402 LIVES OF THE Pt RITANg. the church are the arms of the church. Let us then pray these men either to conversion, if it be the will of God, or to destruction. And let us use that prayer against them, which David used against Ahithophel, with which I will conclude : 0 Lord, turn the council of all theseAhithophels into folly, who go about to lay the honour of this church and nation in the dust, by depriving us of the purity of thy ordinances of public worship, which are the glory of this our nation. "* For these expressions in his sermon, Mr. Bernard was most cruelly censured in the high commission. He was suspended, excommunicated, fined one thousand pounds, condemned in costs of suit, and committed to New Prison ; where, for six months, he was most barbarously used, and almost starved for want, of which he complained in sundry letters and petitions which he sent to the bishop ; but the good man could obtain no relief, unless he would defile his conscience by a public recantation.+ Whether this severe and heavy sentence was disproportionate to his crime, the impartial reader will easily determine. The degradingrecantation enjoined upon. Mr. Bernard, discovers so much the intolerant spirit of Bishop Laud and his brethren in commission, that it will be proper, though at some length, to be inserted. Itwas, therefore, as follows: " Whereas in a sermon made by me, in this place, the 6th " of May hist, upon this text, The glory is departed front " Israel, because the ark of God was taken. I Sam. iv. 21. " I had this passage : The gospel, which is the power of " God unto salvation, is the means by which God manifest- " ethhis omnipotent and irresistible power in the conversion " and salvation of all those who, from eternity, were " ordained thereunto by God's absolute and immutable " decree.' And I do here publicly acknowledge, that " hereby, contrary tohis majesty's command in his declara- " tion lately published with the articles of religion, I did " go beyond the general meaning of that place of scripture, " and of the said articles ; and drew the same to maintain " the one side of some of those ill-raised differences, which " his majesty's said declaration mentioneth. And this I " did rather out of a desire to thrust something into my said " sermon, in affirmation of one side of the said differences, " than was any way occasioned by the text I preached " from. For which I here publicly profess my hearty Prynne's Cant. Psoine, p. 364, 365. t Ibid.
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