169 / 186
-
to
t-he Chief
of
SiHHers;
I
S'9
years ln1pr:fonment and upwards, fQr Non–
conformity : wherein he had
time to
furnifh
the World
•;,; it
h fu nd
ry
p.
ood Books,
&c.and
by his patience to move Dr.
Barl(
w
the
then
Bifhop
of
Linct)ln,
and other Cburch-men,
to
pity
his hard ·a
!'Id
unre~fonable
futferings,
fo far as to ftand
veLy
n1uch his
-Friends,
in
,procuring his enlargement; or
t~ere
perh:lps ,
he had died,
by
the Noyfon1nefs and
ill,
llfage
of the place. Being now I
fay,
again at
I
.i–
berty, and having through mercy
fhaken
off
his
bodily Fetters ; for
thofe
upon
his
Soul
were broken before,
by
the
Abounding Grace
~ that
filled his he2rt ,
he
went to vifit
thofe
I
that had been a
comfort to
hitn
in his Tri..
1
bulation,. with a Chriftan·-like acknowledg–
l
ment
of
their
kindnefs, and
enlargement
of
·Charity;
giving
encouragement
by
his
Ex~
•1
a·mple,
it
it
happened to be their
hard
haps,
to
fall ,int<> a-ffiiction
or trouble,
then
to
fuffer
patie.ntly for
the
fake
of~
good
Con~citnae,
and
fO£
the
Love
of God
1n
jefus Chn"ft,
to-
wards
their
Souls;
and
by
1nany
cordial
per–
~ f~afions,
fi1pported forne
wbofe
Spirit began
to fink low,
through
the fear of
d:t nger
that
threatned
their
worldly concernment,
io
that
the
people found
a
wonderful
Confola–
tion in his Difconrfe and Admonitions.
As often.as
opportunity
would, .admit he
gather'd them
toget)ler (though
the Law was
then
in force againft Meetings) in
convenient
1
Places, and fed
them .
with
the
fincere
........_ ·Of
the
~ord,
that
they
might
grow