He possessed the most undaunted courage; for he was afraid of no earthly
power. He was never deterred from going to meetings for worship, though
he knew the officers would be there, who were to seize his person. In
his personal conversations with Oliver Cromwell, or in his letters to
him as protector, or in his letters to the parliament, or to king
Charles the second, or to any other personage, he discovered his usual
boldness of character, and never lost, by means of any degrading
flattery, his dignity as a man.
But his perseverance was equal to his courage; for he was no sooner out
of gaol, than he repeated the very acts, believing them to be right, for
which he had been confined. When he was forced also out of the
meeting-houses by the officers of justice, he preached at the very
doors. In short, he was never hindered but by sickness, or
imprisonments, from persevering in his religious pursuits.
With respect to his word, he was known to have held it so sacred, that
the judges frequently dismissed him without bail, on his bare promise
that he would be forth coming on a given day. On these occasions, he
used always to qualify his promise by the expression, _"if the Lord
permit."_
Of the integrity of his own character, as a christian, he was so
scrupulously tenacious, that, when he might have been sometimes set at
liberty by making trifling acknowledgements, he would make none, least
it should imply a conviction, that he had been confined for that which
was wrong; and, at one time in particular, king Charles the second was
so touched with the hardship of his case, that he offered to discharge
him from prison by a pardon.
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