in disgrace of you and your doctrine. And you shall forfeit to the King's Majesty the sum of twenty pounds; and shall remain in gaol until you find sureties for your good behaviour, and appearance at the next assizes, there to renounce your doctrines, and make such public submission as shall be enjoined you. TAKE HIM AWAY, KEEPER.”* Upon the passing of the sentence Mr. Keach said, "I HOPE I SHALL EVER RENOUNCE THOSE TRUTHS WHICH I HAVE WRITTEN IN THAT BOOK." A brief notice may be taken of the execution of the sentence. When standing in the pillory, getting one of his hands at liberty, "he pulled his Bible out of his pocket, and held it up to the people, saying, Take notice, that the things which I have written and published, and for which I stand here this day a spectacle to men and angels, are all contained in this book, as I could prove out of the same, if I had an opportunity." On the Saturday following he stood again in the pillory at Winslow, the town where he lived, and had his book burned before him. When Benjamin Keach removed to London, and first settled with his people, they met together in a private house, in Tooley Street, Southwark, the better to conceal themselves from their persecutors. It was on the oceasion of the brief indulgence granted by Charles II. to Protestant dissenters that a meeting-house was erected in Goat Street, Horseliedown. In 1668, when twenty-eight years of age, he was ordained to the pastoral office, by imposition of hands of elders of other churches. Through the blessing of God upon his ministry, the church quickly increased to a considerable number; they had frequent occasion to enlarge their place of worship, so that it was at last capable of containing nearly a thousand people. Mr. Keach, as a zealous Baptist, was ardently engaged in the controversies of his times, upon the Baptismal question; and Mr. Baxter, who was the leading disputant on the side of the Pædo-Baptists, met in him an unconquerable antagonist. At the request of the Assembly, in 1692, he visited the Baptist churches in several parts of the kingdom to preach the gospel to them. In his journey he was accompanied by Mr. Benjamin Dennis, and it was attended with great His zeal for the denomination with which he was connected appeared in his writings in defence of it; the encouraging of ministers who came to him from all parts of the kingdom, and by promoting the erection of several places of worship. This devoted man died July 18, 1704, after a suffering and laborious work of forty-six years in the ministry. success. * Crosby, vol. 2, pp. 201, 202. The books written by Benjamin Keach amounted to forty-three, a list of which is given by Crosby. Special reference is made by Bogue and Bennett in their "History of Dissenters" to two of his works, viz., the "Tropologia, or a Key to open Scripture Metaphors," in two volumes, published in 1692; and his "Gospel Mysteries Unveiled, or an Exposition of all the Parables," folio, published 1704. Both are books for which the Christian world are under great obligation to the author. To the honour of Mr. Keach, and as the strongest proof of their value, both these performances are still in request, and continue to be sold at a high price at the present day."* It must be a matter of surprise, that amidst so much labour, suffering, and persecution, that by his pen he was enabled to leave to posterity so large a legacy of Scripture literature. ANDREW GIFFORD was amongst the most active and devoted of his times, in advancing the interests of the Baptist denomination. He was born about the year 1641, baptized in June, 1659, and was received into the church in the Pithay, at Bristol. He began his ministry in 1661; frequently preaching in St. Leonard's church, till excluded by THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY. In 1677 he was ordained pastor of the church-The Pithay, or The Friars. The forest of Ringwood, three miles from Bristol, was frequently the place of resort of Mr. Gifford and his friends in times of persecution, for the enjoyment of worship-a place where Whitfield and Wesley have since preached with so much success. The county magistrates learned that Mr. Gifford resorted to the forest. They were, it is said, "filled with great indignation;" but a good Providence preserved him from falling into their hands till the latter end of November, 1680, when he was taken by a warrant signed by no less than thirteen of them, and sent to gaol. The following is an extract from the Broadmead Records :-" On the 19th, we met on Somersetshire side, and brother Whinnell in peace. This evening Ollive and his companions searched Mr. Gifford's house for him, and Mr. Young's; first under the pretence of finding a meeting, and afterwards for arms; and made them open every box and chest, and tumbled their linen. On the 26th, they took the names of eighteen of Mr. Gifford's people, and told Mr. Crotch they must go next sessions to Ilchester. The same officers disturbed brother Gifford's meeting, and had liked to have caught Mr. Gifford." "On the 20th January, brother Gifford and his people, by reason * History of Dissenters, vol. 2, p. 287. of the extreme cold, could not stay abroad, but went into one Gold's house, a collier, beyond Dungeon's Cross. And the informers had employed two boys to dog the people, and they brought them word they went into that house; so they beset the house, and kept all in till they had taken their names, and took Mr. Gifford first to the Sun alehouse, then to Newton's Arms." The colliers were much attached to Mr. Gifford, and laboured to protect him against the officers who would endeavour to apprehend him: They would assemble in a field near the city, and surround him while he was preaching; and if likely to be interrupted by the officers, would throw a large great coat over him to disguise him, and place a pitchfork, with hay on the top of it, on his shoulder, and thus secure his safe retreat. He was once invited to preach a funeral sermon, at a market town in Somersetshire, for a wife of one of the most respected and wealthy inhabitants. Permission was granted him to preach in the parish church; but his enemies kept the organs playing so long after he was in the pulpit, that, perceiving their intention, he retired into the church-yard, and stood upon a tombstone, from which he addressed a numerous audience without any further disturbance. He was often forced to swim through great floods in his journeys, which he preferred doing rather than disappoint a meeting. And though he escaped drowning, which others who made the same experiment did not, yet he often fell into the hands of persecutors, and was treated by them with great severity. Four times he suffered imprisonment during the three hot seasons of persecution in King Charles's reign; thrice in Newgate, Bristol, and once in Gloucester Castle. It is said he had great favour in the eyes of some of the magistrates of Bristol, who could not approve of hunting SO INNOCENT AND HOLY A MAN, whose very countenance and presence struck amaze into the beholders. Once, while preaching in the chapel of the Blackfriars, Bristol, which was the place his people hired for that purpose, the Mayor and Aldermen came with the sword and other city regalia before them, and commanded him to be silent, and come down. Mr. Gifford replied, he was about his Master's business; but if they pleased to stay till he had done, he would go wherever they pleased. They accordingly did so, and when he attended them to the council-house they dismissed him with a soft reproof and caution, not to offend for the future. * Hansard Knollys' Publication, Broadmead Records, p. 470. During the period of twenty-eight years he endured a great fight of afflictions." After the Revolution he would often speak of it with great pleasure, that though many professors forsook "the good old way," and conformed from the influence of the fear of man, yet he had lost but two of his members, amongst the many that were added to his church. One of the above persons became a grievous persecutor, and both of them died miserably. He would also observe with great satisfaction that throughout the whole time he never lost a day of prayer, a meeting of conference, or for the administration of the Lord's Supper, except when he was in prison. And even there he preached and prayed with the prisoners with considerable encouragement; the gaols being remarkably reformed while he and other ministers continued in them. In Gloucester Castle Mr. Gifford had the company of Mr. George Fownes,* pastor of the Broadmead church, and left him there at the time of his remarkable deliverance. He was a very active promoter of a general union of the Baptist churches in England and Wales, and attended all the meetings in London; and it is interesting to perceive his name so often in conjunction with William Kiffin, Hansard Knollys, and Benjamin Keach, of whom respectively brief notices have been given. He died Nov. 6, 1721, aged 80, after being in the ministry sixty years, and pastor of the church nearly 44 years. The following extract is given from an elegy written to his memory: "So brave the man, so great, so good his soul, Was to bring people to the joys above. No labour, cost, nor hazards would he shun; But freely into gaols and dangers run; When Christ did call, or churches stood in need, He never flinched, but still his flock did feed With food of Angels- blessed Manna, which He daily gave to poor as well as rich; Whereby he many thousands snatched from hell, That shall with God in glory ever dwell." In the preceding biographical sketches which have been presented, only a few names have been selected that took a more prominent part in * The Broadmead Records thus refer to this good man :-"On the 29th Nov., 1685, our pastor, brother Fownes, died in Gloucester gaol, having been kept THERE FOR ABOUT TWO YEARS AND NINE MONTHS a prisoner, unjustly and maliciously, for the testimony of Jesus and preaching the gospel. He was a man of great learning, of a sound judgment, an able preacher, having great knowledge in divinity, law, physic, &c.; a bold, patient sufferer for the Lord Jesus and the gospel he preached." the concerns of the denomination at the period referred to. A notice might have been taken, and that with peculiar interest, of other names who were devotedly active during the periods which have been brought under review-such as HENRY JESSEY, M.A., who was ejected from St. George's, Southwark, a learned and pious minister of the time; JOHN TOMBES, B.D., who was ejected from Leominster, in the county of Hereford, a man of great learning and moderation. It is said of him by Wood, the Oxford writer, (referring to a controversy between John Tombes and Richard Baxter,) that John Tombes was the Coryphæus of the Anabaptists, and Edward Baxter of the Presbyterians. In the controversy, the victory, as is usual, was claimed on both sides; but Wood remarks, "All scholars then and there present, however, who knew the way of disputing and managing arguments, did conclude that TOMBES got the better of BAXTER, by far." WILLIAM DELL, M.A., ejected from Yeldon, in the county of Berks, and from being master of Caius College, Cambridge. HENRY DENNE, ejected from Elssy, and who suffered much for his nonconformity. FRANCis Bamfield, M.A., ejected from Sherborne, in the county of Dorset. He was one of the most celebrated preachers in the West of England, "and extremely admired by his hearers." He died in Newgate, a victim of the persecuting times in which he lived. FRANCIS CORNWALL, M.A., an incumbent of Mardent, in Kent, and was imprisoned for nonconformity, to wearing the surplice, to kneeling at the sacrament, the cross in baptism, and other ceremonies then imposed. PAUL FREWEN, ejected from Kempley, in the county of Gloucester. He became the minister of a Baptist church, in Warwick, was a good preacher, and a very popular man. Particular reference might also have been made to Dr. NEHEMIAH COXE, who was called to the ministry at the same time as the celebrated JOHN BUNYAN, of the Baptist church, at Bedford. He is frequently adverted to in "Crosby's Baptists." Mr. Peggott mentions him as a very excellent, learned, and judicious divine;" and Dr. DE VEIL styles him "that great divine, eminent for all manner of learning." Allusion might also have been made to WILLIAM COLLINS, who bore a conspicuous part in the General Assemblies, in London. He was associated with Dr. Coxe in the preparation of THE CONFESSION OF FAITH adopted by the General Assembly in 1689. To Mr. Collins is attributed the compilation of THE BAPTIST CATECHISM, the two forementioned productions which form so important a portion of this work. 66 Several other names might be mentioned, distinguished for piety and learning; but the more lengthened notices of WILLIAM KIFFIN, HANSARD KNOLLYS, BENJAMIN KEACH, and ANDREW |