THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1850. MEMOIR OF JOHN CANNE, PASTOR OF AN ENGLISH CHURCH AT AMSTERDAM FROM 1622 TO 1667. THIS ancient baptist's work on the "Necessity of Separation from the Church of England " has recently been reprinted under the auspices of the Hanserd Knollys Society. The publication has been superintended by the Rev. Charles Stovel, who speaks of the author and his treatise in the following terms:-" His character through a long life, as far as it can now be ascertained, commanded respect even from his adversaries; and his work, reprinted in this volume, deserves a most careful study on two accounts-first, because the separation it urges is as needful and obligatory now as it was at any former period; and, secondly, because the arguments by which that separation is here enforced disclose the nature of those exertions, pleadings, and sufferings, to which the reader is indebted for the privileges he enjoys." Mr. Stovel deserves the thanks of the subscribers to the Hanserd Knollys Society for the zeal and diligence with VOL. XIII-FOURTH SERIES. which he has endeavoured to search out the particulars of this good man's history. The information contained in the following paragraphs is derived principally from the Introductory Notice which he has prefixed to Canne's performance; whatever there may be in it that is new to the reader should in justice be ascribed to Mr. Stovel's research; but he must not be held responsible for the arrangement of the materials, or for the abbreviated form in which they are presented, apart from those discussions which he has intermingled with the facts. The year 1622 is the earliest in which the fragments of biography at present accessible bring Canne distinctly before us. He was then an exile, about thirty-two years of age, the newly chosen pastor of an English church at Amsterdam. The High Commission Court established by Queen Elizabeth for the repression of religious liberty, and rendered yet more formidable by L the professor of "king-craft" who succeeded her on the throne, had induced many of the best men of this country to seek refuge in the Netherlands. In the capital there was more than one body of emigrants who united for worship, but that with which Canne was connected was distinguished as "The Ancient English Church in Amsterdam." Francis Johnson had been chosen their pastor twenty years before, and Henry Ainsworth, an eminent Hebrew scholar, their doctor or teacher; but a disagreement having caused them to separate, and led Johnson eventually to leave the city, Ainsworth became pastor, and continued to sustain that office till about the year 1622, when his death took place, the effect, it is believed, of poison administered to him by a Jew. The year before this there is some reason to believe that Canne had acted as pastor of a small number of persecuted brethren in London. It is said that he had previously been a minister of the established church; but this is not certain. Stevens, however, the historian of the Scottish church at Rotterdam, speaking of the death of Ainsworth says explicitly, "He was succeeded by John Canne, the well known author of the marginal references to the bible. I have been unable to discover who were the pastors subsequent to the death of John Canne in 1667." The puritans generally in those days did not desire to withdraw from the church but pleaded for its reformation. Without separating from the establishment, many conscientious persons met for worship in churches or in private houses as they were able. They were practical nonconformists, and in defending their nonconformity and urging their objections to the system of the prelates, they often asserted principles which they did not follow out to their legitimate results! Canne and some others were led, however, to perceive that if the reasonings of these nonconformists were tenable, their adherence to the establishment was inconsistent, and in 1634 he demonstrated this in his "Necessity of Separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists' Principles." The work was read, and produced powerful effects. Many were convinced, but others were irritated. His arguments drawn from their own writings the nonconformists were unable to refute. The only way for escape open to those who were unwilling to yield to his appeal was to abuse the author and misrepresent his writings. To chastise with severity one of their own number who wished to urge them on to absolute separation had, as they thought, an air of candour in it; it gave them still the character of friends and defenders of that hierarchy to whose obnoxious decrees they refused subjection. By this they hoped to conciliate their high church opponents, and warlike operations between the two great parties were partially suspended that they might crush the more effectually this unwelcome intruder into the field of battle. "Another cause which operated in producing the unjust severities which Canne endured," says Mr. Stovel, "appears in the main truth to which all his investigations led; the inviolable sacredness and sufficiency of holy scripture. This rule he applied by making scripture its own interpreter, through a careful comparison of its several parts. His address to the readers of his bible contains the following words:-' It is not the scripture that leadeth men into errors and byeways, but the misinterpretations and false glosses imposed upon it; as when men by perverting the scriptures to their own principles and purposes will make them speak their sense and private interpretation. Laying, therefore, aside men's interpretations, and only following the scripture interpreting itself, it must needs be the best way and the freest from errors.' To this rule he conformed with scrupulous exactness in all his investigations and teaching, and hence the growth of his own mind is clear from his various productions. . . . A practical and energizing spirit breathes through them all; and his Reference Bible, the best that had then ever been prepared for English readers, afforded its impulse and guidance in every good word and work. It has not yet been ascertained when this last-named production of Canne's was first issued. A copy is found printed in 1647, and another edition was sent forth in 1664, but evidence is wanting to prove when the first edition appeared." It has been thought probable that it was printed at Amsterdam in 1637. Seventeen years, according to his own statement, Canne remained in banishment, carrying on, it is believed, in conjunction with his ministry, the business of bookseller and printer. In 1640, we find him again in England. "At that juncture of time," say the Broadmead Records, "the providence of God brought to this city one Mr. Canne, a baptized man; it was that Mr. Canne that made notes and references upon the bible. He was a man very eminent in his day for godliness, and for reformation in religion, having great understanding in the way of the Lord." A few persons in Bristol, of whom Mr. and Mrs. Hazard were the principal, having just at that time engaged themselves to the Lord, and one to the other, to walk before him according to his word, to go to common prayer no more, but to meet together for worship in private houses. "When Mrs. Hazard heard that he was come to town she went to the Dolphin Inn, and fetched him to her house, and entertained him all the time he staid in the city, who helped them very much in the Lord, he being a man skilful in gospel order. Like unto Aquila, he taught them the way of the Lord more perfectly, and settled them in church order, and showed them the difference betwixt the church of Christ and antichrist, and left with them a printed book treating of the same, and divers printed papers to that purpose. So that by this instrument, Mr. Canne, the Lord did confirm and settle them, showing them how they should join together, and take in members. And he exhorted them to wait upon God together, and to expect the presence of God with those gifts they had, and to depart from those ministers that did not come out of antichristian worship. And when he had stayed some time in the city he departed. "On a Lord's day following he preached at a place called Westerleigh, about seven miles from this city; and many of the professors from hence went thither to hear him, with Mrs. Hazard, willing to enjoy such a light as long as they could; where he had liberty to preach in the public place, called a church, in the morning, but in the afternoon could not have entrance. The obstruction was by a very godly great woman, that dwelt in that place, who was somewhat severe in the profession of what she knew, hearing that he was a baptized man, by them called an anabaptist, which was to some sufficient cause of prejudice; because the truth of believers' baptism had been for a long time buried, yea, for a long time by popish inventions, and their sprinkling brought in the room thereof. And this prejudice existed by reason that persons in the practice of that truth of baptism were by some rendered very obnoxious; because about one hundred years before, some beyond the sea, in Germany, that held that truth of believers' baptism, did, as some say, do some very irregular actions; of whom we can have no true account what they were but by their The degree of religious liberty which Cromwell was able to obtain from his coadjutors for some classes of dissidents was very incomplete, and Canne was one of those who suffered from presbyterian intolerance. In a narrative, published anonymously in 1658, it is stated, that, "Upon the first day of the second month, commonly called April, 1658, many of the Lord's people being assembled together in Swan Alley, in Coleman-street, (a public place where saints have met many years), as they were waiting upon the Lord in prayer and other holy duties, on a sudden, the marshal of the city with several other officers rushed in with great violence upon them. Old brother Canne was then in the pulpit, and had read a place of scripture, but spoken nothing to it. The scripture was Numbers xvi. 20— 26. Now he perceiving that they came in at both doors with their halberts, pikes, staves, &c., and fearing that there might be some hurt done to the Lord's poor and naked [unarmed] people, he desired the brethren and sisters to be all quiet, and to make no stir: for his part, he feared them not, but was assured the Lord would eminently stand by them. Whilst he was thus speaking to the people, exhorting them to patience, one of the officers (breaking through the crowd) came furiously upon him, and with great violence plucked him out of the pulpit, and, when he had so done, hurled him over the benches and forms in a very barbarous manner. Some brethren, being nigh, endeavoured to save brother Canne from falling, but the rage of the officers was such, that they fell in upon him, although, through mercy, he had not much hurt by it." Seven others were taken into custody because they spake against the cruelty with which he was treated, saying aloud, "He is an old man, do not use him so barbarously." When brought before the mayor, he was asked what he thought of the present government. His answer was, " For the present government I am not satisfied with it. But this concerneth not you, neither shall I speak now anything to you about it; but if you send me to the Protector, I shall tell him what I think concerning this government. For I have a great deal to say to his face, if in such a way as this I may be brought before him. But for you, Sir, this is not our business now." Some who were present were heavily fined and imprisoned, but Canne and others were a few days afterwards called up and discharged. both; yet this I leave behind me, under my hand, i. e. 'The free grace and goodness of God hath more abundantly appeared towards me, in preserving me, a poor worm, from this last apostacy, than from the former; not only because of the two I take it to be the worst, but because the latter hath much more of the depths of Satan than the former had.' As for their jeerings and reproachful speeches, I pass them by : such things are not new to me. The bishops and their creatures used them ; yet this much I must say for the bishops, which I cannot say for them, so far they showed us fair play, not to imprison us, nor banish us, till they had told us the cause, and heard what we could say for ourselves; yea, and would seem to be very pious and charitable in taking great pains with some of us, to bring us out of error, as they called it; but I have found no such piety and charity with these men ; for I have been banished now almost two years, but never to this day knew the cause of it, Treatment which he received in Yorkshire led him to say, in a work entitled "The Time of the End," "Upon my banishment from Hull (for what cause I know not, there being nothing to this day made known to me), I went apart, as Elias did, into the wilderness; and, as I lay under hedges, and in holes, my soul in bitterness breathed forth many sad complaints before the Lord, 'It is enough, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers.' Often and sore wrestlings I had with my God, to know his meaning and teaching, under this dispensation, and what further work, whether doing or suffering, he had for me, his poor old servant, being now again banished, after seventeen years' banishment before." Again, he says, "I am an old man, and expect every day to lay down this earthly taber-neither hath there been any thing laid nacle; it will be, therefore, some comfort to me whensoever my change comes, that I have left a public testimony against this present apostacy, as formerly I did against the other: and, howsoever, I bless the Lord that he hath kept my feet out of the snare of to my charge. I shall not speak of the sad calamity which they have brought since upon my family, by the death of my dear wife and daughter." It is believed that the labours and trials of this faithful confessor terminated at Amsterdam, in the year 1667. WHY ARE NOT THE NATIVE CHURCHES IN INDIA SELF-SUSTAINING ? BY THE REV. JOHN WENGER OF CALCUTTA. NEARLY half a century has elapsed since the formation of the first native churches in Bengal,* and at the present * It appears that some native Christians, the fruit of Kiernander's labours, existed even at a much earlier period. But probably they were at once amalgamated with a congregation of English time the number of nominally Christian natives connected with the various protestant missions in this country, probably exceeds twelve thousand, the or Portuguese descent, and rapidly assimilated with it, so that they never formed a distinct native church. |