whole of the New Testament, made up with
some sheets of the new edition of the New Testament, so that we had
the Old and New Testaments complete.[422] He also brought us two or
three small specimens of the grammar. We asked him what we should pay
him for them; but he desired nothing. Thereupon we presented him our
_Declaration_ in Latin,[423] and informed him about the persons and
conditions of the church whose declaration it was, and about Madam
Schurman[424] and others, with which he was delighted, and could not
restrain himself from praising God the Lord, that had raised up men,
and reformers, and begun the reformation in Holland. He deplored the
decline of the church in New England, and especially in Boston, so
that he did not know what would be the final result. We inquired how
it stood with the Indians, and whether any good fruit had followed his
work. Yes, much, he said, if we meant true conversion of the heart;
for they had in various countries, instances of conversion, as they
called it, and had seen it amounted to nothing at all; that they must
not endeavor, like scribes and Pharisees, to make Jewish proselytes,
but true Christians. He could thank God, he continued, and God be
praised for it, there were Indians whom he knew, who were truly
converted of heart to God, and whose profession, he believed, was
sincere. It seemed as if he were disposed to know us further, and we
therefore said to him, if he had any desire to write to our sort of
people, he could use the names which stood on the title-page of the
_Declaration_, and that we hoped to come and converse with him again.
He accompanied us as far as the jurisdiction of Roxbury extended,
where we parted from him.

[Footnote 421: Eliot was not quite seventy-six.]

[Footnote 422: The first edition of the whole Bible seems to have been
1040 copies, of the separate New Testament, 500. Many copies were lost
or destroyed in the Indian war of 1675-1676; but 16 copies now
existing of the New Testament, and 39 of the Bible, in this first
edition, are listed in Mr. Wilberforce Eames's bibliography. In 1677
Eliot began to prepare a revised edition of the whole work. It was
published in 1685. The printing of the New Testament portion was begun
in 1680 and finished in the autumn or winter of 1681; the printing of
the Old Testament was not begun until 1682.

Wonderful to relate, the identical copy of the Old Testament (edition
of 1663, and metrical Psalms) which Eliot