[q. v.] and John Howe (1630-1705) [q. v.] With Isaac Watts he began a close friendship, unbroken by many differences of opinion.
In 1705 Grove returned to Somersetshire, where his preaching attracted attention. He married, and probably settled for a short time at Ilchester. On 14 June 1706 Warren died. The Somersetshire presbyterians met to arrange for carrying on the Taunton Academy, and appointed Grove, in his twenty-third year, tutor in ethics and 'pneumatology.' He lived at Taunton, and took charge of the neighbouring congregations of Hull Bishop's and West Hatch, in conjunction with James Strong. His stipend from these two charges was under 20l. a year, and the income from his tutorship was small, but he had some patrimony. He gave great care to his sermons, and systematised his prelections on metaphysics and ethics; his ethical system (published posthumously in an unfinished state) was his favourite work. In 1708 he corresponded with Samuel Clarke (1675–1729) [q. v.] on the defects of his argument for the existence of God. For Clarke, as a Newtonian, he had a great respect, but thought him inferior as a metaphysician to Andrew Baxter [q. v.] In 1714 he contributed four papers to the revived issue (eighth volume) of the 'Spectator.' His first and second papers (1 Sept. and 1 Oct.) are pleas for disinterested benevolence; the third (29 Nov.) makes an ingenious use of the love of novelty as levelling the distinctions of position; the fourth (20 Dec.), on a future state, closes the 'Spectator.'
Grove published (1718) an essay on the immateriality of the soul. The resignation of Darch, his colleague at the academy, now threw on him the conduct of the departments of mathematics and physics. Early in 1725 Stephen James, the divinity tutor, died, and Grove, without relinquishing his other work, took his place, with the assistance of his nephew, Thomas Amory, afterwards D.D. [q. v.] He resigned his congregations to succeed James as minister at Fullwood (or Pitminster), near Taunton. He declined invitations to Exeter and London. He refused to take any share in the doctrinal disputes which spread from Exeter to London in 1719, and produced the rupture at Salters' Hall. His orthodoxy was called in question by John Ball (1665?-1745) [q. v.], especially in consequence of his discourse on saving faith (1736); but though he laid great stress on the 'reasonableness' of Christianity, and on the moral argument for a future state, he seems to have avoided the speculations on the doctrine of the Trinity, which were rife among the dissenters of his age. Strong reports him as saying, 'The older I grow the less inclined I am to quarrel with men for difference of opinions.'
The Taunton Academy more than maintained its repute during his tutorship. A list of ninety-three of his students is given by James Manning (Monthly Repository, 1818, p.89 sq.); twenty-two additional names are given in Dr. Toulmin's manuscript list. In discipline, as well as in teaching, his methods were suasive rather than authoritative; his first publication, on the 'regulation of diversions' (1708), was designed to produce in his pupils the love of a high morale. There are points of resemblance between Grove and Doddridge. Grove 'had the reputation of some wit,' but he lacked Doddridge's constitutional vivacity and his missionary spirit. Like Doddridge he wrote hymns; his poetical flights were stimulated by the friendship of Elizabeth Singer, afterwards the wife of Thomas Howe, the tutor's nephew. One or two of his hymns still survive in dissenting collections. He remonstrated with Watts on the overdrawn theology of some of his hymns.
Grove sought distinction as an ethical writer, but the impression of his personal character has outlasted his painstaking theory of morals. His system is a mild Christian stoicism; the function of morality is to meet the universal demand for happiness; and it was Grove's experience that 'the happiness of the present state consists more in repose than in pleasure.' He treats conscience as an intellectual process which ascertains what actions are lawful, and then prudence decides 'which are to take place in the present juncture.' The lists of subscribers to his various posthumous works include the names of Archbishop Herring, with Hoadly, Secker, and Hutton among the bishops.
Grove preached on 19 Feb. 1738, and was seized the same night with a violent fever, of which he died on 27 Feb. He was buried at Taunton, where there is a tablet to his memory in Paul's Meeting, bearing a Latin inscription from the pen of John Ward, LL.D., professor of rhetoric at Gresham College. James Strong of Ilminster and William May of London preached funeral sermons; the latter's was not published. His portrait, by J. Woolaston, was engraved by Vertue in 1740. His wife died insane in 1736; he had thirteen children, of whom five survived him.
Of Grove's publications during his lifetime Amory enumerates twenty-six, most of them being single sermons. The following may be specially mentioned:
- 'An Essay towards a Demonstration of the Soul's Immateriality,' &c., 1718, 8vo (has preface on the reality of an external world against Arthur Collier
