In some particulars both in his ancestry and earlier career Doddridge resembled Watts; Philip, like Isaac, was the child (he was the twentieth) of a mother whom persecution had drifted to our shores; at his birth his mother seemed so near to death that no attention was given to the almost lifeless little castaway, the infant, and the world almost lost Philip the moment he was born.
If Watts probably received his first lessons in biblical knowledge from his grandmother by the fireside of the old house in French Street, the Dutch tiles in the chimney constituting an illuminated and illustrated Bible, from which Doddridge’s mother first initiated her own son into Bible lore, have become a famous tradition. Like Isaac, Philip made so much progress in scholarship, that he had the offer of a training in either University if he would enter the Established Church; it was made generously by the Duchess of Bedford. Philip, like Isaac, declined the temptation, and so he found his alma mater beneath the more modest and obscure roof of a Dissenting academy at Kibworth, in Leicestershire.
Doddridge was born in the year when Watts first became the co-pastor of Dr. Chauncy, and he died in 1751, scarcely two years after the venerable friend whom he so much honoured and loved. Thus, when Watts died, Doddridge was on his way to the tomb, dying by the slow process of consumption. Great as was the difference in point of age, it is affecting to read the following letter from Watts to Doddridge—indeed, it simply expresses the truth they were “both going out of the world.”
“Stoke Newington, Oct. 18, 1746, Saturday.
“Dear Sir,
“My much esteemed friend and brother,
“It was some trouble to me that you even fancied I had taken anything ill at your hands; it was only my own great indisposition and weakness which prevented the freedom and pleasure of conversation; and I am so low yet that I can neither study nor preach, nor have I any hope of better days in this world; but, blessed be God, we are moving onwards, I hope, to a state infinitely better. I should be glad of more Divine assistance from the Spirit of Consolation, to make me go cheerfully through the remaining days of my life. I am very sorry to find, by reports from friends, that you have met with so many vexations in these latter months of life; and yet I cannot find that your sentiments are altered, nor should your orthodoxy or charity be called in question. I shall take it a pleasure to have another letter from you, informing me that things are much easier, both with you and in the west country. As we are both going out of the world, we may commit each other to the care of our common Lord, who is, we hope, ours in an unchangeable covenant. I am glad to hear Mrs. Doddridge has her health better; and I heartily pray for your prosperity, peace, and success in your daily labours.
“I am yours affectionately, in our common Lord,
“I. Watts.