444

full of tender feeling: after having spoken of an English lady whose reli-
gious ardor had hrought her to America with her husband, and who sood
after sank under the fatigues and privations of exile, headds,'* As for her rir-
tuous husband, Isaac Johnson,

......... He tryed

To live without her, liked it not, and died."—- (Vol. 1.)

Mather's work gives an admirable picture of the time and country which he
describes. In his account of the motives which led the Puritans to. seek an

«

asylum beyond seaSf he says:

" The God of Heaven served, as it were, a summons upon the spirits of
his people in the Bnglish nation, stirring up the spirits of thousands which
never saw the faces of each other, with a most unanimous inclination to leave
all the pleasant accommodations of their native country, and. go over aterrible
oceaD, into a more terrible desert, for. the pure enjoyment of all hisordinances.
It is now reasonable that, before we.pass any further* the reasons of this un-
dertaking should be more exactly made known unto posterity, especially unto
the posterity of those that were the undertakers, lest they come at length to
forget and neglect the true interest of New England. Wherefore I shall now
transcribe some of them from a manuscript wherein they were then tendered
unto consideration.
" General Considerations for the Plantation of New England.
"First, It will be a service unto the Church of great consequence, to carry
the Gospel unto those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark against the
kingdom of Antichrist, which the Jesuits labor to rear up in ail parts of the
world.
