and sufferings of His servants, and execute judgment upon you for them, and that in the sight of the heathen, who, because of it, shall say, "Verily, there is a reward for the righteous: verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth."

With this they are not satisfied, but, as men near a fire, the more they drink, the more they thirst,-the fire being stronger than the drink, turns that into its own nature,-so the more they drank of blood, the more the desire of it did inflame them; and so Humphrey Norton and John Rouse soon found it, on whose backs they laid, viz., on Humphrey Norton's three-and-twenty lashes, and on John Rouse's fifteen lashes, which as they drew store of blood, so it took much with the spectators, who beheld them in the stocks, first praying, then saluting each other, and bidding the executioner have a little patience when he came to take off their clothes, and he should see they could give "their backs to the smiter." And this they received for no other thing than their coming into the colony in the Will of God, upon the grounds and reasons expressed in a paper given to the magistrates, when it was demanded, wherefore they came in? which the magistrates would not suffer to be read. And so envious were they, that for taking John Rouse by the hand, they put three of the inhabitants of Sandwich in the stocks.

Neither were they yet satisfied, but Christopher Holder and John Copeland being apprehended by Barlow, the marshal, and a constable, on the 23d of the Fourth month, 1658, as they were going to a meeting at Sandwich; and, because the select-men appointed at Plymouth to witness the execution would not do it, he had them brought to Barnstable, where they, being tied to an old post, had thirty-three cruel stripes laid upon them with a new tormenting whip with three cords and knots at the ends, made by the marshal and brought with him. At the sight of such cruel and bloody execution, one of the spectators, for there were many that witnessed against it, cried out in the grief and anguish of her spirit, saying, "How long, Lord, how long shall it be ere Thou avenge the blood of Thine elect?" And afterward, bewailing herself and lamenting her loss, said, "Did I forsake father and

mother and all my dear relations to come to New England for this? Did I ever think that New England would come to this? Who would have thought it?" And this Thomas Hinckley saw done, to whom the marshal repaired for that purpose, he being the man who brought in that law of fining for not coming to their public meetings, which bears his name, and none but he was bloody enough for the marshal's turn to see it done; and he being glutted with the blood of the innocent, the marshal had them back to Sandwich, where he had kept them from the 23d to the 29th of the said month in his own house before he brought them to Barnstable, because none there would see them whipped, and the morrow after execution he sent them out of the jurisdiction. After this John Copeland and Josiah Coale, being in a Friend's house at Sandwich, the 5th of the Ninth month, 1658, were haled out by violence, and so imprisoned.

Thus as to whippings and scourgings. Now as to fines and confiscation of estates, and particularly of the inhabitants of Sandwich, whose sufferings have been very great, so that it is much that they subsist to this day or have any bread for themselves and families. But it manifests the eternal arm of the Lord, and that it is His almighty power that is underneath and bears them up, and His tender compassion that they sink not. And what sense the country hath had of it, even all of all sorts, except the bloody persecutors themselves, and such as are in their spirit, I have shown already in the letter before rehearsed; should I go farther I should be too tedious. The Lord hath seen it, and He regards it, and He will visit it. Upwards of nine hundred pounds we have had an account of, that they have suffered in this kind in that one poor town, besides others. What they have suffered since we know not. Yet they are alive and the Lord keeps them, and they are fresh unto God, and He bears them through and over all to the astonishment of their enemies; something more than man being with them, to bear them up; yet they go on in cruelty and will know no shame. But the day is near, wherein they who have oppressed not only a man and his house, yea, a man and his heritage; but men and their houses, men and their heritages,

shall see and be ashamed. Therefore hath the Lord devised an evil against you, ye rulers of Plymouth Patent, and thou, Governor Thomas Prince, who said: "That in thy conscience they were such a people that deserved to be destroyed, they, their wives, their children, their houses and lands, without pity or mercy;" and have acted in order thereunto, thou and thy companions, as Daniel Denison in Boston, who would often say, "That these people and they could not live well together; and that they were the stronger; and that others must fend off;" and this in open Court: plainly intimating their intent to root them up. I say to you all, by the Word of the Lord, whose word He will fulfil, and the eyes of those who are living shall see it, that against you, even against you, against the whole family of you, ye wicked and bloody persecutors of the innocent people of the Lord, who suffered by you because of conscience, whom ye would destroy, pluck up, and against whom ye act all these outrages and violences without compassion or mercy. But the Lord hath tried you, and enabled poor people to bear what ye could do, whilst He hath suffered ye thus to do for your trial's sake. I say once more to ye all, in the name and authority of the eternal God, who lives forever, who is in me and with me, whose Word is in my mouth and in my heart, whose Word it is, and it shall not fail, that against you hath the Lord devised an evil,* from which ye

This Cotton Mather confesses in his History of New England, printed in 1702, Book VII., page 112:-"In this war that hath been upon us, whoso is 'wise, may observe a work, a strange work of Heaven, as it were, devising "of ways very strangely to distress all sorts of people, in all sorts of inter"ests. Truly, the very character of our calamity hath all along been this, "the great God has written still upon it, we may read upon it, in a very 'legible character, those words in Jer. xviii. 11.-"Thus saith the Lord, be"hold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you.' It hath "been as if ways had been deliberately and exquisitely studied, and as if · "with much contrivance plotted for to bring us all within the reach of the 'general calamity. We have now languished through ten years, which "have been the saddest and the darkest and stormiest years that ever we saw. If the history of these ten years were to be written, I am thinking "what should be the title: truly it might be entitled as Ezekiel's roll was, "lamentation, and mourning, and woe; yea, you shall now have the his'tory of these ten years written for you; I will give it you in as expressive

shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye go haughtily, but as ye have done it shall be done unto you; and in the cup which you have filled unto others it shall be filled to you again; and the Lord will cut you off, and give ye your portion with hypocrites and sinners. And His people, whom ye have sought to root out and thus cruelly to kill, shall dwell in the land, and great shall be the increase of His people; and He will plant them, and they shall not be plucked up; and He will build them, and they shall not be pulled down; and they shall enjoy the works of their hands, the plant of His planting, the work of His hands, that He may be glorified. And a blessing shall they be to the nation; and men shall say of it, "Blessed be thou, O habitation of justice! O mountain of holiness!" And nations shall flow unto thee, and kings to the glory of thy rising; and they shall call thee "the blessed of the Lord," and thine offspring with thee. And the devourer shall no more enter into thy land, nor him that doth oppress; but I will make thy officers peace, and thy exacters righteousness, saith the Lord. And as for thee, O thou town of Sandwich, and My people in it, who have suffered joyfully the spoiling of your goods, and endured as seeing Him who is invisible; and have manifested it, by your not returning again,

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"words as can be, even in these words, 'And in those times there was no 'peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed "of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.'-2 "Chron. xv. 5, 6.

"There is a variety of adversity with which the tedious war itself hath "vexed us: the general fate of the war hath involved numberless families "in several circumstances of adversity, and the expensive part of the war "hath been an heavy scourge of adversity upon those that could not be "reached by the destructive part of it; you could not but observe these things; but then have you not observed, what a further variety of adver"sity hath been contemporary with this vexatious war? Alas! there hath "been such a complication of other distresses added unto the war, in the "time of it, that nobody, no, I say nobody, hath been left free from those "dolorous ejaculations; 'I am one that hath been afflicted by the rod of the "wrath of God."" Abundance of matter would this history yield, in confession to the just judgments of God on them, if I should be particular; notwithstanding his scurrility, which I hope he will receive a fit answer to, according to his desert.

though you had many an opportunity great and pressing, that you seek another country, whose builder and maker is God, thus saith the Lord, "Thou art a pleasant smell to me, and a cluster of grapes that hang together on the stem, in which is new wine. Thou shalt not be broken, neither shalt thou be rooted up; but men shall say of thee, destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it. And I will delight in thee to do thee good; I will build thee, I will plant thee, I will rejoice over thee with joy; yea, I will joy over thee with shouting; and Mine arm shall be made bare in the midst of thee, and I will recompense thy sufferings, saith the Lord; and thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God; and thy walls shall be before Me night and day, and I will watch over thee for good, and will nourish thee, and great shall be the increase of thy peace. I will build thee, and thou shalt be builded; I will plant thee, and thou shalt be planted; I will cause My love to rest upon thee, and thou shalt be Mine, saith the Lord, the mighty God of Jacob."

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Now, as to them who suffered, for not swearing, etc., some of their names are:

Robert Harper, of whose was seized the Fifth month, 1658,

The marshal, when he went to take some of the cattle, passed by him, and told him what he was going about. So they have taken all, yet they turned him not out of doors, but left him one cow, which was so poor that she was ready to die; and this was all they left him for the relief of himself and family.