Ashurst's, he took one Mr. Chorley to bear him conpany home. When they came to the narrow passage, which leads from Clerkenwell to St. John's Court, there were two men standing at the entrance; one of whom, as Mr. Poole came along, cried out to the other, "Here he is;" upon which the other replied, "Let him alone, for there is somebody with him." As soon as they were passed, Mr. Poole asked his friend, if he heard what those men said; and upon his answering that he had, "Well, replied Mr. Poole, I had been murdered to-night, had you not been with me." It is said, that before this incident, he gave not the least credit to what was said in Qates's deposition. His body was interred in a vault which belongs to the English merchants at Amsterdam.

Besides what he published, he left behind him a manuscript of English aunotations on the Holy Scripture, which being carried on to the prophecy of Isaiah, the 59th and 60th chapters were afterwards added by Mr. Jackson of Moulsey; and several persons, who were friends to Mr. Poole's memory and religious sentiments, joined in undertaking to complete the whole according to his plan, of the following shares, Dr. Collings drew up the notes on the rest of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations; as also those on the four Evangelists, the two epistles to the Corinthians, and that to the Galatians, those to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and the Revelations; Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets, were done by Mr. Hurst; Daniel by Mr. Cooper; the Acts by Mr. Vinke; the epistle to the Romans by Mr. Mayo; to the Ephesians by Mr. Veale; to the Philippians and Colossians by Mr. Adams; to the Hebrews by Mr. Obadiah Hughes; the epistle of St. James, the two of St. Peter, and that of St. Jude, by Mr. Veale; and the three epistles of St. John by Mr. Howe. These annotations were printed at London in 1685, in two vols, folio. And by these authors, we are told in the preface, "that they had taken out of Mr. Poole's Synopsis, as much as was proper for his design in this work, and made use of a great number of other authors; some of which he left out, or very little considered in his Synopsis, upon a design to make use of them in this English work;" and to this purpose it is observable, that he expressly de clares he had not brought Calvin into his Synopsis. Dr. Calamy informs us, that while he was engaged in both

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these laborious works, his common rule was to rise very early in the morning, about three or four o'clock, and take a raw egg about eight or nine, and another about twelve, and then continue his studies till the afternoon was pretty far advanced, when he went abroad, and spent the evening at some friend's house in cheerful conversation. In which he observes he was very facetions, as well as very true to his friend." And to crown his character, the same writer adds, that he was also very strict in his piety, and universal in his charity. As to his learning, Mr. Wood tells us, he left behind him the character of "Clarissimus Criticus & Casuista."

PORTER, ROBERT, was a native of Nottinghamshire. His abilities were great, his fancy rich and fertile, and his wit rendered him the desire and pleasure of gentlemen in conversation. After God had effectually touched his heart, which was not till after his leaving Cambridge, he betook himself to close study and a strict conversation. His proficiency was considerable. Few men better understood their Bible than he. His judgement was solid, his eloquence natural, and his language scriptural. His people were poor, but his labours aniong them were great and prosperous, His stated income was not above fifteen pounds per annum, but being greatly beloved by the neighbouring gentry and others, they raised it to near fifty. He was invited to places where he might have had much more, but he refused, because he found his ministry successful, and thought it would be difficult for the people to get a suitable supply. He was abundant in prayer, preaching, catechizing, and visiting from house to house. If the meanest persons in his parish were sick or in any difficulty, he was always ready to pray with them, or give them a sermon suited to their exigencies, in both which he had an uncommon faculty. When he was ejected from the vicarage of Penbridge, Derbyshire, in 1662, he continued as long as he could within the parish, to assist his people in private. Sometimes he preached in his own house; sometimes he went by night to an obscure house about a mile off, till the coming out of the Oxford Act, when he retired to Mansfield, where he ended his days. From thence he used often to visit his former flock keeping days of prayer with them, &c. And many a dark night, hath he travelled in

dirty and dangerous roads, from his regard to the good of their souls. When one of his hearers came to visit him, a little before his death, he said to him, "Never did any one go with more joy to his most pleasing recreation, than I have gone to Long-croft Fields to preach to you." At Mansfield he attended on the public worship, in the Establishment, and held his meeting before or after it, that he might not interfere: for his principles were moderate. Such love did he conciliate there, by his blameless and pleasant conversation, and his discreet management of himself, that when others were confined in prison, upon what was called lord Russel's plot, a considerable person who constantly kept to the parish church, went to the lord lieutenant, and offered to be bound for his good behaviour. The offer was accepted; and Mr. Porter continued in his own house without disturbance or suspicion. He was looked upon as a great blessing in those parts, and highly valued by his brethren, who used to consult him upon dif ficult cases, and paid a great deference to his judgement. He died at Mansfield, Jan. 22, 1690,

He was author of, 1. An Account of the Life and Charac ter of Mr. John Hieron, and other Derbyshire Ministers."-2. "A Farewell Sermon, in England's Remembrancer, on Zeph. iii. 18." it is the xvith in the Country Collections, and contains ample proof of his great moderation, and his aversion to an unnecessary separation from the Church of England.

POYNTEL, DANIEL, was born at Chesilhurst in Kent, and was educated at Cambridge. He was rector of Staplehurst in his native county, which was worth two hundred pounds per annum. He was famous in all the county for his extraordinary abilities natural and acquired, his eminent piety, sweetness of temper, and great moderation; for his generous principles, his great acquaintance with, and interest in, the clergy; for his rational and yet earnest way of preaching, and learned expositions of diffi cult texts of Scripture; in a word, for being an honour and ornament to the church, and her champion too, excepting her hierarchy, against which he was always vehement. His peaceable spirit was troubled with some unquiet Baptists and Quakers. Having at one time severely reflected upon the latter, in expounding Matt. vii. 15. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing," &c.

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one of them came to his church the next Lord's day, and declared he was sent of God. But Mr. Poyntel being then upon the following verses, the Quaker expressed his dis appointment, expecting something farther on the former subject. Upon this Mr. Poyntel took occasion with advantage to argue, that the Quaker could not be sent of God, who certainly knew the subject he would be upon, and would doubtless have better informed his messenger, His Tuesday lecture in this place was much frequented by people from the neighbouring parishes, to hear his explication of the principles of religion, and the obscure passages of the prophets. Mr. Poyntel often expressed his wish to be satisfied with the terms of conformity; which made some zealots say, he wanted to blind his conscience for a fat benefice. But he could never bring himself to take the oaths, or dispense with the obligations he must have brought himself under. The weighty sense he had of his ordination-vow, his desire of doing good to souls, and the woe he expected if he did not preach the Gospel, induced him to comply farther than some persons of narrower principles thought warrantable, and sometimes brought him into the pulpit, at Staplehurst, after Bartho lomew-day, to preach to his own flock. But it was plain he was not covetous of the fleece, for he generously told the succeeding incumbent, that he desired nothing of the income, if he could but have the pulpit one part of the day; who said, he was willing to grant it, provided he could get leave of the archbishop. Mr. Poyntel then waited on his grace, with whom he was very intimate, and readily got his permission. But the incumbent, having been in the mean while, otherwise advised, absolutely refused it. And therefore, as soon as the licences came forth in king Charles II.'s reign, he opened a meeting at Staplehurst, which was greatly crowded during the remainder of his life and once, so much as to prove the cause of his death. The windows being taken down to let in air, upon a funeral occasion, he took so violent a cold as threw him into a fever, and carried him off, delirious, in a few days, 1674. Thus lived and died "the learned Mr. Poyntel," (for that was his common name in the county,) an honour to the party with whom he suffered, a bright ornament to the Catholic Church, and a reproach to the spirit

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of bigotry and ignorance, which triumphed in his ejectment from the rectory of Staplehurst. His ministry appears to have been very useful, for he had scarcely a prayerless family in his parish.

He was author of, 1. "A Discourse at the Dutch Church in Maidstone against the Hierarchy;" for which he was like to have had much trouble from the Bishops.-2. "Moses and Aaron; or the Minister's Right, and the Magistrate's Duty vindicated" an Answer to a piece against Tithes, by R. Kingnoth, a famous Baptist, who acknowledged his fault, and begged him to call his book in, promising to do the same by his. He left some MS. sermons against regicide principles, in the hands of his son-in-law, Dr. Groombridge of Cranbrook. Also a piece against the " Infallibility of the Light within."

PRESTON, JOHN, a learned and excellent divine, descended from the ancient family of the Prestons, of Xi Preston, in Lancashire, was born at Heyford, in Northamptonshire, in 1587. He received the first rudiments of his education at the free-school in Northampton; but, in order to be better instructed in Greek, was afterwards sent to a school in Bedfordshire. At the age of seventeen, he was admitted of King's College, Cambridge; where, according to the complexion of that college at that time, he learned music: but he soon removed to Queen's College, under the care of Oliver Bowles, who was a pious and learned man, and reputed an able tutor. Under his tuition he became a close student in philosophy and polite literature, he studied almost every thing, and even judicial astrology, and the planetary nature and power of herbs and plants, and attained to such a knowledge in simples, and compounding of medicines, that it used to be said, if he had failed in divinity, he might have been another Butler, who was an eminent physician of that age, He entertained great hopes of raising himself in the state; looking upon the study of divinity, as a kind of honest, but silly unmeaning study in itself, and much below the consideration of a great mind: but the Lord frustrated all his attempts to get into the line of promotion in the state, and at length providentially brought him to hear a sermon preached by Mr. Cotton, fellow of Emmanuel College. His reflections on this discourse made impressions on him so happy and abiding, as to cure his thirst after court preferment,