i 98 The L I F E of the Part III. of pr. Omen's ( who was lately dead ) containing Twelve Arguments againft filch joyning with the Liturgie, and publick Churches, was feat me, as that which had fatisfyed Multitudes I thought that if this were unanfwei ed, my labour would he much loft,becanfe that party would Rill fay Dr. Owen's Twelse Arguments con- fdted all: Whereupon 'I haltily anfwered them, but found after that it had been more prudent to have omitted his Name : For on that account a fwarm of revilers in the City poured out their keeneft Cenfures, and three or four wrote againft me, whom i anfwered. ( I will not name themen that are known, and twoofthem are yet unknown ) But they went on feveral Principles, fome Charged all Com- munion with the Liturgie,with idolatry, Antichriftianity, and perjury and back- 1liding: One concealed his Judgment, and quarrel'd at by-words. And ano- ther'---turnedmy Treatife of.Epifcopacy againft me, and faid it fully proved the Duty of Separation,I was glad that hereby I was called to explain that Treatife, left it Ihould do hurt to miftakers when I am dead ; and that as in it I had faid much againft one extream, I might leave my Teftimony againft the other Lcalled: all thefe writings together, aDefenceof Catholick Communion. And that I might be Impartial I adjoyncd two pieces againft Dr. Sherlock that ran quite into the con Crary Extrcames, unchurching almoft all Chriftians as Scbifrnaticks. I confefs , I wrote fo fharply against him as mull needs be liable ro blame with thole that know not theman, and his former and latter Virulent and ignorant Wri- tings. §. ST . About this time one Mr. Robert Mayot of Oxford; a very Coldly Man, that devoted all his Elate to charitable ufes, a Conformif whom I never faw, dyed; and betide manygreater Gifts to Abbington,&c. gaveby his laft Will Six hun- cited pounds to be by me diftribeted to Sixty poor Eleaed Minifters, addingthat he did it not, becaufe they mereNon- oonformif,'s, bat beeaufe many Jude stare poor and pious'. But the King'sAttourney Sir Robert Sawyer Sued for it in. theChancery, and the Lord Ceeper Northgave it all to the King. Which made many refolve to leave nothing tocharitable des aftertheirDeath, butdo what they did while they lived. §. Sz. Under my daily pains I was drawn to a work which I had never the leafs thoughts of ( and is like to be the laR of my Life,) to write a paraphrafe on the.Ne;n Tewament, Mr. S,oha umphrey having. long importuned me, to write a paraphrafe on the Epiftleto the Lunare, when I had done that, the ufefulnefs of it to my felf drewnie farther and farther till I had done all. But having con- feílcd my ignorance of the Revelations, and yet loth wholly to omit it, I gave but . General Notes, with the Reafons of my uncertainty in the greateft difficulties which I know will fall under the harp CenDre of many. But Truth is more va- luable than fuch men's praifes. I fitted the whole by plainnefs to the efe of ordi- nary Fathilies. §, g3. After many times deliverance from the Sentence of death, on Novent- ber Twenty, One thoefand fix hundred eightyfour ; in the very Enteranceof the Seventyeth year of my Age, God was pleafed fo 'greatly to incrcafe my painful Difeafs, as to pafs on me the sentenceof a painful death: By confrant pain by an incredible quantity of flatulency in Stomach and all the Inteftines and Reins, from all that I eat or drink, my Stomach not able to difgeft any meat or drink, but tunringell to tearing pain ; Betides' the pain of the Stone in Reins and oft in the bladder; and urine black like dirt and mortified blood. But God taeneth it to cry good, and giveth me a greater willingnefs Io die, than I once thought I, fhonld ever have attained. The Lord teach me more fully to love his Will, and Left therein, as much better than my own, that oft f niveth a- gailnft it §. 84. A little before this while I lay in pain and languifhing, the Jnftices of Seiiions, feet Warrants to apprehend me ( about a Thonfand more being in Catalogue to be all bound to the good behaviour. I thought they would fend me Sit monthsto Prifon for not taking the OxfordOath, and dwelling in London, and fo I refitted to Open my Chamber door to them, their Warrant notbeing to break it open. But they fet Lx Officers at my Study-door, who wascht all night, æßd kept me from my bed and food, fo that the next day I yielded to them ; who carriedme ( fuerce able toRand) to their Seffions, and bound me in Four hundred round bond; to the good behaviour : I defined to know what my Crime was; and who
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