truly persecuted which you may perceive I can do no other way but by shewing that they suffer for Righteousness-sake for Religions sake for the Truths of the Gospel and in defence of the Gospel-Laws The case is really with them as it was with the Apostles and Primitive Christians they are under a necessity of disobeying the Supream Authority in not conforming to the Gallican Church because the Doctrine and Worship of it are plainly inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Gospel and the Evangelical Worship of God As for example the Gospel hath commanded us not to worship Angels as in Coloss 2.18 Let no man saith the Apostle deceive you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels And Rev. 19.20 when S. John fell at the Angel's feet to worship him See saith the blessed Spirit thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant But the Gallican Church like all the rest of the Papal Communion Teacheth and Practiseth the worshipping of Angels and maketh solemn Invocations not only of the Angels and Archangels in general but of this and that Angel by their proper Names The Gospel plainly forbiddeth praying in an unknown Tongue because he that speaketh in a Tongue unknown to the People speaketh not unto man as the Apostle argues but unto God and the Air and he that so speaketh is a Barbarian unto the People because they know not the meaning of his voice yet notwithstanding all that is so expresly written upon this matter 1 Cor. 14. the Gallican Church useth Latin-offices and their publick Worship is all in Latin which the People do not understand The Gospel teacheth that as there is but one God so there is but one Mediator betwixt God and Man the man Christ Jesus to whom alone we must pray to make intercession for us to God but the Gallican Church prays to * Dom. quintâ post Epiph. ad poscenda suffragia Sanctorum Oratio in octavâ Sancti Steph. ut pro nobis Intercessor existat Saints and Angels and above all to the ‖ De Sanctâ Mariâ oratio in all their Masses ut qui verè eam genitricem Dei credimus ejus apud te intercessionibus adjuvemur Oratio in circumcisione Domini ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus blessed Virgin to make intercession for them So that if her prayers were in the Mother-tongue the People could not joyn in Her worship without committing Idolatry against God and Blasphemy against Jesus Christ The Gospel assureth us that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us and that he was once offered up for all and by one offering of himself perfected for ever them that are Sanctified but the Gallican like all other Popish Churches teacheth that he is bodily present and bodily offered up in the Sacrifice of the Masse and that his real flesh and bones are eaten when the consecrate Wafer is eaten and that the Hostie as they call the great Wafer which they expose and carry about is the * Urbanus VIII in his Preface before the Missal begins thus Si quid est in rebus humanis planè divinum quod nobis superni cives si in eos invidia caderet invidere possent id certè est SS Missae Sacrificium cujus beneficio sit ut homines quâdam anticipatione possideant in terris coelum dum ante oculos habent manibus contrectent coeli terraeque conditorem very Christ This they keep in a Box on purpose and on ‖ Especially the two Corpus Christi days called by the Gallican Church Festes de Dieu the Feasts of God solemn days carry it in Procession as the Pagans did their Idols to be adored and where ever it is met there the People must fall down and worship and wheresoever the Priest makes a stand there must prayers be offered up unto it as unto the very Christ The Heathens were never guilty of more gross and absurd Idolatry than this The worshipping of a Leek or an Onion or an head of Garlick as the Egyptians did is not more against common Sense and Reason than the worshipping of a Wafer the work of a Baker or Confectioners hand And then as to the Elements to be received in the holy Eucharist the Gospel saith expresly that at the Institution of it our Lord took bread and brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take eat this is my body likewise that he took the Cup saying Drink ye all of this for This is related in the same manner by S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. where he also saith Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself Accordingly the Primitive universal Church administred it exactly after Christ's Institution as is evident out of * Ad Philadelph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius ‖ Apol. 2. Justin Martyr c. And all succeeding Ages followed this Primitive practice and still doth follow it throughout the * Cassand do Sacra Com. universal Church except the Church of Rome which began above Five Hundred years since to take away the Cup from the People for fear O superstitious Souls that they should spill the Bloud Yet the Gallican Church for all her fine pretences to Liberty still continues so strictly Popish that she deprives her People of the Cup although the Saviour she pretends to worship Proleptically speaking of this holy Sacrament saith Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath Eternal Life What shall I say of the abominable Doctrines of Supremacy Infallibility and Purgatory which she alloweth with all the practices that follow thereupon and of her Image-worship and Cross-worship Crucifix worship not to mention her Ceremonies which for their number are intolerable and for their nature such as vilifie pollute and deprave the worship of God These are the things which make our French Brethren dissent from the publick establishment There is a plain opposition betwixt the Doctrines and Worship set forth in the Gospel and the Doctrines and worship of the Gallican Church They cannot conform unto it nor live in the Communion of it and be true to the Gospel nor obey their Prince in this particular because Obedience unto him would be Disobedience unto God They have no quarrel at the Church because it is Episcopal but because it is Popish for * Calv. ad Sadol If the Bishops would so rule as to submit themselves to Christ then if there shall be any that shall not submit themselves to that Hierarchy reverently and with the greatest obedience that may be there is no kind of Anathema whereof they are not worthy id instit l. 4. c. 4. ss 4. Beza de divers grad contr Sarav c. 21. Melancthon ad camer an 1530. Confess Aug. de Eccles potest Apol. Confess Aug. ad art 14. Princeps Anbalt in concion super Matth. 7. Bogerman President of the Synod of Dort Nay Blondel
syllabis nec in veteri nec in novo instrumento tradantur de iis tamen ut utroque fundatis inter omnes semper convenit Christianos demptis tantummodo paucis quibusdam haereticis quorum in religione haud major habenda est ratio quam monstrorum in naturâ Sic etiam Infantes sacro Baptismate abluendos esse sponsores ad illud Sacramentum adhibendos dominicum sive primam per singulas septimanas feriam religiosè observandam esse Passionis Resurrectionis Ascensionis Domini ad Coelum nec non Spiritûs Sancti adventûs commemorationem per singulos annos peragendam Ecclesiam ubique per Episcopos à Presbyteris distinctos iisque Praelatos administrandam esse Haec per mille quadringentos ab Apostolis annos in publicum Ecclesiae usum ubique recepta fuerunt nec ullam intra illud tempus invenire est Ecclesiam in ea non consentientem adeò ut quasi communes sint notiones omnium ab origine Christianorum animis insitae non tam ex ullis particularibus Scripturae locis quam ex omnibus ex generali totius Evangelii scopo tenore ex ipsâ religionis in eo stabilitae natura proposito atque ex constanti denique Apostolorum traditione qui Ecclesiasticos hujusmodi ritus generales ut ita loquar Evangelii interpretationes per universum terrarum orbem unà cum fide propagarunt Alioquin enim non credibile imò vero impossibile prorsus esset ut tam unanimi consensione ubique semper ab omnibus reciperentur Vid. etiam Cassandri defensionem officii pii viri adversus Calvinum Catholick principle for what part of Christianity for what Gospel Doctrine they suffer or in obedience to what Gospel Law for 't is no matter how much they are perswaded in their own Consciences and to what degree they suffer but do you enquire after their opinions and then try if they are any part of Christianity and if upon trial they be not found to be so their clamour and noise about persecution must be unjust and vain As for example there is now a loud cry among the Papists of the persecution of the Catholicks as they mis-call themselves and of the persecuting Laws against the Catholicks in England but suppose all our Laws were executed against them for what Article of the Creed for what Gospel-doctrine or Precept for what Catholick principle or for what part of Christianity would these Pseudocatholicks suffer are these Gospel-truths or Catholick principles that the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar General and that he is Supream above all other Bishops of the Catholick Church Can they prove either by the Scriptures or by universal Tradition that he is infallible either in the Chair or out of it and that there is no Salvation to be had without the Pale and Communion of his Church Are these not to mention Transubstantiation Image-worship the Invocation of Saints and Angels Praying in an unknown Tongue c. any parts of the Christian system or did the Primitive Christians or so much as one Church of Primitive Christians know or profess these things No! they are not Articles of Faith nor Gospel-doctrines nor common notions of Christianity but contradictions to all these and the Doctrines and Traditions of men In like manner not to mention the late * Mitckel King Kid Hackston c. Malefactors in Scotland our dissenting Brethren here have made grievous cries about Persecution and their writings are full of reflections upon the persecuting Laws of invectives against the makers of the Law for Uniformity but for what Gospel-truth or Precept for what Catholick principle or for obedience to what Law of Jesus Christ did they ever yet suffer or can they suffer by those Laws Is this a Gospel-doctrine or Catholick principle that the original Government of the Church was Presbyterian and that the Government of it by Bishops above Presbyters and distinct from them is an alteration of the original Government and an usurpation over the Church of God If it be let them shew us when this disparity of Bishops from Presbyters began Let them assign the time of this universal Aberration and Apostasie from the Primitive platform whether it was done in the time of the Apostles or in the times next unto them If it was done in their time let them tell us whether it was done with their consent or without it or if in the times next unto them let them tell us the names of those Diotrepheses who did first attempt or atchieve it let them shew us so much as one Record that doth make mention of it or let them tell us how so great an alteration was made both over the Presbyters and over the Church and yet not one Church or Presbyter assert its right Or how it came to pass for example that Ignatius an holy Martyr Presbyter of Antioch should so early usurp the Ecclesiastical Government of * Ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syria at a time when there were such vast multitudes of Christians in it and elsewhere that ‖ Epist ad Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyberianus President of Palestine told the Emperor Trajan under whom he suffered that he was wearied with punishing and killing the Galileans and * Neque enim civitates tantum sed vicos atque etiam agros superstitionis istius contagio porvagata est satis constat propè jam desolata templa Pliny Propraetor of Bithynia told the same Emperor that the Christian Religion had so infected the Cities Towns and Villages in his Province that the Heathen Temples were become desolate and unfrequented or if Bishops then had not many particular Congregations under their inspection how should the same holy Martyr in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna distinguish between personal Communion with the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with another Minister licensed by him and disallow all other Communions but such In like manner is it a Gospel doctrine or Catholick principle that Book-forms of prayer are unlawful or that God cannot be so worthily worshipped by them or in so spiritual a manner as by extemporary prayers Is there one place in the Bible that prefers extemporary before prescribed Forms of Prayer Doth the practice of the Catholick Church prefer those before these Or is there any thing in Scripture or Antiquity to shew that it is a sin for a Minister to wear a Linen garment when he officiates in the Church Are National Churches unlawful or inconsistent with the progress of the Christian Religion or the notion of Christian Union and Communion Doth either the Gospel or any thing in Christianity teach us that the use of Ceremonies is unlawful in Divine worship or that the Sign of the * Clem. Alex. Strom. l 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul de resur Caro abluitur caro signatur De corona Ad omnem frontem Crucis signaculo terimus
himself in Conclus Apol. pro Hieronymo which by the importunity of the Agents of the general Assembly he was prevailed with to leave out with great numbers more to be seen in Dr. Fern against Champney Bancrofts Survey ch 8. Mason's defence of the Ordination c. Dr. Durell of the Reformed Churches and the posthumous piece of Bishop Morton published by Sir Hen. Yelverton Lastly see Mr. de Langle and Mr. Claude's Letters at the end of the most worthy and most learned Dean of Pauls his Vnreasonableness of Separation which the late Agent at Charenton did in vain endeavour to make them retract though they have not Bishops yet their and other Reformed Writers have approved the Office and protested that they would if they could have retained them and desired that their rejecting of them might be imputed to necessity and not to their choice They have generally declared that they will submit to their own Bishops if they will Reform and some of them for want of Episcopal Government which they believe to be of Apostolical Institution have thought their own Churches deficient and in that respect not so perfect as ours They are formed into a National Church and are for National Churches detest Sovereign Independent Communions and their Ministers officiate in a distinct habit and are so far from disliking or undervaluing Liturgies that they Pray Baptize and Administer the holy Communion in Liturgical Forms They silence and suspend Ministers in their Consistories and Synods They would have had Church-Musick Organs I mean if they might and would condemn all those as guilty of Schism who only under the infinite pretence of purer Ordinances and purer Worship would set up private Congregations and erect private Altars in opposition to the publick and then teach the People that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in Ecclesiastical matters but that they ought to repair to those Congregations where they find they can profit most No! they dissent not upon such thin and absurd pretences as these but for the same reasons that their noble Ancestors the Albigenses and our Ancestors since them dissented from the Church of Rome They do not only pretend Conscience and say their Consciences tell them that such and such things are unlawful but they produce the Rules and Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel which those Doctrines which they cannot profess and those things which they cannot practise plainly contradict The reasons of their Non-conformity do not vary as time serves but they are the same that they were from the beginning and they are not such as would overthrow all Communions and destroy all the Churches that are or can be in the world In a word they dissent and disobey in the defence of the Gospel and of the plain and undoubted Gospel-truths They are the most noble essential and integral parts of Christianity which they adhere to and it is not so much a Christian as a Pagano-Christian a most corrupt tyrannical and Idolatrous Church to which they refuse to conform As Rome is mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth So the Gallican-Church is a Province belonging to the mystical Babylon a Daughter of that Mother of Harlots full of Fornication and also drunk with the bloud of the Saints Her Kings have all committed Fornication with her but these are come out of her that they might not be partaker of her Sins This is their hard case they are reduced to a necessity of sinning or suffering and therefore their sufferings are truly and properly Persecutions for they suffer for Righteousness-sake and the Gospels-sake and according to the will of God 'T is for Conscience towards God that they endure grief for a good Conscience as the Apostle speaks which is opposed to an evil Conscience defiled with sinful principles and sin A good Conscience in the Scriptures is otherwise called a pure Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 2 Tim. 1.3 and it is compared to a body washed with water Hebr. 10.22 1 Pet. 3.21 because it is devoid of all sinful prejudice and corrupt affections which pervert men's understandings and render them indocile and are able to make them call black white and white black The same is called in the Parable of the Sower an honest and good heart because it receives the Truth with all readiness and impartially searcheth the Scriptures whether things be so or no and in what person soever this sort of Conscience is he would be glad to obey his Sovereign and be of the established Communion because he knows these are indispensable duties when they can be done without denying Gospel-doctrines or breaking Gospel-Laws Such ingenuous Souls will be ready to hear and ready to give an answer to every man that shall ask them a reason of their doings with meekness and fear and when they suffer for doing good as our French Brethren and fellow-members now do they are made partakers of Christ's suffering in this world and shall be made partakers with him in everlasting Glory among Martyrs and Confessors in the world to come III. Having now shewn first what Persecution is and secondly That our French Brethren are Persecuted I proceed in the Third place to shew to what a degree they are Persecuted and how deplorable their sufferings are and how uneasie and dangerous it is for them to continue in their Native Country where they are treated more like Slaves than Subjects and daily vexed with Julian Edicts and Decrees For they are deprived of the ancient Liberties which were granted unto them by former Princes the Father and Grandfather of this present King Many of their * Sedan the Colledge of Roche-foucaut and that of Châtilion Universities are dissolved and more than half their Temples razed contrary to the Faith of Oaths and Edicts and against the common right of Prescription of Three and Fourscore years They are not allowed to erect Free-Schools for the Education of their own Children nor Hospitals for the maintenance of their own Poor nor can they have the benefit of any already Erected without turning to the Popish Religion The Lords of Mannors among them who formerly had right to keep Ministers and set up the Reformed Worship in their own Houses and call their Neighbours and Tenants unto it by the sound of a Bell are now in a most Arbitrary manner deprived of that priviledge And in the Cities where they are most numerous Colledges of Jesuits or Houses of Mission for propagating the Faith are erected into which undutiful Children or Servants under a pretence of turning Catholicks may retreat when they please and in the greatest of those Cities where perhaps Ten School-Masters could hardly teach all their Children the late Laws allow them but one and their unjust Magistrates commonly none They are forbidden to set up the Fleurs de Luces in their Churches because they must not bear any marks of Royal favour and as a further token of Royal displeasure and contempt their chief
much as they please they are not persecuted but justly punished for disobedience to the Supream Power They suffer not for God's sake but their own they suffer not as Martyrs and Confessors but as Malefactors This consideration made S. Peter in his First Epistle general distinguish so carefully between suffering as a Malefactor and suffering as a Christian Chap. 4. 14 15. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are you But let none of you suffer as * Oraet Lucii Mart. ad Vrbicium Praefect Just M. Apol. 1. a Murderer or as a Thief or as an evil-doer or as a busie-body in things that belong not unto him yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf In the 2d Chap. 13. ver he charged them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man whether it were to the Emperor or his subordinate Magistrates for the Lords sake as free indeed in a spiritual sence from many yokes but not to use their Christian freedom as a cloak for their malignity but as the servants of God Then from Subjects he proceeds to the Servants or Slaves who you may be sure suffered much from Jewish and Heathen Masters upon the account of the Christian Religion and he tells them that it was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. Alex. acceptable to God if a man for conscience towards God endured grief suffering wrongfully And in the 3d. Chap. after he had charged all Christians as being the best way to avoid sufferings to refrain their tongues to eschew evil to do good and seek peace Who is he saith he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good but if notwithstanding all this you chance to suffer for righteousness-sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled and lastly in the 4th Chap. he resumes the argument again in the words which I cited above concluding that they that so suffered according to the will of God should commit the keeping of their Souls unto him as unto a faithful Creator Accordingly there 's scarce any one place of the New Testament where sufferings or persecution are mentioned but it is with respect to the Christian Religion as Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil of you falsely for my sake Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels the same shall save it Verily verily I say unto you that there is no man that hath left Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or c. for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time with persecutions and in the world to come Eternal Life From which places it is evident that Persecution consists in suffering for Christ's sake or for the sake of the Christian Religion or any truth of it or for obeying God in any particular of it after the same manner that the Prophets or holy men of old used to suffer under the Law or Jewish Oeconomy as our Saviour said Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you c. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Accordingly Acts 5.41 't is said that the Apostles departed from the presence of the Counsel where they were beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his Name To put all this together Persecution from the Civil Magistrate for to that I chiefly restrain my Discourse consists in inflicting or suffering any sort of evil or to any degree for righteousness-sake for Religions sake for Christ's sake for the Gospels sake for Christ's Name sake for Christianities sake in a word to suffer as the Prophets and Apostles did of old who in all their sufferings were reduced to this sad necessity of disobeying God or the Civil Authority as Peter and the other Apostles answered and said to the Sanhedrim the second time when they commanded them to preach no more in the Name of Jesus We ought to obey God rather than man The general notion of Persecution and of Christian persecution withal being thus stated we may easily perceive that a man can be persecuted but upon two accounts for matters of professed Faith or principles or matters of practice Upon the former account a man is truly Persecuted when he is prosecuted for teaching or professing any Truth or true Doctrine which he is bound by God to teach or profess or for disowning or denying any Error or false Doctrine which he is bound by God to disown or deny I have made this distinction between owning of true and disowning of false Doctrines with respect to the several ways in which men are wont to express their minds in affirmative or negative propositions although both ways of speaking virtually and really are the same thing As he that asserts Jesus to be Christ doth virtually deny this blasphemous proposition Jesus is not Christ and he that denieth this blasphemous proposition Jesus is not Christ doth virtually assert that Jesus is Christ Thus in all things the affirming of Truth is a virtual denying of the opposite Error and the denying of the opposite Error an affirming of the contrary Truth and great is the number of Martyrs who have been truly Persecuted upon these accounts So Socrates was persecuted to death by the Laws and Magistrates of Athens for asserting the true God or denying the false He asserted that there was but one God and Father of all who made Heaven and Earth that the Gods whom the Athenians worshipped were dumb Idols the work of mens hands For this reason Justin Martyr represents him in part as a * Apol. 1. p. 48. Christian and among those whom ‖ Apol. 2. p. 55. wicked men by the instinct of the Devil persecuted for righteousness-sake He died a Martyr for Natural Religion in the defence of a Doctrine which God had taught him by the Light of Nature was not only true but such a truth as was his duty to propagate and maintain So likewise the Primitive Christian professors were persecuted both by the Jews and Gentiles for teaching and professing the Doctrines of the Christian Religion and for denying the obligation or validity of the Law of Moses and the Pagan Idols to be true Gods So much for Persecution upon matters of Faith or Principles and Persecution for matters of Practice is likewise twofold for matters of Divine worship which concern the First Table or for matters of Justice and Charity which concern the Second With respect to the former a man is Persecuted either upon a negative account for not denying of God or secondly for not worshipping a false God in opposition to him as the three Children in Daniel were persecuted for not worshipping the Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar the Primitive Christians for not * Eccl. Smyrn Epist
Seats and more costly Pews are ordered to be pulled down Formerly Papists were allowed solemnly to renounce their Religion in the Protestant Temples and scarce a Lords-day passed in the places where they were * As at Charenton La-Rochelle Montpellier Nismes numerous but some Converts might be seen so to renounce but now all Papists are forbidden to turn Protestants under pain of death or the penalty of an infamous sort of Penance called L' amando honorable in which the recanting person only in his Shirt with a Torch in his hand and a Rope about his neck and the Hangman standing behind him begs pardon of God and man for having renounced the Catholick as they mis-call the Romish Religion and is afterwards punished with Banishment if not with confiscation of Goods On the contrary Protestants have all imaginable encouragement to turn Papists Pensions Honours Offices and Preferments and to secure them after they have once declared the forementioned severity as I have been informed is the punishment of a relapse The Magistrates of the place have Authority to go with the Priest and what other company they please to visit sick Protestants and turn their Friends and Attendants out of the Room and discourse with them about their Religion and if either hopes of reward or a delirous condition or impatience or any other cause make them speak any thing in favour of the Romish Religion then they presently take witness that they turned Papists After which if the sick persons die they are to be buried as Papists and if they left Children behind them they also are to be bred Papists but if they recover they are obnoxious to the Law against a relapse Their Ministers cannot without great danger and difficulty visit Protestants which lye sick in Popish Houses but every pitiful Sacrificulus every ignorant busie Priest hath Authority to go into Protestant Houses and visit the sick as often as they please and when their Women are in travail like the Hebrew-women in the time of hardned Pharaoh they must have Popish Egyptian Midwives which is a far greater terror to many of them than the pains of Childbirth it self Formerly they were capable of the Magistracy in Cities and Burghs where they lived but now they are incapacitated Formerly they were to sit in their Courts of Justice as the Chambers of the Edict so called from the Edict of Nantes by which they were erected in favour of Protestants and the Party-Chambers of the Provinces where half the Judges are Protestants and half Papists but now they are deprived of that priviledge So that for want of Judges of their own Religion they have little or no benefit of the Law when a Catholick is their Antagonist but when both parties are Protestants if one change or promise to change his Religion he is usually sure to gain the Cause And as they are banished from the Bench so are they banished from the Bar and Faculties For no Protestant can be Councellor Atturney Notary Chirurgeon Apothecary Midwife c. In one word they are made utterly uncapable of all employments Civil or Military and by that means are deprived of all Honours and better conveniences of life of all the comfortable means of subsistence and well-being which the Papists enjoy in their Offices at Court and in the Country in Peace and in War and in the Armies both by Sea and Land This is their miserable condition and what is yet worse their Children have liberty at Seven years of Age to chuse their own Religion and if to prevent the mischief that may follow upon this they send them away they must forfeit a years revenue of their Estates if they do not produce them within a year but if they do not produce them within two then they must forfeit the whole But in case they have no visible Estates then they are subject to Arbitrary valuations and to Arbitrary Fines imposed thereupon If their Children upon this liberty happen to change their Religion as many will do rather than endure wholsom Discipline their Parents are bound to maintain them as they do their other Children or else to allow them a Pension for their maintenance and their Daughters so changing may leave their Parents and go into Nunneries when they please This is the complement of all their other miseries and to avoid so great a mischief it is that they fly in flocks to Protestant Countries that they may save the Souls of their own bowels and not have them bred up in Popish darkness and the regions of the shadow of death Some have slipt away by night with their Families and driven without intermission till they have got out of their imperious Princes Dominions and others as is credibly reported have shipt off their little Ones pack'd up in Bales of Merchantable Goods As for their Ministers they upon any pretended crimes are banished fined or imprisoned on purpose to make them forsake their Flocks and discourage the People from putting their Children to the study of Divinity Nay they are in an especial manner obnoxious to the barbarous cruelties and insults of the Souldiery who have free Quarter upon the poor Protestants whom they abuse to what degree they please In some * As Poictou Xaintonge and about Rochelle Provinces they trail them like dogs by the neck to Masse torture them till they renounce their Religion and most inhumanely misuse or murder those whom God enables to resist unto bloud and though these tyrannical and arbitrary outrages be not done by open order yet it may be presumed they are done upon connivance and according to the secret will of the Supream Authority since those that do them are neither punished nor restrained notwithstanding the complaints which the sufferers daily make at Court These barbarous insolencies added to the severity of the Royal Edicts you may be sure adds wings to their haste and makes them fly in great hurry and confusion into foreign Countries and the providence of God hath cast many of them like ship-wracked men on our Coasts and expects that we should shew them no little kindness but receive them courteously and do good unto them in an especial manner as unto them that are of the houshold of Faith They are Persecuted but we must not forsake them they are grievously cast down but in such an exigence as this we must not let them be destroyed IV. And therefore I proceed in the last place to shew that it is our duty to help and assist them to encourage and support them in this time of calamity to refresh their bowels and minister unto their pressing wants For there are but three ways by which the spirits of persecuted men can be supported by the testimony of a good Conscience the comforts and joys of the Holy Ghost and the charitable assistance of their Brethren when as the Apostle speaks the members have the same care one for another and if one member suffer all the members suffer