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Stephen Pickles Cotswolds Pastor and Hymn Writer: The Life and Times of Benjamin Beddome (Upham, Southampton, England: The James Bourne Society, 2023, hardback), 471 pages
After long neglect, Beddome studies seem to be enjoying a welcome renaissance. This current offering from the world of High Calvinism is a large, handsome and appreciative biographical treatment enhanced by numerous illustrations, a full bibliography, the confession and covenant of the church where Beddome's father pastored in an appendix and a list of hymns quoted. The book grows in part out of a lecture given in 2017 but is really the fruit of a life time's interest. It is the first of a proposed two volumes. The second will concentrate on Beddome's writings, although this present volume extensively quotes 75 hymns, several sermons and other writings.
The volume is divided into six unequal parts dealing with Beddome's early life; long pastorate; the vicissitudes of life he knew; two educationalists he baptised; the Bible, missionary work and the slave trade and his last years.
Part 1 takes us from Beddome's birth in the Midlands through to pastoral studies in London. Pickles quotes a hymn by Beddome's father and outlines at length doctrinal declension in nonconformist churches and the revival under Whitefield and others that followed and had such an effect on Baptists. The section ends with a chapter on Samuel Wilson, who baptised Beddome.
The book's longest part on Beddome's pastorate is 16 chapters long. It begins with his ordination and marriage, invitations to go elsewhere (dealing only with the call to London), his new home and the new chapel. The 1765 letter to the Midland Association is reproduced in a further chapter followed by a chapter on his catechism. That is appropriately followed by a digest of an extant sermon on nurturing the spiritual welfare of the young. Nothing is said of Bourton before Beddome's arrival.
The book's longest chapter examines Beddome's religious experience by means of a catena of extended quotations mostly from hymns but also from sermons. Pickles concludes that Beddome wanted to keep Christ central and live for his praise but, very much aware of human depravity, knew that salvation has to be by means of Christ's satisfaction alone. Full of thankfulness for his conversion, he was aware of a tendency to regress at times and greatly desired Christ's presence. Pickles posits fluctuations in Beddome's assurance and underlines that he taught that Christ is always the answer. Beddome longed to grow in grace and loved to meet with God's people. At the end of this chapter some Beddome letters from 1759 and 1760 that were published in The Evangelical Magazine in 1800 are reproduced.
A chapter headed Spiritual Darkness follows. It alerts us to apparent problems Beddome knew in 1762 but, in the absence of any discussion, most of the chapter is taken up with Daniel Turner's long letter to Beddome about it. A more interesting chapter comes next. It begins with statistics from Brooks' history of the church and is enhanced by its use not only of hymns and sermons dealing with church membership and discipline but also content from the Bourton-on-the-Water church book. Pickles is very familiar with this material and makes excellent use of it also in the next chapter where he outlines the generosity of the Bourton church to various people.
A number of chapters deal with people Beddome knew. There is an expected chapter on seven men Beddome sent into the ministry and a less expected one on his deacons. As for friends of Beddome, Sarah Evans, Benjamin Seward, Henry Keene and Benjamin Francis are singled out. For some reason Pickles makes little reference to Snooke and Hall who married Seward's daughters and were members of Beddome's congregation.
There is also a chapter on family bereavements and two substantial chapters at the end of the second section looking at The Midland Association to which Bourton belonged and relations with Anglican ministers. This final chapter attempts to connect Beddome and Whitefield but there is probably not enough evidence to establish this attractive proposition beyond a doubt.
Part 3 on the vicissitudes of life looks at weather and harvesting, general sickness and war and peace. Once again intimacy with the church book makes it possible to round out the picture of Beddome and his congregation in a most interesting way. Part 4 is mostly on John Ryland with some material on William Fox, both baptised by Beddome and both leading educationalists.
In Part 5 four chapters cover the preciousness of the Bible, its distribution to the nations, the Baptist Society for the propagation of the gospel and the slave trade. Here the and his times comes into its own with a great deal of material about others other than Beddome. The helpful chapter on slavery hardly mentions him. The book closes with Part 6, a relatively short section on Beddome's closing years. This is very well done.
There are a very tiny number of typos and one or two possible minor errors in the book but overall it is a solid contribution to studies in this area. Many editors would have been much more brutal and may have cut the contents by as much as a half. Readers will be divided as to whether including so much extraneous material is a merit or demerit.
