Slavery wherein they Wish for Death and cannot find it a Slavery from whence they cry and write unto us It had been Good for us that we had never been Born Quis talia fando Temperet a Lacrymis Thus as Job sometimes complained Chap. 10.17 Thou Renewest thy Witnesses against me and increasest thine Indignation upon me Changes and War are against me Thus in our Long War we have seen those Changes on all Hands and in all Kinds which have witnessed against us the Dreadful Indignation of God God Threatned His people so I read it Amos 2.13 Behold I will press your place as a full Cart presses the Sheaf 'T is an Allusion to the old way of Threshing the Corn by drawing a Loaden Cart with Wheels over the Corn. 9. d. You shall undergo Tribulation Ah New-England Thou hast been under such a Tribulation Syrs Have you not Observed these things But you must wisely Observe them And a wise Observation of these things will cause you to see That the War which hath been upon us hath been a War of GOD. The Indians have been but a small part of those Armies which the Great GOD hath been bringing out against us for Ten Years together and we may conclude that all the Land have been more or less concerned in those Crimes for which the Almighty GOD hath been with these Armies managing His Controvesy with us Our Confession must be Peccavimus omnes We have all gone astray But shall we not upon this Observation take up some Resolution If we are Wise we fhall thus Resolve 'T is Time 'T is Time 'T is High-Time for us to make our Peaee with God Oh Let us not go on to Harden our selves against God we are not Stronger than He But let us all Fly to the Lord Jesus Corist who is our Peace and so lay down the Arms of Rebellion that God may be Reconciled unto us VII In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is wise may Observe those Dispensations of Heaven towards us that have carryed more than Ordinary Humiliations in them It was said concerning Miriam the Type of the Now Leprous and out-cast Church of Israel The Lord hasten that Seventh Day wherein it shall be Restored Numb 12.14 If her Father had Spit in her Face should she not be Ashamed Ah New England Thy Father hath been Spitting in thy Face with most Humbling Dispensations God hath been bringing of thee down to Sit in the Dust When the War commenced New-England might say My God will Humble me For First Shall our Heavenly Father put a Rod into the Hands of base Indians and bid Them to Scourge His Children Oh! the Humiliation of such Rebellious Children Oh! the Provocation that certainly such Sons and such Daughters have given Him It was a very Humbling thing that the Lord Threatned unto His Provoking Sons Daughters in Deut. 32.21 I will move them to Jealousy with those which are not a People I will provoke them to Anger with a Foolish Nation Should a Child of yours be Refractory and you Sir should bid a Negro or an Indian Slave in your House Go Take that Child and Scourge him till you fetch Blood of him Surely this would be to Humble him unto the Uttermost Thus doth thy God Humble thee O New-England by putting thee over into the Vile Hands of those which are not a People but a Foolish Nation Again Who are they by whose means we are now crying out We are Brought very Low When the most High God was determined Effectually to Humble His People he said in Jer. 37.10 Though ye had Smitten the whole Army of the Caldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they Rise up every man in his Tent and burn this City with Fire Truly we had Smitten the whole Army of the Indians that Fought against us Three and Twenty years ago from one end of the Land unto the other only there were left a few Wounded men among them in the East and now they have Risen up every man and have set the whole Country on Fire Certainly A more Humbling matter cannot be Related Moreover Is it not a very Humbling Thing That when about an Hundred Indians durst Begin a War upon all these Populous Colonies an Army of a Thousand English raised must not kill one of them all but instead thereof more of our Souldiers perish by Sickness and Hardship than we had Enemies then in the world Our God ha's Humbled us Is it not a very Humbling Thing That when the Number of our Enemies afterwards Increased yet an Handful of them should for so many Summers together continue our Unconquered Spoilers and put us to such Vast Charges that if we could have Bought them for an Hundred Pound an Head we should have made a Saving Bargain of it Our God ha's Humbled us Is it not a very Humbling Thing That we should have had several fair Opportunities to have brought this War unto a Final Period but we should still by some fatal Oversight let Slip those Opportunities Our God ha's Humbled us Is it not a very Humling Thing That whatever Expeditions we have undertaken for the most part we have come off Loosers and indeed but plunged our selves into deeper Straits by our Undertakings Our God ha's Humbled us Is it not a very Humbling Thing That more than One or Two of our Forts have been Surrendred and one of them that was almost Impregnable given away with a most Shameful Surrender by one that hath since Received Something of what he Deserved Thus Our God ha's Humbled us Is it not a very Humbling Thing That we should have Evil pursuing of us at such a rate that in other Lands afar off and on the Exchange in London Strangers have made this Reflection Doubtless New-England is a Countrey in Ill Terms with Heaven But so Our God has Humbled us What shall I say Is it not a very Humbling Thing That when Peace is Restored unto the whole English Nation and when Peace is Enjoy'd by all America poor New-England should be the Only Land still Embroil'd in War But thus Our God Thou hast Humbled us and shown us great and sore Troubles and brought us down into the Depths of the Earth O my dear People How can I Observe these Things and not like Joshua now fall to the Earth on my Face before the Lord and say What shall I say But if you will wisely observe these Things you will now get up and Sanctify your selves and put away the accursed thing from among you O New-English Israel Certainly The High and Lofty One who dwells in the High and Holy place Expects that we should be a very Humbled People I beseech you Sirs Observing these Things let us in all the Methods of Repentance Humble our selves under the Mighty Hand of God After such Humbling Things as have befallen us God forbid that it should be said of us as in Jer.
keep to that Book the Bible and I will preach what is in that Book Minister Taking up the Bible Friend you pretend then to understand this Book I do here make you this offer That I will immediately Turn you to Ten several places in one Book of this Holy Bible the Chronicles And if you can give me a Tolerable Solution of any one of them I 'le acknowledge that you are worthy to preach out of it Quaker Canst thou do it thy self Minister I Humbly Hope I can Quaker How dost thou know that I can't Minister I say you can't Now do you Accept my offer If you can I 'l own that I have wrong'd you Quaker What 's that to thee what I can do Minister Look you Neighbours I think 't is to no purpose to proceed unto any other points with such unreasonable Folks as these You see how ' Tis. If you desire it I 'l proceed Neighbours No Syr 'T is to no purpose they are a people of no Reason Quaker Nay Friend M. I would not have thee to be so Hard upon us I mean Thee no Harm I hear thou takest a great deal of pains for the good of thy people And they will do well to Hearken to Thee I have Rebuked some of them for speaking Evil of thee Yea It is my Judgment That thou and other such Ministers as Thou art ought Honourably to be maintained by the people Minister You differ from all your Friends methinks What Would you have us to be Hirelings 'T is very strange to hear a Quaker plead for the Maintainance of our Ministry But for your satisfaction I 'l tell you The people whom I Serve I never once in all my Life Ask'd for any Maintainance or Salary and I never made any Agreement with them about any Salary in all my Life Quaker I say I would not have Thee too Hard upon us New England has Persecuted our Friends at a grievous Rate Minister Nay Friends Be not you too Hard upon me about that matter I Approve Persecution as Little as any of you all I abhor it I have Preach'd against it I have Writ against it I have Bewayled the mistakes that some Good men have committed in it I would have you Treated with all the Civility imaginable I would not have the Civil Magistrate inflict up on you the Damage of one Farthing for your Consciences Quaker But now you may see how the Judgments of God are come upon the East Country by the Indians for your Persecution Minister I can't tell That neither For tho' I am sorry at my Heart that ever you were Persecuted Yet I can't say That because Boston was guilty of Persecution therefore Newichawannic and Cascâ— Bay places in other Provinces that never had any such thing in it must be cut off Quaker Yes they Persecuted at the East ward There were Two Women of our Friends cruelâ—y Scourged there Minister I suppose you refer to a Story published by one George Bishop a Quaker He Complains bitterly of the New England Persecution because there came Two Quaker women Stark Naked into our Publick Assemblies and they were carried unto the Whipping post for it This was in the Northern parts of the Country as I have been told These Baggages I believe were the persecuted women you talk of Quaker Well and what if they did appear Naked to show the People the Nakedness of their Sins Minister For Shame Sirs let us have no more of This Talk Quaker Why didst thou treat George Keith so hardly Minister He deserved it when I so Treated him And you Quakers have since Treated him Ten Times worse than ever I did You write whole Books of Railing against him I never got him into Goals and under Fines I should have been Troubled at any that would have done so But you have done it Therefore I believe 't is best for you to leave that Subject And so after a few other small Pulls the Saw stood still The Conference ended There are Five or Six witnesses which I have to attest unto the Truth of this Relation which I have here given of a Conference with a Quaker which had all the Friends far and near wondering as well as wandring after him And yet these Cretians boasted among their Friends how much they had confounded the Minister in this Conference All that I would presume now to Commend unto those Towns which have such Quakers annoying of them is This Brethren carry it well even with all convenient Civility Humanity towards this Poor Deluded People while you Charge your Children and Servants that they do not go unto their Meetings and cast not your selves also into Temptation by needlessly being There But after all yea before all make an Experiment which the Good People at Lyn made a little while ago with a Success truly observable and memorable The Quakers made a more than ordinary Descent upon the Town of Lyn and Quakerism suddenly spread there at such a rate as to Alarum the Neighbourhood The Pastor of the Church there Indicted a Day for Prayer with Fasting to Implore the Help of Heaven against the unaccountable Enchantment and the Good People presented accordingly on July 19 1694. their fervent Supplicaâ—ions unto the Lord that the Spiritual Plague might proceed no further The Spiriâ— of our Lord Jesus Christ gave a Remarkable Effect unto this Holy Method of Encountring the Charms of Quakerism It proved a Better method than any Coercion of the Civil Magistrate Quakerism in Lyn received as I am informed a Death-Wound from that very Day The Number of Quakers in that place hath been so far from Increasing that I am told it hath since rather Decreased notably Now let other Endangered Plantations Go and do likewise The Quakers are such Enemies to the Holy Religion which is the Life of New England That you must Excuse my concern to have you Fortify'd against their Attempts also while I am giving you an History of your other Enemies What all of them would be at methinks was a little intimated by what One of them once Declared The Globe Tavern was near our Publick and Spacious Meeting-House at Salem and a Noted Quaker there caused a paper to be set up on the Door of that Meeting-House which had such Stuff as this written in it Beware Beware and Enter not But rather to the Globe and spend a Pot. This is but like a passage mentioned in the Life of that Excellent man Mr. P. Henry lately published A Debauched Gentleman in his Revels Drinking and Swearing at Malpas was Reproved by a Quaker then in his Company Why said the Gentleman I 'le ask thee one Question Whether it is better for me to follow Drinking and Swearing or to go and Hear Henry The Quaker answered Nay of the Two rather follow thy Drinking and Swearing Behold the Spirit of Quakerism When I once compelled a Quaker to confess that the Body of Jesus of Nazareth rose from the Grave and went
in it that may by our selves be justly thought Considerable Should any Petit Monsieur complain as the Captain that found not himself in the Tapestry Hangings which Exhibited the Story of the Spanish Invasion in 1588. that he don't find himself mentioned in this History the Author has his Apology He has done as well and as much as he could that whatever was worthy of a mention might have it and if this Collection of Matters be not compleat yet he supposes it may be more compleat than any one else hath made and now he hath done he hath not pull'd up the Ladder after him others may go on as they please with a compleater Composure If the Author hath taken Delight in this History and at all Times to Celebrate the Merits of such as have Deserved well of his Country which he has here done it may be for some that never could afford him a good word Especially if he do Erect Statues for Dead Worthies when there is no Room Left for Flattery for who will bestow paint upon a Dead Face And if he do all this with all possible concern to avoid casting Aspersions upon others Why should any betray such Ili Nature as to be angry at it My Good Country forgive him this Injury Huic Uni forsan poteram Succumbere culpae But whatever this History be it aims at the Doing of Good as well as the Telling of Truth and if its Aim shall be attained That will be a sufficient Reward for all the Trouble of Writing it When he Desires any more he 'l give you his Name In the mean Time as a far greater man once was called Ludovicus Nihili which you may make Lewis of Nothingham so the Author will count himself not a little favoured if he may pass for one of no more Account than a No body which would certainly make a very Blameless person of him However that the History may not altogether want a Subscription the Author finding it a Custome among the Christian Writers of the Orient when they have written a Treatise to Subscribe it after this manner Scriptum per Servum vilem pauperem omnibus Justitiis privatum peccatorem magis quam omnis Caro Or Scripsit hoc pauper N. N. Or Est Scriptura servi pauperis et qui Benevolentia Dei indiget et miserationibus he will accordingly Subscribe himself The Chief of Sinners Nevertheless he will humbly Lay claim to the Words used by the Nameless Author of a Treatise Entituled The Faithful Steward Tho' I am worse then they speak of me who cast Disgrace upon me and I can Espy Ten Faults in my self where they can discern One yet I can thro' Grace Appeal to Thee O Lord with some Comfort that I am Displeased with my self for my Sins and would fain please Thee in all Things at all Times in all places and in every Condition Decennium Luctuosum OR The Remarkables of a long WAR WITH Indian-Salvages INTRODUCTION TWenty Three Years have Rolled away since the Nations of Indians within the Confines of New England generally began a Fierce War upon the English Inhabitants of that Country The Flame of War then Raged thro' a great part of the Country whereby many whole Towns were Lâ—id in Ashes and many Lives were Sacrificed Buâ— in liâ—tle more than one years Time the United-Colonies of Plymouth Massachuset and Conneâ—ticut with theâ—r United Endeavours bravely Câ—â—quered the Salvages The Evident Hand of Heaven appearing on the Side of a people whose Hope and Help was alone in the Almighty Lord of Hosts Extinguished whole Nations of the Salvages at such a rate that there can hardly any of them now be found under any Distinction upon the face of the Earth Onely the Eare of our Northern and Eastern Regions in that War waâ— veâ—y different â—â—om that of the rest The Desolâ—â—ions of the War had overwhelmâ—d all the Settlements to the North-East of Wests And when the Time arrived that all hands were weary of the War a sort of a Peace was patched up which Left a Body of Indians not only with Horrible Murders Unrevenged but also in the possession of no little part of the Countrey with circumstances which the English might think not very Honourable Upon this Peace the English returned unto their Plantations their Number increased they Stock'd their Farms and Sow'd their Fields they found the Air as Healthful as the Earth was Fruâ—tful their Lumber and their Fishery became a considerable Merchandize continual Accessions were made unto them until Ten or a Dozen Towns in the Province of Main and the County of Cornwall were suddenly Started up into something of Observation But in the Year 1688. the Indians which dwelt after the Indian manner among them Commenced another War upon these Plantations which hath broke them up and strangely held us in play for Ten Years together In these Ten Years there hath been a variety of Remarkable Occurrences and because I have supposed that a Relation of those Occurrences may be Acceptable and Profitable to some of my Country men I shall now with all Faithfulness Endeavour it With all Faithfulness I say because tho' there should happen any Circumstantial Mistake in our Story for 't is a rare thing for any Two men concern'd in the same Action to give the Story of it without some Circumstantial Difference yet even thiâ— also I shall be willing to Retract and Correct if there be found any just occasion But for any one Material Error in the whole Composure I challenge the most Sagacious Malica upon Earth to detect it while matters are yâ—â— so fresh as to allow the Detection of it I disdain to make the Apology once made by the Roman Historian Nemo Historicus non aliquid mentitus et habiturus sum mendaciorum Comites quos Historiae et eloquentiae miramur Authores No I will write with an Irreproachable and Incontestable Veracity and I will write not one Thihg but what I am furnished with so good Authority for that any Reasonable man who will please to Examine it shall say I do well to insert it as I do And I will hope that my Reader hath not been Studying of Godefridus de Valle's Book De Arte nihil Credendi About The Art of Believing nothing Wherefore having at the very Beginning thus given such a Knock upon thy Head O malice that thou canst never with Reason Hiss at our History we will proceed unto the several Articles of it ARTICLE I. The Occasion and Beginning of the WAR IF Diodorus Siculus had never given it as a great Rule of History Historiae primum Studium primariaque consideratio esse videtur insoliti gravisque Casus principio causas investigare Yet my Reader would have expected that I should Begin the History of our War with an History of the Occurrences and Occasions which did Begin the War Now Reader I am at the very first fallen upon a Difficult Point and I am in danger of pulling
thus beheld a Formidable Crue of Dragons coming with open mouth upon them to Swallow them up at a Mouthful one of the Souldiers began to speak of Surrendring upon which the Captain Vehemently protested That he would lay the man Dead who should so much as mutter that base word any more and so they heard no more on 't But the Valiant Storer was put upon the like protestation to keep 'em in good Fighting trim aboard the Sloops also The Enemy now Approaching very near gave Three Shouts that made the Earth ring again and Crying out in English Fire and Fall on Brave Boyes the whole Body drawn into Three Ranks Fired at once Captain Convers immediately ran into the several Flankers and made their Best Guns Fire at such a rate that several of the Enemy fell and the rest of 'em disappeared almost as Nimbly as if they had been so many Spectres Particularly a parcel of them got into a small Deserted House which having but a Board-Wall to it the Captain sent in after them those Bullets of Twelve to the Pound that made the House too hot for them that could get out of it The Women in the Garrison on this occasion took up the Amazonian Stroke and not only brought Ammunition to the Men but also with a Manly Resolution fired several Times upon the Enemy The Enemy finding that Things would not yet go to their minds at the Garrison drew off to Try their Skill upon the Sloops which lay still abrest in the Creek lash'd fast one to another They built a Great Fire Work about Eighteen or Twenty Foot Square and fill'd it up with Combustible matter which they Fired and then they set it in the way for the Tide now to Flote it up unto the Sloops which had now nothing but an horrible Death before them Nevertheless their Demands of both the Garrison and the Sloops to yield themselves were answered no otherwise than with Death upon many of them Spit from the Guns of the Beseiged Having tow'd their Fire-Work as far as they durst they committed it unto the Tide but the Distressed Christians that had this Deadly Fire Swimming along upon the Water towards 'em committed it unto God and God looked from Heaven upon them in this prodigious Article of their Distress These poor men Cryed and the Lord heard them and saved them out of their Troubles The Wind unto their Astonishment immediately Turn'd about and with a Fresh Gale drove the Machin ashore on the other side and Split it so that the Water being let in upon it the Fire went out So the Godly men that Saw God from Heaven thus Fighting for them Cryed out with an Astonishing Joy If it had not been the Lord who was on our Side they had Swallowed us up quick Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us a prey to their Teeth our Soul is Escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowlers The Enemy were now in a pittiful pickle with Toyling and Moyling in the Mud black'ned with it if Mud could add Blackness to such Miscreants and their Ammunition was pretty well Exhausted So that now they began to Draw off in all parts and with Rafts get over the River some whereof breaking there did not a few Cool their late Heat by falling into it But first they made all the Spoil they could upon the Cattel about the Town and giving one Shot more at the Sloops they kill'd the only Man of ours that was kill'd aboard ' em Then after about Half an Hours Consultation they send a Flag of Truce to the Garrison advising 'em with much Flattery to Surrender but the Captain sent 'em word That he wanted for nothing but for men to come and Fight him The Indian replyed unto Captain Convers Being you are so Stout why don't you come and Fight in the open Field like a Man and not Fight in a Garrison like a Squaw The Captain rejoyned What a Fool are you Do you think Thirty men a Match for Five Hundred No sayes the Captain counting as well he might each of his Fifteen men to be as Good as Two Come with your Thirty men upon the Plain and I 'le meet you with my Thirty as soon as you will Upon this the Indian answered Nay mee own English Fashion is all one Fool you kill mee mee kill you No better ly some where and Shoot a man and hee no see That the best Souldier Then they fell to Coaksing the Captain with as many Fine Words as the Fox in the Fable had for the Allurement of his Prey unto him and urged mightily that Ensign Hill who stood with the Flag of Truce might stand a little nearer their Army The Captain for a Good Reason to be presently discerned would not allow That whereupon they fell to Threatning and Raging like so many Defeated Devils using these Words Damn ye we 'll cut you as small as Tobacco before to morrow Morning The Captain bid 'em to make Hast for he wanted work So the Indian throwing his Flag on the Ground ran away and Ensign Hill nimbly Stripping his Flag ran into the Valley but the Salvages presently Fired from an Ambushment behind an Hill near the place where they had urged for a Parley And now for poor John Diamond The Enemy Retreating which opportunity the Sloops took to Burn down the Dangerous Hay-Stock into the plain out of Gun-shot they fell to Torturing their Captive John Diamond after a manner very Diabolical They Stripped him they Scalped him alive and after a Castration they Finished that Article in the Punishment of Traitors upon him They Slit him with Knives between his Fingers and his Toes They made cruel Gashes in the most Fleshy parts of his Body and stuck the Gashes with Fire-brands which were afterwards found Sticking in the wounds Thus they Butchered One poor Englishman with all the Fury that they would have spent upon them all and performed an Exploit for Five Hundred Furies to brag of at their coming home Ghastly to Express what was it then to Suffer They Returned then unto the Garrison and kept Firing at it now and then till near Ten a Clock at Night when they all marched off leaving behind 'em some of their Dead whereof one was Monsieur Labocree who had about his Neck a Pouch with about a Dozen Reliques ingeniously made up and a Printed Paper of Indulgences and several other Implements but it seems none of the Amulets about his Neck would save him from a Mortal Shot in the Head Thus in Forty Eight Hours was Finished an Action as Worthy to be Related as perhaps any that occurs in our Story And it was not long before the Valiant Gouge who bore his part in this Action did another that was not much inferiour to it when he suddenly Recovered from the French a valuable prey which they had newly taken upon our Coast I doubt Reader we have made this Article of our History a little too
more had been Siez'd at Saco Fort a little before Bommaseen was Convey'd unto Boston that he might in a close Imprisonment there have Time to consider of his Treacheries and his Cruelties for which the Justice of Heaven had thus Delivered him up When he was going to Pemmaquid he left his Company with a Strange Reluctancy and Formality as if he had presaged the Event and when at Pemmaquid he found the Event of his coming he discovered a more than ordinary Disturbance of mind his Passions foam'd and boyl'd like the very Waters at the Fall of Niagara But being thus fallen upon the mention of that Vengeance wherewith Heaven pursued the chief of the Salvage Murderers it may give some Diversion unto the Reader in the midst of a long and a sad Story to insert a Relation of an Accident that fell out a little after this Time The Indians as the Captives inform us being hungry and hardly bestead passed through deserted Casco where they spied several Horses in Captain Brackets Orchard Their famished Squa's beg'd them to Shoot the Horses that they might be revived with a little Roast meat but the young men were for having a little Sport before their Supper Driving the Horses into a Pound they took one of them and furnished him with an Halter suddenly made of the Main and the Tail of the Animal which they cut off A Son of the famous Hegon was ambitious to mount this Pegasaean Steed but being a pittiful Horseman he ordered them for fear of his Falling to Ty his Legs fast under the Horses Belly No sooner was this Beggar Set on Horse back and the Spark in his own opinion throughly Equipt but the Mettlesome Horse furiously and presently ran with him out of Sight Neither Horse nor Man were ever seen any more the astonish'd Tawnies howl'd after one of their Nobility disappearing by such an unexpected Accident A few Dayes after they found one of his Legs and that was All which they buried in Captain Brackets Cellar with abundance of Lamentation ARTICLE XXII A Conference with an Indian-Sagamore BUt now Bommaseen is fallen into our Hands let us have a little Discourse with him Behold Reader the Troubles and the Troublers of New-England That thou mayst a little more Exactly Behold the Spirit of the matter I 'l Recite certain passages occurring in a Discourse that pass'd between this Bommaseen who was one of the Indian Princes or Chieftanes and a Minister of the Gospel in the year 1696. Bommaseen was with some other Indians now a Prisoner in Boston He desired a Conference with a Minister of Boston which was granted him Bommaseen with the other Indians assenting and asserting to it then told the Minister That he pray'd his Instruction in the Christian Religion inasmuch as he was afraid that the French in the Christian Religion which they taught the Indians had Abused them The Minister Enquired of him What of the Things taught 'em by the French appear'd most Suspicious to ' em He said The French taught 'em That the Lord JESUS CHRIST was of the French Nation That His Mother the Virgin Mary was a French Lady That they were the English who had Murdered him and That whereas He Rose from the Dead went up to the Heavens all that would Recommend themselves unto His Favour must Revenge His Quarrel upon the English as far as they can He ask'd the Minister whether these Things were so and pray'd the Minister to Instruct him in the True Christian Religion The Minister considering that the Humour and Manner of the Indians was to have their Discourses managed with much of Similitude in them Look'd about for some Agreeable object from whence he might with apt Resemblances Convey the Idae's of Truth unto the minds of Salvages and he thought none would be more Agreeable to them than a Tankard of Drink which happened then to be standing on the Table So he proceeded in this Method with ' em He told â—hem still with proper Actions painting and pointing out the Signs unto them That our Lord JESUS CHRIST had given us a Good Religion which might be Resembled unto the Good Drink in the Cup upon the Table That if we Take this Good Religion even that Good Drink into our Hearts it will do us Good and preserve us from Death That Gods Book the Bible is the Cup wherein that Good Drink of Religion is offered unto us That the French having the Cup of Good Drink in their Hands had put Poison into it and then made the Indians to Drink that Poisoned Liquor whereupon they Run mad and fell to killing of the English though they could not but know it must unavoidably issue in their own Destruction at the Last That it was plain the English had put no Poison into the Good Drink for they set the Cup wide open and invited all men to Come See before they Tast even the very Indians themselves for we Translated the Bible into Indian That they might gather from hence that the French had put Poison into the Good Drink inasmuch as the French kept the Cup fast Shut the Bible in an Unknown Tongue and kept their Hands upon the Eyes of the Indians when they put it unto their mouths The Indians Expressing themselves to be well-Satisfied with what the Minister had hitherto said pray'd him to go on with showing 'em what was the Good Drink and what was the Poison which the French had put into it He then set before them distinctly the chief Articles of the Christian Religion with all the Simplicity and Sincerity of a Protestant Adding upon each This is the Good Drink in the Lords Cup of Life And they still professed That they liked it all Whereupon he demonstrated unto them how the Papists had in their Idolatrous Popery some way or other Depraved and Altered every one of these Articles with Scandalous Ingredients of their own Invention Adding upon each This is the Poison which the French have put into the Cup. At last he mentioned this Article To obtain the Pardon of your Sins you must confess your Sins to God pray to God That He would Pardon your Sins for the sake of Jesus Christ who dyed for the Sins of His People God Loves Jesus Christ infinitely and if you place your Eye on Jesus Christ only when you beg the Pardon of your Sins God will Pardon them You need confess your Sins to none but God Except in cases where men have known your Sins or have been Hurt by your Sins then those men should know that you confess your Sins but after all none but God can Pardon them He then added The French have put Poison into this Good Drink They tell you that you must confess your Sins to a Priest and carry skins to a Priest and Submit unto a Penance enjoyned by a Priest and this Priest is to give you a Pardon There is no need of all This 'T is nothing but French Poison all
while that Lieutenant Fletcher with his Two Sons that should have Guarded them went a Fowling and by doing so they likewise sell into the Snare The Indians carrying these Three Captives down the River in one of their Canoes Lieutenant Larabe that was abroad with a Scout way-laid them and Firing on the Foremost of the Canooes that had Three men in it they all Three fell and sank in the River of Death Several were kill'd aboard the other Canooes and the rest ran their Canooes ashore and Escaped on the other side of the River and one of the Fâ—etchers when all the Indians with him were killed was Delivered out of the Hands which had made a prisoner of him tho his poor Father afterwards Dyed among them Hereupon Major March with his Army took a Voyage farther Eastward having several Transport Vessels to accommodate them Arriving at Casco-Bay they did upon the Ninth of September come as occult as they could further East among the Islands near a place called Corbins Sounds and Landed before Day at a place called Damascotta River where before Half of them were well got ashore and drawn up the scarce-yet-expected Enemy Entertained them with a Volley and an Huzza None of ours were Hurt but Major March Repaid 'em in their own Leaden Coin and it was no sooner Light but a Considerable Battel Ensued The Commanders of the Transport-Vessels were persons of such a mettle that they could not with any patience forbear going ashore to take a part of their Neighbours Fare but the Enemy seeing things operate this way fled into their Fleet of Canooes which hitherto Lay out of sight and got off as fast and as well as they could leaving some of their Dead behind them which they never do but when under extream Disadvantages Our Army thus beat 'em off with the Loss of about a Dozen men whereof One was the worthy Captain Dymmock of Barnstable and about as many Wounded whereof one was Captain Phillips of Charlstown and in this Action Captain Whiting a young Gentleman of much Worth and Hope Courageously acting his part as Commander of the Forces the Helpers of the War which the Colony of Connecticut had Charitably lent unto this Expedition had his Life remarkably rescued from a Bullet grazing the Top of his Head But there was a Singular Providence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the whole of this matter For by the seasonable Arrival and Encounter of our Army an horrible Descent of Indians which probably might have laid whole Plantations Desolate was most happily Defeated And at the same Time the Signal Hand of Heaven gave a Defeat unto the purposes of the French Squadrons at Sea so that they had something else to do than to Visit the Coast of New-England ARTICLE XXVII The End of the Year and we hope of the War O Thou Sword of the Wilderness When wilt thou be quiet On Sept. 11. A party of the Enemy came upon the Town of Lancaster then prepared for Mischief by a wonderful Security and they did no little Mischief unto it Near Twenty were killed and among the rest Mr. John Whiting the Pastor of the Church there Five were carryed Captive Two or Three Houses were burnt and several Old People in them Captain Brown with Fifty men pursued them till the Night Stop't their pursuit but it seems a Strange Dog or two unknown to the Company did by their Barking alarm the Enemy to Rise in the Night and Strip and Scalp an English Captive-Woman and fly so far into the Woods that after Two Dayes Bootless Labour our men Returned November arrived before any farther Blood shed and then t' was only of one man in the Woods at Oyster-River December arrived with the welcome Tidings of a Peace concluded between England and France which made us Hope that there would be little more of any Blood shed at all The Winter was the Severest that ever was in the memory of man And yet February must not pass without a Stroke upon Pemmaquid Chub whom the Government had mercifully permitted after his Examination to Retire unâ—o his Habitation in Andover As much out of the way as to Andover there came above Thirty Indians about the middle of February as if their Errand had been for a Vengeance upon Chub whom with his Wife they now Massâ—cred there They Took Two or Three House and Slew Three or Four Persons and Mr. Thomas Barnard the worthy Minister of the place very narrowly Escaped their Fury But in the midst of their Fury there was one piece of Mercy the like whereof had never been seen before For they had got Colonel Dudley Bradstreet with his Family into their Hands but perceiving the Town Mustering to follow them their Hearts were so changed that they dismissed their Captives without any further Damage unto their Persons Returning back by Haverhil they kill'd a couple and a couple they Took with some Remarkable circumstances worthy to be made a distinct History But Reader we are now in Hast for to have our present History come unto an End and though the end of this Year did not altogether prove the end of the War for on May 9. 1698. the Indians Murdered an old man at Spruce-Creek and carryed away Three Sons of that old man and wounded a man at York yet we were not without prospect of our Troubles growing towards a period and even in that very Murder at Spruce-creek there fell out one thing that might a little encourage our Hopes concerning it The Murderer was a famous kind of a Giant among the Indians a Fellow Reputed Seven Foot High This Fellow kill'd the poor old man in cold Blood after he had Surrendred himself a Prisoner But behold Before many Hours were out this famous and bloody Fellow accidently Shot himself to Death by his Gun going off when he was foolishly pulling a Canoo to the Shore with it The last Bloody Action that can have a Room in our Story is This The Indians though sometimes it hath been much doubted What Indians have in this War made several Descents upon some of the upper Towns that were our most Northerly Settlements upon Connecticut River But the Pious and Honest People in those Towns have always given them a brave Repulse and had a notable Experience of the Divine Favour to them in their preservations Deerfield ha's been an Extraordinary Instance of Courage in keeping their Station though they have lived all this while in a very Pihahiroth and their worthy Pastor Mr. John Williams deserves the Thanks of all this Province for his Encouraging them all the ways Imaginable to Stand their ground Once the Enemy was like to have Surprised them into a grievous Desolation but he with his Praying and Valiant little Flock mâ—st happily Repelled them And now about the middle of July 1698. a little before Sun set Four Indians killed a Man and a Boy in Hatfield Meadows and carried away Two Boys into Captivity The Advice coming to
in Discerning the Hearts of other men Whereas now in Spite of all their Infallibility such Friends as Keith and Leeds whom they once admired profess that they never in their Hearts Believed as the Common Foxian Quakers do and Quakerism Suffers from none in the world more than these But that I may a little Suggest unto you certain Methods of Encountring those Adversaries of your Faith which go about seeking whom they may deceive and whom I do here offer to prove as horrid Idolaters as even those that worshipp'd the Rats of Egypt if it be fairly demanded of me I will first Recite unto you certain passages of a Discourse which a Minister of Boston had with a very Busy and Noisy Teacher among the Quakers and another of the Friends in his Return from his Visitation unto some of our Northern Towns where the Giddy People had cry'd him up for a None-Such Quaker We are come to give thee a Friendly Visit Minister I am glad to see you at my House you shall be welcome to the best Entertainments my House can afford you But will you do me the Favour to let me understand the Designs upon which you visit these parts of the Country Quaker I come to preach Jesus Christ Minister Excuse me What Christ I pray Quaker The same Christ that appeared unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and that appeared unto Moses in the Bush and that was with Israel in the Wilderness Minister I would interrupt you I perceive that we shall be drawn into some Discourse Matter of Argument will occur I foresee in our Discourse Argument sometimes does draw forth Words that may have too much Warmth in them I purpose none such But if you are sensible that I do let fall any one such word in our Disputation do me the favour to take notice of it unto me and I 'le immediately correct it Now if you please Quaker Thou speakest very well This is but according to the Good Report we have heard of thee Minister Friend I am sensible that you are come among us to preach a Religion different from that which is commonly Preached Professed Practised in the Country If you approve the Religion of the Country I can't see where 's the Sense of it for you to take such tedious Journeys for our Illumination I pray be so kind as to let me know what point in our Holy Religion you do not Approve Quaker 'T is not my Business here to Enquire into thy Religion I am come to preach the Religion of Jesus Christ the same that the Holy Prophets and Apostles believed even the Inward manifestation of Christ in our Hearts Minister To make short work on it I perceive you both to be that sort of people we call Quakers Now there is among the Quakers that extream Uncertainty Varieâ—y and Contradiction that no man can say what you hold any further than each Individual Person will confess his own Tenets I must therefore pray the favour of you to tell me Do you own George Foxes Book Entituled The Great Mystery Quaker 'T is none of our Business to tell what Books we own and what we do not own And it is none of thy Business to Ask us I say We own Jesus Christ and His Inward Manifestation in our Hearts And that 's Enough Minister You 'l Excuse me I do again ask whether you do own George Foxes Book of The Great Mystery Because doubtless you have Read it And if you 'l ask me as much concerning any Book under Heaven that I have Read Whether I own it or How much I own of it I 'l answer you with all the Freedom in the world Quaker I say What hast thou to do with George Fox or to Examine me Minister Yes Friend I do and must and will Examine You. For you are come to Hold Forth unto as many of my Flock as you can And the Word of God bids me to Try you And I have to do with George Eox too because George Fox in his Writings has to do with me And if you will sincerely tell me whether you own George Fox or no I shall more probably tell who you are In short If you 'l say you Deny and Renounce George Fox then I must go another way to work with you If you 'l say you own him then I must endeavour to Save you from some of his Damnable Haeresies Quaker What Haeresies Minister Numberless But I do at this Time call to mind Three of them First That the Soul of man is without Beginning and Infinite This is if I forget not in the 90th page of that Book Secondly That it is not contrary to the Scripture That God the Father took upon Him Humane Nature And That the Scripture does not tell people of a Trinity nor Three Persons in God but that these Three Persons were brought in by the Pope This is in pag. 246. Thirdly That they that are not compleat in Sanctification are not compleat in Justification This is in pag. 284. Now What say ye Syrs Quaker What hast thou to do to Rake into the Ashes of the Dead Let George Fox alone Hast thou any thing to charge upon me Minister I shall know if you 'l tell me whether you own George Fox or no. And you can tell me if you will I would be more civil to you Syrs Quaker I never saw that Book of George Fox And so said the other Quaker that was with him Minister Syrs you astonish me What Never see George Foxes Book of The Great Mystery 'T is impossible This Thing is to me a Mystery Syrs That Book is the very Bible of Quakerism 'T is Essential unto a Quaker at least unto a Teaching Quaker as you are to be Indoctrinated from that Book Never see it man However if you say so I must Believe it Quaker Fell into an Harangue Repeating what he had Preached abroad about the Countrey which because I would misrecite nothing I dare not undertake exactly to Recite in this place Minister I perceive our Conversation will be to little Advantage except we get a little closer to some certain point which I have hitherto Endeavoured but ineffectually Syrs There are several points which I would willingly bring you to And there happening to be several of my Honest Neighbours at hand I have pray'd them with your leave to walk in that they may be Witnesses of what passes between us First I 'll begin if you please with This. I told you at the Beginning I would not willingly Treat you with one Hard word There is an Hard word which will presently occur by the unavoidable course of Disputation I would pray you to ease me of the Trouble of speaking it You shall your self have the speaking of it Quaker What 's that Minister I pray Friend what doth the Scripture say of them that say They know Jesus Christ and yet keep not His Commandments Quaker Nay What dost thou say the Scripture sayes in
that case Minister You will compel me I see I say then The Scripture saies He that says I know Him and keeps not His Commandments is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him 'T is in 1 Joh. 2.4 Quaker And what then Minister Why this then He that says I know Jesus Christ and yet keeps not the Commandments of Jesus Christ is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him You say You know Jesus Christ But you must give me leave to say That you Keep not the Commandments of Jesus Christ Therefore pray Syrs do you help out the Conclusion I am loth to speak it You know what it is Quaker Yes yes We know well enough what Conclusion thou wouldest be at Thou wouldest say That we are Lyars and that the Truth is not in us Minister Right Since it must be so Quaker But what Commandment of Jesus Christ is there that we don't keep Minister The Commandment of Jesus Christ is For His Disciples to be Baptised with Water But you Quaâ—kers do not keep that Commandment of Jesus Christ Quaker How dost thou prove that Jesus Christ commanded Baptism with Water Minister I know you must have the word Water or nothing will content you Else I would have urged for a Sufficient proof our Lords Commanding His Ministers to Baptise men Matth. 28.19 This Command Expresses our Duty 'T is not our Duty to Baptise men with the Holy Spirit This belongs not unto Us but unto Him who 's that Holy Spirit is You will not say we Sin if we don't Baptise the Disciples in all Nations with the Holy Spirit So then it must be a Baptism with Water which is there Commanded by our Lord. But as I said you must have the word Water you shall have it The Apostle Peter said Quaker The Apostle Peter The Apostle Peter Thou wast to prove that Jesus Christ Commanded Baptism with Water And now Thou art come to the Apostle Peter Minister Stay Friend not so fast Will you say then that the Commandments brought by the Apostle Peter as the Commandments of Jesus Christ are not the Commandments of Jesus Christ But however I 'le mend the Expression The Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Apostle Peter Now I hope it fits you Quaker J. S. Thou art a Monster all Mouth and no Ears Minister Prethee talk Civilly Don't make me Believe that I am at Ephesus If I were in one of your Houses I would not give you such Language you had but now a greater liberty to use your Mouth than I have hitherto taken and my Ears were patient But you foresee my Argument is going to pinch you 'T is but Civility to let me Finish it Quaker Thou wast to prove that Jesus Christ Commanded Baptism with Water And thou hast not proved it And therefore thou Speakest Falsely Minister What do you mean These little Shuffles won't help you I say The Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Apostle Peter after our Lords Ascension when it was Impossible for Johns Baptism which was into the Messiah Suddenly to come not already come should have place did say in Act. 10 47. Can any man Forbid Water that these should not be Baptised which have Received the Holy Ghost Quaker How does this prove That Jesus Christ Commanded these to be Baptised with water Minister Thus If Jesus Christ had not Commanded Baptism with Water any man might have then Forbid it But no man could Forbid it Therefore Jesus Christ Commanded it Quaker Therefore Therefore Argo Argo Why Dost thou think Religion is to be proved by thy Thâ—â—efore's by thy Argo's Minister Friend I perceive the word Therefore is a verâ— dead doing sort of a Word to yee I 'le dismiss this Terrible Word I 'le only say The Reason why none could forbid Believers to be Baptised with Water was meerly Because Jesus Christ Commanded it Quaker BECAUSE Why the word Because is as bad as the word Therefore Minister Smiling It may be so But in the mean time you are wonderfully unreasonable I say why could none forbid Water for the Faithful to be Baptised Quaker Who sayes None could Forbid Water 'T is only said Can any man Forbid Water Minister I pray Syrs And is not this None can But I 'l bring the matter to bear upon you without those two Dangerous words THEREFORE and BECAUSE at which you are so terrified I will put the matter into the Form of a Question And your Answer to this Question shall put an End to our present Velitations Quaker What have we to do to Answer thy Questions Minister My Question is Whether a man might not forbid in the Worship of Jesus Christ what Jesus Christ Himself hath no way Commanded You can Answer this Question if you will I desire I demand your Answer Quaker What For us to answer thy Questions That would be to Ensnare our selves Minister I am very sensible of That Therefore take Notice You are Ensnared in the Toyls of your own miserable Delusions But still I say Answer my Question Quaker Do you see Neighbours Friend M. was to prove that Jesus Christ commanded Baptism and now he 's come to a Question Minister So I am Truly And I see 't is a Question that puts you into a Sweat I beseech you to Answer it I Require you to Answer it What shall I say I Defy you to Answer it Pardon my Cogency You Force me to ' t Quaker I say How does a Question prove That Jesus Christ commanded Baptism with Water And why dost thou Baptise Infants Minister Nay I 'le keep you to the Question Your Answer to the Question will prove it I am designing to make you your selves prove it And Sirs I do here offer to you That I will give the best Answer I can to any Question in the world that you shall put unto me why are you so loath to Answer one short Question of mine Quaker I be not obliged to Answer thy Question Minister I must contrive some fair way to Compel some Answer unto this one Question Give me leave therefore to tell you That if you do not Answer this Question you go away conquered and confounded Yea Sirs I must in Faithfulness tell you That you carry away the dreadful Mark of Hereticks upon you Even To be Condemned in your own Conscience You go away Self-Condemned That you don't keep the Commandments of Jesus Christ and Therefore That you are what you Remember the Apostle John said concerning you Quaker I don't condemn Thee for using Baptism with Water Minister This is no Answer to the Question still For you don't observe it your self neither you nor any Quakers under Heaven Wherefore I still urge for an Answer Quaker Thou art not Civil to us Is this thy Civility to Strangers We have heard a Great Famâ— of thee for thy Civil and obliging carriage towards others that are not of thy perswasion But now thou are uncivil to us That which I have to say is I will
up into the Heavens he begg'd me that I would not improve his confession as if made on the behalf of all his Friends And another of them as I hear publickly Held Forth by one of his late Stercorations That the Husks of the Swine on which the Prodigal fed in the Parable were The Bread and Wine in that which People call The Sacrament But what will become of those Forlorn Villages that shall Resign themselves to the conduct of that Light within which our Sacred Scriptures indeed never expresly mention but once or twice and then call it Real Darkness and which may lead men to all this wickedness There was among the Mahometans in the Eastern parts of the World a Sect called Batenists from the Arabic Baten which signifies within who were Enthusiasts that followed The Light within like our Quakers and on this principle they did such Numberless Villanies that the World was not able to bear them None of all their Diabolical Raveries which I know I am now pulling on my self and which I value no more than if they came from the Pouliats of Malabar shall frighten me from solliciting your Christian Cares Prayers That you be not over-run with English Batenists And I must sollicitously make the Observation That although such a Number of Quakers in our Nation be a dreadful Judgment of God upon men smiting them with Spiritual Plagues for their Unfruitfulness and Unthankfulness under the Gospel nevertheless of a special Favour of God that the Number of Quakers is no Greater for if they should multiply not only would Christianity be utterly Extinguished â—ut Humanity it self Exterminated It is well known That when a Quaker had Stollen an Hour-glass their Mahomet George Fox of whom Sol. Eccles in a Sheet call'd The Quakers Challenge pag. 6. saies He was the Christ thus vindicated it Great Myst pag. 77. As for any being moved of the Lord to take away your Hour-glass from you by the Eternal Power it is owned Reader Dost not thou even Tremble to think what a Dark Land we should have if it should ever be fill'd with these pretended followers of the Light who wear the Name of Tremblers In Truth I know not unto what better one might compare them than unto the Macheveliers growing upon St. Lucia Trees which bear Apples of such an Odour and Colour as invites people to Eat thereof but it is horribly Dangerous to do so for there is no Antidote that can secure a man from speedy Death who hath once tasted of them The Leaf of the Trees makes an Ulcer on any place touched with it the Dew that falls from them fetches off the Skin the very Shadow swells a man so as to kill him if he be not speedily helped ARTICLE XXX Things to Come FRom Relating of Things past it would no doubt be very Acceptable to the Reader if we could pass to Foretelling of Things to come Our Curiosity in this point may easily come to a Degree Culpable and Criminal We must be Humbly content with what the God in whose Hands are our Times hath Reveal'd unto us Two Things we will venture to Insert First For our selves at home Let us Remember an awful Saying of our Goodwin quoted by my Reverend Friend Mr. Noyes in his late Excellent Sermon at our Anniversary Election As you Look for Storms in Autumn and Frosts in Winter so Expect Judgments where the Gospel hath been Preached for the Quarrel of the Covenant must be Avenged Secondly For the Church abroad I am far from deserting what was Asserted in the Sermon Preached at our Anniversary Election in the year 1696. The Tidings which I bring unto you are That there is a Revolution and a Reformation at the very Door which will be vastly more wonderful than any of the Deliverances yet seen by the Church of God from the Beginning of the World I do not say That the Next year will bring on this Happy Period but this I do say The Bigger part of this Assembly may in the course of Nature Live to see it These Things will come on with horrible Commotions and Concussions and Confusions The mighty Angels of the Lord Jesus Christ will make their Descent and set the World a Trembling at the Approaches of their Almighty Lord They will Shake Nations and Shake Churches and Shake mighty Kingdoms and Shake once more not Earth only but Heaven also Unto these Two Things my Reader will not misimprove it I hope if I add a Third lately fallen into my Hands and never yet so Exposed unto the Publick A Wonderful Matter Incontestably Demonstrated and much Desired by some Good men to be in this place Communicated MR. John Sadler a very Learned and a very Pious man and a most Exemplary Christian Lay Sick in his Bed at his Mannor of Warmwell in Dorset-Shire In the year 1663. In the Time of his Illness he was visited by Mr. Cuthbert bound the Minister of Warmwell Mr. Sadler then desired his man one Thomas Gray to see that there should be no body else in the Room and Lock the Door and give him the Key He then Sat up in his Bed and asked Mr. Bound and the Attendent Gray Whether theâ— Saw no body and whether they did noâ— hear what a person said that stood at the corner of the Chamber They Replied No. Hâ— wondred at it and said The man spake so loud that the whole Parish might hear him Hereupon calling for a Pen and Ink hâ— wrote what was told him and made Them leâ— their Hands to it For he told them the maâ— would not be gone till he had seen that done The Articles written down were I. That there would after so many months be a Plague in London whereof so many woulâ— Dye Naming the Number II. That the greatest part of the City woulâ— be Burnt and Pauls he particularly show'â— him Tumbled down into Ruines as if Beateâ— down with Great Guns III. That there would be Three Soâ— Hightâ— between the English and the Dutch IV. That there would appear Three Blaziâ—â— Stars the Last of which would be terrible tâ— behold He said the man show'd him thâ— Star V. That afterwards there would come Thrâ—â— small Ships to Land in the West of Weymoutâ— which would put all England in an uproar bâ—â— it would come to nothing VI. That in the year 1688. there would come to pass such a Thing in the Kingdom as all the world would take notice of VII That after this and after some further Disturbance there would be Happy Times And a Wonderful Thing would come to pass which he was not now to Declare VIII That he and his man Gray should Dye before the Accomplishment of these things but Mr. Bound should Live to see it IX For the confirmation of the whole the man thus appearing told him That he should be well the next Day and there would come There men to visit him One from Ireland One from Guernsey and his Brother Bingham Accordingly
Religion will observably Decay among those Christians the Seed sown in the Publick will not so much prosper for want of being watered in private And when the Pastor shall fall sick there will not be so much as one company of Christians in all his Flock that can come together to pray for his Life VI. Where Churches professing a Great Reformation shall in their Constitution cease to Represent unto the World the Holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His Heavenly Kingdom they will become Loathsome to that Holy Lord their Glory is gone and their Defence goes with it the dreadful Wrath of Heaven will Astonish the World with the Things which it will do unto them VII Where Churches are Loth to give unto Councils regularly upon Complaints Enquiring into their Administrations an Account thereof 't is much to be suspected that they are Chargeable with Male-Administrations and if the Advice of Regular Councils come once to be trod under foot by any Particular Churches all serious men will be afraid of joining to such Unaccountable Societies VIII Where a mighty Body of people in a Country are violently set upon running down the ancient Church State in that Country and are violent for the Hedge about the Communion at the Lords-Table to be broken down and for those who are not Admitted unto the Communion to stand on equal Terms in all Votes with them that are the Churches there are not far from a tremendous Convulsion and they had need use a marvellous Temper of Resolution with Circumspection to keep it off IX Where Churches are bent upon Backsliding and carried away with a strong Spirit of Apostasy whatever Minister shall set himself to withstand their Evil Bents will pull upon himself an inexpressible contempt and hatred Be his merits never so Great a Thousand Arts will be used for to make him Little He had need be a man of Great Faith and Great Prayer But God will at length Honour such a man with wonderful Recompences X. Where a Fountain shall become Corrupt there the Streams will no longer Make Glad the City of God XI The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we have with much expence lately sent unto several of our Southern Plantations If it be Rejected there are Terrible Things to come upon them 't were better to have Lived in Sodom than in one of those Plantations XII God prepare our dear Brethren in Connectecut for certain Changes that are Impending over them Finally There was a Town called Amyciae which was Ruined by Silence The Rulers because there had been some false Alarms forbad all people under pain of Death to speak of any Enemies approaching them So when the Enemies came indeed no man durst speak of it and the Town was Lost Corruptions will grow upon the Land and they will gain by Silence 'T will be so Invidious to do it No man will dare to speak of the Corruptions and the Fate of Amycâ—e will come upon the Land Reader I call'd these things Prophecy But I wish I be not all this while Writing History Now if any Discerning persons apprehend any Dangers to Impend over New-England from any of the Symptomes mentioned it is to be hoped they will Employ their best Thoughts how to Anticipate those Dangers And whereas 't is the sense of all men who discern any thing that it is in vain to hope for any Good until a Spirit of Grace be poured out from Heaven to dispose men unto it I beg them to consider whether the only way to obtain that Spirit of Grace be not Humbly to Ask it by Prayer with Fasting before the God of Heaven It was therefore an Article in an Advice agreed by some of the principal Ministers in this Province and with the mention of that Advice which doubtless all but the Sleeping will follow I 'l conclude Solemn Days of Prayer with Fasting celebrated in our Churches to Implore the Grace of God for the Rising Generation would probably be of blessed consequence for the Turning of our Young people unto the God of our Fathers The more there is this way ascribed unto Grace the more the Grace of God is like to be communicated and there is in this way a natural and a plentiful Tendency to Awaken our Unconverted Youth unto a sense of their Everlasting Interests Which were it generally accomplished a Remarkable Reformation where therein Effected Observable Things THE HISTORY OF Ten Years Rolled away under the great Calamities of A WAR WITH Indian-Salvages Repeated and Improved in a SERMON at Boston-Lecture 27 d. 7 m. 1698. Judg. VI. 3 5 6. The Children of the EAST came up against them and they Entred into the Land to Destroy it and Israel was greatly Impoverished Boston Printed for Samuel Phillips at the Brick Shop 1699. PREFACE WHen the Israelites were Engaged in a WAR they made choice of a Priest among them to Serve some of their greatest Occasions in it and after a Sacred Unction bestow'd upon him we are told by Maimonides he was call'd Mashuach Milchamah that is to say Unctus Belli which was as much as to say The Priest of the War To bring unto a People profitable Advices Reflections upon a WAR wherein they are Engaged and sound the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel with agreeable Notes unto them in it is to do in some sort the Office of the Mashuach Milchamah and this Office the Ensuing Discourse presumes to do with Endeavours that the Voice of Heaven by the Trumpet of our late War may he heard giving a certain Sound in these Echo's of it The History of a long War hath with all possible care of Truth been given you The Author Earnestly prayes that if the least material Mistake have happened in the History He may be Advised It may be corrected The Noise that may be made by a few Sordid People here there in a Room Tophetized with Smoke and Rhum and Spittle and Malice and Lyes crying out concerning the most Conscientious Essayes to preserve Memorable Truths They are a parcel of Lies He values not But he now tenders to the Acceptance of the more Civilized Readers an Improvement of Memorable Truths which it was His Duty to make it will be Theirs to mind THE REMARKEABLES of a long WAR Collected and Improved Boston-Lecture 27 d. 7 m. 1698. IF a Book of some Consequence be laid open before one that cannot Read he may Look and Gaze upon it but unto what purpose as long as he cannot understand it This very Comparison is by the Great Austin well applyed unto The Judgments of God And I will therefore so far Improve the Comparison as to observe That the Judgments of God under which we have been Languishing for Ten years together are a sort of a Book put into our Hands a Book indeed all written in Blood a Book yet full of Divine Lessons for us But can every man Read this Terrible Books No Methinks I see the Book managed like
the Book brought unto the Blessed Prophet of old in Isa 29.12 The Book is delivered unto him that is not Learned Saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not Learned It will certainly be a work well becoming a Minister of the Gospel and every Serious Christian will be glad of seeing the Work done To take this Book and help you as well as we can to Spell the Divine Lessons contained in it Christians Let us now do a work for which the Great God hath given us that Warrant and that Command in PSAL. CVII 43. Who is Wise and will observe these Things THe various and marvellous Dispensations of the Divine Providence towards the Children of men are in this Elegant Psalm admirably set before us Among those Dispensations there is a particular mark set upon this That the God of Heaven Turns a Fruitful Land into Barrenness for the Wickedness of them which dwell therein thoâ—gh men have Sown Fields there and have multiplied greatly yet they are again Diminished brought Low through Oppression Affliction and Sorrow Of such Dispensations is this passage to be understood as a Quaestion Who is wise and will observe these things But if you will rather take it as a Sentence it still comes to the same sense Whose is wise will oserve these Things And the French Version very Expressively intimates the Design as well as the Event of this Observation That so they may consider the Favours of the Lord. No Less than Ten years have Rolled away since we have been plunged into the Distresses of a WAR with a Barbarous Enemy In this WAR we have seen the Fruitful Land of almost one whole Province and another whole County turned into Barrenness doubtless not without provocations of Wickedness in them who dwelt therein Men had Sown Fields there along the Shore in Settlements for an Hundred miles together and had Multiplied Greatly into a Cluster of Towns besides Lesser Villages that might Challenge the Name of a Decapolis but in this WAR we have seen them Diminished again and brought Low through Oppression Affliction and Sorrow I am to Lead you this day thro' a Spacious Country which has been on many Accounts the most Charming part of New-England and I must herewithal say Come Behold the works of the Lord what Desolations He has made in that Land Syrs 'T is time for us to Observe these Things and this not with a meer Athenian but with a more profitable Observation I must not be Discouraged from this Holy Service by the vain Scoffs of those that Blaspheme all Attempts to Consider the Wondrous Works of God as if it were nothing but a Telling of News in the Pulpit The Biggest part of the Holy Bible which is but a Relation of such Wondrous Works would be Scoffed by such profane men if they might not thereby become Obnoxius No If Whoso is wise will observe these things Then let no man call it Folly to make the Observation A Long WAR is the Text which I am now to insist upon And if we would approve our selves Wise after all the Stripes that have in this WAR been given us these things will occur to our Observation in it I. In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is Wise may observe the Consequence of Entertaining the Gospel of the Lord JESUS CHRIST and Obtaining and Mentaining the Ordinances of that Glorious Gospel The Gadarens of old were loath to have any thing of CHRIST in their Coast And anon comes a Roman War which distress'd all the Land But the woful Town of Gadara was the very first place besieged in that War and Sad Things were done unto it Alas How little of an Evangelical Church-State was there to be seen among all our Eastern Settlements It hath been for the want of this that the Judgments of God have more than once forbidden them to be called Settlements The Towns were generally without Preachers of CHRIST and much more generally without Churches of CHRIST for to Irradiate 'em Yea not one of the Towns that are utterly broken up had any Minister in it for a long while before their Final Darkness came upon them Such a Way of Living did content many of them that it were horrible to Tell what Ignorance of CHRIST they were thereby sunk into I would never have told you That some young men twenty years old in this Land never so much as once heard the Name of CHRIST in all their Lives if I did not think that the God of Heaven required us all to mourn before Him for such an Horrible Thing in the Land Indeed the Strange Disasters which attended the First Essayes to Settle that Good Country made many people Imagine the Indian Sorcerers had Enchanted the Ground so that no English could Thrive on such an Enchanted Soyl. But had they carried the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with them doubtless they had confuted that vain Imagination all the Spells of Hell would have been insignificant there would not have prevailed any Enchantment against a Gods-Spel which we have in our Gospel The Original Design of NEW-ENGLAND was to Settle Congregations wherein the Lord Jesus Christ should be known and serv'd according to His Gospel and Instruct Families that should be the Nurseries of those Congregations The Plantations of the East had little of this Illustrious Design in their Eye The Enjoyments of Gadarens did seem too much to Satisfy too many of them For This cause we may Believe it is that our Lord JESUS CHRIST looking down from Heaven upon these Unchristian Undertakings Thunder-struck them with His Indignation He saw the Foolish taking Root but suddenly He Cursed their Habitation When some of our Eastern People have been Pining away under the Fatigues of their Captivity among the Indians who had Stript them of all they had Then they cryed out Now Now the Lord is punishing of us for our Leaving of His Ordinances and removing to a place of no Gospel for larger Accommodations in the World and Exposing our Children to be bred up like the very Indians into whose Hands we are fallen That which Invites one to think it may be For this Cause is the Singular Distinction and Protection which the CHURCHES of our Lord have Enjoyed throughout the whole progress of our Calamity No places that have had CHURCHES gathered in them have all this while been broken up however some of them have had much Bread of Adversity and Water of Affliction The Enemy that have come in upon our Land Like a Flood carried all before them as an Irresistible Torrent until they came to places that have CHURCHES as it were to Garrison them There the Almighty Lord hath check'd the Proud Waves and said Hitherto ye shall come and no further But here let me add a very observable Thing The Lord had some of His Elect among our Eastern People but He ha's brought those Elect Home unto Himself by burning them out of their
Homes and Habitations The Indians have driven 'em hither and here they have met with the Gospel of Christ and been effectually Called unto the Lord and Joyned unto our Churches and Blessed the Name of God for bringing them unto these Churches Periissent nisi Periissent Now Whoso is Wise and will observe these things cannot but wish That the Folly of Erecting Plantations without the worship of the Lord JESUS CHRIST may be no more committed among us It was wholesome Counsil Given and usually Taken in the Beginning of New-England Let Christians no where sit down without Good Ministers but let them rather tarry where they are as Ezra tarryed by the River Ahava till he had got some Levites to go with them And it was even Then observed That places which made Beginnings any long while without Ministers were with miserable Unsettlements broken all to pieces I suppose our Eastern Country will shortly again be peopled But let the people which intend there to Settle themselves in the Fear of God Remember this Admonition Don't venture to form Towns without the Gospel in them any more If the Lamentable Experience which you have more than once had of a Blast from Heaven upon Enterprizes to Live without the Gospel of the Son of God will not inspire you with more of Wisdom for the future I will foretel your Fate in those awful words Psal 28.5 Because they regard not the Works of the Lord nor the Operation of His Hands He shall destroy them and not Build them up Yea But let all New-England at the same Time Learn what the Welfare of the Ruine of all will Turn upon The whole World was made for our Lord-Messiah and the Curse of God will more or less plague the World according to the Respects which that Second Adam our Lord Messiah finds in it But New-England is by a more Eminent Profession that Immanuels Land Let the Interests of the Christian Religion in Reformed Churches be pursued and preserved among us Then All will go well Our Acknowledgment of our Lord JESUS CHRIST in CHURCHES that shall be so ordered as to Represent Him and His Kingdom unto the World This will be our Glory and this Glory will be our Defence or as 't is promised in Isa 4.5 Upon all the Glory shall be a Defence But if once the Spirit of this World Eat out the Spirit and Power of Religion and the Order of our Churches and mens value for a Room in the Churches be lost Then write Ichabod upon all our Glory and let us expect that our Holy Lord will Spue us out of His Mouth II. In the WAR that hath been upon us whoso is wise may observe in the very Instruments of our Calamity shrow'd Intimations of the provoking Evils for which the Righteous God hath Chastised us by such Instruments When the Miseries of the Sword are inflicted on a people it becomes them to consider what Provocations they have given to the Almighty God who makes peace and creates Evil for 't is He the Lord who doth all these things The Sword by which we have been so grievously harassed hath been in the Hands of God and if our Father had not been very Angry would He have taken a Sword into His Hands We are Blind before Lightning we are Deaf unto Thunder if we do not sensibly perceive the Anger of God in the Tremendous Rebukes that we have suffered And we are unaccountably and inexcusably stupid if we do not Enquire What means the Heat of this Anger It was once the Commirration of God in Ezek. 7.24 27. I will bring the worst of the Heathen and they shall possess their Houses and the Hands of the people of the Land shall be Troubled Such Trouble hath come upon us from the worst of the Heathen But what was the cause of all It follows I will do unto them after their way and I will judge them according to their Deserts and they shall know that I am the Lord. It is but seasonable for us now to Look back upon our own way and see how much we have Deserved all this Vengeance by going out of the way Two persons in their Travels beholding the horrid Ruines of Germany one of them said Hic fuit Hostilitas Behold the Fruit of Hostility his Friend answered Hic fuit Iniquitas Behold the Fruit of Iniquity If you will Travel over our East Countrey how frequent how dismal occasions will you see to Sigh See what has been done by Hostility But there will be as many occasions for a sadder Sigh than that Namely See the sad Effects of Iniquity Now in this Contemplation I do not go to charge them that were once Inhabitants of the Now Ruined Plantations with any Sins but what are more or less to be found in all our Colonies I ask no more from our Brethren who yet Survive the Desolations that have come upon their Estates and Neighbours in those Plantations but that they join with the rest of us all in Searching and Trying of our ways and in Judging of our selves For alas Every mouth must be stop'd and all the Land is become Guilty before God! Let us all then Enquire What may have been those provoking Evils for which the Holy and Blessed God hath given the Sword a Commission so dreadfully to devour us But then Let us be sure to Enquire wisely concerning that matter And here I will not Enquire whether those that went before us might never be too forward in any Unjustifyable Encroachments to possess and command those Lands which have since proved so Expensive unto us Older men then I are best able to manage that Enquiry though I also have heard it made But that whereupon I rather bespeak your Thoughts is This Will you please to Enquire into the Properties and Qualities of our Adversaries 'T is possible that in their Properties and Qualities we may read something of those Miscarriages for which our God hath Raised them up to be our Adversaries It hath been commonly seen That when the people of God have sinfully come to Imitate the Evil manners of other Nations God hath made those very Nations to be a soâ—e scourge unto them And the sense of This was that which long ago caused many sensible persons to foretel which of the Neighbour Nations would bring our dear England Low Now since the INDIANS have been made by our God The Rod of His Anger 't is proper for us to Enquire whether we have not in some Instances too far Imitated the evil manners of the Indians The Indians are Infamous especially for Three Scandalous Vices First They are Lyars of the first magnitude One cannot believe a word they speak Secondly They are Sluggards to a proverb they are for any way of Living rather than work Thirdly They are abominably Indulgent unto their Children there is no Family Government among them Will you now Enquire Sirs how far we have Indianized in every one but especially the last
Debauched the Indians by Selling of Drink unto them The Trading Houses where the Indians of the East had so much of their Drink and Bane what is become of them Every one of them The Sword ha's been Drunk with the Blood of the English in the Hands of those very Indians which have been so often Drunk among them And these Bloody Merchants of the Souls of the Indians when they have Summed up all their Gains the Foot of the Account ha's been this Wo to him that gives his Neighbour Drink that puts the Bottel to him to make him Drunk Those Men are not Wise but Mad who can Observe these things and now dare to Repeat this Iniquity or dream that any Gains are to be got by feeding the Indian Lust of Drunkenness IV. In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is wise may observe the Loud Calls of Heaven to All Ranks of men in the sharp Strokes of Heaven on All Ranks of men As it was said in Mic. 6.9 The Lords voice crieth unto the City and the man of Wisdom shall see thy Name Hear ye the Rod So I say There has been a voice of God unto all the Countrey in that Indian Rod which hath been used upon us and Men of Wisdom in all Ranks of men will Observe and See and Hear the meaning of this Rod inasmuch as all Ranks of men have smarted under it yea it has fetch'd Blood from all Ranks of men among us We will a little particularize ' em And first of all You that are our Honoured Shepherds Will you Observe how many of our Shepherds have been worried unto Death by the Scythian Wolves of our Wilderness Two of our MAGISTRATES have been Treacherously and Barbarously Killed by the Indian Murderers They whom God Entrusted with the Sword of Justice have had their Lives taken away by the Sword of the Wicked I perswade my self that the rest will be so wise as to Observe these things and Observe how to answer the just Expectation of God in their Administrations After this Oh! Why should not our Civil Rulers with more zeal than ever set themselves to ponder How may I most Glorify God and Christ and Serve his dear people with my Opportunities Two of our MINISTERS have been Struck down into the Earth by the Indian Dragons They that have used nothing but the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God for the Saving of all about them have had the Destroyers coming upon them and have been Waited for of the Sword I assure my self that the rest will be so wise as to Observe these things and Observe how to fulfil our Ministry with a very Excited Watchfulness May all our Settled Pastors upon such a thing befalling our Brethren Resolve with themselves Am unworthy I spared I will do more for my Lord and more for my Flock and more for all the Churches than ever I did We will pass on There have been some Rich men that were finely Scituated and had all things Richly to Enjoy But this War has reduced them to such Necessity that within Less than One year they have come to Beg their Bread All their Treasures have been Treasures of Snow One Summer has melted all away to Nothing I Remember the Jewish Talmuds tell us of a Gentlewoman who had a Thousand Thousand pieces of Gold given with her at her Marriage by her Father Nicodemus for her Portion and yet she was reduced unto such penury that she pick'd Barley-Corns out of the Cattles Dung for her Food Have not we seen almost such Vicissitudes Rich men If you are Wise which the Rich are not alwayes You will Observe these things and upon the Observation say Well What man in his Right Wits will now set his Heart upon such Transitory as all Sublunary Vanities Oh! my Soul Do thou make sure of a Better and a Lasting Substance in Heaven for Earthly Riches take themselves Wing and flee away towards Heaven Again There have been abundance of Poor men who have been by this War plunged still into deeper Poverty They have gone without a Bit of Bread for many dayes together The Straits the Wants the Cares of Widows and Orphans or of those that have had many mouths to Feed especially in our Exposâ—d Frontiers None can Express them None can Conceive them but They Nor They who did Endure them all Poor men If you are wise which the Poor may be You will Observe these things and upon the Observation says Well I had need make sure that my Soul may not be Starved by wanting the Bread of Life and that my Soul may not be Naked without the Garments of Righteousness How dolefully am I circumstanced if I go down from one Hell unto another at the Last Once more How many Women have been made a prey to those Bruitish men that are Skilful to Destroy How many a Fearful Thing has been suffered by the Fearful Sex from those men that one would Fear as Devils rather than men Let the Daughters of our Zion think with themselves what it would be for fierce Indians to break into their Houses and brain their Husbands and their Chiâ—dren before their Eyes and Lead them away a Long Journey into the Woods and if they began to fail and faint in the Journey then for a Tawny Salvage to come with Hell fire in his Eyes and cut 'em down with his Hatchet or if they could miraculously hold out then for some Filthy and ugly Squaw's to become their insolent Mistresses and insolently to abuse 'em at their pleasure a thousand inexpressible ways and if they had any of their Sucking Infants with them then to see those Tender Infants handled at such a rate that they should beg of the Tygres to dispatch 'em out of hand Such things as these I tell you have often happened in this Lamentable War And now O ye Handmaids of the Lord will you not be so wise as to Observe these things But upon the Observation say Well I will Bless God for my Enjoyments my Afflictions be they never so many are not such as my Neighbours have seen My Enjoyments are more than my Afflictions But Oh! Let me Love and Serve the Good God that has distinguished me with His Mercies It is to be added We have had our Old men whose Gray Hairs have not come down to the Grave in peace Young Indians have with grievous Flouts and Wounds Butchered many of our Old English men The Gray Hairs of our Old men have been Dyed Red with their own Blood and their Carcases have been thrown unto the Swine to mangle them Old men If you are Wise men you will Observe these things but Observing of them say Oh! Let my Hoary Head be found in the way of Righteousness But our Young men are they whom the Fury of War hath been chiefly poured out upon Alas Alas for our Young men They are the persons with whom it seems to have been the very Errand of
this War to manage the terrible Controversy of God New-England sets a peculiar Accent of Grief upon this among all her Lamentations The Lord has trodden under foot my mighty men in the midst of me He hath called an Assembly against me to crush my young men Come then My Young men Be so Wise as to Observe these things and upon the Observation say Lord Let not me and the rest of my Generation continue among the Generation of thy Wrath. Yea to have done Children also have not been Excused from a snare in the Blows of this hideous War Little Boyes and Girls even these Little Chickens have been Siezed by the Indian Vultures Our Little Birds have been Spirited away by the Indian Devourers and brought up in a vile Slavery till some of them have quite forgot their English Tongue and their Christian Name and their whole Relation Yea Those Babylonians have Dash'd out the Brains of our Little Ones against the Stones And our Little Ones have been hideously whipped unto Death by those Merciless Tygres whose Tender Mercies are Cruelty Children God make you so wise as to Observe these things and upon the Observation Oh! See that you become Serious Pious Orderly Children Obedient unto your Parents Conscientious to keep the Lords Day and afraid of committing any Wickedness Upon the whole when a Dead man was thrown into the Grave of Elisha a Touch from the Bones of the Prophet in the Grave Rais'd him from the Dead I am desiring that Religion may be Revived out of the Death which has too much Enfeebled it among us Behold Syrs I have now cast you into the Graves of our Dead Friends It may be by wisely observing of them and the things that have beâ—allen them we may be somewhat Raised out of our Deadly Security Let our Observation of these things give some Life to the practice of Religion among us V. In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is Wise may Observe those Tragical Things undergone by many in Captivity that are full of Admonition unto us that have never felt the Tragaedies of such a Captivity Several Hundreds of our Neighbours first and last have been carried into Captivity by the most Beastly and Bloody things that ever wore the Shape of men in the World New-England makes that moan in Lam. 1.18 Hear I pray you all people and behold my Sorrow my Virgins and my Young men are gone into Captivity But Oh! the prodigious and stupendous Things that they have undergone in this Captivity What weary Dayes and Nights have rolled over the miserable Captives while they have not had a Bit of Meat allow'd 'em Except what a Dog would hardly meddle with While they have sometimes been pinched with the Bitter Frost without Rags to cover their Nakedness and sometimes been Parched with the Burning Heat without any Cordial or Shelter to Refresh them While they have seen their nearest Relations torn in pieces alive before their Eyes and yet those Eyes afraid of dropping a Tear at the mournful Sight Yea while they have every Hour look'd when they should be themselves Roasted alive to make a Feast and a Sport for the horrid Cannibals Need I tell you That those Devils Incarnate have Tyed their Captives unto Trees and first cutting off their Ears have made them to Eat their own Ears and then have broyled their whole Bodies with slow Fires dancing the mean while about them and cutting out Collops of their Flesh till with lingring Tortures they have Martyred them to Death Such Things have been done by the Inhumane Salvages upon our Captives that is a sort of Inhumanity barely to mention them Now shall we be Wise to Observe these things The Observation must be made with that Admonition in Luk. 13.4 5. Think ye that these were Sinners above all men I tell you Nay but Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish Wherefore let us penitently Confess That we have All deserved those Miserable Things wherewith Some have been so marked out by the Soveraignty of Heaven In the Things that have been done to our Captives the Great Lord of Hosts hath dealt with us as Generals use to do upon the Sedition and Mutiny of Military Legions He makes a sort of Decimation among the Offenders and by what He does to some He declares what He might justly do to all the rest We must all ascribe it unto the meer Soveraign mercy of God that we are not every one of us broken in the place of Dragons as these desolate Captives were That which the Scripture calls The place of Dragons I Remember one of the Jewish Rabbi's Expounds A Wilderness Truly our Wilderness hath been The place of Dragons But while we Observe these things we shall not be Wise if we do not Learn Oh! what an Evil and a bitter thing is our Sin And what horrendous miseries must we Expect among the Devils if we dy with our Sin impardoned VI. In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is wise may observe a Work a Strange Work of Heaven as it were Devising of wayes very strangely to Distress all sorts of people in all sorts of Interests Truly the very Character of our Calamity hath all along been This The Great God has written still upon it we may Read upon it in a very Legible Character those words in Jer. 18.11 Thus saith the Lord Behold I Frame Evil against you I devise a Device against you It hath been as if wayes had been deliberately and exquisitely Studied and as if with much Contrivance plotted for to bring us all within the Reach of the general Calamity We have now Languished thro' Ten Years which have been the Saddest and the Darkest and the Stormiest Years that ever we saw If the History of these Ten Years were to be written I am thinking What should be the Title Truly It might be Entituled as Ezekiels Roll was Lamentation and Mourning and Wo. Yea you shall now have the History of these Ten Years written for you I 'l give it you in as Expressive words as can be even in those words 2 Chron. 15.5 6. In those Times there was no peace to him that went out nor him that came in but great Vexations were upon all the Inhabitaâ—â—â— of the Countreys for God did vex them with an Adversity There is a Variety of Adversity with which the tedious War it self hath vexed us The General Fate of the War hath involved Numberless Families in several circumstances of Adversity and the Expensive part of the War hath been an heavy Scourge of Adversity upon those that could not be reach'd by the Destructive part of it You could not but Observe these things But then have you not observed what a further variety of Adversity hath been Contemporary with this Vexatious War Alas There hath been such a Complication of other Distresses added unto the War in the Time of it that no-body No I say No-body hath been left free from those
44.10 They are not Humbled even unto this Day VIII In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is Wise may Observe the Compassions of God wonderfully Exercised and Manifested and Magnified in the midst of our Confusions There was a Time when a Bush Burned with Fire and yet the Bush was not consumed whereupon said Moses in Exod. 3.3 I will now Turn aside and see this Great Sight Sirs I am now to call upon you O Turn aside and see such a Great Sight as that Indeed in the midst of all our Lamentations we must own with the Church in Lam. 3 22. It is of the Lords Mercies that we are not Consumed because His Compassions fail not But there are many Particular and Astonishing Articles of Mercy which we have seen in this Tedious War Sirs Come now to Observe some of those Things with prepared Hallelujahs It was the Petition in Hab. 3.2 O Lord In Wrath Remember Mercy New England Thy God hath heard this Petition for thee in very wonderful Instances For First After a very Amazing manner ha's Mercy been Remembred in the midst of Wrath when we have been Rescued by the Mercy of God at the very point of our being else Ruined by His Wrath. Lord Thou hast shewed thy People hard Things and made us Drink the Wine of Astonishment But our Extremity hath been Gods Opportunity to Relieve us Several Times in the late years of our Affliction we have been brought unto a dismal Non-plus in our Affayrs and we would scarce imagine it possible for us to subsist any longer But just Then the Bowels of our Compassionate God have been moved for us He hath said How shall I give thee up O New-England How shall I give thee up O Massachusetts And so He would not Execute upon us the Fierceness of His Anger but with some unexpected Succours from the Machin of Heaven He hath Relieved us We have several times been Like a Little Vessel in a Storm the Swelling Waves have Dashed Raged and Roared the Rude Billows have been going over us and we have been ready to Sink But just Then Our Compassionate Lord Jesus Christ hath Awaked for our Safety and marvellously calmed our Circumstances O thou Land strangely Saved by the Lord say now as in Psal 136.23 O Give thanks unto the Lord who Remembred us in our Low Estate because His Mercy Endureth for ever When our Debts have become Insupportable God has then Remembred us in our Low Estate because His Mercy Endureth for ever and strangely Extricated us When our Foes have been as an Overflowing Scourge like to carry all before them God has then Remembred us in our Low Estate because His Mercy Endureth for ever and strangely Lifted up a Standard against them When fearful Divisions have arisen among us and horrid Convulsions have been ready to pull all to pieces I don't care to Remember them any farther than to say God has then Remembred us in our Low Estate because His Mercy Endureth fer ever and strangely healed those Breaches that set the Land a Trembling Moreover It hath been a very Strange Thing and a Wondrous Remembrance of Mercy in the midst of Wrath That the Indians have been â—naccountably Restrained from giving us an Hundredth part of the Trouble which they might have done had they but known or us'd their own Advantages This One Thing Whosoever does wisely Observe it must needs ascribe it unto a Special Operation of that God who Forms the Spirit of man within him It was the promise of God unto His people Exod. 34.24 No man shall Desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God The Faithful God strangely Fulfilled this promise for many Hundreds of years together No Enemy desired the Land of that people at the Time of their going up to Worship the Lord in His Temple And whereas the Roman Enemy did at length Desire their Land at the Time of their going up to the Passover this one Thing was enough to prove that the Messiah was come and the Passover no longer commanded It shows That there is a Strange Operation of God upon the minds of men to curb and check and blind the Evil-minded Well We have had our Frontier Towns in many of which the Lord Jesus Christ hath been Worshipped and Sought and Serv'd continually Had the Lurking Enemy done as they might have done how easily might one dozen of them have kept the Towns in such perpetual and perplexing Alarms as would have caused them even to have broken up And what unknown mischiefs might a few more of 'em have brought upon our Scattered Plantations I do again and again say This is from the Strange Operation of God upon the Minds of the Enemy that they have no more Disturbed our Land For my own part I will observe it and Admire it in such Terms as Austin used upon a Remarkable Providence Quisquis non videt Caecus Quisquis videt nec Laudat Ingratus Quisquis Laudanti reluctatur Insanus They are Blind and Mad that are Insensible of it Yet again Have not our English Prisoners been favoured with such a Remembrance of Mercy in the midst of Wrath as ought never to be Forgotten The Mercy of God inclined the French to Buy 'em out of the Hands of the Indians and use them with an Exemplary Humanity and Civility The Mercy of God preserved many of them alive under prodigious and incredible Hardships and at length Returned many scores of them Home And may not our English Women that were Prisoners take Notice of one Singular Mercy shown by God unto them in preserving them from Violations by the Outrageous Lusts of the Salvages This One Thing will be thought by some almost as Great and Strange an Instance of an Immediate Interposition of the Angels of God as the muzzling of the Lions in the Den of Daniel O ye Redeemed of the Lord you whom He hath Redeemed from the Hand of the Enemy Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good Charge your own Souls That you never forget His Benefits Ask your own Souls What you shall render to the Lord for all His Benefits and Remember that Admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ unto you Sin no more Lest a worst thing do come unto thee Furthermore Who could not see Mercy Remembred in the midst of Wrath when God hath put it into the Hearts of His people in the Southern parts of the Countrey to make Liberal Contributions of Money and Corn and Men for the Relief of the Northern parts More than once has the Noble Charity of our Brethren in Plymouth and in Connecticut as well as of this Town been Expressed in such Contributions Their Alms are Gone up for a Memorial before the Lord The Blessing of many that have been Ready to perish hath come upon you O ye Merciful Children of God and you shall obtain mercy from Him Once more Was ever Mercy Remembred in the midst of Wrath
more conspicuously than when powerful Adversaries Designing Inroads upon us have been Diverted wonderfully Advice hath been seasonably Dispatched unto us of the Intentions in our Enemies to fall upon our Frontiers and this Advice hath proved our Safety Yea sometimes when we have had no Advice a Strange Direction from Heaven has Led us to those Actions which have as much defeated the Intentions of our Enemies as if we had Received the fullest Advice in the world Besides this Boston and Salem and Portsmouth especially Will they ever forget the Last year It was a Year of Salvations yea It was a Year of Miracles Never Never such a Year passed over us The Almighty show'd that Favour to His people of old Zech. 9.8 I will Encamp about my House because of the Army because of him that passeth by and because of him that Returneth Alexander in an Expedition to the Southward did pass by the Land of Israel and he did Return again to the Northward without Hurting that Land that had the House of God in it Formidable French Squadrons have more than once passed by to the Southward and have Returned again to the Northward intending doubtless a Destroying Visit into this Land by the way but Our Lord Jesus Christ hath Encamped about His House here because of the Navy Yea once O New-England the Lord thy God He that would be the Holy One of New-England gave Carthagena for thy Ransome He gave men for thee and Spaniards for thy Life Another Time when a Force likely enough to have carried all before them were almost arrived unto us we are advised that God sent such a sudden and such a wasting Sickness among them as to make them for want of Hands to desist from their Attempt These were Illustrious Deliverances And yet give me leave to say We did the last year see another Deliverance that for ought I know may be aequal to any of the rest There was an English Fleet of our Good Friends with a direful Plague aboard 'em intending Hither Had they Come as they intended what an horrible Desolation had cut us off Let the Desolate places that some of you have seen in the Colonies of the South declare unto us And that they did not come it was the Signal Hand of Heaven by which the Goings of men are ordered In Fine Because God being full of Compassion would not Stir up all His Wrath He hath Remembred Mercy to us in the midst of Wrath by Raising us up Generous Benefactors who have been able and willing to oblige us with their Benefits It must be with shame acknowledged Our Usage of our Publick Servants has commonly been such that for any Thinking man to be willing at all to Serve the Publick seems to be a Mark and Fruit of no little Generosity Nevertheless we have had persons of Exemplary Patience and Prudence and Self denial Sitting at the Helm of our Government all this while that the Horrible Tempest hath been enough to make any man living Sick of being there We have had persons who have Disbursed and Expended of their Estates and considerably Damnified their Interests for us in our Distresses when yet they foreknew what pay they should have after all Yea we have had and still have I can at this moment fasten my Eye upon some of them in the Assembly where I am now speaking Brave men who have Bravely Jeoparded their Lives in the High places of the Field for our Defence O Treat 'em not with vile Ingratitude after all the Service they have done Prefer them on all fit occasions while they Live Embalm their Memories and Requite their Families when they are Dead But while we are Thankful to Them Let us much more give Thanks to God for Them even for such Gifts of Heaven as we have Enjoyed in them Well Will you Wisely Observe these Things Wisely That is to say Thankfully and Fruitfully It may be If more Distinct and Solemn THANKSGIVINGS were made unto God our Saviour for these things the Reliques of our Enemies would quickly feel the Rebukes of God upon them not unlike those in 2 Chron. 20.22 When they began to Sing and to Praise the Lord set Ambushments against their Enemies and they were Smitten IX In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is Wise may Observe those things that may Mightily Encourage our Prayer and our Faith for a Total Ruine to be hastened on the Remainders of our Enemies There yet Remains a Knot of our Enemies in those Inaccessible Thickets where we Despair ever to Find 'em out but I will Read their Doom from Psal 21.8 9 10 Thine Hand O Lord shall Find out all thine Enemies Thy Right Hand shall Find out thâ—se that Hate thee The Lord shall Swallow them up in His Wrath and the Fire shall Devour them Their Fruit shalt thou Destroy from the Earth and their Seed from among the Children of men What Remains for Us is That we do by Prayer and Faith put our Enemies over into those Omnipotent Hands that can Find them out and cut them off Oh! Let us keep our Hands Lifted up in Prayer for a Total Dissipation of those Amalekites which have thus long and thus far prevailed against us We have already had many Notable Answers of Prayer in this our War Every one of our Deliverances have been very Notably Such We cannot say How many particular Persons have Received Answers of Prayer in the particular Troubles which this Evil Time hath Ensnared them withal Doubtless many a Christian ha's in this Time had opportunity to say This poor man cryed and the Lord Heard him and Saved him out of all his Troubles And several Towns that have had a Remarkable Protection of God upon them in this long Time of Danger they have had a Praying People in them and that Praying People have been the Chariots and the Horse men thereof Why else does Deerfield Stand How should our Prayer be Quickened by such Experiences But there is this further Quickening for it That with the Cry of our Prayer there will go up unto the Lord the Cry of Blood much Innocent Righteous Precious Blood Cryes to Heaven from the Ground against those Bloody and Crafty men that have Treacherously shed it Certainly They must not Live out all their Dayes And we have this prevailing plea against them in the Court of Heaven That they have most Falsely Broken their Covenants in their Outrages We may venture to present our Memorials in the Court of Heaven against these Covenant Breakers who are Implacable and Unmerciful and we may use the words of Jephtah against his Heathen Adversaries The Lord the Judge be Judge between us and them We may use the words of Jehoshaphat against his Heathen Adversaries O our God wilt thou not Judge them Vladislaus the King of Hungary Scandalously breaking his League with Amurath the Turkish Emperour brought an Army into the Field against him The Turkish Army being horribly Broke
and Slain and almost Vanquished by the Hungarian Amurath in his Anguish took out of his Bosome the written League that Vladi slaus had made with him and holding it up in his Hands with his Eyes to Heaven he Cryed out Behold O Crucified Christ the League which thy Christians in thy Name have made with me and now without cause do Violate If thou be a God Revenge the Wrong that is now done unto thy Name and shew thy power upon a Perjurious People who in their Deeds Deny their God! Immediately the Course of the Battel turn'd and Perjurious King was kill'd and the Turks wâ—n a most unexpected Victory Truly we may in like manner now take the Instrument of the Submission and Agreement of the Eastern Indians which Thirteen of their Chief Commanders did Sign more than Five years ago and Holding it up to Heaven we may Cry out Ah Lord God of Truth wilt thou not be Revenged upon the False Wretches that have broken this League Doubtless our God will Execute a dreadful Vengeance upon them if we Humbly make our Suit unto Him for it and He ha's wayes for His Vengeance to come at them which We cannot Imagine 'T is affirmed That several Times in this War our Enemies have in the Woods met with Parties of Indians which were their own Friends but by a mistake apprehending each to be Enemies unto each other they have hotly fallen upon one another and many have been kill'd oh both Sides before the mistake was discovered Yea 'T is affirmed that not a few of the Chief Murderers among our Enemies have accidentally killed themselves the most Murderous Indians have in a little while been their own Executioners Who can tell what Strange Wayes the God unto whom Vengeance belongeth hath to inflict it on a Generation of His Curse Only Let us Remember to plead the Sacrifice of our Lord JESUS CHRIST in our Prayer with our Faith for the Perfection of our Deliverance Our Lord JESUS CHRIST hath been a Sin-Offering for the Congregation and a Sacrifice pleadeable not only for Persons but also for Peoples that belong unto Him We read in 1 Sam. 7.9 10. Samuel Offered a Burnt-Offering wholly unto the Lord and Samuel Cryed unto the Lord of Israel and the Lord heard him and the Lord Thundred with a Great Thunder on that Day upon the Philistines and discomfited them When we Cry to the Lord Let us plead the Burnt-Offering of the Lord Jesus Christ plead That God ha's more Glorifyed His Justice in the Sufferings of our Lord JESUS CHRIST than if our Houses were all Fill'd with the Cryes of our People Massacred by Indian Salvages Then will our God Thunder with a Great Thunder of His Consuming Wrath upon our Indian Philistines That Note which the Great Calvin ha's above an Hundred Times over in his Commentaries on the Psalms Nunquam Irritas fore preces Or Prayers will never be lost Prayers will never he lost It will much oftner be Repeated in our Blessed Experience if our Prayers do present before God that Blessed Sacrifice of which He sayes 'T is a Sweet odour to Me X. In the WAR that hath been upon us Whoso is Wise may Observe those Loud Calls to a Reformation of our Miscarriages which 't is a Dangerous and a Desperate thing to neglect any longer It was the Voice of the Blessed God in Psal 81.13 14. O That my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soon have Subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries Ah New-England Thy God hath not soon Subdued thine Enemies nor soon turned His Hand against thine Adversaries but let 'em Vex thee for Ten years together Surely Thou hast not hearkened unto Him nor Walked in His Wayes In that which was called The Holy War the Embassadors of a Saracen Prince demanded of a Famous Christian General How he came to have Manus tam Doctas ad Praeliandum Hands that were so Able to Fight The Christian General replied Quia Manus Semper habui puras Because I never defiled my Hands with any Notorious Wickedness Alas our Hands have made but poor work at Fighting 'T is Time for us then to Reform all the Notorious Wickedness in our Hands Do we Dream that the Almighty hath spent all His Arrows No after all that for Ten years together have been spent upon us there are yet more Arrows and Judgments left in the Quiver of God And Except we Turn unto Him who can say What Arrows He may next ordain against us The Roman Emperour Upbraided his General Terentius for Loosing a Battel but the General having too much occasion to say so much replyed Sir I must tell you that it is you that Lost the Day for us by your open Fighting against the God of Heaven as you do If it be asked How 't is come to pass that we have Sped so Ill in many a Battel since this War began Some will blame one and some will blame another but I will take Leave to tell all them that Lead an Ungodly Life Syrs 'T is to you that we owe all our Ill Success I need not quote one of the Ancients namely Ambrose for that Observation Graviores Inimici sunt mores pravi quam Hostes Infensi We have had enough in our own Experiments to convince us That our worst Enemies are our Vices which provoke Heaven to Chastise us with all our other Enemies And indeed If our Wayes did please the Lord our Enemies would be at peace with us Observe wisely and you cannot but Observe the Language of Heaven in the Circumstances thro' which we have passed for a whole Decad of years together to be That in Lev. 26.23 24. If ye will not be Reformed by me by these things but will walk contrary unto me Then will I also walk contrary unto you and I will punish you yet seven Times for your Sins And that the Demand of REFORMATION may be Loud enough it arrives to us now with a more than Ordinary Accent of Authority upon it We have seen and Blessed be God that we have seen the Greatest Monarch that ever Sat upon the British Throne Issuing Out His Royal Proclamation upon the Pious Address of the Commons of England assemble in Parliament a Proclamation wherein that Illustrious Prince declares His Royal Resolution to Discountenance all Vice whatsoever and requires all Officers whatsoever to be vigilant in the Discovery Prosecution and Punishment thereof We have seen a most Excellent GOVERNOUR who is the Greatest Person that ever set Foot on the English Continent of America beginning His Government with proclaiming for the Suppression of all Vice in One of His Provinces That Noble Person has therein done Like a Vicegerent of GOD His very Honourable Lieutenant hath worthily done His part with the Advice of His Council in another of His Provinces If these things prove but meer Formalities among a people Hating to be Reformed after all