ye are naked and bare and who sees your Hearts and knows the bottom of your Intents against these People and accordingly will Judge you whose Judgements are Just You put them to Death These are your Means your all other Means but these are none of the Means which the Spirit of Truth Prescribes in the Scriptures of the Apostles for the Convincing Gainsayers But Exhortation Reproof Admonition the Word of Truth the Sword of the Spirit and these the Apostles used and with these they warred and they wrestled not with Flesh and Blood but with Principallities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places and in Meekness they Instructed them who Opposed themselves if God Peradventure would give them the Knowledge of the Truth And the Son of God tells ye That he came not to destroy mens Lives but to save And when his Disciples would have Fire come down on the men of Samaria He said Ye know not of what Spirit ye are Now these Means failing or you having failed in the using of these Means or you not knowing how to use these Means or you being not in that which would teach you how to use these Means which are the Means ye should have used and would have directed you thereunto Ye betake your selves to other Means Means that you should not have used Means which the using of them cannot Convince the Heart and Conscience of Man nor Instruct the Ignorant nor bring to the Knowledge of the Truth those that Oppose themselves Nor Overcome Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places Nor Subdue the Spirit though it may bring under the Body and through fear of him that can Kill the Body make to Blaspheme Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast both into hell fire which was not the Case of these for they feared not you who did Kill the Body and could go no further but Him who can Kill both Soul and Body and cast into hell fire him they feared And Sanctified him in their hearts and made him their Fear and their Dread and he kept them who trusted in Him because they trusted in Him who never failed them who put their trust in Him And Delivered them and they have obtained a good Report and have finished their course with Joy those whom ye have put to Death and kept the Faith and henceforth is laid up for them a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge will give them in that day and not onely unto them but to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and his appearing I say these Means failing you betake your selves to Other Means to the Means which the World useth as aforesaid to shew that you 〈…〉 of this World which never reacheth the Spirit but the Body and because they cannot reach the Spirit they kill the Body When as the Spirit it is that Offers up the Body and presents it a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is its reasonable service and by which they offered up their Bodies on the Point which ye offered unto them and on the Tree triumphed over ye all and shewed that Greater was he that was in them then he that is of this World and that they could die to do the will of God And that nothing could separate them no not Death it self from the Love of God which is Christ Jesus And so as your all other so this Means of Cruelty viz. Death it self hath failed you in thinking thereby to Overcome the Saints of the most High God or to keep them from the doing of his Will Fourthly The Point ye offered them was without Ground in Law or that the Law allows ye to put For as I have said Valuable Considerations must precede and such as will weigh down that of taking away of a man's Life which the Law esteems a most precious thing Now here is no such produced by you nor are there any such The utmost is that they are such as are called Quakers who are proved to be another manner of People in this Nation than you Reproach and are so with you whom you have not Convicted of one Principle or Practice that is contrary to Godliness Onely the Hat ye stumble at which is their Reasonable Apparel and by the Hat ye Judged them to be such and put them to Death And this was the Point which ye offered and this was it against which ye offered it and in this they came in their reasonable Apparel in the Will of God upon your Point and passed through it Now where Valuable Considerations are not the Ground neither is Law nor Reason For as I have said it is Lawful for any English man to reside come in or be in any of the Dominions appertaining to England and as Natural it is for One as for Another For it is an English man's House and where shall a man be if he shall not be in his House And it is not the Name of a Thing Or the Distinction of Word or Habit put by men that must cut a man off from this his Priviledge which is by Nature Nor should Names of Distinction much less of Reproach be given whereby to raise One Part of a Nation against Another for this Ministers Division and is an Occasion thereof and tends to the Dissolution of Government and is contrary to Law Therefore they who come into a Countrey unto which they have a Natural and Legal Right as these had and any English man hath to come in amongst you and have not done any thing by which by the Law of their Countrey they are justly made uncapable of that Right as these had not for you are in Subordination to England Your Lawes are not to be Repugnant unto it There for such to come reside or to be is no Valuable Consideration or Legal Ground as to his Countrey to be put upon the Point or the Point to be offered unto him and if the Point be offered to such and they come upon it and they be killed therewith such cannot be said to be Fellons de se For the Law will say Quo Warranto On what Ground And the Ground is short as hath been Declared and made to appear Nor Violently or Willfully to rush upon the Point but those who without Law or Ground as to the Law of their Countrey and your Countrey is England shall so offer the Point and run them through who come upon it Such are Ingulatores de se Cutters of their own Throats or Shedders of Blood in their own Wrong your Case in this Particular and the Violence and wilfulness will be attributed unto them by the Law who set the Point not to those that come upon it As of one who sets the Sword where another man may lawsully Pass and he that so Passes is Executed thereupon For he that so cometh cometh upon his Right Lastly Oh ye wretched Hypocrites and Murderers Did ye not put the same Mary
ye would not hear it and so in effect forbad that which he bad him I shall set down the Contents thereof and of Stevenson's Call into your Parts for which ye put him to Death as a Perpetual Record to after Ages of that for which they Suffered and your shame Everlasting For it shall rise up in You a Worm that shall never Die and a Fire that shall never go out The mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Robinson's Paper to the Court before he was Sentenced to death concerning the Cause of their coming into those Parts for which they were put to Death which the Governor in a great Fury said should not be Read and that the Court would not hear it Which was in these Words ON the Eighth Day of the Eighth Moneth 1659. in the after part of the day in Travelling betwixt Newport in Rhoad Island and Daniel Gold's House with my dear Brother Christopher Holder The Word of the Lord came expresly to me which did fill me immediately with Life and Power and heavenly Love by which he constrained me and commanded me to pass to the Towne of Boston my Life to lay down in His Will for the Accomplishing of His Service that He had there to Perform at the day appointed To which Heavenly Voice I presently yeelded Obedience not questioning the Lord how he would bring the Thing to pass being I was a Child and Obedience was Demanded of me by the Lord who filled me with living Strength and Poner from his Heavenly Presence which at that time did mightily Overshaddow me and my Life at that time did say Amen to what the Lord required of me and had Commanded me to do and willingly was I given up from that time to this day the Will of the Lord to do and perform what ever became of my Body For the Lord had said unto me My Soul shall rest in everlasting Peace and my Life shall enter into Rest for being Obedient to the God of my Life I being a Child and durst not question the Lord in the least but rather willing to lay down my Life than to bring Dishonor to the Lord And as the Lord made me willing dealing gently and kindly with me as a tender Father by a Faithful Child whom he dearly Loves so the Lord did deal with me in Ministring his Life unto me which gave and gives me strength to Perform what the Lord required of me and still as I did and do stand in need he Ministred and Ministreth more Strength and Vertue and Heavenly Power and Wisdom whereby I was and am made Strong in God not fearing what man shall be suffered to do unto me Being filled with Heavenly Courage which is Meekness and Innocency for the Cause is the Lord's that we go in and the Battel is the Lord's and thus saith the Lord of Hosts the Mighty and the Terrible God Not by Strength nor by Might nor by Power of Man but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts I will perform what my mouth hath spoken through my Servants whom I have chosen mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth Friends the God of my Life and the God of the whole Earth did Lay this thing upon me for which I now suffer Bonds near unto death He by his Almighty Power and Everlasting Love constrained me and laid this thing upon me and truly I could not deny the Lord much less Resist the Holy One of Israel Therefore all who are Ignorant of the Motion of the Lordin the Inward Parts be not hasty in Judging in this matter least ye speak evil of the things ye know not For of a Truth the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Commanded me by his Spirit and spake unto me by his Son whom he hath made Heir of all things and in his Life I live and in it I shall Depart this Earthly Tabernacle if unmerciful men be suffered to take it from me And herein I rejoyce that the Lord is with me the Ancient of dayes the Life of the Suffering Seed for which I am freely given up and singly do I stand in the will of God for to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain and truly I have a great desire and will to die herein knowing that the Lord is with me what ever Ignorant men shall be able to say against me for the witness of the Spirit I have received and the Presence of the Lord and his heavenly Life doth accompany me so that I can say in Truth and from an upright heart Blessed be the Lord God of my Life who hath counted me Worthy and called me hereunto to bear my Testimony against ungodly and unrighteous men who seek to take away the Life of the righteous without a Cause as the Rulers of Massachusets Bay do intend if the Lord stop them not from their Intent Oh hear ye Rulers and give ear and listen all ye that have any hand herein to put the Innocent to Death For in the Name and Fear and Dread of the Lord God I here Declare the Cause of my staying here among ye and continuing in the Jurisdiction after there was a Sentence of Banishment upon Death as ye said Pronounced against me without a Just Cause as ye all know that we that were Banished committed nothing worthy of Banishment nor of any Punishment much less Banishment upon Death And now ye Rulers Ye do intend to put me to Death and my Companion unto whom the Word of the Lord God came saying Go to Boston with thy Brother W. Robinson Unto which Command he was obedient who had said unto him he had a great Work for him to do Which thing is now seen and the Lord is now a doing of it and it is in Obedience to the Lord the God of the whole Earth that we continued amongst Ye and that we came to the Town of Boston again in Obedience to the Lord the Creator of Heaven and Earth in whose hand your Breath is And will ye put us to Death for Obeying the Lord the God of the whole Earth Well if ye do this Act and put us to Death Know this and be it known unto you all ye Rulers and People within this Jurisdiction That whosoever hath a hand herein will be Guilty of Innocent Blood And not onely upon your selves will ye bring Innocent Blood but upon the Town and the Inhabitants thereof and every where within your Jurisdiction that had the least hand therein Therefore be instructed ye Rulers of this Land and take Warning betimes and Learn Wisdom before it be hid from your Eyes Written in the Common Goal the 19th of the 8th Month 1659. in Boston By One who feareth the Lord who is by Ignorant People called a Quaker and unto such am I only known by the Name of William Robinson yet a new Name have I received which such know not Marmaduke Stevenson's Paper of his Call to the Work and Service of the Lord.
Given forth by him a little before he was put to Death and after he had received his Sentence IN the beginning of the Year 1655. I was at the Plough in the East Parts of York-shire in Old England near the Place where my Outward being was and as I walked after the Plough I was filled with the Love and the Presence of the Living God which did Ravish my Heart when I felt it for it did increase and abound in me like a Living Stream so did the Love and Life of God run thorow me like Precious Oyntment giving a pleasant Smell which made me to stand still and as I stood a little still with my heart and mind stayed on the Lord the Word of the Lord came to me in a still small Voice which I did hear perfectly saying to me in the secret of my Heart and Conscience I have Ordained Thee a Prophet unto the Nations And at the hearing of the Word of the Lord I was put to a stand being that I was but a Child for such a Weighty Matter So at the time appointed Barbados was set before me unto which I was required of the Lord to Go and leave my dear and loving Wife and tender Children for the Lord said unto me immediately by his Spirit That He would be as a Husband to my Wise and as a Father to my Children and they should not want in my absence for He would provide for them when I was gone And I believed that the Lord would perform what He had spoken because I was made willing to give up my self to his Work and Service to leave All and follow Him whose Presence and Life is with me where I rest in Peace and Quietness of Spirit with my dear Brother under the shadow of His Wings who hath made us willing to lay down Our Lives for his Own Name sake if Unmerciful Men be suffered to take them from us and if they do We know We shall have Peace and Rest with the Lord for ever in His Holy Habitation when they shall have Torment night and day So in Obedience to the Living God I made preparation to pass to Barbados in the Fourth Moneth 1658. So after some time I had been on the said Island in the Service of God I heard that New-England had made a Law to put the Servants of the Living God to Death if they returned after they were sentenc'd away which did come near me at that time and as I considered the Thing and pondered it in my Heart immediately came the Word of the Lord unto me saying Thou knowest not but that Thou mayest go thither But I kept this Word in my Heart and did not declare it to any until the time Appointed So after that a Vessel was made ready for Rhoad Island which I passed in So after a little time that I had been there visiting the Seed which the Lord hath blessed the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Go to Boston with thy Brother William Robinson And at His Command I was obedient and gave up my self to do His Will that so His Work and Service may be accomplished For He had said unto me that He had a Great Work for me to do which is now come to passe And for yeelding Obedience to and Obeying the Voice and Command of the Everliving God which created Heaven and Earth and the Fountains of Waters Do I with my dear Brother suffer Outward Bonds near unto Death And this is given forth to be upon Record that all People may know who hear it That We came not in our Own Wills but in the Will of God Written in Boston-Prison in the 8th Month 1659. Given forth by me who am known to men by the Name of Marmaduke Stevenson But have a New Name given me which the World knows not of written in the Book of Life Thus they and thus you but as for Mary Dyar when she had parted joyfully with her Friends between whom she came hand in hand joyfully to the Place of Execution though your Marshal Michaelson was troubled thereat and asked Whether she was not ashamed to walk hand in hand between two young men not knowing her Joy in the Lord To whom she answered It is the greatest Joy and Hour I can enjoy in this World With these words No Eye can see No Ear can hear No Tongue can speak No Heart can understand the sweet Incomes and Refreshings of the Spirit of the Lord which now I enjoy I say after she had parted joyfully with her Friends at the Foot of the Ladder determined to dye and saw her Two Friends dead and hanging so before her and had her Arms and Legs tied and the Halier about her Neck and her Face covered with a Handkerchief which your Priest Wilson lent the Hangman for her Execution and was even with the Lord in Joy and Peace and so as it were out of the Body an Order came from You for her Reprieve upon the Petition of her Son unknown to her which being read and the Halter taken off her Neck and she loosened she was desired to come down which she not answering because she staid to wait on the Lord to know his Pleasure in so sudden a Change she having given up her self to dye as aforesaid and being so near to it the People cryed for her Death they were against Pull her down nor could she Prevail with them to stay a little so earnest were they whilst she might consider and know of the Lord what to do but Ladder and she they were pulling down together In which they were stopt and your Chief Marshal and others took her down by her two Arms and had her to Prison From whence she wrote to you when she understood upon what Account she was Reprieved Denying your Reprieve and the Ground of it and the next Morning tendred her Life again for the Abrogating of your Law but she was not suffered for some came presently and took her forcibly in their Arms and put her on Hourseback and with four Horses besides Men conveyed her away Fifteen Miles towards Rhoad Island and then left her with a Horse and Man to be conveyed the rest which she soon sent back when she saw she might do it freely and as of the Lord for she was sensible how that her sudden Reprieve had served your End in turning the People to you who were turning from you in the Death of the Other which was in your Bottom but the Lord otherwise ordered it afterwards in suffering you to put her to Death after a Reprieve and such a One as this and after such a manner and when she was so near the Execution and as to her self even Out of the Body in the Joy of the Lord of which I shall speak more anon and of your Cruelty therefore He suffered this to be and gave her Liberty to go from those parts to Newport in Rhoad Island from whence she came
and Fines and Amercements and Searchings and Huntings and such like as I shall shew more particularly by and by Their Lives as to men became worse than Death and as Living Burials though they thought not any thing too much nor their Lives too dear as anon will be made manifest for the Truth and the Testimony of it The next day after W. Brend was so used and layd for dead Humphry Norton on whom the sence of Blood lay much and the Weight thereof pressed him sore for several days and cried in him so that he travailed Night and Day with his Friend John Rous came to Boston where in your Meeting House on your Lecture day notwithstanding the Cry of the Town of your Cruelty and Blood and the speaking of some to the said Humphry that if he loved his life he should depart the Town for otherwise he was but a Dead man they having been looking for him some Moneths which could not hinder them nor all the World such was the sence and weight upon them they appeared and having heard the Earth speaking and the Grave uttering her voice and Death feeding Death through your Painted Sepulchre John Norton Humphry Norton stood up and said after the other had ended Verily this is the Sacrifice which the Lord God accepts not for whilst with the same Spirit that ye sin ye Preach and Pray and Sing that Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord Whereupon yea before he had spoke out all these words but all these words he spake he was haled down and both of them had out and in the same fury had before ye and H. Norton ye charged with Blasphemy for those words he had spoken They spake to you to Act according to the Law of God or the Wholesome Laws of the English Nation and spare them not But neither of these ye would come nigh Then they Appealed to England and to the chief Magistrate there or whom he should appoint to whom they said they would freely refer their Case which they did once and again thereby to leave you without excuse but neither would ye yeild to this but slighted and disregarded such their Appeal Your Governour and Deputy Governour with one lip saying No Appeal to England No Appeal to England with other words of Dirision and sorthwith sentenced them to be whipt though charged with Blasphemy and to John Rous ye gave smooth words seeking to ensnare him because of Your knowledge of his Father Lieutenant Colonel Rous of Barbadoes who formerly lived amongst Ye of whom some of You then spake but he knowing Your Deceit and Wickedness and Cruel usuage of the Innocent and seeking by close Rooms and Denial of Food for several days together to Consume and strangle them he required in the audience of the People convenient Food for their money Or otherwise if they perished their Blood would be upon you This ye could not well deny before the People who had heard of much of Your Cruelty in this kind and who were likely to have risen up against Ye should Ye have denied it so Ye granted this when Ye could not help it to the breaking of Your Law but the seventh day of the week following this being the fifth Ye broke their Bodies in Revenge thereof with Ten Cruel stripes a piece according to Your wonted Cruelty and then tendred them to depart if they would hire a Convoy which they not doing for as to the Lord they could not who moved them thither Ye detained them there the week following and then Whipt them Fifteen stripes Each with the same Cruelty as before by vertue of the Law aforesaid of Five to be added to the Ten and to the Five Three each time they should be whipt and to be whipt twice a Week upon their old sores with the rest of their Brethren of which I have spoken Now about Three Weeks after the said Court at Salem the Court sate again at which several of the Inhabitants were presented for not coming to Meetings and the Law read for Five shillings a Week for them as should refuse each to pay for not Comming and many were listed under that Pay which ye Exacted when ye pleased but as for the Six aforesaid they were continued still in your Prison at Boston and no Course taken for their Release neither was it so much as offered them upon the Suffering of your Law to go home paying the Fees as ye used to do to the Strangers which Occasioned a Paper to be sent by them to the Court in these Words This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem Friends WHereas it was your Pleasures to Commit us whose Names are underwritten to the House of Correction in Boston although the Lord the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is our Witness that we had done nothing worthy of Stripes or of Bonds and we being Committed by Court to be dealt withall as the Law provides for Forreign Quakers as ye please to tearm us and having some of us suffered your Law and Pleasures now that which we do expect is that whereas we have suffered your Law so now to be set free by the same Law as your manner is with strangers and not to put us in upon the account of one Law and Execute another Law upon us of which according to your own manner we were never convicted as the Law expresses If you had sent us upon the account of your new Law we should have expected the Goalers Order to have been on that account which that it was not appears by the Warrant which we have and the Punishment which we bare as four of us were Whipt among whom was One that had formerly been Whipt so now also according to your former Law Friends Let it not be a small thing in your Eyes the exposing as much as in you lies our families to Ruine It 's not unknown to you the Season and the time of the Year for those that live of Husbandry and what their Cattle and Families may be exposed unto and also such as live on Trade We know if the Spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits What our lives and conversations have been in that Place is well known and what we now suffer for is much for false Reports and ungrounded Jealousies of Heresie and Sedition These things lie upon us to lay before you As for our parts we have true Peace and Rest in the Lord in all our Sufferings and are made willing in the Power and Strength of God freely to offer up our Lives in this Cause of God for which we suffer Yea and we do find through Grace the Enlargements of God in our Imprisoned state to whom alone we Commit our selves and families for the disposing of us according to His Infinite Wisdom and Pleasure in whose Love is Our Rest and Life From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made Captives by the
To put Man who was made after the Image of God of whom God saith He that sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for after the Image of God made he Man into the state of a Beast who is known by his skin but a Man is not but by the spirit that is in him nor by that neither so as to judge unto Suffering but by the Effects or some Overt Act as the Law of England termeth it and it is a good word upon something done as is the Interpretation and that upon Proof To make a Man as a Beast as a Beast of Prey whom any Man may kill and it is lawful so to do To judge of Fact by Hereafter and of what a Man may do for time to come but as yet it cannot be said of him To kill a Man for hereafter and for Ages to come Yet this is Priest Chansey's and the Doctrine of your Priests and the Practice of You as the Sequel makes manifest for You had a great Consultation again and your Priests were put to it how to prove them as your Law had said And Ye had them before you again and your Priests were with you every One by his side so came ye to Your Court and John Norton must ask them Questions on purpose to ensnare them that by your standing Law for Hereticks you might condemn them as your Priests before consulted And when this would not do for the Lord was with them and made them wiser than your Teachers Ye made a Law to banish them upon Pain of Death Even all such as having suffered your Law should offend again that is to say Come into your Jurisdiction or be such a One as is called a Quaker whom ye so distinguish by the Hat in that Law viz. The not observing the Laudable Custom of the Nation that is the putting off the Hat and the Contempt of Authority that is keeping it on in the Court and these having suffered your Law again and again and that without Cause or legal Proceeding ye banish'd after all this ado whilst Ye could have nothing against them either to justifie what ye had already done by vertue of your Law which said not so or for what ye did so do unto them under colour of a Law made by you whilst they were under your hands by a Law a Postea made after they were Prisoners because they had wrongfully suffered your Law twice before What Abominable Injustice is this and hard to be parallel'd And so they suffered whose Names are Lawrence Southick Cassandra his Wife their Son Josiah see a Man and his House yea a Man and his Heritage Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum of which more hereafter when I come to your Law of Banishment After this the Constables of Salem by the Instigation of William Hathorne made diligent search after their Meetings sometimes on Horseback sometimes on Foot for Money ye wanted with Power to break open Houses where they should not be let in who resisted not and Twelve more of them were had to your Court at Salem and fined Forty pounds Nineteen shillings for absenting from your Meetings which as the Spring grew on your Marshal gathered up for your Treasuries by Attaching Cattle and Land and great Fines ye took of some Men for their Wives absence though they themselves came to your Meetings of which I have touched to the Impoverishing of many Families who had but little in the Outward the Fines then taken amounting to One Hundred Pounds and upwards And VVilliam Maston of Hampton in your Colony for Two Books found in his House viz. John Lilburn's Resurrection so intituled and VV. Dusberies mighty Day of the Lord was fined Ten Pounds and the Books took away and for not coming to your Meetings Five Pounds and for your Priest Three Pounds for which certain Barrels of Beef were seized on and You took to the value of above Twenty Pounds And because whilst the aforesaid were in Prison coming through Salem he took some Provisions for Lawrence and Cassandra Southick of their Children and for Josiah of his Wife he was sent for by your Governor and Committed to Prison and continued there about Fourteen dayes in the Cold Winter season though aged about Seventy years Thus have you made a Prey of the Innocent and added Affliction to their Bonds and stopped your Ears at the Cry of their Oppression Therefore the Lord will not hear your Cry in the Day of your Calamity which shall suddenly come upon you nor deliver you His Eye will not spare you but ye shall fall and never rise again the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it But to return to your House of Correction and to lay in Order before you the Sufferings of the Strangers as well as of the Inhabitants and to relate what ye did unto them and the Ears ye cut off as saith Your Declaration viz. The Penalty was increased by the loss of the Ears of those that offended the second time that is to say that came into your Jurisdiction for that was the Offence and so to seal up your Sum. About the beginning of the Sixth Month 1658. Christopher Holder and John Copelan̄d were moved of the Lord to go again to Boston where they had suffered so cruelly before and on the Third of the said Month went thitherwards and came as far in their way as a Town called Dedham where they lodged that Night intending the next Morning to move to Boston but they were prevented of so doing as of themselves for the Constables came early in the Morning and told them that they had a Warrant to carry them to Boston whither they brought them before your Governor who being tormented in spirit said in a Rage Ye shall be sure to have your Ears cut off and after asking them many Questions sent them to Prison and the next day had them before the Court where he sought to ensnare them but they told him They should not answer him because he sought so to do Whereupon he had the Impudence to say That they sought to ensnare them sure enough And so at the Motion of Rawson your Secretary they were committed to Prison and ordered to be kept close at Work with Prisoners Diet only till their Ears were cut off which your Jaylor sought to put in Execution though your Law of Cutting off Ears spake no such thing and threatned them with your former Law of whipping them twice a week and every time to encrease Three from Fifteen stripes the first time to Eighteen and so forwards and shewed them the Order whereby Four of Ten Friends were so used and would have reasoned them into the thing and why they would put their Bodies to such Torture he asked them as if he had pitty of them who sought to destroy them But they could not answer him whose Demand was as well besides your Law as it was against the Lord.
before a Magistrate to give an Account of their business Some of the Quakers in Rhoad Island came to bring them Goods to trade with them and that for far Reasonabler terms than the Professing and Oppressing Merchants of the Country but that will not be suffered So that unless the Lord step in to their help and assistance in some way beyond Man's Conceiving their Case is sad and to be pittied and truly it moves bowels of Compassion in all sorts except those in place who carry with a high hand towards them Through Mercy we have yet among us worthy Mr. Dunstar whom the Lord hath made boldly to bear Testimony against the spirit of Persecution Our Bench now is Tho. Prince Governor Mr. Collier Capt. Willet Capt. Winslow Mr. Alden Lieut. Southworth W. Bradford Tho. Hinckley Mr. Collier last June would not sit on the Bench if I sat there and now will not sit the next Year unless he may have Thirty pounds sit by him Our Court and Deputies last June made Capt. Winslow a Major Surely we are all Mercenary Souldiers that must have a Major imposed upon us Doubtless the next Court they may choose us a Governor and Assistants also A Freeman shall need to do nothing but bear such Burdens as are laid upon him Mr. Alden hath deceived the Expectations of many and indeed lost the Affections of such as I judge were his Cordial Christian Friends who is very active in such wayes as I pray God may not be charged on him to be Oppressions of a high nature Thus far the Letter It was written by James Cudworth in the Tenth Month 1658. What he was as to them the thing mentions what as to Tenderness also in reference to Conscience-Persecution which he could not do he could not persecute for which and for Entertaining some of them a Night or two and giving them Provisions during that time against which there was no Law as aforesaid he was turned out I shall not need much further to particularize only a little I shall mention of the Occasion which was the coming of W. Brend aforesaid on whom you exercised your Noted Cruelty and John Copeland into a Plantation in that Patent called Scituate and being entertained by this friendly man and for the ends therein exprest by himself in the Winter season which you know is very cold and hard to travel in and even Cruelty it self if I may so speak would be gentle to the most inconsiderable the vilest of men in such times as those that they might not perish One came with a Warrant which he had fetcht several Miles in a Cold Night from the said Major VVinslow something was in the matter he was so promoted and with others pulled them out of the House and Sarah Gibbens also whom your Cruelty to her gives me cause to remember not having respect unto the Season that so his will he might have and for that purpose pretermitted the two Magistrates that were in the Town and passed to the said VVinslow for that purpose One of which Magistrates out of Tenderness when he saw the Warrant said Mr. Envy had procured that and in lieu thereof gave the Strangers this Protection in these words These are therefore to any that may interrupt these Two men in their Passage that ye let them passe quietly on their way they offering no wrong to any Timothy Hatherlie And now I am thus come unto Particulars I must lay unto your Charge for through your Example and Encouragement it was that these things were done the further suffering of the Innocent in the Particular as you have heard something of it in the General and that as to Cruel Whippings Scourgings as well as to Fines Imprisonment and Banishment chusing rather to observe the order of time when the things were done than the distinction of Punishments First then These very Two viz. W. Brend and John Copeland whom the said tender Gray-headed Hatherly protected from Wrong instead of doing it as aforesaid coming thorow the Town of Plimmouth in order to their Passage in which they were protected as aforesaid were pursued by Lieut. Southworth and brought before his Fellow-Magistrates who because they could not promise for they waited in the Will of God in which all Promises are to be made that they might know what to do in Forty Eight hours to depart the Colony the weather being also very unseasonable and wet in the Winter season caused them both to be whipt with Rods of Twigs VV. Brend a man of years with Ten Lashes in which Four Rods were broken and John Copeland with Twenty two backwards and forwards on Breast and Back and Arms and that with such Fury that as it drew the Blood on all so it wore out Six Rods in the laying of it on and this without Law and in the bitter wet cold snowy Winter season being the Ninth of the Twelfth Month 1657. and in the Snow and Rain Out of their Coasts in which they would have had them to depart through a Vast Wilderness of Sixty Miles in which were many Rivers where the VVeather was so thick and the VVilderness so close that they could not see their way and because they did not so to the apparent hazard of their Lives as many did confess should they have departed therefore dealt they with them as aforesaid and Thomas VVillet Tho. Southworth and VVill. Collier saw the Execution which so struck on the standers-by that one Edward Perry in the presence of the Magistrates gave Testimony and said That he was there an Eye-witness that day of the Sufferings of the People of the Lord For which Will. Collier called him their Fool No marvel that James Cudworth so wrote as aforesaid of their Cruel VVhippings and that it preached more than a Sermon though it cost Dear those Servants of the Lord. Thus they began and so they proceeded and having none before they now proceed to make Laws after that they have done the Executions This is the Justice and Law of Plimmouth Patent which Mischief makes and Blood acts of which many of the Servants of the Lord have born the smart on their Bodies but you must in your Spirits the Indignation of the Lord if not in Soul and Body too which will on you and them certainly fall and divide you your Portion with Hypocrites and Sinners And the time is near wherein the Lord will do it and fulfil the VVord which he hath spoken by me and Avenge the Blood and Sufferings of his Servants and Plead their Cause and Execute Judgment for them upon You and that in the sight of the Heathen who because of it shall say Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth With this they are not satisfied but as Men in a Fire the more they drink the more they thirst for the Fire being stronger than the Drink turns that into its own nature So
Order sent on horseback by your Deputy Governor Richard Bellingham to have him thither and thither he was had and there Committed and his Wife with him after she was Delivered and was come thither and both of them ye had before you after ye had Condemned Mary Dier the second time to Death even that very Day and in the time that ye had Mary Dier to the Execution and in which she was Executed ye had them both before ye again to see if the terror that might have been in such a thing could have frighted them But the Power of the Lord in them was above you all and they feared not your Fears nor were afraid of your Threats but boldly stood it out with you in his Eternal Power as did also Mary Dier first and last as I have Declared and bad you do it when ye told them of the thing that is to say of putting of them to Death thinking to fear them but yet ye could not do it though fain ye would and your Desire was so to do and your Wills for which you shall Answer as if ye had shed their Blood for it was in your heart so to do and there ye Murdred them but you feared the Consequence they coming to Sojourn among you as Free-born English and you denying of them their birth-right and instead of admitting them to live amongst ye which you could not deny they having not done any thing whereby to cut them off from such their Priviledge having Imprisoned them and Banish'd them upon Pain of Death as aforesaid and in that Barbarous manner with the greatest hard-heartedness halled him from his Wife when she was in Travel in Order to put him to Death and which might have cost her in that condition according to men her Life also and of the Little One with which she was in Travel to bring it into the World Such Inhumanities as these and Cruel Workings England hath not heard of to have been before done in any of her Jurisdictions for to have destroyed them all ye thought Father Mother and Infant at once but could not by this way nor dared by the other because of your Own Necks should ye have done it So ye set them at Liberty who over all your heads Departed your Jurisdiction in the Will of God having tried you to trie the rest and to Plimmouth Patent they went where VVinlock Christison had been Imprisoned and Suffered twenty seven cruel Stripes on his naked body at one time laid on with Deliberation so was the word of the Magistrates who stood to see it in the Cold Winter season who bad the Jaylor so to do and to lay it on hard who laid it on as hard as he could and then Rob'd him of his Wastcoate though in that Cold time of the year he was to pass through hardship in going through a Wilderness and of his Bible which the Jaylor took for Fees Who came about Midnight much in Drink the night before and had them away though his Demand was but five Shillings So Depriving him of the Scriptures as your Jaylor did some of those that came to you of which I have spoken and then turned him out in the Morning in the Cold having not Cloathes sufficient left him by you to keep him from it after ye had kept him without food from the time of his said Cruel Whipping to his said turning out as he was five Days upon his first Commitment not suffering him to have any for his Money nor letting others to supply him but stopping up the very holes to hinder any supply the Jaylor saying when he stopt them up that at such places he might be supplied with Provisions and keeping it so until he asked them VVhether they meant to Starve him And the Power of the Lord was in it and constrained them to allow him Provisions of three Pence a day for five weeks such as the Jaylor would give him who took away his Waste-coat and Bible as aforesaid as Blood-thirsty Barloe rob'd him of his two other Coats and Hat and bag of Linen worth upwards of four pounds when he Apprehenden him at Sandwitch a little after he came thither from your Prison in Boston after ye had Banish'd him upon Pain of Death and kept him fourteen Weeks and two Days there in the coldest time of the Winter season and committed his two Friends of Salem that came with him to Boston And thus was he Whipt and thus was he Rob'd and thus was he turned out after that Tho. Prince the Governor and Magistrates had caused him to be tied Neck and Heels for speaking for himself in the Court most Cruel Tyranny who denied him Satisfaction for his Goods Robb'd by Barloe as aforesaid when he was had to the Whipping Post and with much adoe had obtained so much Moderation of the Governour as to hear him thereabouts such was their Rage in Whipping of him who said in Answer That he must first pay for his Preaching this is the Justice of the men of Plimmouth Patent in place to do Justice Theeves and Robbers and Abettors of such In stead of causing Satisfaction to be made and causing the Innocent cruelly to suffer who demand Satisfaction even by the hand of them who Commited it on them which God will Reward who is near to render unto them according to their Deeds and all this matter was but for coming into their Jurisdiction when he was banished out of yours Was ever the like hardheartedness heard of or Barbarous Cruelty I say Joseph Nicholson and his Wife being thus turned out of your Jurisdiction and denied to Sojourn there and dealt with as aforesaid were to demand it of Plimmouth Patent This another Habitation of Cruelty and Persecuting the Just and thither they came and Demanded to Sojourn in that Jurisdiction but neither there could they be admitted the same Spirit ruling in Plimmouth Patent as in Boston and so the Magistrates caused them to understand when they told them That if they had turned them away at Boston they would have nothing to do with them how exactly do they Write after your Coppy And his Wife had much to do with them and they threatened to Whip her if they had ever a Cage and send her away and One of them said That if she had not been a Witch she could not have known that he that was with his son was a Priest whom by the Spirit of the Lord she knew to be such and so spake to him thus doth the blind World judge of the Revelation of the Spirit by which the Prophet Ahijah knew when the Wife of Jeroboam came in disguise to him and he said Come in thou Wife of Jeroboam why feignest thou thy self to be another And by which the Prophets knew and foretold things to come and Jeroboam might have said had not he been a Witch he could not have told that it was his Wife when she came to him so disguised on the very
ye children of Men who are the Workmanship of His hands will ye resist the Lord the Lord God Almighty the Holy One of Israel the Strong and Mighty God who is arising in his Saints and coming forth in His Strength to Scatter His Enemies and to Destroy Pharaoh and all His Hosts and Chariots in the Red Sea after the Seed is come out of Egypt and to turn the pride and haughtiness of men backwards that rises to withstand the Lord Oh consider ye Potsherds who are as unstable as the Waves of the Sea and are as the Wind in His hand which he turneth and causeth to blow which way it pleaseth Him who will confound and destroy you in your Imaginations that you have imagined against Him and His Saints Oh man What art thou that standest to resist the Lord the mighty God of Jacob Did ever any of your Fathers the Persecutors of old prosper Did not the Lord consume them with the breath of His nostrils and with the Word of His mouth Who will tear you to pieces that rise up in Rebellion against Him Consider was it in vain that one said in a certain place That Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft Consider O ye that inhabit the Earth whose dwelling-place is beneath Doth not the Lord behold all your Actions and all your unrighteous Doings Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests are ye combining together are ye joyned together are you in league together as the Rulers and chief Priests were in former ages Consider their Ends and consider what you are doing Are you so blind that you cannot see you are Persecuting the Saints of the most High You who are seeking the Life of the Righteous and that nothing but Blood will satisfie The Lord will give you blood to drink you that thirst for it you shall have enough of it you who spill and drink the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus Are not your Brethren gone before you in whose steps ye are treading and the fruits of the Devil you are bringing forth Ye uncircunicised in hearts and ears who do thus resist the Lord of Life As your Fathers did so do ye resist the holy Ghost and the Spirit of Truth which is now appeared in the Saints of the most High who are sent into your borders in love to your Souls and in tender mercy and compassion to the Captive that is within your gates and to the Prisoner Oh why will you strive any longer with the Lord that made you Who is coming in ten thousand of his Saints to render vengeance in flames of sire upon all the ungodly Who hath said Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord God of hosts Who will recompence into your bosoms the Reward of your doings Oh People and Inhabitants hereof Why will ye die in your sins And whither Christ goes thither you cannot come Oh! Why will ye put the day of the Lord asar off you who hath waited long to be gracious and hath born with you as a man doth with his onely Son that serveth him So hath the Lord spared you And do you thus requite the Lord for his loving kindness to whip to imprison and cut off the Ears of his Servants that are sent unto you Is this your Preaching forth of Christ Are these your good Examples to others Come let us reason together Have you not lost natural affection have you not lost tenderness and compassion Woe is me for thee Oh thou New-England who hast made such a noise among the Nations Is thy Religion come to no more than whipping imprisoning burning in the hand and cutting off Ears and banishing upon death What will be the next Law that thou wilt make Oh New-England against those that thou scornfully callest Quakers terming them the Cursed Sect of the Quakers If they were a Cursed Sect as thou hast termed them it seems they should be so for thee and so die for thee For thou hast made a Law to put them to Death if they come the second time within thy borders But I say the Lord hath blessed the People called in scorn Quakers and they are blessed and shall be blessed for evermore Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests will you proceed no further than putting to Death the Innocent Is thy Praying they Preaching thy many Sacrifices and vain Oblations come to this and will not thy Sacrifices and Prayers and solemn Meetings become Abomination is it not the greatest Abomination that thou committest Dost thou think that this will pacifie the wrath of the Almighty God who is coming forth against thee and will overtake thee and strip thee naked and uncover thee in that day and take all thy Ornaments from thee Oh consider Hast thou forgot although thou wouldest cover the Altar with tears and come before Him with ten thousand of Rams and with a thousand Rivers of Oyl and offer-the Fruit of thy Body for the sin of thy Soul Would it be accepted being offered in that nature wherein thou livest Much more when thou art become so Bloody and so hard-hearted that in stead of covering the Altar with tears dost thou intend to cover it with blood if thou canst Blush and be ashamed hide thy self in the dust for ever because of the presence of the Almighty who is now appeared and is coming to set thy sins in order before thee who will not blot out thy sins nor cover thy Iniquities which are many unless thou speedily repent and forsake thy unrighteousness for thy Destruction hastens apace thou art running headlong to Destruction as the horse rusheth into the Battel so dost thou into Blood How dost thou think to expect any thing from the Lord but a Sore Destruction a Famine and a Plague which is hastening upon thee if thou continue still in Rebellion in Persecuting his Servants This hath the Lord said and this will the Almighty perform upon thee in the day of his righteous Judgements which will overtake all bloody-minded men and blind Persecutors Oh I am full of the Spirit of the Lord and of the Power os him that made me who hath said unto me Fear not man whose breath is in his Nostrils nor the Son of man that must die For the Lord hath said unto me For this end have I called thee and for this cause I have ordained thee Fear them not neither be dismayed at their looks nor be afraid of their threatning words I the Lord that created thee am with thee Therefore fear not what man shall do unto thee for I have made thee as a Wall of Brass whereat the bloody-minded men shall shoot their Arrows but shall not touch thee as to offend thee Therefore the Lord hath said unto me Let not thy heart faint because of what I shall suffer them to do unto thee but let thy hands be strong in the Lord thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel for thy adversaries shall be confounded and the Enemies of the Lord shall be
destroyed in that day Oh ye Hypocrits how can you sing and keep such a noise concerning Religion when your hands are full of blood and your hearts full of Iniquity Wash you make you clean put away the Evil of your doings cease to do Evil learn to do good cleanse your hands you siuners and your hearts you Hypoorites for your Prayers are abomination to me saith the Lord of Hosts your singing is as the howling of a Dog in the Streets such are the Songs you sing in your Temple unto me saith the Lord my Spirit is weary with bearing and my Soul is vexed day after day with your abominations Wo wo to thee thou Bloody Town of Boston and the Rest that are Confederate with Thee and it thou canst not escape Thou who hast shed the blood of the Innocent People called Quakers and Imprisoned and Fined them and taken away their Goods and they have become a Prey unto thee for thee to exercise thy Cruelty upon them and thou boasts in thy wickedness and thinks thou dost God good Service to hang and put to Death the People called Quakers Verily this is the Thoughts and Intents of the hearts of many of you in this New England but especially within thee and within thy Jurisdiction that belongs unto thee Oh thou Town of Boston for these words following did one say in the Governours House whose name is Edward Rawson called Secretary who did Threaten me with these words following on the 18th of the 4. Month 1659 That if I came again after I was sent away or banished he said he would write a Warrant with his own hand to send me to the Gallowes to be hanged Are these your Fruits your corrupt speeches to Threaten the Innocent with your Gallowes to hang them thereon Oh that ever such words should proceed out of a mans mouth to say that he would write a Warrnat with his own hand to send an Innocent Person to the Gallowes to be hanged Well all this we can bear the Lord hath brought forth his Suffering Seed and through Suffering must the Lamb and his Saints overcome and get the Victory and the wicked must be destroyed and such who have been guilty of Blood Was ever the like heard before That men Professing to have so much of the Knowledge of God and Professing to Fear God that such should become so Bloody and become so great Persecutors of a People who are despised of the World but loved of God and the Presence of the Lord is with them whom you Persecute and you must fall before them for the Lord God is with them and among them that are the Sufferers under you The Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now among such which causeth the Heathen to Rage and the People of the Earth to Imagine a Vain Thing For the Lord's Presence and Power in some measure was ever among such as Suffered and were Persecuted for Consoience sake and Suffered with them and in them by the Persecutors of Old in former Ages and Generations as he doth at this day in his Saints and Children for the overthrow of the Powers of Darknesse and Kingdom of the Devil who hath had his Seat in the sons of men for these many Ages and Generations Wherein and whereby the Beast hath made War against the Lamb and His Saints for many Generations But the day doth draw near and hastens apace that the Lamb and the Saints must get the Victory And the Beast and his Followers at that day must be Consumed and Destroyed because of the Presence of the Lord God in his Saints Oh what cruelty is acted now in these dayes That men who Professe God and make such a noise concerning Religion that such should become so hard-hearted to Imprison a Child of Eleven or Twelve Years of Age Was ever the like done among the greatest Tyrants or Bloody-minded-men that are mentioned in the Scriptures Did they ever Imprison a Child that was sent unto them to Warn them of their unrighteousnesse Oh what will become of you Do you think Oh you Heads and Rulers of this Town of Boston who are become so Brutish and so Dark in your Understandings and so unlike Men in your Actions You that cast the Innocent into your Dens Holes Prisons and will not suffer their Friends and Acquaintance to come to visit them not to minister unto them Surely bitter will your Cup be and your Portion will be sad to Surely the sober and tender-hearted cannot but grieve and lament to hear of the Cruelty that is acted by you Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests who are the Beginners of Mischief and the Leaders of them who are the chief Actors of all this Cruelty For well was it spoken by the Prophet The Leaders of this People cause them to Erre and they that are led by them are destroyed for lack of true knowledge Well a little further you shall proceed to fill up the measure of your Iniquities and then shall you have your Reward with the rest of the Uncircumcised For I know it is Blood you thirst after O ye Rulers and chief Priests is it not our Lives ye thirst for come tell us plainly Or have you made this Law of yours only to see if you can make the People called Quakers afraid of you Well however being I am allowed of God I shall tell you plainly that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now drawing near and coming upon you speedily to try you whether you will exercise your inhumane Law upon us who are now sent among you from the Lord for this very end and purpose I say will you put us to death for only coming into your Jurisdiction or Patent as you call it after we have been once sent away or commanded by you to go out of it Now we say being the Lord God hath commanded us to the contrary Is it meet and just to obey God or man judge ye to obey your bloody Law or to obey God's Righteous Law which He hath writ in our hearts and placed within us which judges and condemns your unrighteous Law that you have made to banish the Righteous Well you that call your selves Christians if you do this bloody Act to shew your selves so unlike men I must tell you plainly for constrained by the Lord God I am to tell you O ye bloody-minded men That if you do put us to death this Action of yours will proceed from the Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning who seeks to destroy mens lives as you do at this day For as it was then so it is now he that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit Now you that say you are Christians Come let us reason together concerning this inhumane Law that you have made to put the People called Quakers to death Did ever any true Christians make such Laws as you have made against a People whom you in scorn and derision call
which is according to that of God in every man's Conscience which saith It is more just and meet to obey God than man So being that your Law that you have made is unequal and contrary to the Law of God which he hath writ in our hearts which is equal just and righteous for your Law that you have made against the Innocent People called Quakers is unjust and unrighteous and contrary to that of God in all mens Consciences and contrary to the righteous and Royal Law of God Therefore we say we cannot obey such a Law that doth not agree with the Royal Law of God but herein shall we obey the Lord choosing rather to suffer what you shall be suffered to do unto us than to fulfil the Commandment and unrighteous Law of unrighteous men in flying at your Command when the Lord hath Commanded us to stay Whereby that he may shew his Power in us that his Command and his Righteous Royal Law is of more power virtue and force in us and with us than your unrighteous Laws and Commands can be against us So this know if you put us to death when we return that you will bring innocent blood upon you by so doing which shall not depart from your houses nor from that seed that is guilty thereof So these things we speak that you may no more be guilty of Innocent blood for assuredly know that nothing shall fail of what the Lord hath spoken by us and through us concerning you if you go on still in Rebellion and stiff-neckedness and refuse to hearken to the Voice and Counsel of the Lord God And this know that you have been warned from the Lord of these things before they came to passe For this we know if we disobey the Command of the Lord to fly from you because you have made a Law to put us to Death if we disobey the Lord in this thing he can cut us off and take our Lives from us in his anger and fury Therefore be it known unto you that the Lord hath made us willing to lay down our Lives among you if you be suffered to take them from us and in this thing we know we shall have peace when you shall have sorrow and torment night and day And this shall you certainly know one day that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth whom we serve sent us among you if you see our faces again after we have been Banished from you and that which we have spoken you shall know to be truth whether you will hear or forbear Well if you say we are transgressors of a Law in not obeying your unrighteous Law It is your own and not God's Law For his Law is holy just and good but yours is altogether unholy unrighteous unjust and wicked and is to be set at nought and condemned by the servants of the Lord For this Law of yours which you have made to put the Righteous to death hath not proceeded from the Spirit of the Lord which is meek and lowly and easie to be entreated which doth judge and condemn you and your Law Now if you would know from what spirit this wicked and unnatural Law of yours hath proceeded Well we shall speak plainly it hath proceeded from the murdering spirit which raigned and ruled in the Persecutors of Old from whence all such Lawes did and do proceed Now ye Rulers chief Priests and Inhabitants of New-England this we shall say unto you in the fear of the Lord and Spirit of the Almighty and in the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ that you nor your Law is not to be regarded herein and your Law is to be broken and must be broken by the Power of the Lord God and you must be judged and condemned by the same Power for making such a Law For the Lord of Hosts is coming up against you and your Power must be subdued and taken from you by the Prince of Peace even by Him who is come and coming to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron who is come and coming whose Right it is to Rule and subdue all Powers and Authorities unto Himself and to take the Government into his Own hand unto whom it belongs who will dash you to pieces ye Rulers that rebel against his Righteous Power and his Holy Law that He is Establishing in the Earth in the hearts of the sons of men that obey his Voice and that hearken unto his Counsel his Righteous and Holy Law must be established and his Righteous Government and Kingdom must be set up and your Unrighteous and Unholy Kingdom and Government must be overturned and destroyed by the Power of the Everlasting God in this day of his Eternal Power who is come and coming to make void all your ungodly inhumane and bloody Laws and to reward you according to your works The Lord God hath spoken it and by Him it shall be accomplished upon you for the Decree of the Most High is gone out against you ye unmerciful men whose Wickedness and Unrighteousness doth exceed the Nations about you for barbarous Cruelty and unmanlike Actions Have you not altogether lost your Senses Reason and Understanding that you are become so bruitish and so unlike Christians You are gone so far in your Cruelties and unnatural Actions that you are a stink and a loathsom smell to all People that have the least measure of Uprightness and of the honest Principle ruling in them and your barbarous and cruel actions and bloody deeds they abhor and at your Cruelty that you have acted against the People of the Lord who are by you in scorn called Quakers many of the common sort of People do stand amazed and wonder to hear of such Cruelty to be acted by such a Generation of men that have made such a noise concerning Religion concerning a Church concerning Ministry and Magistracy and Church-Government and Ordinances Preaching Praying Singing Morning and Evening Sacrifices Family-Duties as you call them that such should become so bloody and so cruel it doth astonish many that are called Heathens that all your Preaching Praying Singing making such a noise concerning Religion that it should come to no more and to produce no better fruits than Imprisoning Whipping Stocking Burning in the Hand Cutting off Ears Banishing upon Death as you have banished Six already from their Wives and Children and from their outward beings So that you do not only intend to destroy the Souls but Bodies also Come let us know what have they done what Law of God have they transgressed that you should banish them upon pain of Death from their Families What was it because their Conversations and Actions were honest and upright and yours are evil What was it because their Practices condemed yours What was it because they owned a People that are by you in scorn called Quakers whom you evilly entreat and such as owns them you banish and despitefully use them Surely these things will be remembred Come let
who did let his Friends and Acquaintance come to him and minister to him Now this you hinder and will not suffer any of our Friends nor Acquaintance to come to visit us nor to minister unto us much more when your Cruelty is become so great to imprison such as come many miles to visit us as you have done Mary Dyar who came from Rhoad Island to visit us and to minister to our Necessities if we stood in need Now you do not only hinder any for coming or ministring to us but shut such up in Prison to be kept close Prisoners as remember Joseph's Afflictions whose bowels are opened to such whom you dispitefully use Is this your doing as you would be done by O shameless men Are you without all natural affection What Rule is it you walk by You say that she affirmed That the Light within her is the Rule But I say The Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World which condemneth the World for evil deeds and unnatural actions this Light which is the Saints Rule is the Worlds Condemnation this Light was not your Rule for what you have done ye took not counsel at this Light which is the Quakers Rule for this Light which shines in the heart of man beholding all his actions this Light doth condemn all blind Persecutors and Judges such to be worse than they that imprisoned Paul who would suffer him to speak for himself which many times you are so mad you will not suffer the Quakers to speak for themselves but you will call to your Officers to take them away to Prison Again It is written in the Warrant whereby we were committed to Prison that we shall be tryed according to Law We desire no more than to be tried according to Equity Truth and true Judgment to be tried according to the Law of God but your Law you unjust men we deny to be tried by it for you are both our Accusers and Judges which is not according to the Law of God for Equity and Truth judgeth and condemneth all unsound Judgment Unrighteousness Partiality and respecting of Persons Therefore all you Magistrates and Rulers so called stoop to the Witness of God and bow to the Light of Jesus Christ own the Light of the Son of God for until you own and be led by the Light of Jesus Christ which leads into Union with God you cannot judge aright of the things of God So take heed how you do for the Line of true Judgment is stretched over you all with which you are measured weighed and tried in the just Ballance of Truth and according to true Judgment you are found wanting and are found tried and judged by the Spirit of Truth to be too light Therefore be awakened all ye Rulers and Inhabitants of Boston and elsewhere within your Jurisdiction and give over persecuting the Saints of the most high God This is a Warning to you all in New-England who have had a hand in persecuting the Saints and Children of the Lord who are by you in scorn and contempt called Quakers Give over your Cruelty and cease from oppressing the Innocent for the Lord God hath regard unto their Sufferings and the Lord God is risen and arising to plead their Cause against all their Enemies and all their Adversaries must fall before them for the Lord is with them and the shout of a mighty Prince is among the Innocent People called Quakers and this is the day of their Suffering and the day of your Cruelties and Persecution upon them within this New-England but the day of their Deliverance draweth near and the day wherein they shall rejoyce in the Lord the God of their Salvation who is mighty to save and able to deliver them out of the hands and out of the mouthes of Devourers and from the Jaws of the Ungodly and Cruel men who will take Vengeance at that day upon all bloudy-minded men and blind Persecutors And at that day you shall find that the Lord will be too hard for you though you now boast in your Wickedness And thus far I am clear and have cleared my Conscience to you at this time And whether you will hear or forbear I am clear of your Bloud I who am now a Sufferer under you with my Brother and Companion whose Lives are not dear unto us to lay them down as a Witness against such a Bloudy and Unrighteous and hypocritical Generation and this We are ready to seal with our Bloud for the breaking of your Bloudy Law The Sixth Moneth 1659. In the Common Goal in the Bloudy Town of Boston From us who are in scorn called Quakers who are Sufferers under Zions Oppressors William Robinson Marmaduke Stephenson The 28th of the 8th Moneth 1659. ONce more to the general Court assembled in Boston speakes Mary Dyar Even as before my Life is not accepted neither availeth me in comparison of the Lives and Liberty of the Truth and Servants of the living God for whom in the bowels of Love and Meekness I sought you Yet nevertheless with wicked hands have you put two of them to Death which makes me to feel that the mercies of the wicked are cruelty I rather choose to dye than live as from you who are guilty of their innocent blood Therefore seeing my request is hindred I leave you to the Righteous Judge and Father of all Hearts Who with the pure measure of Light He hath given to every man to perfect withal will in His due time let you see whose Servants you are and of whom you have taken Counsel which I desire you to search into But all his Counsel hath been slighted and you would none of His Reproof Read your Portion Prov. 1. 24 to the 32. For verily the night cometh on you apace where in no man can work in which you shall assuredly fall to your own Master In obedience to the Lord whom I serve with my spirit and pitty to your poor souls which you neither know nor pitty I can do no less than once more to warn you to put away the Evil of your Doings and Kisse the Son the Light in you before His Wrath be kindled in you for where it is there is nothing without you can help or deliver you out of His hands at all And if these things be not so then say there hath been no Prophet from the Lord sent amongst you Though we be nothing yet it is His pleasure to bring to nought things that are When I heard your last Order read it was a disturbance to me that was so freely offering up my Life to Him that gave it me and sent me hither so to do Which Obedience being His own Work He gloriously accompanied with His Presence Peace and Love in me in which I rested from labor till by your Order and the People I was so far disturbed that I could not retain any more of the words thereof than that I should return to Prison and there remain