It required much effort in the minds of Puritan clergymen to brace themselves up to meet what was at hand. One prepared for the crisis by preaching to his congregation four successive Sundays from words to the Hebrews: "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Another, who had a wife and ten children--"eleven strong arguments," so he said, for conformity--remarked, that his family must live on the 6th of Matthew, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." A third, when asked what he would do with his family, replied, "Should I have as many children as that hen has chickens," pointing to one with a numerous brood, "I should not question but God would provide for them all."[363] Several of the ministers conferred or corresponded with each other. A few came to London to know the opinions of their brethren. Letters passed to and fro as fast as the post could carry them; and sheets full of arguments, questions, replies, and rejoinders, were conveyed from place to place. Stories respecting the treatment of Presbyterian Chaplains, the conduct of the Bishops at the Savoy, the debates in Convocation, and the speeches in Parliament, Sheldon's management, and Clarendon's policy, would be freely told, not always with perfect accuracy. Ministers conversed with Presbyterian Peers, and other patrons; and, it is said, that one of the former being asked by one of the latter whether he would conform, answered, "That such things were required and enjoined as he could not swallow," and he was "necessitated to march off, and sound a retreat;" whereupon His Lordship added, with a sigh, "I wish it had been otherwise; but they were resolved either to reproach you, or undo you."[364] With conference and correspondence there existed no organized confederation; each took his own ground, and pursued his own course. Many a village Vicar stood alone, and his conduct proceeded from individual conscientiousness. The ejected had nothing to strengthen and animate them, like the understanding which preceded the disruption in Scotland--nothing like the popular applause that welcomed it--nothing like the _éclat_ of the public procession from the House of Assembly in the City of Edinburgh; no ovation soothed the cast-out. The feast of St. Bartholomew became a fast; as in the Valley of Megiddon, so in Puritan England, "The land mourned, every family apart." [Sidenote: EFFECTS OF THE ACT.]