by what struggles these blessings have been acquired, and at what price they have been obtained, you will know how to estimate their value; and you will regard the men to whom we are indebted for them as distinguished benefactors to the English nation and the church of God.

For the sacred cause of religion, the Puritan divines laboured and prayed, wrote and preached, suffered and died; and they have transmitted it to us to support it, or to let it sink. With what feelings will you receive this precious inheritance? Will you lightly esteem what they so highly valued? Will you stand aloof from the cause which they watched with jealous vigilance, and defended with invincible courage? If the blood of these men run in your veins, if the principles of these men exist in your souls, most assuredly you will not.

That you may learn the wisdom, and imbibe the spirit of the Puritans ;—that you may take them as patterns, imitate them as

examples, and follow them as guides, so far as they followed Christ;-that you may adhere to the cause of religion with the same firmness, adorn it with the same holiness, and propagate it with the same zeal, is the fervent prayer of

Yours respectfully

and affectionately,

TUTBURY,

October 6, 1813.

BENJAMIN BROOK.

PREFACE.

Ar no period has biographical history been so much esteemed and promoted as in these days of christian freedom. The memoirs of wise and good men, especially such as have suffered for the testimony of a good conscience, afford interesting entertainment and valuable instruction. To rescue from oblivion impartial accounts of their holy actions, their painful sufferings, and their triumphant deaths, will confer a deserved honour upon their memory: and there is, perhaps, no class of men whose history better deserves to be transmitted to posterity than that of the persons stigmatized by the name of Puritans.

The cruelties exercised upon them were indeed very great, THEY SUFFERED for the TESTIMONY OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE, and an AVOWED ATTACHMENT TO THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. The proofs which they gave of their zeal, their fortitude, and their integrity, were certainly as great as could be given. They denied themselves those honours, prefer

ments, and worldly advantages by which they were allured to conformity. They suffered reproach, deprivation, and imprisonment; yea, the loss of all things, rather than comply with those inventions and impositions of men, which to them appeared extremely derogatory to the gospel, which would have robbed them of liberty of conscience, and which tended to lead back to the darkness and superstitions of popery. Many of them, being persons of great ability, loyalty, and interest, had the fairest prospect of high promotion; yet they sacrificed all for their nonconformity. Some modestly refused preferment when offered them: while others, already preferred, were prevented from obtaining higher promotion, because they could not, with a good conscience, comply with the ecclesiastical impositions. Nor was it the least afflictive circumstance to the Puritan divines, that they were driven from their flocks, whom they loved as their own souls; and, instead of being allowed to labour for their spiritual and eternal advantage, were obliged to spend the best of their days in silence, imprisonment, or a state of exile in a foreign land.

The contents of these volumes tend to expose the evil of bigotry and persecution. When professed Protestants oppress and persecute their brethren of the same faith, and of the same communion, it is indeed marvellous. The faithful page of history details the fact with the most glaring evidence, or we could scarcely have

66

66

66

believed it. A spirit of intolerance and oppression ever deserves to be held up to universal abhorrence. In allusion to this tragic scene, Sir William Blackstone very justly observes, "That our an"cestors were mistaken in their plans of compul"sion and intolerance. The sin of schism, as such, "is by no means the object of coercion and punishment. All persecution for diversity of opinions, however ridiculous or absurd they may be, is contrary to every principle of sound policy and civil freedom. The names and sub"ordination of the clergy, the posture of devotion, the materials and colour of the minister's garment, the joining in a known or unknown "form of prayer, and other matters of the same kind, must be left to the opinion of every man's 'private judgment. For, undoubtedly, all per“secution and oppression of weak consciences, on the score of religious persuasions, are highly unjustifiable upon every principle of natural reason, civil liberty, or sound religion.'

66

66

66

66

66

Perhaps no class of men ever suffered more reproach than the Puritans. Archbishop Parker stigmatizes them as "schismatics, belly-gods, deceivers, flatterers, fools, having been unlearnedly brought up in profane occupations, being puffed up with arrogancy." His successor Whitgift says, "that when they walked in the streets, they hung down their heads, and looked austerely; and in com

Blackstone's Comment. vol. iv. p. 51-53. Edit. 1771. + Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 481.-Peirce's Vindication, part i. p. 61.