Before we take our final leave of Dr. Arrowsmith, it may not be improper to apprize the reader of two persons whom the town successively fixed upon to occupy the vacant place of principal minister of St. Nicholas, immediately previous to their making choice of him. These, as appears to the present writer, were no other than the two _Goodwins_, _Thomas_ and _John_, who became so famous and distinguished afterwards among the English nonconformists. In a document or record above alluded to, and extracted probably from the Hall-Books, the following passage occurs.—“1629, 12 June; Mr. Mayor and Mr. Tho. Gurlyn, aldn. travel to Cambridge to move Mr. Tho. Goodwin A.M. to come hither to (be) preacher in ys town, and Mr. M. A. CC elected sd. Mr. G. if he will accept thereof.” But he did not accept of their invitation, owing probably to his having been previously chosen lecturer of Trinity church in Cambridge, of which he afterwards became vicar. {993} Having failed in their application to him, their next choice fell on John Goodwin, afterwards, if we are not mistaken, the noted minister of Coleman street, and the far-famed champion of arminianism and republicanism. He also was a Cambridge man, and had been Fellow of Queen’s College ever since 1617. He and Tho. Goodwin were both Norfolk men, and also near relations, if the present writer is not misinformed. But surely no two relations—not even Herbert Marsh and William Frend, could be more unlike one another. Thomas was a high supralapsarian Calvinist, and, of course, mortally hated Arminianism: John, on the other hand, was a decided Arminian, and one of its most redoubtable champions; and therefore held Calvinism in the utmost abhorrence. His firm and successful opposition to that system is said to have saved him at the restoration from utter ruin, in which his antimonarchical and republican productions would have inevitably involved him, when one or more of his books, together with some of _Milton’s_, were burnt by the common hangman:—a poor way, by the bye, to refute their contents, or arguments.