Randall Bates

Randall Bates was a most holy man, an excellent preacher, and a zealous nonconformist, for which he was prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts, and committed to the Gatehouse; where, after a confinement of twenty months, he died through the hardships of the prison. Mr. John Cotton, who was his contemporary, denominates him " an heavenly saint;" and says, " he suffered in the cause of nonconformity, being choked in prison." Nor could his release be obtained, though Dr. Hcring, a learned and excellent physician, carneslly solicited Bishop Ncilc for his enlargement, declaring that his life was in danger.^ But the suit of the physician was repulsed with reproaches, and the blood of his patient was spilt through the extreme rigour of his confinement. He died in the year 1613.|| During Mr.

* Granger*! Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 819. t Kennel's Chronicle, p. 693. $ Firmin's Real Christian, p. 67. lldit. IG70.

% Bishop Nolle, it is said, " was always reputed a popish and Arminian prelate, a persecutor of all orthodox and godly ministers, and one who preferred popish and Arminian clergy, making choice of them for his chaplains.'* He'was accused of these things to his majesty by the house of commons, in 1698, and complained of in several parliaments.—JVjnine'fl Cant. Doome, p. 531.

J Cottoo's Answer to Williams, p. 117.—Prince's Chron. Hist. vol. i. p. 28.

Bates's imprisonment he wrote a book, entitled, " Meditations whilst he was prisoner in the Gatehouse, Westminster," which shews him to have been a person of great humility and piety. It discovers a mind strongly attached to the author's views of christian doctrine and church discipline. His views of the latter appear to have been a compound of presbyterianism and independency, as some of his expressions favour the one, and some the other form of church government.