A

True and Faithful

RELATION

OF THE

SUFFERINGS

Of the REVEREND and LEARNED,
MR. ALEXANDER SHIELDS,

MINISTER of the GOSPELOCA

Written with his own Hand.

Containing an ACCOUNT of his Examinations and Imprisonment at
LONDON; His being fent down to SCOTLAND His Exa-
minations before the PRIVY COUNCIL, JUSTICIARY, LORD of the
ARTICLES, &c. His Difputations with the BISHOPS, and others:
With large and pertinent OBSERVATIONS and REFLECTIONS upon all
the Material Paflages of thefe Trials, Examinations and Difputations.

Together With

A large and Elaborate Defence of the Doctrine of RESISTANCE,
or DEFENSIVE ARMS, of the APOLOGETICAL DECLARATION, and
other HEADS of SUFFERING: As likewife a clear and full
Confutation of the OATH of ABJURATION.

Never before Published.

Pfalm LXII. 4. They only confult to cast him down from his Excellency; They
delight in Lies: They blefs with their Mouth,but they curfe inwardly. Selah.
Hoftis callidus, tarda ad Mortem Supplicia conquirens, Animas cupiebat
Chriftianorum jugulare, non Corpora. Hieronymus in Decium Imperat.

Printed in the YAR MD CC XV.
210. R. 144.

་

All Paffages relating to my Sufferings, Trials and Examinations, from the Beginning of my Imprifonment.

I'

T may feem impertinent for me, to put Pen to Paper upon such a Subject; to make any Record, or give any Reprefentation of my own Afflictions, which have been fo mean and infignificant, that they are not worth the mentioning, and fo mixed with Blots and Blemishes of Faintings and Follies, not only unfuitable, but difhonourable to the Excellency of the Caufe, that my Afflictions have been ftated upon, that it may be challenged,as a naufeating Officiousness, to blur Paper thereupon; And the Paflages have been fo many and various, and my Examinations, Conferences, Trials, fo prolix and tedious, and that after the Intervention of fo long Time fince they were past, that to offer an accurate Account of them, might incur either the Cenfure, or Sufpicion of Prevarication or Difingenuity efpecially from a Man of my Imperfections, known to be rude and unready-in Extemporary Anfwers, and of a Memory not fo exact and tenacious of Paflages, as fuch an Account would import and require: But confidering,the Intent of this Relation,is not to make it publick (which could not be interpreted a being my own Herauld, to captate Applaufe, but rather a blockish blurring of my own Blots) but only as a Menorandum for my felf, and an Information to my Intimates, concerned to know what hath past in the Tract of my Trials, that they may fympathife with me, and comfort me by their Approbation of what is Right,

B

and