Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	law_n	life_n	sin_n	22,698	5	5.7840	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76750	The Cry of blood. And Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Jewes reconciled, and in conspiracy with the dragon, to devour the manchild. Being a declaration of the Lord arising in those people, of the city of Bristol, who are scornfully called Quakers, and of the manifold sufferings, and persecutions sustain'd by them from the priests, rulers, professors and rude multitude, contrary to law, liberty, justice, government, the righteous ends of of the wars, and the Scriptures of truth. Together with a true account of the material passages in substance between the rulers and them at their several examinations, and commitments, and at two general sessions of the publick peace: and of the tumults, and insurrections, with other necessary observations, and occurences. Gathered up, written in a roll, and delivered to John Gunning late mayor of that city (being the fruits of his year) for the private admonition, and conviction of himself, and brethren concern'd, and named therein: with a letter declaring the end, and reason of what is so done, (of which a copy followes in the ensuing pages) / Subscribed by Geo: Bishop, Thomas Goldney, Henry Roe, Edw: Pyott, Dennis Hollister. And now after five moneths space of time published, for the reasons hereafter expressed.	Bishop, George, d. 1668.	1656 (1656)	Wing B2990; Thomason E884_3; ESTC R27277	101,853	169

out of the Steeple-house into the street where the boys and other people followed her with dirt stones John Gouning the Mayor was present at the Steeple-house aforesaid to whom Ralph Farmer openly called that course might be taken with her who the next day instead of questioning and punishing the tumult who assaulted the woman and made the disturbance before his face as the Law required sent for her and several days that week to come before him but she was not at home her absence being upon her occasions not to avoid him in the least The same day in the afternoon one Captain Samuel John Worring 10. day 10. month 1654. Speaking to Samuel Grimes Grimes Divining at Philips and affirming to the people many grosse untruths of those whom he reproachfully called Quakers One Henry Gunning reproved him he having said that he committed sin in all the things that he did Whereupon John Worring Apprentice to Peter Hiley said to him If thou were a Minister of Jesus Christ the Law of the spirit of Tumulted life which is in Christ Jesus would make thee free from the Law of sin and death Then the multitude abused and beat worring and Gonning And the Church-warden so called and the Clark laid hands on them the Constables present not keeping the Peace On the fourth day of the week following the Magistrates sent for John Worring before them and demanded Examined of him why he made a disturbance in the publick Congregation aforesaid And why he disturbed the Minister before he had done his Sermon Worring denied that he made any disturbance Whereupon the Magistrates called the Clark in evidence against him who positively swore that he told Grimes that he spoke never a true word and that he kickt at the said Clark All which Worring affirmed to be false Then they called another to testifie against him who swore that Worring called Grimes Devil which Worring affirmed to be false also And Magistrates themselves by their questions seemed to suspect the truth of his testimony Hereupon they asked him what he could say for himself He answered and denyed that he spake such words as they charged him withal They demanded of him what were the words he did say Worring replyed They were these That if he were a Minister of Christ the Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus would make him free from the Law of sin and of death They told him he was sent to make a disturbance this he denyed or that he was sent by any for such things are not the practice of the servants of the Lord whom they suspected to have sent him and would slaunder with such things And he added that is was not so Whereupon Alderman Joseph Jackson replyed he was like a Cut-purse and that he denyed all things he did Then they asked him why he kickt the Clark He answered that he did neither kick nor strike but was both kickt and struck Alderman Joseph Jackson replyed that if his braines had been knockt out he had had his amends in his his hands And so they committed him to Newgate Committed prison without any Mittimus The 17. day of the same moneth Elizabeth Marshall Eliz Marshal 17. day 10. moneth 1654 speaking to John Knowls was moved of the Lord to speak to John Knowls Priest at the Steeple-house called the Colledge whom she hearing all the time without saying a word after that by what is called his blessing he dismist the people the power of the Lord was upon her and commanded her to warn him to repent And she said This is the word of the Lord to thee Knowls I warn thee to repent and to mind the light of Christ in thy Conscience and was very full to have spoken more unto him But Alderman William Cann a Ruler present and some others commanded the people to lay hands on her who Tumulted c thereupon violently assaulted her giving her many blows in the place with staves and cudgels pushing and haling her but the mighty power of the Lord bore her above it all and moved her to cry out to them The mighty day of the Lord is at hand wherein he will strike terrour on the wicked which she uttered often with a loud voice But the tumult haling her out of the Steeple-house she went her way into the City Hundreds of people following her and as she was going was taken into Custody by a Constable Taken into Custody by order as he said of the aforesaid Alderman and brought before the Mayor that Alderman and another being present The Mayor demanded of Examined her why she went to disturbe the Minister and the Peace She answered she was no disturber of the Peace He replyed she was in that she had caused tumults in the streets whereas the Tumults were made on her She only replyed wo be to me if I obey not the word of the Lord Then the Mayor commanded the Constable to carry her to Newgate prison where Committed she was taken into Custody without a Mittimus The next day about the third hour in the afternoon 18. day 10. moneth 1654. Eliz. Marshal Examined she was sent for from the prison to the Councel house where the Mayor and Aldermen being sat the Mayor charged her with disturbing of the Peace which she denyed and said she offered abuse to none but they disturbed the Peace who tumultuously laid hands on her Then the Magistrates called for the Depositions against her as to her Message to Ralph Farmer as aforesaid They affirming that he had not said his blessing But they urged nothing of what she said to John Knowls upon which she was after examination Committed Then the Mayor caused the Depositions to be read and demanded of her whether she spake the words therein alledged To which she stood silent having owned what she spake aforesaid from the Lord before them and only said in answer I have said You need not urge her said Richard Aldworth she owns it Then they said She must to the Place from whence she came and called Committed for the Keeper to take her away She replyed she hah broken no Law and bad them act according to the Law They commanded again the Keeper to take hir away whereupon she went to the Mayor and again and again required a Mittimus but he refused and said the Keeper was a sufficient Mittimus Then departing with the Keeper she was moved from the Lord to return again which she did and warned them from they Lord in these words You that are Magistrates of this City I warn you from the Lord that you act righteously and that equity run down as a stream and righteousness as a mighty water Whereupon she was returned to prison they not suffering any friend of hers to come in with her into the Councel house to beat witness on her behalf though it was earnestly desired And thus was Elizabeth Marshal only for speaking

That she stood out of her own will in the will of God therefore she should not bring her Conscience to be bound by the will of man To which the Town-Clerk answered That by order of the Court she must return to prison from whence she came Thereupon she was moved of the Lord to speak to him and she said Mind the light of Christ in thy Conscience which will bring condemnation on the man of sin and teach thee to act righteously and holily and see thou act according to the Law and not a tittle beyond the Law as thou wilt answer it before the Lord. Upon which he jeeringly bade her use better language then she was pull'd down but she cryed out Give me leave to clear my Conscience And being moved from the Lord she warned the Magistrates in these words Mind the light of Christ which will teach you to act righteously and charged them in the name of the Lord to act according to the Law and not a tittle beyond Then was she remanded to prison where she was continued about four weeks and released after they had satiated themselves with her oppressions The Paper she delivered to the Magistrates as aforesaid was as followeth Her Letter to the Magistrates Unto you who are the Magistrates of this City I am commanded of the Lord to give you warning that the Mighty day of the Lord of Hosts is at hand that he is arising in his mighty power In which day the strong shall be as towe and the maker of it as a spark And from the Lord I am to warn you that you judge righteous Judgment that then so you be not found some of those which shall imbrue your hands in the blood of the Saints and so cast the righteous Law of God behind your backs and so hate to be reformed for now the Lord is arising in his sons and in his daughters a faithfull witnesse for himself Crying even in the Ears of the Almighty It is time for thee to arise Lord for men have made void thy Law That so you be not found bearing the Sword in vain and so punishing the Innocent and let the guilty go free Therefore from the Lord you are warned to mind that of God in your Consciences which will bring you to see Judgment running down as a stream and equity as a mighty River And this is the word of the Lord to you whether you will hear or forbear And seeing the Just lyeth slain in the streets of the City it even turns the bowells of the righteous within them that so for Sions sake they cannot hold their peace and for Jerusalem's sake I must not be silent And so knowing the Terrours of the Lord for sin and for rebellion I am moved to write in love to your soules who is a Prisoner in Newgate for witnessing against Deceipt and for the Testimony of Jesus Elizabeth Marshall And shortly after she was returned to prison she sent the following paper to the Town-Clerk Her Letter to the Town-Clerk This is the word of the Lord to thee Robert Aldworth who art a Counsellour in the Law I warn thee in the Name and presence of the living God thou knowing the Law that thou act according to the Law as thou wilt answer it before the Lord at the great and terrible day of the Lord when the book of Conscience shall be opened I warn thee that thou mind the Light of Christ in thy conscience loving it and abiding in it it will lead thee up unto God hating it it will be thy condemnation The Law of God is just and is according to that in my Conscience which I own which is a Law against evil doers as man-slayers thieves and adulterers and drunkards and such like In the name of the Lord and by his word I do pronounce woes and plagues from the Lord against all such as scoffe at the Light of Christ and the Language of Christ as thou didst This is the day of thy visitation whether thou wilt hear or forbear Thus was I moved of the Lord to write unto thee who am a Prisoner for witnessing and for the Testimony of Jesus Elizabeth Marshal John Worrings Tryal John Worring was also brought from the prison and called to whom his Charge was read to this effect for making a disturbance in the publick Congregation calling the Minister Devil kicking at the Clark and saying the Minister spake never a true word Worring answered He made no disturbance The Court said he had disturbed the Minister before he had done his Sermon Worring replyed that one Gunning began that he spake after him and that he to whom he spake was no Minister And had denyed both the name and the Office at a meeting At a meeting said Alderman Joseph Jackson what meeting He answered At a meeting before three hundred people as himself said in the Pulpit at Ragcliff Alderman Cann replyed though he had denyed the Name and the Office yet he did represent the Place of the Minister at that time And Joseph Jackson presently said thou didst call him Devil Worring denyed it Joseph Jackson replyed one had sworn it He answered if I had said so which I never said yet I could prove him one by his own words They asked him how Said Worring Out of his own mouth for he said at the meeting that in all things that he did he sinned and if in all things as well in that meaning his preaching as in other things and he that sinneth is of the Devill If you will not believe me belie●e the Scriptures Then some of the Court said he kickt the Clark He denyed it but said the Clark gave him a kick So they asked him no more concerning that but demanded of him what he said to the Minister To which he made answer that he said If he were a Minister of Jesus Christ the Law of the spirit of life which is in Jesus would set him free from the Law of sin and death and unlesse he were freed by that Law of life which is in Christ Jesus he was still acting the works of the Devil and was no better in that condition Then the Court told him he had been invited by some turbulent people who had set him on that action and asked him whether he would promise for the future he would do no more such things and finde Sureties for the good behaviour One of the Officers told him A little boy might be surety Worring replyed that he denyed his words and told the Court that he was not sorry And that he stood single and free The Court replyed that he must be sorry He answered them again that he stood single and free that if they would clear him they might if not they might do their pleasures And for being sorry he was not The Court told him he must to prison again He answered again he stood free and so he was to prison returned and continued there till the 19th of the

The CRY of BLOOD AND Herod Pontius Pilate and the Jewes reconciled and in conspiracy with the Dragon to devour the Manchild BEING A Declaration of the Lord arising in those people of the City of BRISTOL who are scornfully called Quakers and of the manifold Sufferings and Persecutions sustain'd by them from the Priests Rulers Professors and rude multitude contrary to Law Liberty Justice Government the righteous ends of the Wars and the Scriptures of Truth TOGETHER With a true Account of the material Passages in substance between the Rulers and them at their several Examinations and Commitments and at two general Sessions of the Publick Peace And of the Tumults and insurrections with other necessary Observations and Occurrences Gathered up written in a Roll and delivered to John Gunning late Mayor of that City being the fruits of his Year for the private Admonition and Conviction of himself and Brethren concern'd and named therein with a Letter declaring the end and reason of what is so done of which a Copy followes in the ensuing pages Subscribed by Geo Bishop Thomas Goldney Henry Roe Edw Pyott Dennis Hollister And now after five moneths space of time Published for the Reasons hereafter expressed And they cryed with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6. 10. And shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily neverthelesse when the Son of man cometh shall be find faith on the earth Luke 18. 7 8. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together for before they were at Emnity among themselves Luke 23. 12. For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together Acts 4. 27. And the Dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her child as soon as it was born and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all Nations with a rod of Iron and her child was caught up to God and to his Throne and the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the Commandements of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 12. 4 17. And the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison Rev. 2. 10. London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle at the West-End of Pauls 1656. To you John Gunning late Maior Joseph Jackson Richard Vickris Miles Jackson John Lock George Hellier Henry Gibbs William Cann George Knight and Gabriell Sherman Aldermen of the City of Bristoll WEE with the rest of the people of God in this City who are in scorn and derision called Quakers have for many moneths together patiently and in silence born and suffered manifold persecutions from your selves and the people of this Town thorough your encouragement without seeking reparation though with a very high hand and with exceeding hard measure they have been executed upon us waiting when the witnesse of God in every one of your Consciences with which we are One and which one day will witnesse us and our sufferings and the Truth for which we suffer eternally upon you except you repent would have been hearkned unto which would have opened the eye in every one of you which the God of this world hath blinded and have shewn you Jesus whom without a cause in us you persecute and have filled your faces with shame for the evill of your doings and have caused you to mourn over him whom you have pierced with a bitter lamentation even as a man that mourneth for his onely son and have raised up in you the righteous principle of God from whence true Judgement would have proceeded that so the Cruell mockings bitter revilings illegal bonds and imprisonments and other grosse abuses with which we have been by you and thorough your means exercised might have ceased and you led to repentance and the Salvation of your souls which are pretious in this great and notable day of the Lord Jesus After which we long and our Bowels earn the Lord is our witnesse even that you might come to the knowledge of the truth thorough Faith in his blood for which things sake all that we have received from yor hands would have become to us sweet and pleasant But seeing neither the forbearance and long suffering of God nor our patient and long abiding under all your wills and lusts nor the fear of man to the penalty of whose Lawes you lie very obnoxious nor naturall affection nor Common humanity which would lead you to tendernesse and mercy and Justice and to do to others as you would be done unto your selves nor the Consideration of what hath been our carriage especially of some of us to you notwithstanding that we have received alwaies the worst of usages at your hands above what you could think of expect or hope for have not prevailed with you but instead thereof you are become more hard rewarding Evil for Good and Cruelty for Kindnesse declaring your sin as Sodom the shew of your Countenance witnessing it against you and having breathed forth new and fresh persecutions against the witnesses of Jesus in which † Temperance Hignell One of them hath lately suffered to the losse of her life When as wickednesse rageth in the streets And who is there found amongst you that doth it punish We have gathered up much of what the Truth and we and our friends for witnessing thereof have suffered by you into one body and have demonstrated how contrary your actions therein have been to Law and Scripture the Rules by which you pretend to order all your affairs and to Liberty and to Justice And although you can expect no such thing at our hands yet that it may appear that another spirit ruleth in us than the spirit of this world and how desirous we are that you should know and be convinced of the evill of your way and turn unto the Lord We do herewit hin the Close of the year before we publish it present it to you even to that of God which is pure and just in every one of your Consciences to which we speak that as in a glasse with the light of Jesus Christ by whom the world was made wherewith he lightens every one that cometh into the world which convinceth you of sin you abiding still and cool therein may come to see what you have done and the spirit and principle from which it hath proceeded to wit of Darknesse and of the Prince of this world who throughout all Ages as now by you hath raised persecution against the Principle of Light the Seed of God as the Scriptures testifie and that by him you may be delivered out of the snares of the Devil by

killed the Prophets And therefore he said unto them Woe be unto you ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucifie And some of them shall ye scourge in your Synagogues and persecute them from City to City that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar Verily I say unto you All these things shall come upon this generation Matth. 23. from 29. to 37. Even so That i John 1 1 2 3 eternal word of life which the Apostles heard and saw with their eyes and looked upon and handled with their hands and bare witnesse unto with the Saints in their time as that which was with the Father from the beginning and manifested unto them k John 16. 13. Acts 15. 28. leading them into all truth for declaring of which and walking therein as the spirit not the form for there was no letter for much of what they did moved and l Acts 2. 4. gave them utterance they were persecuted put to death as the vilest of men and the off-scowring of all things by those who were called the devout and honourable and the Rulers and the people of the Jews who stood in the letter and in the form of those things which were once commanded of God but then abolished by the coming of Christ whom none of the m 1 Cor. 2. 6 8. Princes of the world knew for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory being at least much of it committed to writing and handed with the rest of the Scriptures of truth to these later times the people of this generation embrace the declaration thereof Crying out against the Jews for persecuting and killing the Prophets and Apostles and crucifying of Christ after whose name they call themselves in whose doctrine and worship and in the fellowship and order of the Apostles and the Churches of the the Saints in their times they pretend to abide and for it and the Scriptures wherein they are recorded are they zealous even to blood though not according to knowledge as these later dayes have sadly witnessed And yet those who in this day of the Lords appearing do witnesse the Prophets and Apostles and their doctrine and Christ Jesus and the Scriptures and what is said therein of the Saints and their conditions in life and power in spirit and letter do receive from those who pretend to them all and to the Scriptures and yet are not so much as in the letter or form of doctrine declared therein the very same measure of reproach and persecution as did the Prophets and Christ Jesus and the Apostles and the Saints of which the Scriptures testifie read the one and compare the other therewith and judge though as to blood they have not as yet reached further than of those in other parts of this Nation who are dead in prison and of the blowes they have received And of others who by beatings have had their blood drawn even in the Steeple-houses as well as other places and mingled with their sacrifices of which this City giveth instances because the Lord who saith unto the raging Sea Hitherto shall thy proud waves go and no further hath bounded them by his power but they who contrary to Law and Justice and to that liberty which hath been allowed themselves and to the Scriptures which they would be understood to own and to be ruled by have proceeded so far and with so high a rage as this following Treatise to say nothing of what hath been acted in other parts of this Nation doth make to appear What cruelties would they not exceed in all former times had they Law for it or power in their hands And how doth this Generation manifest themselves hereby to be in the same spirit with those and in their steps which persecuted and killed the Prophets and Christ Jesus Luke 11. 49. and the Apostles and the witnesses of truth to this day filling up the measure of their fathers iniquity Wherefore the wisdom of God hath and will raise up his cloud of witnesses whom they do devise wicked devices against and dig as low as hell and imprison and persecute from City to City and from County to County and execute cruelties upon That all the blood of the Righteous shed since the foundation of the world may come upon them And venily it shall be required of this generation The Cry of Blood c. MAny of the people of God in and about the City of Bristoll as in divers other parts of this Nation having a long time wandred from mountain to hill from one from to another seeking rest but finding none and divers receiving no satisfaction from the Forms in which they walked and wherein they did abide in expectation of the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus in spirit and power according to the Scriptures It hath pleased the Lord whom they sought at length to hasten to his Temple and out of his tender mercies to visite them with the day-spring from on high and not only them but many others who sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death thorough the everlasting Gospel of his dear Son Which though hid from ages and generations for many hundreds of years yet he hath now begun to make manifest with mighty power in the hearts and by the ministration of many whom he hath raised up to declare and publish the same and to bear witnesse to his great and terrible day approaching upon the Inhabitants of the earth And to the redeeming of his Sion with Judgment and her Converts with righteousnesse Unto which thousands of pretious Saints in this Nation and many hundreds in and about this place who are turned by the power thereof from darknesse to light and from the Kingdom of Satan unto God having born their testimony and set to their seals the Devil is come down with great wrath knowing his time is short and stirs up the beast and the false Prophet the Rulers of the earth and the Merchants of Babylon to make war against it with a rage reaching up to Heaven But the Lamb even him who rides upon the white horse the Word of God who is called Faithful and true and in righteousnesse doth judge and make war out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword with which he sha●● smite the Nations and rule them with a rod of iron on whose vesture dipt in blood and thigh is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords having all the Armies of Heaven following him on white horses shall overcome and have the victory for his Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion is for ever and ever And the beast shall be taken and

countenancing and abetting such unlawful assemblies and consequently of all the mischiefs and sad effects which already have or may for the future therefrom proceed Ought you upon any consideration to bear with a Ryot and not to suppress and punish it If others upon pretence of whom it 's raised have offended the Law send for them afterwards and on them let the Law have its course If the instances already produced be not full enough to make this appear as indeed they are those hereafter mentioned will make it up abundantly And yet how are they not ashamed in actions so palpable and grosse carried on by them illegally and by the multitude with Tumults to lay it on those as the occasion who are injured and oppressed and do suffer by them and the multitude contrary to Law and Justice Is any thing done to your Congregations or Priests more than the Scriptures warrant or that consisteth not with the nature freedom which ought to be in publique assemblies about Religious exercises and what was used by the Servants of Christ Cannot the Priests hear or make answer quietly if there be occasion and leave it to those that sit by to judge Cannot you nor your Priests bear a few words spoken in the Name of the Lord but you must call it a disturbance If the Lord speaks by those poor contemptible instruments as he doth and many do witnesse it Then take heed you be not found amongst the proud and scornfull and fighters against God for Jesus Christ is yesterday to day and the same for ever And you are fallen upon such times of the Son of man that ye are not aware of Your Priests may say any thing yet all is well but he that tells a Lyar he lies and a blasphemer that he speaks blasphemy and that the Lord hath pronounced woes to those who say The Lord saith when he never sent them nor spoke to them though the Lord raise up as he hath at this day his witnesses amongst your sonnes and your daughters to testifie against such to their faces and in so doing through beatings prisons fire and blood will it carry them and woe be to them if they obey not the Lord therein that must not be born tumults imprisonments new Lawes where you have no power to ena●t any thing to work them sufferings Oh what will become of you that thus strike against the Corner stone that will dash you to pieces that thus limit the holy One of Israel And by your Lawes and actions say that his Spirit shall not testifie now that the true Ministry is come against the false Ministry which stands in the time and will of man and against the false worships and bowings in your houses of Rimmon be they what they will or the deceipt But you will stop the mouthes of his witnesses imprison and permit them to be beaten even in your Synagogues Do ye thus provoke the Lord Are ye stronger than he O ye sons of men that are as a thing of nought that are lesse than the dust of the earth who would set the thorns and the briars against him in battel he will go thorough you and burn you together and consume you as stubble that is fully dry yea verily he will cause all his enemies to be brought and to be slain before him Consider this O ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you If Priests knew 't was in vain to speak at random others having the same Liberty to object as they have to speak And if the people were assured that they should surely endure the Law in case of Tumults the Pulpits would cease to be the Places of Contention and the giving out of trouble in all the Land England hath paid for these Priests and Pulpits in streams of blood already and they would be more wary what they said there or reported and the people would quickly be still and quiet Nay it may be said Bristol would be the most orderly City in England and most easily governed But being heated by the Priests and encouraged by the Magistrates thence proceed those outrages of which England doth ring And indeed it is not so much the fault of the People as of the other who should instruct and otherwise order them And do ye not blush to put so grosse an untruth as the coming of strangers to this City who you say can render no good accompt of their being here as the other ground of those great tumults and unlawfull assemblies of such evil consequences as you mention and tendencies to future mischiefs and sad effects How do ye know they can render no good accompt of their being here John Camm and John Audland who were thus tumulted were never before you nor examined by you yet have they given a good accompt of their coming amongst many witnesses If to be Englishmen born and living near Kendall in Westmerland where their abode hath been all their time except in the Wars and this Ministry where their outward habitations and Families at present are and estates If to have alwaies lived soberly and unblameably in the world If to have been 6. or 7. years in Arms for the Parliament mostly on their own costs and to have fought and performed eminent service in the field and faithfully to have discharged other places of trust If to have been alwaies constant to the Publique Interest and as active in their places for it as any in those parts If to come to this City in obedience to the Lord from their Habitations Friends and Relations out of love to your soules to preach the everlasting Gospel of Christ Jesus of which he hath made them able Ministers to the turning of many hundreds in this City besides other places from darknesse to light and from the Kingdom of Satan unto God who are the seales of their Ministry and witnesses to the Power and life of God in them If to be here in all Self-denyal Peaceablenesse Long-suffering not chargeable to any not breaking any Law ready to prove by the Scriptures wha●soever they hold forth being what they seem and doing what they say pressing obedience to God and Man Relations and G●●ernors from the obedience of Christ according to the Will of God If the account of these things be the rendring of a good reason of their being here as it is undeniably Then of these things an account hath been already and the Town-Clerk knowes it and can further be given were it requisite or were that indeed the thing you minded And yet how say you they cannot render any good reason of their being here and place that as a cause of the great Tumults aforesaid and unlawfull assemblies Who had cause more greatly to be affrighted though in the power of the Lord they were not at all And whose safety peace and welfare was more endangered either those on whom the outrages aforesaid have been acted or those who raised

him and sends him to the Maior before whom being brought and some of the Aldermen they demanded of him for what he came into the City after that manner He answered he was commanded of the Lord to come and mourn in sackcloth and ashes for them and to warn them to let the Lords people alone as they would answer it at the day of Judgment and not to persecute or imprison his Saints Whereupon they commanded his Coat of hair to be taken off and Henry Gibbs cryed out with great rage Whip him out of Town but said others Let him be gone out of the City now but if he come in again we will whip him out at the Horse-tail so they ordered their Officers to turn him out of the Town who Turn'd out of Town executed their Commands but he by and by returned at the same gate not daring to do otherwise He returning Committed because of the dread and terrour of the Lord that was upon him within which he was no sooner entred but the same Officers who waited for that purpose apprehended him again brought him before the Maior who committed him to prison where after he had been a few houres his hair Coat was brought to him again which he put on the next day on his other Clothes but the third day of his imprisonment he was inwardly required again to strip himself stark naked and to put the hair Coat next his skin and so to abide till he spoke with the Maior so he girded the hair-cloth to his loins and was bare-foot till the second day of the next week on which being released he immediately in that manner went directly to the Maior who commanding his hat to be taken off the ashes on his head flew about which he shaked from him and told the Maior That the Lord of Hosts would stain the Crown and glory of all his pride and strip him naked and bare before him and charged him again in the name of the Lord to let the Lords people alone for they were a righteous holy people whom he had redeemed to himself who were not against Magistrates but owned them in their places as a terrour to evil d●e●s and a praise to them that do well And thus was he turned out of his Native place imprisoned and oppressed in his person and his property contrary to Law and to that frame of spirit which ought to be in men professing themselves Christians which is to hearken to such unusuall Signs and Admonitions at least not to punish those who are made so to appear unto them upon a Warrant as a suspected Franciscan Fryar though he was born and bred in the Town holds some estate of the City is there well known and hath sometime lately been an Officer therein and a man of an unblameable and professing conversation yet Citizen or stranger guilty or not all is one with this Generation for this is such an offence to them yea the very meeting of those who come together to se●k the Lord that Alderman Hellier swore to a Relation of his that if they met at his the said Relations house he would pull them out by the ears As his brother Alderman Lock swore the same oath to a Centry in the Castle because he discharged his duty By this time had the Magistates made such a 1. of the 12th month 1654. John Comberbatch for going along with T. M. to s●e that the Rabble whom be heard threaten to hurt him did him no injury progresse in their illegal and unjust proceedings that inferior Officers took the boldnesse to act as if they were Magistrates and to imprison where the Magistrates had discharged as having done nothing contrary to the Law For John Cumberbatch being at his standing of wares in the Fair called Pauls fair and hearing some of t●e Rabble threaten to throw Morford into the Horse Pool without Temple gate when he was turned out of the Town as aforesaid lest they should do the man any violence he went after them and when Morford returned came back into the City with him Whereupon William Butts a malignant Constable laid violent hands on Comberbatch and haled him before the Mayor charging him with inviting Morford in again when he urged him to no such thing but out of pitty as aforesaid went after him nor could Butts prove any thing against him whereupon the Maior bad Comberbatch go about his businesse but as he was forth of the Maior's door Butts laid violent hands on him again saying he should go to prison Comberbatch told him he was not Committed ●y the Maior and therefore he would not go Said Butts Drag'd to Prison by W. Butts a Malignant Constable after the Mayor had dismist him thou shalt go and so haled him by force Comberbatch call'd to him for a Mit●imus Butts answered he would be his Mittimus and so drag'd him to Newgate not suffering him to speak with any friend by the way and there charged the Prison with him having thrust him in at the door first for Comberbatch said he would not go in unlesse Butts delivered him to the Keeper and so he delivered him to the Keepers son Notwithstanding the Mayor never punisht Butts for so doing though complaint thereof was made unto him by some honest men who were eye witnesses From this new kind of persecution they return Thomas Robertson and Josiah Cole 4th of the 12th moneth to the former of Tumults and unlawful Assemblies for on the fourth day of the twelvth month Thomas Robertson of Grayrigge near Rendal in Westmerland and Josiah Cole of Winterborne near Bristol being at Nicholas Steeple-house in the time of the Divination of Priest Hazzard many people gathered about them and gave them many affronts though they both stood still nor did either of them speak a word But when Thomas Robertson began to utter his voice after Priest Hazzad had Speaking to Priest Hazzard ended all and dismist the people whilest the word was in his mouth unspoken by him he was struck on the head by many as was also Josiah Tumulted c. Cole though he was silent and attempted not to speak which blowes they both received patiently without any resistance Afterwards Thomas began to speak again and said Tremble before the Lord and the words of his holiness Whereupon the Tumult was so great that they permitted him to speak no more but hurried him and Josiah out of the Steeple-house and in great Companies with much rage drew them towards the Maiors and having taken away Thomas his hat they drag'd him under the spouts bar-headed it raining hard the water running down the end of his Locks yet he suffered it and their rage with unmoved chearfulnesse The Tumult having thus btought him and Josiah to the Maiors house he Examined demanded wherefore they were brought thither the Constables replyed for disturbing Mr. Hazzard Thomas desired the Maior to do Justice without respect of persons and told him

her blood drawn and some of her Cloathes torne off her back in the Steeple-house for speaking to Jacob Brint Priest of Temple after all was ended as aforesaid and after in the street by the rude multitude by whom she saw her life was in danger having not been well in her body from that very time that she was so beaten and misused was carryed out of the Prison in a basket very dangerously sick of which in Temperance Hignells death three dayes after she was carryed dangerously sick out of Prison three dayes after she dyed being turned out with the rest upon the Baile aforesaid leaving her blood for the testimony of Jesus on the heads of her Persecuters who thirsted so much after hers and her fellow witnesses of the Truth For whom to be thus beaten by the Tumult was not punishment enough in the eyes of these Magistrates though she informed them thereof but to prison they send and continue her notwithstanding that she had broken no Law of which they have her life in issue and her bones being laid in the same Steeple-house yard where her body was bruised and her blood drawn Instead of calling to accompt and punishing according to Law those by whom she thus suffered not one of whom hath been questioned and punished as the Law requires to this day But Benjamin Maynard against whom only of the seven as is said Judgement was given at the Sessions as an offendor of Maries Act is still continued a Prisoner Thus are we the People of the Lord trampled underfoot and persecuted as a thing of nought Thus are the Liberties of those who have stood for the Liberties of their Countrey and have kept close to the Publique sleighted and violated Thus are the Innocent and Peaceable whose principles lead out of transgression and from that which is the occasion of the Magistrates sword tumulted imprisoned and abused when transgressours are let go unpunished Thus is Judgement turned into gall and wormwood and the fruit of righteousness into Hemlock so that Justice stands afarre off Truth is fallen in the streets and Equity cannot enter By a generation of men who have alwayes been enemies to Reformation and to the life and power of Godliness as it hath been witnessed in its severall dayes who have endeavoured what in them lay the destruction of the Liberties of their Countrey and of those whom they persecute for owning the same who have and do strengthen the hands of evill doers and are wrath and fury to those who do well who cause Injustice to run down as a streame and unrighteousness as a mighty water and neither regard the Law or their oathes And yet nevertheless are called and call themselves Christians and require that honour which God never gave to any in authority Of whose Malignancy misgovernement and other qualifications a particular accompt could now be given were it the intent of this discourse in which nothing of reflection hath been intended or used but where their own injustice hath given necessary occasion and therein but a little of what might be mentioned though it they may expect if they administer further necessity That so all people may know aswell what are the men under whose lusts and wills these people do suffer as their sufferings and the manner of them And to these things these men have been and are encouraged because they suppose the people whom they oppresse in so high a manner are bound up in their Consciences from prosecuting their remedy in the Law and have experienced them quietly to abide under their Cruelties and injustice till themselves being weary of oppressing them have caused their release otherwise it s not unlikely especially being innocent but they had passed untoucht as have severall who have taken the boldness to ruffle it with them and whose resolutions to try it out they have well understood of whom particular instances could be given it being well known how little Courage they have to deale with such though in the discharge of their oathes and duty and how fearefull to engage where they know men will not receive wrong at their hands especially in such cases as these whereby they are so obnoxious to the penalties of the Lawes And amongst those who indeed have the spirit of men in them to injure and oppresse because they thinke those whom they so cause to suffer will not return again nothing is accompted more base and unworthy being that of which the nature even of many brute beast is not guilty But much more is it in Magistrates whose Judgements should be the Lords not their own and who ought to execute Justice without respect of persons according to the Law and not otherwise and indeed were there no such thing as Law for the rule of those in power but all things Arbitrary had Law and Liberty been never the subjects of Contest by the sword had Liberty and Law fallen in the Contest or been necessitated to termes of composition or been betrayed therein by the treachery of their opposites it had been a great mitigation to the outward sense of these peoples sufferings and reasonable matter of bearing and silence But now that of late Liberty and the Fundamentall Lawes have been not onely in deep and perillous contests by the sword but have through the presence of the Lord been throughly vindi●ated and the enemyes thereof destroyed and totally subdued and the Captain Generall of their forces possessed of all power Military and Civill and the constitution of the present Government protecting such as professe faith in God by Jesus Christ in the profession of the faith and exercise of their Religion from which it saith it shall not be restrained except in the cases of Popery and Prelacy and such as under the profession of Christ hold forth and practice Licentiousness for those who have borne the heate of the day the misery of war the hazard of their lives in the field and other where for and with the Publicque interest aforesaid to which they have been firmely faithfull active and unmoveable throughout all changes and particularly against these very men who have sought to destroy See the Act of Parliament dated the 8 of Octob. 1655. and O. P. his Proclamation 21. Sept. 1655. prohibiting delinqu●nts to beare office or to have voyce or vote in Election of any publick officer it and them and all friends thereof and who ought neither to be in Office nor to choose any one into Office to be trodden under foot scorned and persecuted by such generation in the violation of Law Liberty and Justice and Governement as hath been demonstrated as the issue of all these wars and blood Let the impartiall judge whether all things considered there were ever such high sufferings and intollerable oppressions and whether the case of these people be not their own for what is done Arbitrarily to the violation of one mans Liberty is done unto all Though as to their inward man they are still quiet in the will of God in this houre of his Patience Rejoycing that they are counted worthy to suffer any thing for the sake of Christ And knowing that thorough great tribulation they must enter into the Kingdom of God And these things are rehearsed for no other end than the manifesting of Deceit and declaring of the manifold unjust cruell persecutions of the Innocent for the Testimony of Jesus in that City Hearken unto me yee stout hearted that are far from Righteousness I will bring neer my Righteousness it shall not be farre of and my salvation shall not tarry And I will place Salvation in Sion for Israel my Glory Isa 46. 12 13. That which is seen in thee O Bristoll upon the Earth out of which growes the Briars and Thorns which is covered with darkness which is Foggy whose trees scarce bear leaves whose Winter is appeared and come who is Judged not with the hearing of the ea● nor with the seeing of the eye whose tree scarce bears its own seed on whom the rod must come and whose trees must be broken down and bundled up for the fire and gathered up of the Earth before it be drest and it be brought into order who are as dry trees when the Sap is in the root husky and bald which the wind clutters together which blowes up many by the root The Lord is hedging up together and bringing the wilderness into a narrow place and plucking it up and making it fit for himself and burn up the wood with fire The night is gone the day is come rejoyce ye Children that be at work whilst it is day labour for with fire and Judgment will the Lord rule which cleanseth away the dark aire which fire take away the venome as the fire through the Wildernes goes Read and Consider Ye whose eyes are open for the Lord is dressing the earth and his husband-men are at labour who reign above bryers and dry trees That crawle one among another but many dead briars and wood lyeth upon the ground that bears not fruit to men much less to the Lord which must be plucked up and burnt that the earth may be clean that it may come to enjoy her Sabaoth it hath layne long undrest and rough and thorny and briary and that which cumbreth it hath reigned but now the Lord of the Harvest and Vineyard is risen to cleanse that which plowes up is enterd and turnes over goes on and overthrowes that the ground may be fit for the seed He that hath an ear to hear let him hear the Lord is hedging up that wherein lodgeth the darkness the bryers and thorns and coverings and shutting it up and bringing to the unquenchable fire and making the earth fit for his seed who will gather it into his garner Thus bryers and Thornes and Trees stand in battell against the Lord whose fire is coming upon them The End