324. OF THE PURITANS. state of peace. (Here the conference closed, and the coma pany departed.). Mr. Strype observes of this conference, that the ministers were convinced of their error, and persuaded to conform ; but it is evident he knew not the persons, and he even ac- knowledges that he never saw the debate.+ Mr. Travers continued a decided nonconformist to his death ; and Dr. Sparke appeared at the head of the nonconformists at the Hampton-court conference, nearly twenty years after this period. t Mr. Travers continued lecturer at the Temple, with Mr. Hooker the new master, about two years, though with very little agreement, the former being a strict Calvinist, and the latter a man of larger principles ; after which, he was at length brought into trouble. Many of their sermons were upon points of controversy, relative to the doctrine, disci- pline, and ceremonies of the church. The forenoon sermon often spoke the language of Canterbury, and the afternoon that of Geneva.§ Fuller observes of Mr. Travers, " that his utterance was agreeable, his gesture graceful, his matter profitable, his method plain, and his style carried in it the flowings of grace from a sanctified 11 MS. Register, p. 508-514. 1- Strype's Whitgift, p. 170. f Dr. Thomas Sparke was born at South Somercoates in Lincolnshire, and was chosen perpetual fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford. He was afterwards presented by Lord Gray to the rectory of Bleachley in Bucking- hamshire, where he was held in great esteem on account of his piety and diligence. About the year 1575 he became chaplain to Bishop Cooper of Lincoln, who preferred him to the archdeaconry of Stow ; but this he re- signed " for conscience sake," and contented himself with his parsonage. De was a learned man, a solid divine, well read in the fathers, and much esteemed for his gravity and exemplary life and conversation. He united with the leading puritans in subscribing the " Book of Discipline." For writing a book upon the succession, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, he was brought into trouble; but, on the accession of James, " his majesty gave bim a most gracious countenance for what he bad done." He died at Bleachley in the year 1616, when his remains were interred in his own church. Wood denominates Dr. Rainolds and Dr: Sparke " the pillars of puritanism, and the grand favourers of nonconformity." But Spathe afterwards renounced his nonconformity, and published a book upon the subject, entitled, " A Brotherly Persuasion to Unity and Uniformity in Judgment and Practice, touching the received and present Ecclesiastical Government, and the Authorized Riles and Ceremonies of the Church of England," 1607. This was answered by " The Second Part of the De- fence of the Ministers' Reasons for refusalof Subscription and Conformity to the Book of Common Prayer," 1608. Also by a work entitled, " A Dispute upon the Question of Kneeling in the Act of receiving the Sacra- mental Bread and Wine," &c. 1608.-Wood's ilthenw Oxon. vol. i. p. 990, 551, 859.-Neat's Puritans, vol. i. p. 923. S Walton's Life of Hooker, p.90. Edit. 1665.
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