Decennium luctuosum An history of remarkable occurrences, in the long war, which New-England hath…

I. In the WAR that hath been upon us, Whoso is Wise, may observe the Consequence of Entertaining the Gospel of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, and Obtaining and Maintaining the Ordinances of that Glorious Gospel. The Gadarenes of old, were loath to have any thing 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 place besieged in that War, and Sad Things were done unto it. Alas, How little of an Evangelical Church-State, was there to be seen among all our Eastern Settlements! It hath been for the want of this, that the Judgments of God, have more than once forbidden them to be called Settlements. The Towns were generally without Preachers of CHRIST, and much more generally ⟨p. 205⟩without Churches of CHRIST, for to Irradiate 'em: Yea, not one of the Towns, that are utterly broken up, had any Minister in it, for a long while before their Final Darkness came upon them. Such a Way of Living did content many of them, that it were horrible to Tell, what Ignorance of CHRIST they were thereby sunk into. 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 an Horrible Thing in the Land. Indeed the Strange Disasters which attended the First Essays, to Settle that Good Country, made many people, Imagine the Indian Sorcerers had Enchanted the Ground so that no English could Thrive on such an Enchanted Soil. But had they carried the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with them, doubtless they had confuted that vain Imagination; all the Spells of Hell would have been insignificant; there would not have prevailed any Enchantment against a Gods-Spell which we have in our Gospel. The Original Design of NEW-ENGLAND, was to Settle Congregations, wherein the Lord Jesus Christ, should be known and served according to His Gospel; and Instruct Families, that should be the Nurseries of those Congregations. The Plantations of the East, ⟨p. 206⟩had little of this Illustrious Design in their Eye; The Enjoyments of Gadarenes did seem too much to Satisfy too many of them. For This cause, we may Believe it is, that our Lord JESUS CHRIST looking down from Heaven upon these Unchristian Undertakings, Thunder-struck them with His Indignation: