Chap. II. The HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANS. 407· And to move the court to iliew mercy to him, he endeavoured to fet Common– out his own charaCter in the moft favourable light ; " I have been called a w~alth. " ma!ig77ant and apqflate (lays he) but ~od is my witn~fs, I.ne~er carried ~; ... ~.::, •• Jj " on a malianant intereft ; I !hall retam my covenantmg prmc1ples, from; " which by 0 the grace of God I will never depart ; neither am I an in- " cendiary between the two nations of England and Scotland, but I am " grieved for their divifions; and if I had as much blood in my veins as " there is water in the fea, I could account it well fpent to quench the '' fire that our fins have kindled between them. I have all along enga- " ged my life and el1ate in the parliament's quarrel, againft the forces rai- " fed by the !ate king, not from a profped of advantage, but from " confcience and duty; and I am fo far from repenting, that were it " to do again, upon the fame unquefiionable authority, and for the " fame declared ends, I iliould as readily engage in it as ever ; though " I wi£h from my foul, that the ends of that juft war had been better " accomplilhed. " Nor have my (offerings in this caufe been inconfiderable; when Y. " was a fcholar in Oxford, and M.A. I was the firft who publicly refufed " to fubfcribe the canons impofed by the late archbi!11op, for which I " was expelled the convocation.boufe. When I came firft to London,, " which was about twelve years ago, I was oppofed by the biiliop of " London, and it was about three years before I could obtain fo much " as a leCl:ure; In the year 1 64o, or 1641. I was imprifoned in New– " cqftle, for preaching againft the fervice book,from whence I was removed '' hither by habeas corpus, and acquitted. In the beginning of the war " between the late king and parliament, I was accu fed fdr preaching trea– " fon and rebellion, merely becaufe I maintained in a fermon at Tenterdm " in Kent, the lawfulnefs of a defenfive war. I was again complained " of by the commiilioners at Uxbridge for preaching a fermon, which l " hear is lately reprinted; and if it be printed according to the firft copy, " I will own every line of it. After all ~his,. I have been three times in. " trouble fince the late change of government. Once I was committed " to cuftody, and twice cited before the committee for plnndered minif– « ters, but for want of proof was difcharged. And now !aft of all " this great trial is come upon me; I have been kept feveral weeks i~ ' ' clofe prifon, and am now arraigned for my life, and like to fuffer from " the hands of thofe for whom I have done and fuffered fo much, and· " who have lift up their hands with me in the fame covenant ; and yet " I am not confctous of any perfonal acr proved againft me that brings- " me within any of your laws as to treafon, ' " Upow
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