Part II. the Rise and Spread of Nonconformity in Birmingham
Having sketched, in the first part of this work, the History of Nonconformity in England, I come now to consider its origin and diffusion in the metropolis of the midland counties.
The early history of Birmingham is more than ordinarily lost in the dense obscurity of past ages. Button, in his account of the town, says, with deserved asperity, It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones, the monks who lived in the Priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought of indulging posterity with a history of Birmingham. They could not want opportunity, for they lived a life of indolence; nor materials, for they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical facts now totally lost. Besides nearly all the little learning in the kingdom was possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their day, must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.” The town is no doubt of considerable antiquity, and from a very early period was a place for the manufacture of implements of iron. Its facetious and punning historian imagines that here the antient Britons forged their scythes, and spears, and swords. For many ages, it was little better than a village, We pass over this long and dreary interval, during which our manufactures were all in their infancy, e.nd grew but
F slowly, and take up the description given by Mr. Macaulay in his eloquent pages, of this town of artificers as it existed in the reign of James II.
“Birmingham had not been thought of sufficient importance to send a member to Oliver Cromwell s parliament. Yet its manufeuturers were already a busy and thriving race. They boasted that their hardware was highly esteemed, not indeed as now, at Pekin and Lima, Bokhara and Timbuctoo, but in London, and even as far off as Ireland. ‘They had acquired less honourable renown as coiners of bad money. In allusion to their spurious groats, the tory party had fixed on demagogues, who hypocritically affected zeal against Popery, the nickname of Birminghams. Yet in 1685 the population, which is now more than two hundred thousand, did not amount to more than four thousand.* Birmingham buttons were just beginning to be known; of Birmingham guns nobody had yet heard; and the place whence, two generations later, the magnificent editions of Baskerville went forth to astonish all the librarians of Europe, did not contain a single shop where a bible or an almanack could be bought. On market days a bookseller named Michael Johnson, the £Either of the great Samuel Johnson, came over from Lichfield, and opened a stall during a few hours. This supply of literature was long found adequate to the demand.”
It is evident from this account, that if we can boast of antiquity, we can say but little of the wealth and splendour of our ancestry. Still we are a type of the happy country to which we belong, where the ascending tsareer of opulence and renown is thrown open to every one who has the industry, the skill, and the perseverance to enter and continue.
* This is certainly too low an estimate.
Nonconformity has ever flourished most in our manufacturing districts, where the people are more independent than in the small towns and rural districts, and less under the power of the privileged classes. Birmingham forms no exception to this general rule, as the sequel will shew.
It would be quite useless even to attempt to ascertain how fiar the spirit of Puritanism, which if it did not spring up, greatly increased during the reign of Elizabeth and James I., extended itself to this town, and whether amongst its manufacturers there were any who had read the books and imbibed the sentiments of such men as Oartright and other advocates of farther reform in church government; or whether there were any from among them who, preferring the blessings of civil and religious liberty to the comforts of their native country, fled like the exiles of the Speedwell and the Mayflower to the wilds of America. That there might have been such is not improbable, since 6x)m the time of Henry VIII. there were many of them scattered through the country.
When the contest between Charles I. and his parliament commenced, a large portion of the people of Birmingham took up warmly the cause of the latter. Clarendon in his history of what he designates “The Great Rebellion,” has the following passage: speaking of the battle of Edge Hill, he says, “The circuit in which it was fought being very much in the interest of the Lord Say and the Lord Brooke, was the most eminently corrupted of any in England.” By which he means the most disaflected to the King. He then goes on to speak of Birmingham, and affirms,” that it was so generally wicked, that it had risen upon small parties of the King’s soldiers, and killed or taken them prisoners and sent
f2 them to Coventry, declaring more personal malice to his Majesty than any other place.” Now as the royal cause and episcopacy were almost identical, and the town of Birmingham was generally alienated from Charles, we are tolerably certain that it must have been equally disaffected to the Established Church, and must have approved of the conduct of parliament in abolishing it
Baxter, in his “Life and Times,” says, “The garrison of Coventry consisted, half of citizens and half of qountry men; the country men were such as had been forced from their own dwellings, the most religious men of the parts round about, especially from Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, &c. These wer men of great sobriety and soundness of understanding as any garrison heard of in England.” This is another proof of the prevalence of nonconformist principles at that time in our town, and also a fine testimony to their piety, their intellect, and their general good conduct.
That nonconformity existed in Birmingham at, and perhaps, before this time, though it moved, for fear of the law, somewhat stealthily, is not unlikely, for in an old tract, entitled “Prince Rupert’s burning Love to England discovered in Birmingham’s flames, &c.” prints ed in 1643, it is said the royalist soldiers having ash saulted a Mr, Whitehall, a minister, who had long been a lunatic, and held Jewish opinions, they “asked him if he would have quarter; he answered to this, or like purpose, he scorned quarter from any Popish armies, or soldiers; whereupon, they, supposing him to be Mr. Pwoberts, of Birmingham, did most cruelly mangle and hack him to death; and found certain idle and foolish papers in his pocket, which they spared not to divulge (as they thought o the Roundheads’ infamy), and so
NOirCONFOBMITT IK BIBMINOHAM. 69
went insulting up and down in the town, that they had quartered their minister; out of whose bloody hands the Lord delivered him a little before the town was assaulted, and blessed be God he is neither slain nor hurt.” In another place the narrative, speaking of the calamities which the people of Birmingham had suifered, thus proceeds, “Their minister is driven from home, detained from all employment, and deprived of all his maintenance, besides his many losses by fire and plundering; and till these parts be cleared, small hopes of his safe return, being so much maligned, and threatened by the Cavaliers, and the domineering anti-guard left in Birmingham. The people that are left are fed with such rayling sermons as one Orton, curate to parson Smith, the antient pluralist, can afford them, rankly tempered with the malignancy of his owne distempered spirit.”
In another tract, printed also in 1643, entitled “A Letter written from Walsall by a worthy gentleman to his friend in Oxford,, concerning Burmingkam” speaking of the same circumstances the writer says, “One thing nore I heard of at the taking of Bunninghanij which made some impression with me, which was the death of a minister, killed presently after the entry of the soldiers into the toune. But it is alleged he told the soldier who killed him, that the King was a perjured and Papistical King, and that he had rather die than live under such a king, and that he did and would fight against him; and that in his pocket, after his death, were found some papers sufficient to make one believe the man was either mad or one of the new enthusiasts;” — “And surely, whatever the principles of their teachers may be, the conclusions made by their disciples are very strange. One of the best sort of their
f3
70 THE RISE AKD SPREAD Of
prisoners here, being discoursed withall concerning his taJdng up armes in that manner, considering his oaths of allegiance and supremacy, peremptorily answered, he never did nor never would take these oaths. “‘f’
From this account it is tolerably clear that at the time. Smith was rector of St. Martinis, and Orton his curate, and that Boberts was the pastor of a congregation of dissenters from the Established Church, but of what denomination nothing remains to shew. These despised and persecuted Puritans met, no doubt, in some hired room, for as yet no place of worship, otherwise than the parish church, had been erected.
Smith was succeeded in the rectory of St. Martin’s by Mr. Samuel Wills. This change was in all probability effected by the intervention of a committee appointed by Parliament, for trying and ejecting scandalous and incompetent ministers. Dr. Calamy, in his Nonconformist Memorial, gives the following account of Mr. Wills: —” He was born at Coventry, and first called to the ministry at Croxal, in Staffordshire. Being driven from thence in the time of the civil war, he removed to London, and was chosen at Great St. Helen’s, where he spent a considerable time to the great satisfieustion of his hearers. The people of Birmingham being destitute, Mr. Simeon Ashe recommended Mr. Wills to them. There he had a large congregation, many of whom were very intelligent and pious people, and very diligent in searching the scriptures. He continued with them twenty years in great reputation for his probity, wisdom, and seriousness, till the year 1660 or 1661, when one Mr. Slater, an apothecary, encouraged by the alterations expected from the Restoration, pretended
* These extracts are from Mr. Wreford’s Sketch of the History of Presbyterianism in Birmingfham.
NONCONFORMITT IN BHtMINOHAM. 71
a claim under the widow of the former incumbent. Though the Court of Arches had declared themselves in favour of Mr. Wills’ title, yet partly by fraud and more by force, this apothecary got possession of the church, and became preacher there.* Mr. Wills being
* Slater eonld not haye long retained his ill-gotten pulpit, as we find from that rancorous and most mendacious work, “Walkers Sufferings of the Clergy,** that in 1665 the Rev. John Riland, A.M. was inducted to the living of St. Martin’s. This gentleman was the lineal ancestor of another John Biland, whom God in his great goodness sent to this town a little more than a century after, I mean the former minister of St. Mary’s chapel, and of course the father of the present much-esteemed and beloved minister of the chapel connected with the Magdalene Asylum. Of this venerable Archdeacon of Coventry and Rector of St. Martin’s I find ibe following beautiful account in Walker, drawn up probably by Mr. Biland’s son: — “He was very constant in his meditations and devotions, both public and private, which he delivered with that plainness and simplicity of speech and deportment, that there was not the least appearance of any unnatural and forced flights and enthusiastic raptures. There was such a strict and universal holiness in his life and conversation, that he is now called at Birmingham ‘That holy man* He was so very affable and humble that he never passed by any one without some particular regard and friendly salutatioA. He was such a lover of peace, that he laboured much f6r it; and when he could not persuade those that were at varianee to abate anything of the height of their demands, he many times deposited the money out his own pocket that he might make one of two contending parties. He was so charitable that he carried about a poor box with him, and never reckoned himself |70or but when that was empty; and it was not a single charity he gave them, because he not only fed their bodies, but their souls; for when he gave them a dole of bread in the church, he called them together and then framed a discourse to them particularly suited to their circum* stances: and indeed his exhortations on these occasions were so excellent and edifying, that several of the chief inhabitants came to hear them, and went away as well satisfied with these as the poor with the bread.” From this simple and beautiful narrative we would hope that St. Martin’s was favoured with a successor to Mr. Wills not altogether unworthy of that good man. That parish seems marked out by God for special favour, for in the Rev. Thomas Moseley, its last incumbent, it possessed one of the most holy and conscientious clergymen in the land, and in its present, one of the most devoted, faithful, and, I rejoice to add, successful of pastors. May the parishioners of St Martin’s know this the day of their merciful visitation.
of a calm, peaceable temper, thought not fit to contend any more, but contented himself to preach in Deritend chapel, at one end of the town. Some time after a process was instituted against him at Lichfield court, and he was cited thither for not reading the Common Prayer, though it was not yet enjoined. To avoid the persecution he removed a little way into the Worcester diocese. He afterwards had many removals, particularly by the Corporation Act. For some time he was in Coventry, where he was chosen by the people who belonged to Dr. Bryan, and preached there till some unquiet people drove him away. His last remove was to his son’s house in Shropshire, a pious worthy conformist. He died May 14, 1684, aged 73. He was a sedate, quiet, peaceable, able divine.”*
Whether during the ministry of Mr. Wills there were any bodies of professing Christians who held separate worship in this town, is not certain, though by no means improbable. The sects and parties into which the religious community, during the Commonwealth, was divided, were so numerous and so widely diffused over the country, that it is likely some of them were to be found in Birmingham. Mr. Baxter continually refers to the “Separatists, Sectaries, and Anabaptists,” as he calls them, and speaks of them with considerable acrimony. By these .he meant such persons as were not satisfied with the order and discipline set up by the Parliament after the abolition of episcopacy, and as there were many of them, according to his account, at Stourbridge, Sedgley, Dudley, and other places round Bir-
To him Mr. Baxter presented his first folio volume, which was in Mr. Orton’s possession, in which there was written, in his own hand, “As an expression of my love to his worthy father, and to the place of my father’s hnrial, 1 crave the acceptance of this hooki of the Bev. Mr. Wills, Vicar of Leighton, B. Baxter,”
NONGONFOBXrnr IN BlBlflNOHAX. 73
mingham, it may be well supposed there were some of them here also.
The ministry of such a man as Mr. Wills, however, would tend much to keep down this sectarian spirit, and if Jhere were any in the town who were under its influence, they were in all probability at length absorbed into his congregation. This holy man and his flock were Nonconformists only so fiax as relates to episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer, for as he was invested with his living and retained in it by the power and authrity of the state, he was a Conformist to a church sustained by a secular arm. The twenty years’ scriptural and faithful ministrations of such a man must have prepared his flock not only to feel his expulsion as a bitter calamity, but to follow him in his views of religion and in his principles of ecclesiastical polity.
As Birmingham was neither a borough nor corporate town, it did not come within the provisions and prohibitions of “The Five Mile Act,” and was therefore the resort of many of the ministers who were ejected from the neighbouring places. These were Mr. Bladon, vicar of Alrewas; Mr. Wilsby, rector of Wombom; Mr. Baldwin, vicar of Clent; Mr. Fincher, of Wednesbury; Mr. Brookes, of Hints; Dr. Long, of Newcastle-under-Lyme; and Mr. Turton, of Rowley Regis — all in the county of Stafford; Mr. Bryan, vicar of AUesley, Warwickshire; Mr. Bell, vicar of Polesworth; Mr. Basset, of the same county; Mr. Fisher, rector of Thomton-inthe-Moor, Cheshire; and Mr. Hildersham, rector of West Fulton, Shropshire.
What a fellowship of suffering, of patience, and of sentiment must these noble, but silenced, confessors have held in this their Patmos, and how must their presence and conversation, their prayers and their counsels, have contributed to the faith and patience of the saints whom they found of like views here. We can easily imagine what solemn seasons of devout intercourse they would stealthily hold, while the storm of persecution was rolling over them, and they knew not but the next flash from the thunder cloud would strike the house in which they were assembled; and we can scarcely help wishing we knew the spots which they had moistened with their tears and consecrated by their prayers. Honour to their memory. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.
At length the hour of deliverance drew on. The indulgence granted first by Charles II. and afterwards by James II. for the accomplishment of their own Popish views and designs, was, whatever was its object and motives, the dawn of religious liberty to the persecuted Nonconformists. Among the rest who came forth from their hiding places were the dissenters of Birmingham. These, upon the declaration of religious liberty by Gharl licensed a room for public worsUp, in which Mr. Fisher preached. This gentleman, says CaJamy, was first of aJl turned out of the living at Shrewsbury with Mr. Blake, for not taking the engagement against the King and the House of Lords, and was afterwards rector of Thomton-in-the-Moor, whence in 166$2 he was cast out and silenced. He waar an old man, an able preacher, and of a godly life. He lived many years in Birmingham, and died there. He printed a sermon “On honouring the King,” dated “From my study at Birmingham, March 10, 1673.”
It was not, however, tiU the indulgence granted by James, in 1687, that any regularly organised society, of which we have any account, was formed. The congregation then chose for their minister Mr. Turton, who.
KOltCOKFORMmr IN BIltHlNOBAll. t5
as we have already mentioned, was ejected from Bowley Regis. Of this excellent man Calamj, in his Nonconformists* Memorial, gives the following particulars: — “When he had almost brought himself to the grave, by hard study and labour in ministerial work, his ejectment gave him some ease, and was a means of recovering his health and strength. He afterwards preached frequently in churches and chapels, as he had opportunity, but chiefly in private houses, and at length became pastor to one of the dissenting congregations at Birmingham, where he died in 1716.” From the last paragraph in this account, it would seem that there was at this time another congregation in the town, though no particulars concerning it are upon record, which may have been the body that met in Meeting-house-yard, to which we shall refer in the sequel.
The glorious Revolution followed within a year after James’s declaration of indulgence; and in another year the Toleration Act of William and Mary, that great charter of religious liberty, was passed. In this year a spot of ground was obtained by Mr. Turton and his flock, almost within reach of the shadow of St. Martin’s steeple, and a place of worship was erected on the site, where now stands the Old Meeting. This was the first place ever erected in the town of Birmingham for any other worship than that which is conducted in the parish church. It is pretty evident, from the situation selected, that the Nonconformists of those days deemed it inexpedient to be too obtrusive in the use of their recently acquired liberty, as all the first meeting-houses of different denominations were in rather obscure retreats, and probably veiled by small streets or front buildings from public notice. Dudley-street, the Inkleys, and Pinfoldstreet on one aide, and Worcester-street as it then was on the Other, formed, if this indeed wore the motive, a sufficient screen to prevent the new erection from being too provocative to the eye of religious bigotry.
PRESBYTERIANS,
SUBSEQUENTLY UNITARIANS.
We give this first designation to the congregations of the Old and New Meeting-houses, because they assumed it as the successors of those who called themseves such at the time of the Restoration, and not because they carried out the principles implied in that term, either as it was then, or is now understood. Had the state of things continued which the Long Parliament set up, Presbyterianism as recommended by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, would probably have been established and arranged after the Scotch and Genevan form; preparations had commenced for such an organization, but they were never carried forward, so that in point of fact, England at that time had no Presbyterianism in practice, except in some of the northern counties, which bordered on Scotland. From the time of the Revolution, even those who called themselves Presbyterian were Independent in their actual government, though certainly not Congregational. The Presbyterian congregations, as they were called, were no farther Presbyterian than as they vested the power of government pretty much in a body of trustees, instead of the Kirk session of the Scotch Church, or the whole body of the people, as among the Congregationalists. In most of the congregations bearing this designation, which are now generally Unitarian, even this relic of Fresbyterianism is laid aside, and all things are directed by the popular voice. The only real Presbyterians in this kingdom are those who adopt the principles and polity of the national Church of Scotland — of the Free Church — or of the United Presbyterian Church, of all which, especially the second, there arQ many congregations south of the Tweed.
THE OLD MEETINa GONaREOATION.
Mr. Turton*s ministry appears to have been eminently successful, and the number of Nonconformists was r&^ pidly augmented in Birmingham. Mr. Wreford, in his “Sketch,” says, “At this period and for a long lime after by far the larger part of the population of the town were dissenters.” And he also states that the population consisted of about ten thousand. I cannot help thinking he is a little mistaken in his statistics, both as regarda the population of the town and the increase of dissenters, giving too high a number for each. Button makes the population to be only about eight thousand; and it appears not very likely that by far the larger part of even these were dissenters; for if this were the case they would have needed more accommodation for public worship than they appear to have possessed.
The first annoyance and disturbance which the Non* conformists of this town experienced, after the passing of the Toleration Act, occurred in the year 1715, when, on the death of Queen Anne, a Tory rage was kindled against the dissenters as the most zealous friends and supporters of the Hanoverian succession. The Old Meeting-house was attacked, and the interior almost entirely destroyed by fire. The sanctity of the Sabbath and the solemnities of public worship afforded no check to the passions of the mob for these scenes of violence occurred on the^Lord’s-day. At that same time the meetiiig-house at Bromwich was pulled down to the ground. The mob then proceeded to Oldbury and rushed into the place of worship while the minister was in his sermon, so that the people had scarcely time to escape before the house was on fire. The tide of mischief then rolled on. to Dudley, Stourbridge, and Cradley.
This happened in the last year but one of the venerable Mr. Turtons holy and peaceful life and useful ministry. In 1716 he closed his earthly career, and passed to that scene of untroubled repose, where the strifes of party and the ebullitions of malevolence and bigotry have no place; where all the air is love, and all the region peace.
At his death Mr. Brodhurst, and for a short season Mr. Greenwood also, remained as joint ministers, who took under their care the congregation of Protestant dissenters which had been formed at Oldbury. Mr. Brodhurst continued his ministry till the year 1730, and then died. If we may judge from the volume of sermons published after his death, it could have been no ordinary privilege to enjoy the ministry of such a preacher of “the faith once delivered to the saints.” He was buried in St. Philip’s church-yard, and as a proof, both of the Uliberality of those times, and also of the happy change which has since come over the spirit of the English Church, I may mention that the then rector of the parish refused to the Mends of Mr. Brodhurst the melancholy satisfaction of inscribing an epitaph on his tomb. I can well imagine with what pleasure such a request would have been granted by the present rector; with what respect the Honorable and Reverend Grantham York would have looked on the sepulchral urn of such a man as Mr. Brodhurst; and how often as he passed his grave he would pause to read the inscription which perpetuated his memory.
What bigotry refused, friendship supplied, for a mural monument was erected in the front of the New Meeting-house, bearing a Latin inscription from the pen of Dr. Watts, of which the following is a translation: —
This marble calls to our remembrance
A person of superior skill in divinity,
Nor less acquainted with human Uterature:
Inclined from his infancy to things sacred,
An impartial enquirer after truth,
An able defender of the Christian faith,
A truly pious and devoted man.
A preacher that exoeUed
In force of reason and art of persuasion:
A pastor vigilant beyond his strength
Over the flock committed to his charge:
Of courteous behaviour and beneficent in life:
A pattern of charity in all its branches:
A man adorned with many virtues.
Concealed under a veil of modesty;
But shall not for ever be concealed.
Go, reader, expect the day
When heaven and earth at once shall know
How deserving a person
Mr. Edwabd Bbodhubst was.
He was born in Derbyshire, 1691,
Died at Birmmgham, July 21, 1730.
His soul ascending to the blest above.
The church on earth bemoans.
The church triumphant congratulates.
Is received by Christ, approved of God,
* Well done good and faithful servant’
Mr. Brodhurst was followed in succession by Mr. Mattock, Mr. Wilkinson, and then Mr. Howell. It was under this last mentioned gentieman the secession took place which led to the formation of the church in Carr V lane.
The following is Mr. Wreford’s list of the ministers of the Old Meeting-house, in the order of their succeswon, and to the present time: —
Rev. W. Tarton From 1686 to 1716
D. Greenwood
£. Brodhurst
D. Mattock..
J. Wilkinson
W. HoweU ..
S. Clark
B. Scholefield
N. Niefaols •.
J. Coates
R. Kell....
J. Corrie •.
S. W. Bro?me
H. Hntton..
t
„ 1780
1J
„ J 730
it
1, 1746
„ 1756
II 1770
II
„ 1769
„ 1799
II
II 1784
II
„ 1801
II
,1 1821
„ 1819
II
II
1819
1822
„ 1821
The following list shows their connexion with each other: —
X686 Rev. W. Turton 1716 with 1700 Bev. D. Greenwood 1730 —
E. Brodhurst 1730
II
ditto — p-J. Wilkinson 1756
II
—
D. Mattock
ditto —
W. Howell —
S. Clark 1769
II
ditto —
B. Scholefield 1799
II
—
N. Nichols
ditto
II
—
J. Coates —
B. KeU 1821 —
J. Corrie
ditto —
S. W. Browne Mr. Kell was the last of the Arian ministers of the Old Meeting-house, and Mr. Corrie the first of the Unitarians. The Rev. Hugh Hutton is the present minister of the Old Meeting-house,
THE NEW MEETING-HOUSE, MOOR-STREET,
It has been already shewn that there were two congregations of Nonconformists in Birmingham, during
NONOOKFOBlCmr IK BIBUINGHAM. 81
the latter part of the lime of the Stuarts, and at the commencement of the reign of William III. That of which Mr. Turton was pastor built the Old Meeting-house in 1689; where they met before this, from the time of James’s indulgence, we are not told. But where did the other assemble? Of this, as to their early history, we are entirely ignorant: but we find that in 1692 a second place of worship was erected in Digbeth. On the subject of this second place there is conflicting testimony. Hutton makes the place in Digbeth the first and original seat of Nonconformist worship, and affirms that the Old Meeting was a subsequent erection. Dr Toulmin, in his Memoirs of Mr. Bourn, and Mr. Wreford after him, state the contrary, that the Old Meeting was the first erection, and that the place in Digbeth was occasioned by the increase of the congregation in the Old Meeting, part of which seceded and built the house in Digbeth. I am inclined to think, with Dr. Toulmin and Mr. Wreford, as to the date of the two erections, but that the congregation in Meeting-house-yard was a distinct and separate congregation, else how shall we account for Calamy’s language in reference to Mr. Turton’s settiement over “one of the congregations at Birmingham?” A psirt of the building in Dvgbeth converted into a workshop, and bearing more resemblance to a private dwelling than to a place of worship, is still remaining. It is situated in the lowest part of its locality, in a somewhat mean and dirty court, the approach to which is by a low dark gateway. Both the situation and remains of the building give no veiy impressive idea of its original magnitude or architectural taste, for nothing can be more unprepossessing. This, from its locality, was called “The Lower Meeting-house,” while the other in Old Meeting-street was for the same 8f2 THE RISE AND SPBEAD OF
reason called * ‘The Higher Meeting-house. “Of the con* gregation assemhling in this latter place, Mr. Sillitoe was perhaps the first minister, of whom nothing remains but the name. Mr. Wreford gives a curious account of the preservation of this chapel from the incendiarism of the mob in the Tory riots of 1715. “On Saturday night, July 16,” says a letter in my possession, “the rioters went down to the Lower Meeting-house, and Mr. Russen, whose it is, gave them the keys, and promised them it should never more be put to that use (a meeting-house) but he would turn it into dwelling-houses, if they would only take away the seats and leave the case whole; and upon that condition they only took the seats and burnt them, and as far as I can learn they have not so much as broke any of the windows or doors; nay, and what is more, he gave them all drink when they had done, and told them he had a seat in Derrington (Deritend) chapel, and he would go to hear there; and all this out of mere covetousness to save the walls, though he is old and very rich, and has no child. How he could satisfy his conscience in such a thing I know not,, but I am sure I could not.”
How it came to pass that the condition upon which this meeting-house was preserved from the flames, so thriftily but so unworthily offered by its possessor, was nullified, whether by the violation of his own promise, or by the sale of the property to some one who had more value for Nonconformity than himself, does not appear; but certain it is that the building continued to be used as a place of worship for nearly seventeen years after this time. This is not the only case in which the individual possession of a place of worship has proved a snare for the conscience and a test of principle. There are not a few even now, I am afraid, who would protect and redeem their propert]r at the cost of their virtue and consistency.
The worshippers in the Lower Meeting-hoose were exposed to great inconyenience, not only from its distance from their place of residence, but from the floods of the river Rea, which flowed very near it; and they therefore determined upon the erection of another building in which both these inconveniences should be avoided. A site in Moor-street was obtained, and a convenient and tolerably spacious house was raised on the spot where the New Meeting-house now stands, which was opened for public worship in 1782, on which occasion the Kev. Samuel Bourn, then of Chorley, preached from Haggai ii. 7 — 9. Two days after the opening of the chapel, Mr. Bourn was chosen to be one of the ministers, in conjunction with Mr. Pickard. From this year till 1761 a union subsisted between the New Meeting-house and the Presbyterian chapel at Coseley, in the parish of Sedgeley, Staflbrdshire, a village about eight miles from Birmingham. The ministers officiated alternately at both.
Mr. Bourn at the commencement of his ministry was a Trinitarian, but upon the controversy raised by the writings of Mr. Whiston and Dr. Clarke, which, as Dr. Toulmin says, might be considered as the Arian controversy of the fourth century revived, he re-examined the subject, and became a high Arian.
One or two anecdotes of this gentleman, which are to be found in Dr. Toulmin’s Memoirs of him, may serve to enliven these pages and shew the quickness of Mr. Bourn’s intellect, and the readiness of his wit. On one of the trials at Warwick, in which he was engied, when he had been admitted, according to his request, to plead his own cause, the counsel employed by the
a2 adverse party, chagrined with the skill, sagacity, and power of speech which he displayed, asked him with ironical humour, “Of whom he had learnt his oratory?” “Of one,” replied Mr. Bourn, “whom you do not know; of Paul of Tarsus.” Biding one day to preach, in company with a gentleman who was a Quaker, as they had to pass through a deep water in a flood created by heavy rain, he was asked by his companion, “What wilt thou do, friend Bourn, if thy papery should be wet or damaged, so that thou couldest not read them?” He re* plied, “At worst it could only be a silent meeting.”
The following is the list of ministers of the New Meeting-house, in the order of their succession: —
1692 Rer. — SiUitoe 1704
1705 — Thomas Pickard 1747
1732 — Samaelfionm 1754
1747 — Samuel Blytii .. ., .. ., 1791
1754 — William Hawkes, ,, 1780
1780 — Joseph Priestley, LL.D. F.R,S. &c. 1791
1791 — John Edwards 1802
1792 — David Jones 1795
1803 — John Kentish 1846
1804 -r-. Joshua Toulmin, D.D 1815
1817 — James Yates, M.A., &c 1825
1826 — John Reynell Wreford ., .. 1831
1832 — Samuel Bache, the present minister.
The following list shews their connection: —
1692 Bev. — Sillitoe 1704 1705 Rev. T. Pickard 1747
1732 — S. Bourn 1754 with ditto
ditto „ 1747 — S. Blyth 1791
1754 — W. Hawkes 1780 „ ditto
1780 Dr. Priestley 1791 „ ditto
1792 Rev. D. Jones 1795 „ 1791 — J. Edmonds 1802
1803 — J.Kentish „ 1 804 Dr. Toulmin 1815
ditto „ 1817 Rev. J. Yates 1825
ditto „ 1826 — J. R. Wreford 1831
ditto „ 1832 — S. Bache
Besides the venerable Mr. Kentish, who still lives to enjoy, amidst much public esteem and private friendship, his oUum cum dignilate, one name stands conspicuous on this list above all the rest, I mean Dr. Priestlej. As a Trinitarian I cannot but deplore of course that the weight of his fame, both as a scholar and a philosopher, should have been. cast into the scale against, what I consider to be, the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. Of this great man, Robert Hall said, “The religious tenets of Dr. Priestley appear to me erroneous in the extreme; but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to virtue or my admiration of genius. His enlightened and active mind, his imwearied assiduity, the extent of his researches, the light he has poured into almost every department of science, will be the admiration of that period when the greater part of those who have favoured, and those who have opposed him, will be alike forgotten. Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. The vapours which gather round the rising sun, and follow it in its course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated tints, and a sublime effulgence, the luminary which they cannot hide.”
In the year 1791, before the convulsion which exploded both the dynasty and hierarchy of France had exhibited its blood and horrors to the astonished and affrighted nations of Europe, a company of friends had assembled at the Royal Hotel, to celebrate the French revolution. Whether, considering the excited state of the popular mind, it was quite prudent thus to display their love of liberty, has been questioned by some of its devoted champions; but nothing can justify, defend, or palliate
g3 the disgraceful and destructive riots which followed this meeting. The hotel where it was held was assaulted by a furious and outrageous mob, which proceeded then to demolish not only the Old and New Meeting-houses, but the private dwellings of the most wealthy indivi* duals who formed a part of the congregation that worshipped in them; and which, but for the timely arrival of the military, would have commenced a general sack and plunder of the town. The principal object of their fury was Dr. Priestiey, whom they would no doubt have murdered, if he had fallen into their hands. As they could not apprehend his person, they vented their rage on his dwelling, library, manuscripts, and philosophical apparatus, which they utterly destroyed.
Till veiy lately the ruins of some of the demolished houses remained as a monument of the disgrace of those who instigated and those who perpetrated these out* rages. It is matter of congratulation that they have now entirely disappeared. Whatever be the feelings of party in the present day, a humanising influence has since then come over the people, and the riots of 1791 could not now be repeated under the highest excitement of the popular mind.
For the Memorials of the Ministers of the Old and
New Meeting-houses the reader is referred to Mr. Wreford’s Sketch; but I deenoi it respectful to those of them
who still live, to insert the following list of their works: —
Nbw Mbbtiho. — Mb. Ebntish.
HouiLBTiOAL. — <’ Funeral Sennons” for Mr. Kenrick, Mr. Edwards, Dr. Toulmin, Mr. Scott, Mr. fielsham, The Princess of Wales — “A Beview of Christian Doctrine,” on resigning the ministerial office at Sonthwark and Hackney, Decemher 2, 1802, January 2, 1803 — “The Nature and Duties of the Chrisdan Ministry,” on undertaking the office of religious instructor at Birmingham, January 23, 1803 — “The Importance of Education to the Christian Ministry,” at Exeter, June 17, 1804 — Christian Trath stated, yindicated, and recommended,” Birmingham, Jane 21, 1807 — “Six Discourses,’* in a volume of Sermons for the Use of Families, and one in another volume of the sune kind — “The Simplicity of the Christian Doctrine,” Dudley, January 19, 1808 — “llie Connection between the Simplicity of the Gospel and the leading Principles of the Protestant Cause,” Exeter, July 10, 1811 — “A Thanksgiving Sermon, on occasion of the act exempting the impugners of the doctrkie of the Trinity from certain disabilities and penalties,” Birmingham, 1813 — “The exercise of the Social Principle in Beligion,” London, June 1, 1814 — “The Mutual Belation of the Unity of Ood, and the Humanity of Christ, as Doctrines of the Gospel,” Bristol, July 9, 1828 — “The Public and Private Duties of the Christian Ministry,** a Charge at the Ordination of Mr. Baker, Bolton-le-Moors, September 23, 1824 — “The silent and unmarked Progress of Truth,” Wolverhampton, October 16, 1827 — “The Situation and Duty of Protestant Dissenters,” Oldbury, September 8, 1829 -^” A Letter to the Congregation assembling in the New Meeting-house, on the death of Dr. Priestley” — “The Nature, Evidence, and Claims of Christian Unitarianism,” an Address at the Annual Meeting of the Tract Society established by the Old and New-meeting Sunday Schools — A volume of Sermons lately published — Sermon at Cheltenham, 1844.
CoNTHovBBsiAL. — “A Vindication of the Principles upon which several Unitarian Christians have formed themselves into Societies for the purpose of avowing and recommending their Views of Religious Doctrines, by the Distribution of Books,” 1800 — “The Moral Tendency of the genuine Christian Doctrine,” in reply to Mr. Fullers Examination of the Calvinistic and Socinian system, a Discourse at Exeter, July 6, 1796 — “Strictures on the Reply of Mr. Fuller,” 1798.
BioaBAPHiCAL. — “Memoir of Mr. Kendriek,” prefixed to his “Exposition of the Historical Writmgs of the Old Testament,” 1807 —” Memoir of Mr. Lindsay,*’ affixed to a Funeral Sermon by Mr. Asplaud.
Rbpbihts — of “Mr. Bourn’s Discourse on Family Worship,” with a Preface — a third edition of “A Collection of Prayers for the Use of Families,” published originally by Mr. Kenrick, at Exeter.
88 THE BtSE ATXjy 8PB3SAD Of
ExposiTOBT. — “Notes and Commdnto on Passi^BOf 8driptore,” Syo, IBU, Oiiid edition 1848.
Mb. Yates.
HomileticaIm-**’ Tbe Nature, Maimer, and Extent of Gospel Salvation,” Edinburgh, 1813 — “A Sermon on entering upon the Pastoral Office’* —” The Effects of Spirituous and other Intoxicating Liquors*’ — Four Sermons at Glasgow, 1818 — “The Peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel,*’ London, 1819 — “The Scriptural Meaning of the Title ‘Saviour,* as applied to our Lord,** Glasgow, 1822.
CoNTBOYSBSiAL. — “The Grounds of Unitarian Dissent,’* a Sermon, Glasgow, 1812 — ‘’A Vindication of Unitarianism,** in Bep ply to Mr. Wardlaw, 1815 — “A Sequel to *A Vindication of Unitarianism,’ “in Reply to Mr. Ward]aw*s Treatise entitled “Unitarianism incapable of Vindication,** 1817.
Vabious. — “Thoughts on the Advancement of Academical Education in England,” 1826 — “Remarks on the Formation of Alluvial Deposits,” read before the Geological Society — “Outlines of a Constitution for the University of London.”
Mb. Wbefobd.
“A Discourse on the Authenticity and Divine Origin of the Old Testament, with Notes and Illustrations, translated from the French of J. E. Cellerier,” 1830 — “The Parable of Nathan,” a Sermon in the volume to be used by Families — “Sketch of the History of Presbyterian Nonconformity in Birmingham” — “Lays of Loyalty” — “Songs of the Sea” — “Sketch of the Character of Dr. Morell,” appended to a Funeral Sermon by Mr. Acton — “Songs descriptive of the Christian Graces, Faith, Hope, and Charity.”
Mb. Bache.
“Just Views of the Divine Government dependent on a Belief in the sole Deity of God the Father,” Coventry, February 3, 1883 — “True Grounds of Christian Unity,’* New Meeting-house, Birmingham, 1834 — “The Harmony of Science and Revelation,” New Meeting-house, 1839 — ^“The Essential Union of Christian Integrity and Charity,” Essex-street, London, 1840 — “The Superiority of Unitarian over Trinitarian Views of Christianity,** Portsmouth, 1841 — “The Use and Abuse of Distinctive Names in ICatttors of ReUgion)” N«w Meetmg-hoase, Birmingham, 1847 — “Addxess to the Members of the Literary and PhilosopJtiiGal Society of Birmingham,” 1836.
Old Mkxtisq. — Mb. Huttoh.
UoMiLXTiCAL. — ^“The Duties and Benefits of Co-operation among the Friends of Scriptural Beligion,’’ Belfast, August 26, 1827 — “Beflections on the Death of William IV.” Birmingham, 1837« Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God,” Co-Tcntry — “Short and easy Bules for the reading of the Scriptures with Understanding and Edification.”
CoNTBOYEBSiAL. — “Appeal to Scripture Principles in Support of the Claims of Unitarian Christians,” a Sermon, Yeovil, July 16, 1828 — -” Unitarian Christians distinguished from Unbelieyers in Christianity,” Birmingham, 1832.
Dbyotional. — “A Pocket book of Private Devotions for every Morning and Evening in the Week,” 1837.
Poetical. — ‘* Poetical Pieces on Devotional and Moral Subjects,” 1880 — “The Fall of Babylon, a Sacred Musical Drama,” second edition, 1849.
IIEWHALL HILL CHAPEL.
The congregation assembling in this place was formed by a body of spirited individuals who previously worshiped in the Old and New-meeting Houses. They met for some time in premises in Cambridge-street, which they rented for the purpose of public worship on Unitarian principles and for Sunday school education, and they also carried on at the same time a female school in Edmund-street. Finding these premises inconvenient and too small, they determined upon the erection of a new chapel. To this they were encouraged by the munificent donation of one thousand pounds by Thomas Gibson, Esq. who laid the foundation-stone of the new building, amidst a large concourse of spectators, on May 1st, 1839, on which occasion Mr. Bache, minister of the New-meeting, offered prayer, and Mr. Hutton, of the Old-meeting, delivered an address, after which a tea meeting, attended by eight hundred persons, was held in the Town-hall, when the thanks of the meeting were given to Mr. Gibson for his handsome contribution. The chapel was opened for worship in 1840, and contains accommodation for 1000 persons, besides school rooms for 1000 children, and was erected at a cost of £3000. For several years the congregation were without a minister, when they elected Mr. Cranbrook, who settled there in 1848.
HURST-STREET CHAPEL.
The Unitarians of Birmingham have not been behind other denominations in zeal to propagate their sentiments among the labouring classes, and to promote, according to their views, their spiritual and temporal well-being. For this purpose they have long had in this town “A Domestic Mission,” the provisional committee of which, in 1840, engaged Mr. Bourne as a town missionary, and opened a small place of worship in Hurst-street, in 1844.
INDEPENDENTS.
Although the history of the Independents has been alluded to and partially given in the general sketch contained in the first part of this work, where it is mixed up with the account of other nonconformist bodies, it may not be amiss here to present an epitome of it in a detached form.*
* The idea of giving a separate and somewhat more lengthened history of the Independents occurred to me after the first part of this work was really printed, which will explain the circumstance of the account of Brown and Robinson having been introduced into that portion of the work.
NONGONFOBMITY IK BIBMINOHAM. 9f
The Independents assert two principles: First, That peisonal religion is a matter between the individual man, and God, for which, as to his opinions, feelings, and practices, he is independent of all human authorily and controol whatever, and accountable to God alone. Secondly, A Christian church is a company of such indir vidual Christians, Yoluntarily associated together for fellowship and worship, and vested with the rights, and partaking of the power, of self-government, so as to be entirely independent of the authority and controul of all other bodies of men, civil or sacred.
Independency admits of the association and co-operation of each church with other churches, but not of jurisdiction. It allows of the moral influence of collective wisdom, experience, and counsel over individual decision, but not df legislative compulsion.
The Independents claim, as the model of their church poHty, the primitive churches planted and organised by apostles, which, for aught that appears in inspired history to the contrary, seem all to have been individual, separate, and self-governed bodies of professing Christians. The church at Home, for instance, had no authority over that at Corinth, nor that at Corinth over that at Rome. Nor is there the appearance of the organization of any number of the apostolic churches by a systematic form of polity. The meeting at Jerusalem (mentioned in Acts xv.) presents the nearest approach to this, but that was convened, not to arrange and settle an ecclesiastical system, but to decide a matter of fact, a question of doctrine, and to decide it by apostolic authority. It was a meeting of the church at Jerusalem, to which certain deputies were sent from the church at Antioch, and from that church alone, and not a meeting of delegates and representatives from various churches, in the form of a synod or presbytery: and though the decision of that assembly went forth in the name of the apostles, elders, and members of the Jerusalem church* and the others joined with them in the conference, it was made by apostolic and inspired men, and does not affect the question of church government.
The independence of the first churches of Christians has been conceded by both Episcopalians and Presbyterians. The learned Dr. Barrow, an Episcopalian, in his Treatise on the Pope’s Supremacy, speaking of the primitive state of the Church, says, “Each church separately did order its own affairs, without recourse to others, except for charitable advice, or relief in cases of extraordinary difficulty or urgent need.”
‘’Each church was endowed with perfect liberty and a full authority, without dependence or subordination to others, to govern its own members, manage its own affisdrs, to decide controversies and causes incident among themselves without allowing appeals or rendering accounts to others. This appeareth in the apostolical writings of St. Paul and St. John to single churches, wherein they are supposed able to exercise spiritual power for establishing decency, removing disorders, correcting offences, deciding causes, &c” Unity of the Church.
Lord Chancellor King, in his learned “Inquiry into the Constitution and Discipline of the Primitive Church,” affirms, “That every church was independent, that is, without the concurrence and authority of any other church.”
Bingham, in his “Antiquities of the Christian Church,” says, ‘’ There is one thing more must be taken notice of whilst we are considering the proper office of bishops, which is the absolute power of eveiy bishop in his own.
church, independent of others.” This refers to a post apostolical age, when the bishop had to a considerable extent grasped church power into his own hands, but it still proves the independency of the churches upon each other.
Dr. Campbell, a Presbyterian, says,” The different congregations, with their ministers, seem to have been in a great measure independent of each other. Eveiy thing regarding their own procedure in worship, as well as discipline, was settled among themselves.** Lect. ix.
Traces of independency, in an undeveloped form, are to be found in various ages and different sections of the Christian church, through the whole range of ecclesiastical history. But it was never advocated in this country, in a systematic form, till the time of Elizabeth.
We have already introduced Robert Brown to the reader*s attention, who, whatever was his character, was the first that propounded in form the principles of Indepency, after whom this denomination were called Brownists. Brown*s opinions, in consequence of his popularity as a preacher, spread fast and widely, for Sir Walter Raleigh, in his speech in Parliament, in 1580, when speaking of the severe measures then in contemplation against the Brownists, said, “I am afraid there are near twenty thousand of them in England.” Among those who embraced these opinions were a Mr. Barrow, a gentleman of a good house,’* according to the testimony of his great contemporary, Lord Bacon; and a Mr. Greenwood, a graduate of Cambridge. These were too active by their writings and their conduct to escape the notice of the Church party, and were soon arrested and thrown into prison. After lingering in jail for sis. years, they were ’ brought to trial, and sentenced to death, and commanded to prepare for immediate execu« tion. The next day they were brought out of prison, their irons were struck off, and they were about to be bound to a cart which was to cany them to Tyburn, when a reprieve arrived, obviously for the purpose of allowing them an opportunity to recant. The respite was of short duration, for in eight days after they were conveyed to Tyburn, and exposed under the gallows with the fettal rope round their necks. They were permitted to address the people with a dying speech, and had scarcely finished their supposed last words, when a reprieve again arrived. They returned to prison amidst the greetings of the people, elated with the hope that their lives were really now about to be spared. Vain expectation! In another week the dreadful mock execution was turned into a real one, and they died as felons or traitors for their zeal in the cause of Independency. Such was the manner in which the persecutors of those days sported with their victims in the presence of death. Who can help thinking of the manner in which the cat plays fast and loose with her little, defenceless, palpitating victim, as if the destructive grip were postponed to protract the torture. If there were room, and it were necessary, I might here introduce the life, labours, writings, and martyrdom of John Peniy, a Welch Independent, and present one of the most touching narratives to be found in the pages of English martyrology; in reference to whom, Hallam, in his Constitutional History, remarks, “Penry’s protestation at his death is in a style of the most affecting and simple eloquence.”
As a further proof and example of the sufferings of the Independents, during the reign of Elizabeth, I may mention that there was a congregation which had been accustomed to assemble in various places about the city and its suburbs, of which Mr. Greenwood, just alluded to, was teacher. In summer they used to meet in the fields, where, sitting upon a bank, they expounded the Bible to each other. During the winter they assembled at four o’clock in the morning, in some house, and continued in prayer and exposition all day, They dined together, after which they made a collection to pay for their diet, and to supply the wants of their brethren in prison. They were at length discovered at Islington, in the very apartment which had been occupied by a Pro* testant congregation during the reign of Mary, and upwards of fifty of them were apprehended and committed to prison. In a petition they presented to the Privy Council, they bitterly complained of the treatment which they received from the bishops; and they presented another to the Lord Treasurer, which is one of the most affecting appeals ever made by the oppressed to the oppressor, and which was signed by fifty-nine prisoners, and had appended to it the names of ten others already deceased in consequence of their confinement. Among those who died in prison was Koger Eippon, on whose coffin the following inscription was written by his fellow-sufferers: — “This is the coffin of Roger Eippon, a servant of Christ, and her Majesty’s faithful subject; who is the last of sixteen or seventeen which that great enemy of God, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wiUi his high commissioners, have murdered in Newgate, within the last five years, manifestly for the testimony of Jesus Christ. His soul is now with the Lord; and his blood crieth for speedy vengeance against that great enemy of the saints, Mr. Richard Young (a justice of peace in London), who, in this and many like points, hath abused his power for the upholding of the Romish antichrist, prelacy, and priesthood.”
Many copies of this inscription were dispersed, and tended to awaken sympathy with the sufferers and indignation against the clergy as the cause of their wrongs.
Surely when such cruelties were inflicted upon men for no other crime hut forming and expressing their own opinions on the meaning of the word of God, we cannot he surprised that they should sometimes he goaded into the use of language in their writings which not only violated the law of Christian meekness, hut increased the ferocity of their persecutors. It is impossible to justify the bitter irony, the angry vituperation, and the somewhat coarse and vulgar abuse contained in the Mar-Prelate Tracts, which, from their obscure and concealed batteries, assailed at this time, with such effect, the bishops and their supporters. Such were not the weapons most likely either to defend the oppressed, or to conquer their oppressors; nor was the use of them sanctioned by the direction of our Lord in his sermon upon the mount.
Among the most distinguished of the Independents of the time of Elizabeth, was Heniy Ainsworth, one of the most eminent scholars of his dav. A rather whimsical anecdote may be here introduced of this great man’s reputation, and the mistakes sometimes committed by the compilers of dictionaries. “A higher testimony,” says the editor of the Biographia Britaunica, “of the reputation Ainsworth had acquired by his writings, cannot well be expected than that which occurs in all the late editions of Moreri’s Dictioncuy, and even in the last, wherein with great pains they distinguish between * Henry Ainsworth the able commentator on the scriptures, and Henry Ainsworth the heresiarchf who was one of the chief of the Brownists in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,* and very gravely tell us that we must have a care not to confound them; nevertheless, nothing is more certain than that these two were the same man.” This great man rose from the lowest rank, heing nothing more at one time than a hookseller’s porter, living upon nine pence a week, and some boiled roots. In this situation he studied Hebrew, and at length rose to be one of the greatest proficients in that language of his times. He appears to have first joined himself to the Independent exiles at Amsterdam, in connexion with Mr. Johnson, a learned and able advocate of their principles. Ainfiworth was the author of numerous works of great merit, but his fame rests principallj on his “Annotations on the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Song of Songs.*’ Bishop Hall, in his “Apology for the Church of England against the Brownists,” often mentions Ains worth as the greatest man of his party, their doctor, their chief, their rabbi. And they have no need to be ashamed of him.
Under the reign of James, the Independents were Dot wanting in authors or preachers to set forth their principles, though they were very few in number or perhaps in weight, compared with the Presbyterians. But one name must be put forward as sustaining a high rank among the few, I mean John Robinson, whose history having been given in the sketch of Nonconformity, need not be repeated here. It was by Bobinson, as we have already said, that the principles of Independency were brought more nearly to the systematic form they now bear. The cause of Independency in England, so far as the controversy is concerned, was maintained also by a Mr. Henry Jacob, by whom the designation of Inde-FENDENT was first employed. After residing for some time with other exiles in Holland, as minister of a congregation at Leyden, he returned to England, and firmed in London, in the year 1616, what was said to
H be the first Independent or Gongregatioual church in this country. This, however, was not correct, as there were some societies of this denomination formed even as earlj as the time of Elizabeth, though much less known than that of Jacob, whose writings as an author gave to him, and therefore to the church under his care, considerable notoriety. It must not be supposed, however, that the Independents of the time of which we are now speaking, thoroughly understood the great principles of religious liberty, or the distinction between things civil and things sacred. They asserted the independence of the churches of each other, but not of the magistrates* power. They held firmly congregational Independency, but not aggregate Independency. Jcusob allowed of the interposition of the secular power for the establishment of truth, and so did many others. Brown was much nearer the truth on this subject than Jacob. Perhaps the Baptists were among the first to assert the unfettered rights of conscience. The earliest work in which this ¥ras avowedly advocated was that of Leonard B usher, a citizen of London, and entitled “Religious Peace, or a Plea for Liberty of Conscience.” 1614.
At the latter end of the reign of James I. the Independents, though still vastly out-numbered by the Presbyterians, were rising into notice, as will appear evident from a remark in a sermon by Bishop Hall before the King, in 1624. “Surely,” he says, “if we grow into that anarchical fashion of Independent congregations, which I see, and lament to see, affected by too many, not without woeful success, we are gone, we are lost in a most miserable confusion.” It must not be supposed, however, that they were all separatists from the Established Church. They were not allowed the liberty of open worship and ecclesiastical organization according ta their own principles, and could only meet stealthily and in such places as they could obtain, with least danger of being discovered. In London, in Kent, in Norfolk, in Gloucestershire, and Wales, there were many who followed the congregational system more or less perfectly developed, and more or less in a state of separation from the established worship.
In addition to Ainsworth, Eobinson, and Jacob, they could boast of, as among their leaders. Dr. Ames, one of the best scholars of the day, and equally eminent as a controversialist, of whom Mr. Hooker, who was his assbtant at Amsterdam, when in exile,’ says, in his preface to Ames’ last work, written a little before his death, “With the coming forth of this book into the light, the learned and famous author. Dr. Ames, left the light, or darkness rather, of this world a pattern of holiness, a burning and shining light, a lamp of learning and arts, a champion of truth.” To Ames must be added Canne, the author of many works, now best known by a publication of the Bible with marginal references, which goes to this day by his name, but which was imperfectly done, and is now to be found only in the libraries of the antiquarian. He subsequently became a Baptist, and a fifth monarchy man. Another individual who, soon after this, signalised himself as an advocate of Independency, both by his writings and by his sufferings, was Mr. Burton, the associate of Mr. Prynne and Dr. Bastwick in the cruelties and indignities heaped upon them by Laud, through the instrumentality of the Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber. These three confessors, for writing against Episcopacy, were sentenced to have their ears cut off, and to stand in the pillory in Palace-yard, to pay a fine of five thousand pounds each to the King, to be perpeh2 tually imprisoned, and Prjnne, in addition to all this, to be burned by a hot iron in the cheek with the two letters S. L. seditious libeller. This sentence was executed amidst the sympathy, indignation, and so for as regards the courage and noble bearing of the sufferers, the admiration of an immense crowd, who, to shew their opinion of the proceedings, strewed with sweet herbs the path along which the martyrs were brought to the pillory.
During the contest of Charles’’ with his Parliament the Independents increased in numbers and in influence, till at length, in both houses of Parliament, there sprang up what was called “The Independent Party:” they were few in number, but of great abiHty and energy. Cromwell was an Independent, and the first that ever sat in the House of Commons: and Hampden probably favoured these opinions, though both of them at that time were members of the Church of England: Sir Harry Vane openly espoused them. In the Upper House were Lord Brooke, and Lord Say and Sele, who made no concealment of their Congregational views. It must not be imagined, however, that it was the Independents who originated the war against Charles. The Long Parlia* ment, as we have already shewn from Clarendon, consisted at its commencement almost exclusively of Episcopalians, and had not one separatist. Independency, as a form of religious opinion, had nothing whatever to do with this rupture, for not only were they who favoured it few in number, but their principles were opposed to the sentiments of the great body of the members, and were even discountenanced by legislative enactments. It was as patriots, and not as Independents, that Cromwell, Hampden, St. John, Vane, Lords Brooke and Say and Sele, entered upon this qontQst, whatever other sentiments and objects came up during its progress. Mr. Macaulay, in speaking of them, says, “There had been from the first, in the Parliamentary party, some men whose minds were set on objects, from which the majority of the party would have shrunk with horror. These men were in religion, Independents. They considered that every Christian congregation had, under Christ, supreme jurisdiction in things spiritual: that appeals to provincial and national synods were scarcely less unscriptural than appeals to the Court of Arches or to the Vatican; and that Popery, Prelacy, smd Presbyterianism were merely three forms of one great apostacy. In politics they were, to use the phrase of their time, root-and-branch-men, or to use the kindred term of our own times, radicals. Not content with limiting the power of the monarch, they were desirous to erect a commonwealth on the ruins of the old English polity. At first they had been inconsiderable both in numbers and in might, but before the war had lasted two years, they became, not indeed the largest but the most powerful faction in the country.” It may, however, be fairly questioned whether this party, if we except Sir Harry Vane, at the commencement of the rupture of the King with the Parliament, had any serious thought of setting up a commonwealth, or even wished to do so. These views arose as the struggle progressed, when the duplicity of the King had disgusted them with monarchy altogether. No doubt, as Mr. Macaulay says, after the death and defection of some of the great pisffliamentary leaders, the Independent party, “ardent, resolute, and uncompromising, began to raise its head both in the camp and in the parliament,” and we may add, it was that party which afterwards directed the course of events that ended in the downfall of the Monarchy and the establishment of the Commonwealth.
h3
We have already seen that in the Westminster Assembly there were only six Independents, and that these were regarded with jealousy and dislike by the Presbyterians, who denied them the rights of toleration: this, however, they enjoyed in common with others, mider the Protectorate, as Cromwell fiEivoured their sentiments, by nominating their principal divines to be his chaplains, as well as to fill the most important places in the Universities. Dr. Owen was Dean of Christ Church, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and Dr. Goodwin President of Magdalen College. Milton gave to the Independents all the glory which his illustrious name could confer, for though he does not formally set forth their principles, yet, throughout the whole of his prose works, he is incidentally an ardent, sincere, and eloquent advocate of their views. How rapidly they spread may be inferred from the fact already mentioned that, at the Savoy Conference, held a little while before Cromwell’s death, the representatives of a hundred churches were present.
Under the tyranny of the Stuarts, Independency had little opportunity of extending its influence or propagating its principles and, together with Presbyterianism, was crushed, as far as it could be, under the iron heel of oppression, and, like that, rose again in vigour and in strength, by the provisions of the Toleration Act. The nommal Presbyterianism, however, for it was only such, soon coalesced with Independency.
A few things may here be noticed.
1. Independency, as it now exists, was a thing of slow growth and very gradual development. The idea of each separate congregation having the right and power of complete self-government, did not spring up all at once in the minds of the founders of this system, but grew up into a system by successive discoveries of the meaning of the New Testament.
2. Independency was not at first identified with separation. Manj who held the system did not come out from the Establishment in the first instance, and for an obyious reason, because they were forbidden by law to do so; and afterwards from certain scruples about the matter. There was a vast difierence in the measures of light which the holders of this system had received, as a perusal and comparison of their works attest.
3. Independency, as we have already proved from a quotation from the sermons of Dr. Owen, did not at that time disallow of state support of religion. Most of the followers of this form of polity held not only the lawfulness but the duty of the civil magistrate to support truth by authority and endowments.
4. Indepondency, as is evident from the records of ecelesiastical history and the present state of religious denominations, has commended itself to the judgment of a very large portion of the professors of Christianity. It is maintained by the Unitarians and the Baptists, as well as by those to whom the designation is now conventionally applied. It is the system which almost exclusively prevails in the New Engknd States of America, and of course is supported by the Baptists in that country, who in the Southern States are the most numerous body of professing Christians. If this be considered, and it be recollected also that in these United Kingdoms there cannot be much less than four thousand congregations formed upon this principle, and that these congregations are composed of persons who hold the scriptures to be the only infallible rule of church order and discipline — who profess to be guided solely by that uneriing rule — and who exercise an unfettered right of private judgment in the interpretation of the word of God, — it will surely appear to every unprejudiced mind that this, though certainly not a proof that the system is true, is a strong presumption that it is neither so extravagant, nor self destructive, as many of its opponents represent it to be. It has spread too widely among thinking men to be regarded as altogether an insignificant, contemptible, or irrational heresy, and lasted too long to be viewed as a mere experiment which is sure to fail in the trial.
5. The element of Independency is, to a certain extent, to be traced in all churches, except that of Rome. That arrogant communion with a daring ambition claims to be the head, the only head, of the whole Christian community on earth, and asserts a right, which it would exercise if it had the power, to hold all other churches in a state of dependence and subordination. In every age of the Christian era there have been churches, and there are still, which assert, and practice, their independence of the Eomau See. The Church of England is independent of Home, and so are many others, and these are all independent of each other. The nonconformist Independents only carry this principle still further, and in the exercise of their liberty claim an independence for each congregation, not only of the Church of Home, and Church of England, but of each other.
6. Congregational Independency, it is candidly admitted, requires much intelhgence, piety, and self-government on the part of its members, in order to its harmonious working: and for want of these qualifications no doubt many contentions and divisions arise, as was the case in nearly all the churches planted by the apostles. There is a strong centrifugal force in each congregation that requires the balance of a centripetal power of much personal religion to prevent confusion and mischief.
7. Independency admitB not only of the friendly intercourse, association, and co-operation of neighbour churches, but of advisory eouncUs. Brown recommended them; Kobinson practised them; Dr. Owen makes room for them; the Congregational Church at Amsterdam adopted them, and so do all the Independents in New England: and the adoption of the plan by our English Independents would save us many strifes, divisions, and injudicious settlements. The fact is we are too independent, and most deplorably need a little more disposition to seek and take advice. Our Independency, though right in its general principles, is certainly not infallible and perfect in its practical working. Perhaps all the denominations might learn something from each other: we are none of us either entirely right, or entirely wrong. A determination to reject all standards but the New Testament — a loving spirit towards each other, combined at the same time with a still stronger love of truth^’-cuid the maintenance of candid, generous, and respectful controversy, would bring us much nearer to each other, and help us to find out a more excellent way than any of us have yet discovered. Shall we ever see the subordination of Episcopacy — the union of Presbyterianism — and the liberty of Independency — combined in one system, and that system removing all prejudices, harmonising all parties, spreading through the state without being, in modern phrase, a state religion — sustained by the voluntaiy ofiPerings of its friends, and sa adequately sustained as to need no other support? Yes — but I am afraid not till the millennium. Then let us pray for that consummation so devoutly to be wished.
caeb’s-lane chapel.
It has been already stated that the congregations of the Old and New Meeting-houses were originally Trinitarian, and that they had suhsequently embraced Unitariamsm: and it may not be irrelevant to glance here at the history and progress of this change of religious opiluon, a change of such very wide extremes. About the year 1707 a controversy was raised by Whiston, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, on the person of Christ. Whiston avowed himself an Arian, on which, in 1710, he was expelled from his professorship for heresy. This system, which reduced our Lord from his true and proper divinity to a super-angelic nature, found a more able advocate in Dr. Samuel Clarke, rector of St. James’s, Westminster, who published a book on the Trinity, in which Arianism is presented in the most orthodox garb with which its ingenious and subtle author could invest it. A few years after this the system found an entrance into the nonconformist body by the labours of Joseph Hallet and James Pierce, two Presbyterian ministers of Exeter. The controversy thus originated soon spread, and was carried on with considerable zeal by both parties. The whole dissenting community, both in the metropolis and the provinces, was agitated by it, though Exeter and the West were considered as its centre. Great numbers of both ministers and their flocks received the new doctrines, and among these were the ministers of the Old and New Meetings in Birmingham. A gradual departure from Trinitarian doctrine had no doubt been going on in the ministers who successively filled the pulpits of those places of worship. There was a pretty large class of preachers at that time with whom it was not common to be very explicit in their statements of what is called doctrinal sentiment. They were more practical than dogmatical; and exhibited much more of hortatory persuasiveness than of theoretic truth in their sermons.
NONcoNFOBicnr m bibminoham. 107
The precepts rather than the person of Christ were the subject of their discourses, and as they spake in terms of the highest reverence of the Saviour, they excited no suspicion of their orthodoxy, from which indeed in the first instance their deviations were slight. It is not intended by these remarks to say that there was any intentional reserve, much less of deceptiveness. The Sabellianism of Job Orton the biographer of Doddridge, would excite no alarm even in many modern congregations, except among the most critical hearers and ardent lovers of a full weighted orthodoxy. It is probable .that after the death of Mr. Brodhurst there was a gradual and unsuspected deflection from the strict line of Trinitarianism. It was not, however, till the time of Mr. Howell that Arianism was openly avowed and preached from the pulpit of the Old Meeting-house. In the congregation there were still some who held fast the truth of Christ*s true and proper divinity, and who, in a peaceable but firm manner, contended earnestly for what they considered to be “the faith once delivered to the saints.” Bemonstrance was vain, for they were in the minority, and they therefore quietly withdrew. The leaders of the separatists were John Humphries, George Davies, John England, Richard Jukes, — Kendal, — Halford, Thomas Allen, Clement Fisher. These are now only names to us, for those who bore them are all forgotten.
It will be seen from this statement that we, of the Carr’s-lane congregation, have no occasion to be ashamed of our pedigree, nor to blush over our parentage. We have not sprung from faction, nor were we born of strife and contention. Our ancestors and founders were not a band of martyrs, certainly, in the conventional acceptation of that term, though as certainly in its etymological meaning, for they were confessors and witnesses of the truUi. Their station in society is of little consequence, bat still it is well when pietj and wealth are combined, as was the case with many of them. One of them, I mean Mr. England, was a benefiEu;tor by his will to the congregation, and during his life made a present to the church of its sacramental silver service, which bears his name, and which we now use. He was buried within the walls of the chapel.
The first, most natural, and most urgent solicitude of the separatists was to provide a house in which to meet for the worship of God; and that was at length built in Garr’s-lane. It may not be uninteresting to the members of the church assembling there to know the derivation of a name which has become so dear and so interesting to them. I had always supposed that it had its origin in some individual who had property here, or who for some reason or other had given his cognomen to the locality: but the designation is not quite so honourable, or of such cherished remembrance, as the parentage of the church. In Popish times, when the various matters used in processions connected with the Roman Catholic religion, were conveyed to and from the mother church of St. Martin’s, the vehicle in which these so-called sacred articles were carried was designated “God*s cart,’* and because the hovel in which the holy carriage was kept happened to be in this locality it was called “Cart-laue,” which became altered by the changes to which languce is subject in the progress of time, into “Car-lane,”* and ultimately into “Carr’s-lane.” Things are strangely and delightfully altered since then, both at St. Martin’s and in Carr*s-lane. And this alteration
* The Bev. John Garbett, Bector of St George’s, and Boral Dean, gave me this information, which he obtained by searching into some old records found among the muniments of King Edwaj d’s School, of which he is one of the Governors.
extends to other subjects than those just enumerated, for the lane itself, if it cannot be dignified by calling it a “street,” which in £ELct I do not coTCt, was then only about half the width it now is: and that the congregation may duly estimate their present appearance and comfort, I also inform them that in the front of the land purchased for the site of the intended meeting-house, and for many years in front of the place of worship itself, was a row of small tenements, through a gate-way in the middle of which, the house of God was approached; whOe another row of tenements ran along the whole west side of the building; so that the congregation were put to much inconvenience by various noises and other annoyances. A member of the Society of Friends once remarked, in reference to the poor people who inhabited these tenements, “That if the Carr’s-lane congregation were addicted to works of mercy, they need not go far to find objects for their bounty;” while Hutton, in his own style of levity and low wit, remarks, “The residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being surrounded with about forty families of paupers, crowded almost within the compass of a giant’s span, which amply furnish the congregation with noise, smoke, dirt, and dispute. If the place itself is the road to heaven, the stranger would imagine that the road to the place led to something worse.” But by the mention of the site and its local appearance we have a little anticipated what follows.
The meeting-house was commenced in 1747, and was opened for worship in the summer of 1748, when the Rev. James Sloss, of Nottingham, preached from Psalm qxxii. 1, “I was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord.” The pulpit was supplied by the neighbouring ministers till November in the same no THE BISE AND SPBEAD OF
year, when the church inyited Mr. Wilde, then ant minister to Mr. SIobs, to faeeoiae their pastor, who was ordamed m Aagust, 1750. Why so long a time eli>9ed between his being chosen as pastor and his ordination, does notipear. As the new place of worship was very small, and the service was likely to excite considerable attention, the New Meeting-house, of which Mr. Bourn was then minister, was most courteously granted for the occasion. Dr. Toulmin relates, in his memoir, that Mr. Boum was present when he was so moved and disturbed by the sentiments advanced in the confession, which were strictly Calvimstic, “That he made several efforts to rise and controvert them at the moment; and was with difficulty restrained from an open and immediate animadversion, by his friend Mr. Job Orton, who was sitting by his side.” “In this instance,” says his biographer, “Mr. Bourn’s zeal will be thought to have transported him beyond the rules of decorum and that forbearance and deference which are due to the feelings of others, and their right to deliver their sentiments without interruption and molestation. But it will be recollected that he lived nearer to times in which it had not been unusual to controvert, at the moment and on the spot, principles advanced by the preachers in places of worship. In the preceding century. Dr. Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, went, on two Lord’s days, to Mr. Biddle’s meeting house, accompanied by some learned friends, and publicly commenced a disputation with him. It is an improvement in modern manners that these intrusions on the order of a religious society, and attacks by surprise, are discarded.”
The two first deacons of Carr’s-lane church were Mr. Kendal and Mr. England. In reference to the former it is said in our ecclesiastical archives, and what richer
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encomium can be passed on any deacon! “He was tnilj the servant of the church, that employment being his delight. He was an Israelite indeed.”*
The spirit of persecution, though restrained by the Act of Toleration, was at this time malignantly bitter in the way of petty and private opposition. During the early part of his ministry in Birmingham, Mr. Wilde was exposed to many annoyances, such as having stones thrown at him in the streets by night, and his garments soiled by filth, which he bore with patience and dignified indifference. He appean, by every account that has reached us, to have been an earnest, devpted, and popular minister, and soon filled the chapel with serious and attentive hearers of the word of life. His ministry was eminetkdy successful, which is to be attributed not only to his preaching, but to his catechetical instructions; a method of teaching to which he devoted much time and attention. His catechumens consisted not exclusively of children, but of all the young people of his congregation, to whom as they stood round the front of the galleiy he would address himself with great solemnity. He was also very impressive in his admonitions to parents when they presented their children for baptism. In short, Mr. Wilde appears to have come fully up to the idea of an earnest minister of Christ.
After labouring about sixteen years, Mr. Wilde died, November 14, 1766. It is supposed his illness was brought on by attending, when he was somewhat indisposed, the funeral of Mr. Thomas Allen. How many faithful ministers of Christ have been sacrificed by being present, when they were themselves indisposed, at the
* If I descend to some particulars in the history of my own congregation, which a fastidious taste might deem too trivial for history, it is for the sake of those who belong to it, to whom nothing of this kind will he tedious.
obsequies of the dead, and by visiting persons afflicted with iufectioos diseases. How can it be expected that religious instruction can be of service to one who i& half delirious with fever?
The church deeply felt the loss of this its first and faithful pastor. The excellent Mr. Fawcett, of Kidderminster, delivered the address at the grave, and Mr. Griffiths, of Wednesbuiy, preached the funeral sermon to a most deeply affected congregation. Mr. Wilde was interred within the precincts of the meeting-house, and a handsome marble monument was erected upon its walls, bearing the following inscription: —
Near this place lie the remains of the late
Bey. Gebyas Wildb,
Who was a truly pious, judicious, and faithful Minister of the
Gospel, and Pastor of this Church of Christ sixteen years.
In his sermons, he was plain, awakening, and evangelical,
labouring much to convince and humble sinners,
and to exalt Christ and free grace:
In prayer, solemn, fervent, and devout:
In conversation, grave, instructive, and affectionate.
And justly may it be said of him, that his concern was to adorn
the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things.
But having fulfilled the ministry he received of the Lord, a period
was put to his life, and labours, and usefulness in this world,
November 17, 1766, in the 5drd year of his age.
“Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall
find so doing.” — Matthew xxiv. 46.
Such is the record of the first pastor of the church: simple, honourable, beautiful. The memory of the just is blessed: and the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.
Among other candidates for the vacant pulpit were a Mr. Eades, then of Rendom, in Suffolk, and a Mr. Punfield, of Wimbome, in Dorsetshire. The former was a singularly conceited nd ppmpous man, and the author of an octavo volume on the Christian ministry, a book of large bulk, but of little value. Mr. Punfield was on the contrary, a very modest, retiring, and humble man, but at the same time of very unattractive pulpit talents. Hs was a sound divine, but a very unpopular preacher, and the wonder is how such a, man could have been chosen to succeed Mr. Wilde.
Mr. Punfield commenced his ministry in March, 1 767: but though he lived in the affections and esteem of his flock, and though some accessions were made to the church, yet, as was to be apprehended from the unimpressive method of his delivery, and the contrast he presented to Mr. Wilde his predecessor, the congregation very considerably declined during his pastorate. The matter of his sermons was excellent, but people required then, as they do now, good manner as well as good matter. This is an instinctive principle of our nature; and to say aught against it, is to reason against our own organization. The human ear is tuned to melody and harmony; and the music of sound, whether it be emitted from an instrument, or the organs of speech, cannot fail to please us: and th same principle which renders an exquisite singer, performer, or actor agreeable and popular, operates in reference to the preacher also.
As no very copious statistics are preserved, I have no means of gaining an accurate and satisfactoiy account of the number of either the attendants or communicants during the pastorate of Mr. Wilde or Mr. Punfield.
Among the attendants upon the ministry of Mr. Punfield was a Mr. Joseph Scott, a near relation, and if I mistake not, an uncle of the late Sir Joseph Scott, Bart, of Great Barr. He was not a member of the church, but merely an attendant at the place. Mr, Scott was a man of some property, and of great peculiarity. At the close of his life he gave by deed of conveyance to Carr’s-lane meeting house, in trust, certain lands situated in Walmer-lane, part of them for a buiying-ground for the dissenters in Birmingham, and the proceeds of the other part for founding a charity school, for the support of the ministry, for the repairs of the meeting-house, and other uses. When he executed the deed he expressed his desire that he might live one year after this act, which the law requires to give validity to a deed of gift, and then he said he did not care if he died the next day. He lived, however, several months afterwards, and died March 29, 1781, aged 94. The charge of this property constitutes what is now called “Scott’s Trust.” As the land was let originally upon a building lease for the term of 120 years, of which only about 70 are expired, it now brings in but a comparatively small rental, and there is half a century yet to come before the pastor of the church will be exposed to the temptations of a golden stall, or the inhabitants of the town be benefited by the provisions thus made for the extension of education. The rental of the houses upon this land cannot yield to the present proprietor much less than fifteen hundred pounds a year; and it is therefore of importance to future generations that the present and succeeding trustees should look well to the preservation and renewal of the buildings.
Among the original trustees of this property was William Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, who exercised whatever religion he possessed, by attending many years the public worship at Oarr’s-lane. This was every way an extraordinary man, if we except extraordinary piety and benevolence. He had raised himself by his own sagacity, industry, perseverance, sobriety, and economy, from poverty to affluence. He came to Birmingham a poor boy, and he died a country gentleman, in a mansion which he had built for himself, fie was the author of several works which manifest great powers of observation and no inconsiderable tact at narration, fie was fond of humour, punning, and attempts at wit, as is evident from all he wrote. But he was cold, hard, and somewhat penurious. As he acquired, in his way, considerable notoriety, and belonged to the congregation in Carr’s-lane, this brief notice of him will not be thought out of place.
As the infirmities of approaching old age came over Mr. Punfield, it was thought desirable to procure for him an assistant preacher, and a Mr. Bass was engaged for that purpose; but no assistance could give strength to an enfeebled constitution, or avert the attack of the last enemy, and after long and heavy bodily pains, he rested from his sufferings aad his labours, the 29th of January, 1791, in the sixty-third year of his age, and in the twenty-fourth of his ministry. His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Bass, and his name was embalmed in the memory of his flock. The following just memorial of him is preserved in the records of the church; “fiis talents and ministerial abilities were more solid than shining. He was a more profitable than universal reader; more experimental than speculative; and took great pains in preparing his sermons, which, if not the most polished, were sound, scriptural, and, to a serious mind, savoury and solemn. His private conduct was of the same complexion: he was peculiarly domestic and much in his study; visited the afflicted, and kept himself imspotted from the world.”
It is evident from this testimony, that, if he had not ten talents, he traded well with the two he had, and went down to his grave, if not in glory, yet in honour; and that if he did not so much good as some others, yet no deductions were to he made £rom this by the evil he did by any inconsistencies of conduct, as a man, a Christian, or a minister.
On the death of Mr. Funfield, many of the members, and some of them very influential ones too, were desirous that Mr. Bass should he his successor, hut the majority were of a different opinion; and there was some danger of a serious collision, which, however, was averted by tibe good sense and right feeling of Mr. Bass, who resigned his office as assistant minister, and would not allow himself to he put in nomination for the pastorate; by which decision, so prudently taken, the buds of divided opinion, which otherwise might have grown into the bitter fruits of uncharitableness, animosity, and separation, were nipped off. It were much to be wished tlmt this were more frequently done by the candidates for our vacant pulpits, and that, instead of fomenting discords produced by a divided state of feeling in reference to themselves, and of fostering a factious spirit, they would do every thing to keep down such a state of things, especially by retiring early enough to prevent a schism. There can be no question that in this, as in all other cases, the exercise of popular rights is exposed to the danger of popular contention, strife, and divisions; for bodies of men, whether civil or sacred, rarely see all alike, The choice of a minister belongs to the congregation — it is its obvious right; but it must ever be attended by the risk of a division of sentiment: yet it must be taken with this incidental evil. Who would forego the popular right of electing a representative in parliament, and have a member imposed upon a borough or a county, in order to avoid the evils of a contested elec-NONCONFOBMITY IN BIBMINQHAlf. 117
tion? The same remark may be applied to the popular choice of a minister. This, however, does not supersede the necessity, or set aside the wisdom on the part of a destitute church, of taking counsel from experienced men.
The attention of the church, after the death of Mr. Punfield, was dirrcted to Mr. Williams, of Oswestry, who had come to Birmingham to solicit contributions for a chapel then in the course of erection for him. After a probationary term of a few weeks, he received a cordial invitation to become their pastor, which he accepted, and entered upon his ministry January 1st, 1798. Of this etninent man a somewhat lengthened account will be here introduced.
Dr. Williams was born November 14, 1750, at Glanclyd, near Denbigh, on a farm which his ancestors had occupied near a century and a half. His religious character was early formed by the blessing of God upon his own reflections, aided by some remarkable dreams, which considerably impressed his mind and awakened his conscience. Young Williams was sent to a school at Asaph, connected with the Established Church, and it was the desire of his fiather he should be brought up as a clergyman, to which, after a long and conscientious struggle against paternal predilections, his sense of filial duty yielded for awhile assent, and he was preparing for college, when, after witnessing some scenes connected with ordination, and hearing the sermons of some of the most eloquent Welsh Methodist preachers, he could no longer silence his conscience, which protested against the Church of England, and he was permitted by his reluctant father, who had persecuted him for his dissenting propensities, to enter the Nonconformist College at Abergavenny. After a course of study at this place of four years, he settled, in 1775, as the pastor of the ludependent church at Boss. In this retired situation he devoted himself to study and piety, and his growth in grace kept pace with his advance in knowledge. In 1777 he removed to Oswestry, where his diary and letters prove him to have been a great reader, and a close and independent thinker. While here, his reputation as a theologian and a metaphysician commenced, and he was requested by Lady Glenorchy, through Mr. Scott, of Drayton, to take into his house, where he already kept a school, a few young men whom he might prepare £Dr the work of the ministry; to this he assented, and two were immediately placed under his tuition.
Whilst thus engaged, Mr. Williams was sohcited to undertake the office of President of the College at Abergavenny, where he had received his own education. To this he was inclined; but some circumstances transpired which altered his purpose, and determined him to remain at Oswestrv, where the number of his students was now increased. It was at Oswestry that his first original work of any magnitude was published, which consisted of a reply to Mr. Booth’s “Psedobaptism examined,” which had obtained no small celebrity. This treatise Mr. WUliams undertook to answer, and thus plunged into all the depths of that still “vexed question,” and seemingly interminable controversy. After the publication of his two volumes on the baptismal controversy, his next literary work was his abridgment of the four folios of Dr. Owen s Exposition of the Hebrews.
Finding, as others have found, the labours of the pastorate, and the tutorship, too much for his health, he determined to accept an invitation he received from the church at Carr’s-lane, to take the oversight of them in the Lord. At the time of his being requested to settle
k at Birmingham he was also solicited to succeed Dr. Addington as President of the College then situated at Mile End» London, which was afterwards removed to Honiton, and subsequently to Highbury. The reasons which led him to remove from Oswestry, led him to decline Mile End.
Mr. Williams introduced himself to his new charge in Birmingham, by delivering his admirable discourse, since published, on *’ Glorying in the cross of Christ.’* It is a little remarkable that while, on Saturday evening, at a friend’s house, he was preparing this sermon for re-delivery next morning, it having been already preached to his former congregation, his host delivered to him a newspaper, in which it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had spontaneously conferred upon him the diploma of Doctor of Divinity, as an acknowledgment alike of his general merits as a learned theologian, and the service he had rendered to the cause of Infant Baptism by his late treatise on that subject. It was a pleasing coincidence, certainly, that the knowledge of this academic honour, which to some is an object of such ambition to win, and of such delight to wear, should have come to him when contemplating the lustre of that object, in whose e&lgence the brighest earthly distinctions “have no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth.”
“This sermon, excellent in itself, and at all times adapted to edify the reader, was peculiarly appropriate,” says Mr. Gilbert, Dr. Williams’s biographer,” to Birmingham, the scene of Dr. Priestley’s labours in the cause of Socinianism. The circumstance that such a man had been devoting talents of no common order to undermine the doctrines which Mr. W. considered as alone capable of supporting the Christian hope, would
1^0 THE RISE AND SPHEAD OF
of itself impress his mind with the importance of his new situation. Though this town presented an extensive field, the church and congregation at Oarr’s-lane were in a depressed state, and considerable derangement had occurred in its affairs. Dissenters were objects of no small jealousy, and in the preceding years political and ecclesiastical rancour had created those disgraceful tumults which will ever continue a stain upon the history of that large and wealthy seat of manufacture. It may be regarded as a peculiar interference of Providence, that such a place, at such a time, should be feivoured with the ministry of a man whose learning, piety, prudence, mildness, and zeal in the cause of truth, and ability to defend it, so eminently qualified him for the work assigned him.”
Under Dr. Williams’s ministry and pastorate the congregation somewhat revived, and the church a little increased. He was a good pastor, and devoted himself much to the instruction of the young men. Still as he was by no means a popular and effective speaker, his preaching did not attract many to hear him, and he had to complain of a want of success.
It is due to the memory of Dr. Williams to state, that although engaged in the investigation of some of the profoundest questions that ever engaged and perplexed the human understanding, such as the origin of evil, and the divine decrees, his heart was tenderly alive to the interests of the human race, and to the necessity of more active measures than had hitherto been carried on for promoting them. At a meeting of ministers held at Warwick, in June, 1793, he was requested to prepare a circular letter for the purpose of exciting the ministers and churches of the congregational denomination to more energetic efforts for the glory of God and the good of mankind, by the spread of the Christian religion. With this request he complied, and a letter was published, which proposed the revival of religion in the churches at home, the more perfect evangelization of our own country, and the spread of the gospel abroad by sending well qualified missionaries to the heathen. To this letter may be traced up, in no small degree, the present noble organisation of the London Missionary Society, for Dr. Williams’s appeal was followed the next year by a similar one from Dr. Bogue, in the Evangelical Magazine, and though the Society owed its existence proximately to the letters of that distinguished man, yet he was preceded in his efforts by Dr. Williams’s letter, and in all probability had his mind directed to the subject by the resolutions and letter of the Warwickshire ministers.
Dr. Williams, after labouring in Birmingham for three years and a half, was invited to preside over the Yorkshire Independent College, originally situated at Heckmondwick, then removed to Northouram, and finally settled at Masbro’, near Hotheram, six miles from Sheffield. This invitation, together with a request to become the pastor of the church at Masbro’, he felt it his duty to accept, to the deep sorrow of the church at Carr’slaue, which duly appreciated the talents of this inestimable man.
In addition to the duties of the pastorate, and the weighty obligations connected with the chair of theology and general superintendence of the college. Dr. Williams continued to labour for the press. In connexion with Mr. Parsons, of Leeds, he brought out a new and elegant edition of the works of Dr. Doddridge, to which be appended more than a hundred notes on various theological topics, and some of them of the most abstruse kind. Here also he prepared a new edition of the works of that profound divine and acute mataphjsician, Jonathan Edwards, of New England; the notes to which contain some of the deepest reasonings on the subject of theology to be found in the EngUsh language. This was followed by a work entitled “Equity and Sovereignty,” the great object of which is, while it goes through the whole range of the CalvinistLc and Arminian controversy, to shew the harmony between the general proclamations and invitations of the gospel and its fixed and definite ends. In this work, as well as in his notes on Edwards, he was thought by many to have adventured with too bold and hazardous steps into regions of enquiry never intended, at any rate in the present world, to be explored by mortal ken.
About this time a desire was expressed, and an attempt made, to form a general union, for practical purposes, of the Congregational Churches; into this scheme, Dr. Williams cordially entered, and published a pamphlet on the subject, and thus afforded another proof that the man of the study and of deep thought, may be also a man of public spirit and active exertion. Through a mistaken view of the nature of Independency and the groundless jealousies of many of its supporters, the scheme entirely failed. Let us be thankful that what was unaccomplished in the last, has been achieved by the present, generation, and that now a flourishing Congregational Union for England and Wales happily exists in full and successful operation.
The last, and by many considered the best, production of Dr. Williams’s pen, was “The Defence of Modern Calvinism,” in reply to Bishop Tomline s elaborate work, entitled “A Refutation of Calvinism.” Every page of this reply to the Bishop of Lincoln bears the impress, not only of the gentleman, the scholar, and the divine, but of the philosopher and the Christian: it is redolent with the odour of sanctity, and adorned with all the beauty of Christian charity. To shew how conversant his mind was with these profound topics, and how easy composition had become to him, it is only necessary to inform the reader that it was commenced in September and published by Christmas, and was chiefly written, it is reported, at night, after supper.
Such labours, however, wore down his constitution, and after struggliug with disease for several years, he expired at Masbro’ on the 9th of March, 1813, in the sixty-tliird year of his age.
Such was Dr. Williams, one of the former pastors of the church assembling in Carr’s-lane chapel — not only blameless, harmless, and without rebuke, but eminently holy, spiritual, and devout. Serene in intellect, affectionate in disposition, and ever diplaying the meekness of wisdom, he was as much beloved as he was revered. His theology, though profound, was richly evangelical, and at the same time eminently practical. He, and his great contemporaries, Andrew Fuller and Scott the commentator, did immense service to truth by clearing away from Calviaism the encrustations by which, for ages, it had been partially concealed and still more disfigured, not only by a direct and positive antinomianism, but also by that warped and narrow-minded view of the doctrine of grace which was taken by many who would repudiate all predilection for antinomianism. As a Professor, Dr. Williams was eminently successful in the men he trained for the work of the ministry, among whom stands pre-eminent Dr. John Pye Smith, the Theological Professor of Homerton College, one of the most eminent general scholars and controversial divines of the age, as will be seen by his most learned and able work on “The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah.” The following is a list of Dr. Williams’s literary labours: —
Theological and Cohtbotebbial. — “Antipiedobaptism ezamined,” 2 vols. 1789 — ^’^ Letter to Dr. Priestley, to David Levi, and to Mr. Belsham,” 1790 — “Essay on Equity and Sovereignty,” 1809 — Second edition of this work, entirely rewritten, 1813 — “Modern Calvinism,” 1812.
HoMiLETiCAL. — “Influence of Beligion on Enquiries after Tnith,” 1791 — Ordination Charges to Fleming, to first Missionaries, to Bradley, to Hawkesley — Sermon “On glorying in the Cross,” 1801 — “On the Resurrection,” 1802 — “On Predestination to Life,” 1804 — Sermon before the Missionary Society, 1805 — “On the Union of Churches,” 1808 — “Apostolic Benevolence towards the Jews,” — six Posthumous Sermons.
Editobial. — ^” Maurice’s Social Religion,” abridged, 1786 — “Abridgment of Owen on Hebrews,” 4 vols. 1790 — “The Christian Preacher,” 180O — “Doddridge’s Works,” with notes, 10 vols. 1802 — “President Edwards’s Works,” with numerous notes, 8 vols. 1806.
On the removal of Dr. Williams, the congregation invited Mr. Jehoiada Brewer. Mr. Brewer was born at Newport, in Monmouthshire, in 1752, of highly respectable parents. His conversion to God was effected at Bath, by the preaching of Mr. Glascott, one of Lady Huntingdon s preachers. Soon after this, in the ardour of his “first love” and newly-kindled zeal, he commenced, under the sanction of this gentleman, a course of itinerant labours in the neighbouring villages. His preaching excited considerable attention, so that before he was twenty-two years of age he became a very popular preacher in Monmouthshire and the neighbouring counties. His intention, at that time, was to enter the national church, to prepare for which he placed himself under a clergyman to recover and improve the classical knowledge he had received at school; but being denied ordination, on account of his calyinistic sentiments, his methodistical spirit, and his preaching irregularities, he became a dissenter. His first settlement was at Eodborough, in Gloucestershire, where the way had been prepared for him by the labours of Whitfield, whose preaching led to the erection of the Tabernacle in that village, and on the most exquisitely beautiful spot of that lovely scene. Mr. Brewer remained at Kodborough about three years, and removed, in 1788, to Sheffield, where his popular talents as a preacher drew together a large congregation. Here he rendered himself a little obnoxious to some of his friends, about the time of the French Bevolution, by the somewhat excessive zeal and fervour with which he threw himself into the political vortex of that stormy period of our history, and which led to his removal. From that time he became more cautious in expressing his opinions; and in addressing charges at their ordination to his younger brethren, he gave them very solemn cautions on this particular subject On removing from Sheffield he received an invitation from the church at Carr’s-lane to become their pastor, which he accepted, and settled in this town in the year 1796. With this church he remained till 1 802, when an unhappy occurrence took place which caused his resignation of the pastorate in that community. He then withdrew, with a large portion of the church and congrega- .tion, to a building in Livery-street, which had been erected for an amphitheatre, but which had been occupied afterwards by the united congregations of the Old and New Meeting-houses, during the re-erection of their places, destroyed in the riots of 1791. Here he attracted a large congregation, and was much admired by his followers. Towards the close of his ministry, his friends.
sufifering increasingly the inconvenience and annoyance of their place of worship in Livery-street, resolved to erect a new chapel, and for that purpose purchased a site in Steelhouselane. At the time of commencing the building Mr. Brewer was rapidly declining in health. On laying the foundation-stone, in 1816, he delivered an address, in the course of which he said, ‘’ You are going to build a chapel here for the exercise of my ministry, and with the hope and intention that I should labour in it; and yet most probably when you meet again for the purpose of opening it, you may have to walk over my sleeping dust.” This solemn and affecting anticipation was realised, for he died before the building was finished, and his ashes lie in a handsome tomb erected in front of the chapel.
It is a little remarkable that Mr. Brewer should have had a new chapel erected in Garr’s-lane for him, in which he preached but one Sabbath before his removal to Livery-street; and that he should have had another commenced for him in Steelhouse-lane, the completion of which he did not live to witness.
Mr. Brewer was a man of strong intellect, and passions as strong. Commanding in person, and possessed of a good voice, he was fitted to be what he really was, a very striking and popular preacher. He published only a Pastoral Charge to Mr. Gardner, at Stratford-on-Avon; an Introductory Discourse at the ordination of Mr. Evans, at FoleshiU; a Sermon before the Missionaiy Society in London; and an Oration at the interment of Mr. Pearce, of Cannon-street meeting.
After his removal, Mr. Joseph Berry, who had just completed his studies at Hoxton College, occupied the pulpit for about eight months, when the congregation gave an invitation to Mr. Bennet, of Romsey, Hants, subsequently the principal of Eotherham College, Yorkshire, after Dr. Williams’s death, and now the venerahle Dr. Bennet, pastor of the church in Falcon-square, London. On his declining the invitation, he recommended to their consideration the present pastor, whom he had been the means of introducing to the ministry, and who was then a student at the GoUege of Gosport, under the presidency of Dr. Bogue.* My first visit to Birmingham was in August, 1804, when I was just turned nineteen years of age. An invitation was given to me before I left the town, to come as soon ad my studies were completed, and settle with the people as their future pastor. A rather hazardous step on the part of the congregation, to give an invitation to so young a man, and one of some temerity in him, to accept it; and one which, though by God’s great mercy it has turned out better than could have been expected, other churches should be very cautious in imitating.
At the time of my first visit to Birmingham, the Baptist meeting-house in Cannon-street was being rebuilt, and the congregation was accommodated on two parts of the Sabbath with the use of the one in Oarr’s-lane; they had it early in the morning and in the evening, and we occupied it the intermediate times. On the return of the young preacher to Gosport, it was proposed that the two congregations should unite, and Mr. Morgan, the Baptist minister, should preach to them. This was an accommodation to both, the one having no place, and the other no minister: and it was the more agreeable, as Mr. Morgan’s preaching was very acceptable to the congregation in Carr s-lane chapel. When I had completed my course of education, and came to reside
* To avoid circomlocation, I speak in the first person in what relates to myself.
in the scene of mj future labours, the meeting-house in Cannon-street was still unfinished, and it was agreed upon between the two pastors and their flocks, that till our Baptist friends could occupy their own sanctuary, the two congregations should still continue one, and Mr. Morgan and myself alternately preach to them. As the church in Cannon-street held, and many of the members still hold, what are called “strict commimion” principles, they could not unite with us in the celebration of the Lords Supper, to which we should have had no objection, and we therefore separately observed that ordinance. It must strike us that it presents a rather strong prima facie objection against the strict communion principles, that after uniting in all the other exercises of public worship, enjoying all the other means and ordinances of Christian fellowship, and exhibiting to the world so beautiful an instance and illustration of the union and communion of believers, we should break up at the end of the sermon, from the very throne of grace, and refuse to go to the table of the Lord together. It does not look as if it could be right, and it seems as if no argument, however specious and subtle, could prove it to be so. This association between the two congregations lasted ten months, and was uninterrupted and uneipbittered by any thing whatever, either between the pastors or their flocks.
My ordination to the pastoral office took place May 8th, 1806, when Drs. Bogue and WilUams, and Messrs. Jay, Bennet, Moody of Warwick, Steele of Kidderminster, and many others took part, It was a solemn and delightful day. The church had gone through much trouble, but now seemed to see brighter and happier days approaching. The old mei). wept for joy — the young ones rejoiced in hope.
The sun of prosperity, however, rose slowly and some-NONCfONFOBHITY IN BTBMINGHAM. 129
hat cloudily upon us. The first seven years of our history were so discouraging, as regarded the increase of the congregation, that at the end of that term I had serious thoughts of retnoving to another sphere. During this period the school rooms, now occupied by our girls* daily school and by the infant school, were erected. Soon after this followed a considerable alteration and great improvement of the chapel, at an expense, including the amount laid out upon the school rooms, of about two thousand poimds. This latter work was done in 1812, and during its accomplishment we worshipped in the Old Meeting-house, which was obligingly granted to us two parts of the day. At the time of our return to Carr’s-lane, after an absence of several months, a very considerable increase of the congregation took place, so that every sitting in the chapel was taken, and even the table-pew was let.
There being still a demand for accommodation which could not be met by any vacant pews at our disposal, the congregation determined on Christmas-day, 1818, to take down the old chapel, and to erect a new one on its site. The former place would accommodate about eight hundred persons, and it was resolved that its successor should seat two thousand. iN^early four thousand pounds were subscribed at the meeting towards the new erection, which was completed the next year, and opened in August, 1819, when the late Dr. Fletcher, of London, preached in the morning, and Dr. Bennet in the evening. The collection after these sermons amountedr to six hundred poiuids, The building cost about eleven thousand pounds, so that notwithstanding the extraordinary liberality of the people, they were encumbered with a heavy debt of upwards of six thousand pounds.
The next erection, at an expense of about four hundred
K pounds, was an organ. In the early days of nonconformity, and especially of puritanisni, this appendage to public worship was classed, as it still is by some, vdth stone crosses, square caps, white surplices, and other symbols of Popery. A great change, in this respect, has of late years come over dissenting principles, or at any rate over our taste. I can remember the time when I did not know of scarcely a congregation in all our body that poured forth the praises of God to the majestic swell of an organ; and now organs are so multiplied, that almost all congregations seem eager to obtain this help to devotion. Let them be contemplated only in this latter view, as a help and not a svbstitvte; as a guide to lead the singing, and not a power to silence and suppress it: as a means to excite appropriate emotion, and not a species of mere tasteful entertainment: and let them be under the controul of the pastor, and not of the organist — and then they may be an advantage, and not an injury to our worship. When the pastor in this case was asked, as every pastor ought to be, whether he would consent to the introduction of an organ, he instantly replied, “Yes, upon one condition — that he is master of the instrument and the organist.” It was at once conceded, and we have never had any dispute on that ground. The instrument has been used, not to exhibit its own capacity or the skill of the performer, but to lead the devotion of the congregation. There is one advantage in the use of an organ, and it is not an inconsiderable one — it renders the congregation independent of that most sensitive, and in many cases most troublesome and unmanageable of all classes of fimctionaries — a choir. Singing seats, as they are called, are more commonly the scenes of discord, than any other parts of the chapel: and it is indeed revolting to every pious feeling to see sometimes what characters, and to hear what music, are found in these high places of the sanctuary. I now speak from observation, but not from experience. The organ originally built in our chapel having been found to be a veiy indifferent one, both as to the mechanism and the tone, it was resolved by the trustees to have a new one, and the present admirable instrument, built by Hill, was erected and opened for use on Christmas-day, 1848.
The last effort of the congregation in the way of building in Carr’s-lane, was the erection of the new school rooms and lecture room, for which we are somewhat indebted to Sir James Graham’s ill-timed attempt to set up a scheme of national education. These rooms cost us, including the purchase of houses for a site, not much less than three thousand pounds.
An event, interesting at any rate to myself, may be here introduced. When I had completed theortieth year of my ministry, I preached a commemorative sermon, in which I took a retrospective survey, not only of the events of my own pastorate, but of the history of the church from its foundation, which I printed under the title of “Grateful Recollections.” On this a meeting of the congregation was called, unknown to myself, to consider what notice should be taken of the sermon and of the circumstances which had given occasion to it. On similar occasions it is usual to get up a soiree, to have speeches of congratulation delivered, and to present a service of plate to the minister, more or less costly, according to the wealth of the congregation; and I do not see any thing vnrong in such a mode of a congregation’s testifying their affectionate respect and gratitude to a man who had devoted his life, talents, and labours for the promotion of their spiritual welfare. My friends, however, conceived of a project which they
k2 deemed more appropriate, less conformed to the cus* toms of the world, and which, while it would he no less complimentary to their minister, would he productiye of henefits to others. In addition to holding a meeting for devout thanksgiving, and reading to me a most kind, respectful, and grateful address, they raised the sum of five hundred pounds for the purpose of founding a perpetual scholarship in Spring Hill College, to he called after the name of their pastor. On that foundation one promising student has been already placed, who is going successfully through his curriculum, and thus a name, to which many are attached far beyond its deserts, will go down to posterity in a way very congenial to the predilections of him that hears it* No splendid and costly monument of his people’s regard will glitter on the sidehoard of his descendants, and there tell how, for forty years, he had served his flocH, hut a living and perhaps grateful testimony will he home by tongues who shall preach the gospel of God’s grace for the salvation of man.
In addition to all that has been stated as regards the erections on our own premises, it may not he improper to mention what the congregation has done elsewhere: we have erected a chapel at Smethwick, at the cost of nearly a thousand pounds, where we have formed a separate and independent church, eiljoying the ministrations and oversight of its own pastor. We have done the same at the I^zells, in the vicinity of this town, at a cost of nearly twelve hundred pounds. We have erected a first and a second chapel, in Garrison-lane and Palmer-street, in this town, at a cost of seventeen hundred pounds, in which we support a home missionary. We have erected chapels at Yardley and Minworth, at a cost of seven hundred pounds. So that during my pastorate my ge-NONCONFORMITY IN BIBMINGHAlf. 133
neroos, but by no means wealthy, flock have expended little less than twenty-three thousand pounds in the various erections to which they have set their hands, thus affording a striking and convincing illustration of the energy, power, and efficiency of the voluntary principle, when properly called into activity.
Our present condition then is as follows: — Our chapel is well filled — our church numbers nearly nine hundred communicants — we have a large Sunday school establishment, including about twelve hundred scholars, in the various town and country schools — we have & boys* daily school, a girls* daily school, and three infant schools, containing altogether nearly six hundred pupils — and besides this we have a brotherly society for the mental, religious, and social improvement of its members, which amount to nearly a hundred and fifty — we have a general provident society — and we have all the usual religious and charitable societies for the conversion of the heathen, the evangelization of our own country, the visitation of the sick, and the diffusion of knowledge, which are usually to be found in every well-ordered and working Christian community.
Settlement, succession, and chronological order of the pastors: —
Mr. Wilde, commenced 1748 died 1766
Mr. Punfield, „ 1767 „ 1791
Dr. Williams, „ 1791 removed 1795
Mr. Brewer „ 1795 „ 1803
Mr. Berry, „ 1803 „ 1803
Mr. James, „ 1805
WORKS BY MR. JAMES.
Volumes.
“Sunday School Teachers’ Guide,” sixteenth edition, 12mo. “Christian Fellowship,” tenth edition, 12mo. “Christian Fathers Present-to his Children,” fifteenth edition, 12mo. K 3” Christian Charity,’* fifth edition, 12mo.
Family Monitor,’* eighth edition, 12mo.
“The Christian Professor,** fifth edition, 12mo.
“The Flower Faded, or Memoir of Clementine Cuvier,” sixth edition, 18mo.
“The Widow directed to the Widow’s God,” fourth edition, 18mo.
“An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times,” fifth edition, 12mo.
“The Church in Earnest,” fourth edition, 12mo.
“The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation” Of this work more than 400,000 copies have been circulated, besides a large circulation in America, and it is printed in eight languages besides the English.
The Toung Man from Home.” Nearly 50,000 copies of this work hare been sold.
“Pastoral Addresses,” eighth edition, 12mo.
Tbacts and Sebmons.
A Tract on Happiness, third edition, 32mo. And about thirty other Tracts, and Sermons on various occasions, funeral — ^public- — and ordinary.
The following is a list of the ministers who, from the commencement of the church, have gone out from it to fill the sacred office:
Mr. Halford, who settled in London.
—Berry, at one time Principal of Homerton College
—Walford, formeriy Professor of Languages in Homerton College
—Bradley, Manchester
—Cooper, formerly of West Bromwich
Dr. Urwick, Dublin
Mr. Smith, Missionary to the East Indies
—Aston, Wingrove
—Parker,
—Greenway, Saltley
—Pritchard, Tahiti
—Joseph Warden, East Indies
—William Warden, Ventnor
Mr. John Kay, Goggeshall
—Eastace Conder, Poole
—Thorpe, Shrewshury
—Frederick Heathcote, Uitcfain
—H. J. Heathcote, Ireland.
—S. M. Coombs, Ireland.
—Burch, Driffield
—William Kay, Evesham
—Philip Barker, Spring Hill College
—B. Hudson, Spring Hill College.
EBENEZER CHAPEL, 8TEELH0USE-LANE.
On the removal of Mr. Brewer and his friends from Carr s-lane, as we have already stated, they retired to the amphitheatre in Livery-street. There they remained for about seventeen years, when they determined to erect a new chapel. The spot which they selected in Steelhouse-lane, it is traditionally reported, had already been consecrated by the labours of Whitfield, who somewhere in that neighbourhood once published the glad tidings of salvation. This Chapel was opened for worship in the year 1819, by Mr. Bradley, of Manchester, and Mr. Thorp, of Bristol. It is a noble erection, and was copied in its internal and external arrangements from that which was built for Mr. Spencer, who was drowned at Liverpool, and was afterwards occupied with so much effect by Dr. Raffles.
Mr. East followed Mr. Brewer, and occupied the pulpit for a quarter of a century. Mr. Baven, who had preached with great success, raised a large congregation, and built a new chapel at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, succeeded Mr. East, in 1841, and after three years removed, to the great regret of the congregation, to Dudley, from whence he transferred his valuable services to Manchester, where he is now labouring with great acceptance.
136 THE EtS£ AND SPfiEAD Of
On the departure of Mr. Baven, in 1844, the congre gation chose Mr. Roberts, of Melton Mowbray, who went to that town when there was not a single dissenter in the place to receive him. He preached first in the theatre, and subsequently succeeded in raising a congregation respectable both for its numbers and its station in society, who built for themselves a neat and commodious chapel, and to whom the loss of their pastor, on his removal to Birmingham, was a deep affliction. Mr. Eoberts remained in Birmingham about three years, and then, in 1848, settled at Truro, where he is now preaching to a respectable and much attached flock.
In connexion with the congregation assembling in Ebenezer chapel must be mentioned the founding of Spring Hill College, which takes its name from the suburb of the town in which it is placed. Mrs. Glover and her sister. Miss Mansfield, had been for many years members of the church in that place of worship, when their brother, the late George Storer Mansfield, Esq. came to reside with them. This gentleman was possessed of considerable landed property, as were his sisters also of property of other kinds. Reviewing in the latter part of his life, ins former course, which had been that of a respectable countzy gentleman, but not of a real christian, he was brought to see the importance, and to experience the power of religion. He then felt an anxious desire to do something in the way of glorifying God with that property which had hitherto been employed only for his own comfort and amusement, and wished to know in what way he could best accomplish this object. It was suggested to him by Mr. East, that it would be a useful appropriation of it if he founded a college for the education of young men for the Christian ministry. He approved of the plan, and gave some landed estates for the purpose. In addition, he, with his two sisters, Mrs. Glover and Miss Mansfield, set apart a considerable sum of money for the support of the institution. In order that the college might be established in their lives, Mrs. Glover and Miss Mansfield resigned their dwelling-house for this purpose, and the college was opened for the admission of students in 1838, when 13 young men commenced their studies under the tuition of Mr. Watts, Professor of Theology and Ecclesiastical History, and Mr. Barker, Professor of Languages; to whom was shortly afterwards added Mr. Ex)gers, Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy, and the Belles Lettres. Nearly thirty students have finished their course of education in the institution, of whom two have become professors in similar institutions; three have gone abroad as missionaries to India and China; and the rest have settled as pastors of churches in various parts of the British empire. No building has yet been erected specially for the college, and till that is done, for which a site has been purchased, the studies are carried on in the house formerly occupied by the family of the founders.
HIGHBUBY CHAPEL, GRAHAM-STBEET.
At the removal of the congregation from Livery-street to Steelhouse-lane, in 1818, a few of the members remained behind, and formed there the nucleus of a new congregation, who invited Mr. Eagleton to be their minister. This gentleman, though self-educated, was a man of considerable talent and much reading, and in spite of a somewhat dull and ponderous manner in the pulpit, succeeded, by vigorous thought and some novelties of matter and manner, in attracting a large congregation. Dissatisfied with the inconveniences of the place of worship, as others had been before, and some also were after him, it was in his contemplation to erect a new chapel, and a committee was appointed to look out for ground. Instead, however, of carrying this scheme into execution, they finally determined to alter and improve the building in Livery-street, and laid out a large sum of money in the accomplishment of their design. Soon after this Mr. Eagleton, somewhat disappointed and discouraged with the result of the alterations in the chapel, removed to Huddersfield, where he died some few years since. After he left Birmingham, the place, encumbered with a heavy debt, and oppressed at the same time with a high rent, as it is leasehold property, went through various mutations for many successive years. For awhile it was successively occupied by Mr. Mather, Mr. Griffiths, Mr. Binks, Mr. Bean, and Mr. Alsop. The last-mentioned individual, still finding the place inconmiodious, and the rent heavy, determined upon the erection of a new chapel, purchased for that purpose a piece of ground in Graham-street, and erected the present place, which bears the name of Highbury chapel, and was opened for public worship in 1845. Mr. Alsop resigned his charge in 1848, and was succeeded by Mr. Grant, the present occupant of the pulpit, who, after receiving his education in part at Highbury College, and subsequently at the University of Glasgow, where he took his Bachelor s degree, settled at Prescot in Lancashire, and removed from thence to Birmingham, the year that Mr. Alsop left. Mr. Grant is the author of “A Bishop’s Charge to the Laity,” in answer to the Bishop of Worcester’s “Charge to the Clergy:” and “The Church of Christ — what is it?” a premium tract of the British Airti-State Church Association.
LEQGE-STREET CHAPEL.
This small but neat place of worship was commenced by a few members of the Wesleyan body, who gave it up in an unfinished state into the hands of the Independents. It was opened for worship about the year 1825. The first minister was a Mr. Griffiths, who was educated at Hoxton College, London. After labouring at Legge-street for twelve years, he was advised to remove with his congregation, with a view to greater usefulness, to Livery-street chapel, then vacant, which occasioned the dispersion of the congregation in Legge-street, without any compensatory advantage to that in Livery-street.
Mr. Richards, late of Stourbridge, then supplied the pulpit for some time gratuitously. In 1837 Mr. Sibree, the present minister, commenced his labours, which he still continues, though amidst some discouragement. Nearly a thousand pounds have been raised in Birmingham of late years to purchase the chapel from the lessor, and to erect school rooms, and through the munificence of a wealthy and catholic spirited member of the Church of England, a daily school is supported, which is diffusing the benefits of a good education through a neighbourhood in which there is a dense population of the labouring class.
SUBURBAN CHAPELS.
HANDSWORTH.
The chapel in this vicinity was originated by a Mr. Smith, who, having been converted to God by the ministry of one of Lady Huntingdon’s preachers, felt a religious soUcitude for the welfare of the neighbourhood which was then populous and very remote from the parish church. In conjunction with the late Mr. Hammond of this town, this gentleman commenced erecting the char pel, hut died before it was finished, when the support and direction of the business devolved entirely upon Mr. Hammond. The place was opened for worship in 1788, in Lady Himtingdon*s connexion, and a considerable congregation was soon raised, which subsequently so much declined in consequence of the misconduct of the minister, that the chapel was for a while shut up. It was then offered to the friends of the Church of England upon condition of Mr. Hammond’s having the first presentation of a minister. This being declined, he conveyed it in trust for an Independent place of worship, and it was re-opened in 1806, when the present minister, Mr. Hammond, who had studied under Dr. Williams, at Rotherham College, was chosen and ordained to the pastoral office. In 1819 the chapel was improved and enlarged, by the erection of galleries and school rooms. The church consists of ninety members, and supports several institutions for the temporal and spiritual benefit of the neighbourhood, and the support of foreign missions.
LOZELLS CHAPEL.
This place of worship was erected solely at the expense of the Carr’s-lane congregation, one of the members of which having generously given a site for that purpose. It was opened for worship in 1839. The first minister was Mr. E. A. Pearce, who, after three years, removed to Pendleton, near Manchester, and was succeeded in 1845, by Mr. Baker, who was educated at Blackburn College, and is now the pastor of this church.
FALHEB-STBEET SCHOOL.
This neat feibric also was erected by the CarrVlane congregation, and was opened in 1845, and was intended to supersede the little chapel erected by the same community in Garrison-lane, which had been found too small for the people who wished to attend. It is a preaching station in connection with the Town Mission supported by that congregation. No regularly organized church has yet been formed. The pulpit is occupied by Mr. Derrington. The expense connected with the worship is sustained by the church which erected the building.
SALTLEY CHAPEL.
This neat little sanctuary was erected at the sole expense of the late John Green, Esq. who was formerly a member of the congregation of St. Mary’s chapel in this town. Mr. Green gave the site as well as erected the building, which was set apart for public worship about the year 1828. At first the liturgy of the Church of England, revised and abridged by Mr. Mark Moggridge, the first minister, was used in the worship. This has long since been discontinued, At Mr. Moggridge ’s removal he was succeeded by Mr. Aston. The pulpit is at present occupied by Mr. Greenway. The chapel has been conveyed to trust by the relict of its founder.
THE BAPTISTS.
This section of the great body of Nonconformists is a very large and influential one, and every way entitled to a respectful mention in this history. It is well known that while they entirely agree with the Independents in their views of church government, in which they are strictly congregational, they differ from them on the subject of baptism, restricting the application of that ordinance, as regards its subject, exclusively to those who make a profession of faith; and as regards its mode, to immersion. It is thought to be an unfair assumption to take to themselves the designation of the Baptists, as if they were the only persons who practised that rite: but in reply they say, that as immersion is the only mode sanctioned by the meaning of the term “baptism,” and by the word of God, and as believers are the only proper subjects, the practice of Psedobaptists is a mere nullity, and consequently they are therefore the only persons entitled to the designation of “baptists.” Leaving the vexed question, as to the principles and practices of the primitive Christians, which are claimed by this denomination to be in support of their views, it is admitted that in almost every age, as far as the records of ecclesiastical history are our guide, and in almost every country where Christianity has been professed, there have been many who held their opinions and adopted their usages. Councils, and edicts, as early as the beginning of the fifth centuiy, condemned their sentiments, and subjected the holders of them to anathemas and death: a plain proof that they then existed. Their history may be traced through subsequent ages in Germany, France, and other parts of the continent, and in Africa and the East, by the blood of their martyrs. And their historians claim for them the same existence, and the same honours of martyrdom in the Saxon history of England, and in Wales. Attempts have been made by prejudiced and mendacious writers to disparage this denomination, by mixing them up with the “anabaptists” of Munster, a race of fanatics who, at the time of the Saxon Reformation, committed the greatest excesses, and rushed from feuiatical austerities to boundless licentiousness; against whom Luther rolled the thunders and darted the lightning of his genius. It is, however, calumny, and nothing less, to confound the Baptist hody with these incendiaries.
At the time of the Reformation under Henry VIII. they emerged into notice, and became the subjects of sanguinary edicts, and still more sanguinary treatment. During the reign of Edward VI. such was the furious bigotry with which they were pursued, that when an act was passed granting pardon to Papists and others, the Baptists were excepted from its provisions, and were consigned in many cases to the stake. Mary, of course, shewed them no mercy, and Elizabeth issued a proclamation commanding them and other heretics to quit the land. In 1575, the seventeenth year of Elizabeth, a congregation was discovered in Aldgate, London, of whom some were banished, twenty-seven were imprisoned, and two were burnt in Smithfield. The first regularly organised Baptist church, of which any authentic account is preserved, was formed in London, in 1607, by a Mr. Smith, who had been a clergyman of the Church of England. This church was founded on what are called General Baptist principles, that is, they were believers in the doctrine of general redemption, as opposed to the Particular Baptists, who believe in the eternal and individual election of believers to eternal life, and thus hold the doctrine of a particular redemption. In a subsequent period, the General Baptists included Sociuians, Arians, and all indeed who denied the calvinistic view of the scheme of redemption. As a body, they are now generally orthodox on the subject of the Trinity, but are Arminian in their views of the other points of Christian doctrine.
The first Particular Baptish church, of which there ia any record, was formed in London, under Mr. Spilsbury, in 1633. During the time of the struggle between Charles and his parliament they were very numerous, and abounded in the ranks of Cromwell’s army. Baxter, in his “Life and Times,” makes constant reference to them, classing them with “separatists and sectaries,” and speaking of them with considerable ill humour. Public disputations, rarely productive of much service to the cause of truth, and of great disservice to the cause of charity, were very common in those days between the Baptists and their opponents. Nor has the controversy, as otherwise conducted, been always conducive to charity, whatever it may have done for truth. Mr. Baxter gives the following account of the controversy between them and their opponents, as it came under his notice. “Whilst I was at Gloucester, I saw the first contention between the ministers and Anabaptists that ever I was acquainted with; for these were the first Anabaptists I had ever seen in any country, and I heard but of few more in those parts of England. About a dozen young men, or more, of considerable parts, had received the opinion against infant baptism, and were re-bfiptized, and laboured to draw others after them not far from Gloucester: and the minister of the place, Mr. Winnell, being hasty and impatient with them, hardened them the more. He wrote a considerable book against them at the time; but England then having no great experience of the tendency and consequences of Anabaptism, the people that were not of their opinion did but pity them, and think it was a conceit that had no great harm it, and blamed Mr. Winnell for his violence and asperity towards them.”
“But this was but the beginning of miseries for Gloucester; for the Anabaptists somewhat increasing on one
NONCONFOBMITT IN BIRMINaHAM. 145
Bide, before I came away, a good man, called Mr. Hart, came out of Herefordshire with Mr. Vaughan, a gentleman, and they drew many to separation on another side: and after them in the wars came one Mr. Bacon, a preacher of the army, and drew them to antinomianism on another side, which so distracted the good people, and eat out the heart of religion and charity, the ministers of the place not being so able and quick as they should have been in confuting them, and preserving the people, that the city, which before had as great advantages for the prosperity of religion among them as any in the land, in the civility, tractableness, and piety of the people, became as low and poor as others, and the pity of more happy places, whilst these tares did dwindle and wither away the solid piety of the place.” And alas! alas! of how many other plaxses and times may the same melancholy condition be traced up to the bitterness of controversy on points confessedly of inferior importance to many others. It has been said that religious controversy becomes virulent in the inverse ratio of the importance of the subject, and that polemics become fierce in proportion as they approach nearer to each other on more momentous points. This applies with some truth to the baptismal controversy. Not that I mean to say little importance attaches to this topic of theology; especially when baptism is represented to be regeneration. The dogma of baptismal regeneration, as understood by Papists and Puseyites, is one of the most destructive errors of the day: but between the dissenting advocates of infant baptism and the advocates of adult baptism by immersion, the difference, though great, should not be felt so great as to embitter their spirits against each other, or to destroy the charity which endureth all things.
Amongst the names of men of former times, of which the Baptist body may be justly fond, Reach, and especially Bmiyan, may be mentioned. Of this distin-^ guished man more than a passing notice is demanded. The author of a book which is at once the delight of children, the instruction of saints, and the admiration of critics, deserves the place which he has obtained, not only in the annals of the church, but in the history of our country. To the pen so frequently acknowledged in this little work, we owe the following account of Bunyan: —
“Bunyan had been bred a tinker, and had served as a private soldier in the parliamentary army. Early in life he had been fearfully tormented by remorse for his youthful sins, the worst of which seem to have been such as the world deems venial. His keen sensibility and his powerful imagination made his internal conflicts singularly terrible. He fancied that he was under sentence of reprobation, and that he had committed blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, that he had sold Christ, and that he was actually possessed by a demon. Sometimes low voices from heaven cried out to warn him. Sometimes fiends whispered impious suggestions in his ears. He saw visions of distant mountain tops on which the sun shone brightly, but from which he was separated by a waste of snow. His mental agony disordered his health. It is difficult to understand how he endured sufferings so extreme and so long continued. At length the clouds broke. From the depths of despair the penitent turned to a state of serene felicity. An irresistible ipipulse now urged him to impart to others the blessing of which he was himself possessed. He joined the Baptists, and became a pastor and a writer. His education had been that of a mechanic. He knew no language
KONCONFOBMITY IN BlBMINGHAM. 147
but the £nglis)i as it was spoken by the common people. He had studied no great model of composition, with the exception, an important exception undoubtedly, of our noble translation of the Bible. His spelling was bad. He frequently transgressed the rules of grammar. Yet his native force of genius and his experimental know ledge of all the religious passions, from despair to ecstasy, amply supplied in him the want of learning. His rude oratory roused and melted hearers who listened without interest to the laboured discourses of great logicians and Hebraists- His works were widely circulated among £he humbler classes. One of them, the Pilgrim’s Progress, was in his own lifetime translated into several foreign languages. It was, however, scarcely known to the learned and polite, and had been during near a century the delight of pious cottagers and artisans, before it was publicly commended by men of high literary eminence. At length critics condescended to inquire where the secret of so wide and so durable a popularity lay. They were compelled to own that the ignorant multitude had judged more correctly than the learned, and that the despised little book was really a masterpiece. Bunyan is indeed as decidedly the first of allegorists as Demosthenes is the first of orators, or Shakspear the first of dramatists. Other allegorists have shewn equal ingenuity; but no other has ever been able to touch the heart, and to make abstractions objects of terror, of pity, and of love.”*
Like his coevals among other nonconformists he was the object of relentless persecution, but exceeded most of them in suffering, for twelve years of his life were spent in prison. He was hunted from place to place by spies and informers. The more effectually to elude whom, he
Macaulay, Vol. II. 228.
sometimes disguised himself as a carter, and was introduced to meetings through back doors, with a smock frock on his back and a whip in his hand. His influence with the common people was such that government would have gladly bought him; but he was not to be bought, and one of the last acts of his virtuous life was to decline an interview to which he was invited by a government agent.
From Mr. Macaulay’s splendid historical gallery of pictures, another may be here given in connection with the history of the Baptists.” Great as was the authority of Bunyan with the Baptists, that of William Kiffin was still greater. Kiffin was the flrst man among them in wealth and station. He was in the habit of exercising his spiritual gifts at their meetings; but he did not live by preaching. He traded largely; his credit on the Exchange of London stood high; and he had accumulated an ample fortune. Perhaps no man could, at that conjuncture, have rendered more valuable services to the court. But between him and the court was interposed the remembrance of one terrible event. He was the grandfather of the two Hewlings, those two gallant youths who, of all the victims of the bloody assizes, had been the most generally lamented. For the sad fate of one of them, James was in a very peculiar manner responsible. Jeffreys had respited the yoimger brother. The poor lad’s sister had been ushered by Churchill into the royal presence, and had begged for mercy; but the Kii;ig’s heart had been obdurate. The misery of the whole family had been great; but Kiffin was most to be pitied. He was seventy years old when he was left destitute, the survivor of those who should have survived him. The heartless and venal sychophants of Whitehall, judging by themselves, thought that the old man
would be easily propitiated by an alderman’s gown, and by some compensation in money for the property which his grandsons had forfeited. Penn was employed in the work of seduction. But to no purpose. The King determined to try what the effect of his own civilities would produce. KiflSn was ordered to attend at the palace. He found a brilliant circle of noblemen and gentlemen assembled. James immediately came to him, spoke to him very graciously, and concluded by saying, * I have put you down, Mr. Kiffin, for an alderman of London.* The old man looked fixedly at the King, burst into tears, and made answer, * Sir, I am worn out; I am unfit to serve your Majesty in the city. And, sir, the death of my poor boys has broken my heart. The wound is as fresh as ever. I shall carry it to my grave.* The King stood silent for a minute in some confusion, and then said, *Mr. Kiffin, I will find a balsam for that sore.* Assuredly James did not mean to say any thing cruel or insolent: on the contrary, he seems to have been in an unusually gentle mood. Yet no speech that is recorded of him gives so imfavourable a notion of his character as these few words. They are the words of a hardhearted, low-minded man, unable to conceive any laceration of the affections for which a place or a pension would not be a full compensation.**
It is not necessary I should trace further the general history of the Baptists, when, in common with other denominations, they were protected by the Toleration Act, and when taking advantage of their liberty they diffused themselves over the country; I come, therefore, to their establishment in the town of Birmingham.
THE GENEBAL BAPTISTS.
It is pretty evident that the first Baptists in Birmingliam were General Baptists, for in a manuscript of the late Mr. Thomas, of Leominster, bearing date Januaiy 6, 1794, we are informed* “That in the time of the Commonwealth there were Baptists at Coventry, Alcester, and Bewdley, and it is veiy probable that members of these and other Baptist churches lived at Birmingham, through the latter part of the last centuiy, perhaps in the time of the Commonwealth and since. It seems, however, most probable that the General Baptists made their first appearance in this town. At Coventry there were two brothers, Ebenezer and Samuel Essex, both ministers and worthy men of the General Baptists. They frequently visited their brethren at Dudley, by supplying their pulpits, and it is natural to suppose that as Birmingham lay in their way they occasionally preached there.”
“I have in my possession,” says Mr. Thomas, “the copy of a petition signed by John Eld and Samuel Walton, elders, &c.” These were ministers at Coventry. The former part of the petition runs thus:” There having for many years been no Baptist meeting in Birmingham until by the assistance of our Mends at Coventry a meeting was set up, and continued in a place hired for that purpose, the lease whereof being near expiring, and no possibility of obtaining the renewal thereof, and a deceased friend having left a sum of money to purchase ground to build a meeting, the said money hath been applied in great part to that use, and the charge of building yet unprovided for; wq ar therefore petition-
* For the history of the Baptists in Birmingham I am indehted to Mr. J. W. ShoweU, one of the present deacons of the Baptist church in Cannon-street, who granted me the use of a manuscript copy which he drew up of the history of that church, and which he read to them when they celebrated the centenary of their formation.
NONCONFOBMITT IN BIBMINOHAM. ISl
era, &c, &c.” It is yerj clear from thk fragment, that a congregation of General Baptisto hsA been gathered in this town, that they met in a hired room, that ground was purchased for building a place of worship, and that application was made to some persons, but to whom we know not, for money to raise the fabric. The probability is, that a place was erected, and that the small building in Freeman-street, still standing, and referred to by Mr. Hutton in his history, was the place. His £Eu;etious statement that it was built by a sepsuration from the church in Cannon-street is not borne out by the records of that community, as not the slightest reference is made to any such event. It is not improbable that the congregation worshipping there did at length merge in the Cannon-street church.
The General Baptist cause was reyiyed in Birmingham in the year 1772, when Mr. Austin, then of Sutton Coldfield, and afterwards of Fetter-lane, London, extended his labours to this town, first hiring a room in Park-street, and afterwards removing to a more commodious one in Needless-alley. In 1784, Mr. Green, a member of Mr. Austin*s church at Sutton, and an occasional preacher, settled in Birmingham. Soon after his residence here, he was visited with some bodily illness, daring which he formed a resolution, if Providence spared his life, to erect a place of worship for his denomination. On his recovery he remembered and performed his vows, and, in concert with Mr. Austin, built a small meeting-house in Lombard-street, which was opened September, 1786, where Mr. Austin preached till his removal to London. Mr. Green was chosen to be his successor, who was a man of great modesty, consistent piety, and eminent simplicity of manners and preaching, Si humility rather than his conscience kept him from being ordained, though he fully discharged all the duties of the pastorate. His ministry proved acceptable, and the congregation increased so much as to require an enlaiement of the building, which took place in 1807. Mr. Green died, much respected and beloved, November 2, 1808.
Mr. Gheatle, the present pastor, at that time settled at Castle Donnington, in Leicestershire, was invited to succeed Mr. Green, and was ordained to the pastoral office June 22, 1813, after three years’ residence with the coiegation. The meeting-house was again enlarged, and re-opened in December, 1832. The chapel will now seat 600 people, and has school-rooms attached to it to accommodate four or five hundred ohildr^Q,
PARTICULAR BAPTISTS.
CANNON-STBEET MEETING-HOUSE.
There was a church of this denomination at Bromsgrove, before there was any one at Birmingham, some members of which resided here, and feeling the inconvenience of going so far to enjoy the benefits of Christian communion, began to think of the desirableness of associating and forming themselves into a separate community. To this they were encouraged by the counsel of some neighbouring ministers, who promised them their sanction and assistance. This was formally and solemnly done on August 24th, 1737, when the following ministers were present, and took part in the services of the day: — Mr, Yarrold, of Bromsgrove; Mr. Overbury, of Alcester; Mr. Mower, of Bengeworth; Mr. Streeton, of Foxton, Leicestershire; Mr. Overbury, of Tetbury, Gloucestershire; Mr. Belsher, of Henley-in-Arden; and Mr. Marston, a General Baptist minister of Binningliam.* The church at its formation consisted of seventeen members, seven of whom were men and ten women. The place of meeting for this infant society was a room in a yard in High-street. In October the same year they chose for their pastor Mr. Craner, who remained with them only about a year, when he removed to Blunham, in Bedfordshire, and afterwards to London, where he died in 1772. He published a tract on Church Government and a sermon on the Blessings of National Peace.
A benevolent deceased friend having bequeathed a sum of money to purchase a site for a meeting-house, and subscriptions having been raised for building one, a port of Guest’s cherry orchard Was secured for that purpose. The whole of what is now called Cannon-street, and onwards to the east, including CheiTy-street, was at that time a plantation of cherry trees, the circumstance which gives to the thoroughfare just mentioned its name. As the methodists also have a chapel in the same locality, it may be truly said that other trees are now growing there of God’s own planting, bearing the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory of God. The Cannon-street meeting-house was opened for worship in 1738. This event did not pass unnoticed; a pamphlet was published on the occasion, as we have already stated, by Mr. Bourn, minister of the New Meeting-house, entitled “A Dialogue between a Baptist and a Churchman, occasioned by the Baptists opening a new meeting-house for reviving old Cavinistical doctrines, and spreading Antinomianism and other errors at Birmingham, in Warwickshire. Part I. by a
* This is a proof that the General Baptists were the first to establish themselves in Birmingham, and that Hntton’s account of the foundation of the church in Freeman-street is incorrect
Consistent Christian/* This was a most gratuitous interference with the peaceahle exercise of religious freedom, and evinced the pugnacity of Mr. Bourn’s disposition. Moreover, it was a misrepresentation of the doc;- trines then held by the Baptist hody in this town, for, though they were decided Calvinists, they were not antinomians either in theory or practice. Br. Gill replied to the pamphlet, and inflicted a severe castigation on its author. A second part of the pamphlet appeared, which also was met by a reply from the opponent of the first, and here the controversy ended.
The church was several years without a minister after the opening of their sanctuary, and passed through many difficulties on that account. Their first pastor was Mr. Thomas Bennett, who remained with them hut a short time, and then removed to Coventry, and afterwards to St. Albans, where it is probable he died, “He was,” say the records of the church, “a zealous, godly man, veiy clear in the gospel, and left this world in comfortable circumstances.”
After the departure of Mr. Bonnet the following ministers supplied the pulpit for a short season, a Mr. Tolley from Wednesbury, and a Mr. Oulton, but neither of them became pastor, so that on August 20, 1745, the church, greatly dispirited by their firequent disappointments and long waiting for a settled pastor, passed the following resolutions: —
I. “Id our present destitute circamstances, a regular church meeting shall be held, at least once in two months, when some neighbouring minister shall preside, and afford us his assistance and advice.”
II. “That no step of importance he taken with respect to the •ettment of the church, or the choice of a minister, without first pommunicating our thoughts to, and asking the advice of, at least two of the neighbouring ministers of the sme denominatioUf”
III. ^’ That if the Independents will become a part of our audi* lorj, axid joi to support ovff xoioistr for the time being, the
KONGOKFOBMITT IN BIBiaNGHAM. 155
akall be allowed to have some weight in the choice of Btich minister, and also to call in the assistance of a minister of their own at proper seasons to break bread unto them,”*
IV, “That if, after a proper season of trial, no other methoil be found out for the settlement and establishment of the Baptist church here, we think it will be proper to dissolve our churchstate, and join to some neighbouring church that may be willing to receive us and watch over us.”
I must here stop the course of the narrative to make a few remarks on these wise, simple, and affecting, though somewhat too desponding resolutions. It is impossible, even at this daj, not to sympathise with the sorrows and the cries of this infant and seemingly destitute and helpless commimity. And yet it was too soon, disheartened as they were, to talk of dissolving. It is, however, to he recollected that ministers were not so numerous nor so easily to be obtained then as they are now. Could the veil of futurity at that moment have been lifted up to them, and all the churches that have sprung fix)m the one they talked of dissolving have been seen in the vista, how would they have blushed over their distrust, and have exchanged their tears, of all but despair, for songs of praise.
But what specially calls for comment and eulogy is their wise determination to defer, in their exigency, to the wisdom and advice of at least two neighbouring ministers. Unhappily this is not practised in modern times so often as it should be, nor as it was in by-gone days. Modern churches, both among the Baptists and Independents, are now too wise to need, or too proud to ask, or too jealous to receive, the advice of others. How many schisms would be prevented or crushed; how many
It will b observed, by comparing dates, that ths was tWQ years before the secession from Uie Old ^eeing, of e persojisi who formed the church in Garros-lane, and who were e very persons, thus to be admitted, if they were so disposed, to form f part of the conre|[atio i;^ C^nnpfi-st^t meetln-lous^ unsnitable elections would be avoided; and how many separations would never take place, if this discreet resolution of the church in Cannon-street were universally adopted! And does not the wisdom of it commend itself to the judgment of all considerate men? As regards the resolution respecting the admission of Independents to their worship, it was going as far as a strict communion church could go; the only regret is, that they could not then go a step farther, and throw open the doors of the church, and the access to the Lord’s Table, to those whom they invited to their pews, and to all the other ordinances of the sanctuary. They would admit them into the Lord’s house, and would even allow them to set up there a table of their own, but still would not allow them a seat at their table: and unhappily this one step, all the light of a century, and the eloquent and forcible argumentation of their mighty Robert Hall, has not yet enabled them to take — to throw down the separation wall of their ceremonial law, and to admit Psedobaptists to the table of the Lord and the communion of saints.
The time of severe discipline and probation was still continued to this church, and the day when their eyes should see their teacher was postponed for four years longer yet; and the wonder is, that these tried and disappointed christians did not put their own purpose in execution, and dissolve the church. At length the day of prosperity dawned upon them, and their hope seemed about to be realized of a settled pastor; but the clouds soon again collected upon their horizon, and the darkness returned.
In the year 1751 Mr. Morley was set apart to the pastoral office over the church, after a probation of eighteen months, and was the first ordained pastor during a period of fourteen years after they were incorpo
NONCONFOBMITT IN BIBMINaHAlC. 157
rated. In a year or two afterwards be changed his views on the subject of baptism, and became a Psedobaptist, upon which he removed to Painswick and afterwards to Stroud, where he ended his pilgrimage in 1780. His change of sentiment was of course a great trial to the church, but they bore willing and honourable testimony to his general consistency as a man, a christian, and a minister.
The next pastor of the church was Mr. Turner, who removed from Bacup in Lancashire to Birmingham, in 1754. This society had passed through more painful vicissitudes, more trials of their faith and patience, than usually fall to the lot of dissenting congregations: but they were now approaching an era of peace and prosperity. At the time of Mr. Turner’s commencement of his ministry, the congregation, by its various changes, was reduced to about thirty persons, and the church to fourteen members; but under his faithful, intelligent, and earnest labours, a great and rapid increase took place, so that in the year 1763 it was necessary to enlarge the meeting-house. After a successful course of twenty-six years, this excellent man died on the 8th of January, 1780, in the 55th year of his age. He was, says the memorial of him in the church book,” a clear, judicious, acceptable, and successful preacher, and a faithful defender of the glorious doctrines of the everlasting gospel. Mr. Turner published several tracts: —
1. The Covenant of Works and Grace, a Sermon from Jeremiah xxxi. 33,
2. General Remarks on a Pamphlet entitled Four Letters in answer to the Objector.
3. Antinomianism Explained and Exploded, in a Letter to a Friend.
4. The Dnty of Keeping and the Sin of Profaning the Sabbath Day.
0. Thoughts on Mixed Communion,
158 THE BtSE Am) SPREAl) OVe. Christ the only I^oandation, a Sermon from 1 Cor. iii. ll.
7. The Foxeb and Viues a Sermon from Canticles ii, 16.
8. A Letter to a Deist
’ 0. Remarks on a Letter to a Baptist MiiHstef.
Mr. Turner was succeeded by Mr. Taylor, who was ordained in April, 1782. His ministry was at first very successful. Having come off from the Wesleyon iK>dy, he at length reassumed his Arminian views of truUi, and returned to the Methodists. He was pastor of the church eight years, and the separation when he left was exceedingly painful, as he had conciliated the affections of his flock. He was soon afterwards drowned in passing over to Ireland. It is much to the credit of this church that, though they lost two pastors by a change of sentiment, no attempt was made to disparage either their talents or their virtues. No language of asperity, of depreciation, or of contempt, is used in their archives in reference to them. It is indeed most pitiable to witness, as we sometimes do, the mean and foolish attempts which are made by those who have lost a member or a minister, to degrade him when he has gone over from them to another party. It is amusing to observe what a different admeasurement they make of his mental stature before and after his secession from their body. He who was, while with them, a very great man, dwindles down, when he leaves them, into a very little one.
The successor to Mr. Taylor was the seraphic Samuel Pearce, and it would be an act of iiustice to eminent and rare ministerial excellence to give a mere cursory reference to this distinguished man. And having dwelt at some length on the character and talents of Dr. Williams, who was an Independent I now with equal complacency dilate on the talents and sacred virtues of Mr. Pearce, who was a Baptist. Neither gifts nor graces are confined within the limits of any denomination.
N0NC0NFO:ftMItY tS BIBMlt/QHAM. 159
There are bright luminaries in the sky of every section of the christian church, all of them placed there by Him who holdeth the stars in his right hand, and all shining with a splendour which is the reflection of his own glory as the Sun of Righteousness.
Mr. Pearce’s conversion to God was the fruit of the muiistry of Mr. Birt, then co-pastor with Mr. Gibbs, of the Baptist church at Plymouth, while Mr. Birt himself was brought to the possession of spiritual religion by the preaching of Mr. Bum, the late minister of St. Mary’s chapel in this town. Mr. Pearce soon after his conversion entered the Baptist College at Bristol, to undergo a course of preparatory studies for the pastoral office, and was trained for his future labours under the celebrated Robert Hall, then co-tutor with Dr. Evans, by the former of whom he was recommended to the church in Cannon-street. His ordination took place in August, 1790. Here his ministry proved to be the power of God imto the salvation of many, and the church was rapidly and greatly augmented by his lively, faithful, and affectionate labours: but it is very probable that he opened for himself and the church a source of future uneasiness by an excess of anxiety to swell the number of members. From his first coming to Birmingham his mind was troubled, and his meekness and patience were sorely tried by that antinomian spirit which Mr. Hall so charfiusteristically represents as “a thick skinned monster of the ooze and the mire, which no weapon can pierce, no discipline tame.” This foul and fierce spirit, which has troubled, divided, and desolated so many churches, may be traced to the works of Dr. Crisp and Dr. Hawker, who were Episcopalians; to Dr. Gill, who was a Baptist; and Mr. Huntington, who was a congregationalist. Not that Dr. Gill was himself an antinomian, or is to be altogether classed with the others just mentioned; but his high Calvinism led many tdgo still higher than himself, and diffused a bitter leaven through the Baptist churches of this country. Some of the members of the church in Cannon-street, and many besides in this town, were infected with this pestilential heresy. Still the body of the church was sound, and approved of the more moderate views of their inestimable pastor.
Soon after Mr. Pearce settled in Birmingham, he became acquainted with the immortal Carey, then the learned shoemaker in the village of Moulton, and afterwards the great missionary of the East, and the Professor of languages in the College of Calcutta. In him he found a kindred soul, and with him and Fuller, Sutclifife, and Eyland, laid the foundation of a society which has done more to translate the scriptures into the languages of India than any other society or than all other societies together. He attended the first meeting at Kettering, in October, 1792, and assisted at that conference over which all the nations of the East and all future generations of mankind will rejoice. From that time he threw his whole mind and heart into the mission cause. By correspondence, by journeys to various parts of the kingdom, by preaching, and writing, he laboured to kindle and fan the flame of zeal on behalf of the conversion of the heathen. But this did not satisfy him: his was an ardour too intense to be confined within such a sphere, and he now resolved to lay himself as a whole burnt oflfering on the altar of the missionary cause. His zeal had all the light of a principle, and all the fervour of a passion. He not only thought, and talked, and wrote, and preached on the subject by day, but mused upon it in his slumbers. “I dreamed,” he says in his diary,” that I saw one of the Christian Hindoos. O,
NONCONFOBMITT IM BIBMINGHAlf. 161
how I loved him! I long to realise my dream. How pleasant will it be to sit down at the Lord’s Table with our swarthy brethren, and hear Jesus preached in their language.” This is the spirit that will accomplish the great object and convert the world to Christ. Then, when this pure and fervent zeal springing from enlightened sentiment, fervent love to Christ and souls, and nourished in the retirement of the closet, shall actuate all our pastors, and all our churches, then will the Spirit be poured out from on high.
Mr. Pearce offered his services to the conmiittee of the Baptist Mission, to follow Carey and Thomas, who had already gone on the mission to India, but on account of his qualifications as a preacher, and his power to influence others at home, they decided on recommending him to remain in England. On hearing their decision, he says, in writing to his wife, ‘* I am disappointed but not dismayed.” Denied the honour of being a missionary, he devoted himself to the work of supporting the cause at home, and in conjunction with Fuller, Sutcliffe, and Kyland, laboured in preparing the Periodical Accounts of the mission and in directing its affairs.
During all this while he neglected not his ministerial labours and pastoral occupations, but continued to be the earnest preacher of Christ and devoted servant of the church. But the course of this flaming seraph was soon to be arrested. Early in October, 1798, Mr. Pearce attended and preached at a ministers’ meeting at Kettering, on returning from which he got wet, caught cold, and received the seeds of consumption. The symptoms of that dire disorder, which Dr. Darwin said was not only a glutton but an epicure, soon developed. His preaching was almost immediately suspended, as in December he delivered his last sermon. Mr. Ward, after
M wards the companion in labour in the East with Carey and Marshman, was engaged to supply his lack of ser-Tice in the pulpit and take his pastoral duties, who, in a letter to a friend, thus speaks of him: — “I am happy in the company of dear brother Pearce. I have seen more of God in him than in any person I ever knew.” What a testimony! How terse, yet how comprehensive and how striking! The effect of- a journey to the milder climate of his native place was tried, and he took a journey to Plymouth. But the worm still continued gnawing at the root of this lovely plant, and it was borne back by his affectionate wife to droop and die in this town.
Such was Samuel Pearce, as set forth in that exquisite gem of biography, his Life, by Andrew Fuller, by which he being dead, not only yet speaketh, but liveth. The church in Cannon-street may well look with respect on his monument, and cherish with love and gratitude his memory, while every minister might be the better for his memoir, and all learn to bow with submission to the God of mystery as well as mercy, who extinguished such a light of this dark world at the early age of thirty-four.
Having in this sketch shewn the interest Mr. Pearce took in the Baptist Mission, and his connexion with Carey in originating that noble institution, it will not be out of place to introduce here a scene which occurred in this town, in which Mr. Potts, an American merchant, a deacon of Cannon-street church, and a very well known inhabitant of Birmingham, bears a part. The great idea of a Baptist Mission arose, as we have seen, in the mind of Carey, then a shoemaker at Moulton. This extraordinary man revolved, while hammering his leather upon the lapstone, or soloing the shoes that were brought to him for repairs, the mighty conception of a scheme for evangelizing the world. With his honest industry to earn his daily bread bj the sweat of his brow, he combined the labours of a village pastor, and the study of languages. He afterwards gave up his trade for the profession of a schoolmaster. While meditating his great scheme for converting the nations to Christ, he visited Birmingham, to collect money for the meeting-house he had built at Moulton. During this peregrination he mentioned his thoughts, for his head and heart were both too full of the subject to keep silence, to some friends, who related the circumstance to Mr. Potts, between whom and Mr. Carey the following dialogue took place. Those who knew Mr. Potts, and I was amongst that number, will vouch for its accuracy by recognizing the quaint manner of that excellent but somewhat eccentric man.
Mr. Potts. — Pray, friend Carey, what is it you have got in your head about missions? I understand you introduce the subject on all occasions.
Mr. Caret. — Why, I think, sir, it is highly important something should be done for the heathen.
Mr. PoTTS. — But how can it be done, and who will doit?
Mr. Carey. — Why, if you ask who, I have made up my mind, if a few friends can be found who will send me out, and support me for twelve months after my arrival, I will engage to go wherever Providence shall open a door.
Mr. PoTTS. — But where would you go? Have you thought of that, friend Carey?
Mr. Carey. — Yes, I certainly have. Were 1 to follow my own inclination, and had the means acommau<i the islands of the South Seas wouldp be the ^cene of my labours, and I would commence a.f Otaheite. H*iinv society will send me out and land me there; and allowm2 164 THE BISE AND SPREAD OF
me the means of subsistence for one year, I am readj and willing to go.
Mr. Potts. — Why, friend Carey, the thought is new, and the religious public are not prepared for such undertakings.
Mr. Carey. -No; I am aware of that; but I have written a piece on the state of the heathen world, which, if it were published, might probably awaken an interest on the subject.
Mr. Potts. — Why dont you publish it?
Mr. Carey. — For the best of all reasons, — I have not the means.
Mr. Potts. — We will have it published by all means. I had rather bear the expence of printing it myself, than the public should be deprived of the opportunity of considering so important a subject.*
Mr. Potts afterwards paid ten pounds, and thus Birmingham bore a most conspicuous part in the origination of that splendid mission which -was in a great measure the result of Carey’s pamphlet. It is a little remarkable that Carey’s attention should first of all have been directed to the same spot as was afterwards selected by the London Missionary Society for the commencement of their operations. But it was not God’s intention that such a prodigy in the acquisition of languages as was Carey should be shut up within the little island of Tahiti.
Resuming the history of the church in Cannon-street, at the death of Mr. Pearce, Mr. Morgan, who had been educated at the Baptist College, Bristol, and had been supplying at Chipping Norton, Oxon, was unanimously
History of the Baptist Mission, by Dr. Cox. This dialogue will not be uninteresting to the members of Cannon-street church, nor to any Birmingham friends of the late Mr. Potts.
chosen to be the pastor of this now large and flourishing society. He was ordained June 23, 1803. Under him the congregation continued to increase, and it was determined to rebuild the meeting-house, which was not only inconvenient, but too small for the people who wished to attend. To this fact allusion has been made in the history of Carr’s-lane church. In July, 1811, Mr. Morgan resigned the pastoral charge, on account of ill health; and after living in private for two or three years became joint pastor with Mr. Edmonds of the church in Bond-street, of which more will be said when we come to the history of that society.
After an interval of about two years, the church elected Mr. Birt, of Plymouth Dock, now called Devonport. Mr. Birt was born at Coleford, in the Forest of Dean. While a youth he was converted to God, as we have said, by the ministry of Mr. Bum, then a preacher in Lady Huntingdon’s connexion, afterwards minister of St. Mary’s in this town, who for a while exercised his ministry in Mr. Birt’s native village. In the year 1779 Mr. Birt entered the Baptist College at Bristol, and having finished his studies, settled at Plymouth, as co-pastor with Mr. Gibbs. It was while preaching there he became the honoured instrument of the conversion of Mr. Pearce. As several of the members of the church at Plymouth lived at Dock, which was two miles distant, and the church had now attained to a strength which admitted of division, it was determined to form a new congregation at the latter place, and also erect another meeting-house. This was done, and the two pastors alternately supplied the two places, till it was judged expedient that each church should have its own exclusive pastor, and that Mr. Birt should become the minister of the congregation at Plymouth Dock. Here his mill S nidtiy was so successful that the chapel was too small for the number who wished to profit by his instructions and a vacant one oi large dimensions was purchased with the design of occupying them both. This rendered it necessary that another minister should be elected, when Mr., afterwards Dr.^ Bteadman was elected. The same result now followed as had already done in a former instance, a friendly separation took place, two churches were formed, one under Mr. Bteadman, and the other under Mr. Birt. Here he laboured faithfolly and successfully for fifteen years, till he removed, in 1813, to Birmingham. His labours, during his residence in the West, were not confined to Plymouth Dock, for besides continued itinerant services rendered to many places in the immediate vicinity, the acceptableness of his preaching and his eminent wisdom, sagacity, and tact, in practical matters, made him a kind of oracle, whose responses were sought by many.
Mr. Birt’s settlement in Birmingham was a matter of choice to himself, as well as by the people, for on its being known that he wished to change the sphere of his labour, several churches sought to obtain his services. He laboured in this town with his characteristic ardour, and found himself in as much requisition by neighbouring churches as he had done at Plymouth Dock. His ministry was very successful, especially among the young, and great additions were made to the church. This lasted till the year 1893, when an alarming attack of spasmodic asthma brought him almost to the grave, from which however he partially recovered: but as his strength was much impaired by this and other disorders, he found it difiicult to carry on his ministerial and pastoral labours, and therefore resigned his charge in the year 18/25, in the entireness of mutual affection between the church and himself. It has been affirmed, and in -
some cases not without truth, that ministers of religion,
whether curates in the Church of England, or pastors of
dissenting churches, are but ill provided for in the cold
and wintry season of old age; that their flocks, when
these servants of God can no longer benefit them by
their active services, leave them amidst the infirmities
of declining years to the bounty of others, or to penuiy
and want. Such was not the conduct of the church in
Caunon-ste’eet towards their venerable pastor on his
resignation. A most afifectionate correspondence took
place on his laying down his office, and a resolution was
promptly and generously passed to allow him an annuity
for life of one hundred pounds per annum, which was
ever punctually paid.*
On his resignation of the church in Cannon-street,
Mr. Birt retired to Hackney, where for a few years he
preached the evening lecture at Dr. Cox’s chapel. But
this soon proved too much for his declining strength,
and he relinquished it, and only preached occasionally;
thus clingiug to his beloved employ, and reluctantly
retiring from it before the steady advance of the last
enemy. When confined to the house, and familiarising
himself with death and eternity, his mind was calm and
cheerful, as will be seen by a letter written almost with
a dying hand: —” My strength evidently declines, an(i I
expect soon to go the way of all the earth; but I t;rust,
through rich and sovereign grace, that when the earthly
house of this tabernacle is dissolved I shall be gdmitted
to the building of God, the house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. This good hope keeps me calm,
* Precisely the same llimg had been done forr. Kell, by the Old Meeting congregation, on his resignatio;i. Happily such cases are not uncommon among dissenters; but still we say, O si sic omnes.
ftnd patiently waiting for all the will of God concerning me. Never was I more, J might saj, never was I so, sensible of my entire unworthiness and insufficiency. I look to our Lord Jesus Christ, saying,
‘A guilty, weak, and helpless wonn.
On thy kind arms I fall;
Be ihou my strength and rlghteonsnesSf
My Sayiour, and my all!’
My support and peace are derived from his kindness ability, and faithfulness alone: if he should fail me, I am undone; but he has said, I will never leave thee, and his presence and his favour constitute all my salvation and all my desire.”
In such a frame, and with such views, he came to the close of his laboiu and sufferings on November 1st, 1837, in the eightieth year of his age.
Mr. Birt was no ordinary man. His preaching was richly evangelical, energetic, and attractive. His gift in prayer was extraordinary for fluency, variety, and unction; while as a pastor his wisdom and faculty of government were unrivalled. It was my privilege to be on terms of peculiar intimacy with him, and as he was not altogether without his church troubles he made me, his frequent counsellor, and reposed his anxieties with one whom he deemed, and not without reason, a fedthful fnend. Among the pleasant recollections of the past are the hours I spent, and the intercourse I held, with this eminent and holy servant of our Lord Jesus. Honour to his memory! Mr. Birt published only a tract or two.
On the retirement of Mr. Birt, the church directed their attention to Mr. Swan, the present pastor. Mr. Swan received his ministerial education partly at the Baptist College, Bristol, and partly at the University of
Edinburgh. He was then eamesilj requested to proceed to India, as tutor of theology in the Serampore College, which was connected with the Baptist Mission, under the superintendance of Drs. Carey and Marshman. After three years he resigned this office, and received, through the venerable Carey, a testimony of their respect and affection, of which the following is an extract: — “By the desire of the Committee I now write to say, that we unfeignedly regret your resolution to leave us, to whom personally you are very dear, and the college in which your labours have been decidedly useful/* On his arrival in England, Mr. Swan received a general and cordial invitation from the church in Cannon-street to become their pastor, which he accepted, and entered on the full discharge of his duties in 1828. His ministry has been very useful, as nearly a thousand members have been admitted to the church during his pastorate. He has published two or three discourses, one on the death of Mr. Hall, a second on Relative Duties, and a third on the Eight Formation of Character.
The church in Cannon-street has been active in promoting the spread of the gospel in surrounding villages, and has within the last few years expended about £1200 Iq tbs erection of village chapels. It is numerous, and peaceful under their present pastor, and has sustained and still sustains a high place in the denomination to which it belongs. It has been singularly honoured in the nunaber of its members who have been called out the ministry, of which a list is here
given ‘-•
^-r gmael Sodeu, Wolverston, in Suffolk ao. Walter Richards, Devonshire-sqaare, London rrao. Will*”^ Gregory, Lei-cesler (their first pastor) - John Edmonds, Guilsborough
THE RISE AND SPREAD OF
1785 Edward Edmonds, Bond-street, Birmingham (their first pastor)
1786 Thomas Edmonds, Satton-in-the-Elms, Leicestershire 1794 Benjamin Gave, Leicester
Thomas TTppadiue, Hammersmith, near London
William Newell, Derhy
William Scarlett, in the neighhonrhood of Hall
William Staughton, D.D., Philadelphia, North Amerioa
Thomas Harrison, Shiffiaal
Mark Wilkes, Norwich
1605 Thomas Jones,
1806 Samuel Cooper, Homsey, Hampshire
1809 John Davis, Upton-on-Sevem
1809 Joseph Lakelin, Inskip, Lancashire
1813 Joseph Price, Alcester, Warwickshire
1817 Thomas Cooke, Oswestry
1818 James Sprigg, A.M., Margate
1819 Manoali Kent, Shrewsbury
1826 James Allen, Ballina, Ireland
1828 Charles Boom, Portsea
1825 William Hands, afternoon lecturer at Cannon-street
1830 John Griffiths, missionary to Jamaica
1840 Thomas Hands, ditto
1842 Edward Bryan, Oxford
Thomas Carryer, Canada 1848 Jerrard Blakeman, Student at Bristol College.
The following is a chronological list and arrangement of its pastors: —
1737 Thomas Craner, 1738
1751 James Morley, 1753
Tolley,
1755 James Turner, 1780
1782 Henry Taylor, 1788
1790 Samuel Pearce, 1799
1802 Thomas Morgan, 1811
1814 Isaiah Birt, 1825
1829 Thomas Swan
BOND-STREET MEETING-HOUSE.
During the ministry of Mr. Taylor of Cannon-strret, three brothers of the name of Edmonds were called out
NONcoNFoninry nr bibmingaam. 171
by the church to the woi of preaching the gospel. Mr. Pidward Edmonds* had b€ien occasdonallj employed in this way under the sanction of his pastor, and after a short course of study at the Baptist College in Bristol commenced his ministry at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire. He soon left that place and returned to Birmingham. His own account of the foundation of the church shall now be given in his own words, taken from the archives of the society in Bond-street: —
“About November, 1784, I, Edward Edmoiids, began to preach in Deritend, and also at brother Isaa;C Downing’s. Many persons were brought under concern for their precious souls. In the summer of 1785 the house became too small for the congregation, and I preached out of doors, morning and evening, for months together: but as winter approached, my friends became anxious, and seventeen persons, all of whom earned their bread by the sweat of their brow, subscribed fifty pounds towards the erection of a place of worship. We were advised to hire a roomf during the winter, and to postpone building till the next year. In the mean time several persons applied to me for baptism, and under the sanction of the He v. James Butter worth, of Bromsgrove, on the 11th day of September, 1785, I had the honour of baptising twenty-three of these candidates, at the meeting-house in that town. These twenty-three, at the same time, were formed into a church, and by their choice I was called and settled over them as their pastor. The Lord grant it may be for his own glory, and the salvation of poor sinners. Amen and amen.
“After this, seventeen persons were baptised at the
* The father of Mr. Edmonds, the Town Clerk of this horough.
+ This was at the top of Needless Alley, St. Philip’s church yard.
17S THE BISE AND SPBEAP OF
Bo-ptist meeting-house in Deritend, and anotJier addition of ten was shortly made to the church, the candidates heing haptised in the same place. Four persons were afterwards dismissed to this infjEint cause from the church in Cannon-street: suhsequentlj eleven others were haptised. The church was now composed of sixty-five members, when the meeting-house in Bond-street was opened. This took place on the 15th of Novemher, 1786. The officiating ministers on the occasion were the Brcv. James Butterworth, of Bromsgrove, and the Rev. Henry Taylor, of Gannon-street, Birmingham.
“Thus was begun the worship of God in Bond-street. May the Lord grant it may ever appear to he for the glory of God, and the good of many precious souls. — Amen.”
When the infirmities of old age had rendered it necessary for Mr. Edmonds to ohtaln assistance, Mr. Morgan, formerly the pastor of the church in Gannon-street, whose health was by this time considerahly restored, accepted the invitation of the church to he associated with its aged pastor, and entered upon this new connexion in January, 1815. At length Mr. Edmonds fell asleep in Jesus in March, 1823, leaving Mr. Morgan sole pastor. Mr. Edmonds was a man of vigorous intellect, strong passions, considerable humour, and no small share of wit, all of which, and the latter sometimes too much, were exhibited in the pulpit. There was often great power, generally eccentricity, and not unfrequently a strain of remark which excited irresistibly the risible propensities of his hearers. He greatly excelled in prayer, an exercise from which every thing bordering on humour and levity was carefully excluded, and which was often characterized by an uncommon solemnity, unction, and pathos. His labours were suecessful, and he raised a large church which was much attached to him.
Finding himself hecoming feeble in strength, Mr. Morgan was for awhile assisted by Mr. Edgar, and then resigned the pastorate in 1846. Mr. Morgan published a very useful volume of sermons to the young and one or two tracts. Mr. Edgar continued for a short time, and then retired also.
The present minister of Bond-street meeting-house is Mr. New, formerly of Salisbury, who commenced his ministry in 1848.
NEWHALL-STREET CHAPEL.
This place of worship was erected about sixty years ago by the followers of Emmanuel Swedenborg, and passed from them in a way to be afterwards shewn, and was occupied for awhile by a sect of antinonuans. While Mr. Birt was pastor of the church in Gannon-street, a portion of the members obtained their dismission, and were formed by him into a separate church in this place of worship, in the year 1814. Since then they have had as their pastors, Mr. Poole, Mr. Ham, Mr. Stokes, Mr. Stewart, and have now Mr. O’Neill.
QRAHAM-STBEET CHAPEL, FORMERLY GALLED MOUNT
ZION CHAPEL.
This spacious and elegant place was erected twenty-five years ago by an individual to whom we might have alluded, when giving an account of the congregation of Mr. Eagleton, in Livery-street meeting. When the building approached towards completion, much curiosity was excited, and many enquiries made concerning the appropriation of this new and commanding place of worship. Nobody could get any information, for the projector had none to give. When it was nearly finished, he was advised to offer it to the celebrated Edward Irving, who was then in the zenith of his popnlarity. This counsel was taken; a correspondence was entered into with that gentleman, and a treaty concluded for opening the chapel in connexion with the Scotch Church. This was done in March, 1824, when Mr. Irving preached twice on the occasion.
Mr. Orosbie, a minister of that church, first occupied the pulpit; but as he did not attract a congregation, it was soon determined by him and his friends that the place was too large and too expensive, and they withdrew and erected the handsome chapel at the bottom of Newhall-street, at the opening of which Mr. Irving again preached, in conjunction with the author of this narrative
Upon the withdrawment of the Scottish congregation, the pulpit of Mount Zion Chapel, as it was now called, was occupied by Mr. Greig, whose father was a minister of one of the Scotch Presbyterian bodies in London The chapel was now to be used as an Independent place of worship, and Mr. Greig was ordained by some of the neighbourmg ministers, in 1826, according to the forms of congregationalists. There were some others of that body, among whom was the author of this history, who declined, for what they considered sufficient reasons, to take any part in that service. Mr. Greig occupied the pulpit only about a year, when he was cut down by consumption, brought on by disappointment in more afibiis than one, acting upon a constitution predisposed to pulmonary affection. The place was then for awhile shut up, when the Baptist denomination stirred up a member of their body to purchase it of the individual by whom it was erected: and in the year 1827, Mr. ThongBi, once an Independent, but subsequently a Baptist, became the minister of the place. This gentleman afterwards embraced the views, at least in part, of Mr. Irving, and Mount Zion chapel became again destitute.
The next minister was Dr. Hoby, who had been educated and had graduated at the University of Edinburgh. Before his settlement in Birmingham Dr. Hoby had been pastor of the church at Maze Fond, in London, and of the Baptist church at Weymouth. The finances of the chapel were so low, that Dr. Hoby, being possessed of private fortune, preached for several years without any remuneration, and to the end of his connexion with the congregation received very little for his labours. By his exertions nearly two thousand pounds were raised by the contributions not only of the Baptist body, but of some persons of other denominations, by whom he was much respected and who were desirous of seeing this place of worship freed from its oppressive load of debt. Dr. Hoby resigned his situation in 1844, and accepted the invitation of a Baptistchurch in London.
To Dr. Hoby succeeded Mr. Dawson, now minister of The. Church of the Saviour, whose religious opinions and ritual observances being deemed by the trustees not in accordance with the provisions of the trust deed of the chapel, he resigned the pulpit. Upon Mr. Dawson’s removal, the chapel being encumbered with a heavy debt, the Baptist body raised the sum of JS’2500 to reduce the mortgage and to effect some necessary repairs and improvements. Mr. Mortlock Daniell, who had been settled at Eamsgate, and had built there a handsome chapel, was then invited to become the minister, who has succeeded in raising a considerable congregation, and is now labouring with acceptance and success amidst a united and attached flock.
HENEAGE’STBEET OHAPEL, ASHTED.
This neat and commodious place of worship, which is situated in the midst of a dense population, is the fruit of the zeal and liberality of the Baptist denomination in this town. It was not the result, as it must be confessed is too frequently the case among dissenters, of a schism in any one of their churches, but of a pure concern for the extension of their body and for the preaching of the gospel to the then destitute population of that neighbourhood. At the time of the origination of this congregation, the only place of worship in that large and increasing neighbourhood was St. James’s chapel; St. Matthew’s having been erected since. The congregation in Heneage-street had its origin in two events. When the ever-to-be-remembered emancipation of our negro population in the West Indies was fully and finally accomplished, the Baptists in this town determined to commemorate that event, so auspicious to the interests of humanity and the cause of freedom, by some institution which should be a benefit to the town, and they resolved to accomplish this benevolent design by erecting school rooms, and setting up daily and Sunday schools for the education of poor children. Land in Heneage-street was purchased for this purpose, and a building erected at the cost of £600, the foundation stone of which was laid by Mr. Joseph Sturge, who gave a munificent donation towards the expenses of the erection. One scheme of beneficence often leads to another — the school often leads on to the chapel — and the school-master is olteu the precursor of the minister. So it proved here. When the Cannon-street church celebrated its centenary in 1837, the question was mooted whether the event should not be marked by some sub« stantial expression of their gratitude to God for his goodness toward them through the fiist century of their e3dBtence. The result was a determination to add a chapel to the school rooms already erected on the site in Heneage-street. By the joint contributions of the churches in Cannon-street and Bond-street this purpose was effected, and the building erected at a cost of more than £4000. The foundation-stone was laid by Mr. Knibb, in 1840, whose name will ever stand in most honourable association with the Baptist mission and the emancipation of our slaves in the West Indies. The chapel was opened for divine service in 1841. Soon after this Mr. Roe, the present minister, commenced his labours, which have ever since been prosecuted with great success, as is evident irom the following statistics* “Seven hundred members have been added since Mr. Roe commenced his labours, and there are 613 now in fellowship. There are eight deacons — 20 class leaders — six local preachers — 1200 children, adults, and teach* ers in the day and Sabbath schools — a young man’^ men* tal improvement society — and more than 80 religious meetings held in the district weekly.”
This is an extraordinary amount of successful labour, and shews what, under the blessing of God, may be ac<- complished by the erection of one place of worship and the energy of one earnest minister,
THE CIRCUS CHAPEL, BRADFORD-STREET.
Great praise is due to the Baptist denomination in Birmingham for their public spirit and liberality in the erection of places of worship in their own town. We have just related their efforts in Heneage-street; we have now to mention another in Bradford-street. It would seem as if the building of amphitheatres, as they are called, were not a very good speculation among th
N caterers for the public in regard to amusements. Livery-street chapel was built for this species of entertainment, and we have now to direct attention to a second transmutation of a place of this description into a house for God. At the bottom of Bradford-street stands what was Ryan’s amphitheatre, but what is now a Baptist chapel. A wealthy and generous individual connected with the Gannon-street congregation, aided by others, and especially by the counsel, energy, and co-operation of Mr. Roe, of Heneage-street, purchased this building, and had it altered and arranged for the service of God. It was opened for worship in 1848; and there, where multitudes were wont to assemble to witness feats of agility and low buffoonery, hundreds now meet weekly to hear the glad tidings of salvation, and from lovers of pleasure to become lovers of God. This spirited effort had the sanction and patronage of an influential body of Christian men connected with the congregations assembling in Cannon-street, Bond-street, and Graham-street chapels; and it received the pecuniary support of many persons of other denominations.
Among the hearers at the Circus chapel is an individual now officiating as door-keeper, who formerly acted as the priest of Momus in the character of the clown. This chapel is yet unsupplied with a minister.
THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR.
This large and elegant place of worship was erected by his friends, for Mr. Dawson, when he resigned the pulpit of Graham-street chapel, and is filled by a respectable congregation drawn together by his talents as a public instructor. Mr. Dawson is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh: he came to Birmingham in the year 1844, as a Baptist minister, and succeeded in soon raising a large congregation, most of whom followed him to his present place of worship, which was opened in 1847. Mr. Dawson has established a high and an extensive reputation as a public lecturer, and is generally listened to with great admiration by large audiences whom his fame never fails to collect, whether he deliver his instructions in the metropolis or in the pnmnees. He published the sermon which he delivered at the opening of his chapel, which is entitled “The Claims of the Age upon the Church,” and also an Inaugural Address delivered at the formation of the Eclectic Society.
LADY Huntingdon’s chapel, peck-lane.
I prefjBue the account of this sanctuary with the following brief history of that distinguished woman whose name it bears, and which is transferred from the pages of my work, entitled “The Church in Earnest.”
“Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, was from a child of a grave and serious disposition, and maintained, amidst all the elegance and gaiety of Donnington Park, a devout turn of mind. She was, however, for a long time labouring hard to establish her own righteousness; till by conversation with Lady Mayaret Hastings, a near relative on her husband’s side, she received the knowledge of justification by faith. Whitfield and Wesley were then in the midst of their labours and the zenith of their popularity and usefulness. Lord and Lady Huntingdon immediately patronized the new doctrine, and were the followers of Whitfield wherever he preached. Connected by her rank with nobility, and by her habits with literary men, wits, poets, and statesmen, what decision, fortitude, and even heroism it required, not stealthily and by night, but boldly in the face of day to connect
n2 heirself with the sect everywhere spoken ill of, and ridiculed as a band of ignorant fanatics. Such qualities were possessed bj the subject of this sketch. She became to a certain extent the patroness of the despised preacher at ‘the Foundry.’ Her saloon was thrown open to his preadiing, where Lord Chesterfield, the high priest of the god of fashion, Lord Bolingbroke, and many other peers and peeresses, would not unfrequently be found at her ladyship’s solicitation, listening to Whitfield, then appointed to be her chaplain. It wad while this great man was on a visit to Lady Huntingdon’s seat, at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, that the Tabernacle in London was planned, and chiefly at her instigation. By this time, her fortune, never very large, and her influence, which was much greater, were both put in requisition to meet the expence of the erection of thel Tabernacle, Tottenham Court chapel, and other placed of worship. Mr. Berridge of Everton, Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Matthew Wilkes, and all others of their style of preaching, whether in or out of the Church of £ng land, became her proteges. She was still professedly a member of the Established Church, but loved the gospel and all who preached it, infinitely more than she did the Church. Lay-preaching and out-of-door preach* ing met with her entire concurrence and liberal support Chapels now were engaged by her, wherever she could obtain them, to the full extent of her means: and it was her special delight to buy theatres, when they were to be obtained, and so turn those places into houses for saving souls, which had been formerly employed for destroying them. Wherever a revival of religion took place in the Establishment or in any other denominittion, her influence was sure to be engaged.
*’ After studding the land with chapels, supplyiilg them with ministers, and supporting them in many eases from her own purse, she aimed at nobler game, and established a college at Trevecca, in South Wales, for the education of ministers; and I have lying before me, at this moment, a list of the names of ministers, and many of them of considerable celebrity, amounting to one hundred and twenty-Eve, who were educated in this seminary. When the lease of the premises at Trevecca expired, the college was removed to Gheshunt, Herts, where it now continues under the able presidency of Dr. Harris: and already have nearly two hundred ministers been educated for the preaching of the gospel, in that seat of holy and general literature. A religious connexion was formed, which bore, and which still bears, the name of this distinguished lady. Her personal exertions in these works of fedth and labours of love, were unbounded. She lived for nothing else. Rank, for-. tune, and influence were valuable in her eyes only as they enabled her to glorify God, advance the kingdom of Christ, and save immortal souls. All she possessed she consecrated to the Redeemer of the world, and his cause on earth. She kept no state, she incurred no expence, in order that she might give all to the Saviour. She was often involved in considerable difficulties for want of money, not like many of the nobility to meet her debts for gambling or extravagance, but for buying or erecting chapels. Having detei mined to erect a place of worship at Brighton, and being at the time rather straightened for money, she came to the noble resolution of selling her jewels, and with the produce, amounting to nearly seven hundred pounds, she built the chapel in North-street, in that town, now occupied by the Rev. Joseph Sortain. This was one of the most interesting sacrifices of vanity ever made at the shrine of religion.
N 3
How truly may it be said of that place of Christian wor-Bhip, only with an alteration of the future, into the past time, ‘I have laid thy stones with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires, and I have made thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.’
“Such was Lady Huntingdon. How correctly has it been said by her biographer, * The value of such a life can never be ascertained till the heavens and the earth be no more; and when temporal happiness and misery shall have vanished like the illusion of a dream, thousands, and tens of thousands, will be thankful that she lived so long, the faithful servant of God, and the happy instrument of their conversion.’”
To this may be added an extract from “The Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Himtingdon, by a member of the Houses of Shirley and Hastings.”
“Not long after the opening of St. Mary’s chapel. Lady Huntingdon sent some of her students to Birmingham, and other places in the neighbourhood. In process of time, a congregation was raised, and a chapel opened in Paradise-street, in which many of the early ministers in the comiexion proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ, and were heard with deep and earnest attention. Some years after, her Ladyship purchased the old play-house, and sent the Kev. John Bradford, formerly of Wadham College, Oxford, to preach in it. This gentleman was curate of Frelsham, in Berkshire; and, soon after he began to preach the gospel, paid a visit to Bath, where he attempted for the first time, to preach without notes.
“* On my return (says he) from Bath, I foimd the church shut againt me, and a letter from Lady Huntingdon, from whom I afterwards received many favours, and more spiritual edification than from all the books I ever read, or all the preaching or conversation I ever heard.’
“Mr. Bradford was at this tune extremely popular, and his ministry was usually attended by very great crowds. The following extract of a letter, relative to the converting of the play-house into a place of worship, deserves to be recorded: —
“* One thing (says the writer of it) I well recollect, and which I certainly never shall forget for the singularity of it, which is this: — When the play-house was first purchased by her Ladyship, a pulpit was erected upon the front of the stage, in which Mr. Bradford used to preach. People used to go into the boxes, pit, and gallery, as usual, to hear him, and also upon the stage; and it generally was pretty full, sometimes crowded. The people used to hear with great attention; and whenever any thing was spoken by Mr. Bradford which the people approved, and considered as solid argument or genuine religion, built upon the Rock of Ages, and consistent with the revelation of the Bible, they immediately clapped hands for a short time, as at a play! Mr. Bradford submitted, and held his peace till they had done, and proceeded as calmly as if nothing had happened. This was repeated several times during the discourse; it continued for some time, till the people became more serious, and it was properly converted into a meeting.’
“The theatre was soon changed to a chapel, and has since been supplied by the ministers in Lady Huntingdon’s connexion. The late Mr. Bennet, who was educated at Trevecca, was minister of this place for many years. The present minister is the Rev. John Jones, from Cheshunt College.”
184 THfi BISE AND SPBEAO OF
The lease of the chapel in King-street having expired, the congregation for several reasons not choosing to renew it, preferred the erection of a new place, which they effected by building the present chapel in Peck-lane: this, however, is bout to be taken down, bejn included in the site selected for the new station of the London and North Western Eailwaj; and in what part of the town this congregation may erect their fdture place of worship is at present unknown.
WELCH CHAPEL,
WOOD-STBEET, ST. THOMAS’s DISTBICT.
In the year 184^ a small place of worship was erected in Peck-lane, contiguous to Lady Huntingdon chapel, and chiefly by the influence of Mr. Jones, for the use and service of the natives of the Principality, many of whom were unable to understand the English language, or not sufl&ciently to profit by the public instructions of the pulpit. A considerable accession was made to the Welch inhabitants of our town at the time of the building of the Town Hall, which being constructed of Anglesey marble, required workmen accustomed to that kind of stone. The Welch chapel, like its greater neighbour, having been required by the Railway Company, has been taken down, and another built in Woodstreet, which was opened for worship in the present year, 1849. It is in connexion with the body of Christians called “The Welch Calvinistic Methodists.” Their present minister is Mr. Price.
KOKCONFOBMmr IN BIBMINGHAM. 185
THE QUAKERS OR FRIENDS’
MEETINO-HOUSE, BULL-STREET.
The founder of this small hat eminently phflanthropic and truly respectahle section of the Christian commu« pity, was George Fox, who was horn in 1624, at Drayton in Leicestershire, of respectahle parents, who were members of the Church of England. Being of a meditative and serious turn of mind, and having been often occupied at one time in the soHtaiy employment of keeping sheep, which afforded him opportunity for reflection and contemplation, he devoted much of his time to fasting, private prayer, and studying the scriptures. He was thus brought into deep religious concern, and ap* plied for solution of his doubts and relief from his oppressive solicitude, first of all to his own parish priest, then to other episcopal cleiiymen, and last of all to the Puritans; but finding no relief from the counsels of any of them, he withdrew from them all, entered into much solitary communion with God, and at length believed that he was divinely commissioned to become a public teacher of those views of religion which he had received from the Lord, and which on divers points were contrary both to the creed of the Church of England and of the various bodies which dissented from it. In 1647 he commenced his itinerant labours, which soon became incessant and exhausting. He first made known his views to such small companies as he casually met, and afterwards to larger assembUes convened for the pur pose of hearing his statements. As his opinions were antagonistic to those of all parties, all parties combined not only to oppose them, but to persecute their advocate. He was or wished to be a reformer of all, a character very sure to be more or less hated of all. But though threatened and maltreated by mobs, assailed by ministers, insulted by magistrates; though often imprisoned and often arraigned, Fox went forward in his career with the courage of a hero, and the constancy of a martyr, and with such success that, before many years had elapsed, he found himself surrounded by a numerous band of fellow-labourers and a widely-diffused and respectable society of religious friends, some of whom quitted, for the sake of his principles, livings in the church, commissions in the army, and seats upon the magisterial bench.
The Quakers are generally Arminian in doctrine; they assert also, that man for his religious guidance has not only the outward revelation in the Bible, but an inward revelation or communication of divine light, which they affirm to be necessary for the production of true’ faith, and which, though it neither does nor can contradict either the outward testimony of the scripture or sound reason, is something different from, and in addition to. They profess to wait for the guidance of the Spirit in the affairs of life, but especially in what concerns religion or the worship of God. Hence they are opposed to all liturgical services, all predetermined extempore prayers, and all precomposed sermons. They practice neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper, believing that these, though practised by the first Christians, were the relics of the Jewish ceremonial law, and not intended to be permanent Christian institutes. The early members of the body did not hold the divine obligation of the Sabbath, which is still the view of many of the Friends, as it is of some ministers and members of other denominations, but they still held most strenuously the expediency of the day as a season for rest and worship. Joseph John Gumey contended for the divine obligation of the Lord*s day, and published on the subject, and his views are now held by the body generally. Their opinion of the impulse of the Spirit in directing their worship must of necessity exclude the singing of psalms or hymns. They totally disallow the separation and education of a particular class for the work of the ministry. They have ministers, but these are called out exclusively by a divine impulse, and after trial approved by the body, and they are neither separated from secular callings, nor do they receive any stipends. They allow the public ministry of females. Their meetings for worship are usually silent, except when any one feels himself moved by the Spirit to speak or pray. They do not read the scriptures in their public worship, though they are known to be exemplary in this exercise in their families and in their private retirements.
The Quakers go beyond all others in bearing their testimony against the interference of the magistrate with religious matters; and hence suffer themselves always to be distrained upon, rather than pay tithes or church rates. They never take oaths; and condemn all war, even that which is defensive, as unchristian and therefore unlawful, and of course never bear arms. They very rarely go to law with each other, but settle matters by arbitrators chosen by themselves. They support their own poor, and never allow them to receive parochial relief. Marriages are always celebrated among themselves, and none are allowed to intermarry with persons of other denominations under pain of being disowned. They refuse to use titles; and believing that the plural number when addressing a single person originated in puerile vani, they invariably employ the singular ‘thee” and “thou,*’ to a single individual, though it be to the monarch. Because the days of our months and weeks are borrowed from Paganism they reject them, and call each hj numerab. Their dress is singular, and adopted with an utter rejection of what may be called the finery, and follies, and changes of fashion. They never take off their hats to any mortal, even to the monarch, conceiving this a mark of homage exclusively due to the Deity. In their discipline they are exceedingly watchful over the moral character and conduct of their members.
The government and discipline of the Quakers are unique, and cannot be classed with either Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, or Independency. Monthly meetings, usually comprising several congregations, are held, at which members are admitted, discipline is carried on, overseers are appointed to take superintendance, and other matters are attended to. In addition, quarterly meetings are held, which are composed of several monthly meetings, whose business it is to receive reports from the latter, and to hear appeals from them, which every individual has a right to do who feels himself aggrieved in what may be called the lower court. Then comes the yearly meeting, which has the general superintendance of the whole society, and to which appeals may be carried up from the quarterly meetings. The yearly meeting is partly representative, as delegates are appointed to attend it from the quarterly meetings, while any members who may feel inclined have liberty to attend. This meeting gives forth its advice, adopts rules, transacts by committees various matters connected with the body, and issues an annual epistle of counsel and consolation. To a certain extent, then, so far as the yearly meeting is concerned, the government is demo* cratic, and yet by the gradation of meetings it resembles Presbyterianism. No president is ever appointed at any
NONCONFORMITY IN BIRiaNOHAM. 180
of the meetings, as they look up to and rely upon God’s illuminating Spirit to preside over their deliberations. Besides these meetings, they believe that as women may be called to the work of the ministry they may bear a part in the support of their Christian discipline, some parts of which appertaining to their own sex devolves on them with peculiar propriety. Accordingly, they have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own sex held at the same time with those of the men, but separately, and without the power of making rules.
In the promulgation of such a system we are not surprised that in an age of intolerance they should have been for a sign, a wonder, a gazing stock, and a re* proach to the ignorant and bigotted of all parties, and the object of much bitter and cruel persecution. This, it must be admitted, was a litde increased by the very injudicious manner in which some of them obtruded their sentiments on public attention. Not content with preaching them, and explaining and defending them from the press, they were in some instances aggressive upon the peace and order of other assembUes. Fox himself would sometimes, in his early career, inter* rupt public worship in bearing his testimony against what he considered to be the errors of the preacher. These mistakes of judgment he subsequently corrected, and adopted more legitimate methods of promulgating his opinions. His errors, however, were venial indiscre* tions compared with the rancour with which he and his followers were treated by nearly all parties, not excepting the Independents.
It need be scarcely mentioned that the designation of Quakers is not that which this body appropriate to themselves; they have selected a cognomen to which theit conduct entitles them, ‘* Friends.’’ When George Fox was brought before two justices of the peace in Derbyshire, in 1650, one of them indulged himself in a vein of scoffiing merriment against the serious manner and strange doctrine of the individual who stood before him, when nothing daunted, Fox turned upon the magisterial buffoon and bade him tremble at the word of the Lord; upon which the scoffer in derision gave him and his followers the name of Qaakers. Their early history consisted in a great part of a detail a£ boffetingBy iiiq»isonments, and spoiliBg of goods. So early as 1659 they stated to parliament that in the preceding six years about two thousand individuals had suffered in person and estate for being Quakers; and this representation was accompanied by one of the most extraordinary public acts on record. One hundred and sixty-four Friends offered themselves by name to the House to be imprisoned in the place and stead of an equal number, who, from sickness or the hardships of their confinement, were conceived to be in danger of perishing. Their congregations were broken in upon by the military and the mob; their meeting-houses were burnt or pulled down; and the worshippers treated with the greatest indignities and cruelties.
Whatever was the feeling of many of his followers and friends who were not indeed exempt from the crime of persecuting the Quakers, Cromwell was himself fiar more tolerant. His eyes were ever open and upon every thing, and perceiving the increase of their numbers he deemed it prudent to guard against any danger from this quarter, and therefore required Fox not to disturb his government. This engagement was to be given in vmting, but to be expressed in whatever terms the writer chose to employ. Fox therefore wrote to the Protector by the name of “Oliver Cromwell,” declaring “that he did deny the wearing or drawing of a sword, or any outward weapon against him, or any man.” Cromwell afterwards admitted Fox to an interview, when the preacher delivered som wholesome truths, which were received in a manner highly to the Protector’s honour. He who held the SGeptie of Britain and the balance of Europe, with trae magnanimity so far condescended to meet the scraples of this humble individual, as to allow him to remain oorered in s presence.
In 1665, a hundred and twenty Quakers were in Newgate, sentenced to transportation under the “Conventicle Act.” The masters of ships generally refusing to carry them, an embargo was laid, and it was made a condition of sailing to the West Indies, that some Quakers should be taken there by every vessel. Unwilling to be active in their own banishment, the sufferers refused to walk, on board, as did also the seamen to hoist them in, till a mercenary wretch was foimd who, assisted by some soldiers from the Tower, carried fifty-five of them to the ship. The vessel being detained till the plague broke out, twenty-seven of them died of that fearful scourge, and the vessel having been taken by a Dutchman, the rest were liberated in Holland, and sent home. Other parties were set on shore by different vessels, so that only few of them were in the end sent to the West Indies.
The Quakers held their first general meeting, 1660, at Skipton in Yorkshire; a few years after which meetings for discipline were established throughout England and Ireland, chiefly by the incessant personal labours and epistolary recommendations of George Fox. At this period the society received a considerable accession of respectability by the conversion of William Penn and Bobert Barclay: one the founder of the Transatlantic State, called after him, Pennsylvania, and the other the individual who first gave to the world a full and method-I9ii THE RISE AND SPREAD OF
ical account of their doctrines, and discipline, in his celebrated Apology.
It is impossible not to admire the intense zeal of the Quakers during their early history in the promulgation of their principles, and the self-denial and sufferings they have endured in prosecuting their mission. Delicate and defenceless women have trayelled as female apostles to distant parts of the earth, and endured the most cruel indignities. In 1656, Margaret Fisher and Ann Austin arrived at Boston in Massachusets. They were apprehended ere they could land, committed to close prison, searched in a brutal manner by being stripped naked, lest they should be witches. They with eight others who arrived afterwards were sent away as a pestilent sect; but the precaution was in vain, for their principles had entered the city, and remained behind when they left. An aged citizen and church member of Boston, who was found to be the first man favourably inclined towards them, was fined, imprisoned, and banished in the depth of winter. In Rhode Island he was hospitably entertained by an Indian chief, who offered, if he would live with him, to make him “a warm house,” observing ‘* What a God have the English who deal so with one another about their God.” What a rebuke to the persecutors of all sects and parties from the lips of the red man of the woods! The most savage laws were passed at Boston against the Quakers; the scourge was first applied without regard to age or sex; mutilartion by cutting off the ears followed; but as these brutal* ities were found insufi&cient to wear out the zeal of the patient and heroic sufferers, they were ordered to be sold for slaves; and though this law was too bad to be exe* cuted, it was soon followed by another which doomed them to death if found within the colony after a certain time: and this statute of blood was fulfilled in the year 1658, in the martyrdom of William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, William Liddra, and Mary Dyar, who were hanged at Boston. The persecutors in this case were undoubtedly Independents. It was now only thirty* eight years since, driven out by the fierce intolerance of the English hierarchy and the court of High Commission, the Pilgrim Fathers had sailed in the Speedwell and May Flower to the wilds of America, and gathered, in their varied sufferings the bitter fruit of persecution on that desolate shore; now, while some of them might be yet living, and when the bulk of the acting generation must have been their children, did they exercise a cruelty which was an imitation of that which had driven theni from their native country, and an improvement upon the copy. Spirit of Robinson, where wast thou, that, with frowning aspect thou didst not visit these thy descendants, now turned recreants to the cause of religious freedom! To the honour of the English Independents, however, it must be recorded that by the pen of Dr. Owen they wrote a letter to dissuade those of New England from pursuing the bloody work.*
The Quakers partook, in common with others, of the benefits of James’s Indulgence; and then, with the rest of the nonconformists, came at the Revolution under the protection of the Toleration Act f
* In eztennation of this conduct of the Independents of New England, it is asserted that some of the female sufferers were guilty of great indecorum as signs of divine judgments; and that some of the other sex distarhed public worship by their conduct. If this were true, the magistrates should have known how to preserve the peace of the colony without the sacrifice of humanity.
f The conduct of Fenn during the reign of James has always been the subject of severe animadversion, and Macaulay’s History does but little to dissipate the clouds of reproach which even at the time, and from some of his own body, had collected round his name.
As George Fox was born at Drayton in Leicestershire, and spent his early years in that place, it is natural that after he had received his impressions to commence a public ministry he should think of the neighbourhood of his birth-place, and that so important a town as Birmingham should attract his attention and excite his zeal. He states in his journal that in the year 1655 he held a meeting in this town, when several persons were convinced of the truth of his doctrines, and became his followers. It is also stated in a book of records kept at the meeting-house in Bull-street, that on the eighth of January, 1659, the people called Quakers were met at the house of William Keyuolds, when William Dewsbuiy and others were present, who were pulled out of the house by John Cotterill, constable, and a rude multitude with him, with swords and Staves. Some of these harmless and unoffending people were beaten and abused by the populace, and the windows were broken in the presence of the constable. The substance of this statement is also recorded in Basse’s “History of the Sufferings of the Quakers,” who adds, “The like treatment the Friends met with when religiously assembled in the house of William Bailey:” and Basse states that in the same year, 1659, William Heath, of Birmingham, had his goods taken for tithe.
It is very clear, therefore, from this account, that the commencement of the society of Friends in Birmingham was about 1655, and that up to 1659 they had no place of public assembly, but met for worship in private houses. Tradition speaks of a meeting-house in Monmouth-street, where there is still a small burying-ground, but no documents attest it. There is great probabihty, however, that this was the original seat of Quaker worship. The existence of a cemetery is a strong presumption of there having been a place for worship. The meeting-house in Bull-street was erected, it is supposed, sometime between the year 1702 and 1705, and was enlarged in 1778, at a cost of between five and six hundred pounds; and an addition was made to it also in 1844. The present number of members, including children, is 380.
To the powerful influence of a national establishment of religion this small but truly respectable body of professing Christians, though more widely separated from it than any other, has not shewn itself to be insensible; for though fenced in by the most stringent laws of fellowship, they, like the members of other nonconformist bodies, are often found withdrawing to join the Church of England. Still among them, as also among others, are many who retain their convictions, their profession, and their consistency. It would be invidious to select and mention individuals, otherwise names might be inscribed on this page, not unworthy to be recorded with those of Joseph John Gumey and his illustrious sister, Mrs. Fry, the heroine of Newgate. Conspicuous in all works of Christian benevolence are to be found the members of this community. If the slave is to be emancipated, they are foremost to strike off his fetters: if the children of the poor are to be educated, they were among the first to set up schools for that purpose; if the victims of intemperance are to be reclaimed, they enrol themselves among the members of temperance societies; and if the starving and pestilence-smitten population of Ireland were to be rescued from misery and death, they took the lead in the liberality of their contributions, and the wisdom and energy of their active endeavours; — in short, wherever the squalid form of human misery is to be seen, there also is to be seen
o3 the Quaker form of Christian mercy seeking to relieve it. Such are the Quakers of this town, as well as of every other place.
WESLEYAN METHODISTS.
OLD CONNEiaON.
One of the most extraordinary men, which in modern times have lived in our world, was John Wesley. To that servant of God and man, millions in time and through eternity will turn with gratitude as the instrument directly or indirectly of their salvation. He was the founder of a society which is already planted in every quarter of the globe, and which is exerting a powerful influence over the moral interests and eternal destinies of its inhabitants. When the names of heroes will be detested, and those of statesmen, philosophers, and poets will be forgotten, his will stand out in memorials radiant with the glories of paradise, and lasting as the ages of eternity. Mr. Wesley, in the year 1729* was Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, where, under the influence of a vague notion of the importance of religion, he spent some evenings of the week in reading the Greek Testament, with his brother Charles and one or two more, who at length admitted three or four of the students to join with them in these exercises. This little band commenced visiting the sick in different parts of the city, and the prisoners in the jail. Two years after, they were joined by three others, of whom one was the celebrated George Whitfield. It was impossible that the candle thus lighted could be put under a bushel. The singularity of their conduct atr tracted notice, and, perhaps in the way of sarcasm, they were called Methodists, on account of the regularity of their living, and the manner of spending their time. It is a little remarkable that the three designations of ‘* Christians,” “Puritans,” and “Methodists,” and which those who bare them received and appropriated without scruple or shame, should have been imposed upon them in the way of contempt. Soon after their first religious concern was felt by this pious band at Oxford, some of them had a strong desire to preach to the Indians of North America, and as an indirect means of accomplishing this object, John and Charles Wesley, with two more, engaged themselves as chaplains to the colony of Georgia.
It would seem that, at this time their views of evangelical religion were very dim and confused, but meeting on the passage with several pious Moravians, who better oadrstood the scheme of salvation by grace, and continuing their intercourse with them in America, Mr. IVesley became acquainted through their teaching with A^Q tnomentous doctrine of justification by faith, the kixawl^g® of pardon of sin, and peace with God. His fyitij6^ preaching of these great truths having brought ^jj him much persecution, his brother Charles returned ^, 17!«gland in 1739, and he the year following. From t .jjjje he commenced a course of ministerial exertions ^’vifi jXietropoUs, and of journies into various parts di iP^ ^jjtry, of the most arduous and laborious kind, ib tb fervour of his zeal bore a proportion to the V^b^ q{ obloquy he incurred. The effects of his ie^^ta trere very striking, for though it was calm and pf e^V^ioX^t and quite unlike that of his more elo- ^jjjJJ^P^^Ogh less learned fellow-labourer Whitfield, yet it was earnest and impressive. He still considered himself, and wished others to consider him, as a member and minister of the Church of England; a somewhat irregular one certainly, but still really such. He, therefore, desired to associate with him in his schemes, the pious clergy of that church, of whom, at that time, there were but comparatively few. In this he succeeded so partially that he determined upon the employment of pious and talented lajinen, reserving to himself the right of appointing them to the work, and guided in his own choice by the opportunities he had of judging of their qualifications at meetings for prayer and exhortation.
Hitherto Whitfield had acted in conjunction with Wesley, but having embraced the doctrines of Calvinism, while those of Wesley were Arminian, they separated and each moved in his own appropriate sphere. The preaching of Wesley excited less public attention than that of Whitfield, and was perhaps less effective at the time, but from the beginning his plan of action was more systematic, and in the end more successful. His great compeer was to a considerable extent his own system, which he had not pohcy enough to extend. He was intent chiefly upon the impression and success for the time being of his wonderful oratory; while Wesley, in connexion with his itinerant labourers, was always laying the foundations and strengthening them too, of the system -which bears his name. He was a man of profound sagacity in his judgment of the men and the means that would accomplish his purposes; and though he might occasionally consult others, he reserved to himself the sole right of ultimate decision and appointment; and it was a proof of the resources and power of his own mind that he acquired such comtnand ovier the minds of others. As his congregations increased, which they did rapidly, notwithstanding what some would call the enthusiasm and extravagance of a few of his followers, and the violence and mohbing of their opponents, he took the entire regulation of them all Upon himself, and not only appointed the preachers, but furnished them with rules for their government. As Wesley, either from policy or from principle, or in part from both, wished to avoid as much as possible the character and the charge of being a separatist from the Church of England, he therefore did not, when he could avoid it, preach in church hours, and directed his preachers to follow his example in this particular, as well as in another, of not administering the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in any of his chapels. It need scarcely be said that, in both these respects his society have long since given up the practice of their foimder as their rule, and are now as completely severed from the Church of England in all their practices as the Dissenters, not excepting the celebration of marriage in their own places of worship. In a few of their chapels, both in London and in the provinces, they still use the liturgy of the Church of England, but these are the exceptions, not the rule, of their practice. The followers of Wesley are now everywhere called either Wesleyans or Methodists. The latter is the term more generally employed not only by others but by themselves. Methodism is a term of more than magic power over their minds and hearts. It has been questioned by some whether the spell of that mighty word is not sometimes greater than it ought to be, by holding them in fascination of sectarianism exclusiveness. Yet it must be admitted that no section of the Christian Church entered more generally or more cordially into the scheme of the Evangelical Alliance than they.
—*- i
In doctrine ibe Methodists are Anrnnkn, in ritnal PoBdoboptists, and in goTennnent heirarcfaicaL Tliraramngeuients lor the goremment and working of their bod J ane sidlfiil and efficient. The supr e m e legiaJatare 19 the Conference, which properly speaking consists of a hondred of their oldest, wisest, most expmenced men, who continuallj fill up Tacancies themselves. This Conference is confinM exdnsiTelj to minister, and has not shewn a disposition yet to throw open the doors to the admission of laymen; iduch, if they were inclined to do, is prohibited by their deed of settlement; so that notMog short of an act of parliament could authorize so important a re-modelling of their constitu* tion as this. The privile of membership CQuosts of admission to class. A class is formed of a number of serious persons, amounting to from twelve to twenty or even more, one of whom is styled a leader. It is his bu* siness to meet this little company once a week to inquire into the state of their souls, to watch over their conduct, to advise, exhort, and warn, as the case may require, to iM)llect the weekly contributions of the members to meet periodically the ministers and stewards, in order to report the condition of the class and to pay over the monies received. The class, it will be perceived, is the vital principle of Methodism, and in a body governed as this is, must be allowed to be a moat admirable contrivance; besides furnishing the pecuniary support of the ministry, which is obtained by this means, it is fraught with many spiritual and connexional advantages. A number of these classes forms a congregation, and a number of congregations a ciRcn[T, which generally includes in countiy places, a market town, and the circunljacent villages, to the extent of ten or fifteen miles. London and the large provincial towns are divided into several drcuits.
To each of these circuits are appointed two, three, or more preachers, one of whom is appointed a superintendent, and this circuit is the sphere of their labour for not less than one year» nor more than three years. A number of circuits from five to ten, more or fewer, according to their extent, form a district, the preachers in whidi meet annually. Every district has a chairman who fixes the time of the meeting. These assemblies have authority to examine candidates for the ministry, and to try and suspend members f<»- heresy, immorality, or incompetency; to examine the demands for the poorer circuits respecting the support of the preachers and their families from the public funds; and to elect a representative to attend and form a committee to sit previously to the meeting of Conference, in order to prepare a draft of the stations of all the preachers of the ensuing year. The judgment of the district meeting is con* elusive till the meeting of the Conference, to which an appeal is allowed in all cases. Besides these representatives chosen specially to form the committee, the superintendents of circuits and as many other preachers as each district may allow to attend the Conference, go up to the annual convocation and have all the privileges of speaking and voting with the centumvirate.
Methodism was introduced into Birmingham under flie following circumstances.
Among the early objects of Mr. Wesley’s benevolent concern were the colliers at Kingswood, in the neigh* ]jourhood of Bristol, for whose welfare, as also did Mr. Whitfield, he laboured with considerable success. His ftttentiori to this class was soon extended to Staffordshire, where ui mining districts he often preached, especially a Wednesbury and its vicinity, amidst much oppoflitioB and imniinent peril. The mobs by whom he was assailed were most ferocious in their spirit and conduct, and seemed bent upon doing him bodily mischief, even to the destruction of his life. He had narrow escapes both there and at Walsall. In going to Wednesbury, where in spite of all opposition he had established a considerable society, he passed through Birmingham the first time in the year 1 738, but did not preach: and it is a little remarkable, that as the town then contained about 25,000 inhabitants, he should have delayed to open his commission here till five years afterwards. In 1743, when again on his way to Wednesbury, he delivered his first sermon here, in all probability under the canopy of heaven, to a small but attentive congregation. His next sermon in this town was preached on Gosta Green, amidst much uproar, and a continual volley of stones and dirt: this was the fourth discourse he had delivered that day: the three preceding ones having been preached at Wednesbury and Bilston, a fact which gives some idea of the labours of this extraordinary man.
Birmingham had now got fast hold of Wesley s heart, his interest in the place having been increased both by opposition and success. We find him repeatedly here from this time onward. Indeed at a subsequent period of his history he appears to have paid an annual visit to the town. In November 1746, he remained two or three days, and during this sojourn, in all probability, he organised a society. Still his success was not great for several years, as we find in his journal the following remark in 1749. “After preaching at Dudley I rode to Birmingham. This had long been a dry, uncomfortable place, so I expected little good here; but I was happily disappointed. Such a congregation I never saw there before; not a scoffer, nor a trifler, nor an inattentive person, (so far as I could discern) among them; and seldom have I had so deep, so solemn a sense of the presence and love of God: the same blessing we had at the meeting of the society, and again at the morning meeting. Will God then at length cause even this barren wilderness to blossom as the rose?” In March 1751, he says — “I was obliged to preach abroad, the room not being able to contain half the congregation. O how is the scene changed here! Formerly when I preached at Birmingham the stones flew on every side. If any disturbances were made now, the disturbers would be in more danger than the preacher.” This, however, was only a lull of the passions of the opponents of his preaching, for as his success increased, Satan determined that resistance should increase with it. Mobs still collected in formidable numbers, and assailed him and the congregation with every species of annoyance. In 1768, we find the following entiy in his journal. “The tumults which subsisted here so many years are now wholly suppressed by a resolute magistrate.** And, of course, might have been suppressed before if the magistrates had done their duty; but in fact they hated Methodism as much as the mob, and conmved at the violence by which it was assailed. Under this date he remarks” I was pleased to see a venerable monument of antiquity, George Bridgins, in the one hundred and seventh year of Ilii ^^’ ^’^ vrelk to the preaching, and retains. yeTStsndmg, and can see tolerably well. What
A eaxo. * * hundred years appear to
*. xjy Bioment he awakes in eternity!” I make at
ntbut one extract more from his journal, 177JJ.
^^T +nok chaise to Birmingham. Here are brethren
* ,1 -^a in the fear of God, and in th$ comfort of thle walKi**p
Holy Ghost. God has at length made even the heasta of the field to he at peace with me. All was quiet in the evening, and although the snow lay mid-leg deep in the street, yet at five in the morning the house was nearly filled.” But it is humiliating to consider that it took more than twenty years to tame these wild beasts. A happy change has come over our population since then. Gould another Wesley again appear and preach on Gosta Green, the populace would he more ready to escort him in honour to his home than to pelt him with stones. Methodism, as well as other forms of true religion, has long too deeply established itself in the conviction of the people as the poor man’s friend, to be an object of obloquy; and education has done muc not only to tame the fury of the passions, but to enlighten the judgment on the subject of religious liberty. Mobs cannot now be so easily raised at the bidding of an official or wealthy persecutor, as they could have been at one time.
It would seem from these statements that the first preaching was from time to time in the open air, according to the opportunities Mr. Wesley had of visiting Birmingham, and it is also probable that the place of meeting for the society was a private dwelling in the occupation of a Mr. Walker, in Steelhouse-lane, nearly opposite the Independent chapel now standing there. This individual had been a man of immoral life, but being much impressed with Mr. Wesleys preaching, he said to his wife that he had heard this new preacher, and should wish to let the people meet in his house. “Well,” she replied, “if they come here they must meet in the garret.” And for a time, it is believed, they did so. Our minds can hardly help thinking of the hundred and twenty disciples which nearly seventeen centuries before had assembled in the attic of Jerusalem. Gould the veil of futurity have been at that time lifted up to these few despised followers of the pelted preacher of Gosta Green, and the numerous and noble edifices which now grace and bless our town, have been seen, which in another century would belong to that same society, how they would have been astonished, and with what difficulty would they have believed the revelation.
The first public preaching place occupied by Mr. Wesley’s followers, was the old play house, situated in Court 16, in Moor-street.* Mr. Wesley preached at the opening of this first place of convocation for his followers March 21, 1764. By this time the number of the Methodists had so far increased in Birmingham, as to entitle it to the honour of being formed into a separate circuit. This took place in 1782, up to which time it had belonged to the Staffordshire Circuit. This was now divided into North and South Staffordshire, and Birmingham placed at the head of the latter, and Burslem the head of the former, at which time our town reported to the Conference the number of seven hundred members.
It must be evident that such a society needed more accommodation than could be furnished by the old “cast off theatre” in Moor-street, and in 1782, the chapel now standing in Cherry-street, though much altered, enlarged since then, and the freehold purchased in 1 823, was opened for public worship by the venerable founder of the society, then in the eightieth year of his age. Dr.
* I may here give another instance of Hatton*8 want of accuracy, for in his history he speaks of this hody of Methodists as belonging to Whitfield. He was right, however, in saying that, at the date of his history they had “procured a cast off theatre in Moor-street,” “where,” says he in his own style of levity and borlesqae, “they continue (1780) to exhibit.”
ft06 THE BISE AND SPREAD OF
Adam Clarke, on his way through Birmingham, had preached in the shell of the new building.
A few days before the opening of Cherry-street chapel we find the following remarks in the journal of Mr. Wesley. “I have entered my eightieth year, but blessed be God my time is not labour and sorrow. I find no more bodily pain or infirmities than I did at five and twenty, and I impute it — first, to the power of God fitting me for what he calls me to; second, to my still travelling four or five thousand miles a year; third, to my sleeping night or day whenever I want it; fourth, to my rising at a set hour; fifth, to my constant preaching, particularly in the morning.” Happy Wesley, to have the power of sleeping so completely at will as to be able at any time, night or day, to command it to his aid. The opening of Cherry-street chapel for Methodism “caused no small stir about that, way.” On the following Sunday Mr. Wesley remained in the town and attended the parish church of St. Martin’s, for it was his wont still to be present, as he had opportunity between the times of his own sermons, at the worship of the established church. On this occasion he heard the preacher declaim with great vehemence against these “hair-brained, itinerant enthusiasts.” Who the preacher was it is useless to inquire, and would do him no honour, and us no good to record. Certain it is, the present rector of St. Martin’s better understands the Methodist body than did this his predecessor, and would speak of them in other terms than these.
As the Methodists still increased in numbers, another chapel was erected in Bradford-street, which was opened by Mr. Wesley in 1786. The want of room still being felt, a third place of worship was erected at Belmont-row, in 1789. Here, also, the veteran labourer preached in the eighty-seventh year of his age; and while in the town for that purpose makes the following entry — “Here I had a day of rest, only preaching morning and evening.” This for a man verging towards ninety years of age! What then must have been his labour in his medioeval life, if this at such a time was his rest? It is interesting to read his reflections on his last visit to our town: “J 790, March 19, came to Birmingham. I think the town is thrice as large as when I first visited it fifty years ago. The hehaviour of the rich and poor [referring to his congregation] is such as does honour to their profession; so decent, so serious, so devout, from the beginning to the end.” Then referring to himself, he says — “I feel no pain from head to foot, only it seems nature is exhausted, and humanly speaking, will sink more and more till the weary springs of life stand still at last.” This soon happened. The vehicle which had 60 long borne his indomitable spirit in his holy and beneficent career, and which by the wear and tear it had so many times endured, proved the strength of its construction, was now ready to fall to pieces, and its worn and “weary springs,” unable any longer to bear its weight or give it motion. He died March 2, the following year. All honour to the memory of this illustrious man, than whom comparatively few ever lived and laboured in our world with more wonderful results in the cause of pure and undefiled religion.
After Wesley’s death, Methodism still continued to flourish in Birmingham, and the following chapels were successively added to the ones already named. Martinstreet, Islington, in 1825; Bristol-road, in 1834; Wesley Chapel, Great Hampton-street, in 1838; New Townrow, in 1837; besides some smaller places at Summerhill, Green Lanes, also at Balsall Heath, Nineveh, &c.
Birmingham has within the last few years been di’ vided into two circuits, the east or Behnont-row circuit contauiiug 1704 members, and the west or Cherry-street circuit containing 1807 members. In all these various chapels are Sunday schools comprising upwards of 4000 children. To shew the increase of Methodism in the district of country to which Birmingham was attached before it was a circuit of itself, the following numbers may be given. In 1766, there were 836 members; in 1849, there are 16,968!! There was then only one chapel in this town, and there are now seven large ones, besides several smaller ones in the suburbs.
The following are the present statistics of what is denominated in common parlance the Old Connexion Methodists.
Circnita. Preachers. Members
Great Britain ... 443 1207 348,274
Ireland ... 52 163 22,221
Foreign Stations.. 324 400 07,746
Canada ... 70 136 24,268
It was not till the jeai 1836 that Methodism in Birmingham obtained its highest honour, in bringing to this town the Annual Conference of the Connexion. To accommodate the four or five, or six hundred preachers, which now usually assemble at this great convocation, and remain together for three weeks, it required, it was supposed, a greater number of members of a certain standing in society than the body in this town contained. The trial was made, when it was found that, by the aid of Catholic spirited members of other orders of professing Christians, who kindly opened their houses to accommodate the preachers, the friends of Methodism in this town though not equal either in numbers or in wealth to those of London, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, or Hull, were not behind them in zealous and liberal attachment to their denomination, or in a generous ambition to have the honour of entertaining the Conference. This convocation has been now twice held here, and will in future visit Birmingham in regular rotation.
THE NEW CONNEXION ob KILHAMITE METHODISTS,
AS THBT HAVE BSKN SOMETIMES CALLED.
OXFORD-STREET AND UNETT-STREET CHAPELS.
It is pretty generally known that Mr. Wesley at the commencement of his career, like Luther, did not clearly foresee his future career, or whither his new views, principles, and modes were leading him and his followers. He had no thought, as we have already stated, of separation from the established church, and therefore directed his preachers neither to officiate in church hours of service, nor to administer the sacraments of baptism and of the Lord’s Supper. In a sermon preached only a year before his death, speaking of the functions of his preachers he says “We received them wholly and solely to preach, not to administer sacraments.” Who that compares the present ecclesiastical practices of the great Wesleyan body with those laid down by their venerable foimder, must not be constrained to admit that Methodism has very materially altered and that therefore all arguments and resistance against innovation and improvement founded on the principles and plans of their great founder are without force. The Methodists we repeat are now as fully in every essential feature separatists, and nonconformists, as the Dissenters. They have worship in church hours, they atlminister the sacraments, and they celebrate marriages, and they generally practice extempore prayer. They refuse to take our designation, and if indeed the term Dissenter necessarily implies, as perhaps it does, in modern use, one who in all circumstances disallows the imion of the church with the state, the Methodists, who hold, many of them at least, the abstract principle of the lawfulness of state support of religion, cannot be thus designated. During Mr. Wesley’s life, there were some who in their views of Christian liberty, especially in relation to the established religion, saw much clearer, and went somewhat farther than he did; and who felt his views on this subject a yoke grievous to be borne. This soon manifested itself after his death in an earnest desire to add the celebration of the Lord’s Slipper to the other ordinances of religion, which they observed in their own chapels. Marvellous it is that their good, great, and sagacious founder, who found himself before his death at the head of a connexion numbering nearly a hundred thousand members, with preachers, chapels, and a full ecclesiastical organization in other respects, and with all the means, motives, and energies of indefinite extension, should yet imagine that all this could remain long in connexion with the Church of England, or that so slight a tie could hold them to it as receiving baptism and the Lord’s Supper at the hand of its ministers, revolted as they often were by the known ungodliness of those who thus administered them.
Mr. Wesley had not been more than a year in his grave when a controversy arose upon the right and propriety of the Methodists to observe the Lord’s Supper among themselves. This brought into the field Mr. KiLHAM, then a very acceptable minister of about seven years standing, in the Newcastle circuit. He appeared as the advocate and the champion of Methodist lihertj. The matter was brought into Conference, and there decided against the advocates for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. So warm was the contest that at one time it seemed almost to threaten the disruption of the Conference. Mr. Kilham was now become the leader of the liberty party, and very soon, as was not unnatural, had his views led onward to other points, especially to the right of lay delegation in the direction of the society’s affairs. Many, and those of no mean name or low standing, sympathised with Mr. Kilham in his views; and & conviction gained ground that the government of Methodism must be ]*e-modelled, and such a constitution adopted as would unite the people with the ministers in the administration of afiGurs. At length appeared a pamphlet from Mr. Kilham ’s pen, and hearing his name, entitled “The Progress of Liberty.” In this pamphlet he advocated the rights of the people to a full share of the power of government, and proposed a constitution embracing these views. For the publication of this pamphlet he was tried by the Conference in 1796, and expelled from the ministry.
Mr. Kilham’s pamphlet had been widely circulated, and it was to be expected that his views would be embraced by many who read it. This, coupled with his expulsion, which it should be recollected was solely on the ground of his opinions and the manner of his expressing them, and not at all for immorality, made no small stir in the body. Various attempts were made to bring about a reconciliation between Mr. Kilham and the Conference, but these proving fruitless, a meeting was held in Ebenezer chapel at Leeds, on the evening of the 9th of August, 1797, which was attended by many of those who were favourable to a plan of church
p3 goyemment that should unito the clergy and laity; which then adopted the principle of this mixed government, and laid the basis of a new society in accordance with it. Of this new organization, &om that time called “The Methodist New Connexion,” Mr. Thorn was the president, and Mr. Kilham secretary. At the time of its formation, only two preachers, besides Mr. Thorn and Mr. Ealham, seceded from the Conference. But the cause was espoused by the laity in many places, and it immediately received an accession of about five thousand members. An unhappy controversy was the result of the separation, and much ill feeling was generated. The first Conference of the New Connexion was held at Sheffield, 1708, which was attended by fifteen preachers and seventeen lay delegates. Mr. Kilham was not permitted long to direct the body of which he may be called the founder, as he died before the close of the year of the first Conference at the age of thirty-six. Of this connexion Mr. Watson, afterwards one of the brightest ornaments of the Old Connexion, was for eight years a member and minister, of whom the following mention is made in the “Jubilee Memorial of the New Connexion.” “It is not so generally known as it ought to be, that to the New Connexion belongs the honour and joy of havipg brought this extraordinary man &om obscurity and placed him in a position whence his path was as a shining light till it emerged in the glories of eternity, His respect for the New Connexion did not cease when he had rejoined the Wesleyans, and shone like the sun amongst the most popular and gifted of their ministers. £[!e did not disparage the friends he had left, he held them in grateful esteem, and the ministers of the New Connexion invariably met a cordial welcome at his residence. Honour to his memory. He was a great, good, and useful minister of Jesus Christ. May his mantle rest on the rising ministry of both the Old and the New Connexion.”
This reference is as honourable to the memory of Mr. Watson, who was all that it represents him to have been, as it is to the candour of the body who by his secession was deprived of such an ornament and tower of strength.
It will be borne in mind by the reader that the only difference of importance between the New Connexion Methodists and the Old one, consists of their views of the constitution of Conference; the latter contending for an unmixed hierarchy, and the former for a mixed government of clergy and laity. In the jubilee volume of this body, published in 1848, an able, temperate, and impartial work, the authors, while expressing their high admiration for Mr. Kilham*s irreproachable moral character, and their support of his views, disclaim the opinion that their denomination had its origin iapenorud sympathy with him under his expulsion m the We8^ leyan Connexion. Highly as they respect his memory, of which in the volume just alluded to, they have givexi full proof in a beautiful effusion of love and respect, it is still, they assert, the principles of Christian liberty, which he advocated, round which their connexion clusters, and to which as cherished by many of Mr. Eilham*s contemporaries, the origin of their denomination is to be traced.
There were severaL friends in Birmingham who sympathized with Mr. Kilham in his struggle for religious liberty in 1796 and 1 797; but it was not until the year 1809, that the Methodist New Connexion obtained a footing in this town. At that time a small room was fitted up as a place of worship in a court or alley, leado3 ing out of New-street, and at the following Conference Mr. Eevill was stationed here as minister. The little society gathered strength, and several Mends in the Staffordshire Potteries, where this hody had obtained considerable strength) coming to their assistance, Oxford-street chapel was purchased and opened for their accommodation on the 28th July, 1811.
In process of time a Sabbath school was established which has been a great blessing to the church. It is now taught in the chapel, the room formerly occupied being taken by the Roman Catholics, but arrangements are in progress for the erection of both a new school and chapel. Money is in hand for that purpose, and to encourage this very desirable object, the Conference has promised to give £160 towards it when other preparatory matters are adjusted. There are here 104 members, 150 Sabbath scholars, and 25 teachers.
In 1838, Unett-street chapel was erected, and which was considerably enlarged and improved in 1842. In 1844, the spacious schools behind the chapel were built, and now this valuable estate, which is creditable to the connexion, and honourable to the town of Birmingham, is placed in easy circumstances. Both the society (which consists of 103 members) and the congregation are improving. The last returns of the Sabbath school reported 363 scholars and 44 teachers.
This denomination has just built a very neat and comfortable chapel at Sparkbrook, which was recently opened. And they have another small chapel and school-room in progress in Bridge-street.
Since the Methodist New Connexion established itself in this town, it has spread out and formed societies in many of the neighbouring towns, — such as Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesbury, Dudley, Tipton, Old-NONCONFORMITi’ IN BIRMINGHAM. 215
bury, Halesowen, Lye Waste, Stouxisfidge, Lichfield, Cheslyn Hey, Dawley Green, and many other places; in each of which commodious and respectable chapels have been erected.
The Birmingham Circuit has now 2 circuit preachers, local preacbns, 6 societies, 5 Sabbath schools, 95 teachers, 657 scholars, and 248 members in church fellowship.
The Birmingham district, embracing 5 circuits, including 8 circuit preachers, 113 local preachers, 40 Sabbath schools, 864 Sabbath school teachers, and 6,112 scholars, with 40 chapels, 45 societies, and 2,497 members.
THE WESLEYAN ASSOCIATION METHODISTS.
BA.TH-STREET CHAPEL.
The Wesleyan Methodist Association was formed in the year 1835. There had previously existed much dissatisfaction among many of the lay officers and piivate members of the Old Methodist Society, in consequence of the itinerant preachers having in the year 1828, when the connexion was disturbed by certain proceedings relative to the erection of an organ at Leeds, declared themselves possessed of more authority over the members of the society than was by many of the lay officers and private members regarded as being either consistent with the constitution of methodism, as settled in 1797, or agreeable to what they regarded as just and scriptural. This discontent was greatly increased in the year 1834, by certain proceedings, which were taken by the Conference, for establishing a theological institution for the training of ministers. This subjeot had been under the consideration of several conferences and committees. Many of the lay officers and private members, and some of the itinerant ministers, were strongly opposed to the establishment of a theological institution. At the Conference of 1834, the Rev. Dr. Warren, who had concurred in some of the previous preparatory steps taken by the Conference, warmly opposed the measure, and in consequence, as he stated, of the clamour with which he was assailed in the Conference, he there obtained an imperfect hearing. Therefore, he published a pamphlet, in which he complained of the proceedings of the Conference, and denounced the intended theological institution, as likely to prove highly injurious to the best interests of the connexion. For publishing this pamphlet, contrary as it was dleged, to the rules of the connexion, he was tried before a meeting composed of the itinerant preachers of the Manchester district; and by that meeting was suspended from the exercise of his ministry. Many persons thought that he was thus subjected to unmerited punishment, and that the Conference ought to have consulted the Methodist societies as to the establishment of the theological institution; and that no further steps should be taken until the judgment of the societies on this matter was obtained. Dr. Warren refused to submit to the sentence of the district meeting, and persisted in occupying the pulpits in his circuit. In this he was warmly supported by a large portion of the lay officers and private members. Appeals to the Court of Chancery followed, and deoiiuons were obtained, which excluded him from the pulpits of the chapels.
Under these circumstances loud complaints were made of the power assumed and exercised by the itinerant preachers, and an organization was formed to obtain the redress of alleged grievances. Many persons who joined in the movement were very little concerned about the
NONCONFORMITY IN BIKMINaHAM. 217
establisbment of the theological institution, but who were desirous that the government of the societies should be so vested in the lay officers, conjointly with the preachers, as that there might be an efficient protection against ministerial absolutism.
Appeals were made to the ensuing Conference for the removal of alleged grievances. These appeals were unsuccessful. The Conference resolved to maintain all the authority which had been claimed for the itinerant ministers; laws more decisively declaring such authority were enacted; and it was determined that those should be expelled from the connexion who refused to submit to those laws, unless they withdrew. Some on account of bearing their testimony against these laws, which they regarded as violations of the established constitution of Methodism, and as unscriptural and oppressive, were expelled, and many thousands withdrew from the Conference Connexion. Most of these united in various parts of the kingdom to form new societies, and these societies appointed representatives, who met together and formed the Wesletan Methodist Association.
In the town of Birmingham there were many members of the Methodist Society who sympathised with the opinions avowed by those who objected to the proceedings of the Conference. Some of these became united together and formed a church. For some time they worshipped in a hired chapel; but after a short period, ground was obtained and a chapel erected for their accommodation in Bath-street, which was opened for worship in 1839.
The following statistical account of the Wesleyan Methodist Association is taken from the minutes of its annual assembly, held in August, 1848. Itinerant preachers and missionaries, 06; local preachers, 086; chapels and other preaching rooms, 531; church members, 20,775; Sunday school scholars, 42,032; Sunday school teachers, 6,162. We are also informed that, in several places liie number of church members has considerably increased during the present year. It is probable that the present number of church members is about 21,500.
Doctrinally this community holds similar opinions to those held by the Old Connexion, but seciures to the lay officers, private members, and churches, a laigar share in the exercise of church discipline, «Bd m the management of the connexional affiuxs.*
THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS.
The last report of this branch of the Wesleyan body, of which there are several congregations in Birmingham, contains the following statistics — they have 513 travelling preachers; 8,291 local preachers; 5,679 class leaders; 1,511 chapels; 3,345 rented rooms; 1,194 Sunday schools; 94,876 Sunday scholars; 18,169 gratuitous teachers; and 95,557 members. They have also established missions in Canada, in Australia, and in New Zealand. They hold an annual Conference, have a book room, publish annually minutes of Conference, and have both their denominational hymn books and magazine, together with funds for the support of their ministry, and also committees of various kinds for the management of their ecclesiastical afiCairs. In short, they are in a state of complete and effective organization, and furnish one of the most extraordinary instances on record of what may be accomplished in a
* This account has been obtained from a very respectable minister and member of the body here described.
MONCONFOBMITY IN BIBMINGfiAM. 219
land of religious liberty, by fervid and indomitable religious zeal, even where it had neither wealth, rank, education, eloquence, nor fSanatical peculiarities of doctrine to sustain it.
In the year 1780, a cbUd was born at Burslem, in the Staffordshire Potteries, who when of proper age was apprenticed to learn the trade of his natLve place. William Clowes, for such was his name, was a youth of great eneigy and activity; forward and foremost in the sins and follies of his neighbourhood. He was, however, not without the visitings of compunction, and the remonstrance of his conscience, even in the midst of his vices. His relentings were of short continuance, and usually ended in greater excesses than before. He went at one time to such an extreme of impiely as to hold with his dissolute companions a mock prayer meeting at a public house, at which the other and less abandoned bacchanalians were so shocked that they turned the profane crew into the streets, where these hardened sinners continued their blasphemous comedy. William Clowes seems to have been a ringleader of this company, and of their sport. At this time of his life dancing, singing, drinking, and fighting, occupied the chief part of his time, and as the wages of a journeyman potter could not go far to supply indulgences such as he delighted in, it is no wonder that this drunken mechanic was by idleness and extravagance soon plunged into debt.
At length, however, the conscience of William Clowes was roused from its deep and torpid slumber, and by attending the meetings of the Methodists, he became a true convert from the error of his ways. The native ardour and energy of his mind were carried into his religious profession. He was always a man of strong
220 THE BISE AND SPI^EAB OF
feeling, and of excitable temperament, and the habitude of his mind was that of rapturous emotion. In his solitary musings and in the exercises of social devotion, he would give audible expression to his feelings, which he was unable, perhaps unwilling, to restrain. He soon became a class leader and a local preacher among the Methodists, by whom he was known, and not altogether approved as an unusually vociferous devotee. They wished him to be somewhat more restrained in his gestures, tones, and words; but William Clowes thought this would be quenching the spirit, or at any rate damping the fire that burned within. About the year 1810, assemblages of people were convened in the fields of his native place and neighbourhood for preaching and other religious exercises, called” camp meetings,** which were an imitation of similar convocations held fifty or sixty years ago, by the Methodists in the back woods of America, These were the delight of Mr. Clowes’s heart, and he bore a conspicuous part in them as one of the preachers. This practice, and especially the part he took in it, gave offence to the more sober members of the Wesleyan body, and called forth the remonstrance of the superintendent of the circuit Mr. Clowes was informed he must discontinue some of his practices, especially his beloved camp meetings. He pleaded the example of Wesley and the primitive followers of that extraordinary man. This was to no avail, his name was struck off the list of preachers, and his ticket of membership refused, which amounted to a virtual exclusion from the body.
Mr. Clowes’s expulsion caused a great sensation in the neighbourhood, where his zeal and his eccentricities had excited much attention; many sympathised with him, and some adhered to him; among whom where
Hugh and James Borne, James Nixon, and some others. These after a short tune formed themselves into a new confederation, took to themselves the name of PBiMmvE Methodists, and proceeded to arrange a plan of denominational organization and action. This occurred July 26, 1811, at Tunstall, when seventeen preachers and seventeen places were enrolled, or at least by the following September this amount had been reached.
Previous to this, Mr. Clowes had been released from his daily labour by two friends who had engaged to raise him a little support. In reference to which, he remarks in his journal, “My wife began to feel that the allowance so disinterestedly given by the two pious and zealous friends was inadequate to our support, for in consequence of our peculiar position and religious connexions, we had many comers and goers, and to make them comfortable, and to maintain hospitality, we endeavoured to practice self-denial to the utmost to avoid being in debt. We, therefore, used coarser food, dining, when by ourselves, on a Uttle salt and potatoes, or a piece of bread and a drink of water. But as we found our expenditure still to exceed our income, we sold the feather bed we slept on; for it was a maxim with us, to which we regularly adhered, never to go in debt without a possibility of paying that debt. My proceeding, however, in these instances of self-denial, were unknown to my Christian friends and coadjutors in the infancy of Primitive Methodism: it was enough for me to know, that God knew all my conduct, and the motives that influenced it in every particular movement.” I am no advocate for the modes of Primitive Methodism, nor an approver of all Mr. Clowes’s plans of action, but I should be strangely wanting in perception of the just.
the disinterested, the contented, the generous, the modest, the heroic, not to express my admiration of this remarkable passage.
Scarcely had this new association been formed ere they received an affectionate invitation to return to the Methodist body from which they had separated. This, after much reflection, consultation, and prayer, they respectfully declined, thinking it would be for the general good and their own freedom of action, to remain as they were. Mr. Clowes and his coadjutors, and he above and beyond them all, continued in labours more abundant. Not confining themselves to their own neighbourhood, they went eveiy where preaching the word. In cottages, in bams, in theatres, in public houses, in market places, in streets, in lanes, and in fields, they held meetings for prayer and exhortation. They were assailed by mobs and by magistrates; they were interrupted by bands of music, by vociferation, by pelting with eggs and mud, by the turning loose of animals into the midst of their assemblies, and by the playing of water engines; their preachers were assailed by personal violence, and put in peril of their lives: but they persevered in meekness and in gentleness, and have conquered by their passive power.
The first Conference was held at Hull, in 1820, when the number reported to be in society was 7,842; the last was held at Sunderland, 1849, when, as we have already seen, 95,557 were reported, being an increase during the past year of 6,166.
Such is the account, as furnished by their own documents, of this body of professing Christians. In doctrines they are identified with all the other branches of Methodism, so that they have not excited attention nor acquired popularity by any alleged new revelations, like Joanna Soutlicote, or the apostle of Navoo. In their general machinery they copy the Old Connexion Methodists, and in the composition of the Conference they imitate the New Connexion, and the Association, in the admission of lay delegates.
It is neither slander, nor intentional insult, nor depreciation, to say that their preachers are uneducated, and their members generally poor. They feel it to be their vocation to go out into the highways and hedges, and to labour on the great waste of ignorance, poverty, and crime, whose moral cultivation is, to a considerable extent, neglected by others. Their sermons as compositions, and their modes of delivering them, will not be relished by the educated classes, and many wish they were somewhat different for the uneducated. It would be easy, without any extraordinary degree of fastidiousness, to raise ejections, not only on the ground of taste and decorum, but of piety, against their too familiar mode of addressing the Supreme Being in their prayers. Their audiences are, however, not such as would have their ears annoyed by too loud speaking, or their sense of propriety wounded by illustrations unclassic and vulgar. Moreover, in all these things they will improve and are improving as education diffuses its influence over those among whom they chiefly labour. That they have turned multitudes from sin to righteousness, (and what could the loftiest eloquence, and the most finished elegance do more?) cannot be doubted. Ninety thousand members attest this fact. Make what allowance we may for the insincerity and deep delusion which too extensively prevail, not only among them, but among all denominations, there must be a vast amount of Christian morality in these myriads of professors. No religious community caai long exist in a state of organization, of which a manifested propriety of conduct is not the term of communion, and the bond of fellowship. It may be assumed as a fact, that neither drunkard, swearer, fornicator, adulterer, nor thief, known to be such, would be allowed to retain his membership in this body for a single day. This is saying something, and indeed not a little for the usefulness of a body which counts nearly a hundred thousand members, won not from other bodies of professing Christians, but from the great moral waste. There are not wanting those who, in the success of this denomination, see a striking proof of the power of religious truth, of the great fundamental truth of the evan gelical system, to effect under the most disadvantageous circumstances, the ends for which it is granted from heaven — the conversion of the soul to God — the reformation of the human character — the promotion of domestic comfort — the support of social order, and the happiness of our species.
The introduction of the Primitive Methodists to Birmingham, appears to have taken place in the year 1824, when a room was opened in Moor-street, where they continued to worship till 1826, and then removed to Balloon-street, where is still one of their chapels, in which they have one hundred and ten members, and a school of one hundred and ten children. In March 1831, they opened Inge-street chapel, which they still continue to occupy, with a membership of one himdred and eighteen persons, and a Simday school of one hundred and fifty children. In the year 1834, the Conference was held in this town, of which Mr. Clowes, in his journal, gives the following account: “On Sunday, June 25, the camp meeting day, we sang through the streets to the Bull-ring, and here brother B. preached a sermon. We then sang to the camp ground.
k and truly the Lord was in the midst of us to bless us. Six sermons were preached in the forenoon by brothers W. Morgan, Hallam, Turner, Heslar, and myself. I was endued with considerable liberty, and cries for tnercy broke forth. In the afternoon the concourse of people was so great, that we were obliged to have two preaching stands. Brothers H. and J. B. were appointed to conduct the serviaes, held at one, and brother Gamer and J., those held at the other; so that there were delivered ten sermons, besides the holding of praying services. At the evening’s love-feast many souls were converted. After the business of the Conference closed, I and a few friends were asked to the house of a person residing in the vicinity of the town, to enjoy the breezes of the country air, and hereby recover our strength.” This gives a tolerable idea of the modes of acting carried on by this body. They are still increasing in this town, and are now building another and larger chapel in New John- street West, which is soon to be opened for worship.
In glancing back upon the past history of Methodism, and surveying its present condition, including all its four divisions, we must be powerfully struck with the expansive power of religious zeal, and the wonderful consequences which sometimes result from individual effort. Nor is it the Church of Home only that can exhibit instances and proof of this, she has reason to be proud of her Loyola, considering the services he has rendered by the order he founded, and which threatened at one time to hold a large portion of Europe in the deepest slavery beneath the papal yoke. But while the Jesuists have been plotting against the liberties of nations, and forging clxaius for their consciences, the followers of Wesley have been diffusing the blessings
Q of Spiritual freedom, and emancipating millions horn the thraldom of sin and Satan. Including the Methodists of the United States, and all the sections of the body, there are nearly two millions in the membership of this community; and perhaps fifty thousand voices, if we comprehend the local preachers, which are eveiy Sabbath lifted up to publish the glad tidings of salvation to a perishing world. What a result, if we look only to the past and the present, from the life and labour of one man; and who can predict the future? What intense bigotry must pervert the judgment and petrify the heart of that individual, who in his devotedness to ecclesiastical system, whether Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independent, can dwell upon such a scene with other feelings than those of delight and gratitude.*
THE SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
BROAD-STBEET.
The government of the National Church of Scotland, as set up by John Knox, at the Reformation, and, after bloody struggles by the Stuarts to subvert it, confirmed at the Revolution 1688, was Presbyterian. At the time of the union of the two kingdoms all the privileges of the church were guaranteed in their inviolability. Among these was the right of every congregation txp have a voice in the choice of its own minister. During the latter part of the reign of Anne, the system of
For the accoant of Mr. Wesley’s labours in Birmingham, and the statistics of the Old Connexion in this town, I am indebted to Mr. Edmund Heeley.
patronage, through Jacobite influencei was again set up. The church resisted, but in vain, and finding itself unable to prevent it, entered from year to year its solemn protest against this oppressive law, as an invasion of its spiritual rights by the secular power and a violation of the Treaty of Union. Patronage, however, was continued, and it continued also to corrupt the church. This so grieved the minds and wounded the consciences of some of the Scottish clergy, that under the leadership of Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, many of them seceded in the year 1733, and founded, what afterwards received the designation of “The United Secession Church.” In the year 1753, a second secession took place under Mr. Gillespie, which organised another Presbyterian body, called “The Relief Church.” Both these churches seceded on much the same grounds — the law and corruption of patronage. They have lately coalesced, and in their associated form take the title of “The United Presbyterian Church.” Both at first, like the early Nonconformists in England, allowed the union of church and state in things temporal, but like them also, they have now adopted and hold most firmly the voluntary system of church government.
In the year 1834, when the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland had become strong in their supreme court, called “The General Assembly,” which is composed of ministers and lay elders, a law was passed in the assembly granting a veto to every congregation upon the nominee of a patron. This was, of course, a limitation, and in effect a subversion, of the law of patronage, and, as might have been expected, brought on a great contest between the church and the state. The Presbytery of Auchterarder refused to admit a licentiate, presented by a patron, because he was rejected by
q2 the people, and was prosecuted and cast in heavy damages; while that of Strathbogie was suspended and deposed bj the General Assembly for ordaining ministers in opposition to the law of the chnich, bat as they conceited in conformity to the law of the state. The matter having been tried in the supreme law courts of Scotland, and decided there against the non-intmsionists, as the party was called, which upheld the right of the people to choose their own minister, was carried by appeal to the House of Lords, which, confirming the judgment of the majority of the Lords of Session, or Judges, it was finally determined that the civil power could legally interfere, as the law then stood, to regulate all church matters as well its spiritualities as its temporalities.
Upon this, after a hard and protracted struggle, a disruption of the church took place. Much conference had been held, and much prayer had been presented, as the meeting of the General Assembly drew near, in 1842, when a scene unprecedented in the annals of ecclesiastical history took place, which, however shall be described by another and an abler pen than mine.
“Edinburgh is one of those cities which seem designed as the arena of mighty incidents. Commanding that wide prospect of fertile fields, and of the far-stretched ocean, which is itself enlarging to the soul; overhung by tall piles of ancient masoniy, and hoary battlements, which only speak of other years; looking up to everlasting mountains which oany the thoughts aloft or £bu* on into the future; and with the solemn shadows of the ancient capital diffusing a sedateness over the elegance of the modern town, Edinburgh is essentially an historic city — a qHXj familiar with great events, and a proper place for their transaction. On the morning of the 18 th
May, it had the look as if such an event was coming. People were early astir. When the hours of business came, men either forbore their wonted occupations, or plied them in a way which showed they had as lief forbear. Holyrood was one point of attraction, for the yearly gleam of royalty was flickering about its old grim turrets and through its gaunt open gateway. The scarlet yeomen with their glancing halberts, and the horsemen curvetting in the court of the resounding * Sanctuary,’ announced that the representative of majesty was within; and a stream of very various equipages was conveying down the Canongate professors from the college, and red-gowned magistrates from the council-chamber,^ lawyers from the Parliament-house, and lairds from all the Lothians, besides a long pedestrian procession of doctors and ministers, and burgh-elders, all resorting to the palcue to pay their homage to His Grace the Queen’s Commissioner. From Holyrood they marched to the High Church. This venerable fabric seemed also to renew the days of old. Beneath that canopy where James, of pedantic memory, used to sit, and sometimes dispute with John Durie and Patrick Simpson, sate the representative of royalty, and, all around, the gallery was garnished with the parti-coloured pomp of civic functionaries, whilst the area was filled with that grave and learned auditory which no other occasion could supply. The discourse,* ‘Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,’ was a production which, for wise and weighty casuistry, for keen analysis of motive, and fine discrimination of truth, and for felicity of historic illustration, would have been a treat to such a congregation at a less eventful season. With the
* Preached by the late Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Welsh. It has
smce been published.
q3
‘•^^^ THE EISB AND SPREAD OF
solemn consciousness that in the ‘full persuasion’ of their own minds they had decided in another hour to take a step m which character and worldly comfort and miinstenal usefulness were all involved, each sentence came ^ith a sanction which such sermons seldom carry When the service was closing, the audience began to disperse with a precipitation which contrasted stmngely with the fixed earnestness of their previous attention for the place appointed for the meeting of assembly lav at some distance, and members were anxious to secure their seats, and on-lookers as anxious to get near the spot. ^,.A 1^^ ^««m%-hall many of the gaUery-spectators had sate mne weary hours, when at last the rapid
“^lsr<^^’^^ ‘^ “*“’ *”°’*“”^«* *>-* Sre service in bt GUes s was over, and languid countenances
wer* again lighted up with expectation It did notS like the opemngof a General Assembly. There w2 not the usualvacity of recognition, and that bustW to and fro and ferment of joyous voices which ot occasions keep the floor all »«ri, o„-i v. jahve. EithersiderSHor?rr’^^;^S rrtn^Lts :JrS fTwnri
doing; and others more ?ont “^“”^^ ^“^ ^”«^
me old school.-hTsomeSrr*“f ^T’^’’’ sadness in parting h Tt^nf J” ^T“^ ^^^*°g’ and a foreboding imreasKr. 7^°°” ^’^ respected, away, it would fcarcely L^’ ^.^ ‘^’’’ ‘’’’’ ^“”^^
“At last tHe jingleTJ^Tge:^::!™”-
prance on the pavement, withth^T’ii measured
trumpet, seemed to salTt full near swell of the
say m the words of the national melody, * Now’s the day, and now’s the hour, The martial music ceased, and the Assembly rose, for Her Majesty’s Commissioner had entered. The Moderator engaged in prayer, and as soon as that prayer was ended, and the members had resumed their seats, amidst the breathless silence which prevailed, he went on to say, * According to the usual form of procedure, this is the time for making up the roll; but in consequence of certain proceedings affecting our rights and privileges, — proceedings which have been sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Government, and by the Legislature of the country, and more especially in respect that there has been an infringement on the liberties of our constitution, so that we could not now constitute this court without a violation of the terms of the union between Church and State in this land, as now authoritatively declared, I must protest against proceeding further. The reasons that have led me to this conclusion, are fully set forth in the document which I hold in my hand, and which, with permission of the House, I shall now proceed to read.’ He then read the protest, and having laid it on the table, bowed towards the thronei and withdrew. Man by man, and row by row, all the left of the chair, arose and followed. An irrepressible shout of gratulation from the multitude in the street announced that the vanguard was fairly * without the. camp;’ and orderly and slowly retiring, in a few short minutes all were gone. Looking at the long ranges of vacant forms from which the pride of Scottish piety had disappeared, there were few spectators who did not feel * The glory is departed.’
It was a striking sight to see the dark line for a mile together, moving down the steep declivity which leads to the valley of Leith- Water. In the distance stood,
Sdf2 THE BISE AND SPREAD OF
bright in its polished freshness, the new Assembly Hall, on which they had turned their backs for ever. On either side was the crowd of lookers-on — thronging windows and balconies, and outside stairs; some cheering, and others lifting their hats in silent reverence, some weeping, many wondering, and a few endeavouring to smile. And in the middle of the street held on the long procession which included Welsh and Chalmers, Gordon and Buchanan, Keith and Macfarlan, Alexander Stewart and John Macdonald, Cunningham and Candlish, everything of which a Scotchman thinks when he thinks of the Church of Scotland. ’
“Humble in its original destination, and prepared in haste, but of vast dimensions, and crowned with an eager auditory, their new place of meeting was emblematic of that new dispensation in the history of the Church of Scotland which had now begun. The emblems of Royal patronage were absent. There was neither canopy nor throne. No civic pomp was seen. Magistrates had laid aside their robes of office, and none of Scotland’s nobles had come. But the heart of Scotland was there, and it was soon borne in on every mind that a greater than Solomon was there. None who heard them can ever forget the fulness and worldforgetting rapture, the inspiration of the opening prayers; and when that mighty multitude stood up to sing,* it seemed as if the swell of vehement melody would lift the roof from off the walls. And when at last the adjournment for the day took place, and in the brightness of a lovely evening the different groups went home, all felt as if returning from a pentecostal meeting. A common salutation was, * We have seen strange things to-day.’ Some, contrasting the harmony and happi- * Psalm xliii. 3 — 5. O send thy light forth and thy truth, &c.
ueBS of the Free Assembly with the strife and debate of other days, could not help exclaiming, ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!* Many remembered the text of Dr. Chalmers’s sermon six months before in opening the Convocation, ‘Unto the upright light shall arise in the darkness; And at the family worship of those memorable evenings such psalms as the 124th and 126th were often sung, and were felt to be * new songs.’
“It would be pleasant to dwell upon many of the features of the Free Church Ansemblies; especially on those deputations and messages of sympathy and congratulation which they received from so many churches, and on those tributes of approbation and encouragement which coming in from so many quarters made them recognise the good hand of the Lord upon them. But we have only room to state, that Tuesday, the 2Srd of May, was, after special devotional exercises, employed in subscribing the * Act of Separation and Deed op Demission,’ by which 470 ministers did * Separate
FROM and abandon THE PRESENT SUBSISTINO ECCLESI-ASTICAL Establishment in Scotland, and renounce
ALL RIGHTS OR EMOLUMENTS PERTAINING TO THEM BT
VIRTUE THEREOF.’” — Farewell to Egypt, Tract by the Rev. James Hamilton, D.D.
Such is a brief abstract of the history of an event fraught with blessings for Scotland — lessons for England — and admiration for the world. It must be held in recollection that “The Free Church of Scotland,” this being the designation which it has adopted, still admits the scriptural authority, and therefore the lawfulness of national religious establishments, but restricts the interference of the civil magistrate to temporal matters. They are voluntaries in many matters from necessity;
and how mighty has been the operation among them of the voluntary principle. There is no such instance in modern times-tbey have buflt nearly seven hundred churches, almost as many school-rooms, and are proceeding to add a parsonage house to each church: and they hare also raised a sustentation fund sufficient to allow a stipend of a hundred pounds a year to each minister: all this, besides the erection and support of colleges, and all the usual henevolent and missionary institutions of the day. Altogether the disruption of the Scottish national church must he regarded as the most extraordinary religious event of our age and empire.
There have been always some congregations in this kingdom, both in London and the provinces, which owned a relationship to the Church of Scotland, thouglr they could not be included in its organisation. These at the time of the disruption, retained according to their views their attachment to the estabhshment, or espoused the cause of “The Free Church.” Among the latter is the congregation in this town. Its members not only unanimously, but enthusiastically sympar thised with iheir brethren in the north in their struggle for emancipation. We have already seen that Scottish Presbyterianism lifted its standard here in the first instance at Mount Zion chapel, by the hand of Mr. Irving. Its friends then for reasons already stated removed from that place and built the chapel at the bottom of NewhaU-street. Finding this also too large, they erected a smaller one in Broad-street, which is now being replaced by its larger and more elegant successor, and which will be opened for worship before this volume is published. The first minister was Mr. Crosbie; he was followed by Mr. Macdonald, and he again by
Mr. MXean, all of whom preached in Newhall-street chapel; and all of whom, I believe, are now dead. The first minister of the chapel in Broad-street was Mr. Wallace, who about two years since changed his views on the subject of infiEuit baptism, and became an Antipsedo-baptist, and of course left the connexion. The present minister is Mr. M’Kenzie who was inducted to his charge in 1847.
The Presbyterian congregations in England do not call themselves “The Free Church,” but “The English Presbyterian Church,” and amount in number to more than eighty.
THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, OR
SWEDENBORGIANS.
SUMMEB-LANE CHAPEL.
Emanuel Swedenborg was the son of a Swedish bishop, and born at Stockholm in the year 1689. He was distinguished by great talents, great application, and great acquirements in literature and science, which introduced him to the notice and patronage of his sovereign Charles XII. He became eminent as a mathematician, an astronomer, an experimentalist in natural philosophy, an anatomist, and a mineralogist, His published works on these various subjects of knowledge, interested and astonished the learned and scientific world. About the year 1743, his attention was turned to spiritual subjects, by what he declared to be a personal appearance of our Lord, and a direct revelation of spiritual truth, and the invisible world. He then published in various works the communications he had received from Christ. His zeal in propagating his revelations was so ardent that he travelled into distant countries and circulated his works at an immense expence. He declined worldly honours and employment, which were at his command, and devoted his time, labour, and property to what he conceived to be the instruction and benefit of mankind. He died in London in 1772. The following is a brief snmmary of the opinions which he taught, and which are embraced by his followers.
They believe in the Unity of the Divine Nature, and also in a Trinity. This, however, is not a Trinity of Persons, but a Trinity of Essentials, for they maintain a unity of personality in the Deity as well as a Unity of Nature. The one God is Jesus Christ, in whose glorified humanity dwells “the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” — (Col. ii. 9.) The Father being the inmost Divinity; the Son the Divine Humanity; and the Holy Spirit the joint operation of both. So that the Lord Jesus Christ, in this view of his nature is the one Jehovah, the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Regenerator. He is the Trinity in Unity, just as the soul, the body, and the operation of man form one man; or as the will, the understanding, and the life form one mind. They hold that the word of God (consisting of those portions of the sacred Scriptures which are plenarily inspired) is to be interpreted by what is called the science of correspondence, or the relation which they assert exists between causes and their effects, thus also between God and man, and between celestial and spiritual realities, and the objects and appearances of the natural universe. They do not hold lie doctrine of the vicarious sufferings and death of Christ, but still contend that his whole life on earth was sacrificial — a hallowing of the human nature, which he had assumed in the glorifying process by which it was made divine and eternally united with the indwelling essence: by this work, likewise, the redemption of all men, or their deliverance from impending destruction was accomplished, and the salvation of all men rendered possible. Nor do they believe in the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in what is called the orthodox view of that doctrine; but that faith must be conjoined to charity, its living root; and that both must determine to good works, and the shunning of all known evils as sins against God, or that they are spurious and vain. Thus, that regeneration is a progressive work, of which the Lord’s glorification was in every particular representative, and that it is effected by repentance and reformation; and is a purification, a renewal of the understanding, the heart and the life: and further, that the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord s Supper, the duties of worship and obedience to the divine commandments are essential means of holiness and salvation, and that all the power, and glory, and praise, and honour, are to be eternally ascribed to the Lord alone. They hold that there is an universal influx from God, of divine heat and light, or love and wisdom, into the souls of men, uniting them with the divine; endowing them with reason and freedom; and imparting to them a constant ability to do the will of God from a pure conscience, but which requires their own co-operating energy. They maintain, that man is in continual association with angels and spirits; that his soul at the hour of death rises immediately in a spiritual body, which during his earthly life was concealed in his material frame, which is the true and only resurrection; and that his eternal condition depends upon the ruling affection of his life: mih respect to such as die in childhood, however, ihej believe that all without exception are, by the divine mercy, saved. And what is commonly called the last judgment, and the end of the world, they say should be interpreted, as the same events were interpreted at the period of the Lord’s first advent, (Acts ii., &c.,) according to “the science of correspondence,” as signifying the distinction or termination of the present Christian church, both among Catholics and Protestants of every description; and that the last judgment took place in the spiritual world in 1757, from which era they date the second advent of our Lord and the commencement
of a new Christian Church, which includes the good of every name, and is to be continued for ever; which they afi&rm is signified by ‘’ the new heaven, and the new earth,” in the apocalypse, and “the New Jerusalem,” descending thence “as the tabernacle of God with men;” on which article of their faith they ground their denominational designation as “the New Jerusalem Church.” In church government they are substantially independent with a partial mixture of the synodal and episcopalian forms.
Swedenborg never intended or even wished to form a sect, but to permeate all churches and sects with the leaven of his doctrine. Some of various denominations have embraced his opinions, who never separated from their religious connexions, among whom have been, and still are, a few of the clergy of the Church of England.
The first introduction of Swedenborgians into Birmingham, was in 1789, when a few persons met to cany on worship according to their principles, in a room in Great Charles-street. In 1791, they erected the chapel in Newhall-street, now occupied by the Baptists, which was opened the following year, and was “the first ever built in the world to be expressly dedicated to the worship of the One only True and Living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom centres the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Mr. Proud, an eloquent preacher, was invited to be the minister; and being supposed at that time to be somehow connected with the Unitarians, the chapel narrowly escaped destruction in the riots of 1791. The place of worship having been in the hands of an individual who had borne the principal expence of its erection, was mortgaged by him, and after his insolvency, sold to pay his debts. The society then erected another small place contiguous to the former, which was opened in 1794. In 1809, a division took place, when one part remained with Mr. Merideth as their minister, and the other occupied the then vacant chapel in Paradise-street, which last-mentioned division resigned their place in Paradise-street, and rejoined that in Newhall-street. In 1824, the present minister, Mr. Madeley, took the oversight of the congregation, which he re-organized and greatly increased, and through his exertions and influence the present chapel in Summerlane was built and set apart for worship in 1830. Their present number of members is nearly two hundred.
IRVINGITE CHURCH.
NEWHALL-STREET.
Inspiration, or the revelation of divine truth to the human mind, by a direct communication from God, to which we owe the sacred scriptures, is a gift so splendid
S40 THE RISE AND SPItEAD OF
that it is no matter of surprise it should have been claimed by the ethusiasm of deluded men, or mimicked by the machinations of Satan. Fanatical pretentions of this kind have often made their appearance in the Christian Church. The case of the Montanists in the second century: “The Holy Maid of Kent,” in the time of the English Reformation: Thomas Munzer and others soon after the German Reformation, or “The Celestial Prophets,” as they were called: “The French Prophets,” about the close of the seventeenth century: Baron Swedenboig (in the estimation of most) and Mary Campbell, or “The Maid of Femicarry,” mth many others, were all instances of this kind: and to these may be added — Mr. Irving and his followers.
This gentleman was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and at one period of his life associated in a joint ministry with the late Dr. Chalmers, at Glasgow. About the year 1820, he removed to London, and became the minister of the Scotch Church in Hatton Garden. Tall in stature, of a most extraordinary and commanding, and at times almost terrific, countenance, with a voice of deep sepulchral tone, and uniting with this exterior a magniloquent diction, and a somewhat fanciful style of composition, he soon attracted notice, and rose into the loftiest altitude of popularity, especially among the higher classes. Peers, literati, ministers of state, judges, barristers and others, flocked to the oracle of Hatton Garden, who was the subject of general wonder, criticism, and conversation. In the year 1823, Mr. Irving published Four Orations for Chiisticuiity, in which he started as a reformer, and as the haughty and better censurer of the evangelical preachers. He shone for a season as the dazzliug and fashionable orator; he then became a zealous Millenarian; then a prophet; then a credulous believer in Mary Campbell, as the subject of a divine inspiration, and the unknown tongues; and closed his brilliant but eccentric career at Glasgow in 1884, in the forty-third year of his age. That he was a good man none doubt; that in some respects he was a great man many believe; and that he was a deluded man is the opinion of most. His course presents an affecting lesson, and is one of the most impressive warnings which the modern history of the church affords against that mysticism which consists of setting up the impulses of our own mind, instead of the word of God, as the standard of truth and the rule of action.
As flEu: as I have been able to learn the religious sentiments and practices of the congregations which are usually considered as his followers, they are contained generally in the subjoined summaiy.
They repudiate the idea of considering Mr. Irving as their founder, and refuse to be called by his name, or by any other sectarian name whatever; professing only that they belong to the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. They admit, however, that Mr. Irving was raised up by God to revive some truths which the church through a want of faith and neglect of watchfulness, had lost, or at any rate forgotten; such, for instance, as the gift of prophecy and other extraordinary endowments of the Primitive Chnstiui Church. It is a fundamental principle with them that the church is still possessed, potentially, of the powers and gifts spoken of in the twelfth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. They contend that the boon bestowed upon the church by the ascended Saviour in the various offices spoken of in Ephes. iv. 11, —” And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and
B some pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the hody of Christ;” — was not to he restricted to the Primitive Church, but was intended to continue till the coming of Christ to reign personally and visibly over his kingdom. Hence, they contend that the church is still to be governed by the fourfold ministry of “apostles,” “prophets,” “evangelists,” and “pastors.” Besides which the presiding minister of each congregation is called by them after the designation employed in the apocalypse, “The Angel.” Under him the elder, evangelist, and pastor perform certain functions of rule, teaching, and visiting the sick. The apostles are the supreme authority to whom “the angel” is subordinate, and by whom his decisions may be controled or revised. The apostles bear no special relation to any particular congregation, being intended as oflfice bearers for the whole church, and have each distinct portions of the country and of the globe allotted to them as the sphere of their influence and duty. This mode of government makes them, of course, in principle opposed to the imion of Church and State, as now maintained in the EngUsh Church. In doctrine this body of professing Christians accord pretty nearly with the theological articles of the Church of England and other sections of orthodox Protestantism. They hold in the firmest manner the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Baptism JB in their view a most high and sacred privilege, being the introduction of the subject of it as a member into the true Catholic Church. AU persons baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whether by their own ministers or others, whether by Protestants or Papists, constitute the Catholic Church. But this Catholic Church being grievously defective in its views of Christ’s spiritual kingdom; it is theii* vocation to be a witness for the truth to those who have erred, and to call and gather them back to the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, as revived by them. They are Millenarians in the modern sense of that term, as signifying a belief of the pre-millenial and visible advent of our Lord. In their public services they use a liturgy partly selected from other formularies, and partly composed for their own special use, in which there is a collection of very beautiful and spiritual devotional exercises mixed up with a few of a questionable character; such, for instance, as prayers for departed saints. Their ministers use the sacerdotal costume of the alb and the surplice: and they also observe mOny of the days held sacred by the Churches of Rome and England. Still they would contend that no representation of their sentiments in this manner can convey an adequate idea of their ecclesiastical system: it is only they who have received it by a divine teaching can altogether comprehend its spiritual nature.
Many will recognise, or think they do, in their system, a mixture of Popery and Protestantism; of sound theology and erroneous ritual; of conformity and nonconformity; of scriptural truth and the ordinances of man; but still it is instructive and impressive to observe in their liturgical forms how they deplore the broken unity, the tarnished beauty, the prostrate honours of the one True Church of God, and how, with deep hu’ miliation for this state of things they breathe out their desires after its heaHng and re-union. Whether their views of what constitutes the unity, and of the means by which it is to be effected, are the right ones, will he doubted by multitudes, but no right-minded and right-hearted Christian can do otherwise than add his amen to their prayers for the manifested unity itself.
b2
Such is a general view of the opinions and practices of the body of professing Christians, meeting in the handsome building standing at the end of Newhall-street, which as we have already considered was opened for the worship of the Scotch Church, by Mr. Irving, before he had embraced the theory of a divine and miraculous inspiration, and the continuance of other miraculous gifts. They are said to have about a hundred members in fellowship. The present “cuigel” is Mr. Erie, formerly a clergyman of the Church of England; and the evangelist is Mr, Godfrey,
As a sequel to what I have written of the various bodies of Nonconformists in this town, it may not be uninteresting to present to the reader a short statistical account of the present number of churches and chapels in Birmingham, and of what has been done, during the last century in providing them. Including the suburbs of Aston, Moseley, and Edgbaston, there are twenty-seven places of worship belonging to the Established Church; and about sixty belonging to all other bodies of Christians. Of these, all have been erected within the last century with the exception of St. Martin’s, St. John’s, St. Philip’s, St. Bartholomews, in the Church of England, and the Old and New Meeting Houses, Cannon-street Meeting House, and Carr’s Lane Chapel, among the Dissenters; and all these dissenting places of worship have during the century been re-built or enlarged.
This account is not only calculated to gratify curiosity, but to furnish instruction. It will appear that the increase of places of worship lias been in much the same ratio as the increase of the population. If we assume that the latter in the year 1749, amounted to thirty thousand, and that the number of places of worship was ten, we find there was a place for each three thousand persons, taking adults and children together. And if the population he now two hundred and ten thousand, and the places of worship are eighty-six, we find a place for every two thousand four hundred and forty-two persons, so that on this scale of computation the balance seems rather in favour of the provision made for public worship, above the increase of population, as compared with the commencement of the century. But as many of the places included in the present number at the conclusion of the century are much smaller than the ten were mth. which the century commenced, we may justly presume that the proportion of church and chapel room is somewhat smaller in relation to the population than it was then. Still it is gratifying to find the instinctive want of man’s nature, after religion and public worship has been so far operative and successful, as to have provided even to such an extent, though still inadequately, for its supply. And have we not in these statistics a proof of the power and efficiency of the voluntary principle in religious matters? All the places of worship in Binningham, which have been erected during the last century, whether in connexion with the Establishment or with Dissenters, have been raised chiefly by the free-will offerings of the people. In this work the members of the Church of England have borne a conspicuous and a generous part.
What a noble conception was it on the part of Mr. Garbett, the Rural Dean, when he thought of and suggested the erection of ten new churches in this town, and how nobly also has the town responded to his appeal. There wants, I believe, but two more to com-B 8 plete the number, and it is my hope and my prayer that Mr. Garbett may live to see them added to the present list, and many more besides. The members of the Establishment mistake if they suppose that their zeal and liberality in this way are witnessed by their Nonconformist brethren with any other feelings than those of pleasure and good- will. As long as they build churches where the gospel is faitMilly preached, and take all the charges of worship upon themselves they have our good wishes for their success. There is little cause for the exercise of envy and jealousy between us where the united efforts of both are so incommensurate to the numbers and moral condition of the population. Let any impartial Churchman imagme what must have been the state of our population, and what would be now the provision for their religious instruction, but for the labours of the Methodists and the Dissenters; and on the other hand, let any candid Nonconformist say what must have been the ignorance, the wickedness, and the misery of the people, but for the labours of the clergy; and also think what an amount of instruction, comfort, and moral improvement is perpetually flowing from the various churches of the Establishment among the dense masses of immortal beings which crowd our streets, courts, and alleys.
Perhaps I shall be considered by many of my Nonconformist brethren as too little sensible of the objections to religious establishments. I plead not guilty to the charge. I see them in all their magnitude, and feel them in all their weight, and the composition of the first part of this little volume instead of reconciling me to them, was likely to make me more than ever sensible of their grievous nature; but then I am so affected with a sense of the evils of infidelity and immorality — of sin in all its forms, and unbelief in all its grades, which are crushing the souls of men to eternal perdition, that I cannot but stretch out the right hand of fellowship to the men who, amidst the forms of an established church, are seeking by the power of true religion to save men from the dreadful evils of eternal death. I wish, of course, by the progress of what I consider scriptural knowledge and reUgious conviction, to see the lesser evils removed, but to see the greater ones averted by these godly ministers of the Church of England, or of any other church, is and shaQ be for a rejoicing of which no man shall deprive me, and of which I will not willingly deprive myself.
I am arrived at that period of life when the shadows of evening are gathering round me, and when I am alternately looking back upon the course I have run, and forward to the account I must give, and like holy Baxter, I sometimes review my past sentiments and practices to compare with them my present ones; and if I know myself, I can truly say I have both a more entire conviction of the scriptural authority for nonconformity, and at the same time more charity for those who in this respect differ from me. Like the eminent Nonconformist, whom I have just mentioned, I can, with some little exception, say —” I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreement of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the case of the infidel world, nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the case of the divided churches. And, therefore, I am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those prelates and pastors of churches who are the principal causes of these divisions. O, how many millions of souls are kept by them in ignorance and imgodliness, and deluded by fEUStion as if it were true religion. How is the con-
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version of infidels hindered by them, and Christ and religion heinously dishonoured.”
“I do not lay so much stress upon the external modes and forms of worship as many young professors do. I have suspected myself, as perhaps the reader may do, that this is from a cooling down and declining from my former zeal, (though the truth is, I never much complied with men of that mind:) but I find that judgment and charity are the causes of it, as fiar as I am able to discover. I cannot be so narrow in my principles of church communion as many are that are so much for a liturgy, or so much against it; so much for ceremonies, or so much against them; that they can hold conmiunion with no church that is not of their mind and way. If I were among the Greeks, the Lutherans, the Independents, yea, the Anabaptists, (that own no heresy, nor set themselves against charity and peace) though my most usual communion should be with that society which I thought most agreeable to the word of God, if I were free to choose, I cannot be of their opinion that think God will not accept him that prayeth by the Common Prayer Book, and that such forms are a self-invented worship which God rejecteth: nor yet can I be of their mind that say the like of extemporary prayers.”
Such, with some little difference, are the views which have been growing upon me of late, but which at the same time are hi from producing the least indifference to truth; though perhaps some disinclination for controversy. With an entire conviction that God in his wise, and mighty, and irresistible providence, is signally fighting against the intrusion of the secular power into spiritual matters, and by political convulsion from without, and the growth of conviction among the episcopalians within, loosening the connexion between Church and State all over the world, I feel content to stand apart from all political confederations which are formed for the accomplishment of this object. Other eyes than those of Nonconformists are open to the evils arising from state connexion with the church, and other pens and tongues are proclaiming them, as will be evident from the following extract from a late number of ‘* The English Churchman,” a thoroughly high church periodical.
“It will be said, perhaps, that in these modern days mere religious qualifications can hardly be looked for in a Bishop; that of course, in a political system, political motives must act, and that patronage must of necessity be governed by personal or party bias. No doubt. And the necessity affords the strongest possible argument against a connexion between the Church and the State, inasmuch as purity is much more important for a religious institution than wealth. It is not essential for any church that her bishop should live in a palace, sit on a throne, and have several thousands a-year; but it is absolutely requisite that her rulers should be pre-eminently religious men. This is the main point; but so far is the establishment from affording security in this respect that it operates directly the contrary way. The choice of bishops is notoriously influenced either by motives of favouritism, or, which is no better, by a desire to provide safe, quiet, easy men, who shall make no disturbance, and give no trouble to the government. The chief recommendations to an Apostolical successorship are family interest and harmlessness. The church seems to be regarded by the State as an animal sufficiently well managed if she can be kept from doing mischief. That she has a high mis- 250 THE RISE AND SPREAD OFsion to spiritualize and regenerate the world, or that the character of her chiefis must tend either greatly to advance, or ruinously to mar her work, it never seems to enter into the imagination of a premier to conceive. i How should it? His position, his habits, his aims, the principles on which he himself is chosen, and the per* sons whose interests he must consult, render him the most unfit person in the world to exercise overseerah in the church. A pope, holding the reigns of secular government, is not a stranger anomaly than a bishop? making premier. Happily the Papacy is expiring; may we not hope that English Erastianism will ere long come to an end.
“Let the churchmen of Norfolk look to it, for the question is especially their own. They have just been deprived by death of their spiritual leader, and they are looking for a successor — to whom? To the church? To any appropriate authority? No: but to a man, who, so far as religion is concerned, is but the accident of an accident, — to a man who maybe Lord John Eussell to-day. Sir R. Peel to-morrow, and nobody knows who — an infidel, a Dissenter, a Catholic, or a Jew, the day following; at any rate to a secular personage, chosen only for secular reasons. Is this right? Is this good for the church, for churchmen, or for Christianity? Are they to be called enemies of the Church of England who decry such a system?” When churchmen write thus, they furnish, not only an apology for dissenters, but a defence of their principles.
If there are any who say that for a consummation so dovoutly to be wished as the dissolution of the union, the public mind must be prepared by a diffusion of tight, I quarrel not with them, and provided they do but speak the truth in love, I leave them to pursue their vocation in spreading their principles by any confederations they please to form; I can only say for myself that I feel my calling to be, to pursue the same object in a more quiet manner, and to say to both parties — “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice;” “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;” and “forbearing one another in love.”
I have thus exhibited the various bodies of Protestant Nonconformists which exist in this town, and to which by searching further and penetrating into obscure retreats, others perhaps might be added. To some eyes such a scene presents nothing but unmixed evil, and to none can it present unmixed good. All diversities of creeds are, in some respects, evil in themselves, and in some directions, and to a considerable extent, are evil in their consequences. Truth is uniform, but error multiform. Error is undoubtedly evil, and must partake, though in some cases in an inappreciable quantity, of moral obliquity. All these various opinions, of which the congregations that hold them are the embodiment and visible expression, inasmuch as they are opposed to each other, cannot all be true, and, in as far as they are false, are evil; and they also no doubt tend to produce some degree of strife and alienation, and to engender suspicion and distrust where they do not actually foster bigotry and ill will. Controversy must of necessity rise out of diversity. The odium theologicum though by no means so bitter or so virulent as some imagine, and more represent, does exist as the offspring of diverse sentiment. Yet notwithstanding all this, diversity is better in itself, marks a better state of things, and is followed with better consequences, than that hollow and deceptive uniformity, that blind and unintelligent, though it may be unvarying assent, or that callous indifference to truth, which are the result of the civil or ecclesiastical tyranny that prohibits the free exercise of thought, and the public expression of opinion. There are literal spots on our earth where the strife of tongues is unheard, but it is the quietness of the cemetery, the silence of death; so also there are ecclesiastical domains ere if there be no din of controversy, no discordant sounds of clashing opinions, the human soul as to all its nobler energies is dead, or lives only in the grasp of a power that forbids it to speak, and even to think.
In passing along our streets and marking the varieties of our sects, as indicated by their places of worship, all flourishing in the shadow of a state-church, we may lament their existence, but still we must rejoice in their permission to exist: how gloriously do they proclaim to the stranger who visits our land, that he is treading the soil of a country where opinions are as free as the air he breathes. There, before his eyes are the palpable proofs and the impressive exhibitions of Uberty in its most august and sacred forms; there are the demonstrations given by the noblest nation upon earth of her respect, not only for the claims of religion, but for the rights of conscience. It is not the magnificence of the cathedral of which a kingdom might boast, and the demolition or the defeuing of the least of whose ornaments would by multitudes be considered absolute sacrilege — it is not the safeguard and preservation of its episcopal throne, of its splendid hierarchy and gorgeous ritual from interruption, molestation, and insult, — it is not the teaching there of state-authonsed doctrines, and the offering of prescribed devotions, that shews the justice of our laws, and manifests the glory of our Uberty; but the same protection extended to the little unsightly and uncooth building, as some would consider it, which rears its humble brow in its shadow, and within whose mean and narrow walls a few illiterate men are permitted to listen to the teaching, which by its doctrine and its views of ecclesiastical polity assails the whole system, of which that gorgeous fabric is the visible type. Here in this unfettered liberty of preaching is our country’s honour, won by the swords of warriors on the field of conflict, by the pens of writers in the study, and by the sufferings of martyrs at the stake; and which is worth all the expence at which it has been purchased. May Britain’s sons prove themselves worthy of the honour thus conferred upon them, to bear witness before the world to the right, the bliss, the usefulness, of unfettered, unrestricted liberty of conscience, and consider that the least infringement of this would be a loss and a mischief for which no accumulation of territory, wealth, or power, could be the smallest compensation. We have varieties of sects and creeds, call them discordances, if you please, but with whatever evil in some views they are attended, do they, we ask, disturb the peace of our town? Do they arrest our municipal efficiency? Do they dissolve the ties of neighbourship? Do they stop the general flow of citizenship? Do they hinder our co-operation in works of mercy or of common benefit?
But, then, infidelity points at them with a sneer and says, “Agree among yourselves before you ask me to agree with any of you.” Has infidelity, then, no sects and parties? Are not its creeds as various as ours? Is it so ignorant as not to know that human minds left to their freedom are sure to differ on any subject which does not come within the pale of the exact sciences? Has it forgotten that various opinions are knowledge in the making? Ought it to have no power to soften its prejudices, to see all these sects asserting and using their liberty in seeking after truth and refusing to bow down to any authority but that which is divine? Is not the divided Christian world a great battle-field, where the sects and parties are contending, with too much fierceness, too much bitterness, it is admitted, but still CONTENDING FOR TRUTH, and truth of the most momentous nature? truth that has respect to man’s immortal soul, and his eternal destiny? These combatants often so truculent, are still the champions for principles, of which they deem the importance will remain when suns grow dim with age, and planets fade away. Or to change the allusion, and borrow Milton’s beautiful Allegory, “Truth came once into the world with its divine Master, and was a most perfect shape, and glorious to look on; but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, there straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon, with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since the sad friends of truth, such as durst appear, imitatuig the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they coidd find them. We have not yet found them all, nor ever shall do till our Master s second coming; he shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection.” Yes, this is our employment, we are searching after these disjecta membra, and though in the pursuits we are too envious and jealous of each other, and controvert with too much acrimony each other’s pretentions to success in the search, and accuse each other of substitutmg the limbs of the meretricious harlot Error, for those of the pure virgin Truth, yet in reality we are engaged in endeavouring to find out the truth.
Nor let the advocate of church authority, who would crush the rights of conscience beneath the Papal chair, point with a sarcasm to our differences of opinion, and tauntingly exclaim, “This is Protestantism.” It is its veritable, and almost necessary result. It is, — we accept the taunt, and wear it as our glory. Not that I exult in this variety of sects, or contradict my words by denying that their existence is an evil: but the liberty out of which they spring is a pure, a legitimate, yet often an abused good. Though the sects were even yet ten times multiplied, and their hostility more intense, still their existence is a less evil than the slavery that would prevent them. If error has liberty, so has truth; 6Uid as truth is stronger than error, give it time and give it room, its victory over error must be complete. But take away liberty, and truth may be in chains and in its dungeon, and error, with the sceptre of authority in its hand, may be upon the throne.
Let the Church of Rome make out by revelation and reason her claim to infallibility, and tell us where it resides, and it will be time for us then to think about surrendering our liberties at her bidding; but till then, we will read the Bible for ourselves, judge of its meaning for ourselves, and tell to others the meaning we have gathered for ourselves, and though we should come to very different conclusions as to its import, will think it a far less evil than if by surrendering what we hold to be a privilege to be enjoyed, and a duty to be performed, I mean searching the scriptures for ourselves, we were brought to a blind and unreasoning uniformity.
My Protestantism is that of Chillingworth, whose beautiful language I now quote. “By the religion of Protestants, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon; nor the confession of Augsburgh, or Geneva, nor the catechism of Heidelburgh; nor the articles of the Church of England; no, nor the harmony of Protestant conferences; but that wherein they all agree, and which they subscribe with a greater harmony as a perfect rule of their £Edth and actions, that is the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible only is THE RELIGION OP Protestants. Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, well may they hold it as a matter of opinion; but as a matter of faith and religion, neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe it themselves, nor require the belief of it in others, without most high and most schismatical presumption.”
“I, for my part, after a long, and as I verily believe and hope, impartial search of the true way to eternal happiness, do profess plainly, that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot, but upon this rock only. I see plainly and with mine own eyes, that there are popes against popes; councils against councils; some fathers against others, the same fathers against themselves; a consent of fathers of one age, against the consent of fathers of another age; the church of one age against the church of another age. Traditional interpretations of scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found. No tradition but only of scripture can derive itself from the fountain, but may be plainly proved to have been brought in, in such an age after Christ, or that in such an age it was not in. In a word, there is no sufficient certainty but of scripture only, for any considering man to build upon. This, therefore,
( and this onlj have I reason to believe. This I will profess. According to this I will live, and for this, if there be occasion, I will not only willingly, but even gladly lose my life, though I should be sony that Christians should take it from me. Propose to me anything out of this book, and require whether I believe it or no, and deem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this! God hath said so, therefore it is true. In other things I will take no man s liberty of judgment from him; neither shall any man take mine from me. I will think no man the worse man, nor the worse Christian; I will love no man the less for differing from me. And what measure I mete to others I expect from them again. I am fully assured that God does not, and that therefore man ought not, to require any more of any man than this, to believe the scriptures to be God’s word, to endeavour to find out the true sense thereof, and to live according to it.”
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