Coleman Interposition 3

A Pleasing Discovery

Mr Peter Ince, ejected from the rectory of Dunhead, in Wilts, after being silenced, clothed himself in the dress of a shepherd, and engaged himself in that capacity to a Mr Grove, that in this way he might obtain support for himself and his family. But not long after the year 1662, the wife of Mr Grove, who was a gentleman of great opulence, was taken dangerously ill, and Mr G sent for the parish minister to pray with her. When the messenger came, he was just going out with the hounds, and sent word that he would come when the hunt was over. Mr Grove expressed much resentment against the minister, for choosing rather to follow his diversion than attend his wife, under the circumstances in which she then lay, when one of the servants said, "Sir, our shepherd, if you will send for him, can pray, very well; we have often heard him at prayer in the field." Upon this he was immediately sent for, and Mr Grove asked him whether he ever did or could pray. The shepherd fixed his eyes upon him, and, with peculiar seriousness in his countenance, replied, "God forbid, sir, I should live one day without prayer." Hereupon he was desired to pray with the sick lady, which he did so pertinently to her case, with such fluency and fervency of devotion, as greatly to astonish the husband and all the family that were present. When they arose from their knees, Mr Grove said, "Your language and manner discover you to be a very different person from what your present appearance indicates. I conjure you to inform me who and what you are, and what were your views and situation in life before you came into my service." Whereupon he told him that he was one of the ministers that had been lately ejected from the Church, and that having nothing of his own left, he was content, for a livelihood, to submit to the honest and peaceful employment of tending sheep. Upon hearing this, Mr Grove said, "Then you shall be my shepherd" and immediately erected a meeting-house on his own estate, in which Mr Ince preached, and gathered a congregation of Dissenters. He is said to have been a good scholar, well skilled in the languages, especially in the Hebrew, and a good practical preacher. He had an admirable gift in prayer, and would, in days of special prayer, pour forth his soul with such spirituality, variety, fluency, and affection, that he was called praying Ince.

Coleman Interposition 2

Comfort under a First Imprisonment

October, 1663, Mr Henry, Mr Steele, and some other of their friends, were taken up and brought prisoners to Hanmer, under pretence of some plot said to be on foot against the Government, and there they were kept under confinement some days, on which Mr Henry writes, "It is sweet being in any condition with a clear conscience. The sting of death is sin, and so of imprisonment also. It is the first time I was ever a prisoner, but, perhaps, may not be the last. We felt no hardship, but we know not what we may."

They were, after some days, examined by the deputy-lieutenant, charged with they knew not what, and so dismissed, finding verbal security to be forthcoming whenever they should be called for. Mr Henry returned to his house with thanksgiving to God, and a hearty prayer for his enemies, that God would forgive them.

The very next day after they were released, a great man in the country, at whose instigation they were brought into that trouble, died, as was said, of a drunken surfeit; "so that a man shall say, verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth."

Coleman Interposition 1

"There is a God that judgeth in the earth," and that ruleth over the affairs of men. The providential government of God, extending to the minutest concerns, and having a special regard to the interests of his servants, was a truth firmly believed and realized by the body of Nonconformist ministers. It was under a full conviction of this truth that they cast themselves on the care of God; and they trusted that he would superintend all their concerns.

They knew that in his consummate but inscrutable wisdom he did frequently call his servants to pass through scenes of self-denial, painful trial, and suffering in the path of duty. Yet they believed that he often interposed on their behalf; that he did impart special consolation in seasons of greatest trial; and that such a sacred, sanctifying influence was bestowed as made great good to arise out of seeming evil. He would "cause the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder he would restrain."

In accordance with these views, we find a number of remarkable, well-authenticated facts, in the history of the two thousand confessors, which indicate divine interpositions in their favour, deliverances granted, supplies communicated, support and consolation afforded. There were scenes of darkness which the light of eternity only can dispel, yet there were others irradiated with a light from above, while the sufferers remained on earth.

We select a few instances of this nature, and bring them together in this part of our work, in order to render them more full and impressive than when they are found scattered in different places.

In the memoirs of the life of the eminent Philip Henry we are informed that there were many worthy, able ministers, in the part of the country where he resided, turned out both from work and subsistence, that had not such comfortable support for the life that now is as Mr. Henry himself had, for whom he was most affectionately concerned, and to whom he showed kindness. There were computed, within a few miles around him, so many ministers turned out to the wide world, stripped of all their maintenance, and exposed to continual hardships, as,« with their wives and children, having most of them numerous families, made up above a hundred that lived upon Providence, and though oft reduced to wants and straits, were not forsaken, but were enabled to "rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of their salvation," notwithstanding; to whom the promise was fulfilled, "So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Mr. Henry made the following observation not long before he died, that though many of the ejected ministers were brought very low, had many children, were greatly harassed by persecution, and their friends generally poor and unable to support them, yet, in all his acquaintance, he never knew, nor could remember to have heard, of any Nonconformist minister being in prison for debt.

Coleman Anecdote 21 Isaac Watts

We shall here present an instance to illustrate the painful operation of the laws against Nonconformists in the cases of some respectable laymen, who were engaged in the education of the young. In the town of Southampton there were two ministers ejected by the Act of Uniformity. One of them, Mr. Giles Say, became the pastor of a congregation of Nonconformists there. Under the Indulgence given by Charles II. his house was licensed for preaching; but after that Indulgence was withdrawn he was thrown, for exercising his ministry, into the common jail of the town. There was cast into the same prison with him, Mr. Isaac Watts, father of the celebrated Dr. Watts, the sweet singer of our Israel. He had become a deacon of the church that had been formed by Mr. Say, was evidently a man of vigorous intellect, considerable information, exalted piety, inflexible principle, every way worthy to be the parent and the father of the distinguished individual who inherited his name and perpetuated his virtues. He was master of a boarding-school in his native town, the repute of which was so well established and widely diffused, that pupils from America and the West Indies were committed to his care. The uncompromising integrity of his religious principles exposed him to much persecution, and he was compelled to occupy a cell in the common prison for the cause of Christ.

The first imprisonment took place during the infancy of his son Isaac, before he had begun to lisp in numbers; and tradition relates that the devoted wife and mother would visit the prison with her babe in her arms, and has sometimes placed herself on a stone in front of the cell in which her husband was confined to suckle her child, her beloved Isaac. When this son was about nine years of age, in the year 1683, Mr. Watts was again imprisoned, and driven afterwards into exile from his family. His son, in his memoranda:-

"My father persecuted, and imprisoned for Nonconformity six months, after that forced to leave his family, and live privately in London for two years." The trials of the parents made, as may be conceived, a deep impression upon the mind of the son; the adversities of his early years were remembered by him in after life, and doubtless here originated that ardent attachment to civil and religious liberty which marked his character, and "which led his .muse to hail its establishment with exultation when the dynasty of the tyrannical Stuarts was driven from the throne.

During the time that Mr. Watts was exiled from his family he wrote a long and most valuable letter of pious counsels to his children, which appears to have been done at the special request of his son Isaac. An extract or two shall be presented to the reader, to show the spirit of this devoted Nonconformist confessor :—

"My dear Children,—Though it hath pleased the only wise God to suffer the malice of ungodly men, the enemies of Jesus Christ, and my enemies for his sake, to break out so far against me as to remove me from you in my personal habitation, thereby at once bereaving me of that comfort which I might have hoped for in the enjoyment of my family in peace, and you of that education which my love as a father, and duty as a parent, required me to give; yet such are the longings of my soul for your good and prosperity, especially in spiritual concernments, that I remember you always with myself in my daily addresses to the throne of grace. ... I charge you frequently to read the Holy Scriptures, and that not as a task or burden laid on you, but get your hearts to delight in them. There are the only pleasant histories, which are certainly true and greatly profitable; there are abundance of precious promises made to sinners such as you are by nature; there are sweet invitations and counsels of God and Christ to come in and lay hold of them; there are the choice heavenly sayings and sermons of the Son of God, the blessed prophets and apostles." He directs them to consider their sinful and miserable state—to learn to know God according to the discoveries he hath made of himself—to remember him as their Creator and Benefactor—to know that, as they must worship God, so it must be in his own ways, according to the rules of his gospel. "Entertain not in your hearts any of the Popish doctrines of having more Mediators than one, viz., the Lord Jesus." "Do not entertain any hard thoughts of God and his ways, because his people are persecuted for them." "Lastly, I charge you to be dutiful and obedient to all your superiors, to your grandfather and both grandmothers, and all other relations and friends that are over you, but in an especial manner to your mother, to whose care and government God hath wholly committed you in my absence, who, as I am sure, dearly loves you, so she will command and direct you to her utmost ability, in all ways for. your good of soul and body." On these points he enlarges with some fullness and much affection.

Coleman Anecdote 19 Mrs Gaunt

Mrs Gaunt

There is another female martyr that we cannot pass by, who died for her religion in the same period, and by the same guilty hands as Lady Alice. Mrs. Gaunt, who is called by Burnet an Anabaptist, was an inhabitant of London, where she spent all her time in acts of charity, visiting the poor and theprisoners in jails, without confining her attention to any religious profession. A person of her character was likely to become odious, and thus be singled out as a mark for the arrows of persecution, which thus flew thick around the most excellent in the nation. A rebel took refuge in her house, where she concealed him till she should find an opportunity of sending him out of the country, he, with unparalleled baseness, betrayed her to save his own life, which he learned would be the reward of the treacherous ingratitude. But, though theevidence was not sufficient for a legal conviction, she was condemned to be burnt. Penn, the quaker, who saw her die, says Bishop Burnet, told me, "she laid the straw about her to burn her speedily, and behaved herself in such a manner that all the spectators melted into tears." With amazing cheerfulness and firmness she said, "I exult that God has honoured me to be the first that is called to suffer by fire in this reign, and that my suffering is a martyrdom for that religion that is all love. Charity," said she, "is a part of my religion, as well as faith. My crime is at worst only thatof feeding an enemy, so I hope I shall have my reward from Him for whose sake I did this service, how unworthy soever the person was that made so ill a return for it." The rebel received a pardon as a recompense for his treachery, she was burned alive for her charity.

Coleman Anecdote 16 William Jenkyn

The next case we present is one, amongst many others, of imprisonment and death - painful confinement issuing in death. Mr William Jenkyn [1613-1685] was maternal grandson to John Rogers, the proto-martyr in the Marian persecution. In the great storm that prevailed against the Nonconformists in James II's reign, on September 2, 1684, when he, with Mr [Edward] Reynolds [1599-1676], Mr J[ohn] Flavel [1627-1691] and Mr [Thomas] Keeling, was spending a day in prayer, with many of his friends, in a place where they thought themselves out of danger, the soldiers broke in upon them in the midst of the exercise. All the ministers made their escape except Mr Jenkyn. Mr Flavel was so near that he heard the insolence of the officers and soldiers to Mr Jenkyn when they had taken him, and observes in his diary that Mr Jenkyn might have escaped as well as himself, had it not been for a piece of vanity in a lady, whose long train hindered his going down the stairs, Mr Jenkyn, out of his too great civility, having let her pass before him.

Being taken before two aldermen, Sir James Edwards and Sir James Smith, they treated him very roughly, well knowing that it would be acceptable in the highest places in the land. Upon his refusing the Oxford oath, they committed him to Newgate, rejecting his offer of £40 fine which the law empowered them to take, though it was urged that the air of Newgate would infallibly suffocate him. He petitioned the King for a release, which was backed by an assurance from his physician that his life was in danger from his close confinement; but no other answer could be obtained but this, "Jenkyn shall be a prisoner as long as he lives." This was most rigorously adhered to. He was not suffered to go to baptize his daughter's child, though a considerable sum was offered for his liberty to do it, with security for his return. The keepers were ordered not to let him pray with any visitants; even when his daughter came to ask his blessing, he was not allowed to pray with her. He soon began, through this confinement, to decline in health, but continued all along in the utmost joy and comfort of soul. He said to one of his friends, "What a vast difference there is between this and my first imprisonment (alluding to his having formerly been sent to the Tower for being concerned in [Christopher] Love's plot); then I was full of doubts and fears, of grief and anguish, and well I might, for going out of God's way and my calling to meddle with things that did not belong to me. But now, when I was found in the way of my duty in my Master's business, though I suffer even unto bonds, yet I am comforted beyond measure. The Lord sheds abroad his love sensibly in my heart: I feel it, I have assurance of it." Turning to some who were weeping by him, he said, "Why weep ye for me? Christ lives; He is my Friend, a Friend born for adversity; a Friend that never dies. "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." He died in Newgate, January 19th, 1685, aged 72, having been a prisoner there four months, where, as he said a little before he died, "a man might be as effectually murdered as at Tyburn."

A nobleman, having heard of his happy release, said to the King, "May it please your Majesty, Jenkyn has got his liberty." Upon which he asked with eagerness, "Ay, who gave it him?" The nobleman replied, "A greater than your Majesty, the King of kings." With which the King appeared greatly struck, and remained silent.

Coleman Anecdote 15 Bristol

In the published records of the Broadmead church, in the city of Bristol, we see the spirit of their persecutors, the sufferings undergone, and the contrivances to which they resorted to elude their adversaries. "In the year 1664, at a week-day meeting, a guard of musketeers was sent to take them into custody; but having been apprised of their coming, and the darkness of the night proving favourable, they withdrew into an underground cellar, which had a communication with Baldwin Street, and so they escaped, and left their persecutors disappointed.

"Soon after, on a Lord's day, the mayor and aldermen, with their officers, broke open Mr [Thomas] Ellis's house at the back door, and came in. But while these housebreakers were effecting an entrance, Mr Ellis contrived to hide a garret door, by placing a large cupboard before it, and by that means sent away most of the men. Still, many necessarily remained behind, of whom the mayor and Sir John sent 31 to Bridewell for a month, preparatory to ultimate banishment.

"In November, 1665, a troop of horse were sent to the city to suppress the conventicles, and very abusive they were at all the meetings they could discover.

''The first Lord's day after the 10th of April, when the 'Conventicle Act' first came into operation, the informers were on the alert, and because the church could gain no information of their intended plan of proceeding, they closed their meeting-house door. The informers immediately fetched constables, broke open the door, went in, and took down the names of those whom they knew, who were in consequence brought before the magistrate and convicted. But persecution sharpened their invention. The next Lord's day they broke a large hole in a high wall, which enabled them to hear the preacher in the next house, without being present with him. Yet the bishop's informers went again, and not recognising such a nice distinction, took down the names, and some of them were again taken before the mayor and convicted.

"The scene was also enacted on the third Lord's day, and on the fourth the mayor went himself, with his officers and several of the aldermen; but finding these means to be utterly ineffectual, they resorted to another expedient. On the Saturday evening they raised the trained bands, some of whom, to prevent the church from meeting, nailed up the doors, and put locks upon them. Being thus ejected by force and power, they met in the public lanes and highways."

At another time, when all their ministers were removed - one dead, three imprisoned, and their deaths apprehended - the bishop's men and Helliar, a lawyer, being in hot pursuit and woefully successful, so that the extinction of the churches seemed almost inevitable, the members proved themselves men of the right stamp. They animated each other's hearts, and, notwithstanding all their discouragements, so far from forsaking the assembling of themselves together, they clung with greater tenacity to a privilege difficult of attainment, and exercised all their ingenuity to accomplish with impunity this one desire of their hearts.

When they could again meet in their place of worship, in order to disappoint spies who might be present as hearers, and yet not to exclude strangers who might attend without any evil design, they contrived that a curtain should be hung all across, the space behind it being so arranged as to accommodate the preacher and his confidential friends. Consequently, if there were spies present, they could not see the preacher so as to give any certain information against him; and lest any should intrude behind the curtain, some of the members were especially appointed to prevent all from this whom they did not know to be the friends of Christ and his cause. When the time was come for commencing this curtain was drawn close, and the stairs completely filled with female friends. Sentinels were also appointed without, who, on seeing the approach of the informers, passed the word with telegraphic despatch and secrecy; the preacher sat down, the curtain was undrawn, the whole room exposed to view, and the people began simultaneously to sing a psalm. To prevent confusion, the psalm which was to be sung on the entrance of the informers was previously annoiinced; and to avoid the inconvenience of reading it, all brought their Bibles and read for themselves. By these means when the mayor came he was disappointed, they were all singing, and whom to take up for preaching he could not tell. When the informers were gone] the singing ceased, the curtain was drawn, and the preacher resumed his discourse until they returned, which they sometimes did three times during one meeting. Then again the preacher retired, the curtain was drawn aside, and singing resumed as before. "This," they say, "was our constant practice in Olive's mayoralty, and we were in a good measure edified, and our enemies often disappointed." Laus Deo.

One of their ministers, Mr [Thomas] Hardcastle [1636-1678], ejected from a living in Yorkshire, had been imprisoned eight months in York Castle, from thence conveyed to Chester Castle, where he was detained a close prisoner fifteen months more. For preaching Christ in London he was again apprehended, and continued a prisoner six months. Twice also at Bristol did he pay this penalty for Christ and a good conscience, each imprisonment lasting six months; "still preaching," say the records, "as soon as ever he came forth, and so continued till his death."

Coleman Anecdote 14 Philip Henry

The name of Philip Henry (1631-1696) carries with it all that is pious, peaceful, and benevolent, yet towards him we find the spirit of bitter persecution arises. He was emphatically one of the "quiet of the land" acting with the greatest caution, anxious to avoid offence, though continually influenced by a spirit of supreme regard to God, and ready for every duty to which he believed his Master called him. Yet he was subject, with others with whom he was associated, to great oppression and trial, especially on the following occasion, the circumstances of which are particularly narrated in the memoirs of his life. At the beginning of the year 1681, a great drought prevailed in the land; it was generally apprehended that a famine would ensue. Many of the pious part of the people thought it was time to seek the Lord, who giveth rain in its season. In the neighbourhood in which Mr Henry resided, some desired to have a day set apart for fasting and prayer on this account. Suitable services were to be held at the house of a certain individual in Hodnet parish, Shropshire, June 14. Mr Henry, on being invited to attend and give his assistance, inquired how they stood with the neighbouring justices, and the reply was "well enough."

The drought continuing in extremity, some that had not been in the habit of attending such meetings were present, under the apprehension they had of a threatened judgment. Mr Edward Bury (1616-1700), of Bolas, well known by several useful books that he had published, prayed. Mr Henry prayed, and then preached on Psalm lxvi. 18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Hence the doctrine was, that iniquity regarded in the heart will certainly spoil the success of prayer. When he was in the midst of his sermon, closely applying this truth, Sir Thomas Vernon and Charles Mainwaring, Esq, two justices of the peace for Shropshire, with several others of their retinue, came suddenly upon them, disturbed them, set guards upon the house door, came in themselves, severely rallied all they knew, reflected upon the late honourable "House of Commons," and upon the vote they passedconcerning the unreasonableness of putting the laws in execution against Protestant Dissenters, as if in so voting they had gone beyond their sphere, as they did who took away the life of King Charles I. They diverted themselves with very abusive and unbecoming talk, swearing, and cursing, and reviling bitterly. On being told that the occasion of the meeting was to turn away the anger of God from us in the present drought, they showed their ignorance and impiety by answering that such meetings as these were the occasion of God's anger. "While they were thus entertaining themselves, their clerk took the names of those who were present, in all about one hundred and fifty, and so dismissed them for the present.

Mr Henry noted, in the account he kept of this event, that "the justices came to this good work from the alehouse at Prees Heath, about two miles off, to which, and to the bowling-green adjoining, they, with other justices, gentlemen, and clergymen of the neighbourhood, had long before obliged themselves to come every Tuesday during the summer under a penalty of twelve pence a time if they were absent, and there to spend the day in drinking and bowling, which was thought to be as much more to the dishonour of God and the scandal of the Christian profession as cursing, and swearing, and drunkenness are worse than praying, and singing psalms, and hearing the Word of God."

It is supposed the justices knew of the meeting before, and might have prevented it by the least intimation; but they were determined to take the opportunity of making sport for themselves, and giving trouble to their neighbours.

After the feat done, they returned to the alehouse, and made themselves and their companions merry with calling over the names they had taken, making their remarks as they saw cause, and recounting the particulars of the exploit.

There was one of the company whose wife happened to be present at the meeting, and her name was taken down among the rest, with which they upbraided him. But he answered, that "she had been better employed than he was; and if Mr Henry might be permitted to preach in the church, he would go a great many miles to hear him." Tor which saying he was forthwith expelled their company, and was never more to show his face at that bowling-green. To which he replied, "that if they had so ordered long ago, it would have been a great deal better for him and his family."

Two days after they met again at Hodnet, where, upon the oath of two witnesses, who, it was supposed, were sent on purpose to inform, they signed and sealed two records of conviction. By one record they convicted the master of the house and fined him £20, and £5 more as constable of the town for that year, and with him all the persons whose names they had taken down, and fined them 5s., and issued warrants accordingly.

By another record they convicted the two ministers, Mr Bury and Mr Henry. The Act makes it only punishable to preach and to teach in any such conventicles, and yet they fined Mr Bury £20, though he only prayed, and did not speak one word either in the way of preaching or teaching, not so much as, "Let us pray." However, they said praying was teaching, and right or wrong he must be fined; though his great piety, peaceableness, and usefulness, besides his deep poverty, might have pleaded for him against so palpable a piece of injustice. They took £7 off from him, and laid it upon others; and for the remaining £13, he being utterly unable to pay, they took from him by distress the bed which he lay upon, with blankets and rug; also another feather bed, nineteen pairs of sheets, most of them new, of which he could not prevail to have so much as one pair returned for him to lie in. Also books to the value of £5, besides brass and pewter. And though he was at this time perfectly innocent of that heinous crime of preaching and teaching with which he was charged, yet he had no way to right himself but by appealing to the justices themselves in quarter-sessions, who would be sure to confirm their own decrees. So the good man sat down with his loss, and "took joyfully the spoiling of his goods, knowing in himself that he had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance."

But Mr Henry being the greatest criminal, and having done the most mischief, must needs be animadverted upon accordingly, and therefore he was fined £40. It was much pressed upon him to pay the fine, which might prevent loss to himself, and trouble to the justices. But he was not willing to do it, partly because he would give no encouragement to such prosecutions, nor voluntarily reward the informers for what he thought they rather deserved punishment; and partly because he thought himself wronged in the doubling of the fine. Whereupon his goods were distrained upon and taken away. But their warrant not giving them authority to break open doors, nor their watchfulness getting them an opportunity toenter the house, they carried away about 33 cart-loads of goods out of doors - corn cut upon the ground, hay, coals, etc - which made a great noise in the country, and raised the indignation of many against the decrees which prescribed this grievous ness ; while Mr Henry bore it with his usual evenness and serenity of mind, not at all moved or disturbed by it. He did not boast of his sufferings, or make any great matter of them, but would often say, "Alas! this is nothing to what others suffer, nor to what we ourselves may suffer before we die." And yet he rejoiced and blest God, that it was not for debt or evil doing that his goods were carried away; and "while it is for well doing that we suffer," he said, " they cannot harm us."

Coleman Anecdote 13 Nathaniel Heywood

As a further illustration of the state of things, we may present a case from another part of the country. Mr N Heywood (1633-1677), ejected from Ormskirk, in Lancashire, where he had been a laborious and successful minister of the gospel, preached privately after his ejectment as he had opportunity - usually twice on Lord's-day, and sometimes repeatedly on week days, ordering his labours in several parts of the parish, both in the day and in the night. Nay, in times of great danger, he hath preached at one house the beginning of the night, and then gone two miles on foot over mosses, and preached towards morning to another company at another house. On the Lord's day, December 20,1674, there came three men while Mr Heywood was in prayer before sermon, and when he had ended, one of them came up to the pulpit and said, "Sir, you are our prisoner, come down and go along with us." Mr Heywood desired he might be suffered to preach, and promised then to submit. But the wretch held a pistol to his head, and with dreadful curses and threatenings ordered him down. However, persons of character espoused his cause, so that he was kept from prison and his goods from being distrained; but his spirit was overwhelmed with grief on account of his people, whom he loved as if they had been his children.

Coleman Anecdote 09 John James

In the county of Nottingham lived a Mr John James, who was called to suffer great losses and long imprisonments. For seventeen months he was confined in Nottingham jail. He then petitioned Judge Atkins in the circuit, and was released. But some time after he was seized again, and clapped up in Newark jail, where he lay about six years, and could obtain no relief, unless he would promise to give over preaching, which he absolutely refused. His prison, indeed, here was made tolerably comfortable by the favour of the keeper, who suffered his friends to come to him, and gave him leave to preach amongst them, both in the prison and in other houses in the town. His confinement continued until the Indulgence in 1672. Afterwards, falling into the same sin of preaching, he was informed against, and warrants were granted to seize his goods, which was done with such rigour, that they left him not a stool to sit on. They broke open house, stable, and barns, and took away whatever they met with; and they did it in so furious a manner, as to fright three children into convulsions, and one of them, six years of age, died a night or two after. He lost to the value of nearly £500 in goods and cattle. His chief adversary, Justice Whaley, who had then an estate of £1500 per annum, died in prison for debt in London. Some time before his death he wrote a letter to Mr James, acknowledging his great crime in being an enemy to him, and owning that the hand of God was justly upon him for it.

Coleman Anecdote 07 Timothy Sacheverel

Of Mr Timothy Sacheverel, who was ejected from Tarrant Hinton, in Dorsetshire, great uncle to the notorious Doctor Sacheverel, we are informed, that between the Restoration and Bartholomew-day, he was put down in a list that contained the names of several that were to be sent to prison; but Sir Gerard Naper, being in the chair at the sessions, and having a respect for him, refused to set his hand to the commitment, and so they all escaped for that time. Soon after Bartholomew-day he was cited to the Spiritual Court at Blandford, whither many people came in hope of something like a public disputation - at least, expecting to hear him very severely reprimanded; but the Chancellor told him he did not send for him to dispute with him, knowing him to be a person of great worth, temper, and learning, but only desired him to weigh all matters calmly and without prejudice, and then left him to do as God should direct him; whereupon, as soon as he had in form admonished him, he was dismissed. But such was the hostility to the worship of the Nonconformists in any way, that not long after several troopers of the militia rushed suddenly into his house one morning, while he was at prayer with his family. One of them came and held a pistol at his back, commanding him, in the king's name, immediately to stand up, but he still continued praying. However, he soon concluded, and, with great presence of mind, asked the trooper "How he durst thus pretend in the king's name to interrupt him, while he and his family were presenting their petitions to the King of kings?"

Coleman Anecdote 06 Joseph Allen

Mr Joseph Allen, the ejected minister of Taunton, was, on May 26th, 1663, committed to Ilchester jail for singing psalms in his own house, and preaching to his family, others being present. Here he continued a year, but upon his enlargement, returned again to his work, which he followed with unwearied diligence. But in the next year he was committed a second time to jail, with several other ministers, and forty private persons, where he contracted such distempers and weaknesses, as brought him to his grave before he was thirty-six years of age. He was an awakening, lively preacher, zealous and successful in his Master's work, and of a peaceable and quiet spirit.

Coleman Anecdote 02 Nosworthy

In the county of Devon we find a Mr Nosworthy meeting with many enemies and much opposition. One Mr Stowell distinguished himself in his furious zeal against him; and with _____ Bevan, Esq., came

into his meeting and required him to come down. He was advised by an attorney who was present to keep his place; but they threatened to pull him out of the pulpit, and at length obliged him to come down. The same person more than once disturbed his meeting afterwards; and one time, on a week-day, with drums and muskets, which so frightened Mrs Nosworthy that it was thought to occasion her death. In consequence of his having a service in his house, they convicted him for holding a conventicle, imposed upon him a fine of £20, and £20 upon the house. Yet he was a man whose learning and other ministerial qualifications were considerable. The neighbouring ministers paid great deference to his judgment, and often made him moderator in their debates. After his death, several of his enemies were troubled on account of the disturbances they had given him, and sent to his children, who were eminent for their piety, begging their prayers, and desiring forgiveness of the injury they had done their families.

Coleman Anecdote 01 Calamy

In London the celebrated Edmund Calamy, BD, was one of the first that was imprisoned after the passing of the "Act of Uniformity." He went on Lord's-day, December 28, to the church of Aldermanbury, where he had been minister, with an intention to be a hearer; but the person expected to preach happened to fail. To prevent a disappointment, and through the importunity of the people present, he went up and preached upon the concern of old Eli for the ark of God. Upon this, by a warrant from the Lord Mayor, he was committed to Newgate as a breaker of the "Act of Uniformity;" but in a few days, when it was seen what a resort to him there was of persons of all qualities, and how generally the severity was resented, he was discharged by his Majesty's express order. His grandson relates the following:

"I have been informed that a certain Popish lady, happening then to pass through the City, had much ado to get along Newgate Street, by reason of the many coaches that attended there, at which she was not a little surprised. Curiosity led her to inquire into the occasion of the stoppage, and the appearance of such a number of coaches in a place where she thought nothing of that kind was to be looked for. The standers-by informed her that one Mr Calamy, a person generally beloved and respected, was imprisoned there for a single sermon, at which they seemed greatly disturbed and concerned. This so moved the lady that, taking the first opportunity of waiting upon the King at Whitehall, she frankly told his Majesty the whole matter, expressing her fear that, if such steps as these were taken, he would lose the affections of the City, which might be a very ill consequence. Upon this account, and some others, my grandfather was in a little time discharged by the express order of his Majesty." 

This imprisonment made no small noise in the country. Dr Wilde published a copy of verses, in a facetious style, addressed to Mr. Calamy, which was spread through all parts of the kingdom. And oh what insulting, says Mr Baxter, there was by that party in the Newsbook and in their discourses, that Calamy, who would not be a bishop, was in jail. Coleman gives the Wilde poem.