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Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity: John Edwards of Cambridge and Reformed Orthodoxy in the Later Stuart Church (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) Jake Griesel full chapter instant download
Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity: John Edwards of Cambridge and Reformed Orthodoxy in the Later Stuart Church (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) Jake Griesel full chapter instant download
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Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity
OX F O R D ST U D I E S I N H I ST O R IC A L T H E O L O G Y
Series Editor
Richard A. Muller, Calvin Theological Seminary
Founding Editor
David C. Steinmetz †
Editorial Board
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University
George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame
Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University
Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia
JA K E G R I E SE L
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197624326.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
To my loving parents, Arnold and Lizette Griesel
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. Edwards’ Early Works and the Socinian Controversy 17
3. Edwards, Arminianism, and the Battle for Church of England
Orthodoxy 46
4. Edwards’ Reformed Conforming Contemporaries 95
5. Edwards’ Defence of a Reformed Doctrine of Faith and
Justification 129
6. Edwards, the ‘Arian’ Controversy, Churchmanship, and Politics 156
7. The Reception of Edwards’ Works 175
8. Conclusion 198
Bibliography 205
Index 231
Acknowledgements
The substance of this study is the fruit of my three years of doctoral research
at the University of Cambridge. Numerous people played a role in making
this journey not only possible, but also extremely pleasant and enriching.
Firstly, I am deeply grateful to the master and fellows of Peterhouse,
Cambridge, for generously granting me a Peterhouse Research Studentship,
without which this study would not have been possible. Next, my heartfelt
thanks to my doctoral supervisor, Stephen Hampton, who cordially received
me as his student and whose guidance, expertise, and attention to detail were
invaluable. It was a great honour to study under the scholar whose own pio-
neering research on the Reformed tradition within the later Stuart Church of
England inspired much of this study. Indeed, for a project on John Edwards
of Cambridge, I could not have wished for a better-suited supervisor.
My deepest gratitude to my long-time mentor Adriaan C. Neele, who first
instilled in me a love for historical theology as an academic discipline during
my undergraduate years, prepared me for doctoral studies during my M.Th,
and encouraged me to apply to study at Cambridge at a time when such a
prospect seemed to me beyond the realm of possibilities. Over the years
Adriaan has contributed to my academic development and welfare in far too
many ways to enumerate here, but suffice it to say that without him this study
would not have happened. In the same breath should be mentioned Dolf
Britz, who was pivotal in preparing me for the study of historical theology, as
well as Christoff Zietsman, my Latin professor.
My PhD experience was greatly enhanced by my dear friend and frater
doctoralis, Sam Fornecker, who was also working on the theological land-
scape of the later Stuart and early Hanoverian Church of England. Dubbing
ourselves ‘the Hampton Court Conference’, Sam and I frequently met during
our doctoral studies to enjoy fellowship and a mutual exchange of ideas,
which greatly sharpened my thinking and ultimately refined this study. My
thanks also to my cherished friend Roger Revell for our warm fellowship
and shared theological reflections during our time at Cambridge. Sam and
Roger, along with Michael Lynch, kindly read and provided feedback on my
research.
x Acknowledgements
Gerald Bray has advised and supported me in various ways over the years,
but especially during the preparations for and early stages of this study, when
his wisdom, guidance, and hospitality in Cambridge were of inestimable
worth to me. Erik A. de Boer has also from my undergraduate years regularly
encouraged me in my studies, for which I am truly grateful. I am further-
more indebted to Lee Gatiss and Randall J. Pederson for their encourage-
ment, advice, and feedback on my initial proposal for this study, and also to
Mark Earngey, who was of great support and kindly hosted me in Oxford
several times.
I also greatly benefited from conversations on theology and ecclesias-
tical history with several friends in Cambridge, particularly Robert Evans,
Alexander Abecina, Esther Counsell, Thomas Langley, Harry Spillane, Alden
McCray, Alice Soulieux-Evans, and Simeon Williams. My two examiners,
John Coffey and Jeremy Morris, provided helpful comments and directions
for publication. Theologische Universiteit Kampen in the Netherlands kindly
hosted me for the month-long Advanced Theological Studies Fellowship
in 2018, where I presented some of this research and received thoughtful
feedback from Dolf te Velde. I was furthermore greatly privileged to enjoy
stimulating conversations with a range of scholars at other conferences
and academic events—particularly Bruce Gordon, Ashley Null, Richard
A. Muller, Anthony Milton, Richard Snoddy, Torrance Kirby, Richard Rex,
Isabel Rivers, Gareth Atkins, Peter B. Nockles, Alan Ford, R. Scott Spurlock,
Ann Hughes, Alec Ryrie, Ximian Xu, Takayuki Yagi, Niccolò Aliano, Todd
Rester, and Philip Hobday.
Special thanks to the staff of Christian Heritage in Cambridge, particularly
David Illman, Jack Harding, and Molly Wyer, for their warm hospitality at
the Round Church Scriptorium, which I frequented throughout my time in
Cambridge. Large sections of this book were formulated and written at my
regular desk in the north aisle of the Round Church, the parish church in
which Edwards ministered for seven years between 1676 and 1683.
I am immensely grateful to the Latimer Trust, Peterhouse, and Cambridge’s
Faculty of Divinity for having granted me funds to travel and present my re-
search at a variety of conferences in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,
the United States, and Canada. Thanks in particular to Jordan J. Ballor and
Mark A. Garcia for having given me the opportunity to present my work
to the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research and the Greystone
Theological Institute, respectively. It was at the former occasion that I first
personally met Richard A. Muller, the editor of this excellent Oxford Studies
Acknowledgements xi
in Historical Theology series, who has been very helpful throughout the pub-
lishing process. At Oxford University Press my two anonymous readers pro-
vided helpful comments, and Cynthia Read and the rest of the production
team were superb.
Several libraries have been of great assistance in the course of this re-
search, particularly Cambridge University Library, the British Library, the
Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the libraries of Peterhouse, St John’s, Trinity,
Clare, and Corpus Christi colleges in Cambridge. Special recognition goes
to my current academic home, George Whitefield College in Cape Town, for
supporting me as a postdoctoral fellow and allowing me the time and re-
sources to prepare my research for publication—all while being surrounded
by the breathtaking beauty of the Cape of Good Hope. There were a host of
others, far too many to mention by name, who in non-academic ways bright-
ened the journey by their support, friendship, or acts of kindness along
the way.
Penultimately, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my parents,
Arnold and Lizette, for their sacrificial love and constant support throughout
my studies, none of which would have been possible without them. They
have both gone far beyond the call of parental duty to enable me to pursue
my dreams. My mother sadly passed away just as my doctoral studies came to
completion, and it is to her memory that I dedicate this book.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my dear wife, Daleen, whose love, support,
and companionship have been immense blessings to me, and continue to be.
It is due to her, more than any other, that our three years in Cambridge were
some of the most memorable and joyful of my life.
John Edwards was born in Hertford on 26 February 1637.1 His father, the
well-known Presbyterian heresiographer Thomas Edwards (1599–1647),
died when John was ten years old, but his mother was an heiress of an opulent
fortune, and was thus able to offer her son a first-class education.2 Between
the ages of ten and sixteen (1647–53), Edwards attended Merchant Taylors’
School in London, and in 1653 matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge.
The incumbent master of St John’s was Anthony Tuckney (1599–1670), a
prominent Westminster Assembly divine and soon-to-be Regius Professor
of Divinity, who was impressed with Edwards’ conduct and abilities.3
Edwards was chosen scholar of the house soon after admission, and rose in
prominence within the college, being twice chosen as one of the moderators
in the schools.4 He graduated B.A. in 1658, was elected a fellow of St John’s at
the age of twenty-two on 23 March 1659 at Tuckney’s behest (with whom he
is said to have been ‘in full sympathy’), and proceeded to an M.A. in 1661.5
The following year Edwards was presented by Sir Robert Carr, 3rd
Baronet, to Robert Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, who ordained him as a
deacon on 11 September 1662.6 Sanderson, impressed with Edwards, invited
him to preach the sermon at the next ordination of priests a mere ten days
1 The most detailed accounts of Edwards’ life are: Andrew Kippis, Biographia Britannica: Or, the
Lives of the Most Eminent Persons Who Have Flourished in Great-Britain and Ireland, 2nd ed., vol.
5 (London, 1793), 543–46; Hermon Stevens Ray, ‘The Religious Thought of Dr. John Edwards of
Cambridge (1637–1716)’, PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1956; Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.,
Shapers of English Calvinism, 1660–1714: Variety, Persistence, and Transformation (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2011), 205–42.
2 Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 41. On Edwards’ father, Thomas, see Ann Hughes, Gangraena and the
Struggle for the English Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
3 ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637–1716)’.
4 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:543; A New and General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an
Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in every Nation;
Particularly the British and Irish, vol. 5 (London, 1798), 275–76.
5 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:543; James Bass Mullinger, St. John’s College (London, 1901), 143.
6 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:543; ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637– 1716)’; Mullinger, St.
John’s College, 143.
Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity. Jake Griesel, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197624326.003.0001
2 Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity
Britannica, 5:543; ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637– 1716)’; New and General Biographical
Dictionary, 5:276; John Lemprière, Universal Biography: Containing a Copious Account, Critical and
Historical, of the Life and Character, Labors and Actions of Eminent Persons, in All Ages and Countries,
Conditions and Professions, vol. 1 (New York, 1810), 461.
10 Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 59.
11 ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637–1716)’; Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:543; Mullinger, St.
the time, was still a fellow of Clare Hall. Noble wrote that Edwards ‘so dis-
tinguished himself, that, according to a tradition current there [i.e. at St
John’s], Tillotson’s auditory often deserted him to hear Edwards, then a rival
preacher in that place’.14 It appears, then, that besides being esteemed among
the Cambridge establishment, Edwards was also popular among the young
students of divinity who would soon enter the ministry to serve as the next
generation of clergy in the Church: the very ones who would constitute the
readership of his later works.
Around this time, Sir Edward Atkyns Sr offered Edwards an affluent
living near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but Edwards opted to remain in
Cambridge, taking the degree of B.D. in 1668.15 Shortly after this graduation,
Edwards was unanimously chosen as lecturer at St James’ Church in Bury St
Edmunds, and was convinced by Sir Robert Carr and Sir Thomas Harvey to
take up this office, which he ‘discharged with great reputation and accept-
ance’, but which he relinquished after only twelve months, preferring to re-
turn to academic life at St John’s in 1669.16 His return to St John’s, however,
did not last long; he soon became involved in disputes with the successive
masters Peter Gunning and Francis Turner, which ultimately led to his resig-
nation in 1672 at the age of thirty-five.17 Sources differ on what these disputes
were about: some say that Edwards’ ‘Calvinism’ led to conflict between him
and these masters, both of whom were Arminians;18 others hold the reasons
behind this friction to be unclear.19
Considering the date of Edwards’ resignation (1672), together with
the popularity he evidently enjoyed as a fellow of St John’s throughout the
1660s, we may dismiss Ann Hughes’ assertion that ‘as a convinced Calvinist,
John Edwards found his university career languishing after 1660’.20 In fact,
14 Mark Noble, A Biographical History of England, from the Revolution to the End of George I’s Reign,
vol. 2 (London, 1806), 124. It should be noted here that this legend was still ‘current’ in the early nine-
teenth century.
15 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:543–44.
16 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544.
17 Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 51.
18 Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 50– 51; ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637–1716)’; Samuel Macauley
Jackson, ‘Edwards, John’, in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. Samuel
Macauley Jackson, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1952), 80; Roland N. Stromberg, Religious
Liberalism in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), 111–12; Wallace,
Shapers, 206.
19 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544; New and General Biographical Dictionary, 5:276;
Lemprière, Universal Biography, 1:461; John Aikin and Thomas Morgan, et al., General Biography;
Or, Lives, Critical and Historical, of the Most Eminent Persons of All Ages, Countries, Conditions, and
Professions, vol. 3 (London, 1802), 526.
20 Hughes, Gangraena, 420.
4 Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity
twelve of Edwards’ thirteen years as a fellow came after the Restoration. Even
if it be granted that Edwards ultimately resigned at St John’s on account of
Reformed-Arminian differences with Gunning and Turner (which is uncer-
tain, and could equally have been the result of other personal or tempera-
mental differences), yet his Reformed commitments clearly did not lead to
a quick academic demise after 1660, for, as noted, he continued enjoying the
esteem of many during his fellowship. Edwards thus departed St John’s and
made the quarter-mile move to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took up
the study of civil law.21
In 1676 Edwards was invited by the parishioners of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Cambridge to become their minister, which he duly accepted. At
Holy Sepulchre his popularity soared, and his sermons ‘were as much attended
by persons of consequence in the University as they had formerly been at Trinity
Church.’22 That same year, Edwards married Mrs. Lane, the wealthy widow of
Alderman Lane, who had been a prominent attorney in Cambridge. Around
the late 1670s Edwards was also offered two considerable benefices in Norfolk
by his friend Sir Robert Carr, which he declined, insisting that these should be
granted to persons who needed them more.23 Edwards was thus not desirous of
preferment: having inherited a substantial estate from his mother and having
augmented this by his marriage to a wealthy widow,24 he was content to serve as
a parish minister and to spend his time in study and writing.
Edwards’ popular seven-year tenure at Holy Sepulchre ended in 1683,
when he accepted a preferment less valuable than those previously offered
to him, namely St Peter’s Church, Colchester.25 During his Colchester days
Edwards published his second work, titled Cometomantia: A Discourse
of Comets, which he dedicated to the Reformed bishop of Salisbury and
former Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford, Seth Ward (1617–89).26
Edwards proved popular in Colchester: here his sermons were ‘much
attended by the inhabitants’, including the mayor and alderman, yet he
retired from the ministry in 1686 due to both his and his wife’s declining
21
Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 52; Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544.
22
Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544; Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 60; Harry Bristow Wilson, The
History of Merchant-Taylors’ School, from Its Foundation to the Present Time (London, 1814), 827.
23 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544.
24 Ray, ‘Religious Thought’, 43; Aikin and Morgan, et al., General Biography, 3:526.
25 Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544.
26 John Edwards, Cometomantia: A Discourse of Comets shewing their Original, Substance,
Place, Time, Magnitude, Motion, Number, Colour, Figure, Kinds, Names, and more especially, their
Prognosticks, Significations and Presages (London, 1684).
Introduction 5
27 ODNB, s.v. ‘Edwards, John (1637–1716)’; Kippis, Biographia Britannica, 5:544; Ray, ‘Religious
Thought’, 61–62.
29 ‘Will of John Edwards, Doctor of Divinity of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire’ (18 March 1714),
— Pimeässäkö?
— Viskasin sinne.
— Mihin nimenomaan?
— Osaatteko te ommella?
— Emännän myssyyn?
— Kuinka pimititte?
8.
Mitja istui tällä kertaa syrjässä, selkä verhoihin päin, oli surullisen
ja väsyneen näköinen, aivan kuin olisi tahtonut sanoa: »Äh,
todistakaa mitä tahdotte, nyt se on samantekevää!»
Selvisi vielä sekin, että Mitja päinvastoin oli usein sanonut hänelle
tämän kuukauden kuluessa, ettei hänellä ollut rahaa
kopeekkaakaan. — Odotti yhä saavansa isältään, — lopetti
Grušenjka.
»Minäkin olen kanssasi, minä en nyt jätä sinua, koko elämäni ajan
kuljen mukanasi», kuulee hän vierellään Grušenjkan armaat,
tunteikkaat sanat. Ja nyt hänen koko sydämensä syttyi ja suuntautui