education if it were no more has fixt a strong apprehension of the reasonablenesse of their cause it would appeare severe if not unreasonable to force them by penalties to any new way or altogether restraine them from continuing in their old Perswasions of that kinde as by degrees they sinke into the Heart so gently by degrees they are to be removed Since they seriously and constantly professe that after all their Prayers to God and diligent reading of his Word they cannot finde the least satisfaction in any other Religion but that their Soules enjoy a perfect peace and serenity in their owne it seemes very unsuitable to Christian Charity either to compell them to a Religion Where their Consciences cannot live in repose or restrain them from a Religion wherein onely they finde comfort here and hope salvation hereafter Since all the signes and Markes of tender Consciences are most apparently discernable in Roman Catholiques they cannot but hope the Charity and indulgence universally held forth to tender Consciences will not universally bee denied to them they all suffer for their Consciences an impoverisht and afflicted Life and many of them a cruell and ignominious death and can any rationall and unpassionate person see so much suffering for Conscience and say the Sufferers have no Conscience As for the Religion it allowes no voyce or licenciousnesse against the Morall Law the proper subject of the Magistrates care but strictly requires a Religious severity against the corrupt inclinations of Nature and a Conscientious observance both of the Law of God and Man Not one of all the Nation how different soever in Religion how disaffected soever to the quiet of this Common-wealth but enjoyes by ' its allowance and protection a perfect quiet for his Conscience onely the Roman Catholiques though they have generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement are singled out to misery and ruin meerly upon the account of Religion Yet cannot all the heavy pressures they have so long endured make them lay down their hopes to be at last relieved especially from those who professe themselves not onely bound by the light of Nature to deale with others as they would be dealt with themselves but by the Law of Grace even to render good for evill The causes of imposing penalties upon Catholiques being now wholly ceased they humbly hope it cannot be thought too great a boldnesse in their duty to Petition a readmittance to the Common Rights of free borne English men since there is neither any Catholique Competitour for the Crown nor any such detestable Conspiracy as some few of their Religion have beene formerly guilty of So that there remaines no other charge but that of Conscience to exclude them from the full enjoyment of their privileges of their Native Country No question can bee made of the fidelity of their Engagement who esteeme the keeping of an Oath sacred and what stronger testimony can be given to the World than that of Catholiques in freely offering up their Estates to seizure and their persons to all the inconveniencies of a persecuted Life rather than against their Consciences dissemblingly to sweare one Oath for could they with the Popes dispensation or their owne mentall reservation which they are charg'd to bee still furnisht with for their own advantage abjure the doctrin they believe there remaines nothing now to distinguish them into that sad and miserable condition they are reduced to Were all burthens taken off from the Consciences of such as shall engage to live peaceably and unoffensively in their Country this Nation would rather improve its security at home since coercency in matter of beliefe has alwayes beene the chiefe cause of our troubles And for abroad the same reason that begets a conceipt of danger from the Catholiques correspondence with Forraign Princes will convince a benefit if by mercy they be obliged to employ their credit in the service of their Benefactors Reasons why Composition is preferrable before Sale AND now wee beg pardon humbly to offer up to the consideration and Compassion of the indifferent the most afflicted condition of many Catholiques whose Lands are now designed to bee sold for their Delinquency Most of which in the beginning of the late Warre seeing themselves unprotected by the Parliament and expos'd to the plunder of the then Souldiery fled into the Kings Garrisons to save their owne lives without taking up Armes to offend others And even they who actually engaged for the King the sole disposall of all penall Lawes being in his power were owners both of their Lives and Fortunes meerly at his pleasure and yet notwithstanding so great a Plea for their excuse as the supreme Law of self-preservation they are all ready humbly to submit to Composition A proceeding which they hope will be condiscended unto since it is as well apparently more beneficiall to the State as less destructive to the compounders For After all just Claimes and true Debts allowed and the vast expences of Surveyours and other Officers deducted the cleere profit that arises upon Sale is by experience found to come farre short of what was expected And this after a tedious controversy about the allowance of incumbrances very chargeable to the Suitors and altogether unprofitable to the Commonwealth Besides Catholiques are generally Tenants onely for Life and as generally subject before the late troubles to very many Engagements really and unavoidably charged upon their Estates and unlesse such incumbrances be allowed thousands of well affected People will be disappointed of their justs debts Whereas by seting Rules for Composion a greater summe may bee raised and every one immediately bring his Money into the publique Treasury without any further Charges Delay or Trouble either to the Common-Wealth or Compounders The Compounders will have a stronger Obligation to live quietly hereafter both by the fine they part with and the Estate they retaine advancing so much to purchase their Peace and having still something to lose if they breake it The State will by this shew to all the World that they seek onely the security of the Government establisht and not the ruin or utter extirpation of any private Family These Motives and Reasons I have both seriously thought upon in my owne spirit and often conferred about with others and after all my endeavours I finde them so reasonable and satisfactory that I confesse they have not onely moved my Bowells to a compassion of such sufferers but truly even to a zeal of their reliefe so far I mean as that they who neither disturbe the publick Peace of the Commonwealth nor refuse their Contributions to maintaine it should no longer be compelled by Oathes and Sequestrations to act against their consciences Besides these diligences of late used by the Papists in order to the obtainment of reliefe from the Committee for Regulation of the Lawes they prepared also certaine Proposalls with intent as I understand to present them to the Committee for
such Papists as should disturb the publike peace Many and wonderfull are the deliverances which our good God has dispensed to his servants in reward of this their inclination to mercifulnesse yet amongst all the glorious appearances of the Lord for his people none can be found more eminent than the renowned victory over that rigid and severe Kirk-army of the Scots Septemb. 1650. who declining the mild counsell of our Saviour to possesse their Souls with patience deservedly lost their lives by violence a fatal argument deciding manifestly this very controversie in favour of meeknesse where the maintainers of compulsion were no lesse ingeniously than cruelly confuted whilest assuming to themselves a Power to force our souls they could not so much as defend their own bodies In memory of which great Salvation from the pride and fury of the Presbyterian Priesthood the Parliament as a new Covenant of Thanksgiving for so seasonable a mercy in the same moneth enacted an abolishment of divers rigorous and penal Statutes contrived on purpose by the haughty Prelats to break the hearts of those whose consciences they â—ould not bend which one Act has won more â—earts to acknowledge and love the authority of the Parliament than all their stupendious victories have â—rced bodies to confesse and fear their Power and 〈◊〉 it be not checked by limitations and partiality in â—e execution will render them absolute Masters of â—ll that understand their own felicity for what can 〈◊〉 imagined more welcâ—me to a Christian people â—ewly delivered from an Antichristian bondage than 〈◊〉 see themselves infranchised into a holy Liberty of â—oceeding sincerely according to their conscienâ—s in the Worship of their God Wherefore as we are full of joy for so excellent an Act by which as the Apostle saith we are called unto Liberty so we are full of hopes to be perfectly happy by the free and universall observation therof without the least self-interest or respect of persons being so conformable to the constant received Maximes and solemn deliberate profession of the Parliament as appears by the Declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch Papers 4. Mar. 1647. where folio 43 the Discipline of Ecclesiasticall Censures and all other punishments for matters of Religion are disclaimed as grounded upon Popish and Prelaticall Principles not to be revived under any image or 〈◊〉 whatsoever and a little after folio 63. they proceed in the same sense we shall not be afraid at the day of Iudgment that we have been more forward to set Christ aâ— liberty than to cast him in prison it being better in our opinion where the case is not very clear to leave God to deal against many errours than to use his authority for the suppressiâ—g of one truth the weapons of fasting and prayer being both more Christian and more available in such cases than those of force and violence and yeâ— more fully if possible in another Declaration in answer to the letters of the Scots Commissioners 17 Februâ— 1648. As for the truth and power of Religion it being 〈◊〉 thing intrinsecall between God and the Soul and the matters of Faith in the Gospel being 〈◊〉 â—s no natural light doth reach unto we conceive there is no human power of coercion thereunto nor to restrain men from beâ—lieving what God suffers their judgements to be perswaâ—ded of Words of that solid weight and pretious value as deserve to be ingraven with letters of gold and religiâ—ously observed for ever by all tender consciences as aâ— Oracle Conformable to the aforesaid Principles is that exâ—cellent Doctrine and advise set down by Mr. Parker anâ— his Brethren in their Examen of the late Synods Confession of Faith in these words pag. 128. Liberty of Conscience may be infringed first by seeking violent means to alter conscientious mens judgements and their present perswasion for it is the office of him who is the Lord of conscience to lighten and change mens minds when and how he pleaseth Phil. 3. 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thuâ— minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you 2. By inciting another by like forcible means to will and to Act against his Conscience and much more by imprisonment mulcts terrours or threats Rom. 14. 15 20 21. For this is to make him destroy his Soul vers. 20. 23. 3. We may not disturb the peace of mens Consciences or make their hearts sad with our invectives or menacing them causlesly with terrours from the Lord Ezechiel 13. 32. Because with lies ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad c. And in page 230. thus But we would not have you assume to your selves 〈◊〉 attribute unto others a Power to Lord it over mens Faith and Consciences especially when men walk obediently towards those that are in places of Rule and Authority and live a godly sober honest peaceable and unblameable life If men will do wickedly and defend a liberty in Christ so to do let them be lyable to the Sword of Justice for so doing But far be it from us so much as by example to draw a weak Brother a Saint and fellow servant of the Lord whom no man can accuse but for his differing judgment to do any thing against Conscience whereby he should â—ondemn himself as the Apostle speaks Rom. 14. How much more ought Governours to be tender and abstemious in the use of violent and coercive means to precipitate men into such perillous and destructive courses All authority is given of God for mens welfare and much more for the preservation and not the destruction of the soul By these considerations I conceive is clearly domonstrated the freedome of a Christian Soul in heâ— commerce for heaven which since the mercifull bounty of God holds forth indifferently to all the cruell covetousnes of man ought not to obstruct to any surely it is the worst of Monopolies to lay impositions upon the way to Paradiâ—e Christ by his death removed the Angel that chased from thence our first parents and shall any of us take the Flaming Sword into our hands to sheath it in the bowels of a poor Pilgrim who with a sincere heart travailes to the same Country only because he goes noâ— in our company In my Fathers house are many Mansions saies Christ why may there not be as many paths that lead to them If they that have no Law shall be judged without the Law â—ertainly they that unblameably mistake the Law shall be tryed according to those Expositions which appeared unto them to be the meaning of the Law-giver for the sense is the Law and not the letter specially having so gratious a Iudge who hath already declared by his Apostle 2 Cor. 8. If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Wherefore let us not by a suddain violence break into
pieces the consciences of our brethren but mildly thaâ— them into a cordial and ingenuous unity that righteousnes and peace may flow together in the same chanel and not as broken Ice dash one against another let us patiently expect till the Lord be pleased to take off the veil from their hearts that are otherwise minded and not by forcing their judgements add to their veil of ignorance a worser of hypocrisie it being now a common â—â—eriment that generally the issue of compulsionary and forced conformity closes in this to make some few counterfeit Protestants and a great many reall Atheists whence it is clearly concluded that the onely true means of winning souls to God is the Gospellary way of meeknesse and perswasion and indeed it may worthily be esteemed the prime miracle of Christianity that a person so humble as our Saviour appeared without the help of Kings and Princes without the enchanting words of mans wisdome without the affrighting threats of fines imprisonments and deaths though all these were absolutely subject to his pleasure should conquer Powers and Principalities should out-charm the Magick of humane eloquence and by the admirable successe of his mildnes condemn all those politique Religions that confesse their own crazines by using cruelty to support them whereas to reduce the disobedient only with the spirit of gentleness and admonition or at most desertion argues indeed a Divinity in the Author and a Purity in the Ordinance and here we may fitly apply the words of our Lord John 14. If it had been otherwise I would have told you If the way of planting my Faith had been by imposing penalties on the hearers and not rather by exposing the Preachers thereof to dangers I would have told you If the meanes of preserving Religion had been by watering it with the bloud of refusers to embrace it rather than of those that sought to propagate it I would have told you either by my example all the world being in the power of my Deity or by my doctrine all justifiable proceedings concerning the government of my Flock being derived from the warrant of my Word Thus we see our gracious Law-maker faithfull and coustant in his own Principles The Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Thus we see our own duty to learn of him for he is meek and humble of heart let us not therefore judge one another any more but use our judgement rather in this that no man put an occasion to fall or a stumbling block before his brother Rom. 14. 13. Let us alwaies remember the advertisment which the beloved Disciple gives to all his fellow-servants of the Lord Christ John 13. 10. The servant is not greater than his Lord If you know these things happy are you if you doe them Of tender Consciences THese few unpolisht lines which I here present for incouragement of tenderness I desire may not be strechd to draw in a wild and extravagant licentiousnes since they aim no farther than to hold up a Liberty to such only as professe Christ and walk before the Lord in the integrity of their heart who by the following marks are easily discernable from all those that for their blasphemies in Doctrines and debauchery in manners are worthily excluded from the benefit of this Indulgence Supposing first as confest by all understanding men that tendernesse of conscience is not the same thing with truth of judgement else there could be but one only kind because truth is but one but it signifies a proceeding bona fide without sinister respects or dissimulation seeking before all things to know God and fearing above all things to offend him And secondly since in our enquiry to whom belongâ— so honorable a title we cannot pierce into the inward thoughts of men we must give sentence as they appear to us which rule in cases of this quality is in it self sufficiently certain however 't is the onely means God hath allowed our nature to guide her resolutions in the judging of others The signes then of tender Consciences are these If they lead regular vertuous and peacable lives If their Opinions be not justly accusable of self-interest or licentiousnesse but rather require of them a prudent and religious severity against the inclinations of corrupted nature If their judgements be steddy not fann'd to a new sense with every breath of wind If they continue in the same perswasions at their death which is no time for dissembling at least we ought to judge so If they not only die in their Faith but for it not only give away good part of their estates charitably but suffer all to be taken away patiently and all this for Christs sake or to speak more closely for that which they believe to be his will and commandment no higher testimony of a true and real sincerity can possibly be given or easily imagined and whosoever doubts after such evidence chiefly if many concur in the same way deserves to be condemned as the most passionate malicious and uncharitable person in the world for though one man may value his fancy above his life or estate yet it is very neer an absolute impossibility that many especially if they be discreet and rational in other negotiations should agree to undo themselves for a meer conceit did not they seriously believe it more imports them to keep their Faith than â—ole their Fortunes By these rules we may easily conclude the admission of those pious and religious persons who were imprisoned and persecuted by the late Prelates into the number of tender Consciences as also those precious servants of the Lord who by a voluntary banishment left their friends and country to plant the liberty of the Gospel amongst the savage Heathens of America Whilst I was finishing these lines aworthy friend of mine came to honour me with the civility of a visit to whom reading these last two or three confiderations he told me that as he believed the Characters I had given of a â—ender Conscience were most evidently true and to all unbaised-minds perfectly satisfactory yet they were appliable to a sort of people in this Nation whose being discountenanced is thought so profitable to the State and so pleasing to a certain froward part of the Ministery that he feared my Reasons might encounter some opposition unlesse they met with very ingenuous and dis-interessed Readers plainly telling me that the measures I had cut out for tender Consciences would fit the Papists as well as if they had been made for them For who live more peaceably with their neighbors says he who deal more justly with all men than they who are more constant in their Religion and more scrupulous in the observances of their Law than they who suffer for their Faith more than they nay at this time who besides them They submit their understandings to the definitions of their Church and their wills to the obedience of its Discipline in Fasting Confession and many other
maintenance That the Petitioner being a Recusant did in the time of the late war continue at his own house as long as he could without apparent danger of his life but considering how obnoxious even the most peaceable of his Religion were to be affronted and ruined by the dayly mischeifs they received from some disorderly souldiers and especially seeing one of his neighbours a Recusant slain at his own door the Petitioner did then and not before fly for protection to a Garison of the late Kings without acting any thing in the least kind against the Parliament And therefore humbly prayed he might have a fifth of his estate the arrears allowed him to buy bread But it not appearing to the Commissioners that he had wife or Children their answer was they had not power to grant him any releef Nor do I believe this mans case to be singular For I am well satisfied that a great part of those Papists who are sequestred as absolute delinquents were never in actuall arms against the Parliament but onely fled to the enemies Garrisons for shelter yet no qualification or difference in punishment is hitherto allowed them which would bee to my understanding very just and reasonable Since whoever did observe the fury and rage of most of our common souldiers at the begining of the late troubles against many of that party will easily conclude the Papists had reason to distrust their own personall security amongst them And for instance I remember an officer of my acquaintance under the Earl of Manchester told me that at their taking of Lincoln from the Cavaleers in the year 1644 he was an eye witnesse of this Tragedy The next day after the Town was taken some of our common souldiers in cold bloud meeting with Mr. Price of Washingley in Huntingtonâ—hire a Papist asked him Art thou Price the Papist I am said he Price the Roman Catholick whereupon one of them immediately shot him dead In the same month of March there happned at this Hall a very hard case which was of a maid-servant whose name I do not remember but her Petition was to this effect That her Father and Mother both dyed when she was but 16 years of age and being very poor they left the Petitioner only some old clothes and a little household-stuff in all not above 5. or 6. pounds after whose death of Petitioner being an Orphan betook her self to service and having served seventeen yeares for the annuall wages of 7 Nobles the Petitioner had by her frugaliy increased her small patrimony to 20 l. which being plac'd in the hands of A. B. and of late discovered to be the Petitioners money and the Petitioner a Recusant She humbly prayd that they would please to take the sad and disconsolate condition of a poor Orphan into their charitable consideration whereby the extremity of the Law might be qualified to so mercifull a temper that she might not be utterly ruind by losing in a moment for her Conscience what she had been so long in gathering by the sweat of her browes But the Commissioners though perhaps other wise willing concluded they had not power to give her any releef more than the bare thirds unlesse she would take the Oath of Abjuration A thing as far at least above her understanding as it can be against her Conscience If it be unreasonable as many wel-affected seem to urge that the Priests and Ministers who do or at least should perform some spirituall offices for the good of the Soul should tyth a tenth part of the husband-mans labour How much more unreasonable is it that a poor silly maid-servant should thus meerly upon the account of Conscience be sequestred of two thirds of that which by many yeares labour she had gained and reserved as a suport against the necessities of old age On the 16th of Aprill 1652. The Case of Mistris Church of Essex a Recusant was heard whose Petition spake to this effect That her late husband in his life time setled a lease of Muck-hall or such like name in Essex of considerable value upon her in lieu of joincture for divers years yet in being and was held of the late Dean and Chapter of Pauls That Alderman Andrews or Mr. Nathaniel his son had bought the reversion of those lands at Gurney house and had since taken a lease for 7 years of the Commissioners for Sequestration in Essex of the whole present possession without the Petitioners consent or knowledge and without any regard to her thirds And that the said Mr. Andrewes having now possession of the whole estate had demolish'd the Petitioners Mansion house and did refuse to pay the Petitioner her Thirds whereby she was driven to a necessity of wanting bread being a distressed and friendlesse widdow of almost 80 years of Age She therefore prayd her thirds and the arreares and that the said lease might be annulled c. The first was charitably granted but as to the Lease and what her thirds should be she was left to the Mercy of Mr. Andrews who I fear does forget what the Father of Mercyes sayes in Ieremy 22. 3. Execute judgment and righteousnesse and deliver the spoyled out of the hands of the oppressour and doe no wrong 〈◊〉 no violence to the stranger and fatherlesse and widdow c. And in Matt. 23. 14. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites For ye devour widdowes houses and for a pretence make long prayer Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation That which in this case did most exact my observation was That Mr. Andrews a person of quality should make use of his power against a poor widow and should be present and openly avow the taking of her estate over her head with so little regard to the thirds which is allowed her by the Act of Parl. and so much to his own benefit without which t is like he would not have taken it and with which the Petitioner must needs suffer From Haberdashers hall give me leave to make a step into Morefields where on the 19 of May 1650 being the Lords day Rich. Ledsam and one Leaâ—â—eater two Pursuivants apprehended Robert Segar a poor old decrepit man upon a suspition and t was but a suspition that he had been at the Spanish Embassadors at Masse upon this bare surmise the poor man was searched and in his pockets they found an old Prayer Book whereupon he was carried before a justice of peace and committed to the Galehouse at Westminster where he lay in the Common Gaol till the quarter Sessions in Ianuary 1651 beign full 20 moneths without any discharge or proceedings against him and at that Sessions was acquitted by proclamation through the mercy of Justice Scobell but was deteyned Prisoner untill April 1652 by Mr. Weeks the keeper of the prison for the rent of his lodging for which the said keeper demanded 14 pence a week besides fees and yet as I am credibly inform'd the old man lay on the boards
propagation of the Gospell but being called into the Country by an urgent and importunate occasion I am disabled to give any farther account concerning their Proposalls not knowing either how they were accepted or indeed whether they were actually offered and therefore can onely furnish you with a faithfull Copy of the Paper it selfe To the Honourable the Committee for Propagation of the Gospell The humble Proposals of the Roman Catholicks 1. SInce all compulsion upon the Conscience is clearly against the Principles both of Parliament and Army as appearâ—â— by the Parliamentâ—Declaration in Answer to the Scotch Commissioners 17. Feb. 1648. in these words As for the truth and power of Religion it being a thing intrinsecall betweene God and the Soule and the matters of Faith in the Gospell such as no naturall light can reach wee conceive there is no humane Power of coercion thereunto nor to restraine men from believing what God suffers their judgement to bee perswaded of Among the Proposals of the Army 1. Aug. 1647. This was one That all coercive power and all civill penalties for non-formity be wholly repealed and some other provision made against such Papists as should disturb the publick Peace And since by the Experience of Germany Poland Switzerland Holland France c. The Consistency of diverse Religions under one Government is evidently proved aswell where the Protestant commands the Roman Catholick as where the Roman Catholick commands the Protestant It is humbly offered That no penalty be imposed upon any professing the Gospell of CHRIST meerly for dâ—fference of judgement in matters of Religion 2. The publike use of all Churches and the entire benefit of Church-endowments being wholly submitted to the disposure of the State It is humbly offered That no person believing in Christ Jesus and living peaceably and unoffensively be by any penalty restrained from the quiet exercise of his Conscience in his private House observing therein such Rules as the State shall think fit to appoint for preservation of the publike Peace A practice which by long experience in Holland is found both satisfactory to the people and secure to the Governours of the Common wealth 3. Since the Law of God is so far from allowing any penall sentence to be grounded upon the enforced Oath of the party that it expresly forbids any offence whatsoever to be tryed by the single testimony of one witness Deut. 19. 15. Mat. 18. 16. It is humbly proposed That an Oath be exacted of any person compelling him under forfeiture of Life Liberty or Estate to swear against his Conscience or to accuse and condemn himself especially in matters that concrn his inward belief 4. Since in all Religions there are still found some scandalous livers and that our Saviour pronounces the Woe against him only by whom the scandall comes Mat. 18. 7. Luke 17. 1. It is humbly proposed That whoever shall offend against the Order of so mild and Christian a settlement may be severely censured but that others though of the same judgement in Religion be no farther made subject to the punishment than proved guilty of the crime In stead of my opinion concerning these foure Proposalls of the Papists because to my sense they carry in themselves both their owne evidence and justification I shall beg the Readers permission to set down a particular conceit which I have often observed to be very well relisht by all that have examined it That doubtles there is no way more suitable to the first Principles of all Reformed Churches no way so probable to satisfie all Consciences as not to impose any other Obligation for proof of conformity than this profession to believe the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and to live according to the Precepts plainly contained therein this acknowledgement to bee exprest in generall tearms without descending minutely to particular questions which have certainly been the chiefe cause of so many Controversies and Divisions in the World And now I humbly appeale to the honorable and religious Committee for propagation of the Gospell Whether the sweet Spirit of the Lord Christ who gave his Apostles no further power than to relinquish such as refused to heare them be reconcilable to the former practices of the high Commissioners or the present practices of our Sequestrators Whether when the great Apostle Paul prescribes the Servants of the Lord to forbear and in meeknesse instruct those that are contrary minded hee should bee thus cros-interpreted that the Estates of those who are contrary minded be first secured or forborne and then after a time quite taken away to instruct them in meeknesse or how to bear patiently the losse of the vain and transitory riches of this World And now I humbly appeale to the honorable and learned Committee for regulation of the Law whether since all those penalties which the rigorous humours of former Ages have under pretence of zeal imposed upon the Conscience are either by disuse forgotten or by express Act of Parliament revoked the Papists alone should still be continued under the same severities nay their burthens encreased by the strange method of the new proceedings towards them their Consciences being now not onely punishable in the Common way of indictment but compellable even to accuse themselves by the new Presbyterian Oath of Abjuration against the known Principles of the ancient and reverend Laws of this Land And now with an humble confidence I appeale to the renowned Parliament of the Common-wealth of England whether in this generall Goal-delivery of the Conscience from the tyranny and oppression of the Prelates the consciences of Papists alone ought still to be kept in prison Whether when all the fetters which the Rigid Kirkesmen had bought up in Scotland are broken in pieces just as they were locking them fast about our Consciences in England the Consciences of Papists alone ought still to bee continued in chains Whether when all the Societies professing Christ Iesus and living obediently to the Magistrate and peaceably one with another are protected in the quiet and unoffensive exercise of their Consciences the Papists alone should be forced under the penalty of so great a ruine not only to professe but swear against their Consciences A course that in a short time will unavoidably bring them either to absolute beggery or which is worse to hypocrisie or which is worst of all to perjury All the people of this Nation look upon you as their common Father all promise themselves liberty and protection under your Government though some may justly be excluded from sharing in the Government Were there in my Family one child that profest to finde satisfaction in the way of the Papists and lived dutifully to mee and lovingly with his Brethren I should account it a great unnaturalnes to deprive him altogether of his portion much more of that which hee has received from the bounty of any collaterall Kinsman or acquired by his own particular