CHAPTER III.

HIS ENGAGEMENTS AS A PRELATE, A COUNCILLOR OF CONSISTORY, AND MEMBER OF THE PROVINCIAL ESTATES.

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His latter years remarkably verified the common observation, that whereas worldly honour (like one's own shadow) flies from us if we pursue it, it pursues us if we run away from it. He was never minded to make for himself days and hours of convenience and pleasure, to lay up many good things of a temporal kind, or to get into high places of honour." His "diligence was rather directed faithfully to do whatever his hand found to do, whether it were a great matter or a small, according to the ability God had given him. He was inclined to compare his condition rather with that of persons in humbler station, than with that of persons above him; and thus found contentment no difficult virtue. He committed his ways to the Lord; and, with singleness of heart, he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, to whose disposal he resigned every care about a rough course of life or a smooth one." But notwithstanding this resigned state of spirit, he was gradually promoted to the highest ecclesiastical functions and dignities of his country. Upon resigning the tutorship of the Theological Institution in 1741, he was appointed to the prelacy of Herbrechtingen, and to the station of Aulic Councillor. In 1747 he was chosen a member of the General States Assembly; in 1748 he was advanced to a seat in the Special Assembly; in 1749 he was made Councillor of Consistory, and Prelate of Alpirsbach, and created Doctor of Theology in 1751. It will be interesting and instructive to trace him from one honourable station to another, and to notice his conduct in each.

He used to say, "We may learn from the example of Isaiah (vi. 8) how to conduct ourselves on receiving any important call. When the prophet heard the voice of Jehovah, saying, ' Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' (who will be my messenger?) he was ready at once to consent, saying, 'Here am I;'

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but he did not omit to add, Send me!' that he might not go without the Divine will. A ready mind' is much more pleasing to God than that of one who must be constrained into his service; as was Moses, to become the shepherd of the children of Israel. Therefore we may and ought to offer ourselves to God for any commission wherewith he may be pleased to entrust us: only we must wait until he send us, and wait to know what our place or appointment is; at the same time remembering, that as we are but human instruments at best, there is a possibility of running before he sends us, or when he does not want us. As we can be nothing more than his instruments, the less we mingle with his work what is merely ours-in other words, the more immediately we depend for our sufficiency upon God himself-the more direct is our progress to its complete fulfilment. A person of good talents may certainly, by diligence, enterprise, and favourable circumstances, bring to pass what he has determined on merely of himself; but just because he did not properly regard the will of God in the matter, does he find no blessing attending it. Nay, if he be even a converted person, consequently under the general influence of good principles, and really designing to work for the kingdom of God, still, if in any specialty he act merely by a will of his own, if he vainly imagine it is himself that must support the ark of God, he mars his undertaking at once; he brings down no blessing upon his ministration, though it be in God's service. This also is too likely to be the case, when a person, ever so honest-minded and pious, is pushed forward into the sacred ministry by relatives or friends, though his own will did not take the lead. Why are people so active in their own counsel and strength?"

With such sentiments, Bengel considered it his christian duty to let all his friends know, that, however contrary to the spirit of his own times, he had made up his mind to apply for no preferment or dignity whatever; but patiently and retiringly to await what God should be pleased to make of him by the instrumentality of his superiors; a principle upon which he always acted. Thus when, a few years after his settlement at Denkendorf, he was invited to stand for the Greek professorship at Tübingen, he deferred acknowledging this mark of respect till the professorship was filled up; believing that by thus waiting he should learn the will of God upon it more certainly than if he hastily caught at it, or hastily declined it. He had more difficulty upon another decision of the kind in the year 1720. Having received a call to the divinity chair in the University of

Giessen, at the instance of the privy councillor Smalcalder, of Hesse-Darmstadt (whose acquaintance he had made some time before), and of his relative, George Michael Seeger, M. A. who was then tutor at Darmstadt, in the family of the Baron von Löwenstern, he delayed giving any answer till he heard that a Mr. Meuschen had obtained the professorship. He then wrote a letter of thanks; but this letter was returned to him, accompanied by another from Seeger, saying that the report of Meuschen's election was unfounded; so that he was obliged to come to a decision of his own, which we find in the following reply to Seeger:

"Your letter of the eighth of May reached me at the proper time; but I deferred answering it because I was at a loss how to reply upon the matter it contained: I therefore followed the method which I have for some time adopted under such circumstances. When I was written to about taking the Greek fessorship at Tübingen, I purposely delayed returning my grateful acknowledgments till I learnt that the appointment was filled up. In like manner, when I heard that Mr. Meuschen was to be the new divinity professor at Giessen, I then wrote to you; and yesterday my letter came back from Stuttgart, with another from yourself, still bringing to me the same proposal. But I have also received a letter from my wife, which says; 'Our dear father is of opinion that, with all due thanks, you should decline it, because, every one of us being in a weak state of health, we are unequal to such a journey and change of situation; and he thinks our worthy mother was quite distressed at hearing any thing said about it.' Though I generally sleep more soundly than when my little people are at home, last night it was otherwise, for want of the quietness of mind I had enjoyed while I supposed that Meuschen was elected. But that I may give no further trouble to our honourable privy councillor, who has enough to engage him without my increasing it, I wish my definitive reply to be made in the categorical emphasis of No; with, however, my very best thanks for kindness so highly valued by me; and with my sincere wish that the Most High may so order the counsels and measures of our excellent friend, in this and every other business, that he may have all the satisfaction in it he can well look for. But how hidden or how few must be men of God in the present day, if this gentleman feels it necessary to look out, from such a distance, for an insignificant being like myself to come and occupy a station of so high importance! "In addition to the family objections in my wife's letter, to

which I cannot but assent, I have also many a scruple of my own. I am satisfied God has sent and placed me here. I am prospered here in every way; am become familiar with my work; and am enabled freely to apply my liberal allowance of spare time to wholesome exercises, studies, and employments. But, in so responsible a station as a professorship of divinity, what a demand of laborious preparation and engagement would come upon me, especially at the outset! and the more so, as for a number of years I have given no great deal of time to theological labour of this kind, important as it is in its proper place. In my present obscure and humble station I do not eat my bread quite unearned; but were I in a higher one, there might be occasion to say, Why does he stand in the way of a more efficient man? Here, also, in my native Würtemberg, my dear partner and myself have parents still living; and my own dear mother, who cannot expect to live many years longer in this world, would be uncomfortable at losing my society. Indeed, all the endearing links of brothers, sisters, relatives, and of many kind and affectionate friends, so twine about us here, that I think you will agree with me, that unless we have some very imperative reason for it, we ought not to quit such a favoured neighbourhood for a situation among perfect strangers; many of whom also may be likely to view us with an invidious eye, especially in a part of the empire where many from our own country, after settling there awhile, have found themselves glad to return home again.

"P.S.-Stuttgart, 1st July. Hither have I arrived to fetch home my family, and so have brought this letter with me. As I could not trust the subject of it entirely to my own judgment, I contrived yesterday to hold a little meeting for consultation, in the garden summerhouse of the Estates Assembly Chambers. My council consisted of my wife and our respective parents, who sat by my side upon the bench, with two dear friends opposite. My letter was read and approved; but besides the objections I had stated in it, several others were now brought forward. My mother, indeed, resolves to write to Mr. privy councillor herself. My own will I submit to hers; and mine and hers to the will of God. As I am quite satisfied that it is with his will that I am stationed at Denkendorf, I pray that he may not permit me to leave that station without his will. I do not know what more to say about the matter, either against it or for it."

After it had been thus decided, as in the former instance, two professorships at Tübingen successively fell vacant by the demise of Hoffman and Bilfinger; and it was again on both occasions

reported that Bengel was to take one of them, namely, the professorship of divinity. When Hoffmann died in 1728, Bengel wrote to his intimate friend Marthius as follows:-" Is it not almost a want of christian modesty in me to say, that it seems as if the settling who is to take this professorship was likely to have much to do with the future course of life of your humble servant? At all events, I must beg you very earnestly to beseech God that it may please him so to dispose in this emergency, as shall best conduce to my own and others' welfare. I am not ambitious to outshine my neighbours at the university, or in the world at large; there is another glory that far excelleth, which you and I are longing for, and which I have a humble confidence that we shall attain."

In the same spirit of resignation did he act again with respect to a professorship at Tübingen, which became vacant in the year And thus he still remained stationed for the present, as tutor in the theological seminary of Denkendorf.*

1735.

But in the year 1740, Drommer, the prelate of this place, died, and Bengel's services as tutor had been now of so many years' continuance, that he had substantial claim to some office more becoming his advancement at least in age. He was asked, of course, whether he would apply for the vacant prelacy, upon which subject we here give extracts from two of his letters to particular friends.

'April 8, 1740. "Who will be Drommer's successor amongst us is not yet known. I endeavour to keep myself stayed and faithful within

* On one occasion' of its being proposed to him to take the divinity professorship and presidency of the Theological College of Tübingen, he thus wrote to a friend upon the plan he meant to follow in case he should enter upon these important offices :“I should use much diligence in preparing for every public lecture, and be confinually going through a complete course upon the various branches of biblical study, that students might be thoroughly informed as to the general scope of holy Scripture, and the matter and object of each particular book of the inspired volume. I would enter upon the regular business of the professorship, directly after my being appointed, just as a person would do who had been long familiar with it, and thus lose no time. I would be communicative as a brother with the most dependent students, not indeed with that familiarity which breeds contempt, but yet freely conversible with them, and would appoint times of open access to me every week, so that if any one of them wished to speak with me quite privately, he might have opportunities for doing it. But things not of so private a nature it would, I think, be better to attend to when several are together, that all might be benefited alike. Some questions might be asked me privately, which I might find it good to answer afterwards in the presence of several, without naming who put them to me. I would endeavour to establish mutual confidence amongst them, and take particular care that those on the foundation of the college should have such ample and suitable provisions, that no pretence might exist for extra feasting. To obviate any excesses of this sort would demand my first attention, otherwise I should not interfere in it."

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