Nathaniel Holmes (theologian)

Nathaniel Holmes or Homes^{[note 1]} (1599–1678) was an English Independent theologian and preacher. He has been described as a “Puritan writer of great ability".^[1]

Life

He graduated with a B.A. from Exeter College, Oxford in 1620; and with an M.A. from Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1623. He later founded an Independent church, with Henry Burton;^[2] he was rector of St Mary Staining, Oat Lane, Aldersgate, in London to 1662. In 1644 his Gospell-Musick defended and promoted psalm-singing, and reprinted the preface to the Bay Psalm Book.^[3]

A convinced millenarian, he preached to the House of Commons in 1641, under the influence of Thomas Brightman.^[4] In 1650, in another sermon to the Commons after the battle of Dunbar, he cited the Book of Daniel and Book of Revelation.^[5] He has been considered a follower of Johann Heinrich Alsted.^[6]

He with Henry Jessey corresponded with Menasseh ben Israel, about the official return of Jews to England, and the supposed Lost Tribes found in North America.^[7] This interest was prompted by John Dury’s interest,^[8] and was shared with others.^[9] His philo-Semitism has been noted, for example, by Werner Sombart.^[10]

Views

His 1640 work on usury was against the permissive line of William Ames.^[11] He was against political "levelling".^[12] He defended infant baptism, and attacked John Goodwin on salvation by works.^[13]

He wrote against witchcraft,^[14] proposing an influential three-fold scheme of possession,^[15] and astrology, regretting its prevalence.^[16]

Works

• Usury is Injury (1640), OCLC 55196276
• Gospell Musick (1644)
• Daemonologie and Theologie (1650)
• The Resurrection Revealed, or The Dawning of the Day Star
• Some Glimpses of Israel's Call Approaching
• Revelation Revealed (1653)
• Commentary on Canticles

Notes

1. Also Nathanael.

References

1. Wiley, H. Orton (1940). "Chapter 34". Christian Theology. Beacon Hill Press. ISBN 0-8341-0332-X.
2. The Concise Dictionary of National Biography.
3. Haraszti, Zoltán (1956). The Enigma of the Bay Psalm Book. University of Chicago Press. pp. 19. OCLC 382590.
4. Bacon, Richard. "A Westminster Bibliography Part 5: Hermeneutical Background". First Presbyterian Church of Rowlett. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.^{[unreliable source?]}
5. Hill, Christopher (1993). The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution. Allen Lane. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-7139-9078-2.
6. Larsen, David L. "Some key issues in the history of premillennialism" (PDF). Pre-Trib Research Center. p. 7. Retrieved October 29, 2010.^{[unreliable source?]}
7. Van der Waal, Ernestine G.E. (1985). "Three Letters by Menasseh Ben Israel to John Durie: English Philo-Judaism and the Spes Israelis" (PDF). Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis. 65: 49, 53.
8. Tillotson, Jonathan Mark. "The Whitehall Conference of 1655 and the Readmission of the Jews to England". Readmissionofthejews.blogspot.com. Retrieved 29 October 2010.^{[unreliable source?]}
9. Matt Goldish (2004). The Sabbatean prophets. Harvard University Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0-674-01291-2.. (This source also mentions Samuel Hartlib and Margaret Fell.)
10. Sombart, Werner (2001). The Jews and Modern Capitalism (PDF). Batoche Books. p. 175. OCLC 501337657.
11. Hill, Christopher (1993). The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution. Allen Lane. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-7139-9078-2.
12. Hill, Christopher (1984). The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. Penguin. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-14-013732-3.
13. Hughes, Ann (2004). Gangraena and the Struggle for the English Revolution (PDF). Oxford University Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-19-925192-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-29.
14. Thomas, Keith (1997). Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. Oxford University Press. p. 623. ISBN 978-0-19-521360-7. (Citing Daemonologie of 1650.)
15. PDF, p. 119.^{[dead link‍]}
16. Thomas, Keith (1997). Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. Oxford University Press. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-19-521360-7. (Citing Plain Dealing, a sermon of 1652.)