Alexander Gordon

“ Hence the new teaching and praxis spread rapidly from Switzerland to Germany, Holland and France. While the horrors of the Münster fanaticism, which culminated in 1534, made Anabaptism a byword, and increased the severity of a persecution directed against all Baptists indiscriminately, the reaction against the fatal errors of the Münster experiment increased also the adherents of communities which discarded the sword; thus Menno was brought into their ranks. Each community was independent, united with others only by the bond of love. ”

“ Old age gave grandeur to his countenance, and a refined gentleness to his demeanour. In his conversation as in his letters there was a rare combination of dignified modesty and courtly grace. His spoken addresses were simpler in style than most of his literary works, which, when richly wrought, reminded his critics of a kaleidoscope (R. B. Aspland's phrase; see also Life of F. P. Cobbe, ut sup. p. 146) . The delivery of his sermons was vivid and even dramatic, though without action; his lectures were mechanically dictated. Both sermons and lectures were written in Doddridge's shorthand. ”

“ Let the king be a 'very infidel ' and persecutor of the truth, or openly defy every law of God, he held that he still retained, as 'archbishop and general overseer of all the churches within his dominions,' the right to rule all churches within his realm, and must not be resisted in the name of conscience; those who cannot obey must passively take what punishment he allots. The key to Bradshaw's own scheme of church polity is the complete autonomy of individual congregations. ”

“ Hotman was a man of pure life, real piety (as his Consolatio shows) and warm domestic virtues. His constant removals were inspired less by fear for himself than by care for his family, and by a temperament averse to the conditions of warfare, and a constitutional desire for peace. ”

“ Although a man with a mission, Johnston was a gentleman in grain, 'transparently upright and honest,' and simply and devoutly rehgious. He never lost the esteem of his opponents. The Belfast nationalist organ, in recording his death, spoke of his 'courage and consistency,' adding that he was 'loved by his catholic tenants and neighbours.' One of his daughters joined the Roman catholic church, and it was characteristic of his sense of duty and his goodness of heart that he drove her to mass on the way to his own parish church. ”

“ Calvin’s death, in 1564, affected him deeply. Yet in his last year he revisited Metz, preaching amid great enthusiasm, with all his wonted fire. The effort was too much for him; he left the church exhausted, took to his bed, and died at Metz on the 13th of September 1565.
Farel wrote much, but usually in haste, and for an immediate purpose. He takes no rank as a scientific theologian, being a man of activity rather than of speculation or of much insight. ”

“ No law, current in Geneva, has ever been adduced as enacting the capital sentence. Claude Rigot, the procurer-général, put it to Servetus that his legal education must have warned him of the provisions of the code of Justinian to this effect; but in 1535 all the old laws on the subject of religion had been set aside at Geneva; the only civil penalty recognized by the edicts of 1543 being banishment. The Swiss churches, while agreeing to condemn Servetus, say nothing of capital punishment in their letters of advice. The extinct law seems to have been revived for the occasion. ”

“ His treatise on the Saviour renders a real service to theology, placing orthodoxy and heresy in new relations of fundamental antagonism, and narrowing the conflict to the main personal benefit of religion. Of the person of Christ in this treatise he says nothing; its one topic is the work of Christ, which in his view operates upon man alone; the theological sagacity of Sozzini may be measured by the persistency with which this idea tends to recur. ”

“ On the death of Richard Watson, Bunting was placed at the head of the Wesleyan missions. Here his practical sagacity and his genius for administration had full scope. He greatly enlarged the operations, enriched the resources, and deepened the success of methodism in the mission field. The work was peculiarly to his taste. He had early offered his own services as a missionary to India, but the conference kept him at home. Nor was he at all insensible to the political opportunities of his body. He was always friendly to the establishment. ”

“ To estimate his labours aright would be the work of a company of experts. His learning was for use; and his topics were suggested by the controversies of his age, which he was resolved to probe to their roots in the ground of history. He told Evelyn (21 Aug. 1655) ‘how great the loss of time was to study much the eastern languages; that, excepting Hebrew, there was little fruit to be gathered of exceeding labour ... the Arabic itself had little considerable.’ His genius as a scholar was shown in his eye for original sources, and this on all subjects that he touched. ”

“ A charge of the gravest sort against Blandrata's morals had destroyed his influence with Dávid. Hence he called in Sozzini to reason with Dávid, who had renounced the worship of Christ. In Sozzini's scheme of doctrine, terms in themselves orthodox were employed in a heretical sense. Thus Christ was God, though in nature purely human, namely as un Dio subalterno, al quale in un dato tempo il Dio supremo cedette il governo del mondo (Cantù) . ”

“ He composed aloud, while taking his daily walks, and committed the finished discourse to paper at great speed, in excruciatingly fine crowquill penmanship, with more attention to weight of diction than to grace of style. ”

“ Francesco was doubtless aware of the motive which led Sozzini to quit Italy; there is every reason to believe Przypkowski's statement that the grand-duke agreed to secure to him the income of his property so long as he published nothing in his own name. Sozzini now fixed himself at Basel, gave himself to close study of the Bible, began translating the Psalms into Italian verse, and, in spite of increasing deafness, became a centre of theological debates. ”

“ Lawrence died on 1 Oct., and Fordyce became sole pastor. He preached only on Sunday afternoons, the morning lecturer being Thomas Toller, Lawrence's son-in-law.
Fordyce's eloquence soon drew crowds to Monkwell Street. He had the natural advantages of a dignified presence and a piercing eye; his delivery and gestures were studied with great care. His topics were didactic, but he freed them from dryness by his powers of imagination and a polish and pomp of his style which satisfied cultured tastes. He forsook generalities, and dealt with the ethics of actual life. ”

“ Farindon's reputation rests upon a hundred and thirty sermons, of which thirty-one were published by himself, in a volume dedicated to Robinson, his patron, the remainder by his executors, John Millington and John Powney (son of an old servant of Hales) . At the university he had been ‘a noted preacher’ (Walker) , and his discourses, though more remarkable for force of style than polish of manner, will always be valued for their grasp of learning and strength of thought. ”

“ De Morgan admits (Budget of Paradoxes) that, though not a ‘rational,’ Fox was certainly a ‘national’ man. Marsden has done more justice to the intellectual merit of Fox's doctrine of the inner light, which ‘rested upon one idea, the greatest that can penetrate the mind of man: God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth’ (Hist. of the Later Puritans, 1872, p. 240) . There can be no question of the healthiness and strength of his moral fibre. It is remarkable that Wesley, who was acquainted with Barclay's ‘Apology,’ never mentions Fox. ”

“ He would have them disciplined inwardly on the presbyterian plan, the worshippers delegating their spiritual government to an oligarchy of pastors and elders, power of excommunication being reserved to 'the whole congregation itself.' But he would subject no congregation to any ecclesiastical jurisdiction save 'that which is within itself.' To prevent as far as possible the action of the state from being warped by ecclesiastical control, he would enact that no clergyman should hold any office of civil authority. ”

“ Hutton has been called 'the English Franklin;' but while Hutton and Franklin have some native qualities in common, Hutton as much excels Franklin in geniality as he is Franklin's inferior in grasp of mind. His topographical works are well written, and their information is good. His personal narratives form a graphic record of a life of great industry, and abound in clear and sensible judgments on men and things. ”

“ As a layman Gough criticises the dissenting ministry on two grounds: they humour the prejudices of their people, and ‘they worship God for twenty minutes and dictate to men for sixty.’ The dissenters, he complains, are ignorant of their own principles, and hence discourage free inquiry. ”

“ Ussher's ‘certificate’ of the state of the diocese (28 May 1622) is a most minute and interesting document (Elrington, app. v.) . There was no cathedral and no chapter; the clergy met in synod, but the great majority of the parish churches were ruinous; yet Elrington considers the diocese ‘at that time the best arranged and most civilised part of Ireland.’ Ussher made endeavours to win the Roman catholics by his sermons, preaching in the session-house when he could not induce them to enter the church. ”

“ For these and similar hits, his uncle, a Roman catholic, ‘dashed his name out of his last will.’ Owen's epigrams, which exhibit what Wood calls ‘an ingenious liberty of joking,’ won great popularity, and retained it longer abroad than at home. He deals freely in anagrams, puns, and the like, and at best is an imitator of Martial; but he will always be read with interest for his contemporary allusions and his sprightly good sense. ”

“ Firmin began business as a girdler and mercer. His shop was at Three Kings Court, in Lombard Street; he had a garden at Hoxton, in which he took great delight. Slender as were his means he contrived to keep a table for his friends, especially ministers. His frank hospitality brought him (after 1655) into relations with such men as Whitchcote, Worthington, Wilkins, Fowler, and Tillotson. In this way, somewhat earlier, he became acquainted with Biddle, whose influence on Firmin's philanthropic spirit was important. ”