pleased to turn their hearts ; by which means they think to
escape undiscovered. His sermon is about the space of an
hour, and then doth another stand up, to make the text more
plain ; and at the latter end he entreats them all to go home
severally, lest the next meeting they should be interrupted
by those which are of the opmion of the wicked. They
seem very steadfast in their opinions, and say, rather than
turn, they will burn,"*

During the above year came forth another pamphlet,
entitled, " New Preachers, New ;" in the epistle to which,
the writer, addressing Mr. Greene, says, " Do not these
things come from proud spirits, that he, (Mr. Spencer,) a
horse-keeper, and you, a hat-maker, will take upon you to
be ambassadors of God, to teach your teachers, and take
upon you to be ministers of the gospel in these days of
light. Consider, I pray you, that our Lord would not have
had the ass, (Matt. xxi. 3,) if he had not stood in need of

* Brownists' Synagogue, p. 5, 6. '



36 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.

him. Now the truth is, the church hath no need of such as

you, an unlearned, self-conceited hat-maker. It is true, that,

in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the popish

priests and friars being dismissed, there was a scarcity for

the present of learned men; and so some tradesmen were

permitted to leave their trades, and betake themselves to the

ministry ; but it was necessity that did then constrain them

so to do. But thanks be to God, we have now no such

necessity; and therefore this practice of you and your

comrades casts an ill aspersion upon our good God, that

doth furnish our church plentifully with learned men; and

it doth also scandalize our church, as if we stood in need of

such as you to preach the gospel. This you call preaching,

or prophesying ; and thus, as one of them told the lords of

the parliament, that they were all preachers ; for so they

practise and exercise themselves as young players do in

private, till they be by their brethren judged lit for th^

pulpit, and then up they go, and, like mountebanks, play

their part. — Mr. Greene, Mr, Greene, leave oft these ways ;

bring home such as you have caused to stray. It is such as

you that vent their venom against our godly preachers, and

the divine forms of prayers ; yea, against all set forms of

prayers : all is from antichrist ; but that which you preach is

most divine ; that comes fresh from the Spirit : the other is

an old dead sacrifice, composed (I should have said killed)

so long ago, that now it stinks. It is so old, that in the

year 1549 it was compiled by Doctor Cranmer, Doctor

Goodricke, Doctor Scip, Doctor Thirlby, Doctor Day,

Doctor Holbecke, Doctor Ridley, Doctor Cox, Doctor

Tailor, Doctor Haines, Doctor Redman, and Mr. Robinson,

archdeacon of Leicester ; but what are all these .'' They are

not to be compared to John Greene, a hat-maker; for he

thinketh what he blustereth forth upon the sudden, is far

better than that which these did maturely and deliberately

compose." It is not at all wonderful, that, when the church

had lost its power to persecute nonconformists, those who

still retained the spirit of persecution should indulge in this

kind of defamation and ridicule.

Howevei", during this year, IVIr. Greene, together with
several of his brethren, was complained of to the house of
commons, for lay-preaching. He was convened before the
house, when he was reprimanded, threatened to be severely
punished, if he did not renounce the practice, and then
dismissed i* but whether he obeyed their orders, or still

» >'aJsoH's Collectione, vol, ii, p. 265, 270.



I



PRICE. S7

continued to exercise his talents in preaching, we are not
able to learn.

Mr. Edwards, in reproaching all who dissented from his
presbyterian bigotry, observes of Mr. Greene, that he was
one of the first mechanics, who, presently after the meet-
ing of the long parliament, preached publicly in the
churches in London; and that afterwards, in the year 1644,
he accompanied Colonel Hemstead to Trinidad. After his
return, he statedly preached in Coleman-street, once on the
Lord's day, and once on a week day; where, in the year
1646, to use the words of our author, " there is so great a
resort and flocking to him, that yards, rooms, and house are
all so full, that he causes his neighbours' conventicles, and
others, to be oftentimes very thin, and independents to
preach to bare walls and empty seats, in comparison of this
great rabbi."* Crosby mentions one Mr. John Green, who
survived the restoration, and who endured cruel persecution
with the rest of his brethren ; but it does not appear whether
this was the same per son. t



John Price was a zealous preacher among the inde-
pendents, during the civil wars. Edwards styles him " an
exchange-man, a beloved disciple of Mr. John Goodwin, and
one of his prophets ; who used to preach for him when he
had any book to answer, or some libertine tractate to set forth."
He then gives the following account of him : " This
Master Price contents not himself to preach only in London,
but I hear that he was lately at Bury St. Edmunds ; that he
there preached in a house, and maintained certain dangerous
and heretical opinions ; as, that men might be saved who
were not elected, and that if men improve nature well, God
will surely give them grace. So that it seems this exchange-
man sells other wares besides independency and separation,
and does with feigned words make merchandize of men's
souls." This scurrilous writer adds : " Master Price was
also at a meetmg here in London, where some of several
sects, seekers, antinomians, anabaptists, brownists, inde-
pendents, met with some presbyterians, to consider how all
these might live together, notwithstanding their several
opinions ; and he was, as all the sectaries were, for a general
toleration ; and they agreed together like buckle and thongs,
•nly the presbyterians were not satisfied."

* Edwards's Gangrsena, part iii. p. 248, 249.
t Crosby's £aptiii(s, vol. iii. p. 82.



38 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.

In the year 1646, Mr. Price published several pamphlets
on the controversies of the day. One was written ia defence
of independency ; two others were replies, one to the City
Remonstrance, the other to a Vindication of the Remon-
strance. In politics he seems to have been of republican
principles, ascribing the supreme power of the kingdom to the
liouse of commons ; and this is all that we know of him.*



Mr. Symonds was beneficed at Sandwich in Kent, during
the civil wars ; styled by Edwards, " a great independent,
and a great sectary." If we are to give credit to this writer,
he was t)f a high and imperious spirit, and, in his views of
church discipline, remarkably rigid and severe. f He relates
of him what he calls '' a merry storv," which is as follows :
Wliile he was at Sandwich, a person came to him to be
catechized; but, instead of performing tlie duty of his
office, he sent him to a mechanic of the town to do it tor
him; and when he was expostulated with, and asked why
he had done so, he replied, " that one goose might best
teach another to eat." The author applies and improves
this story by adding, " so merry are our most demure inde-
pendents. "t

The following account of Mr. Symonds we give in the
words of this writer. " There is one ISlr. Symonds, a great
sectary," says he, " who came to London since the wars,
and preached at little Alliallows, Thames-street, and at the
Tower, where I have been informed, that he hath preached
several strange things : as, for toleration, and liberty for all
men to worship God accordi)ig to their consciences, and in
favour of antipccclobapfism. Also preaching once at AndrcAv's,
Undershaft, for Mr. Goodwin, he preached high strains of
antinomianism : as, that Christ was a legal preacher, and
lived in a dark time, and so preached the law, but afterwards
the gospel came to be preached. Afterwards, preaching at
Lawrence Poultney, on the day of thanksgiving for takuig
Sherborn castle, he spake of the great victories the saints,
meaning the independents, had obtained ; and yet the ])arlia-
ment was now maklno- laws ae:ainst these saints. As at
London he hath preached dius ; so since he left London, this
last summer, he preached at Bath before the General strange
stuff, viz. against presbytery, saying it was a limb of anti-
christ, pleading for liberty of conscience, and for those who

* Edwards's Gaiisra>,na, part iii. p. 160, 161.
t Ibid. p. 1C8, 103. i Ibid. p. 76. .



SYMONDS. S9

would not have their children baptized till they came to years
of understanding, and for weavers and ignorant mechanics
preaching; when he spake of these men's gifts, and their
having tiie Spirit, before learned men and men bred at univer-
sities, with a great deal of this stuff. It is a sad thhig, that
Sir Thomas Fairfax, that valiant and well-affected gentleman,
should have such kind of chaplains and preachers upon all
occasions to preach before him. I have spoken the more of
this Mr. Symonds, because I hear he is nominated one of
the itinerary preachers of Wales ; that so the country and
ministers may be aware of him ; and that the assembly,
when he comes to be approved of, may do their duties, and
not let him pass so easily as they did Mr. Cradock,"*

From this curious narrative it appears that Mr. Symonds
was of the baptist persuasion ; and it is further observed, that
he was approved and appointed by the house of commons
to preach in Wales. He was living in the year 1646; but
was a different person from Mr. Joseph Symonds, pastor of
the church at Rotterdam in Holland, a brief memoir of
whom is given in the next article.t



Joseph Symonds was some time the worthy assistant of
Mr. Thomas Gataker, at Rotherhithe, near London ; but
afterwards he became rector of St. Martin's, Ironmongers'-
lane, in the city. Having espoused the sentiments of the
independents, he forsook the church of England, left his
benefice, and went to Holland. After his departure, Arch-
bishop Laud, in the year 1639, pronounced against him the
sentence of deprivation, by which the good man lost his
living, after he had given it up.t Mr. Symonds having
sacrificed his benefice, to escape the storm of persecution,
settled at Rotterdam, where he was chosen pastor to the
English church, in the place of Mr. Sydrach Sympson. In
this situation, his deportment and his doctrine were par-
ticularly conciliatory, and his labours eminently useful. fj Mr.
Edwards, to reproach his sentiments and to cloud his memory,
says, " that his independent church at Rotterdam was over-
grown with anabaptism ; and that he wrote to his friends in
England, saying, he was so pestered with anabaptists, that he
knew not what to do."|| Mr. Robert Park, afterwards one of

* Edwards's Gangrjena, part iii. p. 241, 242. + Ibid, p. 131, 24S.

X Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 359.

^ Bailie's Dissuasive, p. 84, 173.

II Edwards's Gangraena, part ii. p. 16.



40 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.

the ejected nonconformists, was his assistant in the pastoral
office.* It appears that he was living in the year 1646, and
still pastor of the church at Rotterdam. Though he was an
independent, Edwards styles him " one of the most moderate
and modest of that way."t Several pieces, written by a
person of the same name, occur in the Sion and Bodleian
catalogues.* Though pastor of a church in a foreign land,
he was sometimes called to preach before the parliament, as
appears from one of his sermons afterwards published with
this title, " A Sermon lately preached at Westminster, before
sundry of the Honourable House of Connnons, 1641 : By
Joseph Symonds, late minister in Ironmongers'-lane, London,
now pastor of the Church at Rotterdam."



Henry Burton, B.D. — This painful sufferer for non-
conformity was born at Birdsall in Yorkshire, in the year
1579) and educated in St. John's college, Cambridge, where
he took his degrees, and was afterwards incorporated at
Oxford. His first public employment was that of a tutor to
the sons of Lord Carey at Leppington, who, in 1625, was
created Earl of Monmouth, and ^^'hose lady was governess
to Prince Charles in his infancy. It was probably owing to
the interest of this honourable person, that he was made
clerk of the closet to Prince Henry, and, after his death, to
Prince Charles. In the year 1623, he was appointed to
attend the young prince to Spain ; but, for reasons unknown,
he was set aside, even after part of his goods were shipped. f
On that prince's accession to the crown, he expected no less
than to be continued in the clerk's office ; but his majesty
giving that place to Neile, Bishop of Durham, Mr. Burton
is said to have been so highly disgusted, that he warmly
expressed his resentment on all occasions, particularly by
railing against the bishops. " The vapours of ambition fuming
in his head," says Clarendon, " he would not think of less
than still being clerk of the closet. Being thus disappointed,
and, as he called it, despoiled of his right, he would not in
the greatness of his heart, sit down with the affront, but com-
mitted two or three such weak and saucy indiscretions, as
caused an mhibition to be sent him, that he should not
presume to come any more to court." The principle of

* Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. ii. p. 355.
+ Edwards's Gangraena, part iii. p. 243.
:f Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. iii. p 6.
^ Faller's Church Hist. b. xi, p. 152.



H. BURTON. il

these weak and saucy indiscretions, as they are called, was,
that in April, 1 623, he presented a letter to King Charles,
remonstrating against Dr. Neile and Dr. i^^ud, his majesty's
constant attendants, as being much inclined to popery ;
which was certainly too true. " PVom that time," adds
the noble historian, " he resolved to revenge himself
upon the whole order of bishops ; and so turned lecturer,
and preached against them, being endowed with malice and
boldness, instead of learning and any tolerable parts."*

The above slanderous accusation is founded in ignorance,
or prejudice, or both, as will appear to all who will only read
his works with impartiality. Indeed, Mr. Burton afterwards
affirmed his right to the above office, and that Bishop Neile
cast him out through envy ; and added : " but this was
ordered by the special providence of my God, who would
not suffer me to rise high at court, lest I should have been
corrupted with its preferments."+ From M'hat he has published
to the world, he appears to have been furnished with con-
siderable parts, and to have been no mean scholar. He was
courageous in the cause of truth, and a man of a wanu spirit ;
which led him, on certain occasions, to discover some degree
of heat and indiscretion. The oppressions and cruelties of
the prelates were sufficient to make a wise man mad. But
that he resolved to revenge himself upon them, and turned
lecturer for that purpose, is easily asserted, but not easily
proved. Indeed, the charge of his turning lecturer at all, is
certainly incorrect ; for in the above year he was presented to
the rectory of St. Matthew's, Friday-street, London.

Mr. Burton was a person of a most heroical spirit, and
never feared the appearance of an enemy, as appears from
the account he gave of himself. Speaking of his various
citations before Laud, his courage was such, that he says,
" I was not at any time before him, but methought I stood
over him, as a schoolmaster over his scholars : so great was
the goodness of God towards me. Being convened before
the high commission for my book, entitled, ' Babel no Bethel,'
Harsnet Archbishop of York, having run himself out of
breath with railing against me and my book ; and saying,
that I had dedicated my book to the parliament, to incense
them against the higher powers, (meaning the king,) 1
answered, * No, my lord, 1 am none of those who divide
the king and parliament, but I pray God unite them
togetlier ! ' "

* Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 158.— Wood's Athenae Oxon. toI. i. p. 814.
-^ Burton's Narration of hit Life,p. 2. Edit. 1643.



42 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.

He afterwards describes the prelatical innovations and
usurpations, and how he set himself to oppose them, saying,
" 1 more and more disliked the prelates' usurpations, and
tyrannical government, Viith their attempts to set up popery.
Therefore I purposely preached upon the second chapter to
the Colossians, crying down all a'i ill-worship and human
inventions in God's service. I began in my practice, as in
my judgment, to fall off from the ceremonies. Only I
watched for an occasion to try it out with them, either by
dint of arguments, or force of law, or by the king and his
council, resoiving either to foil my adversaries, though 1 had
no great hope of success; or, at least discover the mystery
of iniquity and hypocrisy, which, like a white vail, they had
cast over cAl their foul practices. This discovery 1 took to be
of no small importance. I saw how every day they got
ground in the hearts of the simple and credulous, as if ali
they did was to maintain the protestant religion ; when
under that specious colour, the withered whore of Babylon
came in naked at the first, till at length she began to shew
her painted face in her superstitions, altar-service, and other
garbs. And as they laboured to undermine and overthrow
the true protestant religion, and set up popery ; so they did
not seek less to overthrow the civil state, with its good laws,
and just liberties of the subject, and to introduce arbitrary
and tyrannical government."* What degree of truth is con-
tained in these strictures on the character and proceedings of
the riding prelates, tliose who are conversant with the history
of the times will easily determine; and this will in part
appear in the course of the present narrative.

Mr. Burton was a srreat sufferer in the cause of noncon-
formity. Ke felt the shocking intolerance and cruelties of
the ruling prelates, especially those of Bishop Laud. In the
year 1626, he was convened before the high commission,
when he would have received the censure of the ruling-
ecclesiastics, had not the judges interposed and granted a
prohibition, which they might do according to law, by Avhich
he was at that time rescued from his cruel oppressor.t Mr.
Burton having published a book entitled, ^' The Baiting of
the Pope's Bull ; or, an Unmasking of the Mystery of
Inifjuity, folded up in a most pernicious Breave or Bull, sent
from the Pope lately into P]ngland, to cause a Rent therein,
for his Re-entery," 1027 ; though the liook was wholly against
the pope and his dangerous bull, and was licensed by

* Burton's Narration, p. 8, 9. + Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 15S.



H. BURTON. 43

Dr. Goad, he was called before the council by the instiga-
tion of Laud, who spoke vehemently against the book,
calling it a libel. Afterwards, he puljlished another work
against popery, entitled, " The Pouring out of the Seven
Vials," 16'28; for vvhich he was prosecuted in the high
commission by this prelate, and the book suppressed. And
when he published his book, entitled, " Babel no Bethel,"
wholly against the church of Rome, this prelate employed
his pursuivant to apprehend him ; committed him to the
Fleet, refusing bail when offered, contrary to the petition
of right ; suspended him from his benefice ; and suppressed
the book.* About the same time, his " Trial of Private
Devotions," 1628, against Dr. Cosins ; and his " Plea to
an Appeal, in refutation of divers Arminian and Popisri
Errors broached by Moinitague in his Appdlo CcetiareM,'^
were both called in and suppressed, by the severity of this
intolerant ecclesiastict

How long Mr. Burton remained under the above sus-
pension, and a prisoner in the Fleet, we have not been able
to learn. He was afterwards released. This, however, was
to him only the beginning of sorrov.'s. November .5, 1636,
he preached two sermons at his own church in Fridav-street,
from Prov. xxiv. 21, 22, Mi/ son, fear tliou the Lord and the
J:ii/<^, and meddle not zcith them that are 2;iveH to change, 8cc.
m which he laid open the late innovations in doctrine,
"worship, and ceremonies, and warned his hearers against
them. Dr. Laud, now archbishop of Canterbury, hearing
of this, caused articles to be exhibited against him in the
high commission, and summoned him to answer them, out
of term, before Dr. Duck. On his appearance, he was
charged with having " spoken against turning coinmunion
tables into altars, against bowing to them, against setting up
crucifixes, against saying the second service at the altar, and
against putting down afternoon sermons on the Lord's day."
Enormous crimes, indeed, were these ! He was, moreover,
charged with having said, " that ministers might not safely
preach upon the doctrines of grace without being troubled
for it ; and that the ministers in Norfolk and Sufl^^lk were
suspended for nonconformity to the rites and ceremonies,
imposed upon them contrary to the laws of the land."

* It is curious to observe, that while Mr. Barton was treated thus for
writing against popery, one Chow ney, a fierce papitt, published a book in
deftnce of popery, for which he was neither punished nor even questioned ;
but was permitted to dedicate his work to Laud, wha favoured it with his
loyal and episcopal patronage! l — Wfiitlocke's Memorials, p. 21.

+ Prynnes Cant. Dooaic, p. 185.



44 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.

These charges amounting, it is said, to sedition, he wai
required to answer upon his oath, and so to become his own
accuser : but he refused the oath ; and, instead of answering,
appealed to the king. Notwithstandmg his appeal, within
fifteen days he was summoned, by the direction of the
archbishop, to appear before a special high commission at
Doctois' Commons; when, in his absence, he was sus-
pended from his ofhce and benefice, and attachments were
given out to apprehend Inm.*

Un>1er these oppressive proceedings, Mr. Burton kept
himself close shut up m his own house ; ?nd, to give an
inipartial public a fair opportunity of decK'ing upon hi»
case, he published his sermons, entitled, " For God and the
King ; the Sumnie of two Struions preached on the hfth of
Js'ovember last, in St. Matdiewes, Friday-street, 1636;" with
*' An Apologie for an Appeale," addressed to the king, the
lords of the council, and the learned judges. + The pursui-
vants of the high commission not daring to break open
Mr. Burton's doors, the archbishop and the bishop of
London, with several others, drew up a warrant to one
Dendy, a sergeant at arms, to apprehend him.t By virtue
of this warrant, Dendy, accompanied by the sheriff of
London, and various other aimed officers, went the same
evening to Mr. Burton's house in Friday-street, and between
ten and eleven o'clock at night, violently broke open his
doors, took him into custody, and seized his books and
papers, as many as they pleased. The next day, instead of
being brought before tlie lords, as the warrant expressed,

•» Burton's Apologie for an Appeale, p. 4, 15.— Prynne's Discovery of
the Prelates' Tyranny, p. 14. Edit. 1641.

+ Mrs. Burton his wife, venturing to present copies of these sermons ta
several of the lords in parliament, was committed to prison for her pains. —
Ibid.

:{: The following is a copy of the warrant: — "To Edward Dendy,
" esquire, one of his majesty's sergeants at arms. These shall be to will
•' and require you to make your immediate repair to any place where you
*» shall understand of the present being of Henry Burton, clerk, and
" having found him, to take him into your custody, and to bring him forth-
*' with and in your company (all delays and excuses set apart) before us,
" to answer to i-nch matters as shall be objected against him. And you are
*' further, by virtue hereof, to require and charge all mayors, sheriffs,
"justices, bailifls, constables, headboroughs, and all others, bis majesty's
" officers and loving subjects, to be aiding and assisting unto you in the
" full and due execution of this service, whereof neither they nor you
" may fail at your perils. And this shall be unto you and them a
•' sufficient warrant. Dated at the star-chamber, the first of Feb. 1637.
*' \V. Cant. Henry Vaine, Arundall and Surry,

•' Guil. LondoD. The. Coventry, J. Coke."

IHd. p. 14, li.



H. BURTON. 45

he was, by another warrant, and without any cause assigned,
committed close prisoner to the Fleet.*

During Mr. Burton's close confinement, two anonymous
publications came forth, the one entitled, " A Divine Tra-
gedy, containing a Catalogue of God's late Judgments upon