‘A petition of the people called Quakers was read. Resolved, that the consideration thereof be referred to a committee; and that they report their opinions therein to the house.’
A committee being ordered accordingly, sat thereupon, and gave their judgment as followeth:
‘Upon the whole it is the opinion of this committee, that the Quakers ought to be relieved according to the prayer of their petition.’
1694.
But nothing was obtained that session; for their enemies were yet so powerful in parliament, that they found means to retard this beneficial work, and to stay the progress of it: for so long as the Quakers were not relieved in the case of oaths, they, who now were not liable to persecution on account of their public worship, might yet for all that be otherwise molested and vexed. Wherefore on the 22d of December, in the year 1694, a representation of their case of not swearing, being signed in their behalf by Theodore Ecclestone, was delivered to the members of parliament, and was as followeth:
A brief representation of the Quakers’ case of not swearing; and why they might have been, and yet may be relieved therein by Parliament.
‘It is a certain truth, that among Christians, and Protestants especially, there are divers particular things about religion, conscientiously scrupled by some as unlawful, that others esteem orthodox: and therefore it is not to be wondered, that the Quakers differ from many others, though not from all, in this case of oaths; they believing they are absolutely forbidden to swear in any case, by that positive command of Christ, Matt. v. 12. And that this is undeniably their Christian persuasion, is evidenced by their sufferings these many years for not swearing.
‘And therefore their case may be worth the charitable notice of the government, by law to relieve them therein; and not, for their religious persuasion, to continue them and their families exposed to ruin; who among their neighbours cheerfully pay to the support of the government; and by their trades and industry, according to their capacities, advance the national stock.
‘It may therefore, be humbly offered, that it is not the interest of the government to refuse them relief.
‘Their industry in trade both at sea and land, bringing profit to the government as well as others; the station they stand in as merchants, farmers, manufacturers, improvers of lands and stocks, is advantageous to their neighbours as truly as others. And as it seems not the interest of the government in general that they should be any ways discouraged in their honest industry, so neither is it the interest of any eminent part of the government, that they should not be relieved, viz. the judges.