rected the jury to find the matter specially, telling them, they must find some time, the plaintiff having proved his declaration. Whereupon the jury found one day, at which the judge seemed displeased, and turned them back, and then they found two days. A copy of the special verdict here follows. "We find that the defendant hath taught school during two days, being part of the time mentioned in the declaration, in his house at Tottenham High-Cross, in the county of Middlesex, not being licensed by any archbishop, or bishop, &c. as the statute of King James I. does direct. That the said school was no free school, nor established by any manner of endowment. But that the defendant taught any young persons who would come to be taught by him; and he taught his scholars openly and notoriously, in the view of all persons who had occasion to resort to his said house. And we find the defendant is a Quaker, and no Popish recusant. And as to the rest, nil debet. "Subscribed, "JA. MONTAGUE. Note. Upon this special verdict, the plaintiff proceeded no further, being at an apparent disadvantage: because, if the matter in law, which was left to the construction of the judges upon the special verdict found by the jury, had been for the plaintiff, he should have recovered only 41. and no costs: whereas, if the opinion of the judges had been for the defendant, the plaintiff must have paid costs. The issue of this cause did so discourage his adversaries, that he was never after molested by them, in the peaceable following his honest and lawful employment. CHAPTER IX. THE reader will not expect, after such a variety of trials and exercises as Richard Claridge met with this year, that he could attend to writing much; but finding a manuscript or two, penned by him during this time of fatigue, we shall insert them. About the time that he was summoned by the justices to take the oaths, under pretence of his being disaffected to the government, and inclining to Popery; to acquit himself of that groundless charge, he wrote the following paper, directed "To the inhabitants of Tottenham, in the county of Middlesex, or to whomsoever this paper shall come." "Whereas I Richard Claridge, of Tottenham, have been by the adversaries of truth, in various ways defamed and traduced, and particularly, that I am a Jesuit or a Papist; for the removing of the scandals cast upon me, in respect of my religion, and satisfaction of all sober and moderate persons, both of this neighbourhood and elsewhere, I do solemnly, truly, and sincerely profess and declare, that I never was in time past, nor am at this present writing, and hope, by the grace of God, in whom alone I trust, never shall be either Jesuit or Papist, but was and am a real Protestant; protesting against all and all manner of Popery, either Romish or English. And, "First, I believe in the one living and true God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, who is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, most holy, just, and good, without body, parts, or passions, and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth. 66 Secondly, I do believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell, the third day he rose again dead. [Author's note.] Or continued some time in the state of the from the dead, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.' : "Thirdly, I do believe, that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, were given by inspiration of God, and written for our learning, for all to read and practise, that are not prevented by any natural or providential incapacity: that they are a sufficient declaration of all the necessary and fundamental articles of the Christian religion, in common to be believed, and the best outward rule or standard extant in the world, to examine the principles and doctrines of men by; that nothing ought to be required or imposed, as a common article of the Christian religion which is not expressed in plain Scripture; that the explications and conclusions of private persons, general councils, or particular churches, ought not to be put in the room of, or set in equal authority with them, or made the test or standard of truth or error, of orthodoxy or heresy: and therefore it is sufficient for me to take them for my creed, and to believe the truths therein recorded, in those very terms they are there delivered; and that the Spirit of God, in the way of inward and immediate revelation, is absolutely necessary to the saving and effectual knowledge of them. That whatever doctrine is contrary unto their testimony, may therefore be justly rejected as false; and that whatsoever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, ought to be accounted and reckoned a delusion of the devil. "Fifthly, And I do believe, that all traditions whatsoever, though called apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, if they cannot be proved by plain and express Scripture, are to be rejected; and by no means to be made equal, as the Papists do theirs, to the Holy Scriptures. "Sixthly, I do believe, that the Popish mass is an unscriptural and abominable piece of idolatry and superstition. And that transubstantiation, or the conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood of Christ, is against Scripture, sense, and reason. "Seventhly, I do believe, that the Papists have no ground in Scripture for their purgatory, worshipping of the images of Or that there is a day appointed, wherein he shall come in power and great glory, to judge both the quick and the dead. 2 See my Lux Evangelica Attestata, p. 32, edit. 1701. Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and other saints, or invocation of her or other saints, nor for worshipping of crosses or relics, or for any of their superstitious rites and ceremonies. "Eighthly, And I do believe, that the Pope or Bishop of Rome, is neither head of the church, nor Christ's vicar, nor Peter's successor; that neither he, nor any foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have any power, jurisdiction, superiority, preeminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm of Great Britain, or any of the Queen's dominions. "Ninthly, I do believe, that Queen Anne hath, under God, the chief government of this realm and other her dominions. "Tenthly, I do believe it is my duty, and the duty of all her subjects, to be true and faithful to Queen Anne, and to pray for her, and for those that are in authority under her, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.' 1 Tim. ii. 2. "Eleventhly, I do solemnly profess and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words, as they are commonly understood by English Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation already granted me for that purpose, by the Pope or any authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such dispensation from any person or persons whatsoever." We find also written this year, in answer to the calumnies and aspersions which some priests and other adversaries had raised and spread against him, the following defence of himself, entitled, "Abstersio Calumniarum." "The calumnies and objections of my adversaries, have been many in number, and of several kinds, according as malice or invention has furnished them; I shall therefore endeavour to reduce them under certain heads, and return a sober and satisfactory answer to them. "1. They have charged me with apostasy. To which charge I return the same short answer, which Luther, that famous reformer, did to his Popish adversaries. I am an apostate; but it is from error to the truth.' I mean from error in doctrine, worship, and practice, to the truth as it is in Jesus. I say from error; for I am not apostatized from the doctrine of Christ and his apostles; no, nor from any one branch of truth, which is either held by the Church of England, so called, or any other people professing Christianity. So that my adversaries' cry of apostasy is, as one says, in the case of schism, but mere powder without shot, and can never hurt.' ' For, with a little variation of what he says in another place, 'It is apostasy upon wilfulness that brings danger with it; apostasy upon just occasion, hath in itself little hurt, if any at all.'" "I am fully satisfied in the truth of that position, which one of my adversary's communion delivered in a sermon preached at the assizes, and before the University of Oxford, on the 19th of the Fifth Month, 1705. 'A man may be allowed to change his opinion at any time, upon good reason; and no length of days, no multitudes, nor authority of men, ought to prescribe against the truth." 3 "Now whether I had good reason to change my opinion, and consequently to separate from the Church of England, so called, the reader is desired to peruse my books, entitled, Mercy covering the Judgment-seat,' and 'Lux Evangelica At John Hales, of Eaton, his Tract concerning the Sacrament, p. 83. Edit. 1677. 2 Ib. p. 84. 3 William Tilly, M.A. Fellow of C. C. C. Oxon. Serm. p. 45. |