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
Prohibiting all Masters of ships to bring in of your Brethren among you who were not prohibited your selves and themselves from coming in on such a Penalty Which leads me to the next Particular viz. The Sufferings by this your Law And accordingly say you a Law was made and Published Answ This Law is put as the Port or Entrance into this Scene of Blood and Cruel Sufferings and the very Publication of it Enters it and shews the Spirit by which it was made and the Ground on which it went and poor Nicholas Upshall a VVeakly Old Man of your Town of Boston bore the Brunt of it For he hearing it proclaimed and being grieved at the heart for your sakes and the Countries that such a thing should be done which he looked upon as a sad fore-runner of some heavy Judgement gave his Dissent Which ye took so ill at his hands that though he was a Member of your Church and of good Repute among you for a man of a sober and unblamable Conversation and though in much tenderness and love he spake to you the next day when ye had him before you desiring you to take heed lest ye should be found fighters against God and some sudden Judgement follow it on the Land which was the Counsel which wise Gamaliel gave the chief Priests and Pharisees and which they received at his hands and it would have been your Wisdom so to have done Yet you fined him twenty pounds which ye Enacted I 'le not bate him one groat said your cruel Governour John Endicot and three pounds more by another Court for not coming to your Meetings and this after he was Imprisoned and into Prison ye cast him and banish him ye did out of your Jurisdiction allowing him but One Moneths space of which the time of his Imprisonment was part for his Remove neither regarding his old years who had scarce a Tooth in his head to eat his meat and bread and cheese and other Sustenance was scraped into a spoon when he received it nor the weakness of his Body nor the state of his aged Wife and Children which were amongst ye nor the season of the year it being in the beginning of Winter which with you is very cold and he might have perished therein as some have done in passing but from Town to Town though but of Three Miles distance but Out he must go and when he was departed into Plimmouth Patent Jurisdiction which was the next adjacent the Governour thereof One Bradford since dead to help on the matter hearing of his coming for after your Pipe danced that Plantation as will appear by and by in the Cruelties that Ensue which they inflicted on the Innocent issued forth a Warrant that none of Sandwitch whereunto he was come should Entertain the poor Man which not Availing for their hearts were more tender then to cast him Out such an Aged Man in time of VVinter he sent for him to Plimmouth by a special Warrant which was Twenty Miles distant but he not being able to go and writing to him that if he perished his Blood would be required at his hands through the Moderation of some of the then Magistrates he was permitted to stay till the Spring but then was he banished thence who there had done nothing but came into their Jurisdiction for a little shelter in the VVinter Season to Rhoad Island and this so earnestly prest in the early time of the year that he was like to have been cast away in his going thither A Piece of Cruelty able to soften a heart of Flint and Draw it into teares at the sence thereof and which drew such Compassion from a Sagamore or Indian Prince That he told the Old man if he would live with him he would make him a warm house calling him Friend and further he said VVhat a God have the English who deals so with one another about the VVorship of their God Or words to that purpose But from you it drew no Relentings but the spirit of Iniquity having got over you it hardned ye the more by how much the more you were Exercised therein yea upon this very Old Man as in its place I shall shew and by and by make manifest Even the Sea-Monsters draw forth their Breast and give suck to their Young but the Daughter of my People is become Cruel like the Ostrich in the VVilderness Thus Entred as I have said this Scene of Blood and what follows answers unto it For the Eight aforesaid viz. Christopher Holder Thomas Thirstone John Copeland VVilliam Brend Mary Prince Dorothy VVaugh Sarah Gibbens and Mary VVeatherhead who were Committed before this Law was made and kept close Prifoners for the space of about Eleven Weeks the very Day that Nicholas was cast into Prison as aforesaid were they by vertue of this Law conveyed on board a Ship the Ship they came in and sent for England and Nicholas came into their Room Which Prison ye have supplied with the bodies of the Saints and Servants of Jesus for the most part ever since scarce One taken Out but some One or other put into his Rome of which in its Place But how came Nicholas Upshall to be concerned in a Law for Strangers who was an Inhabitant In a Law for Quakers so called who was a Member of your Church In a Law for Masters of Ships who shall bring into your Jurisdiction any People that are called such and for any such People who themselves shall come into your Jurisdiction when as he is neither Master of a Ship nor brought in any such nor came in but is an Inhabitant a Freeman of Boston How comes he to Suffer and to have inflicted upon him a Punishment above the Penalty of the Law How came those Eight to be sent away the Day after the Publication of a Law and by Vertue thereof who were imprisoned before the Law was made These things would be Enquired into and how Repugnant they are to the Lawes of England Declaration Notwithstanding which by a Back door they found Entrance and the Penaltie inflicted on themselves proving insufficient to restrain their Impudent and insolent obtrusions was increased by the losse of the Eares of those who offended the second time Which also being too weak a defence against their Impetuous Frantick Fury necessitated us to endeavour our security and upon serious Consideration after the former Experiments by their incessant Assaults a Law was made That such Persons should be banished upon pain of Death according to the Example of England in their Provision against fesuites Which sentence 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 the time limited were Apprehended and owning themselves to be the Persons banished were sentenced by the Court to Death according to the Law aforesaid which hath been Executed upon two of them Answer As the former was the Entrance
had so held and set them-free Saying That they could not hinder men from Travailing on their Journeys And yet the same Governor and Deputy Governor Signed a Warrant to levy Twelve Shillings on the said men who were so brought back to pay the men for the aiding them So levying Fines to force some away and to keep others Back neither suffering them to Live in Quietness or to Depart in Peace Sarah Gibbens and Dorothy Waugh were the next on whom ye laid your Bloody cruelty For they coming to Boston being moved of the Lord and being found in your Meeting Place speaking a few Words after your Lecture was ended Ye caused them to be had to your House of Correction where your Jaylor a Member of your Church kept them Three days without food in a close Room though they tendred Money for Provisions not having eaten One Morsel of Bread during all that time Then ye sent for them to your Court and asked them many Ensnating Questions to get matter against them in which having not prevailed for the Lord was with them giving them a Mouth and Wisdom which ye could not resist ye sentenc'd them to Prison to be severely Whipt Two Young Women and not spared such was your cruelty which was as Cruelly executed the second day of the week following with a Three-fold-Corded-knotted Whip with which ye gave them Ten Lashes apiece to the tearing of their Flesh and beating it to pieces and then shut them up your usual manner and stopt the Windowes to prevent them from Ayre and all manner of Refreshment for Eight days together so that Provisions they had not nor could have any brought them during that space of time after their fore Whippings and Three daies before they were so whipt and Perished they must had not the Lord wonderfully kept them beyond what man could have been able to undergoe as he did enable them to give him thanks for his presence after they were so sorely whipt to the astonishment of the People And the Goaler being asked why he would not let them have food for their Money and what he meant to keep them without food He answered They should famish if they would not eat the Prison food which was for their Work which they could not do in your Wills who were not Idle persons and who had Money of their Own and how could they work when their Backs were torn And your Governor John Endicot being asked by Sarah Gibbens when they were had before you after the first Three days as aforesaid Whether it were Justice or Equity to keep them so up and not to suffer them to have food for their money that being the Third day they had been so kept and had not eaten One Morsel of Bread And further that ye might all see that God was with them that they were so preserved without food and that they came well into the Town as hundreds could witness and that if they perished their Blood would fall heavy on them who were the occasion thereof He answered He Matter'd or it matters not And when he had set them at Liberty to be sent out of the Country Your Jaylor detained them certain days after all this for their fees and had kept them longer had not the Lord by another way wrought their Deliverance Horred Gardner is the next who being the Mother of many Children and an Inhabitant of Newport in Rhoad Island came with her Babe sucking at her Breast from thence to Weymouth a Town in your Colony where having finished what she had to do and her Testimony from the Lord unto which the Witness of God Answered in the People she was hurried by the Baser sort to Boston before your Governour John Endicet who after he had entertained her with much abusive Language and the Girl that came with her to help bear her Child he committed them both to Piron and Ordered them to be whipt a young Woman and a Mother with an Infant at her Breast with Ten Lashes a piece which was cruelly layd on heir Naked bodies with a Three-fold-knotted Whip of Cords and then were continued for the space of Fourteen days longer in Prison from their Friends who could not Visit them The Woman came a very sore Journey and according to Man hardly accomplishable through such a Wilderness of above Sixty Miles as it is between Rhoad Island and Boston as did Sarah Gibbens and Dorothy Waugh through the same in Storms of Frost and Snow wherein they lodged Night and Day and came to Salem whitherto through all those hardships and wadeings over Rivers and Impossibilities as to Men the Lord brought them who moved them to go thither and from thence to you who chearfully underwent it for his and his Seeds sake and worse from you who had Famish't them for want of Bread but the Lord preserved them and kept them from sinking under your Cruelties and Scourgings Praising the Lord at the Post after their Scourgings was over to the astonishment of the People as he did Horrid Gardner and the Girle as aforesaid and the Tender Babe who through the Sufferings of its Mother and her being kept up after the Martyring of their bodies might have died but you had no Consideration of this or of them though the Mother had of you Who after the savage inhumane and bloody Execution on her of your Cruelty aforesaid kneeled down and Prayed The Lord to forgive you which so reached upon a Woman that stood by and wrought upon her that she gave Glory to God and said That surely she could not have done that thing if it had not been by the Spirit of the Lord. After these comes Thomas Harris from Rhoad Island into your Colony who Declaring against your Pride and Oppression as he could have Liberty to speak in your Meeting Place at Boston after the Priest had Ended and Warning the People of the Dreadful Terrible Day of the Lord God which was coming upon that Town and Countrey Much unlike to Niniveh he was Pulled down and out of your Meeting and a hand was put on his Mouth to keep him from speaking farther and he haled by the hair of his head and had before your Governor and Deputy and many People with several Magistrates and committed to Prison without Warrant or Mittimus that he saw and there shut up in a close Roome and none suffered to come at him nor him to have Provisions for his Money and the next day Whipt without shewing him any Law that he had broken though he desired it of the Goaler with Ten Cruel stripes with such a whip as aforesaid to the sore cutting of his Flesh and bruising of his Body and then shut up again for Eleven daies more Five of which he was kept without Bread for your Jaylor would not suffer him to have any for his Money and threatned One of the other Prisoners very much for bringing him a little Water the
and Fines and Amercements and Searchings and Huntings and such like as I shall shew more particularly by and by Their Lives as to men became worse than Death and as Living Burials though they thought not any thing too much nor their Lives too dear as anon will be made manifest for the Truth and the Testimony of it The next day after W. Brend was so used and layd for dead Humphry Norton on whom the sence of Blood lay much and the Weight thereof pressed him sore for several days and cried in him so that he travailed Night and Day with his Friend John Rous came to Boston where in your Meeting House on your Lecture day notwithstanding the Cry of the Town of your Cruelty and Blood and the speaking of some to the said Humphry that if he loved his life he should depart the Town for otherwise he was but a Dead man they having been looking for him some Moneths which could not hinder them nor all the World such was the sence and weight upon them they appeared and having heard the Earth speaking and the Grave uttering her voice and Death feeding Death through your Painted Sepulchre John Norton Humphry Norton stood up and said after the other had ended Verily this is the Sacrifice which the Lord God accepts not for whilst with the same Spirit that ye sin ye Preach and Pray and Sing that Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord Whereupon yea before he had spoke out all these words but all these words he spake he was haled down and both of them had out and in the same fury had before ye and H. Norton ye charged with Blasphemy for those words he had spoken They spake to you to Act according to the Law of God or the Wholesome Laws of the English Nation and spare them not But neither of these ye would come nigh Then they Appealed to England and to the chief Magistrate there or whom he should appoint to whom they said they would freely refer their Case which they did once and again thereby to leave you without excuse but neither would ye yeild to this but slighted and disregarded such their Appeal Your Governour and Deputy Governour with one lip saying No Appeal to England No Appeal to England with other words of Dirision and sorthwith sentenced them to be whipt though charged with Blasphemy and to John Rous ye gave smooth words seeking to ensnare him because of Your knowledge of his Father Lieutenant Colonel Rous of Barbadoes who formerly lived amongst Ye of whom some of You then spake but he knowing Your Deceit and Wickedness and Cruel usuage of the Innocent and seeking by close Rooms and Denial of Food for several days together to Consume and strangle them he required in the audience of the People convenient Food for their money Or otherwise if they perished their Blood would be upon you This ye could not well deny before the People who had heard of much of Your Cruelty in this kind and who were likely to have risen up against Ye should Ye have denied it so Ye granted this when Ye could not help it to the breaking of Your Law but the seventh day of the week following this being the fifth Ye broke their Bodies in Revenge thereof with Ten Cruel stripes a piece according to Your wonted Cruelty and then tendred them to depart if they would hire a Convoy which they not doing for as to the Lord they could not who moved them thither Ye detained them there the week following and then Whipt them Fifteen stripes Each with the same Cruelty as before by vertue of the Law aforesaid of Five to be added to the Ten and to the Five Three each time they should be whipt and to be whipt twice a Week upon their old sores with the rest of their Brethren of which I have spoken Now about Three Weeks after the said Court at Salem the Court sate again at which several of the Inhabitants were presented for not coming to Meetings and the Law read for Five shillings a Week for them as should refuse each to pay for not Comming and many were listed under that Pay which ye Exacted when ye pleased but as for the Six aforesaid they were continued still in your Prison at Boston and no Course taken for their Release neither was it so much as offered them upon the Suffering of your Law to go home paying the Fees as ye used to do to the Strangers which Occasioned a Paper to be sent by them to the Court in these Words This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem Friends WHereas it was your Pleasures to Commit us whose Names are underwritten to the House of Correction in Boston although the Lord the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is our Witness that we had done nothing worthy of Stripes or of Bonds and we being Committed by Court to be dealt withall as the Law provides for Forreign Quakers as ye please to tearm us and having some of us suffered your Law and Pleasures now that which we do expect is that whereas we have suffered your Law so now to be set free by the same Law as your manner is with strangers and not to put us in upon the account of one Law and Execute another Law upon us of which according to your own manner we were never convicted as the Law expresses If you had sent us upon the account of your new Law we should have expected the Goalers Order to have been on that account which that it was not appears by the Warrant which we have and the Punishment which we bare as four of us were Whipt among whom was One that had formerly been Whipt so now also according to your former Law Friends Let it not be a small thing in your Eyes the exposing as much as in you lies our families to Ruine It 's not unknown to you the Season and the time of the Year for those that live of Husbandry and what their Cattle and Families may be exposed unto and also such as live on Trade We know if the Spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits What our lives and conversations have been in that Place is well known and what we now suffer for is much for false Reports and ungrounded Jealousies of Heresie and Sedition These things lie upon us to lay before you As for our parts we have true Peace and Rest in the Lord in all our Sufferings and are made willing in the Power and Strength of God freely to offer up our Lives in this Cause of God for which we suffer Yea and we do find through Grace the Enlargements of God in our Imprisoned state to whom alone we Commit our selves and families for the disposing of us according to His Infinite Wisdom and Pleasure in whose Love is Our Rest and Life From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made Captives by the
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
deliver you from the power of the Dogg and work mightily in you that with willing mind you deny all for its sake until the Image of the Beloved be formed in you and you in Him where in Love ye will be accepted and the knowledge of his Mystery manifested in flesh in every measure of it is and will be so far above all the Glory Treasure and Pleasure of the Land of Darkness that it will wholly take the Meditations out of them as if they were not worth the minding no more than drosse or dust yea or whatsoever else may attend or can come upon those that follow the Light as Persecution Distress Affliction Famine Nakedness Perils in the Wilderness in the Sea in the City yea or Death it self I am perswaded that Gods Armour of Light as it is lived in and loved will preserve them And I further testifie in the Fear of the Lord God and witness with a Pen of Trembling That the noise of the Whip on my Back all the Imprisonments and Banishing upon pain of Death and after returning the loud threatning sound of an Halter from their mouths who Jezebel like sate on the Imperious Throne of Iniquity did no more affright me through the strength of the Power of God in me than if they had threatned to have bound a Spiders Web to my Finger which makes me say with unfeigned lips Wait upon the Lord O my soul for ever who hath made known unto me his loving-kindness when I even thirsted for Him and kept my feet upon the Rock whilst the raging Waves of the Sea went over my back whilst for the Truth and Cause of God's People I have been freely offered up and am not at all straightned to be baptized for the dead whether into Death or otherwise following his Example who laid down his Life for his Enemies And herein the Record in Heaven knows I lye not and the Witness in Earth is bearing Witness to me that I yet do not as I have not hitherto seek to withdraw my Cheek from the Smiter nor to turn aside my feet from the footsteps of the Flock as witness this Chain and Log at my Leg but do desire so far as the Lord draws me to follow my sorefathers and Brethren in Suffering and in Joy Wherefore my spirit waits and worships at the feet of Emmanuel unto whom I commit my Cause who may work my bodies deliverance if not yet the Freedom Peace Joy and Patience which in the midst of trouble I have enjoyed and I believe shall continue from Him shall fully satisfie me for which let my soul and all that is within me praise him for ever and ever And I shall continue my Exhortation to you earnestly desiring ye may wait to feel the Love and Life of God flow in your particular Vessels and therein watch over and serve one another and let the Strong and Faithful among you dwell in the Power that he may have a Garment ready to cover the Nakedness of the Weak and if the Tares at any time appear let Wisdom and the Spirit of Meekness be alwayes used to separate the Tares from the Wheat both in the ground and off-spring that the bearer may clearly see it and then if he will not put in his sharpthreshing Instrument to cut them down his blood will be required at his hands and with compassion pour Oyl into the wounds of the wounded and bring them into the house where Salvation is for the hope of Glory in you is come to save that which was lost so the Plant of God will grow the Thorns and Thistles will be cut down and the Ground cleansed that the Course may be no more and if the Weeds should appear again let them still be trodden down and broken off the Root and in time you shall see them dye at the Root and then the Plant of Renown the Stem of the Root of Jesse within its seed and beginning may truly be resembled to the little Mustard-seed which will grow and prosper and be watered with the dew of Heaven which like soft drops of Balm will gently fall on the branches thereof as Patience working unto Perfection waits to enter at the door of Life without climbing one step to satisfie the Lion of greedy desire but let it suffer hunger yea and death also through which you will find entrance into the green and pleasant Pastures of the Folds where you shall feed as the Herd in the low Valeys of Achor the entrance thereof will be a Door of Hope in the day of your greatest need and spiritual hunger when Experience and Hope is added to your Patience And at the Threshold theroof I leave all that hunger and thirst after Righteousness to enjoy the Desire of their Souls Boston-Prison in New-England 1660. William Leddra This was given forth about three months before he suffered and was copyed by W. Coddington of Rhoad Island An EPISTLE of WILLIAM LEDDRA to Friends written by him the day before he was put to Death To the Society of the Little Flock of Christ Grace and Peace be Multiplied Most Dear and inwardly Beloved THe sweet Influences of the Morning-Star like a Flood distilling into my Innocent Habitation hath so filled me with the Joy of the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness that my Spirit is as it it did not Inhabit a Tabernacle of Clay but is wholly swallowed up in the bosome of Eternity from whence it had its being Alas alas What can the Wrath and Spirit of man that lusteth to Envy aggravated by the heat and strength of the King of the Locus which came out of the Pit do unto one that is hid in the Secret Places of the Almighty or unto them that are gathered under the healing wings of the Prince of Peace under whose Armor of Light they shall be able to stand in the day of trial having on the breast-plate of Righteousness and the sword of the Spirit which is their weapon of war against Spiritual wickedness Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the darkness of this World both within and without Oh my Beloved I have waited as a Dove at the Windows of the Ark and have stood still in that watch which the Master without whom I could do nothing did at his coming reward with fulness of his Love wherein my heart did rejoyce that I might in the Love and Life of God speak a few words to you sealed with the Spirit of Promise that the taste thereof might be a savor of Life to your Life and a Testimony in you of my Innocent Death And if I had been altogether silent and the Lord had not opened my mouth unto you yet he would have opened your hearts and there have sealed my Innocency with the streams of Life by which we are all Baptized into that body which is in God with whom and in whose presence there is Life in which as you abide you stand upon the pillar and ground of Truth