Sprigg [Sprigge], Joshua (bap. 1618, d. 1684), Independent minister, was baptized at Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 19 April 1618. His father had been servant to William Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele, and was later steward of New College, Oxford.
During the early 1640s Sprigg was an active preacher and religious controversialist. In most of his preaching he stuck to purely religious themes, disclosing himself as an advanced Calvinist of millenarian tendencies, stressing human sinfulness and the centrality of Christ, whose second coming he interpreted alternatively as an inward experience of each individual and as a literal event in ‘these last dayes’ when Christ and man would be ‘returned into a unity of Concord and agreement’ (Sprigge, Christus redivivus, 59, 27). A strong advocate of religious toleration, he was almost certainly the author of The ancient bounds, or, Liberty of conscience, tenderly stated, modestly asserted, and mildly vindicated (1645). In his early sermons Sprigg revealed his animosity to the bishops, rejoicing that they had been ‘made Cyphers, instead of making the Parliament so’ (Sprigge, Solace for Saints, 28). He also deplored the quarrels over church government that had rocked the Westminster assembly of divines: ‘And now is all that truth we expected come to a new forme of government, whether Presbyteriall or Congregational? … Is this the shaking of heaven and earth, to shake men out of an Episcopal prelacy into a Presbyteriall?’ (Sprigge, A Testimony to an Approaching Glory, sig. B5r). In 1648 and 1649, because ‘The world hath been witnesse of many hard speeches against me’, including the accusation that he denied the divinity of Christ, he decided to publish collections of his sermons so that the world could judge for itself.
One cause of Sprigg's unpopularity in London was undoubtedly his outspoken advocacy of Sir Thomas Fairfax's New Model Army at a time when the City fathers, inspired by Thomas Edwards and other presbyterian clergy, were denouncing it as a breeding-ground of sectarian heresy. He had been hired by Fairfax to be a chaplain and member of the secretariat of the new army. At the beginning of 1647 he published Anglia rediviva, a day-by-day account of the army's successes during the first fifteen months of its existence. In it he provided an unabashedly providential interpretation of the New Model's unbroken string of victories.
Mindful of his obligations to his patron Saye, Sprigg also was careful to weave into his account a lengthy justification of Saye's son, Nathaniel Fiennes, who had been court-martialled for his surrender of Bristol in 1643. The apology for Fiennes was so comprehensive that it prompted Clement Walker to refer sardonically to the author as ‘Sprigg alias Nathaniel Fines in his legend or romance of this army’ (Walker, 1.32). Although the book relies heavily on the pamphlets and newsbooks of the period it is occasionally enlivened by Sprigg's eyewitness accounts, and the whole is shot through with his overarching vision of the New Model Army's providential role in the war against the king.
In December 1648 Sprigg intervened in the debate in the council of officers at Whitehall over the adoption of the Leveller-inspired Agreement of the People. While he approved the effort to ‘promote the spirituall liberties of the saints’ by restraining the power of the magistrate over religion, he thought that devising a constitution for England at that moment was a waste of time; they ought rather to wait upon God who was about to ‘bringe forth a New Heaven and a New Earth’ (Firth, 2.85, 87).
A few weeks later Sprigg incurred the displeasure of the army high command by his forthright opposition to the execution of the king. On Sunday 21 January 1649 he preached to the members of the court of high commission on the text ‘He that sheds blood, by man shall his blood be shed’. Barely three days before Charles went to the scaffold he wrote that ‘the end of the Lord's judging is purifying not destroying’; ‘To execute the King for what he did in prosecution of the War … is to shed the blood of War in Peace’ (Certaine Weighty Considerations, 1649, sigs. B1r, B2v).
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YEAR1649-03-17Act_Abolishing_the_Office_of_King0Act Abolishing the Office of King Act Abolishing the Office of King
Act Abolishing the Office of King
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 17 March 1649
1648-11-18Army_Remonstrance1Army Remonstrance Army Remonstrance
Army Remonstrance
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 18 November 1648
1649-01-30Civil_War_-_Regicide2Civil War - Regicide Civil War - Regicide
Civil War - Regicide
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 30 January 1649, 6 December 1648
1648-12-06Civil_War_-_Regicide2Civil War - Regicide Civil War - Regicide
Civil War - Regicide
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 30 January 1649, 6 December 1648
1660-04-04Civil_War_-_Restoration3Civil War - Restoration Civil War - Restoration
Civil War - Restoration
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 4 April 1660
1642-06-01Commissions_of_Array4Commissions of Array Commissions of Array
Commissions of Array
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 June 1642
1645-01-10Execution_of_Archbishop_William_Laud5Execution of Archbishop William Laud Execution of Archbishop William Laud
Execution of Archbishop William Laud
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 10 January 1645
1649-01-30Execution_of_Charles_I6Execution of Charles I Execution of Charles I
Execution of Charles I
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 30 January 1649
1641-05-12Execution_of_Thomas_Wentworth7Execution of Thomas Wentworth Execution of Thomas Wentworth
Execution of Thomas Wentworth
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 12 May 1641
1647-12-24Four_Bills8Four Bills Four Bills
Four Bills
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 24 December 1647
1641-11-22Grand_Remonstrance9Grand Remonstrance Grand Remonstrance
Grand Remonstrance
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 22 November 1641
1647-09-22Heads_of_Proposals0Heads of Proposals Heads of Proposals
Heads of Proposals
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 22 September 1647
1653-12-16Instrument_of_Government1Instrument of Government Instrument of Government
Instrument of Government
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 16 December 1653
1641-12-07Militia_Ordinance2Militia Ordinance Militia Ordinance
Militia Ordinance
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 7 December 1641
1645-06-14Naseby3Naseby Naseby
Naseby
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 14 June 1645
1638-02-27National_Covenant4National Covenant National Covenant
National Covenant
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 27 February 1638
1646-07-01Newcastle_Proposals5Newcastle Proposals Newcastle Proposals
Newcastle Proposals
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 July 1646
1642-06-01Nineteen_Propositions6Nineteen Propositions Nineteen Propositions
Nineteen Propositions
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 June 1642
1628-06-07Petition_of_Right7Petition of Right Petition of Right
Petition of Right
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 7 June 1628
1649-09-11Petition_of_the_Leveller_Women8Petition of the Leveller Women Petition of the Leveller Women
Petition of the Leveller Women
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 11 September 1649
1647-10-01Putney_Debates9Putney Debates Putney Debates
Putney Debates
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 October 1647
1647-06-05Representation_of_the_Army0Representation of the Army Representation of the Army
Representation of the Army
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 5 June 1647
1640-12-11Root_and_Branch_Petition1Root and Branch Petition Root and Branch Petition
Root and Branch Petition
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 11 December 1640
1647-05-01Saffron_Walden2Saffron Walden Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 May 1647
1637-07-23Scottish_Prayer_Book3Scottish Prayer Book Scottish Prayer Book
Scottish Prayer Book
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 23 July 1637
1640-04-13Short_Parliament4Short Parliament Short Parliament
Short Parliament
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 13 April 1640
1639-01-01The_Bishop's_War5The Bishop's War The Bishop's War
The Bishop's War
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 1 January 1639
1642-01-04The_Five_Members6The Five Members The Five Members
The Five Members
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 4 January 1642
1648-02-22The_Second_Civil_War7The Second Civil War The Second Civil War
The Second Civil War
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 22 February 1648
1644-12-19The_Self_Denying_Ordinance8The Self Denying Ordinance The Self Denying Ordinance
The Self Denying Ordinance
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 19 December 1644
1645-01-29Treaty_of_Uxbridge9Treaty of Uxbridge Treaty of Uxbridge
Treaty of Uxbridge
DateThis property is a special property in this wiki.: 29 January 1645
1645-06-14