BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AND DIARY OF REV. JOSEPH GREEN, OF SALEM VILLAGE.

BY SAMUEL P. FOWLER.

Continued from p. 96.

MR. GREEN being highly esteemed in his church and society, and by his ministerial brethren, much public notice was taken of his death. A sermon was preached upon the occasion by Rev. Thomas Blowers, of Beverly, and Rev. Joseph Capen, of Topsfield, and an Elegy written by Rev. Nicholas Noyes, of Salem. To the sermon by Mr. Capen was prefixed an "Address to the Reader," by Rev. Dr. Increase Mather. A portion of this address, we think, will be found sufficiently interesting to warrant a republication, as it gives us a view of the public estimation of the character of Mr. Green, and interesting reminiscences in the life of Dr. Increase Mather.

Extract from the Address to the Reader, by Increase Mather:

"They that have had the most intimate acquaintance with Mr. Joseph Green, the late faithful Pastor of the Church in Salem Village, commend him to Posterity as one of very Exemplary Piety. It adds to his reputation, that altho' the People there, were too much divided before his being among them, yet in his dayes, and under his ministry there was Peace and Truth. They have honoured themselves in the Love and Honour which they have Express'd to their deceased Pastor. I am informed that they are the Publishers of the Sermon Emitted herewith. The Reverend Author, from an Excess of Modesty and Humility, was not willing to transmit it to the Press, only at the importunity of those who were affected under the hearing of it, he gave them a copy of his Discourse. The Dispensations of Divine Providence are Mysterious. His Judgements, His Methods in ordering of the Affairs of the World are a great deep. How Unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out.

*

Sometimes Pious young Ministers are nipt in Flore, snached away when much more fruit has been hoped for from them. So it was with that beloved and faithful minister in the Lord whose death occasioned this Sermon. When others that have been a long time barren and unfruitful are spared to a great Old Age; of which he that writes these lines is an instance. For Infinate Patience has continued me in the Lords vineyard a longer time than any minister of the Gospel now living in New England. If God shall Lengthen my life to the Fourth *Rev. Joseph Capen.

month next Ensuing, three score years will be Expired since I began to Teach Publickly. But I am greatly ashamed to think what an unprofitable Servant I have been, and this not only compared with others, but with some of my nearest Relatives. My Father left four sons Employed in the work of the Ministry. My Eldest Brother Samuel' was joined in the pastoral office with the Renowned Dr. Winter in Dublin and was a great blessing to that City and Kingdom. Him did God take in his prime, when in his Forty fifth year. And forty six years are past since his removal to a better World.

*

"My Brother Nathaniel who dyed in London Pastor of a Congregational Church there, was at his Decease Eleven years short of my age. My Brother Eleazer the first Pastor of the Church in Northampton was ripe for Heaven, when but Thirty five years of age.' I who am the youngest and Least of all my Fathers Sons, am yet remaining debilitated by Age. I do not Envy those that have out-run me, and having got to the End of their Race before me.

I shall quickly overtake them. When that great Reformer in Zurick (Bullinger) was near his end, I was a Comfortable thought to him that he should shortly be with the holy Patriarck, and Prophets and Apostles and Martyres of Jesus. Why may not I be glad that I am hastening to be with them and my dearest Relatives that are gone before me, and with Cotton, Norton, Mitchel, Bates, How, Meade, and many others of my dear acquaintance's, and which is far the best of all to be with Christ. INCREASE Mather.”

Extracts from Mr. Capen's Sermon upon the death of Mr. Green:†

*Dr. Mather seems to have forgotten the age of his brother Eleazer. The late Rev. Dr. T. M. Harris informs us, in a copy of sermons by Eleazer Mather published after his death, that he saw the following note in the handwriting of Dr. Increase Mather, who, when relating the time and order of the sermons written by his brother Eleazer, says' "The first sermon was preached June 13, 1669; the second June 27.h following; the third July 4th; the fourth and last July 11th: after which day my brother Eleazer lived not in health able to preach, for July 13th he took to his bed, and July 24th he went to rest in the Lord, to keep an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven." It is a well-settled fact with historians that the Rev. Eleazer Mather died July 24, 1669, aged thirty-two years, two months, and eleven days.

"A Funeral Sermon, Occasioned by the Death of Mr. Joseph Green, Late Pastor of the Church in Salem Village. By Joseph Capen, Pastor of the Church in Topsfield. With a Prefatory Epistle by Dr. Increase Mather. Boston, Printed by B. Green for Samuel Gerrish, at his Shop near the Brick Meeting House, 1717."

Mr. Capen was a poet, and is noticed in Kettell's " Specimens of American Poetry," and some lines are given as a specimen of what he wrote upon the death of Mr. John Foster, supposed to be the first Boston printer. Foster having been a mathematician, as well as printer, and sometimes having been engaged in the making of a calendar, the two following lines in the epitaph was suggested, we suppose, to the mind of the poet by his occupation : —

"Thy body which no activeness did lack,

Now's laid aside like an old almanack."

"My brethren, let me tell you that the Public looks on this breach that is made upon you, as a breach on that also; when persons of such a Spirit, and of such usefulness, as your Minister was, are taken away by Death, it is to be accounted matter of general Lamentation. It is but a few Weeks since there was standing in this House of God, and this Place where I now stand a GREEN Olive-tree, as the Psalmist speaks of himself, in Psal. 52: 8. But now it is withered away; yea it is plucked up by the roots, one part of it is rotting in the Earth, where it is only Sown, as good grain that is Sown in the Earth in order to its yielding much fruit, as in Joh. 12: 24.

"Be thankful to God for the many good and comfortable Days and Years you have had together. Surely Eighteen Years of Peace and Quietness is worth Thanks to Heaven for it. And you that have been Instructed, Awakened, Quickned, Comforted and Edifyed by his Ministry be thankful for it. Labour to keep in Mind and Remember the good Instructions and Counsels that you have heard from his mouth; let them not all dye and be buried in oblivion with him, but keep them in Remembrance.

"Let your Love to your Late Pastor (who is now laid in the dust) appear in your kind, tender, and compassionate regard to his afflicted, bereaved, and desolate Family, which he hath left among you. Ministers seem to be under a greater disadvantage when they die, and with respect to their Families after them than other men; inasmuch as when they die, all means of support for their Families which they leave behind them come to an end. Ministers ordinarily, unless they can spare and pinch something out of their Yearly Salaries (which they can badly enough do, being so short and scant, and unless they do it notwithstanding) are like to have nothing to lay up for their Families support when they are taken away; or else they will fall under a necessity of being more intangled about the affairs of this Life than they would be willing, or is convenient (indeed) that they should be, are oftentimes, it may be, forced out of their Studies, when they would be glad to have it otherwise.

"Be humbled for your Unprofitableness and Reason the case and Question with yourselves, whether or no you have not provoked God to take him away from you in Judgment to you, for your Spiritual barreness, and receiving the grace of God in vain, as you have done; and so after a sort you may be guilty of his Death.

"Endeavour to Unite and Accord, to be all of one heart and one Soul about the choice and settlement of another minister among you. Condescend to one another in every thing that may be proper for you, and in order to that end, Endeavour to live in Love & Peace if you would have the God of Love & Peace to dwell with you. And unless you do so, you will forfeit your Name of Salem, of which you are a part and which Name signifies Peace as Heb. 7: 2. The experience

which you have sometimes formerly had of troubles among you, things contray to Peace & Quietness; together with your later experience of Peace and Love, cannot but greatly raise the price and value of this latter, your own experience tells you, that the one exceeds the other, as much as Wisdom excels Folly, and as much as light excels darkness; this should sway you to study those things that make for Peace, and where-with one may edify another.

"And let me tell you, That if it could be imagined that any thing in this World. could interrupt and disturb the rest and repose of your late Minister his Ashes now in the Grave, nothing so much as your differing and contending among yourselves would do it; as the counterfeit Samuel said to Saul, 1 Sam. 28: 15."

AN ELEGY

UPON THE MUCH LAMENTED DEATH

OF THE

REVEREND MR. JOSEPH GREEN,

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AT SALEM VILLAGE, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOVEMBER 26, 1715, AGED FORTY YEARS AND TWO DAYS.*

The Second Impression.

JOHN XI. 35, 36.-"Jesus Wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him."

In God's House we of late did see

A Green, and growing Olive Tree,
'Twas Planted by a Living Spring,
That always made it flourishing;

*Rev. Nicholas Noyes, of Salem, was a famous elegist. He wrote an elegy on Thomas Hooker, in which he says,

"For rich array cared not a fig,

And wore Elisha's periwig."

He wrote also a prefatory poem "on that excellent book, entitled Magnalia Christi Americana, written by the Rev. Mr. Cotton Mather," where he says,

"The stuff is true, the trimming neat and spruce,

The Workman's good, the work of public use."

Kettell, in his "Specimens of his American Poetry," says "his poem on the death of the Rev. Joseph Green, of Salem Village, we have not seen." I am indebted to the Rev. Anson McLoud, of Topsfield, for kindly furnishing me with a copy of the sermon of Mr. Capen, now exceedingly rare.

Fill'd it with Sap, and Oyly Juice,
That Leaves, and Fruit, and Light produce,
An holy Tree, whose very Wood,
For Temple-use was choice and good;
Doors, Posts, and Cheribims of old,
Were made of it, and spread with Gold,
Adorning the most Holy Place,
With Symbols, both of Peace and Grace.
But now alas, we weep to see.

An Empty Place, where stood that Trée :
That Green and lovely Tree whose Sight
Has bless'd our Eyes with much delight,
For his good Nature, and his Grace
Both visible were in his Face.

Had you but seen, how Noah's Dove
Was Entertain'd with Joy, and Love,
When it return'd with Tidings good,
That God was drying up the Flood;
You might have gues'd how grateful he
To mournful Souls was wont to be.
For like that Blessed Bird, he Still
Green Olive Leaves brought in his bill.
He dry'd up Floods of Strife, and he
Made Brethren dwell in Unitie.
Under his Shadow was their Seat,
And of his Pleasant Fruit they Eat.
-On Joseph's head a Blessing fell,
And all he did, did Prosper well;
For God was with him, and did make,
Him bless'd and others for his sake.
Indeed he was a Public Good,
Unto his Flock, and Neighbourhood.
His Presence did our Lectures grace,
Our Pulpits want his Pious Face;
To teach us all, what Reverence
Is due to the Divine Presence;
For his Devotion did extend,
From the beginning to the end,