IT was in the heat of the Persecution of the Prote­stant Churches of France, that I first read Lactantius's Relation of the Death of the Primitive Persecu­tors. The Cruelties practised in his Age upon the Christians, and revived in ours with so much inhuma­nity upon our Brethren in France, put me upon the thoughts of making a Parallel between the Ancient Persecu­tors Lactantius speaks of, and our worse Modern ones under Lewis XIV. And indeed I was the more tempted to it, by the great likeness I found there was between them and the French King's Cruel Instruments; but having read over the ingenious Preface to that Book, written by the now Learned Bishop of Sarum, I then altered my Design, because I thought such a Parallel was sufficiently done already, very concisely in that [Page 2]Preface. And I had continued still in the same mind, but that an Account of the new Barbarities committed in France, upon the Protestants of the Lower Aquitaine, being come to my hand, and being so earnestly solicited to publish it, I think it will not be amiss to prefix to it a much larger Com­parison between those Tyrants, that we may see how like the French King is to the Ancient Persecutors, and that he follows their steps not only in the Persecution, but also in all their other Vices, if he does not far exceed them. I have been so much the more induced to this, by the strange pro­ceedings of a certain Party amongst us, who yet pretending to be Protestants, are yet nevertheless eager to fall down and Worship the Golden Image of such a Monster as this, and forgetting what they owe to their God, to Their Majesties, under whom they lead quiet and peaceable Lives, and to their Country, are fond of having for their King, the Ene­my of Mankind, the Invader of the Liberties of Europe, and the greatest Persecutor of the Christian Religion that ever was in the World. I intend in the first place to set the Characters Lactantius gives of the Persecutors of the Primi­tive Church, with the Method they made use of in their Persecution, and afterwards I'll shew that those Characters do perfectly agree with the French King, and that he has taken the very same Measures to destroy the Christian Reli­gion in his Kingdom, as the former took to abolish it in the Roman Empire. But because the World tends always to a greater perfection; I'll shew also that this French King has exceeded Maximian, Valerian, and other Persecutors in Barbarity.

The Characters Lactantius gives of his Persecutors, are these; 1. That they were addicted to the Brutalities of several Pleasures. 2. That they ruined their Subjects by severe Impositions, and heavy Taxes for maintaining vast Armies. 3. That they shewed in their Wars some Pusilanimity, or at least more care than was decent for preserving themselves from all danger. 4. That they were so weak as to be fondly pleased with the most excessive Flatteries could be made them, and assumed undeservedly the most glorious Titles, even some to Blasphemy it self. 5. That they were [Page 3]profuse in the raising of costly Buildings. 6. That they were suc­cessful for many Years together in their undertakings. And Lastly, That they had Fearful, Superstitious, and Cruel Tempers. These are the Characters of those Ancient Persecutors: I must observe now what was the pretence of their persecutions, and the method they made use of to compass their horrid design.

What the pretence of their Persecutions was, we may read in an Edict of Maximian himself quoted by Lactantius and Evsebius in his Ecclesiastical History, Lib. 8. Chap. 1. in which 'tis said, That the Christians having forsaken the Religion of their Forefathers, and framed new Laws to govern themselves by, the Emperors thought themselves obliged to Publish their Edicts to force them to return to their first Institutions. The measures they took to compass their Design were these: 1. They pulled down the Christian Churches. 2. They declared the Christians incapable of all Honours, Trusts, or Offices, either Civil or Military. 3. They put them out of the protection of the Law, inso­much that they could not sue for any injuries done them. 4. Afterwards they commanded all the Christians to abjure their Religion. 5. But seeing that they stood firm to their Rules, they practised all the Cruelties imaginable upon them. 6thly. and Lastly. All the Books of the Sacred Scripture, they could find, were burnt by their Orders. Having thus observed the Characters of those Primitive Persecutors; the pretence of their Persecution, and the method they made use of to destroy the Christian Religion, I must give you now a plain Idea of this French King, and shew what has been his pretence in Per­secuting, with so much Inhumanity, his Protestant Subjects; and what measures he has taken to abolish the Protestant Reli­gion in his Kingdom.

1. I think it will be very needless to shew, how that the French King has delivered himself up to the Brutalities of sensual Pleasures; For who is unacquainted with his many Adulteries? Aud who has not heard of the famous Ladies, La Valiere, Fontange, and Montespan, and of the many Children he has got by them? But I cannot pass over this Subject without obser­ving, That the Lady Montespan being Married to a Noble [Page 4] French man, and the French King Married too, he has com­mitted the blackest of all Adulteries. I do not read in Histo­ry, that those Monsters Lactantius speaks of, have been guilty of such a Crime as this: But supposing they had, they were less Criminal than the French King, because they could plead in their defence the examples of their Gods: Whereas Lewis the XIVth. cannot have such an excuse, living under the seeming Profession of a Christian Religion; which though very much corrupted, yet informs him, that Adultery is one of the horridst Crimes in the sight of God; and that it is in express terms forbidden in his Law. I hope this is enough, without being obliged to speak of the Lady Maintenon, some believing that she is really his Wife.

2. I am next to prove, That the Fremch King has ruined his Subjects by Severe Impositions, and heavy Taxes for maintain­ing his vast Armies; and this I can make out with as much ease, as I have done his Vices. Though Charles the great was Em­peror of Germany, King of Italy, and of France, yet he never maintained in time of Peace near Four hundred thousand men, as this French King has done. Every body knows how vast a charge such an Army must needs be to the French People; for their King having not as yet (as ever I heard of) found the Philosopher's Stone, 'tis their Blood, and the sweat of their Brows, I mean, their Money, that must maintain this prodigi­ous Number of Soldiers, the Tools used for their Slavery, and the unconfined Ambition of their Prince. The bare List of the Taxes imposed upon them by this present King, is enough to make a Volume, therefore I must forbear a particular Re­lation of them; but to give you a true Idea of the number and heaviness of those Impositions, Let me only observe to you, what was the Annual Revenue of Lewis the XIth. who sufficiently invaded the Liberties of his People; and that of Lewis the XIIIth. and afterwards we shall see what that of the present French King amounts to. The Annual Revenue of Lewis the XIth. was Four millions, and Seven hundred thousand Li­vers; but that Sum being found too heavy upon the Nation, in his Son King Charles the VIIIth. his Reign, his Revenue at the desire of the States of Parliament Assembled at Tours, was [Page 5]reduced to Two millions, five hundred thousand Livers. But since that time the Revenues of the Kings of France have pro­digiously increased, as those Prince's insatiable thirst after the Slavery of their People, insomuch that the late King Lewis the XIIIth. his Revenue amounted to Five and fifty millions of Livers. But that Sum being then thought, with a great deal of Reason, to be highly exorbitant, the French Nation com­plained very much of the hard usage they received from their King: But what would they give now to have such a one, since even his Exorbitance was tolerable, nay, easy and gentle, in comparison with that of their present Oppressor? For as the world is said to refine every day upon us, and much to exceed the Ancient; so this French King, finding such a Sum too lit­tle for his vast Projects and Designs, hath, through a most transcendent refinedness in Politicks, contrived a thousand ways to drain his Peoples Purses, and hath attained to such a singular and masterly perfection in this Art, that now his Annual Revenue, according to the state of the Royal Trea­sures, Amounts to near a Hundred and fifty millions. And if we take into consideration this prodigious Sum, together with what comes to the Clergy, we shall not be surprized at the miserable condition of the French Nation (especially in this time of War) for want of Trade.

3. I hope the French King is very like to the Persecutors of Lactantius, as to the two preceding Characters. Let us see now if he comes short of them in the Third, viz. In want of Courage, or at least in shewing more care than is decent to preserve himself from all danger. I must confess, the Parallel is not very exact in this particular, for this French King goes beyond them all in Baseness, and downright Cowardice. I read in the Roman History, that Dioclesian, though Vicious, and a Persecu­tor, shewed nevertheless some Courage in a Battel against Ca­rinus his Competitor; and in reducing Aquileus one of his Ge­nerals, who had caused himself to be Proclaimed Emperor in in Egypt. That Maximian, sirnamed the Herculian, has been present in several Battels and Rencounters; and that Galerius Maximian routed Narseus King of the Persians in a Bloody Battel in Armenia. And yet notwithstanding those Actions, [Page 6]if they have been taxed with Baseness and Pusillanimity by Lactantius, and other Writers, What must we say of the French King? He that never had the Courage to Command his Army in a day of Battel, and who has never Besieged any Town, till after he had made the Bargain sure for it.

4. I have said, That the Primitive Persecutors were so weak, as to be fondly pleased with the most excessive flatteries could be made them, and assumed undeservedly the most Glorious Titles, even some to Blasphemy it self. And I am to prove in this place, that the French King will by no means be inferior to them in this point, no more than in the former. He has assumed the Title of Great, which never man before him did in his own life time; he has taken the Sun for his Emblem, with this proud Motto, nec plu­ribus impar, to signify that he is the Phaeniz of the world, and truly he is in the right on't, not however in his opinion, but only in mine: For I steadfastly believe there is not a man in the world that can equal him in so many bad qualities. He has suffered his Statue to be set up in publick Places, and to be harangued by Academies, and Corps de ville, which is their Common Council, and to be represented as Lording it over the Earth and the Sea. But the most Blasphemous of all, is that of the place called des Victoirs, where one may see him crowned by Victory, trampling Heresy under his feet, and the Four Parts of the Earth represented by Four Slaves, chain­ed to the Pedastal, with this impious Motto, VIRO IM­MORTALI, the Immortal Man. This has been thought so Blasphemous, even to Father Menestrier, tho a most egre­gious Flatterer himself, that in his History of this French King by the Medals, he has been ashamed to relate this Motto in the description he gives of that place. I could quote a Thousand other instances of this nature, but I must forbear, for fear of being too tedious: However, I hope the Reader will not take it amis if I shew him how Monsieur Pelisson (one of the Academy of Paris) speaks of his Master in a Panegyrick pronounced by him, and which is Printed in the last Edition of the Transacti­ons of that Academy. Antiquity, says he, had a great and noble reward in store for Heroes, viz. their Apotheosis, or Trans­lation of them into the number of the Gods. At the Funeral of one [Page 7]of the greatest of their Emperors, there was one of the Patrician Family, who Swore, That he saw the Emperors Soul fly up to Heaven in a most splendid Triumph. The same Ancients imagined, That the Souls or Genii of these Heroes did oversee and influence the great Actions here below, and were of the swiftest agility in going about this their charge: But sure I am, if ever any Prince deserved such an Apotheosis, or Translation into the Number of the Gods, our Invincible and August Monarch merits it in a transcendent degree; all his actions are Godlike, and his influence on the whole Affairs of Europe are so universal, that he seems to participate of the Nature and Power of that Universal Intelligence that rules all sublunary things: Such expressions are certainly impious, but yet they are very modest in comparison of these which follow a little after in the same Panegyrick. If these Pagans, who fondly would have sacrificed to the Two Apostles, and said of them, the Gods are come down among us, had been the eye witnesses of the mighty Actions of Lewis le Grand, which contain so many Lineaments of a Deity, they would have had more reason to have erected Altars to this Divinity of France, than to all those of An­tiquity. If this be not Blasphemy, I am then to learn where it may be found, or what it is that we call Impiety: And sure I am, that Diocletian himself was not so guilty in assuming the Title of God; since he had the examples of Caligula and Domitian, to justifie him in that shameful piece of vanity, by the like in those his Two Predecessors: 'Tis said also of that Heathen Prince, that to appear more like God to the People, he was wont to wear a Suit set thick with Precious Stones; And has not this vanity too been imitated by the present French King when he gave Audience to the Ambassadors of Siam?

5. Lactantius says, That the Primitive Persecutors were pro­fuse in the raising of costly Buildings, and so is this French King. That ingenious Writer observeth, That Diocletian laid many Taxes on several Provinces, to build in Nico­media fine Palaces for himself, for his Wife, and for his Daughters, and an Hippodrome, an Arsenal, and a Mint-house: But what were those Buildings in comparison with those of this French King, if we consider that the very Lead [Page 8]alone imployed at Versailles, cost near Above Two Millions Ster­ling. Thirty Millions? He observeth also, That no sooner were those Buildings finished, but he found some fault or other in them, and then he caused them to be all pulled down again, to re­build after another manner, according to a new Caprice that came in his head, though even then they were not secured from other Alterations. And is not this a lively Picture of the madness of this French King? Have not the Louvre, Versailles and Triennon, been built and pulled down, and afterwards rebuilt, and then levelled with the ground se­veral times over? So like is Lewis the XIVth. to that An­cient Persecutor. I have done with this Subject when I have related a passage which proveth how profuse the French King hath been for the beautifying his Palaces. The pro­posal made to him for this Machine which draws the Wa­ter from the River Seine near Marly, to the Water-spouts of Versailles; was looked upon at first as that made formerly to Alexander about Mount Athos, not however so much for the difficulty of that Machine, as for the prodigious Sums of Money which were demanded to bring it to its perfection; and therupon his Wise Councellors endeavoured to disswade him from so costly a design; but he asked them, Whether they believ'd the thing was possible? And upon their Answering, That they thought it might be so in it self, but not in the circumstances his Exchequer was in; Well then, said the King, since that Machine is possible, I will have it, and it shall be done, if there be any Money in France. It cost at first above 6000 l. and since above 15000. every Year.

6. Lactantius observeth, That the Primitive Persecutors were successful for many Years together, but their end was deplorable: Upon which, though I do not pretend to determine what will be the End of this French King, yet I say, he is so like those Ancient Monsters, as well in his Successes, as in all the other preceding Characters, that it will not be so impertinent as it may seem at first, to believe that the Exit of his Impious Life may be in a very Tragical manner, as well as theirs were, who were the Primitive Perse­cutors. That he has been succeseful for these many Years, [Page 9]I think no body can deny; and if we but cast our eyes upon his prodigious Conquests, we must confess, that con­sidering the circumstances of the present times, they are more considerable, than those of the Persecutors we speak of: All things have smiled upon him near these Thirty years last, and 'tis upon that account his Flatterers have said, that he is the Sovereign disposer of the Fate of the World.

7. I come now to the last Character Lactantius gives of his Persecutors, viz. That they had Fearful, Superstitious, and Cruel Tempers; and I am to shew that this French King is of the like Complexion too: But having already proved that he wants Courage, I have at the same time shewed how Fearful his Temper was, and how little he deserved the Title of a Warlike Prince. As to his Superstition, I hope I need not to say any thing upon that Topick, for who is ignorant of it? Truly he must be Superstitious to the last degree, and wholly unacquainted with God's Mercy, who believes or hopes to obtain the forgiveness of his many repeated Adulteries, and other Sins, by committing new Crimes under the false pretences of Converting Here­ticks. Though Nero, Domitian, and Maximian have been so Cruel, that it seems their Successors must yield to them in Inhumanity; yet here is a new Competiter who is like to win the prize from them all: This Rival is Lewis the XIVth. for if we compare his Cruelties (with­out exagerating the matter in the least) with those of the Primitive Persecutors, we shall find that he is far superior to them. I must set aside at present the Cru­elties practised under pretence of Religion, to consider of those committed upon other accounts. Indeed I read in History, That those execrable Monsters put to Death a great many of their Subjects upon frivolous pretences, and that one of them had a mind to set Rome on Fire; but I do not find any Tracts of their Inhumanity so frightful as the Rubbish and Ashes of Frankendal, Manh [...]i [...], Spire, and Worms. But perhaps it will be objected, That this is not a good proof of this French King's Cruelties, for those Places be­longing [Page 10]to his Enemies, the Military Law allows such se­vere Treatment. To this I Answer, That the Military Law allows no such Actions among Christians, nor has it ever been allowed to destroy a Country by Fire and Sword in that Inhuman manner this French King has destroyed the Palatinate; where so many People of all Ages and conditi­ons have been Murthered; where so many Towns have been Plundered and Burnt, notwithstanding the Words and Assurances given them by the Dolphin himself at their Ca­pitulations; and where so many fine Churches and Reli­gious Houses, as well as the Prince's Palaces have been destroyed, and levelled with the ground, and all this almost without any Declaration of War.

What I have said is sufficient, I hope, to make a true Parallel between the Persecutors of the Primitive Church, and one of this Age, and to convince all the world, that there is an extream likeness betwixt them. I shall there­fore now proceed to inquire, into what have been the French King's pretences to this Bloody Persecuti­on of the Protestants of his own Countrey. I have already ob­served in the beginning of this Parallel, That the first Christians were Persecuted under pretence that they had forsaken the Reli­gion of their forefathers, and framed new Assemblies, and new Laws; whereby the Emperors had been forc'd to publish their Edicts, to oblige them to return to their first Institutions: And I must desire you to observe here, That 'tis upon the very same account that the French Hugonots have been so Cru­elly Persecuted in our Days. Are we not accused for having forsaken the Religion of our fore-fathers, and to have rejected the precepts of our dear Mother the Church? Are we not charged with having framed new Laws, and new Assemblies to govern our selves by, and to break the Union of the Church? And is it not upon this account that the Tyrant of France has Publish'd likewise his Edicts to oblige the Protestants of his Kingdom, to return to their first Institutions; that is to say, to the Profession of the Roman Catholick Religion, from which he supposed they were wilfully, and without any ground, separated? [Page 11]But let us hear what the French King says himself in the Preface of that famous Edict given in October 1685. to re­peal that of Nants. He says, That Henry the IV. his Grand­father had no other design in putting forth the Edict, called de Nantes, than to lessen the Aversion which was between the Protestants and the Catholicks, to be thereby enabled to effect more successfully the Reunion of the said Prote­stants to the Church of Rome, from which they had depart­ed upon such slight pretences. That his Father Lewis XIII. had the same design, and that he himself since his coming to the Throne, had endeavoured the same thing, but with that good effect, that the greatest and the most considerable part of his Subjects were dutifully return'd to the Profession of the Religion of their Fore-fathers. Having thus observed that the Characters of the Ancient Persecutors, and that of the Modern, are so like; and that the pretence of their Per­secution is the same; I intend to consider in this place the Method the French King has taken to compass his design, that we may see if the Parallel between them is exact in all its parts.

1. We have seen in the first place, that the Persecutors began their Persecution against the Christians by pulling down their Churches; and here we must again observe, that this French King began to persecute the Hugonots by the very same method. 'Tis true it was not with such Rage as the Heathens shewed on this occasion; it was with some colourable appearance of Justice, which was still worse than an open Violence, because the Protestants were obli­ged to be at vast Charges to make good their Titles, and yet for all that they were afterwards Condemn'd, and 'tis no wonder indeed, since their Enemies were their Judges. In fine then, the most part of the Protestant Churches were pulled down under a frivolous pretence, viz. That they were established against the Disposition of the Edicts, or because some Mahometans had been present in the Assemblies, which was prohibited by an Edict given in 1680.

2. The Christians were declared during the Primitive Persecutions, incapable of all Honours, and Publick Trusts, and Offices, as well Civil as Military; and the French Protestants have been treated with the same Inhumanity by their Prince, which I am now to prove. Les Chambres de l'Edict, which were Soveraign Courts, composed of an equal number of Protestants, and Romanists, and to which the Causes of the Protestants were referred, were suppressed, and afterwards all the Inferior Judges of the Kingdom. In a word, all Civil Officers and Magistrates, that were Protestants, were turned by force out of their Imployments. The Military Officers were not, I confess, used with so much severity, for there was no Declaration come forth against them; but however they were obliged to leave their Service, because they could not hope to come to any great Preferment; the Office of a Captain being their greatest reward, notwithstanding their long, faithful, continued Services. To all those Vexations, they added another no less cruel and unjust, the Protestants were for­bidden in several Parts of the Kingdom to Exercise any Trade or Art, in order to take away from them all means of getting their Livelihood, and induce them to turn Pa­pists. The King himself by a Declaration in 1680, prohi­bited all the Protestants to practice the Art of Midwifry. What can be imagined more unjust and cruel than the Per­securion of France? What, I say, more cruel and unjust can be imagined, than to deprive so many Magistrates of their Offices? What more cruel than to prohibit Prote­stants the Exercise of the Natural Gifts God had endowed them with to get their Livelihood? And what more unjust and opposite to the Christian Charity, than to throw so many Men into the lowest Poverty, and force them to beg their Bread? And all this against the express terms of the Edict of Nantes, where one may read the following words in the 27th Article, We declare the Protestants capable of all Imployments, Dignities, Offices, and Charges, whatever they be, &c. and against the very Oath and Promise given by this French King.

3. Lactantius has observed, That the Christians were put out of the Protection of the Laws, that they might not sue for Wrongs and Injuries done to them; and have not the Protestant, in France received the like Treatment from their King; their Judges and Magistrates being forced out of their places? So that they seldom obtained Justice; and the strongest Argument their Parties used against them, was, That they were Hugonots, which was sufficient to make them lose their Cause.

4. After all these Vexations and Persecutions, which ac­quired them but very few Proselites; the Persecutors began at last to take off their Mask, and the Intendants of the Provinces at the head of the Booted Missionaries, required in the Kings Name, all the Protestants to abjure their Re­ligion, as the old Persecutor, commanded all the Christians to return to their Ancient Institution. I will not trou­ble my Reader with a thousand instances of this nature, which I could give, but I cannot forbear mentioning what happened at Bergerac in Perigord, where I was by chance at that very time. 'Tis a pretty considerable Town, situated upon the River Dordoigne, and the most part of its Inha­bitants were Protestants; they had suffered in 1682, a great Persecution, and with so much Courage and steady Resolution, that only two Hugonots, as I was informed, did forsake their Religion; and that Church was look'd upon by the Persecutors, as a nest of Hereticks, and which was likely to make the gr [...]at [...]st Resistance, therefore they designed to attack it in an extraordinary manner. The Mar­quis de Boufflers, Commander in chief of the French Kings Forces in Aquitaine, went with the Intendant, and two Bi­shops, at the head of five or six thousand Men; they set out Guards round about the Town, and in the Streets, and no body was suffered to come out; and aftewards they called together the inhabitants into the Town-house, where the In­tendant made them a fine Speech. Because the thing seemed to me very extraordinary, I went in among the Croud, and I heard the Intendant tell them among other things, That the King his Master being persuaded of their ob­stinacy [Page 14]in continuing thier Separation from the Church without any grounds, he was resolved out of his Royal Mercy to reconcile them to her Holy Communion; and that therefore they must ei­ther voluntarily renounce their Heresy, or they should be compelled to do it according to the precept of the Gospel. One may easily guess what a cruel Stab these words were to the hearts of these poor Inhabitants; and yet with a noble Bravery they return'd him this Answer, That their Estates and Lives being in the power of the King, they were resolved to undergo all manner of hardships as to them; but God alone being the Master of their Consciences, they would rather suffer a thousand Deaths, than renounce his true Religion which they professed.

5. I have observed how the Primitive Persecutors, seeing that notwithstanding all their Persecutions, the Christians still stood firm to their Rules, practised more and more upon them all manner of Cruelties; and Lactantius gives this following Description of the horrid Punishments they condemned many Christians to. They were, says he, first chained to a Post, then there was a gentle Fire set un­der the Soles of their Feet, by which all the Callus of the Foot was shrivel'd up, till at last it fell off from the Bones; then Flambeaux were lighted and put out, and while they were not, clapt to all the parts of their Bodies, that so they might be tortured all over; and care was taken to keep them alive as long as was possible, by throwing cold Water on their Faces, and every now and then giving them some­what to cool and refresh their Mouths, lest otherwise the Violence of the Misery they suffered, should quite dry up their Throats, and so choak them. Thus their Sufferings were lengthned out whole days, till at last their Skin being quite consumed by the Fire, it reached their Vitals, and then a great Fire was kindled, into which they were thrown, and so their Bodies were burnt to Ashes, and their Bones that were not wholly destroyed, were gathered and ground­ed to Powder, and then thrown into some River, or else in­to the Sea. Truly the lively Picture of this horrid Tor­ment is very dismal and hideous. And were I as Eloquent [Page 15]as Lactantius, or at least, capable of putting what Mon­sieur Claude hath said of the Sufferings of the French Prote­stants into a graceful Turn in English. I would undertake to make as frightful a Portraicture as this of that famous Writer.

The Infernal Missionnaries set on foot, says he, to convert the French Protestants did with a thousand Blasphemies, and execrable Oaths, hang up Men and Women by their Hairs of their Head, or downwards by their Feet in the smoak of wet Hay, where they were almost choaked to Death; and when they had taken them down, and let them come a little to themselves, if they would not then turn Papists, they hung them up again.

They pinched their Beards off, and their Hairs of their Heads, till they had made an absolute Depilation.

They threw them into great Fires, and when they were half roasted, took them up again, and tying them under the Arm-pits, dipped them in cold Water again and again, till they had made them promise to renounce their Heresy. They tied up some others (like Criminals, who were to suffer the Rack) and then with a Funnel poured strong Wines down their Throats, till its Vapours getting up into their heads had almost drowned their Reason, and then they asked them to be reconciled to the Church. They strip'd them stark naked, and after a thousand horrid Indignities, they stuck all their Bodies with Pins. They mangled others in a most strange manner with Pen-knives; and their Inhumanity went so far, as to take them by the Nose with hot Tongs, till they forced them to a compliance. They struck others with Sticks, and when they were almost dead, carried them into the Churches, where their bare Presence was taken for a formal Abjuration. They kept them from sleeping for se­ven or eight days together, either by throwing fresh Wa­ter on their Faces, or by making a horrid Noise with Drums or Kettles. If they could find any Sick, they caused the Drums to be beat round their Beds, and so obliged those miserable Creatures to renounce their Religion. Sometimes they tied Parents and Husbands to Bed-posts, and then would attempt to Ravish their Daughters, and their Wives, [Page 16]before their faces. They pulled their Nails off their hands and Feet, which is the most acute and sensible Pain ima­ginable; and if any of them died, they were drawn to the common Lay-stalls, and there eaten up by Dogs, and other Beasts.

I should never have done, if I were to give in Retail an Account of all the Barbarities committed on the French Pro­testants; therefore I will content my self with these particu­lars, which I hope are sufficient to prove, that I could make as gastly a Picture of the Persecution of our Age, as Lactan­tius has done of that of the Primitive Christians. But if this be not enough, I refer my Reader to a Book, called, The Complaints of the persecuted Protestants in France, at which the French King was so offended, that at the desire of his Mini­ster here at our Court, it was publikly burnt in the late King's time.

6. To make an exact Parallel between the Modern and Ancient Persecutors, it remains only to inquire further, whether the Books of the Holy Scripture have not been burnt by the French King's orders, as well as by Maximians: But this I think will be out of question, since we have here so many thousand Witnesses, who can all attest the truth of that horrid Impiety; for tho I have seen it with my own Eyes, yet I do not desire to be believed upon my single Word or Testimony.

I have sufficiently made out the Parallel I promised be­tween the French King, and the Persecutors of the Primitive Church. I have shewed that they were alike in their Tem­pers, and in their Actions; that the pretences of their Per­secution have been the same, and that they have made use of the like Methods to compass their design. I must ne­vertheless observe, that those Ancient Monsters cannot pre­tend to come up to the late heights of Cruelty, but must yield therein to the French King; they persecuted the Chri­stians, because they denied their Gods to be Gods, and maintained that some of them had never been, and that the others were vicious Men, and dead long ago: We know, says Tertullian to them, where some of your Gods are buried. [Page 17]Besides, they were not prohibited by the Laws of their Gods to be cruel towards the Christians; but on the con­trary, Lactantius observeth, That Apollo being consulted by Dioclesian, advised him to persecute them with the last Severity, which maketh their Persecution a little excusa­ble: But what can excuse the French King's Cruelty? Do the Protestants deny the God the Papists worship, I mean the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be the true God? If they say with them, That the Son is dead for our Sins; do not they say also, That he rose again from the dead? Had the French King been so canticus as Dioclesian, that is, had he consulted the holy Word of his God, he would have seen how contrary the Meekness and Charity of that, is to his Cruelty and Persuecution. And I dare say, that if he had consulted Innocent the XI. who was to have been his God upon Earth; I doubt very much, whether he would have advised him to be so barbarous towards his own Subjects. I'll add but a Reflection about the Books of the Holy Scripture which have been burnt by the Ancient and Modern Persecutorss; and I say, that the Maximians, the Dioclesians, &c. looking upon those Books as Impious and Blasphemous against their Gods, they were less crimi­nal in condemning them to the fire, than the French King, who, if he be a Christian, cannot look upon the Prote­stant Bibles without some Respect and Reverence, being the Law, and the Will of his God, notwithstanding the few in considerable Alterations they pretend we have made in our Translation.

The Persecution of the French Protestants having been so viole [...]t as we have seen, according to this Vulgar Axiom, Nihil violentum est diuturnum; it should not have lasted a very long time, and yet it hath continued some five and twen­ty years, or more, (but especially since the late King Charles's Death) without abating any thing of its Rigour and Cruelty. It was thought also, that the French King being so taken up in defending himself against so many Enemies, might have cool'd his Anger for a while; but we were mightily mistaken, for he every day increases his Rage and Fury against them, because he looks upon them as his [Page 18]nearest, and so worst Enemies, believing that after the many Persecutions and Hardships he hath made them suffer, they would soon joyn with the English in case of any Descent. Every new year affords new Barbarities, and especially this; for the Protestants have been dealt with more severely in all parts of France this last, than they had been the three or four years before. It seems however that the Lower Aquitaine has been the Scene of their greatest In­humanities; and a true Relation thereof being come in­to my hands, I am desired to publish it, and as willing to gratisy so reasonable a Request. The Account is as fol­lows.