Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

saith, "The Lamb's book of life, nobody here knows that book;" a third saith, "The Spirit of the Lord is not my rule, nor, I hope, ever shall be." I need not paraphrase any further upon it, or give demonstrations,-the things themselves are open and manifest; yet these are they by whom the people of the Lord suffer, and who lead and force the people, who are led by them, into such acts of violence as these, to make the innocent to suffer; and surely, as the prophet said in that day, so it is fulfilled of you in this, "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty,"-dark priests, dark magistrates, dark people, actions of violence, instruments of cruelty, are in your houses; you tear the innocent. As it was testified of old, "Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth; you trust in vanity, and speak lies; you conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. You hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web; he that eateth of your eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Your webs shall not become garments, neither shall you cover yourselves with your works; your works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in your hands. Your feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; your thoughts are thoughts of iniquity: wasting and destruction are in your paths. The way of peace you know not, and there is no judgment in your goings; you have made you crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore is judgment far from you, neither doth justice overtake you."—See Isaiah lix. 3-9. And the Lord God will sweep you away; your webs shall not become garments, neither shall you cover yourselves with your works; the day of evil is coming upon you, and you shall receive according to your works, and the time is near.

But to proceed. After a little space, from Major Slapleigh's the three women returned again to Dover, the place of the late barbarous execution, and there visited their friends, who had both received and suffered with them, and met together on the next First day of the week. After thus coming together, whilst they

were in prayer, the constables, Thomas Roberts aforesaid and John, his brother, like sons of Belial, having put on their old clothes, with their aprons, on purpose to carry on their drudgery, came to the meeting and laid hands on Alice Ambrose, as she was in prayer, and taking her, the one by the one arm, and the other by the other arm, they unmercifully dragged her out of doors, with her face toward the snow, which was knee-deep, over stumps and old trees near a mile, in the way of which, when they had wearied themselves, they commanded two others to help them, and so laid her up prisoner in the house of one T. Canny, a very wicked man; which when they had done, they made haste, with the rest that were with them, to fetch Mary Tomkins, whom they also dragged along, with her face toward the snow, and T. Roberts,* the poor father of these two wicked constables, followed after, lamenting and crying, "Wo! that ever he was the father to such wicked children." So thither they haled Mary Tomkins also, and kept them both all night in the same house; and, in the morning, it being exceeding cold, they got a certain boat or canoe, or kind of trough, hewn out of the body of a tree which the Indians use on the water, and in it they determined to have the three women down to the harbour's mouth, and there put them in, threatening, "That they would now so do with them, that they would be troubled with them no more." Whither the three women were not willing to go, yet they forced them down a very steep place through the deep snow, and then furiously took Mary Tomkins† by the arms, and dragged her on her back, over the stumps of trees, down a very steep hill to the water-side, so that she was much bruised and often fainted away; and Alice Ambrose they plucked violently into the water, and

From this old man, whose labour was at an end, and who had lived in Dover thirty years, and a member of their church above twenty years, they took away his cow, which gave him and his wife a little milk, for not coming to their worship.

† Edward Waymouth was the wicked one that dragged her. Hate-evil Nutter, a ruling elder, was present stirring up the constables to do this thing, for which they had no warrant, as ever could be known or did appear; for, procuring none, they turned them out at midnight, as is related by and by.

kept her swimming by the canoe, being in danger of drowning, or of being frozen to death. What acts of violence and cruelty are here! And they put Ann Coleman in great danger of her life also, even in great hazard in the view of their enemies, and in all probability they had quite destroyed them, according as they had said, namely, "That they would now do so with them, that they would be troubled with them no more." But on a sudden a great tempest arose, and so their cruel and wicked purpose was hindered, and they had them back to the house again, and kept them prisoners there till near midnight, and then they cruelly turned them all out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice Ambrose's clothes being before frozen like boards, and it was much that Alice especially, and the rest, had not been killed, and to no other thing could it be attributed but the arm of the Lord; such unmercifulness to their fellow-creatures lodged in the breasts of these wicked men, who doubtless thought by these things to have dispatched them; but the hand of the Lord, who keeps all those who wait upon Him, preserved and upheld them, to whom be the glory. Amen.

These are the fruits of the priest of Dover, and these are some of the clusters of his vine, and it is the wine of his grapes, who wrings blood instead of milk, as old President Dunster* tenderly said concerning your persecutions, who, before he died, prophesied of Truth and the growing of it amongst you, though sometime one of your ministers, who could in no wise be brought to have to do in these your cruelties; and the pressure of this Rayner's cup, and the gall and vinegar that he pours into the wounds of those whom his cruelty had torn, these are some of the fountains of wickedness which flow in the land, through the cruel influences of you who are the heads and rulers thereof.

It being in the hearts of Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose at another time to visit the priest and people in their meeting-house at Hampton, about fourteen miles from the said Dover, on a First day of the week, they came thither; whither being come, they

* Sometime he was President of Cambridge College, but was turned out for his tenderness to conscience.

heard the priest, one Seaborn Cotton, a son of old Priest Cotton, confess in his prayer, "That he and his people had all the days of their lives brought forth nothing but the grapes of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrah," and yet by and by he cried, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God." At which they being burdened and groaning in spirit, before they could come to speak a word, the priest, perceiving them, called to Thomas Wiggins, the magistrate, to have them out, who commanded Constable Roby so to do; to whom the women said, "Is the priest about to tell you some lies, that he is not willing we should hear?" But both your ruler, priest, and people were much tormented, and Alice Ambrose declaring the Truth amongst the people, your ruler caused them both to be put in the stocks, * and kept them there till their priest was gone out of the way, though they promised that they and the priest should have a sober reasoning together. The priest being gone, her feet were let loose, and being at liberty, Mary Tomkins stood upon the stocks, and declared to the people; which so vexed Thomas Wiggins, one of your bloody fellow-persecutors, who once pretended to moderation, as some of you have done, but for preferment's sake hath turned into the devilish nature of cruelty and blood, the proper fruit of that spirit: none being more cruel than those who are turned from moderation into cruelty,-I say, Thomas Wiggins† was so vexed thereat, that in a great rage he caused her to be pulled down, and they were beaten and their clothes very much torn, and the constable had them away; both constable and people being very calm afterward, and inwardly condemned for what they had done.

So these handmaids of the Lord, having answered His will in those parts, and suffered the extremity of what you were permitted to do unto them, departed from your coasts towards Virginia and Maryland, whitherto they were moved of the Lord; not long after which, old Elizabeth Hooton went toward Piscataqua, and coming to the town of Dover, was imprisoned there also, as those

*Both of Alice Ambrose's legs were put in the stocks, and her body laid on the ground, she having nothing to sit on.

†Thomas Wiggins struck Mary Tomkins himself.

who testified in that place had been before her, the particulars of which hereafter followeth. But, before I enter upon the relation of the sufferings of Elizabeth Hooton, it will be convenient to give a touch of some farther sufferings at Hampton and other places, which the servants of the Lord met with in those places from the hands of those that ruled for you.

Eliakim Wardel, of Hampton aforesaid, having received Wenlock Christison into his house in the name of a disciple, your Court quickly took note of him, and having fined him for so doing, a pretty beast for the saddle was taken for the fine, worth about fourteen pounds, which was far less than the value of the horse; and, to make up the overplus to him, your officers plundered old William Marston of a vessel of green ginger, which was taken from him for some fine, and sent it into Eliakim's house, where he let it lie, and, as his own, touched it not. In process of time Eliakim came to be fined again, and whereas he should have had the overplus of the beast returned to him according to your law, and you promised him land, yet your exactors came and took the green ginger away, that was left as aforesaid, and was all the satisfaction that was made him. And notwithstanding he came not to your invented worship, but was fined ten shillings a day for absence of himself and wife, yet he was often rated for priest hire; and Seaborn Cotton, the priest, old John Cotton's son, to obtain his end and cover himself, sold his rate to a man almost as bad as himself, who is called Nathaniel Boulter; who, coming in pretence to borrow a little corn for himself, which the harmless, honest man willingly lent him, and finding thereby that he had corn, which was his design, Judas-like he went and bought the rate of the priest, and then came and measured it away as he pleased.

The said Eliakim being rated at another time to the said priest Seaborn 'Cotton, and the said Seaborn having a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as Ahab had to Naboth's vineyard, he sent his servant nigh two miles to fetch her; who, having robbed Eliakim of her, brought her to his master, for which his servant not long after was condemned in himself.

« AnteriorContinuar »