R. HARRIS. 307 peace, resigning his soul to God, December 11, 1658, aged eighty years.. Mr. Clark gives the following account of his excellent endowments :-He was a hard student, endowed with great parts, and furnished with all manner of learning necessary to a divine. He was a pure and elegant Latinist, very exact in the Hebrew, and much admired as a subtle, clear, and ready disputant. He excelled in chronology, church history, the councils, case divinity, and in the knowledge of the fathers. But his parts were best seen in the pulpit. His gifts in prayer were very great ; his affections warm and fervent; his petitions weighty and substantial; andhis language, pertinent, unaffected, and without tautology. He preached with learned plainness, unfolding the great mysteries of the gospel to persons of the meanest capacities. He used to say, " a preacher bath three books to study : the Bible, himself, and his people." He observed, that the humblest preachers converted the greatest number of souls, not the most learned scholars while unbroken. He valued no man for his gifts, but for his humility under them. Nor did he expect much from any man, were his parts ever so great, till he was broken by temptations and afflictions. He was a man who ruled well his own house, was of great modera- tion about church discipline, exceedingly charitable to the poor, and eminently distinguished for humility, mortification, and self-denial. In short, he was richly furnished with every necessary qualification to render him a complete scholar, a wise governor, a profitable preacher, and an excellent christian.+ Notwithstanding this account from the impartial pen of one who must have been well acquainted with him, Dr. Walker has stigmatized him as " a notorious pluralist." He rests the evidence of this slanderous accusation upon the authority of a scurrilous and abusive letter, published to expose and pour contempt upon the puritans. The doctor also observes, " that he had somewhere read, that in those times Dr. Harris's picture was drawn with one steeple upon his head, and others coming out of his pockets." We shall not attempt to justify pluralities. They are undoubtedly indefensible. Yet the satire had certainly been more season- able, ifpluralities did no where exist among rigid churchmen4 Respecting this charge, Dr. Harris himself made the follow- ing open and generous declaration : " I stood clear," says Clark's Lives, p. 225-327. + Ibid. p. 227-331. t Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 127.
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