examined, and the book was burnt, on the eighth of the same month.*

In the year 1648 Mr. Biddle published "A Confession of Faith touching the Holy Trinity, according to Scripture;" and another work, entitled, "The Testimonies of Ireneus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Novatianus, Theophilus, Origen,' &c. Upon the appearance of his writings, the presbyterians, having now the ecclesiastical government in their own hands, and being altogether averse to a universal toleration, solicited the interference of the parliament, and obtained an ordinance for the punishment of all blasphemies and heresies. Hence Mr. Biddle's life was in danger. But the act was directed to so many objects, and so various, and meeting with considerable opposition from the army; and because there was a dissention in the parliament itself, it lay unregarded for several years. Though the force of this severe ordinance remained dormant, Mr. Biddle suffered, for several years, the miseries of a prison. His keeper, however, at length allowed him more liberty, and permitted him, upon security being given, even to go into Staffordshire. Here the oppressions he had suffered were, in some degree, counterbalanced by the patronage and kindness of a justice of the peace, who received him into his house, courteously entertained him, made him his chaplain, and appointed him preacher in one of the churches in that county, and, at his death, left him a legacy.

Mr. Biddle was not long permitted to enjoy the comfort of this friendly asylum. Sir John Bradshaw, president of the council of state, being informed of his retreat, issued orders for him to be recalled, and more strictly confined. In this confinement he continued in prison till February, 1651; and, during the whole of his seven years' imprisonment, no divine, it is said, except Mr. Peter Gunning, afterwards bishop of Ely, ever paid him a visit, not even to attempt to convince him of his errors. In addition to his long confinement in prison, he was reduced to great poverty and want. After having endured much suffering for want of the comforts and necessaries of life, a door was unexpectedly opened for providing him a comfortable supply. A printer in London, being about to pub lish a Greek version of the Old Testament, Mr. Biddle, having an exact knowledge of that language, was employed

This piece was answered by the learned Mr. Matthew, Poole, in a work entitled, "A Plea for the Godhead of the Holy Ghost.”—Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. ii, p. 198.

in correcting the press, by which means he obtained a comfortable subsistence.*

In the year 1651, such public measures were taken as proved favourable to Mr. Biddle, and he again obtained his release. He improved his liberty by meeting his friends in London, every Lord's day, for the purpose of expounding the scriptures, and discoursing upon them. In 1654 Dr. Gunning, who had before visited him in prison, came to their meeting on the Lord's day, accompanied by several of his friends. His conduct soon explained his intentions; that he was not come to be a hearer of Mr. Biddle, but to confound and refute him publicly, and in the face of his own adherents. Therefore, he presently commenced a disputation with him, first concerning the Deity of the Holy Spirit; then, on the next Lord's day, concerning the Deity of Christ. His biographer informs us, "That Mr. Biddle acquitted himself with so much learning, judgment, and knowledge in the sense of the holy scriptures, that he gained much credit by the contest." The doctor, however, paid him another visit, when they had another disputation.

During this year, Mr. Biddle's life was distinguished more by the publication of " A Two-fold Catechism; the one simply called A Scripture Catechism, the other called A brief Scripture Catechism for Children," than by his public disputations with Dr. Gunning. The celebrated Dr. John Owen published an answer to the "Two-fold Catechism," entitled, "Vindicia Evangelicæ; or, the Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated, and Socinianism examined." Also, for this publication, he was brought to the bar of the house of commons, and, December 12th, was committed close prisoner to the Gatehouse, and forbidden the use of pen, ink, and paper, and denied the access of any visitant. On the 13th of the same month, the parliament having voted that the book contained many impious and blasphemous opinions against the Deity of the Holy Ghost,t it was called in, and burnt by the common hangman. But the protector dissolving the parliament, he obtained his liberty, May 28, 1655.

This great sufferer did not, indeed, enjoy his liberty very long. For July 3d, this year, he was, by an order from Cromwell, apprehended and committed to the Compter, then to Newgate; and, at the next sessions, was tried for his life, on the ordinance against blasphemy and heresy before mentioned. At his trial, when he requested that counsel might

Wood's Athens Oxon, vol. ii. p. 199.—Life of Biddle, p. 34-62. + Ibid. p. 70.

Whitlocke's Mem, p. 591.

be allowed him to plead the illegality of the indictment, and it was denied him by the judges, he gave in his exceptions, and, by much struggling, at length had counsel allowed him; but the trial was deferred to the next day. In this emergency, the principles and policy of Oliver Cromwell operated in favour of Mr. Biddle. He saw it would be against the interest of his government to have Mr. Biddle either condemned or absolved. He, therefore, took him out of the hands of the law, and detained him in prison. The protector, at length being weary with receiving petitions for and against him, to terminate the affair, and, in some degree, meet the wishes of each party, banished Mr. Biddle to the island of Scilly, whither he was sent October 5, 1655. After he had been some time in a state of exile, Cromwell, who could by no means approve of his sentiments, allowed him a hundred crowns a year for his subsistence. This act of pure generosity, shewn to a persecuted man, reflects no small honour on his name.t

In 1658, through the continued solicitations of friends, the protector suffered a writ of habeas corpus to be granted out of the upper-bench court, by which Mr. Biddle was brought back, and, nothing being laid to his charge, was by that court set at liberty. Upon his return to London, he resumed his ministerial exercises among his friends, and became pastor of a congregation in the city, formed on the principles of the independents in matters of discipline. Here he did not continue very long. For, upon the death of Cromwell, in about five months, and his son Richard calling a parliament

The protector was an enemy to persecution. Among the capital articles on which his government was founded, was this: That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, though they differ in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth, shall not be restrained from, but shall be protected in the profession and exercise of their religion; and that all laws, statutes, and ordinances against such liberty shall be esteemed oull and void."

The name of Cromwell was formidable abroad as well as at home. This will appear from the following anecdotes: "A tumult having arisen at Nismes in France, in which some disorder had been committed by the Huguenots; and they, apprehending severe proceedings upon it, sent one over with great expedition to Cromwell, who sent him back to Paris in an hour's time, with a most decisive letter to his ambassador at the court of France,requiring him either to prevail that the matter might be overlooked, or to come away immediately. Cardinal Mazarin complained of this way of proceeding as too imperious; but the state of their affairs made him yield." It is also observed, that the cardinal would change his countenance whenever he heard the name of Creawell mentioned; so that it became a proverb in France, "That Mazarin was not so much afraid of the devil as of Oliver Cromwell."-Burnet's Hist. of his Time, vol. i. p. 77.Welwood's Memoirs, p. 104.

consisting chiefly of presbyterians, whom of all men Mr. Biddle most dreaded, he retired privately into the country. On the dissolution of the parliament he returned to his former station. But this period of tranquillity was of very short continuance. Upon the restoration of Charles II. all dissenters from the episcopal worship were treated on the same intolerant principles. Their liberty was taken away, and their assemblies were punished as seditious. Mr. Biddle endeavoured, however, to avoid the threatening storm, by restraining himself from public to more private assemblies. Nevertheless, June 1, 1662, he was dragged from his lodgings, where he and a few of his friends were met for divine worship, and carried before Sir Richard Brown, a justice of the - peace, who committed them all to prison, without admitting them to bail. Mr. Biddle was doomed for some time to a dungeon; but the recorder afterwards released them on giving security for their appearance. Accordingly, they were tried at the following sessions, when his hearers were fined in a penalty of twenty pounds a piece, and Mr. Biddle himself in one hundred; and they were ordered to lie in prison till their several penalties were paid. But in less than five weeks, Mr. Biddle, through the noisomeness of the place and the want of fresh air, contracted a disease which presently cut him off. He died September 22, 1662, aged forty-seven years. His life was irreproachable, and, according to Wood, there was little or nothing blame-worthy in him, excepting his opinions. He was a hard student, an exact Grecian, a ready disputant, and had a prodigious memory. It is, indeed, said, that he retained all the New Testament in his memory, and could repeat it verbatim, both in English and in Greek, as far as the fourth chapter of Revelation. In addition to the articles already mentioned, Mr. Biddle published a piece upon the Apocalypse, and several translations of other men's productions.

BENJAMIN COX, A. M.-This learned divine appears to have received his education at Broadgates-hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of master of arts in the year 1617.§ He had a parochial charge in Devonshire, where, for some time, he was particularly zealous for the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the established church; but afterwards he

** Life of Biddle, p. 70—100.

+ Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. p. 197-202. Life of Biddle, p. 13.

VOL. III.

Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i, p. 827.
2 E

found sufficient reason for altering his opinions. In the year 1639 he was convened before Bishop Hall, his diocesan, who sent him to Archbishop Laud, for preaching a sermon from Hosea iv. 4., in which he proved that the church of England did not maintain the calling of bishops to be jure divino. This sermon, it appears, made a great noise in the country. "But when he came to me," says the archbishop, " it pleased God so to bless me, that I gave him satisfaction, and he went home very well contented, and made a handsome retraction.”*

Mr. Cox afterwards espousing the peculiar sentiments of the baptists, and opposing the presbyterian establishment of religion, the presbyterians upbraided him with his former superstitions and innovations. Mr. Edwards, whose pen was mostly dipped in gall, says, "he came out of Devonshire, was an innovator, and a time-server in the time of the bishops; and that against the will of Dr. Hall, bishop of Exeter, he had brought innovations into the church."+ Admitting this account to be correct, his change of sentiments was undoubtedly on conviction, and therefore no disgrace to his character.

When the affairs of state led men to think and speak more freely upon religious subjects, Mr. Cox was among the first in promoting a further reformation, when he had flattering prospects of high preferment; but his sentiments upon baptism obstructed his advancement in the established church, and prejudiced against him those divines who were at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. He preserved, however, the character of a man eminently furnished with abilities and learning. After episcopacy and the common prayer were laid aside, he was, for some time, minister at Bedford. In the year 1643, some pious persons in Coventry having embraced the opinions of the baptists, invited Mr. Cox, being an aged minister and of good reputation, to come to them, and assist them in the formation of a distinct church, according to the peculiar sentiments of the baptists. Several presbyterian ministers, among whom was Mr. Baxter, had taken refuge in that city. Mr. Baxter, being zealous in opposing the peculiar opinions of the baptists, therefore challenged Mr. Cox to a disputation upon the points of difference. The challenge was accepted, and they disputed both by conference and by writing: but it was broken off by the interference of the committee, who required Mr. Cox to depart from the city, and to promise not to return. As he refused to observe their tyrannical requisitions, he was imme* Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 568.

+ Edwards's Gangræna, part i. p. 95.