J. WARD. 501 diffident of his own opinion, that he would never undertake any thing important relative to the church without previously consulting some judicious friend. And he used to say," I had rather always follow advice, though it sometimes mislead me, than ever act without it, though 1 may do well with my own opinion." In the year 1633 he became rector of Hadley in the above county ;#, but was obliged to resign it on account of his nonconformity. The doweryof his wife was a parson- age worth two hundred pounds a year, in case he could have conformed to the church of England. But a living of two hundred pounds a year was too weak an argument to con- vince his understanding and conscience of the lawfulness of conformity. As he could not, with a good conscience, con- tinue in the church without manifold interruptions, he retired, in the year 1639, to New England, as an asylum from the rage of persecution. After his arrival, in 1641, he became pastor of the church at Haverhil ; where he continued to watch over,the flock of Christ, and tolabour for the salvation of souls, during the period of fifty-two years. He preached his last sermon after he had entered upon the eighty-eighth year of his age; and being soon after seized with a paralytic affection, he died December e7, 1693. He'was a person of quick apprehension, clear understanding, strong memory, and facetious conversation. He was a good scholar, an excellent physician, and a celebrated divine. His wife was a person of most exemplary piety, with whom he lived, in the greatest harmony and affection, upwards of forty years; during which period, he used to say, " she never gave him one offensive word."+ .Newcourt'sRepert. Eccl. vol. ii. p. 291. Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 167, 168.
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