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The Fate of the Persecutors Behold, I have created the blacksmith Text in Light Blue or bold Light Blue can be "clicked" for backup in scripture or detail in writings. The Lord's Vengeance The last act of governor Endicott’s bloody part that occurs, was the cruel whipping of Edward Wharton at Boston, related before; for the time was now come that he must go off the stage, to give an account of his extravagant severity before another tribunal than that of his bloody, barbarous court. The measure of his iniquity was now filled up, and he was visited with a loathsome disease, insomuch that he stunk alive, and so died with rottenness, his name being like to give a bad savor through ages to come. As so many of his victims took terrible lashing on their backs, ripping and tearing away their skin and muscle; in a strange disease, Endicott's back slowly rotted away, stinking so much that no one was able to come near to assist or comfort him. Yet more remarkable was the death of major-general Adderton, who when Mary Dyer was hung, said with scoffing, and in an insulting way, that she hung as a flag, for others to take example by; and who also, when Wenlock Christison being condemned to death, warned the persecutors because of the righteous judgments of God, presumptuously said: You pronounce woes and judgments, and those that are gone before you pronounced woes and judgments; but the judgments of the Lord God are not come upon us as yet. But how he himself was struck by these judgments, and served for an example to others, we are to see now. One day he had just finished exercising his soldiers under his command, and was riding proudly on his horse towards his house. As he came to the place where the Quakers were untied, after whipping the Quakers while drug behind a cart. A cow came and crossed in front of him; his horse became frightend and threw him down so violently, that he died: his eyes protruding out of his head, his brains out of his nose, his tongue out of his mouth, and his blood out of his ears. He being taken up and brought into the courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor, thus made a fearful example of that Divine judgment which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised and treated with disdain. As prophesied, God's judgments were about to be poured on his head; which came upon his head suddenly and unexpectedly. And John Norton, the chief priest of Boston died in a similar sudden was. John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, had earnestly pleaded against the shedding of innocent blood.When Norton saw the magistrates pause in the execution of William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, to which he had incensed them, he further urged and promoted their murder. It also was he, who when William Brend was beaten so barbarously with a rope, said that since William Brend endeavored to beat their gospel ordinances black and blue, it was but just upon him if he were beaten black and blue also. But priest Norton was now struck with a blow that made him sink. Having been at his worship-house in the morning, and intending to go back in the afternoon, as he was walking in his house he issued a great groan, and leaning his head against the mantle tree of the chimney, he was heard to say, 'The hand, or the judgments of the Lord are upon me.' These were his last words, and he sunk down, and would had fallen into the fire, if he had not been caught by an old man that was present. (From Narrative of the Martyrdom at Boston, by John Richardson, 1831 ) John Danfort, a member of their church, and captain of their castle at Boston, as he lay in the heat of the day upon his bed, was struck dead in a strange manner, by thunder and lightning. John Webb, with other armed men, led Mary Dyer to her execution. As he and others were busy killing a whale, or great fish, he was suddenly carried into the sea and drowned, which was a very strange occurrence. Timothy Dalton, a persecuting priest at Hampton, and his brother Philemon, were both inveterate opposers of the people called Quakers. They both were soon taken away {from the earth, to their next destiny.} His brother, Philemon, was killed by a tree falling on on his leg; and his brother by another visitation. Dalton was the priest, who had called it blasphemy to say that the Light within was the Light of Christ. Captain Johnson, who led forth William Leddra to be put to death, was afterwards taken with a sickness, which deprived him of his reason and understanding as a man. Marshal Broum, of Ipswich, a rapacious plunderer of the Quakers' goods, was soon after cast upon a bed of languish, where he lay in great affliction of body and horror of conscience, and so departed this life. Edward Norris, a priest at Salem, who excited the rulers and people there against the innocent, saying, "What they did to the Quakers was not persecution, but prosecution." When he was later defending the executions of the Quakers, preaching sermon to the people, he was suddenly struck dumb in his pulpit;* and after a short time died.
Priest Mitchell, of Cambridge, soon after he had endeavored to stir up the rulers there to persecution, was smitten by the hand of the Lord; and it was related of him, that his tongue, while he was yet alive, was turned exceeding black in his mouth; and in that condition he died. Old Priest Wilson, who reviled the servants of the Lord as they were led forth to be put to death, was also, by the hand of the Lord, swept away, as is believed, in a remarkable manner. Many others, not here mentioned, has the hand of the Lord visited with judgments upon themselves and upon the fruit of their bodies, taking away the lives of several of their first-born by unusual deaths; and from year to year, to this day, [1702] since they murdered the servants of the Lord, has the hand of justice blasted their corn in the fields; their wheat when in the ear near to blossom, being in a strange manner smitten with death at the root, and so wither away; and become so loathsome, (being cut down) that the beasts of the field care not to eat it."—New England Judged, page 485. Hear a description of the terrible calamities and distresses which, for a long series of years, continued upon this Province, as transcribed from Cotton Mather's History of New England, (printed in 1702):—
JOSEPH OXLEY'S TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE JUDGMENT,
JOHN CHURCHMAN, who paid a religious visit to New England, in 1742, says, he saw wheat in that country which looked to be well grown, hut in the ear, instead of grain, there was little else than a small black smut in the form of a grain : and he further relates, that, two persons being in Boston, had a curiosity to see the old prison, from which the Friends were led to he hanged, for their religious testimony and principles. An inhabitant of Boston going with them, on their arrival, one of the party happening to say, "Is this the jail where the Friends lay who were hanged" was unexpectedly answered by an aged female, who sat at the door, knitting. Her reply was, — "Yes it is ! and we feelingly know it; for a curse has been on the land ever since; so that it will not bear wheat without a blasting from the sun; and we are beholden to other colonies for bread." It is believed that the effect of this remarkable judgment is continued to the present day, (written in 1831). (Sewel confirms the judgments on Boston:) But the entire Boston area suffered an even stranger judgment. Yet one thing remarkable I may mention here, which when I first heard, could not fully give credit to: but thinking it worth the while to make a narrow inquiry into it, I did so, not only by writing, but also from the mouths of persons that had been eye-witnesses, or had been informed by such; and from these I got this concurring observation, namely, that the country about Boston was formerly a very fruitful soil that produced excellent wheat; but that since the time this town had been stained with the blood of the Quakers, no wheat, or similar crops, would grow to perfection within twenty miles, though the ground had been ploughed and sown several times; for sometimes what was sown was spoiled by vermin or insects; at other times it grew up, but scarcely yielded more than was sown, and so could not support the cost of planting; and in another year the expected harvest was quashed by another accident; and these disappointments continuing many years, the people at length grew weary of making further trial, and so left the ground untilled; notwithstanding that twenty miles off from Boston the soil is fruitful, and yields very good corn. But there having been so many reiterated instances of unfruitfulness nearer the town, ancient people that are alive still, and remember the first times, generally agree in their opinion that this was a judgment from heaven, and a curse on the land, because of the shedding of innocent blood at Boston. This relation I had from so many credible persons, (though the one knew nothing of the other, as differing much in time), yet what they told me did so well agree in the main, that I could not but believe it, though I did not initially believe it to be credulous; and therefore I have been the more exact in my inquiry, so that I can no longer question the case; but it seems to me as a punishment on that blood-thirstiness which now has ceased long ago." {Gentle reader, this ends the vicious persecutions of the Quakers in America. If you would like to continue reading Bowden's History, it is available by clicking here, and proceeding to page 278. But more importantly, I urge you to heed Christ's Words: Come to Me. Learn of Me. Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Seek the Lord and His strength; yearn for and seek His face, to be in His presence continually! } The End This web site's purpose is to show how to become |
