A singular faculty to sweeten, compose and qualify exasperated spirits

Cotton Mather's tribute to 10th great-grandfather Peter Prudden.

PETER PRUDDEN

FOUNDER AND PASTOR of this church from its establishment in 1639 till his death in 1656. 

I am sure tis a blessed child of God whose name is before us; who besides his other excellent qualities was noted for a singular faculty to sweeten, compose and qualify exasperated spirits and stop or heal all contentions—whence it was that his town of Milford enjoyed peace with truth all his days. He continued an able and faithful servant of the churches until the fifty-sixth year of his age : when his death was felt by the colony as the fall of a pillar which made the whole fabrick to shake.

Cotton Mather. 

Oh, that we had leaders today with a singular faculty to sweeten, compose and qualify exasperated spirits and stop or heal all contentions.