Ward's Life
A SUFFOLK DIVINE VERY LITTLE KNOWN — BORN AT HAVERHILL IN 1577 — EDUCATED AT ST. JOHN’S, CAMBRIDGE — LECTURER AT HAVERHILL — MINISTER OF THE TOWER CHURCH, IPSWICH, 1603 — HIGHLY ESTEEMED AT IPSWICH — PERSECUTED, AND FINALLY SUSPENDED BY LAUD IN 1635.
SAMUEL WARD, an eminent Suffolk divine, and one of the most famous Puritans of the seventeenth century, is a man whose name is comparatively unknown to most readers of English theology. This is easily accounted for. He wrote but little, and what he wrote has never been reprinted till very lately. Owen, Baxter, Gurnal, Charnock, Goodwin, Adams, Brooks, Watson, Greenhill, Sibbes, Jenkyn, Manton, Burroughs, Bolton, and others, have been reprinted, either wholly or partially. Of Samuel Ward, so far as I can ascertain, not a word has been reprinted for more than two hundred years.
How far Samuel Ward’s sermons have deserved this neglect, I am content to leave to the judgment of all students of theology into whose hands his sermons may fall, But I venture the opinion, that it reflects little credit on the discretion of republishers of old divinity that such a writer as Samuel Ward has been so long passed over. His case, however, does not stand alone. When such works as those of Swinnock, Arrowsmith on John i. Gouge on Hebrews, Airay on Philippians, John Rogers on 1 Peter, Hardy on 1 John, Daniel Rogers on Naaman the Syrian (to say nothing of some of the best works of Manton and Brooks), have been only recently thought worthy of republication, we must not be surprised at the treatment which Ward has received.
As a Suffolk minister, and a thorough lover of Puritan theology, I desire to supply some-information about Ward in this biographical paper. I should have been especially pleased if it had been in my power to write a complete memoir of the man and his ministry. I regret, however, to be obliged to say that the’ materials from which any account of him can be compiled are exceedingly scanty, and the facts known about him are comparatively few. Nor yet, unhappily, is this difficulty the only one with which I have had to contend, It is a very curious circumstance, that no less than three divines named “S. Ward” lived in the first half of the seventeenth century, and were all members of Sydney College, Cambridge! These three were Dr. Samuel Ward, Master of Sydney College, who was one of the English Commissioners at the Synod‘of Dort, and a cor-Samuel Ward — His Life. aR 4
respondent of Archbishop Usher ; — Seth Ward, who was successively Bishop of Exeter and Salisbury ; — and Samuel Ward of Ipswich, whose sermons are now reprinted. Of these three, the two “Samuels” were undoubtedly the most remarkable men; but the similarity of their names has hitherto involved their biographies in much confusion. I can only say that I have done my best, in the face of these accumulated difficulties, to unravel a tangled skein, and to supply the reader with accurate information.
The story of Samuel Ward’s life is soon told. He was born at Haverhill, in Suffolk, in the year 1577, and was eldest son of the Rev. John Ward, minister of the Gospel in that town. John Ward, the father of Samuel Ward, appears to have been a man of considerable eminence as a minister and preacher. Fuller (in his Worthies of Suffolk) says that the three sons together would not make up the abilities of their father. The following inscription on his tomb in Haverhill church is well worth reading : —
JOHANNES WARDE.
Quo si quis scivit scitius,
Aut si quis docuit doctius,
At rarus vixit sanctius,
Et nullus tonuit fortius.
Son of thunder, son of ye dove,
Full of hot zeal, full of true love;
In preaching truth, in living right, — A burning lampe, a shining light.
LIGHT HERE, STARS HEREAFTER.
John Ward, after he with great evidence and power of ye Spirite, and with much fruit, preached ye Gospel at Haverill and Bury in Suff. 25 years, was heere gathered to his fathers. WATCH. Susan, his widdowe, married Rogers, that WARDE. worthy Pastor of Wethersfielde. He left 3 sonnes, Samuel, Nathaniel, John, Preachers, who for, them and theirs, wish no greater blessing than that they may continue in beleeving and preaching the same Gospel till ye coming of Christ. Come, Lord Jesus, come quicklye.
WATCH. Death is our entrance into life. WARDE.
Samuel Ward, the subject of this memoir, was admitted a Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge, on Lady Margaret’s foundation, on Lord Burghley’s nomination, November 6th, 1594, and went out B.A. of that house in 1596. He was appointed one of the first Fellows of Sydney Sussex College, in 1599, commenced M.A. 1600, vacated his Fellowship on his marriage in 1604, and proceeded B.D. in 1607.
Nothing is known of Ward’s boyhood and youth. His entrance on the work of the ministry, the name of the bishop by whom he was ordained, the date of his ordination, the place where he first began to do Christ’s work as a preacher, are all things of which apparently there is no record. His first appearance as a public character is in the capacity of Lecturer at his native town. of Maverhill. Of his success at Haverhill, Samuel Clark (in his “Lives of Eminent
Persons,” p. 154, ed. 1683), gives the following interesting example, in his life of Samuel Fairclough, a famous minister of Kedington, in Suffolk : —
“God was pleased to begin a work of grace in the heart of Samuel Fairclough very early and betimes, by awakening his conscience by the terror of the law, and by bestowing a sincere repentance upon him thereby, and by working an effectual faith in him; and all this was done by the ministry of the Word preached by Mr. Samuel Ward, then Lecturer of Haverhill. Myr. Ward had answered for him in baptism, and had always a hearty love to him. Preaching one day on the conversion of Zaccheus, and discoursing upon his fourfold restitution in cases of rapine and extortion, Mr. Ward used that frequent expression, that no man can expect pardon from God of the wrong done to another’s estate, except he make full restitution to the wronged person, if it may possibly be done. This was as a dart directed by the hand of God to the heart of young Fairclough, who, together with one John Trigg, afterwards a famous physician in London, had the very week before robbed the orchard of one Goodman Jude of that town, and had filled their pockets as well as their bellies with the fruit of a mellow pear tree.
“At and after sermon, young Fairclough mourned much, and had not any sleep all the night following;
K and, rising on the Monday morning, he went to his companion Trigg and told him that he was going to Goodman Jude’s, to carry him twelve pence by way of restitution for three pennyworth of pears of which he had wronged him. Trigg, fearing that if the thing were confessed to Jude, he would acquaint Robotham their master therewith, and that corporal correction would follow, did earnestly strive to divert the poor child from his purpose of restitution. But Fairclough replied that God would not pardon the sin except restitution were made. To which Trigg answered thus: ‘Thou talkest like a fool, Sam; God will forgive us ten times, sooner than old Jude will forgive us once.” But our Samuel was of another mind, and therefore he goes on to Jude’s house, and there told him his errand, and offered him a shilling, which Jude refusing (though he declared his forgiveness of the wrong), the youth’s wound smarted so, that he could get no rest till he went to his spiritual father Mr. Ward, and opened to him the whole state of his soul, both on account of this particular sin and many others, and most especially the sin of sins, the original sin and depravation of his nature. Mr. Ward received him with great affection and tenderness, and proved the good Samaritan to him, pouring wine and oil into his wounds, answering all his questions, satisfying his fears, and preaching Jesus to him so fully and effectually that he became a true.and sincere convert, and dedicated and devoted himself to his Saviour and Redeemer all the days of his life after.” *
From Haverhill, Samuel Ward was removed, in 1603, at the early age of twenty-six, to a position of great importance in those days. He was appointed by the Corporation of Ipswich to the office of Town Preacher at Ipswich, and filled the pulpit of St. Maryle-Tower, in that town, with little intermission, for about thirty years. Ipswich and Norwich, it must be remembered, were places of far more importance two hundred and fifty years ago than they are at the present day. They were the capital towns of two of the wealthiest and most thickly peopled counties in England. Suffolk, in particular, was a county in which the Protestant and Evangelical principles of the Reformation had taken particularly deep root. Some of the most eminent Puritans were Suffolk ministers. To be chosen Town Preacher of a place like Ipswich two hundred and fifty years ago was a very great honour, and shows the high estimate which was set on
*T think it right to remark that Clark, in all probability, has erred in his dates in telling this story. He says that Fairclough was born in 1594, and that the event he has recorded took place when he was thirteen years old. Now, in 1607 Ward had ceased to be Lecturer of Haverhill. Whether the explanation of this discrepancy is that Fairclough was born before 1594, or that he was only nine years old when he stole the pears, or that Ward was visiting at Haverhill in 1607 and preached during his visit, or that Fairclough was at school at Ipswich and not Haverhill, is a point that we have no means of deciding.
Samuel Ward’s ministerial character, even when he was so young as twenty-six. It deserves to be remarked that Matthew Lawrence and Stephen Marshall, who were among his successors, were both leading men among the divines of the seventeenth century.
The influence which Ward possessed in Ipswich appears to have been very considerable. Fuller says, “He was preferred Minister in, or rather of, Ipswich, having a care over, and a love from, all the parishes in that populous place. Indeed, he had a magnetic virtue (as if he had learned it from the loadstone, in whose qualities he was so knowing) to attract people’s affections.” The history of his thirty years’ ministry in the town of Ipswich would doubtless prove full of interesting particulars, if we could only discover them. Unhappily, I can only supply the reader with the following dry facts, which I have found in an antiquarian publication of considerable value, entitled “Wodderspoon’s Memorials of Ipswich.” They are evidently compiled from ancient records, and throw some useful light on certain points of Ward’s history.
~Wodderspoon says — “In the year 1603, on All-
T suspect that Fuller’s remarks about the loadstone refer to a book called ‘‘ Magnetis Reductorium Theologium,” which is sometimes attributed to Samuel Ward of Ipswich. But it is more than doubtful whether the authorship of this book does not belong to Dr. Samuel Ward, the Principal of Sydney College, of whom mention has already been made.
Saints’ day, a man of considerable eminence was elected as Preacher, Mr. Samuel Ward. The Corporation appear to have treated him with great liberality, appointing an hundred marks as his stipend, and also allowing him £6 13s. 4d. quarterly in addition, for house rent.
“The Municipal Authorities (possibly because of obtaining so able a divine) declare very minutely the terms of Mr. Ward’s engagement. In his sickness or absence he is to provide for the supply of a minister at the usual place three times a week, ‘as usual hath been. ‘He shall not be absent out of town above forty days in one year, without leave; and if he shall take a pastoral charge, his retainer by the Corporation is to be void. The pension granted to him is not to be charged on the Foundation or Hospital Lands.’
“In the seventh year of James I., the Corporation purchased a house for the Preacher, or rather for Mr. Ward. This house was bought by the town contributing £120, and the rest of the money was made up by free contributions, on the understanding that, when Mr. Ward ceased to be Preacher, the building was to be re-sold, and the various sums collected returned to those who contributed, as well as the money advanced by the Corporation.
“Tn the eighth year of James I., the Corporation increased the salary of Mr. Ward to £90 per annum, ‘on account of the charges he is at by abiding here.’
“In the fourteenth year of James I, Mr. Samuel Ward’s pension increased from £90 to £100 yearly.
“The preaching of this divine, being of so free and puritanic a character, did not long escape the notice of the talebearers of the Court; and after a short period, spent in negotiation, Mr. Ward was restrained from officiating in his office. In 1623, August 6th, a record appears in the town books, to the effect that ‘a letter from the King, to inhibit Mr. Ward from preaching, is referred to the Council of the town.’”
About the remaining portion of Ward’s life, Wodderspoon supplies no information. The little that we know about it is gleaned from other sources.
It is clear, from Hackett’s life of the Lord Keeper Bishop Williams (p. 95, ed. 1693), that though prosecuted by Bishop Harsnet for nonconformity in 1623, Ward was only suspended temporarily, if at all, from his office as Preacher. Brook (in his “Lives of the Puritans,” vol. i. p. 452), following Hackett, says, that “upon his prosecution in the Consistory of Norwich, he appealed from the Bishop to the King, who committed the articles exhibited against him to the examination of the Lord Keeper Williams. The Lord Keeper reported that Mr. Ward “was not altogether blameless, but a man easily to be won by fair dealing; and persuaded Bishop Harsnet to take his submission, and not remove him from Ipswich. The truth is the Lord Keeper found that Mr. Ward possessed so much candour, and was so ready to promote the interests of the Church, that he could do no less than compound the troubles of so learned and industrious a divine. He was therefore released from the prosecution, and most probably continued for - some time without molestation, in the peaceable exercise of his ministry.” Brook might here have added a fact, recorded by Hackett, that Ward was so good a friend to the Church of England, that he was the means of retaining several persons who were wavering about conformity, within the pale of the Episcopal communion.
After eleven years of comparative quiet, Ward was prosecuted again for alleged nonconformity, at the instigation of Archbishop Laud. Prynne, in his account of Laud’s trial (p. 361), tells us that, in the year 1635, he was impeached in the High Commission Court for preaching against bowing at the name of Jesus, and against the “Book of Sports,” and for having said ‘that the Church of England was ready to ring changes in religion,” and “that the Gospel stood on tiptoe ready to be gone.” He was found guilty, was enjoined to make a public recantation in such form as the Court should appoint, and condemned in costs of the suit. Upon his refusal to recant, he was committed to prison, where he remained a long time.
In a note to Brook’s account of this disgraceful transaction, which he appears to have gathered out of “Rushworth’s Collections” and Wharton’s “Troubles of Laud,” he mentions a remarkable fact about Ward at this juncture of his life, which shows the high esteem in which he was held at Ipswich. It appears that after his suspension the Bishop of Norwich would have allowed his people another minister in his place; but “they would have Mr. Ward, or none!”