240 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. all Ministers who refuSed to conform to their arbitrary ' injunctions ; on which account great numbers of the most laborious and useful preachers in the kingdom were either .buried in silence, or forced to abscond, to avoid the fury of the Star-chamber and of the high commission. Mr. RogerS, perceiving the approaching storm, chose to prevent rather than receive the terrible sentence of those tribunals ; and therefore he- resigned his living into the hands of his patron. Not being satisfied to lay down his ministry, he forsook the neighbourhood of his father, with all his prospects of worldly advantage ; and, casting himself and his young family on the providence of God, embarked for New England, where he arrived November 16, 1636. Mr. Ralph Partridge, another puritan minister, accompanied him in the same ship. Upon their arrival, Mr. Rogers was chosen co-pastor with Mr. Norton laver the church at Ipswich. These judicious and holy men, whose hearts were cordially united in pro- moting the glory of God and the salvation of souls, were rendered a peculiar blessing to thiss religious society. Mr. Rogers was much afflicted, especially with the spitting of blood. When the complaint was upon him, he used to comfort himself by observing, " Though I should spit out my own blood, by which my life is maintained, I shall never cast out the blood of Christ, or lose the benefits of that 'blood which cleanseth us from all sin." Under one of these afflictions, Mr. Cotton wrote him a consolatory letter, dated Pilarch 9, 1631, in which he addressed him as follows :-" I bless the 'Lord with you, who perfecteth the power of his grace in your weakness, and supporteth your feeble body to do him still more service-. You know who said, Unmortified strength posteth hard to hell : but sanctified weakness creepeth fast to heaven.' Let not your spirit faint, though your body do. Your soul is precious in God's sight. Your hairs ate all numbered.' The number and measure of your fainting fits, and wearisome .nights, are, all weighed and limited by him who bath given you his son Jesus Christ to take upon him your infirmities, and bear your sicknesses."+ During the last conflict, he was full of heavenly conversation, and closed his life and labours saying, My times are in thy hands. He ,died July 3, 1655, aged fifty-seven years. He was an emi- nently holy man, an admirable preacher, and an incomparable master of the Latin tongue. " And I shall do an injury Matter's Hist.'of New Leg. b. iii. p. 104-10G. + Ibid. p. 10T.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=