THE LIFE and DEATH Of the Reverend Mr. JOHN ELIOT, Who was the First PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL TO THE INDIANS in America.  
With an Account of the Wonderful Success which the Gospel has had amongst the Heathen in that Part of the World: And of the many strange Customs of the Pagan Indians, In NEW-ENGLAND.  
Written by Cotton madder.  
Religion stands on Tiptoe in our Land,  
Ready to pass to the American strand.— Herbert.  
The Third Edition carefully Corrected.  
LONDON: Printed for John Dunton, at the Raven in the poultry. MDCXCIV.   

To the Right Honourable PHILIP Lord WHARTON, a no less Noble than Aged Patron of Learning and Virtue; and a Favourite of that Great King, Whose Throne is in the Heavens, and whose Kingdom Ruleth over all.  
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 Lucilias 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 Virtuperat? I do not, I dare not, 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 human 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 yourself 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.  
No Man ever complained of it, that in the Works of Chrysostom we find Seven Orations not far asunder, in Commendation of Paul; nor is it any fault that I have now written One in Commendation of a Man whom a Pauline Spirit had made illustrious. In describing him, I have made but little Touches upon his Parentage, and Family, because as the truly Great Basil excuses his Omission of those things, in his Oration upon Gordius the Martyr, Ecclesia haec tanquam supervacua dimittit. But I have related those things of him which cannot but create a good Esteem for him, in the breast of your Lordship, who are a Faithful and Ancient Witness against those Distempers of the World, whereby( as the blessed Salvian lamented it) Cogimur esse Viles, ut Nobiles habeamur; and raise the sweetness of your Thoughts upon your Approaches, which may our God make both slow and sure, unto that State, wherein, The Least is Greater than this JOHN. But if I may more ingenuously Confess the whole Ground and Cause of this Dedication, I must own, 'Tis to pay a part of a Debt; a Debt under which you have laid my Country, when you did with your own Honourable Hand, Present unto His Majesty the same Account which I have here again Published, Concerning the Success of the Gospel among the Indians in New-England.  
My Lord, in one ELIOT, You see what a People 'tis that you have counted worthy of your Notice; and what a People 'tis, that with ardent Prayers bespeak the Mercies of Heaven for your Noble Family. Indeed, it is impossible that a Country so full as New-England is, of what is truly Primitive, should not be exposed unto the bitterest Enmity and Calumny of those that will strive to entangle the Church in a Sardian Unreformedness, until our Jesus do shortly make them know, that He has loved what they have hated, maligned, persecuted. But if the God of New-England have inclined any Great parsonage to Intercede or Interpose for the prevention of the ruins which ill men have designed for such a Country, or to procure for a People of an Eliot's Complexion in Religion, the Undisturbed Enjoyment and Exercise of that Religion: It is a thing that calls for our most sensible acknowledgements.  
It is an odd Superstition which the Indians of this Country have among them, that they count it( on the penalty of otherwise never prospering more) necessary for them, never to pass by the Graves of certain Famous Persons among them, without laying or leaving some Token of Regard thereupon. But we hope that all True Protestants will count it no more than what is equal and proper, that the Land which has in it the Grave of such a Remarkable Preacher to the Indians as our ELIOT, should be treated with such a Love, as a Jerusalem uses to find from them that are to prosper.  
Upon that score then, let My Lord accept a Present from, and for, a Remote corner in the New-World, where God is praised on your behalf; a small Present made by the Hand of a Rude American, who has nothing to recommend him unto your Lordship, except this, that he is the Son of One whom you have admitted unto your Favours; and, That he is Ambitious to wear the Title of,  
MY LORD, Your Lordship's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant, COTTON madder.   

THE INTRODUCTION.  
'twas a very surprising as well as an undoubted Accident which happened within the Memory of Millions yet alive, when certain Shepherds upon Mount Nebo, following part of their straggling Flock, at length came to a Valley, the prodigious Depths and Rocks whereof rendered it almost inaccessible; in which there was a Cave of inexpressible Sweetness, and in that Cave was a Sepulchre that had very difficult Characters upon it. The patriarches of the Maronites thereabouts inhabiting, procured some Learned Persons to take Notice, and make Report of this Curiosity, who found the Inscription of the Grave-Stone to be in the Hebrew Language and Letter, Moses, the Servant of the Lord. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Roman catholics, thereabouts, were altogether by the Ears for the possession of this Rarity; but the Turks as quickly laid Claim unto it, and strongly guarded it. Nevertheless, the Jesuits found a way by Tricks and Bribes to engage the Turkish Guards into a Conspiracy with them, for the Transporting of the enclosed and renowned Ashes into Europe; but when they opened the Grave, there was no Body, nor so much as a relic there. While they were under the Confusion of this Disappointment, a Turkish General came upon them, and cut them all to pieces; therewith taking a course never to have that place visited any more. But the Scholars of the Orient presently made this a Theme, which they talked and Wrote much upon; and, whether this was the true Sepulchre of Moses, was a question upon which many Books were published. The World would now count me very absurd, if after this I should say, that I had found the Sepulchre of Moses in America; but I have certainly here found Moses himself; we have had among us one appearing in the Spirit and Power of a Moses; and it is not the Grave, but the Life of such a Moses, that we value ourselves upon being the owners of.  
Having implored the Assistance and Acceptance of that God, whose Blessed Word has  told us, The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance; I am attempting to writ the Life of a Righteous Person, concerning whom all things, but the meanness of the Writer, invite the Reader to expect nothing save what is truly extraordinary. 'Tis the Life of one who has better and greater things to be affirmed of him, than could ever be reported concerning any of those famous Men, which have been celebrated by the Pens of a Plutarch, a Pliny, a Laertius, an Eunapius, or in any Pagan Histories. 'Tis the Life of one, whose Character might very agreeably be looked for among the Collections of a Doratheus, or the Orations of a nazianzen, or is worthy at least of nothing less than the exquisite style of a Melchior Adam to Eternize it. If it be, as it is, a true Assertion, That the least Exercise of true Faith or Love towards God in Christ, is a more glorious thing than all the Triumphs of a Caesar; there must be something very considerable in the Life of one, who spent several Scores of years in such Exercises; and of one, in the mention of whose achievements we may also recount, that he fought the Devil in( once) his American Territories, till he had recovered no small Party of his old Subjects and Vassals out of his cruel Hands; it would be as unreasonable as unprofitable, for Posterity to bury the Memory of such a Person in the Dust of that Obscurity and Oblivion which has covered the Names of the Heroes who died before the Days of Agamemnon.   

PRAELIMINARY I. THE BIRTH, AGE, and FAMILY of Mr. ELIOT. 'Tis the Life of the Reverend John Eliot, which is to be now put into our Pages; a Life which commenced about the Year 1604. And Expired in the Year 1690.  
THE inspired Moses relating the Lives of the Ante-diluvian patriarches, in whom the Church of God, and Line of Christ was continued, through the first Sixteen hundred Years of time, recites little but their Birth, and their Age, and their Death, and their Sons and Daughters. If those Articles would satisfy the Appetites and inquiries of such as come to red the Life of our Eliot, we shall soon have dispatched the Work now upon our hands. The Age, with the Death of this Worthy man, has been already terminated in the Ninetieth year of the present Century, and the Eighty sixth Year of his own Pilgrimage. And for his Birth, it was at a Town in England, the Name whereof I cannot presently recover; nor is it necessary for me to look back so far as the place of his Nativity, any more than 'tis for me to recite the Virtues of his Parentage, of which he said, Vix ea nostra voco. The atlantic Ocean, like a River of Lethe, may easily cause us to forget many of the things that happened on the other side. Indeed the Nativity of such a Man were an Honour worthy the Contention of as many Places as laid their Claims unto the famous Homer's; but whatever Places may challenge a share in the Reputation of having enjoyed the first Breath of our Eliot, it is New-England that with most right can call him hers; his best Breath, and afterwards his last Breath, was here; and here 'twas that God bestowed upon him Sons and Daughters.  
He came to New-England in the Month of November, A. D. 1631. among those Blessed old Planters, which laid the Foundations of a remarkable Country, devoted unto the Exercise of the Protestant Religion, in its purest and highest Reformation: He left behind him in England a virtuous young Gentlewoman, whom he had pursued and purposed a Marriage unto; and she coming hither the year following, that Marriage was Consummated in the Month of October, A. D. 1632.  
This Wife of his Youth lived with him until she became to him also the Staff of his Age; and she left him not until about three or four years before his own Departure to those Heavenly Regions, where they now together see Light. She was a Woman very Eminent both for Holiness and Usefulness, and she excelled most of the Daughters that have done virtuously. Her Name was and, and Gracious was her Nature. God made her a rich Blessing, not only to her Family, but also to her Neighbourhood; and when at last she died, I heard and saw her aged Husband, who else very rarely wept, yet now with Tears over the Coffin, before the good People, a vast confluence of which were come to her Funeral, say, Here lies my Dear, Faithful, Pious, Prudent, Prayerful Wife; I shall go to her, and she not return to me! My Reader will of his own accord excuse me, from bestowing any further Epitaphs upon that gracious Woman.  
By her, did God give him six worthy Children; Children of a Character which may for ever stop the mouths of those Antichristian Blasphemers, who have set a false brand of Disaster and Infamy on the Off-spring of a Married Clergy. His First-born was a Daughter, born Sept. 17. A. C. 1633. This Gentlewoman is yet alive, and one well-approved for her Piety and Gravity. His next was a Son, born Aug. 31. A. C. 1636. He bore his Father's Name, and had his Father's Grace. He was a Person of notable Accomplishments, and a lively, zealous, acute Preacher, not only to the English, at New-Cambridge, but also to the Indians thereabout. He grew so fast, that he was found ripe for Heaven many years ago; and upon his Death-bed uttered such penetrating things as could proceed from none but one upon the Borders and Confines of Eternal Glory. 'Tis pity that so many of them are forgotten; but one of them, I think, we have cause to remember: Well( said he) my dear Friends, there is a dark Day coming upon poor New-England; and in so dark a Day, I pray how will you provide for your own Security? My Counsel to you is, get an Interest in the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ; and that will carry you to the Worlds end. His Third was also a Son, born Decemb. 20. A. C. 1638. him he called Joseph, and made a Joseph of him: This Person is at this time a Pastor to the Church at guildford, and one of great note, as well thro' the whole Country, as in the particular Colony of Connecticut, which God has made him considerable to. His Fourth was a Samuel, born June 22. A. C. 1641. who died, a most lovely young Man, Eminent for Learning and Goodness, a Fellow of the college, and a Candidate of the Ministry. His Fifth was an Aaron, born Febr. 15. A. C. 1643. who tho he died very young, yet first manifested many good things towards the Lord God of Israel. His last was a Benjamin, born Jan. 29. A. C. 1646. Of all these Three it may be said, as it was of Haran, They died before their Father; but it may also be written over their Graves, All these died in Faith. By the pious Design of their Father, they were all Consecrated unto the Service of God, in the Ministry of the Gospel; but God saw meet rather to fetch them away, by a Death, which( therefore) I dare not call Pramature, to glorify him in another and better World. They all gave such Demonstrations of their Conversion to God, that the good old Man would sometimes comfortably say, I have had six Children, and I bless God for his free-grace, they are all either with Christ, or in Christ; and my mind is now at rest concerning them. And when some asked him, How he could bear the Death of such excellent Children? His humble Reply thereunto was this, My desire was, that they should have served God on Earth; but if God will choose to have them rather serve him in Heaven, I have nothing to object against it, but his Will be done. His Benjamin was made the Son of his Right hand, for the Invitation of the good People at Ruxbury placed him in the same Pulpit with his Father, where he was his Assistant for many years; there they had a Proof of him, that as a Son with his Father, he served with him in the Gospel. But his Fate was like that which the great Gregory Nazianzen describes in his Discourse upon the Death of his honourable Brother, his aged Father being now alive and present: My Father, having laid up in a better World, a rich Inheritance for his Children, sent a Son of his before, to take possession of it.   

PRAELIMINARY II. Mr. Eliot's early Conversion, sacred Employment, and just Removal into America.  
BUT all that I have hitherto said, is no more than an entrance into the History of our Eliot. Such an Enoch as he, must have something more than these things recorded of him; his Walk with God must be more largely laid before the World, as a thing that would bespeak us all to be Followers, no less than we shall be Admirers, of it.  
He had not passed many turns in the World, before he knew the meaning of a saving turn from the Vanities of an Unregenerate State, unto God in Christ, by a true Repentance; he had the singular happiness and privilege of an Early Conversion from the ways which Original Sin disposes all Men unto. One of the principal Instruments which the God of Heaven used in tinging, and filling the mind of this Chosen Vessel with good Principles, was that Venerable Thomas Hooker, whose Name in the Churches of the Lord Jesus, is As an ointment poured forth; even that Hooker, of whom Worthy Master Fuller could writ: As Latimer would not stick to say, St. Bilney, so neither I to say, St. Hooker; that Hooker, who having Angled many scores of Souls into the Kingdom of Heaven, at last laid his Bones in our New-England; it was an Acquaintance with him, that contributed more than a little to the Accomplishment of our Elisha, for that Work unto which the most High designed him. His Liberal Education having now the Addition of Religion to direct it, and improve it, it gave such a bias to his young Soul, as quickly discovered itself in very signal Instances. His first appearance in the World after his Education in the University at Cambridge, was in the too difficult, and unthankful, but very necessary Employment of a School-Master, which Employment he discharged with a good Fidelity. And as this first Essay of his Improvement was no more Disgrace unto him, than it was unto the famous Hierom, Whitaker, Vines, and others, that they thus began to be serviceable; so it rather prepared him for the further Service which his mind was now set upon. He was of Worthy Mr. Thomas Wilson's mind, that the calling of a Minister was the only one, wherein a Man might be more serviceable to the Church of God, than in that of a School-Master. Wherefore having Dedicated himself unto God betimes, he could not reconcile himself to any lesser way of Serving his Creator and Redeemer, than by the Sacred Ministry of the Gospel; but, alas, where should he have Opportunities for the exercsing of it? It was now a time when some hundreds of those amiable People which had the Nick-name of Puritans put upon them, Transported themselves, with their whole Families and Interests, into the deserts of America, that they might here peaceably erect Congregational Churches, and therein attend and maintain all the pure Institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ; having the encouragement of Royal Charters, that they should never have any Interruption in the Enjoyment of those precious and pleasant Things. Here was a prospect which quickly determined the devout Soul of our young Eliot, unto a remove into New-England, while it was yet a Land not sown; he quickly Listed himself among those Valiant Soldiers of the Lord Jesus, who cheerfully encountered first the Perils of the atlantic Ocean, and then the Fatigues of the New-English Wilderness, that they might have an undisturbed Communion with him in his Appointments here. And thus did he betimes procure himself the Consolation of having afterwards, and for ever, a room in that remembrance of God, I remember thee, the Kindness of thy Youth, and the Love of thine Espousals, when thou wentest after me into the Wilderness.  
On his first arrival to New-England, he soon joined himself unto the Church at Boston; 'twas Church-work that was his Errand hither. Mr. Wilson, the Pastor of that Church, was gone back into England, that he might perfect the Settlement of his Affairs; and in his Absence, young Mr. Eliot was he that supplied his place. Upon the return of Mr. Wilson, that Church was intending to have made Mr. Eliot his colleague, and their Teacher; but it was thus diverted, Mr. Eliot had engaged unto a select Number of his Pious and Christian Friends in England, that if they should come into these Parts before he should be in the Pastoral Care of any other People, he would give himself to Them, and be for Their Service. It happened, that these Friends transported themselves hither the year after him, and choose their Habitation at the Town which they called Roxbury. A Church being now gathered at this place, he was in a little while Ordained unto the Teaching and Ruling of that holy Society. So 'twas in the Orb of that Church that we had him as a Star fixed for very near Threescore years; it only remains that we now observe what was his Magnitude all this while, and how he performed his Revolution.   

PART. I. Or, Eliot as a Christian.  

ARTICLE I. His Eminent Piety.  
SUch was the Piety of our Eliot, that like another Moses, he had upon his Face a continual Shine, arising from his uninterrupted Communion with the Father of Spirits. He was indeed a Man of Prayer, and might say after the Psalmist, I Prayer, as being in a manner made up of it. Could the Walls of his old Study speak, they would even ravish us with a Relation of the many hundred and thousand fervent Prayers which he there poured out before the Lord. He not only made it his daily practise to enter into that Closet, and shut his Door, and pray to his Father in secret, but he would not rarely set apart whole Days for Prayer with Fasting in secret places, before the God of Heaven. Prayer solemnized with Fasting was indeed so agreeable unto him, that I have sometimes thought he might justly inherit the Name of Johannes Jejunator, or John the Faster, which for the like reason was put upon one of the Renowned Ancients. Especially, when there was any Remarkable Difficulty before him, he took this way to encounter and overcome it; being of Dr. Preston's mind, That when we would have any great things to be accomplished, the best Policy is to work by an Engine which the World sees nothing of. He could say as the Pious Robertson did upon his Death-bed, I thank God I have loved Fasting and Prayer with all my heart! If one would have known what that sacred thing, The Spirit of Prayer, intends, in him there might have been seen a most luculent and practical Exposition of it. He kept his heart in a frame for Prayer, with a marvelous Constancy, and was continually provoking all that were about him thereunto. When he heard any considerable News, his usual and speedy Reflection thereupon would be, Brethren, let us turn all this into Prayer; and he was perpetually jogging the Wheel of Prayer, both more privately in the Meetings, and more publicly in the Churches of his Neighbourhood. When he came to an House that he was intimately acquainted with, he would often say, Come, let us not have a Visit without a Prayer; let us pray down the Blessing of Heaven on your Family before we go. Especially when he came into a Society of Ministers, before he had sate long with them, they would look to hear him urging, Brethren, the Lord Jesus takes much notice of what is done and said among his Ministers when they are together; come let us pray before we part. And hence also his whole Breath seemed in a sort made up of Ejaculatory Prayers; many scores of which winged Messengers he dispatched away to Heaven upon pious Errands every day. By them he bespoke Blessings upon almost every Person or Affair that he was concerned with; and he carried every thing to God with some pertinent Hosannah's or hallelujahs over it. He was a mighty and an happy Man, that had his Quiver full of these heavenly Arrows: And when he was never so straitly besieged by human occurrences, yet he fastened the wishes of his devout Soul unto them, and very dexterously shot them up to Heaven over the head of all.  
As he took thus delight in speaking to the Almighty God, no less did he in speaking of him; but in serious and savoury Discourses he still had his Tongue like the Pen of a ready Writer. The Jesuits once at Nola made a no less profane than severe Order, That no man should speak of God at all; but this excellent Person almost made it an Order wherever he came, to speak of nothing but God. He was indeed sufficiently pleasant and witty in Company, and he was affable and facetious, rather than morose in Conversation; but he had a remarkable Gravity mixed with it, and a singular Skill of raising some Holy Observation out of whatever Matter of Discourse lay before him; nor would he ordinarily dismiss any Theme without some gracious, divine, pithy Sentence thereupon. Doubtless he imposed it as a Law upon himself, that he would leave something of God, and Heaven, and Religion, with all that should come a near him; so that in all Places his Company was attended with Majesty and Reverence; and it was no sooner proper for him to speak, but, like Mary's opened Box of ointment, he filled the whole Room with the Perfumes of the Graces in his Lips; and the Christian-hearers tasted a greater sweetness in his well-seasoned Speeches, than the Illustrious Homer ascribed unto the Orations of his Nestor, Whose Lip dropped Language, than sweet Hony sweeter abundance.  
His Conferences were like those which Tertullian affirms to have been common among the Saints in his Days, Ut qui sciret Dominum audire, as knowing that the Ear of God was open to them all; and he managed his Rudder, so as to manifest that he was bound Heaven-ward, in his whole Communication. He had a particular art at Spiritualizing of Earthly Objects, and raising of high Thoughts from very mean things. As once, going with some feebleness and weariness up the Hill on which his Meeting-house now stands, he said unto the Person that lead him, This is very like the way to Heaven, 'tis up Hill! the Lord by his Grace fetch us up! and instantly spying a Bush near him, he as nimbly added, And truly there are Thorns and Briars in the way too! Which instance I would not have singled out from the many thousands of his Occasional Reflections, but only that I might suggest unto the good People of Roxbury, something for them to think upon, when they are going up to the House of the Lord. It is enough, that as the Friend of the Famous Ursin could profess that he never went unto him, without coming away, aut doctior aut melior, either the wiser or the better from him; so, 'tis an acknowledgement which more than one Friend of our Eliot's has made concerning him, I was never with him, but I got, or might have got some good from him.  
And hearing from the Great God, was an Exercise of like satisfaction unto the Soul of this good Man, with speaking either to him, or of him. He was a mighty Student of the Sacred Bible; and it was unto him as his necessary Food. He made the Bible his Companion, and his councillor, and the Holy Lines of Scripture more Enamoured him, than the profane ones of Tully ever did the Famous Italian Cardinal. He would not, upon easy terms, have gone one day together without using a Portion of the Bible as an Antidote against the Infection of Temptation. And he would prescribe it unto others, with his probatum est upon it; as once particularly a pious Woman, vexed with a wicked Husband, complaining to him, That bad Company was all the Day still infesting of her House, and what should she do? He advised her, Take the Holy Bible into your Hand, when the bad Company come, and you'll soon drive them out of the House; the Woman made the experiment, and thereby cleared her House from the haunts that had molested it. By the like way 'twas that he cleared his heart of what he was loth to have nesting there. Moreover, if ever any Man could, he might pretend unto that evidence of Uprightness, Lord, I have loved the habitation of thine House; for he not only gave something more than his presence there twice on the Lord's Days, and once a Fortnight besides on the Lectures, in his own Congregation; but he made his Weekly Visits unto the Lectures in the Neighbouring Towns; how often was he seen at Boston, Charlstown, Cambridg, Dorchester, waiting upon the Word of God, in the recurring Opportunities, and counting a Day in the Courts of the Lord better than a thousand! It is hardly conceivable, how in the midst of so many Studies and Labours as he was at home engaged in, he could possibly repair to so many Lectures abroad; and herein he aimed not only at his own Edification, but at the Countenancing and Encouraging of the Lectures which he went unto. Thus he took heed that he might hear, and he took as much heed how he heard; he set himself as in the presence of the Eternal God, as the Great Constantine used of old, in the Assemblies where he came, and said, I will hear what God the Lord will speak; he expressed a diligent attention, by a watchful and wakeful Posture, and by turning to the Texts quoted by the Preacher; he expressed a suitable affection by feeding on what was delivered, and accompanying it with hands and eyes devoutly elevated; and they whose good hap 'twas to go home with him, were sure of having another Sermon by the way, until their very Hearts burned in them. Lactantius truly said, Non est vera Religio, quae cum Templo relinquitur; but our Eliot always carried much of Religion with him from the House of God.  
In a word, he was one who lived in Heaven while he was on Earth; and there is no more than pure Justice in our endeavours that he should live on Earth after he is in Heaven. We cannot say that we ever saw him walking any whither, but he was therein walking with God; wherever he sat, he had God by him, and it was in the everlasting Arms of God that he slept at Night. Methoughts he a little discovered his heavenly way of living, when walking one day in his Garden, he plucked up a Weed that he saw now and then growing there; at which a Friend presently said unto him, Sir, you tell us we must be Heavenly minded; but he immediately replied, It is true; and this is no impediment unto that; for were I sure to go to Heaven to morrow, I would do what I do to day. From such a frame of Spirit it was that once in a Visit, finding a Merchant in his Counting-house, where he saw Books of Business only on his Table, but all his Books of Devotion on the Shelf, he gave this Advice unto him, Sir, Here's Earth on the Table, and Heaven on the Shelf; pray don't sit so much at the Table as altogether to forget the Shelf; let not Earth by any means thrust Heaven out of your mind.  
Indeed I cannot give a fuller Description of him, than what was in a Paraphrase that I have heard himself to make upon that Scripture, our Conversation is in Heaven. I writ from him as he uttered it.  
Behold, said he, the Ancient and Excellent Character of a true Christian; 'tis that which Peter call Holiness in all manner of Conversation; you shall not find a Christian out of the way of Godly Conversation. For, first, a seventh part of our time is all spent in Heaven, when we are duly zealous for, and zealous on the Sabbath of God. Besides, God has written on the head of the Sabbath, Remember; which looks both forward and backward; and thus a good part of the Week will be spent in Sabbatizing. Well, but for the rest of our Time! why, we shall have that spent in Heaven, ere we have done. For, secondly, we have many Days for both Fasting and Thanksgiving in our Pilgrimage; and here are so many Sabbaths more. Moreover, thirdly, we have our Lectures every Week; and pious People wont miss them, if they can help it. Furthermore, fourthly, We have our private Meetings wherein we Pray, and Sing, and repeat Sermons, and confer together about the things of God; and being now come thus far, we are in Heaven almost every day. But a little farther, fithly, We perform Family Duties every day; We have our Morning and Evening Sacrifices, wherein having red the Scriptures to our Families, we call upon the Name of God, and ever now and then carefully catechize those that are under our Charge. Sixthly, We shall also have our daily Devotions in our closerts; wherein, unto Supplication before the Lord, we shall add some serious Meditation upon his Word; a David will be at this work no less than thrice a day. Seventhly, We have likewise many scores of Ejaculations in a day; and these we have, like Nehemiah, in whatever place we come into. Eighthly, We have our occasional Thoughts, and our occasional Talks upon Spiritual Matters; and we have our occasional Acts of Charity, wherein we do like the Inhabitants of Heaven every day. Ninthly, In our Callings, in our Civil Callings, we keep up heavenly Frames; we Buy, and Sell, and Toil, yea, we Eat and Drink, with some Eye both to the Command, and the Honour of God in all. Behold, I have not now left an inch of time to be Carnal; it is all engrossed for Heaven. And yet, lest here should not be enough, lastly, We have our Spiritual Warfare. We are always encountering the Enemies of our Souls, which continually raises our hearts unto our Helper and Leader in the Heavens. Let no Man say, 'Tis impossible to live at this rate; for we have known some live thus, and others that have written of such a Life, have but spun a Web out of their own blessed experiences. New-England has Examples of this Life; tho, alas, 'tis to be lamented, that the Distractions of the World, in too many Professors, do becloud the beauty of an Heavenly Conversation. In fine, our Employment lies in Heaven. In the morning, if we ask, Where am I to be to day? Our Souls must answer, In Heaven. In the Evening, if we ask, Where have I been to day? Our Souls may answer, In Heaven. If thou art a Believer, thou art no Stranger to Heaven while thou livest; and when thou diest, Heaven will be no strange Place to thee; no, thou hast been there a thousand times before.  
In this Language have I heard him express himself; and he did what he said, he was a Boniface, as well as a Benedict; and he was one of those, Qui faciendo docent, quae facienda docent.  
It might be said of him, as that Writer characterises Origen, Quemadmodum docuit, sic vixit & quemadmodum vixit sic docuit.   

ARTICLE II. His particular Care and Zeal about the Lords-Day.  
THis was the Piety, this the Holiness of our Eliot; but among the many Instances in which his Holiness was remarkable, I must not omit his exact Remembrance of the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.  
It has been truly and justly observed, That our whole Religion fares according to our Sabbaths; that poor Sabbaths make poor Christians; and that a Strictness in our Sabbaths inspires a Vigour into all our other Duties. Our Eliot knew this, and it was a most Exemplary Zeal that he acknowledged the Sabbath of our Lord Jesus Christ withal. Had he been asked, Servasti Dominicum? He could have made a right Christian primitive answer thereunto. The Sun did not set, the Evening before the Sabbath, till he had begun his Preparation for it; and when the Lords-day came, you might have seen John in the Spirit every Week. Every day was a sort of Sabbath to him, but the Sabbath-day was a kind, a type, a taste of Heaven with him. He laboured, that he might on this high day have no Words or Thoughts but such as were agreeable thereunto; he then allowed in himself no Actions, but those of a raised Soul. One should hear nothing dropping from his Lips on this day, but the Milk and Honey of the Country, in which there yet remains a Rest for the People of God; and if he beholded in any Person whatsoever, whether Old or Young, any Profanation of this day, he would be sure to bestow lively Rebukes upon it. And hence also unto the general Engagements of a Covenant with God, which 'twas his desire to bring the Indians into, he added a particular Article, wherein they bind themselves Mehquontamvnat Sabbath, pahketeaunat tohsohke pomantamog, i.e. To remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy, as long as we live.  
The mention of this, gives me an opportunity, not only to recommend our Departed Eliot, but also to Vindicate another great Man, unto the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Reverend and Renowned own in his Elaborate Exercitations on the Lords-day, had let fall such a passage as this.  
I judge, That the Observation of the Lords-day is to be Commensurate unto the use of our natural strength on any other day, from Morning to Night. The Lords-day is to be see apart unto the ends of an holy Rest unto God, by every one, according as his natural strength will enable him to employ himself in his lawful occasions any other day of the Week.  
This passage was subject to such a misunderstanding, as that it gave some scandal unto several very Learned and Pious Men; among whom our Eliot was one: whereupon with his usual Zeal, Gravity, and Sanctity, he wrote unto the Doctor his Opinion thereabout; who returned unto him an answer full of Respect, some part whereof I shall here transcribe.  
As to what concerns the Natural strength of Men( saith he), Either I was under some mistake in my Expression, or you seem to be so in your Apprehension. I never thought, and I hope I have not said, for I cannot find it, that the continuance of the Sabbath is to be Commensurate unto the natural strength of Man, but only that it is an allowable mean of Mens continuance in Sabbath-Duties; which I suppose you will not deny, lest you should cast the Consciences of Professors into inextricable Difficulties.  
When first I engaged into that Work, I intended not to have spoken one word about the practical Observation of the Day; but only to have endeavoured the Revival of a Truth which at present is despised and contemned among us, and strenuously opposed by sundry Divines of the United Provinces, who call the Doctrine of the Sabbath, Figmentum Anglicanum. Upon the desire of some Learned Men in these Parts, it was, that I undertook the Vindication of it. Having now discharged the Debt, which in this matter I owed unto the Truth and Church of God, tho not as I ought, yet with such a composition as I hope, thro' the Interposition of our Lord Jesus Christ, might find acceptance with God and his Saints, I suppose I shall not again engage on that Subject.  
I suppose there is scarce any one alive in the World, who hath more Reproaches cast upon him than I have; tho hitherto God has been pleased in some measure to support my Spirit under them. I still relieved myself by this, That my poor Endeavours have found acceptance with the Churches of Christ: But my Holy, Wise, and Gracious Father, sees it needful to try me in this matter also; and what I have received from you( which it may be contains not your sense alone) hath printed deeper, and left a greater impression upon my mind, than all the virulent Revilings, and false Accusations I have met withal from my professed Adversaries. I do acknowledge unto you, that I have a dry and barren Spirit, and I do hearty beg your Prayers, that the Holy One would, notwithstanding all my sinful Provocations, water me from above; but that I should now be apprehended to have given a Wound unto Holiness in the Churches, 'tis one of the saddest Frowns in the Cloudy Brows of Divine Providence.  
The Doctrine of the Sabbath, I have asserted, tho not as it should be done, yet as well as I could: The Observation of it in Holy Duties unto the utmost of the strength for them, which God should be pleased to give us, I have pleaded for; the necessity also of a serious Preparation for it in sundry previous Duties, I have declared. But now to meet with severe Expressions— it may be 'tis the Will of God, that vigour should hereby be given to my former Discouragements, and that there is a Call in it, to surcease from these kinds of Labours.  
I have transcribed the more of this Letter, because it not only discovers the concern which our Eliot had for the Sabbath of God, but also it may contribute unto the Worlds good Reception and Perusal of a Golden Book on that Subject, written by one of the most Eminent Persons which the English Nation has been adorned with.   

ARTICLE III. His Exemplary Mortification.  
THus did Eliot endeavour to live unto God; but how much at the same time did he die unto all the World?  
'Twere impossible to finish the lively Picture of this Pious and Holy Eliot, without some touches upon that Mortification which accompanied him all his days; for never did I see a Person more mortified unto all the pleasures of this Life, or more unwilling to moult the Wings of an Heaven-born Soul, in the dirty Puddles of Carnal and Sensual Delights. We are all of us compounded of those two things, the Man, and the Beast; but so powerful was the Man, in this Holy Person, that it kept the Beast ever tied with a short Tedder, and suppressed the irregular Calcitrations of it. He became so nailed unto the across of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Grandeurs of this World were unto him just what they would be to a dying Man; and he maintained an almost unparalleled indifferency towards all the Pomps which Mankind is too generally flattered and enchanted with.  
The Lust of the Flesh he could not reconcile himself to the least pampering or indulging of; but he persecuted it with a continual Antipathy; being upon higher Principles than Tully was acquainted withal, of his mind, Non est dignus nomine nominis, qui unum diem totum velit esse in isto genere voluptatis. The Sleep that he allowed himself, cheated him not of his Morning-hours; but he reckoned the Morning no less a Friend unto the Graces, than unto the Muses. He would call upon Students, I pray look to it that you be Morning-Birds! And for many more than a score of years before he died, he removed his Lodging into his Study, on purpose that being there alone, he might enjoy his early Mornings, without giving the disturbance of the least noise to any of his Friends, whose Affections to him else might have been ready to have called, Master, spare thyself. The Meat upon which he lived, was a Cibus simplex, an homely, but an wholesome Diet; rich Varieties, costly Viands, and poignant sauces, came not upon his own Table; and when he found them on other Mens, he rarely tasted of them. One Dish, and a plain one, was his Dinner; and when invited unto a Feast, I have seen him sit magnifying of God for the Plenty which his People in this Wilderness were within a few years arisen to; but not more than a bit or two of all the Dainties taken into his own Mouth all the while. And for a Supper, he had learned of his Loved and Blessed Patron, old Mr. Cotton, either wholly to omit it, or to make a small sup or two the utmost of it. The Drink which he still used, was very small; he cared not for Wines or Drams; and I believe he never once in all his Life knew what it was to feel so much as a noxious fume in his head from any of them; good clear Water was more precious, as well as more usual with him, than any of those liquours with which Men do so frequently spoil their own Healths, while perhaps they drink those of other Men. When at a Strangers House in the Summer time, he has been entertained with a Glass, which they  told him was of Water and Wine, he has with a complaisant Gravity replied unto this purpose, Wine, 'tis a noble, generous liquour, and we should be bumbly thankful for it; but as I remember, Water was made before it! So abstemious was he; and he found, that career suavitaribus istit, his Abstinence had more sweetness in it, than any of the sweets which he abstained from; and so willing he was to have others partake with him in that sweetness, that when he has thought the countenance of a Minister has looked, as if he had made much of himself, he has gone to him with that Speech, Study Mortification, Brother! Study Mortification! And he made all his Addresses with a becoming Majesty.  
The Lust of the Eye, was put out by him in such a manner, that it was in a manner all one with him to be Rich or Poor. It could not be said of him, That he sought great things for himself; but what Estate he became owner of, was from the Blessing of God upon the Husbandry and Industry of some in his Family, rather than from any endeavours of his own. Once when there stood several Kine of his own before his Door, his Wife to try him, asked him, Whose they were? And she found that he knew nothing of them. He could not endure to plunge himself into Secular Designs and Affairs, but accounted Sacerdos in foro as worthy of Castigation, as Mercator in Templo; he thought that Minister and Market-man were not Unisons; and that the Earth was no place for Aaron's Holy Mitre to be laid upon. It was the Usage of most Towns in the Country, to have an Annual Rate for the maintenance of the Ministry, adjusted commonly by the Select-men of the Towns; which tho it raised not any exuberant Salaries for the Ministers, who also seldom received all that the People had contracted for; nevertheless in many places it prevented sore Temptations from befalling those that were labouring in the Word and Doctrine; who must else often have experienced the Truth of Luther's Observation, Duriter profecto & misere viverunt Evangelii Ministri, si ex Libera populi contributione essent sustentandi. However, for his part, he propounded that what Stipend he had, should be raised by Contribution; and from the same Temper it was, that a few Years before his Dissolution, being left without an Assistant in his Ministry, he pressed his Congregation to furnish themselves with another Pastor; and in his Application to them, he  told them, 'Tis possible you may think the burden of maintaining two Ministers may be too heavy for you; but I'll deliver you from that fear; I do here give back my Salary to the Lord Jesus Christ; and now, Brethren, you may fix that upon any man that God shall make a Pastor for you. But his Church with an handsome reply, assured him, That they would count his very Presence worth a Salary, when he should be so superannuated as to do no further Service for them.  
And as for the Pride of Life, the Life of it was most Exemplarily extinguished in him. The Humility of his Heart made him Higher by the Head than the rest of the People. His Habit and Spirit were both such as declared him to be among the Lowly, whom God has most Respect unto. His Apparel was without any Ornament, except that of Humility, which the Apostle Elegantly compares to a Knot of comely Ribbons, in the Text where he bids us to be clothed with it; any other flaunting Ribbons on those that came in his way, he would ingeniously animadvert upon; and seeing some Scholars once, he thought, a little too gaudy in their clothes, Humiliamini, Juvenes, Humiliamini, was his immediate compliment unto them. Had you seen him with his Leathern Girdle( for such a one he wore) about his Loins, you would almost have thought what Herod feared, That John Baptist was come to Life again. In short, he was in all regards, A Nazarite indeed; unless in this one, that long Hair was always very loathsome to him; he was an acute Ramist; but yet he professed himself a Lover of a Trichocomy. Doubtless, it may be lawful for us to accommodate the length of our Hair to the modest Customs which vary in the Churches of God: and it may be lawful for them that have not enough of their own Hair for their own Health, to supply themselves according to the sober Modes of the Places where they live. But the Apostle tells us, Nature teaches us, that if a Man have long Hair, 'tis a shane to him; where, by Nature can be meant, no other than, The difference of Sex; as the word else-where is used.  
Thus Mr. Eliot thought, that for Men to wear their Hair with a luxurious, delicate, feminine Prolixity; or for them to preserve no plain Distinction of their Sex, by the Hair of their Head and Face; and much more, for Men thus to disfigure themselves with Hair that is none of their own; and most of all, for Ministers of the Gospel to ruffle it in Excesses of this kind, may prove more than we are well ware displeasing to the Holy Spirit of God. I know not whether that horrible Distemper prevailing in some European Countries, known by the Name of Plica Polonica, wherein the Hair of People matted into ugly and filthy Forms, like Snakes upon their Heads, which whosoever cut off, presently fell Blind or Mad; I say, I know not whether this Disease was more odious in itself, than the sweeter, neater, but prolix Locks of many People were to our Eliot. He was indeed one priscis moribus, as well as Antiqua fine; and he might be allowed somewhat even of severity in this matter on that account.  
My Reader shall have a touch or two, from a Manuscript of his, which I have in my hands, against( as he calls it) The violent and insuperable Lust of long Hair. He thus argues.  
Tis a Sin for a Man to do that whereof he hath cause to be ashamed. Prov. 14.24. Rom. 6.21.  
But it is a shane for a Man to wear long Hair, 1 Cor. 11.14. Therefore 'tis a Sin.  
Obj. It was then so; but now 'tis a Fashion and Glory to do otherwise.  
Ans. Nature is the same now as then, Unchangeable. It speaks as loud now as it did then; only our Ears are so covered with Locks, that we cannot hear it.  
Again, Long Hair on the Head, and no Hair on the Face, is the Habit of a Woman, 1 Cor. 11.16. But it is a sinful Abomination for a Man to wear the Habit of a Woman. Deut. 22.5.  
Therefore 'tis a sinful Abomination for a Man to wear long Hair on his Head, and no Hair on his Face.  
With these, and many other such Persuasions did he endeavour to obviate the Luxury which he saw the Times degenerating apace into; and he added hereunto his own Example, as a continual and effectual Sermon against what he thought was to be condemned in the World.   

ARTICLE IV. His Exquisite Charity.  
HE that will writ of Eliot, must writ of Charity, or say nothing. His Charity was a Star of the first Magnitude in the bright Constellation of his Virtues; and the Rays of it were wonderfully various and extensive.  
His Liberality to pious Uses, whether public or private, went much beyond the Proportions of his little Estate in the World. Many hundreds of Pounds did he freely bestow upon the Poor; and he would with a very forcible importunity press his Neighbours to join with him in such Beneficences. 'Twas a marvelous Alacrity with which he embraced all opportunities of Relieving any that were miserable: And the good People of Roxbury doubtless cannot remember( but the Righteous God will) how often, and with what ardours, with what Arguments, he became a Beggar to them for Collections in their Assemblies, to support such needy Objects as had fallen under his Observation. The Poor counted him their Father, and repaired still unto him, with a filial Confidence in their Necessities; and they were more than seven or eight, or indeed, than so many scores, who received their Portions of his Bounty. Like that Worthy and Famous English General, he could not persuade himself, That he had any thing but what he gave away; but he driven a mighty Trade at such Exercises at he thought would furnish him with Bills of Exchange, which he hoped after many days to find the comfort of; and yet after all, he would say, like one of the most Charitable Souls that ever lived in the World, That looking over his Accounts, he could no where find the God of Heaven charged a Debtor there. He did not put off his Charity, to be put in his Last Will, as many who therein show that their Charity is against their will; but he was his own Administrator; he made his own Hands his Executors, and his own Eyes his Overseers. It has been remarked, That Liberal men are often long-lived men; so do they after many days find the Bread with which they have been willing to keep other Men alive. The great Age of our Eliot was but agreeable to this Remark; and when his Age had unfitted him for almost all Employments, and bereaved him of those Gifts and Parts which once he had been Accomplished with, being asked, How he did? He would sometimes answer, Alas, I have lost every thing; my Understanding leaves me, my Memory fails me, my Utterance fails me; but I thank God my Charity holds out still; I find that rather grows than fails! And I make no question, That at his Death, his happy Soul was received and welcomed into the Everlasting Habitations, by many scores got thither before him, of such as his Charity had been liberal unto,  
But besides these more substantial Expressions of his Charity, he made the Odours of that Grace yet more fragrant unto all that were about him, by that Pitifulness, and that P●acefulness, which rendered him yet further Amiable. If any of his Neighbourhood were in distress, he was like a Brother born for their Adversity, he would visit them, and comfort them with a most Fraternal Sympathy; yea, 'tis not easy to recount how many whole days of Prayer with Fasting he has got his Neighbours to keep with him, on the behalf of those whose Calamities he found himself touched withal. It was an extreme satisfaction to him, that his Wife had attained unto a considerable skill in physic and chirurgery, which enabled her to dispense many safe, good, and useful Medicines unto the Poor that had occasion for them, and some hundreds of Sick, and Weak, and Maimed People owed praises to God for the Benefit which therein they freely received of her. The good Gentleman, her Husband, would still be casting oil into the flamme of that Charity, wherein she was of her own accord abundantly forward thus to be doing of good unto all; and he would urge her to be serviceable unto the worst Enemies that he had in the World. Never had any Man fewer Enemies than he! But once having delivered something in his Ministry which displeased one of his Hearers, the Man did passionately abuse him for it, and this both with Speeches and with Writings that reviled him. Yet it happening not long after, that this man gave himself a very dangerous Wound; Mr. Eliot immediately sends his Wife to cure him; who did accordingly. When the man was well, he came to thank her; but she took no Rewards; and this good man made him stay and eat with him, taking no notice of all the Calumnies with which he had loaded him; but by this carriage he strangely mollified and conquered the Stomach of his Reviler.  
He was also a great Enemy to all Contention, and would ring a loud Courfeu-Bell wherever he saw the Fires of Animosity. When he heard any Ministers complain, that such and such in their Flocks were too difficult for them, the strain of his Answer still was, Brother, Compass them! and Brother, learn the meaning of those three little words, Bear, Forbear, Forgive. Yea, his inclinations for Peace, indeed, sometimes almost made him to sacrifice Right itself. When there was laid before an Assembly of Ministers, a bundle of Papers which contained certain Matters of Difference and Contention between some People, which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an Amnesty upon all their former Quarrels, he( with some imitation of what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the Papers into the Fire before them all, and with a Zeal for Peace, as hot as that Fire, said immediately, Brethren, wonder not at what I have done, I did it on my Knees this Morning before I came among you. Such an excess( if it were one) flowed from his charitable Inclinations, to be found among those Peace-makers, which by following the Example of that Man who is our Peace, come to be called, The Children of God. Very worthily might he be called an Irenaeus, as being all for Peace; and the Commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the Ancient of that Name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was a most Blessed and a most Holy Man. He disliked all sorts of Bravery; but yet with an ingenious Note upon the Greek word in Col. 3.15. he propounded, That peace might brave it among us. In short, wherever he came, he was like another old John, with solemn and earnest persuasives to Love; and when he could say little else, he would give that Charge, My Children, love one another!  
Finally, 'twas his Charity which disposed him to continual Apprecations for, and Benedictions on those that he met withal; he had an heart full of good Wishes, and a mouth full of kind Blessings for them. And he often made his Expressions very wittily, agreeable to the Circumstances which he saw the Persons in. Sometimes when he came into a Family, he would call for all the young People in it, that so he might very distinctly lay his holy Hands upon every one of them, and bespeak the Mercies of Heaven for them all.   

ARTICLE V. Some special Attainments, that were the Effects of his Piety and Charity.  
BUT what was the Effect of this Exemplary Piety and Charity in our Eliot? It will be no wonder, to my Reader, if I tell him, That this good man walked in the light of God's Countenance all the day long. I believe he had a continual assurance of the Divine Love, marvelously Sealing, strengthening, and Refreshing of him, for many Lustres of Years before he died; and for this cause the fear of Death was extirpated out of his Heavenly Soul, more than out of most men alive. Had our Blessed Jesus at any time sent his wagons to fetch this old Jacob away, he would have gone without the least Reluctancies. Labouring once under a Fever and Ague, a Visitant asked him how he did? And he replied, Very well, but anon I expect a paroxysm. Said the Visitant, Sir, fear not; but unto that he answered, Fear! No, no, I been't afraid, I thank God, I been't afraid to die! Dying would not have been any more to him, than Sleeping to a weary man.  
And another Excellency, which accompanied this Courage and Comfort in him, was, A wonderful resignation to the Will of God in all Events. There were sore Afflictions that sometimes befell him, especially when he followed some of his hopeful and worthy Sons, two or three desirable Preachers of the Gospel, to their Graves. But he sacrificed them, like another Abraham, with such a sacred indifferency, as made all the Spectators to say, This could not be done without the Fear of God. Yea, he bore all his Trials with an admirable patience; and seemed loth to have any will of his own, that should not be wholly melted and moulded into the Will of his Heavenly Father. Once being in a Boat at Sea, a larger Vessel unhappily over-run, and over-set that little one, which had no small concerns, because Eliot's, in the bottom of it; immediately sunk without any expectation of ever going to Heaven any other way; and when he imagined that he had but one breath more to draw in the World, it was this, The Will of the Lord be done! But it was the will of the Lord that he should survive the danger, for he was rescued by the help that was then at hand; and he that had long been like Moses in every thing else, was now drawn out of the Waters: Which gives me opportunity to mention one Remarkable that had some relation hereunto. This accident happened in the time of our Indian Wars, when some furious English People that clamoured for the Extirpation of the Praying Indians, which were in Subjection unto us, as well as the Pagan Indians that were in Hostility against us, vented a very wicked Rage at our holy Eliot, because of his concernment for the Indians; and one profane Monster hearing how narrowly Mr. Eliot escaped from drowning, wished( as I am credibly informed) that this Man of God had been drowned. But within a few days, that woeful man by a strange disaster was drowned in that very place, where Mr. Eliot had received his Deliverance.  
There was indeed a certain health of Soul which he arrived unto; and he kept in a blessed measure clear of those Distempers which too often disorder the most of men. But the God of Heaven favoured him with something that was yet more extraordinary! By getting and keeping near to God, and by dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty, he contracted a more exquisite s●nse of mind, than what is usual among other Professors of Christianity; he sometimes felt a lively touch of God upon his refined and exalted Spirit, which were not in any Paper of ours lawful or easy to be uttered; and he was admitted unto a singular Familiarity with the Holy One of Israel. Henee 'twas, that as Bodies of a rare and fine Constitution will fore-bode the changes of the Weather; so the sublimed Soul of our Eliot often had strange fore-bodings of things that were to come. I have been astonished at some of his Predictions, that were both of a more personal, and of a more general Application, and were followed with exact Accomplishments. If he said of any Affair, I cannot bless it! it was a worse Omen to it than the most inauspicious Presages in the World; but sometimes, after he had been with God about a thing, he was able successfully to foretell, I have set a mark upon it, it will do well! I shall never forget, That when England and H●lland were plunged into the unhappy War, which the more sensible Protestants every where had but sorrowful Apprehensions of, our Eliot being in the height and heat of the War, privately asked, What News we might look for next? Answered, unto the surprise of the Enquirer, Our next News will be, a Peace between the two Protestant Nations; God knows, I pray for it every Day; and I am verily persuaded we shall hear of it speedily! and it came to pass accordingly.  
It is to be confessed, That the written Word of God is to be regarded as the perfect and only Rule of our Lives; that in all Articles of Religion, if Men speak not according to this word, there is no light in them; and that it is no warrantable or convenient thing for Christians to look for such Inspirations as directed the Prophets that were the Pen-men of the Scriptures. Nevertheless, there are some uncommon Instances of Communion and Fruition, which in our days the sovereign God here and there favours a good Man withal; and they are very Heavenly Persons, Persons well purified from the Foecul●ncies of Sensuality, and Persons better purged from the Leaven of Envy and Malice, and intolerable Pride, than usually those vain pretenders to Revelations, the Quakers are, that are made partakers of these Divine Dainties. Now such a one was our Eliot; and for this, worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance.  
It would not be improper, under this File, to lodge the singular and surprising successses of his Prayers! for they were such, that in our Distresses we still repaired unto him, under that encouragement, He is a Prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. I shall single out but one, from the many that might be mentioned: There was a godly Gentleman of Charlstown, one Mr. Foster, who, with his Son, was taken Captive by Turkish Enemies: Much Prayer was made, both privately and publicly, by the good People here, for the Redemption of that Gentleman; but we were at last informed, that the Bloody Prince, in whose Dominions he was now a Slave, was resolved that in his Life-time no Prisoner should be released; and so the distressed Friends of this Prisoner, now concluded, Our Hope is lost! Well, upon this, Mr. Eliot in some of his next Prayers, before a very solemn Congregation, very broadly begged, Heavenly Father, work for the Redemption of thy poor Servant Foster; and if the Prince which detains him will not, as they say, dismiss him as long as himself lives, Lord, we pray thee to kill that cruel Prince; kill him, and glorify thyself upon him. And now, behold the answer: The poor captivated Gentleman quickly returns to us that had been Mourning for him as a lost Man, and brings us News, that the Prince which had hitherto held him, was come to an untimely Death, by which means he was now set at Liberty. Thus we now know, That a Prophet has been among us!    

PART II. Or, Eliot as a Minister.  

ARTICLE I. His Ministerial Accomplishments.  
THE Grace of God, which we have seen so Illustriously Endowing and Adorning of our Eliot, as well qualified him for, as disposed him to the Employment wherein he spent about Six decades of his Years; which was, The Service of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Ministry of the Gospel. This was the Work to which he applied himself; and he undertook it, I believe, with as right Thoughts of it, and as good Ends in it, as ever any Man in our days was acted with. He looked upon the Conduct of a Church, as a thing no less Dangerous than Important, and attended with so many Difficulties, Temptations, and Humiliations, as that nothing but a Call from the Son of God, could have encouraged him unto the Susception of it. He saw that Flesh and Blood would find it no very pleasant thing to be obliged unto the over-sight of a number, that by a solemn Covenant should be listed among the volunteers of the Lord Jesus Christ; that it was no easy thing to feed the Souls of such a People, and of the Children, and the Neighbours, which were to be brought into the same Sheepfold with them; to bear their manners with all patience, not being by any of their Infirmities discouraged from Teaching of them, and from Watching and Praying over them; to value them highly as the Flock which God has purchased with his own Blood, notwithstanding all their miscarriages; and in all to examine the Rule of Scripture for the warrant of whatever shall be done; and to remember the Day of judgement, wherein an account must be given of all that has been done; having in the mean time no expectation of the Riches and Grandeurs which accompany a worldly Domination. It was herewithal his Opinion, That( as the Great own expresses it) notwithstanding all the Countenance that is given to any Church by the public Ministry, yet whilst we are in this World, those who will faithfully discharge their Duty, as Ministers of the Gospel, shall have need to be prepared for Sufferings; and it was in a sense of these things that he gave himself up to the Sacred Ministry. A stranger to Regeneration can be but poorly accomplished for such a Ministry; and however God may prosper the Sermons of such a Man for the advantage of his Church: However the building of the Ark may be helped on by such Carpenters as perish in the Flood, and the Tyrians may do some work about the Temple, who arrive to no Worship in the Inner-Courts thereof; and as Austin expressed it, a Stonecutter may convey Water into a Garden, without having himself any advantage of it; nevertheless, the unsanctifi'd Minister, how gifted, how able soever he may be, must have it still said unto him, Thou lackest one thing! and that one thing our Eliot had. But the one thing was not all! as, indeed, it would not have been enough. God furnished him with a good measure of Learning too, which made him capable to divide the Word aright. He was a most acute Grammarian; and understood very well the Languages which God first wrote his Holy Bible in. He had a sharp insight into all the other Liberal Arts, and made little Systems of them for the use of certain Indians, whose exacter Education he was desirous of. But, above all, he had a most Eminent Skill in Theology; and that which profane Scoffers reproached as the disgrace of the blessed Alting, all of whose Works always weigh down the purest Gold, was the honour of our Eliot, namely, to be Scripturarius Theologus, or, one mighty in the Word; which enabled him to convince Gainsayers, and on all occasions to show himself a through Divine, and a Workman that needed not be ashamed.  
In short, he came like another Bazaleel, or Aholiah, unto the Service of the Tabernacle. And from one particularity in that part of his Learning which lay in the Affairs of the Tabernacle, it was, that in a little Book of his, we have those Lines, which for a certain cause I now transcribe: Oh that the Lord would put it( says he) into the heart of some of his Religious and Learned Servants, to take such pains about the Hebrew Language, as to fit it for universal use! Considering, that above all Languages spoken by the Lip of Man, it is most capable to be enlarged, and fitted to express all Things, and Motions, and Notions, that our human Intellect is capable of in this Mortal Life; considering also, that it is the Invention of God himself; and what one is fitter to be the Universal Language, than that which it pleased our Lord Jesus to make use of, when he spake from Heaven unto Paul?   

ARTICLE II. His Family-Government.  
THE Apostle Paul, reciting and requiring the Qualifications of a Gospel Minister, gives order, That he be the Husband of one Wife, and one that ruleth well his own house, having his Children in subjection with all gravity. It seems that a man's carriage in his own House is a part, or at least a sign of his due Deportment in the House of God; and then, I am sure, our Eliot's was very Exemplary. That one Wife, which was given to him truly from the Lord, he loved, prized, cherished, with a Kindness that notably represented the Compassion which he( thereby) taught his Church to expect from the Lord Jesus Christ; and after he had lived with her for more than half an hundred years, he followed her to the Grave, with Lamentations beyond those which the Jews from the Figure of a Letter in the Text affirm, that Abraham deplored his aged Sarah with; her departure made a deeper Impression upon him, than what any common Affliction could. His whole Conversation with her had that sweetness, and that gravity and modesty beautifying of it, that every one called them Zachary and Elizabeth. His Family was a little Bethel, for the Worship of God constantly and exactly maintained in it; and unto the daily Prayers of the Family, his manner was to prefix the reading of the Scripture; which being done, 'twas also his manner to make his young People to choose a certain passage in the Chapter, and give him some Observations of their own upon it. By this method he did mightily sharpen and improve, as well as try their Understandings, and endeavour to make them wise unto Salvation. He was likewise very strict in the Education of his Children, and more careful to mend any Error in their Hearts and Lives, than he could have been to cure a blemish in their Bodies. No Exorbitances or Extravagancies could find a room under his Roof; nor was his House any other than a School of Piety; one might have there seen a perpetual mixture of a Spartan and a Christian Discipline. Whatever decay there might be upon Family-Religion among us, as for our Eliot, we knew him, that he would command his Children, and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord.   

ARTICLE III. His way of Preaching.  
SUch was he in his lesser Family! and in his greater Family he manifested still more of his regards to the Rule of a Gospel-Ministry. To his Congregation, he was a Preacher that made it his care to give every one their Meat in due season. It was Food and not Froth, which in his public Sermons he entertained the Souls of his People with, he did not starve them with empty and windy Speculations, or with such things as Animum non daunt, quia non habent. His way of Preaching was very plain, so that the very Lambs might wade into his Discourses on those Texts and theme wherein Elephants might swim; and herewithal it was very powerful, his Delivery was always very graceful and grateful; but when he was to use Reproofs and Warnings against any in, his Voice would rise into a warmth which had in it very much of Energy as well as Decency; he would brandish the Swords, and sound the Trumpets of God against all 'vice, with a most penetrating Liveliness, and make his Pulpit another Mount Sinai, for the flashes of Lightning therein displai'd against the breaches of the Law given upon that burning Mountain. And, I observed, that there was usually a special fervour in the Rebukes which he bestowed upon Carnality, a carnal Frame and Life in Professors of Religion; when he was to brand the Earthly-mindedness of Church-Members, and the Allowance and the Indulgence which they often gave unto themselves in sensual Delights, here he was a right Boanerges; he then spoken, as 'twas said one of the Ancients did, Quot verba tot Fulmina, as many Thunderbolts as Words.  
It was another property of his Preaching, that there was evermore much of Christ in it; and with Paul he could say, I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ; having that Blessed Name in his Discourses, with a frequency like that with which Paul mentions it in his Epistles. As 'twas noted of Dr. bodily, that whatever Subject he were upon in the Application, still his Use of it would be to drive Men unto the Lord Jesus Christ; in like manner, the Lord Jesus Christ was the Loadstone which gave a touch to all the Sermons of our Eliot; a glorious, precious, lovely Christ was the point of Heaven which they still verged unto: From this Inclination it was, that altho he printed several English Books before he died, yet his Heart seemed not so much in any of them, as in that serious and savoury Book of his entitled, The Harmony of the Gospels, in the Holy History of Jesus Christ. From hence also 'twas that he would give that Advice to young Preachers, Pray let there be much of Christ in your Ministry; and when he had heard a Sermon which had any special relish of a blessed Jesus in it, he would say thereupon, O blessed be God, that we have Christ so much, and so well preached in poor New-England!  
Moreover, he liked no Preaching but what had been well-studied for; and he would very much commend a Sermon which he could perceive had required some good Thinking and Reading in the Author of it. I have been present when he has unto a Preacher then just come home from the Assembly with him, thus expressed himself, Brother, there was oil required for the Service of the Sanctuary; but it must be beaten oil; I praise God that I saw your oil so well beatenn to day; the Lord help us always by good study to beat our oil, that there may be no knots in our Sermons left undissolved, and that there may a clear light be thereby given in the House of God! And yet he likewise looked for something in a Sermon beside and beyond the mere study of Man; he was for having the Spirit of God breathing in it, and with it; and he was for speaking those things from those Impressions, and with those Affections, which might compel the Hearer to say, The Spirit of God was here! I have heard him complain, It is a sad thing when a Sermon shall have that one thing, the Spirit of God, wanting in it.   

ARTICLE IV. His Cares about the Children of his People.  
BUT he remembered that he had Lambs in his Flock, and like another David he could not endure to see the Lion seize upon any of them. He always had a mighty concern upon his mind for little Children; 'twas an affectionate stroke in one of the little Papers which he published for them, Sure Christ is not willing to lose his Lambs; and I have cause to remember with what an hearty, fervent, zealous Application he addressed himself, when in the Name of the Neighbour Pastors and Churches he gave me the right hand of Fellowship at my Ordination, and said, Brother, Art thou a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then, I pray, Feed his Lambs.  
One thing whereof he was very desirous for poor Children, was the Covenanting of them; he was very solicitous that the Lambs might pass under the Lord's tithing Rod, and be brought under the Bond of the Covenant. He very openly and earnestly maintained the Cause of Infant-Baptism, against a sort of Persons risen since the Reformation,( among which indeed there are many Godly Men, that were dear to the Soul of our Eliot) who forget that in the Gospel Church-State, as well as in the Jewish, the Promise is to Believers and their Children; and are unwilling to reckon Children among the Disciples of Jesus Christ, or to grant, That of such is the Kingdom of Heaven: or to know, That the most undoubted Records of Antiquity affirm Infant-Baptism to have been an usage in all the Primitive Churches: That even before the early days of Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Basil, Athanasius, Epiphanius in the Greek, and Ambrose, Jerom, Austin in the Latin Church, all of which give glorious Test●monies for Infant-Baptism; even Cyprian, before these, assures us, that in his days there was no doubt of it; and Origen before him could say, 'Twas from the Apostles that the Church took up the Baptism of Infants; and Clemens Romanus before him could say, That Children should be Recipients of the Discipline of Christ; besides what plain evidence we have in Irenaeus and Justin Martyr; and that the very Arguments with which some of the Ancients did superstitiously advice the delay of Baptism, do at the same time confess the Divine Right of Infants in it. Our Eliot could by no means look upon the Infants of Godly Men as unholy, and Unbelievers, and unfit Subjects to have upon them a Mark of Dedication to the Lord.  
Wherefore, when there was brought among us a Book of pious Mr. Norcot's, whereby some became Disposed to, or Confirmed in a prejudice against Poedo-Baptism, it was not long before Mr. Eliot published a little Answer thereunto; the first Lines whereof presently discover what a Temper he writ it with; says he, The Book speaks with the Voice of the Lamb, and I think the Author is a Godly, tho Erring Brother; but he acts the cause of a roaring Lion, who by all crafty ways seeketh to devour the poor Lambs of the Flock of Christ. And so he goes on to pled the Cause of them that cannot speak for themselves. No man could entertain a Person of a different persuasion from himself, with more sweetness and kindness than he, when he saw Aliquid Christi, or the Fear of God prevailing in them; he could uphold a most intimate Correspondence with such a man as Mr. Jessey, as long as he lived; and yet he knew how to be an Hammer upon their unhappy Errors.  
But having once Baptized the Children of his Covenanting Neighbours, he did not as too many Ministers do, think that he had now done with them. No, another thing wherein he was very laborious for poor Children was, the catechizing of them; he kept up the great Ordinance of catechizing, both publicly and privately, and spent in it a world of time. About the end of the Second Century, before there had in the least begun to start up new Officers in the Church of God, we find that there were Persons called unto the Office of public Teaching, who were not Pastors, not Rulers, nor called unto the Administration of other Ordinances; those in the Church of Alexandria, were of a special Remark and Renown for their Abilities this way; and their Employment was to Explain and to Defend the Principles of the Christian Religion, unto all with whom they could be concerned. Here was the Catechist, with reference unto whom the Apostle says, Let the catechized communicate unto him in all good things. Now, tho some think, a Teacher, purely as such, hath no Right unto further Church-Administrations, any more than the rabbis and Doctors among the Jews, had to offer Sacrifices in the Temple; yet he who is called to be a Teacher, may at the same time also be called to be an Elder; and being now a Teaching Elder, he becomes interested in the whole Government of the Church, he has the power of all Sacred Administrations. 'Tis the latter and more complete and perfect Character, which the Churches of New-England have stil acknowledged in their Teachers; and such a Teaching-Elder did our Eliot remember himself to be. He thought himself under a particular Obligation to be that Officer, which the Apostle calls in 1 Cor. 4.15. An Instructor of the young; nor was he ashamed, any more than some of the worthiest Men among the Ancients were, to be called, A Catechist. He would observe upon John 21.15. That, the care of the Lambs is one third part of the charge over the Church of God. It would be incredible, if I should relate what pains he took to keep up the blessed echoes of Truth between himself, and the young People of his Congregation; and what prudence he used, in suiting of his Catechisms to the age and strength of his little Catechumens. But one thing I must observe, which is, that altho there may be,( as one has computed) no less than five hundred Catechisms extant; yet Mr. Eliot gave himself the travail of adding to their number, by composing of some further Catechisms, which were more particularly designed as an Antidote for his own People, against the Contagion of such Errors as might threaten any peculiar danger to them. And the effect and success of this catechizing, bore proportion to the indefatigable Industry with which he prosecuted it; it is a well-principled People that he has left behind him. As when certain Jesuits were sent among the Waldenses to corrupt their Children, they returned with much Disappointment and Confusion, because the Children of seven years old, were well-principled enough to encounter the most Learned of them all; so, if any Seducers were let loose to wolve it among the good People of Roxbury, I am confident, they would find as little Prey in that well-instructed Place, as in any part of all the Country; no Civil Penalties would signify so much to save any People from the Snares of busy heretics, as the unweared Catechizing of one Eliot has done to preserve his People from the gangrene of ill Opinions.  
There is a third Instance of his Regards to the welfare of the poor Children under his charge; and that is, his perpetual Resolution and Activity to support a good School in the Town that belonged unto him. A Grammar-School he would always have upon the place whatever it cost him; and he importuned all other Places to have the like. I can't forget the Ardour with which I once heard him pray in a Synod of these Churches, which met at Boston, to consider, How the miscarriages which were among us might be prevented; I say, with what fervour he uttered an Expression to this purpose; Lord, for Schools every where among us! That our Schools may flourish! That every Member of this Assembly, may go home and procure a good School to be encouraged in the Town where he lives! that before we die, we may be so happy as to see a good School encouraged in every Plantation of the Country. God so blessed his endeavours, that Roxbury could not live quietly without a Free-School in the Town; and the issue of it has been one thing, which has made me almost put the Title of Schola Illustris up▪ that little Nursery; that is, That Roxbury has afforded more Scholars, first for the College, and then for the public, than any Town of its bigness; or, if I mistake not, of twice its bigness in all New England. From the Spring of the School at Roxbury, there have run a large number of the Streams, which have made glad this whole City of God. I persuade myself, that the good People of Roxbury will for ever scorn to begrutch the Cost, or to permit the Death of a School which God has made such an Honour to them; and this the rather, because their deceased Eliot has left them a fair part of his own Estate for the maintaining of the School in Roxbury; and I hope, or at least, I wish, that the Ministers of New-England may be as ungainsayably importunate with their People, as Mr. Eliot was with his, for Schools, which may seasonably tinge the young Souls of the Rising Generation. A want of Education for them, is the blackest and saddest of all the bad Omens that are upon us.   

ARTICLE V. His Church-Discipline.  
IT yet more Endears unto us the Memory of our Eliot, that he was not only an Evangelical Minister, but also a true New-Enlish one; he was a Protestant, and a Puritan, and one very full of that Spirit which acted the first Planters of this Country, in their peaceable Secession from the unwarrantable things elsewhere imposed upon their Consciences. The judgement and practise of one that readily underwent all the misery attending the Infancy of this Plantation, for the sake of a true Church-order, is a thing which we young People should count worthy to be inquired after; and since we saw him so well behaving himself in the House of God, it cannot but be worth while to know what he thought about the Frame, and Form, and Constitution of that blessed House.  
It was his as well as his Master, the great Ramus's Principle, That in the Reformation of Churches to be now endeavoured, things ought to be reduced unto the Order wherein we find them at their Primitive, Original, Apostolical Institution. And in pursuance of this Principle, he justly espoused that way of Church Government which we call the Congregational; he was fully persuaded, that the Church-State which our Lord Christ hath instituted in the New Testament, is, In a Congregation or Society of Professed Believers, Agreeing and Assembling together, among themselves, with Officers of Divine Appointment, for the Celebration of Evangelical Ordinances, and their own mutual Edification: For he saw it must be a cruel hardship used upon the Scriptures, to make them so much as Lisp the least intimation of any other Church-State prescribed unto us; and he could assert, That no Approved Writers, for the space of two hundred years after Christ, make any mention of any other Original, Visible, Professing Church, but that only which is Congregational. He looked upon the Congregational way as a largesse of Divine Bounty bestowed by the Lord Jesus on his People, that followed him into this Wilderness, with a peculiar zeal for Communion with him, in his pure Worship here. He perceived in it a sweet sort of Temperament, between Rigid Presbyterianism, and leveling Brownism: So that on the one side, the Liberties of the People are not oppressed and overlaid; on the other side, the Authority of the Elders is not rendered insignificant, but a due B●llance is herein kept upon them both; and hence he closed with our platform of Church-Discipline, as being the nearest of what he had yet seen, to the Pattern in the Mount.  
He could not comprehend, that this Church State can arise from any other Formal cause, but the Consent, Concurrence, Confederation of those concerned in it; he looked upon a Relation unto a Church, as not a Natural, or a Violent, but a Voluntary thing, and so that it is to be entred no otherwise, than by an Holy Covenant, or, as the Scripture speaks, by giving ourselves first unto the Lord, and then one unto another. He could not think that Baptism alone was to be accounted the Cause, but rather the Effect of Church-Membership; inasmuch as upon the Dissolution of the Church to which a man belongs, his Baptism would not become a Nullity: nor that mere Profession would render men Members of this or that Church; for then it would be impossible to cut off a corrupt Member from that Body politic: Nor that mere Cohabitation would make Church-Members; for then the vilest Infidels would be actually incorporated with us. And a Covenant, was all that he now saw remaining in the Inventory.  
But for the Subjects to be admitted by Churches unto all the privileges of this Fellowship with them, he thought they ought to be such as a trying Charity, or a charitable trial, should pronounce Regenerate. He found the first Churches of the Gospel mentioned in the Scripture, to be Churches of Saints; and that the Apostles writing to them, still acknowledged them to be Holy Brethren, and such as were made meet for to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light; and that a main end of Church-Fellowship, is to represent unto the World, the Qualifications of those that shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, and Stand in his Holy Place for ever. He would therefore have, Bona Mens, and Purum Pectus, and Vita Innocens, required, as Lactantius tell us, they were in his Days, of all Communicants at the Table of the Lord; and with Holy Chrysostom, he would sooner have given his Heart-blood, than the Cup of the Lord, unto such as had not the hopeful Marks of our Lord's Disciples on them. The Churches of New-England still retain a Custom which the great Justin Martry in the Second Century assures us to have been in the Primitive Churches of his Time; namely, To examine those they receive, not only about their persuasion, but also whether they have attained unto a work of Grace upon their Souls. In the prosecution hereof, besides the inquiries of the Elders into the Knowledge, and Belief, and Conversation of them that offer themselves, unto Church fellowship, it is exprected, tho I hope not with any severity of imposition, that in the Addresses which they make to the Churches, they give some Written, if not Oral Account, of what impressions the Regenerating Word of God has had upon their Souls. This was a Custom which this Holy man had a marvelous esteem and value for; and I have taken from his Mouth such as these Expressions very publicly delivered thereabouts.  
It is matter( said he) of great Thankfulness, that we have Christ confessed in our Churches, by such as we receive to full communion there. They open the Works of Christ in their Hearts, and the Relation thereof is an eminent Confession of our Lord; experienced Saints can gather more than a little from it. It is indeed an Ordinance of wonderful benefit; the Lord planted many Vineyards in the first Settlement of this Country, and there were many Noble Vines in them; it was their Heavenly-mindedness which disposed them to this Exercise; and by the upholding of it, the Churhes are still filled with Noble Vines; it mightily maintains purity of Churches. 'Tis the Duty of every Christian, With the Mouth Confession in made unto Salvation. As among the Jews, usually most men did once in their life Celebrate a Jubilee; thus this Confession of Christ, is methinks a sort of Jubilee; and every Good man among us, is at least once in his life called unto it. It is a thing that gives great Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ; and younger Converts are thereby exceedingly edify'd; and the Souls of Devout Christians are hereby very much ingratiated one unto another. The Devil knows what he does, when he thrusts so hard to get this Custom out of our Churches. For my part, I would say in this case, Get thee behind me Satan; thou givest an horrible Offence unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us keep up this Ordinance with all Gentleness; and where we see the least spark of Grace held forth, let us prise it more than all the Wit in the World.  
There were especially two things, which he was loth to see, and yet feared he saw, falling in the Churches of New-England. One was, a through Establishment of Ruling-Elders in our Churches; which he thought sufficiently warranted by the Apostles mention of Elders that Rule well, who yet Labour not in Word and Doctrine. He was very desirous to have Prudent and Gracious men set over our Churches, for the Assistance of their Pastors, in the Church-acts that concern the Admission and Exclusion of Members, and the Inspection of the Conversation lead by the Communicants, and the Instruction of their several Families, and the Visitation of the Afflicted in the Flock over which they should preside. Such Helps in Government had he himself been blessed withal; the last of which was the well-deserving Elder bowls; and of him, did this Good man, in a Speech to a Synod of all the Churches in this Colony, take occasion to say, There is my Brother bowls, the Godly Elder of our Church at Roxbury, God helps him to do great things among us! Had all our Pastors been so well accommodated, it is possible there would be more encouragement given to such an Office as that of Ruling Elders.  
But the mention of a Synod brings to mind another thing, which he was concerned, that we might never want; and that is, a frequent Repetition of needful Synods in our Churches. For tho he had a deep, and a due care to preserve the Rights of Particular Churches; yet he thought all the Churches of the Lord Jesus by their Union in what they profess, in what they intend, and in what they enjoy, so compacted into one Body Mystical, as that all the several particular Churches every where should act with a regard unto the good of the whole, and and unto the common Advice and Counsel of the Neighbourhood; which cannot be done always by Letters Missive, like those that passed between Corinth and Rome in the early days of Christianity; but it requires a Convention of the Churches in Synods, by their Delegates and Messengers. He did not count Churches to be so Independent, as that they can always discharge their whole Duty, and yet not act in a conjunction with Neighbour-Churches; nor would he be of any Church that will not aclowledge itself accountable to rightly composed Synods, which may have occasion to inquire into the circumstances of it; he saw the main Interest and Business of Churches might quickly come to be ueterly lost, if Synods were not often called for the Repairing of Inconveniences; and he was much in contriving for the regular and repeated meeting of such Assemblies.  
He wished for councils to suppress all damnable Heresies or pernicious Opinions, that might ever arise among us; for councils to extinguish all dangerous Divisions, and scandalous Contentions, which might ever begin to flamme in our Borders; for councils to rectify all misrepresentations in the midst of us, or to recover any particular Churches out of any Disorders which they may be plunged into: For councils to inquire into the Love, the Peace, the Holiness maintained by the several Churches. In fine, for councils to sand forth fit Labourers into those parts of our Lord's Harvest, which are without the Gospel of God. He beholded an Apostolical Precept and Pattern for such councils; and when such councils convened in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the consent of several Churches concerned in mutual Communion, have declared, explained, recommended the Mind of God from his Word unto us, he reckoned a Truth so delivered, challenged an Observation from the particular Churches, with a very great Authority.  
He therefore printed an Ingenious little Book wearing this Title, The Divine Management of Gospel-Churches by the Ordinance of councils, constituted in order according to the Scriptures, which may be a means of uniting those two holy and eminent Parties, the Presbyterians and the Congregational. It is a remarkable Concession made by the incomparable Jurieu, who is not reckoned a Congregational man, in his Traite de l'Unite de l'Eglise, That the Apostolical Churches lived not in any Confederation for mutual dependence. The grand Equipage of Metropolitans, of Primates, of exarches, of patriarches, was yet unknown; nor does it anymore appear to us, that the Churches then had their Provincial, National, and ecumenical Synods; every Church was its own Mistress, and independent on any other. But on the other side, out Eliot, who was no Presbyterian, conceived Synods to be the Institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostolical Churches themselves acknowledging a stamp of Divine Right upon them.  
Such as these were the sentiments of our Eliot; and his deserved Reputation in the Churches of New-England, is that which has caused me to foresee some Advantage and Benefit arising unto the concerns of the Gospel, by so large a recitation as I have now made thereof.  
The Reader has now seen an able Minister of the New-Testament.    

PART III. Or, Eliot as an Evangelist.  
THE Titles of a Christian and of a Minister have rendered our Eliot considerable; but there is one memorable Title more, by which he has been signalized unto us. An honourable Person did once in Print put the Name of an Evangelist upon him; whereupon in a Letter of his to that Person, afterwards printed, his Expressions were, There is a Redundency where you put the Title of Evangelist upon me; I beseech you to suppress all such things; let us do, and speak, and carry all things with Humility; it is the Lord who hath done what is done; and it is most becoming the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to lift up him, and lay ourselves low; I wish that word could be obliterated. My Reader sees what a Caution Mr. Eliot long since entred against our giving him the Title of an Evangelist; but his Death has now made it safe, as his Life had long made it just, for us to aclowledge him with such a Title. I know not whether that of an Evangelist, or one separated for the Employment of Preaching the Gospel in such places where no Churches have hitherto been gathered, be not an Office that should be continued in our days; but this I know, that our Eliot very notably did the Service and Business of such an Officer.  
The Natives of the country now possessed by the New-Englanders, had been forlorn and wretched Heathen ever since their first herding here; and tho we know not when or how those Indians first became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guess, that probably the Devil decoyed those miserable savages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus would never come here to destroy or disturb his Absolute Empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill terms with the Devil, as to alarm him with sounding the Silver Trumpets of Heaven in his Territories, and make some noble and zealous attempts towards outing him of his ancient Possessions here. Just before the first arrival of the English in these Parts, a prodigious Mortality had swept away vast Numbers of the poor Indians; and those Pagans who being  told by a Shipwreck'd French-man, which died in their hands, That God would shortly extirpate them, and introduce a more civil and worthy People into their place; blasphemously replied, That God could not kill them; were quickly killed with such a raging and wasting Pestilence, as left the very Earth covered with their carcases. Nevertheless, there were, I think, twenty several Nations( if I may call them so) of Indians upon that spot of Ground, which fell under the Influence of our Three United Colonies; and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could, from that old usurping Landlord of America, who is by the wrath of God, the Prince of this world.  
I cannot find that any, besides the Holy Spirit of God, first moved him to the blessed Work of Evangelizing these perishing Indians; 'twas that Holy Spirit which laid before his mind the Idea of that which is now 〈◇〉 the Seal of the Massachuset-Colony; A poor Indian, having a Label going from his Mouth, with a, COME OVER AND HELP US. It was the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, which enkindled in him a Pity for the dark, dying, damning Souls of these Natives, whom the God of this world had blinded, through all the bypassed Ages. He was none of those that make the salvation of the Heathen an Article of their Creed; but( setting aside the unrevealed and extraordinary steps which the Holy One of Israel may take out of his usual Paths) he thought men to be lost, if our Gospel be hidden from them; and he was of the same Opinion with one of the Ancients, who said, Some have endeavoured to prove Plato a Christian, till they prove themselves little better than Heathen. It is indeed a Principle in the Turkish Alcoran, That let a man's Religion be what it will, he shall be saved, if he conscientiously live up to the Rules of it: But our Eliot was no Mahometan, he could most hearty subscribe to that passage in the Articles of the Church of England, They are to be held accursed, who presume to say, that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and Light of Nature; for Holy Scripture do●h set out unto us, only the Name of ●●sus Christ, whereby men must be saved. And it astonished him to see many dissembling Subscribers of those Articles, while they have grown up to such a Frenzy, as to deny peremptorily all Church-state, and all Salvation to all that are not under Diocesan Bishops; yet at the same time to grant that the Heathen might be saved without the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No, It very powerfully moved his holy Bowels, to hear the Thunderclaps of that Imprecation over the Heads of our naked Indians, Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not; and thought he, What shall I do to rescue these Heathen from that all-devouring Fury?  
But when this Charitable pity had once begun to flamme, there was a concurrence of many things to cast oil into it. All the good men in the Country were glad of his engagement in such an undertaking; the Ministers especially encouraged him, and those in the Neighbourhood kindly supplied his place, and performed his work, in part, for him at Roxbury, while he was abroad labouring among them that were without. Hereunto he was further awakened by those Expressions in the Royal Charter, in the assurance and protection whereof this Wilderness was first peopled, namely, To win and incite the Natives of that Country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of Mankind, and the Christian Faith, in our Royal Intention; and the Adventurers free profession is the principal end of the Plantation. And the remarkable Zeal of the Romish Missionaries compassing Sea and Land that they might make Proselytes, made his devout Soul think of it with a further disdain, that we should come any whit behind in our care to Evangelize the Indians, whom we dwelled among. Lastly, When he had well begun this Evangelical Business, the good God, in an answer to his Prayers, mercifully stirred up a liberal Contribution among the godly people in England for the promoting of it; by means whereof, a considerable Estate and Income was at length entrusted in the hands of an honourable Corporation, by whom 'tis to this day very carefully employed in the christian Service, which it was designed for. And then, in short, inasmuch as our Lord Jesus had bestowed on us, our Eliot was gratefully and generously desirous to obtain for him, The Heathen for an Inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for a possession.  
The Exemplary Charity of this excellent person in this important Affair, will not be seen in its due lustre, unless we make some Reflections upon several Circumstances which he beholded these forlorn Indians in. Know then, that these doleful Creatures are the veriest ruins of Mankind, which are to be found any where upon the face of the Earth. No such Estates are to be expected among them, as have been the Baits which the pretended Converters in other Countries have snapped at. One might see among them, what an hard Master the Devil is to the most devoted of his Vassals! These abject Creatures live in a Country full of Mines; we have already made entrance upon our Iron; and in the very surface of the ground among us there lies Copper enough to supply all this World; besides other Mines hereafter to be exposed; but our shiftless Indians were never Owners of so much as a Knife, till we came among them; their name for an English-man, was a Knife-man; ston was instead of Metal for their Tools; and for their Coins, they have only little Beads with Holes in them to string them upon a Bracelet, whereof some are white; and of these there go six for a penny; some are black or blew; and of these, go three for a penny; this Wampam, as they call it, is made of the Shell-fish, which lies upon th Sea-coast continually.  
They live in a Country, where we now have all the conveniences of human life: burr as for them, their Housing is nothing but a few mats tied about Poles fastened in the Earth, where a good Fire is their Bed-clothes in the coldest Seasons; their clothing is but a skin of a Beast, covering their Hind-parts, their Fore-parts having but a little Apron where nature calls for secrecy; their Diet has not a greater dainty than their Nokehick, that is, a spoonful of their parched meal, with a spoonful of water, which will strengthen tnem to travail a day together; except we should mention the Flesh of deres, Bears, Moose, Rackoons, and the like; which they have when they can catch them; as also a little Fish, which if they would preserve, 'twas by drying, not by salting; for they had not a grain of Salt in the World, I think, till we bestowed it on them. Their physic is, excepting a few odd sudorifics, which some of them encounter certain cases with, nothing hardly, but an Hot-house, or a Powaw, Their Hot-house is a little Cave, about eight foot over; where, after they have terribly heated it, a crew of them go sit and sweat, and smoke for an hour together, and then immediately run into some very could adjacent brook, without the least mischief to them; 'tis this way they recover themselves from some Diseases, particularly from the French; but in most of their dangerous Distempers, 'tis a Powaw that must be sent for; that is, a Priest, who has more Familiarity with Satan than his Neighbours; this Conjurer comes and roars, and howls, and uses Magical Ceremonies over the Sick man, and will be well paid for it when he has done; if this don't effect the cure, the Man's Time is come, and there's an end.  
They live in a Country full of the best Ship-Timber under Heaven: but never saw a Ship till some came from Europe hither; and then they were scared out of their wits, to see the Monster come sailing in, and spitting fire with a mighty noise out of her floating side; they across the water in Canoo's, made sometimes of Trees which they burn and hue till they have hallowed them; and sometimes of Barks, which they stitch into a light sort of a Vessel, to be easily carried over land; if they are over-set, it is but a little paddling like a Dog, and they are soon where they were.  
Their way of living is infinitely barbarous: the men are most abominably slothful; making their poor Squaws, or Wives, to plant, and dress, and barn, and beat their Corn, and build their Wigwams for them; which, perhaps, may be the reason of their extraordinary ease in Childbirth. In the mean time, their chief employment, when they'l condescend unto any, is that of Hunting, wherein they'l go out some scores, if not hundreds of them in a company, driving all before them.  
They continue in a place till they have burnt up all the Wood thereabouts, and then they pluck up Stakes, to follow the Wood which they cannot fetch home unto themselves; hence when they inquire about the English, Why come they hither? they have themselves very learnedly determined the case, 'Twas because we wanted Firing. No Arts are understood among them, unless just so far as to maintain their brutish Conversation, which is little more than is to be found among the very Bevers upon our Streams.  
Their division of Time is by Sleeps, and Moons, and Winters; and by lodging abroad they have somewhat observed the motions of the Stars; among which it has been surprising unto me to find, that they have always called Charles's Wain by the name of Paukunnawaw, or The Bear, which is the name whereby Europeans also have distinguished it. Moreover, they have little, if any Traditions among them worthy of our notice; and Reading and Writing is altogether unknown to them, though there is a Rock or two in the country that has unaccountable Characters engraved upon it. All the Religion they have, amounts unto thus much: They believe that there are many Gods, who made and own the several Nations of the World; of which a certain Great God in the southwest Regions of Heaven, bears the greatest Figure. They believe, that every remarkable Creature has a peculiar God within it, or about it: There is with them, a Sun-God, a Moon-God, and the like; and they cannot conceive but that the Fire must be a kind of a God, inasmuch as a Spark of it will soon produce very strange effects. They believe that when any good or ill happens to them, there is the favour or the anger of a God expressed in it; and hence, as in a time of Calamity, they keep a Dance, or a day of extravagant ridiculous Devotions to their God; so in a time of Prosperity they likewise have a Feast, wherein they also make presents one unto another. Finally, They believe, that their chief God Kautantowit, made a Man and Woman of a ston; which upon dislike, he broken to pieces, and made another Man and Womon of a three, which were the Fountains of all Mankind; and, that we all have in us immortal Souls, which, if we were godly, shall go to a splendid entertainment with Kautantowit; but otherwise, must wander about in a restless horror for ever. But if you say to them any thing of a Resurrection, they will reply upon you, I shall never believe it. And when they have any weighty undertaking before them, 'tis an usual thing for them to have their Assemblies, wherein after the usage of some Diabolical Rites, a Devil appears unto them, to inform them, and advice them about their circumstances; and sometimes there are odd Events of their making these Applications to the Devil. For instance, 'tis particularly affirmed, That the Indians in their Wars with us, finding a sore inconvenience by our Dogs, which would make a sad yelling if in the night they scented the approaches of them, they sacrificed a Dog to the Devil; after which no English Dog would bark at an Indian for divers months ensuing. This was the miserable people which our Eliot propounded unto himself the saving of! And he had a double work incumbent on him; he was to make Men of them, ere he could hope to see them Saints; they must be civilized ere they could be Christianized; he could not, as Gregory once of our Nation, see any thing Angelical to bespeak his Labours for their eternal Welfare; all among them was Diabolical. To think on raising a Number of these hideous Creatures unto the Elevations of our holy Religion, must argue more than common or little Sentiments in the Undertaker; but the Faith of an Eliot could encounter it!  
I confess there was one, I cannot call it so much guess as wish, wherein he was willing a little to indulge himself; and that was, That our Indians are the posterity of the d●spersed and rejected Israelites, concerning whom our God has promised that they shall yet be saved by the Deliverer, coming to turn away ungodliness from them. He saw the Indians using many Parables in their Discourses; much given to the anointing of their Heads; much delighted in Dancing, especially after Victories; computing their Times by Nights and Months; giving Dowries for Wives, and causing their Women to dwell by themselves at certain seasons, for secret causes; and accustoming themselves to grievous Mournings and Yellowings for the Dead; all which were usual things among the Israelites. They have too a great unkindness for our Swine; but I suppose that is because our Hogs devour the Clams, which are a Dainty with them. He also saw some Learned Men looking for the lost Israelites among the Indians in America, and counting that they had thorough good reasons for doing so. And a few small Arguments, or indeed but Conjectures, meeting with a favourable disposition in the hearer, will carry some conviction with them; especially, if a Report of a Menasseh ben Israel be to back them. He saw likewise the Judgments threatened unto the Israelites of Old, Strangely fulfilled upon our Indians; particularly that, Ye shall eat the flesh of your Sons, which is done with exquisite Cruelties upon the Prisoners that they take from one another in their Battels. Moreover, 'tis a prophesy in Deut. 28.68. The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: And there shall ye be sold unto your Enemies, and no man shall buy you. This did our Eliot imagine accomplished, when the Captives taken by us in our late Wars upon them, were sent to be sold in the Coasts, lying not very remote from Egypt on the mediterranean Sea; and scarce any Chapmen would offer to take them off, being upon such as these accounts not unwilling, if it were possible, to have the Indians found Israelites, they were, you may be sure, not a whit the less beloved for their( supposed) Fathers sake; and the Fatigues of his Travels went on the more cheerfully, or at least, the more hopefully, because of such possibilities.  
The first step which he judged necessary now to be taken by him, was to learn the Indian Language, for he saw them so stupid and senseless, that they would never do so much as inquire after the Religion of the Strangers now come into their Country, much less would they so far imitate us as to leave off their beastly way of living, that they might be partakers of any Spiritual advantage by us, unless we could first address them in a Language of their own. Behold, new difficulties to be surmounted by our indefatigable Eliot! he hires a Native to teach him this exotic Language, and with a laborious Care and Skill reduces it into a Grammar, which afterwards he published. There is a Letter or two of our Alphabet which the Indians never had in theirs; tho' there were enough of the Dog in their Temper, there can scarce be found an R in their Language, save that the Indians to the Northward, who have a peculiar Dialect, pronounce an R where an N is pronounced by our Indians; but if their Alphabet be short, I am sure the words composed of it are long enough to tyre the Patience of any Scholar in the World, they are Sesquipedalia Verba, which their Linguo is composed of; one would think they have been growing ever since Babel, unto the dimensions to which they are now extended. For instance, if my Reader will count how many Letters there are in this one word, Nummatchekodtantamooonganunnonash, when he has done, for his reward I'll tell him, it signifies no more in English than, our Lusts; and if I were to translate, our Loves, it must be nothing shorter than Noowomantammooonkanunonnash. Nor do we find in all this Language the least Affinity to, or Derivation from any european Speech that we are acquainted with. I know not what thoughts it will produce in my Reader, when I inform him, that once finding that the Daemons in a possessed young Woman, whereof I have given the World some account, understood the Latin and Greek, and Hebrew Languages, my Curiosity lead me to make trial of this Indian Language, and the Daemons did seem as if they did not understand it: This tedious Language our Eliot quickly became a Master of; he employed a pregnant and witty Indian, who also spoken English well, for his assistance in it; and compiling some discourses by his help, he would single out a Word, a Noun, a Verb, and pursue it through all its variations: Having finished his Grammar, at the close he writes, Prayers and Pains, through Faith in Christ Jesus, will do any thing! And being by his Prayers and Pains thus furnished, he set himself in the Year 1646 to preaeh the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ among these desolate outcasts.  
¶ It remains that I lay before the World, the remarkable Conduct and Success of this Famous Man in his great Affair; and I shall endeavour to do it, by Englishing and Reprinting a Letter, sent a while since by my Father, unto his Learned and renowned Correspondent, the Venerable Dr. Luesden at Utrecht; which Letter has already been published, if I mistake not, in four or five divers Languages. I find it particularly published by the most excellent Jurieu, at the end of a Pastoral Letter; and this Reflection then worthily made upon it, Cette letter doit opporter une trees grande Consolation, a toutes less bonnes ames, qui sont alterees de Justice, & qui sont enflammees du zeal de la glory de Dieu. I therefore persuade myself, that the Republication of it will not be ungrateful unto many good Souls in our Nation, who have a due thirst and zeal for such things as are mentioned in it; and when that is done, I shall presume to make some Annotations for the Illustration of sundry memorable things therein pointed at.  

A LETTER concerning the Success of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New-England.  Written by Mr. Increase madder, Minister of the Word of God at Boston, and Rector of the college at Cambridge in New-England, to Doctor John Leusden, Hebrew Professor in the University of Utrecht. 
Translated out of Latin into English.  
Worthy and much honoured Sir,  
YOur Letters were very grateful to to me, ( a) by which I understand that you and others in your famous University of Utrecht desire to be informed concerning the converted Indians in America: Take therefore a true Account of them in a few words.  
It is above forty Years since that truly godly Man, Mr. John eliot, Pastor of the Church at Roxborough,( about a mile from Boston in New-England) being warmed with a holy Zeal of Converting the Americans, set himself to learn the Indian Tongue, that he might more easily and successfully ( b) open to them the Mysteries of the Gospel; upon account of which he has been( and not undeservedly) called, The Apostle of the American Indians. This Reverend Person, not without very great labour, translated the whole Bible into the Indian Tongue; ( c) he translated also several English Treatises of Practical Divinity and Catechisms into their Language. Above 26 Years ago he gathered a Church of Converted Indians in a Town called ( d) Natick; these Indians confessed their sins with Tears, and professed their Faith in Christ, and afterwards they and their Children were Baptized, and they were solemnly joined together in a Church Covenant; the said Mr. Eliot was the first that administered the Lord's Supper to them. The Pastor of that Church now is an Indian, his name is Daniel. Besides this Church at Natick, among our Inhabitants in the Massachusets. Colony, there are four Indian Assemblies, ( e) where the Name of the True God and Jesus Christ is solemnly called upon; these Assemblies have some American Preachers. Mr. Eliot formerly used to Preach to them once every fortnight, but now he is weakened with Labours and old Age, being in the Eighty fourth Year of his Age, and Preacheth not to the Indians oftener than once in two Months.  
There is another Church, consisting only of Converted Indians, about fifty Miles from hence, in an Indian Town called Mashippaug: The first Pastor of that Church was an English Man, who being skilful in the American Language, Preached the Gospel to them in their own Tongue. ( f) This English Pastor is dead, and instead of him that Church has an Indian Preacher.  
There are, besides that, five Assemblies of Indians professing the Name of Christ, not far distant from Mashippaug, which have Indian Preachers; ( g) John Cotton, Pastor of the Church at Plymouth( Son of my venerable Father-in-law John Cotton, formerly the famous Teacher of the Church at Boston) hath made very great progress in learning the Indian Tongue, and is very skilful in it; he Preaches in their own Language to the last five mentioned Congregations every Week. Moreover of the Inhabitants of Saconet in Plymouth Colony, there is a great Congregation of those who for distinction sake are called Praying Indians, because they Pray to God in Christ.  
Not far from a Promontory called Cape-Cod, there are six Assemblies of Heathens who are to be reckoned as Catechumens, amongst whom there are six Indian Preachers, Samuel Treat, Pastor of a Church at Eastham, Preacheth to those Congregations in their own Language. There are likewise amongst the Islanders of Nantucket a Church, with a Pastor who was lately a Heathen, and several Meetings of Catechumens, who are instructed by the Converted Indians. There is also another iceland about seven Leagues long( called Martha's Vineyard) where are two American Churches planted, which are more famous than the rest, over one of which there presides an ancient Indian as Pastor, called Hiacooms: John Hiacooms, Son of the said Indian Pastor, also Preacheth the Gospel to his Country-men. In another Church in that place, John Tockinosh a Converted Indian teaches. In these Churches ruling Elders of the Indians are joined to the Pastors: The Pastors were chosen by the People, and when they had fasted and prayed, Mr. Eliot and Mr. Cotton laid their Hands on them, so that they were solemnly Ordained. All the Congregations ( h) of the Converted Indians( both the Catechumens and those in Church Order) every Lord's Day meet together; the Pastor or Preacher always begins with Prayer, and without a Form, because from the Heart; when the Ruler of the Assembly has ended Prayer, the whole Congregation of Indians Praise God with singing, some of them are excellent Singers: After the Psalm, he that Preaches reads a place of Scripture( one or more Verses as he will) and expounds it, gathers Doctrines from it, proves them by Scriptures and Reasons, and infers uses from them after the manner of the English, of whom they have been taught; then another Prayer to God in the Name of Christ concludes the whole Service. Thus do they meet together twice every Lord's-day. They observe no holidays but the Lord's Day, except upon some extraordinary occasion; and then they solemnly set apart whole Days, either in giving Thanks, or Fasting and Praying with great fervour of Mind.  
Before the English came into these Coasts, these barbarous Nations were altogether ignorant of the true God; hence it is that in their Prayers and Sermons they use English words and terms; he that calls upon the most holy Name of God, says Jehovah, or God, or Lord; and also they have learned and borrowed many other Theological Phrases from us.  
In short, there are six Churches of Baptized Indians in New-England, and eighteen Assemblies of Catechumens, professing the Name of Christ: Of the Indians there are four and twenty who are Preachers of the Word of God; and besides these, there are four English Ministers who preach the Gospel in the Indian Tongue. ( i) I am now myself weary with writing, and I fear lest if I should add more, I should also be tedious to you; yet one thing I must add( which I had almost forgot) that there are many of the Indians Children who have learned by Heart the Catechism, either of that famous Divine William Perkins, or that put forth by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and in their own Mother Tongue can answer to all the Questions in it.  
But I must end: I salute the famous Professors in your University, to whom I desire you to communicate this Letter, as written to them also.  
farewell, worthy Sir; the Lord preserve your Health for the benefit of your Country, his Church, and of Learning.  
Yours ever, Increase madder. Boston in New-Engl. July 12. 1687.   


( a) The Success of the Gospel in the EAST-INDIES.  
AFter the writing of this Letter, there came one to my Hands from the famous Dr. Leusden, together with a new and fair Edition of his Hebrew Psalter, Dedicated unto the Name of my absent Parent. He therein informs me, That our Example had awakened the Dutch to make some noble Attempts for the furtherance of the Gospel in the East-Indies; besides what memorable things were done by the Excellent Robert Junius, in formosa, fifty years ago. He also informs me, That in and near the iceland of Ceylon, the Dutch Pastors have Baptized about three hundred thousand of Eastern Indians; for altho' the Ministers are utterly ignorant of their Language, yet here are School-Masters who teach them, The Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, a Morning Prayer, an Evening Prayer, a Blessing before Meat, and another after; and the Minister in his Visits being assured by the Master, who of them has learned all of them seven things, he thereupon counts they have such a perfect number of Attainments, that he presently Baptizes them. The pious Reader will doubtless bless God for this; but he will easily see that one of our Converted Indians has cost more pains than many of those; more through work has been made with them.   

( b) Mr. Eliot's way of opening the Mysteries of the Gospel to our Indians.  
'twas in the Year 1646, that Mr. Eliot accompanied by three more, gave a visit unto an Assembly of Indians, of whom he desired a Meeting at such a time and place, that he might lay before them the things of their Eternal Peace. After a serious Prayer, he gave them a Sermon, which continued about a quarter above an hour, and contained the principal Articles of the Christian Religion, applying all to the condition of the Indians present. Having done, he asked them, whether they understood? and with a general reply they answered, They understood all. He then began what was his usual method afterwards in treating with them; that is, he caused them to propound such Questions as they pleased, unto himself; and he gave wise and good Answers to them all. Their Questions would often, tho not always, refer to what he had newly Preached; and he this way not only made a Proof of their profiting by his Ministry, but also gave an Edge of what he delivered unto them. Some of their Questions would be a little Philosophical, and required a good measure of Learning in the Minister concerned with them; but for this our Eliot wanted not. He would also put proper Questions unto them, and at one of his first Exercises with them, he made the young ones capable of regarding these three Questions.  
Q. 1. Who made you and all the world?  
Q. 2. Who do you look should save you from Sin and Hell?  
Q. 3. How many Commandments has the Lord given you to keep?  
It was his Wisdom that he began with them upon such Principles, as they themselves had already had some notion of; such as that of an Heaven for good, and Hell for bad People, when they died. It broken his gracious Heart within him to see, what Floods of Tears fell from the Eyes of several among these Degenerate savages, at the first Addresses which he made unto them; yea, from the very worst of them all. He was very inquisitive to learn who were the Powaws, that is, the Sorcerers and Seducers, that maintained the Worship of the Devil in any of their Societies; and having in one of his first journeys to them, found out one of those Wretches, he made the Indian come unto him, and said, Whether do you suppose God, or Chepian ( i.e. the Devil) to be the Author of all good? The Conjurer answered, God. Upon this, he added with a stern Countenance, Why do you pray to Chepian then? and the poor Man was not able to stand or speak before him; but at last made promises of Reformation.  
The Text which he first Preached upon, was that in Ezek. 37.9, 10. That by Prophesying to the Wind, the wind came, and the Dry Bones lived; and it was an observation made by one, who then justly confessed, there was not much weight in it; that the word which the Indians use for wind, is wauban, and an Indian of that Name was one of the first that here zealously promoted the Conversion of his Neighbours. But having thus entred upon the Teaching of these poor Creatures, it's incredible how much time, toil, and hardship, he underwent in the Prosecution of this Undertaking; how many weary days and nights rolled over him; how many tiresome journeys he endured; and how many terrible dangers he had experience of. If you briefly would know what he felt, and what carried him through all, take it in his own words, in a Letter to the Honourable Mr. Winslow, says he, I have not been dry night nor day, from the third day of the week unto the sixth, but so traveled, and at night pull of my Boots, wring my Stockings, and on with them again, and so continue. But God steps in and helps. I have considered the word of God in 2 Tim. 2.3. Endure hardships as a good soldier of Christ.   

( c) His Translating the Bible, and other Books of Piety into the Indian Tongue.  
ONe of his Remarkable Cares for these illiterate Indians, was to bring them into the use of Schools and books. He quickly procured the benefit of Schools for them; wherein they profited so much, that not only very many of them came to red and writ, but also several arrived unto a Liberal Education in our college, and one or two of them took their degree with the rest of our Graduates. And for Books, 'twas his chief desire that the sacred Scriptures might not in an unknown Tongue be locked or hidden from them; very hateful and hellish did the policy of Popery appear to him on this account: Our Eliot was very unlike to that Franciscan, who writing into Europe, gloried much how many thousands of Indians he had converted; but added, That he desired his Friend would sand him the Book called the Bible; for he had heard of there being such a Book in Europe, which might be of some use to him, No, our Eliot found he could not live without a Bible himself; he would have partend with all his Estate sooner than have lost a Leaf of it; and he knew it would be of more than some use unto the Indians too; he therefore with a vast labour translated the Holy Bible into the Indian Language. Behold, ye Americans, the greatest honour that ever you were partakers of! This Bible was printed here at our Cambridge; and it is the only Bible that ever was printed in all America, from the very foundation of the World. The whole Translation he writ with but one Pen; which Pen, had it not been lost, would have certainly deserved a richer Case than was bestowed upon that Pen which Halland writ his Translation of Plutarch with. The Bible being justly made the Leader of all the rest, a little Indian Library quickly followed; for besides Primers, and Grammars, and some other such Composures, we quickly had The practise of Piety in the Indian Tongue; and the Reverend Richard Baxter's Call to the Unconverted; he also translated some of Mr. Shepherd's Composures; and such Catechisms likewise as there was occasion for. It cannot but be hoped that some Fish were to be made alive, since the Waters of the Sanctuary thus came unto them.   

( d) His gathering of a Church at Natick.  
THE Indians that had felt the Impressions of his Ministry, were quickly distinguished by the name of Praying-Indians; and these Praying-Indians as quickly were for a more decent, and English way of living, and they desired a more fixed Cohabitation. At several Places did they now combine and settle: But the Place of greatest name among their Towns. is that of Natick.  
Here 'twas, that in the year 1651 those that had heretofore lived like the wild Beasts in the Wilderness, now compacted themselves into a Town; and they first applied themselves to the forming of their Civil Government. Our General Court, notwithstanding their exact study to keep these Indians very sensible of their being subject unto the English Empire, yet had allowed them their smaller Courts, wherein they might govern their own smaller Cases and Concers after their own particular modes, and might have their Town Orders, if I may call them so, peculiar to themselves. With respect hereunto, Mr. Eliot on a Solemn Fast made a public Vow, That seeing these Indians were not prepossessed with any Forms of Government, he would instruct them into such a Form as we had written in the Word of God, that so they might be a People in all things ruled by the Lord. Accordingly, he expounded unto them the eighteen Chapter of Exodus; and then they choose Rulers of Hundreds, of Fifties, of Tens; and therewithal entred into this Covenant.  
We are the Sons of Adam; We and our Forefathers have a long time been lost in our sins; but now the Mercy of the Lord beginneth to find us out again; therefore the Grace of Christ helping us, we do give ourselves and our Children unto God, to be his People. He shall rule us in all our Affairs; The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us; and the wisdom which God has taught us in his Book shall guide us. Oh Jehovah! Teach us wisdom; sand thy Spirit into our hearts; take us to be thy People, and let us take thee to be our God.  
Such an opinion about the perfection of the Scripture had he, that he thus expressed himself upon this occasion; God will bring Nations into distress and perplexity, that so they may be forced unto the Scriptures; all Governments w●ll be shaken, that men may be forced at length to pitch upon that firm foundation, The Word of God.  
The little Towns of these Indians being pitched upon this Foundation, they utterly obandoned that Polygamy which had heretofore been common among them; They made severe Laws against Fornication, Drunkenness, and Sabbath-breaking, and other Immoralities; which they began to lament after the establishment of a Church-order among them, and after the several Ordinances and Privileges of a Church Communion. The Churches of New-England have usually been very strict in their admissions to Church-Fellowship, and required very signal demonstrations of a Repenting and a Believing Soul, before they thought men fit Subjects to be entrusted with the Rights of the Kingdom of Heaven. But they seemed rather to augment than abate their usual Strictness when the Examination of the Indians was to be performed. A day was therefore set apart, which they called Natootomeuhtenicusuk, or, a Day of asking Questions, when the Ministers of the adjacent Churches, assisted with all the best Interpreters that could be had, publicly examined a good number of these Indians, about their Attainments both in Knowledge and in virtue. And notwithstanding the great satisfaction then received, our Churches being willing to proceed surely, and therefore slowly, in raising them up to a Church state, which might be comprehended in our Consociations, the Indians were afterwards called in Considerable Assemblies convened for that purpose, to make open Confession of their Faith in God and Christ, and of the Efficacy which his word had upon them for their Conversion to him; which Confessions being taken in writing from their mouths by able Interpreters, were scanned by the People of God, and found much acceptance with them.  
I need pass no further censure upon them, than what is given by my Grandfather, the well-known Richard madder, in an Epistle of his, published on this occasion; says he, There is so much of God's Work among them, as that I cannot but count it a great Evil, yea, a great Injury to God and his Goodness, for any to make light of it. To see and hear Indians open their Mouths, and lifting up their Hands and Eyes in Prayer to the Living God, calling on him by his Name Jehovah, in the Mediation of Jesus Christ, and this for a good while together; to see and hear them exhorting one another from the Word of God; to see and hear them confessing the Name of Christ Jesus, and their own Sinfulness; sure this is more than usual! And tho they spoken in a Language, of which many of us understood but little, yet we that were present that day, we saw and heard them perform the Duties mentioned with such grave and sober Countenances, with such comely reverence in their gesture, and their whole carriage, and with such plenty of Tears trickling down the Cheeks of some of them, as did argue to us that they spake with the holy Fear of God, and it much affencted our hearts.  
At length was a Church-state settled among them: They entred as our Churches do, into an holy Covenant, wherein they gave themselves, first unto the Lord, and then unto one another, to attend the Rules and Helps, and expect the Blessings of the Everlasting Gospel; and Mr. Eliot, having a Mission from the Church of Roxbury unto the work of the Lord Christ among the Indians, conceived himself sufficiently authorised unto the performing of all Church-work about them; grounding it on Acts 13.1, 2, 3, 4. and he accordingly administered, first the Baptism, and then the Supper of the Lord unto them.   

( e) The Hindrances and Obstructions that the Devil gave unto him.  
WE find four Assemblies of Praying Indians besides that of Natick, in our Neighbourhood. But why no more? Truly, not because our Eliot was wanting in his Offers and Labours for their good; but because many of the obdurate Infidels would not receive the Gospel of Salvation. In one of his Letters, I find him giving this ill report, with such a good reason for it; Lyn-Indians Indians are all nought save one, who sometimes comes to hear the word; and the reason why they are bad, is, principally because their Sachim is nought, and careth not to pray unto God. Indeed the Sachims, or the Princes of the Indians, generally did all they could that their Subjects might not entertain the Gospel; the Devils having the Sachims on their side, thereby kept their Possession of the People too. Their Pauwaws of Clergy-Men, did much to maintain the Interest of the Devils in this Wilderness, those Children of the Devil, and Enemies of all Righteousness, did not cease to pervert the Right ways of the Lord; but their Sachims or Magistrates did more towards it; for they would presently raise a Storm of Persecution upon any of their Vassals that should Pray unto the Eternal God. The ground of this conduct in them, was, an old Fear, that Religion would abridge them of the Tyranny which they had been used unto; they always, like the Devil, held their people in a most absolute servitude, and ruled by no Law, but by their Will, which left their poor Slaves nothing that they could call their own. They now suspected that Religion would put a Bridle upon such usurpations, and oblige them to a more Equal and human way of Government; they therefore, some of them, had the Impudence to address the English, that no motions about the Christian Religion might ever be made unto them; and Mr. Eliot sometimes in the Wilderness, without the Company or Assistance of any other Englishman, has been treated in a very threatening and Barbarous manner by some of these Tyrants; but God inspired him with so much Resolution as to tell them, I am about the work of the Great God, and my God is with me, so that I fear neither you, nor all the Sachims in the Country; I'll go on, and do you Touch me if you dare! Upon which the stoutest of them have shrunk and fell before him. And one of them, he at length Conquered by Preaching unto him a Sermon upon the Temptations of our Lord; particularly, the Temptations fetched from the Kingdoms and Glories of the World.  
The little Kingdoms and Glories of the Great Men among the Indians, was a Powerful Obstacle to the success of Mr. Eliot's Ministry; and it is observable, that several of those Nations which thus refused the Gospel, quickly afterwards were so Devil-driven as to begin an unjust and bloody War upon the English, which issued in their speedy and utter Extirpation from the Face of Gods Earth. It was particularly remarked, in Philip, the Ringleader of the most calamitous War that ever they made upon us; our Eliot made a Tender of the Everlasting Salvation to that King, but that Philip entertained it with contempt and anger, and after the Indians mode of joining signs with words, he took a Button upon the Coat of the Reverend Man, adding, That he cared for his Gospel, just as much as he cared for that Button. The World has heard what a Terrible ruin soon came upon that woeful Creature, and upon all his people. It was not long before the hand which now Writes, upon a certain occasion took off the Jaw from the Blasphemous exposed Skull of that Leviathan; and the Renowned Samuel Lee is now Pastor to an English Congregation, sounding and showing the Praises of Heaven, upon that very spot of ground, where Philip and his Indians were lately Worshipping of the Devil.  
Sometimes the more immediate Hand of God, by cutting off the principal Opposers of the Gospel among the Indians, made way for Mr. Eliot's Ministry. As I remember, he relates, that an Association of profane Indians near our Weymouth, set themselves to deter and seduce the Neighbour Indians from the Right ways of the Lord. But God quickly sent the Small-Pox among them, which like a great Plague soon swept them away, and thereby engaged the rest unto himself. I need only to add, That one Attempt made by the Devil, to prejudice the Pagans against the Gospel, had something in it extraordinary. While Mr. Eliot was Preaching of Christ unto the other Indians, a Daemon appeared unto a Prince of the Eastern-Indians, in a shape that had some Resemblance of Mr. Eliot, or of an English Minister, pretending to be, The English-man's God. The Spectre commanded him, To forbear the drinking of Rum, and to observe the Sabbath-day, and to deal justly with his Neighbours; all which things had been inculcated in Mr. Eliot's Ministry; promising therewith unto him, That if he did so, at his Death his Soul should ascend unto a happy Place; otherwise descend unto Miseries; but the Apparition all the while, never said one word about Christ, which was the main subject of Mr. Eliot's Ministry. The Sachim received such an Impression from the Apparition, that he dealt justly with all Men, except in the bloody Tragedies and Cruelties he afterwards committed on the English in our Wars; he kept the Sabbath-day like a Fast, frequently attending in our Congregations; he would not meddle with any Rum, tho usually his Country-men had rather die than undergo such a piece of Self-denial; that liquour has merely Enchanted them. At last, and not long since, this Daemon appeared again unto this Pagan, requiring him to kill himself, and assuring him that he should revive in a day or two, never to die any more. He thereupon divers times attempted it, but his Friends very carefully prevented it; however at length he found a fair Opportunity, for this fowl Business, and hanged himself; you may be sure, without his expected Resurrection. But it is easy to see what a stumbling-block was here laid before the miserable Indians.   

( f) The Indian-Churches at Mashippaug, and elsewhere.  
THE same Spirit which acted Mr. Eliot, quickly inspired others elsewhere, to prosecute the work of rescuing the poor Indians out of their worse than Egyptian-Darkness, in which Evil Angels had been so long preying upon them. One of these was the godly and gracious Richard Bourn, who soon saw a great effect of his holy Labours. In the Year 1666. Mr. Eliot accompanied by the Honourable governor, and several Magistrates and Ministers of Plymouth-Colony procured a vast Assembly at Mashippaug; and there a good number of Indians made Confessions touching the Knowledge and Belief, and Regeneration of their Souls, with such Understanding and Affection, as was extremely grateful to the Pious Auditory. Yet such was the strictness of the good People in this Affair, that before they would countenance the advancement of these Indians unto Church-Fellowship, they ordered their Confessions to be written and sent unto all the Churches in the Colony for their Approbation; but so approved they were, that afterwards the Messengers of all the Churches giving their presence and consent, they became a Church, and choose Mr. Bourn to be their Pastor; who was then by Mr. Eliot and Mr. Cotton ordained unto that Office over them. From hence Mr. Eliot and Mr. Cotton went over to an iceland called Martha's Vineyard, where God had so succeeded the honest Labours of some, and particularly of the Mayhew's, as that a Church was gathered.  
This Church, after Fasting and Prayer, choose one Hiacooms to be their Pastor, John Tockinosh, an able and discreet Christian to be their Teacher; Joshua Mummeecheegs and John Nanaso to be ruling Elders; and these were then ordained by Mr. Eliot and Mr. Cotton thereunto. Distance of Habitation caused this one Church by mutual Agreemant afterwards to become two; the Pastor and one ruling Elder taking one part, and the Teacher and one ruling Elder another; and at Nantucket, another adjacent iceland, was another Church of Indians quickly gathered, who choose an Indian, John Gibs, to be their Minister. These Churches are so exact in their Admission, and so solemn in their Discipline, and so serious in their Communion, that some of the Christian English in the Neighbourhood, which would have been loth to have mixed with them in a Civil Relation, yet have gladly done it a Sacred One.  
'Tis needless for me to repeat what my Father has written about the other Indian Congregations; only there having been made mention of one Hiacooms, I am willing to annex a Passage or two concerning that memorable Indian. That Indian was a very great Instrument of bringing his Pagan and wretched Neighbours, to a saving acquaintance with our Lord Jesus Christ; and God gave him the honour, not only of so doing much for some, but also of suffering much from others, of those unhappy savages. Once particularly, this Hiacooms received a cruel blow from an Indian Prince, which, if some English had not been there, might have killed him, for his Praying unto God. And afterwards he gave this account of his Trial in it; said he, I have two hands; I had one hand for Injuries, and the other for God; while I did receive wrong with the one, the other laid the greater hold on God.  
Moreover, the Powaws did use to hector and abuse the Praying Indians at such a rate, as terrified others from joining with them; but once when those Witches were bragging that they could kill all the Praying Indians if they would; Hiacooms replied, Let all the Powaws in the iceland come together, I'll venture myself in the midst of them; let them use all their Witchcrafts, with the help of God I'll tread upon them all. By this courage he silenced the Powaws; but at the same time also he heartened the People, at such a rate as was truly wonderful; nor could any of them ever harm this Eminent Confessor afterwards; nor indeed any proselyte which had been by his means brought home to God; yea, 'twas observed after this, that they rather killed than cured all such of the Heathen as would yet make use of their Enchantments for help against their Sickness.   

( g) Of Mr. Eliot's Fellow-Labourers in the Indian-work.  
SO little was the Soul of our Eliot infected with any Envy, as that he longed for nothing more than Fellow-Labourers, that might move and shine in the same Orb with himself; he made his cries both to God and Man, for more Labourers to be thrust forth into the Indian Harvest; and indeed it was an Harvest of so few secular Advantages and Encouragements, that it must be nothing less than a Divine Thrust, which could make any to labour in it. He saw the answer of his Prayers, in the Generous and Vigorous Attempts made by several other most worthy Preachers of the Gospel, to Gospelize our perishing Indians. At the writing of my Father's Letter there were four; but the Number of them increases apace among us. At Martha's Vineyard, the old Mr. Mayhew, and several of his Sons, and Grand-sons, have done very worthily for the Souls of the Indians; there were fifteen years ago, by Computation, about fifteen hundred Seals of their Ministry upon that one iceland. In Connecticut, the holy and acute Mr. Fitch, has made noble Essays, towards the Conversion of the Indians; but, I think, the Prince he has to deal withal, being an obstinate Infidel, gives unhappy remoras to the successses of his Ministry. And godly Mr. Pierson has in that Colony deserved well, if I mistake not, upon the same account. In Massachusets we see at this day, the pious Mr. Daniel Gookin, the gracious Mr. Peter Thatcher, the well-accomplished and industrious Mr. Grindal Rawson, all of them hard at work, to turn these poor Creatures from Darkness unto Light, and from Satan unto God. In Plymouth we have the most active Mr. Samuel Treat, laying out himself to save this Generation; and there is one Mr. Tupper, who uses his laudable Endeavours for the Instruction of them.  
'Tis my Relation to him, that causes me to defer unto the last place, the mention, of Mr. John Cotton, who addresses the Indians in their own Language with an admirable Dexterity, and has done more than a little Service for them. He hired an Indian, after the rate of twelve Pence per Day for fifty Days, to teach him the Indian Tongue; but his knavish Tutor having received his whole pay too soon, ran away before twenty Days were out; however, in this time he had profited so far, that he could Preach unto the Natives; and he has ever since been doing much for God among them. Having  told my Reader, that the Second Edition of the Indian Bible was wholly of his Correction and Amendment; because it is not proper for me to say much of him, I shall only add this remarkable Story: Mr. Cotton, accompanied by the Governor and mayor General, and sundry Persons of Quality, made a Journey to a Nation of Indians in the Neighbourhood, with a free offer of the Words whereby they might be Saved. The Prince took time to consider of it, and according to the true English of taking time in such cases, at length he  told them, He did not accept the Tender which they made him. They then took their leaves of him, not without first giving him this plain and short Admonition, If God have any Mercy for your miserable People, he will quickly find away to take you out of the way. 'Twas presently after this, that this Prince going forth to a battle against another Nation of Indians, was killed in the Fight; and the young Prince being in his Minority, the Government fell into the hands of Protectors, which favoured the Interest of the Gospel. Mr. Cotton being advised of it, speedily and prosperously renewed the Tidings of an Eternal Saviour to the savages, who have ever since attended upon his Ministry; and the young Sachim, after he came to Age, expressed his Approbation of the Christian Religion; especially, when a while since he lay a Dying of a tedious Distemper, and would keep reading of Mr. Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, with floods of Tears in his Eyes, while he had any strength to do it.  
Such as these are the Persons whom our Eliot left engaged in the Indian work, when, he departed from his Employment, unto his recompense. And these Gentlemen are so indefatigable in their Labours among the Indians, as that the most equal Judges must aclowledge them worthy of much greater Salaries than they are generously contented with. But one may see then who inspired that clamorous ( tho contemptible and blasted) Persecutor of this Country, who very zealously Addressed the late A. B. of Canterbury, that these Ministers might be deprived of their little Stipends, and that the said Stipends might go to maintain that way of Worship among us, which the Plantation was erected on purpose for the peaceable avoiding of.   

( h) The sacred and solemn Exercises performed in the Indian Congregations.  
MY Father's account of the Exercises performed in the Indian Congregations, will tell us what a blessed Fruit our Eliot saw of his Labours, before he went unto those Rewards which God had reserved in the Heavens for him. Some of the Indians quickly built for themselves good and large Meeting-houses, after the English Mode, in which also after the English Mode they attended the things of the Kingdom of Heaven. And some of the English were helpful to them upon this account; among whom I ought particularly to mention that Learned, Pious and Charitable Gentleman, the Worshipful Samuel Sewal Esq; who at his own Charge built a Meeting-house for one of the Indian Congregations, and gave those Indians cause to pray for him under that Character, He loveth our Nation, for he hath built us a Synagogue.  
It only remains that I give a touch or two upon the Worship which is attended in the Synagogue of the Indians. And first, the very Name of Praying Indians will assure us, that Prayer is one of their Devotions; be sure they could not be our Eliot's Disciples if it were not so. But how do they pray? we are  told it is without a Form, because from the Heart; which is, as I remember, Tertullian's Expression concerning the Prayers in the Assemblies of the Primitive Christians; namely, sine monitore quia de pectore. It is evident, that the Primitive Christians had no stated Liturgies among them; that no Forms of Prayers were in their times imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel; that even about the platform of Prayer given us by our Lord, it was the Opinion of Augustin himself, notwithstanding the advances made in his Age towards what we count Superstitious, that our Lord therein taught not what words we should use in Prayer, but what things we should pray for. And whatever scoffs the profanity of our days has abused that Phrase and thing withal, Gregory Nazianzen in his days counted it the Honour of his Father's public Prayers, that he had them from, and made them by the Holy Spirit. Our Indians accordingly find, that if they study the words of God, and their own Sins, and Wants, and Woes, they shall soon come to that attaimment, Behold they pray! They can pray with much pertinence and enlargement; and would much wonder at it, if they should hear of an English Clergy that should red their Prayers out of a Book, when they should pour out their Souls before the God of Heaven.  
Their Preaching has much of Eliot, and therefore you may be sure much of Scripture; but perhaps more of the Christian than of the Scholar in it. I know not how to describe it better, than by reciting the Heads of a Sermon, uttered by an Indian, on a Day of Humiliation kept by them, at a time when great reins had given much damage to their Fruits and Fields; 'Twas on this wise: A little I shall say, according to that little I know.  
Gen. 8.20, 21. And Noah built an Altar to Jehovah; he took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the Altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet Savour, and the Lord said in his Heart, I will not again Curse the Ground. 
In that Noah sacrificed, he shew'd himself thankful; in that Noah worshipped, he shewed himself godly. In that he offered clean Beasts, he shewed that God is an holy God. And all that come to God must be pure and clean. Know, that we must by Repentance purge ourselves; which is the Work we are to do this Day.  
Noah sacrificed, and so worshipped. This was the manner of old time. But what Sacrifices have we now to offer? I shall answer by that in Psal. 4.5. Offer to God the Sacrifice of Righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord These are the true Spiritual Sacrifices which God requireth at our hands; the Sacrifices of Righteousness; that is, we must look to our Hearts and Ways, that they be Righteous; and then we shall be acceptable to God when we worship him. But if we be unrighteous, unholy, ungodly, we shall not be accepted, our Sacrifices will be stark nought. Again, we are to put our trust in the Lord. Who else is there for us to trust in? We must believe in the Word of God, if we doubt of God, or doubt of his Word, our Sacrifices are little worth; but if we trust steadfastly in God, our Sacrifices will be good.  
Once more, what Sacrifices must we offer? My answer is, we must offer such as Abraham offered. And what a Sacrifice was that? We are  told in Gen. 22.12. Now I know that thou fearest me, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son, thy only Son from me. It seems he had but one dearly beloved Son, and he offered that Son to God; and so God said, I know thou fearest me! Behold, a Sacrifice indeed and in truth! such an one must we offer. Only, God requires not us to Sacrifice our Sons, but our Sins; our dearest Sins. God calls us this day to part with all our Sins, tho' never so beloved; and we must not withhold any of them from him. If we will not part with all, the Sacrifice is not right. Let us part with such Sins as we love best, and it will be a good Sacrifice.  
God smelled a sweet savour in Noah's Sacrifice; and so will God receive our Sacrifices, when we worship him aright. But how did God manifest his acceptance of Noah's Offering? 'Twas by promising to drown the World no more, but give us fruitful Seasons. God has chastised us of late, as if he would utterly drown us; and he has drowned, and spoiled, and ruined a great deal of our Hay, and threatens to kill our cattle. 'Tis for this that we Fast and Pray this Day. Let us then offer a clean and pure Sacrifice, as Noah did; so God will smell a savour of Rest, and he will withhold the Rain, and bless us with such Fruitful Seasons as we are desiring of him.   
Thus Preached an Indian called Nishokkon, above thirty years ago; and since that, I suppose, they have grown a little further into the New-English way of Preaching: You may have in their Sermons a Kukkeoromwohteaonk, that is, a Doctrine, Nahtootomwehteaonk, or, an Answer, a Witcheayeuonk, or, a Reason with an Ouwoteank, or, an Use for the close of all.  
As for holidays, you may take it for granted, our Eliot would not persuade his Indians to any stated ones. Even the Christmas-Festival itself, he knew to be a stranger unto the Apostolical times; that the exquisite Vossius himself acknowledges, 'twas not celebrated in the First or Second Century: And that there is a Truth in the words of the great Chemuitius, Anniversarium Diem Natalis Christi, celebratum fuisse, apud vetussimos nunquam leginur. It was his Opinion, that if the Day of our Lord's Nativity were to be observed, it should not be in December: that many Churches for divers Ages kept it not in December, but in January; that Chrysostom himself, about four hundred Years after our Saviour, excuses the Novelty of the December-season for it, and confesses it had not been kept above ten years at Constantinople: No, that it should be rather in September, in which Month the Jews kept the Feast that was a Type of our Lord's Incarnation; and Solomon also brought the Ark into the Temple, for our Lord was thirty years old when he entred upon his public Ministry; and he continued in it three years and an half; now his Death was in March, and it is easy then to calculate when his Birth ought to be. He knew that indeed God had hide this Day, as he did the Body of Moses, to prevent Idolatry; but that Antichrist had choose this Day to accommodate the Pagans in their licentious and their debauched Saturnalia; and that a Tertullian would not stick to say, Shall we Christians, who have nothing to do with the Festivals of the Jews, which were of Divine Institution, embrace the Saturnalia of the Heathen? How do the Gentiles shane us, who are more true to their Religion than we are to ours? None of them will observe the Lord's Day, for fear lest they should be Christians; and shall not we then by observing their Festivals, fear lest we be made ethnics? In fine, it was his Opinion, That for us to have stated holidays, which are not appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ, is a deep Reflection upon the Wisdom of that Gracious Lord; and he brought up his Indians in the Principles which the old Waldenses had about such non-instituted holidays.  
Nevertheless, he taught them to set apart their Days both for Fasting and Prayer, and for Feasting and Praise, when there should be extraordinary Occasions for them; and they perform the Duties of these Days with a very laborious Piety. One Party of the Indians long since, of their own accord, kept a Day of Supplication together, wherein one of them discoursed upon Psal. 66.7. He rules by his power for ever, his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. And when one asked them afterwards, what was their reason of their keeping such a Day? they replied, It was to obtain five Mercies of God.  
First, That God would slay the rebellion of their Hearts. Next, That they might love God and one another. Thirdly, That they might withstand the Temptations of Wicked Men, so that they might not be drawn back from God. Fourthly, That they might be Obedient unto the Counsels and Commands of their Rulers. Fifthly, That they might have their Sins done away by the Redemption of Jesus Christ. And lastly, That they might walk in the good ways of the Lord. I must here embrace my opportunity to tell the World, That our cautious Eliot was far from the Opinion of those who have thought it not only warrantable, but also commendable to Adopt some Heathenish Usages into the Worship of God, for the more easy and speedy gaining of the Heathen to that Worship. The policy of treating the Pagan Rites as the Jews were to do Captives, before they married them, to shave their Hair, and pare their Nails, our Eliot counted as ridiculous as pernicious. He knew that the Idolatries and Abominations of Popery, were founded in this way of Proselyting the barbarous Nations, which made their Descent upon the Roman Empire; and he looked upon the like methods which the Protestants have used, that they might ingratiate themselves with the Papists, and that our Separation from them should become less dangerous and sensible, to be the most sensible and dangerous wound of the Reformation. Wherefore, as no less a Man than D. Henry Moor says about our Compliances with the Papists, which are a sort of Pagans, Their Conversion and Salvation being not to be compassed by needless Symbolizing with them in any thing, I conceive our best policy is studiously to imitate them in nothing, but for all indifferent things, to think rather the worse of them for their using of them. As no Person of Honour would willingly go in the known Garb of infamous Persons. Whatsoever we court them in, they do but turn it to our scorn and contempt, and are the more hardened in their own wickedness. To act upon this Principle, is the design and glory of New-England! And our Eliot was of this persuasion, when he brought his Indians to a pure, plain, Scripture Worship. He would not gratify them with a Samaritan sort of blended, mixed Worship; and he imagined, as well he might, that the Apostle Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians had enough in it, for ever to deter us all from such unhapyy temporising.   

( i) A Comparison between what the New-Englanders have done for the Conversion of the Indians, and what has been done elsewhere by the Roman catholics.  
IT is to be confessed, That the Roman catholics have a Clergy so very numerous, and so little encumbered, and are Masters of such prodigious Ecclesiastical Revenues, as renders it very easy for them to exceed the Protestants in their endeavours to Christianize the Pagan savages. Nor would I reproach, but rather applaud their industry in this matter, wishing that we were all touched with an Emulation of it. Nevertheless, while I commend their Industry, they do by their Clamours against the Reformed Churches upon this account, oblige me to tax divers very scandalous things in the Missions which they make pro propaganda fide throughout the World; and therewith to compare what has been done by that little handful of Reformed Churches in this Country, which has in divers regards out-done the furthest Efforts of Popery.  
The attainments, which with God's help we have carried up our Indians unto, are the chief honour and glory of our Labours with them. The Reader will smile perhaps, when I tell him, that by an odd accident there are lately fallen into my hands, the Manuscripts of a Jesuit, whom the French employed as a Missionary among the Western Indians; in which Papers there are both a Catechism containing the Principles which those Heathens are to be instructed in; and Cases of Conscience, referring to their Conversations. The Catechism, which is in the Iroquoise Language( a Language remarkable for this, that there is not so much as a Labial in it) with a Translation annexed, has one Chapter about Heaven, and another about Hell, wherein are such Thick skul'd passages as these.  
' Q. How is the Soil made in Heaven?  
A. 'Tis a very fair soil; they want neither for Meats nor Clothes; 'tis but wishing, and we have them.  
' Q. Are they employed in Heaven?  
A. No, they do nothing; the Fields yield Corn, Beans, Pumpkins, and the like without any Tillage.  
' Q. What sort of Trees are there?  
' A. Always green, full and flourishing.  
Q. Have they in Heaven the same Sun, the same Wind, the same Thunder that we have here?  
A. No, the Sun ever shines; 'tis always fair weather.  
' Q. But how their Fruits?  
A. In this one quality they exceed ours; that they are never wasted; you have no sooner plucked one, but you see another presently hanging in its room. And after this rate goes on the Catechism concerning Heaven. Concerning Hell it thus discourses:  
' Q. What sort of a Soil is that of Hell?  
A. A very wretched Soil; 'tis a fiery Pit, in the Center of the Earth.  
' Q. Have they any light in Hell?  
A. No, 'tis always dark; there's always Smoke there; their Eyes are always in pain with it; they can see nothing but the Devils.  
' Q. What shaped things are the Devils?  
A. Very ill shaped things; they go about with Vizards on; and they terrify Men.  
' Q. What do they eat in Hell?  
A. They are always hungry; but the damned feed upon hot Ashes and Serpents there.  
' Q. What water have they to drink?  
A. Horrid Water; nothing but melted led.  
' Q. Don't they die in Hell?  
A. No, yet they eat one another every day; but anon God restores and renews the Man that was eaten, as a cropped Plant, in a little time repullulates.  
It seems they have not thought this Divinity too gross for the Barbarians. But I shall make no reflections on it; only add one or two Cases of Conscience from their Directory.  
'Tis one of their weighty Cases, Whether a Christian be bound to pay his Whore her Hire, or no? To this Father Bruias answers, Tho' he be bound in Justice to do it, yet in as much as the Barbarians[ and you must suppose their Whores to be such!] use to keep no Faith in such matters, the Christians may choose whether they will keep any too. But Father Pierron with a most profound Learning answers, He is not bound unto it all; inasmuch as no Man thinks himself bound to pay a Witch that has enchanted him; and this business is pretty much akin to that. Another of their difficult Cases, is, Whether an Indian stealing an Hatchet from a Dutchman, be bound to make Restitution? And it is very conscientiously determined. That if the Dutchman be one that has used any Trade with other Indians, the Thief is not bound unto any Restitution; for 'tis certain, he gains more by such a Trade than the value of many Hatchets in a Year.  
I'll tyre my Reader with no more of this wretched stuff. But let him understand, that the Proselyted Indians of New-England have been instructed at a more noble rate; we have helped them to the sincere Milk of the Word: We have given them the whole Bible in their own Language, we have laid before them such a Creed as the Primitive Believers had, with such Explications as we embark our own Souls upon the Assurance of. And God has blessed our Education of these poor Creatures in such a measure, that they can Pray and Preach to better Education( give me leave to say it) than multitudes of the Romish-Clergymen. We could have Baptized many Troops of Indians, if we would have used no other measures with them, than the Roman catholics did upon theirs at Maryland, where they Baptized a great Crew of Indians, in some new Shirts, bestowed upon them to encourage them thereunto; but the Indians in a week or two, not knowing how to wash their shirts, when they were grown foul, came and made a motion, that the Roman catholics would give more shirts to them, or else they would Renounce their Baptism. No, 'tis a through paced Christianity, without which we have not imagined our Indians Christianized.  
Nor have we been acted with a Roman-Catholick Avarice and Falsity and Cruelty in prosecuting of our Conversions; 'tis the Spirit of an ELIOT, that has all along directed us. 'Tis a Specimen of the Popish Avarice, that their Missionaries are very rarely employed but where beaver, and Silver, and vast Riches are to be thereby gained; their Ministry is but a sort of Engine, to enrich Europeans with the Treasures of the Indies; thus one escaped from Captivity among the Spaniards,  told me, that the Spanish Friars had carried their Gospel into the spacious Country of California; but finding the Indians there to be extremely poor, they quickly gave other the work, because forsooth such a poor Nation was not worth Converting. Whereas the New-Englanders could expect nothing from their Indians. We are to feed them and cloath them rather than receive any thing from them, when we bring them home to God. Again, the Popish Falsity disposes them to so much Legerdemain in their Applications, as is very disagreeable to the Spirit and Progress of the Gospel. My worthy Friend, Mynheer Daille, who has been sedulous and successful in his Ministry among the Maqua's, assures me, that a French Predicator, having been attempting to bring over those Indians unto the Interest( not of our Saviour, so much as) of Canada, at last, for a cure of their Infidelity,  told them, he would give them a sign of God's Displeasure at them for it; The Sun should such a day be put out. This terrified them at a sad rate, and with great admiration and expectation, they  told the Dutch of what was to come to pass; the Dutch replied, This was no more than every Child among them could foretell; they all knew there would then be an Eclipse of the Sun, but( said they) speak to Monsieur, that he would get the Sun extinguished a day before, or a day after what he spoken of, and if he can do that, believe him. When the Indians thus understood what a Trick the Frenchmen would have put upon them, they became irreconcilably prejudiced against all his offers; nor have the French been since able to gain much upon that considerable People. The New-Englanders have used no such Stratagems and Knaveries; 'tis the pure light of truth, which is all that has been used for the effecting of the rude People, whom 'twas easy to have cheated into our Profession. Much less have we used that Popish Cruelty, which the Natives of America have by some other People been treated with. Even a Bishop of their own, hath published very Tragical Histories of the Spanish Cruelties upon the Indians of this Western World. Such were those Cruelties, that the Indians at length declared, They had rather go to Hell with their Ancestors, than to the same Heaven which the Spaniards pretended unto. 'Tis indeed impossible to reckon up, the various and exquisite Barbarities with which these execrable Spaniards murdered in less than fifty Years, no less than fifty Millions of the Indians; it seems this was their way of bringing them into the Sheepfold of our Merciful Jesus; but on the other side, the good People of New England have carried it with so much tenderness towards the Tawny Creatures among whom we live, that they would not own so much as one foot of Land in the Country, without a fair Purchase and Consent from the Natives that laid claim unto it; albeit we had a Royal Charter from the King of Great Britain, to protect us in our Settlement upon this Continent. I suppose, 'twas in revenge upon us for this Conscientiousness, that the late oppressors of New-England, acknowledged no Man to have any Title at all, unto one Foot of Land in all our Colony. But we did, and we do think, notwithstanding the Banters of such Ill Men, that the Indians had not by their Paganism so forfeited all Right unto any of their Possessions, that the first pretended Christians that could, might violently and yet honestly seize upon them. Instead of this, the People of New England, knowing that some of the English were sufficiently covetous and encroaching, and that the Indians in streights are easily prevailed upon, to sell their Lands, made a Law, That none should Purchase, or so much as Receive any Land of the Indians, without the allowance of the General Court. Yea, and some Lands which were peculiarly convenient for the Indians, our People, who were more careful of them than they were of themselves, made a Law, That they should never be bought out of their Hands. I suppose after this, it would surprise Mankind, if they should hear such wonderful Creatures as our late Secretary, affirming, This barbarous People were never civilly treated by the late Government, who made it their business to encroach upon their Lands, and by degrees to drive them out of all. But, how many other Laws we made in favour of the Indians, 'tis not easy to reckon up. 'Twas one of our Laws, That for the further Encouragement of the hopeful Work among them, for the civilising & Christianizing of them, any Indian that should be brought unto Civility, and come to live orderly in any English Plantation, should have such Alotments among the English, as the English had themselves. And, that if a competent number of them, should so come on to Civility, as to be capable of a Township, the General Court should grant them Lands for a Plantation, as they do unto the English; Altho we had already bought up their Claims unto our Lands. We likewise had our Laws. That if any of our Cattle did any damage to their Corn, we should make them ample Satisfaction; and that we should give them all manner of Assistance in Fencing of their Fields. And because the Indians are excessively given unto the 'vice of Drunkenness, which was a 'vice unknown to them, until the English brought Strong-drink in their way, we have had a severe Law against all selling or giving any Intoxicating liquours to them. It were well if this Law were more severely Executed.  
By this time I hope I have stopped the Calumnious Exclamations of the Roman catholics against the Churches of the Reformation, for neglecting to Evangelize the Natives of the Indies. But let me take this occasion to address the Christian Indians of my own Country, into some of whose hands 'tis likely this little Book may come.  
¶ Behold ye Indians, what love, what care, what cost, has been used by the English here, for the Salvation of your Precious and Immortal Souls. It is not because we have expected any Temporal Advantage from you, that we have been thus concerned for your good: No, 'tis God that has caused us to desire his Glory in your Salvation; and our hearts have bled with pity over you, when we have seen how horribly the Devil Oppressed you in this, and destroyed you in another World. It is much that has been done for you, we have put you into a way to be happy both on Earth while you live, and in Heaven when ye die. What can you think will become of you, if you slight all these Glorious offers! me thinks you should say to yourselves, Vitoh woh kiisinne peh quoh humunan mishanantamog ne mohsag wadchanituonk! You all believe that your Teacher Eliot was a Good and a Brave Man, and you would count it your Blessedness to be for ever with him. Nevertheless, I am to tell you, that if you don't become Real, and through, and Holy Christians, you shall never have a comfortable sight of him any more. You know how he has fed you, and clothed you, as well as Taught you; you know how his Bowels yearned over you, even as tho' you had been his Children, when he saw any Afflictions come upon you; but if he find you among the wicked, in the day of judgement, which he so often warned you of, he will then be a Dreadful Witness against you; and when the Lord Jesus passes that se●tence on you, Depart ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire with the Devil and his Angels, even your own Eliot will then say, Amen, unto it all. Now to deal plainly with you, there are two Vices, which many of you are too prove unto, and which are utterly inconsistent with a True Christianity. One of those Vices is that of Idleness; if you had a Disposition to follow an honest Calling, what should hinder you from growing as Considerable in your Estates, as many of your English Neighbours? Whereas, you are now poor, mean, ragged, starved, contemptible and miserable; and instead of being able, as your English Neighbours do, to support the Ordinances of God, you are beholden to them, not only for maintaining of those Blessed Ordinances among you, but for many other kindnesses. And have you indeed forgot the Commandment of God which has been so often laid before you, Six days shalt thou Labour! For shane apply yourselves to such Labour as may bring you into more Handsome Circumstances. But the other of those Vices, is that of Drunkenness. There are godly English Neighbours, of whom you should learn to pray; but there are some of you that learn to Drink, of other profane, debauched English Neighbours. Poor Creatures, 'tis by this Iniquity that Satan still keeps possession of many Souls among you, as much as if you were still in all your woeful Heathenism; and how often have you been  told, Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? I beseech you to be sensible of the mischiefs to which this thing exposes you, and never dream of escaping the Vengeance of Eternal Fire, if you indulge yourselves in this Accursed Thing. I have done, when I have wished that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus may always Run and be Glorified among you.     

The Conclusion, or, Eliot Expiring,  
BY this time, I have doubtless made my Readers loth to have me tell what now remains of this little History; doubtless they are wishing that this John might have Tarried until the Second coming of our Lord. But, alas, All devouring Death at last snatched him from us, and slighted all those Lamentations of ours, My Father, My Father, the Chariots of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof!  
When he was become a sort of Miles Emeritus; and began to draw near his End, he grew still more Heavenly, more savoury, more Divine, and Scented more of the Spicy Country at which he was ready to put ashore. As the Historian observes, of Tiberius; That when his Life and Strength were going from him, his 'vice yet remained with him; on the contrary, the Grace of this Excellent Man rather increased than abated, when every thing else was dying with him. 'Tis too usual with Old Men, that when they are past work, they are least sensible of their inabilities and incapacities, and can scarce endure to see another succeeding them in any part of their Office. But our Eliot was of a Temper quiter contrary thereunto; for finding many Months before his Expiration, That he had not Strength enough to Edify his Congregation with public Prayers and Sermons, he importuned his People with some impatience to call another Minister; professing himself, unable to die with comfort, until he could se a good Successor ordained, Settled and Fixed among them. For this Cause, he also cried mightily unto the Lord Jesus, our Ascended Lord, that he would give such a gift unto Roxbury; and he sometimes called his whole Town together, to join with him in a Fast for such a Blessing. As the return of their Supplications, our Lord quickly bestowed upon them, a Person young in Years, but old in Discretion, Gravity and Experience; and one whom the Church of Roxbury hopes to find, A Pastor after God's own Heart.  
It was Mr. Nehemiah Walter, who being by the unanimous Vote and Choice of the Church there, become the Pastor of Roxbury, immediately found the Venerable Eliot Embracing and Cherishing of him, with the tender Affections of a Father. The good Old Man like Old Aaron as it were disrobed himself, with an unspeakable Satisfaction, when he beholded his Garments put upon a Son so dear unto him. After this, he for a year or two before his Translation, could scarce be persuaded unto any public Service, but humbly pleaded, what none but he would ever have said, It would be a wrong to the Souls of the people, for him to do any thing among them, when they were supplied so much to their Advantage otherwise. If I mistake not, the Last that ever he Preached was on a public Fast; when he fed his People with a very distinct, and useful Exposition upon the Eighty Third Psalm; and he concluded with an Apology, begging his Hearers to pardon the poorness, and meanness and brokenness,( as he called it) of his Meditations, but added he, My dear Brother here, will by and by mend all.  
But altho' he thus dismissed himself, as one so near to the Age of Ninety, might well have done from his public Labours; yet he would not give over his endeavours, in a more private Sphere, to Do good unto all. He had always been an Enemy to Idleness; any one that should look into the little Diary that he kept in his almanacs would see that there was with him, No day without a Line; he was troubled when he saw how much Time was devoured by the slavery to Tobacco, which too many debase themselves unto; and now he grew old, he was desirous that his Work should hold place with his Life; the less Time he saw left, the less was he willing to have lost. He imagined that he could now do nothing to any purpose in any Service for God; and sometimes he would say with an Air peculiar to himself, I wonder for what the Lord Jesus Christ lets me live; he knows that now I can do nothing for him! And yet he could not forbear Essaying to do something for his dearest Lord; wherefore, thought he, What shall I do? And he then conceived, that tho' the English could not be benefited by any Gifts which he now fancied himself to have only the ruins of, yet who can tell but the negroes might! He had long lamented it with a bleeding and burning passion, that the English used their negroes but as for Horses for their Oxen, and that so little care was taken about their precious and immortal Souls, he looked upon it as a Prodigy, that any wearing the Name of Christians, should so much have the Heart of Devils in them, as to prevent and hinder the Instructions of the poor Blackamoores, and confine the Souls of their miserable Slaves to a destroying ignorance, merely for fear of thereby losing the benefit of their Vassalage; but now he made a motion to the English within two or three miles of him, that at such a time and place they would sand their negroes once a week unto him: For he would then catechize them, and Enlighten them to the utmost of his power in the things of their Everlasting Peace; however, he did not live to make much progress in this Undertaking.  
At length when he was able to do little without doors, he tried then to do something within; and one thing was this. A young Boy in the Neighbourhood, had in his Infancy fallen into a fire, so as to burn himself into a perfect Blindness; but this Boy being now grown to some bigness, the good old Man took him home to his house, with some intentions to make a Scholar of him. He first informed him of and from the Scripture, in which the Boy so profited, that in a little time he could even Repeat many whole Chapters Verbatim, and if any other in Reading missed a word, he would mind them of it; yea, and an ordinary piece of Latin was become easy to the Lad; but having his own Eyes closed by Death, he could no longer help the poor Child against the want of his.  
Thus, as the Aged Polycarp could say, These Eighty Six years have I served my Lord Jesus Christ; and he has been such a good Master to me all this while, that I will not now forsake him. Such a Polycarp was our Eliot; he had been so many years engaged in the sweet service of his dear Jesus, that he could not now give it over: 'Twas his Ambition and his privilege, to bring forth Fruit in old Age; and what veneration the Church of Smyrna paid unto that Angel of theirs, we were upon the like Accounts willing to give unto this Man of God.  
While he was thus making his Retreat out of this evil World, his Discourses from time to time ran upon, The Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; it was the Theme which he still had Recourse unto, and we were sure to have something of this, whatever other Subject he were upon. On this he talked, of this he prayed, for this he longed, and especially when any bad News arrived, his usual reflection thereupon would be, Behold some of the Clouds in which we must look for the coming of the Son of Man. At last, his Lord, for whom he had been long wishing, Lord come, I have been a great while ready for thy coming! at last, I say, his Lord came, and fetched him away into the Joy of his Lord.  
He fell into some Languishments, attended with a Fever, which in a few days brought him into the Pangs( may I say? or Joys) of Death; and while he lay in these, Mr. Walter coming to him, he said unto him, Brother, Thou art welcome to my very Soul. Pray, Retire to my Study for me, and give me leave to be gone; meaning that he should not, by Petitions to Heaven for his Life, detain him here. It was in these Languishments, that speaking about the Work of the Gospel among the Indians, he did after this heavenly manner express himself, There is a Cloud( said he) a dark Cloud upon the Work of the Gospel among the poor Indians. The Lord revive and prosper that Work and grant it may live when I am dead. It is a Work which I have been doing much and long about. But what was the word I spoken last? I recall that word, My Doings: Alas, they have been poor and small and lean Doings, and I'll be the Man that shall throw the first ston at them all.  
It has been observed, that they who have spoken many considerable things in their Lives, usually speak few at their Deaths. But it was otherwise with our Eliot, who after much Speech of and for God in his Life-time, uttered some things little short of Oracles on his Death bed; which, 'tis a thousand Pities, they were not more exactly regarded and recorded. Those Authors that have taken the pains to Collect, Apophthegmata Morentium, have not therein been unserviceable to the Living; but the apothegms of a Dying Eliot must have had in them a Grace and a Strain truly extraordinary; and indeed the vulgar Error of the signal Sweetness in the Song of a Dying Swan, was a very Truth in our expiring Eliot; his last Breath smelled strong of Heaven, and was Articled into none but very gracious Notes; one of the last whereof, was, welcome Joy! and at last it went away, calling upon the standards by, to Pray, pray, pray! which was the thing in which so vast a Portion of it had been before employed.  
This was the Peace, in the end of this Perfect and upright Man; thus was there another Star fetched away to be placed among the rest that the third Heaven is now enriched with. He had once, I think, a pleasant Fear, that the old Saints of his Acquaintance, especially those two dearest Neighbours of his, Cotton of Boston, and madder of Dorchester, which were got safe to Heaven before him, would suspect him to be gone the wrong way because he stayed so long behind them. But they are now together with a blessed Jesus, beholding of his Glory, and celebrating the high Praises of Him that has called them into his marvelous light. Whether Heaven was any more Heaven to him, because of his finding there so many Saints with whom he once had his Delicious and Celestial Intimacies, yea, and so many Saints which had been the Seals of his own Ministry, in this lower world, I cannot say; but it would be Heaven enough unto him, to go unto that Jesus, whom he had loved, preached, served, and in whom he had been long assured, there does All fullness dwell. In that Heaven I now leave him: But not without Grynaeus's Pathetical Exclamations [ O beatum illum dieum!] Blessed will be the Day, O blessed the Day of our Arrival to the glorious Assembly of Spirits, which this great Saint is now rejoicing with!  
Bereaved New-England, where are thy Tears, at this ill boding Funeral? We had a Tradition among us, That the Country could never perish as long as Eliot was alive. But into whose hands must this Hippo fall, now the Austin of it is taken away? Our Elisha is gone, and now who must next year invade the Land? The Jews have a saying, Quando Luminaria paetiuntur Eclipsin, malim signum est mundo: But I am sure, 'tis a dismal Eclipse that has now befallen our New-English World. I confess, many of the Ancients fell into the vanity of esteeming the relics of the Dead Saints, to be the Towers and Ramparts of the place that enjoyed them; and the dead Bodies of two Apostles in the City, made the Poet cry out, A fancy Hostilis dvo propugnacula praesunt.  
If the Dust of dead Saints could give us any protection, we are not without it; here is a Spot of American Soil that will afford a rich Crop of it, at the Resurrection of the Just. Poor New England has been as Glastenbury of old was called, A Burying Place of Saints, But we cannot see a more terrible prognostic than Tombs filling apace with such Bones, as those of the Renowned Eliot's: The whole Building of this Country trembles at the fall of such a Pillar.  
For many Months before he died, he would often cheerfully tells us, That he was shortly going to Heaven, and that he would carry a deal of good News thither with him; he said, He would carry Tidings to the Old Founders of New England, which were now in Glory, that Church work was yet carried on among us: That the number of our Churches was continually increasing: and that the Churches were still kept as big as they were, by the daily additions of those that shall be saved. But the going of such as he from us, will apace diminish the occasions of such happy tidings,  
What shall we now say? Our Eliot himself used most affectionately to bewail the Death of all useful Men; yet if one brought him the notice of such a thing, with any Dispondencies, or said, O Sir, such a one is Dead, what shall we do? He would answer, Well, but God lives, Christ lives, the Old Saviour of New England yet lives, and he will Reign till all his Enemies are made his Footstool. This and only this consideration have we to relieve us; and let it be accompanied with our addresses to the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, That there may be Timothies raised up in the room of our departed Pauls; and that when our Moses's are gone, the Spirit which was in those brave men, may be put upon the surviving Elders of our Israel.  
The last thing, that ever our Eliot put off, was, The care of all the Churches, which with a most Apostolical and Evangelical Temper he was continually solicitous about. When the Churches of New England were under a very uncomfortable prospect, by the advantage which men that sought the ruin of those Golden and Holy, and Reformed Societies, had obtained against them, God put it into the heart of one well-known in these Churches, to take a Voyage into England, that he might by his Mediations at Whitehall, divert the Storms that were then impending over us. 'Tis not easy to express what Affection our Aged Eliot prosecuted this undertaking with; and what Thanksgiving he rendered unto God for any hopeful successses of it. But because one of the last Times, and for ought I know, The Last, of his ever setting Pen to Paper in the World, was upon this occasion; I shall transcribe a short Letter, which was written by the shaking hand, that had heretofore by Writing deserved so well from the Church of God, but was now taking its leave of writing for ever. It was written to the Person that was Engaging for us, and thus it ran; 
Reverend and Beloved, Mr. Increase madder.  
I cannot writ. red Neh. 2.10. When Sanbalat the Horonite, and Tobijah the Servant, the Ammonite heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, that there was come a Man to seek the Welfare of the Children of Israel.  
Let thy blessed Soul feed full and fat upon this and other Scriptures. All other things I leave to other Men; and rest,  
Your Loving Brother, John Eliot.   
These two or three Lines manifest the Care of the Churches which breathed in this great old Man, as long as he had a Breath to draw in the World. And since he has left few like him for a comprehensive and universal Regard unto the Prosperity 〈…〉 all the Flocks in this Wilderness, we hav●… little now to comfort us in the loss of on●… so like a Patriarch among us, but only this; That our poor Churches, it may be hoped, have still some Interest in the Cares of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks. Lord make our Churches and keep them, yet Golden Candlesticks! Amen.  
But I have not obtained the end of this History, nor may I let this History come to an end, until I do with some importunity bespeak the Endeavours of good Men every where, to labour in that Harvest which the blessed ELIOT justly counted worthy of his utmost Pains and Cares. It was the Confession of Themistocles, that the Victories of Miltiades would not let him sleep in quietness; may those of our Eliot raise a like Emulation in those that have now seen the Life of this Evangelical Hero! When one Robert bailie many years ago, published a Book, where in several gross lies by which the nam●… of that JOHN COTTON, who was known to be one of the holiest Men then alive, was most injuriously made odious unto the Churches abroad, were accompanied with some Reflections upon poor New England, whereof this was one, The ●… y of their Churches hath most exceedingly ●… ndred the conversion of the poor Pagans; ●… f all that ever crossed the American Seas, ●… hey are noted as most neglectful of the work ●… f Conversion. We have now seen those Aspersions and Calumnies abundantly wiped away. But let that which has been the Vindication of New-England, be also the Emulation of the World; for shane, let not poor little New-England, ●… e the only Protestant Country that shall do any notable thing for the Propagation of the Faith, unto those dark Corners of the Earth which are full of Cruel Habitations. But the Addresses of so mean a Person as myself, are like to prevail but little abroad with Men of Learning and Figure in the World. However, I shall presume to utter my Wishes in the sight of my Readers; and it is possible that the Great God, who despises not the Prayer of the Poor, may by the Influences of his Holy Spirit, upon the Hearts of some whose Eyes are upon these Lines, give a blessed Answer thereunto.  
Wherefore may the People of New-England, who have seen so sensible a difference between the Estates of those that Sell Drink, and of those that Preach Truth, unto the miserable savages among them, as that even this alone might inspire them, yet from a nobler consideration than that of their own outward prosperity thereby advanced, be encouraged still to prosecute, first the civilising, and then the Christianizing of the Barbarians in their Neighbourhood; and may the New Englanders be so far politic as well as Religious, as particularly to make a Mission of the Gospel unto the mighty Nations of the Western Indians, whom the French have been of late so studiously, but so unsuccessfully tampering with; lest those horrid Pagans, who lately( as 'tis credibly affirmed) had such a measure of Devilism and Insolence in them, as to shoot a Volley of great and small shot against the Heavens, in Revenge upon the Man in the Heavens, as they called our Lord, whom they counted the Author of the heavy Calamities which newly have distressed them, be found spared by our long suffering Lord,[ who then indeed presently tore the Ground asunder, with immediate and horrible Thunders from Heaven round about them, but killed them not!] for a scourge to us, that have not used our advantages to make a virtuous People of them. If a King of the West-Saxons long since ascribed all the Disasters on any of their Affairs, to Negligencies in this Point: Methinks the New-Englanders may not count it unreasonable in this way to seek their own prosperity. Shall we do what we can that our Lord Jesus may bestow upon America, which may more justly be called Columba, that Salutation, O my Dove!  
May the several Plantations, that live upon the Labours of their Negroes, no more be guilty of such a prodigious wickedness, as to deride, neglect, and oppose all due means of bringing their poor Negroes unto our Lord; but may the Masters, of whom God will one day require the Souls of the Slaves committed unto them, see to it, that like Abraham, they have catechised Servants; and not imagine that the Almighty God made so many thousands of reasonable Creatur●s for nothing but only to serve the Lusts of Epicures, or the gains of Mammonists, lest the God of Heaven out of mere Pity, if not Justice, unto those unhappy Blacks, be provoked unto a Vengeance which may not without horror be thought upon: Lord when shall we see Ethiopians red thy Scriptures with Understanding!  
May the English Nation do what may be done, that the welsh may not be destroyed for the lack of Knowledge, lest our indisposition to do for their Souls, bring upon us all those Judgments of Heaven, which Gildas their Country-man once  told them, that they suffered for their disregards unto ours; and may the nefandous Massacres of the English by the Irish, awaken the English to consider, whether they have done enough to reclaim the Irish from the Popish Bigottries and Abominations, with which they have been intoxicated.  
May the several Factories and Companies, whose Concerns lye in Asia, Affrica, or America, be persuaded, as Jacob once, and before him his Grand-Father Abraham was, That they always owe unto God certain Proportions of their Possessions; by the honest payments of which little Quit-rents, they would certainly secure and enlarge their Enjoyment of the Principal; but that they are under a very particular Obligations to Communicate of our Spiritual things unto those Heathen, by whose Carnal things they are enriched: And may they therefore make it their study, to employ some able and pious Ministers, for the Instruction of those Infidels with whom they have to deal, and honourably support such ministers in that Employment.  
May the poor Greeks, Armenians, Muscovites, and others, in the Eastern Countries, wearing the name of Christians, that have little Preaching, and no Printing, and few Bibles, or good Books, now at last be furnished with Bibles, Orthodox Catechisms, and Practical Treatises by the Charity of England; and may our Presses provide good stores of good Books for them, in their own Tongues, to be scattered among them. Who knows what Convulsions might be hastened upon the whole Mahomitan World by such an extensive Charity!  
May sufficient Numbers of Great, Wise, Rich, Learned and Godly Men in the Three Kingdoms, procure well-composed Societies, by whose United Counsels the Noble Design of Evangelizing the World, may he more effectually carried on; and if some generous Persons will of their own accord combine for such Consultations, who can tell, but like some other Celebrated Societies heretofore formed from such small beginnings, they may soon have that countenance of Authority which may produce very Glorious Effects, and give Opportunity to gather vast Contributions from all well-disposed People, to Assist and Advance this Progress of Christianity. God forbid, that Popery should expend upon Cheating more then ten times what we do upon Saving the Immortal Souls of Men.  
Lastly, May many Worthy Men, who find their Circumstances will allow of it, get the Language of some Nations that are not yet brought home to God, and wait upon the Divine Providence, for God's Leading them to, and Owning them in their Apostolical Undertakings. When they remember what Ruffinus relates concerning the Conversion of the Iberians; and what Socrates, with other Authors relates concerning the Conversson wrought by occasion of Frumentius and Aedesius, in the Inner-India, all as it were by accident, surely 'twill make them try what may be done by design for such things now in our Days! Thus let them see, whither while we at home in the midst of wearisome Temptations, are Angling with Rods, which now and then catch one Soul for our LORD, they shall not be Fishing with Nets, which will bring in many thousands of those, concerning whom with unspeakable Joy in the Day of the LORD, they may say, Behold, I, and the Children which GOD has given me! Let them see, whether, supposing they should prosper no farther than to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in all the World, for a Witness unto all Nations, yet the End which is then to come, will not bring to them the more happy Lot, wherein they shall stand, that are found so doing.  
Let no Man be discouraged by the Difficulties which the Devil will be ready to clog such Attempts, against his Kingdom with; for I will take leave so to Translate the Words of the Wise Man, in Prov. 27.4. Who is able to stand before ZEAL? I am well-satisfied, that if Men had the Wisdom, To discern the Signs of the Times they would be all Hands at work to spread the Name of our JESUS into all the Corners of of the Earth. Grant it, O my GOD; and LORD JESUS come quickly.   
FINIS.  

BOOKS lately Printed for J. Dunton, at the Raven in the poultry.  
PRoposals for Printing by way of Subscription, the Second, Third and Fourth Volumes of the French Book of Martyrs, or History of the Famous Edict of Nantes, which three Volumes, with the first ready published, contain an Account of all the Persecutions that have been in France from the beginning of the Reformation, down to this present time; comprehending the Reigns of Henry III. Henry IV. Lewis XIII. and Lewis XIV. The whole Work faithfully extracted from all the public and Secret Memoirs that could possibly be procured by that Learned and Judicious Divine Monsieur Bennoit; Printed first in French, by the Authority of the States of Holland and Westfriezland, and now translated into English, with her Majesties Royal Privilege. These Proposals are to be had of the Undertaker, John Dunton at the Raven in the poultry, and of most Booksellers in London and the Country.  
Bishop Barlow's Remains; Containing near an hundred distinct Subjects, Theological, Philosophical, Historical, &c. in Letters to several Persons of Honour and Quality. To which is added the Resolution of many abstruse Points: As also Directions to a Young Divine, for his study of Divinity, and Choice of his Library. Published from his Lordship's Original Papers. Price Bound 6 s.  
The Eleventh Volume of the Athenian Gazette, or Casuistical Mercury, neatly done up in Marble paper, with a General-Title, Preface and Index to it,( is just now published) resolving all the most Nice and Curious Questions proposed by the Ingenious of either Sex; from Tuesday July 11th to Saturday October 21st, 1693. Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the poultry: Where is to be had the entire Set of Athenian Gazettes,( and the Supplements to 'em) for the Year 1691. As also an entire Set for the Year 1692.( or single Volumes to this time.)  
The Young Students Library; Containing Extracts and abridgement of the most valuable Books printed in England, and in the Foreign Journals from the Year 1665. till May 1692. To which is added a new Essay upon all sorts of Learning, by the Athenian Society: As also a Discourse concerning the Antiquity, Divine Original and Authority of the Points, Vowels and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew-Bible. The complete published Monthly, is a Continuation of this Work.  
The First Volume of the complete Library; Containing an Historical Account of the choicest Books printed in England, and in the Foreign Journals for the Months of May, June, July, August, September, October, and November, 1692. As also The state of Learning for those Months; To which is added two Alphebetical Tables; the one of the Books, and the other of the Matters.  
The Second Volume of the complete Library, for the Months of December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October, 1693. Which with the Months of November and December,( now preparing for the Press) conclude this Second Volume, to which will be added two Alphebetical Tables, the one of the Books, and the other of the Matters.  
The Tragedies of Sin; Together with Remarks on the Life of the Great Abraham. By Stephen Jay, late Rector of Chiner in Oxfordshire.  
Liturgia Tigurina; Or the Book of Common-Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies usually practised, and solemnly performed in all the Churches and chapels of the City and Canton of Zurick in Switzerland, and in some other adjacent Countries, as by their Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws they are appointed; and as by the supreme Power of the Right Honourable the Senate of Zurick they are authorized, established and commanded, with the Orders of that Church; faithfully translated out of the Helvetian into the English Tongue, by John Conrad Wernly, Minister of Wrasbury cum Langley, in the County of Bucks; recommended as a Work that may be of very good Satisfaction and Use, by several of our Reverend Bishops.  
The trials of several Witches, Lately Executed in New-England, with many Remarkable Curiosities therein occurring, &c, published by the Special Command of his Excellency the governor of New-England; first printed in Boston, and now reprinted. The Third Edition.  
A Further Account of the New-England Witches with the Observations of a Person that was upon the place six or seven days when the suspected Witches were first taken into Examination. To which is added Cases of Conscience, concerning Witchcraft and evil Spirits personating men. Written at the request of the Ministers of New-England, by Increase madder, President of Harvard college. price 1 s. This Book is printed on the same size with the first Account of the Witch Tri●ls, that they might bind up together.  
Mensalia Sacra: Or Meditations on the Lord's Supper; wherein the Nature of the Holy Sacrament is explained, and the most weighty Cases of Consciences about it are resolved. By the Reverend Mr. Francis Crow, late Minister of the Gospel at clear in Suffolk; to which is prefixed a Brief Account of the Author's Life and Death, by Mr. Henry Cuts.  
Memoirs of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Anglesey, late Lord Privy-Seal; intermixed with Moral, Political and Historical Observations, by way of Discourse, in a Letter: To which is prefixed a Letter written by his Lordship, during his Retirement from Court, in the Year 1683. published by Sir Peter pet, Knight, Advocate General for the Kingdom of England.  
The Conversion of Theodore John, a late Teacher among the Jews; together with his Confession of the Christian Faith which he delivered immediately before he was baptized. price 6 d.  
A Treatise of Fornication, occasioned by the late Birth of several Illegitimates in the Parish of Chalgrave: To which is added a Penitentiary Sermon, preached before the Guilty Persons, in the public Congregation, upon John 8.11. Go and sin no more. By William Barlow, Rector of Chalgrave.  
The trials of Peter Boss, George Kieth, Thomas bud and William Bradford, Quakers, for several great misdemeanours, before a Court of Quakers, at the Sessions held at Philadelphia in Pensilvania the 9th. 10th. and 12th. days of Deoember 1692. Giving also an account of the most Arbitrary Procedure of that Court.  
An Account of the Divisions amongst the Quakers in Pensilvania.  
A further Account of the Divisions of the Quakers in Pensilvania.  
The Principles, Doctrines, Laws and Orders of the Quakers.