But it is far from our object to do more than refer to this subject. Let us only observe how insufficient mere professional punctilio is to keep the heart of man, how easily all the withes of formality are snapped when temptation assails. Religion has little to fear from the open enemy; it is the pretended friend, the professed defender, but real assailant, who weakens it.
TRUTH ENTHRONED.
TRUTH
ENTHRONED. Yet while we do not dwell on the duties of the ministry, we cannot omit the opportunity which a reference to the sacred office affords for showing the necessity of enthroning the Word of God in the heart of man; and for having every thought, and word, and deed, subject to its control. It has been often said that without the Bible, London or New York would soon become what Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Naples are. In as far as the Bible is neglected in the protestant cities, the saying is fast hastening to its fulfilment; and the clerical profession supplies too many instances by which the remark may be farther verified.
THE REV. DR. DODD.
It might be supposed, then, that fenced round as minister’s of religion are by professional barriers, kept as they are, or should be, in daily contact with the truth of God, and the things of eternity, all would be pure, and lovely, and of good report. But example after example can be quoted to show how far it is often the reverse, and the case of the Rev. Dr. Dodd will amply illustrate the remark. THE REV.
DR. DODD. He was a prebendary of Brecon, and chaplain in ordinary to George III. As a preacher he was celebrated and popular; he was often called on to plead the cause of the London charities, and took an active part in promoting their interests. He published a commentary on the Scriptures, which Dr. Adam Clark, no incompetent judge, pronounced “the best in the English language.” To that work he added various others, chiefly of a devotional kind, some of which still hold a prominent place among productions of their class. But neither the mental powers which produced these works, nor the eloquence which he displayed, nor the spirit of devotion which appeared to some to breathe through his volumes, nor his rank as a royal chaplain, nor the claims and regards of those who were dependent on him, nor his high position in society, could restrain Dr. Dodd within the narrow way. He contracted expensive habits of living, occasioned, it is said, by licentiousness of manners. Dr. Johnson, his earnest and indefatigable friend, says, “His moral character was very bad;” and in an evil hour, Dodd forged a bond for £4,200, upon his former pupil, the Earl of Chesterfield.
THE WAGES OF SIN.
The fallen man, no doubt, hoped that he would be able to meet the demand when that transaction reached the stage which made that necessary, so as neither to expose himself, nor really defraud his former pupil. Dodd was unable, however, to meet the emergency, for difficulties were increased, not diminished, by such a step. The forgery was detected; the Earl of Chesterfield would not interfere; the law took hold of the culprit, and the sad spectacle was presented to the nation of one who had formerly stood so high, dying a criminal’s death. The man who had commented on the Word of God, forgot to apply it to the regulation of his own life. THE WAGES
OF SIN. Extravagance, licentiousness, and fraud, were the stages by which he descended from his elevation. He began by slight degrees to overstep the restraints of the Word of God; and when he had once succeeded in setting it aside, the descent was rapid, the ruin utter. He who attempted to deceive his fellow-men, and for a time succeeded, had first deceived himself; but his sin found him out, and on the 27th of June 1777, the Commentator on the Bible, the author of several devotional works, died at Tyburn by the hands of the public executioner. The jury who tried him recommended him to the royal clemency. The city of London petitioned the crown in his favour; and another petition prepared by Dr. Johnson, and signed by three-and-twenty thousand, was also presented. But all was unavailing; the adviser of the crown would not recommend even a respite, and though Dr. Dodd cherished the hope of pardon till the last, there never was a foundation for the hope. Justice took its inexorable course.
A DEATH OF INFAMY.
The view which many took of this culprit’s case, may be represented by a letter from Boswell to Dr. Johnson. He says—“I own I am very desirous that the royal prerogative of remission of punishment should be employed to exhibit an illustrious instance of the regard which God’s vicegerent will ever show to piety and virtue. If for ten righteous men, the Almighty would have spared Sodom, shall not a thousand acts of goodness done by Dr. Dodd counterbalance one crime? Such an instance would do more to encourage goodness than his execution would do to deter from vice.” But neither this nor the speeches, the petitions, nay, not even the letters which Dr. Johnson wrote for Dr. Dodd to royalty itself, availed, and just before passing to execution he confessed that “his life for some few unhappy years past had been dreadfully erroneous.” In one of his letters to the king, the fallen man, in language which Dr. Johnson had prepared, “confessed his crime, and owned both the enormity of its consequences and the danger of its example.” He, at the same time, said, A DEATH
OF INFAMY. “I have not the confidence to petition for impunity, but humbly hope that public security may be established without the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through the streets to a death of infamy, amidst the derision of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and hopeless penury.” Every effort, however, was fruitless. Large sums of money were ready to bribe the turnkey to connive at an escape. A figure in wax, representing Dr. Dodd, was said to have been conveyed into the prison to aid the same object, but neither did that succeed; and, according to Dr. Johnson, he died on the scaffold “with pious composure and resolution.”
It was, indeed, a spectacle which might have touched the hearts of thousands, did aught but Omnipotent grace possess that power, to see a minister of religion conducted to Tyburn in such circumstances as we have described. We may deem the law severe, or think that the life of Dr. Dodd should have been spared; but his melancholy lot is not the less instructive. His whole history tells how feeble are human barriers against human guilt.