Chap. X. The HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANs·; refolved to O:arve him from thence, by feiting fix men at the door, to whom King . d d r d Th h . d h' h S•r: Charles m he was oblige next ay to 1urren er. ey t en carne 1m to t e er 168 fiom Houfe two or three times, and bound him in a bond of four hund- ~ red pounds, fo that if his friends had not been fureties for him, contrary to his defire, be mufl: have died in prifon, as many excellent perfans did about this time. J1Jeries, now lord chief jufiice of England, who was fcandaloufly Trial of Mr,– vitious, and drunk every day, befides a drunkenn efs of fury in his tern- ~ofewel. . per that looked like madnefs, was prepared for any dirty work the court 56;~et, p. flwuld put him upon. September 2 3 Mr. Thomas Rqfewel the diifenting minifier at Rotherhithe, was imprifoned in the Gate-Houfe W'!fiminjler,'for high treafon ; and a bill was found againfl: him at the quarter-feilions, upon which he was tried November 8 at the King's-Bench bar, by a Surrey jury, before lord chief jufiice Je.fferies, and his brethren (viz.) Withins, Hollo7vay, and Walcot. He was indiCted for the following expreilions in his fermon Sept. 1 4· 'Ihat the king could not cure the king's evil, but that prie/fs and propbets by their prayers could heal the griifs qf the people - 'Ibat we had had two wickedkings(meaning the prefent king and his father), wbom 1ve can refemb/e to no other perfon but to the mofl wicked Jeroboam; and that if they (meaning his hearers), would jfand to their principles, he ' did not doubt, but they jhou!d overcome their enemies (meaning the king), as informer times, ~vith rams-horns, broken platters, and a flone in a )ling. The witneifes were three infamous women, who fwore to the words without the innuendo's; they were laden with the guilt of many perjuries already, and fuch of them as could be found afterwards, were conviCted, and the chief of them pilloryed before the Excbange. The trial lafl:ed [even hours, and Mr. Rqfewel behaved with all the decency and refpeCl: to t he court that could be expeded, and made a defence that was ap:.. plauded by moO: of the hearers. Be faid it was impoilible the witnef:.. fes fhould remember, and be able to pronounce fo long a period, when they could not fo much as tell'the text, nor any thing elfe in the fermon, befides the words they had [worn : Several who heard the fermon and writ it in iliort hand, declared they heard no fuch words. Mr. Ro(ewel offered his own notes to prove it, but no regard was had to them. The womm could not prove (fays Burnet), by any one circumftance, that they were at the meeting ; or that any perfon faw them there on that day; the words they fwo re were fo grofs, that it was not to be imagined that any man in his wits would exprefs himfelf fo, before a mixed aifemb}y; yet Je!feries urged the matter with his ufual vehemence. He laid it for a foundation, that all preaching at conventicles was treafonable, and that this ought to difpofe the jury to believe any evidence upon that head, fo He is con– the jury brought him in guilty; upon which· (fays the bilhop), there·was denmedo. p. 597· a.
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