it not to me And these shall go away into Everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life Eternal And so I have sealed up your Summe THE END A Few Words to the KING and both Houses of PARLIAMENT and the Rulers and People of these Nations as a WARNING from the LORD AND now Ye Inhabitants of these Nations Ye Princes and Rulers thereof and Thou King CHARLES and Thy Two Houses of Parliament be ye all warned in the Word of the Lord Whose Word and Warning it is how ye tread the steps of these or of the Men that have gone before you Medling with Conscience the Dominion of God Persecuting Men for their Conscience to God and causing them to suffer for their Consciences as hath been in these Nations For if you do and Forget the Lord and be Unmindful of Him that formed you of the Rock that begat you who hath done great Things for you and Wonderful Things and Terrible and change your Glory into the Similitude of an Oxe that eateth Grass and persecute His People Who are Innocent as to you and have suffered with you and Desire your Welfare Against whom ye have no occasion of fault but as to the Law of their God which they may not transgress lest Evil come upon them from the Lord and his Hand be upon them Who are Meek and Patient and Resist not Evil because of Him that said it but bear All things and suffer all things and you have tryed and found it so as have those that went before you whom the Lord hath Plucked up much because of what was done unto them of which they were warned in the Day of their Deliverance which was fulfilled upon Them viz. That which they were warned of as of that which should come if they took not Warning And hath made way for you and hath done for you as it is at this Day beyond what ye could ask or think Without your Sword or Bow or Spear or your Habergeon When your Hopes were almost gone and you were Disappointed in your Stratagems and Overthrown in your Power and even at a stand to Consider Whether ever a Return of your Captivity should be Which He hath turned again as the Streams in the South and you are as it were in a Dream now that the Lord hath turned again your Captivity and as those who are so filled with the Apprehension of the thing they have and which they long desired to enjoy and were long kept out of that they are in Doubt whether it be a Dream or the Thing Thus hath the Lord done for you and He that hath done it can undo it again and overturn you as He hath done them that have gone before you and that without Sword or Spear even by the Spirit of the Lord Who hath moved Me to write to You and to warn you of these things For if you do as from the Mouth of the Lord I have said and meddle with Conscience the Dominion of God and impose upon it in Matters of Religion the Worship of God who will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth and the Father seeketh such to worship Him who is Lord of the Conscience and so intrench upon his Dominion which is an Everlasting Dominion and His Kingdom which shall never have end His Hand will be against you and his Fury will come upon you and He will visit you and your Day He will turn into Night and your Joy into Sorrow and your Rejoycing into Heaviness and you shall know that the Most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will So in Bowels of Love and Tenderness of Heart as One that desires your Prosperity for ever and the Wel-being of you and your Posterity after you I beseech you take heed of striking against the Rock of Ages or medling with His Kingdom which is an Everlasting Kingdom or with His Dominion which is for ever and ever or persecuting His People for if ye do Know assuredly from the Lord It will dash you to Pieces and by how much the more his Kindness hath exceeded towards you will be your Judgment Therefore my dear Friends Take heed what ye do be Advised and Cool Refuse not the Counsel of One that is your Friend On whom the sence of these things lies Who would not have God your Enemy Who would have it well with you For here have splitted All that have gone before you and here You will be split the Lord hath spoken it And so I have Discharged my Conscience of what the Lord hath laid on Me and manifested my Love and Good-will to You If ye take it well it will be the better for you if otherwise I am Clear Bristol 11th day 4th Month 1661. GEO. BISHOP AN APPENDEX To the BOOK Entituled New England Judged BEING Certain WRITINGS never yet Printed of those Persons which were there EXECUTED Together With a SHORT RELATION of the TRYAL SENTENCE and EXECUTION OF VVILLIAM LEDDRA Written by Them in the time of their Imprisonment in the Bloody Town of BOSTON LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the sign of the Black-spread-Eagle and Windmil in Martins Le Grand 1661. An Appendex To the BOOK Entituled New England Judged This concerns all such Rulers Priests and People in New-England who have joyned hand in hand to Persecute the Saints but especially the Rulers and Priests of Masachusets Bay in New-England who are become more Bloody and Cruel Bold and Impudent in their Wickedness than the rest of their Brethren who have attempted to make a Bloody Law and Unrighteous Decree to Banish the Children and People of God upon Death out of their Jurisdiction and by an unrighteous Decree have made a Law to put the Servants of God to Death if they return again into their Patent Therefore mark the Cruelty which is the fruits of New-England's Professors all you that Read this Paper HEarken and give Ear thou Town of Boston lend an Ear O ye Rulers chief Priests and Inhabitants thereof Listen all you that dwell therein Rich and Poor Small and Great High and Low Bond and Free of what sort so ever Give Ear be attentive to the Words of my mouth which proceed from the Spirit of the Lord and from the Power of the Almighty within me I have often considered your Conditions and your Actings have often come into my remembrance which hath caused me often to Lament because of the hardness of your hearts who do thus slight the Almighty and requite the Most High Oh foolish and unwise ye who do not regard the Lord that made you who hath often sent to you his Servants to give you warning of the mighty day of the Lord of Hosts of the terrible day of the Lord God Almighty which draweth near it hastens apace the Lord hath said it for His Elects sake and for His own Names sake will the Lord arise and plead with all His Enemies in this the day of His Eternal Power Oh
Prohibiting all Masters of ships to bring in of your Brethren among you who were not prohibited your selves and themselves from coming in on such a Penalty Which leads me to the next Particular viz. The Sufferings by this your Law And accordingly say you a Law was made and Published Answ This Law is put as the Port or Entrance into this Scene of Blood and Cruel Sufferings and the very Publication of it Enters it and shews the Spirit by which it was made and the Ground on which it went and poor Nicholas Upshall a VVeakly Old Man of your Town of Boston bore the Brunt of it For he hearing it proclaimed and being grieved at the heart for your sakes and the Countries that such a thing should be done which he looked upon as a sad fore-runner of some heavy Judgement gave his Dissent Which ye took so ill at his hands that though he was a Member of your Church and of good Repute among you for a man of a sober and unblamable Conversation and though in much tenderness and love he spake to you the next day when ye had him before you desiring you to take heed lest ye should be found fighters against God and some sudden Judgement follow it on the Land which was the Counsel which wise Gamaliel gave the chief Priests and Pharisees and which they received at his hands and it would have been your Wisdom so to have done Yet you fined him twenty pounds which ye Enacted I 'le not bate him one groat said your cruel Governour John Endicot and three pounds more by another Court for not coming to your Meetings and this after he was Imprisoned and into Prison ye cast him and banish him ye did out of your Jurisdiction allowing him but One Moneths space of which the time of his Imprisonment was part for his Remove neither regarding his old years who had scarce a Tooth in his head to eat his meat and bread and cheese and other Sustenance was scraped into a spoon when he received it nor the weakness of his Body nor the state of his aged Wife and Children which were amongst ye nor the season of the year it being in the beginning of Winter which with you is very cold and he might have perished therein as some have done in passing but from Town to Town though but of Three Miles distance but Out he must go and when he was departed into Plimmouth Patent Jurisdiction which was the next adjacent the Governour thereof One Bradford since dead to help on the matter hearing of his coming for after your Pipe danced that Plantation as will appear by and by in the Cruelties that Ensue which they inflicted on the Innocent issued forth a Warrant that none of Sandwitch whereunto he was come should Entertain the poor Man which not Availing for their hearts were more tender then to cast him Out such an Aged Man in time of VVinter he sent for him to Plimmouth by a special Warrant which was Twenty Miles distant but he not being able to go and writing to him that if he perished his Blood would be required at his hands through the Moderation of some of the then Magistrates he was permitted to stay till the Spring but then was he banished thence who there had done nothing but came into their Jurisdiction for a little shelter in the VVinter Season to Rhoad Island and this so earnestly prest in the early time of the year that he was like to have been cast away in his going thither A Piece of Cruelty able to soften a heart of Flint and Draw it into teares at the sence thereof and which drew such Compassion from a Sagamore or Indian Prince That he told the Old man if he would live with him he would make him a warm house calling him Friend and further he said VVhat a God have the English who deals so with one another about the VVorship of their God Or words to that purpose But from you it drew no Relentings but the spirit of Iniquity having got over you it hardned ye the more by how much the more you were Exercised therein yea upon this very Old Man as in its place I shall shew and by and by make manifest Even the Sea-Monsters draw forth their Breast and give suck to their Young but the Daughter of my People is become Cruel like the Ostrich in the VVilderness Thus Entred as I have said this Scene of Blood and what follows answers unto it For the Eight aforesaid viz. Christopher Holder Thomas Thirstone John Copeland VVilliam Brend Mary Prince Dorothy VVaugh Sarah Gibbens and Mary VVeatherhead who were Committed before this Law was made and kept close Prifoners for the space of about Eleven Weeks the very Day that Nicholas was cast into Prison as aforesaid were they by vertue of this Law conveyed on board a Ship the Ship they came in and sent for England and Nicholas came into their Room Which Prison ye have supplied with the bodies of the Saints and Servants of Jesus for the most part ever since scarce One taken Out but some One or other put into his Rome of which in its Place But how came Nicholas Upshall to be concerned in a Law for Strangers who was an Inhabitant In a Law for Quakers so called who was a Member of your Church In a Law for Masters of Ships who shall bring into your Jurisdiction any People that are called such and for any such People who themselves shall come into your Jurisdiction when as he is neither Master of a Ship nor brought in any such nor came in but is an Inhabitant a Freeman of Boston How comes he to Suffer and to have inflicted upon him a Punishment above the Penalty of the Law How came those Eight to be sent away the Day after the Publication of a Law and by Vertue thereof who were imprisoned before the Law was made These things would be Enquired into and how Repugnant they are to the Lawes of England Declaration Notwithstanding which by a Back door they found Entrance and the Penaltie inflicted on themselves proving insufficient to restrain their Impudent and insolent obtrusions was increased by the losse of the Eares of those who offended the second time Which also being too weak a defence against their Impetuous Frantick Fury necessitated us to endeavour our security and upon serious Consideration after the former Experiments by their incessant Assaults a Law was made That such Persons should be banished upon pain of Death according to the Example of England in their Provision against fesuites Which sentence being regularly pronounced at the last Court of Assistants against the Parties above-named and they either returning or continuing presumptuously in this Jurisdiction after the time limited were Apprehended and owning themselves to be the Persons banished were sentenced by the Court to Death according to the Law aforesaid which hath been Executed upon two of them Answer As the former was the Entrance
Magistrate and Commander of theirs to his friend in England formerly of that Jurisdiction also and a Magistrate there written from the sence thereof in the following Words and then I shall touch at some of the Particulars as they are come to my hands The Letter follows AS for the State and Condition of things amongst us it is Sad and like so to continue The Antichristian Persecuting Spirit is very active and that in the Powers of this World He that will not Whip and Lash Persecute and Punish men that Differ in matters of Religion must not sit on the Bench nor sustain any Office in the Common-wealth Last Election Mr. Hatherly and my self left off the Bench and my self Discharged of my Captainship because I had Entertained some of the Quakers at my House thereby that I might be the better acquainted with their Principles I thought it better so to do than with the blind VVorld to Censure Condemn Rail at and Revile them when they neither saw their Persons nor knew any of their Principles But the Quakers and my self cannot close in Divers things and so I signified to the Court I was no Quaker but must bear my Testimony against sundery things that they held as I had occasion and opportunity But withall I told them That as I was no Quaker so I would be no Persecutor This Spirit did work those two years that I was of the Magistracy during which time I was on sundry occasions forced to Declare my Dissent in Sundry actings of that Nature which although done with all Moderation of Expression together with due respect unto the Rest yet it wrought great Dissaffection and Prejudice in them against me So that if I should say some of themselves set others on work to frame a Petition against me that so they might have a seeming Ground from others though first moved and acted by themselves to lay me what they could under Reproach I should do no wrong The Petition was with Nineteen Hands It will be too long to make Rehearsal It wrought such a Disturbance in our Town and in our Millitary Company that when the Act of Court was Read in the Head of the Company had not I been present and made a Speech to them I fear there had been such Actings as would have been of a sad Consequence The Court was again followed with another Petition of fifty four hands and the Court return the Petitioners an Answer with much plausibleness of speech carrying with it great shew of Respect to them readily acknowledging with the Petitioners my Parts and Gifts and how useful I had been in my Place Professing they had nothing at all against me only in that thing of giving Entertainment to the Quakers when as I broke no Law in giving them a Nights Lodging or two and some Victuals For our Law then was If any entertain a Quaker and keep him after he is warned by a Magistrate to depart the Party so entertaining shall pay Twenty shillings a week for entertaining them Since hath been made a Law If any entertain a Quaker if but a quarter of an hour he is to forfeit Five pounds Another That if any see a Quaker he is bound if he live six miles or more from the Constable yet he must presently go and give notice to the Constable or else is subject to the Censure of the Court which may be hang him Another That if the Constable know or hear of any Quaker in his Precincts he is presently to apprehend him and if he will not presently depart the Town the Constable is to whip them and send them away And divers have been whipt with us in our Patent and truly to tell you plainly that the whipping of them with that Cruelty as some have been whipt and their Patience under it hath sometimes been the occasion of gaining more Adherence to them than if they had suffered them Openly to have Preached a Sermon Also another Law That if there be a Quakers Meeting any where in this Colony the Party in whose House or on whose Ground is to pay Forty shillings the Preaching Quaker Forty shillings Every Hearer Forty shillings Yea and if they have Meetings though nothing be spoken when they so meet which they say so it falls out sometimes Our last Law That now they are to be Apprehended and carried before a Magistrate and by him committed to be kept close Prisoner untill he will promise to depart and never come again and will also pay his Fees which I perceive they will do neither the one nor the other and they must be kept only with the Countries Allowance which is but small namely Course Bread and Water No Friend may bring them any thing None may be permitted to speak with them Nay if they have Money of their own they may not make use of that to relieve themselves In the Massachusets namely Boston Colony after they have whipt them cut their Ears have now at last gone the furthest step they can They banish them upon pain of Death if ever they come there again We expect that we must do the like We must dance after their Pipe Now Plimmouth Saddle is On the Bay Horse viz. Boston we shall follow them on the Career For it is well if in some there be not a desire to be their Apes and Imitators in all their Proceedings in things of this nature All these Carnal and Antichristian wayes being not of God's Appointment effect nothing as to the obstructing or hindring of them in their way or course It is only the Word and Spirit of the Lord that is able to convince Gain-sayers they are the Mighty Weapons of a Christian's Warfare by which Great and Mighty things are done and accomplished They have many Meetings and many Adherents almost the whole Town of Sandwitch is adhering towards them and give me leave a little to acquaint you with their Sufferings which is grievous unto and saddens the hearts of most of the Precious Saints of God It lies down and rises up with them and they cannot put it out of their minds to see and hear of poor Families deprived of their Comforts and brought into Penury and Want you may say by what means and to what End As far as I am able to judge of the End it is to force them from their Homes and lawful Habitations and to drive them out of their Coasts The Massachusets have banished six of their own Inhabitants to be gone upon pain of death and I wish that Blood be not shed but our Poor People are pillaged and plundered of their Goods and haply when they have no more to satisfie their unsatiable desire at last may be forced to flee and glad they have their Lives for a Prey As for the Means by which they are impoverished These in the first place were scrupulous of an Oath VVhy then we must put in force an Old Law That all must take the Oath of Fidelity