Lecture at Bulkington

It was my great privilege to lecture on the subject of this blog recently at Bulkington Congregational Church near Nuneaton. You can hear the lecture at the church website here.

Coleman Anecdote 16 William Jenkyn

The next case we present is one, amongst many others, of imprisonment and death - painful confinement issuing in death. Mr William Jenkyn [1613-1685] was maternal grandson to John Rogers, the proto-martyr in the Marian persecution. In the great storm that prevailed against the Nonconformists in James II's reign, on September 2, 1684, when he, with Mr [Edward] Reynolds [1599-1676], Mr J[ohn] Flavel [1627-1691] and Mr [Thomas] Keeling, was spending a day in prayer, with many of his friends, in a place where they thought themselves out of danger, the soldiers broke in upon them in the midst of the exercise. All the ministers made their escape except Mr Jenkyn. Mr Flavel was so near that he heard the insolence of the officers and soldiers to Mr Jenkyn when they had taken him, and observes in his diary that Mr Jenkyn might have escaped as well as himself, had it not been for a piece of vanity in a lady, whose long train hindered his going down the stairs, Mr Jenkyn, out of his too great civility, having let her pass before him.

Being taken before two aldermen, Sir James Edwards and Sir James Smith, they treated him very roughly, well knowing that it would be acceptable in the highest places in the land. Upon his refusing the Oxford oath, they committed him to Newgate, rejecting his offer of £40 fine which the law empowered them to take, though it was urged that the air of Newgate would infallibly suffocate him. He petitioned the King for a release, which was backed by an assurance from his physician that his life was in danger from his close confinement; but no other answer could be obtained but this, "Jenkyn shall be a prisoner as long as he lives." This was most rigorously adhered to. He was not suffered to go to baptize his daughter's child, though a considerable sum was offered for his liberty to do it, with security for his return. The keepers were ordered not to let him pray with any visitants; even when his daughter came to ask his blessing, he was not allowed to pray with her. He soon began, through this confinement, to decline in health, but continued all along in the utmost joy and comfort of soul. He said to one of his friends, "What a vast difference there is between this and my first imprisonment (alluding to his having formerly been sent to the Tower for being concerned in [Christopher] Love's plot); then I was full of doubts and fears, of grief and anguish, and well I might, for going out of God's way and my calling to meddle with things that did not belong to me. But now, when I was found in the way of my duty in my Master's business, though I suffer even unto bonds, yet I am comforted beyond measure. The Lord sheds abroad his love sensibly in my heart: I feel it, I have assurance of it." Turning to some who were weeping by him, he said, "Why weep ye for me? Christ lives; He is my Friend, a Friend born for adversity; a Friend that never dies. "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." He died in Newgate, January 19th, 1685, aged 72, having been a prisoner there four months, where, as he said a little before he died, "a man might be as effectually murdered as at Tyburn."

A nobleman, having heard of his happy release, said to the King, "May it please your Majesty, Jenkyn has got his liberty." Upon which he asked with eagerness, "Ay, who gave it him?" The nobleman replied, "A greater than your Majesty, the King of kings." With which the King appeared greatly struck, and remained silent.

Coleman Anecdote 15 Bristol

In the published records of the Broadmead church, in the city of Bristol, we see the spirit of their persecutors, the sufferings undergone, and the contrivances to which they resorted to elude their adversaries. "In the year 1664, at a week-day meeting, a guard of musketeers was sent to take them into custody; but having been apprised of their coming, and the darkness of the night proving favourable, they withdrew into an underground cellar, which had a communication with Baldwin Street, and so they escaped, and left their persecutors disappointed.

"Soon after, on a Lord's day, the mayor and aldermen, with their officers, broke open Mr [Thomas] Ellis's house at the back door, and came in. But while these housebreakers were effecting an entrance, Mr Ellis contrived to hide a garret door, by placing a large cupboard before it, and by that means sent away most of the men. Still, many necessarily remained behind, of whom the mayor and Sir John sent 31 to Bridewell for a month, preparatory to ultimate banishment.

"In November, 1665, a troop of horse were sent to the city to suppress the conventicles, and very abusive they were at all the meetings they could discover.

''The first Lord's day after the 10th of April, when the 'Conventicle Act' first came into operation, the informers were on the alert, and because the church could gain no information of their intended plan of proceeding, they closed their meeting-house door. The informers immediately fetched constables, broke open the door, went in, and took down the names of those whom they knew, who were in consequence brought before the magistrate and convicted. But persecution sharpened their invention. The next Lord's day they broke a large hole in a high wall, which enabled them to hear the preacher in the next house, without being present with him. Yet the bishop's informers went again, and not recognising such a nice distinction, took down the names, and some of them were again taken before the mayor and convicted.

"The scene was also enacted on the third Lord's day, and on the fourth the mayor went himself, with his officers and several of the aldermen; but finding these means to be utterly ineffectual, they resorted to another expedient. On the Saturday evening they raised the trained bands, some of whom, to prevent the church from meeting, nailed up the doors, and put locks upon them. Being thus ejected by force and power, they met in the public lanes and highways."

At another time, when all their ministers were removed - one dead, three imprisoned, and their deaths apprehended - the bishop's men and Helliar, a lawyer, being in hot pursuit and woefully successful, so that the extinction of the churches seemed almost inevitable, the members proved themselves men of the right stamp. They animated each other's hearts, and, notwithstanding all their discouragements, so far from forsaking the assembling of themselves together, they clung with greater tenacity to a privilege difficult of attainment, and exercised all their ingenuity to accomplish with impunity this one desire of their hearts.

When they could again meet in their place of worship, in order to disappoint spies who might be present as hearers, and yet not to exclude strangers who might attend without any evil design, they contrived that a curtain should be hung all across, the space behind it being so arranged as to accommodate the preacher and his confidential friends. Consequently, if there were spies present, they could not see the preacher so as to give any certain information against him; and lest any should intrude behind the curtain, some of the members were especially appointed to prevent all from this whom they did not know to be the friends of Christ and his cause. When the time was come for commencing this curtain was drawn close, and the stairs completely filled with female friends. Sentinels were also appointed without, who, on seeing the approach of the informers, passed the word with telegraphic despatch and secrecy; the preacher sat down, the curtain was undrawn, the whole room exposed to view, and the people began simultaneously to sing a psalm. To prevent confusion, the psalm which was to be sung on the entrance of the informers was previously annoiinced; and to avoid the inconvenience of reading it, all brought their Bibles and read for themselves. By these means when the mayor came he was disappointed, they were all singing, and whom to take up for preaching he could not tell. When the informers were gone] the singing ceased, the curtain was drawn, and the preacher resumed his discourse until they returned, which they sometimes did three times during one meeting. Then again the preacher retired, the curtain was drawn aside, and singing resumed as before. "This," they say, "was our constant practice in Olive's mayoralty, and we were in a good measure edified, and our enemies often disappointed." Laus Deo.

One of their ministers, Mr [Thomas] Hardcastle [1636-1678], ejected from a living in Yorkshire, had been imprisoned eight months in York Castle, from thence conveyed to Chester Castle, where he was detained a close prisoner fifteen months more. For preaching Christ in London he was again apprehended, and continued a prisoner six months. Twice also at Bristol did he pay this penalty for Christ and a good conscience, each imprisonment lasting six months; "still preaching," say the records, "as soon as ever he came forth, and so continued till his death."

Nathaniel Heywood's House

Nathaniel Heywood's House Chapel Street Ormskirk 2005

Coleman Anecdote 14 Philip Henry

The name of Philip Henry (1631-1696) carries with it all that is pious, peaceful, and benevolent, yet towards him we find the spirit of bitter persecution arises. He was emphatically one of the "quiet of the land" acting with the greatest caution, anxious to avoid offence, though continually influenced by a spirit of supreme regard to God, and ready for every duty to which he believed his Master called him. Yet he was subject, with others with whom he was associated, to great oppression and trial, especially on the following occasion, the circumstances of which are particularly narrated in the memoirs of his life. At the beginning of the year 1681, a great drought prevailed in the land; it was generally apprehended that a famine would ensue. Many of the pious part of the people thought it was time to seek the Lord, who giveth rain in its season. In the neighbourhood in which Mr Henry resided, some desired to have a day set apart for fasting and prayer on this account. Suitable services were to be held at the house of a certain individual in Hodnet parish, Shropshire, June 14. Mr Henry, on being invited to attend and give his assistance, inquired how they stood with the neighbouring justices, and the reply was "well enough."

The drought continuing in extremity, some that had not been in the habit of attending such meetings were present, under the apprehension they had of a threatened judgment. Mr Edward Bury (1616-1700), of Bolas, well known by several useful books that he had published, prayed. Mr Henry prayed, and then preached on Psalm lxvi. 18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Hence the doctrine was, that iniquity regarded in the heart will certainly spoil the success of prayer. When he was in the midst of his sermon, closely applying this truth, Sir Thomas Vernon and Charles Mainwaring, Esq, two justices of the peace for Shropshire, with several others of their retinue, came suddenly upon them, disturbed them, set guards upon the house door, came in themselves, severely rallied all they knew, reflected upon the late honourable "House of Commons," and upon the vote they passedconcerning the unreasonableness of putting the laws in execution against Protestant Dissenters, as if in so voting they had gone beyond their sphere, as they did who took away the life of King Charles I. They diverted themselves with very abusive and unbecoming talk, swearing, and cursing, and reviling bitterly. On being told that the occasion of the meeting was to turn away the anger of God from us in the present drought, they showed their ignorance and impiety by answering that such meetings as these were the occasion of God's anger. "While they were thus entertaining themselves, their clerk took the names of those who were present, in all about one hundred and fifty, and so dismissed them for the present.

Mr Henry noted, in the account he kept of this event, that "the justices came to this good work from the alehouse at Prees Heath, about two miles off, to which, and to the bowling-green adjoining, they, with other justices, gentlemen, and clergymen of the neighbourhood, had long before obliged themselves to come every Tuesday during the summer under a penalty of twelve pence a time if they were absent, and there to spend the day in drinking and bowling, which was thought to be as much more to the dishonour of God and the scandal of the Christian profession as cursing, and swearing, and drunkenness are worse than praying, and singing psalms, and hearing the Word of God."

It is supposed the justices knew of the meeting before, and might have prevented it by the least intimation; but they were determined to take the opportunity of making sport for themselves, and giving trouble to their neighbours.

After the feat done, they returned to the alehouse, and made themselves and their companions merry with calling over the names they had taken, making their remarks as they saw cause, and recounting the particulars of the exploit.

There was one of the company whose wife happened to be present at the meeting, and her name was taken down among the rest, with which they upbraided him. But he answered, that "she had been better employed than he was; and if Mr Henry might be permitted to preach in the church, he would go a great many miles to hear him." Tor which saying he was forthwith expelled their company, and was never more to show his face at that bowling-green. To which he replied, "that if they had so ordered long ago, it would have been a great deal better for him and his family."

Two days after they met again at Hodnet, where, upon the oath of two witnesses, who, it was supposed, were sent on purpose to inform, they signed and sealed two records of conviction. By one record they convicted the master of the house and fined him £20, and £5 more as constable of the town for that year, and with him all the persons whose names they had taken down, and fined them 5s., and issued warrants accordingly.

By another record they convicted the two ministers, Mr Bury and Mr Henry. The Act makes it only punishable to preach and to teach in any such conventicles, and yet they fined Mr Bury £20, though he only prayed, and did not speak one word either in the way of preaching or teaching, not so much as, "Let us pray." However, they said praying was teaching, and right or wrong he must be fined; though his great piety, peaceableness, and usefulness, besides his deep poverty, might have pleaded for him against so palpable a piece of injustice. They took £7 off from him, and laid it upon others; and for the remaining £13, he being utterly unable to pay, they took from him by distress the bed which he lay upon, with blankets and rug; also another feather bed, nineteen pairs of sheets, most of them new, of which he could not prevail to have so much as one pair returned for him to lie in. Also books to the value of £5, besides brass and pewter. And though he was at this time perfectly innocent of that heinous crime of preaching and teaching with which he was charged, yet he had no way to right himself but by appealing to the justices themselves in quarter-sessions, who would be sure to confirm their own decrees. So the good man sat down with his loss, and "took joyfully the spoiling of his goods, knowing in himself that he had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance."

But Mr Henry being the greatest criminal, and having done the most mischief, must needs be animadverted upon accordingly, and therefore he was fined £40. It was much pressed upon him to pay the fine, which might prevent loss to himself, and trouble to the justices. But he was not willing to do it, partly because he would give no encouragement to such prosecutions, nor voluntarily reward the informers for what he thought they rather deserved punishment; and partly because he thought himself wronged in the doubling of the fine. Whereupon his goods were distrained upon and taken away. But their warrant not giving them authority to break open doors, nor their watchfulness getting them an opportunity toenter the house, they carried away about 33 cart-loads of goods out of doors - corn cut upon the ground, hay, coals, etc - which made a great noise in the country, and raised the indignation of many against the decrees which prescribed this grievous ness ; while Mr Henry bore it with his usual evenness and serenity of mind, not at all moved or disturbed by it. He did not boast of his sufferings, or make any great matter of them, but would often say, "Alas! this is nothing to what others suffer, nor to what we ourselves may suffer before we die." And yet he rejoiced and blest God, that it was not for debt or evil doing that his goods were carried away; and "while it is for well doing that we suffer," he said, " they cannot harm us."

Coleman Anecdote 13 Nathaniel Heywood

As a further illustration of the state of things, we may present a case from another part of the country. Mr N Heywood (1633-1677), ejected from Ormskirk, in Lancashire, where he had been a laborious and successful minister of the gospel, preached privately after his ejectment as he had opportunity - usually twice on Lord's-day, and sometimes repeatedly on week days, ordering his labours in several parts of the parish, both in the day and in the night. Nay, in times of great danger, he hath preached at one house the beginning of the night, and then gone two miles on foot over mosses, and preached towards morning to another company at another house. On the Lord's day, December 20,1674, there came three men while Mr Heywood was in prayer before sermon, and when he had ended, one of them came up to the pulpit and said, "Sir, you are our prisoner, come down and go along with us." Mr Heywood desired he might be suffered to preach, and promised then to submit. But the wretch held a pistol to his head, and with dreadful curses and threatenings ordered him down. However, persons of character espoused his cause, so that he was kept from prison and his goods from being distrained; but his spirit was overwhelmed with grief on account of his people, whom he loved as if they had been his children.

Nonconformity Timeline

This useful timeline can be found here at The Dr WIlliams Centre for Dissenting Studies site

1660 Act for Restoring Ministers

•An Act for the confirming and restoring of Ministers [12 Car. II, c. 17]

1661 Corporation Act

•An Act for the well-governing and regulating of Corporations [13 Car. II, stat. 2, c. 1]

1662 Act of Uniformity

•An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies, and for establishing the Form of making, ordaining and consecrating Bishops, Priests and Deacons in the Church of England [14 Car. II, c. 4]

1664 First Conventicle Act

•An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles [16 Car. II, c. 4]

1665 Five Mile Act

•An Act for restraining Non-conformists from inhabiting in Corporations [17 Car. II, c. 2]

1669 Second Conventicle Act

•An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles [22 Car. II, c. 1]

1673 Test Act

•An Act for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants [25 Car. II, c. 2]

1678 Second Test Act

•An Act for the more effectual preserving the King’s Person and Government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament [30 Car. II, stat. 2, c. 1]

1689 Toleration Act

•An Act for exempting Their Majesties Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws [1 Gul. & Mar., c. 18]

1698 Blasphemy Act

•An Act for the more Effectual Suppressing of Blasphemy and Profaneness [9& 10 Wm III, c.32]

1711 Occasional Conformity Act

•An Act for preserving the Protestant Religion, by better securing the Church of England as by Law established [10 Anne, c. 6]

1714 Schism Act

•An Act to prevent the growth of Schism, and for the further security of the churches of England and Ireland, as by law established [13 Anne, c. 7]
1719 Act for the Repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts

•An Act for strengthening the Protestant Interest in these Kingdoms [5 Geo. I, c. 4]
1779 Protestant Dissenters' Relief Act

•An Act for the further Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Schoolmasters [19 Geo. III, c. 44]
1812 Places of Religious Worship Act

•An Act to repeal certain Acts, and amend other Acts relating to Religious Worship and Assemblies, and Persons teaching or preaching therein [52 Geo. III, c.155]
1813 Unitarian Relief Act

•The Doctrine of the Trinity Act [53 Geo. III, c. 160]

1826 founding of the University of London

•(its name was changed to University College London in 1836)

1828 Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts

•An Act for repealing so much of several Acts as imposes the Necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a Qualification for certain Offices and Employments [9 Geo. IV, c. 17]
1832 Reform Act

•An Act to amend the representation of the people in England and Wales. Its formal short title and citation is the Representation of the People Act 1832 [2 & 3 Wm. IV, c. 45]
1834 University Admission Bill

1835 Municipal Reform Act

•Municipal Corporations Act 1835 [5 & 6 Wm. IV, c. 76]
1836 Founding of the University of London

•(established as an examining body to award degrees)

1854 Oxford University Act

•An Act to make further Provision for the good Government and Extension of the University of Oxford, of the Colleges therein [1854 CHAPTER 81 17 and 18 Vict.]
1856 Cambridge University Act

•An Act to make further Provision for the good Government and Extension of the University of Cambridge, of the Colleges therein [1856 CHAPTER 88 19 and 20 Vict.]
1871 Universities Tests Act

•An Act to alter the law respecting Religious Tests in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham, and in the Halls and Colleges of those Universities [1871 CHAPTER 26 34 and 35 Vict.]


David L. Wykes

Farewell Sermons Contents

The Contents of the Farewell Sermons volume from SDG

1- Edmund Calamy - Sermon from 2nd Samuel 24:14 "Let us Fall into the Hand of the Lord"

2- Thomas Manton - Sermon from Hebrews 12:1 - "The people of God that have such a multitude of examples of holy men and women set before them, should prepare themselves to run the spiritual race with more patience and cheerfulness."

3- Joseph Caryl - Sermon from Revelation 3:4 - "In which encouragement I told you we might consider two things, or take it into two parts. First, " That they should walk with Christ." Secondly, " They should walk in white."

4- Thomas Case - Sermon on Revelation 2:5 - "CHRIST here prescribes precious physic for the healing of this languishing church of Ephesus; it is compounded of a threefold ingredient: 1. Self-reflection, " Remember from," &c. 2. Holy contrition and humiliation before the Lord, " Repent." 3. Thorough reformation, " Do thy first works."

5- William Jenkyn - Morning Sermon on Hebrews 11:38 - "The apostle in this excellent chapter, (that by some is deservedly called a little book of martyrs) discovers the triumph of faith, or victory against all difficulty we meet with."

6- William Jenkyn - Afternoon Sermon on Exodus 3:2-5 - "First then, for explanation, I shall here endeavour to open these two things to you: first, what it is for a place to be holy, or wherein the nature of the holiness of the places consists ; secondly, what that is, that is the foundation or cause of the holiness of places; and both these must in our discourse, and likewise apprehension, be accurately distinguished."

7- Richard Baxter - Sermon on Colossians 2:6,7 - "Omitting the division, and in part the opening of the words, the observation is ; - " That those that have received Christ Jesus the Lord, must accordingly be rooted, built Up in him, and established in the faith; and walk in him as they have been taught, and abound therein with thanksgiving."

8- Thomas Jacombe - Morning Sermon on John 8:29 - The observation I intend to speak to, shall be this: They that please God, and endeavour always to do the things that please God, such God will be with; such the Father will not leave alone; especially in times of suffering and trouble, for I will bring it to that case.

9- Thomas Jacombe - Afternoon Sermon on John 8:29 - Let me endeavour to prevail with every one of you, so to carry yourselves in your several places and capacities, that whatever you do, you may please God.

10- William Bates - Morning Sermon on Hebrews 12:20,21 - Now in these two verses he sums up, by way of recapitulation, all that which he had discoursed of at large, and in them you may observe these two things. 1. A description of God, to whom he addresses this prayer: The God of Peace. 2. The substance of the prayer itself.

11- William Bates - Afternoon Sermon on Hebrews 12:20,21 - It follows " that great Shepherd of the sheep." For the opening of this, 1. We will consider the title of Christ. 2. The person for whom this title relates.

12- Thomas Watson - Morning Sermon on John 13:34 - Doctrine. Christians ought to make conscience of this duty of loving one another. Confident I am, we shall never see religion thrive in the world, until we see this grace of love flourish in the heart of christians.

13- Thomas Watson - Afternoon Sermon on 2 Corinthians 7:1 - It is the title that I intend now, by the help of God, to insist upon, that sweet parenthesis in the text, "dearly beloved," wherein you have the apostle breathing forth his affections unto this people. He speaks now as a pastor, and he speaks to them as his spiritual children.

14- Thomas Watson - Farewell Sermon on Isaiah 3:10,11 - This text is like Israel's pillar or cloud; it hath a light side, and a dark side: it hath a light side unto the godly, "Say unto the righteous, it shall be well with him;" and it hath a dark side unto the wicked, "Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him." Both you see are rewarded, righteous and wicked; but here is a vast difference, the one hath a reward of mercy, the other a reward of j ustice.

15- Thomas Lye - First Sermon on Philippians 4:1 - I shall without any more ado enter upon the text; in which you have two things considerable. A most melting compellation, and a most serious exhortation. 1. A melting compellation, "my brethren, dearly beloved," &c. 2. A serious exhortation; and in it first, the matter of the duty, stand, and stand it out, and stand fast. Secondly, the manner. First, so stand, so as you have stood, stand fast. Second, in the Lord; stand so, and stand in the Lord, in the Lord's strength, and in the Lord's cause.

16- Thomas Lye - Second Sermon on Philippians 4:1 - "It is the grand and indispensable duty of all sincere saints, in the most black and shaking seasons, to stand fast fixed and steadfast in the Lord."

17- Matthew Mead - Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:3 - Being therefore now to part, I thought to go to the top of the mount, and leave with you grace and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. In which words there are two generals. 1. A double blessing desired: Grace and Peace 2. A double spring discovered: that is the Father and the Son, God and Christ.

18- Matthew Newcomen - Sermon on Revelation 3:3 - There are three doctrines obvious in the text; Doctrine 1. That it is the duty of christians, to remember those truths that they have heard and received. Doctrine 2. That it is the duty of christians to hold fast the truth that they have heard and received. Doctrine 3. That continued repentance is the duty of christians, as well as initial repentance. Remember therefore how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast and repent.

19- Thomas Brooks - Sermon on Questions Asked and Answered followed by 27 Legacies that Brooks Left to his Beloved People

20- John Collins - Sermon on Jude 3 - These words contain two parts. 1. A duty exhorted to. 2. The manner of the management of duty. The duty exhorted to, is, to retain the faith delivered to the saints. The manner of its management is, that we should earnestly contend to keep it.

21- Edmund Calamy - Sermons 1 Samuel 4:13 - I shall gather two observations from the words. 1. That when the ark of God is in danger of being lost, the people of God have thoughtful heads and trembling hearts. 2. That a true child of God is more troubled, and more solicitous what shall become of the ark, than what shall become of wife and children or estate.

22- John Gaspine - Sermon on Luke 12:32 - The text contains that exhortation of Christ, wherein he exhorts them to undauntedness and resolution in the ways of God. " Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." The words may be divided into these two parts. First, Here is an exhortation: "Fear not, little flock." Secondly, The reason of this exhortation: "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

23- Lazarus Seaman - Sermon on Hebrews 13:20,21 - In which words, there are two two things considerable. 1. The matter of the apostle's prayer. 2. The grounds, which he doth insinuate for audience.

24- George Evanke - Sermon on Matthew 26:39 - Doct. A gracious soul will endeavour the crossing his own will, when be sees that it crosses God's. Or, thus, A true Christian dare not, at least ought not, to gratify his own humour when it stands in opposition, or cometh in competition with God's honour.

Farewell Sermons SDG

Solid Ground Books are currently advertising this volume of Farewell Sermons here. They say

FAREWELL SERMONS

Addresses from Some of the Most Eminent Nonconformist Ministers of the Great Ejection of 1662

Richard Baxter, Thomas Manton, Thomas Watson, Thomas Brooks, Joseph Caryl, William Jenkyn, William Bates and Eleven More

GREAT NEWS!

SOLID GROUND has an Opportunity to Publish a New Edition of "FAREWELL SERMONS: Addresses from Some of the Most Eminent Nonconformist Ministers of the Great Ejection of 1662

The following paragraphs from the Original Preface will explain the power in this volume:

"Most of the sermons contained in this collection were delivered on the twenty-fourth of August, in the year 1662. On that day the act requiring a perfect conformity to the book of Common Prayer, and to the rites and ceremonies of the church took place: the effect of which enactment was the silencing of nearly two thousand five hundred ministers, the death of three thousand nonconformists, and the ruin of sixty thousand families. Such was the result of the restoration of Charles the Second of infamous memory.

To ascertain the spirit which actuated the ejected ministers, it is sufficient to refer to the following selection of their farewell sermons, which were delivered at the very moment they were agonizing under the fangs of persecution, but which discover nothing but a combination of christian graces. Bishop Burnet admits that 'many of them were distinguished by their abilities and their zeal '; and the celebrated Locke has remarked, 'Bartholomew-day was fatal to our church and religion, by throwing out a very great number of worthy, learned, pious and orthodox divines.'"

C H Spurgeon said "Those great preachers whose names we remember, were men who counted nothing their own: they were driven out from their benefices, because they could not conform to the Established Church, and they gave up all they had willingly to the Lord. They were hunted from place to place, they wandered here and there to preach the gospel to a few. Those were foul times; but they promised they would walk the road fair or foul, and they did walk it knee-deep in mud; and they would have walked it if it had been kinee-deep in blood too. But now we are all little men, there is scarce a man alive now upon this earth."

John Bunyan, who spent 12 years in Bedford jail for his Nonconformity, said, "I fought till my sword did cleave to my right hand; and then they were joined together, as if a sword grew out of my arm; and when the blood ran through my fingers, then I fought with most courage."

Iain Murray wrote, "John Stoughton has described the Sunday upon which most of the Farewell Sermons were preached: 'No Sunday in England ever resembled exactly that which fell on the 17th of August, 1662, one week before the feast of St Bartholomew. There have been "mourning, lamentation, and woe," in particular parish churches when death, persecution, or some other cause has broken pastoral ties, and severed from loving congregations their spiritual guides; but for many hundreds of ministers on the same day to be uttering farewells is an unparalleled circumstance. In after years, Puritan fathers and mothers related to their children the story of assembled crowds, of aisles, standing-places and stairs, filled to suffocation, of people clinging to open windows like swarms of bees, of overflowing throngs in churchyards and streets, of deep silence or stifled sobs, as the flock gazed on the shepherd - "sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no more." ' It is well for us to bear such a background in mind as we read the following pages. The atmosphere of that day was electric and charged with emotion; the popular discontent was great and strong guards stood ready in London, but these sermons seem far removed from all that. There is a calmness, and unction and a lack of invective. Great though their sorrow was for their flocks and for their nation, they had a message to preach which was more than equal to the strain of the crisis. An eternal God, an Ever-Living Saviour and a glorious hope of heaven, carried them through this heaviest trial."

Don Kistler, founder of Northampton Press, said the following about this volume: "This is a precious volume, because it is the last sermon many of these Puritan pastors preached to their congregations before they were forced out of their pulpits. Yet you will not find any bitterness or acrimony in their sermons. Instead, they do what they had done every other Lord's Day: They preached the glories of Christ.

First published in 2 volumes in the 1600's, then retypeset in 1816 in a single volume, and then published again in 1992, this wonderful collection of Puritan sermons is now available once again. Who knows when it might be available after this edition is gone? Do not miss this opportunity to have this marvelous work. You will be the richer for it. Also, this will likely be your only chance to read sermons by some of the lesser-known, but not lesser-important men represented here, such as Lazarus Seaman, Thomas Lye, George Evanke, and Thomas Jacomb. Solid Ground is to be commended for choosing to reprint this work. Now commend them yourself by purchasing it!"

Ray Rhodes, founder of Nourished in the Word Ministries just added: "If writing makes a man more precise in his communication then writing under persecution further clarifies the message. Some of history's richest sermons have been preached and books written when the author was under either the threat or the actual fires of suffering. The authors of these "Farewell Sermons" are some of the brightest lights in all of Puritan history. Each word, sentence, and paragraph hits the target. Words cannot be wasted when life hangs in the balance. Do you want your character strengthend and your faith deepened? Read these sermons that have been washed by the tears of those who were persecuted for righteousness sake."

Robert Paul Martin, author of 'A Guide to the Puritans' wrote - "Simply one of the finest volumes ever published. The farewell sermons of great Puritan preachers. What more could we ask?"

Dr Williams's Centre Conference

The Evangelical Library Conference on March 27 will not be the only one marking 1662 it seems.
The Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies has announced its Conference in 2012 as

1662 Revisited

It is on Saturday 26 May 2012. Details found here.

The eighth annual one-day conference of the Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies, a collaboration between the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London, and Dr Williams's Library.

To mark the 350th anniversary of the Restoration Settlement of Religion, the conference will explore its implications in four panels:

Religion: Stephen Taylor (Reading) and Kenneth Fincham (Kent); Mark Burden (Queen Mary); Cory Cotter (Virginia)

Politics: Mark Goldie (Cambridge); Paul Seaward (History of Parliament); Grant Tapsell (St Andrews)

Literature: Neil Keeble (Stirling); David Appleby (Nottingham); Michael Davies (Liverpool)

The Three Kingdoms and the Colonies: Alasdair Raffe (Durham); Owen Stanwood (Boston College); Robert Armstrong (Trinity College Dublin)

Note that the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches Congregational Studies Conference on Saturday March 17, 2012 is set to look at the same subject I understand.