.. or deny his creation or gouvernment of ye world,
or shall curse God, or shall vtter any other eminent kind of blasphemy, of
ye like nature and degree; if any person or persons whatsoeuer within our
jurisdiction shall breake this lawe they shall be putt to death."
[Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ iii.98.]
The special punishments for Antinomians, Baptists, Quakers, and other
sectaries were fine and imprisonment, branding, whipping, mutilation,
banishment, and hanging. Nor were the elders men to shrink from executing
these laws with the same ferocious spirit in which they were enacted.
Remonstrance and command were alike neglected. The Long Parliament warned
them to beware; Charles II. repeatedly ordered them to desist; their
trusted and dearest friend, Sir Richard Saltonstall, wrote from London to
Cotton: "It doth not a little grieve my spirit to heare what sadd things
are reported dayly of your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that
you fyne, whip, and imprison men for their consciences," [Footnote:
_Hutch. Coll._, Prince Soc. ed. ii. 127.] and told them their "rigid
wayes have laid you very lowe in the hearts of the saynts." Thirteen of
the most learned and eminent nonconforming ministers in England wrote to
the governor of Massachusetts imploring him that he and the General Court
would not by their violence "put an advantage into the hands of some who
seek pretences and occasions against our liberty.
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