eousness: Ye that have the cause of Religion, the life of your Kingdom and of all the good that is in it in your hands: Go on undauntedly: As you are Called and Chosen, so be faithful: Ye fight the battels of the Lord, be neither desidious nor perfidious: You serve the King of Kings, who stiles you his heavenly Regiments, Consider well, what impregnable fighting it is in heaven, where the Lord of Hosts is your General, his Angels your Colonels, the Stars your Fellow-souldiers, his Saints your Oratours, his Promises your Victuallers, his Truth your Trenches; where Drums are Harps, Trumpets joyful sounds; your ensigns Christs Banners; where your weapons and armour are spiritual, therefore irresistable, therefore impierceable; where Sun and Wind cannot disadvantage you, you are above them; where hell it self cannot hurt you, where your Swords are furbushed and sharpened by him that made their Metal, where your wounds are bound up with the oyl of a good Cause, where your blood runs into the Veines of Christ, where sudden death is present Martyrdom and Life; your Funerals Resurrections, your honour Glory; where your Widows and Babes are received into perpetual Pensions; your Names listed among Davids Worthies; where your greatest losses are greatest gains; and where you leave the troubles of War, to lye down in beds of eternal rest. What good will it do you, dear Countrymen,

to live without Lives, to enjoy England without the God of England, your Kingdom without a Parliament, your Parliament without Power, your liberties without Stability, your Laws without Justice, your honours without Vertue, your Beings without well-Being, your Wives without honesty, your Children without Morality, your Servants without Civility, your Lands without Propriety, your Goods without Immunity, the Gospel without Salvation, your Churches without Ministry, your Ministers without Piety, and all you have or can have, with more tears and bitterness of heart, than all- you have and shall have will sweeten or wipe away?

Go on therefore Renowned Gentlemen, fall in resolvedly, till your hands cleave to your Swords, your Swords to your enemies hearts, your hearts to Victory, your Victories to triumph, your triumphs to the everlasting Praise of Him that hath given you Spirits to offer your selves willingly, and to jeopard your lives to high Perils, for his Name and Service sake.

And We your Brethren, though we necessarily abide beyond Jordan, and remain on the American Sea-coasts, will send up Armies of Prayers to the Throne of Grace, that the God of Power and Goodness, would incourage your hearts, cover your heads, strengthen your arms, pardon your sins, save your Souls, and bless your Families, in the day of Battel. We will also

pray, that the same Lord of Hosts, would discover the Counsels, defeat the Enterprizes, deride the hopes, disdain the insolencies, and wound the hairy scalpes of your obstinate Enemies, and yet pardon all that are unwillingly misled. We will likewise help you believe that God will be seen on the Mount, that it is all one with him to save by many or few, and that he doth but humble and try you for the present, that he may do you good at the latter end. All which he brings to pass who is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all we can ask or think, for his Truth and Mercy sake in Jesus Christ. Amen, Amen.

So farewell England old
If evil times ensue,

Let good men come to us,

Wee'l welcome them to New.

And farewell Honor'd Friends,

If happy dayes ensue,

You'l have some Guests from hence.
Pray Welcome us to you.

And farewell simple World,

If thou'lt thy Cranium mend,

There is my Last and All.

And a Shoe-Makers END.

Theodore de la Guard. The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (Boston, 1713), 48-57 passim.

13. Authority and Liberty (1645)

By GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP

First Governor of Massachusetts and author of a History which is a kind of official diary.

I AM unwilling to stay you from your urgent affairs, yet give me leave (upon this special occasion) to speak a little more to this assembly. It may be of some good use, to inform and rectify the judgments of some of the people, and may prevent such distempers as have arisen amongst us. The great questions that have troubled the country, are about the authority of the magistrates and the liberty of the people. It is yourselves who have called us to this office, and being called by you, we have our authority from God, in way of an ordinance, such as hath the image of God eminently stamped upon it, the contempt and violation whereof hath been vindicated with examples of divine vengeance. I entreat you to consider, that when you choose. magistrates, you take them from among yourselves, men subject to like passions as you are. Therefore when you see infirmities in us, you should reflect upon your own, and that would make you bear the more with us, and not be severe censurers of the failings of your magistrates, when you have continual experience of the like

J

infirmities in yourselves and others. We account him a good servant, who breaks not his covenant. The covenant between you and us is the oath you have taken of us, which is to this purpose, that we shall govern you and judge your causes by the rules of God's laws and our own, according to our best skill. When you agree with a workman to build you a ship or house, &c. he undertakes as well for his skill as for his faithfulness, for it is his profession, and you pay him for both. But when you call one to be a magistrate, he doth not profess nor undertake to have sufficient skill for that office, nor can you furnish him with gifts, &c., therefore you must run the hazard of his skill and ability. But if he fail in faithfulness, which by his oath he is bound unto, that he must answer for. If it fall out that the case be clear to common apprehension, and the rule clear also, if he transgress here, the error is not in the skill, but in the evil of the will: it must be required of him. But if the case be doubtful, or the rule doubtful, to men of such understanding and parts as your magistrates are, if your magistrates should err here, yourselves must bear it.

For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other