It was his opinion, that as for our bodies, thus for our spirits also, Cibus simplex est Optimus;* and accordingly he studied plain preaching, which was entertained by his people with a profitable hearing. And as Luther would say, he is the ablest preacher, Qui pueriliter, Trivialiter, Populariter, simplicissime docet:† so our Hooker, for the sake of the sacred and solid simplicity in the discourses of this worthy man, would say, "If I might have my choice, I would choose to live and die under Mr. Blackman's ministry." There was a great person among the reformers in Germany, who had almost the same name with our Blackman; that was Melancthon, and indeed this good person was a Melancthon among the reformers of NewHaven; in this happier than he, that his lot was cast among a pious people, who did not administer so frequent occasions as the Germans did for the complaint, "That old Adam was too hard for his young name-sake." For a close, I may apply to him the ingenious epitaph of Beza upon Melancthon:

Cui Niveus toto Regnabat pectore Candor;

Unum cui Calum; cura laborque fuit

Num Rogitas, quâ sit dictus Ratione Melancthon?

Scilicet Euxinum, quâ Ratione vocant.§

[For this is a well known sea, called Euxine, or harborous, because there are no good harbours in it.]

CHAPTE

VIII.

THE LIFE OF MR. ABRAHAM PIERSON.

It is reported by Pliny, and perhaps 'tis but a Plinyism, that there is a fish called Lucerna, whose tongue doth shine like a torch; if it be a fable, yet let the tongue of a minister be the moral of that fable; now such an illuminating tongue was that of our Pierson.

He was a Yorkshire man, and coming to New-England, he became a member of the church at Boston; but afterwards thus employed, towards the year 1640. The inhabitants of Lyn, straitned at home, looked out for a new plantation; so going to Long-Island, they agreed both with the Lord Starling's agent and with the Indian proprietors for a situation at the west-end of that Island: where the Dutch gave them such disturbance, that they deserted their place for another at the east-end of it. Proceeding in their plantation, by the accession of near an hundred families, they

Simple food is best.

+ Who in a child-like, unconstrained, popular and simple manner imparts instruction.

From pedas, "black.

Do you ask why one whose character is of snow-like purity, and whose aspirations tend only heavenward, should be called Melancthon? [black.] For the same reason that a certain sea is called the Euxine [the sea of barbors].

called Mr. Pierson to go thither with them; who, with seven or eight more of their company, regularly incorporated themselves into a church state before their going; the whole company also entring at the same time, with the advice of the government of the Massachuset-Bay, into a civil combination for the maintaining government among themselves. Thus was there settled a church at Southampton, under the pastoral charge of this worthy man; where he did with a laudible diligence undergo two of the three hard labours, Docentis and Regentis,* to make it become (what Paradise was called) "an island of the innocent."

It was afterward found necessary for this church to be divided. Upon which occasion Mr. Pierson, referring his case to council, his removal was directed unto Brainford, over upon the main, and Mr. Fordham came to serve and to feed that part of the flock which was left at Southampton; but where-ever he came, he shone.

He left behind him the character of a pious and prudent man; and a "true child of Abraham," now safely lodged in the Sinu-Abraha.†

EPITAPHIUM.

Terris discessit, suspirans Gaudia cæli,

Piersonus Patriam scandit ad Astra suam. ‡

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD DENTON.

THE apostle describing the false ministers of those primitive times, he calls them, "clouds without water, carried about of winds." As for the true ministers of our primitive times, they were indeed "carried about of winds;" though not the winds of strange doctrines; yet the winds of hard sufferings did carry them as far as from Europe into America; the hurricano's of persecution, whereon doubtless the "prince of the power of the air" had his influence, drove the heavenly clouds from one part of that heaven, the church, unto another. But they were not clouds without water, where they came; they came with showers of blessing, and rained very gracious impressions upon the vineyard of the Lord.

Among these clouds was our pious and learned Mr. Richard Denton, a Yorkshire man, who, having watered Halifax in England with his fruitful ministry, was by a tempest then hurried into New-England, where, first at Weathersfield and then at Stamford, "his doctrine dropt as the rain, his speech distilled as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass."

• Instructing and governing.

+ In Abraham's bosom.

PIERSON, while waiting till his change should come,
Was but a pilgrim, sighing for his home.

Though he were a little man, yet he had a great soul; his well-accomplished mind, in his lesser body, was an Iliad in a nut-shell.

I think he was blind of one eye; nevertheless, he was not the least among the seers of our Israel; he saw a very considerable proportion of those things which "eye hath not seen."

He was far from cloudy in his conceptions and principles of divinity: whereof he wrote a system, entituled, "Soliloquia Sacra,"* so accurately, considering the fourfold state of man, in his-1. Created Purity; II. Contracted Deformity; III. Restored Beauty; IV. Coelestial Glory-that judicious persons, who have seen it, very much lament the churches being so much deprived of it.

At length he got into heaven beyond clouds, and so beyond storms; waiting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the clouds of heaven, "when he will have his reward among the saints."

EPITAPHIUM.

Hic Jacet, et fruitur Tranquilla sede Richardus
Dentonus, cujus Fama perennis erit.

Incola jam cœli velut Astra micantia fulget,
Qui multis Fidei Lumina clara dedit.t

CHAPTER X.

THE LIFE OF MR. PETER BULKLY.

Ipse Aspectus Boni viri delectat.-SEN.

§ 1. Ir has been a matter of some reflection, that among the pretended successors of Saint Peter, there never was any Pope that would pretend unto the name of Peter; but if any of them had been christened by that name at the font, they afterwards changed it, when they came unto the chair. No doubt, as Raphael Urbine, the famous painter, being taxed, for making the face in the picture of Peter too red, replied, He did it on purpose, that he might represent the apostle blushing in heaven to see what successors he had on earth: so these infamous apostates might blush to hear themselves called Peter, while they are conscious unto themselves of their being strangers to all the vertues of that great apostle. But the denomination of Peter might be with an everlasting agreeableness claimed by our eminent Bulkly, who, according to the spirit and counsel of Peter, "fed the flock of God among us, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a willing mind."

Sacred Soliloquies.

Here DENTON lies; his toils and hardships past;
On earth a light of Faith, he shines at last,
Whose name no inemory of dishonour mars.
Full-orbed and glorious with the eternal stare.
The very looks of a good man are a source of pleasure.

§ 2. He was descended of an honourable family, in Bedfordshire; where for many successive generations the names of Edward and Peter were alternatively worn by the heirs of the family. His father was Edward Bulky, D. D., a faithful minister of the gospel; the same whom we find making a supplement unto the last volume of our books of martyrs. He was born at Woodhil (or Odel) in Bedfordshire, January 31st, 1582.

His education was answerable unto his original; it was learned, it was genteel, and, which was the top of all, it was very pious: at length it made him a Batchellor of Divinity and Fellow of Saint John's Colledge in Cambridge: the colledge whereinto he had been admitted, about the sixteenth year of his age; and it was while he was but a junior batchellor that he was chosen a fellow.

§3. When he came abroad in the world, a good benefice befel him, added unto the estate of a gentleman, left him by his father; whom he succeeded in his ministry at the place of his nativity; which one would imagine temptations enough to keep him out of a wilderness.

Nevertheless, the concern which his renewed soul had for the pure worship of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the planting of evangelical churches to exercise that worship, caused him to leave and sell all, in hopes of gaining the "pearl of great price" among those that first peopled New-England upon those glorious ends. It was not long that he continued in conformity to the ceremonies of the church of England; but the good Bishop of Lincoln connived at his non-conformity, (as he did at his father's,) and he lived an unmolested non-conformist until he had been three prentice-ships of years in his ministry. Towards the latter end of this time, his ministry had a notable success, in the conversion of many unto God; and this was one occasion of a latter end for this time. When Sir Nathanael Brent was Arch-Bishop Laud's General, as Arch-Bishop Laud was another's, complaints were made against Mr. Bulkly, for his non-conformity, and he was therefore silenced.

§ 4. To New-England he therefore came, in the year 1635; and there having been for a while at Cambridge, he carried a good number of planters with him, up further into the woods, where they gathered the twelfth church then formed in the colony, and called the town by the name of Concord.

Here he buried a great estate, while he raised one still for almost every person whom he employed in the affairs of his husbandry. He had many and godly servants, whom, after they had lived with him a fit number of years, he still dismissed with bestowing farms upon them, and so took others after the like manner, to succeed them in their service and his kindness. Thus he cast his bread both upon the waters and into the earth, not expecting the return of this his charity to a religious plantation, until "after many days."

5. He was a most excellent scholar, a very well-read person, and one

who, in his advice to young students, gave demonstrations that he knew what would go to make a scholar. But it being essential unto a scholar to love a scholar, so did he; and in token thereof endowed the library of Harvard-Colledge with no small part of his own.

And he was therewithal a most exalted Christian; full of those devotions which accompany a "conversation in heaven;" especially, so exact a Sabbath-keeper, that if at any time he had been asked, "whether he had strictly kept the Sabbath?" he would have replied, Christianus sum, intermittere non possum.* And conscientious, even to a degree of scrupu losity. That scrupulosity appeared particularly in his avoiding all novelties of apparel, and the cutting of hair so close, that of all the famous namesakes he had in the world, he could have least born the sir-name of that well known author, Petrus Crinitus.t

§ 6. It was observed that his neighbours hardly ever came into his company, but whatever business he had been talking of, he would let fall some holy, serious, divine, and useful sentences upon them, ere they parted: an example many ways worthy to be imitated by every one that is called a minister of the gospel.

In his ministry he was another FAREL, Quo Nemo tonuit fortius;‡ he was very laborious, and because he was, through some infirmities of body, not so able to visit his flock, and instruct them from house to house, he added unto his other publick labours on the Lord's days, that of constant catechising; wherein, after all the unmarried people had answered, all the people of the whole assembly were edified by his expositions and applications. His first sermon was on Rom. i. 16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." At Odel he preached on part of the prophecy of Isaiah, and part of Jonah, and a great part of the gospel of Matthew, and of Luke; the Epistles to the Philippians, and of Peter, and of Jude; besides many other scriptures. At Concord he preached over the illustrious truths about the person, the natures, the offices of Christ; [what would he have said, if he had lived unto this evil day, when 'tis counted good advice for a minister of the gospel, "not to preach much on the person of Christ?"] the greatest part of the book of Psalms: the conversion of Zacheus; Paul's commission, in Acts xxvi. 18. His death found him handling the commandments; and John xvi. 7, 8, 9. He expounded Mr. Perkins his six principles, whereto he added a seventh, and examined the young people, what they understood and remembered of his exposition.

Moreover, by a sort of winning, and yet prudent familiarity, he drew persons of all ages in his congregation to come and sit with him, when he could not go and sit with them; whereby he had opportunity to do the part of a faithful pastor, in considering the state of his flock.

Such was his pious conduct that he was had much in reverence by his

I am a Christian: I cannot swerve from duty.

Than whom no one thundered louder.

VOL. I.-26

+ Peter the Long Haired.