never to be forgotten; for, if on one occasion more than another the narrow terms of sectarian exclusiveness are out of place, they are so when set as a barrier to repel a fellow Christian from the table of Christ.

There is another remembrance, which it is pleasant to connect with the history of our church, I mean the remembrance of its pastors. Its first four ministers, Phillips, Knowles, Sherman, and Bailey, were educated in England, and were men of very high reputation for talents, learning, and piety. Had they remained at home, and conformed to the Church of England, their gifts and acquirements were such as might have secured to them some of the high honors of that rich and venerable establishment. But, firmly and at the cost of all sacrifices, they adhered to what they believed to be their duty; they paused not upon the question, whether they should obey the voice of conscience rather than the call of interest; in the true spirit of self-denial and of unfeigned humility, these distinguished men were content to leave all the advantages of their native land, and were happy in spending their life and labors with this little flock in the wilderness. They were no rude or ignorant fanatics, with whom banishment to a distant land might involve no sacrifice of the pleasures of refinement. They brought hither with them the ripe fruits of English learning, a love of English improvements, and the blessings of English piety. We owe them that reverent tribute of remembrance, which belongs to unquestionable piety, uncomplaining sacrifice of self, and heroic devotedness to duty. It is a poor philosophy, which would lead us, in the wild and vaporing boast

of modern improvement, to look back disparagingly on men like them, as if their virtues were but the twilight virtues of a dark and enthralled age. It is a false estimate. They were enlightened and holy men, of large and richly furnished minds. It will be well, if God grant us the wisdom to retain the good influences, which their principles spread amidst the forming elements of our social state. I love to contemplate the mild and faithful firmness of Phillips, of whom Winthrop has recorded, that he was "a godly man, specially gifted, and very peaceful in his place, much lamented of his own people and others," the fervent industry and Christian simplicity of Knowles, the profound learning, the hallowed talents, the rich eloquence of Sherman, "the golden-mouthed preacher,"-the warm piety and irreproachable purity of Bailey. When I add to these, among their successors, the virtues and graces of Angier, Gibbs, Storer, and Adams, and when I look back to the earliest period of our story, and find among the laymen the highly and most justly honored name of Sir Richard Saltonstall, who made a bold and noble plea against the bigotry of the times,* I feel that our church can point, on the records of her history, to men, whose characters and abilities would grace the annals of any community, and I bless God for such examples of wisdom and of devoted piety.

On this occasion we must not forget, that there are patriotic as well as religious associations connected with the house, in which we are assembled. Amidst the opening scenes of our revolution, this place claims to be remembered with historical interest, as a

* See Appendix to "Historical Sketch of Watertown,” p. 135.

place where counsel was taken in the hour of danger. In 1775, the second Provincial Congress of Massachusetts adjourned from Concord to Watertown, and assembled in this meeting-house. This was in April. Joseph Warren, Esquire, whom the cause of freedom. numbered among its earliest and most lamented martyrs in the contest, was President of the Congress. In this session committees were appointed to collect evidence, and draw up an account, concerning the transactions of the 19th of April. The third and last Provincial Congress assembled in this meeting-house. A sermon was preached here before them by the President of the College, and the session continued till the 19th of July.

This body was succeeded by the General Court, or General Assembly of the Colony, who likewise convened in this meeting-house, and held their sessions here till they adjourned to the State-House in Boston. In 1776, the fifth of March was commemorated, by the people of Boston and others, in the Watertown meeting-house, on which occasion a much applauded oration was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Thacher of Malden. In 1778, this place became again the seat of government for a short time, in consequence of the prevalence of the small-pox in Boston. On the 2nd of June, the House of Representatives met here by adjournment, and held the remainder of their session.

Such is the connexion in which this house stands with a crisis of fearful interest in the history of our country. When we look back to "the times which tried men's souls," let us thankfully remember, that the walls, within which we are now assembled, echoed the voice of freemen, deliberating for the common good in the

dark hour of their country's struggle; that here they sat, day after day, with the awful uncertainty of a tremendous contest before them, and a prospect on which the stoutest heart scarcely dared long to dwell. I represent to myself those honored men, as they entered at that door with countenances darkened by deep anxiety, but full of unyielding resolution; I see them take their assigned places; I hear the voice which calls them to the business of the day; they seem like men who feel that the eyes of the whole Colony are upon them; I listen to the counsels of the wise, and the bold words of the ardent; and I remember that here were some of the doubtful beginnings of that great struggle, which, by the blessing of God, closed by adding another to the independent nations of the world. Let us rejoice that patriotism and religion. have intertwined the associations, which consecrate the remembrance of this old church.

How soon does time give a peaceful and hallowed character to the past! We look back, as upon the olden days of our country, to the period when the venerable Puritans of whom I have spoken, with the generations whom they faithfully served, fell asleep in Jesus. We see, in the dimness of the past, the shadowy forms of a grave, thoughtful, stern race of men, feeding the flame of an earnest inward life amidst the stillness of nature around them, when as yet the sounds of enterprise and the rush of business rung not through the land, and binding fast to their hearts the everlasting hopes of the Gospel, while engaged in the quiet labors of the wilderness. Their dust is mingled with the earth, in which that of our own parents and our own children reposes. Rapidly indeed do the generations

of men come and pass away. We need not go abroad over the world for illustrations. We find them near at hand. Limit your view, for instance, to this village during the two hundred and six years that have elapsed since its settlement. How many generations of your ancestors, or predecessors, in this place, have gone up to their houses of worship from Sabbath to Sabbath, as we now go, and have gone down to their narrow house in the dust, as we likewise shall soon go. They toiled for themselves and their families, one on his farm, another in his trade; they reared their children amidst the pleasures and disappointments, the hopes and trials, of parental anxiety, and sent them forth to take their places in society; then they silently dropped away, one by one; the old race was gone, and a new one came in their place, soon themselves old, to pass through the same round, and to descend at last to the same dust. When I have wandered through our grave-yards, where

"The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,"

and have marked the inscriptions, here a century and a half old, and there bearing date last year or last month, some grave-stones so sunken in the earth and so mosscovered, that the tale of mortality upon them is with difficulty legible, and others standing erect, with fresh earth around them and bright letters upon them; when I have bent over the tombs of the pastors of other days, surrounded now by the congregation of the dead, as they once were by the congregation of the living, — I have thought there was an emphasis I never before felt in the Apostle's words, "The fashion of this world passeth away;" and from this miniature picture of hu