parts. There were few, if any, of the churches or chapels in Wales in which he did not preach; yea, very often he preached to the poor Welsh in the mountains, at fairs, and in market-places; for which he had no more than a stipend of 100%. per annum, besides the advantage of some sequestered livings in North Wales (says my author), which, in those times of confusion, turned but to a very poor account. Mr. Powell was a bold man, and of republican principles, preaching against the protectorship of Cromwell, and wrote letters to him, for which he was imprisoned, to prevent his spreading disaffection in the state. At the dawn of the Restoration, being known to be a fifth-monarchy man, he was secured first at Shrewsbury, afterward in Wales, and at last in the Fleet. In the year 1662 he was shut up in South-sea-castle near Portsmouth, where he continued five years. In 1667 he was released, but venturing to preach. again in his own country, he was imprisoned at Cardiff, and in the year 1669 sent up to London, and confined a prisoner in the Fleet, where he died, and was buried in Bunhill-fields, in the presence of an innumerable crowd of dissenters, who attended him to his grave. He was of an unconquerable resolution, and of a mind unshaken under all his troubles. The inscription on his tomb calls him "a successful teacher of the past, a sincere witness of the present, and a useful example to the future age; who, in the defection of many, found mercy to be faithful, for which being called to many prisons, he was there tried, and would not accept deliverance, expecting a better resurrection," He died October 27, 1671, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the eleventh year of his imprisonment.*

*To Mr. Neal's account of Mr. Vavasor Powell it may be added, that he was born in 1617, and descended from an ancient and honourable stock: on his father's side, from the Powells of Knocklas in Radnorshire; and on his mother's, from the Vavasors, a family of great antiquity, that came out of Yorkshire into Wales, and was related to the principal gentry in North Wales. So active and laborious was he in the duties of the ministry, that he frequently preached in two or three places in a day, and was seldom two days in the week, throughout the year, out of the pulpit. He would sometimes ride a hundred miles in the week, and preach in every place where he could gain admittance, either by night or day. He would often alight from his horse, and set on it any aged person whom he met with on the road on foot, and walk by the side for miles together. He was exceedingly hospitable and generous, and would not only entertain and lodge, but clothe the poor and aged. He was a man of great humility, very conscientious and exemplary in all relative duties, and very punctual to his word. He was a scholar, and his general deportment was that of a gentleman. His sentiments were those of a Sabbatarian Baptist. In 1642, when he left Wales, there was not then above one or two gathered churches; but before the Restoration, there were above twenty distinct societies, consisting of from two to five hundred members, chiefly planted and formed by his care and industry, in the principles of the Baptists. They

CHAP. IX.

FROM THE KING'S DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE TO THE POPISH PLOT IN THE YEAR 1678.

1672.

THE French king having prevailed with the English court to break the triple alliance, and make war with the Dutch, published a declaration at Paris, signifying that he could not, without diminution of his glory, any longer dissemble the indignation raised in him, by the unhandsome carriage of the states-general of the United Provinces, and therefore proclaimed war against them both by sea and land. In the beginning of May, he drew together an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, with which he took the principal places in Flanders, and with a rapid fury overran the greatest part of the Netherlands. In the beginning of July he took possession of Utrecht, a city in the heart of the United Provinces, where he held his court, and threatened to besiege Amsterdam itself. In this extremity the Dutch opened their sluices, and laid a great part of their country under water; the populace rose, and having obliged the states to elect the young prince of Orange stadtholder, they fell upon the two brothers Cornelius and John de Wit, their late pensionary, and tore them to pieces in a barbarous manner. young prince, who was then but twenty-two years old, used all imaginable vigilance and activity to save the remainder of his country; and like a true patriot declared, he would die in the last dike, rather than become tributary to any foreign power. At length their allies came to their assistance, when the young prince, like another Scipio, abandoning his own country, besieged and took the important town of Bonne, which opened a passage for the Germans into

The

were also for the ordination of elders, singing of psalms and hymns in public worship; laying on of hands on the newly baptized, and anointing the sick with oil, and did not limit their commuuion to an agreement with them in their sentiments on baptism. He bore his last illness with great patience, and under the acutest pains would bless God, and say, "he would not entertain one hard thought of God for all the world," and could scarcely be restrained from acts of devotion, and from expressing his sentiments of zeal and piety.-Dr. Grey, after Wood, has vilified Mr. Powell by retailing the falsehoods of a piece entitled, Strena Vavasoriensis. Crosby's History, vol. 1. p. 373, &c. Life and Death of Vavasor Powell.-ED.

Flanders, and struck such a surprise into the French, whose enemies were now behind them, that they abandoned all their conquests in Holland, except Maestricht and Grave, with as much precipitance as they had made them.

These rapid conquests of the French opened people's mouths against the court, and raised such discontents in England, that his majesty was obliged to issue out his proclamation, to suppress all unlawful and undutiful conversation, threatening a severe prosecution of such who should spread false news, or intermeddle with affairs of state, or promote scandal against his majesty's counsellors, by their common discourse in coffee-houses, or places of public resort. He was obliged also to continue the exchequer shut up, contrary to his royal promise, and to prorogue his parliament till next year, which he foresaw would be in a flame at their meeting.

During this interval of parliament, the declaration of indulgence continued in force, and the dissenters had rest; when the Presbyterians and Independents, to shew their agreement among themselves, as well as to support the doctrines of the Reformation against the prevailing errors of Popery, Socinianism, and infidelity, set up a weekly lecture at Pinners'-hall, in Broad-street, on Tuesday mornings, under the encouragement of the principal merchants and tradesmen of their persuasion in the city. Four Presbyterians were joined by two Independents to preach by turns, and, to give it the greater reputation, the principal ministers for learning and popularity were chosen as lecturers; as Dr. Bates, Dr. Manton, Dr. Owen, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Collins, Jenkins, Mead, and afterward Mr. Alsop, Howe, Cole, and others; and though there were some little misunderstandings at their first setting out, about some high points of Calvinism, occasioned by one of Mr. Baxter's first sermons, yet the lecture continued in this form till the year 1695, when it split upon the same rock, occasioned by the reprinting Dr. Crisp's works. The four Presbyterians removed to Salters'hall, and set up a lecture on the same day and hour. The two Independents remained at Pinners'-hall, and when there was no prospect of an accommodation, each party filled up their numbers out of their respective denominations, and they are both subsisting to this day.

Among the Puritan divines who died this year, bishop

Wilkins deserves the first place; he was born at Fawsley in Northamptonshire, in the house of his mother's father, Mr. J. Dod the decalogist, in the year 1614, and educated in Magdalen-hall under Mr. Tombes.* He was some time warden of Wadham-college, Oxford, and afterward master of Trinity-college, Cambridge, of which he was deprived at the Restoration, though he conformed. He married a sister of the protector's Oliver Cromwell, and complied with all the changes of the late times, being, as Wood observes, always puritanically affected: but for his admirable abilities, and extraordinary genius, he had scarce his equal. He was made bishop of Chester 1668; and surely, says Mr. Echard, the court could not have found out a man of greater ingenuity and capacity, or of more universal knowledge and understanding in all parts of polite learning. Archbishop Tillotson, and bishop Burnet, who were his intimates, give him the highest encomium; as, that he was a pious Christian, an admirable preacher, a rare mathematician, and mechanical philosopher; and a man of as great a mind, as true judgment, as eminent virtues, and of as great a soul, as any they ever knew. He was a person of universal charity, and moderation of spirit; and was concerned in all attempts for a comprehension with the dissenters. He died of the stone in Dr. Tillotson's house in Chancery-lane, November 19, 1672, in the fifty-ninth year of his agè.

Mr. Joseph Caryl, M. A. the ejected minister of St. Magnus, London-bridge, was born of genteel parents in London, 1602, educated in Exeter-college, and afterward preacher of Lincoln's-inn; he was a member of the assembly of divines, and afterward one of the triers for approbation of ministers; in all which stations he appeared a man of great learning, piety, and modesty. He was sent by the parliament to attend the king at Holmby-house, and was one of their commissioners in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. After his ejectment in 1662, he lived privately in London, and preached to his congregation as the times would permit; he was a moderate Independent, and distinguished himself by his learned exposition upon the book of Job.t He died uni

* Athen. Oxon. p. 505.

This work was printed in two volumes folio, consisting of upwards of six hundred sheets: and there was also an edition in twelve volumes 4to. "One just remark (says Mr. Granger) has been made on its utility, that it is a very sufficient exercise for the virtue of patience, which it was chiefly intended to inculcate and improve." Granger's History of England, vol, 3. p. 313. 8vo. note.--ED.

versally lamented by all his acquaintance February 7, 1672-3, and in the seventy-first year of his age.*

Mr. Philip Nye, M. A. was a divine of a warmer spirit: he was born of a genteel family 1596, and was educated in Magdalen-college,† Oxford, where he took the degrees. In 1630 he was curate of St. Michael's Cornhill, and three years after fled from bishop Laud's persecution into Holland, but returned about the beginning of the long-parliament, and became minister of Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire. He was one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly, one of the triers in the protector's time, and a principal manager of the meeting of the Congregational messengers at the Savoy. He was a great politician, insomuch that it was debated in council, after the Restoration, whether he should not be excepted for life; and it was concluded, that if he should accept or exercise any office ecclesiastical or civil, he should, to all intents and purposes in law, stand as if he had been totally excepted. He was ejected from St. Bartholomew behind the Exchange, and preached privately, as opportunity offered, to a congregation of dissenters till the present year, when he died in the month of September, about seventy-six years old, and lies buried in the church of St. Michael's Cornhill, leaving behind him the character of a man of uncommon depth, and of one who was seldom if ever outreached.‡

When the king met his parliament February 4, 1673, after a recess of a year and nine months, he acquainted them with the reasonableness and necessity of the war with the Dutch, and having asked a supply, told them," he had found the good effect of his indulgence to dissenters, but that it was a mistake in those who said, more liberty was given to Papists than others, because they had only freedom in their own houses, and no public assemblies; he should therefore take it ill to receive contradiction in what he had done; and to deal plainly with you (said his majesty), I am resolved to stick to my declaration." Lord-chancellor Shaftesbury seconded the king's speech, and baving vindicated the indulgence, magnified the king's zeal for the church of England

* Calamy, vol. 2. p. 7. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. 1. p. 121.

+ Mr. Nye was entered a commoner of Brazen-nose, July '1615, aged about nineteen years; but making no long stay there, he removed to Magdalen-ball, not Magdalen-college. Dr. Grey; and Wood's Athen. Oxon. vol. 2. p. 368.-ED.

Calamy, vol. 2. p. 29. Palmer, vol. 1. p. 86.