VI

EARLY THEOLOGIANS

We have referred to Rev. John Cotton, in connection with the "Bay Psalm Book." Bay Psalm Book." He was a robust preacher, who, fleeing from Boston, England, on account of Bishop Laud's persecution, came over to the village of Trimountain, which in his honour was named Boston, and which as has been said was later the capital of Governor Winthrop's colony; and it is a curious fact that while he fled to escape persecution, he waged fiercest war against the Baptist Roger Williams.

He wrote perhaps half a hundred books, but the only thing by which we recall him is his little ninepaged "Catechism," entitled "Spiritual Milk for Babes." This was first published in England, while he was pastor there in Boston; but it was many times re-issued in America, for it became "the Catechism" in an age of catechism-making. It was bound with the "Primer" so that the youngest New Englander might imbibe " spiritual milk" while learning the alphabet; and the Primer, too, was a sort of sacred book, many Biblical facts being inculcated in its study.

Indeed, with the very first letter "A" was the gloomy announcement:

"A. In Adam's fall,

We sinnéd all."

and the following are some of the other rhymes:

"G. As runs the glass

Man's life doth pass.

J. Job feels the rod

But blesses God.

N. Nightingales sing

In time of spring.

S. Samuel anoints

Whom God appoints.

Z. Zaccheus he

Did climb a tree

Our Lord to see."

And so with nearly every letter is impressed some lesson either from the Bible or history or Nature; and those simple, rhythmic lines were dear to those who learned their "New England Catechism" "by heart." When we realise what both Pilgrims and Puritans stood for, it was most natural that even the children should be trained in theology!

Another of these early divines was Thomas

Hooker (1586-1649), the founder of Hartford. He usually preached over two hours and wrote many pamphlets with ponderous titles. It seems sad that so much brain-energy was expended in literature scarcely read to-day for there were great theologians among the makers of the new nation.

The Mather family was far and away the most illustrious clerical-literary one, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ten of its members were ministers three of them very famous. Sturdy, indomitable supporters of Calvin's theology, their ceaseless sermons and treaties ended only with their lives.

First, there was the father Richard, the English divine, with stentorian voice and majestic manner, who came to New England, in 1635. Next was his son Increase (1639-1723), who, entering Harvard at twelve, was in turn preacher, diplomat, and educator. He later became the sixth President of Harvard College. He was as full of superstition as of piety, and devils were to him so real that he took a most active part in the persecution of witches.

Increase Mather wrote nearly one hundred works, but we name just one his quaint, weird "Essay for Recording Illustrious Providences." It is a curious mixture of religious awe and sentiment, full of ghosts and demons and thunders and lightnings and persecution.

The last and most renowned of the family was Cotton Mather (1663-1728). He was so pious that

as a mere child he composed forms of prayer for his school-mates and he made them use them, "though

they cuffed him " in return.

As a boy, too, he undertook serious vigils to make himself holy, and always led the life of an ascetic.

This youthful prodigy entered Harvard at eleven. At twelve, he knew Hebrew, and had already mastered leading Greek and Latin authors. He had a marvellous memory and could be theological in several languages, specially the dead ones: he quoted from classic writers quite as readily as from English

ones.

His principle was never to waste a single minute, and prominently displayed in his study to meet the visitor's eye, was the phrase " Be Short." He began to preach at seventeen, and later was associated with his father over North Church, Boston; and he retained this pastorate until his death, in 1728 — and during these forty-three years, he dominated over all his listeners. His style was like that of Dr. Johnson. While he fully justified the persecution of the witches, he was a life-long worker among Indians, prisoners, and sailors.

He was born and he died in Boston, and was never one hundred miles away from this town, named as has been told for his maternal grandfather, Rev. John Cotton. It is said that he possessed one of the largest libraries in America. He was such an incessant writer that his own three hundred and eighty

publications alone would have made him a good-sized bookcase in those days; indeed, he was himself “a walking library."

The work that lives is his "Magnalia Christi Americana," or "Ecclesiastical History of New England." This is called "The Prize Epic of New England Puritanism." It was published in London, in 1702, and widely read in the eighteenth century. It is a fantastic store-house of both useful and useless knowledge, relating to New England life, and in its day it stood forth as a remarkable book. Dear old credulous Dr. Mather! how the surprising stories of Magnalia" interested the Puritan households!

And Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has told how as

a child she ardently believed every one. She read, and re-read, till she felt that she, too, belonged to a consecrated race, and her soul was filled with a desire to go forth and do some valiant deed.

If ever a man was imbued with the idea that he had a divine mission — that man was Cotton Mather.

Next, in our category, we place John Eliot (16041690), "The Apostle to the Indians." Educated at Cambridge, England, he appeared in New England, in 1631. This was at a time when the Puritans were most incensed against the " Salvages or "Devil-Worshippers

as they called the Indians, and they were already beginning to crowd them out of the land. But colonial threats could not prevent Eliot from an interest in a race that he thought