Augustus Toplady

Augustus Montague Toplady (* November 4, 1740 in Farnham, † August 11 1778 in London) was an Anglican clergyman and writer of hymns.

Life

After his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Dublin, he was ordained a priest in 1762 and worked as a vicar in Devon. After Toplady was initially followed the Methodist John Wesley School, he represented later extreme Calvinist positions and was the avowed rival of his teacher. The dispute between the two theologians should culminate in a heated literary slugfest. Topladys Letter to Mr Wesley ( 1770) followed the The Consequence Proved (1771 ), followed in turn Toplady replied in an even greater sharpness with More Work for Mr. Wesley ( 1772).

Toplady became famous primarily as the author of numerous spiritual songs. The most famous was Rock of Ages from 1775, in which he emphasizes the deterministic point of Calvinism in particular. Inspired this, he was, as he had found in a crevice refuge from a storm. In addition, include the collection Poems on Sacred Subjects (Dublin, 1759) and Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship (London, 1776), to name a few. As Topladys best prose work is considered the Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England ( London, 1774).

His last years were spent Toplady in London, where he worked in a Calvinist church in the Orange Street.

Works

• The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady. Harrisonburg 1987. ISBN 1-59442-078-5