But Jonathan Mitchell, pondering deeply upon the wages he saw paid at his
very hearthstone, to the sin of his miserable old friend, snatched his own
soul from Satan's jaws. And thenceforward his path lay in pleasant places,
and he prospered exceedingly in the world, so that "of extream lean he
grew extream fat; and at last, in an extream hot season, a fever arrested
him, just after he had been preaching.... Wonderful were the lamentations
which this deplorable death fill'd the churches of New England withal....
Yea ... all New England shook when that pillar fell to the ground."
[Footnote: _Magnalia_, bk. 4, ch. iv. Section 16.]
Notwithstanding, therefore, clerical promises of gentleness, Massachusetts
was not a comfortable place of residence for Baptists, who, for the most
part, went to Rhode Island; and John Clark [Footnote: For sketch of
Clark's life see _Allen's Biographical Dictionary_.] became the
pastor of the church which they formed at Newport about 1644. He had been
born about 1610, and had been educated in London as a physician. In 1637
he landed at Boston, where he seems to have become embroiled in the
Antinomian controversy; at all events, he fared so ill that, with several
others, he left Massachusetts 'resolving, through the help of Christ, to
get clear of all [chartered companies] and be of ourselves.
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