USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 37
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508
HIS SPIRITUAL TEMPTATIONS.
CHAP. Treatises,1 and the Practice of Christianity, the book XXIV. which did first work upon my heart, whether these 1624. men were not all legal men, and their books so. But the Lord delivered me at last from them, and in the conclusion, after many prayers, meditations, duties, the Lord let me see three main wounds in my soul. (1.) I could not feel sin as my greatest evil. (2.) I could do nothing but I did seek myself in it, and was imprisoned there ; and though I desired to be a preacher, yet it was honor I did look to, like a vile wretch, in the use of God's gifts I desired to have. (3.) I felt a depth of atheism and unbelief in the main matters of salvation, and whether the Scriptures were God's word. These things did much trouble me, and in the conclusion did so far trouble me, that I could not read the Scriptures, or hear them read, without secret and hellish blasphemy, calling all into question, and all Christ's miracles. And hereupon I fell to doubt whether I had not committed the un- pardonable sin ; and because I did question whether Christ did not cast out devils from Beelzebub, &c., I did think and fear I had. And now the terrors of God began to break in, like floods of fire, into my soul.
For three quarters of a year this temptation did last, and I had some strong temptations to run my head against walls, and brain and kill myself. And so I did see, as I thought, God's eternal reprobation of me ; a fruit of which was this dereliction to these
1 Richard Rogers was settled in the ministry at Weathersfield, in Essex, and was twice suspended and silenced by Archbishop Whit- gift. He was the father of Daniel
and Ezekiel Rogers, both eminent Puritan divines, and the latter of whom came over to New-England, and was the first minister of Row- ley. See Brook's Puritans, ii. 231.
509
HIS CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN.
doubts and darkness, and I did see God like a con- CHAP. suming fire and an everlasting burning, and myself XXIV. like a poor prisoner leading to that fire ; and the 1624. thoughts of eternal reprobation and torment did amaze my spirits, especially at one time upon a Sab- bath day at evening. And when I knew not what to do, (for I went to no Christian, and was ashamed to speak of these things,) it came to my mind that I should do as Christ, when he was in an agony. He prayed earnestly ; and so I fell down to prayer. And being in prayer, I saw myself so unholy, and God so holy, that my spirits began to sink. Yet the Lord recovered me, and poured out a spirit of prayer upon me for free mercy and pity ; and in the con- clusion of the prayer, I found the Lord helping me to see my unworthiness of any mercy, and that I was worthy to be cast out of his sight, and to leave my- self with him to do with me what he would; and then, and never until then, I found rest, and so my heart was humbled, and cast down, and I went with a stayed heart unto supper late that night, and so rested here, and the terrors of the Lord began to assuage sweetly. Yet when these were gone, I felt my senselessness of sin, and bondage to self, and unconstancy, and losing what the Lord had wrought, and my heartlessness to any good, and loathing of God's ways. Whereupon, walking in the fields, the Lord dropped this meditation into me, " Be not dis- couraged, therefore, because thou art so vile, but make this double use of it ; first, loathe thyself the more; secondly, feel a greater need and put a greater price upon Jesus Christ, who only can redeem thee from all sin." And this I found of wonderful use to
510
HIS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.
CHAP. me in all my course ; whereby I was kept from sink- XXIV. ings of heart, and did beat Satan, as it were, with 1624. his own weapons. And I saw Christ teaching me this before any man preached any such thing unto me. And so the Lord did help me to loathe myself in some measure, and to say oft, Why shall I seek the glory and good of myself, who am the greatest enemy, worse than the Devil can be, against myself; which self ruins me, and blinds me, &c. And thus God kept my heart exercised, and here I began to forsake my loose company wholly, and to do what I could to work upon the hearts of other scholars, and to humble them, and to come into a way of holy walking in our speeches and otherwise. But yet I had no assurance Christ was mine.
4. The Lord therefore brought Dr. Preston to preach upon that text, 1 Cor. i. 30, " Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." And when he had opened how all the good I had, all the redemption I had, it was from Jesus Christ, I did then begin to prize him, and he became very sweet unto me, although I had heard, many a time, Christ freely offered by his ministry, if I would come in, and receive him as Lord, and Sa- viour, and husband. But I found my heart ever un- willing to accept of Christ upon these terms. I found them impossible for me to keep [on] that con- dition ; and Christ was not so sweet as my lust. But now the Lord made himself sweet to me, and to embrace him, and to give up myself unto him. But yet, after this, I had many fears and doubts.
5. I found, therefore, the Lord revealing free mercy, and that all my help was in that to give me
511
THOMAS WELDE, OF ROXBURY.
Christ, and to enable me to believe in Christ, and CHAP. XXIV. accept of him ; and here I did rest.
1624.
6. The Lord also letting me see my own constant vileness in everything, put me to this question, Why did the Lord Jesus keep the law, had no guile in his heart, had no unbrokenness, but holiness there ? Was it not for them that did want it ? And here I saw Christ Jesus's righteousness for a poor sinner's ungodliness ; but yet questioned whether ever the Lord would apply this and give this unto me.
7. The Lord made me see that so many as receive him, he gives power to be the sons of God. And I saw the Lord gave me a heart to receive Christ with a naked hand, even naked Christ ; and so the Lord gave me peace.
And thus I continued till I was six years' stand- ing ; and then went, half a year before I was Master of Arts, to Mr. Weld's house,1 at Tarling, in Es-
John, i. 12.
1625.
1 Thomas Welde was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received the degree of A. B. in 1613, and of A. M. in 1618. He arrived at Boston June 5, 1632, and in July was ordained the first minister of the church in Roxbury. In November following, John Eliot was settled as his colleague. In 1639 he assisted his colleague and Richard Mather in making the New- England Version of the Psalms ; and in 1641 was sent with Hugh Peters to England as an agent of the Colony. In 1646, when Ed- ward Winslow was sent out to an- swer Gorton's complaint, Peters and Weld were dismissed from the agency, and desired to return home. But they both preferred to remain in England. Weld was afterwards settled in the ministry at Gateshead, in the bishoprick of Durham, oppo- site Newcastle. Hutchinson says
he went to Ireland with Lord Forbes, but came back to England, and was ejected from his living in 1662. Whilst in New-England he took an active part in the proceed- ing against Mrs. Hutchinson, and in 1664 published in London a book entitled "A Short Story of the Rise, Reign and Ruin of the Anti- nomians, Familists, and Libertines, that infected the Churches of New- England," and the same year a Vindication of the New-England Churches. His son Edmund grad- uated at Harvard College in 1650, and was settled in Ireland. Another son, John, was a minister at Riton, in the county of Durham. A third son, Thomas, remained in New- England, whose son Thomas grad- uated at Harvard College in 1671, and was the first minister of Dun- stable, N. H. See notes on pages 135 and 365 ; Newcourt's Reperto-
512
THOMAS HOOKER, OF HARTFORD.
CHAP. sex; where I enjoyed the blessing of his and Mr. XXIV. Hooker's1 ministry at Chelmesfoord.2 But before I 1626. came there, I was very solicitous what would become of me when I was Master of Arts ; for then my time and portion would be spent. But when I came
rium, ii. 578 ; Calamy's Noncon. Mem. ii. 181; Winthrop, i. 77, 82, 258, ii. 25 ; Hutchinson's Mass. i. 98, 149, ii. 492, 504; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 248.
1 Thomas Hooker, " the Light of the Western Churches," as Cotton Mather calls him, and "the father and pillar of the churches of Con- necticut," according to Trumbull, was born at Marefield, in Leicester- shire, about the year 1586. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took the de- gree of A. B. in 1607, and of A. M. in 1611, and was elected to a fellow- ship. In 1626 he was chosen lec- turer at Chelmsford, in Essex. Af- ter preaching here four years with great acceptance, he was obliged, on account of his Nonconformity, to relinquish his ministry, and set up a grammar school at Little Baddow, near Chelmsford, where he had John Eliot, afterwards the Indian Apostle, for his usher. Having been cited before the spiritual court sitting at Chelmsford, and bound over to ap- pear before the High Commission, he judged it prudent to retire into Holland, where he preached as a colleague to the celebrated Dr. Ames of Rotterdam. But hearing that many of his friends in Essex were about emigrating to New-England, he accepted their invitation to ac- company them as their pastor. For this purpose he returned to England, and narrowly escaped arrest by the pursuivants, and went on board the ship at the Downs in disguise. In company with Cotton, Stone, and Haynes, he arrived at Boston Sept. 4, 1633, and on the 11th of October was chosen pastor of the church at Newtown, (Cambridge,) Mr. Stone being chosen teacher. In May, 1636,
he removed with his colleague and most of his congregation to Hart- ford, on Connecticut river, where he remained till he died of an epidemic disease, July 7, 1647. Winthrop, speaking of the ravages of this epi- demic, says, " But that which made the stroke more sensible and griev- ous both to them (at Connecticut,) and to all the country, was the death of that faithful servant of the Lord, Mr. Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church in Hartford, who, for piety, prudence, wisdom, zeal, learning, and what else might make him ser- viceable in the place and time he lived in, might be compared with men of greatest note ; and he shall need no other praise ; the fruits of his labors in both Englands shall preserve an honorable and happy re- membrance of him' forever." He left a widow, Susan. His son Sa- muel was the second minister of Farmington, in Connecticut, and three of his daughters, Joanna, Ma- ry, and Sarah, married Rev. Tho- mas Shepard, of Cambridge, Rev. Roger Newton, the first minister of Farmington, and Rev. John Wil- son, of Medfield. See Mather, i. 302; Winthrop, i. 88, 108, 115, 187, ii. 310; Morton's Memorial, p. 237; Trumbull's Conn. i. 293; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii .. 248.
Chelmsford, so called from an ancient ford on the river Chelmer, near its junction with the Can, is a county-town near the centre of Es- sex, 29 miles east-northeast of Lon- don. It is the great thoroughfare between London and the towns of Colchester, Harwich and Braintree, and the county of Suffolk, and many parts of Norfolk. Population in 1841, 6789. See Camden's Britan- nia, p. 346.
513
DOCTOR WILSON'S LECTURESHIP.
thither, and had been there some little season, until CHAP. XXIV. 1626.
I was ready to be Master of Arts, one Dr. Wilson1 had purposed to set up a Lecture,2 and given £30 per annum to the maintenance of it. And when I was among those worthies in Essex, where we had monthly fasts, they did propound it unto me to take the Lecture, and to set it up at a great town in Es- sex, called Cogshall ;3 and so Mr. Weld especially pressed me unto it, and wished me to seek God about it. And after fasting and prayer, the minis- ters in those parts of Essex had a day of humiliation, and they did seek the Lord for direction where to place the Lecture ; and toward the evening of that day they began to consider whether I should go to Cogshall, or no. Most of the ministers were for it, because it was a great town, and they did not know any place [that] did desire it but they. Mr. Hooker only did object against my going thither ; for being but young and unexperienced, and there being an old, yet sly and malicious minister in the town, who did seem to give way to it to have it there, did therefore say it was dangerous and uncomfortable for little birds to build under the nests of old ravens and kites.
But while they were thus debating it, the town of
1 Perhaps Dr. Edmund Wilson, a physician, who was brother of our John Wilson, of the First Church. See note on page 326, and Wood's Fasti Oxon. i. 360, (ed. Bliss.)
2 These Lectures, says Carlyle, were set up by the wealthy Puri- tans in those parts of the country which were insufficiently supplied with preachers. The lecturers were generally persons who were not in priests' orders, having scruples about
the ceremonies, and they lectured on market-days and Sunday afternoons, as supplemental to the regular priest, when he might happen to be idle, or given to black and white surplices. They were greatly followed by the serious part of the community. See note 3 on page 70, and Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 50, 86-88.
3 Coggeshall (Great) is a market town in Essex, six miles from Brain- tree. Population in 1841, 3408.
33
514
THE LECTURE ESTABLISHED AT EARLS-COLNE.
CHAP. Earles-Colne,1 being three miles off from Essex, XXIV. hearing that there was such a Lecture to be given 1626. freely, and considering that the Lecture might enrich that poor town, they did therefore, just at this time of the day, come to the place where the ministers met, viz. at Tarling,2 in Essex, and desired that it might be settled there for three years ; (for no longer was it to continue in any place, because it was con- ceived if any good was done, it would be within such a time; and then, if it went away from them, the people in a populous town would be glad to maintain the man themselves ; or if no good was done, it was pity they should have it any longer.) And when they thus came for it, the ministers, with one joint consent, advised me to accept of the people's call, and to stay among them if I found, upon my preach- ing a little season with them, that they still contin- ued in their desires for my continuance there.
And thus I, who was so young, so weak, and un- experienced, and unfit for so great a work, was called out by twelve or sixteen ministers of Christ to the work; which did much encourage my heart ; and for the Lord's goodness herein I shall, I hope, never forget his love. For I might have been cast away upon a blind place, without the help of any ministry about me. I might have been sent to some gentle- man's house, to have been corrupted with the sins
1 There are four parishes in the archdeaconry of Colchester known by the name of Colne, so called from their situation on or near the river Colne, distinguished by the several additional names of their respective lords. The first of these is Colne- Comitis, or Earls-Colne, so called from the sepulture there of the earls of Oxford, lords of this manor. It
is about 35 miles north-east from London, and seven north-west from Colchester. Population in 1841, 1385. See Newcourt's Reperto- rium, ii. 182 ; Camden's Britannia, pp. 350, 358.
"2 Terling is a parish four miles from Witham. Population in 1841, 921.
515
SHEPARD GOES TO EARLS-COLNE.
in it. But this I have found ; the Lord was not con- CHAP. tent to take me from one town to another, but from XXIV. the worst town I think in the world to the best place 1626. for knowledge and learning, viz. to Cambridge. And there the Lord was not content to give me good means, but the best means, and ministry, and help of private Christians ; for Dr. Preston and Mr. Good- win1 were the most able men for preaching Christ in this latter age. And when I came from thence, the Lord sent me to the best country in England, viz. to Essex, and set me in the midst of the best minis- try in the country ; by whose monthly fasts and con- ferences I found much of God ; and thus the Lord Jesus provided for me of all things of the best.
So being resolved to go unto Earles-Colne, in Es- sex, after my commencing Master of Arts, and my 1627. sinful taking of orders, about a fortnight after, of the Bishop of Peterborough, viz. B. Dove,2 I came to the
1 Thomas Goodwin was an emi- nent Puritan divine, born at Rollesby, in Norfolk, Oct. 5, 1600. He was educated in Christ's College, Cam- bridge, and was a Fellow of Catha- rine Hall. In 1628, he was chosen to succeed Dr. Preston, of whom he was a great admirer, in the lecture- ship at Trinity Church, Cambridge, which he held till 1634, when he left the University and relinquished all his preferments, from unwilling- ness to conform. He remained in retirement till 1638, when he re- moved to Holland, and became pas- tor of a congregation at Arnheim. At the beginning of the Long Par- liament in 1640, he returned to England, and became one of the Assembly of Divines at Westmin- ster, being one of the five Dissent- ing Brethren, or Congregationalists. He was a favorite of Cromwell, who in 1650 appointed him Presi-
dent of Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1653 he was appointed one of the Triers of preachers, and at the Re- storation in 1660 was removed from his presidency. Whereupon he re- tired to London, and died there Feb. 23, 1680, in his 81st year. See Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii. 179, (ed. Bliss) ; Calamy's Nonconformists' Memorial, i. 236 ; Fuller's Church Hist. iii. 447, 461-467.
2 Dr. Thomas Dove was educated in Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He was chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, Dean of Norwich, and in 1600 was made Bishop of Peterborough. He was a very ornate and florid preach- er ; and Queen Elizabeth, when she first heard him, profanely said " she thought the Holy Ghost was de- scended again in this Dove." He died in 1631. See Harington's Nugæ Antiqua, ii. 206, (ed. Park); Fuller's Ch. Hist. iii. 368.
516
THE HARLAKENDEN FAMILY.
CHAP. town, and boarded in Mr. Cosins his house, an aged, XXIV. but godly and cheerful Christian, and schoolmaster 1627. in the town, and by whose society I was much re- freshed, there being not one man else in all the town that had any godliness but him that I could under- stand. So having preached upon the Sabbath day out of 2 Cor. v. 19, all the town gave me a call, and set to their hands in writing ; and so I saw God would have me to be there ; but how to be there, and continue there, I could not tell. Yet I sinfully got a license to officiate the cure, of the Bishop of London's register,1 before my name was known, and by virtue of that I had much help.
But when I had been here a while, and the Lord had blessed my labors to divers in and out of the town, especially to the chief house in the town, the Priory,2 to Mr. Harlakenden's children, where the Lord wrought mightily upon his eldest .son, Mr. Richard,3 (now dwelling there,) and afterward on
1 The diocese of London includes Essex. Mountain was at this time Bishop of the diocese.
2 In the time of William the Con- queror, Aubrey de Vere, and Beat- rice his wife, sister of the Conquer- or, founded in the parish of Earls- Colne a small convent or priory, which he dedicated to St. Andrew. Weever, whose book was published in 1631, says that the house was standing in his time, converted into a private dwelling-place, as also the old chapel, in which had been buried thirteen earls of Oxford. See New- court's Repertorium, ii. 183 ; Wee- ver's Funeral Monuments, p. 614 ; Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, i. 436.
3
Richard Harlakenden was the eldest son of Richard Harlakenden, a gentleman of ancient family and good estate, who was the second
son of Roger Harlakenden, Esq., who in Sept. 1583, purchased of the Earl of Oxford, for the sum of £2000, the manor and park of Earls-Colne, containing 1800 acres of land. Richard was born Dec. 21, 1600, married in May, 1630, Alice, daughter of Henry Mildmay, of Graces, Essex, who was a cousin of our Gov. Winthrop, and died Sept. 4, 1677. His name is men- tioned in the records of the proprie- tors of Cambridge under the date of 1632, as one of " Mr. Hooker's or the Braintree company," the first settlers of that town. Whatever rights he may have thus acquired, he forfeited by not coming over. Being the eldest son and heir, he probably felt it his duty to remain on his paternal estate, in which re- solution he was doubtless confirmed by his brother's early death in the
517
SHEPARD'S MODE OF PREACHING.
Mr. Roger,1 who came over with me to New-Eng- CHAP. land, and died here, Satan then began to rage, and XXIV. the commissaries, registers, and others, began to 1627. pursue me, and to threaten me, as thinking I was a non-conformable man, when, for the most of that time, I was not resolved either way, but was dark in those things. Yet the Lord, having work to do in the place, kept me, a poor, ignorant thing, against them all, until such time as my work was done, by strange and wonderful means. Notwithstanding all the malice of the ministers round about me, the Lord had one way or other to deliver me.
The course I took in my preaching was, first, to show the people their misery ; secondly, the reme- dy, Christ Jesus ; thirdly, how they should walk answerable to his mercy, being redeemed by Christ. And so I found the Lord putting forth his strength in my extreme weakness, and not forsaking of me when I was so foolish, as I have wondered since why .
the Lord hath done any good to me and by me.
Colony. See Morant's Hist. of Es- sex, ii. 211; Mass. Hist. Coll. vii. 10, xxviii. 314, 315.
1 Roger Harlakenden, the second son, was born Oct. 1, 1611, and married Elizabeth, daughter of God- frey Bosseville, Esq., of Gunth- wayte, in Yorkshire, June 4, 1635, two months before he embarked for New-England. He came with Shep- ard in the Defence, in Aug. 1635, bringing with him his wife and his sister Mabell, born Sept. 27, 1614, and who afterwards married John Haynes, Governor of Connecticut, who had large estates in Essex, and had come over two years before. Roger Harlakenden was chosen an Assistant in May, 1636, and was re- elected the two following years. He settled with his friend and
pastor at Newtown, (Cambridge,) where he purchased Deputy-Gov- ernor Dudley's estate. He died Nov. 17, 1638, of the small pox, aged 27. In his will, which is in the Probate Records of Suffolk, i. 13, he mentions his estate in Eng- land, "Colne Park, or the Little Lodge." Winthrop says " he was a very godly man, and of good use both in the commonwealth and in the church. He was buried with mili- tary honor, because he was lieuten- ant colonel. He left behind a vir- tuous gentlewoman and two daugh- ters. He died in great peace, and left a sweet memorial behind him of his piety and virtue." See Win- throp, i. 278; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 268, 315 ; Newell's Cam- bridge Church-Gath. in 1636, p. 49.
518
LAUD FORBIDS HIM TO PREACH.
CHAP. XXIV. -
So the time of three years being expired, the peo- ple would not let me go, but gathered about £40 1630. yearly for me ; and so I was intended to stay there, if the Lord would, and prevailed to set up the Lec- ture in the town of Towcester, where I was born, as knowing no greater love I could express to my poor friends than thus ; and so Mr. Stone, (Dr. Wilson giving way thereto,) had the Lecture, and went to Towcester with it, where the Lord was with him. And thus I saw the Lord's mercy following me to make me a poor instrument of sending the Gospel to the place of my nativity.
Dec. 16.
So when I had preached a while at Earles-Colne, about half a year, the Lord saw me unfit and unwor- thy to continue me there any longer ; and so the Bishop of London, Mountain, being removed to York, and Bishop Laud,1 (now Archbishop,) coming in his place, a fierce enemy to all righteousness, and a man fitted of God to be a scourge to his people, he pre- sently, (having been not long in the place,) sent for me up to London ; and there, never asking me whether I would subscribe, (as I remember,) but what I had to do to preach in his diocese, chiding also Dr. Wilson for setting up this Lecture in his diocese, after many railing speeches against me, for- bade me to preach ; and not only so, but if I went to preach any where else, his hand would reach me. And so God put me to silence there, which did somewhat humble me ; for I did think it was for my sins the Lord set him thus against me.
[I was inhibited from preaching in the diocese of
1 " Our great enemy," as Win- on page 426. See Fuller's Church throp calls him, ii. 31. See note 1 Hist. iii. 292, 471-477.
519
LAUD'S HARSH TREATMENT OF HIM.
London by Dr. Laud, bishop of that diocese. As CHAP. soon as I came in the morning, about eight of the
XXIV. clock, falling into a fit of rage, he asked me what 1630. Dec. 16. degree I had taken in the University. I answered him I was a Master of Arts. He asked, Of what Col- lege ? I answered, Of Emmanuel. He asked, how long I had lived in his diocese. I answered, Three years and upwards. He asked, who maintained me all this while, charging me to deal plainly with him ; adding withal, that he had been more cheated and equivocated with by some of my malignant faction, than ever was man by Jesuit. At the speaking of which words he looked as though blood would have gushed out of his face, and did shake as if he had been haunted with an ague fit, to my apprehen- sion, by reason of his extreme malice and secret venom. I desired him to excuse me. He fell then to threaten me, and withal to bitter railing, calling me all to naught, saying, "You prating coxcomb, do you think all the learning is in your brain ?" He pronounced his sentence thus, " I charge you that you neither preach, read, marry, bury, or exercise any ministerial function in any part of my diocese ; for if you do, and I hear of it, I'll be upon your back, and follow you wherever you go, in any part of the kingdom, and so everlastingly disenable you." I besought him not to deal so in regard of a poor town. And here he stopped me in what I was going on to say. " A poor town ! You have made a company of seditious, factious bedlams. And what do you prate to me of a poor town ?" I prayed him to suffer me to catechize in the Sabbath days in the afternoon. He replied, " Spare your breath. I'll have no such
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