VW' ontasiaisi5111, E. ROGERS. 343 that if I were gone "to heaven, their exercises would soon be put down.". The words of the good archbishop were indeed, found true ; for his head was no sooner laid in the dust than they were put down. Mr. Rogers, having preached at Rowley about thirty years, was silenced for nonconformity ; but, as some kind of recompence, he was allowed the profits of his living for two years, and permitted to put another in his place. He made choice of one Mr. Bishop for his successor; who, for refusing to read pub- licly the censure passed upon Mr. Rogers, was himself presently silenced.i. In the year 1638, our pious divine, not allowed to open his mouth for the good of souls, in his own country, retired from the cruel oppression with many of his Yorkshire friends, and went to New England. They took shipping at Hull, and on their arrival procured land, and formed a new plantation, which they called Rowley. Here he dwelt near his kinsman, the worthy Mr. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich ; and continued about the same period that he had done at Rowley in Yorkshire.' Some time after his settle- ment in the new colony, he was appointed to preach the sermon at a public election, which is said t6have rendered his name famous throughout the commonwealth. While he was praised abroad, he was venerated at home. His ministry was highly esteemed and extensively useful among the people of his charge. The principal topics on which he insisted were, regeneration and union to Christ by faith ; and when addressing his people on,these subjects, he had the remarkable talent of penetrating their feelings, and unvailing the secrets of their hearts. His sermons and his prayers expressed the very feelings and exercises of their souls. They often stood amazed to hear their minister so exactly describe their thoughts, their desires, their motives, This excellent prelate, who had been an ornament to the university of Oxford, was no less an ornament to his high station in the church. He was noted for his ready wit ; and was equal, if not superior to Bishop Andrews, in the faculty of punnin, He had an admirable talent for preaching, -which he never suffered tole idle; but used to go from one town to another to preach to crowded congregations. He kept an exact account of the number of sermons which he preached after his preferment; by which it appears, that he preached, when peal] of Durham, 721 ; when Bishopof that diocese, 550; and when Archbishop of York, 721 ; in all, 1992. He died March 29, 1628; when his wife, a person of most exemplary wisdom, gravity, and piety, generouslygave his library, consisting of 3000 volumes, to the library of the cathedral of York.-Le Nave's Lives, vol. i. part ii. p. 114.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 343. Mather's Hist. of New England, b. iii. p. 102.
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