w been seven Years in a
Country, where I never Saw one Man drunk, or heard one Oath sworn, or
beheld one Beggar in the Streets all the while._ Such great Persons as
_Budaeus_, and others, who mistook Sir _Thomas Moor's_ UTOPIA, for a
Country really existent, and stirr'd up some Divines charitably to
undertake a Voyage thither, might now have certainly found a Truth in
their Mistake; _New-England_ was a true _Utopia_. But, alas, the
Children and Servants of those old Planters must needs afford many,
degenerate Plants, and there is now risen up a Number of People,
otherwise inclined than our _Joshua's_, and the Elders that out-liv'd
them. Those two things our holy Progenitors, and our happy Advantages
make Omissions of Duty, and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World
abroad is overwhelmed with, to be as provoking in us, as the most
flagitious Wickednesses committed in other places; and the Ministers of
God are accordingly severe in their Testimonies: But in short, those
Interests of the Gospel, which were the Errand of our Fathers into these
Ends of the Earth, have been too much neglected and postponed, and the
Attainments of an handsome Education, have been too much undervalued, by
Multitudes that have not fallen into Exorbitances of Wickedness; and
some, especially of our young Ones, when they have got abroad from under
the Restraints here laid upon them, have become extravagantly and
abominably Vicious. Hence 'tis, that the Happiness of _New-England_ has
been but for a time, as it was foretold, and not for a long time, as has
been desir'd for us. A Variety of Calamity has long follow'd this
Plantation; and we have all the Reason imaginable to ascribe it unto the
Rebuke of Heaven upon us for our manifold _Apostasies_; we make no
right use of our Disasters: If we do not, _Remember whence we are
fallen, and repent, and do the first Works._ But yet our Afflictions may
come under a further Consideration with us: There is a further Cause of
our Afflictions, whose due must be given him.

S. II. The _New-Englanders_ are a People of God settled in those, which
were once the _Devil's_ Territories; and it may easily be supposed that
the _Devil_ was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People
here accomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, _That
He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession._ There
was not a greater Uproar among the _Ephesians_, when the Gospel was
first broug