Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45248
|
Forced uniformity neither Christian nor prudent Presented to those in authority whom it may concern.
|
Hutchinson, Thomas, Quaker.
|
1675
(1675)
|
Wing H3836; ESTC R217016
|
8,227
|
9
|
England and the Laws that were made against them are yet extant to be seen and the Cruelty exercised upon those Godly Men at a Place called Bangar near Wales and though they burned them confiscated their Estates And for all they used all the Cruelty Imaginable to suppress those godly Men that followed John Wickliff here in England they never could effect their Will God preserved the honest-hearted though they made many Hypocrites but the more they strove the wider and wider grew the Breach and the Lord prospered the Vpright in Heart though many of them went through the Flames of Fire yet their faithful Sufferings reached God's Witness in Peoples Hearts who hated and abhorred those Dealings and the Papists they made themselves stinck in the Nostrils of the Commonality until their Faithfulness had reached those that after came into Authority and the Romish Faction was abhorred and had lost their Interest in the Common People also and so the other came over their Heads and after the same Manner came it to pass in Bohemia and Cermany and Scotland and divers other Countries by their so vehemently striving for an Vniformity they made themselves every where almost ridiculous and so lost all and to relate the many and divers Sorts of Cruel Laws that were made to effect this would be too tedious at this Time And the most miserable suffering State of the poor oppressed consciencious People how they were Racked Torn Burned and Whipped and Starved in nasty Prisons destroyed in Life Property Rights Priviledges and Estates would also require a large Volumn to give you the Heads thereof and what hath it all tended to but to the provoaking God's Wrath and heavy Indignation upon the Heads of the Oppressors who were blinded with Blind Zeal and acted to do the Drudgery and Service of the Devil who seeks to set one Neighbour against another and kindle Strife and Hatred one against another with his manifold Devices And truly within the Remembrance of our Time and in the Dayes of our Fathers what strange Ruptures have hapen'd in the Land of our Nativity and the chief Ground sprung from the Oppressions of Mens Conscience each People as they grew up into Authority endeavour'd to set up their own Way and Form of Worship and force others and then those that were opprest bonded together to supplam the other and all or mostly under Religious Pretences Oh the most Dreadful Bloodsheds that have hapen'd Brother against Brother and nigh Kinsman against Kinsman and Neighbour against Neighbour And all hath hapen'd and come to pass by Mens Minds being alienated from the Spirit of God which shines in their own Hearts reproving them for their Evil Thoughts and Deeds which if it were but learned and Men guided by it it would lead Men to do as they would be done by and seek their Neighbours and Country's Good as their own giving to every Man as he himself would have hâ—mself the Free Liberty of his Conscience that so one Neighbour might live quietly by another And truly I might have instanced many Particulars more to you hoâ—… destructive to Nation and People Trades and Imployments those Attemâ—… and Vndertaking have proved of seeking to force an Vniformity in Matteâ—… of Religion and Worship but being perswaded in my self that if it please God you come but to a serious Consideration of those Things and cast your Eye backwards into the ancient Ages of the World to see what evil Consequences those persecuting Actions have produced you will be with us convinced in your Hearts that it is not a right Spirit that leads Men thus evilly to do to their Neighbours to destroy them in Life Liberty Property or Estate and that they are the Ministers of Anti-christ who thus would and all along have put on the Magistrates to oppress and destroy their free-born Country-Men in Life Liberty Property or Estates and all for Matters of Conscience-sake though many of them are and have been honest sober temperate and godly Livers in the midst of their Neighbours in this the Land of their Nativity surely they have never considered what Christ said to his Apostles when the Tares were grown up amongst the Wheat said they shall we pull out the Tares from amongst the Wheat and he said Nay lest therewith you pull up the Wheat also So that if you will keep those Laws in Force that oppress us for our Consciences I will assure you you will sooner and assuredly hurt those that are honest godly sober and conscientious and dare not for the very Holy Fear and Reverence they bear in their Hearts to God do that which may grieve his good Spirit then those that are loose hypocritical Dissemblers both with God and Men for those will turn every Way to save themselves and you will never get hold of them do what you can But if you do by your Laws destroy those sober godly temperate and conscientious Men that live in the midst of your Land in Life Person Estates or Property as many hundreds have been to the utter Ruin of them and their Families within these twelve years I am satisfied it will provoak God's Judgments upon this our Land yet more more Surely many of you sometimes cannot but be in a Sence of the most abominable Wickednesses that abound in this Land and you may remember that if there had been but ten Righteous Persons in Sodom God had not destroyed them that wicked Generation had been delivered from the Plagues and heavy Wrath of God for their sakes but there were not and therefore were they destroyed and the Lord doth often defer his Judgments from a Nation Kindred or People for the sake of those that live soberly godly and honestly in this present evil World And this I desire you to observe that in all or most Ages great have been the Differences amongst Men Nations and People about Religiâ—n and many both before Christ and since have been persecuting and pressing to force men to an Vniformity through divers Ages to that their Worship which then they had establishâ—d that was uppermost and in vain have men endeavoured herein for the Divisions are as many and the Rent as great as ever And do but consider how can you expect to effect that which through all these Ages and Generations is uneffected yet notwithstanding all the violent Endeavours that hitherto have been projected and put in Practice And my Souls Desire is that you might consider how many formerly have been and are like to be ruin'd in Liberty Property Estates if you continue those Laws in force Are not the very Worst sort of Livers turn'd loose upon us and have they not the Justices of Peace at command to take away our Estates in the sight of the Sun or forfeit a hundred Pound nay notwithstanding we have a Witness for us both in your Consciences and the People of the Nation that We are most of us Men of Honest Sober and Temperate Lives amongst our Neighbours in the places where we live And for your Good do I desire you would consider it lest in the Hour of Death you may have Cause to Mourn without Hope for it And truly Friends Countrymen God knows my Heart I desire your Souls real Good as my own and that not one of you may touch the Lord 's Anointed or do his Prophets any Harm for he takes it as done to himself as you may read in Mat. 25. Though I am satisfied there are many of you that do not desire to have a hand in hurting those you see live honestly and soberly and therefore from a true and real Love to your Souls was I drawn by the Lord to signifie these things to you desiring that you may mind his good Spirit that waits and long hath waited to shew Mercy on you and shews and manifests what is Good and what is Evil and leads to Do as you and we would be done by And in the late little Time of Liberty freely to exercise the Liberty of their Consciences much quieter hath the Nation been and more comfortably hath one Neighbour lived with another then when one Neighbour was forced at the Information of an Informer to spoil another in Goods Propertie and Estate disobliging Interest and Kindreds ruinating many sober Tenants Tradesmen and Freeholders And I am perswaded make as strict Laws amongst you as you please we shall never grudg you to keep the Government in your hands that are of that Perswasion and to constrain men to live a Godly Sober and Temperate Life as much as may be For that which we desire is only to pass quietly through our short Pilgrimage in this World with the free Exercise as to matter of Worship of our Consciences And so what I have here signified to you I desire to recommend to God's Holy Spirit Joh. 1. to ver 11. that John the Baptist and John the Apostle both bore Witness of was the True Light which lighteth every man which cometh and is come into the World And He came into the World but the World received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God And is that Word of Life and Grace of God Tit. 2.11 whiâ—h brings Salvation and hath plentifully appear'd to all men 17th of the 2d Month 1675. Tho. Hutchinson