Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.Coleman, Thomas
History
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.
Coleman, Thomas
Clergy -- England -- Northamptonshire; Independent churches -- England -- Northamptonshire; Puritans -- England -- Northamptonshire
On examining his own religious character, he said that he had endured
much distress because he could not discern that remarkable change which
many had experienced; still, however, he dreaded above all things a
hypocritical profession; and though at first he thought his abstinence
from sin, as well as his attention to secret prayer and other duties,
might have arisen from a fear of offending his parents, yet he trusted
that at last they sprang from the principle of love to God.
After he had acquired, not only Latin and Greek, but also several of the
Oriental languages, in which his father possessed uncommon skill, and
had added to them a familiar acquaintance with Italian and French, he
went to study for the ministry under Mr. Woodhouse, a celebrated teacher
in Shropshire. From thence he removed to London; and having joined a
Church there, and heard several of the most celebrated preachers, he
returned to Leicestershire, where he began his ministry as assistant to
his father, amidst the storm that raged in the year 1684. He was so
useful that very large additions were made to his father's Church while
he was with him. "When he was present," says Mr. Neal, "at the
declaration which the new converts made of the powerful impressions
received under his ministry, oh, how he would humble and abase himself
before God in prayer, and set the crown of his success upon the head of
free grace!" During the first three years of his ministry he also laid
the foundation of several congregations in that country. He was in 1687
called to preach at Sandwich, in Kent, where he was detained by the
importunity of those who derived benefit from his labours; but after two
years was recalled by the equal solicitations of his father and the
flock in Leicestershire. But though he then settled with them, they were
compelled by a sense of duty to give him up almost immediately, for,
having preached an occasional sermon in London, he was invited to assist
Mr. Ford in Miles' Lane. This was his final removal from Harborough.
After Mr. Ford's death he became the sole pastor of the Church, was the
means of changing a declining cause into one of the most prosperous
Churches in London, and attained a very high degree of popularity and
usefulness, which were maintained by the divine blessing even to the
close of his life. With the inspiration of friendship added to that of
genius, Dr. Walls composed a Latin epitaph, which was inscribed on his
tomb in Bunhill-fields; and at the request of friends he gave an English
translation, which would furnish an eloquent and spirited memoir of the
deceased. This epitaph we insert here, because Harborough was the scene
of his youthful days, his early education, his decided piety, and his
first stated engagements in the ministry, which were so excellent and
successful as to give promise of all the future eminence he attained. It
may be found in the last volume of Watts's Works, page 439.
SACRED TO MEMORY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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