they are and wee know them to bee such as profess the day of the Lord an unhallowed thing Now if wee have our opponant to prefer his action against us and not only so but to bee our Counsell our Jurie and our Judg for so it must bee if you bee one with them as you affirm wee know before hand how our Cause will bee ended and see the scale of your equall Justice turned alreadie before wee have layd our Cause therein and cannot but admire to see you caried so contrarie to your owne received principles For you know not how to finde Christ as a Ruling and teaching Elder both in one person therfore he is not Complete amongst you by your owne law except in severall persons and you may thank tradition else you know no more how to finde both a king and a priest in him and yet in your way of making tender of your Justice unto us you know how to become one with our adversaries so as if wee deale with them wee deale with you and if wee have to doe with you wee have to doe with them also yea further wee know that the chiefe amongst you have professed wee are not worthy to live and that if some of us were amongst you wee should hardly see the place of our abode any more Now that they have brooded upon their law to take away life they must much more bring it up in taking away all means of life Witnes our prohibition that no powder should besould unto us for our money and that in a time when you could not thinke your selves safe in all your owne self provision and worldly furniture except you disarmed a company of poor Indians whom Aaron your Leviticall Sacrificer hath made Naked as hee doth all those which triumph in a Calf though the most costly and beautifull that the Jewells and eare-rings of Learning either in Language or art can possibly bring forth your owne amazements upon meer Rumors may testifie the truth hereof so then wee are Judged by your law before our Cause bee hard or our selves brought forth under the liberties of it which thing is well pleasing unto us to have our Condition conformed unto Moses the man of God who was dead in Pharaohs account before he was brought forth and so it was with Christ our lord in the dayes of Herod also who is our life at which you strike and makes all things yea Death it self lively and advantagious unto us Wee cannot but wonder that you should read the Scripture and not finde them fulfilled in and amongst your selves when as they appeare so apparantly that he that runs may read them what think you of Herod when the Lord had delivered Peter out of prison and released him of those bonds and brought him from that thraldom which he had so Cruelly imposed upon him to gaine the favour of the Jewes and that by a power supereminent transcending the bounds of his authoritie and by a wisdom surpassing the Depth of his Counsell and policie to fynd out together with his souldiers and Champions he presently goes downe to Cesâ—rea and Heroâ— iâ— angry with them of Tyrus Sidon thumomachon a heavie Friend or hath a secret grudg or perturbation of mind manifested in an outreaching and circumventing policie to subdue them unto himself that he might Rule over them Finding himself fall short of power and policie to subject the word of God in the messinger of it to satisfy his owne lusts in his lordship over it he pursues with all egarnesse to make himself a god by Raigning over the bodies and estates of men yea though they be but such as Tyruâ— and Sidon can afford unto him to make subjects of and when they come unto him with one accord to make offer of themselves in yeelding to his affectionate and politicall project he sitting uppon the Judgment seate in his Royall apparell making his oration of what power he hath to protect them what wisdom and Counsell to minister Justice and righteousuess unto them which office belongs only unto the Lord the people with a shout crying out the voice of god and not of man the truth and substance of which Cry is this is the ordinance of god and not of man immediately the angel of the Lord smites him and hee that ever acknowledged himself to bee a worme and no man upon the earth Consumes and eates up all his pomp and glory even as those whom you account the Shame and Contempt of the people shall thorow that angell of the Covenant waste and bring to nought all those Rhetoricall though earthly Orations that are made amongst you by your so Learned studious and experienced Clarkes take for illustration of your estate as above the speech of your alderman Oliver in case of committing Francis Hutchinson to prison one of your Church-members wondering that brother Winthrop would do it before the Church had dealt with him Brother faith hee why hee is thy god man Lend your eye yet farther to parallel your practise personated in Pylate and the people when Pylat offereth Jesus unto the people to be judged they profess they have such a law as puts no man to Death they are all for mercy and forgiveness when they are out of the Judgment hall but let Pylat enter in thither and then nothing but Crucifie him Crucifie him be their accusations and witnesses never so false even so in your dealings with men in way of your Jewish brother hood your law is all for mercie to Redress reform and for preservation both of soule and bodie Do but enter into the Common hall and then as Pylat asked am I a Jew so do you Doe I sit or speake here as a brother I tro not I am now in a higher sphere then that though they be acknowledged coheirs with Christ can ataine unto therfore if witness be brought in and Oath taken though never so untrue your consciences are purged by law and your power must have tribute payd unto it so far as mens Names to bee branded with infamie estates depryving women and children of things necessarie and precious lives of men can extend themselves to contribute any thing thereunto so that the professed mercie and Clemencie of your law to exercise censures only for amendment of life and recoverie comes unto this issue as much as in you lies to send both soule and body downe unto hell for ever without redresse and all hope of recovery But your houre and the power of Darknesse is known what it is either to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage or else to seek all occasions against them to brand them with all manner of reproch and ignominie but for the truth taught daily in the Temple you know not how to streatch out your hand or exercise your ministry againstil left it become leprous and you take it back again with losse when it appeares dried and withered And wherefore reason yee amongst your selves saying
that Winter and then in regard of their wives and children who were like to be much distressed by their husbands absence they were set at liberty and banished upon paine of death if they were found in any part of our jurisdiction After the Court had passed sentence upon them for their confinement we sent to fetch so many of their Cattle as might defray the charges they had put us to which amounted to about one hundred and sixty pounds but the Cattle came not to so much for we left every of them a part for the support of their families and some of them had no Cattle at all The Letters follow Mooshawset Novemb 20 1642. To our Neighbours of the Massachusets VVhereas we lately received an irregular note professing its forme from the Massachusets with four mens names subscribed thereunto as principall authors of it of the chiefe amongst you We could not easily give credit to the truth thereof not onely because the conveyers of it unto us are knowne to bee men whose constant and professed acts are worse then the counterfeiting of mens hands but also because we thought that men of your parts and profession would never have prostrated their wisdome to such an act But considering that causlesse enmity you have against us the proofe wherof every occasion brings forth Wee cannot but conclude that no act so ill which that ancient mother will not bring forth her seed unto For wee know very well that it is the name of Christ called upon us which you strive against Thence it is that you stand on tip-toe to stretch your selves beyond your bounds to seeke occasion against us So as you might hide your sinne with Adam bearing the world in hand it is not your desire to contend with us But some civill breach in our courses which you onely seeke to redresse Whereas neither you nor any in way of truth can finde wherewith to bring us under the Censure of a disorderly course of walking amongst men And as for the way of that ancient spirit of accusation of the brethren we weigh it not knowing him to be a lyer or in the abstract a lye from the beginning yea and the father of it also which thing you cannot know though it were told unto you Whereas you say Robert Cole William Arnauld with others have put themselves under the Government and protection of your Jurisdiction which is the occasion you have now got to contend we wish your words were verified that they were not elsewhere to be found being nothing but the shame of Religion Disquiet and Disturbance of the place where they are For we know neither the one nor the other with all their associates and Confederates have power to enlarge the bounds by Kinge Charles limited unto you Behold therfore in this your act a Map of your spirituall estate to use your owne phrase for we know that the Spirituality of your Churches is the Civility of your Commonweale and the Civility of your Comonwealth is the spirituality of your Churches the wisdome of man being the whole accomplishment of them both of which Tree you delight dayly to eate finding it faire and beautifull to gaine Conformity with your maker In these your Dissembling subjects grossly profane amongst us but full of the spirit of your purity when they are with you you may remember the brand your selves have set upon some of them the Cause wherof was never yet removed though it abide not upon their backe Nor yet the Cause of your Commitment of them unto Sathan according unto your Law for if that were removed you should doe them wrong in not resuming your vomit into its former Concoction againe Nor are we ignorant of those disgracefull tearmes they use and give out against you behind your backes their submission therfore can bee to no other end but to satisfie their owne lusts not onely conceived but in violent motion against their Neighbours who never offered the least wrong unto them only the proposition of Amity is object sufficient for these mens enmitie Even so the passions of sin which are by the Law having force in your Members you going about with great labour and industry to satisfie them by your submission unto the word of God in your Fasting and feasting in Contributing and treasuring in retirednesse for Study and bowing of the backes of the poore going forth in labour to maintaine it and in the spirit of that hireling raising up your whole structure and edifice in all which you bring forth nothing but fruit unto death some labouring for a price to give for the keeping of their soules in peace and safe estate and Condition and some to have their bodies furnished with riches honour and ease and further then the Lord Jesus agrees with these you mind him not nay you renounce and reject him and with these according to your Acceptation and practice he holdes no Correspondency at all being the Consultation and operation of that his onely adversarie man being that which you depend uppon and not the Lord Crying oâ—t in way of Elevation and aplauding his ministers when in the meane time you know not what nor who they are professing them under a mediate Call of Christ though formerly they have beene Called immediately by him herby showing your selves to be those that destroy the Sacred ordinance of God For if you make Christ to be that to day in stateing his ministers which he was not yesterday and that in the tyme of the Gospell also to speake acording to your Law to be found in them both you therin affirm that he hath beene that to his ministers which now he is not and to make the Son of God to have beene that which now he is not is to make a Nullitie of him not to be at all for he is the Lord that changeth not no not a shadow therof is found in him so that you plainely Crucifie unto your selves the Lord of glory and put him to an open shame So that as you know not how Christ conversing with his father in heven is found on the earth amongst the true worshippers no more do you know how in his conversing with Nicodemus on the earth he concludes himselfe to be in heaven with his father On this foundation hangeth the whole building of your Doctrine concerning the sufferings of Christ you Annihilate the Crosâ— then the which the Saints have no other Consolation and prepare no better a place then Purgatory for the honourable fathers of our Lord For you conclude that Christ dyed in the Decree and purpose God in the time of the Law but actually onely when he hanged on the Crosse in the dayes of Herod and Pontius Pilate that hee was crucified in the â—â—pes and shadowes of the law but in the truth and substance when hee appeared borne of the Virgin Mary So must you also conclude that the fathers under the law were only saved in purpose and Decree in Type and shadow
know that you cannot maintaine a jurisdiction but you must reject all inroades upon other mens priviledges and so doe wee In the meane time wee shall as wee thinke good bee calling over againe some matters that you have taken up and had the handling of them amongst you to see what justice or equity wee finde hath beene exercised in them and redresse them accordingly for wee professe right unto all men and not to doe any violence at all as you in your prescript threaten to doe to us for wee have learned how to discipline our children or servants without offering violence unto them even so doe wee know how to deale with our deboist rude nay inhumane Neighbours or if you will Nabals without doing violence but rather rendring unto them that which is their due Nor shall wee deprive a witnesse of his modest testimony for the out-cries and clamours of such a one as ill bred apostatized Arnauld that fellonious Hog-killer being the partie to bee testified against or for the oath of any interested in the cause nor shall wee bee forward to come so farre to finde your worke upon your request till wee know you to beare another minde then others of your Neighbours doe with whom wee have had to doe in this country whose pretended and devised Lawes wee have stooped under to the robbing and spoiling of our goods the livelyhood of our wives and children thinking they had laboured though groping in great darkenesse to bring forth the truth in the rights and equity of things but finding them to bee a company of grosse dissembling hypocrites that under the pretence of Law and Religion have done nothing else but gone about to establish themselves in wayes to maintaine their owne vicious lusts wee renounce their Diabolicall practice being such as have denyed in their publique Courts that the lawes of our Native Country should bee named amongst them yea those ancient statute lawes casting us into most base nastie and insufferable places of imprisonment for speaking according to the language of them in the meane while breaking open our house in a violent way of hostilitie abusing our wives and our little ones to take from us the volumes wherein they are preserved thinking thereby to keepe us ignorant of the courses they are resolved to run that so the viciosity of their owne wills might bee a law unto them yea they have endeavoured and that in publique expressions that a man being accused by them should not have liberty to answer for himselfe in open Court. Dealings of like nature wee finde in the place whereof you stile us your neighbours on whose unbridled malice wee finde a higher then you putting a curbe and yet in your account and reckoning wee are the parties that still are doing the wrong and must beare the guilt in your most mature sentence in whomsoever the spot ariseth and abideth But the God of vengeance unto whom our cause is referred never having our protector and Judge to seeke will shew himselfe in our deliverance out of the hands of you all yea all the house of that Ishâ—osheth and Mephibusheth nor will he faile us to utter and make knowne his strength wherein wee stand to serve in our age and to minister in our Course to day and to morrow and on the third day can none deprive us of perfection for hee hath taught us to know what it is to walke to day and tomorrow and the day following also when a perishing estate cannot arise out of Ierusalem though she be the onely one yea none but she that kills the Prophets and stones them that are sent unto her Behold yee that are looking after and foretelling so much of the comming of Christ driving the day before you still for certaine yeares which some you say shall attaine unto and unto the day of death for therest You blinde guides as your fathers have ever done so doe yee Behold wee say when ever hee appeareth your house which yee so glory in shall bee left unto you desolate it shall be turned into nothing but desolation and confusion for Babel is its name Nor shall you see him to your comfort in the glory of his kingdome until you can say Blessed is hee that commeth in the name of the Lord when the authority and power of man appeares to bee the building of Babel unto you and the name and authority of God onely to bee that wherein the blessing conâ—ists and that in such wise also as is nothing but a way of reproach in the eyes of all the world that a King should ride into his chiefe City so strangely furnished upon an Asse borrowed her furniture old overworn garments and accompanied with none but poore meane excommunicated persons such as your Elders Scribes Pharisees Lawyers and all your credible persons among you make full account they are not onely accursed by but also destitute and void of all law when you can finde Hosanna in the highest arising out of such contempt and shame then and then onely shall you sing unto him with comfort In the meane time acknowledge your portion which is to trust and stay your selves on the name of man and in his beautie to delight and glory which shall fade as a leafe and like the grasse shall wither when it is fitting it self for the oven such is man whose breath is in his nostrills and the sonne of sorrie man in whom you delight to trust his power and his policy brings forth nothing else but as you shall see and heare in the Countrey from whence wee are brought We are not ignorant of those shamefull lies and falsities gone out against us and the daily wresting of our words to cast contempt upon us thinking to bow downe our backs under ignominie and reproach Neither of those straits difficulties they have cast us upon in the things which concerne this present life to the taking away of the lives of many if our God had not been seen beyond and above what their thoughts could reach unto as their owne confession hath witnessed doing it in such a way of painted hypocrisie and false glosse unto the eye of the world that wee might seeme unto it self-executioners We RESOLVE therefore to follow our imployments and to carry and behave our selves as formerly wee have done and no otherwise for wee have wronged no man unlesse with hard labour to provide for our families and suffering of grosse idle and idol droanes to take our labour out of the mouths and from off the backs of our little ones to lordaneit over us So that if any any shall goe about to disturbe or annoy us henceforth in our imployments and liberties which God hath or shall put into our hands that can claime no interest in us but by these courses what their businesse is wee know by proofe sufficient to bee nothing else but that ancient errand of Nimrod that rebellious hunter after the precious life which errand of his shall bee no