“Ay! ay!” said he, “have you so much life yet in you?” and went his way. Thus I lay chained at this cell six weeks. My back felt like a dry stick without sense of feeling, being puffed up like a bladder, so that I was fain to lie upon my face. In which prison I continued three years after this, under cruel sufferings. But I must desist; for it would contain a book of a large volume to relate particularly what I suffered in the time of this imprisonment. But I trod upon the Lion and Adder, the young lion and the dragon I trampled under my feet, and came forth a conqueror, through faith in Him who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and hath overcome death itself for us, and him that hath the power of it also, who is the devil. But this long war hath kept me waking and watching and looking for the coming of the bridegroom and earnestly desiring that his bride may be prepared and in readiness to meet Him in her beautiful garments, being arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. We are glad to set before the gaze of the world an example of moral heroism, courage and endurance, strongly in contrast with the spirit of this pleasure-loving, gain-seeking age. A light shining in a dark place, which the storms of persecution could not extinguish nor its waves overwhelm. Mr. McEwen says, in his Half-Century Sermon:— During the ministry of Mr. Saltonstall, and reaching down through the long ministry of Mr. Adams, and the shorter one of Mr. Byles, a religious sect prevailed here whose acts were vexatious to this church and congregation. I have no wish to give their history except so far as their fanaticism operated as a persecution of our predecessors in this place of worship. On the side of the oppressor there was power, said Solomon. These people were powerless from the beginning, so far as the secular or ecclesiastical arm was concerned. The power lay in the church and state, and was freely exercised by both, in a cruel and most tyrannical manner, as undisputed history attests. Mr. McEwen admits that the Rogerenes held the doctrine of non-resistance to violence from men. Referring to this sect in the time of Mr. Byles,[7] he says:— “They were careful to make no resistance, showing their faith by their works,” and relates an anecdote which reflects no credit upon the officers of the law at that day. He says:— One constable displayed his genius in putting the strength of this principle of non-resistance to a test. He took a bold assailant of public worship down to the harbor, placed him in a boat that was moored to a stake in deep water, perforated the bottom of the boat with an auger, gave the man a dish and left him to live by faith or die in the faith. ----- Footnote 7: During the countermove, 1764-1766. See Part II, Chapter XII. -----