430 LIVES OF THE PURJTANS. the house, and threw him into the river, thoroughly dipping Dr. Calamy gives an account. of a public disputation, in which Mr. Oates was engaged with Mr. William Sheffield, a minister afterwards ejected. He says, " Mr. Oates, an ana- baptist, coming into the country, disturbed several congrega- tions, and dispersed public challenges to dispute with any minister or ministers upon the point of baptism. Several justices of the peace sent to Mr. Sheffield, desiring him to accept the challenge, and dispute the point with him in ,Leicester-castle. He yielded to their desire, and, by agree- ment, Sir Thomas Beaumont was moderator. At the entrance of the dispute, Mr. Sheffield openly protested that it was truth, and not victory, he was aiming at and pursuing; and that, therefore, if he could not answer the arguments that should be brought against him, or maintain the points he pretended to defend, against the opposition of his opponent, he would frankly acknowledge before them. He desired the same of Mr. Oates, who also agreed. Thedispute continued three hours, and was managed with great fairness and temper. At length, Mr. Oates was gravelled with an argument, and yet loudly called on by the people present either to answer, or, according to promise, to confess he could not. Where- upon he frankly confessed that he could not at present answer it. The justices, at the breaking up of the meeting, obliged Mr. Oates to give his promise that he would no more disturb the congregations in that county."+ Mr. Oates lived till after the restoration, when a place of considerable importance was offered him by the Duke of York. This temptation prevailed with him at first to conform; and he was presented to the living of Hastings in the county of Sussex. Afterwards, according to Crosby, his conscience ,smote him, and he left his living. Coming again among the nonconformists, he returned to Mr. Lamb's congregation, where he continued about five or six years, and died about the year 1666. The same author, who styles him " a popular preacher and agreat disputant," says he was minister to a bap- tist church in Lincolnsliire.# Edwards charges Mr. Oates with Edwards's Gangrmna, part iii. p. 105, 106. Calamy's Account, vol. ii. p. 421, 422.-Such disputations as that now related, and many others mentioned in this work, are to be regarded only as a sort of religious duels, which can no more decide the equity of any cause than an appeal to the sword or pistol, and ought to be as much discountenanced among all denominations, of christians. Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii. p. 60, 61.
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