5th. I am afraid that the Lord is offended with you, in that you ordinarily forsake the worship of God in the holy church to which you are related, in the afternoon on the Lord’s day, and after the publick exercise, spend the whole time with some persons reputed very ungodly men. I am sure your father did not so.... Would you choose to be with them or such as they are in another world, unto which you are hastening?... I am under pressures of conscience to bear a publick testimony without respect of persons.... I trust in Christ that when I am gone, I shall obtain a good report of my having been faithful before him. To his mercy I commend you, and remain in him, Yours to serve, I. MATHER. [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ first series, iii. 126.] BOSTON, _January_ 20, 1707-8. To the Governour. * * * * * BOSTON, _Jan_. 20, 1707-8. Sir, There have appeared such things in your conduct, that a just concern for the welfare of your excellency seems to render it necessary, that you should be _faithfully_ advised of them.... You will give me leave to write nothing, but in a style, whereof an ignorant mob, to whom (as well as the General Assembly) you think fit to communicate what _fragments_ you please of my letters, must be _competent judges_. I must proceed accordingly.... I weakly believed that the wicked and horrid things done before the righteous Revolution, had been heartily repented of; and that the rueful business at New York, which many illustrious persons ... called a barbarous murder, ... had been considered with such a repentance, as might save you and your family from any further storms of heaven for the revenging of it.... Sir, your _snare_ has been that thing, the _hatred_ whereof is most expressly required of the _ruler_, namely COVETOUSNESS. When a governour shall make his government more an engine to enrich himself, than to _befriend his country_, and shall by the unhallowed hunger of riches be prevailed withal to do many wrong, base, dishonourable things; it is a covetousness which will shut out from the kingdom of heaven; and sometimes the _loss of a government on earth_ also is the punishment of it.... The main channel of that covetousness has been the reign of bribery, which you, sir, have set up in the land, where it was hardly known, till you brought it in fashion.... And there lie affidavits before the queen and council, which affirm that you have been guilty of it in very many instances. I do also know that you have....