The others desiring liberty to speak, they
would not suffer them, but told them they stood there as delinquents and
ought not to have liberty to speak.... Two days were spent to little
purpose; in the close, master Jonathan Mitchel pronounced that dreadful
sentence against them in Deut. xvii. 8, to the end of the 12th, and this
was the way they took to convince them, and you may see what a good effect
it had." [Footnote: Mrs. Gould's Answer, Backus, i. 384, 385.]
The sentence pronounced by Mitchell was this: "And the man that will do
presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to
minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man
shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel." [Footnote:
_Deut._ xvii. 12.]
On the 27th of May, 1668, Gould, Turner, and Farnum, "obstinate &
turbulent Annabaptists," were banished under pain of perpetual
imprisonment. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. ii, pp. 373-375.]
They determined to stay and face their fate: afterward they wrote to the
magistrates:--
* * * * *
HONOURED SIRS: ... After the tenders of our service according to Christ,
his command to your selves and the country, wee thought it our duty and
concernment to present your honours with these few lines to put you in
remembrance of our bonds: and this being the twelfth week of our
imprisonment, wee should be glad if it might be thought to stand with the
honour and safety of the country, and the present government thereof, to
be now at liberty.
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