entered the army, and had been promoted to the rank of a major
in the royal forces. Having made an abortive attempt to raise a
rebellion in his native county of Kent,[90] he and eleven others were
made prisoners, tried by martial law, and condemned to the gallows.
On the night previous to the day appointed for his execution, his
sister found access to the prison. The guards were asleep, and his
companions drowned in intoxication. She embraced the favourable
moment, and set him at liberty. He lay concealed in a ditch for
three days, till the heat of the search was over, and in disguise
escaped to London, and thence to Bedford, where, aided by some
great people who favoured the royal cause, he commenced business
as a doctor. Here his evil habits followed him, notwithstanding his
merciful deliverance. Swearing, drunkenness, gambling, and other
immoral practices, rendered him a curse to others, especially to
the Puritans, whom he bitterly persecuted. One night he lost fifteen
pounds at play, and, becoming outrageous, he cast angry reproaches
upon God. In this state he took up a book by R. Bolton--he read,
and his conscience was terror-stricken. Distress, under conviction
of sin, followed him. He searched his Bible, and found pardon
and acceptance. He now sought acquaintance with those whom before
he had persecuted, but, like Paul, when in similar circumstances,
'they were all afraid of him.' His sincerity soon became apparent;
and, uniting with eleven others, they formed a church. These men
had thrown off the fetters of education, and were, unbiased by any
sectarian feeling, being guided solely by their prayerful researches
into divine truth as revealed in the Bible. Their whole object
was to enjoy Christian communion--to extend the reign of grace--to
live to the honour of Christ--and they formed a new, and at that time
unheard-of, community. Water-baptism was to be left to individual
conviction; they were to love each other equally, whether they