Something in ANSWER to a LAW Lately made at the first Sessions of the General Court held at Boston in New-England May the 28th 1679. And published by their Order Edw Rawson Secretary The Title of the LAW viz. Meeting-Houses not to be Erected without Licence c. Answer VVHat would the New-England Governours and Priests have done to Christ and his Twelve and Seventy Disciples if they had been in their day For doth not Christ say to encourage Meetings Where Two or Three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them to exercise his Offices in the midst of them as he was a Prophet and a Priest c. And did Christ or his Disciples go to get Licence of the Free-men of every Town where they came to meet in or did they go to the Jews for Licence to meet in such and such Houses or must they not meet except they had Licenced Houses from the Jews or Herod or Pontius Pilate the Governour Now you say That the Scripture is your Rule then what Scripture have you that the true Christians must not meet and have Meeting Houses on their own Ground except they have a Licence from you Have you not this from the Papists or Heathen And would not you have pluck't down the Houses and Places where Christ and his Disciples met or take away and sell and demolish them if you had been in their day and do not you manifest your selves to be more like Jews and Heathens than Christians Now New England's Presbyterians Law is as followeth FOrasmuch as it hath too often happened that through Differences arising in several Towns and on other Pretences there have been Attempts by some Persons to erect Meeting-Houses although on pretence of the Publick Worship of God on the Lord's Day yet thereby laying a Foundation if not for Schism and Sedition for Error and Heresie for perpetuating Divisions and weakening such Places where they dwell in the comfortable support of the Ministry orderly settled amongst them For Prevention whereof for the future it is ordered by this Court and the Authority thereof That no Person whatsoever without the Consent of the Free-men of the Town where they live first orderly had and obtained at a publick Meeting assembled for that end and Licence of the County Court or in Defect of such Consent and Licence by the special Order of the General Court shall erect or make use of any House as abovesaid And in case any Person or Persons shall be convicted of transgressing this Law every such House or Houses wherein such Persons shall so meet more than Three Times with the Land where such House or Houses stand and all private Wayes tending thereto shall be Forfeited to the Use of the County and disposed of by the County Treasurer by Sale or Demolishing as the Court that gave Judgment in the case shall order Answ So hereby we understand that none shall erect any House to keep them from the Wind and Weather to Worship God in without your Licence and Authority But will your Court or Free-men grant any Licence in these things to the People of God in Scorn called Quakers if they desire it And did ever Christ and his Disciples or Apostles Take Sell or Demolish Meeting-Houses and the Ground and High-wayes of any other People that wâ—re not of their Religion because they had not a Licence from them Prove this by Scripture who say It is your Rule and call your selves Christians Or hath the King of Old England given you any such Authority in your Patent to make Forfeiture and Sale of and to Demolish the Meeting-Houses Lands and High-wayes of God's People that they have erected to Worship him in We do not believe that your Patent will justifie you in this thing but contrary to it is your Practice and contrary to the Scriptures of the New Testament also But as Solomon saith When the Righteous are in Authority the People Rejoyce but when the Wicked bear Rule the Righteous Mourn Prov. 29.2 But are not you in the steps of the Gentiles with your Authority Read Mat. 20.25 and Luke 22.25 And did not the Elders and the Chief Priests and the Great Professing Jews ask Christ By What Authority he did those things and Who gave him that Authority shewing that he had not that Authority from them And did not he and his Disciples often meet together Mat. 21.24 Mark 11.28 And in Luke 20. The Chief Priests and Scribes and the Elders came unto Jesus when he was preaching the Gospel and teaching the People saying Tell us by what Authority thou dost these things or Who is he that gave thee this Authority And Christ asked them Whether the Baptism of John was from Heaven or of Men And they reasoned with themselves saying If we shall say from Heaven he will say Why then believed you him not And if we say of Men all people will stone us for they did believe that John was a Prophet and so they answered They could not tell And so it seems the Chief Priests and Scribes and Elders did not believe in John's Testimony for Christ though many others did And also did not then the Chief Priests send Scribs to watch Christ to take hold of his words that so they might deliver him to the Power and Authority of the Governour And had not Saul Authority from the Chief Priests to bind all that called on the Name of Jesus and did not he breath out Threatnings and Slaughter against the Disciples of Christ Jesus and went to the High Priests and desired of them Letters to go to Damascus to the Synagogues that if he found any of this Way whether Men or Women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem And have not you gone on with your Authority in the Way of Saul breathing out your Threatnings and Slaughtering the Disciples of Christ and bringing them bound to your Courts at Boston instead of Jerusalem and Prisoned and Hanged them on your Gallows But is not your Authority and Commission larger than Saul's for though Saul breathed out Threaning and Slaughter against the true Christians yet we do not read that they gave him such Authority as to make Sale of and Demolish their Meeting-places and Land and Wayes to them read Acts 9 26. And doth not Paul when he was Converted call this Madness in himself then is it not the same in you and not Soberness Acts 26. And did not the Dragon give the Beast Power and his Seat and great Authority and did not he cause all both Small and Great to worship him and them that would not worship the Image of the Beast should be Killed And all did worship him but those whose Names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life slain from the Foundation of the World Revelat. 13. And so now try your selves whether you are not like the Beast and Jews and Papists and worse than some of the Heathen Romans who let Paul preach
and make them forfeited and sell them and the Ground and High-wayes to them And where did ever Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords who sent his Disciples into all Nations to preach the Gospel to every Creature under Heaven give any command to his Apostles and Disciples that them that would not receive their Gospel some of them they should Hang others they should cut off their Ears others they should Whip Imprison and spoil their Goods and brand them with an Hot Iron and some they should Banish upon pain of Death pluck down their Meeting-Houses make them forfeited sell demolish them the Land High ways to them Now shew us a Law from Christ and his Apostles for this your practice or else acknowledge your selves to be no Christians And the Scriptures of the New Testament are not your Rule neither have you an Example for this your Practice in all the Scriptures of Truth And will not ye for a piece of Bread transgress the Command of Christ who saith Freely you have received freely give Prov. 28.21 And do not your Teachers eat the Bread of Idleness But the Apostle saith They that will not work shall not eat And do not you Workers of Iniquity go about to eat up God's People as you eat Bread and devour them as David saith Psal 14. Psal 53. And have not you Gnashed upon them with your Teeth And do not you think but the Lord will break the Long Teeth of the Ungodly Psal 58. Psal 35. And have not your Teeth been like Spears and Arrows Psal 57. But see what Christ saith in Mat. 13. how in the end the Wicked shall wail and gnash their Teeth who in their Life-time have gnashed them against God's People and haled them before their Judgment-seats as Christ fore-told his Disciples And have you not condemned and killed the Just which have not resisted you and baled and drawn them before your Judgment-seats as in Jam. 5. And did not James pronounce Wo against such And have not you lifted up the Fists of Wickedness smote them with it And doth not Isaiah testifie against such Fists and Fasters Isa 48. And doth not the Apostle exhort the Christians to pray and lift up holy hands without Wrath and Doubting 1 Tim. 2. And are not you Breakers of this Command with your unholy hands and fists of wickedness who in your Wrath have Hanged and Whipped and now would make Forfeiture pluck down sell and demolish the Meeting-Houses of the People of God with their Land and Ways to them And doth not John say in the Revelations The Beast with his Horns was like a Leopard and don 't you know the Nature of that spotted Beast And his Feet were like a Bear and hath not your Bears Paw with your Claws been felt and seen the Marks are seen on the Backs of the Righteous And hath not this Beast a Mouth like a Lyon to devour and the Dragon the Destroyer gives unto this Beast his destroying power and the Dragons Seat and great Authority which is to destroy and not to save And hath not he given you in New-England this Seat and Authority to destroy the Lambs of Christ and to make war against him and his Followers but the Lamb will overcome Rev. 13 17. And your Faith is not the true saving Faith that works by Love but a destroying nor your Gospel is not the true Gospel of Peace and Glad-tidings who destroy mens Lives but a destroying one and your Religion is not the true Religion which is to visit the Fatherless and Widows c. who destroy mens Lives and make Fatherless and Widows and your Church is not the true Church but the Whore who drinks the Saints Blood which the true Church of Christ never did and your Worship is not the true Worship of God in his holy Spirit and Truth but from the foul unclean spirit that is out of Truth which destroyes men in their Estates and Lives and not save them and your Way is not the true and living Way Christ Jesus who never hanged nor spoiled the Goods of any that could not follow him as you have done to such as could not follow you and your Foundation is not the true Foundation who have hang'd and branded and whipt and spoiled the Goods of them that would not build upon it which Christ and his Apostles never did though he was a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and at last crucified by your Generation And what a dreadful Fear are you in of your False Religion and Faith and Way and Worship for what Fines have you laid on Masters of Ships that bring over the Servants of the Lord and Fines upon them that do receive them and Fines on them that do bring or receive a Book as your Laws declare Oh what a pitiful fearful evil Spirit you are of And the Apostle saith Quench not the Spirit and why should you quench the Spirit in any And he saith Despise not Prophecy is not this despising of Prophecy who will not suffer such to come among you to prophesie And how far from the Apostles Doctrine are you who saith Prove all things and hold fast that which is goode 1 Thes 5. And the Apostle John saith These things have I writen unto you concerning them that seduce you but the Anointing that you have received of him abideth in you and you need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Now are not the New-England Governours Priests and Elders these Seducers that hang banish whip prison brand with an hot Iron spoil their Goods make their Meeting-houses forfeited and sell and demolish their Houses and Lands and Wayes to them of such as cannot forsake the Anointings Teachings within according to the Apostle's Doctrine which Teachings of the Anointing within brings them to continue in the Son of God in the Father which Anointing they cannot forsake to follow the seducing spirit of you and your persecuting Priests who have hanged some and branded some and banished others and whipt and spoiled their Goods and now made a Law to forfeit their Meeting-Houses and Lands wayes to them But all these things cannot separate them from the Love of God which they have in Christ Jesus And as the Saints have formerly said Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ shall Tribulation Distress Persecution Famin Nakedness Peril or Sword as it is written For Christ's sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as Sheep for the Slaughter and you Slaughterers who have your Slaughtering-place to slaughter and hang God's People in But in all these things we are more than Conquerors through Christ who hath loved us And the Devil and his Angels with all his Principallities and dark Powers are not able
the Kingdom of God and those things that concerned the Lord Jesus in his own Hired House and no man forbidding him and received all that came in unto him to wit his Hired House So Paul had a Meeting-place in his Hired House for all that came unto him But the New-England Priests and Governours it seems would have forbidden him if they had been in that day and not let 〈◊〉 an House to Hire for Paul to preach Christ in no more than you will now let the People of God called Quakers have Meeting-Houses and Wayes unto them And was not the Church in Philemon's House so was not his House a Meeting-place see in Philemon And doth not Paul say in Col. 4.15 Salute the Brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the Church which is in his House Had they not a Meeting-place then in his House to worship God in And Priscilla and Aquilla the Church was in their House Rom. 16. and had they not there a Meeting-place then in Priscilla's House to worship God in And the Apostle Paul saith in 1 Cor. 14. When the Church is met together in one Place Now though the Church did meet together in one Place or in a House yet the Church is built upon Christ the Rock which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against as in Matth. 16. So it is not like for the New-England Magistrates and Priests for them to prevail against this Rock nor the Church that is built upon it neither can they sell this High-way of Light and Righteousness that leads to it But what if the New-England Governours Priests had lived in the dayes of Philemon and Priscilla and Aquilla and the Romans and the Corinthians who kept the true primitive Christian Meetings in their Houses would not the Horn of their Law have pushed their Houses down and thrown them out and have made Forfeiture and Sale of and Demolished the Houses Lands and High-wayes to them and yet professed themselves Christians and the Scripture their Rule herein Oh! that ever men should make a Profession of God and Christ and Christianity and yet Themselves who did flee in the time of Persecution for the Liberty of their Consciences do persecute others for their tender Consciences that cannot bow to their Image that they have set up in the Wilderness of America And as for the Differences arising in Towns and on other Pretences as you say there have been Attempts by some Persons to erect new Meeting-Houses c. Answ Now have not your Governours and Priests and Elders been the Cause of the Differences and is not every one to be fully perswaded in their own Hearts and Minds For whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin And by what Law of Old England have you Power to take peoples Lands High-wayes and Houses from them and make them Forfeit Sell and Demolish them if that you do own the Laws of England which are to preserve people in their Houses Lands and Properties But your Laws will take them from people and Sell and Demolish them with their Lands High-wayes because people worship God in them really in Spirit and in Truth which the Devil is out of this is more than Pretence And because they cannot own nor joyn with you Persecuting Rulers and Priests in your pretended Worships no more than the three Children could joyn with Nebuchadnezzar's For if that persecuting spirit in the Priests Rulers of New-England can worship God with it that do Whip and Hang and Burn in the Hand and Banish upon pain of Death and Cut Off Ears and Spoil the Goods of the Servants of Christ and now to make Forfeiture and Sale of and to Demolish their Meeting-Houses Lands and Wayes to them If this persecuting Spirit be a Worshipper of God then Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar and Herod and the Beast and Whore were Worshippers of God and the Chief Priests and Jews that Crucified Christ and Saul with his Authority and Licence from the High Priests to persecute were Worshippers of God But Paul will tell you whilst he did such things he was a Mad Man and so your Madness hath been known herein and not your Moderation and Sobriety And the Truth which we have received profess and practise layes no Foundation for Error nor Heresie nor Schism nor Sedition nor for Perpetuating Divisions nor Weakening the Places where they dwell in the comfortable Support of the Ministry settled amongst them as you say For there is no other Foundation to be laid but what is laid already to wit Christ Jesus who was the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles And all the Believers in the Light as Christ commands build upon him the Foundation which the spirit of Schism and Error and Heresie and Seducing cannot build upon But the preaching of Christ and his Gospel disquieted Diana's Worshippers as now it does you And the Jews Priests and Elders Scribes and Pharisees were disquieted yea the very Birth of Christ made such an Uproar in Jerusalem where was the highest outward Profession and Worship in the World And also Herod gathered the Wise Men and Priests together to know where Christ should be born and they said At Bethlehem and then Herod slew the Young Children for his sake And did not you the Herods of New-England Whip and Banish and after HANG four Servants of Christ when he was manifested in his people in New-England Herod-like And so hath not the Forming of Christ in his People made the New-England Magistrates and Priests and Professors all of an Uproar and that by your Law now the people of God shall neither have Land nor Houses to meet together to worship God in his Holy Spirit and Truth who cannot live under your persecuting murdering Priests spirit For Christ saith Such as destroy Mens Lives though it be even their Lives who would not receive him they do not know what Spirit they are of themselves And therefore how can we trust our Bodies Souls and Spirits in the Hands of such Uncomfortable Mischievous Ministers For they preach War and Bloodshed and Persecution and that is not the Gospel of Peace And the Wars and Strivings and Fightings arise from your own Lusts and not from the Truth nor Gospel of Peace For would you think it well if the King should send over some Bishops set up his own Religion among you which he judges is better than yours and make a Law that you must all come and hear the Common-Prayer if not you must he Hang'd on the Gallows as you did the Quakers and have your Ears cut and branded with a Hot Iron and have your Bodies both of Men and Women stript to the Waste and Whipt until your Bodies are made like a Jelly and your Womens Paps cloven in the midst with whipping and your Goods spoiled and Houses taken from you and forfeited and Land and Houses and Wayes all sold and given to the use of the Country what would you say to this Have not you served the