and he will discover the wisdom of Divine Providence in the early settlement of New-England.

But let us, in the third place, contemplate this event in a still more important attitude :-its operation on the extension and influence of the gospel. Most, if not all ecclesiastical historians, who have written since the commencement of the sixteenth century, have not failed to take notice of the discovery of America, as an event, pregnant with interesting results to the Church of God. President Edwards, in his History of Redemption, remarks, that "we may well look upon the discovery of so great a part of the world as America, and bringing the Gospel into it, as one thing by which Divine Providence is preparing the way for those glorious times, when Satan's kingdom shall be overthrown throughout the whole habitable globe." But, if the discovery of the New World is an event of so much moment in the progress of the great redemption; if America has been reserved as the theatre of scenes, which in their progressive developement are to hold an important place in the illustration of the Redeemer's glory; it cannot be difficult for us to feel the sentiment, that one of the earliest of these favourable indications was the migration of the Pilgrims of Leyden to this western wilderness.

Until that memorable day on which our forefathers landed at Plymouth, the Sun of Righteousness had never penetrated the dark climes of New-England. Sixteen centuries had passed away since the blood of propitiation was shed, and this vast continent, comprising a large part of the earth, remained in the undisturbed possession of the "god of this

D

world." Here, the "dark places of the earth were filled with habitations of cruelty." It was a bleak, dreary abode, resembling the "region of the shadow of death," where millions were groping "without God and without hope in the world."* It was the great empire of heathenism. My friends, " My friends, "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God." On the spot where you and I have enjoyed so many of the divine mercies, and beheld so much of the divine glory, the "dwellers in this wilderness" once made their children to pass through the fire unto Moloch. How long the prince of darkness would have quietly enjoyed his dominion, no mind can conjecture, unless God in his holy pro

*The leading tribes of Indians that inhabited New-England at this time, were,

1. The Pequots, or Pequods, a very warlike and potent people, who were scattered over Connecticut. Old Indians relate that in former times they could raise four thousand men fit for war.

2. The Narragansits, inhabiting Narragansit Bay. They were a great people, and once able to arm more than five thousand men.

3. The Pawkunnawkutts, living to the East and North-East of the Narragansits, and scattered over the Plymouth colony. They originally consisted of about three thousand armed men, but were swept off in great numbers by a pestilence which prevailed in 1612 and 1613.

4. The Massachusetts, inhabiting about Massachusetts Bay. This tribe was about as large as the Pawkunnawkutts, and shared the same fate from the epidemic in 1613,

5. The Pawtuckets, lying on the North and North-East of the Massachusetts, about as large a tribe, but almost totally destroyed by the great sick

ness.

Beside these, there were the inland Indians,—the Maquas or Mawhawks, the Massawomeks, the Canada Indians, the Kennebeck Indians, and other tribes in the District of Maine and on Long-Island.

Some as their god,

Their religion was like the religion of other Gentiles. adored the sun; others, the moon; some, the earth; others, the fire, &c. &c. The prominent characteristics of their worship were obscenity and blood. Vide Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians in New-England. A copy of this work will be found in the library of the New-York Historical Society..

vidence had raised up just such a race of men as our progenitors, to disseminate the glorious Gospel in these ungenial climes. The Pilgrims of New-England were men who had pity on the heathen. Their spirit was the spirit of missions. They gloried in the prospect of planting Churches, and propagating a heaven-born religion. It was this that mitigated the horrors of their persecution at home, and that inspirited them with so much patience and heroism abroad. Among the early settlers of New-England, you not only find the Mayhews, but others of a kindred, if not a superior spirit. Elliott, that famed "apostle of the Indians," was one of the chosen band that followed up the first colony ;* and Bourn, Treat, Sergeant, Edwards, Brainerd, and Hawley,† soon became either coadjutors or successors in the work. The prosperity of their labours was almost without a parallel. The darkness, the thick darkness, which covered the people, began to

The Rev. John Elliott, minister of Roxbury, Massachusetts, came to this country eleven years after the landing at Plymouth. He was intensely devoted to the work of evangelizing the Indians. He published the New Testament in the Indian language, and in a few years the whole Bible, and several other books. He established schools and Churches among them with great success; and, after a life indefatigably devoted to this cause, died in the eighty-sixth year of his age.

The Rev. Richard Bourn was one of the first emigrants from England, who settled at Sandwich. He was pastor of an Indian Church at Marshpee, which was composed of his own converts, and which was constituted by Elliott and Cotton. He is deserving of honourable remembrance as a faithful and devoted missionary.

The Rev. Samuel Treat was the first minister of Eastham, Massachusetts, and devoted much of his time and attention to the Indians. He had under him four Indian teachers, who read in separate villages on every Sabbath, excepting every fourth, when he himself preached the sermons which he prepared for them in their own language.

The Rev. John Sergeant was a native of Newark, New-Jersey, and was a most faithful servant of Jesus Christ among the Houssatonnoc, or Stock

flee away.* Yes, it has gone-and now, what do we see? An army of ministers-a world of Bi-bles-I had almost said, a continent of Churches, where, two hundred years ago, not a solitary missionof the cross had ever trodden the desert, not a Bible had blessed the cell of the savage, not a Church

ary

had lifted its spire amid the trees of the forest. The war-whoop has ceased, and the angel "having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth," in his flight over this New World has proclaimed, "Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth, and good will to men."

The spirit of evangelizing their fellow-men did not soon forsake the bosom of our fathers, nor has it left the bosom of their children. It has lived from generation to generation; it has diffused its blessings; it

bridge Indians. He was succeeded by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, to all whose excellencies as a scholar and a divine, we may add the labours of six years as a missionary.

The labours of David Brainerd are fresh in the recollection of every friend of missions.

Gideon Hawley also is a name that ought not be forgotten. He commenced his missionary labours at Stockbridge; thence made an excursion to the Mohawks; thence to the Oneidas and Tuscaroras; thence to the Six Nations on the Susquehanna river, devoting more than half a century in benevolent exertion to promote the salvation of the heathen.

The Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, D. D. while a minister at Lebanon, Connecticut, established an Indian school, where a number of Indian youth were educated as missionaries. This establishment resulted in the foundation of Dartmouth College, of which Dr. Wheelock was the first President.

* Previous to the death of the venerable Mayhew, about two-thirds of the inhabitants on Martha's Vineyard were reckoned as "praying Indians." There were thirty Indian ministers. In 1634, there were fourteen towns within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts colony, inhabited by these evangelized heathen.

For the substance of the information on this and the preceding page, vide Gookin's Collections, Allen's Biographical Dictionary, and the London Missionary Register.

has marked the course of the Pilgrims wherever they have gone. Let any man sit down to the sober calculation, and he will be convinced that a full share of the exertion which has been made by the American Churches, with the view of bringing back this lost and guilty world to God, may be attributed to the descendants of New-England. Not a few of those benevolent designs which have poured their blessings on mankind during the last century, and which have increased in number and become magnified in importance within the last thirty years, were originated and brought to maturity, and have been preserved in progressive advancement by the same active and persevering class of men. New-England has been scattering her sons and her daughters, in untold numbers and rapid succession, over this fertile continent; and wherever they have been dispersed, the "wilderness has blossomed as the rose, and the desert has become as the garden of the Lord."

While on this part of my subject, a thought occurs to which I wish it were in my power to impart all the importance and urgency it demands. Our ancestors were men who were not ashamed of their dependence on the immediate and omnipotent influences of the Holy Spirit. They preached, they acted as though the motto of their every enterprise was, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." They took great pains to bring forward, in the personality and divinity of his nature, and the efficiency and glory of his office, that Almighty Agent, who is commissioned in the method of redemption, to make "the gospel the power of God unto salvation." Their best adapted, their most self