any more than a man's being a lawful magistrate in England would make him a magistrate in a foreign jurisdiction without further commission. Such ordinations of one who had previously been admitted to the ministry, our fathers regarded just as we do what we call installations. The laying on of hands was used, as often as a minister was translated from one pastoral charge to another. It was intended merely as a solemn recognition of him in his new relation to a particular church.

Ordination by laymen, usually the ruling elders and deacons of the church, was practiced only in a few instances in the first settlement of this country and soon went into disuse.

Other churches rapidly sprung up around New Haven; and religion in its highest purity as to faith and order flourished among them. They could soon sing with satisfaction Sternhold's antiquated stave ;—

"Go walk about all Syon hill,

Yea, round about her go:

And tell the towres that thereupon

Are builded on a roe:

And marke you well her bulwarkes all,

Behold her towres there,

That ye may tell thereof to them

That after shall be here.

For this God is our God forevermore is hee;

Yea, and unto the death also, our guider shall he be."

Their minister was an original genius, and the plan he adopted was his own, "and if success be any evidence of merit, he certainly has high claims to the veneration and gratitude of nations." "There the famous church of New Haven, as also the neighboring towns, enjoyed his ministry, his discipline, his government, and his universal direction for many years. The holiness, the watchfulness, and the usefulness of his ministry, are worthy of the remembrance of all who would set before them an example of ministerial excellence."*

From this time Mr. Davenport exercised his ministry in great peace, and with the happiest effects. He was the spiritual father of the community which grew up around him, taking its character from the strong impression of his irresistible influence. He was regarded with the reverence and love which belonged to the patriarchs of old and rejoiced in many seals of his ministry whom he gathered into the church, not without a most careful, and yet gentle examination, on which duty he laid the greatest stress.

The society of his old friend, the excellent Eaton, for twenty years the governor of the new

* Brooke's Puritans, III. 450.

colony, was a great solace to the exiled Puritan. An eloquent passage from Dr. Bacon's invaluable "Historical Discourses" is entitled to insertion here. "He and his friend Eaton build their dwellings over against each other on the same street; and the intimacy begun when they were children, and strengthened in their early manhood, is prolonged without interruption, till in a good old age, death separates them for a season, to meet again in heaven. They were never out of each other's thoughts; and rarely could a day pass by, in which they did not see each other, and take counsel together. The voice of prayer, or the evening psalm, in one of their dwellings, might be heard in the other. Whatever changes came upon one family, the other was sure to partake immediately in the sorrow or the joy. In such neighborhood and intimacy, these two friends passed their days here, till the full strength of manhood in which they came, had gradually turned to venerable age. They saw trials, many and various; trials such as weigh heaviest on the spirit, and cause the heart to faint; but, in all their trials, they had one hope, one consolation; and how refreshing to such men, in such vicissitudes, is the sympathy of kindred souls, well-tried and

true. Strong in themselves, with the gifts of nature, the endowments of education and experience, and the unction of Almighty grace; strong in their individual reliance upon God, their help and Saviour; they were the stronger for their friendship, the stronger for their mutual counsels, the stronger for the sympathy by which each drew the other towards the great Fountain of strength, and love, and life. Such are the friendships of good men. Their intimacies make them better, holier, happier, more patient for endurance, wiser for counsel, stronger for every godlike action."

In 1651, the Second Church in Boston, which was then recently formed, invited Mr. Davenport to become their pastor: but he was too firmly attached to his flock, to leave it without clearer convictions that such was his duty than he felt at that time.

As he became an old man, he saw the face of society around him changing. His beloved Eaton and many more of his fellow-pilgrims had gone the way of all the earth, and others were coming up in their room. But nothing could quench his zeal, or slacken his industry. He made strenuous and successful exertions to bring about the establishment of a college in

New Haven, which, in time, was effected. The common-school system of New England rose up very much from his influence, being ever zealous for universal education.

On the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, some who had been active in the times of the commonwealth, were brought to the scaffold; and others fled for their lives. The surviving members of the court which condemned Charles I. to the scaffold, were pursued with special fury. Of these regicide judges, as they were called, four, at least, escaped to this country. One of them, Thomas Revel, died in Braintree; one, Col. Dixwell, died in New Haven, and two more in the town of Hadley. These two were Whalley and Goffe, who had been major generals; and stood in the same relation to Cromwell, wherein Napoleon's marshals stood to that "man of destiny." Goffe and Whalley were too conspicuous marks of royal vengeance to be allowed an easy escape.

Great efforts were made by the partizans of the king to effect the arrest of this pair of compatriots, who were men of interesting personal character and eminent piety, as well as distinguished for the high stations they had filled. They sought concealment in one place after