left a standing monument of his piety and charity, by the erection and endowment of a free-school. It does not, however, appear whether he was any relation to our learned divine.* His WORKS.-1. The Doctrine and Use of Repentance, 1610.2. A Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Harrington, 1614.-3. Commentary on Malachi, 1641.-4. Stock of Divine Knowledge, 1641.— 5. Truth's Companion. ANTHONY WOTTON, B. D.-This learned person was born in London, and educated first at Eton school, then at King's college, Cambridge, where he took his degrees. Being a person of considerable reputation, he became fellow of the college, and was for some time chaplain to the Earl of Essex. Upon the death of Dr. Whitaker, in the year 1596, he stood as candidate for the king's professorship of divinity at Cambridge; but Dr. Overall, by a superior interest, carried the election. Mr. Wotton, notwithstanding this, was highly applauded in the university.+ He was, during the above year, chosen first professor of divinity in Gresham college. Also, upon the resignation of his professorship, he was chosen lecturer of Alhallows Barking, London. Here he met with some trouble on account of his nonconformity. Having used this expression, "Lord, open thou the eyes of the king, that he may be resolved in the truth, without respect to antiquity," his words were supposed to insinuate, "that the king was blind, wavering, and inclined to popery." For this, therefore, with some other things, he was silenced by Archbishop Bancroft. Mr. Wotton, on account of his views of the doctrine of justification, fell under the displeasure of some of the Thoresby's Vicaria Leodiensis, p. 66. + Fuller's Hist. of Camb. p. 152. Ward's Gresham Professors, p. 39. Archbishop Bancroft was a stout and zealous champion for the church, which, it is said, he learnedly and ably defended to the confusion of its enemies. Clarendon says, "that he had an excellent knowledge of the church; that he almost rescued it out of the hands of the Calvenian party, that he very much subdued the unruly spirit of the nonconformists, and that his death could never be sufficiently lamented." Fuller says, "it is confessed that he was most stiff and stern in pressing conformity, which he did very fiercely throughout all his province." Collier says, "his unrelenting strictness gave a new face to religion. The liturgy was more solemnly observed; the fasts and festivals were more regarded; the use of copes was revived; the surplice generally worn; and all things in a manner recovered to the first settlement under Queen Elizabeth. Some who had formerly subscribed in a loose, reserved sense, were now called upon to sign their conformity in more close, unevasive terms: so that now there London ministers. His chief antagonist was Mr. George Walker, another zealous puritan, who, having opposed him for some time with great zeal, as a follower of Socinus, charged him with heresy and blasphemy; and sent him a letter, dated May 2, 1614, desiring a conference before eight learned divines to be chosen by both parties. They accordingly met for the purpose; Messrs. Walker, Stock, Downham, Westfield, and Gouge, on the one part; and Messrs. Wotton, Balmeford, Randall, Hicks, and Gataker, on the other. But the matters in dispute not being adjusted at that time, they had a second conference. In order to a better settlement of the points in controversy, Mr. Gataker proposed that Mr. Walker should set down in writing the heretical and blasphemous positions of Socinus, and Mr. Wotton's erroneous assertions as agreeing with them; that when they assembled they might the more readily come to a conclusion. Both parties agreed to the proposal. Upon their second meeting, after some debate, it was their unanimous opinion, that Mr. Wotton had not maintained any heresy or blasphemy whatsoever; which they accordingly subscribed under their own hands. The persons who attended the second conference, and who subscribed this declaration, were those mentioned above, excepting Mr. Baylie in the place of Mr. Westfield. Mr. Wotton was concerned in the controversy with Dr. Montague, afterwards bishop of Chichester; who, in a work was no room left for scruples and different persuasion." Warner says, that he filled the see of Canterbury" with no extraordinary reputation about six years. He was naturally of a rough uncourtly temper, which was heightened by his great authority in the high commission. He had extremely high notions of government in church and state. He was most certainly a greater friend to prerogative than to liberty." By some he was charged with covetousness and want of hospitality, which occasioned the following satire upon his death: Here lies his grace, in cold clay clad, According to Rapin, "Bancroft never ceased to plague the puritans, and never ceased incensing the king against them, doing them all the mischief he could. Herein he was too closely imitated by the rest of the bishops, who found a double advantage in destroying the puritans. He is also accused of having been one of the most zealous to instil into the king the maxims of arbitrary power." He is styled " a great persecutor and silencer of hundreds of most godly, conscientious, preaching ministers;" and is said to have lived an evil life, and died a fearful death.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 339.-Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 68.-Fuller's Church Hist. b. x. p. 55, 57.-Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 687.-Warner's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 496.-Rapin's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 163, 176.-Prynne's Antipathie of English Prelacie, part i. p. 152, 239. Edit. 1641. * Ward's Gresham Professors, p. 39. entitled "Appello Cæsarem," declared himself in favour of Arminianisin, and made dangerous advances towards popery. The doctor's book was no sooner published than it met with a host of opponents. Dr. Featly, Dr. Sutcliff, Mr. Rouse, Mr. Burton, Mr. Yates, Bishop Carlton, and Mr. Wotton, sent forth answers to it: but the last contained the strongest arguments, and the most solid refutation. "Dean Sutcliff is said to have chode heartily, Mr. Rouse meant honestly, Mr. Burton wrote plainly, Mr. Yates learnedly, Bishop Carlton very piously, but Mr. Wotton most solidly."+ Mr. Wotton did not long survive this last performance; for he died in London, December 11, 1626. He was a great scholar, an excellent preacher, and a zealous advocate for a further reformation of the church. He wrote an elegant Latin style, and is very justly placed among the learned writers of King's college, Cambridge. Mr. Gataker denominates him, " a worthy servant of God, whom," says he, "I always revered while he lived, as a man deserving of singular respect for his piety, learning, and zeal in the cause of God, which his works do sufficiently manifest, and will testify to posterity. His WORKS.-1. An Answer to a popish Pamphlet of late newly furnished, and the second time printed, entitled, Certain Articles or for Wood's Athenæ Oxon, vol. i. p. 442. + Dr. Richard Montague was a divine who, in the reign of Charles I., zealously promoted arbitrary power; and, for publishing sentiments tending to the disturbance of church and state, he was accused to the commons in parliament, and convened and examined before the bar of the house. The proceedings of the commons displeased the king; for, as Montague was one of his chaplains, he pretended that this was an encroachment upon his prerogative. He expressed his displeasure at the commons, and took occasion, by the instigation of Bishop Laud, the king's most intimate counsellor, to bring the cause before the council, and, by this means, to stop the prosecution. Notwithstanding this, Montague was summoned a second time before the commons, and severely reprimanded. His cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham, by Bishops Land, Buckridge, and Howson, who observed, "That learned men ought to be left to abound in their own sense, it being the great fault of the council of Trent to require subscription to school-opinions." Afterwards, a committee of the commons reported to the house, that Montague's " Appeal,” and several other of his pieces, contained erroneous papistical and Arminian opinions, repugnant to the articles of the church of England; among which were the following:-"That the church of Rome hath ever remained firm upon the same foundation of sacraments and doctrines instituted by God. That images may be used for the instruction of the ignorant, and excitation of devotion. That men justified may fall away, and depart from the state of grace." Notwithstanding these censures, he was promoted by the king to the bishopric of Winchester!-Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 121.-Rapin's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 240, 244, 276. Fuller's Hist. of Camb. p. 75. Ward's Gresham Professors, p. 40—42. cible Reasons,' &c., 1605.-2. A Defence of Mr. Perkins's Booke, called, 'A Reformed Catholicke,' against the cavils of a popish writer, one D. B. P. or, W. B. in his Deformed Reformation,' 1606.-3. The Tryal of the Roman Clergy's title to the Church, 1608.-4. Sermons on part of Chap. i. of St. John's Gospel, 1609.-5. Runne from Rome; or, the Necessity of separating from that Church, 1624.-6. De Reconciliationi Peccatoris, 1624.-7. An Auswer to a Book, entitled Appello Cæsarem, written by Mr. Richard Montague, 1626.—8. The Art of Logic, 1626. This last is a translation of Ramus's Logic. RICHARD ROTHWELL. This learned and zealous puritan was born at Bolton in Lancashire, in the year 1563, and educated in the university of Cambridge. Having spent many years in academical pursuits, he entered upon the work of the ministry, and was ordained presbyter by Achbishop Whitgift. The archbishop, on this occasion, forbade him attempting any interpretation of the types of Moses, the book of Canticles, Daniel, and Revelation; and, at that time, he exactly agreed with his lordship. Though he possessed an amiable natural temper, great intellectual endowments, and other ornamental accomplishments, they were only as so many weapons in the hands of a madman. He continued several years a stranger to religion, when he preached learnedly, but lived in profaneness, addicting himself to hunting, bowling, shooting, and filthy and profane conversation. We are told, that in Lancashire there were two knights at variance with each other; one having a good park, with an excellent store of deer; the other good fish-ponds, with an excellent store of fish; and that he used to gratify himself by robbing the park of the one, and presenting his booty to the other, and the fish-ponds of the other, and presenting the fish to his adversary. On one of these occasions, it is added, the keeper caught him in the very act of killing a buck, when they fell from words to blows; but Mr. Rothwell, being tall and lusty, got the keeper down, and bound him by both his thumbs to a tree, with his toes only touching the ground, in which situation he was found next morning. Such were the base follies by which he was gratified in the days of his vanity. While in the midst of his career in sin, it pleased God, who separated him from his mother's womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Son in him. This change was produced in the following manner: As Mr. Rothwell was • Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p. 67, 68. : playing at bowls on a Saturday, among papists and profane gentlemen, at Rochdale in Lancashire, Mr. Midgley, the grave and pious vicar of the place, came upon the green; and, calling him on one side, expressed his great regret that he was the companion of papists, even on a Saturday, when he ought to have been preparing for the exercises of the sabbath but Mr. Rothwell slighted what he said, and checked him for intermeddling. The good old man, being exceedingly grieved, went home, retired into his study, and prayed earnestly to God for him. Mr. Rothwell had no sooner left the bowling-green than Mr. Midgley's words stuck fast in his conscience. He could find no rest. The day following he went to hear Mr. Midgley preach in Rochdale church, when it pleased God so to bless the word, that he was thoroughly awakened to a sense of his sins. Under his painful convictions he went to Mr. Midgley after sermon, thanked him for his seasonable reproof, and desired his further instruction, with an interest in his prayers. Having continued under spiritual bondage for some time, he at length, by the instrumentality of Mr. Midgley, was made partaker of the liberty of the sons of God; the assurance of which he retained to the end of his days. Though he was often exercised by the severe assaults of Satan, his heavenly Father, in whom he trusted, always made a way for his escape. This important change being effected, Mr. Rothwell gave his worldly estates among his friends, and devoted himself wholly to the ministry of the word, ever esteeming Mr. Midgley as his spiritual father.* Mr. Rothwell, having tasted that the Lord was gracious, began to preach the gospel by the assistance of the Holy Ghost. He so unfolded the depths of Satan's devices, and the treachery of the human heart, that he was soon denominated the rough hewer. His zealous and faithful ministry was accompanied by the power and blessing of God. When he preached the terrors of the law, sinners trembled, and sometimes cried aloud; and when he preached the glad tidings of the gospel, sweet consolation was applied to their afflicted consciences. He was chaplain to a regiment under the Earl of Essex, in his expedition against the rebels in Ireland. About the same time, he was induced to examine, with an unbiassed mind, the grounds of conformity to the established church. The result of his impartial investigation was, he became an * Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p. 67, 68. |