ABSTRACT

Henry Grove came of good Dissenting stock. The Groves of Wiltshire and, on his mother's side, the Rowes of Devonshire were 'remarkable for several generations, for strict piety, and a steady attachment to religious liberty'. With the passing of the Toleration Act in 1689 liberty of worship was accorded to doctrinally orthodox Protestant Dissenters. According to Alexander Gordon, Rowe, a keen student of philosophy, was the first to desert the traditional text-books, introducing his pupils, about 1680, to what was known as 'free philosophy'. As with most eighteenth-century divines, the classification of Grove's thought is not easy. Grove was first and foremost a Christian minister, and from a number of his works we can derive some indication of his view of ministry and the pastor's function. Henry Grove touched on many Christian doctrines in his sermons and tracts, but he was reticent on some of them.