174 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. EZECHIAS MORLEY was minister at Walsham in the Willows in Suffolk, and afterwards at several other places. He was a zealous and laborious preacher, but suffered numerous oppressions on account of his nonconformity. Mr. Morley has left a circumstantial account of the troubles he underwent, which it may not be improper to laybefore the reader. " For three years," says he, " I have been so molested by the commissary, that I could not remain to do the work of God, for any long time in any one place. They first arrestedme by a warrant from the bishop, when they said, I must be bound to appear before him at Norwich by ten o'clock next morning, or go to prison. The time appointed being so very short, I yielded my body to the prison. This was in the year 1582. " Having obtained my liberty, I became minister of Denton ; then the commissary caused an act of, excommu- nication to be entered against me, of which I had no knowledge till about a week- after. I then resorted to Dr. Day, and desired he would not proceed against me, seeing he had already done me so much injury. Therefore, after much entreaty, he promised that he would not hinder me in my ministry, and sogave me his word tostay the excommuni- cation. Notwithstanding this, in six weeks after my removal to Denton, he published an excommunication against me, and fixed it upon the door of the church at Walsham, being unknown to me, and fifteen miles from the place of my abode. - Afterwards, I was arrested on the Lord's day in the church-yard, when the Lord's supper was about to have been administered. When the warrant was read, I told the officer, that I would remain in a bond of twenty pounds to appear the, next day, which he- utterly refused. When a friend offered his bond of twenty pounds, he refused this also. And when my friends proposed to enter a bond of three hundred pounds for my appearance the next day, this in like manner was refused. As I pre- pared to go with him, he would have taken bond ; but I, being ignorant of the law, refused his offer, and, therefore, went with him ta the high sheriff to Bury. Here nothing was objected against me, only I was -- bound over to the assizes. " At the assizes, I was indicted for having deviated from the order of baptism, in baptizing a child a long time before I left Walsham. In this -indictment, I was charged with having said, r do you forsake the devil I' instead of
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