a Glove and Handkerchief thrust thereinto with much fury by One of your Church-Members and Commissioners and they both thrust out and had to a house and continued there till the next day and then had to Boston where Ye laid it on with Thirty stripes a piece at Once with a knotted Whip of Three Cords as near as the Hangman could in One place measuring his Ground and fetching his stroaks with the greatest strength and advantage he could to Cut their Flesh and to put them to suffering The Cruelty of which was so great that a Woman seeing of it fell down as dead Yet it had not End for that Night and Three dayes after your Jaylor kept them without Food or Water lying on the Boards without Bed or Straw after so cruel Execution and so close that none might come to speak with them so they might have perished but the Lord preserved them under your Merciless Cruelty and when all this would not do Ye kept them Nine weeks Prisoners without Fire in the Cold Winter season and then turned them forth And the Friend of Salem Samuel Shattock by Name who pull'd away the hand of the said Church-Member's and Commissioner when he thrust the Glove and Handkerchief into the Mouth of Christopher Holder lest it should have choaked him being not able to behold so barbarous an Act ye sent to Boston though an Inhabitant of Salem and a man of good repute amongst ye and there ye kept him Prisoner whom since ye have whipt and banish'd upon pain of Death as a Friend to Quakers though ye had no Law so to do who only did this friendly Act till he had given in Bond of Twenty Pounds to answer it at the next Court and not to come at any of the People called Quakers at their Meetings And this was the second Progress of your House of Correction and the further Infliction of your Insufficient Punishment which ye laid on without Compassion or Pitty and yet call it Insufficient The Penalty inflicted proving Insufficient say ye who are thus Drunk in Blood and filled with Madness that ye care not what ye do to the Innocent nor what Cruelty ye inflict nor how your Rage reacheth up to Heaven in causing them to suffer but being Mounted in Blood ye ride on with speed and No Consideration of Tenderness or Bowels can stop your Career No not the sad Condition of your Neighbours the Inhabitants who had lived long amongst ye and were Partakers of the same distance from their Country and other Inconveniences and were known to you to be of sober Conversations your Eye pittied not neither did ye spare them the Cry of their Oppressions came not into your Ears neither did your hearts relent but as Men given up to a Reprobate sense Implacable Unmerciful without natural Affection So ye proceeded with the Inhabitants as with the Strangers and more cruelly too neither regarding Age nor Sex neither the Hoary head nor him that stoopeth for Age Neither Child nor Old woman Neither Infant of Dayes nor the Man of Riper Years Neither a Man and his House nor a Man and his Heritage Neither Many Men and their Houses nor Many Men and their Heritages Wives Children Families Relations Estates Goods Lands Persons Beings as I shall set in Order before you by and by though therein You are silent and the Righteous Judgments of God who will not spare you for your Iniquities and Hard-heartedness to the Poor Neither will His Eye pitty You nor will He spare You But the Reward of your Hands shall be given ye and the Fruit of your Doings Because ye spared not neither have had Mercy And this the Lord will fulfill whose VVord it is who is a God of Faithfulness and Truth Blessed are all they who put their Trust in Him And here Cassandra Southick and Lawrence her Husband an Aged Grave Couple Inhabitants of Salem and Members of your Church come to be considered Who because they Entertained the Two Strangers aforesaid viz. Christopher Holder and John Copeland who are required to Entertain Strangers Forget not to do it saith the Apostle to the Church of Christ for thereby some have Entertained Angels were committed to Prison and sent to Boston your Metropolis of Bloud where Lawrence ye released to be dealt withal by them who reputed him of their Congregation but Cassandra ye kept Seven weeks a Prisoner and then fined her Forty shillings for owning a Paper written by the Strangers aforesaid in reference to Truth and the Scriptures what Blasphemers are ye who persecute for this which your Governor put to her wherewithal to Ensnare her and to bring her under your Law who had none before after ye had detained her as aforesaid and which she Owning for that she could not deny unless she had denyed the Truth ye fined her as aforesaid though even that Law by which Ye fined her fineth only for Heretical Papers which this was not nor proved ye it so to be Richard Dowdney was the next who felt your hand upon whom there being a Necessity laid from the Lord to come from England to you Ye apprehended at Dedham and brought to Boston where he never was before nor in that Country and having given him Thirty stripes at Once with such a Whip as aforesaid and laid it on with as much Cruelty as the former and searched for his Papers and Books and took from him what Ye would all which in the space of Three hours after his Coming to Town to the wounding of the hearts of many who heard and saw so Innocent a Man so inhumanely abused Ye continued him Twenty Dayes a Prisoner and then sent Him away with the Four former after ye had threatned him and them with the loss of their Ears if they came there again viz. into your Jurisdiction Which leads me to the next step of your Proceedings mentioned in your Declaration viz. the Cutting off Ears was increased to wit the Penalty by the loss of the Ears of those that offended the second time The Whole runs thus And the Penalty inflicted proving insufficient to restrain their Impudent and Insolent Obirusions was increased by the loss of the Ears of those that offended the second time Answer Before I come to the particular Execution of this Increase of your Cruelty I must necessarily turn aside to shew the Reader the Effect of the former upon the Inhabitants and what it produced as to them and your Proceedings thereupon These Your Violent and Bloody Proceedings so affected the Inhabitants of Salem and so preached unto them that divers of them could no longer Eat of your Sacrifices of Blood nor partake with you who mingled Blood with your Sacrifices but chusing rather Peace with God in their Consciences whose Witness in them testified against such Worships than to Joyn with You whatsoever they might therefore suffer withdrew from Your Publick Assemblies and met together by themselves on the first Dayes
is at large Exprest unto which I refer and to the Preamble of the said Act and the other Laws and Acts of the Nation which relate thereunto for the Sevenfold Ground on which the Provisions in that Law are made and Bottom'd as aforesaid and on which they Stand. Now what is this to the People called Quakers or in Justification of your Proceedings against them as to Banishment and Death Are they Papists or Popishly affected Did ye ever find them so or hath the least shadow thereof been laid to their charge by you or found against them Have you ever found them Raising of Arms or Plotting or Contriving in order there unto Or seeking to withdraw the People in your Jurisdiction from their Allegiance unto England its well if some such thing be not found upon you or to you in order to England Or hath it not been manifest that their Principle is otherwise Viz. To Lead out of VVars and the Occasion of them sc the Lusts that are in Men from whence they come Did they ever put the Nation of England into Wars and Confusion to Exert their Principle or any other Nation on the face of the Earth Or on the Contrary hath not Peace been that which they have Endeavoured among men and is not their Gospel Good-will towards men Are they men of Blood of Assassinations and Murders hath any man fallen by their hands or have they stretched out their hand against any man Have they not Endeavoured and is it not their Principle to bring out of Blood and Confusion out of War and Destruction out of Desolation and Calamity And have they not subjected themselves to the Spoiler and their Estates to the Robber in order hereunto Can any of the Seven Particulars aforesaid on which the Law of England in its Provisions against Jesuites which you take to as your Example in the Case is grounded or any thing Congruous or Sutable thereunto be Justly attributed to those People Or have ye charged them with any such in Particular and found it upon them How come ye then to say In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuites Surely ye thought to skare Ignorant People therewith as Children are with the Name of Jesuites So that if ye name but Jesuite and speak of a Law made against them it is Enough In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuits say ye But the Law of England hath no such Ground for its Provisions against that Order of Men as yours against these People which indeed is none at all nor warrants your Proceedings So your Warranty being gone where 's your Hold Thus are ye taken in the Snare which you have layd for others and in the Pit which ye have digged are your selves fallen And the Law of England is not for but against you is not an Example to you in this Case but the Contrary So henceforwards take heed how you shed Blood and then seek to cover your selves under the Laws of England who would not be under its Law or seek to that for shelter which will not save you Thus much as to the Example of England in their Provisions against Jesuits and what you have built thereupon Now as to those who Suffered by Vertue of your Law And these in the First place are Lawrence Southick his Wife Cassandra and Josiah their Son whom I have often mentioned for your Cruelty by reason you have given me oft the Occasion Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum All Inhabitants of Salem as aforesaid against whom in no One Particular had ye proceeded according to Law but having tortured their Bodies and broken their Estates and distracted their Families and often wearied them though in the Lord they had rest Ye Banish'd them from All even from their Countrey the very Court of Election in the Moneth called May following giving them but a very little time to Depart on pain of Death which put them to much straits and hardships yet go they must ther 's no stay ye had now got your Law to rid the Land of them as ye thought but were mistaken or to take the Lives of them from the Land of the Living Your Tugg was Over and ye had carried it of them that stood stiffe a while against the Passing of that Law but Two came to Enter their Dissents viz. Capt. Edward Hutcheson and Capt. Tho. Clark whose Names I mention to remain upon Record as a good Savour to the Lord and his People through all Generations which shall witness for them Indeed there was a great adoe and hard work it Cost ye to get it about John Norton and the rest of your Prests being not able to Convict the Persons aforesaid either by Law or Otherwise or by Ensnaring Questions to bring them under the Law as hath been Declared Petitioned the Magistrates the next day to set forward the Court to make some Law to Banish them upon pain of Death so see the Spring and Fountain of this Work of Darkness and who it was this Bloody Law First moved in and they prescribed Particulars as matter upon which to proceed I could set down all that all might see their Bloody Spirits and what Cruelty lodged in them but I leave the Particulars to rot with themselves seeing the Court thought fit to make it a Law and much strugling there was on the one hand to get it on the other to oppose it The Court of Deputies could by no means be brought to Consent thereunto The Priests and Rulers were all for Blood and they pursued it and the Court of Magistrates Voted it without Tryal of a Jury and in Express words to be put in Execution by a County Court which Three Magistrates made up the Majority of which might hang at pleasure without a Jury a Thing not heard of in these Dominions but it served the Priests purpose who set it on This the Deputies withstood and it could not pass and the Opposition grew strong for the thing came near Deacon VVozel was a Man much affected therewith and being not well at that time that he supposed the Vote might pass he Earnestly desired the Speaker and some of the Other Deputies to send for him when it was to be lest by his Absence it might miscarry The Deputies that were against the Passing of that Law thinking themselves strong enough being indeed the most Reasonable and the more Moderate men of the Court to cast it out forbore to send for him The thing came to it and the Vote was put and carried in the Affirmative for the Law to Pass without Tryal of a Jury and by a County Court The Speaker and Eleven being in the Negative and Thirteen in the Affirmative So One Vote Carried it which troubled Deacon Wozel so when he heard it that he got to the Court in great grief of Spirit desiring to have his Vote and Wept for grief that his absence
ye are naked and bare and who sees your Hearts and knows the bottom of your Intents against these People and accordingly will Judge you whose Judgements are Just You put them to Death These are your Means your all other Means but these are none of the Means which the Spirit of Truth Prescribes in the Scriptures of the Apostles for the Convincing Gainsayers But Exhortation Reproof Admonition the Word of Truth the Sword of the Spirit and these the Apostles used and with these they warred and they wrestled not with Flesh and Blood but with Principallities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places and in Meekness they Instructed them who Opposed themselves if God Peradventure would give them the Knowledge of the Truth And the Son of God tells ye That he came not to destroy mens Lives but to save And when his Disciples would have Fire come down on the men of Samaria He said Ye know not of what Spirit ye are Now these Means failing or you having failed in the using of these Means or you not knowing how to use these Means or you being not in that which would teach you how to use these Means which are the Means ye should have used and would have directed you thereunto Ye betake your selves to other Means Means that you should not have used Means which the using of them cannot Convince the Heart and Conscience of Man nor Instruct the Ignorant nor bring to the Knowledge of the Truth those that Oppose themselves Nor Overcome Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places Nor Subdue the Spirit though it may bring under the Body and through fear of him that can Kill the Body make to Blaspheme Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast both into hell fire which was not the Case of these for they feared not you who did Kill the Body and could go no further but Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast into hell fire him they feared And Sanctified him in their hearts and made him their Fear and their Dread and he kept them who trusted in Him because they trusted in Him who never failed them who put their trust in Him And Delivered them and they have obtained a good Report and have finished their course with Joy those whom ye have put to Death and kept the Faith and henceforth is laid up for them a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge will give them in that day and not onely unto them but to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and his appearing I say these Means failing you betake your selves to Other Means to the Means which the World useth as aforesaid to shew that you 〈…〉 of this World which never reacheth the Spirit but the Body and because they cannot reach the Spirit they kill the Body When as the Spirit it is that Offers up the Body and presents it a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is its reasonable service and by which they offered up their Bodies on the Point which ye offered unto them and on the Tree triumphed over ye all and shewed that Greater was he that was in them then he that is of this World and that they could die to do the will of God And that nothing could separate them no not Death it self from the Love of God which is Christ Jesus And so as your all other so this Means of Cruelty viz. Death it self hath failed you in thinking thereby to Overcome the Saints of the most High God or to keep them from the doing of his Will Fourthly The Point ye offered them was without Ground in Law or that the Law allows ye to put For as I have said Valuable Considerations must precede and such as will weigh down that of taking away of a man's Life which the Law esteems a most precious thing Now here is no such produced by you nor are there any such The utmost is that they are such as are called Quakers who are proved to be another manner of People in this Nation than you Reproach and are so with you whom you have not Convicted of one Principle or Practice that is contrary to Godliness Onely the Hat ye stumble at which is their Reasonable Apparel and by the Hat ye Judged them to be such and put them to Death And this was the Point which ye offered and this was it against which ye offered it and in this they came in their reasonable Apparel in the Will of God upon your Point and passed through it Now where Valuable Considerations are not the Ground neither is Law nor Reason For as I have said it is Lawful for any English man to reside come in or be in any of the Dominions appertaining to England and as Natural it is for One as for Another For it is an English man's House and where shall a man be if he shall not be in his House And it is not the Name of a Thing Or the Distinction of Word or Habit put by men that must cut a man off from this his Priviledge which is by Nature Nor should Names of Distinction much less of Reproach be given whereby to raise One Part of a Nation against Another for this Ministers Division and is an Occasion thereof and tends to the Dissolution of Government and is contrary to Law Therefore they who come into a Countrey unto which they have a Natural and Legal Right as these had and any English man hath to come in amongst you and have not done any thing by which by the Law of their Countrey they are justly made uncapable of that Right as these had not for you are in Subordination to England Your Lawes are not to be Repugnant unto it There for such to come reside or to be is no Valuable Consideration or Legal Ground as to his Countrey to be put upon the Point or the Point to be offered unto him and if the Point be offered to such and they come upon it and they be killed therewith such cannot be said to be Fellons de se For the Law will say Quo Warranto On what Ground And the Ground is short as hath been Declared and made to appear Nor Violently or Willfully to rush upon the Point but those who without Law or Ground as to the Law of their Countrey and your Countrey is England shall so offer the Point and run them through who come upon it Such are Ingulatores de se Cutters of their own Throats or Shedders of Blood in their own Wrong your Case in this Particular and the Violence and wilfulness will be attributed unto them by the Law who set the Point not to those that come upon it As of one who sets the Sword where another man may lawsully Pass and he that so Passes is Executed thereupon For he that so cometh cometh upon his Right Lastly Oh ye wretched Hypocrites and Murderers Did ye not put the same Mary
Magistrate and Commander of theirs to his friend in England formerly of that Jurisdiction also and a Magistrate there written from the sence thereof in the following Words and then I shall touch at some of the Particulars as they are come to my hands The Letter follows AS for the State and Condition of things amongst us it is Sad and like so to continue The Antichristian Persecuting Spirit is very active and that in the Powers of this World He that will not Whip and Lash Persecute and Punish men that Differ in matters of Religion must not sit on the Bench nor sustain any Office in the Common-wealth Last Election Mr. Hatherly and my self left off the Bench and my self Discharged of my Captainship because I had Entertained some of the Quakers at my House thereby that I might be the better acquainted with their Principles I thought it better so to do than with the blind VVorld to Censure Condemn Rail at and Revile them when they neither saw their Persons nor knew any of their Principles But the Quakers and my self cannot close in Divers things and so I signified to the Court I was no Quaker but must bear my Testimony against sundery things that they held as I had occasion and opportunity But withall I told them That as I was no Quaker so I would be no Persecutor This Spirit did work those two years that I was of the Magistracy during which time I was on sundry occasions forced to Declare my Dissent in Sundry actings of that Nature which although done with all Moderation of Expression together with due respect unto the Rest yet it wrought great Dissaffection and Prejudice in them against me So that if I should say some of themselves set others on work to frame a Petition against me that so they might have a seeming Ground from others though first moved and acted by themselves to lay me what they could under Reproach I should do no wrong The Petition was with Nineteen Hands It will be too long to make Rehearsal It wrought such a Disturbance in our Town and in our Millitary Company that when the Act of Court was Read in the Head of the Company had not I been present and made a Speech to them I fear there had been such Actings as would have been of a sad Consequence The Court was again followed with another Petition of fifty four hands and the Court return the Petitioners an Answer with much plausibleness of speech carrying with it great shew of Respect to them readily acknowledging with the Petitioners my Parts and Gifts and how useful I had been in my Place Professing they had nothing at all against me only in that thing of giving Entertainment to the Quakers when as I broke no Law in giving them a Nights Lodging or two and some Victuals For our Law then was If any entertain a Quaker and keep him after he is warned by a Magistrate to depart the Party so entertaining shall pay Twenty shillings a week for entertaining them Since hath been made a Law If any entertain a Quaker if but a quarter of an hour he is to forfeit Five pounds Another That if any see a Quaker he is bound if he live six miles or more from the Constable yet he must presently go and give notice to the Constable or else is subject to the Censure of the Court which may be hang him Another That if the Constable know or hear of any Quaker in his Precincts he is presently to apprehend him and if he will not presently depart the Town the Constable is to whip them and send them away And divers have been whipt with us in our Patent and truly to tell you plainly that the whipping of them with that Cruelty as some have been whipt and their Patience under it hath sometimes been the occasion of gaining more Adherence to them than if they had suffered them Openly to have Preached a Sermon Also another Law That if there be a Quakers Meeting any where in this Colony the Party in whose House or on whose Ground is to pay Forty shillings the Preaching Quaker Forty shillings Every Hearer Forty shillings Yea and if they have Meetings though nothing be spoken when they so meet which they say so it falls out sometimes Our last Law That now they are to be Apprehended and carried before a Magistrate and by him committed to be kept close Prisoner untill he will promise to depart and never come again and will also pay his Fees which I perceive they will do neither the one nor the other and they must be kept only with the Countries Allowance which is but small namely Course Bread and Water No Friend may bring them any thing None may be permitted to speak with them Nay if they have Money of their own they may not make use of that to relieve themselves In the Massachusets namely Boston Colony after they have whipt them cut their Ears have now at last gone the furthest step they can They banish them upon pain of Death if ever they come there again We expect that we must do the like We must dance after their Pipe Now Plimmouth Saddle is On the Bay Horse viz. Boston we shall follow them on the Career For it is well if in some there be not a desire to be their Apes and Imitators in all their Proceedings in things of this nature All these Carnal and Antichristian wayes being not of God's Appointment effect nothing as to the obstructing or hindring of them in their way or course It is only the Word and Spirit of the Lord that is able to convince Gain-sayers they are the Mighty Weapons of a Christian's Warfare by which Great and Mighty things are done and accomplished They have many Meetings and many Adherents almost the whole Town of Sandwitch is adhering towards them and give me leave a little to acquaint you with their Sufferings which is grievous unto and saddens the hearts of most of the Precious Saints of God It lies down and rises up with them and they cannot put it out of their minds to see and hear of poor Families deprived of their Comforts and brought into Penury and Want you may say by what means and to what End As far as I am able to judge of the End it is to force them from their Homes and lawful Habitations and to drive them out of their Coasts The Massachusets have banished six of their own Inhabitants to be gone upon pain of death and I wish that Blood be not shed but our Poor People are pillaged and plundered of their Goods and haply when they have no more to satisfie their unsatiable desire at last may be forced to flee and glad they have their Lives for a Prey As for the Means by which they are impoverished These in the first place were scrupulous of an Oath VVhy then we must put in force an Old Law That all must take the Oath of Fidelity
Quakers since they came among you Are you not ashamed that the Nations about you should hear of your Actions to hear of the cruel Laws that you have made against an innocent and harmless People What was not the Law that you made at first strong enough but you must disanul it and proceed to a more bloodier Come tell us plainly if you be not ashamed to speak of whom did you ask Counsel or to whom did you seek for Instruction I am sure the Lord in whose hand your breath is did never give you Counsel to make these bloody Laws that you have made against the People who are scornfully called Quakers Come let us further reason together that you may appear unto all that have any Moderation in them left as men that surely you are not the true Christians nor Disciples of Christ for they used no such weapons to War withall as you do So that a great deal of difference there is betwixt your Practises and theirs your Weapons and theirs For their Weapons were and are Spiritual and yours are Carnal The difference is great every way as great as there is betwixtLight and Darknesse Again that you may see that in every thing you are altogether unlike them their War was against Spiritual wickedness in high places The Apostles wrestled not with flesh and blood mark not with the Creatures not to destroy mens Lives but made War in Righteousness with the spiritual Weapons having on for an helmet the brest-plate of Righteousness whereby they subdued the Powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness that ruled in high places Now you that call your selves Christians you war against flesh and blood your war is against the Creatures and not against spiritual wickedness you seek to destroy that which Christ came to save and seek not to destroy that which Christ came to destroy He was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil but you make your selves manifest you intend to destroy the work of God Mark and take notice you unbelievers The Creature is the workmanship of God the spiritual wickedness is the fruit and work of the Devil which Christ came to destroy and was made manifest for that end to destroy the sin which is the fruit of the Devil Take notice ye unlike Christians the fruits and works of the Devil live and remain still among you undestroyed who seek to destroy the workmanship of God when Christ came to save mens lives and not to destroy them but to destroy the works of the Devil but you seek to destroy that which Christ came to save and to save alive that which Christ came to destroy So see if it doth not appear plainly by your Actions and by your corrupt fruits that you are making war against Christ and his Saints whom you seek to destroy from off the face of the Earth As let your actions that you have acted already against God and his Servants bear witnesse against you that you are become more Bloody and more hard-hearted than Pharaoh of old See and search the Scriptures of Truth and consider whose children you are and whose works you are a doing and whom it is you are serving For his servants you are to whom ye obey Did ever God send any of his Servants into a Country or Nation to destroy his workmanship the Creature Is this your gaining many People into your Church Is this your Converting of others Is this your way of adding many to your Church What by compelling of people to come to your Meetings What By Fining People and taking away their Goods What by Imprisoning Whipping and Stocking and burning in the hand and cutting off the Ears of those that come to bear witness against your Cruelty and Idolatry Is this your way of convincing gain-sayers What by making of a Law to bannish such upon pain of Death have you no other weapons to fight withall against the Truth Have you no other means nor way ye Idol-shepherds to stop the mouthes of them ye call gainsayers than Imprisoning Whipping Burning in the Hand Fining and taking away their Goods and Banishment upon pain of Death Have you no other way nor word to convince those you call Hereticks and Deceivers but to take away their lives Surely this was not the way nor means nor power which the Apostles used to convince the Gentiles and Jews unto whom they were sent This power which you make use of is not the power neither doth it proceed from the power which ruled in the Saints Prophets Apostles and People of God whereby their Souls were converted to God which turned them from Darkness to Light But the power that rules you and that you act by is of another nature than the power the Apostles were in for their power was and is given to save but yours is to destroy mens lives which the power of God was given for to save which must be set a top of all unrighteous Powers from whom all bloody and unrighteous Laws do proceed So behold what power it is that leads you and what power ye are under ye merciless men that many of you are become past feeling whose Consciences are seared as with a hot Iron who have given your selves over to work wickedness and are become as great Persecutors as any that worship the Beast who have given their power unto the Dragon who thirsts after the blood of the Innocent as the Lion doth after his prey so greedy and hasty are you to spil the blood of the Saints and to take away the Life of the Upright from the face of the Earth Well ye Rulers and Magistrates so called take heed and take warning I lay it upon you while you have time and a day given unto you to consider these things So before the thing come to passe and before you do it weigh the matter Come let us farther reason together Can you convince us of the transgression of any Law of God and if you cannot which we know you cannot nor have the least transgression of the Righteous Law of God to lay to our charge who are now coming among you in obedience to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for this very end to try you O ye children of men And if you put us to Death because we cannot obey your Commandment but choose rather to obey the Commandment of the Lord and for so doing will you put us to Death Well this know and be it known unto the Sons of Men and Inhabitants within this Town of Boston and elsewhere within your Jurisdiction That the Commandments of the most High must we obey and your Commandment we must disobey and disanul it and make it of no effect because it is against and contrary to that of God in all mens Consciences which is of the nature and according to the Righteous and Royal Law of God therfore we must obey the Command of the Lord because it is according to the Righteous and Royal Law of God