we own yet I can sell thee a Bible if thou wilt buy one for I have three Thomas Milnard answered I will have none of thy Witchery stuff he said more that he was confident that the Mayor was bewitched he did not send all our friends to Prison that 25. day of the 9. Month Ioshua Frensome Iohn Knight On the second of the eight moneth called October Iames Wall having a tryal at their Court he came into the trial of the cauâ—e and Robert Atkins commanded his hat to bee taken off Iames Wall said to him Thou hast not yet made me any satisfaction for the last hat thou causest to be taken from me neither is yet restored Robert Atkins commanded the Goaler to take him to prison where he hath been without any Mittimus or any thing since laid to his charge The second of the said moneth at the Sessions holden at Evesham Thomas Woodrove being first sent for by himself and brought before the Sessions he requested that his fellow prisoners might be sent for that they might answer to the crimes laid against them if there were any Quest. You are accused to be a disturber of the peace Answ Let that be proved or read any Law that I have transgressed Iudge There may be a Law broken which cannot be read Ans Is it possible there should be Law broken that cannot be proved nor read Iudg. But as for your part you might have had your liberty if you had not came in here in this contemptible way with your Hat on therefore you shall turn back again to the Prison until you do come with your hat off take him Goaler He was sent to the prison and the rest brought up to the Bar. Robert Atkins said Do you not know that you are prisoners I marvel that you wil offer to come before a Court with your hats on Goaler take off their hats It was done thou maist as wel take off our Coats Iames Wall Thou hast not made me any satisfaction for the last hat thou did cause to be taken from me Rob. Atkins said Smith You are the Ring-Leader of this Sect and of this people I know you have Scripture enough and you can tell of Pauls Condition and many such things but you lead people contrary to the wayes of God Humph Smith Paul was accounted as a Sectarian and a Mover of Sedition and a pestilent Fellow Rob. Atkins Paul was called so but was not so but you are called so and are so Ans That is not yet proved Rob Atkins Where have you any Scripture for your keeping on your hats Tho. Cartwright The servants of the Lord had their Hats on when they were thrown into the Fiery Furnace yet they were not thrown in for keeping their hats on but because they would not bow and worship the Kings Image Humphrey Smith There is neither precept practise example nor command in the scripture nor yet any Nationall Law for putting off the hat and so long as I continued in swearing lying and in other wickedness I was never questioned by any magistrate but now the Lord hath called me from these Sins I am made a prey of by you then said they one to another he hath aspersed all the magistrates in England Quest Did you live in such Sins since you came to this Town Ans Nay Thomas Cartwright said I have lived in drunkenness swearing lying and prophaneness until now of late and none of you ever questioned me but now I have left it I am punished without a cause if any one here have ought against me now to charge me withall let him now speak before the people Rob. â—tkins Thou lookest with a good honest face I thought thou had not been a quaker therefore I thought to have shown the some favour but I see by thy behaâ—iour who thou art Humphrey Smith said Moses that was a quaâ—er did look with a better face then he Robert Atkins Here is a sufficient ground that you have come into the Court with your hats on to fine you and send you to Prison untill you learn better manners therefore I shall fine you every one and send you to Prison where you shall lye from one Sessions til another untill you come with your hats off if I may have my will and though you have been kept very high J shall take course that you shall be kept shorter and looked closer unto fine such in five pounds and the rest in three pounds a peece Goaler take them away the Goaler hawling us away Humphrey Smith said let it first be made manifest who we have offended or what we have transgressed or what errors J hold if any can be proved that the peopâ—… may be convinced with us of any evill we may be accused of but the Goaler hawling us away Humphrey Smith spoke further to the people and said they have shamed all profession and all nationall Government Thus were we thrust away from the bar in a quarter of an hours time and not at all called by name nor examined for what we were Prisoners nor any Mittimus read or mentioned nor any other crime laid against us or charged upon us neither was any Witness nor any one by word or bill that had any thing in the least against us neither did any open his mouth to that purpose or in any such way against us neither did they themselves accuse us though we often requested to shew us any cause why we were imprisoned but the Goaler took four of us away but Robert Smith Iohn Clemens and Same 's Wall he left at the bar where they then spake for themselves Robert Atkins hearing them asked if they were quakers too and called the Sergeants or Words men to take them away but they were let alone untill the Goaler came back again from the Prison in all which time they were not examined neither did any one accuse them of any thing Rob. Smith said he had been in Prison 6. weeks for saying the Priest did lye now there the Priest George Hopkins is and I am here to prove him a lyar and to affirm him to be a lyar before all the Court if he be not a lyar let him speak for I can prove him a lyar in severall things the Priest being there gave no answer John Clemens said I was sent for by the Deputy-Recorder who sitteth there from my fathers shop and his work and he sent me to Prison because I did not put off my hat and for that have I been in prison 6. weeks and he called to the Deputy-Recorder and bid him speake or charge him with what he had against him but he was silent and spoke not neither did any one charge him with any thing so when the Goaler came he took them away to prison also A true description of the imprisonment of William Pit a souldier for the Commonwealth I Came from my outward being in the City of Worcester into the Burrough of Evesham to visit
ye Rulers fear the living God and give over persecuting the Saints which cannot respect your persons for Conscience sake for the Lord God of Heaven and Earth wil be avenged of all his Adversaries and upon all the oppressors of his own people that would make them transgress the righteous Law of God which respects no mans person and you that do so are enemies to God and so denies the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ which is without respect of persons Iam. 2. With the Light of Christ you are all seen and with the Light you are to be condemned you that act contrary to it for this is the condemnation the Light saith Christ as you may read Iohn 3.19,20,21 Iohn 1.9 AND now all you that are called Magistrates in Evesham who are yet in the murderous nature hating persecuting and reviling the innocent whom you cannot iustly accuse this have I written that you may look back and be ashamed of all your former filthy actions which have been contrary to all that ever ruled for God therefore now minde that of God in your Consciences which will witness for me and iudge and condemn your unjust actings which have been contrary to the righteous Law of God in your heart and also to all the Laws in the nation and thou George Kemp when thou didst examine us these or the like words I then spake now write to thee that thou or any other to show if they can what Law I or Thomas Cartwright had transgressed or who we had harmed or what uncivill carriage words or actions we had offered to any man yet a Constable came and took us before them called Magistrates who having notice that we that are called Quakers would not swear nor put off our hats to worship the Beast in any man but use plainness of speech to all by which we are made a prey of so are many ensnared when there is no other way found out to intangle them that cannot bow to your generation that are found fighters against the Lord. And thou Robert Atkins Recorder and the rest that joyned and sate with thee at the Assizes in the persecuting of the Saints even of those that have alwayes had their outward habitations in the same town and none of you nor any other adversaries could then charge them with any thing of transgression or evill behaviour towards any yet you fined many and sent them to prison and fined them in sums of money for coming before you with their hats on and declaring against your filthy actions in a printed paper wherein your former actions are truly declared as fiftie of us can witness and that in your own consciences may witness the same Now are you made manifest and seen in the Light and declared to all the simple to be such who are out of the counsell of God acting in your own wills to your own shame are these your actions the fruits of your Ministry you are upholding do you thus requite the Lord for his Deliverance from the outward Sword Are you now leading into Captivity and set wholly to persecute and to delight your selves in mischief Now hear and consider all ye rulers of the earth that set your selves in battel against the Lord Thus in the day of his power wherein he is arising yea the Lord of Hosts is risen to take vengeance against â—u his enemies and to break you all like a Potters Vessel yea the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is kindled which burns all the day and his jealousie is waxed hot against you and his wrath you shall not escape the day of the wrath of the Almighty is at hand wherein he is raining and will rain snares upon the wicked dayly and the wicked shall be taken in their own craftiness and shal howle and lament for all your abomination for the Lord is coming a swift witness against all proud lofty and scornful persecutors who live in covetous practises whoredomes and the like Wo unto them that take counsell but not of me saith the Lord Wo unto you that go down to Egypt for help Wo unto you that decree unrighteous decrees Wo unto you that lay snares for the innocent the judgements of the living God are your portions for ever if you repent not speedily Oh! repent repent return return before it be too late that you may not all utterly be destroyed for ever for by you the just upright man is laughed to scorn and judgement is turned away backwards and justice standeth afar off truth falleth in the Streets and equity cannot enter and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey but the Lord loveth the righteous and he knoweth the wicked afar off for on them he will rain snares fire and brimstone and horrible tempests this shall be the portion of your cup Wo unto you that call evill good and good evill that put darkness for Light and Light for darkness Wo unto you that are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own sight Wo unto you that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to pour down strong drink which justifie the wicked for rewards and cast the innocent into holes as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so your Root shall be rottenness and your blossome fade as the dust because you have cast the Law of the Lord behinde your back yea the Lord will render to every one of you in one day according to the evill of your heart and what measure you have measured to us shal be measured to you again and the Lord in his good time he wil deliver us out of the hands of the wicked and unreasonable men which make a man an offender for a word and the time will come when you shall know that you have been fighters against God and have been persecutors of the righteous seed of God which are in scorn called Quakers Therefore all people both Judges and Rulers high and low while you have time prise it and repent from all your dead works and serve the living God now in this the day of your visitation for there is no darkness nor shadow of death where you workers of iniquity may hide your selves from the presence of our God who is a consuming fire before whom all his enemies shall vanish like smoak and howle because of the torment that is coming upon all that are found in Babell out of which the Lord hath called many of us up into the Marriage of the Lamb where vve rejoyce over Babylon that is fallen and all that are found in her from vvhom vve are delivered to offer up praises and honour and obedience unto the living God of povver vvho sitteth on the Throne To him be given glory and honour for ever and ever Rev. 19.1,2,3,4,5 and the 18.20 NOvv a word in love to all people to warn you every one to minde your own condition and cease from the busie mind that goeth forth from the
not many Hamans in England give large Money if they might prevail to have the righteous cut off for ever out of the Nation as it was East 3. Nay are not you more blind and worse persecutors than they were either in the dayes of the prophets or Apostles who then spake the word of the Lord as they were moved from the mouth of the Lord 2 Pet. 1.21 and they had not a Scripture to prove it by yet you blame them that cast them into Prison Now we speak plain Scripture and write plain Scripture which you say is your Rule and we speak nothing neither do we act or uphold any thing but what is declared by plain Scripture yet are imprisoned therefore Are you not worse than your forefathers Now Daniel was put in the Den because say they he hath broke the Kings command in praying Dan. 6. But I was put in the Dungeon and there kept ten dayes onely for praying and making supplications to the living God and in it I did not break any Nationall Law therefore are ye not worse than your fathers Again they might have charged Paul with preaching contrarie to the Scriptures for he saith if they were circumcised Christ should profit them nothing Gal. 5.2 and yet Circumcision was a command of God to last in Israel for ever Gen. 17.13,14 and Christ himself was circumcised yet the outward circumcision Paul preached against therefore Paul was persecuted but we now having so far a Declaration written Luk. 11. from those holy men of God who spoke forth the Scripture from the same Spirit Christ the Light of the world that was before the world was in which Enoch walked with God Noah preached and obeyed Arbaham believed before the Scripture was in the which Moses the man of God saw and writ the creation that was many hundred years before his naturall birth in the same the Prophets stood and prophesied of Christ to be the Light of the Gentiles and of them that sit in darkness Isa 4â— 6 9.1 who came to fulfil that which was spoken of him by the Prophets from the same light and life which dwelt in him Col. 1.19 in the which the Apostles preached in which we also preach repentance to the world as Christ the Light of the world did Mat. 4,17 Mark 1. Luk. 3 4. And we say from the same spirit unto the righteous it shall go well with them Isa 3.10,11 Mal 3 18 which is according to the Scripture and so we speak the truth of God which your selves holds forth in words but you live in untighteousness Rom 4 18 Therefore all people leave off your wickedness and turn to the living God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son Rom. 5. the light of the world which world is set in mans heart Eccles 3 11. of which Christ is the inlightner the which whoso followeth shall not walk in darkness but shal have the light of life Iohn 8 12 Now why wil you love the unfruitful works of darkness why wil you go on in your wickedness Do you not know that the wicked shal do wickedly and none of the wicked shal escape and that the unrighteous cannot inherit the Kingdome of God 1 Cor 6 9 and that the Lord wil in no wise acquit the wicked Exod 34 1 but wil wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of every one that goeth on in iniquity Psa 69.21 Now in the light of Christ thou mayst read thy portion with the wicked which shall be turned into hell as they that forget God and cast his righteous Law behind their backs and trample the blood of the innocent under their feet and turn the grace of God into wantonness foolish jesting corrupt communication vain jangling idle words the foolish heart being ful of laughter it is the sport of a fool to do mischief the God of the world having blinded the eye the Prince of the power of the ayr beareth rule in all the children of disobedience Therefore all ye slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets and Apostles have said you foolish people without understanding that have eyes but see not and ears that hear not fear ye not mee saith the Lord wil you not tremble at my presence Ier. 5.21,22 which is terrible unto all the workers of iniquity who are now committing iniquity with greediness drinking it downe as the Oxe drinketh water heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and righteous judgments of God which are now revealing from heaven upon all manner of unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. wherein in this day of the revelation of Iesus Christ all that do wickedly shal be as stubble before him that sits as a Refiners fire Mat. 3.2,3 and is coming a swift witness against his Adversaries therefore all people consider your wayes see what you are a doing for none can escape the wrath at hand whither can you go whither can you fly where can you hide your selves from the presence of the Lord who is come to call for an account for every idle word all unrighteousness is sin that which he will not suffer to go unpunished therefore whilest you are called to day Oh! harden not your hearts any longer let not your words be â—…out against the Lord any more let the wicked forsake his ways and own the light of Iesus Christ while it now shineth least the Lord cause darkness and thy feet stumble for ever at the dark mountains Ier 13.16 and so thou come â—o be for ever shut ouâ— into utter darkness where there is no recovery therefore give ear a little hear and thy soul shal live Despise not the day of thy visitation hear for wisdome cries and understanding puts forth her voice yea she speaketh excellent things Prov. 8 Oh ye simple turn you in hither and yee fools be ye of an understanding heart why wil yee die Oh ye house of Israel seeing I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth turn yee again and ye shal live go on and yee shal dye the death eternally Therefore if thou hast any love to thy own soule that is more worth then the whole world mind thy condition flatter thy self no longer between God and Mammon thou canst not serve two Masters while thou servest thy own will which is above the Cross thou art contrary to the fathers wil which is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Iesus who is the Saviour of the soul and the testimony of Iesus is thâ— spirit of prophesy Rev. 19.10 which sheweth things to come Iohn 16 13. whereby the secrets of the Lord are revealed to us that fear him Amos 3.7 Psa 25.14 and the minde of Christ comes to be knownâ— 1 Cor. 2.16 unto the spiritual man that judgeth all things buâ— he himself is judged of no man 1. Cor. 2.15 for Christ the sonne oâ— righteousness is raised up in him Mal. 4.2 where the son bears rule unto whom all judgment is committed Ioh. 5.22 by whom now the Saints do judg the world 1 Cor. 6.2,3 that keepeth in wickedness therefore I witness against all the world that the works thereof are evil Io 1 1 fer in the world the dogs and the euil workers are who are all disc ouered in the light of Christ From them that are prisoners for the truth that are by the dark world called Quakers whose names in the flesh are Humprey Smith and Thomas Woodrove FJNJS