Also the multitude of fines and imprisonments which he suffered on the account of baptizing such as desired to be baptized after the example of Christ, by burying in the water. All which fines and imprisonments were executed in the most rigorous manner. Sometimes the officers, taking him in the dead of winter, as he came wet out of the water, committed him to prison without a spark of fire, with many other cruel acts, which for brevity I must omit.
Moreover, the many hundreds of pounds which the collectors have taken from him for the maintainance of the Presbyterian ministers, which suffering he endured to the day of his death and which his Society still suffers.
But, forasmuch as his sufferings continued more than forty years, and were so numerous that I doubt not but to give a particular account of them would fill a larger volume than was ever printed in New England, I must desist.
But the same spirit of persecution under which he suffered, is yet living among us; as is evidenced by what here follows:—
The last fifth month called July, in the year 1725, we were going to our meeting, being eight of us in number, it being the first day of the week, the day which we usually meet on as well as the rest of our neighbors; and as we were in our way, we were taken upon the king’s highway, by order of Joseph Backus, called a justice of the peace, and the next day by his order cruelly whipped, with an unmerciful instrument, by which our bodies were exceedingly wounded and maimed; and the next first day following, as we were returning home from our meeting, we were again, three of us, taken upon the king’s highway, by order of John Woodward and Ebenezer West of Lebanon, called justices of the peace, and the next day by them sentenced to be whipped, and were accordingly carried to the place of execution and stripped in order to receive the sentence; but there happened to be present some tender-spirited people, who, seeing the wounds in our bodies we had received the week before, paid the fines and so prevented the punishment.
And also the same John Woodward, soon after this, committed two of our brethren to prison, viz., Richard Man and Elisha Man, for not attending the Presbyterian meeting, although they declared it to be contrary to their consciences to do so. Neither have their persecutors allowed them one meal of victuals, nor so much as straw to lie on, all the time of their imprisonment; although they are well known to be very poor men.
But, to return to the matter I was upon, which was to prove Peter Pratt’s assertion false, in saying John Rogers never suffered the loss of one hair of his head by the Authority for any article of his religion, nor for the exercise of it. And had not Peter Pratt been bereft as well of reason as conscience, he would not have presumed to have asserted such a thing, which the generality of the neighborhood knows to be false.
In further proof of the falsity of Mr. Saltonstall’s assertions, and as showing also the spirit of those times, we quote the following from Dr. Trumbull’s History:—
But though the churches were multiplying and generally enjoying peace, yet sectaries were creeping in and began to make their appearance in the Colony. Episcopacy made some advances, and in several instances there was a separation from the Standing Churches. The Rogerenes and a few Baptists made their appearance among the inhabitants; meetings were held in private houses, and laymen undertook to administer the sacraments. This occasioned the following act of the General Assembly, at their sessions in May, 1723.[[10]]
“Be it enacted, &c., That whatsoever persons shall presume on the Lord’s Day to neglect the public worship of God in some lawful congregation, and form themselves into separate companies in private houses, being convicted thereof before any assistant or Justice of the Peace, shall each of them on every such offense, forfeit the sum of twenty shillings, and that whatsoever person (not being lawfully allowed minister of the Standing Order) shall presume to profane the holy sacraments by administering them to any person or persons whatsoever, and being thereof convicted before the County Court, in such County where such offense shall be committed, shall incur the penalty of £10 for every such offense and suffer corporal punishment, by whipping not exceeding thirty stripes for each offense.”