tion of the humors in a plethoric body, which brought upon him a putrid fever, that debilitated his vital spirits in a little time, and brought him to the very gates of death, before standers-by were apprehensive of any danger in his disease, or whither it was tending. Not to dilate further upon his eminent worth, a neighbor minister hath given it him, in full measure, running over, as he well deserved, in this following epitaph : Here lies the darling of his time, Mitchell, expired in his prime, Who, four years short of forty-seven, J. S.1 He died about the three or four and fortieth year of his age, as did his famous predecessor. Another eminent and hopeful minister of the Gospel, which New England was bereaved of this year, was Mr. John Eliot, born and bred up in New England, the eldest son of the worthy minister of the Gospel, Mr. John Eliot, of Roxbury, who hath taken so much pains to acquaint the Indians of New England with the religion of the English, and with the knowledge of the Gospel. This, his eldest son, (who for his years was nulli secundus as to all literature and other gifts, both of nature and grace, which made him so generally acceptable to all that had opportunity of partaking of his labors, or the least acquaintance with him, yet) herein was noted to excel all his contemporaries, in that, by the advice and conduct of his father, through his own industry and diligence, he had attained such skill in the Indian language, that he was able familiarly to discourse with them and instruct them, yea, frequently travelled up and down the country to take all opportunities to preach unto them the word of life. The untimely removal of himself, with some others in like manner qualified and devoted to that work, hath been to some a ground of fear, that the great harvest of converting the heathens in America is not § as § yet 1 Perhaps Rev. John Sherman, of Watertown.—H. He died, says Farmer, Oct. 11, (or 13,) 1668, aged 32.-H. fully come, although there are many hopeful and comfortable gleanings, as may be seen afterwards in what follows, not unworthy the labors and pains that hath been by any bestowed in that work. Besides the forementioned, in 1668 and the following years were sundry other eminent ministers of the Gospel in New England removed by the stroke of death, whose memory it is thought meet in the following catalogue to commend to the notice of posterity. Mr. Henry Flint, pastor of the church at Braintree, (his worthy colleague, Mr. Thompson, a man of great worth and learning, zeal, and piety, in his former time, having, in a dark cloud of melancholy, left the world in the year 1666,1) [died] April 27, 1668. Mr. Richard Mather, a solid and grave divine, teacher of the church at Dorchester, died April 22, 1669. Mr. John Reyner, pastor of the church at Dover, died April 3, 1669. Mr. Zechariah Symmes, pastor of the church at Charlestown, died February 4, 1670.2 Mr. John Allin, pastor of the church at Dedham, died August 26, 1670.3 Mr. Charles Chauncy, who, in the eightieth year of his age, being President of Harvard College, died February 19, 1671.* All, or most of whom, are well known by their abilities, as well abroad as at home, in the press as well as in the pulpit, especially by their labors in and about the controversy of church government; of whose faculties, success, and skill therein, the reader may best make a judgment, by perusing their own writings, long since extant in the world. There hath been much opposition and vehement disputings betwixt wise, learned, and holy men about this point, yet the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of the Lord, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, and therefore not to judge by prejudice, or with respect of persons; the ministers of New England have given an account to the world, of their way and of their practice, wherein they differ from 1671-2, i. e. 1672. ED. 1 Dec. 10th.-H. 3 1671. Lamson's History of the First Church in Dedham, (8vo, Dedham, 1839,) p. 26.-н. the rest of the Reformed Churches; and doubtless no detriment will accrue to others, by leaving them to enjoy the liberty of their own apprehensions. But not to look only on the dark side of the cloud; during the time of these sad and sorrowful occurrences, were some others called forth, either to enter upon, or to make more open and manifest progress in, the ministry, ordained for the edifying of the body of Christ, and perfecting the saints. At the town of Portsmouth, seated on the southern banks of Pascataqua River, the inhabitants having been several years instructed by the painful and able ministry of Mr. Joshua Moody, and guided by his prudent conduct, did a considerable number of them join themselves together in church fellowship, over whom the said Mr. Moody was ordained pastor, 1671.1 At the same time, Mr. John Reyner was ordained pastor at the church at Dover, in the room of his father, lately deceased there in the year 1669. Much about the same time was Mr. Dummer ordained pastor of the church at York, in the Province of Maine. During these intervals of time several contentious breaches, that happened in sundry of the churches of the Massachusetts, were orderly composed, though not without the interposition of the civil magistrate, who is custos utriusque tabula, which it is thought meet rather to intimate in this place, than pass over with silence, seeing thereby a full answer is given to the main objections that use to be made against the Congregational churches of New England, as if there was no way found to end differences, that might occasionally arise in or amongst the churches of that constitution. Their usual way of ending all differences is by the improving the help of neighbor churches, who, by their elders and other messengers meeting together, are wont to deliberate and give their advice concerning any matter of difference; in which case, where there appeared an unanimous consent in the said messengers, all parties concerned were found always ready to acquiesce therein. But in case of any differing apprehensions of the said See Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, pp. 51-5.-H. July 12, 1671. Root's Bicentennial Sermon, (8vo, Dover, 1839,) p. 11.—н. 3 Farmer says Dec. 3, 1672; Gillett (in Am. Qu. Register, XIII. 156,) says 1673.-H. messengers amongst themselves, or in case of any contumacy in any of the offending parties, the civil magistrates' help being implored by them that are aggrieved, that useth always to put a final end to all matters of controversy amongst any of their churches. In like manner do all Protestant divines allow a power in the civil magistrate, not only in worldly regiment, but also in spiritual, for the preservation of the church, i. e. in cases temporal, so far as belongeth to the outward preservation, not to the personal administration of them, which is the substance of our English Oath of Supremacy, as a learned man observes. It is true that, in the primitive times, infidels were converted to the faith, and churches established and kept up, when there was no assistance, but rather opposition, from the Princes of the earth, as saith the same author. And the benefit we have now, by Christian magistrates, was then more abundantly supplied by the miracles wrought, and the constant direction and care of Apostolic and extraordinary persons, who were gifted by Christ for the purpose; but in following times the ordinary helps and external means for the upholding and maintaining of peace and truth in the churches, sc. in way of a civil power, is only a pious and Christian magistracy, where a nation is blessed with it, so as by the help of the ecclesiastical and the civil power, acting in a way of subordination each unto other, all differences arising may easily be composed there, as well as in any other place, as instances might easily be given, of the issue of some late differences in several of the churches there of late, as, namely, at Newbury, Salem, and at Salisbury, the particulars whereof need not here be inserted. By such means hath truth and order been maintained, [and] peace restored unto the several churches within the jurisdictions of New England, in all former times, since the first planting, and may accordingly be expected for the future. 26* CHAP. LXXI.1 General affairs of the Massachusetts, from the year 1671 to 1676. In the beginning of this last epocha, or series of years, Mr. Bellingham was again chosen Governor of the Massachusetts, and Major John Leverett (to whose lot it had fallen some years before to be the Major General of the Massachusetts Colony,) was at the same time, May 31, 1671, called by the general consent of the electors to be Deputy Governor, in the room of Mr. Willoughby, that formerly supplied that place, and always by his gravity and prudence, as well as by his integrity and faithfulness, well becoming the dignity thereof.3 In the year 1672, Harvard College being decayed, a liberal contribution was granted for rebuilding the same, which was so far promoted from that time, that, in the year 1677, a fair and stately edifice of brick was erected anew, not far from the place where the former stood, and so far finished that the public acts of the Commencement were there performed, over which God send or confirm and continue a President, for the carrying on of that hopeful work, that so the glory of the succeeding may in all respects equal and exceed that of the former generation.* In the end of the year 16725 an end was put to the life and government of Mr. Bellingham, a very ancient gentleman, having spun a long thread of above eighty years he was a great justiciary, a notable hater of bribes, firm and fixed in any resolution he entertained, of larger comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain, a disadvantage to a public person; had he not been a little too much overpowered with the humor of melancholy in his natural constitution, (the infirmities of which tincture did now and then appear in his dispensing of justice,) he had been very well qualified for a GoverHe had been bred a lawyer, yet turned strangely, although upon very pious considerations, as some have nor. says Farmer.-H. LXX in the MS.• In 1664, -H. • See page 518.-H. 4 See Mather's Magnalia, iv. p. 129; Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ. i. 30-1, 508-9.-H. Dec. 7th. See Savage's Winthrop, i. 145.-H. |