should take it to be, if not a sin, yet a shame, to be left behind with him only." Dr. Wall I knew, and will speak nothing of him, for he is dead.

It may easily be imagined, with what a joyful willingness these self-loving reformers took possession of all vacant preferments, and with what reluctance others parted with their beloved colleges and subsistence: but their consciences were dearer than their subsistence, and out they went; the reformers possessing them without shame or scruple: where I will leave these scruple-mongers, and make an account of the then present affairs of London to be the next employment of my reader's patience.

And in London all the Bishops' houses were turned to be prisons, and they filled with Divines, that would not take the Covenant, or forbear reading the Common Prayer, or that were accused for some faults like these. For it may be noted, that about this time the Parliament set out a proclamation to encourage all laymen, that had occasion to complain of their ministers for being troublesome or scandalous, or that conformed not to orders of Parliament, to make their complaint to a committee for that purpose; and the minister, though a hundred miles from London, should appear there, and give satisfaction, or be sequestered; (and you may be sure no parish could want a covetous, or malicious, or cross-grained complainant;) by which means all prisons in London, and in some other places, became the sad habitations of Conforming Divines.

And about this time the Archbishop of Canterbury having been by an unknown law condemned to die, and the execution suspended for some days, many of the malicious citizens, fearing his pardon, shut up their shops, professing not to open them till justice was executed. This malice and madness is scarce credible: but I saw it.

The Bishops had been voted out of the House of Parliament, and some upon that occasion sent to the Tower; which made many Covenanters rejoice, and believe Mr. Brightman (who probably was a good and well-meaning man) to be inspired in his comment on the Apocalypse, an abridgment of which was now printed, and called Mr. Brightman's Revelation of the Revelation. And though he was grossly mistaken in other things, yet, because he had made the Churches of Geneva and Scotland, which had no Bishops, to be Philadelphia in the Apocalypse, the angel that God loved; and the power of Prelacy to be Antichrist, the evil angel, which the House of Commons had now so spewed up, as never to recover their dignity; therefore did those Covenanters approve and applaud Mr. Brightman for discovering and foretelling the Bishops' downfal; so that they both railed at them, and rejoiced to buy good pennyworths of their lands, which their friends of the House of Commons did afford them as a reward of their diligent assistance to pull them down.

And the Bishops' power being now vacated, the common people were made so happy, as every parish might choose their own minister, and tell him when he did, and when he did not, preach true doctrine; and by this and like means several churches had several teachers, that prayed and preached for and against one another; and engaged their hearers to contend furiously for truths which they understood not; some of which I shall mention in the discourse that follows.

I have heard of two men, that in their discourse undertook to give a character of a third person; and one concluded he was a very honest man, "for he was beholden to him;" and the other that he was not, "for he was not beholden to him.” And something like this was in the designs both of the Covenanters and Independents, the last of which were

now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former: for though they differed much in many principles, and preached against each other, one making it a sign of being in a state of grace, if we were but zealous for the Covenant; and the other, that we ought to buy and sell by a measure, and to allow the same liberty of conscience to others, which we by Scripture claim to ourselves; and therefore not to force any to swear the Covenant contrary to their consciences, and lose both their livings and liberties too. Though these differed thus in their conclusions, yet they both agreed in their practice to preach down Common Prayer, and get into the best sequestered livings; and whatever became of the true owners, their wives and children, yet to continue in them without the least scruple of conscience.

They also made other strange observations of Election, Reprobation, and Free-Will, and the other points dependent upon these; such as the wisest of the common people were not fit to judge of: I am sure I am not; though I must mention some of them historically in a more proper place, when I have brought my reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannel.

And in the way thither I must tell him, that a very Covenanter, and a Scot too, that came into England with this unhappy Covenant, was got into a good sequestered living by the help of a Presbyterian parish, which had got the true owner out. And this Scotch Presbyterian, being well settled in this good living, began to reform the church-yard, by cutting down a large yew-tree, and some other trees that were an ornament to the place, and very often a shelter to the parishioners; who excepting against him for so doing, were answered, "That the trees were his, and it was lawful for every man to use his own as he, and not as they, thought fit."

I have heard, (but do not affirm it,) that no action lies against him that is so wicked as to steal the winding-sheet of a dead-body after it is buried; and have heard the reason to be, because none were supposed to be so void of humanity; and that such a law would vilify that nation that would but suppose so vile a man to be born in it: nor would one suppose any man to do what this Covenanter did. And whether there were any law against him, I know not; but pity the parish the less for turning out their legal minister.

We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothby parish, where he hoped to have enjoyed himself, though in a poor, yet in a quiet and desired privacy; but it proved otherwise; for all the corners of the nation were filled with Covenanters, confusion, committee-men, and soldiers, serving each other to their several ends, of revenge, or power, or profit; and these committee-men and soldiers were most of them so possessed with this Covenant, that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful plague of Athens; the plague of which plague was, that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company, and to joy (so the Historian saith) when they had infected others, even those of their most beloved or nearest friends or relations: and though there might be some of these Covenanters that were beguiled, and meant well, yet such were the generality of them, and temper of the times, that you may be sure Dr. Sanderson, who though quiet and harmless, yet an eminent dissenter from them, could not live peaceably; nor did he; for the soldiers would appear, and visibly disturb him in the church when he read prayers, pretending to advise him how God was to be served most acceptably: which he not approving, but continuing to observe

1 Thucydides.

order and decent behaviour in reading the churchservice, they forced his book from him, and tore it, expecting extemporary prayers.

At this time he was advised by a Parliament man of power and note, that valued and loved him much, not to be strict in reading all the Common Prayer, but make some little variation, especially if the soldiers came to watch him; for then it might not be in the power of him and his other friends to secure him from taking the Covenant, or sequestration: for which reasons he did vary somewhat from the strict rules of the Rubric. I will set down the very words of confession which he used, as I have it under his own hand; and tell the reader, that all his other variations were as little, and much like to this.

HIS CONFESSION.

"O Almighty God and merciful Father, we thy unworthy servants do with shame and sorrow confess, that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep; and that, by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts, we have grievously offended against thy holy laws, both in thought, word, and deed: we have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done; and we have many times done those evils, when we might have avoided them, which we ought not to have done. We con

fess, O Lord, that there is no health at all, nor help in any creature to relieve us; but all our hope is in thy mercy, whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked. Have mercy therefore upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders: spare us, good God, who confess our faults, that we perish not; but, according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord,