the establishment of presbyterianism. In the first piece he published, he joined together infant-baptism and compulsion of conscience, and called them "the two last and strongest garrisons of antichrist." He was reckoned among "those worthy guides, well qualified in all respects for the ministry," who voluntarily left their benefices in the establishment, by one who lived in those times. He appears, in 1653, to have gone into Ireland with the army under the command of general Fleetwood and lieutenant Ludlow. He lived till after the Restoration, and signed the apology of the Baptists in 1660, declaring against Venner's insurrection.

Another, who was reckoned among the worthies of this denomination at this period, was Mr. Benjamin Cox, who made no mean figure in his time. He was the son of a bishop,* was a man of great learning, and a graduate in one of the universities. He was, for some time a minister in the established church, had a parochial charge in the county of Devon, and was very zealous for the superstitious ceremonies that prevailed in bishop Laud's time. But when the affairs of state led men to think more freely in matters of religion, Mr. Cox was among the first in promoting a reformation, and had before him flattering prospects of eminence and preferment in this kingdom, when he rejected the. baptism of infants, as it appeared to him not founded in the Scriptures; but this obstructed his advancement in the established church, and prejudiced against him the divines who were at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. He preserved, however, the character of a man of abilities and great learning. After episcopacy and the common-prayer were laid aside, he was for some time minister at Bedford. In 1645 he came to London, and was one of the principal managers on the part of the Baptists in a public dispute concerning infant-baptism, at Aldermanbury-church, to which a stop was afterward put by the government. In the year 1646, when seven churches in London, called Anabaptists, published a confession of their faith, and presented it to parliament, his name, in behalf of one of those congregations, was subscribed to it. Though, when the act of

It seems more probable that he was the grandson of one, as Dr. Richard Cox, bishop of Ely, who filled that see twenty years, died in 1580. Richardson de Præsulibus.

Uniformity, in 1662, took place, he at first conformed; yet his conscience soon after upbraiding him for that step, he obeyed its dictates by throwing up his living, and died a Nonconformist and a Baptist, in a very advanced age; for Mr. Baxter, with whom he had a dispute by word of mouth and by writing, called him, at the beginning of the civil wars, an ancient minister. He suffered imprisonment for his opinions concerning baptism in the city of Coventry.*

Here is a proper place for observing, that at the Restoration, several parishes were found to have Baptist ministers fixed in them. The cause of this was, that in the year 1653, when a certain number of men called triers were authorized to examine and approve candidates for the ministry, Mr. Tombes, notwithstanding his difference in opinion from the rest, such was the estimation in which his character was held, was appointed to be one of them. Among other good effects that followed upon this, one was, that the commissioners agreed to own the Baptists their brethren; and that if any such applied to them for probation, and appeared in other respects duly qualified, they should not be rejected for holding their sentiments.†

The history of the Baptists, from the accession of James II. to the Revolution, is confined to some brief accounts of the sufferings and characters of several ministers who were in estimation among them, and died in this period.

But we should first mention one, whose name should have been introduced in the preceding reign: Mr. Abraham Chear, a native of Plymouth, who, though he did not enjoy a liberal education, knew the Scriptures from his childhood, and delighted in searching them. About 1648 he was baptized, and joined the Baptist church in that town, and was soon after invited to be their pastor, for which character he was fitted by peculiar gifts and graces. In 1661 he suffered three months' imprisonment in Exeter jail, on the conventicle act. In 1662 he was again cast into that prison; after his release he was imprisoned at the Guildhall in Plymouth; then, after a month's detention, he was confined, under military guard, in the isle of Plymouth; where, after full five years' imprisonment in different jails, and enduring many inhumanities from merciless jailers, he yielded up his spirit * Crosby, vol. 1. p. 353, 354. + Ibid. p. 289.

without pang or considerable groan, the 5th of March, 1668. At his death the church consisted of one hundred and fifty members. After this the persecution broke out with greater fury, and it suffered much till king James's declaration for liberty of conscience revived their drooping spirits, and were almost twenty years destitute of a pastor. Mr. Chear was a laborious and successful preacher. In his confinement he wrote several religious tracts, and letters to his friends full of Christian exhortations to constancy and steadfastness. One of these, an acknowledgment of some provisions sent to him and his fellow-prisoners, most expressive of cheerfulness in their sufferings and gratitude to their benefactors, is preserved by Crosby. During his illness, almost to his last moment, he continued glorifying God, and exhorting all who visited him to perseverance in those perilous times; speaking with earnest concern about the guilt contracted in these nations by persecuting God's faithful servants; and with great joy and assurance concerning the delight which God takes in his suffering saints, and the ample recompense he will hereafter render for their sent sorrows; particularly on the Lord's day preceding his dissolution. About three hours before it, a friend perceiving him under great pressures, said softly to him, "They looked unto the Lord, and were lightened: a right look will bring down relief under all difficulties." "Yea (he replied, with great strength and earnestness), and their faces were not ashamed."

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In the reign of James II. died, at Kelby in Leicestershire, where he was minister of a Baptist congregation, Mr. Richard Farmer, the friend of Mr. Clarke and Mr. Shuttleworth, eminent ejected ministers in that county. He was a hard student and an affecting preacher, and frequently officiated among the Independents. He had a small estate to live upon, in which he suffered greatly for his religious principles, as distress was made by virtue of a justice's warrant upon his goods; and they took from him, in one year, to the value of 1101.+

Another, who suffered much in this period for his nonconformity, and was several times prisoner at York, at

*Thompson's Collections, MSS. and Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. 3. p. 11-24.

+ Ibid. p. 118, 119.

Leeds, and at Chester, was Mr. Thomas Hardcastle, ejected from Bramham, in the county of York. He was born at Barwick upon Holm, and received his education under Mr. Jackson, of that town, a learned divine. He had not been long in the ministry, when the act of uniformity passed: he preached afterward at Shadwell chapel and other places. He was a man of pregnant parts, eminent learning and piety, of great moderation and catholicism, though of a bold spirit, which feared no danger. In 1671 he was, on the death of Mr. Ewins,* invited to be pastor of a congregation of Baptists, who had separated from the establishment early in 1640, though they continued their attendance at sermon, but not at the prayers, in the parish-church on the morning of every Lord's day, spending the afternoon and evening in religious exercises among themselves. Mr. Cann, the author of the marginal references to the Bible, preached adult baptism to them, and settled them in church-order, without making baptism a term of communion. On Mr. Hardcastle's settlement with them, they took four rooms on the Lamb pavement, Broadmead, and made them into one of sixteen yards long and fifteen broad. At Bristol he was sent to the house of correction; he died suddenly, 20th of August, 1678, universally lamented. He published one practical treatise. He was succeeded by another ejected minister.

Mr. George Fownes, who settled with this society Sept. 16, 1679, finding the number of members, which amounted, when Mr. Hardcastle became their pastor, to a hundred, in

* Mr. Ewins was ejected from a living in Bristol: though he was no scholar, and had been a mechanic, he was esteemed as a judicious, methodical preacher; was remarkable for his meekness, patience, and charity; in his ministerial duties he was popular, laborious, and successful, ready to preach on most days when not otherwise employed; grave and serious every where, and full of good discourse. He was so scrupulous about maintenance, that he would accept no tithes nor salary, but only free gifts. The bishop of Bristol invited him to conform, but he could by no means be satisfied to comply. When, in 1651, he was invited by the separatists at Bristol, to become their minister he was a Pædobaptist. About 1654, he embraced the opinions of the Baptists, and was baptized in London. In 1660 the members of his society were turned out of the churches, and in 1662 he was ordained their pastor. He went through a variety of persecutions, and was often in prison, once for a whole year, when he preached twice a day. There he contracted a lethargic distemper, of which he died, aged about sixty, in April 1670, greatly lamented. He was buried in St. James's church-yard, April 29, and a vast concourse of people attended his funeral. He was sometimes abused in the streets, but would not attempt to retaliate; for he said "Vengeance is God's; my duty is patience.' Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 2. p. 351; and Thompson's Collections, MSS.

+ Thompson's Collections, MSS. Crosby, vol. 3. p. 27, 28; and Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 2. p. 557.

creased to one hundred and sixty-six, of which thirty-one were Pædobaptists. Mr. Fownes was born in Shropshire, and received his classical education at Shrewsbury, where his grandson, the ingenious and learned Mr. Joseph Fownes, was for many years a dissenting minister. His father dying he was sent to Cambridge. He was an able preacher, and a man of great learning, and was conversant in law, physic, and other branches of science. He voluntarily quitted the parish-church before the Restoration, though he continued preaching in different places till he fixed at Bristol. About the time of what was called the Presbyterian plot, he was taken in the pulpit, and committed to Newgate; but by virtue of a flaw in the mittimus, he was in six weeks removed by a habeas corpus to the King's-bench, and acquitted. He was afterward apprehended on the highway in Kingswood, on suspicion of only coming from a meeting, and committed to Gloucester jail, for refusing the corporation-oath, and riding within five miles of a corporation: witnesses were suborned to swear a riot against him, though no other rioter was named in the bill; he pleaded his own cause very pleasantly; telling them," that he and his horse could not be guilty of a riot without company;" and the jury brought in their verdict, Not guilty: yet he was returned back to prison; and refusing to give a bond for good behavour, of which he knew preaching would be interpreted to be a forfeiture, he was detained there for two years and a half, till God released him by death in December 1685. He was afflicted with the stone, and a physician declared "that his confinement was his death; and that it was no less murder than if they had run him through the first day he came in, and more cruel."*

Another eminent minister and writer among the Baptists at this time, was Mr. Henry D'Anvers, a worthy man, of unspotted life and conversation, a joint-elder of a Baptist congregation at Aldgate, London; and author of "A Treatise of Baptism," which drew him into a controversy with Mr. Wills, Mr. Blinman, and Mr. Baxter, in whose writings, if we may credit a letter published by Mr. D'Anvers, and sent to him by a person of quality, of known worth, ability, and moderation, "there were more heat,

Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 1. p. 243, &c. Crosby, vol. 3. p. 28, 29; and Thompson's Collections, MSS.