm, then was Colonel Gardiner indeed one of the greatest enthusiasts which our age has produced ”

“ And here I was lost again, and got into an ocean, where I could find neither bound nor bottom; but was obliged to cry out with the apostle, 'O the breadth, the length, the depth, the height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge!' But if I gave way to this strain I shall never have done. That the God of hope may fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost, shall always be the prayer of him who is, with the greatest sincerity and respect, your Ladyship's," &c. ”

“ This is chiefly to be learn’d from suffering; and perhaps there is no Suffering which is fitter to teach it, than this. In many other Afflictions there is such a Mixture of human Interposition, that we are ready to imagine, we may be allowed to complain, and to chide a little. Indignation mingles itself with our Grief; and when it does so, it warms the Mind, tho’ with a feverish Kind of Heat, and in an unnatural Flow of Spirits, leads the Heart into a Forgetfulness of God. ”