to the church, and submits the farm to their disposal. The same year the church conveys it to Mr. Chauncy by deed of gift.

Though this was given without any condition to be performed on Mr. Chauncy's part, at least specified in the deed, yet on his retiring at the close of the same year, the farm seems to have been relinquished to the church."

Besides performing his ministerial labors, he practised, to a considerable extent, as a physician, for which, Mather informs us, he was eminently qualified; and moreover was engaged in instructing his own sons, and preparing young men for the ministry.. We state for a certainty that the celebrated Mr. Thomas Thacher, who came out from England before his theological education had been completed, was under the care of Mr. Chauncy at Scituate. He was the ancestor of the eminent ministers of that name.

While in Plymouth, or in Scituate, it does not appear that he wrote anything for publication. The following letter, written by him, is prefixed to the second edition of Leigh's Critica Sacra, ed. Lond., 1646 :—

'Eníngiois amici cujusdam doctissimi, juxta atque piissimi. Erudite vir,

Perlegi (et per alia negotia licuit) horis subcisivis Lexicon tuum. Sacrum, sive Critica Sacra; & videtur mihi certè opus elaboratissimum, & multiplici eruditione refertissimum, & ab authore τὰ αἰσθητήρια διά την ἕξιν γετυμνασμένα ἔχοντι προς διάκρισιν καλά τε καὶ xax, concinnatum. Verbo dicam, non solum tyronibus in lingua Græca, sed etiam Criticissimis Philologis, imò & Theologis, & politioris literaturæ studiovis quibuscunque, addo etiam, toti Reipublicæ Christianæ & literariæ, summè profuturum esse judico. Tibi devotissimus,

C. C.

Deane remarks, in reference to the controversy on the mode of baptism, that there seem to have been three parties in Scituate at the time Mr. Chauncy went there, one of which held to infant sprinkling; another, to adult immersion; and a third, to which Mr. Chauncy belonged, to immersion of infants as well as adults.

HIS DEPARTURE FROM SCITUATE.

At length Mr. Chauncy made up his mind not to remain in Scituate. He had encountered great trials during his residence there. He had found a controversy raging from which his predecessor was glad to escape with a considerable part of his church. He saw upon his settlement a new church formed upon former issues, but also from dissatisfaction with his doctrines. He found himself obliged to take a leading part in the controversy that followed. His admiring friends there were indeed faithful to him, and, for the times, generous, but he lived in actual want even of some of the necessaries of life. Dr. Charles Chauncy, of Boston, remarks, that he had more than once heard the Rev. Mr. Nehemiah Walter, of Roxbury, say, that he had seen a letter of his, wherein was his complaint to his friends, that his necessities were so great, that he might with truth declare, "deest quidem panis,”—indeed I have not bread to eat.

Thus situated, he could hardly fail to contrast the privations he suffered, with the abundance he once enjoyed; a new country and its privations with an old country and its improvements; Puritan New England, with merry old England. We can believe that the same spirit of dissent with which he sympathized while opposed to "the powers that be" in England, would be somewhat disgusting to him in America. His heart must have yearned for his mother country. Times had changed there, and his party were in power. Laud, his persecutor, had given his head to the block to expiate his crimes and his unpopularity. His old people in Ware, still bearing him in affectionate remembrance, had sent him an invitation to return and be their minister. His learned friends of the University of Cambridge would welcome his coming. Accordingly he came to Boston to make arrangements to remove his family to England.

HIS REMOVAL TO CAMBRIDGE.

But while he was in Boston in order to take passage, the Overseers of Harvard College, not willing that the country should suffer the loss of so valuable a man, "on November 2, 1654, deputed Mr. Richard Mather and Mr. Norton to tender to him the place of President, with the stipend of one hundred pounds, to be

paid out of the county treasury, and also to signify to him, that it is expected and desired that he forbear to disseminate or publish any tenets concerning immersion baptism, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the evening, or to expose the received doctrine thereon." "He made no difficulty in complying with this desire, and was ever punctual in the regard he paid to it." If his opinions on this point had not undergone any change, his feelings, at least, had become mellowed by time.

His inauguration was solemnized November 29, 1654. In the language of Cotton Mather, "he concluded his excellent oration, made unto a venerable assembly then filling the college hall, with such a passage as this, to the students there: Doctiorem certe presidem, huic oneri ac stationi multis modis aptiorem, vobis facile licet invenire, sed amantiorem, et vestri boni studiosiorem, non invenietis.”

He was now placed in his appropriate sphere in the new world, where his influence could be proportioned to his talents and learning. Mather, speaking of the manner in which he performed his duties, uses the following language:

"How learnedly he now conveyed all the liberal arts unto those who sat at his feet; how wittily he moderated their disputations and other exercises; how constantly he expounded to them the scriptures in the college hall; how fluently he expressed himself unto them in Latin of Terentian phrase, in all his discourses; and how carefully he inspected their manners, and above all things was concerned for them-will never be forgotten by many of our most worthy men, who were such men, by their education under him.

"He was a most indefatigable student, which, with the blessing of God, made him a most incomparable scholar. He rose very early, about four o'clock both winter and summer; and he set the example of diligence hard to be followed. But, Bene orasse, est bene studuisse; by interweaving of constant prayers into his holy studies, he made them indeed holy; and my reader shall count, if he pleases, how oft in a day, he addressed Heaven with solemn devotions, and judge whether it might not be said of our Charles, as it was of Charles the Great, Carolus plus cum deo, quam cum hominibus loquitur, when I have told, that at his

first getting up in the morning, he commonly spent near an hour in secret prayer, before his minding any other matter; then visiting the college hall, he expounded a chapter (which was first read from the Hebrew) of the Old Testament, with a short prayer before, and after, in his family; about eleven in the forenoon, he retired again about three quarters of an hour for secret prayer. At four in the afternoon he again did the like. In the evening, he expounded a chapter (which was first read in Greek) of the New Testament, in the college hall, with a prayer in like manner before and after; the like he did also in his family; and when the bell rang for nine at night, he retired for another hour of secret prayer before the Lord. But on the Lord's day morning, instead of his accustomed exposition, he preached a sermon on a text, for about three quarters of an hour in the college hall. Beside this, he often set apart whole days for prayer, with fasting alone by himself; yea, and sometimes he spent whole nights in prayer, before his Heavenly Father who sees in secret. days of prayer with fasting, he also kept with his religious consort; and many such days'he also kept with his family, calling in the assistance of three or four godly neighbors, besides what he did more publicly among the people of God. Behold, how near this good man approached unto the strictest and highest sense of praying always!"

Many

He was now in a position in which his great talents, his extensive learning, and active piety could be appreciated by a wide circle of friends and admirers, as it appears they were, from the following passage from Mather :

"But if the whole country were sensible of the blessing which New England enjoyed in our Chauncy now at Cambridge, the church of Cambridge, to whom he now joined and preached had particular cause to be so. And so indeed they were; by the same token, that when he had been a year or two in the town, the church kept a whole day of THANKSGIVING to God, for the mercy which they had enjoyed in his being there."

This remarkable testimony to his character and influence has no parallel, so far as is known to the present writer, in the history of the Puritan worthies in New England.

A SPECIMEN FROM HIS DIARY.

Self-trials before the Sacrament.

TRIAL OF MY PART IN CHRIST.

1. I am subject to the commandment of believing on his person.

2. I rest and rely on him only for salvation.

3. I resolve, by God's help, to leave all for him.

4. All my hopes are on him, and he is my peace.

6.

That I walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

7. By many tokens of his love for me.

TRIAL OF MY FAITH.

1. By the growth of it; 2. By the life of it; 3. By the purity of it.

TRIAL OF MY REPENTANCE.

By the nature of it: that is, change of mind, and my purpose to turn from all sin to God; dying daily to sin.

TRIAL OF MY UPRIGHTNESS TOWARDS GOD.

1. My care to keep his commandments.

2. That his commandments are not grievous to me.

3. Desire of union with him and cleaving to him with full purpose of heart.

TRIAL OF MY BROTHERLY LOVE.

1. Not to suffer sin upon any one.

ADVICE TO A CLERGYMAN.

In 1665 he writes to another minister as follows:

1. Be much in prayer to God. Thereby you will find more succor and success, in your ministry, than by all your study.

2. Preach much about the misery of a state of nature; the preparatives to conversion; the nature of conversion or effectual calling; the necessity of union and communion with Christ; the nature of saving or justifying faith; and the fruits thereof, love and good works and sanctification.

3. Explain the words of your text clearly; bring clear proof from the Scriptures; let your reasons be Scripture-reasons; but