Oct. 1785. Minister of an Independent A Monument to the Memory of Messiah, or Fifty Expository Discourses on Letters to a Wife Seven Occasional Sermons preached between Life of Grimshaw April 1786. VIII. THE REV. THOMAS SCOTT AND HIS COMMENTARY.1 "The longer I live the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy-invincible determination—a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in this world." -Sir FOWELL BUXTON. I. BRAYTOFT, 1747–1772 (TWENTY-five Years). "I was born," says the Rev. Thomas Scott, "on the 4th of February 1746-7, answering since the change of the style, and the beginning of another century, to February 16, 1747. A small farm-house at Braytoft (near Burgh), in Lincolnshire, was the place of my birth. My father, John Scott, was a grazier, a man of a small and feeble body, but of uncommon energy of mind and vigour of intellect; by which he surmounted, in no common degree, the almost total want of education. His circumstances were very narrow, and for many years he struggled with urgent difficulties. But he rose above them; and though never affluent, his credit was supported, and he lived in more comfortable circumstances to the age of seventy-six years. I was the tenth of thirteen children, ten of whom lived to maturity; and my eldest brother was twenty-three years older than my youngest sister." Scott's father greatly desired to have a son educated for one of the learned professions, and for this reason sent his eldest son, who showed a talent for learning, to Scorton school, in Yorkshire; but, to the great grief of the father, this son of promise, who, after finishing an apprenticeship at Burgh, had risen rapidly in his profession, fell a victim to a malignant 1 Compiled chiefly from "The Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott," by John Scott, A.M. disease, being cut off in his twenty-fourth year. The father, nevertheless, was still bent on having a son in the medical profession; and seeing that Thomas seemed capable of readily learning Latin, it was settled that he should be the one; so at the age of ten he was sent to Scorton, where his brother had been before him. At the age of sixteen he left school, and was bound apprentice to a medical practitioner at Alford, but his ill behaviour so displeased his master that at the end of two months he was dismissed, and returned home in disgrace. The whole of the lad's premium, it appears, had not been paid, and the father, who was greatly angered at both his son and the apothecary, resolutely refused to pay the remainder. The master as decidedly refused to give up the indentures till it was paid, and, in consequence, as no compromise was attempted between these two high-spirited men, the lad was finally excluded from the profession for which he had been designed. 66 Being obliged to remain at home, Scott now began to experience much harsh treatment from his father, and was set to do the most degrading, laborious, and dirty work belonging to a grazier. Yet a kind of indignant, proud self-revenge kept him from complaining; and as, after a few unsuccessful attempts, his father gave up all thoughts of placing him out in any other way, for above nine years he worked on the farm, and was nearly as entire a drudge as any servant or labourer in his father's employ." During this period he several times tried to amend his ways, and, although his relapses were frequent, gave up many of his bad habits, and seems to have become more and more desirous of leading a Christian life. Curious to say, notwithstanding all his troubles he continued to entertain thoughts of the university and of the clerical profession; for this reason he occupied all his leisure in reading whatever books he could procure, keeping up his school learning as well as he could with a few torn Latin books and a Greek grammar; and, discouraging as were his circumstances, began to exhibit that indefatigable application and undaunted resolution which were part and parcel of him throughout the rest of his career. Soured as had become his temper, through his father's sternness-and the punishment seems to us to have been out of all proportion to the offence-discontented and rebellious as he was, one consideration still made him cling to home. "I had only one surviving brother," he tells us, "and he was well situated in a farm. My father was far advanced in life, and not of a strong constitution; and I supposed, as most of my family did, that I should succeed to his farm." As soon, therefore, as Scott discovered that such was not to be the case, but the lease of the farm was to be left to his brother, he determined to make some effort, however desperate, to extricate himself. He threw aside his shepherd's frock, declared that he would not again resume it, set off for Boston, where a clergyman lived with whom he had contracted some acquaintance, and to him, though with hesitation and trepidation, opened his mind, and declared his purpose of attempting to take orders. The surprise which the clergyman first exhibited disappeared somewhat when the shepherd, in which light Scott had long been regarded, proved his acquaintance with Greek and Latin, and he promised to speak a word for him to the Archdeacon at the ensuing visitation. This being settled, Scott returned to his father for the intervening days and worked as usual about the farm. At the appointed time he readily found access to the Archdeacon, who concluded the interview by assuring him that he would state the case to the Bishop. Although now in the twenty-sixth year of his age, wholly without the prospect of a decent subsistence, yet his father most decidedly set himself against the design. But Scott's mind was now made up. He procured a title to a small curacy near Horncastle, sent his testimonials and other papers to the Bishop, and waited on him in London at the appointed time. But the Bishop refused to admit him as a candidate at that ordination. He told him too that he could not be admitted at the next ordination unless he could procure his father's consent; and Scott, who regarded this difficulty as insuperable, quitted London almost in despair. "At length I reached Braytoft," says he, "after walking twenty miles in the forenoon; and, having dined, I put off my clerical clothes, resumed my shepherd's dress, and sheared eleven large sheep in the afternoon." The difficulty, however, which at first had seemed so great, was in a most unexpected manner surmounted. His father, at the urgent solicitation of all the family, gave his consent in writing; and at the ensuing Michaelmas ordination (Sept. 20, 1772) Scott was admitted a candidate without objection, and passed both his examinations with credit. On the Saturday before the ordination a letter had been received by the Bishop from Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Dowbiggin, Rector of Stoke Goldington and Gayhurst, in Bucks. He wanted a curate for Stoke, jointly with Weston Underwood, a perpetual curacy held by another person, the whole salary £50 a year, with some trifling additions. "This," says Scott, "the Secretary proposed to me, the Bishop being disposed to favour my accepting it, if I had no particular attachment to the parish from which I had my title." It appears that he had no pecuniary inducement to accede to the proposal, but the idea of appearing a clergyman in a neighbourhood where he had not been known in any other character induced him to listen to it. In "The Force of Truth," a kind of autobiography afterwards published by him, he severely judges his own conduct in the whole transaction, calling it, in fact, the most atrocious wickedness of his life. "As far as I understand such controversies, I was nearly a Socinian and Pelagian, and wholly an Arminian. While I was preparing for the solemn office I lived, as before, in known sin and in utter neglect of prayer, my whole preparation consisting of nothing else than attention to those studies which were more immediately requisite for reputably passing through the previous examination. . . . Thus with a heart full of pride and wickedness; my life polluted with many unrepented, unforsaken sins; without one cry for mercy, one prayer for direction or assistance, or for a blessing upon what I was about to do; after having concealed my real sentiments under the mask of general expressions; after having subscribed articles directly contrary to what I believed; and after having blasphemously declared in the presence of God and of the congregation, in the most solemn manner, sealing it with the Lord's Supper, that I engaged myself to be inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take that office upon me '-not knowing ... |