lie yet speaketh; and have thought that word, in a bad
sense, looked at me and many otliers, who, Avhile living,
have been but dead speakers : but I am now hastening to
another kind of death, where, after worms have consumed
this flesh and bones, I may be brought forth as a living,
438 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
speaking witness in tliose words of mine, against such as
slight the instruction of them."
He then gave thaniis to God for the hope he possessed of
eternal life through Jesus Christ, and warned his friends to
improve the present dispensation, and the religious oppor-
tunities now atlbrded. He spoke, with tlie deepest concern,
of the national guilt in persecuting God's faithful servants ;
and, with the strongest assurance and joy of the delight
which God takes in his 'suffering saints, and the ample
rccompence with which he will crown their present sor-
rows. He then addressed his friends as follows :
" I charge you," said he, " in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and as you will ever answer it at the great day, that
you make religion your business, and that you make not
godliness a slight thing, nor walking with God a small
matter, as ever you hope to stand with boldness before
God in judgment. God, indeed, hath taken strength
from these arms of mine. I speak it not as if I murmured
at it, or by way of discouragement, as if he could not, if it
pleased him, raise dead bones, and of stones make children
to Abraham."*
This pious servant of God, having thus addressed tliose
about hira, desired them to lift up his arras, when he
solemnly charged them, that they would, by lifting and
holding up his hands, bear witness to it as his dying charge
to them all. He pressed them to make it their great
business the remainder of their days, to live to the praise
and glory of the Lord Jesus, and in true obedience to his
will. During nearly the whole of his illness, he continued
glorifying God, and exhorted all who visited him to stead-
fastness and perseverance, notwithstanding the perils of the
times. About three hours previous to his dissolution, a
friend perceiving him under great pressures, said to him,
" They looked unto the Lord, and were lightened : a right
look will bring down relief under ail difficulties." " Yea,"
replied he, with great earnestness, " and their faces were not
ashamed;" after which he spoke no more, but fell asleep in
the Lord.
Mr. Cheare, during his imprisonment, wrote many
excellent letters to his friends, in which he warmly and
affectionately exhorted them to holy constancy and stead-
fastness. One of these epistles was occasioned by certain
* Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii, p. 13 — 16.
CHEARE. 439
provisions sent to liim and his fellow-prisoners; and is
dated the 22nd of the 9th month, 1667, and addressed,
" Unto our brethren and friends, in the bonds and bowels
of the gospel, whose hands have made them willing, under
the bounteous influences of the God of Israel, to comfort
the Jiearts of the unworthy prisoners of the Lord in Ply-
mouth Island by a costly present; and to every one who
hath contributed or helped therein to a tender groan, or the
value of a cup of cold \va(cr, be a large recompence of
reward given in grace, and ascertained in glory, by him
who is not unfaithful to forget such labour of love shewed
to his name." This letter, containing many pious and
generous sentiments, is still preserved.*
This holy man wrote several religious tracts, some of
which were published after his death, entitled, " Words iu
Season;" to which Avas annexed the following account of
the author : — " If any inquire," says the writer, " what
might occasion so much severity as to detain the author a
prisoner so many years, and till death ? It may suffice to
insert here, that he left the state of his case, under his hand,
setting forth the illegality and unrighteousness of the pro-
ceedings against him. He never, in the former wars, was
unlisted in any troop or comp;iny under pay ; and in the
trained-bands of the town where he served, never was
accounted worthy of promotion ; nor in tlie corporation,
whereof he was a member, ever advanced so high as a
constable ; and never bettered his estate one fartliing by all
the propitious advantages that might have given him oppor-
tunity of so doing : nor was he conscious to himself of the
least desire of adding to what he possessed, by any present
or future advantages, to which any favourable overtures of
the times might tempt him. He never improved his own
interest in any place or office of trust or profit, civil, mili-
tary, or ecclesiastical ; save only for a few weeks, unknown
to him, and against his will, he was made a chaplain to the
fort, but quickly got himself discharged from it. Never
was he concerned in, or truly charged with any plot,
mutiny, or tumult, giving the least disturbance, occasion of
fear, or jealousy. This then was the only thing that could
give colour to such proceedings ; that he, being convinced
of his duty to his Lord, by tlie light of scripture, joined
himself in a holy covenant, to walk in all the ordinances of
the Lord blameless, to the best of his light and power, in
fellowship with a poor and despised people."t
* Croiby's Baptists, toI. iii. p. 17—24. * Ibid. p. 24— SO-
440 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
Richard Mather. — This excellent divine was bom at
Lowton in Lancashire, in the year 1596, and educated first
at Winwick school in that counjy, then at Brazen-nose
college, Oxford, Afterwards he was cliosen minister and
schoolmaster at Toxtcth-park, near Liverpool. His first
sermon was preached November 13, 1618, to a crowded
assembly, and with great acceptance. He was ordained
by Bishop Morton of Chester, who, at the close of the
service, selected him from the rest who had been ordained,
intimating that he wished to speak to him alone. Mr.
Mather was afraid of some information on account of his
puritanism ; yet, when the bishop had called him from the
rest of the company, he said, " I have an earnest request to
make of you, sir, and you must not deny me. I know the
prayers of men who fear God will avail ranch ; and you
I believe to be such a one. I therefore request that you
would pray for me."
Mr. Mather entered upon his sacred charge with g'reat
zeal and fidelify. He preached twice every Lord's day
at Toxtcdi, ajid delivered a lecture regularly at Prescot.
This he did without interruption for fifteen years, until the
month of August, 1633 ; when complaints were brought
against him, and he was suspended for nonconformity.
His suspension did not, however, continue very long ; for
in November followuig, by the kind intercession of several
worthy friends, he was again restored. This awakened him
to a close examination of the controversy about ecclesiastical
matters, the result of which was, Ihat he became m.ore than
ever dissatisfied with the established church, and fully
persuaded that the jirinciples and government of congrega-
tional churches was the model laid down in the New
Testament.
This worthy divine did not, indeed, long enjoy liis
liberty. For, the next summer, Archbishop Neile of York,*
sending his visitors into Lancashire, he was again brought
under the ecclesiastical censure. During his examination
before his unmerciful judges, they would not sutler him
to speak for himself; but proceeded to suspend him, with-
out hearing what he had to say in his own defence.
While his persecutors treated him with so much rashness
and severity, he was enabled to exercise much wisdom,
* It is obsprved that Arcbbishop Neile taught the people to pray for hii
predecessor after he was dead, on which account the king very seasonably
admonished him for his inclinations to popery. — Mather's Hist of New
Eng. b. iii. p. 125. — Clark's Lives anwxcd to his Martyrologie, p. ISt.
MATHER. 441
prudence, and submission to the will of God. This appears
tioni hisowii private memorial following: — " I have this to
bless God for," says he, '-• tliat the terror of tlicir threaten-
ings, their pursuivants, and the rest of their pomp, did not
terrify my mind : but I stood before them without being in
the least daunted ; and answered for myself, when per-
mitted to speak, with that truth and soberness which the
Lord put into my mouth, not fearing their faces. This
supporting presence of the Lord I count not a nruch less
mercy than if I had been altogether preserved out of their
hands." When the pious ecclesiastics inquired how long
he had been a minister, and being told fifteen years ; they
asked how long he had wore the surplice, and being
informed that he had never wore it, " What," said one of
them, with an oath, " preach fifteen years and never wejsr
" a surplice! It had been better for him if he had gotten
" seven bastards!!!"*
Mr. Mather being again deprived of his liberty, and all
means of obtaining his restoration provhig ineifectual ; and
having no prospect of deliverance from the tyrannical
sentence in future, he resolved to reniovc with his family to
New England. He accordingly drew up his reasons, and
presented them to his friends, who justified his conduct;.
and even his friends at Toxteth, who dearly loved and
valued him, could not oppose the design. By transporting
himself to the new continent, he said, " He should remove
from a corrupt to a purer church : — from a place where the
truth, and tlie professors of it, are persecuted, to a place of
greater quiet and safety : — From a place where all the
ordinances of God cannot be enjoyed, to a place where
they may be enjoyed : — From a place where the discipline
of the Lord Jesus Christ is wanting, to a place where it
may be practised : — From a place where the ministers of
God are unjustly prohibited from the exercise of their
functions, to a place where they may freely execute the
same : — And from a place where there are fearful signs of
desolation, to a place where one muy have a well-grounded
hope of God's protection."!
He was further encouraged in the undertaking by letters
which he received from Mr. Hooker and others, already
settled in the new colony. In one of these letters, Mr-
Hooker gave him the most flattering account, saying, " If
I speak ray own thoughts freely and fully, though there
* Clark's Lives, p. 130.— MathcrVHist, b. iii. p, 122—125. + Ibid.
442 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
are many places where men nr.iy expect and obtain greater
worldly advanlas:e; yet, I do believe, there is not a place
oa tlie face of the earth wlicre a person of a judicious
head and a gracious heart may receive greater spiritual
good to himself, and do more temporal and spiritual good
to others." Tiiercfore, after taking h ave of his numerous
friends, he travelled to Bristol in disguise, to escape the
hungry pursuivants, who sought to apprehend him ; and
sailed from thence May 23, 1635, and arrived at Boston the
1 7th of August following. Thus he was delivered from the
persecution with which he was exercised while in his native
country.
When the ship in which he sailed arrived on the coast
of New England, they were involved in a most tremendous
Imrricane, and in the utmost danger of being lost. Mr.
Mather, in his journal of the 15th of August, after giving
a circumstantial and very afiecting account of the danger,
observes : " In this extremity and appearance of death, we
cried unto the Lord, and he was pleased to have mercy
upon us. By his overruling-providence, he guided the
ship, and assuaged the violence of the sea and the wind.
The Lord on that day granted us as wonderful a deliver-
ance, I think, as ever any people enjoyed ; and the seamen
confessed they never knew the like. I hope we shall not
forget it to our dying day. During the whole of the storm
my fear Avas the less when I considered the clearness of my
call from God. In some measure, the Lord gave us hearts
to be content and willing that he should do with us and
ours as he pleased, and as might be most for his glory :
and here we rested. But Avlien the news was brought
that the danger was over, oh ! how our hearts did melt
within us. We burst into tears of joy and love to our
gracious God, and in admiration of his marvellous de-
liverance."*
The year after his arrival, Mr. Mather was chosen pastor
of the church newly formed at Dorchester, where he con-
tinued all the rest of his days. He was a man of most
exemplary piety and diligence. His excellent spirit and
character may be seen from the following instrument,
which, about this time, he drew up or renewed for his own
private use :t
" Promises made to God, by me, Richard Mather.
L " Touching my ministry. — That I will be more painful
» Clark's Lives, p. 130.— Mather's His<. b. iii. p. 126. + Ibid. p. 127.
MATHER. 443
and diligent in private preparation, by reading, meditation,
and prayer. — That in and after preaching I will carneslly
strive against inward pride and vain-glory. — That before
and after preaching I will seek unto the Lord for his
blessing upon his word, more carefully than in time past.
2. " Touching my family. — That 1 will be more frequent
in religious discourse with (hose in my house, and be more
careful in catechizing my children.
3. " Touching myself. — That I will strive more against
worldly cares and fears, and the inordinate love of worldly
things. — That I will be more frequent and regular in private
l)rayer. — That I will practise more seriously and frequently
the duty of self-examination. — That 1 will strive against
carnal security and excessive sleeping. — That I will strive
against vain jangling and the misspending of time.
4. " Touching: others. — That I will be more careful and
zealous to do good to their souls by private instructions,
exhortations, and reproofs. — Tliat I will be ready to do
offices of kindness and love, not for the praise of men, or to
purchase commendation, but out of conscience to the com-
mand of God.
" Renewed with a profession of my own inability,
and a desire that I may fetch power from Christ, to live
upon him, and act from him in all spiritual duties. June
15, 163G,
" Richard Mather."
Such were the promises and engagements into which this
pious divine entered. He was resolved, by the help of the
Lord, to devote his time, his talents, and his all, to the
honour of his God and the welfare of immortal souls. Mr.
Mather preached his last sermon from 2 Tim. iv. 6 — 8.
The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought
a good Jight. I h axe finished my course, Sfc. He was pre-
sently after seized with a total obstruction of urine. Though
he laboured under extreme pain, he was a pattern of pati-
ence to all beholders. He never murmured, and seldom
groaned, but resigned himself to the will of God. Being
asked how he did, he meekly answered, " Far from well,
yet better than mine iniquities deserve." When his son
reminded him of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness
towards him all his days, he immediately replied, " Yes, I
must acknowledge the mercy of God hath been very great
towards me all my life ; but I must also acknowledge, that
I have had many failings, and the thoughts of them abaseth
444 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
me, and v/orketli patience in me." Being desirous to be car-
ried into his stu{ly, where, he observed, " his books wanted
him," his friends endeavoured to heip him : but finding
liiniself unable to bear the I'atigue, 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 v/ould 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, wiien grown up atid qualified, they and their
children be baptized. I must confess 1 have been defective
in practice; yet I have publicly declared my judgment, and
manifested my desires to practise that whicii 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 con-
tinued to the last; and he died April 22, 1669, aged
seventy-three years. According to our historian, " he was
a man of most exemplary piety, 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. "t
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 cliildren, 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 sludl 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.
i Athenae Oxon. vol. ii. p. 305, 306.
MATHER. ' 445
who bore them, with all the prayers which they have offered
up, and tears which they have shed for them; tlieir ex-
ample, their admonitions, and their exhortations, M'hich.
they have delivered to them, "together with this my last v, ill
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 tiiis 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 onl}^, 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 Lan-
cashire, and his second wife the widoAV of Mr. John Cotton.
He had four sons employed in fhe 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 Avritings, 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 IJerle 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. — 8. 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."
• Clark's Lives, p. 13T.
, + Palmer's Noncon. Mem. toI, ii. p. 4, 245, 355,
446 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.
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 Marj^ He trod in the steps of
liis forefathers ; was pious from a child, averse to supersti-
tious novelties in divine worship, and a sufferer for noncon-
formity. 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 Ui2l he was chosen lecturer at St. Antholin's
church, London ; Avhere he met with many troubles from
the ecclesiastical courts, for refusing to observe certain rites
and ceremonies contrary to the convictions of his conscience.
lie 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 tlie 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 liis 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 foifr or Jive
hours'^ He appears, however, to have exercised some
degree of severity against the baptists.:}:
John Davenport, B. D. — This learned divine was boru
at Coventry, in the year 1597, and educated first in Mertou
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 wliich 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 liist. p." 110.
% Backus's Hist, of Baptists, vol. i. p. 362,
SYMES—DAVENPORT. U7
santness, and the engaging elocution with which tliey were
delivered. His very enemies allowed him to be an excel-
lent preacher ; and by his midnight studies, and his un-
common industry, he obtained the just reputation of a
universal scholar.
About the year 1626 Mr. Davenport was chosen one of <he
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 liis 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. f He was also convened before the high commis-
sion 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, liowever, 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
liim as their pastor, and declared that no danger sliould
drive him from any service which they required or expected
from him. But with a noble disinterestedness of soul,