JOHN ELIOT. bury, and had also found time to prepare several short religious treatises. He died at the age of eighty-six, on the 20th of May, 1690. Eliot's Indian grammar, and his letters to the Hon. Robert Boyle, have been reprinted in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His other writings are The Christian Commonwealth, a treatise on government, framed from the Scriptures for his Indian converts, which he published in London in 1654, with a preface recommending its adoption to the people of England* The Communion of Churches; or the Divine Management of Gospel Churches by the Ordinance of Councils, constituted in Order, according to the Scriptures, a tract published in 1665; and a volume of one hundred and thirtyone pages, published in 1678, entitled, The Harmony of the Gospels in the holy History of the Humiliation and Sufferings of Jesus Christ, from his Incarnation to his Death and Burial. In addition to the translations already mentioned, he published in 1685 a version of the "Practice of Piety," a popular devotional work, written by Lewis Bayly, chaplain to James I., and Bishop of Bangor, from 1616 to his death in 1632, and in 1688, of two tracts by Thomas Shepard, "The Sincere Convert," and "The Sound Believer." He also published an Indian primer. In his intercourse with his parishioners, and in his private life, Eliot was remarkable for mildness, meekness, and generosity. He combined with the latter virtue a total forgetfulness of self, and his household affairs would often have been in sorry plight, had he not had a good wife who shared his old age as she had his youth, to look after them. She one day, by way of a joke, pointing out their cows before the door, asked him whose they were, and found that he did not know. The treasurer of his church paying him a portion of his salary on one occasion, tied the coin in the pastor's pocket-handkerchief with an abundance of knots, as a check to his free dom of disbursement in charity. On his way home, the good man stopped to visit a destitute family, and was soon tugging at the knots to get at his money. Quickly growing impatient he gave the whole to the mother of the family, saying, "Here, my dear, take it; I believe the Lord designs it all for you." He showed an equally liberal disregard of self in his dealings with his congregation, proposing in place of the usual rate or tax by which the clergy was supported, to depend for his maintenance on the voluntary contributions of his congregation, and towards the close of his life suggested the appointment of an assistant, on whom he offered to bestow his entire salary. His congregation answered, that they would count his very presence worth a salary, when he should be so superannuated as to do no further service to them. The last years of his life were much occupied with endeavors to promote education among the negroes who had been introduced into the country. "He did not live," says Mather,t" to make much progress in the undertaking." It is reprinted in the third series of the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc., volume ix. + Mather's Magnalia. 41 Extremely simple and frugal in his personal habits, though by no means ascetic, he opposed violently the use of tobacco, and with Puritan consistency, the wearing of long hair or of wigs. Out of six children, but two survived him. "My desire was," he said of the others, "that they should have served God on earth; but if God will choose to have them rather serve him in heaven, I have nothing to object against it, but his will be done." Eliot's life has been written by Convers Francis, in Sparks's American Biography, occupying an entire volume of that series. Mather devotes many pages of the Magnalia to the record of his good words and works-pithily and quaintly remarking of him, that "he was a Boniface as well as a Benedict," and gives us a report, from him as he uttered it," of one of his sermons, "a paraphrase that I have heard himself to make upon that Scripture, Our conversation is in heaven." it. writ Behold, said he, the ancient and excellent character of a true Christian; 'tis that which Peter calls "holiness in all manner of conversation;" you shall not find a Christian out of the way of godly conversation. For, first, a seventh part of our time is all spent in heaven, when we are duly zealous for, and zealous on the Sabbath of God. Besides, God has written on the head of the Sabbath, REMEMBER, which looks both forwards and backwards, and thus a good part of the week will be spent in sabbatizing. Well, but for the rest of our time! Why, we shall have that spent in heaven, ere we have done. For, secondly, we have many days for both fasting and thanksgiving in our pilgrimage; and here are so many Sabbaths more. Moreover, thirdly, we have our lectures every week; and pious people won't miss them, if they can help Furthermore, fourthly, we have our private meetings, wherein we pray, and sing, and repeat sermons, and confer together about the things of God; and being now come thus far, we are in heaven almost every day. But a little farther, fifthly, we perform family-duties every day; we have our morning and evening sacrifices, wherein having read the Scriptures to our families, we call upon the name of God, and ever now and then carefully catechise those that are under our charge. Sixthly, we shall also have our daily devotions in our closets; wherein unto supplication before the Lord, we shall add some serious meditation upon his word: a David will be at this work no less than thrice a day. Seventhly, we have likewise many scores of ejaculations in a day; and these we have, like Nehemiah, in whatever place we come into. Eighthly, we have our occasional thoughts and our occasional talks upon spiritual matters; and we have our occasional acts of charity, wherein we do like the inhabitants of heaven every day. Ninthly, in our callings, in our civil callings, we keep up heavenly frames; we buy and sell, and toil; yea, we eat and drink, with some eye both to the command and the honor of God in all. Behold, I have not now left an inch of time to be carnal; it is all engrossed for heaven. And yet, lest here should not be enough, We are lastly, we have our spiritual warfare. always encountering the enemies of our souls, which continually raises our hearts unto our Helper and Leader in the heavens. Let no man say, ""Tis impossible to live at this rate;" for we have known some live thus; and others that have written of such a life have but spun a web out of their own blessed experiences. New England has example of this life: though, alas! 'tis to be lamented that the Gookin, in his Historical Collections of the Indians, gives this pleasing picture of Eliot's teaching: Besides his preaching to them, he framed two catechisms in the Indian tongue, containing the principles of the Christian religion; a lesser for children, and a larger for older persons. These also he communicated unto the Indians gradually, a few questions at a time, according unto their capacity to receive them. The questions he propounded one lecture day, were answered the next lecture day. His manner was, after he had begun the meeting with prayer, then first to catechise the children; and they would readily answer well for the generality. Then would he encourage them with some small gift, as an apple, or a small biscuit, which he caused to be bought for the purpose. And, by this prudence and winning practice, the children were induced with delight to get into their memories the principles of the Christian religion. After he had done the children, then would he take the answers of the catechetical questions of the elder persons; and they did generally answer judiciously. When the catechizing was past, he would preach to them upon some portion of scripture, for about three quarters of an hour; and then give liberty to the Indians to propound questions, as I intimated before; and in the close, finish all with prayer. Daniel Gookni Daniel Gookin, a native of Kent, in England, was among the early settlers of Virginia, and in 1644 removed to Cambridge, in consequence of his doctrinal sympathies with the New England Puritans. He was soon appointed captain of the military company of the town, and a member of the House of Deputies. In 1652 he was elected assistant or magistrate, and appointed in 1656 by the General Court, superintendent of all the Indians who acknowledged the government of Massachusetts, an office he retained until his death. In 1656 he visited England, and had an interview with Cromwell, who authorized him to invite the people of New England to remove to Jamaica, then recently conquered from Spain. In 1662 he was appointed one of the two licensers of the Cambridge printing-press. His work, Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, bears date 1674. The breaking out of King Philip's war soon after, led to the passage of several measures against the Natick and other Indians who had submitted to the English. Gookin was the only magistrate who joined Eliot in opposing these proceedings, and, consequently, subjected himself to reproaches from his fellow-magistrates and insult in the public streets. He took an active part on the side of the people against the measures which terminated in the withdrawal of the charter of the colony, in 1686. He died the next year, so poor, that we find John Eliot soon after soliciting a gift of ten pounds from Robert Boyle, for his widow. There is an account of Gookin in the first volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections, appended to the reprint of his Collections of the Indians one of the most pleasing of the original narratives of the aborigines. It was by Eliot's influence that an attempt was made to educate Indian youths with reference to Harvard, which encouraged the work. The plan, however, proved unsuccessful. The health of some of the students failed, and the courage of others; a number fell off to different occupations. The name of one graduate is on the catalogue of the University, of the year 1665, "Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck Indus." He soon afterwards died of consumption. Gookin speaks of another, "a good scholar and a pious man, as I judge," who, within a few months of the time of taking his degree, made a voyage to his relatives at Martha's Vineyard, and was drowned by shipwreck or murdered by the savages on his return. At a later day, in 1714, an Indian student of Harvard, named Larnel, spoken of as "an extraordinary Latin poet and a good Greek one," died during his college course.* THOMAS SUEPARD. THOMAS SHEPARD, a writer whose reputation has been among the most permanent of his brethren of the early New England clergy, was born at Towcester, near Northampton, England, in 1605, and educated at Emanuel college, Cambridge. On obtaining the degree of Master of Arts, he became a preacher at Earls Coln, in Essex, where a lecture† had been established by endowment for Thomas Shepard three years. His services proved so acceptable to the people, that at the expiration of the time they raised a voluntary subscription for his support, and he remained among them until silenced not long after for non-conformity. After passing some time "with the kind family of the Harlakendens," he removed to Buttercrambe, near York, where he resided in the family of Sir Richard Darby, whose daughter he married, and preached in the neighborhood, until again silenced. After a third attempt, at Heddon, in Northumberland,§ with like result, he *Mass. Hist. Soc. Col., First Series, i. 173. Quincy's Hist. of Harvard, i. 444. + These lectures were originally established by benevolent persons, as a provision for spiritual instruction in large or destitute parishes, to aid the established clergy, and in connexion with the national church. The second son of Mr. Harlakenden, Roger, accompanied Shepard to New England, settled with him at Cambridge, and died at the early age of twenty-seven. "He was," says Winthrop, "a very godly man, and of good use, both in the commonwealth and in the church. He was buried with military honor, because he was heutenant-colonel. He left behind a virtuous gentlewoman and two daughters. He died in great pesce, and left a sweet memorial behind him of his piety and virtue. Young's Chron. Mass. Bay, 517. § According to Mather, he hired a house in this place which resolved to emigrate to New England. He embarked with Cotton at Yarmouth, at the close of the year 1634. The vessel, encountering a storm in Yarmouth roads, returned to port in a disabled condition. Passing a few months in retirement, he again sailed in July from Gravesend, "in a bottom too decayed and feeble indeed for such a voyage; but yet well accomodated with the society of Mr. Wilson, Mr. Jones, and other christians, which more significantly made good the name of the ship, the Defence."* The vessel sprang a leak, which was, however, got under, and Mr. Shepard landed in New England on the third of October. On the first of the following February he succeeded Mr. Hooker as minister at Cambridge, where he remained until his death, at the early age of forty-four years, August 25th, 1649. "The published composures of this laborious person," to use Cotton Mather's phrase, were, Theses Sabbatica; The Matter of the Visible Church; The Church Membership of Little Children; a letter entitled, New England's Lamentation for Old England's Errours; several sermons; The Sincere Convert; The Sound Believer; and the Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened, published after his death in a folio volume. The two last mentioned of these works, with his Meditations and Spiritual Experience, and a treatise on Evangelical Conversion, have been reprinted in England within the last quarter of a century, in a popular form. Shepard left an autobiography, which remained unpublished until 1832, when it was printed for the use of the Shepard Congregational Society at Cambridge. It is also printed in the Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, collected and edited by the Rev. Alexander Young, where it occupies fifty-eight octavo pages. It is written in a simple, earnest style, and is occupied in a great measure with an account of his spiritual experiences, reminding us somewhat of John Bunyan. He received the name of the doubting Apostle, he tells us, because he was born "upon the fifth day of November, called the Powder Treason day, and that very hour of the day wherein the Parliament should have been blown up by Popish priests, which occasioned my father to give me this name Thomas; because he said, I would hardly believe that ever any such wickedness should be attempted by men against so religious and good a Parliament." Speaking of his proposed removal to Coggeshall, he introduces an anecdote of Thomas Hooker. "Mr. Hooker only did object to my going thither; for being but young and unexperienced, and there being an old, yet shy and malicious minister in the town, who did seem to give way to have it (the lecture) there, did therefore say it was dangerous and uncomfortable for little birds to build under the nests of old ravens and kites." had been last tenanted by a witch, and performed prodigies in the allaying of strange noises, as he had previously silenced the sound of a great bell tolling at two o'clock at night at the Harlakenders' homestead. Shepard himself says, "When we came into it (the house), a known witch came out of it; and being troubled with noises four or five nights together, we sought God by prayer to remove so sore a trial; and the Lord heard and blessed us there and removed the trouble." * Mather. One of the most noticeable passages of the work is the account of the shipwreck off Yarmouth. In the year 1634, about the beginning of the winter, we set sail from Harwich. And having gone some few leagues on to the sea, the wind stopped us that night, and so we cast anchor in a dangerous place, and on the morning the wind grew fierce, and rough against us full, and drave us toward the sands. But the vessel being laden too heavy at the head, would not stir for all that which the seamen could do, but drave us full upon the sands near Harwich harbour; and the ship did grate upon the sands, and was in great danger. But the Lord directed one man to cut some cable or rope in the ship, and so she was turned about, and was beaten quite backward toward Yarmouth, quite out of our way. But while the ship was in this great danger, a wonderful miraculous providence did appear to us, For, one of the seamen, that he might save the vessel, fell in when it was in that danger, and so was carried out a mile or more from the ship, and given for dead and gone. The ship was then in such danger, that none could attend to follow him; and when it was out of the danger, it was a very great hazard to the lives of any that should take the skiff to seek to find him. Yet it pleased the Lord, that being discerned afar off floating upon the waters, three of the seamen adventured out upon the rough waters, and at last, about an hour after he fell into the sea (as we conjectured), they came and found him floating upon the waters, never able to swim, but supported by a divine hand all this while. When the men came to him, they were glad to find him, but concluded he was dead, and so got him into the skiff, and when he was there, tumbled him down as Let one dead. Yet one of them said to the rest, " us use what means we can, if there be life, to preserve it;" and thereupon turned his head downward for the water to run out. And having done so, the fellow began to gasp and breathe. Then they applied other means they had: and so he began at last to move, and then to speak, and by that time he came to the ship, he was pretty well, and able to walk. And so the Lord showed us his great power. Whereupon a godly man in the ship then said," This man's danger and deliverance is a type of ours; for he did fear dangers were near unto us, and that yet the Lord's power should be shown in saving of us." For so, indeed, it was. For the wind did drive us quite backward out of our way, and gave us no place to anchor at until we came unto Yarmouth roads an open place at sea, yet fit for anchorage, but otherwise a very dangerous place. And so we came thither through many uncomfortable hazards, within thirty hours, and cast anchor in Yarmouth roads. Which when we had done, upon a Saturday morning, the Lord sent a most dreadful and terrible storm of wind from the west, so dreadful that to this day the seamen call it Windy Saturday; that it also scattered many ships on divers coasts at that time, and divers ships were cast away. One among the rest, which was the seaman's ship who came with us from Newcastle, was cast away, and he and all his men perished. But when the wind thus arose, the master cast all his anchors; but the storm was so terrible, that the anchors broke, and the ship drave toward the sands, where we could not but be cast away. Whereupon the master cries out that we were dead men, and thereupon the whole company go to prayer. But the vessel still drave so near to the sands, that the master shot off two pieces of ordnance to the town, for help to save the passengers. The town perceived it, and thousands came upon the walls of Yarmouth, and looked upon us, hearing we were New-England men, and pitied much, and gave us for gone, because they saw other ships perishing near unto us at that time; but could not send any help unto us, though much money was offered by some to hazard themselves for us. So the master not knowing what to do, it pleased the Lord that there was one Mr. Cock, a drunken fellow, but no seaman, yet one that had been at sea often, and would come in a humor unto New England with us; whether it was to see the country, or no, I cannot tell. But sure I am, God intended it for good unto us, to make him an instrument to save all our lives; for he persuaded the master to cut down his mainmast. The master was unwilling to it, and besotted, not sensible of ours and his own loss. At last this Cock calls for hatchets, tells the master, "If you be a man, save the lives of your passengers, cut down your mainmast." Hereupon he encouraged all the company, who were forlorn and hopeless of life: and the seamen presently cut down the mast aboard, just at that very time wherein we all gave ourselves for gone, to see neither Old nor New England, nor faces of friends any more, there being near upon two hundred passengers in the ship. And so when the mast was down, the master had one little anchor left, and cast it out. But the ship was driven away toward the sands still; and the seamen came to us, and bid us look, pointing to the place, where our graves should shortly be, conceiving also that the wind had broke off this anchor also. So the master professed he had done what he could, and therefore now desired us to go to prayer. So Mr. Norton in one place, and myself in another part of the ship, he with the passengers, and myself with the mariners above decks, went to prayer, and committed our souls and bodies unto the Lord that gave them. Immediately after prayer, the wind began to abate, and the ship stayed. For the last anchor was not broke, as we conceived, but only rent up with the wind, and so drave, and was drawn along, ploughing the sands with the violence of the wind; which abating after prayer, though still very terrible, the ship was stopped just when it was ready to be swallowed up of the sands, a very little way off from it. And so we rid it out; yet not without fear of our lives, though the anchor stopped the ship; because the cable was let out so far, that a little rope held the cable, and the cable the little anchor, and the little anchor the great ship, in this great storm. But when one of the company perceived that we were so strangely preserved, had these words, "That thread we hang by will save us;" for so we accounted of the rope fastened to the anchor in comparison of the fierce storm. indeed it did, the Lord showing his dreadful power towards us, and yet his unspeakable rich mercy to us, who, in depths of mercy, heard, nay, helped us, when we could not cry through the disconsolate fears we had, out of these depths of seas, and miseries. And so Shepard's wife contracted a consumption in consequence of exposure during the stormy passage in a crazy vessel across the Atlantic, and died a few years after their arrival. He married a second wife, a daughter of Thomas Hooker, and the autobiography closes with a beautiful and pathetic eulogy on her mild virtues. In 1645 Shepard published a brief tract, New England's Lamentations for Old England's Errors,* * from which we quote a passage on toleration: * New England's Lamentation for Old England's present er VIEWS OF TOLERATION. To cut off the hand of the magistrate from touching men for their consciences (which you also mention), will certainly, in time (if it get ground), be the utter overthrow, as it is the undermining, of the Reformation begun. This opinion is but one of the fortresses and strongholds of Sathan, to keep his head from crushing by Christ's heel, who (forsooth), because he is crept into men's consciences, and because conscience is a tender thing, no man must here meddle with him, as if consciences were made to be the safeguard of sin and error, and Sathan himself, if once they can creep into them. As for New England, we never banished any for their consciences, but for sinning against conscience, after due means of conviction, or some other wickedness which they had no conscience to plead for; they that censure New England for what they have done that way, should first hear it speak before they condemn. We have magistrates, that are gracious and zealous; we have ministers, that are aged and experienced, and holy and wise; no man was yet ever banished from us, but they had the zeal and care of the one, the holiness, learning, and best abilities of the other, seeking their good before they were sent from the coasts. And when they have been banished, as they have had warrant from the word, so God from heaven hath ever borne witness, by some strange hand of his providence against them, either delivering them up to vile lusts and sins, or to confusion amongst themselves, or to some sudden and terrible deaths, for their obstinacy against the light, and means used to heal their consciences. I could tell you large stories (if need were) of these things. ROGER CLAP. Roger Cloop ONE of the most touching memorials of the New England worthies, is the simple narrative of Captain Roger Clap of Dorchester, which he prepared for the benefit of his children. The incidents it contains are few, but the manner in which it reflects the spirit of the time makes it valuable as an historical document, while it is far from being without claims to attention in a literary point of view. Roger Clap was born at Sallom, Devonshire, in 1609, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1630, settled at Dorchester, served in the Pequot war, and died in 1691. He had a large family, who bore the genuine Puritan names of Samuel, William, Elizabeth, Experience, Waitstill, Preserved, Hopestill, Wait, Thanks, Desire, Thomas, Unite, and Supply. His manuscript "Memoirs" were first published by the Rev. Thomas Prince, the antiquarian, in 1731, and have been five times reprinted, the last impression having been issued by the Dorchester Historical Society, in a duodecimo volune. NEW ENGLAND RETROSPECT. In those days God did cause his people to trust in him, and to be contented with mean things. It was rours and divisions, and their feared future desolations, if not timely prevented; occasioned by the increase of Anabaptists, Rigid Separatists, Antinomians, and Familists; together with some seasonable remedies against the infection of those errours, prescribed in A Letter, sent from Mr. Thomas Shepard, sometime of Immanuel College, in Cambridge, and now Minister of the Gospel in Cambridge, in New England, to a godly friend of his in Burrs, in Suffolk. London, printed by George Miller, 1645. NATHANIEL MORTON; PETER BULKLEY; JOSIAH WINSLOW. not accounted a strange thing in those days to drink water and to eat samp or hominy without butter or milk. Indeed it would have been a strange thing to see a piece of roast beef, mutton, or veal; though it was not long before there was roast goat. After the first winter, we were very healthy; though some of us had no great store of corn. The Indians did sometimes bring corn, and truck with us for clothing and knives; and once I had a peck of corn or thereabouts, for a little puppy-dog. Frost fish, muscles, and clams were a relief to many. If our provision be better now than it was then, let us not (and do you, dear children, take heed that you do not) forget the Lord our God. You have better food and raiment than was in former times, but have you better hearts than your forefathers had? If so, rejoice in that mercy, and let New England then shout for joy. Sure all the people of God in other parts of the world, that shall hear that the children and grandchildren of the first planters of New England have better hearts, and are more heavenly than their predecessors; they will doubtless greatly rejoice, and will say, This is the generation whom the Lord hath blessed. And now, dear children, I know not the time of my death; my time is in God's hands; but my age shows me it cannot be far off. Therefore while I am in health and strength, I tho't good to put into writing and leave with you, what I have desired in my heart, and oftentimes expressed to you with my tongue. NATHANIEL MORTON-PETER BULKLEY-JOSIAH WINSLOW-EDWARD BULKLEY-SAMUEL STONE JONATHAN MITCHELL JOHN SHERMAN-JOSHUA SCOTTOW. NATHANIEL MORTON was born in the north of England in 1612. His father, George Morton emigrated to Plymouth with his family in 1623 and died the following year. Nathaniel was elected Clerk of the Colonial Court in 1645, and held the office until his death, in 1685. Nathaniel Horton The colony records show him to have been a faithful and capable officer, and he is said to have been equally estimable in all the other relations of life. His New England's Memorial; or, a brief Relation of the most memorable and remarkable Passages of the Providence of God, manifested to the Planters of New England in America; with special reference to the First Colony thereof, called New Plymouth, published for the use and benefit of present and future generations, was published at Cambridge in 1669, a second edition in 1721, and three others have since appeared, the last in 1826, with a large body of valuable notes by the Hon. John Davis. The work is arranged in the form of annals, commencing with the departure of the Pilgrims from England, and closing with the date of publication. Apart from his honorable position, as the first historian of the country, Secretary Morton possesses some claims, from the purity and earnestness of his style, to favorable notice. Secretary Morton has preserved much of the contemporary poetry of his time by the insertion of the elegies, written by their fellows on the worthies whose deaths he has occasion to record in the progress of his annals-a practice which was also followed by Mather. Two of these 45 Let Hartford sigh, and say, I've lost a treasure; Sweet peace he gave to such as were contrite; His life did shine, time's changes stain'd it not, JOSIAH WINSLOW celebrates Governor Bradford. Winslow was the first Governor born in New England. He was annually chosen in the Plymouth colony, from 1673 to 1680. In King Philip's war he was commander of the Plymouth forces, and did good service in the field. He died at Marshfield in 1680. BY THE HONOURED MAJOR JOSIAS WINSLOW, ON MR. WILLIAM If we should trace him from the first, we find He weighs it not, so he may still preserve |