Gurnall - Revision history

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← Older revision		Revision as of 09:27, 5 February 2009
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	::::::::::::::::::::::::::::23rd, April, 1864.		::::::::::::::::::::::::::::23rd, April, 1864.
		+	{{returnto}} [[Theologians and Evangelists]]
		+	[[Category:Theologians and Evangelists]]

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-== '''A Biographical Account of the Author, on
+'''A Biographical Account of the Author, on  A TREATISE OF THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.''' '''William Gurnall, M.A.''' ''By the Rev.
-A TREATISE OF THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.'''
+J. C. RYLE, B.A. Oxon.,'' ''Vicar of Stradbroke, Suffolk.''
 ----
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 For my own, part, I can only say that I read everything I can get hold of which professes to throw light on my Master's business, and the work of Christ among men. But the more I read, the less I admire modern theology. The more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writing. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the 'broader and kinder systems,' as they are called, which, to my mind, stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy. I find more of definite soul-satisfying thought in one page of Gurnall than in five pages of such books as the leaders of the so-called 'Broad Church School' put forth. In matters of theology 'the old is better.'
-                                                                 J. C. RYLE, STRADBROKE VICARAGE, SUFFOLK.
+:::::::::::::::::::::::::J. C. RYLE, STRADBROKE VICARAGE, SUFFOLK.
-rd, April, 1864.
+::::::::::::::::::::::::::::23rd, April, 1864.

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 <blockquote>
 .Sarah, baptised 2nd, Apri, 1646, married to Mr. Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
 .Susannah, baptised 4th, April, 1650, married the Rev. Samuel Beachcroft, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, rector of Semer, Suffolk.
 .Catherine, the date of whose baptism we do not know, married the Rev. Bezaliel Peachie, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, vicar of Bares St. Mary, near Sudbury, who was one of the witnesses of Gurnall's will.
 .Elizabeth, baptised 25th, April, 1655, married the Rev. Philip Richardson of Christ's College, Cambridge, a clergyman of Ipswich.
 .Ann, baptised 11th, February, 1655, continued to live with her mother at Lavenham until her decease in 1698, and married in June, 1700, Mr. William Manthorp of Lowe toft.
 .Another sister, whose name is not known, married a Mr. Shaftoe of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
 .Thomas, baptised 13th, March, 1659, settled at Little Waldingfield, and was buried there in 1723.
 .Joseph, baptised 23rd, July, 1662, was an attorney, and according to M'Keon's belief, resided at Lavenham.
 .John, baptised 24th, December, 1664, was sent to Christ's College, proceeded B.A. in 1685, and afterward became curate of Brockley until 1698. He was buried at Lavenham on 6th, February, 1700.
 .Leonard, baptised 11th, May, 1669, is one of whom nothing is known.
 </blockquote>

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 <blockquote>
 a)His love to God: he loved him exceedingly whom he could not love excessively, having such high and raised apprehensions of his Maker's excellencies, as caused him to judge his prime and best affections unworthy to be placed on so divine an object.
 b)'His love to the holy Jesus: this was such a seraphic and divine fire in his soul, as did marvellously consume his love to the world and all sublunary comforts. You are witnesses, and all that knew him, in bow eminent a measure and degree the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the world by the cross of Christ.
 c)'His love to souls: this was it no doubt that made him so indefatigable both in his study and in the pulpit; from hence it was, that the throne of grace, his study, the pulpit, and his sick neighbours, had the whole of his time divided amongst them, and devoted to them.
 d)'His UNBOUNDED LOVE TO ALL CHRISTIANS; though they differed in their sentiments from him: he loved Christians for their Christianity, and did adore the image of his Saviour wherein he saw it in any of his members unhappily persecuting one another with hard names and characters of reproach. How often did he PUBLICLY DEPLORE AND BEWAIL, that the greatest measure of love that is found at this day amongst the professors of the cross, was not true Christian love, but only love of a party! Follow him then in the impartial exercise of this grace, and for your help therein remember what he taught you from Ephesians 5:2, "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us;" and as you have any regard for the Author of your profession, take heed that a spirit of division (now) crowd not in among you your unity is your strength as well as your beauty; persist therefore, I beseech you, in that Christian order amongst yourselves in which it was his great ambition all his days to preserve and keep you. Timely oppose the crafty design of the subtle adversary of souls, who will take this-occasion (if possible), now the spiritual parent is out of the way, to set the children together by the ears.
 </blockquote>
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                                                                   J. C. RYLE, STRADBROKE VICARAGE, SUFFOLK.
 rd, April, 1864.

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 'Mr. Bernard, lecturer of St. Sepulchre's in London, preached at St. Mary's in the afternoon of May 6th, his text, 1 Samuel 4:21: "The glory is departed from Israel," &c. In handling whereof he let fall some passages which gave distaste to a prevalent party in the university, as for saying,
 .That God's ordinances, when blended and adulterated with innovations of men, cease to be God's ordinances, and he owneth them no longer.
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 .That some shamefully symbolize in Pelagian error and superstitious ceremonies with the Church of Rome. Let us pray such to their conversion or to their destruction, &c.
 'Dr. Cumber, vice-chancellor, gave speedy notice hereof to Dr. Laud, Bishop of London, though he (so quick his university intelligence) had information thereof before. Therefore he was brought into the high commission, and a recantation tendered to him, which he refused to subscribe, though professing his sincere sorrow and penitency, in his petition and letter to the bishop, for any oversight and unbecoming expression in his sermon. Hereupon he was sent back to the new prison, where he died. If he was miserably abused therein by his keepers, as some have reported, to the shortening of his life, he that maketh inquisition for blood, either bath, or will be, a revenger thereof.'

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-== '''A Biographical Account of the Author, of
+== '''A Biographical Account of the Author, on
 A TREATISE OF THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.'''
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 ''Vicar of Stradbroke, Suffolk.'' ==
-_____
+----
 '''William Gurnall''', author of 'The Christian in Complete Armour,' is a man about whom the world possesses singularly little information. Perhaps there is no writer who has left a name so familiar to all readers of puritan theology, but of whose personal history so little is known. Except the three facts, that he was a puritan divine of the seventeenth century,—that he was minister of Lavenham,—and that he wrote a well-known book of practical divinity, most persons know nothing of William Gurnall.

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 The masters at Emmanuel in Gurnall's time were
 .William Sancroft, uncle of the archbishop, who held the office from 1628 to 1637, and
 .Holdsworth, who held the office from 1637 to 1645, when lie was ejected by the Earl of Manchester. He was a zealous advocate of the king, and attended him during his confinement in the Isle of Wight, and soon after, according to Neal, died of grief.
 The reason why Gurnall was never elected fellow of his college appears to have been the high character and attainment of his competitors. According to the books of Emmanuel, Ralph Cudworth was elected fellow in 1639, Worthington (afterward master of Jesus) in 1641, and Sancroft (afterward Archbishop of Canterbury), in 1612.

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 ----{{br}}
 '''William Gurnall''', author of 'The Christian in Complete Armour,' is a man about whom the world possesses singularly little information. Perhaps there is no writer who has left a name so familiar to all readers of puritan theology, but of whose personal history so little is known. Except the three facts, that he was a puritan divine of the seventeenth century,—that he was minister of Lavenham,—and that he wrote a well-known book of practical divinity, most persons know nothing of William Gurnall.{{br}}
 This dearth of information about so good a man appears at first sight extraordinary and unaccountable. Born, as he was, in a seaport town of no mean importance,—the son of parents who held a prominent position in the town,—educated at Cambridge, at one of the best-known colleges of the day,—the co-temporary of leading divines of the commonwealth times,—minister of the largest church in West Suffolk for the uninterrupted period of thirty-five years,—author of a work which, from its first appearance, was eminently popular,—Gurnall was a man, we naturally feel, of whom more ought to be known. How is it then that more is not known? How shall we account for the absence of any notice of him in the biographical writings of his day?
 I believe that these questions admit of a very simple answer. That answer is to be found in the line of conduct which Gurnall followed in the year 1662, on the passing of the Act of Uniformity. He did not secede from the Church of England. He was not one of the famous two thousand ministers who gave up their preferment on St. Bartholomew's Day, and became Nonconformists. He retained his position, and continued rector of Lavenham. Puritan as he undoubtedly was, both in doctrine and practice, he did not do what many of his brethren did. When Baxter, Manton, Owen, Goodwin, and a host of other giants in theology, seceded from the Church of England, Gurnall stood fast, and refused to move. He did not act with the party with which he had generally acted, and was left behind.{{br}}