illustrious in her records; and his principle of unlimited religious freedom, is now incorporated into the being of all her commonwealths. To Penn belongs the glory, of having first opened in this land a free and broad asylum for men of every faith and every lineage. To him due honor is conceded; and America, still receiving into her "broad-armed ports," and enrolling among her own citizens, the thousands that come not only from the British Isles, but from the Alps, and from the Rhine, and from the bloody soil of Poland,--glories in his spreading renown. What then do we claim for the Pilgrims of Plymouth-what for the stern old Puritans of the Bay and of Connecticut-what for the founders of New Haven? Nothing, but that you look with candor on what they have done for their posterity and for the world. Their labors, their principles, their institutions, have made New England, with its hard soil and its cold long winters, "the glory of all lands." The thousand towns and villages,-the decent sanctuaries not for show but for use, crowning the hilltops, or peering out from the valleys,-the means of education accessible to every family,-the universal diffusion of knowledge, the order and thrift, the general activity and enterprise, the unparalleled equality in the distribution of property, the general happiness resulting from the diffusion of education and of pure religious doctrine,-the safety in which more than half the population sleep nightly with unbolted doors, the calm, holy Sabbaths, when mute nature in the general silence becomes vocal with praise, when the whisper of the breeze seems more distinct, the distant waterfall louder and more musical, the carol of the morning birds clearer and sweeter-this is New England; and where will you find the like, save where you find the operation of New England principles and New England influence? This is the work of our fathers and ancient lawgivers. They came hither, not with new theories of government from the laboratories of political alchymists, not to try wild experiments upon human nature, but only to found a new empire for God, for truth, for virtue, for freedom guarded and bounded by

justice. To have failed in such an attempt had been glorious. Their glory is that they succeeded.

In founding their commonwealths, their highest aim was the glory of God in "the common welfare of all." Never before, save when God brought Israel out of Egypt, had any government been instituted with such an aim. They had no model before them, and no guidance save the principles of truth and righteousness embodied in the word of God, and the wisdom which he giveth liberally to them that ask him. They thought that their end, "the common welfare of all," was to be secured by founding pure and free Churches, by providing the means of universal education, and by laws maintaining perfect justice, which is the only perfect liberty. "The common welfare of all," said Davenport, is that "whereunto all men are bound principally to attend in laying the foundation of a commonwealth, lest posterity rue the first miscarriages when it will be too late to redress them. They that are skillful in architecture observe, that the breaking or yielding of a stone in the groundwork of a building, but the breadth of the back of a knife, will make a cleft of more than half a foot in the fabric aloft. So important, saith mine author, are fundamental errors. The Lord awaken us to look to it in time, and send us his light and truth to lead us into the safest ways in these beginnings."*

Not in vain did that prayer go up to heaven. Light and truth were sent; and posterity has had no occasion to rue the miscarriages of those who laid the "groundwork" of New England. On their foundations has arisen a holy structure. Prayers, toils, tears, sacrifices, and precious blood, have hallowed it. No unseemly fissures, deforming "the fabric aloft," dishonor its founders. Convulsions that have rocked

When terror has seized the

the world, have not moved it. nations, and the faces of kings have turned pale at the footsteps of Almighty wrath, peace has been within its walls,

* Discourse upon Civil Government, 14.

and still the pure incense has been fragrant at its altar. Wise master-builders were they who laid the foundations. They built for eternity.

Among those truly noble men, it is not easy to name one more strongly marked with bright endowments, and brighter virtues, or more worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, than he for whom the quaint historian has proposed as his fit epitaph,

VIVUS, NOV-ANGLIÆ AC ECCLESIÆ ORNAMENTUM,

ET

MORTUUS, UTRIUSQUE TRISTE DESIDERIUM.*

* Several letters from Mr. Davenport to Gov. Winthrop, heretofore unpublished, will be found in the appendix No. XI. The catalogue of Davenport's published works, and some other particulars of information concerning him, will also be found in the same place.

DISCOURSE VIII.

NICHOLAS STREET.-THE FIRST GENERATION PASSING AWAY.—

THE ERA OF THE WAR WITH KING PHILIP.

ECCLESIASTES, i, 4.-One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.

WHEN Mr. Davenport removed to Boston, he did not leave this Church destitute of the stated ministry of the word. His colleague, who has already been named as sustaining the office of teacher, was the Rev. Nicholas Street. Mr. Street received his education in England; but at which of the universities, if at either, I am unable to ascertain. Nor does it appear in what year he came into this country. He was settled at Taunton, in the Plymouth colony, as colleague with Mr. Hooke, at the first organization of the Church there, about the year 1638. There was a period in the history of the Plymouth colony-" an hour of temptation," as Mather describes it, "when the fondness of the people for the prophesyings of the brethren, as they called those exercises, that is to say the preachments of those whom they called gifted brethren, produced those discouragements to their ministers, that almost all their ministers left the colony, apprehending themselves driven away by the insupportable neglect and contempt with which the people treated them."* At the commencement, as I suppose, of "that dark hour of eclipse," Mr. Hooke relinquished the office of pastor in the Church at Taunton, and accepted that of teacher in the Church at New Haven. Twelve years afterwards, when the "eclipse" in Plymouth colony was probably the darkest, the office of teacher in this Church became vacant again by Mr. Hooke's

*

Magn. I, 14. Samuel Newman, of Rehoboth, "was almost the only minister whose invincible patience held out under the scandalous neglect and contempt of the ministry which the whole colony of Plymouth was for a while bewitched into."-Ibid. III, 114.

return to England; and it may be presumed that it was by Mr. Hooke's friendly influence that his old colleague at Taunton became his successor here. The Church did not proceed on that occasion as Churches now proceed when they call a minister away from his settlement. They did not place him over them as their minister, merely because of his general reputation, or because somebody recommended him. Mr. Street left Taunton, removed his family to New Haven, took up his residence here, and afterwards, when he had become acquainted with the people and the people with him, he was elected and ordained teacher of this Church. The date of his ordination stands upon our church records, "the 26th of the 9th, 1659."*

For eight or nine years, he was associated here with Mr. Davenport. After the removal of his colleague, he continued the only minister in the Church till his death, which took place on the 22d of April, 1674. Since that time, there has been no distinction attempted in this Church between the the office of teacher and that of pastor.

Of the character of Mr. Street, as of his life, we know but little. He appears to have been a pious, judicious, modest man. His "Considerations upon the Seven Propositions concluded by the Synod," published as an appendix to Mr. Dav

* The Rev. Richard Blinman appears to have preached to this Church for a short time after Mr. Hooke went away, and before Mr. Street was introduced into the vacancy. According to Winthrop, (II, 64,) who characterizes him as "a godly and able man," he came over from Wales in 1642. He labored a few months at Marshfield; then he and his friends removed from that place to Cape Ann, and founded Gloucester. In 1648, he was the first minister at New London. It is not improbable that he was brought to New Haven by the friendly offices of Governor Winthrop. The only instance in which his name appears on our records is on the first of July, 1658, when at a town meeting, "Deacon Miles informed that Mr. Blinman was like to want corn and other provisions within a short time, which he desired might be considered, how he may be supplied." From New Haven he went to Newfoundland, and thence to England. Mather (Magn. III, 13) says, that he "concluded his life at the city of Bristol, where one of the last things he did was to defend in print the cause of infant-baptism." He had been minister at Chepstow, near Bristol.-Non-conformist's Memorial, (Palmer's ed.,) III, 177. See Allen's Biographical Dictionary.