Posterity out of the sound of the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel, then to be heard through the Roman Empire; if the Devil had any Expectation, that by the Peopling of America, he should utterly deprive any Europeans of the Two Benefits, Literature and Religion, which dawned upon the miserable World, one just before, t'other just after, the first famed Navigation hither, 'tis to be hop'd he will be disappointed of that Expectation. The Church of God must no longer be wrapp'd up in Strabo's Cloak: Geography must now find work for a Christiano-graphy in Regions far enough beyond the Bounds wherein the Church of God had thro' all former Ages been circumscribed. Renown'd Churches of Christ must be gathered where the Ancients once Derided them that look'd for any Inhabitants. The Mystery of our Lord's Garments, made Four Parts, by the Soldiers that cast Lots for them, is to be accomplished in the good Sence put upon it by Austin, who if he had known America could not have given a better Quadripartita vestis Domini Jesu, quadripartitam figuravit ejus Ecclesiam, toto scilicet, qui quatuor partibus constat, terraram orbe diffusam.

§ 3. Whatever Truth may be in that Assertion of one who writes; If we may credit any Records besides the Scriptures, I know it might be said and proved well, that this New World was known, and partly Inhabited by Britains, or by Saxons from England, Three or Four Hundred Years before the Spaniards coming thither; which Assertion is Demonstrated from the Discourses between the Mexicans and the Spaniards at their first Arrival; and the Popish Reliques, as well as British Terms and Words, which the Spaniards then found among the Mexicans, as well as from undoubted Passages, not only in other Authors, but in the British Annals also: Nevertheless, Mankind generally agree to give unto Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, the Honour of being the First European that opened a way into these Parts of the World. It was in the Year 1492. that this famous Man, acted by a most vehement and wonderful Impulse, was carried into the Northern Regions of this vast Hemisphere, which might more justly therefore have receiv'd its Name from Him, than from Americus Vesputius a Florentine, who in the Year 1497. made a further Detection of the more Southern Regions in this Continent. So a World, which

has been one great Article among the Res deperditae of Pancirollus, is now found out, and the Affairs of the whole World have been affected by the finding of it. So the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, well compared unto a Ship, is now victoriously sailing round the Globe after Sir Francis Drake's renowned Ship, called, The Victory, which could boast,

Prima ego velivolis ambivi cursibus orbem.

And yet the Story about Columbus himself must be corrected from the Information of De la Vega, That one Sanchez, a Native of Helva in Spain, did before him find out these Regions. He tells us, that Sanchez using to trade in a small vessel to the Canaries, was driven by a furious and tedious Tempest over unto these Western Countries; and at his return he gave to Colon, or Columbus, an account of what he had seen, but soon after died of a Disease he had got on his dangerous Voyage. However, I shall expect my Reader e're long to grant, that some things done since by Almighty God for the English in these Regions, have exceeded all that has hitherto been done for any other Nation: If this New World were not found out first by the English; yet in those regards that are of all the greatest, it seems to be found out more for them than any other.

THE LIFE OF MR. RALPH PARTRIDGE

[Chap. XI, Book III, of the "Magnalia"]

When David was driven from his Friends into the Wilderness, he made this Pathetical Representation of his Condition, 'Twas as when one doth hunt a Partridge in the Mountains. Among the many worthy Persons who were persecuted into an American Wilderness, for their Fidelity to the Ecclesiastical Kingdom of our true David, there was one that bore the Name, as well as the State, of an hunted Partridge. What befel him, was, as Bede saith of what was done by Fælix, Juxta nominis sui Sacramentum.

This was Mr. Ralph Partridge, who for no Fault but the Delicacy of his good Spirit, being distress'd by the Ecclesiastical Setters, had no Defence, neither of Beak, nor Claw, but a Flight over the Ocean.

The Place where he took Covert, was the Colony of Plymouth, and the Town of Duxbury in that Colony.

This Partridge had not only the Innocency of the Dove, conspicuous in his blameless and pious Life, which made him very acceptable in his Conversation; but also the Loftiness of an Eagle, in the great Soar of his intellectual Abilities. There are some Interpreters, who understanding Church Officers by the living Creatures, in the Fourth Chapter of the Apocalypse, will have the Teacher to be intended by the Eagle there, for his quick Insight into remote and hidden things. The Church of Duxbury had such an Eagle in their Partridge, when they enjoy'd such a Teacher.

By the same Token, when the Platform of Church-Discipline was to be compos'd, the Synod at Cambridge appointed three Persons to draw up each of them, A Model of Church-Government, according to the Word of God, unto the end, that out of those, the Synod might form what should be found most agreeable; which three Persons were Mr. Cotton, and Mr. Mather, and Mr. Partridge. So that in the Opinion of that Reverend Assembly, this Person did not come far behind the first three, for some of his Accomplishments.

After he had been Forty Years a faithful and painful Preacher of the Gospel, rarely, if ever, in all that while interrupted in his Work, by any Bodily Sickness, he dy'd in a good Old Age about the Year 1658.

There was one singular instance of a weaned Spirit, whereby he signalized himself unto the Churches of God. That was this: There was a time, when most of the Ministers in the Colony of Plymouth, left the Colony, upon the Discouragement which the want of a competent Maintenance among the needy and froward Inhabitants, gave unto them. Nevertheless, Mr. Partridge was, notwithstanding the Paucity and the Poverty of his Congregation, so afraid of being any thing that look'd like a Bird wandring from his Nest, that he remained with his poor People, till he took Wing to become a Bird of Paradise, along with the winged Seraphim of Heaven.

Epitaphium.

Avolavit!

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF A BEWITCHED

CHILD

[From the "Magnalia," Book VI, Chap. VII]

It was the Eldest of these Children that fell chiefly under my own Observation: For I took her home to my own Family, partly out of compassion to her Parents, but chiefly, that I might be a critical Eye-Witness of things that would enable me to confute the Sadducism of this Debauch'd Age. Here she continu'd well for some Days; applying her self to Actions of Industry and Piety: But Nov. 20. 1688. she cry'd out, Ah, they have found me out! and immediately she fell into her Fits; wherein we often observ'd, that she would cough up a Ball as big as a small Egg, into the side of her Wind pipe, that would near choak her, till by Stroaking and by Drinking it was again carry'd down.

When I pray'd in the Room, first her Hands were with a strong, tho' not even Force, clapt upon her Ears: And when her Hands were by our Force pull'd away, she cry'd out, They make such a Noise, I cannot hear a Word! She complain'd that Glover's Chain was upon her Leg; and assaying to go, her Gate was exactly such as the chain'd Witch had before she dy'd. When her Tortures pass'd over, still Frolicks would succeed, wherein she would continue Hours, yea, Days together, talking perhaps never wickedly but always wittily beyond her self: And at certain Provocations her Torments would renew upon her, till we had left off to Give them; yet she frequently told us in these Frolicks, That if she might but steal or be drunk, she should be well immediately. She told us, that she must go down to the bottom of our Well, (and we had much ado to hinder it) for they said there was Plate there, and they would bring her up safely again.

We wonder'd at this: For she had never heard of any Plate there; and we our selves, who had newly bought the House, were ignorant of it: but the former Owner of the House just then coming in, told us There had been Plate for many Years lost at the Bottom of the Well. Moreover, one singular Passion that frequently attended her, was this:

An invisible Chain would be clapt about her, and she in much pain and Fear, cry out when [They]1 began to put it on. Sometimes we could with our Hands knock it off, as it began to be fasten'd: But ordinarily, when it was on, she would be pull'd out of her Seat, with such Violence, towards the Fire, that it was as much as one or two of us could do to keep her out. Her Eyes were not brought to be perpendicular to her Feet, when she rose out of her Seat, as the Mechanism of an humane Body requires in them that rise; but she was dragg'd wholly by other Hands. And if we stamp'd on the Hearth, just between her and the Fire, she scream'd out, That by jarring the Chain, we hurt her.

I may add, that [They] put an unseen Rope, with a cruel Noose, about her Neck, whereby she was choak'd until she was black in the Face: And tho' it was got off before it had kill'd her; yet there were the Red Marks of it, and of a Finger and a Thumb near it, remaining to be seen for some while afterwards. Furthermore, not only upon her own looking into the Bible, but if any one else in the Room did it, wholly unknown to her, she would fall into unsufferable Torments.

A Quaker's Book being brought her, she could quietly read whole Pages of it; only the Name of GOD and CHRIST, she still skipp'd over, being unable to pronounce it, except sometimes, stammering a Minute or two, or more upon it: And when we urg'd her to tell what the Word was that she miss'd, she would say, I must not speak it: They say I must not. You know what it is: 'Tis G, and O, and D. But a Book against Quakerism [They] would not allow her to meddle with. Such Books, as it might have been profitable and edifying for her to read, and especially her Catechisms, if she did but offer to read a Line in them, she would be cast into hideous Convulsions, and be tost about the House like a Foot ball: But Books of Jests being shewn her, she could read them well enough, and have cunning Descants upon them. Popish Books [They] would not hinder her from reading; but [They] would from reading Books against Popery. A Book which pretends to prove That there are no Witches, was easily read by her; only the Name Devils and Witches might not be utter'd. A Book which proves That there are Witches, being exhibited unto her, she might not read

['Throughout this selection the brackets are those of the original.]