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The
LIFE
of
the
Lis.
I.
was feared
that
he and more
of
them came by their Orders the fameway with
the
forementioned Perfon
:
Thefe
were the School
-
mailers
of
my
Youth
(except two
of
them
:)
who read Common Prayer
on
Sundays
and Holy
-days,
and
taught School
and tipled on
the Week
-
days,and
whipt the
Boys
when
they were
drunk,
fo
that
we
changed them very oft.
Within a
few miles about us,werenear
a
dozen moreMi-
nifters
that
were near Eighty
years old apiece,
and never
preached
;
poor ignorant
Readers,and moll of
them of
Scandalous
Lives
:
only three or
four
confiant com-
petent Preachers
lived
near
us,
and thofe
(though Conformable
all
fave one
) were
the common
Marks
of
the People's Obloquy and Reproach, and any
that
had but
gone
to
hear them, when he had
no
Preaching at home,
was
made the Durillon
of
the
Vulgar Rabble, under the odious Name
of
a
Puritan.
But
though we had
no
better Teachers
,
it
pleated God to
inflru&
and change
my Father,
by
the bare reading
of
the Scriptures in private,without either Preach-
ing, or Godly
Company,
or
any
other
Books
but the
Bible:
And God made him
the
Initrument of
my
first
Convt
&ions, and Approbation
of
a
Holy
Life,
as
well
as
of
my
Refrain
from
the
groffer fort
of
Lives,
When
I
was
very young, his
ferious Speeches
of
God
and the Life
to come,
poffeffed me
with
a
fear of fin-
ning
:
When
I was
but near
Ten
years
of
Age, being at School at
Higb.Ercall ,
we
had
leave
to
play on
the Day
of
the Kings Coronation
;
and
at
Two ofthe Clock
afternoon
on
that Day there happened an Earthquake, which put
all
the People
into
a
fear,
and fomewhat poffeffed
them
with
awful
thoughts
of
the Dreadful God.
(I
make
no Commentary on the
Time;
nor
do
I know certainly whether
it
were
in
other Countreys.)
At firft my Fatherfet me to
read
the Hiftorical part
of
the Scripture, which fuit-
ing
with
my
Nature
greatly delighted
me;
and though
all
that
time
I
neither
un-
derstood
nor
relished
much the Do&rinal
Part,
and
Mystery ofRedemption, yet it
did me
good by
acquainting me with the Matters of
Fa&,
and drawing me on
to
love
the
Bible, and
to
fearch
by
degrees
intothe
ref.
But
thoughmy Confcience
would trouble me when
I
finned,
yet
divers
fins
I
was addieted
to, and oft committed
againft my
Confcience; which for the warn-
ing
of
others
I
will
confefs
here
to
my
shame.
a.
I
was
much addi&ed.when, I feared Corrre
&ion
to
lie,
that
I
might
fcape.
2.
I
was
much addi
&ed
to the
excelliive
gluttonous eating
of
Apples and Pears :
which
I
think
laid
the foundationof that
Imbecdlliry
and
Flatulency of
my
Stomach,
which
caufed
the
Bodily Calamities
of my
Life.
3.
To
this
end,
and
to
concur with naughty
Boys
that
gloried
in
evil,
I
have
oft
gone into other
men's
Orchards
,
and
foln
their Fruit,
when I had enough at
home.
4.
1
was
fomewhat
excefliively
addi&ed
to
play, and
that with
covetoufnefs,
for
Money.
S.
I
was
extreamly bewitched
with a
Love
of
Romances, Fables and old Tales,
which corrupted
my
Affe
&ions and loft my
Time.
6.
i
was guilty
of
much idle
foolish
Chat,
and imitation
of
Boys
in
fcurrilous
foolish
Words and
A&ions
(though I
durf
not
fwear).
7.
I
was
too proud
of
my Matters Commendations for Learning,who
all
of
them
fed my
pride, making me
Seven
or Eight
years
the higheft in the
School
,
and
boating
of
me
to
others,
which though it furthered
my Learning,
yet helped
not
my Humility.
8.
I
was
too bold and unreverent towards my Parents.
Thefe were my
Sins
which in my Childhood Confcience troubled me for a
great while before they were overcome.
In
the
Village
where I
lived
the Reader read the Common-Prayer briefly, and
the
tell
of
the Day even till dark Night almolt, except Eating
time,
was
fpenc
in
Dancing under
a
May-Pole and
a
great
Tree,not
far front
my Father's
Door;
where
all
the Town
did
meet together
:
And though one
of
my Father's
own Tenants
was
the
Piper,
he
could not
refrain him, nor
break
the Sport
:
So
that we could
not
read theScripture in
our Family without the
great
dinurbanceo. the
Taber
and
Pipe and
Noife
in
the
Street
!
Many times
my
Mind
was
inclined
to
be
among
them, and
fòmetimes
I
broke
look
from
Coniience,
and joyned with
them; and
the
more
I
did
it
the more I
was
enclined
ro it.
But
when
I
heard them
call
my
Father
Puritan; it did much
to
cure me and alienate me
from them
:
for
I
confi-
der'd that
my Father's
Exercife
of
Reading
the Scripture, was
better than
theirs,
and would Purely
be
better thought
on
by all men
at the
Tall; and
I
conldered
what it
was
for
that he
and others were
that
derided.
When
I
heard them fpeak
fcornfully