Though the persecution continued very fierce, the Nonconformists ventured to assemble in private, and several pamphlets were published about this time [1676] in their defence; as, "The peaceable design; or, an account of the Nonconformist meetings:" by some London ministers: designed, says Dr. Stillingfleet, to be presented to parliament. "Reasons which prevailed with the dissenters in Bristol to continue their meetings, however prosecuted or disturbed"-" Separation no schism""A rebuke to informers; with a plea for the ministers of the gospel called Nonconformists, and their meetings; with advice to those to whom the informers apply for assistance in their undertaking."

Informers were now become the terror of the Nonconformists, and the reproach of a civilized nation. They went about in disguise, and, like wandering strollers, lived upon the plunder of industrious families. They are a select company (says the Conformists' Plea for the Nonconformists) whom the long-suffering of God permits for a time; they are of no good reputation; they do not so much as know the names or persons in the country whom they molest, but go by report of their under-servants and accomplices. They come from two or three counties off, to set up this new trade; whether they are Papists or nominal Protestants, who can tell? They never go to their parish-churches, nor any other, but lie in wait and ambush for their prey; their estate is invisible, their country unknown to many, and their morals are as bad as the very dregs of the age: these are the men who direct and rule many of the magistrates; who live upon the spoil of better Christians and subjects than themselves, and go away with honest men's goods honestly gotten +.-They are generally poor, says another writer, as are many of the justices, so that they shared the booty belonging to the king as well as the poor among themselves: by which means the king and the poor got but little t.

Their practice was to insinuate themselves into an acquaintance with some under-servants, or lodgers in a Nonconformist's family, under the cloak of religion, in order to discover the place of their meeting. They walked the streets on the Lord's day, to observe which way any suspected persons went. They frequently sat down in coffee-houses, and places of public resort, to listen to conversation. They could turn themselves into any shape, and counterfeit any principles, to obtain their ends. When they had racter given of her is, "that she was a prudent, godly, practical Christian." So far, it is observed, this lady has been happy that, amongst the illiberal things that have been levelled against the protectoral house of Cromwell, her character is almost the only one that scandal has left untouched." Biographia Britan., second edition, vol. 4. p. 538.

Conform. Plea, part 3. p. 8-10.

† Sewel, p. 493.

Dr. Grey is angry with Mr. Neal for not quoting the remainder of the paragraph from Sewel in which that writer owns that some honest justices discouraged the practices of the informers, and availed themselves of any defect or failure in their evidence, to clear those against whom they informed.-Ed.

discovered a conventicle, they immediately got a warrant from some who were called confiding justices, to break open the house. If the minister was in the midst of his sermon or prayer, they commanded him in the king's name to come down from his pulpit; and if he did not immediately obey, a file of musketeers was usually sent up to pull him down by force, and to take him into custody; the congregation was broke up, and the people guarded along the street to a magistrate, and from him to a prison, unless they immediately paid their fines: the goods of the house were rifled, and frequently carried off, as a security for the large fine set upon it.

This was a new way of raising contributions, but it seldom or never prospered; that which was ill gotten was as ill spent, upon lewd women, or in taverns and alehouses, in gaming, or some kind of debauchery. An informer was but one degree above a beggar; there was a remarkable blast of Providence upon their persons and substance: most of them died in poverty and extreme misery; and as they lived in disgrace, they seemed to die by a remarkable hand of God. Stroud and Marshal, with all their plunder, could not keep out of prison: and when Keting, another informer, was confined for debt, he wrote to Mr. Baxter to endeavour his deliverance, confessing he believed God had sent that calamity upon him, for giving him so much trouble. Another died in the Compter for debt; and great numbers by their vices came to miserable and untimely ends.

But as some died off others succeeded, who by the instigation of the court disturbed all the meetings they could find. The king commanded the judges and justices of London to put the penal -laws in strict execution; and sir Jos. Sheldon, lord-mayor, and kinsman to the archbishop, did not fail to do his part. Sir Tho. Davies issued a warrant to distrain on Mr. Baxter for 50l. on account of his lecture in New-street; and when he had built a little chapel in Oxenden-street, the doors were shut up after he had preached in it once. In April this year [1676] he was disturbed by a company of constables and officers, as he was preaching in Swallow-street, who beat drums under the windows, to interrupt the service, because they had not a warrant to break open the house.

The court-bishops, as has been observed more than once, pushed on the informers to do all the mischief they could to the Nonconformists; "The prelates will not suffer them to be quiet in their families (says a considerable writer of these times,) though they have given large and ample testimonies, that they are willing to live quietly by their church neighbours" The dissenting Protestants have been reputed the only enemies of the nation, and therefore only persecuted, says a noble writer, while the Papists remain undisturbed, being by the court thought loyal, aud

* State Tracts, vol. 2. p. 54, 55; vol. 3. p. 42, &c.

by our great bishops not dangerous. Mr. Locke, bishop Burnet, and others, have set a mark upon the names of archbishop Sheldon, bishop Morley, Gunning, Henchman, Ward, &c. which will not be easily erased; but I mention no more, because there were others of a better spirit, who resided in their diocesses, and had no concern with the court.

Among these we may reckon Dr. Edward Reynolds, bishop of Norwich, born in Southampton 1599, and educated in Mertoncollege, Oxford; he was preacher to the society of Lincoln's-inn, and reckoned one of the most eloquent preachers of his age, though he had some hoarseness in his voice*. In the time of the civil wars he took part with the parliament, and was one of the assembly of divines. In the year 1646, he was appointed one of the preachers to the university of Oxford, and afterward a visitor. Upon the reform of the university, he was made dean of Christ-church, and vice-chancellor. After the king's death, he lost his deanery for refusing the engagement, but complied with all the other changes till the king's restoration, when he appeared with the Presbyterians, but was prevailed with to accept a bishoprick on the terms of the king's declaration, which never took place. He was a person of singular affability, meekness, and humility, and a frequent preachert. He was a constant resident in his diocess, and a good old Puritan, who never concerned himself with the politics of the court. He died at Norwich January

16, 1676, ætatis seventy-six.

[On May the 22nd, 1676, died, aged seventy-three, the pious and learned Mr. John Tombes, B. D. ejected from the living of Leominster in Herefordshire. He was born in 1603 at Bewdley in Worcestershire. At fifteen years of age, having made a good proficiency in grammar-learning, he was sent to Magdalen-hall, Oxford, where he studied under the celebrated Mr. William Pemble, upon whose decease he was chosen, though but twentyone years of age, such was the reputation of his parts and learning, to succeed him in the catechetical lecture in that hall. He held this lecture about seven years, and then removed first to Worcester, and then to Leominster; in both places he had the name of a very popular preacher; and of the latter living he was, soon after, possessed; and as the emolument of it was small, lord viscount Scudamore, out of respect to Mr. Tombes, made an addition to it. In 1641 he was, through the spirit of the churchparty, obliged to leave this town, and fled to Bristol, where general Fiennes gave him the living of All-Saints. The city being taken by the king's party, his wife and children being plundered, and a special warrant being out to apprehend him, he escaped with

* Wood's Athen. Oxon. vol. 2. p. 420.

+ "He was universally allowed (says Mr. Granger) to be a man of extraordinary parts, and discovers in his writings a richness of fancy as well as a solidity of judg ment." He was buried in the new chapel belonging to his palace, which he built at his own expense. History of England, vol. 3. p. 241.

difficulty, and got to London with his family, September 22, 1643. Here he was some time minister of Fenchurch, till his stipend was taken away for not practising the baptism of infants. He was then chosen preacher to the honourable societies at the Temple, on condition that he would not touch on the controversy about it in the pulpit. Here he continued four years, and was then dismissed for having published a treatise on the subject. He was, after this, chosen minister in the town of his nativity, and had also the parsonage of Ross given him, but he gave up his interest in the latter, to accept the mastership of the hospital at Ledbury. When the affections of the people at Bewdley were alienated from him, on account of his sentiments on baptism, he was restored to his living at Leominster. In 1653, he was appointed a trier for candidates for the ministry. After the Restoration he quitted his places, and laid down the ministry, and went to reside at Salisbury; from whence he had not long before married a rich widow, and conformed to the church as a lay-communicant. He was held in great respect by lord-chancellor Hyde, bishop Sanderson, bishop Barlow, and Dr. Ward, bishop of Salisbury, whom, during his residence in the city, he often visited. Mr. Wood says, that there were few better disputants in his age than he was." Mr. Wall speaks of him as 66 a man of the best parts in our nation, and perhaps in any." Dr. Calamy represents him as one, "whom all the world must own to have been a very considerable man and an excellent scholar." And it perpetuates his memory with honour, that the lords, in their conference with the commons, in 1702, on the bill to prevent occasional conformity, supported their argument, that receiving the sacrament in church did not necessarily import an entire conformity, by an appeal to his example: "There was a very learned and famous man (they said) that lived at Salisbury, Mr. Tombes, who was a very zealous conformist in all points but in one, infant baptism." Mr. Tombes was one of the first of his day, who attempted a reformation in the church, and to remove all human inventions in the worship of God: with this view he preached a sermon, which he was commanded by the house of commons to print. So early as the year 1627, being led in the course of his lectures to discuss the subject of baptism, he was brought into doubts concerning the authority for that of infants, which for some years he continued to practise only on the ground of the apostle's words, 1 Cor. vii. 14. But the answer he received to that argument from an ingenious Baptist at Bristol put him to stand as to that text. When he was in London, he consulted some of the learned ministers there on the question, and at a particular conference debated the matters with them; but it broke up without obviating his objections. He afterward laid his reasons for doubting the lawfulness of the common practice in Latin before the Westminster assembly: after waiting many months, though he had been informed that a committee was to be appointed to consider the point, he could obtain

no answer, nor hear that it was so much as admitted to a debate; but his papers were tossed up and down from one to another to expose him. On being dismissed from the Temple, he printed his Apology; of which Mr. Batchiler says, "Having perused this mild Apology, I conceive that the ingenuity, learning, and piety, therein contained, deserve the press. He repeatedly took up his pen in this controversy, of which he was judged to be a perfect master, and he was often drawn into public disputations on it, particularly with Mr. Baxter, at Bewdley. "The victory, as usual (says Mr. Nelson), was claimed on both sides: but some of the learned, who were far from approving his cause, yielded the advantage both of learning and argument to Mr. Tombes*. He wrote more books on the subject than any one man in England; and, continuing minister of the parish of Bewdley, he gathered a separate church of those of his own persuasion; which, though not large, consisted of some members distinguished for their piety and solid judgment; and three, who were afterward eminent ministers of that persuasion, were trained up in it, viz. Mr. Richard Adams, Mr. John Eccles, and captain Boylston. It continued till about the time of the king's restoration. Crosby's History of the Baptists, vol. 1. p. 278-293. Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 2. p. 33-37; and Nelson's Life of Bishop Bull, p. 249-253.-ED.]

The murmurs of the people against the government, increased rather than diminished. When the parliament met, they addressed the king to enter into an alliance with the Dutch, and other confederates, for preserving the Spanish Netherlands, as the only means to save Great Britain from Popery and slavery †. But his majesty declared, he would not suffer his prerogative of making war and peace to be invaded, nor be prescribed to as to his alliances. However, he consented to a separate peace with the Dutch, and then prorogued the parliament to the middle of July, by which time the French had almost completed their conquests of the Spanish Flanders. The chief thing the parliament could obtain, was the repeal of the Popish act de hæretico comburendot.

*Nelson's Life of Bishop Bull, p. 251.

Notwithstanding this alarm, on a calculation that was made, in the preceding year, the Nonconformists of all sorts, and Papists included, were found to be in proportion to the members of the church of England, as one to twenty; "which was a number (says bishop Sherlock) too small to hurt the constitution." His Test Act vindicated, as quoted by Dr. Calamy: Own Life, p. 63. MS.-ED.

This writ was taken away, on the principle of the wisdom of prevention, under the apprehension of Popery, "to preclude the risk of being burnt themselves, not to exempt others from the possibility of being burnt." The conduct of administration, in this instance, "was the effect of fear, not of general and enlarged principles." Hobhouse's Treatise on Heresy, p. 29, note.

Another modern writer observes, that "". though the state, in this instance, shewed some moderation, neither then, nor at any subsequent time, has any alteration been made in the constitution of the church." It still assumes exclusively to itself all truth, and may persecute some sectaries as heretics, and punish them by excommunication, degradation, and other ecclesiastical censures, not extending