Jan 7, 2024

Thomas Ellwood

Conversion can divide families; I can attest to it. I was raised in a mildly interested religious family, so my conversion at nineteen created quite a stir. My father feared his vocational dreams for me would go up in smoke. My awkwardness at communicating the changes going on inside of me didn’t help matters. I’m happy to report we worked it out in the end.

Not so for Thomas Ellwood (1639-1717). Thomas and his father, Walter, paid a visit to family friends one afternoon. These friends told of their conversion to Christ through the influence of Quakers. Walter and Thomas had never heard of Quakers. Thomas became curious and visited these friends a second time to learn more. He began attending Quaker meetings, listened intently to Quaker preachers, and was subsequently converted. His father did not take kindly to his son’s conversion and forbade Thomas from attending Quaker meetings. When his father took away his horse, Thomas was undeterred and proceeded to walk to meetings. Then, when he came home sporting a new Quaker broad-rimmed black hat, his father promptly knocked it off his head. His dad even went so far as to confine Thomas to the home for the winter of 1660.

Yet Thomas persevered. He wrote in his journal that his father eventually “left me to my liberty.” Not that it was all smooth sailing. He was repeatedly arrested for attending Quaker meetings. The Rule of Conformity forbade people from attending meetings that did not conform to Church of England standards. Once, he was arrested while serving as a pallbearer en route to a Quaker burial ground. When Thomas married Mary in a Quaker ceremony, his father – who had promised him an endowment on his wedding day – withdrew the offer.

What some people endure in their resolve to follow Christ! Thomas earned a meager living as a poet and served as John Milton’s reader when he went blind. When Milton handed him a manuscript of Paradise Lost, Ellwood asked, “What hast thou to say about paradise found?” Milton wrote a sequel, which he titled Paradise Regained.

Thomas leads us to pray:

O that mine eyes might closed be
To what becomes me not to see;
That deafness might possess mine ear,
To what concerns me not to hear;
That Truth my tongue might always tie,
From ever speaking foolishly;
That no vain thought might ever rest,
Or be conceived in my breast;
That by each word, each deed, each thought,
Glory may to my God be brought.
But what are wishes! Lord, mine eye
On thee is fix’d, to thee I cry;
Oh purge out all my dross, my tin,
Make me more white than snow within;
Wash Lord, and purify my heart,
And make it clean in every part;
And when ’tis clean, Lord keep it too,
For that is more than I can do.

Thomas Ellwood, The History of Thomas Ellwood.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.