posedly, which cannot be proved: Formerly, but three months imprisonment; now perpetual imprisonment: Then, upon paying the fine, no corporal punishment was to be inflicted; but now, infamous punishment with the loss of blood, and all other circumstances that may aggravate it. See now what times we are fallen into, when that libelling (if it were so) against prelates only, shall fall higher, than if it touched kings and princes.

That, which I have to speak of next, is this: The prelates find themselves exceedingly aggrieved and vexed against what we have written concerning the usurpation of their calling, where indeed we declare their calling not to be jure divino. I make no doubt but there are some intelligencers or abettors within the hearing, whom I would have well to know, and take notice of what I now say: I here in this place make this offer to them, that, if I may be admitted a fair dispute, on fair terms, for my cause, that I will maintain, and do here make the challenge against all the prelates in the king's dominions, and against all the prelates in Christendom, let them take in the Pope and all to help them, that their calling is not jure divino. I will speak it again, I make the challenge against all the prelates in the king's dominions, and all Christendom, to maintain, that their calling is not jure divino. If I make it not good, let me be hanged up at the hall-gate: Whereupon the people gave a great shout.

The next thing, that I am to speak of, is this: The Prelates find themselves exceedingly grieved and vexed against what I have written in point of law, concerning their writs and process, that the sending forth of writs and process in their own name, is against all law and justice, and doth intrench on his Majesty's prerogative royal, and the subjects liberties. And here now I make a second challenge against all the lawyers in the kingdom, in way of fair dispute, that I will maintain, the prelates sending forth of writs and process, in their own names, to be against all law and justice, and intrencheth on his Majesty's prerogative royal, and subjects liberty. Lest it should be forgotten, I speak it again, I here challenge all the whole society of the law upon a fair dispute to maintain, that the sending forth of writs and process, in the prelates own names, is against all law and justice, and intrencheth on the king's prerogative royal, and the subjects liberty. If I be not able to make it good, let me be put to the tormentingest death they can devise.

We praise the Lord, we fear none but God and the King. Had we respected our liberties, we had not stood here at this time. It was for the general good and liberties of you all, that we have now thus far engaged our own liberties in this cause. For, did you know, how deeply they have intrenched on your liberties in point of Popery,; if you knew but into what times you are cast, it would make you look about you: And, if you did but see what changes and revolutions of persons, causes, and actions have been made by one man, you would more narrowly look into your privileges, and see how far your liberty did lawfully extend, and so maintain it.

This is the second time that I have been brought to this place; who hath been the author of it, I think you all well know. For the first

time, if I could have had leave given me, I could easily have cleared myself of that which was then laid to my charge: As also I could have done now, if I might have been permitted to speak; that book for which I suffered formerly, especially for some particular words therein written, which I quoted out of God's word and ancient fathers, for which notwithstanding they passed censure on me; that same book was twice licensed by publick authority, and the same words I then suffered for, they are again made use of, and applied in the same sense by Heylin, in his book lately printed, and dedicated to the king, and no exceptions taken against them, but are very well taken.

Aye, said Dr. Bastwicke, and there is another book of his licensed, wherein he rails against us three at his pleasure, and against the martyrs that suffered in Queen Mary's days, calling them schismatical hereticks; and there is another book of Pocklington's licensed; they be as full of lyes, as dogs be full of fleas; but, were the presses as open to us, as they are to them, we would pay them, and their great master that upholds them, and charge them with notorious blasphemy.

Said Mr. Prynne, you all, at this present, see, there be no degrees of men exempted from suffering. Here is a reverend divine for the soul, a physician for the body, and a lawyer for the estate. I had thought they would have let alone their own society, and not have meddled with any of them; and the next, for aught I know, may be a bishop. You see they spare none, of what society or calling soever; none are exempted that cross their own ends. Gentlemen, look to yourselves, if all the martyrs, that suffered in Queen Mary's days, are accounted and called schismatical hereticks, and factious fellows: What shall we look for? Yet, so they are called in a book lately come forth under authority; and such factious fellows are we, for discovering a plot of Popery. Alas! poor England, what will become of thee, if thou look not the sooner into thy own privileges, and maintainest not thine own lawful liberty? Christian people, I beseech you all, stand firm, and be zealous for the cause of God, and his true religion, to the shedding of your dearest blood, otherwise you will bring yourselves, and all your posterities, into perpetual bondage and slavery.

Now the executioner being come, to sear him and cut off his ears, Mr. Prynne said these words to him, 'Come, friend, come burn me, cut me, I fear not; I have learned to fear the fire of hell, and not what man can do unto me. Come, sear me, sear me, I shall bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus;' which the bloody executioner performed with extraordinary cruelty, heating his iron twice to burn one cheek; and cut one of his ears so close, that he cut off a piece of his cheek. At which exquisite torture, he never moved with his body, or so much as changed his countenance, but still looked up, as well as he could, towards heaven, with a smiling countenance, even to the astonishment of all the beholders, and uttering, as soon as the executioner had done, this heavenly sentence: The more I am beaten down, the more am I lift up;' and, returning from the execution in a boat, made, as I hear, these two verses by the way, on the two characters branded on his cheeks:

S. L. STIGMATA LAUDIS.

STIGMATĄ maxillis bajulans insignia LAUDIS
Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo.

Which one since thus Englished:

S. L. LAUD'S SCARS.

Triumphant I return, my face descries

Laud's scorching scars, God's grateful sacrifice.

Mr. Burton's heavenly and most comfortable speech, which he made at the time of his suffering, both before, and while he stood in the pillory, which was something distant from the other double pillory, wherein Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Prynne stood.,

THE night before his suffering, about eight o'clock, when he first had certain notice thereof, upon occasion of his wife's going to ask the warden, whether her husband should suffer the next day, immediately he felt his spirits to be raised to a far higher pitch of resolution and courage to undergo his sufferings, than formerly he did; so as he intreated the Lord to hold up his spirits at that heighth all the next day, in his sufferings, that he might not flag nor faint, lest any dishonour might come to his Majesty, or the cause; and the Lord heard him : For all the next day, in his suffering, both before and after, his spirits were carried aloft, as it were upon eagle's wings, as himself said, far above all apprehension of shame or pain.

The next morning, being the day of his sufferings, he was brought to Westminster, and, with much chearfulness, being brought into the Palace-yard, unto a chamber that looked into the yard, where he viewed three pillories there set up. Methinks, said he, I see Mount Calvary, where the three crosses, one for Christ, and the other two for the two thieves, were pitched; and, if Christ were numbered among thieves, shall a Christian, for Christ's sake, think much to be numbered among rogues, such as we are condemned to be? Surely, if I be a rogue, I am Christ's rogue, and no man's. And, a little after, looking out at the casement towards the pillory, he said, I see no difference between looking out of this square window and yonder round hole, pointing towards the pillory; he said, It is no matter of difference to an honest man. And, a little after that, looking somewhat wishfully upon his wife, to see how she did take it, she seemed to him to be something sad, to whom he thus spake:Wife, why art thou so sad? To whom she made answer, Sweetheart, I am not sad. No, said he, see thou be not; for I would not have thee to dishonour the day, by shedding one tear, or fetching one sigh; for behold, therefore, thy comfort, my triumphant chariot, on the which I must ride. for the honour of my Lord and Master. And never was wedding day so welcome and joyful a day, as this day is; and so much the more, because I have such a noble captain and leader, who hath gone before me with such undauntedness of spirit, that he saith of himself, I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to the nippers, they plucked off the

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hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting; for the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be coufounded; therefore have I se my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed. At length being carried towards the pillory, he met Dr. Bastwicke at the foot of the pillory, where they lovingly saluted and embraced each other; and, parting a little from him, he returned, such was the ardency of his affection, and most affectionately embraced him the second time, being heartily sorry he missed Mr. Prynne, who was not yet come, before he was gone up to his pillory, which stood alone next the Star-chamber, and about half a stone's cast from the other double pillory, wherein the other two stood, so as all their faces looked southward, the bright sun all the while, for the space of two hours, shining upon them: Being ready to be put into the pillory, standing upon the scaffold, he espied Mr. Prynne, new come to the pillory, and Dr. Bastwicke in the pillory, who then hasted off his band, and called for a handkerchief, saying, "What, shall I be last, or shall I be ashamed of a pillory for Christ, who was not ashamed of a cross for me?' Then, being put into the pillory, he said: 'Good people, I am brought hither to be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and men; and, howsoever I stand here to underthe punishment of a rogue, yet, except to be a faithful servant to Christ, and a loyal subject, to the king, be the property of a rogue, I am no rogue; but yet, if to be Christ's faithful servant, and the king's loyal subject, deserve the punishment of a rogue, I glory in it; and, I bless my God, my conscience is clear, aud is not stained with the guilt of any such crime, as I have been charged with, though, otherwise, I confess myself to be a man subject to many frailties and human infirmities. Indeed, that book intitled, An Apology of an Appeal,' with sundry epistles, and two sermons, for God and the king, charged against me in the information, I have, and do acknowledge, the misprinting excepted, to be mine, and will, by God's grace, never disclaim it, whilst I have breath within me. After a while, he having a nosegay in his hand, a bee came and pitched on the nosegay, and began to suck the flowers very savourly; which he beholding, and well observing, said, Do ye not see this poor bee? She hath found out this very place, to suck sweetness from these flowers; And cannot I suck sweetness in this very place from Christ?' The bee sucking all this while, and so took her flight. By and by he took occasion, from the shining of the sun, to say, 'You see how the sun shines upon us; but that shines as well upon the evil as the good, upon the just and unjust; but that the sun of righteousness, Jesus Christ, who hath healing under his wings, shines upon the souls and consciences of every true believer only, and no cloud can hide him from us, to make him ashamed of us; no, not of our most shameful sufferings for his sake; and why should we be ashamed to suffer for his sake, who hath suffered for us? All our sufferings be but flea-bitings to that he endured; he endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is set on the right hand of God. He is a most excellent pattern for us to look upon, that, treading in his steps, and suffering with him, we may be glorified with him: And what can we suffer, wherein he hath not gone before us even in the same kind? Was he not degraded, when they scornfully put on him a purple robe, a reed in his

hand, a thorny crown upon his head, saluting lim with Hail, King of the Jews,' and so disrobed him again? Was not he deprived, when they smote the shepherd, and the sheep were scattered? Was not violence offered to his sacred person, when he was buffetted and scourged, his hands and his feet pierced, his head pricked with thorns, his side gored with a spear, &c. ? Was not the cross more shameful, yea, and more painful, than a pillory? Was not he stripped of all he had, when he was left stark naked upon the cross, the soldiers dividing his garments, and casting lots upon his vesture? And was not he confined to perpetual close imprisonment, in man's imagination, when his body was laid in a tomb, and the tomb sealed, lest he should break prison, or his disciples steal him away? And yet did he not rise again, and thereby bring deliverance and victory to us all, so as we are more than conquerors through him that loved us? Here then we have an excellent pattern indeed. And all this he uttered, and whatsoever else he spoke, with marvellous alacrity.

One said unto Mr. Burton, Christ will not be ashamed of you at the last day he replied, he knew whom he had believed, and that Christ was able to keep that he had committed to him against that day. One asked him how he did; he said Never better, I bless God, who hath accounted me worthy thus to suffer. The keeper, keeping off the people from pressing near the pillory, he said, Let them come, and spare not, that they may learn to suffer. This same keeper, being weary, and sitting him down, asked Mr. Burton if he were well, and bade him be of good comfort; to whom he replied, Are you well? If you be well, I am much more, and full of comfort, I bless God. Some asked him, if the pillory were not uneasy for his neck and shoulders ? He answered, How can Christ's yoke be uneasy? This is Christ's yoke, and he bears the heavier end of it, and I the lighter; and, if mine were too heavy, he would bear that too: O, good people, Christ is a good and sweet master, and worth the suffering for! And, if the world did but know his goodness, and had tasted of his sweetness, all would come and be his servants; and, did they but know what a blessed thing it were to bear his yoke, O, who would not bear it? The keeper going about to ease the pillory, by putting a stone or brick-bat between, Mr. Burton said, Trouble not yourself, I am at very good ease, and feel no weariness at all; and espying a young mau at the foot of the pillory, and perceiving him to look pale on him, he said, Son, Son, what is the matter you look so pale? I have as much comfort as my heart can hold, and, if I had need of more, I should have it. One asked him, a while after, if he would drink some aqua vitæ ; to whom he replied, that he needed it not; for I have, said he, laying his hand upon his breast, the true water of life, which, like a well, doth spring up to eternal life. Pausing a while, he said, with a most chearful and grave countenance, I was never in such a pulpit before, but little do ye know, speaking to them that stood about him, what fruits God is able to produce from this dry tree: They looking stedfastly upon him, he said, Mark my words, and remember them well; I say, little do you know what fruits God is able to produce from this dry tree; I say, remember it well, for this day will never be forgotten; and, through