A SERMON, DELIVERED IN CHRIST CHURCH, WEST HAVEN, THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, (BEING AUGUST 11th,) 1839, THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF LAYING THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH. BY REV. A. B. CHAPIN, M. A. Mem. Conn. Acad. Sci. and Arts; Mem. Yale Nat. Hist. Soc.; Rector of St. James's Church, PUBLISHED BY REQUEST, For the Ladies' Fair, for repairing the Church. NEW HAVEN: HITCHCOCK & STAFFORD, PRINTERS. 1839. "ALMIGHTY GOD, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the LORD; and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; we give Thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those Thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours. And we beseech Thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of Thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory, through JESUS CHRIST Our Lord. AMEN." SERMO N. Another parable spake he unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the fowls of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.—MATT. xiii. 31, 32. By "the kingdom of heaven," in this place, or "the kingdom of God," as it is called by St. Luke, in giving an account of this parable, is meant, the Church of GoD on earth; and by it, two things are represented-the smallness of the means, and the importance of the results. Like the grain of mustard-seed, in comparison with other seeds, so to human eyes appeared the means used in planting the infant Church; and as the full grown mustard-tree of the tropical climes, in comparison with other herbs, so did the Church become, when fully established. No parable, my brethren, ever had a more complete and a more literal fulfillment, than this. Not many mighty, not many great, not many noble, were called to sow the seeds of Christianity; but the poor, the despised, the neglected fisherman and tent-maker, were employed for this purpose. Like the grain of mustard-seed, in comparison with other seeds, so were the humble followers of Jesus, in respect to the noble, the learned, and the influential among their countrymen, who were passed by, when the first Apostles were called. And those who have contemplated Christianity in all its history, and in all its bearings, can see how like the branching mustardtree, it has out-stripped every other herb, until it vies with the gnarled and hardy oak of a hundred winters, in its size and stability. Generations of men have been born, and have died; Christians have been persecuted, and been courted; Christianity itself has been corrupted, and been purged; kingdoms have risen, and decayed; civilization has waxed, and has waned, and its light has flashed on high, and flickered in its socket: but the Church of God has stood amid all these revolutions. It has been affected; sometimes retarded, and sometimes accelerated in its motions; but still its course has been constant and onward, until the stone that was hewed out of the mountain without hands, bids fair to fill the whole earth. But this is too wide a field for our present purpose, too broad a view for our present contemplation. We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to the consideration of what may be considered as but a point, in contrast with the whole; which is in fact, but an item, in the grand account, which makes up the history of Christianity, and of the Christian religion. And this point, this item, is the early history of the Episcopal Church in West Haven, or, as we might with equal propriety call it, the history of the early Churchmen of Connecticut. And this, small though it be in comparison with the whole, yet to us, is a history of deep and thrilling interest. In this history, too, as well as in the general history of the Church, the truth of the parable in our text, has been most fully illustrated. Nor could there be a more appropriate time for the consideration of this subject, than the present epoch,-the CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY of laying the foundation of the house in which we are at present assembled.* If it is good to seek the old paths, and to walk therein, it is good to do so at a time like the present, when every association of time and place, brings along with it the remembrance of those men, and those days, which should ever inspire us with higher and holier feelings, with purer and deeper devotion, and prompt to greater zeal and effort. Let us, therefore, go back and trace the history of our fathers. Let us see who and what they were-why and for what they were Churchmen-what they did, and what they suffered, that we may be better able to appreciate the blessings we now enjoy. And let us implore the blessing of that God, who brought our fathers out of bondage, into the clear light of his glorious gospel, and united them to his Holy and Apostolic Church, and incorporated them into the mystical body of his dear Son-the company of all faithful people; that he would direct, sanctify, and govern all our inquiries, that we may be led to walk in the ways of his laws, and to do the works of his commandments, both now and ever. You are all aware, brethren, by whom, and for what purposes this country was settled; and you cannot but know, that by whoever, and for whatever purpose it was settled, most of the persons who settled it, brought along with them, and transmitted to their children, a most invincible dislike of Episcopacy. With the cause, or origin, or propriety of this feeling, we have not at this time any thing to do. The simple fact of *The precise time of laying the foundation of the house has not been ascertained. We only know, that preparations were made for building in 1739, under Rev. Mr. ARNOLD, who was lost at sea, as it is said, either in 1739, or early in 1740, on a voyage to England, partly on this very subject.- MSS. Lett. Wm. Gregson. + We say "most of them" entertained this feeling. That some of them did not, is clear from the Letter of the Governor and Council of Massachusetts, written after leaving, to their friends in England.-Hutch. Hist. Mass. I. 431. its existence, is all that concerns us at present. And the existence of the fact, we presume no one will doubt. Nor did this feeling decrease, in the minds of those sons, whose fathers held Episcopacy to be one of the abominations of the earth. The very fact of their removal from it, and the less knowledge consequent on such removal, would increase their dislike for, and their dread of it, and of course, call forth new hostility against it.* And this dislike, and dread, and hostility, were continually fomented and increasd among the colonies of New England, by their liability to be brought under Episcopal government, whenever the mother country should think fit to say the word, a word, they fancied, whether truly or falsely is nothing to our purpose, but which they fancied some LAUD† stood ready to pronounce. Under the existence of this state of feeling, to be a Churchman was to be despised, to be neglected, to be pointed at, to be considered a hypocrite in the Church, and an enemy to the country. At such a time it was no small affair to come into the Episcopal Church. A person needed a fixedness of principle, and a decision of character that belongs but to few. It needed a degree of that spirit that influenced CRANMER, and RIDLEY, and LATIMER, and which led them to meet death at the stake, for the sake of their religion. In such a soil as this, methinks I hear you say, Episcopacy could not take root, much more, could not grow and flourish. And such, to human eyes, would seem to have been the case. But God had caused the grain of mustard-seed to be sown, which was to spring up, and grow, and become a tree-we doubt not, the largest of all the trees of the field. A short time previous to the year 1716, a pious member of the Church of England, by the name of SMITHSON, settled in Guilford, in this State. In that year, Mr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, of Guilford, (afterwards the Rev. Dr. JOHNSON,) through the kindness of Mr. SMITHSON, was first made acquainted with the Book of Common Prayer. He was immediately struck with * Upon no other than this natural principle, can we account for the bitter war that was waged against the Consecration of a Bishop for America; nor for the application of such epithets as, savages, ," "scorpions," "blood-suckers," "Rt. Rev. tyrants," "of persecuting genius,” “less hospitable than Indians and rattle snakes," &c. &c. which were freely bestowed upon Bishops in that controversy.—Am. Whig, pp. 28, 29, and seq. + The name of LAUD is esteemed by the descendants of the Puritans, as a personification of tyranny itself. But much of the hostility which has been manifested against him, was uncalled for. Notwithstanding his faults, he certainly deserves a better character than the Puritan writers have ever given him. They should remember, that though he had supreme authority given him in all the Colonies, even to death itself, he never exercised it, which he probably would have done, had he been the man he is usually represented.-Hutch. I. 440, Ap. IV. Chand. Life Dr. J. p. 20. The facts contained in this book relative to the early history of Dr. J., may be relied upon with certainty, as they were furnish |