352, LIVES OF THE PURITANS. came to hear him, with a view to find fault, make sport, and accuse him ; who returned home convinced of their sins, inquiringwhat they must do to be saved. His labours were so extensively useful, that the change wrought among the people, and the good order of his congregation, became the subject of universal admiration. He was commonly denominated THE APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. During Mr. Rothwell's abode at Barnard-Castle, he was deeply afflicted with a complaint in his head ; and though heobtained considerable relief, he never perfectly recovered. Having laboured at this place many years, he removed to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, where he continued preaching to the end of his days. After his removal to this place, he is said to have been concerned in casting out a devil, a curious account of which is given by our author.. During his last sickness he was deprived of the exercise of his reason, when Mr. Britain, vicar of Mansfield, waited upon him, and inquired what' he then thought of conformity. In their conversation, Mr. Rothwell sometimes said one thing, and sometimes another, evidently not knowing what he said. Mr. Britain, however, propagated a report that Mr. Rothwell recantedhis nonconformity. This was a most notorious calumny. At certain intervals during his sickness, his conversation was free, cheerful, and spiritual. His friends inquiring how he did, he said, " I shall soon be well. I shall ere long be with Christ." A brother minister having prayed with him, he smiled and said, " Now I am well. Happy is he who lath not bowed his knee to Baal." He then re- quested those about him to sing a psalm; and while they were singing his immortal spirit took its flight to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb for ever. He died in 1627, aged sixty-four years. Mr. Rothwell possessed "a clear under- standing, a sound judgment, a strong memory, and a ready utterance; and was accounted a good linguist, a subtle disputant, an excellent orator, and a learned divine."-f JOHN PRESTON, D. D.-This celebrated divine de- scended from the Prestons of Preston in Lancashire, was born at Heyford in Northamptonshire, in the year 1587, and educated first in King's college, and then in Queen's' college, Cambridge. In the latter situation hewas pupil to the pious and learned Mr. Oliver Bowles, when he made Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p. 72-74. t Ibid. p. 67.
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