Q. What are the benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which do either accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
May true believers be assured of God's love? Yes. (Rom. v. 5.) "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." May they have peace of conscience? Yes. (Rom. xv. 13.) "The God of hope fill you with all peace in believing." May they have joy? Yes. (Rom. v. 11.) "We also joy in God." Is the Holy Ghost the author of it? Yes. (Gal. v. 22.) "The fruit of the Spirit is joy." Shall true Christians grow in grace? Yes. (Prov. iv. 18.) "The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Is perseverance the Christian's duty? Yes. (Phil. iii. 14.) "I press towards the mark." And their privilege? Yes. (1st Peter i. 5.) "Who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." What may we infer from hence? I. That religion is not a melancholy thing. (Prov. iii. 17.) "Her ways are ways of pleasantness." II. Growth in grace is an evidence of the truth of it. (Mark iv. 8.) "Others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased." III. That weak Christians should not be discouraged.
When his death occurred, Doddridge wrote—"It is to my unutterable grief that I hear this day that our dear friend, Mr. Some, is dead. I hardly know how to bear it." Again: "We know in whose hands our lives are, and those of our friends who remain—a soul-quieting thought, which I would apply to the unspeakable loss I have sustained in the death of that great and good man, that invaluable friend, Mr. Some, whom I honoured and loved as a parent."
Mr. Barker, of Hackney, wrote—"The death of the excellent person you have lately lost afflicts me greatly. There are few such ministers anywhere, and few such men in any age. I know that his modesty was excessive, but am sorry to find that it has deprived us of those memoirs, which, touched over by your hand, would have been very instructive and entertaining; but if we must not read his life and character, let us remember and imitate his exemplary piety, prudence, and diligence. This truly revered and excellent man died May 27th, 1737. God was pleased to favour him with a serene and cheerful exit, suited to the eminent piety and usefulness of his life. "I am well satisfied," remarks Doddridge, "that considering how very generally he was known, he has left a most honourable testimony, in the hearts of thousands, that he was one of the brightest ornaments of the Gospel and the ministry which the age has produced; and that all who have had any intimacy with him must have esteemed his friendship amongst the greatest blessings of life, and the loss of him amongst its greatest calamities."
An interesting memorial exists, written by Mr. Some, which shows the method he adopted in admitting candidates to the Church; clearly indicating what he considered their qualifications should be; what was the nature of the connexion they were about to form; and with what spirit and purpose they should unite themselves to the society to which they desired to be admitted.
Questions to be addressed to Candidates for Communion.
1. Wherefore do you desire communion with this Church?
2. Will you endeavour to walk circumspectly and peaceably amongst us, as it becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?
3. Will you attend upon the ministry and ordinances of this Church as often as you can?
4. Do you purpose to stand by us, and steadfastly to adhere to us, if times of difficulty and trial should come?
5. Do you therefore, in the presence of God and his people here assembled, give up yourself to the watch and care of this Church, promising to submit to the discipline that is exercised therein, so far as it is agreeable to the mind of Christ revealed in his word? If these be your designs, then in the name of our blessed Redeemer, and with the consent and approbation of this Church, I open the doors thereof for your admittance into it, and declare you a member of it, earnestly desiring that God would bless you in it.
Towards the close of Mr. Some's ministry the Chapel House was purchased of Walter Renals, and bought by Knightley Holland, for the use of the minister for the time being.
In the year 1844 this house was taken down, and the new Chapel erected near to the spot where it had stood; for some years before it having ceased to be occupied by the minister of the place.
After Doddridge removed to Northampton, as Mr. Some, through the failure of his strength, was incompetent to undertake the whole of the services devolving on him, he was provided with another assistant in 1730, in Mr. J. Halford, a native of Northampton, who, though he never enjoyed the advantages of an academical education, possessed good natural talents. He remained until 1734, when he removed to Horselydown. After the removal of Mr. Halford, Mr. Some had no other assistant to the day of his death, but most probably restricted his labours. He died in the 57th year of his age; "and," said this holy man of God with his dying breath, "If any ask how David Some died, let it be answered, that he sought and found mercy." Dr. Doddridge preached his funeral sermon, after his remains had been interred in the chancel of the parish church of Great Bowden. The knowledge of the spot is only preserved by tradition, which must be attributed to that fatal modesty which induced him in his last moments to commit his writings to the flames. His best earthly memorial is in the affection and reverence with which his name has been so long cherished.
After the death of Mr. Some we find an unsettled interval of fifteen years, during which many changes took place; and no records were preserved by the Church of the events that occurred, or of the state of things amongst them.
We learn from the correspondence of Doddridge, that the year after the death of Mr. Some, Mr. Toaker received an invitation of such a pressing nature to become the pastor of the Church at Harborough, that he was constrained to accept the call; but two years after this he speaks of the ordination of one of his students, Mr. Isaac Wilkinson, over the Church at Harborough, being fixed to take place May 9th, 1740. Then again, in a letter written to Dr. Clarke, of St. Albans, February 27th, 1741, he speaks of Ashley and Harborough as being vacant.