cian shepherds, who scrued the government of Egypt into their hands, as old Manethon tells us, by their villanies, during the reigns of those tyrants, make a shepherd more of an abomination to the Egyptians in all after ages, than these wolves under the name of shepherds have made the remembrance of their French government an abomination to all posterity among the New-Englanders: a government, for which, now, reader, as fast as thou wilt, get ready this epitaph:

Nulla quæsita Scelere Potentia diuturna.*

It was under the resentments of these things that Sir William Phips returned into England in the year 1688, in which twice wonderful-year such a revolution was wonderfully accomplished upon the whole government of the English nation, that New-England, which had been a specimen of what the whole nation was to look for, might justly hope for a share in the general deliverance. Upon this occasion Sir William offered his best assistances unto that eminent person who a little before this revolution betook himself unto White-Hall, that he might there lay hold on all opportunities to procure some relief unto the oppressions of that afflicted country. But seeing the New-English affairs in so able an hand, he thought the best stage of action for him would now be New-England it self; and so with certain instructions from none of the least considerable persons at White-Hall, what service to do for his country, in the spring of the year 1689 he hastened back unto it. Before he left London, a messenger from the abdicated king tendered him the government of New England, if he would accept it; but as that excellent attorney general, Sir William Jones, when it was proposed that the plantations might be governed without assemblies, told the King "that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects there, without their consent. by an assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the English crown;" so Sir William Phips thought it his duty to refuse a government without an assembly, as a thing that was treason in the very essence of it; and instead of petitioning the succeeding princes, that his patent for high sheriff might be rendered effectual, he joined in petitions, that New-England might have its own old patent so restored, as to render ineffectual that, and all other grants that might cut short any of its ancient priviledges. But when Sir William arrived at New-England, he found a new face of things; for about an hundred Indians in the eastern parts of the country, had unaccountably begun a war upon the English in July, 1688, and though the governour then in the western parts had imme diate advice of it, yet he not only delayed and neglected all that was necessary for the publick defence, but also when he at last returned, he manifested a most furious displeasure against those of the council, and al others that had forwarded any one thing for the security of the inhabit

* Power achieved by wicked successes, can never be lasting.

ants; while at the same time he dispatched some of his creatures upon secret errands unto Canada, and set at liberty some of the most murderous Indians which the English had seized upon.

This conduct of the governour, which is in a printed remonstrance of some of the best gentlemen in the Council complained of, did extreamly dissatisfie the suspicious people; who were doubtless more extream in some of their suspicions, than there was any real occasion for: but the governour at length raised an army of a thousand English to conquer this hundred Indians; and this army, whereof some of the chief commanders were Papists, underwent the fatigues of a long and a cold winter, in the most Caucasian regions of the territory, till, without the killing of one Indian, there were more of the poor people killed than they had enemies there. alive! This added not a little to the dissatisfaction of the people, and it would much more have done so, if they had seen what the world had not yet seen of the suggestions made by the Irish Catholicks unto the late King, published in the year 1691, in the "Account of the state of the Protestants in Ireland, licensed by the Earl of Nottingham," whereof one article runs in these express terms, "That if any of the Irish cannot have their lands in specie, but money in lieu, some of them may transport themselves into America, possibly near New-England, to check the growing Independants that country:" or if they had seen what was afterwards seen in a letter from K. James to his Holiness (as they stile his foolishness) the Pope of Rome; that it was his full purpose to have set up Roman-Catholick religion in the English plantations of America: though, after all, there is cause to think that there was more made of the suspicions then flying like wild-fire about the country, than a strong charity would have countenanced. When the people were under these frights, they had got by the edges a little intimation of the then Prince of Orange's glorious undertaking to deliver England from the feared evils, which were already felt by New-England; but when person who brought over a copy of the Prince's declaration was impris oned for bringing into the country a treasonable paper, and the governour, by his proclamation, required all persons to use their utmost endeavours to hinder the landing of any whom the Prince might send thither, this put them almost out of patience. And one thing that plunged the more considerate persons in the territory into uneasie thoughts, was the faulty action of some soldiers, who upon the common suspicions, deserted their stations in the army, and caused their friends to gather together here and there in little bodies, to protect from the demands of the governour their poor children and brethren, whom they thought bound for a bloody sacrifice; and there were also belonging to the Rose-frigot some that buzzed surprising stories about Boston, of many mischiefs to be thence expected. Wherefore, some of the principal gentlemen in Boston, consulting what was to be done in this extraordinary juncture, they all agreed they would, if it were possible, extinguish all essays in the people towards an insurrec

the

tion, in daily hopes of orders from England for their safety: but that if the country people, by any violent motions, pushed the matter on so far as to make a revolution unavoidable, then, to prevent the shedding of blood by an ungoverned mobile, some of the gentlemen present should appear at the head of the action with a declaration accordingly prepared. By the eighteenth of April, 1689, things were pushed on so far by the people, that certain persons first seized the captain of the frigot, and the rumor thereof running like lightning through Boston, the whole town was immediately in arms, with the most unanimous resolution perhaps that ever was known to have inspired any people. They then seized those wretched men, who by their innumerable extortions and abuses had made themselves the objects of universal hatred; not giving over till the governour himself was become their prisoner; the whole action being managed without the least bloodshed or plunder, and with as much order as ever attended any tumult, it may be, in the world. Thus did the New-Englanders assert their title to the common rights of Englishmen; and except the plantations are willing to degenerate from the temper of true Englishmen, or except the revolution of the whole English nation be condemned, their action must se far be justified. On their late oppressors, now under just confinement, they took no other satisfaction, but sent them over unto White-Hall for the justice of the King and Parliament. And when the day for the anniversary elec tion, by their vacated charter, drew near, they had many debates into what form they should cast the government, which was till then administred by a "committee for the conservation of the peace," composed of gentlemen whose hap it was to appear in the head of the late action; but their debates issued in this conclusion: that the governour and magistrates, which were in power before the late usurpation, should resume their places, and apply themselves unto the "conservation of the peace," and put forth what "acts of government" the emergencies might make needful for them, and thus to wait for further directions from the authority of England. So was there accomplished a revolution which delivered New-England from grievous oppressions, and which was most graciously accepted by the King and Queen, when it was reported unto their Majesties. But there were new matters for Sir William Phips, in a little while, now to think upon.

§ 9. Behold the great things which were done by the sovereign God, for a person once as little in his own eyes as in other men's. All the returns which he had hitherto made unto the God of his mercies, were but preliminaries to what remain to be related. It has been the custom, in the churches of New-England, still to expect from such persons as they admitted unto constant communion with them, that they do not only publickly and solemnly declare their consent unto the "Covenant of grace," and particu larly to those duties of it, wherein a particular church-state is more imme diately concerned, but also first relate unto the pastors, and by them unto the brethren, the special impressions which the grace of God has made

upon their souls in bringing them to this consent. By this custom and caution, though they cannot keep hypocrites from their sacred fellowship, yet they go as far as they can to render and preserve themselves "churches of saints," and they do further very much edifie one another. When Sir William Phips was now returned unto his own house, he began to bethink himself, like David, concerning the house of the God who had surrounded him with so many favours in his own; and accordingly he applied himself unto the North Church in Boston, that with his open profession of his hearty subjection to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, he might have the ordinances and priviledges of the gospel added unto his other enjoyments. One thing that quickned his resolution to do what might be in this matter expected from him, was a passage which he heard from a minister preaching on the title of the fifty-first Psalm:

"To make a publick and an open profession of repentance, is a thing not misbecoming the greatest man alive. It is an honour to be found among the repenting people of God, though they be in circumstances never so full of suffering. A famous Knight going with other Christians to be crowned with martyrdom, observed that his fellow-sufferers were in chains, from which the sacrificers had, because of his quality, excused him; whereupon he demanded, that he might wear chains as well as they. 'For,' said he, 'I would be a Knight of that order to.' There is among ourselves a repenting people of God, who by their confessions at their admissions to his table, do signalize their being so; and thanks be to God that we have so little of suffering in our circumstances. But if any man count himself grown too big to be a Knight of that order, the Lord Jesus Christ himself will one day be ashamed of that man!"

Upon this excitation, Sir William Phips made his address unto a Congregational-church, and he had therein one thing to propound unto himself, which few persons of his age, so well satisfied in infant-baptism as he was, have then to ask for. Indeed, in the primitive times, although the lawfulness of infant-baptism, or the precept and pattern of Scripture for it, was never so much as once made a question, yet we find baptism was frequently delayed by persons upon several superstitious and unreasonable accounts, against which we have such fathers as Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, Basyl, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others, employing a variety of argument. But Sir William Phips had hitherto delayed his baptism, because the years of his childhood were spent where there was no settled minister, and therefore he was now not only willing to attain a good satisfaction of his own internal and practical Christianity, before his receiving that mark thereof, but he was also willing to receive it among those Christians that seemed most sensible of the bonds which it laid them under. Offering himself therefore, first unto the baptism, and then unto the supper of the Lord, he presented unto the pastor of the church, with his own hand-writing, the following instrument; which, because of the exemplary devotion therein expressed, and the remarkable history which it gives of several occurrences in his life, I will here faithfully transcribe it, without adding so much as one word unto it

"The first of God's making me sensible of my sins, was in the year 1674, by hearing your father preach concerning, 'The day of trouble near.' It pleased Almighty God to smite me with a deep sence of my miserable condition, who had lived until then in the world, and had done nothing for God. I did then begin to think what I should do to be saved? and did bewail my youthful days, which I had spent in vain: I did think that I would begin to mind the things of God. Being then sometime under your father's ministry, much troubled with my burden, but thinking on that scripture, 'Come unto me, you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest;' I had some thoughts of drawing as near to the communion of the Lord Jesus as I could; but the ruins which the Indian wars brought on my affairs, and the entanglements which my following the sea laid upon me, hindred my pursuing the welfare of my own soul as I ought to have done. At length God was pleased to smile upon my outward concerns. The various providences, both merciful and afflictive, which attended me in my travels, were sanctified unto me, to make me acknowl edge God in all my ways. I have divers times been in danger of my life, and I have been brought to see that I owe my life to him that has given a life so often to me: I thank God he hath brought me to see my self altogether unhappy without an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to close heartily with him, desiring him to execute all his offices on my behalf. I have now, for some time, been under serious resolutions that I would avoid whatever I * should know to be displeasing unto God, and that I would serve him all the days of my life.' I believe no man will repent the service of such a master. I find my self unable to keep such resolutions, but my serious prayers are to the Most High, that he would enable me. God hath done so much for me, that I am sensible I owe my self to him; 'to him would I give my self, and all that he has given to me.' I can't express his mercies to me. But as soon as ever God had smiled upon me with a turn of my affairs, I had laid my self under the vows of the Lord, 'That I would set my self to serve his people and churches here unto the utmost of my capacity.' I have had great offers made me in England; but the churches of New-England were those which my heart was most set upon. I knew that if God had a people any where, it was here: and I resolved to rise and fall with them; neglecting very great advantages for my worldly interest, that I might come and enjoy the ordinances of the Lord Jesus here. It has been my trouble that, since I came home, I have made no more haste to get into the house of God, where I desire to be: especially having heard so much about the evil of that omission. I can do little for God, but I desire to wait upon him in his ordinances, and to live to his honour and glory. My being born in a part of the country where I had not in my infancy enjoyed the first sacrament of the New-Testa ment, has been something of a stumbling-block unto me. But though I have had profers of baptism elsewhere made unto me, I resolved rather to defer it, until I might enjoy it in the communion of these churches; and I have had awful impressions from those words of the Lord Jesus in Matth. viii. 38, 'Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed.' When God had blessed me with something of the world, I had no trouble so great as this, 'lest it should not be in mercy;' and I trembled at nothing more than being 'put off with a portion here.' That I may make sure of better things, I now offer my self unto the communion of this church of the Lord JESUS."

Accordingly on March 23, 1690, after he had in the congregation of North-Boston given himself up, "first unto the Lord, and then unto his people," he was baptized, and so received into the communion of the faithful there.

§ 10. Several times, about, before and after this time, did I hear him express himself unto this purpose:

"I have no need at all to look after any further advantages for my self in this world; I may sit still at home, if I will, and enjoy my ease for the rest of my life; but I believe that