I died, entering into the everlasting peace; and was very solemnly interred near the Right Honourable the Lady Arabella, the sister of the Earl of Lincoln, who also took New-England in her way to heaven.

§ 5. Mr. Philips, with several gentlemen and other Christians, having chosen a place upon Charles-River for a town, which they called WaterTown, they resolved that they would combine into a church-fellowship there, as their first work; and build the house of God before they could build many houses for themselves; thus they "sought, first, the kingdom of God!" And, indeed, Mr. Philips being better acquainted with the true church-discipline than most of the ministers that came with him into the country, their proceedings about the gathering and ordering of their church, were methodical enough, though not made in all things a pattern for all the rest. Upon a day set apart for solemn fasting and prayer, the very next month after they came ashore, they entred into this holy covenant:

"JULY 30, 1630.

"WE whose names are hereto subscribed, having through God's mercy escaped out of pollutions of the world, and been taken into the society of his people, with all thankfulness do hereby both with heart and hand acknowledge, that his gracious goodness, and fatherly care, towards us: and for further and more full declaration thereof, to the present and future ages, have undertaken (for the promoting of his glory and the church's good, and the honour of our blessed Jesus, in our more full and free subjecting of our selves and ours, under his gracious government, in the practice of, and obedience unto all his holy ordinances and orders, which he hath pleased to prescribe and impose upon us) a long and hazardous voyage from east to west, from Old England in Europe, to New-England in America; that we may walk before him, and 'serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives:' and being safely arrived here, and thus far onwards peaceably preserved by his special providence, that we may bring forth our intentions into actions, and perfect our resolutions, in the beginnings of some just and meet executions; we have separated the day above written from all other services, and dedicated it wholly to the Lord in divine employments, for a day of afflicting our souls and humbling our selves before the Lord, to seek him, and at his hands, a way to walk in, by fasting and prayer, that we might know what was good in his sight: and the Lord was intreated of us.

"For in the end of that day, after the finishing of our publick duties, we do all, before we depart, solemnly and with all our hearts, personally, man by man for our selves and ours (charging them before Christ and his elect angels, even them that are not here with us this day, or are yet unborn, that they keep the promise unblameably and faithfully unto the coming of our Lord Jesus) promise, and enter into a sure covenant with the Lord our God, and before him with one another, by oath and serious protestation made, to renounce all idolatry and superstition, will-worship, all humane traditions and inventions whatsoever, in the worship of God; and forsaking all evil ways, do give our selves wholly unto the Lord Jesus, to do him faithful service, observing and keeping all his statutes, commands, and ordinances, in all matters concerning our reformation; his worship, administrations, ministry, and government; and in the carriage of our selves among our selves, and one towards another, as he hath prescribed in his holy word. Further swearing to cleave unto that alone, and the true sense and meaning thereof to the utmost of our power, as unto the most clear light and infallible rule, and all-sufficient canon, in all things that concern us in this our way. In witness of all, we do exanimo, and in the presence of God, hereto set our names or marks, in the day and year above written."

About forty men, whereof the first was that excellent Knight Sir Richard Saltonstal, then subscribed this instrument, in order unto their coalescence into a church-estate; which I have the more particularly recited, because it was one of the first ecclesiastical transactions of this nature managed in the colony. But in after time, they that joined unto the church, subscribed a form of the covenant, somewhat altered, with a "confession of faith" annexed unto it.

§ 6. A church of believers being thus gathered at Watertown, this reverend man continued for divers years among them, faithfully discharging the duties of his ministry to the "flock, whereof he was made the overseer;" and as a "faithful steward giving to every one their meat in due season. Herein he demonstrated himself to be a real divine; but not in any thing more, than in his most intimate acquaintance with the divine oracles of the Scripture: being fully of Jerom's perswasion, Ama Scientiam Scripturarum, et Vitia Carnis non amabis.* He had so thoroughly perused and pondered them, that he was able on the sudden to turn unto any text, without the help of Concordances; and they were so much his delight, that as it has been by some of his family affirmed, "he read over the whole Bible six times every year:" nevertheless he did use to say, "That every time he read the Bible, he observed or collected something, which he never did before." There was a famous prince of Transylvania, who found the time to read over the Bible no less than twenty-seven times. There was a famous King of Arragon, who read over the Bible fourteen times, with Lyra's Commentaries. A religious person, who was a close prisoner in a dark dungeon, having a candle brought him, for the few minutes in the day when his poor meals were to be eaten, chose then to read a little of his Bible, and eat his necessary food when the candle was gone. Yea, the Emperour Theodosius wrote out the New Testament with his own hand; and Bonaventure did as much by the Old; and some have, like Zuinglius and Beza, lodged vast paragraphs of it in the memories. Among such memorable students in the Scriptures, our Philips deserves to have some remembrance: who was fully of the opinion expressed by Luther, "If the letters of Princes are to be read three times over, surely then God's letters (as Gregory calls the Scriptures) are to be read seven times thrice, yea, seventy times seven, and, if it could be, a thousand times over;" and he might say with Ridley, giving an account of how much of the Bible he had learnt by heart, "Though in time a great part of the study departed from me, yet the sweet smell thereof, I trust, I shall carry with me to heaven." Indeed, being well skilled in the original tongues, he could see further into the Scriptures than most other men; and thereby being “made wise unto salvation," he also became "a man of God, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

7. Hence also he became an able disputant; and ready upon all occa

⚫ Love the study of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh,

sions to maintain what he delivered from the word of God; for which cause his hearers counted him, "the irrefragable Doctor;" though he were so humble and modest, as to be very averse unto disputation, until driven thereto by extream necessity. One of his hearers, after some conference with him about infant-baptism, and several points of church-discipline, obtained a copy of the arguments in writing for his further satisfaction. This copy the man sends over to England, which an Anabaptist there published with a pretended confutation; whereby the truth lost nothing, for Mr. Philips hereupon published a judicious treatise, entituled, “A Vindication of Infant-Baptism," whereto there is added another, "Of the Church." This book was honourably received and mentioned, by the eminent assembly of London ministers; and a preface full of honour was thereto prefixed by the famous Mr. Thomas Shepard; notwithstanding the difference between him and Mr. Philips, upon one or two points, whereabout those two learned neighbours managed a controversy with so much reason, and yet candor and kindness, that if all theological controversies had been so handled, we need not so much wish, Liberari ab Implacabilibus Theologorum Odiis.*

§ 8. About fourteen years continued he in his ministry at Watertown; in which time his ministry was blessed for the conversion of many unto God, and for the edification and confirmation of many that were converted. He was, indeed, "a good man, and full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost:" and for that cause he was not only in publick, but in private also, very full of holy discourse on all occasions; especially on the Lord's day at noon, the time intervening between the two exercises, he would spend in conferring with such of his good people as resorted unto his house, at such a rate as marvellously ministered grace unto the hearers; not wanting any time then, as it seems, for any further preparations than what he had still aforehand made for the publick sermons of the afternoon.

§ 9. He laboured under many bodily infirmities: but was especially liable unto the cholick; the extremity of one fit whereof, was the wind which carried him afore it into the haven of eternal rest, on July 1, in the year 1644, much desired and lamented by his church at Watertown; who testified their affection to their deceased pastor by a special care to promote and perfect the education of his eldest son, whereof all the country, but especially the town of Rowly, have since reaped the benefit.

EPITAPHIUM.

Hic Jacet GEORGIUS PHILIPPI.

Vir Incomparabilis, nisi SAMUELEM genuisset.+

• To be delivered from the implacable contentions of theologians.

EPITAPH: Here lies George Philips: an incomparable man, had he not been the father of Samuel.

CHAPTER V.

PASTOR EVANGELICUS;* THE LIFE OF MR. THOMAS SHEPARD.

-Nec Mireris,

Animam tam Subitò in Cœlum avolasse, nam vicem

Alarum sibi supplérunt Preces suæ et suspiria.t

81. IT was the gracious and savoury speech uttered by one of the greatest personages in England, and perhaps in all Europe, unto a grave minister: “I have (said he) passed through many places of honour and trust, both in church and state, more than any of my order in England, for seventy years before. But were I assured that by my preaching, I had converted but one soul unto God, I should herein take more comfort, than in all the honours and offices that have ever been bestowed upon me." Let my reader now go with me, and I will show him one of the happiest men that ever we saw; as great a converter of souls as has ordinarily been known in our days.

§ 2. Amongst those famous, whereof there were diverse, ministers of New-England, which were born in or near the first lustre of King James' reign, one of the least inconsiderable was our Mr. Thomas Shepard; whose father, Mr. William Shepard, called him Thomas, because his birth was November 5, Anno 1605, as near as could be guessed, at the very hour when the blow should have been given in the execrable gun-powder treason; a villany, concerning which he said, "This child of his would hardly be able to believe that ever such a wickedness could be attempted by the sons of men." His father had six daughters and three sons, whereof this Thomas, born in Towcester, near Northampton, was the youngest; and as he lived a prudent, so he died a pious man, while his youngest son was but a youth. Our Thomas had in his childhood laboured under the discouragements, first of a bitter step-mother, and then of a cruel schoolmaster, till God stirred up the heart of his eldest brother to become a father unto him, who, for the use of his portion, brought him up.

3. Bending his mind now to study, he became fit for the university at fifteen years of age; where he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Cockrel, a Northamptonshire man, fellow of Immanuel Colledge.

But when he had been upwards of two years in that colledge, this young man, who had been heretofore under more ineffectual operations of the Divine Word upon him, was now more effectually called unto a saving acquaintance with him, that is our true Immanuel. The ministry of Mr. Chaderton and Mr. Dickinson struck his heart with powerful convictions

of his miscries in his unregeneracy; and while he shook off those convictions, it pleased God that a devout scholar, walking with him, fell into discourses about the miseries of an unregenerate man, whereby the arrows of God were struck deeper into him. At another time, falling into a pious company, where they conferred about the wrath of God, and the extremity and eternity of it, this added unto his awakenings; and though profane company afterwards caused him to lose much of the sense which he had of these things, yet when Dr. Preston came thither, his first sermon on that ["Be renewed in the spirit of your mind"] so renewed the former impressions which had been upon him, that he soon approved himself a person truly renewed in his own spirit, and converted unto God. From this time, which was in the year 1624, he set himself especially on the work of daily meditation, which he attended every evening before supper; meditating on "the evil of sin, the terror of God's wrath, the day of death and judgment, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ;" and "the deceitfulness of his own heart," until he found the transforming influence of those things upon his own soul; a course which afterwards he would mightily commend unto others that consulted him; and he rested not until coming to see that in the Lord Jesus Christ alone there was laid up the full supply of all spiritual wants, he found the grace of God enabling him to accept of that precious Lord, and rejoice in that wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption which He is made unto us: whence afterwards, drawing up a catalogue of the Divine favours unto him, he had therein these passages among the rest, which are from thence now transcribed:

"The Lord is the God that sent, I think, the best ministers in the world to call me; Dr. Preston and Mr. Goodwin. The words of the first, at the first sermon he made, when he came into the colledge, as master of it; and divers that he preached at that time, did open my heart, and convince me of my unbelief, and my total emptiness of all, and enmity against all good. And the Lord made me honour him highly, and love him dearly, though many godly men spake against him. And he is the God that in these ordinances convinced me of my guilt and filth of sin, especially self seeking, and love of honour of men in all I did; and humbled me under both, so as to make me set an higher price upon Christ and grace, and loath my self the more, and so I was eased of a world of discouragement. He also showed me the worth of Christ, and made my soul satisfied with him, and cleave to him, because God had made him righteousness; and hence also revealed his free justification, and gave me support and rest upon and in his promises made to them that receive him as Lord and King; which I found my heart long unwilling to. And this was the ground, or rather occasion of many horrid temptations of Atheism, Judaism, Familism, Popery, Despair, as having sinned the unpardonable sin; yet the Lord, at last, made me yield up my self to his condemning will, as good; which gave me great peace and quietness of heart, through the blood and pity of Christ. I have met with all kinds of temptations, but after my conversion. I was never tempted to Arminianism, my own experience so sensibly confuting the freedom of will."

§ 4. One Dr. Wilson, having a purpose, with a most noble and pious charity, to maintain a lecture, the ministers of Essex, in one of their