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gregational Church . During the hour which we are spending together , it will have been drawn to its close , " As we enter upon the discharge of the interesting and affecting duty which has falleti to our lot , the images of i hose virtuous and pious men who here laid the foundation of an order of churches ,
which are believed to be more favourable to the promotion of the blessings of Christianity among men than any other , rise up before our minds , aud we feel that it is good to contemplate them , as they were engaged in the great and solemn transaction which established the institutions of the gospel , in their original purity and simplicity , in the new world . We commend those of their
descendants and successors , who happened at the time to be on the stage of life , for the faithful zeal and the filial gratitude with which , when one century had revolved over the Congregational Churches of America , they assembled to do honour to the venerable mother and the beautiful pattern of them all . And we would now endeavour to repeat , as nearly as
possible , the service which they then performed . < c It is with this intent , that the same passages from the Psalms , which our ancestors devoutly sung on the previous occurrence of this occasion , have now been chosen , in the very form in which they existed in the quaint and unpoetical , but , in many instances , affecting expression of their ancient version—a . version
which , at the same time that it affords , in its uncouth metre aud rude versification , pleasing evidence of the progress of devotional poetry in later times , must possess a charm in the estimation of every one who loves to recal to mind the conditions and manners of the Fathers of New-En gland . It was used in all the
churches , in most of them for more than a hundred years , and was universally known by the name of the * Hay Psalm-Hook . ' I have also adopted , for the text of this Second Century Lecture , the same passage which my predecessor selected as the text of that which he delivered at the close of the First Century . Let them be transmitted on , while the church and
the world endure , to those ot our successors who shall be called , one after another , with the interlapse of a hundred years , to the discharge of the duties of this occasion . ' —Pp . 3—(> . Mr . Upham then lakes a rapid view of the ministers who have , in succession , held the pastorship of the Salem Church The first was Samuel JSkelton , described by an early writer as " a man
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of gracious speech , full of faith , and furnished by the Lord with gifts from above . " His assistant was , however , the more prominent character , Francis Higginson . " With a genius and eloquence which , had he stooped to conformity , would have secured to him all the glory and power that an earthly ambition could covet , he submitted for conscience' . sake to the severest sacrifices and the most
embarrassing distresses , while in his own country . For conscience' sake , he braved what were then indeed the dreadful perils of the ocean , and fled to this wild and wintry shore ; and here he perished an early martyr to the holy cause of Christian liberty . li
Virtue and religion demand that the character and actions , the services and sufferings of this good man should be presented in all their interest , and with all their attraction , to the generations of New-England . The man who laid the foundations of our religions institutions in the principles of the most perfect freedom , aud of apostolic simplicity , ought never to be forgotten . We should take delight in rescuing his example , from obscurity , and his name from oblivion .
" The Christian graces shed such a beauty upon his daily life , that the hearts of all who witnessed it were charmed into love and admiration . It is related , that , when he left Leicester , the place of Iris residence in England , to embark for the forests of America , although at the time he was suffering beneath the
frowns of the government , the people of every rank and party rushed forth from their ' dweUiiigs to bid him farewell . They crowded the streets through which lie passed . Every eye was tilled with tears , and every voice was imploring blessinas upon him ! Our imaginations should often present him to our hearts , as he called his family and fellow-passengers around him , leaned over the stern of the vessel in which he was borne in exile
from his native home , while the cliff ' s of his country , still dear to his ; soul , although it was driving him out to perish in the wilderness , were disappearing from sight , and uttered that memorable benediction , than which there is nothing more affecting , more magnanimous , or
more sublime in the records of history : We will not say , as the Separatists were wont to say at lheir leaving of England— Farewell , liabylon ! farewell , Home !—but we will say , Farkwell , Dkar England ! farewell , the church of Cod in England , and all the Christian friends thejc ! ' Our bosoms must al-
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46 Critical Notices . — Theological .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/46/
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