Given forth by him a little before he was put to Death and after he had received his Sentence IN the beginning of the Year 1655. I was at the Plough in the East Parts of York-shire in Old England near the Place where my Outward being was and as I walked after the Plough I was filled with the Love and the Presence of the Living God which did Ravish my Heart when I felt it for it did increase and abound in me like a Living Stream so did the Love and Life of God run thorow me like Precious Oyntment giving a pleasant Smell which made me to stand still and as I stood a little still with my heart and mind stayed on the Lord the Word of the Lord came to me in a still small Voice which I did hear perfectly saying to me in the secret of my Heart and Conscience I have Ordained Thee a Prophet unto the Nations And at the hearing of the Word of the Lord I was put to a stand being that I was but a Child for such a Weighty Matter So at the time appointed Barbados was set before me unto which I was required of the Lord to Go and leave my dear and loving Wife and tender Children for the Lord said unto me immediately by his Spirit That He would be as a Husband to my Wise and as a Father to my Children and they should not want in my absence for He would provide for them when I was gone And I believed that the Lord would perform what He had spoken because I was made willing to give up my self to his Work and Service to leave All and follow Him whose Presence and Life is with me where I rest in Peace and Quietness of Spirit with my dear Brother under the shadow of His Wings who hath made us willing to lay down Our Lives for his Own Name sake if Unmerciful Men be suffered to take them from us and if they do We know We shall have Peace and Rest with the Lord for ever in His Holy Habitation when they shall have Torment night and day So in Obedience to the Living God I made preparation to pass to Barbados in the Fourth Moneth 1658. So after some time I had been on the said Island in the Service of God I heard that New-England had made a Law to put the Servants of the Living God to Death if they returned after they were sentenc'd away which did come near me at that time and as I considered the Thing and pondered it in my Heart immediately came the Word of the Lord unto me saying Thou knowest not but that Thou mayest go thither But I kept this Word in my Heart and did not declare it to any until the time Appointed So after that a Vessel was made ready for Rhoad Island which I passed in So after a little time that I had been there visiting the Seed which the Lord hath blessed the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Go to Boston with thy Brother William Robinson And at His Command I was obedient and gave up my self to do His Will that so His Work and Service may be accomplished For He had said unto me that He had a Great Work for me to do which is now come to passe And for yeelding Obedience to and Obeying the Voice and Command of the Everliving God which created Heaven and Earth and the Fountains of Waters Do I with my dear Brother suffer Outward Bonds near unto Death And this is given forth to be upon Record that all People may know who hear it That We came not in our Own Wills but in the Will of God Written in Boston-Prison in the 8th Month 1659. Given forth by me who am known to men by the Name of Marmaduke Stevenson But have a New Name given me which the World knows not of written in the Book of Life Thus they and thus you but as for Mary Dyar when she had parted joyfully with her Friends between whom she came hand in hand joyfully to the Place of Execution though your Marshal Michaelson was troubled thereat and asked Whether she was not ashamed to walk hand in hand between two young men not knowing her Joy in the Lord To whom she answered It is the greatest Joy and Hour I can enjoy in this World With these words No Eye can see No Ear can hear No Tongue can speak No Heart can understand the sweet Incomes and Refreshings of the Spirit of the Lord which now I enjoy I say after she had parted joyfully with her Friends at the Foot of the Ladder determined to dye and saw her Two Friends dead and hanging so before her and had her Arms and Legs tied and the Halier about her Neck and her Face covered with a Handkerchief which your Priest Wilson lent the Hangman for her Execution and was even with the Lord in Joy and Peace and so as it were out of the Body an Order came from You for her Reprieve upon the Petition of her Son unknown to her which being read and the Halter taken off her Neck and she loosened she was desired to come down which she not answering because she staid to wait on the Lord to know his Pleasure in so sudden a Change she having given up her self to dye as aforesaid and being so near to it the People cryed for her Death they were against Pull her down nor could she Prevail with them to stay a little so earnest were they whilst she might consider and know of the Lord what to do but Ladder and she they were pulling down together In which they were stopt and your Chief Marshal and others took her down by her two Arms and had her to Prison From whence she wrote to you when she understood upon what Account she was Reprieved Denying your Reprieve and the Ground of it and the next Morning tendred her Life again for the Abrogating of your Law but she was not suffered for some came presently and took her forcibly in their Arms and put her on Hourseback and with four Horses besides Men conveyed her away Fifteen Miles towards Rhoad Island and then left her with a Horse and Man to be conveyed the rest which she soon sent back when she saw she might do it freely and as of the Lord for she was sensible how that her sudden Reprieve had served your End in turning the People to you who were turning from you in the Death of the Other which was in your Bottom but the Lord otherwise ordered it afterwards in suffering you to put her to Death after a Reprieve and such a One as this and after such a manner and when she was so near the Execution and as to her self even Out of the Body in the Joy of the Lord of which I shall speak more anon and of your Cruelty therefore He suffered this to be and gave her Liberty to go from those parts to Newport in Rhoad Island from whence she came
his Deeds and that the Struggle this thing met withal in its bringing forth and who were the Fathers Fountains and bringers of it on and thorow the Priests and You may be made manifest I shal now proceed to what Ye did to the Strangers as well as to the Inhabitants and how ye did not only Banish but indeed Put to Death These were the Men of the Country whom I mentioned before with whom ye proceeded as to Banishment upon Pain of Death and upon whom ye began But these were not all but with others Natives of England accounted Strangers by you ye proceeded as with the Inhabitants yea and also put to Death as I shall shew by and by for the Lord God of Life and Power who gives unto all Men Life and Breath and Moving who is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and doth whatsoever He pleaseth in them both And who shall say unto Him What doest Thou VVho saith to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back c. Bring my Sons from far and my Daughters from the Ends of the Earth Could not be limited by you whose Breath is in your Nostrils who are but Dust and whom in a moment He can turn into Dust Nor be restrained by your Laws which were made in your Wills to persecute the Just But the stronger ye made your Laws and the more Cruel ye became the more He weakned you by his Power in his Servants who went thorow Banishment and Death And the more ye sought to keep Him under the more He rose up amongst you in His Servants and broke your Bonds and burst your Cords assunder and ye were mistaken who thought that by such things His Purpose could be disannulled or His Counsel be kept from being brought to Pass Though He suffered ye thus to do for the filling up your Measure and the making bare his Arm and the manifesting of the Glory of his Power who is bringing great and mighty things to pass to whom be Glory and Praise and Dominion for ever So Death was the Thing ye aimed at and their Blood ye would have and their Blood ye had and the Lord suffered ye so to do to try you and to prove you and to let the World see how far Profession will go without the Power of Godliness So saith your Declaration Which Sentence viz. of Banishment upon Pain of Death being regularly pronounced at the last Court of Assistants against the Parties above named and they either returning or continuing presumptuously in this Jurisdiction after their time limited were Apprehended and Owning of themselves to be the Persons banished were sentenc'd by Court to Death according to the Law aforesaid which hath been Executed upon Two of them Mary Dyar upon Petition of her Son and the Mercy and Clemency of this Court had liberty to depart within two dayes which she hath accepted of Answ Now I am come to the Bottom of your Work and the Height of this your Gradual Proceeding from Banishment unto Death and in the Instance of these Three Servants of the Lord viz. VVilliam Robinson Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dyar Two of whom viz. VVilliam Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson ye confess to have Executed and the Third viz. Mary Dyar to have sentenc'd to Death but Reprieved whom since ye have put to Death the Relation of whose Sufferings I shall proceed unto and the Merits of their Deaths and then reason with you for the Price of their Sufferings VVilliam Robinson of London Merchant and Marmaduke Stevenson of the East part of York-shire Country-man being moved of the Lord in the Fourth Month 1659. to go from Rhoad Island into Your Jurisdiction came thither accordingly whom ye soon apprehended and with them one Nicholas Davis who came from Plimmouth Patent of which he was to reckon with those with whom he traded in Boston and to pay some Debts and Patience Scot a Girl of about Eleven years old whose business to you-wards from her Father's house in Providence was to bear Witness against your persecuting spirit and sent them to Prison there to remain until the sitting of the Court of Assiststants during which time Mary Dyar aforesaid was moved of the Lord to come from Rhoad Island to visit the Prisoners whom ye Imprisoned also and at the sitting of the said Court of Assistants banished together with VV. Robinson and M. Stevenson and Nicholas Davis upon Pain of Death the Child it seems was not of years as to Law so as to deal with her by Banishment but otherwise in Understanding for she confounded ye all and some of ye confest that ye had many Children and they had been well Educated and that it were well if they could say half so much for God as she could for the Devil so ye Blasphemed the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth that spake in her saying it was an Unclean Spirit For saith the Son of God All Sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of Eternal Condemnation Because they said he had an Unclean spirit For they said He cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils and that he had a Devil Mark 3. 22. to the 31. If after the Fourtcenth of the Seventh Month following they should be found in your Jurisdiction And Nicholas Upshall the Old Man whom ye imprisoned and fined and banished with such Cruelty as aforesaid returning after the space of Three years Banishment to Boston again to his Wife and Family about the time of the sitting of this Court as it was laid upon him by the Lord ye cast into Prison there to remain till he acknowledged his Offence who only bore a sober Witness against your Persecuting Law as a Freeman of Boston after that your Deputy Governor charged him with denying Relations in not coming to his Wife and Children in all that space of time when as ye had banished him from them upon pain of perpetual Imprisonment if he came back again a wicked thing so to charge him for the suffering of that which ye had done unto him to make him to suffer and then to charge him for so doing To which he answered VVas not thou and the rest of you here the cause of it who banished me so that if I did return I must be kept in Prison till I did acknowledge my Offence which was for bearing witness against a wicked and unrighteous Law made to persecute the Saints of Jesus Christ Then ye sent me to the Gen. Court where I declared unto you That the Prosecution of that Law would be a Fore-runner of a Judgment on the Country Therefore I said in tenderness of Love which I bear to the People and Country I did humbly desire you to take heed what ye did lest ye should be found fighters against God and it had been
New England Judged Not by Man's but the Spirit of the LORD And The SUMME sealed up of NEW-ENGLAND'S PERSECUTIONS Being A Brief Relation of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers in those Parts of AMERICA from the beginning of the Fifth Moneth 1656. the time of their first Arrival at BOSTON from ENGLAND to the later end of the Tenth Moneth 1660. Wherein The Cruel Whippings and Scourgings Bonds and Imprisonments Beatings and Chainings Starvings and Huntings Fines and Confiscation of Estates Burning in the Hand and Cutting of Ears Orders of Sale for Bond-men and Bond-women Banishment upon pain of Death and Putting to Death of those People are Shortly touched With a Relation of the Manner and Some of the Other most Material Proceedings and a Judgement thereupon In Answer To a Certain Printed Paper Intituled A DECLARATION of the General Court of the Massachusets holden at Boston the 18. October 1658. Apologizing for the same By GEORGE BISHOPE Therefore also saith the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall slay and Persecute That the Blood of all the Prophets that was shed from the Foundation of the World may be required of this Generation From the Blood of Abel to the Blood of Zecharias which perished between the Temple and the Altar Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation London Printed for Robert Wilson in Martins Le Grand 1661. NEVV ENGLAND Judged c. HAD the Government of the Massachusets in New England stated in their Printed Apologie any Particular matter of Fact whereby the Servants of the Lord William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson whom they caused to be put to Death were Legally convicted Or any Power from Old England to enable to such Executions and that according to the Merit of the One and the Justice of the Other they had Legally proceeded it had been something like Men of Reasonable Understandings whom the Prince of the Ayre had not darkened into a blind accusing of Themselves by the things they offer in their Justification But when their Apologie which carries in the very name of it an Implication of Guilt for Nihil Opus Justitia Ciceronis Justice needeth no Apologie hath no such thing and something as such no doubt it would have had as it's chiefest concern could they have produced it but only Generals which signifie little but a Design to slander For Generalia nihil probant Generals prove nothing as is the Maxime in Law which is grounded upon Equity Dolus versatur in Universalibus Deceit lurks or is conversant in Generals as is the received Axiome of the Antients It is Evident That in this Affair of so high a Nature as of Blood and that for Conscience they are wanting by their Own Prescription both as to Matter of Fact deserving and Power enabling to such Executions And so their Own Vindication for They have not so much as saved to themselves Liberty hereafter to Exhibit what they may have further to offer in their Own Justification a Salvo for which if it could or is intended at all ought at first to be inserted condemnes Themselves and makes Them appear not onely Legis Culpae Transgressors of the Law but Rei Sanguinis Guilty of Blood For when the life of any Man and here is of Two and a Woman is taken away be the Pretence what it will without a Legal Conviction by Plain and Particular mattter of Fact and Doe Process of Law and Power of Determining I speak of inferior Ministers of Justice and no such Matter of Fact and Due Process of Law or Power to Determine have they shewn in this their Declaration which concludes them as aforesaid there the Life of such a Man or of such Men and Women is Violently taken away and those who thus Violently take it or the lives of them away are Guilty of Blood or of that Man or Men and Women are the Trucidatores or Murderers And this being done by Men who sometimes Suffered because of Conscience and who for Conscience sake pretended to fly their Native Country to Men and Women even of their Country barely for their Conscience to God and the Exercise thereof in Obedience to the Lord as is the Case aggravates the Offence beyond Comparison and renders them the most Unreasonable of Men as it leaves them without Excuse Having given this short View and State of the Case which I suppose is clear to all Men of sober Understandings I shall descend more Particularly to the Declaration it self and therein to the Order of the Proceedings of these Men of Blood and the Gradation of their Laws from Imprisonment unto Death as themselves have set it and Convince through all what I have Asserted in the Title and these first Pages of my Book Declaration We thought it requisite to Declare for for Your Preamble or Beginning I shall Answer it in the End That about Three Years since divers Persons professing themselves Quakers of whose Pernicious Opinions and Practices we had received Intelligence from good hands from Barbados to England I suppose Ye mean from England and Barbados arrived at Boston whose Persons were only secured to be sent away the first Opportunity without Censure or Punishment although their professed Tenets Turbulent and Contemptuous Behaviour to Authority would have justified a Severer Animadversion yet the Prudence of this Court was Exercised only in making Provision to Secure the Peace and Order here Established against their Attempts whose Design we were well assured by Our own Experience as well as by the Example of their Predecessors in Munster was to Undermine and Ruine the same Answer That about Three Years before the Date of this Your Declaration that is to say in the beginning of the fifth Moneth called July 1656. Divers Persons in scorn by You and the World called Quakers Viz. Mary Fisher and Anne Austin arrived at Boston and after them in the Moneth following viz. the 7. day of the 6. Moneth 1656. Mary Prince Sarah Gibbens Mary Weatherhead Dorothy Waugh Christopher Holder Thomas Thirstone William Brend and John Copeland And upon their Arrival Ye did secure and send them away after so tedious a Passage by Sea as some Thousands of Miles in Love to Visit You and the many Inconveniences which attend on such a Voyage is Truth and what is Truth I freely Own and readily acknowledge But that They professed themselves Quakers the Tearm which in reproach ye cast upon Them Or That ye onely secured them to send them away the first Opportunity Or That ye sent them away the first Opportunity and that without Censure or Punishment Or That they are a People of such Opinions and Practises as ye call Pernicious Or of turbulent and contemptuos behaviour especially to Authority Or that their Professed Tenets or behaviour to Authority which Ye call turbulent and contemptuous did deserve any such Animadversion much less a Severer than they received at your
the beginning But the Righteous God will fill to you again yea double in the Cup that ye have filled and ye shall surely have your Reward Therefore deceive not your selves for as you have sown so shall ye reap as you have done so shall it be done unto you and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have taken Vengeance upon You and rendred unto you according to your Deeds Then shall you see and be ashamed for your Envy at My People Shame shall cover you who have said unto them Where is now the Lord thy God and ye shall be a Perpetual Desolation the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it who also will do it and perform it in its season and the time is near Now as to the Sufferings What were they and your House of Correction that ye make so slight of them and say of them which proving Insufficient The First Two that came Over after this your Law were Anne Burden and Mary Dyar her whom ye afterwards put to death after that ye had reprieved her of which in its place The One's business was viz. Anne Burden's to gather up some Debts in the Country her Husband being dead who was a long Inhabitant therein for the maintenance of her and her children who had lived about Sixteen years in Boston and those parts and was unblamable before them with whom she lived Nor had ye any thing wherewithal to charge her now but that she was a Plain Quaker as Richard Bellingham said and that she must aside your Law who came for her Debts Mary Dyar's to pass that way to Rhoad Island having before she arrived there no knowledge of what ye had done These Two ye imprisoned and kept close Prisoners that none might come at them and though William Dyar came for his Wife from Rhoad Island after he heard that she was there and in Prison yet ye suffered him not to have her until he became bound in a great Penalty so great was your fear not to lodge her in any Town of your Colony nor to permit any to have speech with her an unmanly thing in her Journey But as for Anne Burden ye held her to it and when she was very sick in Prison ye suffered not her Friends to come and visit her Yea your Jaylor shut her up in a close Room in the heat of Summer upon the Visit of Two Friends at the Window as they came from your Meetings And as for her Debts though some Tender-hearted People were moved to look after them whilst she was in this Restraint and had procured to the value of about Thirty Pounds of it and desired that she might have her Liberty when ye sent her away to pass to England by Barbados because the Goods so gathered for that part of the Debt were not fit for England which was so reasonable that you seemed at first as if it might be if any Voluntarily would receive her for that ye could compel none so to do but He that brought her thither and they upon this seeming Liberty of yours had procured such a Passage Yet ye suffered her not to go but most unreasonably compell'd the Master of the Ship that brought her thither to carry her back for England without any of her Goods with her nor had she so much as One Penies-worth of her Husband's except to the Value of Six shillings which an honest man sent her upon an old Account whilst she was in New-England but ye returned her Empty to her Fatherless Children though they were born in the Country and after that ye had kept her there for the space of about Twelve weeks close Prisoner and put her to the charge of her abiding there and going back and when the Master of the Ship asked who should pay for her Passage Ye advised him to take so much of her Goods as would answer it which he refusing to do so wicked a thing and rather trusting to her Honesty of which he was perswaded that she would not let him be a loser though he could not compel her to pay seeing she went not of her own will and which she paid him in London upon that Account ye let him go And when he that had the first trust from her husband with the Estate was to convey what was gathered to Barbados after she was gone Ye stopp'd to the value of six pounds ten shillings of it for her Passage who so went upon her own and paid it in London aforesaid and of seven shillings for Boat-hire to carry her on Sihpboard though the Master proffered John Endicot your Governour to carry her in his own but Richard Bellingham your Deputy-Governor would not but sent her with the Hangman in a Boat that he had prest and of Fourteen pounds for the Jaylon to whom she owed nothing and as for the rest she heard of some that was sent to the Barbados by the honest man that stirred to have it in but of him that was intrusted she neither heard when nor what nor hath she any thing of it come to her hands 25th of the 2d Month 1660. to relieve her and her Children and as for the Remainder of the Estate left in the Country which should have been a Livelihood for her and hers and for which she came what is become of it she knoweth not nor cannot go over to Enquire without a Prison And this is your Mercy your way to pay Debts your Tenderness your Regard to the Widow and the Fatherless your Justice and the Execution of your Laws when the Reason of your Law hath no place And for this Expect that ye shall have your Reward from Him who is the Father of the Fatherless and the Husband to the Widow who is no Respecter of Persons but will render to every man according to his works Mary Clark is the next whose tender Body being a Mother of Children and having a Husband in England whom she left being moved of the Lord to come unto you ye unmercifully tore with Twenty stripes of a Whip with Three Cords laid on with fury after she had delivered her Message to you which she had from the Lord which ye turned your backs upon and said Ye would not hear like those Proud men to whom the Prophet Jeremiah spake in the Word of the Lord. So she turned her Back to you and ye smote it as aforesaid and having detained her Prisoner about Twelve weeks after in the Winter season ye turned her out of your Jurisdiction Who now is not And this is your House of Correction and the beginning of the inslicting of the Penalty which ye say was Insufficient Christopher Holder and John Copeland are the next who being moved of the Lord to go to Salem a Town in your Colony and speaking a few words viz. Christopher Holder in Your Meeting after the Priest had done was haled back by the hair of the head and his Mouth violently stopp'd with
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
Dier to Death when she came again into your Jurisdiction after your Reprieve and when she was as near the Execution as the turning off the Ladder she being ready and having signified to your Executioner that he might do it when he would So Putting her twice to Die a Cruelty beyond Once putting to Death A Comely grave Woman and of a Goodly Personage and well bred as among men and one of a Good Report having an Husband of an Estate fearing the Lord and a Mother of Children Did ye Pitty Did ye Spare Had ye Compassion Were Bowels in you Ye Cruel Murtherers Was it an Inconsiderable Intercession that moved ye to Reprieve her Or was it not your own Deceit to bring the People back to you upon a seeming shew of Mercy upon Pretence of Bowels moving at or taking advantage of an Inconsiderable Intercession whom your Bloodiness had turned from you and made them to abhor you Let the Witness of God in you be heard to speak for I am sure it will and will be heard in you one day when it shall arise in you as to this very thing a Worm that shall never die and a fire that shall never go out And this your Cruelty speaks it against you and the Lord God Eternal hath tried you by this and your Bloody Laws and snapt them asunder by a Woman and Triumphed over them and you again and again who by his Eternal Arm was made twice to look Death in the Face and overcame rejoycing to die in the Will of God and finishing her Course her Testimony in the face of ye All Trampling upon you and your Laws and your Halter and your Gallows and your Priests and is sat down at the Right hand of God Ye bloody Butchers Ye Monsters of Men Ye Cruel Murderers whom nothing satissies but the Blood of the Innocent Besides did not John Wintrope the Governor of the Jurisdiction of Cannecticote labour with you that ye would not put them to Death and did he not say unto you That he would beg it of you on his bare knees that ye would not do it And did not Colonel Temple go to your Court and tell ye That if according to your Declaration ye desired their Lives absent rather than their Deaths present He would beg them of you and Carry them away at his own Charge and give them a House to live in and Corn to feed on and Land for them and their heirs to Plant on that so once within a Year they should be able to provide for themselves and if any of them should come amongst ye again he would again fetch them on his own Charge And was not this Motion of his well of liked by the Magistrates except Two or Three and did not they propound it to the Deputies the next day but did not the Deputies and those Magistrates Over-Vote it the next day and Ordered they not present Execution to be done upon them that afternoon assoon as your Worship was ended which was your Thursdays Lecture And so did ye not put them to Death and Murder them as aforesaid And yet nowsee how ye come and smooth over the Matter like the Harlot mentioned by Solomon as if ye had done no Evil O ye Impudent hypocrites As if it were far from you to desire their Deaths or that you did not desire it but rather their Lives And that such Clemency and Mercy lodged in you and such Compassion and Bowels that you took notice of the least opportunity that might give ye the occasion to make it manifest And that ye did it upon an Inconsiderable Intercession viz. Mary Dier whom notwithstanding these Considerable Intercessions of such Considerable Men among ye and this other Inconsiderable One as ye tearm it which was of her Son and that is something considerable and more than ye would make of it for a Child is near and its Intercession of a prevailing nature ye put her as I may so say the second time to Death And yet see how ye bring this when ye have done all as a Demonstration which ye say but oh how Impudently will manifestly Evince that ye desired heir Lives absent rather than their Deaths present when as ye put them to Death yea this very Woman your Instances notwithstanding the several Intercessions aforesaid which proved Inconsiderable And then ye say Declaration and Answer Although the Justice of our Proceedings against William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dier supported by the Authority of this Court the Laws of this Countrey and the Law of God which are All Lies for you have no such Authority nor can your Laws support where Authority you have none and the Law of God is against you for it puts not to Death the Innocent or gives ye Power so to do in Matters of Religion which are from Man's Cognizance and in which he hath not to do may rather perswade us to expect Encouragement from such as you are and who are of your Spirit but no other and Commendation from all Prudent and Pious men who those who are truly so will do the Contrary than Convince us of any necessity to Apologize yet why do ye do it seeing that the very Name of an Apologie marrs your Justice for the same yet forasmuch as men of weaker Parts out of Pitty and Commiseration a commendable and Christian Virtue why then have ye not followed it How come ye to Condemn it in an Apologie and yet ye set it above ye as Apologizing to it yet easily abused and susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions and yet a Christan Virtue and a Commendable Can Virtue be mixt is it susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions for want of a full Information may be less had been better for this satisfies not may be less satisfied what Justice is that which reacheth not that of God in the Conscience which should be the full Information to witness for you Which your Justice wanting your full Information signifies nothing and which you wanting you come to give full Information and men of perverser Principles so must be all those who Joyn not with you to Calumniate us Truth is no slander and render us as Bloody Persecutors who certainly are such to satisfie the one which will never be and stop the Mouths of the other which can he never for it 's the witness of Truth We thought sit to Declare That about Three years since Divers Persons professing themselves Quakers c. as in the Beginning which I have already answered and do make an End with your Beginning in the End And so have finished my Answer to your Declaration Having thus gone through your Declaration and Related the Sufferings of Friends as they have come under the several heads thereof and as occasion hath been given me by your said Declaration I shall now proceed to what was done in the other Colonies through your Example and what since Friends have suffered in your Own and so
without his sence but it was the Guilt which was upon him because he was the occasion of his Sufferings by Lyes and Wickedness to advance his Merchandize the better who was there a Factor and to get in with the Governor and that he was guilty was well known to the People Much more might be said of the Sufferings of these People in the Dutch Plantation who are too much enclining to Cruelty themselves through your Encouragement For the Governor was very moderate before when Robert was with him and his Sister was the Means in which the Lord moved to work his Liberty as I have said but this Willet it was of Plimmouth Patent who had his hand so deep there in the Sufferings of the Innocent as aforesaid that made him Wrath and so incensed him that he grew very fierce and into great Enmity against them and made a Law through Example of You That those who received any of them into their Houses should pay Fifty Pounds Sterling one Third part to the Informer who should be concealed the better to Encourage them in their Wickedness And that if any Vessel should bring any of them into that Jurisdiction it should be forfeited with the Goods a high Imbargo And so set he was against Liberty of Conscience that he said That the Liberty of his Brother Henry ' s Conscience was in his Breast striking his hand upon it And if but One were Entertained and that but One Night it was Fifty pounds Sterling a sore Imposition and full of Cruelty taught by You Notwithstanding there were that entertained them willingly for which some were imprisoned and some sined as John Tilton and Joan Chatterton and Henry Townsend who was fined Five hundred Gilders and threatned to be sent out of the Jurisdiction about the Seventh of the Sixth Month 1658. And Tobias Feak and Edward Hart English-men and Officers in the Town of Ulissing or Flushing in New-Netherlands on Long Island were cast into Prison because they could not prosecute the Dutch Governors Orders against these People in that Town And the said Henry Townsend being called before the Governor Court and demanded to pay the Fine and he answering That his Person and Estate was under their hands and they might take it if they would but he could not pay the Fine They suffered him not to speak any more but forthwith cast him into Prison even into a miry Dungeon in the Winter season about the middle of the Eleventh Month 1657. Nine days after which he wrote to the Governor and Fiscal That he could not pay the Money upon that Account although he lay in an Irkesom Prison and was of a weak Constitution and sickly and prohibited his Wife and Friends from giving them any thing Notwithstanding the Cry of her and her small Children who could not bear his sore Sufferings But the Season being so cold and his Wife and Friends in such fear that he would by reason thereof there perish and they apprehending such a Necessity of his Presence at home they came under and gave his Persecutors Two young Oxen and a Horse which was all he had for his Liberty who had it thereupon And Mary Weatherhead and Dorothy Waugh Two Maidens who came out of England for speaking in the Streets of New-Amsterdam were cast into a Miry Dungeon and there kept for the space of Eight dayes In which it was supposed they could not have lived And then were had through the Street to a Boat with Rods tyed at their Backs and sent for Rhoad Island And this is the Entertainment which the Servants of the Lord met with in the Dutch Plantation the New-Netherlands as it is called near New-England when they went to Visit the Seed of God there and which their Brethren the English that resided there who endure much servitude for their Conscience sake under them to enjoy it and went thither formerly as I have said out of the New English to Enjoy it who watch all Occasions against them and took this for One and so dealt with them through the Example of you and the Instigation in particular of Captain Willet aforesaid who were not content to bring them under Sufferings in New-England so as to force them to quit the Land to Enjoy their Conscience and Live with Strangers who came out of England with you to enjoy their Conscience but followed them there and incensed the Strangers against them who before let them and they might have so done to this day live in peace which hath produced the Effects aforesaid for which you must Answer to the Lord in the Day which is near wherein he will Judge every man according to his Works Yet a little more and then I have done with You for I am now coming back again to your own doors and there sealing up your summe in relation to the Sufferings of your own Jurisdiction whom ye have caused to suffer since the time of your putting those to death and to the Sufferings in the Colony of Canecticote of which I have spoken Several of Salem Friends ye Committed and have continued them long Prisoners at Boston as M. Trask John Smith Margaret Smith Edward Wharton and others Robert Harper also of Sandwitch and Deborah ye Committed likewise And these were in your Prison the Thirtieth of the Tenth Moneth 1660. Several ye Banished upon pain of Death as VVinlock Christison and VVill. King of Salem and Martha Standly a Maid belonging to England and Mary VVrite of Oyster Bay in Long Island who gave her Testimony against You for your Cruelty in putting Mary Dier to Death whose Blood ye also thirsted after because of it Amongst which VVilliam Ledra is one upon whom your Cruelry hath often Exceeded he was then in your hands as having returned into your Jurisdiction after Banishment yet to try your Bloody Law as to Death whom by a Chain ye have fastened to a Logg Joseph Nicholson and his Wife came in the Movings of the Lord to Sojourn with you and of you to Sojourn amongst ye they demanded it as they in right might on as good terms as you came thither first to Inhabit but it they could not have but instead thereof were committed to Prison and Banish't upon Pain of Death whose business from England was to Sojourn among you and against whom you had nothing yet so ye did unto them though she was great with Child and her Condition such therewith that she could not go forth of Prison till the last day limited by you nor he from her she being in that Condition after which day if found in your Jurisdiction they were to die by your Law after whom ye sent and apprehended he was at Salem whither he went that day with his Wife who there fell in Travel and suffered he was not to stay to see how it might be ordered as to his Wife but had to Boston he was in the way whereunto he was met with an
quallifie the Dissents Samuel Shattock-Josiah Southick Nicholas Phelps Pass to England Lawrence Cassandra Southick to Shelter Island and there die in three days of each other Joshua Buffum to Rhoad Island The Grounds wherefore you proceeded thus against them mentioned by your Governor D. Denison's Athiestical Principle Micah 2. 1. May 11. 1659. Dan Southick Prov. Southick Ordered to be sold for their Fines Order of the Court General for selling for Bondmen and Bondwomen Amos 2. 4. to the end 2 Chron. 28. 8. to the 16th The Case of Selling to pay Debts weighed in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Daniel Provided Southick Edw. Wharton Sam. Gaskin Proceedings unto Death W. Robinson M. Stevenson Mary Dyar banish'd and afterwards put to Death 4th Moneth 1659. Nich. Davis banisht on pain of Death Patience Scot a Girl of about 11 years old Daughter to Katherin Scot aforesaid Mary Dyar 14th day 7th Month 1659. Nich. Vpshall 12th day 7th Month 1659. Nichol Davis Mary Dyar W. Robinson M. Stevenson W Robinson stop't from speaking for himself by a Handkerchif thrust into his mouth and attempting yet to speak was had down and given Twenty cruel Lashes with a Threesold Corded Whip 13th of the 7th Moneth 1659. Christopher Holder 8th of the 8th Moneth 1659. Mary Dier Hope Clifton Mary Scot. Robert Harper 13th of the 8th Moneth 1659. W. Robinson M. Stevenson Alice Cowland Daniel Gold of RhoadIsland W. King Hannah Phelps Mary Trask Margaret Smith Prov. Southick 19th of the 8th Moneth 1659. W. Robinson M. Stevenson M. Dier had before the Court. 20th of the 8th Moneth 1659. W Robinson sentented to Death M. Stevenson sentenced to Death also The Sentence of the Lord by him upon those who should be guilty of their Blood in puting them to Death Mary Dier sentenced to Death 27th of the 8th Moneth 1659. The People flock to the Prison A Guard set on it by Night and Irons on William and Marmaduke They are caled forth And take leave of their fellow Prisoners and are led to place of Execution And are met with in the way by Priest Wilson c. Taunted by him And are Executed viz. W. Robinson and M. Stevenson And their dead Bodies cut down and let fall to the breaking of one of their skuls And cast naked into a Pit without a covering And there left in a Pit in the open Field whose Coverin was soon of Water And then Priest Wilson made a Song of them W. Robinsons Paper to the Court. M. Stevenson's Account of his Call to Boston for which he laid down his Life to be upon Record for all to know the Ground thereof therefore wrote by him and left in the words within written Mary Dyar had to the Gallows her Arms and Legs tied face covered and Halter about her Neck then Repriev'd and pull'd down because she came not presently down being willing to dye ready and near to it She tenders to die the next day again but is resused and forcibly carried in stead thereof out of the Prison and with Horses Horse-men towards Rhoade Island From whence she came again in the Will of the Lord and suffered Death as hereafter is to be shewn The Demeanor of the People heavy and sad after the Execution of the Two former Two Examples of the Judgement of the Lord on their Enemies The one a Woman that reviled them at the Execution on whom a Draw-bridge fell upon her return and she dyed miserably The other 3. Grandchildren of Priest Wilsons who dyed shortly after Edw. Wharton 31. 8th Moneth 1659. Apprehended Committed 3d 9th Moneth 1659. whipt with 20 lashes and fined 20 l. 11th 9th Moneth 1659. Therest of the Prisoners called before the Court. 22d 9th Moneth 1659. Whipt with cruel stripes 30 Dan Gold 15 R. Harper 15 W. King 10 Mar. Smith 10 Mary Trask 10 Provided Southick Alice Cowland Han. Phelps Mary Scot Hope Cliston Admonisht Christo Holder Banished Mary Dyar put to De th after the Reprieve The Sufferings of Friends in Plimmouth Patent Nicholas Upshal John Copeland Christopher Holder 16th day 6th Month 1657. Martins Vineyard The kindness of the Indians in Martins Vineyard A Savory speech of an Indian They being commanded to depart out of Plimmouth and returning again were apprehended * W. Newland Fined 20 s. for demanding a Coppy of their Warrant of the Deputy Constable and sent the second time out of that Colony 2d of the 7th Moneth 1657. Threatned if they return Hump. Norton Banished Suffering as to Fines Ralph Alden W. Newland of Sandwitch 8th Moneth 1658. Peter Gaunt Dan. Wing Ra. Allin W. Allin of Sandwitch Fined for not putting off the Hat Laws against Friends made by the Court. 1. Moneth 1658. An Account of more Lawes against Friends how wicked they are read More wicked Laws The manner of their Proceedings to weary out Friends by Fines as to the Oath of Fidelity A Remarkable instance in a poor Weaver of their Cruelty Fines as to Meetings Three or fourscore presented at One Court for not coming to Publick Meetings Tho. Hinckleys Law for not Coming to Meetings A Notable Juggle or Sophistication of a Law made 7 years before to serve the present turn as if it were not then made Will. Newland More Wickedness against those People W. Brend J. Copeland Sarah Gibbens W. Brend J Copeland Whipt cruelly with Rods 9th day 12th Month 1657. Edw. Perry Hump. Norton John Rous whipt Chr. Holder John Copeland 23d day 4th Month 1658 They are whipt with 33 lashes A Woman crying out to see the Execution John Copeland Josiah Coal 5th day 9th Month 1658. Suffering of Friends in Sandwitch as to Fines and Confiscation of Estates A wicked Speech of Tho. Prince the Governor as to these People Rob. Harper Ralph Allen the elder Joseph Allen. Tho. Greenfeild Edw. Perry 10th Moneth 1658. 1. Moneth 1659. 4th Moneth 1659. 7th Moneth 1659. Disturbances of Meetings by the Marshal George Barloe and his Huntings after them Richard Kirby and his son Richard 14th day 7th Month 1659. George Allin W. Allin Matth. Allin 18th of the 1st Month. 1659. A Desperate speech of R. Cadwel one of the Marshal's Assistants W. Gifford 10th Moneth 1658. 1st Moneth 1659. 8th Moneth 1659. Tho. Ewer 17th of the 10th Month 1658. Bread Corn taken from the Mill for their fines and their working tools W. Newland Hen. Howland of Duxbury Dan. Wing Ralph Allin the yonger Peter Gaunt John Jenkins The Common Priviledge of Freemen denyed The Extream Madness of Major Winslow against them Mich. Turner John Newland Tho Johnson Arth. Howland 28th day 3d Month 1658. An Appeal to England Denied Hen. Howland Nich. Davis Will. Leddra Peter Pearson Sufferings in New-haven Colony Humph. Norton Apprehended Committed Cast into Prison Chained to a Post 12th Month 1657. 11th day first Month 1658. A Key tyed athwart Hump. Nortons mouth whilest the Priest was speaking The Priests Security Sentenc'd to be severely whipt and to be burnt in the hand c. and Banisht The Sentence Executed Will. Brend Mary Dyar Mary Weatherhead others What her sinking in the Sea signified Sufferings of Friends in the Dutch Plantation by occasion of the New English Rob. Hodgshone John Tilton Joan Chatterton Hen. Townsend 7th day 6th Month 1658. Tobias Foak Edward Hart. Hen. Townsend 11th March 1657. Mary Weatherhead Dorothy Waugh Edw. Warton Mary Trask John Smith Marg. Smith of Salem Robert and Deborah Harper of Sandwitch W. Christison W. King Marth Standly Mary Write W. Ledra Banished Joseph Nicholson and his Wife Winlock Christison * Dan. Denison aforesaid in Particular A Law making it death directly or indirectly to seek the Alteration of the Government * One Rogers Priest of Rowley Doctor Child Sam. Miverick David Yeal c. Imprisoned for endeavouring to Petition to England for redress of their grievances This was before friends came to New-England and those this Priest for so doing would have had hanged R. Billinghams wicked speech The Jaylor rejoyced that Joseph was come again to be put to death The Beast of the Court. Anne Hutcheson and others Murdered Sufferings in Canect Colony J Copeland John Rous. Will. Leddra W. Brend Sara Gibbens Doro Waugh Joseph and Jane Nicholson New-haven Colony John 4. 23. †William Leddra
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.