Wesley Corpus

It is true, her successor did not go quite so far. But did even King James allow liberty of conscience? By no means. During his whole reign, what liberty had the Puritans? What liberty had they in the following reign If they were not persecuted unto death; (although eventually, indeed, many of them were; for they died in their imprisonment;) yet were they not continually harassed by prosecutions in the Bishops’ Courts, or Star-Chamber? by fines upon fines, frequently reducing them to the deepest poverty? and by imprisonment for months, yea, for years, together, till many of them, escaping with the skin of their teeth, left their country and friends, fled to seek their bread in the wilds of America? “However, we may suppose all this was at an end under the merry Monarch, King Charles the Second.” Was it indeed? Where have they lived who suppose this? To wave a thou sand particular instances; what will you say to those two public monuments, the Act of Uniformity, and the Act against Conventicles? In the former it is enacted, to the eternal honour of the King, Lords, and Commons, at that memorable period: “Every Parson, Vicar, or other Minister whatever, who has any benefice within these realms, shall, before the next twenty-fourth of August, openly and publicly declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything con tained in the Book of Common Prayer, or shall, ipso facto, be deprived of all his benefices ! Likewise, if any Dean, Prebendary, Master, Fellow, Chaplain, or Tutor, of any College, Hall, House of Learning, or Hospital, any public Professor, or any other person in Holy Orders, any School master, or Teacher, or Tutor in any private family, do not subscribe hereto, he shall be, ipso facto, deprived of his place, and shall be utterly disabled from continuing therein.” Property for ever ! See how well English property was secured in those golden days | So, by this glorious Act, thousands of men, guilty of no crime, nothing contrary either to justice, mercy, or truth, were stripped of all they had, of their houses, lands, revenues, and driven to seek where they could, or beg, their bread. For what? Because they did not dare to worship God according to other men's consciences !