some had such things in their heads as publickly to reproach this charitablest of men as if the voice of the Almighty had rebuked, I know not what oppression, which they judged him guilty of; which things I would not have mentioned, but that the instances may fortifie the expectations of my best readers for such afflictions. § 12. He that had been for his attainments, as they said of the blessed Macarius, a raidapιoyεpwv, (an old man, while a young one,) and that had in his young days met with many of those ill days, whereof he could say, he had "little pleasure in them;" now found old age in its infirmities advancing earlier upon him, than it came upon his much longer-lived progenitors. While he was yet seven years off of that which we call "the grand climacterical," he felt the approaches of his dissolution; and finding he could say, Non IIabitus, non ipse Color, non Gressus Euntis, He then wrote this account of himself: "Age now comes upon me, and infirmities therewithal, which makes me apprehend, that the time of my departure out of this world is not far off. However, our times are all in the Lord's hand, so as we need not trouble our thoughts how long or short they may be, but how we may be found faithful when we are called for." But at last when that year came, he took a cold which turned into a feaver, whereof he lay sick about a month, and in that sickness, as it hath been observed, that there was allowed unto the serpent the "bruising of the heel;" and accordingly at the heel or the close of our lives the old serpent will be nibbling more than ever in our lives before; and when the devil sees that we shall shortly be, "where the wicked cease from troubling," that wicked one will trouble us more than ever; so this eminent saint now underwent sharp conflicts with the tempter, whose wrath grew great, as the time to exert it grew short; and he was buffeted with the disconsolate thoughts of black and sore desertions, wherein he could use that sad representation of his own condition: Nuper eram Judex; Jam Judicor; Ante Tribunal But it was not long before those clouds were dispelled, and he enjoyed in his holy soul the great consolations of God! While he thus lay ripening for heaven, he did out of obedience unto the ordinance of our Lord. send for the elders of the church to pray with him; yea, they and the whole church fasted as well as prayed for him; and in that fast the venerable Cotton preached on Psal. xxxv. 13, 14: "When they were sick, I humbled my self with fasting; I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourned for his mother:" from whence I find him raising that observation, "The sick I am not what I was in form or face, In healthful colour or in vigorous pace. I once judged others. but now trembling stand ness of one that is to us as a friend, a brother, a mother, is a just occasion of deep humbling our souls with fasting and prayer;" and making this application: "Upon this occasion we are now to attend this duty for a governour, who has been to us as a friend in his counsel for all things, and help for our bodies by physick, for our estates by law, and of whom there was no fear of his becoming an enemy, like the friends of David: a governour who has been unto us as a brother; not usurping authority over the church; often speaking his advice, and often contradicted, even by young men, and some of low degree; yet not replying, but offering satisfaction also when any supposed offences have arisen; a governour who has been unto us as a mother, parent-like distributing his goods to brethren and neighbours at his first coming; and gently bearing our infirmities without taking notice of them." Such a governour, after he had been more than ten several times by the people chosen their governour, was New-England now to lose; who hav ing, like Jacob, first left his council and blessing with his children gathered about his bed-side; and, like David, "served his generation by the will of God," he "gave up the ghost," and fell asleep on March 26, 1649. Having, like the dying Emperour Valentinian, this above all his other victories for his triumphs, His overcoming of himself. The words of Josephus about Nehemiah, the governour of Israel, we will now use upon this governour of New-England, as his EPITAPH. Ανηρ εγενετο χρηςος την φυσιν, και δίκαιος, Και περί τις ομοεθνεις φιλοτιμοτατος Μνημεῖον αιώνιον αυτω καταλιπων, τα τῶν Ιεροσολύμων τειχη.* VIR FUIT INDOLE BONUS, AC JUSTUS: ET POPULARIUM GLORIÆ AMANTISSIMUS: QUIBUS ETERNUM RELIQUIT MONUMENTUM, Novanglorum MŒNIA.* HAPTER V. SUCCESSORS: § 1. ONE as well acquainted with the matter, as Isocrates, informs us, that among the judges of Areopagus none were admitted, an xaλws γεγονότες, και πολλην αρετην και σωφροσύνην ἐν τῷ βίω ἐνδεδειγμένοι (unless they were nobly born, and eminently exemplary for a virtuous and a sober life). The report may be truly made concerning the Judges of New • He was by nature a man, at once benevolent and just: most zealous for the honour of his countrymen; and to them he left an imperishable monument-the walls of Jerusalem. [The Latin paraphrase substitutes New. England for Jerusalem.] England, though they were not nobly born, yet they were generally well born; and by being eminently exemplary for a virtuous and a sober life, gave demonstration that they were new-born. Some account of them is now more particularly to be endeavoured. We read concerning Saul, (1 Sam. xv. 12,) "He set up himself a place." The Hebrew word, T, there used, signifies a monumental pillar. It is accordingly promised unto them who please God, (Isa. lvi. 5,) "That they shall have a place and a name in the house of God; that is to say, a pillar erected for fame in the church of God. And it shall be fulfilled in what shall now be done for our governours in this our Church-History. Even while the Massachusettensians had a Winthrop for their governour, they could not restrain the channel of their affections from running towards another gentleman in their elections for the year 1634, particularly when they chose unto the place of governour Thomas Dudley, Esq., one whom, after the death of the gentleman above mentioned, they again and again voted into the chief place of government. He was born at the town of Northampton, in the year 1574, the only son of Captain Roger Dudley, who being slain in the wars, left this our Thomas, with his only sister, for the "Father of the orphans" to "take them up." In the family of the Earl of Northampton he had opportunity perfectly to learn the points of good behaviour; and here having fitted himself to do many other benefits unto the world, he next became a clerk unto Judge Nichols, who being his kinsman by the mother's side, therefore took the more special notice of him. From his relation to this judge, he had and used an advantage to attain such a skill in the law, as was of great advantage to him in the future changes of his life; and the judge would have preferred him unto the higher imployments, whereto his prompt wit not a little recommended him, if he had not been by death prevented. But before he could appear to do much at the pen, for which he was very well accomplished, he was called upon to do something at the sword; for being a young gentleman well-known for his ingenuity, courage and conduct, when there were soldiers to be raised by order from Queen Elizabeth for French service, in the time of King Henry the Fourth, the young sparks about Northampton were none of them willing to enter into the service, until a commission was given unto our young Dudley to be their captain; and then presently there were fourscore that listed under him. At the head of these he went over into the Low Countries, which was then an academy of arms, as well as arts; and thus he came to furnish himself with endowments for the field, as well as for the bench. The post assigned unto him with his company, was after at the siege of Amiens, before which the King himself was now encamped; but the providence of God so ordered it, that when both parties were drawn forth in order to battel, a treaty of peace was vigorously set on foot, which diverted the battel that was expected. Captain Dudley hereupon returned into England, and settling himself about Northampton, he married a gentlewoman whose extraction and estate were considerable; and the scituation of his habitation after this helped him to enjoy the ministry of Mr. Dod, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Winston, and Mr. Hildersham, all of them excellent and renowned men: which puritan ministry so seasoned his heart with a sense of religion, that he was a devout and serious Christian, and a follower of the ministers that most effectually preached real Christianity, all the rest of his days. The spirit of real Christianity in him now also disposed him unto sober non-conformity; and from this time, although none more hated the fanaticisms and enthusiasms of wild opinionists, he became a judicious Dissenter from the unscriptural ceremonies retained in the 'Church of England. It was not long after this that the Lord Say, the Lord Compton, and other persons of quality, made such observations of him, as to commend him unto the service of the Earl of Lincoln, who was then a young man, and newly come unto the possession of his earldom, and of what belonged thereunto. The grandfather of this noble person had left his heirs under vast entanglements, out of which his father was never able to extricate himself; so that the difficulties and incumbrances were now devolved upon this Theophilus, which caused him to apply himself unto this our Dudley for his assistances, who proved so able, and careful, and faithful a steward unto him, that within a little while the debts of near twenty thousand pounds, whereinto the young Earl found himself desperately ingulphed, were happily waded through; and by his means also a match was procured between the young Earl and the daughter of the Lord Say, who proved a most virtuous lady, and a great blessing to the whole family. But the Earl finding Mr. Dudley to be a person of more than ordinary discretion, he would rarely, if ever, do any matter of any moment without his advice; but some into whose hands there fell some of his manuscripts after his leaving of the Earl's family, found a passage to this purpose: "The estate of the Earl of Lincoln I found so, and so, much in debt, which I have discharged, and have raised the rents unto so many hundreds per annum; God will, I trust, bless me and mine in such a manner. I can, as sometimes Nehemiah did, appeal unto God, who knows the hearts of all men, that I have with integrity discharged the duty of my place before him." I had prepared and intended a more particular account of this gentleman; but not having any opportunity to commit it unto the perusal of any descended from him (unto whom I am told it will be unacceptable for me to publish any thing of this kind, by them not perused) I have laid it aside, and summed all up in this more general account. It was about nine or ten years that Mr. Dudley continued a steward unto the Earl of Lincoln; but then growing desirous of a more private life, he retired unto Boston, where the acquaintance and ministry of Mr. Cotton became no little satisfaction unto him. Nevertheless, the Earl of Lincoln found that he could be no more without Mr. Dudley, than Pha raoh without his Joseph, and prevailed with him to resume his former imployment, until the storm of persecution upon the non-conformists caused many men of great worth to transport themselves into New-England. Mr. Dudley was not the least of the worthy men that bore a part in this transportation, in hopes that in an American wilderness they might peaceably attend and enjoy the pure worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the first undertakers for that plantation came to know him, they soon saw that in him, that caused them to chuse him their deputy-governour, in which capacity he arrived unto these coasts in the year 1630, and had no small share in the distresses of that young plantation, whereof an account, by him written to the Countess of Lincoln, has been since published unto the world. Here his wisdom in managing the most weighty and thorny affairs was often signalized: his justice was a perpetual terror to evil-doers: his courage procured his being the first major-general of the colony, when they began to put themselves into a military figure. His orthodox piety had no little influence unto the deliverance of the country from the contagion of the famalistical errors, which had like to have overturned all. He dwelt first at Cambridge; but upon Mr. Hooker's removal to Hartford, he removed to Ipswich; nevertheless, upon the importunity and necessity of the government for his coming to dwell nearer the center of the whole, he fixed his habitation at Roxbury, two miles out of Boston, where he was always at hand upon the publick exigencies. Here he died, July 31, 1653, in the seventy-seventh year of his age; and there were found after his death, in his pocket, these lines of his own composing, which may serve to make up what may be wanting in the character already given him: Dim eyes, deaf ears, cold stomach, shew Eleven times seven near lived have I, Farewel, dear wife, children and friends Let men of God in courts and churches watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch, Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice, To poison all with heresie and vice. If men be left, and otherwise combine, But when I mention the poetry of this gentleman as one of his accomplishments, I must not leave unmentioned the fame with which the poems of one descended from him have been celebrated in both Englands. If the rare learning of a daughter was not the least of those bright things that adorned no less a Judge of England than Sir Thomas More; it must now be said, that a Judge of New-England, namely, Thomas Dudley, Esq., had a daughter (besides other children) to be a crown unto him. Reader, America justly admires the learned women of the other hemisphere. She has heard of those that were tutoresses to the old professors of all philosophy: she hath heard of Hippatia, who formerly taught the liberal |