The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

III. Eliot-Second Advent the Burden of All Discourses

Interest attaches to JOHN ELIOT (1604-1690), “apostle to the Indians,” and pastor of Roxbury, who was born in Herts, England. He was graduated from Cambridge in 1622, and was early converted by Thomas Hooker, who also influenced him to become a nonconformist. Eliot first became a schoolman, assisting Hooker, but felt called to the gospel ministry. Bishop Laud was working strenuously to bring England into modified Catholicism, multiplying unwarranted ceremonies. Hundreds were coming to America to establish congregational churches, and in 1631 Eliot came to Boston. In 1632 he settled as “teacher” of the church at Roxbury, and was ordained shortly thereafter, preaching in the neighboring towns. (Portrait appears on page 34.) PFF3 84.1

Burdened for the heathen Indians, he was moved to evangelize these worshipers of the sun and moon gods, and believed them to be the dispersed tribes of Israel.” ²⁹ He learned their language and reduced it to a grammar, afterward publishing it. By 1642 he preached without an interpreter before the Indians at Nonantum (now Newton), Massachusetts. Thereafter he devoted much time to evangelizing the Indians, raising up six churches in New England” ³⁰ and training native pastors-sending some through college and establishing Indian schools. ³¹ PFF3 84.2

In 1649 Eliot founded in London the Society for Propagation of the Gospel Among the Indians, and in 1651 settled in Natick, raising up the first Protestant Indian church in America. In 1653 he produced a Catechism,, the earliest book printed in the Massachusetts Indian language. Then Eliot translated the Bible into the Indian tongue-the New Testament in 1661 and the Old Testament in 1663-which was the first Bible ever printed in America. The Indian grammar followed in 1666, and an Indian primer in 1669. ³² PFF3 84.3

Eliot held views on prophecy similar to those of Huit. He writes of “the great kingdom of Christ, which we wait for, when all kingdoms and nations shall become His.” Mather records that his discourses ran largely upon “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” whatever his subject:” ³³ OF this he talked and prayed and longed. And prophecy held a key place, as will be noted. PFF3 85.1

1. To OVERTHROW ANTICHRIST AND ACCOMPLISH PROPHECIES

Eliot’s impressive Tears of Repentance: or A further Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New-England (1653) was published by the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel. With its dedication addressed to Oliver Cromwell, it opens with the significant statement that God had raised Cromwell up “to overthrow Antichrist, and to accomplish, inpart, the Prophesies and Promises of the Churches Deliverancefrom that Bondage.” ³⁴ PFF3 85.2

2. EARTHLY KINGDOMS BEING BROKEN

On the same page Eliot repeats this double design-“First, To overthrow Antichrist by the Wars of the Lamb; and Secondly, To raise up His own Kingdom in the room of all Early Powers which He doth cast down, and to bring all the World subject to be ruled in all things by the Word of His mouth.” The salutation “To the Reader” likewise speaks of “such actings of Faith as accord with the accomplishment of those Prophesies, when the time of their accomplishment is come.” And he adds, “In these times the Prophesies of Antichrist his down fall are accomplishing.” ³⁵ PFF3 85.3

A further statement asserts all “contrary Kingdoms and Powers” are being “broken in pieces and destroyed,” and cites Daniel 2:35, 44, 45, and 7:26, 27. ³⁶ Then follow confessions of Christ by various Indians. So the prophetic element was the motivating principle in this earliest work in America for the Indians. PFF3 86.1