Wesley Corpus

For a specimen, look at Dunotter Castle; where young and old, of both sexes, (sick or well, it was all one,) were thrust together between bare walls, and that in the heat of summer, without a possibility of either lying or sitting; yea, without any convenience of any kind; till many of them, through hunger, thirst, heat, and stench, were set at liberty by death ! Considering this; considering how many others were hunted over their native mountains, and shot whenever they were overtaken, with no more ceremony than beasts; considering the drowning, hanging, cutting off of limbs, and various arts of torturing, which were practised by order of King Charles, and often in the presence of King James, who seemed to enjoy such spectacles; it would be no wonder if the very name of an Englishman was had in abomination from the Tweed to the Orkneys.- 19. But is this the case at present with us? Are we abridged of our religious liberty? His late Majesty was desired, about thirty years ago, to take a step of this kind. But his answer was worthy of a King, yea, the King of a free people: “I tell you, while I sit on the English throne, no man shall be persecuted for conscience' sake.” And it is certain he made his promise good from the beginning of his reign to the end. But perhaps the case is altered now. Does His present Majesty tread in his steps? He does: He persecutes no man for conscience sake. If he does, where is the man? I do not ask, Whom has he committed to the flames, or caused to die by the common hangman 7 or, Whom has he caused to die many deaths, by hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness? but, Whom has he tortured or thrust into a dungeon, yea, or imprisoned at all, or fined, for worshipping God according to his own conscience, in the Presbyterian or any other way? O, compare King Charles, gracious Charles the Second, with King George, and you will know the value of the liberty you enjoy. 20. In the name of wonder, what religious liberty can you desire, or even conceive, which you have not already? Where is there a nation in Europe, in the habitable world, which * See Wodrow’s “History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland.” ThouGIITS UPON LIBERTY.