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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	england_n	king_n	pope_n	3,876	5	6.8205	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A83515	The third part of Gangræna. Or, A new and higher discovery of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and insolent proceedings of the sectaries of these times; with some animadversions by way of confutation upon many of the errors and heresies named. ... Briefe animadversions on many of the sectaries late pamphlets, as Lilburnes and Overtons books against the House of Peeres, M. Peters his last report of the English warres, The Lord Mayors farewell from his office of maioralty, M. Goodwins thirty eight queres upon the ordinance against heresies and blasphemies, M. Burtons Conformities deformity, M. Dells sermon before the House of Commons; ... As also some few hints and briefe observations on divers pamphlets written lately against me and some of my books, ... / By Thomas Edvvards Minister of the Gospel.; Gangraena. Part 3	Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647.	1646 (1646)	Wing E237; Thomason E368_5; ESTC R201273	294,455	360

to speak with me but must send others I am easily enough to be spoken with refusing none as all know who come to me besides how did Master Burroughs know any such had been with me to make me such offers and that I refused and what if some reported to him that which was false might not he be easier abused by a report for he speaks not this of his own knowledge he never came to me nor was the man ever desired to confer with me about any of these particulars then I can be mistaken in this businesse to whom these offers of conferences and satisfactions should have been made 3. For that Master Burroughs page 18. taxes me with concerning what I related about his going out of the Kingdom in my Antapologie that had I been willing to have conferred with him about it as he desired before I printed he should have so fully satisfied me that I could never have stumbled at this I Answer I never was unwilling to confer with Mastet Burroughs about this or any other thing that he should have desired and I can say it truely if he had sent the least boy at any time to me to have desired a conference with me and appointed me where to meet him I should have waited on him but for what is here written I neither know nor remember any such thing that Master Burroughs either by writing or word of mouth ever desired to have spoken with me about his going out of the Kingdom and certainly at that time when I was writing my Antapologie there was no such great distance between Master Burroughs and me but that he might either have come to me or spoke to me of it when he met me occasionally or I should have come to him none of which ever were moved to me and I cannot but wonder at Master Burroughs writing of this and divers other passages 2 As for that hee said hee should have satisfied me upon conference that he went out of the Kingdom not upon the ground I alledge but upon another a call from the Church of Roterdam which he relates page 19 20 21 22. I must confesse I am unsatisfied in it now and so I beleive are all rationall men and let the Reader but aske Master Marshall and Master Calamie who knew the businesse well and Master Burroughs at that time whether they do not beleive he went over to Roterdam upon a complaint made of some words spoken about the Scottish Warre and if I should have given the Reader all that I have drawn up by way of Answer to this it would abundantly clear me and lay open Master Burroughs weaknesse very much but I shall only hint this Suppose the King had in this War prevailed over the Parliament and taken the City and just upon that time Master Peters and Master Wels had gotten away in all haste to New England and suppose after this some man writing of Master Wels and Master Peters departure from England should have expressed this as the ground the danger they were in upon the Kings taking London now if Master Peters and Master Wels should by way of Answer have denied this to be any cause and have alledged their solemne call to their Churches in New England being s●nt for again and again and their purposes of going expressed yea and that in the Pulpit before ever the King was in a way of taking London would not all men laugh at such an Answer For is not the contrary evident by the experience of their staying in England now they may stay safely notwithstanding all their call and being sent for they stirre not and just so it was with Master Burroughs and I am confident that had it not been for the danger of those words he would no more have gone to Roterdam then Master Peters and Master Wels go to New England and as himselfe tels the story his putting of giving his resolution of going defering from time to time and from place to place to make any conclusion ●ill the businesse of words grew to a height declares plainly as much besides Master Burroughs at that time was not of the Independent judgement as appears by his Book put out in the yeare 38. writing By Jeremiah Burroughs Minister of the Gospel which was not long before his going over whereas all his Books he hath put forth since he went to Roterdam are By Jeremiah Burroughs without Minister of the Gospel which to them who know the Controversie is a clear proofe he was in the yeare 38. no Independent though afterwards in the writing his other Books he was and therefore declined that Title Minister of the Gospel And whereas in the body of this Third Part in two or three severall places I take occasion to relate some things of Master Burroughs which may by some be ill taken because he cannot answer for himselfe and may be interpreted a speaking evill of the dead I desire to let the Reader know they were both written and printed off long before Master Burroughs sicknesse and death and indeed no understanding man will once imagine a Booke of above Forty sheets could be made written out and printed in a month especially by one who Preaches often and hath many irons in the fi●e at the same time and to put it out of all question besides my own testimony the Book-seller and Printer can testifie this Third Part hath been above this quarter of a yeare in the Presse a printing A● for that Pamphlet written against my Second Part Entituled Gangraena playes Rex I Answer breifly Gangraena playes the Parliament that is conforms to what the Parliament hath expressed in the foure or five first yeares of their sitting against the Sectaries and I do offer to make good what I have written in Gangraena against the Sects out of the Declarations Remonstrances Ordinances Covenant Messages and Transactions of the Parliament with Scotland and their Instructions to the Assembly upon divers occasions and could make a better Parallel between the passages in Gangraena and the passages in Declarations Remonstances c. against the Sectaries then the Author of that Pamphlet hath done and am likely to do it though a Postscript is not the proper place for it only I say this would to God there had not beene some men among us and that in place too to have so carried things and brought matters to that passe as to give too great occasion unto many to say The King was a true Prophet in what he spoke in his Declarations concerning Anabaptists Brownists and Sectaries As for that Pamphlet cald Lanceters Lance for Edwards Gangraena I have lately received from two godly Ministers in Suffolk a large relation by way of justification and proofe of what in my Second Part of Gangraena was written of Lanceter as also some other passages related in those papers concerning Lanceter one Chidly and Barrowe but they containing a whole sheet of paper are too much to

statesman in his Polit. tels us The same Last will not fit an English and a Scottish foot The English must be ruled more by love Now if two nations so neer in one Iland are not alike free but must be differently governed then certainly Nations remote from one another are not alike free Besides to particular persons yea bodies of people many providences accidents may fal out to make one and the same people and particular persons not so free as sometimes they have been there are some Parents who were free but having incurred the Law are tainted in bloud so their children also some are taken captivs or have sold themselves for a necessity and so their children are servants to A nation having bin saved by some Prince from ruine though before a free state may now make him and his Heirs according to such Lawes King over them nay Amesius in his Cases of Conscience saith It cannot be denied but that a people forced by necessity may sell themselves to a King to be all his servants Gen. 47. 23. 5. T is apparent that in one and the same Nation as England all the subjects have not the same priviledges and freedoms but some have more then others some are not liable to be pressed to war to bare such Offices serve in Juries c. as others are some have voices viz. Freeholders to chuse Knights of Shires others have not some Cities Towns have Charters and large priviledges in severall particulars to send Burgesses to Parliament which other Towns have not and certainly the Peerage of England have priviledges and liberties which every Jack-straw hath not 6. I demand of the Sectaries whether in their Pamphlets speaking of election and consent they meane an immediate present choyce and consent of the present men now to be governed or else an election consent in the first constitution of this Kingdom and Government by our Ancestors many hundred yeers ago Now if they mean this last how do they know but that this Government wherein the King and Lords have such a power was by consent and agreement it being consented such a man should be King and such persons Nobles who by birth should have such power and then such people according to such agreements should have power to chuse some men who together with King and Nobles should make Laws by which the Nation governed the King should have such power Nobles such priviledges and people such liberties but now if they meane the first an immediate election of the present peopl that they are to obey none but so chosen 't is most false and a principle destructive to the sundamentall government of this Kingdom and destroying the House of Commons as well as the King and Lords and for the clearing of that I would propound two things 1. That in this Common-wealth of England none have any power of Government at all either in a lower or higher Sphere either by election of the whole body of the people for all chuse not but some onely or founded upon election as the sole cause and ground for none of the people can chuse neither are men capable to be chosen till according to Lawes Writs are granted forth or Charters given by Princes and Lawes to such Corporations and yet then the peopl must go in chusing not according to their wills but to such rules agreed on by Laws and after men are chosen some conditions also and rules must be observed before the persons so chosen have power of government these chosen Commons must be returned and sworne take such oaths before they can ●it or if they do their election is ipso fact● nul and they made uncapable ever to fit again so that t is evident that election of some part of the people not the whole is only a partiall cause not the totall and plenary cause or rather the true cause is because such a man according to Lawes and Customes of this Kingdome is now in such a place whereof one of the conditions for such a place is election so and so determined by former Lawes but now in many Officers of this Kingdome who have power of government to heare judge and do many Acts no sort of the common people have any power at all to chuse as in Justices of Peace they have been alwayes and still are made without any such election so the Judges of the Land Sheriffs with divers other Officers and therefore much more may the King and Peers who by the fundamentall Lawes of the Land have an hered●tary power in Parliament to which the Kingdom hath agreed and yeelded obedience so many hundred yeers exercise their power without any electon of the people 2. That certainly people are bound and tied to Lawes Rules as well as Kings and Nobles and that Covenants Compacts Oaths of Allegiance c. made on their part bind them as well as Princes oaths I ever took it for granted that Princes had not been bound and their people left at liberty and freedome to do what they pleased I alwayes thought fundamentall constitutions of Government made many hundred yeers before and ancient bounds set by Lawes with birth-right inheritance having gone through an uninterrupted succession of many P●ogenitors had been a right and interest to Princes which the meer will and pleasure of common people could not have taken from them and I conceive that according to the conssitution and Lawes of this Kingdome which gives all sorts their rights though some more some lesse 't is agreed on that the Peers of this Land should have a Legislative and judiciall power and they and their heirs be in such ranck born with such and such priviledges over others 7. This Position of the Sectaries the Universal people having such a power without whose election all Government is void their Dagon and great Image which they fall down before and worship is a meer Chim●ra a monstrum horrendum a Babell which I could shatter and break so to peeces as not one stone should be left of it nor so much as the stump but I may not now give all my thoughts for feare of being too voluminous only I will hint a few things in this place by way of Question and referre the Reader to what I further say in page 154 155. c. 1. I Desire to know of these Sectaries what or who is this state Universall whether all the men women and children born in England men-servants maid-servants poore people and beggars together with those of the better sort and whether if all these or the greater part of these taken one equally as well as th' other be the state universall have they the like Soveraigne power over the King and Parliament 2. Whether in what this state Uuniversall will do with the King Lords and their owne House of Commons it must be carried by the most voices of this state universall so that if all the beggars poor people servants children be a

I shall make some Observations and Anima●●versions though breifly N●w in this Pamphlet entituled Master Peters last report of the English Wars which I heartily wish may prove his last Report of the English Wars I desire the Reader to observe two things First the maine designe and scope of these Answers and Reports Secondly the way and manner of managing i● to make his designe take not careing how falsly and partially he relates both of himself and others things manifestly known to be untrue For his designe and aime it appeares to stand in these 11. particulars as I shall point the Reader to the pages all along where he may find them 1. He is solicitous and industrious to excuse take off all blame and fault in every thing from the Sectaries and from such in the Army accounted of his Religion and way as appears by these passages among others page 8. I could adde that we take causam pro non causa we put our troubles upon Schismaticks and Opinionists and never attend the true cause There may shortly be a great change in the Netherlands but you shall find the cause not in the harmlesse An●baptists c. page 2. Only let me be your true Informer that you had nothing committed then by * ours that had not its rise from integrity and faithfulnesse to the State accompanied with such skill as the Lord was pleased to dispense and let me tell you men upon the place in such case can better judge then lookers on afa 〈…〉 off I hope you wil not lose by that bargain in the end though 〈◊〉 seem for present an ill peniworth 2. He is carefull to plead for Liberty and a Toleration of Sectaries being zealous to secure them from all harme and hurt being such a harmlesse people both in word and deed as is evident by these passages page 7 8. God useth his own ●edi● o●dy violence becommeth not Saints In Popish times the Clergy had not the c 〈…〉 ve power but subjected the civill Magistrate to do their work I wish the State keep a good bol● upon that dore I am confident the chief means to greate● an Error will be by violence and opposition when 〈…〉 ghted it dies Coal● blown get heat strength neglected grow cold I wish every one ●ight be severely punished that spoke against either Presbytery or Independency till they could define that aright and distinguish about them and their wayes then I beleeve we should have 〈…〉 um silenti●m page 〈◊〉 1. Let it be our care that after ages may not say we conquered our selves into a new slavery 3. His designe is in laying together Presbytery and Independency to advance Independency and set it on high and depresse Presbytery in comparison as in Pag. 7. speaking of Scotland hee saith It will be their mercy to keep what they have and ours to be growing up to what wee desire and again in the same page Let the present Church-Government goe on and walk 〈…〉 ly and tenderly let those that longed for it improve it E 〈…〉 at quan●um valere potest let others that are godly know it may help at least to hew stone and square timber for a more glorious building to bring from one extremity to another Where by the way the Reader may observe how he puts those that are godly by way of opposition to those who longed for the present Church-Government Let others that are Godly know it may help as if none that were godly longed for Presbyteriall Government as also how contemptibly be speaks of the Presbyteriall Government in comparison of the Independent in th●se words It may help at least to hew st 〈…〉 and square sim 〈…〉 for a m 〈…〉 e glorious building to bring from one extremity to another that is from Prelacy to Independency but I can tell Master Peters that he is deceived in Presbytery for few that ever entertain that and improve it do fall to Independency but Independency all the world may see and I have fully proved it in the First part of 〈…〉 the fourth Co 〈…〉 lary that Independent Government is the mother and 〈◊〉 of all Heresies and Errours and doth not onely help at least but is the chiefe work man to hew stone and square timber for the more glorious building of Anabapti 〈…〉 Antino 〈…〉 nisme Libertinisme yea Scep●ieisme and Atheisme and before I conclude this I desire the Reader to observe ●ow God hath left this man to wound his own cause with his own pen and against his will to speak well of Presbyteriall Government whilst hee was advancing the one and depressing the other viz. in those words to bring from one extremity to another where ●e makes Independency to be the other extreme to Prelacy and Presbytery to be the medium between them now all Schollars know In medio viz. of extremes though not of degrees co 〈…〉 it virtus and if Independency be in extremity it doth o 〈…〉 against the rule as well as Episcopacy 4. Master Peters in this his last 〈…〉 port is not only curefull to excuse protect and highly dom 〈…〉 end the 〈◊〉 and Opinions of die times but he is studying of new projects for the propagating and spreading of Sectarisme as if it grew not fast enough both in this and other Kingdomes as the Reader may easily observe in these passages Pag 8. Your demand of my thoughts of England in order to foraign States I answer with a wish viz. That forthwith we might have some choice Agents sent out as two to Sweden two to the Cantons our good friends two to the Netherlands and so to other Parts as we see cause and these accompanied with a Manifest of Gods gracious dealings with this State c. Now certainly Master Peters must be one and some other honest godly men which the Presbyterians are not as appears by what a little above I observed from Master Peters words active Independents of Master Peters acquaintance as Master H. Master B. Master P. Master T. and others who together with the Manifest of Gods gracious dealings with this State may by way of comment and enlarging tell brave stories of the Victories and Conquests of the Independents in Nazeby Field entring of Cornwall at Torrington of taking such and such Towns Cities by such and such Colonels and Commanders when indeed they either never struck a stroke at that time or were many myles absent or the work was done to their hands by others and they only sent for to have the honour to be made Governours to enjoy the flesh the skin and the oyle of the Lion and the Leviathan when they had their deaths wounds before for the proofe of which severall particulars I could give notable instances most certainly true confuting the weekly Pamphleters crying up of some men and saying nothing of others and ask where such a one was and how many strokes he struck at Nazeby Field and who routed Goring and his Horse in the West

time mistaken for had I thought that the Parliament had had no rule but their owne will to have walked by I should never have drawne my sword for them and for my part I knw no difference betwixt tyranny and such proceedings therfore I pray read the Petition of Right and the Act made this present Parliament that condemned the Star-chamber and High Commission Page 5. hee writes as followes Time was when the Parliament had to doe with the King and had the Bishops Star-chamber and High Commission to pull downe they would owne me and doe me justice c. but having served their owne turnes of me I never could have justice from them since though I think I have beene as faithfull a servant to the Common-wealth as any they ever imployed and whereas Magna Charta saith justice and right we will deny to 〈…〉 or we will defer to none yet have I waited these foure yeeres upon them at great expences and cannot get them to put their owne Votes in execution and if this be according to Magna Charta let the world judge And p. 10. speaking of the H. of Commons committing him saith O brave times and brave justice and yet for all this I say my resolution is to stand fast in the liberty and freedome wherewith Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and severall Acts made this present Parliament as also divers late Declarations have made me free and not to be intangled againe with any yoake of bondage that shall be hung about my neck by any kind of Tyrant by what name or title soever he be dignified or distinguished Master Musgrave a great Separatist as he shows himself in many passages of his Book entituled Another word to the wise writes thus of the House of Commons Courteous Reader thou maist very much wonder at the delatory and slow proceedings of the House of Commons in doing justice and right from whom the Commons of England may justly expect more then from any Judicatory being they are immediatly chosen by them and to speak properly are no more but their Stewards and servants for whose good and benefit all their actions ought to be extended Yet by their poceedings daily we see t is in vaine to expect justice from them so long as they are linked and glued in factions each to other by their private interests in their great places which ties all such amongst them to maintaine one another in all their unjust wayes and to oppresse and crush us as much as they are able all the prosecutors of just and righteous things and so to barre and stop justice that it shall have little or no progresse divers of them and their creatures Sonnes Brothers Uncles and Kinsmen and Allies in the sub-Committees having already committed so much unjustice that they are undone in their blazed honour and ill-gotten estates if justice should runne in its native luster and full current and of necessity they and their great places would quickly be destroyed O therefore that the Free-men of England had but their eyes open to see the mischeife of Members of the House of Commons men of their owne election and chusing to sit in the supreme Court of England to be entangled themselves or intermeddle with any other place whatsoever then that whereunto their Countrey have chosen them what a shame is it to see the mercinary long gown-men of the House of Commons to runne up and down like so many ●ackney Petty-●oggers from Bar to Bar in Westminster Hall to plead before inferiour Judges and besides how can such great practisers chuse but mercinarily be engaged to help their clients over a stile in case that ever they have to doe with any of their owne Committees and besides what is this else but to sell justice for money Besides what a snare is it to the new Judges who are placed in the roome of those that have bought sold and betraied the lives liberties estates of all the free Deni●ons of England to see three or foure eminent Lawyers Members of the House of Commons come before them ●n an unjust cause when they consider that if they should displease them it partly lies in their power to turne them out of their places being they are as it were wholly made Judges by the House of Commons and nominated by the Lawyers therein we profes●e seriously that to pull the gownes over these mercinary mens eares and for ever to throw them out of the House of Commons as men unfit to ●it there or to plead at any Bar in England is too little a punishment for them and the same we conceive doe they deserve that are Members of the House and take upon them to sit as Judges in inferior Courts by means of which they rob the free-men of England of the benefit of any appeale in case of injustice because they have no where to appeale to but the Parliament where they sit as Judges in their owne cause which is a most wicked intolerable and unjust thing in any Judge whatsoever we hope shortly that if these men be not ashamed of their evill herein some honest and resolute hearted English man will be so bold as publickly to post up their names as destroyers of the Kingdome And as great an evill 't is to the Kingdome for Members of the House of Commons to take upon them to bee fingerers and Treasurers of the publick money of the Kingdome because they are thereby in a condition to fill their owne coffers and do what wrong they please or else how comes it to passe that so many of their children are so richly married of late that were but meane before and no man knowes how to call them to account unlesse they deale with them as the Romans sometimes dealt with their Senators or as the Switzers dealt with their Tyrants for the money is the Kingdomes and not the Members of the House of Commons and the Kingdome ought in justice reason and right to have a publick punctuall and particular account of it and therefore it ought not to be in the hands or fingers of those that are able to make so great a faction as are able to protect them from justice and an exact account O that that gallant man Lieut. Generall Cromwell to whom the Kingdome for their preservation under God oweth so much would a little more deny himselfe and cease to be a stalking horse and a dangerous president of most dangerous consequence to these wicked mercinary Pluralists Non residentary great place men for whom an Hospitall of any great consequence cannot fall but they must be Governors of it nor a petty place in the petty bag office but they must get into it which men if the Kingdome would rightly consider it have just cause to disclaime as none of their Patrons but proclaime as their enemies and destroyers being pecuniary self-seekers For so long as Parliament men can get into their hands the riches and treasures of

any of them or all of them upon any of the points controverted and I can put forth an Answer to their new Modell and shake their Babel and if God spare me life and h●al●h but a few yeares they shall find by Gods gracious help that by my pen and preaching not with swords and armed men as they propagate their cause I shall make Independencie Anabaptisme all kind of Sectarisme and a Toleration as vild and cheap as ever L●tther made the Popes Supremacy Indulgences and Pardons Purgatory and the Doctrine of merit and however Master Goodwin pu●s a bold face upon it writing thus to cast a scorn jeare and a blur upon my writings which he cannot tell how to Answer yet I know and can prove it he and his party fear my writings and are more troubled at them then at any other mans who hath yet appeared As for Mr Burroughs Vindication presently after it came forth I drew up an Answer to it of about some ten sheets an Answer so full that hardly a line escaped without some Animadversion and had I thought his time had been so short it had come forth in his life that he might have confidered what he had done in that Answer which I had in a plaine home way charged on his Conscience and how unlike the spirit that breathed in that Book was to what Master Burroughs had written of a gracious spirit of Selfe-deniall of Love and brotherly agreement being a book made up of great passion horrible pride scornfulnesse equivocations many un truths as I have fully shewed but being more carefull and zealous of Gods name and truth then mine own and seeing that so deeply suffer in the Errors Heresies Blasphemies Insolent practises of the Sectaries I laid my Answer by from fully perfecting it till I had put forth a Third Part of Gangraena and a Treatise against Toleration then resolving to re-assume my Answer to Master Burroughs Master Goodwin and some others of them but it hath pleased God before my Third Part of Gangraena could be printed to take Master Burroughs out of this life for which I am heartily sorry and the more besides that I should have bin glad he might have read my book because I do conceive the putting it forth after his death may be liable to more mis-constructions then it could have been in his life time so that now whether I should publish it I or no or rather let it dye with Master Burroughs I am in suspense and shall advise upon it what may be best in that case however I am fully satisfied t is lawfull for a man in severall cases to put out Answers to Books though the Authors of them be dead and in regard Master Burroughs dealt so uuworthily with me I might be well excused if I should put it forth but whether I do or no I desire the Reader to take notice of my Answer to two or three particulars I for his excusing himself about that objected he gave under his hand concerning the story of Nichols by saying the story of Nichols page 79. is all false all of it being proved true and a mistake only in a Circumstance that he meant only that part of it in that page not medling with that in another page I Answer This is a new equivocation brought to salve the other for as the first was an equivocation upon the word such a meeting so this is upon the page 79. and if he intended not to deceive the Reader by possessing him against me why did he not say that part of the story of one Nichols page 79. was false but that story Master Edwards hath which implies the whole and t is apparent Mr Goodwin and all Mr Burroughs friends took it so viz. of the whole and if Master Burroughs had been alive I had provided an Appeale to his Conscience to have put him to answer me as in the presence of God whether in writing that paper sent to Cretensis he did not think men would not or could not find it out but would take it as conceiving all that story of Nichols false and if Master Burroughs had meant fairly why did he not acknowledge what was true in the story as the first part now confessed true and for the Second Part of it why did he not confesse at a meeting Master Greenhill told him such and such things and that he answered Mr Greenhill so and so and have denied it was a set meeting upon that occasion If Mr Burroughs had done thus he had dealt fairly but this would not have made good Mr Burroughs his end to breed a beleif in the Reader of the falsenesse of matters related in my book I had then bin rendred to the Reader only mistaken in a circumstance of a story which would have been accounted no great matter and the truth of the story for the substance and the severall particulars in it would have weighed down all misprision in the minds of men against me by reason of that circumstance 2. For that Master Burroughs charges me with page 2 and 3. that when I have heard vild reproachfull things against such as I owned to be godly and they living neer me in the City have sent to me to offer to satisfie me if I would confer with them and cleerly convince me of the falsenesse of such reports how the men were traduced and I abused in such reports yet that I should refuse to conferre with them and fall a laying on c. I do utterly deny that ever there was any such thing or any ever sent to me and cannot imagine any reason in the world Master Burroughs should writ so and whoever told him any such thing abused him and I could by many reasons prove the contrary if I were giving a formall Answer to Master Burroughs Book Is it likely that I who have gone on purpose to so many and do dayly upon all occasions that have write so many Letters even to remote places to know the certainty of things reported that imploy others to inquire out the truth where I cannot so well do it my self that intreat persons who relate things to me to send the eare witnesses and proofs to me that reject many reports of things which may be true and are reported with much confidence because I cānot see a full proof of them that I should decline to speak with those who send to me to satisfie me in the truth of things and whom I own to be godly No this is utterly false a very legend against my genius and constant course of proceeding in this work I taking much content in searching all wayes to be satisfied in the truth of things related me or in their falsenesse that so I may not by printing any thing mistaken give an occasion to the questioning of the truth of those things that are undoubtedly true and for further satisfacttou to the Reader there was no such thing why could not the parties themselves come