300 The LIFE of the Li ß. t bath deferved very well from btr Majejty, and of whom bit Majeßybath a very good o- pinion, and I hopeyou will not be the leß delimits to Comply with him for the particular Re- commendation of, SIR, Your very affeecionate Servant, Edw. Hyde. § 156. Can anything be more ferious andcordial and obliging than all this : For a Lord Chancellour that hath the Bufinefs of the Kingdom upon his hand , and Lords attending him, to take up his time fomuch and oftenabolit fo low a Perfon, and fo fmall a thing? And Ihouldnot a Man becontent without a Vicaridge or a Curatlbip when it is not in thepower of the King and the Lord Chancellour to procure it for him, when they fovehemently delire it ? But, O thought I , how much better aLife do poor Men live, whoSpeak as they think, and do as they pro- fefs, and are neverput upon fuchShifts as thefe for their prefent Conveniences ! Wonderful! thought I, that Men who do fo much over-value worldly Honour and E (teem, canpo{Bblyfo muchforget futurity, and think onlyof the prefentday, as ifthey regarded not how their A&ions be judged ofby Po(terity. For all this extraordinary favour, fine the Day that the King came in , I never received as his Chaplain, or as a Preacher, or upon any account, the value of onefarthing of any Publick Maintenance : fo that I and many a hundred more had not had a içce of bread, but for thevoluntary Contribution ( whilft we preached) of ano- Wief fort of People. Yea, while I hadall this excefs of favour, I would have ta- ken it indeed for an excels, as being far beyond my expe&ations, if they would buthave given me liberty topreach the Gofpel, without any Maintenance, and leave me to beg my Bread. § 1Ç7. And this bringeth to my remembrance the Motionwhich I oft made to my Brethren whenthey were oft admitted to the King, and thought themfelves in fo great favour, and had Bilhopricksand Deaneries offered them, and the -Mini- fters of theLandhad fuch high Expe &ations: 1 motioned to them that nowwhile the World would blufh at the denial , we might Petition for a bare Liberty to preach for nothing, in the Publick Churches, at thofe hours of the Lord's Day , and thofedays of the week, when the Mini(ters that are put into our Places are vacant, and are not there. BLit the Brethren thought this was to come down our Rives before they tookus down. But the time quickly came when we would have been glad ofthis much. § rç8. A little after this, Sir Ralph Clare, and others, caufed the Houfes of the People of theTown of Kidderminfter to be fearcht for Arms, and if any had a Sword, it was taken from them ! And meeting him after with the Bishop, I defi- red him to tell us why his Neighbours were fo ufed, as if he would have made the World believe that they were Seditious, or Rebels, or dangeroùs Perfons that Ihould be ufed as Enemies to the King. He anfwered me, That it was becaufe they would not bring out their Arms when they were commanded, but faid they had none, whenas they hadArms upon every occafion to appear with on the be- half of Cromwell. This great difingenuity of fo ancient a Gentleman, towards his Neighbours whom he pretended kindness to, made me brake forth into fome more than ordinary freedomof reproof; and- Ianfwered him, That we have thought ourCondition hard in that by Strangers that know us not, we Ihould be ordinarily traduced and mifreprefented ; but this was moll fad and marvellous, that a Gentle- man fo Civil, Ihould before the Bilhop fpeak fuch words againfr a Corporation, which he knew I was able toconfute, and are fo contrary to truth ! I asked him whether he did not know that I publickly and privately fpake again(, theUfurpers, anddeclared them tobe Rebels ; and whether he took not the People to he of my mind : and whether I and theyhad not hazarded our Liberty by refuting the En- gagement again(t the King andHoufeof Lords, when . he and others of his Mind had taken it ? He confeffed that I had been again(, Cromwell, but they had always onevery occafion appeared in Arms for him. I told him that he (truck me with admiration, that it Ihoeld be polfrble for him to live in the Town, and yet believe what he faid, to be true, or yet to fpeak it in our hearing, if he knew it tobe un- true. And I profeffed, that having lived there Sixteen years line the Wars, Ine- ver is
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