On the 26th of October, 1691, Mr. Joseph Tate, having previously been received into the church, was solemnly set apart to the office of its pastor.
In the year 1693, the congregation sustained the loss of a promising, and apparently robust, young man, named Augustine Gregory, who had been designed for the ministry, but was carried off by consumption in his seventeenth year. An interesting letter has been preserved, which was addressed to him a short time before his death, by his intimate friend, Mr. Josiah Baker, one of the excellent family at Wattisfield, to whom a reference has been already made. [157]
“Wattisfield, Sept. 7th, 1693.
“Dying friend,
“Your present condition directs me to this epithet, which, though in itself it might seem harsh and grating, yet I hope your daily conversing with death will take off whatever of that nature may be in it absolutely considered.
“The great probability that there appears to be that we shall never meet again in this world, is an argument with me to trouble you with a few lines as a testimony of my truest affection, and to bid you farewell till we meet in a better world.
. . . . . .
“It behoves you to see that the foundation of a good work be laid in deep humiliation for sin, both original and actual, that there be not only a partial, but a thorough change wrought in you; that there be an unreserved resignation of yourself to a whole Christ, and a fixed reliance upon him alone for salvation; and all this joined with a filial submission to a Father’s rod, in your present condition.
. . . . . .
“The sweet in-comes which I hope you find under this rod, may greatly reconcile you to your present condition; and the forethoughts of the glory to come, and uninterrupted communion above, may beget in you a longing after the future state. God in his infinite wisdom, does generally give more fellowship and communion with himself, under affliction, than at other times, both for the comfort and peace of the afflicted, and to show that He is all, without all, as well as in all ordinances. And this should reconcile us to the sharpest affliction, even to death itself; if we may have His presence, his rod and his staff, to comfort us. The Lord’s end, in affliction, is to take away sin; and if it be his will that we should not come back into a sinful world, but be removed into a sinless state above, we have no reason to be unwilling to put off our rags of mortality, that we may put on robes of immortality, and to go to that place, where all tears of conviction, humiliation, and affliction, shall be wiped off, and all sin and sorrow shall flee away.
“You are made a singular example to all spectators about you, and especially to all young persons. It is eminently verified in you, that all flesh is grass, and as the flower in the field, so it fades and withers. And when I see so green grass withered, and so fair a flower faded, it teacheth me that the young man is not to glory in his strength. I’m sure there is a peculiar voice to myself in this affliction. The Lord grant I may hear that instruction which he intends by it, and that it may be sealed by his Spirit upon my heart!
. . . . . .
“Farewell, my dear friend. The Lord bless you, and make his face to shine upon you, and lift up the light of his countenance upon your soul. The Lord give you that assurance of his favour which you wait for, that joy and peace in believing, that may give you an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, where, I hope, at the glorious resurrection, you shall meet with
Your most affectionate
and sympathizing friend,
“Josiah Baker.” [160]
During Mr. Tate’s ministry at Beccles, upwards of thirty persons joined the church. But on the 28th November, 1694, he resigned his pastoral office, by a memorandum under his hand, in the church book; and his dismissal was testified by the signatures of “Edmund Artis,” and “Fran. Haylouck,” the deacons.
In the same year Mr. Tate became pastor of the Independent church then assembling at Girdler’s Hall, London, where he succeeded Mr. George Griffith, an eminent preacher during the interregnum, and a principal manager in the synod held by the Independents in 1658. The afternoon service at Girdler’s Hall was conducted by Mr. Tate for twelve or thirteen years, but of his subsequent history there are no traces. That church afterwards became scattered among other societies. Many of them joined in communion under the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts. [161a]
The church at Beccles remained without a settled pastor for nearly three years after Mr. Tate’s resignation.
In the interval, John Primrose and Nathaniel Newton were ordained deacons. [161b] It is most likely that the first meeting-house in Beccles was erected at this period; for on the 11th January, 1696, (O. S.) the ground which had been purchased some years earlier, together with “a house thereupon newly built,” was conveyed to trustees, [161c] and the intention of the parties was declared, by a schedule annexed to the deed, that the house should be employed as a place of public worship for such protestants inhabiting in Beccles and the neighbouring towns, as could not conform to the established religion. [162]
On the 28th July, 1697, Mr. John Killinghall was admitted a member, and on the 13th of the following October, he was set apart to the office of pastor.
He was an excellent preacher, and for some time highly esteemed here. But in September 1699, the pleasing prospect became clouded by an incorrectness of conduct calling for the severest discipline of the church. [163] There was no attempt to palliate sin, though it had gained a temporary victory over one, whose degradation could not fail to bring discredit upon the christian profession. The church proceeded with awful firmness, though not without full proof and a due weighing of all circumstances, to show their obedience to Christ’s institutions, by excluding the offender from their communion. It has been said that some persons of the establishment considered him to have been too severely treated: it does not appear that he ever thought so himself. Deeply penitent, not only that he had “wronged his own soul,” but also that he had caused the good of others to be evil spoken of, he applied for some time to secular business, demeaning himself with great modesty and becoming remorse. These circumstances, combined with a desire on the part of the church to evince the utmost allowable tenderness towards an erring brother, led to his re-admission after the lapse of some months.
These circumstances have long since been made public. Historical justice forbids their suppression. Nor is there any sufficient reason for adopting such a course. The individual himself has joined the assembly above, among whom “there is joy over a sinner that repenteth.” None who have any pretensions to justice or candour, will deny that occurrences like that in question are rare among the ranks of the dissenting ministry; and none that value the respect of reasonable and unprejudiced men, will turn the failings of an individual to the disparagement of a party, much less of its principles. “There are too many faults” (to adopt the language of one distinguished by a truly catholic spirit) “among all parties; but God knows it is fitter for us all to mend than to recriminate. ‘Yea, but the party we are of, professes not so much strictness.’ No? What party should you be of, that professes less strictness? What more lax rule of morals have you than other Christians? Do you not profess subjection to the known rules of the Bible concerning christian and civil conversation? You do not, sure, profess rebellion and hostility against the Lord that bought you? Doth not your baptismal covenant, which you are supposed to avow, bind you to as much strictness as any other Christian? . . . We that think we stand should take heed lest we fall. It is a costly admonition that is given us in such instances.” [165]