THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE GREAT REBELLION AND OF THE RESTORATION.
The English Divines. Hall. Chillingworth. Taylor. Fuller. Sir T.
Browne. Baxter. Fox. Bunyan. South. Other Writers.
THE ENGLISH DIVINES.
Having come down, in the course of English Literature, to the reign of
William and Mary, we must look back for a brief space to consider the
religious polemics which grew out of the national troubles and
vicissitudes. We shall endeavor to classify the principal authors under
this head from the days of Milton to the time when the Protestant
succession was established on the English throne.
The Established Church had its learned doctors before the civil war, many
of whom contributed to the literature; but when the contest between king
and parliament became imminent, and during the progress of the quarrel,
these became controversialists,--most of them on the side of the
unfortunate but misguided monarch,--and suffered with his declining
fortunes.
To go over the whole range of theological literature in this extended
period, would be to study the history of the times from a theological
point of view. Our space will only permit a brief notice of the principal
writers.
HALL.--First among these was Joseph Hall, who was born in 1574. He was
educated at Cambridge, and was appointed to the See of Exeter in 1624,
and transferred to that of Norwich in 1641, the year before Charles I.
ascended the throne. The scope of his writings was quite extensive. As a
theological writer, he is known by his numerous sermons, his _Episcopacy
by Divine Right Asserted_, his _Christian Meditations_, and
various commentaries and _Contemplations_ upon the Scriptures.
He was also a poet and a satirist, and excelled in this field. His
_Satires--Virgidemiarium_--were published at the early age of
twenty-three; but they are highly praised by the critics, who rank him
also, for eloquence and learning, with Jeremy Taylor. He suffered for his
attachment to the king's cause, was driven from his see, and spent the
last portion of his life in retirement and poverty. He died in 1656.
CHILLINGWORTH.--The next in chronological order is William Chillingworth,
who was born in 1602, and is principally known as the champion of
Protestantism against Rome and Roman innovations. While a student at
Oxford, he had been won over to the Roman Catholic Church by John Perse, a
famous Jesuit; and he went at once to pursue his studies in the Jesuit
college at Douay. He was so notable for his acuteness and industry, that
every effort was made to bring him back. Archbishop Laud, his god-father,
was able to convince him of his errors, and in two months he returned to
England. A short time after this he left the Roman Catholics, and became
tenfold more a Protestant than before. He entered into controversies with
his former friends the Jesuits, and in answer to one of their treatises
entitled, _Mercy and Truth, or Charity maintained by the Roman Catholics_,
he wrote his most famous work, _The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to
Salvation_. Chillingworth was a warm adherent of Charles I.; and was
captured by the parliamentary forces in 1643. He died the next year. His
double change of faith gave him the full range of the controversial field;
and, in addition to this knowledge, the clearness of his language and the
perspicuity of his logic gave great effect to his writings. Tillotson
calls him "the glory of this age and nation."
TAYLOR.--One of the greatest names in the annals of the English Church and
of English literature is that of Jeremy Taylor. He was the son of a
barber, and was born at Cambridge in 1613. A remarkably clever youth, he
was educated at Cambridge, and soon owed his preferment to his talents,
eloquence, and learning. An adherent of the king, he was appointed
chaplain in the royal army, and was several times imprisoned. When the
king's cause went down, and during the protectorate of Cromwell, he
retired to Wales, where he kept a school, and was also chaplain to the
Earl of Carberry. The vicissitudes of fortune compelled him to leave for a
while this retreat, and he became a teacher in Ireland. The restoration of
Charles II. gave him rest and preferment: he was made Bishop of Down and
Connor. Taylor is now principally known for his learned, quaint, and
eloquent discourses, which are still read. A man of liberal feelings and
opinions, he wrote on "The liberty of prophesying, showing the
unreasonableness of prescribing to other men's faith, and the iniquity of
persecuting different opinions:" the title itself being a very liberal
discourse. He upholds the Ritual in _An Apology for fixed and set Forms of
Worship_. In this he considers the divine precepts to be contained within
narrow limits, and that beyond this everything is a matter of dispute, so
that we cannot unconditionally condemn the opinions of others.
His _Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life_, his _Rule and Exercises of
Holy Living and of Holy Dying_, and his _Golden Grove_, are devotional
works, well known to modern Christians of all denominations. He has been
praised alike by Roman Catholic divines and many Protestant Christians not
of the Anglican Church. There is in all his writings a splendor of
imagery, combined with harmony of style, and wonderful variety,
readiness, and accuracy of scholarship. His quotations from the whole
range of classic authors would furnish the Greek and Latin armory of any
modern writer. What Shakspeare is in the Drama, Spenser in the Allegory,
and Milton in the religious Epic, Taylor may claim to be in the field of
purely religious literature. He died at Lisburn, in 1667.
FULLER.--More quaint and eccentric than the writers just mentioned, but a
rare representative of his age, stands Thomas Fuller. He was born in 1608;
at the early age of twelve, he entered Cambridge, and, after completing
his education, took orders. In 1631, he was appointed prebendary of
Salisbury. Thence he removed to London in 1641, when the civil war was
about to open. When the king left London, in 1642, Fuller preached a
sermon in his favor, to the great indignation of the opposite party. Soon
after, he was appointed to a chaplaincy in the royal army, and not only
preached to the soldiers, but urged them forward in battle. In 1646 he
returned to London, where he was permitted to preach, under
_surveillance_, however. He seems to have succeeded in keeping out of
trouble until the Restoration, when he was restored to his prebend. He did
not enjoy it long, as he died in the next year, 1661. His writings are
very numerous, and some of them are still read. Among these are _Good
Thoughts in Bad Times, Good Thoughts in Worse Times_, and _Mixt
Contemplations in Better Times_. The _bad_ and _worse_ times mark the
progress of the civil war: the _better_ times he finds in the Restoration.
One of his most valuable works is _The Church History of Britain, from the
birth of Christ to 1648_, in 11 books. Criticized as it has been for its
puns and quibbles and its occasional caricatures, it contains rare
descriptions and very vivid stories of the important ecclesiastical eras
in England.
Another book containing important information is his _History of the
Worthies of England_, a posthumous work, published by his son the year
after his death. It contains accounts of eminent Englishmen in different
countries; and while there are many errors which he would perhaps have
corrected, it is full of odd and interesting information not to be found
collated in any other book.
Representing and chronicling the age as he does, he has perhaps more
individuality than any writer of his time, and this gives a special
interest to his works.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE.--Classed among theological writers, but not a
clergyman, Sir Thomas Browne is noted for the peculiarity of his subjects,
and his diction. He was born in 1605, and was educated at Oxford. He
studied medicine, and became a practising physician. He travelled on the
continent, and returning to England in 1633, he began to write his most
important work, _Religio Medici_, at once a transcript of his own life and
a manifesto of what the religion of a physician should be. It was kept in
manuscript for some time, but was published without his knowledge in 1642.
He then revised the work, and published several editions himself. No
description of the treatise can give the reader a just idea of it; it
requires perusal. The criticism of Dr. Johnson is terse and just: it is
remarkable, he says, for "the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of
sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse
allusions, the subtilty of disquisition, and the strength of language." As
the portraiture of an inner life, it is admirable; and the accusation of
heterodoxy brought against him on account of a few careless passages is
unjust.
Among his other works are _Essays on Vulgar Errors_ (_Pseudoxia
Epidemica_), and _Hydriotaphica_ or _Urne burial_; the latter suggested by
the exhumation of some sepulchral remains in Norfolk, which led him to
treat with great learning of the funeral rites of all nations. To this he
afterwards added _The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunxial Lozenge_, in
which, in the language of Coleridge, he finds quincunxes "in heaven above,
in the earth below, in the mind of man, in tones, optic nerves, in the
roots of trees, in leaves, in everything." He died in 1682.
Numerous sects, all finding doctrine and forms in the Bible, were the
issue of the religious and political controversies of the day. Without
entering into a consideration or even an enumeration of these, we now
mention a few of the principal names among them.
RICHARD BAXTER.--Among the most devout, independent, and popular of the
religious writers of the day, Richard Baxter occupies a high rank. He was
born in 1615, and was ordained a clergyman in 1638. In the civil troubles
he desired to remain neutral, and he opposed Cromwell when he was made
Protector. In 1662 he left the Church, and was soon the subject of
persecution: he was always the champion of toleration. In prison, poor,
hunted about from place to place, he was a martyr in spirit. During his
great earthly troubles he was solaced by a vision, which he embodied in
his popular work, _The Saints' Everlasting Rest_; and he wrote with great
fervor _A Call to the Unconverted_. He was a very voluminous writer; the
brutal Judge Jeffries, before whom he appeared for trial, called him "an
old knave, who had written books enough to load a cart." He wrote a
paraphrase of the New Testament, and numerous discourses. Dr. Johnson
advised Boswell, when speaking of Baxter's works: "Read any of them; they
are all good." He continued preaching until the close of his life, and
died peacefully in 1691.
GEORGE FOX.--The founder of the Society of Friends was born in 1624, in an
humble condition of life, and at an early age was apprenticed to a
shoemaker and grazier. Uneducated and unknown, he considered himself as
the subject of special religious providence, and at length as
supernaturally called of God. Suddenly abandoning his servile occupation,
he came out in 1647, at the age of twenty-three, as the founder of a new
sect; an itinerant preacher, he rebuked the multitudes which he assembled
by his fervent words. Much of his success was due to his earnestness and
self-abnegation. He preached in all parts of England, and visited the
American colonies. The name Quaker is said to have been applied to this
sect in 1650, when Fox, arraigned before Judge Bennet, told him to
"tremble at the word of the Lord." The establishment of this sect by such
a man is one of the strongest illustrations of the eager religious inquiry
of the age.
The works of Fox are a very valuable _Journal of his Life and Travels_;
_Letters and Testimonies_; _Gospel Truth Demonstrated_,--all of which form
the best statement of the origin and tenets of his sect. Fox was a solemn,
reverent, absorbed man; a great reader and fluent expounder of the
Scriptures, but fanatical and superstitious; a believer in witchcraft, and
in his power to detect witches. The sect which he founded, and which has
played so respectable a part in later history, is far more important than
the founder himself. He died in London in 1690.
WILLIAM PENN.--The fame of Fox in America has been eclipsed by that of his
chief convert William Penn. In an historical or biographical work, the
life of Penn would demand extended mention; but his name is introduced
here only as one of the theological writers of the day. He was born in
1644, and while a student at Oxford was converted to the Friends' doctrine
by the preaching of Thomas Loe, a colleague of George Fox. The son of
Admiral Sir William Penn, he was the ward of James II., and afterwards
Lord Proprietary and founder of Pennsylvania. Persecuted for his tenets,
he was frequently imprisoned for his preaching and writings. In 1668 he
wrote _Truth Exalted_ and _The Sandy Foundation_, and when imprisoned for
these, he wrote in jail his most famous work, _No Cross, no Crown_.
After the expulsion of James II., Penn was repeatedly tried and acquitted
for alleged attempts to aid the king in recovering his throne. The
malignity of Lord Macaulay has reproduced the charges, but reversed, most
unjustly, the acquittals. His record occupies a large space in American
history, and he is reverenced for having established a great colony on the
basis of brotherly love. Poor and infirm, he died in 1718.
ROBERT BARCLAY, who was born in 1648, is only mentioned in this connection
on account of his Latin apology for the Quakers, written in 1676, and
translated since into English.
JOHN BUNYAN.--Among the curious religious outcroppings of the civil war,
none is more striking and singular than John Bunyan. He produced a work of
a decidedly polemical character, setting forth his peculiar doctrines,
and--a remarkable feature in the course of English literature--a story so
interesting and vivid that it has met with universal perusal and
admiration. It is at the same time an allegory which has not its equal in
the language. Rhetoricians must always mention the Pilgrim's Progress as
the most splendid example of the allegory.
Bunyan was born in Elston, Bedfordshire, in 1628. The son of a tinker, his
childhood and early manhood were idle and vicious. A sudden and sharp
rebuke from a woman not much better than himself, for his blasphemy, set
him to thinking, and he soon became a changed man. In 1653 he joined the
Baptists, and soon, without preparation, began to preach. For this he was
thrown into jail, where he remained for more than twelve years. It was
during this period that, with no other books than the Bible and Fox's Book
of Martyrs, he excogitated his allegory. In 1672 he was released through
the influence of Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln. He immediately began to
preach, and continued to do so until 1688, when he died from a fever
brought on by exposure.
In his first work, _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_, he gives us
his own experience,--fearful dreams of early childhood, his sins and
warnings in the parliamentary army, with divers temptations, falls, and
struggles.
Of his great work, _The Pilgrim's Progress_, it is hardly necessary to
speak at length. The story of the Pilgrim, Christian, is known to all
English readers, large and little; how he left the City of Destruction,
and journeyed towards the Celestial City; of his thrilling adventures; of
the men and things that retarded his progress, and of those who helped him
forward. No one has ever discoursed with such vivid description and
touching pathos of the Land of Beulah, the Delectable Mountains, the
Christian's inward rapture at the glimpse of the Celestial City, and his
faith-sustaining descent into the Valley of the Shadow of Death! As a work
of art, it is inimitable; as a book of religious instruction, it is more
to be admired for sentiment than for logic; its influence upon children is
rather that of a high-wrought romance than of godly precept. It is a
curious reproduction, with a slight difference in cast, of the morality
play of an earlier time. Mercy, Piety, Christian, Hopeful, Greatheart,
Faithful, are representatives of Christian graces; and, as in the
morality, the Prince of Darkness figures as Apollyon.
Bunyan also wrote _The Holy War_, an allegory, which describes the contest
between Immanuel and Diabolus for the conquest of the city of Mansoul.
This does not by any means share the popularity of _The Pilgrim's
Progress_. The language of all his works is common and idiomatic, but
precise and strong: it is the vigorous English of an unpretending man,
without the graces of the schools, but expressing his meaning with
remarkable clearness. Like Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's allegory has
been improperly placed by many persons on a par with the Bible as a body
of Christian doctrine, and for instruction in righteousness.
ROBERT SOUTH.--This eccentric clergyman was born in 1633. While king's
scholar at Dr. Busby's school in London, he led the devotions on the day
of King Charles' execution, and prayed for his majesty by name. At first a
Puritan, he became a churchman, and took orders. He was learned and
eloquent; but his sermons, which were greatly admired at the time, contain
many oddities, forced conceits, and singular anti-climaxes, which gained
for him the appellation of the witty churchman.
He is accused of having been too subservient to Charles II.; and he also
is considered as displaying not a little vindictiveness in his attacks on
his former colleagues the Puritans. He is only known to this age by his
sermons, which are still published and read.
OTHER THEOLOGICAL WRITERS.
_Isaac Barrow_, 1630-1677: a man of varied learning, a traveller in the
East, and an oriental scholar. He was appointed Professor of Greek at
Cambridge, and also lectured on Mathematics. He was a profound thinker and
a weighty writer, principally known by his courses of sermons on the
Decalogue, the Creed, and the Sacraments.
_Edward Stillingfleet_, 1635-1699: a clergyman of the Church of England,
he was appointed Bishop of Worcester. Many of his sermons have been
published. Among his treatises is one entitled, _Irenicum, a Weapon-Salve
for the Churches Wounds, or the Divine Right of Particular Forms of Church
Government Discussed and Examined_. "The argument," says Bishop Burnet,
"was managed with so much learning and skill that none of either side ever
undertook to answer it." He also wrote _Origines Sacræ, or a Rational
Account of the Christian Faith_, and various treatises in favor of
Protestantism and against the Church of Rome.
_William Sherlock_, 1678-1761: he was Dean of St. Paul's, and a writer of
numerous doctrinal discourses, among which are those on _The Trinity_, and
on _Death and the Future Judgment_. His son, Thomas Sherlock, D.D., born
1678, was also a distinguished theological writer.
_Gilbert Burnet_, 1643-1715: he was very much of a politician, and played
a prominent part in the Revolution. He was made Bishop of Salisbury in
1689. He is principally known by his _History of the Reformation_, written
in the Protestant interest, and by his greater work, the _History of my
Own Times_. Not without a decided bias, this latter work is specially
valuable as the narration of an eye-witness. The history has been
variously criticized for prejudice and inaccuracy; but it fills what would
otherwise have been a great vacuum in English historical literature.
_John Locke_, 1632-1704. In a history of philosophy, the name of this
distinguished philosopher would occupy a prominent place, and his works
would require extended notice. But it is not amiss to introduce him
briefly in this connection, because his works all have an ethical
significance. He was educated as a physician, and occupied several
official positions, in which he suffered from the vicissitudes of
political fortune, being once obliged to retreat from persecution to
Holland. His _Letters on Toleration_ is a noble effort to secure the
freedom of conscience: his _Treatises on Civil Government_ were specially
designed to refute Sir John Filmer's _Patriarcha_, and to overthrow the
principle of the _Jus Divinum_. His greatest work is an _Essay on the
Human Understanding_. This marks an era in English thought, and has done
much to invite attention to the subject of intellectual philosophy. He
derives our ideas from the two sources, _sensation_ and _reflection_; and
although many of his views have been superseded by the investigations of
later philosophers, it is due to him in some degree that their inquiries
have been possible.
DIARISTS AND ANTIQUARIANS.
_John Evelyn_, 1620-1705. Among the unintentional historians of England,
none are of more value than those who have left detailed and gossiping
diaries of the times in which they lived: among these Evelyn occupies a
prominent place. He was a gentleman of education and position, who, after
the study of law, travelled extensively, and resided several years in
France. He had varied accomplishments. His _Sylva_ is a discourse on
forest trees and on the propagation of timber in his majesty's dominions.
To this he afterwards added _Pomona_, or a treatise on fruit trees. He was
also the author of an essay on _A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture
with the Modern_. But the work by which he is now best known is his
_Diary_ from 1641 to 1705; it is a necessary companion to the study of
the history of that period; and has been largely consulted by modern
writers in making up the historic record of the time.
_Samuel Pepys_, 1637-1703. This famous diarist was the son of a London
tailor. He received a collegiate education, and became a connoisseur in
literature and art. Of a prying disposition, he saw all that he could of
the varied political, literary, and social life of England; and has
recorded what he saw in a diary so quaint, simple, and amusing, that it
has retained its popularity to the present day, and has greatly aided the
historian both in facts and philosophy. He held an official position as
secretary in the admiralty, the duties of which he discharged with great
system and skill. In addition to this _Diary_, we have also his
_Correspondence_, published after his death, which is historically of
great importance. In both diary and correspondence he has the charm of
great _naïveté_,--as of a curious and gossiping observer, who never
dreamed that his writings would be made public. Men and women of social
station are painted in pre-Raphaelite style, and figure before us with
great truth and vividness.
_Elias Ashmole_, 1617-1693. This antiquarian and virtuoso is principally
known as the founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He studied law,
chemistry, and natural philosophy. Besides an edition of the manuscript
works of certain English chemists, he wrote _Bennevennu_,--the description
of a Roman road mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus,--and a _History
of the Order of the Garter_. His _Diary_ was published nearly a century
after his death, but is by no means equal in value to those of Evelyn and
Pepys.
_John Aubrey_, 1627-1697: a man of curious mind, Aubrey investigated the
supernatural topics of the day, and presented them to the world in his
_Miscellanies_. Among these subjects it is interesting to notice "blows
invisible," and "knockings," which have been resuscitated in the present
day. He was a "perambulator," and, in the words of one of his critics,
"picked up information on the highway, and scattered it everywhere as
authentic." His most valuable contribution to history is found in his
_Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the 17th and 18th Centuries, with
Lives of Eminent Men_. The searcher for authentic material must carefully
scrutinize Aubrey's _facts_; but, with much that is doubtful, valuable
information may be obtained from his pages.