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
is at large Exprest unto which I refer and to the Preamble of the said Act and the other Laws and Acts of the Nation which relate thereunto for the Sevenfold Ground on which the Provisions in that Law are made and Bottom'd as aforesaid and on which they Stand. Now what is this to the People called Quakers or in Justification of your Proceedings against them as to Banishment and Death Are they Papists or Popishly affected Did ye ever find them so or hath the least shadow thereof been laid to their charge by you or found against them Have you ever found them Raising of Arms or Plotting or Contriving in order there unto Or seeking to withdraw the People in your Jurisdiction from their Allegiance unto England its well if some such thing be not found upon you or to you in order to England Or hath it not been manifest that their Principle is otherwise Viz. To Lead out of VVars and the Occasion of them sc the Lusts that are in Men from whence they come Did they ever put the Nation of England into Wars and Confusion to Exert their Principle or any other Nation on the face of the Earth Or on the Contrary hath not Peace been that which they have Endeavoured among men and is not their Gospel Good-will towards men Are they men of Blood of Assassinations and Murders hath any man fallen by their hands or have they stretched out their hand against any man Have they not Endeavoured and is it not their Principle to bring out of Blood and Confusion out of War and Destruction out of Desolation and Calamity And have they not subjected themselves to the Spoiler and their Estates to the Robber in order hereunto Can any of the Seven Particulars aforesaid on which the Law of England in its Provisions against Jesuites which you take to as your Example in the Case is grounded or any thing Congruous or Sutable thereunto be Justly attributed to those People Or have ye charged them with any such in Particular and found it upon them How come ye then to say In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuites Surely ye thought to skare Ignorant People therewith as Children are with the Name of Jesuites So that if ye name but Jesuite and speak of a Law made against them it is Enough In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuits say ye But the Law of England hath no such Ground for its Provisions against that Order of Men as yours against these People which indeed is none at all nor warrants your Proceedings So your Warranty being gone where 's your Hold Thus are ye taken in the Snare which you have layd for others and in the Pit which ye have digged are your selves fallen And the Law of England is not for but against you is not an Example to you in this Case but the Contrary So henceforwards take heed how you shed Blood and then seek to cover your selves under the Laws of England who would not be under its Law or seek to that for shelter which will not save you Thus much as to the Example of England in their Provisions against Jesuits and what you have built thereupon Now as to those who Suffered by Vertue of your Law And these in the First place are Lawrence Southick his Wife Cassandra and Josiah their Son whom I have often mentioned for your Cruelty by reason you have given me oft the Occasion Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum All Inhabitants of Salem as aforesaid against whom in no One Particular had ye proceeded according to Law but having tortured their Bodies and broken their Estates and distracted their Families and often wearied them though in the Lord they had rest Ye Banish'd them from All even from their Countrey the very Court of Election in the Moneth called May following giving them but a very little time to Depart on pain of Death which put them to much straits and hardships yet go they must ther 's no stay ye had now got your Law to rid the Land of them as ye thought but were mistaken or to take the Lives of them from the Land of the Living Your Tugg was Over and ye had carried it of them that stood stiffe a while against the Passing of that Law but Two came to Enter their Dissents viz. Capt. Edward Hutcheson and Capt. Tho. Clark whose Names I mention to remain upon Record as a good Savour to the Lord and his People through all Generations which shall witness for them Indeed there was a great adoe and hard work it Cost ye to get it about John Norton and the rest of your Prests being not able to Convict the Persons aforesaid either by Law or Otherwise or by Ensnaring Questions to bring them under the Law as hath been Declared Petitioned the Magistrates the next day to set forward the Court to make some Law to Banish them upon pain of Death so see the Spring and Fountain of this Work of Darkness and who it was this Bloody Law First moved in and they prescribed Particulars as matter upon which to proceed I could set down all that all might see their Bloody Spirits and what Cruelty lodged in them but I leave the Particulars to rot with themselves seeing the Court thought fit to make it a Law and much strugling there was on the one hand to get it on the other to oppose it The Court of Deputies could by no means be brought to Consent thereunto The Priests and Rulers were all for Blood and they pursued it and the Court of Magistrates Voted it without Tryal of a Jury and in Express words to be put in Execution by a County Court which Three Magistrates made up the Majority of which might hang at pleasure without a Jury a Thing not heard of in these Dominions but it served the Priests purpose who set it on This the Deputies withstood and it could not pass and the Opposition grew strong for the thing came near Deacon VVozel was a Man much affected therewith and being not well at that time that he supposed the Vote might pass he Earnestly desired the Speaker and some of the Other Deputies to send for him when it was to be lest by his Absence it might miscarry The Deputies that were against the Passing of that Law thinking themselves strong enough being indeed the most Reasonable and the more Moderate men of the Court to cast it out forbore to send for him The thing came to it and the Vote was put and carried in the Affirmative for the Law to Pass without Tryal of a Jury and by a County Court The Speaker and Eleven being in the Negative and Thirteen in the Affirmative So One Vote Carried it which troubled Deacon Wozel so when he heard it that he got to the Court in great grief of Spirit desiring to have his Vote and Wept for grief that his absence
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
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
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
your selves He answered They that honoured those that God had set over them honoured God They answered It was true but that it was in Obediente to the Law of God that they had suffered as they had and further asked You whether it were that for that Fault they were committed to Prison before the Law had a being that they were Banished or when was it But ye were silent One of them also desired of the Governor that he would be pleased now to Declare before the People the Real and True Causes as in Truth they were of all Your thus Proceedings against them He answered It was for Contemning Authority in not coming to the Ordinances of God see the Priest in the Bottom to keep up his Audience and Authority For as for the Apostles of Christ they used no such thing but to draw men by reaching to that of God in every mans Conscience thereby to lead them and not by the Outward Sword which is the Weapon of Antichrist But the Weapons of our warfare said Paul are not Carnal Prisons Whipps Cutting off Ears Fines Famishings Stocks Burnings Beatings Banishment Death but mighty through the Spirit So Ye shew where ye are and they what they are upon and whose Kingdom they seek and what they build up and whose they are who seek to Compel that which is the Seat of God viz. the Conscience the Dominion of God which He onely can reach by the Sword of man And that they had kept Meetings of their Own It was Answered that for all this Your Law had taken hold of them That they stood not out against the Authority of the Countrey in not submitting to their Laws That then very lately they had taken from them about Fourscore Pound on that Account which they since find to be Upwards of One hundred Your Governor said They had Rebelled against the Authority of the Countrey in not Departing according to their Order who as they told them had no otherwhere to go and had Wives and Children and Families and Estates to look after and were Conscious of nothing that they had done that was VVorthy of Death or of Banishment or of Bonds or of any of the things which they had Suffered M. General Denison told them and see his Command and what a Man he is to fight with them that do not Resist should an Enemy indeed come to put him to it he and several others it s very like would hardly be so forwards they have been hardly found overforward at that work viz. That they stood out against the Authority of the Country in not submitting to their Laws but upon what are they grounded That he should not go about to speak much concerning the Error of their Judgements who convinced them of none nor could ever he or you and yet see how ye make them suffer but as he had before told them That they and you were not able well to live together what an Athiestical Speech is here as if there were no God that made the VVorld and placed Man in it to dwell upon all the face of the Earth as well one as another and made the Conscience of Man for himself or that would require of Man an Account of what he did to his fellow Creature who because he had Power in his hand would not suffer another whom God had made to live by him So No Man should live by another on the face of the Earth where the other was the stronger and where would this end but in the rooting out Mankind from off the face of the Earth as it believes there is No God and that at present the Power was in your hand but how long may it be can ye tell Could not the Bishops have said so yet they turned not you out as I have said nor do they keep ye out and therefore the strongest must fend off Than which what can be said more wicked or what a more destructive Principle and a more dangerous can there be in the World Yet this hath been his word in all Courts and this is the Principle on which ye go Because Ye have Rower in your hands to whom the Wo is Who devise Iniquity and work Evil upon your Beds and when the Morning is light ye practise it because it is in the power of your hand So see your Portion and your Judgment from the Mouth of the Lord. Then ye put them forth a little while and called them in again and pronounc'd their Sentence of Banishment upon Pain of Death and constrained them to and who departed as aforesaid Their Sentence was dated May 11. 1659. without a Legal Conviction of one Principle or Practice that was contrary to Law but because they were such as were called Quakers And this is New-England and the Justice of the Court of that part of it as is called the Bay of Massachusets Yet ye were not satisfied with what ye had done to Lawrence and Cassandra and Josiah Southick but as I have touched you must be dealing with the rest of the Family and they having viz. the Old man and woman that were Friends of Truth to wit Daniel and Provided the Courts at Ipswitch and at Salem fined them Ten pounds for not coming to your Meetings but they having no Visible Estate so as you could find to lay hold upon to satisfie it according to your Law and your Resolution in the Case being desired Ye Ordered them to be sold for the Payment thereof Your Order runs thus Whereas Daniel Southick and Provided Southick Son and Daughter of Lawrence Southick have been fined by the Courts at Salem and Ipswitch pretending they have no Estates Resolving not to work that is to the Treasurer to answer the Fines It seems you had rather have moist Meat or Money to buy it or to answer your other Lusts and you will sell the Innocent But you will have it rather than give Dry Blows where there is nothing to be had as those did who sold the Righteous for Silver and the Poor for a Pair of Shoes that pant after the Dust of the Earth on the head of the Poor and turn aside the way of the Meek and lay themselves down upon Cloathes laid to pledge on Every Altar and drink the VVine of the Condemned in the house of their god Because of which the Lord said by the Prophet Amos He would not turn away the Punishment thereof even from Israel where these things were found Nor will he from You but the flight should perish from the Swift and the Strong should not strengthen his force neither should the Mighty deliver himself Neither should he that handled the Bow and he that is swift of foot deliver himself neither should he that rideth the Horse deliver himself and he that is couragious among the Mighty should flee away naked in that day So saith the Lord of You as he did unto them and it shall come to pass So read
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
Dier to Death when she came again into your Jurisdiction after your Reprieve and when she was as near the Execution as the turning off the Ladder she being ready and having signified to your Executioner that he might do it when he would So Putting her twice to Die a Cruelty beyond Once putting to Death A Comely grave Woman and of a Goodly Personage and well bred as among men and one of a Good Report having an Husband of an Estate fearing the Lord and a Mother of Children Did ye Pitty Did ye Spare Had ye Compassion Were Bowels in you Ye Cruel Murtherers Was it an Inconsiderable Intercession that moved ye to Reprieve her Or was it not your own Deceit to bring the People back to you upon a seeming shew of Mercy upon Pretence of Bowels moving at or taking advantage of an Inconsiderable Intercession whom your Bloodiness had turned from you and made them to abhor you Let the Witness of God in you be heard to speak for I am sure it will and will be heard in you one day when it shall arise in you as to this very thing a Worm that shall never die and a fire that shall never go out And this your Cruelty speaks it against you and the Lord God Eternal hath tried you by this and your Bloody Laws and snapt them asunder by a Woman and Triumphed over them and you again and again who by his Eternal Arm was made twice to look Death in the Face and overcame rejoycing to die in the Will of God and finishing her Course her Testimony in the face of ye All Trampling upon you and your Laws and your Halter and your Gallows and your Priests and is sat down at the Right hand of God Ye bloody Butchers Ye Monsters of Men Ye Cruel Murderers whom nothing satissies but the Blood of the Innocent Besides did not John Wintrope the Governor of the Jurisdiction of Cannecticote labour with you that ye would not put them to Death and did he not say unto you That he would beg it of you on his bare knees that ye would not do it And did not Colonel Temple go to your Court and tell ye That if according to your Declaration ye desired their Lives absent rather than their Deaths present He would beg them of you and Carry them away at his own Charge and give them a House to live in and Corn to feed on and Land for them and their heirs to Plant on that so once within a Year they should be able to provide for themselves and if any of them should come amongst ye again he would again fetch them on his own Charge And was not this Motion of his well of liked by the Magistrates except Two or Three and did not they propound it to the Deputies the next day but did not the Deputies and those Magistrates Over-Vote it the next day and Ordered they not present Execution to be done upon them that afternoon assoon as your Worship was ended which was your Thursdays Lecture And so did ye not put them to Death and Murder them as aforesaid And yet nowsee how ye come and smooth over the Matter like the Harlot mentioned by Solomon as if ye had done no Evil O ye Impudent hypocrites As if it were far from you to desire their Deaths or that you did not desire it but rather their Lives And that such Clemency and Mercy lodged in you and such Compassion and Bowels that you took notice of the least opportunity that might give ye the occasion to make it manifest And that ye did it upon an Inconsiderable Intercession viz. Mary Dier whom notwithstanding these Considerable Intercessions of such Considerable Men among ye and this other Inconsiderable One as ye tearm it which was of her Son and that is something considerable and more than ye would make of it for a Child is near and its Intercession of a prevailing nature ye put her as I may so say the second time to Death And yet see how ye bring this when ye have done all as a Demonstration which ye say but oh how Impudently will manifestly Evince that ye desired heir Lives absent rather than their Deaths present when as ye put them to Death yea this very Woman your Instances notwithstanding the several Intercessions aforesaid which proved Inconsiderable And then ye say Declaration and Answer Although the Justice of our Proceedings against William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dier supported by the Authority of this Court the Laws of this Countrey and the Law of God which are All Lies for you have no such Authority nor can your Laws support where Authority you have none and the Law of God is against you for it puts not to Death the Innocent or gives ye Power so to do in Matters of Religion which are from Man's Cognizance and in which he hath not to do may rather perswade us to expect Encouragement from such as you are and who are of your Spirit but no other and Commendation from all Prudent and Pious men who those who are truly so will do the Contrary than Convince us of any necessity to Apologize yet why do ye do it seeing that the very Name of an Apologie marrs your Justice for the same yet forasmuch as men of weaker Parts out of Pitty and Commiseration a commendable and Christian Virtue why then have ye not followed it How come ye to Condemn it in an Apologie and yet ye set it above ye as Apologizing to it yet easily abused and susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions and yet a Christan Virtue and a Commendable Can Virtue be mixt is it susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions for want of a full Information may be less had been better for this satisfies not may be less satisfied what Justice is that which reacheth not that of God in the Conscience which should be the full Information to witness for you Which your Justice wanting your full Information signifies nothing and which you wanting you come to give full Information and men of perverser Principles so must be all those who Joyn not with you to Calumniate us Truth is no slander and render us as Bloody Persecutors who certainly are such to satisfie the one which will never be and stop the Mouths of the other which can he never for it 's the witness of Truth We thought sit to Declare That about Three years since Divers Persons professing themselves Quakers c. as in the Beginning which I have already answered and do make an End with your Beginning in the End And so have finished my Answer to your Declaration Having thus gone through your Declaration and Related the Sufferings of Friends as they have come under the several heads thereof and as occasion hath been given me by your said Declaration I shall now proceed to what was done in the other Colonies through your Example and what since Friends have suffered in your Own and so
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
forty eight hours To which I submitted finding nothing from the Lord to the contrary that I may know what His Pleasure and Counsel is concerning me in whom I wait therefore For He is my Life and the length of my days And as I said before I came at His Command and go at His Command MARY DYAR This was given them at the first time after she returned from the place of Execution To Friends in New-England or where this may come Greeting IN your meeting together and attending at the foot-stool of the Altar waiting to be fed with the Bread of Life which through death to all things that the carnal mind hath fed upon or delighted in either in corruption or birth either in thought or action whether things in Heaven or things in Earth for verily all old things must be dissolved before the eternal Spirit which as a devouring fire and everlasting burning is now entred into the Regions of the Earth and hath manifested it self unto you that thereby you might profit and be had and instructed in the way of holiness and as an earnest of the glorious Inheritance that never fades away hath from time to time ministred comfort joy and peace in the holy Place within the Vail as you have patiently waited through pangs of death to the old nature and in meekness and content when darkness was over the Land have indured the shaking of the Earth and terrible rending of the Vail I say as you in any measure have come through these things even so in measure have every one of you tasted of the Bread of Life and hidden Manna which within the Ark is laid up for all the followers of the Lamb through great Tribulations which plentifully you will meet withal in the worldly Regions both within and without And although my dear Friends the fruits of Sodom and Egypt as they do outwardly appear in many as pride wantonness revilings and the like are done away yet you will find many dangerous and hurtful lusts arising out of the nature of spirtual Sodom within which will strongly assault you when the light of the Sun is but a little withdrawn and passing under a cloud through which if ye wait patiently for the next appearance it will shine more glorious and higher than before Yet divers wayes will the enemy of your soul appear at such a time to draw you aside from the hope of the Gospel and expectation of injoying the righteousnes and heavenly treasure which therein was revealed when the glorious Light in full power shined in the earthen Vessel and will strive to make void all that you have received as the earnest of the purchased Possession by presenting before you the hardness of the way and bringing to mind things you were formerly in bondage to yea and to tell you ye may eat and not die These things and more unutterable will the spirit whose progresse is to and fro in the earth present to your view and feed the carnal withal yet behold them all in the Light Eternal and in their most glorious apperance they are all but dust which is his own meat whom you are to resist steadfastly in the power of the Spirit of Faith which overcomes the World and remember how the Lord did deliver you wonderfully in your former journeys wherein you perfectly saw the naked Arm of Gods salvation and He remaines the same in Himself yesterday and to day and for ever although the enemy while the cloud was over the Ark for that is his time to work goeth about in the airy part seeking whom he may devour did strongly tempt to prevail as if you were in the wilderness of sin to lead you back again in your hearts into spiritual Egypt for it is within he thus subtilly works and I well knowing it cannot forbear to exhort you in the clean fear of the Lord God that you with the eye of your mind retyred out of all things visible there to wait still and quiet and ceasing from all self-working may with meeknesse receive Power Might Dominion and perfect Strength against all that ever the enemy did appear in and in this condition of the free saving Grace of God which is appeared for your Deliverance and Teacher you may learn to grow from grace to grace into the knowledge of the wonderful works of God which your forefathers saw and many things happened them for our Ensamples and are written for our learning Spiritually and the same way you are to travel as they did who were baptized into Moses and so proceeding you will find the same spiritual meat from the least to the greatest of you and he that gathereth most will have none over and behold I testifie as the least among many Brethren that he that gathereth little hath no lack but in his father's house feeds on the Bread of Life the nourishment and vertue of it will make the least as strong as David and give power over all spiritual enemies though every one in the Camp were as great as Goliah And thus to this day hath the Lord preserved me in the Power of the endless Life where like a Beacon on a Hill the Watchers fired and filled with Zeal to give others warning of the nigh approaching of the Enemy who lyes lurking in the nature of Transgression ready upon all opportunities to appear in evil thoughts lusts c. and so to desile the Temple if not resisted in the first motion And as the Creature gives way to the Temptation of the Destroyer he will grow cold and his Zeal towards God and love to his People will wither and sometimes be hardly drawn to their Assemblies And all this while he may walk under covert of an outward profession of Truth yet grow not at all for having joyned with that in the motion although not brought forth into the act that hides from the presence of the Lord and keeps from sweet Nourishment of the Vine which causeth all that abides in it to bring forth fruit as the heat of the Sun causeth the tender herb to spring And whoever comes into this condition the single Eye discerns him and the Faithful goes about mourning and saying How have such desiled the Bed of Virginity who once in a great measure had escaped the Corruptions that are in the World through lust and although I am perswaded better things of you yet my Beloved Friends who are dear unto me as you abide in that which crucifies you to the World wherein I dearly exhort you to abide as it ariseth in you and put it on as a garment of of Righteousness wherein from faith to faith you may passe on and so preach Righteousness to the old World and in it you will be preserved as in an Ark from the Destruction like a flood that will assuredly come upon the World of Ungodly And in all your tryals and troubles look and wait for the Power that once delivered you and again and again it will
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