THE CAUSE IN ENGLAND by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 20, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 21

THE CAUSE IN ENGLAND.

By John Norton Loughborough

Since my last report I have spent several days in London, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton. In the latter places were parties who had become deeply interested in our views by reading, and who were much strengthened by the opportunity of conversing on Bible truth.

In London I was entertained very agreeably at the hospitable home of Eld. Wm. M. Jones, Seventh-day Baptist minister, of 15 Mill Yard, Goodman’s Fields, London, E., who is zealously defending the ancient Sabbath, both in speaking and publishing. He is pastor of Mill Yard church, where services are maintained every Sabbath at 11 A. M. and 3 P. M. By request of Bro. Jones I spoke to his congregation Sabbath afternoon, April 10. My mind was deeply affected with the thought that I was speaking in the place where noble defenders of God’s Sabbath had proclaimed this sacred truth for the last two hundred years. Thank God that those walls still witness an assembly of devout Sabbath-keepers on the return of each Sabbath.

Bro. Jones kindly accompanied me to different places of interest in London. I was especially interested in visiting the resting-places of many of the pious dead, and spots made sacred to the memory of martyrs. We first visited those points where Sabbath-keeping congregations were established in London more than two hundred years ago, and also places where some of these suffered martyrdom for their faith.

Having read what is said in chapter 26 of Bro. Andrews’ Sabbath History, concerning early Sabbath-keepers in England, especially in London, I greatly desired to visit these interesting points.

The first case mentioned is that of Mr. Trask, who was placed in the Pillory in Westminster and then whipped all the way through the street to Fleet Prison. The nearest route from one of these places to the other is now over a mile and a half. It is probable that the track over which Mr. Trask was taken was nearer two miles. The prison where Mr. Trask was placed one year, and Mrs. Trask for part of the fifteen years of her imprisonment, is now no more. On the site of this prison,—on Farringdon Street, between Fleet Street and Holborn Viaduct, on the spot where many Nonconformists in the time of James I. were imprisoned, from 1618 to 1620,—is now erected a Memorial Hall of the Congregational Union of England. This Union has the supervision of the home mission work of the Society. As we sat in this hall a few moments for rest and meditation, I thought how wonderful are God’s dealings with his people. On this very spot where Nonconformists suffered imprisonment, their successors can now meet, and devise ways and means to spread through the kingdom those very principles which in some cases cost life itself. Even the Sabbath cause has a representative in the councils held in this Hall, in the person of Bro. Jones. The specialty of the council composed of the three denominations, namely, Baptist, Independent, and Presbyterian, is not for dogma, but for keeping a watchful eye over the civil protection of Nonconformists and anything that relates to religious liberty.

It is quite probable that there were many Sabbath-keepers in London three hundred years ago; for in the early part of the 17th century they had attracted so much attention that talented men engaged in writing against them and their books. In Bro. Jones’ library is a list of one hundred and thirty-two different books on the Sabbath question, written and published in England during the last two hundred and eighty years. Many of these were written in defense of the seventh-day Sabbath, and are works of considerable size.

At one time there were two congregations of seventh-day keepers in London. One of these congregations worshiped at Pinner’s Hall, on the north side of Broad Street, less than half a mile east of the Bank of England, and the other in Bull Stake Alley, High Street, White Chapel. The latter company was raised up prior to 1654, but the exact date is unknown, owing to the destruction of the early records of the church at the fire in Mill Yard in 1790.

The congregation at Pinner’s Hall was the fruit of the labors of the learned and pious Francis Bampfield. He was among the two thousand ejected ministers of 1662, under the act of Charles II. He was confined in Salisbury prison nine years for Nonconformist views, and at his death he had completed ten years and a few months of imprisonment for Christ’s sake. He was Calvinistic in his sentiments. While in prison he embraced the seventh-day Sabbath, and was baptized, and on his return to London, after his release, this company of believers was raised up. On two successive Sabbaths, in 1682, he was arrested at his place of worship, and the second time he was confined in Newgate prison, where he died in 1683. His brother, Thomas Bampfield, a Sabbath-keeper, once a speaker in the House of Commons, under Cromwell, was also imprisoned for his religious views.

Joseph Stennett preached to the congregation at Pinner’s Hall from 1690 to 1713. He was the author of that beautiful Sabbath hymn,

“Another six days’ work is done, Another Sabbath is begun,”

and many others on the Sabbath, baptism, Lord’s supper, etc.

I saw not only the spot where this company met for worship, and the Newgate prison, but also a church book containing the records of this church dated from May 23, 1673. This book is now preserved at Mill Yard. In this church book, during a period of eighty years, there is a record of the reception of about four hundred members.

The congregation which erected the Mill Yard chapel, and formerly met at Bull Stake Alley, originated at an earlier date than the Pinner’s Hall company. These were anti-Calvinistic in sentiment. At that time Nonconformist meetings had to be held in private places, and care was taken not to leave many records of their proceedings in writing to fall into the hands of their persecutors. There is, however, a plain record of their erecting a chapel in 1693 on the very foundation on which the present Mill Yard chapel now stands. Among the early seventh-day ministers of Bull Stake Alley was John James, but earlier still was one Dr. Chamberlain. To give them in order, the ministers of this congregation were Dr. Chamberlain, John James, Henry Sourseby, John Madden, John Savage, Robert Cornthwaite, Daniel Noble, William Slater, Wm. Henry Black, and W. M. Jones, the present incumbent.

In the person of John James we have a noted instance of martyrdom for nonconformity, and for obedience to the Sabbath. Oct. 19, 1661, while Mr. James was preaching at the meeting place in Bull Stake Alley, he was arrested, tried, and committed for a time to Newgate prison, then sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn, near Hyde Park, and while still alive to have his entrails drawn and his heart taken out and burned; his head to be taken off, and placed first on London Bridge, and afterward set up on a pole in White Chapel, opposite the meeting place in Bull Stake Alley; his body to be cut into quarters, and a quarter placed on each of four of the seven gates of the city.

Mr. James gained great sympathy and respect for his devotion and submission to God. On the day of his execution he was bound to a sled, and drawn through the slush of the streets to Tyburn, where he spoke with great power, and prayed with such fervency that the hangman would not execute the full tenor of the sentence, but in compassion permitted him to become fully dead before he was drawn and quartered. In other respects the sentence was executed. His quarters were exposed in four of the gates, supposed to be the four nearest to the meeting place, namely, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, and Aldersgate. What became of the fragments of the body is not known, but God will reward this faithful martyr when the souls beheaded for the witness of Jesus and the word of God (Rev. 20) shall come to life and reign with Christ.

The day after visiting these places of the early trials of the English Sabbath-keepers, we went to Smithfield, where, in the years 1555–7, in the reign of Mary I., “John Rogers, John Bradford, John Philpot, and other servants of God, suffered death by fire for faith in Christ.” Near this spot stands the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, erected A. D. 1102. “In March, 1849, during excavations necessary for the new sewer, and at a depth of three feet below the surface, immediately opposite the entrance to the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, the workmen laid open a mass of unhewn stone, blackened as if by fire, and covered with ashes, and human bones charred and partially consumed. This is supposed to have been the spot generally used for the Smithfield burning,—the face of the sufferers being turned to the east and to the great gate of St. Bartholomew, the prior of which was generally present on such occasions.”

Solemn, indeed, were our thoughts while standing in the place where those noble martyrs stood, and looking at the same church that their eyes had gazed upon. Oh! for more of their faith and love—the “gold tried in the fire.”

From Smithfield we went to City-road, and entered Bunhill Fields. In the year of the plague—A. D. 1665—the site of this burial ground was an open space of ground outside the city walls, where large pits were dug, and the dead thrown in. It was afterward purchased by the Dissenters for their burying-place. Here is seen the grave of John Bunyan, who died Aug. 31, 1688. Not far from this is the grave of Mrs. Susannah Wesley, mother of John Wesley. Beside this is a large family tomb (name unknown), upon which John Wesley used to stand and preach, over his mother’s grave, to the crowds of people. Here we also saw the graves of Dr. Gill, the great commentator, who died 1771, and of Dr. Burder, author of Burder’s Sermons, and Rev. Timothy Priestley, Isaac Watts, and many other devoted servants of God. We also saw the graves of Richard Cromwell, and Daniel De Foe, author of Robinson Crusoe.

Just across the way from this great burial ground is the chapel in which John Wesley preached. By the side of it is the parsonage, in one room of which Wesley died; this we also saw. We walked into the chapel and then to the church-yard, which is directly back of it, where is the tomb of John and Charles Wesley. By the side of it is the grave of Dr. Adam Clarke, the commentator.

When we think of the trials, and privations, the imprisonments and scourgings of these faithful soldiers of Christ, and of what they endured for the advancement of the truth they held dear, truly we may say in view of our opportunities and privileges, the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly heritage.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.