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^BXOliX Ox ORANGE STREHT CHAP iji RICHARD W> PR THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES v^r. I *' - ^ / : J) LUX BENIGNA. gloom."— Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling H. Newman. A Chapel long endeared to the rehgious circle by its interesting associations.— Rev. S. Luke, Sep. 28th, 1847. This temple of the Most High has long resounded with the songs of Zion. Holy men whose praise is in all the churches, and whose names are embalmed in the me- mories and affections of the people of God, have preached the truths of the everlasting Gospel, and proclaimed a full and free salvation within its walls.—i^^-^or^ of Committee of Orange Street Chape!, 1853. Heartily shall we rejoice to see a day, when, on a spot hallowed by so many sacred recollections of bygone days, there shall arise a new and more commodious edifice in which the worship of God may be perpetuated.— /Z^. 1857. : Lux Bemgna, BEING THE HISTORY OF ORANGE STREET CHAPEL. OTHERWISE CALLED LEICESTER FIELDS CHAPEL, OCCUPIED 1693— 1776 BV THE FRENCH REFUGEE CHURCH FOUNDED IN GLASSHOUSE STREET IN 1688; 1776— 1787 BY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND; 1787—1888 BY CONGREGATIONAL DISSENTERS; RICHARD W. FREE, M.A., Minister of the Chapel. IDiDct ct proviDct. " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.'' !JLon^o^ W. B. WHITTINGHAM & CO., 91, Gracechurch St. 1SS8. [All Rights Reserved.] W. B. WHITTINGHAM & CO., PRINTERS, " THE CHARTERHOUSE PRESS," 91, OEACECHURCH STREET, E.C. AND 44 & 45, CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE, LONDON. p.y. DEDICATED TO THE Memory of the French and English ^Iinisters ORANGE STREET CHAPEL, Who forsook all to follow Christ Laying up for themselves treasures in Heaven NOW entered into the joy of their Lord. G29S1IS ' Note. —// any profits accvne to the Author from the sale of this book, they will he devoted to the funds of Orange Street Chapel. PREFACE 'T^HE History of Orange Street Chapel is worth telhng if one can get a historian worthy of the office. The difficulty is not one of matter, it is one of man. I have undertaken this task in no spirit of easy confidence, but with clear recognition of its dignity and delicacy. The onl}' excuse I have to offer for my temerity is that I think the history ought to be told and know no one else to tell it. After saying so much, perhaps I need not make a virtue of a necessity by pleading some patience and not a little love as qualifications for the position I have assumed. Both virtues are necessary, however, in a work of this kind ; for, without patience facts cannot be accumulated, and without love they cannot be quickened into life. If, therefore, I fail to interest the reader, let him blame neither the dulness of my subject nor the impatience of my mood, but only the slowness or impotence of my pen. LiLX Bcniziia- I have assumed that Saurin preached at Orange Street Chapel. There is nothing to prove that he did not, and much to render it probable that he did/'' Moreover, it would be unadvisable, in a work treating largely of the French Refugees, to omit all mention of the greatest among the Refugee ministers. In referring to the many clergymen of various denominations whose names fill these pages, I have, wherever practicable, omitted the title Reverend, not from want of respect, but to avoid unnecessary formality. As far as I know, I have made no statement without sufficient authority, derived from a careful study of works bearing upon the history of the last two hundred years. I intended at first to quote my authority in each instance in a footnote, but this method would have been so tedious and unsightly that I have been compelled to content myself with printing all direct quotations either in inverted commas or in small type, and with acknowledging. * Weiss and Burn and many others have supposed that Saurin was minister of Leicester Fields, probably because his name appears in the Registers. This, however, proves nothing more than that Saurin officiated at the Chapel. — Preface. xi generally, with many thanks, help derived from the following among other sources : Frances D'Arblay's Diary and Letters, Boswell's Johnson, Brewster's Isaac Newton, Burn's History of the French Churches, Cassell's Old and New London, Cates's Biographical Dictionary, Cecil's Works, Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, De Coetlogan's Works, Cooper's Foreign Protestants, Courthorpe's Memoir of Chamier, Ersch and Gk^b-ek's Allgemcine Encyclopddie, Foster's Works, Haag's La France Protestante, Rowland Hill's Memoirs, Hogarth's Works, Huguenot Society of London's Proceedings, Memoir of Leifchild, Leigh Hunt's The Town, Kershaw's Protestants from France, Marsden's History of Christian Churches, Masson's Huguenots, Maty's Memoire sur la vie de M. de Moivre, De Morgan's Newton, Piozzi's Anecdotes of Johnson, Poole's Huguenots, Rose's Biographical Dictionary, Saurin's Works, Scott's Works, Seeley's Later Evangelical Fathers, Saiiles's Huguenots, Strype's Works, Taylor's Leicester Square, Toplady's Works, Memoirs of Townsend, Weiss's Rcfugies Protestants, and Wilson's Dissenting Churches. I have also made use of the Evangelical Magazine from 1793, of the Evangelical Register, of the Congre- gatioiuil Year Book from iSoo, and of the Christian xii Lux Bcni^na. World for March 4th, 1886. Agnew's valuable work, Protestant Exiles from France, has afforded me much help, which I beg gratefully to acknowledge. My thanks are also due to M. le Baron F. de ScHiCKLER, without whose courteous and generous assistance the first part of this little work could not have been written ; to Miss L, S. Dobson and Mrs, Samuel Luke ; to the Misses M. E. and A. M. Free ; to the Revs, the Vicars of S. Martin's, London, and Chobham, Woking, the Rector of Headley, Hants, W. Atkins, R. E. Forsaith, A. R. Gregory, E. Jukes, A. F, Muir, and W. Tritton ; to Dr. to Messrs. A. Chamier, T. Delamotte ; the C. J. Free, W. Garnett, R. L. Poole, J. E. Ritchie and S. Rood; to the Editor of the Eighty-fifth Annual Report of Hackney College; to Mr. John Metivier, and other gentlemen in the Reading Room of the British Museum ; and to the authorities at Somerset House for kindly placing at my disposal the Registers of Leicester Fields Chapel. I wish also to thank my friend, Mr. H. Collins Cane, for the kind and able way in which he has pre- pared for the photographer the portraits of Toplady, Cecil and Townsend, and the picture of the interior of the Chapel in 1836. Finally, I am indebted to the Preface. xiii publishers of this book for the pains they have be- stowed upon the preparation of the volume. The two pictures of the interior and the exterior of the Chapel in i88S have been prepared from photographs taken last August. The remaining plates have been derived from the following sources : —A. M. Toplady: Biographia Evangelica, in the British Museum (Press Mark, 2008 e) inloc; R. Cfxil: Remains of R. C, Brit. I\Ius. aaa. Towns- (3752 5) ; J. end: Memoir of J. T., Brit. Mus. (1126^. 10); In- terior of Chapel, 1836 : Evangelical Register, Brit. Mus. (P.P. 1836, page P. Dobsox and 510), 417 ; J. S. Luke : in the Vestry of Orange Street Chapel. Conflicting statements form the chief difficulty I have had to contend with, one illustration of which may suffice. I have found it constantly asserted that Orange Street Chapel was built in the reign of Charles II, i.e., between May 29th, 1660, and February 6th, 1685. Other dates given are 1656, '' 1686, t i68g,J all of which are sufficiently wide of the mark to cause serious error. In some instances, happily very rare, information that would have been * Tract by Dr. Toinkins. f Congregational Year Book, 1S8S. J Burn, History 0/ French Churches. xiv Lux Benif'na. of much use to me, has been refused, apparently without an)^ reason, and after repeated apphcation. My hope is, therefore, not that I have made no mistakes, but that I have made as few as possible under the circumstances. The reader must not hold me responsible for the bad grammar and spelling of some of the French extracts. To have corrected these would have been to spoil them. On the other hand, I have no wish to shirk the responsibility of the statements on Sec- tarianism made in the Ninth Chapter ; venturing only to explain that I have selected for criticism passages from the spoken and written words of the ministers mentioned there, not because I am unmindful of the loftiness of their aims or the utility of their work, but because on account of the existence of these very virtues, I deem their teaching on the subject under consideration the more dangerous, and the need of strongly opposing it the more pressing. A word of apology is due for my own translations from foreign languages. I am anxious that the youngest and least educated of my congregation should be able to read this book as nearly as possible word for word. At the same time I wish to afford the educated reader the opportunity of translating Preface. xv for liiniself. So I have, in every needful instance, given the foreign version as well as the English. It is possible that I may have failed in some cases to do justice to the memory of the good men whose lives I have tried to sketch.

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