The L IFE of the L I B: L which I had taken tobe finful , and was ready to think , why (hould I be (ingular and offend. theBithopsandotherStíperiours, and make my feltconteMotible it! the World, and expofe myfelt to Cenfurès , Scorns , and Sufferings and all for filch little things as thefe, when the Foundations themfelves havefo;great difficulties, as I am unable to overcome. But when Faith revived, then none of the Parts or Concernments ofReligion feenied fmall, and thenMan feemed nothing , and the World a fhadow, and Godwas all. In the begin "I doubted notof the truthof the Holy Scriptures, or of the Life to come, becauffaw not the Difcultiei which might caufedoubting: After that I Jaw themMad I doubted, becaule I faw not that which Asould fatiefie the mind againft them : Since that, having Peen bothDifficulties andEvidences, though I am not fo unmolefled as at the firti, yet is my Faith I hope much ftronger, arid far better able to repel the Temptations ofSatan, and the Sophifms of Infidels than before : But yet it is my daily Prayer, That God would increafe my Faith, and give my Soul a clear fight of theEvidences of his Truth, and of himfelf, and of the invifibleWorld. 37. Whilft I was thus employed between outward Labours and inward'Trials, Satan flirr'd up a little inconfiderable rageofwickedmen againft me. The Town having been formerly eminent for Vanity,had yearly a Sbew,inwhich they brought forth thepaintedforms of Giants, and filch like foolery, to walk about the Streets with ; and though I faid nothing againft them, as being not limply evil, yet on every one of thole Days of Riot, the Rabbleof the more vicious fort had flip force fpleen to-ventagainft me, as one part of theirGame. And once all the igno. rant Rout were raging mad againR me for preaching the Doctrine of Original Sin to them, and tellingthem that Infants before Regeneration, had fomuch Guilt and Convption, as made them loathfome in the Eyes of God whereupon they vented it abroad in the Country, That I preached that God hated, or loathed Infants; fo that they railed at me as I palled through theStreets. The next Lord's Day 1 clear- ed and confirmed it, and (hewed them that if this were not true, their Infants,had no need of Chrilt, of Baptifm, orof Renewing by the Holy Ghoft. And I askt them whether they durit fay that their Children werefared without a Saviour, and Were no Chriflians, and why. they baptizedThem, with much more to that pur- pofe; and afterward they were afhamed and as mute as fillies. Once one of the drunken Beggersof theTown railed a flander of me, That I was under a Tree with a Woman (an ill-fam'd Beggar of the Town) : All the Drunkards had got it in their mouths, before I could find out the Original. I got three or four of them bound to the Good Behaviour, and the Sot himfelf that rai- fed the Slander, confeffed before the Court that he faw me in a rainy dayon Horf back (handunder an Oak which grew in a thick Hedge, and the Woman afore- laid (landing for fhelter on the other fide the Hedge under the fame Tree, and that he believed that we faw not one another ; but he fpakeit as a Jeft, and the Com- pany were gladof the occafion to feed their Malice. So they all askt me forgive= nefs, and I defired the Magiftrate immediately to releafe them all. There lived at Kinver an ancient, prudent, Reverend Divine, Mr. 7obn Croß, ( who died lince, Pallor of Matthews Friday-f reef in London) : This godly Man had been the chief.means of thegood which was done in KidderminJPer before my coming thither ; when I came, I got him to take every fecond day in a Weekly Ledture. It came to pats once, that a Woman defamed him at Kidderminflero- penly, and told the People that he would have ravifhed her. Mr. Croß being a wife Man, fent one before to delire the Bailiff and Juftice to call her to Examina- tion, andhe came after and fate in a commondark coloured Coat, among many others, in theBailiff's Parlour, as if he had been one of the Magilirates. The Bailiff called her in, and (he flood impudently to the Accufation : The Bailiff askt her whether the knew the Man if the faw him ; which the confidently affirm- ed. He askt her, Is it this Man , or that Man, or the other Man, or any there? And the laid, O no, God forbid that the fhould accufe any of them. Mr. Croß laid: Am not theMan ; and the laid, No, the knew theMan well enough. And when they had told her that.this was Mr. Cro¡P,. the fell down on her knees, and askt him forgivenefs, and confeti that one of his Neighbours (who was hisgreat Acculer at the Bithops Courts) had hired her to report it. But the Good Man forgave them all. § 3 S. And here I mutt return to the Proceedings of the Parliament, becaule the rein will not be well tìnderftood without connoting the Occafions of them which were adminitired. When the Londoner, cried to the Houle for'nJtice,and honour- ed
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