Tace must have lasted a century, therefore. Silence may be set down to some old Puritan stickler for the admonition of Saint Paul: “Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection” (1 Tim. ii. 11).
The Epistle to the Romans was a never-failing well-spring to the earnest Puritan, and one passage was much applied to his present condition:
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed.”—v. 1-5.
There is scarcely a word in this passage that is not inscribed on our registers between 1575 and 1595. Faith, Grace, and Hope have already been mentioned;[44] Camden testified to the existence of Tribulation in 1614; Rejoice was very familiar; Patience, of course, was common:
“1592, July 7. Buried Patience Birche.”—Cant. Cath.
“1596, Oct. 3. Baptized Pacience, daughter of Martin Tome.”—St. Columb Major.
“1599, April 23. Baptized Patience, d. of John Harmer.”—Warbleton.
Even Experience is found—a strange title for an infant.
“The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., born Feb. 5, 1673; died of an apoplexy, Nov. 9, 1758.”
So ran the epitaph of a missionary (vide Pulpit, Dec. 6, 1827) to the Vineyard Island. It had been handed on to him, no doubt, from some grandfather or grandmother of Elizabeth’s closing days.