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Though this important point was gained, it does not appear with what success Mr. Huntley prosecuted the commissioners. He could not expect any considerable recompence from the high commission. He contended with cruel and barbarous oppressors. Having endured the most cruel imprisonment for many years, he was released, most probably, upon the mecting of the long parliament. In the year 1644 he was one of the witnesses against Archbishop Laud at his trial; and this is all that we know of him.

MR. LEIGH was many years a laborious minister of the gospel at Wolverhampton, and enjoyed a prebend in the cathedral of Lichfield, but was silenced by order of Archbishop Laud, for nonconformity. The archbishop, giving directions to Sir Nathaniel Brent, his vicar-general, says, "Take special notice of Mr. Leigh; and if you can fasten upon him any thing, whereby he may justly be censured, pray see it be done, or bring him to the high commission court to answer it there. Let him not obtain any license to preach any lecture there or in another place hard-by, at Tetenshall, whither those at Wolverhampton do run after him out of their own parish." He is charged with having churched refractory women in private, with being averse to the good orders of the church, and with having ordered the bell-man to give notice in open market of a sermon; for which, in the year 1635, he was suspended.+ Upon Mr. Neal's mention of this case, Dr. Grey boldly and triumphantly asks, "And can Mr. Neal be so weak as to think this an insufficient cause of suspension? The rubricks," he adds, "are the law of the church, and are well known to be part of the statute-law of the land." Here, without taking notice of the author's opinion of the rubricks, it may be observed, that Mr. Neal, with all men of liberal principles, would undoubtedly think, without discovering any peculiar weakness of mind, that this was no sufficient reason for an eccclesiastical censure, so tyrannically oppres sive on the liberty of the subject. Mr. Leigh, who was thus removed from his flock, and driven from his sphere of ministerial usefulness, afterwards settled at Shrewsbury,

• Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 270.

+ Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 381.

Grey's Examination, vol. i. p. 155.

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where he was highly esteemed. Upon his removal from this place, he, in 1644, became minister at Shoreditch, London, by order of parliament. It does not appear how long he remained in this last situation, nor can we obtain any further information concerning him.

HENRY SCUDDER, B. D.-This excellent person was educated in Christ's college, Cambridge, and afterwards minister at Drayton in Oxfordshire, where, on account of his exemplary piety, great prudence, and excellent ministerial labours, he was highly esteemed. Afterwards he became minister of Collingborn-Dukes in Wiltshire; and, in the year 1643, was chosen one of the assembly of divines, when he constantly attended. Fuller has placed him among the learned writers of the above college; and Granger denominates him "an eminent presbyterian divine." He was author of an excellent work, entitled, "The Christian's daily Walk in Holy Security and Peace." It passed through numerous editions, and is held in high repute among serious christians in the present day. Mr. Baxter and Dr. Owen prefixed to it their recommendatory epistles. The former says, "I remember not any book which is written to be the daily companion of christians, to guide them in the practice of a holy life, which I prefer before this: I am sure none of my own. For so sound is the doctrine of this book, and so prudent and spiritual, apt and savoury, and all so suited to our ordinary cases and conditions, that I heartily wish no family may be without it." The latter says, "There is generally that soundness and gravity in the whole doctrine of the book, that weight of wisdom in the directions given for practice, that judgment in the resolu tions of doubts and objections, that breathing of the spirit of holiness, zeal, humility, and the fear of the Lord, in the whole; that I judge, and am satisfied therein, that it will be found of singular use unto all such as in sincerity desire a compliance with his design." This work was in so high a

repute, that it was translated into high Dutch, by the learned Mr. Theodore Haak. Mr. Scudder wrote the life

* Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 371.

+ Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 380.

Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p, 318.

Fuller's Hist. of Camb. p. 92. Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. ii. p. 183. ₫ Mr. Haak translated "The Dutch Annotations upon the Bible" into English, and is said to have projected the first plan of the Royal Society in London.-Ibid.

of Mr. William Whately, prefixed to his " Prototypes." He was one of the preachers before the parliament; and one of his sermons is entitled, "God's Warning to England by the voice of his Rod, delivered in a Sermon before the honourable House of Commous, at their late solemn Fast, October 30, 1644.”

LAWRENCE CLARKSON was a zealous preacher among the separatists in the beginning of the civil wars, and in the year 1614, having embraced the sentiments of the antipaedobaptists, was baptized by immersion. He appears to have preached at various places in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; and even in a few months after avowing a change of sentiment, warrants were issued against him in both counties, for the marvellous sin of dipping. He was soon apprehended, and, by the committee of Suffolk, was sent to prison. Having lain in prison several months, and his friends in those parts having petitioned the committee for his release, but without success, an order was at length obtained, either from a committee of parliament, or from the chairman of it, requiring his discharge. The county committee, however, refused to obey this order. They were resolved not to release him. After confinement upwards of six months, Mr. Clarkson himself petitioned the committee, and signified his retraction of his sentiments concerning baptism. This petition was as follows:

"The humble petition of Lawrence Clarkson humbly "showeth-That whereas your petitioner hath been above "six months in bonds for dipping; in which time he has "taken great pains, both by dispute and searching the "scriptures, in which he doth find, and is convinced, that "he ought not to dip any more. Neither, after the day of "his conviction, being July 10, will your petitioner either "dip or teach the same; but only wait upon God for a "further manifestation of his truth. So, expecting your "worship's answer, shall daily pray.

"LAWRENCE CLARKSON." Upon Mr. Clarkson's appearance before the committee, he was required to sign the following recantation, as entered in the committee's books:

"July 15, 1645.

"This day Lawrence Clarkson, formerly committed for "an anabaptist, and for dipping, doth now before this "committee disclain his errors. And whereas formerly

"he said he durst not leave his dipping, if he might gain "all the committee's estates by so doing, now he saith, that "he by the holy scriptures is convinced, that his said "opinions were erroneous, and that he will not, and dare not "practise it again, if he might gain all the committee's " estates by doing it. And that he makes this recantation, "not for fear, or to gain his liberty, but merely out of a "sense of his errors, wherein he will endeavour to reform "others.

"LAWRENCE CLARKSON."

Mr. Edwards, in publishing this account, endeavoured to expose the weaknesses and infirmities of the sectaries, against whom he manifested an implacable hatred. Accordingly, he further observes, that Mr. Clarkson, after his release, turned seeker, denying the scriptures to be a sufficient rule of doctrine and practice, and that the whole will of God was yet revealed. Being separated from the baptists, he published a pamphlet in his own defence, entitled, "The Pilgrimage of Saints, by Church cast out, in Christ found, secking Truth." In this pamphlet he endeavoured to acquit himself, by observing, "That he did not assert the baptism of believers by immersion to be an error, but only intended that it was crroneously practised, there being now no true churches, nor true administrators of that ordinance." Whether this be indeed a suflicient vindication of his conduct, is left with the candid reader to determine. Our author, speaking of Mr. Clarkson and several others, declares, "They were worse than papists; and there never were inonsters more to be abhorred than they."+

This censorious writer observes, that Mr. Clarkson, preaching on a Lord's day afternoon, at Bow church, in Cheapside, London, he began his prayer to God with right honourable Lord God; and prayed that God would bless the king's army, and bless the saints in both the parliament and the king's army; and his sermon was a rhapsody of nonsense. This," says he, "was not done in a corner, but in a great and full audience; when there was present one member of the house of commons, if not more, besides divers other persons of quality. Though this Clarkson was in London some time after this, yet was he never questioned, nor called to any account for this, that I could ever learn."+

* Edwards's Gangræna, part i. p. 104-106. Second Edit. + Ibid. p. 211.

Ibid. part ii. p. 6. Third Edit.

Mr. Bailie, who was no less indignant than his brother Edwards, against all who opposed the impositions and uniformity of a national church, tells us, that Mr. Clarkson and his brethren preached, "That the moral law of God did not bind any christian to obedience; that magistrates ought not to punish murderers, if they were church members; that all preachers, who pressed repentance and sorrow for sin, were legal; that God was not displeased with the sins of his saints, and would not have them to be displeased with them; and that all our duties are done for us by Christ.".

* Bailie's Anabaptism, p. 95.

END OF VOL. II.

HUGHES, PRINTER, MAIDEN-LANE, COVENT-GARDEN,

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