Though the subject of this sketch is well-nigh forgotten in this degenerate age, except by a few who prize the “old days”, yet in the age in which he lived, and for many generations afterwards, he was reckoned a master in Israel. Many who know his hymn, “The Rock of Ages”, could tell little or nothing of his life or the place he occupied in evangelical circles in his own time. Very little is known of his parents or the schools which he attended in early life, and as little known of his progenitors. His father, Richard Toplady, was a Major in the army and died at the siege of Carthagena soon after the birth of his son. There was another son, Francis, who died in infancy; and so Augustus was brought up without the guidance of a father or the companionship of a brother. Yet the Lord was his guide and breaker up of his way in all things. His mother, who was a pious and prudent woman, trained him up in the way in which he should go, and when he grew up she had the reward of being the object of his solicitude as long as he lived. He was a boy of vigorous intellect and powers of intense application, and soon outstripped many of his compeers, so that when he left Westminster School he had acquired such proficiency as to be capable of teaching others, and was often employed by some of the children of the nobility to do for them what, through indolence or inability, they were unable to do for themselves. While he was still very young he accompanied his mother to Ireland when she went there to prosecute a claim to a title which she seems to have had to an estate there.
Shortly afterwards young Toplady became a student of Trinity College, Dublin, and, owing to the thoroughness of his previous preparation he soon graduated Bachelor of Arts. As a form of relaxation from more severe studies he began to write poems, and a small volume of these was published in Dublin when he was only in his nineteenth year. These poems were judged by competent judges to be highly creditable to his genius, but they are now little known. These poetical effusions were only, as stated, indulged in by way of relaxation. More serious and exacting studies claimed his attention. Being destined for the ministry of the gospel, he devoted his attention to the original languages in which the Bible was written. It was during this time in Ireland that he began to realise the import of the Saviour’s language to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It was when he was about sixteen years of age that he wandered into a barn, at a place called Codymain, where he heard a man who, perhaps, could not write his name, preaching from the text, “But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Ephes. ii, 13). From that night Mr Toplady dated his effectual calling. Through reading Dr Manton on John xvii. he came to see the scripturalness of Calvinism as opposed to the tenets of Arminianism. The latter he hated to his last breath with an inveterate hatred.
In 1762 he was a candidate for holy orders, and having passed his examinations he was ordained a deacon. Shortly afterwards he was inducted to the living of Blagdon in Somersetshire. This living was procured for him by friends in a manner of which he was not aware at the time but when he came to know of it, his tender conscience was troubled, and he had no peace until he relinquished it. We find him next in the living of Fen-Ottery and Harpford, where he preached to a numerous and attentive congregation. That he was not a mere place-seeker itching after the applause of men is shown by the following entry in his Diary at this time: “O my Lord, let not my ministry be approved only, or tend to no more than conciliating the esteem and affections of my people to thy unworthy messenger; but do the work of thy grace upon their hearts: call in thy chosen; seal and edify thy regenerate; and command thy everlasting blessing on their souls! save me from self-opinion, and from self-seeking; and may they cease from man, and look solely to thee!”
Arising out of a mutual arrangement between him and a Mr Luce, who was the incumbent of Broad-Hembury, Mr Toplady became the vicar of the latter place and Mr Luce the incumbent of the former. Shortly after the translations were agreed upon the vicarage of Harpford was burned to the ground, but as every transaction had been agreed upon before this took place, Mr Toplady was inducted at Broad-Hembury, and Mr Luce, the following day, was inducted at Harpford. In prospect of his transference to Broad-Hembury Mr Toplady says: “There is one thing that pleases me much, about Broad-Hembury, and makes me hope for a blessing upon the event, viz. that it was not, from first to last, of my own seeking: and every door, without any application of mine, has hitherto flown open, and all seems to point that way. As a good man somewhere says, ‘A believer never yet carved for himself, but he cut his own fingers’. — The all-wise God, whose never-failing providence ordereth every event, usually makes what we set our hearts upon unsatisfactory; and sweets what we feared: bringing real evil, out of seeming good: and real good, out of seeming evil to show us what short-sighted creatures we are, and to teach us to live by faith upon his blessed self.” That Mr Toplady could show himself a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the truth, goes without saying. At the beginning of his ministry he wrote out his sermons in full and slavishly read them to his congregation, but as time advanced he, by and by, discarded his reading of them. His knowledge of theology, which was Calvinistic, his familiarity with the original languages in which the Bible was written, and his acquaintance with Latin and the writings of those theologians who wrote in that language made him more than a match for the enemies of truth. A writer of his Life says: “Even from the commencement of his ministry, Mr Toplady distinguished himself as a judicious, evangelical, and eloquent preacher. Short as was the period of his incumbency at Blagdon, he had, before he left it, collected an overflowing congregation. His popularity and usefulness increased on his removal to Broad-Hembury; and it continued till that which was his last and best removal, at least, for himself, — his removal from the earthly sanctuary, to the heavenly Zion. Nor was it in obscure country parishes only, that his pulpit eloquence electrified his audience. So highly was he esteemed in the metropolis, that the churches, in which he preached there, could not contain the immense multitudes that crowded to hear him. Even on week-days, when he preached, he was always sure of a large audience.”
This was high praise, but it shows the abilities of one who when little more than a boy translated and digested the work of Jerom Zanchius on ‘Predestination’. This, with his other works, earned for him the hatred of those who were of the Arminian persuasion, especially the followers of John Wesley, who opposed him bitterly, and misrepresented him unfairly. In contending with Wesley and his followers he was led to use language which cannot be excused, but to use his own expression, he would never try to “hew such milestones with a feather,” and yet he could pray for Wesley in the following language: “O, that He in whose hearts the hands of all men are, may make even this opposer of grace, a monument of its almighty power to save! God is witness, how earnestly I wish it may consist with the divine will, to touch the heart and open the eyes of that unhappy man. I hold it as much my duty to pray for his conversion, as to expose the futility of his railings against the truth of the gospel.” Among his literary works is his ‘Historical Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England’, which has been said to have been the most learned and laboured of all his works. He commenced the new series of the Gospel Magazine in 1774, and it was edited by him from December 1775 till June 1776. He himself was responsible for a considerable number of the articles appearing in that periodical during that time.
Mr Toplady’s health was never robust but its condition became aggravated by symptoms of consumption, which made him consider a change from the moist atmosphere of his parish to the south of England but this did not materialise. His medical advisers suggested London and he removed there, but he was busier there than ever. His friends secured for him the use of the French Calvinistic Chapel of Orange Street in Leicester Fields, where he held services from April 1776 till April 1778, along with fulfilling many appointments in connection with services of a charitable nature. This aggravated his affliction, so that it could be seen that he was rapidly descending to his grave. He became unable to preach, and when, to all appearances, it became evident that he would never enter a pulpit again a false and malicious report was circulated, commonly attributed to John Wesley and some of his followers, that he wished to recant from his Calvinism. In spite of the warnings of his physicians that he might die in the attempt, he entered the pulpit of Orange Street Chapel, two months before his death, and gave a full and emphatic denial to this false report. This was published afterwards under the title, ‘The Rev. Mr Toplady’s Dying Avowal of his Religious Sentiments’. He died on 11th August 1778, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in Tottenham Court Chapel.
This doughty champion of Calvinism was the subject of false and malicious reports, not only during his life, but after his death. These reports had their origin, as far as can be traced, in Wesley and his associates, and represented him as blaspheming on his death-bed and dying in black despair. The fact that Wesley, after having many opportunities, did not dissociate himself from them, when confronted with them, or even answer the letters of those who wrote to him on the matter, clearly points to his guilt. The Editor of the 1825 edition of Toplady’s Works, says, in reference to Wesley’s silence, as far as answering these letters were concerned: “Those who have read the preceding letters, astonished as they must have been at their contents, will be yet more astonished to hear, that, to the loud and repeated calls, thus given him to speak for himself, Mr Wesley answered not a word. Nor is it too much to say, that, by maintaining a pertinacious silence, in such circumstances, the very vitals of his character were stabbed by himself. He thus consented to a blot remaining on his name, among the foulest that ever stained the reputation of a professed servant of Jesus Christ. The truth or falsehood of those principles, however, which it was the object of his long and laborious life to propagate and defend, cannot be considered as at all affected by his unhappy, and unmanly, and ungodly conduct, in reference to this matter.”