colleague in the pastoral office. About the year 1657, upon the removal of Mr. Norton to Boston, he was chosen pastor of the church at Ipswich. In this situation he continued, in the faithful and laborious discharge of his numerous pastoral duties, to the end of his days. He died in the beginning of the year 1686, aged seventy-nine years.*

Soon after Mr. Cobbet undertook the pastoral charge at Ipswich, the people of the town voted him to receive one hundred pounds, for the purpose of buying or building himself a house; and, to raise the money, all the inhabitants were taxed. This being a new thing in the colony, several persons refused to pay the money required, and accordingly were prosecuted for it.+ But religion is a voluntary thing. The pecuniary aids requisite to its support ought, in like manner, to be altogether voluntary. All impositions and compulsions from the predominant party, is a direct violation of the laws of equity, an infringement upon the rights of christians, and enters into the very spirit of antichrist. Mr. Cobbet, however, was an eminent preacher, a man much devoted to God in prayer, and the excellent author of many books, the titles of some of which we have been able to collect.

His WORKS.-1. A Vindication of the Covenant of Children of Church Members, 1643.-2. A Vindication of Children's Churchmembership and Right to Baptism, 1645.—3. The Civil Magistrate's Power in Matters of Religion, 1653.-4. A Discourse on Prayer, 1657.-5. The Honour due from Children to their Parents.

JOHN ELLIOT.-This renowned servant of Christ was born in the year 1604, and educated at Cambridge. Upon his removal from the university, he became assistant to the venerable Mr. Hooker, in his school at Chelmsford. While in this situation, he was awakened to a sense of his sins, and brought to experience a work of grace on his heart. We give the account of it in his own words: "To this place I was called," says he, "through the infinite riches of God's mercy in Christ Jesus to my poor soul. For here the Lord said unto my dead soul, live! and, through the_grace. of Christ, I do live, and shall live for ever. When I came to this blessed family, I then saw, and never before, the power of godliness in its lively vigour and efficacy."

Having continued for some time in the office of schoolmaster, he resolved to devote himself to the Lord in the

Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 166.

+ Backus's Hist. of Baptists, vol. i. p. 310.

ministry of the gospel; but he was at a loss for an opportunity. He had imbibed the principles of nonconformity, and therefore could not enter upon any stated charge on the terms required of the clergy. The ruling prelates of the Laudian faction were at this time stopping the mouths of all the learned and useful ministers in the nation, who could not in conscience observe their popish and superstitious impositions. It appeared to young Elliot, that a conformity to these impositions, in the worship of God, was a direct violation of the second commandment. His conscience not permitting him to observe the unwarrantable ceremonies, he was not suffered to preach in any part of England. Great numbers of people were driven out of the nation by the arbitrary and cruel proceedings of the bishops; among whom was Mr. Elliot, who, in the year 1631, fled to New England. On his arrival in the new colony, he joined himself to Mr. Wilson's church at Boston, where he preached occasionally for some time. But, the year following, several of his old acquaintance following him to New England, he settled with them at Roxbury, and was chosen pastor of the church, in which office he continued among them almost sixty years.

Mr. Elliot was a man of distinguished eminence. His piety was most exemplary. He lived under the habitual influence of a praying heart. He knew, by happy experience, the utility of private prayer, and was ever urgent in promoting it among others. When he was informed of any important public news, he would say, "Brethren, let us turn all this into prayer." When he paid a visit to his intimate friends, he used to say, "Come, let us not have a visit without prayer. Let us pray down the blessing of heaven on your family before we go." And whenever he was in the company of ministers, he said, " Brethren, the Lord Jesus takes notice of what is said and done among his ministers. Come, let us pray before we part." He had an exceedingly high value for his Bible, was a close student of that sacred volume, and a constant and useful preacher. He lived, in a great measure, as if he were in heaven while upon the earth.*

Mr. Elliot was most exemplary in the duty of mortification. It could never be said, that he sought great things for himself. This world, and all things in it, were to him just what they ought to be to a dying man. He looked upon them all as mere trifles. He always rose early in the morning,

Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 175, 176.

and was ever abstemious in eating and drinking. When the countenance of a minister at any time appeared to indicate too much indulgence, he thus addressed him: "Study mortification, brother; study mortification!" These pointed reproofs came from him with a becoming majesty and solemnity, and rarely gave offence.

His liberality was as a star of the first magnitude in the constellation of his excellent virtues. His bounty to public and private charities far exceeded his annual income. The poor esteemed him as their common father; and every object of distress found him to be a brother and a friend. He was constantly zealous in promoting family religion. But the loss of his wife made no common impression on his mind. They lived together, in the enjoyment of great happiness, upwards of half a century; but, a few years before his death, he followed her remains to the grave with great lamentation and many tears. They were usually called Zacharias and Elizabeth, Their family was a Bethel. They brought up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They commanded their children, and their household after them, that they should keep the way of the Lord."

Mr. Elliot was a considerable scholar, especially in his knowledge of the Hebrew. He was eminently qualified for the ministerial work. He took great care to distribute to all their portion in due season. It was food, not froth, with which he fed the souls of the people. His method of preaching was very plain, but remarkably powerful. His sermons contained much of Christ; and he constantly laboured to bring sinners to the Saviour. To young preachers he frequently said, "Pray let there be much of Christ in your ministry." And having heard a sermon which greatly savoured of Christ, he would say, "Blessed be God, that we have Christ so much and so well preached in poor New England." He was a great friend to sermons well studied, always commending those which discovered close thought and much reading. Yet he wished to perceive something more in a sermon than mere human study. His frequent complaint was, "It is a sad thing, when a sermon wants that one thing, the Spirit of God."

In his views of church discipline, Mr. Elliot was a thorough puritan, but peaceable in his separation from all usurpations over men's consciences. He was a modest and humble nonconformist to the unwarrantable inventions and impositions of men; and was deeply afflicted to see that

the work of reformation was opposed, particularly by the bishops, in the church of England. It was a settled principle with him, that, in promoting the reformation of churches, every thing ought to be reduced to the primitive `and apostolic institution. He was persuaded that a church, according to the New Testament, "is a congregation of professed believers, with officers of divine appointment, agreeing to meet together for the celebration of divine ordinances, and their mutual edification." After the closest examination, it was his settled opinion, " that no approved writers, for the space of two hundred years after Christ, make any mention of any other organized, professing christian church, than that only which is congregational." He could not conceive how a church could arise from any other formal cause than the voluntary consent and confederation of the several parties concerned, by first giving themselves to the Lord, and then to one another.

This great man could not be satisfied with his regular ministerial exercises among his own people: his soul longed for the conversion of the wild Indians. After much consideration, and earnest prayer for the direction and blessing of God, he entered upon the arduous work. His design was no sooner made known than several favourable circumstances concurred to afford him encouragement. The enterprize was, indeed, laborious; but all the good people in the country rejoiced in his undertaking, and neighbouring ministers kindly supplied his pulpit while he laboured abroad. Also the Lord inclined great numbers of religious persons in England to make liberal contributions for its encouragement and support. Oliver Cromwell warmly espoused the cause, and commanded collections to be made in all the parishes throughout England for this important object. The sum collected was very considerable. For, in addition to other stock, lands were purchased to the amount of seven or eight hundred pounds a year; and a corporation was appointed to employ the rents for promoting the conversion of the Indians.*

Mr. Elliot's first business was to obtain a correct acquaintance with the Indian language, a work of immense difficulty, on account of the excessive length of the words, and the little affinity with any other language. Many of the words are so prodigiously long, that one would think, says Dr. Mather, they had been growing in length ever since the confusion of

Sylvester's Life of Baxter, part ii. p. 290.

Babel. But Mr. Elliot's zeal surmounted all these difficulties. He hired a native Indian, who understood English, to assist him; and after some time, by his own indefatigable pains and industry, he became a complete master of the language. He afterwards reduced it to a method, and published a grammar, entitled, "The Indian Grammar." At the end of this laborious production he thus wrote: “ Prayers and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do any thing." In addition to this grammar, he compiled two catechisms in the Indian language; and translated into that language Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted," "The Practice of Piety," and the whole Bible. The translation of the Bible, a work of immense labour, says our author, he wrote with one pen. It was printed at Cambridge in New England, and was the first Bible that was ever printed in America.t

When he was properly furnished for the work, he entered upon it in the year 1646. Having called together a number of the Indians, at a fixed time and place, he paid them a visit, accompanied by several of his friends. After offering up fervent prayers to God, he preached to them about a quarter of an hour, from Ezek. xxxvii. 9, 10. That by prophesying to the wind, the wind came, and the dry bones lived. He introduced into his sermon a short account of the principal articles of the christian faith, and applied the whole to the Indians before him. Having finished his discourse, he inquired whether they understood; when they said they understood all. He then desired, as was his usual method afterwards, that they would ask him whatever questions they pleased. These questions generally referred to the sermon they had heard, and discovered what advantage they had derived.

It is almost incredible what hardships he endured in the prosecution of this great work; how many wearisome days and nights went over his head; how many tiresome journies 'he travelled; and how many terrible dangers he encountered. Some idea of the trials he endured, and of the supports he experienced, may be gathered from the following extract of his letter to Governor Winslow:-" I have not been dry, "night nor day," says he, " from the third day of the week "to the sixth, but so travelled; and at night pull off my "boots, wring my stockings, and on with them again, and so

The two following words may serve as a specimen of their length. Nummatchekoɛtantamononganunnonash, signifies, Our lusts. Kummogkodonattoottummooetiteaonganunuonash,signifies, Our question.-Mather's New England, b. iii. p. 193. +Ibid. p. 197.