The petition was granted October 20th, 1658, by the court of CHAP. XII. vi. 14. & xvi. 20, 21. Sewel's 31. "Whereas there is a pernicious sect, (commonly called Quakers) who take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our nation, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship [*] See Acts, For prevention thereof, this court doth order and enact, that every person or persons, being convicted to be of the sect of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to be banished upon pain of death.” 32. Daniel and Provided Southick, son and daughter to Lawrence and Cassandra, not frequenting the assemblies of such a persecuting generation, were fined ten pounds, though it was well known they had no estate, their parents being already brought to poverty by their rapacious persecutors. To get this money, the general court at Boston issued out an order, by which the treasurers of the several counties were empowered to sell the said persons to any of the English nation at Virginia, or Barbadoes, to answer the said fines. 33. William Maston, at Hampton, was fined ten pounds for two books found in his house, five pounds for not frequenting their church, and three pounds besides as due to the priest; for which fines he had taken from him, what amounted to more than twenty pounds. Not long after, above a thousand pounds were taken from some, only because they had separated themselves from the persecuting church. History, p. 218. 34. THOMAS PRINCE, governor of Plymouth, was heard to Ibid. say, That in his conscience the Quakers were such a people as deserved to be destroyed, they, their wives and children, their houses and lands, without pity or mercy. Humphrey Norton at New-Haven, for being a Quaker, was severely whipt, and burnt in the hand with the letter H. to signify heretic. 35. The unjust and bloody sentence of death was executed Ibid. p. 226. upon William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, the 27th of October, 1659. When they were come near the gallows, the priest [Wilson] tauntingly said to Robinson, "Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority, with their hats on?" To which Robinson replied, "Mind you, mind you, it is for the not putting off the hat we are put to death!" 36. The persons that were hanged, were barbarously usedeven their shirts were ripped off with a knife, and their naked bodies cast into a hole that was dug, without any covering. And priest Wilson makes a ballad on them. On the 31st of the third month, 1660, Mary Dyer was sentenced to death by ENDICOT, Ibid. p. 264. and the next day executed. William Leddra returned to Boston, was cast into an open prison, and locked in chains day and night, in a very cold winter, and was sentenced to death, and executed on the 14th of the first month, 1661. CHAP. Sewel's p. 272, 324. Dec. 22d, 1662. 37. Many, both men and women, were stripped naked from the waist and upward, tied to the cart-tail and scourged in the most brutal and barbarous manner, while the priests, who were the principal instigators to such more than savage meanness, were pleased in nothing better than in the exercise of such antichristian and diabolical cruelties. 38. Peter Pearson and Judith Brown, being stript to the waist, were fastened to a cart-tail, and whipt through the town of Boston. Also Josiah Southick was stript and led through the streets of Boston at the cart-tail, and vehemently scourged by the hangman. The same day he was whipt at Roxbury, and the next morning at Dedham. The whip used for these cruel executions, was not of whip cord, but of dried guts; and each string with three knots at the end. 39. At Dover, Anne Coleman, Mary Tomkins, and Alice Ambrose, were sentenced to be fastened to the cart-tail, and whipped on their naked backs, through eleven towns, a distance of near eighty miles. Then in a very cold day, the deputy, Walden, at Dover, caused these women to be stript naked, from the middle upward, and tied to a cart, and then whipt them, while the priest looked on and laughed at it. Two of their friends testified xx. 1, 2, & against Walden's cruelty, for which they were put in the * See Jer. Acts, xvi. 24. stocks.* 40. The women were carried to Hampton, and there whiptfrom thence to Salsbury and again whipt. William Barefoot at length obtained the warrant from the constable and let them go the priest advising to the contrary. Not long after, these women returned to Dover, and were again seized, while in meeting, and barbarously dragged about at the instigation of [a man falsely called] Hate-evil Nutwell, a ruling elder.t 41. Afterwards, Anne Coleman, and four of her friends were whipped through Salem, Boston, and Dedham, by order of Hawthorn, the magistrate. Anne Coleman was a little, weakly woman; Bellingham encouraging the executioner while she was fastening to the cart at Dedham, he laid on so severely, that with the knot of the whip he split the nipple of her breast, which so tortured her, that it almost took away her life. 42. These are a few instances out of many, of those diabolical, beastly, and more than savage cruelties, which were exercised by those who pretended that for conscience sake they had chosen †The barbarity of their persecutors, on this occasion, exceeds all description. Being seized in meeting, while on their knees in prayer, they were dragged by their arms nearly a mile, through a deep snow, across fields and over stumps, by which they were much bruised. The next day they were barbarously dragged down a steep hill to the water side, and threatened with drowning, and one of them was actually plunged into the water, when a sudden shower obliged them to retreat. At length, after much abuse, these poor victims of orthodox barbarity, were turned out of doors at midnight, and with their clothes wet and frozen, were obliged to suffer the inclemency of a severe winter's night. the wilderness of America! And such were the fruits of the Protestant religion in its greatest purity. Let them cease to disgrace the name of Jesus; they never knew him, but were the great-grand children of those who persecuted the prophets-they were the posterity of CAIN-walking in the way of BALAAM— raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. CHAP. 458. note 43. To the above matters of fact may be added the following just remark inserted in the History of Redemption. After speak- Hist. of Reing of the persecutions and oppressions in the times of the demp. p. STUARTS, and the tyranny of archbishop LAUD and his furious [e]. associates, the writer observes, that "persecution has not been confined to such men: every sect (says he) and some of the best men in each have engaged in this diabolical business. With what bitterness did the Lutherans, Zuinglians, and Calvinists, and other parties of the reformers, abuse, imprison, and banish each other, is too well attested by ecclesiastical historians of the sixteenth century, to be denied." 44. "Not to mention the blood of sectaries unjustly shed at home and abroad; not only did the Episcopalians in England persecute the dissenters; but in Scotland, and during the commonwealth in England, these persecuted the Episcopalians. And what is perhaps more extraordinary, even in New England, where the first colonists fled from the iron hand of oppression at home, theydpersecuted the Quakers and others who differed from their establishment. How, then (adds the writer) shall we account for these enormities, but upon the principle that it proceeds from the general depravity of human nature." 45. And a general depravity it is, when the best men, in all their established sects and parties, are, by the confession of their own writers, diabolical persecutors. And if persecution is a diabolical, or devilish work, well said Christ of such, Ye are of See John, your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: viii. 33–44. he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 46. Yet, by all these most horrid cruelties and abominable works, they established, what is called the CHRISTIAN WORLD, upon the principles of false teachers, corrupted priests, bloody emperors, imperious popes, and diabolical persecutors, including the ecclesiastical tyrants of every age, from CONSTANTINE down to John Norton, and the rest of the Protestant priesthood, under Governor Endicot. 47. But their diabolical works unmask their Christianity, and by the light of the sun of righteousness, the foundations of their world are discovered, which have been long kept in store, reserved 2 Peter, iii. unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. 7. СНАР. XII. 48. Candid reader, let it be engraven on your heart, never to be erased; let it be impressed on your mind, never to be forgotten; that the true church, the true followers of Christ NEVER persecuted any! 49. After tracing the long line of succession, through the persecuting and corrupt hierarchy, from CONSTANTINE to the Popes, and from the Popes to Luther and Calvin, and from them down to John Norton, and the rest of the persecuting crew under governor John Endicot, what rational mind can believe that true Christianity can, or ever could be propagated, or any true church ever descend from such a horrible and corrupt source? Nay, never. As well might we believe that Satan can propagate holiness, mercy, and love; and that the peaceable kingdom of Christ can be established by hypocrisy, falsehood, and blood. THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST'S SECOND APPEARING. BOOK VII. THE EXTENT AND DURATION OF WHAT IS CALLED THE CHAPTER I. WORLDLY CHRISTIANS CONTRASTED WITH VIRTUOUS BE LIEVERS IN CHRIST. THE disciples of Jesus Christ, or learners of the Gospel, were first CHAP. I. called Christians at Antioch. Under this name all were, in process of time included, who professed to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. But when antichrist arose, and assumed the name and authority of Christ, he was properly a false Christ, and his disciples of course must be false Christians; therefore the Christian world must mean that world of Christians who are the followers of a false Christ, and who "wondered after the beast;" while such as retained a measure of the true Christian faith and practice, must be called by some other name. 2. From what has been already stated, concerning the rise and progress of antichrist's dominion, it appears that after the days of the Apostles, there remained but little room for the pure and undefiled religion of Jesus, on earth. 3. How far the fire of truth was extinguished, by those floods of error, which early began to be disgorged by false apostles and deceitful workers, and how extensively the influence of antichristian corruption prevailed, is particularly worthy of reflection, in order to discover the real distinction between the multitude who assumed the name of Christ, and called him Lord, Lord, and the virtuous few who were careful to do the things that he taught. 4. All that the false spirit could engage in his service, from his first rise, he did engage, and all that he engaged in his service he did corrupt, in the highest degree; so that in the pro |