Boston, whither he had translated himself,' lest he should further translate others from the truth; yet is not that of the poet to be forgotten, careat successibus, opto, &c. It is too often seen that those new sectaries, that go about to unchurch all other Christian societies, do at last unchurch themselves, and from Anabaptists become Sebaptists, then Seekers, and at last ranters; it being more usual for them, that out of a giddy, unstable mind have wandered from the truth, to run into the contrary extreme, than to close with the mean principles of truth and soberness, which they have at first deserted without cause. It hath been likewise a common observation, that these Wedderdoping new-sort of Christians have proved but the materia prima of all the corrupt opinions that Christian religion hath of late days, since the reformation of Luther, been besmeared withal. Let men take heed of attempting a new way to Heaven, by a ladder of lying figments of their own, lest thereby they be thrown the deeper into hell, as saith the same author.

But to return to what is in hand, and give this Gospelordered church (as J. Russell terms them,) what is their due from an historian. As for the persons of those seven2 he apologizes for, it may more easily be granted that they were good in the main, than that it was a good work for God they were engaged in. Boni homines are sometimes found malè feriati, i. e. good men may be found to be ill employed, as Peter was, whom Christ rebukes and calls Satan, and bids get behind him. Whether any of them did absolutely deserve to be delivered to Satan for their obstinacy in their opinions or other miscarriages, which either through weakness of their judgments or strength of their passions, which in defence of their opinions or practices, they ran into, or whether there were not more acrimony of the salt than sweetness of the Gospel spirit of peace, in those that managed the discipline of the church against some of them that had been in the communion of some of the churches thereabout, must not be here discussed, only some sober Christians that were of || absolutely did ||

He was ordained minister of the first Baptist church in Boston, as successor to Hull, July 28, 1679, and died Dec. 24, 1680. See Benedict, i. 398-9.-H. 2 The seven males who formed the church, viz. Thomas Gould, Thomas Osburn, Edward Drinker, John George, Richard Goodall, William Turner, and Robert Lambert. Beside these, there were two females, Mary Goodall and Mary Newell. Benedict, i. 383-4.—H.

their own profession, viz. in opposition to Infant Baptism, have said that they could not but look upon their way to be evil, and such as could not be justified. It hath possibly also been observed by some, that though slow-bellied Cretians, as Paul speaks to Titus, are to be rebuked sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, yet men of a grave and serious spirit and of sober conversations, as Thomas Gold and some of the rest were said to be, would easier, in all likelihood, have been reclaimed from the error of their judgments by gentler means of persuasion and long suffering, than by the corrosives of severity and sharp censures of the church, which, if it were granted, yet that can give no color to their irregular and hasty casting themselves into the mould of a particular church, under the specious varnish of a church in Gospel order, consisting only of a few giddy sectaries, that fondly conceit themselves to be an orderly church, when their very coalition is explicitly not only without, but against, the consent of all the rest of the churches in the place, as well as the order of the civil authority.

I shall conclude with the last words of the late Synod: * "Inasmuch as a thorough and hearty reformation is necessary in order to obtaining peace with God, and all outward means will be ineffectual unto that end, except the Lord pour down his Spirit from on high, it doth therefore concern us to cry mightily unto God, both in ordinary and extraordinary manner, that he would be pleased to rain down righteousness upon us ;" and that the north wind would awake, and the south come and blow, that the spices thereof may flow out, that the whole Church of Christ in these deserts of America may be found unto her beloved, as an orchard of pomegranates with all pleasant fruits.

CHAP. LXXIII.1

Memorable accidents during this lustre of years, from

1671 to 1676.

MUCH hurt [was] done by thunder and lightning about these times. To those mentioned before may be added

Reforming Synod, A. D. 1679. ED.

1 LXXII in the MS.-H.

several awful strokes of thunder and lightning within the bounds of Ipswich, viz. the great oak in that called Scott's Lane, which on a Saturday night in August, Anno 1668, (or 1667,) was broken all apieces, and some logs rent off from it, as much and more than a man could lift, were flung several rods from the place. A man in the house next to the place was struck down with the crack of thunder, but had no other hurt.

In the year 1670 the barn of one Edward Allin, in Ipswich, was fired with lightning in the time of harvest, with sixteen loads of barley newly carried thereinto. Several of the harvest-men were but newly gone out of the barn into the dwelling-house, and so their destruction was prevented thereby.

May 18, 1671, the house of Sergeant Perkins in Ipswich, was smitten with lightning, while many were met together at the repetition of the sermon that day preached, it being the Lord's day; several breaches were made in the timber work, and some persons were struck down therewith, yet came to life again. Sergeant Perkins himself had his waistcoat pierced with many holes like goose shot, yet had no other considerable harm, only beaten down, as if he had been dead for the present.

In the year 1671 a whirlwind at Cape Anne passed through the neck of land that makes one side of the harbor towards the main sea; its space or breadth was about forty foot from the sea to the harbor, but it went with such violence that it bore away whatever it met in the way, both small and great trees, and the boughs of trees, that on each side hung over that glade, were broken off and carried away therewith. A great rock that stood up in the harbor, as it passed along, was scarce able to withstand the fury of it, without being turned over.

About that time, or not many years before, some of the inhabitants of Ipswich, on the northwest side of the river, in a thunder storm, saw a sheet of fire, as they imagined, fall down just before the house of Mr. W. H.;a but it reached not the house, only rent the body of an oak that stood not far from it.

1 Sixty, says Felt's Ipswich, p. 200.-H.

William Hubbard, our author. Ibid. p. 201.-H.

A further continuation of the narrative of the troubles with the Indians in New England, from April 1677 to June

1680.

An attempt was made against our Indian enemies, by way of a diversion, in the spring of the last year, 1677, by treating with the Mohawks or Mawques Indians, partly to secure them to be our friends, as hitherto they had been, and partly to see if they could not be induced to prosecute their inbred antipathy against our Indian enemies, with whom they have had a long and deadly feud heretofore. Something was done that way by the help and advice of Major Andros, the Governor of New York; and probably the fear thereof was the only thing that awed the Indians about Pemaquid into a stricter correspondency and more ready compliance with the English; but the truth of this will be judged by the event hereafter.

A long, troublesome, and hazardous journey was undertaken by the Hon. Major Pinchon, of Springfield, and Mr. Richards, of Hartford, in behalf of those two Colonies they were followed with as much success as they could expect. The Mawque Indians made a great shew of cordial friendship to the English, and bitter enmity || against the Indians that have risen against them, making large promises of pursuing their quarrel against them, to the uttermost of their power; but distance of the place, and difficulty of the journey, hath prevented any great matter of effect in that kind, as was expected.

For though some of them armed themselves and came down within the territories of those Indians that have of late so much infested the English Plantations, yet the distance between their own place and that of the other Indians was so great, that they did little execution upon their own and our enemies. The most good it is hoped they did, was by the rumor of their coming down upon the backs of our enemies; it being known to be their natural temper to be very fearful of any evil while it is ||to|| || 2 or ||

'LXXIII in the MS.-H.

2 Fifteen of them appeared in the neighborhood of Merrimack, N. H. on March 22d, 1676-7, causing no small alarm to the friendly Indians. See N. H. Hist. Coll. iii. 100; Farmer's Belknap, p. 80; Williamson's Maine, i. 548.-H.

VOL. VI. SECOND SERIES.

28

far off, and very stupid and blockish whenever it actually falls upon them.

Some of the country were not well satisfied in the design, as questioning the lawfulness of making use of their help, as they were heathen; but the General Court, and the most considerate of the country, apprehended it lawful to make use of any advantage Providence put into their hands, whereby to weaken or abate the force and power of their enemies.

Abraham entered into a confederacy with the Amorites, among whom he sojourned, and made use of their assistance to assist him in the vindicating of the quarrel of his kinsman, Lot, and recovering of him and his family out of the hands of the common enemy of them all. That which was now done by the General Court of the Massachusetts was no other. And this further benefit did redound to them thereby, that Blind Will, a sagamore at Pascataqua, that was a secret enemy of the English, and one [that] contrived much of the mischief that was done by the Indians of those parts against the English, was killed by those Mohawks or Mawques, as they ranged through those woods in the beginning of the year 1677, which the English much rejoiced in, although they knew not well how to put him to death themselves, because he pretended a kind of friendship towards them, without provoking the other Indians, his neighbors, against whom they had no such cause of exception.1

But to return to the other part of the narrative, concerning the further mischief acted by the Indians eastward against the English in those parts.

It was hoped in the beginning of that year, 1677, that the warfare of New England had been accomplished; but it appeared by the sequel that the storm was not yet over, nor were they as yet called to put on beauty for ashes, or the garments of praise for heaviness. For early in the spring that year, the country was alarmed with the uncomfortable news of the slaughter of nine of the garrison left before winter at Kennebeck, who, going securely to Arowsick Island to inter some of the English, that were left unburied before winter, and not having

'See Farmer's Belknap, p. 80; Williamson, i. 548.—H.