Benjamin Cutter, William R. Cutter, History of the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, ormerly the second precinct in Cambridge, or District of Menotomy, afterward the town of West Cambridge. 1635-1879 with a genealogical register of the inhabitants of the precinct.

‘ [87] the thought of the indignity and cruelty our great Deliverer endured for us, support us under the most severe trials, and particularly comfort our distressed captives in the present unjust and savage war—suffering unheard of cruelties under the insulting rage of Britons!’ ‘Dreadful indeed is the power of a Tyrant, which is under no restraint from reason or law! From this curse we ought earnestly to strive and pray, that God of his mercy would deliver us.’ Lord North is spoken of as the ‘unfeeling,’ the ‘haughty,’ and the ‘deceitful,’ with his ‘inhuman associates;’ after his ‘haughty boast’ that he would ‘lay’ America ‘at his feet,’ and ‘after the barbarous murder and destruction of many thousands of our friends,’ added ‘insult to cruelty, by presenting us with his Power to grant pardons upon our submission; and falsely pretending that he always meant to favor us, but thought the moment of complete victory over us was the fittest time to prepare terms of peace.’

In a following sermon, July 12, 1778, he continues, ‘The same inconsistence would have been chargeable upon America, if we had not absolutely and firmly declared our Independence—while we acknowledged George for our King;—by our taking up arms against men of blood, sent here by his command;—we should practically have declared ourselves Rebels. But we now own no Earthly Sovereign.’ * * * *

Again, July 26, 1778, he says, ‘Lord, what is man, when divested of humanity! The most savage beasts fall short of him in cruelty. Who in these ages, but an unfeeling Briton, can read these things without horror?’

Aug. 16, 1778, non-church goers are reproved thus: ‘This instance [John 20: 24 v.] is recorded in part, to warn us all of the danger of unnecessary absence from Social Worship, as the manner of too many is; and the example of others, who are thought to be good Christians, has an unhappy influence upon others! * * * * The common excuse is that they cannot receive any benefit.’

In a sermon, Sept. 20, 1778, Mr. Cooke indulged in the favorite phrases of the time in speaking of the Forefathers: ‘Our pious forefathers were driven into this wilderness, by the persecuting rage of the High Church party in Britain; but Christ over-ruled the wicked and cruel designs of his adversaries, to advance his own kingdom, by erecting and establishing his Churches in these benighted parts of <*> world. May the King of Glory still defend us, and add to his churches such as shall be saved! We trust in this day of distress that God will remember for us the kindness of our Youth * * * * when our fathers followed him into this Wilderness, then a land not sown. Christ is now calling us, as he did * * * * many of our forefathers, to resist even to blood, striving against sin, against oppression and violence. * * * * It greatly concerns a people under public calamities, though brought instrumentally by the hands of violent men, and particularly it becomes us as a community in this season of distress * * * * to remember from whence we are fallen,’ &c. This land is also spoken of in the same connection, as a ‘noble vine’ and a ‘right seed.’