LIVES OF THE PURITA,NS. wards lie removed to Dedham, where he continued the rest ofhis days. He was a grave and judicious divine. His great gift lay in the delivery of the solid truth which he had prepared with a peculiar gesture and elocution, so that few heard him without trembling at the word of God.. He was a most popular and useful preacher. God was pleased to own and bless his labours above most others, especially in awakening careless sinners. He was indeed one of the most awakening preachers of the age. Bishop Brownrigg used to say, " John Rogers will do more good with his wild notes, than we (the bishops) with our set music. "+ His con- gregation, on lecture days, was collected from all the country round about; and his church was not only thronged, but numerously surrounded by such as could not gain ad- mittance. t Mr. Rogers was a thorough puritan, yet of a most humble and peaceable behaviour. He loved all who loved Christ, and was greatlybeloved by them. But in the year 1629, for refusing conformity to the superstitious and tyrannical impositions of Bishop Laud, his lecture was suppressed.s This was a great affliction to holy Mr. Rogers ; who, con- cerning those impositions, used to say, " Let them take me and hang me up by the neck, if they will but remove those stumbling-blocks out of the church.1 It does not appear whether he was ever restored to his lecture. He died Octo- ber 15, 1656.11 Mr. John Knowles, afterwards silenced in 1662, closed his eyes and preached his funeral sermon... Mr. Matthew Newcomen, one of the ejected noncon- formists in 1662, succeeded Mr. Rogers in his ministry at Dedham.++ It is related of Mr. Giles Firmin, who also was one of the ejected nonconformists, that he was converted when a ()oy at school, by the ministry of Mr. Rogers. He went late to hear his lecture,' and crowded to get into the church. Mr. Rogers, observing young Firmin's great earnestness, sermon to a very crowded audience in Haverhil church, on the accession of King James, he caught a violent cold, which occasioned his death the following day.-Clark's Lives, last vol. p. 154.-N7ern's MS. Calm p. 264. Calumny's Account, vol. ii. p. 294. + Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 106. Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. ii. p. 191. Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 373. Mather's New England, b. iii. p. 113. SI Baker's MS. Collee. vol. xxxviii. p. 443. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii. p. 174. +t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 196.
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