ner she
burst out into an amazing cry, which caus'd all the family to cry
too; Her Mother ask'd the reason, she gave none; at last said she
was afraid she should goe to Hell, her Sins were not pardon'd. She
was first wounded by my reading a sermon of Mr. Norton's Text, Ye
shall seek me and shall not find me. And those words in the sermon,
Ye shall seek me and die in your Sins ran in her mind and terrified
her greatly. And staying at home she read out of Mr. Cotton
Mather--Why hath Satan filled thy Heart, which increased her Fear.
Her Mother asked her whether she pray'd. She answered yes but
fear'd her prayers were not heard because her sins were not
pardon'd."

A fortnight later he writes:

"Betty comes into me as soon as I was up and tells me the disquiet
she had when wak'd; told me she was afraid she should go to Hell,
was like Spira, not Elected. Ask'd her what I should pray for, she
said that God would pardon her Sin and give her a new heart. I
answer'd her Fears as well as I could and pray'd with many Tears on
either part. Hope God heard us."

Three months later still he makes this entry:

"Betty can hardly read her chapter for weeping, tells me she is
afraid she is gon back, does not taste that sweetness in reading
the Word which once she did; fears that what was once upon her is
worn off. I said what I could to her and in the evening pray'd with
her alone."

Poor little "wounded" Betty! She did not die in childhood as she feared,
but lived to pass through many gloomy hours of morbid introspection and
of overwhelming fear of death, to marry and become the mother of eight
children; but was always buffeted with fears and tormented with doubts,
which she despairingly communicated to her solemn and far from
comforting father; and at last she faced the dread foe Death at the age
of thirty-five. Judge Sewall wrote sadly the day of her funeral: "I hope
God has delivered her now from all her fears;" every one reading of her
bewildered and depressed spiritual life must sincerely hope so with him.
In truth, the Puritan children were, as Judge Sewall said, "stirred up
dreadfully to seek God."

Here is the way that one of Sewall's neighbors taught his little
daughter when she was four years old:

"I took my little daughter Katy into my Study and there I told my
child That I am to Dy Shortly and Shee