HAD the Government of the Massachusets in New England stated in their Printed Apologie , any Particular matter of Fact whereby the Servants of the Lord , William Robinson , and Marmaduke Stevenson , ( whom they caused to be put to Death ) were Legally convicted ; Or , any Power from Old England to enable to such Executions ; and that according to the Merit of the One , and the Justice of the Other they had Legally proceeded , it had been something like Men of Reasonable Understandings , whom the Prince of the Ayre had not darkened into a blind accusing of Themselves by the things they offer in their Justification ; But when their Apologie ( which carries in the very name of it an Implication of Guilt , for , Nihil Opus Justitia Ciceronis — Justice needeth no Apologie ) hath no such thing ( and something as such , no doubt , it would have had as it's chiefest concern , could they have produced it ) but only Generals ( which signifie little but a Design to slander , For , — Generalia nihil probant — Generals prove nothing , as is the Maxime in Law , which is grounded upon Equity , & — Dolus versatur in Universalibus — Deceit lurks , or is conversant in Generals — as is the received Axiome of the Antients ) It is Evident , That in this Affair of so high a Nature as of Blood , and that for Conscience , they are wanting ( by their Own Prescription ) both as to Matter of Fact deserving , and Power enabling to such Executions ; And so their Own Vindication ( for They have not so much as saved to themselves * * The Common Law gives no such Libertie , but requires a Man to choose the Particular unto which he will stand , but the Civil , and Proceedings of State allows and uses it upon a particular Salvo in the first Exhibition , and not afterwards . Liberty hereafter to Exhibit what they may have further to offer in their Own Justification , a Salvo for which , if it could , or is intended at all , ought , at first , to be inserted ) condemnes Themselves , and makes Them appear not onely Legis Culpae — Transgressors of the Law — but — Rei Sanguinis — Guilty of Blood . — For , when the life of any Man , ( and here is of Two , and a Woman ) is taken away , be the Pretence what it will , without a Legal Conviction by Plain , and Particular mattter of Fact , and Doe Process of Law , and Power of Determining ( I speak of inferior Ministers of Justice ( and no such Matter of Fact , and Due Process of Law , or Power to Determine have they shewn in this their Declaration , which concludes them as aforesaid ) there the Life of such a Man ( or of such Men and Women ) is Violently taken away ; and those who thus Violently take it ( or the lives of them ) away are Guilty of Blood , or , of that Man ( or Men and Women ) are the Trucidatores , or Murderers : And this being done by Men who sometimes Suffered because of Conscience , and who for Conscience sake pretended to fly their Native Country , to Men and Women ( even of their Country ) barely for their Conscience to God , and the Exercise thereof in Obedience to the Lord ( as is the Case ) aggravates the Offence beyond Comparison , and renders them the most Unreasonable of Men , as it leaves them without Excuse .

Having given this short View , and State of the Case , which ( I suppose ) is clear to all Men of sober Understandings , I shall descend more Particularly to the Declaration it self , and therein to the Order of the Proceedings of these Men of Blood , and the Gradation of their Laws from Imprisonment unto Death , as themselves have set it , and Convince through all what I have Asserted in the Title , and these first Pages of my Book .

Declaration . — We thought it requisite to Declare ( for , for Your Preamble or Beginning , I shall Answer it in the End ) That about Three Years since , divers Persons professing themselves Quakers ( of whose Pernicious Opinions and Practices , we had received Intelligence from good hands from Barbados to England ( I suppose Ye mean from England and Barbados ) arrived at Boston ) whose Persons were only secured to be sent away the first Opportunity , without Censure or Punishment , although their professed Tenets , Turbulent and Contemptuous Behaviour to Authority , would have justified a Severer Animadversion , yet the Prudence of this Court was Exercised only in making Provision to Secure the Peace and Order here Established against their Attempts , whose Design ( we were well assured by Our own Experience , as well as by the Example of their Predecessors in Munster ) was to Undermine and Ruine the same .

Answer . That about Three Years before the Date of this Your Declaration , that is to say in the beginning of the fifth Moneth called Mary Fisher , Ann Austin . the Fifth Moneth , 1656. Mary Prince . Sarah Gibbens . Mary Weatherhead . Dorothy Waugh Christopher Holder . Thomas Thirstone . William Brend . John Copeland . The Seventh day of the Sixth Moneth , 1656. July , 1656. Divers Persons in scorn by You and the World called Quakers , Viz. Mary Fisher , and Anne Austin , arrived at Boston , and after them in the Moneth following , viz. the 7. day of the 6. Moneth , 1656. Mary Prince , Sarah Gibbens , Mary Weatherhead , Dorothy Waugh , Christopher Holder , Thomas Thirstone , William Brend and John Copeland ; And upon their Arrival , Ye did secure and send them away after so tedious a Passage by Sea , as some Thousands of Miles in , Love to Visit You ; and the many Inconveniences which attend on such a Voyage ) is Truth , and what is Truth I freely Own , and readily acknowledge : But that They professed themselves Quakers , ( the Tearm which in reproach ye cast upon Them ) Or , That ye [ onely ] secured them to send them away the first Opportunity ; Or , That ye sent them away the first Opportunity , and that without Censure or Punishment ; Or , That they are a People of such Opinions and Practises as ye call Pernicious ; Or , of turbulent and contemptuos behaviour , especially to Authority ; Or , that their Professed Tenets , or behaviour to Authority , which Ye call turbulent and contemptuous , did deserve any such Animadversion , much less a Severer than they received at your hands ; Or , That Ye were or could be [ well ] assured , either by Your own Experience ( who had none ) or the Example of those Ye mind in Munster , that their Design was to Undermine and Ruine the Peace and Order establisht among You , in the way of Munster ; Or , That they at Munster are their Predecessors , Is a heap of Lies and Calumnies forged out of Your own , and the Brains of Your Priests , on purpose to asperse the Innocent , ( whose Blood Ye have spilt ) and to cover Your Guilt .

For First , They may have Owned , and do Own themselves to be such whom the World and Ye , in scorn , call Quakers , and so they do , and did Profess themseves to be such , Esteeming the Reproaches of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt , for that they have respect unto the Recompence of Reward ; But that they professed themselves Quakers , so Owning the Brand , which Ye put upon them ; that 's Your Own , and I must return it to You again to be laid up in the Treasurie of Wrath against the Day of Wrath , and Revelation of the Righteous judgement of God , which shall destroy the Adversary .

Secondly , That Ye did [ only ] secure them to send them away ( as Ye say ) the first Opportunity , and that Ye sent them away the first Opportunity without Censure or Punishment is of the same nature with the former , and with the former must be turned upon You.

For , First , before Ye had seen them ( viz. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin , the first that came ) or heard them , or knew them , or any of the People called Quakers ( for those were the first that came among You ) or what they had to say , or , had sent to know what was their Errand ; and wherefore they came into Your Parts ; Before that they had sent to You , or , that Ye ( by them ) had a Certain Information of their Business , or Principles , before they were come on shoar , or had signified to You for certain , that they would there land ; Yea , before Ye had a Law , or any Court sitting that could make a Law against those People , Did not Richard Bellingham Your Deputy Governour , much unlike a Man , much more a Christian , a Christian Magistrate ( as You would have him and Your selves to be accounted ) cause them to be rifled for Books and Papers on board the Ship , after that he had Commanded Them Prisoners there until he had sent for them ? And took not your Officer forcibly away about One Hundred Books from them ? ( their Proper Goods ) And did he not detain such their Goods , and refuse to re-deliver them , though they sent to him for that purpose ? Or , hath he , or You given Them any Satisfaction to this Day for such their Goods ? ( which are as Properly Theirs , and as Protectible by the Law , as the Cloaths they had upon Them . ) Nay , Did not a Council of You , ( afterwards assembled at Boston ) instead of doing them Right against the Rape of the Deputy-Governour , do them Wrong , and cause the said Books ( their Goods ) to be burnt in the Market-place of Boston by the Common-Hangman ? And did Ye not the same to Them who came afterwards ? that is to say , Did Ye not cause their Boxes , Chests , Trunks , &c. to be searched and risted before they came on Shoar and after ? And were not such their Books as were found , taken away and burnt ? ( the Spanish Inquisition ) Yea , did not your Jaylor rob them of their Bible , and so debarr'd them the use of the Scriptures ? And were not these things done by Order , by Order of some of You , bearing Date the 11th of July , 1656 , and the 27th of September following ? the first being an Order in the General , the second in Particular to the Jaylor to do it , as oft as he should see meet .

Again , After Your said Deputy-Governour had Commanded Them on Shoar , and to be brought in Custody before him , and had Committed Them to Prison by a Mittimus , as Quakers , against whom Ye had No Law , and upon this Proof only , that they were such , viz. — The saying of One of them to him , [ Thee ] ( which is the Natural Distinction ( in Word ) of One Man from Many , and as Proper as is the Name of One Man to Distinguish him from Another , and as Generally used [ Thou and Thee ] to a Single Person in all Languages , and the Scriptures of Truth , and to the Lord the Maker of all , in the most Solemn Addresses ; For Languages are but the Demonstrations of Natural Distinctions , which whosoever Opposeth , doth ( what in him lies ) Overthrow the Order of Nature ; and he that Overthrows the Order of Nature brings in Confusion ; and Natural Distinction is the Ground or Measure of Demonstration or Speech ; Not Demonstration or Speech of Natural Distinction ) Whereupon he said , — He needed no more , now he saw they were Quakers — ( an Ignorant Speech , and a shameless of a Magistrate , who should uphold the Order of Nature , and not make it a Ground of Punishment in such as Do ) I say , after he had commanded them on Shoar , and Committed them , and upon the Ground as aforesaid , Did Ye not haste together in Council ? ( such of You as were near ) and being met together before the time of the Court General , Did Ye not Order them ( and their other Friends aforesaid ) to be kept close Prisoners , and none to come at them , Or to have Communication with them ( in Express Words ) without Leave from some of You ? until such time as they should be delivered by Authority on board some Vessel to be transported Oat of the Country ( as are the Words of Your Order to the Keeper , July 18. 1656. ) Yea , are not the Words of Your Order to the Keeper , August 18. 1656. to keep their said Friends close Prisoners , and not to suffer them to speak , or confer with any Person , Nor to permit them to have Paper and Ink ? And in Your Order Septemb. 17. 1656. Do Ye not impower him to search their Boxes , Chests , &c. for Pen , Ink and Paper , Papers and Books , and take Them away ? And did not Your Jaylor Execute Your said Warrants precisely ? And further , Did he not take away their Candle , and not suffer them to have Light in the Night-season , lest ( as himself said ) they should see to Write ? And , did Ye not lay a Fine of Five pound on any one that should otherwise come at , or speak with Them , though but at the Window , than by your Leave ? and gave Ye Leave to any that Ye thought might be Convinced by them , Or , that were not of your Own Spirit and Principle ? Yea , Did Ye not Order the Prison-Yard to be made close ? and was not a Board nailed up before the Window that looked out to the Door of the Jayl where people used to come at them , that none might visit them ? With many more Cruelties , which were Ordered and done for the present Distress ( as ye call it ) of Two Poor Women arriving in Your Harbour , which so shook ye to the Everlasting shame of you , and of your Establish'd Peace and Order , as if a formidable Army had Invaded Your Borders ) and made You not this Order to be in force till the sitting of the next Court General ? And , did not the next Court General confirm the same ? And are not all these unmanly and base Proceedings more than an [ only ] securing of their Persons ? Are they not Censures and Punishments , and that relating to their Persons ?

Besides , Did Ye send them away by the first Opportunity ? Did ye not detain , after the manner aforesaid , the two former for the space of about Five weeks , and the latter about Eleven ? And was there no Opportunity , during those long spaces of time , to have shipp'd them away sooner by the Way of Barbados , or otherwise ? Or , staid Ye not for the Return of the Ships that brought them , that so their Passages might be on the Charge of them that brought them , on whom Ye laid this Unreasonable Burden , they being ignorant before they came from Barbados or England , of ( nor was there any ) such Law of Yours ? And , did Ye not Compel Robert Lock ( a Master of One of the Ships ) to Robert Lock carry them back on his own Charge , being Eight of them ? and bind him in Bond so to do , and to land them no where but in England , ( a strange Usurpation Over Other Countries and Your Own , and the Master and them ) And did Ye not Imprison him , till he became so bound , and so Undertook ? And , did Ye not bind William Chichester ( the Master of the Vessel whom you got to carry them ) in One Hundred Pound Bond , to carry the Two Women that came first away , and not to suffer any to speak with Them after that they were forcibly by Your Order , put on board her , or to land them in any Part of Your Jurisdiction ? And during the Long seasons of their Imprisonments aforesaid , Did Ye take Care for their Maintenance ? as Ye ought to have done , having Imprisoned them as aforesaid , and closely , so that none could come at them ; for Ye knew not that they had any Money , or Friend to help Them : Or , Was not Nicholas Nicholas Upshall . Vpshall ( a Member of Your Church , a Long-liver in Boston ; an Antient Old Man , and full of Years , of whose sore Sufferings at your hands more particularly in their Place ) denied Liberty to send Provisions to Them , out of his Regard to Strangers , lest they should have starved , till he Purchased it at the rate of Five shillings a week of Your Jaylor ( another of Your Church-Members ) And whilest they thus lay under Your Merciless Cruelty , Did Ye not seek all the wayes and means Ye could to Ensnare them , and to draw something out of them ( who had none besides ) wherewithal to Reproach and charge them , and the Truth they witnessed ? Examining them single and apart , as to the same things , to see if Ye could catch them in any Untruth ; or , as to the Matters of their Faith , Who had not declared any thing Publickly , nor were suffered so to do ; Or to speak with any One , as hath been said . But , blessed be the Lord ( who was near , and preserved them ) You missed your Expectation , and neither did , nor could find any thing against Them wherewithal to charge them , or the Truth , though Ye laboured it hard ; And had Your High Priest Norton ( who said , The Justice of God was the Devil's Armour ) and his Brethren ( the very Shop and Forge of most of these , and the Cruelties to be rehearc'd , of whom more anon ) to Your Assistance , even in Your Court General , ( to the shame of your selves , who took upon You a Jurisdiction you were not able to manage without the help of a Priest , as it is of his Profession to meddle with Civil Jurisdiction ) and when Ye could get no Advantage against them by this way of working ( the Witness of God in him and you answering to the Truth they spake , and so were disappointed , Were Ye not sorely vexed within you ? ( having nothing from your selves or others as any breach of Your Laws , wherewithal to cover Your Proceedings against Them ) And did not John Endicot your Governour ( with whom I have a large Reckoning ere I have done ) sufficiently manifest it , when he blood-thirstingly said to them , — Take heed ye break not Our Ecclesiastical Laws ( who thought the Bishops so hard who put none of them to Death ) for then Ye are sure to stretch by a Halter — ( the thing that lay then in Your Bosoms , which you have since accomplish'd ) and did he not further manifest it , when he told them , — They should not have a Copie of those Laws ( a most Tyrannical Reply ) when they desired it thereupon , that they might know on what ground they went ; to the grieving of the People then present , who said Openly in the Court , — How shall they know then when they Transgress ? — And did he not manifest it yet further , when ( being at Salem , when Anne Austin and Mary Fisher were dealt withal , as aforesaid , against whom there was no Law ) he said , — If he had been there ( viz. at Boston when they were so mis-used ) he would have had them well Whipt ? And after all these Censures , Punishments and Tyrannical Proceedings ( which were more than an [ only ] securing them , in Order to be sent away the first Opportunity ) Did ye not Condemn them to Banishment from that part of their Country unto which they have a Natural Right , and some of them , a Municipal , having served an Apprentiship therein . Who had broken no Law , and so were by the Judgment of the Law persons Innocent ? And after ye had so Ordered their Causeless Banishment , Did ye not Authorize Michelson your Marshal General , to Leavie upon the Goods of some of them a Certain Sum of Money , and Deliver it to the Jaylor for his Fees , from those whom you had so Unjustly Imprisoned ? Who had no other Goods than their wearing Apparrel , and the Beds they lay on , which they brought out of the Ships : Yea , Did not Your Jaylor take away the Beds they lay on ( than which they had no other to ease them on in their Passage to England ) for his Fees ? And , Did he not keep them after those People were sent on Board , till Capt. Oliver , and some of the Country , being asham'd of a Cruelty so manifestly contrary to the Countries standing Law , ( which is , not to take away the nether Milstone , &c. ) gathering Money among themselves ( unknown to those People ) paid his Demand ? And , did Ye not Execute upon Them this Cruelty of Banishment , in sending them to England ? for which You are to Answer , and all your o her Laws and Proceedings Repugnant to the Laws of England . Yea , not only unto them , but to Richard Smith ( an Inhabitant of Long Richard Smith . Island , who came in the Ship with them , and whom Ye called their Proselyte ) did not your Unreasonableness extend , because he was their Proselyte , as ye said ? Had ye not him up before your General Court with the Later ? and Committed ye not him to Prison also ? and did ye not detain him there about Three Weeks from his Wife and Children ? And when , by Leave from the Jaylor , he went to your Meeting on a First Day of the Week , and after the Priest had done , said , — It was the saying of the Governour , that he should have Discourse with some of the Godly Ministers , to Convict him of his Error , and that he was deluded ; and that if there were any such Godly Ministers that could so Convict him , he was ready to hear what they could say — Did not your Governor hereupon declare , That his intent was it should be private ( a sorry Shepherd that cannot lead a stragling Sheep into the ( pretended so to be ) right way before the rest of the Flock ) And when the said Richard desired it might be otherwise , and that at that present it might be , were ye not Enraged at him , and sent ye not him away to the Prison again , and from thence by Water to his own Habitation , not suffering him to passe through the Country ( so great were your Fears ) lest he should infect it ( as was your slander ) with his Poysonous Doctrine ? And did not your Council for the present Distress upon the Arrival of the Two Women asoresaid , lay a great Fine upon such Masters of Ships as should bring any of those People into your Jurisdiction , as they required Simon Kempthorne who Simon Kempthorne . brought them , to Transport them , or Cause them to be transported directly to Barbados from whence they came , and to Desray all the Charge of their Imprisonment ; and to give Security to your Secretary in a Bond of One Hundred Pounds Sterling , for the effectual persormance thereof ; and upon his Refusal to give such Security , to send him to Prison , till he did it ? And did he not do it , though ye had no such Law before he arrived , against those People , as hath been declared ?

Yet I have not done with you .

Fourthly , ( to add no more ) Did ye not shamelesly cause Two of the Women asoresaid , viz. Mary Fisher , and Anne Austin , to be stript stark naked , and so to be search'd and mis-used , as is Mary Fisher , Anne Austin . a shame to Modesty to name ? and with such Barbarousness , as One of them , a Married Woman and a Mother of Five Children , suffered not the like in the bearing of any of them into the World ? And when there was no Token found upon them but of Innocency , Were ye satisfied therewith ? Or , did ye not afterwards continue them close Prisoners , and banish them as asoresaid ?

And yet , how say ye , that ye [ only ] secured their Persons in Order to be sent away the first Opportunity , without Censure or Punishment ? Are not these Censures and Punishments , and very sore ones too , and , next to Life , some of the greatest ( all Circumstances considered ? ) Is not this more ( yea , in many particulars ) than an [ only ] securing their Persons to be sent away the first Opportunity ? Can ye ( who in cool blood , and so deliberately , and as by Order of the Court , and under Your Secretaries Hand ( a Chief Instigator of Your Iniquity ) and in Defence of your selves , as to the Bloud of the Innocent , which ye have spilt ) have vented so many Lies and Falshoods , blush , or be ashamed ? Is this your Entertaining of Strangers , your Civility , your Manhood to those who travel'd so many Thousands of Miles to Visit You in the Movings of the Lord ? Whom at least Ye should have well intreated ( and Ingenuity would have done it ) for their Love sake , though they had been ( as these were not ) mistaken in their End , and rather have prayed them ( as the Gadarens did their Master ( whose Inhospitality ye Exceed , though they medled not with your Swine ) to have departed , instead of Expelling them your Coasts , and imprisoning , and close imprisoning , and dealing with them not as Men and Women of the same Generation as you , and ( reation , but as Beasts of Prey .

O ye Rulers of the Darkness of this World ! whose and is come , and the Measure of your Iniquity ; Unto what shall I liken You ? Whereunto shall I compare You ? Whither shall I go to fetch your Judgment ? unto what Nation to Condemn you ?

Shall I take a View of the Indians near you ? Their Kindness to those People in Entertaining them in their Wig-wams ( or Tents ) as their Inns upon their Travels in the Night ( where otherwise , nothing but the Open Wilderness must have lodged them ) in Cold and Rain , in Hunger and Thirst , and Weariness in their Journeying to you , and being banish'd from you ; their readiness to take off ( of themselves ) the Upper Garments of those People , and hang them up about the fire , when these came in Wet ; their making ready warm Meat ( such as they had ) and good Fires for them ; their furnishing them with Provisions , and freely too , and guiding them scores of Miles in the Woods ( who otherwise , as to Men , might have perish'd ; for their Travellings were harder than their Sufferings , though their Sufferings were very hard , ( as you will hear by and by , and do know in part who inflicted it upon them ) their lying in Woods ; the hardness to find the Way ; the foordings of Rivers , yea , when somewhat frozen with the Ice ; the danger of falling into great Rivers ere they were aware in the Moon-light through the Thickets : with much more , too long to relate ) doth sufficiently speak it : ) Their discovering of the Workings of some of your Priests , when they were got amongst them , to destroy them , and for the Indians to do it , which they refused ; Their Commisserating the Sufferings which these People received at your hands , and being glad of their Deliverance ; and Crying out against your Cruelty exercised upon these Servants of the Lord , about the Worship of their God , doth sufficiently condemn you .