government, by laying many scandals upon them, and intended to prosecute against them in England, by petitioning and complaining to the parliament. Also Samuel Gorton and his company, made complaint against them; so as they made choice of Mr. Winslow to be their agent to make their defence, and gave him commission and instructions for that end, in which he so carried himself, as did well answer their ends, and cleared them from any blame and dishonour, to the shame of their adversaries. After this he fell upon other employment in England, which detained him there, so as he returned not again to New England any more, whose absence hath been much to the weakening of the government of New Plimouth, who had large experience of his help and usefulness amongst them in government, etc., of whom I have more to insert, in honour of so worthy a gentleman, in its more proper place.

1647.

Mr. William Bradford was elected governor of the jurisdiction of New Plimouth. Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. Thomas Prince, Mr. William Collier, Mr. Timothy Hatherly, Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. John Brown, and Mr. William Thomas, were elected his assistants in government.

This year the whole land, but more especially the church and town of Hartford on Connecticut, sustained a great and more than ordinary loss, by the death of that most eminent servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker, who, in the month of July in this year, changed this life for a better; concerning whose piety, learning, and singular dexterity in preaching the gospel with answerable success, the many souls wrought upon by his ministry, in both Old England and New, do give forth a large testimony; and withal, as an addition to the former, those learned and profitable works penned by him for the refutation of error, and guiding and confirming of the saints in the ways of Christ. In which respects, with others, his name will live and is embalmed; and doth remain, and will be as a precious ointment in the churches, and amongst the saints in present and future ages.

This special servant of Christ, as he served his master with great zeal, love, wisdom, and sincerity, so he ended his life with much comfort and serenity; so as it is rare that was said of him, that the peace which he had in believing, thirty years before his death, was firm, and not touched by the adversary, until the period of his life; and with much joy and peace in believing, he fell asleep in the Lord, and was honourably buried at Hartford on Connecticut.

In whose memorial, I shall here insert the funeral elegies of two eminent divines, written upon his death.

On my reverend and dear brother, Mr. Thomas Hooker, late pastor of the church at Hartford on Connecticut.