There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part of that nation it governs.  The execution of the known laws of the land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in France were not to be compared with.  Now, to execute the known laws of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, but justice.  But justice is always violence to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.  The first execution of the laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the First; and what did it amount to truly?  The worst they suffered was at their own request:  to let them go to New England and erect a new colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and receive no taxes or revenue from them.  This was the cruelty of the Church of England.  Fatal leniency!  It was the ruin of that excellent prince, King Charles the First.  Had King James sent all the Puritans in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire.

To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and desperate counsels, and craft without conscience.

Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, and the consequences had been plain:  his son had never been murdered by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed.  It was too much mercy shown them was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation’s peace.  One would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility.

Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible.  What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth?  How did they put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and starve their families?  How did they treat the clergy of the Church of England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve?  Just such measure as they have meted should be measured them again.