470 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. after them, hungering for the' food Of their souls. When our pious divine was in Bristol, he lodged at the house of Mr. Listun, whose children he used to teach the following lines Thy sin: thy end: the death of Christ: The eternal pangs of hell The day of doom: the joys of heaven: These six remember well. . Thus this holy and humbleman would bedoing good both to young and old wherever lie went ; and such was the zeal of many in those times, that they would go from Bristol to hear him preach in his own country. Mr. Wroth and his brethren, Mr. Erbery and Mr. Cra- dock, were exceedingly harassed and persecuted in Wales, when they resolved to preach the gospel in all places, whether consecrated or unconsecrated. In imitation of Christ, they went about doing good, wherever they had an opportunity : and when they were persecuted in one city; or ha one part ofthe country, they determined, in obedience to Christ, to flee unto another.. Upon the prospect of the national confusions, Mr. Wroth, being an old man, wished, in submission to the will of God, to be at rest before the sound ofwar was heard in the land. Herein-his desirewas granted. He died a little before the sword was drawn, about the beginning of the year 1642.+ WILLIAM RATHBAND was a puritan divine of great eminence in his day. He preached nineteen years at a chapel in Lancashire, but afterwards, being much persecuted for nonco.lormity, removed into Northumberland. Having published a bookagainst the Brownists, which Dr. Stilling- fleet quoted to prove that preaching, when prohibited by the established laws, was contrary to the doctrine of all the old nonconformists ; Mr. William Rathband, his son, in a letter to Mr. Barer, assures him, " That his father was not to be reckoned among those who held that sentiment, since he exercised his ministry, though contrary to law, for many years at a chapel in Lancashire ; and after he was silenced he preached in private, as he had opportunity, and the times would bear, of which I myself," says he, "was some- times a witness. Afterwards, upon the invitation of a 4. Thomas's MS. Eccl. Hist. p. 295, 296. t Thomas's MS. Hist. of Baptists, p. 637.
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