MEMOIRS OF THE MINISTERS OF CHELMSFORD. The Rev. John Fiske* AMONG the writers of the Gospel, with which the primitive church was blessed was "Luke the beloved Physician," of whom Jeromt elegantly says, that as the Apostles from fishers of fish, became fishers of men; so from a Physician of bodies, Luke was made a Physician of souls; and as his book is read in the church, his medicine will not cease.'So among the first preachers, who rendered the primitive times of New England happy, there was one, who might likewise be called a "beloved Physician,' one to whom there might also be given the eulogy, which the ancients think was given to Luke a brother whose praise was in the gospel throughout all the churches. This was Mr. John Fiske. Mr. Fiske, was born in the parish of St. James, in the county of Suffolk, England, about the year 1601, of pious parents. His grand parents and gr. grand parents were eminently zealous in the true religion. In the reign of Queen Mary, of six brothers of this name, three were papists and three protestants. Two of the latter were grievously persecuted. The one from whom John the subject of this memoir descended, was, to avoid burning, hid many months in a woodpile, and afterward half a year in a cellar, * This memoir is taken principally from Cotton Mather's Magnalia. † “Quomodo Apostoli de Piscatoribus piscium, Piscatores hominum facti sunt, ita de Medica corporum in Medicum versus est animarum. Cujus liber quotiescumque legitur in Edisiis, toties medicina non cessat." where he wrought by candle-light at manufactures and remained undiscovered. But his many hardships brought on excessive bleeding, which shortened his days and added to "the cry of the souls under the altar." John was the eldest of four children, who all came with him to New-England, and left posterity with whom God etablished his hol covenant. His parents having devoted him to the Lord Jesus Christ, sent him first to a grammar school at the distance of two miles from their abode. Being there fitted for the University, he was sent to Immanuel College, Cambridge, where he resided until he took his first degree. Having spent some considerable time in preparatory studies he entered upon the work to which he had been devoted, and which was his favorite object, the preaching of the gospel. In this pursuit he would have continued had not satan hindered him. The conformity act was odious to him. Its friends and supporters breathed out slaughters,' and the silencers pressed so hard upon him for his Non-conformity, that upon the advice of his friends he relinquished the ministry, and turned his attention to the study of physick. After a thorough examination he obtained licence for public practice. 6 At the age of 28 years he married a virtuous and amiable woman, who did him good and not evil all her days. She was the sharer and the soother of all his tribulations until about three years before his death, when she left him to go to be with Christ, which she esteemed far better than to be here. In 1636 his father died and left him the charge of his Mother, two sisters, and youngest brother. This event dissolved the strongest ties that bound him to his native soil, and removed every obstruction that seemed to be in the way to the enjoyment of his favorite pursuit. He resolved on going to NewEngland, where he saw an opportunity for the quiet exercise of his ministry. He and Mr. John Allen* went on board in disguise to avoid the fury of their persecutors. After they had passed the land's end, they entertained the passengers with two sermons a day, beside other agreeable discourse, and devotional exercises, which filled the voyage with so much religion, that one of the passengers, being examined about his going to divert himself with a hook and line on the Lord's day, 'protested that he did not know when the Lord's day was; he thought every day was a sabbath-day; for they did nothing but pray and preach all the week long. Mr. Fiske arrived in New-England in the year 1637. His aged mother died quickly after he came on board; and his only infant quickly after he came on shore. He came well stocked with servants and all sorts of tools for husbandry and carpentry and with provisions to support his family in a wilderness three years; out of which he charitably lent a considerable quantity to the country, which he then found in the distresses of a war with the Pequot Indians. He lived a short time at Cambridge, and from thence he removed to Salem, where he tarried about three years. Here he was both a preacher to the church and a tutor to divers young men, of whom the well known Sir George Downing was one. afterwards, through the want of grammar schools, instructed his own children. He About the year 1642 he removed to a new village inSalem,afterwards called Wenham, where on the 8th "Mr. John Allen settled in Dedham. He died 1671,at. 75 having been at Dedham 24 years. He was a diligent student and good scholar: His ep. itaph it is said justly delineates his character. Vir, sincerus, amans pacis, patiens quelaboris, +Under the persecution of Arch Bishop Laud many puritans and nonconformists flocked over to New-England, which occasioned a state proc lamation April 30, 1637 forbidding auy subjects to transport themselves to America without license from his Majesty's commoners. Q Oct. 1644 a church was gathered, of which he continued the pastor until the latter part of the year 1655.* He contented himself with a very mean salary, consuming his own estate for the welfare of the new plantation. For in 1643 he gave ten acres of land to the town or society of Wenham. About the end of the year 1655 he removed with the major part of his church to another new town calledChelmsford, and there he spent the remainder of his days. He was past the meridian of life, when he entered a new upon the work of the ministry in this uncultivated and thinly peopled town. Here new trials, hardships and deprivations surrounded him, which in youthful vigor might have disheartened him; but in the decline of life were enough to overwhelm him. His ministerial labors were increased by his distance from any other minister, and the difficulty and danger of travelling through the woods from town to town. For several years there was no other minister nearer than Concord and Woburn. Coming from a paradise of pleasure in England to a wilderness of wants," his patience and fortitude were put to the severest trial. His care for the souls of the flock committed to him was unremitting, while his medical skill imposed on him an indispensible obligation to minister to their corporeal health. His services as a physician, were of inestimable value in the new townships where he resided after he came to America.* An additional labor was imposed upon him in 1657 by the earnest solicitation of the inhabitants of the *Wenham the 6 of 12th mo. 1654 i. e. Feb. 12, 1655. It is ordered that the maintenance of our minister shall be £40 a year, whether Mr. Fiske stay and settle among us, or we procure another." December following it appears that Mr. Fiske had left Wenham 31 Dec. 1655. It is ordered that in case Mr. Brook be procured to stay among us, -be a committee to receive whatever the town has engaged for Mr. Brook's use.'. Wenham Records. *He was employed in America as a physician whenever he would conRev. Dr. Bentley's¿MS. Lett. sent. town to compose a new catechism for the use and instruction of their children. This was undertaken at their request, and printed at their expence 1657, by Samuel Green, Cambridge. It is styled the "Watering of the Plant in Christ's garden, or a short catechism for the entrance of our Chelmsford children. Enlarged by a three fold appendix." It is dedicated "to the church and congregation at Chelmsford ;" and appears from the following introductory remarks to have been written wholly for them. "Beloved, what is here presented to public view is yours. For looking to the poor penman, as relating to you; to the external moving cause ing firstly and freely from you; to the end and use as centering in you; to the reason of the publishing hereof as resting with you; and to the care and costs as to that end expended by you; it must not otherwise be determined, than to be yours." "Which being so, you have saved me the labor of prefacing on behalf either of this so necessary and fruitful an exercise of catechising, or of this present draught, or of publishing it. The present encumbrances of our new beginning, you know to have declined me till of late from writing, and my own inabilities much more from publishing, being rather desirous of making use of some others' labors that way, or at least of acting my own feeble apprehensions in a more private manner among ourselves. But God hath moved your minds first to see, and seeing to cause, that it must be as it is." This catechism is plain, ada pted to the capacities of small children, and almost wholly of a practical nature. The three fold appendix was designed for youth of maturer years, in order to instruct and prepare them to discharge the duties of prayer, observance of the ordinances of the gospel, and of uni |