Answer to Pamphlet Entitled A Letter to a Friend in the Country, Title page – Dedication
AN ANSWER To a Late PAMPHLET, INTITLED, A LETTER to a Friend in the Country, attempting a Solution of the Scruples and Objections of a Conſciencious or Religious Nature, commonly made against the new Way of receiving the Small Pox. By a Miniſter of Boſton. Together with A Short Hiſtory of the late Diviſions among us in Affairs of State, and ſome Account of the firſt Cauſe of them.
By JOHN WILLIAMS.
Hoſ. 9. 7.
The days of … are come, the days of recompence are come, Iſrael ſhall know it: the prophet is a fool, the … man is mad, for the multitude of thine Iniquity, and the great hatred.
BOSTON: Printed and ſold by J. Franklin, at his Printing-Houſe in Queen-Street, over againſt Mr. … School. 1722.
TO THE Worthy SELECT MEN Of the Town of Boſton, Together with my Neighbours that have ſo learned and believed that the Doctrine of Inoculation is not contained in the Law of Phyſick.
GENTLEMEN,
I Offer this Treatiſe alſo as a Sign of … Duty and Reſpects to you, with a … ſire that what is amiſs in the Town may be mended, that there may be Peace in the Churches of Him who is the Prince of Peace.
To ſhow the evil of Inoculation, I ſhall offer you the following Teſtimonies againſt it, & leave them to your Conſideration.
One of my Neighbours informs me, that he ſaw a Doctor in Germany whipt out of Town, for inoculating the Small Pox into five Perſons.
A Maſter of a Veſſel alſo, (whom I wiſh a good Voyage to Ireland if gone) ſays, That he ſaw a Doctor at Alexandria, for inoculating the Small Pox into Eight Perſons, tryed before their Senate, and being found guilty, was ſentenced to be mounted on an Aſs, and at the Corner of every Street to be bastinado'd on his Fe…et, in his way to the Place of Execution, where a Scaffold being built, he was executed.
Doctor Robert Richards, Member of the Colledge of Phyſicians in London (who has allowed me to uſe his Name) declared to me before Witneſs, That in the ſecond Act which Queen Anne ſigned were theſe Words, That if any mortal or contagious Diſeaſe ſhall come into this Kingdom, the Colledge of Phyſicians ſhall immediately aſſemble, and conſult of proper Medicines to cure it, in order to prevent its ſpreading: And if any Doctor, Quack, or any other Perſon, ſhall do any thing that may ſpread it, they ſhall ſuffer Death. Now by this Time I hope it appears, that if any Perſon will be ſo hardy, as to go on in a Practice againſt Reaſon and Law, the Grand Jury will not be at a Loſs to find a Bill againſt them.
Your Humble Servant, John Williams.