to many to be seduced and misled to embrace and entertain the dangerous superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines of Popery We. c. And all Popery and Popish points they to him denyed and gave him a Printed Book wherein they had so declared to all the Nation As also for the Paper aforesaid because of which they suffered so much by him makes to appear And they told him that O. P. whose Proclamation that is had said that Oath was not intended for them And further declared that onely in respect to the Command of Christ who saith swear not at all they refused to take it And as to imprisoâ—ing of those who refuse to take it So in this he shews his iustice and are intended thereby Tâ—aâ— Proclamation gives no power but onely to return their Names and places of habitation to the Exchecquer 7. After he had mustered up and drawn together his black Troops and Companies aforesaid of lyes and ignorances and of abusing of the Law to assault and destroy the innocent under his hand and seal that he might be sure never to want additional supplyes of the like forces and qualifications it to accomplish in the seventh place by a familiar spirit he raiseth up the ghost of the great Monster ET CETERA whose mouth is as large as Hell and whose depth is as the pit that hath no bottome and whose smoke ascends up for ever and ever who was begotten by the late Bishops on the Whore of Babylon of whom he is a branch and damned by the Parliament with that whole generation that brought it forth of whom it was the sudden overthrow and destruction root and branch And now after their dayes is brought up from the depths of the Earth by this Officer of the new raised Horse and Commissioner of the Militia and as he calls himself Justice of the Peace of the County of Cornwall who is a shame to the Government When by the Law of the Land all Warrants of Commitment ought expresly to mention the name the habitation the calling of the person committed and the certain offence which must be such as is so in Law according to which the Prisoner is to have his Issue But whether this be such let him who reads and understands judge and whether P. Ceelyes Warrant ET CETERA be not the Monster of this age in the Law as was the Bishops Oath ET CETERA of the preceding generation in Religion and deserving the same yea a greater condemnation that it may rise no more henceforth even for ever Being delivered in custody to the Goaler at Lanceston they were there detained Prisoners by vertue of the aforesaid Warrant ET CETERA till the general Assizes for the County of Cornwall held at Lanceston on the second day of which being the 25. of the first month 1656. they were brought before the Bench where John Glynne Chief Justice of the Upper Bench sate Judge Multitudes of people being in and about the Court and in the Town who having heard very strange reports concerning them expected some great thing to be laid to their charge and proved equivolent thereunto and to the misusages and impriâ—onments they had sustained of which the whole Countrey was fulâ— as the prisoners considering their innocency and sufferings had also cause to expect and justice of him who was in Commission Chief Justice of England unto whom in caseâ— oâ— wrong judgement appeals are made from other Judges and Jâ—â—â—â—ces and Ministers of the Law according to the Law and his place and oath and a suitable care and tâ—nderness of the liberties of men according to the Law and Equity whatsâ—ever had been the contrary proceedings of others in Commission to the truth and the Friends thereof But what was produced as to the one and done by the other and what justice they received will appear to the sober and wise in heart when those few of the passages of that Assizes in reference unto them as they are rehearsed and managed in the Law in their following Letter sent by them and delivered the last Assizes at Gloucester where he sate Judge as to his carriage towards them shall onely be considered and weighed in judgement For John Glynne Chief Justice of England Friend WE are Free-men of England free born our Rights and Liberties in and with our Countryes with the Laws the defence of them have we in the late Wars vindicated in the Field with our blood and therefore with thee by whose hand we have so long and do yet suffer let us a little plainly reason concerning thy proceedings against us whether they have been according to the Law or agreeable to thy duty and office as chief Minister of the Law or Justice of England and in meekness and in lowliness abide that the witness of God in thy conscience may be heard to speak and judge in this matter for thou and we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad And so Friend in moderation and soberness weigh what we have here to say unto thee The afternoon before we were brought before thee at the Assizes at Launceston thou didst cause divers scores of our Books violently to be taken from us by armed men without due process of Law which being perused if so be any thing in them might be found to lay to our charge who were innocent and then upon our legal issue thou hast detained to this very day Now our Books are our Goods and our Goods are our Property and our Liberty is to have and enjoy our Property and of our Liberty and Property the Law is the defence which saith No Free-man shall be disseized of his Free-hold Liberties or Free-customes c. nor any way otherwise destroyed nor we shall not pass upon him but by lawfull judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Magn. Chart. cap. 29. Now Friend consider is not the taking away of a mans Goods violently by foree of Arms as aforesaid contrary to the Law of the Land Is not the keeping of them so taken away a disseizing him of his property and a destroying of it and his Liberty yea his very Being so far as the invading the Guard the Law sets about him is in order thereunto Calls not the Law this a destroying of a man Is there any more than one common Guard or Defence viz. the Law to Property Liberty and Life And can this Guard be broken on the former and the later be secure Doth not he that makes an invasion upon a mans property and liberty as he doth who contrary to Law which is the Guard acts upon either make an invasion upon a mans life since that which is the Guard of the one is also of the other If a penny or pennyes worth be taken from a man contrary to Law may not by the same rule all a man hath
the Administration of the Law ought not accusations to be by way of Indictment wherein the offence is to be charged and the Law expressed against which it is Can there be an Issue without an Indictment or can an Indictment be found before proof be made of the offence charged therein And hast not thou herein gone contrary to the Law and the Administration thereof and thy dutie as a Judge What just cause of offence gave G. F. to thee when upon thy producing of a paper concerning swearing sent by him as thou said'st to the grand Jurors and requiring him to say whether it was his hand-writing He answered read it up before the Country and when he heard it read if it were his he would own it Is it not equall and according to Law that what a man is charged with before the Countrie should be read in his and the hearing of the Country When a paper is delivered out of a mans hand Alterations may be made in it to his prejudice which on a sudain looking over it may not presently be discerned But hearing it read up may be better understood whether any such alterations have been made therein Couldst thou in justice have expected or required him otherwise to do considering also how he was not unsensible how much he had suffered already being innocent and what endeavours there were used to cause him further to suffer Was not what he said as aforesaid a plain and single answer and sufficient in the Law though as hath been demonstrated contrary to the Law thou didst act and thy Office in being his accuser therein and producing the paper against him And in his liberty it was whether he would have made thee any answer at all to what thou didst exhibite or demand out of the due course of the Law for to the Law answer is to be made not to thy will Wherefore then wast thou so filled with rage and fury upon that his Reply Calmly and in the fear of the Lord consider Wherefore didst thou revile him particularly with the reproachfull names of Jugler and Prevaricator wherein did he juggle wherein did he prevaricate Wherefore didst thou use such threatning language and such menacings to him and us saying thou wouldst firk us with such like Doth not the Law forbid reviling and rage and fury and threatning and menacing of Prisoners soberly mind Is this to act like a Judge or a Man Is not this transgression Is not the sword of the Magistrate of God to pass upon this as evill doing which the Righteous Law condemns and the higher power is against which judgeth for God Take heed what ye do for ye judgo not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgement Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you Take heed and do it for there is no iniquitie with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts said Jehosaphat to the Judges of Judah Pride and Fury and Passion and Rage and Reviling and Threatning is not the Lords It and the principle out of which it springs is for judgement and must come under the sword of the Magistrate of God and is of an evill savour especially such an expression as to threaten to firk us Is not such a saying more becoming a Pedant or School Master with his rod or ferula in his hand than thee who art the Chief Justice of the Nation who sits in the highest seat of judgement who oughtest to give a good example and so to judge as others may hear and fear weigh it soberly and consider Doth not threatning language demonstrate an unequalitie and partialitie in him who sits as a Judge Is it not a deterring of a Prisoner from standing to and pleading the innocencie of his cause Provides not the Law against it saith it not that Irons and all other Bonds shall be taken from the Prisonor that he may plead without amazement and with such freedome of spirit as if he were not a Prisoner But when he who is to judge according to the Law shall before-hand threaten and menace the Prisoner contrary to the Law how can the mind of the Prisoner be free to plead his innocency before him or expect equall judgement who before he hears him threatens what he will do to him Is not this the case between thee and us Is not this the measure we have received at thy hands Hast thou herein dealt according to Law or thy duty or as thou wouldst be done unto Let that of God in thy conscience judge And didst not thou say there was a law for putting off the Hat and that thou wouldst shew a law and didst not thou often so express thy self But didst thou produce any law or shew where that law might be found or any judiciall president or in what Kings Reign when we desired it so often of thee having never heard of or known any such law by which thou didst judge us Was not what we demanded of thee reasonable and just Was that a savory answer and aâ—cording to law which thou gavest us viz. I am not to carry the law books at my back up and down the Country I â—m not to instruct ye Was ever such an expression heard before these days to come out of a Judges mouth Is he not to be of Counsell in the law for the Prisoner and to instruct him therein Is it not for this cause that the Prisoner in many cases is not at all allowed Counsell by the law In all Courts of justice in this Nation hath it not been known so to have been and to the Prisoner hath not this been often declared when he hath demanded Counsell alledging his ignorance in the law by reason of which his cause might miscarry though it were righteouâ— viz. the Court is of Counsell for you Ought not he that judgeth in the law to be expert in the law Couldst thou not tell by what act of Parliament it was made or by what judiciall President or in what Kings reign or when it was adjudged so by the common law which are all the grounds the law of England hath had there been such a law though the words of the law thou couldst not remember Surely to informe the Prisoner when he desires it especially as to a law which was never heard of by which he proceeds to judge him that he may know what law it is by which he is to be judged becomes him who judgeth for God for so the law was read to the Jevvs hy which they were to be judged yea every Saboath day this vvas the Commandement of the Lord But to say instead thereof I am not to carry the lavv books at my back up and down the Country I am not to instruct ye To say there is a lavv and to say thou wilt shew it and yet not to shew it nor tell where it is to be found consider whether it be consistent with savouriness or truth or
obedience to which they were sure to find them without respecting of persons which who so doth commits Sin and is committed of the Law as a transgressor therefore an Indictment grounded on no Law was before hand made ready upon confidence they would stand in the Court covered when they should be called and they appearing so when they were called in conscience to the Law of God not out of any contempt of them or of Authoritie which they owned as hath been said they were fined in twenty Markes a piece and sentenced to prison till payment so and in such manner as hath been expressed and so to the Prison were they returned by command of the Judg and by order signed John Glynne who hath caused and taken upon himself the sufferings of the innocent where P. Ceelyes Warrant could not further reach are they there kept to this day and the Countrey returned with this answer to their great expectations that notwithstanding the loud outcry that had been made and strange reports concerning these men when it came to the tryall nothing could be laid to their charge but because in conscience to the command of the Lord who requires that the person of no man be respected they could not put off their hats though they so declared to the Court and that they stood not covered in contempt of Authority or in disrespect to any mans person but for that cause and though they owned Authority and pleaded they were fined and imprisoned till payment for not putting off their hats which no Law of God or man required nor was any Law or Instance of either or example of Heathens or others on record in Scripture produced upon their often desires in that particular instead of being freed after their long imprisonment and other sufferings without a cause and this with what hath been aforesaid is the Justice and measure which the righteous and just one hath received in these in whom he worketh and is made manifest from the chief Justice of England for that in obedience unto it they stood before him with their hats on of which all the Cases and Records in this Nation of those who have preceded him affords not a parallel and so hath it pleased the wisdom of God that by a hat such a base thing all the Religion and Justice of this high professing generation should be tried and confounded and by a thing that is not the things that are should be brought to nought Upon their being returned to Prison by order of the chief Justice as aforesaid the Gaoler was somewhat earnest to know whether they would pay their Fines being very desirous to be rid of them for that their being there had been a great curb to the prophane swearing and drinking and cursing and blaspheming and gaming used by them who came to drink strong-drink in his house and to use vain pleasure in the prison green and therein a hindrance to his profit for such Persons being by the prisoners often reprov'd as they were movings from the Lord for the evils aforesaid had little mind to frequent his house which Fines when after a few dayes he saw they were resolv'd not to satisfie and so their imprisonment like to continue The evill spirit which to that time was much chain'd began to be let loose in him and taking encouragement from the proceedings of P. Ceely and the Judg against them and perceiving thereby how they were delivered up as Persons on whom any manner of iniquitie and violence and crueltie might be exercised without being called to account and punished for the same Capt. Fox his Cornet having also openly said in the Prison to these prisoners faces that if they slew them who should gainsay it or killed them or shed their blood and that they were not to be protected he began to exercise his Salvage will and beastly lusts upon them which had its effects in the batbarous cruell and unreasonable usages now to be declared and so now comes to act his part in their sufferings as had P. Ceely and the chief Justice When they were first brought into prison by vertue of P. Ceelies Warrant ETCETERA the three prisoners aforesaid agreed with the keeper and his wife for meat and drink chamber and all other accommodations at a certain rate for themselves and Benjamin Maynard who for standing still in Lanceston Steeple-house and speaking not a word till violent hands were laid on him and he haled near the dore was committed as is hereafter more at large mentioned with this condition that if he or they should for the time to come be unsatisfied with or dislike to hold on according to that agreement the party so disliking might breake of at any weekes end and the prisoners were to ptovide for themselves and from the time of this agreement they every week paid the said weekly summe and something over Nevertheless he repined thereat behind their backs and grudg'd to the people of the Town and Countries of which the prisoners being informd and that the Gaoler had said a few dayes before to his wife make an end with them at the end of the week with many reproachfull speeches before divers people when the weeke was at an end one of them asked the Gaolers wife whether she and her husband were unsatisfied to continue to diet them according to the foresaid agreement acquainting her with what they were informed her husband had said and if they were not satisfied they should speak plainly for they so meant and intended to deal with them and so to be dealt with desired and not to be reproached and abused behind their backs and this they were desirous to know that they might otherwise provide for their dyet to which she answered that she and her husband were both well satisfied to dyet them as before and so they continued as formerly Yet the evill spirit in the goaler was not at rest but manifested it self in rage and cruelty before that week was ended For Benjamin Maynard having put up a paper in the prison green against pleasures the Gaoler the evening before the last day of that week broke forth in great fury against them and abuses and by the haire of the head put Benjamin Maynard down into Doomesdale amongst the fellons reviling and reproaching him and the other prisoners exceedingly which though they heard yet they let the Gaoler alone neither coming at him nor speaking unto him but kept their Chamber Notwithstanding at his return from putting Benjamin into Doomesdale he came up to them in his rage and anger and as before so again to their faces he called them both the night and the next morning Rogues Stinking Knaves Jesuits Salvages and Runnagats with such other filty language as it came into his mind threatning to put them into Doomesdale and to put Irons upon them with oaths and Curses not fit to be mentioned calling all their friends that came to visite them in prison Rogues and Whores saying that
be taken away If the bound of the Law be broken upon a mans property on the same ground may it not be broken upon his person And by the same reason as it is broken on one man may it not be broken upon all sithence the liberty and property and the beings of all men under a Government is relative a Communion of Wealth as the members in the body but one guard to all and defence the Law one man cannot be injured therein but it redounds unto all Are not such things in order to the subversion and dissolution of Government Where there is no Law what is become of Government And of what value is the Law made when the Ministers thereof break it at pleasure upon mens properties liberties and persons Canst thou clear thy self of these things as to us To that of God in thy conscience whiâ—h is just do we speak Hast thou acted like a M nister the Chief Minister of the Law who hast taken away our Goods and yet detainest them without so much as going by lawfull Warrant grounded upon due information whâ—ch in this our case thou couldest not have for none had perused â—hem whereof to give the information Shouldest thou exercâ—se violence and force of Arms on Prisoneâ—s Goods in their Prison-chamber instead of orderly and legally proceeding which thy place calls upon thee above any man to tender defend and maintain against the other and to preserve the Guard entire of every mans being liberty life and livelyhood Shouldest thou whose duty it is to punish the wrong doer do wrong thy self Who oughtest to see the Law be kept and observed break the Law and turn aside the due administration thereof Surely from thee considering thee as Chief Justice of England other â—hings were expected both by us and the People of this Nation And Friend when we were brought before thee and stood upon our Legal Issue and no Accuser or Accusation came in against us as to what we had been wrongfully imprisoned and in Prison detained for the spâ—ce of nine weeks shouldst not thou have caused us to have been acquitted by Proclamation Saith not the Law so Oughtest not thou to have examined the cause of our commitment and there not appearing a lawfull cause oughtest not thou to have discharged us Is it not the substance of thy office and duty to do justice according to the Law and Câ—stâ—me of England Is not this the end of the administration of the Law and of the General Assizes of the Goal deliveries of the Judges going the Circuits Hast not thou by doing otherwise acted contrary to all these and to Magna Charta cap. 29. which saith We shall sell to no man we shall deny or deferr to no man either Justice or Right Hast not thou both deferred and denyed us who had been so long oppressed this Justice and Right And when of thee Justice we demanded saidst thou not If we would be uncovered thou wouldst hear us and do us Justice We shall sell to no man we shall deny or deferr to no mâ—n either Justice or Right saith Magna Charta as aforesaid We have commanded all our Justices that they shall from henceforth do EVEN Law and execution of Right to all our Sub ects rich and poor without having regard to any mans per on and without letting to do Right for any Letters or Commandments which may come to them from Us or from any other or by any other cause c. upon pain to be at our Will Body and Lands and Goods to do thereof as shall please us in case they do contrary saith Sâ—at 20 Ed. 3. cap. 1. Ye shall swear that ye shall do EVEN Law and execution of Right to all rich and pâ—or without having regard to any person and that you deny to no man common Right by the Kings Letters nor none other mans nor for NONE other cause And in case any Letters come to you contrary to the Law that you do nothing by such Letters but certifie the King thereof and go forth to do the Law notwithstanding those Letters And in case ye he from henceforth found in default in any of the points aforesaid ye shall be at the Kings will of Lands Body and Goods thereof to be done as shall please him saith the Oath appointed by all the Judges 18. Eâ— 3. Stat. 3. But none of these nor none other Law hath such an expression or condition in it as this viz. Provided If he will put off his Hat to ye or be uncovered Nor doth the Law of God so say or that your persons be respected but the contrary From whence then comes this new Law If ye will be uncovered I will hear ye and do â—e Justice this hearing complaint of wrong this doing of Justice upon condition Wherein lyes the equity and reasonableness of that When were those Fundamental Laws repealed which were the issue of much Blood and War which to uphold cost the Miseries and Blood of the late Wars that we shall now be heard as to Right and have Justice done us but upon condition and such a trifling one as the putting off the Hat Doth thy saying so who art commanded as aforesaid repeal them and make them of none effect and all the Miserie 's undergone and the blood shed for them of old and of late years Whether it be so or no indeed and to the Nation thou hast made it so to us Whom thou hast denyed the justice of our Liberty when we were before thee and no Accuser or Accusation came in against us and the hearing of the wrong done to us who were innocent and the doing us Right and Bonds hast thou cast and continued upon us to this day under an unreasonable and cruel Jaylor for not performing that thy condition for conscience sake But thinkest thou that this thine own Conditional Justice maketh voyd the Law or can it do so or absolve thee before God or Man or acquit thee of the penalty mentioned in the Laws aforesaid unto which hast thou not sworn and consented Viz. And in case ye be from henceforth found in default in any of the points aforesaid ye shall be at the Kings will of Body Lands and Goods thereof to be done as shall please him And is not thy saying If ye will be uncovered or put off your Hats I will hear ye and do ye justice And because we would not put them off for conscience sake the denying of us justice who had so unjustly suffered and hearing of us as to wrong a default in thee against the very essence of those Laws yea an overthrow thereof for which things sake being of the highest importance to the beings of men so just so equal so necessary those Laws were made and all the provisions therein to make a default in any one point of which provisions exposeth to the said penalty Dost not thou by this time see where thou art Art thou sure thou shalt never be made
Katherine who was she that spake but it was after all was ended as hath been said there to abide till she found sureties for the good behaviour though in that Steeplehouse they were assaulted by the Constables and the people who threw them down almost to the breaking of their bones and kept in Plymouth near three weeks during which time the Mayor denyed friends to visit them and would not accept the tender of friends body for body for Priscilla that she might pass home to see her Husband a Shop-keeper in the town who was taken very sick and returne again to Prison and when she vvas sent from thence to Exon Gaole because she staid but till her servant brought her a pair of shoes one of the tvvo fellows that the Mayor sent with them laid violent hands on her and drew her along the Street almost to the murthering of her and then produced an order of the Mayors for his so doing And six times was she brought before this Iudge and alterations made in the paper of lyes exhibited against her which she denyed and said that there was no truth therein which the Clerk of the Court altered and the Iudge said let it be so and because she took notice of their proceedings and spake to them to do that which is right he caused her to be had away and at length a paper was formed against her by way of Indictment to vvhich he demanded guilty or not guilty She said it was a false paper and because she did not say guilty or not guilty but as aforesaid which was a sufficient Plea in Law denying the Indictment for to say the words guilty or not guilty is onely required in cases of Fellony or life by the Law of England he grew outragious whereupon she saying to him art thou a man to Iudge for God and canst not rule thy self but art angry be sober man and fear the Lord and do justice and let not passion rule thee he raged the more and said Gaoler have her away have her away I cannot endure thers for a certain space of time and being now brought they desired to know what it was they were imprisoned fâ—r seeing they layd nothing to their charge but what was done then in the Court having shewn no Law to which it was contrary and one of them who had been in prison a quarter of a year askd of the Justice present that committed him what he had to say to him and where was his accusers but he answered not a word And they said in conscience to the Law of God they could not put off their Hats And that they were not guiltie of affronting the Magistrate or the breach of any Law But because they did not answer guiltie or not guiltie in those their words though what is exprest to have been said viz. that they were not guiltie of affronting the Magistrate or of the breach of any Law with vvhich crimes that Indictment did charge them be a sufficient Plea in Law as is known to those who understand the Law for that the Indictment was not grounded upon the Law but Will and to say guiltie or not guiltie to that which is not Law is inconsistent with libertie and an upholding of Will as and in the place and authority of the Lavv vvhich they could not do They were had away vvith violence from the Bar to the Prison and then brought to the Bar again and demanded guiltie or not guiltie and were told that after they had answered guiltie or not guiltie a Law should be shewn them but they refusing to answer in those words till a Lavv vvas first shewn them vvere not permitted to speake but commanded away again and one of them viz. Ioseph Cole thrown to the ground before the Court by the under-Gaoler without reproof and though the Judge said one of them should speak when he asked vvhether they could not have the priviledge the Heathen gave Paul yet he caused them all to be had away not suffering any of them to speake vvhich the Country people disliked saying it was truth vvhich the prisoners spake and so to close prison they were had avvay again the Judge saying he would give judgement against them if they ansvvered not in those vvords And the third time for three severall dayes vvere they brought before the Court and some of them severall times in a day they vvere brought to the Bar again and demanded as before Iohn Ellice having by that time got a Copy of the Indictment tâ—ld the Judge that for that Swaunton the Clerk made his wife pay thirteen shillings saying that otherwise she should not have it and asked the Judge whether that was not extortion To which he answered Gaoler speedily have them away whâ—ch he did with violence and because they onely said in answer first shew us a Law that we have broken before we be demanded to plead to an Indictment guiltie or not guiltie they were haled away to prison without being further permitted to speake and the Gaoler who pretended himself sick till he heard of the Iudges usage of the prisoners being in Court that day struck Ioseph Cole over the face with his staffe and punchd Iohn Ellice by the Arme which filthiness the people saw and cryed out against And there were they detained whilst the Iury past upon them to whom he said that they viz. the prisoners had broken the Law of God and of man Nor did he cause them to be brought before him when he gave judgement against them that they might hear the judgment and have libertie to move in arrest thereof as is the Law But whilst they were in prison fined them in 20. marks a piece and imprisonment till payment who had suffered so long and with such crueltie as hath been in part exprest whom he would not suffer to speak of their imprisonment or cruell usage or in their own defence nor brought one accuser or witness to their faces nor enquired into their sufferings or the cause of them And this is the justice and relief the innocent at Launceston received as their brethren and friends had hefore at Exon from this Iudge Nicholas whose vvill he set up for a Lavv and because they could not in Conscience to God nor in respect to the Law of this Nâ—tion vvhich judgeth arbitrariness bovv to his Image or answer to his vvill guiltie or not guiltie as the lavv requires to vvhat it commandeth and so could not obey and observe his vvill equall vvith and as the lavv his vvrath rose and the form of his visage vvas changed and in the rage of his fury and passion prepared a Furnace a Bill of Indictment he heated seven times vvith the fire of vvickedness into which he cast them bound because of the Hat and vvithout it vvhen as Nebuchadnezar an Heathen King cast the three Children into the fiery furnace bound in their Coats their Hosen and their Hats and their other Garments vvhich novv comes to be
to the Father from whence it comes where no unrighteousness enters nor unholiness but if you do this light hate this wil be your condemnation the light saith Christ If you doe it love and to it come you will come to Christ which will bring you off all the worlds teachers and wayes and Doctrines to Christ who is the way to the Father from the world and all the deceivers in it Which paper as they journyed through the Parish of Madderne near St Ives was delivered to a man whom they met altogether then unknown to them but since understood to be by name John Keate to be communicated to the people but he instead thereof hastned and carried it to Peter Ceely Justice of the Peace so called at St. Ives who gave him order to get together a party of new raised Horse of which the said Peter Ceely was Captain and to follow after and apprehend them But they being come into the town of Saint Jves before those Horse were gotten ready as they were riding thorough it the said Keate being there stopt them in their way and apprehended them and seized on their Horses and Portmantue which he violently took away and brought them to the said Peter Ceely at his House in the town aforesaid Where a great company of people were gathered And with them one Welstead the Priest of that town before whom P. Ceely made sport of them as if he had gotten a prey and with reviling speeches abused them and cursed Whereupon they told him he was to do the things that were just and neither to revile nor curse And of them he demanded whether they would own the paper aforesaid or not To which answer being made they should deny the Scriptures if they should not own it A heinous crime he made of it calling it a sinfull wicked Paper and fell to rifflâ—ng of their Pockets for more and what he found he took away and detained and yet keeps from them divers serviceable notes for the instructing the minds of the simple and their Books also and examine he did them apart and tendred them the Oath of Abjuration To which they answered that O. P. had said that oath was not intended for them That they did in the command of Iesus Christ abide who said swear not at all and that all Popery and Popish points they denied as they had declared to the whole Nâ—tion in a Book which they gave him And a pass he demanded of Ed. Pyot for traveling pretending him to be a person unknown when as one or two of that town then informed him that they knew him to be a Merchant of Bristoll and that Bristoll was the place of his habitation and thither they were all travelling Then he asked Ed. Pyot for sureties for the gooâ— behaviour He desired that a Law might be shewn him that he had transgressed and he would find sureties but no Law could he produce but instead of Law he gave them many reproachfull and unsavory expressions And the Priest aforesaid called Ed. Pyot Jesuit because he used spectacles and a wanderer because to them he mâ—de not his estate to appear Notwithstanding the testimony of some of their own town who knew him as hath been menâ—ioned and that he tendred P. Ceely to buy a thousand pounds worth of goods of him or to sell him a thousand pounds worth and also had declared how he had been in Armes for the Laws of the Nation and for Liberty and in command for the Parliament They all having been constant faithfull friends to the Common-wealth and in armes for it Nevertheless without any just ground colour or pretence in Law Justice or Equitie or occasion given on their parts for no other thing was done than giving forth the paper aforesaid at the moving of the Lord as hath been declared which is left of God in every mans conscience to judge vvhether it is any just matter of offence or cause of exception or ground of suffering at all much less of so cruell sufferings and unreasonable proceedings had against them as is hereafter expressed contrary to Law and the Government and all that is equall and Just or of good report after they had been stopped on their way their Horses violently taken from them their Portmantue and Pockets rifled and searcht and their Papers and Books therein seized on and detained after they had been scoffed and reviled and reproached and made sport of before the Priest and the people and cursed and evill intreated by P. Ceely were they committed by him to Lanceston Gaol and sent in custody with a guard of Horse first to Pendennis Castle to Captain Fox with their Books and Papers leaving it to him to detain or discharge them as he should see cause but he not being there after that one of the Prisoner was violently ran upon and struck down in the Room by on Smithwick a Kinsman of Keates to whom was not given the least provocation and whose violence the said Keate being demanded said he would justifie were they carried towards Lanceston by the said Keate and guard of which he had the charge who abused them very much on the way himself and permitted others unhumanely so to do and brought them into a Room on the way where was another of his acquaintance a desperate fellow standing with a naked Rapier unto which Gaol as they were passing they met with Generall Desborow who being acquainted with their condition and the cause thereof sent them notice by a Lieutenant That if they would give under their hand or promise that they would go unto their own homes and there live soberly and quietly they might have their enlargement but they returning in answer that they were passing on towards Bristol until they were molested and stopt in their journey by P. Ceely and that quietly and soberly they had lived and behaved themselves and that their time was not in their own hand but they stood in the will of the Lord and should do as he permitted He departed out of the Countrie leaving them in custody instead of doing them Justice and they choosing a prison with the freedome answer and excercise of a good conscience rather then libertie on such unreasonable conditions as the a ravishing of their Innocencie the unmanning of themselves and the betraying and destroying of their undeniable liberties the price of so much blood viz. to goe and be when and whence To render a man his libertie upon condition of his engaging to do aâ—d be that of the contrary whâ—â—eunto hâ— is falsely accused under the pretence whereof he is imprâ—soned as to â—ender him libertie upâ—n condition of his making himself an offender who is innocent whâ—ch if he doth he vanâ—sheth his own innocencie For though the things be good in themselves unto which such a condition seeks to bind him and that in which a man hath his conversation yet hâ— being accused of the contrary and for it imprisoned if he so engage
he justifies the false accusation against himself and the wâ—ong imprisonment and so makes himself to be that of which he is falseâ—y â—ccused and for it imprisoned which a man cannot do who knows his own innocencie and understands what it is thus to ravish it and he that abides in a true sâ—nsibleness of this will chose death rather than to betraâ— and with his own hand to murther the innocent t ing wh ch lies in his bosome which givâ—s him the anâ—wer of a good conscience towards God and man beâ—ides the Law is not made for the â—ighteous but for the transgressor he that makes a Law for the righteous is blind and tuâ—ns the sword backwards and as themselves should see occasion in the Nation of England and the Dominions thereunto appertaining and so rendring of themselves bond-slaves who are free-born English men and men of unsoberness and turbulent Spirits who are sober and quiet men and well known so to be and under the condemnation of binding themselves in and to their own and the will and time of man who know themselves not to be their own but bought with a price and so not to be guided but by and in the will of the Lord who hath bought them as the subscribing of and engaging to the Propositions aforementioned do clearly hold forth were carried to Lanceston and delivered to the Goalor with a Warrant under P. Ceelyes hand and Seale of which this is a true Copy Peter Ceely one of the Justices of the Peace of this Countie to the Keeper of his Highness Gaol at Lanceston or his lawfull Deputy in that behalf Greeting CORNWALL I Send you herewithall by the bearers hereof the bodies of Edward Pyot of Bristoll and George Fox of Drayton and Clea in Leicestershire and William Salt of London they pretend to be the places of their habitations Who goe under the Notion of Quakers and acknowledge themselves to be such who have spread severall papers tending to the disturbance of the publick peace and cannot render any lawful cause of coming into these parts being persons altogether unknown and having no pass for their travelling up and down the Country and refusing to give Sureties of their good behaviour according to the Law in that behalf provided and refuse to take the Oath of Abjuration c. These are therefore in the name of his Highness the Lord Protector to Will and command you that when the bodies of the said Edward Pyot George Fox and William Salt shal be unto you brought you them receive and in his Highness prison aforesaid you safely keep them untill by due course of Law they shall be delivered Hereof fail you not as you will answer the contrary at your perills Given under my hand and Seale at St. Ives the 18th day of January 1655. Sealed P. CEELY BY what hath been already rehearsed is manifest what unlawfull and Injurious dealing they received from P. Ceely and how evilly he intreated them and how his carriage towards them was rather like unto one of the profane and light fellows the Sons of Beliall who are a shame unto a Nation scorning sporting reviling and cursing upon which the Sword of the Magistrate of God is to pass as evill doing then a Justice for no other cause given on their parts than for giving out a paper to direct the minds of the poor ignorant people to the way of eternall life according to the Scriptures of truth and against wickedness as hath been mentioned In which they ought to have been by him protected It being a true Profession of Faith in God by Jesus Christ Acts 10.38 and exercise of the true Religion and following of Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about all the Cities and Villages doing good Mat. 9.35 as the Instrument of Government requireth Acts 37. See Government Acts 37. Which O. P. in his Speech to the Parliament 12th the 7th month 1654. calls a Fundamentall one of the four Fundamentalls of his Government which he set up as the Issue of the late Wars See O. P. Speech to the Parliament painted Chamber Sept. 12. 1654. pag. 31. 32. and Blood for liberty of Conscience for which Fundamentalls sake he hath said All the extraordinary powers in the Government were taken up and were it not for it he could be content to lay them down again For the hopes of which had it not been he saith all the Money in the Nation would not have tempted men to fight upon such an account as they have engaged And that otherwise to do See O. P. Speech at the Dissolution of the Parliament Jan. 22. 1654. p 17. was no part of the contest we had with the common enemy And a Fundamentall he saith it is and ought to be so that it was for us and the Generations to come rather than willfully to throw away which Government so testified unto in the Fundamentalls of it and that in relation to the good of these Nations and posterity See O. P. Speech to the Parliament Sept. 12. 1654 p. 36. 37. he saith I can sooner be willing to be rolled in my Grave and buâ—â—ed with Infamy than I can give my consent unto And how dear a thing this was and how low it lay in the hearts of those who carried their lives and their all in their hands of which they were Prodigall in the very face of the greatest difficulties and hazards this Nation hath encountred within the late Wars in which and with whom and for which cause the presence of the Lord so mightily hath appeared beyond the example of former times is not yet forgotten by thousands nor will be whilst they and the memory thereof and of them remain upon the face of the earth Nor will the Blood that hath been shed for it and for Equity and Justice cease crying for Vengeance whilst any of those Righteous things are unaccomplished upon the heads of those who are the obstructers thereof But wâ—th P. Ceely as it appears it is a thing of no such value nor the true holding forth of Jesus Christ the light of the world the light and life of men to be the onely way to salvation according to the Scriptures but sinfull and wicked And therefore he misuseth the powers he lately hath received under this Government of being in Commission as a Justice and a Captain of a Troop of the new raised Horse If to trample under foot persâ—cute and overthrow by abusing and imprisoning those aforementioned as hath been said for going about doing good and directing the people the way to salvation casting thereby the greatest reproach in that kinde that may be on the Government that enjoyns and on the Erector and chief Ruler thereof who declares the contrary as hath been expressed thus acting contrary to Lavv on them whom if he had acted according to Law he ought to have protected And how brazened he is in
every man that cometh into the world that all men through him might believe the world through him might have life and Christ is come to teach him self the second Priesthood and every one that will not hear this Prophet that God hath raised up which Moses spoke of and said like unto me will God raise up a Prophet him shall you hear Every one that doth not hear this Prophet is to be cut off They that despised Moses Law died under the hands of two or three witnesseâ— but how much greater punishment will come upon them that shall neglect this great salvation Christ Jesus who saith Learn of me I am the way the truth and the life who lighteth every man that cometh into the world which light lets him see his evill wayes his evill deeds which he hath done but if he hate the light and go on in the evill this will be the condemnation the light saith Christ with what else is contained in the paper aforesaid concerning Christ Jesus the way to the Father and peoples being called upon to prize their time and that day of their Visitation in the words and according to the Scriptures of Truth to be tending to the disturbance of the publick Peace who will assuredly be payd his wages as his reward he shall also receive for affirming the paper containing the things before rehearsed to be sinfull and wicked than which what higher blasphemie is there greater abhomination or more horrible wickedness 3. Whereas he chargeth them with not being able to render any lawfull cause of coming to those parts It is answered For an English man to travaile or be in any part of England or the Dominions thereunto appertaining which is his Country and his habitation is his right as a free-born English man his naturall Right his birth-Right as essentiall to him as his being and it is as lawfull as for him to be and travell in those parts of it where he was borne or usually hath resided and so to be without any consideration of declaring of what is his business unless in the cases provided by the Law viz. to hues and cryes fellonies gaming 's begging freeing the Parish from charge with such like is his liberty and to abridge him hereof is to abridge him of his liberty and right unto which the Law is a defence and Guard and which for to preserve cost the blood and miseries of the late Wars in which the Lord so much appeared and is as unreasonable and unnaturall as to deny him ayr to breath in And many cases there are as the causes of a mans travelling and changing his habitation lawfull and good which if a man should declare might be his undoing as it would be cruelty to exact it Nor doth the Law set down affirmatively what is a lawfull cause for a man to travell or be in any part of these Dominions but understands this whole Dominion to be every English mans Countrie his habitation wherein he may lawfully be and unaccountable unless he by due information by two sufficient witnesses is charged with any thing done by him that is contrary thereunto And here as he hath shewn his ignorance of the Law which to execute he is sworn in making that a crime worthy of Bonds which the Law takes no notice of but is contrary thereunto as hath been demonstrated so this his charge is a lye for he was told they were there to visit the People of the Lord and to do good which the Lord required of them and the Government allows and saith that such shal be protected and defended 4. And whereas he saith being persons altogether unknown and having no pass for their travelling up and down the Countrie Persons altogether unknown they were not for as it hath been already said one or two of the Town came into his house and declared that they knew Ed. Pyot to be a Merchant of Bristoll and that there was his dwelling and of none of them But of Edward Pyot did he demand a pass So this that he affirms is another lye nor doth the Law require those who travell up and down the Countrie upon their occasions to have passes And hereof the Law he again manifests his ignorance 5. Whereas he chargeth them with refusing to give sureties of the good behaviour according to the Law in that behalf provided Of the good behaviour they are according to the Law of an endless life Nor any behaviour that is contrary to the Law of the Land did they manifest whereby they ought to give sureties of the good behaviour according as he saith to the Law in that behalf provided For but of one of them viz. of Edw. Pyot who was known to some of the town present did he demand sureties Who answered shew me a Lavv that I have transgressed and I will find sureties which not being produced he could not be charged with refusing to give sureties of the good behaviour according to the Lavv in that behalf provided nor could he do so vvithout vvronging his Innocencie and making himself an offender And they vvho vvere not asked to find sureties at all as vvere not the other tvvo cannot be said to refuse so to do And so a lye in every particular is this his Allegation in this Warrant as his Ignorance of the Law is also apparant for had they indeed misbehaved themselves contrary to the Law which provided in that behalf sureties to be given or Imprisonment The Warrant of a single Justice is not sufficient in the Law whereby to imprison them unless the misbehaviour had been particularly mentioned therein as is known to them who understand the Law of this Nation And because the impudencie of this man who when he had molested injured and abused them and towards them had so misbehaved himself contrary to the Lâ—w and all that is of good report amongst men as hath been expressed yet doth he not blush to send them to Prison with a Warrant charging them with such a manifest lye as their refusing to find sureties for the good behaviour according to the Lavv in that behalf provided as the cause of their Commitment after he had thus villified and abused them And yet he stiles himself one of the Iustices of the Peace of the County of Cornwall See the Proclamation for the Oath of Abjuration 6. Nor is that all his pack For in the next place he chargeth them with refusing to take the Oath of Abjuration When as the preamble of the Proclamation manifests as doth also Equitie and Justice that to such as deny and vvitness against all kind of Popery and Popish Religion Root and Branch the Oath for abjuring Popery vvas not intended but for Papists Therefore it saith For as much as of late time there hath been a great neglect in putting the Laws in execution for Convicting of Popish Recusants by means whereof the penalties imposed upon such cannot be leavied or required which hath been a great incouragement
justice And hath not thy whole proceedings against us made it evidently to appear that thy desire was to cause us to suffer not to deliver us who being innocent suffered to have us aspersed and reproached bâ—fore the Countrie not to have our innocencie cleared and vindicated Doth not thy taking away our books as aforesaid and the perusing of them in such hast before our tryall and thou accusing us with some things which thou saidst was contained in them make it to appear that matter was sought out of them wherewithall to charge us when the Warrant ET CETERA could not stand in law by vvhich we stood committed and were then upon our delivery according to the course of law Doth it not further appear by the refusing to take from our hands a Copy of the strange ET CETERA Warrant by which we were committed and of the paper by which we were apprehended to read it or cause it to be read that so our long sufferings by reason of both might be lookt into and weighed in the law whether just or righteous and the Countrie might as well see our innocency and sufferings without a cause and the manner of dealing with us aâ—â—o hear such reports as went of us as great offenders when we called upon thee often so to do and which thou oughtest to have done and said'st thou would'st do it but did'st it not nor so much as took notice before the Countrie that we had been falsly imprisoned and had wrongfully suffered But what might asperse and charge us thou brought'st in thy self contrary to law and did'st call to have us charged therewith Is not this further manifest in that thou didst cause us on a suddain to be withdrawn and the pety Jurors to be called in with their verdict Who upon Peter Ceelyes falsly accusing G. F. with telling him privately of a design and perswading him to joyn therein it was by G. F. made so clear and manifest a falsehood and so plainly to be perceived that the cause of our sufferings was not any evill we had done or law that vve had transgressed but malice and wickedness And is it not abundantly clear In thy not permitting us to ansâ—er and clear our selves of the many fowl slanders charged upon us in the nevv found Indictment of which no proof vvas made but when we were answering thereunto and clearing our selves thereof thou us didst stop saying Thou mindest not those things but onely the putting off the Hat When as before the Country the new found Indictment charged us with those things and the pety Jurors brought in their verdict guilty of the trespasses and contempts mentioned therein of which except as to the Hat not one witness was produced â—r evidence and as to the Hat not any lavv or judiciall President upon the transgression of which all legall Indictments are onely to be grounded Now the lavv seeks not for cause whereby to make the innocent to suffer but helpeth him to Right who suffers wrong and releeveth the oppressed and searcheth out the matter vvhether that of which a man stands accused be so or no seeking judgement and hastening righteousness and it saith the innocent and the righteous slay thou not But whether thou hast done so to us or to the contra y let the witness of God in thee search and judge as these thy fruits do also make manifest And fâ—iend consider how abhominablie wicked and how highly to be abhor'd denyed and witnessed against and how contrary to the law such a proceeding is as to charge a man with many offences in an Indictment which those who draw the Indictment and prosecuâ—â—â—nd find the bill know to be false and to be set in purposely to reproach and wound his good name whom with some small matter which they can prove they charge and Indict as is the common practise at this day Prove but one particular charge in the Indictment and it must stand say they for a true Bill though there be never so many falsehoods therein and lyes on set purpose to wrong him who is maliciously persecuted This is known to the Iudges and almost to every man who hath to do with and attends their Courts and how contrary to the end and righteousness of the law which clears the innocent and condemns the guilty and condemneth not the righteous with the wicked and much it is cryed out against but of it what is there of Reformation How else shall Clerks of Assize and other Clerks of Courts fill up their bags out of of which perhaps their Master must have a secret consideration and be heightned in pride and impudence that even in open Courts they take upon them to check and revile man without reproof when a few lines may serve instead of a hundred How else shall the spirit that is in men that lusteth unto envie malice strife contention be cherished and nourished to feed the Lawyers and dependants on Courts with the bread of mens children and the ruine of their families to maintain their long Sutes and malicious contentions I mind not these things I le not hear you clear your selves of what you are falsly accused one thing I mind in your charge the rest are but matter of forme set there to render you such wicked men before the Countrie which the thing that iâ— to be proved on you is not able O abhominable wickâ—dâ—ess and perverting of the righteous end of the law wh ch is so carefull and tender of every mans peace and innocencie How is thâ— Law in the administration thereof adulterated by the Lawyers As the Scriptures are mangled by the Priests 〈◊〉 thâ—â— wâ—â—ch â—as made to preserve the rightâ—ous and to punish the 〈…〉 to the punishing of the righteous and â—â—e prâ—seâ—◠〈◊〉 â—f th◠〈◊〉 An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth life for life burning for burning a wound f r a wound a stripe for a stripe he that accuseth a man falsly to suffer the same as he should have suffered who was falsly accused this saith the righteous law of God which is agreeable to that of God in every mans conscience Are not such forms of iniquitie to be denyed which are so contrary to the law of God and man which serve for the gendring of strife and the kindling of contention And of this nature was not that with which thou didst cause us to be Indicted and this forme didst not thou uphold in not permitting us to answer to the many foul slanders therein saying those things thou mindest not Will not the wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Who hold the truth in unrighteousness Who are so far from the power of godliness that they have not the forme but the form of iniquity which is set up and upheld instead of and as a law to overthrow and destroy the righteousness of the righteous and so to set him up as by the law he can never get out Is
not the crie thinkest thou gone up It is time for thee to set to thine hand O Lord for thine enemies have made void thy law draws not the hour nigh fills not up the measure of iniquitie apace Surely your day is coming and hastneth warned you have been from the presence and by the mouth of the Lord and clear will he be when he cometh to judgement and upright when he giveth sentence That of God in every one of your consciences shall so to him bear witness and confess and your mouths shall be stopped and before your Judge shall you be silent when he shall divide you your portion and render unto you according unto your deeds Therefore whilst thou hast time prize it and repent for verily our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devoure before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him he shall call to the Heavens from above and to the earth that he may Judge his people and the Heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Consider this ye that forget God least he tear you to pieces and there be none to deliver And Friend shouldst thou have given judgement against us wherein thou didst fine us 20. marks apiece and imprisonment till payment without causing us being Prisoners to be brought before thee to hear the judgement and to move what we had to say in arrest of judgement Is not this contrary to the law as is manifest to those who understand the proceedings thereof Is not the Prisoner to be called before judgement is given and is not the Indictment to be read and the verdict thereupon and is not libertie to be given him to move in Arrest of judgement and if it be a just exception in the law ought not there to be an Arrest of Iudgement For the Indictment may not be drawn up according to law and may be wrong placed and the offence charged therein may not be a cr me in law â—r the Jurors may have been corrupted or menaced or set on by some of the Iustices with other particulars which are known to be legall and just exceptions And the judgement ought to be in his hearing not behind his back as if the Iudge were so conscious of the error thereof that he dares not give it to the face of the Prisoner But none of those Priviledges of the law this Iustice we who had so long and so greatly suffered contrary to law received not nor could have at thy hands no not so much as a sight or Copy of that long and new-found Indictment which in England was never heard of before nor that the matter contained therein was an offence in law nor ever was there any law or judiciall president that made it so though two friends in our names and behalves that night and the next day and the day following often desired it of the Clarke of Assize and his Assistant and servants but it they could not have nor so much liberty as to see it And 't is like it was not unknown or unperceived by thee that had we been called as we ought to have been or had known when it was to be given three or four words might have made a sufficient legall Arrest of that new-found Indictment and the verdict thereupon Therefore as our liberties vvho are innocent have not been worth in thy account the minding and esteemed fit for nothing but to be trampled underfoot and destroyed so if we find fault with what thou hast done thou hast taken care that no door be left open to us in the law but a Writ of error the consideration whereof and the judgement to be given thereon is to be had onely where thy self is chief of vvhom such complaint is to be made and the error assigned for the reverse of thy judgement and vvhat the fruit of that may be well expected to be by what vve have already mentioned as having received at hy hands thou hast given us to understand And here thou mayst think thou hast made thy self secure and sufficiently barr'd up our way of relief against whom though thou knowest we had done nothing contrary to the Law or worthy of Bonds much less of the Bonds and sufferings we had sustaind thou hast proceeded as hath been rehearsed Notwithstanding that thou art as are all the Judges of the Nation intrusted not with a Legisllative power but to administer Justice and to do EVEN Law and excecution of right to all high and low rich and poor without having regard to any mans person and art sworn so to do as hath been said and wherein thou dost contrary art liable to punishment as ceasing from being a Judge and becoming a wrong doer and an oppressor which what it is to be many of thy Predecessors have understood some by death others by fine and imprisonment And of this thou may'st not be ignorant that to deny a prisoner any of the priviledges the Law allowes him is to deny him justice to try him in an arbitrary way to rob him of that libertie which the Law giveth him which is his Inheritance as a freeman and which to do in effect is to subvert the fundamentall Lawe and Government of England and to introduce an Arbitrary and tyrannicall Government against Law which is treason by the common Law and treasons by the common Law are not taken away by the Statutes of 25. E. 3. 1. H. 4. 1. 2. M. see O. St. Johns now Chief Justice of the Common Pleas his argument against Strafford fol. 65. c. in the Case And these things friend we have laid before thee in all plainess to the end that with the light of Jesus Christ who lighteth every one that cometh into the World a measure of which thou hast received which sheweth the evill and reproveth thee for sin for which thou must be accountable thou being still and coole may'st consider and see what thou hast done against the innocent and shame may overtake thee and thou turn unto the Lord who now calleth thee to repentance through his servants who for witnessing his living truth in them thou hast cast into and yet continuest under cruell Bonds and Sufferings From the Gaole in Lanceston the 4. day of the 5. month 1656. Edward Pyot By which Letter it is manifest that upon their tryall no accuser nor accusation came in against them as to the cause of their Commitment nor indeed could any of the allegations in the Warrant ETCETERA bear weight in Law as hath been demonstrated Nevertheless set at libertie they were not though they suffred nine weekes wrong Imprisonment and such other abuses as hath been mentioned but after all the diligent searchings of whatsoever could be thought on wherewithall to accuse them in order to their further sufferings nothing appearing as to what they could be charged that the Law of the Land found fault with matter was sought after as to the Law of their God in
general Sessions of a particular County may make Laws such Laws as aforesaid beyond what ever they did and go unpunished Walk through the Records of this Nation where the instances aforesaid are registred those that are free thereunto search Strafford's Trial and Canterbury's of late dayes and see whether it was ever proved against them that ever they judicially made a Law against the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Nation and put in execution Whether ever such a Law as this was made such Guards set up such Executions done by vertue thereof as is hereafter mentioned Canterbury committed to Prison and assigned not the cause in the Warrant of Commitment as is the Law of the Land and it proved Capital to him Imprisonments contrary to Law were reckoned up against Strafford making up the number of his cumulative Treasons which cost him his head Charles Stuart and his Lords committed men is Canterbury aforesaid and early he heard of it in the Parliament the third of his reign and was constrained to submit unto the Petition of Right to keep that his wrong doing from being further questioned And for his other arbitrary actions and what followed thereupon in these three Nations and befell his particular needs not to be mentioned being recorded every where in the blood and miseries of the late Wars and the destruction of him and his Family the dreadfull and sad examples of his righteous judgements who renders to every one according to his deeds But these things to the mâ—n of this generation to these Justices are of little value They can go over the Graves of these multitudes who have perished for these things without fear They can gaze upon all the dreadfull desolations and transact on s because of these things without astonishment and can dare to do those things to-day which yesterday were made before their eyes the saddest examples of the vengeance of God not fearing before the Lord because of his judgements which he hath brought forth on the earth but wâ—th a hardned heart and a stiffneck and a brow of brass proceed to act the same yea greater abominations and unrighteousnesses than those for which things sake he cut them off For although every Englishman is alike born free to travel be or abide in any part of England or the Dominions thereof and to deny him this is to deny him his bâ—thright and is as unreasonable as to deny him the air to breath in and a denial of this to one man is a denial unto all as hath been said Though the high-way â—s are equally free for all men to pass as free for the men of Cumbâ—rland in Devon as for the men of Devon who live on the other side of the way and so for the men of Devon in Cumberland Though to stop or h nder a man in his peaceable travellâ—ng in the high way is a bâ—each of the peace and an overthrow of society amongst men Though Magna Charta cap. 29. saith No man shall be tâ—ken imprisoned or exiled and to be barr'd from travelling one part of a mans Countrey is a banishment or any way otherwise destroyed nor we shall not pass upon him but by lawfull judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Though the Law of the Land above all things takes care of and values the liberty of a mans person Though for those who are by Commission the Ministers of the Law otherwise to act than in the execution of the Law renders them accountable to the justice of the Law as it is perjury in them so to do who are sworn by the Law to execute Though arbitrary proceedings in such as are entrusted with the execution of the Law have been adjudged by Parliaments tyrannical and treasonable and capital Executions have been done accordingly as hath been instanced Though any party of men under a Government to make Laws being not lawfully authorized so to do for the binding of others and thereunto to require obedience be the setting up of themselves above the Law and treading it under their feet and rendring of them whom they do so bind their Slaves and Vassals and so is treason Though to raise men and arm them and to keep Guards with such apprehend and imprison where the Law doth not impower and no where doth the Law impower any so to do especially in opposition to Law and Liberty and the destruction thereof is also Treason Though Liberty of Conscience is a chief Fundamental in the present Government Though for the Liberties aforesaid and for it have been the late wars changes and revolutions which are the price thereof Though to go about doing of good be that which Jesus of Nazareth and his Prophets and Apostles did and to visit the Prisoners be that which he requireth even he who is the Son of man the King who when he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him sitting upon the Throne of his glory before whom shall be gathered all Nations whom he shall separate the one from the other saith to the Goats on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels for I was in Prison and ye visited me not And they shall answer when saw we thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee And then shall he answer them saying Verily I say unto you in as much as you did it not unto one of these little ones ye did it not to me and these shall go away into everlasting punishment Mat. 25. And so is an exercise of faith in Jesus Christ the true Religion which the Government requireth to be protected as hath been mentioned Yet have these Justices by a Law of their own making contrary to what hath been aforesaid the Law of the Nation and to what might further be added in demonstration of the illegality and unreasonableness of these their proceedings could this short Relation bear a full discussing thereof set up armed Guards under the name of Watches Wards on the high-ways and bridges throughout the County of Devon requiring them to apprehend all such whom by and in their Law they reproach distinguish and brand with the scorned name of Quakers as travel thereon whom having a minde to destroy and to keep from passing to visit their Friends in Prison at Lanceston in Cornwall suffering there for the testimony of Jesus as hath been said unto which place there is no passage out of England by land but through that County and to hinder from going to and fro that County lest they should declare against and manifest the wickedness in Priest and People And that these their cruel and tyrannical actions might have some pretence and cover and prevail with those in whom the same spirit ruleth to execute them to the purpose They by and in their Law falsly accuse and charge and slander all such whom they so reproach
smiting your friends you will not have Christ to reign you will not have sin to reign in your markets and streets and if they reprove sin in the gate he is made a prey upon that doth it you will have pleasures to reign and not have them reproved he is called a mad man among you that doth reprove you or a fool you will not have drunkards reproved nor swearers nor cursed speakers in the ale-houses or in the streets abroad but he is looked upon to be a peace-breaker or a gatherer of tumults And here you may see what you will to reign that which the sword should be turned against which the Lambs of Christ turn against therefore against the Lambs of Christ ye turn your swords And again hirelings and such as seek their gain from their quarter such as divine for money and such Teachers as teach for money that go in Cain's way and Balaam's way these ye will have to reign and cannot endure they should be cryed against and will not have Christ reign but uphold them with a Law that none shall speak to them while they are speaking without a Prison Was ever such Christians seen Are ye not gone beyond the Jews in the letter for the Jews in the spirit might speak to them Were there ever so many imprisoned in their time of any of the Jews in the spirit as now by you who are Christians in the letter the Christians in the spirit that be in the spirit that gave forth the letter see ye now in the steps of the Jews walking and rather worse but it is that which John saw the Beast the Dragon and the false Prophet should all make war against the Lamb and the Saints but the Lamb should get the victory and overcome Let this be read among all the Synagogue-teachers and Professors who call it either Synagogue Temple or Church who are crying up your Church and the Scriptures among you as you may reade the Jews did the Temple of the Lord and the Law of the Lord was with them and the Prophet told them they did commit adultery they did steal they sware falsly they walked after their abominations and they walked after the vanity of their own hearts both Priests and People given to covetousness they were all out of the old-way Therefore for these things did the Lord visit them and doth you who are found in these steps and persecuting them that be in the life that gave forth Scriptures and are come to the Church that is in God During the time aforesaid was the general Assizes at Exeter for the County of Devon of which chief Baron Steel and Baron Nicholas were Judges before one of whom viz. Judge Nicholas were these who were thus imprisoned at the Assizes brought and the rest also as they were taken on the high-wayes in the time of the Assizes of this Judge Considering his place and office justice might have been expected and a vindication of the Law and a zealous helping those to right who had thus suffered wrong but no such thing found they from him but the contrary even the same spirit ruling and working in him as made the Law aforesaid and put it in execution against he Innocent who could not be found Transgressors of any Law of the Nation For as the Sessions made a Law and set up Watches to apprehend them if they were but found travelling on the high-wayes and did so apprehend and imprison them without so much as making proclamation or giving publick warning forbidding such to travel in that Countrey after such a day but immediately as soon as they had made their Law put it in execution on those who were in their way before it was made or had publick warning thereof or the allotment of a certain space of time of it to take notice which the Law of the Nation observes so the Judge will have a Law of his own making as to the Hat for that there is no Law of the Nation that requires a man to put off his Hat and imprison him for not so doing and denies him hearing or justice whatever be his innocency or sufferings if he puts not off his Hat to a Seat of Justice will anon appear when this new-found Indictment of Hats shall be scann'd as in some part it hath already been in the Letter aforesaid sent to chief Justice Glynne and presently he will have it put in execution though his Law be made after the fact done after their so appearing unto which they could not bow in conscience to the Law of God of which he is convinced to be a Transgressor that respecteth persons for he that doth so committeth sin Nor can it be bowed to in respect to the Law of the Land which declares against arbitrariness which Law arbitrariness subverts and overthrows which arbitrariness his duty is to do justice upon being entrusted with the execution of the Law and this his Law standing in his own will the founder thereof it is arbitrary and not to be obeyed but in the overthrow of the Law of the Land and a slighting of all the blood shed in the wars against arbitrariness and is less to be endured and submitted to in him than in any of the Judges and chief Justices that have gone before him whom justice hath cut off for arbitrariness or in Strafford Canterbury Charles Stuart or of any of these later generations since it is but the other day that these Nations came out of many years wars and dreadfull desolations and destructions even to the hazarding of all to vindicate the Rights and Liberties of England and the Laws the guard of them from will and power And this Judge was one who in that day appeared against that generation and for that cause was made a Judge by the Parliament and therefore for him to act against Law which he is sworn to execute not to make And the Legislative Authority that made him a Judge and the righteous ends of the Wars for Liberty and Law in which he appeared and these innocent servants of the Lord who have been all of them alwayes faithfull to the honest interest of the Nation and many of them for it have drawn the sword and fought in the field from first to last because they cannot submit to this his will which is contrary to the Law of God and the Nation and the righteous ends of the Wars is the more abominable and to be denyed and witnessed against Thus then were the proceedings of this Assizes as to these Before Judge Nicholas they were brought by Officers before him they stood covered in conscience to the command of the Lord that their Hats should not be taken off he commanded that so within the compass of his will they might be brought Their names he asked one after another they gave their names in meekness and in the fear of the Lord and the Clarke of the Assizes wrote them down to record the contempt of his will he
that concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him And we do not reade that liberty of conscience was one of the Fundamentals of the Roman Government or that they had made provision by a Law for all that professed faith in God by Jesus Christ to be protected though they were different from the doctrine discipline and worship as was then in being and not to be compelled thereunto but won by sound doctrine and the example of a good conversation as the Government of this Nation hath provided as in the 36. and 37. Articles of the Instrument of Government Neither do we reade that liberty of conscience was held forth by them to be a natural right that every man might claim Yet they that did not make this provision suffered the thing for all that would come unto Paul he spake boldly the things concerning the Kingdome of God and the Lord Jesus Christ no man forbidding him which was far from sending men to abuse him or make a sport of him or asking people that came to visit him whence they were or what they would have there or why they did not get them about their business or why come they there to be seduced as was done to us the last night who are Prisoners for the eternal truth as Paul was and stand witnesses for the Lord in our measures as he did yet we in our own Nation being Prisoners who were causelesly cast into Prison without the transgression of any Law and here to be brought in order to our trial to hear what any man hath to accuse us of and in the face of the Authority of this Countie even while you were sitting as we understand to have three men come into our chamber to disturb us under a pretence to search for papers asking where the seditious papers were and charging us of sedition and blasphemy and having designs and having a plot in hand calling us Jesuits using other reproachfull words and when we asked for their Warrant or by what authority they came in to disturb us one of them named James Sparnell put his hand on his sword and said that was his Warrant another of them was Keale a Trooper under P. Ceely who formerly falsly accused W. Salt unto him and the third was one Davis an Exciseman who it seems came along with them to make sport pointing at one and asking whether he was not brought up at the Vniversity clapping Sparnell on the shoulder setting him on to look after papers whom we asked whether he came to make sport who said yes and stood mocking us saying yea yea And being unsatisfied seeing their disorder we pressed to know their authority and they told us at length that Major Ceely had sent them So all may see here what the sound doctrine is and the example of a good conversation that Peter Ceely hath to win others to be of his Religion and what are the weapons he useth to defend his Religion Now Friends you who are in place to ease the heavy burthens and to take off every yoke and to let the oppressed go free and to restrain the rage of them who smite with the fist of wickedness We lay these things upon you for you to do us justice that we may not be made a prey upon by men in their wills and that the cause for which we are kept in restraint and for which we at present suffer thus may come to a hearing according to the right and liberty of Englishmen which is after your own Law and not for any one man to be the Accuser Judge and Condemner all at once contrary to Law From them who are now Prisoners for the Truth that stand Witnesses for the righteous God against all deceit ungodliness and unrighteousness of man whatsoever W. Salt Joseph Coale On that day being the last day of their Sessions were they called into the Court Colonel Bennet sitting Judge who sent his man to the Goaler as they were coming into the Court to bid the Goaler take off their hats Being brought before the Bench no Accuser came against them nor Accusation nor was any thing found against them nor did P. Ceely their Persecutor who had imprisoned them appear being as was said on his departure out of Town Nevertheless Colonel Bennet caused their Warrants of Commitment to be read and sought to pick what he could out of them against the Prisoners who called for their Accusers but none appeared and asked W. Salt what he had to say to this and what he had to say to the other thing contained in the Warrant He told him he denyed it all and that there was not one true thing in it Which was so manifest that even Justice Lance confessed openly in the Court when he had heard that their service was over at the Steeple-house before W. Salt spake and that W. Salt was invited into the Congregation that he did believe he had no intention to disturb them The Prisoners after all that was or could be said against them appearing innocent men having neither Accuser produced against them nor any thing mentioned in the Warrants of their commitment made to stick on them or any other transgression of the Law might well have expected to have been set at liberty as is the Law especially Colonel Bennet being Judge of the Court who had dis-owned their former sufferings and seemed very sensible thereof and endeavoured to make General Disborow the same and had appeared in the behalf of their liberty by whose hand and Captain Braddons they with the rest of them their fellow-prisoners were enlarged without promise or engagement let pass or fees or any other condition whatsoever who had appeared so much for the liberties of the Nation throughout the Wars and been in Arms for it who pretended so much to liberty of Conscience and professed that which for it had suffered persecution who pretended an expectation and belief of Christs sudden coming on earth to sit on the Throne of Judgement executing justice and doing righteousness But contrariwise he was the man who seeing their innocency and knowing that for very envy they were cast into bonds and delivered to him nevertheless said That for satisfaction of the Countrey and because the times were dangerous they must do their duty and so proposed to them a question which unless they would answer yea or nay to he who had known the passages aforesaid of the proposition of liberty if they would promise to go to their homes if the Lord permit and the answers thereunto and the papers sent particularly to him thereabouts and his reasoning with them concerning it and their opening to him the ground of their not so doing and how that in conscience they could not do it and if they kept them seven years the same men they should finde them at the end thereof and after all freeing them saying God forbid they should press them to any thing which was against their conscience as
hath been mentioned even Colonel Bennet said they must restrain them unless they would answer yea or nay to that question A. To which they answered We are peaceable men and seek the peace of all men when the Law is broken ye may inflict the penalty But to a more positive answer they were pressed and therein Colonel Bennet was more forward than the rest and had away they were and bid to consider it Being called in again Colonel Bennet seeing them coming with their Hats on called out Why do you let these men come in with their Hats on And demanded of them whether they would answer yea or nay to the question W. Salt asked him whether according to their own Law they were not to be freed by proclamation seeing there was none found to accuse them and whether they had kept them in Prison to bring them forth to put an engagement upon them but nothing of that he would hear And W. Salt after the Court had read and heard what they had against them desired Colonel Bennet to hear him reade what he had in answer to P. Ceelyes VVarrant by which he was committed and a Letter which he had prepared for the Court of the abuses he had sustained by the Goaler and in Bodmin since they came in thither These papers Collonel Bennet called for from him and instead of reading them in open Court put them up in hâ—s Pocket as Thomas Gewen the Sessions before at Truro did the Representation then given him of them and the rest of their then fellow prisoners cruell sufferings by the Gaoler saying he thought they had a fair hearing and bid the Gaoler take them away The prisoners called upon him to consider and weigh things but he rose up out of the Court and went his way without causing the papers to be read one of which was as followeth For the Shiriff and Justices of the County of Cornwall who are in place to do Justice At their Session in Bodmin FRIENDS NOtwithstanding by order of the Generall my self and other my fellow prisoners were enlarged by the Justice yet P. Ceely hath me again sent to prison I having been with him to demand a Book against Popery and other good notes and Books he took away from me and my friends when he first apprehended us and being on my way five miles on thâ—â— side Ives travelling Eastward intended to have gone along with my friends out of the Country and staying there it being the first day of the week P. Ceely meeting me and others with him urged me much to come to their assembly and said I might come and hear and then judge afterwards being moved of the Lord I went and they having all done I told them I came not there to disturbe them but seeing they had done speaking I had a few words to speak unto them and this was according to P. Ceelyes words who said I might hear and then judge who presently bid the Constable take him away and so went his way to make a Warrant and without any further examination sent me to prison as the enclosed herewith sent doth more fully express And since I came to Lanceston the same Gaoler of whose miscarriages you have formerly heard indeavoured to make a prey upon me when I was delivered up to them of their own accord being placed at a private house the Gaoler came some few days after and took me out thence and put me into a victualling house where he said he would confine me telling abroad that he had agreed with the man of the house to give ten shillings a week for a Chamber for me and reported that it should cost me above forty pound before I came out of prison For when we had been among his Companions as his manner is tipling and drinking it seems then I was bought and sold for mony so to me he came in his authority full of Beer to command me to go to such a place where he would put me having given out that if I did not like the place where he would put me then I should into Domesdale So whether this fellow be at his own pleasure to put me into Domesdale or is allowed to make a prey upon me I shall leave with you who are in place of authoritie to redress such things and to judge And asking the Gaoler whether I might not be heard at the Sessions seeing I was not committed for the breach of any Law who said he would not carry me thither for I was to be delivhred by due course of Law which he said was meant the Assizes Now I understood that what is done by your Court is done by due course of Lavv where pettie larcenie and such like causes are heard and determined and may not that which is under petty larceny and less then that be heard also by you but must be referred to the Judge of Assize When as it is not criminall matter or wrong done to any one that they have to charge against me nor for acting contrary to the Law of the Nation but onely questionings about words P. Ceely saying I reviled when he sets not down what the revilings were and to speak truth to any man is not reviling and that I stood Irreverently as he saith with my Hat on when although my Hat was on I stood reverently and in the fear of the Lord God who is my witness all that time But if I be an offender or have committed any thing worthy of bonds or Imprisonment I refuse not to suffer making it appear to be according to Law and justice but if there be none of these things whereof I am accused can he proved against me I desire according to the Law I may be quitted and nâ—â— be kept in durance as I have been formerly by the same man who with my other friends stood untill the Assizes and when the Assizes came nothing was brought forth against me nor my fellow prisoners for which we were committed to prison and there had lain severall weeks as if we had been sent to prison onely to find some new matter whereof to accuse us how agreeable this is to the rights or liberties of English men to ast thus one towards another or whether this be Christianlike I leave to them who are come out of the rashness hardness and perversness into the sobrietie reasonableness and moderation to judge and how contrary this is to the proceedings of former ages I can produce some instances of Scripture even of those whom the true God knew not neither did they profess themselves to be Christians Claudius Lysias a Romane Captain having rescued Paul the Lords Prisoner who contrary to the Law was abused by the rude multitude him he therefore sent to Felix that according to the Law he might be judged and gave Commandement also to his accusers to say before him what they had to say against him and whether was not Lycias more courteous to Paul and pitifull to preserve
warrant he should lye long enough in prison to adde affliction to his bonds because he was not one of that sect that every where was spoken against but laboured to do him right not to wrong him to hear both sides and then themselves to judge what they had heard declaring boldly and nakedly like men of courage notwithstanding the high Priests and chief of the people their thoughts concerning him not passing judgement or entertaining prejudice because of the report they had heard of him and this was manly and of a good report to keep themselves clear And when he came to Rome they dâ—d not put him into the Common Gaole among other Prisoners or commit him to a man to make a prey upon him to put him where he should spend most mony or else be put into Doomesale but when the Centurion delivered up his Prisoners to the Captaine of the guard Paul was suffered to dwell by himself he dwelt two years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the kingdom and teaching those things which concerne the Lord Jesus Christ withall confidence no man forbidding him Now we do not read that liberty of Conscience was one of the Fundamentalls of the Roman Gevernment yet they suffered it none not so much forbidding any to come to the Apostle which was far from making laws against them that visit prisoners men for visiting their friends to be taken up and put in prison for it Again you that be men in authority to do justice between man and man and to execute the Laws this would I know of you whether a law once made and afterwards repealed be again of any force yea or nay or whether the priviledges of the law extend to any but those whom the law qualifies thereunto and makes capable thereof whether then by the Act of 1. Eliz. Cap. 2. last clause that of the 1. of Mary be not repealed which saith all Laws Statutes and Ordinances wherein or whereby any other services administration of Sacraments or Common Prayer is limited established or set forth to be used c. shall be henceforth void and of none effect and that of the 1. of Mary is for the establishing of the Mass and all Popish services and whether Nicholas Hide when chief Justice of England gave not his judgement that it was wholly repealed And if Queen Maries law be repealed what Priests are they that flye for refuge to it to uphold their Ministry now Or is it reasonable to put men in prison as many have been and some are and there be kept when they have nothing to plead for their so doing but that law And whether the Priests now claiming the priviledge of Queen Maries law made for the defence of the Jesuits and Priests in the excercise of the Popish and Idolatrous worship and services against the servants of the Lord many of which then suffered Imprisonment and some in flames of fire for witnessing against them then do not manifestly declare themselves to be no Ministers of Jesus Christ And whether these are otherwise to be accounted of then such by which that law was made that flye to it to guard them If the whole body of Popery be removed whether then that law be not also null and void seeing the effect ceaseth with the cause whether he that hath the law hath not the supremacie and so whether he that hath the Popish Law to guard him have not the supremacie of the Pope to guard him And why is not the oath of abjuration to be tendred to such Priests if the intent of it be to extirpate Popery rather than unto them who have both declared and writ against Popery publickly and all them that are in the likenesses imitations and traditionall inventionâ— out of the power of God So you all being kept in the dread and fear of the Lord God no unjust thing will proceed from you your hearts will be tender there will be a loving of mercy and doing of justice both and here you come to answer the end of Magistracie a terror to the evill doer and a pra se to them that do well rightly qualified men fearing God ruling others in the fear of God men of truth to find out the truth and judge down the deceit not covetous nor given to filthy lucre for that blinds the eye of the wise such were them that were Judges at the first and Councellors at the beginning and when the dross is taken away such shall be restored again according as the Lord hath promised Now ye all coming to the light by it to be led which comes from Christ the light of the world who enlighteth every man that cometh into the world who was given for a witness to the people a leader and commander to the people the light which you have received from him you following and obeying it you come under his command and leading this will bring you to sâ—e the foundation of many generations raised up and here the restauration will come to be witnessed for the law of the Lord restoreth the soul and the law is light he that hath an ear to hear let him hear From one who is a lover of all souls truth righteousness and peace who waits for the establishing of it and against all injustice cruelty envy and oppression now stands a witness in outward bonds William Salt The next morning the Prisoners wro e to Collonel Bennet concerning his proceedings with them and sent it to him before he was departed the town as followeth Bodmin the thirtieth day of the eighth Month 1656. Friend THou hast denyed to hear my papers in open Court as thou didst those that were against us either concerning the wrong I sustained from P. Ceely or the Gaoler or the abuses we received from those whom P. Ceely sent since we came into this town so that we are on all sides wronged and none we have found hath the courage or that will appeare to right us instead of righting us thou thy self hast proposed a question to us which unlesse we answer yea or nay thou saist we again must go to prison but what sattisfaction or redresse is there made us for being wronged we gave a cleare and full answer in the Court to the satisfaction of all forasmuch as we could perceive besides thy self in the Court and when we had spoken the words thou thy self hadst little to except onely didst say it was somewhat darkely as was thy own expression yet thou denyedst our friend Humphery Lower to let us have our libertie unless we would make a promise Now promises or engagements we do utterly deny to make to any man whatsoever neither can we enter into engagements with any man for we are come to him who is the Covenant to Jesus Christ the light of the World who was given for a Covenant to the people a Light to the Gentiles So that Covenants with Death we cannot make neither are we at
to come in to her of which some of them spake to him and that they might have liberty to see her But instead of answering their equal and just and legal desire he being filled with rage laid violent hands on Margaret Restbridge and push'd her from him down the stairs which had endangered her life she being an old woman but that many Friends being there the press of them kept her from falling above two or three steps And others of them he threatned with the Clink and the door by command was opened to put them thereinto for but desiring leave to see her and command he gave that none should come at her and caused her to be kâ—pt so two dayes and a night in a wide room without a fire in that season which was very cold and bitter weather out of which she was put into a room and fire permitted her upon the speaking of one to the Mayor against his cruelty therein he being moved of the Lord so to speak On the 31. of the 10. month the Mayor Justice Vowell who was Judge of the Court at the Sessions at Exon before whom she was afterwards brought with others called Justices being met sent for her down into the Court and demand they did her name and her husbands name and the place of their habitation which she refused to give them having given it before to them and her Friend having given it also the Mayor confessing the one but not caring to hear the other as hath been said having before declared she should not give it them again because she saw they thereby sought to send her away with a Pass as a Vagabond which she was not and which by the Law they could not do unless she had been taken begging and her name and place of habitation in the Pass expressed but content she was to submit to the will of God as to what power they had to do with her and so they returned her again to Prison A few dayes after viz. on the third day of the 11. month between the ninth and tenth hour at night came a Sergeant and would have her open her chamber door but it being so late in the night and she alone she told him she was not free to open her chamber door so he bid her prepare to be going to Exeter Prison at six of the clock the next morning and about four of the clock the next morning came the Constable and some others with him and bid her open the door which she was not free to do being alone as hath been said and it being two hours to the day but such was the immodesty and unreasonableness of the Officer that he called for a Smith and broke open her chamber door at such an unseasonable and unlawfull hour and haled her out of the room through the street to a stable where was a Carriers horses and kept the stable door fast refusing to let her Friends come in to her who hearing of the violence and inhumane dealing with her came to see her before her departure and on them out of the stable did they cast water She demanded of the Officers wherefore they dealt so with her or whether they had a Mittimus They refused to shew it her but said they would have her away and because she was not free to get up on horseback her self unless they would shew her a Mittimus or by what Authority they used her after that manner they put a rope about her with which they load their packs and with it at a pully twitcht her on the Horses back and bound her arms behind her and tyed her feet under the Horses belly with cords and so drove the Horse and her on it as a pack yea even as if she had been a Creature without life sense or feeling for the space of ten miles bound with ropes after the manner aforesaid such an unmanly piece of salvage bruitishness and inhumane cruelty especially to an innocent woman tenderly bred and of a considerable estate as to the outward hath not been heard of in this Nation but is the monstrous and unnatural fruit of the Government of Plymouth and of Christopher Ceely the Mayor thereof in particular by whom the Witnesses of the Lord have cruelly suffered as hath been and is yet to be mentioned Are these Christians Or are these Men Would not the worst of Heathens have blush'd at the very relation of such barbarous inhumanity Nor have they left behind them on record so far as is remembred such a noysome smell to posterity But it is Plymouth it is England that leaves these filthy stinks to future ages which is a lamentation After which he that drove her having satiated his cruelty over which she bore and had dominion he loosened her cords and told her he had a Mittimus to carry her to Exeter Goal unto which he brought her and there was committed a Prisoner till the general Sessions of that County Before whom being brought many untruths which the Mayor of Plymouth had sent against her were read but not one witness appeared to convince her of the transgression of any one Law of the Nation nor would Justice Wowell who was Judge of the Court who had to do in her persecution at Plymouth as hath been said permit her nor any of her Friends of Plymouth who were present to speak in witness of the truth on her behalf but he said if she would go to her husband she should have her liberty otherwise they would will and require her so to do To which she answered In the will of God I stand do with me what ye have power for when they were not able to lay any breach of the Law to their charge they thought to have blemished her with being from her husband such was their justice to an innocent woman who had suffered as is aforesaid But her husband who as the Lord had ordered it was but a little before come to the Town being in the Court and endeavouring to speak to take off that pretended aspersion they would not hear him Then a man standing by said something concerning his having heard her say as if the Scriptures were not the Word of God she looked upon him and bid him minde what he had spoken and let that in his conscience witness whether he heard her speak any any such word for what she spake was no such thing as is hereafter made to appear even under his own hand it being in discourse with him at an Inne as she was on her way from Plymouth Prison to Exon Goal This the Judge of the Court caught hold on presently for instead of delivering the oppressed as is the Law they sought after cause to make her to suffer and demanded of her whether she owned the Scriptures to be the Word of God yea or nay She answered what she had spoken she would not deny the Scriptures she witnessed to be a true Declaration but Christ was the Word