E1DDLE with Mr. Biddle, respecting his sentiments upon the Trinity, and endeavoured to convince him of his dangerous error. Mr. Biddle, our author observes, had but little to say, and was none moved by the zeal, piety, and learning of the arch- bishop, but continued obstinate.. In about six months after Mr. Biddle was set at liberty, he was summoned to appear at Westminster, when the parliament appointed a committee, to whom the consideration of his cause was referred. Upon his examination he freely and candidly confessed, " That he did deny the commonly received opinion concerning the Deity of the Holy Ghost, as he was accused : but that he was ready to hear what could be opposed to him, and, if he could not make out his opinion to be true, honestly to acknowledge his error."+ However, at the distance of sixteen months from his first imprisonment, being wearied by tedious and expensive delays, he wrote a letter to Sir Henry Vane, a member of the committee, requesting him either to procure his discharge or to report his case to the house of commons. This letter, dated April I, 1647, answered the end proposed. Sir Henry became a friend to Mr. Biddle, and reported his case to the house ; but the result was not favourable to Mr. Biddle's comfort and liberty. Instead of obtaining his release, the house committed him to the custody of one of its officers, and he remained under this restraint five years. In the mean time the matter was referred to the assembly of divines, before some ofwhom, it is said, he often appeared, and gave them in writing, his "Twelve Arguments against the Deity of the Holy Spirit."t The answers which he received on these occasions not producing sufficient conviction in his mind, he was induced, during this year, to print this tract, with the above title. The piece was no sooner published than its author was summoned to appear at the bar of the house of commons, when he owned the book, and the sentiments therein con- tained, to be his. Upon this, he was sent back to prison ; and by an order from the house, dated September 6, 1647, the book was appointed to, be called in and burnt by the common hangman, and the author to be examined by the committee of plundered ministers.ss Accordingly, he was it Edwards's Gangrtena, part iii. p. 87, 88.-Wood's Athena, Out., vol. ii. p. 197. t Life of Biddle, p. 28. Ibid. p. 28-34. Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 270, 871.
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