ory odious, by representing her as
wanting natural affection to her only son, in my note at p. 162, where
he says I have printed part of a Will, &c. And 3dly, tho' she was cut
off in such a barbarous and unprecedented manner, yet she has fallen
unlamented by me. I am likewise charged with having an affection to
Puritanism; the reasons for which are, my giving the Life of a Puritan
Bishop's Lady, which it seems need not have been done by me, had I not
had a particular regard for her, since it had been done before by
Goodwin who reprinted her Devotions. And not content with this, I have
blemished my book with the memoirs of a Dissenting teacher's wife, and
have been kind enough to heighten even the character given her by her
indulgent husband: and that I am very fond of quoting Fox and Burnet
upon all occasions. These are thought strong indications of the
above-mentioned charge. It may be thought entirely unnecessary to answer
any of the objections from Exeter, after having given you this Summary
of my kind Friend's Candid Epistle; but to you, Sir, to whom I could
disclose the very secrets of my soul, I will endeavour to say a word or
two upon this subject, and make you my Confessor upon this occasion; and
I will do it with as much sincerity, as if I lay on my death-bed. Before
I was fourteen years old, I read over Fox's Acts and Monuments of the
Church, and several of the best books of Polemical Divinity, which
strongly fortified me in the Protestant Religion; and gave me the
greatest abhorrence to Popery. And soon after I perused Mercurius
Rusticus, The Eleventh Persecution, Lloyd, Walker's Sufferings of the
Clergy, and many others, which gave me almost as bad an opinion of the
Dissenters. But then I learned in my childhood _to live in Charity with
all Men_, and I have used my best endeavours to put this doctrine in
practice all my life long. I never thought ill, or quarrelled with any
man merely because he had been educated in principles different to mine;
and yet I have been acquainted with many papists, dissenters, &c. and if
I found any of them learned, ingenuous, and modest, I always found my
heart well-disposed for contracting a firm friendship with them: and
notwithstanding that, I dare believe that all those people will, with
joint consent, vouch for me, that I have ever been steady in my own
principles.

I can truly affirm that never any one engaged in such a work, with an
honester heart, or executed it with mo