296 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. to unbutton his doublet in the pulpit, :that his breath might be longer, and his voice more .audible, to rail against the king's party, and those about the king's person, whom he called popish counsellors. This he did in an especial manner in September, ,1644, when he, with great concernment, told the people, several times, that God was angry with the army for not cutting off delinquents.". Dr. Grey, with a' similar design, denominates him " a preacher of treason, rebellion, and nonsense ;" for the proof of which, he alleges the follow- ing passages from Mr. Sedgwick's sermons preached before the parliament.: -" The field which I am at this time to work upon, and go over, you see is large. There is much more ground in it than I can conveniently, break up and sow. I shall therefore, by God's assistance, who is the only breaker of hearts, set upon the work, andmay he in tender mercy so accompany, and water, and prosper his truths at this day, that all our fallow ground may be broken up, and then be so gra- ciously sown in righteousness, that we and all the land may shortly reap in mercy.-Sirs, you must break up this ground, or it will break up our land. There is not such a God- provoking sin, a God-removing sin, a church-dissolving, a kingdom-breaking sin, as idolatry. Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. Superstition is but a bawd to gross idolatry.-I3e as earnest and as active as you possibly can to send labourers into the field ; I mean to plant the land with a heart-breaking ministry.-God bath been the salvation of the parliament, and in the parliament, and for the parliament. Salvation at Edge-hill ; salvation at Reading and" Causon ; salvation at Gloucester ; salvation' at Newbury ; salvation in Cheshire ; salvation in Pembrokeshire ; salvation in the north ; salvation from several treacheries ; and salvation from open hostilities."+ Such are the formidable proofs, in the opinion, of the learned doctor, that he was a, preacher of treasons rebellion, and nonsense ! How far he was guilty, every reader will easily judge. In the year 1646, Mr. Sedgwick became preacher at St. Paul's, Covent-garden; where he was exceedingly fol- Jowed, and was instrumental in the conversionof many souls. In 1653, he was, by the parliament, appointed one of the tryers; and the year following was constituted one of the assistant commissioners of London for ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers. He was very zealous to carry on, as Wood's Athente 0.11. vol. ii. p. 139. + Grey's Examination, vol. iii. p. 204-206.
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