470 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. Dr. Twisse. Being, however, dissatisfied with the arbitrary and cruel proceedings of the ruling prelates, lie removed to New England, with a number of christians fromWilt- shire, in the year 1634. He went in the same ship with Mr. James Noyes, another puritan minister, with whom the greatest intimacy and affection subsisted as long as they lived. Mr. Parker, and about one hundred of his friends, upon their arrival in the new plantation, sat down at Ipswich. In this situation they continued about a year, then removed to Quafcacunquen, which they now called Newbury. The beautiful river, on whose banks they settled, was, in honour to their revered pastor, called Parker's river : tradition says, " because hewas the first who ascended it in a boat". Mr. Parker was chosen pastor of the church, and Mr. Noyes teacher. There Mr. Parker, by the holiness and humility of his life, for many years, gave his people a lively com- mentary of his doctrine. But, by his incessant application to study, he became blind several years before his death ; yet, even then, he taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The loss of both his eyes was certainly very painful ; yet he bore the cross with becoming submission to the will of God, and would sometimes pleasantly say, " Well, they will be re- stored shortly, in the day of the resurrection." He departed to the world of light in the month of April, 1677, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the fifty-second of his ministry. He was exceedingly charitable, a hard student, an excellent preacher, and one of the best scholars and divines of the age. He considered the sabbath as beginning on the Saturday evening, yet kept the sabbath evening as his people did. When he was asked why he adopted a prac- tice different from his opinion, he replied, " Because I dare not depart from the footsteps of the flock for my own private opinion." Whenhe kept a. school he refused any reward, saying, " he lived for the sake of the church ; therefore he was unwilling to receive any scholars, besides those who were designed fbr the ministry." His whole life was employed in prayer, study, preaching, and teaching schooL+ He published " Meditations on the Prophesy of Daniel ;" and " De Tractatione Peccatoris ;" and left behind him manyvolumes of manuscripts. Morse and Parish's Hist. p.43,44. + Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 143, 144.--Morse and Parish's Hist. of New Eng. p. 46.
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