Evangelical eschatology and the missionary awakening

Journal of Religious History

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 132-151

  Orchard, Stephen ^a  

^a Christian Education Movement   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 61049125940     PISSN: 00224227     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.00055     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. This is especially true in Northern Ireland. This faithfulness to tradition is to be distinguished from more widespread millenarianism derived from nineteenth-century religious movements. For further studies of the millennial origins of the first evangelical missions see: Iain H. Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evanglicalism 1750-1858 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994)
2. and especially James A. de Yong, As the Waters Cover the Sea: Millennial Expectations in the Rise of Anglo-American Missions, 1640-1810 (Kampen: Kok, 1970).
3. Joseph Mede, Diatribae (London, 1652) para. IV;
4. "A short view of the author's life and death," 675f.
5. Mede, Diatribae.
6. References are to the translation of Richard More, The key of the Revelation, searched and demonstrated out of the naturall and proper characters of the visions (London, 1650).
7. Mede, Diatribae, para. IV, 411f.;
8. "Letter to W. Twisse, Nov 11th, 1629."
9. Mede, The key of the Revelation, 1:38.
10. Mede, The key of the Revelation, 2:1f.
11. Joseph Mede, The apostasy of the latter times (London, 1642). In the preface his friend, W. Twisse, remarks on Mede's caution about changes in the church, since he follows Hooker. He also emphasizes that Mede, by contrast, is foremost in reviving millennial studies.
12. Sir Isaac Newton, Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel and St. John (London, 1733). With a dedication to Lord Peter King, by Benjamin Smith.
13. I. Newton, 251.
14. Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the prophecies, 3 Vols. (London, 1754), 2:1.
15. T. Newton, 3:354.
16. T. Newton, 3:428.
17. R. Hurd: An introduction to the study of the prophecies (London, 1772), preface, viii.
18. Hurd, 404f.
19. R. Lowth, De sacra poesi Hebraeorum (London, 1753). Translated by G. Gregory in 1787 and published as Lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews.
20. R. Lowth, Lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews, trans. G. Gregory (London, 1787), 247.
21. R. Lowth: Isaiah, a new translation with a preliminary dissertation and notes critical, philological and explanatory (London, 1771).
22. Dictionary of National Biography.
23. The copy carries a note to this effect.
24. Jonathan Edwards, An humble Attempt to promote explicit Agreement and visible Union of God's People, in extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion, and the advancement of Christ 's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time (London, 1747).
25. See E. A. Payne, The Prayer Call of 1784 (London, 1941) for an account of its impact in England and the editions.
26. There have been subsequent comprehensive studies of Jonathan Edwards. Two of particular interest are H. P. Simonson, Jonathan Edwards: Theologian of the Heart (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1974)
27. and N. O. Hatch and H. S. Storer, eds., Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
28. Evangelical Magazine, 1795.
29. Journal of John Wesley (London, 1938), 2:83f
30. for Wesley's first encounter with Edwards's work. By 1755 he was disaffected, 4:23. See also his quotations from a letter of James Erskine, 3:178.
31. J. A. Dorner, History of Protestant Theology (London, 1871), 2:168-73 on the reformers and eschatology.
32. The reference is from E. A. Payne, The Church Awakes (London: Livingstone Press, 1942).
33. A more recent translation of Dorner's book is History of Protestant Theology, trans. George Robson and Sophia Taylor (New York: AMS Press, 1970).
34. Payne gives a good account of the influence of Jonathan Edwards on the formation of the missionary societies in this and other pamphlets, notably Before the Start (London, 1942).
35. These are matters of opinion. Whitefield travelled and preached incessantly in America in the same way that John Wesley did in England. See, e.g., John Gillies, Memoirs of the life of the Reverend George Whitefield (London, 1772), 4:53f. The next chapter, 68f., recounts the cool reception Whitefield had on his return to England. He blamed his doctrinal disagreements with John Wesley on the Moravians.
36. Wesley was much the better organizer. The best modern overview of the Evangelical Revival and its effects is to be found in David Bebington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (London: Routledge, 1989).
37. Gillies, 348f, gives the text of Whitefield's will.
38. The countess contributed to the Presbyterian college in New Jersey (Princeton) and called the principal of her own college at Trefecca "President" on the North American model. S. C. Orchard, The History of Cheshunt College (Cambridge, 1968).
39. The Trefecca College of the countess of Huntingdon, moved to Cheshunt after her death, is to be distinguished from that of Howell Harris, also in Trefecca, which preceded it and continued after it. Trefecca, near Talgarth, was usually spelt Trevecka in eighteenth-century English sources. Whitefield was her favourite among the Evangelicals and preached at the opening of the Trefecca College in 1768. She followed his Calvinism at the cost of her friendship with John Wesley. Modern biographies of Whitefield include A. A. Dallimore, George Whitefield (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970)
40. and H. S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1991).
41. The records of the mission came to light at Cheshunt College, Cambridge, in 1965. Their wrappings indicated that they had probably been packed when the Trefecca College moved to Cheshunt in 1792 and not opened since. For a summary of them see Edwin Welch, Spiritual Pilgrim (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1995). The Cheshunt College archive is now held at Westminster College, Cambridge.
42. Although Haweis's role is acknowledged in standard histories, his importance is rightly emphasized in his entry in the Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995; hereafter cited as DEB).
43. A. C. Seymour, Life and times of the Countess of Huntingdon (London, 1839), 2:501.
44. The coach story is apocryphal. Amongst other places it is to be found in A. H. New, The coronet and the cross (London, 1857), 410, following Seymour.
45. See Evangelical Magazine 4 (1796): 382 for an original account of the first missionaries sailing for Otaheite (Tahiti) in August 1796, not 1798 as stated by New.
46. Cheshunt A3/3/10.
47. W. Piercy, Bethesda, to countess of Huntingdon, 5 April 1773, Cheshunt A4/1/4. There is an entry for William Piercy in DEB.
48. W. Piercy, Bethesda, to countess of Huntingdon, 15 April 1773, Cheshunt A4/1/5.
49. W. Piercy, Bethesda, to countess of Huntingdon, 25 February 1774, Cheshunt A4/1/14.
50. J. Moorhead, Boston, to countess of Huntingdon, 22 February 1773, Cheshunt A3/3/11.
51. Draft letter of the countess of Huntingdon, to William Piercy, August 1773, Cheshunt A4 3/1.
52. W. Piercy, Philadelphia, to countess of Huntingdon, 11 June 1774, Cheshunt A4/1/10.
53. The students did not take this view at first. See a letter from Thomas Cook to countess of Huntingdon, 18 November 1773, Cheshunt A3/1/25, for an expression of millennial expectations and optimism about the mission.
54. She held Piercy responsible for the loss of the estate and it was strongly represented to her that he had cheated her. There are several draft accounts and financial statements in respect of this in the Cheshunt archive.
55. M. Habersham, Charlestown, to countess of Huntingdon, 14 April 1774, Cheshunt A3/6. Matthew Habersham was the son of James Habersham, friend of George Whitefield and acting governor of the colony, 1771-73.
56. Draft letter of countess of Huntingdon, n.d., to William Piercy, Cheshunt A4/3.
57. W. Piercy, New York, to Countess of Huntingdon, 13 September 1774, Cheshunt A4/1/18. In fairness to Piercy it appears that he worked hard without being assured of a favourable reception, even amongst the colonists.
58. W. Piercy, Charlestown, to countess of Huntingdon, 28 November 1774, Cheshunt A4/1/19.
59. Evangelical Magazine 1 (1793): 157f.
60. Melvill Horne, Letters on missions, addressed to the Protestant ministers of the British churches (London, 1794).
61. Horne had been promoted as a young man by John Wesley and groomed as successor to John Fletcher at Madeley. He was in Sierra Leone, 1792-93. DEB.
62. Horne, Letters on Missions, 11.
63. Memoirs of Joseph Hardcastle, Esq. (London, n.d.), 103.
64. Memoirs of Joseph Hardcastle, 160.
65. See 157-61 for the text of a letter he circulated to directors of the Missionary Society in 1800.
66. For the South Seas mission see Niel Gunson, Messengers of Grace: Evangelical Missionaries in the South Seas, 1797-1860 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1978).
67. Sermons preached in London at the formation of the Missionary Society (London, 1795) published by the directors.
68. Sermons, 71f.
69. John Hey was minister of the Independent Church, Castle Green, Bristol, and an original director of the Missionary Society. He was one of those who met in "the cradle of the Missionary Society";
70. see R. Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society (London: CMS, 1899), 5.
71. Sermons, 78f.
72. Sermons, 79.
73. Sermons, 80.
74. Sermons, 82.
75. Sermons, 89.
76. Sermons, 87.
77. Sermons, 91f.
78. Sermons, 119f.
79. Sermons, 161f.
80. and Thomas Haweis, Memoirs on the most eligible part to begin a mission (1795).
81. India and China are in a different category, since as far as Britain was concerned commercial interests preceded the missionaries. The British East India Company actively resisted the Evangelical missionaries; see K. Ingham, "English Evangelicals and the Pilgrim Tax in India," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 3 (1952): 2
82. and E. D. Potts, "Baptist Missionaries of Serampore and the Government of India, 1792-1813." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 15 (1964): 2.
83. Four sermons, 58.
84. Four sermons, 58-9.
85. Evangelical Magazine 5 (1797): 128.