Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A63807
|
The planter's speech to his neighbours & country-men of Pennsylvania, East & West Jersey and to all such as have transported themselves into new-colonies for the sake of a quiet retired life : to which is added the complaints of our supra-inferior inhabitants.
|
Tryon, Thomas, 1634-1703.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing T3191; ESTC R25695
|
32,538
|
82
|
and natural Rights and to assault and destroy us as if we were the Agressors and no better than Thieves Robbers and Murtherers fit to be extirpated out of the Creation Sure we are we have not made our selves more Rich than our Neigbours nor endeavour'd to establish to our selves a Tyranny over them We have not taken away their Priviledges nor laid Cities and Countries waste We are not guilty of Burning of Towns nor Deflowring of Virgins nor Ravishing Matrons nor of Slaying Old Men or carrying away Captive the Young We do not gather our selves into Troops to destroy those of our own kind nor have we at any time Plundered them or haled them into loathsom Prisons Nor are we offended with each other because our Feathers are not all of a length or of the same colour We eat not to Gluttony nor drink to Excess and Ebriety whilst some of our kind are half starved Others of larger Bodies or higher Fleight do not squeeze and oppress the Inferiors with hard Labours whilst themselves surfeit in Riot and Wantonness We do not rob one another of natural Rayment nor grow proud with their Ornaments Our Foods and Drinks are not the price of Blood nor do they smell of the Violence and Oppression of AEgypt but our Liquor is pure Water and our Food is given us by the divine hand of Providence Our Love to each other is neither partial nor dissembled nor do we couple for Money Honour or any private base Interest Consider therefore O Man our Innocence and thine own high Birth and sully not thy natural Honour with an unjust pursuit to destroy us but remember that all the Inventers of those Engines of War and Violence which thou usesâ— against us have brought them forth from the Root of Bitterness and know this that none can use them but from the Power of the same black Principle How unworthy the humane Nature and how unlike Innocency is it for thee O Man that art made but a little lower than the Angels to hang a great Iron Sword by thy side a huge Budget of stinking Sulphur and Nitro and leaden Pellets at thy Girdle and an heavy Gun on thy Shoulder and thus loaden with Violence within and without to run through thick and thin over pleasant Plains and craggy Mountains playing at Bo-peep behind Trees Bushes and Hedges like a Thief or Trepan taking all advantages to betray Innocency and unsuspectedly let fly the fierce Thunderbolts of Mars and the Poysons of Saturn to deprive us of our harmless Lives to the great Amazement of all the Peaceable Inhabitants of Heaven and when all is done the Summ Total of thy Exploit and all the Trophy and Triumph of thy War-like Expedition is but this That with the expence of much precious Time and enduring more extremity of Toil Hunger and Cold than perhaps thou wouldst have suffered to save the Life of one of thy wanting Brethren thou hast treacherously Kill'd a poor Innocent Bird whose Carkass perhaps will scarce yield thee a Penny whilst in the mean time and with half this pains thou mightst at thy own needful and lawful Occupation have gotten to the value of six Pence or a Shilling and yet oft-times the time charge and trouble of Dressing this thy unjust Prey is double the value of it when it is dressed whereas one Pint of Milk of it self or conveniently varied would give thee a much more wholsom and nourishing Meal Consider further what an odd dishonourable and Beggarly Baseness it seems to be in Gentlemen and those of Estates who live and spend most part of their time in idle Wantonness Gluttony and Excess and whensoever they have a mind to exercise themselves a little and disperse the thick Fumes of a late Debauch then out they must go abroad to offer Violence to some of their fellow Creatures and they that are content to hire lewd and obscene Minstrils to divert them at their Revels with a rude scraping on a parcel of Cats-Guts with their clumsey Fingers are so far from returning us any thanks for that most pure natural and ravishing Musick that we continually afford them gratis that on the contrary with the blackest Ingratitude they study our Destruction And this their Malice they chiefly execute when it is frosty snowy and severe Weather when the Sun the Fountain of Light and Comfort is retreated to the remotest Tropick when the Earth is stript of Fruits and Grains and lies bedrid and benumb'd under the Bands of sullen Saturn and the Heavens with-draw their sweet and friendly Influences then instead of relieving us in our Extreamity and preserving us from the Rigors of the Season and of the Elements they take their opportunity to add to our Miseries and Dangers and rather than fail to do us a mischief punish themselves with Wet and Cold lurking in private Holes to circumvent and murder us and he is the bravest Fellow that can kill most of us which serves them to boast of amongst their Drunken Companions in their Riotous Feasts when they make themselves merry at our being buried in their insatiate Paunches But why should we wonder at this Violence and Unnaturalness of depraved men seeing that they do not scruple to do almost the same to those of their own Species Nay we are informed that in the more Populous Countries where these Killing Christians live when there happens a very hard cold frosty Season there can hardly any little innocent Bird escape their bloody hands but even the Harmonious Blackbirds the sweet Quavering Throshes and the high soaring Lark who every Morning sends up a Sacrifice of Melody in the Suburbs of Heaven and whom all not stupified into Bruitality are half ravisht to hear such are their charming Notes yet all promiscuously go to Pot and fall Victims to this unparallel'd Barbarity And so far as we can perceive we shall quickly be but in little better Condition if the Trade of Violence Killing and Inhumanity be encouraged as it has been hitherto for the Europeans and Christians are far more expert in the feats of Arms and these Murthering Mysteries than our former Masters the Indians whom the Christians and others do in contempt call Heathens Barbarians and Savage Wild People which indeed is true and in their Barbarity they do as much Mischief as they can but they had not where-with to destroy us in any considerable Numbers neither are they such cunning Artists in the dark Wrath and Devilish Practices of Killing nor did they attempt us but to satisfie their Hunger whereas now they are encourag'd to make a Trade of selling our Bodies for Brandy Rum and strong Liquors which the Christians give them in Exchange though the same proves almost as great a Mischief to the Indians as to us and in the end will prove of as fatal Consequence to the Christians themselves For by selling the Indians Guns Powder c. they grow more expert in all kind of Violence and practise the same not only upon
us but oft-times on one another and in time no doubt will attempt the same on those who furnish them with these Mortiferous Tools as by Experience is found they have done in other places Besides the Christians bring them acquainted with the several sorts of pernicious intoxicating strong Drinks before mentioned the use of which makes them Mad and tenfold more Devilish and Inhumane than they were before for the more savage wild and bruitish any Man is both the more fond is he of such strong Liquors and the more mischievous Effects have they upon him so that rather than they will be without those abominable Drinks after once they have tasted them they will travel night day with all Pains and Cunning imaginable to hunt kill and destroy us and all other Creatures not so much now for Food as for the Skins Feathers or Carkasses to sell that so they may be able there with to procure those baneful Drinks whereas before the Christians Arrival they only were able to kill some few of us and that too as it were for Necessity for Food and Skins to cover them in the Winter but since they hunt Fish and torment all the innocent Inhabitants of the Elements so that they cannot have any rest or security for they will sell the choicest of their Skins Furs to procure a little Rum or Brandy or a Gun Powder Shot and the like which only tend to their own Destruction as well as ours for as with the one they take away our sweet Lives so with the other they ruin their own Healths contract various Diseases never before heard of amongst them and besides put themselves to a World of needless Slavery and Toil to procure to themselves these Mischiefs And is it not a shame that it should be said and too truly that where the Christians come in new Plantations they instead of converting have often debauched the old neighbouring Indians and Heathen-Natives and rendred many of them worse than they were before But still tell us if thou canst O Man wherefore dost thou thus degrade thy self to become a Setter a Trepan a Snare a Plague and a Torment to all the rest of the Innocent Inhabitants of the four Worlds wherein yet thou plaguest thy self more than any of them Has not thy Creator made thee in his own Image indued thee with divine and human Wisdom substituted thee Governor and Deputy-Lievetenant over all and bountifully enricht thee with a thousand Priviledges and Benefits which we poor inferior Graduates are denyed And hast not thou power to command by Understanding and Art the lower Animals to serve and labour for thee as to plough up and till the stubborn Ground but rendered so by thy Sin so that it becomes fruitful and brings thee forth a great number of various sorts of gallant wholsom nurtritive Seeds Grains which being wisely ordered may make variety of curious Food Art thou not endued with Strength and Art to manure cultivate and improve the Earth also by planting innumerable Fruit-Trees which will afford not only good Food but likewise several sorts of delicate and refreshing Drinks Does not that brave Creature the Cow pay thee Tribute twice a day by filling thy Pails with Nectar which of it self is a sublime Food and being altered by Care and Art makes several sorts of excellent Dishes Doth not the bounteous Earth out of her ever-Teeming Womb by Nature and the help of thy Art present thee with a vast Number of various sorts of beautiful fragrant and virtuous Plants and Herbs proper both for Food and Physick In a word has not our benificent and indulgent Creator freely accomodated thee with the Blessings of all the four Worlds which almost surpass in Number the utmost reach of humane Arithmetick Has he not appointed the Coelestials to distill continually their sweet Influences upon thee Dost thou not command the fine soft Wool of that most innocent and useful Creature the Sheep to cover the self-contracted Shame of thy Nakedness and keep thee from the Injuries of the Elements Art not thou possest of all the stately Woods and noble Trees wherein we are content to spond our selves and build our Nests but thou takest liberty to cut them down not only to supply thee with Fires but also to furnish thee with many other Conveniences both of Necessity and Ornament especially to build thee Houses therewith to secure thy self from pinching Frost and violent Rains and offensive Winds and parching Sun-shine and yet tho' we are thereby disseized of our antient Freeholds and Habitations we have never been heard to murmur or repine who yet enjoy not a thousandth part of these Priviledges and Felicities We pretend not to command over any of our fellow Creatures nor have the use of Fire nor the benefit of Houses we wear none but our own natural Cloathings and are continually exposed to all the Injuries of the Elements neither are we endued with Arts and Sciences Crafts and Mysteries whereby to make any Advantages to our selves so that we have nothing to trust to but only the divine Hand of our Creator when he gives us a Breakfast we know not where we shall have a Dinner nor what it will be so when we Sup we know nothing of what Food or where we shall eat on the Morrow but wholly rely upon our Maker who never faileth to comfort and feed us for a few and simple mean things sufficiently serve our turns and relieve our wants and therefore we need not many our Desires never wandring beyond the necessities of Nature our Food is innocent and our Drink simple Water therefore we are not sick but live our appoint time in perfect Health Wherefore then O Man shouldst thou lie in wait to shorten our days to disturb our Repose and interrupt our Harmony by the hellish Noise of thy Guns Arms Snares and Stratagems Or why dost thou teach thine Off-spring as soon as they are able to handle a Stone to fling it at us as if we were your Enemies Are not those of our winged kind that inhabit the most sweet and sublime Element the Air more Noble than any of the inferior Creatures that grovel upon the Earth or hide themselves in the Waters And do not all men delight to hear our Melodious Consorts and Musical Notes filling the Heavens and Earth with our delightful Songs which we chaunt forth in honour and praise to our Creator being free from Envy Strife Contention from carking Cares and Vexations all places being our Home and we go freely where we please except when entangled in thy treacherous Gins and Devices for which there is no pretence or provocation nor the least colour of Reason why thou shouldst envy our simple innocent Life seeing we cannot by our Death contribâ—te any thing to thy Happiness who arâ— already so plentifully stored with the great and gallant Priviledges and Advantages before-mentioned And O! what a brave noble wise Creature would Man be and what