of his imprisonment.  The Lord hereby bearing witness, both to the truth of that cause for which he suffered, and also testifying his gracious acceptance of his sufferings, and of the free-will-offering of his life, which he laid down for his sake.  And as neither the violence nor flattery of enemies could prevail with this faithful confessor and martyr himself, to quit with one hair or hoof of what belonged to Christ, so he recommended to the poor scattered remnant which he left, as part of his dying counsel, to keep their ground, and not to quit nor forego one of these despised truths, which he was assured the Lord, when he returned to bind up the breach of his people, and heal them of their wound, would make glorious in the earth.  Thus that worthy minister, and now glorified martyr of Jesus, through a chain of sufferings, and train of enemies, fought his way unto an incorruptible and immortal crown of endless glory.  He was the last that sealed the testimony for religion and liberty, and the covenanted work of reformation, against Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, and tyranny, in a public manner, on the scaffold, with his blood.  After the death of this renowned martyr, he was succeeded by the eminent Mr. Alexander Shields, who carried on, and maintained, the testimony, as it was stated, in all the heads and clauses thereof, continuing to preach in the fields.  On which account, he, and the people who attended his ministry, were exposed for some time longer to the fury and resentment of their enemies.  But their power, which they had so long perverted and abused, quickly came to a period.  For in a few months, God, in his righteous judgment and adorable providence, overturned that throne of iniquity on which they depended, and expelled that inhuman, cruel monster, from his tyrannical and usurped power, upon the prince of Orange’s coming over into England, in the beginning of November that same year.  But, although the Lord at this juncture, and by this means, rescued and delivered our natural and civil rights and privileges in a national way from under the oppression and bondage of anti-christian tyranny, arbitrary and absolute power, yet the Revolution, at this time, brought no real deliverance to the church of God.  But Christ’s rights,[1] formerly acquired for him by his faithful servants, lay still buried under the rubbish of that anti-christian building of Prelacy, erected on the ruins of his work in this land; and the spiritual liberties and privileges of his house remained, and do still remain under the bondage of Erastianism, supremacy, toleration, &c.  For it is well known, that although this man, Jehu-like, “destroyed Baal out of Israel, yet he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin.”