PENRY. 67 are not schismatics. Therefore the foundation of popery is overthrown, and consequently there is no church in popery." To prove that ministers who do not preach, are not ministers, he reasons thus They are no ministers," says he, " because their ministry is evil and profane ; and their ministry is evil and profane, because there is no mention made of it-in the word. A ministry not mentioned in the word, is no ministry, but a profane constitution. The Lord .bath expressly set down every ministry of the New Testament, that Should be in the church unto the world's end. But he bath not once mentioned the ministry of mere readers; because it is not a preaching ministry, and therefore no ministry at all.". Dr. Some, it is said, wrote with great vehemence against him. According. to my author, 44 He called this worthy man, proud Penry. Penry had a dignity to which Some was a stranger. His dignity stood in a superior, habit of thinking : Some's in gown, title, and bluster. Some wrote like a man who meant to bring Penry into hemp, and himself into lawn."t Mr. Penry felt deeply concerned for the conversion and salvation of his countrymen ; on which account he was anxiously desirous to, have a learned ministry in Wales. His laudable desires and endeavours to promote this great object, are applauded even by Dr. Some, his great antago- nist.t He is supposed to have been the first, since the commencement of the reformation, who preached' the gospel in Wales. Some suppose, that he laboured in the ministry chiefly in his native country, and that he went thither upon his leaving the university. This, however, appears very improbable. Mr. Thomas intimates, that he was probably the first, since the reformation, who openly and publicly preached adult baptism. "And," says he, "I am inclined to think, that hewas the first who administered that ordinance by immersion, andupon a professionof faith, in and about Olchon, in the principality."5 Though Wood denominates him a notorious anabaptist, it does not appear from his Confession of Faith, or from any other source of information we have met with, that he ever espoused the sentiments of the baptists. Nevertheless, if what the writer above cited observes, be correct, Mr. Penry was of the Some's Defence, p. 175, 183. Edit. 1588. + Life of Ainsworth, p. 68. f Some's Godly Treatise, p. 33. Edit. 1588. § 'Thomas's MS. History, p. 43.
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