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ECCLESIARUM CLYPEI.-["THE SHIELDS OF THE CHURCHES."]

THE SECOND BOOK

OF

THE NEW-ENGLISH HISTORY:

CONTAINING

THE LIVES OF THE GOVERNOURS,

AND

THE NAMES OF THE MAGISTRATES,

THAT HAVE BEEN SHIELDS UNTO THE CHURCHES OF NEW-ENGLAND,

UNTIL THE YEAR 1686.

PERPETUATED BY THE ESSAY OF COTTON MATHER.

Priscatque ne Veteris vanescat Gloria Sæcli,
Vivida defensant, quæ Monumenta damur,

[The glories of that elder age,

Lustrous and pure, shall never wane,

While hero, martyr, ruler, sage,

Its living monuments reman.]

Qui aliis præsunt, tanto privatis Hominibus Meliores esse Oportet,
Quanto Honoribus et Dinitate antecellunt.-PANORINITAN.

[In respect to men in authority, it is needful that they should surpass private citizens
In loftiness of character, as much as they excel them in dignity of station.]

Nondum hæc, quæ nunc tenet Sæculum, Negligentia

Dei Venerat.-Liv. 1. 3.

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INTRODUCTION.

"TWERE to be wished that there might never be any English translation of that wicked position in Machiavel, Non requiri in Principe veram pietatem, sed sufficere illius quandam umbram, et simultationem Externam.* It may be there never was any region under heaven happier than poor New-England hath been in Magistrates, whose true piety was worthy to be made the example of after-ages.

Happy hast thou been, O land! in Magistrates, whose disposition to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, unto whom they still considered themselves accountable, answered the good rule of Agapetus," Quo quis in Republica Majorem Dignitatis gradum adeptus est, eo Deum Colat Submissius:" Magistrates, whose disposition to serve the people that chose them to rule over them, argued them sensible of that great stroak in Cicero, "Nulla re propius Homines ad Deum Accedunt, quam salute Hominibus danda:‡ Magistrates, acted in their administrations by the spirit of a Joshua. When the wise man observes unto us, "That oppressions make a wise man mad," it may be worth considering, whether the oppressor is not intended rather than the oppressed in the observation. "Tis very certain that a disposition to oppress other men, does often make those that are otherwise very wise men, to forget the rules of reason, and commit most unreasonable exorbitancies. Rehoboam in some things acted wisely; but this admonition of his inspired father could not restrain him from acting madly, when the spirit of oppression was upon him. The rulers of New-England have been wise men, whom that spirit of oppression betrayed not into this madness.

The father of Themistocles disswading him from government, showed him the old oars which the mariners had now thrown away upon the sea-shores with neglect and contempt; and said, "That people would certainly treat their old rulers with the same contempt." But, reader, let us now take up our old oars with all possible respect, and see whether we cannot still make use of them to serve our little vessel. But this the rather, because we may with an easie turn change the name into that of pilots.

The word GOVERNMENT, properly signifies the guidance of a ship: Tully uses it for that purpose; and in Plutarch, the art of steering a ship, is, Texvn außepuntIkn. New-England is a little ship, which hath weathered many a terrible storm; and it is but reasonable that they who have sat at the helm of the ship, should be remembred in the history of its deliverances. Prudentius calls Judges, "The great lights of the sphere;" Symmachus calls Judges, "The better part of mankind." Reader, thou art now to be entertained with the Lives of Judges which have deserved that character. And the Lives of those who have been called speaking laws, will excuse our History from coming under the observation made about the work of Homer, That the word Law, is never so much as once occuring in them. They are not written like the Cyrus of Xenophon, like the Alexander of Curtius, like Virgil's Eneas, and like Pliny's Trajan: but the reader hath in every one of them a real and a faithful History. And I please my self with hopes, that there will yet be found among the sons of New-England, those young gentlemen by whom the copies given in this History will be written after; and that saying of old Chaucer be remembred, "To do the genteel deeds, that makes the gentleman."

• True piety is superfluous in a prince: it is enough if he assume its semblance and outward show.

+ The loftier the station one reaches in the government, the truer should be his devotion to the service of God. Meu approach nearest to the character of God in doing good to mankind.

ECCLESIARUM CLYPEI.

THE SECOND BOOK

OF THE

NEW-ENGLISH HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

GALEACIUS SECUNDUS.*

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM BRADFORD, ESQ., GOVERNOUR OF PLYMOUTH COLONY. Omnium Somnos illius vigilantia defendit; omnium otium, illius Labor; omnium Delitias, illius Industria; omnium vacationem, illius occupatio.

§ 1. It has been a matter of some observation, that although Yorkshire be one of the largest shires in England; yet, for all the fires of martyrdom which were kindled in the days of Queen Mary, it afforded no more fuel than one poor Leaf; namely, John Leaf, an apprentice, who suffered for the doctrine of the Reformation at the same time and stake with the famous John Bradford. But when the reign of Queen Elizabeth would not admit the Reformation of worship to proceed unto those degrees, which were proposed and pursued by no small number of the faithful in those days, Yorkshire was not the least of the shires in England that afforded suffering witnesses thereunto. The Churches there gathered were quickly molested with such a raging persecution, that if the spirit of separation in them did carry them unto a further extream than it should have done, one blameable cause thereof will be found in the extremity of that persecution. Their troubles made that cold country too hot for them, so that they were under a necessity to seek a retreat in the Low Countries; and yet the watchful malice and fury of their adversaries rendred it almost impossible for them to find what they sought. For them to leave their native soil, their lands and their friends, and go into a strange place, where they must hear foreign language, and live meanly and hardly, and in other imployments than that of husbandry, wherein they had been educated, these must needs have been such discouragements as could have been conquered by none, save those who "sought first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof." But that which would have made these discouragements the more

The second shield-bearer.

+ His watchfulness guards others' slumbers; his toil secures others' rest; his diligence protects others' enjoy. ments; his constant application, others' leisure.

unconquerable unto an ordinary faith, was the terrible zeal of their enemies to guard all ports, and search all ships, that none of them should be carried off. I will not relate the sad things of this kind then seen and felt by this people of God; but only exemplifie those trials with one short story. Divers of this people having hired a Dutchman, then lying at Hull, to carry them over to Holland, he promised faithfully to take them in between Grimsly and Hull; but they coming to the place a day or two too soon, the appearance of such a multitude alarmed the officers of the town adjoining, who came with a great body of soldiers to seize upon them. Now it happened that one boat full of men had been carried aboard, while the women were yet in a bark that lay aground in a creek at low water. The Dutchman perceiving the storm that was thus beginning ashore, swore by the sacrament that he would stay no longer for any of them; and so taking the advantage of a fair wind then blowing, he put out to sea for Zealand. The women thus left near Grimsly-common, bereaved of their husbands, who had been hurried from them, and forsaken of their neighbours, of whom none durst in this fright stay with them, were a very rueful spectacle; some crying for fear, some shaking for cold, all dragged by troops of armed and angry men from one Justice to another, till not knowing what to do with them, they even dismissed them to shift as well as they could for themselves. But by their singular afflictions, and by their Christian behaviours, the cause for which they exposed themselves did gain considerably. In the mean time, the men at sea found reason to be glad that their families were not with them, for they were surprized with an horrible tempest, which held them for fourteen days together, in seven whereof they saw not sun, moon or star, but were driven upon the coast of Norway. The mariners often despaired of life, and once with doleful shrieks gave over all, as thinking the vessel was foundred: but the vessel rose again, and when the mariners with sunk hearts often cried out, "We sink! we sink!" the passengers, without such distraction of mind, even while the water was running into their mouths and ears, would chearfully shout, "Yet, Lord, thou canst save! Yet, Lord, thou canst save!" And the Lord accordingly brought them at last safe unto their desired haven: and not long after helped their distressed relations thither after them, where indeed they found upon almost all accounts a new world, but a world in which they found that they must live like strangers and pilgrims.

§ 2. Among those devout people was our William Bradford, who was born Anno 1588, in an obscure village called Ansterfield, where the people were as unacquainted with the Bible, as the Jews do seem to have been' with part of it in the days of Josiah; a most ignorant and licentious people, and like unto their priest. Here, and in some other places, he had a comfortable inheritance left him of his honest parents, who died while he was yet a child, and cast him on the education, first of his grand

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