In London and the suburbs Independent ministers holding parish preferments formed a small minority. Joseph Caryl, a grave-looking man, well-known now as the author of an "Exposition of the Book of Job," and well-known then as the principal Congregational pastor within the city walls, occupied the Rectory of St. Mary Magnus. His position and influence may be inferred from his having been sent to attend upon Charles I., at Holdenby, and also to assist in the treaty of Newport, from his accompanying Oliver Cromwell in his expedition to Scotland, and from his afterwards becoming one of the ministerial triers under the Protectorate. A friend, who knew him well, observed, that his labours were great, and his studies incessant; and that his sincerity, faith, zeal, and wisdom, imparted fragrancy to his name amongst the Churches and servants of Jesus Christ. [Sidenote: _Nye--Greenhill._] Philip Nye, who has been repeatedly mentioned in these volumes, held, together with the living of Acton, the rectory of St. Bartholomew by the Exchange; and William Greenhill, who wrote a volume on the prophecy of Ezekiel, was incumbent of the village of Stepney. He had been chaplain to the King's children--the Dukes of York and Gloucester, and the Lady Henrietta Maria--and was, in this respect, like Philip Nye, one of the members of the Westminster Assembly. His faithfulness as a preacher, his rebukes of prevalent iniquity, and above all his intense appeals to the citizens of London respecting their immoralities, remind us of Chrysostom; not, however, as to his golden eloquence, but as it regards his faithful ministrations at Antioch and Constantinople. "Let our great city and citizens look to it," exclaims Greenhill, "there is scum in the city, and not a little. Is it gone out or boiled in? Was not the sword lately at your gates? Was there not yesterday great sickliness within your walls? Is not trading diminished? Have there not been strange murders amongst you? Have not many sad fires been kindled, broke out, and consumed your habitations? Was there not a plot, which hath cost some their lives, to fire your city? God hath been warning you by these judiciary dispensations, and are you bettered by them? Have all you have seen, feared, or felt, caused your scum to depart from you? If so, it is well; well will it be with you, well with your city, and well with your undertakings, and well with your posterity; but if it be boiled in, and you are the worse for all the boiling judgments and providences you have been in and under, know that some dreadful calamity, if not destruction itself, hastens, and will certainly take hold of you and your city, without speedy repentance."[209]