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Show 1'ttitiDHto tbeHoufollf L#rds. · T'be AuT,ROtt's LIFE. VoL. 1 • Many of us having already fulfered _upon this fingle Account: A~d it is ' not to be thought by Wife and Chan table Men, that we have any tll De' fign in s:efufing to fwear, fince we always xefufcd it in our Ofl)n Cofe, tho' ~ to our great Detriment. The Re1ueft of foW1e eaOed Quakers, prefonteil to tiHHoufo of LoJ.ns; on the Behalf of their Suffering Friends. 1 ' BEcaufe we ore informed that this Day you are pleafed to confider of ' Rt!igicn, particularly the Romijh, we think it not improper to let ' you know that there are many Hundreds of us, that are feverely profe-' cuted not~nly upon thofe Laws that look upon us as Di.ffmttrs in General ' from ~he <:;burch of England, but by feveral S~atutes.~rtlc~larly defigned ' againft Popery and Perfons profeffing the Romijb Relt,gton ; mfomuch that ' our Perfecuto;s are proceeding to a SeiZure of Two Tbirdr of our Eflartl, ' and give us that Trouble, as well as fubieEting us to the Lofs, which will ' not only render Tenants unable to pay their Rents, and others to Live up' on their Own, but make both a Charge to the Country, who have hither- ~ to by their Callings and E/111tet contribut~ to others. . . . ' The lnjuftice of fuch Strained Executtons, and Cruel Mtfappltcahons ' of LaUJ coofidered, we intreat You, that You would be pleafed to com,. ' paffionace our Ct1Je, and out of Your Mercy and Juflzce, Relieve and ~ Right us : The Way of doing it is left to tour Wifdom. Being thereupon admitted to an Hearing before a Committee, on tbe 22d of the Month called Morcb, 1678, he made the following Speeches. Hi6 Firft SPEECH to the CoMMITTEE. Bil Slttcb ' IF we ot1gbt to believe that it is our DJJty, according to the DoOrint of before • Co•- ' the ApOflle, to be alw.ays ready to give an Account of the Hope that if u;:~::f p_,. ' in m, and that to every Sober and Private ErtqJJirer, certainly, much more ' ' ought we to hold our felves obliged to declare with all Readinefs, when ' call'd to it by fo Grear an Authority, what is not our Hope, efpecially ' when our very Safety is eminently concerned info doing, and that we can' not decline this Dijcrimination of our felves from Papifls, without being ' Confcious to our felves of the Guilt of our own SufFerings, for that muft ' every Man needs be that fuffers mutely, under another CharaS:er, than ' that which truly and properly belongeth to him and his Belief. That ' which giveth me a mote than ordinary Right to fpeak at this Time( and ' in this Place, is the great Abufe that I have receiv'd above any otlfer;o£ ' my Profe!fion, for of a long Time I have not only been fuppofed a p,piU, ' but a Seminary, a Je{uit, artEmHfary of Rome, and in pay from the PDpt, ~ a Man dedicating my Endeavours to the lntereft and Advancement of tliat ' Party. Nor hath this been the Report of die Rabble, but the Jealoufie ' :tn~ lnfmuation of Perfons otherwife faber and difcreet : Nay fame zeal· ' ous for the Proteftant Religion have been fo far gone in this Mifiake, as ' not only to think ill of us and to decline our Converfation, but to take ' Courage to themfelves to profecute us for a Sort of concealed Papifls; and ' the Truth is what. with one Thing, :md what with another, we have been ' as the Wool-Socks, and commo" Whipping-Stock of the Kingdom : AU Laws ' have been let loofe upon us, as if the Defign were not to Reform, but to ' Deftroy us, and that not for what we are, but for what we arc not: 'Tis c hard that we muft thus bear the Stripes of another lnterefr, and be their ' Proxy in Punifhment, but its worfe that fame men can pleafe themfelves ' in fuch a Sort of .Admini/lration. ' 1 would not be mifiaken : I am far from thinking it fit, that PopiPs ' {hould be wh;pt for their Con(ciences; becaufe I exclaim againft the ln· ' Juftice of whipping ~ualt.ers for Papifls; No, for though the Hand pre' tended to be lifted up againft them, hath (I know not by what Dit.'re· : uoo) |