The life of John Thomas, surgeon of the Earl of Oxford East Indiaman, and first Baptist missionary to Bengal

Front matter

"^ PRINCETON, N. J. NJJ

Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.

BV 3269 .T46 L48 1873 Lewis, Charles Bennett.

Chapter I

Mr. Thomas's Early Life. — 1757-83.

NO intelligent reader will overlook the first pages of a biography.

The child is father of the man ;

and a knowledge of the dispositions evinced by any one in childhood, and of the influences under which they were formed, is of the greatest value in enabling us to understand his subsequent career. The early life of John Thomas might therefore be here described with much advantage ; but very few materials for the purpose are in existence. His boyhood was full of incident, often, it is to be feared, of a kind most vexatious to his friends : for he describes himself as " a hopeless child ;" but, with the exception of a few memoranda, too brief to be well understood, his childish exploits and transgressions are all buried in the oblivion which covers the particulars of other home-life a hundred years ago.

He was born at the town of Fairford, in Gloucestershire, on the i6th of May, 1757. He had a brother James, two years older than himself, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Sarah. The fond mother of this family was taken from them when John was in his eleventh year. Their father, Mr, John Thomas, was a deacon of the Baptist Church, which has existed at Fairford from the year 1700. He was a man highly esteemed for his excellent Christian character, and his household was governed in the fear of God. Ready to take part in every good work, he was well known to the neighbouring ministers of the gospel, and his home I

2 HIS BOYHOOD.

was often honored by their presence. It must not be thought that such a house was gloomy and uncongenial to the young people belonging to it. The reverse of this was the case. It was a high d£iy for the children when good Mr. Beddome of Bourton on the Water, — whose hymns are well known to us all, — or any other pillar of nonconforming piety was their father's guest ; and it was a gala time to them when, on the occasion of an Association or a Ministers' Meeting at Fairford, they were allowed to attend the services, long protracted and numerous as they sometimes were. As to him whose history the following pages are to unfold, it is most evident that unwelcome as he may sometimes have found the restraints of his home, his recollections of it in after-life were full of tender affection. His father and his father's chosen friends were the examples from which his ideal of practical excellence was derived. In them he saw the realization of that Christian morality and piety, which he himself strove to attain.

Like so many other lads similarly brought up, John cherished a very early ambition to become a preacher. " From a child," he wrote, many years afterwards, " I always had extraordinary stirrings of mind to the work of the ministry." " I preached before I was five years old, and from that time till I was fourteen or fifteen, I never dropped the bent ; but, whenever I was alone, in lanes, and hedges, and high roads, I used to preach aloud ; and oftentimes from I Corinthians xv. 58, which I never had heard preached from."

But although he deeply felt the reality and priceless value of that godliness which he saw within the circle in which his father moved, and, even as a child, " coveted the best gifts" there exercised, he did not soon yreld himself to the restraints and direction of divine influence. He says of himself : —

I had many serious convictions from my childhood, which were stifled by various cares, pleasures, scenes of dissipation and wickedness, too horrible to remember without deep abasement of soul and detestation of myself. I was quite sensible all the while of the truth and reality of the word of God, the certainty of future judg-

HE BECOMES A MEDICAL STUDENT. 3

ment, and the danger of my utterly perishing, which I was sure of in case of death ; still I went on in paths of sin and forgetfulness of God. Sometimes, after a sharp sermon, I would set up stated prayer, and continue it for a little while, with reading the Scriptures and other good books, determining never to leave it off; but the first temptation proved that the change was founded only on brittle resolutions, and not the work of the blessed Spirit, who only can renew the heart. We may start out of our common course, when shook, like the needle of a compass ; but, the disturbance over, we turn to our own track again. When, however, we are thoroughly convinced of the evil propensity of our own hearts, and of our utter inability to change them, or to escape wrath, and are brought by the Spirit of God to see an able Saviour calling us to look to Him and be saved, and are grounded and settled in love of Him and His ways, then we are still like the compass, effectually and chiefly inclined, not now, however, to that which is evil, but to that which is good. Yet notwithstanding this good bias of the mind and will, we are moved to evil by the shock of temptation ; but return, bent in the main to that which is * holy, and just, and good.'

Meanwhile, his constitutional " flightiness" gave his friends no small anxiety. His brother James was a lad of far quieter disposition, and afforded satisfactory evidence of early piety ; but it may be feared that Jack, as he was called by the Fairford community, did much to earn for himself the reputation of a " ne'er-do-well," who was likely to cause his father endless trouble. "With excellent natural abilities, he gave little satisfaction to his friends by his progress at school ; but bird-nesting, shooting, fishing, and any other sport in which he could engage, was followed with the utmost alacrity. How difficult it was to find the boy a calling in which he would abide, and how troublesome he must have been to all concerned in his bringing up, appears from a list of " some of the most remarkable things" which happened to him, which, with much sadness, he drew out about six weeks before his death. This memorandum speaks of his having run away from home, and of his going to London, and of eight or nine fruitless attempts to settle him as an apprentice, as well as of several narrow escapes from death. At last, he was placed at Westminster

4 HE NARROWLY ESCAPES SHIPWRECK.

Hospital, and in his medical studies there he found an employment in which he took very deep interest, and wherein his proficiency was acknowledged by most competent judges. Having attained the requisite qualifications, Mr. Thomas first secured an appointment as Assistant Surgeon on board H. M.'s ship Nymph, and then was removed to the Southampton frigate. Here he narrowly escaped shipwreck, under circumstances thus described by himself in a paper written in March, 1784. —

We had been out to sea in the Sotdhampton frigate, together with three other frigates and two line of battle ships, in search after Paul Jones, and, it being winter, every one of the ships returned to port before her appointed time, with considerable damage from a severe gale of wind in the Bay of Biscay, Our ship had, some months before this cruize, ran foul of H. M.'s ship Phceiii'x, and, being a very old vessel, she suffered very much in her timbers, and the repairs she received in dock were insufficient to fit her for such a terrible tempest as this proved to be in the Bay. She soon sprang a large leak, and this leak continually increased, till the ship was thought to be in very great danger. Every method that could be devised was made use of, with very inconsiderable success, and all the hand pumps, working both night and day, hardly sufficed to preserve us from sinking. To make our fearful situation more terrible, we were utterly separated by the storm from all the ships of the squadron ; and after several days' fear and alarm, which we thought hardly capable of increase, we discovered ourselves in danger of driving on a rocky coast ; to avoid which we were obliged to carry a press of sail, and so increased the leak. Our hopes were almost driven to distraction ; vast seas threatening every moment to swallow us up ; no ship to be seen ; no port, but what was either foreign and too far, or else the foul wind was increasing our distance from it. And when Providence favored us with a change of the boisterous wind, we sprung our main-mast, and so were disabled from using the last chance for our lives in that measure which our driven thoughts panted for. But that immeasurable goodness, that unsearchable Providence, which so often banishes our terrors and fears, though ever so violent, adapted our relief to the measure of our distress so nicely, that we did not let go our hope till it was swallowed up in the enjoyment of a safe arrival in harbour. This affecting preservation from death changed my opinions on religious matters, which otherwise had about this time been strongly biased by principles of rank infidelity and deism.

HASLAR HOSPITAL. 5

In a letter to a friend, Mr. Thomas says of thjs same time of trouble : —

I shall never forget what happened to me. All was given over for lost. I heard the boatswain say we were like men imder sentence of death. My terror was exceedingly great within, though outwardly I calmly begged the captain's clerk to lend me his cabin. There I went ; and, kneeling down, vowed to the Lord to live a new life, if He would spare me this once ; and, if the ship was to be lost, to save my soul. I cried out, and feared exceedingly ; being well enough acquainted with the truth we know assuredly that, if I died, I should die in my sins, and so perish for ever and ever. I knew I should die unconverted and accursed. I believe it was the same day, the wind changed, the storm abated, and we set sail for England. We got safe into port, and there I was too base at heart to think much of the tender mercy of God to my poor perishing soul. Psalm cvii. 31. I hardened in harbour into my old sins, and forgot the God of my mercies. I soon felt the truth of the observation : ' If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.'

Shortly after this, he was seized with a violent fever, and was carried into the Haslar Naval Hospital, insensible. Let him again narrate his own story. —

Being often delirious, my physician had blistered me and ordered the other necessary applications and medicines, and then delivered me to the care and attention of the appointed nurses. In the night time, after having reflected, with uneasy fears, on the danger of my disorder, I renewed my thoughts for and against the immortality of the soul and other matters of revelation, till the force of the fever involved me in a mixed multitude of puzzling thoughts, which jumble I sensibly remember, and which was the effect of approaching delirium ; and at last I was lost in pain and confusion. I very plainly recollect my becoming unconscious of surrounding objects, either by sight or touch ; that the pain of my head was almost insupportable ; and that I settled within my thoughts that it must immediately occasion my death ; and, though I was certainly delirious, the arrangement of these circumstances of thought was very plain,! together with all those very extraordinary feelings that did accompany the more wonderful parts of the following vision.

I thought the violent pains of my head continued till I expired ; and I thought I did expire, and felt an utter freedom and separation of the soul from my body ; and this moment of departure was

6 A VISION.

sensibly distinguished by a total exemption in one moment from all pain of the body. As soon as I felt myself clearly satisfied that my death was fully over, I heard a sound of words, as though a voice has uttered them, to this ver)' purport : ' There ; now you see the immortality of the soul !' My feelings were at this time exercised in such a manner, that though I could ever recollect it clearly, yet it was unutterable. I thought myself unspeakably filled with joy and freedom. I thought myself in the midst of immensity, and capable of sweeping through immeasurable distances in a moment, with extasy and vast power. I saw myself surrounded with appearances of substance, which, whether they were angels or souls, I do not remember to have determined ; but with my happy situation and their appearance, (which was not beheld in so much splendour as with heartfelt enjoyment,) I was filled with inexpressible awe and admiration. This most delightful of all sensible enjoyments endured but for a short time, when I began to think whether that was heaven, and what / was in heaven for ; when, on a sudden, the Almighty spoke, and in a moment I beheld the world beneath me consuming in flames of fire, and I myself insensibly forced thither ; and, feeling the scorch of that fire, I became lost in dreadful astonishment and fear.

And so ended the vision, which I have never yet had occasion to think had any remarkable utility or design in its accomplishment. But thus it happened to me exactly ; immediately after my fever, I was clearly convinced in my judgment of the reality of my immortal soul, and that it was, without the body, capable of both enjoyment and suflfering. The importance and the strangeness of it had some temporary influence on my affections, but, these, after a little while, together with the remembrance of the vision, declined and fell away very fastly. My prayers, which had been ofl'ercd up by the force of these occasional feelings, soon became short and lifeless, and at last were totally neglected.

As little regard as ever was now paid to the things of religion ; and the time that elapsed between this period and my marriage was of no consequence to my present design, for it was spent in sinful courses of life, neglect of worship, worldliness, hardness of heart, and forgetfulness of God.

From Haslar he was transferred to Winchester Hospital, and then was appointed " Hospital Mate for Barbadoes." But he very soon after left the navy, and began business as a Surgeon and Apothecary, in Great Newport Street, London. The paper already quoted goes on to say : —

HIS MARRIAGE. 7

In my more youthful days, when the thoughts of my future life, blended with the ripeness of my years, often led me to the subject of matrimony, I very customarily formed a maxim in my mind that I would never marry any person but one of my own religious tenets, and more inwardly religious than I myself was. But being entwined with the world, and with almost all sorts of vice and habitual sin, this became a matter of no particular importance to me, so that I wonder, from circumstances which I cannot forget, why I was not permitted to marry one of those who were lost to all sense of comeliness in virtue and religion, except certain forms and customs, which the generality of people can by no means openly dispense with.

At the solemnization of my marriage, which happened in March, 1781, being then twenty-four years of age, I was sadly lost to a proper sense of those solemn requisites that must alone, at the bar of conscience and in the sight of God, constitute a right to that communion. But I feel at this moment emotions of praise and thankfulness in my heart, that notwithstanding my wrong motives, by which I naturally exposed myself to the common misery and unhappiness of a married state, yet God was pleased to give the person I had taken for a wife a true love and aftection for me, which was so evident to me on many occasions that it could not but win my regard. Her religious principles w'ere different from mine, she being a strong advocate for the Church of England, and I still harbouring sense enough of religion to make choice and preference, which I bestowed on the Baptist persuasion ; but by what I have already said, you will perceive that nothing of this kind was then matter of trouble to me.

After marriage, I now and then attended places of worship on a Sabbath day, and once I accidentally dropped in where Mr. Robert Robinson of Cambridge was preaching on the instability of the natural man, and his words very much affected me, being very applicable to my case. After this sermon, -I felt my inclination lean more naturally to some place of worship ; and resolutions, prayers, and reformations were again set up and carried forward for a short time with self-approbation, till either the pleasures or cares of the world had recovered their usual dominion ; and then all was laid aside, except public worship, or rather the attendance at public worship, once or twice on a Sabbath day. The next remarkable impression was under the ministry of Dr. Stennett, whose manner of delivery and language had ever some weight with me. He was now preaching from those words, in John xvii. 20, ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me

8 HIS CONVERSION.

through their word.' I have nearly lost the memory of the discourse, but recollect that that part of it which was delivered from the last clause had a peculiar effect upon my heart. It was about this time that I had many troubled thoughts of the eternal danger I was in, and felt much of the burden of guilt ; so that I was afraid to be alone. Very often, I was almost distracted, starting up in my bed, and crying out with fear. One afternoon, I had retired for prayer, and I was so apprehensive, that I thought I felt Satan come and touch my heel, which gave me great fear and mental distress. Notwithstanding these great emotions of mind, I was so allured with a sporting pleasure that was seasonable about this time of the year, that, after many endeavors to stifle the thoughts of it, I one day deliberately determined that, though it should be to save me from hell itself, and give me a possession in heaven, I would not deny myself the pleasure of the approaching sporting day. That determination convinced me that all was wrong, and inclined me to believe that all I had felt was nothing more than a working up of my imagination, whereas I was sensible that the work of conversion, for which I seemed to have great desires, was the operation of God on the heart and principles, and not barely on the mere affections.

It was before the month of August, 1781, had expired, when I heard Dr. Stennett preach from these words, ' Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed.' John vi. 27. Now if ever I was efTectually called by the grace of God out of natural darkness into spiritual light, it was on this occasion. My heart was strongly moved by what was said on the promise, particularly the enforcement of the word ' shall.' On the same day, I heard with uncommon pleasure a sermon preached by a stranger in Eagle Street, from these words, 'AH things are yours,' (i Corinthians iii. 21,) wherein there shone s-iich inestimable privileges of the people of God, and so much of the bounty and goodness of God through Christ to all those who are his true worshippers, that I was very much amazed and aflcctcd. The scriptures now became more particularly the object of my thoughts, both night and day, sleeping or awake. On the following Tuesday, Dr. Gill's Exposition of the Gospel of Matthew had for some time engaged my meditations ; but I remember no particrilar word or passage by which I was encouraged ; but towards evening I had such an apprehension of the method of salvation by Jesus Christ, of his sufferings, and suretiship, that I could hardly behave myself moderately before those whom I con-

HIS BACKSLIDINGS. g

sidered as destitute of any right knowledge of such things. Many days and nights were spent in the enjoyment of believing that Christ had suffered for me in particular. Me, ME, so insignificant, so worthless ! that such an one as / should be a partaker of his benefits ! — this thought attended me for many days ; and wherever I was, I had many tears of joy and gladness. Once, the effect it had on my affections was so powerful that I became apprehensive of losing my senses suddenly ; on which occasion I earnestly besought the Lord for more moderation. Not many days after this, I detected myself in sinning with my tongue so deliberately that it gave me trouble, and I was humbled on the occasion ; and I described what I had said before some Christian friends, thinking nothing at all of their thoughts of me, in comparison of that apprehension of myself before God. The word of God became very precious to me, and was read with a new ability of understanding and clearness. My zeal was often very strong, and I inwardly thought that the Lord was going to make an eminent Christian of me. Dr. Stennett, in or about September, had preached from these words, ' Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.' i Kings xx. 1 1. This was mentioned to me by a Christian friend, and he made remarks on what the Doctor had said, that were so suitable to my case that I bitterly lamented I had not been there. Now I began to think that, after all, I might, according to the Doctor, only have been warmly moved in my passions, and that the amount of all was an ignorant zeal or a fit of enthusiasm. But this thought did not give me much concern, because I thought my inclinations and desires were so different from what they formerly were, that I must have undergone the great change of regeneration. My assurance of pardon and everlasting happiness ran high and strong, without any intermission for a long time.

If I were now to describe what passed in my soul after the end of four months, I must write with such words as would deeply aftect me. I must relate sad instances of declension ; awfully sad indeed. It is true, I constantly attended the preaching of the word ; but, oh, how grievously did my life and conversation differ from that of a disciple and follower of Christ ! No words are strong enough, no language is severe enough, to express my thoughts of my conduct which yet fall infinitely short of the baseness and disingenuousness with which I now walked before God. What lamentable occasions did I furnish to the enemies of the Lord for blasphemy. Their words to my face were piercing ; and what must their lO HIS FAILURE IN BUSINESS.

thoughts have been ? They saw me intemperate, resentful, impatient, and furious, with such other irregularities as raise my wonder why I was suflcred to live, why eternal vengeance did not utterly consume me ; only His compassions fail not. Dear me ! who can utter anything adequate concerning the patience of God ? My affairs in worldly respects were very distressing, and my sufferings were not small, and though I heard the word with now and then some comfort, yet I do not remember much else left that was Christianlike. I grew so poor that, after being teased by many people, very often in a pressing manner, for debts I could not pay, after being arrested and for two days imprisoned, I left off business, and had much difficulty and distress in raising a shilling to defray the expenses of a day. Almost every valuable I had was in pledge for money, and the money all gone ; so that I did not know where to look. Well ! an unexpected messenger came to my mournful house one day. A friend, unsought, offered to procure for me the surgeoncy of a ship bound to the East Indies ; and this offer led me to discover by enquiry two such ships. The one my friend meant was under imperial colors ; but that I chose was the Earl of Oxford, one of the Hon'ble East India Company's ships, to which I was very readily appointed, by a number of helps from entire strangers, who introduced me to the captain, who received me with partial favor.

My poor wife was sadly distressed at this prospect, and for several days it was an affliction of great weight to her. But I am amazed as I look back on the multitude of providential circumstances that brought me through every difficulty that stood in my way, and so quickly and so effectually placed me in this new office ; for I had on lesser occasions humbly solicited a host of friends, by whom I was sadly mortified. Oh how greatly does the insincerity and selfishness of friends embitter what arc called the misfortunes of this life !

Here the guidance of Vix. Thomas's autobiographical sketch is suddenly lost. Although thoroughly a Baptist in his religious sentiments, he for the present made no public profession of his consecration to God. Tike his temporal affair:;, his religious connexions seem to have been unsettled. He was frequently a hearer of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Stennett, at Little Wild Street ; but he also sought to recommend himself, with a view to being baptized by him, to the Rev. Abraham Booth, who knew some of his relatives. Mr. Booth, however, regarded him as too wild

SURGEON IN THE "EARL OF OXFORD." II

and enthusiastic to deserve much encouragement, especially as he was very desirous of becoming a preacher. He received from Mr. Booth therefore only some good advice, and a copy of Chauncy's Doctrine according to Godliness^ from the study of which he derived much benefit. Meanwhile his appointment to the Earl of Oxford^ 758 tons burden, John White, commander, was confirmed. He appears to have gone on board early in January, 1783, and, on the 1 1 th of March, sailed with the Indian fleet, leaving his poor " tender and delicate wife," who was very shortly to become a mother, in painfully straitened circumstances, and to a large extent dependent upon the generosity of her friends.

The foregoing narrative, imperfect as it is, lays bare the guilt and misery of a life misspent notwithstanding much knowledge of God's will. From the time of his marriage to his leaving England, the unhappy man must have suffered inexpressible distresses and mortifications, and, alas, he only too well deserved the most of them. But these painful details are given because they may help to an understanding of the following story. Who that reads this account of Mr. Thomas's vision, of his secret terrors, his floods of happy tears, his extasies of rapturous confidence and his fits of despondent gloom, his eager entire consecration and his so speedy obliviousness of the restraints of dutiful obedience, with the other contrasts and extravagancies here exhibited, can fail to perceive that his mental constitution was not evenly balanced, but was peculiarly liable to disturbance ? His brain was easily excited to a morbid activity, he was impulsive and imprudent, his imagination was vivid, his affections fervid, his purposes precipitate, — and then there came the reaction. For such a man, the even path of tranquil steady trust and obedience was very hard, nay, was impossible, to tread. If indeed his restless, easily perturbed spirit had been regulated by wise early discipline and soothed by all that propitious circumstances could yield of quiet happy influence, his character might have developed itself far differently ; but cast, as he was, into fierce temptations in his

12 REFLECTIONS.

youth, and subsequently becoming the victim of so many failures, disappointments, hardships, reproaches, conflicts, throughout his whole life, mostly passed amidst the aggravations of an Indian climate, what marvel was it that he was always erratic, and that on some occasions the poor overwrought brain yielded to assaults of positive mania ? Vv^hat wonder if there be found in this narrative occasions for the exercise of patient forbearance ? And, if notwithstanding all such instances of defect and infirmity, there be traced in it the indubitable results and the final triumph of divine grace, what abundant reason will it afford to ascribe glory to Him whose goodness conducts His feeblest and most erring children, and makes them " more than conquerors " over the difficulties and temptations which beset them throughout their earthly way ?

But a yet higher interest belongs to the history this book will relate. Whatever were the infirmities or faults of the subject of it, "out of weakness" he was "made strong" to labour for Christ in circumstances of most peculiar difficulty. He was the first to preach the gospel to the idolators of Bengal, and, through him, other labourers were brought in to a vast field for Christian effort, which had before been close shut against the messengers of the cross. He whose life issued in such grand results lived not in vain. No apology need be offered for recording the facts of his career. They form part of the history of the progress of the gospel, and may claim affectionate remembrance by those who desire the glory of Jesus Christ in the salvation of men.