unto them. New-England can show, even young ministers, who never did in all things repeat one prayer twice over, in that part of their ministry wherein we are "first of all, to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings;" and yet sometimes, for much more than an hour together, they pour out their souls unto the Almighty God in such a fervent, copious, and yet proper manner, that their most critical auditors, can complain of nothing disagreeable, but profess themselves extreamly edifyed. But our praying Norton, who, while he was among us, "prayed with the tongue of angels;" is now gone to "praise with the angels" for ever.

EPITAPHIUM.

JOHANNES NORTONUS.

Quis fuerat, Ultra si quæras,
Dignus es qui Nescias.*

CHAPTER III.

MEMORIA WILSONIA, THE LIFE OF MR. JOHN WILSON.

§ 1. Such is the natural tendency in humane minds to poetry, that as 'tis observed, the Roman historian, in the very first line of his history, fell upon a verse,

Urbem Romam, In Principio Reges habuere; †

So the Roman orator, though a very mean poet, yet making an oration for a good one, could not let his first sentence pass him, without a perfect hexameter,

In Qua me non Inficior, mediocriter Esse. ‡

If, therefore, I were not of all men the most unpoetical, my reader might now expect an entertainment altogether in verse; for I am going to write the life of that New-English divine, who had so nimble a faculty of putting his devout thoughts into verse, that he signalized himself by the greatest frequency, perhaps, that ever man used, of sending poems to all persons, in all places, on all occasions; and upon this, as well as upon greater accounts, was a David unto the flocks of our Lord in the wilderness:

Quicquid tentabat Dicere, Versus erat :§

Wherein, if the curious relished the piety sometimes rather than the poetry, the capacity of the most, therein to be accommodated, must be con sidered. But I intend no further account of this matter than what is given by his worthy son, (reprinting at Boston in the year 1680, the verses of his

*If you need to ask who he was, you ought not to know. In which, I do not deny, that I am moderately versed.

Rome, at the first, was ruled by kings.
"He lisped in numbers," whensoe'er he spoke.

father upon his famous deliverances of the English nation, printed at London, as long ago as the year 1626,) whose words are, "What volumes hath he penned, for the help of others, in their several changes of condition! How was his heart full of good matter! And his verses past, like to the handkerchiefs carried from Paul to uphold the disconsolate, and heal their wounded souls!" For indeed this is the least thing that we have to relate of that great saint; and, accordingly, it is under a more considerable character that I must now exhibit him, even as a father to the infant colonies of New-England.

§ 2. Mr. John Wilson, descending from eminent ancestors, was born at Windsor in the wonderful year 1588, the third son of Dr. William Wilson, a prebend of St. Paul's, of Rochester and of Windsor, and rector of Cliff: having for his mother a neece of Dr. Edmund Grindale, the most worthily renowned Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. His exact education under his parents, which betimes tinged him with an aversation to vice, and, above all, to the very shadow of a lye, fitted him to undergo the further education which he received in Eton Colledge, under Udal (and Langley) whom now we may venture, after poor Tom Tusser, to call, "the severest of men." Here he was most remarkably delivered twice from drowning: but at his book he made such proficiency, that while he was the least boy in the school, he was made a propositor; and when the Duke of Biron, embassador from the French King Henry IV. to Queen Elizabeth, visited the school, he made a Latin oration, for which the Duke bestowed three angels upon him. After four years' continuance at Eton, he was removed unto Cambridge, between the fourteenth and fifteenth year of his age; and admitted into King's Colledge in the year 1602. When he came to stand for a fellowship in that Colledge, his antipathy to some horrid wickedness, whereto a detestable wretch that had been acquainted with him would have betrayed him, caused that malicious wretch by devised and accursed slanders to ruin so far the reputation of this chast youth with the other fellows, that had not the Provost, who was a serious and a reverend person, interposed for him, he had utterly lost his priviledge; which now by the major vote he obtained. But this affliction put him upon many thoughts and prayers before the Lord.

§3. He had hitherto been, according to his good education, very civilly and soberly disposed: but being by the good hand of God led unto the ministry of such holy men as Mr. Bains, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Chaderton, he was by their sermons enlightened, and awakened unto more solicitous enquiries after "the one thing yet lacking in him." The serious dispositions of his mind were now such, that besides his pursuance after the works of repentance in him self, he took no little pains to pursue it in others; especially the malefactors in the prisons, which he visited with a devout, sedulous, and successful industry. Nevertheless, being forestalled with prejudices against the Puritans of those times, as if they had held he

knew not well what odd things, he declined their acquaintance; although his good conversation had made him to be accounted one of them himself. Until going to a bookseller's shop, to augment his well-furnished library, he lighted upon that famous book of Mr. Richard Rogers', called, "The Seven Treatises," which when he had read, he so affected, not only the matter, but also the author of the book, that he took a journey unto Wethersfield, on purpose to hear a sermon from that Boanerges. When he had heard the heavenly passages that fell from the lips of that worthy man, privately as well as publickly, and compared therewithal the writings of Greenham, of Dod, and of Dent, especially, "The Pathway to Heaven," written by the author last mentioned, he saw that they who were nicknamed Puritans, were like to be the desirablest companions for one that intended his own everlasting happiness; and pursuant unto the advice which he had from Dr. Ames, he associated himself with a pious company in the university; who kept their meetings in Mr. Wilson's chamber, for prayer, fasting, holy conference, and the exercises of true devotion.

4. But now perceiving many good men to scruple many of the rite practised and imposed in the Church of England, he furnished himself with all the books that he could find written on the case of conformity, both pro and con, and pondered with a most conscientious deliberation the arguments on both sides produced. He was hereby so convinced of the evil in conformity, that at length, for his observable omission of cer tain uninstituted ceremonies in the worship of God, the Bishop of Lincoln, then visiting the university, pronounced upon him the sentence of Quindenum; that is, that besides other mortifications, he must within fifteen. days have been expelled, if he continued in his offence. His father being hereof advised, with all paternal affection, wrote unto him to conform; and at the same time interceded with the Bishop, that he might have a quarter of a year allowed him; in which time, if he could not be reduced, he should then leave his fellowship in the Colledge. Hereupon he sent him unto several Doctors of great fame, to get his objections resolved; but when much discourse and much writing had passed between them, he was rather the more confirmed in his principles about church-reformation. Wherefore his father, then diverting him from the designs of the ministry, disposed him to the inns of court; where he fell into acquaintance with some young gentlemen, who associated with him in constant exercises of devotion: to which meetings the repeated sermons of Dr. Gouge were a continual entertainment: and here it was that he came into the advantageous knowl edge of the learned Scultetus, chaplain to the Prince Palatine of the Rhine, then making some stay in England.

5. When he had continued three years at the inns of court, his father discerning his disposition to be a minister of the gospel, permitted his proceeding Master of Arts, in the university of Cambridge: but advised him to address another colledge than that where he had formerly met with

difficulties. Dr. Carey, who was then Vice-chancellor, understanding his former circumstances, would not admit him without subscription; but he refused to subscribe. In this distress he repaired unto his father, at whose house there happened then to be present the Countess of Bedford's chief gentleman, who had business with the Earl of Northampton, the Chancellor of the university. And this noble person, upon the information which that gentleman gave him of the matter, presently wrote a letter to the Vice-chancellor, on the behalf of our young Wilson; whereupon he received his degree, and continued a while after this in Emanuel-Colledge; from whence he made frequent and useful visits unto his friends in the counties adjoining, and became further fitted for his intended service. But while he was passing under these changes, he took up a resolution which he thus expressed before the Lord: "That if the Lord would grant him a liberty of conscience, with purity of worship, he would be content, yea, thankful, though it were at the furthermost end of the world." A most prophetical resolution!

§ 6. At length, preaching his first sermon at Newport, "he set his hand unto that plough, from whence he never afterwards looked back:" not very long after which, his father lying on his death-bed, he kneeled, in his turn, before him for his blessing, and brought with him for a share in that blessing, the vertuous young gentlewoman, the daughter of the Lady Mansfield, (widow of Sir John Mansfield, master of the Minories, and the Queen's surveyor) whom he designed afterwards to marry: whereupon the old gentleman said, "Ah, John, I have taken much care about thee, such time as thou wast in the university, because thou wouldest not conform; I would fain have brought thee to some higher preferment than thou hast yet attained unto: I see thy conscience is very scrupulous, concerning some things that have been observed and imposed in the Church: nevertheless, I have rejoiced to see the grace and fear of God in thy heart: and seeing thou hast kept a good conscience hitherto, and walked according to thy light, so do still; and go by the rules of God's holy word: the Lord bless thee, and her whom thou hast chosen to be the companion of thy life!"—Among other places where he now preached, Moreclake was one; where his non-conformity exposed him to the rage of persecution; but by the friendship of the Justice—namely, Sir William Bird, a kinsman of his wife-and by a mistake of the informers, the rage of that Storm was moderated.

§ 7. After this he lived as a chaplain successively in honourable and religious families; and at last was invited unto the house of the most pious Lady Scudamore. Here Mr. Wilson observing the discourse of the gentry at the table, on the Lord's day, to be too disagreeable unto the devout Frame to be maintained on such a day, at length he zealously stood up at the table, with words to this purpose: "I will make bold to speak a word or two: this is the Lord's holy day, and we have been hearing his word, VOL. I.-20

and after the word preached, every one should think, and speak about such things as have been delivered in the name of God, and not lavish out the time in discourses about hawks and hounds." Whereupon a gentleman then present made this handsome and civil answer: "Sir, we deserve all of us to be thus reproved by you; this is indeed the Sabbath-day, and we should surely have better discourse: I hope it will be a warning to us." Notwithstanding this, the next Lord's day, the gentry at the table were at their old notes; which caused Mr. Wilson again to tell them, "That the hawks which they talked of, were the birds that picked up the seed of the word, after the sowing of it;" and prayed them, "That their talk might be of such things as might sanctifie the day, and edifie their own souls;" which caused the former gentleman to renew his former thankfulness for the admonition. But Mr. Leigh, the lady's husband, was very angry; whereof when the lady advised Mr. Wilson, wishing him to say something that might satisfie him, he replied, "Good madam, I know not wherein I have given any just offence; and therefore I know of no satisfaction that I owe: your ladyship has invited me to preach the good word of God among you; and so I have endeavoured according to my ability now such discourse as this, on the Lord's day, is profane and disorderly: if your husband like me not, I will be gone." When the lady informed her husband how peremptory Mr. Wilson was in this matter, he mended his countenance and carriage; and the effect of this reproof was, that unsuitable discourse, on the Lord's day, was cured among them.

§ 8. Removing from this family, after he had been a while at Henly, he continued, for three years together, preaching at four places by turns, which lay near one another, on the edges of Suffolk-namely, Bumsted, Stoke, Clare, and Candish. Here some of Sudbury happening to hear him, they invited him to succeed the eminent old Mr. Jenkins, with which invitation he cheerfully complied, and the more cheerfully because of his opportunity to be near old Mr. Richard Rogers, from whom afterwards, when dying, he received a blessing among his children; yea, to encourage his acceptance of this place, the very reader of the parish did subscribe, with many scores of others, their desires of it; and yet he accepted not the pastoral charge of the place, without a solemn day of prayer with fasting, (wherein the neighbouring ministers assisted) at his election: great notice was now taken of the success which God gave unto his labours in this famous town; among other instances whereof, one was this: a tradesman much given to stealing, as well as other profane and vicious practices, one day seeing people flock to Mr. Wilson's lecture, thought with himself, "Why should I tarry at home to work, when so many go to hear a sermon?" Wherefore, for the sake of company, he went unto the lecture too; but when he came, he found a sermon, as it were, particularly directed unto himself, on Eph. iv. 28: "Let him that hath stole, steal no more;"