Once more: Was ever Mercy Remembered in the midst of Wrath, more conspicuously than when powerful Adversaries Designing Inroads upon us, have been Diverted wonderfully. Advice hath been seasonably Dispatched unto us, of the Intentions in our Enemies to fall upon our Frontiers, and this Advice hath proved our Safety. Yea, sometimes when we have had no Advice, a Strange Direction from Heaven has Led us to those Actions, which have as much defeated the Intentions of our Enemies, as if we had Received the fullest Advice in the world. Besides this, Boston, and Salem, and Portsmouth especially: Will they ever forget the Last year? It was a Year of Salvations; yea, It was a Year of Miracles! Never, Never such a Year passed over us. The Almighty showed that Favour to His people of old, Zech. 9.8. I will Encamp about my House, because of the Army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that Returneth. Alexander in an Expedition to the Southward did pass by the Land of Israel, and he did Return again to the Northward, without Hurting that Land, that had the House of God in it. Formidable ⟨p. 243⟩French Squadrons, have more than once passed by, to the Southward, and have Returned again to the Northward, intending doubtless a Destroying Visit into this Land by the way; but Our Lord Jesus Christ hath Encamped about His House here, because of the Navy. Yea, once, O New-England, the Lord thy God, He that would be the Holy One of New-England, gave Carthagena for thy Ransom, He gave men for thee, and Spaniards for thy Life. Another Time, when a Force likely enough to have carried all before them, were almost arrived unto us, we are advised, that God sent such a sudden, and such a wasting Sickness among them, as to make them for want of Hands, to desist from their Attempt. These were Illustrious Deliverances! And yet give me leave to say, We did the last year, see another Deliverance, that for ought I know, may be equal to any of the rest. There was an English Fleet of our Good Friends with a direful Plague aboard 'em, intending Hither. Had they Come, as they intended, what an horrible Desolation had cut us off, Let the Desolate places that some of you have seen in the Colonies of the South, declare unto us; And that they did not come, it was the Signal Hand of Heaven, by which the Goings of men are ordered.
Once more: Was ever Mercy Remembred in the midst of Wrath, more conspicuously than when powerful Adversaries Designing Inroads upon us, have been Diverted wonderfully. Advice hath been seasonably Dispatched unto us, of the Intentions in our Enemies to fall upon our Frontiers, and this Advice hath proved our Safety. Yea, sometimes when we have had no Advice, a Strange Direction from Heaven has Led us to those Actions, which have as much defeated the Intentions of our Enemies, as if we had Received the fullest Advice in the world. Besides this, Boston, and Salem, and Portsmouth especially: Will they ever forget the Last year? It was a Year of Salvations; yea, It was a Year of Miracles! Never, Never such a Year passed over us. The Almighty show'd that Favour to His people of old, Zech. 9.8. I will Encamp about my House, because of the Army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that Returneth. Alexander in an Expedition to the Southward did pass by the Land of Israel, and he did Return again to the Northward, without Hurting that Land, that had the House of God in it. Formidable ⟨p. 243⟩French Squadrons, have more than once passed by, to the Southward, and have Returned again to the Northward, intending doubtless a Destroying Visit into this Land by the way; but Our Lord Jesus Christ hath Encamped about His House here, because of the Navy. Yea, once, O New-England, the Lord thy God, He that would be the Holy One of New-England, gave Carthagena for thy Ransome, He gave men for thee, and Spaniards for thy Life. Another Time, when a Force likely enough to have carried all before them, were almost arrived unto us, we are advised, that God sent such a sudden, and such a wasting Sickness among them, as to make them for want of Hands, to desist from their Attempt. These were Illustrious Deliverances! And yet give me leave to say, We did the last year, see another Deliverance, that for ought I know, may be aequal to any of the rest. There was an English Fleet of our Good Friends with a di•eful Plague aboard 'em, intending Hither. Had they Come, as they intended, what an horrible Desolation had cut us off, Let the Desolate places that some of you have seen in the Colonies of the South, declare unto us; And that they did not come, it was the Signal Hand of Heaven, by which the Goings of men are ordered.
