me, and worketh patience in me." Being desirous to be carried into his study, where, he observed, "his books wanted him," his friends endeavoured to help him: but finding himself unable to bear the fatigue, he said, "I see I am not able. I have not been in my study for several days. Is it not a lamentable thing that I should lose so much time?" His son, perceiving the symptoms of death upon him, said, “If there be any thing which you would have me to do, in case the Lord should spare me, and take you to heaven, I wish you to mention it." After pausing a little, with his eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, he said, "That which I would commend to you is, the care of the rising generation, that they may be brought under the government of Christ; and that, when grown up and qualified, they and their children be baptized. I must confess I have been defective in practice; yet I have publicly declared my judgment, and manifested my desires to practise that which I think ought to be attended to; but the dissenting of some in our church discouraged me. I have thought that persons might have a right to baptism, and not to the Lord's supper; and I see no cause to alter my judgment." His extreme pain continued to the last; and he died April 22, 1669, aged seventy-three years. According to our historian, "he was a man of most exemplary picty, an excellent scholar, and a plain, judicious, and majestic preacher, shooting the arrows of divine truth into the hearts of his hearers." Wood denominates him "a pious man, and a zealous and laborious preacher;" and adds, "that he was much followed by the precise party," as he in contempt styles them; but "that he was a severe Calvinist, and no friend to the church of England."+ A copy of Mr. Mather's last will and testament, dated October 16, 1661, is still preserved; the conclusion, which is an address to his children, is worthy of being transmitted to posterity." I think it not amiss," says he, "for the spiritual good of my children, to lay upon them the solemn charge of a dying father; that none of them, after my decease, may presume to walk in any way of sin, or in a 'careless neglect of God, and the things of God, and their own salvation by Christ. For if they shall do so, (which God forbid,) then, and in such case, I do hereby testify unto them, that their father who begat them, and their mother * Mather's Hist. b. iii. p. 127, 129. who bore them, with all the prayers which they have offered up, and tears which they have shed for them; their example, their admonitions, and their exhortations, which they have delivered to them, together with this my last will and solemn charge; all these will rise up against them, as so many testimonies for their condemnation at the last day. But I hope better things of them; and do hereby declare unto them, that if they shall seriously repent of their sins, believe in the Lord Jesus, and by his grace walk in all the ways of God, as this will be to the honour and glory of him who made them, so it will redound to their own unspeakable comfort and benefit, both in this and another world: and their father who now speaketh to them, with their dear 'mother, now with God, shall exceedingly rejoice in the day of Christ, when we shall receive our children into those everlasting habitations; and shall, not ourselves only, but those who came out of our bowels, enjoy their portion in that eternal glory. I desire and hope it may be so. I commend them all to the Lord's gracious blessing; and let the blessing of God in Jesus Christ be poured out and remain upon them all for evermore, amen."* Mr. Mather was twice married. His first wife was the pious daughter of Edward Holt, esq. of Bury in Lancashire, and his second wife the widow of Mr. John Cotton. He had four sons employed in the ministry, all eminent in their day. Nathaniel, Samuel, and Increase were preachers in England, and all ejected by the fatal Act of Uniformity, in 1662. His son Eleazer was pastor of the church at Northampton in New England, where he died a few months after his father. The celebrated Dr. Cotton Mather, well known by his historical and other writings, was his grandson. His WORKS.-1. A Discourse on the Church Covenant, 1643.- 2. An Answer to Thirty-two Questions, 1643.-3. Answer to Mr. Charles Herle and to Mr. Samuel Rutherford, wherein is defended the Congregational Way of Church Government, and how it differs from the Presbyterian, 1646.-4. An Heart-melting Exhortation, together with a Cordial of Consolation, presented in a Letter from New England to his Countrymen in Lancashire, 1650.-5. A Catechism, 1650.-6. A Treatise of Justification, 1652.-7. A Defence of the Churches of New England.-S. A Farewell Exhortation to the Church and People at Dorchester, consisting of seven Directions. -He had a principal hand in drawing up "The Platform of Church Discipline, agreed unto by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches assembled in the Synod at Cambridge in New England, in the year 1648." ZECHARIAH SYMES was born at Canterbury, April 5, 1599, and received his education at Cambridge. He descended from worthy and pious ancestors, who opposed the progress of idolatry, and favoured the gospel, during the persecutions of Queen Mary. He trod in the steps of his forefathers; was pious from a child, averse to superstitious novelties in divine worship, and a sufferer for nonconformity. After finishing his studies at the university, he was employed by several persons of quality as tutor to their children; yet not without molestation from the prelates. In the year 1621 he was chosen lecturer at St. Antholin's church, London; where he met with many troubles from the ecclesiastical courts, for refusing to observe certain rites and ceremonies contrary to the convictions of his conscience. He was, at length, obliged to leave the place, when he removed, in 1625, to Dunstable; but there his persecutors followed him. He was often summoned to appear in the bishops' courts, and interrupted in his ministry; and seeing no prospect of better days in his own country, he withdrew from the cruel persecution, in the year 1635, and fled to New England. Upon his arrival in the new colony he was chosen teacher to the church at Charlestown, of which Mr. James was pastor, where he continued the remainder of his days. He was a man of excellent abilities, integrity, and zeal, and a reverend and laborious preacher. He died February 4, 1670, in the seventy-first year of his age. Mr. Symes being invited to assist in the formation of a christian church at Woburn in New England, it is said, "he continued in preaching and prayer about four or five hours." He appears, however, to have exercised some degree of severity against the baptists.‡ JOHN DAVENPORT, B. D.—This learned divine was born at Coventry, in the year 1597, and educated first in Merton college, then in Magdalen-hall, Oxford. Having finished his studies at the university, he was called to preach in London, where his rare ministerial endowments, and his pious courage in visiting the sick during the raging of the plague, soon brought him into public notice. His sermons were distinguished by the labour with which they were prepared, and by the gravity, the energy, the plea Hist. of New Eng. p. 70.-Mather's Hist. b. iii. p. 131, 132. + Morse and Parish's Hist. p. 110. Backus's Hist. of Baptists, vol. i, p. 362. santness, and the engaging elocution with which they were delivered. His very enemies allowed him to be an excellent preacher; and by his midnight studies, and his uncommon industry, he obtained the just reputation of a universal scholar. About the year 1626 Mr. Davenport was chosen one of the feoffees for buying impropriations; but Bishop Laud, looking with great jealousy upon the undertaking, lest it should become the nursery of puritanism, put an effectual stop to it. This he did, to the great grief of all good people, and the lasting reproach of his own character. About the same time Mr. Davenport, by a conference with Mr. Cotton, became an avowed, but a peaceable nonconformist. Soon. after his removal to London he became vicar of St. Stephen's church, Coleman-street, where he continued some years. Here his preaching, with that of Mr. Norton's, was. instrumental in the conversion of the excellent Mr. Kiffin." In the year 1631 he was convened before Bishop Laud, by whose arbitrary proceedings he was afterwards driven into Holland. He was also convened before the high commission as a notorious delinquent, only for uniting with some other worthy persons in promoting a private subscription for the poor distressed ministers of the Palatinate, even after public collections failed. Previous, however, to his depar-. ture for Holland, finding himself in danger, he called together the principal people of his charge, desiring their opinion and advice; when he acknowledged their right to him as their pastor, and declared that no danger should drive him from any service which they required or expected from him. But with a noble disinterestedness of soul, which reflected great honour upon them, and demonstrated their tender affection, they relieved him from his scruples of conscience; and, though aware of their own loss, they advised him to resign his office for his own safety. Having sent in his resignation, instead of enjoying the peace and quietness which he expected, he found himself more officiously watched than ever, being continually hunted by hungry pursuivants. Therefore, in the year 1633, he fled from the storm and retired to Holland, where he was immediately chosen co-pastor with Mr. John Paget to the English church at Amsterdam.§ Wilson's Hist, and Antiq. of Dissenters, vol. i. p. 404, 405. + Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 526. Huntley's Prelates' Usurpations, p. 164. Mr. Davenport did not, however, enjoy much comfort in this new situation. His objections against the promiscuous admission of children to the ordinance of baptism excited considerable opposition; and he soon found that he must baptize children when there was no charitable evidence of their belonging to christian parents, or give up his pastoral relation to the church. Therefore, in the year 1655, he resigned his charge, and opened a catechetical exercise at his own lodgings every Lord's day evening, after the public services of the city were over. But the popularity of his talents soon collecting great numbers, increased the jealousy and opposition of the contrary party. He then returned to England, saying, " that he thought God had carried him to Holland on purpose to bear witness against that promiscuous baptism, which bordered on a profanation of the holy ordinance." He used to observe, that when the reformation of the church had been effected in any age or country, it was seldom advanced beyond the improvements of the first reformers; and that it was as easy to remove Noah's ark from Ararat, as to persuade people to proceed beyond the first remove of their leaders. This coincides with the just observation of the celebrated Mr. John Robinson."The Calvinists," said he, "stick just where John Calvin left them." Mr. Davenport had long been a warm friend to New England. He took an active part with some others in obtaining the patent of Massachusets colony. His purse and his time had been employed to promote the advantage of the new plantation, even before his departure to Holland. This now seemed to be the only field in which he could carry his ideas of ecclesiastical reformation to their full extent. About the same time Mr. Cotton, of Boston in New England, wrote to him, saying, "that the order of the churches and commonwealth was now so settled in that country, that it reminded him of the new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," which led him to determine to cross the Atlantic. Therefore, in the year 1637, Mr. Davenport, with several eminent christians and their families, went over to New England. Among these adventurers were Mr. Eaton and Mr. Hopkins, two London merchants, men of good estates, and highly celebrated for wisdom and piety. The Oxford historian, by mistake, therefore observes, that Mr. Davenport did not return from Holland till after * Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 51-53. |