Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barret, John (1631-1713)
BARRET, JOHN (1631–1713), nonconformist divine, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he proceeded to the degree of M.A. Afterwards he became a presbyterian divine, and minister of St. Peter's church at Nottingham (1656), but was ejected from his living at the Restoration for refusing to read the Common Prayer (1662). He afterwards ‘kept conventicles in those parts;’ and died at Nottingham, 30 Oct. 1713, in his eighty-third year. His funeral sermon was preached by his colleague, the Rev. John Whitlock, jun. He had a son, Joseph [q. v.], whose literary ‘Remains’ were printed in 1700. Among Barret's works are: 1. ‘Good Will towards Men, or a treatise of the covenants, viz., of works and of grace, old and new. By a lover of truth and peace,’ 1675. 2. ‘The Christian Temper, or a discourse concerning the nature and properties of the graces of sanctification,’ 1678. 3. ‘ A Funeral Sermon, preached at Nottingham, occasioned by the death of that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. John Whitlock, sen., 8 Dec. 1708,’ London, 1709. 4. ‘The Evil and Remedy of Scandal, a practical discourse on Psalm cxix. clxv.’ 1711. 5. ‘Away with the Fashion of this World. Come, Lord Jesus. Being a small legacy of a dying minister to a beloved people,’ 1713. 6. ‘Reliquiæ Barretteanæ, or select sermons on sundry practical subjects,’ Nottingham, 1714. Palmer (Nonconformists' Memorial, iii. 105) says he also wrote (7) ‘Two pieces in defence of Nonconformity against Stillingfleet.’
[Creswell's Collections towards the Hist. of Printing in Nottinghamshire, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (ed. Bliss), i. 455; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, iii. 103.]