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 THE CHURCH R E C O IMX, • <>^ 
 
 SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN GRAFTON, SONDAl DECEMBER 21 1816; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTICES 
 
 aiongrtgatioual €l)urcl) 
 
 IN SAID TOWN. 
 
 By EDMUND B. WILLSON, 
 
 Minister of the Congregational Church and Society. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 WORCESTER: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ^GIS. 
 
 1847. 
 
Grafton, March 10, 1847. 
 
 Rev. E. B. Willson, 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 At a Icf^al meeting held this day, of the Con- 
 gregational Society, the undersigned were chosen a Committee for the 
 purpose of requesting a copy of the Sermon preached by you, of the his- 
 tory of the Congregational Church and Society of this Town, for the pur- 
 pose of having it printed. 
 
 Respectfully, your Obedient Servants, 
 JOSEPH BRUCE, 
 H. H. W. SIGOURNEY, 
 SAMUEL WOOD. 
 
 Grafton, March 12, 1847. 
 Messrs. Joseph Bruce, H. H. W. Sigourney, and Sa..iuel Wood, 
 Gentlemen : — 
 
 I have your note requesting a Copy of the Sermon 
 which I lately preached, giving the history of the Congregational 
 
 Church in this place. 
 
 I can readily understand the desire of the Church and Society 
 to preserve all that can be gathered up on this subject, however m- 
 complete or drily detailed. 
 
 I wiU soon place a copy of the Sermon at your disposal. 
 
 With much respect, yours, 
 
 E. B. WILLSON. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 MATT. XIII : 81. . The Kingdom of lleaYCQ is like to a grain of mustard seed. 
 
 It was on the 28th of December, 1731, Old Style, (correspond- 
 ing to the 8th of the following month according to the New Style,) 
 that the First Congregational Church was gathered in this place. 
 Only a few days therefore are wanting to bring us to the one hun- 
 dred and fifteenth anniversary of its organization. As this is the 
 last Sabbath of the year, a fit time to turn to the past for instruction, 
 I shall take this opportunity to commemorate the planting of this 
 church by giving an outline of its history. 
 
 Some may have a curiosity to learn why this is made the occasion 
 for a commemorative discourse, since it is more usual to select the 
 end of a century, or half century, as the most appropriate time for 
 such historical retrospections. 
 
 It would be a sufficient reason for doing what I propose, that no 
 time is unsuitable for paying a tribute of grateful respect to the 
 memory of the men of pious heart who laid the deepest foundation 
 of our Christian institutions — that no time is too late nor too early 
 to be taught by their examples and experience. Another and suffi- 
 cient reason is, that it has not been done, so far as I am aware, be- 
 fore. But that which has most influenced me to attempt it is, that 
 I have recently for the first time obtained access to the early records 
 of this church. From these records I have supposed it would be 
 interesting to you to hear, as they have been for several years with- 
 held not only from the possession, but even from the inspection, of 
 the members of this church, to whom they legally, and, as I con- 
 ceive, rightfully belong.* I have therefore endeavored to embody 
 in my present discourse, such important facts as I could glean from 
 these ancient registers, connecting with them such other matter as 
 
 See Appendix, A. 
 
, ( -i ) 
 
 I have been able to collect from other sources, as might serve to 
 illustrate the history of the Church. 
 
 A history of the first Congregational Church in this place — known 
 as The Congregational Church — should embrace the ecclesiastical 
 history of the town, for about t,he space of forty years from the time 
 of its settlement. For nearly that length of time this was the only 
 Church in the town, the town itself being the only religious society 
 or parish. It was about the year 1774, that a second Church was 
 formed, composed of Baptists.* Down to this period therefore, the 
 history we trace is, in fact, the religious history of the town. 
 
 But our ecclesiastical record of the olden time would be incom- 
 plete, should we pass without notice a church which had not only 
 been planted here before the formation of this church, but which at 
 so early a period had had its growth and its decline also. Indeed 
 I have not spoken with literal exactness, in saying that this was the 
 first Congregational Church here gathered. More than sixty years 
 before the founding of this, another had been regularly embodied, 
 though it had but a brief existence. It was composed exclusively of 
 the native inhabitants of the country, and was the second of the In- 
 dian churches organized by the Rev. John Eliot, of Roxbury, and 
 his co-adjutors. 
 
 It was about the year 1646, and when he was about forty-two 
 years of age, that Eliot, generally known as ' the Apostle to the 
 Indians,' conceived the purpose of civilizing and evangelizing the 
 natives of New-England.t He set about this work with earnestness 
 and faith. He undertook to gather them into permanent settle- 
 ments, to teach them the arts of domestic life, and to establish 
 among them schools and churches. The first church of the kind 
 was formed by him at Natic in the year 1660. The second was 
 formed at Hassanamesit,| as this place was then called, in the sum- 
 
 * gee Appendix, B. 
 
 t Gookin, 1 Mass. Hist. Col. I, 168. 
 
 % < The name signLfieth,' says Gookin, ' a place of small stones.' When the town 
 was afterwards bought by English proprietors, it went by the name of Hassana- 
 misco. WheUier the change of termination changed its signification or not, we 
 are unable to say. EUot, in his ' Indian Grammar Begun,' gives ' hassun' as the 
 Indian word for stone, and adds that diminutives are formed by adding ' fs or cmes ' 
 to the primitive iiouus, givmg ' hassuncmcs' as the diminutive of hassun. The final 
 syllable may have contained the idea of place. 
 
( '5 ) 
 
 mer of the year 1071.* I do not find any authority which states 
 positively that Eliot organized this church in person; though I think 
 there can scarcely be a doubt that this was the case. He must have 
 visited this place many times. There was no one else to whom he 
 would have been likely to entrust so important a business, in an en- 
 terprise which devolved almost wholly upon himself. What seema 
 conclusive is, that he wrote a circumstantial account of the gather- 
 ing of this particular church to the Corporation formed in London 
 for promoting the Gospel among the Indians, which he probably 
 would not have done, if he had not himself been a witness of it, and 
 instrumental in it. It is not known that this account was ever pub- 
 lished, although it was the intention of the writer that it should be.t 
 In a letter subsequently written by Eliot, in which he refers to that 
 account, he says that the manner of ' inchurching' the Indians was 
 ' the same (so near as we can) that is practiced in gathering church- 
 es among the English.' They were ' all furnished with the custom- 
 ary officers, saving the church at Natic,' where it was wisely thought 
 that no officers were needed, so long as John Eliot lived to be their 
 teacher and pastor. The Sacrament was administered by their pas- 
 tors in the usual form. The same discipline and ordinances were 
 • practiced among them, as in the English Congregational churches 
 at that time. Candidates for admission, before they were received, 
 were ' diligently instructed and examined both publickly and pri- 
 vately in the Catechism, their blameless and pious conversation was 
 publickly testified, their names were publickly exposed as desireing 
 to make confession and join unto the church.' They and their 
 children, ' if not upgrown,' were baptised. If the children were up- 
 grown, they made their own confession, and were baptised on their 
 own account.! They assembled to their Sabbath worship ' twice 
 a day, in the morning and afternoon, at the sound of a drum— for 
 bells they yet had not.' The services were conducted in an order 
 very similar to that now observed in most of our Congregational 
 churches. They began with ' solemn and affectionate prayer,' offered 
 by their teacher. After a short pause, a chapter was read out of the 
 Old or New Testament, ei_ther by the teacher ' or some other there- 
 
 * 1 Mass. Hist. Col. 1, 185. 
 
 t Ibid X, 124. 
 
 t Eliot's Letter, 1 Mass. Hist. Col. X, 121-5-C. 
 
( G ) 
 
 unto appointed.' ' At the conclusion thereof, a psalm or part of a 
 psalm was appointed, rehearsed, and solemnly sung. Then the min- 
 ister catechised and prayed before his sermon; and so preached from 
 some text of Scripture. Then concluded with prayer and a psalm 
 and a blessing pronounced.' When in their houses of worship, ' the 
 men-kind sat apart by themselves and the women-kind by themselves, 
 according to their age, quality and degree.' Their teachers were 
 generally chosen from among themselves, ' of the most pious and 
 able men among them.'* In the beginning of Eliot's undertaking, 
 before he had qualified some of the natives themselves to impart re- 
 ligious instruction, and while as yet he was himself their principal 
 teacher, there was another important feature in their meetings. Af- 
 ter he had prayed and preached briefly, t he ' admitted the Indians 
 to propound questions touching something then spoken, or some 
 other matter in religion tending to their illumination.' And this 
 questioning and answering formed no inconsiderable or uninterest- 
 ing part of the exercises, for we are told by the historian, that ' di- 
 vers of them had a faculty to frame hard and difficult questions.'! 
 To this point, however, we do not need the historian's testimony, 
 for many of these questions have been preserved, and are sufficient 
 witnesses to their possession of this power. We find them, for ex- 
 ample, propounding such questions as these, which we have taken 
 almost at random. ' Why did not God give all men good hearts that 
 they might be good V ' Why doth God punish in hell forever V 
 ' And if they repent in hell, why will not God let them out again V 
 ' Why did not God kill the Devil, that made all men so bad, God 
 having all the power?' ' I see why I must fear hell and do so every 
 day ; but why must I fear God V ' In wicked dreams, doth the soul 
 sin?' Hard, we have no doubt, the teacher found it to give answers 
 to some of these questions satisfactory to the inquirers ; happy in- 
 deed if he could answer them altogether to his own satisfaction. 
 
 We know not the number of members originally collectfed into 
 this church ; but three years after its organization, it was said to 
 contain about sixteen men and women who lived in the town, be- 
 
 * Gookin, 1 Mass. Hist. Col. I, 183. 
 
 t This brief pieacliiug, as it was considered, we find was ' about three quarters 
 of an hour.' 
 if 1 Mass. Hist. Col. T, 168, 9. 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 sides several others that lived in oilier places. There were about 
 thirty baptised persons in the town, all the inhabitants being compu- 
 ted at about twelve families of sixty souls. The pastor of the church 
 at that time was one Joseph Tackuppawillin, who is described as * a 
 pious and able man, and apt to teach.' His father, whose name was 
 Naoas, ' a grave and sober Christian,' was deacon of the church, 
 A brother of the pastor, much noted as an assistant of Eliot in 
 printing his Indian Bible, and who was called James the Printer, or 
 James Printer, from the circumstance of his understanding the art 
 of printing, then lived in the town. The ruling elder, was one of 
 the most distinguished of the early Indian converts, by name Piara- 
 bow, or Piambohou. A sketch of a sermon or exhortation deliver- 
 ed by this man, before he became an officer in the Hassanamesit 
 Church, is extant. It was delivered on a Fast Day at Natic in 1658.* 
 He expounded the beatitudes in Matt, v, and so far as we can judo-e 
 from this mere outline of his discourse, he was a man of intelligence, 
 and was capable of interpreting Scripture with a very good under- 
 standing of its spirit and meaning. He came from Natic at the 
 gathering of this church to be its ruling elder, and when the inhab- 
 itants of the town were dispersed in the war with Philip, he return- 
 ed to Natic, where he died.t The prospects of the church at this 
 time (1674) were highly encouraging. They had a meeting-house 
 built after the English fashion.| A school had been established, 
 and was flourishing. Natives were here prepared for teaching and 
 preaching Christianity. Several settlements of Chistianized Indians 
 in the neighborhood had been already provided with teachers from 
 this place. The preachers in four ' praying towns ' of the vicinity, 
 it is said, expressly went from Hassanamesit, where they were prob- 
 ably educated. § Many others, without doubt, were here taught, 
 who became missionaries to their brethren. 
 
 But the benevolent hopes, which the venerable apostle to the In- 
 dians and the friends who had joined him in his philanthropic labors 
 
 * Eliot's ' Epitomy ' of the different discoux^es on that occasion, sent to the Lon- 
 don Corporation. 
 
 1 1 Mass. Hist. Col. IX, 198. 
 
 1 1 can find no tradition as to the place where this house stood. 
 
 § Chabanakongkomun, now Dudley, — Wabquisset, in Woodstock, Ct. — Packa- 
 ■hoag, partly in Worcester and partly in Auburn,— Waentug, Uxbridge. 
 
(8 ) 
 
 yvere now so confidently cherishing, were soon to be blasted. The 
 war between Philip and the English colonists broke out the follow- 
 ing year. These ' praying ' Indians became objects of jealousy and 
 suspicion to both parties. They were tampered with by their coun- 
 trymen, and suspected and oppressed by the whites. The town was 
 broken up and the church scattered. The worthy Gookin, the 
 friend and helper of Eliot, gives us a melancholy picture of the suf- 
 ferings and aggravated wrongs heaped upon the Christian Indians, 
 many of whom were not ill-disposed towards the white settlers. 
 Every piece of mischief that was done, whose author was not known, 
 was ascribed to them. Tackuppawillin, the Pastor, suffered exceed- 
 ingly. He was at first drawn or driven off with others to Philip's 
 side, though he went reluctantly, ' with heavy heart and weeping.' 
 He soon after mJjide ari attempt to escape to the English. In the at- 
 tempt he fell into the hands of one of their parties prematurely, and 
 was treated by them with great barbarity. They robbed him of ev- 
 erything he had, even to a pewter drinking cup which had been 
 given him by Mr. Eliot to use in administering the sacrament. ' O, 
 ^ir,' said he, when Mr. Eliot came to see him in Boston, ' I am 
 greatly distressed this day on every side. The English have taken 
 away some of my estate, my corn, cattle, plough, cart, chain and 
 other goods. The enemy Indians have also taken a part of what I 
 had. The wicked Indians mock and scoff at me, saying. Now what 
 is become of your praying to God V The Epglish called him a hypo- 
 crite. His family had been driven away from him through fear of 
 the English. It seemed indeed true, when he said in his distress, 
 that he had ' nowhere to look but up to God in heaven to help him.'* 
 His faith in the Englishman's God did not fail him, however, even 
 when Englishmen themselves became his enemies and oppressors. 
 Who could have been surprised at the apostacy, if it had failed him ? 
 In the spring of 1677, the war being ended, some of the Indians 
 came back to Hassanamesit. ' But not long after they withdrew 
 from thence, and gave over tending their corn for fear of the Ma- 
 quas.'t There is no reason to suppose that the scattered church 
 
 * Hist, of Christian Indians in Transactions of the American Antiquarian Soci- 
 ety, Vol. II, p. 504, &c. 
 
 t Ibid. 519. In 1684, there was no regular meeting here for worship on the Sab- 
 bath. 1 M. H. Col. Ill, 18St. 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 was ever re-assembled after the war. We find in lo98 that five fam- 
 ilies had returned, ' unto whom James Prinler [Printer] stood rela- 
 ted as teacher.'* Mention has already been made of this Printer, 
 as the brother of the pastor, and the assistant of Eliot in printing 
 his Bible. There may have been in these five families some who 
 had before been members of the church ; and the Christian ordi- 
 nances may have been kept up among them. But if the church, 
 as such, had any existence after its unfortunate dispersion, we know 
 not that any account of it has been preserved. 
 
 We are admonished by a glance at the wide field that lies before 
 us not to linger for remark. Could we do so, we should find a fer- 
 tile subject in the character and efforts of that distinguished Christ- 
 ian, who with so large a measure of the apostolic spirit, cheerfully 
 resigned every pursuit promising preferment, reputation, or ease, 
 many of which his talents and learning opened to him, that he might 
 at the expense of sacrifices, exposure, and pains, carry the gospel to 
 the poor. But leaving this ancient church, the foregoing notice of 
 which we hope will not be deemed out of place, nor irrelevant to our 
 main subject, we proceed to that which is more immediately and 
 especially the topic of the occasion. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1728, that this town, then called Hassan- 
 amisco, was purchased of the Indians by forty English proprietors. 
 The General Court of Massachusetts, in granting these proprietors 
 leave to effect the purchase, made it a condition, that within three 
 years they should build a meeting house and school-house, and set- 
 tle ' a learned orthodox minister ;' and that they ' should constantly 
 maintain, and duly support, a minister and school-master among 
 them :' — all this to be done without charge to the Indians, though 
 the benefits of the school and ministry were to be shared by them 
 equally with the whites. t 
 
 The purchase of the town was made on the 19th of March, 1728. 
 The first meeting of the proprietors was held in Marlborough on the 
 the 9th of April following. The first vote, passed after they had 
 organized, was to choose a committee * to take a survey of the Plan- 
 tation of Hassanamisco, * * * to find out the centre plot of 
 
 * Rawsoiiifc Danforth's account, 1 M. II. Col. X, 131. 
 t Proprietors' Record:^. 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 the Plantation.' The next vote was, that ' the meeting-house should 
 be placed and set up at or upon the centre of the said Plantation, in 
 case the land at the centre be accommodable ; otherwise at the near- 
 est accommodable place to the centre.' The second meeting was 
 held here at the house of Nehemiah How, on the 19th of April. 
 When the meeting had been duly organized, it was voted to adjourn 
 to the centre of the land to fix upon a spot for the erection of the 
 meeting-house. Upon viewing the place said to be the centre, it was 
 not found suitable "for the purpose. This was a spot lying a little to 
 the south, and about twenty-five or thirty rods easterly from where 
 we now are, and where the land probably was thought to be too low 
 and moist. A spot of ground was then viewed ' westerly therefrom, 
 upon the northerly end of a hill called by the Indians Assawossa- 
 chasuck.' That could not have been fiir from the place occupied by 
 this house — a little to the west and south. Still another place was af- 
 terward viewed and finally fixed upon, a little way southward of this 
 last. That, you are aware, was the site from which the old meet- 
 ing-house was removed a few years since.* 
 
 Thus we see these grave pioneers, cherishing the same religious 
 zeal which characterized the primitive colonists of New England, 
 making it their first care to provide for the worship of God. Their 
 f^rst vote at iheiv first meeting relates to the selection of a proper 
 situation for the house of prayer. Their second meeting was here 
 in the very wilderness itself, as it then was, whither they had come 
 to consummate this vote. We seem to see them now, a little com- 
 pany of less than half a hundred, passing about among the tall for- 
 est trees, which stood all over these places that are now covered with 
 human habitations. They are asking where shall be laid the foun- 
 dations of a Christian temple, before yet the worshippers are come, 
 whose prayers and solemn praise are to consecrate it. Their own 
 dwellings are not yet to be seen. The stakes are not set to mark 
 the places where they are soon to rise. These things are to come 
 after. Their Sabbath home first — their week-day tents in good 
 time. To-day the wants of the soul — to-morrow the needs of the 
 
 * Proprietors' Records. This meeting-house, built by the Proprietors, still stands 
 on the western line of the Common. It was removed from the centre of the Com- 
 mon when it ceased to be used as a house of worship. 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 body. Just one month from the day on which the ' Plantation' was 
 bought of the Indians, the place for the meeting-house was decided 
 upon. It was voted, on the next July, to have a meeting-house built 
 and finished at or before November 1, 1730, thus allowing nearly 
 two years and a half for the work. Its dimensions were — length 
 50 feet, width 40 feet, height 22 feet, ' between joynts.'* 
 
 At a meeting of the Proprietors held March 31, 1730, it was 
 voted, ' to continue the preaching of the Gosple at Hassanamisco;' 
 from which it appears, that they had begun to have preaching be- 
 fore that time. Afterward they were probably supplied constantly 
 till June 23, 1731 ; when a Fast was appointed for the first Thurs- 
 day of the following September, preparatory to calling and settling 
 a minister among them. The Fast was duly kept with the assistance 
 of ' some reverend elders,' in the vicinity. On the day following, 
 Mr. Solomon Prentice of Cambridge was called to be their minis- 
 ter. t It was at first voted to give Mr. Prentice for his support, 
 ' i\inety pounds of passable money, or bills of public credit as money 
 now passes from man to man, or as the valuation of money shall be 
 from time to time, or as said money rises and falls.' At a subse- 
 quent meeting it was voted to add ten pounds to the ninety. Mr. 
 Prentice accepted the call, and the 29th day of Dee. 1731, was ap- 
 pointed for his ordination. On the day preceding, Dec. 28th, the 
 church was formed. 
 
 The following are the names of the persons then gathered into a 
 church, with the places from which they came, and in which most 
 of them had been previously connected with churches. Three, 
 ReVi Solomon Prentice, Samuel Cooper and Benjamin Goddard, 
 were from Cambridge; one, Capt. Benjamin Willard, from Fra- 
 mingham ; two, James Whipple, Sen. and Jr., from Ipswich Ham- 
 
 * The tract purchased of the Indians was four miles square. It is now, per- 
 haps, by additions from other towns, about four miles by five. This territory, then 
 not only without church, but almost without white inhabitant, has now a popula- 
 tion, as recently ascertained, of about three thousand three hundred and seventy- 
 five, and has seven houses of worship, viz : two Congregational, two Baptist, two 
 Methodist, and one Free Will Baptist. 
 
 t Mr. Prentice, it thus appears, was elected and invited by the Proprietors alone. 
 No church had yet been formed. We see therefore that it was not deemed essen- 
 ;ial, in settling a minister, that he should be called by a cluirch separately from the 
 tpwn or parish. 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 let; two, Tliomas Pratt and Thomas Drury, from Shrewsbury; 
 three, James Lei and, Joseph and Simeon Willard, from Sutton ; 
 one, Nehemiah Howe, from Sudbury ; three, John Collar, Jonathan 
 Hall and Jason Whitney, from Stow ; two, Abner Stow and Ephra- 
 im Brigham, from Marlborough ; one, James Cutler, from Westbo- 
 rough ; one, Eleazer Flegg, [Flagg,] from Concord ; and one, Sam- 
 uel Warren, from Weston ; — in all twenty. These names stand 
 subscribed to the original covenant. We recognize no great names 
 here, at least none which the world has agreed to call great. But 
 let not ' Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile.' There are good 
 names here, names, which, though not to be found upon the Scroll 
 of Fame, are written upon a brighter page in the Book of Life ; 
 names they are of no mean account in that kingdom, whose least 
 citizen is greater than earth's most illustrious potentate. 
 
 The Covenant which they adopted is as follows : 
 
 ' We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, inhabitants of Has- 
 sanamisco, in New England, knowing that we are very prone to 
 offend God, the Most High, both in heart and life, through the pre- 
 valency of sin that dwelleth within us, and the manifold temptations 
 from without us, for which we have great reason to be unfeignedly 
 humble before him from day to day, — Do, in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, with dependence upon the gracious assistance of his 
 Holy Spirit, solemnly enter into a covenant with God, and one with 
 another, according to God, as follows ; — 
 
 * First. That having chosen and taken the Lord Jehovah to be 
 our God, we will fear him, cleave to him in love, and serve him in 
 truth, with all our hearts, giving up ourselves to him to be his peo- 
 ple, in all things, to be at his direction and sovereign disposal, that 
 we may have and hold communion with him as members of Christ's 
 mystical body, according to his revealed will, to our lives' end. 
 
 ' Secondly. We also bind ourselves to bring up our children and 
 servants in the knowledge and fear of God, by his instructions ac- 
 cording to our best abilities, and in special by the use of Orthodox 
 Oatechism[s], that the true religion may be maintained in our fam- 
 ilies while we live ; yea, and among such as shall live when we are 
 dead and gone. 
 
 ' Thirdly. We furthermore promise to keep close to the truth of 
 Christ, endeavoring with lively affection towards it in our hearts, to 
 
( 1=^ ) 
 
 defend it against all opposers tliercof, aw God shall call us at any 
 time thereunto; which, that we may do, we resolve to use the Holy 
 Scriptures as our Platform whereby we may discern the mind and 
 will of Christ, and not the new-found inventions of men. 
 
 ' Fourthly. We also engage ourselves to have a careful inspection 
 over our own hearts, so as to endeavor, by virtue of the death of 
 Christ, the mortification of all our sinful passions, worldly frames, 
 and disorderly affections, whereby we may be withdrawn from the 
 living God. 
 
 * Fifthly. We moreover oblige ourselves, in the faithful improve- 
 ment of all our abilities and opportunities, to worship God accord- 
 ing to the particular institutions of Christ for his church under Gos- 
 pel administrations ; as to give reverend attention to the word of 
 God, to pray unto him, to sing his praises, and to hold communion 
 one with another, in the use of both the seals, viz ; Baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper. 
 
 ' Sixthly. We likewise promise, that we will peaceably submit 
 unto the holy discipline appointed by Christ in his church for of- 
 fenders, obeying them that rule over us in the Lord. 
 
 ' Seventhly. We also bind ourselves to walk in love one toward 
 another, endeavoring our mutual editication, visiting, exhorting, 
 comforting as occasion serveth, and warning any brother or sister 
 which offends, not divulging private offences irregularly, but heed- 
 fully following the several precepts laid down by Christ for church 
 dealing, 18th Matt. 16, 17, 18, willingly forgiving all that manifest 
 unto the judgment of charity that they truly repent of all their 
 mismanagements. 
 
 * Now the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
 the everlasting covenant, make us all perfect in every good work to 
 do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, 
 through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.' 
 
 This Covenant, you perceive, is liberal and unsectarian. In this 
 respect it resembled those generally used in the early Congrega- 
 tional churches of the country. This very Covenant, indeed, was 
 adopted by several other churches in the vicinity afterwards, and 
 probably had been in use elsewhere before it was submitted to this 
 
(in 
 
 Church.* It was undoubtedly the covenant of a church whose 
 members were, in most or all points, Calvinistic in sentiment. But 
 it was not framed with the view to prevent them from ever depart- 
 ing from that doctrinal system. It placed no fetters upon the mind, 
 to bind it forever to one man's interpretation of Christian truth. 
 However firmly one or another doctrine of Calvinism may have been 
 held, or however highly valued, it was not deemed necessary to 
 force it upon all men as an unquestionable and essential part of 
 Christianity, nor to make its acceptance a test by which to try the 
 soundness of Christian character to the end of time. It was not 
 then thought improbable that there might be more light to come 
 from the Scripture pages than men had yet seen ; and so men were 
 left to see what they could see, while they covenanted to help each 
 other as they might, in the one great solemn interest of life, that of 
 sober, righteous and godly living. They accounted themselves or- 
 thodox, to be sure, and their orthodoxy was Calvinism, or something 
 like it. But the orthodoxy of general consent is no fixed, unchange- 
 able thing. The orthodoxy of the Congregational churches in Mas- 
 sachusetts, to-day, is not that of a hundred years ago. This is some- 
 thing which changes with the generations. That which this age 
 determines shall be heresy, may be voted orthodox by the next ; 
 while the present orthodoxy may be pronounced heterodox by the 
 same authority. To know how much or little is implied in calling 
 an opinion or a man orthodox, we must consider where, when, and 
 by whom the term is used. 
 
 The ordination of Mr. Prentice, as has been observed, took place 
 the day after the formation of the Church. The Pastor elect was 
 a native of Cambridge,! where he was educated, having been grad- 
 
 * It was adopted by the First Church in Sterling iu 1744, and by the Northboro' 
 Church in 1746, as we learn from Rev. Mr. Allen's Centennial Discourse ; and by 
 the First Church in Worcester, with some slight modifications, making it more 
 doctrinal, in 1746, as we learn from Mr. Lincoln's History of Worcester. Mr. LiiT- 
 coln, in his excellent work (p. 171), seems to attribute the authorship of it to Rev. 
 Messrs. Campbell of Oxford, and Stone of Soutliboro', on the authority of Rev. 
 Mr. Maccarly. These gentlemen probably brought it forward for the acceptance 
 of that Church, but could hardly have originated it, as it had been long in use be- 
 fore that time. 
 
 t He was the son of Solomon Prentice, Jiud was born May lltli, 1705. Camb. 
 Town Records. 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 uated at Harvard College in the year l'r27. Testimonials of liis 
 qualifications for the ministry are among the Proprietors' Records, 
 signed by Messrs. Trowbridge of Groton, Appleton of Cambridge, 
 and Parkman of Westborough. Rev. Mr. Parkman introduced the 
 Ordination services with prayer ; Rev. Mr. Appleton preached ; 
 Rev. Mr. Swift of Framingham made the Ordaining prayer ; Rev. 
 Mr. Trowbridge joined in Laying on of Hands, and Rev. Mr. Lor- 
 ingof Sudbury gave the Right hand of Fellowship. 
 
 James Whipple and Samuel Cooper were chosen Deacons on the 
 21st January, 1732, ' by a very great majority.' 
 
 The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered for the 
 first time April 9th, 1732. 
 
 No provision seems to have been made for supplying the Com- 
 munion Table with suitable furniture, till the beginning of the year 
 1734, when £8 4s. were raised for the purpose from the following 
 sources : Five of the Proprietors living out of Town contributed £1 
 7s. 6d. ; the congregation contributed £2 6s. 6d. ; the Rev. Mr. 
 Flynt, of Harvard College, gave £1 10s.* and the Church itself 
 contributed c£3. Dea. James Whipple, Eleazer Fletcher and Silas 
 Warren, at different times afterwards, presented vessels to the 
 Church for their use in the ordinances. 
 
 The congregation were not then permitted to choose their own 
 seats in the meeting-house, nor to become permanent proprietors of 
 any particular accommodation in it. A Committee was chosen from 
 time to time, to assign seats to the worshippers, ' according to estate 
 and age.' This assignment of seats was called ' seating the meeting- 
 house.' The Indians being entitled to all the privileges of the 
 other inhabitants in regard to public worship, were consulted as to 
 their choice of seats, and were finally appointed to sit on either side 
 of the front door against the walls of the house, the men on one 
 side and the women on the other. 
 
 The connection between Mr. Prentice and his people was one of 
 uninterrupted harmony for several years. The men of those days 
 were men of prayer, who cheerfully maintained the institutions of 
 Christianity, murmuring at no sacrifices which were necessary to 
 
 * For an interesting account of this early benefactor of the Church, see Pierce's 
 History of Harvard College, 260-264. 
 
( 1^ ) 
 
 secure the ministrations of the word of God. They were a people 
 of few wants and simple habits. Their ministers, like themselves, 
 lived frugally, and usually shared with them to greater or less extent 
 in the labors of husbandry. If there is truth in the lines of the old 
 poet, they were abundantly blessed, scanty as were their worldly en- 
 dowments : 
 
 ' For gold and grace did never yet agree ; 
 E,eligion always sides with poverty.' 
 
 An anecdote, which tradition has preserved, gives us a vivid pic- 
 ture of the wildness of the country at this period. Mr. Prentice, it 
 is said, proceeding to meeting on a Sunday morning, observed a 
 bear ranging among the boughs of a chestnut tree not far from the 
 meeting house. Probably thinking it hardly prudent to leave him 
 to go at large, while the congregation were occupied in worship, he 
 returned to his house, and taking his gun, brought down the un- 
 welcome intruder from his retreat ; after which he again took his 
 way to the Church, where he undoubtedly led the devotions of the 
 assembly with more concentration and fervor of mind than he could 
 have commanded, if he had suffered the wild beast to roam through 
 the neighborhood in freedom.* 
 
 No events of particular importance in the history of the Church, 
 are to be noticed for about ten years after the settlement of the first 
 minister. It was about the year 1740, that the memorable and wide 
 spread religious excitement of the last century began to be strongly 
 felt here. It was in the latter part of that year that Whitefield arri- 
 ved in Boston. ' The churches throughout the land were thrown into 
 a state of intense agitation. Rev. Mr. Prentice was one who de- 
 cidedly favored the movement, and encouraged the measures of the' 
 itinerant preachers, whom he invited freely into his pulpit. He be-' 
 came what was termed at that time a ' New Light,' a title, the origin 
 and precise significance of which we are not sure that we know ; 
 but we have supposed that it referred to that inner light or percep- 
 tion, which some of the more extravagant of the revivalists claimed 
 to possess, and to the guidance of which they trusted with scarcely 
 less confidence than to the light of Scripture. | Whitefield is s^id' 
 
 * See Appendix, C. 
 
 t Many who were then known as belonging to the ' New Light ' party, after- 
 wards, wc are told, went to make up a set of strange fanatics called ' Live-for- 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 to have preached here one or more times, though not, as we can 
 learn, with any very extraordinary effect. On the 16th of May, 
 1742, Rev. Philemon Robbins of Branford, Conn., a man who was 
 actively engaged, both at home and abroad, in promoting the ex- 
 citement, preached here, when twenty or more persons are report- 
 ed to have fallen down with distress and anguish.* Ezekiel Coal 
 (or Cole), a member of this Church and an Indian, Solomon Paine, 
 Elihu Marsh, and others, who had begn ordained as lay preachers or 
 .exhorters, also came among the people at this period and preached. 
 
 The course of the Pastor was not approved by all the Church. 
 By the beginning of the year 1743, a disaffection had sprung up 
 which continued to work till it resulted in Mr. Prentice's dismis- 
 sion. Seven members at first withdrew from the communion.t 
 This led to discipline and discord. Meetings of the Church were 
 held without effect. Council upon council was called with no bet- 
 ter results. Neither party were satisfied u^r conciliated. After 
 many difficulties which we have neither the time nor inclination to 
 detail, a council was at last agreed on, which met on the 2d of 
 October, 1744. It closed its session on the 11th. The 'Result' 
 was printed by the aggrieved brethren, a circumstance which shows 
 that it was regarded as rather favorable to themselves than to their 
 pastor. It is an interesting document, as showing some of the 
 extravagances into which even sincere and well-meaning Christians 
 are liable to fall in seasons of high excitement, when the passions 
 over-ride the reason, and as illustrating some of the peculiar ab- 
 surdities which were not rare at that period. It shows also that 
 Mr. Prentice had gone so far as to lose, in a measure at least, the 
 confidence of his ministerial brethren of the neighborhood, as a 
 prudent and discreet minister. 
 
 Among the doctrines which he was charged with preaching, were 
 
 evers,' who had theiv head quarters hereabouts, and professed to beheve that they 
 should Uve an endless life ou earth. After this bubble of delusion burst, the same 
 elements, as was natural, entered into a third combination, and flourished for a 
 while as Shakers. 
 
 *liev. Mr. Parkman's Journal, in Tracy's 'Great Awakening,' p. 207. 
 
 t These seven were Thomas Axtell, Thomas Drury, John Ward, Aaron Hardy, 
 Israel Stevens, Jason Whitney and Simon Tai'utor. It appears before the 9th of 
 January, 1743, ' they had for some time withdrawn from the comnrunion.' Some 
 of them afterwards went so far as to sign another covenant. 
 
 3 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 such as these :— that we ' are to love none but such as are savingly 
 converted ;'— that the ' life and practice are the negative part ' of 
 Christianity ;— that a converted man might know others, whether 
 they were converted or not, by conversing with them ;-that he 
 might in fact, ' give a near guess, if they held their tongues.' Ihe 
 council judged that he had gone too far in his language on these 
 
 points. . . , , 
 
 Another charge was, that he had said that ' some ministers would 
 advise some persons in distress to prayer, which he said was abom- 
 inable.' Referring to the remark of another, 'that prayer is as 
 fatal to the soul as rats-bane is to the body,' he was said to have 
 added, 'I leave that, but I say it is abominable! abominable. 
 This doctrine the council pronounced unsound and of dangerous 
 
 tendency. 
 
 Another charge was, that he had said that ' the Court of Heaven 
 was adjourned for a' little space, till one of the members came 
 down to take upon him humanity.' These expressions were con- 
 demned as untrue, and as ' discovering a want of sound knowledge, 
 and implying a variety of absurd notions.' 
 
 It was complained that in one of his sermons he had said that 
 ' persons would follow their unconverted ministers, till they come 
 to hell.' It was one of the doctrines broached and much msisted 
 on during this religious agitation, that those who were truly con- 
 verted must not only certainly know it, but that they had the pow- 
 er of discerning with hardly less than certainty, whether or not 
 others were converted, and nothing was more common among the 
 over-heated zealots of that day, than the pronunciation of whole- 
 sale condemnation against the ministers of the land, multitudes of 
 whom were denounced as unconverted men. Mr. Prentice was 
 thought by the council to have countenanced these hard and un- 
 charitable judgments too much. 
 
 One other charge against the doctrines he preached was, that he 
 had said, ' to what purpose is it to preach to an uuregenerate man,' 
 * * * ' to tell him he must not kill, must not steal, must not 
 do these and those things? for he has no power to resist them ; for 
 heis the Devil's slave and vassal, and doeth just what the Devd 
 would have him do.' This was considered by the council as ' car- 
 rying the matter too far.' 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 The introduction of uneducated exhorters and itinerants into his 
 pulpit, and the obtrusion of himself into the charges of other min- 
 isters without their consent, were also charges preferred against 
 him. The council judged it condemnable and entreated him to 
 guard against such a course in future. 
 
 Other complaints were brought against the preaching of Mr. 
 Prentice, in which the council thought it proper to condemn him 
 in part, and caution him for the future. Nothing was urged against 
 him affecting his moral character. 
 
 The council exhorted the aggrieved brethren to bury all past 
 dissatisfaction, and to sit contentedly and peaceably under his mm- 
 istrations, if he should accept their judgment and advice. 
 
 We might suspect from the censures laid upon Mr. Prentice by 
 this council, that the men who composed it vvere unfriendly to him 
 or to the revival. But this suspicion is forbidden by the fact that 
 it was a mutual council. And we find the names of a majority of 
 the clerical members, associated with that of Mr. Prentice himself, 
 in a document issued the previous year from an assembly of minis- 
 ters met in Boston, bearing testimony to the genuineness of ' the 
 late revival of religion.'* 
 
 There can be no doubt that he was one of the most zealous fa- 
 vorers of the extraordinary means which were employed to produce 
 the tempest of religious emotion which swept over the whole coun- 
 try. His honesty and conscientiousness are not to be doubted for 
 a moment — his discretion may be. Some good probably came of 
 his measures ; but that much evil accompanied it there can be no 
 question. If there was a revival of religion here, there was a re- 
 vival of some things else which were not so good. The excite- 
 ment bore some fruits which are not to be recognized as Christian 
 fruits. 
 
 The result of the council was accepted by both parties, but evi- 
 dently with little heartiness on the part of the pastor. Indeed he 
 declared to the church that he felt ' very much hurt and pressed by 
 it ;' but ' as he had submitted matters of controversy to the coun- 
 cil,' he acquiesced in their judgment, * so far as he could and not 
 infringe upon his conscience.' 
 
 * Appendix, D. 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 There was but a temporary quiet enjoyed by the church after 
 this adjustment of its difficulties. There had been no real recon- 
 ciliation. In the early part of 1746 the disaffection broke out 
 aneV.* Mr. Prentice was charged with not having followed the 
 advice of the council in all particulars. He replied that he never 
 intended to in every particular, as he must violate his own con- 
 science if he did so. Church meetings were resumed ; council 
 followed council as before ; but all to no purpose. The advice of 
 the counsellors was in each case voted accepted by all, and then 
 followed by none. The Church continued in this distracted state 
 till Mr. Prentice at last ' signified that he was discouraged in his 
 station,' and was willing to receive a dismission. A council was 
 accordingly called, by whose advice he was dismissed, July 10th, 
 1747. 
 
 In a communication which he made to this council, he alludes 
 most touchingly to his trials and perplexities, exhibiting a deep and 
 tender interest in the flock of his charge, and expressing his desire 
 to continue in the sacred office of the ministry, ' if it might be for 
 the glory of God, and the spiritual good of His church and people.' 
 It breathes throughout the spirit of the devoted Christian pastor, 
 who desires to live only for his Master's great work ; and whatever 
 errors of doctrine or practice he may have fallen into in the admin- 
 istration of religious truth, none, who read his feeling lamentations 
 over the sad dissensions in the church, and his humble account of 
 his own labors, can fail to be impressed with the belief, that he was 
 a ' man of God,' pure in heart, and of true piety. Whatever may 
 have been his errors, their root was not in the heart. 
 
 After the dissolution of his connection with this people, he went 
 to Easton, in Bristol County, where he was installed pastor of the 
 First Congregational Church in^^that town on the 2d of November, 
 1747. He remained there about seven years, and near the close of 
 those seven years, his opinions having undergone some change, he is 
 said to have proposed that his Church should join the Presbyteri- 
 ans. Some favored it, but a majority refused. He notwithstanding 
 
 * The length to which it had gone may be inferred from the foUowing entry 
 made by the pastor upon the records: ' May 4, 17i6,'_Sac't of tlie Lord's Supper 
 administered here. Many, viz. sixty, absent.' 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 joined them as a, minister, and had one or more meetings of the 
 Presbytery at his house. For some cause not known, the Presby- 
 tery in 1754 suspended him temporarily from his ministry. This 
 cut him off from the support of the parish and the means of living, 
 End he scon left the place and returned to Grafton. He continued 
 to preach in different places till near the close of his life. He died 
 in this town May 22, 1773, aged sixty-eight. 
 
 Mr. Prentice erected a house, in which he lived while minister of 
 the town, upon or near the spot now occupied by the house of 
 Hon. Samuel Wood. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Merriam was chosen the third deacon of the Church 
 in 1742. 
 
 It was nearly three years after Mr. Prentice was dismissed before 
 another minister was settled. During this interval, in 1749, the 
 Church voted to take the Cambridge Platform as their rule of 
 Church discipline ' in the main things or articles therein contain- 
 ed.' They took it only ' in so far as they thought it to be support- 
 ed by and grounded on the express word of God.' ' As to other 
 things that might be looked on as expedients for the well-orderinir 
 of a church,' they adopted it as their 'general' rule.* 
 
 Rev. Aaron Hutchinson, from Hebron, Ct., was ordained the 
 second pastor of this church, June 6, 1750. t Rev. Mr. Martyn, of 
 Westborough, [now Northboro',] made the first prayer. The Rev. 
 Mr. Pumroy, of Hebron, preached the sermon from Acts xx. 28. 
 The Rev. Mr. Loring, of Sudbury, gave the charge, and Rev. Mr. 
 Parkman, of Westborough, the right hand of Fellowship. The 
 Rev. Mr. Hall, of Sutton, joined in laying on of hands, and made 
 
 * The attempt seems to have been made at a later day to bring the Churcli uu- 
 dbr a'lnore'stn'ngent appHcation of the Cambridge Platform, but without success. 
 Tlie qut^tion, a's it ealne before the Church, seems to have been, ' whetlier tlie 
 church do now adhere to the Cainbridgje Platform, as a full and just system for 
 chure.h Rule and discipline, as being full well proved and supported by the word 
 of God ill efi.ch and every part and paragraph therein contained.' The words itali- 
 cised are partially erased. The vote as passed was, ' to atlhere to it as a good plan 
 ol' church rule and discipline.' We may al.so infer that this church practised a less 
 rigorous discipline than some of the neighboring churches, from the fact that one 
 of its members in r^gular standing was refused admittance to a church in an ad- 
 joining town, because of his unwillingness to sign their articles of discipline. 
 
 t Appendix, E. 
 
( '22 ) 
 
 the last prayer. Rev. Mr. Stone, of Southborough, and] Mr. 
 Maccarty, of Worcester, ' consented and helped by their voice.' 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson remained in the ministry here till Nov. 18, 1772, 
 when he was dismissed by the church, (though not by the town,) 
 having been the pastor a little more than twenty-two years. The 
 condition of the church during his connection with it seems to 
 have been for the most part peaceful and prosperous. He was a 
 man of strong natural powers of mind, and was considered a learn- 
 ed man and a good classical scholar by his contemporaries. Soon 
 after his settlement the covenant was so altered as to recognize the 
 doctrine of the Trinity, and to require the scriptures to be under- 
 stood ' in that view as exhibited to us in the well known Westminster 
 Catechism.' It was the hand of Mr. Hutchinson that interlined 
 these alterations of the covenant, and it was doubtless his counsel 
 that led to their adoption. In his theology he was severe and some- 
 what dogmatical. Being called in the year 1767 to Newbury, to 
 sit on an ecclesiastical council which was convened by some disaf- 
 fected members of the First Church in that place, a Sabbath passed 
 during the time the council was in session, and Mr. Hutchinson 
 preached by invitation at Newburyport. His sermon was published, 
 and led to a protracted controversy. Rev. John Tucker, (after- 
 wards Dr.,) minister of the First Parish in Newbury, was of Armi- 
 nian sentiments — sentiments which were then entertained by a con- 
 siderable number of the clergy of New-England. It was his suppo- 
 sed heresy which called together the council of which Mr. Hutch- 
 inson was a member. The sermon that he preached was aimed at 
 this defection from Calvin, and those preachers who countenanced 
 it. It was entitled ' Valour for the Truth.'* The main doctrine 
 which it seeks to establish, is that of original and imputed sin, 
 vvliich he carries out to its full and legitimate results, by urging 
 that infants are exposed to damnation and eternal misery. He op- 
 poses the notion that infants are innocent, with argument, satire 
 and ridicule, declaring that they are ' sinners, guilty and .polluted, 
 or they cannot be saved in any way pointed out in our Bible.' This 
 odious doctrine, now abandoned by many Calvinists of New-Eng- 
 land, Mr. Hutchinson propounded and maintained in all its offen- 
 
 *Toxt— Jer. IX, 3—' But they arc not valiant for the trutli upon the earth.' 
 
( '^'i ) 
 
 sive baldness, without any attempt at softening or palliation ; deal- 
 ing ever and anon, as he went along, side blows at those preachers 
 whose teaching conformed not to his doctrine, and almost as often 
 at those ' Neuters,' as he termed them, ' who hide their principles, 
 hover in the dark, and whose trumpet gives an uncertain sound.' 
 If he has little patience with those who deny his cherished dogmas, 
 he has less with those who say nothing about them, or hold them by 
 halves. Mr. Tucker reviewed his sermon, and pamphlets followed 
 from both sides. Mr. Hutchinson found he had encountered no 
 contemptible antagonist. He was opposed with a set of weapons 
 different from his own, but not less effective. He was a son of 
 thunder, strong, bold and impetuous. His opponent was quick- 
 eyed, practised and self-possessed. The skill of the disputants, and 
 the lively interest taken in the questions under discussion by the 
 religious world at that period, gave considerable celebrity to the 
 controversy. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson was distinguished for an extraordinary memory. 
 The tradition is familiar to you, that he considered himself capable 
 of re-writing the New Testament if it should be lost. There are 
 those now living among us, who remember to have seen him enter 
 the pulpit and go through the whole service without opening a book 
 of any kind. He appointed his hymns and recited them, as well as 
 passages of scripture, with entire confidence in his memory, and 
 without mistake. 
 
 The church records throw no light upon the causes of Jlr. Hutch- 
 inson's dismission from his people. They barely state the fact of 
 his dismission, showing that the proposition to separate came from 
 himself Difi^iculties are hinted at, but neither stated nor explained. 
 We find in the town records, that when it was voted, in 1771, to 
 pay Mr. Hutchinson his salary as usual, fifteen persons entered their 
 dissent from that ^ote, on the ground that he had ' forfeited his sal- 
 ary by his irregular conduct, as had been proved before an ecclesi- 
 astical council, he having been found guilty of dissimulation, hypoc- 
 risy and violation of truth.' But the charges of these fifteen dissent- 
 ers bear strong marks of being dictated by feelings of personal un- 
 friendliness; for it is not probable that if such flagrant misconduct 
 had been clearly proven to the satisfaction of the unprejudiced, the 
 number of dissenters would have been so small, nor that the town 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 would have refused to dismiss Mr. Hutchinson when a council 
 advised it. Neither can we suppose that the church would have 
 recommended him to the fellowship of a sister church, as they did, 
 if they had believed that such charges against his moral character 
 could be substantiated. The town refused to accept the result of 
 the council which advised Mr. Hutchinson's dismissal in 1771, and 
 voted not to release him. And when the question came up a year 
 after, whether they would concur with the church's vote in dismiss- 
 ing him, they refused to concur. It appears that he had not be- 
 come generally unacceptable to the people ; and that the town never 
 / did by vote consent to his dismission. Many were dissatisfied that 
 the church should act in the matter without the concurrence of the 
 town, and when afterwards the town was asked to unite with the 
 church in calling another minister, one man, Mr. Abraham Temple, 
 objected to any such proceeding being had on the ground that ' the 
 church had not informed the town what is become of their old rnin- 
 ister.' The church, however, expressly disclaimed the intention of 
 abridging the rights of the town, or of assuming the power to settle 
 or dismiss a minister without the town's consent. It is probable 
 that Mr. Hutchinson, finding "that his presence was the cause of dis- 
 sension, chose to retire without waiting for the town to agree to his 
 departure. The termination of his pastoral relation to his people, we 
 are inclined to believe, was occasioned more by some offensive ec- 
 centricities in his social habits, than by any defect of moral char- 
 acter, or disqualifications as a teacher of religion. lie was with- 
 out grace or polish in his manners, and his freedom, though he 
 probably was not conscious of it himself, must often have verged 
 upon rudeness. This trait might naturally produce in some minds, 
 after a time, a degree of coolness, and even aversion. A,nd a breach 
 beinw once made, it is not difficult to conceive that it should grad- 
 ually increase till it ended in an open rupture.^ 
 
 The house which stands a few feet south of the 'Evangelical 
 Congregational' church, was built and occupied by Mr. Hutchinson. 
 
 He died, at an advanced age, in Vermont. He graduated at 
 Yale College in 1747, and was honored with the degree of Master 
 of Arts from Harvard and Dartmouth Colleges. Several of his 
 sermons were published. Those which we have seen bear the same 
 characteristics on which we have remarked at some length in one 
 
( '^o ) 
 
 of them. He was confident in his opinions and strong in main- 
 taining them. He pressed his views vigorously and forcibly upon 
 liis hearers, and probably carried them with him generally to his 
 own conclusions. He must have been a preacher of much more 
 than common power and influence.* 
 
 Abner Stow was elected the fourth Deacon of this Church in 
 1750, and Joseph Batcheller the fifth in 1765. 
 
 In the year 1770, Watts's version of the Psalms, ' together with 
 his scripture hymns in the first and third books,' came into use as 
 a collection of hymns for public worship. 't Previous to this the 
 New England version had been in use, and the change to a new 
 book was here, as generally elsewhere, attended with no little diffi- 
 culty and opposition. It was about the same time that the church 
 Velinquished to selected choristers the authority to appoint the tunes 
 which should be sung in church; though not without a reservation, 
 which required all but the tune after the last prayer to be * such 
 tunes as have been usual of late, and such old tunes as upon tryal 
 may be thought proper for the public worship.' The first persons 
 chosen choristers were Jonathan Stow and Moses Harrington. 
 
 After Mr. Hutchinson's dismission the church was without a pas- 
 tor till Oct, 19, 1774, when Mr. Daniel (jrosvenor, from Pomfret, 
 Conn., was ordained the third minister of the town. 
 
 In the ordaining services, the Rev. Aaron Putnam, Pastor of the 
 first church in Pomfret, began with prayer ; the Rev. Ebenezer 
 Grosvenor, preached from Gen. 45 : 24 ;t the Rev. Elisha Fish, of 
 Upton, prayed before the charge ; and Rev. David Ripley, of the 
 third church in Pomfret, (now Abington,) and the Rev. Joseph 
 Sumner, of Shrewsbury, joined in laying on hands ; the Rev. David 
 Hall, of Sutton, gave the charge ; the Rev. Amariah Frost, of the 
 second church in Mendon, (now Milford,) gave the right hand of 
 
 * See Appendix, F. 
 
 1 1 do not find in the Church records any intimation of the reasons for which 
 tlie second booli was rejected. Mr. Brigham, in his valuable Centennial Address, 
 ascribes it to its ' supposed unscriptural cha'-acter.' 
 
 i The preacher was an older brother of the pastor elect, at that time minister of 
 Pcituate, afterwards settled at Harvard. His sermon was printed. His text, ' See 
 that ye fall not by the way,' gave him occasion to point out the sources both in ^9^-^/" 
 minister and people, frcm which faUings out usually come. Its couiipif was ju- 
 dicious and well-timed. 
 
 4 
 
(26) 
 
 Fellowship ; and tlie Rev. Josiah Whitney, of the second church 
 in Pomfret, (now Brooklyn,) made the last prayer. 
 
 Mr. Grosvenor continued in the ministry here till the close of 
 the year 1787, when he was dismissed at his ov/n request, having 
 lost his voice. He had never constant and firm health, and was 
 obliged occasionally to suspend his pulpit labors for a while, before 
 the failure of his voice entirely disabled him. The success of his 
 ministerial labors here is best attested by the imwillingness of his 
 people to consent to his removal, so long as they saw any reason to 
 hope that he would be able to resume his labors. He was a man 
 of very pleasing manners, both in the pulpit and out of it, dignified 
 in his bearing, courteous and engaging in his address. Rare con- 
 versational powers, united with these qualities, made him every- 
 where a pleasant companion. His fondness of anecdote, ready wit 
 and plentiful resources, also served to make his presence always 
 welcome to those who loved society. In his doctrines he was said 
 to be moderate, avoiding all extremes ; and as his manner of speak- 
 ing was easy, fluent and vivacious, his attractions as a preacher 
 were much more than ordinary. The years of his ministry em- 
 braced the period of our Revolutionary struggle, in which crisis 
 he evinced his attachment to the cause of his country by ' leaving 
 his pulpit, taking his musket and joining the company of minute 
 men that went to Cambridge on the 19th of April.'* 
 
 The church was united and peaceful during his ministry, and 
 consented with reluctance to his dismission. 
 
 Mr. Grosvenor, having recovered his voice, was settled again in 
 Paxton on the 5th of Nov. 1794, where he remained eight years. 
 He resigned his charge there on the 17th of Nov. 1802, t and spent the 
 latter years of his life at Petersham. He was born in Pomfret, Ct., 
 in 1749, graduated at Yale College in 1769, and died at Petersham, 
 July 22, 1834, aged eighty-four years. His grave is made in my 
 native village. His white locks and venerable appearance I re- 
 member well, having often looked upon them with respect in my 
 childhood. 
 
 After Mr. Grosvenor's resignation the church remained destitute 
 
 * Brigliam's Centennial Address, p. 29. 
 t Worcester Magazine, II, 240. 
 
( '^7 ) 
 
 of a pastor nearly nine years. . The records made during tl;is time 
 are meagre, and contain little matter of interest. 
 
 In 1790, Joseph Merriam, Jr. and Jonathan Stow were chosen 
 deacons. 
 
 The same year Mr. Nathaniel Howe was invited to become the 
 minister of the town, but declined the invitation. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Grosvenor was succeeded by Mr. John Miles, a native 
 of Westminster and graduate of Brown University, R. I., who was 
 * ordained the fourth pastor of the church, Oct. 12th, 1796. We 
 here come to a period in the history of which some now living bore 
 apart. We shall pass on rapidly to a conclusion, noting only a few 
 important facts which deserve a somewhat particular mention. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Miles's ministry continued thirty years. He was dismiss- 
 ed on the 7th of September, 1826, with expressions of respect arid 
 affection from his people, and with a recommendation from an ec- 
 clesiastical council as a worthy minister of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The same day, Mr. Moses C. Searle was ordained his successor. 
 ■ In 1810, Timothy Merriam and Nathaniel Adams were elected 
 deacons. Albert Stone was elected to the same office in 1820, Jo- 
 seph Merriam in 1824,* Holland Greenwood in 1831, and Otis 
 Prince in 1832. 
 
 In April, 1827, the expediency of establishing a Sabbath School 
 was considered by the church, and it was voted to make the * at- 
 tempt.' The attempt succeeded. 
 
 Soon after the settlement of Mr. Searle, it became the policy of 
 the pastor and church to insist more strenuously than had been usual 
 upon doctrinal qualifications, as conditions of admission to the fel- 
 lowship of the church. It was voted that persons coming from 
 other churches with certificates of dismission and recommendation, 
 ' should be examined before the church as was customary in the 
 case of those who come forward the first time to make profession of 
 religion.' In 1828, the covenant was revised and altered in such 
 a manner as to give it a more sectarian aspect, and a creed of many 
 articles was appended to it, apparently for the same purpose. The 
 ancient and catholic foundation upon which the church was reared, 
 
 * Three Joseph Merriams of three successive generations have held this oSicp 
 in the church. 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 was at last swept away, and the narrow platform of a party was sub- 
 stituted for it. The consequence of this prescription of the creed 
 of a sect was, of course, that none but persons of that sect could 
 gain admission to the church, or participate in those ordinances 
 which the Saviour has enjoined upon his followers. The presence 
 of sectarian tests in the covenant had, indeed, since its alteration 
 in 1750, kept all but the adherents of the Westminster Catechism 
 without its pale. Faith, humility, prayer, a devout walk and con- ^ 
 versation, had ceased to be sufficient criteria of Christian disciple- 
 ship, and conditions of Christian communion. The majority of the 
 congregation had risen, as they believed, to a juster apprehension 
 of religious truth. They had ceased to believe in some of the doc- 
 trines which their fathers had held, and felt that they were not edifi- 
 ed by hearing them still presented as the very essence of Christian- 
 ity. But none of them, however accordant their lives and spirits 
 with the teaching and example of Jesus, could be members of this 
 church. Though they might be of those of whom Jesus said, they 
 are ' my brother and sister and mother,' though the Bible alone was 
 their creed and the rule of their living, they were not admitted to 
 the fellowship of this church, which received to its communion only 
 those who would take in addition to the Bible a creed to limit it. 
 
 It was no strange thing, therefore, that when the majority of the 
 Society chose to dismiss a minister, Avhose teaching seemed to them 
 neither true nor profitable, they should part company with a church, 
 every member of which stood committed to a doctrinal system 
 which they rejected as human in its origin, and unscriptural in its 
 character. 
 
 Such was the case. This society, at a meeting held on the third 
 of December, 1831, voted to dismiss Rev. Mr. Searle. The mem- 
 bers of the church, who of course could have been only such as em- 
 braced the same opinions that their pastor held, since such only were 
 allowed in the creed, soon seceded, and with others organized a 
 new society with which they voted as a church to connect them- 
 selves. They took the name of the ' Evangelical Congregational 
 Church and Society.' 
 
 All the members of the church having left the Society, there 
 was now no obstacle to the re-formation of a church within the 
 bosom of the Society. 
 
( -i^ ) 
 
 This was accordingly done. On Sunday, Aug. r>, 18J>2, a church 
 * was regularly gathered from the Congregational Society, called the 
 Congregational Church ;' as such it is known to the laws of the 
 land, it being considered the successor to the original church con- 
 nected with this Society. Nineteen persons covenanted together 
 as members. The venerable Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester, and Rev. 
 Edward B. Hall, now of Providence, R. I., who was then preaching 
 to the Society, conducted the services of the occasion. The 
 covenant which was adopted is as follows : 
 
 " Being desirous of obeying the precepts and enjoying the privi- 
 leges of the Christian Religion, and aiding each other in the dis- 
 charge of its duties, we do, by this covenant, unite in a Christian 
 church, to walk together in the faith and order of the Gospel, giv- 
 ing the following expressions of our individual belief and desire : — 
 
 " I believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as 
 the Avord of God and receive them as the proper and only rule 
 of faith and duty. I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, 
 ' exalted to be a Prince and Saviour,' the ' Mediator between God 
 and man,' ' the way, the truth and the life.' On his religion I rest 
 my hopes of salvation. His precepts I wish to obey. And I now 
 unite myself to His church, to commemorate His love in the ordi- 
 nance which He instituted and gave to His disciples. 
 
 " I do this as an expression of my firm belief in the divinity of 
 His religion, and my earnest desire and solemn purpose to live as 
 His disciple, humbly hoping through the grace of God to become 
 an heir of salvation." 
 
 Isaac W. Wood was chosen deacon of the church, Aug. 9th, 
 1832. Mr. Rufus A. Johnson was ordained its pastor in 1833, and 
 dismissed in 1838. He was succeeded by Rev. Cazneau Palfrey, 
 who continued in the same office till the spring of 1843. 
 
 I have thus followed the history of this church doivn to a recent 
 period, since which its history is known to you all. I do not feel 
 at liberty to detain you with the reflections which my theme has 
 been so fruitful in suggesting. Many a text for profitable lessons 
 have we left unheeded in reviewing these chronicles of the past. I 
 only wait now to enjoin it upon you (as I do also upon myself,) to 
 cherish in remembrance the virtues of the fathers. And, while we 
 venerate their names, and admire the heroic constancy and entire- 
 
(.30 ) 
 
 ness of their allegiauce to the Kingdom of Christ, may we do bet- 
 ter than admire, may we imitate. May we learn to venerate, even 
 more than themselves, the truth that made them what they were. 
 We are not the sons of our fathers, if we look to any other than 
 Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith. We are not their 
 children, if we make even themselves our chief teachers. They 
 ' charge us before God and his blessed angels that we follow the 
 Lord Jesus Christ.' They charge us not to ' come to a period in 
 religion,' but to have our eyes ever directed to the * written word,' 
 expectant of increasing light. We are not of them, if we remain 
 fast fixed at the point which they last left. If we would be to our 
 age and to them, what they were to their age and their forefathers, 
 we must be advancing from their position, looking higher and get- 
 ting forward, lingering not in lazy contentment with any present 
 acquirements. Above all, if we would make good a claim to their 
 kindred, we must cherish those Christian principles and affections 
 which they prized above all knowledge. Their self-renunciation, 
 their sustaining and unquenchable faith in the paternal providence 
 of God, their unintermitting and martyr-like devotion as Christian 
 disciples, their steadfast adhesion to the cause of Christianity and 
 the interests of the church, these are the marked features in their 
 characters. Take these away, and you take away the traits that 
 distinguish them from their generation. And in so far as these are 
 wanting in us, we want the qualities which alone can render us 
 worth v of them. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A.-PAGE 3. 
 
 A secession from the Congregational Society took place in 18;V2, 
 on account of differences in matters of faith. The minority that with- 
 drew comprised the church. The records and furniture of the 
 church were removed by them. They were asked to return these 
 to the Congregational Church, but refused. This church, although 
 believing that they needed only to insist upon the restoration of this 
 property to recover it, were disinclined to prosecute their claims by 
 litigation. The matter rested till near the dose of the year 1845, 
 when it was again taken into consideration by the church. It was 
 then voted to choose a committee to communicate with the Evan- 
 gelical Congregational Church on the subject. This led to the fol- 
 lowing correspondence : 
 
 ' Grafton, Jan. 20, 1846. 
 
 ' To THK Evangelical Congregational Church in Grafton : 
 Christian Brethren and Friends : — 
 
 ' At a recent meeting of 
 the Congregational Church in said Grafton, we were appointed a 
 committee to address a communication to you respecting certain 
 records of the Congregational Church supposed to be now in your 
 possession and subject to your control. In obedience to our in- 
 
( 3^2 ) 
 
 ptructious, we pioceiid to lay the mutter with which we are charged 
 before you. 
 
 ' You are aware that in the year of our Lord 183'2, a part of the 
 Congregational Society, and all of the members but one* of the 
 church connected \Tith the Society, seceded from that parish. You 
 are aware that the se&eding members of the church took with them 
 in tlieir removal all the records of the Congregational Church, 
 which had been made up to the time of their seces:?ion. You are 
 aware that a deuiand of those records was soon after made by a 
 deacon of the Congregational Church, upon one who had been its 
 deacon, but who had seceded from the Congregational Society, and 
 that that demand was not complied with. 
 
 ' These records we consider ever to have been, and still to be, 
 legally and rightfully the property of the Congregational Church, — 
 by which we mean the church connected with the Congregational 
 Society. This cimrch has forborne hitherto to press its claim to 
 this property to the utmost by bringing the matter before a legal 
 tribunal. It has forborne to do this, not from any doubt of the va- 
 lidity of its claim, nor any doubt as to what the decision of such a 
 tribunal would be; for we suppose there can be no question that 
 the law, as it has been uniformly expounded in our Courts, would 
 award these records to the church connected with the Congrega- 
 tional Society. But we have been unwilling to provoke dissension 
 or bitterness of feeling. We have suffered what we have deemed 
 our rights to be long withheld from us, from reluctance to exact 
 them at the expense of peace. It is repugnant to our minds as 
 Christians, to present to the community the spectacle of two Chris- 
 tian churches resorting to litigation to settle their differences. We 
 are still, as we have always been, solicitous to avoid giving any 
 cause of acrimonious or unfriendly feelings. In that spirit we now 
 address you, and, as we are authorized to do, submit to your con- 
 sideration the following proposals : 
 
 * The records of the church being beyond the reach of this committee at the 
 time their letter was written, they may be pardoned a slight mistake in supposinij 
 that one member was left behind by the seceding church, when in fact the one 
 member who did not withdraw in their company hud been excommunicated, as a 
 step 2'rcli mi tuiry to theii- secession. The excision of this member took ])lace af- 
 ter the artual separation of the church from the society, though before the formal 
 dissolution of ths connection. 
 
( 3:3 ) 
 
 ' First. We respectfully ask you to surrender to us the records 
 of the Congregational Church before referred to ;— because we re- 
 gard the church now connected with the Congregational Society 
 as the true Congregational Church, and the rightful possessor of 
 the same. 
 
 ' Such a request has once been refused. It may be again. We 
 are therefore willing in the spirit of compromise and concession to 
 make other propositions. We do not forget— although it does not 
 affect the question of rights— that the seceders from the Congrega- 
 tional Society embraced almost the entire church. W^e consider 
 that it is possible you may have incorporated the records of your 
 own church with those of the Congregational Church in the same 
 volume, so that you cannot give up the latter without the loss of 
 the former. We consent then, for the sake of peace, and to relieve 
 you from any inconvenience or embarrassment, to relinquish alto- 
 gether our claim to the said records upon either of the followino- 
 conditions, viz. : that you will furnish us with a complete copy ol" 
 them, giving us the privilege of comparing it with the original ; or, 
 that you will allow us to take the original records, and keep them' 
 for such length of time as shall be sufficient for making a copy of 
 them, we pledging ourselves that they shall be safely returned to 
 your possession when copied. 
 
 'In making these proposals we conceive that we ask nothing 
 which is not clearly reasonable and just. In thus offering to yield 
 that to which we consider ourselves fully entitled, we ''desire to 
 evince the sincerity of our wish for harmony and peace. That 
 which we ask, can be, we are sure, no loss to you, though it will be 
 of great value to us. 
 
 ' Wishing you all spiritual blessings in Christ, we subscribe our- 
 selves, 
 
 Isaac W. Wood, \ 
 
 Charles Brigham, Jr., \ Committee.' 
 
 HiLLEL Baker, j 
 
{ 34 ) 
 
 'Grafton, Feb. 10, 1846. 
 
 'To Messrs. Isaac W. Wood, Charles Brigham, Jr., and 
 HiLLEL Baker. 
 
 Gentlemen : — 
 
 ' Your communication of Jan. 20th, relative to 
 the Records of the Evangelical Congregational Church, was laid 
 before said church at their preparatory lecture on Friday last; 
 whereupon, after consultation, without expressing their views as to 
 their right to the Records, it was voted to accede to your last pro- 
 position made in your communication, and loan you the first two 
 volumes of the Records, one at a time, and furnish you with a copy 
 of what is contained in the third volume up to the time of the sep- 
 aration of the church from the Congregational Society ; and that 
 you have opportunity of comparing it with the original if desired. 
 At the same time we were chosen a Committee to communicate to 
 you the above proceedings. 
 
 'The Records are with our Pastor who will deliver them to an 
 authorized agent. 
 
 ' With sincere regard, 
 
 We are, Gentlemen, Yours, 
 
 Otis Adams, \ 
 
 Holland Greenwood, > Committee.' 
 
 Oliver M. Brigham, ) 
 
 We withhold comment on these letters, preferring to leave it 
 with each candid reader to make his own. 
 
 As to the legality of our claim to these church books and other 
 property, we believe it is generally admitted by those who retain 
 them As to the righteousness of it, although we are satisfied, af- 
 ter carefully examining the grounds upon which the law is based, 
 that it is just, still, let it be allowed that there is room for honest 
 difference of opinion as to the justness of the law, or the sound- 
 ness of its interpretation,-yet, we would ask,-may Christians in- 
 nocently put at naught, in a question of property, any law whenev- 
 
AlU 
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 er they feel it burdensoine to themselves? Is an interested party 
 competent tolet aside the operation of a statute, whenever, in A/s 
 oyinion, it fails to secure to him his own rights ? 
 
 B.—PACH 4. 
 
 Since this Sermon was prepared we have obtained more definite 
 information respecting the first Baptist church gathered here. From 
 the scanty records of that church which have been preserved, and 
 from the private records kept by one of its founders, I learn the 
 following facts. 
 
 Preachers of the Baptist denomination began to visit Grafton and 
 hold meetings here at least as early as 1758. Samuel Hovey, of 
 Mendon, preached here several times that year. But it was not 
 till June 17, 1767, that a church was gathered. At that time a 
 council met, ' consisting of Elder Alden's church in Bellingham, 
 and Elder Backus's in Middleborough, when a Baptist church was 
 regularly formed.' Four persons, Joseph Whipple, Jacob Whipple, 
 Ebenezer Wheeler and Robert Leathe [Lathe] were dismissed from 
 a Baptist church in Leicester to join this. Mr. Wheeler, and prob- 
 ably the others, had previously been accustomed to attend worship 
 at Leicester, twelve or fourteen miles distant. The number origi- 
 nally gathered into this church we do not know, but it must have 
 been small, for it was some time before they were able to have a 
 preacher statedly with them. In the year 1773. it was ' voted to 
 get Elder Winchester to preach,' which was accordingly done. But 
 two years after they were destitute, ' having no under Shepherd.' 
 At this time, Sept., 1775, there were ' about twenty-eight living 
 members.' They had no regular place of worship, but met from 
 house to house, a few Sabbaths at a place. In March, 1779, it was 
 ' voted to get Elder Eustick to preach.' He remained with them 
 more than three years. In Oct., 1784, an ' Elder Ingalls' was here. 
 
( '^^ ) -\ 
 
 whose name we find subscribed to records as late as March 19, 
 1786. As early as the spring of 1784, and probably some years 
 earlier, they had a meeting-house, which stood at the junction of 
 the roads leading from Farnumsville and Saundersville to the cen- 
 tre of the town. The latest entry made in the record-book is dated 
 June 10, 1787. The church probably did not continue in exist- 
 ence long after. Rev. Mr. Whitney, of Northboro', when he wrote 
 his history of the County, in 1793, says there was neither minis- 
 ter nor church of the Baptist denomination in the town, ' and 
 very few anabaptist families.' 
 
 The present ' First Baptist Church' was formed, we are told, in 
 
 C— PAGE 18. 
 
 This anecdote occasions us no qualms of conscience on our own 
 behalf, but we are almost surprised, we confess, that neither Mr. 
 Prentice nor his parishoners should have had any scruples as to the 
 propriety of his act, in those days of punctilious sabbath-keeping. 
 Had it been a question of a few rows of corn, or a sheep or two, 
 we cannot think the minister would have turned from his walk to the 
 meeting-house. But the apprehension that might be felt for the 
 safety of children, or other unprotected persons in the settlement, 
 would perhaps justify it to the most exact. 
 
 It seems to us more in keeping with the spirit of the age, that 
 ' Brother Ezekiel Cole' should have ' come before the church,' as 
 the records say he did, on the 13th of Feb., 1743, ' and acknowledged 
 his fault for going a gunning on the public thanksgiving day ap- 
 pointed for the King's deliverance in the late battle on the river 
 Mayne in Germany.' 
 
( -^7 ) 
 
 D.— PAGE 19. 
 
 The following seven churches were represented in this council. 
 The third church in Ipswich, then called Ipswich Hamlet, now the 
 town of Hamilton. Samuel Wigglesworth, its pastor, was Modera- 
 tor of the council. The First Church in Mendon, Joseph Dorr, 
 Pastor ; the Second Church in Mendon, now Milford, Amariah 
 Frost, Pastor ; the Church in Medford, Ebenezer Turell, Pastor ; 
 the First Church in Maiden, Joseph Emerson, Pastor ; the First 
 Church in Reading, William Hobby, Pastor ; the Third Church 
 in Salem. We are informed that there was no church in Salem de- 
 signated as the Third at the time this council was convened. But 
 that which afterwards took the style of the Third Church had for 
 its Pastor, at that time, Samuel Fisk. It is that which is now call- 
 ed the Tabernacle Church. 
 
 E.— PAGE 21. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson's salary was four hundred Pounds, Old Tenor, 
 * during his continuing regular in the pastoral office in said Grafton.* 
 These four hundred Pounds were to be paid when the following com- 
 modities were marketable at the following prices, ' and to rise and 
 fall in proportion as the several necessaries of life herein mentioned 
 are generally bought and sold.' 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 'Wheat at 2 the EuAcl. "i 
 
 Rye " 1 10 '^ " f 
 
 Iiid. Corn" 1 " " > OLD TEXOR.' 
 
 Pork " 2 the Pound. L 
 
 Beef " 1 " " 1 
 
( '^^ ) 
 
 F.— PAdE 23. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson not only united in himself the clergyman and 
 farmer, after the common custom of his time, but combined with his 
 clerical and agricultural pursuits, the office o*" teacher. Well au- 
 thenticated tradition has handed down to us the ingenious expedient 
 by which he managed so to economise time as to meet his multifa- 
 rious engagements. His method was to teach Latin and Greek, 
 and probably other branches, as he wrought in the field, his pupils 
 being required to follow him as he followed the plough. His classi- 
 cal attainments and strong memory enabled him thus to cultivate 
 mind and mould at the same time. Both soils, we doubt not, were 
 well tilled, though we may innocently conjecture that the master 
 at the plough handle would now and then be guilty of an ungram- 
 matical apocope, as the share was caught with frequent jerks among 
 the roots and rocks of the rough new country. None but an ac- 
 complished linguist, we are sure, could under such circumstances, 
 have administered Greek to the student, and English to the cattle, 
 in due proportion and proper order, without confusion. 
 
 The following list of sermons we find in the catalogue of the 
 American Antiquarian Society's Library, preached by Mr. Hutch- 
 inson. It is hardly probable that this is a complete list of his pub- 
 lished discourses. 
 
 ' Valour for the Truth, a Sermon preached at Newburyport, 
 Mass., April 27, 1767, 8vo. Boston, 1767.' 
 
 * Sermon at Grafton, Mass., Oct. 23, 1768, 8vo. Boston, 1769.' 
 (This was a sermon preached the Sabbath after the Execution of 
 Arthur, at Worcester.) 
 
 ' Two Sermons at Grafton, Nov. 15, 1772, 8vo. Boston, 1773.' 
 (His last sermons to his congregation in Grafton.) 
 
 'Sermon at Northbridge, Mass., Nov. 29, 1772, 8vo. Boston, 
 1773.' 
 
 * Sermon at Pelham, Mass., Dec. 23, 1773, 8vo. Boston.' 
 Since this Sermon was prepared we have been kindly furnished 
 
 with some additional particulars respecting Mr. H., by his only sur- 
 viving son, Hon. Titus Hutchinson, of Woodstock, Vt. 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 Mr. n. was born in Hebron, Ct. ; — that is, within what was He- 
 bron at the time of his birth. After lie was dismissed from his 
 pastoral charge here, he supplied pulpits in the neighborhood for 
 some time. In the spring of 1775, he purchased a farm in Pomfret, 
 Vt., and made a contract to supply the towns of Pomfret, Wood- 
 stock and Hartford, each a third part of the time for five years. 
 On this farm, to which he removed in 1776, he remained till his 
 death, which took place in Sept. 1800, he having reached the age 
 of seventy-six and a half years. He continued to preach in various 
 places while he lived, often to destitute parishes without receiving 
 or asking any compensation. ' In his long ministerial life he was 
 never prevented from preaching by ill health but two Sabbaths, and 
 one of them was the last Sabbath before he died.' 
 
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