deliver you from the power of the Dogg and work mightily in you that with willing mind you deny all for its sake until the Image of the Beloved be formed in you and you in Him where in Love ye will be accepted and the knowledge of his Mystery manifested in flesh in every measure of it is and will be so far above all the Glory Treasure and Pleasure of the Land of Darkness that it will wholly take the Meditations out of them as if they were not worth the minding no more than drosse or dust yea or whatsoever else may attend or can come upon those that follow the Light as Persecution Distress Affliction Famine Nakedness Perils in the Wilderness in the Sea in the City yea or Death it self I am perswaded that Gods Armour of Light as it is lived in and loved will preserve them And I further testifie in the Fear of the Lord God and witness with a Pen of Trembling That the noise of the Whip on my Back all the Imprisonments and Banishing upon pain of Death and after returning the loud threatning sound of an Halter from their mouths who Jezebel like sate on the Imperious Throne of Iniquity did no more affright me through the strength of the Power of God in me than if they had threatned to have bound a Spiders Web to my Finger which makes me say with unfeigned lips Wait upon the Lord O my soul for ever who hath made known unto me his loving-kindness when I even thirsted for Him and kept my feet upon the Rock whilst the raging Waves of the Sea went over my back whilst for the Truth and Cause of God's People I have been freely offered up and am not at all straightned to be baptized for the dead whether into Death or otherwise following his Example who laid down his Life for his Enemies And herein the Record in Heaven knows I lye not and the Witness in Earth is bearing Witness to me that I yet do not as I have not hitherto seek to withdraw my Cheek from the Smiter nor to turn aside my feet from the footsteps of the Flock as witness this Chain and Log at my Leg but do desire so far as the Lord draws me to follow my sorefathers and Brethren in Suffering and in Joy Wherefore my spirit waits and worships at the feet of Emmanuel unto whom I commit my Cause who may work my bodies deliverance if not yet the Freedom Peace Joy and Patience which in the midst of trouble I have enjoyed and I believe shall continue from Him shall fully satisfie me for which let my soul and all that is within me praise him for ever and ever And I shall continue my Exhortation to you earnestly desiring ye may wait to feel the Love and Life of God flow in your particular Vessels and therein watch over and serve one another and let the Strong and Faithful among you dwell in the Power that he may have a Garment ready to cover the Nakedness of the Weak and if the Tares at any time appear let Wisdom and the Spirit of Meekness be alwayes used to separate the Tares from the Wheat both in the ground and off-spring that the bearer may clearly see it and then if he will not put in his sharpthreshing Instrument to cut them down his blood will be required at his hands and with compassion pour Oyl into the wounds of the wounded and bring them into the house where Salvation is for the hope of Glory in you is come to save that which was lost so the Plant of God will grow the Thorns and Thistles will be cut down and the Ground cleansed that the Course may be no more and if the Weeds should appear again let them still be trodden down and broken off the Root and in time you shall see them dye at the Root and then the Plant of Renown the Stem of the Root of Jesse within its seed and beginning may truly be resembled to the little Mustard-seed which will grow and prosper and be watered with the dew of Heaven which like soft drops of Balm will gently fall on the branches thereof as Patience working unto Perfection waits to enter at the door of Life without climbing one step to satisfie the Lion of greedy desire but let it suffer hunger yea and death also through which you will find entrance into the green and pleasant Pastures of the Folds where you shall feed as the Herd in the low Valeys of Achor the entrance thereof will be a Door of Hope in the day of your greatest need and spiritual hunger when Experience and Hope is added to your Patience And at the Threshold theroof I leave all that hunger and thirst after Righteousness to enjoy the Desire of their Souls Boston-Prison in New-England 1660. William Leddra This was given forth about three months before he suffered and was copyed by W. Coddington of Rhoad Island An EPISTLE of WILLIAM LEDDRA to Friends written by him the day before he was put to Death To the Society of the Little Flock of Christ Grace and Peace be Multiplied Most Dear and inwardly Beloved THe sweet Influences of the Morning-Star like a Flood distilling into my Innocent Habitation hath so filled me with the Joy of the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness that my Spirit is as it it did not Inhabit a Tabernacle of Clay but is wholly swallowed up in the bosome of Eternity from whence it had its being Alas alas What can the Wrath and Spirit of man that lusteth to Envy aggravated by the heat and strength of the King of the Locus which came out of the Pit do unto one that is hid in the Secret Places of the Almighty or unto them that are gathered under the healing wings of the Prince of Peace under whose Armor of Light they shall be able to stand in the day of trial having on the breast-plate of Righteousness and the sword of the Spirit which is their weapon of war against Spiritual wickedness Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the darkness of this World both within and without Oh my Beloved I have waited as a Dove at the Windows of the Ark and have stood still in that watch which the Master without whom I could do nothing did at his coming reward with fulness of his Love wherein my heart did rejoyce that I might in the Love and Life of God speak a few words to you sealed with the Spirit of Promise that the taste thereof might be a savor of Life to your Life and a Testimony in you of my Innocent Death And if I had been altogether silent and the Lord had not opened my mouth unto you yet he would have opened your hearts and there have sealed my Innocency with the streams of Life by which we are all Baptized into that body which is in God with whom and in whose presence there is Life in which as you abide you stand upon the pillar and ground of Truth
and Fines and Amercements and Searchings and Huntings and such like as I shall shew more particularly by and by Their Lives as to men became worse than Death and as Living Burials though they thought not any thing too much nor their Lives too dear as anon will be made manifest for the Truth and the Testimony of it The next day after W. Brend was so used and layd for dead Humphry Norton on whom the sence of Blood lay much and the Weight thereof pressed him sore for several days and cried in him so that he travailed Night and Day with his Friend John Rous came to Boston where in your Meeting House on your Lecture day notwithstanding the Cry of the Town of your Cruelty and Blood and the speaking of some to the said Humphry that if he loved his life he should depart the Town for otherwise he was but a Dead man they having been looking for him some Moneths which could not hinder them nor all the World such was the sence and weight upon them they appeared and having heard the Earth speaking and the Grave uttering her voice and Death feeding Death through your Painted Sepulchre John Norton Humphry Norton stood up and said after the other had ended Verily this is the Sacrifice which the Lord God accepts not for whilst with the same Spirit that ye sin ye Preach and Pray and Sing that Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord Whereupon yea before he had spoke out all these words but all these words he spake he was haled down and both of them had out and in the same fury had before ye and H. Norton ye charged with Blasphemy for those words he had spoken They spake to you to Act according to the Law of God or the Wholesome Laws of the English Nation and spare them not But neither of these ye would come nigh Then they Appealed to England and to the chief Magistrate there or whom he should appoint to whom they said they would freely refer their Case which they did once and again thereby to leave you without excuse but neither would ye yeild to this but slighted and disregarded such their Appeal Your Governour and Deputy Governour with one lip saying No Appeal to England No Appeal to England with other words of Dirision and sorthwith sentenced them to be whipt though charged with Blasphemy and to John Rous ye gave smooth words seeking to ensnare him because of Your knowledge of his Father Lieutenant Colonel Rous of Barbadoes who formerly lived amongst Ye of whom some of You then spake but he knowing Your Deceit and Wickedness and Cruel usuage of the Innocent and seeking by close Rooms and Denial of Food for several days together to Consume and strangle them he required in the audience of the People convenient Food for their money Or otherwise if they perished their Blood would be upon you This ye could not well deny before the People who had heard of much of Your Cruelty in this kind and who were likely to have risen up against Ye should Ye have denied it so Ye granted this when Ye could not help it to the breaking of Your Law but the seventh day of the week following this being the fifth Ye broke their Bodies in Revenge thereof with Ten Cruel stripes a piece according to Your wonted Cruelty and then tendred them to depart if they would hire a Convoy which they not doing for as to the Lord they could not who moved them thither Ye detained them there the week following and then Whipt them Fifteen stripes Each with the same Cruelty as before by vertue of the Law aforesaid of Five to be added to the Ten and to the Five Three each time they should be whipt and to be whipt twice a Week upon their old sores with the rest of their Brethren of which I have spoken Now about Three Weeks after the said Court at Salem the Court sate again at which several of the Inhabitants were presented for not coming to Meetings and the Law read for Five shillings a Week for them as should refuse each to pay for not Comming and many were listed under that Pay which ye Exacted when ye pleased but as for the Six aforesaid they were continued still in your Prison at Boston and no Course taken for their Release neither was it so much as offered them upon the Suffering of your Law to go home paying the Fees as ye used to do to the Strangers which Occasioned a Paper to be sent by them to the Court in these Words This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem Friends WHereas it was your Pleasures to Commit us whose Names are underwritten to the House of Correction in Boston although the Lord the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is our Witness that we had done nothing worthy of Stripes or of Bonds and we being Committed by Court to be dealt withall as the Law provides for Forreign Quakers as ye please to tearm us and having some of us suffered your Law and Pleasures now that which we do expect is that whereas we have suffered your Law so now to be set free by the same Law as your manner is with strangers and not to put us in upon the account of one Law and Execute another Law upon us of which according to your own manner we were never convicted as the Law expresses If you had sent us upon the account of your new Law we should have expected the Goalers Order to have been on that account which that it was not appears by the Warrant which we have and the Punishment which we bare as four of us were Whipt among whom was One that had formerly been Whipt so now also according to your former Law Friends Let it not be a small thing in your Eyes the exposing as much as in you lies our families to Ruine It 's not unknown to you the Season and the time of the Year for those that live of Husbandry and what their Cattle and Families may be exposed unto and also such as live on Trade We know if the Spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits What our lives and conversations have been in that Place is well known and what we now suffer for is much for false Reports and ungrounded Jealousies of Heresie and Sedition These things lie upon us to lay before you As for our parts we have true Peace and Rest in the Lord in all our Sufferings and are made willing in the Power and Strength of God freely to offer up our Lives in this Cause of God for which we suffer Yea and we do find through Grace the Enlargements of God in our Imprisoned state to whom alone we Commit our selves and families for the disposing of us according to His Infinite Wisdom and Pleasure in whose Love is Our Rest and Life From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made Captives by the
Moving and Power of the Lord as One Man to look your Bloody Laws in the face and to try them and to accompany those who should suffer by them Whom ye apprehended and sent to Prison as aforesaid and Provided Southick Daughter to Lawrence and Cassandra Southick aforesaid Who coming to see her sister then in Prison and being met with all in the street and known by your Deputy Governour and asked by him Whether she was a Quaker and she Replying That she was one that was so called He Committed her also So your Prisons began to fill and the time drew near of the sitting of your Court as aforesaid before whom on the nineteenth of the same Moneth W. Robinson and M. Stevenson and Mary Dier were had before your Court and Demanded by you Why they came again into your Jurisdiction being Banished upon pain of Death To which having severally Answered and Declared the Ground or Cause of their coming in as from the Lord and in Obedience to him upon your Governors saying that he desired not their Death and that they had Liberty to speak for themselves why they should not be Proceeded with as to the giving sentence against them He bad the Goaler take them away The next day after your Worship was ended being heated by your Priest and prepared to shed the Blood of the Innocent you sent for them again and speaking faintly as a man whose Life was Departing from him for the hand of the Lord was upon him Your Governor said to this Effect We have made many Laws and endeavoured by Several ways to keep ye from us and neither Whipping nor Imprisonment nor cutting off Ears nor Banishment upon pain of Death will keep ye from among us And he said I Desire not your Death Yet presently he said Give Ear and Hearken to your Sentence of Death and then made a stop Whereupon W. Robinson desired that he might be suffered to Read a Paper amongst them which was a Declaration of his Call to Boston and the Reason why they staid in that Jurisdiction after your Sentence of Banishment which your Governor denied and said in a great Rage You shall not read it nor will the Court hear it Read Then VVilliam laid it on the Table among them and it was handed to your Governour who Read it to himself and after he had done said VV. Robinson you need not keep such an adoe to have it Road for ye spake Yesterday more than here is VVritten which was not so and if it had been yet a man may be permitted to speak the same Words over again and the Law Allows it viz. for a Man to speak for himself ere Sentence is given and the Clarks of the Court usually Proclaim that Liberty but you would not VV. Robinson said Nay he had not and desired again it might be Read that all the People might hear the Cause of their Coming and of their stay there and wherefore they were put to Death which was as I have said what the Law Allowed But you would not suffer it a very hard Case you would not be so dealt with yet so ye have dealt with the Innocent and your Governor said to him Hearken to your Sentence of Death You shall be had back to the Place from whence you came and from thence to the place of Exeoution to be hanged on the Gallows till you are Dead Then M. Stevenson was called and your Governor said to him If you have any thing to say you may speak Who standing still and giving him no Answer for the Lord had shut him up your Governor Pronounced the Sentence of Death against him Saying You shall be had to the Place from whence you came and from thence to the Gallows and there be hanged till you are dead Which being Pronounced M. Stevensons Mouth was opened by the Lord and he said Give ear ye Magistrates and all who are guilty for this the Lord hath said concerning you Who will perform His Word upon you That the same day ye put His servants to death shall the Day of your Visitation pass over your heads and you shall be Curst for evermore The mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Therefore in love to you all I exhort you to take warning before it be too late that so the Curse may be removed For assuredly if you put us to death you will bring Innocent Blood upon your own heads and swift destruction will come upon you After he had spoken which he was had to Prison Then Mary Dier was called and your Governor said to her to this effect Mary Dier you shall go to the Place whence you came namely the Prison and from thence to the Place of Execution and be hanged there until you are dead To which she Replied The will of the Lord be done Then your Governor said Take her away Marshal she Answered Yea joyfully shall I go So she was brought to the House of Correction again and there continued with her other Two Friends in Prison till the 27th of the same Moneth during which time many People resorted to the Prison windows for the thing struck among them which struck such a fear in you where no fear was for they would not have broken a Thred to have gone out nor push'd down a straw that ye set a Guard about the Prison by Night lest they should be taken away and on W. Robinson and M. Stevenson ye put Chains of Iron And on the 27th of the 8th Moneth aforesaid Ye Caused the Drums to beat to gather your Souldiers together for the Execution after your Worship was ended your Drums beat again and your Captain James Oliver came with his Band of men and the Marshal and some others to the Prison and the Doors were Opened and your Marshal and Jaylor called for W. Robinson and M. Stevenson and had them out of the Prison and Mary Dier out of the House of Correction who having parted from their Friends in Prison full of the Joy of the Lord who had counted them worthy to suffer for his Name and kept them faithful to the Death and having Embraced each other with Fervency of Love and gladness of heart and peace with God and praises to the Lord Went out of your Prisons like Innocent Lambs out of the Butchers Cub to the Slaughter and your Captain with his Band of Men led them the Back way it seems you were afraid of the Fore lest it should touch too much the People to the Place of Execution and caused the Drums to beat when they attempted to speak hard work and plac'd them near the Drums for that purpose that when they spake the People might not hear them who in great multitudes flocked about them as ye used to Imprison any that you took looking in at the Prison Window when they were there to visit them thinking thereby to keep the Seed of God under and them
ye would not hear it and so in effect forbad that which he bad him I shall set down the Contents thereof and of Stevenson's Call into your Parts for which ye put him to Death as a Perpetual Record to after Ages of that for which they Suffered and your shame Everlasting For it shall rise up in You a Worm that shall never Die and a Fire that shall never go out The mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Robinson's Paper to the Court before he was Sentenced to death concerning the Cause of their coming into those Parts for which they were put to Death which the Governor in a great Fury said should not be Read and that the Court would not hear it Which was in these Words ON the Eighth Day of the Eighth Moneth 1659. in the after part of the day in Travelling betwixt Newport in Rhoad Island and Daniel Gold's House with my dear Brother Christopher Holder The Word of the Lord came expresly to me which did fill me immediately with Life and Power and heavenly Love by which he constrained me and commanded me to pass to the Towne of Boston my Life to lay down in His Will for the Accomplishing of His Service that He had there to Perform at the day appointed To which Heavenly Voice I presently yeelded Obedience not questioning the Lord how he would bring the Thing to pass being I was a Child and Obedience was Demanded of me by the Lord who filled me with living Strength and Poner from his Heavenly Presence which at that time did mightily Overshaddow me and my Life at that time did say Amen to what the Lord required of me and had Commanded me to do and willingly was I given up from that time to this day the Will of the Lord to do and perform what ever became of my Body For the Lord had said unto me My Soul shall rest in everlasting Peace and my Life shall enter into Rest for being Obedient to the God of my Life I being a Child and durst not question the Lord in the least but rather willing to lay down my Life than to bring Dishonor to the Lord And as the Lord made me willing dealing gently and kindly with me as a tender Father by a Faithful Child whom he dearly Loves so the Lord did deal with me in Ministring his Life unto me which gave and gives me strength to Perform what the Lord required of me and still as I did and do stand in need he Ministred and Ministreth more Strength and Vertue and Heavenly Power and Wisdom whereby I was and am made Strong in God not fearing what man shall be suffered to do unto me Being filled with Heavenly Courage which is Meekness and Innocency for the Cause is the Lord's that we go in and the Battel is the Lord's and thus saith the Lord of Hosts the Mighty and the Terrible God Not by Strength nor by Might nor by Power of Man but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts I will perform what my mouth hath spoken through my Servants whom I have chosen mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth Friends the God of my Life and the God of the whole Earth did Lay this thing upon me for which I now suffer Bonds near unto death He by his Almighty Power and Everlasting Love constrained me and laid this thing upon me and truly I could not deny the Lord much less Resist the Holy One of Israel Therefore all who are Ignorant of the Motion of the Lordin the Inward Parts be not hasty in Judging in this matter least ye speak evil of the things ye know not For of a Truth the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Commanded me by his Spirit and spake unto me by his Son whom he hath made Heir of all things and in his Life I live and in it I shall Depart this Earthly Tabernacle if unmerciful men be suffered to take it from me And herein I rejoyce that the Lord is with me the Ancient of dayes the Life of the Suffering Seed for which I am freely given up and singly do I stand in the will of God for to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain and truly I have a great desire and will to die herein knowing that the Lord is with me what ever Ignorant men shall be able to say against me for the witness of the Spirit I have received and the Presence of the Lord and his heavenly Life doth accompany me so that I can say in Truth and from an upright heart Blessed be the Lord God of my Life who hath counted me Worthy and called me hereunto to bear my Testimony against ungodly and unrighteous men who seek to take away the Life of the righteous without a Cause as the Rulers of Massachusets Bay do intend if the Lord stop them not from their Intent Oh hear ye Rulers and give ear and listen all ye that have any hand herein to put the Innocent to Death For in the Name and Fear and Dread of the Lord God I here Declare the Cause of my staying here among ye and continuing in the Jurisdiction after there was a Sentence of Banishment upon Death as ye said Pronounced against me without a Just Cause as ye all know that we that were Banished committed nothing worthy of Banishment nor of any Punishment much less Banishment upon Death And now ye Rulers Ye do intend to put me to Death and my Companion unto whom the Word of the Lord God came saying Go to Boston with thy Brother W. Robinson Unto which Command he was obedient who had said unto him he had a great Work for him to do Which thing is now seen and the Lord is now a doing of it and it is in Obedience to the Lord the God of the whole Earth that we continued amongst Ye and that we came to the Town of Boston again in Obedience to the Lord the Creator of Heaven and Earth in whose hand your Breath is And will ye put us to Death for Obeying the Lord the God of the whole Earth Well if ye do this Act and put us to Death Know this and be it known unto you all ye Rulers and People within this Jurisdiction That whosoever hath a hand herein will be Guilty of Innocent Blood And not onely upon your selves will ye bring Innocent Blood but upon the Town and the Inhabitants thereof and every where within your Jurisdiction that had the least hand therein Therefore be instructed ye Rulers of this Land and take Warning betimes and Learn Wisdom before it be hid from your Eyes Written in the Common Goal the 19th of the 8th Month 1659. in Boston By One who feareth the Lord who is by Ignorant People called a Quaker and unto such am I only known by the Name of William Robinson yet a new Name have I received which such know not Marmaduke Stevenson's Paper of his Call to the Work and Service of the Lord.
But as for the People they returned from the Execution of the other Two sad and with heavie hearts those of them who were not sold unto wickedness as VV. Robinson had said unto them they should before his Decease and a Draw-Bridge rose up the one end of it and fell upon many and some were hurt especially a wicked Woman who was an Enemy to those People and was observ'd to have Reviled those Servants of the Lord at their Death Whom it greatly bruised and her Flesh rotted from her bones and her stink was so noisom that People could hardly come at her in which miserable condition she remained till she dyed A sad Example of the Vengeance of the Lord who renders to every man according to his work Three also of Priest VVilson's Grand-children died within a short time after ye had put these Two Servants of the Lord to Death as something upon his head who cared not how he bereaved the Mother of her Son and the Children of their Father and the Wife of her Husband The Judgment of the Lord in both of which is to be taken notice of Thus have I gone through the Executions ye made of the Innocent and the Relation of your shedding of the Blood of those who feared the Lord who were in a Capacity by your Laws as ye judged for such Executions I shall now return from your Field of Blood to your Bloody Prison and there take an Account of what ye did to the rest of their Brethren whom they there left behind And here by the way you may see the Insufficiency of your Gallows to restrain the Spirit of the Lord in this Remarkable Passage to wit of one John Chamberlen one of your Inhabitants of Boston being at the Execution of these aforesaid who beholding of their Faith and Constancy and Comfort at their Death in the Innocency of their Cause whose heart there the Lord opened to receive and imbrace the Truth for which they suffered and in whom Love was raised towards the Sufferers that it drew him to visit those then left in Prison for the which he was Apprehended and put in Prison and soon tasted of your Cruelty who hath been much and long Imprisoned by You and although still you have sorely shot at him yet his Bow abides in strength who was enabled to bear all your Cruelty and stands a faithful Witness for the Lord against You By which you may see how insufficient your Endeavours are to stop the way and course of the Spirit of Life which neither Your Whips nor your Gallows is able to reach There was one Edward Wharton of the Town of Salem in the first place whom ye had Committed for going up and down from Town to Town with those two Servants of the Lord whom Ye had Murdered Upon whom ye fastned and because he could by no means own the Guilt of their Blood Nay not for all the World as he said when ye charged it upon him and sought by Consequence to prove it because said you he travelled with them and because he said The Guilt thereof was so great and heavy that he was not able to bear it ye drew his Blood with Twenty fore Lashes with your Whip of Cords as aforesaid and his Purse with Twenty Pounds Fine as a Peremptory Fellow for so speaking as aforesaid to clear himself and an Enemy to the Country ye laid upon him though he had formerly taken the Oath of Fidelity as you call it And this was on the third day of the Ninth Moneth he being apprehended the last day of the Moneth before at Salem and brought to Boston where he was continued Prisoner till a Friend of his against his Will and at the Peril of his said Friend as he told him paid it for him And as for the rest of the Prisoners there of whom I have spoken On the Eleventh of the Ninth Month following viz. Christopher Holder Daniel Gold Robert Harper and W. King in the Forenoon and in the Afternoon Alice Cowland Margaret Smith Mary Trask Hannah Phelps Hope Clifton Mary Scot and Providence Southick whom having Examined and said to Them what ye would ye sent to Prison again And on the Morrow having them before ye Rawson your Secretary read to them their Sentence which was Daniel Gold to be Whipt Thirty stripes Robert Harper Fifteen William King Fifteen Margaret Smith Ten Mary Trask Ten Provided Southick Ten which your Executioner soon laid on them with great Cruelty in the Open Street and till now your Executions were done in Private but having gone over the Lives of the Innocent in the Open Field Ye were bold to Declare your Sin as Sodom and stuck not to draw the Blood of the Rest in the Sight of the Sun beginning with Daniel Gold whose Cloaths he stript off and having tyed him to the VVheel of a Great Gun stript off the Skin from his Back and beat his Flesh on his Bones with the number of stripes as aforesaid and so he dealt by the Rest So having drunk this other Draught of Blood and delivered over Alice Cowland Hannah Phelps Mary Scot and Hope Clifton to your Governor to be admonish'd and sentenc'd Christopher Holder to Banishment upon Pain of Death for coming into your Jurisdiction to passe for England as aforesaid Ye ended this your General Court the Prisoners being returned from whence they came to answer your Jaylors Fees and there continued till some friendly People Engaging for it of their Own Accords gained their Liberty And so I have walked step by step through the cruel and merciless Order of your gradual Proceedings from Imprisonment to Death to see if I could find any thing of Law any thing of Fact any thing of Justice any Regular Proceeding according to either on which ye might ground and by which ye might warrant what ye have done but I find none and let the sober Reader see if he can or any other thing than the monstrous shape of Cruelty and Blood under the Profession of Religion and the greatest Inhumanities and most barbarous Acts as hath been produced by any Age in the Earth For this let me say That though more Blood hath been shed and with greater Executions and in some sence more cruel by those who have not pretended to Religion at least to Liberty of Conscience from whom no other thing could be expected being delivered to their Wills Yet from Men pretending to Religion and to Conscience who suffered for Religion and their Consciences who left their Native Country Friends and Relations to dwell in a Wilderness for to enjoy their Conscience and Religion From Professors who have made so much ado about Religion and for their Conscience and set themselves up as the Height of all Profession of Religion and the most Zealous Assertors of Liberty of Conscience and for that Cause have expected to be had in Regard viz. Because of Conscience and Religion as