Gurnall's Last Days and Literary Remains
DIES IN 1679 — coPy OF HIS WILL — FUNERAL SERMON BY BURKITT
NAMES OF HIS CHILDREN — ACCOUNT OF HIS FAMOUS BOOK ‘ CHRISTIAN IN COMPLETE ARMOUR”’ — ITS PECULIARITIES POINTED OUT — HIS OTHER WORKS — VALUE OF PURITAN THE-OLOGY.
GURNALL died, October 12th, 1679, and was buried at Lavenham, in the sixty-third year of his age. There is internal evidence, we have already seen, in his letters and elsewhere, that he was always a man of weak health. But we know not whether he died suddenly or of a lingering illness. The fact, however, that he made his will the day before he died would rather point to the conclusion that he had been ill some time.
M’Keon, to whose biography of Gurnall I have so frequently referred, has procured a copy of Gurnall’s will, which I here subjoin, as it may interest many readers. —
**Tn the name of God Amen. The Eleventh day of October, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Six Hundred and Seventy-nine, I, William Gurnall of Lavenham, in the county of Suffolk, clerk, weak of body, but thanks be to God, of sound mind and memory, resigning up my soul in the first place into the hands of
God, my Lord, Redeemer, and Saviour, and yielding my body to the earth, to be buried at the discretion of my executrix, as concerning that worldly estate which it has pleased God to bestow upon me, do make and ordain, this, my last will and testament as followeth : — That is to say, I give and decree all my free land and tenements, with all their appurtenances whatsoever, lying and being in Walpole or elsewhere, in Monkland, in the county of Norfolk, unto Sarah, my well-beloved wife and her heirs, to hold to her, the said Sarah, to her own proper use, for, and during the. time of her natural life, and after her decease to some one of my children, as she shall declare in, and by her last will and testament. And I do give and decree also all my goods and chattels, debts, and personal estate whatsoever, unto the said Sarah, my well-beloved wife, as well for her own comfortable subsistence and maintenance, and the better to enable her for the bringing up of my younger children, as also in trust and confidence that she will preserve and dispose of the residue and surplusage thereof amongst my children, respecting the circumstances of those of them which are not yet provided for, in such manner, and in such proportion as in her discretion she shall think most meet and fit; only I decree, if my son John shall be a scholar, that she will give my books to him. And I do hereby nominate, constitute, and appoint the said Sarah, my well-beloved wife, to be sole executrix of this my will, which I have caused to be written and have thereunto set my hand and seal, the day of grace aforesaid. Subscribed, sealed, published, and declared by the said William Gurnall, to be his last will and testament, in the presence of us, Thomas Mott, Bezaleel Peachie, John Pinchbeck.”
The first of these three witnesses was most probably the father or brother of Mrs. Gurnall. She was
daughter of Thomas Mott. The second was evidently the husband of his third daughter, Catherine. The third was perhaps the lawyer who drew up the will. The books mentioned in the will are probably the very books which Gurnall’s son, John, afterwards left by his will, in 1699, to his brother Joseph, and his nephew
Leonard Shaftoe of Newcastle. The English books were left to Joseph Gurnall, and the “rest of the books and manuscripts” to Leonard Shaftoe. They are now probably scattered to the four winds, and dispersed, if not destroyed. The end to which good men’s libraries finally come, is a melancholy subject. Few things are so much loved by some, and despised and neglected by others as books, and specially theological books.
The precise spot in which Gurnall was buried is not known. We cannot tell whether his bones are lying. in the church or in the churchyard. No tombstone or monumental slab marks the place of his interment. Nothing, from some cause or other, seems to have been erected to his memory. “The only sepulchral notice to be found of him,” says M’Keon, “is on a black marble slab in the chancel, which has this inscription : —
‘Hate lieth the body of Mary, late wife of Mr. Henry Boughton, of this parish, and daughter of the late Reverend Mr. Samuel Beachcroft, Rector of Semer, and grand-daughter of the late Reverend Mr. William Gurnall, who was Rector of this parish thirty-five years. She died the 14th of October, 1741, aged 78 years.’”
Under this slab in the chancel is a vault, which M’Keon conjectures is Gurnall’s resting-place, from the fact of Mrs. Boughton having been buried here instead of being buried with the Boughton family in the family vault, near the great south door. However, it is only a conjecture.
A funeral sermon was preached in Lavenham Church, in commemoration of Gurnall, shortly after his funeral, by the well-known commentator on the New Testament, Burkitt, who was at that time Rector of Milden, near Lavenham. It is still extant, and bears the following title: “The people’s zeal provoked to an holy emulation by the pious and instructive example of their dead Minister; as a seasonable memento to the parishioners of Lavenham in Suffolk.”
Burkitt’s sermon was on Heb. xiii. 7: “Remember them that have the rule over you,” &c. It was both preached and published “by request,” and is prefaced by an epistle dedicatory “to my honoured friend, Mrs. Sarah Gurnall, the sorrowful relict of Mr. William Gurnall, late of Lavenham, deceased, and to the rest of the sorrowing inhabitants of that town.” It is a respectable composition, though somewhat quaint, and rather flowery and high-flown in style. But it is but fair to Burkitt to remember that he was comparatively young when he preached it, being only twenty-nine years old. A few extracts from it will probably be found interesting. JI shall select these parts only which refer to Gurnall.
Burkitt’s Epistle dedicatory concludes with the following passage: — “To inform and convince you how highly accountable you are to Almighty God, both for the long enjoyment of his ministry, and also for the happy advantage of his example, is the honest design of the following sermon; and also to let this censorious age (in which some persons are so overgrown with the anti-episcopal jaundice, that their eye can see nothing in a Conformist but what is discoloured and of a different tincture), understand and know that you had a Conformist for your Minister, who rendered solid religion amiable, by a conversation in all things worthy of it; who did by a regular piety, a strict sobriety, a catholic and diffusive charity, render religion venerable to the world; one whose whole time, strength, and parts, were piously devoted to God and his sacred service.
“Moses, I observe, was in one particular privileged by God above all other holy persons. Their souls (in common with his) at death have angels for their convoy towards the mansions of bliss and glory: but he had an angel for his sexton, who buried his body in an unknown place, lest,the Israelites should superstitiously idolize and adore it. There would be no fear at all of any such offensive adoration on your part, were I able (as indeed I am not) to draw to the life the fair effigies of your absent minister, who was, like Moses, faithful in all God’s house whilst he lived, and not unlike him at his death: his meek soul gliding from him in a fine imperceptible vehicle; and he dying as the modern Jews by tradition tells us Moses did, ad nutwm Dei, et osculo oris ejus, — at God’s beck, and as it were with a kiss of God’s mouth. It was no more betwixt God and them but this, — Go up and die.
“To conclude then, may all your practices appear to the world in a faithful compliance with what was truly imitable and praise-worthy in him. May the living example of your dead Minister be exemplified in the lives of you his people. May you daily dress by his glass, and walk in his pious and devout footsteps. May you all meet him with astonishing joy, and behold him also with unutterable delight and comfort, in the day of your great audit: this is, and ever shall be, the hearty and affectionate supplication of your sympathizing friend and servant,
“Milden, Dee. 10, 1679.” Bibione: 5-203
The sermon contains the following sentences which are worth transcribing: “How lovely was that copy of religion which he set before you in his daily conversation! So forcible was the majesty of that holiness that shined forth in him, that it did extort a veneration from its most violent opposers; and so convictive also that it pierced the very consciences of his enemies, and constrained them whom prejudice only had made his foes, tacitly to acknowledge that God was in him of a truth.” (p. 9, Baynes’ reprint, 1829.)
Again: “He being dead, yet speaketh: yea, iui as well as living, he is still your preacher, his shroud and coffin are his pulpit — his grave and tombstone are his temple, and he still preaches to you though he lies in silence before you and utters never a word; I mean by his pious and most instructive example left among you, and by that fair character and good report which he hath so deservedly obtained with you.” (p. 10, 11.)
Again: “I am sure it did not a little conduce to the support of your dying Minister’s spirit, when he had death before him in immediate prospect, to hope upon good grounds that he (as a spiritual father) should leave many children behind him, to carry on the work of Christ in the world, when his head should be laid among the clods.” (p. 17.)
The last five pages of the sermon are so entirely occupied with Gurnall’s character, that I think it best to give them unabridged:
“JT infer from hence, in the last place, how signal your obligations are to Almighty God for the long enjoyment of that exemplary pattern of all true piety and virtue (your deceased Minister, I mean), whom (for your sins, I fear) He hath lately taken from you. Show now your obedience to God, your respects to him, your kindness and charity to your own souls, by a zealous and faithful care to transcribe impartially in your own lives whatever was truly imitable in your Minister’s. And not to carry you beyond the confines of the text, let me earnestly bespeak your Christian compliance with a double duty here enjoined.
“T. To follow his faith.
“TI. To imitate his exemplary conversation.”
“TJ, Follow his faith, and that in a double respect, in the soundness of his faith, and in the steadfastness of his faith.
“J, Follow him in the soundness of his faith. The faith which he perseveringly professed, and taught, was that doctrine which is according to godliness; that faith which owns God for its immediate Author and the Scripture for its infallible rule, the faith that was once delivered to the saints, which is not the result of fancy and imagination, but the product of an eternal counsel, which was confirmed by the miracles and sealed with the blood of a Saviour. In a word, that faith which he so zealously taught had sure footing in the Holy Scriptures. Whenever he propounded any truth which required not only the assent of your understandings, but also the obedience and adoration of your faith, he constantly showed you the Canon of the Scriptures for its confirmation. If any then (which God forlid) should appear after him in this place, and attempt the proselyting of you to unother Gospel, or to any new doctrine of faith foreign to the Scriptures, should he pretend to the authority of a commussioned angel from heaven, let him be held accursed.
‘Follow him in the steadfastness of his faith. The same rule of faith which he laid before you at his first coming amongst you, he lived and preached by till the day of his death. And this I take the greater liberty to assert, because some persons have not blushed to tell the world publicly that since his conformity to the discipline of the Church he had apostatized and revolted from that faith which he had formerly professed and taught. But be ye all assured, that, as to the great fundamentals of faith and religion, he was ever the same, and what he taught you to his last breath, I doubt not but he stood ready to confirm and seal with his blood, even in the fiercest flames of martyrdom, if God had called him to that fiery trial.
“TI. Imitate his Christian conversation. My mean- ‘ing is, exemplify those Evangelical graces and Christian virtues in your lives, which did so oriently shine forth in his. To propound a few : —
“1. His eminent humility. This was the garment which covered all his excellent accomplishments, although indeed their beauty was rendered more conspicuous and amiable by casting this veil over it. O what mean thoughts had he of himself! and was not only content, but desirous also, that others should have so too: no man ever expressed so low a value of his worth and merits as himself did. Everything in others that was good he admired as excellent, whilst the same or better in himself he thought not unworthily contemned: his eyes were full of his own deficiencies and others’ perfections.
“Tn a word, he was a lovely valley, sweetly planted, well watered, richly fruitful: imitate him then herein, and by a holy emulation study to excel him in this
rr adorning grace; and for your help herein recollect what you heard from him in his elaborate discourses among you upon Phil. ii. 5: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, — this humble mind.
“2. His extensive love. This grace did variously exert itself.
“(1) His love to God. He loved Him exceedingly whom he could not love excessively, having such high and raised apprehensions of his Maker’s excellencies, as caused him to judge his prime and best affections unworthy to be placed on so divine an object.
“(2) His love to the holy Jesus. This was such a seraphic and divine fire in his soul, as did marvellously consume his love to the world and all sublunary comforts. You are witnesses, and all that knew him, in how eminent a measure and degree the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the world by the cross of Christ.
“(3) His love to souls. This was it, no doubt that made him so indefatigable both in his study and in the pulpit; from hence it was, that the throne of grace, his study, the pulpit, and his sick neighbours, had the whole of his time divided amongst them, and devoted to them.
“(4) HIS UNBOUNDED LOVE TO ALL CHRISTIANS; though they differed in their sentiments from him. He loved Christians for their Christianity, and did adore the image of his Saviour wherein he saw it in
Wilkam Gurnall — His Last Days. 275
any of his members wnhappily persecuting one another with hard names and characters of reproach. How often did he PUBLICLY DEPLORE AND BEWAIL, that the greatest measure of love that is found at this day amongst the professors of the cross, was not true Christian love, but only love of a party! Follow him then in the impartial exercise of this grace, and for your help therein remember what he taught you from Eph. v. 2, ‘And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us;’ and as you have any regard for the Author of your profession, take heed that a spirit of division (now) crowd not in among you. Your unity is your strength as well as your beauty; persist therefore, I beseech you, in that Christian order amongst yourselves in which it was his great ambition all his days to preserve and keep you. Timely oppose the crafty design of the subtle adversary of souls, who will take this occasion (if possible), now the spiritual parent is out of the way, to set the children together by the ears.
“3. His diffusive charity. His alms were as exuberant as his love: misery and want, wherever he met them, did sufficiently endear their objects to him. He was none of those that hide their faces from the poor, nor of the number of them who satisfy their consciences with a single exercise of their charity once a year, but daily were the emanations of his bounty. Yet although he cast the seeds of his charity upon all sorts of ground, he sowed them thickest upon God’s inclosure: my meaning is, he did good unto all, ‘but especially to those that were of the household of faith” Make him herein, and his example, the pattern of your daily imitation; for the world, which is chained together by intermingled love, will soon shatter and fall in pieces if charity shall once fail and die: and for your better help herein, call over those potent arguments for the exercise of this evangelical duty, which he urged upon you, from that apostolical injunction, Heb. xiii. 16, ‘But to do good, and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.’
“4. His persevering diligence and faithfulness in his place and station. You could not but observe that his whole disposal of himself was to perpetual industry and service. He not only avoided idleness, but seemed to have a forcible antipathy against it, and was often recommending it to you with great concern and vigour in his public advices, to be always furnished with somewhat to do; ut te inveniat semper diabolus occupatum: that the devil may never find thee at leisure to listen to his temptations, as St. Hierom adviseth. The idle man’s brain being, in truth, not only the devil’s shop, but his kingdom too, a model of and an appendage unto hell; a place (like that) given up to torture and mischief. As to himself, his chiefest recreation was variety of work; for beside those portions of time which the necessities of nature and of civil life extorted from him, there was not a minute of the day which he left vacant. Now to stimulate your zeal to a pious imitation of him herein also, lei me admonish you to ruminate upon those accurate sermons you heard from him upon Matt. xx. 6: ‘Why stand ye here all the day idle?’
“5, His tender sympathy with the afflicted Church of Christ. Like a true son of Zion he could not rejoice when his mother mourned, he daily felt as much by sympathy as he did by sense; and no wonder, for he that hath a stock going in the Church’s ship, cannot but lament and quake at every storm. O how frequent were his inquiries after her, how fervent were his prayers for her, how bowelly and compassionate were his mournings over her! The deplorable condition of the Church and nation lay exceeding near his heart both living and dying; he preferring their happiness and welfare above his chief joy. Now in order to your attaining the same Christlike temper with him, frequently meditate on what you heard from him upon Neh. i. 4, where the sympathizing prophet refuseth to drink wine, when the afflicted Church drank water.
“6, And lastly, to sum up all, imitate him in his daily care and endeavour to live religion in all his capacities. As a Minister, ye are witnesses, and God also, how faithfully, how conscientiously he discharged his duty towards you. In the exercise of his ministerial function, if censure itself be able to tax him for any neglect, it must be in not more frequent visiting his flock, from which nothing, but a weak body kept him, not a proud or unwilling mind. The obstruction he met with in this part of his duty, from his tender habit of body (which would not suffer him so frequently to perform it as he desired), was his great sorrow both living and dying; yet having this to comfort. him, that the frailty of his body was: his affliction but not his sin. Consider him in his next relative capacity, as a child, how dutiful and obsequious! O how great was that tribute of veneration and respect which he so constantly paid to the hoary hairs of his aged parents! As a husband, how tender and compassionate; as a parent, how indulgent and affectionate; as a minister, how kind and munificent! Thus was he universally good in all stations, and lived religion in every capacity. And if you desire to imitate him herein also, as becomes you, dress your souls by that glass daily, which his dying hand last held up before your eyes: I mean by heavenly meditation, make those useful truths your own, which you last heard from him upon Tit. ii. 12, ‘That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Which Christian lesson, if it shall be as practically learned by you, as it was faithfully taught by him, I will be bold to say thus much in the singular commendation of you his people, that you will thereby give the world a convictive instance that this age hath virtues as stupendous as its vices!
“THE ConcLusion. — Thus I have given myself the satisfaction of doing my duty in propounding your Minister’s example to your Christian view. Let none censoriously say I have been all this while painting the prophet’s sepulchre. No, but describing the prophet himself, and with this single and sincere intention, that you may timely know you have had a prophet of the Lord among you; a person that had omnia im se sempiterna preter corpusculum: all things living and lasting to eternity except his body, which was the only thing he had subject to mortality, and besides which nothing of him doth see corruption. It will be below the merit of his person, as well as the greatness of our loss, to celebrate his death in womanish complaints, or indeed by any verbal lamentations; nor can anything beseem his memory but what is sacred and divine, as his writings are. May his just fame from them, and from his virtues, be precious to all succeeding ages And when elegies committed to the trust of marble shall be as illegible as if they had been writ in water, when all stately pyramids shall be dissolved in dust, and all the venerable monuments of antiquity be devoured by the corroding teeth of time, then let this short charac-
: ter, describing him in his best and fullest portraiture, remain of him: viz. that he was a CHRISTIAN IN COMPLETE ARMOUR.”
Circumstances at Lavenham, we can easily see, are referred to in this funeral sermon, of which we know nothing certain now. It is evident that Gurnall’s troubles during the latter part of his incumbency were neither few nor small, His conformity in 1662 was probably never forgotten; and the last years of his life were probably darkened by the implacable enmity of some of his parishioners. That Burkitt, who doubtless knew more of Gurnall’s inner life than any one, should have given the world no biography of him, is much to be regretted. He could have done it well, and it isa pity that he did not do it.
Gurnall’s widow survived her husband nineteen — years, and seems to have resided at Lavenham. - At any rate she was buried at Lavenham on September 7, 1698, and the grant of administration to her property called her “Sarah Gurnall, widow, of Lavenham, deceased.”
Gurnall left at least eight children, according to M’Keon, two having died young. —
1, Sarah, baptized April 2, 1646, married to Mr. Mayor, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
2. Susannah, baptized April 4, 1650, married the Rev. Samuel Beachcroft, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, Rector of Semer, Suffolk,
William Gurnall — Mis Last Days. 281
3. Catherine, the date of whose baptism we do not know, married the Rev. Bezaleel’ Peachie, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, Vicar of Bures St. Mary, near Sudbury, who was one of the witnesses of Gurnall’s will.
4, Elizabeth, baptized April 25, 1655, married the Rev. Philip Richardson, of Christ’s College, Cambridge, a clergyman of Ipswich.
5. Ann, baptized February 11, 1655, continued to live with her mother at Lavenham until her decease in 1698, and married in June, 1700, Mr. William Manthorp, of Lowestoft.
6. Another sister, whose name is not known, married a Mr. Shaftoe, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
7. Thomas, baptized March 13, 1659, settled at Little Waldringfield, and was buried there in 1723.
8. Joseph, baptized July 23, 1662, was an attorney, and according to M’Keon’s belief, resided at Lavenham.
9. John, baptized December 24, 1664, was sent to Christ’s College, proceeded B.A. in 1685, and afterwards became Curate of Brockley, until 1698. He was buried at Lavenham on February 6, 1700.
10. Leonard, baptized May 11, 1669, is one of whom nothing is known.
I can find no trace of Gurnall’s descendants in the present day. There is no one, so far as I can learn, of his name at Lavenham. The Rectory House in which he lived is no longer standing. The living of Lavenham has passed into the hands of Caius College, Cambridge. Everything connected with the good man, except his book, seems to have passed away. By it alone, “he being dead yet speaketh.”
I have now completely exhausted all the information I can supply about the author of “The Christian in Cormplete Armour,’ and can only express my deep regret that I can tell the reader nothing more. It certainly does seem rather tantalizing that a writer of the seventeenth century, — who is better known by name than almost any of the Puritans — who lived within twenty miles of such men as Owen, Marshall, Newcomen, Young, and Stockton, — who resided for thirty-five years in a town, of some little importance two hundred years ago, in a county so well known at that time as Suffolk — that such a man should have passed away and so very little be known about him! But so it is. Gurnall’s case, perhaps, does not stand alone. Perhaps the last day will prove that some of the best and holiest men that ever lived are hardly known.
Nothing now remains for me to do except to say a few words about Gurnall’s literary works, which have been lately, for the first time, brought together in a complete form. *
The first of Gurnall’s works, and indeed the one by which he is commonly known, is his famous book, “The Christian in Complete Armour.” This well-known book consists, ike many of the theological writings of the seventeenth century, of sermons or lectures delivered by the author in the course of his regular ministry, in a consecutive course, on Eph. vi. 10 — 20.
* T refer to Blackie’s complete edition of Gurnall’s works, which I take the opportunity of strongly recommending to all buyers of theology.
It was originally published in three small quarto volumes, and in three portions, at three different times. The first volume, containing Eph. vi. 10 — 13, was published in 1655. This volume is dedicated to “the Inhabitants of Lavenham, my dearly beloved friends and neighbours;” and the dedication contains a distinct statement, that the book consists of sermons preached at Lavenham. ‘“What I present you,” says Gurnall, “within this treatise, is a dish from your own table, and so (I hope) will go down the better. You cannot despise it, though the fare be mean, except you will blame yourselves who chose the cook.” There is a date at the end of the dedication which happily serves to show when the work was published. It is dated January 1, 1655. My copy is the second edition.
The second volume of the course, containing Eph. vi. 14 — 16, was published in 1658. It contains a dedication to “Thomas Darcy, Esq., and Mrs. Sisila Darcy, his religious consort,’ at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk; from which it appears that Mrs. Darcy was daughter of Sir Symond D’Ewes, Gurnall’s patron. The dedication is dated Lavenham, October, 1657. My copy is the first edition.
The third volume of the work, containing Eph. vi. 17 — 20, was published in 1662. It is dedicated to Lady Mary Vere, Baroness of Tilbury; a lady well known in the seventeenth century, and daughter of
William Tracey, Esq., of Toddington in Gloucestershire. The dedication is dated August 28, 1661. My copy is the first edition.
Comment, or recommendation, is perhaps needless in speaking of Gurnall’s great work. The fact that a sixth edition was published in the year the author died, 1679, is enough to show that its merits were early recognized. The high reputation it has always borne among lovers of sound English divinity down to the present day, is another fact which ought not to be forgotten. Other theological works of the seventeenth century were famous in their day, but are now seldom read. “The Christian in Complete Armour” is a work that is read and enjoyed by thousands up to this time.
One grand peculiarity of “The Christian in Complete Armour” is the soundness and Scriptural proportion of its doctrinal statements. There is nothing extravagant and overstretched in Gurnall’s exhibition of any point, either in faith or practice. Nothing is glaringly overcoloured, nothing is completely thrown into the shade. In this respect it is eminently like Bunyan’s “Pilerim’s Progress,” a work so beautifully proportioned in doctrine, that Calvinists and Arminians, Churchmen and Dissenters, are all alike agreed in admiring it,
Another striking peculiarity of Gurnall’s book is its profusion of illustrations and comparisons. You can hardly open a page of the work without meeting with
William Gurnalli — His Last Days. 285
some vivid image or picture of Divine things, which lights up the whole subject under consideration like a sunbeam. I am not prepared to say that in this respect Gurnall surpasses Brooks, Watson, or Swinnock, but J am quite sure that he deserves to be classed with them. Happy would it be for the Church if this gift of illustration was more common and more cultivated by preachers! The man whose sermons are best remembered is the man who, like his Divine Master, “uses similitudes.” “He is the eloquent man,” says an oriental proverb, “who turns his hearers’ ears into eyes, and makes them see what he speaks of.”
One more beautiful feature in Gurnall’s book is its richness in pithy, pointed, and epigrammatical sayings. Page after page might be filled, if a collection was made of all the short, golden sentences which are to be found in “The Christian in Complete Armour.” You will often find in a line and a half some great truth, put so concisely, and yet so fully, that you really marvel how so much thought could be got into so few words.
It would be easy to heap up testimonies to the value of Gurnall’s “Christian in Complete Armour.” Baxter and Flavel both thought most highly of the book. Toplady used to make copious extracts from it in his common-place book. John Newton said that if he was confined to one book beside the Bible, he dared say Gurnall’s “Christian Armour” would be his choice.
Cecil spent many of the last days of his life in reading it, and repeatedly expressed his admiration of it. But I have said enough already to weary the reader, and the best advice I can give him is to read the book for himself in the beautiful edition in which it has lately been brought out by Messrs. Blackie, and to judge for himself.
Two other books, and two only, are known to have been published by Gurnall, in addition to his great work, “The Christian in Complete Armour.” Both of these are single sermons preached on special occasions.
One of these sermons is called “The Magistrate’s Portraiture drawn from the Word.” It was preached at Stowmarket, in Suffolk, upon August 20, 1656, “before the election of Parliament recurs for the same county,” and published the same year. The subject of the sermon is Isaiah 1. 26. It is an excellent sermon, and worthy of the author in every way.
The other sermon is called “The Christian’s Labour and Reward.” It was preached at Castle Hedingham, in Essex, on January 10, 1671, and published in 1672. It consists chiefly of a discourse preached at the funeral of Lady Mary Vere, widow of Sir Horace Vere of Tilbury; the lady to whom the third volume of “The Christian in Complete Armour” is dedicated. It contains a dedication to Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Clare, who was Lady Mary Vere’s daughter. It isa good sermon undoubtedly, but would have been bet-
—ster if it had been more compressed. However, the vreachers of funeral sermons are seldom allowed much time for their preparation, and perhaps Gurnall, had no time to make his sermon shorter.
I have seen it asserted that Gurnall, in addition to the works already mentioned, published a volume of sermons in 1660. M’Keon says that this volume is mentioned in Cooke’s “Preacher’s Assistant,” published in 1783, and that a bookseller in London told him that he had himself seen a copy.
In reply to this I can only say that no such volume of sermons is to be found in the British Museum, nor in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, nor in the Redcrossstreet Library in London. Neither can I hear of any
living man, whether bookseller or collector of old divinity, who ever saw the volume. I must therefore be allowed to think that M’Keon made a mistake, and that no such volume was ever published.
I now conclude this lengthy biography by expressing my earnest hope that Gurnall’s works may yet find many readers as well as purchasers. It is indeed to be desired that solid scriptural theology, like that
contained in “The Christian in Complete Armour,”
should be valued and studied in the Church. Books in which Scripture is reverently regarded as the only rule of faith and practice, — books in which Christ and the Holy Ghost have their rightful office. — books in which justification, and sanctification, and regeneration, and faith, and grace, and holiness are clearly, distinctly, and accurately delineated and exhibited, these are the only books which do real good. Few things need reviving more than a taste for such books as these among readers.
For my own part, I can only say that I read everything I can get hold of which professes to throw light on my Master’s business, and the work of Christ among men. But the more I read, the less I admire modern theology. The more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writing. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the Catholic or broader systems, as they are called, which, to my mind, stamps their origin on their face. They
are of the earth, earthy. I find more of definite soul-satisfying thought in one page of Gurnall than in five pages of such books as the leaders of the so-called Catholic and “Broad Church Schools” put forth. In matters of theology “the old is better.”