erty to select any other books, calculated to pre mote piety and religion, except one year in every four, when the other prescribed books are still to be purchased. The deacons of the thirteen parishes have the sole care of the estate, the particular mode of managing which is specified with great minuteness in the doctor's will. They pay over the net income to the ministers of those parishes, who vest the same in books agreeably to the testator's directions, and distribute them, gratuitously, among the members of their respective churches. In this way many families are furnished, from year to year, with books, which are highly esteemed by the serious and which will continue to be instrumental of good to the end of time.

BARNSTABLE, MASS.

598. Rev. OAKES SHAW born at Bridgewater, 1736, graduated at Harvard college, 1758, ordained in this place, 1760, died 11 February, 1807. Benevolence, affection, and sincerity characterized and endeared him in all the relations of social life. With unaffected piety and zeal, with unshaken constancy and fidelity, he discharged the various duties of the pastoral office. To perpetuate the remembrance of his virtues and talents, to prolong the influence of his character, and to testify their respect for his memory, this

momument is gratefully erected by a bereaved and affectionate people.

Note.-Mr. Shaw was the oldest son of the rev. John Shaw of Bridgewater. [See art. 392.] By his first wife, who was Elizabeth Weld, a daughter of the rev. Habijah Weld of Attleborough, he had three daughters; 1. Elizabeth, who died, 8 Sept. 1798, at the age of thirty three years; 2. Temperance the wife of major Joseph Blish of Barnstable; 3. Sarah, who died, at the age of twenty three years, on the 17 of July, 1792. By his second wife, who was -Hayward of Braintree, sister of doctor Hayward of Boston, he had two sons, John Shaw, who is engaged in a seafaring life, and Lemuel Shaw, esq. of Boston.

For a character of mr. Shaw, who was one of the most pious, zealous, and faithful ministers of his day, the reader is referred to his funeral sermon preached by rev. Jonathan Burr of Sandwich, from which the following extracts are taken.

"In my first visit to him, after he was confined to his chamber, which to me was one of the most pleasant and edifying I ever made him, I thought I discovered more of the amiable meekness, humble dignity, and perfect resignation of the christian, than I had ever before observed in him. It appeared to me, that if any state, on this side heaven, can be truly enviable, it is that of an humble christian gently taking his departure out of time into eternity, who, as he outwardly decays and grows weaker and weaker, is inwardly renewed and grows stron

ger and stronger; to whom, as worldly prospects darkens, the prospect of a brighter world beyond the grave grows clearer. This was remarkably the case with that precious man.. This interview, the impression of which, I trust, will never be erased from my mind, forcibly brought to my recollection those lines in dr. Young;

The chamber, where the good man meets his fate, Is privileg'd beyond the common walk

Of virtuous life, quite on the verge of heav'n. When I asked how he did. he replied, with one of the most complacent siniles I ever observed on his countenance, I am a poor creature sinking under, the decays of nature; but I am not without comforts. I have many things to be thankful for yet. I am now depending on that foundation, which I have always been endeavouring to establish in my preaching, the mercy of God in Christ, and which I believe to be the only foundation, on which any one can stand with safety. I do not profess to have attained to full assurance ; but I have such a hope, as raises me above all distressing fears of death. I am habitually looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life. If there is any thing more for me to do, I am willing to stay and do it in my poor way; but if not, if I know my own heart, I am entirely resigned to go.

"He discovered much affectionate concern respecting the people of his charge, and the re-settlement of a gospel minister among them. He was, however, in general, remarkably cheerful, and at times, even facetious, but without the least appearance of levity. Before morning prayers, he desired me to

me to read the 27 and the 147 psalms, a part of the latter of which he considered as predicting the future prosperity of the church, in the contemplation of which, he observed, he had derived great consolation, during his declining state.

"A little before I took my leave, among several other questions, which I proposed as thinking it very doubtful whether I should ever see him again, in this world, I asked him, supposing we were to confine our preaching, principally, to one point, what that point should be? He immediately replied; to impenitent sinners, we must preach their totally lost and ruined condition by nature, and the utter impossibility of their ever being saved, except, by the free grace of God in Christ. Thus did your faithful and affectionate pastor, who watched for your souls as one, that must give account, bear testimony to the truth and importance of those doctrines, which he preached through life and were his comfort and support in death."

MASSAPEE, MASS.

599. Note. The rev. GIDEON HAWLEY, the late pious, venerable, and excellent missionary of the Massapee Indians in the county of Earnstable, departed this life, 3 October, 1807, in the 80 year of his age. Fired with a noble zeal in the christian cause, he was determined, from an early period, to consecrate his talents and his life to the best interests of the poor natives of the American wilderness. He, accordingly, was ordained, in Boston for the ex

press purpose of carrying the gospel to the heathen. Having spent some time at Ohonoquauge, the French war commenced and obliged him to leave that region. For a while, he officiated as chaplain to colonel Gridley's regiment. He also spent some time with the Stockbridge Indians, and was finally settled at Massapee, in 1758, where he spent his days, in usefulness, beloved and revered. His labours were not wholly confined to his parochial charge. The aboriginal natives of Yarmouth, Potenummaquut, and Sandwich, occasionally, had the benefit of his ministerial attentions.

Some time before his death, he gave the author of this Collection an interesting narrative of his mission into the Susquehannah country, with the injunction that it should not be published till after his decease. In this, he often mentions the late president Edwards, who, while a lad, was with him in one of his tours.

Mr. Hawley buried a worthy son, the rev. James Hawley a few years before his death, who had been the pastor of the congregational society in Penbroke, and, previously, one of the tutors of Harvard university.

This venerable missionary was happy in his parochial charge, in his domestick circle, and in an acquaintance with many literary and religious characters, and had a more extensive epistolary correspondence, than the generality of his brethren.

Some of his writings are preserved in the Coll. Mass. His. Soc. A more full memoir of this esti