Bohemia, the king's sister, had earnestly solicited Charles, that collections might be made throughout England in aid of the poor banished ministers of the Palatinate of the Rhine. This part of her husband's dominions had been subjugated in a religious war by the papist emperor of Germany and the ministers were driven into exile. The king was disposed to grant the desired brief for the collections: but Laud interposed to prevent it, first, because those impoverished ministers, suffering as they were for the faith, were Calvinists and Presbyterians; and secondly, because, in the brief, the Church of Rome is said to be anti-christian. From whence it would follow, as his lordship inferred, that Rome "was in no capacity to confer sacerdotal power in ordinations, and, consequently, the benefit of the priesthood, and the force of holy ministrations, would be lost in the English Church, forasmuch as she has no orders but what she derives from the Church of Rome." As the result of Laud's opposition, the brief was altered, and the undertaking fell through. Upon this, Mr. Davenport united with Doctors Sibbs, Gouge, and other puritan divines, who pitied the necessities of their exiled brethren of Germany, in promoting a private subscription for their re

lief. As soon as the bishop, whom Milton calls "the grim wolf," heard of this charitable proceeding, he arraigned its promoters before his infamous High Commission, and stopped the business. This is the man so fondly lauded by the "Oxford divines," as the "martyred Saint William!" And this, indeed, was one of the least of his misdoings.

Up to this time, Mr. Davenport had been a conformist. Though disliking many things enjoined in the established church, and resolute to have them reformed, he persuaded himself that it was his duty, for the present, to practice them. When he heard that John Cotton had resigned his church at Boston in old England, and was endeavoring to escape to America, Mr. Davenport sought a conference with him, not doubting but he should convince Mr. Cotton, that he ought to conform, rather than to leave his flock. In the " Life of John Cotton," we have given some account of the interesting conferences held for this purpose, in which Mr. Davenport was assisted by two other learned and noted ministers. Instead of bringing Mr. Cotton over to their views, the result was, that they went entirely over to him.

There was no

resisting the meekness and mildness of that

VOL. II. 23

godly and erudite man. Mr. Davenport also discussed these matters with bishop Laud, who, trusting to the terrors of ecclesiastical penalties, made the remark ;-" I thought I had settled his judgment." The prelate was vexed to find himself mistaken, and to learn that Mr. Davenport had resigned his benefice, and fled across the seas from the pursuivants who were after him with their warrants. And yet the relentless oppressor testified to the moral worth of the fugitive in a speech to the house of Lords, speaking of him as "a most religious man, who fled to New England for the sake of a good conscience!"*

From the time of his becoming an avowed non-conformist, Mr. Davenport was made to feel the wrath of his diocesan. Being seasona

bly warned of what was in preparation against him, he felt it his duty to secure himself by flight. He was too conscientious to leave his flock without their full consent. He was not one of those who "too slightly and suddenly quit, what they had before so seriously and solemnly accepted: as if their pastoral charges were like their clothes or upper garments, to be

* Answer to Lord Say's speech.

put off at pleasure, to cool themselves in every heat." He convened the principal members of St. Stephen's church. Owning their right in him as their pastor, he declared that no danger should drive him from any service or exposure they might require at his hands. He then asked their advice in regard to the existing exigency. After sad and serious deliberation, they discharged him from all special obligation to them, and sorrowfully consented to accept his resignation.

Finding that his retirement from his sphere of pastoral duty did not exempt him from the eager pursuit of the bishop's officials, he betook himself to Holland, in the latter part of 1633. The blasts of persecution only convey the winged seeds of truth upon the pinions of the wind. The stormy breath of opposition may blow with all its fury. It cannot quench the flame. It will but scatter the glowing sparks, and kindle each of them to a living blaze, and spread around a wider conflagration.

On getting to Holland, Mr. Davenport became colleague with Rev. John Paget, for many years pastor of an English church at Amsterdam. For some six months, affairs went on happily. the senior pastor, an aged man, was a violent

But

Presbyterian; and, among other things, insisted that baptism should be administered to all children who might be presented for the purpose. This indiscriminate baptism of all children without regard to the character of the parents, was the practice of the Dutch churches. Mr. Davenport utterly refused to sanction such a practice, and argued strenuously against it. A warm controversy on this subject arose between him and Mr. Paget. The latter procured a decision of the Dutch classis or presbytery, to which their church belonged, adverse to his colleague. Mr. Davenport, who was as much opposed to presbyterial government as he was to the profanation of the sacrament of baptism, would not acquiesce in that decision. Being constrained, after some six months, to retire from the public duties of his ministry, he restricted himself to lecturing catechetically on Sabbath evenings to a small assemblage which met at his lodgings. But even this private meeting was forbidden by the civil authority. Beside the usual strife of tongues, this dispute occasioned a pamphletary war; of which the last publication was Mr. Davenport's "Apologetical Reply," printed at Rotterdam in 1636.

Satisfied by this time, that the yoke of Dutch