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Edward to subscribe to your four propositions, which were, First. "To promise to come no more to a Quakers' meeting at Boston. Second. That when he came to Boston, he should signify it to the governor or the deputy forthwith, and his business. Third. To take the oath of fidelity. Fourth. To give twenty pound bond "Nay," said Edward, "I dare not do it. But, oh," said he, "thou wicked man of Cambridge, what have I done, or what law have I broken, that thou hast writ me such a sentence?"

for his good behaviour."

"Away, away with him!" said Danforth; "execute your order speedily." So they led him away to the market-place, and there bound his arms fast through the wheel of a great gun, and very cruelly whipped him, with thirty stripes as aforesaid, after such a cruel manner, as that it was testified, "That pease* might lie in the holes that the knots of the whip had beat into the flesh of his arms and back." And his body was swelled, and very black from the waist upward. A very lamentable and sad spectacle, and such a piece of barbarous cruelty as a man hardly shall hear of from persons professing religion, and flying to a country for liberty of conscience, to a man of their own country, that had lived above twenty years among them, and one well known to them, that was a tradesman, and a housekeeper near them, and acknowledged by the governor to be his friend when he supplied him with necessaries in his need, saying then, "That he would, if ever it lay in his power, requite him;" which now he did, only because he came to visit his almost lifeless friend. What shall I say? or wherein shall I seek to bespeak your wickedness? Indeed, all things together considered, it is beyond a precedent, as it cannot be expressed; but this is the fruit of an adulterated profession, under the mark of zeal, wherein civil power and ecclesiastical churchship unite to destroy the innocent. †

* John Loel, constable, attended the execution, and put it on, telling the hangman, "He must do it severely."

†This is John Endicott, Richard Bellingham, and Thomas Danforth, your governor, deputy-governor, and one of your magistrates of your wretched and bloody government of Massachusetts; and these are the fruits of your religion, which is founded in blood, and perpetrated in cruelty; the off

And so having reduced him into a most ghastly plight, through the extremity of cruelty, he was not led to Salem the direct way, but by the way of Charlestown, and so about the country, as if they had a mind to make a show of him, to terrify the country by their cruelty.

Thus by force of the most savage cruelty was this innocent servant of the Lord driven from among you at Boston; but not from the compassion of the Lord, who was near him, and supported him, who never faileth those who put their trust in Him, nor from the compassion of men; for instead of affrighting the country with this horrible cruelty, tenderness sprang in many to him, and the Truth got advantage, and the very constable of Charlestown was so compassionate, that he entertained him in his house all night, and anointed his stripes; and so the next day he was conveyed to his home.

But as for John Endicott, your cruel and unmerciful governor, he fought no more bloody battles with the people of the Lord; but as if this were the complement of his miserable tragedy, or the height of all that which he travailed with during the days of his government, which should consummate or complete his wickedness, or fill up the measure of his iniquity, rapine, cruelty, and blood, and that which should sum up all, the end of his days and the measure of his iniquity, he died not long after, the hand of the Lord struck him off, he stunk alive, and his name doth rot, and for his works he knows his reward from the Lord.

spring of darkness, the unnaturalness of degenerated man, the detestation of good men, the abhorrence of all who have any true sense of God, of man, of mercy, and of compassion lodging in them, with whom God will meet, and will render unto you according to your deeds. "That this is "their true character, their works make manifest, and the miserable con"dition they have been reduced to, bespeaks them accordingly, as by their "confessions in the Postscript; and the Lord did meet with them, and render "unto them according to their deeds, especially Endicott and Bellingham, "as hereafter related; much more of whose judgments I could evince, were "it not for brevity in these notes; but this is enough to show the fulfilling "of these prophecies, in the executing the judgments written, which may "suffice at present, from one that truly wishes their repentance to the ac"knowledgment of the Truth, that they may be saved."

J. W.

Now, because the man was one who formerly had some tenderness in him, who so far degenerated into hardness and cruelty as to give sentence of death upon five of the servants of the Lord, four of whom were executed, barely for their conscience to God, and only for being such as are called Quakers, and coming into your jurisdiction; besides the cruel whippings and imprisonments, selling for bondmen and bondwomen, cutting off ears, fines, and burnings in the body, which have filled the contents of the treatises hitherto, and which cannot be too sufficiently expressed; which is the world's wonder, and the astonishment of men of any candor and tenderness; I shall give some little account to the world of what he was, as to these things, in a copy of a letter, given into his hand during his lifetime, in the year 1660, from a neighbour of his of Salem, upon the occasion of his cruelty to his said neighbour's wife, who came to be convinced of the Truth by the cruelty to her, which is as followeth :

"Oh governor, governor, do not think that my love to my "wife is at all abated, because I sit still silent, and do not seek "her releasement and freedom, which if I did would not avail, "it is like, because your cruelty doth so much abound unjustly "and unrighteously toward her, as hath been seen all along; as "at the first, in taking her up for nothing but being in company "with others, committing her to the prison, where she was wet "from the head to the feet with the extremity of rain; keeping "her close prisoner, wet as she was, until night; a most cruel act, "she being but a sickly woman formerly, that such a thing, it is "like, might have put an end to her days; which is that many "would have done now, it is like, as doth appear, since by your "practices toward her, increasing your cruelties to a higher "measure, and then sending for her before the governor, and "nothing justly laid to her charge as evil, yet committed to the "prison again, where she was kept a month and odd days, then "calling her before the Court; upon examination of her, there "being nothing justly laid to her charge; yet to fulfil your wills, "it was determined, 'That she must have ten stripes in the open "market-place;' it being very cold, the snow lying by the walls,

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"and the wind blowing very cold, which the whipper, like an "inhuman brute, for haste tore part of her clothes, the standers"by bidding him do it, in my hearing; so with violence he laid "it on, without pity or mercy; so, after we came home to Salem, "the next day, where I was, it was reported in my hearing, the man, not knowing that she was my wife, which reported it, said, "That when her clothes were on, she took one of the prisoners "about the neck, and kissed him before the multitude.' To "which I answered to him, 'It was false, it was not true;' for I was an eye-witness to her the time she was there, and went away with her; it is like she might take him by the hand; so many false reports, lies, and slanders are cast upon her and "others, which I'know of my own knowledge to be false, and "" yet believed by many which envy at them. And now another "cruel act, the like was never heard of in New England, even "keeping her close prisoner in Salem, not suffering her to come "home to her house, my children left to the wide world, to them "that would show mercy to them in the extremity of the cold "Winter season, and so haling her to the prison the next day, it "being snowy, wet weather, not fit for a woman to travel in, put"ting her into the prison again, all wet with the cold snow, a "most cruel thing, and there kept her in the Winter season, not "regarding her if she had been frozen to death, receiving many "lies and false reports, believing them for truth, from the mouths "of them that use to report lies, whose employment have been "taken up withal, which might be better employed than to carry "lies against the innocent, to shed blood causelessly; as of one "I am informed, that Mordecai Crebatt's wife brought to thee, "who, being in prison, said, 'That she saw my wife take William "Ling, or John Chamberlaine, about the neck at the prison-door, "or thereabouts.' Which is a false report in the reporting of it, "because she reported it of the one to thee, and of the other "in Salem. These evil reports, lies, and slanders, reproachfully "cast upon her unjustly, God, in his due time, will clear, and recompense into their bosoms sevenfold, in every man as his “work is, for which I must declare against, because I see the

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"Love of God shine forth more and more, and her faithfulness "to the Lord is seen and tried, and her faithfulness to me do I "own, though many false reports have been cast upon her un"justly, 'as though she was light, and uncivil in her conversation "with other men;' which thing I am sure she doth abhor the "practice of, both in herself and all others, which is reported "through envy and malice, which I believe faithfully so to be. "My love is much more increased to her, because I see your "cruelty so much enlarged to her; which cruelty proceeds not "from a spirit of love, but from a spirit of envy and hatred, yea, "from the evil root of unbelief, of which the apostle speaketh, "for there was never such cruelty did proceed from them, but "the contrary, the spirit of love, and meekness, and tenderness, "gentleness, yea, love to all men: as the Apostle John speaks, "which apostle concluding this, 'That he that dwells not in love, "dwells not in God, for God is love, and he that dwelleth not in "love, hath not the Love of God abiding in him; and if he love "not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom "he hath not seen?'

"Oh! my spirit is grieved for thee, because that the love I did "once see in thee, is departed from thee, and there remaineth in "thee a spirit of cruelty, of hard-heartedness to thy poor neigh"bours, which thou hast formerly been much beholden to, and "relieved by in time of want, when thou hadst no bread to eat. "Oh! consider of these times, and forget them not, and of the "love thou didst find amongst poor people in thy necessity, and "how evil thou hast dealt, and requited some of them now, and "how thou didst walk and act contrary to what thou didst for"merly profess; yea, I have heard thee say, 'That all the armies "on earth cannot subdue one lust in man or woman;' and now "thou pronouncest sentence of death upon some, because they "cannot submit to your wills, nor worship as ye do, though the "heart may be far from God,' as you say; yet, because they can"not join with you, you will put them to death by a law, for "which there is no example in the Scriptures of Truth, which "you say, is your rule. That any of the people of God, from

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