Pembroke, and the Countess of Bedford, had a great interest in him; and all looked upon him as a rising man, and respected him accordingly. Some of the courtiers, however, had a jealous eye upon him; for all saw that he came not to court for preferment, as did most others. In the year 1624, Dr. Preston was invited to become lecturer at Trinity church, Cambridge; for which there was a strong contest betwixt him and Mr. Micklethwait, fellow of Sidney college, and a very excellent preacher. The contest in voting for the new lecturer was so great, that it could not be determined without the hearing of the king, who was opposed to the doctor's preaching at Cambridge. As an inducement to drop the contest, he was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, then void; and the Duke of Buckingham further urged, that, as the lecture was supported by six-penny subscriptions, it was a thing unseemly to the master of a college, and the chaplain of the prince. But the duke was resolved not to lose him, and, therefore, took care that nothing was determined contrary to the doctor's wishes. Sir Edward Conway told him, that if he would give up the contest for the lecture, and let it be disposed of some other way, his majesty had authorized him say, "that he should have any other more profitable and honourable preferment he might desire." But the doctor's chief object was to do good to souls, not to obtain worldly emolument: the king's was to render him useless, and divide him from the puritans.+ When, therefore, it appeared that nothing would allure him from the object of his wishes, or be a sufficient compensation for this noble sphere of public usefulness, he was confirmed in the lecture, being his last preferment, which he held to his death. This celebrated divine thus generously preferred a situation of eighty pounds a year, with the prospect of extensive usefulness to souls, to the bishopric of Gloucester, or any other preferment in the kingdom. to He obtained great celebrity by the learned productions of his pen. His writings are numerous, and most of them admirable for the time. The pious and learned Bishop Wilkins gives an high character of his excellent sermons. In his "Treatise on the New Covenant," his method is highly instructive; and his manner familiar and insinuating, yet very clear. He abounds in apt similes and illustrative Clark's Lives, p. 89-95. + Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 169, 161.—Clark's Lives, p. 96, 97. instances, generally well supported and applied. His doctrine drops as the rain, and his speech distils as the dew. Dr. Preston was a divine of extraordinary abilities and learning, and, about this time, deeply engaged in public Controversy with several learned Arminians. He was called to take a leading part in two public disputations, procured by the Earl of Warwick, and held at York-house, in the presence of the Duke of Buckingham and others of the nobility. The first of these contests was betwixt Bishop Buckridge and Dr. White, dean of Carlisle, on the one part; and Bishop Morton and Dr. Preston, on the other. In the conclusion, the Earl of Pembroke observed, "that no person returned from this learned disputation of Arminian sentiments, who was not an Arminian before he came." The second conference was betwixt Dr. White and Mr. Montague, on the one part; and Bishop Morton and Dr. Preston, on the other. On this occasion, Preston is said to have displayed his uncommon erudition and powers of disputation, to the great advantage of the cause which he undertook to support.t This celebrated divine, by his great interest in the Duke of Buckingham and the Prince of Wales, was of unspeakable service to many of the silenced ministers. He was in waiting when King James died, and came up with King Charles and the Duke of Buckingham, in a close coach, to London. The young king is said to have been so overcharged with grief, on account of the death of his father, that he wanted the comfort of so wise and so great a man.‡ The duke offered Dr. Preston the broad seal, but he was too wise to accept it. Afterwards the duke, changing measures, and finding he could neither gain the puritans to his arbitrary designs, nor separate the doctor from their inte rests, resolved to bid adieu to his chaplain. Dr. Preston saw the approaching storm, and quietly retired to his college, where it was expected he would have felt some further effects of the duke's displeasure, if providence had not so ordered things, that he had other work to mind, which took up all his time and thoughts to the day of his death. Williams's Christian Preacher, p. 453. + Fuller's Church Hist, b. xi. p. 124, 125.-Clark's Lives, p. 101–105. Burnet's Hist. of his Time, vol. i. p. 19. Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 131.—Clark's Lives, p. 106-109.-The Duke of Buckingham was the great favourite of King James and Charles I., over whom he had the highest ascendancy. It is no wonder that an Dr. Preston possessed a strong constitution, which he wore out by hard study and constant preaching. His inquiry was not, "How long have I lived" but, how have I lived?" Desiring, in his last sickness, to die among his old friends, he retired to Preston, near Heyford, in his native county; and having revised his will, and settled all his worldly affairs, he committed himself to the wise and gracious disposal of his heavenly Father. As he felt the symptoms of death coming upon him, he said, "I shall not change my company; for I shall still converse with God and saints." A few hours previous to his departure, being told it was the Lord's day, he said, “A fit day to be sacrificed on! I have accompanied saints on earth: now I shall accompany angels in heaven. My dissolution is at hand. Let me go to my home, and to Jesus Christ, who hath bought me with his precious blood." He afterwards added, "I feel death coming to my heart. My pain shall now be turned into joy;" and then gave up the ghost, in the month of July, 1628, being only forty-one years of age. His remains were interred in Fausley church, when the venerable Mr. Dod preached his funeral sermon to an immense crowd of people. Fuller, who has classed him among the learned writers of Queen's college, Cambridge, says, he was all judgment and gravity, and the perfect master of his passions, an excellent preacher, a celebrated disputant, and a perfect politician." Echard styles him ،، the most celebrated of the puritans, an exquisite preacher, a subtle disputant, and a deep politician."‡ His WORKS.-1. Treatise on the New Covenant; or, the Saints' Portion, 1629.-2. Breast-plate of Faith and Love, 1630.-3. Sermous before the King, 1630.-4. Eternal Life; or, a Treatise of the Knowledge of the Divine Essence and Attributes, 1631.-5. The Lifeless Life, 1635.-6. A Discourse of Mortification and Humi accumulation of honour, wealth, and power, conferred upon a vain man, who was suddenly raised from a private station, should be particularly invidious: and, especially, as the duke was as void of prudence and moderation in the use of these, as his masters were in bestowing them. Most men imputed all the calamities of the nation to his arbitrary councils ; and few were displeased at the news of his death. Such a pageant and tyrant as this, decorated with almost every title and honour that two kings could bestow upon him, was sure to be the butt of envy. He was murdered by Felton, August 23, 1628.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 326. ii. 114.-Neal's Puritans, vol. ii. p. 151. * Clark's Lives, p. 113. Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 90.-Worthies, part ii. p. 291.-Church Hist. b. xi. p. 131. ~ Echard's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 72. liation, 1635.-7. Spiritual Life and Death, 1636.-8. Judas's Repentance, 1637.-9. The Saints' Spiritual Strength, 1637.-10. The Saints' Qualification and Remains, 1637.-11. Sermons, 1637.— 12. The Golden Sceptre, with the Church's Marriage and the Church's Carriage, 1639.-13. Divine Love of Christ, 1640. JOB THROGMORTON was a zealous and active puritan, descended from the family of Throgmortons of Coughton in Warwickshire. He was a man of good learning, and master of a very facetious and satirical style; and is said to have been one of the authors of those writings which went under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate; but, as the real authors were never discovered, the charge is without foundation. Dr. Sutcliff, a scurrilous and an abusive writer, published many reproaches against Mr. Throgmorton, charging him with being concerned in the wicked plots of Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington. In reply to the misrepresentations of this opponent, he, about the year 1594, published a work, entitled, "A Defence of Job Throgmorton against the Slanders of Matthew Sutcliff." Notwithstanding this, he was indicted and tried at Warwick, on a supposition of being concerned with the above conspirators; but was acquitted. He was innocent, and therefore he deserved to be acquitted. "A reverend judge in this land," observes Mr. Peirce, " told my lord chancellor, that the matter of the indictment passed against Throgmorton at Warwick, was, in truth, but a frivolous matter, and a thing that he would easily avoid. And the lord chancellor said, not only in his own house, but even to her majesty, and openly in the parliament, that he knew the said Job Throgmorton to be an honest man."+ Mr. Throgmorton was a man of high reputation, and a pious and zealous preacher of the word; but labouring, in the decline of life, under a consumption, and being oppressed with melancholy apprehensions about the safety of his state, he removed to Ashby, near Fausley, in Northamptonshire, to enjoy the counsel and advice of the venerable Mr. John Dod. A little before he died, he asked Mr. Dod, saying, "What will you say of him who is going out of the world, and can find no comfort?" "What will you say of our Saviour Christ," replied Mr. Dod, "who, when he was going out of the world, found no ⚫ Kennet's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 550.-Heylin's Hist. of Pres, p. 279, + Peirce's Vindication, part i. p. 142. comfort, but cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This administered consolation to Mr. Throgmorton's troubled mind, and he departed soon after, rejoicing in the Lord. He is denominated "as holy and as choice a preacher as any in England;" and is said to have lived thirty-seven years without a comfortable assurance, and then died, having assurance only an hour before his departure. He died in the year 1628. Sir Clement Throgmorton, a man of great learning and eloquence, and a member of parliament for the county of Warwick, was his son,{ THEOPHILUS BRADBOURN was minister at some place in Norfolk, and a zealous old puritan. He was of strict sabbatarian principles, and zealously maintained the necessity of observing the seventh day as the christian sabbath. In the year 1628, he published a book entitled, "A Defence of the most ancient and sacred ordinance of God, the Sabbath-day," which he dedicated to the king. In this work he maintained, "That the fourth commandment, Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy, was entirely moral, and of indispensable obligation to the end of the world: that the seventh day in the week ought to be observed as an holy day in the christian church, as it was among the Jews before the coming of Christ:-and that it was superstition and evil-worship to observe the Lord's day as the sabbath, seeing there was no command for it." For these opinions, says Fuller, "He fell into the ambush of the high commission, whose well-tempered severity so prevailed with him, that, submitting to a private conference, and perceiving the unsoundness of his own principles, he became a convert, and quietly conformed to the church of England," so far as concerned the sabbatarian controversy.** The publication of Mr. Bradbourn's book roused the jealousy and indignation of the court; therefore, by the command of the king, and under the direction of Archbishop Laud, Dr. White, bishop of Ely, undertook a * Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p. 172. + Brooks on Assurance, p. 39. Edit. 1810. MS. Remarks, p. 494. Dugdale's Antiq. of Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 654. Edit. 1730. 1 Paget's Heresiography, p. 161. Edit. 1662. ** Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 144. |