The Life And Ministry Of Nehemiah Coxe
Joseph Ivimey, “A History Of The English Baptists”, Vol 2:
It is supposed that this eminent man was the on of Mr. Benjamin Coxe mentioned in our history of the Bedfordshire churches. This will account for his extraordinary learning notwithstanding the low station in Society he occupied at one period of his life. Dr. Coxe is frequently noticed in the records of the church at Bedford. He was admitted a member the 3rd of May 1669, and was one of those persons called to the ministry with the celebrated John Bunyan. From these records we find that in April 1673 he received a call to take the pastoral office of the church at Hitchin. The next year he was guilty of some misconduct for which he was censured by the church at Bedford. The following extract, while it perpetuates his misconduct is also a record of his christian temper.
“7th of the, 3rd month. (May) 1674. At Cotton-End, Brother Coxe did publicly make an acknowledgment of several miscarriages by him committed, and declared his repentance for the same as follows.
“Whereas several words and practices have been uttered and performed by me, that might justly be censured to have a tendency to make rents and divisions in the congregation, I do declare myself unfeignedly sorry and repentant for the same.” It appears that Mr. Coxe soon after settled at Cranfield, and while here was persecuted for his opinions. The following curious statement in an old hand writing is in a copy of his “Discourse on the Covenants” belonging to Mr. Sutcliff of Olney, The author lived at Cranfield a Cordwinder. He was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. On his trial at the assize at Bedford he first pleaded in Greek, and then answering in Hebrew, upon which the Judge called for the indictment and reading N. Coxe, Cordwinder, he wondered, and declared that none could answer him. Mr. Coxe insisted on his right to plead in that language, which was granted, and he was dismist.”
Mr. Sutcliffe says, he has various times heard the above anecdote repeated in conversation in the town and neighbourhood of Bedford, and particularly with this addition, that the Judge should say to the counsellors, “Well the cordwinder has wound you all up gentlemen.” From Cranfield Mr. Coxe removed to London as we have noticed in the former article, where he was ordained joint-elder with Mr. Collins in 1675.
In 1681 Mr. Coxe published his treatise entitled, A Discourse of the Covenants that God made with Men before the Law; wherein the covenant of circumcision is more largely handled, and the Invalidity of the Plea for Paedobaptism taken from thence discovered. This was occasioned by Mr. Whiston’s Treatises on the subject of Baptism, especially that entitled, Infant-baptism plainly proved, written against the celebrated Thomas Delaune. It appears from the preface that he had prepared materials to publish also on “the Covenant made with Israel in the Wilderness; and the state of the Church under the Law.” He was, however, “happily prevented,” he says, by Dr. Owen’s 3 Vol. upon the Hebrews being published, to which he referred his reader for satisfaction, adding, “which he will there find answerable to what might be expected from so great and learned a person.”
We extract a paragraph from the preface to give an idea of the principles and spirit of Mr. Coxe.
“That the publication of this little Tract, has been so long delayed, was partly occasioned by those perplexities which the restless plots of the Papists, and their bold attempts to overwhelm us with the worst of miseries, have caused, which I thought would scarcely give leisure for the consideration of what might be offered in this kind; and partly by my own aversion from ally thing that looks like controversie with those that love the Lord Jesus and sincerely espouse the Protestant Interest, though differing in Principle and Practice from me in some controverted points: there being nothing that my soul more longs for on earth than to see an entire and hearty union of all that fear God, and hold the Head, however differing in their sentiments about some things of lesser moment; and together with these things a sense of insufficiency to perform my undertaking with that advantage to truth as is to be desired, had its share: howbeit, after I had weighed all circumstances, the satisfaction I have that no man is by me provoked by any undecent reflections, or any occasion ‘given to uncharitable and unchristian contention; with the hope that what is here offered may inform some, and give others occasion of more accurate thoughts in a farther disquisition of the truths pointed at, prevailed with the at length to cast in this my mite into the public treasury.”
When King James published his declaration of Indulgence in 1687, Mr. Coxe was one of the ministers who presented an Address to the King upon the subject. See Vol. I. p. 469. In this instance he was certainly imposed on, and unintentionally without doubt was made a tool to carry the “restless plots of the papists” into effect. Besides the piece above mentioned he printed a sermon preached at the ordination of an elder and deacons in a baptized congregation in London. He was one of the ministers who engaged in the ordination of Mr. Andrew Gifford, Bristol; with whom he appears to have been very intimate. We have seen a MS. letter to him written by Mr. Coxe on the subject of public singing, for which M r. Coxe was an advocate. We, have not been able to ascertain from whence he obtained his Diploma, but the authority rests on a note in Mr. Piggott’s Volume of Sermons, p. 190. Mr. Piggott calls him “a very excellent, learned, and judicious Divine.” A still higher testimony is borne to his character by Dr. De Veil, in his annotations on Acts 2:41. He says, “which that great Divine, eminent for all manner of learning, Nehemiah Coxe, by most weighty and solid arguments, has demonstrated in his excellent Discourse of the Covenants God mode with men before the Law.
Nehemiah Coxe (?-1689) was a Particular Baptist preacher. He was the son of Benjamin Coxe. In 1669, he became a member of the church in Bedford once pastored by John Bunyan. Due to disagreement over an open communion table, he moved his membership in 1674 to the Petty France church meeting in London, where he was appointed co-pastor alongside William Collins. The two men are credited with drafting the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. Although his theological works—particularly his covenant theology—have been given new life by the Reformed Baptists (1689 Federalists), they ceased to be of value among the Particular Baptists after the 17th century. His dichotomy of the everlasting covenant, having been rejected by men such as Keach and Gill, was replaced with a single saving covenant, upon which the tenets of Hyper-Calvinism were developed. From this perspective, the Reformed Baptists have revived an unreformed covenant theology, rendering them less reformed than present day Particular Baptists.
