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THE

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS;

OR,

PROTESTANT NONCONFORMISTS;

FROM THE

REFORMATION IN 1517.

ΤΟ

THE REVOLUTION IN 1688:

COMPRISING AN

ACCOUNT OF THEIR PRINCIPLES;

THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A FARTHER REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH;

THEIR SUFFERINGS;

AND THE

LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF THEIR MOST CONSIDERABLE DIVINES.

BY DANIEL NEAL, M. A.

A NEW EDITION, IN FIVE VOLUMES:

REPRINTED FROM THE

TEXT OF DR. TOULMIN'S EDITION,

WITH HIS

LIFE OF THE AUTHOR AND ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS.

REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED.

VOL. II

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BAYNES AND SON,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

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THE

EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Editor, in revising the first volume of Mr. Neal's "History of the Puritans," was greatly assisted by the author's "Review of the principal facts objected to in that volume." In the volume which is now presented to the public, such aid fails him, as it will also in the succeeding ones, since Dr. Grey's "Examination" did not make its appearance till the declining state of Mr. Neal's health prevented his farther vindication of his work.

The justice due to Mr. Neal's memory and to truth, required the Editor to attempt what could have been done by the author himself with much greater advantage than at this distance of time, from the first statement of the facts, by one who cannot come at all the authorities on which Mr. Neal spake. He has endeavoured, however, to acquit himself with care and impartiality in the examination of Dr. Grey's animadversions, and is not aware that he has passed over any material strictures, extended through a volume of four hundred pages.

Though Dr. Grey's Examination" may be now little known or sought after, it received, at its first publication, the thanks of many divines of the first eminence; particularly of Dr. Gibson, then bishop of London, and of Dr. Sherlock, then bishop of Salisbury. The latter prelate, writing to the doctor, said, "It is happy that Mr. Neal's account appeared when there was one so well versed in the history, and so able to correct the errors and prejudices. The service you have done must be considered as a very important one by all the friends of the constitution of the church of England."t

* Dr. Zachary Grey was of a Yorkshire family; originally from France; be was rector of Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire, and vicar of St. Peter's and St. Giles's parishes in Cambridge, where he usually passed all his winter, and the rest of his time at Ampthill, the neighbouring market-town to his living. He died Nov. 25, 1766, at Ampthill, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Houghton-Conquest. He was of a most amiable, sweet, and communicative disposition, most friendly to his acquaintance, and never better pleased than when performing acts of friendship and benevolence. His publications were numerous.-Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 354.

+ See Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 356, note.

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