Now, I know not where, better than here, to insert that article of our church-history, which concerns our metrical translation of the PSALMS now sung in our churches.

About the year 1639, the New-English reformers, considering that their churches enjoyed the other ordinances of Heaven in their scriptural purity, were willing that the ordinance of "The singing of psalms," should be restored among them unto a share in that purity. Though they blessed God for the religious endeavours of them who translated the Psalms into the meetre usually annexed at the end of the Bible, yet they beheld in the translation so many detractions from, additions to, and variations of, not only the text, but the very sense of the psalmist, that it was an offence unto them. Resolving then upon a new translation, the chief divines in the country took each of them a portion to be translated: among whom were Mr. Welds and Mr. Eliot of Roxbury, and Mr. Mather of Dorchester. These, like the rest, were of so different a genius for their poetry, that Mr. Shepard, of Cambridge, on the occasion addressed them to this purpose:

You Roxb'ry poets, keep clear of the crime

Of missing to give us very good rhime.

And you of Dorchester, your verses lengthen,

But with the text's own words, you will them strengthen.

The Psalms thus turned into meetre were printed at Cambridge, in the year 1640. But, afterwards, it was thought that a little more of art was to be employed upon them: and for that cause, they were committed unto Mr. Dunster, who revised and refined this translation; and (with some assistance from one Mr. Richard Lyon, who being sent over by Sir Henry Mildmay, as an attendant unto his son, then a student in Harvard College, now resided in Mr. Dunster's house:) he brought it into the condition wherein our churches ever since have used it.

Now, though I heartily join with those gentlemen who wish that the poetry hereof were mended; yet I must confess, that the Psalms have never yet seen a translation, that I know of, nearer to the Hebrew original; and I am willing to receive the excuse which our translators themselves do offer us, when they say:

"If the verses are not always so elegant as some desire or expect, let them consider that God's altar needs not our polishings; we have respected rather a plain translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase. We have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than ingenuity; that so we may sing in Zion the Lord's songs of praise, according unto his own will, until he bid us enter into our Master's joy, to sing eternal hallelujahs."

Reader, when the reformation in France began, Clement Marot and Theodore Beza turned the Psalms into French meetre, and Lewis Guadimel set melodious tunes unto them. The singing hereof charmed the souls of court and city, town and country. They were sung in the Lovre it self,

as well as in the Protestant churches: ladies, nobles, princes-yea, King Henry himself-sang them. This one thing mightily contributed unto the downfal of Popery, and the progress of the gospel. All ranks of men practised it; a gentleman of the reformed religion would not eat a meal without it. The popish clergy raging hereat, the cardinal of Lorrain got the profane and obscene odes of the pagan poets to be turned into French, and sang at the court: and the Divine Psalms were thus banished from that wicked court.

Behold, the reformation pursued in the churches of New-England by the Psalms in a new meetre: God grant the reformation may never be lost while the Psalms are sung in our churches!

But in this matter, Mr. Dunster is to be acknowledged. And if unto the Christian, while singing of Psalms on earth, Chrysostom could well say, Μετ' Αγγελων 'αδεις, μετ' Αγγελων 'υμνεῖς—Thou art in a consort with angels!-how much more may that now be said of our Dunster?

From the epitaph of Henricus Rentzius, we will now furnish our Henry Dunster with an

EPITAPH.

Præco, Pater, Servus; Sonui, Fovi, Coluique;

Sacra, Scholam, Christum; Voce, Rigore, Fide;
Famam, Animam, Corpus; Dispergit, Recreat, Abdit;
Virtus, Christus, Humus; Laude, Salute, Sinu.*

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LIFE OF MR. EZEKIEL ROGERS.

Si in Doctore Ecclesia, ad ανυπόκριτον πίστιν, accesserit συνεσις δεοντων, and Polita Eruditio, ad Eruditionem dvvaμis èpμnvevtikŋ, ac Facundia; na hic Talis Omnibus Absolutis videbitur.— MELC. ADAM. in Vitå Hatteri.†

§ 1. It is among the greater Prophets of Israel that we find an Ezekiel who had in his very name, The Fortitude of God. And it is not among the smaller Prophets of New-England that we have also seen an Ezekiel; one inspired with a divine fortitude, for the work of a witness prophesying in the sackcloth of a wilderness. This was our famous Ezekiel Rogers, of whom we have more to say than barely that he was born in the year 1590, and that he died in the year 1660.

* A preacher, I have chanted sacred songs: a father [president of a college], I have instructed my charge with perseverance: a servant of Christ, I have followed my Master with fidelity. Virtue signalizes my name with true praise: Christ redeems my soul with his salvation: the earth hides my body in its bosom.

+ If in a Christian teacher, to faith unfeigned should be added a disposition to help the needy, and elegant scholarship; and to scholarship the power of interpretation and eloquence; we should confessedly find in the subject of this sketch just such a man.

2. His father was Mr. Richard Rogers, of Weathersfield in England, the well known author of the book that is known by the name of "The Seven Treatises." Of that Richard we will content ourselves with one pithy passage, mentioned by his grandson, Mr. William Jenkyns, in his exposi tion upon Jude: "That blessed saint," saith he, "was another Enoch in his age; a man whose 'walking with God' appeared by that incomparable directory of a Christian life, called 'The Seven Treatises,' woven out of Scripture, and his own experimental practice; he would sometimes say, "That he should be sorry, if every day were not to him as his last day."" It is this Ezekiel Rogers whereof we are now to give an account. The early sparklings of wit, judgment, and learning, in him, gave his father no little satisfaction, and expectation of his proficiency; and at thirteen years of age made him capable of preferment in the university; where he proceeded Master of Arts at the age of twenty. Removing thence to be chaplain in a family, famous for both religion and civility—namely the family of Sir Francis Barrington, at Hatfield Broad Oak in Essex-he there had opportunity not only to do good by his profitable preaching, but also to get good by his conversation with persons of honour, who continually resorted thither, and he knew and used his opportunity to the utmost.

§ 3. Both in praying and preaching, he had a very notable faculty; 'twas accompanied with strains of oratory, which made his ministry very acceptable. Hence, after five or six years' residence in this worshipful family, Sir Francis bestowed upon him the benefice of Rowly in Yorkshire; in hopes that his more lively ministry might be particularly successful in awakening those drowsy corners of the north: and accordingly the church there, standing in the centre of many villages, there was now a great resort unto the service therein performed.

§ 4. Nevertheless Mr. Rogers had much uneasiness in his mind about his own experience of those truths which he preached unto others; he feared that, notwithstanding his pathetical expressions, wherewith his hearers were affected, he was himself, in his own soul, a stranger to that faith and repentance and conversion, which he pressed upon them. This consideration very much perplexed him; and his perplexity was the greater, because he could not hear of any experienced minister in those parts of the kingdom, to whom he might utter the trouble that was upon him. At last, hoping that either from his brother of Weathersfield, or his cousin of Dedham, he might receive some satisfaction, he took a journey into Essex on purpose to be by them resolved of his doubts. His design was to have came at his famous kinsman before his lecture began; but missing of that, he gat into the assembly before the beginning of the sermon; where he found that, by the singular providence of God, his doubts were as punctually and exactly resolved, as if the excellent preacher had been acquainted with his doubts before-hand.

§ 5. Being now satisfied of his own effectual vocation, he went on in

his ministry with a very signal blessing of Heaven upon it, unto the effectual vocation of many more: his ministry was much frequented and remarkably successful. In the exercise whereof, he once had opportunity to preach in the stately minster of York, on a publick occasion, which he served and suited notably. Dr. Matthews was then the Arch-Bishop of York, who permitted the use of those lectures, which Arch-Bishop Grindal had erected; whereby the light of the gospel was marvellously diffused unto many places that sat in "the region and the shadow of death." All the pious ministers in such a precinct, had a meeting once a month, in some noted place, when and where several of them did use to preach one after another; beginning and concluding the whole exercise with prayer. Mr. Rogers bore his part in these lectures, as long as Dr. Matthews lived; from one of which, an accuser of the brethren went once unto the ArchBishop with this accusation, that one of the ministers had made this petition in his prayer: "May the Almighty shut heaven against the ArchBishop's grace;" whereat the Arch-Bishop, instead of being offended, as the pick-thankly reporter hoped he would have been, fell a laughing heartily, and answered, "Those good men know well enough, that if I were gone to heaven, their exercises would soon be put down." And it came to pass accordingly!

§ 6. In delivering the word of God, he would sometimes go beyond the strength which God had given him; for though he had a lively spirit, yet he had a crazy body; which put him upon studying physick, wherein he attained unto a skill considerable. But the worst was this, that riding far from home, some violent motion used by him in ordering of his horse, broke a vein within him; whereupon he betook himself to his chamber, and there kept private, that his friends might not persecute him with any of their unseasonable kindness. But in two month's time he obtained a cure, so that he returned unto his family and his employment; God would not suffer that mouth to be stopped, which had so many testimonies to bear still for his truth and ways!

§ 7. At last, the severity wherewith subscription was then urged, put a period unto the twenty years' publick ministry of our useful Rogers, although the man who suspended him shewed him so much respect as to let him enjoy the profits of his living two years after the suspension, and let him also put in another as good as he could get. He employed one Mr. Bishop to supply his place in the ministry, from which a Bishop had confined him; nevertheless, this good man also was quickly silenced, because he would not in publick read the censure which was passed upon Mr. Rogers.

§ 8. Many prudent men in those times, foreseeing the storms that were likely in a few years to break upon the English nation, did propose NewEngland for their hiding-place. And of these, our Mr. Rogers was one, who had been accompanied by Sir William Constable and Sir Matthew

Boynton also in his voyage hither, if some singular providences had not hindred them. Hither did the good hand of God bring him, with many of his Yorkshire friends, in the year 1638-ships having been by his discretion and influence brought from London unto Hull, to take in the pas sengers. Arriving at New-England, he was urged very much to settle with his Yorkshire folks at New-Haven; but in consideration of the dependance that several persons of quality had on him to chuse a meet place for their entertainment in this wilderness, when they should come hither after him, he was advised rather to another place, which he was profered very near his reverend kinsman, Mr. Nathanael Rogers of Ipswich. The towns of Ipswich and Newbury were willing, on easy terms, to part with much of their land, that they might admit a third plantation in the middle between them; which was a great advantage to Mr. Ezekiel Rogers; who called the town Rowly, and continued in it about the same number of years that he had spent in that Rowly from whence he came, on the other side of the Atlantick ocean.

§ 9. About five years after his coming to New-England, he was chosen to preach at the Court of Election at Boston; wherein, though the occasion and the auditory were great, yet he shewed his abilities to be greatcr; insomuch, that he became famous through the whole country. And what respect all the churches abroad paid him, he much more found in his own church at home; where he was exceedingly successful, and approved in his ministry, in which the points of regeneration and union with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, were those whereon he most insisted.

In the management of those points, he had a notable faculty at penetrating into the souls of his hearers, and manifesting the very secrets of their hearts. His prayers and sermons would make such lively representations of the thoughts then working in the minds of his people, that it would amaze them to see their own condition so exactly represented. And his occasional discourses with his people-especially with the young ones among them-and most of all, with such as had been, by their deceased parents, recommended unto his watchful care-were marvellously profitable. He was a Tree of Knowledge, but so laden with fruit, that he stoopt for the very children to pick off the apples ready to drop into their mouths. Sometimes they would come to his house, a dozen in an evening; and calling them up into his study, one by one, he would examine them, How they walked with God? How they spent their time? What good books they read? Whether they prayed without ceasing? And he would therewithal admonish them to take heed of temptations and corruptions as he thought most endangered them. And if any differences had fallen out amongst his people, he would forthwith send for them, to lay before him the reason of their differences; and such was his interest in them, that he usually healed and stopt all their little contentions, before they could break out into any open flames.