Summus diligentiae gradus est vehememtissima exactissima diligentia diligence was in the third degree most intense and most exact His measure was a glasse of four hours three of which he would sometime say was a schollars day and after that rate he spent not a few of his days he was always an early riser and in his latter years not eating any Supper he made up the avocations of that day by retiring that time and the rest of the evening to his Study With Solon as he grew Old so was he continually a Learner And with Quintilian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he terminated his life and his reading both together The constant work of his Ministry was great if not too great for one man A Candle may spend too fast And the improvement of the light whilst it is yet burning admits of degrees besides his preaching in season and out of season he was daily pressed if not oppressed with the care and service of the Churches Attendance to personal cases and manifold other Imployments inevitably put upon him both from abroad and at home whence the time remaining which is not a little to be lamented was insufficient to attend doctrinal and especial Polemical scripts such as the cause of the truth occurents of Providence and his peculiar engagements called for He was free to give his judgment when desired but declined arbitration and umpirage in civil differences between man and man as Heterogeneus both to his office and spirit His course like that of Celestical bodies was always in motion but still careful to keep within his proper sphere Calvin was not more sollicitous not to be found idle no man more vigilant to contain himself within his measure It was Religion to him both to run and to run lawfully within the white lines and boundaries of his Agonistical race He was doing and so doing Pliny accounted those happy men who either did things His Piety Equidem beatos puto quibus Deoru munere datum est aut facere scribenda aut scriberc legenda C. Pli. Tacit. vol. 1. worthy to be written or wrote things worthy to be read Christians account those Teachers blessed and blessings who teach both by their light and life in sincerity Those which best knew his goins out and comings in cannot but give a large testimony to his Piety A Saint above many of the Saints manifestly declared in the consciences of the godly amongst whom he walked to be the Epistle of Christ known and read of all meu In his house he walked with a perfect heart He was an example to the flock clothed with love and humility amongst his brethren One of a thousand in respect of his worth but as is reported of Dr. Whitaker as one of the multitude in respect of his facile and companion-like behaviour Both Ability and Modesty in such a degree are not ordinarily to be found in the same man Others with much affection beheld the beauty of his face whilst himself was as one who knew not that his face shined He was a Father Friend and Brother to his Fellow-Elders and a shining Light before men As the being of man so the well-being of humane affairs depends not a little upon Domestick government whence are the seminaries and first societies of mankinde He well Bene non regis si bene non regeris Bern. epist 189. knew a Bishop ought not to be defective in so momentous a duty incumbent upon all Heads of families He must be one that ruleth well his own house In conscience whereof he himself rising betimes in the morning as soon as he was ready called his family together which was also his practice in the evening to the solemn worship of God reading and expounding and occasionally applying the Scripture unto them always beginning and ending with prayer In case of sin committed by child or servant he would call them aside privately the matter so requiring lay the Scripture before them causing them to read that which bare witness against such offence seldom or never correcting in anger that the dispensation of godly discipline might not be impured or become less effectual through the intermixing of humane passion He began the Sabbath at evening therefore then performed Family-duty after supper being larger then ordinary in Exposition after which he Catechised his children and servants and then returned into his Study The morning following Family-worship being ended he retired into his Study until the Bell called him away Upon his return from Meeting he returned again into his Study the place of his labour and prayer unto his private devotion where having a small repast carried him up for his dinner he continued till the tolling of the bell The publick service being over he withdrew for a space to his prementioned Oratory for his sacred addresses unto God as in the forenoon then came down repeated the Sermon in the family prayed after supper sung a Psalm and towards bed-time betaking himself again to his Study he closed the day with prayer Thus he spent the Sabbath continually In his Study he neither sate down unto nor arose from his meditations without prayer whilst his eyes were upon his book his expectation was from God He had learned to study because he had learned to pray An able Student a Gospel-Student because unable to study without Jesus Christ The barrenness of his meditation at some times yea though his endeavour were most intense upon a good matter convinced him whence it was that his heart musing upon the same subject at another time his tongue became as the pen of a ready writer As he was not comparatively wanting in Parts Learning or Industry so was he more careful not to trust in them but to fix his dependence totally upon God Herein not unlike unto Bradford of whom we read that he studied kneeling Another Synesius who was wont to divide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syn. ep 57. his life between Prayer and his Book Like unto Paul not sufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself and professing all his sufficiencie to be of God But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word Men of labour and men of prayer As any weighty cause presented it self either in the Church Commonwealth or Family he would set days apart to seek the face of God in secret such were the bowels of this spiritual Father the horsmen and chariots of this Israel He might say with Paul He was in fastings often His conversation upon Earth was a trading in Heaven A demonstration of the praises of him who had called him A practical and exemplary ministery of grace unto the hearer and beholder A temperature of that holiness sweetness and love which continually gained upon the hearts of many spectators The habitual gracious scope of his heart in his whole Ministery is not illegible in that usual subscription of his at the end of all his Sermons
Tibi Domine Unto thy honor O Lord A taste of the Divine Soliloquies between God and his Soul the Reader may please to take from these two transcribed Poems left behind him in his Study written with his own hand The one entituled thus A thankful Acknowledgment of God's Providence IN mothers womb thy fingers did me make And from the womb thou didst me safely take From breast thou hast me nurst my life throughout That I may say I never wanted ought In all my meals my table thou hast spread In all my lodgings thou hast mde may bed Thou hast me clad with changes of array And chang'd my house for better far away In youthful wandrings thou didst stay my slide In all my journies thou hast been my Guide Thou hast me sav'd from many-an-unknown danger And shew'd me favour even where I was a stranger In both my Callings thou hast heard my voice In both my matches thou hast made my choice Thou gav'st me sons and daughters them to peer And giv'st me hope thou l't learn them thee to fear Oft have I seen thee look with Mercy 's face And through thy Christ have felt thy saving-grace This is the Heav'n on Earth if any be For this and all my soul doth worship Thee Another Poem made by Mr. Cotton as it seemeth upon his removal from Boston to this Wilderness I Now may expect some changes of miseries Since God hath made me sure That himself by them all will purge mine iniquities As fire makes silver pure Then what though I find the deep deceitfulness Of a distrustful heart Yet I know with the Lord is abundant faithfulness He will not lose his part When I think of the sweet and gracious company That at Boston once I had And of the long peace of a fruitful Ministry For twenty years enjoy'd The joy that I found in all that happiness Doth still so much refresh me That the grief to be cast out into a wilderness Doth not so much distress me For when God saw his people his own at our Town That together they could not hit it But that they had learned the language of Askelon And one with another could chip it He then saw it time to send in a busie Elf A Joyner to take them asunder That so they might learn each one to deny himself And so to peece together When the breach of their bridges and all their banks arow And of him that School teaches When the breach of the Plague and of their Trade also Could not learn them to see their breaches Then God saw it time to break out on their Ministers By loss of health and peace Yea withall to break in upon their Magistrates That so their pride might cease As Disputation is well called the Sieve of Truth so in his Cribrum veritatis Polemical labors he was a seeker thereof in love his scope was the glory of God unity of the Churches and the edification of men not the ostentation of wit It was his holy ambition not to seem to be learned but indeed to be bettered A sincere seeker of light not of victory Witness his brotherly acceptance of Dr. Twisse his Examination of Mr. Cotton's Treatise of Predestination from whom he acknowledged that he received light thereby and was ready to attest the great abilities of the Doctor that Star if any of this Age of the first magnitude 'T is true Mr. Cotton's mind was then exercised concerning the point of Reprobation Touching the point of Election 't is sufficiently known he was not only Orthodox but also clear As there were of old that pretended the Predestinarian heresie to have had its rise from Austin and Grevinchovius of late blushed not to say of the famous Dr. Ames that Arminianorum malleus Amesius Pelagianizat Ames Pelagianizeth So the wonder is less if this sound and judicious Divine hath not escaped the imputation of Arminianism from some notwithstanding the redundant testimony of his Doctrine and generally of all that knew him to the contrary yea that occasionally he hath been heard to say by Testimony yet alive and above exception That he looked at Arminianism as another Gospel and directly contrary to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace What Melancthon our Mi Doctor non quaero meam gloriam in hoc negotio sed veritatem ordinary Parallel sometimes said of himself to Eccius may here be truly applied to him Mr. Cotton in his Disputations sought not his glory but Gods truth So able an Opponent was rare so candid an Opponent more rare He that fell into his hands was likely to fall soft enough ordinarily except through his own default not likely to lose any thing besides his Error A mans wisdom maketh his face to shine He had a happy His Wisdom a quick comprehensive and benign Understanding as having received the manifestation of the Spirit for the service and profit of others To discover the mind of God and therewith the sentence of Judgment in matters too hard for inferior Judges was no small part both of the worth and usefulness of him that was to minister before the Lord. The Queen of Sheba proved Solomon with hard questions There is scarce any gift that more approximates the Receiver unto that which the learned call a Divine then an ability in some measure to send away religious Casuists as the Wise-man did that renowned Questionist which communed with him of all that was in her heart And Solomon told her all her questions there was not any thing hid from the king that he told her not It seemed good unto the Father of lights to make this happy instrument not only to excell his Brethren but in many respects upon this Account to excell himself A grace so far acknowledged in him as that all sorts both the Magistrate and private persons learned and unlearned exercised with their respective cases of Conscience waited under God in special manner upon his lips for knowledge and sought the Law at his mouth Hear to this purpose the Testimony of Mr Davenport that Eminent and Reverend man of God the faithful Pastor of the Church at New-Haven a Witness above many in his own words as followeth His forced flight from Boston to London for his safety from persuit of the pursevants sent to apprehend him I well remember and admire the special providence of God towards my self and some others in it amongst whom safe retirement and hiding places were provided for him in and about London For some of us agreed together to improve that opportunity for a conference with him about the grounds of his judgment and practice whereby the Church was in danger to be deprived of him and of the benefit of his precious gifts hoping that God might blesse the same for the communicating of further light either to him or to us Two points were the principal subject of our discourse 1. Touching the limitation of Church-power to matters commanded not to things
his time they use this liberty by way of disquisition not of position rather as Indagators of Scripture-light then as Dictators of private Opinions A Prophet may be heard whilst he speaks with a spirit subject to the Prophets These are the times that passed over him We are now approaching to his Novissima verba his last words which the Antients out of an opinion that the Soul became more divine towards its Dissolution looked at as Oraculous The motions of Nature are more intense as they draw neer towards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Xen. lib. 8. the Center Xenophon personates Cyrus as inspired whilst he bequeaths his Fatherly and Farewell counsels to his people friends and sons Davids last words have their Emphasis because his last Now these are the last words of David Being called to preach at a Neighbor-Church he took The beginning of his sickness wet in his passage over the Ferry and not many hours after he felt the effect being seised upon with an extreme illness in the Sermon This providence when others bewailing the sad event which according to second causes seemed so easily evitable spake variously of he comforted himself from In that he was found so doing Decet imperatorem stantem cadere It is the honor of a Commander to fall standing It was Austins usual wish that Christ when he came might find him aut precantem aut praedicantem either praying or preaching Calvin returns this answer unto his Friends disswading him from his labor of dictating and writing when his sickness Quid ergo inquiebat vultis me otiosum à domino deprehendi In vir Cal. prevailed upon him What saith he would you that the Lord should find me idle After a short time he complained of an inflammation of the lungs and thereupon found himself Asthmatical afterwards Scorbutical which both meeting in a complicated disease ended his days insomuch that he was forced to give over those comforting drinks which his stomack could not want If he stil used them the inflammation grew insufferable and threatned a more sharp and speedy death If he left them his stomack forthwith ceased to perform its office leaving him without hope of life By these Messengers he received the sentence of Death yet in the use of meanes attending the pleasure of him in whose hand our times are His labors continued whilst his strength failed November 18. He took in course for his Text the 4 last verses of the 2 Epistle to Timethy Salute Prisca and Aquila c. Giving the reason of speaking to so many verses together because otherwise he said he should not live to make an end of that Epistle He chiefly insisted upon those Words Grace be with you all so ending that Epistle and his Lectures together For upon the Lords Day following he preached his last Sermon upon John 1. 14. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and Peace Now he gave himself wholly to prepare for his dissolution making his Will and setting his House in order When he could no more be seen abroad all sorts Magistrates Ministers Neighbors and Friends far off and those neer at hand especially his own People resorted unto him daily as to a publique Father When the Neighbor Ministers visited him in which Duty they were frequent he thanked them affectionately for their love exhorting them also as an Elder and a Witness of the sufferings of Christ to feed the flock encouraging them that when the chief Shepherd shal appeare they should receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away Finding himself to grow weake according to that of James he sent for the Elders of the Church of Boston to pray over him which last solemne duty being performed not without much affection and many tears Then as Policarp a Octoginta sex annos illi servio nec me ulla in re laesit unquam Euseb lib. 4. cap. 15. little before his Death said he had served Christ fourscore and six years neither had he ever offended him in any thing so he told them Through grace he had now served God forty years It being so long since his Conversion throughout which time he had ever found him faithful to him thereupon taking occasion to exhort them unto like effect that Paul sometimes did the Elders of Ephesus a little before they were to see his face no more Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Lord hath made you over seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Particularly he lamented the love of many yea and some of their own Congregation growing cold to the Ordinances calling upon them so much the more for their watchfulness in that respect Which done he thanked them for their brotherly and loving assistance to him in their holy fellowship and commended them to the blessing of God It remains that we now behold his pious Consort with those Olive-plants that sate lately about his Table gathered together about the bed of a departing husband and dying Father This was his ultimate solemne transaction with man in this World Silver and Gold though he wanted not he had not much to give them but the benediction of a righteous Parent they are to expect Aeneas words to his Ascanius are fitted to his lips Disce puer virtutem ex me verúmque laborem Aeneid 12. Fortunam ex aliis Sons piety and industry learn of me the way to greatness in this World is to be learned of others Antiquity treasured up the Counsels of dying Parents as so many Oracles Isaac is sollicitous to blesse and his Son desirous to be blessed before his death The Father of the faithful his commanding of his Children after him to keep the way of the Lord is a means whereby God brings upon Abraham that which he had spoken of him Solomon who remembers the Prophesie that his Mother taught him surely hears that charge of his Father still sounding in his ears And thou Solomon my Son c. I know his children whom he instrumentally blessed shall be blessed in their relation in these charges commands counsels blessings whilst they walk in the way of their Father and keep the memory of his example and his endeavors relating to them in the Repository of a pure Conscience Audit Paraeis ergo nil beatius In patre vivit gnatus in gnato pater What Family more happy then his whilst the Father liveth in the children as the children live in their Father That Reverend and Godly man Mr Wilson who excelleth in love as Mr Cotton did in light the faithful Pastor of the Church taking his last leave of him and most ardently praying unto God that he would lift up the light of his Countenance upon him and shed his love into his Soul he presently answered him in these words He hath done it
already Brother His work now finished with all men perceiving his departure to be at hand and having nothing to do only that great work of dying in the Lord he totally composed and set himself for his dissolution desiring that he might be permitted to improve the little remnant of his life without any considerable impediment to his private devotions and divine soliloquies between God and his Soul For that end he caused the Curtains to be drawn and a Gentleman and brother of the Congregation that was much with him and ministred unto him in his sickness to promise him that the Chamber should be kept private But a while after hearing the whispering of some brethren in the room he called for that Gentleman saying Why do you break your word with me An expression so circumstanced as that the impression thereof abideth unto this day in the heart of that godly man whose omission gave him occasion so to speak Not long after mindful no doubt of that great helpfulness which he received from that forementioned brother throughout his visitation he left him with this farewel The God that made you and bought you with a great price redeem your body and soul unto himself These words were his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his last words after which he was not heard to speak but lying some hours speechless quietly breathed out his spirit into His Death the hands of him that gave it December 23. 1652. between eleven and twelve after the bell had called to the Lecture Thus preventing the Assembly in going to see what they were but going to hear being entred into the Sixty and eighth year of his age So ceased this Silver-trumpet waiting for the sound of the last Trump The eyes of his dead body were soon closed but before that the eye of his ever-living soul beholds the face of Jesus Christ Upon the 29. day the Body was interred within a Tomb of Brick a numerous confluence of all Degrees from all parts as the season would permit orderly accompanying the corpse borne upon the shoulders of his Fellow-Ministers unto the chambers of death not only with sighs and tears and Funeral-Poems all in abundance but with the solemnity of sorrow of heart it self alas too manifest in the carriage and countenance of those whose visage was as the visage of them which are bereaved of the breath of their nostrils The Inhabitants of the Land might have said This was a great mourning Such were New-Englands tears for the Man of their desires of whom they and especially his own Congregation cannot speak without lamentation unto this day Fuimus Troes fuit Ilium New-England was and flourished Now our Candlesticks cannot but lament in darkness when their Lights are gone And the Thrones of David mourn that so many of our late Worthies can be seen there no more Our desiderable men that remain remove from us and few they are who return again And as for those that rise up amongst our selves such is the portion of this Jerusalem that though for her time she hath not been an unfruitful mother yet they are but few that will guide her amongst all the sons which she had brought forth yea very few that take her by the hand of all the sons which she hath brought up Thus are our trials increased and our strength decreased that we might learn to trust in God What the counsel of the Lord is concerning the bereaved Churches of New-England is a solemn and awful meditation The non-considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come was a symptomatical and threatening incogitancie in Isaiah's days Sure we are that Iosiah was gathered unto his Fathers that he might not see the evil that was to come upon Jerusalem Augustine is taken out of the world before Hippo is taken by the Vandals Paraeus is gotten to his better Country before Heidelbergh and the Palatinate are delivered into the power of the Enemies Whatsoever it be we may not here silence that monitory Apparition in the Heavens that appeared about fourteen O quantum dilecte Deo cui militat Aether days before and according to the report of some observers thereof was not seen here after this man of God was taken from amongst us It was a profane jest of Vespatian who seeing a bearded Comet said This Prodigie belongs to the King of Parthia that wears long hair meaning it did not belong unto himself who wore short hair But soon after followed the death not of the King of Parthia but of Vespasian It was a Christian and imitable speech of Lodowick the First who unto his Astronomer seeing him observing the Comet and to prevent an ominous and afflicting construction in the Emperors heart alleadging those words in the Prophet Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven thus replied Timeamus Conditorem hujus Cometae Let us fear the Creator of this Comet not the Comet it self and let us praise his clemencie who vouchsafeth to admonish our sluggishness with such signs Many instances we have in History of Dissention in Religion and Heresies following upon these Meteors A Comet preceded the Furies of the Enthusiasts in Germany 1533. the genuine offspring of whom is that generation commonly known by the name of Quakers Comets are signal though not causal They are signal as to changes of Divine providence which befall men though they have no causal influence upon the minds of men And be it so that in themselves simply considered future Events whether good or evil are illegible yet when they are placed in Conjunction with Scripture-predictions concerning the iniquities of men ripening for the execution of Divine vengeance being interpreted according to the word of their Creator they are not without instruction Mr. Cotton upon his enquiry after the motion of this Comet being asked what he himself conceived of it answered That he thought it portended great Changes in the Churches But that which further calleth upon us not to be unmindful of sadder Vicissitudes probably impending is the formidable Apostacie both from the Order and Faith of the Gospel appearing and threatening us in this Age. Christ mentions prodigious Tenets of false Prophets and false Marth 24. Christs arising as sometimes at the least signal of Publick calamities As the concurrence of multitude of Heresies and mutability in Religion which gave occasion to that opprobrious Fides menstrua and horrid Proverb The Christians Faith is menstruous was a means to bring in Antichrist so the present vexation of Consciences and of the Civil Estates with uncertainty and manifold Heresie in matter of Faith hath no small tendencie to bring back the Infallible Chair People will accept of a quiet Harbor though upon hard conditions rather then be afflicted with continual tossings in stormy Seas 'T is natural to man to covet any quiet Land rather then to dwell with the terror of a continual Earthquake Heu Pietas heu prisca Fides It was no despicable stratagem of the