IVIATITER. 441 prudence, and submission to the will of God. This appears from his own priVate memorial following:-" I have this to bless God tor," says he, 0 that the terror of their threaten- ings, their pursuivants, and the rest of their pomp, did not terrify my mind : but I stood before them without being in the least daunted ; and answered for my-self, when per- mitted to speak, with that truth and soberness which the Lord put into my mouth, not fearing their faces. This supporting presence of the Lord I count not a much less mercy than if I had been altogether preserved out of their hands." When the pious ecclesiastics inquired how long he had been a minister, and being told fifteen years ; they asked how long he had wore the surplice, and being informed that he had never wore it, " What," said oneof them, with an oath, " preach fifteen years and never wear " a surplice! It had been better for him if he had gotten " seven bastards!!!"* Mr. Mather being again deprived of his liberty, and all means of obtaining his restoration proving ineffectual ; and having no prospect of deliverance from the tyrannical sentence in future, he resolved to remove with his family to New England. He accordinglydrew up his reasons, and presented them to his friends, who justified his conduct and even his friends at Toxteth, who dearly loved and valued him, could not oppose the design. By transporting himself to the new continent, he said, " He should remove from a corrupt to a purer church :-from a place wherethe truth, and the professors of it, are persecuted, to a place of greater quiet and safety :-From a place where all the ordinances of God cannot be enjoyed, to ,a place where they may be enjoyed :--From a place where the discipline of the Lord Jesus Christ is wanting, to a place where it may be practised :-From a place where the ministers of God are unjustly prohibited from the exercise of their functions, to a place where they may freely execute the same :-And from a place where there are fearful signs of desolation, to a place where one may have a well-grounded hope of God's protection."t He was further encouraged' in the undertaking by letters which he received from Mr. Hooker and others, already settled in the new colony. In one of these letters, Mr. Hooker gave him the most flattering account, saying, " If I speak my own thoughts freely and fully, though there Clark's Lives, p. 130.-Mather's Hist, b. iii, p. 122-125. + Ibid. 1.11m4r,,IVAWFL111111
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