But there was another instance, which presented a pleasing contrast to this. Mr. Mattock, having preached in another village on the Lord's-day evening, was returning home the next morning, and the clergyman of the parish, having been to take a short ride, met Mr. Mattock; so, after the usual compliments were exchanged, the clergyman said, "So I perceive, sir, that you have been sowing some seed in my parish." "Yes, sir." "Well," replied the worthy Vicar, "I am glad of it; and may God grant that the seed which you sow, and that which I sow, may both spring up together, and do good to the souls of men."
At length, to the deep regret of the congregation, Mr. Mattock accepted an invitation to remove to Birmingham. This we suppose to have taken place about 1734.
In some extracts from the diary of Mrs. Savage, daughter of Philip Henry, we find the following notices of Mr. Mattock. Under date of December 8th, 1740:—"This morning good Mr. Mattock, of Birmingham, entertained us awhile with his good company. He said, my father was in many things like Abraham, which made me look over a small collection I made long ago from annotations on John 9th, that they that would prove themselves the children of Abraham must endeavour to follow his example, come at God's call, follow wherever he leads, and resign their dearest interests; be strangers and sojourners in the world; keep up the worship of God in their families; and above all, must always walk before God in uprightness."
Again:—"March 12th, 1744 (Monday).—Sad tidings of the sudden illness and death of good Mr. Mattock, minister of the Old Meeting at Birmingham. A very useful person. Such good ministers the world can ill spare. A stroke of the palsy. Lord, what is man—the wisest, the best, the most healthful? What shall we say? what shall we do? Thou hast the ordering of all events. 'The righteous perish; we should lay it to heart.' It is affecting to see such taken away, and such left—poor worthless creatures as I yet left."
During two years, the congregation at Daventry was supplied by neighbouring ministers and probationary candidates.
The next pastor, Mr. James Floyd, was ordained May 6th, 1736. About ten years after this, at Midsummer, 1746, Mr., afterwards Dr., Caleb Ashworth was chosen his assistant, and in September of the same year co-pastor. In a few years after, Mr. Floyd wholly resigned in favour of his colleague; but continued to reside in the town till his death, which took place July 24th, 1759, in his 55th year. His successor preached his funeral sermon, and at the desire of the family and congregation published it, under the title of 'Hope, the Christian mourner's relief.'
Dr. Ashworth was born in Lancashire in 1719, educated for the ministry at Northampton under Dr. Doddridge, who recommended him in his will for his successor in the following terms:—"And I do hereby declare, that so far as I can judge no man living will be more fit for the office, since the removal of my dear friend and associate, Mr. Job Orton, than the Rev. Mr. Caleb Ashworth, of Daventry; and if it should so happen, as I think it very probably may, that the congregation should desire to put themselves under his ministerial care, I do hereby make my dying request to him that he would accept the united charge, and thereby perpetuate those schemes which he knows I am forming for the public service, the success of which is far dearer to me than my own life." Coward's trustees approved of the nomination, and Mr. Ashworth refusing to quit his pastoral charge at Daventry, the academy was removed thither in 1752. He was presented with an unsolicited diploma of D.D. from a Scotch University in 1759.
On the 18th of July, 1775, he died of dropsy in the chest, and was buried in the Churchyard, where an altar stone is placed to his memory, on which is the following inscription:—
Here rest in hope,
the remains of the Rev. Caleb Ashworth, D.D.;
pastor of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters,
and director of the academy in this town.
He died
July 18, 1775, aged 54.
With indefatigable application,
with genuine well-regulated zeal,
and with growing reputation and success,
he exerted his eminent abilities
and extensive acquaintance with sacred and human literature
in the service of his great Master,
and in promoting the important interests
of learning, religion, and charity.
"Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when
he cometh shall find so doing."
Mr. Samuel Palmer, who had been a pupil of the Doctor's, published 'The Want of Labourers in the Gospel Harvest considered and improved'—a sermon preached at Hackney on occasion of the death of Dr. Ashworth. Several others, in different publications, have eulogized their tutor in the highest terms; one of them, in a memoir of a fellow student, observes—"Dr. Ashworth was a man who, though not distinguished by that acumen of genius and vigour of imagination which some have possessed, yet by strong sense, inflexible resolution, and indefatigable labour, acquired a store of theological learning not often exceeded, and through a long train of years discharged the office of divinity tutor with a respectability and success which have seldom been equalled."