104 The L I FE of the P;WI o claration about Ecclefiaftical Affairs, read and both Parties to fay what they had againft it, and then the King totell what he would have pàfs in the draught. And the Lord Chancellor (Ride) had by mifta'keput fomething of that, which Parker mentionethin the firft Draught, which was privately (hewed us by him, and we had told him that he miftook us, wehad never faid any filch thing : We had indeed faid, that the Work, which we were jailed to was not to tell how much we our felves thought to be Lawful or Unlawful in the Govern- ment Worfhip, and Ceremonies, but what was the ncceffary means of uniting all his Majefty's Proteftant Subjects, who yet were not of the fame Apprehenfi- on about eachCeremony among themfelves : Whereupon the Lord Chancellor had blotted out that paffage which faid, [They tosse glad to find us approving of the Liturgy, &c.] and only put in [of a Liturgy; ] as is yet to be feen in the Declaration Pubhllted, and in the firlt Draught óf it, (which I hate a Copy of.) And it was after at the Savoy, where the Liturgy was treated of where, I. Wegave?in thofe Exceptions againft many things in the Liturgy, tvhiehwere Printed: Andamong others, againft divers Untruths, [as when divers Weeks after Chrift's Nativity-day, Enfter, Whitfunday, it was to be faid in the Collects; that [On that Day Chrift was born, rofe, the Holy-Ghofl came dotta, &c.) a. We difputed many days againft an Impofition of the Liturgy, as Sinful: 3. Being demanded by BifhopCoufina (in the Chair) by a Writing, as from borne great one, (as he fpake) that we fhould give in an Enumeration of what we took to be flat Sins in the Liturgy, as diftinft from meer Inconveniences, I brought in ten Particulars the next Morning, of which my Brethren put outtwo, weer- ly for fear of angering them, and the other eight we prefented to them, and never had a word of Anfwer,but anangry rebuke for offering to charge a whole Church with Sin, (as they fpake) yet Both this Man tell the World that we profeffedour felves to take it to beall Lawful. And what if we had done fo? Is the Liturgy all that Nonconformifts flick at ? Is the Canonical Subfcription and Oath of Obedience, and Re-ordination, lye. no more ? And doth not the Nation know that it was only the old Con£ormsty which was then queftioned, and that the new was not in being? And that the A8 of Uniformity was fine made, wherein, beides Re- ordination., is thenew Declara- tion, and new Subfcription, and .fine that the new Oxford Oath ? Such Impu- dency it was that alfaulted, and rendered us odious to the i^norant, contrary to publick notoriety of Fad, yet vifible in Print to all the World. § 234. Another at that time wrote that I had written, that theSupreme Tower might be refilled for Religion : And another, (aPapift, writing for Toleration) that I wrote that the Authority of any of the Peers might warrant Subjefts to take up Arms againfl the King.] Things that I never wrote or thought, or any thing like them, but have written very much to the contrary: But it is our Lot to fall into the Handsof inch Men, as have banned all Modeft'y in their Calum- nies. § 235. About the beginning ofMay my Walk in the Fields, I met with Dr. Gunning, now Blimp of Chichefter, (withwhom I had thecontention and fierce Oppofftion to all the motions of Peace at the tavoy, ) and at his Invitation went after to his Lodgings, to purfüe our begun Difcourfe : which he ve- hemently profelfed that he was Pure, that it was not Gonfcieuee that kept as from Conformity, but meerly to keep up our Reputation with thePeople, and we defired alterations for no other ends ; and that we loft nothing byour Non- conformity, but were fed as fall, and lived as much to the l'leafiue of the bleib in Plenty as the Conformifts did : And let me know what odious thoughts he had of his poor Brethren, upon Grounds fo notorioufly falfe, that I had thought few Men that lived in England could have been fo ignorant of fuels matters of Fad. Bat alas, what is there fo falfe and odious which exafperated fadions, malicious Minds will not believe and fay of others ? And what Evidence fo notorious which they will not out-face ? I told him that he was a ftranger to the Men he talked of ; that thole of my Acquaintance, (whom he confef- fed to be far more than of his) were generally the molt Confcionable Men that I could
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