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A57811 An account from the City of Chester, of a barbarous persecution inflicted upon one of the King's peaceable subjects, commonly called a Quaker. Only for his lamenting the great sin of pride, and calling the people to repentance. Rudd, Thomas, d. 1719. 1700 (1700) Wing R2171; ESTC R218477 5,333 8

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called to the Mayor for fresh Orders which he readily granted and then they whipped him until his Flesh was bruised like a Jelly * Note Punishment should not exceed the Offence so that it may be well said The tender Mercies of the Wicked are Cruelty Yet this poor Innocent Man neither moved nor shrunk at all and when they halled him away he continued in his Innocent Testimony against their ungodly and wicked doings in great Love Life and Zeal the Lord carrying him through and by his Power bore him up over all their Cruelties And it is recommended to the Serious and Christian Consideration of all that shall Read this whether these Cruel Illegal and Uncharitable Proceedings do not give just occasion for the Name of Christ to become a Scorn the Christian Religion to be Reproached and whether it doth not tend greatly to demonstrate That the Professors thereof are Degenerated and Debauched and to bring Ruine upon the Nation and a Visible Contempt of the sincere Practice of Religion and is it not a bare-faced Insolency in these Magistrates and Wickedness that ought to be restrained proceeding from a deep Insensibility thus to do And may not this tend to bring us under imminent Danger of Judgment and be an Indication of Guilt And can this be denied to be too near the Dismal Case of England And if nothing can be reasonably supposed sufficient to Remove our Guilt as is before said than some Considerable and Remarkable Reformation through all Ranks and Orders of Men in all parts of the Kingdom Ought not these things to be Addressed and Amended Considering it was Impiety Pride Voluptuousness Lewdness and Luxury with other Sins that was the Ruine of the Old World the Jews Babylonians Persians Greeks and Romans as is before noted And is it not to be Lamented that any of the Church of England her Magistrates Bishops or Priests should be found so cruelly using any that Lament the Pride and Wickedness of the People And is it not a great Indignity and Contempt offered to the Parliament's Address the King's Proclamation and the Queen's Letter against Profaness and Immorality for any Magistrates to be found thus Acting against an Honest and Innocent Man instead of putting the Laws in Execution against Profaness and Immorality Cursing Swearing Whoring and Gaming And how many hath this Mayor the Justices Bishops or Priests punished for the Evils aforesaid let the Inhabitants of Chester and their own Consciences Witness Or doth it bespeak that they do herein faithfully discharge their Oaths or that common Obligation that lies upon them And do they use their sincere Endeavours for a General Reformation Or have they a due Regard to the Special Obligations that lies upon Magistrates and Inferiour Officers according to their Nature and Trust so Barbaroufly to use a Man for Lamenting of Pride a Fore-runner of Destruction and calling People to Repentance a thing so greatly Needful and truly Christian Yet this poor Man for so doing was on the 9th Instant again Committed by Henry Lloyd aforesaid to the Northgate Prison in Chester where now he remains a Prisoner for Exhorting the People to Repentance and Amendment of Life A Copy of his Mittimus here follows To the Keeper of the North-gate or his Deputy City of Chester I have sent you Thomas Rudd a Vagrant Person that obeyeth not the Laws and disturbs at the Churches in the City of Chester Therefore in his Majesty's Name do you keep him safe in your Custody until he be delivered by Law Given under my Hand and Seal this 9th day of July 1700. Henry Lloyd Vera Copia Oh! How is the King's Name abused who approves not of such Severity we believe And yet such was the Rage and Enmity of these Men at Chester that they told He deserved to be Hanged instead of Whipping and for no other Fault but what is aforesaid if that be one Oh! That these things may be truly considered and amended for surely those that are found in such cruel Practices are not led by God's Spirit and therefore let all consider whose Children they are and what will be their Sentence and Portion hereafter if they Repent not The Lord therefore if it be his will give them Repentance and forgive them their Sins for Christ his Son's sake and bring them truly to believe in God and Jesus Christ and to walk in his Light that they may know his Blood to cleanse them from all Unrighteousness and his Spirit to Sanctifie them is the hearty desire of the Sufferer that hath been so evilly intreated by them that so they may escape the Punishment of Eternal Flames and being turned into Hell where the wicked and all that forget God shall be turned Again Excellent is the Advice in the fore-cited Book p. 27. Let our learned Rabbies the great Disputers of the World and that makes Profession of Religion but give little better account of it than by expressing a Feirce and Vncharitable Heat against those that Differ from them in some things relating to Religion but not Essential to it wherein all Men equally wife and good have I doubt never yet been fully agreed Think seriously with themselves whether they might not employ some share at least of their Parts and Zeal to much better purpose in furthering the Reformation of Mens Lives and of the Manners of the Nation by suppressing of Prophaness and Vice than by raising and keeping up with an Unchristian Temper to the manifest Injury of the Christian Religion which is an Institution of Love All Religions being I think agreed that bad Men are a scandal to the best Religion and that they cannot if they continue so be saved in any POSTSCRIPT NOTE That the Warrant for the whipping the Sufferer Thomas Rudd was sign'd by William Bennet aforesaid Mayor and Peter Newton Priest of that called St. Peters in Chester and Richard Lee an Alehouse-keeper Constable and a Copy being earnestly desired several times but could not be obtained And from his last Commitment he was discharged the 22d of the 5th Month called July 1700. So he was Prisoner in the City of Chester about Eight Weeks only for Exhorting the People to fear God and depart from Evil and calling them to Repentance and Amendment of Life and Lamenting Pride And yet this City which is said to be concerned in the Reformation of Manners and Suppressing of Vice and Immorality have thus severely Punished one that in Body and Spirit labours and prays for the good of all Men and that Holiness and Righteousness might abound in his Native Country in and among all the Inhabitants thereof And when he was Discharged did again go into the Streets of Chester to Call to Repentance and Amendment of Life and another time he went to the Cathedral where the Dean came and pushed him away and called him Coxcomb And therefore as the aforesaid Account begins with Quotations out of that Book entitled An Account of Reformation of Manners sign'd by 29 Lords 9 Bishops and most of the Judges of the Land I the Sufferer shall end this Pestscript with a Quotation out of the said Book p. 157 158. Let us not then Fellow-Christians who would be accounted faithful Soldiers of Jesus Christ Isal ●1 7 be afraid of the Reproaches and Railings of such profane and profligate Wretches but let us rejoice in them and in any other Persecution which we may undergo in so glorious a Cause Let us consider that this Life is the proper season for Service and Suffering and the next of Reward and Happiness Let the Lives and Deaths of the Martyrs and Confessors of Old be much in our Minds Let us remember that the best Christians in all Ages have been derided and contemned that our Blessed Saviour himself Isal 53.3 the Captain of our Salvation who was rejected and despised of Men hath commanded us not to be afraid of them that kill the Body Iuke 12.5 and after that have no more that they can do but to fear Him that hath power to cast into Hell and hath said That whosoever shall be ashamed of him Mark 8.28 and of his words of him also shall he be ashamed when be cometh in the Glory of his Father Mat. 5.11 with the holy Angels But that if we are Reviled and Persecuted for his sake our Reward shall be great in Heaven Thomas Rudd THE END