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St . Paul ' s Cathedral , and the question , Whether Jesus ^ Christ be the Most High or Almighty God . The time being come , they appeared , but Griffin being put to it for want of the true way of argumentizing , the disputation was
deferred to another day . Whereupon Griffin , being conscious to himself that he was not able to grapple with Btddle , he and his party * brought it so to pass , that upon report of mote blasphemies uttered by Biddle , he vras , by command from Oliver the Protector ,
seized , on the 3 rd of July , ( being the day , before they were to make an end of the disputation , ) l 65 $ > and forthwith committed prisoner to the Poultry Compter . Soon after , being translated to Newgate prison , he suffered more misery ,
was brought to a public trial for his life * at the Sessions-house , in the Old Bailey , upon the obsolete and abrogated ordinance , called the Draconic Ordinance , against blasphemy and heresy , of May the 2 nd , l 648 . f To the indictment hereupon , he prays counsel might be allowed to him , to plead the
illegality of it ; which being denied him by the judges , and the sentence of a mute threatened , he at length gave into court his exceptions , engrossed in parchment , and with much struggling , had counsel allowed him . But Oliver the Protector , well knowing it was not for the interest of his government either to have him
condemned or absolved , took him out of the hands of the law , caused him to be detained in prison , with intentions to bestow him elsewhere . At length , several prime persons of the Anabaptistical party remaining in
London , ( some of whom , as it is said , had entertained his opinions , ) drawing up a petition in his behalf , in the month of September , 1655 , presented it to Oliver , to obtain his mercy towards him under pretence of liberty of conscience , t On the 28 th of the
* Among * U J . Btddle ' s inveterate and fiery adversaries , " there were . " especially toune booksellers . " Short Account } p . 7 . f See p . 348 , and Note f ; t "On the one hand , the Presbyterians , AUd all enemies to liberty of religion , ( of which there appeared a . gr ^ at number at his , trial , ) would be offended at his release ; andall that were , for liberty , ( among- whom many congregations of Anatoaptists espe-
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same month , they were , to receive an answer to it ; but before the said Oliver gave one , the petition was read in the hearing of divers of them , under whose hands it had been presented ; which
being done , many of them did disown it , as being altered both in the matter and title of , since they signed it , and so looked upon it as 3 forged thing . They then desired that the original , which they had signed , might be produced , but Jeremiah Ives and some
other of the contrivers and presenters of it , were not able to do , nor had any thing to say in excuse of so foul a miscarriage . However , his Highness , Oliver , did then open before them " the great evil of such a practice , " and also , ** how inconsistent it was for
them , who professed td be members of the church of Christ , and to worship him with the worship due to God , to give any countenance to one who reproached themselves , and all the Christian churches in the world , as being guilty of idolatry ; " shewing also , 4 C that if it be true which Biddle
holds , viz . that Jesus Christ is but a creature , then all those that worship him , with the worship due to God , are idolaters , and that the maintainers of that opinion of BiddJe , are guilty of great blasphemy against Christ , who is God equal with the Father , " &c .
Afterwards the petitioners being dis- missed , and Biddle understanding his doom , he wrote a letter to Oliver , that he would be pleased to admit him into his presence , for the hearing of his case . But being denied , and Oliver continually baited bv Presbyterian and
Independent ministers , to have him banished , he , the said Biddle , as b reviver of the blasphemous opinion owned by Arius , was removed from Newgate to Plymouth , October- the 10 th , 1655 , in order to his
transportation to the isle of Scilly , beyond the Land ' s End in Cornwall , there to re ? main in St . Mary * Castle ,, in close custody during life ; where for the present we will leave him , and , in the mean time , tell you , that his Twofold
Caci ^ lly , ) had petitioned the Protector for his discharge , from prosecution upon that ordinance , by which all their liberties yvere threatened and condemned , and the capital article of the Protector ' s government infringed . " Short Accountfp . & See p . 413 , Note ( t ) . .
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415 £ ifh of John Middle , hy Anthony Wood . S 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/8/
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