Page:VCH London 1.djvu/471

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY doctrine and indulged in several irregularities/' The London ministers censured him heavily and solemnly disowned him. But several Independents sympathized with Davis's opinions and practices, and many more thought the action of the general body an unwarrantable assumption of authority. A more serious dispute followed. The works of Dr. Tobias Crisp, a hyper- Calvinist and Antinomian of the last generation, were reprinted in 1690 ; the names of several prominent ministers, obtained by a trick, being prefixed for advertising purposes. Dr. Daniel Williams both preached and wrote against the Crispian doctrine, and was supported by Vincent Alsop ; while Isaac Chauncey, Nathaniel Mather, and Stephen Lobb, all Independents, wrote on the opposite side, and John Humphreys, another Independent, strove to mediate between the contending parties. The ' Neonomian Con- troversy,' as it was called, lasted for six or seven years ; it was degraded by discreditable personalities, and left behind it a lamentable estrangement among men of equal sincerity and zeal for truth. The Independents thought they were combating a tendency toward Socinianism, while the Presbyterians believed they were contending for the only effective sanctions of Christian morality." An incidental effect of this controversy was a disruption among the managers of the Merchants' Lecture. In 1694 Dr. Bates, Dr. Williams, Mr. Howe, and Mr. Alsop withdrew and established a rival lecture at Salters' Hall, associating with themselves Dr. Annesley and Mr. Mayo." This lecture was conducted exclusively by Presbyterians, but died out about 1780. The vacancies at Pinners' Hall were filled by the appointment of Mather and Lobb, together with Timothy Cruso and Thomas Gouge, and since then all Merchants' Lecturers have been Independents. The first public ordination among Nonconformists since the time of the Commonwealth took place on 22 June 1694 in Dr. Annesley's meeting-house. Little St. Helen's," the service lasting from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The candi- dates were Joshua Bayes, Joseph Bennett, Ebenezer Bradshaw, Edmund Calamy, Joseph Hill, William King, and Thomas Reynolds ; and the officiat- ing ministers were S. Annesley, LL.D., Vincent Alsop, M.A., Thomas Kentish, Richard Stretton, M.A., Matthew Sylvester, and D. Williams. Dr. Bates and John Howe declined to participate, it is said, through fear of displeasing the Government. A manuscript " professing to give a list of the dissentient ministers in London in August 1695 names eighty-nine, including assistants and a few without pastoral charge. The list of Presbyterian and Independent congre- gations is very complete, only about three (so far as can be discovered) being omitted. With this correction the numbers are : In the City, twenty-two Presbyterian and fourteen Independent ; in Westminster, six Presbyterian ; in Southwark, six Presbyterian and two Independent ; in the out-parishes fifteen, Presbyterian and Independent not being always distinguishable.^* But " Calamy, Abridgement, i, 512-14 ; Hist. Acct. i, 372-4 ; Davis, Truth and Innocency Vindicated. " See D. Williams, Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated {i6()z ; ed. 3, xd'^V); A Defence of Gospel Truth; Man made Righteous ; J. Chauncey, Neonomianism Unmasked (iSgz) ; N. Mather, The Righteousness of God through Faith (1694) ; S. Lobb, A Peaceable Inquiry, &c. (1693) ; The Growth of Error (1697) ; V. Alsop, Dccus et Tutamcn (1696) ; J. Humphreys, Mediocria (1695) ; Pacification touching the Doctrinal Dissent, Sic. (1696). " W. VVilson, op. cit. ii, 4, 5, 202-4. " Ibid, iv, 72-3. " Formerly in the possession of Walter Wilson, and printed by the Cong. Hist. Soc. " Trans. Cong.-Hist. Soc. ii, 43 et seq. 383