210 Misrepresentations in Reid’s Anecdotes of John Bunyan. 
not at all connected with if; and the 
other, if ever such a person liad been, 
still not connected with any fair object 
Mr. Reid might propose to himself. 
He says, *“* about the year 1766, the 
once celebrated THOMAS BRADBURY, 
was the pastor of a congregation that 
occupied this meeting. From some 
unseemly traits in the conduct of this 
gentleman towards a young man, whe 
was his constant companion, he was 
accused of indulging some disgraceful 
propensities, but though not legally 
convicted, he was frequently molested 
by the populace whilst preaching at 
this place, &c.”” 
Happily for the character and repu- 
tation of this “once celebrated’’ divine, 
it can be affirmed that he never was 
pastor at Zoar-street, and Mr. Wilson 
will inform Mr. Reid that Mr. Brad- 
bury was pastor successively of dissent- 
ing churches in Fetter-lane and New- 
court, Carey-street, Lincoln’s-inn-fields, 
from the year 1707, to his death, Sept. 
the 9th, 1759, im the eighty-second 
year of hisage! Perhaps Mr. Reid will 
have the goodness to inform us, how a 
man who died in 1759, in his r1GHTY- 
SECOND year, could be guilty of what 
he has imputed to him in the year 
1766 2 
The following particulars, respecting 
Mr. Bradbury, may be depended on. 
They are chiefly taken from Wilson, 
passim. 
From the earliest part of his con- 
nexion with Fetter-lane, Mr. Bradbury 
stood forth the zealous champion of 
our civil and religious liberties; for 
which he incurred the implacable ha- 
tred of the tories, who devised various 
methods of injuring him, both in his 
reputation and person. The rough- 
ness with which he handled the Jaco- 
bites excited their malice, and they 
singled him out as one of the principal 
objects of resentment. March 1, 
1709-10. Sacheverell’s high church 
mob burnt his meeting-house, and 
threatened his persou. In the trying 
period of the occasional conformity and 
the schism bills, like a bold patriot he 
risked every thing dear to him in up- 
holding the liberties of his country. 
For this, he tells us, in the preface to 
the sermons he published in 1726, he 
was ‘ lampooned in pamphlets, belied 
in newspapers, threatened by great men, 
and mobbed by those of a baser sort.” 
His distinguished courage, zeal and 
activity, in the noble cause, rendered 
him a perpetual thorn in the sides of 
[April I, 
the ministry, who left no engine unem- 
ployed to silence or ruin him. Their 
first expedient was an attempt on his 
integrity by the offer.of considerable 
preferment if he would conform ; and 
Queen Anne is said to have employed 
her secretary, Harley, to tender him a 
bishopric, but he remained inflexible. 
The jacobites finding him so, actually 
took measures for his assassination. 
The gloomy state of public affairs, 
through the intrigues in fayour of the 
Pretender, excited in all protestants 
distressing apprehensions for the safety 
of the nation; when to their unspeak- 
able joy, the storm suddenly ceased by 
the death of the queen, Sunday, Au- 
gust 1, 1714. 
That very morning while Mr. Brad- 
bury, who resided in Charter-house 
Square, was walking in Smithfield, 
pensively, his friend, Bishop Burnet, 
who resided in the same neighbour- 
hood, passing in his carriage and ob- 
serving him, called to Bradbury by 
name, and taking him into his carriage 
and continuing a drive round the place, 
inquired the cause of Bradbury’s great 
thoughtfulness. He replied, I am 
thinking whether I shall have the con- 
stancy and resolution of that noble 
company of martyrs whose ashes are 
deposited here, for I most assuredly 
expect to see similar times of violence 
and persecution; and that Z shall be 
called to suffer in a like cause. The 
bishop, equally zealous in the protes- 
tant cause, told him, he was under the 
impulse of the same sentiment, and 
added, that the queen was very ill, her 
physicians in despair, and that he was 
going to court to inform himself of the 
exact particulars. He quieted Mr. 
Bradbury’s fears by assuring him that 
he would dispatch a messenger to him 
with the earliest intelligence of the 
queen’s death, and if he should happen 
to be in the pulpit, the messenger 
should be instructed to drop a hand- 
kerchief from the gallery as a token of 
the event. It did happen so, and his 
brother, Mr. John Bradbury (Wilson 
says) made the signal. He suppressed 
his intense feelings during the sermon, 
but in his last prayer returned thanks 
to God for the deliverance of these 
kingdoms from the evil councils and 
designs of their enemies, and implored 
the divine blessing on his Majesty 
King George, and the house of Han- 
over. Then he gave out the 89th psalm, 
third part, from Patrick’s collection, 
which was strikingly appropriate. = 
is 
