There are some subsequent instances of a similar kind. It was natural that, entertaining peculiar opinions as to the mode and objects of christian baptism, they should unite with societies professing the same sentiments. Greatly is it to be lamented that uncharitableness should ever have intruded where intolerance would have been deprecated; that fellow-christians should have allowed these minor differences of sentiment to create even an apparent separation of heart, or
—“Let the basin and the flood
Divide the purchase of that blood,
Where all must plunge or die.”
The next pastor, and the transactions connected with his ministry will require a more extended notice.
Robert Ottee was a native of Great Yarmouth, where his father carried on the business of a boddice-maker. [121] The son appears to have received such an education as, in some measure, fitted him for the more elevated and responsible situation he was destined to occupy. He was kept at the Latin school till he was old enough to be employed in his father’s trade, at which he worked several years. It does not appear that at this early period of his life, he had any view to the ministry; but his inclination towards mental pursuits was so decided, that nothing but a deep sense of filial duty would have reconciled him to the manual occupation in which he found himself engaged. He had already imbibed a conviction of the supreme importance of religion, and while he laboured with his hands, his Bible generally lay open before him.
Prompted by his serious impressions he attended the meetings of some Christians in his native town, held for united, earnest prayer, and other religious exercises. On one occasion an individual whose assistance was mainly depended upon, was prevented from being present. Mr. Ottee was induced to pray and expound a passage of Scripture; and he acquitted himself so well, as to call forth the admiration of the most intelligent persons present. Some of them applied to Mr. Bridge, desiring that he would encourage so promising a young man to devote himself to the christian ministry.
But Mr. Ottee evinced the same prudence which distinguished him through life, and a diffidence as to his qualifications, which is the frequent attendant on intellectual or religious attainments of a superior order. There were some who had previously received encouragement from Mr. Bridge, but who, not having been favoured with similar advantages of education, had not altogether fulfilled the sanguine expectations of their friends. He determined, therefore, not to yield to Mr. Bridge’s suggestions, till he had consulted Mr. Brinsley, the exemplary and persecuted parish minister of Yarmouth. [123a] That grave, but urbane man, had repeated conversations with him on the subject, and was so fully satisfied as to his knowledge of the Scriptures, his gifts, his seriousness of spirit, and holiness of conversation, as to join cordially in recommending him to apply himself to the great duties of a minister of the gospel. [123b]
His sense of the immense responsibility connected with the ministry would not allow him to think of blending with it the pursuits of trade. He had imbibed a settled conviction that, to use his own expression, the work of the gospel was sufficient for one man. “There is nothing,” says he, in one of his sermons, “more plain in Scripture than this, that those whom God hath set [apart] to the work of the ministry are exempted from other worldly trades and callings. It hath been an abuse, in this nation, to think that men may trade, and buy, and sell, and run into all worldly business, and yet undertake the preaching of the gospel: yea, some there are, called the regular clergy, yet give themselves too much to farming, buying, and selling, and secular employments; this doth come short of their calling; for mind what the apostle saith to Timothy, in 1 Tim. iv. 13, ‘Till I come, give thyself to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.’” [124a]
Mr. Ottee appears to have been residing in Beccles when the Independent church was formed. In the year 1656, he accepted the pastoral charge of the people with whom he had long “held sweet counsel.” [124b] The circumstance is thus briefly recorded in the church book.
Mr. Otty made paster by ye church.”
This has been supposed to refer to his ordination, and the memorandum occurring 29th July, 1653, to his election. But a delay of more than three years between the choice and settlement of a pastor scarcely admits of a satisfactory explanation. The expression, “made pastor by the church,” moreover, raises a strong presumption that the occurrence included, if it did not refer solely to, the election of a pastor. That expression would scarcely have been used with reference to the mere ordination of an individual, previously elected to the pastoral office. [125]