and the ceremonies, rather than suffer that cause to perish." Being at length worn down by hard study and constant preaching, his spirit, during his last affliction, was calm, humble, and peaceable. He continued to preach as long as he was able, and prayed in his family till his strength utterly failed. Being asked whether he thought he should recover, he replied, "I do not trouble myself about it." He exercised a holy confidence in Christ, and thence derived substantial comfort. When his friends endeavoured to comfort him by the recollection of his extensive usefulness, he said, " If the Lord be not a God pardoning sins, I am in a miserable condition." And expressing their desires for his recovery, he said, "If the Lord pleased, I should be content to live longer, that I might be further useful, and bear my share of sufferings. For I expect a very sharp combat: the last combat we shall have with antichrist." As the agonies of death were upon him, being asked how he did, he said, I am going to heaven. He died October 20, 1640, aged fifty-five years. "He lived by faith," says Fuller," was an excellent schoolman and schoolmaster, a painful preacher, and a profitable writer; and his Treatise of Faith' cannot be sufficiently commended."+ Wood says, "he lived and died a nonconformist, in a poor house, a poor habit, with a poor maintenance of about twenty pounds a year, and in an obscure village, teaching school all the week for his further support; yet leaving the character of a learned, pious, and eminently useful man:" and we may add, in the words of Mr. Baxter, "he deserved as high esteem and honour as the best bishop in England."+ It is observed, that Mr. John Harrison, of Ashton-underLyne in Lancashire, was exceedingly harassed by the intolerant proceedings of the bishops, and put to great expenses in the ecclesiastical courts; when he consulted Mr. Ball what he should do to be delivered from these troubles. Mr. Ball recommended him to reward the bishops well with money; "for it is that," said he," which they look for." Mr. Harrison, it is added, tried the experiment, and afterwards enjoyed quietness.§ His WORKS.-1. A short Treatise containing all the principal Grounds of the Christian Religion, 1632.—This work was so much * Clark's Lives, p. 148-152. + Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 339. Calamy's Account, vol. ii. p. 396, 397. - admired, that, previous to this year, it passed through fourteen editions, and was trauslated into the Turkish language. 2. A Treatise of Faith, 1637.-3. Friendly Trial of the Grounds tending to Separation, 1640.-4. An Auswer to two Treatises of Mr. John Can. the Leader of the English Brownists at Amsterdam, 1642.-5. Trial of the New Church-way in New England and Old, 1644.-6. A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace, 1645.-7. Of the Power of Godliness, doctrinally and practically handled, 1657.*-This includes several other articles. -8. A Treatise of Divine Meditation, 1660,-Several of the above pieces were published by Mr. Simeon Ashc, after Mr. Ball's death. THOMAS BREWER was a zealous minister of the baptist persuasion, who suffered the most cruel usage under the ecclesiastical oppressions of Bishop Laud. It does not appear whether he was ever beneficed in the established church. The first account of him we meet with, is, that, in the year 1626, he was a preacher among the separatists in and about Ashford in Kent. In that year, through the instigation of Laud, he was prosecuted and censured in the high commission court, and committed to prison, where he remained no less than fourteen years. The archbishop, afterwards speaking of the mischief done by the nonconformity of Mr. Brewer and Mr. Turner, says, "The hurt which they have done is so deeply rooted, that it is impossible to be plucked up on a sudden; but I must crave time to work it off by little and little." His grace, however, certainly fixed upon the most direct and effectual method of doing this. For, in his account of his province addressed to the king, in the year 1637, he says, "I must give your majesty to understand, that at and about Ashford in Kent, the separatists continue to hold their conven icles, notwithstanding the excommunication of so many of them as have been discovered. Two or three of their principal ringleaders, Brewer, Fenner, and Turner, have long been kept in prison, and it was once thought fit to proceed against them by the statute of abjuration. Not long since Brewer slipt out of prison, and went to Rochester and other parts of Kent, and held conventicles, and put a great many people into great distempers against the church. He is taken again, and was called before the high commission, where he stood silent, but in such a jeering scornful manner, as I scarcely This work indicates much reflection, an experimental acquaintance with the powers of the soul, and the workings of sin and grace.→ Williams's Christian Preacher, p. 455. +Upon this part of the archbishop's account, his majesty inserted the following recommendation: "Keep those persons fast, until you think "what to do with the rest."-Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 546. X My copy is the "Fourteenth Im pression" "1654"- will a Preface by Simeon Focher ever saw the like. So in prison he remains." This was a short and certain method of stopping their mouths. Mr. Brewer having been confined in prison fourteen years, even till the meeting of the long parliament, he was then set at liberty by an order from the house of commons, November 28, 1640, upon his promise to be forthcoming when called; and this is all we know of him.t LAWRENCE CHADDERTON, D. D.-This celebrated divine was born at Chadderton in Lancashire,, in the year 1537, having descended from a wealthy family. He was brought up in the darkness of popery; and his father, intending him for the law, sent him to the inns of court. But he soon renounced popery; became a religious protestant; forsook the study of the law; and entered Christ's college, Cam-' bridge. This was in the year 1564. Having turned protestant, and fixed himself in the university, he informed his father of it, requesting some pecuniary support: but his father, being a zealous papist, was so displeased at his becoming a protestant, that he utterly refused to afford him any aid, and disinherited him of considerable estates. Also, as a manifestation of his great resentment, "his father sent him a poke, with a groat in it, to go a begging." Though he was abandoned by his parents, he found great comfort from these words: "When thy father and mother forsake thee, the Lord will take thee up." He who called him to suffer reproach and the loss of all things for his name, gave him support and comfort under all his sufferings. Young Chadderton, now cast off by his unnatural parents, still continued at the university, and made the closest application to his studies. Indeed, he soon became so eminent a scholar, that in three years, he was chosen fellow of his college. In the year 1576, he had a public dispute with Dr. Baro, the Margaret professor, upon his Arminian tenets, when he displayed his great learning, picty, and moderation.§ He afterwards took an active part in the proceedings of the university, against both Baro and Barret, and united with other heads in addressing certain letters to the chancellor of the university. For the space of sixteen Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 535, 546. + Nalson's Collec. vol. i. p. 570. Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 117. Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 145, 146.-Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 47, 48. years, he was lecturer at one of the churches in Cambridge; in which place his holy, learned, and judicious sermons were made a blessing to multitudes. October 26, 1578, he preached the sermon at Paul's cross. This sermon appears to have been the only article he ever published. About the same time, he was appointed, by an order of parliament, to be preacher at the Middle Temple, and to have a salary of twenty pounds a year, to be raised by the contributions of the house. In the year 1584, when Sir Walter Mildmay founded Emanuel college, he made choice of Dr. Chadderton to be the first master. But, on account· of his great modesty, he was extremely reluctant to undertake the charge;. which, when Sir Walter discovered, he said, "If you will not be the master, I will not be the founder of the college."+ Upon this, he complied, and continued in this office thirty-eight years. During the whole of this period, his deportment was agreeable to the expectations of the worthy founder. By his active and laudable endeavours, the funds of the institution were greatly enriched. He paid the most exact attention to the religion and learning of the scholars. Many persons of distin guished eminence were his pupils, among whom was Mr. William Bedell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore in Ireland.‡ This learned prelate always retained the highest opinion of his venerable tutor. After he was made provost of Dublin college, and introduced to a friendly correspondence with the celebrated Usher, he could not make mention of his name without particular sensations of pleasantry and esteem. "The arts of dutiful obedience, and just ruling also in part," says he, "I did seventeen years endeavour to • MS. Chronology, vol. iii. A. D. 1640, p. 4. + Sir Walter was an avowed enemy to superstition, a zealous promoter of religion, and ever forward to advance a further reformation in the church. Coming to court, after he had founded the above college, the queen addressed him, saying, "Sir Walter, I hear you have erected a puritan foundation." "No, madam," said he, "far be it from me to countenance any thing contrary to your laws: but I have set an acorn, which, when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit of it." This college, it is added, became the very nursery of puritans. Moreover, when Sir Walter founded this college, he, to counteract the influence of superstition, ordered the chapel belonging to it, to stand in the direction of north and south; but, curious as it may appear, the building in this position, being nonconformable, became an offence to the ruling prelates, and as a punishment for standing thus, it was pulled down in the reign of Charles II. and erected in the position of east and west.-Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 147.-MS. Remarks, p. 495.—Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 369. Biog. Britan, vol. ii. p. 133. Edit. 1778. learn, under that good father Dr. Chadderton, in a welltempered society: the cunning tricks of packing, siding, bandying, and skirmishing, with and between great men, I confess myself ignorant in, and am now, I fear, too old to be taught." Dr. Chadderton, in the year 1622, resigned his mastership to the famous Dr. Preston, lest he should be succeeded by a person of Arminian principles; but he survived Preston, and lived to see Dr. Sancroft, and, after him, Dr. Holdsworth, in the same office. Dr. Chadderton was a decided puritan, but a divine of great moderation. He united with his brethren in their classical associations, and subscribed the "Book of Discipline." In the year 1603, he was one of the puritan divines nominated by King James to attend the Hamptoncourt conference. Echard, by mistake, says, that Chadderton and his brethren were chosen by the puritans. It is extremely obvious, that they were all appointed by his majesty. Chadderton, on this occasion, said very little; only towards the close of the conference, when he perceived the king was determined to carry all by force, he requested upon his knees, that the wearing of the surplice, and the use of the cross in baptism, might not be urged upon certain pious and faithful ministers in Lancashire, especially the vicar of Rochdale; but his request was wholly disregarded. The tyrannizing spirit of his majesty, and the contemptible flattery of the prelates, so palpably manifest on this occasion, will be a stain on their character to the latest posterity.§ Dr. Chadderton was a divine of great abilities and learning, on account of which he was appointed by the king to be one of the translators of the Bible: this was the translation of the present authorized version. He died November 13, 1640; but of his age, as well as the place of his interment, our various authorities are divided. Mr. Clark says he was ninety-four years old; but Archdeacon Echard, who styles him "a grave, pious, and excellent preacher," * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, p. 323. + Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 423. Echard's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 186. Bishop Bancroft, falling down on his knee, protested, "That his heart melted with joy, and he made haste to acknowledge unto Almighty God, the singular mercy in giving them such a king, as, since Christ's time, the like had not been." Archbishop Whitgift and the temporal lords were guilty of the like or worse flattery.-Barlow's Account, p. 170-176.Fuller's Church Hist. b. x. p. 20. Burnet's Hist. of Refor. vol. ii. Rec. p. 367, |