THE PETITION OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE TO THEIR KING Upon Account of the TREATY OF PEACE  
LONDON printed, and re-printed at EDINBURGH, 1697.   

A PETITION presented to the King of France. By the Protestants in his Kingdom, who have been formerly constrained to embrace the Roman Religion.  
To the KING.  
SIR.  
YOur Subjects, who profess a Religion which the Edicts call the Pretended Reformed, and of which you have forbid 'em the public Exercise for some Years, come to throw themselves at Your Majesty's Feet, to make known to Your Majesty their humble Remonstrances, and to implore Your Compassion upon their Miseries, which are so dreadful, that your Majesty cannot cast Your Eyes upon their deplorable Condition, without some Pity upon their Sufferings. Your Majesty, Sir, has always made it Your chief Glory to stop the Progress of Your Arms, and to suspend the Course of Your Victories, in order to give Peace to Europe. Must Your own Subjects, who never violated the Fidelity which they owe You, and which the Religion that they profess enjoins 'em to pay You, be the only Persons that are to be deprived of Your Royal Bounty? What have they done, and of what deformed Colours have their Enemys made use of, to black'n 'em in Your Majesty's Eyes?  
They are persuaded, that next to their Duty to God, they are obliged to pay Your Majesty an unlimited Obedience. They know no person upon Earth who can absolve 'em from that Fidelity which is Your due. To Fear God and Honour Your Majesty, to spend their Estates and Lives in Your Service, this among them is an inivolable Maxim which they take care to inculcat into their Children. No Troubles of the preceding Reigns can be imputed to them without the highest Injustice ▪ Your Majesty is too clearsighted, and Your Council too penetrating, not to be well satify'd that those Commotions were caused either by Princes, lawful Heirs to the Crown which they transmitted to Your Majesty, in defending it against those who attempted to usurp it, or by some Grandees o● the Kingdom, who never want Pretences, especially when they have conceived an Opinion, that a Chief Minister abuses the Authority of his Prince. In a word, since Your Majesty ascended the Throne, and took the Reins of Government into Your own Hands, Your Supplicants never departed from their Duty. They can also boast the Approbation wherewith your Majesty has honoured their Fidelity, which has always been firm and constant, tho' they were power●ully solicited in the time of Your Majesty's Minority, whose undoubeed Right they have always held Inviolable and Sacred.  
We make no question, Sir, but that we have been painted forth to Your Majesty, too much taken up with public Affairs, thoroughly to understand our Religion, as a sort of People whom a pure Spirit of Limbertinism held engaged in our Profession, and who would quit it without any Trouble or Remorse, so soon as they should behold it beset with Thorns, and environed with dreadful Calamities and Torments, by the multitude of Edicts and Declarations which they wrested in a manner out of Your Majesty's Hands. But we implor Your Majesty, Sir, by that Royal Goodness which causes the Repose of Your Subjects, to reflect at present upon the Counsels which have been given Your Majesty, and upon this pretended Libertinism, with which they have disfiguted us in Your Majesty's sight. They can never say, that a Spirit of Libertinism could oblige so many Thousand persons to quit their country, a Country full of all manner of Blessings, to beg their Bread among Foreigners, to expose themselves to the danger of being confined to Prisons, Cloisrers, or sent to the Galleys, as some have been of all Conditions and Characters. Of necessity, Sir, the Power of Conscience must be very great that can prevail with Men to undergo such Extremities.  
'Tis true, that if a Conscience ignorant and prejudiced by false principles should engage in Crimes that troubled the Repose of Society, Your Majesty had reason to suppress the preciousness of a Turbulent and Criminal Conscience. But, Sir, we are convinced that our greatest enemies can lay no such thing to our Charge Out Morals are pure, and without Reproach, in respect of God in respect of Your Majesty, and in respect of Society. As for our Doctrine, of what Error can they convict it? We admit the Symbols of Faith composed by the first Occumenic Councils, & the Symbol or Creed which is called the Apostles. We believe in one God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We believe ourselves redeemed by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ our God and Redeemer, provided we partake of the Merits of his Death and Sufferings, by a lively Faith, operating in good Works, and by a sincere Repentance. We admit in the Holy ●ucharist, a Spiritual Eating of the Flesh of Jesus Christ. We Baptize in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the Remission of Sins. We invoke the Almighty in the Name of Jesus Christ, and by his Intercession, as he commanded us. This, Sir, is the substance of our Religion. Your Doctors agree upon all these Articles, and admit 'em as we do.  
We cannot adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and it cannot be denied but that we should be idolaters if we should adore it, considering the Opinions which we hold; so that no body can constrain us to do it, without forcing us to commit the greatest of Crimes. We implore Your Majesty to think of it. Pardon us, Sir, if we speak freely to Your Majesty upon the Subject of our Tears and Groans. We are not, Sir, whatever Name they they give us; we are not those ancient heretics against whom the Church has justly fulminated, because they had nothing ●ut the Name of Christian, which they dishonoured as well by the Monstrousness of their Doctrine, as the Impurity of their Morals, If we refuse to believe the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences, the Invocation of Saints, the worship of Images, the Veneration of relics; and those other petty Devotions, invented by the Monks in the Later Ages, 'tis because those points are not to be found in the Holy Scripture, and we believe we cannot admit 'em with asafe Conscience upon the warrant of human Authority.  
We speak Sir of human Authority; for we are convinced, that if God had been pleased to erect a visible Tribunal upon Earth, to which we should submit our Consciences in Matters of Religion, this infallible Tribunal would without all contradiction, have been so characterized, that it would have been an easy thing to have known it. It highly concerned the Safety and Repose of the Consciences of the Faithful. Now Your Majesty well knows, that even in your own Communion, this Tribunal is a thing contested between the Peope and the Councils. All the Doctors of Your Kingdom decide it in favour of the Councils. All the Doctors of Italy and many others hold for the Pope. The Difficulties alleged on Both sides are so considerable that not being able with that Certainty which the Faith requires, to find out this infallible Tribunal, we believe it the fasest way to follow the Word of God only, for the Rule of Faith. And to us it seems that our Conduct has nothing in it of that Obstinacy which makes People Herrticks according to the Cannons of the Church.  
We pray to God. Sir, for the long Continuance and Prosperity of Your Majesty's Reign; but after all, Your Majesty is not Immortal. It may be, Sir, that upon the Bed of Death, perhaps Your Majesty then may come to be touched with some Apprehensions of of Fear and Compunction, for having constrained the Consciences of Your Subjects who still give Your Majesty an Account of their Faith with all Obedience and Respect, whenever you required it from them. For the sake of the Almighty, Sir, we implore Your majesty to consider, that perhaps at the last Moments of Your Life, the dreadful Calamities of so great a Number of Your Subjects, into which the Malice of People, counterfiting Devotion, have engaged Your Majesty to precipitate them, may come to present themselves before Your Eyes, and trouble the Repose of Your Soul. For in a word, Sir; permit us to speak it once more, what have we done to merit the drawing of Your Indignation upon us? Tho' our Religion were false; Your Majesty by sending Your Teachers among us to instruct us, has done all that God requires from a Christian Prince, without any Obligation that Piety laid upon You, to revoke Your Word and your Edicts. The same God who Ordains us to labour the Salvation of our Neighbours forbid● us to force the Conscience and constrain men to turn Hypocrites whether they will or no We can hardly believe that the Violences which have been offered us e'er came to the knowledge of your Majesty, or that You would endure that the History of Your Glorious Reign shall be clouded with the Relations of them, and that ever it should be said, that You persecnted Your most faithful Subjects, because they desired to worship God according to his Word, and the Motions of their Consciences, without any other Defect in their Duty. For these several Years that we have suffered, we have carefully examined our Religion. We can also say, tho' it should prove to our shane, that we have examined it with a secret Desire to meet with Errors in it, that we might be free to follow Your Majesty's Order: But this Examination has served to no other purpose then to corroberate us in the Faith we have professed from our Infancy.  
We kept ourselves in silence, so long as your Majesty was engaged in this toilsome War. Now that you are labouring the Peace of Europe, vouchsafe us, Sir. what we demand with all the Respect we owe Your Majesty, the Peace of our Consciences. Some implore your Majesty ▪ to restore 'em their Wives and their Children; others demand their Fathers and their Husbands, Some pray Your Majesty, that they may be delivered from cloisters, Prisons, and Barbarous Climates, where they are confined among Savages; others to be released from Chains and Oats, where they sit bound among the worst of Caitiffs. Let us not be the only Persons in distress, to whom your Throne and Goodness are inaccessible. We beg of your Majesty, to live peaceably, as humble Subjects, and faithful to your Majesty, with Liberty to Worship God according to our Consciences. Suffer, Sir, Oh, suffer a great Number of Your Subjects, whom their Religion has constrained to depart Your Kingdom; to return again, that they may en their Days under Your Royal Authority, and call upon God one among another as we were accustomed to do.  
Receive, Great Sir, with your wonted Goodness, this Petition, which would have been subscribed by several Thousands of Persons, if your Majesty would have given us Permission. Give Ear to our just Demands. We address ourselves to Your Majesty, We Supplicate Your Majesty to cast your Eyes upon our Miseries, and upon the Tears which we privately  shed in our Families. Our Fidelity is known to Your Majesty; return us, Great Sir, your Protection, and the Effects of Your Goodness, and your justice, which have been taken from us by surprise, and upon false Accusations, which have aggravated Your Majest's Prejudice against us. We shall pray to God, as still we do, for the Prosperity of your Reign, and of your Sacred Person, and we shall leave to our Children the same just Sentiments of Obedience and Fidelity.