His knowledge care to seek;
Millions have knowledge store, but, in
Obedience, are not meek.
If woe to Indians, where shall Turk,
Where shall appear the Jew?
O, where shall stand the Christian false?
O, blessed then the true.”
The work displays genius, industry and benevolence. It was very valuable when it was written, and it is still one of the best works on the subject. It breathes, throughout, a spirit of piety, and it closes in the following devout strain:
“Now, to the Most High and Most Holy, Immortal, Invisible, and only wise God, who alone is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, who was, and is, and is to come; from whom, by whom, and to whom are all things; by whose gracious assistance and wonderful supportment in so many varieties of hardship and outward miseries, I have had such converse with barbarous nations, and have been mercifully assisted, to frame this poor Key, which may (through his blessing, in his own holy season,) open a door, yea, doors of unknown mercies to us and them, be honor, glory, power, riches, wisdom, goodness and dominion ascribed by all his in Jesus Christ to eternity. Amen.”
Of the original edition, the copy in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society is probably the only one in this country. In the third and fifth volumes of the Society’s Collections, first series, a large part of the work was republished. The first volume of the Collections of the Rhode-Island Historical Society contains a handsome edition of the Key, with a well written preface, and a brief memoir of the author.