[Signed]. INCREASE ATHERTON,
SAMUEL PROCTOR,
THOMAS BIRD.
At another time one Joseph Leeds, a member of the church, was accused of
maltreating his wife; the charge was sustained, and after the case had
been considered at several special meetings, it was settled by his
confessing and promising "to carry it more lovingly to her for time to
come." But Jonathan Blackman, another erring brother, was charged with
misdemeanors that could not be so easily overlooked; he was accused of
lying and also of stealing. He had been whipped for these offences, but
refused to come before the church for wholesome discipline, and ran away
out of the jurisdiction. Accordingly he was "disowned from his church
relation and excommunicated, though not deliuered up to Satan, as those
in full communion, but yet to be looked at as a Heathen and a Publican
unto his relations natural and civil, that he might be ashamed."
Another class of statutes--laws that have a queer sound in
nineteenth-century Massachusetts--were designed for the encouragement of
special public service. Here are examples of some of them:
"1638.
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