the earlier part of the settlement, to be disturbed. If those who essentially differed from them sought here an asylum for their peculiarities, "the world," they said, "is wide. You are at liberty to turn to the right hand, or the left; but you must not intrude here, to disturb us. If you cannot think and walk with us, we prefer you should walk to some other section of the country." It is perfectly natural, that a feeling such as this should have prevailed among the early settlers of New England. Their peculiar circumstances furnished an excuse for it, if they did not create a necessity. The feeling did not prevail to the extent that many have pretended; still, there was something of it here. "Hence," says Cotton Mather, "toleration was decried, as a Trojan horse, profanely and perilously brought into the city of God. Plausible outcries were made about Anti-Christ's coming in at the back door of toleration. It was also a maxim often cited, that to tolerate all things, and tolerate nothing, are both alike intolerable."

It was natural that Mr. Mather, in the first part of his ministry, should fall in with these current and established opinions. It is even said that he wrote a book, which was never pub. lished, on the power of the magistrate to restrain and subdue heretical doctrines. But as he ad

vanced in years, his views on this subject underwent a material change. He became entirely tolerant in his principles, and advocated religious freedom, much as it is understood at the present day. He insisted "that the man who is a good neighbor, and a good subject, has a right to his life and the comforts of it; and that it is not his being of this or that opinion in religion, but his doing of something which directly tends to the hurt of human society, by which this right can be forfeited. He saw that a good neighbor and a good subject has a claim to all his temporal enjoyments before he is a Christian; and he thought it very odd that a man should lose this claim from his embracing Christianity, just because he does not happen to be a Christian of the uppermost party among the subdivisions. He saw, in short, that until persecutions be utterly banished out of the world, and Cain's club be taken out of Abel's hand, as well as out of Cain's, it is impossible to rescue the world from endless confusions."

It is sometimes thought that the principles of Christian liberty are of recent discovery. But where shall we look for a more explicit statement and striking illustration of them, than in the foregoing passages? And yet these were the settled and recorded principles of Increase

Mather, almost two hundred years ago;—principles on which he uniformly and consistently acted. At an early period, he assisted in ordaining the pastor of a Baptist church in his immediate neighborhood; and Cotton Mather, speaking of the state of things in New England at a later period, says: "Calvinists with Lutherans, Presbyterians with Episcopalians, Pedobaptists with Anabaptists, beholding one another to fear God and work righteousness, do with delight sit down together at the same table of the Lord; nor do they hurt one another in the holy mountain."

As we are now upon the opinions of Increase Mather, it may be proper to notice a point in which he agreed, substantially, with his cotemporaries, but differed from the generality of Christians at the present day. The opinions now prevailing in this country in respect to the Millennium, date not much further back than the time of President Edwards. It was his discussions of the subject, together with those of Doctors Hopkins and Bellamy, which changed the previously received notions of the Millennium, for those which now so generally prevail. The first ministers of New England, like many of the primitive Christians, and of the Protestant reformers, lived in habitual expectation of the

second coming of Christ. Some thought, with Wickliffe, that the Millennium was past, and that they were living in the very last days of the world. Others held that the Millennium was about to be ushered in by the second coming of Christ, to reign personally and gloriously on the earth, during the whole of that period. In proof that such opinions very generally prevailed, I might adduce many facts. Thus, at the time of the great earthquake in New England, in the year 1727, multitudes mistook the roar of it for the sounding of the last trump, supposing that Christ had already come. It was followed by a great awaking in Boston, though not, as we are informed, by many conversions. Also, during certain vivid and terrific corruscations of the Aurora Borealis, which occurred more than a hundred years ago, many excellent people walked the streets the whole night, expecting the instant appearance of the Son of Man.

As might be expected, Mr. Mather adopted and advocated the current opinions respecting the speedy coming of Christ, and was, without doubt, a means of extending and establishing them. About the year 1668, he wrote a book, in Latin, which was afterwards published in Holland, entitled "A Diatribe concerning the Sign of the Son of Man, and the Second Coming

of the Messiah;" in which he insists that this great event "will be at the beginning of that happy state which is to be expected for the church on earth, in the latter days."

In the spring of 1669, Mr. Mather was called to bury his father, and scarcely had this sad office of affection and piety been performed, when tidings reached him of the sudden death of his beloved brother Eleazer. This made it necessary for him to take a journey to Northampton, that he might assist and comfort the desolate widow and the afflicted people. While here, he was himself attacked with a violent fever, which continued many days. During this period, he was the subject of incessant prayer, and a physician was sent all the way from Boston to his relief. He recovered slowly, and was but just able to return to his family and people before the setting in of winter. He was kept from his pulpit by continued weakness and indisposition, till the next spring. During his sickness, he wrote as follows:

"God was wonderfully gracious to me. He did not leave me to doubts and fears, but caused

his face to shine upon me. I found myself very willing to die. When I thought of my wife and children, my heart gave them up to God, firmly believing that he would take care of them.