their dark, as well as their bright Sides. That Love of Truth which is effential to bim, and appears in all bis Actions, would not let him spare the Man after his own Heart; but he would perpetuatc in everlasting Records, the Memory of bis blackest Crimes, which have since been read in almost all Languages, and for which the Sword never departed from bis House. Sect. 5. Wherefore though I cannot promise, (because it is not in my Power) to write the most exemplary Life of this Holy and Learned Man, with that Justness of Style, in which all Lives, but fuch as bis more especially, ought to be penn'd; yet I promise to write it with all that Exactness of Truth, and Impartiality, that God, and good Men will expect from me : As knowing, that should I write it otherwise, I should be afraid to appear with him at the Day of Judgment, who dy'd a Confeffor for Truth, and was while he lived, so strict an Observer of it, that he would never give himself the Liberty A 4 Liberty to speak or write an officious, or So much as a jocular Lye. Nay, be could never fatisfy himself to call abfconding Persons in Times of greatest Danger by their borrowed Names, as I shall bave Occasion to tell in this Account of bis exemplary Life, which I would much rather have had written by another and better Pen. But because I knew him longer, and better, than any of his Survivors, and was many Tears in the most intimate Measures of Friendship with him, therefore some of his best Friends did engage me to write it, which I confess I promised, not then foreseeing that another Undertaking, I had entred upon a little before Mr. Kettlewell Dyed, would have made it so difficult for me to find Time enough to perform my Promise, and also so much unfitted me for Writing any Thing in English, much more a Life which should be penn'd in a Style, as exact as it felf, and deserves to be adorn'd with all the Purity, Force, and Propriety of the English Tongue. But Men must keep ! keep their Promises, as well as their Oaths, though it be to their Hinderance; and therefore, beseeching God, with whom be is in Bliss, to enable me to bring it to a bappy Conclufion, I here begin it with a Resolution, by Divine Assistance, not only to write it with Truth, but Meekness, and in fuch foft and gentle Expressions, concerning some incident Paflages, and Persons, as would have dropt from his Pen, had be, who was so great an Example of Patience and Meekness, written it bimself. THE |