being taught their duty: but that of late it had pleased the Lord to visit them with the means of salvation, by the ordinary ministry of Mr. Dyke, an authorized minister, who, according to his function, had been painful and profitable, and had carried himself so peaceably and dutifully among them, both in his life and doctrine, that no man could justly find fault with him, except of malice. There were some, indeed, who could not bear to hear their faults reproved; but through his preaching many had been brought from their ignorance and evil ways, to a better life; to be frequent hearers of God's word; and their servants were in better order than heretofore." They then inform his lordship, " that their minister was suspended by the Bishop of London; and that they were as sheep without a shepherd, exposed to manifold dangers, even to return to their former ignorance and cursed vanities. That the Lord had spoken it, therefore it must be true, Where no vision is, the people perish. And having experienced his honourable care for them in the like case heretofore, which they thankfully acknowledged, they earnestly pray his lordship, in the bowels of his compassion, to pity them in their present misery, and become a means that they may again enjoy their preacher."* The treasurer, upon the reception of this petition, wrote to the bishop, and requested Mr. Dyke's restoration to his ministry, promising that if he troubled his congregation with innovations in future, he would join his lordship against him; but the bishop excused himself, insinuating that Mr. Dyke was guilty of incontinency. This occasioned a further investigation of his character. He was tried at the sessions at St. Albans, when the woman herself who accused him, confessed her wicked contrivance, and asked him forgiveness in open court. Mr. Dyke being thus publicly cleared and honourably acquitted, the treasurer was the more urgent with the bishop to restore him; "because," said he, "the best minister in the nation may be thus slandered; and the people of St. Albans have no teaching, only they have for their curate an insufficient doting old man. For this favour," said the worthy treasurer, "I shall thank your lordship, and will not solicit you any more, if he shall hereafter give just cause of public offence against the orders of the church established."+ But all that the treasurer could do proved ineffectual. The good man was therefore * MS. Register, p. 303-306. + Ibid. p. 306–308. left under the unmerciful censure of this prelate. But how long he remained so, or whether the bishop ever restored him, we are not able to learn. He died about the year 1614. His name, or the name of his brother, Mr. Jeremiah Dyke, another excellent puritan divine, is among those who subscribed the "Book of Discipline."+ Mr. Dyke was a man of an unblemished character, a divine of great learning and piety, and a preacher of sound, heart-searching doctrine. Wood denominates him an eminent preacher. His writings are excellent for the time, and are still much admired. Bishop Wilkins classes his sermons among the most excellent in his day. His works, containing various pieces, were collected and published in 1635, in two volumes quarto. His "Mystery of Self-deceiving," was often published, and was translated into High Dutch. "It is a book," says Fuller," that will be owned for a truth, while men have any badness in them; and will be owned as a treasure, while they have any goodness in them." This work, and his "Treatises on Repentance," are very searching. His doctrine falls as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.** ROBERT PARKER.-This learned and celebrated puritan became rector of North-Benflete in Essex, in the year 1571; but, resigning the benefice the year following, he became rector of West-Henningfield, in the same county, which he held several years.++ Afterwards he became pastor of the church at Dedham, in the same county, where he was predecessor to the famous Mr. John Rogers. He was suspended by Bishop Aylmer, for refusing subscription to Whitgift's three articles. Being afterwards, by some means, restored to his ministry, a day was appointed when he should be deprived, if he still persisted in refusing to wear the surplice; when he most probably received the ecclesiastical censure.‡‡ Having endured these troubles, he left the county, and was afterwards beneficed at Wilton in Wiltshire, where he continued many years. In the year 1598, Bishop Bilson having published to the Heart," Dedica. Edit. 1633. * Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 29. + Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 423. Williams's Christian Preacher, p. 454. world that Jesus Christ, after his death upon the cross, actually descended into the regions of the damned; many learned divines undertook a refutation of his opinion, and to establish the contrary sentiment. Among these was Mr. Parker, who published a learned piece, entitled, "De descensu Christi ad Infernos." In the year 1607 he published a Treatise on the Cross in Baptism, entitled, "A Scholasticall Discourse against Symbolizing with Antichrist in Ceremonies, especially the Signe of the Crosse." Dr. Grey is pleased to treat Mr. Peirce and Mr. Neal with considerable ridicule for calling it a very learned work, and the author himself with much contempt, because he was obliged to leave the country for publishing that which in his opinion contains things very scandalous and offensive. That the work contains things very scandalous, except to those who tyrannize over the consciences of their brethren, was never yet proved; but that it contains things very offensive to all who persecute their brethren for refusing to observe their antichristian impositions, was never doubted. The celebrated Dr. Ames says, "It is a work, in truth, of such strength and beauty, that it dazzles the eyes even of envy itself."+ The learned prelates would, indeed, have done their cause no harm, if, when it was published, or at any future period, they had shewn themselves able to answer it. But they went a shorter way to work; and, instead of attempting any answer, they persuaded the king to issue his royal proclamation, with the offer of a reward, for apprehending the author, which obliged him to hide himself for a season, and then retire into a foreign land. These troubles came upon him chiefly by the instigation of Archbishop Bancroft; who receiving information that he was concealed in a certain citizen's house in London, immediately sent a person to watch the house, while others were prepared with a warrant to search for him. The person having fixed himself at the door, boasted that he had him now secure. Mr. Parker, at this juncture, resolved to dress himself in the habit of a citizen, and venture out, whereby he might possibly escape; but if he remained in the house he would be sure to be taken. Accordingly, in his strange garb he went forth; and God so ordered it, that just at the moment of his going out, the watchman at the door spied his intended bride passing on the other side the street; and while he just stepped over to speak to her, * Grey's Examination, vol. i. p. 50. +Ames's Fresh Suit, Pref. the good man escaped. When the officers came with the warrant to search the house, to their great mortification he could not be found.* After this signal providential deliverance, he retired to the house of a friend in the neighbourhood of London, where a treacherous servant in the family gave information to the bishop's officers, who came and actually searched the house where he was; but, by the special providence of God, he was again most remarkably preserved. For the only room in the house which they neglected to search, was that in which he was concealed, from whence he heard them swearing and quarrelling one with another; one protesting that they had not searched that room, and another as confidently asserting the contrary, and refusing to suffer it to be searched again. Had he been taken, he must have been cast into prison; where, without doubt, says our author, he must have died.+ Mr. Parker having been favoured with these remarkable interpositions of providence, fled from the storm and went to Holland, and would have been chosen pastor to the English church at Amsterdam, had not the magistrates been afraid of disobliging King James. For the burgomasters of the city informed them, "that, as they desired to keep friendship with his majesty of Great Britain, they should put a stop to that business." His settlement at Amsterdam being thus prevented, he went to Doesburg, and became preacher to the garrison; where, about eight months after his removal, he died, in the year 1614. During his short abode at Doesburg, he wrote several very affectionate letters to Mr. John Paget, minister at Amsterdam; in which he discovers a becoming resignation to the will of God, saying, "I thank you for the pains you have taken for me, though without success; at which I am not dismayed, nor at all moved. I am assured it is come to pass by the will of the Lord; who, I know, will be my God, as well out of Amsterdam as in it." Mr. Parker was an able writer, a man of great learning and piety, a judicious, faithful, and laborious preacher.1 In addition to the work already noticed, Mr. Parker was author of "De Politia Ecclesiastica;" in which he main * Clark's Lives, last vol. part i. p. 22, 23. 1 Clark's Lives, part i. p. 22.-Ames's Fresh Suit, Pref. Ibid. tains, that whatever relates to the church of Christ, must be deduced from scripture. "We deny no authority to the king in matters ecclesiastical," says he, "but only that which Jesus Christ, the only head of the church, hath directly and precisely appropriated unto himself, and hatl denied to communicate to any creature or creatures in the world. We hold that Christ alone is the doctor or teacher of the church in matters of religion; and that the word of Christ, which he hath given to his church, is of absolute perfection, containing all parts of true religion, both for substance and ceremony, and a perfect direction in all ecclesiastical matters whatsoever, unto which it is not lawful for any man or angel to add, or from which to detract.”* Mr. John Paget of Amsterdam, who was well acquainted with him, gives the following account of his views of church government: "When he came from Leyden, where he and Mr. Jacob had sojourned together for some time, he professed at his first coming to Amsterdam, that the use of synods was for counsel and advice only, but had no authority to give a definitive sentence. After much conference with him, when he had more seriously and maturely considered this question, he plainly changed his opinion, as he professed, not only to me, but to others: so that some of Mr. Jacob's opinion were offended at him, and expostulated not only with him, but also with me, for having occasioned the alteration of his judgment. I had the means of understanding his mind aright, and better than those who pervert his meaning, since he was not only a member of the same church, but a member of the same family, and lived with me under the same roof; where we had daily conversation of these things, even at the time when Mr. Jacob published his unsound writing upon this question. He was afterwards a member of the same eldership, and, by office, sat with us daily to hear and judge the causes of our church, and so became a member of our classical combination; yet did he never testify against the undue power of the classis, or complain that we were not a free people, though the classis exercised the same authority then as it doth now. He was also for a time the scribe of our consistory, and the acts of our eldership and church were recorded by his own hand."+ Mr. Thomas Parker, another excellent puritan, of whom a memoir will be given, was his son. * Troughton's Apology, p. 89, 90. Edit. 1681. + Paget's Defence, p. 105. |