enlightening and converting his countrymen. There were
then not above one or two gathered churches in all Wales,
and very few preachers of the gospel . His friends approved
and countenanced his benevolent inclination, but judged it
advisable that he should first ha\e some further literary
advantage and instruction. Accordingly, he was placed for
some time under the care and tuition of Mr. Jeremiah Ives,
a baptist minister of considerable respectability. Having con-
tinued with Mr. Ives, and enjoyed the benefit o^ his instruc-
tions for a considerable time, he, according to his original
intention, returned into Wales. This, it appears, was about
the year 1647.
* Crofton's Funeral Sermon and Life of Mr, Frost,
§94 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
Mr. Evans entered upon the ministerial work as one sen-
sible of its importance, and deeply impressed with the worth
of 60uls. It soon appeared that his labours were both accept-
able and useful. The good people among whom he preached
warmly solicited and pressed him to continue with them, which
he did to the end of his days. Though, at the commencement
of his ministry, he does not appear to have been above thirty
years of age, he was unwearied in all his labours to promote
their best interests, and to extend the l)oundaries of the
Redeemer's kingdom. He presently succeeded in gathering
a respectable congregation, which, as our author observes,
has continued by a succession of new members down to the
present time. After having spent about ten years, with
exemplary diligence, unwearied perseverance, and eminent
success in promoting the gospel among his countrymen, he
finished his course in the prime of life, and in the height of
his usefulness, to the unspeakable regret of his numerous
friends, by whom he was exceedingly respected and beloved.
His ministry was chiefly exercised in Radnorshire and Breck-
nockshire. Dr. AValker enumerates him among the popular
itinerants of Wales, and charges him with having received a
salary for itinerant preaching in both those counties.* If he
did so, it only proves his great activ'ity and uncommon labours.
When one man does the work of two, it is lit he should re-
ceive double wages. There is reason to think, says our
author, that he was for some time the only baptist minister
in Wales. Some of the other preachers, and Mr. Vavasor
Powell among the rest, were probably baptized by him.
His people, it is added, were all baptists, and do not appear
to have admitted mixt communion, though some of the neigh-
bouring churches did; nor did they practise singwg in their
public worship, except, perhaps, at the Lord's table. The
church afterwards increased, and spread into several branches ;
and now forms three or four distinct and respectable churches,
assembling in the counties of Radnor, Brecon, and Mont-
gomery.
Mr. Evans had, doubtless, many enemies ; but his principal
opponents are said to have been the Quakers ; who viru-
lently opposed him from the press, as well as otherwise,
conceiving a very strong and unreasonable antipathy against
him. A book was published against him, about the time of
his death, by one John Moon, who called Mr. Evans " the
blind Welsh priest of Radnorshire," and attempted, very
• Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 158.
O. SEDGWICK. ' , 295
illiberally, to asperse and vilify his character and memory.
His two friends, Mr. John Price and Mr. \V illiam Bownd,
answered the Quaker, and successfully vindicated their de-
ceased brother; and, from their own intimate knowledge
of him, expressed the highest opinion of his integrity and
piety, as well as the truest respect and veneration for his
memory. The amiableness and respectability of his charac-
ter may be safely inferred from the strong attachment of his
pious and numerous friends. He died about the year lG57,
and probably not more than forty years of age. But he lived
long afterwards in the affectionate recollection of those who
had attended on his faithful and edifying ministry.* Mr.
Henry Gregory, who had been a member of Mr. Evans's
church, was his successor in the pastoral office.t
Obadiah Sedgwick, B. D. — This excellent person
was brother to Mr. John Sedgwick, another puritan divine,
born at Marlborough in Wiltshire, in the year I6OO, and
educated first at Queen's college, then in Magdalen-halJ,
Oxford. Having finished his academical studies, he entered
upon the ministerial exercise, and became chaplain to Lord
Horatio Vere, whom he accompanied to the Low Countries.
After his return, he went again to Oxford, and, in the year
1629, W'as admitted to the reading of tlie sentences. He was
tutor to Matthew Hale, afterwards the celebrated lord chief
justice. t Leaving the university a second time, he became
preacher at St. Mildred's, Bread-street, London; but was
driven from the place by the intolerance of the prelates.
He became vicar of Coggeshall in Essex, in the year l639,§
where he continued two or three years. Upon the com-
mencement of the wars, he returned to the city and to his
ministry at St. Mildred's, and was often called to preach
before the parliament. In the year 1642, he became chap-
lain to Colonel Hollis's regiment in the parliament's army.
The year follow ing, he was appointed one of the licensers of
the press, and chosen one of the assembly of divines, and he
constantly attended. |1 Wood observes, but certainly with no
good design, " that while he preached at INIildred's, M-hich
was only to exasperate the people to rebel and confound
episcopacy, it was usual with him, especially in hot weather,
* Theolog. Bib. Mag. vol. v. p. 420—422. i Ibid. vol. vi. p. 6,
i Clark's Lives, last vol. part ii. p. 125.
^ Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. vol. ii. p. 160.
II Neal's Paritans, vol. ii. p, 556. iii. 46, J3.
296 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
to unbutton his doublet in the pulpit, that his breath might
be longer, and his voice moje aiiuible, to raii against ihe
king's party, and those about the king's person, whom he
called popish couuscliors. "^1 lus he did m an especial manner
in Sepltmber, 1G44, when he, with great concernnitut, toid
the people, several times, tliat God was angry with the army
for not culling olf delinquents."* Dr. Grey, with a sinaiar
design, denominates him " a preacher of" treason, rebeliion,
and nonsense ;" for the proof of which, he alleges the follow-
ing passages from Mr. Sedgwick's sermons preached before
the parliament : — " The field which I am at this time to work
upon, and go over, you see is large. There is much more
ground in it than 1 can conveniently break up and sow.
I shall theiefore, by God's assistance, who is the only breaker
of hearts, set upon the work, and may he in tender mercy so
accompany, and water, and pi osper his truths at this day, that
all our fallow ground may be broken up, and then be so gra-
ciously sown in righteousness, that we and all the land may
shortly reap in mercy. — Sirs, you must break up this ground,
or it will break up our land. There is not such a God-
provoking sin, a God-removing sin, a church-dissolving, a
kingdom-breaking sin, as idolatry. Down with it, dow n with
it, even to the ground. Superstition is but a bawd to gross
idolatry. — Be as earnest and as active as you possibly can to
send labourers into the field ; I mean to plant the land with a
heart-breaking ministry. — God haih been tlie salvation of the
parliament, and in the parliament, and for the parliament.
Salvation at Edge-lull ; salvation at Reading and Causon ;
salvation at Gloucester ; salvation at Newbury ; salvation in
Cheshire ; salvation in Pembrokeshire ; salvation in the
north ; salvation from several treacheries ; and salvation from
open hoslilities."f Such are the formidable proofs, in the
opinion of the learned doctor, that he was a preacher of
treason, rebellion, and nonsense ! How far he was guilty,
every reader will easily judge.
In the year 1G4G, Mr. Sedgwick became preacher at
St. Paul's, Covent-garden ; where he was exceedingly fol-
lowed, and w as insti umental in the conversion of many souls.
In 1 653, he was, by the parliament, appointed one of the
tryers; and the year following was constituted one of the
assistant commissioners of London for ejecting ignorant and
scandalous ministers. He was very zealous to carry on, as
* Wood's Athen£E Oxon, vol. ii, p. 139.
+ Grej's Examiuation, vol. iii. p. 204 — 206.
SAND BROOKE. 297
in derision it is called, " the good work of reformation in
church and state." He was a frequent preacher before the
parhainent. Sir John Birkenhead casts his foul aspersions
upon him and Mr. Marshall, saying, " it is pleasant to ob-
ser^e how finely they play mto each other's hands. Marshall
procures thanks to be given to Scdgw ick ; and, for his great
pains, bedgwick obtains as much for Marshall ; and so they
pimp for one another. But, to their great comfort be it
spoken, their whole seven years sermons at Westminster are to
be sold in Fetter-lane and Pye-corner."* Had this writer known
how many of the episcopal clergy purchased and preached
the sermons of the puritans, he might have greatly extended
bis foul aspersions. Mr. Sedgwick hnding, at length, that
his health began to decline, he resigned all his preferments
and retired to Marlborough, his native place, where he died
in the month of January, 1658, aged hfty-seven years, and
his remains were interred in the chancel of Ogborn St. An-
drew, near Marlborough.+ He was a learned divine, and an
orthodox and admired preacher. t In his ministry, he was
succeeded by the celebrated JDr. Thomas Manton, ejected in
1662.$
His Works. — 1. Several Sermons on public Occasions, 1639, &c.
— 2. Parlianientai-y Sennoiis, l<il2, &c. ; among wliicli were, " Eiig-
lauds Preservation," 1642.— " Haman's Vanity," 1643.— " An Ark
again.st a Deluge: or, Safety in Dangerous Times," 1644. — 3. Mili-
tary Disripline for the Christian Soklicr, 1639, — 4. Christ's Council
to his Languishing Church of Sardis, 1640. — 3. Speech in Guildhall,
1643.— 6. The best and worst Malignant, 1648.— 7. The doubting
Christian resolved, 1633. — 8. The humble Sinner resolved; or,
Faith in the Ijord Jesus Christ the only way for sensible Sinners, dis-
covering the Quality, Objects, and Acts of Justifying Faith,j| 1656. — ■
9. The Fountain opened, and the Water of Liife tiowing, 1657. —
10. The Shepherd of Israel; or, an Exposition of Psalm xxiii., 1658. —
11. Anatomy of Secret Sins, 1660. — 12. The Bowels of tender Mercy
Scaled in the Everia.sting Covenant, 1660.— 13. The Parable of the
Prodigal, 1660. — 14. Synopsis of Christianity. — 15. A Catechism.
William Sandbrooke, L. B.— This pious person was
educated in Gloucester-hall, Oxford ; and in 1635 he became
rector of St. Peter's church in that city, where his preaching
* Gran2:er's Biog. Hist. vol. iii. p. 48.
+ Wood's Atheuae Oxen. vol. ii. p. 139, 140.
J Ncal's Puritans, vol. iv. p. 184.
^ Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. i. p. 125, 426.
II The MS. of this excellent work, and apparently in Mr. Sedgwick's
own hand, is in the posscsBion of the author.
298 LIVES OF THE PURITANi?.
was much followed by the religious and puritanical scholars.
Upon the coniniencement of the civil war, he espoused the
cause of the parliament, left the university, and went to sea
as chaplain to the Earl of Warwick, admiral to the parlia-
ment. However, in lG44, being tired of a sea employment,
he became the officiating minister at St. Margaret's church,
Rochester, when Mr. Selvey, the incumbent, to his great
honour, allowed him all the profits of the living. Afterwards,
by the powers which then were, he was appointed one of
the three lecturers at the cathedral in that city, " purposely,"
says our author, " to preach down the heresies and blasphe-
mies of Richard Coppin, and his bigoted followers." He
died at Rochester in the month of March, 1658, leaving
behind him the character of a godly and painful preacher.*
He published a work entitled, " The Church the proper
Subject of the New Covenant," l64G ; and " Several Ser-
mons," 1657.
John Beverly was fellow of Trinity college, Cambridge,
where he most probably received his education. Towards
the close of life he settled at Rowell in Northamptonshire ;
where, by his pious and useful labours, he gathered a church
according to the model of the independents. Having been
instrumental in the conversion of about thirty persons, he
united them in church fellowship, upon congregational prin-
ciples, when they entered into a covenant to walk with each
other in the order of the gospel. The tenor of their covenant
was, " To walk together with God, in gospel faith and order,
as a particular church, in the performance of all duties
towards God, towards each other, and towards all men, in
the strength of the spirit of Christ, and according to his
word." They chose Mr. Beverly their pastor, two elders,
and two deacons. This was in the year IG06. Under
Mr. Beverly's ministry, many of the inhabitants of the
town were awakened and received into the church. But
his excellent and useful labours were not long continued
among them after the above period : for he died in the
month of June, 1608. After his death, the good people who
composed his church mostly attended upon the ministry of
Mr. Thomas Browning of Desborough. Upon his ejection,
in 1662, they invited him to the office of pastor, and he con-
tinued with them to the day of his death. This church is
» Wood's AUicna Oxon. vol. ii. p. 149.
BEVERLY— W. CARTER. 399
still in existence, and in rather a flourishing state, under the
pastoral care of Mr. John Wood. Mr. Beverly was author
of several pieces on church government: as," The Grand
Point of Church Matters." — A Tract against Hornbeck de
Indepetitismo, in Latin. — And a piece against free Admis-
sion, opposed to the Contradictions of Timson, published iu
1659.*
William Carter was born in the year 1605, and edu-
cated in the university of Cambridge, after which he became
a very popular preacher in London. In the year 1643, he
was appointed one of the licensers of the press ; and, the
same year, was chosen one of the assembly of divines, upon
which he constantly attended. After some time he joined
the independents, became one of the dissenting brethren in
the assembly, and discovered his great zeal, learning, and
moderation in support of their distinguishing sentiments .t
In 16.54, he was appointed one of the ti7ers of public
preachers, in which capacity Dr. Walker has endeavoured to
depreciate his memory, with that of other learned divines.^
He had frequent offers of preferment, but, being dissatisfied
with tho parochial discipline of those times, he refused thera
all. He was, nevertheless, indefatigable in his ministry,
preaching twice every Lord's day to two large congregations
in the city, besides weekly lectures and other occasional ser-
vices. He was one of the preachers before the parliament.
His incessant and arduous labours wasted his strength, and
put an end to his life about the month of June, l658, aged
fifty-three years. He was a good scholar, an admired
preacher, and a man of most exemplary piety. His relations
were afterwards great sufferers by the purchase of bishops'
lands.§ He was author of a sermon entitled, " Israel's Peace
with God Benjamin's Overthrow ; preached before the
Honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn Fast,
July 27, 1642."
* Meen's MS. Collec, p. 413, 414.— Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii.
p. 31—33.
+ Dissenting Brethren's Reasons, p. 40 — .
i Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 174, 175. •
^ Neal's Puritans, vol. iii. p. 46.
300 - LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
John Harris, D. D. — This learned person \Vas the son
of Mr. Richard Harris, rector of Hardwick in Buckingham-
shire; born at that place in the year 1588, educated in gram-
mar learning at \Vickhani school, near Winchester, and
admitted perpetual fellow of New College, Oxford. In
the year l6l7 he was unanimously elected one of the proc-
tors of the university ; and two years after was chosen Greek
professor, both of which offices he filled with great honour.
Afterwards, he was prebendary of Winchester, rector of
Meanstock in Hampshire, and, in the year 1(J30, he became
warden of Wickham college. In the beginning of the civil
wars, he took part \^ilh the parliament, and was appointe<}
one of the assembly of divines ; when he took the covenant ,
and other oaths, and kept his wardenship to the day of his
death. He died August 11, 1(538, aged seventy years, amJ
his remains were interred in the chapel belonging to Wickhauj
college. Dr. Harris was so adnurable a Grecian, and so
eloquent a preacher, that ijir Henry Savile used to call hinj
tlie second Chrysostom.* He published " A short View of
the Life of Dr. Arthur Lake^ bishop of Bath and Wells,"
1629. Several of his letters to the celebrated Dr. Twissc
>vere also published by Mr, Henry Jeanes, in 1653. One of
these letters was *>' Of God's finite and infinite Decrees ;"
another, " Of the Object of Predestination." It does not
appear, however, that he was any relation to Dr. Robert
Harris, another puritan divine who lived at tlie same time.
Thomas Goodwin. — This excellent servant of Chris?
was some years minister at South Weald in Essex, where he
was much beloved, and eminently useful. He was a divine
of puritan principles, and deeply concerned for the purity and
spirituality of christian worship. Though he died young, he
■was a person of great learning, exemplary piety, and univer-
sal reputation. JMr. Bownd, who preached his funeral ser-
mon, gives the foiiowing account of him : " He was an
eminent light and pillar in the church where he lived. He
gave evident proof that he was one in Christ, and is now
blessed. He was a good and precious man, and well known
to be a minister of great worth, every way qualified for the
work to which he was called. It was his desire from a youth
to be a nunister of the gospel ; and, according to that desire,
the Lord in due time called him to his service. To his quali-
• Wood's Athena^ O,\on. tol. ii. p. 144. — Echard's Hist, of Edj.
Tol. ii. p. i^l.
J. HARRIS— GOODWm. 301
ilcations for the sacred oflice, his brethren in the county, with
many others in more distant phjces, could give ample testimony.
He was a learned and a godly person, and it is difficult to
say which of the two had the pre-eminence : they seemed to
keep pace, and he was eminent in both. He was a great pro-
ficient in the study of divinity and in a knowledge of the holy
scriptures. Like Ezra, he was a ready scribe in the law of
the Lord; and, like Apolios, mighty in the scriptures.
Though he was young, his attainments were very great ;
God gave unto him abundantly of his spirit. In prayer lie
had much of the spirit of devotion, and was filled wilh the
breathings of the Holy Ghost. In preaching, he was very
powerful, and spoke directly to the hearts of his hearers. In
his life, he was most exemplary, both as a christian and a
minister. His preacliing was admired by the godly and the
learned, yet persons of the meanest capacity could unuer->
stand him. He had such a winning method, that his ser-
mons were never tedious, but the attention of his hearers
seemed to be chained to his lips. He took great pains in his
ministry, and was frequently engaged in preaching, in which
he took great delight. The love of Christ, and the souls of
tlie people, made frequent preaching his recreation and his
pleasure.
This faithful minister of Christ was very zealous in pro-
moting a further reformation of the church. The zeal of
God's house did even eat him up. In the cause of God he
manifested undaunted courage, and laboured vigorously to
promote the Redeemer's kingdom and glory, whatever oppo-
sitions were in the way. One might stand upon his grave
and say, " Here lies one who never feared tlie face of any
man." He was never proudly puffed up with his rare endo\\ -
nients ; but, in the whole of his conversation, he discovered a
happy degree of humility and holiness. He lived free from
worldly incumbrances, but full of cares for God's glory and
the salvation of his people. He was deeply concer^ied for
persons in sickness and death. He used to tell me, says our
author, how sadly it affected his heart when any one was sick,
or taken away by death, and he, the pastor, have no know-
ledge of his condition. He naturally cared for the souls of
tlie people; and he sought not his own things^ but the things
of Jesus Chnst. He was a minister of the gospel, and he
endeavoured to fuliil his ministry. He made his work his
business, and " studied to approve himself unto God a work-
man that needed not to be ashamed."
As this righteous man lived, so he died, and his end was
302 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
happy. During the sickness of which he died, I visited
him, says Mr. Bownd, and having recommended submis-
sion to the will of God under all his dispensations, he readily
concurred, and added, " But my desire is to reach further,
and not only to submit, which an ordinary christian may do,
but to raise up myself to courage and cheerfulness under the
rod. Blessed be God, that hitherto I can date his choicest
mercies from some great affliction." Having exhorted him
to the lively exercise of faith, that he might be able to quench
the fiery darts of the devil, he replied, " I bless God, that
Satan hath, as yet, got no ground by this affliction." Coming
to him on another occasion, and finding him greatly reduced,
he said, " Dear friend, two days since I overheard the doctor
speaking to my wife, as if he feared me ; and I bless God who
so ordered it that I should hear him. For, indeed, till then,
I did not so seriously consider of death, as I have done since.
I did all along in my sickness set my heart to labour for a
sanctified use of the Lord's hand; but, overhearing that,
I thought it needful to look most carefully into my heart as
to evidences for eternity ; and truly, upon a thorough search
of my heart, I bless God, I find good old evidences, though
I be but a young man, and they stick very close to me. But,
friend," said he, " one thing I must tell you, which troubles
and afflicts my spirit very much, that when I grew very
serious, being exercised about serious work, the searching of
my heart for eternity-evidences, I perceived this seriousness
of mine was judged by some to be melancholy, for fear of
death. Now this, indeed, troubles me very much, that any
should take me to be such a one who am afraid to die."
I afterwards called upon him, says his pious biographer,
and told him that his friends were about to meet together
to offer up prayer to God for him ; when, after pausing a
little, he broke out in most affectionate expressions of the
sense he had of his people's love to him, and how greatly he
loved them, saying, " Oh my poor people ! Oh the souls of
my poor people ! How dear, how precious are they to me !
Oh, if God should spare me, how would I lay out myself
for them!" He then wished me to commend him to his
people, and tell them, that which he desired them to beg of
God was a clearer sense of his love, saying, " Not that I
altogether want it; for, I bless God, 1 have it;" but could saj
no more.
The next time I called upon him, continues Mr. Bownd, I
heard from his mouth a most precious and powerful dis-
course concerning the sweetness and fulness of Christ. He
R. HARRIS. 303
spoke just as if he had been preaching from the pulpit. I
could not help wondering to hear him deliver a discourse so
clear and methodical, quoting the scriptures, and not failing
in the sense, almost without faultering. He very impressively
rehearsed those words, " All things are yours, whether Paul
or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or
things ;" when he could proceed no further, but afterwards
added, " because ye are Christ's." He afterwards said,
" Well, it is a sweet thing when he that speaks of Christ
hath Christ dwelling in him, at the time when he speaks ;"
and then gave up the ghost. He died in the prime of life,
and in the midst of his usefulness, September 4, 16j8 ;* but
whether he was any relation to the celebrated Dr. Thomas
Goodwin, or to Mr. John Goodwin, both of whom lived at
the same time, we have not been able to learn.
Robert Harris, D. D. — This learned divine was born
at Broad Campden in Gloucestershire, in the year 1578,
and educated in Magdalen college, Oxford, where he became
an excellent scholar, and a famous logician and disputant.