BARCHES THE REINS AND THE HEARTS of the children of men. Remember I told you so, and that many months will not pass before this come to pass: It may be I may live to see it." He trem and quivered when the minister spoke these things unto him; yet he repented not, but in a Ew hours he set the people a railing at that minister in many corners of the town, for "abusing a precious, godly, worthy man." Some advised the arresting of that minister in great actions for defaming of this excellent person; and others had the fear of God so little in exercise with them, as to cry out," that if this man had been guilty of all that was charg'd on him, yet for that minister to speak such things to him, was as great an offence as his." I had reason to desire that the truth might now appear a little more irrefragably, and therefore I went unto the officers of the Anabaptist church, declaring," that I apprehended myself able to convict the man whom they employ'd as a publick teacher among them of being a cheat, and of having borribly ly'd against his conscience in several repeated and notorious instances; and that I desired en my own behalf, and on the behalf of the other ministers in the town, that they would appoint a place the next week, where I might prove my charge to his face, and they should be judges of it." I could not have imagined it, but the church being informed of my demand, immediately renewed (as I am told) their call unto him, to continue his preaching among them; and by their minister and another there was an answer of this importance brought unto me, that inasmuch as this man was not a member of their church, they did not apprehend themselves concerned to take any notice of what I had offered." Where to my reply was, "Well, I have done my duty, and I hope you have considered whether it will be for Christ's honour, or for your own, to employ a man as a publick preacher, against whom such a charge is urg'd, and may be proved, if you will but hear it." And, thought I, how much will Christians act beside themselves when "led into temptation." From this time, even from September (I think) to December, I concern'd myself no further; being satisfied that it would not be long before the Lord Jesus Christ, who saw how impiously this man mocked han, would "search him out," and cloath with perpetual confusion those that would persist in assisting such a mocker of Heaven. One would have thought that considerate people, after this warning, would have been as much afraid of seeing such spectre in a pulpit, as if he had been the holderforth, which they say sometimes appears in the copper mines of Sweden. But many people, instead of taking the warning, went on still, under the influences of this ignus fatuus, to treat me (and much better men) with numberless and furious abuses for giving it; and with a practical commentary upon the distempers mentioned in the first epistle to the Corinthians. I praise the Lord for his making me unwilling to remember them, and I pray him to cast them out of his remembrance. At last the malice went so far, that they began to throw into my house insolent, bitter, bloody Ebels, wherein, albeit the nameless writers confess "a great esteem for me, for my moderate spirit towards them that differ from me," yet they now in most venomous terms of rage flew upon me for my "reviling an eminent worthy stranger," (as they express it,) and "persecuting" one who had the "root of the matter in him," and one who had now the liberty of a more "unstained pa'pit" than any of those which had been deny'd him. All these, and many more such things, wherein I heard the defaming of many, I bore, I hope I may say, silently and patiently, and it was a great fault in me, if not prayerfully: And if I did not set myself to consider, "what holy lessons were to be learnt out of such temptations"-in which lessons I should have been sufficiently requited good, for the cursing of all the Shimei's in the town. But, thought I, what spirit posesses these touchy folks that they can't let me be quiet? I do nothing to disquiet them: Or does that spirit see that his time is but short, e'er the displeasure of Heaven put this Boutefeu and his disciples to the blush which had been foretold unto them. Truly, sir, I had no remedy, but humbly to carry my complaints unto the Lord, who knew my faithfulness. This evil worker now apply'd himself unto the Anabaptists with private intimations, that for four or five years he had been convinced in his conscience that their way was the right way, and that he was now in some trouble of conscience for his having delay'd so long to declare himself, but it should not now be long before he did. When things were now become just ripe for the devices of Satan to take effect, behold how the wonderful providence of Heaven defeated them! "The Lord sent an evil spirit" between this man and the Anabaptists that had adhered unto him. Even they began to find their "eminent worthy stranger" guilty of such lying, and such lewdness, and ench damnable covetousness, (especially when, upon their not carrying money to him on a Lord's day wherein he preached not, he flew out, as I am told, like a dragon, spitting this among other fire at them: "I see, no longer PIPE, no longer dance!") that they came to fear he was a che and wished they had never seen him. While things were thus operating, the guilty fellow havin bubbled the silly neighbours of incredible scores of pounds, and thinking that the answers of a letters to Europe about him were not far off, all on the sudden he will be gone; and none of th charming offers that were made him if he would continue, could procure his continuance an longer in the country. He that had often told us, his coming from England was with a purpose see his uncle in Virginia, whom it may be no man else ever saw, now, without one look toward Virginia, ships himself to return for England. But God will no longer be mocked! A virtuous and laudable young gentleman in the neighbourhood lets fall a word unto one of friends, "that he was informed this man had used some uncivil carriage towards a woman h belonged unto one of the churches in the town." Some of the hearers go and complain that t gentleman said, "the man had got such a woman with child," whereupon some of the man's friend began to be obstreperous. The ingenuous young gentleman was too well beloved by all that ko his constant piety, to be suspected of speaking a falsehood; and the trouble on the minds of friends for him immediately made several discreet and honest women to speak out more plainly how able they were to assert the truth of what he had really spoken. Horrid things began to muttered about this wretch for divers weeks before; and no doubt the apprehension of their taking air hastened his flight; but a modest woman, especially if she don't know of any one else to susta with her the weight of the testimony, appears with no small reluctancy to testifie an affront off rea unto her. It had been remarked by some, that this villain, though in public prayer he were extraordinary devout, yet he had a strange indisposition to private prayer. And there was enoug to render prayer uneasie to his guilty soul; for while he was "feasting" with the abused neighbours, "he had eyes full of adultery that could not cease from sin." The burning jealousie of of the Lord Jesus Christ will now bring out the villainy of this man, and MAKE ALL THE CHURCHES TO KNOW THAT HE SEARCHES THE REINS AND THE HEARTS. The hypocrite had made such a show of zeal in his performances on the stage, that every one said, "this man must be either a great saint, or a great rogue;" and as to one of these, I question whether a greater ever came into this land. Sir, I durst not blot my paper with all the abominable things that are testified upon oath against this eminent worthy stranger." But the sum of the testimonies deposed upon oath before the magistrate, December 7, 1699, by several women of unblemished reputation, is, "That he would often watch opportunities of getting them alone, and then would often affront them with lewd, vie and lascivious carriages, which rendered it a dangerous thing to be alone with him, and abundan: y assured them, that he was a great rogue,' and that if they had been for his turn, he would have stuck at no villainy towards them. That he would also talk at a vile rate; and among other things, he would plead, that there was no sin in adultery.'" The testimonies after this increased on our hands, which assured us, that on a Saturday, with his Bible in his hands, he could solicite young women to wantonness; yea, and endeavour to intoxicate them, that he might pursue his vile purposes upon them. Yea, that when he had heard of a young woman affected with his ministry, he would find her out, and spend several hours together in rade actions and speeches to her, and urging her to lye with him, which he said was no sin, for Dav.d and Solomon did as much; and adding," they need not fear being with child by him, for none ever were so!" More of this prodigious devilism was testified against this " eminent worthy stranger;" and other horrid stuff begins to come to light, and I suppose would soon be found, if sought for; but I abhor to rake any further into such a dunghil. They that fill'd the town with other impiety, by setting up this filthy dreamer, have now a time to admire the favour of Heaven, (more than their own prudence) that there was not set up a coa gregation of Nicolaitans in the town, and that the young people have not been debauched into fearful whoredoms, and led away to the "unclean spirit," like the Transylvanian children, which danced after the PIED PIPER into the cave of Hamelen. But I have observed that whereas grievous "times of temptation" are ever now and then sent upon our churches, if the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ can, for a while, bear to be buffeted by the foolish rage of those times, and apply themselves to humble prayer and faith before the great Lord, who holds the tempter in a chain; and if, instead of answering to reviling with reviling, they are only quickened unto more of holiness and usefulness; the times do not prove “DAYS of temptation," but meer "HOURS of temptation;" and nubeculæ cito transituræ,* presently at an end. And so it was in the "storm of temptation," which by Satan was now raised in our neighborhood. It has in some former years commonly happened unto me, that when I visited in the way of my pastoral duty persons" possessed with evil spirits," the persons, though they knew every one else in the room, yet, through the unaccountable operation of the evil spirts upon their eyes, I must appear so dirty, so ugly, so disguised unto them, that they could have no knowledge of me. I have a thousand times thought that the Lord ordered this for some intimation unto me, that when "times of temptation" come, wherein evil spirits have as much operation on the minds of many people as they have upon the eyes of energumens, a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be faithful unto his interests, must look to be all over disguised by misrepresentations unto the minds of them that are under the power of temptation. A minister shall strictly impose that “law of kindness" upon his lips, to speak not one intemperate or injurious word on the greatest provocation, and yet be represented as a man full of bitterness. He shall be always devising things to relieve the miserable, and spend more than many others do imagine possible to be spent in pious uses, and scorn to take many little gains, that might lawfully be taken, and yet they shall cry out of him for uncharitableness and incivility. He shall never once in his life ask a salary from his flock, nor agree with them about a salary, nor have his dependance on the Lord's-day collections for a salary, nor be in any likelihood of seeing the Lord's-day collections to fail, and yet they shall flout at him, as one "afraid of losing his contribution." A minister shall be of such a temper that, perceiving a considerable and valuable part of his flock to put themselves unto a deal of trouble to attend upon his ministry (by passing a large ferry every Lord's-day,) he shall one year after another call upon those beloved Christians to leave his ministry, and set up a new church by themselves, and set a worthy pastor over them, to support whom he shall offer to contribute not a little, and part with some of his own salary, and yet this minister shall be represented as “afraid of nothing more than losing his hearers." He shall--But I don't love to mention these things; the Lord of heaven teach us by these things to "long for heaven," and even while we are on earth to live in heaven. You will doubtless make some advantage to your holy thoughts from this remarkable story; and my other neighbours will make, I hope, at least this advantage from it, that if another Barber, instead of the other courses that bring so many to Tyburn, come over from London hither, to recruit his broken fortunes by the blasphemies of stolen sermons, plausibly and fervently delivered; the people have now learnt a little more wit, than to pamper such a fellow with their plentiful cookery, and equip him with score of pounds in his pocket, and send him to London again to laugh at the folly of them that will permit themselves to be so abused. 'Tis time for me now to subscribe my self, (inasmuch as I am not writing a libel,) POSTSCRIPT.-The country has been so filled with lies, on the occasion of the things which have been truly represented in this my letter, that I suppose I shall publish the letter unto the country. And if any blame the publication, I think they will forget what is required in the ninth commandment; and I fear they will but expose themselves unto the censures of wise and good men, as the friends of this impostor, not out of charity, (as divers worthy Christians before they knew him were,) but from a principle of impiety and malignity. Among the ancient Israelites, when a false prophet, or an unclean priest, was found, every man had a commission, in the presence of ten men, to execute the law upon him, (as Grotius tells us,) Non Expectato Judice. But when one of those wretches received his punishment, it was the custom, "that a letter concerning it should be dispatched unto all the cities of Israel." As for this unclean prophet, the letter it self that is now dispatched unto all the "churches," is the chief punishment hitherto inflicted on him. • Flying clouds. + Without waiting for a formal trial. CHAPTER VI. ARMA VIROSQUE CANO;* OR, THE TROUBLES WHICH THE CHURCHES OF NEW-ENGLAND HAVE UNDERGONE IN THE WARS WHICH THE PEOPLE OF THAT COUNTRY HAVE HAD WITH THE INDIAN SALVAGES. § 1. Two colonies of churches being brought forth, and a third conceived within the bounds of New-England, by the year 1636, it was time for the devil to take the alarum, and make some attempt in opposition to the pos session which the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have of these "utmost: parts of the earth." These parts were then covered with nations of bar barous Indians and infidels, in whom the "prince of the power of the air" did "work in a spirit;" nor could it be expected that nations of wretches, whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil-worship, should not be acted by the devil to engage in some early and bloody action, for the extinction of a plantation so contrary to his interests, as that of New-Eng land was. Of these nations there was none more fierce, more warlike, more potent, or of a greater terror unto their neighbours, than that of the PEQUOTS; but their being so much a terror to their neighbours, and espe cially to the Narragansets on the east-side of them, and the Monhegins on the west, upon whom they had committed many barbarous outrages, produced such a "division in the kingdom of Satan" against itself, as was very serviceable to that of our Lord. In the year 1634 these terrible salvages killed one Captain Stone, and Captain Norton, with six men more, in a bark sailing up Connecticut river, and then sunk her. In the year 1635, a bark, sailing from the Massachuset-bay to Virginia, being by a tempest cast away at Long-Island, the same terrible salvages killed several of the shipwrack'd Englishmen. In the year 1636, at Block-Island, coming aboard a vessel to trade, they murdered the master. And another coming that way, found that they had made themselves masters of a bark, which occasioned the sending of an hundred and twenty soldiers thither, under Captain Endicot, Captain Underhil, and Captain Turner, by the governour and council at Boston, upon whom, at their landing, the Indians violently shot, and so ran away where no English could come at them. Travelling further up to the Pequot country, the Pequots refused, upon a conference, to surrender the murderers harboured among them, which were then demanded; whereupon a skirmish ensued, in which, after the death of one of their men, the Indians fled, but the English destroyed their corn and their Hutts, and so returned. Moreover, a fort, with a garrison of twenty men, being by some agents that were sent over by the lord Say and the lord Brook, formed at the river's mouth, (a place called Say-Brook,) the Pequots after this lay sculk I sing of wars and heroes. ing about that fort almost continually; by which means divers of the English lost their lives, and some that were seized by the Indians going up the river, were most horribly tortured by them, and roasted alive; and afterwards the Tawnies would with derision in the English hearing imitate the doleful ejaculations and invocations of the poor creatures that had perished under their cruel tortures, and add infinite blasphemies thereunto. Unto all which there was annexed the slaughter of nine men, with the taking of two maids, by this horrid enemy lying in ambush for them as they went into the fields at Weathersfield. So that the infant colonies of New-England, finding themselves necessitated unto the crushing of serpents, while they were but yet in the cradle, unanimously resolved, that with the assistance of Heaven they would root this "nest of serpents" out of the world. Reader, it is remarked concerning one Anah, in very early times, (Gen. XXXVI. 24,) that he "found mules in the wilderness." But these mules were, if I been't mistakin, as very men as the Pequots, whom the first planters of New-England "found in the wilderness." We are convinced by such incomparable writers as Bochart, that the mountainous parts of Seir, where our Anah dwelt, was a country no ways famous for mules; but we may then incline rather to the opinion of Sanbert, who maintains that the here by us translated mules, are the same that elsewhere are called of which variety in writing the same name the Scriptures have many instances. Now, these Emim were the well-known giants which, inhabiting the Horræan regions in the neighbourhood, struck terror (as their name. signifies) unto all the neighbours, till the posterity of Esau vanquished them; a matter which many passages in the Bible intimate. Our Anah is here distinguished from another so called, by a notable exploit which he performed for the service of his country. He found, that is, he surprized and assaulted the Emim, those terrible giants with which the neighbourhood was infested. By this heroick act he signalized himself, while the prince his father employed him in managing and ordering his estate "in the wilderness," which, according to the use of those times, lay more in Cattel than in any other substance. But this digression serves only to excite my reader's expectation of Pequot giants to be "found in our wilderness." 2. When these Ammonites perceived that they had made themselves to stink before the New-English Israel, they tried by all the enchanting insinuations that they could think upon, to reconcile themselves unto the other nations of Indians, with whom they had been heretofore at variance: demonstrating to them how easie 'twould be for them, if they were united, quickly to extirpate the English, who, if they were divided, would from thence take their advantage to devour them one after another. But although no Machiavel or Achitophel could have insinuated this matter * Emim, Mules:-also the name of a tribe. |