... You may marvel why I
should give any light to others in this thing before I have perfected my
own. This know, that my work being true thus far by all their writings,
it cannot fail ... for if &c &c you cannot miss if you would, except you
break your glass." He confesses he is mistaken as to the time required,
which he now, as well as I can make out, reckons at about ten years. "I
fear I shall not live to see it finished, in regard partly of the
Indians, who, I fear, will raise wars, as also I have a conceit that God
sees me not worthy of such a blessing, by reason of my manifold
miscarriages." Therefore he "will shortly write all the whole work in few
words plainly which may be done in 20 lines from the first to the last &
seal it up in a little box & subscribe it to yourself ... & will so write
it that neither wife nor children shall know thereof." If Winthrop should
succeed in bringing the work to perfection, Brewster begs him to remember
his wife and children. "I mean if this my work should miscarry by wars of
the Indians, for I may not remove it till it be perfected, otherwise I
should so unsettle the body by removing sun & moon out of their settled
places, that there would then be no other afterworking." Once more he
inculcates secrecy, and for a most comical reason: "For it is such a
secret as is not fit for every one either for secrecy or for parts to use
it, as God's secret for his glory, to do good there with, or else they
may do a great deal of hurt, spending & employing it to satisfy sinful
lusts.
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