star for seven hundred leagues together. Certain well disposed persons aboard, now calling to mind the words of Mr. Cotton, thought it necessary to admonish the persons who were carrying over the malignant papers against the country; and some of those papers were by them thereupon given to the seamen, who immediately cut them in pieces and threw them over. The storm forthwith abated; however, there afterwards came up new storms, which at last hurried the ship among the rocks of Scilly; where they yet received a deliverance, which most of them that considered it, pronounced miraculous. When the rude Cornish men saw how miraculously the vessel had escaped, they said, "God was a good man to save them so!" but the most instructed obliged passengers kept a day of solemn Thanksgiving to God; in which even the profanest persons on board, under the impression of what had happened, then bore a part. However, the corn-fields in New-England, still stood undisturbed, notwithstanding the various names affixed unto the tailes of petitions against their liberties. For, as Mr. Cotton elegantly expressed it, "God then rocqued three nations, with shaking dispensations, that he might procure some rest unto his people in this wilderness!"

834. This was Mr. Cotton! what more he was, let these lines, taking no license but from the real truth, delineate:

UPON THE TOMB OF THE MOST REVEREND MR. JOHN COTTON,

LATE TEACHER OF THE CHURCH OF BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND.

HERE lies magnanimous humility;
Majesty, meekness; Christian apathy
On soft affections; liberty in thrall;
A noble spirit, servant unto all ;

Learning's great master-piece, who yet would sit
As a disciple, at his scholars' feet:

A simple serpent, or serpentine dove,
Made up of wisdom, innocence and love:
Neatness embroider'd with it self alone,
And civils canonized in a gown;

Embracing old and young, and low and high,
Ethics imbodyed in divinity;
Ambitious to be lowest, and to raise
His brethren's honour on his own decays;
(Thus doth the sun retire into his bed,

That being gone the stars may shew their head ;)
Could wound at argument without division,
Cut to the quick, and yet make no incision:
Ready to sacrifice domestick notions

To churhes' peace, and ministers' devotions:
Himself, indeed (and singular in that)
Whom all admired he admired not:
Liv'd like an angel of a mortal birth,
Convers'd in heaven while he was on earth:
Though not, as Moses, radiant with light
Whose glory dazzell'd the beholder's sight,
Yet so divinely beautified, you'ld count
He had been born and bred upon the mount:
A living, breathing Bible; tables where
Both covenants, at large, engraven were;
Gospel and law, in's heart, had each its column;
His head an index to the sacred volume;
His very name a title-page; and next,
His life a commentary on the text.

O, what a monument of glorious worth,
When, in a new edition, he comes forth,
Without erratas, may we think he'll be
In leaves and covers of eternity!

A man of might, at heavenly eloquence,
To fix the ear, and charm the conscience;
As if Apollos were reviv'd in him,
Or he had learned of a seraphim:

Spake many tongues in one: one voice and sense
Wrought joy and sorrow, fear and confidence:
Rocks rent before him, blind receiv'd their sight;
Souls levell'd to the dunghill, stood upright:
Infernal furies burst with rage to see
Their prisoners captiv'd into liberty:
A star that in our eastern England rose,
Thence hurry'd by the blast of stupid foes,
Whose foggy darkness, and benummed senses,
Brookt not his daz'ling fervent influences:
Thus did he move on earth, from east to west;
There he went down, and up to heaven for rest.
Nor from himself, whilst living, doth he vary,
His death hath made him an ubiquitary:
Where is his sepulchre is hard to say,
Who, in a thousand sepulchres, doth lay
(Their hearts, I mean, whom he hath left behind,
In them) his sacred reliques, now, enshrin'd.
But let his mourning flock be comforted,
Though Moses be, yet Joshua is not dead:
I mean renowned Norton; worthy he,
Successor to our Moses, is to be.

O happy Israel in America,

In such a Moses, such a Joshua.

B. WOODBRIDGE.

35. Three sons and three daughters was this renowned "walker with God" blessed withal.

His eldest son did spend and end his days in the ministry of the gospel, at Hampton: being esteemed a thorough scholar, and an able preacher; and though his name were Sea-born, yet none of the lately revived heresies were more abominable to him, than that of his name-sake, Pelagius [or, Morgan] of whom the witness of the ancient poet is true:

Pestifero Vomuit coluber Sermone Britannus.*

His second son was a minister of the gospel, at Plymouth; and one by whom not only the English, but also the Indians of America, had the "glad tidings of salvation" in their own language carried unto them.

Of his two younger daughters, the first was married unto a merchant of good fashion, whose name was Mr. Egginton; but she did not long survive the birth of her first child, as that child also did not survive many years after the death of her mother. The next is at this time living the consort of one well known in both Englands, namely Increase Mather, the President of Harvard Colledge, and the teacher of a church in Boston. The youngest of his sons, called Roland, and the eldest of his daughters, called Sarah, both of them died near together, of the small-pox, which was raging among the inhabitants of Boston, in the winter of the year 1649. The death of those two lovely children, required the faith of an Abraham, in the heart of their gracious father; who indeed most exemplarily expressed what was required. On this occasion, I find, that on a spare leaf his almanack, he wrote in Greek letters these English verses:

But he has at this day five grandsons, all of them employed in the publick service of the gospel; whereof, let the reader count him the meanest, that is the writer of this history; and accept further one little piece of history, relating hereunto.

The gathering of the second church in Boston, was evidently very

The British serpent breathed his poisoned speech.

+ To Sarah.

To Roland.

To both.

much to the disadvantage of Mr. Cotton, in many of his interests. But he was a John, who reckoned his joy fulfilled in this, that in his own decrease the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ would increase; and therefore, with an exemplary self-denial, divesting himself of all carnal respects, he set himself to encourage the foundation of that church, out of respect unto the service and worship of our common Lord. Now, it has pleased the Lord so to order it, that, many years after his decease, that self-denial of his holy servant, has turned unto some account, in the opportunities which that very church has given unto his children to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, in the conduct of it: his son-in-law has been for more than thrice ten years, and his grandson for more than twice seven years, the ministers of the gospel, in that very church, accommodated with happy opportunities, "to serve their generation."

EPITAPHIUM.

JOHANNES COTTONUS,

Cujus Ultima Laus est,

Quod fuerit inter Nov-Anglos Primus.*

CHAPTER II.

NORTONUS HONORATUS, THE LIFE OF MR. JOHN NORTON.

1. THERE was a famous John whose achievements are by our Lord emblazoned in those terms: "He was a burning and a shining light." In the tabernacle of old, erected by the order and for the worship of God, there were those two things, a candlestick and an altar; in the one a light that might never go out, in the other a fire that might never be extinguished; and yet such an affinity between these, that there was a fire in the light of the one, and a light in the fire of the other. Such a mixture of both faith and love should be in those that are employed about the service of the tabernacle: and though the tabernacle erected for our Lord in this wilderness, had many such "burning and shining lights," yet among the chief of them is to be reckoned, that John which we had in our blessed Norton.

§ 2. He was born the sixth of May, 1606, at Starford in Hartfordshire; descended of honourable ancestors. In his early childhood he discovered a ripeness of wit, which gave just hopes of his proving extraordinary; and under Mr. Strange in the school of Bunningford, he made such a proficiency, that he could betimes write good Latin, with a more than common elegancy and invention. At fourteen years of age, being sent

⚫ John Cotton, whose highest praise it is that he was the first man in New-England.

+ Norton duly honoured.

unto Peter-house, he staid there till after his taking of his first degree; where a Romish emissary, taking a curious and exact observation of his notable accomplishments, used all the methods he could think of to have seduced him over unto the Romish irreligion: but God intending him to be a pillar in his own temple, mercifully prevented his hearkening unto any temptations to become a support unto the tower of Babel.

§ 3. In his youth he was accustomed unto some youthful vanities; especially unto card-playing; an evil which he did first ponder and reform upon a serious admonition, which a servant of his father's gave unto him. When he came to consider that a lot is a solemn appeal unto the God of heaven, and even by the rudest Gentiles counted a sacred thing, he thought that playing with it, was a breach of the Third Commandment in the laws of our God; it should be used, he thought, rather prayerfully than sportfully. He considered, that the Papists themselves do not allow these games in ecclesiastical persons, and the fathers do reprove them with a vehement zeal in all sorts of persons. He considered, that when the Roman empire became Christian, severe edicts were made against these games, and that our Protestant reformers have branded them with an infamous character; wherefore, inclining now to follow "whatsoever things are of a good report," he would no longer meddle with games that had so much of a scandal in them.

§ 4. An extreme disaster befalling his father's estate, he left the University, and became at once usher to the school, and curate in the church at Starford: where, a lecture being maintained by a combination of several godly and able ministers, he on that occasion fell into acquaintance with several of them; especially Mr Jeremiah Dyke, of Epping, by whose ministry the Holy Spirit of God gave him a discovery of his own manifold sinfulness and wretchedness in an unregenerate state, and awakened him unto such a self-examination, as drove him to a sorrow little short of despair; but after some time, the same Holy Spirit enabled him to receive the Christ and grace, tendered in the promises of the gospel, with an unspeakable consolation. Whereupon, he thought himself concerned in that advice of heaven, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren!"

§ 5. Having before this been well studied in the tongues and arts, he was the better fitted for the higher studies of divinity; whereto he now wholly addicted himself: and being in his own happy experience acquainted with faith, and repentance, and holiness, he did from that experience now make lively sermons on those points unto his hearers. He soon grew eminent in his ministry; setting off the truths he delivered, not only with such ornaments of laconic and well-contrived expression as made him worthy to be called "the master of sentences," but also with such experimental passages of devotion, as made him admired for "a preacher seeking out acceptable words."

§ 6. His accomplishments rendered him as capable of preferments, as most in his age; but preferments were then so clogged with troublesome

and scruplesome impositions, that Mr. Norton, as well as other conscientious young ministers, his contemporaries, declined medling with them. His aversion, and indeed antipathy to Arminianism (after he was, as Bradwardin speaks, Gratia Radio Visitatus,)* and his dislike of the ceremonies, particularly hindered him from a considerable benefice, whereto his unkle might have helped him. Dr. Sibs also, the master of Katharine Hall, in Cambridge, taken with his abilities, did earnestly solicite him, to have accepted of a fellowship in that College; but his conscience being now satisfied in the unlawfulness of some things then required in order thereunto, would not permit him to do it. One asked once a great prelate at court, how it came to pass, that such a preacher, (an ancient chaplain there,) a wise, grave, holy man, did not rise?—meaning by way of preferment: the prelate answered him, "Truly, let me tell you, that I verily think he never will rise until the resurrection." Truly, let me now tell the world, that such were the principles of Mr. Norton, there was no likelihood of his rising in this world, as things then went in the world. Wherefore he contented himself with a more private life, as chaplain in two Knights' house, at High Lever in Essex, namely, Sir William Masham's; there waiting, till God might furnish him with unexceptable opportunities for his more publick preaching of the gospel. But, generally, all those who had any taste of his ministry, had a very high opinion of it; nor was there any man in that part of the country more esteemed than he was, for all sorts of excellencies; insomuch, that when he came away, an ancient minister said, "He believed there was not more grace and holiness left in all Essex, than what Mr. Norton had carried with him."

§ 7. His natural temper had a tincture of choler in it; but as the sowrest and harshest fruits become the most pleasant, when tempered with a due proportion of sweetness added thereunto, so the grace of God sweetned the disposition of this good man, into a most affable, courteous, and complaisant behaviour, which rendered him exceeding amiable. Indeed, when the apostle speaks of the spirit, and soul, and body, being sanctified, some do by spirit understand the natural temper or humour; and accordingly the spirit of this quick man being sanctified, he became a man of an excellent spirit. § 8. Vast was the treasure of learning in this reverend man. He was not only a most accurate grammarian, which is abundantly manifested by his printed works in divers languages; but an universal scholar: nevertheless, 'twas as a school-man that he showed himself the most of a scholar. He accounted that the excellency of a scholar, lay more in distinctness of judgment, than in elegancy of language; and therefore, though he had a neater style than most other men, yet he was desirous to furnish himself ad pugnam,t rather than ad pompam. Hence, having intimately acquainted himself with the subtilties of scholastic divinity, he made all to illustrate the doctrine of Christ and of grace, unto which he made all the

Visited by a beam of Divine grace.

+ For battle.

For show.