them not: but neither of these would ye observe. Then they appealed to England, to be tried there, which they did once and again, thereby to leave you without excuse; but neither would ye yield to this, but slighted and disregarded their such appeal; your governor and deputy-governor with one voice saying, "No appeal to England! No appeal to England!" with other words. of derision, and sentenced them forthwith to be whipped, though charged with blasphemy. And to John Rouse ye gave smooth words, seeking to ensnare him, because of your knowledge of his "father, Lieutenant-colonel Rouse, of Barbadoes, who had formerly lived among you, of whom some of you then spoke. But heknowing your deceit and wickedness, and cruel usage of the innocent, and your seeking, by close rooms and denial of food for several days together, to consume and strangle them-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 much of your cruelty in this kind, and who were likely to have risen up against you, if ye had denied it; so ye granted this when ye could not help it, to the breaking of your own law. But the Seventh day of the week following, this being the Fifth, you broke their bodies, in revenge thereof, with ten cruel stripes each, according to your wonted cruelty; and then offered them to depart, "if they would hire a convoy." They not doing which, you detained them there the week following, and then whipped them fifteen stripes each, by the law aforesaid, with the same cruelty as before, "of five to be added to the ten, and, to the five, three each time they should be whipped, and to be whipped twice a-week" upon their old sores, with the rest of their brethren of whom I have spoken.

Now, about three weeks after the said Court at Salem, the Court sat 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 so to do, which you exacted when you pleased; but as for the six persons aforesaid, they were continued still in your prison at Boston, and no course taken for their re

lease; neither was it so much as offered them to go home on 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 "under-written, to the House of Correction in Boston, although "the Lord, the righteous judge of heaven and earth, is our wit66 ness, that we had done nothing worthy of stripes or of bonds; "and we, being committed by your Court, to be dealt withal as "the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; "and some of us having suffered your law and pleasures; now that "which we do expect is, that whereas we have suffered your law,

If

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. "you had sent us up on the account of your new law, we should "have expected the jailer's order to have been on that account; which, that it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, "and the punishment which we bore, as four of us were whipped, "among whom was one that had formerly been whipped, 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 ruin. It is not unknown to you, the season and "the time of the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what "their families and cattle may be exposed unto, and also all 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 re"ports and ungrounded jealousies of heresy 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 im"prisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves 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

66

captives by the wills of men, al"though made free by the Son."John viii. 35. In which we qui"etly rest, this 16th of the Fifth 66 'month, 1658."

"LAWRENCE SOUTHWICK,
"CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK,
"JOSIAH SOUTHWICK,
"SAMUEL SHATTOCK,
"JOSHUA BUFFUM.

Hereupon the Court sent to release two, but the other three ye detained in order to a second punishment, upon account of a later law, although they were all committed upon a former; that is to say, three of them on the first, and three of them on the second. Now, those that ye detained, ye kept upon an account of a third law, made whilst they were in prison, which they had not transgressed, for they were in prison when it was made. And yet you continued them about twenty weeks from their families and employments the chief time of the year, as minding to destroy them, whose names are Lawrence Southwick, Cassandra Southwick, and Josiah their son.

Nor did these things satisfy you, nor the cruelties ye did exercise on the innocent; but, as men given up to a reprobate sense, to commit iniquity with greediness, the more blood ye drew, the more ye thirsted after blood; and the more cruelty ye exercised, the more ye delighted to exercise cruelty; as is usual with men in such cases, who are given over to a reprobate sense, to commit iniquity with greediness, and whose hearts are hardened from the fear of the Lord and estranged from Him, as the sequel manifests:

:

For Nicholas Phelps, of or near Salem, being one of those who were presented to the Court for not coming to your meetings, and fined five shillings a week, hearing some of them say at the Court "that they," namely, the people called Quakers, "denied magistrates and ministers," he gave them a paper to show the contrary. When the Court asked him, "Whether he would own it?" he answered, "Yea." Then they fined him forty shillings-a strange penalty for the owning of that which they had charged him and those people to deny, and forty shillings for the meeting of those people at his house, and sent him to Ipswich jail as one called a Quaker, because he put not off his hat; where, at his first entrance, he was cruelly whipped, though he was a weak man and one whose back was crooked. Which yet drew no compassion, but in the space of five days he was whipped three times, with ten cruel strokes each time, with a three-fold corded whip with knots, because he did not work,-whom they took from his husbandry, his hay and his corn, it being the season of the year to look after it, and he occupying a farm, which suffered in his absence. And yet they whipped him for not working, and drove it on with a three-corded knotted whip, as aforesaid, and detained him there from his work. And in this cruelty your Major-general, Daniel Dennison, as aforesaid, bore the greatest sway; yet all their cruelty could not bend his spirit whom the Lord upheld, who bowed unto Him, but not unto them; but his bowed back bore it all and overcame. So that, on a certain day, one that had been an acquaintance of his came, and had him out of prison to his house, and, after a while, got him to walk out into the field, where his said acquaintance told him that he thought he would be set at liberty ere long, but which way it would be accomplished Nicholas could not tell; for to work at their wills he could not, and had suffered for it. So, after a while, the man set at work about a stone wall, and meeting with a stone he could not lift, Nicholas friendly helped him, which was the pitiful shift they used to set him at liberty, as doing work. And this was the work,-the design, no doubt, laid for the accomplishing of this thing, -as his friend's speaking intimated, but it did not at all answer your law,

nor such manner of work as was required; during which and his long imprisonment he was constrained to hire men about his own harvest. Simon Bradstreet and William Hathorn, aforesaid, were assistants to Dennison in those executions, whose names I record to rot and stink, as of you all, to all generations, unto whom this shall be left as a perpetual record of your everlasting shame, which they shall not escape, nor shall you, the righteous judgment of the Lord for this, and their, and your other cruelties and sheddings of the blood of the innocent. And when the judgment of the Lord shall be made manifest upon you: this shall remain as a witness for the Lord, and that He hath not brought these things on you without cause, who will be glorified on you when His judgments are made manifest. The mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it, who will do it, and the time is near: blessed are all they that trust in Him!

After this, the people who suffered by your cruelty were more joined together and confirmed, for to them who suffered it returned to them as a testimony that they were of God; and so they met together at Salem, waiting upon the Lord, whose presence there with them was more precious than life; therefore they offered up all and their life to enjoy His presence who hath been better to them than life, and made up all their loss and sufferings with that which is eternal. And His peace hath been more to them than your trouble; yea, in the midst of their sufferings He hath made them more than conquerors through Him who loved them and gave Himself for them. Therefore it is that they gave their backs to the smiters, and their cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. And though they knew your cruelty and had tasted thereof, and were upon your roll for not being at your meeting, and knew your fines for having meetings of their own, and your other fines, and how ye had and would exact them, yet they feared not, neither were afraid of your threats; but sanctified the Lord God of hosts in their hearts, and made Him their fear and their dread, who became a little sanctuary unto them, and kept them in the midst of all, and was good unto them; who never faileth them that put their trust in Him.