Biography by James Marsh

The author of the Discourses on the Four last things, was Dr. WILLIAM BATES.
Of his general claims to the remembrance both of scholars and of Christians we have abundant evidence, not only in his works, but in the very high estimation, in which he was held by the best men of all parties among his contemporaries. Probably no one of the non-conformist divines of his age was so genarally popular, or sustained so high a reputation as a writer, especially in regard to his style and manner; and yet the biographical notices preserved respecting him are peculiarly scanty. The following sketch comprises all the important facts, which I have been able to discover.

Dr. Bates was born Nov. 1625, of respectable parents, his father being a physician and an author of some eminence. We have no farther account of him, except that he received a suitable school education, till his entrance at the university. He was sent to Cambridge and admitted first, though the year is not mentioned, of Emanuel College, from which he removed to Kings in 1644. He commenced Bachelor of Arts in 1647 at the age of 22, and applying himself to the study of divinity, soon became a distinguished and popular preacher. From this time he seems to have enjoyed the favor of all parties, as a man of great learning, talents and piety, till after the restoration of Charles II. At some period during this interval he became fixed as a preacher in the metropolis, being made vicar, and receiving the valuable living, of St. Dunstan's in the West. He continued to discharge the duties of his station till 1662, when the celebrated act of uniformity occasioned his removal. Believing that he could not consistently with his duty conform to the requirements of this act, he anrrendered his living and preached a farewell sermon to his people, Aug. 17th of that jear. Of his residence or employments immediately after this event no definite account is given. We find him in 1665 taking the oath required of non-conformists by the five-mile act, and it seems not to have been many years after he left his charge at St Dnnstan's till he became settled over a dissenting congregation at Hackney near London, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Apart from his more ordinary employment and influence as a minister of the gospel, Dr. Bates acted a conspicuous and important part in relation to the more general and public interests of religion. He was among those ministers, who took an active part in the restoration of Charles II. and was so distinguished in the view of that monarch as to be made soon after one of his chaplains in ordinary. By royal mandate, issued in November of the same year, he was admitted to the degree of Doctor in Divinity at Cambridge university. Subsequently the Deanery of Coventry and Litchfield was offered to him, but refused from conscientious scruples; and so high did his character stand at this time, that it is said he might have had any Bishoprick in the kingdom, would his principles have permitted an entire conformity to the established church.

In the various efforts that were made to effect a reconciliation of parties, and comprehend the dissenters within the establishment, Dr. Bates was much consulted, and took a very active part. He was one of the commissioners at the Savoy conference in 1660: and when three of the oommissioners on each side were selected to discuss certain points in dispute more particularly, he was chosen on the part of the Presbyterians, together with Mr. Baxter and Dr. Jacomb. During the whole of this debate he is said to have conducted himself with great wisdom and moderation, and to have spoken so "very solidly, judiciously, and pertinently," as to procure great respect from his brethren. When again, in 1667-8, a treaty was proposed, by some of the more moderate in the establishment, for a comprehension of such of the Dissenters as could be brought into the church, end a toleration of the rest, Dr. Bates was one of those appointed by the dissenters to draw up a scheme of the alterations which they desired. In the same year we find him concerned with Drs. Manton and Jacomb in presenting an address to the king, with a view to obtain relief for the non-conformists, but without any ultimate success. He was again engaged in 1674 or 5 in the promotion of peace; and by their request, in company with some of his associates, had an interview with Tillotson and Stillingfleet for this purpose. In these men he found a congenial spirit, end terms were agreed upon; but other bishops opposing, the movement was unsuccessful.

In the mean time the strength of his principles was tried, not only by the loss or abandonment of his higher hopes in the church, but by his exposure to those severe persecutions, which occasionally prevailed against the dissenters. He seems not like Mr. Baxter, however, to have been ever imprisoned, or otherwise deprived of his personal liberty, though he fearlessly exposed himself to the displeasure of the persecutors.

The accession of William and Mary placed the dissenters in more favorable circumstances; and the part which Dr. Bates was called to act on this and subsequent occasions, shows the place which he still held among them. The dissenting ministers in London and the neighborhood being assembled for the purpose of congratulating their majesties on their accession to the crown, Dr. Bates was chosen as speaker, and addressed each of them in a manner suited to the occasion. On the death of the queen also he preached a funeral sermon, which is preserved among his works, and presented to the bereaved monarch an address of condolence on behalf of his dissenting brethren. He seems to have been, on all important occasions, the most approved organ of the dissenters in their intercourse with the court and the establisbed church; and was on terms of intimacy and friendship with Dr. Tillotson, which continued to the death of that distinguished prelate. Among the dissenters, he was closely and confidentially associated with Baxter, Manton, Jacomb, Howe and other leading men, till one by one these eminent divines, whe had formed so bright a constellation during the latter half of the 17th century, were removed to a better world.

Dr. Bates seems to have experienced little of the usual infirmities of age in regard to his intellectual powers, even to the close of his life. His memory, says Howe, was admirable, and never failed, that any one could observe, not impaired by his great ags of 74. He still took his turn at one of those public Lectures, which the leading ministers of the day kept up by preaching in rotation, and was himself to have preached the Tuesday lecture at Salter's Hall in London, on the day, when Howe was unexpectedly called there to preach his funeral sermon. He died at Hackney the death of the righteous, on the 14th of July, 1699, in the 74th year of his age.

Of the person and character of Dr. Bates we have a valuable description, in the funeral sermon above mentioned, by Howe, who enjoyed, as he tells us, "the opportunity and great pleasure of his acquaintance above forty years." He speaks here of his "graceful mien and the comeliness of his person," fitting him "to stand before kings," as he had often occasion to do. "His aspect and deportment," he adds, "was not austere, but both decently grave and amiable, such as might command at once both reverence and love, and was herein not a lying, but a true picture of his mind." "His natural endownments and abilities appeared to every observer great, much beyond the common rate. His apprehension - quick and clear; his reasoning faculty acute, prompt, and expert; his judgment - penetrating and solid, stable and firm; his wit - never vain or light, but most facetious and pleasant, by the ministry of a fancy both very vigorous and lively.

"His learning, and acquired knowledge of things, usuall reckoned to lie within that compass, was a vast treasure. He had lived a long, studious life, an earnest gatherer, and, as the phrase is, devourer of books," yet, "he knew how to choose, and was curious in his choice."

"His conversation is represented by Howe, as uncommonly interesting and useful, seasoned, as occasion served, with facetious pleasantry, enriched by his ample and varied stores of knowledge, but "interwoven with religion from the settled temper and habit of his soul. Into what transports of admiration of the love of God have I seen him break forth! With what high flights of thought and affection was he wont to speak of the heavenly state! even like a man much more of kin to that other world than to this."

"And for his ministerial qualifications and labours," he proceeds, "do I need to say any thing to themselves, who had the benefit thereof? Either of them, who have so many years lived under his most fruitful, enlightening, quickening, edifying ministry? whether week by week as his beloved, peculiarly privileged charge at Hackney, that mournful, desolate people, who have been fed with the heavenly, hidden manna, and with the fruits of the tree of life, that grows in the midst of the Paradise of God, so prepared and presented to them, and made pleasant to their taste, as few besides have ever had. Or do I need to inform such inhabitants of London, as in a doubled three monthly course have for many years, in throng-assembly, been wont to hang upon his lips?"

As a writer, be seems to have been much admired by his contemporaries; and Howe applies to him the remark made by Bishop Wilkins of Mr. Baxter, "that he cultivated every subject he handled, and had he lived in an age of the Fatters he would have been one." He was particularly celebrated for the elegance of his style, which was considered "even inimitably polite and fine." In this respect he probably approaches nearer, than almost any other distinguished writer of the age, to our more modern standards of taste in writing.

His theoretical and practical views of divine truth and of personal piety will be found to coincide in all important points with those of Baxter, Howe, and the other divines, with whom be was associated. He was less bold in speculation, apparently, than either Baxter or Howe; and in unfolding the principles of practical piety he derives less aid than they do from the general principles of philosophy. He is consequently tow profound in his views of religion, considered subjectively; and was not led, as Howe was, more especially by his fondness for Platonism, to develop his psychological relations, and turn the attention of his readers immediately to their own inward being.

"His judgment in ecclesiastical matters, says Howe, was to be known by his practice, and it was such, that he needed not care who knew it. He was for entire union of all visible christians, (or saints or believers, which in scripture are equivalent terms,)- meaning by Christianity what is essential thereto, whether doctrinal or practical, as by humanity we mean what is essential to man, severing accidents as not being of the essence, and by visibility the probable appearance thereof, - and for free communion of all such of whatever persuasion in extra-essential matters, if they pleased. And this design he vigorously pursued, as long as there was any hope, desisting when it appeared hopeless, and resolving to wait till God should give a spirit suitable thereto; from an apprehension, that when principles on all hands were so easily accommodable, and yet there was with too many a remaining insuperable reluctancy to the thing itself, God must work the cure, and not men. Accounting also in the mean time, that notwithstanding misrepresentations, it was better to east a mantle over the failings of brethren, than be concerned to detect and expose them. Knowing that if we be principally solicitous for the name of God, he will in his own way and time take care of ours. And in this sentiment he was not alone."

The works published by Dr. Bates during his life, were the following. 1. Discourses on the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the divinity of the Christian religion. 8. The Harmony of the Divine attributes. 3. The great duty of resignation. 4. The danger of prosperity. 5. Sermons on the forgiveness of sins. 6. The sure trial of uprightness. 7. The Four last things. 8. Of spiritual perfection. 9. Eleven sermons on several occasions. 10. A sermon on the death of Queen Mary. 11. Funeral sermons on Dr. Manton, Dr. Jacomb, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Benjamin Ashhurst. IS. Discourses on divine meditation. 13. On the fear of God. These were collected and republished soon after his death in one volume folio, and afterwards a posthumous work on the Everlasting Rest of the Saints, in an octavo volume. A second edition was published in 1723, including the whole of these, and his funeral sermon by Mr. Howe, in one volume folio. An octavo edition was published at London, in 1815. Besides these he was concerned as editor in collecting and publishing the lives of eminent persona written by various authors in Latin, and entitled, "Vitae Selectorum aliquot Virorum, qui doctrina, dignitate, aut pietate inclaruere." London, 1681. 4to.

The discourses on the Four last things have been selected for this work, as being on the whole best adapted to the object which I have in view. They exhibit a bold and impressive view of the tendencies and the ultimate ends of our beings, and I trust may be found instrumental in promoting that rational contemplation of divine truth, and that deep seriousness, which distinguished the christians of that age - which are so much needed in our own - and which in every age are the appropriate characteristics of rational beings and especially of christians. THE EDITOR.

The editor is James Marsh, president of the University of Vermont.
The book 'Select Practical works of Rev. John Howe and Dr. William Bates' in which these works are re-printed, was published in New York, in 1830