Whether or not such rebukes and warnings prevented Beveridge from accepting the vacant See, at all events he declined it, and remained a Presbyter till after the death of William.
CHAPTER VII.
Nonconformists regarded the Revolution with thankfulness. William was, in their eyes, a Heavensent deliverer, and at weekly and monthly fasts they joined in prayer, that God’s blessing might rest on his forces,[208] which they regarded as being at war with Babylon. It is said that had the London Dissenters been requested to raise a monument to his memory, they would have provided a statue of gold;[209] and Calamy paints in bright colours their payment of taxes, and hearty intercession for both King and Queen. He also alludes to their public ordinations, their loving carriage amongst themselves, and their friendly behaviour towards the Established Church. There is truth in what he says, and we can conceive how, with memories of ancestral troubles, he would rise to enthusiastic delight whilst recording the blessings of the Revolution; but truth throws strong shadows amidst these brilliant hues, and, indeed, he himself, in subsequent portions of his narrative, makes an abatement in his demands on our admiration.
NONCONFORMISTS.
Mutual charity would have been exemplified if Howe’s advice had prevailed, for he urged Conformists and Nonconformists not to magnify diversities of opinion, but to promote the interests of a common Christianity. “If our rulers,” he adds, “shall judge such intercourses conducing to so desirable an end, they may perhaps in due time think it reasonable to put things into that state, that ministers of both sorts may be capable of inviting one another occasionally to the brotherly offices of mutual assistance in each other’s congregations. For which, and all things that tend to make us a happy people, we must wait upon Him in whose hands their hearts are.”[210] But on many people these sentiments fell as idle words; and if by others they were heard for one moment, the very next they were drowned by the din of old controversies, or the outburst of new passions. Beautiful and blessed ideals of union to most were as destitute of all charm for their affections as of power to work themselves out into facts. Catholic-minded men on opposite sides, if unencumbered by partizanship, would have surmounted difficulties, and reached, if not unity of fellowship, yet freedom of intercourse; but then, as always, prejudices in the many defeated endeavours on the part of a few, and reopened breaches when they seemed on the point of being healed.
Death removed some most distinguished Nonconformist Ministers at the era of the Revolution.
1691.
John Bunyan, who belongs more to the universal church than to a particular sect, died, as he had lived, in the Baptist communion. He has come before us in a former volume, not as a leader in ecclesiastical affairs, but as a sufferer for conscience’ sake, and as an author of works which have won for him an unparalleled renown. He trod the paths of private life, save that when he came to London his “preaching attracted enormous multitudes;” and it was in the city which had witnessed his vast popularity that he breathed his last. A minister of peace, he took a long journey on horseback to extinguish domestic strife, and on his way afterwards to the Metropolis, brought on a fatal fever, through fatigue and exposure to heavy rains. This occurred in the month of August, 1688, when the throne of James was tottering to its fall, and plans which led to the Revolution were being formed; probably whisperings of what was to happen to his country reached Bunyan’s ears in his last hours. Illness overtook him in the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, a grocer on Snow Hill, and just before his death he said to his friends, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of His blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner, where I hope we ere long shall meet to sing the new song and remain everlastingly happy, world without end.” “He felt the ground solid under his feet in passing the black river which has no bridge, and followed his pilgrim into the celestial city.” He expired before the end of August, and was interred in Bunhill Fields; his church at Bedford lamented with unaffected sorrow his loss at the age of 60; and keep the next month days of humiliation and prayer for the heavy bereavement they had sustained.[211]
Dr. John Collinges, a Presbyterian, once Vicar of St. Stephen’s, Norwich, died in 1690. He had assisted Pool in his Annotations, and written practical as well as controversial works. One of them, entitled The Weaver’s Pocket-book, or Weaving Spiritualized, was no doubt suggested to him as he had stood watching the loom in the house of some industrious parishioner in days when the city of Norwich enjoyed the zenith of its manufacturing industry. He left behind a good reputation, being, as his brethren testified, “a man of various learning and excelling as a textuary and a critic, and generally esteemed for his great industry, humanity, and exemplary piety.”
NONCONFORMISTS.