Eight Women of Faith

by Michael A. G. Haykin, Karen Swallow Prior (Foreword by)

Overview

Read the Stories of Eight Remarkable Women and Their Vital Contributions to Church History

Throughout history, women have been crucial to the growth and flourishing of the church. Historian Michael A. G. Haykin highlights the lives of eight of these women who changed the course of history, showing how they lived out their unique callings despite challenges and opposition—inspiring modern men and women to imitate their godly examples today.

Jane Grey: The courageous Protestant martyr who held fast to her conviction that salvation is by faith alone even to the point of death.

Anne Steele: The great hymn writer whose work continues to help the church worship in song today.

Margaret Baxter: The faithful wife to pastor Richard Baxter who met persecution with grace and joy.

Esther Edwards Burr: The daughter of Jonathan Edwards whose life modeled biblical friendship.

Anne Dutton: The innovative author whose theological works left a significant literary legacy.

Ann Judson: The wife of Adoniram Judson and pioneer missionary in the American evangelical missions movement.

Sarah Edwards: The wife of Jonathan Edwards and model of sincere delight in Christ.

Jane Austen: The prolific novelist with a deep and sincere Christian faith that she expressed in her stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433548956
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	07/18/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	778 KB

About the Author

Michael A. G. Haykin (ThD, University of Toronto) is professor of church history and biblical spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He has authored or edited more than twenty-five books, including Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church.

Michael A. G. Haykin (ThD, University of Toronto) is professor of church history and biblical spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He has authored or edited more than twenty-five books, including Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Witness of Jane Grey, an Evangelical Queen

"Faith Only Justifieth"

It is February 10 in the year 1554. We are in a room in the Tower of London, where the Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), who had been Queen of England for little over a week the previous year — from July 10–19, 1553 — is imprisoned. She has been condemned to death by her cousin Mary I (1516–1558), also known to history as "Bloody Mary." Though Mary, a die-hard Roman Catholic, is determined to end Jane's earthly life, Mary also wants to save Jane's soul. So she has sent one of her most able chaplains, a Benedictine monk by the name of John Feckenham (c. 1515–1584), to speak to Jane and convince her of her theological errors. Feckenham was no stranger to theological debate, since he had debated a number of leading Protestant theologians in the early 1550s, men such as John Hooper (1500–1555) and John Jewel (1522–1571). He may well have thought that a young woman such as Jane would be hard-pressed to withstand the power of his reasoning.

Jane recorded the conversation after Feckenham left her. According to Jane's account — and we do not have a similar account from Feckenham, though there seems no reason to doubt the veracity of Jane's recollection — after Jane had confessed her faith in the triunity of God, she affirmed that people are saved by faith alone. Feckenham responded to this by citing 1 Corinthians 13:2, "If I have all faith ... but have not love, I am nothing." In other words, Feckenham was maintaining that salvation was the result of both faith and love shown by good works. Jane stood her ground:

Jane: True it is, for how can I love him in whom I trust not? Or how can I trust in him whom I love not? Faith and love agreeth both together, and yet love is comprehended in faith.

Feckenham: How shall we love our neighbour?

Jane: To love our neighbour is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we would do to ourselves.

Feckenham: Why then it is necessary to salvation to do good works and it is not sufficient to believe.

Jane: I deny that and I affirm that faith only saves. But it is meet for Christians, in token that they follow their master Christ, to do good works, yet may we not say that they profit to salvation. For, although we have all done all that we can, yet we be unprofitable servants, and the faith only in Christ's blood saveth.

Who was this remarkable young woman and how did she come to be in this precarious position in the infamous Tower of London? In some ways, Jane's story is a difficult one to tell since it cannot be understood without due consideration of the politics swirling her life. So as we remember her story, while our focus is going to be on her Christian faith, the political scene cannot be ignored. Jane was the granddaughter of Henry VIII's (1491–1547) youngest and favorite sister, Mary Tudor (1496–1533), and was thus that wily monarch's great-niece. During Jane's life she stood fourth in line to the English throne after Henry's three children — Edward VI (1537–1553), Mary, and Elizabeth (1533–1603) — and was elevated to the crown after the death of her cousin Edward VI in 1553. Thus any consideration of Jane's life inevitably involves looking at the politics of the day.

Jane's Early Days

Jane Grey was born to Henry Grey (1517–1554), the Marquis of Dorset, and his wife, Frances (1517–1559), the niece of Henry VIII, at their palatial Leicestershire home, Bradgate Manor, early in October 1537. She appears to have been named after the queen of the day, Jane Seymour (c. 1508–1537), the third wife of Henry VIII and the mother of the future Edward VI.

Jane's parents were highly ambitious, callous individuals who balked at nothing to get ahead. They initially hoped that they could marry Jane off to Henry VIII's only son, Edward, who had been born in the same month as Jane. Thus Jane's parents imposed on her a rigid system of education, requiring her to master Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, so as to make her attractive to the future monarch. In 1546, when Jane was nine, she was sent to Henry's court to live under the guardianship of Queen Katharine Parr (1512–1548), the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. All of this was part of her parents' selfish scheme to marry her to Edward and so advance their standing in society. But in the providence of God this led to Jane's coming under the influence of Katharine Parr, one of the most charming and intelligent women of the day, a woman who, moreover, was a genuine Christian. In the words of one of her chaplains: "Her rare goodness has made every day a Sunday." It appears to have been the case that it was during this stay in the household of Queen Katharine that Jane came to a living faith in Christ. As Paul Zahl has noted, Katherine was "Jane's real mother in Christianity."

In 1547, though, Katherine Parr was widowed as Henry VIII died, and as a result Jane soon returned to her parents' home. Henry was succeeded by his son Edward, who was crowned Edward VI on February 20, 1547. He was but nine years of age. Yet he was surrounded by a number of godly counselors, including Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was determined to make England a bastion of the Reformed faith. The great French Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) actually wrote a letter to Edward's guardian, his uncle Edward Seymour (c. 1500–1552), in which he likened Edward VI to King Josiah. And in time the young English monarch was indeed like Josiah, eager to have his subjects learn biblical truth. Of a hundred or so extant treatises from Edward's hand, a number clearly evidence Edward's commitment to the evangelical faith.

When Jane returned to her parents' home in Bradgate, they seem to have considered her a "symbol of failure and a wasted effort — and they treated her accordingly." Jane's response was to pour herself into her studies. She began to excel in Greek and even entered into correspondence with such continental Reformers as Martin Bucer (1491–1551), then living in Cambridge, and Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) of Zurich. She was growing in grace and becoming articulate in her faith, though there is also evidence that she was strong-minded and at times displayed a very stubborn streak like many of her Tudor relatives.

Marriage and Edward's Death

In the spring of 1552, King Edward had the measles, and, not taking time to recover, he soon began to show symptoms of tuberculosis. As the year wore on, it became increasingly clear to those who were close to the king that he would not reach adulthood. Now, Henry VIII's will had named his daughter Mary as next in line to the throne. If Edward did not marry and produce an heir, a Catholic would rule England. Edward's Chief Minister, John Dudley (1504–1553), the Duke of Northumberland, well knew that he would be punished by Mary for his support of the Protestant cause. He began to seek a way to prevent her being queen. Jane Grey was fourth in line to the throne and represented, for Northumberland, his only real chance to retain the power and status he had attained. He thus began to foster a close association with Henry and Frances Grey and in due time convinced them to wed their daughter Jane to his son, Guildford Dudley (1535–1554).

Early in May 1553, Jane was told by her parents that she was to be married to Guildford. Though Jane protested and utterly refused, for she despised Guildford, it was ultimately to no avail. After her father had sworn at her and cursed her, and her mother had given her an awful beating, she relented. So it was that on May 25, 1553, Jane was married to Guildford at Durham House in London.

Eight weeks later, on Thursday, July 6, 1553, the fifteen-year-old King Edward died, surrounded by his counselors, who had gathered at his bedside. In his final days, encouraged by John Dudley, but also very much in accord with his own thinking, he had changed his father's will and made Jane his heir. Both of his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, had been disinherited by their father before Henry VIII's death, and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had declared both of them illegitimate, and thus technically neither could inherit the throne.

News of Edward's death was kept from Jane until Sunday, July 9, when she was informed that she had to go to the Duke of Northumberland's residence, Syon House at Isleworth on the Thames. When, two hours later, Jane entered Syon House from the riverside, she first went into what was known as the Great Hall. Gradually the room filled with people familiar to Jane, including members of the Privy Council and her immediate family, who all pledged to defend with their very lives her right to the throne

Overwhelmed with the news of the death of her cousin, the king, and coupled with the shock of hearing herself proclaimed queen, Jane fainted. None apparently went to help her until she eventually revived by herself and stood up and adamantly maintained that she was not the rightful queen. That was Mary's right. Dudley responded: "Your Grace doth wrong to yourself and to your house." He then recounted the terms of Edward's will, which named her as his heir. Jane's parents joined in, demanding that she accept. At this, she knelt in prayer and found the inner strength to say a little while later, while still kneeling: "If what hath been given me is lawfully mine, may thy divine Majesty grant me such grace that I may govern to thy glory and service, to the advantage of this realm."

Queen Jane

The following day Jane was rowed up the Thames to the Tower of London, where monarchs traditionally stayed until their coronation day. Proclamation was made to the people of London that "Jane, by the grace of God, [is] Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and Ireland, under Christ on Earth, the Supreme Head." Most of them would have been quite surprised since Jane was hardly known in the capital. Moreover, they would have regarded Mary as the rightful heir despite the fact that she had been disinherited.

From Sunday, July 9, to Wednesday, July 19, Lady Jane Grey was queen. She signed a few documents, perhaps six in all; she dined once in state and made one or two appointments. She also resolutely refused to agree to the request of her husband and the violent demand of her mother-in-law that Guildford Dudley should be made king.

As soon as Mary had heard of Jane being made queen, however, she marched on London with an army, and all but one or two of those courtiers who had sworn to defend her to the death melted away in the face of Mary's military might. Even Jane's own father declared Mary the rightful queen, hoping that he could escape with his life. It is noteworthy that Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, did not desert Jane to her foes. As for Jane herself, an eyewitness account indicates that she seemed relieved that she was no longer queen. Naïvely, she hoped she could simply return to her home. But Mary — soon to be Mary I — did not trust her and committed her to prison in the tower.

Jane Condemned to Death

On July 24, Jane's father-in-law, Dudley, who had been arrested, was also brought to the tower as a prisoner. In the hope of securing a pardon from the queen he recanted his Protestant beliefs, saying that he had been seduced "by the false and erroneous teachings" of the evangelicals. He requested the right to attend mass, which was granted by Mary. With disgust, Jane watched from her window in the tower as he was escorted to mass, and she was heard to say, "I pray God I, nor no friend of mine die so." Dudley was granted a small reprieve, but he could not escape death. He was beheaded on August 23, 1553.

Jane and her husband, Guildford, Dudley's son, were put on trial on November 13. Both were found guilty and sentenced to death. But Jane really did not expect to die in such a way, and initially Mary probably had little intention of carrying out the sentence. But a civil uprising known as the Wyatt Rebellion changed her mind. Sir Thomas Wyatt (1521–1554) raised a small band of soldiers in Kent who were angered when they heard Mary was planning to marry King Philip II (1527–1598) of Spain. In their minds, to have a Spanish Catholic King on the English throne was utterly unthinkable.

Wyatt was able to win his way to London by February 7, 1554. But when he entered the capital, townspeople of London refused to countenance his cause, and the rebellion collapsed. Now, intimately involved in this rebellion was Jane's father, Henry Grey. His involvement all but determined Mary to take Jane's life. On February 7, 1554, Mary accordingly signed the death warrants of "Guilford Dudley and his wife." When Henry Grey was executed, it should be noted, he affirmed that he died "in the faith of Christ, trusting to be saved by his blood only (and not by any trumpery)."

The Conversation with Feckenham

It was thus that Jane met John Feckenham a few days later, after her death warrant had been signed, and had the conversation noted earlier. The full conversation runs as follows:?

Feckenham first speaketh: What thing is required in a Christian?

Jane: To believe in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God.

Feckenham: Is there nothing else required in a Christian, but to believe in God?

Jane: Yes, we must believe in him, we must love him with all our heart, with all our soul and all our mind, and our neighbor as ourself.

Feckenham: Why then faith justifieth not, nor saveth not.

Jane: Yes, verily, faith (as St. Paul saith) only justifieth.

Feckenham: Why St. Paul saith: If I have all faith without love, it is nothing.

Jane: True it is, for how can I love him in whom I trust not? Or how can I trust in him whom I love not? Faith and love agreeth both together, and yet love is comprehended in faith.

Feckenham: How shall we love our neighbour?

Jane: To love our neighbour is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we would do to ourselves.

Feckenham: Why then it is necessary to salvation to do good works and it is not sufficient to believe.

Jane: I deny that and I affirm that faith only saveth. But it is meet for Christians, in token that they follow their master Christ, to do good works, yet may we not say that they profit to salvation. For although we have all done all that we can, yet we be unprofitable servants, and the faith only in Christ's blood saveth.

Feckenham: How many sacraments be there?

Jane: Two, the one the sacrament of baptism, and the other the sacrament of our Lord's supper.

Feckenham: No, there be seven.

Jane: By what Scripture find you that?

Feckenham: Well, we will talk thereof hereafter. But what is signified by your two sacraments?

Jane: By the sacrament of baptism, I am washed with water and regenerated by the Sprit, and that washing is a token to me, that I am the child of God. The sacrament of the Lord's supper is offered unto me as a sure seal and testimony, that I am by the blood of Christ, which he shed for me on the cross, made partaker of the everlasting kingdom.

Feckenham: Why, what do you receive in that bread? Do you not receive the very body and blood of Christ?

Jane: No surely, I do not believe so. I think that at that supper I receive neither flesh, nor blood, but only bread and wine. The which bread when it is broken, and the wine when it is drunk, putteth me in mind, how that for my sins the body of Christ was broken, and his blood shed on the cross, and, with that bread and wine, I receive the benefits that came by [the] breaking of his body, and the shedding of his blood on the cross for my sins.

Feckenham: Why, doth not Christ speak these words: "Take, eat, this is my body?" Require we any plainer words? Doth not he say that it is his body?

Jane: I grant he saith so, and so he saith: "I am the vine, I am the door," but yet he is never the more the vine nor door. Doth not St. Paul say that he calleth those things that are not as though they were? God forbid that I should say that I eat the very natural body and blood of Christ, for then either I should pluck away my redemption, either else there were two bodies, or two Christs or else two bodies, the one body was tormented on the cross, and then, if they did eat another body, then either he had two bodies, either else if his body were eaten, it was not broken upon the cross, or else if it were broken upon the cross, it was not eaten of his disciples.

Feckenham: Why is it not as possible that Christ by his power could make his body both to be eaten and broken, as to be born of a woman without the seed of man, and as to walk on the sea, having a body, and other such like miracles as he wrought by his power only?

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Eight Women of Faith"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Michael A. G. Haykin.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword by Karen Swallow Prior,
Introduction,
1 The Witness of Jane Grey, an Evangelical Queen "Faith Only Justifieth",
2 Richard Baxter's Testimony about Margaret Baxter "Ruled by Her Prudent Love in Many Things",
3 Anne Dutton and Her Theological Works "The Glory of God, and the Good of Souls",
4 Sarah Edwards and the Vision of God "A Wonderful Sweetness",
5 Anne Steele and Her Hymns "The Tuneful Tongue That Sung ... Her Great Redeemer's Praise",
6 Esther Edwards Burr on Friendship "One of the Best Helps to Keep Up Religion in the Soul",
7 Ann Judson and the Missionary Enterprise "Truth Compelled Us",
8 The Christian Faith of Jane Austen "The Value of That Holy Religion",
Notes,
General Index,
Scripture Index,