Hercules Collins

Hercules Collins (1647-1702), the third minister of London’s oldest Baptist church, was the second most prolific author among the seventeenth-century Particular Baptists. He is best known for his 1680 revision of the Heidelberg Catechism called the An Orthodox Catechism.

Life

Collins had little education, but was religious at an early age. He appears to have officiated to a congregation at Wapping, and at one period he was imprisoned in Newgate Prison. He died on 4 October 1702, and his funeral sermon, by the Rev. John Piggott, was printed in the following year.

Works

His published material begins with An Orthodox Catechism (1680), an edited version of the 16th century Heidelberg Catechism. Collins revised the section on baptism, as well as making a number of stylistic changes; he also defends the practice of the laying on of hands upon the newly baptized. Collins added the text of the Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed to An Orthodox Catechism in an attempt to demonstrate Particular Baptist orthodoxy and defend their churches from false charges of anabaptistic heresies. In the “Appendix on Singing,” he argues for the biblical duty of congregational singing.[citation needed]

Over the next twenty-two years Collins produced eleven more works, mainly on issues of separation from the Church of England, and believer's baptism versus infant baptism. Other works come from his time in Newgate Prison during 1684. One of these was Counsel for the Living Occasioned from the Dead and was written on the death of two of his fellow prisoners; it contains pastoral instruction to those who were likewise experiencing persecution. The other, A Voice from Prison, was alternatively titled: Meditations on Revelation 3:11 Tending to the Establishment of God’s Little Flock, in An Hour of Temptation.[citation needed] Collins was also well-known for his “Mountains of Brass,” a lecture on the decrees of God.

His final work was The Temple Repair'd (1702). It includes instruction on preparing and preaching sermons for those in the ministry, and treats the doctrine of the “gifted brother” throughout.[citation needed]

Besides some single sermons, he wrote the following works, some of which occasioned a good deal of controversy:

  • An Orthodox Catechism, being the sum of Christian Religion contained in the Law and Gospel, London, 1680, 12mo.
  • A Voice from the Prison, or Meditations on Revelations, London, 1684, 4to.
  • Believers' Baptism from Heaven, and of Divine Institution Infants' Baptism from Earth, and Human Invention, London, 1691, 8vo., revised and republished by John Bailey, London, 1803, 8vo.
  • The Antidote proved a Counterfeit, or Error detected, and Believers' Baptism vindicated, containing an answer to "An Antidote to prevent the Prevalency of Anabaptism," London, 1693, 4to.
  • Three books, viz. I. The Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven. II. Mountains of Brass, or a Discourse upon the Decrees of God. III. A poem on the Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ. 3 parts, London, 1696, 12mo.

His collected Works are presently being edited by Mark Smith and Reagan Marsh for Hesed & Emet Publishers (H&E) under the oversight of Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin. Smith maintains a website (http://www.vor.org/rbdisk/other.htm) featuring transcriptions of Collins’s Works. Marsh, founding pastor-teacher of Reformation Baptist Church in Dalton, GA, is also writing a postgraduate thesis on Collins's pastoral theology under Dr. Thomas J. Nettles.

References

  • Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Collins, Hercules" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Collins, Hercules". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.