Tales and Sketches | Page 8

false teachers, and to them who prophesy for
hire and make gain of their soothsaying. Their churches are the devices
of Satan, the pride and vanity of the natural Adam. Their baptism is
blasphemy; and their sacrament is an abomination, yea, an incantation
and a spell. Woe to them who take the shadow for the substance, that
bow down to the altars of human device and cunning workmanship,
that make idols of their ceremonies! Woe to the high priests and the
Pharisees, and the captains and the rulers; woe to them who love the
wages of unrighteousness!"
The Familist paused from utter exhaustion, so vehemently had he
poured forth the abundance of his zeal. Mary Edmands, overwhelmed
by his eloquence, but still unconvinced, could only urge the disgrace
and danger attending his adherence to such pernicious doctrines. She
concluded by telling him, in a voice choked by tears, that she could
never marry him while a follower of Gorton.
"Stay then," said Martin, fiercely dashing her hand from his, "stay and
partake of the curse of the ungodly, even of the curse of Meroz, who
come not up to the help of the Lord, against the mighty Stay, till the
Lord hath made a threshing instrument of the heathen, whereby the
pride of the rulers, and the chief priests, and the captains of this land
shall be humbled. Stay, till the vials of His wrath are poured out upon
ye, and the blood of the strong man, and the maid, and the little child is
mingled together!"
The wild language, the fierce tones and gestures of her lover, terrified
the unhappy girl. She looked wildly around her, all was dark and
shadowy, an undefined fear of violence came over her; and, bursting
into tears, she turned to fly. "Stay yet a moment," said Martin, in a
hoarse and subdued voice. He caught hold of her arm. She shrieked as
if in mortal jeopardy.
"Let go the gal, let her go!" said old Job Clements, thrusting the long
barrel of his gun through the bushes within a few feet of the head of the
Familist. "A white man, as sure as I live! I thought, sartin, 't was a
tarnal In-in." Martin relinquished his hold, and, the next instant, found
himself surrounded by the settlers.

After a brief explanation had taken place between Mr. Ward and his
sister-in-law, the former came forward and accosted the Familist.
"Richard Martin!" he said, "I little thought to see thee so soon in the
new world, still less to see thee such as thou art. I am exceeding sorry
that I cannot greet thee here as a brother, either in a temporal or a
spiritual nature. My sister tells me that you are a follower of that
servant of Satan, Samuel Gorton, and that you have sought to entice her
away with you to the colony of fanatics at Rhode Island, which may be
fitly compared to that city which Philip of Macedonia peopled with
rogues and vagabonds, and the offscouring of the whole earth."
"John Ward, I know thee," said the unshrinking Familist; "I know thee
for a man wise above what is written, a man vain, uncharitable, and
given to evil speaking. I value neither thy taunts nor thy wit; for the one
hath its rise in the bitterness, and the other in the vanity, of the natural
Adam. Those who walk in the true light, and who have given over
crucifying Christ in their hearts, heed not a jot of the reproaches and
despiteful doings of the high and mighty in iniquity. For of us it hath
been written: 'I have given them thy word and the world hath hated
them because they are not of the world. If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. If they have hated me they will
hate you also; if they have persecuted me they will persecute you.' And,
of the scoffers and the scorners, the wise ones of this world, whose
wisdom and knowledge have perverted them, and who have said in
their hearts, There is none beside them, it hath been written, yea, and
will be fulfilled: The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one
that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall
be brought low; and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the
haughtiness of man shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be
exalted in that day; and the idols shall he utterly abolish.' Of thee, John
Ward, and of thy priestly brotherhood, I ask nothing; and for the much
evil I have received, and may yet receive at your hands, may ye be
rewarded like Alexander the