90 The LI F E of the Part III Lane took Fire, andwas burnt down, but not alone for about fifty or fixty Houfes adjoyning, by Fire andblowingup; accompanied it. § t 99A Stranger,callinghimfelfSam. Herbert,wrote me a Letter against the Chri- flian Religion, and the Scriptures, as charging them with Contradiftions, and urgedme to anfwPr them, which I did : And his Name inviting mymemory, I adjoynedan Anfwer to the Strengthof a Bookheretofore written, by EdwardLord Herbert of Cherbury, force-timeAmbaiIàdor in France, the Author of theHiftoryof Henry. VII. called de Veritate, being the molt powerful Affaultagainft the Chriftian Religion, placing all the Religion that's certain, in theCommonor Natural Notices: I entitled the Book, More Reafons for the Chriftian,Religion, and none againfl it : Ors a Second Appendixto the Reafon for the Cbriftian Religion. § zoo. The forefaid Mr. Hinkley, by his impertinent Anfwer to my former Letters, extorted from me a large Reply ; but when I was fending it him in Writing, I heard that he intended to Print force fcraps of it with his Papers, the better to put them off: Whereupon I fent him word he should not have them, till he fatisfied me that he would, not fo abufe them, b'c. The rather becaufe, s. The Subjeft of themwas much to prove that the War was raifed in England by an Epifcopal Parliament, jealous of otherEpifcopal Men, as toPo- pery and Propriety. z. And it was fo much againft Diocefanes, and their new Oaths, as would much difpleafe them, 3. And in a (harper ltile thanwasfit forpublick View : And as to the fire Reafori, I wasafraid leftanyPapifts would lay holdof it, to makeany Princes, that already hate the the Non-conformifts, and Presbyterians, to hate the Conformifts and Prelatifts alto ; and fo to feem themfelves the molt Loyal : And I had rather they hated, and raft off the Non- conformifts alone; than both. This mindeth me to add that. § zoi. About a Year ago one HenryFomlis, Son to Si nae'id Fomlis, an Ox- ford Man, who had wrote against the Presbyterians with as filthy a Language al- molt as a Man in his Wits could do, having written alfo against the Papifts, His Book (after his Death) was Printed in a large Folio, fo opening the Princi- ples and Pra&ices of Papifts againft Kings,their Lives and Kingdoms, bymultitudes of molt exprefs Citations from their own Writers, that the like hath not be- fore been done by anyMan ; nor is there extant fuch another Colleftion on that Subjeft (thoughhe left out the frith Maflacre :) But whereasthe way of thePa- pifts is, tomake a grievous Complaint against any Book, that is written effeftu- ally against them, as injurious (as they did against Pet. Moulin's Anfwer toPhi- lanaxAuglicas, and againft Dr. Stillingfleet's late Book) or the contrary ; this Book being copioustrue Citationsand Hiftory, is fo terrible to them, that their method is to fay nothing of it, but endeavour to keep it unknown ;. for of late they have left the difputing way , and bend all their endeavours to creep into Hodes, andpervert Perlons in ferret ; but efpecially to infinuate into the Honks and Familiarity of all the Rulers of the World, wherethey can be received. § zoz. The Death of force, the worthyLabours, and greatSufferings of others maketh me remember that the juft charafterizing of fome of the Minifters of Chrift, that now fuffered for not fwearing, fubfcibing,declaring, conforming, and for refufing 'Re-ordination, is a duty which I owe to the honour of God's Graces in them. But becaufe no Man can expe& that I thould be fo volu- minous as to defcribe particularly all the Eighteen hundred filenced, I Ihall but tell you what my own Neighbours were, not (peaking by hearfay, butper- fonalacquaintance'; herein imitating Thuanus, Micrelsus, and many others in the truth and brevity of the Charafter, but giving you nothingof any unknown Perfon by bare-report. s. In the County where I lived,in Worcefler City,was filenced Mr. gofeph Baker, born inStourbridge(whofeWiles Funeral Sermon and Life I printed,)Hewas a Learn- ed Man, of a blamelefs Life, Preaching conftantly, Catechifing the People, and conferring with the feveral Families (efpecially before he firt admitted them to the Lord's Supper) perfonally: But of extraordinary Prudence, Calmnefs, Pa- tience, Gravity,' and Soundnefs of Judgment; neither for Prelacy, Presbytery, nor Independency as then formed into Parties;abut for that which was found in all the Parties, andfor Concord upon fuch Catholick terms : TheParish of St. An- drews, where he was Minifter, had but about fix Pound a year maintenance, of which
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