"brought forth for the murderer? Know you not that our young "men, hoping to mend their condition at sea, have but sailed the "sooner to their long home, in running abroad? Know you not "that the angels of death have struck our young folks with the "arrows of death, in epidemical sicknesses? Know you not that "one strange casualty after another brings many of our most hope"ful young folk to an untimely end? And oh, how doleful, "doleful things have our young people seen, when they have "been captives in the hands of barbarous infidels! The canni"bals of the East have hideously tormented them; and as far off "as the scorching tents of Africa they have been fainting under "the bitter servitude of Mahometans."

Chap. ii., page 29, (alias 37).—“Take a due and a deep notice, "I beseech you, of the notable judgments with which we have "seen the contempt of the glorious Gospel revenged by the God "of glory; we have seen the Gospel, or the glad tidings of salva"tion by the Lord Jesus Christ for miserable sinners, graciously "offered; we have seen the offer of this Gospel 'most ungratefully "refused;' but of this refusal, what event have we seen? Truly a very terrible event."'*

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Book VII., chap. ii., page 47.—" Heaven saw more blood must "be drawn from the Colonies before health could be restored to "them, until the flame of war was raging all over the whole "Massachusetts Colony."

Chap. ii., page 51.-"They stripped these unhappy prisoners "and caused them to run the gauntlet, and whipped them after a "cruel and bloody manner; † they then threw hot ashes upon "them; and cutting off collops of their flesh, they put fire into "their wounds, and so with exquisite, leisurely, horrible torments "roasted them out of the world."

Chap. ii., page 56.-" But it must, after all, be confessed that "we have had one enemy more pernicious to us than all the rest,

Thus the Gospel was offered to you, and thus you refused it, and the event is plain.

† As you used to whip the Quakers; perhaps this is another home-stroke or character f a judgment.

"and that is our own backsliding heart,' which has plunged the "whole country into so wonderful a degeneracy,* that I have "sometimes been discouraged from writing the Church History of "the country. And since this degeneracy has obtained so much among us, the wrath of heaven has raised up against us a suc"cession of other adversaries and calamities, which have cast "the land into great confusions, to rescue us from which, the "jealous kindness of heaven has not made such quick descents as "in former times. God knows what will be the end."

Chap. i., page 106.-"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. Chap. ii., "In this war we have seen the fruitful land of almost one whole "province, and another whole country, 'turned into barrenness;' "doubtless not without provocations of 'wickedness in them who "dwell therein;'"' chap. i., page 107, "and I must herewithal say, Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He "has made in that land. The Gadarenes of old were loath to "have anything of Christ in their coast; and anon comes a "Roman war, which distressed all the land, but the woeful town "of Gadara was the very first town besieged in that war, and sad things were done unto it. 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 a horrible thing in the land."

* Wonderful degeneracy, which almost discouraged him from writing his History, and the calamities which have followed.

†The judgments of God, a bloody book, yet full of Divine lessons, in which it is well if they would read, and learn to repent.

Gadara's case applied, as suitable to them, for rejecting Christ and his servants.

Behold! a horrible thing, young men of twenty years old never heard of Christ; what are all their pretences to Christ and Christianity come to? But if they had left the Quakers alone, they would have heard of Him, and been directed to Him.

Chap. i., page 108.-"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 in"quire what means the heat of this anger. It was once the com"mination of God, in Ezek. vii. 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 trou"ble hath come upon us from the worst of the heathen; but what 46 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 66 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."t

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Chap. i., page 110.-"Inasmuch as all ranks of men have "smarted under it; yea, it has fetched blood from all ranks of "men among us;"‡ chap. i., page 111, "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.' Yea, those 'Babylonians have dashed out the

* Observe, it is plain their trouble hath been of the Lord, and that He hath done to them according to their way and deserts; but have they inquired the cause? Or do they yet know that He is the Lord? or humble themselves before Him as they ought?

† Especially in persecuting them that sought to turn you into the way. All ranks of men suffered by the war, especially young men (according to George Bishop's prophecy) and children. Oh that you had never whipped the servants of the Lord, called Quakers, and sent them as bondslaves into captivity, as you did, even children!

"brains of our little ones against the stones;' and our little ones "have been hideously whipped unto death by these merciless "tigers, whose tender mercies are cruel." Chap. ii., "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. i. 18, 'Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold "my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into cap"tivity.' But oh, the prodigious and stupendous things that they "have undergone in this captivity!* What weary days and nights "have rolled over the miserable captives, while they have not "had a bit of meat allowed them, 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 some"times 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 looked when they should be themselves "roasted alive, to make a feast and a sport for the horrid canni"bals. Need I tell you that these devils incarnate have tied ." their captives unto trees, † and first cutting off their ears, have "made them to eat their own ears, and then have broiled their "whole bodies with slow fires, dancing in the meanwhile about "them, and cutting out collops of their flesh, till with lingering "tortures they have martyred them to death. Such things have "been done by the inhuman savages upon our captives, that it is "a sort of inhumanity barely to mention them."

Chap. i., page 112.-"We must all ascribe it unto the mere

* And what weary days and nights had many in your jails without food; or, what was bad enough, pinched with cold and irons, and whipped, too, in the frost of Winter, and near stifled with heat in Summer, through your cruelty, and saw their dear friends taken from them, to be butchered by you, and abused if they did complain? Oh that you would lay these things to heart!

† As you did, in whipping and cutting off ears, too, so that this is a legible character and resemblance of a judgment by the circumstances.

"sovereign mercy of God that we are not every one of us broken "in the place of dragons; as these desclate captives were.* 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 ways "very strangely to distress all sorts of people, in all sorts of in"terests. 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. xviii. "II, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you, I "devise a device against you;' it hath been as if ways had been "deliberately and exquisitely studied, and as if with much con"trivance plotted, for to bring us all within the reach of the "general calamity. We have now languished through 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 entitled, as Ezekiel's roll was, 'Lamentation, and "mourning, and woe;' yea, you shall now have the history of "these ten years written for you, I will give it you in as expres"sive words as can be, even in these words," 2 Chron. xv. 5, 6, "In those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to "him that came in ; but general vexations were upon all the inhabi"tants of the countries, for God did vex them with all adversity,' &c. See more in the book aforesaid, page 183.

Ibid., Chap. ii.-"Truly the ten years of our war have set many ten hundreds of persons a mourning over their dead "friends; we have seen everywhere the mourners go about the "streets. I say nothing of that amazing time when the evil an

*You were ready enough to frame mischief by a law against the innocent for more than ten years together, which was a very sad, and dark, and stormy time; so that there was no peace to him that went out, or to him that came in; there was such vexation in the land, as to you; and therefore the lamentation, and mourning, and woe is just upon you; and the rod of God thou tellest of a little after, being afflicted with, was for your afflicting the people of God with your rods and whips, which now is turning upon you in judgment. Therefore repent, and ask God forgiveness, that you may find mercy.