LANCASTER COUNTT. 73 



rupt practice, "To hear all manner of preaching." — 

 They then had^ and even at the present day, some have 

 conscientious scruples in attending public worship with 

 other religious assemblies. They also did, as they now 

 do, openly discard the doctrine of self-defence and vio- 

 lent resistance. They have been, and are still, opposed to 

 war ; they believe it comports illy with the cliristian pro- 

 fession to fight with carnal weapons. They have 

 always been peaceable, and domestic in their habits. 

 They ever cultivated the mild arts of peace, and tiiisted 

 to their own domestic resources. 



The descendants of the Puritans boast that their an- 

 cestors fled from the face of their persecutors, \villing to 

 encounter ^perils in the wilderness and perils by tlie 

 heathen,' rather than be deprived, by the ruthless perse- 

 cutor, of the free exercise of their religion. The descen- 

 dRiiiz of the Swiss Mennonites, who, amid hardships and 

 trials, made the first settlements among the tawny sons 

 of the forest, in the west end of Chester county, can lay 

 claim to more. Their ancestors did not seek for them- 

 selves and theirs only, the unmolested exercise of faith, 

 and the practice of worship ; but they in (urn did not 



condition — four weeks since they had arrested near forty per- 

 sons, male and female — one of them has since arrived at our 

 place. They also whipped a u^ister of the word, took 

 him out in the country as far as Burgund)^ — marked him with 

 a branding- iron, and let him go among the French ; but as he 

 could not speak their language, he had to wander three dayg 

 before he could get his wound dressed and obtain any refresh- 

 ment, &c. — Brachfs His. p. 1022 



Fropn the same, dated May 23d, 1761 : The persecution of 

 our friends still continues in all its violence, so that we are as- 

 tonished that they do not make greater haste to leave the 

 country. One or two occasionally arrive here in a miserable 

 condition; but the most of them stay above Strasburg, in 

 Alsace ; some chopping wood, others labor in the vineyard, &c. 



7 



