400 LIVES OF 'CITE PURITANS. ment, pratings, and prattlings of Mr. Barebones, the leather- seller ; and Mr. Greene, the felt-maker, on Sunday last, the 19th of December." The tumult alluded to is thus curiously described:- " A brief touch in memory of the fiery zeal of Mr. Bare- bones, a 'reverend unlearned leather-seller, who, with Mr. . Greene, the felt-maker, were both taken preaching or prating in a conventicle, amongst a hundred persons, on Sunday, the 19th of December last, 1641. " After my commendations, Mr. Rawbones, (Barebones, I should have said,) in acknowledgment of your too much troubling yourself, and molesting of others, I have made bold to relate briefly your last Sunday's afternoon work, lest in time your meritorious pains-taking should be forgotten, (for the which you and your associate Mr. Greene, do well deserve to have your heads in the custody of young Gregory, to make buttons for hempen loops:) you two having the spirit so full, that you must either vent, or burst, did on the sab- bath aforesaid, at your house near Fetter-lane end, in Fleet- street, at the sign of the Lock and Key, there and then did you and your consort (by turns) unlock most delicate strange doctrine, where were about thousands of people, of which number the most ignorant applauded your preaching, and those that understood any thing derided younignorant prating. But after four hours long and tedious tattling, the house Where you were beleaguered with multitudes that thought fit to rouse you out of your blind devotion; so that your walls were battered, your windows all in fractions, torn into rattling shivers, and worse the burly-burly might have been, but that sundry constables came in with strong guards of men to keep the peace, in which conflict your sign was beaten down and unhanged, to make room for the owner to supply the place,. all which shews had never been, had Mr. Greene and Mr. Barebones been content (as they should have been to have gone to their own parish churches.". This account shews that these new preachers excited uncommon 'attention, and were so very popular as to draw thousands after them. The tumult was occasioned, not by their preaching, but by the opposition that was raised against it, " by certain lewd fellows of the baser sort." The preachers and a hundred of the people were taken by the constables, but it is not said whether they were taken to preserve them from the fury of the mob or to bring them to justice. Had New Preacher's, New.
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