business, and danger of health and life, the ways and weather being sometimes very bad.. And, VI. Since he left Conformity, he was decreed suspended, for non-appearance at the court, tho' he had no notice given him of the day, week, month or year, when he should appear: and that suspension was openly read in the church. "Now, says he, to close: If they can truly say, that I have herein falsified, relating more than they have objected, or less than they have proved against me, then I shall be content to continue under the censure, tho' illegally passed upon me; or put my neck into this intolerable yoke, and submit to such unmerciful drivers. William Quipp.” Some inferences from hence of his own drawing. 1. That the court supposes perfect conformity to be a duty; and that to be the sense of their canonical oath and consequently, that such ministers as have made the least omission are perjured, and have forfeited their livings; and that it is in their power and at their pleasure, to take the forfeiture when they will.-2. But it is plain the thing is impossible, and therefore the law is unjust. Our late bishop Sanderson says, Lex de re prorsus impossibili ferri non debet; si feratur Tyrannica est; 3 dejure nulla, nec quenquam obligat in conscientia." De Consc. Præl. 6. §. 6-3. The court rules at will: For he that hath an unseasonable law to exe cute, rules as much at will as he whose will is his law. 4. Religion, that good thing, brought down to us of these times thro' a sea of martyrs blood, is very unsafe in such hands who have an unfeasable Conformity to execute: for such may cast out the best and retain the worst. I shall do them no wrong if I say, that at present they discountenance the most conscientious, whom they fear, and favour none but such as are like themselves.-5. This rigid Conformity is against charity. We ought not to do evil to our neigh bour. (and it is evil to persecute for such trifles) and there is a sanction upon it, Psal. xv. 3. He that doth, shall not stand on God's holy hill. We are to give no offence to, nor destroy the weak, &c. Can the church, as they call it, absolve us from these duties ?-6. 'Tis against the peace of our neighbourhoods: For the court is inade the common sink, into which all malicious persons, having a spite against their neighbours, do disgorge themselves, as I have often known. As it is a truth, that without law there could be no living, so were these laws prosecuted to the utmost, there could be no living tioned And 3. That he could not possibly avoid the campany of excommunicate persons upon occasion: one being Collector the assessments for four years past. I. Again, bout the year 1672, (the other cause being eteria. Le vas articted against for the same things. were aaded, ne abbreviation of some offices. To Leanswered as before, that he was no incumbent nor curate: and arther, hat he thought it left to the discretion Lumisters, ametines to abbreviate the one and omit the dener's 12 aw cause. The act of parliament put an end cungs. Notwithstanding which the judge of urtaxes in abil of charges, tho' the cause was ned; nu he refusing to pay it, was again Se gast in tor for the same things, and for every Wednesday and Friday weekly, Teary: tot catechizing daily; not bowing And not wearing a canonical coat. To awwert at hese were Statuta minorum gentium TALL HANN VU servationis, as Bp. Sander cails them: and in this case, site. But the judge of the court zecause was let fall. But yet again for the org: To which were added, his tion service at the high altar; the omis der may within five or six years. To 2 ascetice. But that answer being tho Yom, subrogate, sus puties, charged upon - from whence #staying this gre Living neither-7. How much it is against piety, take from the pen of a Conformist. A curse is denounced against them that remove the land-marks, Deut. xxvii. 17 And it falleth most heavy on them that remove the limits in God's worship, (as being boundaries of the highest consequence) and turn may into must, and convenient into necessary.—Ob. jection. The church does not pretend to make necessaries. Answer. She pretends to have power to impose such things, and then they are necessary. For imposition destroys their indifference.-8. And lastly, I appeal to all men of judgment, whether this high-conformity does not look like a subtle design of some cunning men, to advance and enrich themselves, and impoverish the country, inslave the subject, supplant the civil magistrate, and engross all power to themselves; for to such base ends it serves, and not at all to the public good. At present few or none, if wrong'd by the court, dare to appeal to the common law, knowing their extravagant power; and if any does, they can easily pick out of the vast body of their law, some matter against him, and so cite him to the court, and there keep him ten or twenty years, (as they did me) till they have wearied him, and made him glad to submit and pay what they list. I have oft sought peace, but could not have it. I appealed first to Bp. Sanderson, and he told me, that he would speak to his son about my business; but this was a mere evasion: next, to Bp. Fuller; but he told me, as a great secret, that the chancellor, Sir Edward Lake, had so large a patent, as that in a manner the whole episcopal power was taken away from him. Then to Bp. Barlow; but he was a man too reserved, and never visited in all his time, and so left the court to do as they would. Then to Dean Brevint; and he told me I was in a mistake about canon 122. For tho' the Bp. was not there in person, yet he was in power, and what the court did he did. And then to Bp. Gardiner for the last wrong; but his answer was, That if I was wrong'd I might right myself at the common law, and so turned away from me! And now I appeal to all the world, if our religion, ministry, property, &c. be not in danger under such a Conformity. William Quipp. I the rather publish this account (says Dr. Calamy) for the sake of Mr. Olyffe and Mr. Hoadly (with whom he had a controversy;) and I am very inclinable to believe, had either of them met with such treatment as Mr. Quipp, it would would have a little altered their apprehension, as to the oath of canonical obedience, the force of the canons, the constitution and discipline of the church, and the necessity of a farther reformation; and their stile in the debate about these matters. JOSEPH FARROW, M. A. Of Magd. Col. Camb. His case was somewhat particular. He was not ejected in 1662, nor did he professedly quit the church, but was cast by providence into a station where he had leisure to reflect on the terms of Conformity, which by degrees became more and inore disagreeable to him; so that he willingly continued in a private capacity, tho' he preached in public occasionally to the last. He was born at Boston of religious parents, and educated in the free-school of that town. When he left the university, he for some years became tutor to a young gentleman at Louth. He had the first offer of a free-school newly erected at Brigge, but refused it, not liking the employment. He was episcopally ordained; and after he had been chaplain to Lady Hussey of Cauthorp, and Sir Richard Earl of Stragglethorp successively, he returned to Boston, and was curate there to Dr. Obadiah Howe till his death, Feb. 27, 1683. He supplied the Dr.'s place till a new vicar succeeded him, and preached constantly with great applause. He removed from thence into the family of Sir William Ellys of Nocton, where he continued chaplain for nine years, with great satisfaction to himself and the whole family. He sometimes went with the family to London, where he often preached in the church with good acceptation. There he contracted a familiar acquaintance with Dr. Fowler, (afterwards Bp. of Gloucester) the famous Mr. Locke; Dr. Tho. Burnet, master of the Charter-house, and other persons of learning and moderation. He had also a very intimate correspondence by letters with Mr. John Spademan when he was in Holland, as well as a personal acquaintance and great friendship with him in England. He often preached at Nocton in the afternoon, either in the church or in a consecrated chapel in the house. He was violently seized with the palsy, about the beginning of June, 1692, of which he had some symptoms about a year before; supposed to be occasioned by his studious and sedentary life. He went to Newark upon Trent for better advice, where he lay about seven weeks, and died, July 22, 1692, aged about 40. He was buried in the chancel of that church, in the grave of the last minister, He |