of our civil institutions and tend directly to strengthen and perpetuate them; if, in fine, they are calculated to secure the purity of the churches, to promote personal religion, to form a character of intelligent, fruitful piety, and thus qualify us to serve God here, and to enjoy him hereafter; if this is the nature and tendency of the principles of Congregationalism, then have we good reason for strong attachment to them, and for wishing to see them extended through the world, and perpetuated to the latest posterity. They are principles, my friends, which are connected with all the best interests of society, and the dearest hopes of men. To publish and extend them on earth, Apostles and Martyrs labored, and suffered, and died. To establish and perpetuate them in this land, our venerated fathers left the land of their birth, traversed the ocean, dwelt in the wilderness, and here laid down their lives a sacrifice in the cause of civil and religious liberty.

The blessings resulting from these principles we enjoy in rich abundance, and on us is devolved the high responsibility of transmitting them to those who shall come after us. And while I would call upon all to cherish an enlightened attachment to the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, and to guard, with the influence of their united prayers and efforts, the sacred trust committed to their keeping, let me enforce the exhortation by rehearsing the words of two of the venerable fathers of New England, uttered by them just before they ascended to their reward in heaven. 'We do earnestly testify,' say they, that if any who are given to change, do rise up to unhinge the well established churches in this land, it will be the duty and interest of the churches to examine whether the men of this trespass are more prayerful, more watchful, more zeal

* Rev. John Higginson, and Rev. William Hubbard.

ous, more patient, more heavenly, more universally conscientious, and harder students and better scholars, and more willing to be informed and advised, than those great and good men who left unto the churches what they now enjoy; if they be not so, it will be wisdom for the children to forbear pulling down with their own hands the houses of God which were built by their wiser fathers, until they have better satisfaction.'

LECTURE IV.

CHARACTER AND VINDICATION OF THE PILGRIMS.

PROVERBS x. 7.

The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot.

Or the truth of this inspired declaration, how interesting an illustration is furnished in the history of the 'fathers of New England? Their proud oppressors, with their guilty works, have long since passed into oblivion, or are remembered only with detestation and reproach. But the memory of the pilgrims still endures, fragrant as the breath of the morning; and the lapse of time, instead of obscuring, only adds fresh lustre to their names, by unfolding, more clearly, the grandeur of their enterprise and the immensity of the blessings conferred by them on their posterity and the world.

Brief, indeed, are the notices of their character and works, that have come down to us, in the annals of our country; and now, that the winds and storms of two hundred winters have swept over their graves, we look in vain for the places where most of them sleep beneath the silent clod. But they still live; live in the principles they taught; in the institutions they established; in the schools, academies, and colleges, and in the virtue, intelligence, and happiness, which bless their descendants, and make this, in comparison with other lands, as

the garden of God. These are the monuments of their fame; far more durable than sculptured columns, or triumphal arches. They are a living memorial of the wisdom and piety of our fathers, known and read of all and in the recollection of their virtues and their deeds, thousands and millions, yet unborn, will rise up and call them blessed.

men;

Of the causes which drove our ancestors from the land of their birth, and brought them to these shores; of the churches they founded, and of the influence which these churches have exerted over the interests of this community, some account was given you in a preceeding lecture.

My present object is, to furnish you with a brief sketch of the character of our fathers, and also to attempt a vindication of them on some points, where their conduct has been severely censured.

The subject, I am aware, can have little claim to your attention on the score of novelty. It has so often been considered, that it would be vain for me to expect to present it in a new light, or to furnish any thing, either in point of fact, or illustration, that is not already familiar to most of my hearers. And yet, such is the nature of the subject, so strong and deep are its associations with all our dearest privileges and brightest hopes, that it can never fail to interest, to instruct, and to profit, however frequently presented, or however familiar to our thoughts. The truth is, the founders of New England were no ordinary men; the purpose for which they lived and died, was no ordinary purpose. They were emphatically the benefactors of mankind; raised up of God, to establish new forms of society, to develop new principles of government, and to open new sources of human happiness and human improvement. Such were their characters and achievements, and so immensely interesting the consequences which have result

ed from their principles and conduct, that so long as there remains in us any regard to an illustrious ancestry, any veneration of virtue and piety, any love of civil and religious liberty, we can never speak or hear of the patriarchs of New England, without feeling that they are most worthy to be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance.

Nearly all nations, of which we have any account, lose their origin in a fabulous antiquity, or in the obscure traditions of a savage state. Even those countries, where the arts and sciences have been most flourishing, were originally planted, or were afterwards overrun by barbarians who had been driven from their homes by the pressure of want, or the love of conquest. But far other causes gave rise to the settlement of New Eng land. Her origin runs back to no fabled antiquity, is lost in no dark traditions of a barbarous age. Her first foundations were laid in intelligence, in virtue and piety. New England owes her existence to the love of religion, and solely to the love of religion.* The men who first came here, were the chosen instruments of God, in extending his empire on earth; and for the accomplishment of this great work, they were eminently qualified. They were not barbarians, whose descendants, like the Greeks and Romans, groped their way to civilization, through ages of superstition and darkness. They were

The following note from Hutchinson, seems well founded. "Whether Britain would have had any colonies in America at this day, (1760,) if religion had not been the grand inducement, is doubtful. One hundred and twenty years had passed, from the discovery of the northern continent by the Cabots, without any successful attempt. After repeated attempts had failed, it seems less probable that any should undertake in such an affair, than it would have been if no attempt had been made."Hutch. Hist. p. 11.

It required the patience, the self-denial and fortitude of the pilgrims, to endure the labors and surmount the difficulties of planting a colony on these bleak and inhospitable shores.