for thou goest to thine owne Countreymen from one England to another New England indeed witnesse that experimented asseveration of him worthy of credit who having lived in a Colony there of many thousand English almost twelve yeares and was held a very sociable man speaketh considerately I never heard but one oath sworne never saw one man drunke nor ever heard of three women adulteresses if these sinnes be among us privily the Lord heale us I would not be understood to boast of our innocency there is no cause I should our hearts may be bad enough and our lives much better And yet they have more abundantly testified their pious integrity in serious endeavours to propogate Gospel-holinesse even to those that be without their godly labours Christianizing the Natives must be remembred to their praise they have had long and longing preparative thoughts and purposes that way and as Saint Paul once to his Corinthians 2. 6. 11. they have seemed to say O Americans our mouth is opened unto you our heart is enlarged you are not straightned in us be not straightned in your owne bowels and now for a recompence of all our endeavours to preach Christ unto you we aske no more but be ye also enlarged with gladnesse to receive the Lord Jesus Christ their active industry in this kind with the successe is now famously visible in severall discourses which whosoever shall read will be sufficiently contented in his spirituall and outward well-wishings to his friends both of this Nation and the Natives for the Gospel runs there and is glorified and here I crave leave to speake a word or two to the Military Reader the late English American traveller dedicating his observations upon his journeys of three thousand three hundred miles within the maine Land of America to the Lord Fairefax speakes knowingly to his Excellency that with the same paines and charge that the English have been at in planting one of the petty Islands they might have conquered so many great Cities and large territories on the Continent as might very well merit the title of a Kingdom he shewes further that the Natives have not onely just right to the Land and may transferre it to whom they please but that it may easily be wonne from the Spaniards and that for these three reasons among the rest 1. The Spaniards themselves are but few and thinne 2. The Indians and Blackamoores will turne against them and so will 3. The Criolians that is the Spaniards borne in America whom they will not suffer to beare office in Church or state Looke Westward then yee men of Warre thence you may behold a rising Sunne of glory with riches and much honour and not onely for your selves but for Christ whom you say you desire above all and are delighted to honour In yonder Countries that the following leaves speake of non cedunt arma togae the pen yeelds to the pike the first place of honour is given to the profession of armes and therefore in Mexico the Noblemen were the chiefe souldiers thus you may enlarge not onely your owne renowne but the borders of the Nation yea the Kingdome of the King of Saints We have all made covenants and professions of reformation at home with promises to propagate the Gospell of our deare Lord among those that remaine in great and miserable blindnesse how happy were it for them and us if this England were in such a posture of holinesse and tranquility that all opportunities might be imbraced to advance its territories abroad In the interim I could wish with the most passionate and compassionate of all the holy Prophets Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night for the sinnes and for the slaine of the daughter of my people Oh that I had in the wildernesse c. Ier. 9. 1. 2. Our Countrey is justly called our mother whose heavy groanes under multiplied miseries be heard from all places whose bowels doe not sympathize with her and yerne over her who is not unwilling or ashamed to gather riches or honour from her rents and ruine the Heathen Orator spake affectionately our parents are dear to us and so be our children alliances and familiars but the love of our countrey comprehends in it and with it all other dearnesses whatsoever and in another place Omnes qui patriam conserverunt adjuverunt auxerunt certum est esse in caelo t is certaine they are all in heaven that have been lovers and conservators of their Countrey and when heathenish Babylon was the place of Israels exile they are commanded by God himselfe to seeke the peace of the City whether they were carried and pray unto the Lord for it Jer. 29. 7. It is recorded to the honour of Mordecai that he sought the wealth of his people Esth 10. 3. the contrary to this entailes ignominy to men and their posterity by the book of Gods own heral dry Esa 14. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in buriall because thou hast destroyed thy land and slaine thy people the seed of evill doers shall never be renowned for that Judge judged righteously In a civill warre there is no true victory in asmuch as he that prevaileth is also a loser But I returne and reinvite to peruse these probabilities and if they like not because they are no more but guesses and conjectures yet the requests I hope shall be listened unto for they aime at Gods glory and mans salvation and nothing else and surely the poore Natives will not be a little encouraged to looke after the glorious Gospel of Christ when they shall understand that not onely the English among them but wee all here are daily sutors for them at the throne of grace so that we may say as Paul to the Romans 1. 9. God is our witnesse whom wee serve with our spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne that without ceasing wee make mention of them alwaies in our prayers Mr. Elliot whose praise is now through all our Churches 2 Cor. 8. 18. deserves publique encouragement from hence besides those sprinklings of an Apostolicall spirit received from heaven by which in an high and holy ambition he preacheth the Gospell where Christ had not been named Rom. 15. 20. such another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like-minded soule-lover is not readily to be found that naturally careth for their matters Phil. 2. 20. regarding the Indians as if they were his owne charge and children and as God hath furnished him with ministeriall and spirituall abilities for the worke I wish that he and his com-Presbyters and companions in that labour might be supplyed with all externall accommodations to further the civilizing and Gospellizing of the Americans And now me thinks I heare thee say also Oh that the day breaking of the Gospel there might be the way of Saints even the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and
Moses to his Israell Onely take heed to your selves and keepe your soules diligently Deut. 4. 9. make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. and because you are the children of faithfull Abraham command your children and families that they walke in the waies of the Lord Gen. 18. 9. and let who will serve themselves follow lying vanities and set up their owne lusts let every one of us say and do as Ioshua I and my house will serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. And not onely serve the Lord with and in our housholds but in furthering the common good of others and t is considerable God is pleased to owne publique interests though in civill things with the name of his owne inheritance But this is the sinne this is the misery of these times All seek their owne not the things of Iesus Christ Even regulated charity may beginne at home it may not it must not end there it is the onely grace that is sowne on earth it growes up to heaven and continues there it goes with us thither and there abides to all eternity and t is therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater then faith and hope not from continuance onely but its extensivenesse it delights to be communicative it reacheth an hand of helpe one way or other to every one that needs though at never so great a distance after the cloven tongues as of fire had warmed the affections of the holy Apostles they had so much love to soules that they forgat their fathers house discipled all Nations and preached the Gospel to every creature Their line went through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world that former known world the same spirit hath warmed the hearts of our Countreymen and they are busie at the same worke in the other the new-found world For behold a white horse and he that sate on him had a bow and a Crown was given unto him and hee went forth conquering and to conquer so the Lord Christ shall be light to that world also and Gods salvation to the ends of the earth Britain hath woon the Gospel-glory from all other Countries not onely imbracing it with the formost as old Gildas testifieth but it was the first of all the Provinces that established Christianity by a law saith Sabellicus our Lucius was the first Christian King that Annales make mention of and venerable Bede out of Eutropius declareth that Constantine the first Christian Emperour was created to that dignity in this Island Sozom. l. 9. c. 11. saith that so were Marcus Gratian also But Constantine brought further honour to the Nation Religion For the Saxon Bede and Ponticus Virunnius affirme expresly that Constantine was born in Britaine after this ingemuit orbis videns se totum Romanum All the world wondred after the Beast groaned under the Papall servitude and our K. Henry the eight was the first of all the Princes who brake that yoke of Antichrist but neerer yet to our purpose The Inhabitants of the first England so Verstegan calls that part of Germany whence our Ancestors came hither with the Saxons and Iutes derive their Christianity from Iewry Ad nos doctrina de terra Iudaeorum per sanctos Apostolos qui docebant gentes pervenit as that great linguist learned and laborious Mr Wheelocke hath observed and translated out of the old Saxon Homilies t is but just therefore lege talionis that we repay what we borrowed and endeavour their conversion who first acquainted us with the eternall Gospell and if it be probable that providence honoured this Nation with the prime discovery of that New World as is intimated hereafter it is true without all controversie that from this second England God hath so disposed the hearts of many in the third New England that they have done more in these last few yeares towards their conversion then hath been effected by all other Nations and people that have planted there since they were first known to the habitable world as if that Prophesie were now in its fulfilling Behold I will doe a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the Wildernes and rivers in the desart c. When our Ancestors lay also in darkenesse and the shadow of death Gregory wrote divers Epistles to severall Noblemen and Bishops yea and to some Kings and Queenes of France and England these Sir H. Spelman that famous Antiquary your noble Countreyman and of alliance to divers of you calls epistolas Britannicas which are also mentioned afterwards in these he gives God thankes for their forwardnesse to further the worke of grace and desires earnestly the continuance of their bountifull and exemplary encouragement of such as were zealously employed in that Soule-worke and that is one of the two businesses entended in the following discourse which begs your assistance in your Spheres and cordiall concurrence to promote a designe of so much glory to the Lord of glory This is no new notion or motion all the royall Charters required the Gospellizing of the Natives and in the beginning of this Parliament there was an Ordinance of Lords and Commons appointing a Committee of both and their worke was among other things to advance the true Protestant Religion in America and to spread the Gospell among the Natives there and since very lately there is an Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospell of Iesus Christ in new-New-England I wish prosperity to all the Plantations but those of new-New-England deserve from hence more then ordinary favour because as by an Edict at Winchester about eighth hundred yeeres since King Ecbert commanded this Country should be called Angles-land so these your Countreymen of their owne accord and alone were and are ambitious to retain the name of their owne Nation besides this England had once an Heptarchate and then your Countrey was the chiefe of that Kingdome called Anglia Orientalis and these are the neerest of all the seven to you in name Nov-angles East-angles I pray that you would be nearest and most helpefull to them in this most Christian and Gospel-like designe which I leave with you and two or three Petitions at the throne of grace for you one is that of Moses Yee shall not doe after all the things that wee do heare this day every man whatsoever is right in his owne eyes but that ye walk by rule and not by example this is an age much enclining to Enthousiasmes and Revelations men pretend to externall and inward impulses but wee must remember though wee had a voice from heaven yet having the Scriptures wee have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more sure Propheticall word whereunto yee doe well that yee take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the day starre arise in your hearts
disquisition they cannot affoord one another almost any light or help no wonder therefore that the Originall of the Americans is in such uncertaine obscurity for their very name hath not been heard of much more than one hundred and fifty yeares t is a wonder rather that so great a part of the world should be till then Terra incognita notwithstanding the ambition curiosity and avarice of mankind carried him into a greedy inquisition after all places and corners where men and beasts abode or any commodity was to be found Hieronimus Benzo in his Nova novi orbis Historia so often hereafter mentioned professeth that above all things concerning the Americans his great designe was to finde out what thoughts they had of Christians touching the Countrey it selfe in the Topography and other particulars besides divers mentioned in the following discourse some have of late done excellently that way that t is no part of my businesse which next to the desire of their conversion to Christ was and is to aske whence they came and that they be Judaicall I have laid together severall conjectures as they occuâ—â—… in reading and observing to stirre up and awaken more able inquisitors to looke after the beginning nature civilizing and Gospellizing those people and to cast in my poore mite towards the encouragement of our Countreymen in such their pious undertaking and though some men have spoken meane things of them in reference to their labours that way as if they had been negligent therein such men consider not I feare how long their Countreymen have been wrastling with divers difficulties and busily employing their minds and time in providing outward accommodations for themselves in a strange land they remember not the naturall perversenesse of all mankind to spirituall things nor with what counterworkes Satan doth oppose the underminers of his Principalities nor how he hath broken the language of the Natives into severall tongues and dialects to impede their conversion nor how the Novangles have themselves been broken into divers ruptures lest they should be at leasure to further the enlargement of Christs Kingdome upon the spoiles and diminution of his this was in the purpose of their hearts at first and now to their comfort they do abundantly see that the Natives are a docible people who for their contempt of gold silver and for some other reasons have been deemed bruitish and almost irrationall but to what is after written it may be mentioned in this place that in Mexico they were observed to be wise and politique in government to the admiration of Christians yea they were not ignorant in those parts of letters and writing though in a different fashion from others Acosta did observe the Jewes write from the right hand to the left others from the left to the right the Chinois or East-Indians write from the top to the bottom the Mexicans from the bottome to the top the Reformed Dominican in his new survey of the West-Indies tells of a Town as he travelled called Amat Titlan a Towne of Letters and of very curious Artifices of their Citizens of Goldsmiths worke and otherwise their ingenuity cunning and courage is marvelously manifest in their leading a Whale as big as a mountaine with a cord and vanquishing him in this manner by the helpe of their Canoes or little Boats they come neare to the broad side of that huge creature oand with great dexterity leape upon his necke there they ride as on horsebacke and thrust a sharpe stake into his nosthrill so they call the hole or vent by which they breathe he beats it in with another stake as forcibly as hee can the furious Whale in the meane time raiseth Mountaines of waters and runnes into the deep with great violence and paine the Indian still sits firme driving in another stake in o that other passage so stopping his breath then hee goes againe to his Canoe which with a cord hee had tied to the Whales side and so he paesseth to land the Whale running away with the cord leaps from place to place in much pame till hee gets to shoare and being on ground hee cannot move his huge body then a great number of Indians come to the conquerer they kill the Whale cut his flesh in pieces they dry it and make use of it for food which lasts them long thus plainely verifying that expression Psal 74. 14. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the Wildernesse When or where or by whom is this thus done but by these who will not now desire and willingly lend his helpe to cover their naked bodies and cloath their more naked soules with the Gospel who and who alone have so litterally fulfilled that Scripture of our God But let me commend three other things to thy consideration that thy affections may bee warmed towards thy Countreymen and they receive encouragement in the planting of themselves and the Gospel among the Natives First they may be preparing an hiding place for thy selfe whoever whatever now thou art thou mayst be overtaken by a tempest and stand in need of a shelter and where canst thou be better for sweetnesse of aire and water with the fertility of the soile giving two wheate harvests in one yeare in severall places yea in some three saith P. Martyr and Books generally speake of that Land as of a second Canaan and for New-England you may believe the relation of a very friend there to his like here who mutually agreed upon a private character that the truth might be discovered without deceit or glozing and thus he wrote to him whom he entirely loved The aire of this Countrey is very sweet and healthfull the daies two houres shorter in Summer and two houres longer in Winter then they be with you the Summer is a little hotter and the Winter a little colder our grounds are very good and fruitfull for all kind of corne both English and Indian our cattell thrive much better here then in Old England Fowle encrease with us exceedingly wee have many sweet and excellent springs and fresh Rivers with abundance of good Fish in them of a very truth I believe verily it will be within a few yeares the plentifullest place in the whole world c. I might proclaime saith Lerius the Inhabitants of that Land happy meaning the Natives if they had knowledge of the Creator so that as parents intending to marry their Daughters well extend themselves in what they may to encrease their portion and make way for their preferment our heavenly Father hath dealt thus with these Americans enriching them with Gold Silver good aire good water and all other accommodations for use and delight that they might be the more earnestly wooed and sought after And yet further as he commended his house offered to sale that it had good neighbours if thou beest driven thither goe chearefully
could they else report the manner of their comming into the promised Land they affirme there is one chiefe God who hath been from all eternity by whom the lesser Gods were made who became Assistants in the Fabrick and Government of the World as some of the Rabbins also called the Angells Con-Creators with God to whom the Lord did say Let us make man in our Image c. Gen. 1. 26. The Indians judge the Sunne Moone and Starres to be living creatures a thing a so avowed in the Jewish Talmud shewing it to be a thing easie enough for the Heavens to declare the glory of God Psalme 19. 1. seeing they have understanding soules as well as men and Angels they say of themselves that they be strangers and came from another Countrey Mâ—â—â—…s before named doth not onely averre that many learned men in Brasile take the Natives to be Jewes but that they themselves taught by a most ancient Tradition acknowledge their fore-fathers to be of that linage and Peter Martyr hath from them also such a kinde of assertion And now whereas some conceive the ten Tribes to be either shut up beyond the Caspian Mountaines whence they could not get out though they begged leave of Alexander the Great yet the way was made miraculously unpassable against them as the same Comester relateth Others suppose them to be utterly lost and if once so 't is probable in the opinion of some that they are to be found in America Acosta acknowledgeth this to be the judgement of divers to which he is not onely adverse himselfe but endeavours to answer their Arguments as will be shewd hereafter to these conjectures of the Natives let this Chapter bee concluded with the judgements of two others that have reason for what they say the first is Emanuel de Moraes forespoken of affirming those of Brasile to be Judaicall First because those Brasilians marrie into their owne Tribe and Kindred Secondly Their Manner is also to call their Uncles and Ants Fathers and Mothers Thirdly they are given much to mourning and teares in their Funerall solemnities And last of all they both have Garments much alike The next is Master R. Williams one of the first if not the first of our Nation in New England that learned the Language and so prepared towards the Conversion of the Natives which purpose of his being knowne hee was desired to observe if hee found any thing Judaicall among them c. He kindly answers to those Letters from Salem in New England 20th of the 10th moneth more than ten yeers since in hac verba Three things make me yet suspect that the poore natives came from the southward and are Jewes or Jewish quodammodo and not from the Northern barbarous as some imagine 1. Themselves constantly affirme that their Ancestors came from the southwest and thither they all goe dying 2. They constantly and strictly separate their women in a little Wigwam by themselves in their feminine seasons 3. And beside their God Kuttand to the south-west they hold that Nanawitnawit a God over head made the Heavens and the Earth and some tast of affinity with the Hebrew I have found CHAP. III. Second Conjecture THe rites fashions ceremonies and opinions of the Americans are in many things agreeable to the custome of the Jewes not onely prophane and common usages but such as be called solemn and sacred Common and prophane Customes in both alike 1 The Indians weare garments fashioned as the Jewes a single coate a square little cloake they goe barefoot if you should aske a man of Brasile what vestment would please him best he would answer presently a long cloake the habit of the Jewes and this may seem no light consideration to such as minde Seneca's confidence that the Spaniards planted themselves in Italy for they have the same kind of covering on their heads and shooes for their feet 2 They constantly annoint their heads as did the Jewes also Luk. 7. 46. 3. They doe not onely pride themselves with eare-rings but their noses are borcd also and have jewells hanging on them which they call Caricori like that is read Esa 3. 20 21. 4. In all India they wash themselves often twice or thrice in the day and the women in Brasile ten times saith Lerius and the Jewes were frequent in this Mar. 7. 3 4. Io. 2. 6. 5. They delight exceedingly in dancing men and women yea and women apart by themselves and so they did in Israell Exod. 13. 20. 1 Sam. 21. 11 12. and thus especially after victories and overthrows of enemies which is found also Iud. 11. 34. Iud. 21. 21. 23. 1 Sam. 18. 6 7. 6. As the Jewes were wont to call them fathers and mothers that were not their naturall parents so the Indians give the same appellation to Unkle and Aunts 7. In America they eate no swines flesh t is hatefull to them as it was among the Jewes Levit. 11. 7. Esa 66. 15. 8. They wash strangers feet and are very hospitall to them and this was the known commendation of old Israell 9. The Indians compute their times by nights an use which Laet confesseth they had from the Hebrews they reckon by lunary rules giving the same name to their moneths they do to the Moon Tona 10. Virginity is not a state praise-worthy among the Americanes and it was a bewaileable condition in Iury Iud. 11. 37. 11. The Natives marry within their owne kindred and family this was Gods command to his people Num. 36. 7. 12. The Indian women are easily delivered of their children without Midwives as those in Exod. 1. 19. 13. They wash their infants newly born and this you finde also Ezek. 16. 9. 14. In faeminine seasons they put their women in a Wigwam by themselves t for which they plead nature and tradition another writes expresly such kind of purification they have as had the Jewes 15. The widdow marrieth the brother of the deceased Husband which was also Moses law Mat. 22. 24. 16. Dowries for wives are given by the Indians as Saul enjoyned David 1 Sam. 18. 25. 17. The husband hath power over the adulterous wife to turne her away with disgrace they have also other causes of divorce as was in Israel Mat. 8. 19. 18. They nurse their owne children even the Queenes in Peru and so did the mothers in Israel 19. The husbands come not at their wives till their children be weaned a such an use is read Hos â—8 and at Pera if they be forced to weane them before their time they call such children Ainsco i. e bastards 20. Among the Indians they punish by beating and whipping and the Sachims if they please put offendors to death with their owne hands and secretly sometimes send out an executioner as Mark 6. 27. 2 Cor. 11. 25.
God for these favours by sympathizing affections towards our brethren there and the Natives CHAP. V. To the English here and first in behalfe of the Planters there THey should have our hearts and love for many reasons How many felicities did they forsake both of the right hand and of the left in respect of estate friends and the comfort of their owne native soile It was said by the Prophet Weepe for him that goeth out for hee shall returne no more to see his owne Countrey Jer. 22. 20. besides that dulcis amor patriae how many hazards did they runne into by dangerous and tedious sea-voyages they were exposed to divers certaine inconveniences not only in regard of externalls change of aire diet c. but change of men especially having little security because they were in daily dread of Indian trechery which might then fall upon them when they supposed it most remote they have also left more roome at home of which wee were wont to have more need than company which encreased so fast that wee were ready to extrude one another and by them we have more strength abroad because transplanted colonies be domestique fortifications though they have been invented sometimes and used to abate popular undertakings but I meane it in the Roman interpretation the Nations where they fix are reduced by degrees to their fashions lawes and commands yet some have unnaturally followed those our Countrey men with reproaches accounting them so base as not worthy to be set with the dogs of their flocke as one to them applyed that of Job 30. 1. To the Westerne Plantation indeed at first men of meane condition generally resorted but soon after people of better ranke followed divers of good families and competent estates went into Virginia and setled in some Islands thereabouts but because those of New-England pretended more to Religion than the rest they are more loaden with uncivill language but most injuriously for the transplanting Novangles were many of them severally eminent some of noble extract divers Gentlemen descended from good Families their first Charter mentions three Knights among other men of worth and it seemes their example or somewhat else was like to prevaile with many others of no meane condition so that eleven of the then Privy Counsell directed their letters in December one thousand six hundred thirty foure to the Warden of the Cinque ports taking notice that severall persons went over with their families and whole estates forbidding subsidy men or of the value of subsidy men to be imbarqued without speciall licence and attestation of their taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance submission also to the Orders and discipline of the Church of England And three yeeres after viz. one thousand six hundred thirty seven a proclamation issued from the King to the same purpose and in the same words Others instead of affections and hearts sling darts after them and say they are gone out from us indeed but they were not of us 1 Joh. 2. 19. neither liking our doctrine nor governement Yet surely they differ not at all from us in Religion witnesse our owne confession and their profession and for the first our learned men have continually acknowledged the Puritans to consent with them in Doctrinalls Archbishop Sands in his Sermon before Queene Elizabeth more than once asserteth this We have here saith he to praise our God that in publique doctrine touching the substance of religion wee all agree in one truth the greater pitty it is we should so much dissent in matters of small importance in rites and circumstanees the Puritanicall errors did not at all oppose any part of our Religion but it continued most sound even to the dying day of that most renowned Princess saith he that analysed our thirty nine Articles and so printed them by authority and King Iames averreth the like of his Scottish Puritans We all God be thanked agree in the grounds and after his reception of this Crowne hee calls the English Puritan a Sect rather than a Religion and in his Declaration against Vorstius hee joyneth his Churches of great Britaine with those of France and Germany opposing them all against Vorstius Bertius and the Arminians Notwithstanding the Disciplinarian quarrell saith Bishop Andrewes we have the same faith the Cardinall is deceived or deceiveth in using the word Puritans as if they had another Religion differing from that publiquely professed and this hath been the unanimous asseveration of English Bishops and other learned Divines as were easie abundantly to declare But themselves have spared us that labour by their constant acknowledgement thereof Mr. Rogers in his forecited Analysis produceth their owne writings to this purpose and what one of them can be named that refused subscription to those 39 Articles in reference to matters of Doctrine Mr. Browne t is thought went as farre astray as any here yet I have seen his owne hand declaring at that time his allowance of all those Synodicall Articles and lest any should imagine the Novangles differing from us in dogmaticall truths besides many very many printed bookes testifying their concurrence with us herein beside divers private Letters that subscribed by the Governour and principall assistants sufficiently manifests their judgement and affection wherein they desire to be accounted our brethren and implore our prayers adding howsoever our charity may have met with some discouragements through the misreport of our intentions or through disaffection or indiscretion of some among us for wee dreame not of perfection in this world yet would you be pleased to take notice of the principall and body of this Company as those that are not ashamed to call the Church of England our deare Mother and cannot part from her without teares in our eyes but shall ever acknowledge that such part and hope as we have obtained in the common salvation we received it in her bosome and sucked it from her breasts c. From South-Hampton Iohn Winthrop Governour Rich Saltonstall Tho Dudly c. CHAP. VI. THere is another in jaculation that hath gone current among many that the Puritane of old and New-England is Antimonarchicall the former is sufficiently cleared by that Bishop who hath left this testimony Presbyterio lis est cum Episcopis cum Rege nulla est or if that be not enough King Iames in this is an irrefragable Assertor The Puritans do not decline the oath of Supremacy but daily take it never refused it and the same supremacy is defended by Calvin himselfe And in New-England Mr. Williams seemed in other things to be extravagant yet thus he writes to this point For the Government of the Common-wealth from the King as supreme to the inferiour and subordinate Magistrates my heart is on them as once Deborah spake and as the Governours and assistants doe themselves take the oath of Allegiance so they have power by their Charter to give the same
wealth the Lord assisting our endeavours It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof That every Township encreasing to the number of fifty housholds shall appoint one within their Towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read whose wages shall be paid either by the Parents or Masters of such children or by the Inhabitants in generall by way of supply as the major part of those that order the Prudentialls of the Towne shall appoint and where any town shall encrease to an hundred families or househoulders they shall set up a Grammer school the Masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University and if any town neglect this above a yeere every such Towne shall pay five pound per ann to the next such Schoole till theyshall performe this order 1647. And an Academy or University is not onely in their aime but a good while since they had more than begun well and therefore wee read these words in another part of their lawes Whereas through the good hand of God upon us there is a College founded in Cambridge in the County of Middle sex called Harvard College for incouragement whereof this Court hath given the sum of four hundred pounds and also the revenue of the Ferry betwixt Charles Towne and Boston and that the well ordering and mannaging of the said College is of great concernment It is therefore ordered by this Court c. Then follow directions for the President and Commissioners to establish orders and dispose gifts c. 1636. 1640. 1642. Mr. Coleman that was Erastianly principled preached publikely that except some other way be found to keepe up learning our Universities will be but uselesse places and learning it selfe an unnecessary thing for under this notion of Independency Weavers and Tailors may become Pastors so that if some stop be not the issue may be that one may binde his sonne Apprentice to a Cobler and at seven yeeres end he may go out a free Minister c. But our Brethren of New England wee see have other principles and practises and notwithstanding that they went out as exiles hence extra anni solisque viam yea as Iacob of old with his staffe onely passed over Iordan and suddenly became two bands Gen. 32. 10. These ventured upon the wide and wild Ocean with poore and small provision and how great how many are the mercies that our God hath shewed unto his servants there that they are not onely furnished themselves with necessaries of all sorts and have made large steps in an Academicall way having Acts Degrees and Commencements according to the commendable fashion of England as their own words are The theses at their Commencements disputed upon have been printed severall yeeres at Cambridge in New England and thence dispersed here but they have also industriously furthered by their godlinesse gentlenesse and good orders the conversion of a miserable people that have lien so long in darkenesse To warme the affections of the English here to raise all our hearts and endeavours to joyne all possible forces here and there in this soule-worke the next chapter is added CHAP. X. The successe of the Novangles in Gospellizing the Indians THE Reader here shall have a Breviate inviting him to peruse those larger discourses printed on purpose to raise our hearts in lifting up the high praises of God that hath given this grace unto men First Treatise FOure of the English having sought God went among the Indians Octo. 28. 1646. to make knowne the things of their peace they were conducted into the principall Wigwam of Waaubon their chiefe minister of justice who like another Cornelius Act. 10. 24. had called together many men women and children to hear and learne they began with prayer in English not for want of language but to shew them the duty was sacred and that wee might agree together in the same heart-sorrowes for them even in that place where God was never wont to be called upon It was an affecting spectacle after prayer to see a company of forlorne outcasts diligently attending upon the word of salvation which in the space of an houre and a quarter discovered to them the grounds of Religion repeating expounding and applying the ten Commandements then preaching Jesus Christ the onely meanes of recovery from sinne and wrath perswading them to repentance for severall sinnes which they live in Wee next asked them if they understood what was spoken which they affirmed with many voices and then wee desired to know if they would propound any questions to us for their further satisfaction and this they did but not such curiosities as some others of them had done before as what was the cause of thunder of the ebbing and flowing of the sea of the wind no the wisdome of God directed them to aske How wee may come to know Iesus Christ one of them after wee had answered said hee was praying in his Wigwam to Christ that hee would give him a new heart but another Indian interrupted him saying hee prayed in vaine because Christ understood not what Indians speake in prayer as not being acquainted with their language his question therefore was Whether Iesus Christ did understand the prayers of Indians another demanded if English men were once so ignorant of Christ as themselves and how can there be an image of God seeing it is forbiden in the second Commandement If the father be bad and the child good will God be offended with that child for t is said in the second commandement hee will visit the sinnes of the fathers upon the children How is all the world become so full of people being all were once drowned in the floud Wee then asked them three questions 1. If they did not desire to see God and if they were not tempted to thinke there was no God because they could not see him some of them replyed they did indeed desire to see him but we had taught them that could not be yet they believed though their eyes could not see him hee was to be seen with their soules within 2. Wee asked if it were not strange to them there should be but one God yet this God should be in Massachusets Conectacut Quimipenik in old England in this Wigwam in the next every where It is strange one of them said as all else is we hear preached yet they thought it might be true that God was so big every where 3. Whether they did not finde something troubling them within after the commission of sinne as murther adultery theft lying c. they confest the trouble but could not tell what to say to it he therefore that first spake to them concluded with a dolefull description as far as his language permitted of the trembling condition of every soule that dies in sinne and shall be cast out of favour from God Having thus spent