1694–1702.
In his previous residence at Blackheath Nelson wrote books by which he has become well known to posterity. Few may have heard of The Practice of True Devotion, which he anonymously published in 1698, or of his Exhortation to Housekeepers, which appeared in 1702; but a lasting fame has followed his Companion for the Festivals and Fasts, which issued from the press in 1704. Bodies of divinity, founded upon the Apostles’ Creed and upon the Thirty-Nine Articles, bearing distinguished names, were popular at the time, and books explanatory of Church offices had attained some reputation;[470] but no book aiming to explain theological doctrine, through ecclesiastical associations, could vie with this in the extent of its immediate circulation. The design struck in with tendencies then beginning to unfold—not ritualistic in the modern acceptation of the term; but sacramental—in the way of frequent celebration of the Eucharist and a strict observance of sacred seasons. The production is pervaded with a cast of thought which, though pre-eminently cherished by Nonjurors, was not peculiar to them. Nelson believed that the Episcopal Church of England is the great conservator of orthodoxy; that her Prayer-Book is an unparalleled help to devotion; that Sacraments lie at the centre of Christianity; and that holy days are seasons of blessed revival. He wrote accordingly; and what he wrote was acceptable to members outside his own circle, not only on account of their sympathy with his Church views, but because there lay at the bottom of it this true idea, that theology should be the handmaid of devotion; that faith finds expression in worship; that religion is not a metaphysical idea, but a life which pours itself out in prayer and praise before God, and in justice and charity towards man. I must add, however, that the popularity of Nelson’s publication seems in some degree due to the patronage it received, the eulogiums pronounced upon it, and the means adopted by religious societies for its circulation. In a literary point of view it can pretend to little, if any merit. The form of question and answer, as bare as any catechism, gives it no attraction. The remarks are commonplace, without any attempt at illustration. For whatever learning may be found in its pages the reader is indebted not to Robert Nelson, but to Dr. Cave.
The book, prepared I presume at Blackheath, was published whilst Nelson lived in Ormond Street, where he received the congratulations of his friends, especially of the Nonjurors, who naturally regarded the popularity of the work as a signal service to their cause.
NONJURORS.
Nonjuring circles in the Metropolis must often have been agitated by rumours of plots, real or imagined. In the saloons of Jacobite nobles, in the back rooms of city shops, in the garrets of Little Britain, stories would be whispered of preparations made for restoring the legitimate Sovereign. In the autumn of 1698 such tales reached the ears of the Duke of Shrewsbury’s Secretary. A Jacobite party had provided sixty horses: these were dispersed in Kent and about town, some in the hands of jockeys. They had engaged a Canterbury innkeeper to help onward their project, had raised a fund of above £1,000, were on the tiptoe of expectation, and only waited for a signal to mount their steeds and be off like the wind. So the Secretary heard, and, in connection with the retailing of all this talk, he stated, that he was on the point of apprehending a person who dealt in policies of insurance upon James’s restoration. He paid a guinea—so runs the letter—to receive fifty if the King or his son should reascend the throne by the following Michaelmas—certainly a strange scheme for promoting his return, since it became the interest of everyone who received the guinea to keep the Royal refugee away.[471]
1694–1702.
NONJURORS.
Centres of Nonjuring influence and activity existed in the country. Shottesbrook Park, near Maidenhead, with its beautiful church of decorated Gothic, and its manor-house full of convenience and comfort—the home of Francis Cherry, a country gentleman, both handsome and accomplished, “the idol of Berkshire”—offered a pleasant retreat for the deprived.[472] Many could be accommodated within the spacious Hall, for it contained not less than seventy beds; and the owner was as free in his hospitality as he was rich in his resources. His heart went with the exiled King, and a story is told to the effect that once, in a hunting-field, when closely pressed by William’s steed, he plunged into the Thames where the river was deep and broad, hoping that the piqued monarch might be induced to follow through the uncomfortable if not perilous passage. To Shottesbrook House, Robert Nelson often repaired. There the Nonjuror Charles Leslie found a welcome, and at a later period than this volume embraces, disguised in regimentals, when, in danger of apprehension, he obtained shelter in a neighbouring house until by Cherry’s help he made his escape, and set out to Bar-le-duc to attempt the conversion of the Pretender. Many a scene of excitement, many a flush of hope, many a flutter of fear, many a pang of disappointment must have occurred under the roof of the Shottesbrook squire, as persons deep in political intrigues met for conference. Bowdler, Nelson’s neighbour in Ormond Street, accompanied by his family, was a visitor to this spot; Brokesby, a deprived clergyman of Rowley, near Hull, found in it a resting-place; and the learned Prussian Lutheran, Dr. Grabe, who had come over to receive orders in the Episcopal Church, cultivated friendships at the agreeable mansion—convenient for him because not very far from Oxford, where treasures of learning excited his curiosity and increased his erudition. Hickes delighted in his company, and after his death compared him to a great and mighty prince, who, dying, leaves behind many plans of noble and curious buildings, some half, some almost, and others entirely finished.[473] In the same place, there also resided the famous Henry Dodwell, whose views distinguished him from Kettlewell, and still more from Hickes. Entering into ecclesiastical subtleties, Dodwell would say “that if there had been a synodical deprivation of the orthodox and faithful fathers of the Church, however in itself unjust, yet the Clergy and laity ought to have complied with the greater obligation of owning the Episcopal College than with the less obligation of owning any particular Bishop.” In this respect he differed from Kettlewell, who would no more allow of a synodical than of a secular deprivation, making, as we have seen in reference to this question, individual conscientiousness the paramount rule of action. And further in the same line he differed from Kettlewell, for Kettlewell made the Church throughout subserve religion, but Dodwell made religion subserve the Church.[474] Dodwell was really in principle a higher Churchman, though in practice lower, than Kettlewell—much lower than Hickes; for Hickes would not attend parish worship at all, and Kettlewell discountenanced it in the Clergy; but Dodwell would join in morning and evening prayer, childishly satisfying his scruples when the name of the reigning Sovereign occurred by sliding off his knees and sitting down on the hassock. It is amusing to notice the methods of protest against prayers for the reigning family adopted by Nonjurors. Some rose from their knees and stood up in the face of the congregation; some shut their books; some turned over the leaves so as to make a noise; some satisfied themselves by declining to say Amen, or by mentally substituting the names of the exiled Stuarts. Dodwell, whilst living with Mr. Cherry, had a remarkable pupil in Thomas Hearne, who was patronized by the generous host, supported at his cost, and prepared at his expense for the University, as if he had been his own son. Hearne, as we are informed on his own authority, was instructed “in the true principles of the Church of England”—an expression we can easily understand; and we learn from the same source how busily the incipient archæologist engaged at Shottesbrook in studies and work subsidiary to literary schemes carried on by the eminent Nonjurors there congregated together.[475]
1694–1702.
Within a few miles of Frome, in Somersetshire, stands Longleat House, a palatial abode, surrounded by gardens, in the midst of a wooded park, worthy of the beauty and magnificence of the mansion. Just outside the park paling rises the old church of Horningsham, and hard by is a little Dissenting meeting-house, the most ancient in our island. The place is not above twenty miles from Wells, and part of the domain comes within the diocese. There the most eminent and the most admirable of Nonjurors, Thomas Ken, took up his abode, at the request of Lord Weymouth, the possessor of Longleat; and if social gatherings like those of Shottesbrook did not occur there, the residence of the Prelate rendered it a source of the purest Nonjuring influence. He occupied a room at the top of the house, removed from the noise and bustle of an English hall, “open to all comers of fashion and quality.” Surrounded by his large library, “he wrote hymns, and sang them to his viol, and prayed, and died.”[476] The most popular of all his sacred lays—the Morning and Evening Hymns—were composed on the top of a hill, which, from the prospect it commands through a break in the woods, is well known throughout the neighbourhood by the beautiful name of “the Gate of Heaven.”