SHERMAN-COBBET. 483 he was chosen one of the magistrates, and he served the public with exemplary discretion and fidelity. At the ex- piration of that period he resumed his 'ministry, a. :on- tinned a most zealous and faithful preacher the remainder of his days. He was invited to various places ; and, upon the death of Mr. Philips of Watertown he became his successor in the pastoral office. There he lived near Cambridge ; he became fellow of Harvard college, and performed many valuable offices for that society. For upwards of thirty years the students attended upon his lectures. He expe- rienced the happiness of growing in grace, and enjoyed the vigorous exercise of his mental powers, even to old age. " Such keenness ofwit," says Dr. Mather, " such soundness of judgment, such fulness of matter, and such vigour of language, were rarely seen in a man of his years." This was, indeed, manifest in his last sermon, from Eph. ii. 8. By grace are ye sated. He was soon after attacked by a malignant fever, and died triumphing in the Lord, August 8, 1685, aged seventy-two years. He was a strict observer of the sabbath, a constant preacher, a wise counsellor, a great divine, and an excellent mathematician and astronomer. He was a great reader, and possessed so strong a memory, that his own mind, it is said, became his library. In his public ministry, he was judicious, industrious, faithful ; and so fine an orator, that he was called the golden-mouthed preacher. His wisdom, discretion, and meekness were conspicuously manifest in the orderly and pious government of his large family. He was twice married. By the first wife he had six children, and by the second he had twenty.. THOMAS COBBET was born at Newbury in Berkshire, in the year 1608, and educated in the university of Oxford. Having finished his academical studies, he returned to New- bury, and became .a pupil under the celebrated Dr..Twisse. He first settled in the ministry at a small place in Lincoln- shire ; but here he felt the vengeance of the ecclesiastical governors. On account of his.nonconformity, hewas tossed for some time in the storm' of persecution,, and at length driven to New England. He went in the same ship with Mr. John Davenport, in the year 1637 He found New England a comfortable asylum, and a secure retreat from the storm. Upon his arrival, he was cordially received by his old friend, Mr. Whiting of Lynn, add was chosen his Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 162-165.
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