Samuel Annesley and the Cripplegate Morning Exercises: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Casuistical Ministry

By Ivan R. Davis

Out of the religious and cultural turbulence following the Reformation there emerged in sixteenth-century England a "reformed" Christianity which manifested itself in the Puritan tradition. Forged in the fires of political upheaval, persecution, and opposition, the Puritan worldview was championed by its faithful preachers who labored to save souls and guide Christians in the many-times perplexing paths of holy living. This book examines the development of Protestant casuistical ministry in seventeenth-century England with a particular focus on the work of Puritan pastor, Samuel Annesley, and his casuistical efforts through the "Cripplegate Morning Exercises."

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664286023

Ivan R. Davis

Ivan R. Davis (M.Div, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, and Westminister Theological Seminary, Philadelphia) serves as chaplain at the Total Living Center in Stanley, North Carolina. He has been involved in preaching and teaching ministry in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and currently the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) for nearly 50 years.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-8603-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8604-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8602-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922602

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/14/2022

Contents

Preface

PART I: SAMUEL ANNESLEY: FROM CRADLE TO CRIPPLEGATE

1 SAMUEL ANNESLEY AND THE CRIPPLEGATE CONNECTION

A Son Asked of God

Cripplegate: A Useful Location

Cripplegate: Origins

Cripplegate: The Church of St Giles

Cripplegate: The Parish of St. Giles

Cripplegate: The Congregants of St. Giles

Cripplegate: The Vicars

2 AN EMINENTLY USEFUL MAN

Early Conflict with the Parishioners

An Eminently Useful Man

3 SAMUEL ANNESLEY AND THE CRIPPLEGATE EXERCISES

The Historical Cripplegate Morning Exercises

Annesley and the Cripplegate Exercises

Casuistic Intimations

PART II: CONSCIENCE AND THE CASUISTICAL TRADITION

4 THE CASUISTICAL TRADITION

Casuistry: The Case of Conscience

The Emergence of a New Paradigm

The Necessity of a New Paradigm

Casuistry: Science Ad Casus Conscientiae

5 THE ESSENTIALITY OF CONSCIENCE

The Cripplegate Consensus on Conscience

6 INFLUENCE OF THE RAMUS-AMES TRADITION

PART III: ANNESLEY’S CRIPPLEGATE INSTITUTE FOR CASUISTICAL PREACHING

7 ANNESLEY’S CASUISTICAL INHERITANCE

Ames and the Protestant Casuistical Divinity

Thomas Case and Other Early Influences

The Cripplegate Conference

The Cripplegate Curriculum

8 ANNESLEY’S INAUGURAL SERMON ON CONSCIENCE

A Pauline Standardization of the Case of Conscience

The Topography of Conscience

A Description of Conscience

The Biblical Heart and Spirit

The Duties of Conscience

The Office of Conscience

The Discourse of a Practical Syllogism

Typology of Conscience

The Sleepy Conscience

The Seared Conscience

The Erring Conscience

The Doubting Conscience

The Scrupulous Conscience

The Trembling Conscience

The Good Honest Conscience and

The Good Quiet Conscience

9 A WEALTH OF CASUISTICAL WISDOM

The Preacher-Casuist

A Pastoral Model of Ministry

Spiritual Service: Salvation and Sanctification

Public Preaching: A Ministry of Edification, Exhortation and Encouragement

Private Life: Holy and Conscientious Living

A Spiritual Conversation in This World

Bibliography

Image Attributions

Cover Image: The Puritans, Bundy, Edgar, 1862–1922, Photo credit: Gallery Oldham Collection: © Gallery Oldham. Used with permission.

Frontispiece: Figure 1 Samuel Annesley D. D. from an Original Painting in the Library, Red Cross Street, (Illustration to Calamy’s ‘Nonconformist’s Memorial, 1802). © The Trustees of the British Museum. Used with permission.

Pg. 6: Cripplegate, City of London, 1750. Artist: Anon. © Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo. Photo credit: London Metropolitan Archives (City of London)/Heritage Images. Used with permission.

Pg. 23: Figure 2 Title Page of Farewell Sermons Preached By Ejected Ministers in 1662, 1662, English. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Used with permission.

Pg. 98: The West Prospect of the Parish Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, Benjamin Cole, 1697–1783, British, after unknown artist, undated, Engraving. © Artokoloro / Alamy Stock Photo. Used with permission.

Pg. 99 Chancel St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, England. Engraving, 19th century. © De Luan / Alamy Stock Photo. Used with permission.

Dedicated to Soul-Servant

Reverend Russell Cameron

Preface

In his article, Casuistry in the Puritan Age,¹John T. McNeill provides us with a thumbnail sketch of the extensive literature of Protestant casuistry and spiritual guidance which found circulation in the seventeenth century.² In his brief survey, McNeill alludes to the writings of several prominent Puritan casuists of the era, among which include: Thomas Fuller, William Perkins, Bishop Joseph Hall, William Ames, Jeremy Taylor, and Richard Baxter.

Towards the end of the survey, McNeill devotes an extensive paragraph to one more clergyman-casuist. He is Samuel Annesley, a Puritan casuist of ability who deserves to be known not only as the father of Susanna Wesley but as a stalwart and scholarly leader of Nonconformity.³

This study follows up on McNeill’s judgement that Samuel Annesley "deserves to be better known and focuses on the discipline of casuistry to which Annesley notably applied his energies for the good of Nonconformity in the Puritan age. He indeed was a Puritan casuist of ability as well as a stalwart and scholarly leader." But in addition, having stated that Annesley deserves to be better known as a leader of Nonconformity, McNeill refers to

The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, or Several Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved…a series of discourses given between 1661-1691 by various ministers of the London area, most of the victims of the Great Ejection of 1662. The series was largely arranged by Doctor Annesley, and the materials were edited and published by him. A good many of Annesley’s own addresses are included. His introductory discourse (on Acts 24:16) is an excellent example of the treatment of the theme of conscience by the Nonconformist divines…The collection constitutes a bulky accumulation of casuistical wisdom…"⁴

McNeill invites us to make Samuel Annesley the object of scholarly research. This small work intends to do just that, with the aim of introducing Samuel Annesley to a wider consciousness and realization of the role he played in the emerging world of seventeenth-century Protestant casuistry.

This work consists of three parts. Part I introduces Annesley and places him in the setting of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where he began his association with the Cripplegate Morning Exercises. Part II traces the historical development of Puritan casuistry and the Puritan concept of conscience. Part III considers the sermonic cast of the Cripplegate Institute with a review of select Cripplegate sermons by Annesley. It then examines the distinctive nature of Puritan casuistry and sets Annesley in the community of practitioners to which he belongs.

It is my hope that this re-introduction of Samuel Annesley will provide much inspiration for pastors and laity alike, in its presentation of a life lived wholeheartedly in the service of souls to the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom.

Ivan R. Davis

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." Jeremiah 3:15

Samuel%20Annesley%20portrait.jpeg

Illustration to Calamy’s Nonconformist’s Memorial, 1802

PART I

SAMUEL ANNESLEY: FROM CRADLE TO CRIPPLEGATE

The eminently useful Man, in his Generation,

is he whose great capacity, for service, is vigorously,

constantly, and wisely employed, to do that good

which is signally profitable, in the importance,

difficulty, and extensiveness thereof, in his Day…

Daniel Williams, The Excellency of a Publick Spirit

ONE

Samuel Annesley and the Cripplegate Connection

A Son Asked of God

LITTLE IS KNOWN TODAY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PURITAN DIVINE, DR. SAMUEL Annesley, and yet his role as spiritual guide and leader in the seventeenth-century English church, racked with political and social dilemmas, is worthy of study. We shall see that Samuel Annesley was a scholar of considerable ability, possessing ample leadership gifts, administrative abilities, and counselling skills. These he zealously used in in efforts to guide the church towards holy Biblical living, vigorously applying the tools of casuistical research to the application of moral theology in the church and the pursuit of holiness for seventeenth-century Christians who sought to identify the fine line between living in the world but not of the world⁵

During his ministry at St. Giles, Cripplegate, Samuel Annesley cast his lot with those who were not able to conscientiously submit to the terms of the 1662 Act of Uniformity, which required English pastors to comply with the administration of prayers and rites of the Church of England as prescribed in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Resolute and resilient, Annesley was a man of eminent integrity who rendered much useful service to dissenting brethren who turned to him for direction and help, a Puritan casuist of ability…who deserves to be known not only as the father of Susanna Wesley but as a stalwart and scholarly leader of Nonconformity.⁶ It is the goal of this academic study to come to an understanding of him as such, in light of the historical, intellectual, and ecclesiastical milieu in which he lived and labored.

A basic sketch of Annesley’s birth and background is provided for us by Alexander B. Grosart in his biographical article on Samuel Annesley:

ANNESLEY, SAMUEL (1620? -1696), one of the most eminent of the later puritan nonconformists, was the son of John Aneley [sic] of Harley, in Warwickshire…Annesley was born about the year 1620 at Kellingworth, near Warwick. Deprived of his father in his fourth year, the care of his education devolved on his mother, who was ‘a very prudent and religious woman.’ In Michaelmas term, 1635, he was admitted a student in Queen’s College, Oxford, and there he proceeded successively B.A. and M.A…Like others he must have had a twofold ordination. First, Anthony A Wood informs us he took holy orders from a bishop. Secondly, Calamy adduces a certificate of Presbyterian ordination, dated 18 Dec. 1644, and subscribed by seven Presbyterian ministers…’⁷

Supplementing and confirming the above information is the testimony from a contemporary and parishioner of Annesley’s, Daniel Williams:

He was born of very godly Parents, at Kellingworth near Warwick, Anno 1620. And their only Child. The name Samuel was appointed for him by his eminently Pious Grand-mother, who died before his Birth, and gave this reason for her desire that he should be so called, I can say I have asked him of God. His infancy was strangely impressed with thoughts of being a Minister, (to which his Parents dedicated him from the Womb) which so transported him from 5 or 6 years old, as to engage him in unusual industry in what improv’d him in order to it; then it was he took up a custom which he always observed, viz. Reading 20 chapters in the Bible every day.⁸

Regarding Annesley’s subsequent path to the ministry, Grosart goes on to provide the following information:

In process of time his own behaviour and the great interest he had with such as were then in power" [sic] procured him one of the prizes of the church., viz. Cliffe in Kent. Here he succeeded Dr. Griffith Higges, who was ejected for his loyalty to the king and treason to the Commonwealth… The parishioners were devoted to their ejected clergyman and were disposed to show their esteem by rude and rough misconduct towards his successor. Annesley told them that if they conceived him to be iased by the value of so considerable a living, they were exceedingly mistaken; that he came among them with an intent to do good to their souls, and that he was resolved to stay, how ill soever they used him, till he had fitted them for the reception of a better minister; which whenever it happened, he would leave them, notwithstanding the great value of the living.

In July 1648 he preached the fast sermon before the House of Commons…. About this time" [sic] he was "honored with the title of Doctor of Laws by the university of Oxford.

The parishioners of Cliffe being not only reconciled, but greatly attached, to Annesley, he resigned the living that he might keep the promise that he had made to them when they were in another disposition. In 1657 he was nominated directly by Cromwell to be lecturer of St. Paul’s, and in 1658 was presented by Richard Cromwell to the vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London.⁹

Cripplegate: A Useful Location

Cripplegate: Origins

In 1658, Dr. Samuel Annesley was inducted as the minister of St. Giles Church in Cripplegate, London. It was in Cripplegate that Annesley began what was to prove to be a thirty-year involvement with "the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate…a series of discourses given between 1661 and 1691 by various ministers of the London area…"¹⁰ But what was Cripplegate, and what kind of context did it provide for Annesley’s ministry?

In describing Cripplegate, it is helpful to consider the city of London itself. The primitive site of London was the Roman Londinium,¹¹ a name possibly derived from Llyn and Din or Dinas, meaning the place or fortress in the Lake.¹² It was, in fact, a city on a peninsula or island, approachable only by water, or by raised causeways and roads.¹³ Thus, W. Denton observes that until 1414 Bishopsgate and Cripplegate were the only gates by which the city could be entered on this [north] side.¹⁴ But the kind of gate it was ("in Anglo-Saxon [a] crepel, cryfele or crypele, a den or passage underground¹⁵) explains its original designations as Crypelgeat," hence Cripplegate, a district of northwest London.

The gate demarcated two precincts. The first was the region inside the gate, Cripplegate Within. This domain dated from the fourteenth century, and evidence of it exist from the reign of Edward I.¹⁶ Those same notices indicate that even by that time, there had already grown up a population outside the gate;¹⁷ thus, Cripplegate Without.

On its north front Cripplegate interfaced with Finsbury Fields and Moorfields: fields that belonged within the boundaries of Cripplegate Without and which would later come to have their own distinctive attractions. Moorfields, for example, would become an attractive clean air center, a host region to gatherings and conventions of all sectors of society, perhaps most famously a century later when George Whitefield would engage thousands here with his open-air preaching campaigns.

Cripplegate%20Entrance.jpg

Cripplegate, City of London, 1750

Cripplegate: The Church of St Giles

The structure of the Church of St. Giles Without Cripplegate in Annesley’s time, though indeed old, was erected much later than the original Saxon and Norman churches of the tenth and eleventh centuries. It had been replaced late in the fourteenth century with an edifice described by one chronicler as large, strongly-built and richly furnished with ornaments.¹⁸ It may well have been at this point that the church was dedicated to St. Giles, although there is no definite evidence of this. However, in 1545, during the reign of King Henry VIII, a fire partly destroyed the building. In a short notice which appeared in The London Chronicle we read: The xij [sic] day of September, Saturday, in the morning, about five of the klock, was Saynt Jyle’s Church burnd, belles and alle, without Crepellegate.¹⁹

Restoration of a kind followed the conflagration. But the alterations and the incongruous additions were such that at least one observer took occasion to lament, when the body of the church can be seen in its original state, we are inclined to wish it had never been consumed or needed repair.²⁰ Such a lament was even more poignant in that, as well as the aesthetic and ornamental destruction, there was other extensive loss of valuable ancient records. Numerous books and papers concerning the vicars and various officers of the church, registers of births and deaths, weddings, and funerals, were lost.

Cripplegate: The Parish of St. Giles

What was the social climate of Annesley’s Cripplegate parish? The social atmosphere of Cripplegate changed markedly during the last half of Annesley’s life, the final three decades of the century. Arts and entertainment flourished, and the community witnessed an influx of balladeers and minstrels who found both an audience and a welcome