David Paræus, at Heidelberg, from whom he received much direction, at his return into England he became a minister of the gospel, and had a living at Stondon. In the year 1634 he was driven out of England for his non-conformity; and coming to New-England, he continued serving the church at Ipswich till the year 1645; when, returning back to England, he settled at Sherfield, near Brentwood; and there he ended his days, when he was about eighty-three years of age. He was the author of many composures full of wit and sense; among which, that entituled, "The Simple Cobler" (which demonstrated him to be a subtil statesman) was most considered. If it be enquired, "why this our St. Hilary hath among our Lives no statue erected for him?" let that enquiry go for part of one. And we will pay our debt unto his worthy son.

§ 2. Mr. John Ward was born, I think, at Haverhil, on November 5, 1606. His grandfather was that John Ward, the worthy minister of Haverhil, whom we find among "the worthies of England,” and his father was the celebrated Nathanael Ward, whose wit made him known to more Englands than one. Where his education was, I have not been informed; the first notice of him that occurs to me being in the year 1639, when he came over into these parts of America; and settled there in the year 1641, in a town also called Haverhil. But what it was, every body that saw him, saw it in the effects of it, that it was learned, ingenuous, and religious. He was a person of a quick apprehension, a clear understanding, a strong memory, a facetious conversation; he was an exact grammarian, an expert phy sician, and, which was the top of all, a thorough divine: but, which rarely happens, these endowments of his mind were accompanied with a most healthy, hardy, and agile constitution of body, which enabled him to make nothing of walking on foot a journey as long as thirty miles together.

§ 3. Such was the blessing of God upon his religious education, that he was not only restrained from the vices of immorality in all his younger years, but also inclined unto all vertuous actions. Of young persons, he would himself give this advice: "Whatever you do, be sure to maintain shame in them; for if that be once gone, there is no hope that they'll ever 'come to good." Accordingly, our Ward was always ashamed of doing any ill thing. He was of a modest and bashful disposition, and very sparing of speaking, especially before strangers, or such as he thought his betters. He was wonderfully temperate, in meat, in drink, in sleep, and he always expressed-I had almost said affected-a peculiar sobriety of apparel. He was a son most exemplarily dutiful unto his parents; and having paid some considerable debts for his father, he would afterwards humbly observe and confess that God had abundantly recompenced this his dutifulness.

§ 4. Though he had great offers of rich matches in England, yet he chose to marry a meaner person, whom exemplary piety had recommended. He lived with her for more than forty years, in such an happy harmony,

that when she died, he professed that, in all this time, he never had received one displeasing word or look from her. Although she would so faithfully tell him of every thing that might seem amendable in him, that he would pleasantly compare her to an accusing conscience, yet she ever pleased him wonderfully: and she would often put him upon the duties of secret fasts, and when she met with any thing in reading that she counted singularly agreeable, she would still impart it unto him. For which causes, when he lost this his mate, he caused those words to be fairly written on his table-board:

In Lugendo Compare, Vite Spatium Compleat Orbus.*

And there is this memorable passage to be added. While she was a maid, there was ensured unto her the revenue of a parsonage worth two hundred pounds per annum, in case that she married a minister. And all this had been given to our Ward, in case he had conformed unto the doubtful matters in the Church of England: but he left all the allurements and enjoyments of England, "chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God in a wilderness."

§ 5. Although he would say, "there is no place for fishing like the sea, and the more hearers a minister has, the more hope there is that some of them will be catched in the nets of the gospel;" nevertheless, through his humility and reservation, it came to pass that, as he chose to begin his ministry in Old England, at a very small place, thus, when he came to New-England, he chose to settle with a new plantation, where he could expect none but small circumstances all his days. He did not love to appear upon the publick stage himself, and there appeared few there whom he did not prefer above himself: but when he was there, every one might see how conscientiously he sought the edification of the souls of the plainest auditors, before the ostentation of his own abilities. And from the like self-diffidence it was, that he would never manage any ecclesiastical affairs in his church, without previous and prudent consultations with the best advisers that he knew: he would say, "he had rather always follow advice, though sometimes the advice might mislead him, than ever act without advice, though he might happen to do well by no advice but his own."

§ 6. This diligent servant of the Lord Jesus Christ continued under and against many temptations, watching over his flock at Haverhil, more than twice as long as Jacob continued with his uncle; yea, for as many years as there are Sabbaths in the year. On November 19, 1693, he preached an excellent sermon, entering the eighty-eighth year of his age; the only sermon that ever was, or perhaps ever will be preached in this country at such an age. He was then smitten with a paralytic indisposition upon the organs of his speech, which continuing about a month upon him, not

* In mourning my companion be spent life's remaining span. :

without evident proofs of his understanding, and his heavenliness, contin uing firm with him to the last; at last, on December 27, he went off, bring. ing up the rear of our first generation.

EPITAPHIUM.

Bonorum Ultimuș, at inter Bonos_non_Ultimus.*

MANTISSA.

The Church of God is wronged, in that the life of the great John Owen is not written. He was by his intention, so much a New-England man, that a New-English book affords no improper station for him. Let him that once would have chose to die among the worthies of New-England, be counted worthy to live among them. The most expressive memorials of his life, that we at Boston can yet procure, are inscribed on his grave at London. These must be then transcribed; behold, the language of his

EPITAPH.

JOHANNES OWEN, S. T. P.

Mensis Augusti (Non-Conformistis id magis adhuc Fatali) Die XXIV.
Anno Sal. MDCLXXXIII. Etat. LXVII.

• Last of the good, but among the good by no means the last.

Epitaphium istud ab Indigno Symmista Compositum

Uti Latius, quam ut infra breves

Tabulæ Marmorea Cancellos clauderetur;

Ità etiam Angustius, quàm ut Justum

Ars Admodum Reverendi adimpleret Characterem ;
Nobiliorem, quam meruit, potitum est, Sedem,
A Fronte Operis Hujus Operosissimi
Chartacei Marmoreo Perennioris Monumenti.

[Translation of the foregoing Epitaph.]

JOHN OWEN, PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY-Born in Oxfordshire, (his father a distinguished minister and his mother a pious matron,) most agreeable to all with whom he was intimate on account of the elegance of his deportment and his innocent gaiety, and, inasmuch as he was equally gifted with talents and graces, regarded with equal esteem and delight by those who sincerely cared for and loved religion. Born, as it were, of letters, nourished by letters, and wholly devoted to them, he became almost literally a living library. He gave his attention successfully both to the Greek and Latin classic authors under Edward Sylvester, master of a private school at Oxford: and with still more success to philosophic studies under the great Barlowe, at that time a Fellow of the Royal College; becoming himself, in the progress of time, Dean of Christ's College, and for five years Vice Chancellor of the academy at the same place. Finally he devoted himself, with the greatest success of all, to Theology, with learning for his helper, and the Holy Spirit of Christ for his inspirer and guide: theology, all the points of which, in respect to the efficacy of the redemption secured by Christ, he alone of all theologians, made clear. He was proficient in the three languages commonly called the learned languages, in addition to the Oriental díalects. He understood the Sacred pages in their inner meaning-in spirit and in letter: was admirably versed in the writings of the great lights of the early church: had by no means neglected those who, though inferior to the ancient fathers, restored the primitive faith, nor did he despise the school-men of lesser note. In the field of controversy he was as superior as in the pulpit. In the former, he overwhelmed and trampled down with his nervous reasoning Romanizers, Dissenters, Socinians, and those of our time who invent new theories concerning the momentous and crowning doctrine of Justification. In the latter, though of exceedingly weak frame, yet of a presence by no means weak; with gestures far removed from theatrical gesticulation, and adjusted to the nicest rules of decorum; of speech by no means contemptible; a voice loud, but not shrill-sweet, but manly, and with a certain quality of authoritativeness: of a mental presence, at least equal, if not superior, to his bodily presence: he did not in preaching read word for word and with peering gaze the sermons which he committed to paper entire; but every thing which he uttered, having been first deeply impressed on his own heart, he imprinted the more powerfully on the minds and hearts of his hearers. Not less gifted in prayer than in oratory, he fulfilled all the functions of a true evangelical minister; being himself a great zealot and staunch partisan in the matters of an established worship and discipline, as well as of the doctrines in revelation. Finally, he was at the same time a most discreet and watchful pastor to the church over which the Holy Spirit had ordained him. For his noble epitaph let one of the many written for him suffice:

The Author of the "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in four parts," having finished his earthly career and the ministry he had received, has departed in angelic guise to take a nearer and inward survey of Christ's heavenly kingdom, which, in the late evening of life, though it was still seen from far, he described with graphic truthfulness. He died on the 24th day of August (still a fatal month to the Non-conformists) in the year of Salvation, 1683, aged 67.

This epitaph, composed by its unworthy author-too extended to be enclosed within the small area of a marble tablet-too limited to embrace a complete catalogue of his virtues-has obtained a more honourable place than it deserved on the pages of this most elaborate work-a paper-memorial more enduring than a marble monument.

Ονησίφορα Διηγηματα: Sive UTILES NARRATIONES.*

THE TRIUMPHS OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN AMERICA:

OR,

THE LIFE OF THE RENOWNED JOHN ELIOT;

A PERSON JUSTLY FAMOUS IN THE CHURCH OF GOD; NOT ONLY AS AN EMINENT
CHRISTIAN, AND AN EXCELLENT MINISTER AMONG THE ENGLISH; BUT ALSO
AS A MEMORABLE EVANGELIST AMONG THE INDIANS OF NEW-ENGLAND.
WITH SOME ACCOUNT CONCERNING THE LATE AND STRANGE SUCCESS

OF THE GOSPEL IN THOSE PARTS OF THE WORLD, WHICH FOR
MANY AGES HAVE LAIN BURIED IN PAGAN IGNORANCE.

ESSAYED BY COTTON MATHER.

Ου γαρ 'ωην όσιον, λαμπροτάτων έργων και ὀνησιφόρων δογμάτων το κλεος παριδείν ύπο της λήθης συλουμένου: i. e. Existimavi, haud sine scelere fieri potuisse, ut factorum splendidissimorum, et utilium Narrationum gloria, Oblivioni traderetur.t-THEODORIT.

"Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing."

THE THIRD PART.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP LORD WHARTON;

A NO LESS NOBLE THAN AGED PATRON OF LEARNING AND VERTUE.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP: If it be considered that some evangelical and apostolical histories of the New Testament were, by the direction of the Holy Spirit himself, dedicated unto a person of quality, and that the noble person addressed with one such dedication, entertained it with resentments that encouraged his dear Lucilius to make a second, the world will be satisfied that I do a thing but reasonable and agreeable, when unto a narrative of many evangelical and apostolical affairs, I presume to prefix the name of one so excellent for love to God as your lordship is known to be; and one upon this account only an unmeet subject for the praises of the obscure pen which now writes that Quis Vituperat? I do not, I dare rot, so far intrude upon your honour, as to ask your patronage unto all the New-English principles and practices which are found in the character of our celebrated Eliot; for as the distance of a thousand leagues has made it impossible for me to attend the (usual) orders and manners of asking first your allowance for what I have openly entitled you unto, so the renowned Eliot is gone beyond any occasions for the greatest humane patronage.

But that which has procured unto your lordship the trouble of this dedication, is my desire to give you the picture of one aged saint, lately gone to that general assembly, which the eternal King of Heaven, by the advances of your own age in the way of righteousness, does quickly summon your self unto: the profound respect which our Eliot had for your honour, will doubtless be answered and requited with your own value for the memory of such a memorable Christian, minister, and evangelist; inasmuch as your affections, like his, take not their measures from these or those matters of doubtful disputation, but from such an universal piety, and charity, and holiness, as he was an instance of..

• Profitable Narratives.

[vion.

+ For I believed it an act of impiety, to see the renown of shining actions and useful sentiments stifled by obliChallenge to reproach.