Then he sent an army &
destroyed those Bores, about 200 or 300 of their towns. Thus we hear."
Think of that, Master Coddington! Could the sinful heart of man always
suppress the wish that a Gustavus might arise to do judgment on the Bores
of Rhode Island? The unkindest part of it was that, on Coddington's own
statement, Winthrop had never persecuted the Quakers, and had even
endeavored to save Robinson and Stevenson in 1659.
Speaking of the execution of these two martyrs to the bee in their
bonnets, John Davenport gives us a capital example of the way in which
Divine "judgments" may be made to work both ways at the pleasure of the
interpreter. As the crowd was going home from the hanging, a drawbridge
gave way, and some lives were lost. The Quakers, of course, made the most
of this lesson to the _pontifices_ in the bearing power of timber,
claiming it as a proof of God's wrath against the persecutors. This was
rather hard, since none of the magistrates perished, and the popular
feeling was strongly in favor of the victims of their severity. But
Davenport gallantly captures these Quaker guns, and turns them against
the enemy himself. "Sir, the hurt that befell so many, by their own
rashness, at the Draw Bridge in Boston, being on the day that the Quakers
were executed, was not without God's special providence in judgment &
wrath, I fear, against the Quakers & their abettors, who will be much
hardened thereby.
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