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 red possession of these women's worldly endowments?"

"I never heard of such a scheme," said Morton, "and therefore I could not thwart it—But does your religion permit you to take such uncreditable and immoral modes of recruiting?"

"Peace," said Macbriar, somewhat disconcerted; "it is not for thee to instruct tender professors, or to construe Covenant obligations; for the rest, you have acknowledged enough of sin and sorrowful defection to draw down defeat on a host were it as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore. And it is our judgment, that we are not free to let you pass from us safe and in life, since Providence hath given you into our hands at the moment that we prayed with godly Joshua, saying, What shall we say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies?—Then camest thou, delivered to us as it were by lot, that thou mightest sustain the punishment of one