PARTRIDGE-SYMPSON. 311 to learn. He was author of several pieces, the titles of which have not come to our knowledge. RALPH PARTRIDGE was a most worthy minister, and a great sufferer from the persecuting prelates. He was hunted by the severity of the bishops, as he used to express it, " like a partridge upon the mountains, till at last he was resolved to get out of their reach, and took flight to New England," Upon his arrival, he settled at Duxbury in the colony of Plymouth, and was held in very high repute through the country. The synod of Cambridge,in 1648, made choice of him, together with Mr. Cotton and Mr. Mather, to draw up their model of church government. He was a person of great humility and self-denial, and always content with the meanest circumstances. When most of the ministers of Plymouth colony left their places, on account of their want of a sufficient maintenance, this good man continued with his people to the last. He lived a pious and unblamable life, possessed a grave and solid judgment, was famous in dispu- tation, and much honoured and belovedby all who knew him. This excellent servant of Christ was scarcely ever interrupted in his ministry by bodily sickness, during the period of forty years. He died in a good old age, in the year 1658.i. SYDRACH SYMPSON, B. D.-This meek and quiet divine received his education in the university of Cambridge, and afterwards became a celebrated preacher in London. He was appointed curate and lecturer of St. Margaret's church, Fish-street; but his preaching soon gave offence to Arch- bishop Laud, who, in his metropolitical visitation, in the year 1635, convened him before him, with several other divines, for breach of canons. Most of them having promised sub- mission, they were dismissed.# By the intemperate super- stition and bigotry of Laud, and the violence with which he exacted conformity, many eminent divines were driven out of the kingdom. Among these were Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Thomas Goodwin, Mr. Philip Nye, Mr. Jeremiah Bur- roughs, Mr. William Bridge, and Mr. Sympson. They all retired to Holland, and were afterwards denominated the five pillars of the independent or congregational party; and, in .1* Mather's Hist. of New England, b. iii. p. 99. + Morton's Memorial, p. 153. Wharton's Troubles of Laud, Sol. 1. p. 536.
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