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The Life and Work of Alexander Knox ( 1757

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The Life and Work of Alexander Knox ( 1757 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ALEXANDER KNOX ( 1757 - 1831 ) BY GEORGE WYNNE HUGHES, B.A. (Wales), M.A.(Cantab). A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DIVINITY FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOHIY 1937. ico! . I. PREFACE. The object of this thesis is an attempt to present a Life of Alexander Knox, and to give a resume and analysis of his theological teaching. Knox was a close and intimate friend of John Wesley, who exercised a profound influence upon him during the formative period of his life. Religiously and theologically, he owed much to his old teacher. To what extent was he indebted to Wesley ? Did he carry his teaching a stage further ? What was distinctive in his teach­ ing ? These are some of the questions to which an answer is attempted in this thesis. The last chapter is devoted to his relation to the Tractarian Movement. Knox is a connecting link between the two Oxford Movements, viz:- the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century, and the Anglican Renaissance of the nineteenth century. Whilst the latter was, in the main, a revival of institutional- ism, and, therefore apparently quite different from the former, yet there are fundamental points of agreement between them. They both emphasise the need for devotion, and the thirst for holiness. I do not set out to prove the extent to which the one influenced the pther through Knox. The last chapter makes II. no claim to be an exhaustive study. This subject is large enough for a separate piece of work. I have limited my scope mainly to a presentation and analysis of Knox's theology and to showing his indebtedness to John Wesley. Hitherto no Memoir of Knox has been published. This omission does not seem to have been due to the want of a demand for such a knowledge by those who had met him, or of a desire to supply it by his more intimate friends. It was rather due to the lack of available material which would enable a writer to present to the public an interesting Life. The Rev. James J. Hornby, who edited the 'Remains' of Knox (four volumes), gives this as his reason for not undertaking the task, 1 The fact that he lived the greater part of his life as a recluse, fully accounts for the lack of any detailed information about him. The materials for a Life are therefore scanty. The main sources are, "Thirty Years' Correspondence between John Jebb and Alexander Knox", (two volumes); 2 his 'Remains', particularly Volume IV., which was "designed, in some measure, to supply the want of a biographical Memoir**5: and Articles in Periodicals, Knox was one of the most original theologians of his age, and yet his name is scarcely known to-day, and his influence is almost unrecognised. Not many years after his 1. Remains of Knox, Vol.Ill, Preface p.X.,published by Duncan. The references hereafter given are to the first edition 2. Edited by Charles Forster, B.D., published by Dunean,London. 3. Remains, Vol.III. Preface X. 34 * III. death, he was falling into oblivion, as the following anecdote illustrates. When the Rev. Robert Knox, who became Archbishop of Armagh, was nominated by the Whig Government to the Bishopric of Down and Connor, Lord John Russell is said to have asked an Irish Nobleman of Liberal Politics, "Well, what do you think of your new Bishop ?", "Oh", replied the Peer, wwe dont know much of him yet, he has not had time to make his mark". "Make his markn , replied the statesman, "Why, is he not the celebrated Mr. Knox?". And for the first time he was astonished to learn that the celebrated Mr. Knox had been a layman all his life, and had been dead for nearly twenty years. There were at least three factors which contributed to this, otherwise inexplicable obscurity. (1) Pie occupied a middle position between the Evangelicals and High Churchmen of his day, with the result that both were suspicious of him. To put the matter in his own words: "You can easily conceive, that, when any one stands on a middle point, between two others, who are, with respect to him, strictly equidistant, he must, from the inevitable laws of perspective, appear to both, not to be in the middle, but comparatively near the opposite party". 1 He was too much of a High Churchman to be the hero of the Evangelicals, and too much of an Evangelical to be the idol of High Churchman. (2) He had no platform to bring him before the public eye, and from which to proclaim his ideas. He was not a clergyman, and his indifferent health incapacitated him 1. Thirty Years' Correspondence between Jebb and Knox, Vol I P. 16. IV. for any sustained literary effort. His sphere of influence was therefore limited. He expressed his views in conversation, and in the form of private letters to friends,- letters which often grew into small dissertations. The main channel, however, through which his ideas flowed into the Church of England was the Rev. John Jebb, afterwards the Bishop of Limerick. Knox was content to remain in obscurity, whilst he set others in motion. (3) He was over-shadowed by the Tractarian Movement which arose so soon after his death, and which absorbed the attention of the religious public in England. Though Knox was the precursor of the Movement, he was allowed to fall into oblivion by a generation that found itself listening to Newman, Keble and Pusey. Knox had clearly anticipated the leading principles of Tractarianism, and undoubtedly deserves a place of honour in the development of English theology. There is, therefore, need to lift him out of the darkness of obscurity into the light of day. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page Preface . I - IV. PART I : THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER KNOX. 1 - 71. Chapter 1 : Birth and Early Life pp. 1-13 2 : Public Life and Political Writings pp.14-24 3 : Conversion and Pursuit of Holiness pp.24-34 4 : Teacher and Founder of a School of Thought pp.34-50 5 : Advocate of Religious Tolerance pp.50-55 6 : Characteristics pp.55-60 7 : Proposed Reunion of the Established and Roman Catholic Churches in Ireland pp.60-66 8 : Last Years pp.66-71 PART II : THE TEACHING OF ALKIAITDER KtiOX . 72 - 233. Chapter 9 Evangelicalism pp.72-93 Section i Conversion pp.72-81 ii Justification pp.81-93 Chapter 10 Christian Perfection pp.94-130 Section i Elements in his Doctrine pp.96-101 ii Agreement and Disagreement with John Wesley pp!02-118 iii Means and Methods of Attaining Perfection ppllS-130 VI. Chapter 11 : The Sacraments pp.131-182 Section i : Baptism pp.133-139 ii : The Eucharist pp.139-182 iii : Analysis of his Doctrine of the Sacraments pp.153-182 Chapter 12 : The Church pp.183-232 Section i A Statement of his Doctrine pp.186-204 ii An Estimate of his Doctrine pp.205-232 PART III : CONCLUSION .233-264. Chapter 13 Knox and the Oxford Movement Section i : The Relation of the Parties within the Church of England to the Oxford Movement pp.236-243 ii : The Elements in common between Knox and the Oxford Movement pj*243-251 iii : How far were the Tractarians indebted to Knox ? pp.251-264 BIBLIOGRAPHY 265-272 i Works of Knox pp.26F-266 ii Authorities Consulted np. 266-271 iii Periodicals .272. PART I THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER KNOX. CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. Alexander Knox was born at Londonderry on 17th., March 1757. As in the case of his namesake, the celebrated Scottish Reformer, some doubt has existed regarding the exact date of his birth. This is not remarkable, having regard to the lack of human interest shown by biographers up to comparatively recent years. Oeorge Schoales, a personal friend, writing six years after Knox's death, supplied an inaccurate date. He stated unhesitatingly that it was in 1761.* Dean Burgon says that after taking extraordinary pains to ascertain the exact date of his birth, "I have only now learned from one of the family that it was probably in 1757". s James Hempton, in his little booklet published in 1892, gives yet another date. He places it in the year 1758. 3 Fortunately Knox himself settles the matter for us. He speaks of himself as "entering upon my sixty-eighth year11 in a letter to Miss Fergusson on March 17th., 1825. 4 This date is corroborated in a letter to Rev. Henry Moore when he refers to John Wesley's first visit to Knox's home in Londonderry, "the circumstances of which are yet alive in my remembrance, though I was but seven years old". 5 1. Ordnance Survey of the County of Londonderry, Vol.1, p.96. 2. Dean Burgon*s "Livis of Twelve Good Men",p.372. London 1891. 3. Andrew Knox, Bishop of Raphoe and His Descendants, t>. 25. 4. Remains, Vol.IV. p. 417. 5. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 1835, p. 123. Letter dated November 23rd., 1830. 2. The Irish riots, with their accompanying destructive fires, have made havoc of the ancient documents, so that it is impossible, with the present available data, to give the exact lineage of Knox. It is however generally assumed that he descended from a very ancient and distinguished Scottish family. James Hempton maintains that he was undoubtedly a descendant of Andrew Knox, who was the second reformed Bishop of Raphoe. His Lordship was the second son of Uchter de Knock, Lord of Ranfurly, w&o is said to have been a cousin of the celebrated John Knox.
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