SOME UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
    REV. RICHARD BAXTER AND THE REV. JOHN
    ELIOT, "THE APOSTLE TO THE AMERICAN
    INDIANS," 1656-1682.

                  EDITED BY F. J. POWICKE, M.A., PH.D., D.D.

                                      INTRODUCTORY.

 

AMONG the MSS. of Dr. Williams's Library is a series of
sixteen or seventeen letters which passed between Baxter
and Eliot from November, 1656, to May, 1682.

They lie scattered in one or other of several folio volumes and a
conspective view of them used to be difficult. But now rotographed
facsimiles are available and these the Trustees have granted me the
privilege of reading and transcribing at my leisure-a privilege all the
greater because some passages in Eliot's letters are not easy to make
out. He could write quite legibly if he gave himself sufficient time
and space. Too often, however, his script is so hurried, so crowded
and so abbreviated as to be almost undecipherable. One has to con­
fess, further, that not a little turns out to be hardly worth deciphering;
and so I have been content here and there with a brief summary or
the quotation of a few salient sentences. It might be asked if the
letters were worth transcribing at all. Perhaps not.   The answer
will depend on one's degree of interest in the writers. But for myself
they reflect a light on certain aspects of the two men-on Eliot
especially-which is welcome.

With one or two exceptions the time-sequence is easy to trace,
but there are two wide gaps. Thus the letter of November 7, 1657,
 is followed by a gap of ten years, while we have a dozen letters for
the next four years (1667-71). Then comes a second gap of
eleven years, and no letters after May 30, 1682, the date of the last.
But the gaps are only apparent. The last, e.g., evidently presupposes
 a recent correspondence, and so do the two letters of 1663 which

                                                          138

 

Baxter reserved for publication in his autobiography (R.B. pt. ii.
pp. 293-7). In fact, the probability may be said to amount to a
certainty, that the friendship first revealed by Eliot in 1656 found
expression, more or less continuously, through all the years down to
Eliot's death in 1690, a year before Baxter's. It seems likely, then,
that more letters have been lost than have come down to us; and, as
all that have been preserved are among the Baxter MSS. in Dr.
Williams's Library, it is clear that they owe their preservation to
Baxter himself-which means that his own letters are copies made
and kept according to his custom, while Eliot's are the originals.

If we wonder why so many have been lost, probably the explana­
tion is that, with much else in his library, they were scattered or
destroyed on such an occasion as the thorough-going distraint which
took place in August, 1682.   The marvel is that anything of his in
the way of books and MSS. ever came into the possession of his
friends. But I imagine that books or MSS. were treated as rubbish
which his friends might take at their pleasure, so far as they had not
been torn up, or burnt, or carted away.

 

OUTLINE OF ELIOT'S LIFE.

  John Eliot, born in 1604, was eleven years older than Baxter.
The exact date of his birth is not known, but its place was Widford
in Hertfordshire near the borders of Essex, and the old register of the
parish church of St. John has this record of his baptism: "John
Eliot, the son of Bennett Eliot was baptised the 5th day of August
in the year of our Lord, 1604." ¹ His father was a landholder in four

1 On May 21, 1894, a memorial window in the chancel of the church
was dedicated to him-at the expense of his descendants in America. There
are said to have been two branches of the Eliot stock. John's branch, which
traced its origin to Sir William de Aliot, a Norman knight who came over
with the Conqueror, and a Devonshire-Cornwall branch, which produced the
famous patriot Sir John Eliot (1592-1632) and, nearly 300 years later, the
no less famous President of Harvard, Dr. Charles W. Eliot (1834-1925).
The family of Charles W. Eliot migrated to Massachusetts toward the end of
the 1630-40 decennium; and have been settled there ever since. John's
descendants-from whom came the memorial window-passed over, at an
early date, to Connecticut. I am indebted for this information to Dr. H. H.
Saunderson of Boston, the author of an excellent study of President Eliot
(1928), who had it from the President's son, Dr. Samuel A. Eliot See also,
"The Puritan as a Colonist and Reformer," by E. H. Byington (1899).

or five parishes of Hertfordshire, and, as his will shows, he had a
large estate for those times. By that will he provided generously for
the education of his son John at the University of Cambridge and,
also, for that of his younger children. John was third in a family of
seven. Before he was six years old the family had removed to
Nasing in Essex-a place distinguished for the number of Puritans
that went from it to New England.   The next discernible facts are
that John matriculated as a Pensioner in Jesus College, Cambridge,
on March 20, 1618-19, and received the degree of B.A. in 1623.
Nothing certain is known about his Cambridge life, but we are told
that his bent was toward the study of languages, especially Greek and
Hebrew, and that he was fond of philological enquiries.   In the light
of later evidence this seems very likely. The next few years are a
blank, until about 1629, when he appears as usher in a school founded
at Little Haddo, Chelmsford, by Rev. Thomas Hooker, preacher at
Chelmsford.

Hooker had already drawn upon him the unfriendly notice of

Laud, and in 1630 he was summoned before the High Commission.
He fled to Holland; and in 1633, after brief periods of ministry at
Amsterdam, Delft, and Rotterdam, withdrew to Cambridge in New
England (1633), where he proved himself a great leader till his death
in 1647. It was confessedly to him that Eliot owed his definite start

in the Christian life. By him, too, he was led to take Orders in the
English Church; and, no doubt, it was the treatment of Hooker that
turned his face to the West. He reached Boston on November 4, 1631.
Other passengers in the same ship, besides the wife and children of
Governor Winthrop, were Eliot's three brothers and three sisters. It
was a family migration. Almost at once on his arrival he took the
place of the Rev. John Wilson, Teacher of the Charleston-Boston
Church, who was on a visit to England, and it is a curious fact that
Roger Williams, afterwards notorious for his advocacy of universal
toleration, had just declined the same position because the Church
owned the validity of Episcopal Orders. These he had, but thought
nothing of then. He wanted to be properly ordained by the people!¹
Eliot felt no such scruple-a sign that he was not yet a strict separatist.
He took the office of teacher in virtue of his standing as a minister of the
Church of England.    Moreover, he filled it so much to the

1 Walker's" Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism," p. 99 note.

satisfaction of the people that they wished to retain him after Mr.
Wilson's return. "But he had engaged with a select number of his
Christian friends in England that if they should come into these parts
before he should be in the pastoral care of any other people, he
would give himself to them and be for their service." Their
arrival, therefore, in 1632, decided him. They "chose for their
habitation the place they called Roxbury." He went with them and
there "he shone as a star for near three score years."    In September
of the same year he was married to the lady, Hanna Mumford, to
whom he had betrothed himself before leaving England. She had
come out with his other friends, and their marriage was the first recorded
in the Roxbury church-book. They lived together for fifty-seven years,
and " God made her a rich blessing, not only to her family (of six
children) but also to her neighbourhood."   His own people were
the young pastor's first care-perhaps his absorbing care.    For little
is heard of him till 1646, when on October 28 he preached his first
sermon to the Indians in their own language. Then we learn that he
had been hard at work on the language for two years and had long
been in the habit of going to them and trying to win their confidence.
So the call to work for their conversion became imperious. When the
Colony afterwards took for its seal the figure of a poor Indian with
 a label in his mouth containing the words "Come over and help us,"
 Increase Mather (1639-1723), the most prominent minister of the
second generation, traced  its adoption to the influence of Eliot.
"Certainly it was the Holy Spirit," he wrote, " who inspired him to
hear and obey that call."   But at first not all his brethren by any
means were sure of its divine origin. They were rather inclined to
think that the Indians were wild beasts whom God called them to fear
and fight. And there was suspicion and prejudice on the part of the
Indians themselves.¹ Hence his progress was slow. But, from the
outset, a few of the natives were disposed to listen, and by winning
these he won others. His method was congregational. A church of
genuine converts-of the few but fit-was his aim. Five years passed,
and then (in 1651) his labours bore fruit in the first gathered church
at Natick. Its members bound themselves first in a church-covenant,
next they and their children were baptised, then the adults partook of

1 See Letter 2 to Baxter, infra.

the Lord's Supper. This was not precisely Baxter's notion of a
church; but to Eliot it was as truly a church as any in the New
Testament.

To this church, and to others which grew up later, Eliot went to
preach once a fortnight-regularly, it seems, until he was over eighty.
After a while other English preachers assisted him. But for the
management and upbuilding of his churches he looked mainly to the
principle of self-help. As far as possible he trained converted Indians
to become pastors and teachers. To these he joined other Indians, as
ruling elders. And he made their appointment to depend on the counsel
and choice of the people. Thus, in the accepted sense, each church
was independent.

In 1674 the number of "praying Indians .. {the name for the

converted) had increased to 3600. Then came the disaster known
as King Philip's war-an uprising of the Indians against the settlers
which lasted from June, 1675, to August, 1676, and threatened
their extermination.  "Of the 80 or 90 towns  to  be found in

Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies in 1675, 10 or 12 were utterly

destroyed ,..  and 40 more partially burned, while "between 500
and 600 young and middle-aged men-a fourth of all of military
age in the colonies-lost their lives,.. besides "scores of women and
children who perished by the tomahawk and died amid the torments of
the stake... The effect upon the Indian churches and Eliot's missionary
work must have been devastating.¹ Yet in 1687 Increase Mather
could report: "There are 6 churches of baptised Indians in New
England and 18 assemblies of catechumens professing the name of
Christ.   Of the Indians there are four-and-twenty who are preachers
of the word of God; and besides these there are 4 English ministers
who preach the Gospel (to them?) in the English tongue...  This
was the evangelical aspect of his work; but the work was not merely
evangelical. Eliot used to say that for a missionary it is " absolutely
necessary to carry on civility ² with religion,.. and he acted on his own
motto.   A visitor to one of his Indian settlements would have noticed
a considerable measure of self-government, and that provision was
made " for industrial occupations, clearings, houses and clothes."
Especially noticeable would have been his regard for education. Every

1 Unfortunately any letters of Eliot to Baxter on the matter have not
survived.                        2 I.e. social work.

church had its school, where reading in the native language was taught
with other elementary subjects, and at length even elementary science.¹
In this respect he did for the Indians what he did for his own people
at Roxbury, where he insisted on a grammar school at all costs. "God,"
we are told by Cotton Mather, writing after Eliot's death, "so blessed
his endeavours that Roxbury has afforded more scholars for the College
(Harvard), than any town of its bigness; or, if I mistake not, of twice
its bigness in all New England. From the spring of the school at
Roxbury, there has run a large number of streams which have made
glad the whole city of God." Recalling Charles W. Eliot one would
say that zeal for education was in the Eliot blood.

Eliot died in May, 1690, in his 86th year. His last words were
"Welcome Joy." "I think "--wrote Rev. Thomas Shepherd, his
close friend and best helper-" that we can never love nor honour
this man of God enough. The name of the Apostle to the Indians
must always stand in distinguished brightness on that roll of the
servants of the Most High whom New England delights, and ever
will delight, to honour in the records of her Moral History."

In the year of his death a brief but beautiful memoir of Eliot was
published by one who had known him from his own earliest years­
Cotton Mather, son of Increase Mather.

A few sentences from it may be quoted.

"He was one who lived in heaven while he was on earth."
"Every day was a sort of Sabbath to him, but the Sabbath-day was
a taste of heaven with him."

" He laboured that he might, on this high day, have no words or

thoughts but such as were agreeable thereunto, he then allowed in
himself no actions but those of a raised soul." It was his habit to
conduct two services at Roxbury on Sunday and a weekday fort­
nightly lecture ; but, to feed his own soul he made weekly visits to

lectures at Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Dorchester--where
he showed his " affection " for what he heard by " hands and eyes
devoutly uplifted I " In his preaching he gave the people " food and
not froth."   " His delivery was graceful and grateful."   " He liked
no preaching but what had been well studied for-BEATEN oil."

His personal habits verged on the ascetic.

1 See letter 14, infra.

"We are all of us compounded of these two things, the man and
the beast; but so powerful was the MAN in this holy person that it
kept the beast ever tied with a short tether."

" The sleep that he allowed himself, cheated him not of his morn­
ing hours, but he reckoned the morning no less a friend to grace
than to the Muses.  He would call upon students, 'I pray look to it,
that you be morning birds.' "

His diet was of the simplest. " One dish, and a plain one, was
his dinner.'' " For a supper he had learned of his loved patron, Mr.
Cotton, either wholly to omit it or to make a small sup or two the utmost
of it." "Good clear water" was his usual drink: "Wine is a noble
generous drink, but, as I remember, water was made   before it."
" When he thought the countenance of a minister … looked as if he
made much of himself he would go to him with the speech, 'Study
mortification, brother I study mortification I '"

He had no pride of life. " His apparel was without any orna­
ment and he wore a leathern girdle about his loins." "Seeing some
scholars once whom he thought a little too gaudy in their clothes,
'Humiliamini, Iuvenes, Humiliamini,' was his immediate compli­
ment to them." His own deep humility was the secret of his eminence

-it   " made him higher by a head than the rest of the people," and
was what gave weight to his admonitions.

Finally, "he was a great enemy to contention. When he heard
any ministers complain that such and such in their flocks were too
difficult for them, the strain of his answer to all was-' Brother, learn
the meaning of those three little words, Bear, forbear, forgive.'"

Baxter knew this little memoir. He received a copy of it from the
writer's father {Dr. Increase Mather), and it was the occasion of a
letter to the latter {dated August 3, 1691)-said to be the last he
ever wrote. Dr. Mather was then in London on a mission from the
colony to obtain a renewal of its charter.¹   He wrote, "I thought I

1 Increase Mather fled from Boston in April, 1688, and had been resident
in London since the following June-his chief business being to obtain a re­
newal of New England's charter.  On June 4,1688, he was received by James

II. in the Long Gallery at Whitehall and presented a letter of thanks for the
King's 'declaration of Indulgence' from some twenty New England congrega­
tions.  On June 20 he called at Charterhouse Yard to see Mr. Baxter who led
the majority of London ministers against the declaration-see p. 188 of Kenneth

B. Murdock's "Life of Increase Mather," Harvard, 1929.

had been near dying at twelve o'clock in bed, but your book revived
me. I lay reading it until between one and two.   I knew much of
Mr. Eliot's opinions by many letters which I had from him.   There
was no man on earth whom I honoured above him.  It is his evangeli­
cal [i.e. his missionary] work that is the apostolical work I plead for
 I am now dying I hope as he did.   It pleased me to read from him
my case: ' my understanding faileth, my memory faileth, and my
hand and pen fail, but my charity faileth not.' That word much
comforted me."

The two men never met in the flesh, but, as Baxter said, many
letters passed between them; and of these are the sixteen which follow.

SHORT OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

(1)        October 16, 1656.   Eliot writes to Baxter as a stranger to
him by face but as a brother of the spirit-deeply indebted for help
received from his "Saints' Everlasting Rest" in a time, not yet
passed, of bodily pain "very heavy and bitter."   His object in writ­
ing, is not only to thank him but specially to urge him to employ his
peculiar gift for such work in composing manuals of meditation--to
cover every aspect of Christian life and experience.

(2)         January 20, 1656/7. Baxter, after expressions of warm
sympathy and concern, asks what Eliot finds to be the greatest
hindrance in his work for the Indians; excuses himself from the
(present) undertaking which Eliot suggests; and begs him to forward
all he can the union of Presbyterians and Congregationalists in
England.

(3)        October 7, 1657. Eliot ascribes the former paucity of con-
verts from among the Indians chiefly to the unworthy conduct of
nominally Christian people but reports a recent change for the better;
meets Baxter's hesitant response to his suggestion with a practical
proposal for carrying it out; and deals, at some length, with Baxter's
motion about the furthering of union between English Presbyterians and Congregationalists.

(4)        End of 1667    Letter, undated and unaddressed, from Baxter
to Eliot. It was called forth by a booklet which Eliot printed (not
published) in 1665 at Cambridge (Boston). Only two copies are
known to exist, one in a private library at Hartford (Connecticut)

10

and one in the Bodleian (Pamph. 122(8)). The title-from the
Bodleian-begins: "Communion of Churches, or, the Divine
Management of Gospel Churches by the ordinance of Councils,
Constituted in order, according to the Scriptures.   As also, the Way
of bringing all Christian Parishes to be Particular Reforming Con­
gregational Churches….'' 8vo, Preface ii, 38 pp.

The little volume meant so much to its author and is so singular

in its proposals, that it is worth while to indicate its drift.

There are eight short chapters, viz. :--

Chap. 1. Prolegomena, or things premised, viz., that there
must be-

(a)    A Church of believers and

(b)   A Council of Churches.

Chap. 2. A Council in the first instance, should consist of 12
local Churches, represented by at least 24 messengers, or a multiple
of 12. The number 12 is the Gospel measuring reed.

Chap. 3. The constitution of Councils extends to four orders:-­

(a)     District Councils = 24 messengers (at least) from 12

Churches.   These to meet monthly.

(b)    Provincial Assemblies = 24 delegates from District
Councils. These to meet quarterly.

(c)    National Synods = 24 delegates from 12 Provincial

Assemblies. These to meet once a year.

(d)    OEcumenical Council = 24 delegates from 12 National
Synods. This, when once attained, to be always in session.

Its seat (D.V.) will be Jerusalem. It will have no President
or Pope, but be directly subject to Christ. It will be His holy

breastplate-corresponding to the 24 elders before the Throne.
Through it Christ will rule all the world-both of civil and
ecclesiastical affairs-by the Word of His mouth delivered to
His saints (i.e., I take it, the 24 elders) in the Hebrew language.

Chap. 4. The order of electing the Councils is fundamentally
Congregational. The first choice of messengers is by the individual
Church, and carries with it all the rest. " Hence it must be carefully
and expressly put into the Vote of this first act of the Churches, that
they (the messengers) are chosen to carry on the ordinance of Councils
in all the orders of it both in Provincial, National and OEcumenical

Councils even unto the highest point," How often the choice of the
individual churches is to be exercised is not clear, but apparently once
a year, in order to keep the stream of delegates permanently fresh.

Chaps. 5 and 6 outline the work of the Councils in its general

and special character. The object, in both respects, is to ensure right
order or discipline; and the conclusion is notable:--

"Within the compass of one year the whole order of elders and
discipline has its course... Moreover, once established itis compulsory.
Such as defy discipline are "high disturbers and must be suppressed
by civil power;" and if this should entail the death penalty, Eliot is
inexorable.  "It is a greater good to preserve order than to preserve

the lives of the wilfull and obstinate violators thereof."   So he landed

himself among the persecutors, Romish and others, by the same argu­
ment as theirs.

Chap. 7 is concerned with the way to bring "every Christian
parishional congregation to be an explicit reforming congregational
church;" and

Chap. 8. T reals of the management of these councils--with no
small reliance on the magistrates.

Such a scheme, emanating from a Congregationalist, was some­
thing uniquely curious, and could not be taken seriously. Respect
for Eliot's character may have saved it from open ridicule;   but

nobody in New England seems to have noticed it.    It "sank like

lead in the mighty   waters of   oblivion" (Dexter).     In the course
of time, however, a copy came to Baxter who not merely noticed it,
but also set down and sent to Eliot a number of "Animadversions"
(or reflections),   not   by any means   all critical.    Indeed,   he goes
so far as to say that this Platform of Mr. Eliot's would have been
gladly accepted by the " sober " of   both parties (Presbyterian and

Congregational) in England eight or nine years ago ; ¹ and that even
now they would rejoice if it were commonly owned by the brethren
of the Congregational way. But the New England brethren knew
better.

(5)        10 December, 1667/8.    Eliot's grateful acknowledgement of the
"Animadversions" is remarkable (I) for his defence, on scriptural
grounds, of the death penalty in the case of those who hold out pre-

 

1 I.e. in 1657/8 when Baxter's" Associations" were spreading.

sumptuously against the Established Church order. He had the
Quakers particularly in mind.   In Massachusetts from 1656 onwards
"four Quakers were executed, excessive fines were imposed, and a
system of frightfulness was put into operation in the shape of un­
merciful whippings." ¹ Eliot apologises for this under eight heads.

(2) His implied reference to what was known in New England
as the Half-way Covenant-agreed upon at the Synod of Boston in
1662-which affirmed the membership of the children of church
members, and a right to baptism of their children if they do but
express " an intellectual faith in the doctrines of the Church and
sincere assent to its covenant." This was carried by 7 to 1. Eliot's
name is not given.  But if it be true that he had been moving towards
the Half-way house since 1649¹ this letter may be taken to prove that
he had arrived there-constrained chiefly by his regard for the young

people. It reveals, however, a profound sense of misgiving.

The letter enclosed a little script (not extant) advocating "one
great poynt" viz.: "that Magistrates should be chosen by the
Churches to be members of the Councils."

22 January, 1667/8. An anxious enquiry about his last letter,

(6)  and some slight corrections which Baxter is asked to make in his
copy of the "Communion of Churches." A strange sentence near the end
seems to compare the Puritans of England at one time (under Laud?)
to Isaac " bound for sacrifice, throat open, sword drawn I " " There
wanted only the word, and THAT God stayed." Hence we of New
England ought to " receive all the godly in England " as by a
resurrection.

27 March, 1668.   Baxter to Eliot.   Has thankfully received

(7)  his corrected copy of the two letters. Is in general agreement with
what he has written, but has been startled by " a truly great difference
such as I thought had never been between you and me." Eliot's con­
ception of Baptism as " a particular covenant " made for, or by, the
candidate for church-membership, is the great difference. His own
view of Baptism regards it as a universal covenant identical with the
covenant of grace. This view has ever been the mind of the Church.
Our very Christianity consists in it. Eliot's doctrine, on the other

1"The Religious History of New England," p. 180, Harvard, 1917.

2 Walker's" Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism," p. 254.

hand, is strange-very strange. Nor is it that of the ENGLISH Con­
gregationalists at least. "The congregational men here, of chief name"
are "wholly of my mind." Under this wrong impression of Eliot's
enormous singularity Baxter writes in an excited strain.

The rest of his letter is an emphatic assertion of his opinion that

the people have no ruling voice in the admission of members to the
church, nor in the judging of fellow-communicants.

(8)        15  June,  1668.  Eliot  to  Baxter. Takes up  four  points,  but
is mostly concerned to quiet his friend's fears as to that upon which he
had expressed himself so vehemently.    He reduces the real difference
to a "tantillum."

(9)    28 October, 1668.   Eliot to Baxter.    He   has just discovered

an objection of Baxter's to the seventh chapter of his book on communion
of churches which he had overlooked.   One much the same had
been urged by another reverend and beloved friend and a kinsman
of his own. To him Eliot had replied in a letter which he transcribes
verbatim for Baxter, and sends in the hope that it may satisfy him as
well.    At   the end he reports the death of his eldest son, "a good

workman in the vineyard of Christ, my assistant in the Indian work.

           a staffe to my age.

(10)        22 September, 1668.    A   reply to Eliot's of   15 June.    Baxter
is thankful for further light and for his friend's hearty breathings after
unity and peace.   There is nothing between them which need disturb
their profound agreement of spirit and aim. " If we had here the
same spirit we had been heard long ago."    But alas I the absence of
that spirit is more evident and mischievous than ever.    He dwells on
this in a striking passage.    Then he proceeds to combat Eliot's claim
for the people's right (the vulgus) to fill church-offices by a major vote,
and to repudiate Eliot's application of the name "the spouse of Christ"
to a particular church.    Thirdly and chiefly he returns to the question
of the Baptismal covenant, 6nds to his delight how Eliot has narrowed
down the difference to almost nothing, and goes on to elucidate his
own position under ten heads. Finally, he says that if Eliot could
succeed in getting his conciliatory principles acted upon by the New
England churches it might do much toward getting them practised
here-"if ever our superiors allow opportunity"; and in a PS. he
asks to be informed about the Indian language and the prospects of
the Indian evangelistic work.

(11)         Spring ) 1669.   Baxter's next letter is undated and unfinished,
but its references to the " objector " whom Eliot wrote about in October,
1668, point to an early month of 1669. Eliot had argued for the
Church-proper as interior to the Parochial Church, and yet for the
latter, as truly a church in some sense.    Perhaps Baxter recognised
the distinction before the end of his letter and did it justice, but as it
 stands the letter is merely a diatribe{most interesting) against separatism

-in the light of his experience at Kidderminster and Acton. I am
inclined to think that this letter was not posted.    The abrupt finish
and the unusual shape of the paper suggest as much; and a confirma­
tory fact is that in his next letter

(12)                20 June, 1669, Eliot does not mention it.  What he does

is to acknowledge the receipt, in the Spring, of two letters-one of
September, the other of January, 68/9.    Eliot (I) takes up the points
of Baxter's September letter and "ventilates" them (Baxter's word)
one by one.  It is the longest of his letters, and the most instructive, if
one would see just how far his Independence extended, and what he

expected of the magistrate when Independency ran wild. Some
anabaptist fanatics at, or near, Boston had been forced to choose
between banishment and imprisonment. They chose imprisonment,
and when liberated, did not scruple to say that God had appeared on
their behalf in the death of their leading opponent-and even in the
death of Eliot's son-though the latter had " not the least finger in the
matter."   This might well seem to excuse strong measures.   Eliot (2)
then turns to Baxter's second letter-that of January-which can
hardly be the aforesaid undated one, yet may possibly be one which
he wrote instead of it.   This is suggested by the fact that Eliot refers
to something said by Baxter about the necessity of thorough Parochial
visitation by ministers if the Church is to prosper, but it is rendered
doubtful by the fact that he says not a word about Baxter's striking
experiences at Acton and Kidderminister.   The last part of the letter
is an illuminating answer to Baxter's question (or questions) regarding
the Indian dialects and mission. It ends with the remark that his son­
in-law, Mr. Glover, and his youngest son have devoted themselves to
 the work, but that their continuance and progress in it depend upon
the degree of support they get from the commissioners in London.

(13)         5 February, 1670) Baxter's next letter is undated and un-
signed and ends in the middle of a sentence, but is proved to be the

next by its contents-its reference, e.g., to the case of Thomas Gold,
and to what Eliot had said about the interference of the civil power.
Baxter's remarks, under the latter head, are a particularly clear state­
ment of his own opinion on the subject. The letter is interesting for
two other reasons, (a) it seems to imply that Eliot had thought of
giving himself up to missionary work entirely, and that his Roxbury
Church or some of its members had claimed a monopoly of him.
Baxter says, " Were I your neighbour and I did believe that forsaking
your Church would enable you to do much more service to the poor
Indians than your Church service cometh to, I should cast in my judg­
ment that it were your duty so to do, and to be only the apostle to
the Indians."

The early congregational view of ordination-that it was the seal
of an indissoluble marriage between a man and a particular church­-
did sometimes induce this feeling of sole possession, and led to incon­
veniences which broke it down. What gradually took its place was
Baxter's view of ordination as a man's setting apart by qualified
ministers, or elders, to the general ministry of the Church-though
occasioned, it might be, by the call of a particular church. (b) The

letter is interesting also for its vivid account of his abhorrence of
Separatism as distinct from Independency. It stops short at a point
where he had begun to justify (once more) his view of Baptism. And
the same subject is continued in what has been taken to be another
letter, but which seems rather to be a later part of this ( 13)--with
some connecting sentences or paragraphs missing.  Two facts, besides

identity of topic, tend to prove that the two are one:--

(I)     The closing words, " I heartily thank you for your intel­
ligence of the extent of the {Indian) language "--an acknowledg­
ment to be expected in a reply to Eliot's letter of June 20, 1669.

(2) The Subscription, "Feby 5th, from my poore obscure
recess where I have been since I came out of prison for preach­
ing, and not taking the Oxford Oath."

The "recess," of course, was  Totteridge nr. Barnet, whither he
went in October, 1669, after his release from the New Prison or
Clerkenwell-a poor place for the first months of winter but safely
outside the range of the Five Mile Act. Baxter couldn't have written
 twice to Eliot between the receipt of his June letter and February 5,

1670. Mr. Black, the compiler of the B. MSS., reached the same
conclusion, perhaps on the same grounds.

(14)          27 June, 1671. Eliot to Baxter; after receipt of two books,
not named but certainly "A Cure of Church Divisions, or Direc­
tions for weak Christians to keep them from being Dividers

or Troublers of the Church," and its sequel "A Defence of the
Principles of Love '' . . . addressed to "those Readers who . . .

are offended " at the former-hooks that occasioned an extraordinary
outburst of violent and even malignant resentment. Eliot writes to
thank him " most kindly " for them, and says they had been heralded
by reports which came with a noise not much beneath thunder. Being
summer time, which is a time with him of much action and little read­
ing, he has only dipped into them-but he has read enough to assure
himself that they contain nothing hut what savoureth of " the still
voyce." "Beloved Brother, God is teaching you patience and meek­
ness, two eminent Gospel graces, and I rejoiced to see your proficiency
in that school of Christ which seemeth to me to appear in your second
book. . . . "

As to his own affairs, he had never before experienced " such
violent opposition of Satan" in connection with his Indian work.  He
will defer the history of it till the end of the year and then lay it
before the honourable corporation in London. Meanwhile, he has
begun the difficult attempt to teach the Indians something of the Liberal
Arts; and is organising an evangelistic enterprise of the Indian brethren
to their unconverted neighbours. Apparently to help these neophytes,
he has drawn up "a few instructive dialogues which are also partly
historical."  A copy of this and of his A.B.C. manual of instruction in
the Arts, he has sent to his " worthy friend " Mr. Ashurst-from whom
or from Mr. Bell, Baxter will get to see them.

(15)          2 September, 1671. Baxter's answer begins-" Yours of the
21st (27th ) of ye fourth month I recd this 2nd of the 7th (September)
just as I was sealing up letters for New England." So he wrote on
the instant that he might add it to those already written to other New
England friends. Who were these The Mathers, father and son,
Increase and Cotton Probably.   And perhaps John Woodbridge,
of Kenilworth (or Kenlurewoth, N.E.).¹

1 See my "Life of Baxter," --vol. ii. pp. 46-48.

This letter should be carefully read by any one who may wish to
see the situation in England, as it appeared to Baxter, during the
months which immediately preceded the King's Declaration of
Indulgence {March, 1672). To him the state of the Nonconformists
was deplorable.    Under sufferings they had been drawn together and
"seemed peaceable and calm,.. but the comparative ease due to the
King's connivance had relaxed their unity and let loose their bad
tempers both amongst themselves and against the prelatic party.
There is less chance than ever of bringing them to confess "terms
of universal concord... In one place, he has a sentence, broken by a dash
and followed by two dotted lines, which half conceals and half reveals
the charge that 2 or 3 (3 or 4) leaders (ministers) have been doing
their utmost to influence Nonconformist opinion against peace and
charity. He has watched them at it "for 15 yeares."

So he envies Eliot, notwithstanding his troubles. "Though you

must begin low Oh I how much higher and nobler a work is it than
our fierce contentions about we know not what ourselves I ..

He   ends with a word of advice that Eliot would so reframe his
"good motion for Stated Synods"--which he hears is neglected--as
to free them from the least suggestion of "tyranny." If you would do
this " and bring them but to the practice, you would I think do much
to your common strength and safety."

(16)          30 May, 1682.   A letter from Eliot after eleven years-though
many letters have been written on both sides during this period
and later.     The occasion of it was two-fold : (1) the receipt of
Baxter's funeral sermon for  Mr. Henry Ashurst,   preached  in
 December, 1680, and sent to him by his eldest son. " I did reade it
 wth much mixture of affection both of sorrow and joy... He notes,
with special thanks, Baxter's recital of what Mr. Ashurst had done
 to protect and serve the London Corporation (in 1660), upon whose
support Eliot's Indian work depended. And this leads him (2) to beg
Baxter that he will use all his powers of persuasion with the Corporation
 to supply the money required to print a revised impression of the
Old Testament  in the Indian tongue.            "We have done the New
 Testament and Psalms but canot get leave to print the Old Testament,
web the Indians do earnestly cry for."  I suppose he means that his
 own, and others, influence with the corporation has failed. Mr.
Dudley, "one of our (two) public agents,.. is on his way to London

and will put the case strongly. Eliot is sure too that he will commend
himself to Baxter as a delightful personality.

 

                                      THE  LETTERS.

I.    October 16,  1656.¹

REV'ND AND VERY MUCH RESPECTED  IN  CHRIST,

Though I am a stranger to you by face, yet in neere bonds
by faith, and we dayly meet at the throne of graice, though (to my
h(u)mbling) the wing of your faith in holy Meditation caryeth you
 thither oftener yn my dull and unreddy spirit can be hailed up unto.

Sr, the Lord hath, of late, laide his hand  upon me in his fathrly visita­

tion, wch, in respect of bodyly paines, hath beene very heavy and bitter,
but the Lord, by the precious Visitation of his Spirit, hath made them
very sweet, I blesse his holy name; and one meanes wch the Lord
used to sweeten the cuppe was a booke wh the good Spirit of the
Lord assisted you to write, and much of it, in your sicknesse, if not all
 in much bodyly infinnity--the booke you title the Sts Everlasting Rest
Oh wt a sweet refreshing did the Lord make it to be unto me! and
especially when I came at the bottom, that blessed poynt and patterne
 of holy meditation.² Now, resp(ec)ted and deare Sr, the sense and
savor web the Lord hath impressd on my spirit by these your holy
labors, doth imbolden me to make a motion to you, and a request, yt
you would spend the rest of your life in writing practical meditations.
The world is full of polemical books and doctrinall, and yourselfe I
p(er)ceive have done a good share, but (if I mistake not) there is no
poynt more usefull than practical meditation, and no poynt lesse insisted
on.    If I should guesse at the reason by the glasse of my owne heart, it
is because it is too little used, or indeed exp(er)imentally known. Besides,
it is a rare gift, especially to follow a meditation to the bottom, and
bring it to an issue, and to set it forth for a patterne.  Now, it seemeth
to me yt the Lord hath eminently both indowed you with yt gift and
exercised you in yt grace, and, therefore, it seemeth to me yt the Lord
hath fited and called you to be serviceable to the faith of the Church
in yt kind of service, wherein so few have labored.   Give me leave,
revnd Sr, to take the boldnesse to p(ro)pound yet more p(ar)ticularly:

1 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, Toi. 3, 7a.

2 Part iv. of the S.E.R

1.   What if you should write a practical meditation upon all the
 chief steps and operations of spirit through the whole work of
conversion?

2.    What if you sh'ld write practical meditations upon all the

severall great acts of faith and grace in union and comunion wth Jesus
 Christ, through the chief acts of vivification?

3.    What if you should write practical meditations upon the chiefe

-and most common-conflicts of Christians in the sp(iritu)al war agst
world, flesh, and devil, even all kind of temptations, I meane the more
obvious?

4.    Wt if you should write practical meditations for the Sab(bath)
both p(re)pa(rit)ory-for morning, when goeing to meetinge, when sitting
there after the worshipe, for the vacancys in administrations, of sacra­
ments1 especially, yt (of) the b(a)p(tiz)ing. Meditations at returne, at
home. A meditation for a minister when his work is done, etc.?

5.    Wt if you should ad meditations in family go(vern)ment and in
following or callings?

Sr, I feare I have beene too bold, but your love I know will take it

at the best, and your wisdo will see my meaning and aime. I scrible
these lines as I ly on my bed and in great paine.   I know you know
how to pitty in yt case.    Thus comiting you and all your holy labours
to the Lord, and beging your prayers, I rest.

Your unworthy fellow labourer
in or Lords Vineyard

                                                                           JOHN ELIOT.

Roxbury this 16th of the 8th. 56.

Endorsed—'To the reverend his very much respected friend and
brothr Mr. Baxter minister of God's word at Kederminster
 in Worcestershire These present.'

    II. January 20, 1656/7.¹

MOST DEARE AND HONORED BROTHER,

I was not so glad to receive a Letter from yor hand, as sad
when I saw ye contents of it : yt ye Lord by his visitation should take
you off yt blessed worke of Preachinge to ye Indians, wch you have
 beene long engaged in. I know no worke in all ye world yt I thinke

1 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, Toi. iii. 9a.

more highly and honorably of yn yors; and consequently no p'son
whom I more honor for his works sake; and therefore none whose
loss or disablement would be more greivous to me; especially hearinge
yt there is no man left yt is so well able to manage yt worke (for want
of ye Indian language) if God should call you off. But we hope ye
Church's Prayers shall prevaile for yor continuance and enablement.
It is a sad and strange thinge to or consideration here, yt so few of ye
Indians should be wonne to Christ from ye first plantation to this
day.    And I should be glad to heare what it is yt you find ye greatest
stop.    As to my wrightings, yt anythinge of mine should be usefull
to you is matter of thankfullnes to God; but it is as his and not as
mine. And for ye wrightings you invite me to, I know not a man
whose invitation would have more authority on my mind:   and how
far God may lead me to obey you, I canot tell.    But indeed my

worke is all cutt out to my hands by Providence and necessity: the
neerest objects worke most strongly, and the neerest worke is so strictly
mine, yt I canot so oft looke further as I desire.   The p(ar)ticular charge
I have is great, and my strength small ; and I may allmost say, for such
kind of worke as wrightinge and Preachinge, yt I  doe as much as I

can, and am not able to doe more yn I doe.   Though   I hope I am
past controversyes, yet I have begun more practicall Treatises yn I am
like to finish, and therefore doe not see any p(ro)bability yt ever I
should reach ye worke you sett me! But I much approve of it, and
heartily thanke you for ye motion; and should most gladly attempt it,
if it would please ye Lord to p(ro)tract my dayes so long, and not
force me off it, by puttinge more unavoidable worke into my hands.
Though I doubt some will enforce those Arguments agt such formes of
meditation web are coiiionly used agt formes of Prayer: And I must
confess yt I apprehend so smalI a difference in ye cases, yt I marvaile
yt they yt are so offended wth ye one, are not yet, yt I can heare of,
offended at ye other: I thinke it is but bec(aus)e, ye scruple is not yet
putt into their heads.     And, deare Sir, were it not an excellent worke
for ye Pastors of yor Chh to joyne in an earnest p(er)swasive to union, to
ye Presbyterian and Congregationall Brethren in England, and to
p(ro)pound ye termes in certaine Propositions.? Sure it might doe
abundance of good. Yor Authority is yet great with ye godly of both
Partyes:    If it prevailed not with all, it would with many. What
hath ye Church and Christian cause suffered by or breach! And wt

a pretious mercy would or healinge be! For my p(ar)t I thinke it not
hard to find Reconcilinge Principles, if we could hut bringe men to
Reconcilinge dispositions and attempts. And this, Perswasion and
Interest and Authority must doe with most; even more yn arguments.
I have oft brought divers so far together yt in practicall points they
sticke on nothinge but this, whether they should, or should not, take
members p(ro)miscuously out of all Parishes; And for ye Country they
yielded to the negative:   And for ye Citty how easy were it to p(ro)­
pound some termes, on wch it might in certaine cases, and after
certaine meanes, he done, to ye quiettinge of both p(ar)tyes. Pardon
this boldness, and accept this returne, from him yt heartily prayes for

yor Recovery, and remaines

Yor unworthy Brother.

                                                                     RICH. BAXTER

Jan. 20 1656/7.

Endorsed--'to my Reverend and much honored Brother Mr John
Eliot, Pastor of the Church at  Roxbury in  New England.
This present

                                         III.  October 7, 1657.¹

REVEREND AND MUCH ESTEEMED   IN THE LORD,

I have received your christian and very loving letter wherein
your deepe sense of my infirmity and eminent acceptance of my poore
labours among the Indians, doth minister to my spirit matter of great
humbling yt such a worme as I, should be, by my gracious father, set
about such a work as should find so great acceptance am'g the saints.
The Lord chose an unmeet vessel in the ey(e) of men, when he chose
me, that all the glory might ascend to him, finding nothing in the instru­
(men)tto reflect upon; and, furth(e)r, such acceptance of my poore labors
doth minister to me great argumente, both of love and thankfullnesse
to yourselfe and other of the saints, and especially faithfullnesse in
the work-that it may indeed be found, at last, real and effectual, and
such as may, in some measure, answer the joys and expectations and
acclamations of the holy saints.   Next, you desire to know why so
 few of the Indians are brought in, in so long a time.   In the Lord's
time what is  done is accomplished. For many years together when

1Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. ii. 274a.

the Indians resorted to houses of godly people, they saw theire maner
of life and wor(shi)p in familys and in pub(lic) also; where sometimes
they would see and observe what they did, but liked not off it--yea,
so disliked, that if any began to speake of God and heaven and hell
and relig[ion] unto them they would p(re)sently be gone.    So yt it was
 a receued and knowne thing to all English yt if they were burdensome,
and you would have them gone, speake of relig(ion) and you were
pr(e)sently rid of them; and hence they oft frequented the houses of
loose and carnal p(er)sons who did nev(er) speake of relig(ion) to them.
But when the Lord put me upon the work, himselfe had g(athe)red
 a few pore ones against I came, as you may gather out of theire con­
fessions; and when the Lord had bowed the hearts of some he (was)
pleased to send his spirit so am(on)g them as yt more about us did
quickly bow and come in, and such as bowed not fled farth(e)r off;

and then this change was eminently observed by the godly, that they
oft frequented and loved ye righteous and godly familys and would
set religious discourse on foot by theire (questions?), and forsooke the
frequenting of loose familys. And this course the generality of all the
natives in 20 miles space, doe hold to this day, save that of late (by

the Apostasy, in p(ar)t, of a Sachem) some are growen worse.

Your loving acceptance of my motion about the poynt of medita­
tion : I thank you for it.    I am very sensible of   your Apologie for
a present delay, yet let me be bold to urge a little further.

I know assuredly yt the heaps of your labours doe not take off,

but quicken, your p(er)sonal communion with God. Now what if
you should task yourselfe, and charge your owne spirit wth meditation
work in such ord(e)r as eith(e)r your judg(me)nt or emergent occasions

should put you on;  and when  you  have beene with  God--before
your heart be either cooled or div(er)ted--bestow one quarter of an
hour in a day to write what passed yt evening betweene the Lord and
 your spirit, hereby in a short time you would find yt this work would
(furtim) be accomplished afore you are aware. P(ar)don, I pray, my
boldnesse and foolishnesse, thus to talk.

For exceptions agst forms of meditation (as of prayer), though this

giddy age is lyable to p(ro)duce monsters, yet such conceits are not
likely: bec(ause) sett and stinted forms of pub(lic) prayers was the
exception of the godly, not all formes-here some fly out agst all '.¹

¹ Interlined.

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  BAXTER  AND  ELIOT   159

Besides, meditation is p(er)sonal not social work, and I have not heard
(that I know of) exceptions agst set formes in secret ; but this is obvious.
Your fellow motion about p(ro)positions of mediation betwixt
Presbyterians and Independents is a weighty and good matter, but
hard to be done by us at this distance. They yt are neare the mark

may better tell how to aime at, and hit, the spirit of the times.

The pith of what follows is this:--

(a)   undoubtedly good will to cooperation and union is the
chief need--' the burden of the work lyeth in calming and com­
posing of spirits.'

(b)   Eliot is of the same opinion as Baxter that the 'separa­
tist ' way of forming a Church by calling out ' the choicest persons

of sundry parishes is wrong.

" I cannot approve of it.   I would not be so dealt by, that if I
have one or two or a few jewels in my interest another should come
and rob me of them." The better way is to let them remain in the
parochial assemblies and act as salt on their neighbours. This has
been his own way with his Indian converts. He has encouraged them
not to come out and "joyne to English churches." "No, rather let
them keepe Sabbath and worship together, and the strong help the
weak.''

(2) Nevertheless it is necessary "to enjoy Christ in his pure ordin­
ances" and, to that end, to keep away from the sacrament " the ignorant
and prophane and scandalous."  But this is not to be so done as un­
duly to offend and alienate the latter. Let " the godly saints attend to
both these works together," i.e. let them "attend the work of Christ in
reforming parochial assemblies "; and, at the same time, let them meet
with their minister, as in church covenant, and hold communion to­
gether-they and their families-and so enjoy the seals and censures
(as need is) together. Apparently such select fellowship of kindred
souls is not to take the place of that parochial communion to which
all the baptized may come.  Eliot speaks of it as something which he
had met with before he left England; and mentions Dr. Thomas
Goodwin and   Mr. Philip   Nye-leaders of   the Independents--as if,
in a preface they had written to Mr. Hooker's work touching conver­
sion they agreed with him. This passage is important:

"I have known before I came to N.E. in the BBs times, a com­
pany of Christians who held frequent comunion together, used the

censure of admonition, yea and of excommunication, wth much pres­
ence of Christ, only they had not officers, nor the sacraments; and,
notwithstanding this their liberty together, they held publik Parochial
comunion so far as avoyded offence, and interested themselves in all
good means for the publik good of the p(ar)ish where they lived.
Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Nye have put a pr(eti)ous Epistle before Mr.
Hooker's worke touching conversion, where they shew how a comon
p(ro)fession accepted for Christianity will soone cause conversion, that
necessary saving work. Now, in this way of Christians injoying a
twofold comunion, and that w(it)hout offence, may not p(ar)ochial
comunion be upheld so as to keepe the whole heape of chaff and
come together, only excluding the ignorant and prophane and scandal­
ous fro(m) the sac(rament) and other pr(i)viledges by the imp(ro)ving
the discipline of Christ.

"And, besides this, may not the holy Saints, who are called higher
by the grace of Christ, injoy together a more strickt and select
comunion, unto wch they may gath(e)r together fro many p(ar)ts of the
C(oun)try or City?

"But I am called off. I shall no further trouble you at p(re}sent
but com.ending you and all your holy labours unto the Lord, I rest

Your unworthy brother in the
 Lord's Vinyard

                                                       JOHN ELIOT

Roxbury this 7th of the 8th. 57

Endorsed-" To the reverend his much respected friend and brother
Mr Baxter minister of God's word at Kederminster." These
present.

III.    Towards the end of 1667.¹

ANIMADVERSIONS ON MR. ELIOT'S BOOK FOR STATED COUNSELLS.

P. 1. [with one heart] should not be in the definition of a visible church.

P. 2. [They have power to call officers], they have power to

choose those to be their officers who were before … officers in­
determinately.   But more fully and properly the officers have power
to call them to be a church. . . .  The people never give that

1 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. vi, 183a.

authority which constituteth an officer of Christ… Yet it is
indifferent whether he first calls them to be his pa1-ti"cular flocke, or
whether they first call him to be their particular pastor, as long as
there is a mutuall consent, for this appropriation.

P. 4, § 6. [civil& publicke] can meane no more but their ex­
trinsick respect to the Magistrates call, and to the Civill state.

Ib., § 7.    The members constituent of a Councill are ye Pastors
 of ye Churches, whether messengers or not, together with brethren,
acting only as brethren, if need be….

P 5, § 9. I much agree with you yt ye great end of Councills is
 counsel! for the concord of many Churches.    So BP Usher said to
me, yt in Councills Bps were not properly to governe the Church
but to maintaine a comunion of churches. . . . but I must adde yt
though congregating in a Councill do give Pastors no authority over

one another, or over any absent Pastors, nor any new power over other
mens flockes, yet I see not but yt the Pastors there congregated, retain­
ing still their governing power over their severall flockes, may exercise
it there, by convenient acts."    Acts, e.g., which concern the ordering
of public worship, or an act which decrees " ye common excommunica­
tion," say of an Arian, etc. Such acts agreed upon by the Pastors in
Council for the good of the Churches fall within its scope--to promote
communion or concord-and should meet with obedience. "Concerning
the numbers 12 and 24 and the whole method here presented"
Baxter doubts if the Scriptures cited will amount to a proof that these
are of divine appointment; but he thinks that reason combines quite
well with Scripture to " present the frame as very hansome and con­
venient where it may be had, and such as would greatly tend to concord

and edification " .  . .

P. 33, § 8. The Law of Moses was the Civill Law of ye Jewes
Republicke and ye priest himselle had p(ar)t of ye Civill power. But
Christ's Ecclesiasticall Lawes are not our Civill Lawes, nor have
Councills as such any civill power.   I therefore firmely hold (1) yt
no Magistrate is to cut off or punish any man simply because he dis­

obeyeth a Councill…. But he must first himself heare and try the
cause, and judge accordingly. In some cases a Councill is to be
disobeyed."

(2)     " yt Magistrates may take cognisance of offences comitted agt ye

Church or the interest of Christ, before they come to a Nationall

              11

Assembly.   I see no reason but (that) in every church it would do
well to have some Church-Justice or Magistrate to keepe peace and
order, and to secure ye civill interest, and punish vice."

(3)     "And when a Nationall Councill is sinfully disobeyed, and ye
magistrate too, yet Death may be too great a punishment. The faults
against them may be various and require various degrees of punishment.
And it will be thought scarce congruous to say yt Councills are only
for advise, and yet yt those should be suppressed who rest not in
their advise-unlesse ye Magistrate have tryed ye cause and found
that ye advice was so necessary as to aggravate ye offence to such
deserts. The   Supreame power in England   hath determined   of
many points of conformity by the advice of a Nationall Assembly, and
yet few thinke yt Nonconformity deserveth death. Its safer doing too
little than too much in such cases. But I suppose Mr Eliot speaketh
onely of what may be done in such great and necessary cases."

Cap. I.§ i. p. 35. "He is too p(ar)ticular and strict in describing ye
Qualification of churches or church-members. For he would hereby
shut out allmost all ye congregationall Churches in England (yt I have

knowne) by imposing uppon them a promise [to be guided in ye

comon concernments of religion by y holy advice of y forenamed

orders and councills] : for such stated Councills as he describeth are
agt their Judgmt. And though I much rejoice in Mr Eliot's reconciling
designe and frame, yet I canot be so much for it, as to shutt out all
p(er)sons or churches from our Com.union, or from the honor of Reform­
ing-churches who consent not, so long as they consent to all things
which are of true Necessity."    He then goes on to say that "we that
have justly blamed ye Congregationall men for shutting out others by
too strict conditions, must not comit ye fault agt them which we have
blamed them for."   We ought to be content with "the Doctrine of
Christ and ye concordant practice of all ye primitive Churches," viz.
that nothing is required for Church membership but " ye profession of
repentance for sins past, and of assent and consent to ye baptismall
covenant." He follows this oft-repeated statement 1with some of his
oft-repeated implications of it (to the number of ten)-familiar to any
reader of Baxter-and winds up with the no less familiar assertion
that the exacting of stricter terms has been and still is a prime cause
of the heart-burning strife which divides Church from Church and
makes peace impossible.    After all, however, he found much more to

approve than to criticise in his friend's scheme of proposals.    In fact,
"as those called Presbyterians in England 8 or 9 years ago and
more would gladly". on his terms have united for communion of
Churches "with ye sober and moderate of the congregationall way,"
"so do they now exceedingly rejoice to find many healing concessions
from New England as are in ye propositions of your Synod ; 1 but much
more would they rejoice, and take our union as allmost accomplished
if this platfonne of   Mr Eliot's were comonly owned by the brethren
of ye congregationall way.''

The letter is signed " I rest yor brother Ri. Baxter,.. but is neither

endorsed nor dated.

V. 10  January, 1667/8.9

REVER(E)ND BROTHr  AND DEARELY  BELOVED  IN CHRIST,

"By a friend I did thankfully receive your animadversions
upon that pore little script of mine, the comunion of Churches wherein
my poynt is not to dispute men to my opinion-I have no faculty yt
way--but to propose such moderate wayes of  mutual  condescension
of yt by (which) we might come to such a complyance as to walk
together in unity, love, and peace, and be one in o(u)r comunion of
Churches, wch onenesse is (so) desireable in the eyes of Christ as yt
he hath prayed for it 4 times in a few lines of yt mediatorial prayer
J(ohn) 17 … give me leave reverend and dearly beloved brother

… .   to request of God and you yt both my heart and yours may act
in this case, not like litigants standing on a sea of glass mingled with
fire, but like overcomers yt handle the glasse but leave out and lay by
all the fire...

Two points stand out in this letter:--

(1)    As against Baxter's judgment, he defends the extreme penalty
in the case of persons who obstinately refuse submission to the
ecclesiastical and Civil Authority-relying on Deul 17. 11, 12.

"Upon this poynt the Quakers were put to death  here in  N.E.

--wch I shall expresse in yese 8 p(ro)positions.

1.   Ye w(er)e not w(it)hin the reach of any eccle'siasticall p(ro)cesse,
though we used, charitative, wt ecclesiastical helpe we

1 The Synod held at Boston in 1662. See Walker's "Creeds and
 Platforms of Congregationalism," p. 313 ff.

2 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. ii. 276a.

could but no censure.  W(ha)t have we to doe to gudg ym
yt are w(it)hout?

2.    Ye first fell under civile p(ro)cesse who determined nothing

about ye opinions but determined the persons to peace and order.

3.    Ye refused and were irreclaimable, even to the shaking of our

all, through the infirmity of the multitude and badness of the
 times.

4.    Ye p(er)sisted so to doe, til it came to ye sup(r)eme civile

authority.

5.   The sup(r)eme power tooke much pains wth ym, wth long
patience, and p(r)oceeded by sundry steps and degrees against
ym.

6.    The final sentence of the supreme civile authority was, yt ye
should returne to yr owne place, out of or Jurisdiction in
peace; and if ye returned hither againe, and make disturb­
ance ye should be put to death.

7.   After a season, ye did returne againe and make disturbance as
formerly ye had done, for wch ye w(er)e· apprehended and
condemned to dy, upon the former sentence, according to
the law of God. Deut. 17. 12 : the man that will doe
p(re)sumptuously and will not harken unto the Judg, even that
man shall dy.

8.    After condemnation a p(ar)don was offered ym upon yr submis­
sion, but (the)y w{er)e pr(es)umptuously obstinate, and so
dyed.

(2)     He begs for a kindly acceptance of this, his own opinion;
and, further, of what he has to say with reference to the terms of
admission to full Church-membership-" the almost only difference " of
any moment between them I That these terms demand the visible
seal of Baptism, annexed unto a visible covenant, is certainly what he

believes and practises. That is a principle which he dare not
surrender. It marks the essential difference between the visible
Catholic Church and the visible Particular Church. Baptism alone
admits to the one, a covenant of heartfelt dedication to Christ admits
to the other.    "And, yrfore, our praying  Indians first combined  into
a church covenant and yn I did by virtue of my mission unto ye
service of Christ wch I have fro the Church wroff I am an officer,

baptize ym.'' "In like manner all yt give up ym/selves to Christ, and
make a lively confession of him, we first admit ym into the fellowship
of the Church and yn baptize ym," As to the question, who should
judge of the candidate's sincerity and knowledge, Eliot both agreed
and disagreed with Baxter, who reserved the right of judgment to the
officers alone, whereas Eliot, while granting this to be the ordinary
rule, reminded him that " believers are not like ordinary people, they
are kings and priests and princes in all lands.''   " No man on earth
is (so) fitt ecclesiastically to judge, according to his measure and
manner, .in a spiritual cause, as a believer." "God and man will
have more respect to the judgment of a sound believer yn of an un­
godly officer." Thus to give its place to the spiritual judgment of the
Church is not to make Church government a democracy. The
normal authority of its officers remains untouched. But their
authority is not absolute. Church government is by no means an
oligarchy. In another paragraph Eliot yields a general assent to
Baxter's view of what should be a sufficient " qualification of the
comunicants."   "We   doe practise in or Church upon as low termes
as you doe expresse."    This--he  seems to say--was partly induced
by consideration for the young people.   " We yt have lived to bury
 the most of the good old generation of p(ro)fessors doe by experience
see yt our youth canot fill the roums of yr farthers, and yet are such
as are to be incouraged and received in the Lord. We ourselves
were onc(e) young and greene, and it was a wise saying of him yt s(ai)d

--patres tequum esse sentiunt, nos jam jam a pueris illis co-nasci
sumus. We find use of yt notion in or ecclisiastical societys and
comunion. The care and wise management of the lambs of the flock,
is one 3rd p't of the charge of the ministry, and in some respects the
difficultyst. Sure enough it is the busyest p't of the work, to do it well
and faithfully."

So much for easing access to the sacraments with a view to ultimate
full Church-membership.   But he ends on a note of ' no compromise'
in the matter of a pure Church. " In our last Synod we agreed to
allow degrees of communion… and I find it my chiefe difficulty so
 to argue my heart to be true to Christ and faithfull to the soules of the
flock in my condescending to such a latitude; and I find great reason
to beare with, and excuse, ym yt are most strikt in yt poynt, and rather
encourage yn discourage such, because the streame and multitude are

pr(o)ne to run into such latitude, and ye be but few yt have zeale and
courage to stand up for the striktnesse of the rule. It is a great wisdom
 and mercy of Christ that there be some to ballance yt end of the scale,
and stand up to beare witnesse unto yse poynts. It is an unspeakable
grace yt Christ hath dispensed in these times to raise up so many Con­
gregationall Churches to beare witnesse in yt poynt." "I have now
done, and together wth y5   paper am bold to p(r)esent you wth another
of my little scripts, corrected, and wth some small additon, and one
great point aded, wch I only p(ro)pose, viz., yt magistrates should be

chosen by the Churches to be members of the Councils . . . beloved
Sr, as I doe acknowledge myselfe much obliged to you for your animad­
versions, I request you to oblige me further, to object still, and let me
know how it is reputed among God's people.    I have beene over bold
wth you. I shall cease to give you further trouble at pr(es)ent. I beg
prayers and comit you and yours, and all your holy labors to the Lord,
and rest

Your unworthy fellow labourer

       in our Lord's Vinyard ¹

                                                                       JOHN ELIOT.

Roxbury this 10th of the 10th. 67.

                                                 VI. 22 January, 1667/8.2

REVEREND  BROTHER,
                     I did very lately write unto you, wrin I expressed my thank­
fullnesse for your animadvers(ion)s on my pore script, and made some
retume unto such poynts as you w(er)e pleased to touch.   I hope you
have received it and yt I shall not need to send a duplicate.

I also sent you another of the same booke corrected, and in it a
Schedule3 aded in the page 5, in wch Schedule in the first pag(e) of
it--lin(e) 37--I desire you to blot out these words (be mixt, &).
Enough is said wthout these words and these words are lyable to an
objection beyond my intent and meaning--wch is better p(r)esented if
any beside yourselfe should have the sight of it.*

1 This letter runs to three closely written and obscure folio pages.
 2 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. ii. 229a.
 ³ This schedule is not in the Bodleian copy.

* also pag. 24 l(i)n(e) 11, after [contributions] put in, [for pious and chari­

table uses]. Bodleian copy adds: 'to spread and propagate the Gospel to
 all the world.'

Sr, I desire to be a doeing in the Lords work though I am but a
lit(t)le one and can doe but lit(t)le. If I may but stir up and p(ro)voke
others to be at work, I account yt I have done some good.   The great
want is, the uniting of Gods servants, w(hi)ch, were it attained, you
would soone heare that p(ro)mised great voyce saying Come up hither:
for the resurrection of the saints is now past (Heb. xi. 19)-As Abra
received Isaak fro(m) the dead, so doe, and ought, we to receive all the
godly in Engl(an)d who were bound, th(ei)r throat open, the sword
drawen.     There wanted only the word, and yt God alone stayed.
Our Indian work yet liveth in these dark times, though it is still a day
of small things.   Christ is am{on)g us and there are yearely aded unto
the Church, and also unto the numb(e)r of p(ro)fessing praying Indians.
We greatly need your prayers and doe crave ym; and thus comiting
your holy labors, and all yours, unto the Lord, I rest

Your unworthy brother

       in or Lord Jesus

                                                                        JOHN ELIOT.

Roxb(ury) this 22n of the 1 1th. 6 7.

Endorsed--" for his reverend brother Mr Richard Baxter these
 present"

VI.                                                                                   27 March. 1668.¹

REVEREND   AND  MUCH   HONOURED   BROTHER.

" I have thankfully received yr corrected copy with ye two
letters. I shall passe by the most of yors in this returne, because it
containeth not matter of disagreement but of concord; and therefore
requireth only my professed gladnes both for your zeale for unity in
times when the common juvenile zeale doth worke all towards ex­
asperations and divisions; and, also, for those moderate principles
web are the congruous meanes to so good an end. But these few
things in web our judgmts yet stand at the greatest distance I shall
select to give you these briefe animadversions on."

1.     They are agreed, it seems, in thinking that the work of a
minister is first, on the world (to convert and baptize) and next on the
Church (to edify and guide) ; they are agreed, too, that" neither the Call
of the Infidell World nor of the private members of any Church is neces­
sary … to make a minister, but only to appropriate him in speciall

1 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. iii. 74a.

relation to themselves." But Eliot says that the (New England?)
churches dissent from this. That is, I suppose, they hold that no man
 can be a minister, though he may be a preacher, unless he has been
called by a Church, whether at. home or abroad.    But, says Baxter,
"I fully agree wth you that persons differing in this point may yet hold
brotherly comunion in the same Church."

2.    The second point of difference concerns the power resident in

Councils, as to which it is enough to say that Baxter would reserve to
them full right to discuss and decide all matters affecting the govern­
ment of the churches in virtue of the fact that the Councils consist of
Pastors and Elders who are never mere delegates of the people.
What the people can do is to send occasional representatives when
the business in hand is of special interest to them, or they can instruct
and desire their pastor to speak for them. Such action of the people
through a representative may carry great weight, but it must not be
allowed, or be expected, to dictate a decision. Eliot, however, while
consenting to this view so far as to exclude the people from arbitrary

interference with the administrative power of the Council, urged that
the people are the source of the Council's power, and ought to be
consulted freely, if not constantly, on its exercise.

3.     But "passing over many gratefull concessions of yrs wch tend
to our much desired concord, I come next to yt truly-great difference
such as I thought had never been betweene you and me. I beseech
you pardon me while I speake freely of the Cause. While I highly
honour yr person, I confesse I read yr words wth admiration" (i.e.
amazement) "as speaking very strange doctrine to me (wch I must
gladly tell you ye congregationall men here, of chiefe name, are utterly
against and are wholly of my mind). Do you indeed think yt the
Catholike Visible Church is not united by a covenant, or that there is
no covenant by wch men are not entered into it?   Why, dear Sr, all
the Christian World from the Apostles dayes till now, hath taken our
very Christianity to consist in yt covenant wch here you seem to
deny I The Covenant of grace and the Baptismall Covenant is one
Christianity itselfe. . . . Deare Sr, my head and heart do scarce
differ more from my little finger than the Christian Covenant of

Baptisme differeth from a particular Church-making Covenant. Indeed,
 they may both be sometime joined together, but yt maketh them not
one.  A man may at one time be admitted into the Catholike Church

and into a particular Church by this conjunction of both Consents or
Covenants. But a particular Church making a Covenant as such never
made a Christian, but supposeth ym made.    And   Baptisme as such
did never make any a member of a particular Church. The Church­
making covenant is nothing but the consent of Pastors and People to
their mutuall relations and the exercise thereof wth particular respect to
one another . . . . One cause of  our fractions is that the unity  of   the
Catholike Church and the nature and necessity of Catholike Comunion
is not well understood by the people ; but their narrow minds do
looke allmost only to those little societies where they are p(re)sent.
Nay, moreover, ye Church-making covenant itself doth not need to
be exprest at all except ad mel£us esse. No more is required to
particular-church-Comunion but mutuall consent of pastors and people
any way signified, though there were never any expresste covent.   If it
be but by actuall meeting and comunicating, it is as much expression
of consent as is of necessity . . .   deare brother, I crave your pardon
while I'am the more earnest with you in this point because, as I
honour yr worke above (any?) man's, so it more concerneth you yt
preach to Heathens and Infidels than any man that I know of . . .  
(lastly) the Relation of a particular church member may twenty times
cease ; but Apostacy only endeth ye relation of the Baptized.    They
yt live in a countray (of wch there are too many) where allmost all ye
ministers are ignorant, or prophane or scandalous, and  do therefore

scruple stated comunion wth any of them, may yet be baptized

Christians for all yt.''

4.    "As.to the point of the Bretherens Judging," in which Eliot
took the congregational view, Baxter sums up-after distinguishing
between "Judicium publicum et privatum, or, (1) the governing Judg­
 ment of a Judge by office, (2) the temporary decisive Judgment of a
chosen Arbitrator, (3) the Voting Judgm(en)t of a meere comunity, only
in order to concord and consent, (4) the discerning Judgm(en)t of every
Rationall Subject" as follows:  "The   people have no Ruling power
in the Admission of members nor in Judging of fellow Comunicants.
Nor are they obliged to take any p(ar)ticular cognizance of the satis­
factorynes of mens professions and qualifications. Because the keyes are
put by Christ into other hands and never into theirs at all. To have the
keyes is to be the Governors.    Never did any Apostle or other minister
of Christ in Scripture (that I know of) aske the consent of the people

before they baptized any.   Nor did they ever examine any before
they were admitted into their particular comunions, nor was the case
opened to them for their consent ; but when the key-bearers let any in,

ye people comunicated with ym. But if the pastors notoriously abuse
their trust and goe agst ye Word of God, in doctrine or discipline, the
people must use their 'Judicium discretionis,' both for their Innocency

and their Concord, and may maintaine them both agt such pastors.
This seemeth to me so plain a truth yt I shall not tire you wth ye
needles proofes of it, or wth a more tedious answering of all other

objections agst what is here said.    These foure are all in yr paper wch
I shall trouble you with any opposition of, and gladly receive ye ex­
pressions of yr healing disposition and principles in the rest.   And I

am far from thinking yt even these are such as should keep the Church
in any state of separation from each other.    It is the great weaknes of
our Judgmts and our Love wch caused, and continueth, our divisions.
But I hope smarting experience at last will drive us together, and

further our cure.    Againe I intreat your pardon of the freedome of

my expressions.

That the Lord would blesse your labours {above any mans I know)
is the hearty and dayly prayer of

Yor unworthy Brother

Ri. Baxter.

          Acton neere London,
              Mar. 27, 1668.

Endorsed.--'To the Reverend and much honoured Brother Mr John
Eliot, Pastor of the Church at Roxbury in New England.'

   VIII. 15 June, 1668.1

REVEREND AND  DEARLY  BELOVED  BROTHER, MUCH HONORED
    IN THE LORD JESUS,

Your professed good acceptation of my pore lines and
p(ro)posals for a Christian and brotherly complyance, and peaceable
walking together in the way of the Gospel so far as we have attained,

I have with gladnesse received, and hereby I retume my acknowledg­

ments of your love with all thankfulnesse.  And why may not these
and all the rest of or differences be transacted with such a spirit?

1 Dr. Williams's Library, London: Baxter's Letters, vol. ii. 17a.