506 'LIVES Or THE PURITANS. " he said he'diust not leave his dipping, if he' might gain " all the committee's estates by so doing, now he saith, that " he by the holy scriptures is convinced, that his said " opinions were erroneous, and that lie will not, anddare not "practise it again, if he might gain all the committee's 46 estates by doing it. And that he makes this recantation, " not for fear, or to gain his liberty, but merely out of a " sense of his errors, wherein he will endeavour to reform 't others. " LAWRENCE CLARKSON." Mr. Edwards, in publishing this account, endeavoured to expose the weaknesses and infirmities of the sectaries, against whom he manifested an implacable hatred. Ac- cordingly, he further observes, that Mt. Clarkson, after his release, turned seeker, denying the scriptures to be a sufficient rule of doctrine and practice, and that the whole will of God was yet revealed. Being separated from the baptists, he published a pamphlet in his own defence, entitled, "ThePilgrimage ofSaints, by Church cast out, in Christ found, seeking Truth." In this pamphlet he endeavoured to acquit himself, by observing, " That he did not assert the baptism of believers by immersion to be an error, but only intended that it was erroneously practised, there being now no true churches, nor true administrators of that ordinance."* Whether this be indeed a sufficient vindication of his conduct, is left with the candid reader to determine. Our author, speaking of Mr. Clarkson and several others, declares, " They were worse than papists ; and there never were monsters more to be abhorred than they."+ This censorious writer observes, that Mr. Clarkson, preaching on a Lord's day afternoon, at Bow church, in Cheapside, London, he began his prayer to God with right honourable Lord God;. and prayed that God would bless the king's army, and bless the saints in both the parliament and the king's army ; and his sermon was a rhapsody of nonsense. " This,' says he, "was not done in a corner, but in a great and full audience ; when there was present one member of the house of commons, if not more, besides divers other persons ofquality. Though this Clarkson was in London some time after this, yet was he never questioned, nor called to any account for this, that I could ever learn."t Edwards's Gingraena, part i. p. 104-106. Second Edit. 1. Ibid. p. 211. Ibid. part ii. p. 6. Third Mt,
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