of the country from the several towns of election, and so soon as that was over, and after dinner, they should have their desire granted. So they left us, and we proceeded to see who were chosen associates, had the returns of the jurymen and their names entered, both the grand jury and that of trials, also of the constables, but did not swear any one, but adjourned the court and went to dinner; in which time we heard that the gentlemen were going to the meeting house to sit as an assembly, they having before issued out their warrants for the towns to send their

deputies; whereupon we sent to speak with them after dinner. They returned they would, provided we would not proceed any further, till we spake with them. We sent them word we did engage it; they sent us word they would meet with us at the meeting house; and presently after their marshal and Nathaniel Phillips went up and down, and at all publick places published a paper or writing; whom meeting upon their return, it was demanded what and upon what authority they had published to the people to make a disturbance; they answered, they published what they had in the king's name. They were demanded to shew their order or authority; they answered, that was for their security: so refusing to shew it, they were committed to the marshal. Then we went to court, where we found the house full, and the gentle. men to have taken up our seats; so room being made, we went up to them and told them we expected other things than that they would have put such an affront upon the court, nor should such motions hinder us from prosecuting our commission; we could keep the court elsewhere. Some of the people began to speak, but we commanded silence, and the officer was commanded by us to clear the court, whereupon the people departed, and Mr. Jocelin spake to some nigh him to depart; so they coming from the seat, we came to private discourse, and they insisted to have their commission and the king's mandamus of 1666 to be read. We told them we would perform what we had promised, when the court was set; so we repaired to our seat, and they, being set by us, desired that their commission might be read, which was done,

and the ground of it expressed to be from the people's petitioning, who were told they could best give answer thereto, but said nothing; then that part of the mandamus of 1666, which they desired might be read, was read. After which they desired, that Col. Nichols' letter, to the governour and magistrates of the Massachusetts, might be read; but that not being of concernment to them there, save only for information of the justices, of what had passed from them to the governour and magistrates, to whom it was directed, it was refused. Some short account being publickly given, that that which had been read for the natter, having been before and under the consideration of the general court, they had the declaration of their intendments; in prosecution whereof, we were commissionated to keep court and settle the country, the which work we had begun, and, God willing, should perform, to fulfil the trust committed to us. And having declared to the people, that we were not insensible how that at the time of the interruption of the government in the year 1665, by such of the gentlemen of the king's commissioners, that were then upon the place, they had manifested their displeasure by telling the people, that the Massachusetts were traitors, rebels, and disobedient to his majesty, the reward whereof within one year they said should be retributed; yet we told them, that through the good hand of God and the king's favour, the Massachusetts were an authority to assert their right of government there, by virtue of the royal charter derived to them from his majesty's royal predecessors; and that we did not doubt but that the Massachusetts colony's actings for the forwarding his majesty's service would outspeak others' words, where there was nothing but words for themselves and against us; which done, the gentlemen left us, and we proceeded to the work of the court, to impannel the grand jury, gave them their oaths. One of them, viz. Mr. Roger Plaisted, expressed publickly that he was sent by the town he lived in, and accordingly he had applied himself to the major general, more privately, to know how we reassumed the government and how they were to submit; which he now men

tioned in publick, that he might render himself faithful to them that sent him: to which he was answered in publick, as he had been in private, that we reassumed the government by virtue of the charter, and that they were to have the privilege with ourselves in the other counties. We had also from Scarborough a paper presented, which herewith we present to the court; then having sworn the constables present, impannelled the jury for trials, sworn them, and committed what actions were entered and prosecuted to them; in this time the gentlemen sent to desire, that at our leisure time they might speak with us. They were sent for, and presented us with a paper; after we had received it, we attended to settle the business of the military officers and trainbands, and commissioned for York, Job Alcock, lieutenant, Arthur Bragdon, ensign; for Wells, John Littlefield, lieutenant, Francis Littlefield, jun. ensign; for Scarborough, Andrew Angur,lieutenant; for Falmouth, George Ingerfield, lieutenant; for Kittery, Charles Frost, captain, Roger Plaisted, lieutenant, John Gattery, ensign; for Saco, Bryan Pendle ton, major, and he to settle Blackpoint. Mr. Knight, of Wells, the morning before we came away, being Thurs day 9th of July, came and took his oath in court to serve as an associate. The court made an order for a court to be held, 15th of September, there at York; and for that end continued the commission to Capt. Waldron and Capt. Pike and others, for the better strengthening the authority upon the place, as by their commission may appear. The associates that are now in place, are Maj. Pendleton, Mr. Francis Cotterell, Mr. Knight, of Wells, Mr. Rayns, of York, Mr. Roger Plaisted, of Kittery; which is hum. bly submitted to the honoured general court, as the return of your humble servants, this 23d of October, 1668, JOHN LEVERETT, EDWARD TING,

RICHARD WALDRON.

In this order and manner did the Province of Maine return to the government of the Massachusetts, without any other force, threatening, or violence, whatever hath been to the contrary judged, reported, and published,

by any other person or persons, to the prejudice and disadvantage of the truth, and the credit of them that were called to act therein.

CHAP. LXX.

Ecclesiastical affairs in the Massachusetts, from the year

1666 to 1671.

EVER Since the late synod, held in Boston in the year 1662, for the debating the two questions, viz. about the subject of baptism and consociation of, churches, hath arisen some trouble in the country; for in the agi- : tation and determination of those questions, several things were delivered for undeniable positions, which sundry of the ministers and many of the members of the churches throughout the country, were ready to reflect upon, as innovations without scripture warrant, and that would have a direct tendency to undermine the liberty of the churches, as well as to abate, if not corrupt, the purity of them; which occasioned much opposition against the receiving the foresaid determinations in many of the churches of the Massachusetts, as well as in some of the neighbour colonies. And peradventure the controversy was at times managed with too much animosity, until by degrees in many of the churches within the respective colonies of New England, viz. as to the owning of those for members of the particular churches they belong to, who were baptized in their infancy, and when they came to adult years, are willing to submit to the discipline of the church, and are found orthodox in their judgments, and without scandal in their lives.

They who are willing, in that whereto they have already attained, to walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, i. e. peaceably and orderly, according to what they have received, may expect, that though they are at the present, in some things otherwise minded, that God shall even reveal this unto them in his own time and way.

The controversy mentioned was not a little strengthened and revived by an occasion about that time, or not

long before falling out: For after the church of Boston was destitute of a teaching elder, by the sudden and unexpected death of Mr. John Norton, they having made sundry fruitless endeavours to supply themselves, at last, by a general consent of the principal part of the church, they addressed themselves to the reverend and worthy Mr. John Davenport, the pastor of New Haven, a person beyond exception and compare for all ministerial abilities, and upon that account highly esteemed and accepted in either Englands. The reverend person, as was understood by them, that were most solicitous to gain him to Boston, was strongly bent in his spirit to remove from the place where he was settled before, in regard of alteration like to ensue in their civil government, that whole colony being accidentally wrapped within the bounds of the patent, not long before obtained for Connecticut col. ony. Not many motives need be used to draw them that have a natural propension to come. On the other hand, some of the members of Boston church, and those not inconsiderable, either to their number or other circumstances, were averse to the inviting the said reverend person, so as that they desired liberty of withdrawing, or of being a church by themselves, in case their brethren were resolved to proceed on in their choice; not out of dislike of his worth and abilities, but in regard of his declared judgment in opposition to the determination of the late synod in 1662, which was apprehended by some like to become a ball of contention among the churches of the Massachusetts; but every consideration of this nature was swallowed up by the incomparable worth of the person, by such as had already made their choice. In fine, much trouble was occasioned thereby, one part of the church of Boston being as resolved and fixed in their negative, as the rest were in the affirmative, so as not to be included in the choice. This difference was soon after pretty well composed, when the dissenters found a way, by the interposition and advice of the messengers of sundry neighbour churches, to gather into a distinct church-society by themselves. But many of them, who were not so well satisfied in the doing thereof, were soon after ready to think that factum valet.