a$ LIVES OF THE PURITANS. joined by his friends, who presented-a petition to Cromwell for his enlargement; upon which he was brought before the protector's council at Whitehall. The council told him that there were high charges against him, and that .he was not a prisoner in the cause of Christ, but suffered as abusy-body and an evil doer. His friends desiring that the cause might be debated betwixt the protector and himself, their request was .granted. The same evening, therefore, Mr. Rogers was admitted into the presence of Cromwell ; and being reminded of the high charge exhibited against him, it is said, he declared that they who brought the charge were drunkards and swearers. But when the protector asked him which of them were, he could name none of /hem. When the protector pressed him for scripture, in support of his principles and conduct, he said the scripture was positive and privative ; and being asked which of the evil kings whom God destroyed, he would compare with the present state, he gave no answer. " Whereupon theprotector," our'author adds , " shewedwhat a disproportion there was : those being such as laboured to destroy the people of God, but his work, (speaking of him- self,) was to preserve them from destroying one another; and titat if the sole power was in the hands of the presbyterians, the fifth monarchy-men, or the 'persons re-baptized, they would force all their own way : but his work was to keep all the godly of several judgments in peace." When Mr. Rogers spoke against a national ministry and a national church, ap- plying it to what was done in the commonwealth, calling it antichristian, the protector told him it was not so ; for a national church endeavoured to force all into one form.. Several persons of respectability and influence having afterwards interceded with the protector for the release of Mr. Rogers, Mr. Feake, and others, or to have them brought to trial ; the protector said, that out of mercy he kept them from trial ; " because," said he, " if they were to be tried, the law would take away their lives." They were, therefore, sent back to 'prison. On March 31, 1655, Mr. Rogers, by an order from Cromwell and his council, was removed from his prison in the city to Windsor-castle.+ Here it is proba- ble he remained a prisoner for some time. He was living in the year 1659 ; but whether he survived the restoration we have not been able to ascertain. Granger styles him " a great fanatic," adding, " that he was no less popular among the, anabaptists and fifth monarchy-men, than Love was Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. ii. p. 442. t Ibid.
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