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    demy which , after Dr . Doddridge ' s death s was removed from Northampton to Daventry * , is one of the most interesting in the collection . The strictures upon Dr . Doddridge ' s government of his academy were not , it may be presumed , intended by Mr . Orton for the public eye ; they are on that account the more valuable . Dr . Doddridge will lose nothing in real and pei > manent reputation , by being found to have had some of the

    failings incident to human nature ; though some of his biographers have , judging from their accounts of him 3 thought otherwise f . In some of the letters to the Rev . Mr . Clarke , Mr . Orton discusses at considerable length the subject of ** Free Praver and Forms in Public Worship / ' which was agitated so much about the year 1752 , in consequence of the Lancashire

    Dissenters betaking themselves to the use of a Liturgy . He declares himself decidedly in favour of free or extempore prayer . It was his own practice " never to think of any thing he bad to say hefore he went into the pulpit—except on particular occasions $ . " He predicts ^ that if the Dissenters should adopt forms of prayer , their congregations would soon decrease ;

    the wealthier part of them would conform ^ and the more pious part join the Methodists . We wish some of our Lancashire correspondents would inform us of the actual effect which the use of Liturgies has produced upon the Dissenting Congregations of those Darts ? Mr . Orton relates two anecdotes unon

    this subject ; one of Bishop Patrick , to shew that the disuse of extempore prayer begets a total incapacity for it ; another of Archbishop Tillotson ^ to shew how much easier extepapors prayer is than extempore preaching .

    < c Bishop Patrick was in early life eminent for a devotional spirit . But taking a distaste of the Non-conformists , he lost that spirit . In the advance of life , visiting an old friend , a Dissenter , he was desired to pray in the family . His performance was so different from what it had formerly been , that , imagining the family must observe it , he said , when he rose from his knees , I profess it ' s out of my hpad . The master replied , ' O ^ Sir , I fear it ' s out of your heart : you have made

    a sad exchange for your j awn sleeves and mitre § . ic Dr . Birch observes , in his Life of Archbishop Tillot&on , that he « ould pray extempore exceedingly well , but was once quite nonplussed , and obliged in a few minutes to desist , when he attempted to preach without notes , upon the most common and comprehensive * Letter I . Vol . 1 . + We cannot enter upon the question how far Dr . Ashworth's descendants may

    be justified in laying a letter , evidently intended to be private , before the public eye . No blame whatever attaches to the worthy Editor : on the contrary we , in common with his readers , are thankful to him for a document which throws considera !? le light not only upon Dr . Doddridge ' s character , but also upon the history of the Northampton Academy , and which may be eminentl y serviceable to th $ J ~] ea 4 fcof Dissenting Academies in general .

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    \ Vol . i . p . 27 . § ~ Vol . i . p . ZO ,

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    302 Orion ' s Letters .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1806, page 302, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1725/page/22/