I Have by search endeavored to find some­what for matter of sublimity to run pa­rallel to this History that I am now about to write, but find, that what Ebion, Pho­tinus, Samosatenus, Sabellicus, Servetus, and others the antient Captains and Ring­leaders of this sort of loose Hereticks did embrace; nay, what Socinus the Monopo­list of all the former, with the additional fermentations of his own brain, comes far short of those dangerous positions which our Impostor hath divulged and practised: for, as if to collect the signs and notes which the Spirit of God in the Scriptures hath given us to know, and by them to distinguish deluders from others, were the rules and Gnomon to direct him to shape his opinions and practise by, and the end and scope he endeavored at, and pressed unto, it could scarce be otherwise, that he should so point blank in himself accomplish those characters of Apostacy and Errors which are so flatly repugnant to the rule of life and Doctrine: And in the prosecution of this discovery, I shall be so sparing of wresting things beyond their intended weight and allowance, that I ingenuously confess and assure you, it is the highest Acme my desires have aspired unto, that there might have been a possibility of sparing the whole, by some one [Page 2]the smallest sign and token of repentance and alteration; which being undiscerned, and finding of how great use and concern­ment to a publike and private good the unvailing of knavery is, especially in such, who by their callings should be ensamples of good to others: I could not still or quiet those motions and susurra's I had within me, till I had yielded to those impor­tunities, and sent this abroad for the benefit of the poor distres­sed and over-ridden County of Hereford, and all others that may find themselves concerned in this discovery; whether it be for matter of establishment or prevention: it being the second volumn or Treatise of Machiavillian piety, and contains in it a Scheam or representation of the manners, preachment and speeches of that Grand Impostor, Richard Delamain, who with inticing words, gilding over his bitter pills of blasphemy and error, hath done much mischief in the neighbouring Counties; and if in this Tract the Reader should be molested with the want of method, I beg his excuse; for that I hope he will be pleased to conceive it no easie matter or task, to methodize Accidents, so much disjoyned in reference to place, persons, times, and matter, as these ensuing are.

He was the wicked Son of a good Father, from a Publican, turned a Pharisec, from one that sate at the receipt of Customs, to one that by a more indirect course accustomed himself to the receipt of gain; he used his apparel supermodish, powdering his long hair, but that the sweet Gentleman was much behold­ing to him that brought him down, for his friendly advice of cutting it shorter, though in this short cut it reached his shoul­ders. He was perswaded into the County of Hereford, and brought thither by Mr. M. H. of Webley, one that hath been a dogmatical Camaelion ever since the many coloured and mon­strous headed Hydra of errors have been in fashion; upon his first coming, which was in the year 1648. he was for a new light (though sheltered in a dark lanthorn) brought to Mrs. V. a Gentlewoman of good family and respect, then living at Bred­wardine in that Tract; where of the minister of the Parish leave being obtained for this our Hyperbolical Angel of Light to hold forth his gifts, he preached a Legal Sermon; full sraughted [Page 3]with the greatest Terrors of punishments and damnation, which was highly disliked by the chiefest, who leaned very much to an Antinomian plausibility (for in those times this Country had not many baits to busie themselves about, and were ignorant of those profound Soloecisms, called new Notions: Independency, Presbyterie and Antinomianism in the lesser volumn (not to the shaking off of duties) were the greatest divertisements then in practise) and truly the ill management of that mistaken Ser­mon, had almost in the Threshold caused him to have dashed his foot to the stumbling and undoing of his hopes; for by this you may plainly perceive him a designed Temporizer, who for his gain could have become a downright Legalist, as well as a high flown Notionist; and in few words, to give you the print of his foot, by which you may imagine his stature; Gain was his Godliness, his Religion it was his God, his whole aym, and he resolved (which by his leaving his small place in the Custom-house you may perceive) to obtain it per fas aut nefas, holding that Heterodoxal Maxim for his first point of Do­ctrine: dulcis odor lucri ex re qualibet; this enforced him to leave Bredwardine awhile, and go with M. H. to Webley, where by his means having insinuated into the acquaintance of Mrs. K. one nearly related to that Family at Bredwardine, then living at a place about two miles from Webley, who out of her tender affection to good, imagining by his carriage and demea­nour some superlative knowledge of Gods wayes; at least some eminent sanctity in himself, gave him countenance (and you may see here he first makes practise with women and widdows) where fishing with the bait of Socinianism, and perceiving it ta­king, prosecuted his fortune eagerly, making use of all advan­tages for leading of some Captive with his Tenents and absurdi­ties, and imagining his interest did much consist in the getting into favor with the old Gentlewoman at Bredwardine, because there was the best quarters, it being the nature of such decei­vers much to mind their bellies; For what they naturally know as bruit beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves, Iude 10. and are the black spots in the feasts of charity; and because of the eminency of the place and Family, which by the means of these his fore­mentioned [Page 4]acquaintance, he with some labor, at last, to his con­tent, atchieved; causing in some an admiration of his Doctrine which he now holds forth, I dare not say an approbation of it. I know it is Satans Master-peice to lay stumbling blocks before the feet of the Saints, and if it be possible, to cause such as have been renowned for their profession in the strictest wayes of Godliness, to be the Antesignani, and chiefest abettors of Here­sie and error, to make such whose light should be set, as it were, on an hill: who should by their lives and conversations be the flaming Beacons of Good works before men, that they seeing them, may glorifie our Father that is in Heaven; to cause them in a more especial manner to be the greedy examples of falling, and sucking in those damnable positions of Christian Lethargy. Here now this ungodly man having crept in unawares, spends his time betwixt the two Families; instructing them with his de­praved principles; and all such as came unto them, either out of humanity, as to visits, or out of the instigation of an itching ear to hear novelties, of which last sort more especially then others, some were caught, and did embrace Doctrines of the Devil: Tenents that now stink in the Nosethrils of some of his admirers, worse then his breath doth to such as approach him, he laboured to seduce; some of which I shall now give you a sight of; though I know that errors (like oaths in telling sto­ries) better concealed then repeated; yet because he goe's on still, making practise with deceits, deceiving and being deceived, aspiring to eminent places, there to make shipwrack of Faith and a good conscience; not only in himself, but to others, in­sulting over the Ministers, who are laborious and painful; in­termedling in civil affairs, in which he is nothing concerned; despising powers and authorities, and all this and much more under the cloak of Religion and conscience; this is therefore to undeceive such who by his fair perswasions may be drawn into the deceit of believing his lyes: for having, as in a draught or picture, seen his carriages and life; they may with little strain­ing their Logick, believe, that out of such an impure polluted puddle, cannot proceed the limpid-living streams of the water of Life; that whilest himself is the very Epitome of Hypo­crisie, [Page 5]and Herefie, and the abstract of baseness and leudness, he can in the mean time preach to others by his example the Do­ctrine of Truth, holyness and sincerity: That which he now buckled himself unto when he was received into favor at Bred­wardine, was that common maxim which all Impostors use; to despise Dominions, and speak evil of dignities, to decry all those that may by any means be a remora in his proceedings; either by authority, Doctrine or disputes; and to that end he declaims against the Ministry in general, as if the sins and faylings of par­ticulars, were annexed as inseparable companions to the calling; even so, because some have received poyson in their meat, it were necessary or reasonable we should wholly desist from the use of it; Here begins a loud invective against them, for many crimes which they are guilty of, and among the rest, scorning them for their receiving Tithes, (though since he hath received them, and threatned trouble to those that did not conform) and perswades his Disciples (to avoid the disgrace and foyls, which else he and they were subject to in disputes) that what he said could not be understood be any, but such who were under the the same dispensation as he was; (truly I think so too) and in imi­tion of their Master, you should have ignorant silly women, tell men both learned and knowing: That they could not un­derstand those high mysteries, because of their carnality; and further tells them, that what was nonsence to all people out of his way, was the very sense of the Spirit to him: by which he seemed to anticipate and confute all controversies that might arise, and which was a very succinct method of satisfying all que­stions and doubts: and further, that what he delivered, though it were seemingly contradictory to the received truth, and though he could not prove it out of the written Word of God, yet it was to be received as the immediate dictate of the Spirit. He slighted and scorned at duties, as performed by such who were in a lower form, and should in time have greater light. And upon that place, Rev. 3.20. Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, &c. he held forth that the Ordinances of God were the door; that they do keep Christ at a distance from the Soul, and keep him in dark­ness, [Page 6]or dark to us; was not this a notable ingredient for his mass of errors? not valuing the Spirits injunctions of praying continually, and rejoycing alwayes, exhorting, rebuking, &c. in season and out of season? Tells us that the Scriptures were but the mind of the Spirit in several administrations, and that there were several dispensations of God.

Of Adam.

Of Noah or Abraham.

Of Moses. Here is strange stuff.

Of John the Baptist.

Of Christ.

Of fire burning up corruptions.

Of Heaven or the Spirit, under which dispensation he then was. That the Scriptures were darkness; that the same Spirit dwelleth in us, that did in them that penned the Scriptures, which he prosecuted with strange deductions and conclusions, never considering that testimonies are for clearing, not obscu­ring; that the Scriptures testifie of Christ, and do reveal him, that darkness doth not reveal things; it is light that makes manifest; that what is darkness, is in our understandings, by rea­son whereof we apprehend not the Scriptures, &c. He further declared that we were taught of God immediately, and not of men, whereupon Mr. S. the School master of Hereford asked him, why he then took upon him to teach men; he answered, we do not teach, but only shew men (a learned distin­ction) but that you may further see what he meant by Scriptures, or how in himself he did approve of them, being urged to back some Tenent or other of his with Scripture, he answered, That he did not much trouble himself with the Scripture. I need not apply it, for by this you may easily know his minde: but he proceeds and tells you, that that which is in us, is Christ, and he cannot sin; that it was needless for a Saint to ask or make request for any thing, be­cause all was theirs, and they could want nothing; his phrases were mostly obscured in Allegories (dreaming the whole Scripture was nothing else) and here he rumbles up strange applications of old Adam and new Adam, light and darkness, lise and death, Christ and Antichrist, flesh and Spirit, heaven and hell, Sion and [Page 7] Sinai, bright clouds and dark clouds; vails, dispensations, ad­ministrations, illuminations, living up, the Allegorical applica­tions of Grace, and glory: of Christs cross, grave, burial, re­surrection and ascention, with all his miracles and actions which were so misused, misapplyed, misapprehended; so bumbasted, squeized, wrested, wrung and wreathed into a seeming sense, that it would have puzzled a man of judgement, in the least, to have apprehended them; These are the clouds without water, Jude 12.carried about of winds; trees, whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 2 Pet. 2.These are empty wells with­out water, clouds that are hurried with a Tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure them to error, while they promise li­berty; but being now wrapt up in the admiration of his own non-sence, it was asked him, how it was that he preached such a Sermon of terrors, when he first came to Bredwardine? he an­swered (as his use was most commonly, with some misapplyed place of Scripture) that he was perswaded to it by Mr. Hill: but it was his liberty, and he could become all things to all men, to gain some: (he should have said for some gain) nevertheless some of his admirers were not so far deserted, and led aside, as totally to leave off duties, which by his example and preaching he alwayes held forth; for as he said of his preaching that ad­mission or probation Sermon at Bredwardine, it was much against his inclination and Spirit, so was the use of any duties at evening or morning, either before or after meat, Jude. feeding him­self without fear; and where he had liberty with some of his most absolute proselites, he laughed at them, saying, we perform duties, because we look on God as a judge, and that it is the Spirit of bondage; yet at Bredwardine (which is observable) he was in a sort constrained for keeping in with the old Gentle­woman, before and after meat to pretend a duty, which was nothing else but an impudent complement with God, not pro­secuting the designed ends of those duties, which were to pray for a blessing on the creatures, or give thanks for the reception of them; but his words were an odd pack of stuff, Delamains Grace at meals. of non-sence and blasphemy; as these, O Lord, Thou art us, and we are [Page 8]Thee, Thou art in us and we in thee, Thou fillest us with thy presence, and we are full of thy fulness, Thou lovest none but us, and we love none but thee; The creatures are thou; Thou art our light, our all, our all in all; To thee we give our all, we receive thee, we see thee, we delight in thee, and thou in us, to thee be glory, &c. all this was not much to the purpose; but observe I pray, what a sad object of Audacity is set before you; what strange blasphemy, to hold forth not only that every Christian is God, but that every creature is God; may even the Devil himself, be­cause a creature: doth not he spin a fine thread, and winde up a skein or clew of strange Corollaries? How can he be said with this complement, Heb. 12.28, 29. to come before God that is a consuming fire, with reverence and Godly fear? or how doth he follow the exam­ple of Christ, who for our pattern prayed for a blessing on the creatures before he used them; The Spirit enjoyning us in all things to make known our requests by supplications and prayers, and that continually: yet to what a degenerate impiety was this fellow grown, to confess him in words, but in deeds to de­ny him? but if you will needs have duties, you must take them as he can afford them, for he tells you, that he hath waited many years and could never finde comfort while he used them, Nemo repente fuit turpissi­mus, Juven. but leaving them, he found much; that before, he in dutyes sound nothing but dryness and deadness, mislaying that upon dutyes which was really the epileptical disease of his own Soul; and though at first in publick he concealed his venom and poyson, yet in families he very freely traded with it; nay, he would preach one thing in publick and another in private; and in pri­vate again deny what he had preached in publick, thus did he at Worcester, and truly he was engaged to it upon a force or con­straint, else he could not maintain his position into practise; of becoming all things to all men to gain some, nor have been suffered to preach openly again; but that in the mean time you may see how he laid himself open to his proselytes in these opinions: observe what one of them answered to an honest man of Ludlow, who at Leominster demanded of him why De­lamain, at the time of the publick exercise did preach in private, from whom he received this account, because that he preached [Page 9]there what was not fit to be preached or heard in publick, or if you will hear Delamains phrase, it was because as yet peo­ple could not bear his words and Doctrine. Thus did he frame himself to his work, in the prosecution of his design, of causing his Disciples to sit loose from duties; because we are frequently warned not to rest on dutyes, he would have us leave them off. (That is a sure way not to rest on them indeed) which would open a Gate to all licentiousness and prophanness; for if we were not bound to keep close to a known rule, but left at liberty to follow the dictates of our own carnal appetites, to live and practise accordingly; if religion be some thing at large, not bounded or bonded, if it were only in this or that mans parti­cular liberty, (and in pretence) to become all things to all men, and this liberty to be explained by the respective owners and pretenders, then sarewell to the very genuine sense of the word Religion, and to all civil society: to oppose them in their wicked wils, is an infringement of their liberty, and what can be else expected but a meer confusion in Government and pro­priety, which is his longed for expectation, knowing the best fishing is in the muddiest waters. But that I may not long de­tain you from a Sermon which I know you expect from our pro­found Doctor, though as yet no Minister, for Crab-like he crawled backwards into these degrees, first a Preacher, and after­wards (as he saith) ordained: I shall here present you with the Sceleron of one of his Sermons, which your imagination may help out, because having such rich conceits and far fetched no­velties for the bare-heads, you may easily believe the covering was not much different; he believes not the litteral meaning of the Scripture, and therefore allegorizeth the three first verses of the third Chapter of Matthew, whence he would have us note that the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, was the incomes of God into the wilderness of men.

That those Incomes of God,

1. Do make the ascension of Christ within us; for Christ is dead and buried in the Soul till these Incomes come.

2. Are an exceeding weight of glory.

3. Are a Soul-saving glory.

4. Do set a Christian on the shoulders of Christ, and then he may see compleatly.

5. Do bless the Soul.

6. Do deliver the Soul.

7. Do deaden all things to the Soul beside God, so that no­thing but the Lord shall live there.

(Then makes some shift, I know not how, to fall aboard with heaven, and tells you; (if you can understand him) for I confess I cannot.)

That Heaven is an estate of God; nothing to be seen but God, and when thus I see God, then Heaven is mani­fested.

It contents a carnal Christian to have Heaven without, and Christ without, &c. but a spiritual Christian looks for God with­in, and heaven within.

That there is no heaven but in the hearts of the Godly, Hogs-wash. nor hell but in the Hearts of the wicked, so that a man converted is hell changed into heaven.

That Hell fire is nothing but the Spirits consuming and burn­ing up of Lusts, &c.

Now I hope for my repetition, I shall be excused from my Exposition; and how would you have me expound that which I do not understand? I confess my ignorance, and will leave it to that generation, whom he imagines have a more glorious dis­pensation, above Scriptures and Ordinances, or else to some that understand him, for he knew no other death, burial, or as­cention of Christ, nor heaven nor hell, but in the Soul, and how can you expect other from him?

At other times, that he might shake and overturn the basis and foundations of the Faith once delivered to his Disciples, it was his use in his familiar and private converse to low the seed of the Doctrine of the Seekers, from that place of Scripture, If ye are risen with Christ, Col. 3.1.seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father: making the whole intention and scope of the holy Spirit a notional Allegory; and holding out from thence, that in matters of Doctrine and Tenents there was nothing certain, especially what was at any [Page 11]distance from his way; and that indeed was his practise with his Neophytes or Novices, to preach to them of shakings of Mount Slon and Sinai, (and what is written by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews) yet once more, and I shake not only the earth but the Heavens; you may easily interpret it his way; considering his design of beating Christians off from duties, and his imagination of the locallity of heaven and earth, to be the souls and hearts of people; by this he endeavored to shake men from off their confidence in Scripture-rule or way, then putting them upon a seeking way; and to whom should such as were thus in their foundations shaken, have recourse, but to such as were able to shake them? and so as it was said of the Pharisees of old, may be said of our new one, Math. 23. that they compass Sea and Land, to make one Proselyte, and when he is made, they make him twofold more the childe of hell then themselves.

When he had tempered them to this pass, they were sit sub­jects to receive any impression; and then he makes known to them, that there are nor either three or two persons in the God-Head, and was much offended at the word Trinity, not under­standing that it signified a Three; but it is the practise of Im­postors to speak evil of those things which they know not; Jude. not minding what the Scripture saith, that there are three which bare record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy-Ghost, 1 Joh. 5.7.and these three are one; here is Trinity in Unity; but it is no marvel that he that spake so slightly of the God Head, should deny the holy Trinity; he that dare, contrary to the plain words of the Scripture, which saith, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, belch out this blasphemy, That God is dark­ness, and prosecute his horrid positions with pretended reason, and with telling his reprovers they wanted understanding; can you imagine he would stick at any eeror? yet favor him a little further, and he will tell you Christ is Faith, and Christ is Re­pentance: That the world sees Christ till the Spirit comes, and then the light of the Spirit puts out the eye of the world: That external administrations shall be shortly abolished; That the body shall not rise again, and that the humane nature of Christ did not rise again; he may as well say so, as deny the [Page 12]history, contrary to those places of Scripture, which affirm Christs resurrection, and plainly say that Christ is now risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of those that slept; and those many undenyable arguments wherewith the Apostle Paul doth syllogize the Corinthians into an understanding and belief of the resurrection, 1 Cor. 15. in the fifteenth Chapter of his first E­pistle.

He commends to their readings the inexplicable Treatises of Chimital Divinity, written by the German Doctor Behmen, therein admiring what neither Writer, Reader, or Hearer could understand or make sense of; much applauding his Tincture, his Ignis fatuus, and Turba magna; (Reader, these were all, as simple as they stand here, terms of Divinity) there was another such-piece of extasied non-sense, written by a melancholly Frier or Brother of the Teutonick order, and smelt extreamly of the ingredients of Sulphur and Rhenish wine, (whose name I have forgot) who was in great veneration among them: so were also Mr. Colliers works, and truly with Randalphs discreet tran­slations, such opinionists might have been furnished with a small library of such Books, whose very names would have troubled you, more then the wooden horse did the Trojans: but that you may not be troubled with the reading of them, you shall have them epitomized in two words, They were profound non-sense: yet our Impostor would have had ready an answer for you, and so had his Disciples also; They were non sence to you, because you cannot understand them, and what they could not express them­selves in the interpretation, that they did admire, hoping some­time or other they should with waiting have it revealed unto them; and they could conceive something more a great deal then they could utter, but the women they understood it as fast as could be: and their admirations were at their own under­standing: even so do the Turks admire Ideots, thinking they have something extraordinary of God in them, because they understand them not. This jigg that our Impostor used, was not the armor of good lives, but only the canva-painted-stalking horse of delusion.

One Sabbath day he urged from these words in Ecclesiastes, [Page 13]For to him that is joyned to all the living, there is hope:Eccles. 9.4.for a living dog, is better then a dead Lyon. Where only naming the latter part of the verse, without looking or considering the first, either through wilfulness or negligence, he declared and insist­ed upon it, that the living dog was Christ Jesus, and the dead Lyon were Believers, and how sweetly this indign exposition may serve for his notional frenzy, let any one judge; but this I have been assured, that when he had finished his half hours fol­ly, being reproved for such an interpretation or application, this reproof being before the most and chiefest of his Auditors, with a request to him to read the foregoing verses, and the pre­cedent part of that verse, by which he might plainly have seen his mistake (the wise King speaking there of life and death) he made this publick replication, first by an interrogation, whe­ther his reprover did hear him give that interpretation of it? to which having received a positive affirmation, because he had wrote it after him; he then made this reply, that his reprover did not hear with spiritual ears: that though that interpreta­tion were false to his reprover, yet it was true to him; and so being netled and in passion, flung out of the room: which an­swer and carriage was somewhat disrelished by some of his Au­ditors, and excused by mans frailty.

But what he meant by the two contrarieties of Truth and falshood, you may plainly-see by another passage that was ut­tered by him, much about that time; for having paced the ground-work of the ruined Castle of Snowdle, in the gilden val­ley, and making a draught of the ground-lines upon a piece of paper, seigning a small scale to it for the dimension, which how unlike a Mathematicians work it was, I will not now declare, though if he had had any ingenuity he might have had a little more insight in the Mathematicks from his Father, who had some skill in them; he superscribed the Scale with these words, Scala passium; and being before some of his admirers, reproved for false Latine; he replyed, that though it was false Latine to his reprover, yet it was true to himself; by which you may per­ceive the Blades opinion of true and false: but to his Doctrine; the Scripture saith otherwise of ambiguities, That there is but [Page 14] one Faith, 2 Pet. 1. Eph. 4. one Baptism, one Truth, one Way, and one Lord Jesus, and that no Scripture is of a private interpretation; where­as he saith it may be false to one, and true to another: this is rare, but real.

Upon an extraordinary convention of friends at Bredwardine, in the presence of Colonel Taylor, Mr. Tombes, Captain Taylor, Mr. Bedwell, Mr. Swayn and others, he made shift in his arguing (which was carried on by him with such an elated arrogance and impudent scornfulness of the Ministers that were there) to pronounce in plain words, without welt or guard; That him­self, was God. (Replic.) God is essentially God, are you es­sentially God? Delamain answered: I am God, as God is God. (Replic.) If you are God, then we must worship you; Which he presently went about to confirm with Scripture; unreason­ably wresting and applying to himself that text, and saying, it is written, Esa. 49.23. Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers, and Queens your nursing Mothers, they shall bow down unto thee, with their face towards the earth. Yet at the same time declared himself to be a beast, and that God did oftentimes speak through such beasts; which they granted: for to strengthen his position, it was there acknowledged that God had spake through Balaams Ass. What is there wanting now to the Completion of the Characters of Deceivers; Doth he not deny the only Lord, and our Lord Jesus Christ? Doth he not bring in damnable Heresies? Even denying the Lord that bought us, bringing upon himself swist desstruction? Is he not Antichristian, in exalting himself above all that is called God, 2 Thes. 2.4. or that is worshipped as God, sitting in the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God? Is not this man fit now to be en­trusted with double Benefices, and the care of Souls? being such a blasphemous novice, wresting the Scriptures unto the destru­ction of himself, and of those that hear him and follow him; de­spising learning, and learned men, because such are able to fa­thom and unvail his setches; and yet forsooth himself would be thought a Scholar, owning himself of the University of Ox­ford; and being demanded by Mr. S. a Gentleman of Worcester­shire, of what Colledge he was, he answered him, of Emanuel Colledge: oportet mendacem esse memorem, here his friend the [Page 15]Devil, did not readily assist him, but left him to shift for him­self, which how poorly he did, I need not tell you: for though Emanuel be applicatory to his notions, yet I under­stand not how Oxford is.

At Wyebridge house in Hereford, being discipling his auditors to a very great height of whimsy; he pointing to a silver Beer-Bowl standing on the Table, said, that that was God to him: (I believe he spake truth before he was aware of it) yet his base­ness was great, in comparing the great Creator of Heaven and Earth, to vile, contemptible and corruptible things, as silver and Gold: These blasphemies are not the tenth nor the hundredth part of what he hath practised his profane mouth withall; yet enough to startle any one from having either belief or confi­dence in him, or in his Doctrine; still he proceeds gaping after filthy lucre, and plots now to get into some publike place, be­cause he knew all people would in a short time grow weary of him: for that by his familistical carriages he seemed to discover his rotten heart, plainly discovering he turned the Grace of God into wantonness, Jude. manifesting that he is one of those filthy dreamers that defile the flesh, and who walk after their own ungodly lusts; he began to distill by circumlocutions, such things that but to name were a shame; community of goods and women, was a thing very consistent to his zealous Breeches, saying that he had a propriety in another mans wife, as also in his goods; this feared not he openly to avow before divers Gentlemen, Ministers, and others at Bredwardine, which how like his future carriages it was, and how necessary for his practise, you shall hear anon.

He now practises his deceits at Worcester, where for his Doctrine and life after some small time, he was justly spued out; the abominations of which I shall reserve for a particular Trea­tise, because I would not have this of Hereford-shire swell too big; that of Worcester having another variety of blasphemy and lust in it.

And being cast out there, he would try his fortune with Lieutenant Colonel VVroth Rogers, Governor of the Castle of Hereford, because he was resolved he would try all means of get­ting [Page 16]himself into some place for gain; and procuring him self into an intimacy with the said Governor, (as it is no hard matter for any flatterer or fawner) the Governor was resolved to get him into places and preferment; first then he gets into the great Guns of the Castle; and for my part I should have thought he would have fitted the Morter piece for a shell, because of his emptiness; and for a Granado also, for I believe there is not a greater incendiary happened into civil society; but now he pra­ctises the Mathematicks, and measures out his ware by the length of his gilded hilted Rapier, strutting in a Souldier-like posture, for a scurvy Matross of the Castle, like a Crow in a Gutter; owning himself a Mathematician, and declaring his greatest learning consisted in the knowledge of the Mathematicks; (but that was by his favor in taking the dimensions and length of men and womens feet, so as he might from a miserable Preacher, turn a Mathematical parasite) but for his skill, I have reason to believe, he was not guilty of much, nor so much as to make him a Gunner, yet here he stayes, disparting the small fire-Drakes of his erroneous dreggs, and begins with much devotion to leave his old courses of blasphemy, because they had left him; and people began to grow weary of that course of course ware.

But being solicitous for his gain: he lacks nothing but a sub­stantial man that may have the honor to convert him, and so himself become his Proselyte; and that nothing may be want­ing to the compleating of this ridiculous Scene, Enter Major General Harrison, he who did but look upon him, and by his physiognomy assured us of his conversion, and further (nay we must believe it) that he had made his recantation; and it may be better believe it, then go to disprove it: for if his recan­tation were called to publick Test, and seriously searched after, it would be much like the story of Enoch his Pillars, on which were wrote many strange things, but all washed away with the Deluge, and so it must be returned with a non est inventum; and prove at least to be but a Greek Ogygies, an invisible record; but however this superficial conversion served his turn, he hastens to get a Church, and being a Gunner, almost at the first firing [Page 17]caught one alive; and how he hath bred it up to his hands, and out of it framed a thing to his own ends, you may perceive by the sequel: He now lives at Nathan Cogans, where he shews himself more effectionate to Mr. Cogans wife, then to his own child when it dyed (being void of natural affection to it); Rom. 1.31. for Mrs. Cogan being very much troubled with Convulsion fits, he in those fits embraced her, kist her, and shewed very much love to her; yet having entred into a Church way, knowing his proneness to fly out, he told his Church he would do nothing without their approbation now, and therefore desires they would give their consent to take a wife, naming her whom he since hath married, being a servant maid to Lieutenant Colo­nel Rogers his wife, and further makes it his request, that in re­gard it would be very convenient for his wife to have a maid­servant, that they would grant him leave to take a hired servant from her Mistriss, which they poor wretches did easily grant to him; and so he seduced Jane South of Greendon her maide from her, whom she had long kept and bred: he had been tamper­ing with her, when as a guest he was entertained in Jane South her house, where betwixt himself, this servant and Jinny Clare, there was such pretty night pastimes, of warming of pillows, and other midnight works, that he began shrewdly to be suspected there, if not detected, at leastwise much disrelished; making good what the Apostle warns us of: 2 Pet. 2.13, 14. spots and blemishes they are, sporting themselves with their own deceivings, while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls.

But that you may also see of what generation of people his Church consists, following the example of their Pastor, (though I am confident many of them are truly Godly, and such seeing his misdemeanors and wickednesses, do daily desert him, and be­ing discovered, will all leave him) but such who please them­selves in their trade of sinning, will glory in their Cloak, de­lighting to make Religion a covert for their baseness, of which sort are two of his Church, Iohn Davis a Taylor, and Anne Madox a School-mistress, both neer neighbors at Aresland in this County of Hereford: this Iohn Davis was husband to a [Page 18]woman simply honest, who perswaded his wife to permit Anne Madox to lye with them (her house being close by) there they lye all night, and in the morning very early, Davis perswades his wife to rise and go to the Bake-house, for to dispatch her affairs there; which she (poor woman) very readily consented unto; and left her husband and Anne Madox fast asleep toge­ther; (nay further, you must believe that there they lay with­out waking four hours together, or you shall be none of Dela­mains Church) the wife knowing no hurt in the thing, divul­geth it at the Bake-house to her neighbors, by which means it came so publick, and was so plain, that divers and the wife having her eyes opened, complained of it, the witnesses proved it, notwithstanding the Governor of Hereford his threatning of them, to fine them one hundred pounds; yet I say it was proved; now were the Governor and Delamain put to their shifts, to cover this spiritual wantonness; and truly it was a poor shift; for Isaac We [...], one of the prosecutors and witnesses, being seduced by the [...] promises or threats, pretends, that as he was going in the prosecution of this business, he had seen in a vision at Canon-peon, an Angel or Spirit, who told him, that although Iohn Davis and Anne Madox lay commonly together, yet they did not so much as kiss one another, &c. I hope you cannot chuse but believe it, with miracle and all: these are, or lately were of Delamains Church, to the pablick shame and reproach of all congregated and gathered Churches in the Nation: but here it is, like Priest, like people. He hath also perswaded this his Church, under the Title of we the Godly, to set their hands to papers, being certificates against some honest man or other that took notice of his villanies; which certificates they had not the liberty either to see, read, or know the substance of; but assured them that they were for the glory of God, and good of the Godly.

During this time, our lusty Priest had but a foot Souldiers pay and a Canoniers, and he found it was not sufficient; he was provided therefore by the Governor, of many other pretty missets and portions, for if those two former would not do, he shall be a Muster-master and pay-master, a Clerk or Trooper [Page 19]in the County Troop; so that you may now behold him a double beneficed Mirmidon, having a great command both in horse and foot; and truly there was great occasion for it, be­cause he was a Godly man, and it was good to engage such an one to our party, for that the Scots were coming towards Wor­cester, for which pay he kept intelligence with our dear Brother Colonel Iames, (one of Major General Harrisons valiant Croneys) and let a furious party on Malvern hills know that the Governor of Worcester, Colonel James, was fixedly resol­ved in his Canon proof armor, with his sword out drawn, be­ing so fearful, and with that fear beside himself, that he could not stir; for attempting to have run away on the other side Severn, he found the Draw-bridge so strongly fastned, that hindred his design, and put him into a great amazement, and can you blame him? for Ile assure you, the Scots were within 15 or 16 miles, and how ugly the High-Landers looked in their plades, would have amazed any one that could not have preached them away: but at that very place our Heroe offered the Hereford as­sistance, which Colonel Iames refused, and I think wisely too; for he had men enough to run away withal.

But these military places were not the things aymed at, be­cause they were subject to mutation; therefore it would do well to have something that might bring in an annual gain; and truly the Militia of the County of Hereford, having resolved themselves into a Committee, upon serious deliberation, for his military atchievements, gave him the three parishes of Ay­monastree, little Hereford, and Longtown; but because he could not receive Tithes in point of tenderness of conscience, He procures Mrs. W. of Aymonastree to receive them, and give him the money, she being his dry nurse, and fed him with silver spoons, for his spiritual food to her, and for making her Son (a pretty boy) a Justice of the peace for the County, which was a place, with Hereford Husbandry, that will (for all your laugh­ing) bring in meat, drink, and clothes.

For Longtown, he had some dealing with an honest Taylor, with his party coloured beard, who not pleasuring him with an expected summe, seized on his horse, or threatned to seize on [Page 20]him; but whether he did, or only threatned, he by it forced the poor man to condescend to his demands, notwithstanding he shewed him how he had been at about thirty shillings charges; which he would by no means allow the man; according to what S. Peter foretels of such: That through covetuousness, they with feigned words shall make merchandize of you, 2 Pet. 2.3.whose judgement lin­greth not, and their damnation slumbreth not: but this that he received was not Tithes, it was but Tithe-money: and what made also much for him, was the conveniency of the Parishes together, that so having undertaken the cure, with such facility he might provide for them; I believe there was not one of them within 8 miles of the other, and some further distant: but not content with these; he exerciseth his heart with covetous pra­ctises,Jude.running greedily after the way of Balaam for reward: and labors to get added to these, the Parish of Pembridge, by the wages of iniquity, promising one Rich. Byrd one hundred pounds, if he would bring sufficient matter to out the incum­bent, and prosecutes the design vigorously, having already by his trust to his potent friends, swallowed it, yet missed of it: this practise up and down he continued till the year 1652. when by the assistance of his party and friends, he procures himself, into the room of Mr. Smith, into the Minster Church of Hereford, (one that was a Godly sincere plain dealing man, but disturbed in his Pulpit by the Souldiers of the Garrison, and frighted away) to which place the Parliament had settled and con­tinued to three Ministers, 150. pounds a year on each; now you would think that he should have had enough, having wrigled himself into this place; but such was his greediness of filthy lucre, that with this he keeps the other Parishes, till he was shamed out of them: yet notwithstanding the Governor (his great friend) being called up to the new Parliament (keeping himself all that time in the Government of the Castle of Here­ford) improves his interest with his friends, helping him not only to his Fathers arrears, but also to the Minsters Salary, for that very time as he had kept the forenamed Parishes in his own hands (and this also by the Governors knowledge, by which you perceive they prefer their own private interest before the [Page 21]publick) and not being able to endure to have but one employ­ment or benefice, by the same means he was got into the master­ship of the Hospital, and Thompsons gift; in which two chari­table places, he behaved himself so unworthily, that he is be­come the common talk and curse of the poor; he rayles up an antient, undenyable, and unquestionable way, for watering in the Castle ditch to the City: instead of giving to ten or twelve poor people cloth for cloathes, according to their use, at half a crown a yard, he searched over all the City, and found a parcel of cloth at sixteen pence a yard, which he bought, and wherewith he cloathed them; so you may perceive he will rob the Spittle, rather then miss of his purpose for gain; the Go­vernor after procures an Order for Mr. Voyle, one of the Mini­sters of Hereford, and Delamain, to attend the service of preach­ing in the City; which when once Delamain had got, he usurped the principal place, (the Minster) to himself, though second in the order; then what work did he make with the rest of the ministers, forbidding them to preach; charging the Sextons of the Churches, not to open the doors or ring a Bell without his permission; scarce giving way to Mr. Primrose to give his Parish of S. Nicholas notice of the Order, or take his leave of those people to whom he had preached many years: laboured to hinder Mr. Low from preaching at one of the Churches that day on which he had accustomed to stay in the City for breaking of bread. And whereas for the supervising the raparations of the Minster, it was referred by the Com­mittee for plundred Ministers, to Captain Taylor, and Mr. Tho­mas Seaborn: because he found not Captain Taylor at all in­clinable to comply with his designed plots, he and the Gover­nor causes Seaborn to certifie an untruth to the Committee, that Captain Taylor had Country imployments, and so could not in­tend this work, upon which were ordered an addition of the Governor and Captain Mason; whereas the quarrel was, that Captain Taylor would have done that work gratis, and the Go­vernor was privy to it also, which might have been prejudicial to Delamains designs, for he was resolved nothing should scape him, but he would have a finger in it, and he intended to flay [Page 22]flints, rather then miss of the sweetness of getting; and if Captain Taylor had stayed in equal trust, how could Seaborn, that sold so many Bells for this work, have gone on so merrily with his gettings, or get so much as to become a Purchaser; or how could they have given Delamain the power of supervising besides their order, they themselves being but Deputies? which imploy­ments (as we have lately named them unto you) caused him to surcease the Tuesdays Lecture at the Minster; which for many years had been continued, for being spoken unto to continue them, he answered, that the business of Saint Ethelberts Hos­pital did take up so much of his time, that he could not at­tend it, by which means it hath been long disconti­nued.

That was not the only trouble neither, his surveying the works of the Minster, of which he reckons himself parochial Pastor, (but that must then be by some invisible order) and where he orders all things to his own whimsical will and plea­sure, the referrees being but servants to his orders; and there makes so many baubles and fooleries, with so great an expence of the Parish money, that it is admirable: shews his spite and malice against all to whom he was disaffected, turns them out of their seats, falls upon Colonel Birches seat, pulls it down, takes away and converts the materials to other purposes, breaks open the lock of Captain Taylors seat door, and alters it, without re­storing him the key, proclaims in his Pulpit, that those that ex­pect seats must come to him, turns out the Sextons, causeth al­most a total alteration in the seats and alleys of the Church, painting figures and letters upon the doors of the seats, and to shew his skill in the Mathematicks, bestows the sign Taurus, with the horns towards the Pulpit, upon the Governors seat; Gemini upon the Maior and Aldermens; Aries upon the Offi­cers of the Castle, and the Governors attendants; which learn­ing he got out of an Ephemeris and discourse of the elevation of the Pole, long since imagined by Sir Thomas de Cantelupo, who lay intombed in Herefond, and whose fountian or jitteau hath been long immerged, under the watery region of the Castle sink; and thus doth he abuse his chiefest friends, rather then [Page 23]not innure himself to his resolved practise and trade of abuses; his squeazy stomack hath throughly digested Tythes, and the calling of the Ministry now: and one would think him a much altered man, but that being taxed for his former opinions and course of life, he declares, he is the same man still; and this he hath done lately, which also compared with some late Socinian flashes, will make the matter clear and indubitable, and are fre­quent to the diligent observers.

On July 25. 1653. at Alhallows in the City of Hereford, speaking of changes wrought in a man at his conversion, said, that then his Soul is made a Spirit; (this is pretty) further alledg­ing the Col. 1.20. to prove the gathering together into one person Christ; he expounded all things in heaven to be God, and all things upon earth, Man, (Galilaeus and Copernicus their conceits were toyes to these knick knacks) and adds, that wicked men can cast out Devils, but not Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils, out of the 7. of Matth. it is against his liberty to preach the Tuesdays Lectures, but not to preach funeral Sermons to com­mend the dead, and pray over them, to sing over them in the Church, and the same Psalm as heretofore in Cathedrals was authematically used, and after all threaten the Sextons for the mourning-borrowed-Pulpit-cloath, as his fee: this was his liberty: so also was a Christmass Sermon out of Bishop An­drews, upon the text, Great is the mysterie of Godliness, Christ manifest in the flesh; but not being able to read or pronounce true Latine, he tells you, hoc est magnum mysterium quae, &c. and though he hath taken up this Trade, his studies are not very ela­borate, which in all reason would have concerned him; but who more bold then blinde Bayard? not trusting to his own in­vention, he commonly makes use of some good Author or other for his Sermons, as the forenamed Bishop Andrews, Downam, Dyke; nay, Causinus and Drexelius the Jesuites must not scape him, and yet though he hath a great memory (which is his all) he hath not as yet attained to the faculty to remember Latine or Greek well, but out of some Author or other, rimes up a Catho­lick or Latine chime, and tells us that three things are inseparable companions, ingentia beneficia, ingentia peccata, & ingentiae [Page 24]poena; he preacheth downright, that no one ought to preach, but such as have a call both from God and men, and the call from men to be by the Officers of the Church, visibly, and not long after confutes himself again; but tis his liberty: he de­clares he is ordained: a huge altered man; and it may be so; (for in imitation of it, he hath the happiness himself to do many things hand over head.) but I call him altered and reformed, be­cause he hath heretofore publickly declared in these words, I am no Minister, nor never will be, I know no cause why any man should: but to our story, he doth not only say himself or­dained, but sent to London Iohn Garnons to be ordained for his leavings at little Hereford, because he himself the father had got great Hereford; this is he whom he calls his Son Timothy; or ra­ther Onesimus in the first vellom, (volumn I should have said;) because of his running away from his master, and leaving his trade of a Glover, to draw on the Kid-skin of dissimulation, by a seeming care and zeal of conversion of pelts: this young boy he sent to be ordained, that so he might have an easier trade to live on, then by stitching: and can you blame him, for fol­lowing this counsel; being not for his liberty to stay with his master, working on the week dayes, writing Sermons on the Lords dayes, and then to repeat them at night: Oh! this was irksom and tiresom to his tender gristles; but because that the Law may not proceed against him, the Governor of the Castle must lift him a Souldier there, and keep him to his sewing till he become fit for the Ministry: Here is brave juggle­ing, brave Garrison, brave Governor, brave Priests, brave people, brave maintainers of Law, Liberty and Pro­priety.

But this Gentleman, John Garnons, Glover, may have another character, for I have seen his depositions at Haberdashers Hall against Captain Taylor, in which he followed his Father Dela­main, in the lye and slander of alaruming the Castle of Here­ford with a musick-meeting; only our business is principally with Delamain at present.

You might now think that our deceiver and familism had shaken hands and parted, but that you have heard that he doth [Page 25]declare to divers, that he is the same man still: else would he have labored to have set those in the right path, whom he hath sedu­ced, and have at least made publick his leaving his own erroni­ous wayes: and how sadly this shews, let any Christian judge, that those whom he hath infected with his leprosie and scurf of heresie; those who by his means have left the good old wayes and pathes, wherein they walked, in spight of all the scorns and de­risions of the world; those that for the testimony of a good conscience have suffered from friends and enemies, from relati­ons and acquaintance; that they should lye sleeping with the soporiferous opium of his inchanting dregs of error; 2 Pet. 2.18. having allured with great swelling words of vanity through the lusts of the flesh, &c. those that were clean escaped from them; who live in error, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, and how sad it is for such who have escaped the pollution of the world, through the know­ledge of Christ, to be again intangled and overcome: to such the latter end is worse then the beginning, and it had been better for them never to have known the wayes of righteous­ness, then after they have known them, to turn from the holy commandment, like the dog to his vomit, and the Sow to her wallowing in the mire: if he had any sense or feeling of the miserable condition he hath drawn them into, if there were any knowledge of his own wayes, if himself were converted, sure he could not suffer such as these aforementioned to con­tinue in those dangerous courses; but should labor to beat down the strong holds of sin and Satan, to unfold the mysteries of error, to strengthen those that are in the right-way, to bring back those that are in the wrong, to undeceive those that he hath seduced, which being often pressed unto; and to such from whom he hath formerly received the food for his belly, the rayment for his back, he hath refused to go to them; (because he is the same man still) wanting Christian compassion to save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire that he hath led them into, setting himself most ungratefully against those fami­lyes who have offered most civilities to him, and from whom he hath received the greatest ingagements; but he is so wedded to [Page 26]this present world, that he neglects friends, engagements, ci­vilities, and all things that may term him man, to enjoy it: mo­ney that he borrowed to buy a suite of cloaths in his necessity, he refuses to pay in his plenty and abundance; returns of hu­manity he ungratefully detains from the family at Bredwardine, and particularly from one of that family who hath stood up for him; which passage shall be the last in this Treatise, as being the most transcendent for villany and detraction of all; but yet it is no marvail, for since he denyes God, what fear is there left in him, when he solemnly invokes God by an oath? to bear false witness can be no trouble to his conscience, when he be­lieves neither a heaven nor an hell.

The time (that you may perceive whether he be an altered and reformed man or no) was no longer ago then Septemb. 6. 1653. at Glocester, Captain Mason having scandalously abused Captain Taylor by Articles exhibited against him in Haber­dashers-Hall, for refusing to comply with him in the deceiving of his trust, contrary to his oath, and not being able to prove any one, though in the attempt the witnesses much forswore themselves, yet that there might be somewhat found in the de­positions, more then in the Articles; they the accusers and privy prosecutors, having in writing drawn up the depositions, and worded them for the witnesses; which Delamain not appro­ving, because they lacked somewhat of venom that he would have had inserted against Captain Taylor, with his own hand mended and inserted many words, which the witnesses were to swear; causing many of them to own such terms and words in their oaths, as they (poor people) could not understand; but that you may see he would not be behinde himself in such an action as he puts others upon, have patience to read his oath, as it was by himself framed in writing, and returned to Haber­dashers-Hall, where it now lies attested and subscribed with his own hand.

Richard Delamain, sworn and examined to the second Ar­ticle against Captain Taylor, deposeth and saith, that the Soul­diers in the Garrison of Hereford, upon Munday and Tuesday the 3. and 4. of January, 1652. were necessitated to keep all [Page 27]to their arms, by reason of a convention of Papists and De­linquents then in the City of Hereford, occasioned by a Musick­meeting, appointed by Captain Taylor: and whereas it was ex­pected, that he would have extenuated and mitigated the too too positive sense, by those cross examinations upon interroga­tories exhibited by Captain Taylor; being demanded whether he knew them Papists and Delinquents, and desired to name them; it was beyond his ability, he could not name any of them, nor did he prove any of them to be Papists or Delin­quents; but gives his passion vent, and dischargeth such a Tor­rent of choller, swearing the second time, That the Souldiery of the Garrison of Hereford were necessitated to stand to their arms, upon occasion of a Musick-meeting of Papists and Delinquents, by Captain Taylors appointment: and further adds, (as under his own hand is in the office to be seen) that he doth not know of any of the honest party he doth either converse or keep company with; (this is very large): but here he swears himself, the Governor, Captain Mason, and the rest of his own party knaves; for I am credibly informed, Captain Taylor kept not company more with any, then with them; and with them by much too much, as by their unhandsome undermining and juggling with him did appear. But I pray you observe the first part of his first oath: that the Souldiers of the Garrison of Hereford were (on such a time) necessitated to keep all to their arms, by reason of a convention of Papists and Delinquents, occasioned by a musick-meeting, ap­pointed by Captain Taylor: what credit he doth the Souldiers, to be affraid of a Musick-meeting; surely the Souldiers of that Garrison are fraughted with very unharmonious Souls, to be frighted with fiddles; (Delamain being Engenier, it may as well be, that the new rayles set up in Castle street, were to hin­der a surprise by a Camisado of Hobby-horses.) and pray who were the company that put them into this terrible Alarum, and so much insisted upon affrightment? Do you think any of their own party could be there? truly you shall finde Mat. Price of the States Arms, Inholder, Gent. and G. Lynne, their own Croneys, participants in this dangerous enterprize, and to whom they were beholden for the story, or else they had missed [Page 28]of an Article, and Delamain of matter to forswear him­self withal, besides whom were but ten men and about six wo­men, most of them inhabitants of the City of Hereford; were not these dangerous people, and those dangerous instruments, to surprize a Castle man'd with about 70. or 80. Souldiers, and of whom Delamain swears they were all necessitated to keep to their arms? They were in a good po­sture. yet one of them being brought to swear to this plot, (I think his name is James Vaughan, but it is Vaughan) tells you, he believes there was a design, because he had much a do to escape casheiring, for being absent then; (it seemeth then it was not for kissing the Governors maide) so that all were not there (honest Delmain) but when it came to be strictly searched into, neither the Souldiers, (for the greatest part) nor Officers of the Castle ever knew of any such meeting at Cap­tain Taylors; till such time as half a year after, and above, the plot was found in the Articles against Captain Taylor, and per­haps some were so long after affrighted, and brought neer to that pass, as the poor man that dyed the next day after he had passed a narrow plank that lay cross a decayed Arch on Ro­chester-Bridge, upon the imagination of the danger he had escaped: Lieutenant Jenkins being at that time Deputy Go­vernor, in the absence of Lieutenant Colonel Rogers, did de­clare, when he was summoned to depose this against Captain Taylor; (for such a plot could not be known more plain to any, then to the then Governor) he called the Officers of the Garrison together, and diligently enquired of them, whether they ever heard of any such meeting at Captain Taylors? To which with one accord they answered, they never knew or heard of any such meeting; and that they did not keep to their arms by reason of any convention at his house; which Lieutenant Jenkins did also declare for himself, by which he escaped the journey to Glocester, it being the place appointed, where, if he could or would, he should have sworn the plot, and this their ignorance, and not knowing then of the meeting, and their not standing to their arms, by reason of the convention at Captain Taylors musick, they will attest. Further, I have heard declared and ascertained, that one of those very nights, Delamain court­ed [Page 29]Captain Taylor, in case there should be any risings in the Country, or stirs in the City, directing him a back way from his dwelling in the Pallace of Hereford, into the Castle; were I acquainted with Captain Taylor, I could have given you many more circumstances, which I have heard of; but because I would do nothing without a certain and sure ground; nor an­ticipate his formerly-intended resolutions, of exposing the whole carriage of this business to a publick view; which would have been a great help to me in the management of this small tract, and it may be a remora to the whole, (if he had done it effectually.) I have contented my self with these few passages, in respect of the multitude of his Prevarications, because that I have throughly informed my self of the real truth of them, from honest Godly persons of that County, who had se­posited certain collections of his enormities; and by my own search into Haberdashers-Hall, at my own charge, of taking out orders and depositions.

And now that you may see the horridness of Delamains for­swearing himself; the little account he makes of other mens re­putations; (having lost his own) the improbability of his con­version, the small hopes of his amendment, his perverse, ma­litious and obdurate heart; as also Captain Taylors innocency adjusted; and the good opinion and sense after this charge against him, the Commissioners of Haberdashers-Hall had still of him; be pleased to accept of the Order, as it lies there Registred; viz.

I hope by this you perceive him an egregious knave upon Re­cord, and with what a piece of pestilence you have to deal: and by this let all his friends and fautors be warned of his friendship, Rom. 3. for, latet Anguis in herba; his throat is an open Se­pulcher, with his tongue he hath used deceit, and the poyson of Asps is under his lips; he makes no conscience of his actions or ways neither to God or men; I need not further characterize him, these his actions, his words, his demeanors, and his practises are enough to render him in his own capacity, without any strain or force, sufficiently odious to the world.

And now I challenge any one, that finds himself either in part, or in whole concerned in this History, to disprove the Truth of it: having received it from men truly religious, and of unblamable life and conversation, and out of such undeny­able and unquessionable Records, as that the truth cannot suffer; yet before I conclude, let me humbly petition those that are in Authority, to interest themselves in the rooting out of such prophaneness, blasphemy, heresie and hypocrisie, left hearing of these things, and not redressing of them, they draw on their own Souls the guilt of tolerating and connivence, if not of abetting such Impostures as these are, to the undoing of many souls; it being the policy of that Grand Impostor, Satan, to work into a disrelish and dislike of the truth, all such as any wayes (though it be in bare profession, without the root of sin­cerity) do set themselves to worship God in a stricter and purer way then the common course of the world do: and to lay the [Page 31]heaviest load of temptations upon such that buckle themselves to walk in the paths of Gods precepts: Heb. 12. running the race with patience that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith; clothing our selves with circumspection and vigilancy, continually to stand upon our guard, Rev. 18. lest instead of Angels we entertain Devils, and instead of the mysterie of God­liness, we participate of Mysterious Babylon, and so become per­takers not only of her sins, but of her plagues; her plagues that shall come upon her in one day, death, mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.