Speculations, or with such things as Animum non dant, quia non habent; much less did he kill them with such Poyson as is too commonly exposed by the Arminian and Socinian Doctors that have too often sat in Moses's Chair. His way of Preaching was very plain; so that the very Lambs might wade, into his Discourses on those Texts and Themes, wherein Elephants might swim; and herewithal, it was very powerful, his Delivery was always very graceful and grateful; but when he was to use reproofs and warnings against any Sin, his Voice would rise into a Warmth which had in it very much of Energy as well as Decency; he would sound the Trumpets of God against all Vice, with a most penetrating Liveliness, and make his Pulpit another Mount Sinai, for the Flashes of Lightning therein display'd against the Breaches of the Law given upon that Burning Mountain. And I observed, that there was usually a special Fervour in the Rebukes which he bestow'd upon Carnality, a carnal Frame and Life in Professors of Religion; when he was to brand the Earthly-mindedness of Church-Members, and the Allowance and the Indulgence which they often gave unto themselves in sensual Delights, here he was a right Boanerges;1 he then spoke, as 'twas said one of the Ancients did, Quot verba tot Fulmina, as many Thunderbolts as Words.

It was another Property of his Preaching, that there was evermore much of CHRIST in it; and with Paul, he could say, I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ; having that Blessed Name in his Discourses, with a Frequency like that, with which Paul mentions it in his Epistles. As 'twas noted of Dr. Bodly, that whatever Subject he were upon, in the Application still his Use of it would be, to drive Men unto the Lord Jesus Christ; in like manner, the Lord Jesus Christ was the Loadstone which gave a touch to all the Sermons of our Eliot; a Glorious, Precious, Lovely Christ was the Point of Heaven which they still verged unto. From this Inclination it was, that altho' he Printed several English Books before he dy'd, yet his Heart seemed not so much in any of them, as in that serious and savoury Book of his, Entituled, The Harmony of the Gospels, in the Holy History of Jesus Christ. From hence also 'twas, that he would give that Advice to young Preachers, Pray let there be much of Christ in your Ministry; and when he had heard a Sermon, which had any special Relish of a Blessed Jesus in it, he would say thereupon, O blessed be God, that we have Christ so much and so well preached in poor New-England!

6. Such things as "give no life, because they possess none."

7. Arminius and Socinus were sixteenthcentury theologians regarded as heretics by orthodox Calvinists.

8. In its original sense, meaning "the fitting" or "the appropriate."

9. Where Moses received the Ten Com

mandments from God, who "descended upon it in fire;" hence the "Burning Mountain," later in the sentence. Its location is unidentified. See Exodus xixXX.

1. Christ's appellation for James and John, translated as "sons of thunder" (Mark iii: 17).

Moreover, he lik'd no Preaching, but what had been well studied for; and he would very much commend a Sermon which he could perceive had required some good Thinking and Reading in the Author of it. I have been present, when he has unto a Preacher then just come home from the Assembly with him, thus expressed himself, Brother, there was Oyl required for the Service of the Sanctuary; but it must be beaten Oyl; I praise God, that I saw your Oyl so well beaten to day; the Lord help us always by good Study to beat our Oyl, that there may be no knots in our Sermons left undissolved, and that there may a clear light be thereby given in the House of God! And yet he likewise look'd for something in a Sermon beside and beyond the meer Study of Man; he was for having the Spirit of God, breathing in it and with it; and he was for speaking those things, from those Impressions and with those Affections, which might compel the Hearer to say, The Spirit of God was here! I have heard him complain, It is a sad thing, when a Sermon shall have that one thing, The Spirit of God wanting in it. ***

ELIOT AS AN EVANGELIST.

The Titles of a Christian and of a Minister, have rendred our Eliot considerable; but there is one memorable Title more, by which he has been signalized unto us. An Honourable Person did once in Print put the Name of an Evangelist upon him; whereupon in a Letter of his to that Person afterwards Printed, his Expressions were, "There is a Redundancy, where you put the Title of Evangelist upon me; I beseech you to suppress all such things; let us do and speak and carry all things with Humility; it is the Lord who hath done what is done; and it is most becoming the Spirit of Jesus Christ to lift up him, and lay our selves low; I wish that Word could be obliterated."2 My Reader sees what a Caution Mr. Eliot long since entred against our giving him the Title of an Evangelist; but his Death has now made it safe, and his Life had long made it just, for us to acknowledge him with such a Title. I know not whether that of an Evangelist, or one separated for the Employment of Preaching the Gospel in such Places whereunto Churches have hitherto been gathered, be not an Office that should be continued in our Days; but this I know, that our Eliot very notably did the Service and Business of such an Officer.

Cambden could not reach the Heighth of his Conceit, who bore in his Shield a Salvage of America, with his Hand pointing to the Sun, and this Motto, Mihi Accessu, Tibi Recessu.3 Reader, Prepare to behold this Device Illustrated!

2. In a letter to Edward Winslow, regarding his tribute to Eliot in a work dealing with the evangelists to the In

dians.

3. "As I approach, you decline." That is, Eliot's luster would rival the sun's.

The Natives of the Country now Possessed by the NewEnglanders, had been forlorn and wretched Heathen ever since their first herding here; and tho' we know not When or How those Indians first became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guess that probably the Devil decoy'd those miserable Salvages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy or disturb his Absolute Empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill Terms with the Devil, as to alarm him with sounding the Silver Trumpets of Heaven in his Territories, and make some Noble and Zealous Attempts towards outing him of his Ancient Possessions here. There were, I think, Twenty several Nations (if I may call them so) of Indians upon that spot of Ground, which fell under the Influence of our Three United Colonies; and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could, from that old usurping Landlord of America, who is by the Wrath of God, the Prince of this World.

I cannot find that any besides the Holy Spirit of God, first moved him to the blessed Work of Evangelizing these perishing Indians; 'twas that Holy Spirit which laid before his Mind the Idea of that which was on the Seal of the Massachuset Colony; A poor Indian having a Label going from his Mouth, with a, COME OVER AND HELP US. It was the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, which enkindled in him a Pitty for the dark Souls of these Natives, whom the God of this World had blinded, through all the By-past Ages. He was none of those that make, The Salvation of the Heathen, an Article of their Creed; but (setting aside the unrevealed and extraordinary Steps which the Holy one of Israel may take out of his usual Paths) he thought men to be lost if our Gospel be hidden from them; and he was of the same Opinion with one of the Ancients, who said, Some have endeavoured to prove Plato a Christian, till they prove themselves little better than Heathens. It is indeed a Principle in the Turkish Alcoran, That Let a Man's Religion be what it will, he shall be saved, if he conscientiously live up to the Rules of it: But our Eliot was no Mahometan. He could most heartily subscribe to that Passage in the Articles of the Church of England. "They are to be held accursed, who presume to say, that every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law, and Light of Nature; for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us, only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby Men must be saved." And it astonished him to see many dissembling Subscribers of those Articles, while they have grown up to such a Phrensy, as to deny peremptorily all Church-state, and all Salvation to all that are not under 4. I.e., the Indians, not having knowledge of God's covenant, must die "in

sin," and belong to Satan.
5. The Koran.

Diocesan Bishops, yet at the same time to grant that the Heathen might be saved without the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ ***

The exemplary Charity of this excellent Person in this important Affair, will not be seen in its due Lustres, unless we make some Reflections upon several Circumstances which he beheld these forlorn Indians in. Know then, that these doleful Creatures are the veriest Ruines of Mankind, which are to be found any where upon the Face of the Earth. No such Estates are to be expected among them, as have been the Baits which the pretended Converters in other Countries have snapped at. One might see among them, what an hard Master the Devil is, to the most devoted of his Vassals! These abject Creatures, live in a Country full of Mines; we have already made entrance upon our Iron; and in the very Surface of the Ground among us, 'tis thought there lies Copper enough to supply all this World; besides other Mines hereafter to be exposed; but our shiftless Indians were never Owners of so much as a Knife, till we come among them; their Name for an English-man was a Knife-man; Stone was instead of Metal for their Tools; and for their Coins, they have only little Beads with Holes in them to string them upon a Bracelet, whereof some are white; and of these there go six for a Penny; some are black or blew; and of these, go three for a Penny; this Wampam, as they call it, is made of the Shell-fish, which lies upon the Sea Coast continually.

The[y] live in a Country, where we now have all the Conveniencies of human Life: But as for them, their housing is nothing but a few Mats ty'd about Poles fastened in the Earth, where a good Fire is their Bed Clothes in the coldest Seasons; their Clothing is but a Skin of a Beast, covering their Hind-parts, their Fore-parts having but a little Apron, where Nature calls for Secrecy; their Diet has not a greater Dainty than their Nokehick, that is a spoonful of their parch'd meal, with a spoonful of Water, which will strengthen them to travel a Day together; except we should mention the Flesh of Deers, Bears, Mose, Rackoons, and the like, which they have when they can catch them; as also a little Fish, which if they would preserve, 'twas by drying, not by salting; for they had not a grain of Salt in the World, I think, till we bestow'd it on them. Their Physick is, excepting a few odd Specificks, which some of them Encounter certain Cases with, nothing hardly, but an HotHouse, or a Powaw; their Hot-House is a little Cave about eight foot over, where after they have terribly heated it, a Crew of them go sit and sweat and smoke for an Hour together, and then immediately run into some very cold adjacent Brook, without the least Mischief to them; 'tis this way they recover themselves from some Diseases, particularly from the French; but in most of their dan

6. Syphilis.

gerous Distempers, 'tis a Powaw that must be sent for; that is, a Priest, who has more Familiarity with Satan than his Neighbours; this Conjurer comes and Roars, and Howls, and uses Magical Ceremonies over the Sick Man, and will be well paid for it, when he has done; if this don't effect the Cure, the Man's Time is come, and there's an end.

They live in a Country full of the best Ship-Timber under Heaven: But never saw a Ship, till some came from Europe hither; and then they were scar'd out of their Wits, to see the Monster come sailing in, and spitting Fire with a mighty noise, out of her floating side; they cross the Water in Canoo's, made sometimes of Trees, which they burn and hew, till they have hollow'd them; and sometimes of Barks, which they stitch into a light sort of a Vessel, to be easily carried over Land; if they over-set, it is but a little paddling like a Dog, and they are soon where they were.

Their way of living, is infinitely Barbarous: The Men are most abominably slothful; making their poor Squaws, or Wives, to plant and dress, and barn, and beat their Corn, and build their Wigwams for them; which perhaps may be the reason of their extraordinary Ease in Childbirth. In the mean time, their chief Employment, when they'll condescend unto any, is that of Hunting; wherein they'll go out some scores, if not Hundreds of them in a Company, driving all before them.

They continue in a Place, till they have burnt up all the Wood thereabouts, and then they pluck up Stakes; to follow the Wood, which they cannot fetch home unto themselves; hence when they enquire about the English, Why come they hither! They have themselves very Learnedly determined the Case, 'Twas because we wanted Firing. No Arts are understood among them, unless just so far as to maintain their Brutish Conversation, which is little more than is to be found among the very Bevers upon our Streams. * * *

This was the miserable People, which our Eliot propounded unto himself, to teach and save! And he had a double Work incumbent on him; he was to make Men of them, e'er he could hope to see them Saints; they must be civilized e'er they could be Christianized; he could not, as Gregory once of our Nation, see any thing AngelicalTM to bespeak his Labours for their Eternal Welfare, all among them was Diabolical. To think on raising a Number of these hideous Creatures, unto the Elevations of our Holy Religion, must argue more than common or little Sentiments in the Undertaker; but the Faith of an Eliot could encounter it! * * *

The First Step which he judg'd necessary now to be taken by him, was to learn the Indian Language; for he saw them so stupid 7. Pope Gregory the Great (died 604), on first seeing specimens of the fair

Britons, is reported to have exclaimed, "Not Angles, but angels!"