thereto, but said nothing; then that part of the Mandamus of 1666, which they desired might be read, was read. After which they desired that Colonel Nichols's letter to the Governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts might be read; but that not being of concernment to them there, save only for information of the Justices, of what had passed from them to the Governor and magistrates, to whom it was directed, it was refused. Some short account being publicly given, that that which had been read, for the matter, having been before and under the consideration of the General Court, they had the declaration of their intendments; in prosecution whereof we were commissionated to keep Court and settle the County, the which work we had begun, and, God willing, should perform, to fulfil the trust committed to us. And having declared to the people, that we were not insensible how that, at the time of the interruption of the government, in the year 1665, by such of the gentlemen of the King's Commissioners that were then upon the place, they had manifested their displeasure by telling the people that the Massachusetts were traitors, rebels, and disobedient to his Majesty, the reward whereof within one year they said should be retributed; yet we told them, that, through the good hand of God and the King's favor, the Massachusetts were an authority to assert their right of government there, by virtue of the Royal Charter derived to them from his Majesty's royal predecessors; and that we did not doubt but that the Massachusetts Colony's actings for the forwarding his Majesty's service would outspeak other's words, where there was nothing but words for themselves and against us. Which done, the gentlemen left us, and we proceeded to the work of the Court, to impannel the grand jury, gave them their oaths [and charge, and then the associates present we called to take their oaths.'] One of them, viz. Mr. Roger Plaisted, expressed publicly that he was sent by the town he lived in, and accordingly he had applied himself to the Major-General, more privately, to know how we reassumed the government and how they were to submit; which he now mentioned in public, that he might render himself faithful to them that sent him: to which he was answered in public, as he had been in private, 1 Supplied from Hutchinson, i. 244.-H.

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that we reassumed the government by virtue of the Charter, and that they were to have the privilege with ourselves in the other Counties. We had also from Scarborough a paper presented, which herewith we present to the Court. Then having sworn the constables present, impannelled the jury for trials, sworn them, and committed what actions were entered and prosecuted to them, in this time the gentlemen sent to desire, that, at our leisure time, they might speak with us. They were sent for, and presented us with a paper; after we had received it, we attended to settle the business of the military officers and trainbands, and || commissionated,|| for York, Job Alcock, Lieutenant, Arthur Bragdon, Ensign; for Wells, John Littlefield, Lieutenant, Francis Littlefield, Jun., Ensign; for Scarborough, Andrew ||2 Augur,|| Lieutenant; for Falmouth, George Ingerfield, Lieutenant; for Kittery, Charles Frost, Captain, Roger Plaisted, Lieutenant, John Gattery,3 Ensign; for Saco, Bryan Pendleton, Major, and he to settle Black Point. Mr. Knight, of Wells, the morning before we came away, being Thursday, [the] 9th of July, came and took his oath in Court to serve as an associate. The Court made an order for a [County Court to be held [the] 15th of September, there at York, and for that end continued the Commission to Captain Waldron and Captain Pike and others, for the better strengthening the authority upon the place, as by their Commission may appear. The associates that are now in place, are Major Pendleton, Mr. Francis Cotterell, Mr. Knight, of Wells, Mr. Rayns, of York, Mr. Roger Plaisted, of Kittery. Which is humbly submitted to the honored General Court, as the return of your humble servants, this 23d of October, 1668.

JOHN LEVERETT,
EDWARD TING,

RICHARD WALDRON.5

In this order and manner did the Province of Maine return to the government of the Massachusetts, without

commissioned

Angur ||

Mr. Savage says that he is "the man that Increase Mather made Counsellor in the Charter of 1691, though Hutchinson, for a wonder, and Douglas, for no wonder, turned it into Alcot."-H.

2 "Now-a-days Alger," says Mr. Savage.-H. 3 Gaffingsley in Hutchinson.-H.

4

Supplied from Hutchinson.-H.

5 This report, says Williamson, “was followed by a vote of public thanks for their services, and by an ample remuneration."- -H.

any other force, threatening, or violence, whatever hath been to the contrary judged, reported, and published by any other person or persons, to the prejudice and disadvantage of the truth, and the credit of them that were called to act therein.'

CHAP. LXX.2

Ecclesiastical affairs in the Massachusetts, from the year

1666 to 1771.

EVER since the late Synod, held in Boston in the year 1662, for the debating the two questions, viz. about the subject of Baptism and consociation of churches, hath arisen some trouble in the country; for in the agitation and determination of those questions, several things were delivered for undeniable positions, which sundry of the ministers, and many of the members of the churches throughout the country, were ready to reflect upon, as innovations without Scripture warrant, and that would have a direct tendency to undermine the liberty of the churches, as well as to abate, if not corrupt, the purity of them, which occasioned much opposition against the receiving the foresaid determinations in many of the churches of the Massachusetts, as well as in some of the neighbor Colonies. And peradventure the controversy was at times managed with too much animosity, until, by degrees, in many of the churches within the respective Colonies of New England, viz. as to the owning of those for members of the particular churches they belong to, who were baptized in their infancy, and when they ||come to adult years, are willing to submit to the discipline of the church, and are found orthodox in their judgments, and without scandal in their lives.

They who are willing, in that where to they have already attained, to walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, i. e. peaceably and orderly, according to what they have received, may expect that though they are, at the present, in some things otherwise minded, that God shall even reveal this unto them in his own time and way. The controversy mentioned was not a little strengthened and revived by an occasion about that time, or not || came ||

Reference is here probably made to the strictures of John Josselyn, the voyager, who resided with his brother Henry at Black Point, 1663-1671.-H LXIX in the MS.-H. 3 Something appears to be wanting.-H.

long before, falling out: for after the church of Boston was destitute of a teaching elder, by the sudden and unexpected death of Mr. John Norton, they having made sundry fruitless endeavors to supply themselves, at last, by a general consent of the principal part of the church, they addressed themselves to the reverend and worthy Mr. John Davenport, the pastor of New Haven, a person beyond exception and compare for all ministerial abilities, and upon that account highly esteemed and accepted in either Englands. The reverend person, as was understood by them that were most solicitous to gain him to Boston, was strongly bent in his spirit to remove from the place where he was settled before, in regard of alteration like to ensue in their civil government, that whole Colony being accidentally wrapped within the bounds of the Patent, not long before obtained for Connecticut Colony. Not many motives need be used to draw them that have a natural propension to come. On the other hand, some of the members of Boston church, and those not inconsiderable, either [as] to their number or other circumstances, were averse to the inviting the said reverend person, so as that they desired liberty of withdrawing, or of being a church by themselves, in case their brethren were resolved to proceed on in their choice; not out of dislike of his worth and abilities, but in regard of his declared judgment in opposition to the determination of the late Synod in 1662, which was apprehended by some like to become a ball of contention among the churches of the Massachusetts; but every consideration of this nature was swallowed up by the incomparable worth of the person, by such as had already made their choice. In fine, much trouble was occasioned thereby, one part of the church of Boston being as resolved and fixed in their negative, as the rest were in the affirmative, so as not to be included in the choice. This difference was soon after pretty well composed, when the dissenters found a way, by the interposition and advice of the messengers of sundry neighbor churches, to gather into a distinct church-society by themselves. But many of them, who were not so well satisfied in the doing thereof, were soon after ready to think that factum valet.

1 April 5, 1663.-H.

Mr. Davenport, with Rev. James Allen as his colleague, were installed at Boston, Dec. 9, 1668.-H.

It was feared that those two churches would, like the river Davus, running betwixt the same banks of great Danubius, yet to keep their distinct channels, and hold no other communion than that of civil commerce one with another; yet, as it was then hoped, time and patience hath since that time, viz. Anno 1680, brought things about to almost a perfect coalescence.1

But that famous and first church of Boston was not long happy in the enjoyment of Mr. Davenport, their reverend pastor, who was removed from them by an apoplectical distemper on March 16,2 1670, after they had flourished under his ministry three or four years, and sat under the shadow of his doctrine, as it were, with great delight, and found the fruit thereof sweet to their taste. It is not unworthy our notice, that though he had near attained the eightieth year of his age, yet was he of that vivacity, that the strength of his memory, profoundness of his judgment, floridness of his elocution, were little, if at all, abated in him. His loss would have been more deeply laid to heart if it had not been in a great measure made up by the seasonable supply of another reverend preacher, Mr. John Oxenbridge, who, not without the direction of a special Providence, was brought to the place not long before the removal of the other; by whose pious and prudent endeavors the former breach was in a likely way of healing; at least, things tended much that way all the time of his shining in the golden candlestick of that church, a double portion of whose spirit rest upon them who may succeed, he also being removed by sudden death, Anno 1675.1

3

Hitherto it had pleased the Father of Lights to bless the New England churches with the continuance of many worthy and eminent divines, not only of such who at first removed with their brethren, at the first planting of the country, but of many others who were raised up there; but about this time they were bereft of a great number of them, within the compass of a few years.

The setting of so many bright stars (and some of them of the first magnitude,) in New England's firma

-H.

For a particular account of this controversy, see Hutchinson, i. 247-51; Emerson's History of the First Church in Boston, pp. 111-20.11th in Ch. Records, says Emerson.-H. He was installed April 10, 1671.—H. ↑ Dec. 28, 1674, says Emerson.-H.

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