But having a new name given me, which
the world knows not of, written in
the Book of Life.
‘Written in Boston prison, in the 8th
Month, 1659.’
Mary Dyar being returned to prison, wrote the following letter, which
she sent to the rulers of Boston.
_To the General Court in Boston._
‘Whereas I am by many charged with the guiltiness of my own
blood; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am therein clear,
and justified by the Lord, in whose will I came, who will require
my blood of you, be sure, who have made a law to take away the
lives of the innocent servants of God, if they come among you,
who are called by you, cursed Quakers; although I say, and am a
living witness for them and the Lord, that he hath blessed them,
and sent them unto you; therefore be not found fighters against
God, but let my counsel and request be accepted with you, to
repeal all such laws, that the Truth and servants of the Lord
may have free passage among you, and you be kept from shedding
innocent blood, which I know there are many among you would not
do, if they knew it so to be; nor can the enemy that stirreth you
up thus to destroy his holy seed, in any measure countervail the
great damage that you will, by thus doing, procure. Therefore
seeing the Lord hath not hid it from me, it lieth upon me, in
love to your souls, thus to persuade you. I have no self-ends
the Lord knoweth; for if my life were freely granted by you, it
would not avail me, nor could I expect it of you, so long as I
should daily hear or see the sufferings of these people, my dear
brethren, and the seed with whom my life is bound up, as I have
done these two years; and now it is like to increase, even unto
death, for no evil doing, but coming among you. Was ever the
like laws heard of among a people that profess Christ come in
the flesh? And have such no other weapons but such laws to fight
against spiritual wickedness withal, as you call it? Wo is me for
you! Of whom take ye counsel? Search with the light of Christ in
you, and it will show you of whom, as it hath done me and many
more, who have been disobedient and deceived, as now ye are:
which light as ye come into, and obeying what is made manifest to
you therein, you will not repent that you were kept from shedding
blood, though it were by a woman. It is not mine own life I seek,
(for I choose rather to suffer with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of Egypt,) but the life of the seed, which I
know the Lord hath blessed, and therefore seeks the enemy thus
vehemently to destroy the life thereof, as in all ages he ever
did. O hearken not unto him, I beseech you, for the seed’s sake,
which is one and all, and is dear in the sight of God, which
they that touch, touch the apple of his eye, and cannot escape
his wrath; whereof I having felt, cannot but persuade all men
that I have to do withal, especially you who name the name of
Christ, to depart from such iniquity as shedding blood, even of
the saints of the Most High. Therefore let my request have as
much acceptance with you, if you be Christians, as Esther’s had
with Ahasuerus, whose relation is short of that that is between
Christians; and my request is the same that her’s was: and he
said not that he had made a law, and it would be dishonourable
for him to revoke it; but when he understood that those people
were so prized by her, and so nearly concerned her, as in truth
these are to me, you may see what he did for her. Therefore I
leave these lines with you, appealing to the faithful and true
witness of God, which is one in all consciences, before whom we
must all appear; with whom I shall eternally rest, in everlasting
joy and peace, whether you will hear or forbear. With him is
my reward, with whom to live is my joy, and to die is my gain,
though I had not had your forty-eight hours warning, for the
preparation of the death of Mary Dyar.
‘And know this also, that if through the enmity you shall
declare yourselves worse than Ahasuerus, and confirm your law,
though it were but by taking away the life of one of us, that
the Lord will overthrow both your law and you, by his righteous
judgments and plagues poured justly upon you, who now, whilst ye
are warned thereof, and tenderly sought unto, may avoid the one,
by removing the other. If you neither hear, nor obey the Lord,
nor his servants, yet will he send more of his servants among
you, so that your end shall be frustrated, that think to restrain
them ye call cursed Quakers, from coming among you, by any thing
you can do to them. Yea, verily, he hath a seed here among you,
for whom we have suffered all this while, and yet suffer; whom
the Lord of the harvest will send forth more labourers to gather,
out of the mouths of the devourers of all sorts, into his fold,
where he will lead them into fresh pastures, even the paths of
righteousness, for his name’s sake. Oh, let none of you put this
good day far from you, which verily in the light of the Lord I
see approaching, even to many in and about Boston, which is the
bitterest and darkest professing place, and so to continue so
long as you have done, that ever I heard of. Let the time past,
therefore, suffice, for such a profession as brings forth such
fruits as these laws are. In love, and in the spirit of meekness,
I again beseech you, for I have no enmity to the persons of any;
but you shall know, that God will not be mocked; but what ye
sow, that shall ye reap from him, that will render to every one
according to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.
Even so be it, saith