The Elders listened with sympathy to this appeal, for they regarded it as an opportunity "for enlarging the Kingdom of Christ." After much deliberation, they selected John Knowles, of Watertown; William Thompson, of Braintree; and Thomas James, of New Haven, and sent them off. But they had a rough time even before they reached Virginia. No doubt they thought it was Satan's effort to thwart them that threw their pinnace on the rocks at the appropriately named Hell Gate. But the ministers, accustomed as they were to getting the better of the Evil One, secured another vessel and proceeded on their way.[17] Upon their arrival in Virginia they were welcomed by the Puritans. Going from house to house they preached "openly to the people," and "the harvest they had was plentiful for the little space of time they were there." "It fared with them as it had done before with the Apostles in the primitive times that the people magnified them, and their hearts seemed to be much inflamed with an earnest desire after the Gospel."[18] But when Governor Berkeley heard of this invasion of New England divines to woo the people from the established Church, his heart too was inflamed. At the Assembly of March, 1643, he secured a law against heresy prohibiting ministers to teach or preach publicly or privately unless they conformed to the orders and constitutions of the Anglican Church, and directing the Governor and Council to expel nonconformist clergymen.[19] The Puritan missionaries to Virginia were less determined than were the Quakers who sought to convert the people of Massachusetts to their way of belief and after being expelled returned to face whippings, mutilation, and the gallows. Upon hearing the order of banishment, they left Virginia and did not return. But both Governor Winthrop and Edward Johnson were certain that the Indian massacre of 1644 was God's punishment of the Virginians for expelling his servants. "Oh! poor Virginia, dost thou send away the ministers of Christ with threatening speeches?" wrote Johnson in his _Wonder Working Providence_. "No sooner is this done but the barbarous, inhuman, insolent, and bloody Indians are let loose upon them." Certainly a terrible and indiscriminate revenge for a loving Heavenly Father. Though the New Englanders left, Harrison for the time being defied the law by remaining in his parish. Knowing that Cromwell was winning victories, he looked to Parliament to protect him. He was elated when he received word that the Commissioners for Plantations had issued a proclamation in November, 1645, granting freedom of worship in all the colonies. "That golden apple, the ordinance of toleration is now fairly fallen into the lap of the saints," he wrote Winthrop. "We have received letters full of life and love from the Earl of Warwick."[20]