debate the said Faulconer was found guilty of perjury in this very matter against the Lord Craven the whole proceedings whereof you have fully related in the Narrative before mentioned This tryall and conviction of Faulconer was May 20. 1653. Hereupon Faulconer was committed to the Upper Bench prison in Southwark where hee lay till hee died Now for the second evidence of Faulconers perjury in his testimony upon which the Lord Cravens estate was sequestred and sold you have here the sad and lamentable confession of poor Faulconer himself upon his death-bed under his own hand and seal confirmed in the presence of several credible persons who were present with him on his death-bed which is to the effect following IN the Name and through the gracious mercy of God I Richard Faulconer being of sound memory and understanding do under my own hand and seal on my death-bed make and confirm this my confession with a contrite heart and penitent soul to the honor of my good God principally and particularly concerning the Lord Cravens business And first I confess I have sinned grievously against my God in taking my oath upon his holy Testament that all my information was true for after a twenty weeks sickness this was done my body being low and in much haste being much enfeebled and above three quarters of a year after I came over Sea so that I here solemnly protest that I did not then absolutely remember whether the words barbarous and inhumane rebels were expunged and these words being once named by mee they were as quickly inserted and I the Lord pardon me swore it but since I really remember those words were put out of the Petition and the Petition which Drury produced in the Upper Bench Court was the true and right Petition Drury did say that the Lord Craven would not bee seen to deliver such a Petition but hee would speak to the Queen of Bohemia I did not hear the Lord Craven say this I sinned swearing the Lord Craven said so when as Drury told it mee And truly these great sins since they perfectly came to my memory and to touch my conscience have wofully perplexed my soul so that I many times wished that the Lord would expiate them by taking my life away and granting mee repentance and pardon through the merits and sufferings of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the which the Lord for his mercies sake vouchsafe to grant Amen And here I utterly renounce all Books and Pamphlets writ by mee or any one in my vindication and especially a late Pamphlet sent to mee by Captain Bishop The cause of my writing that Pamphlet was the shame and disgrace of the world which I feared then more than the provoking of my good God besides other under actors told mee until I did that I could not think my friends would supply mee as they would if that were done liberty and money were falsly promised mee And whereas it was sworn in Court that I was imployed I here protest before the Almighty God that I never undertook any imployment nor ever any one motioned it to mee or I to any but I went over in a poor desperate condition supported by others And here I dare not say that any one bribed mee no none did but I was hastily after a great sickness provoked to it and when I made a demur at the words barbarous and inhumane Rebels Captain Bishop said if you leave that out you do nothing So I let it pass being speedily brought before the Committee where I falsly swore it True I had done great services for them but not by imployment and Captain Bishop kept mee low with small pittances so that I was at his bow c. Richard Faulconer An Advertisement to the Reader Reader I Thought here to have given thee in the attestation of this confession and acknowledgement who were present when it was signed Also some further testimony of other practises of this Quaker and how poor Faulconer to his dying day cryed out against that Rogue Bishop for so it is languaged to mee But in regard the hearing of the Lord Cravens Case in Parliament is not yet past although they have taken cognizance of it already and have appointed to enter further upon it the beginning of their next Session I shall therefore forbear not doubting thou wilt hear further of it by some hand or other So that here is you see manifestly undeniably unjust proceedings here is perjury proved and confessed What 's this to Captain Bishop Hee declares in the presence of the Lord before whom hee feares and who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and brings every work to judgement that hee is clear and innocent therein and that hee hath not used nor doth hee know of any indirect proceedings in this whole business of Craven and Faulconer Well God send him a good deliverance at the day of Judgement and to that end I heartily beg for him the grace of true repentance and pardon through the blood of Christ shed at Jerusalem And to further this work for his conviction wee shall endeavour to try and examine him here and clear I am that if any Jury in the world of discreet sober impartial and understanding men were to pass upon him they would give in this Verdict That hee George Bishop doth know of many indirect proceedings in the matter of the Lord Craven and Faulconer and that hee George Bishop himself hath used them and that therefore hee is not clear and innocent in this matter And now hear the evidence This book was written by George partly to testifie the proceedings against the Lord Craven to answer the Narrative and to justifie Faulconer there is a book published entituled The Lord Cravens case as to the confiscation and sale of his estate by judgement of Parliament related and argued and objections answered on the behalf of the Commonwealth together with a short examination of a certain Pamphlet entituled A true and perfect Narrative of the several proceedings in the case concerning the Lord Craven c. which is the Narrative before quoted wherein are all the proceedings against Faulconer Now this book the Lord Cravens case c. was printed by William Du-guard 1653. and that this book was written by George Bishop himself I suppose hee will not deny though no name bee to it the book is said to bee written on the behalf of the Commonwealth and this exprest in great Characters I would now but ask George this question why hee of all men in the world being but a Clerk or Secretary call him what you will to a Committee should undertake this private and personal quarrel against the Lord Craven in the behalf of poor perjured Faulconer and the Commonwealth I should think that a Clerk or Secretary if an honest man and impartial when hee had performed the dâ—â—â— of his place should have sate him down and not espouse any personal quarrel unless hee were particularly concerned in
's very like if the Lord prevent not Magisterially and Dictator-like almost in Cathedra to bee resolved That wee neither have nor had true Churches or Ministers among us and that wee must renounce our Ordination take it up from the people and so make all new after a mode which yet our eyes nor the eyes of our Fore-fathers have ever seen or their eares ever heard of To effect this have those Emissaries of the Roman Faction no doubt stirred up and set on foot these obstreporous Quakers though the generality of them suspect no such matter to cry down our Churches Ministers and Ordinances to whom they have now drawn in heads and pens more subtil and able who aliud agentes as it were do that for them which they themselves in their own persons openly were not able to effect or accomplish who doth not with fear and sadness that doth consider foresee that lamentable result that 's like to follow upon the contests raised and encreasing between our brethren of the Presbyterian and Independent perswasion and which by the heat and opposition of persons of ability on both sides are like to grow more high than ever But if my poor low voice might bee heard between them and Oh that the Lord would perswade them to hear I should say as Abraham to Lot Let there bee no strife between you for you are Brethren and I should beseech them in Josephs language to his Brethren Fall not out by the way But if I cannot bee heard I make this protestation disclaimer and prayer Lord let not my soul come into the secrets and let mee never partake of the delicacies of those men who make Schismatical separation destroying those Churches and Ministery wherein and by whom blessed be God thousands have been converted and saved and who are willing to reform and conform according to what is revealed in the Scripture Sure I am and experience the Mistress even of fools hath made it good unto the world that Discipline and Government in the Church hath ever since the reformation from Popery kept the Reformed Churches free from Heresie and Blasphemy getting head among them and if there were danger of an inrode and an incursion by the abuse of Government hee shall come little short of an Ideot and wise men will easily acknowledge it that doth not perceive that no Government at all every one being left to his own fancy will much more do it It 's a strange piece of madness not to put a difference between inforcing men to Religion and tolerating all Religions to the hazzarding of the true Or if putting a difference Matchivilianisme shall so far prevail with any as that so they can secure their own interests they care not for the concernments of Jesus Christ and his Gospel As for my own former undertakings by the help of the Press I have but endeavoured to discover these upstart enemies and adversaries to the truth who privily brought in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them By occasion whereof I have raised up this home-bred Adversary my own Countryman by hinting only at whose impostures in this kinde the impostume is broken and much filth and quitture hath been vomited forth from it in most unchristian railings lyings and reproachings who yet withal pretends to higher measures of Saintship and perfection than ordinary which considering and well knowing the man and his practises I concluded this with my self that if wee might judge of the conscience honesty and perfection of the Quakers in general by this man in particular wee may well assert this viz. A man may bee as vile a person as any under heaven and yet a perfect Quaker which after a brief discourse of the conversion and perfection of Quakers in general I have endeavoured to demonstrate from the practises and doings of him in special and this in his dealings in the matters of the Lord Craven and Mr. Love the ones Estate and the others Life The materials I have built my discourse with in the matter of the Lord Craven are two printed pieces the one entituled A true and perfect Narrative of the several proceedings in the case concerning the Lord Craven wherein are set forth the whole proceedings together with the Indictment Tryal and Conviction of Faulconer of Perjury in that information upon which the Lord Cravens Estate was sequestred which piece was printed and published by the friends of the Lord Craven the other is a piece entituled The Lord Cravens Case c. with a short examination of that former Narrative and this latter was written by Bishop himself in excuse and defence of himself and Faulconer of which book hee printed so few and so disposed of them as that I could not get one either here or at London until by providence I was directed to send to himself to borrow it And this I did because in his Pamphlet against mee hee quotes it and refers to it for clearing as hee thought of his innocency which if hee had refused to lend mee I intended to acquaint the world that hee had quoted his book to clear himself which could not bee come by which it may bee hee feared and therefore sent it mee or otherwise by the disposing of Divine Providence the time being come for the discovery of his deep hypocrisie hee was over-ruled so to send it For his own Confessions therein contained and Faulconers Confession upon his death-bed of that perjury which Bishop would in his book free him from being conferred and compared the whole practise and whence it arose and how it was carried on is manifestly discovered as in the discourse following to which I have added a little of his dealings against Mr. Love to let him and the world see whether hee bee not also a blood-sucker Could I have gotten his other book called A Short Plea c. which hee also published against Mr. Love I doubt not but thence I should have made a further discovery of him but hee dealt as subtilly in this as in the former printed so few as that they cannot bee gotten But I suppose what I have done is sufficient the improvement I make of the whole is this to let the world see how deeply and closely wickedness may lye lurking in our natures and what a desperate evil Hypocrisie is that a man may continue in such wickedness unrepented of and yet think himself a Saint and to have attained to perfection If by what I have herein done I may bee instrumental to bring him to repentance or his case may bee as a Pillar of Salt to season and caution others I shall bee abundantly satisfied in my labour and shall when I know it give God the glory In the mean time I rest Reader Thine and the Churches Servant RA. FARMER THE IMPOSTOR DE THROND OR The Quakers Throne of Truth Detected to be Satans Seat of LIES IT 's the great Criterion and distinguishing Character of the Generation of Quakers among us that
those other Worthies whom hee instances these allegations had been to purpose but Fox and Naylor both being Deceivers all this matter of Georges is besides the cushion And I cannot but note one thing how bold this man is with all the Quakers that are not of his perswasion as if hee had monopoliz'd the Spirit of Truth and Infallibility he brings in Naylor and his Party as Aaron and the Calf-makers and Fox and his Party as Moses the one sinning the other reproving for if this be not his meaning hee produces that and his other instances to no purpose So that hee would have Naylor the Calf and his Party those that worship him Are all the Quakers of England of his minde If not as sure it is they are not where is still their unity And they may well question George as arrogating and assuming unto himself and Foxes followers the spirit of stability and setledness In derogation of Naylor and his Adherents as he doth in page 20. whom they deny as being under the spirit of darkness page 21. And whereas hee sillily seems to triumph over us Priests as hee calls us because wee do not hypocritically and lyingly as they do pretend to bee led infallibly by the Spirits discovery of new doctrines to us as were the Apostles Let him know that wee are led and guided by the Spirit into the knowledge and belief of those truths which were so revealed by belief whereof wee attain salvation and as many as by our preaching imbrace and follow the same truths with us without more or further revelations And wee affirm and prove that so preaching our people ought to hear us and wee are to be believed But doth not the Reader perceive the blinde that George would put upon him Doth hee not discern the end of that long discourse whereby hee would draw him out of the way to cozen him that hee might not look after the matter that was of great concernment and incumbent upon George as the Quakers great Advocate to have undertaken and discharged But of that ne gry quidem as wee say not a word That which an understanding Reader would reasonably have look'd for was that George would have done them this service to have shewed how this can stand with truth That the Quakers are all at an agreement and led by one Spirit of truth When as Fox one great Apostle who also hath many followers shall charge Naylor another great Apostle who also hath many followers that hee and his Disciples are joyned against the truth As in that former Letter and that he trained up a company against it and that their iniquity doth encrease and that accompanied with wilfulness and stubbornness Is this to bee one in the truth when one considerable Party are joyned against the truth c. And another thus bear witness against them and yet they stubbornly persist If George now could have unfolded this riddle hee should have been the Quakers Oedipus or their great Apollo to resolve all their doubts and help them at a dead lift but not being able to do it hee decoyes his Reader out of the way and tells him a long story of nothing to the purpose And yet a little further it would be known for the information of all Quakers in general for I see I must bee their friend What is or was James Naylor's sin and wickedness that such high testimony is born against it as that the matter must come to blowes Wherefore do these infallible ones thus judge him and his company who are not a few and spirit It is not it seemes for his and their blasphemous practises for which the Parliament did censure him for this testimony was born against him and the sin witnessed against was long before James riding in pomp No this Fox and his Crew can allow of and so become participes criminis guilty of the same crime witness Foxe's and others papers published in print for extenuation and vindication of Naylor witness the Petitions of those eminently godly and conscientious persons who interceded for him with the Parliament and witness Bishop himself page 3. who asks What Law hath it been made appear to the Nation that Naylor hath broken And then highly aggravates his suffering as unparrallelled So that in this the Priest will grant they are agreed But still wee are to seek what was James his sin Was it because that woman Martha Simons struck him dumb and made him silent so that hee hath not since spoken in publike Why Is not this now in fashion among them generally Their silent meetings wherein like Pigs and Swine they come together and grunt and snuffle and so depart Wee read in the Gospell sometimes of a mad and raving devil that no man could tame Mark 2. 3 4. And Matthew sayes he was so fierce Mat. 8. 28. that no man might pass by that way And sometimes wee read of a dumb a silent devil so called because hee made those hee possessed dumb and silent so that they were not then free to speak And it seems the Quakers must witness these various dispensations as a part of their perfection This then is not James Naylors sin George Fox or Bishop shall do well in charity to acquaint the World of Quakers with it that they may avoid it lest they come into the same condemnation and to greater confusion and hee bee more puzled wee shall expect it when George gets up into his Throne again and if it bee that Bastard that James Naylor was charged with let them deal plainly with the World for there is since the publication of my Narrative some further discoveries of it more fully as in a book entituled The Grand Impostor examined printed for H. Brome at the Hand in Pauls-Church-yard As also another entituled An exact History of the Life of James Naylor with his parents birth education c. printed by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour both published by one John Deacon wherein there is also mention made of a Maid seduced to be a Quaker and got with childe by one Duesbury another Quaker which was confessed by her self who also affirmed that Naylor did solicite her to lie with him and possibly this may bee it for George doth not deny it neither in Text nor Margin nor doth hee say it is a lie as hee doth page 6. in the behalf of Howgil whose mouth Martha Simons affirmed shee had stopped It was a lie saith hee for his mouth was never stopped by her but alwayes open to declare against her and their deceit that is James Naylor and his company They were Deceivers then and the Matter of their deceit would be known But I must not stay here for my friend George hath page 24. something further to say to mee And I must acknowledge when I took a survey of his strength and following forces for what is past was it seemes but his forlorn And having a desire to gather up as much as I could
who were eare and eye-witnesses of these things And for his atheological cavillings and Scripture wresting and misapplyings I refer to those who are judicious in such matters to conclude between us onely there are some few things wherein I must observe unto my Reader the malicious and revengeful temper of this man in his dealing with mee I confess neither the person of my Opponent or the things are in themselves worthy of the thoughts of any serious man and I should therefore have past it over but that I minde my ingagement and promise which is to let the world see in the instance of my adversary that the conversion and perfection of a Quaker if to bee estimated by this mans is very unsound imperfect and rotten notwithstanding all their outward shewes and specious pretences any man even with half an eye as the saying is my easily discern by the matter and manner of his language that his design all along and throughout his whole Pamphlet is to render mee all the wayes hee can obnoxious to danger and the displeasure of others that are above mee wherein besides his malice his impotence is discerned in that being not able to revenge himself upon mee hee would bring mee within the reach of others who might do it for him And see how hee goes out of the wayes of truth and honesty to do it so revengeful is hee yea out of the way of his own profession so impetuously is hee hurried in his rage and passion for but minde his Courtship giving flattering titles and having respect to persons as they call our due tenders of reverence and honour to our Superiours in page 27. Justice Fell a discreet grave man one of the Judges of the Nation and Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster Well what of all this Why sayes George to mee Art thou assured hee will put up all this Oh sayes hee the instance is so foul and odious and so fill'd with scoffs and jeers that thy wickednesse therein is hard to bee exprest Thus hee there Oh lamentable Is it not pitty that any man much more a Minister of the Gospel and if you will a Priest should commit so great a crime Surely it can be no less than betraying Mr. Love to death or ruining some great mans estate by base practises perjury bribery or some such thing No but 't is as bad Why what is it Oh hearken and wonder In page 31. of my Narrative I produc'd Judge Fells wife as one bearing witness in the behalf of James Naylor and here 's my sin which hath rais'd all this out-cry I said such discerning folks cannot easily bee mistaken Ah poor impotent creature how hath rage and malice and hatred and envy besotted him Is not this man guilty of having mens persons in admiration for advantage that hee might have advantage against mee Or doth hee mock the Judge in giving him these titles so much contrary to their quaking principle The Lord help him to see the baseness of his Spirit But yet why doth hee add an c. to the criminous words quoted by himself Why surely to let the world see that his malice out-bid and out-brib'd his conscience for being convinced in himself that the words quoted would not bear so high a charge against mee as of a crime so great the wickedness whereof can hardly bee exprest hee would have it understood that the danger lay in the word c. which if it do 't is none of mine And let any one in the world read my book and say whether they can finde any thing else in that whole matter to bee charged as an offence upon mee And is this such an offence so heinous so grievous to say ironically that such discerning folk as Judge Fells wife cannot easily bee mistaken What 's this to the Judge May not a wise man a good man have a simple a perverse or a quaking wife which is not in his power to remedy further than to restrain her from their assemblies hee cannot change her judgment As for the Judge himself I meddle not I do not know him I have not heard to my remembrance other than well of him Well the Lord forgive my adversary and humble and alter him Sure I am this is far from that simplicity charity goodness that was and is in Christ Jesus Hence ex ungue leonem by this paw of the Lion or rather hoof of some more silly creature judge of the man or if you will you may take him both wayes A Lion or a Bear for his rage and fierceness and a more sottish beast for his silliness I have discovered the venom of his teeth in this the more fully to save my self and thee Reader some labour in being as brief as possibly I may in the following particulars and the next is his endeavour to traduce mee with traducing the Magistrates of our City And whereas I plead their excuse in that by their lenity at first over and above what other places in the Nation exercised towards these croaking frogs they gave them too much incouragement to nestle amongst us imputing this as just cause I had to their too much fearfulness and having been formerly over-topt and over-born by an over-swaying power by the usurpation of inferiour Officers exercised upon them and looking upon this as a part of their weakness and infirmities which because of the common frailty incident to all men even the best I did as being in the body and sensible of the same frailties Christianly and soberly alleviate not justifie how does hee most Pharisaically and proudly fall both upon mee and them in it And because I say and say now that the best Magistrates have their spots defects and failings hee concludes them to bee no Magistrates of God but men of sin evil doers and the born of the devil page 34. But because this nor any thing in my Narrative would afford matter to incense them hee runs abroad licking up the vomit of every malicious and venomous Spider to belch it out against mee and this lyingly too more suo for hee sayes that I endeavoured in the Pulpit to render them vile and odious one while likening them to Jupiters log and to George on horseback and reproaching them with the abilities of Tom Pain which hee puts in great letters as if I had mentioned his name in the Pulpit But what a bold and daring wretch is this to judge of my intentions and endeavours as if they were to render the Magistrates vile and odious When being call'd to preach unto them upon a publike occasion for administration of Justice The Lord knows my heart my endeavour was to render them honourable and precious by â—â—â—ssing them to discharge their duty and to that purpose I told them that Magistrates should not bee as Jupiters log which by lying still and doing nothing made the frogs bold with it and to leap upon and make sport with and that they should not bee as the picture
his charge could they finde or were there any thing to be found against him Simple fellow I wonder hee could mannage so great a business with so little wit because the Lord Cravens friends did not indict him but Faulconer therefore hee sillily concludes they could finde or say nothing against him Doth hee not know that it was for the Lord Cravens advantage to lay all the blame upon Faulconer and to charge him with the malice of it as well as with the fact that so they might convict him of perjury which being done and hee to his conviction having since acknowledged it by his own confession and you having confest so much and taken so much upon your self to clear him of the malice all which they knew not till you confest it Now all this as afore considered they know what to say to you By the Law it seemes and as the Judges gave their opinion bare forswearing ones self doth not bring a man within the compass of the Law against perjury unless also it bee done maliciously and wilfully And now to deliver Faulconer from the crime and conviction of perjury George at the tryal discovers the rise and ground of all this business freeing Faulconer upon his own oath of any intention of evil and mischief against the Lord Craven as knowing nothing against him that might render him culpable or any way sequestrable as you heard before but George having consulted with some body else by handsome contrivance and mannagement hath brought it to this you now see and by this confession of Georges at the tryal and Faulconers at his death-bed it is now apparent by whom it was begun and effected even by him who as before hee confesses had the mannagement of the whole And now if there were a Starchamber Court or any place of tryal for such practises they know whose eares and estate to require in part of satisfaction In the mean time let the world judge of your innocency George you have a fair estate in land plate great store rings and jewels and cabinets and brave hangings c. you can live without the honest calling of a Brewer which you could not do before you have not been a busie Bishop to no purpose you have your reward but take heed it bee not in this life only It may bee you may come to a reckoning and give an account here for all these things but sure hereafter The present Parliament hath taken cognizance of the Lord Cravens cause and it is to bee hoped they will proceed so justly and impartially that the guilt of injustice and oppression shall not lie at the doors of the Parliament of England and so become the sin of the Nation and draw a curse upon the whole for the iniquity of a few However look you to your light within and let mee tell you thus much if it do not stare you in the face and fright you 't is a sign you are blinde and hardened I was desired to ask you who did trepan Colonel Andrewes into a design for which hee lost his life when as hee had given over all thoughts of engaging till hee was moved thereunto by a Trepanner as hee declared before his death And who it was that trepan'd Sir John Gell into a misprision of treason And lastly who did trepan Mr. Love and some of that party These questions are proposed by those who are no babes in the world and yet honest and they say this Bishop can if hee will give satisfaction in You know George what these things mean and I know what the last means and they advise mee to read a book concerning Mr. Loves designes and his death written and pen'd by you and they say it will give the reader further satisfaction But you have dealt as craftily in the printing of this as of the former printed so few and kept or given so at your own dispose that I cannot get it and I am not so free to send to you for this as the former because you do not quote it against mee But yet what I finde from other pieces I have met with in this matter I will communicate to you and the world and this the rather to shew you what an hypocrite you are in charging us Priests as in scorn you call us with blood-thirstiness and my self in particular as in the title of your Pamphlet you should have pulled the beam out of your own eye before you reproacht us with a mote in ours I suppose e're I have done though it bee prettily well done already you will appear to bee not only a blood-thirsty but a blood sucking person And in the discourse of this I shall discover the ground of your so easie an entertainment of the thoughts or at least suggestions of forgerie in mee from those practises of forgery which I shall declare to have been really acted by you That you were a zealous prosecutor of Mr. Love unto yea and after death is so manifest that as impudent as you are you will not deny â—hat you prosecuted him after death appears by what you published against him when hee had no being to answer for himself wherein you endeavour maliciously to kill him twice and the latter with more cruelty than the former killing his good name and what in you lies making him a Reprobate and an out-cast from God and glory I suppose you will own that piece call'd Mr. Loves case printed by Peter Cole as well as other books you publisht against him wherein you go about most unchristianly to undervalue debase and disparage that comfort and confidence hee professed to enjoy in and at his death and this upon several accounts which I will not recount to avoid tediousness one only I 'le mention to shew your spirit of envy and bitterness it is the Animadversions upon the first Section page 34. Mr. Love say you it 's more than probable was not only vehemently exhorted incouraged importuned but even solemnly by all the sacred interests of high Presbytery conjured by his Clergie companions to die like a valiant and resolute Champion of the cause and not to bewray the least grudging of any fear or repentance for any thing hee had acted upon the service thereof lest it should bee said of Presbytery her glory was stained and betrayed by the cowardise of her first-born And page 38. Here wee have the second part of the Theatrical flourishes of Mr. Loves confidence Much might bee animadverted but I forbear you have a strange spirit that his comforts and confidence in God trouble you And then you go on to charge him with hypocrisie and lying and other base imputations all along bespattering and bespotting and sullying him as you can even to his last I know what flight touches of charity you have now and then and at the close of that Pamphlet which are inconsistent with that you had charged him before as that hee acted the part of a most unchristian Calumniator upon the Scaffold in
same page I desire you sayes hee to take notice that there is a lying Pamphlet put forth entituled A short Plea for the Commonwealth In which there are many gross lies especially in things which relate to mee and which hee himselfe is best able to speak to Hee sayes there further it is not fit for him to enter the lists with him It becomes not sayes hee a dying man to write of controversies which will beget dispute therefore sayes hee I shall not answer the book though I could easily do it but only sum up the many lyes hee relates concerning mee Thus hee And page 39. hee sayes hee supposes Captain Bishop writ that lying book And then Master Love goes on reckoning up his lyes in that book and shewes wherein and in the Margin writes the first lye The second lye and so on to the eleventh lye It will not bee to any purpose to set down the particulars because my Reader hath not the book whereby to judge of the truth or falshood I shall therefore content my self to give you what observations Mr. Love makes upon the man and his lying stories In one place hee sayes that if Bishop should name the person that should say the thing there mentioned every one that heard the tryal would cry out shame upon him viz. Bishop for telling such a lye Hee sayes another is a gross lye And another thing hee charges him with is a loud lye and sayes It is well there were many witnesses to contradict him And surely sayes hee if the Author of this book had not cast off all feare of God and regard to the good name of his Brother hee could not bee so impudent as to affirme what hee did To another hee sayes 't is notoriously false and abominably false and that although hee was not asham'd to say of him as hee did in the general yet hee durst not instance in any particular nor sayes hee will any other in my life time whilst I can answer for my self To another hee sayes Hee that will bee so shamelesse to falsifie my Petitions which are made so visible will not bee ashamed to bely my words Where hee further sayes hee Bishop charged him that Master Calamy instructed him to speak as hee did and that it was that Master Calamies good tricks might not come to light both which together with what hee charged him before hee sayes are very false To another hee sayes hee wonders the man is not asham'd to fasten that upon him which hee did And again hee sayes if this man meaning Bishop hath belied others in his book whom hee names as hee hath done mee there is not one true Page in all his book And to the eleventh lye thus If this man were not an Athiest or an Antiscripturist the example of Ananias and Saphira might make him tremble lest hee should bee stricken down dead with a lye in his mouth And again this false and deceitful man would make the world believe that this were proved against mee and then concludes this matter thus These and many other falshoods might bee found in this book if I should make a through search into it Hee calls it sayes hee a short Plea but I may call it a long lye And 't is not sayes hee for the honour of the present Government to have a common lyar to bee a Pleader for their Common-wealth And amongst all these lyes thus generally hinted I have reserved one in special wherein Mr. Love charges him not onely with lying but also with forgery which hee brings in thus page 38. And because I am belied about my examination before the Committees and may bee more abused after I am dead therefore I am necessitated to discover that jugling and baseness of Mr. S. and Capt. Bishop about my examination which I thought never to have made publick Whiles I was examined sayes hee before the Committee that pragmatical fellow Captain Bishop who I suppose wrote this lying book did put in six or eight ☜ lines into my examination which I never said hee supposing that I would bee so meal-mouth'd as not to read it or to put my hand to his forgery without any more ado but I did to his shame make him blot out at least six lines in my examination which was but very short Some of the Committee did ingeniously say sometimes that I did not speak such words as Captain Bishop did put in By his abuse of mee who would not bee abused by him I cannot but think how hee injured other men Hee goes on I did refuse to put my hand to it seeing I was abused by Captain Bishop but told them if they would give mee a Copy of it I would subscribe my hand but they denied mee a copy which made mee suspect they did not intend to deal fairly with mee as I found true after And then goes on to shew wherein and that to their conviction and concludes thence thus Wherefore I beseech the Reader not to believe any thing that shall come forth either pretended to bee my examination or the examinations of other men against mee they are but the forgeries and contrivements of Mr. S. and Captain Bishop And well might M. Love think how this Bishop injured other men and that in the like kinde I have one instance more under the hand of a godly reverent and faithful Minister of the Gospel now being well known to most of the Inhabitants of this City and many in London so to bee who writes to mee that being to bee questioned about Master Loves businesse as hee was and imprisoned Bishop sayes hee was Clerk to the Committee of Examinations and wrote down all that I said and added divers things thereby endeavouring to insware mee for which I sharply reproved him telling him that I knew his birth and breeding and therefore I did scorn to bee examined by such a one as hee was at which both hee and the Committee were much offended threatning to use much severity against me but the Lord restrained them Now George say Are not you a blood-sucker Were not the lives of these men at the stake Was not one of them actually put to death I 'le say nothing of the man I need not hee was known well enough in England his death is bewail'd by thousands and his name precious with many godly I was once drawn away by your dâ—ssimulations and lies to a prejudice against him but now I see that the most innocent when they fall into the hands of hucksters may bee rendred culpable What George what Are not only the estates of men great estates small bits with you but you can suck and swallow the bloods and lives of men Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus No marvel you turn Quaker turn Turk man or become a Jew to whom the name and Gospel of Christ and Christian is odious for shame bear not that sacred name any longer lest it bee blasphem'd by its enemies because of