Peter's Admonition to Simon Magus, Turned into Prayer

Author: Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

Searcher of hearts, before Thy face. P. Doddridge. [Lent]. Published by Job Orton, in his posthumous edition of Doddridge’s Hymns, &c., 1755, No. 250, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, “Peter’s Admonition to Simon Magus, Acts viii. 21-24.” It was repeated in J. D. Humphrey’s edition of the same, 1839.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)