of others whom he succesfully persuaded to relieve the distressed particularly the laborious Poor for of vagrant idle and insolent Beggers he was no Advocate nor Encourager His agreeable Temper rendring him an extraordinary lover of Gardens he contriv'd this Walk which bears his Name and where his improving Conversation and Example are still remembred But since Heaven has better disposed of him this Pillar is erected to Charity and Friendship by Sir Robert Clayton and Martha his Lady who first builded and planted in Marden Born at Ipswich in Suffolk Buried in Christ-Church Hospital London I have now answer'd the Demand of divers as well Strangers as Friends of writing and publishing some account of Mr. Firmin's Life and Death I hope the well-minded Reader will find much in it that may both confirm and strengthen him in the best Ways especially in Humanity and Charity He may see here how much beneficence a good Man of but indifferent Estate is capable of exercising by means of Acquaintance and Conversation with well-chose Friends whom he may excite by his Example and Solicitations to be highly useful in their Generation and thereby be himself incomparably more useful than otherwise he could be But if I am less succesful in that part of my Design than I wish to be yet I have much eased my own mind by paying some part of the debt that I owe to the Memory of our Friend The rest I shall be always paying by a Grateful and Mournful Sense of the Public and my own Loss and Benefit by him when present and as now deceased I cannot better end than in the words of a Letter written to the Author of the ensuing Sermon by a Person of great Worth and who from the time that they came acquainted enabled Mr. Firmin to do many of those great Services to the Public the Deserving and the Poor for which he was so highly commendable Sir I received your Letter of Febr. 16. and therewith the Parentation to our valuable Friend Mr. Tho. Firmin that Man of so extraordinary Affections and Abilities for the great Works of Charity and Piety May it please the Divine Providence to raise up to us adequate Successors In the mean time what an Abatement of sorrow is it to us that He who alone is Absolutely good and All-powerful lives forever I am your affâ—ctionate and assured Friend Br. Br. He had often signified his desire to be buried in Christ-Church Hospital when dead the Care of which had been so much upon his heart while living In compliance with which desire his Relatives have interr'd him in the Cloysters there and placed in the Wall adjoining a Marble to his memory with this Inscription viz. Vnder that Stone near this place lyeth the Body of Thomas Firmin late Citizen of London a Governour of this and Saint Thomas's Hospital who by the Grace of God was created in Christ Jesus unto good Works wherein he was indefatigably Industrious and succesfully provoked many others thereto becoming also their Almoner visiting and relieving the Poor at their Houses and in Prisons whence also he redeemed many He set many Hundreds of them at work to the expending of great Stocks He rebuilt repaired and added Conveniences to Hospitals weekly over-seeing the Orphans The Refugees from France and from Ireland have partaken largely the effects of his Charity Pains and earnest Solicitations for them He was wonderfully Zealous in every good Work beyond the Example of any in our Age. Thus shewed he his Faith by his Works and cannot reasonably be reproched for that which brought forth such plenty of Good Fruits He Died Dec. xx 1697. and in the 66th year of his Age. The End of the Life
and was one of the first that subscribed the Composition but withal sent her a Letter wherein he remitted his whole Debt and desired to see her when her Affair was cleared and she at quiet When she came to him he said He had missed in his aim in what he design'd to procure for her but he would do something himself Shortly after he sent her a good Norwich Stuff that very well clothed her and her Four Children She told me this with many Tears to which I had the more regard because I had long known her to be a Virtuous and very Prudent Woman As Mr. Firmin's Pains and Care in giving forth these Charities were not small so neither were they little in procuring them Not only because many Persons are hardly perswaded to give the Bread of themselves and Families to others but because 't is much more difficult to beg for others than to give ones self He that begs for others must be Master of a great deal of Prudence as well as Wit and Address He must know how to choose the Mollia tempora fandi the fittest opportunity of speaking and when he speaks he must apply himself to those passions of the Person by which only he can be wrought on I remember Mr. Firmin told me of his applying to a Citizen of the highest rank for his Charity in rebuilding St. Thomas's Hospital Of whom he demanded no less than 100 l. The Person had been some way disobliged by the Governours of that Hospital so he refused to subscribe any thing But our Friend seeing him one day among some Friends whom he respected and by whom he was willing to be respected and that also he was in a very good Humour he push'd on his Request for the Hospital and prevailed with him so far as to subscribe the whole 100 l. But to his personal Solicitations he was forced sometimes to add Letters and sometimes succeeded by the Arguments in his Letters better than by the Authority of his personal Mediation I find in one of his Books in the Year 1679. the Sum of 520 l. 6 s. received of seventy two Persons in a Book of the Year 1681. the Sum of 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. received of forty three Persons All these were to be treated with privately and opportunely which required much Time Caution Industry and Discretion which laid out on his own Business what great Effects would it have produced Mr. Firmin might much more easily have been one of the great Men of the World than Almoner General for the Poor and the Hospitals I observe in the same Book of 1681. that the Disbursments against the Sum 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. do amount to 594 15 11. the Balance over paid is 62 15 5. which over-paid Balance is to be found in many of his Accounts and I believe it came out of his own Purse I must note also that the Sums were not given for the Poor alone or for the Spinners alone but of 50 l. given 30 of it is for the Spinners and 20 for the Poor sometimes 20 for the Spinners and 30 for the Poor Elsewhere 100 l. is given 50 for the Poor and 50 for Spinners Another gives 50 l. for Cloth to be divided to the Poor Another 100 l. for the same use Mr. Firmin having set his heart so much on Charity could not but esteem and love Mr. Gouge a Man of the same Spirit whom while he was in London he got to table with him 'T is not to be doubted that 't was the intimate Friendship of these two Persons that gave occasion to that remarkable passage in Dr. Tillotson's Funeral Sermon on Mr. Gouge p. 82. Mr. Gouge was of a disposition ready to imbrace and oblige all Men allowing others to differ from him even in Opinions that were very Dear to him Provided Men did but fear God and work Righteousness he loved them heartily how distant soever from him in Judgment about less Necessary things in which he is worthy to be propounded as an Example to Men of all Persuasions And till the Example is followed the World will never have Peace That great Preacher has given us an account of Mr. Gouges Religious Charity in printing divers good Books in the Welch and English Tongues to be given to those that were Poor and sold to such as could buy them the Chief of those Prints and the most Expensive was an Edition of the Bible and Liturgie in the Welch Tongue no fewer than Eight Thousand Copies of this Work were printed together One cannot question that Mr. Firmin contributed to and procured divers Sums for this excellent Undertaking of his Friend tho' all is attributed to Mr. Gouge who was Chief in that great and good Work After Mr. Gouge's Death I find the Sum of 419 l. 9 s. given to buy a Number of those Bibles whereof Dr. Tillotson then Dean of St. Paul's gave 50 l. Mr. Morrice 67 l. other Persons the rest but there wants in the Receipts 26 l. 13 s. to balance the Disbursment and that I judg was Mr. Firmin's mony Now that we are speaking of Books I ought not to forget that Mr. Firmin often printed Ten thousand Copies of the Scripture-Catechism which some think was written by Dr. Worthington But I have cause to believe that the Author was Dr. Fowler now Bishop of Glocester who in compiling it followed the Method of Dr. Worthington These Mr. Firmin gave to his Spinners and their Children and to the Children of the Hospital engaging them to get it by heart and giving something to those that did He lodged also great Numbers of them with Booksellers at cheaper rates than they were printed that they might be sold also cheaper and thereby be dispersed all over England His Acquaintance might at all times have of them what Numbers they would gratis He valued this Catechism because 't is wholly in the Words of Scripture favours no particular Party or Persuasion and therefore is of general Use the Aim of the Judicious Author being to instruct the Youth and the Ignorant in what all Parties agree is necessary to be believ'd and done leaving it to others to engage 'em in Controversies and Debates In the Year 1680. and 1681. came over the French Protestants new work for Mr. Firmin's Charity and Zeal for of all the Objects of Charity he thought those the most Deserving who were undone for Conscience toward God whether such Conscience be a well-inform'd Conscience or an erroneous and mistaken 'T is not the truth or falshood of the Opinion but the Zeal for God and the sincerity to the dictates of Conscience that makes the Martyr Therefore now our Elemosinary General had to beg not only for the Spinners the Poor of the out-Parishes of London the Redemption of Debtors from Prison for Coals and Shirting but for a vast number of Religious Refugees whose Wants required not only a great but an immediate Succour The first and one of the most
sincerely preached as he then thought and continued still to think of those Points that however no bodies false imputations should provoke him to give ill Language to persons who dissented conscientiously and for weighty reasons That he knew well this was the case of the Socinians for whose learning and dexterity he should always have a respect as well as for their sincerity and exemplariness Afterwards when Mr. Firmin gave him a Copy of the Considerations after he had read it he only said My Lord of Sarum shall humble your Writers Nor did he afterwards at any time express the least coldness on the account of the Answer made to him but used Mr. Firmin as formerly enquiring as he was wonted How does my Son Giles so he called Mr. Firmins Son by his second Wife About the time the Great and Good Archbishop died the Controversie concerning the Trinity and the depending Questions received an unexpected Turn The Vnitarians took notice from D. Petavius Dr. R. Cudworth S. Curcellaeus the Oxford Heads Dr. S th and others that their Opposers agreed indeed in contending for a Trinity of Divine Persons but differed from one another even as much as from the Unitarians concerning what is to be meant by the term Persons Some of 'em say three Divine Persons are three Eternal Infinite Minds Spirits Substances and Beings but others reject this as Heresie Blasphemy and Tritheism These latter affirm that GOD is one Infinite Eternal All-perfect Mind and Spirit and the Trinity of Persons is the Godhead Divine Essence or Divine Substance considered as Vnbegotten Begotten and Proceeding which Modes or Properties they further explain by Original Wisdom Unbegotten and therefore named the Father the reflex Wisdom Logos or WORD which being generated or begotten is called the Son and the eternal Spiration of Divine Love that has therefore the name of Holy Spirit The Vnitarians never intended to oppose any other Trinity but a Trinity of infinite Minds or Spirits grant to 'em that GOD is one Infinite Spirit or Mind not two or three they demand no more They applied themselves therefore to enquire which of these Trinities a Trinity of Spirits or of Properties is the Doctrine of the Catholic Church they could not miss of a ready satisfaction all Systems Catechisms Books of Controversie Councils Writers that have been esteemed Catholic more especially since the General Lateran Council Anno 1215. and the Reformation have defined GOD to be one Infinite All-perfect Spirit and the Divine Persons to be nothing else but the Divine Essence or Godhead with the three relative Properties Unbegotten and Begotten and Proceeding They saw therefore plainly that the difference between the Church and the Vnitarians had arose from a meer mistake of one anothers meaning a mistake occasioned chiefly by the unscriptural terms Trinity Persons and such like They resolved that it became them as good Christians to seek the Peace of the Catholic Church and not to litigate about Terms tho never so unproper or implying only Trifles when the things intended by those Terms are not unsound or heterodox These Honest Pacific Inclinations of men who drove no design in their dissent from the Church gave birth to the Agreement between the Unitarians and the Catholic Church a Book written at the instance chiefly of Mr. Firmin in Answer to Mr. Edwards the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester and Monsieur de Luzanzy I need not to say what will be owned by every Ingenuous Learned Person without hesitance that the Agreement is as well the Doctrine of the Catholic Church as of the Vnitarians and that in all the points so long and fiercely debated and controverted by the Writers of this and of former Ages It must be confest the hands of a great many excellent Persons did concur to this Re-union of Parties that seemed so widely and unreconcilably divided and did encourage the Author of the Agreement in his disinteressed laborious searches into Antiquity and other parts of Learning and several learned men some of them Authors in the Socinian or Vnitarian way examined the Work with the Candor and Ingenuity that is as necessary in such cases as Learning or Judgment are Mr. Firmin publisht it when examined and corrected with more satisfaction than he had before given forth so many Eristic Writings I did not wonder however that our Friend was so ready to embrace a reconciliation with the Church for he was ever a lover of Peace and always conformed as far as he could according to that direction of the Apostle Whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Which with the best Interpreters he understood thus Conform to the Doctrines Terms and Usages that are commonly received as far as you can if in some things you differ from the Church yet agree with her and walk by her Rule to the utmost that in Conscience you may or as the Apostle himself words it so far as or whereunto you have attained From this Principle it was that our Friend never approved of those who separate from the communion of the Church on the account of Ceremonies Habits form of Government or other mere Circumstantials of Religion He was wont to tell such that seeing 't was undeniable they might communicate with the Church without either sin or scandal and did communicate on some occasions it is therefore both scandal and sin to separate and divide With this he silenced many and reclaimed divers In the Year 1658. the Vnitarians were banisht out of Poland the occasion this Poland had been long harass'd with most dangerous Civil and Foreign Wars insomuch that at one time there were in Arms in Poland Lithuania and the Vkrain One hundred and fourscore thousand Poles as many Tartars and two hundred thousand Cossacks besides powerful Bodies of Austrians and Transilvanians which attacked Poland on the West and South The ravages and desolations committed and caused so by many great Armies in a Country that has but few fortified Places were unexpressible Poland therefore was reduced to such a feeble and desperate condition that their King himself withdrew and the King of Swedes took the advantage of their confusion and low estate to invade them with Forty thousand men regular Troops He took the Cities of Warsaw and Cracow and with them almost all Poland he constrained the Polanders to take an Oath of Subjection and Allegiance to him which Oath was first submitted unto and taken by the Roman-Catholies then by the Protestants and not till last of all by the Vnitarians But the Swedish King engaging himself in other Wars particularly with Denmark and in Germany John Casimire King of Poland appeared again and the Poles generally joining their King at length drove the Swedes out of Poland the Swedish King found himself obliged to condescend to a reasonable Peace with King Casimire As the Vnitarians were the last that submitted to the obedience of Swedeland so being bound thereto by an Oath they did not
in his remaining twenty or one and twenty years Had not his ingenit Liberality great Mind and Zeal of serving the Divine Majesty turned his endeavours a contrary way to support and to raise others while he lessened and impaired himself For this year he erected his Warehouse in Little Britain for the imployment of the Poor in the Linen Manufacture Let us hear what Archbishop Tillotson then but Dean Tillotson says of this Design of Mr. Firmin in his Funeral Sermon on Mr. Gouge Anno 1681. He Mr. Gouge set the Poor of St. Sepulchres Parish where he was Minister to work at his own charge He bought Flax and Hemp for them to spin when spun he paid them for their Work and caused it to be wrought into Cloth which he sold as he could himself bearing the whole loss This was a very wise and well-chosen way of Charity and in the good effect of it a much greater Charity than if he had given to those very persons freely and for nothing so much as he made them to earn by their work because by this means he rescued 'em from two most dangerous Temptations Idleness and Poverty This course so happily devised and begun by Mr. Gouge gave it may be the first hint to that useful and worthy Citizen Mr. Tho. Firmin of a much larger Design which has been managed by him some years in this City with that vigour and good success that many hundreds of poor Children and others who lived idle before unprofitable both to themselves and the Public now maintain themselves and are also some advantage to the Community By the Assistance and Charity of many excellent and well-disposed persons Mr. Firmin is enabled to bear the unavoidable loss and charge of so vast an Undertaking and by his own forward inclination to Charity and unwearied diligence and activity is fitted to sustain and go through the incredible pains of it Serm. on Mr. Gouge p. 62 63 64. 'T is of this Project and Warehouse that Mr. Firmin himself speaks in a Book of his entituled Proposals for the employment of the Poor in these words 'T is now above four years since I set up my Workhouse in Little Britain for the imployment of the Poor in the Linen Manufacture which hath afforded so great help and Relief to many hundreds of poor Families that I never did and I fear never shall do an Action more to my own satisfaction or to the good and benefit of the Poor He employed in this Manufacture some times 1600 some times 1700 Spinners besides Dressers of Flax Weavers and others Because he found that his Poor must work sixteen hours in the day to earn sixpence and thought that their necessities and labour were not sufficiently supplied or recompensed by those earnings therefore he was wont to distribute Charity among them as he saw their need especially at Christmas and in hard weather Without which Charity some of them had perished for want when either they or their Children fell ill He used also to lay in vast quantities of Coals which he gave out by a Peck at a time whoever of the Spinners brought in two pound of Yarn might take away with 'em a Peck of Coals besides what Coals were given to such as were antient had many Children or any sick in their Family But because they soiled themselves by carrying away Coals in their Aprons or Skirts to obviate that inconvenience and damage to 'em he gave 'em Canvass Bags Cleanliness contributing much to health he distributed among 'em Shifting made of the coarser and stronger sort of Cloth that had been spun by themselves and of the same among their Children Much of this Shifting he begged for them for he found among his Acquaintance and Friends divers charitable persons who would rather buy the Cloth that had been wrought by our Home-Poor than purchase it tho at somewhat cheaper rates from Merchants or Shops that sell scarce any but foreign Cloth By the assistance and order of his Friends he gave to Men Women and Children sometime 3000 Shirts and Shifts in two years But still further to encourage and help his Poor he would invite persons of Ability to come to his Workhouse on days the Spinners brought their Yarn that seeing their Poverty and Diligence he might the more easily persuade 'em to give or subscribe something for their relief Some would work but knew not the art of Spinning or were not able to purchase Wheels and Reels for these he hired Teachers and freely gave 'em their Reels and Wheels He often took up poor Children as they were begging in the Streets whom he caused to be taught at his own charge and provided for 'em their Reels and Wheels which were never deducted out of their Work In his Book of Proposals he takes notice that In above 4000 l. laid out the last Year reckning House-rent Servants wages Loss by Learners with the Interest of the Mony there was not above 200 l. lost One chief reason of which was the Kindness of several Persons who took off good Quantities of Commodities at the Price they cost me to spin and weave And in particular the East-India and Guinea Companies gave me Encouragement to make their Allabas Cloths and coarse Canvas for Pepper Bags which before they bought from foreign Countries He published that Book of Proposals to engage others to set the Poor on work at a Publick Charge or at least to assist him and two or three Friends in what he had now carried on for above Five Years at the loss of above One Thousand Pounds But finding that my Lord Mayor and the Aldermen were not persuaded by what he had offered in his Book and by Discourse with them and other Wealthy Citizens he began to lessen the Spinning Trade For I find that in the Year 1682 the whole Disbursment was only 2337 l. 3 s. and yet the Loss thereby that Year was 214 l. It should seem he met not so many Charitable Persons who would buy his Manufacture at the Price it cost him as in some former Years Nay from this time the Loss increased yearly upon him For seven or eight Years together he lost two Pence in the Shilling by all the Work of his Poor but he was content for he would say Two Pence given them by Loss in their Work was twice so much saved to the Publick in that it took them off from Beggary or Theft But his Loss some Years was extraordinary In the Year 83. the Trade encreasing again his own Disbursments beside his Friends were not less than 2000 l. the Loss for that Year was 400 l. Continuing thus in the Year 84. the Balance of Loss not then received amounted to 763 l. And in the Year 85. it encreased to 900 11 3. toward which Loss an eminent Citizen who had 500 l. in that Stock quitted the whole Principal and required no Interest In the Years 86 87 88 and 89 the Trade declined for want of more
sure with great Alacrity and Diligence but at whose charge he erected this large Building was a secret not known to any of the Family but John Morris Esq Sir Robert's Partner in this Work also and perhaps to my Lady In this was laid out near 4000 l. but it was not yet finisht when upon occasion of the unhappy Difference between the Passive-Obedience Men and the Law-Obedience Men the former having the power on their side turn'd out the latter both out of the Government of the City and of that Hospital among whom Sir Robert tho' eminent was ejected together with his faithful Agent and Friend Mr. Firmin another Governour as I have said Then it was that Mr. Firmin broke silence and upbraided those excluding Governours with depriving the Hospital of such a Benefactor as the Builder of that Ward For Sir Robert was now alone Mr. Morris being deceased and having left him the residue of his Estate Mr. Firmin also built a Ward for the Sick to prevent infecting the Healthy and Sound if the small Pox or other contagious distemper should happen among the Children as it often doth This Ward cost 426 l. 4 s. besides 6 l. 5 s. for a Press but the Gentleman that gave the mony for both would not then be known and continues still of the same mind I find however an account in Mr. Firmin's Books of 1537 l. the Sick Ward included received and laid out by Mr. Firmin And another account of 704 l. 10 d. received with the names of the Persons who gave it and the uses for which it was given In the Year of our Lord 1675 our Friend built two Houses for the two Beadles or other Officers of the Hospital at his own charge of which I have a Certificate under the Clerk's hand in these words At his own proper cost and charges Mr. Firmin set up a Clock and Dial for the use of the Hospital at the top of the North-end of the great Hall The said Mr. Firmin built two new brick Houses in the Town-ditch one at the South-West end the other at the North-East to be disposed to such Officers as the Government of the Hospital should think fit Farther at his own cost and charge a Shed or little Room at the East-end of the late Bowling-Ally and a new brick Wall he repaired all the Walls and levelled the Ground At the charge of a Friend of his a Citizen he laid Leaden Pipes to convey the Water to the several Offices of the Hospital and bought them a large Cistern which in all cost about 200 l. these were great Conveniences to the House and the Orphans who before fetched up the water they used on their backs which agreed not well with their strength kept the House foul and prejudiced their Clothes Out of Town he built a School with all conveniences to it for the Hospital Children this he set up at Hartford where many of the Hospital Children are Boarded the School cost 544 l. 13 s. of which he received by the Charity of ten persons the sum of 488 l. the balance is 56 l. 13 s. which lies upon himself for any thing that appears He was wont every Lord's-day at five in the evening to see the Orphans of the Hospital at their Evening service at what time they prayed and sung an Anthem by select Voices the Chorus by all the Boys After this they sate down to Supper at the several Tables under the care of their Matrons here Mr. Firmin viewed them in their Provisions and in the Behaviour both of them and their Officers and Attendents commending or admonishing as there was occasion To this Sight he invited one time or other all his Friends whether of the Town or Country and at last led 'em to the Orphans Box into which they would put somewhat more or less as they were charitably disposed A Country-man was very remarkable for having seen the Order and Methods of the Hospital when he came home he made his Will and gave very considerably to the place I was once with our Friend at the Hospital when looking over the Childrens Supper which was Pudding-pies he took notice of a Pye that seemed not of due bigness he took it immediately into the Kitchin and weighed it himself but it proved down-weight These Cares did not so wholly imploy this active man but that he was also a great and good Common-wealths-man He was always mindful of those who suffered for Conscience or for Asserting the Rights and Liberties of the Nation And he printed a great many Sheets and some Books of that tendency and nature great numbers of which he himself dispersed When King James commanded the reading his Declaration for Toleration and Indulgence in Religion in the Churches a great number of well-wrote Pamphlets were printed and dispersed to convince people of the bad design of that specious Declaration Mr. Firmin was a principal encourager and promoter of those Prints which cost him considerable sums as well for their publication as otherways He furthered as much as in him lay the Heroical Attempt of the Prince of Orange to rescue this Nation from Slavery and Popery And since His Majesty has been seated on the Throne our Friend has been particularly diligent in promoting the Manufacture of the Lustring Company because it is highly Beneficial to this Nation and as Prejudicial to our then Enemy He had the greatest hand and used the most effectual endeavours for procuring Acts of Parliament and Rules of Court in that behalf He and Mr. Renew took great pains and were at much expence to prevent Correspondence with France and the Importation of Silks and other Commodities from thence For this they ran the hazard of their lives from the revenge of Merchants and others whom they prosecuted to Execution A Merchant was so desperately angry at his Detection and the great Damage he should unavoidably sustain thereby that he went into a room alone in a Tavern and ended his Life by shooting himself into the head The Agents of Mr. Renew and Mr. Firmin gave either the first or very early intelligence of the French Invasion which was to have followed the Assassination of the King But he was not more a Friend to the Liberties of the Nation and to the present Establishment than he was an Enemy to Licentiousness He was from the first a Member of the Society for the Reformation of Manners he contributed to it by his Advice Assistance Solicitations as much as his leisure from the cares and endeavours before mentioned and exemplified would permit him but his Purse was always with them He had such a zeal against needless Swearing whereby the Religion of an Oath grows vile and contemptible and False-swearing becomes almost as common as idle and unnecessary Swearing to the indelible scandal of the Christian name and the great danger even as far as Life and Estate of particular persons I say his Zeal against common needless Swearing in what form soever