SYMONDS. 39 would not have their children baptized till they came to years of understanding, and for weavers and ignorant mechanics preaching; when he spake of these men's gifts, and their having the Spirit, before learned men and men bred at univer- sities, with a great deal of this stuff. It' is a sad thing, that Sir Thomas Fairfax, that valiant andwell-affected gentleman, should have such kind of chaplains and preachers upon all occasions to preach before him. I have spoken the more of this Mr. Symonds, because I hear he is nominated one of the itinerary preachers of Wales ; that so the country and ministers may be aware of him ; and that the assembly, when he comes to be approved of, may do their duties, and not let him pass so easily as they did Mr. Cradock. "* From this curious narrative it appears that Mr. Symonds was of the baptist persuasion ; and it is further observed, that he was approved and appointed by the house of commons to preach in Wales. He was living in the year 1646; but was a different person from Mr. Joseph Symonds, pastor of the church at Rotterdam in Holland, a brief memoir of whom is given in the next article.t JOSEPH SYMONDS was some time the worthy assistant of Mr. Thomas Gataker, at Rotherhithe, near London ; but afterwards he became rector of St. Martin's, Ironmongers'- lane, in the city. Having espoused the sentiments of the independents, he forsook the church of England, left his benefice, andwent to Holland. After his departure, Arch- bishop Laud, in the year 1639, pronounced against him the sentence of deprivation, by which the good man lost his living, after he had given it up.t Mr. Symonds having sacrificed his benefice, to escape the storm of persecution, settled at Rotterdam, where he was chosen pastor to the English church, in the place of Mr. Sydrach Sympson. In this situation, his deportment and his doctrine were par- ticularly conciliatory, andhis labours eminentlyuseful.§ Mr. Edwards, to reproach his sentiments and to cloud his memory, says, " that his independent church at Rotterdam was over- grown with anabaptism ; and that he wrote to his friends in England, saying, he was so pesteredwith anabaptists, that he knewnot what to do."11 Mr. Robert Park, afterwards one of Edwards's Gangrma, part iii. p. 241, 242. f Ibid. p. 131, 243. Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 559. Bailie's Dissuasive, p.84, 175. I Edwards's Gangrwna, part ii. p. 15.
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