England he formed friendships with many persons of note; among others with Elizabeth Singer, afterwards Mrs. Rowe, with whom he continued to correspond till her death.

During Dr. Colman's sole ministry in Brattle Square, 245 persons were received to full communion with the Church, viz. before the ordination of William Cooper, 97 men and 123 women; and in the interval between his death and the ordination of his son, 8 men and 17 women. From the first, the ordinance of the Lord's supper has been administered on the first Sunday of each month. In the first term of Dr. Colman's sole ministry 682 persons were baptized, and in the second, 148.

His salary was at first forty shillings a week. It was raised, the second year, to fifty, and, in 1708, to three pounds.

'On October the 12th, 1711, the old church being burnt down with a great part of the town,' the First Church was invited to worship with the Church in Brattle Square; and continued so to do till May 4, 1713.

'July 24, 1713, the Rev. Mr. William Brattle, pastor of the church in Cambridge, signified, by a letter, the legacy of his brother, Thomas Brattle, Esq. lately deceased, of a pair of organs, which he dedicated and devoted to the praise and glory of God with us, if we should accept thereof, and, within a year after his decease, procure a sober person, skilful to play thereon. The Church, with all possible respect to the memory of our deceased Friend and Benefactor, voted, that they did not think it proper to use the same in the publick worship of God.'

July 4, 1715, Dr. Noyes proposed our using some better version of the Psalms ; and Capt. Clark proposed that there might be a constant exposition of the Scriptures, after the reading of them every Lord's day. Both which matters, after some discourse of them, were left to further consideration, if need were.'

Dr. Colman was, from youth to age, a diligent student. He had, for the time, a good library, part of which he bequeathed to the Church. Though he modestly speaks, when chosen president, of his 'long disuse of academical studies,' he in fact never wholly renounced his classical pursuits. His Latin letters are written in a beautiful style, and he read Horace not long before his death. He composed with uncommon rapidity. One sermon, which is in print, and which took him an hour to pronounce, is stated by his biographer to have been written in a forenoon. He published upwards of eighty works, chiefly sermons, a catalogue of which is given in the Appendix to his life. At a time when such honours were very scantily distributed, and not at all by our own colleges, he received a diploma as doctor in divinity from the University of Glasgow. In what esteem he was held by his own college, may be gathered from the notice taken of him by President Holyoke, on the day of Commencement after his death, in which it is curious that the President has occasion to allude to him in

connexion with Mr. Gee, as Dr. Chauncy had done in the letter to which I allude in the text,—but with a quite different result. The President names Mr. Gee with other clergymen deceased during the year, and goes on to say, quibus omnibus, egregié licet ornatis, virum vere reverendum Benjaminem Colman longe præcellere, nemo non facile confitebitur.

Dr. Barnard of Marblehead, in a letter to Dr. Stiles, dated 16th October, 1767, (Hist. Coll. X. 169,) calls Colman'a most gentlemanly man, of polite aspect and conversation, very extensive erudition, great devotion of spirit and behaviour, a charming and admired preacher, extensively serviceable to the college and country, whose works breathe his exalted, oratorical, devout, and benign spirit; an excellent man in spirit, in faith, in holiness and charity.'

Of his manner as a publick speaker, his colleague says, in an unpublished funeral discourse, he never delivered a sermon but we saw how perfectly he understood the decorum of the pulpit; and the gravity and sweetness at once expressed in his countenance, the musick of his voice, the propriety of his accent, and the decency of his gesture, showed him one of the most graceful speakers of the age.'

'He was a good master of address, and carried all the politeness of a court about him. And, as he treated mankind of various degrees and ranks with a civility, courtesy, affability, complaisance and candour scarce to be equalled,- —so all but the base and mean showed him a high degree of respect and reverence, love and affection. Particularly men of figure and parts of our own nation and foreigners, whom he failed not to visit upon their coming among us, greatly valued and admired him.-It has been said, perhaps not without some seeming grounds for it, that he sometimes went too far in complimental strains, both in word and writing; but, if he did, such flights took their rise from an exuberance or excrescence of the before-mentioned homiletical virtues. He took a sincere pleasure in the gifts of others, and had a natural proneness to think favourably of all men, and construed every thing in the most candid sense.'* 'He loved and honoured good men of every denomination, how much soever they differed from him in some peculiar sentiments, circumstantials and modalities.' 'To his relations by consanguinity and affinity, he was singularly affectionate and kind.' 'He was also a sincere and useful friend to all such as he professed any friendship to, and extended his benevolence and beneficence to their friends.'t He was an example of patience, and instead of revenging injuries, (when it was in his power,) he laid himself out to do all the kindnesses he could to his adversaries.' Yet his natural temper was quick and hasty; and he had the infirmities as well as sanctity of an Elijah.‡

* Ibid. p. 183.

† Ibid. p. 215.

Ibid. p. 221.

His services were much sought by individuals and churches in the office of a peacemaker. Several letters, written and received by him on such occasions, remain, and show the confidence which was placed in his moderation and wisdom.-In 1740, some apprehension, it seems, was felt, of a breach among the ministers and in the lecture, occasioned by two sermons, one preached by Mr. Hooper of the West Church, the other, probably, by Dr. Chauncy. Dr. Colman, as usual, was employed to heal the schism. There is a note from him to Dr. Chauncy, requesting, for himself and the three other senior ministers, an interview with that gentleman 'for a free brotherly discourse.' No answer is preserved, and it does not appear what reception the proposition met. From an amicable correspondence, which took place, at the same time, between Dr. Colman and Mr. Hooper, it appears, that the matter of suspicion was some views, which had been advanced concerning the justice and mercy of God,-very probably the rudiments of the system, which Dr. Chauncy afterwards expounded at length. Mr. Hooper, in 1746, left his society and became rector of Trinity Church. Dr. Colman records the baptism by him of two children ‘at Mr. Hooper's, on his desertion.'

Besides his numerous letters on publick concerns, he maintained an extensive correspondence of friendship with eminent individuals at home and abroad, among whom were Dr. Hoadly, Dr. Watts, and Dr. Kennett, bishop of Peterborough. A complimentary letter from him to Bishop Hoadly, then of Bangor, occasioned by the publication of his Common Rights of Subjects, is preserved in the MS. volume, to which I have referred, as also a letter from London, in which Gov. Belcher informs him of the circumstances of his appointment to the chair of the commonwealth. I have been told, that a manuscript volume, containing letters which passed between him and Dr. Watts, was missing from the library of the Historical Society, at the time of the controversy occasioned by the election of Dr. Ware to the divinity chair in 1805, and has never been recovered.

'If any should inquire concerning the person of Dr. Colman'—' his form was spare and slender, but of a stature tall and erect above the common height; his complexion fair and delicate, his aspect and mien benign and graceful; and his whole appearance amiable and venerable. There was a peculiar flame and dignity in his eye, which he could soften and manage with all the beauty and force of oratory, but still natural, and without the least affectation.-And his neat and clean manner of dress, and genteel, complaisant behaviour, politeness and elegance in conversation, set off his person to the best advantage.'*

'He was of a tender constitution from his birth,' and 'when he

pronounced the publick oration in taking his master's degree, his thin and slender appearance, his soft and delicate voice, and the red spots in his cheeks, caused the audience in general to conclude him bordering on a consumption, and to be designed but for a few weeks of life.** 'His ten

der constitution and often infirmities, together with many sudden and threatening shocks on his health by acute diseases, were earnest and quickening mementos to him of his frailty and mortality.'t By strict regularity of living, however, he retained sufficient health for his life and labours to cease together. He preached the Lord's day previous to, and rose as usual on the morning of his death.

6

His family is extinct. John Dennie, whom Turell calls, in his biography, the only lamp the doctor left burning in his house at his decease,' died childless. The late Mrs. Ward, wife of Rev. Ephraim Ward of Brookfield, was a grandaughter of John Colman, brother of the doctor.

(13.) p. 12. To say as much as this of Cotton Mather, is certainly to do him no injustice. That he had great application and a wonderful memory, there is of course no disputing; but I apprehend that he cannot be said to have possessed any faculty besides that of memory in remarkable strength. Like most other persons of such comprehensive pretensions, he was extremely inaccurate. No one, probably, now relies on his historical writings as authority, when they are unsupported by other evidence. His estimation of his own importance was also altogether unreasonable. At two different vacancies in the presidency of the college, he kept fasts to seek direction in the course which he should pursue when appointed to that office. Many of the representatives favoured his claim; but the corporation four times passed him by, and chose more competent men. While Leverett was president, the Mathers seldom attended the overseers' meetings, and Cotton Mather was never of the corporation.

We have seen how the ministerial intercourse between Cotton Mather and Dr. Colman began. The dispute does not appear to have left any permanent resentment in the mind of the latter. His funeral sermon, from Gen. v. 24, not only breathes a most affectionate and noble spirit, but one is inclined to think, that its panegyrick would have been more qualified, had not the author feared, that their former relation might bias him to do Mather less than justice.

(14.) p. 12. In his funeral sermon upon William Cooper, than which nothing can be more affectionate, he says, if in any particular point I could not act with him, yet he evidently appeared to me to act, as he professed, as of sincerity, in the sight of God, and as his conscience com

manded him.' Good men are apt to think the times in which they live degenerate. Colman says, in his sermon just quoted, 'It is a time of decay. Let us, therefore, the rather be strengthening the things that remain and are ready to die;' and, in his address in that sermon to candidates for the ministry, 'Your times are like to be harder than ours, more loose and careless, more evil and trying.' And again, in his sermon on the general fast, March 22, 1716: 'We are sadly on the decay as to serious piety and vital religion. We have lost our first love, life, and zeal. Our fathers, where are they,-their spirit of devotion, their sobriety and temperance, their godliness and honesty? Sensuality, worldliness and pride are grown up in the place of these,—profaneness, lukewarmness and hypocrisy, selfishness and unrighteousness.'

(15.) p. 12. DR. COLMAN was frequently employed by the general court in draughting letters and addresses, and held extensive correspondence, upon the affairs of the colony, with the governours and agents, and with dissenting gentlemen in England. He also wrote several addresses to the king and ministry, in behalf of the clergy of Massachusetts. He was, it seems, blamed by some for interfering at all with civil and secular matters. But,' asks his biographer, 'must a person, who knows well the interest of his country, and is capable of serving it, and saving it too, when sinking, be silent only because he is a minister? Is he nothing else? Is he not a subject of his prince, and a member of the commonwealth?"

He was very active in introducing the practice of inoculation for the small pox. Of 5889, who took it in Boston' in the year 1721, '844 died. Inoculation was introduced upon this occasion, contrary to the minds of the inhabitants in general, and not without hazard to the lives of those who promoted it, from the rage of the people."* Professional and religious bigotry combined to oppose it. A bill to prohibit it passed the house of representatives, and was only stopped in the council. The practice was however persevered in by Dr. Boylston, who was manfully defended by Mather and Colman. The latter published, in 1721, Some Observations on the New Method of receiving the Small Pox by ingrafting, or inoculating, dedicated to President Leverett. There is a curious example of the spirit, which this dispute elicited, in a sermon preached in London by Mr. Mussey in 1722, and reprinted in Boston. The text is Job ii. 7, and the doctrine, that Satan was the first inoculator.

Dr. Colman published a pamphlet in 1719 in favour of the erection of a market-house, a measure which, at that time, and until several years after, when one market-house was destroyed, and the two others injured by a mob, occasioned much excitement among the citizens.

* Hutchinson's History, II. 247.