Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vines, Richard (1600?-1656)

by Alexander Gordon

VINES, RICHARD (1600?–1656), puritan divine, was born at Blaston, Leicestershire, about 1600. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1622, M.A. 1627. He was an excellent Greek scholar. About 1624 he became schoolmaster at Hinckley, Leicestershire, where John Cleveland [q. v.], the cavalier poet, was among his scholars, and owed much to his training. On the death of James Cranford (1627) he was presented to the rectory of Weddington, Warwickshire, and instituted on 11 March 1627–8. In 1630 he was presented by William Purefoy [q. v.] to the neighbouring rectory of Caldecote, was instituted 10 June, and held both livings, worth together 80l. a year; but the parish register at Hinckley shows that he was still living there in 1640. Having gifts as a preacher, he conducted a weekly lecture at Nuneaton, which was largely attended, and attracted hearers from distant places, among them being Samuel Clarke (1599–1683) [q. v.], afterwards his intimate friend. In 1642 he was presented for Warwickshire as one of the ‘orthodox divines’ to be consulted by parliament ‘touching the reformation of church government and liturgie.’ He preached a fast sermon before the House of Commons (30 Nov. 1642) which made a great impression. Owing to the disturbed state of his county, he took refuge in Coventry early in 1643, with other puritans, and took part in the daily lecture there. Nominated a member of the Westminster assembly by the ordinance of 12 June 1643, he went up to London, and was placed in the rectory of St. Clement Danes, vacant by the sequestration of Richard Dukeson, D.D. (d. 17 Sept. 1678, aged 77). Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.], was his parishioner. On 18 March 1643–4 he was made, against his wishes, master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, by the Earl of Manchester, on the ejection of Benjamin Laney [q. v.] He kept his place in the assembly, but did good work in the college. He found it, according to Clarke, ‘very empty of scholars, and the buildings much out of order,’ having been used as military quarters; his reputation ‘quickly drew scholars,’ and he proved himself a capable administrator and promoter of learning. In June 1644 he was invited by the civic authorities to the vicarage of St. Michael's, Coventry, but declined. He was placed on the parliamentary ‘committee of accommodation’ (13 Sept. 1644), and chosen chairman (20 Sept.) of the acting sub-committee; his defence of the validity of ordination by presbyters (though himself episcopally ordained) ‘was much applauded by his own party’ (Fuller). At the Uxbridge conference (30 Jan.–18 Feb. 1645) he was one of the assisting divines. On 22 May 1645 Essex presented him to the rectory of Watton, Hertfordshire, when he resigned St. Clement Danes. He preached at Essex's funeral (22 Oct. 1646).

In the Westminster assembly Vines was placed on the committee (12 May 1645) for drafting the confession of faith. He writes to Baxter that he ‘would not have much time spent in a formula of doctrine or worship,’ but was anxious for an accommodation in church government. With Baxter, he believed that the benefit of Christ's death extended to all mankind. He agreed with Baxter in objecting to lay elders as church governors. He was one of the divines who took part in the written discussion on episcopacy (September–November 1648) in the Isle of Wight, intended to influence Charles I, and would have gone further in concession to ‘the conscience of the king,’ but that, as he explained to Baxter, ‘parliament tied them up.’ With Charles's religious character and ability in argument he was much impressed; the king for his part showed that he thought highly of Vines's powers. On the morning of Charles's execution he was one of the puritan divines who proffered religious services to the king.

Refusing the ‘engagement’ of 1649 of allegiance to the existing government ‘without a king or house of lords,’ he was ejected (October 1650) from the mastership of Pembroke and from the rectory of Watton. The parishioners of St. Lawrence Jewry immediately called him to be their minister, and he was allowed to hold the living; the parishioners rebuilt the vicarage-house for him, at a cost of 500l. He was chosen also as one of the weekday lecturers at St. Michael's, Cornhill. Appointed on the committee to draw up (March 1654) ‘fundamentals in religion’ as a test for toleration, he seldom attended, but supported Baxter in rejecting Owen's contention that knowledge of scripture was essential to salvation, as ‘neither a fundamental nor a truth.’ A little later he was appointed one of the local assistants (for London) to Cromwell's ‘triers.’

Fuller describes him as a workmanlike preacher, using ‘strong stitches.’ His style is turgid. When William Sancroft [q. v.] heard him at Cambridge in 1646, he read his sermon. His preaching dealt little in polemics, except against the baptists. About a year before his death he suffered acute pain in the head, and his sight suddenly failed him. Almost blind, his health gave way and his spirits drooped; but he persevered in preaching, though ‘his speech grew very low.’ He died on 4 Feb. 1655–6. He was buried on 7 Feb. in the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, Thomas Jacombe [q. v.] preaching the funeral sermon; his monument perished in the fire of 1666. Clarke prints (from Jacombe) a selection of seven elegies and an anagram to his memory; the title ‘our English Luther’ was given him by Robert Wild or Wilde [q. v.]; Matthew Poole or Pole [q. v.], a competent judge, testifies to his command of learning, unrivalled among divines of his school, which made him a ‘vast library.’ Though ranking as a presbyterian, his own views were in accord with Ussher's scheme for a modified episcopacy. ‘Such who charged him with covetuousness (sic),’ says Fuller, ‘are confuted with the small estate he left to his wife and children.’ He married, while at Hinckley, Katharine, daughter of Humphrey Adderley of Weddington, patron of the living.

Vines published nothing but single sermons (1642–7) on state or civic occasions, including the funeral sermon for Essex (1646). After his death were published

1. ‘Πειθαρχία, Obedience to Magistrates,’ 1656, 4to (four sermons, three before lord mayors).
2. ‘A Treatise on the Institution … of the Lord's Supper,’ 1657, 4to (twenty sermons), 3rd edit. 1677, 8vo.
3. ‘Christ a Christian's onely Gain,’ 1661, 12mo (sermons at St. Clement Danes).
4. ‘God's Drawing and Man's Coming to Christ,’ 1662, 4to (thirty-five sermons).
5. ‘The Saint's Nearness to God,’ 1662, 12mo.

[Funeral Sermon, by Jacombe, 1656; Life by Clarke, in Lives of Eminent Persons, 1683, i. 48 seq.; Fuller's Church Hist. 1655, xi. 215; Fuller's Worthies, 1662 (Leicestershire), p. 134; Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1656, p. 789; Lloyd's Memoires, 1668, p. 617; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, i. 44, 62, ii. 147, 199; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 167; Grey's Examination of Neal, 1736 p. 414, 1739 p. 175; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 1779, ii. 536; Nichols's Hinckley, 1782, p. 77, and App. 1787, pp. 335, 403; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 230; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans (Toulmin), 1822, iv. 118; Hanbury's Historical Memorials, 1841, ii. 447; Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire [1870], p. 277; Masson's Life of Milton, 1873, iii. 95, 391, 606; Mitchell and Struthers's Minutes of Westminster Assembly, 1874, pp. 12, 91, 156; Urwick's Nonconformity in Hertfordshire, 1884, p. 617; Cole's manuscript Athenæ Cantabr.; information from R. A. Neil, esq., Pembroke College, Cambridge; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. iv. 5.]

A. G.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.271
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page	Col.	Line
369 370	ii i ii	6 f.e. 24 49-50	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ Vines, Richard (1600?-1656): for St. Clement Dane's read St. Clement Danes