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NICHOLS SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.

PURITAN PERIOD.

ixi\i (^mtxnl 'Bxtha

By JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,

LINCOLN college; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINOHAM.

THE

WORKS OF THOMAS ADAMS.

YOL. III.

TO WHICH IS APPENDED SERMONS AND TREATISES BY SAMUEL WARD,

WITH MEMOIE BY THE REV. J. 0. RYLE.

COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDEK, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh,

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas' Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW TH:0MS0N, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- terian Church, Edinburgh.

©cneral ©Jidor. EEV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh.

THE WORKS

rv\

THOMAS ADAMS:

TUE SUM UE HIS SERMONS, MEDITATIONS, AND OTHER DIVINE AND MORAL DISCOURSES. .

By JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D.,

PBINCIPAI. OF THE BAPTIST COLLEGE, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON.

VOL. III.

CONTAINING SERMONS FROM TEXTS IN

THE NEW TESTAMENT,

AND MEDITATIONS ON THE CREED.

EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL.

LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. KOBEliTSON. NEW YORK : C. SCPJBNER & CO.

IH.DCCC.LXII.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Adveetisement, ...... vii

Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Adams, . . . . ix

SERMONS. LVni. Semper Idem ; or, The Immut.4£le Mercy

OF Jesus Christ Heb. XIII. 8, . 1

LIX. The Taming OF the Tongue James III. 8, . 10

LX. The Soul's Refuge 1 Pet. lY. 19, . 28

LXI. The Spiritual Navigator bound for the

Holy Land Rev. IV. 6, . . 38

LXII. Presumption running into Despair Rev. VI. 16, . 63

LXIII. Heaven-Gate ; or. The Passage to Para- dise Rev. XXn. 14, 74

Meditations upon some part of the Creed, 85

LXIV. God's Anger Ps. LXXX. 4, . 265

LXV. Man's Comfort Ps. XCIV. 19, . 280

Index, by the General Editor, ..... 801

ADVERTISEMENT.

In issuing the last volume of Adams's Practical Works, the Pub- lisher takes leave to point out the special advantages which he believes characterise this edition.

Apart from the convenience of the octavo volume over the folio, and the adaptation of the speUing to modern usage, it has been the aim of the conductors to give to this edition, the following features : —

1. The numerous typographical errors in the original edition, which frequently destroy the sense, have been corrected.

2. The references to Scripture, &c., have been carefully verified.

3. Complete Indices are given, so as to afford perfect facility for reference. The Index of the original foho is well known to be almost worthless. As one main value of this series, when com- pleted, will consist in the different works being readily available for consultation, complete and carefully prepared Indices are re- garded as indispensable to confer on the editions a permanent value.

4. Two Sermons are added, the existence of which was known to a very few.

5. The Prefaces and Dedications prefixed to the different works, as originally printed, are reproduced.

6. A Memoir containing all the information obtainable regarding; Adams is supplied.

The Publisher desires to point to these particulars, as affording an earnest of what the other works will be when completed ; as an evidence of his desire to redeem his pledge, and a proof that, irrespective of the great difference in the price of the editions in this series, compared with the market value of the originals, they will be more complete and more valuable for all practical purposes.

Vm ADVERTISEMENT.

In appending Ward's Sermons to the last volume of Adams, he does not anticipate any objections on the part of his Subscribers. As a general rule, it is not desirable to mix up in the same volume, one author with another ; but, as the only alternative was to pro- duce Adams in three thin volumes, it appeared to him that this course was open to many more objections than adding, separately paged, another author, whose writings are in many respects remark- able, who lived at the same period, and whose mode of dealing with his subject is so much akin to that of Adams.

Where any irregularity in the delivery of the volumes, as pub- lished, takes place, or any change of residence occurs, the Publisher begs he may be made acquainted with the circumstance, that he may be enabled to arrange for the punctual supply of the volumes as they are issued.

Edinburgh, March 1862.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.

Literature has on its roll many eminent authors, from Homer downwards, whose personal history is not known. The shadow of a great name rests upon their title-pages ; the men themselves, try as we may, we cannot see.

To this class Thomas Adams belongs. That he was, in 1612, a ' preacher of the gospel at Willington,' in Bedfordshire ; that, in 1614, he was at Wingrave, in Buckinghamshire, probably as vicar ; that, in 1618, he held the preachership at St Gregory's, under St Paul's Cathedral, and was ' observant chaplain' to Sir Henrie Mon- tague, the Lord Chief- Justice of England ; that, in 1630, he published a folio volume of his collected works, dedicating them 'to his parishioners of St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf,' to ' Wm. Earle of Pem- broke,' and ' Henrie Earle of Manchester,' the first a nobleman of Puritan tendencies, and the second the Montague just named, and the representative of a family known to favour liberty ; that, in 1633, he published a Commentary on the Second Epistle of the apostle Peter, dedicating it to ' Sir Henrie Marten, Kt., Judge of the Admiralty, and Deane of the Arches Court of Canterbury,' and promising in his Dedication * some maturer thoughts,' never des- tined apparently to see the light ; that, in 1653, he was passing 'a necessitous and decrepit old age' in Loudon, having been seques- tered, if Newcourt is to be trusted,* from his living ; and that he died before the ' Restoration,' we know ; gathering our information chiefly from his own writings.-f- That he was in request for visita- tion sermons ; that he was a frequent preacher at St Paul's Cross, in services soon to be abolished, and occasional preacher at White- hall ; that he was friend and ' homager ' of John Donne, prebendary of St Paul's, and an admirer of Jewell, and Latimer, and Fox, and * Repertorium, vol. i. 302, f See page xxix., &c.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.

Joseph Hall ; that he loved and preached the great truths of the gospel ; that he was a man of extensive learning ; that he was a laborious pastor ; that his writings were quoted in the common- place books of the day,* and were apt to 'creep out' before they were published ; that there is much in them to justify the opinion of Southey, who deemed Adams scarcely inferior to Thomas Fuller in wit, and to Jeremy Taylor in fancy, we also know ; but again are we indebted for our information chiefly to his own works.i* His too is as yet the shadow of a name. The man we cannot see, nor have we found a witness that has seen him.

The singular silence of all the authorities who might have been expected to speak of Adams, compels us to gather up the fragments of information we have on the districts in which he laboured, and on the great men with whose names his own is associated. They give side-glimpses, at least, of his character and life. , Willington, where Adams is first heard of, is a rural parish, in the neighbourhood of Bedford. It lies on the road between Bedford and St Neots. Here Adams laboured from 1612 to 1614, at least ; and to the new lord of the manor, recently created a baronet — Sir Will. Gostwicke — and to Lady Jane Gostwicke, one of Adams' sermons is dedicated. Sir William came to the baronetcy in 1612, and died in 161 5. J

Adams is next found at Wingrave, whence he dates two of his sermons. In Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire, he is spoken of as vicar of Wingrave, from Dec. 2. 1614, when he was instituted, till he became incumbent of St Beunet Fink§ (Lipscomb says), when he resigned Wingrave in favour of the Rev. R. Hitchcock, S.T.B. Hitchcock was inducted May 4. ] 636. The vicarage seems to have been in the gift of the Egerton family ; and to Sir Thos. Egerton, Lord EUesmere, some of Adams' sermons are dedicated. ' St Bennet Fink, is no doubt a mistake for St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf The

* Spencer's Things Neio and Old. London, 1658.

•j- See A sermon preached at the triennial visitation of the R. R. Father in God, the Ld. -Bishop of London, in Christ Church, Actes xv. 36, London, 1625 ; and the Holy Choice, preached at the Chappell by Guildhall, at the solemnities of the election of the Lord Maior of London, Actes i. 24. Lond. 1625.

The Gallant's Burden, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Mar. 29. (fifth Sunday in Lent), 1612, by Thomas Adams. Published by authoritie. London, 1614.

The Temple, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Aug. 5. 1624, by Thos. Adams.

X Lyson's Magna Britannia ; sub voce Willington. From the preface of the White Devil, we learn that, in March 1614, he was still at Willington ; early in 1615, he was at Wingrave.

§ History, vol. iii.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XI

foi-mer was only a curacy, and was filled at this time, and till 1642, as Newcomb tells us, by a Mr Warefield.*

In each of these fields of labour, Adams must have had much leisure. Nor is it surprising to find him a frequent visitor in London ; first at St Paul's Cross, and then regularly, from 1618 to 1623, at least, as preacher at St Gregory's, an office he probably shared with some of the canons of St Paul's.

The church of St Gregory, where he was preacher, was one of the oldest in London. It dates from the seventh century ; and after an eventful history (in Adams' own age) hereafter to be noticed, was destroyed by the great fire. The parish was then united with that of St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street ; and so it still remains. The building adjoined the Lollards Tower of the old Cathedral of St Paul's. It stood at the south-west corner, near the top of St Paul's Chain ; as St Bennet's stood at the bottom of the Chain, near the Thames. Its site is now occupied by the Clock Tower of the modern Cathedral. t The parish contained in Adams' time a popu- lation of three thousand, many of whom were ' woollen drapers,' and most ' of good quality.' J

The living was originally a rectory in the gift of the crown ; but in the eighteenth year of Richard II., A.D. 1446, the minor canons having obtained letters patent making them a body politic, the king appropriated this church to them for their better support.§ It was a poor living, as Adams found it, and was generally held with some other preferment. ||

In 1631-2, the church was repaired and beautified at 'the sole cost and proper charges' of the parishioners. The historians say that a sum of =£'2000 was spent on this work.^ Of the man whose labours in the parish make these facts interesting, they say nothing !

This beautifying of the church soon raised serious questions.

* Repertorium, i. 299.

f The building may be seen in Dugdale's south-west view of St Paul's ; or in Allen's History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, and Southwark, vol. i. p. 365. Lend. 1828. See also Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, vol. iv. p. 483.

J J ournals of House of Commons, 1641.

§ Dugdale says the rectory was given to the minor canons by Henry VI. (cap. 24). This is probably the accurate account. That given in the text is supported by most of the authorities. — See Dugdale's History of St Paul's, p. 18. London, 1818.

U Perhaps Adams hints at this fiact, when, in dedicating one of his books to Dr Donne, he speaks of the work as ' the poor fruit of that tree Avhich grows on your ground, and hath not from the world any other sustenance.' The Ban-en Fig Tree, preached at St Paul's Cross, Oct. 26. 1623.

f Stew's Survey, Lon. 1633 ; Maitland's History ; Seymour's Survey, 1734.

jdi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.

The dean and chapter deemed it more fitting that the commimion table should be removed to the upper end of the chancel, and ordered accordingly. The parishioners protested ; and the case was carried, on the special recommendation of Archbishop Laud, to the king in council. Laud had just succeeded* the Puritan Archbishop Abbot, and thought that the principle of this case was likely to decide many other cases ; ultimately the order of the dean and chapter was confirmed.

Pending this controversy, Sir Henry Martin, Adams' friend, and Dean of the Arches Court, spoke somewhat irreverently, as Laud thought ; treating the whole question as one of ' cupboards' only. The speech cost Sir Henry his place ; and years after, when Laud was tried for his life, the history of the communion table at St Gregory's formed one of the charges against him.-f* He pleaded that the order of the dean and chapter, not he, had placed the table there ; and that though in the council he had spoken in favour of the order, he had therein only used his undoubted liberty ; and, moreover, was but carrying out the injunction of Queen EUzabeth, who had directed that all communion tables should be placed where the altars formerly stood. | When charged with calling Sir Henry a 'stigmatical or schismatical Puritan,' he suggested that 'schismatical Puritan' was the likelier term.§ The description he seems to have deemed sufiiciently just not to need defence.

But the troubles of the church were not yet to end. Early in 1637, the Star Chamber directed, at Laud's instigation, that the church, so recently beautified, should be pulled down and rebuilt, at the expense of the parishioners, elsewhere. This change was intended for the improvement of the cathedral. The parish pro- tested that they could not meet the expense. || A further order was issued ; and the congregation were instructed to find seats, * moveable seats,' not pews, at Christ Church. This second order re- maining unexecuted, the Archbishop, or the Lord Treasurer himself, seems to have given directions in the matter, and a large portion of the church was removed.^

This also was remembered ; for, in 1641, there is the following entry in the Journal of the House of Commons : — ' Same day re- ported to the committee, that the church of St Gregory's was an ancient church. ' . . ' Four years since,' — rather seven, as it seems,

* Kushworth Collections, vol. ii. Year 1633.

t Prynne'8 Cant. Doom, p 88. % Wilkin's Cone, torn iv. p. 188.

§ Laud's History of his Troubles and Trials. Works iv. p. 225. Library of Anglo Cath. Theology. 11 Rushworth, vol. ii., a.d. 1637.

f See a full account in Nelson's Collection, vol ii. p. 729. Lond, 1683.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIU

— '.£'1500 was spent in beautifying the church. Shortly after the Lord Treasurer and Lord Collington caused a great part of it to be pulled down, by command from the king and the council, as they pretend :' — no pretence, however ; for the order may be still seen in Rushworth. ' They (' the parishioners,' ' five of them,' Laud says) petitioned the Lords of the Council, but could have no redress. Voted by the Committee to be a great grievance, and to be added to the others which they meant to be addressed to the Lords. They were ordered by the House to send for Inigo Jones,* . . . and to find means of redress for the parishioners.'

Nor have the disasters of the parish yet ceased. In 1658, Dr John Hewit is preacher. He conspires prematurely for the Restoration of Charles II., and pays the penalty with his life. In 1666, the church was burnt and buried under the ruins of St Paul's.

During the later years of this period, 1630-1640, it is probable that Adams had little connection with St Gregory's. His friend Dr 3f Donne died in 1630. In 1633, the Puritan Archbishop Abbott followed him to his rest, and was succeeded by Laud, who had been Bishop of London from 1628. To the new archbishop, the doc- trines and strong anti-popish feelings of Adams must have been highly distasteful. Lectureships the Archbishop disliked. They only gratified, he thought, ' itching ears,' and tempted men to dis- cuss affairs of State. On these questions the dean and chapter seem to have sided on the whole with the archbishop. Nor was the building at St Gregory's in a favourable condition for preaching. Mr Inigo Jones had sawn through the pillars of the gallery, and had removed a large part of the roof. All through there is reason to believe that Adams' sympathies were with the parish.

At all events, he is from 1630 to 1636 rector of St Bennet's, and here he remains, it seems, till his death. When, or under what circumstances, this took place we are not told.

It is stated, indeed, by Newcourt, and repeated by Walker, that Adams of St Bennet's was sequestered in the days of the Common- wealth. But this statement is not in itself probable, nor does it rest on any satisfactory evidence. Let the following, as matters of fact, be noted. Adams' name appears in no official return of silenced ministers, while both Newcourt and Walker have unduly enlarged their lists.-f Out of the eight thousand whom Walker mentions as

* Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, iv. p. 493. Inigo Jones was the king's sur- veyor (Aitken's Court of James II., p. 403), and seems to be held personally responsible for all that was done. See Rushworth, under date of 19th July 1641.

f See White's Century of Scandalous Ministers.

XIV MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS.

sequestered, Calamy states, that not more than seventeen hundred are undoubted. Further, it is well known, that many eminent and useful preachers in the city were left untouched by the Govern- ment, though they were unfriendly to the new constitution in Church and State. Dr Hall, Dr Wilde, Dv Harding, and many more, continued to preach in their churches without hindrance. To the Presbyterian Triers, Adams' doctrines must have commended him ; while those whom Cromwell appointed in 1653, ' the acknow- ledged flower of English Puritanism,' were instructed to act upon the principle of rejecting no good and competent minister, ' whether Presbyterian, Independent, Prelatist, or Baptist,' unless his avowed opinions were dangerous to the ruling powers. It deserves also to be noted, that among Adams' patrons were Manchester and Pembroke. To both he has dedicated sermons, and of both he speaks in terms of affectionate intimacy. Both were leading members of the Government, and both were more or less concerned in the very sequestrations of which Adams is said to have been the victim. Once more, the parish of St Bennet's, which was exceedingly small, was united, after the great fire, with that of St Peter's ; and as early as 1636, there is a return of the united income of the two parishes, a return that seems to imply that they were even then under one minister. At all events, the fact is recorded, that in that parish church ' many noblemen and gentlemen worshipped ' during the Commonwealth, ' the rector and churchwarden continuing to have the liturgy constantly used, and the sacraments properly adminis- tered.'* That Adams should have been sequestered, the popular preacher, the earnest devoted pastor, the sound Calvinist, the strenuous opponent of the Papacy, the personal friend of the family of Pembroke, who lived in the parish, and had his children baptized at the parish church is highly improbable. It is true, he did not be- lieve in Presbytery and Synod ; but neither did many others who were never molested. It is likely he vv^ished for the Restoration, but not more earnestly than Manchester and Pembroke, his patrons, nor sooner than moderate men of all parties. In short, if Adams were sequestered, it must have been for some fault of which his works give no trace, through strange forgetfulness on the part of his friends, or through gross injustice on the part of the Government. And yet, in 1653, he was passing, as he tells us, a 'necessitous and decrepit old age.' Nor is this surprising. His preachership at Sr Gregory's was in the gift of the minor canons, and was very scantily paid. In 1639, all cathedral property was declared forfeit, and was ordered to be appropriated to the increase of small livings,

* Malcolm ii. 472.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XV

or to other purposes. In 1G42 at latest, this order was carried out in the case of St Paul's. The rectories of St Bennet's and St Peter's were in the gift of the dean and chapter, and were largely depend- ent on cathedral funds. The two yielded at most dC128 a-year; and at the Restoration, it was reckoned that a hundred of this sum had disappeared. From 1G36, therefore, till the time of his death, Adams must have been supported, in part at least, by the bounty of his friends.

The distinction is perhaps practically of small moment. Whe- ther Adams were himself sequestered, or the income of his living transferred, on general grounds, to other purposes, or withheld by those who availed themselves of the troubles of the times ' to cheat the parson,' he was in any case equally deprived of his support. But it is some comfort to believe that he suffered through no per- sonal hostility, and on no personal grounds, but through the work- ing of a system which affected multitudes besides, and which is to be defended, not by proving the immorality or the deficiencies of the sufferers, but on general policy. The distinction is as just to Adams's opponents as to Adams himself.

A word or two on the friends to whom Adams has dedicated his sermons. The tendencies of Sir Henry Martin, Laud has indicated, and Clarendon notes incidentally, that he was counsel against the canons adopted by convocation, and not likely ' to oversee any ad- vantages' that could be urged on the side of his clients.* The very year in which *" r H. Martin was 'speaking irreverently' of the communion table, Adams was dedicating to him, with many expressions of esteem, his Commentary on St Peter. Sir Henry Montague, who was Adams' ' first patron,' had been Recorder of Lon- don, and was Lord Chief- Justice of England in 1618. His character has been sketched by Lord Chancellor Clarendon,t and at greater length, though less favourably, by Lord Campbell.]: He was held in esteem by all parties, as a man of high principle, and of fair ability. He presided at the final trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have conducted that painful business with more pro- priety and good feeling than were usual in those times. He died before ' the conflict of great principles,' the Rebellion ; but his ten- dencies may be learned from the character of his son.

Edward Montague, as Lord Kimbolton, was the only member of the House of Peers whom Charles I. included in his indictment of the 'five members' of the House of Commons. In the civil wars he took an active part, as Earl of Manchester, on the side of the

* History, i. 317. t Eislory, i. % Lives o/the Clwf- Justices, i. 361.

m MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.

Parliament, and was commander at Marston Moor ; but after the battle of Newbury he was suspected of favouring the king's inte- rest. He was a decided friend of the Restoration, and immediately after it was appointed chamberlain. During the Commonwealth he was at the head of the Commission of Sequestrators for the University of Cambridge, and appointed one of his chaplains, Ashe, a friend of Fuller's, one of the sequestrators.* He was through- out the protector of the Nonconformists, and is said to have been a special friend of Richard Baxter's.-f*

William, Earl of Pembroke, Clarendon tells us, ' was most uni- versally beloved and esteemed of any man of his age ; and having a great office in the court, he made the court itself better esteemed, and more reverenced in the country.';]: He was 'the Pembroke' of Ben. Jonson's well known epitaph, and was nephew of Sir Philip Sydney ; being himself also a poet. In 1616, he was elected Chan- cellor of the University of Oxford. He greatly offended the king by voting for the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and was after- wards intimately connected with the Duke of Northumberland, and other members of the liberal party. He died suddenly in 1630. His brother Philip, who succeeded to the title, was one of the lay members of the Westminster Assembly,§ and afterwards a friend of the Restoration. Both brothers resided in Baynard's Castle, and both were attendants at St Bennet's. There are entries in the parish records, between 1650 and 1655, of the * christening' of five of Philip's children. The Earl of Kent and the Viscount Rochfort, to whom others of Adams' volumes are dedicated, be- longed to the same party, and their names appear again and again, with those of Pembroke and Essex, in the records of the civil war. If men are known by their friends, it is not difficult to gather from these facts the leanings and temper of our author. No supporter could he be of the tyranny or of the Popish tendencies of the court ; but neither was he prepared for the Presbyterianism or the Inde- pendency, for the autocratic Protectorate, or the Republicanism that seemed to threaten on either hand. Like Baxter, he was sure of the gospel ; while as for parties, he found that in the end, as they grew and developed, he could side wholly with none.

Judging from the general tenor of Adams's writings, it is not easy at first to explain his retaining the living at Wingrave while he was lecturer at St Gregory's, and afterwards while he was rector at St Bennet's. Still less can we account for the apparent fact that

* Neal, iii. 96. t Baxter's Life, ii. p. 289. % History, 88.

§ Fuller's History, book xi., sec. 5. See also Collins's Memorials, ii. 359.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XVU

he was at once vicar of Wingrave, rector of St Bennct's in 1630, and, if we may trust the title-page of his Commentary on St Peter, rector of St Gregory's in 1633. Perhaps the true explanation is to be found, in part, in the fact that St Bennet's Church was really in St Gregory's Parish, and that when St Gregory's Church was given to the minor canons of St Paul's, St Gregory's Parish was often served by one pastor, who was called indiscriminately by the name of either of the churches. This supposition will appear the more probable when it is remembered that the sermon on the 'Happiness of the Church' is dedicated, in the original edition, to his parishioners of St Gregory's, and his collected works, to his parishioners of St Bennet's, in both cases in nearly the same xuords. This second dedication could have been no compliment, except in the supposition that the parishioners were the same. Still he was vicar of Wingrave and rector of St Gregory's, i.e., of St Bennct's. Is this consistent with his recorded sentiments ? * We have, every one,' says he, ' our own cures ; let us attend them. Let us not take and keep livings of a hundred or two hundred a year, and allow a poor curate (to supply the voluntary negligence of our non- residence) eight or (perhaps somewhat bountifully) ten pounds yearly, scarce enough to maintain his body, not a doit for his study. He spoke sharply (not untruly) that called this usury, and terrible usury. Others take but ten in the hundred ; these take a hundred for ten. What say you to those that undertake two, three, or four great cures, and physic them all by attorneys ? These physi- cians love not their patients, nor Christ himself* So he writes ; and yet he seems in the same context to meet what was probably his own case, — ' Not but that preaching to our own charge, may yield to a more weighty dispensation. When the vaunts of some heretical Goliah shall draw us forth to encounter him with weapons, against whom we cannot draw the sword of our tongues, when the greater business of God's church shall warrant our non-residence to an inferior, then, and upon these gi'ounds, we may be tolerated by another Physician to serve our cures (for so I find our charges, not without allusions to this metaphor, called) ; a physician, I say, that is a skilful divine, not an illiterate apothecary, an insufficient reader.'

The lawfulness of such an arrangement was certainly not lessened by its always ending in plethoric wealth. Adams' writings shew very clearly that the holder of two pieces of preferment might still be poor. ' The minister of the parish,' says he, ' shall hardly get from his patron the milk of the vicarage ; but if he looks for the fleece of * Physic from Heaven.

VOL III b

XVIU MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.

the parsonage, lie shall have (after the proverb) Lanam Caprinam; a goat's fleece, — contempt and scorn.' * * Christ sends tis,' he says again, ' as lambs among wolves. If they cannot devour our flesh, they will pluck our fleeces ; leave us nothing but the tag-locks, poor vicarage-tithes : while themselves and their children are kept warm in our wool, the parsonage. Nay, and they would clip ofl" the tag-locks too, raven up the vicarages, if the law would but allow them a pair of shears. Every gentleman thinks the priest mean ; but the priest's means have made many a gentleman.' t And again, ' To cozen the ministers of their tithes in private, or to devour them in public, and to justify it when they have done ' — this is general — ' to laugh at the poor vicar that is glad to feed on crusts, and to spin out twenty marks a year into a thread as long as his life ; while the wolf inns a crop worth three hundred pounds per annum,' — this is very definite, what if it be personal ! — ' this is a prey somewhat answerable to the voracity of their throats. Let every man, of what profession soever, necessary or superfluous, be he a member or a scab of the commonwealth, live ; and the priest be poor, they care not.'

In those days there were upwards of 4000 non-resident livings out of 12,000, and upwards of 8000 held practically by lay impro- priators, ij; The first fact justifies Adams' denunciation of non- residence ; the second justifies the holdmg of two or more livings by one man. At Wingrave, it may be added, the chief revenues belonged to the lay rector — not Egerton ; so that, with both vicar- age and preachership, it is probable Adams had but a scanty support.

This much, though but little, on Adams' personal history.

It is hardly needful to add that the writer of these volumes is not Thomas Adam, the rector of Wintringham, in Lincolnshire, the author of ' Private Thoughts,' and of various expositions and sermons published posthumously. He died in 1784?.

Nor is he the Thomas Adams of Calamy's Nonconformist Me- morial. This Adams was the younger brother of Richard Adams, one of the editors of Chamock's works on ' Providence and on the Attributes,' and son of the rector of Worrall, in Cheshire. He was admitted Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge in 1644. Afterwards he Avent to Oxford and became a Fellow of Brazennose. In 1655, he left his fellowship, and was appointed to the rectory of St Mildred's, Bread Street, London.§ In 1662, he was removed for nonconformity

* The Sinner's Passing Bell. f The Wolf Worrying the Lambs.

X Ichahod, or Five Groans of the Cliurch. Camb., 1663. Quoted by Stanford.

g Wood's Athena: Oxon. Calamy's Nonconformist's Mem.

MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIX

and afterwards resided in the families of Sir S. Jones and the Countess Dowager of Clare. He died in 1C70.

Tlie Thomas Adams just named belonged to a family of clergy- men ; their names and history are given in Wood, but our author is not amongst them.

Lipscomb has dignified the writer of these volumes with the de- gree of M.A., and elsewhere he is styled B.D. and D.D., but there is no evidence that he really attained these dignities. His learning and ability are undoubted ; and he speaks as one who had been at a university, and who greatly valued a university education. But his name occurs in no college list, nor is he known to any of the historians of either Oxford or Cambridge.

These last results are of small positive value, but they are worth stating. They narrow the field of future inquiry, they correct some popular impressions, and they tell us in some degree who and what Adams was not.

The precise position of Adams in relation to the civil history, the ecclesiastical discussions, and the literature of his age, it is im- portant to settle. That position illustrates both his character and his writings.

In France, Henry the Fourth having recently displeased Eliza- beth, and belied his whole life by professing the Catholic faith though still a friend to Protestants, had gone, towards the close of the earlier half of James's reign, to his account, cut off prematurely by the dagger of an assassin. Holland had declared her independ- ence, and was now deciding against Arminius. In England, the Hampton Court Conference had disappointed the Puritan party, and had strengthened the High Church tendencies of King James ; the nobility and king had been providentially saved from the gun- powder-treason ; the new translation of the Bible had just been completed, and was now winning its way into general acceptance. Raleigh, the prince of merchant adventurers, was prosecuting his romantic career, and was soon to expiate his misfortunes by an un- just death on the scaffold. The Court of High Commission was strengthening its power, and preparing for the disastrous usurpa- tions of Strafford and Laud. A considerable portion of the clergy and laity of England were beginning to be weaned from the Estab- lished Church. Scotland had recently resisted the attempt to impose upon her Episcopal forms. Scandals, both ecclesiastical and civil, were extending on all sides ; good men were alienated from their old friends by ecclesiastical tyranny, and by childish petulance. A civil war seemed even now at hand. What Adams

,5EX MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS.

thouglit of several of these events, we know. Of others, he has spoken never a word.

Ecclesiastically, matters stood thus. James had come to the throne at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with a strong preference for Calvinism, and with strong aversion to Popery. These feelings were gradually toned down, till, after the Synod of Dort, he became a friend of the Arminian party ; and the Papacy itself he began to treat with indulgence. In 1622, he published directions to his clergy, to the effect that ' no preacher under a bishop or a dean should presume to preach on the deep points of predestination or election,' ' that no preacher should use railing speeches against Papists or Puritans,' and ' that no parson, vicar, curate, or lecturer, should preach any sermon in the afternoon, but expound the Catechism, Creed, or Ten Commandments.' In this last direction, Adams and all probably agreed ; the two former must have been very distasteful to him and to many. They were specially aimed at that party in the Church who had hitherto dwelt, in their preaching, on the doctrines of grace, as they were called. This party included many eminent men ; and they were sustained by several, who themselves dwelt seldom on these doctrines, but still questioned the propriety of the king's directions. Archbishop Abbot and Dr Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, were among their leaders. The very year in which Adams published his collected works. Bishop Davenant lost favour at Court, by preaching on pre- destination, and for the same offence, several clergymen were severely punished. The whole party were called Doctrinal Puri- tans, and Adams was undoubtedly among them.

Sometimes these Doctrinal Puritans were defined in other ways. Bancroft and Laud were both admirers of a ceremonial religion. They held opinions on rites and forms hardly consistent with the simplicity and spirituality of Protestantism. Sometimes it was the question of kneeling at the Lord's supper, and bowing at the em- blems ; sometimes of signing with the cross in baptism ; oftenest it was the question of whether the communion table was to be re- garded as an altar. But whatever the exact question, it had always the same issue. ' These forms,' it was said on the one side, ' are spiritual symbols, and they are essential. They represent great truths.' * Leave them indifferent,' it was said on the other, ' and we may observe them ; make them obligatory, because important, and they become at once substantially Popery, and we cannot adopt them.' ' Doctrinal Papists,' the advocates of them were called, and under that name they are the opposite of ' Doctrinal Puritans,' Dr Williams, the Bishop of Lincoln, had recently created

MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXI

a great ferment, by publishing in favour of the Puritan views. Several clergymen were compelled by Laud to resign their livings, and some few were (to use King James's phrase) , * harried out of the land.' Thirty years later, they would have joined the Non- conformists of 1G62. They shared by anticipation in their noncon- formity, and they agreed in their doctrinal views.

Perhaps Adams' sympathies were less decidedly with Williams than with Davenant. Judging from his works, he would probably never have left the Church on a question of forms ; though ready to leave it if necessary, on a question of doctrine. Doctrinal Puri- tanism he loved ; the connection between certain rites and Doc- trinal Popery he did not clearly see. And if he feared it, he so prized unity, and dreaded division, that he preferred quietly to preach the truth and use his liberty, leaving to others the discus- sion and the settlement of such questions. There are passages in his writings, which imply that he deemed the Puritans (as they were called), right in every thing, except in their ' schismatic spirit.' ' They,' he tells us, ' are the unicorns that wound the Church. Their horn, the secret of their strength, is precious enough, if only it were out of the unicorn's head !'

Some were schismatical beyond question. But does not a large portion of the guilt of schism lie at the door of those who were bent on making obligatory and essential what are at any rate non-essentials, whether of practice or of faith? Such is Coleridge's decision — a de- cision he defends with loving sympathy for the men, and by un- doubted facts.

Adams's relation to the general literature of his age must also be settled.

In his youth he was the contemporary of the race that adorned the reign of Elizabeth, — Spenser, and Shakespeare, and Jonson, Bacon and Raleigh. Among the men of his own age were Bishops Hall, and Andrewes, Sibbes, the author of the 'Bruised Reed' and ' The Soul's Conflict,' Fuller the historian, and now in the church and now out of it, Hildersham, and Byfield, and Cartwright. Earle was busy "writing and publishing hisMicrocosmography,andOverbury had already issued his ' Characters.' A little before him flourished Arminius and Whitgiffc, Hooker and Reynolds ; and a little after him, Hammond and Baxter, Taylor and Barrow, Leighton and Howe. There is evidence that Adams had read the works of several of his contemporaries and predecessors ; and he has been compared with nearly all the writers we have named. His scholarship re- minds the reader of that 'great gulf of learning,' Bishop Andrewes. In sketching a character, he is not inferior to Overbury or Earle

vni MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS.

In fearless denunciations of sin, in pungency and pathos, he is sometimes equal to Latimer or to Baxter. For fancy, we may, after Southey, compare him with Taylor ; for wit, with Fuller ; while in one sermon, at least — that on ' The Temple' — there is an occasional grandeur, that brings to memory the kindred treatise of Howe. Joseph Hall is probably the writer he most resembles. In richness of scriptural illustration, in fervour of feeling, in soundness of doctrine, he is certainly equal ; in learning, and power, and thought, he is superior.

In this last paragraph a high place is assigned to Adams for the literary qualities of his writings. Apart from the excellence of his thoughts, the language and the imagery in which he clothes them are very attractive. Herein he differs from many of the Puritan Divines, and on the scholar and student he has peculiar claims. Indeed, for ' curious felicity ' of expression he is almost alone among the evangelical authors of his agej*

A few specimens may be selected. Like all extracts, however, they do scanty justice to the beauty of the passages whence they are taken. They are gems, but their brilliance depends in part on the setting.

Turn, for a good specimen of his general style, to his description of the Suitors of the Soul, England's Sickness, vol. i. 401.

He gathers illustrations from all sources. From grammar learning : —

' There is a season to benefit, and a season to hurt, by our speech ; therefore it is preposterous in men to be consonants when they should be mutes, and mutes when they should be consonants. But a good life is never out of season.' — Heaven and Earth Reconciled.

'With God, adverbs shall have better thanks than nouns,' — i.e., Not what we do, but how we do it, is the grand question.

From the facts of common life, turned to ingenious uses : —

' We use the ocean of God's bounty as we do the Thames. It yields'us all manner of provision : clothes to cover us, fuel to warm us, food to nourish us, wine to cheer us, gold to enrich us ; and we, in recompense, soU it with our rubbish and filth. Such toward God is the impious ingrati- tude of this famous city. She may not unfitly be compared to certain pictures that represent to divers beholders, at divers stations, divers forms. Looking one way, you see a beautiful virgin ; another way, some deformed monster. View her peace : she is fairer than the daughters of men. View her pride