the wisdom and goodness of your parent by forsaking "the good old ways" he chose and loved? Will you turn aside to courses, which, if he be yet living, must bow that reverend head beneath the weight of sorrow? Is there left in your soul no cherished memory of that mother in Israel, whose holy living looked so saintly and heavenlike in your youthful days? Do you verily feel that the course she took conducted her safely through the gloomy vale of death to the city of God, the eternal home of the pure? O follow on in that luminous track, that radiant path to heaven's gate, which opened so brightly at her coming. But if ever there was danger, that the Puritans might be forgotten, all such danger is now rapidly passing away. If their offspring could ever prove so degenerate as to forget them, their memory will be devoutly blessed by others. Never can the writer of these pages cease to remember the emotions with which he once listened to that immortal lay,-"The Landing of the Fathers." It was in the unpuritanical, but lovely clime of Florida. The accomplished daughter of one of the old Spanish families, herself a Romanist, and bred within convent-walls, took her place at the instrument amid a brilliant assembly gathered from many distant regions. As her fingers ran along the keys, he thought he could not be mistaken in the familiar symphony and "soft prelusive strain." But when her rich full voice burst forth in the stirring words, "The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast,"- he was lost in surprise and pleasure. The spellwas ended all too soon, as the last solemn notes died away, "Aye, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod: They have left unstained, what there they found, Her gratified hearer could not refrain from advancing to the side of this bright daughter of the sunny South, and accosting her in the words of Coleridge to a truly noble Duchess, "O lady, nursed 'mid pomp and pleasure, She turned upon him her intense dark eye, which flashed with the humid fire peculiar to the women of her race, and her countenance kindling with enthusiasm; and replied,-" O Sir, this is my favorite song. Where can you find such sentiments combined with such music?" This incident, in a far-off region, among people of other lineage, was felt as a proud tribute to our pilgrim-sires. While engaged in these humble, but affectionate endeavors to keep alive the memory of the good old Puritans of New England;-and while rehearsing the mighty deeds of some of "the chief fathers" of the tribes of our Israel, it has been like preaching their funeral sermons. So vital and operative is their surviving influence, that, though dead and silent in the tomb, they "still speak in reason's ear." So active are they yet among us, and so familiar to our contemplations, that they seem almost like old acquaintances, with whom we have held reverent and endearing converse. Let us bless God for the power of religion, so gloriously exemplified in them! Let us adore him for the grace which made them what they were! We have been wandering pensively "in the place of graves," among the memorials of the noble and pious dead. We have raised up the sinking tablets, and retouched the time-worn and moss-grown inscriptions. It has been a labor of sweet, grateful love to twine the fresh garlands of remembrance around the old sepulchral urns. And now what does natural piety and filial gratitude demand of us, who inherit VOL. II. 26 the rich fruits of the wisdom, the prayers, and the sufferings of our sires? Can we do less than maintain our stand upon their approved principles and practices? Can we do less than use, and act upon, the customary petition of the pious Deans, to be "delivered from right-hand extremes, and from left-hand defections?" Shall we ever permit ourselves to relapse into that hierarchal thraldom from which our fathers so conscientiously fled? Or to sink down into hose heresies which they so religiously abhorred? May the God of our fathers forbid it! We are told of the ancient Scythians, that when forced to retreat in battle, if they chanced to come to the graves of their ancestors, they would give back no further. There they would stand immovable upon the spot. Oh, let us take our stand where our fathers sleep in God, and where their dust is resting in hope. Let us be steadfast to their faith and order in the gospel; and be firm, in cherishing, like them, the life and power of godliness. So shall we either win the day, or achieve a death more glorious than victory itself. and either conquer, or die The following list of Mr. Davenport's printed works, to which, after very careful research, but little in addition could be found, is mostly taken from Rev. Dr. Bacon's Historical Researches. A Royal Edict for Military Exercises, published in a Sermon preached to the captains and gentlemen that exercise arms in the Artillery Garden, at their general meeting in Saint Andrews Undershaft in London. Lond. 1629. There is a copy in the Atheneum Library, Boston. A Letter to the Dutch, containing a Just Complaint against an Un just Doer: Wherein is declared the miserable Slavery and Bondage that the English Church of Amsterdam is now in, by reason of th Tyrannical Government and Corrupt Doctrine of Mr. John Paget, their present Minister. By John Davenport.-Amst. 1634. 4to. Certain Instructions delivered to the Elders of the English Church deputed, which are to be propounded to the pastors of the Dutch Church in Amsterdam, 1634. Wood, (Athenæ Oxonienses,) calls it a quarto paper. 1. A Report of some passages or proceedings about his calling to the English Church in Amsterdam, against John Paget. 2. Allegations of Scripture against the baptizing of some kind of infants. 3. Protestation about the publishing of his writings. These three "little scripts," as Wood calls them, were all printed in quarto at Amsterdam, in 1634. Mr. Paget replied in a book of 156 pages quarto, entitled, "An Answer to the Unjust Complaints, &c." To this book Mr. Davenport made a rejoinder in the following article. An Apologetical Reply to a book called "An Answer to the Unjust Complaint of W[illiam] B[est,] &c." quarto. Rotterdam, 1636. A copy of this is among the books deposited by the Old South Church in the Library of the Mass. Historical Society. Profession of Faith made publicly before the Congregation at his admission into one of the Churches of New England; containing twenty several heads. 1. Concerning the Scriptures, &c. 1642. One sheet, quarto. Lond. The Messiah is already come. A Sermon on Acts 2: 36. Lond. 1653. Quarto. |