are: (i.) of God's Word and Scriptures, whether they be sufficient rule of our fayth; (ii.) of the Scriptures expounded by the Church, and of unwriten tradition; (iii.) of the Church of Rome, whether it be the trewe Catholic Church, and her sentence to be received as the certayne truth. Published for the good of others by E. P. in the year 1615.’ (B.M.) This is an interesting memorial of the religious controversy of the Elizabethan age. John Ainsworth, who had abjured Anglicanism, and was imprisoned in London as a recusant, put forth a challenge to a written debate, and invited Henry Ainsworth to notice this cartel. In the reply to this the Brownist minister, writing from Amsterdam, refers to his opponent as ‘in nation and in name, and I know not whether also for nearer alliance, being meet.’ Four letters by the disputants were addressed to each other, and in the published volume Henry Ainsworth ends with a short reply. The discussion extended from 1609 to 1613. It has been said that John and Henry were brothers, but of this there is no evidence. The letters on the whole are remarkable for the earnestness and yet friendly spirit of the disputants in an age when religious controversy was apt to be bitterly personal. The answers of John Ainsworth and twenty-one other priests in Newgate, 20 March 1614, as to the doctrine of allegiance, will be found in Tierney's edition of Dodd's ‘Church History of England,’ iv. p. cciv. 20. ‘A Reply to the pretended Christian Plea for the Anti-christian Church of Rome, published by Francis Johnson, A.D. 1617. Wherein the weakness of the said Plea is manifested, and arguments alleged for the Church of Rome, and Baptisme therein, are refuted, anno 1618. Printed in the year 1620.’ (B.M.) 21. ‘Solomon's Song of Songs in English metre,’ 1623, 1626. 22. ‘A Seasonable Discourse; or, a Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists, entitled “A Description of what God hath predestinated concerning man,”’ 1623, 1642 (B.M.), 1643 (B.M.), 1645, 1651. 23. ‘Certain Notes of Mr. Henry Aynsworth, his last Sermon. Taken by pen in the publique delivery by one of his flock a little before his death, anno 1622. Published now at last by the said writer as a love token of remembrance to his brethren, to inkindle their affections to prayer, that scandalls (of manie years continuance) may be removed, that are barrs to keep back manie godly wise and judicious from us, whereby, we might grow to further perfection again. Imprinted 1630.’ The preface is signed Sabine Staresmore. The text is 1 Peter ii. 4. 24. ‘Advertisement touching some Objections against the Sincerity of the Hebrew Text, and the allegations of the Rabbins in his Annotations,’ 1639. This, although believed to have been printed separately, is included in the Annotations on the Pentateuch. It arose out of an attack by John Paget, minister of the English Reformed Church at Amsterdam, who took offence at the admission of a woman as member of Ainsworth's congregation who had previously belonged to Paget's church. 25. ‘The Old Orthodox Foundation of Religion. Long since collected by that judicious and eloquent man, Mr. Henry Ainsworth, for the benefit of his private company, and now divulged for the publicke of all that desire to know that corner-stone, Jesus Christ. By S. W.’ London, 1641 (B.M.), 1653 (B.M.). The name of the editor, Samuel White, appears at the end of the preface. Whilst not agreeing with Ainsworth's ‘preposterous zeale in the point and practise of Separation,’ yet as an eye-witness of his life in Amsterdam he praises his ‘humility, sobriety, and discretion,’ and declares that ‘hee lived and died unblameable to the world,’ except in one point, which to many is a strong testimony of Ainsworth's love of the truth. 26. ‘Two Treatises. The first, Of the Communion of Saints; the second entitled An Arrow against Idolatry, &c. To this edition is prefixed some account of the life and writings of the author [by Dr. Stuart].’ Edinb. 1789. (B.M.) 27. ‘Annotations upon the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Song of Solomon, with a Memoir of the Author,’ 2 vols., Glasgow, 1843. (B.M.)
W. Bartlett, writing in 1647, speaks of a ‘large treatise’ by Ainsworth entitled ‘Guide to Zion.’ This is not otherwise known, and may perhaps be a mistaken reference to ‘Syon's Prerogative Royal,’ which appeared in 1641, and, though without name, is regarded as the work of Ainsworth's successor, John Canne. It is, however, not what even now we should call a large treatise, and is but a lilliputian specimen of the powers of the theologians of the seventeenth century. The foregoing list will show that Henry Ainsworth was a busy and voluminous writer, both as controversialist and as commentator. He did not even disdain the muses; but his versification is of the baldest. The curious in hymnology who consult his ‘Annotations’ upon Exodus xv. will find the music to which his ‘Song of Moses’ was sung by the little church at Amsterdam. Of the Canticles he executed a metrical version. He had not the faintest breath of poetical inspiration. It is perhaps worth noting that William Ainsworth, described as lecturer at St. Peter's, Chester, wrote ‘Medulla Bibliorum: the Marrow of the Bible . . .
