was a most awakening and authoritative preacher, having the most strong, masculine and oratorical stile of any of the age in which he lived. He preached twice every Lord's day, besides catechising. Upon every holy day, and every Friday, before the sacrament, he expounded a chapter: His constant course was to pray six times a day, twice in secret, twice with his family, and twice with his wife, besides many days of private humiliation that he observed for the protestant churches in Germany. He was of a comely grave presence, which commanded respect in all companies; zealous in the cause of religion, and yet so prudent as to escape being called in question all the time he lived in Northamptonshire. At length he was seized with a tertian ague, which, after fifteen weeks, put a period to his valuable and useful life, December 17, 1631, in the sixtieth year of his age. He made a most devout and exemplary end, praying heartily for all his friends that came to see him; bidding them make sure of heaven, and bear in mind what he had formerly told them in his ministry, protesting that what he had preached to them for twenty years, was the truth of God, as he should answer it at the tribunal of Christ. He then retired within himself, and said, Hold out faith and patience, your work will speedily be at an end. The Oxford historian* calls him a most religious and learned puritan, a painful and constant preacher, a person of great zeal towards God, charitable and bountiful; but above all, an excellent casuist for afflicted consciences: His eloquent and excellent writings will recom mend his memory to latest posterity.† About the year 1627, there was a scheme formed by several gentlemen and ministers to promote preaching in the country, by setting up lectures in the several market-towns of England; and to defray the expense, a sum of money was raised by voluntary contribution, for the purchasing such * Athenæ Oxon, vol. i. p. 479; see also Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 586. + When he lay at the point of death, one of his friends, taking him by the hand, asked him if he was not in great pain: "Truly," said he, "the greatest pain I feel is your cold hand; and presently expired. His book "on Happiness" was the most celebrated of his works, and has gone through many editions.Granger's History of England, vol. i. p. 365, 8vo. ; and Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 591. Ed, impropriations as' were in the hands of the laity, the profits of which were to be parcelled out in salaries of forty or fifty pounds per ann. for the subsistence of their lecturers; the money was deposited in the hands of the following ministers and gentlemen, in trust for the aforesaid purposes, under the name and character of feoffees, viz. Dr. William Gouge, Dr. Sibbs, Dr. Offspring, and Mr. Davenport, of the clergy; Ralph Eyre and Simon Brown, Esqrs. of Lincoln'sinn, and C.Sherman, of Gray's-inn, and John White, of the Middle-Temple, Esqrs. lawyers; Mr. John Gearing, Mr. Richard Davis, Mr. G. Harwood, and Mr. Francis Bridges, citizens of London. There were at this time three thousand eight hundred and forty-five parish churches appropriated to cathedrals, or to colleges, or impropriated as lay fees to private persons, having formerly belonged to abbies. The gentlemen abovementioned dealt only in the latter, and had already bought in thirteen impropriations, which cost between five and six thousand pounds. Most people thought this a very laudable design, and wished the feoffees good success; but bishop Laud looked on them with an evil eye, and represented them to the king as in a conspiracy against the church, because, instead of restoring the impropriations they purchased to the several livings, they kept them in their own hands for the encouragement of factious and seditious lecturers, who were to depend upon their patrons, as being liable to be turned out if they neglected their duty.* He added further, that the feoffees preferred chiefly nonconformist ministers, and placed them in the most popular market-towns, where they did a great deal of mischief to the hierarchy. For these reasons an information was brought against them in the Exchequer by Mr. AttorneyGeneral Noy, as an illicit society, formed into a body corporate, without a grant from the king, for the purchasing rectories, tithes, prebendaries, &c. which were registered in a book, and the profits not employed according to law. The defendants appeared, and in their answer declared, that they apprehended impropriations in the hands of laymen, and not employed for the maintenance of preachers, *Fuller's Church History, b. xi. p. 136. Appeal, p. 13. Prynne, p. 379, 385. Rushworth, vol. i. part 2d, p. 150. were a damage to the church; that the purchasing of them for the purposes of religion was a pious work, and not contrary to law, it being notorious, that impropriations are frequently bought and sold by private persons; that the donors of this money gave it for this and such other good uses as the defendants should think meet, and not for the endowment of perpetual vicars; that they had not converted any of the money to their own use, nor erected themselves into a body corporate; and that to their knowledge they had never presented any to a church, or place in their disposal, who was not conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the church of England, and approved of by the ordinary of the place. But notwithstanding all they could say, the court was of opinion that their proceedings were contrary to law, and decreed that their feoffment should be cancelled; that the impropriations they had purchased should be confiscated to the king, and the feoffees themselves fined in the star-chamber; however, the prosecution was dropt as too invidious, it appearing in court by the receipts and disbursements, that the feoffees were out of pocket already above one thousand pounds. The odium of this prosecution fell upon Laud, whose chancellor told him upon this occasion, that he was miserably censured by the separatists; upon which he made this reflection in his diary, Pray God give me patience, and forgive them. But his lordship had very little patience with those who opposed his proceedings. We have seen his zeal for pictures and paintings in churches, which some of the puritans venturing to censure in their sermons and writings, were exposed to the severest punishments: Among these were the Rev. Mr. John Hayden of Devonshire, who being forced to abscond, was apprehended in the diocese of Norwich by bishop Harsenet, who after he had taken from him his horse and money, and all his papers, caused him, to be shut up in close prison for thirteen weeks ;* after which, when the justices would have admitted him to bail at the quarter-sessions, his lordship sent him up to the high commission, who deprived him of his ministry and orders, and set a fine upon him for preaching against decorations Usurpation of Prelates, p. 161-62. 32 VOL. IT. * and images in churches. In the year 1634, Mr. Hayden venturing to preach occasionally, without being restored, was apprehended again and sent to the Gatehouse by archbishop Laud, and from thence to Bridewell, where he was whipt and kept to hard labor; here he was confined in a cold dark dungeon during a whole winter, being chained to a post in the middle of a room, with irons on his hands and feet, having no other food but bread and water, and a pad of straw to lie on. Before his release he was obliged to take an oath, and give bond, that he would preach no more, but depart the kingdom in a month, and not return. Bishop Harsenet did not live to see the execution of this part of the sentence,* though for his zeal against the puritans he was promoted to the archbishopric of York, and made a privy-counsellor. Some time before his disease he not only persecuted the non-conformists, but complained of the CONFORMABLE PURITANS, as he called them, because they complied out of policy and not in judgment. How hard is the case, when men shall be punished for not conforming, and be complained of if they conform! Queen Elizabeth used to say, she would never trouble herself about the consciences of her subjects, if they did but outwardly comply with the laws; whereas this prelate would ransack the very heart. Henry Sherfield, Esq. a bencher of Lincoln's-inn, and reeorder of the city of Sarum, was tried in the star-chamber, May 20th, 1632,† for taking down some painted glass out of one of the windows of St. Edmund's church in Salisbury, in which were seven pictures of God the Father in form of a little old man in a blue and red coat, with a pouch by his side: One represents him creating the sun and moon with a pair of compasses, others as working on the business of the six days creation, and at last he sits in an elbow chair at rest. Many simple people, at their going in and out of church, did reverence to this window (as they said) because the Lord their God was there. This gave such offence to the recorder, who was also a justice of peace, that he moved the parish at vestry for leave to take it down, and set up a *Fuller's Church History, b. xi. p. 144. + Rushworth, part ii. vol.i.p. 153-156. Prynne's Cant. Doom. p. 102. new window of white glass in the place, which was accordingly granted, six justices of the peace being present. Some time after Mr. Sherfield broke with his staff the pictures of God the Father, in order to new glaze the window; an account of which being transmitted to London, an information was exhibited against him in the star-chamber, Feb. 8, 4632-3. The information sets forth, that being evil af'fected to the discipline of the church, he, with certain con'federates, without consent of the bishops, had defaced and 'pulled down a fair and costly window in the church, con'taining the history of the creation, which had stood there 'some hundred years, and was a great ornament to it; which profane act might give encouragement to other schismatical persons to commit the like outrages." Mr. Sherfield in his defence says, that the church of St. Edmund's was a lay fee, and exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese; that the defendant, with the rest of the parishioners, had lawful power to take down the glass; and that it was agreed by a vestry that the glass should be changed, and the window made new; and that accordingly he took down a quarry or two in a quiet and peaceable manner; but he avers, that the true history of the creation was not contained in that window, but a false and impious one: God the Father was painted like an old man with a blue coat, and a pair of compasses, to signify his compassing the heavens and earth. In the fourth day's work there were fowls of the air flying up from God their maker, which should have been the fifth day. In the fifth day's work a naked man is laying upon the earth asleep, with so much of a naked woman as from the knees upward growing out of his side, which should have been the sixth day; so that the history is false. Further, this defendant holds it to be impious, to make an image or picture of God the Father, which he undertakes to prove from scripture, from canons and councils, from the mandates and decrees of sundry emperors, from the opinions of ancient doctors of the church, and of our most judicious divines since the reformation. He adds that his belief is agreeable to the doctrine of the church of England, and to the homilies, which say, that pictures of God are monuments of superstition, and ought to be destroyed; and to queen |