III. SURVIVAL OF PRESBYTERIANS IN NEWCASTLE AND NORTHUMBERLAND. NORTHUMBERLAND has long been the most Presbyterian County of England. To this northern border Presbyterianism retreated when overthrown elsewhere; and here it chiefly entrenched itself and continued to hold its own, when the rest of the country seemed almost unaware of the existence of such a system in its orthodox form on English soil. Proximity to Scotland does not suffice to explain how religious life and methods in Northumberland have been to so large an extent moulded by Presbyterian influences. Presbyterianism was no recent upstart there and no mere intruder from the North. Its venerable career and associations, however chequered, give it a right to be considered a native plant, indigenous to this soil; and those who mingle with the Northumbrian Presbyterians are soon made aware how quickly they resent the idea of their own Presbyterianism being in any sense "Scotch," either of recent importation or of foreign development. The ministers were largely Scotch, or Scotch-trained; but the congregations were English, with Scottish settlers worshipping with them.2 We have noted already, in the opening chapters of this work, the existence of Presbyterian ideas and methods in connection with the very first introduction of Christianity into these parts, under the Presbyter Aidan and the Culdee or Columban Church, while Northumbria was a separate kingdom extending from the Firth of Forth to the Humber, under Oswald of Bamborough. We have seen also how John Knox rocked the cradle of advanced Puritanism in Berwick and Newcastle in the very earliest Reformation times, before even he had done anything in Scotland of a similarly advanced kind; and so the movement 1 There are 70 Presbyterian congregations in the county. 2 Readers of the Waverley Tales will readily recall some of Sir Walter Scott's illustrations of this. was set on foot in Northumberland that issued next century in the political ascendency of Presbyterianism in England. The chief local event we have to note in the beginning of that ascendency, is the encounter of argument and courtesy at Newcastle, from May to July 1646, between the sombre, narrow, punctilious Charles I., and the wise, dignified, massive Alexander Henderson, whom Baillie calls "the fairest ornament, after John Knox of incomparable memory, that ever the Church of Scotland did enjoy." The question respected the Divine right of Prelacy or diocesan Episcopacy, and whether the King could annul it in England and supersede it by Presbytery, without violating his coronation oath. The controversy was unreal on the King's part, and only to gain time; and Henderson, though earnestly carrying it on, knew this too well and was sadly affected at the prospective but inevitable mischief of the royal debater's temper and aims. The whole came to nothing. The correspondence, consisting of the King's five letters and Henderson's four,— the King courteously being allowed the last word,—may be found, not without suspicion of having been tampered with, in the Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolina, or the Works of Charles I.; but prelatic writers do not seem so fond of referring to them as they once were. An absurd forgery, purporting to be a "Declaration of Mr. Henderson," regretting and recanting his Presbyterian sentiments, did service for a time in Clarendon's and other partisan histories, but is now universally known to have been forged. Henderson stands second to Knox for The Great "Assembly " of 1639 had overthrown Prelacy in Scotland; and in 1640 it was known the King was doing his best to muster forces to invade Scotland. The Covenanters resolved to be beforehand. In August their forces crossed the Tweed, the great Marquis of Montrose being the first to dash into the river,-and in a few days they occupied Newcastle with the good-will of the lieges. It was this that forced Charles I. to summon the eventful Long Parliament, for it stopped entirely the coal supplies of London and the South. 2 For full account of this forgery see Masson's Life of Milton. Hallam says, "It is more than insinuated that Henderson died of mortification at his defeat. He certainly had not the excuse of the philosopher, who said he had no shame in yielding to the master of fifty legions. But those who take the trouble to read these papers will probably not think one party so much the stronger as to shorten the other's days. They show that Charles held those extravagant tenets about the authority of the Church and of the Fathers, which are irreconcilable with Protestantism, in any country where it is not established, and are likely to drive it out where it is so." moral power and statesman-like genius, as well as for the lasting influence he has wielded over England and Scotland in the Presbyterian interest. While yet Charles remained at Newcastle, the Long Parliament was following up with other steps its famous early ordinance "that the name, title, style, and dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury or York, and Bishop of Winchester, Durham, and all other Bishops within the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales be, from and after 5 Sept. 1646, wholly abolished and taken away." Presbyterianism was now the Established Church of England, as far as Parliamentary ordinances and arrangements could make it so; and this very year that Establishment was coming into full operation by Presbyteries and Synods in London and all over Lancashire. By this time there were many in Newcastle and district of the "Presbyterian way or judgment," as it was called, and a Classis or Presbytery was partially at work for a season also.1 We need only mention the vicar, Dr. 1 Here is a form of ordination of a minister, that may illustrate the working of Presbyterianism in Newcastle under the Commonwealth. It is from Calamy's Account, vol. ii. p. 506; and his pages preserve many other copies of similar ordination certificates by the Presbyteries or CLASSES: "For as much as Mr. Ralph Ward hath address'd himself to the classical Presbytery, within the town and county of Newcastle upon Tyne (according to the Order of both Houses of Parliament, of Aug. 29, 1648, for the Ordination of Ministers by the Classical Presbytery;) desiring to be ordained a PreachingPresbyter, for that he is call'd to the Work of the Ministry in Wolfingham Church in the County of Durham, and hath exhibited unto the Presbytery, a sufficient Testimonial now remaining in their custody of his compleat Age, of his unblameable Life and Conversation, of his Diligence and Proficiency in his Studies, and of his fair and direct call to the foremention'd Place. We the Ministers of the said Presbytery have by Appointment thereof examin'd him, according to the Tenor of the said Ordinance; and finding him to be duly qualify'd and gifted for that holy Office and Employment (no just Exception being made against his Ordination or Admission), have approv'd him; And accordingly in the Church of John's in Newcastle, upon the Day and Year hereafter express'd have proceeded solemnly to set him apart to the Office of a Preaching-Presbyter, and Work of the Ministry, with Fasting and Prayer, and Imposition of Hands: And do hereby (so far as concerneth us) actually admit him into the said charge, there to perform all the offices and duties of a faithful Minister of JESUS CHRIST. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscrib'd our Names, this 14th Day of September, Ann. Dom. 1658. John Bewick, Moderator. Richard Prideaux. William Coley. John Marshe. Robert Jenison (or Jenningson), who had been prosecuted in the High Commission, who dedicates one of his treatises in 1649 "to the reverend his brethren and honoured friends of the Classis of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne." Lieutenant-colonel John Fenwick was one of the most prominent adherents of the "Covenant"; and the earnest and devoted Cuthbert Sydenham, one of the lecturers, "shined with the greatest lustre in Newcastle. He was a very seraphim. His pulpit transformed him out of himself "-so says the author of the LIFE (in the Surtees Society) of Alderman Ambrose Barnes, the famous Presbyterian Alderman. In the dedication of his books, addressing "the Right Worshipful Wm. Johnson, Mayor of Newcastle, with the Aldermen, Sheriff, Common Council, and the rest of that famous corporation," Cuthbert Sydenham says, "These nine years, when all the nation have been in a puzzle about errors, sects, and schisms, even almost unto blood, you have sat as in a paradise, no disturbances in your pulpits, no railings or disputings" "and as for the errors of the times that have disturbed so many towns in England, it may be said of Newcastle as of Ireland, 'the aire is so pure, no such venemous reptiles can live there,' and this hath been through the power of the Gospel." 1 ; When "Black Bartholomew's Day," of 1662, arrived, Newcastle and Northumberland contributed their quota to the 2,000 ejected ministers for conscience' sake. 1 An interesting little book, that should be commended as an exemplary specimen of Christian brotherly love and charity, is Historical Memorials of Presbyterianism in Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1844. The writer of it (T. G. Bell, Esq.), though retaining his predilections as an Episcopalian, felt drawn out to the sister communion by devout spiritual affinities. 2 The reader will find notices of thirty-eight Northumberland worthies, with their deeds of self-sacrifice, recorded in Calamy's Memorial; and though some of them did afterwards conform, the greater number struggled on in the face of the Five Mile Act and other oppressive measures, some of them earning a livelihood as farmers, doctors, apothecaries, and the like, yet maintaining secret religious services in cottages and barns as best they could. A few were Independents, but the great bulk were Presbyterians, and some eminently so. We need only name Dr. Samuel Hammond, Vicar of Newcastle; HENRY LEVER, of St. John's,-grandson of that great colleague of Knox, Thomas Leaver, one of the best of England's preachers, a royal chaplain to Edward VI., and often at the court of Elizabeth in her earlier years, and HENRY ERSKINE, who gave up the parish of Cornhill, and who was father of the two famous founders of the Scottish secession, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. The wonderful privations, deliverances, and labours of Henry Erskine belong rather to the other side of the border,—yet he was not unacquainted with Wooler gaol, like his companion in tribulation, the learned and pious Luke Ogle, Presbyterian Vicar of Berwick,-and in the name of ERSKINE we find the link between the suffering Presbyterianism of Northumberland and the self-denying Presbyterianism of the Scottish seceder Church, which was destined to impart again of her spiritual life and resources, and thereby to return amply and with interest what Northumberland first had given. Perhaps the most eminent of the Presbyterian ejected ministers, was DR. GILBERT RULE, incumbent of St. Michael's Church, Alnwick. After banishment to the Bass Rock, and undergoing other sufferings, he felt inclined, at the Revolution, to settle down as a Presbyterian Nonconformist preacher in Alnwick, but at this juncture he was appointed Principal of Edinburgh University, where he did great service for the General Assembly in the revived Presbyterian Church. While persecution times I See his own telling pamphlets against the persecuting Episcopal Establishment, especially The Good Old Way Defended, 1697; and the admirable sketch of his Life in Tate's History of Alnwick. He died in 1701. The following is a carefullyprepared list of his writings : 1. " Modest Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's Irenicum." 8vo, London, 1680. 2. " Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland." 1687. 3. "A Rational Defence of Nonconformity against Dr. Stillingfleet." 4to, London, 1689. 4. "A Sermon Preached before Parliament from Isaiah ii. 2, and others." 4to, Edinburgh, 1690. 5. "A Vindication of the Church of Scotland, being an Answer to a Paper entitled, Some Questions concerning Episcopal and Presbyterial Government in Scotland, etc." 4to, London, 1691. 2nd edition, 4to, Edinburgh, 1691. 6. "A Second Vindication of the Church of Scotland." 4to, Edinburgh, 1691. Another edition, 4to, London, 1691. [Over. |