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

VI. In the WAR that hath been upon us, Whoso is wise, may observe, a Work, a Strange Work of Heaven, as it were Devising of ways, very strangely to Distress all sorts of people, in all sorts of Interests. Truly the very Character of our Calamity, hath all along been This; The Great God has written still upon it, we may Read upon it in a very Legible Character, those words, in Jer. 18.11. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I Frame Evil against you, I devise a Device ⟨p. 226⟩against you. It hath been, as if ways had been deliberately, and exquisitely Studied, and as if with much Contrivance plotted for to bring us all within the Reach of the general Calamity. We have now Languished through' Ten Years, which have been the Saddest, and the Darkest, and the Stormiest Years, that ever we saw. If the History of these Ten Years were to be written, I am thinking, What should be the Title; Truly, It might be Entitled, as Ezekiels Roll was, Lamentation, and Mourning, and Wo. Yea, you shall now have the History of these Ten Years written for you; I'll give it you, in as Expressive words as can be; even in those words, 2 Chron. 15.5, 6. In those Times, there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great Vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries, for God did vex them with all Adversity. There is a Variety of Adversity, with which the tedious War it self hath vexed us. The General Fate of the War, hath involved Numberless Families in several circumstances of Adversity; and the Expensive part of the War hath been an heavy Scourge of Adversity upon those that could not be reached by the Destructive part of it. You could not but Observe these things: But then, have you not observed, what a further variety of Adversity hath been Contemporary with this Vexatious War. Alas, There hath been such a Complication of other Distresses added ⟨p. 227⟩unto the War, in the Time of it,, that no-body, No, I say, No-body hath been left free from those Dolorous Ejulations, I am one that hath been Afflicted by the Rod of the Wrath of God.

VI. In the WAR that hath been upon us, Whoso is wise, may observe, a Work, a Strange Work of Heaven, as it were Devising of wayes, very strangely to Distress all sorts of people, in all sorts of Interests. Truly the very Character of our Calamity, hath all along been This; The Great God has written still upon it, we may Read upon it in a very Legible Character, those words, in