The serviceable man. A discourse made unto the General Court of the Massachusetts colony,…

Among our worst Enemies, may be Accounted, in short, All that go to Destroy or Frustrate the Great Ends which this Plantation was first erected upon. But what were those Ends? The Question was often put unto our Predecessors, in Mat. 11.7. What went ye out into the Wilderness to see? And the Answer to it, is not only too Excellent, but also too Notorious, to be dissembled. Let all mankind know, That we came into the Wilderness, because we would quietly worship God, without that Episcopacy, that Common-Prayer, and those unwarrantable Ceremonies ▪ which the Land of our Fathers Sepulchres, has been defiled with, we came, because we would have our Posterity settled under the pure and full Dispensations of the Gospel, defended by Rulers that should be of our selves, and Governors that should proceed from the midst of us. Hence those are the fatal Enemies of this people, that shall go to Debauch and infect the Rising Generation among us, and corrupt them with evil manners; and learn them to Drink and Drab, and Game▪ and profane the Sabbath, and Sin against the Hope of their Fathers; or, those that shall go ⟨p. 32⟩to Decoy them, and much more Compel them, unto those Remainders of Popery, which the first Reformers were hindered from sweeping out of the English Nation; among which, I would set a special Remark upon Superstitious Holy-days, which have too much obtained among our unwary Children. These Enemies do us the worst office in the world; for they do, like Balaam, go to make us offend our God, and thereby loose His Presence and His Favour; it was the old Roman way of Conquering Cities, they first used Stratagems to get their Go•ds out of them; a right Romish Policy. If the New-Englanders once forget their Errand hither, they are immediately deserted by that God, who says, Woe to them, when I depart from them.

Among our worst Enemies, may be Accounted, in short, All that go to Destroy or Frustrate the Great Ends which this Plantation was first erected upon. But what were those Ends? The Question was often put unto our Predecessors, in Mat. 11.7. What went ye out into the Wilderness to see? And the Answer to it, is not only too Excellent, but also too Notorious, to be dissembled. Let all mankind know, That we came into the Wilderness, because we would quietly worship God, without that Episcopacy, that Common-Prayer, and those unwarrantable Ceremonies which the Land of our Fathers Sepulchres, has been defiled with, we came, because we would have our Posterity settled under the pure and full Dispensations of the Gospel, defended by Rulers that should be of our selves, and Governours that should proceed from the midst of us. Hence those are the fatal Enemies of this people, that shall go to Debauch and infect the Rising Generation among us, and corrupt them with evil manners; and learn them to Drink and Drab, and Game and profane the Sabbath, and Sin against the Hope of their Fathers; or, those that shall go