the help of Jesus, I will not leave one preacher in my diocese who doth not subscribe and conform." But, poor man! he died soon after, and so was disappointed. Mr. Rogers, in his own private diary, April 25, 1605, makes the following reflections: "I was much in prayer about my troubles, and my God granted me the desire of my heart. For, by the favour and influence of William Lord Knollys, God hath, to my own comfort, and the comfort of my people, delivered me once more out of all my troubles. Oh that I may make a holy use of my liberty! But it greatly troubles me," adds the good man, "that after labouring betwixt thirty and forty years in the ministry, I am now accounted unworthy to preach; while so many idle and scandalous persons enjoy their ease and liberty."+ Upon Dr. Vaughan's translation to the see of London, and his restoration of many of the suspended ministers, Mr. Rogers makes these reflections, May 30, 1606: "If I preach no more, I heartily thank God for my liberty, both at home and abroad, for this year and a half, and I hope with some fruit. The bishop has been my friend. April 2, 1607, this week came the painful news of our Bishop Vaughan's death; who, for twenty-eight months, being all the time he continued, he permitted all the godly ministers to live peaceably, and to enjoy liberty in their ministry."+ On another occasion, Mr. Rogers having been in great danger of suspension, and many of his brethren being silenced, makes this reflection: "By God's great mercy, I have gained twelve weeks more liberty than I looked for. Therefore I have the greater cause to be content when silencing cometh, especially as many are silenced before me." Mr. Rogers was living in the year 1612; but we are unable to ascertain the exact period of his death. * Wood says, that this prelate was preferred first to the see of Gloucester, on account of his great learning, gravity, and prudence; and that, though his diocese "was pretty well stocked with those who could not bear the name of a bishop, yet, by his episcopal living among them, he obtained their love and a good report from them." He seems, however, to have changed his course upon his translation to the see of London; where he presently died, "having," it is said, “for many years, with much vigilance, served his church, his king, and his country."-Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 617. + MS. Chronology, vol. ii. p. 589. (10.) + Dr. Richard Vaughan, successively Bishop of Bangor, Chester, and London, was a person of great learning, piety, and moderation, and an admired preacher. As Fuller says, he was a very corpulent man, but spiritually minded," and a person of an excellent character.—Strype's Aylmer, p. 295.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 343, 344. § MS. Chronology, vol. ii. p. 589. (12.) Mr. Knewstubs preached his funeral sermon. Messrs. Daniel and Ezekiel Rogers, both eminent puritan divines, were his sons. Mr. Stephen Marshall was his immediate successor at Wethersfield. He was eminently faithful and laborious in the ministry; and it is said, "the Lord honoured none more in the conversion of souls." He was styled the Enoch of his day, a man walking with God; and he used to say, I should be sorry if every day were not employed as if it were my last. He was an admired preacher; and Bishop Kennet says, "that England hardly ever brought forth a man who walked more closely with God."+ Mr. Rogers was always remarkable for seriousness and gravity, in all kinds of company. Being once in company with a gentleman of respectability, who said to him, "Mr. Rogers, I like you and your company very well, only you are too precise: "Oh, sir," replied Mr. Rogers, "I serve a precise God." Mr. Rogers was author of "The Seven Treatises," 1603; which was highly esteemed. "A Commentry upon the whole Book of Judges," 1615. In his dedication of this work, he says he had been in the ministry forty years. RANDALL BATES was a most holy man, an excellent preacher, and a zealous nonconformist, for which he was prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts, and committed to the Gatehouse; where, after a confinement of twenty months, he died through the hardships of the prison. Mr. John Cotton, who was his contemporary, denominates him "an heavenly saint;" and says, "he suffered in the cause of nonconformity, being choked in prison." Nor could his release be obtained, though Dr. Hering, a learned and excellent physician, earnestly solicited Bishop Neile for his enlargement, declaring that his life was in danger. But the suit of the physician was repulsed with reproaches, and the blood of his patient was spilt through the extreme rigour of his confinement. He died in the year 1613. During Mr. * Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 219. + Kennet's Chronicle, p. 593. Firmin's Real Christian, p. 67. Edit. 1670. Bishop Neile, it is said, " was always reputed a popish and Arminian prelate, a persecutor of all orthodox and godly ministers, and one who preferred popish and Arminian clergy, making choice of them for his chaplains." He was accused of these things to his majesty by the house of commons, in 1628, aud complained of in several parliaments.-Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 531. p. 29. Cotton's Answer to Williams, p. 117.-Prince's Chron. Hist. vol. i. 品 Bates's imprisonment he wrote a book, entitled, "Meditations whilst he was prisoner in the Gatehouse, Westminster,' which shews him to have been a person of great humility and piety. It discovers a mind strongly attached to the author's views of christian doctrine and church discipline. His views of the latter appear to have been a compound of presbyterianism and independency, as some of his expressions favour the one, and some the other form of church government. DANIEL DYKE, B. D.-This excellent divine was born at Hempstead in Hertfordshire, where his father was a worthy minister, and silenced for nonconformity. He received his education at Cambridge, and became a most faithful and useful preacher; but, like his honoured father, was exceedingly persecuted by the intolerant prelates. He was for some time minister of Coggeshall in Essex; but, upon the publication of Whitgift's three articles, in 1583, he was suspended by Bishop Aylmer, and driven out of the county. Afterwards he settled at St. Albans, in his native county, where his ministry was particularly acceptable and profitable to the people. He united with his brethren in attempting to promote a more pure reformation of the church, and, with this object in view, assembled with them in their private associations. But in this, as in his former situation, the watchful eye of Aylmer was upon him, and he was involved in fresh troubles. Because he continued a deacon, and did not enter into priests' orders, which the bishop supposed he accounted popish; and because he refused to wear the surplice, and troubled his auditory, as his grace signified, with notions which thwarted the established religion, he was again suspended, and at last deprived. This was in the year 1589. The distressed parishioners being concerned for the loss of their minister, petitioned the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, who had been Mr. Dyke's great friend, to intercede with the bishop in their behalf. This petition sets forth, "That they had been without any ordinary preaching till within this four or five years; by the want of which they were unacquainted with their duty to God, their sovereign, and their neighbours: and so ignorance and disorder had greatly prevailed among them, for want of + MS. Register, p. 741. * Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 28. Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xv. p. 79. MS. Register, p. 585.-Strype's Aylmer, p. 159. being taught their duty: but that of late it had pleased the Lord to visit them with the means of salvation, by the ordinary ministry of Mr. Dyke, an authorized minister, who, according to his function, had been painful and profitable, and had carried himself so peaceably and dutifully among them, both in his life and doctrine, that no man could justly find fault with him, except of malice. There were some, indeed, who could not bear to hear their faults reproved; but through his preaching many had been brought from their ignorance and evil ways, to a better life; to be frequent hearers of God's word; and their servants were in better order than heretofore." They then inform his lordship, " that their minister was suspended by the Bishop of London; and that they were as sheep without a shepherd, exposed to manifold dangers, even to return to their former ignorance and cursed vanities. That the Lord had spoken it, therefore it must be true, Where no vision is, the people perish. And having experienced his honourable care for them in the like case heretofore, which they thankfully acknowledged, they earnestly pray his lordship, in the bowels of his compassion, to pity them in their present misery, and become a means that they may again enjoy their preacher."* The treasurer, upon the reception of this petition, wrote to the bishop, and requested Mr. Dyke's restoration to his ministry, promising that if he troubled his congregation with innovations in future, he would join his lordship against him; but the bishop excused himself, insinuating that Mr. Dyke was guilty of incontinency. This occasioned a further investigation of his character. He was tried at the sessions at St. Albans, when the woman herself who accused him, confessed her wicked contrivance, and asked him forgiveness in open court. Mr. Dyke being thus publicly cleared and honourably acquitted, the treasurer was the more urgent with the bishop to restore him; "because," said he, "the best minister in the nation may be thus slandered; and the people of St. Albans have no teaching, only they have for their curate an insuflicient doting old man. For this favour," said the worthy treasurer, "I shall thank your lordship, and will not solicit you any more, if he shall hereafter give just cause of public offence against the orders of the church established."+ But all that the treasurer could do proved ineffectual. The good man was therefore * MS. Register, p. 303–306. + Ibid. p. 306-308. left under the unmerciful censure of this prelate. But how long he remained so, or whether the bishop ever restored him, we are not able to learn. He died about the year 1614.* His name, or the name of his brother, Mr. Jeremiah Dyke, another excellent puritan divine, is among those who subscribed the "Book of Discipline."+ Mr. Dyke was a man of an unblemished character, a divine of great learning and piety, and a preacher of sound, heart-searching doctrine. Wood denominates him an eminent preacher. His writings are excellent for the time, and are still much admired. Bishop Wilkins classes his sermons among the most excellent in his day. His works, containing various picces, were collected and published in 1635, in two volumes quarto. His "Mystery of Self-deceiving," was often published, and was translated into High Dutch. "It is a book," says Fuller," that will be owned for a truth, while men have any badness in them; and will be owned as a treasure, while they have any goodness in them." This work, and his "Treatises on Repentance," are very searching. His doctrine falls as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.** ROBERT PARKER.-This learned and celebrated puritan became rector of North-Benflete in Essex, in the year 1571; but, resigning the benefice the year following, he became rector of West-Henningfield, in the same county, which he held several years.++ Afterwards he became pastor of the church at Dedham, in the same county, where he was predecessor to the famous Mr. John Rogers. He was suspended by Bishop Aylmer, for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles. Being afterwards, by some means, restored to his ministry, a day was appointed when he should be deprived, if he still persisted in refusing to wear the surplice; when he most probably received the ecclesiastical censure. Having endured these troubles, he left the county, and was afterwards beneficed at Wilton in Wiltshire, where he continued many years. In the year 1598, Bishop Bilson having published to the Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 29. + Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 423. Heart," Dedica. Edit. 1633. Discourse on Preaching, p. 82, 83. • Williams's Christian Preacher, p. 454. |