Philip the forgotten?

William Carey, the Particular Baptist from the Midlands, is often regarded as the pioneer voice in English-speaking circles for the urgent need to take the gospel beyond the cultural horizons of western Europe.

But it is very evident that Carey’s iconic status in this regard has overshadowed earlier figures who had a similar passion, one of whom was Philip Doddridge (1702–1751). Doddridge is a tremendously important figure in the development of British Dissent in the 18th century, as it moved away from the somewhat insular world of late 17th-century Puritanism and became a key participant in the Evangelical revivals of the 18th century and the global expansion of Christianity.

Doddridge’s significance

Doddridge was the pastor of an Independent (Congregationalist) church at Castle Hill in Northampton from 1729 till his death. If he is remembered today, it is as a hymn writer and as the author of a minor spiritual classic, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745), which played a key role in the conversion of William Wilberforce, among others. He was a leading figure in education, both of future pastors at his Dissenting Academy and also of children. Alan Milner Everitt (1926‒2008) was emphatic that he should be considered the founder of the Sunday School movement rather than Robert Raikes. He played a major role in the establishment of county hospitals for the poor and was an ardent champion of inoculation – his edition of David Some’s The Case for Receiving the Small-pox by Inoculation (1750) was an important landmark in the fight against smallpox, the great killer of his day.

Doddridge’s contribution to 18th-century Evangelicalism was also substantial. Indeed, Alan Clifford has noted and concurs with Everitt’s opinion that: “If any event can be regarded as beginning the Evangelical Movement it is probably the appointment of the Independent Philip Doddridge to Castle Hill Chapel in 1729”. He was a key link between Evangelical Anglican leaders of the revivals of this era like George Whitefield and Dissenters like Isaac Watts. In fact, when Whitefield read Doddridge’s published sermon Christ’s Invitation to Thirsty Souls in 1748, he wrote to the author: “I do not wonder you are dubbed a Methodist on account of it”.

Doddridge’s passion for missions

And it was not at all fortuitous that William Carey was baptised in 1783 by John Ryland, Jr. in the River Nene, near the foot of the slope upon which Doddridge’s Castle Hill Church stood. In those days a road led directly from the chapel to the brink of the river, a distance of around 200 yards.

Nor should it be considered fortuitous that Doddridge gave a sermon in the autumn of 1741 that was entitled The Evil and Danger of Neglecting the Souls of Men, faithfully and seriously represented to a group of ministers at Kettering, 17 miles or so north of Northampton. It is a passionate sermon calling ministers of the gospel to be ardent in their efforts to win the lost. Recall that it was at Kettering that the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, 50 years later in 1792, that sent Carey to India the following year.

Is it mere romanticism to think that Doddridge’s mission-minded mantle, so evident in this text, came to rest upon Carey and his friends? I trow not!