The wonderful works of God commemorated. Praises bespoke for the God in heaven in…

It is well-known, That those whose Consciences did not allow them, to worship God, in some Ways and Modes then by Law Established, were not many years ago, Persecuted with a violence, to be abhorred by all sober Men. It is well known that Five and Twenty Hundred Faithful Ministers of the Gospel, were Silenced in one Black Day, because they could not comply with some ⟨p. 39⟩things, by themselves justly counted, Sinful, but by the Imposers confessed Indifferent. And it is affirmed, That by a modest Calculation, this Persecution procured the untimely Death of Three Thousand Nonconformists, by Imprisonment in Noisome Goals, and the Ruin of Threescore Thousand Families, within five and twenty years. As the Dissenters are far from charging their Sufferings upon all that the Church of England in its National Constitution acknowledges for her Sons; for we have seen the most Learned and Worthy Members of that Church make their public Pleas for the Nonconformists, and Boldly beg for Moderation to them; and advance this Assertion, That for every man to worship God according to his Conviction, is an Essential Right of Humane Nature; and we have Learnt, That the late persecutors were mostly a Knot of Ill men who professed, that they had rather be Papists than Presbyterians, and that they would as soon be Turks as Papists; and who surrendered themselves as mere Tools to a Popish Party, that thought to grow great upon the Ruins, of both the Parties whom they so set together by the Ears: So, I hope, the Dissenters will now forgive and forget the most inhumane Injuries that they have ever yet sustained. The Severity of that Persecution, ⟨p. 40⟩which at last had broke up the Congregations of them that had perfected their Testimony to the Kingly Office of the Lord Jesus, than Celebrating a Thanksgiving for it, indeed caused the Dissenters to Accept of Liberty, tho' upon some Terms which they approved not. You are not ignorant that we then told you, There would quickly come an Earthquake that should carry on that Liberty to more perfection; and behold it is now done in a Parliamentary Way! Blessed be God, that Protestants are come to a better understanding of their true Interest! May the Apples of Strife among them now be removed! May all Good men concur in pursuance of that Reformation, which God now calls His Church unto!

It is well-known, That those whose Consciences did not allow them, to worship God, in some Ways and Modes then by Law Established, were not many years ago, Persecuted with a violence, to be abhored by all sober Men. It is well known that Five and Twenty Hundred Faithful Ministers of the Gospel, were Silenced in one Black Day, because they could not comply with some