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 IThe I 
 
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 leeting-House 
 
 llNGHAM 
 
 ? Anniversary 
 
 168;^. ---1882 
 
 
Presented by the Parish. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM 
 
 TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OPENING 
 OF ITS MEETING-HOUSE FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
f 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CVuo l^untJiTtiti) ^funiliersarp 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OPENING OF ITS MEETING-HOUSE 
 FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 Sunday, January 8, 1882. 
 By rev. EDWARD AUGUSTUS HORTON. 
 
 Wlii\) an appcntiii. 
 
 HINGHAM: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE PARISH. 
 
 1882. 
 
University Press : 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Discourse g 
 
 Order of Services 47 
 
 Church in Hingham, England 
 
 Robert Peck 
 
 53 
 55 
 
 The Communion Service 58 
 
Committee on publication, 
 
 Arthur Lincoln. Quincy Bicknell. 
 
 Henry C. Harding. Francis H. Lincoln. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 " God be with us as He was with our Fathers." i Kings, viii. 57. 
 
 IVJO more expressive prayer could we offer this 
 niorning than the one breathed by my text. 
 God was with the little colony of heroic spirits who 
 planted this town, and reared this meeting-house. We 
 assemble to remember that Providential guidance, to 
 revive the lustre of a noble history, and thus quicken 
 all deep and noble sentiments. I cannot promise you 
 I shall be brief, for that seems neither just to you nor 
 to the subject. I will not impair the dignity and scope 
 of my theme by headlong brevity. Two centuries we 
 are to traverse, a marvellous record to revive ; there is 
 justice to be done, and fit lessons are to be drawn. True, 
 much of the historical material on which I must rely has 
 been printed; but it is not accessible; the young know 
 it not. From such sources I shall draw only those por- 
 tions which seem necessary to the right proportion of 
 my remarks. We may well linger, and spare not our 
 words, as the two-hundredth anniversary of this ances- 
 tral sanctuary passes by. Not for a half century 
 probably will you have another important anniversary ; 
 and so many of us will not be here ! Where is there 
 an edifice of any kind in this land so thronged with 
 
lO THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 memories, so rich in associations, so suggestive to 
 patriot, worshipper, poet, orator, or preacher ? Faneuil 
 Hall speaks of patriotism ; the Old South recalls 
 one era of religious struggle ; King's Chapel tells the 
 first victory of Episcopacy in New England ; some old 
 dwelling-house represents a distinct family ; but this 
 structure is calculated, by past uses and scenes, — so 
 varied, so significant, so far-extended, — to kindle every 
 heart and stir the entire range of emotions. 
 
 Without further preface let me proceed to the 
 pleasant duty before us. With what a sigh we read 
 that one, short sentence in Hobart's Diary, under date of 
 January 8, 1681 :' "This Sabbath we first met in the 
 new meeting-house." How much more we crave to 
 know ! We know to-day what has been confirmed for 
 some time, — thanks to the diligent investigations of 
 lovers of history ! — that the old meeting-house which 
 bore the palisade's protection, and had sufficed for the 
 early life of Hingham, was outgrown ; that in decid- 
 ing upon the best location for a new one, disagreements 
 arose, and the state authorities intervened ; that at last 
 the spot where we are assembled was chosen, and the 
 work went forward. We know the names of those who 
 had seats in the new house, and in what order. In a 
 general way we can picture the interior. It was devoid 
 of plastering, without a ceiling; there was but one pew 
 in the whole house, the rest of the space being filled 
 with benches ; there was no paint. We know that two 
 children were baptized on that first Sunday, and their 
 
 1 Old style. 
 
DISCOURSE. II 
 
 names survive. We know that infants were often 
 baptized the day they were born, and one of these 
 babes may have received the holy rites on its natal day. 
 There was a bell that summoned the worshippers. At 
 first a drum had been beaten, or a shell blown, or a 
 flag hoisted, to indicate the hour of service, but Hing- 
 ham had long employed a bell. These are things 
 within the pale of certainty. But beyond is the twi- 
 light of conjecture. What was the text of Mr. Norton's 
 sermon ? What psalms were sung ? Did any friends 
 from other towns join the assembly } Was there an 
 offering of the peoples money on that day.'* How was 
 the service conducted, and in what features did it differ 
 from ours to-day ? 
 
 In response to these questions no distinct answers 
 come back. Shall we give imagination permission to 
 paint what history has not recorded ? For there can 
 hardly be a more attractive subject for us this morning 
 than the picture of the first religious service ever held 
 in this venerable edifice. Let us fill out the unknown 
 parts by touches of probability. Mr. Norton is the 
 young minister; Peter Hobart died three years before 
 this meeting-house was opened. There is strong proof 
 that Norton preached his own ordination sermon, still 
 preserved, which occurred two months before the aged 
 Hobart died. As this Sunday dawns, two hundred 
 years ago, the town wakes to an unusual stir and 
 earnestness. The extremely aged exert their slumber- 
 ing wills and go to the new meeting-house ; the young 
 gaze with admiration at the structure ; a feeling of pride 
 
12 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 and a sense of gratitude rule in the mature men who 
 have carried their hopes to completion. The minister 
 comes. He wears a gown, for his scholarly tastes would 
 lead him to do that. The robe among the Puritans 
 was the scholar's garment, whether worn by judge, pro- 
 fessor, or preacher. An hour-glass stands on the 
 pulpit ; the people are all assembled ; a hush comes 
 over the congregation. Mr. Norton rises and offers a 
 prayer. It is the one long prayer in the whole service, 
 delivered slowly, impressively. The pastor remembers 
 the past and renders thanks for deliverance, for present 
 blessings. He prays for many, very many things, for 
 many, very many persons, — for the young, the old, the 
 sick, the bereaved. The sands of the hour-glass run 
 on and mark more than half an hour in time from the 
 beginning of the prayer. It ends ; a man, the guardian 
 of order in the assembly, steps forward and turns the 
 glass, as it is out. It is evident that there are to be no 
 dedicatory services. Our forefathers avoided even the 
 suspicion of popish habits, and would not yield to 
 sentiment in consecrating a building, lest it should 
 seem like the superstition of the Mother Church at 
 Rome. So the service proceeds as on any Sunday, 
 unmarked save by the glow of feeling in every heart, 
 and the universal tokens of newness. The reading of 
 Scriptures follows. When ministers read the Bible 
 in the pulpit, and did not explain as they went along, 
 it was called "dumb reading." The people of Hing- 
 ham were averse to it, as were most congregations ; so 
 Mr. Norton expounds as he proceeds, and coming upon 
 
DISCOURSE. 13 
 
 a passage which refers to God's reward of the faithful, 
 he enlarges upon it, applying the text to the flock 
 before him. A psalm is given out. There are no 
 appointed singers, no instruments, no tune-books. 
 The congregation, indeed, know but six or seven tunes, 
 among them St. Martin's. These, however, they know 
 well ; and as the psalm is lined, a resonant voice, near 
 the deacons' seat, takes up the tune which all expect ; 
 and the simple, grand notes go sounding up to the 
 rafters, and thaw the chilly air, and set free the heart's 
 pent-up emotion. In standing to sing, the congregation 
 obtains some release from the cold conditions of the 
 fireless room. In the only pew are Mrs. Peter Hobart 
 and Mrs. Norton. The widow, it is noticed, becomes 
 affected. No doubt memory is busy, and she thinks of 
 her lost companion, who would have rejoiced to see 
 this day and the glory of this house. At last the 
 whole psalm has been sung, and the sermon follows. 
 It is in substance, we may believe, an exhortation to 
 remember the faith and be loyal to it. The wor- 
 shippers are reminded that with a great price this 
 liberty and true doctrine were purchased. They are 
 bidden to shun all ease in Zion, now that this new and 
 sumptuous sanctuary spreads such temptations to pride 
 and satisfaction. The discourse was long, but Matthew 
 Hawke did not preserve it in short hand, and we can 
 only imagine its force and pertinency. Another psalm 
 is sung, and after prayer the impressive benediction 
 sends the large congregation away until the afternoon, 
 — when the two children are baptized, one or two men 
 
14 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 speak after the sermon, and a collection is taken, the 
 minister saying, " as God hath prospered you, so freely 
 give." Such a picture may be drawn with every reason 
 for believing in its truthfulness. 
 
 Touching as the scene is, it receives an added pathos 
 when we remember that our fathers had acquaintance 
 with splendor. The old church at Hingham, England, 
 and all the ancient glory of cathedral and minster in 
 the Old Home were familiar to them. This simple 
 structure had been hewn from the wilderness, not by 
 barbaric hands, ignorant of taste, beauty, grandeur, 
 but by those who, as they entered this house for the 
 first time, realized deeply what they had paid for 
 liberty of conscience and human rights. Yet they 
 abated not one jot or tittle of courage and hope. 
 
 It will be seen that the first service, in its essential 
 characteristics, did not differ materially from ours to- 
 day. 
 
 Little thought Deacon John Leavitt and Deacon 
 John Smith, as they sat in their prominent seats, centre 
 of all eyes, that we, down the long vista of two centu- 
 ries, would also look at them. The same names are 
 represented in the pews this morning that were known 
 then, — descendants in unbroken lines, one family 
 having worshipped here consecutively for ten genera- 
 tions. It seems as though but a few years had elapsed, 
 and we were celebrating a recent event. The remote 
 epochs rush together, true kinship of spirit asserts 
 itself; and, instead of commemorating a dim, decayed 
 and lustreless transaction, we seem to participate in the 
 
DISCOURSE. 15 
 
 first religious service of this sanctuary. This, how- 
 ever, is the uplifted mood of thought and sympathy, 
 that transcendent power by which we ally ourselves 
 with all that is noble and lovable in the past. Slowly 
 we descend and touch again the facts, the outward 
 realities of life. We are commemorating something 
 which occurred so long ago that the mind grows be- 
 wildered as it endeavors to trace the vicissitudes of 
 the intervening decades. It will be profitable for us 
 to recall some historic conditions which existed when 
 these walls first rose. They are very interesting ; but 
 they lead on to that more valuable story of what 
 transpired in religious affairs after the meeting-house 
 was opened. 
 
 Soon after the erection of this meeting-house, 
 progressive measures multiplied in New England, and 
 ministers assumed new functions. Before 16S6, min- 
 isters had been prohibited from performing the marriage 
 ceremony. In that year, four years after the completion 
 of this edifice, the Governor issued a proclamation 
 authorizing ministers to share what before only the 
 civil magistrates had liberty to do. Three years after 
 this house was built, we find that a minister offered 
 prayer at a funeral, — the first instance on record. The 
 burial of the beloved dead had been a cold and sad 
 transaction. Only the friends gathered at an appointed 
 time in the home, and without prayer, without singing, 
 without service of any kind, the body was borne to the 
 grave and buried. The reasons for this custom were 
 founded on a desire to show aversion to superstition. 
 
l6 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 It was held that prayer at a funeral might have an 
 appearance of Popery, inasmuch as in the Romish 
 Church prayers were said for the dead and over the 
 dead. And the denial to the clergy of the right of sol- 
 emnizing marriages arose from the same source, — that 
 it might savor of a sacrament. These things were 
 changing, and by the year 1700 sermons and prayers 
 grew common at funerals. 
 
 So, too, the temper and usage of the people were 
 changing, two hundred years ago, from the early rigor. 
 Preachers found fault with the evidences of taste and 
 comfort already springing up in the more prosperous 
 families. I doubt not the criticism was over-severe. 
 Urian Oakes in his Election Sermon of 1673, — nine 
 years before the opening of this meeting-house, — put 
 forth this remark, which shows that the old-time 
 preachers were often as sensational as the modern. 
 He said: "When persons spend more time in trim- 
 ming their bodies than their souls, then you may say of 
 them, as a worthy divine wittily speaks, that they 
 are like the cinnamon tree — nothing good but the 
 bark." 
 
 This trait grew so prominent in the custom of giving 
 gloves and rings and scarfs at funerals, that a law was 
 passed, about forty years after the completion of this 
 building, restricting excesses. A wise act, for we learn 
 that at the funeral of Governor Belcher's wife over 
 a thousand pairs of gloves were bestowed on relatives 
 and friends. The ministers always had large stores of 
 rings, gifts from bereaved parishioners. Humanity 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 17 
 
 is the same in all times. It has its excess under one 
 form or another. While we marvel at the extravagance 
 which led to such an abuse as this of old, we ourselves 
 develop the same trait in the over-use of flowers at 
 funerals, evoking requests on all hands to withhold 
 them. 
 
 It is often alleged that the Puritan was exceptionally 
 rigid in his views of church-going, and that our New 
 England laws were unusually severe. This is not so. 
 The Cavalier in Virginia was more compulsory. In 
 1 6 10 a law was passed that every colonist in Virginia 
 should attend church twice every Sunday. Failing in 
 this, for the first offence he must lose allowance for a 
 week; for the second offence, lose allowance and be 
 whipped ; for the third offence he should suffer death ! 
 It is often supposed, too, that the Puritan was extremely 
 Mosaic and terrible in his legal penalties for crime. In 
 reality he was merciful compared to Old England, 
 where, in the eighteenth century, as many as two hun- 
 dred and twenty-three offences were punishable with 
 death. The Puritan simply said to many offenders : 
 " Depart ! go elsewhere ! take your life and try to make 
 it better in some new place." 
 
 Let us grant that the Puritans were strict. Had 
 they not just cause ? The men of every era are to be 
 judged by ^/leir environment, not by ours. What was 
 the Puritans' situation ? 
 
 They had everything at stake. To endanger the 
 dear-bought privileges was beyond question a step no 
 earnest man could permit. Children may be fickle 
 
l8 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 and inconstant of purpose, but not such iron wills as 
 those that cleft the rock of old-time opposition and 
 persecution. They were troubled, too, by bad charac- 
 ters. Ever hovering about their village were such as 
 had come from England hoping to live on the prosper- 
 ity of the toilers and faithful. 
 
 Again, our forefathers were logical. No fancy 
 brought them here, no idle dream. Great hopes 
 shone on their pathway, but they knew how each step 
 must be taken. They have been criticised for demand- 
 ing liberty of conscience for themselves, yet often 
 denying it to others. Does not the same ground of 
 accusation exist to-day? Can you support this church, 
 and carry out the principle of liberty of conscience to 
 any and every extent } Would you not be at war 
 within yourself as an organization by permitting those 
 to have power and sway in the administration of this 
 parish who might deny, or ridicule, or ignore some of 
 your fundamental beliefs ? You say to-day, as they 
 said of old : " Go thy way ! Plant for yourself, build 
 for yourself, — but do not enter in to reap where you 
 have not sowed, or tear down what others have arduously 
 built." The truth is that very much of the opprobrium 
 cast on the Puritan for his supposed persecution of 
 others arose more from civil complications than from 
 religious quarrels. Roger Williams's notable case 
 sprang more from his meddling with politics than from 
 his divergence in the way of doctrine. Even in such 
 instances, which would have been called treason in 
 older countries, the Puritan magistrate simply ban- 
 
DISCOURSE. 19 
 
 ished, simply cast out elements which he considered 
 dangerous to the welfare of Church and State. 
 
 Not to be forgotten is the final argument in the 
 Puritan's behalf. He was a Calvinist. He was a part 
 of that mighty movement which swept over Western 
 Europe and rallied every man who " hated a lie." 
 Calvinism was one of the most significant phases of 
 the new life which has marked modern times. Tersely 
 says Froude the historian : " Whatever exists at this 
 moment in England and Scotland of conscientious 
 fear of doing evil is the remnant of the convictions 
 which were branded by the Calvinists into the people's 
 hearts." Never will this spirit appear again in the harsh 
 dreadful dogmas that appalled and enslaved the mind 
 at times ; but wherever bold reformers strike, wherever 
 the voice of a Carlyle is heard, wherever men say with 
 Matthew Arnold that conduct is three fourths of life, 
 wherever man is rallied to a high, overpowering sense 
 of duty by an incarnated conscience, — there the spirit 
 still exists that animated the Puritans. 
 
 Neither was the Puritan so cheerless and smileless as 
 superficial scrutiny reports. Even the pulpit ventured 
 to be witt}^ Homes were scenes of merry-making ; 
 youth had its games and recreative hours. Deacons 
 played ball together, no longer than sixty years ago, on 
 set days. The old thanksgivings were full of innocent 
 frolic. The " morose, tyrannical, sour visage " tradition 
 assigns to the typical Puritan is misleading. There 
 were some of that cast, as there are now. It is a falla- 
 cious course which leads one to interpret domestic life. 
 
20 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 social customs, and personal traits of any period by its 
 printed creeds, or excessive sermons, or reactionary 
 utterances. There was not enough sunshine in the 
 Puritan's life, but there was a great deal ; and it steadily 
 deepened as his lot was ameliorated. 
 
 The fitness of Congregationalism for the creation 
 of this Republic was never more powerfully proven 
 than by that orator, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, — our 
 pride at Yorktown, himself a Churchman, — in his 
 oration at Plymouth in 1870. It was the only system 
 by which such a community as New England could 
 have been organized. " From its fundamental thought 
 that all Christian men are 'kings and priests unto God,' 
 sprang popular government in Church and State." We 
 are celebrating to-day not the death of the Puritan's 
 idea and his system, but its fulfilment. Its principles 
 are at the basis of every Protestant denomination in 
 our land ; even the American Episcopal Church has 
 engrafted some of its features on its polity. It is safe 
 to say, viewing everything, — the people, their spirit, 
 their system, — that God was with them peculiarly, 
 making future results sure. 
 
 I am not attempting to transform the defects of the 
 Puritans into virtues. They were far from perfect. 
 . But they seem to me providential men, set to do a 
 work — none more difficult in all the world's history. 
 Had they been characters less vigorous, less tenacious, 
 less firm and severe, I know not what the history of 
 this country might have been. It was this tremendous 
 will that gave us Sam Adams, to face the foreign foe. 
 
DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 It was this stern fidelity that gave us the Mathers, who 
 from their pulpits made the people resolute and God- 
 fearinq;. It ran like flame in the town-mcetines when 
 fresh oppression came, and its avalanche-sweep bore 
 down on the English troops at many a contested field. 
 It is not for us to criticise the Puritan, but to look at 
 him. and ask the question : Are we as faithful to the 
 needs of our times ? 
 
 The Pilo^rims and the Puritans came fi'om enlisfht- 
 ened, progressive sources. Out of twenty-seven minis- 
 ters settled at the same time in Massachusetts Bay 
 Colony, Peter Hobart among them, fourteen had grad- 
 uated from Cambridge, England, four had studied at 
 Oxford, and the others were marked by capable minds. 
 The laity were equally elevated in character, for it might 
 be predicated, did we not know the names of many of 
 them, that no body of men and women, ignorant and 
 narrow, could support such a clergy, give them life, 
 and live on their utterances. It must be remembered 
 that our forefathers did not get away from discussion 
 and peculiar views by coming to this continent. All 
 the questions that agitate us either sprung up among 
 them, or were brought over by new visitors. In 1648 
 two Indians went to Providence and returned. As 
 they were students under Eliot, the missionary, they 
 reported to him the ideas they had heard. " How is 
 it," they asked, " that with the same Bible, these people 
 in Providence hold such different views firom our- 
 selves } They say there is no hell or heaven except in 
 bad or good people's hearts, that baptism of children 
 
22 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 is useless, that ministers and magistrates are need- 
 less." Such extreme views were familiar enous^h. We 
 must remember that a people with busy brains are 
 always developing the same great issues in every age, 
 under one form and another. Hingham had already 
 commenced a revolt, in Hobart's day, and certain 
 Church of England adherents were appealing to 
 Parliament for their rights to Episcopal services. 
 
 Andros,'the tyrannical, was after all the unconscious 
 instrument of a great idea ; and while he troubled the 
 Puritans, he effected freedom for King's Chapel, and 
 widened liberty of worship. It was in 1700 that the 
 Brattle Street Church of Boston was formed, after war- 
 fare and bitterness because the new church would not 
 promise to conform to every former doctrine and cus- 
 tom. Why, when this building rose, the land was ripe 
 for stirring changes. Fifty years had imparted an 
 impetus to the Puritan ideas, and they were fulfilling 
 their logical destiny. 
 
 It is interesting to note how large a part the religious 
 element assumed in the days we have been considering. 
 In 1694 two sums were voted by this town for every 
 public need: ^425 were appropriated for the support 
 of the ministry, and only ^225 for all other expenses 
 in the town ! Twenty years before this a law of the 
 Commonwealth was in force that required every town 
 to provide a dwelling-house for the minister. If the 
 minister was not duly and adequately paid, each 
 county court was required to take measures to have 
 the deficiencies supplied. 
 
DISCOURSE. 23 
 
 How completely from the beginning this meeting- 
 house was the centre of civil and religious transactions 
 in this town, is seen by a brief glance at the facts. 
 The very Sunday on which the first service occurred, 
 and these beams were echoing Gods praise, the 
 hearts of the men were burdened with anxiety. The 
 mother country was threatening to take away the char- 
 ter of the colony, because of alleged misdemeanors, 
 and with that charter went all titles and claims to the 
 land on which homes and sanctuaries rested. These 
 they had toiled for, and set like jewels in the wilderness. 
 All New England was profoundly stirred. At last, 
 when the threat was executed and the rights of the 
 people swept away, a fast was proclaimed. Every 
 meeting-house was filled with a sad, tearful, prayerful 
 congregation. Of all those houses this is the only 
 one now in existence, its walls made sacred by that 
 bitter, indignant hour. Then followed town-meetings, 
 held here, as they were for one hundred years. The 
 people rallied. Those who rarely spoke here rose 
 and offered the pungent advice, the sturdy sense, of 
 their loyal hearts. Here were considered the grave 
 questions of resistance, self-government, justice, liberty. 
 Yes ! the first uses of this buildino: ^vere for such de- 
 liberations as arise only when a people's precious 
 privileges are in danger from tyranny, and the sky of 
 the future is black with perils. This old meeting- 
 house was baptized as the home of civil and ecclesias- 
 tical liberty by the scenes which earliest transpired in 
 it. On Sundays, beyond doubt, the preacher took his 
 
24 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 topic many times from the exciting, overshadowing 
 themes of the week. He exhorted, he reasoned, he 
 prayed, all for the endangered cause. And on that 
 signal day in May, after years of anxiety and trial, 
 when the men of Hingham gathered here and elected 
 Daniel Gushing and Thomas Andrews to represent 
 them in the Council of Safety, no doubt Norton was 
 present, and invoked divine blessings on the bold act. 
 It was a daring deed, — as direct a defiance of England 
 as the Revolutionary measures. They risked all, 
 those men of Hingham, then representing nearly two 
 hundred families. Some had been in King Philip's 
 War ; some were old, ready to leave the world, but not 
 ready to go without a manly protest against wrong. 
 All these veterans held not back from fresh dangers. 
 It was so throughout the colony. Of all the buildings 
 existing: at that time in which this heroic stand was 
 taken, — which saved our land as much as the Revolu- 
 tion, — the patriot finds only this one remaining, upon 
 which he may cast his admiring look, and honor as he 
 treads in reverential mood the spot consecrated by 
 undaunted religious faith. 
 
 Any expanded reference to the ministers who have 
 served this parish is uncalled for, so familiar are their 
 characters to you, — their long pastorates, their uniform 
 excellence, their crowns of reward. Yet a quick 
 review of some facts not generally known is fitting. 
 Peter Hobart, who never entered this building, cannot 
 be dissociated from it. He labored, and others 
 entered into his labors. We all know the allusion on 
 
DISCOURSE. 25 
 
 record to his boldness in speaking his mind. Cotton 
 Mather says one or two other things about him which 
 bring his character out more distinctly. He always 
 studied standing, thinking that habit a more diligent 
 and lively manner of improving time. If I mistake not, 
 Calvin Lincoln had the same habit in a degree. We 
 are also told that Mr. Hobart always heard the sermons 
 of other ministers graciously, as though he truly 
 worshipped God thereby, — a virtue in a preacher of 
 highest rank, and in this case proving the truth of the 
 oft-heard proverb, that the boldest speakers are fre- 
 quently the most docile listeners. 
 
 We must remember in our honor to Hobart that he 
 gave several sons to the ministry, " worthy preachers," 
 we are informed, in Cotton Mather's day. With Ho- 
 bart was associated Robert Peck, teacher, for three 
 years, from 1638 to 1641. This cultured man returned 
 to England, and there resumed preaching.^ 
 
 Of John Norton we have already spoken, — a faith- 
 ful pastor, a gentle spirit, loving the mild, persuasive 
 paths of his profession. We are not surprised to find 
 that he stands forth the only poet in the list of minis- 
 ters. His sermons are lost; less can be recalled of his 
 pulpit utterances than of those of any other; but his 
 poem on Anne Bradstreet gives him a place in the 
 annals of American literature, and by that he lives in a 
 national fame. Mr. Norton's pastorate covers that 
 important period in our Colonial histoiy when a new 
 people, so to say, came upon the stage. Up to the time 
 
 ^ See Appendix. 
 
26 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 this meeting-house was reared, the active men and 
 women had been those born in England, — Ameri- 
 cans, but emigrants. After 1682, we see the native- 
 born Americans assuming control, — children of the 
 New World, products of the environment, trained in 
 the genius of the New World. They called England 
 home, but had never seen it. 
 
 Therefore, when Ebenezer Gay became minister, we 
 find a more distinctively original w^ork going on. We 
 are not surprised to learn that he was the first Unita- 
 rian minister of New England. The criticism of him 
 was not concerning what he preached, but what he 
 omitted to preach. When Whitefield traversed the 
 country with such remarkable commotions. Dr. Gay 
 refused to invite him to Hingham. The parish wished 
 to hear him, and appointed one man to see their pastor 
 and persuade him to send an invitation. The result 
 was that the subject was not even broached ; and the 
 loyal man preferred to bear obloquy from his fellow 
 parishioners, rather than elicit a distinct refusal from 
 Dr. Gay, and so create a ferment in the parish. We all 
 know Gay's ability; over a score of his sermons were 
 printed, the " Old Man's Calendar," outranking them 
 all. The oddity of the pulpit exists in all ages under 
 some form, and is not peculiar to our age. Think of 
 a text like this, used for a sermon by Dr. Gay, delivered 
 before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company: 
 " I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red 
 horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were 
 in the bottom ; and behind him were there red horses, 
 
 I 
 
DISCOURSE. 27 
 
 speckled and white." (Zech. I. 8.) Beyond doubt, Dr. 
 Gay's strong mental power did much to mould the 
 youth, elevate scholarly traits and perpetuate learning 
 in a new civilization beset with material cares. The 
 endowment of a professorship at Harvard College 
 by Dr. Hersey, and the subsequent foundation by 
 Madam Derby of an Academy in this town, may justi- 
 fiably be traced to Dr. Gay's influence. 
 
 Henry Ware came to this pulpit as the echoes of the 
 Revolution were dying away ; when Hingham was 
 rebuilding her fortunes, mourning for her dead, cele- 
 brating her heroes, and, above all, glorying in the fame 
 of her son, Benjamin Lincoln, the friend of Washing- 
 ton, and one of the deacons of this church. In this 
 house he was christened, and here his character was 
 greatly moulded. Dr. Ware was pure, noble, devoted, 
 spiritual. He was very difhdent, — always trembling as 
 he commenced Sunday service. One habit of his stands 
 out in striking contrast to the ministerial procrastina- 
 tion of to-day. He never went to sleep Sunday night 
 until he had secured his text and subject for the fol- 
 lowing Sunday. 
 
 In 1755, during his predecessor's pastorate, the inte- 
 rior of this audience-room was greatly changed by the 
 removal of the oaken benches, except in the centre of 
 the floor, the substitution of high, square pews, together 
 with some other alterations. Now, under Ware, a pro- 
 posal was made to build a new meeting-house. This, 
 fortunately, was not carried out, but important changes 
 were made in the exterior appearance. In the midst 
 
28 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 of these changes, typical of the enlarged and more 
 restless condition of the community, Dr. Ware accepted 
 a professorship at Harvard, and resigned. To him 
 succeeded Joseph Richardson. His pastorate began 
 with the opening century, and terminated but a little 
 over ten years ago. He was once elected to Congress. 
 He was a man of strong feelings, which he ruled with 
 a moral mastery. His knowledge of human nature 
 was large ; his ability to deal with practical themes, 
 exceptional. His power to console the sorrowing, and 
 to recall the dead in tender expressions, was also 
 marked. The path he trod was stormy in its inception, 
 and it ended in a storm of physical infirmity; but 
 candor, while it deals no more with the outgrown 
 disputes of the past, will accredit Richardson with 
 heroism, fidelity, self-control, and loyal service to this 
 ancient parish. 
 
 After Richardson, the man of fiery action, came 
 Lincoln, the saint, long before the junior pastor and 
 the chief worker. His loss is fresh in our memories, 
 and his absence to-day casts its shadow on our exercises. 
 Yet why should it ? Was not his death fitting in cir- 
 cumstance, and beautiful ? I seem to feel his presence 
 here ; I seem to have the support of his invisible par- 
 ticipation. Under Calvin Lincoln another great change 
 took place in this house, and the square pews were 
 removed. To those who do not go back to the begin- 
 ning of things, this alteration seems very innovating ; 
 but let us remember that these present pews are nearer 
 the original benches and seats of this meeting-house 
 
DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 than the box pews. You have returned somewhat to 
 the church of 1682. Calvin Lincoln needs no eulogy 
 or description from me at this time and in this pulpit. 
 He was a part of your homes, the life of this place. 
 The young loved his benignant face, the aged cherished 
 his kindly hand, the troubled were soothed by his 
 gentle accents, and all men turned respectfully to the 
 lischt of his character. Calvin Lincoln had from nature 
 the gift of serene and spiritual traits. The honor to 
 him is that he was generous in their employment, — 
 never thinking selfishly of his own happiness, but from 
 first to last a servant of God's truth and love ! 
 
 Were there time, the roll of the laity should be 
 called. The old Congregational democracy which 
 ushered in this society has ever prevailed. Preacher 
 and layman act on each other. Conspicuous, also, 
 has been the career of woman in the past history of 
 this meeting-house. No one has more feelingly or 
 justly referred to this fact than he so recently taken 
 from you, the Hon. Solomon Lincoln, when, in 1835, 
 he eloquently paid tribute to the mothers of New 
 England. Vividly he says: "When calamity hung 
 over the hopes of your fathers in a heavy cloud, 
 when desolating war carried dismay to the stoutest 
 hearts, and the smoke of your villages almost darkened 
 the horizon, when the war-cry of the savage brought 
 terror to every fireside and crushed the hopes of affec- 
 tion almost to despair, it was then that the boldest 
 spirits were sustained, encouraged by the animating 
 tones of woman's voice and the tender solicitudes of 
 
30 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 woman's heart." " Patriotism," he truly adds, " has no 
 exclusive character." Even so, I echo, religion has 
 no exclusive character. It finds its natural allies in 
 woman's sentiments and devotion. It is she who keeps 
 vigils that the Zion of her Church may prosper. It is 
 she who responds to the Sunday bell and teaches its 
 call to her children as heaven's invitation. It is she 
 who preserves where innovation destroys, and who 
 prays where others despair. 
 
 This meeting-house has been a home. All that you 
 mean by that word, a word of rich and unmeasured 
 import, has been embodied in the career of this house, 
 by loyal men and women. Think of the scenes it has 
 witnessed ! The long procession of the two centuries 
 passes through it. The babe is christened ; the same 
 infant, grown old and at rest, is here borne out amid 
 tears. The merry marriage has here shed its joy, — 
 the public man received from this place his recognition, 
 by a mourning community, of " well done, good and 
 faithful servant." Here have been the sincere hand- 
 shakings of thousands of Sundays, here the exposition 
 of nearly every part of Scripture. At times the Holy 
 Ghost has seemed to descend and sway the large con- 
 gregation. John Cotton, as he preaches in 1684 for 
 Mr. Norton, looks into the eyes of as faithful a band of 
 colonists as can be found in history; and he who 
 speaks to-day beholds worthy descendants of those 
 loyal spirits. We are wont to point to the long dura- 
 tion of pastorates in this parish ; there are some 
 prolonged terms of service on the part of the laymen. 
 
DISCOURSE. 31 
 
 Thomas Andrews was treasurer for forty-three years ; 
 Ebed Ripley was treasurer thirty-five years; James S. 
 Lewis was clerk for twenty-five years ; and your present 
 efficient clerk has already served twenty years. Within 
 the last fifty years you recall Deacon Hobart, Deacon 
 Ripley, — pillars in the church, untiring servitors. I 
 would it were in my power to summon forth some of 
 the men and women on whose shoulders the Ark rested 
 in the days past. To them the ministers turned for 
 advice and encouragement ; for their presence in 
 church each Lord's day, the preacher eagerly looked ; 
 at their firesides the pastor told his story, and patted 
 the children kindly on the head. Yes ! there must 
 have been ever a noble laity in this town, — thought- 
 ful, patient, God-fearing, and earnest. So may the 
 story always be ! 
 
 I give place here to a list of the deacons of the First 
 Church in Hingham since the opening of this house. 
 Men occupying such positions had, in old times, large 
 influence and reputation. In many instances they 
 were, next to the minister, ruling powers and guides in 
 church affairs. 
 
 ^ John Leavitt, the ancestor of all of that name in 
 this town; John Smith, also known as Captain, an 
 efficient officer in King Philip's War; David Hobart, 
 son of Rev. Peter Hobart, and father of Rev. Nehemiah 
 Hobart, first minister of Cohasset ; Benjamin Lincoln, 
 for a long time town clerk ; Joshua Hcarsey; Solomon 
 Cushing; Joshua Hearsey ; Josiah Lincoln; Thomas 
 Andrews; Joseph Thaxter ; Benjamin Lincoln, Major- 
 
32 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 General in the Revolutionary Army ; Benjamin Gush- 
 ing; William Gushing; Thomas Fearing; Caleb Ho- 
 bart, who served in the Revolution; Nehemiah Ripley; 
 Galeb Hobart, son of the previous deacon of the same 
 name. Fearing Burr, Henry Siders, and Henry G. 
 Harding, are those now appointed to carry the emblems. 
 It is an inspiring thought to me that I am not cele- 
 brating the end of greatness, but its sustained and 
 ever-widening orbit. In these later years we may 
 proudly parallel the events of the early days. This 
 auditorium witnessed, a few years ago, a scene as 
 impressive as any that ever occurred within its walls. 
 The space was packed with human beings, all moved 
 by one impulse, to render tribute to a good man. 
 When Albert Fearing was buried from this place, the 
 representative elements of this town and the Gommon- 
 wealth assembled, not to honor mere fame, adventi- 
 tious wealth, or glory, but to express love and reverence 
 for a philanthropist, — one whose benefactions to this 
 society are embodied in ampler privileges and security. 
 He was one of you, and honors your record. When 
 John A. Andrew's grave was to be adorned by that 
 triumph of sculpture which Gould wrought, into this 
 house the ardent, thrilled audience thronged. Memo- 
 rable the day also, and the scene, when the "Ancient 
 and Honorable Artillery Gompany " gathered in this 
 church to pay tribute, not alone to historic memories as 
 venerable as its own, but to recall worthy leaders who 
 once worshipped here. And here the last, affectionate 
 words were spoken to a sympathetic assembly, over the 
 
DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 mortality of him who was Hingham's leading citizen 
 for so many years, — Solomon Lincoln, who at the age 
 of twenty-three wrote the history of Hingham, and the 
 previous year gave the oration on Independence Day. 
 The good name of your town was dear to him, and he 
 maintained its reputation in many striking ways. We 
 cannot forget, among the undying scenes enacted here, 
 one which the future historian will dwell upon, — that 
 day, that hour, when your beloved pastor received the 
 angel of a new life and heard his message here, in 
 the midst of supplications for our country and its 
 honored President. How the hands of loving parish- 
 ioners carried him forth to his home, and the day of 
 his burial drew a throng of sincere mourners, — all this 
 is so recent and vivid as to cause emotion. 
 
 No tongue or pen will ever tell the tale of those 
 myriad impressive personal experiences which, from 
 the Sabbath two hundred years ago, have continued ; 
 but immortal memories have borne them on into 
 eternity. Who shall dare measure the extent of evil 
 checked and goodness advanced by the offices of this 
 sanctuary, — of burdens lightened, tears stanched, 
 hope quickened, misery alleviated, doubt removed, 
 heroism inspired, truth instilled ? God knows ! And 
 to Him at this hour we reverently give thanks for the 
 marvellous private, personal soul-history this event 
 commemorates ! 
 
 When this meeting-house was located it stood in 
 the midst of the population. There was also as much 
 wealth one side as the other. But time changed this ; 
 
 3 
 
34 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 new precincts were formed, and gradually new meeting- 
 houses arose. Do not imagine that a dead uniformity 
 characterized this part of the South Shore. In Scituate, 
 Parson Chauncy, afterward President of Harvard Col- 
 lege, practised immersion and divided the parish ; but 
 when he accepted the presidency he promised to abstain 
 from disseminating his peculiar views. Whether he 
 grew tired of his first opinions, or the new office con- 
 verted him, I know not. Hingham sent a peacemaker 
 to Scituate, who reconciled the factions, and he — 
 Nicholas Baker — became their minister. The history 
 of the successive societies you know. It is enough to 
 say that the mother church had no ill-feeling except 
 in one well-known case. If there was a reluctance to 
 let the children go, at any time, it arose from some 
 complication of taxes, or from an unwillingness to see 
 the old parish weakened. But Providence has favored 
 you, and while contributing to the inauguration of new 
 parishes, bone of your bone, and blood of your blood, 
 your own strength has been unimpaired. 
 
 Under some circumstances it might be profitable to 
 you and obligatory on me to trace the doctrinal history 
 of this church. But there are certain reasons why 
 such a recital, except in a very general way, has no 
 special fitness in a rapid review of the history of the 
 Old Meeting-house. This pulpit and this people have 
 never waged any theological battles. This church 
 never had a creed. Its first covenant was a simple 
 avowal of Christian fellowship and Christian disciple- 
 ship. In this respect it followed a course similar to 
 
DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 many of the early churches. The test of membership 
 in the church was chiefly one of character. I have 
 already stated that Dr. Gay was the first minister in 
 New England in whose preaching we find evidence of 
 a change from Calvinistic tenets. It is very striking 
 that King's Chapel, under Rev. James Freeman, was 
 the first church to array itself openly on the side of 
 Unitarianism. King's Chapel was the creation of 
 Andros and his fellow worshippers, who instituted the 
 first organized Episcopal or Church of England ser- 
 vices in New England. King's Chapel was the Tory 
 Church for a long time ; but in 1787 it became openly 
 Unitarian. Still, to Hingham and to this meeting- 
 house and to Dr. Gay, over fifty years before, belongs 
 the credit or discredit, as may be viewed, of initiating 
 the sentiments and principles which lie at the head- 
 sources of the Unitarian movement in New England. 
 I have not the slightest desire to rake over old fires, 
 or fan flames almost extinct. I speak as a historian. 
 I can believe that Dr. Gay was often silent on the five 
 points of Calvin, rather than denunciatory. He prob- 
 ably emphasized the more persuasive and benignant 
 aspects of religion, — appealed rather than threatened, 
 reasoned rather than dogmatized, pointed out the 
 good in everything rather than criticised theology. 
 I should judge that he might have set the example for 
 Dr. Freeman by hating bigotry of all kinds. Unitarian 
 or Orthodox. Dr. Mayhew and Dr. Chauncy of Bos- 
 ton appear after Gay, and just before Freeman, lights 
 in the new firmament. You micrht infer that modifica- 
 
36 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 tions in views like these betokened a wider change 
 than individual opinions. Yes ! it was true that the 
 opening of this meeting-house was coincident with 
 great fermentation in church doctrines and confessions. 
 Ministers were modifying their interpretation of the 
 Lord's Supper and of Baptism. Arminianism was 
 springing up. Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards 
 gave the churches " great awakenings." As the years 
 rolled on, the Universalists appeared in Murray and 
 Ballou, adding another agitating element to the stirring 
 drama. Different kinds of Calvinists appeared, includ- 
 ing the Hopkinsians. This type finally became the 
 well-known New England Theology, while the sterner 
 form was perpetuated in Presbyterianism. It does not 
 appear that the ministers of this church took aggressive 
 prominence in this intense development of theological 
 belief, — intense, because heated by personal embitter- 
 ment, and inflamed by factions that rent our New 
 England churches in twain. When the present century 
 began, strifes deepened ; in twenty years the crisis 
 came. Channing is there, and Worcester and Ballou 
 and Stuart and Woods. Pamphlets reply to pam- 
 phlets. The whole land is roused. Princeton and 
 Andover answer Boston and Cambridge. The echoes 
 of controversy sound in every home and village. 
 Parishes quarrel, divide, go to courts. Ministers fall 
 out with their parishes, and parishes with their ministers. 
 Steadily the Unitarian ideas spread, and find adherents ; 
 and with equal steadiness the Trinitarian Congrega- 
 tionalists draw to their own centres. This church, .so 
 
DISCOURSE. T^'J 
 
 far as I can trace its history, has never swerved from a 
 broad, inclusive church covenant of the simplest kind. 
 It became Unitarian under Dr. Gay, consciously or 
 unconsciously, and has been of that faith since. While 
 never concealing its own beliefs, or failing to spread 
 its banners on the outer walls of denominational work, 
 it has respected the sacred sincerity and rights of 
 differing Christians. This pulpit has never wandered 
 into vagaries, or meddled with idle speculations. It 
 has never sought destruction and criticism as its glory. 
 It has assailed no denomination or people, but with 
 positive and firm utterance proclaimed God a Heav- 
 enly Father, Christ man's Guide and Savior, the Holy 
 Spirit our ever-present solace and inspiration. This 
 meeting-house has, for two hundred years, echoed those 
 sentiments which exalt man's hopes and reverently 
 present our Maker, by portraying humanity's inborn 
 greatness, the beauty of character, the moral atonement, 
 the eternal hope of the future, and the claims of an 
 honest, upright. Christian life to an immortal inheri- 
 tance. Yes ! I may cover the entire two centuries, for 
 I find nothing in Norton to refute my statement. Here 
 the preachers have taught the nobility of reason, and 
 the duty of diligence in studying Scripture. Here the 
 comfort of God's love and his nearness have been 
 impressed upon the mourner. Youth has heard here 
 thrilling words of admonition, based on the belief that 
 God gives to each a mission, and that perfection is 
 man's goal. Have you departed from the faith con- 
 signed to us by serious forefathers .f* No! Outwardly, 
 
38 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 it might seem so. Truly, no ! We must judge the 
 Puritan and his meeting-house by the fruits. You are 
 the Puritans' children, and have tried to be faithful 
 to the principles they represented. You have been ! 
 Could Hobart arise and be a living part of this last 
 quarter of the nineteenth century, where do you think 
 his fellowship would be ? With you ! Principles grow; 
 they are not made. You have unfolded the original 
 truths. I am not strenuous for names, and care not 
 what we call the victories of religion in the next cen- 
 tury; but of this you may be sure, — the face of this 
 church fronts the light, it walks the sure path. What 
 is that path ? Primarily, it is the logical carrying out 
 of the principles our forefathers winnowed from old 
 errors, and brought hither to plant in the soil of a new 
 Republic. This meeting-house stands for a progressive 
 Christianity. The Puritan Commonwealth has failed ; 
 it could not be built ; but in its place has arisen a 
 Republic, — glory of the ages, hope of the future. 
 W^e to-day are celebrating the religious significance of 
 this meeting-house. It becomes us to ask, in conclu- 
 sion, what lessons specially come home ? What 
 constitutes the Puritan's religion of to-day.? It seems 
 no boast to say, as we do in our festal hours, that the 
 Republic has proved itself capable and enduring. Our 
 orators justly point to battle-fields, to wise conduct in 
 public crises, to the reserved power that never seems 
 to fail our nation. And recently, as eloquence painted 
 the lessons of Yorktown, amid them all we heard the 
 pleasing statements of a self-sustaining, growing, and 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 39 
 
 self-respecting people, which people the United States 
 certainly are. With this new continent in government 
 is the new continent of religious belief and life: 
 freedom in both, equality in both, co-operation in 
 both, — in both the same perils and the same hopes. 
 The parallel is close. Men asked : Will the American 
 people create wise laws ? It was also asked : Will they 
 support worship and religious usages ? Will they be 
 an obedient race, loving order and peace ? Will they 
 reverence sacred things.'* Will they have a high sense 
 of citizenship } Will they bring home to themselves 
 moral laws ? Will these builders of new homes respect 
 the past and link their lives with old-time examples.'* 
 On the other hand, will they think seriously of the 
 future and live not for themselves alone, but for 
 generations to come ? Will they think, will they act, 
 soberly as well as zealously ? WiW they write their 
 history in meteoric lines, or carve it faithfully on time's 
 granite } 
 
 Slowly the questions are being answered in our civil 
 affairs. The respect of the Old World is at last won. 
 Our self-regulating power has been tested in so many 
 ways that the skeptical are softening, and the doubtful 
 grow assured. Our charters and our constitutions 
 tell us in simple but impressive language the objects 
 and principles for which all this national and state 
 government exists. Let us look a moment at the aims 
 and laws of religion in a Republic. 
 
 The object of a Republic, expressed succinctly, is to 
 assist each man to the possession and employment of 
 
40 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 his best self. The enjoyment of freedom and the 
 pursuit of happiness are means to an end. 
 
 This end of reahzing the most in each, and of 
 guaranteeing rights to all, is sought by spreading 
 privileges, by opening all paths, by diffusing intelli- 
 gence and thrift. Naturally the object of the Christian 
 religion, in the midst of such strong incentives would 
 be similar. The ministry of religion in a Republic is 
 to help every one to the knowledge and use of his best 
 self. It is not simply to save him from a future of 
 condemnation, or to conciliate a higher power, or to 
 solace life's wounds, or to settle doubts of mind. 
 These may have been the aims of the past. The 
 supreme goal of a pure Christianity is to make every 
 human being rich, ripe, and full for the duties and the 
 service of a life in this continent. It seeks to open 
 his eyes to everything noble ; to strip away bondage of 
 superstition ; to spur him with emulation ; to unfold 
 every faculty ; to put him at work in mankind s service; 
 to tune the single life to the keynote of the highest 
 welfare of all ; to locate in his breast guiding precepts ; 
 to turn him from traditions to truths, from fear to love ; 
 to create a mighty, overpowering sense of joy in the 
 obeying of God's laws now ; to unveil the richness of 
 this universe, and show him how grand a thing it is to 
 explore it ; to fill worship with reality and life ; to lift 
 him away from morbid retrospect, or vain anticipation, 
 with an eagle's renewed flight, — indeed, to make the 
 one man a loyal citizen of the Divine Republic, which 
 is righteousness, truth, and love. 
 
DISCOURSE. 41 
 
 Out of such religious and civil ideas, which our 
 fathers planted, which they embodied in the uses of 
 this meeting-house, have sprung some ruling sentiments, 
 strong alike in law and theology. 
 
 The sacredness of the individual has been enhanced. 
 The spiritual worth of every human being has been 
 increased by humanitarian labor. Man's kinship with 
 a divine source becomes clearer. We are all kings. 
 Man's place in the world is rightly settled. The world 
 was not made solely for man. The old idea of a 
 monarchy favored a crude, crass conception of the 
 universe. What history has to say concerning the 
 human race is now better understood in the lisfht of 
 our institutions. 
 
 The object of a Republic is to make citizens, — citi- 
 zens loyal, true, honest. The object of a Republic's 
 religion is to make character. The old-world view is 
 that religion must be made and presented to the masses. 
 If they refuse it in this dogmatic form, denounce them ; 
 if they accept blindly, crown them. For our people we 
 present a boundless hope. 
 
 Often will it be necessary for the leaders of the peo- 
 ple to recall our attention to the first principles of our 
 national and religious life. Webster's words at 
 Plymouth are ever timely : " Whatever makes men 
 good Christians makes them good citizens. Our 
 fathers came here to enjoy their religion free and 
 unmolested; and at the end of two centuries there is 
 nothing upon which we can express a deeper and more 
 earnest conviction, than of the inestimable importance 
 
42 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 of that religion to man, both in regard to this life and 
 that which is to come." The progress of our country- 
 will not be promoted by discarding religion, but by- 
 purifying it of errors, applying its ideas, and incarnating 
 its spirit in systems that shall justify our voluntary 
 elective methods. Come then, with wider reign, a 
 religion of reason and love ! Enter, through the por- 
 tals of the future, a lineage of free worshippers, 
 reverent, ardent, thoughtful ! Long may this meeting- 
 house stand, the home of religious liberty and progress ; 
 long may its altar flame be fed by loyal hands ! Reli- 
 gion shall enfranchise with hope the weak and poor 
 and maimed. It shall be hostile to nothing but crime 
 and wrong and error. From the east and the west, 
 from the north and the south, shall men come and 
 dwell in this Kingdom. " A new heaven and a new 
 earth " shall appear, spread by the hand of Him who 
 maketh all things new. 
 
 Turn, great wheels of industry; rise, murmur of 
 cities ; ripen, ye harvests of unbounded prairies ; circle, 
 with your rumbling wheels, tireless traffic and inven- 
 tion ; spread in clustered beauty, spire and dome and 
 turret ; but, O beloved land, exhibit also rare deeds 
 of generosity ; increase thy list of heroes ; kindle new 
 altar flames ; enthrone more securely the ideas of truth, 
 love, and justice ; and from thy lips never cease 
 to say : " God be with us as He was with our 
 Fathers." 
 
Note. — I deem it my duty as well as my pleasure to acknowl- 
 edge publicly the help I have received from three gentlemen, — 
 zealous and accurate in historical research, — in obtaining material 
 and verifying facts : Mr. Quincy Bicknell, Mr. Fearing Burr, and Mr. 
 George Lincoln. My authorities for statements I cannot give in 
 detail here ; they cover many references. The history of the 
 colonial periods is deeply interesting, especially to the people of 
 Hingham. 
 
 Edward A. Horton. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ORDER OF SERVICES. 
 
 January 8, 1882. 
 
 I. ORGAN VOLUNTARY. (^Batiste.) 
 
 II. PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 III. HYMN. {Flini.) 
 
 Sung to the tune of " Uxbridge." 
 
 In pleasant lands have fallen the lines 
 That bound our goodly heritage ; 
 
 And safe beneath our sheltering vines 
 
 Our youth is blessed, and soothed our age. 
 
 What thanks, O God, to thee are due, 
 That thou didst plant our fathers here \ 
 
 And watch and guard them as they grew, 
 A vineyard to the planter dear. 
 
 The toils they bore, our ease have wrought ; 
 
 They sowed in tears, in joy we reap ; 
 The birthright they so dearly bought 
 
 We '11 guard till we with them shall sleep. 
 
 Thy kindness to our fathers shown, 
 In weal and woe, through all the past. 
 
 Their grateful sons, O God ! shall own. 
 While here their name and race shall last. 
 
48 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 IV. SCRIPTURE READING. 
 
 And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the 
 presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth 
 his hands toward heaven : 
 
 And he said : Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, 
 in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant 
 and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all 
 their heart. 
 
 If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whither- 
 soever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord 
 toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house 
 that I have built for thy name, 
 
 Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplica- 
 tion, and maintain their cause. 
 
 If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth 
 not), and thou be angry with them and deliver them to the 
 enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of 
 the enemy, far or near ; 
 
 Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither 
 they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication 
 unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, 
 saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have 
 committed wickedness ; 
 
 Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven 
 thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, 
 
 For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou 
 broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace 
 of iron. 
 
 And it was so that when Solomon had made an end of 
 praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he 
 arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his 
 knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 
 
 And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with 
 a loud voice, saying : 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 49 
 
 Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people 
 Israel, according to all that he promised ; there hath not failed 
 one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the 
 hand of Moses his servant. 
 
 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers ; 
 let him not leave us nor forsake us : 
 
 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his 
 ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and 
 his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. 
 
 And let these my words, wherewith I have made suppHcation 
 before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, 
 that he maintain' the cause of his servant, and the cause of his 
 people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require : 
 
 That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is 
 God, and that there is none else. 
 
 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, 
 to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as at 
 this day. 
 
 V. PRAYER. 
 
 Almighty and most merciful God : we thank thee for the 
 privilege granted unto us of assembling here this morning, 
 with our psalms of praise, our thanksgiving of prayer, our 
 words of tribute. In thy sight the centuries are but as days. 
 The nations of this earth rise and fall, but thou art the same. 
 May the lessons of this hour impress us with a new and deeper 
 sense of life. We thank thee for the noble ancestry which 
 now receives our honor. Those of old braved the ocean, con- 
 quered the wilderness, and set the free church and state in the 
 waste land of a New World. They came impelled by the truths 
 of Christianity to do the work for which a grateful world pays 
 them homage. They were in the line of martyrs and reformers. 
 These walls they reared. Here the fire of loyalty to God was 
 fanned, here they pledged themselves to unyielding fidehty, 
 
 4 
 
50 THE FIRST PARISH IN HIxNGHAM. 
 
 here the vows of Christian service were made. Again we 
 seem to see the brave, earnest faces, and hear the strong, tri- 
 umphant voices that were of the first worship offered in this 
 venerable house. We thank thee that by the power of spir- 
 itual sympathy we can ally ourselves at this hour with those 
 of old whose lives, prayers, and labors have wrought for us 
 such boons and privileges. We remember at this time all for 
 whom we should pray: the weary, the sick, the tempted, — 
 asking that the precious aid which the spirit of religion affords 
 may be with such. We remember the homes represented 
 here, and ask that the children in them, whose voices are as 
 sweet music, and their faces as sunshine, may be blest in a 
 ripening manhood and womanhood ; that the gray-haired sires 
 may enjoy the happy retrospect of peaceful, honored old age ; 
 that those bearing the burdens of public and private life may 
 be strong and devoted. Make to appear now, in our thoughts, 
 all of the past which may assist our worship and exercises at 
 this time. Memory is busy, the heart stirs with emotion, 
 vanished forms and hushed accents return ; turn all these 
 impressions and feelings and recollections to our good. May 
 the gentle presence of him so recently the shepherd of this 
 flock seem to be with us, a benediction and an inspiration. 
 Make us loyal to this beloved land, and quicken in us all true 
 sentiments of love and reverence for the great institutions 
 that ennoble our Repubhc. Above all, may we maintain a 
 profound allegiance to the Christian truths to which sire and 
 son are alike indebted for guidance here and hope hereafter. 
 So assist us that our sins may be abandoned and our disciple- 
 ship to Christ made stronger. We ask thy blessing on this 
 service, on this beloved people, on the cause of our lathers, on 
 the hopes of thy children everywhere, — as disciples of Jesus 
 Christ. Amen. 
 
 VI. ORGAN RESPONSE. 
 
APPENDIX. 51 
 
 VII. HYMN. {W. P. Lunt.) 
 
 Sung to the tune of " lizard'" 
 
 When, driven by oppression's rod, 
 Our fathers fled beyond the sea, 
 
 Their care was first to worship God, 
 And next to leave their children free. 
 
 Above the forest's gloomy shade 
 The altar and the school appeared : 
 
 On that, the gifts of faith were laid ; 
 
 In this, their precious hopes were reared. 
 
 The altar and the school still stand, 
 The sacred pillars of our trust ; 
 
 And freedom's sons shall fill the land 
 When we are sleeping in the dust. 
 
 Before thine altar. Lord, we bend, 
 With grateful song and fervent prayer ; 
 
 For thou, who wast our fathers' friend, 
 Wilt make our offspring still thy care. 
 
 VIII. DISCOURSE. 
 
 IX. PRAYER. 
 
 X. HYMN. {Pierfiont.) 
 
 Sung to the tune of "America." 
 
 Gone are those great and good 
 Who here in peril stood, 
 
 And raised their hymn. 
 Peace to the reverend dead ! 
 The light that on their head 
 The passing years have shed 
 
 Shall ne'er grow dim. 
 
52 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 Ye temples, that to God 
 Rise where our fathers trod, 
 
 Guard well your trust, — 
 The faith that dared the sea, 
 The truth that made them free, 
 Their cherished purity, 
 
 Their garnered dust. 
 
 Thou high and holy One, 
 Whose care for sire and son 
 
 All nature fills, — 
 While day shall break and close. 
 While night her crescent shows. 
 Oh let thy light repose 
 
 On these our hills. 
 
 XI. BENEDICTION. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 53 
 
 CHURCH IN HINGHAM, ENGLAND. 
 
 The following sketch is taken from " An Essay towards a 
 Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, by Francis 
 Blomefield, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk. London, 1805." 
 
 HINGHAM. 
 
 HiNGHAM was the head town of the deanery, and at first 
 contained 43 parishes. The deanery was taxed at 30j- and it 
 was in the Bishop's collation. 
 
 The Church is a good pile, the tower being very tall and 
 large ; the whole was rebuilt by Remiguis de HetJierscte, rec- 
 tor here, in the time of King Edzvard III. with the assistance 
 of John le Marshal, his patron, who contributed much to the 
 perfecting of the work; it is dedicated to St. Andrew the 
 Apostle, and had several chapels in it, of which the most 
 remarkable were at the ends of each isle, that on the north 
 side being dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and that on the 
 south side to the Holy Virgin ; the others were dedicated to 
 St. Nicholas, the Nativity of the Virgin, and to her Assump- 
 tion, there was also a St. Marys chapel by the rood altar, 
 and another of St. Maty of Pity, and there were no less 
 than seven gilds held in the church, viz. of St. James, Corpus 
 Chris ti, St. Andrew, Holy-Cross, A I I- Saints, St. John Baptist, 
 and St. Mary, and each having a stipendiary chaplain, serv- 
 ing at their altars in the church, constituted a choir; for 
 in 1484, Robert Morley, Esq. of this town was buried in the 
 church, and gave seven surplices to the quire of Hingham ; 
 and without doubt this church must make a fine appearance 
 in those times, it being adorned with the following images, all 
 which had lights, cither lamps, wax tapers, or candles, con- 
 stantly burning before them in time of divine service, and 
 
54 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 being dispersed all over the church, chancel, and chapels, 
 must make it in the night season a fine sight; the principal 
 image of St. Andrew stood (as the principal image or Patron 
 saint of every church did) in the chancel, on the north side 
 of the altar, and those of St. Peter, St. Michael, St. Alary, 
 Corpus Christi, St. Maigaret, St. Christin, St. EditJi or Sythe, 
 St. Mary of Pity, St. Thomas, the Nativity and Assumption of 
 the Holy Virgin, St. Wulstan, St. Appolonia, St. Christopher, 
 St. Erasmus, St. yulian, St. Anthony, St. y<?//« Baptist, St. 
 Nicholas, the //(?/j/ Trinity, St. Edmund, St. Laurence, St. Gz^"/^- 
 m;z^, St. ^(9//;^ the Evangelist, St. Valentine, St. Ethelred, and 
 the //t'/;/ y?(?t?^ or Cr^i'j-, which stood on the rood-loft, between 
 the church and the chancel. 
 
 When Norwich Domesday was wrote, the patronage was 
 late Sir yohn Marshals but then the Lord Morleys ; the 
 rector had a noble house, and 20 acres of ground, the living 
 being then valued at 50 marks ; it stands in the King's Books 
 at 24/. i8j. /^d. and pays 2/. gs. lod. yearly tenths, and 
 first fruits every vacancy, it being undischarged ; the synodals 
 are 2s. Sd. and Peter-pence is. 2d. ob. The town paid 7/. 
 each tenth. 
 
 [Then follows a list of Rectors, beginning with Master Richard de 
 Felmingham in 1272 ; and among them appears the following : — ] 
 
 1605, 7 Jan. Robert Peck, A.M. 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 ROBERT PECK. 
 
 Rev. Robert Peck was ordained Teacher of the church 
 Nov. 28, 1638. In the " Peck Genealogy," by Ira G. Peck, 
 we find the following account of him : — 
 
 Rev. Robert Peck was born at Beccles, Suffolk County, England, 
 in 1580. He was graduated at Magdalen College, Cambridge; the 
 degree of A.B. was conferred upon him in 1599, and that of A.M. 
 in 1603. He was set apart to the ministry, and inducted over 
 the church at Hingham, Norfolk County, England, Jan. 8, 1605, 
 where he remained until 1638, when he fled from the persecutions 
 of the Church to this country. 
 
 He was a talented and influential clergyman, a zealous preacher, 
 and a non-conformist to the superstitions, ceremonies, and corrup- 
 tions of the church, for which he was persecuted and driven from 
 the countr}'. Brook, in his Lives of the Puritans, gives many facts 
 of interest in relation to him. In particular, giving some of the 
 offences for which he and his followers were persecuted, he says : 
 " For having catechised his family, and sung a psalm in his own 
 house on a Lord's day evening, when some of his neighbors at- 
 tended, his lordship (Bishop Harsnet) enjoined all who were 
 present to do penance, requiring them to say, ' I confess my 
 errors,' etc." 
 
 Those who refused were immediately excommunicated and re- 
 quired to pay heavy costs. This, Mr. Brook says, appears from the 
 bishop's manuscripts under his own hands. He says, " He was 
 driven from his flock, deprived of his benefice, and forced to seek 
 his bread in a foreign land." 
 
 He arrived here in 1638. In relation to his arrival the town clerk 
 of Hingham here says : " Mr. Robert Peck, preacher of the gospel 
 in the town of Hingham, in the County of Norfolk, old England, 
 with his wife and two children and two servants, came over the sea 
 and settled in the town of Hingham, and he was a Teacher of the 
 Church." Mr. Hobart, of Hingham, says in his diary, that he 
 was ordained here Teacher of the church, Nov. 28, 1638. His 
 
56 THE FIRST PARISH IN HINGHAM. 
 
 name frequently appears upon the records of the town. He had 
 lands granted him. His family consisted of nine children. He 
 remained here until the long Parliament, or until the persecu- 
 tions in England ceased, when he returned and resumed his rec- 
 torship at Hingham. Mr. Hobart says he returned Oct. 27, 1641. 
 
 He died at Hingham, England, and was buried in his church- 
 yard there. 
 
 Cotton Mather, in his " Magnalia Christi Americana," has 
 the following : — 
 
 Mr. Robert Peck. — This light, having been by the persecut- 
 ing prelates ' put under a bushel,' was, by the good providence of 
 Heaven, fetched away into New England, about the year 1638, 
 where the good people of our Hingham did ' rejoice in the light 
 for a season.' But within two or three years, the invitation of his 
 friends at Hingham in England persuaded him to a return unto 
 them ; where being, though a great person for stature, yet a greater 
 for spirit, he was greatly serviceable for the good of the church, 
 
 Blomefield, in his " Essay " already referred to, speaks of 
 Robert Peck among the rectors of the church in Hingham, 
 England. A more particular and candid account would be 
 desirable, but we must remember the spirit which moved the 
 writer to his work, — Blomefield being a churchman and Peck 
 a non-conformist. 
 
 He says : — 
 
 1605, 7 Jan. Robert Peck, A.M. Tho. Moor, by grant of Fraiicis 
 Lovell, Knt. he was " a man of a very violent schismatical spirit, he 
 pulled down the rails, and levelled the altar and the whole chancel 
 a foot below the church, as it remains to this day, but being pros- 
 ecuted for it by Bishop Wren, he fled the kingdom, and went 
 over into New-England, with many of his parishioners, who sold 
 their estates for half their value, and conveyed all their effects to 
 that new plantation, erected a town and colonic, by the name of 
 Hingham, where many of their posterity are still remaining, he 
 promised never to desert them, but hearing that Bishops were 
 deposed, he left them all to shift for themselves, and came back 
 to Hingham in the year 1646, after 10 years voluntary banish- 
 
APPENDIX. 57 
 
 ment, he resumed his rectory, and died in the year 1656." His 
 funeral sermon was preached by Nathaniel jfoceline, A.M. pastor of 
 the Church of Hardinghavi, and was pubhshed by him, being dedi- 
 cated to Mr. John Sid/e\\ high-sheriff, Brainpton-Gurdon and Mr. 
 Day, Justices of the Peace, Mr. Church, Mr. Barnhanty and Mr. 
 Man, aldermen and justices in the city of Norwich. 
 
 163S, 25 May, Luke Skippon, A.M. was presented by Sir Thomas 
 WooDHOUSE, Knt. and Bart, as on Peck's death, he having been 
 absent about two years; and in 
 
 1640, II April, the said Z//^r was reinstituted, the living being 
 void by lapse, it appearing that Peck was alive since Skippon'' s first 
 institution, and now two years more being past, and he not appear- 
 ing, it lapsed to the Crown, as on Peck's death ; but in 
 
 1646/ Peck came again, and held it to his death, 
 
 1 1641, according to Hobart's Diary. 
 
THE COMMUNION SERVICE. 
 
 The Communion Service comprises fourteen silver 
 cups, three plates, and two tankards. According to the 
 inscriptions upon the cups two were 
 
 " The Gift of M'. 
 
 Preserved Hall 
 
 to y*^ first Church of 
 
 Christ in Hingham." 
 
 Two were 
 
 "The Gift of M^= Hannah Thaxter (Relict of the Hon^'^ 
 
 Sam'. Thaxter) to the first Church of Christ in Hingham, 
 
 1756." 
 
 Two were 
 
 "The Gift of M-;^ Elizabeth Beal (Relict of 
 
 M'. Daniel Beal) to the first Church in Hingham 
 
 1769." 
 
 Six were 
 
 "Presented to the first Church in Hingham 
 
 by M':" Sarah Derby 
 
 once the confort of Dr Ezekiel Hearsey 
 
 1790." 
 
 Two were 
 
 " Bequeathed by the widow Ruth Leavitt, 
 
 to the first Ciiurch in Hingham 
 
 1794." 
 
 
i 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 i llif III II lull III nil I I I 
 
 014 078 638 A t 
 
 
 •V, 
 
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