THOMPSON-OATES. 427 God, however, in his last sickness, to remove the clouds of darkness from his mind, and to administer sweet consolation to his soul. He fell asleep in the Lord, December 10, 1666, in the enjoyment of great peace and comfort. " Mark the perfect man, and behold, the upright ; for the end of that man is peace." Mr. Thompson had so warm an affection for the welfare of his people, and was so ardently zealous in the propagation of the gospel among them, that he laid aside his own ease and worldly advantage, and wholly employed himself in promoting the salvation of their souls.. SAMUEL OATES, father to the infamous Titus Oates,+ was a popular preacher among the baptists, and a fellow-labourer with Mr. Thomas Lamb, at the meeting-house in Bell-alley, Coleman-street, London. Edwards, who is mostly angry with separatists from the established church, denominates him a weaver, and endeavours to place him in the most odious light. It appears, from this author, that he spent much time in travelling through different parts of the country, with the view of disseminating his opinions. Speaking of the county of Essex, he says, ""Oates hath been sowing his tares and wild Oates in those parts these five weeks, without any controul, and hath seduced and dipped many in Bucking river; and when that is done, he bath a feast in the night, and then the Lord's supper. All these are the, works of darkness." If Mr. Oates observed these things in the night, the fault, if there were any,was none of his. The intolerance of the times would not allow such exercises to be observed Hist. of New England, p. 161. + The following account is given of this man : He was restrained by no principle, human or divine like Judas, he would have done any thing for thirty shillings, and was one of the most accomplished villains that we read of in history. He was successively an anabaptist, a conformist, and a papist ; and then again a conformist. He had been chaplain on board the fleet, whencehe was dismissed for an unnatural crime. He was a man of some cunning, moreeffrontery, and the most consummate falsehood. Soon after the accession of James H., he was convicted of perjury, upon the evidence of above sixty reputable witnesses. He was sentenced to pay a fine of two thousand marks; to be stripped of his canonical habit ; to be whipped twice in three days by the common hangman ; and to stand in the pillory at Westminster-hall gate, and at the Royal Exchange. He was, moreover, to be pilloried five times every year, and to be imprisoned during life. The hangman performed his office with uncommon rigour. The best thing James ever did was punishing Oates for his perjury ; and the greatest thing Oates ever did was supporting himself under the most afflictive part of his punishment with the resolution and constancy of a martyr. The sera of Oates's plot was the grand sera of Whig and Tory.-Granger's piog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 201, 202, 148.
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