In the year 1640. he prefented a petition to the long parliament, feting forth a brief narrative of his great and many sufferings and hardships. While the petition was reading, the boufe of Commons burft out into tears. And the Clerk of that house was ordered to ftop, .once and again, till they had given some vent to their compaffion; and recovered themselves to fuch a compofure of mind, as to be fit to attend and hear the reft. When they had confidered the cafe, they released him from prison, and voted that Dr. Laud, then Archbishop of Canterbury, should give fatisfaction to Dr. Leighton, for the damages fuftained, by 15 weeks imprisonment in Newgate, upon the faid Bishop's warrant, &c. They likewise voted, that the fine of 10,000l. the fentence of corporal punishment, the execution thereof, and the imprifonment thereupon, were all illegal. But no fufficient reparation, in this world, could poffibly be made to a man fo highly injured. Dr. Leighton was of a low ftature, of a fair complection, and well known for his learning, and other abilities. And he must have had an excellent conftitution to have lived fo long, under fuch cruel treatment. But his long and close confinement (added to his other tharp fufferings) had fo impaired his health; that, when he was released, he could hardly walk, see, or hear. The The fufferings of that learned man moved the compaffion of the honeft and unprejudiced people; and a brief recital of them melted the houfe of Commons into tears: but Bishop Laud could pull off his cap, and devoutly thank God, when that cruel fentence was paffed and could likewife coolly meditate upon it, in his closet; and record the terrible execution of it, very minutely, in his diary; though the humane and compaffionate fpirit of his great Lord and Mafter, would have taught him to have abhorred fuch cruelty in others; and much more to have kept at the utmost distance from being the chief cause and author of it, himself. Thus have I fet before my reader another inftance of Proteftants perfecuting of proteftants: Such an instance this! as the records of the deteftable court of inquifition can hardly furnish an example of greater cruelty. The Church of Rome, indeed, feems to be incurable. And the inftances of the most barbarous cruelty there, fo many and fo aggravated, that there is no occafion for me to recite any particular inftances of that kind. Let the Albigenfes and Waldenfes; let Eng land, Scotland, and Ireland, of old; let Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal; let the East and Weft Indies, at prefent; let the whole world, wherever they have had power, ftand up, and be witreffes to Popish cruelty. As As for Proteftants, they have not formerly been fo guilty as the Church of Rome; nor am I afraid of their ever becoming fo guilty. However, to root out all remains of this leven, it is right to hold up to their view fome of the worst inftances of this kind, which have happened among them; that, pofterity may avoid their fore-fathers faults; that perfecution, in all the kinds and degrees of it, may be utterly detested and abhorred; and that perfons of various parties may behave like Chriftians, one towards another: and, though they cannot all think alike, they may never theleffe preferve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and love. As to Perfecution, "it is the off-fpring of "hell; tramples upon the facred and invio"lable rights of confcience; invades the pre rogative of the most high God; roots up fair Liberty, the greatest bleffing upon earth; fpreads terror and devaftation all around; and, by its baseful influence, blasts every thing within its reach," ་ 7 As a friend, therefore, to the civil and religious liberties of mankind, and to the glory and honor of God, the benevolent maker and governor of the world; I would do all the little that is in my power, to banish Perfecution from off the face of the earth, and to diffufe the fpirit of peace and love, which is the temper and bleffing of the pure and hap py manfions of immortality! TRACT, |