XL. KEEP YOUR CASTLE.

SOON after the king’s death I preached in a church near London, and a person then in great power, now levelled with his fellows, was present at my sermon. Now, I had this passage in my prayer: God in his due time settle our nation on the true foundation thereof.

The [then] great man demanded of me, what I meant by true foundation. I answered, That I was no lawyer, nor statesman, and therefore skill in such matters was not to be expected from me.

He pressed me farther to express myself, whether thereby I did not intend the king, lords, and commons.

I returned that it was a part of my prayer to God, who had more knowledge than I had ignorance in all things, that he knew what was the true foundation, and I remitted all to his wisdom and goodness.

When men come with nets in their ears, it is good for the preacher to have neither fish nor fowl in his tongue. But, blessed be God, now we need not lie at so close a guard. Let the 280gentleman now know, that what he suspected I then intended in my words; and let him make what improvement he pleaseth thereof.