Much more their presence, and heaven-piercing prayers, A poorest soil oft has the richest mine; This weighty oar, poor Lyn, was lately thine. O wondrous mercy! but this glorious light Hath left thee in the terrours of the night. One, yet with God a kind of heavenly band, What qualifies our grief, centers in this, B. THOMPSON. We will now leave him, with such a distich as Wigandus provided for his own EPITAPH. In Christo Vixi, Morior, Vivoque WHITINGUS; Do Sordes Morti, cætera, Christe, Tibi.* CHAPTER XXIX. THE LIFE OF MR. JOHN SHERMAN. Vetustas judicavit Honestum, ut Mortui Laudarentur.-THUCID.t § 1. THAT great Athanasius, whom some of the ancients justly called Propugnaculum Veritatis ‡ others Lumen Ecclesiæ,§ others, Orbis Oraculum,|| is in the funeral oration of Gregory Nazianzen on him so set forth: "To commend Athanasius, is to praise vertue it self." My pen is now falling upon the memory of a person whom, if I should not commend unto the church of God, I should refuse to praise vertue it self, with learning, wisdom, and all the qualities that would render any person amiable. I shall proceed then with the endeavour of my pen, to immortalize his memory, that the signification of the name Athanasius may belong unto him, as much as the grace for which that great man was exemplary. § 2. Mr. John Sherman was born of godly and worthy parents, December 26, 1613, in the town of Dedham, in the county of Essex. While he was yet a child, the instruction of his parents, joined with the ministry of the famous Rogers, produced in him that "early remembrance of his Creator," which more than a little encouraged them to pursue and expect the good effects of the dedication which they had made of him unto the service of the Lord Jesus Christ in the work of the gospel. His education at school was under a learned master, who so much admired his youthful piety, industry, and ingenuity, that he never bestowed any chastisement upon him; except once for his giving the heads of sermons to his ⚫ In Christ I lived and died, and yet do live: To earth my dust, to Christ the rest I give. The bulwark of truth, The World's Oracle. idle school-mates, when an account thereof was demanded from them. So studious was he, that next unto communion with his God, he delighted in communion with his book, and he studied nothing more than to be an exception unto that ancient and general complaint, Quem mihi dabis, qui Diem æstimet?* § 3. Early ripe for it, he went into the university of Cambridge, where, being admitted into Immanuel-Colledge, and instructed successively by two very considerable tutors, his proficiency still bore proportion to his means, but out-went the proportion of his years. When his turn came to be a graduate, he seriously considered the subscription required of him: and upon invincible arguments, became so dissatisfied therewithal, that advising with Mr. Rogers, Dr. Preston, and other eminent persons, who, commending his conscientious consideration, counselled his remove, he went away under the persecuted character of a Colledge-Puritan. The same that occasioned his removal from the colledge, in a little time occasioned also his removal from the kingdom; for upon mature deliberation, after extraordinary addresses to Heaven for direction, he embarked himself, with several famous divines who came over in the year 1634, hoping that by going over the water, they should in this be like men going under the earth, lodged "where the wicked would cease from troubling and the weary be at rest.” § 4. So much was religion the first sought of the first come into this country, that they solemnly offered up their praises unto Him that "inhabits the praises of Israel," before they had provided habitations wherein to offer those praises. A day of thanksgiving was now kept by the Christians of a new hive, here called Water-town, under a tree; on which thanksgiving Mr. Sherman preached his first sermon, as an assistant unto Mr. Philips: there being present many other divines, who wondred exceedingly to hear a subject so accurately and excellently handled by one that had never before performed any such public exercise. § 5. He continued not many weeks at Water-town, before he removed upon mature advice unto New-Haven; where he preached occasionally in most of the towns then belonging to that colony: but with such deserved acceptance, that Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone being in an assembly of ministers, that met after a sermon of our young Sherman, pleasantly said, "Brethren, we must look to our selves and our ministry; for this young divine will out-do us all." Here, though he had an importunate invitation unto a settlement in Milford, yet he not only declined it out of an ingenuous jealousy, lest the worthy person who must have been his collegue should have thereby suf fered some inconveniences, but also for a little while, upon that, and some other such accounts, he wholly suspended the exercise of his ministry. Hereupon the zealous affection of the people to him appeared in their • Where shall he be found who rightly values a day? chusing him a magistrate of the colony; in which capacity he served the publick with an exemplary discretion and fidelity, until a fresh opportunity for the exercise of his ministry, within two or three years, offered it self; and then all the importunity used by the governour and assistants, to fasten him among themselves, could not prevail with him to "look back from that plow." Our land has enjoyed the influences of many accomplished men, who, from candidates of the ministry, have become our magistrates; but this excellent man is the only example among us who left a bench of our magistrates to become a painful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ in the work of the ministry. Nevertheless, he that beholds Joseph of Arimathea, a counsellour of state, Ambrose, the consul of Millain, George, the Prince of Anhalt, Chrysostom, a noble Antiochean, John a Lasco, a noble Polonion, all becoming the plain preachers of the gospel, will not think that Mr. Sherman herein either suffered a degradation, or was without a pattern. § 6. Upon the death of Mr. Philips of Watertown, Mr. Sherman was addressed by the church there to succeed him; and he accepted the charge of that church, although at the same time one of the churches at Boston used their endeavours to become the owner of so well talented a person, and several churches in London also, by letters, much urged him. to "come over and help them." And now, being in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, he was likewise chosen a fellow of Harvard Colledge there; in which place he continued unto his death, doing many good offices for that society. Nor was it only as a fellow of the colledge, that he was a blessing, but also as he was in some sort a preacher to it: for his lectures being held for the most part once a fortnight, in the vicinage, for more than thirty years together, many of the scholars attending thereon did justly acknowledge the durable and abundant advantage which they had from those lectures. § 7. His intellectual abilities, whether natural or acquired, were such as to render him a first-rate scholar; the skill of tongues and arts, beyond the common rate, adorned him. He was a great reader, and as Athanasius reports of his Antonius, Προσείχεν ἔξω τῆ ἀναγνώσει, ὡς μηδὲν τῶν γεγραμένων ἀπ αυτό πιπλειν χαμαι, παντα δὲ κατέχειν, και λοιπον αυτῷ την γνώμην αυλι βιβλιων γινεται :He read with such intention, as to lose nothing, but keep every thing, of all that he read, and his mind became his library: even such was the felicity of our Sherman; he read with an unusual dispatch, and whatever he read became his own. From such a strength of invention and memory it was, that albeit he was a curious preacher, nevertheless, he could preach without any preparatory notes of what he was to utter. He ordinarily wrote but about half a page in octavo of what he was to preach; and he would as ordinarily preach without writing of one word at all. And he made himself wonderfully acceptable and serviceable unto his friends, by the homelistical VOL. I.-33 accomplishments which were produced by his abilities in his conversation. For though he were not a man of much discourse, but ever thought v Koyia soli moduμwpia:* and when some have told him, "that he had learned the art of silence," he hath, with a very becoming ingenuity, given them to understand that it was an art which it would hurt none of them to learn, yet his discourse had a rare conjunction of profit and pleasure in it. He was witty, and yet wise and grave, carrying a majesty in his very countenance; and much visited for council, in weighty cases; and when he delivered his judgment in any matter, there was little or nothing to be spoken by others after him. § 8. It is a remark, which Melchior Adam has in the life of his excellent Pitiscus: Illud mirandum, quod Homo Theologus, in Mathematum studiïs, nullo nisi se Magistro, eo usque progressus est, ut Editis Scriptis, Disciplinæ illius Gloriam, magnis Matheseos Professoribus præripuerit:† and it might be well applied unto our eminent Sherman, who, though he were a consummate divine, and a continual preacher, yet, making the mathematics his diversion, did attain unto such an incomparable skill therein, that he was undoubtedly one of the best mathematicians that ever lived in this hemisphere of the world, and it is great pity that the world should be deprived of the astronomical calculations which he has left in manuscript behind him. It seems that men of great parts may, as it is observed by that great instance thereof, Mr. Boyle, successively apply themselves to more than one study. Thus Copernicus the astronomer, eternized like the very stars by his new system of them, was a church-man; and his learned champion Lansbergius was a minister. Gassendus was a doctor of divin ity; Clavius too was a doctor of divinity; nor will the names of those English doctors, Wallis, Wilkins, and Barrow, be forgotten so long as that learning which is to be called real, has any friends in the English nation:; and Ricciolus himself, the compiler of that voluminous and judicious work the "Almagestum Novum," was a professor of Theology. Into the number of these heroes is our Sherman to be admitted; who if any one had enquired how he could find the leisure for his mathemat ical speculations? would have given the excuse of the famous Pitiscus for his answer: Alii Schacchia Ludunt, et Talis; Ego Regula et Circino, quando Ludere datur.‡ And from the view of the effects which the mathematical contempla tions of our Sherman produced in his temper, I cannot but utter the wis of the noble Tycho Brache upon that blessed Pitiscus, Optarem plures eju modi Concionatores reperiri, qui Geometrica gnaviter callerent: forte plus essa in iis Circumspecti et solidi Judicii, Rixarum inanium et Logomachiara • Much speaking must embrace much folly. + It is surprising, that a theologian should, without the aid of an instructor, have made such progress mathematical studies as by his published writings to have borne off the honours from distinguished profess in that department. Some play at chess and with dice: when I have an opportunity to play, my toys are the rule and compasso minus:* for among other things very valuable to me, in the temper of this great man, one was a certain largeness of soul, which particularly disposed him to embrace the Congregational way of church-government, without those rigid and narrow principles of uncharitable separation, wherewith some good men have been leavened. § 9. But as our mentioned Pitiscus, when his friends congratulated unto him the glory of his mathematical excellencies, with an humble and holy ingenuity replied, "Let us rejoice rather that our names be written in heaven!" thus our Sherman was more concerned for, and more employed in an acquaintance with the heavenly seats of the blessed, than with the motions of the heavenly bodies. He did not so much use a Jacob's staff in observations, as he was in supplications a true Jacob himself. He was a person of a most heavenly disposition and conversation; heavenly in his words, heavenly in his thoughts, heavenly in his designs and desires; few in the world had so much of heaven upon earth. He was a most practical commentary upon those words of the psalmist, "Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord:" and those of the apostle, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." As the Scriptures are the firmament which God hath expanded over the spiritual world, so this good man usually spent an hour every morning in entertaining himself with the lights that are shining there. Besides this, with meditations on God, Christ, and heaven, he fell asleep at night; and with the like meditations he woke and rose in the morning; and prayer was therefore the first and last of his daily works. Yea, had any one cast a look upon him, not only abroad in company, but also in his closest retirement, they would have seen scarce a minute pass him, without a turn of his eye towards heaven, whereto his heaven-touch'd heart was carrying of him with its continual vergencies. And as the stars, they say, may be seen from the bottom of a well, when the day light in higher places hinders the sight thereof; so this worthy man, who saw more not only of the stars in heaven but also of the heaven beyond the stars, than most other men, was one who, in his humility, laid himself low, even to a fault; and he had buried himself in the obscurity of his recesses and retirements, if others that knew his worth had not sometimes fetched him forth to more publick action. The name Descentius, which I found worn by an eminent person among the primitive Christians, I thought proper for this eminent person, when I have considered the condescension of his whole deportment. And, methought it was an instance of this condescension, that this great man. would sometimes give the country an almanack, which yet he made an opportunity to do good, by adding at the end of the composures those holy reflections, which taught good men how to recover that little, but spread *I would that there were more controversialists of his school among our geometricians-adroit and graceful In their very earnestness: perhaps there would then be among them more circumspection and sound judgment, and fewer fruitless contentions and battles of words. |