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and they were harassed by other annoying interruptions. For the preservation of peace and order they made characteristic laws, with characteristic punishments.
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If any interrupt or oppose a preacher in season of worship, they shall be reproved by the Magistrate, and on repetition, shall pay £5, or stand two hours on a block four feet high, with this inscription in Capitalls, 'A WANTON GOSPELLER.' As with other of their severe laws the rigid punishment provoked the crime, for Wanton Gospellers abounded. The Baptists did not hesitate to state their characteristic belief in the Puritan meetings, and the Quakers or
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Foxians, as they were often called, interrupted and plagued them sorely. Judge Sewall wrote, in 1677,
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A female quaker, Margaret Brewster, in sermon-time came in, in a canvass frock, her hair dishevelled loose like a Periwig, her face as black as ink, led by two other quakers, and two other quakers followed. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw. More grievous irruptions still of scantily clad and even naked Quaker women were made into other Puritan meetings; and Quaker men shouted gloomily in through the church windows,
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Woe! Woe! Woe to the people! and,
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The Lord will destroy thee! and they broke glass bottles before the minister's very face, crying out,
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Thus the Lord will break thee in pieces! and they came into the meeting-house, in spite of the fierce tithingman, and sat down in other people's seats with their hats on their heads, in ash-covered coats, rocking to and fro and groaning dismally, as if in a mournful obsession. Quaker women managed to obtain admission to the churches, and they jumped up in the quiet Puritan assemblies screaming out,
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Parson! thou art an old fool, and,
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Parson! thy sermon is too long, and,
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Parson! sit down! thee has already said more than thee knows how to say well,