your jurisdiction from their allegiance unto England? It is well if some such thing be not found upon you; or, hath it not been made manifest that their principle is otherwise, viz., to lead out of wars, and the occasion of them,-so the lusts that are in men, from whence they come. Did they ever put the nation of England, or any other nation on the face of the earth, into wars and confusion, to exert their principles? or, on the contrary, hath not peace been that which they have endeavoured among men? And is not their gospel good will towards men? Are they men of blood, of assassinations and murders? Hath any man fallen by their hands? or have they stretched out their hand against any man? Have they not endeavoured, and is it not their principle, to bring out of blood and confusion, out of war and destruction, out of desolation and calamity? And have they not subjected themselves to the spoiler, and their estates to the robber, in order thereunto? Can any of the seven particulars aforesaid, on which the law of England, in its provisions against Jesuits, is grounded, or anything congruous or suitable thereunto, be justly attributed to those people? or, have ye charged them with any such in particular, and found it upon them? How come ye then to say, "In examIple of the law of England, in their provision against Jesuits"? Surely ye thought to scare ignorant people therewith, as children are, with the name of Jesuits; so that, if ye name but Jesuit, and speak of a law made against them, it is enough. "In example of the law of England, in their provision against Jesuits," say ye; but the law of England hath such ground for its provisions against that order of men, which your law hath not against these people,-so, your warranty being gone, where now is your hold? Thus are ye taken in the snare which you have laid for others; and yourselves are fallen into the pit which ye have digged: and the law of England is not for, but against you; is not an example to you in this case, but the contrary. So, henceforwards, take heed how you shed blood, and then seek to cover yourselves under the laws of England, or seek to that for shelter which will not save you. Thus much as to the example of England, in their provisions against Jesuits, and what you have built thereupon. Now as to those who suffered by virtue of your law. And these, in the first place, are Lawrence Southwick, his wife Cassandra, and Josiah their son, (whom I have often mentioned, for your cruelty to them,) and Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, and Joshua Buffum, all inhabitants of Salem, against whom in no one particular had you proceeded according to law; but, having tortured their bodies, and broken their estates, and distracted their families, and often wearied them, though in the Lord they had rest, ye banished them from all, even from their country: the very Court of Election, in the following month, called May, giving them but a very little time to depart, on pain of death,which put them to much straits and hardships; yet, go they must, there's no stay. Ye had now got to rid the land of them by your law, as ye thought, but were mistaken, or take the lives of them from the land of the living. Your Court was over, and ye had carried it over them that stood stiff awhile against the passing of the law; but two came to enter their dissents, viz., Captain Edward Hutcheson and Captain Thomas Clark, whose names I mention, to remain upon record, as of good savour to the Lord and His people through all generations, which shall witness for them. Indeed, there was a great ado, and it cost ye hard work to get it about: John Norton and the rest of your priests—not being able to convict the persons aforesaid, either by law or otherwise, or by ensnaring questions, so to bring them under the law-petitioned the magistrates, the next day, to set forward the Court to make some law, "to banish them upon pain of death,"—see the spring and fountain of this work of darkness! it was the priesthood that first moved in the bloody law. And they prescribed particulars, as matter upon which to proceed; and there was much struggling on the one hand to get it, and on the other to oppose it. The Court of Deputies could by no means be brought to consent thereunto. The priests and rulers were all for blood, and they pursued it, and the Court of Magistrates voted it without trial by a jury, and in express words, to be put in execution by a County Court, which three magistrates made up; the majority of which might hang at pleasure, without a jury,-a thing not heard of in these dominions. This the deputies withstood, and it could not pass, and the opposition grew strong, for the thing came near. Deacon Wozel was a man much affected therewith, and not being well at the tine that he supposed the vote might pass, he earnestly desired the Speaker and some of the other deputies to send for him, when it was to be, lest by his absence it might miscarry: the deputies, that were against the passing of that law, thinking themselves strong enough to cast it out, forbore to send for him. The thing came to, and the vote was put and carried in the affirmative, for the law to pass without trial by a jury, and by a County Court; the Speaker and eleven being in the negative, and thirteen in the affirmative. So one vote carried it; which troubled Deacon Wozel so when he heard it, that he got to the Court in great grief of spirit, desiring to have his vote, and wept for grief, that his absence should occasion such a law to pass, and said, "If he had not been able to go, he would have crept upon his hands and his knees rather than it should have been;" but it would not be granted, the miscarriage being, as was said, by reason of one Russel, formerly of Bristol, in Old England, and one Collins, of Mystic, not standing to it, and being wrong in the vote; which I mention, that their names may remain, who were for and against it. But there was a great difference, and the Court broke up, and the twelve resolved to enter their dissents under the law, it being repugnant to the laws of England, to put to death without trial by jury; which the magistrates seeing, and how such a number of dissents would weaken their law, admitted this addition to the law, viz., "To be tried by a special jury,"—and all this trial, when it came to, was but, Whether they were Quakers? Which they judged by their coming in with their hats on, and that they had been in the country before and had suffered the law, and had been banished, not for any particular principle or matter of fact, by a legal conviction. The law passed, and ye proceeded thereupon, as I have said, and followed it hard in the execution, as ye did in the making; and your priests, from whom it proceeded, set ye on, and no consideration of the age of Lawrence and Cassandra, nor of their family, nor the state of the rest, nor of their wives, children, relations, families, nor of their estates, which had suffered much in their many long and sore imprisonments, some of them ten weeks at a time, and some of them twenty, in the chief time of the Summer, when they should have been at liberty to look to their hay and grass, and provisions for the Winter, to keep their cattle from starving, and their families from perishing: nor the state of Joshua Buffum's father, who was an aged, weakly man, and had neither son nor servant to help him, but the said Joshua; nor the then season of the year, it being the Spring, and the time for them to look out a little for the preservation of what was left, that they might not be utterly destroyed; nor their being so sorely whipped, some of them twice each, and some four times, (all which they told the Court,) being convicted of nothing, but not coming to your meetings and for meeting by themselves, for which you were satisfied upon their goods according to law. As they sent you notice in a paper to this purpose, viz.: “That see"ing the chief offence ye had against them was, the not putting "off the hat, they desired to know if their punishments had not "been sufficient for their offences, as some of them had been "twice imprisoned ten weeks, and twice whipped; one had been "twice imprisoned, and four times whipped; and three had been "twice imprisoned and whipped, and the last time kept prisoners "twenty weeks, the chief time of all the Summer, such as lived "on husbandry, their hay and harvest lying on the spoil, and "nothing to charge them with but their meeting on the First"days of the week by themselves, and their not coming to your "meetings, and not pulling off their hats; for the two former of "which, your law was satisfied on their goods,"—I say, none of these considerations, though affecting tender hearts, moved your governor, who being struck in the Court of Commissioners, so that for some weeks he could not go home to his own house, which was but a little way from it, but lay in a tavern, who strove so much, and Richard Bellingham with him, to banish others. But his heart, being hardened like Pharaoh's, instead of considering, he was in a great rage against them, and poured forth of his fury and wicked spirit, and told them, "They all deserved to be hanged," and that "they were blasphemers and 'heretics," who never had any such thing proved against them. He said also, "That they worshipped another God and looked to be saved by another Christ than they did,"-who worship no other God but Him, of whom are all things, and look to be saved by no other Christ than Him, by whom are all things,—and further added, "Say what ye will, we will not believe you,"-a hard case indeed, and manifesting that, in him, "judgment was turned backward, and equity could not enter." And ye were all without bowels of compassion, and would not hear them,-your governor seeming as if he loathed their persons; but you did banish them, "upon pain of death," after ye had appointed them to depart the jurisdiction in the month called May, as aforesaid, and ye gave them but a fortnight's time to depart. And, after sentence was given, some of them, who intended for England, desired that they might have leave to take shipping at Boston, to pass for England, there being never another convenient harbour in the colony out of which to pass; but ye were so shut up in your bowels that ye would not grant this, but your governor said, "Beware you are not here after the 8th of June," which was about fourteen days after. So they who were for England, viz., Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, and Josiah Southwick, were constrained to take the opportunity that presented, in four days after, to pass to England by Barbadoes. So they went to England, and Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick went to Shelter Island, where they both died shortly after, within three days of each other; and Joshua Buffum went to Rhode Island; and you sat down to eat and to drink, over the ruin of the innocent. Now, before ye had sentenced them, they asked your governor, "What it was ye sought of them? the honour of God, or of yourselves?" He answered, "They who honoured those whom God had set over them, honoured God." They answered, "It was true; but, in obedience to the law of God, they suffered;" and : |