AINSWORTH. 299 God's Love to us, 1630.-13. The Practice of Christianity; or, an Epitome of Mr. Rich. Rogers's SevenTreatises.-14. The principal Grounds of the Christian Religion.-15. Several Sermons. HENRY AINSWORTH.-This person was a celebrated scholar, an excellent divine, and a painful sufferer for nonconformity. Though little is known of him, especially during the early part of his life, his uncommon skill in Hebrew learning, and his excellent commentaries on the sacred scriptures, are held in high reputation to this day. About the year 1590, we find him a distinguished leader among the Brownists, to whom he adhered, and with whom he bore his share of grievous persecution. About the same period, among thebooks that were written against the church of England, and seized by authority, was one entitled " Counter-Poyson.". The author of this work, though not mentioned in the first edition, was Mr. Ains- worth; and as it probably drew upon him the vengeance of the ruling prelates, so it might hasten his departure into a foreign land. Though he was a nativeof England, this is all that we knowof him till he becamea resident inHolland; but at what period he removed thither, cannot be exactly. ascertained. It is most probable, however, that he accom- panied the Brownists in their general banishment, in the year 1593.+ And it is most certain that he was in Holland in 1596, when he carried on a correspondence with the celebrated Junius. Hoornbeck relates, that during Mr. Ainsworth's abode in Holland, he made a voyage to Ireland, and there left some disciples. Mr. Ainsworth lived at Amsterdam, where his external circumstances, like those of the church in general, were very low. He is said to have been porter to a bookseller, who, having discoveredhis skill in the Hebrew language, made it known to his countrymen. Mr. Roger Williams, founder of Providence Plantation in New England, in whose testimony we have reason to confide, informs us, "that be lived upon nine-pence a week, and some boiled. roots."§ The account which the Brownists give of them- selves is, " that they were almost consumed with deep poverty ; loaded with reproaches ; despised and afflicted by all. 'H The reception which they met with from a * Nears Puritans, vol. i. p. 441. + Ibid. p. 468, 495.-Lifeof Ainsworth, p. 13. t Ibid. p. 14. 4 Cotton's Answer to Williams, p. 119. Life of Ainsworth, p. 15.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=