Review of Volume 2 of Sermons 1807

 This is from The Evangelical Magazine 15

Twenty Short Discourses, adapted to Village Worship, or the Devotions of the family, Vol II. By the late Rev. B. Beddome, AM 12mo, 2s, 8vo, 3s.

THESE Sermons, published from the author's manuscript, are justly entitled to public esteem. We gave a favourable report of the first volume in our Number for December 1805; (see here) and we are gratified in the compliance of the editor with our wish to see a second volume.

The subjects arc appropriate to the purposes expressed in the title. They discover a fertility of intellect, a deep acquaintance with the human heart, a comprehensive knowledge of mankind, and an experimental savour of divine truth. The style also, in general, happily corresponds to the powers and spirit of the author. Scriptural quotations and metaphors abound, by which the subject is placed before the reader with the most inviting and interesting evidence. The sound logic, the forcible reasoning, and the impressive appeals to the heart, make these discourses no bad models for young divines.

The Sermons are not of equal merit: but there is a pure vein of evangelical divinity which runs thro' them all. Yet the experimental unction, the practical spirit, and the awakening energy that pervade them, demonstrate how far the author was concerned to preserve the doctrines of grace from the abuse of professor and profane. The discourses on "the Heavenly Stranger," are the most interesting. both for sentiment and impression. The opening of the first head contains a masterly description of human depravity and obstinacy.

We shall extract the first paragraph from the first head in the sixth sermon; which admirably expresses the benevolent spirit of gospel invitation: "If any man hear my voice. How soft, how sweet the expression, how extensive the grace! If any man - whatever his country, character, or condition may be. Tho' be may have been a monster in wickedness, a beast in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, and a devil in fulfilling those of the mind; - though he has no merit to recommend him, no peace-offering to bring with him; - though he feels his heart as hard as a stone; nay, harder than the nether mill-stone; let him have had ever so much or ever so little terror before hand; let his convictions have been ever so weak, or ever so strong; - though he may seem to himself ever so unhumbled and unbroken; yea, though he may have stood it out against Christ these thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years, - "yet, if he shall now hear my voice," saith the Saviour, "and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." p. 45.

This extract shews that genuine, old-fashioned Calvinism is neither afraid nor ashamed of addressing sinners of all descriptions. And this volume contains many awakening addresses to the ungodly. In fine, it affords much that is profitable for readers of all characters and of all opinions.

Review of Vol 1 of Sermons -- A true disciple of the old school

In 1805 the Evangelical Magazine 13 carried a review of Beddome's first posthumous sermon collection as follows

Twenty Short Discourses, adapted to Village Worship, or the Devotions of the Family. Published from the Manuscripts of the late Rev B Beddome, AM. 8vo 3s. 12mo, 2s.

Contents: Sermons I and II, Self examination. Ps cxxix. 23, 24. — III, Desireableness of Christ's Presence. Luke xxiv. 29. — IV, Sinful Excuses answered. Luke xiv. 19. — V, The Penitent. Luke vii. 38.— VI, The Power of Conscience. Rom. ii.15. — VII, The Compassion of Christ. Isa. xlii. 3. — VIII, Necessity of Holiness. Jer. xiii. 27. — IX, The Important Question. John ix. 25. — X, Waiting on God. Hab. ii. 3.—XI, The Christian's Complaint. Ps cxlii. 4. — XII, The Impotent Man. Acts iii. 8. — XIII, Motives to Usefulness. Mark xiv. 8. — XIV, The Last Passover. Luke xxii. 11, 12.— XV, Peter's Confession. Luke v. 8. — XVI, Hypocrisy exposed. — XVII, Reconciliation to God. 2 Cor v. 20. — XVIII, Self-Love. 2 Tim iii. 2. — XIX, Spiritual Convictions. John viii.1. — XX. Excellency of the Law. Ps cxix. 66

The author of these Sermons hast long since finished his mortal course, and entered into his rest. He was much respected whilst he lived, nor less lamented when he died. He was of the Baptist denomination, a serious experimental Christian, and a sound preacher, in every sense of the word. As a true disciple of the old school, he implicitly followed his Bible wherever it led him; and reposed unshaken confidence in his guide. On the one hand, he never shunned a full declaration of his belief in the doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Atonement, Justification by faith, the Necessity of Regeneration, etc. On the other, he was not afraid to press on his hearers with becoming earnestness, all those experimental and practical parts of the inspired volume, necessarily connected with a scriptural and genuine belief of the truth as it is in Jesus. He maintains, that, to be a real Christian, the mind must be enlightened into a knowledge of the gospel, feel the energy of it upon the conscience, and bring forth all the fruits of it in a holy and godly life; and by thus blending the principles, the experience, and the practice of religion together, Mr Beddome necessarily became an acceptable and a useful preacher.

Although a man of learning and talents, he was too wise and too grave a minister to make any ostentatious display of them in the pulpit; but that dignified simplicity and elegant plainness which characterized his Sermons, gave them weight and energy. They exhibit no traits of novelty, no laboured efforts at ingenuity: they contain no brilliant or sparkling sentences, which flash on the mind like the passing meteor before the natural eyes; but in these Sermons Mr B aims at the heart, using no other weapon in this holy warfare than that of which it may be truly said, "There is none like it, namely, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Another recommendation of these discourses is, that the subjects are all important; and the length of them well adapted to family-exercises. On this, as well as on other grounds, we recommend them to the perusal of serious Christians and hope the editor will favour the public with a second volume.

The review is referenced in an article "The Baptists and the transformation of the church 1780-1830" in the Baptist Quarterly by W R Ward here. Ward remarks on the above article

"Certainly the relatively liberal Calvinism of Beddome and the West of England had its influence on London and the South Midlands where the future founding fathers of the Baptist Missionary Society used Jonathan Edwards to help each other over their difficulties with hyperism, and linked up through John Sutcliff of Olney, with [John] Fawcett [1739-1817], Alvery Jackson [1700-1763] and other Baptists of the North who had never owned the sway of Gill and Brine, and early made a deep impression on the Rossendale area of Lancashire."