But their preachers were cobblers and tinkers! Were they indeed? Well, and what were Christ's apostles? One tinker I remember, among the preachers of that age, and of that great party-though not, in the most proper meaning of the word, a Puritan; and what name is more worthy of a place among the names of the elected fishermen of Galilee, than the name of Bunyan? That tinker, shut up in Bedford jail for the crime of preaching, saw there with the eye of faith and genius, visions only less divine than those which were revealed to his namesake in Patmos. His "Pilgrim's Progress" lives in all the languages of Christendom, among the most immortal of the works of human genius. Would that all preachers were gifted like that tinker Bunyan !

But the Puritan preachers cannot be characterized as illiterate, or as men who had been trained to mechanical employments. They were men from the universities, skilled in the learning of the age, and well equipped for the work of preaching. Never has England seen a more illustrious company of preachers than when Baxter, Owen, Bates, Charnock, Howe, and two thousand others of inferior attainments indeed, but of kindred spirit, labored in the pulpits of the establishment. Never has any ministry in the Church of England done more, in the same time, and under similar disadvantages, for the advancement of the people in the knowledge of Christian truth, and in the practice of Christian piety, than was done by the ministry of the Puritans. Whence came the best and most famous of those books of devotion, and of experimental and practical piety, which have so enriched our language, and by which the authors preach to all generations. The "Saint's Rest," the "Call to the Unconverted," the "Blessedness of the Righteous," the "Living Temple," these, and other works like these, which have been the means of leading thousands to God the eternal fountain,-are the works of Puritan preachers.

Let me not be considered as maintaining that the Puritans were faultless or infallible. I know they had faults, great faults. I know they fell into serious errors. By their errors

and faults, the great cause which their virtue so earnestly espoused, and their valor so strongly defended, was wrecked and almost ruined. But dearly did they pay, in disappointment, in persecution, in many sufferings, in the contempt which was heaped upon them by the infatuated people they had vainly struggled to emancipate,-the penalty of their faults and errors. And richly have their posterity, inhabiting both hemispheres, enjoyed, in well ordered liberty, in the diffusion of knowledge, and in the saving influences of pure Christianity,—the purchase of their sufferings, the reward of their virtues and their valor.

DISCOURSE III.

ECCLESIASTICAL FORMS AND USAGES OF THE FIRST AGE IN NEW ENGLAND.

JOSHUA Xxiv, 31.-And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and who had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.

In the present discourse, as preliminary to some sketches of remarkable individuals among the members of this Church in that generation which came out of England, I shall notice several particulars not yet touched upon, respecting the history of the Church as a community at that period.

With what solemnities the formal constituting of the Church, by the seven men appointed for that purpose, was attended, is not upon those records which have come down to us. We know, however, what were the forms generally observed on similar occasions, at the same period; and, presuming that the same forms were observed here, we may easily imagine something of the transactions of that day.* At an early hour, probably not far from 8 o'clock in the morning, the congregation assembled. Tradition says, that the assembly was under the same broad oak, under which they had kept their first Sabbath. After public exercises of preaching and prayer, "about the space of four or five hours," those who are first to unite in the church covenant, the seven pillars in the house of wisdom, stand forth before the congregation, and the elders and delegates from neighboring Churches,-for, probably, such were present from the Churches on the river. In the first place, that all present may be satisfied respecting the personal piety of the men who are to begin the Church, all the seven successively make a declaration of their religious experience, what has been the history of their minds, and

*

Johnson, Wonder-working Prov. II, Mass. Hist. Coll. vii, 40.

what have been the influences and effects of God's grace upon them. Next, that they may make it clear, that their confidence in Christ rests upon Christ as revealed in the Word, they, either severally or jointly, make profession of their faith, declaring those great and leading doctrines which they receive as the substance of the gospel. If on any point farther explanations are desired, questions are proposed by the representatives of neighboring Churches, till all are satisfied. Then they unitedly express their assent to a written form of covenant, in nearly the same words in which the covenant of this Church is now expressed;-after which they receive from the representatives of the neighboring Churches, the right hand of fellowship, recognizing them as a Church of Christ, invested with all the powers and privileges which Christ has given to his Churches.

The election and ordination of officers, followed very soon after the organization of the Church. Mr. Davenport who was, perhaps even more than any other man, the leader of the enterprise, was chosen pastor. The office of teacher, and that of ruling elder, appear to have been left vacant for a season. Mr. Samuel Eaton, who is sometimes spoken of as having been colleague with Mr. Davenport,* appears not to have sustained that relation after the Church was duly gathered. The first deacons were Robert Newman and Matthew Gilbert, who were both in the original foundation of the Church. Mr. Davenport, like nearly all the other ministers who emigrated to this country in that age, had been regularly ordained to the ministry in the Church of England, by the laying on of the hands of a bishop. Yet that ordination was not considered as giving him office or power in this Church, any more than a man's having been a magistrate in England, would give him power to administer justice in this jurisdiction. Accordingly he was ordained, or solemnly inducted into office, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, elders of the Church in Hartford, being present, as tradition says, to assist in the

solemnity.* The act of ordination, however, in such cases, was performed by two or more brethren in the name of the Church, laying their hands upon the head of the pastor elect, with some such form of words as this, "We ordain thee to be pastor unto this Church of Christ;" after which one of the elders present from other Churches, proceeded in prayer to God for his special assistance to his servant in the work, and for his blessing upon the Church, the pastor, and the congregation. The pastor having been thus inducted into office,

ordained the deacons."

The question doubtless arises with some-Could such an ordination have any validity, or confer on the pastor thus ordained any authority? Can men, by a voluntary compact, form themselves into a Church? and can the Church thus formed impart to its own officers the power of administering ordinances? If Davenport had not been previously ordained in England, would not his administration of ordinances have been sacrilege? Answer me another question: How could the meeting which convened in Mr. Newman's barn, originate a commonwealth? How could the commonwealth thus originated, impart the divine authority and dignity of magistrates to officers of its own election? How could a few men coming together here in the wilderness, without commission from king or parliament, by a mere voluntary compact among themselves, give being to a state? How can the state thus instituted, have power to make laws which shall bind the minority? What right had they to erect tribunals of justice? What right to wield the sword? What right to inflict punishment, even to death, upon offenders? Is not civil government a divine institution, as really as baptism and the Lord's supper? Is not the " duly constituted" magistrate as truly the minister of God, as he who presides over the Church and labors in word and doctrine? Whence then came the authority with which that self constituted state, meeting in Mr. Newman's barn, invested its elected magistrates? It came

*

Trumbull, I, 285.

See Appendix No. II.