Reader, I desire that thou wouldst cast a mantle of love over the mistakes of the printer, I having no opportunity to wait upon the press, by reason of my many engagements other ways. I will not by any jirolepsis detain thee at the door, but desire that the God of all consolations would bless thee with all external, internal, and eternal blessings, that thy actions may be prosperous, thy troubles few, thy comforts many, thy life holy, thy death happy, and thy soul lodged for ever in the bosom of Christ. So I remain
Thine, so far as thou art Christ's,
That I intended to make before the Honourable Committee for
Plundered Ministers, that Truth and myself might be the
better vindicated and cleared.
Gentlemen, — It was a divine saying of Seneca, Qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet, no man sets a better rate upon virtue than he that loseth a good name to keep a good con- science. He that hath a good conscience sits, Noah-like, quiet and still in the greatest combustions and distractions. Conscientia pura semper secura, a good conscience hath sure confidence ; it makes a man as bold as a lion, Pro v. xxviii. 1.
I remember Calvin, writing to the French king, saith that opposition is evangelii genius, the black angel that dogs the gospel at the heels. And certainly, where Christ is like to gain most, and Satan like to lose most, there Satan in his instruments will stir and rage most ; yet, if every opposer of the gospel and the saints were turned into a devil, that old saying would be found true, Veritas stat in aperto campo, truth stands in the open fields, yea, and it will make those stand in whom it lives ; yea, it will make them stand cheerfully, resolutely, and unmoveably, in the face of the greatest, highest, and hottest oppo- sitions.
Concerning these profane, ignorant, malignant, and scandalous petitioners, I shall say, as Lactantius saith of Lucian, Nee dlis nee liominibus pepercit, he spared neither God nor man. Such are these petitioners. It is said of Catiline, that he was monstrum ex variis diversisque, inter se pugnantibus naturis conflcdwm, a compound and bundle of warring lusts and vices. Such are these petitioners. Historians say that tigers rage and are mad when they smell the fra- grancy of spices. Such are these petitioners, when they smell the fra-
APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. xll
grancy of the graces of God's Spirit in the principles and practices, in the lives and religious exercises, of the people of God.
Gentlemen, I am compelled to tell you that I have, by the gracious assistance of God, preached publicly the gospel above these thirteen years ; and the greatest part of those years I have spent in preaching the word in London, where God hath given me many precious seals of my ministry, which are now my comfort, and in the day of Christ will be my crown. They are my 'living epistles/ they are my walking certificates, they are my letters testimonial, as Paul speaks, 2 Cor. iii. 1, 2. And yet, in all this time, none have shewed themselves so malicious, impudent, and ignorant, as to petition against me, as these that stand now before you ; yet am I confident that this act of theirs shall work for my external, internal, and eternal good, Rom. viii. 28 : and out of this eater, God will bring forth meat and sweetness to others also, Judges xiv. 14.
Gentlemen, I shall now trouble your patience no further, but come now to answer to the things that these profane, malignant petitioners have charged against me in their petition to this Honourable Com- mittee.
To the Honourable Committee for Plundered Ministers,
The Humble Petition of the Parishioners of Margaret, New Fishstreet, London, whose Names are hereunto Subscribed ;
Shewing, — That one Mr Thomas Brooks was, by order of your honours, dated the twenty-third of March 1651, appointed to preach for a month, next ensuing, as probationer, to the end that, upon the parishioners' and the said Mr Brooks's mutual trial of each other, the said Mr Brooks might continue, or your petitioners have some other to officiate amongst them.
Your petitioners are humbly bold to offer to your honours' consider- ation that they have had trial of the said Mr Brooks ever since your honours' order, but cannot find that comfort to their souls they hoped ; nor indeed is the said Mr Brooks so qualified to your petitioners' un- derstandings as to remain any longer with them. And further, your petitioners say that the said Mr Brooks refuseth to afford your peti- tioners the use of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, nor will he bury their dead.
The petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honours will be pleased to revoke your order, and give liberty to your peti- tioners for six months, to present a fit person to your honours to be their minister ; and, in the mean time, that sequestra- tors may be appointed to provide for the service of the cure out of such money as shall arise for tithes out of the said parish. And, &c.
Queries upon the Malignants' Petition.
Gentlemen, — In their petition they say, that I was to ' preach a month as probationer, and after a mutual trial of each other, I might
xlii ' APPENDIX TO MEMOIR.
continue, or the petitioners have some other to officiate amongst them.' To this I say,
(1.) That I never had any such thing by one or other propounded to me, to preach amongst them as probationer. It was only thus pro- pounded to me : That at a full meeting, I was chosen by the honest and well-affected of the parish to come and preach amongst them. And I did more than twice or thrice declare to them before I came, that if they did expect anything else of me, I would not come ; only 1 did declare my willingness to receive any among them into fellow- ship with us that the Lord had taken into fellowship with himself, and that were willing to walk in gospel order.
('2.) I say, that had they propounded the business to me as it is presented in their petition, I would never have come upon such terms, and that upon several reasons, which here I shall omit.
(3.) I say, that they had a trial of me all the winter ; I preached above twenty sermons on the lecture nights before this order was granted or desired. Therefore I know not to what purpose I should preach among them upon trial, when they had beforehand so large a trial of me.