178 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. wards followed relative to this case, we are not able, for want of information, to relate. About the same time a warrant was issued from the lords of the council, among whom were Archbishop. Laud and the Bishop of London, to apprehend:Mr. Wilson. With this war- rant a pursuivant was sent to bring him to London. It does not appear for what crime this prosecution was designed ; yet no doubt it was the sin of nonconformity. The pursuivant, hav- ing received his' Warrant, hastened without delay to Otham ; where, though he heard Mr. Wilson preach, and was after- wards in the same room with him in his own house ' he let him slip out of his hands. Mr. Wilson, suspecting him as soon as he entered the room, retired and hid himself, and so escaped the snare. The pursuivant was enraged at his loss, and said he had been employed in this service thirty-six years, and had never been served so before. Mr. Wilson, having escaped the snare, withdrew from the storm till the meeting of the long parliament, when he went to London, and presented his case and petition to the house of commons. The house appointed a committee to take his case into con- sideration; and, November 30, 1640, Mr. Rouse, who was one of this committee, reported to the house, " That Mr. Wil- son had been suspended four years from his living, worth sixty pounds a year, only for not reading the Book of Recreations on the Lord's day ; that the archbishop himself had sus- pended him; and that for three years he had attended upon the high commission." The house therefore resolved, " That Mr. Wilson had just cause of complaint; and that there was just cause for the house to afford him relief.". Upon the presentation of his petition, Sir Edward Deering, one of the members for Kent, said, i is Mr. Wilson, your peti- toner, as orthodox in doctrine, as laborious in preaching, and as unblemished in his life, as any minister we have., He is now separated from his flock, to both theis.griefs : for it is not with him as with many others, who are glad to set a, pur- suivant on work, that they may have an excuse to be out of the pulpit; it is his delight to preach."t Sir Edward further Observes of Mr. Wilson, "He is now a sufferer, as all good men are, under the general obloquy of a puritan. The pur- suivant watches his door, and divides him and his cure asunder, to both their griefs. About a week since," he adds, " I went to Lambeth, to move that great bishop (too great indeed) to take this danger from off this minister, and to recall Rushworth's Collec. vol. v. p. 66.-Nalson's Collec. vol. i. p.57I. 1. Life of Mr. Wilson, p. 17-22.
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