nology, and admirably well acquainted with his Bible, of which he was an excellent expositor. He was very zealous for God, earnest in every part of his work, and very compassionate in dealing with troubled souls. Besides preaching twice every Lord's day, he expounded the scripture, and catechized. He taught publicly, and from house to house. He assisted in most lectures in those parts, and he himself set up a monthly one at Dale-Abby. He enforced his doctrine with an exemplary life, and was a pattern to all round about him. When he was silenced, he requested Bp. Hacket to allow him to preach gratis at Dale-Abby. The Bishop refused, unless he would conform; and yet there was no care taken to supply the place with any other minister. He then removed to Little-Eaton, [a very small village] not far from Bredsall, that he might be near his beloved people; but being driven thence by the Oxford-act, he moved about from place to place, till at last he fixed in Losco; where he continued exercising his ministry, partly in his own house, and partly in several others in the neighbourhood, as long as he lived.

His sufferings did not exasperate him, but he kept his mo¬ deration, and frequented the public churches; and yet was fully satisfied in his Nonconformity. A person once asking him, Whether he did not repent leaving his place? he answered, "No; I am far from that: for I have done nothing but what I have taught you to be your duty. Rather lose all than sin against God. If Bredsall parsonage was the best bishopric in England, I must do again what I have done."— When the conventicle-act came out, he preached twice a day in the largest families, with only four persons besides ; and as many under sixteen years of age, as would come. He used also to repeat at night in his own house. During the Indulgence in 1672, he had full meetings; but when the Declaration was recalled, he was more cautious. In his retirement he was useful to many, who with great thankfulness adored that providence which brought him into those quarters, where he died, July 6, 1682, aged 73.-In the time of his health and strength, he studied hard, and made many collections out of the books he read. Among other things, he abridged Poole's Synopsis, and added his own collections. Mr. Robert Porter wrote an account of his life, in which are some of his private notes, which afford proofs of uncommon piety.

WORKS

WORKS. Sermons, entitled The way to salvation.—A Discourse of spiritual joy, for the relief of melancholy christians.— Two Sermons on Ephes. vi. 24, in the Country Collection of Farewell Sermons.-Some of his Letters are added at the end of his Life.—He left 2 vols. of Remarks upon scripture in MS.

BRAMPTON [C.] Mr. ROBERT MORE, of Clare-Hall, Camb. He was born at Nottingham. His first preaching was at Belper in this county, where he staid about a year, and then removed to Brampton, and was ordained by the classis at Chesterfield. After his ejectment, he suffered many ways for his Nonconformity. Particularly, he was once indicted for not reading the book of Common-Prayer tho' it was not yet come down. In the time of Monmouth, he (with many peaceable ministers and others) was sent prisoner to Chester castle. He was afterwards one of the pastors of the congregation in Derby, where he died in Junc 1704; the last of the ejected ministers in this county.

BUCKNAL. Mr. SAMUEL Nowel.
BUXTON. Mr. JOHN JACKSON,

CALDWELL Mr. NATHANIEL BARTON.

CARSINGTON, [R. 701.] Mr. JOHN Oldfield. Born near Chesterfield, and brought up at Bromfield school, which was at that time much celebrated. He was a general scholar; and a great master in the languages and mathematics. He had a mechanical head and hand, capable of any thing into which he had an opportunity to get an insight. What some might reckon a reflection upon him was, in the judgment of wise men, his great honour, viz. That he acquired his learning without being beholden to any university. He had the offer of Tamworth living, and was pressed to remove thither, where he would have had a much better income, but was prevented by the importunity of his people. All who knew him acknowledged him to have been a judicious divine, a good casuist, an excellent preacher; pertinent and methodical; clear in opening his text, and very close to the conscience in applying it. He' was a man of prayer, and well acquainted with the internals of religion. He was a person of few words; but if any one gave him occasion, by starting any useful discourse, or put him upon praye, writing or preaching, he appeared

to

to want neither words nor sense. He was of a very peacéable spirit, and though his people were very capricious, and hard to be pleased in ministers, yet they all centered in him. He made many removes after he was ejected, but God told his wanderings, and he had songs in the house of his pilgri mage.' He was a man of great moderation; which he thought himself obliged to testify by going sometimes to church; and he would often discourse freely and amicably upon the subject of conformity, with such of his acquaintance as were otherwise minded; and yet he was many ways a sufferer for his Nonconformity.-He for some time preached once a fortnight at Rodenuke, where a meeting being discovered by two informers, they swore against him, upon presumption that he was the preacher, tho', as it fell out, it was not his day however he was prosecuted with_much eagerness. Whereupon he and John Spademan, Esq. (a worthy gentleman who was owner of the house where the meeting was held) made their appeal, and gave such plain evidence of his being ten miles distant at the time, that he was cleared; and the informers, being afterwards prosecuted for perjury were found guilty. Upon which one of them ran away, and the other stood in the pillory at Derby.

After the Act of uniformity passed, before it took place, he studied his duty with all possible care, as to the compliance required. He drew up, on this occasion, a soliloquy, with that text prefixed, Eccl. vii. 14. In the day of adversity consider. The following extracts from it will manifest the seriousness of his spirit, his great impartiality, and his fear of doing any thing in that critical juncture, which he could not justify, as well as his desire of superior guidance.

"Consideration is the way to resolution; and well-grounded resolution will fortify the soul against the impetuous violence of man, and make it as the rock to repel the dashing waves. To this, O my soul, I now invite thee. Rash engagements often end in shameful retreats, and base tergiversation. O Thou Fountain of Wisdom, who givest it liberally and upbraidest not, to him that asketh,' shine in upon my dark understanding; let thy spirit of truth lead me into all truth,' and so direct me in my consideration, that it may end in pious resolution; and what thro' grace I purpose, let me by grace be enabled to perform!-It is not, O my soul, a light matter thou art now employed in: it is not thy maintenance, family, wife and children, that are the main things considerable in this enquiry. Forget these, till thou art come to a resolution;

solution in the main business.It is, O my soul, the glory of God, the credit and advantage of religion; the good of that poor flock committed to thy keeping by the Holy Ghost; thy ministry, thy conscience, thy salvation and the salvation of others, that must cast the scale, and determine thy resolu tions. And where all cannot be at once promoted (or at least seem to cross one another) it is fit the less should give place to the greater. Thy ministry, thy people, must be singularly dear and precious to thee; incomparably above body, food, raiment, wife, children, and life itself:-But when thou canst no longer continue in thy work without dishonour to God, discredit to religion, foregoing thy inte grity, wounding conscience, spoiling thy peace, and hazarding the loss of thy salvation; in a word, when the conditions upon which thou must continue (if thou wilt continue) in thy employment are sinful, and unwarranted by the word of God; thou mayest, yea, thou must believe, that God will turn thy very silence, suspension, deprivation, and laying aside, to his glory and the advancement of the gospel's interest. When God will not use thee one way, he will in another. A soul that desires to serve and honour God, shall never want opportunity to do it: nor must thou so limit the Holy One of Israel, as to think he hath but one way in which he can glorify himself by thee. He can do it by thy silence, as well as by thy preaching. Oh put on that holy indiffer ence as to the means, so the end be but attained, which the blessed apostle expresses, Phil. i 20. that Christ might be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death."-Let God have the disposal of thee, and doubt not but he will use thee for his own glory, and his churches good, his respect to which is infinitely greater than thine can be.

"But there is, O my soul, a Scylla and Charybdis in this voyage thou art making; a rock, both on one side and the other and therefore beware, lest thou make it a light matter to be laid aside from thy work. Examine: hast thou so faithfully discharged thy duty, that thou mayest take comfort in the review of it, when suspended from it? Do not abundance of failings, follies, neglects, sinister-ends, &c. present them selves to thee, when thou beginnest to review the course thou hast run ? Think how little service thou hast done for God or his house. How heavy will thy account be, if to thy removal from thy work be added, the stinging remembrance of unfaithfulness in it? Hast thou not by thy miscarriages justly provoked God to lay thee aside as a broken vessel? Is

not

--

not this dispensation as much the fruit of thy own sin as of others' malice? Learn, O my soul, to put every cause in its right order. The righteousness of the cause wherein thou sufferest will not excuse thy unrighteousness, which is the procuring cause of thy sufferings. Learn then, O my soul, to justify God, to be silent towards men, and to condemn thyself. But there's another rock, against which thou art in danger of splitting. Take heed, lest that be charged on God's providence or mens injustice, which is caused by thy own wilfulness and obstinacy. If that which thou callest conscience and duty, be found refractoriness and sin, thou not only losest thy reward, but incurrest the guilt of thy own suffering, and while thou chargest others, wilt be found accessary thyself to thy own murder as a minister. Here then lies the stress of the consideration thou art upon; whether the grounds upon which thou art to suffer will bear thee out? Whether thou shalt suffer as a christian for righteousness sake?" Whether the cause of suffering be as weighty as the suffering itself is like to be? That if thou findest it otherwise, thou mayest (Dum res in integro est) make a timely retreat. I charge thee, O my soul, to lay aside all prejudices, prepossessions, and respects to, or sinister conceptions of, Men, of the one or the other party. Away with carnal wisdom, leaning' upon thy own understanding. Let the word of God be umpire. And because (O blessed Father) the way of man (to know as well as do it) is not in himself; nor is it in man that walks to direct his steps, I again and again implore ⚫ directing grace: Lead me, O Lord, by thy counsel; make thy way plain before me; lead me in a plain path, and into the land of uprightness. Let not former errors be punished, in thy leaving me to err in this thing. Lord shew me thy way, and thro' grace I will say it shall be my way. What can a poor weak creature say more! Thou knowest, Lord, the heart of thy servant; O dispel clouds of igno- . rance, prejudice and passion; take off all preponderating weights and propensions; cast the scales which way may be most for thy glory, thy churches and my people's good, • the peace of my own conscience, and the salvation both of my own soul and the souls of others.'

'

6.

And canst thou, O my soul, think of laying down thy ministry upon a light occasion? Must matters of indifferency give thee a supersedeas? Oh take heed, lest if like Jonah thou overunnest thy embassy thro' discontent, thou be fetched back with a storm.-What if men be Pharaoh's task-mas

ters,