USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > Thirteen historical discourses, on the completion of two hundred years : from the beginning of the First Church in New Haven, with an appendix > Part 10
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sembly. Such a synod as that afterwards convened at Westminster, was proposed as early as December, 1641 ; and it is not improbable that private letters, accompanying the formal invitation, urged these New England di- vines by the argument that a synod was likely to be called, and that if they were on that side of the ocean, they might have places in that body, and thus great influence in remodeling the Church of England.
* Colony Records.
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with saws, for three miles; and " the great ship," on which so much depends, is out upon the waters, and ready to begin her voyage. Mr. Davenport and a great company of the peo- ple go out upon the ice, to give the last farewell to their friends. The pastor, in solemn prayer, commends them to the protection of God, and they depart. The winter passes away ; the ice-bound harbor breaks into ripples before the soft breezes of the spring. Vessels from England arrive on the coast; but they bring no tidings of the New Haven ship. Vain is the solicitude of wives and children, of kindred and friends. Vain are all inquiries.
" They ask the waves, and ask the felon winds, And question every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each beaked promontory."
Month after month, hope waits for tidings. Affection, unwil- ling to believe the worst, frames one conjecture and another to account for the delay. Perhaps they have been blown out of their track upon some undiscovered shore, from which they will by and by return, to surprise us with their safety :- perhaps they have been captured, and are now in confine- ment. How many prayers are offered for the return of that ship, with its priceless treasures of life and affection ! At last, anxiety gradually settles down into despair. Gradually they learn to speak of the wise and public spirited Gregson, the brave and soldier-like Turner, the adventurous Lamber- ton, that "right godly woman" the wife of Mr. Goodyear, and the others, as friends whose faces are never more to be seen among the living. In November, 1647, their estates are settled, and they are put upon record as deceased. Yet they were not forgotten ; but long afterwards, the unknown mel- ancholy fate of those who sailed in Lamberton's ship, threw its gloomy shadow over many a fireside circle .*
* Ten members of the Church were of the company in
" That fatal and perfidious bark, Built in the eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark."
" Divers manuscripts of some great men in the country, sent over for the service of the Church," were also " buried in the ocean." Among these
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Two years and five months from the sailing of that ship, in an afternoon in June, after a thunder storm, not far from sunset, there appeared over the harbor of New Haven, the form of the keel of a ship with three masts, to which were suddenly added all the tackling and sails ; and presently after, upon the highest part of the deck, a man standing with one hand leaning against his left side, and in his right hand a sword pointing towards the sea. The phenomenon continued about a quarter of an hour, and was seen by a crowd of wondering witnesses,-till at last, from the farther side of the ship, there arose a great smoke, which covered all the ship; and in that smoke she vanished away. Fifty years afterwards, while several of the witnesses of this strange appearance were yet alive, the story was great in the traditions of the colony ; and it was reported by some of the survivors, that Mr. Davenport publicly declared " that God had condescended to give, for the quieting of their afflicted spirits, this extraordinary account of his disposal of those for whom so many prayers had been offered."*
were Hooker's " Survey of the Sum of Church Discipline," and Daven- port's " Power of Congregational Churches;" both of which were after- wards re-written by the authors.
Hubbard (321) gives a full account of the building and sailing of Lam- berton's ship, but says nothing of the famous atmospheric phenomenon which the traditions of New Haven colony connected with the loss of their great ship. Winthrop, whose history is like a newspaper of the times, mentions the sailing of the vessel (II, 254,) at the time, mentions also the loss, (266,) when the loss became certain, and afterwards repeats the whole story with corrections. He says, she was of " about 100 tons," " laden with pease and some wheat all in bulk, 200 West India hides and store of beaver and plate, so as it was estimated in all at 5000 pounds." There was a tempest not long after she sailed. According to Pierpont, she was " of about one hundred and fifty tons."
The account of the phantom-ship is given by Winthrop, (II, 328,) under the date of June 28, 1648. His story is the story as he heard it at Boston. Mather (Magn. I, 25) gives, in a letter from Mr. Pierpont, the story as it was reported at New Haven, half a century afterwards, by " the most sensible, ju- dicious and curious surviving observers." The identity of the two accounts seems to me more striking than the comparatively slight diversities.
The mistake in Mr. Pierpont's letter respecting the year in which Lamber- ton's ship was lost, is rationally accounted for by Mr. Savage, in his note on the passage in Winthrop. I may add, however. that the records of the
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In the year 1651, Mr. Davenport was invited to remove to Boston and become the pastor of a new Church there-the second Church in that town, which was organized the year before .* But his attachment to New Haven was too strong. He chose rather to remain in this little and unprosperous col- ony, where the entire constitution, ecclesiastical and civil, was conformed to his views of the mind of God, than to leave these interests for a settlement in a more prosperous community.
In the year 1657, the colonies of Massachusetts and Con- necticut united in calling a general Synod, to meet at Boston, for consultation on certain questions of ecclesiastical order, which had in some way grown out of a painful and pro- tracted controversy in the Church at Hartford. A letter was sent to the General Court of this colony, requesting them to send some of the elders of their Churches to assist in the Synod. The questions proposed for the consideration of the Synod, were numerous, and some of them harmless enough. But the great questions to be resolved, were questions that struck directly at the purity and liberty of the Churches, and even at their existence as independent of the civil power ; and they seem to have been got up by a party desirous of introducing that lax administration of church ordinances, which characterizes all countries where religion is secular- ized by the subjection of the Church to the state. At Mr. Davenport's advice, who saw that the object of the disaf- fected party was to unsettle those foundations which he re- garded as all-important, the General Court of New Haven colony returned to the invitation from Massachusetts a cour- teous but decided negative.t
town, might mislead a hasty reader as to the time when Lamberton and Gregson disappeared from the scene. But the probate records, as they con- tain a will made by one of the passengers when she was about to embark, confirm the date given by Winthrop.
Another great ship was built at New Haven in 1646, and some more dili- gent explorer may find that I have not distinguished between that and Lam- berton's with sufficient accuracy. Lamberton's is said to have been built at Rhode Island. Magn. I, 25.
* Town Records. Ware, Hist. of Second Church in Boston, 5.
t Trumbull, I, 300. Colony Records.
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During the same year, in compliance with a proposal from the commissioners of the united colonies, Mr. Davenport, together with Mr. Higginson, then minister of Guilford, and Mr. Pierson, then minister of Branford, were requested by the General Court for the jurisdiction, " to gather up the most remarkable passages of God's providence in these parts, which have been observable since their first beginnings, which may be a heap towards the compiling of a history of of the gracious providences of God to New England."* Whether any thing was done in consequence of this re- quest does not appear. The record is interesting, as show- ing the carefulness of our ancestors to let nothing be lost, which might tend either to the glory of God, or to the in- struction of their posterity.
In January, 1658, not quite twenty years after the beginning of the colony, all New England, but most of all, Mr. Dav- enport, was bereaved by the death of the excellent Theophi- lus Eaton. This good man had been wont to say, "Some count it a great matter to die well ; but I am sure it is a greater matter to live well. All our care should be, while we have our life, to use it well ; and so when death puts an end to that, it will put an end to all our cares." Having lived according to the spirit of this maxim, making it all his care to live well, "God would have him to die well," says the quaint historian, "without any room or time then given to care at all; for he enjoyed a death sudden to every one but himself." Having worshiped God with his family after his usual manner, and upon some occasion having charged all the family to be attentive to their mistress then confined by sickness, "he supped ; and then took a turn or two abroad for his meditations." After that, he came in to bid his wife good night, before leaving her with those who were to watch with her. She said to him, "Methinks you look sad." He re- plied, " The differences arisen in the church of Hartford make me sad." She then, discontented as she long had been, said, "Let us even go back to our native country." To which, he answered, " You may, but I shall die here."
* Colony Records.
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This was the last word she ever heard him speak. He re- tired to his chamber ; and about midnight he was heard to groan ; and to some one who instantly came in to inquire how he did, he answered only, "Very ill," and immedi- ately fell asleep in Jesus .* ·
He died in the night between the 7th and 8th of January, and was buried on the 11th, as the record states with un- wonted particularity, "about two in the afternoon."+ His grave is just behind the pulpit window ; where "the come- ly tomb, such as the colony was capable of," stood, till with- in a few years past, the memorial of his worth and of the people's gratitude. Many were the expressions of public veneration for that "man of singular wisdom, godliness, and experience," which found a place in the records of the town and of the colony.
That the grief of the people at his loss, and the honors paid to his memory, were not extravagant, appears from the ac- count of his character given by the early historians of New England. And in these days of faction, when it is so exten- sively held that man's private and personal character has little or nothing to do with his qualifications for elevated stations in the commonwealth, it may be useful as well as re- freshing, to dwell a little upon their delineation of the char- acter of one of New England's primitive statesmen.
Hubbard, himself partly cotemporary with Governor Eaton, says of him, " After he saw the manner of the country, he soon gave over trading, and betook himself to husbandry, wherein, though he met with the inconveniences usual to others, which very much consumed his estate, yet he main- tained a port in some measure answerable to his place ; and although he was capable of, and had been much used in af-
* Magnalia, II, 29.
t There is, however, an error in the record, which was probably copied by Trumbull, (see Kingsley, 77.) Gov. Eaton's death, as we begin the year, was in January, 1658. According to the old mode, beginning the year on the 25th of March, it was in January, 1657. This is the date on the tombstone ; and it is confirmed by the records of the courts. But the record of deaths says, 1656. Perhaps the secretary's eye was blinded by a tear.
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fairs of a far nobler and broader nature, as having with good advantage more than once stood before kings, yet did he apply himself to the mean and low things of New Eng- land, with that dexterity and humility as was much to see, and with so much constancy that no temptations or solicita- tions could prevail with him to leave his work and look back towards Europe again." "This man had in him great gifts, and as many excellencies as are usually found in any one man : he had an excellent princely face and port, com- manding respect from all others : he was a good scholar, a traveler, a great reader, of an exceeding steady and even spirit, not easily moved to passion, and standing unshaken in his principles when once fixed upon, of a profound judg- ment, full of majesty and authority in his judicatures, so that it was a vain thing to offer to brave him out, and yet in his ordinary conversation, and among friends, of such pleasant- ness of behavior and such felicity and fecundity of harmless wit as can hardly be paralleled : but above all he was seasoned with religion, close in closet duties, solemn and substantial in family worship, a diligent and constant attender upon all public ordinances, taking notes of the sermons he heard ex- actly, and improving them accordingly ; in short, approving himself in the whole course of his life, in faithfulness, wis- dom, and inoffensiveness before God and man."*
In the same manner, but with some touches more particu- lar and therefore more instructive, is the character of this good man described by Mather.
" As in his government of the commonwealth, so in the government of his family, he was prudent, serious, happy to a wonder ; and albeit he sometimes had a large family, con- sisting of no less than thirty persons, yet he managed them with such an even temper, that observers have affirmed, they never saw a house ordered with more wisdom. He kept an honorable and hospitable table ; but one thing that still made the entertainment thereof the better, was the continual pres-
* Hubbard, 329, 330.
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ence of his aged mother, by feeding of whom with an exem- plary piety till she died, he ensured his own prosperity as long as he lived. His children and servants he would might- ily encourage unto the study of the Scriptures, and counte- nance their addresses unto himself with any of their inquiries ; but when he discerned any of them sinfully negligent about the concerns either of their general or particular callings, he would admonish them with such a penetrating efficacy, that they could scarce forbear falling down at his feet with tears. A word of his was enough to steer them !
" So exemplary was he for a Christian, that one who had been a servant unto him, could many years after say, What- ever difficulty in my daily walk I now meet withal, still something that I either saw or heard in my blessed master Eaton's conversation, helps me through it all ; I have reason to bless God that ever I knew him ! It was his custom when he first rose in a morning, to repair unto his study; a study well perfumed with the meditations and supplications of a holy soul. After this, calling his family together, he would then read a portion of the scripture among them, and after some devout and useful reflections upon it, he would make a prayer not long, but extraordinarily pertinent and reverent ; and in the evening some of the same exercises were again at- tended. On the Saturday morning he would still take notice of the approaching Sabbath in his prayer, and ask the grace to be remembering of it, and preparing for it; and when the evening arrived, he, besides this, not only repeated a sermon, but also instructed his people, with putting of questions re- ferring to the points of religion, which would oblige them to study for an answer ; and if their answer were at any time insufficient, he would wisely and gently enlighten their un- derstanding ; all which he concluded by singing a psalm. When the Lord's day came, he called his family together at the time for the ringing of the first bell, and repeated a ser- mon, whereunto he added a fervent prayer, especially tending unto the sanctification of the day. At noon he sang a psalm, and at night he retired an hour into his closet ; advising those
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in his house to improve the same time for the good of their own souls. He then called his family together again, and in an obliging manner conferred with them about the things with which they had been entertained in the house of God, shutting up all with a prayer for the blessing of God upon them all. For solemn days of humiliation, or of thanksgiv- ing, he took the same course, and endeavored still to make those that belonged unto him, understand the meaning of the services before them. He seldom used any recreations, but being a great reader, all the time he could spare from com- pany and business, he commonly spent in his beloved study."
" His eldest son he maintained at the College until he pro- ceeded master of arts; and he was indeed the son of his vows, and the son of great hopes. But a severe catarrh diverted this young gentleman from the work of the ministry, where- to his father had once devoted him; and a malignant fever then raging in those parts of the country, carried off him with his wife within two or three days of one another .* This was counted the sorest of all the trials that ever befell his father in the days of the years of his pilgrimage ; but he bore it with a patience and composure of spirit which was truly admirable. His dying son looked earnestly on him, and said, 'Sir, what shall we do ?' Whereto, with a well- ordered countenance, he replied, 'Look up to God!' And when he passed by his daughter drowned in tears on this occasion, to her he said, 'Remember the sixth command- ment, hurt not yourself with immoderate grief ; remember Job, who said, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath ta- ken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. You may mark what a note the Spirit of God put upon it; in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly: God accounts it a charging him foolishly, when we don't submit unto him patiently.' Accordingly he now governed himself as one that had attained unto the rule of weeping as if he wept not ; for it being the Lord's day, he repaired unto the church in the
* See Kingsley, 76.
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afternoon, as he had been there in the forenoon, though he was never like to see his dearest son alive any more in this world. And though before the first prayer began, a mes- senger came to prevent Mr. Davenport's praying for the sick person, who was now dead, yet his affectionate father altered not his course, but wrote after the preacher as formerly, and when he came home he held on his former methods of di- vine worship in his family, not for the excuse of Aaron, omit- ting any thing in the service of God. In like sort, when the people had been at the solemn interment of this his worthy son, he did with a very unpassionate aspect and carriage then say, 'Friends, I thank you all for your love and help, and for this testimony of respect unto me and mine : the Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Nevertheless, retiring hereupon into the chamber where his daughter then lay sick, some tears were observed falling from him while he uttered these words, 'There is a difference between a sullen silence or a stupid senselessness under the hand of God, and a child-like submission there- unto.'
" Thus continually he, for a score of years, was the glory and pillar of New Haven colony."*
When the day arrived for the election of a new Governor, Mr. Davenport preached the election sermon from the first words in the book of Joshua, "Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people." The unanimous choice of the electors fell upon Francis Newman, who having been for many years Secretary of the colony, and one of the bench of Magistrates, had thus stood as a minister to their Moses, and had been trained, from his youth up, by the instruction, ex- ample, and intimate friendship of that eminent " servant of the Lord." His time however, in this office, was less than
* Magn. II, 27, 29. Some other particulars will be given in the Appendix, No. IX.
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two years. At the court of Magistrates, October 17, 1660, the Governor was unable to take his seat ; and the record was made, that "By reason of the afflicting hand of God on New Haven by much sickness, the Court could not pitch up- on a day for public thanksgiving through the colony, for the mercies of the year past, and did therefore leave it to the elders of the church at New Haven, as God may be pleased to remove his hand from the Governor and others, to give notice to the rest of the plantations, what day they judge fit for that duty, that we may give thanks and rejoice before the Lord to- gether." The Governor was soon so far recovered from that sickness, that the people " were comforted with his presence in the public assembly two Lord's days, and at one meeting of the Church on a week day." The day of public thanks- giving was appointed ; and on that day also, " he found him- self encouraged to come to the public assembly." But that
day being very cold, and he insisting on being in his place at both services, the exposure was too great for him. On the morning of the next Lord's day, (Nov. 18, 1660,) when the second drum was beating, " his precious soul departed from the house of clay, to the souls of just men made perfect." His Pastor described him as "a true Nathanael, an Israelite indeed," and said of him, "He honored God in his private conversation and in his administration of chief magistracy in this colony, and God hath given him honor in the hearts of his people," "recompensing his faithfulness with his living desired and dying lamented."*
Mr. Davenport was now becoming an old man. Twenty two years had passed over him in this country. The men of his generation in the ministry, were fast disappearing. Hooker of Hartford, Cotton of Boston, Shepard of Cambridge, Bulkly of Concord, and others who had been with him the greater lights in the New England churches, were gone.
* Mather, Magn. II, 29. Colony Records. Davenport's Letters. From the Town Records, it appears that the town provided Gov. Newman with a house which he was to occupy while he continued to be Governor. The inventory of his estate amounted to only £430 2s. 7d.
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Among those who, like him, had planted churches in this Colony, Prudden of Milford had deceased ; Whitfield of Guilford had returned to England. Another generation of ministers, educated in America, to whom he was as one of the ancients, was beginning to occupy the scene of action. . From this Church, his colleague in the ministry of the word, Hooke, and his helper in government, Robert Newman, had both returned to their native country ; and though another good man, (the Rev. Nicholas Street,) was helping him in the pulpit, the office of ruling elder was still vacant, and has never since been filled. Nearly every one of those who had been originally the most distinguished and valued members of his flock, was gone ; and the interests of the community were committed to other hands. Yet, though encompassed with discouragements, the shadows still lengthening upon his path as the sunset of life was approaching, he, like the great poet his cotemporary, would not
" bate a jot Of heart or hope, but still bore up, and steered Right onward."
Even in his old age, he was found struggling with unweari- able zeal to establish a college in New Haven, " for the good of posterity." It was in the year 1660, that he made his greatest efforts for this object. Then it was that, reinforced with the legacy of Governor Hopkins, he appeared before the General Court to lay by his solemn act the foundation of a college, and entreated them "not to suffer this gift to be lost from the colony, but, as it becometh fathers of the Common- wealth, to use all good endeavors to get it into their hands, and to assert their right in it for the common good ; that pos- terity might reap the good fruit of their labors, and wisdom, and faithfulness ; and that Jesus Christ might have the ser- vice and honor of such provision made for his people."
How admirable is that true nobleness of soul which studies and labors " for the good of posterity !" How beau- tiful in vigorous and ardent youth ! How venerable in old age !
DISCOURSE VII.
JOHN DAVENPORT IN HIS OLD AGE, THE PROTECTOR OF THE REGICIDES, THE OPPONENT OF UNION WITH CONNECTICUT, THE CHAMPION OF THE OLD WAY AGAINST THE SYNOD OF 1662.
ISAIAHI, xvi, 3, 4 .- Take counsel, execute judgment, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday ; hide the outcasts, bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee ; Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.
EXAMINING the records of the town, we occasionally find Mr. Davenport taking an active part in town meetings. The manner in which his name is introduced, is sometimes such as implies that he did not ordinarily attend upon such assem- blies. Yet whenever any thing was done or proposed res- pecting schools for the town, or the setting up of a college, we are sure to find that he was present, and had something to say in the way of urging forward the cause of education. So when any subject was introduced which had an imme- diate connection with the interests of religion and of religious institutions, we frequently find him engaged in the discus- sion. One instance of this may be here introduced, as illus- trating his principles and character.
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