tory for publick worship, set forth by the affembly. The piece which he published on this occafion was intitled, "Two Queries worthy of confideration.” 2.1. Whether that miniftry that preacheth freely the gofpel-faith, that the Lord Jefus is the Chrift, as the apoftle Peter did, be not truly orthodox? 2.2. Whether it be agreeable to the word of God, contained in the facred fcriptures, to filence or inhibit any ministers of Jefus Chrift for preaching this gofpel freely? He affirmed the former, and maintained it by feveral arguments; the latter he denied; and intimated, that they who were guilty of fuch practices acted like the Jews of old, who caft the blind man out of the temple, for confeffing that Jefus was the Chrift.* In clofe connection with Mr. Cornwell's history stands, as we have seen, that of Mr. Blackwood, who, in confequence of his vifitation fermon, became a profelyte to believer's baptism, and with Mr. Richard Kingsnorth, who likewise was convinced by it, gathered a church at Staplehurst in Kent; but his fentiments being calvinistic, and contrary to thofe of the fociety, he afterwards left it under the pastoral care of Mr. Kingsnorth, who held univerfal redemption and final perfeverance.t Mr. Blackwood was poffeffed, at the beginning of the civil wars, of a parochial church in the county of Kent; from whence, it is probable that he was educated at one of the universities. After he changed his fentiments on the questions concerning baptifm, he did not continue long in the established church; for he was as zealous against national churches as against infant-baptifm. He was an advocate for liberty of confcience, and oppofed the establishment of prefbyterianifm. In the first piece he published, he joined together infant-baptifm and compulfion of confcience, and called them "the two laft and strongest "garrifons of antichrift." He was reckoned among "thofe "worthy guides, well qualified in all refpects for the ministry," who voluntarily left their benefices in the establishment, by one who lived in those times. He appears, in 1653, to have gone into Ireland with the army under the Crosby, vol. i. p. 334-349, and vol. iii. p. 6-9. + Thompson's Collections, MSS. command command of general Fleetwood and lieutenant Ludlow. He lived till after the Restoration, and figned the apology of the baptifts in 1660, declaring against Venner's infurrection. * Another, who was reckoned among the worthies of this denomination at this period was Mr. Benjamin Cox, who made no mean figure in his time. He was the son of a bifhop, was a man of great learning, and a graduate in one of the univerfities. He was, for fome time, a minifter in the established church, had a parochial charge in the county of Devon, and was very zealous for the fuperftitious ceremonies that prevailed in bishop Laud's time. But when the affairs of ftate led men to think more freely in matters of religion, Mr. Cox was among the first in promoting a reformation, and had before him flattering profpects of eminence and preferment in this kingdom, when he rejected the baptifm of infants, as it appeared to him not founded in the fcriptures; but this obftructed his advancement in the establifhed church, and prejudiced against him the divines who were at the head of ecclefiaftical affairs. He preserved, however, the character of a man of abilities and great learning. After epifcopacy and the common-prayer were laid afide, he was, for fome time, minifter at Bedford. In 1645 he came to London, and was one of the principal managers on the part of the baptifts in a publick dispute concerning infant baptifm, at Aldermanbury church, to which a stop was afterwards put by the government. In the year 1646, when seven churches in London, called Anabaptifts, pub. lifhed a confeffion of their faith, and prefented it to parlia ment, his name, in behalf of one of thofe congregations, was fubfcribed to it. Though, when the act of uniformity, in 1662, took place, he at first conformed; yet his confcience foon after upbraiding him for that step, he obeyed its dictates by throwing up his living, and died a non-conformist and a baptift, in a very advanced age; for Mr. Baxter, with whom he had a dispute by word of mouth and by writing, called him at the beginning of the civil wars, an antient minister. *It feems more probable that he was the grandfon of one, as Dr. Richard Cox, bishop of Ely, who filled that fee twenty years, died in 1580. Richardfon de Præfulibus. He He fuffered imprisonment for his opinions concerning baptifm, in the city of Coventry.* Here is a proper place for obferving, that at the Reftoration several parishes were found to have baptist ministers fixed in them. The cause of this was, that in the year 1653, when a certain number of men called tryers were authorised to examine and approve candidates for the ministry, Mr. Tombes, notwithstanding his difference in opinion from the reft, fuch was the estimation in which his character was held, was appointed to be one of them. Among other good effects that followed upon this, one was, that the commiffioners agreed to own the baptifts as their brethren; and that if any fuch applied to them for probation, and appeared in other refpects duly qualified, they fhould not be rejected for holding their sentiments.† * Crosby, vol. i. p. 353, 54. See also our Third Volume, p. 523, in the Supplement. + Crosby, vol. i. p. 289. SECT. SECT. II. The Hiftory of the Quakers. WHEN HEN the king published his declaration of indulgence, party, merely to enjoy the ease and liberty to which peaceable and virtuous fubjects have a right, accepted the protection it afforded. But those who were at liberty, from that fpirit of fympathy and brotherly concern which pervades the fociety, could not enjoy their own exemption from penal ftatutes without exerting themselves for the relief of their brethren who had been, for several years, kept immured in uncomfortable prifons. George Whitehead, Thomas Moor, and Thomas Green, invited by the prefent difpofition of government, waited on the king and council to folicit the discharge of their friends, who, convicted on transportation, or on præmunire, or for fines, confifcations or fees, were ftill in prison: and they were fo fuccessful as to obtain the king's letters patent, under the great feal, for their pardon and discharge. In the accomplishing of this business, a difficulty arofe from the amount of the fees to be paid in the fundry offices through which the letters patent would pafs, as upwards of four hundred perfons would be included in them. But when the lord keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, generously and voluntarily remitted his fees, they applied to the king to moderate the rest, who accordingly iffued his order, "that the pardon, though comprehending "a great number of perfons, do yet pafs as one pardon, "and pay but as one. Their fuccefs gave them an opportunity to fhew the univerfality of their charity to other diffenters, many of The patent, when made out, contained eleven skins of vellum. whom whom were confined in prifon, and whofe folicitors, obferving the happy iffue of the quakers' fuit, applied to Whitehead, for his advice and affiftance, to have the names of their own friends inferted in the fame inftrument. In confequence of his advice they petitioned the king, and obtained his warrant for that purpofe. "This I was glad of," fays Whitehead, "that they partook of the benefit through our industry. "And indeed I was never backward to give any of them CC my advice for their help, when any of them in ftraits have “ applied for it; our being of different judgments and focieties "did not abate my fympathy or charity, even towards them "who, in fome cafes, had been our oppofers." The quakers were thus freed, for a time, from the feverities of perfecu tion. The publick teftimony which they continued, in the feverest times, to bear to the principles they received as truth, and the firmness with which they held their meetings at the appointed times and places, or, when kept out of their places of worship by force, affembled in the ftreets, baffled the scheme of establishing uniformity, countenanced and affisted by the temporifing conduct of other diffenters, and abated the heat of perfecution, and blunted the edge of the fword before it reached the other fects; the more ingenuous of whom, therefore, esteemed their intrepidity, regarded them with gratitude as the bulwark that kept off the force of the ftroke from themfelves, and prayed that they might be preserved ftedfaft, and enabled to break the ftrength of the enemy. Some of the baptifts, especially, expreffed an high opinion both of the people and their principles, which fustained them in undergoing fufferings that others thought of with terror.* .. When the revocation of the indulgence, and the displeasure of the court against the diffenters, let loofe the whole tribe of informers, and gave fresh fpirit to perfecuting magiftrates; profecutions, in every mode of diftrefs, were renewed against this people, at the capricious will of every juftice. Severe proceedings against them were grounded on the statute of præemunire of James I. for refufing to fwear; on the obsolete ftatute of twenty pounds per month, for abfence from the parish church, which penalty, or two-thirds of a person's eftate, were feized by exchequer procefs; and for tithes, to Gough's Hiftory of the Quakers, vol. ii. p. 364-368. |