Brooks - BX9338 .B7 1813 v3

LOVE. 121 peace-makers, altogether unbecoming one of his faction." This scurrilous authorfurther adds, " I shall conclude withour supposedmartyr, by asserting, that he whohad the ignorance, blind zeal, and impudence,to term episcopacy and the Com- mon Prayer Book, the two plague-sores, several times in one preachment, had need have set forms of sermons enjoined him, as well as prayers.". The king's commissioners, indeed, complained of the sermon to the commissioners of the opposite party, who laid r the case before the parliament; upon which Mr. Love was sent for to London, and he underwent an examination ; the result of which was, that the ,congregation at Uxbridge were disappointed of a preacher, and even after the psalm was sung, he was unexpectedly invited to supply the place, when he delivered the same sermon which he had preached theday before at Windsor. Hewas, therefore, acquitted by order of the house of commons ;+. yet Neal says, he was confined to his own house during the treaty, and then discharged.t " The presbyterian house of commons," it is said, " who cleared Mr. Love from any slander, for prattling such stuff, did plainly demonstrate what little desire they had for peace, and thereby intimated their abominable hypocrisy to the whole world."§ This affords the reader a specimen of the ignorance, the bigotry, and the bad spirit of this party historian. Mr. Love, indeed, allowed that he cautioned the people against placing too much confidence in the treaty ; "because," said he, "while our enemies go on in their wicked practices, and we keep to our principles, we may as soon make fire and water to agree ; and, 1 had almost said, reconcile heaven and hell,.as their spirits and ours. They must grow better, or we most grow worse, before it is possible for us to agree."fi He also said, " men who lay under the guilt of much innocent blood, are not meet- persons to be at peace with, till all the guilt of the blood be expiated and avenged, either by the sword of the law, or the law of the sword : else a peace can never be safe nor just."5 He further added, "that therewas a generation of men who carried blood and revenge in their hearts against the well-affected in the nation, who hated not only their bodies, but their souls, and would drink ahealth to their damnation." Though there might be too much truth in these expressions, they were certainly very unseasonable and Foulis's Hist. of Plots, p. 108, 155. + Love's Trial, p. 68.-Whitlocke's Mem. p. 123. Neal's Puritans, vol. iii. p. 233. Foulis's Hist. of Plots, p. 155. Ibid. p. 154. L'Estrangel Dissenters' Sayings, part ii. p. 62.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=