ruin ExPOSITION ~?The People (lays the Evangelif\) flood beholding him, a".d the Ri!lm <~/fo tvith tlen 1 ~ derided him. The Peo~le that before had reJoiced m hts Mtntrlry, now take part with the Pharifeu htS Enemtes. And even (o ( tt ts to be feared) {hall the Proteflant Party, over-awed with the Power and Tyranny of 7~ome, ( whic: 1 !hall have Power to tread down them alfo) comply with her againf\ the Wir– neifes; though not (o £1r as to have iheir Hands in their Blood. Yet fo f<~r, as 110t to fiifftr them to be put in GravCJ, and to be harboured amongft them, or by them; fo far as thus Negativdy to be againll the Witneiles, as not to {hew any office of Kindnefs in relieving them. And fo this their inhumanity is, after the manner of Men (who ufe to per– form this as a common Office of Humanity, to put dead Men's Bodies into Graves) expreiTed unto us by this contrary carriage of theirs, that they jiifftred net their Bodiu to be put in Graves; A Metaphorical Speech it is. And particularly ; the Allufion here is made unto the putting the Car/zn.ffit of dead Mm into Graves; which (you know) is an honour and a fl1elter to them; and indeed, all the Office of Kindnefs that lies in the Power of Friends to af– ford them. And lo kindnefs unto Men in that dead Condition, is by this here iitly expreiTed. Now therefore when thele Witneifes are depofed from their Station, and haply banilb'd lfom forth the Nation in '&'hich they lived, (which haply is their Death here meant) and caO: forth with the higheO: Contempt, and perfecuted with the greateO: Malice of their Enemies; and !hall come to thole of other Peoples, Nations, and Tongues, (who are of their own Religion and Party) for luccor and fl1elter from thele Indignities and bale Ulages fi·om their Enemies, lo to find ref\ to themlelves, (who are now, in relp<ll: of that aCtive Life of witndiing by Prophecy, laid by the Walls lpeechlefs, and as Dead) and to have only a harbour among them (which unto thole that are among Strangers of another Language, is but of the Nature of a Grave) and a Place of reO:, (where, at befl:, they cannot lo much be laid to Live, as to lie frill in quiet ,. Men dead) ; when they !hall leek but thus much, and !hall not obtain it, thele Nations and Kindreds who refule it them, may juflly be f.1id, not lo Jirffir their dead Bodiet to be laid in Gravet: Which yet to perform for them, were but a common favour of Humanity, and by the Law of Nations to be imparted unto banilb'd Strangers, elpecially to thole of their own Religion. And we fee it bath hitherto been allowed the Witneifes flying out of England, by the Low– Countriet, and to the Protefl:ants flying out of Germany, by the Englifh. And fo in Q£een Mary's Days, the Englifh Profeffors found Gravet at leaO:; fame at Genev11, fume in Germany, and athers ellewhere; where-they lay quietly enjoy– ing their Conlciences, though put by that aCtive Life of Prophefying, which be– fore that they lived in, and enjoyed in King Edward's Rei~n. But now luch fhall be the furpaffing mifery of thele three laO: Years and a half, above what in former Times,and lo potent the prevalency of the Popilh FaClion, and fuch their Vigilancy to O:op all Holes of Refuge, againO: thele Wirneifes, that they leeking only for Graves among thefe States of thetr own Party and Religion (which formerly they had permitted them) fltall yet be refuled it by thele Nations, Tongues, and Kindreds, who fhall fo inhumanely be carried on againfl: their own Principle>, as not to fulfer them to have fuch Gravet among them, namelv, a condition of Harbour, ReO:, and Q£iet. ' And further; Becaule this fhall be done with a Prohibition to the contrary; therefore it is thus expreifed, That they jiifftred 110t their dead Bodiet to be laid in Grave' ; that is,by EdiCts prohibiting any of the banilli'd Witneifes to have har– bour among them. And although this Phrafe [putting their dead BodieJ itt Gravet J may leem improper to exprefs opprefled Men's flying for lhelrer, becaule [to be put in a Grave J is a Paffive Phrale in relpeCt of them that are dead, and importS a thing done by others; we mull theretore frill remem– ber, that this is a Metaphorical Speech, and fo a Civil Death, and civilly lyi11g dead, are here to be underfl:ood. For thefe Witneiles (many of them) are not to be R.jlled With a Death Natural, as they are Men, but with a Civil Death, as they arc WitneiTes; and lo, may leek for llielter as Mm, when they are dead a; Witmjfet, which lhelter in this Allufion, is called a Grave. And be– caufe dead Men cannot bury tbemfelves, therefore (according to the Metaphor of
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