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Upon this, her kinsman, the good old Puritan Dod, singularly renowned for wit and holiness, sent her a curious present for her consolation. It consisted of a brass counter, a silver crown, and a gold jacobus; each wrapped in a separate envelop. The gentleman who carried it was. told to deliver first the brass counter; and if, on opening the envelop, she betrayed any discontent, he was to come away and take no further notice of her. But if she accepted the trifle kindly for the giver's sake, then he was to give her, first the silver piece, and next the gold. Lastly, by way of moral, he was to tell the lady;-"That such would be the dispensations of God towards her, and the other good people of New England :-if they would be content and thankful with such little things as God at first bestowed upon them, they should, in time, have silver and gold enough." It is pleasant to be able to state, that Mrs. Wilson so pleasantly accepted what seemed such a trifling token of remembrance from her good old friend, that the gentleman delivered the more valuable parts of the present, together with the annexed advice, more precious than the present itself. Though this prediction was uninspired, it has come to pass. The wealth of the goodly cities, and flourishing commonwealth of New England, is

God's reward of our father's piety, who "despised not the day of small things," but were humbly grateful for the least tokens of God's provident bounty.

While Mr. Wilson was exerting himself in England for the good of the people here, he was not forgotten by them. On the thirteenth of January, "the church of Boston kept a day of humiliation for the absence of their pastor and other brethren, gone to England, and like to be troubled and detained there." The special causes of this trouble and threatened detention it is not now in our power to trace. They were owing to that jealous and arbitrary spirit on the part of the persecuting powers, which so often prevented the embarkation of the emigrants. Edward Johnson gives us the following account.

Here, my endeared Reader, I must mind thee of the industrious servant of Christ, Mr. John Wilson, who this year landed the third time upon this American shore from his native country; where now again, by the divine providence of Christ, he narrowly escaped the hunters' hands, being clothed in a countryman's habit, passing from place to place, declared to the people of God what great works Christ had already done for his people in New England, which made many Christian souls long to see these

admirable acts of Christ, although it were not to be enjoyed but by passing through an ocean of troubles, voyaging night and day upon the great deep, which this zealous servant of God had now five times passed over."* The attempt to prevent the Puritans from leaving the land of oppression, was a policy fatal to its authors. In forbidding the flight of these men, so deeply disaffected toward the tyranny in Church and State, it compelled them to stay at home, and bend all the formidable energies of their minds toward the overthrow of that despotism from whose presence they might not depart. Thus there were at one time in the river Thames, eight sail of ships bound for New England; and crowded with Puritan passengers, among whom were Oliver Cromwell, Sir Arthur Haselrig, and John Hampden. An order in council was despatched, which compelled them to come on shore, and gird themselves for a contest, in the course of which those men and their associates sent the king and his chief counselors to the scaffold.

Having finished the business which brought him to England, Mr. Wilson left his native shores, as has been mentioned, for the third

* Wonder-working Providences, Chap. XXXII.

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and last time, and accompanied by his wife and four children. There came two large ships in consort, the Defence and the Abigail, with near two hundred passengers; many of them, persons of estate and repute. Among them, besides other ministers, was Thomas Shepard, afterwards the great luminary of the Cambridge. Church. There was also the no less famous Hugh Peters, pastor of the English church at Rotterdam, from whence he had been newly driven by the persecutions of the British ambassador. Of his active life and tragical death, we need say nothing. His character having been only portrayed by his bitter foes, or such as took their opinions from his foes, has suffered extreme historic injustice. His only child became the wife of the younger Winthrop; and their descendants who yet live among us are happy to be able to trace their lineage to men neither noble nor priestly by the power of man; but yet "nobles by an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand."

This company sailed about the tenth of August, 1635. They had some rough weather, in which the decayed and unseaworthy ship was greatly endangered by a frightful leak, which could not, for a while, be found. The devout passengers betook themselves to their usual and

often successful resource. They held a day of solemn fasting and prayer, in the course of which, the cause of their danger was discovered and removed, just as they were thinking of going back. They arrived at Boston on the third of October, 1635. The Church, concerned that their pastor did not return so soon as they expected, had appointed a humiliation day for united prayer in his behalf. He arrived the afternoon before, in season to turn the mournful day, as reason required, into an extemporaneous thanksgiving. As painful as was the final parting of himself and wife from endeared connections at home, so joyful was their reception by their expectant friends, who had been looking for them here with longing eyes.

Soon after Mr. Wilson's return, the Antinomian controversy broke out, and raged for two or three years with a fury that threatened the destruction of his church. He with Governor Winthrop, and a very few other members, found themselves arrayed against Mr. Cotton, and almost the entire body of the communicants. All the neighboring churches sided with Mr. Wilson. The excitement lasted till the mind of Mr. Cotton, who had been imposed upon by the seeming sanctity of the leaders in the disturbance, was disabused. By his vigorous meas

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