An essay for the recording of illustrious providences

Remarkable Providences at Norwich. 1. Many times the Heavens have been shut up but God hath answered our Prayers ⟨p. 364⟩in sending Rain, and sometimes so speedily and so plentifully after our seeking the Lord by Fasting and Prayer, that the Heathen, now for more than twenty years upon occasion of want of Rain, will speak to us to call upon the Name of the Lord our God; one especial Instance of this kind I have already given, and its upon Record, in the History of the War with the Indians in New-England. 2. Many among us have been in more than ordinary hazard by Rattle-Snakes, some have set their feet upon them, some have been bitten by them upon the skin, and one as he was stooping down to drink at a Spring of Water, spied a Rattle-Snake within two foot of his head rising up against him; thus manifold ways in danger by this Venomous Creature, and yet none of us have suffered any harm, but only one was bitten in the finger, and in a short time perfectly healed. 3. In the time of the Wars with the Indians, we were not only preserved from the Heathen in the midst of the Heathen, but by the Lords making some of them to be a Wall of Defence unto us. And thus we ⟨p. 365⟩were saved by a Destroying means. And at this time the Providence of God was very remarkable in preserving many of our People, in one of our Garrisons, who were driven to Garrison several Houses, and the House of which now I speak, did contain about sixty persons; and in this House one of the Soldiers taking a Gun Loaden with Bullets into his hand, as he stood in a lower Room, the Lock being half bent, and he holding the Gun right upwards, the Gun was Discharged, though many People were in the Chamber, yet none of them suffered any harm, because Providence did guide the Shot into the Summer, that piece of Timber which is the support of the Chamber. Also one in the same House, looking with a Candle under a Bed for something he wanted, fired some Flax, which filled the Room with Flame and Smoke, and two small Children lay sleeping in this peril, but were preserved from the fire, or any harm by the throng of People in the Room, at length one of the Children was taken up by one of the Men with a purpose of throwing it out of the Chamber ⟨p. 366⟩Window, but at that very moment theirs was such an abatement of the Flame, and hope that the worst of the danger was past, that he held the Child in his Arms;