the rest of the reformed churches; and doubtless no detriment will accrue to others, by leaving them to enjoy the liberty of their own apprehensions.

But not to look only on the dark side of the cloud; during the time of these sad and sorrowful occurrences, were some others called forth, either to enter upon or to make more open and manifest progress in the ministry, ordained for the edifying of the body of Christ, and perfecting the saints.

At the town of Portsmouth, seated on the southern banks of Patcataqua river, the inhabitants having been several years instructed by the painful and able ministry of Mr. Joshua Moody, and guided by his prudent conduct, did a considerable number of them join themselves together in church fellowship, over whom the said Mr. Moody was ordained pastor, 1671.

At the same time, Mr. John Reyner was ordained pastor at the church at Dover, in the room of his father, lately deceased there in the year 1669. Much about the same time was Mr. Dummer ordained pastor of the church at York, in the Province of Maine.

During these intervals of time, several contentious breaches, that happened in sundry of the churches of the Massachusetts, were orderly composed, though not without the interposition of the civil magistrate, who is custos utriusque tabula, which it is thought meet rather to intimate in this place, than pass over with silence, seeing thereby a full answer is given to the main objections that use to be made against the congregational churches of New England, as if there was no way found to end differences, that might occasionally arise in or amongst the churches of that constitution.

Their usual way of ending all differences, is by the improving the help of neighbour churches, who, by their elders and other messengers meeting together, are wont to deliberate and give their advice concerning any matter of difference; in which case, where there appeared an unanimous consent in the said messengers, all parties concerned were found always ready to acquiesce therein. But in case of any differing apprehensions of the said

messengers amongst themselves, or in case of any contumacy in any of the offending parties, the civil magistrates' help being implored by them that are aggrieved, that useth always to put a final end to all matters of controversy amongst any of their churches.

In like manner do all protestant divines allow a power in the civil magistrate, not only in worldly regiment, but also in spiritual, for the preservation of the church, i. e. in cases temporal, so far as belongeth to the outward preservation, not to the personal administration of them, which is the substance of our English oath of supremacy, as a learned man observes.

It is true, that in the primitive times, infidels were converted to the faith, and churches established and kept up, when there was no assistance, but rather opposition from the princes of the earth, as saith the same author. And the benefit we have now, by christian magistrates, was then more abundantly supplied, by the miracles wrought, and the constant direction and care of apostolick and extraordinary persons, who were gifted by Christ for the purpose; but in following times, the ordinary helps and external means, for the upholding and maintaining of peace and truth in the churches, scil. in way of a civil power, is only a pious and christian magistracy, where a nation is blessed with it, so as by the help of the ecclesiastical and the civil power, acting in a way of subordination each unto other, all differences arising may easily be composed there, as well as in any other place, as instances might easily be given, of the issue of some late differences in several of the churches there of late, as namely, at Newbury, Salem, and at Salisbury, the particulars whereof need not here be inserted. By such means hath truth and order been maintained, peace restored unto the several churches within the jurisdictions of New England, in all former times, since the first planting, and may accordingly be expected for the future.

CHAP. LXXI.

General affairs of the Massachusetts, from the year 1671

to 1676.

In the beginning of this last epocha, or series of years, Mr. Bellingham was again chosen governour of the Massachusetts, and Maj. John Leverett, (to whose lot it had fallen some years before to be the major general of the Massachusetts colony,) was at the same time, May 31, 1671, called by the general consent of the electors to be deputy.governour, in the room of Mr. Willoughby, that formerly supplied that place, and always by his gravity and prudence, as well as by his integrity and faithful. ness, well becoming the dignity thereof.

In the year 1672, Harvard College being decayed, a liberal contribution was granted for rebuilding the same, which was so far promoted from that time, that in the year 1677, a fair and stately edifice of brick was erected anew, not far from the place where the former stood, and so far finished that the publick acts of the commencement were there performed, over which God send or confirm and continue a president, for the carrying on of that hopeful work, that so the glory of the succeeding may in all respects equal and exceed that of the former generation.

In the end of the year 1672 an end was put to the life and government of Mr. Bellingham, a very ancient gentleman, having spun a long thread of above eighty years; he was a great justiciary, a notable hater of birbes, firm and fixed in any resolution he entertained, of larger comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain, a disadvantage to a publick person; had he not been a little too much overpowered with the humour of melancholy in his natural constitution, (the infirmities of which tincture did now and then appear in his dispensing of justice,) he had been very well qualified for a governour. He had been bred a lawyer, yet turned strangely, although upon very pious considerations, as some have

judged, out of the ordinary road thereof, in the making of his last will and testament, which defect, if there were any, was abundantly supplied by the power of the general court, so as that no prejudice did arise to his successours about his estate.

In the following year, 1673, May 7th, Maj. John Leverett was invited by the free and general consent of the freemen of the Massachusetts, to take the governour's place after him, which he held ever since unto his life's end. His choice at this time was a little remarkable, in that he, being one of the junior magistrates, was called first to be deputy, then governour, which according to the usual course of succession belonged to the senior. Thus many times things so fall out that the last shall be first. What his administration hath been in the time past, as to wisdom, justice, courage, and liberality is known to all, in that which is to come, is left to be related by them to whose lot it may fall to write the epilogue of New England story, which God grant it may not prove so tragical as it hath been in the four last years preceding. But as is well known, since God took him out of this troublesome world, March 16, 1678, he hath in his merciful providence, called one to preside as chief in authority over the colony of the Massachusetts, who, by his sage wisdom, and long experience, (even ever since the first coming over of the patentees,) hath been found the best able to take upon him the conduct of affairs in those difficult times, that have since happened, sufficient to have tried the wisdom of all that preceded in that station.

This year, Monsieur Colve, coming with a few ships and soldiers from the West Indies, surprized the fort at Manhatos, or New York, in the absence of Col. Lovelace, the governour, under his highness the duke of York, which might have proved, no small disadvantage to the colonies of New England, the Dutch having thereby an opportunity to seize many of their vessels, as they pas sed to and from the West Indies, who were wont to stop on the other side of the Cape Shoals; and many of their vessels were, during the time he held the place, surprized by his orders, which put the country upon a resolu

tion to secure their vessels on that side of the cape; but by good providence the quarrel betwixt the English and the Dutch being ended, those places were again peaceably surrendered into the hands of the English, so as from that time free intercourse and traffick being allowed for the trading vessels, it is hoped the country may now flourish for the future more than formerly.

The court of election, from the beginning of this lustre, fell out in 1671, May 31; 1672, May 15; 1673, May 7; 1674, May 27; 1675, May 12; 1676, May 3 ; This is not 1677, May 27 in every of which, since the year 1672, the last Wedunless in 1678, May 8, when Mr. Bradstreet was first nes day as chosen governour, and Mr. Danforth, of Cambridge, 1. A course, deputy, Maj. Leverett hath been honoured with the place 1. Of & false date. of governour over the Massachusetts colony. And the principal transactions which have since happened there, relate either to their troubles with the Indians, (of which more may be seen in the narrative forementioned, and the continuation thereof in the following chapter,) or else to the controversy which lately arose, and is yet depending between the heirs of one Capt. Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who have several times complained against the said colony to his majesty, and by reiterated petitions, requested for an hearing thereof before him, have by much importunity, at last obtained their de

sire.

The substance of their complaint was, that whereas, as they pretended a grant had been made by the council of Plymouth to the said Capt. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of a distinct Province to each of them, the one called Hampshire, the other Maine, both in the years 1621, 1622, and 1629 and 1635, and that they had, by the expense of many thousand pounds there, taken possession by their agents, yet that they had been dispossessed thereof, by violence and strong hand, by some persons employed by the government of the said colony of the Massachusetts, and notwithstanding all applications made unto them, could obtain no redress or relief of their injuries and wrongs, &c.

By these kind of petitions they prevailed so far as to