Baxter - BX5207 B3 A2 1696

Part I !. Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter. The firft urged their Experience, and the latter urged their contrary Experience; till the Judge, being a wife Man, would have fain feen the Experienceof the latter fort, and have permitted them to ride a while before them. Bat the other urged, [Will not all our padExperience warnyou ? Will you yet be guiltyof thofe Men's Blood?] The Judge anlivered, It will be but the Rider's, and none of yours: Why pretend you to be more careful of their Lives, than they are of their own; even when you would have them Imprifoned or Banifhed? So it came to the Tryal ; butthe Accufers would needs choofe the Horfes; and they chofe none for theTryal but unbrokenColts. The other only cleared, that either theymight have time to break thefe Colts fird, at their ownperil, or elfe might be tryed with filch as they themfelveshadbroken. But the other cryedout, Do younot hear now, my Lord, the impudence and unreafonablenefs of thefe brazen -faced Villains, that will never he content? Did not we tell you, That nothing would fatisfie them, if you granted their Delires. You have granted them a Tryal, and now if they may not have their own Terms, they are as unquiet as before: Are thefe Fellows fit to be fulfered in a peaceable Common -wealth. . But the King himfelf interpofed, as wifer than them all, and Paid, I will try them both on Colts and Horfes :. fo it came to the openTryal ; and it fo drangely happened, that all the tamed Horfes were ridden in a blamelefs Order, and the Colts themfelvescad not one of their Riders; but onlyforce time kick'd, and bit at thofe that came too near them, and !trovea little againd the Bit. This Experience had like to have carried it for Horfes; for the Judge faid, I fee now it is but the Accufers fault, that they have fped worfe. And the Defendents faid, We confefs, my Lord, that Colts are Colts, and mud have labour, and alío that force Horfes are too hot mettled, and we are contented that von lay by thofe few, if they prove untameable; but not to banith all Horfes, and their Riders for their fakes. This Motion feemed reafonable to force, and I am perfuaded it had prevailed, but for two unhappy Arguments at the lad. i. Said the Acr_hfers, my Lord, you fee that thefe Horfes, eventhe bed ridden of them all, are Faftious : They make a difference between the King's Subjeis; they will be ruled indeed, but it is only by thefe Fellows that are ufedto them ; they would quickly cad Vs off, if we Ihould ride them : And then they fay, it is our unskilfulnefs, when it is nothing but their feditious unruly humour. My Lord, We can name you as worthy Men, and skilful Riders, as any are in the World, that have been cad by Horfes. And moreover, it appeareth, That Nature never made them for Man's ufe; for theyhaue not their Gentler afs as the Affes have by nature, but only by muchforce and ufe : And who knoweth not forced things will quickly return likean undringedBow, to their na- tural date, which here is nothing but unruly fiercenefs. And betides, when in all Ages, it malt colt fo much ado to tame them, with thehazard ofMen's lives, Men will at 'raft be weary of fo much pains as well as we. 2. But ifall thiswill not do, in a word, if you banilh them not, you arenot Cwfar's Friend, for we can tell you of a Dorfe that once cad an Emperor, to the lofs of his life, who was as good and as skilful a Rider, as any in the World. This lad Word dopt the Defendent's Mouths. For though they whifpered among themfelves, t. That the main fault was in the Riders, that thould have better tamed that Dorfe for the Emperor. z.And that a Man in white was feen to put Nettles under the HorfesTail, and continually to keep and prick in his fide, and to beat himon. 3. That many thoufand IriJh- Men frighted him with Guns and Fire-halls, 'till he was nothimfelf. 4. That it was an extraordinary fierce natur'd Dorfe. q. The Accufers themfelves were the unskilful Riders who find fpoiled them. 6. That it bath been revenged already by the Blood ofmany, whohad the lad Hand in fpoiling theHorfe. 7. That they abhor the Thoughts of the Altion, as wellas the Accufèrs; and are content, that as aria Laws be made as may be, for skilful Riders, and for a careful choice for the King's own Saddle] with more filch like ; yet this was fo tender a Point, that very few ofthe Defendents dnrl fpeak out ; and fo And 45

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