of an imminent danger as all doe know so as the dissolution of the Parliament in the prevention thereof proved to be as the ashes of the Phenix whereof is begotten another Phenix the dissolution of that proving the generation of this hitherto in many things happy Parliament which we have now so long enjoyed and which God hath so miraculously preserved from so many desperate Cut-throats when they came armed both with power and bloody resolution to make a massacre of that sacred Senate and when the Northerne Army was designed for the like execution And should we runne over and well weigh and number the severall deliverances that God hath given both in this Kingdome and in that of Scotland from so many treacheries treasons and rebellions from the first till this present both by Sea and Land taking in the late Spanish Fleet and Armado for not the least so miraculously defeated we shall finde and acknowledge them so many miracles or miraculous deliverances and so much the more when we consider on the one side the overtopping power and undermining plots of the most cruell and trecherous sworne enemies and home-bred vipers and degenerate monsters that ever hell hatcht or Rome brought forth machinating the utter ruine of both Parliament and People Religion and Rights Lawes and Liberties City and Countrey and on the other side the weaknesse both of Parliament and People to defend themselves and the State from imminent ruine when in our greatest dangers there were such divisions in both Houses so as for a long time especially before the Prelates those incendiaries and make-bates were cast out of the House of Lords matters of maine consequence tending to reformation and preservation of the Kingdome could not passe currant no place could be found for the punishing of Delinquents and the like their impunity proving a kinde of immunity to advance their Crest to such a heigth of insolency as it is now growne intolerable if not incurable Yet notwithstanding all this see how miraculously the Lord worketh for us For hath hee not caused all the machinations of that miscreant and malignant party to make against themselves and for us What got the Prelates by their bold Remonstrance against all the Proceedings of this Parliament as meere nullities Were they not thereupon cast out as nullities in Parliament and by this occasion each House better united in it selfe and both Houses better accorded and more firmely combined together What have they gained by attempting of Hull by solliciting by flattery or force simple and credulous poore soules by gathering Forces against the Parliament and the loyall Subjects of the Kingdome but thereby to discover to the world what truth there is in all their Protestations and faire false pretences to the contrary so that the trecherons intentions and bloody projects and beastly practises of that selfe-damning Crew might be found the more worthy every day to be hated and abhorred both of God and men So as it is apparent that our God hath given up our enemies to be self-blinded their hearts being hardned to their confusion That in all their disasters and our deliverances all along we might sing with Moses Who among the Gods is like unto thee O Lord Who is like thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders Thus hitherto we have seene the many miraculous things which are so many miraculous deliverances of the Church and so many steps and degrees unto a greater and a more miraculous deliverance yet to come all which have in part answered to the interpretation of the miraculous Rainbow above mentioned I say in part because the great miraculous deliverance is yet to come And there is no surer signe of this great miraculous deliverance of Gods Church then the fury and rage of Satan and Antichrist with all their confederate faction making open warre against the Kingdome and Gospel of Christ And now is this warre begun professedly in Ireland by the Rebels there who have their Authors Factors and Abetters both in Rome and England for the rooting out of all Protestants and the Protestant Religion which warre they intended to perfect in England and Scotland So as this outragious warre in the â—ebellion of Ireland and in the raising of Popish forces in England against the true Protestants under the infamous name of Round heads which warre is fomented by all Papists and popishly affected within the Land and without among whom our Prelates with their Priests are not the least incendiaries and bellowes-blowers seducing also their blind-folded Ignorants to make a party with them to destroy themselves and families together with their native countrey and all the honour of it This warre I say so furiously and universally by them prosecuted is a most certain immediate fore-running sign of the imminent ruine of the whole Kingdome of the Beast which is spiritually called Egypt even as the power of the Kingdome of Egypt Pharoah and his Host pursuing Israel to the red Sea with resolution utterly to destroy the Lords people was that which led them to their owne dismall destruction in that Sea For the enemy had said I will pursue I will overtake them I will divide the spoile my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my Sword my hand shall destroy them The very language of our Antichristian enemies at this time the Cavaleers at Yorke divided among themselves the streets houses and spoyles of London they threaten the utter extirpation of all Round-heads as they call them to wit all Protestants even all such as cannot away with Popery Therfore certainly the ruine of this cursed faction is neere at hand which shall be with a fearefull destruction forasmuch as they make open warre against the Lord and his anointed people So as that which is prophecied of those Kings Rulers in the second Psalm who with their heathenish rage and tumultuous troops warre against the Gospel the bands and cords whereof they indeavour to burst in sunder to cast away from them hastneth now to be verified of them the Lord that sitteth in Heaven laughes at their proud and vaine attempts and with his iron Rod shall he breake them in pieces like a Potters Vessell And even as Pharaoh with his Egyptians would not be warned nor humbled with those 10. terrible plagues which the Lord sent upon Egypt one after another but their hatred against Israel still continued till at last the Lord utterly rooted them out so seeing none of all these defeats which the Lord hath sent upon the desperate designes of our new Egyptians one after another disappointing them and delivering us will reclaime them or appease their fury but after all they doe still seek to extirpate the people of God and all true Religion The like destruction must needs overtake them that overtooke the old Egyptians As the Prophet saith O Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be confounded for their envy
holy Angels and Saints should rejoyce and sing Halelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne And this I told them should most certainly come to passe and that shortly so as they should live to see it And so being to goe to London that morning I took my leave thereupon saying Well what ever come on it I must to my work And this work proved to be that aforesaid Nov. 5. When having preached those Sermons I was not long after summoned by a Pursuivant into the English Inquisition Court the High Commission from which I presently appealed to the King And because I foresaw that this would prove a publick cause and putting no confidence either in my Appeale or in the equity and innocency of my cause or in the just lawes of the Kingdome being fallen into such times wherein nor law nor conscience nor innocency nor justice nor clemency nor humanity could take place but that some unjust odious censure must stigmatize both the cause and the person therefore I shut my selfe up in my house as in my prison and there did compile my two said Sermons with my Appeale in one Book to the end it might be published in print as it was sheet by sheet as I writ it the while the Prelates Pursuivants those barking Beagles ceased not night nor day to watch and rap and ring at my doores to have surprised me in that my Castle nor yet to search and hunt all the Printing houses about London to have prevented the comming forth of my Book which they heard to be at the Presse But God by his good providence so prevented them as neither they could touch my person before I had finished my Book nor yet prevent the publishing thereof for all their unwearied search And here I may not omit to magnifie the great Name of God especially for two things First for his admirable strengthning and supporting presence in so carrying up my spirit all the while of my writing that Book entituled For God and the King together with the Appeale c. that not all the incessant roarings and ballings of those beagles could either interrupt my work or distract my thoughts or discourage my resolution by any the least apprehension or feare of danger but that with all cheerfulnesse and invinciblenesse of spirit the work was finished Secondly the Lords wonderfull Providence is here to be admired in that the Pursuivants had no power either to apprehend my person or to prevent the publishing of my Book but just that night when I had received some dozens of Copies bound up and the Books for the King and Councell were a binding up and nor sooner nor later having also newly concluded the Family-duties for that night came the Serjeant at Armes with his Mace in the Bishop of Londons name accompanied with divers Pursuivants and other Officers yea with the Sheriffe of London with swords and halberds and with pick-axes fell a breaking up my doores which being strong and I making no resistance held them work till eleven of the Clock They break in surprise my person ransack my study carry away what Books they pleased and carry me away prisoner to a Constables house for that night and the next day at night being Febr. 2. they had got a new warrant from the Councell Board to carry me to prison in the Fleet where I was kept close prisoner from wife or friend and so remained for halfe a yeare till I was removed to another prison as you shall heare anon During my abode in the Fleet I was served with a Writ into the Starre Chamber to answer an information there against me drawn up by the Kings Atturney in the Name of the King notwithstanding my said Appeale not yet repealed But all is one for that With much difficulty being all along close prisoner I get my Answer drawne up by Counsell and the same by speciall Order of Starre-Chamber admitted in Court upon my Oath to be a true Answer Above a week after I heare that the two Chiefe Justices by appointment of the Court have quite expunged my Answer and defence contained in 80 sheets leaving only the negative part and that also of their owne patching together contained in some halfe a dozen lines Thus my Answer in Court is left no Answer of mine After this comes the Examiner for my Answer to his interrogatories which was to be reckoned part of my Answer in Court But I answered him that my Answer in Court being wholly expunged and so made no Answer of mine I was not bound to answer the interrogatories Hereupon I was brought into the Starre-Chamber to be censured by all those terrible ones pro confesso as having refused to put in my Answer when indeed themselves had put it our What I then spake for my selfe by leave of the Court which had already the day before set downe my Censure in black and white and what the Censure was and by whom I referre to the Relation of all the passages of our three sufferings set forth at large in Print 1641. Only thus much when I saw that they would proceed to censure notwithstanding they did not nor could object the least crime in all my Book For God and the King but that they said I was too sharp against the Prelates having obtained leave to speak I said My Lords I perceive I am brought into a great strait that of necessity I must either desert my cause and my conscience or undergoe the Censure of this Honourable Court and therefore I doe without any further deliberation choose rather to abide the Censure of this Honourable Court then to desert my Cause my conscience Here at the Audience gave a great humme But when they came to the censure it was so terrible especially the perpetuall close imprisonment in a desolate goale that lest my spirits should faint within me I did there earnestly in my heart entreat the Lord that he would strengthen me and hold up my spirits that I might not any way dishonour the cause or give those terrible ones cause to triumph And at that very instant the Lord heard me he put such strength in me as neither my selfe nor my two Brethren did once change countenance before those terrible ones so as some of them afterwards said that they never saw three such men who instead of being daunted so stood before the Court as if they had sit in the Judges place And forasmuch as the night before a friend came to me in the Fleet and told me he saw my Censure set down in their Book as standing on the Pillory c. I did therefore that night * redouble my prayer to God that he would strengthen me at my Censure so as I might not dishonour him and his Cause the next day before that great Court And immediately upon my prayer I was filled with a mighty spirit of courage and resolution wherewith I was carried up farre above my selfe even as it were upon
towards thy people yea the fire of thine enemies shall devoure them And this is the time foretold of old the time of the sixth Trumpet sounding forth woe against the Beast for slaying the two Witnesses after whose reviving againe there follows a great earthquake after which followeth the destruction of the Beasts Kingdome under the sounding of the seventh Trumpet when the Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reigne for ever and ever And this is the time wherein the battell of God Almighty is fought in Harmageddon under the pouring out of the Plagues of the sixth Viall upon the Beast Now is Michael and his Angels fighting against the Dragon and his Angels Now is the Lambe and his party the called and chosen and faithfull fighting with the Beast and his party Now is the Holy City begirt with the Forces of Gog and Magog open and secret enemie whom fire from heaven consumeth even the zeale of God and of his people And the Deliverance of the Church shall be the more miraculous because it is wrought by the mighty hand of God through many troubles and dâ—fficulties which Gods people must passe through as through a sea before they arrive on their wished shore And this I apprehend to be signified by the manner of the going away of the forementioned miraculous Rainbow which manner was no lesse miraculous then the Rainbow it selfe For it went away and so vanished at length not as other Rainbowes by peece-meale as the cloud wherein it subsisteth doth waste away but it passed away whole and entire all along upon the sea as farre as I could see and towards England it went as if Gods Church in England especially should have a miraculous deliverance through a sea of troubles And the expectation hereof yeelds me no small supportation in the midst of these tumultuous times and dubious events assuring my selfe that he which gave the Rainbow such a subsistence without any cloud will also performe and accomplish the thing whereof it was sent to be a signe even the glorious deliverance of his Church how unlikely or defective soever the meanes be Yea shall I adde one circumstance more When the same day at night I went to write this downe in mine Almanack for remembrance I found that this day was the very day of the month wherein I was married which I had not observed before to be that day Hereupon I began to apprehend that surely this was a signe as of the Churches deliverance so of mine also therein For mine own particular deliverance I made no account of unlesse I might enjoy it as a part of the Generall Deliverance of Gods people as I professed to many at my returne home when I began to enjoy my deliverance as a part of the publike which I made as sure a rekoning of as if then already fully accomplished But at length to winde up so much of the thread of my life which was spun out in that my closse imprisonment and banishment let me acquaint the Reader with those speciall cordialls which were to me more sweet then my daily food I had ever been from my youth up much acquainted with Davids Psalmes in my private devotions as wherein I ever found greatest sweetnesse and solace to my poore soule which as they afforded more matter of comfort to me as my life had been all along much exercised with affliction so most of all in my prison and exile And although the Psalmes have all of them their severall excellencies yet among the rest I had from my very youth made choice of one Psalme especially as which I was extraordinarily affected with in that I could both most clearely read the generall estate of my life past and present as also both feelingly pray for and confidently wait for those promises and comforts which were therein presented to the eye of my faith and which afterwards I began in my latter sufferings in a great measure to enjoy which after my returne from exile seemed to have a more full accomplishment As for the purpose to omitt many other passages of the Psalmes which I leave to the readers judgement and consideration how farre forth they are remarkably applyable to the severall conditions of my life if well weighed not only in my last and greatest sufferings I found answers of God to all those prayers in that Psalme which I had often prayed in supporting me and being my strong refuge v. 7. even then when I was as on the pillary a wonder unto many when also v. 8. my mouth was filled with his praise and honour all the day when in the time of old age v. 9. I was cast off and even out of the world in a manner so as the enemies said God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him v. 11. yet the Lord did not cast me off he forsooke me not And v. 30. how was that fulfilled at my returne Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles thoushalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up againe from the depths of the earth And v. 21. â—ow began God now to increase my greatnesse and comfort me on every side And after this of which more anon I found that also verified v. 18. Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not untill I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thypower to every one that is to come which here is done in part in this support of Gods strength and power in carrying me a weake man through so many and great troubles to his eternall praise and glory And besides all this what mighty confusions have I since seen upon those enemies against whom the Psalmist prayeth v. 13. Not to mention more all being so notoriously knowne let me tell you one passage I being with some friends walking in the Tower where we were invited to see the Artillery one came and told me that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury my grand adversary as he was going along to the Chappell to doe his devotions was met by one who told him that I was hard by in the Tower whereupon the Prelate presently returned hasting to his lodging least it seemes I should meet with him who now not brooking to see my face and eares defaced how shall he look Iesus Christ in the face whom he hath pierced when he shall come to Iudgement in flaming fire rendring veugeance to all miscreants This in briefe of this Psalme wherein it hath pleased God to give me such an interest through Christ in whom all those sweet promises have so full an accomplishment In a word infinite were the supports and comforts which I received by the Psalmes As Psal. 40. wherein it is spoken of Christ and of David v. 10 I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart I have declared thy faithfullnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving
kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation this I could in the integrity of my conscience being not privy of baulking any truth in my ministry which was forbidden by the Prelates so farre apply to my selfe as that I could with the greater confidence take up the words immediately following v. 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving kindnesse and thy truth continually preserve me c. As I remember how a little before my last troubles Mr. Walker my reverend and learned brother being convented and admonished by Dr. Lambe to preach no more of the Sabbath and he being thereupon {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} halfe perswaded to it I told him Brother Walker if you yeild herein be assured they will some time or other get you in their snare and when they have you in prison what comfort will you find when your conscience shall check you that for feare of man you forbeare freely and fully to declare the truth of God and most of all then when it was most opposed and oppressed And not long after my going into banishment they catched him indeed and put him in prison where I doubt not but he found comfort from God according to my words which he had upon that occasion followed Againe I was mightily supported by those words Psal. 66. 10. 111. 12. For thou O God hast proved us thou hast tryed us as silver is tried Thou broughtest us into the net Thou laidst affliction upon our loines Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place Which wotds afforded me two great props to support me The one that God was the sole author of all those my troubles as wherein no miscariage of mine had given any the least just offence to those men who forcibly drove me yet witting and willing into their net where they rode upon my head The other was that as I saw the Lords hand leading me through the fire as on the pillary where the sun did extreamly beat upon my head and through the water passing through the seas as aforesaid so I did verily assure my selfe that the same hand would deliver and bring me into a wealthy place According also to that promise Isa. 43. â— Yea when in my close prison and exile I was as an owle in the desart or as asparrow that sits alone upon the house top yea as one free among the dead Psal. 88. 5. like the slaine that lye in the grave yet this was my comfort that I could say Thou O Lord hast layd me in the lowest pit in darknesse in the deeps v. 6. lover and friend hast thou put from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse All contented me well because the Lord had done all these things to me and that not in his wrath and displeasure against me as Dâ—vid there complaineth but in his loving kindnesse and favour in his free grace calling and enabling me to suffer soe great things for his name sake In a word I did now and then in my prison exercise my selfe with preaching to my selfe upon some text of Scripture both for my present strengthening and comfort and also to keep me from rust in case it might please God to call me forth to preach againe in the great congregation Hereunto if it be not tedious to the Reader I might adde a briefe narration of many other helps and supports which I found throughout all my sufferings as also throughout the whole course of my life As first Prayer This never failed me at any time and in greatest distresse it had most speedy and speeding answers What blessings hath it obtained for me What victories over strong and masterfull corruptions lusts temptations snares How often thereby Satan foiled and sinne prevented How my spirits supported in all my sufferings I could here tell of many wonderfull returnes of prayer in the many passages of my life and particularly concerning Gods Providence in disposing of me in marriage wherein his goodnesse marvelously appeared partly by preventing some and chiefely by providing successively two fit matches for me who proved notable helps to me both in my ministry and in my sufferings being both of them lovers and valiant for the truth And the second yet surviving can relate how miraculously Prayer brought us first together O the excellent use of Prayer to all the purposes of this life whether spirituall or temporall It is the most effectuall sollicitor of all our causes having such an Advocate at Gods right hand My second help in my sufferings was the testimony of my conscience which stood in these particulars First A sure beliefe that all my sins were forgiven and washed away in the blood of Iesus Christ Secondly An infallible knowledge that theÌ„ cause for which I thus suffered was a most noble holy righteous and innocent cause as being the cause of Christ of his Gospel of his Church yea and of the whole Land my native Countrey which cause I was not only as a Christian but much more as a professed witnesse of Christ bound to maintaine even to the losse of all things in the world Thirdly the testimony of my conscience sealed by my record from on high that my continuall opposition in the course of my ministry both by preaching and writing against the adversaries of the truth was out of no other respect as either of an humour of contradiction or ambition or vaine glory or affectation of singularity or of malice to any mans person or out of any discontentednesse with my present condition as some have faflly and causlesly slaundered me the Lord having beene so farre good unto me as to set me farre above all such base lusts though I wanted not my corruptions not to prevaile over me but meerely out of the conscience of my duty in zeale to Gods glory and love to his truth and service to Christ and to his Church There are sundry Ministers yet living in London who can witnesse that I was not ambitious to shew my self alone in the cause when my frequent sollicitations of them could not prevaile to have more fellowes to share with me And fourthly not to recount more particulars in that God hath given me these three comforts more First that before my last Censure as aforesaid I owed not a penny to any man it having ever beene hatefull unto me to owe any thing to any man but love which love I am daily paying while daily praying for all Secondly that in this respect I can say with the Apostle I am free from the blood of all men having kept nothing back that I knew necessary and profitable but delivered though in great weaknesse the whole Counsell of God even against all opposition of men in their expresse edicts armed with terrours and threatnings to the contrary Thirdly although from my youth up I have not beene free from many humanefrailties
and follies lusts and vanities baites and temptations without and corruptions within ready to betray me yet herein my conscience doth greatly comfort me in this mercy of God I exceedingly glory that his Grace still prevented me and preserved me in my integrity that he might set me before his face for ever even in the rank of those of whom it is said These are they that were not defiled with women Thus have I shewed some speciall grounds of such comforts as I enjoyed in my prison and exile These were my sweet Associates and Vade-mecums in that my solitary secluse these the cordials and preservatives from and under my God of my life and health Nay shall I adde yet one more For this our comfort comes in the reare though late first yet at last That all this my suffering was mainly from the malice and instigation of the Prelates to say nothing of Papall leagues who oppugned me with two powerfull Armies the High-Commission and the Starre-Chamber and all for this cause cause enough that I testified the truth against their Prelaticall oppositions and tyrannicall usurpations so as their shutting me out from among them their depriving and degrading me of my Ministry I now accounted my greatest honour and priviledge as being now freed from such an Antichristian yoak As I told the Warden of the Fleet as he carried me from my Degradation in Pauls that now I thanked God I had cast off the Bishops Livery and found my shoulders much the lighter by it Now to summe up all my sufferings that only God may have the glory herein let me deprecate the Censure of arrogance if I make the great Apostle next after my Lord Jâ—sus Christ my patterne to follow though at a vast distance The Apostle having recited his many great fufferings as so many priviledges wherein he had out-stripped the false Apostles 2 Cor. 11. saying v. 23. Are they the Ministers of Christ I speak as a foole I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in death oft c. he concludes ver. 30. If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concerne mine infirmities And chap. 12. 9. Most gladly will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong so the Apostle And who shall deny me though but a dwarfe to such an Apostle the like liberty to glory the rather in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me and be the more glorified in me seeing Christs power is most seene in greatest weaknesse yea his strength thereby made perfect And Mat. 21. 16. Out of the mouthes of Babes and Sucklings thou hast perfected praise But what are my sufferings to those of the Apostle surely whatever proportion they may hold or if any at all let not envy grudge us the ballance of the Sanctuary to weigh them in if by this â—…eans Christs power shall appeare the greater in equally supporting one so unequall to his Apostle in gifts and graces and yet in sufferings not altogether so unequall Shall we be bold to take a paralel view of them Pardon me good Reader First the sole cause of all Pauls sufferings was his witness-bearing to the truth of the Gospel and for none other cause were all my sufferings Secondly Paul was in prisons more frequent so have I been yea confined to perpetuall close imprisonment Thirdly Paul suffered stripes above measure and I have suffered losse of very much blood on the pillary equivalent to many stripes Fourthly Paul fuffered thrice shipwrack and I suffered the losse of all at once with imminent danger of shipwrack two severall times Fifthly Paul was in perills by sea so was I in my tedious voyage by sea on a stormy winter season and through perillous seas between Lancashire and Guernsey for six weeks space sundry times very neere perishing in the Irish seas Sixthly Paul was in perills among false brethren so was I never free from perills of false brethren or false Christians who used to watch me in my Church to catch something from my mouth to carry to the Prelates and so bring me into the lions pawes Seventhly Paul was in perills of his own countrymen the Jewes who sundry times way-layd him to kill him so have I been sundry times in perills of the Jesuites my countrymen who in the City apparantly two severall times layd their ambush to take away my life also of false ministers pretended friends who privately brought me into the Prelates mercy for preaching against bowing at the name Jesus for which I was suspended as afore Eighthly Paul suffered hunger and thirst cold and nakednesse so had I nothing left me of mine own to preserve me from hunger and thirst from cold and nakednes se lying under the formidable fine of 5000 l' payable to the King had it either been extended or I able to have paid the tenth part of it And with meer cold had I perished in Lancashire Goale had not God in his providence translated me thence and with hunger had I perished in Guernsey Castle had I not been fed by the Governors allowance from Mr. Lievtenants table for the which no recompence could be obtained from those by whose authority I was there committed close prisoner where I could not help my selfe Ninthly Againe Paul was rescued from the hands of the cruell Jewes High Priests and Pharises by his appealing to Caesar a heathen Emperour who protected him from their violence but I by appealing from the cruell Prelates was not rescued from their bloody hands Tenthly Paul when the Jewes laid wait for him without the gates of Damascus to kill him was in a basket let downe over the wall and so esaped but I being in mine own house beset with bills and swords and threatened with a Prelates mace had my house violently broken up and my person carryed away to prison although I might have the same time escaped their hands Eleventhly Paul was persecuted by the Jewes who were professed enemies of Christ but I by those who professe to be Christians yea Protestants and to be for Christ yea to be for the very Church of Christ Now a professed enemy is lesse dangerous then a professed but false friend Twelfthly Paul if the story be true suffered death by being beheaded with the sword under Nero at Rome And I suffered that on the pilary in England my native Country which was more painefull and no lesse if not more disgracefull then such a death For my head hung two full hours on the pilary as if it had been separate from my body and there were my two eares disgracefully and butcherly cut off with the hangmans knife whereby my blood was abundantly shed even to the expiring of the soule all which was both for
the present and afterwards in the time of healing much more painfull then the chopping off of the head with one stroke Thirtenthly As God indued Paul with an excellent spirit to undergoe and overcome all his affliction with a singular alacrity and constancy so as he sung Psalmes in the prison and accounted his life and all outward things but as dung in comparison of Christ so the same God poured into my soule abundantly the like spirit of fortitude and magnanimity not only cheerfully and constantly but even triumphantly to be more then conqueror in all my sufferings as also the Apostle said of himselfe 2. Cor. 2. 14. and Rom. 4. 37. Besides all this First Paul was never haunted hunted and vexed by Pursuivants as I have been Secondly Paul was never bound in bonds of two or three hundred pounds to answer the High Priests in their synedrion as I have been in the high Commission Court Thirdly Paul when he was a prisoner and that under Nero yet had liberty to visit his friends and acquaintance and they to come and visit him but I was shut up in a close prison where neither my selfe could visit others nor they me Fourthly Paul had his fellow prisoners with him to be mutuall comforters but I was shut up all alone without a fellow or compainon Fifthly Paul was never fined in more then he was worth but I was Sixthly Paul was never deemed to more punishments then one at once but I to many and those most griveous punishments and that contrary to the law of the Medes and Persians Ezra 7. 26. Seventhly Paul was not condemned before the hearing of his cause nor himselfe condemned for refusing to assent to the condemning of his own cause before hearing but both I and my cause were thus condemned contrary to the law of the land and of all nations Eightly It was lawfullfor Paul to have carried about with him a sister a wife if he had had one but I having an honest godly most loving and tender hearted woman to my wife was not suffered to have her with me according to Gods Ordinance for our mutuall comfort and support in our great affliction but wee were violently separated one from the other without any the least colour of cause Ninthly Paul was suffered to write to his friends and to those his children whom he had begotten by the Gospel and to those Churches which he had planted but I was not permitted the use of pen inke and paper so much as to write to my friends or to my disconsolate wife or my poore orphan-children whom God had given to me in lawfull wedlock Tenthly Paul never was banished from his native country but I was and that extrajudicially sent into perpetuall banishment Eleventhly Paul though a prisoner yet was not forbid to preach but exercised his ministry in the prison to all that came unto him but my mouth was by Decree for ever stopped which one affliction was to me as in it selfe so heavy as is sufficient to counter-ballance all Pauls afflictions Twelfthly Nor did Paul live to know experimentally those sufferings which Antichrist foretold of by him should both craftily invent and cruelly inflict upon Gods servants in these last times which my selfe have now lived both to see and suffer Antichrist was then but a cockatrice in the egge but now he is broke out and growne to be a great red dragon Thirteenthly Paul once by pleading the priviledge of a Roman escaped the whip but I though once by pleading the benefit of a subject I obtained which yet cost me ten pounds a Prohibition whereby I was delivered from a double lash of the High Commission yet the next day after as aforesaid I fell under the Prelates lash who suspended me from my ministry for preaching the truth for the which truths sake I have also suffered all these things Finally Fourteenthly Pauls Judges would not condemne him for the bare accusation of his adversaries saying It was not the manner of the Romans to condemne any man before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face and have licence to answer for himselfe concerning the crime layed against him but I though I had permission by the Court to make my defence in writing and at the censure to speake for my selfe yet all was as nothing but without either accusers or witnesses saving only a counterfet information in Court charging many things but proving nothing but serving only for a snare which innocency it selfe could not escape I underwent the most terrible Censure that ever was inflicted in the world But though I underwent it yet through the power of Christ I overcame it To him alone be all the glory and praise of a suffering which only his power and grace made so great so glorious After aâ—l this let me a little recreate my Reader with a smale story of a passage falling out while I was in Guernsey Castle On a time a pigeon sitting neere my chamber window where my daily feeding of them made them so familiar as they would follow me up and downe the Castle a wild hauke suddenly plunged upon her and beats her downe to the ground above four stories and falls a preying on her I beheld it a while from my window and presently thereupon ran downe to rescue the dove though I was to run above a flight shot off I ran and sound the hauke still upon the pigeon and when I was ready to cease on the hauke she flew off and then the poore Pigeon took her faint flight also the bold hauke pursuing her about the Castle but the dove escaped for any thing I could heare This use I made of it I compared the Dove to the Church and the Hauke to the enemies of it hoping that though for a time the Hauke get the Dove under to pâ—ey upon her yet deliverance shall come in the nick in the Mount will the Lord be seene and the Church shall escape but hardly but whether by flight as Revel. 12. or otherwise that rests only in our Great Deliverers hand This by the way But now it is high time to close it up For November 15. 1640. being the Lords day a Bark comes to Guernsey from England with friends and an Order from the Honourable House of Commons for my enlargement and returne for England Blessed tidings indeed and the more because it came from a Parliament and yet more in that it was the Parliaments handsaile presenting much good but promising much more The Newes filled the Castle with joy and so the Iland The first observation I made of it was of the day on which this tydings came First I noted it was the Lords day which day I had mightily propugned and defended both by preaching and writing against the malignant and profane adversaries of the sanctification thereof and of its morality And when the book for dispensation and allowance of sports on that day came with an injunction to be publikely
read in my Church upon a Lords day that very day in stead of reading of it which I utterly abhorred to doe as an abominable thing I turned my afternoon preaching into an opening of the fourth Commandement therein proving the Lords day to wit the first day of the week to succeed the seventh or last day of the week both for Sabbath and Sanctification under the Gospel Now the newes and Order for my enlargement comming to me on the Lords day I took it as a gracious reward of mercy from God whose day I had formerly stood for against all the adversaries thereof Againe secondly this day was the fifteenth day of the month to wit November which was the first day of the last month that made up the three yeares and a halfe from the day of my Censure and so was fulfilled that which I spake before at Coventry to the said Reverend Ministers Mr Nalton and Mr Hughs that three yeares and a halfe hence we should meet againe and be merry For June 14. 1637. was my Censure and November 15. 1640. was the first day of the last month that made up three yeares and a halfe so as the Parliaments Order calling me forth of prison to be presented before them seemed to me to be that great voice from heaven saying to the two Witnesses after their lying dead three dayes and a halfe three yeares and a halfe unburied Come up hither Moreover I observed that I had come to Guernsey on the fifteenth day of the month and three yeares after on the fifteenth day of the month taking that month current from the fifteenth day came my release And the like did my brother Prin of his comming to Jarsey which was on the seventeenth day of the month and his release came to him on the seventeenth day of the month so punctuall is God in doing all things in number weight and measure could we but take a right measure of his doings in all the passages of his Providence On Tuesday the seventeenth the messengers came to my brother Prin so as by Thursday after he came to me to Guernsey where we being feasted by all the Ministers there and more especially by Mr Delamarch at his house and my selfe by some worthy Merchants in the Towne we were no sooner ready to set saile but the wind came about for us to goe for England And here I cannot omit to observe the sweet Providence of God in bringing our friends from London so prosperously They came on Thursday from London to Southampton the next day they provided a Bark the while the wind was opposite but Saturday morning the fourteenth they being ready the wind came about and brought them the next day to Guernsey They staid not one day for the wind in comming nor we for going for England On Saturday the 21. about two of the clock in the afternoone taking our leave of the worthy Lievtenant and the rest we set saile for England where the wind by a gentle gale brought us the next day at night being the Lords day to arrive And here againe I observe two speciall passages of the divine Providence First that the wind blowing slack and the night comming on and we being now distant from from the maine land three or foure leagues so as the master was somewhat perplexed for want of wind we encouraged him and thereupon all our company went into the hold and fell to sing Psalmes Wee had no sooner begun to sing but presently the wind began to whistle up so that we might heare the Bark to rowse through the waves we continued our singing and the wind continued his blowing untill just as we had done singing the master had cast anchor we not knowing it till we came upon the deck for which we blessed our God The second Circumstance was that in the very same place where I had parted last from England did our Bark now cast anchor for England God so disposing it by his wind And this was in the mouth of Dartmouth where leaving our Bark to goe for South-hampton with our Stuffe we lodged in Dartmouth that night concluding and refreshing our long Pilgrimage with the close of the Sabbaticall rest of that day The next day being courteously entertained of some of the best of the Towne who also provided us horses being nine or ten in company we hastened for London and came that night to Exceter within night where we saw the faces of many religious people who most lovingly entreated us many of them accompanying us the next day out of the City We rode the next day to Lime where comming though somewhat late in the evening we were kindly entertained by the reverend and godly Minister there Mr Geere and by a worthy Justice of the Peace Thence we set for ward the next morning before day hastening to come to the Lecture at Dorchester which we did being there refreshed both in soule and body where we were saluted and entertained by many worthy Christians After dinner the same day we rode on our journey lodging at a private Towne betweene Dorchester and Salisbury The next day we dined at Salisbury where we visited Mr Thatcher a reverend and laborious Minister there but very sickly at that time and since deceased whence in the afternoone being accompanied by sundry good Christians in the City we rode to Andover that night being in the way met by sundry good Christians of that Towne who entertained us very courteously and accompanied us on in our journey the next day on which being Friday we reached to Egham that night being met by the way before we came at Bagshot by many of our loving friends and neighbours of London and especially my Friday-street neighbours my old Parishioners and when we were not farre past Bagshot we were met by my most loving and dear wife who came accompanied with many loving friends and worthy Citizens of London among whom was that most affectionate friend Mr Willingham and his loving wife who came with my wife in the Coatch which he had provided for that purpose What expressions of joy and love there were at our meeting cannot be expressed Well to Egham we came in the close of the day where every house brought forth a light to light us to our lodging where we were most nobly entertained by multitudes of friends that from London met us there They called it our wedding night which was principally celebrated by that worthy and reverend Minister of Egham Mr Rayner who prayed with us with solemne giving of thanks expressed also in singing of Psalmes which he had most fitly and sweetly composed of many parts and parcels of Psalmes very admirably accommodated to the present occasion and all which continuing almost a whole houre Mr Rayner repeated without book The next morning very early all our company was ready and after prayer took horse being on our journey for London before the Sunne arose Of the whole traine consisting of two or three
my brother Bastwick being not yet returned from Sillie We presented our persons with our petitions to the House for the hearing of our cause It was granted a speciall Committe was appointed for the examination of our cause and in the same Order of the House to the same Committe a thing wherein the hand of divine Providence is not a little seene it was ordered that after the examination of our causes the Courts and proceedings both of the High Commission and starre chamber should be examined and the issue was our cause was declared and voted first by the Committee and after by the whole House to be innocent and all the proceedings of those Courts against us illegall against the lawes of the land and the liberties of the subject and on the other side both those Courts were alike voted to bee illegall and thereupon an Act was drawne up and passed and stands now in force for the utter abolishing of both those Courts So they are brought downe and fallen and we are risen and stand upright And blessed be the Lord that both those Courts fell under such a Cause as gives them no just cause to complaine But for our cause although the honourable House of Commons have voted it so farre for the clearing of us as it can yet goe yet the Transmission thereof to the House of Lords is not hitherto passed for a recompence of our wrongs sustained But herein we are patients with the whole land which lyes a bleeding while the cause of innocent blood cannot find redresse Yet blessed be God that by vertue of that vote I have liberty to preach although I have suffered not a little for that first Sermon I preached after my liberty obtained as my first-fruits paid to the Parliament at Westminster Clamors were raised by some malignant spirits and received too credulously by some of the better minded who had not heard the Sermon which the more grieved me But how justly fame did censure me the Sermon it selfe if once it may obtaine licence to be printed which it hath a long time waited for will clearly show Many other wrongs have I suffered both by false reports and by bookes published under the name of Mr. Burton in generall which the simple hearted people took to be mine being only counterfeited to get away their farthings But the righteous judge will one day cleare all When the next day after that Sermon I was taken with a fit of the stone the first sensible fruit of my long close imprisonment fame gave it out that it was for griefe and shame of my said Sermon Though after this I have had sundry fits of the stone I might mention many other reproaches cast upon me since my enlargement which I have learned the more easily to digest and contemne saving only that I take them as messengers of Satan sent to buffet me by my experience in my greater sufferings He that hath stood an innocent upon the pillary and theâ—e had his eares cut off which he endured with not only patience but alacrity and triumph cannot he trow you brook to be unjustly branded for an Infamous person and that by such as were the prime authors of such bloody and barbarous cruelty but he must needs be sick for sorrow of that which he accounts his glory and crowne Or shall such a one be ashamed to beare in his body such glorio is marks of the Lord Jesus Or he that chose rather to be deprived of all liberty livelyhood eares credit with the malignant world degrees in schooles yea his sweet native country wife children friends all outward comforts rather then betray the cause of Christ and basely yeild to unreasonable and absurd men after the suffering of all these is it so easie a matter thinke you to overthrow such a one with the impotent breath of a man that shall dye or of the son of man that shall be made as grasse should I now at last so forget the Lord my maker as to feare continnually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy of whom the Prophet saith And where is the fury of the Oppressor Behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my Record is on high And certainly if witnessing the Truth against Falshood and openly detecting the machinations of Apostats if ever they were other then dissembling Hypocrites before their vizards were pulld off deserve the brand of An infamous disturber of the peace of this Church and State I will weare it as a badge of the greatest honour of my service to Christ in this World And I blesse my Lord who accounted me faithfull and put me in this service and enabled me so therein as to deserve to be reproached no otherwise then the Prophet Eliah was by the grand disturber and troubler of Israel to whom the Prophet replyed I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that ye have forsaken the Commandements of the Lord and have followed Baalim And if by This Church be understood the Prelaticall or Hierarchicall and by State a Tyrannicall and lawlesse Government I heartily thank God that I have bin a disturber of these so as never since that time they could peacably go on as before they did in their rebuilding of Babel the end wherof wil be confusion or in reedifying of Jerico the curse wherof was the rooting out of the whole race and posterity of the Rebuilder What should I speake of the many reproaches and infamies which I have undergone since the cleering of my Cause in the honorable House of Commons ever to be honoured of all posterity But this was my comfort all along even the clearnesse of my Conscience being not guilty to my selfe of any just cause by me given why any unlesse Prelaticall and Iesuiticall spirits or such as are through ignorance seduced by them should fall so fowle upon me saving that the more any man endeavors to come neerest to Christ and so to shake off the shackles of sinne and yoake of Antichristian usurpation over the soules of men the more necessarily and unavoidably he must passe the pikes of all those whose conversation in the world cannot find elbow-room enough to walke in Christs narrow way which leadeth unto life Nor need this be made a wonder in our dayes which hath bin the perpetuall practise of the world in all ages since Christ had a Church upon earth since the Lord himselfe put that enmity between the Serpent and the Woman and between her seed and his yea in this Age of ours wherein Satans wrath is so great because he knoweth that he hath but a short time and wherein the ten horned Beast and his limmes are fighting their last battell in Harmageddon whither the Almighty himself brings them that he might shew himselfe to be the Almighty in giving the last and most terrible defeat to all their power and plots not to see such