ye are naked and bare and who sees your Hearts and knows the bottom of your Intents against these People and accordingly will Judge you whose Judgements are Just You put them to Death These are your Means your all other Means but these are none of the Means which the Spirit of Truth Prescribes in the Scriptures of the Apostles for the Convincing Gainsayers But Exhortation Reproof Admonition the Word of Truth the Sword of the Spirit and these the Apostles used and with these they warred and they wrestled not with Flesh and Blood but with Principallities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places and in Meekness they Instructed them who Opposed themselves if God Peradventure would give them the Knowledge of the Truth And the Son of God tells ye That he came not to destroy mens Lives but to save And when his Disciples would have Fire come down on the men of Samaria He said Ye know not of what Spirit ye are Now these Means failing or you having failed in the using of these Means or you not knowing how to use these Means or you being not in that which would teach you how to use these Means which are the Means ye should have used and would have directed you thereunto Ye betake your selves to other Means Means that you should not have used Means which the using of them cannot Convince the Heart and Conscience of Man nor Instruct the Ignorant nor bring to the Knowledge of the Truth those that Oppose themselves Nor Overcome Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places Nor Subdue the Spirit though it may bring under the Body and through fear of him that can Kill the Body make to Blaspheme Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast both into hell fire which was not the Case of these for they feared not you who did Kill the Body and could go no further but Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast into hell fire him they feared And Sanctified him in their hearts and made him their Fear and their Dread and he kept them who trusted in Him because they trusted in Him who never failed them who put their trust in Him And Delivered them and they have obtained a good Report and have finished their course with Joy those whom ye have put to Death and kept the Faith and henceforth is laid up for them a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge will give them in that day and not onely unto them but to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and his appearing I say these Means failing you betake your selves to Other Means to the Means which the World useth as aforesaid to shew that you 〈…〉 of this World which never reacheth the Spirit but the Body and because they cannot reach the Spirit they kill the Body When as the Spirit it is that Offers up the Body and presents it a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is its reasonable service and by which they offered up their Bodies on the Point which ye offered unto them and on the Tree triumphed over ye all and shewed that Greater was he that was in them then he that is of this World and that they could die to do the will of God And that nothing could separate them no not Death it self from the Love of God which is Christ Jesus And so as your all other so this Means of Cruelty viz. Death it self hath failed you in thinking thereby to Overcome the Saints of the most High God or to keep them from the doing of his Will Fourthly The Point ye offered them was without Ground in Law or that the Law allows ye to put For as I have said Valuable Considerations must precede and such as will weigh down that of taking away of a man's Life which the Law esteems a most precious thing Now here is no such produced by you nor are there any such The utmost is that they are such as are called Quakers who are proved to be another manner of People in this Nation than you Reproach and are so with you whom you have not Convicted of one Principle or Practice that is contrary to Godliness Onely the Hat ye stumble at which is their Reasonable Apparel and by the Hat ye Judged them to be such and put them to Death And this was the Point which ye offered and this was it against which ye offered it and in this they came in their reasonable Apparel in the Will of God upon your Point and passed through it Now where Valuable Considerations are not the Ground neither is Law nor Reason For as I have said it is Lawful for any English man to reside come in or be in any of the Dominions appertaining to England and as Natural it is for One as for Another For it is an English man's House and where shall a man be if he shall not be in his House And it is not the Name of a Thing Or the Distinction of Word or Habit put by men that must cut a man off from this his Priviledge which is by Nature Nor should Names of Distinction much less of Reproach be given whereby to raise One Part of a Nation against Another for this Ministers Division and is an Occasion thereof and tends to the Dissolution of Government and is contrary to Law Therefore they who come into a Countrey unto which they have a Natural and Legal Right as these had and any English man hath to come in amongst you and have not done any thing by which by the Law of their Countrey they are justly made uncapable of that Right as these had not for you are in Subordination to England Your Lawes are not to be Repugnant unto it There for such to come reside or to be is no Valuable Consideration or Legal Ground as to his Countrey to be put upon the Point or the Point to be offered unto him and if the Point be offered to such and they come upon it and they be killed therewith such cannot be said to be Fellons de se For the Law will say Quo Warranto On what Ground And the Ground is short as hath been Declared and made to appear Nor Violently or Willfully to rush upon the Point but those who without Law or Ground as to the Law of their Countrey and your Countrey is England shall so offer the Point and run them through who come upon it Such are Ingulatores de se Cutters of their own Throats or Shedders of Blood in their own Wrong your Case in this Particular and the Violence and wilfulness will be attributed unto them by the Law who set the Point not to those that come upon it As of one who sets the Sword where another man may lawsully Pass and he that so Passes is Executed thereupon For he that so cometh cometh upon his Right Lastly Oh ye wretched Hypocrites and Murderers Did ye not put the same Mary
before a Magistrate to give an Account of their business Some of the Quakers in Rhoad Island came to bring them Goods to trade with them and that for far Reasonabler terms than the Professing and Oppressing Merchants of the Country but that will not be suffered So that unless the Lord step in to their help and assistance in some way beyond Man's Conceiving their Case is sad and to be pittied and truly it moves bowels of Compassion in all sorts except those in place who carry with a high hand towards them Through Mercy we have yet among us worthy Mr. Dunstar whom the Lord hath made boldly to bear Testimony against the spirit of Persecution Our Bench now is Tho. Prince Governor Mr. Collier Capt. Willet Capt. Winslow Mr. Alden Lieut. Southworth W. Bradford Tho. Hinckley Mr. Collier last June would not sit on the Bench if I sat there and now will not sit the next Year unless he may have Thirty pounds sit by him Our Court and Deputies last June made Capt. Winslow a Major Surely we are all Mercenary Souldiers that must have a Major imposed upon us Doubtless the next Court they may choose us a Governor and Assistants also A Freeman shall need to do nothing but bear such Burdens as are laid upon him Mr. Alden hath deceived the Expectations of many and indeed lost the Affections of such as I judge were his Cordial Christian Friends who is very active in such wayes as I pray God may not be charged on him to be Oppressions of a high nature Thus far the Letter It was written by James Cudworth in the Tenth Month 1658. What he was as to them the thing mentions what as to Tenderness also in reference to Conscience-Persecution which he could not do he could not persecute for which and for Entertaining some of them a Night or two and giving them Provisions during that time against which there was no Law as aforesaid he was turned out I shall not need much further to particularize only a little I shall mention of the Occasion which was the coming of W. Brend aforesaid on whom you exercised your Noted Cruelty and John Copeland into a Plantation in that Patent called Scituate and being entertained by this friendly man and for the ends therein exprest by himself in the Winter season which you know is very cold and hard to travel in and even Cruelty it self if I may so speak would be gentle to the most inconsiderable the vilest of men in such times as those that they might not perish One came with a Warrant which he had fetcht several Miles in a Cold Night from the said Major VVinslow something was in the matter he was so promoted and with others pulled them out of the House and Sarah Gibbens also whom your Cruelty to her gives me cause to remember not having respect unto the Season that so his will he might have and for that purpose pretermitted the two Magistrates that were in the Town and passed to the said VVinslow for that purpose One of which Magistrates out of Tenderness when he saw the Warrant said Mr. Envy had procured that and in lieu thereof gave the Strangers this Protection in these words These are therefore to any that may interrupt these Two men in their Passage that ye let them passe quietly on their way they offering no wrong to any Timothy Hatherlie And now I am thus come unto Particulars I must lay unto your Charge for through your Example and Encouragement it was that these things were done the further suffering of the Innocent in the Particular as you have heard something of it in the General and that as to Cruel Whippings Scourgings as well as to Fines Imprisonment and Banishment chusing rather to observe the order of time when the things were done than the distinction of Punishments First then These very Two viz. W. Brend and John Copeland whom the said tender Gray-headed Hatherly protected from Wrong instead of doing it as aforesaid coming thorow the Town of Plimmouth in order to their Passage in which they were protected as aforesaid were pursued by Lieut. Southworth and brought before his Fellow-Magistrates who because they could not promise for they waited in the Will of God in which all Promises are to be made that they might know what to do in Forty Eight hours to depart the Colony the weather being also very unseasonable and wet in the Winter season caused them both to be whipt with Rods of Twigs VV. Brend a man of years with Ten Lashes in which Four Rods were broken and John Copeland with Twenty two backwards and forwards on Breast and Back and Arms and that with such Fury that as it drew the Blood on all so it wore out Six Rods in the laying of it on and this without Law and in the bitter wet cold snowy Winter season being the Ninth of the Twelfth Month 1657. and in the Snow and Rain Out of their Coasts in which they would have had them to depart through a Vast Wilderness of Sixty Miles in which were many Rivers where the VVeather was so thick and the VVilderness so close that they could not see their way and because they did not so to the apparent hazard of their Lives as many did confess should they have departed therefore dealt they with them as aforesaid and Thomas VVillet Tho. Southworth and VVill. Collier saw the Execution which so struck on the standers-by that one Edward Perry in the presence of the Magistrates gave Testimony and said That he was there an Eye-witness that day of the Sufferings of the People of the Lord For which Will. Collier called him their Fool No marvel that James Cudworth so wrote as aforesaid of their Cruel VVhippings and that it preached more than a Sermon though it cost Dear those Servants of the Lord. Thus they began and so they proceeded and having none before they now proceed to make Laws after that they have done the Executions This is the Justice and Law of Plimmouth Patent which Mischief makes and Blood acts of which many of the Servants of the Lord have born the smart on their Bodies but you must in your Spirits the Indignation of the Lord if not in Soul and Body too which will on you and them certainly fall and divide you your Portion with Hypocrites and Sinners And the time is near wherein the Lord will do it and fulfil the VVord which he hath spoken by me and Avenge the Blood and Sufferings of his Servants and Plead their Cause and Execute Judgment for them upon You and that in the sight of the Heathen who because of it shall say Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth With this they are not satisfied but as Men in a Fire the more they drink the more they thirst for the Fire being stronger than the Drink turns that into its own nature So
ye children of Men who are the Workmanship of His hands will ye resist the Lord the Lord God Almighty the Holy One of Israel the Strong and Mighty God who is arising in his Saints and coming forth in His Strength to Scatter His Enemies and to Destroy Pharaoh and all His Hosts and Chariots in the Red Sea after the Seed is come out of Egypt and to turn the pride and haughtiness of men backwards that rises to withstand the Lord Oh consider ye Potsherds who are as unstable as the Waves of the Sea and are as the Wind in His hand which he turneth and causeth to blow which way it pleaseth Him who will confound and destroy you in your Imaginations that you have imagined against Him and His Saints Oh man What art thou that standest to resist the Lord the mighty God of Jacob Did ever any of your Fathers the Persecutors of old prosper Did not the Lord consume them with the breath of His nostrils and with the Word of His mouth Who will tear you to pieces that rise up in Rebellion against Him Consider was it in vain that one said in a certain place That Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Consider O ye that inhabit the Earth whose dwelling-place is beneath Doth not the Lord behold all your Actions and all your unrighteous Doings Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests are ye combining together are ye joyned together are you in league together as the Rulers and chief Priests were in former ages Consider their Ends and consider what you are doing Are you so blind that you cannot see you are Persecuting the Saints of the most High You who are seeking the Life of the Righteous and that nothing but Blood will satisfie The Lord will give you blood to drink you that thirst for it you shall have enough of it you who spill and drink the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus Are not your Brethren gone before you in whose steps ye are treading and the fruits of the Devil you are bringing forth Ye uncircunicised in hearts and ears who do thus resist the Lord of Life As your Fathers did so do ye resist the holy Ghost and the Spirit of Truth which is now appeared in the Saints of the most High who are sent into your borders in love to your Souls and in tender mercy and compassion to the Captive that is within your gates and to the Prisoner Oh why will you strive any longer with the Lord that made you Who is coming in ten thousand of his Saints to render vengeance in flames of sire upon all the ungodly Who hath said Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord God of hosts Who will recompence into your bosoms the Reward of your doings Oh People and Inhabitants hereof Why will ye die in your sins And whither Christ goes thither you cannot come Oh! Why will ye put the day of the Lord asar off you who hath waited long to be gracious and hath born with you as a man doth with his onely Son that serveth him So hath the Lord spared you And do you thus requite the Lord for his loving kindness to whip to imprison and cut off the Ears of his Servants that are sent unto you Is this your Preaching forth of Christ Are these your good Examples to others Come let us reason together Have you not lost natural affection have you not lost tenderness and compassion Woe is me for thee Oh thou New-England who hast made such a noise among the Nations Is thy Religion come to no more than whipping imprisoning burning in the hand and cutting off Ears and banishing upon death What will be the next Law that thou wilt make Oh New-England against those that thou scornfully callest Quakers terming them the Cursed Sect of the Quakers If they were a Cursed Sect as thou hast termed them it seems they should be so for thee and so die for thee For thou hast made a Law to put them to Death if they come the second time within thy borders But I say the Lord hath blessed the People called in scorn Quakers and they are blessed and shall be blessed for evermore Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests will you proceed no further than putting to Death the Innocent Is thy Praying they Preaching thy many Sacrifices and vain Oblations come to this and will not thy Sacrifices and Prayers and solemn Meetings become Abomination is it not the greatest Abomination that thou committest Dost thou think that this will pacifie the wrath of the Almighty God who is coming forth against thee and will overtake thee and strip thee naked and uncover thee in that day and take all thy Ornaments from thee Oh consider Hast thou forgot although thou wouldest cover the Altar with tears and come before Him with ten thousand of Rams and with a thousand Rivers of Oyl and offer-the Fruit of thy Body for the sin of thy Soul Would it be accepted being offered in that nature wherein thou livest Much more when thou art become so Bloody and so hard-hearted that in stead of covering the Altar with tears dost thou intend to cover it with blood if thou canst Blush and be ashamed hide thy self in the dust for ever because of the presence of the Almighty who is now appeared and is coming to set thy sins in order before thee who will not blot out thy sins nor cover thy Iniquities which are many unless thou speedily repent and forsake thy unrighteousness for thy Destruction hastens apace thou art running headlong to Destruction as the horse rusheth into the Battel so dost thou into Blood How dost thou think to expect any thing from the Lord but a Sore Destruction a Famine and a Plague which is hastening upon thee if thou continue still in Rebellion in Persecuting his Servants This hath the Lord said and this will the Almighty perform upon thee in the day of his righteous Judgements which will overtake all bloody-minded men and blind Persecutors Oh I am full of the Spirit of the Lord and of the Power os him that made me who hath said unto me Fear not man whose breath is in his Nostrils nor the Son of man that must die For the Lord hath said unto me For this end have I called thee and for this cause I have ordained thee Fear them not neither be dismayed at their looks nor be afraid of their threatning words I the Lord that created thee am with thee Therefore fear not what man shall do unto thee for I have made thee as a Wall of Brass whereat the bloody-minded men shall shoot their Arrows but shall not touch thee as to offend thee Therefore the Lord hath said unto me Let not thy heart faint because of what I shall suffer them to do unto thee but let thy hands be strong in the Lord thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel for thy adversaries shall be confounded and the Enemies of the Lord shall be
which is according to that of God in every man's Conscience which saith It is more just and meet to obey God than man So being that your Law that you have made is unequal and contrary to the Law of God which he hath writ in our hearts which is equal just and righteous for your Law that you have made against the Innocent People called Quakers is unjust and unrighteous and contrary to that of God in all mens Consciences and contrary to the righteous and Royal Law of God Therefore we say we cannot obey such a Law that doth not agree with the Royal Law of God but herein shall we obey the Lord choosing rather to suffer what you shall be suffered to do unto us than to fulfil the Commandment and unrighteous Law of unrighteous men in flying at your Command when the Lord hath Commanded us to stay Whereby that he may shew his Power in us that his Command and his Righteous Royal Law is of more power virtue and force in us and with us than your unrighteous Laws and Commands can be against us So this know if you put us to death when we return that you will bring innocent blood upon you by so doing which shall not depart from your houses nor from that seed that is guilty thereof So these things we speak that you may no more be guilty of Innocent blood for assuredly know that nothing shall fail of what the Lord hath spoken by us and through us concerning you if you go on still in Rebellion and stiff-neckedness and refuse to hearken to the Voice and Counsel of the Lord God And this know that you have been warned from the Lord of these things before they came to passe For this we know if we disobey the Command of the Lord to fly from you because you have made a Law to put us to Death if we disobey the Lord in this thing he can cut us off and take our Lives from us in his anger and fury Therefore be it known unto you that the Lord hath made us willing to lay down our Lives among you if you be suffered to take them from us and in this thing we know we shall have peace when you shall have sorrow and torment night and day And this shall you certainly know one day that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth whom we serve sent us among you if you see our faces again after we have been Banished from you and that which we have spoken you shall know to be truth whether you will hear or forbear Well if you say we are transgressors of a Law in not obeying your unrighteous Law It is your own and not God's Law For his Law is holy just and good but yours is altogether unholy unrighteous unjust and wicked and is to be set at nought and condemned by the servants of the Lord For this Law of yours which you have made to put the Righteous to death hath not proceeded from the Spirit of the Lord which is meek and lowly and easie to be entreated which doth judge and condemn you and your Law Now if you would know from what spirit this wicked and unnatural Law of yours hath proceeded Well we shall speak plainly it hath proceeded from the murdering spirit which raigned and ruled in the Persecutors of Old from whence all such Lawes did and do proceed Now ye Rulers chief Priests and Inhabitants of New-England this we shall say unto you in the fear of the Lord and Spirit of the Almighty and in the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ that you nor your Law is not to be regarded herein and your Law is to be broken and must be broken by the Power of the Lord God and you must be judged and condemned by the same Power for making such a Law For the Lord of Hosts is coming up against you and your Power must be subdued and taken from you by the Prince of Peace even by Him who is come and coming to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron who is come and coming whose Right it is to Rule and subdue all Powers and Authorities unto Himself and to take the Government into his Own hand unto whom it belongs who will dash you to pieces ye Rulers that rebel against his Righteous Power and his Holy Law that He is Establishing in the Earth in the hearts of the sons of men that obey his Voice and that hearken unto his Counsel his Righteous and Holy Law must be established and his Righteous Government and Kingdom must be set up and your Unrighteous and Unholy Kingdom and Government must be overturned and destroyed by the Power of the Everlasting God in this day of his Eternal Power who is come and coming to make void all your ungodly inhumane and bloody Laws and to reward you according to your works The Lord God hath spoken it and by Him it shall be accomplished upon you for the Decree of the Most High is gone out against you ye unmerciful men whose Wickedness and Unrighteousness doth exceed the Nations about you for barbarous Cruelty and unmanlike Actions Have you not altogether lost your Senses Reason and Understanding that you are become so bruitish and so unlike Christians You are gone so far in your Cruelties and unnatural Actions that you are a stink and a loathsom smell to all People that have the least measure of Uprightness and of the honest Principle ruling in them and your barbarous and cruel actions and bloody deeds they abhor and at your Cruelty that you have acted against the People of the Lord who are by you in scorn called Quakers many of the common sort of People do stand amazed and wonder to hear of such Cruelty to be acted by such a Generation of men that have made such a noise concerning Religion concerning a Church concerning Ministry and Magistracy and Church-Government and Ordinances Preaching Praying Singing Morning and Evening Sacrifices Family-Duties as you call them that such should become so bloody and so cruel it doth astonish many that are called Heathens that all your Preaching Praying Singing making such a noise concerning Religion that it should come to no more and to produce no better fruits than Imprisoning Whipping Stocking Burning in the Hand Cutting off Ears Banishing upon Death as you have banished Six already from their Wives and Children and from their outward beings So that you do not only intend to destroy the Souls but Bodies also Come let us know what have they done what Law of God have they transgressed that you should banish them upon pain of Death from their Families What was it because their Conversations and Actions were honest and upright and yours are evil What was it because their Practices condemed yours What was it because they owned a People that are by you in scorn called Quakers whom you evilly entreat and such as owns them you banish and despitefully use them Surely these things will be remembred Come let
of the Governour that he should have Discourse with some of the Godly Ministers to Convict him of his Error and that he was deluded and that if there were any such Godly Ministers that could so Convict him he was ready to hear what they could say Did not your Governor hereupon declare That his intent was it should be private a sorry Shepherd that cannot lead a stragling Sheep into the pretended so to be right way before the rest of the Flock And when the said Richard desired it might be otherwise and that at that present it might be were ye not Enraged at him and sent ye not him away to the Prison again and from thence by Water to his own Habitation not suffering him to passe through the Country so great were your Fears lest he should infect it as was your slander with his Poysonous Doctrine And did not your Council for the present Distress upon the Arrival of the Two Women asoresaid lay a great Fine upon such Masters of Ships as should bring any of those People into your Jurisdiction as they required Simon Kempthorne who brought them to Transport them or Cause them to be transported directly to Barbados from whence they came and to Desray all the Charge of their Imprisonment and to give Security to your Secretary in a Bond of One Hundred Pounds Sterling for the effectual persormance thereof and upon his Refusal to give such Security to send him to Prison till he did it And did he not do it though ye had no such Law before he arrived against those People as hath been declared Yet I have not done with you Fourthly to add no more Did ye not shamelesly cause Two of the Women asoresaid viz. Mary Fisher and Anne Austin to be stript stark naked and so to be search'd and mis-used as is a shame to Modesty to name and with such Barbarousness as One of them a Married Woman and a Mother of Five Children suffered not the like in the bearing of any of them into the World And when there was no Token found upon them but of Innocency Were ye satisfied therewith Or did ye not afterwards continue them close Prisoners and banish them as asoresaid And yet how say ye that ye only secured their Persons in Order to be sent away the first Opportunity without Censure or Punishment Are not these Censures and Punishments and very sore ones too and next to Life some of the greatest all Circumstances considered Is not this more yea in many particulars than an only securing their Persons to be sent away the first Opportunity Can ye who in cool blood and so deliberately and as by Order of the Court and under Your Secretaries Hand a Chief Instigator of Your Iniquity and in Defence of your selves as to the Bloud of the Innocent which ye have spilt have vented so many Lies and Falshoods blush or be ashamed Is this your Entertaining of Strangers your Civility your Manhood to those who travel'd so many Thousands of Miles to Visit You in the Movings of the Lord Whom at least Ye should have well intreated and Ingenuity would have done it for their Love sake though they had been as these were not mistaken in their End and rather have prayed them as the Gadarens did their Master whose Inhospitality ye Exceed though they medled not with your Swine to have departed instead of Expelling them your Coasts and imprisoning and close imprisoning and dealing with them not as Men and Women of the same Generation as you and reation but as Beasts of Prey O ye Rulers of the Darkness of this World whose and is come and the Measure of your Iniquity Unto what shall I liken You Whereunto shall I compare You Whither shall I go to fetch your Judgment unto what Nation to Condemn you Shall I take a View of the Indians near you Their Kindness to those People in Entertaining them in their Wig-wams or Tents as their Inns upon their Travels in the Night where otherwise nothing but the Open Wilderness must have lodged them in Cold and Rain in Hunger and Thirst and Weariness in their Journeying to you and being banish'd from you their readiness to take off of themselves the Upper Garments of those People and hang them up about the fire when these came in Wet their making ready warm Meat such as they had and good Fires for them their furnishing them with Provisions and freely too and guiding them scores of Miles in the Woods who otherwise as to Men might have perish'd for their Travellings were harder than their Sufferings though their Sufferings were very hard as you will hear by and by and do know in part who inslicted it upon them their lying in Woods the hardness to find the Way the foordings of Rivers yea when somewhat frozen with the Ice the danger of falling into great Rivers ere they were aware in the Moon-light through the Thickets with much more too long to relate doth sufficiently speak it Their discovering of the Workings of some of your Priests when they were got amongst them to destroy them and for the Indians to do it which they refused Their Commisserating the Sufferings which these People received at your hands and being glad of their Deliverance and Crying out against your Cruelty exercised upon these Servants of the Lord about the Worship of their God doth sufficiently condemn you Shall I pass from Them Over the Globe the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorn the Line Equinoctial Shall I return to Europe to Ultima Thulae the Utmost North and make Search among those Nations There I shall find them passing quietly through Sweden and Denmark bearing their Testimony amongst Calvinists so called and Lutherans Yea the King of Denmark himself friendly receiving Books from One of them with his Own hand at Coppenhagen his Royal City and Suffering him to pass in Safety who gave them him after some Discourse together with his Head Covered thus Reproving You. Shall I pass the Sound and tread the weary Steps of a Traveller through Jutland Gluckstadt Hamborough Embden and other Towns and Countries in the East of Germany and so to Heidelberge the Chief City of the Palatinate and there set up a little There I shall understand of a quiet Passage in and through them all and of the Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine his sending to William Ames who first Ministred and gathered a People in those Parts and of his Own Accord taking off the Fine of Twelve pound laid upon Whosoever should Entertain William by his chief Magistrate giving him free Liberty to Declare against Evil in his Dominions I shal there also Understand of the said Prince Elector's forbidding him to go to the High Council of the Church as it is called upon their summoning him to appear saying That he the said Prince would take him off And when the said Council notwithstanding summon'd him again the Prince understanding that he was in the
into so this is the Scene of this Bloody Tragedy the most Inhumane and cruel that Ever Age knew or preceding Generation Declara Notwithstanding which by a Back Door they found Enterance Answ And Why a Back-Door Was not the way by which they came as much before ye as the Sea from England Is Sixty Miles distance by Land from Rhoad Island the Place from whence they came become further then England One would think that Properly and indeed the Land it is that is before you which ye came to Inhabite and that the Sea it is that is behind you from whence ye came How come ye then to say a Back-door By a Back-door they found Entrance Is it because you mistin your Understandings and so have put the fore for the back and the back for the fore Surely then ye were not wise in your Generation to bind the Sea and leave the Land at Liberty Is it because ye had journeyed far enough from Old Enland the House of Bondage so accounted into New a Land of Liberty and now were returning from the Land of Liberty to the House of Bondage Surely then ye are in a bad state to become Persecutors your selves who fled Persecution Or is it because Rhoad Island is the Place into which ye banish't those that differed from you in Matters of Religion who your selves were not banish't who differed in Religion and so having turned your Backs on their Oppression would not hear their Cry as did Joseph's Brethren when they sold him into Egypt Then Just is the Lord to bring your Condemnation from the Place of those whom ye Opprest Declar. Notwithstanding which say ye by a Back Door they found Entrance Answ And Why not Are ye Lord's Propriators of the Creation May not the Lord of Heaven and Earth send His Messengers among ye without your leave May not an English man come into an English Jurisdiction What Insolency is this and high Obtrusion on the Creator of Heaven and Earth who gave you your beings upon the Nation from whence ye came and in which ye first drew your breath and the Right of Nature from which ye are derived and from whence ye spring Declar. They found Entrance Answ And Why should they not seeing the Lord of all is He that sent them Declar. Notwithstanding Which Answ Notwithstanding What Why the Law prohibiting all Masters of Shipps from bringing in any and themselves from coming in Coming in From whence Why From or by Sea for as for the Land that Door was not Shut the Back-Door as ye call it but the Fore was Notwithstanding which viz. the Law aforesaid say ye by a Back-Door they found Entrance Then how come they to be concerned in a Law which was not fitted for them It was for them that came in at the fore door by Sea and Ship-Masters that brought them who were Prohibited from bringing in any such and themselves from so coming in I say how come they to be concerned in a Law which was not for them and you to inflict upon them the Penalty of a Law which concerned them not might they not come in at the back door it being open when the fore door was shut yea a Greater For so say ye And the Penalty inslicted on themselves proving insufficient to restrain their Impudent and Insolent Obtrusions was encreased by the loss of the Eares of those that offended the second time Answ Insufficient indeed and well might it be and too weak a defence as ye afterward spake of cutting off Ears and therefore proceed from Banishment to Death against Him who made the Earth and the Sea and all that therein is Who giveth unto Man Life and Breath and Moving Whose time being come for the sounding of His Everlasting Gospel to those who sate in Darkness and Region of the shaddow of Death in your Jurisdiction he armed his Messengers against the force of Death and the strength of Darkness with his Eternal Spirit and enabled them to endure what the strength of the One and the Gates of the Other could inflict upon them Whom ye have killed and put to Death whipt and scourged burnt in the hand and cut off their ears and so they bear in their Bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus and the dying of Jesus is made manifest in their mortal flesh that they might not trust in themselves but in him that raised up Jesus from the dead And a Crown of Life they shall receive who loved not their lives unto the death for the sake of Jesus Christ Lastly Insufficient against what Against a few innocent Lambs among Wolves a few simple People Men and Women who came to you not with Swords or with spears but in the Name of the Lord whom the Lord God of Life sent to you through Desarts and Wildernesses and Necessities and Straits and Hunger and Thirst and Cold and Heat and Perils by Sea and Perils by Land and Temptations and Distresses to turn ye unto God Whom ye have Imprisoned and Whipt and burnt and cut off their ears and put to Death That all the righteous Blood shed upon the earth from the blood of Righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias who was slain between the Temple and the Altar may come upon you and verily it shall come on this Generation And the time is at hand yea near to be revealed wherein the Righteous God will render unto you according to your Deeds yea according to your Deeds will he recompence you Fury to his Adversaries Recompence to his Enemies yea to his Adversaries will he repay Recompence And the Lord God will Thunder out of Heaven upon you and the whole Earth shall be filled with his Glory when he shall have thrown ye down from your Seats and Exalted the Humble and Meek Even when he shall have turned to hear the Prayer of the Desolate and help him to Right that hath no Helper and the Poor from him who is too strong for him and the Needy amongst men This shall be written for the Ages to come and the Children that are unborn shall praise the Lord And your Carkasses shall fall upon the Earth and ye shall leave your Name a Curse unto my Chosen saith the Lord. Declar. VVhich proving Insufficient Answ What proving Insufficient Why the Penalty inslicted so saith your Declaration sc And the Penalty inslicted proving Insufficient Answ VVhat was the Penalty and what did ye inflict O Ye shameless Men who make so slight of so heavy Punishments whose Cruel stroaks pierc'd the Air and whose Bloody Draughts the hearts and souls of those who saw it as they did the Bodies of them whose Flesh ye tore and whose Blood ye drew Yet this is insufficient the Penalty inslicted proving Insufficient Never Blood Enough to the spirit of Wickedness when once it lanches out and dips its foot in the Blood of the Innocent So it was and so it hath been with men in your state from
Wills of Men although made Free by the Son John 8. 36. In which we quietly rest this 16 th of the 5 th Moneth 1658. Lawrence Southick Cassandra Southick Josiah Southick Samuel Shattock Joshua Buffum Hereupon the Court sent to release Two for Samuel Gaskin he was released before by reason of the working of his Friends but the other Three ye detained in Order to a second Punishment upon account of a Later Law although they were all Committed upon a Former that is to say Three of them on the First and Three of them on a Second Now those that ye detained ye kept upon an Account of a Third Law made whilst they were in Prison which they had not transgress'd for they were in Prison whilst it was made as aforesaid And yet ye continued them about Twenty weeks from their Families and Imployments the chief of the year as minding to destroy them whose Names are Lawrence Sowthick Cassandra Southick and Josiah their Son Nor did these things satisfie You nor the Cruelties ye did Exercise on the Innocent but as Men given up to a Repobate sence to commit Iniquity with greediness The more Blood ye drew the more ye thirsted after Blood and the more Cruelty ye Exercised the more ye delighted to Exercise Cruelty as is usual with men in such Cases who are given over to a Reprobate sence to Commit Iniquity with greediness and whose hearts are hardened from the fear of the Lord and estranged from him as the Sequel manifests For Nicholas Phelps of or near Salem being One of those who were Presented to the Court for not Coming to your Meetings and Entred upon Pay at Five shillings a week hearing at the Court some of them say That they viz. the People called Quakers denyed Magistrates and Ministers gave them a Paper to shew the Contrary Which the Court asked of him Whether he would Owne He Answered Yea Then they fined him Forty shillings a strange Penalty for the Owning of that which they had charged him and those People to Deny and Forty shillings for the Meeting of those People at his House and sent him to Ipswitch Goal as One called a Quaker because he put not off his Hat Where he was Cruelly Whipt at his first Entrance though he was a Weak man and One whose Back was Crooked which yet drew no Compassion but in the space of Five dayes he was Whipt Three times with Ten cruel stroaks each time with a Threefold Corded Whip with Knots because he did not Work whom they took from his Husbandry his Hay and his Corn after which it was the season of the Year to look he Occupying a Farm which suffered in his absence and yet they Whipt him for not working and drove it on with a Three Corded knotted Whip as aforesaid and detain'd him there from his Work And in this Cruelty Daniel Denison your M. General aforesaid bore the Greatest sway and was the Chief Execution Yet all their Cruelty could not bend his Spirit whom the Lord upheld who bowed unto him but not unto them but his bowed Back bore it all and Overcame So that on a certain day One that had been an acquaintance of his came and had him out of Prison to his House and after a while got him to walk out into the Field where his said acquaintance told him he thought he would be set at Liberty ere long but which way it would be accomplished Nicholas could not tell for to Work at their Wills that he could not had suffered for it So after a while the man fell to work about a stone-Wall and meeting with a stone he could not list Nicholas friendly helped him which was the Pittiful shift then used to set him at Liberty as doing Work and this was the Work the helping of this his Friend up with a stone the Design no doubt laid for the accomplishing of this thing as his Friends speaking intimated but did not at all answer your Law Nor such manner of Work as it required Because he could not do which Ye cut his Body with Cruel stripes as aforesaid During which and his long Imprisonment he was constrained to hire men about his own Harvest from which ye took him Simon Broadstreet and William Hathorn aforesaid were assistants to Denison in these Executions Whose Names I Record to Rot and Stink as of you all to all Generations unto whom this shall be left as a Perpetual Record of Your Everlasting Shame as they shall not escape nor shall you the Righteous Judgement of the Lord for this and their and your other Cruelties and Sheddings of the Blood of the Innocent And when the Judgements of the Lord shall be made manifest upon you This shall Remain as a Witness for the Lord and that He hath not without Cause brought these things on you who will be glorified on you when his Judgements are made manifest The mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it who will do it and the time is near for all they that trust in him After this the People ye wot of were more Joyned together and confirmed by your Cruelty for it returned as a Testimony to them who suffered that they were of God and so they met together at Salem waiting upon the Lord whose Presence there with them was more precious than Life Therefore they laid down Life and their All to enjoy His Presence who hath been better to them than Life and made up all their Loss and Sufferings with that which is Eternal and His Peace hath been more to them than your Trouble Yea in the midst of their Sufferings bath He made them more than Conquerors through Him who loved them and gave himself for them who have given up to Him Therefore it is that they gave their Backs to the Smiters and their Cheeks to the Nippers and the Pullers off of the Hair and endured what hath been and shall be exprest And though they knew your Cruelty and tasted thereof and were upon your Roll for not being at your Meeting and knew your Fines for having Meetings of their Own and your other Fines and how ye had and would Exact them Yet they feared not your fears neither were they afraid of your Threats but sanctified the Lord God of Hosts in their hearts and made Him their Fear and made Him their Dread who became a little Sanctuary unto them and kept them in the midst of all and was good unto them who never faileth them that put their Trust in Him So meet they did and ye pursued them and Capt. Hathorne was a chief who like a Dog called the Bloodhound never left scenting after them till he found them out and had his will on them in Person and Estate whom once he tendred as his good Friends as they were when he sought not the Bread of a Magistrate but now to have it when otherwayes he saw none he turned against them and became their Enemy and the
should Occasion such a Law to Pass and said If he had not been able to go he would have Crept upon his hands and his knees rather than it should have been but it would not be granted the miscarriage being as was said by reason of One Russel formerly of Bristol in Old England and One Collins of Misticke not standing to it and being wrong in the Vote which I mention that their Names may Remain who were for and against it For how ever it may be thought yet this shall stand a witness against them unto all Generations for such a wicked Law and the Blood of the Innocent may not be forgotten Yet a great Difference there was and the Court broke up and the Twelve aforesaid resolved to Enter their Dissents under the Law it being also so Repugnant to the Laws of England to put to death without Jury than which there is nothing more Repugnant which the Magistrates seeing and how such a number of Dissents would weaken their Law Admitted this Addition to the Law viz. To be tryed by a special Jury and all this Tryal when it came to it was but Whether they were Quakers which they Judged by their Coming in Covered and that they had been in the Country before and suffered the Law and had been Banish'd as I shall anon make appear not of any particular principle or matter of Fact by a Legal Conviction more than aforesaid from first to last and a Court of Assistants which consists of Seven Magistrates at the least This being according to a standing Law of the Countrey Viz. That none be sentenc'd to Death or Banishment but by a special Jury and a Court of Assistants which the other was against as it was against the Law of England as I have said So this reconcil'd the matter and but onely the Two former Entred their Dissents as aforesaid and the Law passed and ye proceeded thereupon as I have said and followed it hard in the Execution as ye did in the Making and Your Priests set ye on from whom it proceeded and no Consideration of the Age of Lawrence and Cassandra nor of their Family on whom ye had layd hands nor the State of the Rest nor of their Wives Children Relations Families nor of their Estates which had suffered much in their many long and fore Imprisonments some of them Ten Weeks at a time and some Twenty in the chief time of the Summer when they should have been at Liberty to look to their Hay and Grass and Provisions for the Winter to keep their Cattle from starving and their Families from perishing Nor the State of Buffum's Father who was a weakly Aged Man and had neither Son nor Servant to help him but the said Joshua nor the Season of the Year then it being the Spring and a time for them a little to look out for the Preservation of what was left that they might not be utterly destroyed nor their being so sorely Whipt some of them Twice Each and some Four times all which they told the Court being Convicted of nothing but for not coming to your Meetings and for Meeting by themselves for which you were satisfied upon their Goods according to your Law As they sent you notice in a Paper to this Purpose viz. That seeing the chief offence ye had against them was the not putting off the Hat They desired to know if their Punishments had not been sufficient for their Offences as some of them had been twice Imprisoned Ten weeks and twice Whipt One had been Twice Imprisoned and Four times Whipt Three had been Twice Imprisoned and Whipt and the last time kept Prisoners Twenty weeks the chief time of all the Summer such as lived on Husbandry Their Hay and Harvest lying on the spoil and nothing to charge them with but their Meetings on the First Dayes of the week by themselves and their not coming to Your Meetings and not putting off their Hats for the Two former of which Your Law was satisfied on their Goods I say none of these Considerations nor such like though they were very tender to hearts that had any softness no nor of your Governor being Struck in the Court of Commissioners at the end thereof when they sought to have this Bloody Law passed the Rest of the Collonies So that for some Weeks he could not go home to his Own House which was but a little ways from it but lay in a Tavern from his Own Habitation who strove so much and Rich. Bellingham with him to Banish others But his heart being hardned Pharaoh's instead of Considering he was in a great Rage against them and poured forth what his fury and wicked Spirit could bring forth and told them They all deserved to be hang'd and that they were Blasphemers and Hereticks who had never any such thing proved against them as hath been said when they desir'd it and to be tryed for that purpose He said That they worshipped another God looked to be saved by another Christ then they did who Worship no other God but him of whom are all things and look to be saved by no other Christ than him by whom are all things and Say what ye will we will not believe you a hard case indeed and manifests that in him Judgement was turned Backward and Equity could not Enter But the Just Lord sees it And ye all were without Bowels of Compassion and would not hear them your Governor seeming as if he loathed their Persons but Banish them ye did upon pain of Death after ye had appointed them to depart the Jurisdiction by the Court of Election in the Moneth called May as aforesaid which they did not and ye gave them but a fortnights time to depart and when after sentence was given some of them who intended for England desired that they might have leave to take shipping at Boston to pass for England their being never another Convenient harbour in that Colony out of which to Pass Ye were so shut up in your Bowels that ye would not grant that but your Governour said Beware you are not here after the Eight day of June which was about Fourteen days after so they were constrained viz. Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps and Josiah Southick who were for England to take the opportunity that presented in Four days after to pass to England by Barbadoes having but Four dayes time of Remove So they passed for England and Lawrence Southick and Cassandra to Shelter Island a place near where shortly after in three days of each other they both died leaving their Blood on your heads which the Lord will Visit when He comes to make Inquisition for Blood and Joshua Buffum to Rhoad Island and you sat down to Eat and to Drink and rose up to Play Over the Ruines of the Innocent Now when ye had not as yet sentenc'd them as aforesaid they asked your Governour what it was ye sought for of them The Honour of God or
layes none and for Meeting together which they that feared the Lord often did and spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him And this was when the Proud were called Happy yea when they that work'd wickedness were set up and they that tempted God were even delivered Mal. 3. 15 16 17. Read the Place and your selves and them therein And not forsaking the Assembling of Your selves together as the manner of some is said the Apostle to the True Church of Christ which is in God but Exhorting one another by how much the more as you see the day approaching Heb. 10. 25. And they met every first Day of the Week at Corinth And at Troas on the first Day of the Week And the same Day at Evening being the first Day of the Week when the Doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you and when he had so said he shewed them his Hand and his Side Joh. 20. 19 20. And they withdrew from the Temple after Jesus was risen and met together from house to house and denyed the Temple which was commanded of God And those among the Gentiles that were converted denyed the Idols Temples and met not in them Yet were not the One or the Other fined and after such a manner as ye have done to the Servants of the Lord and for speaking one to another as aforesaid and for meeting together ransacking their Estates breaking open their Houses carrying away their Goods and Cattel till ye have left none then their wearing Apparrel and then as in Plimouth Government their Land and when ye have left them nothing sell them for this which ye call Debt Search the Records of former Ages go through the Histories of the Generations that are past read the Monuments of the Antients and see if ever there were such a thing as this since the Earth was laid and the Foundations thereof in the VVater and out of the VVater But it is first found on you to a People who are harmless who are Innocent who defraud not nor oppress nor do others wrong Your Brethren of Your selves of the same Nation and Country at the same distance from your Native Country Inhabitants long together in the Country where ye are known one to another and to be of unblamable Conversations Fellow-sufferers and in the same Condemnation O Ye Rulers of Boston Ye Inhabitants of the Massachusets What shall I say unto you whereunto shall I liken ye Indeed I am at a stand I have no Nation with you to compare I have no People with you to parallel I am at a loss with you in this Point I must say of you as Balaam said of Amalek when his Eyes were open Boston the first of the Nations that came out thus to war against to stop Israel in their way to Canaan from Egypt but your latter end shall be that ye Perish for ever So is your Judgment from the Lord. And now I have done with You as to this only I shall declare the Execution of your Warrant on the said Daniel Southick and Provided whom Edmond Batter a bloody wicked man one fit for your purpose who hath hunted haled and ransack'd the People of the Lord with the highest Cruelty sent your Marshal for who fetch 't them accordingly and sought out for Passage to some that were bound to Barbados to send them there for Sale as men sell Goods to fill his Purse who was your Treasurer but the Man to whom he spake would not carry them on that account a thing so horrible and One of them to try Batter said That they would spoil all the Vessels Company saying that as an Argument why he would not carry them Oh no said Batter you need not fear that for they are poor harmless Creatures and will not hurt any body or words to this purpose Will they not so said the Ship-master and will ye offer to make Slaves of so harmless Creatures So Batter sent them home again to live of themselves as he used to let their Cattel which he took for Fines feed upon them all the Winter till the Spring when they should make benefit of them to answer their chargeable being in the Winter till he could get a Convenient Opportunity to send them away And whilst I am hereupon let me give you the Instance of Two more viz. Edward Wharton and Samuel Gaskin who were Arrested for not coming to Your Meetings and had to Ipswitch Court and fined the One Five pounds Ten shillings and the Other Eight pounds One of which being a young man and having no Visible Estate appearing VVilliam Hathorne advised though he was but an Assistant in the Court and gave Judgment against him That if he had not to nor would pay they must send him to Barbados and sell him to pay it and this was when the Court knew not on what to levie the Fine And this the said Hathorne of whom I have before spoken who turn'd from the Tenderness that was once in him to please you to get an Imployment whereby to live and having got it thus turn'd against his tender Principle and his Friends to whom once he was tender to sell them for Slaves as he did in other Particulars One of which I shall instance in a Warrant under his Hand sent to the Constable of Salem in these words You are required by Vertue hereof to search in all suspicious houses for Privat Meetings and if they refuse to open the Doors you are to break open the Door upon them and return the Names of all ye find to Ipswitch Court VVilliam Hathorne But at this time he mist though he shall not miss his Judgment from the Hand of the Lord who will assuredly meet with him and give him his Portion with the rest of those who persecute his Truth who once had a Tender Principle in them and now turn against it the Case of all you at this day yea it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for You. So take your Judgment together ye who have been together in causing the Innocent to suffer Thus have I traced you through this Long and Crooked Path of Cruelty and Blood as well for the clearing of the Innocent viz. those among you who have not consented to but in their Place have opposed and withstood and testified against your Proceedings unto Blood That the Righteous may be separated from the Wicked in the Great Day of the Lord which is near at hand who will render to every man according to
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
good for ye that ye had attended to it And so it had and you will find it so in the End when that Day is come upon You and the things are fulfilled which he in the Spirit of Prophecy spake to you Then ye will know that he spake not in Vain and that it had been your Wisdom to have Hearkned whilst ye had time but now as I have said unto you in the Word of the Lord Your Day is Over and the things that are coming upon you make haste The Blood of the Innocent cryes loud against you and the Lord is near to avenge it the Fruits of that Law which took so with the Old Man and which he bore Testimony against and spake so of and whose Sufferings the Lord will recompence on you who have cast him now into Prison again where he remains to this day born up by the Lord to bear your Cruelty that your Measure may be filled to the full For such a thing hath been hardly heard of that Men should take such an Aged Man as he who hath scarce a Tooth if any in his Head whose Provision of Meat is scraped into a Spoon for him to receive as I have said wherewithal to Nourish him and to Fine and Banish him as aforesaid in such a season of the year as the beginning of Winter from his Aged Wife and his Children and upon his Return after Three Years or thereabouts to charge him for denying of Relations in not Coming unto his Wife and Children in all that space of time when ye had banished him from them and being come unto them to take him from them whom ye had so charged even as soon as ye had charged him and to keep him in Prison and all this for no other thing than for bearing Testimony and speaking to you as aforesaid for which as I have said what Law have you What Cruelty is this and how scarcely to be parallel'd in former Ages But these things are found upon you whom no Mercy moves nor Bowels melt who are as hard as the Adamant who have sold your selves to do wickedly whose End as I have said is come and the Measure of your Iniquity Thus of the Old Man But as for the Four asore-mentioned on the Twelfth day of the Seventh Month two dayes before the Expiration of the Time limited by you after which if found in your Jurisdiction they should suffer Death What hard measure is here to allow a Man but Two dayes to remove for his Life and upon so slight an Account or rather none at all Ye caused to be turned out of Prison to try your Law upon them Two of whom viz. Nicholas Davis and Mary Dyar sound freedom to depart your Jurisdiction the One to Plimmouth Patent the Other to Rhoad Island but the other Two viz. VV. Robinson and M. Stevenson were constrained in the Love and Power of the Lord not to depart but to stay in your Jurisdiction and to try your bloody Law unto Death So they passed out of Prison on the Thirteenth to Salem and Remained there and at Pitscattaway and the parts thereabouts in the Service of the Lord till ye took them up Your Cruelty towards them when ye sentenc'd them to Banishment being such and your Monstrous Inhumanity that a Handkerchief was put into one of their Mouthes to keep them from Speaking for themselves which all Law allows and when he yet attempted to speak viz. VV. Robinson ye caused him to be had down in a great Rage and to be given him Twenty cruel stripes with a Threefold Corded VVhip with Knots on his naked Back and then had him up and sent him to Prison together with his fellow-sufferer M. Stevenson in Order to Death if they were found again in your Jurisdiction after the Limitation of the dayes set them by you to go forth Such Inhumanities as these have hardly been heard of in any Generation where men have pretended to Law or Truth but are found upon thee O New England and the Head of thy Colonies the Bay of Massachusets Now the same Day that the Four aforesaid were put out Christopher Holder aforesaid was cast into Prison whom coming to seek a Passage from Boston to England which he was moved to of the Lord ye there kept One while Banishing men out who come into your Jurisdiction upon pain of Death and another while keeping some in Prison and Banishing them afterwards who come to Pass out Such Monstrous Contradictions are hardly found among Men who pretend to understanding and are not worse than Beasts who know not when they go forwards or backwards So greatly hath Envy blinded your minds and Rage your Judgements Him viz. the said Christopher so come in as aforesaid Your Deputy Governour Committed and him you Detained in Prison till the middle of the 9th Moneth following and Banished him upon pain of Death if he should be found within your Jurisdiction Three dayes after the next Ships departure for England from your Harbour who came to Pass from your Harbour unto England and this because he asked ye not first leave so to come in a hard sentence for such a Misprision Suppose he should have done so who had no Law to keep him out from Passing to England Not long after viz. the 8th of the 8th Moneth following Mary Dier aforesaid whom ye Banished upon pain of Death came to Boston see how the Lord brought them together and Hope Clifton both of Rhoad Island Who coming to visit Christopher Holder then in Prison on the First day of the Week being the next morning after they came in they were soon espied standing at the Window and carried to the house of Correction by the Constable who coming again after your Worship was ended having no doubt had his Instructions charged the Keeper Body for Body Life for Life with Mary Dier till further Order So Mary was continued without being sent for but Hope Clifton was the next Morning had before your Deputy Governour who recommitted her one M. Scot Daughter to R. Scot and Katherine of Providence aforesaid who came also to visit the said Christopher in Prison whom the same Constable apprehended as she was in the Prison to Visit her Friend And Robert Harper of Sandwitch though he came about his Outward Occasions your Governour Committed also the One to the Prison the Other to the House of Correction And now the time drawing near of the sitting of your Court wherein you acted this Bloody Tragedy W. Robinson and M. Stevenson came to Boston viz. on the thirteenth of the eighth Moneth and with them Alice Cowland who was moved of the Lord to bring Linnen wherein to wrap the dead Bodies of them who were to Suffer and Daniel Gold from Salem and William King Hannah Phelps the Wife of Nicholas aforesaid and Mary Trask and Margaret Smith of the same Town These all came together as aforesaid in the
Moving and Power of the Lord as One Man to look your Bloody Laws in the face and to try them and to accompany those who should suffer by them Whom ye apprehended and sent to Prison as aforesaid and Provided Southick Daughter to Lawrence and Cassandra Southick aforesaid Who coming to see her sister then in Prison and being met with all in the street and known by your Deputy Governour and asked by him Whether she was a Quaker and she Replying That she was one that was so called He Committed her also So your Prisons began to fill and the time drew near of the sitting of your Court as aforesaid before whom on the nineteenth of the same Moneth W. Robinson and M. Stevenson and Mary Dier were had before your Court and Demanded by you Why they came again into your Jurisdiction being Banished upon pain of Death To which having severally Answered and Declared the Ground or Cause of their coming in as from the Lord and in Obedience to him upon your Governors saying that he desired not their Death and that they had Liberty to speak for themselves why they should not be Proceeded with as to the giving sentence against them He bad the Goaler take them away The next day after your Worship was ended being heated by your Priest and prepared to shed the Blood of the Innocent you sent for them again and speaking faintly as a man whose Life was Departing from him for the hand of the Lord was upon him Your Governor said to this Effect We have made many Laws and endeavoured by Several ways to keep ye from us and neither Whipping nor Imprisonment nor cutting off Ears nor Banishment upon pain of Death will keep ye from among us And he said I Desire not your Death Yet presently he said Give Ear and Hearken to your Sentence of Death and then made a stop Whereupon W. Robinson desired that he might be suffered to Read a Paper amongst them which was a Declaration of his Call to Boston and the Reason why they staid in that Jurisdiction after your Sentence of Banishment which your Governor denied and said in a great Rage You shall not read it nor will the Court hear it Read Then VVilliam laid it on the Table among them and it was handed to your Governour who Read it to himself and after he had done said VV. Robinson you need not keep such an adoe to have it Road for ye spake Yesterday more than here is VVritten which was not so and if it had been yet a man may be permitted to speak the same Words over again and the Law Allows it viz. for a Man to speak for himself ere Sentence is given and the Clarks of the Court usually Proclaim that Liberty but you would not VV. Robinson said Nay he had not and desired again it might be Read that all the People might hear the Cause of their Coming and of their stay there and wherefore they were put to Death which was as I have said what the Law Allowed But you would not suffer it a very hard Case you would not be so dealt with yet so ye have dealt with the Innocent and your Governor said to him Hearken to your Sentence of Death You shall be had back to the Place from whence you came and from thence to the place of Exeoution to be hanged on the Gallows till you are Dead Then M. Stevenson was called and your Governor said to him If you have any thing to say you may speak Who standing still and giving him no Answer for the Lord had shut him up your Governor Pronounced the Sentence of Death against him Saying You shall be had to the Place from whence you came and from thence to the Gallows and there be hanged till you are dead Which being Pronounced M. Stevensons Mouth was opened by the Lord and he said Give ear ye Magistrates and all who are guilty for this the Lord hath said concerning you Who will perform His Word upon you That the same day ye put His servants to death shall the Day of your Visitation pass over your heads and you shall be Curst for evermore The mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Therefore in love to you all I exhort you to take warning before it be too late that so the Curse may be removed For assuredly if you put us to death you will bring Innocent Blood upon your own heads and swift destruction will come upon you After he had spoken which he was had to Prison Then Mary Dier was called and your Governor said to her to this effect Mary Dier you shall go to the Place whence you came namely the Prison and from thence to the Place of Execution and be hanged there until you are dead To which she Replied The will of the Lord be done Then your Governor said Take her away Marshal she Answered Yea joyfully shall I go So she was brought to the House of Correction again and there continued with her other Two Friends in Prison till the 27th of the same Moneth during which time many People resorted to the Prison windows for the thing struck among them which struck such a fear in you where no fear was for they would not have broken a Thred to have gone out nor push'd down a straw that ye set a Guard about the Prison by Night lest they should be taken away and on W. Robinson and M. Stevenson ye put Chains of Iron And on the 27th of the 8th Moneth aforesaid Ye Caused the Drums to beat to gather your Souldiers together for the Execution after your Worship was ended your Drums beat again and your Captain James Oliver came with his Band of men and the Marshal and some others to the Prison and the Doors were Opened and your Marshal and Jaylor called for W. Robinson and M. Stevenson and had them out of the Prison and Mary Dier out of the House of Correction who having parted from their Friends in Prison full of the Joy of the Lord who had counted them worthy to suffer for his Name and kept them faithful to the Death and having Embraced each other with Fervency of Love and gladness of heart and peace with God and praises to the Lord Went out of your Prisons like Innocent Lambs out of the Butchers Cub to the Slaughter and your Captain with his Band of Men led them the Back way it seems you were afraid of the Fore lest it should touch too much the People to the Place of Execution and caused the Drums to beat when they attempted to speak hard work and plac'd them near the Drums for that purpose that when they spake the People might not hear them who in great multitudes flocked about them as ye used to Imprison any that you took looking in at the Prison Window when they were there to visit them thinking thereby to keep the Seed of God under and them
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
finish up your Summe No sooner had ye began your Persecution and drawn the blood of the Innocent for which you must answer unto the Lord and your time is near but the other Colonies viz. that of Plimmouth Patent chiesly and Newhaven for as for Cannecticote the Fourth and Last there was little done as I shall manifest the Governor being so tender a man as hath been declared and what was done I shall shew in its place soon followed after you Plimmouth Saddle as one that was Magistrate of that Colony in a Letter wrote in the sence of the Sufferings of these People in that Country hereafter mentioned hath exprest it being put on the Bay or Red Horse viz. Boston that Patent rides on the Career though not as to Banishment upon pain of Death Death and Ears Yet other Cruelties as to Fines Whippings Imprisonments c. And Newhaven will Exceed in Crueltie all the former in Burning in the Hand and other Cruelties And here in the First Place Old N. Upshal challengeth the Preheminence for the time of his Banishment being as Early as the Proclamation of your Law of Blood and coming from you being Banisht into that Jurisdiction for a little Shelter in the Winter Season the Governor thereof one Bradford since Dead in the Reward of his Iniquity forbad him to be received by the Town of Sandwitch whitherto he was come and when the tender-hearted People of that Town could not be so Inhospitable as to turn him out He sent his Warrant for him to come to Plimmouth which was about twenty miles from thence which he not answering being so stricken in Years and the Season such that to have gone thither was as much as might have cost him his Life as he signified to the Governor in a Letter and that if he Perished his Blood would be required at his Hands he was suffered to stay by the Moderation of some of the Magistrates till the Spring of the Year in which so Early he was Posted away that he had like to have Perished in his Passage to Rhoad Island as I have already Declared Nor did John Copeland and Christopher Holder meet with better Usuage at their hands for they having been at Martins Vineyard a Place between Rhoad Island and Plimmouth Colony and speaking there a few Words in the Movings of the Lord who moved them to go thither after that Priest Maho the Governors Son had ended his Divination in their Meeting House they were both thrust out of the Meeting House Door by the Constable and delivered the next day by the Governor and Constable to an Indian where were many on that Island in order to be carried in a small Cannoo or hollowed piece of Timber to the Mayne Land over a Sea nine Miles broad dangerous enough any to Pass over having first took their mony from him to Pay the Indian Who taking the Custody of them shewed himself more hospitable as did the rest of the Indians and supplied them freely with all Necessaries according to what the Indians had during the space of those Three dayes they stayed there waiting for a Calme season and refused to take any Consideration he who had them in Custody Saying That they were strangers and Jehovah taught him to Love strangers Learn of the Heathen ye who pretend your selves Christians and an Opportunity presenting set them on shoare on the Main Land where they were soon set upon at New-Plimmouth to which they came from Sandwitch by the Governor and Magistrates there And several of your Church-Members and after a Long Dispute were required to be gone yet they were loath to let them go but the next Morning the Marshal's Deputy came for them and brought them before Thomas Southworth and John Alden Two notorious Persecutors and men of Blood as I shall shew by and by who examined them after they had been Committed and required them to depart the Colony there being nothing found against them telling them they had a Law for that purpose but would not shew it them when they desired it being strangers and so let them go Nevertheless the next Morning a Constable was sent to the Inne where they Lodged to keep them from going to Sandwitch whereto they were bound their Testimony there being received by many with Gladness of heart and the rest were troubled and unto which they said they must pass ere they departed the Countrey it being required them of the Lord. who seized upon them viz. the Constable as they were passing thither and Carried them six Miles onwards to Rhoad Island out of the Liberties of the said Town as he was required But they Obeying the Lord rather than man soon returned to Sandwitch after he left them Where the Priests cried to the Governor help help against these men who answered their Crie and sent his Warrant and caused them to be Apprehended in the Name of the then Protector as Extravagant Persons and Vagabonds who are the Lord's Freemen and have in him an Habitation and a Portion in the Earth and about his Work out of all Liberty to Evil in the fear of the Lord and brought them to Plimmouth where a Friendly Man for but demanding of the Deputy Constable who had them in Custody a Coppy of the Warrant which is usual in such Cases and should be given was sined 20. s. and the two Prisoners required to Depart and forced so to do by the Deputy Marshal who brought them out of that Colony fifty miles and so left them near Rhoad Island the 2d day of the 7th Month 1657. and this by Order of T. Prince the Governor the other being Dead and John Alden and Josiah Winslow and Thomas Southworth Magistrates Dated at Plimmouth the 31st of August 1657. who assigned the Warrant and caused the Execution though they refused to shew their Law to which they pretended for so doing and though they also said that they believed that they viz. the said Prisoners did not know that they had such a Law and threatned them with their Law for Vagabonds that is to say Whipping if they came again How Exactly these have learn't of you in the Beginning and walked after your Unrighteous steps the Reader may perceive by being as early in the Consideration of what ye have done as in the Perusal of this part of their Suffering The next is Humphrey Norton who fared no better then the rest for he coming to that Colony in the Drawings of the Lord to Visit his seed and to speak at the Court was apprehended at Sandwitch before the Court sate and had to Plimmouth and there Detained a Prisoner till he sent a Paper to the Court when he saw they were likely to End and he was not sent for in these Words viz. I require of you a Publick Examination and if found guilty publickly punished if not cleared Upon which he was had before them and sentenced to Banishment although
This being tendered they will not take it and then we must adde more force to the Law and that is If any man refuse or neglect to take it by such a time shall pay Five pounds or depart the Colony VVhen the time is come they are the same as they were Then goes out the Marshal and fetcheth away their Cows and other Cattel Well another Court comes They are required to take the Oath again They cannot Then Five pounds more On this Account Thirty five head of Cattel as I have been credibly informed hath been by the Authority of our Court taken from them the latter part of this Summer and these People say If they have more right to them than themselves Let them take them Some that had a Cow only some Two Cows some Three Cows and many small Children in their Families to whom in Summer time a Cow or two was the greatest Outward Comfort they had for their subsistance A Poor Weaver that hath Seven or Eight small Children I know not which he himself lame in his Body had but two Cows and both taken from him The Marshal asked him what he would do he must have his Cows The Man said That God that gave him them he doubted not but would still provide for him To fill up the Measure yet more full though to the further emptying of Sandwitch Men of their outward Comforts The last Court of Assistants the first Tuesday of this Instant the Court was pleased to determine Fines on Sandwitch Men for Meetings sometimes on First Dayes of the Week sometimes on other dayes as they say They meet ordinarily twice in the week besides the Lords Day One Hundred and Fifty pounds whereof W. Newland is Twenty four pounds for himself and his Wife at Ten shillings a Meeting W. Allen Forty six pounds some affirm it Forty nine pounds The poor VVeaver afore spoken of Twenty pounds Brother Cook told me One of the Brethren at Barnstable certified him that he was in the Weavers house when Cruel Barloe Sandwitch Marshal came to demand the Sum and said he was fully informed of all the Poor Man had and thought if all laid together it was not worth Ten pounds VVhat will be the End of such Courses and Practices the Lord only knows I heartily and earnestly pray that these and such like courses neither raise up among us nor bring in upon us either the Sword or any devouring Calamity as a Just Avenger of the Lord's Quarrel for acts of Injustice and Oppression and that we may every one find out the Plague of his own heart and putting away the Evil of his own Doings and meet the Lord by Entreaties of Peace before it be too late and there be no Remedy Our Civil Powers are so exercised in things appertaining to the Kingdom of Christ in matters of Religion and Conscience that we can have no time to effect any thing that tends to the Promotion of the Civil Weal or the Prosperity of the Place But now we must have a State-Religion such as the Powers of the World will allow and no other A State-Ministry and a State-way of Maintenance And we must worship and serve the Lord Jesus as the World shall appoint us we must all go to the Publick Place of Meeting in the Parish where he dwells or be presented I am informed of Three or Four score last Court presented for not coming to Publick Meetings and let me tell you how they brought this about You may remember a Law once made called Thomas Hinckley's Law That if any neglected the Worship of God in the Place where he lives and sets up a Worship contrary to God and the Allowance of this Government to the publick Prophanation of Gods Holy Day and Ordinance shall pay Ten shillings This Law would not reach what then was aimed at Because he must do so and so that is all things therein expressed or else break not the Law In March last a Court of Deputies was called and some Acts touching Quakers were made and then they contrived to make this Law serviceable to them and that was by putting out the word and and putting in the word or which is a Disjunctive and makes every Branch to become a Law So now if any do neglect or will not come to the Publick Meetings Ten shillings for every Defect Certainly we either have less Wit or more Money than the Massachusets For for Five shillings a day a man may stay away till it come to Twelve or Thirteen pounds if he had it but to pay them And these men altering this Law now in March yet left it Dated June 6. 1651. and so it stands as the Act of a General Court they to be the Authors of it Seven years before it was in being And so you your self have your part and share in it if the Recorder lie not But what may be the Reason that they should not by another Law made and dated by that Court as well effect what was intended as by altering a word and so the whole sence of the Law and leave this their Act by the date of it charged on another Courts account Surely the chief Instruments in the business being privy to an Act of Parliament for Liberty should too openly have acted repugnant to a Law of England but if they can do the thing and leave it on a Court as making it six years before the Act of Parliament there can be no danger in this And that they were privy to the Act of Parliument for Liberty to be then in being is evident That the Deputies might be free to act it They told us That now the Protector stood not engaged to the Articles for Liberty for the Parliament had now taken the Power into their Own hands and had given the Protector a new Oath Only in General to maintain the Protestant Religion and so produced the Oath in a Paper in writing Whereas the Act of Parliament and the Oath are both in one Book in Print So that they who were privy to the One could not be ignorant of the Other But still all is well if we can but keep the People ignorant of their Liberties and Priviledges then we have liberty to Act in Our own Wills what we please We are wrapped up in a Laborynth of Confused Laws that the Freemens Power is quite gone and it was said last June-Court by one That they knew nothing the Freemen had there to do Sandwitch-men may not go to the Bay lest they be taken up for Quakers William Newland was there about his Occasions some Ten dayes since and they put him in Prison Twenty four hours and sent for divers to witness against him but they had not Proof enough to make him a Quaker which if they had he should have been whipt Nay they may not go about their Occasions in other Towns in our Colony but Warrants lie in Ambush to apprehend and bring them
the more they drank of Blood the more the Desire of it did inflame them and so Humphrey Norton and John Rous aforesaid found it soon on whose Backs they laid viz. on Humphrey Nortons Three and Twenty Lashes and on John Rouses Fifteen which as it drew store of Blood so it took much with the Spectators who beheld them in the Stocks first praying then saluting each other and bidding the Executioner have patience a little when he came to take off their Cloaths and he should see they could give their Backs to the Smiter And this they received for no other thing but for Coming into that Colony in the Will of God upon the Grounds and Reasons expressed in a Paper unto the Magistrates which they gave to them when they were demanded wherefore they came in and which the Magistrates did neither receive nor would suffer to be read And so Envious were they that for taking John Rous by the hand they put Three of the Inhabitants of Sandwitch in the Stocks when he came from before them Neither were they satisfied But Christopher Holder and John Copeland being apprehended by the Marshal Barloe and Constable on the Twenty third of the Fourth Month 1658. as they were going to a Meeting at Sandwitch were Apprehended and because the Select men who were appointed at Plimmouth to see the Execution would not do it he had them to Barnstable where they being tyed to an Old Post had Thirty three cruel stripes laid upon them with a New tormenting VVhip with Three Cords and Knots at the Ends of them made by the Marshal and brought with him At the sight of which cruel and bloody Execution one of the Spectators for there were many that witnessed against it cryed out in the Grief and Anguish of her spirit the Execution so pressing her being a Woman said How long Lord how long shall it be ere Thou avenge the Blood of thine Elect and afterward bewailing her self and lamenting her loss said Did I forsake Father and Mother and all my dear Relations to come to New-England for this Did I ever think that New-England would come to this VVho would have thought it And this Thomas Hinckley saw done to whom the Marshal repaired for that purpose he being the man who brought in that Law of sining for not coming to their Publick Meetings which bears his Name and none but he was bloody enough for the Marshal's turn to see it done and which being done and he having glutted himself with the Blood of the Innocent the Marshal had them back to Sandwitch where he had kept them from the Twenty third to the Twenty ninth of the said Month in his own house before he brought them to Barnstable because none there would see them whipt and the Morrow after out of the Jurisdiction After this John Copeland and Josiah Coal being in a Friends house at Sandwitch were haled out by Violence and so imprisoned Thus as to VVhippings and Scourgings Now as to Fines and Confiscation of Estates and particularly of the Inhabitants of Sandwitch whose sufferings have been very great so that it is much that they subsist to this day or have any Bread for themselves and Families But it manifests the Eternal Arm of the Lord and that his Almighty Power it is that is underneath and bears them up and his Tender Compassion that they sink not And what sence the Country hath had of it even all of all sorts except the Bloody Persecutors themselves and such as are in their spirit I have shewn already in the Letter before rehearsed should I go further I should be too tedious The Lord hath seen it and He regards it and He will visit it Upwards of Nine Hundred Pounds we have had an Account of that they have suffered in this kind in that One poor Town besides others What since they have suffered we know not Yet they are alive and the Lord keeps them and they are fresh unto God and He bears them through and over All to the Astonishment of their Enemies who see that something is with them more than Man to bear them up yet they suffer Cruelty to go over them and go on therein and will know no shame but the Day is near wherein they shall see and be ashamed for their Envy to His People and their great Oppression who have Oppressed not only a Man and his House yea a Man and his Heritage but Men and their Houses Men and their Heritages yea as it were a Township of Men a Township of Heritages Therefore hath the Lord devised an Evil against You ye Rulers of Plimmouth Patent and Thou Governor Thomas Prince who saidst That in thy Conscience and what Conscience hast thou that speakest so wickedly of an Innocent People who fear the Lord They were such a People that deserved to be destroyed they their Wives and Children their Houses and Lands without Pitty or Mercy who are the People of the Lord and are innocent as to You and whom the Lord will own and hast acted in Order thereunto Thou and Thy Companions as Dan. Denison in Boston who would often say that those People and They could not well live together and that they were the stronger and that others must fend off and this in Open Court plainly intimating their Intent to root them up as the End of all their Cruelty and Blood I say to You all in the Word of the Lord whose Word He will fulfill and the Eyes of those who are living shall see it That against you even against You against the whole Family of You ye wicked and bloody Persecutors of the Innocent People of the Lord who are your Neighbours and Country-men who suffered with you because of Conscience and with you came into that Country for their Consciences whom Ye would destroy root out pluck up and against whom ye act all these Outrages and Violences for that purpose without Compassion or Mercy who your selves were not so dealt with but the Lord hath tried You and enabled poor People to bear what ye could do whilst He hath suffered Ye thus to do for your Tryals sake I say once more to ye all in the Name and Authority of the Eternal God who lives for Ever who is in me and with me whose Word is in my mouth and in my heart whose VVord it is and it shall not fail That against You hath the Lord Devised an Evil from which Ye shall not remove Your Necks neither shall Ye go haughtily but as Ye have done it shall be done unto You and in the Cup which You have filled unto Others it shall be filled to You again and the Lord will out ye off and give ye Your Portion with Hypocrites and Sinners And His People whom Ye have sought to root out and thus cruelly to kill shall dwell in the Land and great shall be the Encrease of His People and He will plant them and they shall
in Answer to the Queries And H. Norton endeavoured to make a Reply but was not suffered so to do but instead thereof had a great Iron Key tied athwart his Mouth till the Priest had done see what shifts the Priests make to secure what they say who then sled away After this H. Norton was had to Prison and there detained for the space of Ten dayes and then sentenc'd to be severely whipt and to be burnt in the hand with the Letter H for Heresie who was convicted of none and to be sent out of the Colony and not to return upon pain of the Utmost Penalty they could inflict by Law and to pay Ten pounds towards the Charge of the Court and Colony And this to be done that Afternoon as said the Judge And the Drum was beat and the People gathered and he fetcht and stript to the Waste and set with his Back to the Magistrates and given in their view Thirty six cruel Stripes and then turned and his Face set to them and his Hand made fast in the Stocks where they had set his Body before and burnt very deep with a Red hot Tron And then let loose and had to Prison again and tendered his Liberty upon paying of the Fine and Fees and there kept till paid by a Dutch man whose face he never saw before viz. Twenty Nobles which he paid for his Fine and Fees out of Bowels of Compassion when they had none engaged unto them to pay without his consent and which they wickedly received not any one else appearing with him or for him so great was their Cruelty only the Marshal would have forced Salves upon him for the killing of the Fire in his Hand the which he refused whereupon the Marshal asked him the reason why being much tormented for he was a very wicked man He answered I cannot suffer a Dog to lick my Sores besides the Lord healed him Am I a Dog then said the Marshal When they had whipt Humphry with that Cruelty as asoresaid and burnt him in the Hand and had let him loose from the Stocks he kneeled down and prayed to the Lord uttering his Voice towards Heaven to the Astonishment of them all To this Colony also came William Brend of whom I have spoken and divers other Servants of the Lord as Mary Dyar who coming thither was forced away being set on a Horse by them she cryed out Wo be unto you for Humphry Nortons sake wo be unto you because of the Cruelty done to him But they turned away the Ear and would nothearken Mary Weatherhead and others but they were not suffered to speak or to discharge their Consciences or to unburthen themselves of the Weight of the Word of the Lord which lay upon them but were threatned and sent away in the nature of Banishment and Mary Weatherhead finished her Work in the Sea and returned not to the place from whence she came A true Figure of the state of the Men of this place who refused the Loving-kindness of the Lord and the Tender Visitation of his Love by his Messengers whom he raises early and sends whom they thus evil-entreat and abuse and so judge themselves unworthy of Eternal Life and provoke the Wrath of the Lord to come upon them to the Uttermost So the Lord is clear of their Blood whether they will hear or forbear and they shall know that his Prophets have been amongst them in the Day wherein the Lord will judge the secrets of all hearts by the Man whom He hath ordained thereunto whereof He hath given Assurance unto all men in that He hath raised him from the Dead who is King of kings and Lord of lords who only hath Immortality and Eternal Life to whom be Glory and Praise and Dominion Everlasting who cometh in Clouds and every Eye shall see Him those also who have pierced Him and all Nations shall wail because of Him even so Amen Who is Alpha and Omega the first and the last He that was and which is and which is to come the Lord God Almighty who was dead and is alive and behold He lives for evermore and hath the Keys of Hell and of Death who will render to every man according to his Works Amen Hallelujah Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto Him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever So see where you are and in what case ye Blood-thirsty Enemies of God Ye Men of Boston of Plimmouth Patent and New-haven Ye Rulers of Sodom and Inhabitants of Gomorrah who are hardened against the hour of your Visitation whose Day is over who delight in Blood in the Blood of the Saints of the Most High God to whom Blood will be given for ye are worthy The Lord will come upon ye you that put his Day afar off and say he delayes his coming I say He will come upon you in a day that ye think not of and in an hour of which ye are not aware and will cut you assunder and appoint you your Portion with Hypocrites and Sinners and ye shall be cast into the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels which is the second death It is so it must be fulfilled the Judgment is gone forth it may not be revoked Your Day is done The Measure of your Iniquity is near at the full The Deliverance of his People is at hand You shall all of you receive according to your works The Night is far spent the Day is at hand even the Day which shall not have an end the Everlasting Day the Day of the Lord which will be Darkness unto you and not Light a Day of Gloominess and thick Darkness unto you a Day of Sorrow and of the Shadow of Death But a Day of Joy to the Righteous and of Gladness of heart a Day of Singing and of making Melody a Day of Shouting and of great Joy which shall last for evermore Amen it is done These Things are Faithful and True the true sayings of God who liveth for ever who is Great and Terrible whose Day is come wherein He will be avenged on you for the Blood of his Saints and the Sufferings of his Servants who have laid down their Lives and suffered for his Name who have the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy whom Ye have done Despight unto and to their Message and to Him that sent them and shed their Blood and have thought Ye could never do Enough against that Name and have persecuted them from Town to Town and from Colony to Colony those who have born it and evil-entreated them and sought to have cut them off and have cut off some He suffering ye so to do that ye might shew what ye would do and that it may appear that it is his Arm that stops ye that suffered ye so to do and their Name and their Remembrance from the
Earth and to leave them neither Name or Remnant whom ye can never destroy mind what I say nor wear out though ye have tryed it as ye could and may be suffered yet a little longer to fill up your Measure But then shall your Destruction come and that in a Moment and the Righteous shall have Dominion over you in the Morning Everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads and Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away And this I testifie from the Mouth of the Lord who hath moved me to speak and to write this in his Name that your Judgment ye may bear in this World as well as in that which is to come and be an Example of his Vengeance to the Ages to come as ye have been in Wickedness and Oppressing the Just and making sad the heart of the Righteous whom the Lord hath not made sad and destroying his Heritage and laying waste his Pleasant Place in which he delights to dwell for ever and ever by your Cruelty and Blood and grinding of the faces of the Poor and eating up the Needy as one would eat Bread The Lord God will come swiftly upon you and will remove you and overturn you and be glorified in what He shall bring upon you and ye shall know that He is the LORD and that He hath done all these things unto you for your manifold Transgressions and your mighty Sins who afflict the Just and hate him that reproveth in the Gate and abhor him that speaketh uprightly whose Treading is upon the Poor and who take from him Burdens of Wheat and turn aside the Poor in the Gate from their Right I say Ye shall know that He is the LORD and that He is in these People whom ye have set at nought and reviled and abused and evil-entreated His Witnesses and those He hath sent amongst ye to turn ye unto Him who is Lord and King and that there is Salvation in no other nor any other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved who is the Light of the World the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World who will judge ye for ever whose Judgment is just whose Judgment this is who is King of Righteousness and King of Peace of the Increase of whose Government and Peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David to order it and stablish it with Judgment and with Justice henceforth even for ever And thus have I dealt with you together and together wrapt ye up like as ye have been folden together as Thorns drunk as Drunkards and while ye be folden together as Thorns while ye are drunk as Drunkards ye shall be overtaken and your Day shall come upon you and you shall fall and rise no more saith the Lord and you shal leave your Name a Curse unto his Chosen who shall dwell in the Land and inherit it and He will be unto them a God and they shall be to Him a People those that ye have thus set at nought and abused and sought to root out and cared not what Cruelty ye caused them to undergo for that purpose without Mercy or Bowels or Compassion And Judgment without Mercy ye shall have that have shewed no Mercy And the Lord God shall stay you and call his Servants by another Name And ye shall be for a Taunt and a Reproach and a Hissing and a Proverb and a perpetual Desolation saith the Lord and my Hand shall be stretched out against you I will not spare you nor pitty you as ye have shewed none nor will I have Mercy but my Judgment shall take hold on you and my Terror shall seize upon you and Fear shall be round about you Your young men shall fall by the Sword your Wives shall be Widows and your Children fatherless they shall be continually Vagabonds and beg and seek their Bread also out of their Desolate places and I will accomplish my Wrath upon you in your Destruction and your Carkasses shall fall and be as Dung on the face of the Earth and the Worm shal be spread under ye and the Worms shall cover you They shall not say of you Ah Lord nor Ah! his Glory but ye shall be cast forth without the Gates and be buried with the Burial of an Asse The Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have finished the Thoughts of my Heart upon you and have laid you low even in the Dust and Men shall fear because of you and what I will do unto you saith the Lord And mine Indignation shall smoak against you and a fire shall be kindled in my Wrath which shall burn to the nethermost Hell and it shall devour you as Stubble fully dry and your Iniquity shall lie upon your Bones and you shall descend into the Pit and there your Iniquity shall be visited upon you saith the LORD the Mighty God the Holy One of Israel and his King who liveth for ever to whom is the Glory and the Praise and the Dominion for ever The Burden of New-England is ended Yet have I not done with you but must have another Reckoning for what the Servants of the Lord have suffered by occasion of You in other as well as these Plantations Robert Hodgshone a Servant of the Lord being at Hempstead in the Dutch Plantation in America near to New-England and waiting there for Friends coming together in a Meeting as he was walking in the Orchard an Officer came and violently laid hold on him and brought him before one Gildersleave an English-man and a Magistrate there who committed him to Prison and rode to the Dutch Governor and acquainted him therewith and came from him with a Guard of Musquetiers and the Fiscal who laid hold of him and searched him and took away his Knives and Papers and Bible and so pinioned him all the Night and the next Day that he could hardly help or refresh himself any wayes and made diligent Enquiry after those that had entertained him and took into Custody Two Women upon occasion thereof One of whom had two small Children the one sucking at her Breast and got a Cart and conveyed the Women away in it and Robert also whom they fastned to the hinder part of the Cart pinioned and so drew him and them through the Woods in the Night season whereby he was much torn and abused And at the Town called New-Amsterdam loosed him and led him by the Rope with which he was fastned to the Cart to the Dungeon into which he was Cast a filthy miry unholsom place and full of Vermin and the Two Women to another place and there continued them during their pleasures Their Court coming to sit they called him before them and took his Examination in writing and committed him to the Dungeon again and afterwards had him forth and read this Sentence to him in their own Language which the aforesaid Capt. Willet
exrecise Dominion became Lords over the Faith of others as your Cruel Dealings with Anne Hutcheson and that Company stands as a perpetual Record before the Lord against you Who because they differed something from you nothing would serve your turn but presently to Devour them Who after you had long Imprisoned her many Months and set men to keep her Did you not take away very much from her Husband to pay the men wages and then Banished several of them in the sore Cold Winter season into the Wilderness where was no Habitation who some of them were forced to dig a Cave in the Ground on Rhoad Island to preserve their Lives the place then being not Inhabited and did you not cruely deal with J. Collens who because he differed from you in Principle took him up as he passed through your Colony not medling with any and Imprisoned him and fined him 100. l. And when he went but to make his Defence in your Meeting saying Men Brethren and Fathers hear ye my Defence c. ye would not suffer him to speak further for himself but had him to Prison And after that some of your Patents endeavoured to get in that place to wit Rhoad Island under some of your Governments which occasioned some of their farther remove under the Dutch Government where they to wit Anne Hutcheson and her Son Francis and this Collens abovesaid her Son in Law with others were Murdered by the Indians The guilt and weight of whose Blood lies upon you as done by you who were People of an honest Life and good behaviour onely differing from you And it 's like Governor John Wintrope Senior who was an honest man and had some hand in this being drawn to it by your Priests was made sensible of it on his Death-bed when old Dudly a man of Blood and the rest of you sent to the said John Wintrope to set his hand to a Paper for the Banishment of one Matthews a Weltch Man a Priest which he refused telling them he had his hand too much in such things already but nothing of all this will work on you who have more and more gone on in that Spirit to the molesting Whipping Fining and Imprisoning many honest People upon the account of Baptism and the like Whose dealings are and have been so Inhumane so Barbarous so Cruel so Unmerciful as the like hath not been heard of nor can be Parallel'd by the Records of former Ages in this Nation Whose Judgement shall be as are your Presidents The Lord hath spoken it who will fulfil it Now as to Canecticote I have little to say as before I have intimated onely John Copeland John Rous were put under restraint and not suffered to pass the Colony W. Brend and W. Leddra were also there but not suffered to abide Sarah Gibbens and Dorothy Waugh at Hartford in that Colony whitherto they were moved of the Lord were Imprisoned several dayes and some of their Clothes sold to pay their Fees and denied to sojourn there the said Joseph Nicholson and his Wife were who went thither from Rhoad Island being moved of the Lord to place their Sojourning upon all the Colonies and the Commissioners of the Four united Colonies were there and D. Denison in particular who denied them though the Governor was Moderate as did those of Newhaven any being amongst them And so I have done with you and the other Colonies and roled ye up and down in the Blood of the Innocent as ye have roled your selves up and down in Innocent Blood and cloathed you with their Sufferings I have as ye have had to do in their Sufferings And the Cup I have filed to you which ye have filled unto them and have doubled it upon you in the Word of the Lord who will fullfil it upon you and you shall not go haughtily for this time is Evil. For the Lord my God shall come and all his Saints with Him A devouring fire shall go before him and it shall be very Tempestuous round about him He shall call to the Heavens-above and to the Earth that he may Judge his People and the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness for God is Judge himself Selah And he will Reprove you and set your sins in Order before you and will tear you in pieces and there shall be none to Deliver you So shall ye know that the Lord he is God and that there is no other that his Judgements are true and righteous altogether That these are His People and His Truth they Witness That in all their Afflictions He hath been Afflicted with them and that the Angel of His presence hath gone before them That He hath seen their Afftiction and heard their Cry and is come to Deliver them That you are Recompensed justly according to your Deeds That the hour of your Visitation is over That your night is come which shall never have end That Depart ye Cursed into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Ye must Receive from the King when he comes in his Glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his Glory and all Nations shall be gathered before Him and He shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd doth his Seep from the Goats and He shall set the Sheep on his right hand but the Goats on the left And the King shall say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the VVorld For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye Visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me Then shall the Righteous Answer him saying Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee and thirsty and gave thee drink when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and cloathed thee Or when saw we thee sick or in Prison and came unto thee And the King shall Answer and say unto them Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Then shall he say unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in prison and ye Visited me not Then shall they Answer him saying Lord VVhen saw we thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee Then shall he Answer them saying Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did
destroyed in that day Oh ye Hypocrits how can you sing and keep such a noise concerning Religion when your hands are full of blood and your hearts full of Iniquity Wash you make you clean put away the Evil of your doings cease to do Evil learn to do good cleanse your hands you siuners and your hearts you Hypoorites for your Prayers are abomination to me saith the Lord of Hosts your singing is as the howling of a Dog in the Streets such are the Songs you sing in your Temple unto me saith the Lord my Spirit is weary with bearing and my Soul is vexed day after day with your abominations Wo wo to thee thou Bloody Town of Boston and the Rest that are Confederate with Thee and it thou canst not escape Thou who hast shed the blood of the Innocent People called Quakers and Imprisoned and Fined them and taken away their Goods and they have become a Prey unto thee for thee to exercise thy Cruelty upon them and thou boasts in thy wickedness and thinks thou dost God good Service to hang and put to Death the People called Quakers Verily this is the Thoughts and Intents of the hearts of many of you in this New England but especially within thee and within thy Jurisdiction that belongs unto thee Oh thou Town of Boston for these words following did one say in the Governours House whose name is Edward Rawson called Secretary who did Threaten me with these words following on the 18th of the 4. Month 1659 That if I came again after I was sent away or banished he said he would write a Warrant with his own hand to send me to the Gallowes to be hanged Are these your Fruits your corrupt speeches to Threaten the Innocent with your Gallowes to hang them thereon Oh that ever such words should proceed out of a mans mouth to say that he would write a Warrnat with his own hand to send an Innocent Person to the Gallowes to be hanged Well all this we can bear the Lord hath brought forth his Suffering Seed and through Suffering must the Lamb and his Saints overcome and get the Victory and the wicked must be destroyed and such who have been guilty of Blood Was ever the like heard before That men Professing to have so much of the Knowledge of God and Professing to Fear God that such should become so Bloody and become so great Persecutors of a People who are despised of the World but loved of God and the Presence of the Lord is with them whom you Persecute and you must fall before them for the Lord God is with them and among them that are the Sufferers under you The Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now among such which causeth the Heathen to Rage and the People of the Earth to Imagine a Vain Thing For the Lord's Presence and Power in some measure was ever among such as Suffered and were Persecuted for Consoience sake and Suffered with them and in them by the Persecutors of Old in former Ages and Generations as he doth at this day in his Saints and Children for the overthrow of the Powers of Darknesse and Kingdom of the Devil who hath had his Seat in the sons of men for these many Ages and Generations Wherein and whereby the Beast hath made War against the Lamb and His Saints for many Generations But the day doth draw near and hastens apace that the Lamb and the Saints must get the Victory And the Beast and his Followers at that day must be Consumed and Destroyed because of the Presence of the Lord God in his Saints Oh what cruelty is acted now in these dayes That men who Professe God and make such a noise concerning Religion that such should become so hard-hearted to Imprison a Child of Eleven or Twelve Years of Age Was ever the like done among the greatest Tyrants or Bloody-minded-men that are mentioned in the Scriptures Did they ever Imprison a Child that was sent unto them to Warn them of their unrighteousnesse Oh what will become of you Do you think Oh you Heads and Rulers of this Town of Boston who are become so Brutish and so Dark in your Understandings and so unlike Men in your Actions You that cast the Innocent into your Dens Holes Prisons and will not suffer their Friends and Acquaintance to come to visit them not to minister unto them Surely bitter will your Cup be and your Portion will be sad to Surely the sober and tender-hearted cannot but grieve and lament to hear of the Cruelty that is acted by you Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests who are the Beginners of Mischief and the Leaders of them who are the chief Actors of all this Cruelty For well was it spoken by the Prophet The Leaders of this People cause them to Erre and they that are led by them are destroyed for lack of true knowledge Well a little further you shall proceed to fill up the measure of your Iniquities and then shall you have your Reward with the rest of the Uncircumcised For I know it is Blood you thirst after O ye Rulers and chief Priests is it not our Lives ye thirst for come tell us plainly Or have you made this Law of yours only to see if you can make the People called Quakers afraid of you Well however being I am allowed of God I shall tell you plainly that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now drawing near and coming upon you speedily to try you whether you will exercise your inhumane Law upon us who are now sent among you from the Lord for this very end and purpose I say will you put us to death for only coming into your Jurisdiction or Patent as you call it after we have been once sent away or commanded by you to go out of it Now we say being the Lord God hath commanded us to the contrary Is it meet and just to obey God or man judge ye to obey your bloody Law or to obey God's Righteous Law which He hath writ in our hearts and placed within us which judges and condemns your unrighteous Law that you have made to banish the Righteous Well you that call your selves Christians if you do this bloody Act to shew your selves so unlike men I must tell you plainly for constrained by the Lord God I am to tell you O ye bloody-minded men That if you do put us to death this Action of yours will proceed from the Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning who seeks to destroy mens lives as you do at this day For as it was then so it is now he that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit Now you that say you are Christians Come let us reason together concerning this inhumane Law that you have made to put the People called Quakers to death Did ever any true Christians make such Laws as you have made against a People whom you in scorn and derision call
For the Life being the Truth and the Way go not one step without it lest you should compass a Mountain in the Wilderness for unto every thing there is a season As the Flowing of the Ocean doth fill every creek and branch thereof and then retires again towards its own being and fulness and leaves a savor behind it so doth the Life and Virtue of God flow into every one of your hearts whom He hath made partakers of his Divine Nature and when it withdraws but a little it leaves a sweet savor behind it that many can say they are made clean through the Word that He hath spoken to them In which Innocent Condition you may see what you are in the presence of God and what you are without Him Therefore my Dear hearts let the enjoyment of the Life alone be your Hope your Joy and Consolation and let the Man of God flee those things that would lead the Mind out of the Crosse for then the Savor of the Life will be buried And although some may speak of things that they received in the Life as experiences yet the Life being vailed and the savor that it left behind washed away by the fresh floods of Temptation the Condition that they did enjoy in the Life boasted of by the Aiery Thing will be like the Manna that was gathered Yesterday without any good scent or savor For it was onely well with the Man while he was in the Life of Innocency but being driven from the Presence of the Lord into the Earth what can be boast of And although you know these things and many of you much more than I can say yet for the Love and Zeal I bear to the Truth and Honour of God and tender desire of my Soul to those that are young that they may read me in that from which I write to strengthen them against the wiles of the subtil Serpent that beguiled Eve I say stand in the Watch within in the Fear of the Lord which is the very Entrance of Wisdom and the State where you are ready to receive the Secrets of the Lord Hunger and Thirst patiently be not weary neither doubt stand still and cease from thy own working and in due time thou shalt enter into the Rest and thy Eyes shall behold thy Salvation whose Testimonies are sure and righteous altogether Let them be as a Seal upon thine Arm and as Jewels about thy Neck that others may see what the Lord hath done for your Souls Confesse Him before Men yea before His greatest Enemies Fear not what they can do unto you Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the World For he will cloath you with Humility and in the power of His Meckness you shall reign over all the rage of your Enemies in the favour of God wherein as you stand in Faith ye are the Salt of the Earth For many seeing your good works may glorify God in the day of their Vitation Take heed of receiving that which you saw not in your Life lest you give ear to the Enemy Bring all things to the Life that they may be proved whether they be wrought in God The Love of the World the Lust of the Flesh and the Lust of the Eye are without the Light in the World therefore possesse your Vessels in all Sanctification and Honour and let your Eye look at the Mark He that hath called you is holy And if there be an Eye that offends pluck it out and cast it from you Let not a Temptation take hold for if you do it will keep from the Favour of God and that will be a sad state For without Grace possessed there is no assurance of Salvation By Grace you are saved and the Witnessing of it is sufficient for you to which I commend you all my Dear Friends and in it remain Boston Goal the 13 of the first Moneth 1660. 61. You Brother William Leddra The 9th of the first Moneth 1660. 61. VVIlliam Leddra being called before the Court and they having found him guilty that by their Law he was to die He asked them What Evil he had done They Answered His own Confession was as good as a thousand Witnesses He Asked What was that Answ He owned those that were put to Death and that they were Innocent for which they died and that he would not put off his Hat in the Court and that he would say Thee and Thou to the Magistrates Then said he You will put me to Death for speaking English and for not pulling off my Cloathes Then Daniel Donison said A man may speak Treason in English Then William said Let us come to the Thing in hand Is it evil to say Thee and Thou to a single Person To it they Answered not Then one of the Court asked him If he would Recant of those Errors He Answered What to joyn with such Murderers as you are Then let every man that meets me say This is the man that hath forsaken the God of his Salvation They said unto him the last general Court he had the liberty granted him to go for England or go out of their Jurisdiction and promising to come here no more he might save his Life He Answered I stand not in my own Will but in the Will of the Lord if I may have my freedom I shall go but to make such a Promise I cannot After they proceeded to Pronounce the Sentence of Death and the 14th of the first Month 60. 61. they went to the Place with a Band of Men and put him to Death When he came upon the Ladder one said William Have you any thing to say to the People and after some time he said For the Testimony of Jesus and for bearing witness against Seducers and Seduced I am come to this day And the last words he spake to best remembrance were Lord Jesus receive my soul for unto thee I commit my spirit This was sent me by Nicholas Upshal and Coppied by me William Coddington of Rhoad Island The COPY of a LETTER from a Stranger to his Friend touching the Death of W. Leddra Boston March 26. 1661. ON the 14th of this instant here was one William Leddra which was put to Death The People of the Town told me he might go away if he would but when I made further Enquiry I heard the Marshal say That he was chained in Prisen from the time he was Condemned to the day of his Execution I am not of his Opinion but yet truly me thought the Lord did mightily appear in the man I went to one of the Magistrates of Cambridge who had been of the Jury that condemned him as he told me himself and I asked him by what Rule he did it He answered me That he was a Rogue a very Rogue But what is this to the Question I said where is your Rule He said he had abused Authority Then I goes after the man and asked him Whether he did not