R. PARKER. 239 the good man escaped. When the officers came with the warrant to search the house, to their great mortification he could not be found.. - After this signal providential deliverance, he retired to the house of a friend in the neighbourhood of London, where a treacherous servant in the family gave information to the bishop's officers, who came and actually searched the house where he was ; but, by the special providence of God, he was again most remarkably preserved. For the only room in the house which they neglected to search, was that in which he was concealed, from whence he heard them swearing and quarrelling one with another one protesting that they had not searched that room, and another as con- fidently asserting the contrary, and refusing to suffer it to be searched again. Had lie been taken, he must have been cast into prison ; where, without doubt, says our author, he must have died.f Mr. Parker having been favoured with these remarkable interpositions of providence, fled from the stormand went to Holland, and would have been chosen pastor to the English church at Amsterdam, had not the magistrates been afraid of disobliging King James. For the burgomasters of the city informed them, " that, as they desired to keep friendship with his majesty of Great Britain, they should put a stop to thatbusiness."f His settlement at Amsterdam being thus prevented, he went to Doesburg, and became preacher to the garrison; where, about eight months after his removal, he died, in the year MIL§ During his short abode at Doesburg, he wrote several very affectionate letters to Mr. John Paget, minister at Amsterdam in which he discovers a becoming resignation to the will of God, saying, " I thank you for the pains you have taken for me, though without success ; at which I am not dismayed, nor at all moved. I am assured it is come to pass by the will of the Lord ; who, I know, will be my God, as well out of Am- sterdam as in it."ll Mr. Parker was an able writer, a man of great learning and piety, a judicious, faithful, and laborious preacher.s In addition to the work already noticed, Mr. Parker was author of " De Politia Ecclesiastics ;" in which he main- Clark's Lives, last vol. part i. p. 22, 23. I. Peirce's Vindication, part i. p. 170, 171. t Paget's Ans. to Best and Davenport, p. 27. Paget's Defence of Church Gov. Pref. ff Ibid. I" Clark's Lives, part i. p. 22.-Ames's Fresh Suit, Pref.
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