Puritan Memoirs - Mr. John Bond

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The life and death of Mr. John Bond.

MR. BOND was the son of Dennis Bond of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, a woolen draper in that place. While in this situation, he was a constant hearer, and a great admirer, of John White, minister, and frequently called the patriarch, of Dorchester. He was elected burgess, along with Daniel Hollis, for the borough of Dorchester, of which he was then alderman, to serve in the long parliament, and accounted a very active man. His son John, the subject of the present memoir, was educated under the Rev. Mr. John White above mentioned, and seems to have been much benefited in his youth by the faithful ministry of this distinguished servant of God. Having received a suitable and well directed education at home, he was sent to Cambridge, and placed, Wood says, he thinks, in St. John’s college, where he took the degrees of bachelor of civil law. Afterwards he became lecturer in the city of Exeter, the capital of Devonshire. He was a zealous puritan, who freely declared his sentiments, and suffered, accordingly, with cheerfulness, enduring all things for the gospel’s sake. He was a zealous covenanter; and in his writings shews a strong attachment to the work of reformation. “The Lord (says he, in one of his sermons before the House), at this time, requires a reformation of religion in almost all its departments, in doctrine, worship, and government; and expects you will promote the late solemn league and covenant, that triple cable of the three kingdoms, by which the anchor of our hope is fastened, that threefold cord that binds the three kingdoms to one another and to God.” He was afterwards minister of the Savoy, London, and became one of the superadded members of the assembly of divines. He was sometimes called to preach before the long parliament; and some of his sermons were published, and are still extant. On the 11th December 1645, he was made master of the hospital called the Savoy. He was appointed also master of Trinityhall, Cambridge, which Mr. John Selden had refused. In 1654 he. was appointed an assistant to the commissioners of Middlesex and Westminster, for the ejection of ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. Wood says, “He lived at Savoy, he believes, till the restoration, when he retired to Sutton in Dorsetshire, and died there, about 1680.”

His works are, 1. A Door of Hope; also, Holy and Loyal Activity; being two Treatises, delivered in several Sermons preached at Exeter.—2. Salvation in a Mystery; or, a Perspective Glass for England’s Case, a Sermon, preached before the Commons, March 27th 1644.—3. A Dawning in the West, a Thanksgiving Sermon, delivered to the Commons, 22d August 1645.— 4. Job in the West, two Sermons, for two Public Fasts, for the five associated western counties.—5. A Thanksgiving Sermon, preached before the House of Commons, 19th July 1648.—6. A Sermon, entitled Grapes among Thorns, preached to the Commons.