SIR, If many Letters of mine, can bring you into the Debt of so much as one you are certainly at least so much in mine.

This hinders not my adding this to the Number of my Letters, wherein I shall (and alwayes,) keep close to the two Rules, on which, I have heretofore told you, that when you saw my hand in a Superscription, you might go on, and open, with a perpetual Dependence.

There is not that man upon Earth which will charge me, with ever speaking one injurious Word of you on any Occasion. And, tho' I have perhaps mention'd Irenæus Americus, it has alwayes been with the candid Sentiments and the very Expressions, which have been employ'd on that Occasion, by our incomparrable Sir Wm. Ashurst, whom you know to be one of the best of men, and I know that you have not a better Friend upon the Earth.

If you find an odd sort of a Treatment among us, you will not wonder, that one who has the ill hap to have a certain Man whom you know very well, to be his Adversary should be treated so. Mr. Mather has been formerly as much maligned and abused by that man as Mr. Dummer; but the one has outlived it, and so will the other.

I have my just share in the common Joy, of your Deliverance from the Brand which threatned you, and have signalized it in a more significant way, than any Person in the Countrey.

But, Oh! may the precious Effects, both of the Trouble, and of the Rescue be with such a conspicuous Improvement in Piety and all Goodness, that it may be said, God has meant it unto good.

Your Circumstances upon many accounts, expose you to wondrous Temptations; and the Trial which has befallen you, comes upon an Errand from Heaven, whereof, may our gracious God make you wisely sensible.

Your not being assign'd a share in the Presentation of an Address from our Ministers, was, I suppose, entirely a Complement unto one, who is now succeeded by a person, whose excellent Character, fills us with praises to our merciful God, and thanks unto our King, and unto them, who have made him appris'd of our Condition.

There will be no doubt of your being again desired to continue in your Agency and I desire you to continue in your Generosity.

I do not use to nauseate you, with any of my published Composures; but there is one which I will now impose upon you. Behold.

MY DEAR AND MOST VALUABLE BROTHER, One Infelicity among the Consequences of my not meeting with you at London, is, that I am afraid the Oportunities for Correspondence will have an uneasy Abridgment upon them. We shall not have so many Opportunities to hear from one another.

But what I can lay hold on, I will embrace with all the Alacrity of a Brother, hoping to converse with a Friend, than whom no Brother can be more endeared.

Our Countrey affords little matter of Intelligence to entertain and gratify an Europaean Curiosity. But, because it will be a satisfaction unto you, I will inform you, that our Churches are continually, and peaceably multiplying and as in the rest of the Countrey, so in our City of Boston, tis remarkably exemplified.

The Church which I serve, has mett in an aedifice, no less than seventy foot long, sixty six foot wide, and three Tires of Galleries one over another; but yett so throng'd an Auditory that they proposed a swarm. I approved and assisted their Motion; help'd them to build another Meeting-house, and gathering their Church, and ordaining their Minister. So, I have a flourishing Society drawn off from me, but subsisting in the very midst of my own, and such a strange Blessing on my own, that our Congregation hardly misses any of its Numbers, and the Lord's-day-Collections (which in this City, bear all our ecclesiastical Expences,) are larger than they were before the Secession. Within a Month or two, another new Church will be formed in the South part of our City. And then we shall have seven Churches, of our United Brethren, belonging to this Town; besides a Synagogue of High Church and another of the Baptists, and another of the French with whom we live in all decent Agreement.

The Ch: of E. is become exceeding lothesome in these Colonies, by the Scandal they have taken at your Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, (as they are pleas'd to call, Episcopacy,) in foreign Parts. For, first, it hath seem'd strange unto them, that, while they left many Places in the more Southern Colonies utterly ungospellized and without any social Worship of God, at the same time, if half a score or a very few sorry People in the well-instructed Towns of N. E. that they might serve some litigious Purposes, declare for the Ch: of E. presently the Society dispatch and support their Missionaries, to strengthen these People, in their Wayes, which are alwayes grievous.

But, secondly, it has happened, that the Missionaries for the most part have been men of such a vicious and horrid Character, that the worst People we have are not near so bad, as they that should have been their Instructors in all Goodness. You may easily apprehend, what Ideas of the Ch. of E. must be produced in the sober Christians of this Countrey, by such a Conduct, and how much they must look on what is done by the Society for the Molestation of the Gospel in foreign Parts, as the greatest Prostitution of Charity, that ever was in the World.

But so much for that ungrateful Subject!

You have been pleased, Syr, to lett me know, that you are willing to afford a place in your Library, unto the poor Composures, which the mean hand that now writes, has published. About forty of these, you have lett me understand, that they have already reached you. But indeed there are above two hundred more; belonging to the Catalogue; which have already pass'd the Press; Altho' some, which are longer than any of these, (except the Magnalia,) and the Biblia Americana also (which are more than three times as big as the Magnalia,) and have cost me exquisite Elaborations, ly by unpublished. A great Part of these are already so out of print, that I despair of recovering them. Such as I can recover, I shall endeavour, as I do so, to croud into such Packetts, as I may (if I live,) transmitt from Time to Time unto you.

Tho' I am, from very many parts of the world, sollicited for the Biblia Americana, yett, I have no Prospect of its being undertaken by the London-Booksellers, until the present Storms are over; which, I am so far from expecting, that I beleeve, the Times must grow yett more tempestuous.

But, it becomes me, with all possible Resignation, to submitt unto the Disposals of Him, who is the Head of the Church, and I have no Eyes but what are in that glorious Head. Lett Him do with us, and our Essayes to serve Him, even what, and when He pleases!

Among the Composures in a Packet which now visits you, there is a very little Thing, entituled, Lapis etc. which is of greater Expectation with me, than anything that I have ever yett been concerned in, you shall give me leave to say,

After all this, I have been informed, that when the Consideration of it, has been offered unto the General Meeting of your Ministers, it has been treated after such a manner, as much to confirm such Thoughts as I had before Entertained of my honoured Brethren, being yett, scarce ready to see, and much less to do the great Things

wherein the Kingdome of God is to come on. The Truth is, it looks as if Lutherans in Germany had righter Sentiments of, and. were like to greater Services for, the Kingdome of God, than my excellent Brethren, the Dissenters in Gr. Britain, seem disposed for.

But my Walrond is a person of more Catholic Spirit, than many in the world. I throw the Lapis Excisus, into his hands. I beg him to bestow a deep Consideration upon it. I beg him to penetrate into the vast Tendencies of it. I beg him, that it may be shott into the Bowels of France; it, wherever else it may serve the Intentions of it. if I say to you.

to do what he can, and communicate Pardon me, Syr,

But it is time for me to conclude my long Letter. I do it, with earnest Supplications to our glorious Lord, that your precious Life may be prolonged, and that all your Holy Studies to serve the best of Interests may be directed and prosperity continue your Loves and Prayers for, Sir, Your most affectionate Brother.

MY HONOURED FRIEND, When some Gentlemen of your honourable House, lately, (that is to say, the last Thursday Evening) obliged me with a visit, I did offer my present sentiments on two Articles, after which there was made some Enquiry.1

First, Concerning our Governour, I declared, that I took his Candour and Goodness to be such, that, we may be happy in him, and should be thankful for him, and that we shall do well to do every thing, that may have a Tendency to make his Government an easy Station to him. To this purpose, I read certain passages in Letters from our Friends abroad. And added, my hopes, that the faithful Methods used continually to rescue His Excellency from some Dangers our People were afraid of would not be ineffectual. And I intimated that I also hoped, all wise Men would avoid every thing that should give the least Occasion of Suspicion, that they could prefer before him a Person of a much less agreeable Character for us.

Secondly, Concerning our Agent, I declared, That I was most inclinable to the opinion, that we should not be too sudden in laying aside Mr. D[umme]r, from his Agency, with any Indignities, inasmuch as all our powerful and more distinguished Friends at home were his; and had copiously and vehemently recommended him unto 1 See p. 383, supra.

us; and I fear'd, a Contempt cast upon him, would be such an affront and Offence unto them all, as would be greatly to our Damage. And tho' that Business of Brand had a very odd Aspect,1 yett there were come over such legal vindications of Mr D-r, under the Seal of the Lord-Mayor and otherwise that it seemed not at all proper publickly to insist upon it. So that, some remarkable Indescretion or Unfaithfulness in his mismanagement seemed the only just Cause, at this time to lay him aside, which, if it were found, there could not one word be spoken for his Countenance. But in the mean time, so very great a Number of considerable Persons in the Place, were so strongly possess'd of his being a great Sufferer for his doing a great Service for us, they would espouse his cause to such a Degree, as to make a very uncomfortable Clash, which would be attended with much Iniquity among us. For which Reasons, I could not but think, such a Matter ought very deliberately to be proceeded in.

This was the Summ of my Discourse; in all which, as I spoke, ut qui suum Dominum [ ], so, I wish you could have heard it all. I don't remember, that one disrespectful Word was uttered of the Gentlemen who might have other Sentiments; but all possible Deference paid unto their Merits, (tho no Persons particularly mentioned.)

Our late Lt Governour's Name,2 did not once occurr, that I remember, in all our Conference.

And whereas you have had Intimations as if I declared some relinquishments of my former Thoughts, about our private Bank, tis, cujus contrarium. I have never done so, to any one man in the world. And at this time, I expressly said, I may be as qualified as another man, to say what I am going to speak; because I suppose, I differ from the Generality of the Gentlemen present, in the Matter of the Bank. I cannot but hope, the different Views of wise men about that matter, will be so temperately maintained, as not to affect the public Tranquillity.

This is the Summ and Aim of what I have spoken.

And I now speak it all over again, unto you, my particular Friend, perswaded, that I serve the cause of Piety, as well as of Peace, in praying you, to allow the Points, a very calm, and just Consideration.

And I do now add some further Thoughts, which nothing but a pure Friendship could move me to.

First; I beseech you to do nothing which they that are most of all jealous of you, may have any pretence to construe, as a Design to 2 Tailer.

1 See Sewall, Diary, III. 78.