‘And though these innocent lambs of Christ suffer thus under this present power, yet are they not enemies to you, but are friends to your persons and families, and pity you, and love you, and desire well for you in the Lord; that you may repent and be healed, and even that your hearts may be opened to receive refreshments to your souls; and that you may be established in righteousness and truth over all your enemies, and may not be confounded, nor your posterity brought into reproach, which is hastening unto you: and though our love be despised, and we accounted hateful in your sight, and looked upon with derision, yet we bear all things in patience, truly desiring your returning and repentance, and not your destruction. But if these doleful sufferings of the Lord’s poor lambs be continued by this present power, it will destroy you, and undo you, and break you, and confound you; and the Lord will not cease to smite you with his rod of sharp rebukes; and he will make you know his people’s cause shall not be unpunished. Oh, did you but know how hundreds have and do suffer! How the bodies of some have been tortured by stocks and cruel whippings! And how some lie sick in stinking holes and dungeons, on the ground, or a little straw at best; ten, or often more, in a prison together, and sometimes their own friends not suffered to come to visit them with necessaries! Oh, did but your eyes behold, or your hearts perceive, the greatness of the cruelty which some of the Lord’s dear servants, and your faithful friends, undergo, it would make your hearts ache, and your spirits to tremble! And all this is done in the name and under the authority of--Protector; therefore how should the Lord but lay it to your charge, and afflict him and his family? He will make you know there is a God that can do whatsoever he will, and that life and death are in his hands, and all creatures are as clay in the hand of the potter; and he rules in the kingdoms of men, and putteth down one, and setteth up another, according to his pleasure: but if the love of God be withholden from you, it is because of disobedience to him, and your transgression. Wherefore be obedient to him, and love his ways and judgments, that he may make you more happy with a crown immortal, that never fades away. And remember once more the Lord hath warned you, by a friend unto you in the Lord. E. BURROUGH.’ Written the 1st day of September, 1658.