THis saying of our Blessed Lord, In the World you shall have Tribulation, but be of good Chear, I have overcome the World, was never more seasonable to be meditated on, then in these latter times, when Wickedness is so great, and Malice so mischievous; that such as profess the Truth of his Gospel, are thereby exposed to all the Miseries and Calamities that Hell can Assault them with. There is no Torment, nor no Cruelty which the Church of God has not undergone, since she hath repurged and cast out of her Com­munion the Errors of Rome; so as they may very well say, as in the 44th Psalm, For thy sake (O Lord) we are killed all the day long; were count­ed as Sheep for the Slaughter.

I will not undertake here, to describe by particulars, all those Tor­ments which the People of God have always suffer'd, and which have been as many and various as their Adversaries Rage was fiery against them; seeing that this has been already discoursed at large, by several impartial Men, whose Religious purposes therein, was to shew the World that the Compassions of Rome are Cruel. But my Design in this Paper is, to give a true and sincere Account of a late Persecution exer­cis'd [Page 2] against the Protestants of Rochel, by the Intendant there; by whose order they being assembled in the Market-place of that Town, about the beginning of this instant September 1681, he made them several questions concerning their Religion, and told them that the intention of His Majesty (by whose Special command he had call'd them theither) was, that all his Subjects should be Catholicks, and that none of 'em should profess the Heresy of Calvin, which was but a new Opinion contrary to the Principles of the ancient Catho­lick Faith, and most prejudicial both to the intrest of his Crown and welfare of his People.

Therefore he advised (and would absolutely have) them to con­vert themselves and return to the Bosome of the Church, from which they were gone astray,; intimating that this would be of a great advantage to them, and that they could not fail of bet­tering their condition hereby, for His Majesty intended to make them a considerable abatement of the Taxes and Subsidies they did now pay, and to admit them into Places of Trust and Honour (as his Catholick Subject) which their Religion had been all this while a bar to their being prefer'd to. But if they would not turn, they might expect to receive such punishments as his Majesty or his Of­ficer should think fit, to inflict upon them for their Rebellion and obstinacy. To which discourse these poor distressed Protestants giving no answer, and holding their peace as the People of Judah did to Rab-shakeh's Blasphemous words, the Intendant told them that if within three hours time they did not come to a final resolution, so as to give a positive answer to the proposition that was made to them, they should be held guilty of contumacy, and proceeded a­gainst according to Law. Whereupon they unanimously and with a Christian-like courage replied that they would die in that Religion wherein they were Born and brought up, and hoped that his Majesty would be so gracious to them as to let 'em peacefully follow the same according to the dictates of their own Consciences since this Religion of theirs was so far from being destructive to his Majesties Government, that it did teach them to bear an awful obe­dience to it, and to promote the Peace and welfare of the same; which they always did, and would still endeavour to do as much as in them lay, with a deep submission to his Laws as being his most faithful Subjects.

At this discourse the Intendant fell into a great passion; and send­ing them to their several homes told them with anger, that since they so little sensible of their own good, as not to answer the Kings desires, as he might justly expect, and accept of his gracious profers to them with a dutiful thankfulness to his Majesty for the same, they should see within a small time what shovld be the reward of their disobedience to his Orders, and slight'ning of his Royal Boun­ty. But notwithstanding all this specious and threatning Speech of the Intendants they persisted still in their former purpose and resolution of being constant to the true Religion, and answer'd him, that as no promise of reward could work upon him so as to engage them to imbrace a Religion which they knew to be contrary to the Gospel, [Page 3] so no threat of punishment could ever make them depart from that, which they were satisfied did entirely agree with it. Here the Intendant left them, and declined urging them any further by wors; But bethought himself of another way to try whether he could win them; which was to make good his promise of intreating them very severely. He therefore sent presently into every of these Families a considerable number of Blood-thirsty Souldiers, with order of living there at discretion (as they call it) and doing all the mis­chief they could. Which unjust and cruel order they did not fail of executing very punctually, and would have outdone it, if it had been possible for any hellish envy and malice to go beyond the injustice of it; their profession of Souldiers, with that of Romanists, making them breath out nothing but Destruction and slaughter. And their rage and barborousness was such as that they did not aim at taking a­way presently these poor Protestants lives, but did make them to go through all the long and tedious tormemts their cruel heart could de­vise: For they did not content themselves to make a havock of these poor Creatures houses, & to abuse them pittilesly; but violating all Laws, both of God and Nature, did pull Men, Women and Children out of thir houses into the Streets, and drew them all along by the hair. Then taking them in again they bound them, scourged them, threw scalded hot water upon their naked bodies, put their feet into hot Oyle, cut their bodies all over especially those parts that are most sensitive, and did them several other cruelties, so as in Nero's time no more barbarous and inhuman usages were ever heard of. And yet their fury and malice did not stop here and could not be sa­tisfied till they had starved some to death, and treatned others to do the same or worse to them, if they would not abjure their Heresy (as they call it.) so that some of a weaker spirit in the sense of resent­ment of the tormens they had already suffer'd, and apprehension of those they were threatned with, for the future, not thinking them­selves capable of abiding the brunt of a second assault, did turn in­deed, and had amends made them for their losses, though not for their wounds.

But others of a firmer courage, and whose Principles are to be faithful to the end as they may obtain the Crown of Life, being still con­stant to the truth they profess are dayly put on the rack, and so cruelly tortured that it would make the Christian Readers heart bleed if there were words expressive enough to describe throughly the in­humanity of this persecution, which is so violent, that such as are ex­posed thereto endeavour every day to run away and leave their E­states behind them, to obey that Command of our Saviour's, when you are persecuted in one place fly into another. But such care is taken by the adversaries, that none of the Protestants should depart that Place, as there are but few that can make their escape and be so hap­py as he is, who has made me the relation of what I now give to the Publick, and who has been so lucky as to save himself out of the Ty­ranny of Rome and find an apportunity to come into these Blessed Countries where Protestancy flourishes and Charity abounds, and where so many of other poor distressed Protestants resort from all [Page 4] places where Persecution is hot against them; who are so kindly welcomed and so carefully provided for here, that I can't (though I am not in that condition as to partake of this Publick Charity my self) but express (as I do in the Paper) my due acknowledgments for the same both to his British Majesty and the whole English Nation, in regard that it is done to my flesh and blood, that is, those of my Religion and Country, who as they ought to be most sensible of the extraordinary favours they daily receive here in England, so do I not doubt but that in time they will endeavour to owne this their obligation, by all the most Faithfull Services they shall be capable to return to a Prince and a Naion, that are so bountiful to them; and J do further Perswade my self, that they will now joyne their prayers with mine, that God Almighty, the Father of all Mercies, and giver of all good Gifts may reward Both by blessing them with all Temporal Blessings in this life, and Eternal Felicity in that which is to come.