THE SUBSTANCE OF A LETTER Sent to the MAGISTRATES OF COLCHESTER OR A Hue and Cry SENT AFTER A Ridiculous and Scandelous Paper put forth by a cheating wicked and deceitful Woman that subscribes herself SARAH HAYWARD and is there in Prison being apprehended examined and committed the 22. of the 2d Month 1666. being then found in divers lies and contradictions upon her Examination Given forth for the clearing of the Innocency of the People called QUAKERS Printed in the third Month 1666. To the Magistrates of the Town of Colchester FRIENDS AS to the scandalous Paper put forth by that wicked lewd lying Woman who by our means is detected for her wickedness and is now your Prisoner we say we know little of it to be true nor doth it at all reach us for we have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but do rather reprove them and we are as desirous the wickedness and rottenness of others that have gone under the disguise of Quakers should be made manifest detected and discovered as hers But we desire also you would not very readily yield and prostrate your belief to one that hath so egregiously forfeited her credit and reputation with you by being found before you in so many notorious lies and falsehoods especially when her accusation of others is but to excuse herself and to extenuate her own vileness and to divert you from further searching and prying into her miscarriages and also the persons whom she so accuses are at a distance from her and not here to speak for themselves and all of them except two or three as well unknown to us as to yourselves But had she known such ●vils by them it had been far more honest and honourable for her before her apprehension and then it would not have savoured of revenge and malice to have declared those things to the Nation to have made the guilty manifest rather than to have gone about deluding and cheating of simple people or so to have caused the way of truth and righteousness to have been the more reproached by her evil practices and lewd Conversation and if any that have passed under the name of Quakers have fallen from the power of truth which should have preserved them from sin and evil or others professed a name with us only in deceit and hypocrisy yet was that no ground or warrant for her to run into evil also we desire she may receive a just recompense of reward for the wickedness she is found guilty of and we doubt not but the same hand of justice hath or will find out others to punish them for their faults also if any such hath been in the several places of their abodes As for our parts we can truly say our attaching of her was not the effect of any passion or enmity we had to her person but to her lewd wicked practices which we have heard of for above three years past * As in many places borrowing Money and pretending she would bring it or send it again in a few days but never did And sometimes pretending to leave Gold in pawn and instead of Gold pieces would leave Shillings sealed up telling people there was so many pieces of Gold And sometimes borrowing Scarves Hoods Riding  promising to leave them at some remarkable Friend's house and did not And much more such wicked and ungodly actions too tedious to relate Such as she is hath caused the way of truth and righteousness to be evil spoken of and the name of God to be blasphemed whose condemnation slumbers not whose latter end is worse than their beginning and for whom it had been better they had never been born And yet if ye consult with Scripture ye will in all ages and generations find there hath been such as hath turned from the way of Righteousness into crooked and by paths for in Abraham's Family there was an Ishmael as well as an Isaac in Isaac's Family an Esau as well as a Jacob among the Twelve a Judas in the Church of Philadelphia those that said they were Jews and were not but did lie and were of the Synagogue of Satan and in the Church of Corinth an incestuous person and in several other Churches of the Gentiles those that drew back unto perdition that went out from them being not truly of them for had they been of them they would have continued with them as the Apostle testifies But supposing the matter to be true which we believe is much of it lies and falsehood if twenty persons or more in 16. years' experience have turned aside and drawn back unto perdition in whose soul the Lord will take no pleasure As that is no new or strange thing so it shall not affright or deter us from walking in the way of truth and righteousness in which we have found peace and satisfaction to our souls but rather invite and exci●e us to walk the more accurate and circumspectly and to make strait steps to our feet lest any among us also fall into the same snare of the Devil apd that was the use the Apostles made of the Apostasy and backs● ding of some in former ages Let us take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief etc. And labour to enter into that rest lest others falling after the same example of unbelief come short of it Heb. 4. 11. And although we have affirmed and do still affirm that the light with which every man is enlightened with being believed in obeyed followed is sufficient to save and doth lead to the light of life yet we never did nor do we at this day affirm that it saves or preserves any from siu and evil further than they are led and taught by it and are obedient to i● for to those that rebel against it the light is their daily condemnation it 's the savour of death unto such and as Job speaking of the Twilight to the thief or murderer it 's as the shadow of death unto them for although the Grace of God which brings Salvation which hath appeared unto all men teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts yet they are not obedient to it but receive it in vain that turns the Grace of God into lasciviousness And as to her accusations we say in general they touch us not we challenge the worst of our adversaries to declare and make manifest what evil they have found by us and we hope through Grace to make it manifest to all men that we are not of those that draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul and we also hope through the same Grace to hold fast our profession without wavering and to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men which watch for our halting by our good Conversation And whereas she challenges us to accuse her if we can of any incivility she acted among us while she walked with us we answer had she lived in the truth unto this day which she saith she once lived in though we have none but her own words for it there had been no cause for the several accusations which are brought against her at this day and many more will be brought against her as she well knows which is the true reason why she conceals her right name and hath passed under several names and also the place of her abode which we desire she may be detained until she doth reveal and also till a testimonial do come from the said place that her report therein is true being she hath told you that her dwelling house is against the white Lion in Southwark and it hath not been found so and this we hope you will judge reasonable and so let it be manifest you are a terror to evil werks and workers and bear not the Sword in vain And whereas she saith she once walked innocently and unblameable we answer we know not that but were it so that will no more excuse her than it will excuse the fallen Angels of whom Judas speaks who keeping not their first estate but lost their pristine habitation and are now reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the judgement of the great Day for it is not what we were Years or Weeks past or what we formerly could witness of the Lords presence and preservation but what we can witness the Lord is to us and what he is in us to day that must speak us peace and satisfaction So in that which sets Truth a top of all deceit and deceivers We rest your Friends Colchester 4th of the 3d. Month called May 1666. Jo. Furly Junior George Wetherly Daniel Deacon Solomon Furmely John Pike Nicholas Prigg POSTSCRIPT SInce the giving forth of the said scandalous Paper it hath been received by some honest and faithful Men of divers Counties whose Testimony concerning Her Paper is as followeth That many things therein contained are notoriously false as if need require may be made appear diverse honest and faithful Men and Women being by her accused whose innocency is apparent in the Country where they live and those things that have an appearance of Truth we need not to deny having denied the Persons by whom such things were acted long ago many of them long before those abominations were acted by them and though divers have turned from the way of Truth and others have taken up the profession of it for a Cloak of their ungodliness and thereby to accomplish their own ends and designs as she hath done who are no more to us than she is yet this will not render the way of Truth odious to wise and sober Men nor be sufficient cause for any to judge the worse of those who according to the Principles of truth do hold their integrity and keep faith and a good Conscience so as none have cause to be elevated or glory over us who are innocent or to vilify the way of truth owned by us either from her slanders against some or pollutions of others who are denied by the innocent People called Quakers neither would the Magistrates or People of England be dealt so by or generally accused because of the scandalous lives and enormities of many of their Priests and members which would fill Volumes to repeat And therefore considering how deceitful and false this said Woman hath appeared and is like further to be manifested by her cheats and falsehoods which through most Counties of this Nation she hath acted we hope that the Magistrates of Colchester will appear more ingenious and more prise their own reputation then either give credit or way to her revile or have a hand in the divulging of them for that if her Paper should be further divulged in the Nation divers innocent Persons therein slandered and calumniated with others that know their innocency will be necessitated to testify against her her Paper and the abetters and promoters of it so we wish all to be moderate and ingenious in such causes and for as much as she hath been much talked of through the Nation of many pranks and deceiving tricks acted by her in Corners and By places among simple people for the prevention of the like for the future let all take notice of the Description of her Person as followeth A tall woman somewhat long vizaged freckled face pock-broken and red hair and flaxen coloured brows a pretty full eye and very confident impudent and subtle but as for name or place of abode she hath gone by so many as Sarah Mary Susanna etc. sometimes Brierley Cole whitehead Travers Hall Robinson Wilson etc. sometimes of Bristol London Stratford Southwark Chelmsford Ipswich Whitby Newcastle etc. that it is in vain to mention any or describe her by any one one more than another her certain Name and Country being yet unknown even to the Magistrates themselves THE END