immateriality of the human soul. A very curious account of this meeting is preserved by Mr. Edwards; and as it will serve for a specimen of the manner in which public disputes were then conducted, as well as afford some amusement to the reader, it shall be inserted. The lord mayor, it appears, had private notice of the meeting, and sent his officers to prevent it. Upon their arrival, they acquainted Mr. Lamb with their errand. He told them he would go up and acquaint the brethren; which he did, standing in a desk above the people, at one end of the room, and one Batty, a teacher in the same church, at the other. Mr. Lamb told them that the lord mayor had sent to forbid their meeting, or rather to request them not to dispute on that day. Batty then stood up and said, "That Mr. Mayor was a limb of antichrist, and a persecutor of the brethren; and he questioned what power or authority he had to forbid them: he was sure the parliament gave him no such power, but gave them liberty to use their consciences; and, for his part, he durst undertake to make it good to Master Mayor, calling my Lord Mayor," says Edwards," in a most base and scornful manner, Master Mayor." Overton, the moderator on Batty's side, next stood up and said, "Brother Lamb, had Paul done well, if he had desisted from preaching in the name of Jesus, when commanded by the high-priest to forbear?" To this Mr. Lamb answered in the negative. Upon which Overton replied, in a most scornful manner, "Nor ought we to obey Master Mayor." "And thus did these men argue the power of my Lord Mayor for an hour's space, till they came to state the question and fall to their dispute. The question was, That God made man, and every part of man, of the dust of the earth; and therefore man, and every part of man, must return to the dust again, which Batty could not prove; nor could Lamb tell well how to answer: but they both ran off from scripture to scripture, never clearing any one thing to the people. When they had rambled a long time, so that neither of them could tell what to say, then another stood up and said, Brother Lamb, or Brother Batty, leave this point to the consideration of the brethren, and take up some other.' After these two had spent four or five hours in this confusion, they sat down and rested; and then stood up one Mellish, a cobbler, and Lawson, a schoolmaster, both anabaptists, and to work they went. Lawson calls to Mellish, and saith to him, Brother Mellish, speak either categorically or hypothetically.' Mellish answered 6 Lawson, that he spake now to him in an unknown tongue, and prayed him to explain himself. Lawson told Mellish that he was not fit to dispute, if he knew not the meaning of these words. Mellish replied, that if he should stand up and tell the people that the moon was made of green cheese, he did not question but some would be of his mind.". Mr. Lamb lived till after the restoration, and was one of the ministers who, on the part of the baptists, signed a renunciation of Venner's insurrection.+ It is probable that he continued preaching at his meeting-house in Bell-alley till the time of his death. He died, it is said, about the year 1672. Mr. Edwards, speaking of him and his church, says, "This man, who was a soap-boiler, and his church are very erroneous, strange doctrines being vented there continually, both in preaching and discoursing, and strange things are done by them, both in their church-meetings and out of them. Many used to resort thither, and all preach universal redemption. Lamb preaches universal grace and the arminian tenets." Mr. Bailie says, that Mr. Lamb's congregation was by far the largest and most fruitful of the seven baptist congregations in London, but that it was pestered with the gangrene of arminianism; then, in the very next page, charges him with preaching the various opinions of the antinomians. These writers, who were equally indignant against all who presumed to oppose the impositions of the national church, wrote under the influence of a spirit of bigotry, or they received very incorrect information. There are, at least, three publications extant by Mr. Lamb, from which his real sentiments may be collected with much greater accuracy than from any party-historian whatever. The first is a small octavo pamphlet, entitled, "The Fountain of Free Grace opened." The second is a larger pamphlet, in quarto, entitled, " A Treatise of particular Predestination, wherein are answered three Letters; the first tending to disprove particular Predestination: the second to show the contradiction between Christ's dying for all, and God's election of some: the third to prove, that the soul doth not come from the parent, and consequently that there is no original sin," 1642. The title of Mr. Lamb's third → Edwards's Gangræna, part ii. p. 14, 15. Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii. p. 55. VOL. III. 2 H piece, published in 1656, and dedicated to the lord protector, was, "Absolute Freedom from Sin, by Christ's Death for the World, as the Object of Faith, in Opposition to conditional, set forth by Mr. John Goodwin, in his book entitled, Redemption Redeemed;' and the final Perseverance of the Saints proceeding from Election, by the Grace of God alone, maintained and sweetly reconciled with the aforesaid Doctrine. And the great Question, of God's eternal Decree of reprobating the unbelieving World, cleared from that Odium cast upon it by Mr. Goodwin." From these publications, it is evident how grossly both Edwards and Bailie have misrepresented the fact, in stating that Mr. Lamb maintained and taught either the arminian or antinomian tenets. On the contrary, it is extremely obvious, that, upon the disputed points, he was a strict Calvinist. During the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, one Mr. Thomas Lamb was pastor of a baptist church which met in Lothbury, London, having one Mr. William Allen to his colleague in the pastoral office. After the restoration, the two pastors conformed to the church of England, and wrote with great zeal against separation. Notwithstanding the improbability of there being two persons of the same name, both preachers among the baptists at the same time, and in the same neighbourhood, it is evident that this Mr. Lamb was different person from the former.+ Our author had a son called Isaac, who was a zealous and useful preacher among the baptists, but, like his father, he endured the cruel persecution of his enemies.‡ OLIVER BOWLES, B. D.-This venerable divine was fellow of Queen's college, Cambridge, where he most probably received his education. He was a man of great piety, an excellent scholar, and a celebrated tutor. The famous Dr. Preston was one of his pupils. Upon his removal from the university, he became rector of Sutton in Bedfordshire, about the beginning of the year 1607, where he continued upwards of fifty years. He was chosen one of the assembly of divines; when he constantly attended, and was very useful in that learned company. The assembly having petitioned the parliament for a fast, previous to its entering upon business, Mr. Bowles and Mr. Matthew * Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii. p. 55, 56. + Sylvester's Life of Baxter, part ii. p. 180. iii. 180. Appen. p. 51. Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii. p. 101-103. Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 76. Newcomen were appointed to preach before both houses and the assembly, and both sermons were ordered to be published. Mr. Bowles's sermon is entitled, "Zeale for God's House Quickened; or, a Sermon preached before the Assembly of Lords, Commons, and Divines, at their solemn Fast, July 7, 1643, in Abbey Church, Westminster: expressing the Eminency of Zeale required in Church-Reformers, 1643. Mr. Bowles was author of a work entitled, "De Pastore Evangelico," 1649. Dr. Calamy denominates this an excellent book. It was published by his son, and dedicated to the Earl of Manchester. He adds, that it was 66 a book not suffered to creep out in the time of the rampant episcopacy, not for any evil there is in it, but because some men do not care to be put upon too much work.* Though Mr. Bowles survived the restoration many years, he does not appear either to have conformed or to have been ejected; but, on account of his great age, and for several other reasons, there is the strongest probability to suppose that he gave over preaching about the year 1659 or 1660. He calmly resigned his soul into the hands of his dear Redeemer, September 5, 1674, supposed to be upwards of ninety years of age. He had twelve sons. His son Edward, a celebrated divine, was an ejected nonconformist in 1662. The excellent Mr. Timothy Cruso was favoured with the friendship and counsel of Mr. Bowles. He attended him during his last illness, and received the following affectionate advice from him the day before his death:"Have a care of yourself, Timothy, in this evil world; and be not so entangled with the vanities of it as to lose the substance for the shadow. Seeing you design yourself for the work and office of the ministry, I would advise you never to trouble your hearers with useless or contending notions; but rather preach all in practicals, that you may set them upon doing, and more advance a holy life. I would not any longer live that idle and unserviceable life which I have lately done; and therefore if God have some work for me yet to do here, he will continue me yet here: but if not, I am sure there is better work for me in heaven, whereby I shall act for his praise and glory more." When I took my last leave of him, says Mr. Cruso, he said, "Farewell, Timothy; and if I see thee not any more in this world, (as indeed he did not,) I hope I shall in the next, which is *Calamy's Account, vol. ii. p. 779. Theolog. and Bib. Mag. vol. iv. p. 207. better!" and so I hope also, replied Mr. Cruso. "Only remember," continued Mr. Bowles, "to keep a good conscience, and walk closely with God." These last words he twice repeated with considerable emphasis, that it might make a deeper impression upon his mind.❤ JOHN FISK, A. M.-This worthy minister was born in St. James's parish, Suffolk, in the year 1601, and educated in Emanuel college, Cambridge. His ancestors were eminent for zeal in the cause of Christ, several of whom were sorely persecuted in the sanguinary days of Queen Mary. He was the eldest of four children, all of whom afterwards went to New England. He was blessed with pious parents, who devoted him to the Lord from a child; and after finishing his academical pursuits at Cambridge, he entered into the ministry. But the persecution of all who could not conform, being at that time extremely hot, he was presently silenced for nonconformity. He afterwards practised physic; but at length removed to New England, where he had an opportunity of preaching without the impositions and oppressions of men. He took shipping in disguise, with the excellent Mr. John Allin, to avoid the fury of their persecutors. Having passed the land's end, they made themselves known, and entertained the passengers with two sermons every day, besides other devotional exercises. Indeed, the whole voyage was so much devoted to the exercises of religion, that when one of the passengers Theolog. and Bib. Mag. vol. iv. p. 138, 139. + Among these ancestors there were six brothers, three of whom were papists, and three were protestants; but the papists disowned their brethren. Two of the protestant brothers were sorely persecuted, of whom the following anecdotes are related;-One of them being in the utmost danger, and the pursuivant having great respect for him, sent him private information of his coming to apprehend him; upon which the good man immediately called his family together for prayer, and then hastened to hide himself in a ditch, together with his pious wife with a sucking child at the breast. Here they were upon the point of being discovered. For the pursuivant was near at hand, and, by leaping into the ditch, a thorn in the hedge so deeply marked the child's face, that it never wore out; at which the child began to cry aloud, when the mother presently clapt it to the breast, whereby it immediately became quiet, and so they remained undiscovered.-Another of these brethren, at the same time, to avoid burning, hid himself many months in a pile of wood; then, for half a year, in a cellar, where he was diligently employed in his wonted manufactory, by candle light, so as to remain in like manner undiscovered. But his numerous hardships shortened his days, put an end to his life, and added to the number of those whose blood cried aloud for vengeance.Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 141. |