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James Hervey: preacher of righteousnessJAMES HERVEY James Hervey is known to me as the author of Meditations in the Tombs and Theron & Aspasio. These books are remarkable for their wide distribution, judged by the numbers printed and sold, but are very much in the style of their time. Balleine's History quotes: 'Cauliflowers sheltered their fair complexions under a green umbrella, and daisies were gay with the smile of youth and fair as the virgin snows.' But they were popular and influential, especially among the 'genteel classes' which other agencies could not reach. They tell us how each generation must speak in the language of the time to reach a particular audience. They had great influence in their day, there is no doubt. But Wesley reacted to the Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, and attacked Hervey, who had been his former pupil at Lincoln College, Oxford, and the thrust of this book is to deal with that theological controversy as well as telling the life of Hervey. As such, I find it difficult to define the intended readership of this book. It is for those interested in the controversies of the Evangelical Revival and for those who do not need to look up Amyraldianism, Grotianism and Neonomians in their books. The author opens up some questions for debate, as when he seems to imply that Milton and Cowper should not be judged as better poets than Hervey because their doctrine is suspect. The Bible Moths of Oxford get short shrift but then the members of the Holy Club all conceded in later years that they had been but groping towards the light. At best, a book for 17th-century scholars. John Marsh© Evangelicals Now - December 1997 |