John Berridge (1 March 1716 − 22 January 1793) was an Anglican evangelical revivalist and hymnist. J. C. Ryle wrote that as one of "the English evangelists of the eighteenth century" Berridge was "a mighty instrument for good."
Early life
John Berridge was born in Kingston on Soar, Nottinghamshire, on 1 March 1716. His father (also John Berridge) was a wealthy farmer and grazier at Kingston, who married a Miss Sarah Hathwaite, in the year 1714. Berridge was his eldest son; he had three brothers.
At age fourteen, Berridge returned home. His father's plan was for Berridge to learn how to operate the family farm.
Knowledge of his "fallen state" Berridge wrote in the epitaph on his tomb his stages of religious development. The first stage was "Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730". This stage referred to the fact that at age fourteen, Berridge came to believe that "he was a sinner, and must be born again".
Cambridge
Berridge's father sent him to Cambridge. He matriculated in 1735 where he entered Clare College on 12 June. He graduated BA in 1739 and MA in 1742. Berridge was elected an Exeter Fellow of his college in 1740, then as a Diggons fellow in 1743. Berridge became a foundation fellow in 1748. This allowed him to live in Clare College until 1757. Thus, he lived there throughout his first curacy in Stapleford and for two years into his vicarship at Everton. He gave up his fellowship on 1 June 1764.
Berridge had a "reputation in the University as a thorough scholar".
Ordained ministry
Berridge was ordained Deacon in the Church of England on 10 March 1744 and Priest on 9 June 1745. He served from 1750 as Curate of Stapleford, Cambridgeshire (with Tetworth, Huntingdonshire) 1750-1755 and Vicar of Everton, Bedfordshire and Tetworth, Huntingdonshire 1755-93, that is until his death.
Curate of Stapleford, 1750-1755
From 1750 to 1755, Berridge served as curate in Stapleford near Cambridge, riding out from Clare College.
He performed his duties with "a sincere desire to do good". He preached and taught "the importance of sanctification". Yet, as Berridge later reflected, his ministry in Stapleford was fruitless because he neither believed nor preached the gospel of justification by faith. Because he believed that he was having "no beneficial effect, spiritual or moral" on his congregation, he resigned.
Vicar of Everton, 1755-93
On 1 July 1755, Berridge became Vicar of Everton, near Sandy. During the time Berridge continued to live in Clare College, he employed John Jones (1700–1770), a liberal clergyman, as resident curate. A "domestic disagreement" led to Jones resigning. This episode may explain "the degree and nature of Jones's adverse comments on Berridge's character" both then and later.
Of his ministry in Everton, Berridge later wrote that, for the first two years, he again preached "sanctification and regeneration as vigorously" as he could and again without success. Berridge also reflected that he blamed his lack of success on his hearers rather than on the wrong doctrine he was preaching. Preaching sanctification with the gospel of justification by faith was the second phase of Berridge's religious development that he wrote on the epitaph on his tomb, namely, "Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1754".
Conversion
About Christmas 1757, Berridge began thinking that he might be preaching wrong doctrine. He was "musing upon a text of Scripture" when what seemed to him "like a voice from heaven" said, "Cease from thine own works." By this epiphany, he realized that his former belief that his salvation depended partly through his works, and "partly through Christ’s mercies" was wrong. Now he was assured that his salvation depended solely on Christ's mercies, to wit, that he was "justified by faith" and that "sanctification follows after justification".
Berridge does not specify what text of Scripture on which he was musing, but it might well have been Hebrews 4:10 in conjunction with Matthew Poole’s Annotations Upon the Holy Bible (1700). Poole comments that "true Christians have ceased and rested from all their sinful works and labours,"
Berridge's conversion was the third in his three stages of religious development that he wrote in the epitaph on his tomb, namely, "Fled to Jesus alone for refuge, 1756".