PART II. Reverend Mr. Richard Batter. 339 § s99.Bifhop Morley earnettly pleaded my own Book with me (my fifth Difpur.) as he had done before the King: And I 11111 told him, I went not from any thing in it. Hevehemently aggravated the mil-chiefs of Conceived Prayer in the Church, and. when I told him that all the -A&ions of Men would be imperfeR, while Men were imperfe&, and that the other fide alfo had its inconveniences; he asked me whether I thought the inconveniences of Extemporary Prayer were not rather to be avoided, than thofe of impofed Forms: I told him that we fhould do our belt to avoid theevils or abufe of both : He asked me, how that Ihould be ? I anfwered him, not by difclaiming theufe ofForms, or of conceived Prayers,_ but ufrng both in their proper feafons ----And as I was going on, the Company fell into a laugh- ter at me, as if I had fpoken fos fome foolilh thing, when I fpake but for that which the Miniftersof England have ufed ever fine the Reformation; and moft that have any Zealdoufe by their allowance to this day, praying Extempore in the Pulpit. § zoo. I oft made it my earneft requeft to them, but that we might have our pro- per turns in fpeaking, and that we might not interrupt one another , but flay the end : but I could never prevail, efpecially with Bishop Morley ; who , when any thing wasfpoken which he would not have to be fpoken out,would prefently inter- rupt me, and go on in his way. I told them that if they took thisCourfe, I judged all our Conference fruitlefs to thehearers : for my Speeches were not incoherent, but the end and middle mutt be joyned to the beginning to make up the fence, and that as the End is firfl in the intention, but loll in execution, fo I ufually re- fervedthe chief part of what I had to fay to the laft, to which the beginning was but preparatory : And therefore I had rather they forbad me to fpeak any more , than let me begin, and then not fuffer me to go on any further. The Bishop an- fwered that I fpake fo long, and had fo many things, that their memories could not retain them all, and Ihould lofe the firft if they flayed till the lalt : and that I fpake more thanany other: I told him, that assomy [-peaking more than others, it was, my duty, yea to fpeak as much as all the ret1, except when my Brethren faved =that labour. If they thought I fpaketoo much , they would tell me fo : And for others, one fide was to fpeak as oft as the other fide : If we had conlènted that they Ihould fill the Room, when we were but Three, and then every one in the Room fhould (peak as much as one ofus, we had made a fair bout of ir. I cared not how many of them fpake, if they were but willing to beanfwered : But if five of them mutt fpeak, and but one of 'them be anfwered, they would lay that all the refI were unanfwerable. And for my length, I told him, that we con- feared that one of themfelvea lhould be always in the Chair , as they had been; and whenever theChair-man interrupted me, and told me I had fpoken long enough, I was willing to be filent ( but that was never done) : or let us turn the Quarrer- Glafi, and fee that one fpeak no longer than theother : And for the weaknefs of their memories, I fuppofed they were on equal Terms : Ie was as hard for us to remember what they faid ; andif we couldnot, we would either take Notes, or ask another, or patsby what weforgot; rather thanoverthrow all Order in Difcourfe, and fpeak in Gonfufron like People in a .Fair. And for my part , I thought, that a continued Speechwithout vain wordsdoth heft fpare time , feeing that when I may thus fet all the parts of my fence together ( when the broken parcels lignifie nothing) I can better make known my meaning in a Speech of half a quarter of an hour, than in two days rambling Difcourfes, where Interruptions and Interlo- cutions tofs us up and down from thing to thing, and never let us fee the fence and reafonofeach others in that Connexion and Harmopy which is its Light and Strength]. But all thefe words were calf away and they had feldomPatience to forbear an Interruption. § aot- One learned Doctor behindme ( that was no Commifiioner) defred to beheard, as if he had fome unanfwerable Argument : And it was a Queffion, Whether all that(erupted Conformity, whom we pleaded for, were net fecb as bad been a. pail? the King? I anfwered him, t. Thatthe King himfelfhad given fufficient Te- llimony of many of them- a. That there is not one Minitter of twenty that we plead for that had ever any thing to do in the Wars, or againfl the King; molt of them being then Boysat School, or in theUniverfity. g. That Men on both fides had been againit the King. Hereupon Bithop Morley asked me , whether ever I knew a conformable Man for the Parliament, againft the King : Yes, my Lord, quoth I, many a one. Name one,quoth fome of them : Yes, a Bithop, yea an Archbilhop, quoth I: At which they all hearkened as at a wonders Do you not . know, quoth I, that the Archbifhop ofYork,, Dr. Withams, fometimeLord Keeper Xit z of
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