Re: Teen scared, awaiting transfer to state prison
Michael Yardley
How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great
God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain
all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that
carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz.
contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God
to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or
showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will
only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear
the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard
that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush
out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his
garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but
he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit
for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the
streets.
The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that
end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it
on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is,
and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind
to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they
would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that
mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show
his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and
accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated
seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the
utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great
God is also w
Michael Yardley
congregation to which the last of these preached on a monthly day of
solemn prayer; also, of your desire to be more perfectly acquainted with
it, by some of us on the spot: and having been since informed by my
Uncle Williams that you desire me to undertake it, I would now do it, in
a just and faithful a manner as in me lies.
SECTION I. A General Introductory Statement
The people of the country, in general, I suppose, are as sober, orderly,
and good sort of people, as in any part of New England; and I believe
they have been preserved the freest by far of any part of the country,
from error, and variety of sects and opinions. Our being so far within
the land, at a distance from sea-ports, and in a corner of the country,
has doubtless been one reason why we have not been so much corrupted
with vice, as most other parts. But without question, the religion and
good order of the county, and purity in doctrine, has, under God, been
very much owing to the great abilities, and eminent piety of my
venerable and honored grandfather Stoddard. I suppose we have been the
freest of any part of the land from unhappy divisions and quarrels in
our ecclesiastical and religious affairs, till the late lamentable
Springfield contention. [The Springfield Contention relates to the
settlement of a minister there, which occasioned too warm debates
between some, both pastors and people, that were for it, and others that
were against it, on account of their different apprehensions about his
principles, and about some steps that were taken to procure his
ordination.]
Being much separated from other parts of the province and having
comparatively but little intercourse with them, we have always managed
our ecclesiastical affairs within ourselves. It is the way in which the
country, from its infancy, has gone on, by the practical agreement of
a