Knowles John

Knowles John , of Gloucester, by long and diligent study, became a proficient in the critical knowledge of the Scriptures. In the early part of his life he was an Independent; and after much reading and reflection, he was led to embrace Unitarianism. His piety and virtue were conspicuous, in all the successive stages of life; but while his labours were chiefly directed to the benefit of others, he met with little else than danger and hard usage himself. His patience was put to a severe trial, by the undeserved injuries which he sustained, and by his imprisonment during the time of the plague. At his death, he bequeathed some valuable books to a library at Gloucester; and left a third of his whole property for various charitable uses, one of which was the assistance of those, who suffered persecution on account of their religion. During his residence in London, he was employed in disseminating Unitarianism. He survived the year of the plague, and afterwards conversed freely among the clergy, to whom his learning and seriousness in religious matters were well known.

Such is the substance of an account, given of this excellent and conscientious man, by "a Divine of the Church of England," who has sketched his character, together with those of John Biddle, Thomas Firmin, and other eminent Unitarians of his own time. But very different are the terms, in which the Rev. N. Estwick, B. D., another Divine of the same Church, speaks of him, in the Preface to " Mr. Bidle's 'Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity,' examined and confuted," as may be seen from the following extract. "Since the beginning of our unhappy divisions, men have risen up amongst us, and departed from the holy faith, which they sometimes professed: and these, like ravening wolves, have not spared the flock, and by their perverse doctrines have drawn away many disciples after them. I instance only in the Anti-trinitarians, which have done the Devil great service in dishonouring the Lord of Glory, and have not only corrupt judgments, but do argue also for a creature Christ only, yea, and do preach their blasphemies against him, and which is the height of impudencie, do expose in print to the publike view their hellish heresies, such are Paul Best, Mr. Frie, Mr. Knowls, Mr. Biddle, and others I feare, which I have not heard of: these men are not worthy the name of Christians."

In the Rev. Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana," there is "A Life of Mr. John Knowles," one of the earliest of the Pilgrim Fathers, who sought an asylum in New England, but afterwards returned to his native country, and officiated in Bristol Cathedral, where he preached with great usefulness and acceptance for many years. He was one of the Ministers, ejected under the celebrated Bartholomew Act; after the passing of which, he went to London, and became the colleague of "the famous Mr. Kentish," at Shadwell. He is said to have undergone many grievous persecutions, and to have experienced many signal deliverances. He lived to an advanced age, but still continued to do great good; and would sometimes preach, till he was so much exhausted as to fall down. "His last falling down," says his biographer, "was a flying up; and an escape to that land where the weary are at rest." Of this Mr. John Knowles a further account is given in "The Nonconformists' Memorial," where it is said, that, during the plague of 1665, he was useful to such as stayed in the city, visiting rich and poor; but whether he was the same person as the subject of the present Article is very doubtful. 1. It appears, from the accounts which have come down to us respecting the emigrant, John Knowles, that he went to America in the year 1639, and did not return before 1650, or 1651; and that the principal scenes of his labours, before he left England, were Oxford and Colchester, and after his return, Bristol and London. On the other hand, John Knowles, the Antitrinitarian, was chiefly resident at Gloucester and Chester, before he settled in London; and it is doubtful whether his name is ever mentioned in connexion with Oxford, Colchester or Bristol. 2. It seems probable, that the examination of the latter before the Committee at Gloucester, of which more will be said by and by, took place while the former was discharging his pastoral duties in New England. 3. Mr. Eaton's first book against John Knowles, the Antitrinitarian and Antisatisfactionist, is dated 1650, and the second, 1651. In the former of these, Mr. Eaton says of the Mr. John Knowles, against whom he writes, that he had "vented his heterodox and dangerous doctrine at Chester, with too great success, to the disturbing of the faith of many." Now this John Knowles appears to have succeeded Mr. Eaton, as Chaplain to the Garrison at Chester. But in the State Papers, addressed to Oliver Cromwell, is a letter dated " New England, 31 10 Month, 1650," (Qu. Dec. 31, 1650?) to which is attached, with other names, that of John Knowles, Min.; and "it is not probable, if possible," as a friend (the Rev. R. B. Aspland, M. A.) suggests, in a letter on this subject, addressed to the present writer, "that he could leave New England, establish himself in Chester, gain the reputation of heresy, and have that heresy exposed in a printed book, in three months." 4. John Knowles, formerly of Gloucester, though in London during the time of the plague, was immured within the walls of a prison. The other John Knowles was at large, and actively employed in visiting the sick. 5. Of the former John Knowles it is further said, that, "dying, he bequeathed some books of value to the Library at Gloucester, and a third of all he had for the relief of men persecuted for religion, and other charities:" whereas, in the will of John Knowles, Minister of a Nonconformist congregation at Shadwell, which was proved June 6^th, 1685, and of which the present writer has been favoured with an account by the friend already mentioned, not the slightest allusion is made to either of these bequests. But, 6. The strongest presumption against the identity of John Knowles, the ejected Divine, and John Knowles, the Antitrinitarian, is supplied by the high terms of eulogy, in which the Rev. Cotton Mather speaks of the former, and the absence of all allusion to him as a person of suspicious orthodoxy. At the same time, it must be regarded as a very remarkable coincidence, that two Nonconformist Ministers, each bearing the name of John Knowles, should have been living in London during the time of the plague, and that both of them should have survived that event.

In the year 1650, the Rev. Samuel Eaton, of Dukinfield, published "The Mystery of God Incarnate: or, the Word made Flesh, cleered up: or, a Vindication of certain Scriptures (produced to prove the Divinity of Christ) from the corrupt Glosses, false Interpretations, and sophisticall Argumentations of M. John Knowles, who denies the Divinity of Christ: also, Certain Annotations and Observations upon a Pamphlet entituled, 'A Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity, according to the Scriptures: together with a Copie of a Letter sent by him to the Committee of Gloucester, concerning his Faith touching the Doctrine of the Trinity; by Samuel Eaton, Teacher of the Church of Christ at Duckenfield: whereunto is annexed the Attestation of Philip Nye, John Owen, Joseph Caryl, William Greenhill, Sydr. Simpson, Geo. Griffiths, Tho. Harrison. London, 1650," 12mo. In this work, the author thus writes concerning the Mr. John Knowles, who was charged with denying the Divinity of Christ. "A good while since he was questioned upon suspition of unsoundness in the doctrine of the Trinity, by the Committee of Glocester, where he then lived, to which Committee he sent a letter for their satisfaction." (P. 5.) In the same work, (pp. 233—235,) Mr. Eaton has printed, "Mr. Knowles his Letter to the Committee at Glocester, being questioned by them for being an Anti-trinitarian." Of this Letter the following is a copy.

"Gentlemen, Having received a reasonable motion, I have yielded a ready submission to you; The thing it seems that is desired, is mine opinion of the Trinity, being accused or at least suspected to be an Antitrinitarian. The grounds, 1. From my having some society with one who appeared infected therein" (Qu. John Biddle?). "But is this a necessary consecution, that because I have had upon occasion some communion with his person, therefore also with his error? 2. From my not frequent using that usual form in concluding prayer, 'To Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever:' I ascribing glory by name to each person of the Trinity. But how that omission may bring on me such suspicion, for the present I am not able either by Logick or Divinity to determine; upon the same grounds (if I mistake not) the Lord Jesus Christ himself might have been accused or suspected to have been an Antitrinitarian, for in that prayer which he composed, and we cal 'Precandi Normam,' The Rule of Prayer, and in other prayers of his which in Scripture are recorded, no such conclusion may be found. And such a form among all the prayers of the Apostles, or in any other Scripture have I never read. This I speak not to deny the lawfulness of, but the necessity and urging of any to make such a conclusion. I have learned that profitable lesson, not to beleeve or practise any thing, but first to ask my self this question, What reason, what ground have I from the Scriptures so to beleeve, or so to practise, and so to ' try' for my self ' all things,' 1 Thess. 5. 21, and not to trust others to try for me, or to pin my faith on anothers sleeve, nor beleeve as the Church heleeves, being not desirous to try truths by whole sale, but to receive it as God discovers it. Hence I have had some questionings about the Trinity, as it is held, because those Scriptures that commonly are acknowledged to prove the doctrine of the Trinity, may have probable expositions given unto them, whereby such Scriptures might be made insufficient for to prove it, I do not say sufficient to deny it.—The truth is, my faith was somewhat suspected for a time, about the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, I shall give you some of the grounds that resolved me in this particular, that the Holy Ghost is God.—I. Because plain Scriptures being compared together do conclude it, amongst many these, Act. 5. 3, 4, in one verse Ananias is said to lye to the Holy Ghost, in the other he is said to lye to God. Rom. 1. 34, The Godhead of Christ is called the Spirit of holiness, which shews us, that the nature of the Father and the Son, that they enjoy, is common with them to the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 3. 16,17, with 2 Ephes. 22being compared.—II. Because the properties that are peculiar to God alone are attributed to the Holy Spirit. 1. Omnisciency, 1 Cor. 2. 10, 11. 2. Omnipresency, or ubiquity, his being present every where, Psal. 139. 7, 8, 9; he fills all persons and places, he dwells in all beleevers in a speciall manner, wheresoever in al parts of the world, Rom. 8. 9, 13, and 5. 5. 3. Omnipotency, which appears by this, Christ Jesus in working out mans salvation, did discover an omnipotent power, but what he thus did was by the Spirit, that is, by the Godhead that the Spirit enjoyes, Isa. 11. 2. Isa, 61. 1,2. Heb. 9. 13, 14. 1 Pet. 3. 18. 1 Cor, 12. 3. 4. Immensity, passing all measure, being infinite in greatness, Joh. 3. 34.—III. Because the works of God are ascribed to the Spirit, as Creation, Gen. 1. 2. Sanctification, &c.

From this Letter it would appear, that Mr. Knowles was for a time inclined to adopt Mr. Biddle's notion, that the Holy Spirit was the one principal minister of God and Christ, singled out of the number of the other heavenly ministers or angels, and sent from heaven to sanctify the Church; but that he ultimately embraced the opinion, held by the generality of Unitarians, that the Holy Spirit is God Himself.

Mr. Eaton, in the month of May immediately preceding the publication of his "Mystery of God Incarnate," procured a copy of the above Letter from a friend in London, in whose custody it then was, and published it. His avowed object in so doing was, as he says, that Mr. Knowles's "instability may be the more discerned, and the danger that those persons are in that commit themselves to such guides, who are like the waves of the sea, that are tossed to and fro with every wind: and that his apostasie from his own light, which God had reached out unto him, (after his faith had been suspended for a time about the godhead of the Holy Ghost,) may be seriously considered of by himself, and by his friends who adhere unto him, and that he may yet be brought to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of the truth, and delivered from such strong delusions, which God gives many up unto, who when they knew the truth did not receive it in the love of it." (P. 232.)

It appears, from an Address prefixed to Mr. Eaton's work, that Mr. Knowles had been at Chester, instilling his principles, as there was occasion, into the minds of certain inhabitants of that city; and applying himself with all diligence to the answering of a paper, which Mr. Eaton had presented to them, for the purpose of strengthening their faith. The title of Mr. Knowles's tract was, "A Friendly Debate on a Weighty Subject." When it was printed, and a copy of it sent to Mr. Eaton, the latter saw that there was no other way of counteracting the effect of it, than hy answering it at some length; and hence the publication of " The Mystery of God Incarnate."

Before Mr. Knowles's tract came out, a pamphlet had been freely distributed in Chester, and other places, entitled, "A Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity," which was highly esteemed by many, and "by which," as Mr. Eaton says, "many were bewitched, and strongly seduced." Of this pamphlet Mr. Knowles was suspected to be the author. It was attributed to him by some of his friends, and he made a free use of it in drawing up his reply to Mr. Eaton (p. 236); for which reasons, Mr. Eaton undertook to write a few observations upon it, which occupy from p. 238 to p. 248 of his "Mystery of God Incarnate." It appears, however, from the tenor of these observations, though Mr. Eaton himself was not aware of the fact, that the " Confession of Faith," which had excited so great a sensation at Chester, and elsewhere, was not written by John Knowles, but by John Biddle. (Vide Art. 285, No. 6.)

In 1651, Mr. Eaton continued the controversy with Mr. Knowles, in a work bearing the following title. "A Vindication, or further Confirmation of some other Scriptures, produced to prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ, distorted and miserably wrested and abused by Mr. John Knowles: together with a Probation or Demonstration of the Destructiveness and Damnableness of the contrary Doctrine maintained by the aforesaid Mr. Knowles: also, the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction, and of Reconciliation on Gods Part to the Creature, cleared up from Scripture, which of late hath been much impugned: and a Discourse concerning the Springing and Spreading of Error, and of the Means of Cure, and of the Preservatives against it: by Samuel Eaton, &c. London, 1651," Ilium. In an opening Address, Mr. Eaton informs the Reader, that Mr. Knowles had " vented his heterodox and dangerous doctrine in Chester, with too great success, to the disturbing of the faith of many."

Another of Mr. Knowles's antagonists was the Rev. Robert Ferguson. The subject of controversy between them was Justification; and Mr. Knowles conducted his part of it with great ability and skill, and displayed an intimate acquaintance with the subject, and the scriptural arguments, by which his own view of it might best be supported. His adversary was a Scotchman, and had been brought up among the Presbyterians, but was ejected from their communion, and afterwards joined the Independents, by whom he was thought much of, though in reality a man of slender attainments, and very moderate abilities. "He had the management of a printing-press," says Bishop Burnet, (History of his own Time, Vol. I. p. 542,) "and of a purse that maintained it: and he gave about most of the pamphlets writ of that side [the side of the disaffected in the reign of Charles II.] : and with some he past for the author of them: and such was his vanity, because this made him more considerable, that he was not ill pleased to have that believed; though it only exposed him so much the more." At the passing of the Act of Uniformity he was incumbent of Godmarsham, in Kent, from which he was ejected in 1662. He appears, from the accounts of him which have come down to our times, to have been a thoroughly unprincipled person; but, at the same time, to have had a high reputation for orthodoxy. He published a " Discourse on Justification," on which, as it would appear, Mr. Knowles had briefly animadverted. This led him to vindicate himself in a Reply, entitled, " Justification onely upon a Satisfaction: or, The Necessity and Verity of the Satisfaction of Christ, as the alone Ground of the Remission of Sins, asserted and opened against the Socinians." This Reply appeared in 1668; and Mr. Knowles's Answer, which was without date, must have heen published soon afterwards; for in the First Part of it, he says, that having long waited in expectation of a Reply, it had made its appearance at last, and not many days before had come to his hands. (P. 4.) The title of Mr. Knowles's Answer was as follows. "An Answer to Mr. Ferguson's Book, intituled,' Justification onely upon a Satisfaction,' wherein he is friendly reprov'd, fully silenc'd, and clearly instructed: whereunto is added, A Compendium, or brief Discourse concerning the Ends and Intents of Christ's Death and Passion, consider'd as a Ransom: by John Knowles, a Servant of Jesus Christ: printed for J. J., and sold by P. P. and W. C." Mr. Ferguson had used the following words in reference to Mr. Knowles. "We have had a tast of one of them already, in his whole Christ a meer Creature; and seeing he abides still in that perswasion, he may do well to vindicate it from the confutation of Mr. Eaton." (Answer, &c. p. 9.) Any one reading this, would naturally infer, that Mr. Knowles had published a book, with the title, " Whole Christ a meer Creature." This inference, as we learn from Mr. Knowles himself, was actually drawn by some readers; but he positively denies, that he had ever written such a book, or that he had ever given expression to such a sentiment, in any book published by him. (P. 10.)

In reference to the word " Socinians," which Mr. Ferguson had introduced into the title-page of his Reply, Mr. Knowles writes as follows (pp. 4, 5). "I never yet was acquainted with any Socinian, I mean, with any one I knew to be such. Indeed I have heard of one Socinus, a learned gentleman, and a very pious man, as the History of his Life informs us. I have heard that he has written much, but believe me, I never yet read over one book of his; all his works I never saw yet. Some I know there are, who in some things adhere to him, wherein he dissents from you: But that any are baptized into his name, I believe not. You may call them Socinians, whom you dare to unchristian, but you must, Sir, give an account for both."

Mr. Knowles had projected a treatise "On Gospel-Fundamentals." (Answer, &c. pp. 8. 172.) He also penned some "Notes on Is. liii.," in which he applied that prophecy wholly to Jesus Christ (pp. 12. 136. 151); and he purposed, as he informs us, (pp. 40. 136. 172,) to write a treatise "Concerning the Death of Jesus." But whether he lived to publish any of these works, is a point which the present writer has been unable to ascertain.

(Vidend. The Grounds and Occasions of the Controversy concerning the Unity of God, &c, by a Divine of the Church of England. Lond. 1698,4to. p. 16. The Rev. Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana. Lond. 1702, Fol . Bk. iii. pp. 216, 217. Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, Lond. 1775, Vol. II. pp. 60—62. 349—351. Wilson's Hist, and Antiq. of the Dissenting Churches and Meeting-houses in London, Vol . L pp. 154—157, etc.

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