To the KING and both Houses of Parliament.  
FRiends Remember, You must all come to judgement before the ●ne everlasting Judge from whom there is no Appeal to any other: who is no respecter of Persons, he is the on●●udge of the Conscience, All judgement in He●v n, and Earth is committed unto him, as ye love the good of your own Souls and outward prosperity, Beware that you meddle not with his Prerogative, who is the judge of Conscience, who toucheth the Conscience and awakens it, and when the Conscience is a wakened and trouble enters because of s●●se ●f sin and tr●nsgression, All the Kings on Earth cannot quiet Conscience again, and seeing you cannot quiet Conscience, nor wound Conscience as to make sensibl● of sin, you had best not m●ddle to persecute any simply upon the matter of Conscience, for if by violence you make any sin, and do that which is against their Consciences, and if they be troubled for it you cannot give them peace, you cannot excuse them before God, therefore beware you force not People in matters of Conscience, least God in his wrath rise up in your own Consciences, and then you may come to see what it is to have a troubled Conscience: On King and those that in Parliament sit, be it known unto you all that it is the living God that hath troubled, and awakened our Consciences and made Us sensible of our sins that grieved the Lord, who by his power in Us hath wroug●t in a mighty m●nner in th● way of his judgments which were terrible to the man of sin in Us, and to us as we wer● joined to the sin, so we have known the terrors of the Lord, and his wrath hath burned in us because of sin, and in that day thou and all thy parliament were far from Us to give Us any ease, or peace, ●ut the Cry in Us was to the Lord that his ●ye might not pitty, not his hand spare, nor his fire to cease until the sin and transgression was done away, which caused the Lords displeasure, against us, and now the Lord hav●ng appeared in Us in the way of his judgements whereby he hath purged many, and put an end to the Sin, and finished the transgression, and hath broug●t in the everlasting Righteousness, and so by his own everlasting power he gath●red Us into many Assemblies in these Nations, and the Lord is mighty by his Spirit in our Ass mblies, the Lord has gathered us out of the War and strife, yea out of the cause o● all War and strife, out of the Lusts of the flesh, into the love of his Truth, and his command is in Us, and to Us that we keep together in his power and that we forsake not our Assembling together, and the presence of the Lord is in the midst of Us, and we can call G●● o● Heaven and Earth to Record upon our Spirits that we intend nothing by our M●●tings but simply the Worship of God, We may n●t learn War any more with carnal Weapons, we may not hate our enemies, nor render evil for evil, we may not curse them that despitefully use Us, we may not desire evil in our h●arts against them, the Lord is a Witness upon our Spi it s that we h●ve not ●vil in our hearts against you, but we seek your good, and what do you mean by thus suffering Us to be abused, and beat, and our good● spoiled by your command, and our Meeting-hous●s stopped up with violent men, would such p●oceedings conv●nce Us if we were wrong? Nay surely, But be it known unto you that We have counted the Cost, the power of the Lord God is in the midst of Us, we are His, and He is our Por●ion, and for his sake we suffer, and for no evil doing, the Lord is our R●cord upon our spirits, itis not for plotting, nor any evil doing, but simply b cause we cannot ●●rb●ar the Ass mbling of ourselves together, let the just witness of God answer for Us in all that ris● up against Us, what have we done, what can be justly laid to our cha●ge, have ye any thing against Us, but simply the matter ▪ and m●nner of the worship of our God, will you take upon you to judge our hearts, if nay, then is not the T●ee known by its Fruits, have not, and are not our fruits holiness, and Righteousness, skiring forth in our lives and conversations, and in our Assemblies, and in our patient sufferings are not we manifested to be a true people, and Worshippers of the living God, even by the very rage of the e●emy against Us, in wicked people that abuse Us, from hence may not ye see that the World love Us n●t because we be not of the World, h●ve we used violence again, h●ve we rendered evil for evil, have we sought by a y carnal weapon, or carnal way to deliver ourselves, nay but we have committed ourselves unto the Lord, and so have given up ourselves willingly to suffer rath r then to sin, now judge who we are that are thus used, and who they are that use us thus, compare your proceedings against Us( an innocent people) with the proce●ding● of Christ and his Followers, against those that were wrong●●, Christ would not suffer to destroy them that would not rec●ive him, but we have received him, and y●t you deal with Us far another way, then Christ dealt with them that would not receive him into their City though they denied to receive him yet he would not have th●m persecuted Christs command concerning them that would not obey his Church was to cast them out of his Church f●llowship, but he never commanded to beat them, and abuse them, or spoil their goods as is done to Us, who haue received him, and are by him gathered into his everlasting power, now Christs followers had immediate Revelations, which you say you have not, Christs Church did not err in judging He eticks, they were heretics whom his Church judged then, and the true Church now may not proceed against heretics in another manner, they must not take another course with them then what th● true Church took with them in former days, now we find ●ot th● true Church proceeded against heretics by any carnal ●●rc●, as Imprisonment, banishment, b●aring, spoiling of their ●oods, but only Christs command allows them to be ●ut o●● from t●e church●s fellowship, This was their proceedings who were guided by immedi●te Revelatio●s against heretics, or them that would not obey the church, ●ut I ●ay you do not claim to immediate Revela jons, nor to be guided by an infallible Spirit why then do you not consider it and lay it to heart; that ye may be mistak●n and so persecute the innocent people of God under the name of heretics, as ever all p●●s●cut●rs did, they never judged the people of God that were persecuted by t em to be inno●ent, or to be the people of Go●, though indeed they w●re true, though accounted deceivers by them that were not true, so that you may look upon your p●●c edings against U●( an innocent people) to be far otherwise then the true chu ch s was against rea H reticks, and if heretics were to be proceeded against as you ●●ve proc●eded against Us, that are no heretics but are true Worshippers of th● l ving Go●; yet you that p●oceed so ought to be in that which is infallibl●, that you might not mistake the p●●ple of God, and persecute th●m instead of heretics. ●herefore Oh King and parliament consider what you do, for they are not the Kings Friends who counc●l him to p rsecute any about the matters of worship. Let all sorts of People in th●se N●tions h●ve the lib●rty of their Consc●ences. Let every sort ●uild themselves publ c● M●●●i●g H●uses, and me●t in public, and maintain ●ve●y one their own Minis●ers, th●n that would qu●ckly gain the he●●ts o● all sorts of people, to t●e King, and that wo●ld make the King strong in the hea●ts of th● people, a●d it would ing●ge t●em from their hearts to serve the K●ng, an● again I ●ay it is no good policy, neither are they the Kings friends that would council him to any t●ing that might loosen, or withdraw the hearts of the Kings Su●jects from him, and they that council the King to persecute people their c●u●cel leads to with●raw the hearts o●●is Subj●cts against him, for though we deny fighting, or h●lping ourselves by any carnal weapon, and though no persecution can never provoke Us to it, and though we l●ve our ●●emies and pray for our enemi●s, and so may not sight, y●t ●ther sorts of separate people holds it lawful to fight, ●ow i● they shall be suffered to meet in public and maintain ever● one their own Ministers, that will b● a good means to withdraw them from all private meetings, as to plot, yea it will be a good means to put out of their hearts discontent for from whence ris●s all pl●●ting but ●rom a ●isc●nt●nt within, and to stop them from publ●ck Meetings is not this a ready way to Irritate them ▪ and to put them upon the pain of disp●●●? for it is a so●e thing to oppress the Conscience, and you know that you cannot ●each into t●e conscience, with any outward force to turn it unto God, and to that w●ich is well p easing unto h●m, and if you ●now not this its very sad, and seeing it is so that God alo●e persuade s conscience, leave every one to worship according to h●s perswasi●n, who knows not a better, for outward force will not bring any to know a better persuasion, Oh King and Parliament, itis not possible for you to bring all the people in t●ese Nations to worship in the Episcopal manner, outward force will not do it, therefore Oh King and b●●n Houses of Parliament, consider what you have to do in this matter, and force none any more, but give all their liberty to Worship God in that way, then which they know no better, and then all sorts having liberty to worship publicly, then those Laws may stand in force against those that m●●t privately to plot, or that meet in any suspicious manner, for verily Friends, Its no good policy to stop public Meetings, for they that mean to plot they may do it in private, but b●ing in public then all are free to come in and to see what they are doing, for the stoping of public Meetings occasions them to creep into corners and private places with their Meetings, and are occasions to beget discontent, envy, and prejudice in their minds, which is the ground of all plotting, but as for Us, we have suffered much both in Cromwells time, and in the Kings time, because we have been public in our meetings, and however it be in your hearts to proce●d with Us, y●t we cannot be clear but to warn you and signify unto you that while we have a being in that wh●c● God hath gathered Us into, and while our Tabernacles are upon Gods earth, we must worship God, we must not forbear the assembling of ourselves together, what ever we may suffer for the same, if it should come to the laying down of our lives, we are the Lords, he hath chosen Us, and he is our everlasting portion, whether we be in these Tabernacles, or removed, all shall work for the advancement of Truth, and good of all those that live in it to the end, whose faithful testimony, and sufferings in this Age shall preach through Ages to come, and their names shall be for a sweet Memorial among the Righteous in Ages to come, but the name of persecutors shall be had in Remembrance for evil, and will be an evil savour before people of succeeding Ages, and those that in this Age, who are true followers of the Lamb, and yet are persecuted under the names of deceiv●rs shall be openly confessed to have been fa thful Followers of the Lamb in this Age by them of succeeding Ages, and th●i● suffe●ings shall not be forgot, now Oh King and parliament, I have pretty well cl●ared my Conscience toward you.  
Wh●ther you will hear, or forbear, my peace remains with me, which none can take from me, but truly when I heard of your Act and proceedings with the Innocent when I heard it in my own Nation of Scotland, it came very near me, and there was a true moving in my heart from the Lord to come to this City, and warn you which I have done in the counc●l of God, and in love to your Souls, for your good it will be if you take it.  
Your Friend Patrick Livingstone. London the 8th of the 9th Month, 1670.