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One instance it may not be improper to mention. neighbour of his having sustained some damage; when Mr. Hooker meeting a boy notorious for such mischief, warmly accused and censured him. The boy denied the charge, but he continued his angry lecture. "Sir," said the boy, "I see you are in a passion; I'll say no more to you;" and then ran off. Mr. Hooker finding, upon inquiry, that the boy could not be proved guilty, sent for him, and humbly confessed his fault, which, with the good council he gave him, made a deep and lasting impression on the mind of the boy.

Notwithstanding Mr. Hooker's great condescension, he did not in the least degrade or depreciate his holy function. When he mounted the pulpit, he appeared with so much majesty and independence, that it was pleasantly said of him, He would put a king in his pocket. Judges, princes, and peasants equally shared in his pointed reproofs and solemn admonitions. He possessed an excellent talent for solving cases of conscience, and set apart one day in the week for any of his people to come to him and propose their scruples and difficulties. Though his own preaching was generally very practical and experimental, he recommended young ministers, when first settled, as well for their own benefit as that of their people, to preach the whole system of divine truth. He had a happy method in the government of the church. He would propound nothing to the church assembly till it had been previously considered by several of the principal brethren; and if at any time he saw an altercation beginning to rise in the church, he would put off the vote till another opportunity; previous to which, he would visit, and generally gain over, those who objected to what appeared the most proper to be adopted. He used to say, "The elders must have a church within a church, if they would preserve the peace of the church."

This holy and heavenly divine desired not to outlive his work. His last sickness was short, and he said little. When his opinion was asked concerning certain important points, he replied, "I have not that work now to perform. I have declared the council of God." One of his brethren observing to him, that he was going to receive his reward, "Brother," said he, " I am going to receive mercy." mercy." Afterwards, he closed his eyes with his own hands, and, with a smile on his countenance, he expired, July 7, 1647, aged sixty-one years. He was justly styled "the grave, the godly,

* Morse and Parish's Hist. of New Eng. p. 76–78.

the judicious, the faithful, and the laborious Hooker." That peace which he enjoyed in his own mind, through believing in Christ, for the space of thirty years, continued firm and unshaken to the last. Mr. Henry Whitfield gives the following testimony of his worth: "I did not think," says he, "there had been such a man on the earth, in whom there shone so many incomparable excellencies; and in whom learning and wisdom were so admirably tempered with zeal, holiness, and watchfulness." And for his great abilites and glorious services in both Englands, says Mr. Ashe, he deserves a place in the first rank of those worthies whose lives are preserved. Fuller has honoured him with a place among the learned writers and fellows of Emanuel college, Cambridge.t

His WORKS.-1. The Soul's Implantation into Christ, 1637.2.The Unbeliever's Preparing for Christ, 1638.-3. The Soul's effectual Calling to Christ, 1638.-4. The Soul's Humiliation, 1640.-5. A Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline, 1648.-6. The Doubting Christian drawn to Christ, 1652.-7. The Application of Redemption by the Word, 1656.-8. The Spiritual Rule of the Lord's Kingdom.9. Farewell Sermon on Jer. xiv. 9. published in Mr. Fenner's Works. -And probably some others.

JOHN SALTMARSH, A. M.-This person was descended from a respectable and ancient family of the same name at Saltmarsh in Yorkshire, and educated in Magdalen college, Cambridge, where he enjoyed the patronage and support of Sir John Metham, his kinsman. He was a person of a fine, active fancy, no contemptible poet, and a good preacher; but no friend to bishops and ceremonies. About the year 1641, he became minister at Northampton, afterwards at Braisted in Kent, and, at length, was chosen to the office of chaplain in Sir Thomas Fairfax's army; where, to his great honour, he is said to have always preached up peace and unity. He meddled not with matters of discipline, but wholly laboured to draw souls from sin to Christ. He afterwards openly declared his sentiments concerning the war, saying, "That all means should be used to keep the king and people from a sudden union; that the war being against popery, should be cherished, as the surest means to engage the people; and that if the king would not, in the end, grant their demands,

→ Morton's Memorial, p. 125.

+ Mather's Hist. of New. Eng. b. iii. p. 64-68.

Fuller's Hist. of Camb. p. 147.

Fuller's Worthies, part iii. p. 212.

Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. p. 192.

then to root him out, together with the royal line, and appoint the crown to some other person." These sentiments were laid before the house of commons, and they underwent a particular examination; but it does not appear whether he was sentenced to receive any kind of punishment. During this examination, however, one of the members said, "He saw no reason to condemn Mr. Saltmarsh; for it was better that one family should be destroyed than many."*

Mr. Saltmarsh employed his pen in controversy with several learned divines, among whom was Dr. Thomas Fuller, the historian. This person having preached a sermon on "reformation," which he afterwards published, Mr. Saltmarsh published his animadversions upon it, in which he charged him with several points of popery. Fuller, however, defended his former arguments, in a piece under the title of "Truth Maintained," in which he challenged Saltmarsh to reply; but he declined the contest, giving this reason for it, that he would not shoot his arrows against a dead mark, being informed that Fuller was dead. He also engaged in controversy with the celebrated Mr. Thomas Gataker, Mr. John Ley, Dr. John Bastwick, Mr. Thomas Edwards, and others. It is said that the very titles of some of his pieces seemed to have some tincture of enthusiasm, if not of frenzy in them.+

Mr. Edwards, who employs his presbyterian bigotry in reproaching his memory, gives the following account of him :"There is one Mr. Saltmarsh, a man who hath of late writ many trashy pamphlets, fully stuffed with all kinds of errors, ignorance, and impudence, and hath been well answered and baffled by three learned divines. I am still in his debt for some passages in his "Groans for Liberty," and "Reasons for Unity, Love and Peace," against my first and second part

Gangræna," and shall say in this third, I purpose to reckon with him once for all, in another tractate. This Master Saltmarsh, the last half year, hath much followed the army: a fit place for him. When Oxford was taken, he was one of those famous preachers who preached at St. Mary's: as fit a man to credit the parliament and the reformation with the university, as his brother Peters. Master Saltmarsh being to preach in the army on a fast-day this summer, made a preface by way of apology, that he preached not for the fast: he would not be understood as preaching upon that occasion, or that his sermon was a fast sermon.'

• Whitlocke's Memorial, p. 68.

+ Biog. Britan, vol. iii, p. 2053, 2054. Edit. 1747.

This writer also adds: "He hath been at Bath this year," and there, in one of the lesser churches, preached, that, as John Baptist wore a leathern girdle, so his doctrine was leathern doctrine. He would have preached at the great church, but the minister would not give way; whereupon he came to the minister's house, to contest with him about denying him his pulpit; to whom the minister replied, that he had heard of him by Mr. John Ley and Mr. Thomas: Edwards, and was fully satisfied concerning him. Besides, he said I have heard of one Master Saltmarsh, who, in the time of the former differences between the king and the Scots, viz. before this parliament, made verses to incense the king to war against the Scots, when he went into the north; and that when the late oath, made by the bishops, came forth, went many miles to an archbishop to take that oath upon his knees to which Master Saltmarsh replied, he was then in his darkness; and the minister of Bath rejoined, he thought him to be still in the smoak.'

We make no comment upon the above account, but allow Mr. Saltmarsh to speak for himself. In answer to Mr. Edwards, he says, "When I called to you the other day in the street, and challenged you for your unanswerable crime> against me in the third part of the last "Gangræna," in setting my name against all the heresies you reckon, which your own! soul and the world can witness to be none of mine, and your own confession to me when I challenged you-how were you troubled in spirit and language? Your sin was, as I thought, upon you, scourging you, checking you as I spoke. I told you at parting, I hoped we should overcome you by prayer.. I believe we shall pray you either into repentance, or shame, or judgment, ere we have done with you; but, oh! might it be repentance rather! till Master Edwards smite upon his thigh, and say, What have I done?

"For your anagram upon my name, you do but fulfil the prophecy, They shall cast out your names as evil, for the Son of man's sake. And your book of jeers and stories of your brethren; poor man! it will not long be music in your ears, at this rate of sinning. For the nameless author and his after-reckoning, let all such men be doing; let them rail, revile, blaspheme, call heretics. It is enough to me, that they write such vanity as they dare not own. And now let me tell you both, and all such pensioners to the great accuser of the brethren; fill up the measure of your iniquity, if you

• Edwards's Gangræna, part iii. p. 113, 114.

will needs perish whether we will or no. I hope I rest in the bosom of Christ, with others of my brethren: rail, persecute, do your worst; I challenge all the powers of hell that set you on work, while Christ is made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And I must tell you further, that since any of the light and glory of Christ dawned upon me; since first I saw the morning star of righteousness, any of the brightness of the glory in my heart, that heart of mine which once lived in the coasts of Zebulun and Napthali, in the region and shadow of death, I can freely challenge you, and thousands more such as you, to say, write, do, work, print, or any thing; and I hope I shall in the strength of Christ, in whom I am able to do all things, give you blessings for cursing, and prayers for persecutions."

Mr. Edwards, in answer to this, observes, "That Mr. Gataker had proved his opponent to be a shadow without substance; had taken off the shadows he had cast on many truths of the gospel; had shewed this new light, with his dawnings of light, to be only a shadow of darkness and death; and had caused this great light to go out in a smoke and snuff." He proceeds in his usual style of raillery, concluding that the former accusations were still unanswered.t

The death of Mr. Saltmarsh was very extraordinary, and is thus related. December 4, 1647, he was at his own house at Ilford in Essex, when he told his wife that he had received a special message from God, which he must deliver to the army. He went to London the same evening, and early on Monday morning, December 6th, to Windsor. When he came to the council of officers, he addressed them as follows: "I am come hither to reveal to you," said he, "what I have received from God. Though the Lord hath done much for you, and by you, yet he hath of late left you, and is not in your counsels; because you have forsaken him. God will not prosper your consultations, but destroy you by divisions among yourselves. I have formerly come to you like a lamb, but God hath now raised in me the spirit of a lion; because you have sought to destroy the people of God, who have always stood by you in the greatest difficulties. I advise all the faithful to depart from you, lest they be destroyed with you." He then went to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the general; and, without moving his hat, said, "I have received a com

* Saltmarsh's Answer to Edwards, p. 9-11. Edit. 1812. + Edwards's Gangræna, part iii. p. 293.