s also the commendable custom generally of all the
_godly_ of our nation, until these few years; we, the magistrates who have
subscribed this paper, (for the showing of our own _innocency_ in this
behalf,) do declare and manifest our dislike and detestation against the
wearing of such long hair, as against a thing _uncivil_ and _unmanly_;
whereby men do deform themselves, and offend _sober_ and _modest_ men, and
do _corrupt good manners_. We do therefore, earnestly intreat all the
elders of this jurisdiction, as often as they shall see cause, to
_manifest their zeal_ against it in their public administrations, and to
take care that the _members_ of their respective churches be not _defiled
therewith_, that so, such as shall prove obstinate, and will not reform
themselves, may have God and man to witness against them.

"The 3d month, 10th day, 1649.

"_Jo. Endicott_, Governor.
_Tho. Dudley_, Dep. Governor
_Rich. Bellingham.
Rich. Salton Stall.
Increase Nowell.
William Hibbins.
Tho. Flint.
Rob. Bridges.
Simon Bradstreet_.'

"Laws were made to regulate the intercourse between the sexes, and the
advances towards matrimony. They had a ceremony of betrothing, which
preceded that of marriage. _Pride_ and _levity_ came under the cognizance
of the magistrates. Not only the richness, but the mode of dress, and cut
of the hair, were subject to regulations. Women were forbidden to expose
their _arms_ or _bosoms_ to view. It was ordered, that their sleeves
should reach down to their _wrists_, and their gowns to be closed round
the _neck_. Women _offending_ against these laws were _presentable_ by the
_grand jury_.

"The following were some of their favourite arguments in favour of
persecution. The celebrated Cotton, in a treatise published in 1647,
laboured to prove the lawfulness of the magistrate using the civil sword,
to extirpate _heretics_, from the command given to the jews, to put
to death _blasphemers_ and _idolaters!_

"After saying it was _toleration_, which made the world _antichristian_,
he concludes his work with this singular ejaculation:--'The Lord keep us
from being bewitched with the whore's cup, lest while we seem to reject
her with our profession, we bring her in by a _back door_ of _toleration_,
and so drink deeply of the cup of the Lord's wrath, and be filled with her
plagues!'

"During a war with the eastern Indians, a council was called, and a
proposal made to draw upon them the _Mohawks_, their an