was present, and who knew their different characters, shrewdly answered, "It can't affect them while they lie here, and they may be far enough off at the resurrec"tion." M. M.

WISBEACH, [V.] Mr. JOHN SHELDRECK. Either he or his brother Mr. Wm. Sheldreck (ejected at Repham in Norfolk) published a piece, intitled, Popery a great Enemy to Truth, and no Friend to Peace.

Mr. BINSHUL. The place of his ejection is not certainly known.

Mr. JOHN NYE, of Settingham, afterwards conformed, and had the living of Quendon in Essex, where he lived and died in good repute.

MINISTERS EJECTED OR SILENCED

IN

CHESHIRE.

ACTON, [V.] Mr. EDWARD BURGAL. Before the ci

vil war he was a schoolmaster, at Banbury, and afterwards was vicar of Acton sixteen years, where he was eminently useful. In the time of the war and afterwards, he kept an exact account of all the remarkable occurrences of Providence in that part of the country, with devout reflections upon them. He was much molested by the Quakers. The very day he preached his farewell sermon on 2 Cor. xiii. 11. some of them came into the church and gave him disturbance. He was a devout man, a laborious faithful preacher, and generally well spoken of. He not only bore the mean condition to which he was reduced after his ejectment, with great patience, but justified his Nonconformity in a very solemn manner on his death-bed, when many devout expressions dropped from his lips. He had the eighth chapter of Romans read to him; and when he heard those words, There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, he cried out, "Then there is none for me."-When his end drew near, he made a large and comfortable confession of his faith in Christ, telling the standers by, "That he had made his peace with God, had abundance of inward comfort, and was glad to think his time here was but short; adding, “I doubt not but it will go well with me; the Lord hath dealt very favourably with me, and suffered me to live to a great age; and now I can chearfully leave the world and die." When one present repeated those words, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,' he said, "I do verily believe it is laid up for me; and I bless my gracious God, I verily believe I shall behold his face in his glorious kingdom quickly." He expired praying for others, Dec. 8, 1665.

WORKS. The perfect Way to die in Peace; a Sermon at the

Dedication

Dedication of the Free-School at Acton. He left a MS. called, Providence improved; being Remarks taken from his Diary.

ASHTON upon Mersey. Mr. FORD.

ASTBURY, [R. S.] Mr. GEORGE MOXON. Of Camb. univ. A native of Yorkshire, near Wakefield. He was a good Lyric poet, and could imitate Horace so exactly as not easily to be distinguished. He was sometime chaplain to Sir Wm. Brereton in this county, and afterwards preached at St. Helen's chapel, near Warrington in Lancashire; where he met with much trouble from Dr. Bridgman, Bp. of Chester, for his Nonconformity to the ceremonies. He staid there till about the year 1637, when a citation for him being hung upon the chapel door, he rode away in disguise for Bristol, where he took shipping for New England; and, upon his arrival there, became pastor to the church at Springfield. He returned to Old England in the year 1653, and became pastor to a congregational church at Astbury. Both he and Mr. John Machin lived in the parsonage-house with their families, and preached on the Lord's day alternately. When it was Mr. Machin's turn to preach at home, Mr. Moxon preached at Rushton, on the edge of the moorland parts of Staffordshire. He continued at Astbury till 1660, when the old incumbent returned to the possession of the living. Mr. Machin then removed to Whitley, and Mr. Moxon preached at Rushton, till August, 1662. After two or three removes, he went to live at Congleton in 1667, and continued his pastoral relation to his people, preaching privately in his own house or elsewhere, as he had opportunity, till 1672; and then he got his house in Congleton licensed, and preached openly as long as the licences were in force, and indeed some time after, till he was disabled by age and the palsy. He was a man of a blameless conversation, and a peaceable spirit. He was very useful to persons under spiritual trouble. He died Sept. 15, 1687, aged 85. His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Eliezer Birch, in the new meeting-house in Congleton, which was the first sermon that was preached there.

BACKFORD, [V.] Mr. JOHN WILLSON, of Braz. Nose Col. Oxf. His living was made pretty considerable by an augmentation, which was in those times allowed to various persons who, upon testimonials and trial, were judged men of ability and piety. He submitted to the test, and was ap

proved. Sometime after his ejectment, he took a house in Chester, and settled there; where he had as large meetings as prudence and the severity of the times would permit. When liberty was granted, he preached in a gentlewoman's house, and had a crowded congregation. He was a judicious and useful preacher. The matter of his discourses was solid and searching; the dress neither negligent nor affected, neither slovenly nor gaudy, but grave and decent; such as well became the subject. He was a zealous contender for the purity of God's worship, as his printed works, and his last will, sufficiently testify. Being confined to a warm room all day, and forced frequently for his security to go out at unseasonable hours of the night in cold weather, brought a tenderness upon him, which issued in a settled cold and cough, that carried him off in the midst of his days. He died at Chester about 1672. He was a man of great worth, and a good scholar; as must be owned by such as peruse his writings, though they may not relish the strictness of his principles. The author of The Friendly Debate answered his piece intitled Nehushtan, by causing its author to be pursuivanted up to the council, rather than by any thing of moment which he printed against it.-His son died pastor of a congregation of Dissenters at Warwick, See Mr. M. Henry's Life, p. 49.

WORKS. The Vanity of human Inventions; in an Exercitation on the Ceremonies.-Cultus Evangelicus; or a Discourse of the Spirituality of New Testament Worship.-An Apology for the people's judgment of private discretion.-Nehushtan; or a sober and peaceable discourse concerning the abolishing of things abused to Superstition and Idolatry. [See 2 Kings xviii. 4.]

BARTHOMLEY, [R.] Mr. SMITH.

BUDWORTH, [V.] Mr. LEVELEY.

BURTON, [C.] HUGH BETHEL, M. A. of Magd. Col. and afterwards Fellow of Christ's Col. Camb. He was of a good family, and very much of a gentleman in his behaviour. He was also a very pious man, and a profitable preacher.

CHELFORD, Mr. HUGH HENSHAW,

CHESTER. St. MICHAEL'S CHURCH. Mr. WILLIAM Cook. He was brought up under the famous Mr. John Ball. In his family there was a remarkable succession of piety from parents to children, for several generations. He had great natural powers, a quick apprehension, and a strong memory. He was studious to a prodigy; and his proficieney, in what

ever

.

ever he applied his mind to, was astonishing. His skill in the Oriental languages procured him respect from the learned Bishop Walton. Sir J. Burgoyne was his great friend and patron, and first assisted him in undertaking the work of the ministry, which he began at Wroxal in Warwickshire; from whence, by the advice of the London ministers, he was removed to Ashby de la Zouche in Leicestershire. He was there ejected for refusing the Engagement, and afterwards settled in this city; where he was a useful minister, till he was outed by the Act of uniformity. He was a zealous Royalist, and thought it his duty to join with Sir G. Booth (afterwards Lord Delamere) when he made an attempt to restore the king, in 1659, and persuaded the citizens of Chester to deliver up their city to him. For this he was brought up a prisoner to London, and long confined in Lambeth-house; and had not the times turned, he would have been tried for his life. But all this would not afterwards procure his liberty to preach the gospel of Christ, without strict conformity. Nay, quickly after his being silenced, he was committed by the Mayor to the common jail of Chester for preaching in his own house, at the instigation of Bp. Hall. But he strictly adhered to his principles in all the changes of the times; suffering with great patience and meekness, and continued to his death in a pastoral relation to a society of many eminent christians in that city; though, during the heat of the Five-mile act, he was forced to withdraw to Puddington in Wirral, where (as in Chester, till K. Charles's Indulgence) he constantly attended the public ministry of the parish, and preached in the intervals. He would sometimes say to his friends in that retirement," He thought what little peace and quietness there "was in this world, God's people enjoyed it in their cor

ners.

He was a christian of the primitive stamp ; a man of a most godly, mortified life, and unwearied labour; who could go in mean cloathing, live on little, and travel on foot, trampling on this world as dirt. He was very indefatigable in his ministerial labours, in which he never sought any one's assistance, but would preach and pray almost all the week, as he had opportunity, in season and out of season. While he had liberty, he constantly kept a public fast in his congregation every month; as also a private one in his own closet and family every week. He usually set apart one afternoon every week to visit the families of his congregation, to catechize their children and servants, and discourse with them person