“Providence, 11, 8, 75, (so accounted.)
“Sir,
“Yours of the 7th I gladly and thankfully received, and humbly desire to praise that Most High and Holy Hand, invisible and only wise, who casts you down, by so many public and personal trials, and lifts you up again with any (lucida intervalla) mitigations and refreshments. Ab inferno nulla redemptio: from the grave and hell no return. Here, like Noah’s dove, we have our checker work, blacks and whites come out and go into the ark, out and in again till the last, whom we never see back again.
“The business of the day in New-England is not only to keep ourselves from murdering, our houses, barns, &c. from firing, to destroy and cut off the barbarians, or subdue and reduce them, but our main and principal opus diei is, to listen to what the Eternal speaketh to the whole ship, (the country, colonies, towns, &c.) and each private cabin, family, person, &c. He will speak peace to his people; therefore, saith David, ‘I will listen to what Jehovah speaketh.’ Oliver, in straits and defeats, especially at Hispaniola, desired all to speak and declare freely what they thought the mind of God was. H. Vane (then laid by) wrote his discourse, entitled “A Healing Question,” but for touching upon (that noli me tangere) State sins, H. Vane went prisoner to Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. Oh, Sir, I humbly subscribe (ex animo) to your short and long prayer, in your letter. The Lord keep us from our own deceivings. I know there have been, and are, many precious and excellent spirits amongst you, (if you take flight before me, I will then say you are one of them, without daubing,) but rebus sic stantibus, as the wind blows, the united colonies dare not permit, candida et bona fide, two dangerous (supposed) enemies: 1. dissenting and non-conforming worshippers, and 2. liberty of free (really free) disputes, debates, writing, printing, &c.; the Most High hath begun and given some taste of these two dainties in some parts, and will more and more advance them when (as Luther and Erasmus to the Emperor, Charles V., and the Duke of Saxony,) those two gods are famished, the Pope’s crown and the Monks’ bellies. The same Luther was wont to say, that every man had a pope in his belly, and Calvin expressly wrote to Melancthon, that Luther made himself another Pope; yet, which of us will not say, Jeremiah, thou liest, when he tells us (and from God) we must not go down to Egypt?
“Sir, I use a bolder pen to your noble spirit than to many, because the Father of Lights hath shown your soul more of the mysteries of iniquity than other excellent heads and hearts dream of, and because, whatever you or I be in other respects, yet in this you will act a pope, and grant me your love, pardon and indulgence.
“Sir, since the doleful news from Springfield, here it is said that Philip, with a strong body of many hundred cutthroats, steers for Providence and Seekonk, some say for Norwich and Stonington, and some say your forces have had a loss by their cutting off some of your men, in their passing over a river. Fiat voluntas Dei, there I humbly rest, and let all go but himself. Yet, Sir, I am requested by our Capt. Fenner to give you notice, that at his farm, in the woods, he had it from a native, that Philip’s great design is (among all other possible advantages and treacheries) to draw C. Mosely and others, your forces, by training and drilling and seeming flights, into such places as are full of long grass, flags, sedge, &c. and then inviron them round with fire, smoke and bullets. Some say no wise soldier will so be caught; but as I told the young prince, on his return lately from you, all their war is commootin; they have commootined our houses, our cattle, our heads, &c., and that not by their artillery, but our weapons; that yet they were so cowardly, that they have not taken one poor fort from us in all the country, nor won, nor scarce fought, one battle since the beginning. I told him and his men, being then in my canoe, with his men with him, that Philip was his cawkakinnamuck, that is, looking glass. He was deaf to all advice, and now was overset, Cooshkowwawy, and catcht at every part of the country to save himself, but he shall never get ashore, &c. He answered me in a consenting, considering kind of way, Philip Cooshkowwawy: I went with my great canoe to help him over from Seekonk (for to Providence no Indian comes) to Pawtuxet side. I told him I would not ask him news, for I knew matters were private; only I told him that if he were false to his engagements, we would pursue them with a winter’s war, when they should not, as musketoes and rattlesnakes in warm weather, bite us, &c.
“Sir, I carried him and Mr. Smith a glass of wine, but Mr. Smith not coming, I gave wine and glass to himself, and a bushel of apples to his men, and being therewith (as beasts are) caught, they gave me leave to say any thing, acknowledged loudly your great kindness in Boston, and mine, and yet Capt. Fenner told me yesterday, that he thinks they will prove our worst enemies at last. I am between fear and hope, and humbly wait, making sure, as Haselrig’s motto was, sure of my anchor in heaven, Tantum in Coelis, only in heaven. Sir, there I long to meet you.
“Your most unworthy,
ROGER WILLIAMS.
“To Mrs. Leverett, and other honored and beloved friends, humble respects, &c.