THE HISTORY OF NONCONFORMITY IN PLYMOUTH. 73 
by special sermons; and on the 5th of November, 1792, Winter- 
botham preached such a sermon in How's Lane from Exodus xiii. 8, 
"Thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done 
because of that which the Lord did unto me." This he followed 
on the 18th of the same month by a sermon from Romans xiii. 12, 
1 i The night is far spent, the day is at hand : let us therefore cast 
off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." 
For these sermons he was brought to trial in the following July. 
The evidence for the Crown was wholly insufficient to sustain any 
charge ; indeed, so far as regarded the second sermon, it consisted 
entirely of the jumbled notes of one Edward Lyne, a clerk to the 
Collector of Excise, and of the random recollection of John Denby, 
a midshipman, that he agreed with Lyne. On the other hand, 
there was abundant testimony that the sermons, though political, 
were anything but seditious. Yet Winterbotham was found guilty. 
He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, two for each sermon ; 
a fine of £200, £100 for each ; and to find £900 security for his 
good behaviour for five years ; while the expenses of the trial were 
£337. But his friends at Plymouth stood by him, and after his 
release he returned to minister among them. 
While undergoing his first year's imprisonment on the state side 
of Newgate, Winterbotham published the two sermons. Careful 
and candid perusal will show that while Winterbotham was an 
ardent reformer he was no sower of sedition. He defended the 
Revolution of 1688 ; denounced the Church-and-King riots at Bir- 
mingham ; condemned religious persecution in every form and 
shape; argued that " all government originates with the people," 
that ' ' the people have a right to cashier their governors for mis- 
conduct," that they "have a right to change the form of their 
government if they think it proper so to do ;" insisted on the need 
of parliamentary, legislative, and financial reform ; and expressed 
a fervent hope for the due progress of the revolution in France. 
But he added, If " we labour under evils, we need not throw our- 
selves into a state of anarchy and confusion to obtain redress ; to 
this you should prove superior ; we want neither revolution nor 
blood." He advised his hearers to "take no doctrine on trust." 
"Persecute no man for his religious opinions, however different 
from your own. Extend with pleasure to others the liberty you 
claim for yourselves, believing a man may fill up the relative ties 
of society with honour though the dogmas of his religious creed 
