N E A 
654 
body has, or at lead: a flumes, the liberty of going abroad 
when he pleafes. Yet undoubtedly, if the king, by writ 
of Ne exeat regnum under his great leal or privy feal, 
thinks proper to prohibit him from fo doing, and the 
fubjeft difobeys, it is a high contempt of the king’s pre¬ 
rogative, for which the offender’s lands lhail be feized 
till he return, and then he is liable to fine and imprifon- 
ment. i Haw/t. P. C. c. 22. 1 Comm. c. 7. 
At prefent this writ is occafionally granted on a fuit 
being commenced againft a man in the chancery, when 
the plaintiff fears the defendant will fly to fome other 
country, and thereby avoid the juflice and equity of the 
court; which hath been fometimes praftifed: and, when 
thus granted, the party mult give bond to the mafter’of 
the rolls, in the penalty of ioool. or fome other large 
fum, for yielding obedience to it; or fatisfy the court, by 
anfwer, affidavit, oc otherwife, that he hath no defign of 
leaving the kingdom. 
NE'A, a river of Norway, which runs into the Soelbo- 
lake in the province of Drontheim. 
NE'A, in ancient geography. See Neapolis. —Alfo, 
a town of the Troade, according to Pliny, but placed by 
Steph. Byz. in Myfia.—Alfo, an illand of the ZEgean Sea, 
placed by Pliny between Lemnos and the Hellefpont, and 
confecrated to Minerva. 
NE'A PA'PHOS, a towm of the illand of Cyprus, fixty 
ftadia from Palse Paphos, according to Strabo. It was 
fituated in the fouth-weft part of the illand, in a gulf 
formed by the promontory of Zephyrium. 
NEAF, f. [ nefi , Icelandic.] A fill. It is retained in 
Scotland, and the north of England : pi. neaves. See 
Neif. —Give me thy iieaf, Monfieur Muftardfeed. Sluihefp. 
NEAGEDE'YN, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Pilfen : two miles fouth-eaft of Taus. 
NEAGH, a river of Wales, which runs into the Con¬ 
way fix miles below' Llanroft, in the county of Denbigh. 
NEAHOS'NOS, a town of Croatia: four miles north 
of Carlftadt. 
NEAL (Daniel), a learned Englilh Proteftant-diffent- 
ing divine, was born in London in the year 1678. Hav¬ 
ing loft his parents when very young, the care of his edu¬ 
cation devolved on his maternal uncle, w'ho fent him to 
Merchant Taylors’ fchool, where he continued till he be¬ 
came the head fcholar; but, from an unwillingnefs to 
fubfcribe to the church-articles, he declined an offer made 
him of an exhibition to St. John’s college, Oxford. 
About the year 1696 he entered himfelf as lludent in a 
diffenting academy under the direction of Mr. Rowe, an 
eminent tutor. After fpending three years in this femi- 
nary, he went for farther improvement to Holland, where 
he profeeuted his ltudies during two years at the univer- 
fity of Utrecht, under the celebrated profeffors d’Uries, 
Grtevius, and Burmann; and then he removed to Leipfic, 
where he remained another year. In 1703 he returned to 
his native country, in company with Mr. Martin Tomkins, 
and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Nathaniel Lardner, and foon 
began to officiate as a preacher. In 1704 lie was chofen 
affiftant to Dr. Singleton, minifterof an independent con¬ 
gregation in Alderfgate-ftreet; upon whole death, in 
1706, he was elefted to the paftoral office among them. 
In this connection he continued thirty-fix years, difcharg- 
ing the duties of his office with the greateft afliduity and 
zeal. 
The fmall portion of time which he allow r ed himfelf 
from his official fervices, as a preacher and pallor, he de¬ 
voted to the ftudy of hiftory; and in 1720 he publifhed 
his work, under the title of “ The Hiftory of New Eng¬ 
land, being an impartial Account of the civil and eccle- 
fiaftical Affairs of the Country, &c.” This work, which 
confided of two volumes oftavo, contains an entertaining 
and inftruftive narrative of the firft planting of the gofpel 
in a foreign heathen land, and of the rife of an infant 
commonwealth, ftruggling with a thoufand difficulties, 
but triumphing over them all, together with biographical 
memoirs of the principal perfons in church and date. In 
NBA 
172a Mr. Neal published “A Letter to Dn Francis Hare, 
Dean of Worcefter, occafioned by his Reflections on the 
Diffenters, &c.” and in the fame year he gave the public 
“A Narrative of the Method andSuccefs of inoculating the 
Small-pox in New England, by- Mr. Benjamin Coftnan, 
&c.” On the appearance of this piece, her royal high- 
nefs Caroline princefs of Wales fent for Mr. Neal, to ob¬ 
tain from him fome farther account of the aftual practice 
of inoculation. 
_ From this period hepublilhed only fome finglefennons 
till the year 1732, when he fent into the world the firft 
volume of his great work, “ The Hiftory of the Puritans, 
or Proteftant Non-conformifts, from the Reformation to 
the Death of Queen Elizabeth, with an Account of their 
Principles, &c.” The circumftances that gave rife to this 
publication were as follow: Some years before, Dr. Ed¬ 
mund Calamy, in his Abridgment of the Life of Baxter, 
had laid before the public a view of the (fate of non-con¬ 
formity, and of the charafters and bufferings of its princi¬ 
pal adherents, during the period immediately fucceecting- 
the Aft of Uniformity in 1662. This work fuggefted 
to Dr. John Evans the defign of writing a Hiftory of Non¬ 
conformity from the Reformation to the Commencement 
of the Civil Wars in England in 1640. Mr. Neal was 
requefted to take up the hiftory from that period, and to 
carry it on to the Aft of Uniformity. Dr. Evans had not 
by any means accompliffied his work at the time of his 
death in 1730 ; but before this Mr. Neal had finiftied his 
intended labour,and had rendered his manufcript in every 
refpeft ready for the prefs. The deceafe of Dr. Evans 
obliged him to take up the hiftory from the reformation 
to the year 1640, in order to render his own w'ork com¬ 
plete and more generally interefting. Mr. Neal had not 
long publifhed his firft volume, when he faw he had abun¬ 
dant encouragement to proceed with the undertaking; 
and in the year 1733 he published a lecond volume. It 
was not till the year 1736 that he gave the public his third 
volume; but, during the interval, he engaged with other 
minifters in certain leftures preached in London, junify¬ 
ing and recommending the principal topics of the Chrif- 
tian religion, and expofing the erroneous tenets of the 
church of Rome. In 1738 Mr. Neal publifhed his fourth 
volume, which brought down the hiftory of non-con¬ 
formity to the Aft of Toleration in 1689. By this work 
he has fecured to himfelf a permanent and unfading repu¬ 
tation : it is thus defcribed by Dr. Jennings : “ The ftyle 
is molt ealy and perfpicuous; and the judicious remarks 
which he leads his readers to make upon fafts as they go 
along, occafion his hiftory to be not only more entertain¬ 
ing, but to be moreinftruftive and ufeful than molt books 
of that kind.” 
In a controverfy which he had with Dr. Maddox, Mr. 
Neal publifned “ A Review of the principal Fafts ob~ 
jefted to in the firft Volume of the Hiftory of the Puri¬ 
tans,” which was confidered to be written with great 
judgment, and to eftablifh the author’s charafter as an 
accurate and diligent hiftorian. His health now began 
to decline, or he would, probably, have vindicated the 
other volumes from the animadverfions of Dr. Zachary 
Grey. This talk has been very judicioufly performed by 
Dr. Toulmin, in Notes to a new edition of Mr. Neal’s 
Hiftory. Mr. Neal, after a long feries of illnefs, died at 
Bath in 1743. “ He had,” fays his biographer, “ filled 
the relations of domeftic life with integrity and honour; 
and his lofs occafioned a deep regret in the hearts of his 
family. In his public connexions, he was a prudent 
counfellor, and a faithful fteady friend.” He was pro¬ 
bably a Calvinift in his religious faith ; but neither his 
charity nor his friendffiips were confined to men of his 
own opinions. The Bible alone was his flandard for re¬ 
ligious truth; and he was willing and defirous that others 
ftiould have the fame liberty of judging of its contents as 
he claimed for himfelf. He had married a filler of the 
celebrated Lardner, by whom he left a fon and two daugh¬ 
ters. His fon, Mr. Nathaniel Neal, an eminent attorney, 
a and 
