Robert Nicolls

Robert Nicolls was minister of Wrenbury in Cheshire, where he was held in high repute for his excellent abilities and worthy ministerial labours. He was a man of a clear head, a tender heart, and a most holy lite, always abounding in the work of the Lord.; He was called before the high commission, and, with many of his brethren, exceedingly harassed for nonconformity. Being required by Bishop Morton to produce his arguments against the cross in baptism, the use of the surplice, and kneeling at the sacrament, he presented them to the bishop in the high commission court, when, though he was esteemed a most learned and pious minister, his lordship treated him with much scorn and abuses He was contemporary with Mr. Ball, Mr. Herring, Mr. Ashe, and other divines of distinguished, eminence, with whom he lived in the greatest friendship. During the persecution of the times, he found an asylum under the hospitable roof of the excellent Lady Bromley, of Sheriff-Hales in Shropshire; at whose house he died about the year 1630.| | He was author of the

* Mather'> Hist, of New Eng. b. iii. p. 75.—Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii. p. 355.—Tail Mr. Francis Higginson. says Dr. Mather, wrote the first book that was ever published against the qnakers, entitled, " The Irreligion of Northern Qnakers."—Hid. p. 76.

t Morse and Parish's Hist, of New Eng. p. 52.

} Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 164.

$ Paget's Defence, Pref. || Clark's Li res, p. 165.

third part of a work entitled " Some Treasure fetched out of Rubbish; or, three short but seasonable Treatises, found in an heap of scattered Papers, which Providence hath reserved for their Service who desire to be instructed from the Word of God, concerning the Imposition and Use of Significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God," 1660. His part is entitled, " Three Arguments Sylogistically propounded and prosecuted against the Surplice, the Cross in Baptism, and Kneeling in the act of receiving the Lord's Supper."