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08 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Chapter seven, conversation betwixt will Atkins and his wife. I
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Speaker 1: was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious papist,
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Speaker 1: as much as I was oppressed by the power of
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Speaker 1: his reasoning. And it presently occurred to my thoughts that
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Speaker 1: if such a temper was universal, we might be all
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Speaker 1: Catholic Christians, whatever church or particular profession. We joined in
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Speaker 1: that a spirit of charity would soon work us all
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Speaker 1: up into right principles. And as he thought that the
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Speaker 1: like charity would make us all Catholics, so I told
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Speaker 1: him I believed had all the members of his church
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Speaker 1: the like moderation, they would soon all be Protestants. And
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Speaker 1: there we left that part, for we never disputed at all. However,
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Speaker 1: I talked to him another way, and taking him by
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Speaker 1: the hand, my friend says I, I wish all the
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Speaker 1: clergy of the Romish church were blessed with such moderation
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Speaker 1: and had an equal share of your charity. I am
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Speaker 1: entirely of your opinion, but I must tell you that
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Speaker 1: if you should preach such doctors in Spain or Italy,
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Speaker 1: they would put you into the inquisition. It may be so,
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Speaker 1: said he, I know not what they would do in
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Speaker 1: Spain or Italy. But I will not say they would
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Speaker 1: be the better Christians for that severity, for I am
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Speaker 1: sure there is no heresy in abounding with charity. Well
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Speaker 1: as will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business
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Speaker 1: there was over. So we went back our own way,
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Speaker 1: and when we came back, we found them waiting to
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Speaker 1: be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman if
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Speaker 1: we should not discover to him that we had seen
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Speaker 1: him under the bush or not, And it was his
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Speaker 1: opinion we should not, but that we should talk to
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Speaker 1: him first and hear what he would say to us.
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Speaker 1: So we called him in alone, nobody being in the
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Speaker 1: place but ourselves, and I began by asking him some
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Speaker 1: particulars about his parentage and education. He told me, frankly enough,
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Speaker 1: that his father was a clergyman who would have taught
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Speaker 1: him well, but that he Will Atkins despised all instruction
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Speaker 1: and correction, and by his brutish conduct, cut the thread
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Speaker 1: of all his father's comforts and shortened his days. For
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Speaker 1: that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural
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Speaker 1: return for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave.
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Speaker 1: In what he said there seemed so much sincerity of
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Speaker 1: repentance that it painfully affected me. I could not but
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Speaker 1: reflect that I too had shortened the life of a
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Speaker 1: good tender father by my bad conduct and obstinate self. Will.
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Speaker 1: I was indeed so surprised with what he had told
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Speaker 1: me that I thought, instead of my going about to
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Speaker 1: teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher
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Speaker 1: and instructor to me in a most unexpected manner. I
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Speaker 1: laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly
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Speaker 1: affected with it, and said to me, did I not say, sir,
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Speaker 1: that when this man was converted, he would preach to
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Speaker 1: us all? I tell you, sir, if this one man
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Speaker 1: be made a true penitant, there will be no need
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Speaker 1: of me. He will make Christians of all in the island. But,
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Speaker 1: having a little composed myself, I renewed my discourse with
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Speaker 1: will Atkins. But Will said, I, how comes the sense
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Speaker 1: of this matter to touch you? Just now? Sir? You
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Speaker 1: have set me about a work that has struck a
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Speaker 1: dart through my very soul. I have been talking about
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Speaker 1: God and religion to my wife in order as you
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Speaker 1: directed me, to make a Christian of her, and she
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Speaker 1: has preached such a sermon to me, as I shall
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Speaker 1: never forget while I live. No, no, it is not
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Speaker 1: your wife has preached to you, But when you were
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Speaker 1: moving religious arguments to her conscience has flung them back
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Speaker 1: upon you. Ay, sir, with such force as is not
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Speaker 1: to be resisted. Pray, will let us know what passed
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Speaker 1: between you and your wife? For I know something of
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Speaker 1: it already, Sir. It is impossible to give you a
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Speaker 1: full account of it. I am too full to hold it,
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Speaker 1: and yet have no tongue to express it. But let
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Speaker 1: her have said what she will. Though I cannot give
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Speaker 1: you an account of it. This I can tell you
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Speaker 1: that I have reason to amend and reform my life.
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Speaker 1: But tell us some of it. How did you begin? Will?
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Speaker 1: For this has been an extraordinary case. That is certain
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Speaker 1: she has preached a sermon. Indeed, if she has wrought
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Speaker 1: this upon you, why I first told her the nature
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Speaker 1: of our laws about marriage, and what the reasons were
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Speaker 1: that men and women were obliged to enter into such compacts,
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Speaker 1: as it was neither in the power of one nor
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Speaker 1: other to break that otherwise order and justice could not
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Speaker 1: be maintained, and men would run from their wives and
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Speaker 1: abandon their children mix confusedly with one another, and neither
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Speaker 1: families be kept entire nor inheritance, says, be settled by
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Speaker 1: legal dissent. You talk like a civilian. Will could you
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Speaker 1: make her understand what you meant by inheritance and families?
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Speaker 1: They know no such things among the savages. But marry
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Speaker 1: anyhow without regard to relation, consanguinity or family, brother and sister, nay,
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Speaker 1: as I have been told, even the father and daughter,
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Speaker 1: and the son and the mother. I believe, sir, you
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Speaker 1: are misinformed, And my wife assures me of the contrary,
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Speaker 1: and that they abhor it. Perhaps for any further relations,
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Speaker 1: they may not be so exact as we are, But
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Speaker 1: she tells me never in the near relationship you speak of. Well,
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Speaker 1: what did she say to what you told her? She
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Speaker 1: said she liked it very well, as it was much
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Speaker 1: better than in her country. But did you tell her
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Speaker 1: what marriage was? I? Ay, there began our dialogue. I
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Speaker 1: asked her if she would be married to me our way?
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Speaker 1: She asked me what way that was? I told her
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Speaker 1: marriage was appointed by God. And here we had a
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Speaker 1: strange talk together. Indeed, as ever man and wife had.
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Speaker 1: I believe n B this dialogue between will Atkins and
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Speaker 1: his wife, which I took down in writing just after
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Speaker 1: he told it me, was as follows, Appointed by your God.
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Speaker 1: Why have you a god in your country? Yes, my dear,
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Speaker 1: God is in every country. Know your God in my
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Speaker 1: country my country? Have the great old been a mooky god? Child?
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Speaker 1: I am very unfit to show you who God is.
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Speaker 1: God is in heaven and made the heaven and the earth,
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Speaker 1: the sea and all that is in them. No make
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Speaker 1: ye the earth, No you God, make ye all earth,
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Speaker 1: nor make ye my country. Will Atkins laughed a little
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Speaker 1: at her expression of God not making her country. No laugh?
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Speaker 1: Why laugh me? Tis no ting to laugh. He was
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Speaker 1: justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious
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Speaker 1: than he at first. That's true. Indeed, I will not
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Speaker 1: laugh any more, my dear. Why you say you God
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Speaker 1: make ye all? Yes? Child, Our God made the whole
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Speaker 1: world and you and me and all things. For He
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Speaker 1: is the only true God, and there is no god
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Speaker 1: but him. He lives forever in heaven. Why you no
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Speaker 1: tell me long ago? That's true? Indeed, But I have
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Speaker 1: been a wicked wretch and have not only forgotten to
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Speaker 1: acquaint thee with anything before but have lived without God
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Speaker 1: in the world my life. What have you a great
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Speaker 1: God in your country? You no know him? No say
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Speaker 1: o to him? No too good thing for him? That
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Speaker 1: no possible. It is true though for all that we
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Speaker 1: live as if there was no God in heaven, or
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Speaker 1: that he had no power on earth. But why God
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Speaker 1: let you do so? Why He no makee you good? Live?
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Speaker 1: It is all our own vault. But you say me,
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Speaker 1: he is great, much great, have much great power? Can
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Speaker 1: make ye kill when he will? Why he no make
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Speaker 1: ye kill when you no serve him? No say o
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Speaker 1: to him? No be good man's That is true. He
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Speaker 1: might strike me dead, and I ought to expect it,
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Speaker 1: for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true.
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Speaker 1: But God is merciful and does not deal with us
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Speaker 1: as we deserve. But then do you not tell God
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Speaker 1: thankee for that too? No. Indeed, I have not thanked
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Speaker 1: God for his mercy any more than I have feared
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Speaker 1: God from his power. Then you God, no God, me
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Speaker 1: no think believe he be such one great, much power strong?
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Speaker 1: No make ye kill you though you make him much angry?
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Speaker 1: What will my wicked life hinder you from believing in God?
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Speaker 1: What a dreadful creature, am I? And what a sad
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Speaker 1: truth is it that the horrid lives of Christians hinder
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Speaker 1: the conversion of Heathens. A me tink you have great
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Speaker 1: much God up there, she points up to heaven. And
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Speaker 1: yet no do well? No do good? Ting? Can he tell? Sure?
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Speaker 1: He no tell what you do? Yes? Yes, He knows
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Speaker 1: and sees all things. He hears us speak, sees what
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Speaker 1: we do, knows what we think, though we do not
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Speaker 1: speak what He no hear you curse, swear speak the
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Speaker 1: great damn? Yes, yes he hears it. All will be then,
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Speaker 1: the much great power strong. He is merciful. That is
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Speaker 1: all we can say for it. And this proves him
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Speaker 1: to be the true God. He is God and not man,
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Speaker 1: and therefore we are not consumed. Here. Will Atkins told
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Speaker 1: us he was struck with horror to think how he
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Speaker 1: could tell his wife so clearly that God sees and
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Speaker 1: hears and knows the secret thoughts of the heart and
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Speaker 1: all that we do. And yet that he had dared
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Speaker 1: to do all the vile things he had done. Merciful,
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Speaker 1: what do you call that? He is our father and maker?
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Speaker 1: And he pities and spares us, so then he never
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Speaker 1: make ye kill, never angry when you do wicked? Then
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Speaker 1: he no good himself or no great able. Yes, yes,
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Speaker 1: my dear, he is infinitely good and infinitely great, and
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Speaker 1: able to punish too, And sometimes to show his justice
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Speaker 1: and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to destroy sinners
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Speaker 1: and make examples many are cut off in their sins.
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Speaker 1: But no make ye kill you. Yet then he tell
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Speaker 1: you maybe that he no makee you kill, So you
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Speaker 1: make ye the bargain with him. You do bad thing,
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Speaker 1: He no be angry at you when he be angry
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Speaker 1: at other man's. No. Indeed, my sins are all presumptions
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Speaker 1: upon his goodness, and he would be infinitely just if
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Speaker 1: he destroyed me as he has done other men well.
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Speaker 1: And yet no kill, No makee you dead. What you
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Speaker 1: say to him for that? You no tell him thank'e
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Speaker 1: for all that too. I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog,
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Speaker 1: that is true. Why he no makee you much good?
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Speaker 1: Better you say he makee you? He made me as
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Speaker 1: he made all the world. It is I have deformed
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Speaker 1: myself and abused his goodness and made myself an abominable wretch.
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Speaker 1: I wish you make ye God know me. I know
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Speaker 1: making him angry. I know do bad wicked thing? Here,
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Speaker 1: Will Atkins said, his heart sunk within him to hear
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Speaker 1: a poor, untaught creature desire to be taught to know God,
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Speaker 1: and he such a wicked wretch that he could not
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Speaker 1: say one word to her about God. But what the
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Speaker 1: reproach of his own carriage would make most irrational to
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Speaker 1: her to believe? Nay that already she had told him
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Speaker 1: that she could not believe in God, because he that
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Speaker 1: was so wicked was not destroyed. My dear, you mean
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Speaker 1: you wish I could teach you to know God, not
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Speaker 1: God to know you, For he knows you already and
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Speaker 1: every thought in your heart? Why then he know what
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Speaker 1: I say to you? Now he know me? He wished
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Speaker 1: to know him? How shall me know? Who? MAKEE? Me?
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Speaker 1: Poor creature? He must teach THEE. I cannot teach THEE.
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Speaker 1: I will pray to him to teach THEE to know Him,
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Speaker 1: and forgive me that I am unworthy to teach THEE.
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Speaker 1: The poor fellow was in such an agony at her
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Speaker 1: desiring him to make her know God and her wishing
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Speaker 1: to know him, that he said he fell down on
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Speaker 1: his knees before her and prayed to God to enlighten
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Speaker 1: her mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and
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Speaker 1: to pardon his sins and accept of his being the
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Speaker 1: unworthy instrument of instructing her in the principles of religion,
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Speaker 1: after which he sat down by her again, and their
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Speaker 1: dialogue went on. This was the time when we saw
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Speaker 1: him kneel down and hold up his hands. What you
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Speaker 1: put down the knee for what you hold up the
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Speaker 1: hand for what you say? Who you speak to? What
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Speaker 1: is all that? My dear, I bow my knees in
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Speaker 1: token of my submission to him that made me. I said,
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Speaker 1: oh to him as you call it, and as your
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Speaker 1: old men do to their idol, being a mouchy, that is,
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Speaker 1: I prayed to him what you say, O to him?
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Speaker 1: For I prayed to him to open your eyes and
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Speaker 1: your understanding that you may know him and be accepted
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Speaker 1: by him. Can he do that too? Yes he can.
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Speaker 1: He can do all things. But now he hear what
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Speaker 1: you say. Yes, he has bid us pray to him,
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Speaker 1: and promise to hear us. Bid you pray when he
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Speaker 1: bid you? How he bid you? What you hear him speak? No,
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Speaker 1: we do not hear him speak. But he has revealed
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Speaker 1: himself many ways to us. Here he was at a
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Speaker 1: great loss to make her understand that God has revealed
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Speaker 1: himself to us by his word and what his word was,
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Speaker 1: but at last he told it to her. Thus God
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Speaker 1: has spoken to some good men in former days, even
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Speaker 1: from heaven, by plain words. And God has inspired good
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Speaker 1: men by his spirit, and they have written all his
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Speaker 1: laws down in a book. Me no understand that where
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Speaker 1: his book alas, my poor creature, I have not this book,
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Speaker 1: but I hope I shall one to moor other get
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Speaker 1: it for you and help you to read it. Here
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Speaker 1: he embraced her with great affection, but with inexpressible grief
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Speaker 1: that he had not a bible. But how you makee
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Speaker 1: me know? That God teacheth them to write that book
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Speaker 1: by the same rule that we know him to be God?
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Speaker 1: What rule? What way you know him? Because he teaches
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Speaker 1: and commands nothing but what is good, righteous and holy,
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Speaker 1: and tends to make us perfectly good as well as
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Speaker 1: perfectly happy. And because he forbids and commands us to
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Speaker 1: avoid all that is wicked, that is evil in itself
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Speaker 1: or evil in its consequence, that me would understand. Let
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Speaker 1: me fain see if he teach ye all good thing.
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Speaker 1: He make ye all good thing. He give all thing.
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Speaker 1: He hear me when I say o to him as
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Speaker 1: you do just now, He makee me good. If I
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Speaker 1: wish to be good, he spare me, Nor make ye
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Speaker 1: kill me when I know be good. All this you
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Speaker 1: say he do. Yet he be great God. Me take think,
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Speaker 1: believe him to be great God. Me say o to
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Speaker 1: him with you, my dear. Here the poor man could
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Speaker 1: forbear no longer, but raised her up, made her kneel
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Speaker 1: by him, and he prayed to God aloud to instruct
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Speaker 1: her in the knowledge of himself by his spirit, and
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Speaker 1: that by some good providence, if possible, she might some
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Speaker 1: time or other come to have a Bible, that she
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Speaker 1: might read the Word of God and be taught by
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Speaker 1: it to know him. This was the time that we
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Speaker 1: saw him lift her up by the hand, and saw
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Speaker 1: him kneel down by her. As above. They had several
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Speaker 1: other discourses, it seems, after this, and particularly she made
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Speaker 1: him promise that, since he confessed his own life had
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Speaker 1: been a wicked, abominable course of provocations against God, that
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Speaker 1: he would reform it and not make God angry any more,
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Speaker 1: lest he should make him dead, as she called it,
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Speaker 1: and then she would be left alone and never be
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Speaker 1: taught to know this God better, and lest he should
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Speaker 1: be miserable, as he had told her wicked men would
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Speaker 1: be after death. This was a range account, and very
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Speaker 1: affecting to us both, but particularly to the young clergyman.
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Speaker 1: He was indeed wonderfully surprised with it, but under the
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Speaker 1: greatest affliction, imaginable that he could not talk to her,
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Speaker 1: that he could not speak English to make her understand him,
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Speaker 1: and as she spoke but very broken English, he could
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Speaker 1: not understand her. However, he turned himself to me and
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Speaker 1: told me that he believed there must be more to
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Speaker 1: do with this woman than to marry her. I did
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Speaker 1: not understand him at first, but at length he explained
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Speaker 1: himself viz. That she ought to be baptized. I agreed
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Speaker 1: with him in that part readily, and wished it to
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Speaker 1: be done presently. No no hold sir, says he. Though
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Speaker 1: I would have her be baptized by all means. I
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Speaker 1: must observe that Will l Atkins, her husband, has indeed
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Speaker 1: brought her in a wonderful manner to be willing to
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Speaker 1: embrace a religious life, and has given her just ideas
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Speaker 1: of the being of a God, of his power, justice
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Speaker 1: and mercy. Yet I desire to know of him if
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Speaker 1: he has said anything to her of Jesus Christ, and
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Speaker 1: of the salvation of sinnas of the nature of faith
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Speaker 1: in Him, and redemption by Him, of the Holy Spirit,
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Speaker 1: the Resurrection, the last judgment, and the future state. I
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Speaker 1: called will Atkins again and asked him. But the poor
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Speaker 1: fellow fell immediately into tears, and told us he had
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Speaker 1: said something to her of all those things, but that
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Speaker 1: he himself was so wicked a creature, and his own
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Speaker 1: conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life, that
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Speaker 1: he trembled at the apprehensions that her knowledge of him
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Speaker 1: should lessen the attention she should give to those things,
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Speaker 1: and made her rather condemn religion than receive it. But
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Speaker 1: he was assured. He said that her mind was so
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Speaker 1: disposed to receive newe impressions of all those things, and
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Speaker 1: that if I would but discourse with her, she would
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Speaker 1: make it appear to my satisfaction that my labor would
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Speaker 1: not be lost upon her. Accordingly, I called her in,
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Speaker 1: and placing myself as interpreter between my religious priest and
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Speaker 1: the woman I entreated him to begin with her. But
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Speaker 1: sure such a sermon was never preached by a popish
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Speaker 1: priest in these latter ages of the world. And as
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Speaker 1: I told him, I thought he had all the zeal,
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Speaker 1: all the knowledge, all the sincerity of a Christian, without
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Speaker 1: the error of a Roman Catholic, and that I took
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Speaker 1: him to be such a clergyman as the Roman bishops
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Speaker 1: were before the Church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over
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Speaker 1: the consciences of men. In a word, he brought the
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Speaker 1: poor woman to embrace the knowledge of Christ and of
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Speaker 1: redemption by Him, not with wonder and astonishment only as
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Speaker 1: she did the first notions of a God, but with
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Speaker 1: joy and faith, with an affection and a surprising degree
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Speaker 1: of understanding scarce to be imagined, much less to be expressed.
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Speaker 1: And at her own request she was baptized. When he
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Speaker 1: was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that he
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Speaker 1: would perform that office, with some caution that the man
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Speaker 1: might not perceive he was of the Roman Church, if possible,
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Speaker 1: because of other ill consequences which might and the difference
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Speaker 1: among us in that very religion which we were instructing
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Speaker 1: the other in. He told me that as he had
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Speaker 1: no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the office, I
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Speaker 1: should see he would do it in a manner that
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Speaker 1: I should not know by it that he was a
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Speaker 1: Roman Catholic myself, if I had not known it before.
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Speaker 1: And so he did, for saying only some words over
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Speaker 1: to himself in Latin which I could not understand. He
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Speaker 1: poured a whole dishful of water upon the woman's head,
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Speaker 1: pronouncing in French very loud, marry, which was the name
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Speaker 1: her husband desired me to give her, for I was
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Speaker 1: her godfather. I baptized the Indian name of the Father
18:39
Speaker 1: and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, so
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Speaker 1: that none could know anything by it what religion he
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Speaker 1: was of. He gave the benediction afterwards in Latin, but
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Speaker 1: either will Atkins did not know but it was French,
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Speaker 1: or else did not take notice of it at that time.
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Speaker 1: As soon as this was over, we married them. And
18:58
Speaker 1: after the marriage was over, he turned to will Atkins,
19:01
Speaker 1: and in a very affectionate manner, exhorted him not only
19:05
Speaker 1: to persevere in that good disposition he was in, but
19:08
Speaker 1: to support the convictions that were upon him by a
19:11
Speaker 1: resolution to reform his life, told him it was in
19:14
Speaker 1: vain to say he repented if he did not forsake
19:17
Speaker 1: his crimes. Represented to him how God had honored him
19:20
Speaker 1: with being the instrument of bringing his wife to the
19:23
Speaker 1: knowledge of the Christian religion, and that he should be
19:26
Speaker 1: careful he did not dishonor the grace of God, and
19:29
Speaker 1: that if he did, he would see the heathen a
19:31
Speaker 1: better Christian than himself. The savage converted and the instrument
19:35
Speaker 1: cast away. He said a great many things to them both,
19:39
Speaker 1: and then, recommending them to God's goodness, gave them the
19:42
Speaker 1: benediction again, I repeating everything to them in English, and
19:46
Speaker 1: thus ended the ceremony. I think it was the most
19:49
Speaker 1: pleasant and agreeable day to me that ever I passed
19:52
Speaker 1: in my whole life. But my clergyman had not done yet.
19:56
Speaker 1: His thoughts hung continually upon the conversion of the thirty
19:59
Speaker 1: seven savages, and fain Bee would have stayed upon the
20:03
Speaker 1: island to have undertaken it. But I convinced him first
20:06
Speaker 1: that his understanding was impracticable in itself, and secondly that
20:11
Speaker 1: perhaps I would put it into a way of being
20:13
Speaker 1: done in his absence, to his satisfaction. Having thus brought
20:17
Speaker 1: the affairs of the island to a narrow compass. I
20:20
Speaker 1: was preparing to go on board the ship when the
20:23
Speaker 1: young man I had taken out of the famished ship's
20:25
Speaker 1: company came to me and told me he understood I
20:28
Speaker 1: had a clergyman with me, and that I had caused
20:31
Speaker 1: the Englishmen to be married to the Savages. That he
20:34
Speaker 1: had a match too, which he desired might be finished
20:37
Speaker 1: before I went between two Christians, which he hoped would
20:40
Speaker 1: not be disagreeable to me. I knew this must be
20:44
Speaker 1: the young woman who was his mother's servant, for there
20:46
Speaker 1: was no other Christian woman on the island. So I
20:49
Speaker 1: began to persuade him not to do anything of that
20:52
Speaker 1: kind rashly or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance.
20:56
Speaker 1: I represented to him that he had some considerable sin
21:00
Speaker 1: substance in the world, and good friends, as I understood
21:03
Speaker 1: by himself and the maid. Also that the maid was
21:06
Speaker 1: not only poor and a servant, but was unequal to him,
21:10
Speaker 1: she being six or seven and twenty years old, and
21:13
Speaker 1: he not above seventeen or eighteen. That he might, very probably,
21:17
Speaker 1: with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness and
21:21
Speaker 1: come into his own country again, and that then it
21:24
Speaker 1: would be one thousand to one, but he would repent
21:26
Speaker 1: his choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be
21:29
Speaker 1: disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but
21:33
Speaker 1: he interrupted me, smiling, and told me, with a great
21:36
Speaker 1: deal of modesty, that I mistook in my guesses that
21:40
Speaker 1: he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts, and
21:42
Speaker 1: he was very glad to hear that I had an
21:44
Speaker 1: intent of putting them in a way to see their
21:46
Speaker 1: own country again, and nothing should have made him think
21:49
Speaker 1: of staying there, but that the voyage I was going
21:52
Speaker 1: was so exceeding long and hazardous and would carry him
21:55
Speaker 1: quite out of the reach of all his friends. That
21:58
Speaker 1: he had nothing to desire of me, but that I
22:00
Speaker 1: would settle him in some little property in the island
22:03
Speaker 1: where he was, give him a servant or two, and
22:06
Speaker 1: some few necessaries, and he would live here like a planter,
22:10
Speaker 1: waiting the good time, when, if ever I returned to England,
22:13
Speaker 1: I would redeem him. He hoped I would not be
22:16
Speaker 1: unmindful of him when I came to England, that he
22:19
Speaker 1: would give me some letters to his friends in London
22:22
Speaker 1: to let them know how good I had been to him,
22:24
Speaker 1: and in what part of the world, and what circumstances
22:27
Speaker 1: I had left him in. And he promised me that
22:29
Speaker 1: whenever I redeemed him the plantation and all the improvements
22:33
Speaker 1: he had made upon it, let the value be what
22:36
Speaker 1: it would should be wholly mine. His discourse was very
22:40
Speaker 1: prettily delivered, considering his youth, and was the more agreeable
22:44
Speaker 1: to me because he told me positively the match was
22:47
Speaker 1: not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances that
22:50
Speaker 1: if I lived to come safe to England, I would
22:53
Speaker 1: deliver his letters and do his business effectually, and that
22:57
Speaker 1: he might depend I should never forget the circumstances I
23:00
Speaker 1: had left him in. But still I was impatient to
23:03
Speaker 1: know who was the person to be married, upon which
23:06
Speaker 1: he told me it was my jack of all trades
23:08
Speaker 1: and his maid Susan. I was most agreeably surprised when
23:11
Speaker 1: he named the match, for indeed, I thought it very
23:14
Speaker 1: suitable the character of that man I have given already.
23:18
Speaker 1: And as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest,
23:21
Speaker 1: sober and religious young woman, had a very good share
23:25
Speaker 1: of sense, was agreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely,
23:29
Speaker 1: and to the purpose, always with decency and good manners,
23:33
Speaker 1: and was neither too backward to speak when requisite, nor
23:36
Speaker 1: impertinently forward when it was not her business. Very handy
23:40
Speaker 1: and housewifely, and an excellent manager, fit indeed to have
23:44
Speaker 1: been governess to the whole island, and she knew very
23:47
Speaker 1: well how to behave in every respect. The match being
23:51
Speaker 1: proposed in this manner, we married them the same day.
23:55
Speaker 1: And as I was father at the altar and gave
23:58
Speaker 1: her away, so I gave her a poor for I
24:00
Speaker 1: appointed her and her husband a handsome, large space of
24:03
Speaker 1: ground for their plantation. And indeed, this match, and the
24:07
Speaker 1: proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small
24:10
Speaker 1: property in the island, put me upon parceling it out
24:13
Speaker 1: amongst them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.
24:19
Speaker 1: This sharing out the land to them I left to
24:21
Speaker 1: will Atkins, who was now grown a sober, grave managing fellow,
24:25
Speaker 1: perfectly reformed, exceedingly pious and religious, And as far as
24:30
Speaker 1: I may be allowed to speak positively in such a case,
24:33
Speaker 1: I verily believe he was a true penitent. He divided
24:37
Speaker 1: things so justly, and so much to everyone's satisfaction, that
24:41
Speaker 1: they only desired one general writing under my hand for
24:44
Speaker 1: the whole which I caused to be drawn up and
24:47
Speaker 1: signed and sealed, setting out the bounds and situation of
24:51
Speaker 1: every man's plantation, and testifying that I gave them thereby
24:55
Speaker 1: severally a right to the whole possession and inheritance of
24:58
Speaker 1: the respective plantations, order farms, with their improvements to them
25:02
Speaker 1: and their heirs, reserving all the rest of the island
25:06
Speaker 1: as my own property, and a certain rent for every
25:09
Speaker 1: particular plantation after eleven years, if I or anyone from
25:13
Speaker 1: me or in my name came to demand it, producing
25:17
Speaker 1: an attested copy of the same writing. As to the
25:20
Speaker 1: government and laws among them, I told them I was
25:22
Speaker 1: not capable of giving them better rules than they were
25:25
Speaker 1: able to give themselves. Only I made them promise me
25:28
Speaker 1: to live in love and good neighborhood with one another.
25:31
Speaker 1: And so I prepared to leave them One thing I
25:35
Speaker 1: must not omit, and that is that, being now settled
25:38
Speaker 1: in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much
25:41
Speaker 1: business in hand, it was odd to have seven and
25:45
Speaker 1: thirty Indians live in a nook of the island, independent
25:48
Speaker 1: and indeed unemployed, for except the providing themselves food, which
25:52
Speaker 1: they had difficulty enough to do. Sometimes they had no
25:56
Speaker 1: manner of business or property to manage. I proposed their
26:00
Speaker 1: to the governor's Spaniard that he should go to them
26:03
Speaker 1: with Friday's father, and proposed to them to remove and
26:07
Speaker 1: either plant for themselves or be taken in to their
26:10
Speaker 1: several families as servants, to be maintained for their labor,
26:14
Speaker 1: but without being absolute slaves. For I would not permit
26:17
Speaker 1: them to make them slaves by force by any means,
26:20
Speaker 1: because they had their liberty given them by capitulation, as
26:24
Speaker 1: it were articles of surrender which they ought not to break.
26:28
Speaker 1: They most willingly embraced the proposal and came all very
26:32
Speaker 1: cheerfully along with him. So we allotted them land and plantations,
26:36
Speaker 1: which three or four excepted of, but all the rest
26:39
Speaker 1: chose to be employed as servants in the several families
26:42
Speaker 1: we had settled. Thus my colony was in a manner
26:46
Speaker 1: settled as follows. The Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which
26:50
Speaker 1: was the capital city, and extended their plantations all along
26:54
Speaker 1: the side of the brook which made the creek that
26:57
Speaker 1: I have so often described as far as my bank.
27:00
Speaker 1: And as they increased their culture. It went always eastward.
27:04
Speaker 1: The English lived in the northeast part, where will Atkins
27:08
Speaker 1: and his comrades began, and came on southward and southwest
27:12
Speaker 1: towards the back part of the Spaniards. And every plantation
27:15
Speaker 1: had a great addition of land to take in if
27:18
Speaker 1: they found occasion, so that they need not jostle one
27:20
Speaker 1: another for want of room. All the east end of
27:24
Speaker 1: the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the
27:27
Speaker 1: savages should come on shore there only for their customary barbarities,
27:31
Speaker 1: they might come and go if they disturbed nobody. Nobody
27:34
Speaker 1: would disturb them, and no doubt they were often ashore
27:38
Speaker 1: and went away again, For I never heard that the
27:41
Speaker 1: planters were ever attacked or disturbed any more. End of
27:46
Speaker 1: Chapter seven