AN ACCOUNT FROM THE City of Chester, OF A Barbarous Persecution, INFLICTED Upon one of the King's Peaceable Subjects, commonly called a QƲAKER. ONLY For his Lamenting the great Sin of Pride, and Calling the People to Repentance.

LONDON, Printed and Sold by T. Sowle, in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street, and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-street, near the Market, 1700.

The King's Proclamation.

WE do hereby strictly Charge and Command all our Judges, Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of Peace, and all other our Officers and Ministers, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, and other our Subjects, whom it may concern, to be very Vigilant and Strict in the Discovery, and the Effectual Prosecution and Punishment of all Persons, who shall be guilty of Excessive Drinking, Blasphemy, and Pro­fane Swearing and Cursing, Lewdness, Profanation of the Lord's Day, or other Dissolute or Disorderly Practices, as they will answer it to Almighty God, and upon pain of our Highest Displeasure.

Note, The Prosecution and Punishment is to be of Persons Guilty of the aforesaid Evils, and not for La­menting Pride, and Calling People to Repent of them, that God might not be offended, the Law broke, the King disobeyed, nor the Justices troubled.

An Account from the City of Chester, OF A Barbarous Persecution, &c.

IT's well said, in the Account of the Reformation of Manners, pub­lished with the Approbation of Twenty Nine Lords, Nine Bishops, and Seven Judges, p. 160, 161.

When Religion is despised, and Virtue is lost, in a Nation—how easie a Prey will it prove to its Neighbours. —And a just God rewards Righteous Nations with Prosperity, and executes Justice upon those that are Wicked.—

We are acquainted, that before God destroyed the Old World,P. 102. he saw the Wickedness of Men was great upon the Earth,—and their Sin is given as the Reason of their Destruction.

And the Impiety of the Jews, that have for so many Hundred Years been a Despised and Vagabond People. And doth not History tell us, That as the Pride and Voluptuousness of the Babylonians, P. 103. so the Lewdness of the Persians, and Luxury of the Greeks, seemed (with their other sins) to be the Remarkable Causes of the Ruine of those Empires. And the Romans, P. 104. —became so very Degenerate and De­bauched, before the Devastations and Ruine of their Empire, by the Goths, Vandals and Huns; that gave occasion to a Father to cry out, That the Name of Christ became a Scorn, and the Christian Religion was Reproached by the Lives of Christians. — And,

If a Visible Contempt of the sincere Practice of Religion, P. 107. and a bare-faced, insolent and unrestrained Wickedness,—and a deep In­sensibility, and imminent Danger of Judgment, are sad Indications of Guilt; it cannot, I think, be denied, but that this was too near the Dismal Case of England. — 'And nothing, I think, can be reasonably supposed sufficient to remove our Guilt, than some con­siderable and remarkable Reformation; and perhaps carried through Ranks and Orders of Men, through all parts of the Kingdom.

Having thus endeavoured to prove the Common Obligation which lies upon All Men, as Christians, and as Members of the Community,P. 110. to use their sincere Endeavours for a General and National Refor­mation, and the Special Obligations of Governours and Ministers, of Subordinate Magistrates and Inferiour Officers, from either the Nature of their Office and Trust, or their express Oaths to this Purpose.

As also, with Regard to the Parliament's Address, the King's Pro­clamation, and the Queen's Letter, formerly mentioned in the said Thomas Rudd's Case.

I shall proceed to give a short Account, how the Magistrates of the City of Chester, by account from thence, have answer'd what's above briefly hinted.

The said Thomas Rudd is by Trade a Miller, and his Habitation near Settle in Yorkshire, and one of the King's Peaceable Subjects, cal­led in scorn a Quaker, of a Sober Life and Christian Conversation; and, by his Estate and Trade, is sufficiently able to maintain his Fa­mily, and to Render to Caesar, and all Men, their due, and pays Lot and Scot in the Parish wherein he lives; and therefore cannot justly, nor in the Eye of the Law, be esteemed a Vagrant Person, nor ought to suffer as such.

But this honest Conscientious Man, having a Concern upon his Spirit, that Vice and Wickedness, Pride, Drunkenness, Immorality, and all Profaness, might be abandoned by all his Country-Men of this Nation; being the Duty of all that profess Christianity, and pre­tend to a Reformation, and Sobriety, the Fear of God, a Christian Life, and an Humble Walking with God, through the teaching and assistance of his Grace and good Spirit, and greatly desires all might come thereinto, wherein they might enjoy God's Blessings, and truly Pray to Him, to avert those severe Judgments, that (as is before hinted) it hath been observable, the Lord hath frequently brought upon Peo­ple and Nations, that have lived in Pride and Impiety; and therefore on the 23d of the 3d Month, 1700. he, the said Thomas Rudd, did go about in the Streets of the City of Chester, and Exhorted the People to fear God, and depart from Evil; which, notwithstanding it is the Duty and Interest of all People, that would have God's Blessing here, and Live for evermore, to depart from Evil, and do Good, and fear God; yet he was put in the Stocks near two hours, and then taken out; And he again Exhorting the People, when let out, in like manner was committed the same day to Prison, by Henry Lloyd Alderman and Justice of the Peace in Chester, by Trade a Clothier, there remained until the 6th of the 5th Month following, called July, 1700.

And on the 7th of the 5th Month, he was Concerned again to go into the Streets of the said City of Chester, and to their Cathedral, with this Lamentation: How doth Pride abound? People, how doth Pride abound? For all their Teachers teaching, how doth Pride abound? A Fore-runner of De­struction, how does it abound: Where the Bishop, and William Bennet, Mayor of that City, by Trade a Shoemaker, order'd him to Prison [Page 5]again, and thither in a Rude and Violent manner was he halled, and close lock'd up in a back Room, to prevent him from speaking to the People out of the Prison; as if it was a Crime to Lament Pride, and Call to Repentance. But when let out, he went again into the Streets, and at the High Cross, near that called St. Peter's Church; then they took him again, and had him to the Mayor's Court at Pendhouse; and after Threatning him, the Mayor, Priest, and Con­stable, Signed a Warrant, that order'd himto be Whipped as a Vagrant, and to send him from Constable to Constable towards the place of his Birth.

And the said Constable did strip him, and rent his Shirt; and in a most Cruel, Barbarous, Tyrannical Manner, without Mercy, did they whip him on his Naked Body, with a Whip of strong Cord, and many knots in it; and after they had Whipped him for a con­siderable time, they desisted, and then called to the Mayor for fresh Orders, which he readily granted, and then they whipped him until his Flesh was bruised like a Jelly;Note, Punishment should not exceed the Offence. so that it may be well said, The tender Mercies of the Wicked are Cruelty.

Yet this poor Innocent Man neither moved nor shrunk at all; and when they halled him away, he continued in his Innocent Testi­mony, against their ungodly and wicked doings, in great Love, Life and Zeal; the Lord carrying him through, and by his Power bore him up over all their Cruelties.

And it is recommended to the Serious and Christian Consideration of all that shall Read this, whether these Cruel, Illegal and Uncha­ritable Proceedings, do not give just occasion for the Name of Christ to become a Scorn, the Christian Religion to be Reproached; and whether it doth not tend greatly to demonstrate, That the Professors thereof are Degenerated and Debauched, and to bring Ruine upon the Nation, and a Visible Contempt of the sincere Practice of Religi­on; and is it not a bare-faced Insolency in these Magistrates, and Wickedness that ought to be restrained, proceeding from a deep Insensibility, thus to do? And may not this tend to bring us under imminent Danger of Judgment, and be an Indication of Guilt? And can this be denied to be too near the Dismal Case of England? And if nothing can be reasonably supposed sufficient to Remove our Guilt, as is before said, than some Considerable and Remarkable Refor­mation, through all Ranks and Orders of Men, in all parts of the Kingdom, Ought not these things to be Addressed and Amended? Considering it was Impiety, Pride, Voluptuousness, Lewdness and Luxury, with other Sins, that was the Ruine of the Old World, the Jews, Babylonians, [Page 6]Persians, Greeks and Romans, as is before noted. And is it not to be Lamented, that any of the Church of England, her Magistrates, Bi­shops or Priests, should be found so cruelly using any, that Lament the Pride and Wickedness of the People? And is it not a great In­dignity and Contempt offered to the Parliament's Address, the King's Proclamation, and the Queen's Letter, against Profaness and Immo­rality, for any Magistrates to be found thus Acting against an Honest and Innocent Man, instead of putting the Laws in Execution against Profaness and Immorality, Cursing, Swearing, Whoring and Gaming? And how many hath this Mayor, the Justices, Bishops or Priests, punished for the Evils aforesaid, let the Inhabitants of Chester, and their own Consciences, Witness? Or doth it bespeak, that they do herein faithfully discharge their Oaths, or that common Obligation that lies upon them? And do they use their sincere Endeavours for a General Reformation? Or have they a due Regard to the Special Obli­gations that lies upon Magistrates, and Inferiour Officers, according to their Nature and Trust, so Barbaroufly to use a Man, for Lament­ing of Pride, a Fore-runner of Destruction, and calling People to Repentance, a thing so greatly Needful, and truly Christian? Yet this poor Man, for so doing, was, on the 9th Instant, again Committed by Henry Lloyd aforesaid, to the Northgate Prison in Chester, where now he remains a Prisoner, for Exhorting the People to Repentance, and Amendment of Life.

A Copy of his Mittimus here follows.

To the Keeper of the North-gate, or his Deputy.

City of Chester.

I have sent you Thomas Rudd, a Vagrant Person, that obey­eth not the Laws, and disturbs at the Churches in the City of Chester: Therefore in his Majesty's Name do you keep him safe in your Custody, until he be delivered by Law.

Given under my Hand and Seal this 9th day of July, 1700.
Henry Lloyd.
Vera Copia.

Oh! How is the King's Name abused, who approves not of such Severity we believe? And yet such was the Rage and Enmity of these Men at Chester, that they told, He deserved to be Hanged, in­stead of Whipping, and for no other Fault, but what is aforesaid, if that be one.

Oh! That these things may be truly considered and amended; for surely those that are found in such cruel Practices, are not led by God's Spirit; and therefore let all consider whose Children they are, and what will be their Sentence and Portion hereafter, if they Repent not. The Lord therefore, if it be his will, give them Re­pentance, and forgive them their Sins for Christ his Son's sake, and bring them truly to believe in God and Jesus Christ, and to walk in his Light, that they may know his Blood to cleanse them from all Unrighteousness, and his Spirit to Sanctifie them, is the hearty desire of the Sufferer that hath been so evilly intreated by them, that so they may escape the Punishment of Eternal Flames, and being turned into Hell, where the wicked and all that forget God shall be turned.

Again, Excellent is the Advice in the fore-cited Book, p. 27.

‘Let our learned Rabbies, the great Disputers of the World, and that makes Profession of Religion, but give little better account of it, than by expressing a Feirce and Vncharitable Heat against those that Differ from them, in some things relating to Religion, but not Essential to it; wherein all Men, equally wife and good, have, I doubt, never yet been fully agreed: Think seriously with themselves, whether they might not employ some share, at least, of their Parts and Zeal, to much better purpose, in furthering the Reformation of Mens Lives, and of the Manners of the Nation, by suppressing of Prophaness and Vice, than by raising and keep­ing up, with an Unchristian Temper; to the manifest Injury of the Christian Religion, which is an Institution of Love — All Religions being, I think, agreed, that bad Men are a scandal to the best Religion; and that they cannot, if they continue so, be saved in any.’

POSTSCRIPT.

NOTE, That the Warrant, for the whipping the Sufferer Thomas Rudd, was sign'd by William Bennet aforesaid Mayor, and Peter Newton Priest of that called St. Peters in Chester, and Richard Lee an Alehouse­keeper Constable; and a Copy being earnestly desired several times, but could not be obtained.

And from his last Commitment he was discharged the 22d of the 5th Month, called July, 1700. So he was Prisoner in the City of Che­ster about Eight Weeks, only for Exhorting the People to fear God, and depart from Evil; and calling them to Repentance and Amendment of Life; and Lamenting Pride. And yet this City which is said to be concerned in the Reformation of Manners, and Suppressing of Vice and Im­morality, have thus severely Punished one, that in Body and Spirit labours and prays for the good of all Men; and that Holiness and Righteousness might abound in his Native Country, in and among all the Inhabitants thereof. And when he was Discharged, did again go, into the Streets of Chester, to Call to Repentance and Amend­ment of Life; and another time he went to the Cathedral, where the Dean came and pushed him away, and called him Coxcomb. And therefore, as the aforesaid Account begins with Quotations out of that Book, entitled, An Account of Reformation of Manners, sign'd by 29 Lords, 9 Bishops, and most of the Judges of the Land: I the Sufferer, shall end this Pestscript with a Quotation out of the said Book, p. 157, 158. ‘Let us not then Fellow-Christians, who would be accounted faithful Soldiers of Jesus Christ, Isal. [...]1.7. be afraid of the Reproaches and Railings of such profane and profligate Wretches; but let us rejoice in them, and in any other Persecution, which we may undergo in so glorious a Cause. Let us consider, that this Life is the proper sea­son for Service and Suffering, and the next of Reward and Happi­ness. Let the Lives and Deaths of the Martyrs and Confessors of Old be much in our Minds. Let us remember, that the best Christians in all Ages have been derided and contemned; that our Blessed Saviour himself,Isal. 53.3. the Captain of our Salvation, who was rejected and despised of Men, hath commanded us not to be afraid of them that kill the Body, Iuke 12.5. and after that have no more that they can do; but to fear, Him, that hath power to cast into Hell; and hath said, That whosoever shall be ashamed of him, Mark. 8.28. and of his words; of him also shall he be ashamed, when be cometh in the Glory of his Father, Mat. 5.11. with the holy Angels: But that if we are Reviled and Persecuted for his sake, our Reward shall be great in Heaven.’

Thomas Rudd.
THE END.

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