{"id":21929,"date":"2024-07-18T01:14:24","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T01:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=21929"},"modified":"2024-07-18T01:14:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T01:14:24","slug":"the-life-and-character-of-augustus-toplady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2024\/07\/the-life-and-character-of-augustus-toplady\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Character Of Augustus Toplady"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gospel Magazine 1840:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Sketch Of The Character And Life Of The Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, B. A., Late Vicar Of Broad Hambury, Devon.<\/p>\n

In commencing a new scries of this Periodical, which has now had an existence of about seventy years duration, we judged that it would be an acceptable introduction to its general Readers and Friends, interested in the promulgation of Divine truth, to give a portrait and sketch of the life and character of one of its first Editors, the illustrious and learned Toplady. He was the boldest and most successful advocate and defender of the Church of England she ever possessed, from the vile slanders and jesuitical insinuations of the Wesleyan dissenters. He made a grand exhibition of Divine truth on the platform of Church of England orthodoxy, which all the Pelagian sophistry in the world cannot conceal from the enlightened eye. He evinced that the doctrines of our venerable Reformers were not only adverse to the religious faction which he opposed, but also strictly consonant with the veracity of Jehovah, as developed in Divine Revelation. He clearly demonstrated that the established formularies of Christ\u2019s Church in England embraced the whole circle of apostolical truth, as commonly denominated the \u201cDoctrines of .Grace;\u201d and also, with equal demonstration, he established the unscriptural basis and licentious tendency of Wesleyan Pelagianism. He was a learned, devout, eloquent, and devoted clergyman of Christ\u2019s Apostolical Church in these realms. His preaching was of a superior cast\u2014argumentative, convincing, sublime, and most spiritual. Whenever he occupied the metropolitan pulpits, the multitude who flocked to hear was so dense, that the churches could not accommodate the half of them. In his Christian character, he was of a bold and independent spirit. There was an apostolical honesty and dignity in his soul which elevated him above any artifice, and made him superior to any unbecoming mode of behaviour. When he beheld popular men, professing an extraordinary attachment to Christianity and the Church of England, opposing the doctrines they had subscribed, his sanctified spirit took fire, and with open rebuke and scriptural argument he treated them as opposers of Divine Revelation. In fact, his punctual regard for truth distinguished him in every relation, whether public or private. The principles of sound Christianity were established in him; and as they were not merely notional or speculative, but radical and experimental, they gave a lively colour and refreshing fragrancy to all his actions and expressions, which rendered his society delightful. In St. Paul we observe all the zeal and humility of a missionary, joined to the most polished manners. This was the case with Mr. Toplady, who displayed all the honest zeal of a Christian upon conviction, was constant in season and out of season, and would have suffered martyrdom rather than to have yielded a single particle of truth, either through fear or favour. But with all this, his manners were those of the most finished gentleman, which rendered him acceptable, as such, in all companies. His talents were of the first order; and it is to be lamented that his abilities and learning did not meet with a more equal opponent than John Wesley, whose want of knowledge and religion led him into conduct most reprehensible and unchristian, and for which he received nothing but justly-merited chastisement from Mr. Toplady. And of his followers it may still be asserted, that they are the widest dissenters from the Church of England, both in discipline and doctrine, amongst the numerous sectaries of this sectarian age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Augustus Montague Toplady was born at Farnham, in Surrey, on the 4th of November 1740, and was baptized by the name of Augustus Montague, out of respect to two gentlemen who stood as his sponsors, receiving the Christian name of the one, and the surname of the other. His father was a Mr. Richard Toplady, who was a major in the army, and died at the siege of Carthagena, soon after the birth of his son.<\/p>\n

His mother\u2019s maiden name was Catherine Bate, member of a respect\u00ad able family residing in the vicinity of London. Two of her brothers were ministers in the Church of England. One of them held the rectory of St. Paul\u2019s, Deptford, and by him her marriage was solemnized, in his own church.<\/p>\n

Mr. Toplady was sent, at a very early period of his life, to Westminster School, where he made great proficiency, discovering from the first a vigorous intellect, and by an uncommon application to study he attained a knowledge of languages which raised him above his compeers. His mother, having some title to an estate in Ireland, found it necessary, in the prosecution of her claims, to remove into that kingdom. Thither she was accompanied by her son, who was shortly after admitted a student in Trinity College, Dublin, at which University he received academical honours, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts. About the sixteenth year of his age he was converted to the faith of the Gospel. After much patient investigation of the Word of God, and the best theological Divines, especially the English Reformers, he was prepared for entering into the Christian ministry, and was accordingly ordained Deacon on Trinity Sunday, the 6th of June 1762. Having subscribed the doctrines of the Church of England, ex animo, he was prepared to preach them with a zeal and earnestness corresponding to his firm conviction of their intrinsic truth and eternal importance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1768 he became vicar of Broad Hembury, near Honiton, in Devonshire. Here he lived on a small income of not more than \u00a380 per annum. In this situation also he composed the greatest part of his writings. In the beginning of the year 1774, a religious pamphlet was printed, called the Gospel Magazine, of which Mr. Toplady became the editor, whereby its sale was increased considerably. At length, Mr. Toplady\u2019s health and strength being impaired, he was advised to remove to London, which took place in the year 1775. His friends obtained for him the French Reformed Church in Orange-street, where he continued to preach Christ till 1778, when he was caught up into glory on the 11th of August in the same year, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and buried on the 17th of the same month, in Tottenham Court Chapel. His writings are contained in six octavo volumes, with manuscripts enough to form a seventh. They are most invaluable treasures to private Christians, and especially to clergymen, as containing the sound doctrinal views of the Church of England, and of our Reformers. The author of this imperfect sketch prays that Mr. Toplady\u2019s writings, when perused, may be attended with the Divine blessing, and prove the means of enlightening the erroneous, and of cheering and comforting the elect people of God.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In commencing a new scries of this Periodical, which has now had an existence of about seventy years duration, we judged that it would be an acceptable introduction to its general Readers and Friends, interested in the promulgation of Divine truth, to give a portrait and sketch of the life and character of one of its first Editors, the illustrious and learned Toplady. He was the boldest and most successful advocate and defender of the Church of England she ever possessed, from the vile slanders and jesuitical insinuations of the Wesleyan dissenters. He made a grand exhibition of Divine truth on the platform of Church of England orthodoxy, which all the Pelagian sophistry in the world cannot conceal from the enlightened eye. He evinced that the doctrines of our venerable Reformers were not only adverse to the religious faction which he opposed, but also strictly consonant with the veracity of Jehovah, as developed in Divine Revelation. He clearly demonstrated that the established formularies of Christ\u2019s Church in England embraced the whole circle of apostolical truth, as commonly denominated the \u201cDoctrines of .Grace;\u201d and also, with equal demonstration, he established the unscriptural basis and licentious tendency of Wesleyan Pelagianism. He was a learned, devout, eloquent, and devoted clergyman of Christ\u2019s Apostolical Church in these realms. His preaching was of a superior cast\u2014argumentative, convincing, sublime, and most spiritual. Whenever he occupied the metropolitan pulpits, the multitude who flocked to hear was so dense, that the churches could not accommodate the half of them. In his Christian character, he was of a bold and independent spirit. There was an apostolical honesty and dignity in his soul which elevated him above any artifice, and made him superior to any unbecoming mode of behaviour. When he beheld popular men, professing an extraordinary attachment to Christianity and the Church of England, opposing the doctrines they had subscribed, his sanctified spirit took fire, and with open rebuke and scriptural argument he treated them as opposers of Divine Revelation. In fact, his punctual regard for truth distinguished him in every relation, whether public or private. The principles of sound Christianity were established in him; and as they were not merely notional or speculative, but radical and experimental, they gave a lively colour and refreshing fragrancy to all his actions and expressions, which rendered his society delightful. In St. Paul we observe all the zeal and humility of a missionary, joined to the most polished manners. This was the case with Mr. Toplady, who displayed all the honest zeal of a Christian upon conviction, was constant in season and out of season, and would have suffered martyrdom rather than to have yielded a single particle of truth, either through fear or favour. But with all this, his manners were those of the most finished gentleman, which rendered him acceptable, as such, in all companies. His talents were of the first order; and it is to be lamented that his abilities and learning did not meet with a more equal opponent than John Wesley, whose want of knowledge and religion led him into conduct most reprehensible and unchristian, and for which he received nothing but justly-merited chastisement from Mr. Toplady. And of his followers it may still be asserted, that they are the widest dissenters from the Church of England, both in discipline and doctrine, amongst the numerous sectaries of this sectarian age.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":17373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1290],"tags":[1226],"class_list":["post-21929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-augustus-toplady","tag-gospel-preachers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21930,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21929\/revisions\/21930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}