the Meetine who warn'd them to depart and took names and two to Prison viz. Bartholomew Crocker and Cananuel Britton who gave not their Names knowing themselves to be on the Third Conviction if so be thou wouldst so take it which the next day thou didst and committedst them to Newgate and on the 28th camest on with a fresh career and having sent thy Officer before to make fast the door on them that were in the Meeting-room somewhat early thou camest thy self down with Ald. Lock and the Sheriffs about the second hour in the afternoon and seeing some friends in meeting at the door of the house in the street for coming after the door was fast they could not get in the form of thy Visage was changed and thou grew'st very wroth and hastedst to them in thy fury so that thou wast observed to out-goe some of thy Officers and coming near the Place and seeing Mary Prince there thou saidst Where is Mrs. Prince What do you do here Unto which she answering That they were there to wait upon the Lord Thou criedst have her away to Newgate not suffering her to go to Bridewel though she desired it her Son in Law being there and her daughter likely to be sent thither being above in the meeting-room and she desiring to be with her children and this thou didst without asking her to pay any thing or fining her which is contrary to Law as aforesaid and having sent some more thither also whose Names are hereafter mentioned thou went'st up in the meeting-room and there didst commit whom thou pleasedst and hadst an especial eye upon and then orderedst the rest to be suffered to depart but Hannah Marshal Daughter to Mary Prince as aforesaid continuing till last for she could not go away at thy command as she came not there at thy Order thou causedst her to be brought before thee vvho hadst set up thy Court in the Meeting-room as aforetime and demandedst of her whether she would pay 2 s. 6 d. to which she answering that she had something to speak to thee first before she should give thee any reply to that Thou didst bid her say on and she thereupon speaking to this effect John Knight The day will come wherein thou wilt have cause to wish that a milstone were tied about thy neck and thou cast into the midst of the sea for persecuting the people of the Lord Thou saidst Here is a bold Huswife indeed have her away and Alderman Lock with his own hands was like to have thrown her down the stairs so thou orderedst her to Newgate without taking her answer whether she would pay her sine which thou gavest her time to do after she had spoken as aforesaid but she asking thee Whether thou wouldst be worse than an Infidel to part man and wife her Husband being at Bridewel thou sent'st her thither So the Widow and the Fatherlesse were the first and the last of this dayes execution the Mother and the Daughter whom the Lord thus honoured to suffer for his Name with the rest of his servants at that time vvhose Names are Newgate Men. John Withers Charles Jones Andrew Vivers William Peacher Richard Willis Thomas Window Tho. Lofty 7 Women Mary Prince Alice Tovy Bridewell Men. John Hardiman W. Shalford Tho. Baker Geo. White David Simons W. Maynard John Mills Sam. Cottrel Ralph Cock Richard Lindey 10 Women Hannah Marshal Hest Rennolds Jone Dapwel Susanna Pearson the younger Eliz. Turford 5 15 in all Those at Bridewel thou committedst to the 28th of 7th month but those at Newgate had no Warrant of Commitment nor have to this day yet were there detained till the day after the Recorders departure wherein they and several that were there on the third Conviction with John Simons and Sarah Wilkinson hereafter to be mentioned were ordered to be set at Liberty And as for those at Bridewel they had gone without one also had they not refused to depart from the Tolzey the next day when thou hadst them before Thee The Prisons now being very full and the Goal delivery near thy Sergeant Jones and some other Officers came and took the Names of whom they pleased and then halled the Men out of the Meeting room but the Women they let alone This was on the 4th of 7th month being the first day of the Week But the Prisons being somewhat eased again by the Liberty of those that were committed till the 6th of 7th month thou camest on afresh and it being the first day of the Week before the Goal delivery thou madest ready for it to have as many as thou couldst on the third Conviction in order to Banishment Thou having boasted not long before that as near as thy Year was at an end thou hopedst to send one 400 of us out of the Kingdome So on the 11th of 7th month thou settest to thy work and sentst from the Meeting to Newgate and Bridewel these that follow Newgate Men. Miles Dixin W. Taylor John Packer John Brooks Griffith Loscomb Rowland Dole Roger Oldstone James Wallis Robert Gerish John Styant Lewis Rogers 11 Women Martha Lane Sarah Cann Eliz. Dowel Mary Harbord Mary Burg ss Elinor Maud Margaret Thomas the elder Susanna Pearson the elder 8 the number 19. None of these had any Warrant of Commitment and to Bridewel thou didst commit of men and women about the number of seventy So the Goal delivery came on at vvhich One Bill of Indictment was exhibited to the Grand Jury against Barth Crocker Lewis Rogers Cananuel Britton as upon the foot of Banishment being the third Conviction and another against Margaret Thomas the elder Elinor Maud and Susan Pearson the elder for the same both which the Grand Jury found as they did one against John Simons for words said to reflect upon your Worship and another against Sarah Wilkinson for speaking to the Priest of James Steeple house aforesaid These two later vvere found Guiltie by the Petty Juries that passed upon them and vvere fined in 100 marks each by the Recorder and in default of payment to lye six months each in Prison The other six vvere also found Guiltie by the Petty Juries that went on each Indictment and they were sentenc'd the three men to Banishment in the Island of Barbados the three Women because Wives into six months imprisonment in Bridewell each unless redeemed by their respective Husbands according to the Act. So the general Sessions or Goal Delivery had an end Yet thou hadst not thine but as a man restless to bring to pass the thoughts of thy heart against the Innocent whilst thou hadst any breath that is to say any time unexpired of thy Government thou failedst not to improve it against them and for that purpose didst send thine Officers to the Meeting the next first day after the General Sessions viz. the 19th of 7th month vvho took the Names of whom they pleased at the Meeting and on the 25th the last first day of the
Week before the end of thy date which was the 29th thou visitedst the Meeting again in Person vvhere did look thee and thy Banishment in the face thy Cozens Thomas and Mary Gouldney as to vvhose Conviction this was the third time Hannah Jordan Charles Harvord George Gough W. Taylor of the Castle and several others whom thou didst send to Newgate whose names are Men. Daniel Wastfield Tho. Gouldney Charles Harvord Geo. Gough John Wear Rob. Gerish Jos Kipping John Simons Rich. Jones John Saunders W. Taylor of the Castle John Hunt Tho. Lofty Rich. Wiles Rog. Oldstone John Dowell Theop. Newton Tho. Window W. Peachee 19. Women Mary Gouldney Hannah Jordan Mary North Sarah Wilkinson 4. the whole 23. And to Bridewell thou didst commit Men. Leming Dickason Tob. Dole W. Sawser Maur. Williams Christop Newman Tho. Lambert Rowland Dole Simon Cox Jam. Neves Griff. Browne W. Noble Tho. Holder John Herring John Crump John Morgan W. Tovy 16. Women Mary Cole Dorcas Knight 2. The whole to Bridewel and Newgate 41. who vvere expected those of them that vvere on the third Account to be severed to Banishment But after the expiration of thy year came a Warrant signed by thee as Mayor though its like done afterwards to continue them prisoners both the one and the other for the space of a month from the day of their Imprisonment and Dennis Hollister though to a day after thy time set a Prisoner by thy Warrant yet thou didst cause him to be released a day or two before thy time was expired And Edw. Martingdale with whom thou hadst kept a great adoe about a Letter of his which was intercepted giving Account of thy proceedings here against us And another Letter wherein were Characters to his Correspondent about his own business because in Longhand his Letter would not otherwise contain it being sent by the Post and after his Months imprisonment being commiteed when D. Hollister was tendredst him the Oath of Allegiance and sentest him to Newgate for not swearing thou released'st also somewhat before the end of thy time upon the application of some to thee on whose Vessel he vvas Imbarqued that he was to go to Sea and who went to s ea on the said vessel being a stranger here and coming hither to merchandize and so departed to Virginia in the ship on which he had taken Freight before his imprisonment as aforesaid But as for Geo. Bishop Edw. Pyot and those 7 with them whom thou hadst Committed the 14th of the 10th month 1663. before and fined at Sessions the 15th of the 11 moneth following and William Ford and those 15 vvith him except two that were set at Liberty till the Sessions who were sent to Prison the 12th of the 4th after and fined at the Sessions 12th of the 5th Moneth with Tho. Gouldney and those at that time committed with him to Newgate and Bridewell and those for Banishment to carry whom no ship couldst thou nor the Sheriffs get and the Women tried upon the same in all to the number of about forty and nine left by thee prisoners in Newgate and in Bridewel with those committed the 11th of the 7th moneth to the number of 95. In all One hundred Forty and Five John Moon being before set at liberty near the expiration of his three months Imprisonment as aforesaid Thus ended thy Year and thus went'st thou out as a snuff as Hannah Jordan told thee in the Meeting-room at her last Commitment and hast not accomplished The despised people of the Lord have stood over thy head though armed as aforesaid with all thy power and upon them hast thou not brought to pass the desires of thy heart though thou hadst opportunity in thy hand The plant of the Lord in and amongst us hath thriven and prospered Maugre all that thou couldst do in despight of all thy blusters Not an Inch of ground hath it lost but unto it hath been drawn through what thou hast been doing to us and it the hearts of multitudes The Just Lord is in the midst of us he will not do iniquity every morning do he bring his Judgments to light he faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame as the Prophet said Hab. 3.5 And this is thy state who though thou hast found a disappointment in all thy attempts so that thy hands have not effected the thoughts of thine heart for the Virgin Daughter of Sion shook her head at thee she laughed thee to scorne as the Prophet Isaiah in the Word of the Lord said to Rabsheka when he had besieged Jerusalem and insulted over it and boasted what he would do unto it and blasphemed the Lord Isa 37. Though the hand of the Lord hath often been on thee and made thy Chariot Wheeles like Pharaohs to drive heavily though he hath made thee to pass as it were over Axes and Harrows of Iron and through the Brick-kilne putting stops in thy way and blocks in thy proceedings though trouble hath possest thee so that thou hast not sâ—ept in consideration of what thou hast been doing to us for the Witness of … d hath been reacht in thee which hath drawn thee somet … into tenderness yet thou hast gone over all again and 〈◊〉 â—isen up afresh after all thy Pauses and to it thou hast ha … … w as if there never had been any such thing and the â—nemie hath driven thee along to do all these things against the Name of Jesus and hath made thee as a man mad to accomplish them yet thou hast not seen it but hast suffered the Enemie to hurry thee over that which would have shewn it to thee which hath checked thee and made thee sometimes tender as aforesaid so that thou hast as the Deaf Adder refused to hear the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely Instruction and Advice thou wouldst not suffer to come at thee thou filledst thy self with the enemie so didst let him so in as a flood that thou wouldst indure to hear nothing but what he pleased and when thou hadst taken thy liberty and said all that thou wouldst for thou lovedst to hear thy self speak thou wouldst not hear any thing willingly to the contrary The day of the Lord is upon thee and he is making of thee manifest and there is but a very small moment and thy day will be over If to all that hath been said unto thee and hath come over thee thou wilt not yet hear thy condition will be sad thy day will have an end and then vvhat wilt thou do He hath moved this to be written to thee being the Relation of much of what we have suffered at thy hands during the time of thy Mayoralty and to draw before thee back again as in a Glass what thou hast done that thou maist see it and seeing return to him from whom thou hast gon against whom thou hast gon for which purpose hath he caused this to be Argued with thee and by this
A RELATION OF THE INHUMANE and Barbarous suffering of the people called QUAKERS In the City of Bristoll during the Mayoralty of John Knight commonly called Sir John Knight commencing from the 29. of the 7. month 1663. to the â—9 day of the same month 1664. Impartially observed by a private hand and now communicated for Publick information by the said People Many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Dan. 10.12 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Mat. 5. 10 11 12. And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry night and day unto him though he bear long with them I tell you he will avenge them speedily neverthelesse when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth Luke 18. 7 8. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you Luke 6. 26. Printed in the Year 1665. A Relation c. FRiend John Knight for unto thee it is that we direct this ensuing relation of which we have suffered at thy hands during thy being Major in this City for that by thee it was and through thy influence that we have thus suffered It had been well for thee if thou hadst minded the stable condition of this City when thou entred'st into thy Government both for trade and otherwise Robert Canne Kt. And Barronet being thy Predecessor then which no time hath parallel'd it since the date of the late troubles when the King returned A City at peace and unity within its self men of all perswasions as to Religion well perswaded amongst themselves and as to the Civil peace united in the hearts and love of each man to another and the publick benefit And thus it was whilest moderation sat in the Government of this City so that every individual might rest assured of the peace and safety of his estate and Person in the pursuance of the publick And by the way let us tell thee and all to whom these presents may come that there was not a City more united in the publick then this of Bristol before thine entrance whose shadowy steps there-from from this day forwards not upon our personal influence or our principle but thine own receive their gnomon or direction from thy declention from it and will have their let from thee For thou art the man whom rage and asperity with a blind zeal to the worships of the times have set up to counter-buff the stability of this City and to overturn ex industria or of set purpose the well poized Government of unity and peace into disunion and trouble And to lay the sure grounded Fabrick of its prosperity in the dust whilest thou walkest over it with armes folded up and a pitiful countenance as if not thou but the contrary viz. moderation had there laid it And so whilest with the one hand thou entrest in thy sharp incision knife thou stroakest with the other as if so be that which suffers were the cause of its running in not thou of its suffering To manifest which and 〈◊〉 give thee to see that thou art not charged amisse something of thine own actions shall be drawn before thee which by thee have been perpetrated during this thy year to the intent and end that if thou hast yet any thing remaining of true sensiblenesse thou mayest reflect upon what thou hast don and blush and so mayst come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus whom now in Vs thou hast thus persecuted and be saved which is the desire of our hearts and that it may be well with thee for ever But if not that the ground of the miscarriage of this once and very lately flourishing City may be charged where it ought and that after ages may have somewhat upon Record as an account wherefore it was and how it came to passe that a place of so much weight and worth should be laid even with the dust for though we may be much looked over by thee and thy generation as a people not of so considerable an interest as among men though we may claim as considerable a one as your selves yet a higher interest we have then amongst men with him who looks ye over who will render to you according to your deeds and this you will finde when the measure of your iniquity is fulfilled upon us which ye will be suffered to fulfil for the tryal of our faith and Patience and what there is of God in us that he may be glorified for which purpose he hath suffered ye thus to do and without whose suffrance ye could not have done thus unto us and therefore we are content for he will then fulfil upon you the measure of your iniquity and then poor Bristoll will know as well as you the sad effects of persecuting the innocent people of the Lord who are not its enemy nor yours nor the Kings nor his Government that is just answering the just principle of God which we are to follow and nothing but that which is according unto it And where we cannot do to suffer as is our principle and our practice makes it manifest We say we are not enemies to the City to the King nor you but do desire the welfare of it and of you all God is witness who will render to every man according to his deeds And this we speak before hand that in the day of your calamity which you shall see will approach you and compass you about ye may remember that of it you were foretold and that it is come to passe what you were foretold in the day of your prosperity to the end that you might have heard and considered ere it had been too late for this is signified to you in the name of the Lord and let it be as the presage of what shall come to passe and the presage it is The persecution of us will be visited by the Lord with as sharp a hand as ever was drawn forth against it since the foundation thereof And ye shall be tumbled into the dust and your carkasses shall fall as the mire of the streets who have stretched forth your hands without a cause against an innocent people that have done you no wrong and have made them to suffer and an execration you will be and an hissing in the day of the Lords vengeance when he shall render to you according to your deeds this is spoken to such of you as shall not repent as that which shall come upon you in the day that the Lords vengeance shall be made manifest Not that we aspire after dignities or
subjection and obedience required in this Scripture is onely in things relating to the outward man and not at all of the subjection of the inward man in the things relating to the worship of God So said Edward Pyot but as he had spoken these last words Captain Ollive being then at the Tolzey came and rudely took him by the shoulder and would not suffer him to speak any more but caused him to be had to Newgate to the offence of several sober men present and men of quality who some of them after Edward Pyot was gone spake to him about it as disliking the thing that men for their consciences should not be suffered to speak or that men should suffer for their Consciences which he and every man would willingly for himself enjoy but herein he shewed himself rather a man made up of formality and the authority of the times than of true wisdome and moderation so to deal with one that he knew was a man and his antient acquaintance and that had been a Captain in the City Then George Bishop and Lewis Rogers were committed for being at an unlawful meeting under pretence of divine worship and for refusing to dissolve being thereunto lawfully required and for not finding sureties for the good behaviour Dated the same day and signed by thy self and the rest that signed the warrant aforesaid though they were all taken up in the street near to and at the door of our meeting house where all were still and not one word spoken nor action done onely they with some others of their friends were there standing and then Captain Hicks spake to them to depart they refused not but presently went with the Officers in a manner as soon as Captain Hicks had faintly made the Proclamation for that purpose As for Thomas Goldney and the rest except Nathaniel Milner who being not in the List of the Prisoners kept at Bridewell was not there kept you required them to appear on the fourth day of that week upon the account of Burgesses of the City who appearing you bad to go home about their occasions so there was an end And why not Edward Pyot and George Bishop as well as they seeing they were Citizens and why not Lewis Rogers seeing he was the apprentice of a freeman and that his Masters family depended upon his labour in part for maintenance against whom thou hadst nothing to say whose name is Joseph Owen Was it not hard measure in thee to make the master suffer for the servant yea the master and not the servant for the servant was thereby kept from work and so would not suffer but they would suffer whose maintenance in part came in by his work as thou wast told And because thou wast so told in moderation and meekness by one of the Prisoners thou tookest the Statute book and demanded of him who so spake to thee whether he would take the Oath of Alegiance the usual manner of thy Predecessors in the dayes of Queen Mary who when they knew not what to say against a man or what was spoken presently it was demanded What say you to the Sacrament of the Altar as the book of Martyrs mentions He who spake to thee was George Bishop who demanded thereupon of thee whether what he had said was so offensive as that it deserved the tendring of him the Oath but thou wouldst not give over tendring it notwithstanding till he told you that you knew he could not swear vvho before he spake in this matter of tenderness and equity had not the Oath put to him And now let all that are sober judge whether what he spake was not reasonable and that which should have been taken well at your hands to wit to inform how the matter stood with the young man that so you might not do any wrong through mistakes or ignorance which though he did as aforesaid with all meekness and moderation yet with you it bore no other weight then to be so returned So you have the Oath of Alegiance upon all essayes as a weapon in your hand at this day to use to them that you know in Conscience cannot swear as they had in the Marian which you exercise at pleasure upon the innocent when you have nothing else to say or when what is said doth not like you as they did then who thus carried it against the inocent as it is by you at this day So ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them that put to death the Martyrs fill ye up then the measure of your fathers that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias who you slew between the Temple and the Altar and that hath been shed since may come upon you and verily it shall fall on this generation And why could not John Spoore have been sent home also he being a poor man and living in the Countrey near and having a family depending upon his liberty for his maintenance One would think thou mightest have left the strangers to their own Neighbour Justices to deal with them who knew them seeing the Law is general And why not all of them sent home as well as some for as much as all were at the same place and stayed as long or longer then they and did no other thing but what the others had done vvhom thou hadst sent to Newgate as aforesaid If thou sayest Edward Pyott lived not in the City though he was a Burgess it is answered his living is very near as aforesaid And 't is strange that a miles distance should set him altogether from being considered as a Burgess in this particular who removed there only for the aire when as in other things you will deal with him as a Burgess and with George Bishopp you dealt the same as to imprisonment vvho vvas a Burgess and lived in the City and vvas born in it who had done more for you and the City then is here intended to be related though in recompence and as a token of your love you made him the only inhabiting Citizen prisoner as Alderman Cale then observed to you If thou sayest they vvere taken up a week or two before and set at liberty and now were had in Custody again It is answered the rest vvere in the same places and at the same time present and yet neither imprisoned nor so dealt vvith If thou repliest it was to make them Examples being accounted as leading men and as heads as you call them Alas how are ye befooled vvhen as daily experience proves that those people have a head and leader in them whom none of these things thou hast devized and used take in this to the number hath deterred from but rather brought to meetings And herein you have honoured them though against your wills in accounting them by your proceedings Leaders and Heads of such a people who stand to and testifie the
be judged and then nothing but that which is righteous in his sight will stand and abide his tryal and then will not that very law which he hath engraven in thine heart judge thee which saith whatever thou wouldest that men shall do unto thee do thou even the same unto them which whether thou dost now practice we leave to the Lord and to his witness in thee and in the Consciences of all sober minded persons within this City to judge and to determine Let me yet further reason with thee and be not offended for in tender love to thine immortal soul the Lord is my witness do I write these things Hast thou the spirit of Christ if not sad is thy condition for he that hath not the Spirit as saith the Scripture is none of his If thou hast it O then where are the fruits the fruits of that holy spirit are love gentleness meekness long-suffering mercifulness forgiveness c. this spirit never prompted or prevail'd with any man to persecute others for conscience sake they in whom this spirit dwelt in all ages were persecuted but never found persecutors envied but not envying hated but not haters of others suffering for the matters of their God but not causing others to suffer Paul who had this spirit speaking of things appertaining to Conscience saith Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind for mark every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Rom. 14.5 12. And as you have received Christ Jesus walk in him Col. 2.6 By this spirit the Apostle Peter said Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake And the same Peter by the same spirit being commanded by the Rulers not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus did chusing rather to obey God than men speak openly and boldly in his name Weigh these things in a cool unprejudiced spirit and hearken to and that thou mightest also know the things that do belong to the peace of thy precious soul in this thy day whilst thou art on this side the grave Remember O remember in whose hands is the breath of thy nostrils who can soon turn thee into dust Thou knowest not how soon the King of Terrours may knock at thy doors with a Commission from the Lord to romove thee from the land of the living and then peace with thy maker against whom thou art now contending will be more worth than the whole world but not then to be purchased with all the Treasures thereof I say therefore again Despise not the friendly advice of him whilst thou hast yet a season who in heart desireth thine eternal welfare lest when thou come to lay thine head upon thy Death pillow and the Terrours of the Almighty seize on thee thou shouldest then cry unto the Lord for mercy and he should say unto thee my love often called unto thee and thou wouldest not hear in the day of thy outward prosperity I would have won thee with kindnesse but thou wouldst not hearken Now therefore I will stop mine ears at thy cry reap the fruits of thine own works and let misery be thy portion until Eternity shall have an end Hear and fear the Lord and dispise not the Counsell of him who is truly breathing in his heart to the Lord for the salvation of thy precious soul and in the Lord wisheth well to thee and thine Tho. Speed This as hath been said was wrote and also delivered to thee and with how much tenderness and an earnest desire of thy welfare and how suitable it was to thy state and how weighty let the sober judge one would have thought that thou wouldest have taken such a man in thine armes and hugged him in thy bosome considering his love and zealous care of thy welfare and never have let him go from out of thy heart whilest thou haddest a being or breathedst on the earth put case there had been a mistake in some particulars as to which there was non and thou shalt one day know it the intent of his heart in such a thing of weight as thine eternal welfare that it might be well with thee for ever would have sunk into an ingenious breast and never would have suffer'd that man to die there who would have thee live for ever and though the expostulations were quick and piercing yet an ingenious man would have considered with himself why he mindes my welfare he judges me to be out of the way and perhaps I am 't is good for me to consider the things as they stand are stated truly granting them as they are stated onely he hath mist and let me see whether indeed he hath done so for I may be in a mistake the application It s good for me to heed whether it be so or no a wrong zeal may carry me forth as it did Saul Who breathed forth threatnings and slaughter and haled men and women out of houses as I have caused to be done and though as I have done he ought to do all things against that name of Jesus and was mad as himself said and am not I as he was then and persecuted them even to strange Cities as I have in the Parliament and in London and Westminster and sought to bespeak them the worst I could and to cut them off from the face of the earth that so neither name nor remnant might be left of them from generation to generation and yet Saul came to see it otherwise and to be knocked down in the way As he was posting to Damascus with Letters from the high Priests and Rulers to persecute them there and he was told I am Jesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he became a Preacher of the same Jesus And O that it might be so with me if I am as he was and do persecute Jesus he was also an eminent Apostle and converted multitudes to the faith of Jesus and suffered for his name who for his name made others to suffer And when thy holy martyr Stephen was stoned said he I stood by and held the garments of them that did it and consented to his death as I have made them to suffer if so be it be Jesus in them that I persecute And it was his great grief and I must look to it that it prove not to be mine that he persecuted the Church of God And therefore said who am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I persecute the Church of of God Well I will ponder these things wiser men then I and more zealous and of better reputation and profession I see have been mistaken and why may not I well I love the man no harm shall come unto him Such would have been the reasonings of as hath been said an ingenious spirit to one who prayed and intreated when he was defamed by thee abused and persecuted but alas there came no such moysture from thy flinty heart
the next day thou committedst to Newgate for being at an unlawful assewbly under pretence of Religious worship on Sunday the 12th of June in the time of divine service and for resisting the Officers who were to disperse them and refusing to give sureties for their appearance the next Sessions and in the mean time to be of the good behaviour Signed John Knight Mayor Hen. Creswick Nath. Cale dated 13th June 1664. And this was the Sabboth dayes work of thy officers whom thou sentest on this errand breaking the peace and confirmedst after they had done it who yet pretendedst to the keeping of the Sabbath and criest out upon us for breaking the Sabbath in meeting on that day to wait upon the Lord the work as your selves accounted it of the Sabbath and for coming to town on which day to save a womans life who was in travel thou causest a horse of a man-midwife to be detained till he had paid a fine for riding on that day for that purpose being sent for in hast Richard Blackborrow Brewer thy neighbour and yet thou couldst send a Capias on that day newly taken out of the Court for the wax was wet to detain Robert Steward that was brought to Newgate late the night before in a debt of thy brother in law Duckets of 200 l. who cryest out of the breach of the Sabbath thou Hypocrite who makest Sabbath and Law and all what thou pleasest who shewest of what Religion thou art towards God by these things as of Loyalty to the Law and thy Prince by the other but of this more hereafter And yet thou wast mistaken in thy warrant and shewed thy self thereby how wrong thou didst run even as a man headlong into any thing that seem'd to serve thy end talking of resisting and not dispersing when as the new law which enabled to such things was not then in force and there was no other as we know of that so enabled yet this is the usage that we and our peaceable meetings receive from the hands of thy officers and this is the Justice we receive at thy hands to have thy confirmation of what thy officers have done and all the remedy we have but we leave it to the Lord who will render unto you according to your deeds Now drew on the 1. of the 5. month called July famous for the date of the new Act on which it took place and became in force which thou hadst so much longed for and for the accomplishing of which thou hadst so much trudged for which thou shalt have thy reward from the hand of the Lord and now the day being come having before hand caused the Constables to be warned and the meeting being on the first day of the week and the third of that month thou sentest thy Officers first to bid them to depart to take nams who took away John Moon to Bridewel as he was then declaring in the words of soberness and truth and between the first and second houre in the afternoon thou camest thy self attended with Alder. Lock and Alder. Lawford the other Aldermen it seems being out of the way or not caring to be about such work as this and at the door of our meeting house in the street being set down with them and the Sheriffs thou didst cause an O Yes to be made in the form of a Court one which day no Courts are used to be kept in England who talkest so much of the Sabbath and chargest us with profaning the day because we meet thereon to wait upon the Lord the work of the day as you use to say upon the day and madest the manmidwife pay the fine for coming that day to town as aforesaid the effect of a murderous spirit shewn under the pretence of Religion and conscience to the observation of the Law as did the Pharisees who put him to death who was the end of the Law who healed on that day whom he convinced of the contrary in the example of David in the shew-bread and their own in taking an oxe or an asse out of a pit and sent'st the Capias in thy brother Ducket's behalf on that day as hath been said and to adde no more didst constrain Christopher Woodward to bring upon the foot of a Mortgage payable on that day of the week his mony to the Tolzey whether he was on that day necessitated to bring it least thou shouldst take advantage of the forfeiture of the Mortgage who otherwise wouldst not give him encouragement to accept it when he spake with thee thereabouts and is not this Hypocrisie and that which is like thee in all thy actions pretend conscience and do the contrary In which we shall farther trace thee ere this relation be over Well the Court being set as aforesaid in the nature of a Piepowder one thou sent'st the Constables and Officers up into the Meeting who brought down the men first whom thou didst Maunder at as thou pleasedst and then demanding of some of them mony for of several thou didst not and yet sentest them to prison contrary to Law 10 s. 2 s. 6 d. and of some 6 d. ye 2 d. which they not answering thou sentest some to Newgate some to Bridewel Then the Women were brought down whom thou servedst after the same manner many of them not being fined then nor so much as asked Whether they would pay any Mony though the Law places Imprisonment in default of payment of the fine and not otherwise vvhich practice thou didst use many times after but have them away have them away vvas thy cry and to Bridewel and to Newgate vvere many of them also carried though it is contrary to Law also to make a man suffer twice for one offence vvhich thou madest them to do in committing them for being at a Meeting one day and the next day fining them as by and by shall be related for doing of the same so making the Law a nose of wax bowing and bending it as thou pleasest and yet pretending as to vvhat thou didst to us Conscience to the Law About four hours time thou tookest up in this thy New found vvay of Justice sending Men and Women in heaps to both prisons on this account some Husbands one vvhere their Wives another some Servants vvhere their Masters and Mistrisses vvere not some old some young some under-age by the Law some Women with Child and so big that they knew not of an hour to go and this to Bridewel and yet others vvho were of age thou vvouldst not account so but placest them under having a mind to excuse them and yet thou pretendest Conscience and thou say'st Thou must not be partial and thou must execute the Law and thou must keep thy Oath and though others fail of their duty yet thou must not Thus like the Pharisees making thy Philacteries broad but the Exposition of the Law narrow or none at all as thou pleasest yet thou could'st not accomplish thine end