WIOGINTON. 427 his 'confinement in prison, had some correspondence with Racket, the zealous enthusiast, who is said to have devised mad plots against the government; for which he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Whatever acquaintance or correspondencehe hadwith this man, he never approved of his opinions and practice. However, from his slight connection with Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington, his memory has suffered greatly from the scurrilous pen of Dr. Cosin, one of the high commission in the above examination and herein he is followed by other historians.. On this account, it will be proper to give -a circumstantial state- ment of the case, evenallowing his enemies to be judges. That Wigginton held correspondence with these men in the matters of their conspiracy, and that there was mutual correspondence betwixt him and them in all their plots for advancing their discipline, is manifest, says our author, by the confession of Arthington, who said, " That he heard Racket singing certain songs, who wished that Arthington had some of them. For it was a very special thing, and, said he, Mr. Wigginton bath a great many of them." This is one evidence of their mutual and united con- spiracy Coppinger, it is said, had once a conference with Wig- ginton, in the presence of Arthington, concerning his extraordinary calling. On this occasion, Mr. Wigginton re- fused tobe made acquainted with Coppinger's secrets, saying, " You are known to be an honest gentleman, and sworn to the queen, and therefore I will not be acquainted with those things which God bath revealed unto you for the good of your sovereign."+ Hacket also declared, that he heard Mr. Wigginton say, " That if the magistrates do not govern well, the people might draw themselves together, and see to a reformation." This dangerous opinion, it is said, may be gathered from one of his letters, in which he said, " Mr. Cartwright is in the Fleet, for refusal of the oath, and Mr. K. is sent for, and sundry worthy ministers are disquieted. So that we look for some bickering 'ere long, and then a battle, which cannot long endure." Cop- pinger and Arthington told Wigginton, " That reforma- tion and the Lord's discipline should now forthwith be established, and therefore charged him in the Lord's name, to put all christians in comfort, that theyShould see ajoyful alteration in the state of church government shortly."t Strype'sWbitgift, p. 305.-Collier's Eccl. IIist. vol, p. 327-329. Cosin's Conspiracy, p. 57. Edit. 1699. Ibid. p. 58, 62.
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