Mr. Daniel Neal was born in the city of London, on the 14th of December, 1678. When he was very young, his parents were removed by death, and left him, their only surviving child, in the hands of a maternal uncle, whose care of his health and education was faithful and affectionate, and was often mentioned by his nephew with gratitude.
He received his classical education at Merchant Tailor’s School, to which he was sent when he was seven or eight years of age, and where he stayed till he was head scholar. In this youthful period he gave a proof of the serious and conscientious principles by which he was governed; for, an exhibition to St. John’s College in Oxford being offered to him, out of a foundation belonging to that school, he declined it, and chose an education for the ministry among the Protestant Dissenters.
About the year 1696 or 1697 he removed from this seminary to a dissenting academy, under the direction of the Reverend Thomas Rowe, under whose tuition several eminent characters were, in part, formed. To this gentleman Dr Watts addressed his animated ode, called "Free Philosophy," which may, in this view, be considered as an honourable testimonial to the candid and liberal spirit with which Mr. Rowe conducted the studies of his pupils.
Mr Neal’s thirst after knowledge was not to be satisfied by the limited advantages of one seminary, but prompted him to seek farther improvement in foreign universities. Having spent three years with Mr. Rowe, he removed to Holland, where he prosecuted his studies for two years, under the celebrated Professors D’Uries, Graevius, and Burman, at Utrecht; and then one year at Leyden.
About the middle of latter end of 1703 he returned to England, in company with Mr Martin Tomkins and Mr. (afterward the eminent Dr.) Lardner, and soon after appeared in the pulpit.
It was not long before his furniture and abilities attracted notice; and in the next year, he was chosen assistant to Dr. John Singleton, in the service of an Independent congregation in Aldersgate Street; and, on the doctor’s death, in 1706, he was elected their pastor. In this relation he continued for thirty-six years, till about five months before his decease. When he accepted the pastoral office, the church, though some persons of considerable fortune and character belonged to it, was very small as to numbers; but such acceptance did his ministry meet with, that the place of worship became, in a few years, too strait to accommodate the numbers that desired to attend on Mr. Neal’s preaching, which obliged them to remove to a larger house, in Jewin Street.
He fulfilled the duties of his character with attention and diligence; statedly preaching twice every Lord’s Day, till the three or four last years of his life, and usually devoting two or three afternoons in a week to visiting his people. He pursued his studies with so close an application as to reserve little or no time for exercise; though he was assiduous in his preparations for the pulpit, he gave himself some scope in his literary pursuits, and particularly indulged in the study of history, to which his natural genius strongly led him. "He still," observes Dr. Jennings, "kept his character and profession in view as a Christian divine and minister."
The first fruits of his literary labours appeared in 1720, under the title of "The history of New-England; being an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, with a new accurate map thereof; to which is added an appendix containing their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal laws," in two volumes. This work contains an entertaining and instructive narrative of the first planting of the Gospel in a foreign heathen land; and, besides exhibiting the rise of a new commonwealth, struggling in its infant state with a thousand difficulties, and triumphing over them all, it includes biographical memoirs of the principal person in Church and State. It was well received in New-England; and the next year their university honoured the author with a degree of the master of arts, the highest academical title they had power to confer.
In the same year there came from Mr. Neal’s pen, "A letter to the Rev. Dr. Francis Hare, Dean of Worcester, occasioned by his reflections on the Dissenters, in his late visitation sermon and postscript."
In 1721, he published "The Christian’s duty and interest in time of public danger, from Ezekiel, ix., 4. A sermon preached at the Rev. Mr Jenning’s meeting-place in Wapping on Friday, October 27, being a time of solemn prayer on account of the plague." This discourse is preserved in the library of Queen’s College, Cambridge.
Mr. Neal gave to the public, in 1722, "A narrative of the method and success of inoculating the small-pox in New-England, by Mr. Benjamin Colman; with a reply to the objections made against it from principles of conscience, in a letter from a minister at Boston. To which is now prefixed an historical introduction." On the appearance of this piece, her royal highness Caroline, Princess of Wales, sent for him to wait on her, that she might receive from him father satisfaction concerning the practice of inoculation. He was introduced by a physician of the royal family, and received of the princess in her closet, who he found reading, "Foxes Martyrology". Her highness did him the honour of entering into a free conversation with him for near an hour on the subject of inoculation; and afterward on other subjects, particularly the state of the dissenting interest in England, and of religion in New-England. After some time the Prince of Wales, after George II., came into the room, and condescended to take a part in the conversation for above a quarter of an hour. Mr. Neal had the honour of kissing the hands of both the royal personages.
In 1722, he published, at request, a sermon preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, at Salters Hall, on Monday June 25th. This discourse, grounded on Psalm xciv., 16, is to be met in the library mentioned before.
In the beginning of the next year the request of the mangers of the charity school in Gravel Lane, Southwark, procured from him the publication of a sermon, preached January 1st, for the benefit of that institution, on Job, xxix., 12, 13, entitled, "The Method of Education in the charity schools of Protestant Dissenters; with the Advantages that arise to the Public from them."
After this nothing of Mr. Neal’s appeared from the press for several years, till, in 1726, the death of the Rev. Matthew Clarke, a minister of considerable eminence among the Dissenters of the period, gave occasion for his publishing a funeral sermon to a volume of sermons upon several occasions, by Mr. Clarke; of which Mr. Neal was the editor, and to which he prefixed some memoirs of the author.
At the beginning of this year he printed a sermon entitled, "Of Sorrowing for them who sleep in Jesus," occasioned by the death of Mrs. Anne Phillibrowne, who departed this life February 1st, 1726-1727, in the forty third year of her age. This discourse is also to be found in Queen’s college library, Cambridge.
In 1730, the united request of the ministers and the church prevailed with him to publish a sermon entitled, "The Duty of praying for Ministers and the Success of their Ministry," from 2 Thess., iii. 1; preached at the separation of the Rev. Mr. Richard Rawlin to the Pastoral office in the church at Fetter Lane, June 24th. A passage in this discourse deserves to be quoted, to show the catholic and generous sentiments of Mr. Neal. having referred to the persecutions of the Christians under the Roman Emperors, and then to the prevalence of darkness and superstition for a thousand years after Rome became papal, he proceeds, "The light of the Gospel broke out again at the Reformation; but alas! what obstructions has it met with ever since! how much blood has been spilled, and how many families ruined, and sent into banishment, for the profession of it! There is at this time a bloody inquisition in Spain; and the sword of the magistrate is drawn against the preaching of the Gospel in Italy, France and Poland, in several parts of Germany, and in other popish countries. I wish I could say that all Protestant governments were willing the Gospel should have its free course; but our fathers in this nation have drunk of the bitter cup of persecution; our teachers have been driven into corners, and the mouths of thousands stopped in one day; blessed be God that there is now a more open door! Let us pray that all penal laws for religion may be taken away, and that no civil discouragements may lie upon Christians of any denomination for the peaceable profession of their faith, but that the Gospel may have free course."
In the year 1732, came out the first volume of Mr. Neal’s great work, "The history of the Puritans." The following circumstances gave birth to this publication. Dr. Edmund Calumny, many years before, had, in his "Abridgement of the life of Mr. Richard Baxter, and the continuation of it," laid before the public a view of the state of non-conformity, and of the characters and sufferings of the principal adherents to it, during the period that immediately succeeded to the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Dr. John Evans, on this, formed a design of writing, "A History of Nonconformity," from the beginning of the Reformation to 1640, when the civil wars began. Mr. Neal was requested by several ministers and other persons of considerable figure among the Dissenters, to take up the history from the year 1640, and to carry it on to the Act of Uniformity. Dr. Evans proceeded a great way in the execution of his design, by collecting, for several years, with great industry and expense, proper materials from all quarters, and by filling several quires of paper with references, under each year, to the books he had read on the subject. He had gone so far as to have written out fairly about a third part of the two folios he intended to fill. But his constant employment as a minister, the multiplicity of public affairs which passed through his hands, ill health and various disappointments and troubles in his own concerns, greatly interrupted his close application to the work; and his death in the year 1730, put a final period to the design, which was left in an unfinished state. In the mean time, Mr. Neal had prosecuted his work with so much application and spirit, that he had completed his collections, and put them in order for the press, some length of time before the doctor’s decease. The event obstructed his immediate progress, and opened to him a new field of study and investigation: for he now found it necessary to take up himself the long period of history from the Reformation to the commencement of the civil wars, that his own collections might be published with more acceptance, and appear with greater advantage, that he apprehended they could have done if the doctor’s province had been entirely neglected.
The approbation which followed the publication of the first volume of "The History of the Puritans" encouraged him to prosecute his design, and the next year, 1733, produced a second volume of that work.
Between the appearance of this and subsequent parts of his history, we find Mr. Neal engaged with some of his respectable brethren in carrying on two courses of lectures: one at Berry-Street, the other at Salters Hall.
The former was preached at the request and encouragement of William Coward, Esq., of Walthamstow. It consisted of fifty-four sermons on the principal heads of the Christian religion, entitled "Faith and Practice." Mr. Neal’s associates in this service were Dr. Watts, Dr. J. Guise, Mr. Samuel Price, Mr. John Hubbard, and Dr. David Jennings. The terms on which Mr. Neal complied with Mr. Coward’s request, made through a common friend, to take part in this service, are proofs of the independence and integrity of mind which he possessed, and was determined to maintain. His requisitions were, that he would draw up the dedication, write the preface, and choose his own subjects, in which Mr. Coward, though they were not very pleasing to a gentleman of his known humour and fondness for adulation and control, acquiesced, rather than the lecture should lose the advantage and reputation that it would derive from Mr. Neal’s abilities and name. The subjects handled by him were "The Divine authority and perfection of the Holy Scriptures," from 2 Tim., iii., 16. "Of God, as the Governor and Judge of the moral world, angels, and men," on Daniel, iv., 35. "The incarnation of Christ as the promised Messiah," the text Gal., iv., 4, 5. "Effectual calling with its fruits, viz, regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Spirit," from 2 Tim., i., 9. "Confession of sin, repentance, and conversion unto holiness," on Acts, iii., 19. "Of fearing God and trusting in Him," Psalm xxxi., 19. "The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper," on 1 Cor., xi, 23, 36. "The Love of our neighbour," the text John, iii., 34, 35; and "The Pleasure and advantage of vital religion," from Rom., vii., 22. These, with the discourses of other preachers, were, after the course was finished, published in two vols, in 1735, and have passed through several editions. Dr. Doddridge, when speaking of them, says, "I cannot recollect where I have seen a set of important thoughts on such various and weighty subjects more judiciously selected, more naturally digested, more closely compacted, more accurately expressed, or, in a few words, more powerfully enforced, than I have generally found in those sermons." Without determining whether this encomium be exaggerated or not, it may certainly be pronounced, that the practical strain in which the discourses are drawn up, and the good temper with which the subjects of greatest controversy are here handled, without any censure or even illiberal insinuation against others mingling with the representation of their own views on the points discussed, do great honour to the heart and spirit of the authors.
The other course of lectures, in which Mr. Neal was engaged, arose from an alarm concerning the increase of popery, which prevailed about the end of the year 1734. Some eminent dissenting ministers, of the day, of the Presbyterian denomination, in conjunction with one of each of the other persuasions, agreed to preach a set of sermons on the main principles and errors, doctrines and practices, of the Church of Rome, to guard Protestants against the efforts of its emissaries. The gentlemen who engaged in this design were Mr. John Barker, Dr. Samuel Chandler, Mr. George Smith, Dr. Samuel Wright, Dr. William Harris, Dr. Obadiah Hughes, Dr. Jeremiah Hunt, Mr. Joshua Bayes, Mr. John Newman, Dr. Jabez Earle, Mr. Moses Lowman, Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor, Mr. Thomas Leavesly, Mr. Joseph Burroughs, a minister of the Antipaedobaptis persuasion, and Mr. Neal, who was an independent. The subject which fell to his lot to discuss was, "The supremacy of St. Peter, and the bishops of Rome, his successors." These discourses were separately printed immediately after each was preached, and when the lecture was closed, were collected together, and formed two volumes.
In the year 1736 came out the third volume of the History of the Puritans; and Mr. Neal’s design was completed by the publication of the fourth, in the year 1738, which brought down the history of Nonconformity to the Act of Toleration by King William and Queen Mary, in the year 1689. This and Mr. Neal’s other historical works spread his name through the learned world, and justly secured to him great and permanent reputation. Dr. Jennings, speaking of them says, "I am satisfied that there is no judicious and unprejudiced person that has conversed with the volumes he wrote, but will acknowledge he had an excellent talent at writing history. His style is most easy and perspicuous; and the judicious remarks which he leads his readers to make upon facts as they go along, make his histories to be not only more entertaining, but to be more instructive and useful, than most books of that kind."
While this work was preparing for and going through the press, part of his time was occupied in drawing up and publishing an answer to Dr. Maddox, bishop of St. Asaph, who wrote a pretty long "Vindication of the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Reflections (as he was pleased to style them) of Mr. Neal’s first volume of the History of the Puritans." It was reckoned to be written with great judgment, and to establish our historians character for an impartial regard to truth. And it was reasonably concluded, from this specimen of his powers of defense, that if his declining state of health had permitted him, he would have as thoroughly vindicated other volumes from the animadadversions afterward published against them by Dr. Zachary Grey.
The pleasure Mr. Neal had in serving the cause of religious liberty had carried though his undertaking with amazing alacrity. But he engaged in it at an advanced age and when his health had begun to decline; this joined with the close application he gave to the prosecution of it, brought on a lingering illness, from he never recovered. He had been all his life subject in some degree, to a lowness of spirits, and to complaints of an indisposition in his head. His love of study, and an unremitting attention to the duties of his office rendered him averse to the frequent use of any exercise that took him off from his books. In the end, repeated strokes of the palsy, first gentle and then more severe, which greatly enfeebled all his powers both of body and mind, baffled the best advice, the aids of medicine, and repeated use of the Bath waters, brought him to his grave, perfectly worn out, in the sixty fifty year of his age. He died April 4th, 1743.
During the declining state of his health, Mr. Neal applied to the excellent Dr. Doddgridge to recommend some young minister as an assistant to him. A gentleman was pointed out, and appeared in his pulpit with this view; and a letter, which on this occasion he wrote to Dr. Doddgridge, and which the doctor endorsed with this memorandum, "Some wise Hints," affords such an agreeable specimen of Mr. Neal’s good sense, candour and prudence, as cannot fail, we think, to render acceptable to our readers.
"Dear Sir,
"Your letter, which I received yesterday, gave me a great deal of agreeable entertainment, and made me almost in love with a person that I never saw. His character is the very picture of what I should wish and pray for. There is no manner of exception that I can hear of, but that of his delivery, which many, with you, hope may be conquered, or very much amended. All express a very great respect and value for Mr. _ and his ministry, and are highly pleased with his serious and affectionate manner. And I am apt to think, when we have heard him again, even the thickness of the pronunciation of some of his words will in a great measure vanish; it being owing in a great measure, (according to my son), to not making his under and upper lip meet together; but, be that as it will, this is all, and the very worst that I know of, to use your own expression.
"I wish as much as you, that the affair might be speedily issues; but you know that things of this nature, in which many, and those of a different temper, are concerned, must proceed with all tenderness and voluntary freedom, without the least shadow of violence or imaginary hurry. Men love to act for themselves, and with spontaneity; and as I have sometimes observed, have come at length cheerfully and voluntarily into measures which they would have opposed if they had imagined they were to be driven to them.
"I don’t mention this as if it was the present case, for I can assure you it is not. but to put you in mind that it may possibly not always be for the best to do things too hastily; and therefore I hope you will excuse this digression. I am exceedingly tender of Mr. _ character and usefulness, and therefore will shall leave it to your prudence to fix the day of his coming up; and you may depend upon my taking all the prudential steps in favour of this affair that I am master of. I hope the satisfaction will be general, but who can answer for it beforehand? It has a promising appearance, but if it comes out otherwise, you have a faithful account.
" I am pleased to hear that Mr. _,is under so good an adviser as yourself, who cannot but be appraised of the great importance of this affair, both to your academy, to myself, and to the public interest of the Dissenters in this city; and I frankly declare I don’t know any one place among us in London where he can sit more easy, and enjoy the universal love and affection of a good natured people, which will give him all fitting encouragement. We are very thankful to you, sir, for the concern you express for us, and the care you have taken for our supply. I hope you will have a return from above of far greater blessings than this world can bestow, and you may expect from me all suitable acknowledgements.
"Pray advise Mr. _, when you see him, to lay aside all undue concern from his mind, and to speak with freedom and ease. Let him endeavor, by an articulate pronunciation, to make the elder persons hear, and those that sit at a greater distance, and all will be well. He has already got a place in the affections of many of the people, and I believe will quickly captivate them all. Assure him that he has a candid heart and touch the conscience, and show himself in earnest in his work, and he will certainly approve himself a workman that needs not be ashamed. I beg pardon for all these hints. Let not Mr. _ impress his mind too much with them. My best respects attend your lady and whole family, not forgetting good Mr. _, etc.
I am sir, in haste, your affectionate brother and very humble servant,
"DANIEL NEAL."
London, Saturday evening, May 12, 1739,
"Brethren, pray for us"!
Disease had, for many months before his death, rendered him almost entirely incapable of public service. This induced him to resign the pastoral office in the November preceding. The considerate, as well as generous manner in which he did it, will appear from the following letter he sent to the church on that occasion:
"My DEAR BRETHREN, AND BELOVED IN THE LORD,
"God, in all his wise-providence, having seen meet for some time to disable me in a great measure from serving you in the Gospel of his Son, and therein to deprive me one of the greatest satisfactions of my life, I have been waiting upon him in the use of means for a considerable time, as I thought it my duty to do. But, not having found such a restoration as might enable me to do stated service, it is my duty to acquiesce in his will; and, having looked up to him for direction, I think it best, for your sakes to surrender my office of a pastor among you.
"Upon this occasion it becomes me to make my humblest acknowledgements to the blessed God for that measure of usefulness he has honoured me with in the course of my labours among you; and I render you all my unfeigned thanks for the many affectionate instances of your regard towards me.
"May the Spirit of God direct you in the choice of a wise and able pastor, who may have your spiritual and everlasting welfare at heart. And, for that end, beware of a spirit of division; be ready to condescend to each others infirmities; keep together in the way of your duty, and in waiting upon God for his direction and blessing; remember, this is the distinguishing mark of the disciples of Christ, "that they love one another." Finally, my brethren, farewell! Be of good comfort, and of one mind; live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
"I am your affectionate well-wisher and obedient humble servant.
"DANIEL NEAL."
From the first attack of his long illness, it appears he had serious apprehensions how it would terminate; and a letter written from Bath, in April, 1739, to a worthy friend, shows the excellent state of his mind under those views.
"My greatest concern," he says, "is to have rational and solid expectations of a future happiness. I would not be mistaken, nor build on the sand, but would impress my mind with a firm belief of the certainty of the future world, and live in a practical preparation for it. I rely very much on the rational notions we have of the moral perfections of God, not only as a just, but a benevolent and merciful Being, who knows our frame, and will make all reasonable allowances for our imperfections, and follies in life; and not only so, but upon repentance and faith in Christ, will pardon our past sins, though never so many or great.
"In aid of the imperfection of our rational notions, I am very thankful for the glorious truths of Gospel revelation, which are an additional superstructure on the other: for, though we can believe nothing contrary to our reason, we have a great many excellent and comfortable discoveries built upon and superadded to it. Upon this double foundation would I build all my expectations, with an humble and awful reverence of the majesty of the great Judge of all the earth, and a fiducial reliance on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. In this frame of mind, I desire to fear God, and keep his commandments."
In all his sensible intervals, during his last illness, he enjoyed an uncommon serenity of mind, and behaved becoming a Christian and a minister.
This peaceful state of mind, and comfortable hope he possessed to the last. About a month before his death, he appeared to his fellow worshippers, at the Lord’s Supper, with an air so extraordinary serious and heavenly as made some present say, "he looked as if he were not long for this world."
The preceding particulars and his writings will, in part, enable the reader to form for himself a just opinion of Mr. Neal’s character, and will certainly give credibility to what is reported concerning it.
He filled the relations of domestic life with integrity and honour, and left a deep and fond regret in the hearts of his family. In his public connexions, he was the prudent counselor, and a faithful, steady friend. His labours in the pulpit and his visits in families, while his health continued firm, were edifying and entertaining. He had an easy and agreeable manner, both in the style and in the delivery of his sermons, free from affectation. In conversation, he knew how to mix grave and prudent instruction or advice with a becoming cheerfulness, which made his company to be pleasing and profitable.
He was honoured with the friendship of some in very high stations; and, in early life, contracted an acquaintance with several, who afterward made a considerable figure in the learned world, both in the established church and among the Dissenters.
The repeated and frequent invitations he received to appear in the pulpit, on singular and public occasions, especially the share he had in the lectures at Salters Hall, against popery, are honourable proofs of the respect and estimation in which his abilities and character were generally held even by those who differed from him in their sentiments on many questions of doctrine and church government.
His own doctrinal sentiments were supposed to come nearest to those of Calvin, which looked upon as most agreeable to the Sacred Scriptures, and most adapted to the great ends of religion. But neither were his charity nor his friendships confined to men of his own opinion. The Bible alone was his standard for religious truth, and he was willing and desirous that all others should be at perfect liberty to take and follow it as their own rule. The unchristian heats and unhappy differences which had arisen among Christians by the restraints that had been laid, more or less by all parties, when in power, on the faith or worship of their fellow-Christians, had fixed in him an utter aversion to imposition upon conscience in any shape, and to all such party distinctions as would naturally lead to it.
Mr. Neal married Elizabeth, the only daughter of the Reverend Richard Lardner, many years pastor of a congregation at Deal, and sister of the great and excellent Dr. Lardner. She survive Mr. Neal about five years dying in 1748. They left a son and two daughters: one of these ladies married Mr. Joseph Jennings, of Fenchurch Street, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. David Jennings; the other the Rev. Mr. Lister, minister of the Dissenting congregation at Ware. His son, Mr. Nathaniel Neal, was an eminent attorney, and secretary to the Million Bank. He wrote a pamphlet entitled "A Free and serious Remonstrance to Protestant Dissenting Ministers, on occasion of the Decay of Religion," which was republished by the late Rev. Job Orton, in 1775. Many admirable letters of this gentleman to Dr. Doddrige are given to the public in that instructive and entertaining collections of letters to and from the doctor, which we owe to the Rev. Thomas Steadman, vicar of St. Chad’s, Shrewsbury; and who, to the mention of Mr. Nathaniel Neal, adds from a correspondent, "whose character I never think of without the highest veneration and esteem, as few ever possessed more eminently the virtues of the heart, united with a very superior understanding and judgment.
