Early Piety Exemplified, Part 1
I. His INDUSTY.
He was an hard Student, and quickly became a good Scholar. From his very Childhood, his Book was perhaps as dear to him as his Play, and hence he grew particularly acquainted with Church-Hiſtory, at a rate not uſual in thoſe that were above thrice as Old as He. But when he came to ſomewhat more of Youth, his Tutor (who now writes) was forced often to Chide him to his Recreations, but never that I remember for them. To be Bookiſh was natural unto him, and to be plodding eaſie and pleaſant rather than the contrary. Indeed he afforded not ſo much a Pattern as a Caution to young Students; for it may be truly written on his Grave, Study kill'd Him. The marks and works of a Studious Mind were to be diſcerned in him, even as he walked in the Streets; and his Candle would burn after Midnight, until, as his own Phraſe for it was, He thought his bones would all fall aſunder. This was among the paſſages once noted in his Diary.
10 M. 26 D. three quarters of an hour after 12 at Night.
After the many weariſom hours, days▪ months, nay, years, that I have ſpent it humane Literature; and after my many toilſom Studies in thoſe Hours when the General ſilence of every Houſe in Town, proclaimed it high time for me to put a ſtop unto my workin… Mind, and urged me to afford ſome Re… unto my Eyes, which have been almo… put out by my Intenſeneſs on my Studies; after theſe, I ſay, and when … am ready to do it: Oh how unwilling am I to do it, conſidering; How litt… I have ſerved God in the day!
While he thus devoured Books, it came to paſs that Books devoured him. His weak Body would not bear the Toils, and Hours, which he uſed himſelf unto; and his Neglect of Moderate Exerciſe, joyned with his Exceſs of Immoderate Lucubration, ſoon deſtroyed the Digeſtion which his Blood ſhould have had in the laſt Elaboration of it: by that time ſixteen Winters had ſnow'd upon him, he began to be Diſtempered, with many Pains and Ailes, eſpecially in ſome of his Joynts, which at laſt were the Gates of Death unto him; not without ſuch very afflictive touches of Melancholy, too, as made him ſometimes to Write himſelf, Deodatus Melancholicus. This was his way of living, ſhall I ſay, or of Dying? And the ſucceſs of this Diligence was according to the Temper of it Great. When he was but Twelve Years Old he was admitted into the Colledge, by ſtrict Examiners: And many Months after this paſſed not, before he had accurately gone over all the Old Teſtament in Hebrew, as well as the New in Greek, beſides his going through all the Liberal Sciences, before many other deſigners for Philoſophy do ſo much as begin to look into them. He Commenced Batchelour of Arts, at the Age of Sixteen, and in the Act entertained the Auditory with an Hebrew Oration, which gave a good Account of the Academical Affairs among the ancient Jews. Indeed the Hebrew Language was become ſo Familiar with him, as if (to uſe the Expreſſion which one had in an Ingenious Elegy upon his Death) he had apprehended it ſhould quickly become the only Language which he ſhould have ocaſion for. His Second Degree after ſeven years being in the Colledge, he took juſt before Death gave him a Third, which laſt was a promotion infinitely beyond either of the former. He then maintained for his Poſition, Datur Vacuum; and by his Diſcourſe upon it (as well as by other Memorials and Experiments left behind him in Manuſcripts) he gave a ſpecimen of his Intimate Acquaintance with the Corpuſcularian (and only right) Philoſophy. By this time he had informed himſelf like another Mirandula, and was admirably capable of arguing about, almoſt every Subject that fell within the Concernments of a Learned Man. Not only Philoſophy but alſo Divinity did he now own a Body of: The Difficulties of the Mathematicks he had particularly overcome, and the abſtruſe parts both of Arithmetick and Aſtronomy, were graſped in his Knowledge.
His Early Almanack, and Calculations do ſomething, but the MSS. Adverſaria, left behind him in his Cloſet, much more, ſpeak ſuch attainments in him: His Cronology was exact unto a wonder, and the State of Learning with the Names and Works of Learned Men, in the World, this American Wilderneſs hath few that underſtand as well as he. Beſides all this, for the vaſt Field of Theology, both Didactick and Polemick, it is hardly Credible how little of it his Travel had left unknown. Rabbinick learning he had likewiſe no ſmall meaſure of; and the Queſtions referring unto the Scriptures which Phylology is converſant about, came under a very Critical Notice with him. Indeed he was a Perſon but of few words, and his Words with his Looks made the Treaſure in him wholly unſuſpected by Strangers to him; yet they that were intimately Acquainted with him, can atteſt unto the Veracity of him that giveth this Deſcription; and there are no mean Perſons who will profeſs with Admiration, That they could ſcarce encounter him in any Theme of Diſcourſe which he was not very notably acquainted with.
But the Bark is now ſplit in which all theſe Riches were ſtowed. A Spaniſh wrack hath not more Silver than the Grave of ſuch a Young Man hath Learning buried in it. Indeed theſe things, Mort… Erunt; perhaps they dyed with him: Bu… there is a more Immortal thing to be obſerved in him; and that is,