1645 RICHARD OVERTON. Baptist Friend of Roger Williams Argues for Religious Liberty. Satire!

A wonderfully witty, sarcastic work written by fellow Baptist and advocate of religious liberty, Richard Overton [d.1664]. Rogers Williams, author of The Bloudy Tenent and perhaps the most influential early theologian of American religious liberty, was friends with Overton and Overton's writings actually influenced Williams' ideas of religious toleration.  Both Williams and Overton produced works in 1644 and 1645 reproving the Westminster Assembly [of which the present is Overton's] for their having now embodied the bullying, religious intolerance they had just been opining against two years before. They were against the Baptists, marking the Quakers heretics, and proving themselves to be just as carnal as the Anglican church with regard to religious liberty.  The present work, written as a satire, is exceptionally rare and is in response to a plea for the arrest of Overton by the Westminster Assembly.  Overton, Richard. The Araignment of Mr. Persecution: Presented to the Consideration