Diary Timothy Thomas

In The Baptist Magazine in 1817 a review appeared of a reprint of the book referred to by Beddome in his third letter. See here. Beddome would have known the Pershore congregation. The review was as follows

The hidden Life of a Christian, exemplified in the Diary, Meditations, and Letters, of a young Minister, published from authentic Manuscripts, by Thomas Gibbons; with a recommendatory Preface, by the Rev W B Crathern, Dedham, Essex. Sold by Manden, Colchester; Simpkin and Marshall, London, &c. 1816
These memoirs were first published by Dr Gibbons, in 1752, from manuscripts delivered to him by the sister of the deceased, in his own hand, with an injunction to conceal his name.* A great part of the Diary was drawn up at a very early period of life. He was the subject of serious impressions when very young; and, at twelve years of age, he made a solemn dedication of himself to the Lord. "I am resolved," says he, "in God's strength, otherwise of myself I can do nothing, for the future, to make the glory of God my aim and end in every thing I go about. I have ventured my soul on Christ, and given up my all to him. I cannot, but abhor the thought of going back. He giveth more grace. The Lord give me more as 1 need it. I would not forget this day, wherefore I date it June 3,1711."
When he was fourteen he joined his father's church. While he felt the deepest sense of unworthiness, he rested his hope with firmness on the sure foundation. "On thee," says he, "О Jesus, who art almighty to save, whom God hath made strong for himself, but no venture at all on such a sure foundation. Here I rest, and stay my whole soul, a sinking soul, under whose weight the shoulders of an archangel would bow." When he was about eighteen, he was desired by some friends to tum his thoughts to the work of the ministry, for which his father had designed him, if God so inclined his heart; in reference to which, he observes, "By reason of some conversation with my friends, my thoughts were this evening especially led to what my relations have desired I might be, if it were the will of God, even and with awe do I speak it, (trembling at my own unworthiness) a minister of Jesus Christ. Though unworthy of so great an office, and high calling, yet in an humble manner, I am willing, if God would touch my lips with a coal from the altar, to say, Here am I, send me. And when God sends, he gives qualifications, which I humbly and entirely expect from him. Here is learning of divers kinds, in the prosecution of which, I rise up early, and sit up late; yet I hope I can say with my whole heart, that ray dependence is ten thousand times more upon the teaching of the Spirit, than all this learning."**
We regret that our limits will not allow of more extracts, highly interesting, from this valuable work; for the Diary, Meditations and Letters, are all excellent. They are adapted to the young, and especially to those who in the bloom of life are sinking into the grave - and young ministers will find much to edify and improve them. We can only notice the happy manner in which he finished his short course. The day before he died, he tuned, as far as he was able, an anthem, and said, "My soul doth rejoice, and therefore I sing." About four o'clock the next morning, having turned his eyes to one of his friends, he whispered, in a feeble, interrupted voice, but yet distinct enough to he heard, "Peace - Praise - I have peace," and so expired.
*It may gratify some of our readers to be informed, that the worthy young minister was Mr Timothy Thomas, the son of the Rev Timothy Thomas, Baptist minister, at Pershore, in Worcestershire. The father was grandson of the Rev John Evans, of Wrexham, whose son was Dr John Evans, the author of two volumes of sermons on the Christian Temper. Mr. Timothy Thomas, (the father) was very popular and useful at Pershore, for 20 years. He died January 10, 1716, aged 40 years. The son survived him but about four years, and died of a decline, in his 22d year, 1720. Both father and son were buried in the parish church-yard at Pershore, where a handsome tomb-stone records their names. The worthy sister, to whom Dr. Gibbons dedicated the work, was Mrs Gillam, the mother of the late Mr Gillam, of Worcester, whose widow, and some of his children, now reside in that city; a family well known, and highly respected.
**In the preface, Dr Gibbons intimates,"that he finished his course quickly, after his entrance upon the ministerial office." It appears that he preached at Pershore, more or less, as his state of declining health would allow, for two or three years.

Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785) was a Calvinistic dissenting minister in Haberdasher's Hall, London and a tutor at the Dissenting Academy at Mile End. He wrote a life of Isaac Watts.

Letter 03

From the Evangelical Magazine again

May 19, 1760

“________ When you lent Sister H_______ Mr Thomas’s diary*, she promised not to let it go from her, and she scrupulously fulfilled her promise, so that I could not get a sight of it. Since that I borrowed it of Mr S and read it with great delight, and indeed amazement, that a person about the age of twelve or thirteen should be able to write with such propriety.
‘Peace! - Praise! I have peace.’ That there is peace procured, though we should have no personal interest in it, is matter of praise. That we have peace, peace with God, peace within, that peace that passeth all understanding, and which the world cannot give nor take away, lays a foundation for loftier praises still; and peace in a dying hour should raise our notes to the highest pitch: then one dram of true peace is worth all the world; the one we leave behind us, the other we take with us. ‘The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and of assurance for ever.’ That we might often meet at the throne of grace in this world, remembering each other there, and finally meet before the throne of glory above, is the earnest desire and I would hope, fervent prayer of

“Yours affectionately BB”

*A young minister who died at Pershore. I have discovered that the minister in question was a Timothy Thomas (c 1700-1720). Beddome quotes Thomas's dying words at the beginning of his final paragraph. Thomas was preceded in the Pershore pastorate by his father, also Timothy Thomas, pastor from 1696/7 until his death in 1716. Thomas senior and his wife Anne were Welsh. She tried to procure Philip Doddridge as pastor of the open communion church, following her son's death. By 1760 John Ash was pastor (he came in 1746). Thomas junior died prematurely in 1720, only three years into the pastorate and no more than twenty years of age. His personality continued to speak, in his diary and letters, which, a generation later were handed by his sister to Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785), minister of the Independent Church at Haberdashers Hall, London, who in 1752 published them anonymously as The Hidden Life of a Christian. It is interesting that the young man's eager, devout spirit evidently made an instant appeal to those caught up in th Evangelical Revival (a second edition was soon called for and it was translated into Welsh) even though he wrote in the years 1710-1720, a time when religion in England is often supposed to have been at a low ebb. See also my blog entry here.