434 XXVI. BARROW'S CONVERSION. CHAP. Barrow said unto his consort, "Let us go in and hear what this man saith that is thus earnest." "Tush," saith the other, "what! shall we go to hear a man talk ?" &c. But in he went and sat down. And the minister was vehement in reproving sin, and sharply applied the judgments of God against the same; and, it should seem, touched him to the quick in such things as he was guilty of, so as God set it home to his soul, and began to work his repentance and conversion thereby. For he was so stricken as he could not be quiet, until by conference with godly men and further hearing of the word, with diligent reading and meditation, God brought peace to his soul and conscience, after much humiliation of heart and reformation of life ; so as he left the court, and retired himself to a private life, some time in the country and some time in the city, giving himself to study and reading of the Scriptures and other good works very diligently. And being missed at court by his consorts and acquaintance, it was quickly bruited abroad that Barrow was turned Puritan. What his course was afterwards, his writings show, as also his sufferings and conference with men of all sorts do declare, until his life was taken from him. And thus much we can further affirm, from those that well knew him, that he was very comfortable to the poor and those in distress in their sufferings; and when he saw he must die, he gave a stock for the relief of the poor of the church, which was a good help to them in their banished condition afterwards. Yea, and that which some will hardly believe, he did much persuade them to peace, and composed many differences that were grown amongst them whilst he lived, THE SEPARATISTS AND PURITANS. 435 and would have, it is like, prevented more that after CHAP. fell out, if he had continued. YOUNG MEN. We thank you for your pains. We hope it will extend further than our satisfaction. We cannot but marvel that such a man should be by so many aspersed. ANCIENT MEN. It is not much to be marvelled at; for he was most plain in discovering the cruelty, fraud, and hypocrisy of the enemies of the truth, and searching into the corruptions of the time, which made him abhorred of them; and peradventure something too harsh against the haltings of divers of the preachers and professors that he had to deal with in those times, who out of fear or weakness did not come so close up to the truth in their practice as their doctrines and grounds seemed to hold forth. Which makes us remember what was the answer of Erasmus to the Duke of Saxony, when he asked his opinion whether Luther had erred. He answered, "his opinions were good, but wished he would moderate his style, which stirred him up the more enemies, no doubt.” YOUNG MEN. We find in the writings of some such who were very eminent in their times for piety and learning, that those of the Separation' found more favor in our native country than those who were reproached by the name of Puritans; and after much discourse thereabouts, come For an account of the difference between the Puritans and the Sep aratists, see Prince's Annals, pp. XXVI. 436 XXVI. SUFFERINGS OF THE PURITANS. CHAP. to this conclusion, that no comparison will hold from the Separatists to them in their sufferings but a minori ; and then they go on and say, what a compulsory banishment has been put upon those blessed and glorious lights, Mr. Cartwright,' Mr. Parker, Doctor Ames, &c. ANCIENT MEN. Far be it from any of us to detract from or to extenuate the sufferings of any of the servants of God, much less from those worthies forenamed, or any others afterwards mentioned. Yet, under favor, we crave pardon if we cannot consent to the judgment of such eminent ones for piety and learning above hinted. We doubt not, but do easily grant, that the sufferings of those reproached by the name of Puritans were great, especially some of them, and were better known to those pious and learned [men] first above intimated, than the sufferings of those that are reproached by the name of Brownists and Separatists.3 But we shall 1 Thomas Cartwright, "chief of the Nonconformists," as Fuller calls him, was one of the most learned scholars and skilful disputants of his age. He was born in 1535, and educated at Cambridge; was fellow of Trinity College, and Lady Margaret's professor of divinity. But venturing in some of his lectures to point out the defects in the discipline of the Church, he was expelled from the university. He then went to Geneva, and afterwards became preacher to the English merchants at Antwerp. After his return from Antwerp he was often in trouble by suspensions, deprivations and, long imprisonment; till at length the Earl of Leicester made him governor of his hospital at War wick, where he died in 1603. See Fuller's Ch. Hist. ii. 503, iii. 105, 165, 171; Neal's Puritans, i. 420. Robert Parker, a puritan divine of Wiltshire, in consequence of publishing a Treatise on the Cross in Baptism, was obliged in 1607 to fly into Holland. Here he would have been chosen pastor of the English church at Amsterdam; but the magistrates being afraid of offending King James, he went to Doesburgh, and became minister of the garrison there, where he died in 1630. See Wood's Athen. Oxon. 1.464; Peirce's Vindication, p. 171; Neal's Puritans, i. 436, 456. 3 On the occasion of the passage of a law of banishment against the Separatists in 1593, Sir Walter Raleigh said in the House of Commons, "In his conceit the Brownists are worthy to be rooted out of PERSECUTION OF THE SEPARATISTS. 437 give you some instances, and leave it to you and some CHAP. others to consider of. 1. Though no more were publicly executed, yet sundry more were condemned, and brought to the gallows, and ascended the ladder, not knowing but they should die, and have been reprieved, and after banished; some of which we have known and often spoken with. 2. Others have not only been forced into voluntary banishment, by great numbers, to avoid further cruelty, but divers, after long and sore imprisonment, have been forced to abjure the land by oath, never to return without leave. In anno 1604 four persons at once were forced to do so at a public Sessions in London, or else upon refusal they were to be hanged. This their abjuration was done on the statute of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth. Some of these we have also known. 3. We find mention in a printed book of seventeen or eighteen that have died in several prisons in London in six years' time before the year 1592, besides what have been in other parts of the land, and since that time, perishing by cold, hunger, or noisomeness of the prison. XXVI. 4. In the same year we find a lamentable petition, 1592. now in print, of sixty persons committed unbailable to several prisons in London, as Newgate, the Gatehouse, Clink, &c., being made close prisoners, allowing them neither meat, drink, nor lodging, nor suffering any a commonwealth; but what danger may grow to ourselves if this law passes, it were fit to be considered. If two or three thousand Brownists meet at the seaside, at whose charge shall they be transported? or whither will you send them? I am sorry for it; I am afraid there is near twenty thou- 438 XXVI. THE SEPARATISTS EXCOMMUNICATED. CHAP. Whose hearts the Lord would stir up for their relief, to have any access unto them; so as they complain that no felons, traitors, nor murderers in the land were thus dealt with; and so after many other grievous complaints conclude with these words: "We crave for all of us but the liberty either to die openly, or to live openly in the land of our nativity. If we deserve death, it beseemeth the majesty of justice not to see us closely murdered, yea starved to death with hunger and cold, and stifled in loathsome dungeons. If we be guiltless, we crave but the benefit of our innocence, viz. that we may have peace to serve our God and our Prince in the place of the sepulchres of our fathers.”1 And what numbers since those, who have been put unto compulsory banishment and other hard sufferings, as loss of goods, friends, and long and hard imprisonments, under which many have died, it is so well known, that it would make up a volume to rehearse them, and would not only equalize but far exceed the number of those godly called Puritans that have suffered. Suppose they were but few of them ministers. that suffered, as above expressed; yet their sorrows might be as great, and their wants more, and their souls as much afflicted, because more contemned and neglected of men. - But some have said they were excommunicated; and that was no great matter as excommunications went in those days. So were these, not only while they were living, but some of them many times after they were dead; and as some of the other were imprisoned, so were more of these. But it is further said, all of them were deprived of their ministry; and so were 'See Peirce's Vindication of the Dissenters, part i. p. 144. |