alf 158 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. dismissedand sent home, much more honoured and beloved than before."* ' The pardon and release of Mr. Cartwright and his brethren was procured of the queen, as Sir George Faille asserts, by the intercession of Archbishop Whitgift. He also observes, that when Mr. Cartwright was freed from his troubles, he often repaired to the archbishop, who used him kindly, and for several years tolerated his preaching at Warwick, upon his promise not to impugn the laws, orders; and government of the church of England, but promote, both publicly and privately, the estimation and peace of the same. With these terms, it is said, he complied. Not- withstanding, when the queen understood that he preached again, though in a temperate manner, according to his pro- mise, she would not permit him any longer without sub- scription; and she was not a little displeased with the arch- bishop for his past connivance.+ Though Mr. Cartwright never groaned any more under the iron rod of persecution, his character was afterwards slanderously aspersed. Many writers of the episcopal party, have reproached him as being concerned with .Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington, in theirmad conspiracy and other singularities. This reproach was, however, made abundantly manifest, to the great honour ofMr. Cart- wright and his brethren, and the shame of their enemies. He published an "Apology" of himself, against the slanders of Dr. Sutcliff; and, says my author, " I have Mr. Cart- wright's own answer to Dr. Sutcliff, in manuscript, which doth so fully confute the shameful story of his confederacy with these men, as will shame the slanderer to any impartial reader."t Fuller himself acquits Mr. Cartwright and his brethren in these words : " True it is," says he, " they as cordially detested Hacket's blasphemies, as any of the epis- copal party ; and such of them as loved Hacket the noncon- formist, abhorred Hacket the heretic, after he had mounted to so high a pitch of impiety." Mr. Cartwright, in his old age, was much afflicted with the stone and gout, by lying in cold prisons ; yet lie did not relinquishhis public labours; but continued to preachwhen, with the utmost difficulty, he could scarcely creep into the pulpit. The Lord's day before his death, lie preached his last sermon, fromEccl. xii. 7. -Then shall the dust return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. Clark's Lives, p. 18. + Paule's Whitgift, p. 70-72. t MS. Remarks, p. 176. Church Kist. b. ix. p. 206.
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