in the time of Prayer in the afternoon, and for saying and manifesting that the Church of Lin was not constituted according to the order of our Lord, &c. for such other things as shall be alleged against them, concerning their seducing and drawing aside of others after their erroneous judgements and practices, and for suspition of having their hands in the re-baptizing of one, or more among us, as also for neglecting or refusing to give in sufficient security for their appearance at the said Court; hereof fail not at your perill, 22. 5. 51.

Rob. Bridges.

We being by virtue hereof committed to prison, upon the 5th. day sevennight after were brought to our tryall; in the forenoon we were examined, in the afternoon, without producing either accuser, witness, jury, law of God, or man, we were Sentenced; in our examination the Governour upbraided us with the name of Anabaptists; To whom I answered, I disown the name, I am neither an Anabaptist, nor a Pedobaptist, nor a Catabaptist; he told me in hast I was all; I told him he could not prove us to be either of them; he said, yes, you have Re-baptized; I denyed it saying, I have Baptized many, but I never Re-baptized any; then said he, you deny the former Baptism, and make all our worship a nullity; I told him he said it; moreover I said unto them (for therefore do I conceive I was brought before them to be a testimony against them) If the Testimony which I hold forth be true, and according to the mind of God, which I undoubtedly affirm it is, then it concernes you to look to your standing. The like to this affirmed the other two; so after much discourse we were committed again to prison, and in the afternoon towards night, we were called forth again, and immediately after the Court was set, my sentence was read, which was as followeth.

The Sentence of Iohn Clarke of Road-Iland. 31. 5. 51.

Forasmuch as you Iohn Clarke, being come into this Iurisdiction about the 20th. of Iuly, did meet at one William Witters house at Lin, upon the Lords day, and there did take upon you to Preach to some other of the

Inhabitants of the same Town, and being there taken by the Constable, and coming afterward into the Assembly at Lin, did in disrespect of the Ordinances of God and his Worship, keep on your Hat, (the Pastor being then in Prayer) insomuch you would not give reverence in valing your Hat till it was forced off your head, to the disturbance of the Congregation, and professing against the institution of the Church, as not being according to the Gospell of Iesus Christ; And that you the said Iohn Clarke did upon the day following meet again at the said Witters, and in contempt to Authority, you being then in the custody of the Law, and did there administer the Sacrament of the Supper to one excommunicate person, to another under admonition, and to another that was an Inhabitant of Lin, and not in fellowship with any Church; and upon your answer in open Court, you affirmed that you did never Re-baptize any, yet did acknowledge you did Baptize such as were Baptized before, and thereby did necessarily deny the Baptism that was before to be Baptism, the Churches no Churches, and also all other Ordinances, and Ministers, as if all were a Nullity; And also did in the Court deny the lawfullness of Baptizing of Infants, and all this tends to the dishonour of God, the despising the ordinances of God among us, the peace of the Churches, and seducing the Subjects of this Commonwealth from the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and perverting the strait waies of the Lord, therefore the Court doth fine you 20 pounds to be paid, or sufficient sureties that the said sum shall be paid by the first day of the next Court of Assistants, or else to be well whipt, and that you shall remain in Prison till it be paid, or security given in for it.

After my sentence was read, the Sentence of the other two were likewise pronounced; the Sentence of Obediah Holmes was to pay by the aforesaid time 30 li. or be well whipt; and the sentence of Iohn Crandall was to pay 5 pounds, or be well whipt; this being done, I desired to know whether I might not speak a few things to the Court, to which the Governour replied, your sentence is

past. I told him that which I was to speak was in reference unto a promise that was made us by Mr. Bridges when we were first apprehended, and brought before him; then said the Governour speak on; When we were at first apprehended and brought before Mr. Bridges (said I) I said unto him we are Strangers, and Strangers to your Laws, and may be transgressors of them before we are aware, we would therefore desire this curtesy of you as Strangers, that you would shew us the Law by which we are transgressors: But then no other answer could we have from him than this, when you come to the Court you shall know the Law; now we have been before the Court in the forenoon upon examination, this afternoon we have heard our Sentence read, yet have we not heard the Law produced by which we are condemned; we therefore now desire to see the Law in which our Sentence may be read, and the rather, because we find in the beginning of your Laws this provision for the security of your own, and we hope you are not less regardfull of strangers, viz. That no man shall be molested, but by a Law made by the generall Court, and lawfully published, or in defect of a Law in a particular case, by the Word of God. When this was spoken Mr. Bridges could easily turn to the Law by which we might be freed, but none were able to turn to the Law of God or Man by which we were condemned. At length the Governour stept up, and told us we had denyed Infants Baptism, and being somewhat transported broke forth, and told me I had deserved death, and said, he would not have such trash brought into their jurisdiction; moreover he said, you go up and down, and secretly insinuate into those that are weak, but you cannot maintain it before our Ministers, you may try, and discourse or dispute with them, &c. To this I had much to reply, but that he commanded the Iaylor to take us away; so the next morning having so fair an opportunity, I made a motion to the Court in these words following.

To the Honoured Court Assembled at Boston.

Whereas it pleased this Honoured Court yesterday to condemn the Faith, and Order which I hold and practise, and after you had past your Sentence upon me for it, were 4TH S. · VOL. II.

5

pleased to expresse, I could not maintain the same against your Ministers, and thereupon publickly profered me a dispute with them, be pleased by these few lines to understand, I readily accept it, and therefore do desire you would appoint the time when, and the person with whom, in that publick place where I was condemned, I might with freedom, and without molestation of the Civill Power dispute that point publickly where I doubt not by the strength of Christ to make it good out of his last Will and Testament, unto which nothing is to be added, nor from which nothing is to be diminished; thus desiring the Father of Lights to shine forth, and by his power to expel the darkness, I remain, Your well wisher,

From the Prison this 1. 6. 51.

John Clarke.

This motion if granted, I desired it might be subscribed by their Secretaries hand, as an Act of the same Court by which we were condemned.

It was presented on the sixth day, and after much ado upon the last day it was concluded it should be granted, and the disputation should be upon the fifth day following, and so by one of the Magistrates information was given me in prison; upon the second day when their Elders were come together, there was no small stir (as I heard) about the businesse, and afterward about the stating of the Question we should dispute upon; whereupon in the closure of the day the Magistrates commanded the Iaylor to bring me before them into the Chamber, which when he had done, they drew forth the motion, and shewing it to me, asked me if I owned that paper, I answered, yea, they quaeried further, whether I was of the same mind touching a disputation, I told them I had not the least reluctancy in my mind touching the thing, provided my motion might be granted, and the grant subscribed with the Secretaries hand as an act of the same Court by which I was condemned; they answered that was but reasonable, Then they demanded of me what the question was that I would dispute upon, whether I would dispute upon the things contained in my Sentence, and maintain my practice, for, said they, the Court Sentenced you not for your judgement or Conscience, but for matter of fact, and

&c.

practice; to which I replyed, you say the Court condemned me for matter of fact, and practice; be it so, but I say that matter of fact and practice was but the manifestation of my judgement and conscience; and I make account that man is void of judgement, and conscience, with respect unto God, that hath not a fact, and practice suitable thereunto; and for the things contained in my Sentence, they are rather collections, which the Court was pleased to make and draw from my words, than my words, themselves; nevertheless I do not say they were unduly collected; for in truth, if the Faith and order which I profess do stand by the word of God, then the Faith and order which you profess must needs fall to the ground; and if the way you walk in remain, then the way that I walk in must vanish away, they cannot both stand together; to which they seem to assent; therefore I told them, that if they please to grant the motion under the Secretaries hand, I would draw up the Faith, and order, which I hold as the sum of that I did deliver in open Court, into three or four Conclusions, which Conclusions I will stand by, and defend untill he, whom you shall appoint, shall by the word of God remove me from them; in case he shall remove me from them, then the disputation is at an end, but if not, then I desire like liberty by the word of God to oppose the Faith, and order, which he and you profess, thereby to try whether I may be an instrument in the hand of God to remove you from the same; they told me the motion was very fair, and the way like unto a disputant, and thereupon concluded in my hearing, and directed also their speech to me, saying, because the matter is weighty, and we desire that what can, may be spoken, when the disputation shall be; therefore would we take a longer time; whereas therefore the time appointed was the next fift day, by reason of the commencement, which will be the next week, and the meeting of the Elders, we must defer it now until the fift day come fortnight; and so I told them (to be brief) I was their prisoner, and should attend their pleasure; so I returned with my keeper to prison again, drew up the Conclusions, which I was resolved through the strength of Christ to stand in defence of, and through the impor