[2] O sacred bond,—whilst inviolably preserved! How sweet and precious were its fruits! But when this fidelity decayed, then their ruin approached. Oh that these ancient members had not died (if it had been the will of God); or that this holy care and constant faithfulness had still remained with those that survived. But, alas, that still serpent hath slyly wound himself to untwist these sacred bonds and ties. I was happy in my first times to see and enjoy the blessed fruits of that sweet communion; but it is now a part of my misery in old age to feel its decay, and with grief of heart to lament it. For the warning and admonition of others, and my own humiliation, I here make note of it. (This note was inserted by the author in his manuscript at a later date.) [3] “This decree, or law, about marriage, was published by the States of the Low Countries, A. D. 1590: That those of any religion, after lawful and open publication, coming before the magistrates, in the Town or State-House, were to be orderly by them married, one to another,” (Petet’s Hist., fol. 1029). And this practise was continued by the Colony, and has been followed by all the famous churches of Christ in these parts to this time,—A. D. 1646. [4] But he did not leave his own men a bite of bread! [5] He means Mr. John Robinson. [6] This was John Oldham, and his like. [7] Mr. Weston’s men. [8] His commission was abused; he never had any authority for such undertakings, as they well knew, nor had the adventurers in England any authority to pay this money,—nor would they have paid a penny of it if they had not had some other object in view. [9] There was cause enough for these fears, which were concerned with the underhand work of some enemies to the churches here, which resulted in the issue by the King of a new “Commission for Regulating Colonies,” signed April 28th, 1634. [10] By this means they furnished them with supplies, and have continued to do so. [11] But they were taken to the West Indies. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.