and also were willing to acknowledge, their miscarriage, and thereby gave occasion for others to acknowledge the power of the civil authority in matters of religion, as well as in the affairs of righteousness and honesty, according to the judgment of all sober divines. And indeed let the experience of all Reformed Churches be consulted withal, and it will appear that disorder and confusion of the church will not be avoided by all the determinations, advice, and counsel of Synods, or other messengers of churches, unless they be a little actuated by the civil authority. All men are naturally so wedded to their own apprehensions, that unless there be a coercive power to restrain, the order and rule of the Gospel will not be attended. For the preventing of the like inconveniences in the country it was soon after made into an order by the General Court, that no minister should be called unto office in any of the churches, within their jurisdiction, without the approbation of some of the magistrates, as well as of the neighboring churches; on which ground, in the year 1653, the Court would not allow the north church of Boston to call Mr. Powell,' a well gifted, though illiterate person, to the stated office of a public preacher or minister, wherefore the people of the town contented themselves with his being called to the place of ruling elder, that so no occasion might be given thereby for illiterate persons, that were not able to instruct all, and convince gainsayers, to intrude themselves into the sacred function of the ministry of the Gospel. And whereas the Plantations of New England had never as yet been acquainted with the way of paying tithes, (which none of the Reformed Churches ever yet condemned as unlawful, although it was not looked upon as the most convenient for the towns and Plantations of New England,) for the support of the ministry in the several towns, it was now left to the power of every County Court throughout the whole jurisdiction, to make sufficient provision for the maintenance of the ministry in the respective towns of the Colony, and to rectify any defect, upon complaint of any such, for want of means whereby comfortably to subsist. 1 Of Michael Powell see page 511; Sav. Win. ii. 323.-н. CHAP. LXII.1 Special occurrences during this lustre, from 1651 to 1656. WITHIN the compass of this lustre was the Massachusetts deprived of two eminent and worthy persons, the one in the magistracy, the other in the ministry, which loss was the more to be lamented, in that they left neither of them any one in each of their capacities, equal with themselves. Mr. Dudley, an ancient gentleman, one of the principal founders and pillars of the Massachusetts Colony, was called from his station, July 31, 1653, in the 77th year of his age, eminently qualified with those choice virtues, fit for the discharge of the trust to which he was oft called, and wherein he always approved himself a lover of justice, and friend of truth, an enemy of all disorder, and that always bore a special antipathy against all heresy and corrupt doctrine, which made him conclude his own epitaph with this character of himself, "I died no libertine," and which gave occasion to a reverend person of the clergy to honor him with this double encomium, as well of English as Latin poesy: THOMAS DUDLEY, HOLD, MAST, WE DY. When swelling gusts of Antinomian breath Our mast now roll'd by th' board, (poor bark) we cry, EPITAPHIUM. Heluo librorum, lectorum bibliotheca Ad mensam comes, hinc facundus, rostra disertus, 1 LXI in the MS.-H. 2 Conjectural; the MS. has o're, evidently a blunder of the transcriber, which was printed or in the first edition. The word in the original may have been for or and; probably it was the latter.-H. Morum acris censor, validus defensor amansque, Et sanæ, et canæ, Catholicæ fidei. Angli-Novi columen, summum decus, atque senatus, N. R.1 He was the most resolved champion of the truth, above all the gentlemen in the country, in the years 1636 and 1637, at which time was New England's crisis, when many, under pretence of crying up the free grace of God in the work of man's salvation, had well nigh cashiered all the grace of God out of their hearts, endeavoring to vilify the grace of sanctification, that thereby they might exalt the grace of justification. On the 23d of December, 1652, that reverend and holy man of God, Mr. John Cotton, put off this his earthly tabernacle, being entered into the 68th year of his age. His excellent learning, profound judgment, eminent gravity, Christian candor, and sweet temper of spirit, whereby he could very placidly bear those that differed from him in their apprehensions, made him most desired while he was amongst them, and the more lamented after he was removed hence. So equal a contention between learning and meekness, magnanimity and humility, is seldom seen in any one person, and therefore did his worthy successor not unfitly, in writing his life, give him that encomium, which the German Phoenix gave unto Luther, “I," (saith he, speaking of himself,) "am a Logician, Pomeranus is a Grammarian, Justus Jonas is an Orator, but Luther is all." He was a famous light in his generation, a glory to both Englands; one in whom was so much of what is desirable in man, as the consciences of all that knew him appealed unto, is rarely to be seen in any one conversant upon the earth. And as concerning any tenet, wherein he may be thought to be singular, it must be remembered, that although he was a star of the first magnitude, yet he was on this side of that place and state where the spirits of just men are made perfect, and when the "wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament." He that wrote his life, saith, that might he but have received with some proportion to the Pomeramus | 1 Conjecture would ascribe these initials to Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, though in the Magnalia the Latin verses are signed "E. R."-H. 2 Rev. John Norton.-H. measure which he gave to others, he would be found no debtor to any man upon earth on that account. The Jews unto their own question, "why Asa and Jehoshaphat, removing the idols in the high places, took not also away the brazen serpent," give this answer: "the fathers left a place for Hezekiah to exercise his zeal." In the year 1655 was another general faint cough that passed through the whole country of New England, occasioned by some strange distemper or infection of the air; it was so epidemical, that few persons escaped a touch thereof. It began about the end of June, and was so epidemical, that few were able to visit their friends, or perform the last testimony of respect to any of their relations at any distance. By which on July the 2d,1 in the year 1655, was put a period to the life and labors of that reverend, learned, holy, and worthy minister of the Gospel, Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, pastor of the church at Ipswich, to whom it might be honor enough to say, that he was the son of Mr. John Rogers, the famous preacher of Dedham, of whom it might be affirmed, that he was the only Boanerges of his age, as the reverend and learned Bishop Brownrigg was not unwilling to own. But this his son, treading in his father's steps, was, though not his eldest son, yet heir of a double portion of his spirit, and worthy to have transmitted more honor to his posterity than he received from those before him, by reason of his eminent learning, singular piety, holy zeal, with other ministerial abilities. But being always burdened with many bodily infirmities, he was never able to polish any of his elucubrations to render them fit for the public, so as thereby the church of God was deprived of his elaborate studies, further than his auditory reached, who were his epistle, as the Apostle speaketh, seen and read of all that knew them. And indeed the ministry of himself, together with that of his worthy colleague,2 had such authority in the hearts of the hearers, that none of them, though a great auditory, were in the time of their ministry, or since, ever leavened with any corrupt doctrine, or heretical principle, which is much as to these times wherein we live, which God grant may still continue. 1 Farmer, Felt, and others, say July 3d.—н.} Rev. John Norton. See page 274.-H. CHAP. LXIII.1 The general affairs of New England, from 1656 to 1661. DURING this whole lustre the Governor's place fell to Mr. Endicot's lot at every election, as that of the Deputy Governor to Mr. Bellingham; the which fell out in the year 1656, May 14th; in 1657, May the 6th; in 1658, May the 19th; in 1659, May the 11th; in 1660, it happened on May the 30th; in all which space of time did no matter of great moment occur in New England. In the year 1656 some care was taken to settle the difference about the two Patents, relating to the land on the lower side of Pascataqua River, at Swamscot, between Dover and Exeter, where Captain Wiggin was concerned. Several troops of horse were appointed up and down, in every shire of the country, for greater security of remote towns, in case they should be assaulted by any enemy. There fell out occasions enough to make use of them sooner than was expected. In the year 1657 the trade with the Indians for furs was farmed out to some particular persons, versed in that way of dealing, and not long after released. Well had it been for New England, if that trade had never been taken up, or had been better ordered, and some more effectual care taken about it, being observed to be scarce ever blest to any person that meddled much therein. At this time, also, Harvard College was endowed with two thousand acres of land, which in after ages, it is hoped, may turn to better account than at present it is like to do. Within this compass of years the Colonies of New England were deprived of more worthy men than in many before, of the like number. June 5,3 1657, Plymouth lost their worthy Governor, Mr. William Bradford, who had continued in that place ever since the first planting thereof, in a manner with very little intermission; the very prop and stay of that Colony during all the whole series of changes that passed over them. He 1 LXII in the MS.-H. 2 In the Pequod Country, in lieu, says Peirce, of two thousand acres, which had been granted by the General Court in 1653. See pp. 237, 247, 372, 543.—н. 3 May 9th, according to Belknap, Farmer, Davis's Morton, &c. &c.-H. |