AMERICAN EDITION. PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 1 The Publishers do not feel that an apology is required, for inserting as a suitable introduction to this interesting volume, an extract from Mr. Miall's late work, in which allusions are made to the character and services of Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Miall's work has reference to the struggles of the Nonconformists of England for the blessings of religious liberty, and his allusions take therefore that direction. They furnish, however, so just a view of the character of Dr. Doddridge, and references so graphic to the scenes of his labors, that they will be regarded as equally in place in the present connection, and will serve to increase the pleasure with which the following pages will be read. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, FROM THE "FOOTSTEPS OF OUR FOREFATHERS," BY JAMES G. MIALL. HE name of Dr. Doddridge is one on which all who have sympathy with the generous, the benevolent and the devout, will ever delight to linger. Though deeply engraven in the annals of protestant nonconformity, it is the exclusive property of no creed. Doddridge was no genius, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, and no one thing which he did transcended other things of a similar kind done by others. His learning has been often surpassed; his pulpit oratory was not resplendent; his poetry, though pleasing, bore no traces of inspiration; his power over the minds of others was not supreme. Yet there was in him such a combination of excellences as to lift him at once out of all vulgar mediocrity. Commencing with a youth which was fuller of a sportive playfulness than can be comprehended by the dull, and which exposed him to reproof from the cynical, though it was remote from vice and abhorrent from hypocrisy, the growth of his character was like the gradual ripening of a rich harvest, at length reaching the point of full maturity and ample abundance. The diligence of his self-cultivation, the integrity of his heart and frankness of his manners, the variety of his attainments, the judiciousness and pertinence of his conduct, and his unwearied industry, all united to fervor of devotion and an insatiable thirst for usefulness which have never been surpassed, give him a just claim to be regarded as belonging to the first rank among those whose nobility will be the most conspicuous, and whose honors the most enduring. Such have been the thoughts of many, as they have looked upon the pleasant and well-built town of Northampton. Not a few have probably directed their first inquiries, on entering it, to the vestiges of the author of "The Family Expositor," and of "The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." Doddridge's meeting-house still stands on the Castlehill, a spot not to be visited without a crowd of historical reminiscences. Northampton is well known as one of our oldest fortified towns, dating from a period, at latest, soon after that of the Conquest. Compared with Windsor or with Nottingham, there is nothing in its appearance which would seem to claim eminence for it. It has no bold, projecting, almost inaccessible rock, and the river which flows through it is far from imposing. But the town is built upon very high ground, and the Castle-hill, which is a considerable elevation, overlooks a marshy tract, calculated to give great security to its ancient fortress. As we stand upon this hill, what crowds of varied historical associations rush upon the mind! Beauty and chivalry, conquest and defeat, tales of joy and sorrow, empires lost and won, have dated from this spot their all-varying fortunes. It was here that one of the most celebrated scenes occurred in the contest waged by Henry II. with the Roman hierarchy, when that king, under the constitutions of Clarendon, cited Thomas à Beckett to appear before a council of the states, and when the primate, blazing in all the splendors of his archiepiscopal pomp, refused to submit to the royal jurisdiction; and it was from this town that Beckett fled, in the disguise of a monk, to take refuge in Flanders. It was here that King John was besieged by his barons; and here that the same king met the papal nuncios, by whom, failing to make sufficient concessions, he was excommunicated. Here, also, Henry III. besieged his factious barons, under the conduct of the younger De Montfort. Here was held the splendid court of Edward I.; and through this town the king followed his beloved Eleanor. Here, too, a parliament was held, to consider the coronation and marriage of Edward II. Beneath these walls Henry VI. lost his kingdom in a battle with the Earl of Warwick. The poll-tax, which occasioned the insurrection of Wat Tyler, was passed by a parliament assembling in this town. It was in this castle that Richard III. determined to seize the crown of England from the infant hands of Edward V. Elizabeth, Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., all have their memorials here. The castle was demolished in the year 1662; and though a few remains of the ancient building exist, its principal site is now occupied by edifices of a less imposing and more peaceful character. "Time has seen,-that lifts the low, A little rule, a little sway, A sunbeam in a winter's day, Is all the proud and mighty have, Between the cradle and the grave." We think with pleasure how the spot, once resounding with the histories of the great, is now consecrated by the memory of the good. It was after a considerable conflict of opposite emotions, that Doddridge, then twenty-seven years of age, came, in the year 1729, to the conclusion that it was his duty to settle at Northampton; and it was within the walls of the Castle-street meeting-house that, during twenty-two years, he fulfilled the duties of a "good and faithful servant." His chapel, which would be deemed * Prior. |