72 LIVES OF TIIE PURITANS. This writer also adds : " He hath been at Bath this year, and there, in one of the lesser churches, preached, that, as John Baptistwore a leathern girdle, so his doctrine was leathern doctrine. He would have preached at the great church, bUt the minister would not give way ; whereupon he came to the minister's house, to contest with him about denying him his pulpit; to whom the minister replied, that he had heard. of him by Mr. John Ley and Mr. Thomas Edwards, and was fully satisfied concerning him. Besides, he said I have heard of one Master Saltmarsh, who, in the time of the former differences between the king and the Scots, viz. before this parliament, made verses to incense the king to war against the Scots, when he went into the ,north ; and that when the late oath, made by the bishops, came forth, went many miles to an archbishop to take that oath upon his knees to which Master Saltmarsh replied; he was then in his darkness ; and the minister of Bath rejoined, he thought him to be still in the smoak.". Wemake no comment upon the above account, but allow Mr. Saltmarsh to speak for himself. In answer to Mr. Edwards, he says, ".When I called to you the other day in the street, and challenged you for your unanswerable crime against me in the third partof the last " Gangrwna, in setting my name against all the heresies you reckon, which your own. soul and the world can witness to be none of mine, and your ownconfession to me when I challenged you-howwere you troubled in spirit and language ? Your sin was, as I thought, upon you, scourging you, checkingyou as I spoke. I told you at parting,I hoped we should overcome you by prayer. I believe we shall pray you either into repentance, or shame, or judgment, ere we have done with you ; but, oh ! might it be repentance rather! till Master Edwards smite upon his thigh, and say, What have I done ? " For your anagram upon my name, you do but fulfil the, prophecy, They shall cast out your names as evil, for the Son of man's sake. And your book of jeers and stories of your brethren; poor man ! it will not long be music in your ears, at this rate of sinning. For the nameless author and his after-reckoning, let all such men be doing; let them rail, revile, blaspheme, call heretics. It is enough to me, that they write such vanity as they dare not own. And now let me tell you both, and all suchpensioners tothe great accuser of the brethren ; fill up the measure of your iniquity, if you Edwards's Gangrmna, part ill. p. 113, 114.
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