The present state of New-England. Considered in a discourse on the necessities and advantages…

Consider 1.

We are Precipitated into such Distress and Danger, as we have never seen before; Nothing so Exquisite has hitherto befallen us▪ Our cause indeed is That, in Math▪ 3.10. ⟨p. 34⟩The Axe is laid unto the Ro•ts of the Trees▪ The Knife of our God ha's been heretofore cutting and Pruning of us, but either Ill Fruit, or No Fruit is the Best Fruit which we have hitherto yielded unto that glorious Husband-man. Wherefore He is now come forth against us, with an Axe, a French axe, accompanied with Indian Hatchets; and our very Root is like to receive the strokes thereof. Tis wonderful if the Sentence upon the Barren Fig-tree, be not passed upon us, Cut them down! with an eye to the Execution of that Sentence upon the Jews, we find mentioned, in Isai. 66.6. A Voice from the City, a Voice from the Temple, a Voice of the Lord. Even so, at this Time, there is a Voice coming from almost every side of us; there is a Voice from toe North, a Voice from the East, a Voice from the West; a Voice, as Loud as that in the Heavens, which gave Terror to all this Land a few Months ago. What says this Voice, but this, They are going to be Cut down for ever This is the Voice of the Combinations, which our Adversaries have made against us; this is the Voice of the strange Distractions and Divisions which the […]-some among our selves do infe•• […] and this is the Voice of all our Fear• […] looks Black. For my own part, I […] confe•s, what issue my own Thoughts are come unto: Tis, Th•• if ⟨p. 35⟩the Blessed God intend that the Devil shall keep America during he Happy Chiliad which His Church is now very quickly Entering into, (I say, very quickly, for tis now past Question with me, That the Second Woe is past; and the Third you know then Cometh quickly) then our Lord Jesus will within a few Months break up House among us, an we go for our Lodging either to Heaven or to Europe in a very little while. But if our God will wrest America out of the Hands of its old Land-Lord, Satan, and give these utmost ends of the Earth to our Lod Jesus, than our present conflicts will shortly be blown over, and something better than, A Golden Age, will arrive to this place, and this perhaps before all of our First Planters are fallen a sleep. Now, Tis a dismal Uncertainty and Ambiguity that we see ourselves placed in. Briefly, such is our case, That something must be done out of hand.