A Man of a Thousand: Plimoth Plantation on Ainsworth's Psalter

An enjoyable blog post from Plimoth Plantation on Henry Ainsworth's Psalter.

Attempted Assassinations

Adventure, intrigue, close calls, providential deliverances, courage, mercy, persecution, martyrdom: these are some of the stories of attempted and successful assassinations of Reformed ministers and statesmen from the First and Second Reformation eras.

George Wishart (c. 1513-1546) -- The Reformer George Wishart was viewed as greatest threat of his day to the stranglehold of the Roman Catholic Church on Scotland. His arch-enemy, Cardinal David Beaton bribed a priest, Sir John Wighton (Wightman), to assassinate Wishart by mingling with the crowd attending upon his preaching in Dundee with a dagger hidden in his cloak, and lying in wait for the appropriate moment. As Wishart descended from the pulpit, he greeted his would-be assassin, "What would you do, my friend?" John Knox, Wishart's biographer, future bodyguard, and Reformer-successor, writes that Wishart's keen eye had noticed the movement of Wighton's hand for the dagger, and he clamped his own on it, apprehending the dagger himself. At this the priest fell down to his knees and confessed his murderous intention. An angry crowd converged and threatened to kill the priest. Knox related Wishart's response thus: "But Master George took him in his arms and said, 'Whosoever troubles him shall trouble me. He has hurt me in nothing, but has done great comfort both to you and me, he has let us understand what we may fear in times to come. We will watch better.' Thus he appeased both the one part and the other, and saved the life of him that sought his." Wishart was eventually arrested, and executed at the hands of Cardinal Beaton on March 1, 1546. Beaton himself was assassinated in reprisal by Wishart's supporters later that year.

William Farel (1489-1565) and Pierre Viret (1511-1571) -- William Farel, the Swiss Reformer who persuaded John Calvin to serve Geneva, and Pierre Viret, the French Reformer whose 500th birthday is this year, both survived multiple assassination attempts. Early in his career, Viret was badly wounded in Payerene when a band of Catholics attempted to kill him. A monk ran him through with a sword as Viret attempted to cross a field. His injury was severe but his body healed.

In 1535, an attempt was made to eliminate three Reformers at once: Farel, Viret and Antoine Froment (1508–1581). A servant girl, Antonia Vax, was persuaded by certain priests to poison a bowl of spinach soup. She was hired to work for Claude Bernard, at whose house all three Reformers were then lodged, in Geneva. On March 8, 1535, she placed poison in a small bone served to Viret within his soup. Farel's bowl of soup was clearer and she was afraid to place a poisoned bone in it (Émile Doumergue, Jean Calvin, Vol. 2, pp. 133-134); he apparently did not like the look of the soup in any event and requested another bowl. Froment was about to eat but was advised before partaking that his wife and children had just arrived in Geneva and so left the table with the food untouched. Viret became violently ill and suffered from the effects of the poison the rest of his life. Vax confessed after attempting to flee the city, and identified two co-conspirators but charges against the others were dropped. She was executed the following month for her crime.

At Corcelles, Farel was attacked by a group of monks, including the prior Rodolph de Benoit, who, it is reported, had a dagger in his hand. Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné reports that "Farel escaped with difficulty."

On another occasion, Farel, Viret and John Calvin (1509-1564) were all traveling together to the famous October 1536 public disputation with Roman Catholic clergy in Lausanne, when a group of assassins laid in wait for them, but were discovered, and the plot was thwarted, all of these great Reformers were unharmed. Viret said at the closing of the debate, "We do not thirst for blood, like those who laid in wait to destroy us on our way thither. So far from seeking to punish them, we interceded on their behalf, and our only wish is that they may receive complete forgiveness."

Jean-Marc Berthoud, Pierre Viret: A Forgotten Giant of the Reformation, pp. 14-15, also writes that "in France when a Protestant mob was on the point of lynching a traitorous Roman Catholic priest Pierre Viret interposed his very life to save him from certain death."

Henry Ainsworth (1571-1622/1623) -- English Congregationalist, Biblical commentator, and the man behind the psalter of the Pilgrims, Henry Ainsworth was a man of peace, but became embroiled in conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, which he viewed as Antichrist; the Church of England, from which he withdrew, Puritans like Richard Bernard; who opposed Separatism; as well as other Congregationalists like Francis Johnson, over the nature of the office of elder. Ultimately, he died suddenly and mysteriously, in Amsterdam, where he lived and worked in exile, in late 1622 or early 1623. The story that is told varies slightly but the suspicion is that he was poisoned. Historian Daniel Neal writes: "His death was sudden, and not without suspicion of violence; for it is reported that, having found a diamond of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it in print, and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment he would desire; but Ainsworth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference with some of his [rabbis] upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, which the other promised, but not having interest enough to obtain it, 'tis thought that he was poisoned." Historian Benjamin Brook writes that the conference indeed took place, and that he was poisoned by his defeated antagonists.

Matthew Poole (1624-1679) -- After having been ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity in 1662, English Puritan minister Matthew Poole devoted the rest of his life to Biblical studies, publishing the Latin Synopsis Criticorum (Synopsis of Interpreters) on the whole Bible and an English Annotations on the Bible through Isaiah 58 before his death. He was living in London when fear gripped the city after Titus Oakes proclaimed the existence of a Popish Plot to assassinate King Charles II in 1678. The following year a deposition by Oates identified a hit list of targets intended for assassination and Matthew Poole's name was on it, which was not a surprise given that he had written two notable books on Roman Catholic apologetics. Although the plot was later discredited and Oates was ultimately convicted of perjury, Poole himself gave credence to the plot after overhearing men plotting to kill him. George Godfrey Cunningham relates the account thus:

Soon after, he was spending an evening at Mr Alderman Ashurst's, and was returning home with a Mr Chorley, who had gone with him for the sake of company; when coming near the narrow passage which leads from Clerkenwell to St John's court, they saw two men standing at the entrance; one of whom, as Mr Poole approached, said to the other, "there he is;" upon which the other replied, "let him alone, there is somebody with him." As soon as they were passed, Mr Poole asked his friend if he had heard what passed between the two men; and, upon his answering that he had, "Well," replied Mr Poole, "I had been murdered tonight had you not been with me."

This event prompted him to relocate to Amsterdam where he in fact died soon after on October 12, 1679. The suddenness of his death led to the supposition, which has never been confirmed, that he was poisoned.

Samuel Maresius (1599-1673) -- French Huguenot theologian Samuel Des Marets (Maresius) would go on to become professor at the Academy of Sedan (1625), pastor at Maastricht (1632), pastor and professor at Bois-le-Duc (1636), and at Groningen (1643), but early in his career, soon after becoming pastor at Lyons in 1620, he wrote to lady who had apostatized from the faith, a letter which provoked a Jesuit priest to hire an assassin who stabbed him in the chest. His injury was severe but he went on to recover and become a major theologian of the post-Reformation era.

William of Orange (1533-1584) -- William I, the Silent, Prince of Orange, was the leader of the Dutch Revolt, a resistance movement opposed to the Spanish religious and political tyranny and oppression, a revolt which sparked the Eighty Years' War and led to Dutch Independence. William became a Calvinist in 1573. Soon after the July 22, 1581 Act of Abjuration, which was the Dutch Declaration of Independence, a Spanish Roman Catholic named Juan de Jáuregui responded to the call by King Philip II of Spain to assassinate William (the supposed reward was to be 80,000 ducats and the habit of the Order of Santiago) by shooting William in Antwerp on March 18, 1572. The pistol malfunctioned, but the bullet pierced William's neck, exiting near the left jaw bone. Jáuregui was killed on the spot, but William survived the serious injury thanks to the care of his wife Charlotte, who died herself less than two months later.

The second attempt on his life was successful. On July 10, 1584, the French Roman Catholic Balthasar Gérard (also in response to Philip's call) shot William fatally at close range at his home in Delft. Gérard was arrested, tried, convicted and executed for his crime. William's last reported words were: "Mon Dieu, ayez pitié de mon âme; mon Dieu, ayez pitié de ce pauvre peuple" ("My God, have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people").

Stephen Bocskay (1557-1606) -- Stephen Bocskay, Prince of Transylvania, was the Protestant Hungarian nobleman who led an anti-Hapsburg uprising in defense of the religious and constitutional liberties of Hungarians both in Transylvania and Royal Hungary. After concluding successful peace treaties, such as the Peace of Vienna (June 1606) and the Peace of Zsitvatorok (November 1606), Bocskay was poisoned on December 29, 1606, by his chancellor Mihály Káthay, who was then himself killed by an angry mob of Bocskay's supporters.

The Lost Nachlass of Henry Ainsworth

The Hartlib Circle, a diffuse group of intelligentsia centered on the endeavors of the German polymath Samuel Hartlib to make accessible all human knowledge, which was a precursor to the Invisible Society, and in turn was a precursor to the Royal Society, included such notable brilliant lights John Dury and John Worthington. One interesting trajectory of their labors involves the project to find the lost Nachlass of Henry Ainsworth.

Henry Ainsworth, one of the most famous of the Christian Orientalists, author of the celebrated Annotations on the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Song of Solomon, as well as the metrical version of the Psalms used by the Pilgrims, died suddenly in Amsterdam in 1622 or 1623 at around the age of 51 under mysterious circumstances. In fact, he was thought by some to have been poisoned. Daniel Neal, in his History of the Puritans, Vol. 1 (1844 ed.), p. 243, writes:

His death, was sudden, and not without suspicion of violence; for it is reported that, having found a diamond of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it in print, and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment he would desire; but Ainsworth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference with some of his rabbies upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, which the other promised, but not having interest enough to obtain it, 'tis thought that he was poisoned.

Benjamin Brook, Lives of the Puritans, Vol. 2, p. 302, says that other accounts hold that the conference with the Jewish rabbis did indeed take place, that Ainsworth confounded his opponents, and that they did in revenge poison him.

Be that as it may, at his death, Ainsworth, a voluminous writer, left behind him a large body of unpublished manuscripts. The existence of these papers became the subject of interest of the British Council of State which in 1652 planned a revision of the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. Ainsworth's writings were intended to serve as the basis for marginal notes that would accompany this revision. A committee which included Ralph Cudworth, a Hartlibian, was entrusted with the aim of obtaining these papers. The planned revision did not materialize but Hartlib, who greatly desired to see a complete commentary on the Bible written according to Ainsworth's method, did not forget about them. He and his friend John Worthington corresponded about the project to track down these lost Ainsworth manuscripts shortly before Hartlib's death.

In 1661, Worthington wrote to Hartlib, as recorded in the first volume of Worthington's Diary and Correspondence, pp. 263-269:

There is another author, whose remains are most worthy to be retriev'd: I mean Mr. Ainsworth, whose excellent Annotations upon the Pentateuch, &c., sufficiently discover his great learning, and his most excellent observation of the proper idiom of the holy text; with every jot and tittle of which he seems to be much acquainted as any of the Masoreths of Tiberius. I have been told that there are these MSS., of his, viz., his Comment upon Hosea, Notes upon S. Matthew, and Notes upon the Epistle to the Hebrews: which latter he was the more prepared for, by reason of his former labours upon the Pentateuch; the Epistle to the Hebrews being Moses unveil'd. Mr. Cole, (a bookseller at the Printing Press, in Corn-hill,) told one, that he had once these MSS., in his keeping, and thought to have printed them; but that a kinsman (or a son, I do not so well remember,) of Mr. Ainsworth's at Amsterdam, and John Can, could not well agree, either about the right of disposing the copy, or the price for the MSS. I have heard that Mr. [Philip] Nye, or Mr. [Henry] Jessey, knew something of these MSS. If they could be recovered, so they be like the other printed works of the author, it would be a good work indeed, and might be of singular use. Nay, if they be not throughout so compleated as the author intended, yet the whole is too good to be lost or [embezzled]. Perhaps you or Mr. Dury may be acquainted with the forementioned persons in England; or could by some understanding persons enquire of this business at Amsterdam. If the MSS., can be found, and may be purchased at a fit rate, there is no fear of being a looser. His other works have always sold well, and at a good price; and were bought by men of different perswasions from him; who did esteem him for his modesty and singular learning, and were much obliged to him for his skill in Jewish antiquities, lighting their candle by his.

This business I think is worthy of consideration.

Dury did in fact track down the one who held Ainsworth's manuscripts: it was Ainsworth's son. Worthington wrote again to Hartlib later that year (ibid, p. 353) to encourage Dury in this contact with Ainsworth's son. But Dury's efforts to persuade the son to part with the manuscripts were ultimately unsuccessful. Ainsworth's son did not feel that his father's reputation would be enhanced by their publication.

As for what happened to them next, the trail grows cold, at least for this writer. It would be nice to think that they were not destroyed but tucked safely away to be discovered by some researcher centuries later, like a hidden treasure of gold. But as for now they remain a literary mystery and a lost Nachlass.

Tripartite Division of God's Law

The threefold division of God's law -- expressed as the moral, ceremonial and judicial law -- receives confessional status in the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chap. 19.

John Calvin refers to it as a "well-known division" (Institutes 4.20.14):

We must attend to the well-known division which distributes the whole law of God, as promulgated by Moses, into the moral, the ceremonial, and the judicial law, and we must attend to each of these parts, in order to understand how far they do, or do not, pertain to us. Meanwhile, let no one be moved by the thought that the judicial and ceremonial laws relate to morals. For the ancients who adopted this division, though they were not unaware that the two latter classes had to do with morals, did not give them the name of moral, because they might be changed and abrogated without affecting morals. They give this name specially to the first class, without which, true holiness of life and an immutable rule of conduct cannot exist.

Herman Witsius cites Calvin's successor likewise, The Economy of the Covenants, Vol. 2, p. 167:

And this very learned author himself [Theodore Beza] has elsewhere observed, that the words, {Heb.}, law, statutes, and judgments, are often synonymous; but whenever they are thus joined together, they are distinguished from each other by a peculiar signification; and that by {Heb.} is understood the moral law; by {Heb.}, the ceremonial, and by {Heb.} the forensic law.

Witsius goes on (pp. 168-169) to commend and quote John Lightfoot's summary of the tripartite division of the law.

John Lightfoot, Erubhin, or, Miscellanies, Chap. 59, in Works, Vol. 4, p. 79:

The ceremonial law, that concerned only the Jews, was given to Moses in private, in the tabernacle; and fell with the tabernacle, when the veil rent in twain. The moral law concerns the whole world; and it was given in sight of the whole world, on the top of a mountain; and must endure as long, as any mountain standeth. The judicial law (which is more indifferent, and may stand or fall, as seems best for the good of a commonwealth) was given, neither so public as the one, nor so private as the other; but in a mean between both.

Historically, this division of the Mosaic law can be traced back to Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae Ia IIa q. 99, a. 4:

Article 4. Whether, besides the moral and ceremonial precepts, there are also judicial precepts?
...
It is written (Deuteronomy 6:1): "These are the precepts and ceremonies, and judgments": where "precepts" stands for "moral precepts" antonomastically. Therefore there are judicial precepts besides moral and ceremonial precepts.
I answer that, As stated above (2,3), it belongs to the Divine law to direct men to one another and to God. Now each of these belongs in the abstract to the dictates of the natural law, to which dictates the moral precepts are to be referred: yet each of them has to be determined by Divine or human law, because naturally known principles are universal, both in speculative and in practical matters. Accordingly just as the determination of the universal principle about Divine worship is effected by the ceremonial precepts, so the determination of the general precepts of that justice which is to be observed among men is effected by the judicial precepts.
We must therefore distinguish three kinds of precept in the Old Law; viz. "moral" precepts, which are dictated by the natural law; "ceremonial" precepts, which are determinations of the Divine worship; and "judicial" precepts, which are determinations of the justice Apostle to be maintained among men. Wherefore the Apostle (Romans 7:12) after saying that the "Law is holy," adds that "the commandment is just, and holy, and good": "just," in respect of the judicial precepts; "holy," with regard to the ceremonial precepts (since the word "sanctus"--"holy"--is applied to that which is consecrated to God); and "good," i.e. conducive to virtue, as to the moral precepts.

Jonathan F. Bayes, in an article entitled The Threefold Division of the Law, traces the history of this construct of God's law back further to Justin Martyr and Barnabas. His essay is well worth reading.

Exegetically, the Reformed and others have looked to such scriptures which speak of "commandments, statutes and judgments" as Gen. 26.5; Deut. 5.31, 6.1, 11.1; and elsewhere, to rightly divide the law of God.

Matthew Poole, Synopsis Criticorum (Dr. Steven Dilday, trans., 2008 ed.), Vol. 3, pp. 78-79 (Gen. 26.5):

[And he kept my precepts, etc....] My observances...This is the name of a genus, of which three species follow (Ainsworth, Malvenda). [Heb.]/precepts are appointed to have respect to the moral law (Ainsworth, Dutch): {Heb.}/statutes, either the ceremonial law (Dutch, Malvenda), or natural law; for example, thou shalt worship one God (Ibn Ezra in Munster): {Heb.}/laws, either they look toward the doctrine which we are held to believe (Dutch), or unto ceremonies (Ibn Ezra in Munster). To these elsewhere are added {Heb.}/judgments, that is, political laws (Dutch).

Dutch Annotations:

Gen. 26.5 - my Commandments...my precepts, my institutions, (or statutes) and my laws [These four several terms are held to be thus distinguished; the first of all to be the general term, signifying whatsoever God commanded and ordained; and the latter three to respect things particular; as the precepts of the moral law; the institutions or statutes on the Ceremonial law, the laws on the doctrine of what we are obliged to believe, &c. Elsewhere there are added unto these, the rights, whereby are understood the Civil or Political Laws, Deut. 11.1.]

Deut. 5.31 - all the Commandements, and the Statutes, and the Judgments; [Concerning these three words immediately following each other; (according to the opinion of most Interpreters) the first of them signifieth the Moral Law, the second, the Ceremonial Laws, and the third the Judicial or Civil Laws]

Henry Ainsworth, Annotations on the Pentateuch and the Psalms, Vol. 1, p. 136 (Gen. 26.5):

Charge] Heb. keeping, or observation: that is, 'ordinances to be kept.' So in Lev. viii. 35 xxii. 9 Deut. xi. 1. Laws,] For this word, elsewhere the scriptures saith, 'judgments,' Deut. xi. 1 v. 1, 31. vi. 1, 20. vii. 11. viii. 11, &c. and under these three particulars, the whole 'charge' or 'custody' forespoken of, is comprehended; as afterward by Moses God gave the ten 'commandments,' or moral precepts, Exod. xx. 'Judgments,' or judicial laws for punishing transgressors, Exod. xxi, &c. 'and statutes,' or 'rules, ordinances,' and 'decrees,' for the service of God, Lev. iii. 17. vi. 18, 22. Exod. xii. 24. xxvii. 31. xxix. 9. xxx. 31. All which Abraham observed, and is commended of God therefore.

Francis Turretin, finally, provides a cogent explanation for the threefold division of God's law, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 2, pp. 145-146:

Twenty-Fourth Question: The Ceremonial Law
What was the end and the use of the ceremonial law under the Old Testament?

The Mosaic law threefold: moral, ceremonial, forensic.

I. The law given by Moses is usually distinguished into three species: moral (treating of morals or of perpetual duties towards God and our neighbor); ceremonial (of the ceremonies or rites about the sacred things to be observed under the Old Testament); and civil, constituting the civil government of the Israelite people. The first is the foundation upon which rests the obligation of the others and these are its appendices and determinations. Ceremonial has respect to the first table determining its circumstances, especially as to external worship. Civil has respect to the second table in judicial things, although it lays down punishments for crimes committed against the firs table.

Foundation of the distinction.

II. The truth of this distinction appears from the diversity of the names by which it is designated in the Scriptures. The moral law is for the most part expressed by mtsvth ("precepts"), the ceremonial by chqym ("statutes") and the judicial by mshptym ("judgments"), which the Septuagint renders by entolas, dikaiomata and krimata. "I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them" (Dt. 5:31); so also in 6:1, 20; 7:11; and Lev. 26:46. Sometimes however these words are synonymous and used promiscuously (Ezk. 5:6; 20:11, 16, 18). But the distinction appears principally from the nature of the thing and the office of the law (whose it is to settle the order according to which man is joined to God and his neighbor). Now man is joined to God first by a certain internal and external likeness -- in love and justice, holiness and truth, whose rule the moral law delivers. Again by the external signification and testification of those acts of divine worship (marks and symbols being employed) whose use the ceremonial law prescribes. Finally, what duty man owes to man, the civil law (applied more distinctly to the Israelites) explains. The moral law regards the Israelite people as men; the ceremonial as the church of the Old Testament expecting the promised Messiah; the civil regards them as a peculiar people who in the land of Canaan ought to have a republic suiting their genius and disposition.

Difference between the moral law and others.

III. Hence arises a manifold difference between the moral law and others both in origin (because the moral is founded upon natural right and on this account is known by nature; but the others upon positive right and on this account are from free revelation) and in duration. The former is immutable and eternal; the latter mutable and temporary. In regard to object, the one is universal embracing all; the others particular applying only to the Jews (the civil, indeed, inasmuch as it regarded them as a distinct state dedicated to God; the ceremonial, however, referring to their ecclesiastical state and state of minority and infancy). In regard to use, the moral is the end of the others, while the others are subservient to the moral. Thus far we have spoken of the moral; now we must discuss the ceremonial.

Plimoth Plantation Worship Services

Plimoth Plantation has introduced a new half-hour educational program which will last through the summer of 2009 whereby visitors may learn about worship services as they would have been conducted by the Pilgrims during the 1620s.

The announcement reports:

Become part of the congregation, as guests are encouraged to follow the drumbeat to the Fort/Meetinghouse, for this brand new half-hour program providing visitors with a brief representation of early colonial worship in Plimoth Colony.

Led by Elder Brewster, this program is offered every Sunday and Thursday throughout summer. Plimoth Plantation colonial interpreters, assisted by contemporary museum guides, will provide a unique living history experience. Discover the distinctive features of worship practiced, and required in the 1620s; experience psalm-singing from the Ainsworth Psalter, and hear a short reading from the preferred “Geneva Bible.” Questions about the early Plimoth church are always welcome at these interactive services…and listen closely to the murmurs in the English Village; you might be surprised to hear that some families have been banished in the midst of doctrinal controversy and not everyone in Plimoth Colony shares the same religious views of religious reformation.

FREE with museum admission.

Lost Treasures

Puritans were "people of the Book," and as such, they read and wrote prolifically. "Puritanism was an intrinsically bookish movement" (N.H. Keeble, "Puritanism and Literature," in John Coffey and Paul C.H. Lim, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism, p. 309). We are grateful to those who republish their works today and it is a blessing when long-lost works suddenly come to light.

There are some works by Puritans that, in God's providence, may never again see the light. Here are some of those lost treasures that I have read about from time to time. It makes one wonder, with pious reverence, "What if...?"

Samuel Rutherford is said to have prepared an exposition of Isaiah, and Robert Blair an exposition of Proverbs, both of which would have contributed to the Scottish Puritan Commentary Series, but are supposed to be lost.

Henry Ainsworth, famous for his Annotations on the Pentateuch, Psalms and the Song of Solomon, his Psalter and other writings, also had many other Biblical expositions which were not published following his "untimely" death (he is thought by some to have been poisoned). A search for those unpublished commentaries was made by John Dury on behalf of Samuel Hartlib and John Worthington (tutor of Matthew Poole, who is also thought by some to have been poisoned), who were seeking to aid the work of a committee charged with preparing a planned revision of the King James Bible with marginal notes and desired to find Ainsworth's unpublished manuscripts. Dury sought for Ainsworth's nachlass in the Netherlands, but ultimately his son refused to allow them to be published and, as far as I know, they are lost to history.

Willem Teellinck wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch, Verklaeringe Over de Vijf Boecken Moses (Exposition of the Five Books of Moses), which was ready for print shortly before he died at the age of 50, but was lost.

Patrick Simpson, cousin of George Gillespie, reported (as recorded by Robert Wodrow, Analecta, Vol. 1, pp. 159-160) that at his death (at the tender age of 36), "He had all his sermons in England, part polemicall, part practicall, prepared for the press; and but one copy of them, which he told the printer's wife he used to deal with, and bad her have a care of them. And she was prevailed on by some money from the Sectarys, who wer mauled by him, to suppress them." And so his English sermons were lost.

William Ames' personal library was donated to Harvard College and formed the nucleus of it, but it was all (save one copy of John Downame's The Christian Warfare) destroyed by fire in 1763.

But who knows, perhaps some of these are waiting to be discovered after all? There may be lost treasures, more precious that pirates' gold, yet to be found.

Edward Taylor: 20th Century Puritan

Edward Taylor (1642-1729), was a notable English-American Puritan minister and physician. In his own time, he was well known as a Harvard scholar, theologian and statesman (he helped defend his community against Indian attacks during King Philip's War). His literary skills found an outlet in his paraphrases of the Psalms, but much of what we know about him, especially as a writer, came to light only in the twentieth century.

When pressures to conform to the Anglican Church became too much, he crossed the Atlantic and immigrated to Massachusetts in 1668. During this time, like many Puritans, he kept a diary, which was published finally in 1964. It is brief but shows his reflective mind as he recorded his observations from the sea voyage. His Christographia, fourteen sermons on the two natures of Christ, was published in 1962. These and other works became part of a veritable flood of Edward Taylor publications that were released in the twentieth century. But two of his works deserve special mention for the circumstances surrounding their publication.

Before his death, Taylor took the two great collections of his poems, God's Determination Touching His Elect: and The Elect's Combat in their Conversion, and Coming up to God in Christ together with the Comfortable Effects thereof and Preparatory Meditations before my Approach to the Lords Supper. Chiefly upon the Doctrin preached upon the Day of administration and bound them together, instructing his family not to publish them (it is not entirely clear why he wished to keep them private, although they were very personal and some of his poems, like Meditation 96 on Song of Songs 1.2 are part of the sensual metaphysical poetic tradition). Later, his grandson Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, adhered to his wishes and deposited them in the Library at Yale. However, in 1937, they were re-discovered by Professor Thomas H. Johnson, who edited and published portions of his poetry, with the full text being finally published in 1960. The publication of these poems, showing the influence of Anne Bradstreet, George Herbert and John Donne, revolutionized academic appreciation for early colonial American poetry, and Taylor's place in that field.

Then, in 1977, in the library of one of Taylor's descendants in Nebraska, a bound manuscript containing sermons by Edward Taylor on typology was discovered and over the next decade edited by Charles Mignon, finally published in 1989 as Upon the Types of the Old Testament. These sermons draw heavily on the Puritan scholarship of Matthew Poole and Henry Ainsworth, among others, and unfold Taylor's insights into how to see Christ in the Old Testament.

These twentieth-century discoveries and publications have enriched our understanding of a leading New England Puritan and his works. And, it seems, there is always more to learn.

Ainsworth Psalter

Henry Ainsworth, English Congregationalist, wrote the psalter that was used on the Mayflower and at Plymouth, Massachusetts by the Pilgrims. Later, the first book published in America would be another psalter, the Bay Psalm Book, but when the Pilgrims first sang psalms in the New World, the lines came from the Ainsworth Psalter, titled The Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre with Annotations.

An extract from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish:

So through the Plymouth woods John Alden went on his errand;
Came to an open space, and saw the disk of the ocean,
Sailless, sombre and cold with the comfortless breath of the east-wind;
Saw the new-built house and people at work in a meadow;
Heard, as he drew near the door, the musical voice of Priscilla
Singing the hundredth Psalm, the grand old Puritan anthem,
Music that Luther sang to the sacred words of the Psalmist,
Full of the breath of the Lord, consoling and comforting many.
Then, as he opened the door, he beheld the form of the maiden
Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool like a snow-drift
Piled at her knee, her white hands feeding the ravenous spindle,
While with her foot on the treadle she guided the wheel in its motion.
Open wide on her lap lay the well-worn psalm-book of Ainsworth,
Printed in Amsterdam, the words and the music together,
Rough-hewn, angular notes, like stones in the wall of a churchyard,
Darkened and overhung by the running vine of the verses.
Such was the book from whose pages she sang the old Puritan anthem,
She, the Puritan girl, in the solitude of the forest,
Making the humble house and the modest apparel of home-spun
Beautiful with her beauty, and rich with the wealth of her being!

Psalm 100 in fact (along with Psalm 23) can be heard sung today on a cd from Plimoth Plantation. The words are as follows:

Shout to Jehovah, all the earth,
Serve ye Jehovah with gladness;
before him come with singing mirth
Know that Jehovah he God is.
It's he that made us, and not we;
his folk, and sheep of his feeding.
O with confession enter ye his gates,
his courtyards with praising:
Confess to him, bless ye his name.
Because Jehovah he good is:
his mercy ever is the same
and his faith, unto all ages.