in the hands of Mrs. Hutchinson, led to no small disturbance in New
England. He however denied that he wished to separate on the ground of
the _legal_ teaching of the churches with whom he held communion, but
thought of removing to New Haven, “as being better known to the pastor
and some others there, than to such as were at that time jealous” of him
in Boston. A timely perception of Mrs. Hutchinson’s errors led him to
renounce her fellowship, and he remained at Boston. Neal’s Hist. of N.
E., i. 183; Mather’s Magnalia, iii. 21; Knowles’s Life of R. Williams, p.
140.]
[243] [“I have been given to understand, that the increase of concourse
of people to him on the Lord’s days in private, to the neglect or
deserting of public ordinances, and to the spreading of the leaven of
his corrupt imaginations, provoked the magistrates, rather than to
breed a winter’s spiritual plague in the country, to put him a winter’s
journey out of the country.” Notwithstanding, Mr. Cotton asserts that Mr.
Williams was treated most tenderly by the officer, James Boone, “who dare
not allow that liberty to his tongue, which the examiner often useth in
this discourse.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 57.]
[244] [“This Confession may be found in Crosby, but without the ‘story of
his life and death,’ which we have never yet been able to find.” Hist. of
Eng. Baptists, ii. App. No. 1.]
[245] [“As for Mr. Smith he standeth and falleth to his own master.
Whilst he was preacher to the city of Lincoln, he wrought with God then:
what temptations befel him after, by the evil workings of evil men, and
some good men too, I choose rather to tremble at, than discourse of.” The
fault of this “man fearing God,” appears to have been first his becoming
a baptist, and then his acceptance of the opinions of certain Dutch
baptists, with whom he held communion in Amsterdam. The early baptists
held generally opinions which became known after the Synod of Dort as
Arminian. In addition to these Mr. Smith held peculiar views on the
nature of spiritual worship, which brought him into great disrepute with
his fellow exiles, the Brownists and Independents. Cotton’s Answer p. 58,
Smith’s Differences of the Ch. of the Separation, part i. edit. 1608.]
[246] [See Smith’s Parallels and Censures, p. 9, &c. edit. 1609.]
[247] [“It is not because I think such persons are not fit matter for
church-estate; but because they yet want a fit form, requisite to church
estate.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 63.]
[248] [“The answer to that question and to all the other thirty-two
questions, were drawn up by Mr. Mader—however, the substance of that
answer doth generally suit with all our minds, as I conceive. I have
read it, and did readily approve it to be judicious and solid. But his
answer ... is notoriously slandered and abused by the examiner.” Cotton’s
Answer, p. 63. Lechford, in his “Plain Dealing,” &c., however tells us of
a minister, who “standing upon his ministry as of the church of England,
and arguing against their covenant, and being elected at Weymouth, was
compelled to recant some words.” One of his friends for being active in
his election was fined £10, and uttering some cross words, £5 more, “and
payed it down.” P. 22.]
[249] [“It was his doctrines and practices which tended to the civil
disturbance of the commonwealth, together with his heady and busy pursuit
of the same, even to the rejection of all churches here; these they were
that made him unfit for enjoying communion in the one state or in the
other.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 64.]
[250] [“His distinction, in the general I do approve it, and do willingly
acknowledge that a godly person may be, through ignorance or negligence,
so far enthralled to anti-christ, as to be separate from Christ, taking
Christ as head of the visible church.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 66.]
[251] [“What if ecclesiastical stories be deficient in telling us the
times and places of their church assemblies? Is therefore the word
of God deficient, or the church deficient, because human stories are
deficient?... Yet sometimes their own inquisitors confess, that the
churches of the Waldenses, or men of that way, have been extant _a
tempore apostolorum_.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 69.]
[252] [“My words are misreported: and the contradiction ariseth from his
misreport. For God’s people and godly persons are not all one. Any church
members may be called God’s people, as being in external covenant with
him, and yet they are not always godly persons. God’s people may be so
enthralled to anti-christ, as to separate them utterly from Christ, both
as head of the visible and invisible church; but godly persons cannot be
so enthralled.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 71.]
[253] [“He requireth that we should cut off ourselves from hearing the
ministry of the parishes in England, as being the ministry of a national,
or parishional church, whereof both the church estate is falsely
constituted, and all the ministry, worship, and government thereof false
also. If he speak of the national church government, we must confess
the truth, there indeed is truth fallen and falsehood hath prevailed
much.—All of them are forsaken of Truth, and can challenge no warrant of
truth but falsely.” Cotton’s Answer, pp. 77, 84.]
[254] [“If the examiner had been pleased to have read Mr. Brightman on
Rev. xviii. 4, he might find I was not the first that interpreted either
that place in Isaiah, or this in Revelation, of a local separation.”
Cotton’s Answer, p. 87.]
[255] [“The two causes of God’s indignation against England—I would
rather say Amen to them, than weaken the weight of them. Only I should so
assent to the latter, as not to move for a toleration of all dissenters,
dissenters in fundamentals.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 89.]
[256] [“Our joining with the ministers of England in hearing of the word
and prayer, doth not argue our church-communion with the parish churches
in England, much less with the national church.” Mr. Cotton then proceeds
to deny that Mr. Williams was persecuted, or that he admonished them
humbly and faithfully. His banishment was no persecution; his statement
of his opinions no admonition. Cotton’s Answer, p. 101.]
[257] [“Who seeth not, that in these words I express not mine own
reasoning or meaning, but his; and that I expressly say, the true meaning
of the text will nothing more reach to his purpose; and so bring in his
reason in form of an enthymeme, which he draws from it?” Cotton’s Answer,
p. 105.]
[258] [“Sure I am, we look at infants as members of our church, as being
federally holy, but I am slow to believe that all of them are regenerate,
or truly godly.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 108.]
[259] [“These are palpable mistakes of those words of mine, which I
expressed as the sum of his words, which he through haste conceived to be
mine.” Ib. p. 108.]
[260] [“We wholly avoid national, provincial, and diocesan government of
the churches by episcopal authority; we avoid their prescript liturgies,
and communion with open scandalous persons in any church order; ... it is
a continual sorrow of heart, and mourning of our souls that there is yet
so much of those notorious evils which he nameth ... suffered to thrust
themselves into the fellowship of the churches, and to sit down with the
saints at the Lord’s table. But yet I count all these but remnants of
pollution, when as the substance of the true estate of churches abideth
in their congregational assemblies.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 108.]
[261] [“Mr. Williams probably refers to the refusal by the General Court
to listen to a petition from Salem relative to a piece of land which was
claimed as belonging to that town. But according to Winthrop, ‘because
they had chosen Mr. Williams their teacher, while he stood under question
of authority, and so offered contempt to the magistrates, their petition
was refused,” &c. Knowles, p. 70.]
[262] [“His banishment proceeded not against him or his for his own
refusal of any worship, but for seditious opposition against the patent,
and against the oath of fidelity offered to the people; ... he also wrote
letters of admonition to all the churches whereof the magistrates were
members, for deferring to give present answer to a petition of Salem, who
had refused to hearken to a lawful motion of theirs.” Cotton’s Answer, p.
113.]
[263] [“It seemeth he never read the story of the classes in
Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Essex, London, Cambridge, discovered by a
false brother to Doctor Bancroft.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 116, Neal’s
Puritans, i. 226, 319.]
[264] [Udall had been a tutor to Queen Elizabeth in the learned
languages, yet for writing a little book against Diocesan Church
Government and Ceremonies he was condemned to die, and would have been
executed but for the queen’s feelings of respect to her aged tutor. A
copy of this exceedingly rare book is in Mr. Offor’s library.]
[265] [“He died by the annoyance of the prison: when the coroner’s jury
came to survey the dead body of Mr. Udall in prison, he bled freshly,
though cold before, as a testimony against the murderous illegal
proceedings of the state against him.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 116, Neal, i.
339.]
[266] [Mr. Cotton says, that Penry confessed that he deserved death for
having seduced many to separation from hearing the word in the parish
churches, so that their souls were justly required at his hand. Ibid. p.
117. This can scarcely be correct if we judge from the general tenor of
Penry’s character. See Hanbury’s Hist. Memorials, i. 79, note _e_.]
[267] [See Broadmead Records, Intro. p. xxxviii. Hanbury, i. 35, 62. Mr.
Cotton endeavours to throw no little obloquy and discredit on these two
witnesses to the truth; but most unjustly. Answer p. 117.]
[268] [In “A Necessitie of Separation from the Church of England proved
by Nonconformist Principles, &c.” By John Canne, pastor of the Ancient
English Church at Amsterdam, 1634, 4to. pp. 264.]
[269] [“Mr. Ainsworth’s name is of best esteem, without all exception, in
that way who refused communion with hearing in England. And if his people
suffered him to live on ninepence a week, with roots boiled, surely
either the people were grown to a very extreme low estate, or else the
growth of their godliness was grown to a very low ebb.” Cotton’s Answer,
p. 122. The remarks of Mr. Hanbury, with the quotation he produces from
the preface, by a friend of Ainsworth, to his Annotations on Solomon’s
Song, do not appear in the least to invalidate the statement of Williams.
In the earlier part of his exile, in common with Johnson and the other
separatists, he was exposed to great straits and difficulties, and it may
be to that period that Mr. Williams refers. See Hanbury, i. 433.]
[270] [“This I speak with respect to Mr. Robinson and to his church, who
grew to acknowledge, and in a judicious and godly discourse to approve
and defend, the lawful liberty of hearing the word from the godly
preachers of the parishes in England.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 123.]
[271] [Mr. Robinson’s book was published nine years after his death.
It was entitled, “Of the Lawfulness of Hearing of the Ministers in the
Church of England: penned by that Learned and Reverend Divine, Mr. John
Robinson, late pastor to the English Church of God in Leyden, and Printed
Anno 1634.” Mr. Canne’s work in reply was entitled “A Stay against
Straying,” 4to. 1639.]
[272] [“If this be all the conclusion he striveth for, I shall never
contend with him about it. But this is that I deny, a man to participate
in a church-estate, where he partaketh only in hearing and prayer, before
and after sermon; and joineth not with them, neither in their covenant,
nor in the seals of the covenant.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 129.]
[273] [That is, as Mr. Cotton explains it, because “being cast out by the
usurping power of the prelacy, and dismissed, though against their wills,
by our congregations, we looked at ourselves as private members, and not
officers to any church here, until one or other church might call us unto
office.” Any other sense is either a mistake, or a “fraudulent expression
of our minds.” Answer p. 131.]
[274] [“We are not so masterly and peremptory in our apprehensions;
and yet the more plainly and exactly all church-actions are carried on
according to the letter of the rule, the more glory shall we give unto
the Lord Jesus, and procure the more peace to our consciences and to our
churches, and reserve more purity and power to all our administrations.”
Cotton’s Answer, p. 132.]
[275] [See Broadmead Records, Intro. p. lxxix.]
[276] [“The world is taken in scripture more ways than one, and so is
separation; as when the apostle exhorteth the Romans, not to conform
their church-bodies according to the platform of the Roman monarchy, into
œcumenical, national, provincial, diocesan bodies, Rom. xii. 2. From
the world, as taken for civil government of it, we are to separate our
church-bodies, and the government thereof in frame and constitution.”
Cotton’s Answer, pp. 135, 136.]
[277] [“Our not receiving all comers unto the communion of the Lord’s
table, and other parts of church fellowship, saving only unto the public
hearing of the word and presence at other duties, it argueth indeed
that such persons either think themselves unfit materials for church
fellowship, or else that we conceive them to be as stones standing in
need of a little more hewing and squaring before they be laid as living
stones in the walls of the Lord’s house.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 139.]
[278] [“Our practice in suppressing such as have attempted to set up a
parishional way, I never heard of such a thing here to this day. And if
any such thing were done before my coming into the country, I do not
think it was done by forcible compulsion, but by rational conviction.”
Cotton’s Answer, p. 139. It is difficult to reconcile this disclaimer
with facts, unless we attribute ignorance to Mr. Cotton. See before, p.
233, note 8.]
[279] [Mr. Cotton calls this an untruth, yet he adds, “I hold that the
receiving all the inhabitants in the parish into the full fellowship
of the church, and the admitting of them all unto the liberty of all
the ordinances, is an human corruption, and so if he will, an human
invention.” Answer, p. 140.]
[280] [“The answer is near at hand.... _Those mine enemies which would
not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them
before my face_, Luke xix. 27. And yet I would not be so understood as
if Christ did allow his vicegerents to practise all that himself would
practise in his own person. For not all the practices or acts of Christ,
but the laws of Christ, are the rules of man’s administrations.” Cotton’s
Answer, p. 144.]
FINIS.
J. HADDON, PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.
ERRATA.
Page 7, line 4, for “to [all] men,” read “all men.”
21, _dele_ “men.”
8, line 32, for “_He that believeth shall not be damned_,” read
“_He that believeth not shall be damned._”
THE
SECOND ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
HANSERD KNOLLYS SOCIETY,
FOR THE
PUBLICATION OF THE WORKS OF EARLY ENGLISH
AND OTHER BAPTIST WRITERS.
1847-8.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY JOHN HADDON, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.
1848.
SECOND GENERAL MEETING.
APRIL 28th, 1848.
Mr. CHARLES JONES in the Chair. Prayer by Mr. ROTHERY. E. B. UNDERHILL,
Esq., read the Annual Report, and GEORGE OFFOR, Esq., presented the Cash
Accounts and Financial Statement.
It was moved by Dr. COX, seconded by Rev. W. JONES, of Stepney, and
resolved unanimously:—
“That the gratifying Report now read be approved, printed, and circulated
among the Subscribers under the direction of the Council.”
It was moved by GEORGE OFFOR, Esq., seconded by Rev. R. MORRIS, of
Manchester, and resolved unanimously:—
“That the Gentlemen whose names follow be the Officers and Council for
the year ensuing.”
Treasurer.
CHARLES JONES, Esq.
Honorary Secretaries.
E. B. UNDERHILL, Esq.
Rev. W. JONES.
Council.
Rev. J. ACWORTH.
Rev. J. ANGUS, M.A.
Rev. C. M. BIRRELL.
Rev. CALEB EVANS BIRT, M.A.
Rev. W. H. BLACK.
Rev. W. BROCK.
Rev. THOMAS BURDITT.
Rev. JABEZ BURNS, D.D.
Rev. F. A. COX, D.D. LL.D.
Rev. T. S. CRISP.
Rev. B. DAVIES, Ph. D.
Rev. B. EVANS.
Rev. B. GODWIN, D.D.
Rev. F. W. GOTCH, M.A.
Rev. W. GROSER.
Rev. J. H. HINTON, M.A.
Rev. J. HOBY, D.D.
CHARLES T. JONES, Esq.
G. F. KEMP, Esq.
GEORGE LOWE, Esq., F.R.S.
Rev. W. H. MURCH, D.D.
Rev. J. P. MURSELL.
Rev. THOMAS FOX NEWMAN.
GEORGE OFFOR, Esq.
Rev. G. H. ORCHARD.
Rev. T. POTTENGER.
Rev. J. J. OWEN.
Rev. THOMAS PRICE, D.D.
JAMES READ, Esq.
Rev. ROBERT ROFF.
Rev. JOSHUA RUSSELL.
Rev. J. SPRIGG, M.A.
Rev. E. STEANE, D.D.
Rev. C. STOVEL.
Rev. THOMAS THOMAS.
Rev. F. TRESTRAIL.
The Meeting was closed with prayer by Rev. Mr. SMITH, of Park Street.
REPORT.
It is not in the power of a literary Society such as this to lay before
the Subscribers matters of exciting interest. It is enough if its object
be accomplished satisfactorily to the Subscribers, and the condition
of their funds allow the progressive fulfilment of the purposes of its
formation.
At the last Annual Meeting the number of Subscribers to the first
year’s publications registered, was 1044; that has been increased
during the year to 1259. The number up to the present moment for the
volumes for 1847, is 1007; but there remains a very considerable amount
of subscriptions unpaid. The list will of course be variable, and
deficiencies must continually occur from the various incidents of life.
For the year 1847, the reprint of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress from the
original editions, has been placed in the hands of the Subscribers.
This very unique volume has met with the entire approbation of the
Society, and supplies a desideratum in the literary world at large—a
critical and authentic edition of the great Dreamer’s immortal work.
The labour involved in this undertaking, the useful and interesting
introduction accompanying it, and the passage of the work through the
press, have been gratuitously afforded to the Society by its very able
editor, George Offor, Esq. It was the wish of the Council to complete the
year’s issue with a reprint of Henry Danver’s Treatise of Baptism. The
very great labour, however, involved in its preparation for the press,
has not permitted the editor, the Rev. W. H. Black, to have it in a
sufficient state of forwardness for immediate publication. The Council
have therefore substituted for it, “The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution
Discussed,” by Roger Williams, the first sheets of which are in the
press, and they hope to place it in the hands of the Subscribers by
the end of July. The controversy which forms the subject of this most
valuable work, is of no less interest at the present time than when the
author of it became an outcast, an exile, and a wanderer in the wilds of
America to escape from the persecuting spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers. Mr.
Williams was the honoured founder of Rhode Island State, the first of
the United States in which entire and perfect liberty of conscience was
permitted and enjoyed. The work now preparing is of extreme rarity, three
copies only being known to exist in this country, and two in America. It
is being reprinted from the copy in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
The Council have in preparation for the year 1848, the first volume of
the Dutch Martyrology, and a volume of John Canne’s works. The Book
of Martyrs has been undertaken at the earnest request of many of the
Subscribers, and is in course of translation by a gentleman who has for
some years resided in Holland. He has already made considerable progress
in the work, so that the Council confidently anticipate the pleasure of
laying open to the English public during the present year this treasury
of examples of Christian patience and endurance under persecution. The
portion of the work in hand will probably form three volumes.
The name of Mr. Canne is mostly known by his biblical labours; but he was
also remarkable for his clear insight into the nature of the constitution
of Christ’s church, which he developed in a series of works both noble in
sentiment, and powerful in argumentation. The first volume of his works
will appear under the editorial supervision of the Rev. Charles Stovel.
Other works are also in hand, and being matured for publication in future
years. Such are the writings of William Dell, Christopher Blackwood,
William Kiffin, Benjamin Keach, and others, with various collections of
documents relating to the history and faith of the early English Baptists.
Resolutions commendatory of the Society, were passed in the early part
of the year at the Western and Gloucestershire Associations of Baptist
Churches, and also by the General Assembly of General Baptist Churches.
The Council has had to regret the loss sustained by the departure from
this country of the Rev. Dr. Davies, whose advice and judgment were of
the most valuable kind. His successor at Stepney College, the Rev. W.
Jones, M.A., has favoured the Society by undertaking the office thus
vacated.
A resolution has been passed to grant the same privileges to the Sunday
School Library of any congregation, which has hitherto been confined to
the minister. A second list of ten subscribers will entitle the library
to a free copy, the first ten being regarded as entitling the minister.
The Council have it in purpose to extend the usefulness of the Society
by additional lectures, so soon as arrangements can be made. They feel
assured of the co-operation of their brethren in this matter.
Although so far great encouragement and success have attended their
labours, it is of importance that the Subscribers should not only
maintain their subscriptions, but by personal recommendation endeavour to
supply the places of those who fail by death, removals, or other causes.
The efficiency of the Society depends on its numbers, and the larger its
subscription list the more will it accomplish in the reproduction of
these best memorials of the men who have preceded us in the strife for
the establishment of a kingdom which is not of this world, and which when
established shall never pass away.
FINANCIAL ACCOUNT.
_In respect to the Subscriptions for the First and Second years, received
in the year ended 31st March, 1848._
£ s. d.
Further Subscriptions for First Year 124 8 6
Subscriptions for Second Year 383 15 6
----------
508 4 0
ASSETS.
Value of Stock in hand at Cost Price, Volumes I. II. and III. 195 1 8
Unpaid Subscriptions, 3. 1 11 6
----------
£704 17 2
==========
£ s. d.
Disbursements as per Cash Account 414 13 4
LIABILITIES.
Use of Fire and Light at Mission House 3 3 0
Printing Report, &c. 7 0 0
Warehouse Report, Agency on Stock Remaining, and Contingencies 25 0 0
Probable Cost of the Fourth Volume now in hand 230 0 0
----------
265 3 0
Balance in favour of Receipts and Assets 25 0 10
----------
£704 17 2
==========
E. E.
CHARLES JONES, _April 24, 1848._
Examined and Approved, April 28, 1848
GEORGE OFFOR, JOSEPH H. ALLEN.
HANSERD KNOLLYS SOCIETY.
ACCOUNT OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS FROM 1ST APRIL, 1847, TO 31ST MARCH,
1848.
£ s. d.
RECEIPTS.
On Account of the First Year’s Subscriptions, 1845-6 124 8 6
Ditto Second Ditto 1847 383 15 6
Ditto Third Ditto 1848 24 3 0
Drawback on Exportation, repayable to Agent 1 6 0
Balance of Account from Mr. Girdwood, agent in Canada 0 6 0
----------
£533 19 0
==========
PAYMENTS.
Balance against the Society on 31st March, 1847 10 2 3
Printing Reports, Prospectus, Circulars, &c. 24 9 6
Hire of Room for last Annual Meeting 3 3 0
Stationery and Books 4 3 11
Postage, Carriage, and Porterage 8 12 2
Travelling Expenses of Honorary Secretary 19 2 2
Advertising 9 9 6
Balance of Cost of the Second Volume 31 3 0
Cost of the Third Volume, Bunyan’s Pilgrim 269 15 3
Insurance of Stock 1 9 0
Agency at 10 per cent 8 7 7
Pay of the Secretary, Mr. George Offor, jun., from 18th
March, 1847 to 17th March, 1848 21 0 0
Reimbursed to the Baptist Mission the Expense of Tea
provided for the Council at their Monthly Meetings 3 16 0
----------
414 13 4
Balance in hand, 31st March, 1848 119 5 8
----------
£533 19 0
==========
N.B. Balance in Treasurer’s hands £87 19 0
Bill due 3rd May 18 18 0
Balance in Mr. Underhill’s hands 10 6 3
Balances due from Agents 2 2 5
----------
£119 5 8
==========
E. E.
CHARLES JONES, _Treasurer_. _18th April, 1848._
Audited and found Correct this 22nd April, 1848.
GEORGE OFFOR, JOSEPH H. ALLEN.