Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A54118
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Christian liberty as it was soberly desired in a letter to certain forreign states upon occasion of their late severity to several of their inhabitants, meerly for their different perswasion and practice in point of faith and worship towards God / made publick on the behalf of the present suffering dissenters within this kingdom.
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Penn, William, 1644-1718.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing P1265; ESTC R32174
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4,243
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10
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Christian Liberty As it was SOBERLY DESIRED IN A LETTER TO CERTAIN FORREIGN STATES Upon Occasion of their late Severity to several of their Inhahitants meerly for theiâ— Different Perswasion and Practice in Point of Faith and Worship towards God Made publick on the behalf of the present suffering Diffenters within this Kingdom Printed in the Year 1674. TO THE Supream Council OF THE STATES c. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is God of all the Families of the Earth incline your Hearts to Justice Mercy and Truth THe Noise of your severe Treatment of several Persons that are Inhabitants of your State reproachfully term'd QUAKERS hath reached these Parts and fill'd several with Compassion and Surprize Compassion to hear of the Miseries of Men Innocent upright against whom you have nothing to object but the pure Exercise of their Conscience to God Surprize That you a Protestant-State should employ your Civil Power to Deter Punish and grievously Afflict Men for Answering the Convictions of their Consciences and Acting according to the best of their Understandings Methinks you should not be oblivious of your own Condition in the Loyns of your Ancestors who you think with great Reason Justice strenuously advocated the Cause of Liberty of Conscience against the Popes Bulls and the Spanish Inquisition how did they Antichristian all Force on Conscience or Punishment for Non-Conformity Their own many and large Apologies and particularly their Demands at the Diets of Norimberg and Spira are pregnant Proofs in the Case and your Practice doth not lessen the Weight of their Reasons on the contrary it aggravates your Unkindness let me say Injustice Protestants and such you glory to be thought got their Name by protesting against Imposition and will you turn Imposers They condemned it and will you practise it They thought it a Mark peculiar to the Beast and can you repute it the Care of a Christian Magistracy I mean that Persons must not live under your Government unless they receive your Mark in their Forehead or Right-hand which in plainer Terms is to submit their Consciences to your Edicts and to ask your Leave What Religion they should be of Remember that Faith is the Gift of God and that What is not of Faith is Sin Nothing can be more Unreasonable then to compel Men to believe against their Belief or to trouble them for practising what they believe when it thwarts not the Moral Law of God You doubtless take your selves to be Christians and would esteem it no little Injury to be otherwise represented yet what more Unchristian then to use External Force to sway the Consciences of Men about the Exercise of Religious Worship CHRIST Jesus the Lord and Author of the Christian Religion censur'd his own Disciples that would have had Fire from Heaven to destroy those that conform'd not to what their blessed Master taught Are you surer of your Religion Are you better Christians Or have you more Christian-Authority then they that were the chosen Witnesses of Jesus However remember they call'd but for Fire from Heaven and can you kindle Fire on Earth to devour them Them I say that are of your own People meerly for their Religious Dissent from you Doubtless if that was then thought no fit Argument to induce Men to Conformity by him that was wiser then Solomon it reflects greatly upon your Modesty and Prudence that you should find out new Wayes or rather old exploded ones to effect so ill a Design Besides you do not say you know all you ought to know or that there is nothing further to be revealed have a Care therefore that you persecute not Angels by being harsh to that which you call Strange Think not ill much less speak and least of all act that which is so against what you do not perfectly understand I am well perswaded that those you inflict such severe Penalties upon mean well in what they believe to be sure much better then you think they do or else you are extremely to blame and that the Reason of their present Distance from you is not to introduce or insinuate Dangerous or Exotick Opinions but to live a Life of more Holiness Purity and Self-Denial then before They do not think that you walk up to your own Principles and have Reason to believe that the Power of Godliness is much lost among you and having long lain under a Decay and Languishing of Soul for Want of true spiritual Nourishment they have now betaken themselves to that Heavenly Gift Grace of God in themselves for Divine Satisfaction even that Holy Anointing that is able to teach them all things necessary for them to know as the Blessed Apostle speaks and they find the Joys of the Holy Ghost in so doing And I am perswaded they are not less Peaceable Sober Just and Neighbourly then formerly and altogether as consistent with the Prosperity of Civil Society and I am sure it is both found and confest among us here by some Men of Quality Learning and Virtue Further be pleased to consider with your selves that you justifie the ancient Persecutions of the Christians and first Reformers whose Superiors thought as ill of them as you do of these Men nay you show the Papists what to do in their Dominions to your own Brethren Do as you would be done by if you would have Liberty give it you know that God's Witness in your Hearts dictates this to you as an Immutable Law Could you give Faith it were more excusable for you to punish such as should resist but since that is impossible the other is unreasonable for 't is to afflict Men for not being what they can't be unless they turn Hypocrites That is the highest pitch your coercive Power can arrive at for never did it convert or preserve one Soul to God instead thereof it offers Violence upon Conscience and puts a Man either upon the Denyal of his Faith and Reason or being destroyed for acting according to them But what greater Disproportion can there be then what lyeth between the Intellect of Man and Prisons Fines and Banishments They inform no Man's Judgment resolve no Doubts convince no Understanding The Power of Perswasion is not to be found in any such Barbarous Actions no more then the Doctrine of Christianity This Course destroyes the Bodies and Estates of Men instead of saving their Souls Were they in the Wrong it would become you to use God's Weapon his Sword of the Spirit that saveth the Creature and slayeth the Evil in him This Course tends to Heart-Burnings and Destruction I am sure it is no Gospel Argument I beseech you for the sake of that Lord Jesus Christ that suffer'd so patiently for his own Religion and so sharply prohibited making other men to Suffer for theirs that you would have a Care now you exercise Power over mens Consciences My Friends Conscience is God's Throne in Man and the Power of it his Prerogative 'T is to
usurp his Authority and boldly ascend his Throne to sit Lords over it Were their Conversation Scandalous and Destructive to the Good of your State you were to be held excusable But verely no man of Mercy and Conscience can defend your Practice upon poor Men so peaceable and Inoffensive Gamaliel will rise up in Judgment against you if you persevere in this course Do not you help to fill the Catalogue of Persecutors in much Love I intreat you but as becomes Christian men true Protestants leave men to their particular Perswasions of Affairs relative of the other World which have no ill Aspect on the Affairs of this but Vice hath an evil Consequence as to both Therefore punish Vice and affect Truth and Righteousness and bend not your Civil Power to Torment Religious Dissenters but to retrive good Life lamentably lost amidst the great Pretences that are made to Religion Doubtless Magistracy was both ordained of God and elected by Men to be a Terror to Evil-doers and not to them that do well though of different Judgments You oppugn the Roman Church for assuming Infallibility to herself and yet your own Practice maketh you guilty of the same Presumption or worse For either you do exercise that Severity upon an Infallible Knowledge or you do not if you do you take that to your selves your Principles deny to any Church whatever which is a Contradiction if you do not you punish People for not conforming to what you your selves deny any Certainty about And how do you know but you compel them to that which is false as well as that which is true Verely this Dilemma is not easily avoided as well as that this inhuman Practice will stain your Profession infame your Government and bring a Blot upon your Posterity Remember that they are Men as well as your selves born free and have equal Plea to Natural and Civil common Priviledges with your selves The different Perswasion of their Consciences about Things relating to another Life can no wayes render them unfit for this it neither Unmans nor Uncivilizes them They have the same Right to their Liberty and Property as ever having by no Practice of theirs in the least forfeited any of those human Advantages the Great Charters of Nature and Scripture have conferr'd upon them And the Opulency of your Neighbours and Prosperity of their Affairs prove to you that Indulgence is not inconsistent with Policy howbeit you have now tryed the Sincerity of their Procedure by what you have already inflicted and they sustained Let the Time past suffice and make them not Sacrifices for their conscientious Constancy If they are in the Wrong 't is more then they know Will you persecute Men for being what they must be if they will be true to themselves this were great Violence rather Commiserate then thus violently Compel them I beseech you seek some cheaper Way to accommodate your selves then by their Destruction who are so very remote from seeking yours Oh! the Day will come wherein one Act of Tenderness about Matters of Conscience shall find a better Reward then all the Severity by which Men use to propagate their Perswasions in the World and there is great Reason for it since the one flows from the Saviour the other from the Destroyer of Men. In fine Let your Moderation be known unto all Men for the Lord is at hnad whose Reward it with him and he will recompence every Man Family State Kingdom and Empire according to the Nature of their Works committed in this mortal Body at whose Bar it shall never be laid to your Charge that out of Fear of taking God's Office out of his Hands and being unmerciful to tender Consciences you admitted Men of differing Judgments to dwell quietly among you truly you cannot be too tender in this Point Imitate the God of Nature and Grace by being propitious to all his Sun shineth on all his Rain falls on all he gives Life and Being to all his Grace visits all and in Times of Ignorance he winketh And though such you may repute ours I hope you cannot think you wink at it who make such broad Tokens of your Displeasure Oh! how forbearing and merciful is he towards you Have you so lately escaped the Wrath of Enemies and can you already thus sharply treat your Friends Had he enter'd into Judgment with you what had become of you Let his Goodness to you prevail with you to express Clemency to others that so the Great God of the whole Earth even the God of the Spirits of all Flesh who respects not the Persons of the Rich Poor or Powerful in Judgment may show you Mercy in the day of his Righteous Judgments Ameâ— London the 14 th December 1674. * Our Account sayes Some were cruelly beaten by Order others Banished some put in a Dungeon and fed with Bread and Water only several Fin'd greater sums of Money it is thought then they had to pay * And Property which they repute themselves Guardians of is hereby lost