knew not well what odd things, he declined their acquaintance; although his good conversation had made him to be accounted one of them himself. Until going to a bookseller's shop, to augment his well-furnished library, he lighted upon that famous book of Mr. Richard Rogers', called, "The Seven Treatises," which when he had read, he so affected, not only the matter, but also the author of the book, that he took a journey unto Wethersfield, on purpose to hear a sermon from that Boanerges. When he had heard the heavenly passages that fell from the lips of that worthy man, privately as well as publickly, and compared therewithal the writings of Greenham, of Dod, and of Dent, especially, "The Pathway to Heaven," written by the author last mentioned, he saw that they who were nicknamed Puritans, were like to be the desirablest companions for one that intended his own everlasting happiness; and pursuant unto the advice which he had from Dr. Ames, he associated himself with a pious company in the university; who kept their meetings in Mr. Wilson's chamber, for prayer, fasting, holy conference, and the exercises of true devotion. § 4. But now perceiving many good men to scruple many of the rites practised and imposed in the Church of England, he furnished himself with all the books that he could find written on the case of conformity, both pro and con, and pondered with a most conscientious deliberation the arguments on both sides produced. He was hereby so convinced of the evil in conformity, that at length, for his observable omission of certain uninstituted ceremonies in the worship of God, the Bishop of Lincoln, then visiting the university, pronounced upon him the sentence of Quindenum; that is, that besides other mortifications, he must within fifteen days have been expelled, if he continued in his offence. His father being hereof advised, with all paternal affection, wrote unto him to conform; and at the same time interceded with the Bishop, that he might have a quarter of a year allowed him; in which time, if he could not be reduced, he should then leave his fellowship in the Colledge. Hereupon he sent him unto several Doctors of great fame, to get his objections resolved; but when much discourse and much writing had passed between them, he was rather the more confirmed in his principles about church-reformation. Wherefore his father, then diverting him from the designs of the ministry, disposed him to the inns of court; where he fell into acquaintance with some young gentlemen, who associated with him in constant exercises of devotion: to which meetings the repeated sermons of Dr. Gouge were a continual entertainment: and here it was that he came into the advantageous knowledge of the learned Scultetus, chaplain to the Prince Palatine of the Rhine, then making some stay in England. § 5. When he had continued three years at the inns of court, his father discerning his disposition to be a minister of the gospel, permitted his proceeding Master of Arts, in the university of Cambridge: but advised him to address another colledge than that where he had formerly met with difficulties. Dr. Carey, who was then Vice-chancellor, understanding his former circumstances, would not admit him without subscription; but he refused to subscribe. In this distress he repaired unto his father, at whose house there happened then to be present the Countess of Bedford's chief gentleman, who had business with the Earl of Northampton, the Chancellor of the university. And this noble person, upon the information which that gentleman gave him of the matter, presently wrote a letter to the Vice-chancellor, on the behalf of our young Wilson; whereupon he received his degree, and continued a while after this in Emanuel-Colledge; from whence he made frequent and useful visits unto his friends in the counties adjoining, and became further fitted for his intended service. But while he was passing under these changes, he took up a resolution which he thus expressed before the Lord: "That if the Lord would grant him a liberty of conscience, with purity of worship, he would be content, yea, thankful, though it were at the furthermost end of the world." A most prophetical resolution! § 6. At length, preaching his first sermon at Newport, "he set his hand unto that plough, from whence he never afterwards looked back:" not very long after which, his father lying on his death-bed, he kneeled, in his turn, before him for his blessing, and brought with him for a share in that blessing, the vertuous young gentlewoman, the daughter of the Lady Mansfield, (widow of Sir John Mansfield, master of the Minories, and the Queen's surveyor) whom he designed afterwards to marry: whereupon the old gentleman said, "Ah, John, I have taken much care about thee, such time as thou wast in the university, because thou wouldest not conform; I would fain have brought thee to some higher preferment than thou hast yet attained unto: I see thy conscience is very scrupulous, concerning some things that have been observed and imposed in the Church: nevertheless, I have rejoiced to see the grace and fear of God in thy heart: and seeing thou hast kept a good conscience hitherto, and walked according to thy light, so do still; and go by the rules of God's holy word: the Lord bless thee, and her whom thou hast chosen to be the companion of thy life!"-Among other places where he now preached, Moreclake was one; where his non-conformity exposed him to the rage of persecution; but by the friendship of the Justice-namely, Sir William Bird, a kinsman of his wife-and by a mistake of the informers, the rage of that storm was moderated. § 7. After this he lived as a chaplain successively in honourable and religious families; and at last was invited unto the house of the most pious Lady Scudamore. Here Mr. Wilson observing the discourse of the gentry at the table, on the Lord's day, to be too disagreeable unto the devout frame to be maintained on such a day, at length he zealously stood up at the table, with words to this purpose: "I will make bold to speak a word or two: this is the Lord's holy day, and we have been hearing his word, VOL. I.-20 and after the word preached, every one should think, and speak about such things as have been delivered in the name of God, and not lavish out the time in discourses about hawks and hounds." Whereupon a gentleman then present made this handsome and civil answer: "Sir, we deserve all of us to be thus reproved by you; this is indeed the Sabbath-day, and we should surely have better discourse: I hope it will be a warning to us." Notwithstanding this, the next Lord's day, the gentry at the table were at their old notes; which caused Mr. Wilson again to tell them, "That the hawks which they talked of, were the birds that picked up the seed of the word, after the sowing of it;" and prayed them, "That their talk might be of such things as might sanctifie the day, and edifie their own souls;" which caused the former gentleman to renew his former thankfulness for the admonition. But Mr. Leigh, the lady's husband, was very angry; whereof when the lady advised Mr. Wilson, wishing him to say something that might satisfie him, he replied, "Good madam, I know not wherein I have given any just offence; and therefore I know of no satisfaction that I owe: your ladyship has invited me to preach the good word of God among you; and so I have endeavoured according to my ability now such discourse as this, on the Lord's day, is profane and disorderly: if your husband like me not, I will be gone." When the lady informed her husband how peremptory Mr. Wilson was in this matter, he mended his countenance and carriage; and the effect of this reproof was, that unsuitable discourse, on the Lord's day, was cured among them. § 8. Removing from this family, after he had been a while at Henly, he continued, for three years together, preaching at four places by turns, which lay near one another, on the edges of Suffolk-namely, Bumsted, Stoke, Clare, and Candish. Here some of Sudbury happening to hear him, they invited him to succeed the eminent old Mr. Jenkins, with which invitation he cheerfully complied, and the more cheerfully because of his opportunity to be near old Mr. Richard Rogers, from whom afterwards, when dying, he received a blessing among his children; yea, to encourage his acceptance of this place, the very reader of the parish did subscribe, with many scores of others, their desires of it; and yet he accepted not the pastoral charge of the place, without a solemn day of prayer with fasting, (wherein the neighbouring ministers assisted) at his election: great notice was now taken of the success which God gave unto his labours in this famous town; among other instances whereof, one was this: a tradesman much given to stealing, as well as other profane and vicious practices, one day seeing people flock to Mr. Wilson's lecture, thought with himself, "Why should I tarry at home to work, when so many go to hear a sermon?" Wherefore, for the sake of company, he went unto the lecture too; but when he came, he found a sermon, as it were, particularly directed unto himself, on Eph. iv. 28: "Let him that hath stole, steal no more;" and such was the impression thereof upon his heart, that from this time he became a changed and pious man. § 9. But if "they that will live godlily, must suffer persecution," a peculiar share of it must fall upon them who are zealous and useful instruments to make others live so. Mr. Wilson had a share of this persecution; and one A-n, was a principal author of it. This A-n had formerly been an apprentice in London, where the Bishops detained him some years, under an hard imprisonment, because he refused the oath ex officio, which was pressed upon him, to tell "Whether he had never heard his master pray against the Bishop?" The charity of well-disposed people now supported him, till he got abroad, recommended by his hard sufferings, unto the good affections of the Puritans, at whose meetings he became so conversant, and thereupon such a forward and zealous professor, that at length he took upon him, under the confidence of some Latinity, whereof he was owner, to be a sort of preacher among them. This man would reverence Mr. Wilson as his father, and yet upon the provocation of seeing Mr. Wilson more highly valued and honoured than himself, he not only became a conformist himself, but also, as apostates use to be, a malignant and violent persecutor of those from whom he had apostatized. By his means Mr. Wilson was put into trouble in the Bishop's courts; from whence his deliverance was at length obtained by certain powerful mediators. And once by his tricks, the most noted pursivant of those times was employed for the seizing of Mr. Wilson; but though he seized upon many scores of the people coming from the lecture, he dismissed the rest, because he could not meet with Mr. Wilson himself, who by a special providence went out of his direct way, to visit a worthy neighbour, and so escaped this mighty hunter. Afterwards an eminent lady, happening innocently to make some comparisons between the preaching of Mr. Wilson and one Dr. B. of B., the angry Doctor presently applied himself unto the Bishop of London, who for a while suspended him. And when that storm was over, he, with several other worthy ministers, came to be wholly silenced in another, that was raised upon complaints made by one Mr. Bird, unto the Bishop of Norwich against them. Concerning this ill Bird, there happened one passage hereupon, which had in it something extraordinary. Falling very sick, he had the help of a famous and skilful physician, one Dr. Duke of Colchester; who having left his patient, in his opinion, safely recovered, gave Mr. Wilson a visit, with an account of it. "Recovered!" says Mr. Wilson; "you are mistaken Mr. Doctor; he's a dead man!" The Doctor answered, "If ever I recovered a sick man in my life, that man is recovered." But Mr. Wilson replied, "No, Mr. Doctor, he's a dead man; he shall not live: mark my words!" The doctor smiled; but for all that, before they parted, the news was brought them that the man was dead. indeed, and "the Lord known by the judgment which he executed." But at last Mr. Wilson obtained from the truly noble Earl of Warwick, to sign a letter, which the Earl bid himself to draw up, unto the Bishop, on his behalf; by the operation of which letter, his liberty for the exercise of his ministry was again procured. This Bishop was the well-known Dr. Harsnet, who a little while after this, travelling northward, upon designs of mischief against the reforming pastors and Christians there, certain ministers of the south set apart a day for solemn fasting and prayer, to implore the help of Heaven against those designs; and on that very day he was taken with a sore and an odd fit, which caused him to stop at a blind house of entertainment on the road, where he suddenly died. § 10. At last, "being persecuted in one country, he must flee into another." The plantation of a New-English colony was begun; and Mr. Wilson, with some of his neighbours, embarked themselves in the fleet, which came over thither in the year 1630, where he applied himself with all the vigour imaginable, to encourage the poor people, under the difficulties of their new plantation. This good people buried near two hundred of their number, within a quarter of a year after their first landing; which caused Mr. Wilson particularly to endeavour their consolation, by preaching on Jacob's not being disheartned by the death of his nearest friends. in the way, when God had called him to remove. And how remarkably, perhaps I might say, excessively liberal he was, in employing his estate for the relief of the needy, every such one so beheld him, as to reckon him "the father of them all:" yea, the poor Indians themselves also tasted of his bounty. If it were celebrated, as the glory of Bellarmine, that he would sell his goods, to convert them into alms for the poor; yea, that Quadam, die proprium Atramentarium Argenteolum, ut ditaret Inopes, inter pignora obligavit:* our Mr. Wilson, though a greater disclaimer of merit than Bellarmine was, not only in his writings, but on his death-bed it self, yet came not behind Bellarmine for the extension of his charity. To give instances of his, even over-doing liberality, would be to do it injuries; for indeed they were innumerable: he acted as if the primitive agreement of having "all things in common," had been of all things the most agreeable unto him. I shall sum up all, in the lines of an elegant elegy, which Mr. Samuel Bache, an ingenious merchant, made upon him, at his death: When as the poor want succour, where is he Can say all can be said extempore? Vie with the lightning, and melt down to th' quick God, Christ, and saints, accept, but Wilson sent it. The ergo of his syllogism's love. So bountiful to all: but if the poor Was Christian too, all's money went, and more, His coat, rug, blanket, gloves; he thought their due But he was most set upon the main business of this new plantation: which was, "to settle and enjoy the ordinances of the gospel, and worship the Lord Jesus Christ according to his own institutions;" and accordingly, • On one occasion he pawned his own silver inkstand to raise money for some poor people. |