"that man is void of judgment, and conscience, with respect unto God, that hath not a fact, and practice suitable thereunto"

"Then they demanded of me what the question was that I would dispute upon, whether I would dispute upon the things contained in my Sentence, and maintain my practice, for, said they, the Court Sentenced you not for your judgement or Conscience, but for matter of fact, and practice; to which I replyed, you say the Court condemned me for matter of fact, and practice; be it so, but I say that matter of fact and practice was but the manifestation of my judgment and conscience; and I make account that man is void of judgment, and conscience, with respect unto God, that hath not a fact, and practice suitable thereunto . . . [and] in truth, if the Faith and order which I profess do stand by the word of God, then the Faith and order which you profess must needs fall to the ground; and if the way you walk in remain, then the way that I walk in must vanish away, they cannot both stand together. . . ."

     The Baptist John Clarke to "the Honoured Court Assembled at Boston" in 1651, as reported in his Ill newes from New-England:  or A narrative of New-Englands persecution (London:  Henry Hills, 1652), 8.  Clarke of course—who had co-founded Rhode Island—refused the pejorative label Ana- or Rebaptist because he denied that infant baptism was any kind of valid baptism at all.
     I was put onto this by Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England, Yale publications in religion 7 (New Haven and London:  Yale University Press, 1964), 214.