But a great and
righteous spirit hath led hither men, filled with the love of truth and
pregnant with the designs of a heavily-burthened faith, inasmuch as their
longings are for things pure, while the consciousness of their
transgressions bends them in deep humility to the dust. Thou bringest
against us the charge of coveting thy lands, and of bearing minds filled
with the corruption of riches This cometh of ignorance of that which hath
been abandoned, in order that the spirit of the godly might hold fast to
the truth. When the Yengeese came into this wilderness, he left behind him
all that can delight the eye, please the senses, and feed the longing of
the human heart, in the country of his fathers: for fair as is the work of
the Lord in other lands, there is none that is so excellent as that from
which these pilgrims in the wilderness have departed. In that favored
isle, the earth groaneth with the abundance of its products; the odors of
its sweet savors salute the nostrils, and the eye is never wearied in
gazing at its loveliness.--No: the men of the Pale-faces have deserted
home, and all that sweeteneth life, that they might serve God; and not at
the instigations of craving minds, or of evil vanities!"
Content paused, for as he grew warm with the spirit by which he was
animated, he had insensibly strayed from the closer points of his subject.
Pages:
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550