A LETTER From a MINISTER of the CHURCH of ENGLAND, Communicated to the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR RELATING TO Thomas White, alias Whitebread, Who was lately Executed for HIGH-TREASON.

SIR,

IN Answer to your Request in two several Letters of yours to your Brother, that Gentleman you mentioned viz White, alias Whitebread (more than twenty years ago)came to Oxford under pretence of a Jew converted by some Eminent Divine of the Presbyterian way in London. But in Oxford he pre­tended a farther light by joyning with, and hearing at the several Churches and Sermons of Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Dr. Owen, and some others of the Independent or Congregational way; but not sredfast there long, (pretending the Apostles; Rule to try all things), he fell to the Anabaptists, and then to the Quakers, amongst whom he challenges Dr. Owen, and several others for their Prin­ciples, in a Letter written in several Languages, so Learnedly, that it was thought worthy of consideration of the Learned Convocation there, by whom he was censured as a Jesuit, or some other Popish Seminarist; and thereupon Imprisoned in the Castle-Prison there, where he pretended a Distraction, and personated the Mad-man so exactly, that in few days some Friends of his procured his Liberty. I saw him several times running up and down the Streets, with his Hat under his Arm full of Stones, throwing at every small Bird he saw; but ere long I met him at a Papist-house, where I heard him discourse very gravely, learndly, and discreetly, where I got not only an acquaintance with him, but familiarity, insomuch that several times in change of Habit he came to visit me, and several other young Scholars in Magdalon-Colledg: but at length being again suspected and like to be apprehended, he got privately away for London; I brought him five Miles of his way, and so left him to his designs. In six Months after, business called me to London, where after a day or two I heard a Report of a famous Preacher amongst the Quakers, near Charing-Cross and the same day met the same Gentle­man (then so much famed) going to speak, in an old-fashioned Pincked Fustian-Jerkin, and clouted shooes, and Breeches faced with leather, and a Carters Whip in his hand, altogether disguised from my knowledg of him, but he knew me, and spake with me, and renewed our acquaintance. At present he went about his intended work, and the next day came to my Quarters in a neat habit of a London-Minister, and carried me to his Lodg­ings within the Precincts of the Middle-Temple, where I had a good Entertainment, and a view of several strange Habits, in which he disguised himself to the several sorts of people he insinuated himself into; I saw also his Orders from the Roman Court, and an Instrument wherein he was assured of, and ordered to receive of certain Merchants a Hundred Pound Per Annum, besides an yearly Pension of Eighty Pound Per Annum from his Father. I am sure he pretended he was born at Wittenberg, his Father name John White, and in his Writing he himself was stiled Johannes de Albo by the Court of Rome. He was both Jesuit and Priest in Orders; I went with him by Water and visited some Ships; and in one house in Southwark he Celebrated the Mass in the Popish mode to more than forty ; the same day we visited several Presbyterians and others, and I continued in his Company by the space of a Month, when he was apprehended, and by a speci;al Order from the then Protector Imprisoned in the Tower of London, where I endeavoured, but was not admitted to visit him. Two years after I under­stood by a friend of mine and his, that he was freed from his durance, within the space of six Months, and with­in these four or five years (as far as my friend and I could judg) tampering much with Independents in and a­bout London; and was seen several times by a friend of mine at Dr. Manton's private Lectures in or near the Lord Wharton's House, still known by the name of John White. He spake as good English as any Native, and knew all Cities, Towns, Villages, Hamlets, (in a manner) in all or most part of England.

SIR, This, is the sum of the Relation I made to your Friend : I bless God I was never noosed in his snare, but rather confirmed in our Christian Principl [...]in which I pray God continue stedfast both you and

Your Loving Friend,

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