364.] [Footnote 105: Mr.Neal gives the following account of certain Baptists--Clarke, Holmes and Crandall--who "were all apprehended upon the 20th July this year, (1651), at the house of one William Witters, of Lin.

As they were worshipping God in their own way on a Lord's-day morning, the constable took them into custody.

Next morning they were brought before the magistrate of the town, who sent them in custody to Boston, where they remained in prison a fortnight, when they were brought to trial, convicted and fined: John Clarke, twenty pounds or to be well whipped; John Crandall, five pounds or to be whipped; Obadiah Holmes, thirty pounds for several offences." Mr.Neal adds: "The prisoners agreed not to pay their fines but to abide the corporal punishment the Court had sentenced them to; but some of Mr.Clarke's friends paid the fine without his consent; and Crandall was released upon the promise to appear at the next Court; but Holmes received thirty lashes at the whipping-post.

Several of his friends were spectators of his punishment; among the rest John Spear and John Hazell, who, as they were attending the prisoner back to prison, took him by the hand in the market-place, and, in the face of all the people, praised God for his courage and constancy; for which they were summoned before the General Court the next day, and were fined each of them forty shillings, or to be whipped.

The prisoners refused to pay the money, but some of their friends paid it for them." Mr.Neal adds the following just and impressive remarks: "_Thus the Government of New England, for the sake of uniformity in divine worship, broke in upon the natural rights of mankind, punishing men, not for disturbing the State, but for their different sentiments in religion_, as appears by the following Law:" [Then Mr.Neal quotes the law passed against the Baptists seven years before, in 1644, and given on page 92.] (Neal's History of New England, Vol.