for contumacy in the course of two years and a half. Hindered from speaking, some of these dared to print the reasons of their dissent, and were punished with imprisonment or mutilation. This severity brought some of the best men in England to overcome that natural repugnance to emigration which holds the serious and moderate of every nation to their own soil. Among the silenced clergymen was a distinguished minister of Woodhill in Bedfordshire, Rev. Peter Bulkeley, descended from a noble family, honored for his own virtues, his learning, and gifts as a preacher, and adding to his influence the weight of a large estate. Persecution readily knits friendship between its victims. Mr. Bulkeley, having turned his estate into money, and set his face towards New England, was easily able to persuade a good number of planters to join him. They arrived in Boston in 1634. Probably there had been a previous correspondence with Gov. Winthrop, and an agreement that they should settle at Musketaquid. With them joined Mr. Simon Willard, a merchant from Kent in England. They petitioned the General Court for the grant of a township; and on the 2d of September, 1635, corresponding in new style to 12th September, leave to begin a plantation at Musketaquid was given to Peter Bulkeley, Simon Willard, and about twelve families more. A month later, Rev. John Jones and a large number of settlers destined for the new town arrived in Boston." 1

The General Court granted the settlers important privileges, as this was to be the first inland town above tide-water; adding, "and the name of the place is changed, and hereafter to be called Concord." The Indian name was Musketaquid. In the autumn of 1635 the settlement was begun. The perils were many; for Watertown and Cambridge were the nearest towns, and all around was the wilderness. There were discouragements and hardships many; and there was a division of the colony after a few years, Rev. John Jones and many others going to Connecticut. Under the skillful leadership of Bulkeley, who became the pastor and teacher, the town was gradually settled, and began to prosper. Bulkeley brought with him six thousand pounds; but he exercised great benevolence, helping each of his servants to the possession of a farm. He was greatly beloved and respected by his people, and was "addressed as father, prophet, or counselor by

1 A Historical Discourse delivered before the citizens of Concord, 12th September, 1835, on the second centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town. Reprinted in 1876.

them and all the ministers of the country." He was of a resolute purpose, a strong will, quick in temper and sharp of tongue, courteous and kind in manner, a genuine Puritan, dressing with rigid plainness, wearing his hair very short, and was devoutly faithful in the discharge of all the duties of his profession. He was an earnest and eloquent preacher. Cotton Mather said "he was a most exalted Christian, full of those devotions which accompany a conversation in heaven, and conscientious even to a degree of scrupulosity." He was one of the best scholars among the early colonists, and is said by Mather to have had "a competently good stroke at Latin poetry."1

The Concord church was organized in Cambridge, July 15, 1636; and in April of the next year Bulkeley was installed as teacher, and Jones as pastor. The controversy raised by Mrs. Hutchinson was exciting attention at this time; so that "the governor, and Mr. Cotton, and Mr. Wheelwright, and the two ruling elders of Boston, and the rest of that church which were of any note, did not come" to this installation, as Winthrop says. The persons he names were the leaders of the Antinomian party, mainly confined to the Boston church, though to be found in most of the other churches; and they were the advocates of a covenant of grace, claiming that God performs all the work of regeneration, and maintaining that the Holy Spirit becomes an actual presence in the heart of the true believer. They called the other party Legalists, accused them of recognizing only a covenant of works, and of not having entered into the true spirit of the gospel. This controversy raged with such vehemence, and the tenets of the Boston church became so repugnant to most of the other churches, that a synod was called in the autumn. Owing to his reputation for learning and moderation, and to his high social standing, Bulkeley was chosen one of the moderators. It suppressed Mrs. Hutchinson's heresy, and drove her and her followers from the colony;

1 Duyckinck gives a specimen of his verse in his Cyclopedia of American Literature.

while Cotton acknowledged his error, and Vane went back to England, to lose his life in the cause of liberty. This controversy, however, continued for many years, and led to the publication of a remarkable volume of controversial theology by Peter Bulkeley, in 1646. It bore the title of "The Gospel Covenant; or, the Covenant of Grace opened, wherein are explained: 1. The difference between the covenant of grace, and covenant of works. 2. The different administration of the covenant before and since Christ. 3. The benefits and blessings of it. 4. The conditions. 5. The properties of it. Preached at Concord, in New England, by Peter Bulkeley, some time fellow of Saint John's College in Cambridge." It deals elaborately with these problems, maintaining the superiority of the covenant of grace, but claiming that the covenant of works is still in force, that while we are saved by grace we must show forth the effects of that grace by a life of good works. He makes frequent mention of the controversy of the time, and condemns with strong language of contempt those who maintain a constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and an immediate sanctification by the work of grace. Its strong reasoning, sound common sense, and earnest piety must have made it acceptable reading in those days; and a new and enlarged edition was published in 1651. Tyler says this book was "one of those massive, exhaustive, ponderous treatises into which the Puritan theologians put their enormous biblical learning, their acumen, their industry, the fervor, pathos, and consecration of their lives. The style, though angular, sharp-edged, carved into formal divisions, and stiff with the embroidery of scriptural texts, is, upon the whole, direct and strong." It is a very good specimen of the thought and preaching of the time, and no clearer statement can be found of the main points of Puritan theology and church govern

ment.

Peter Bulkeley died March 9, 1659, and was suc

1 History of American Literature, vol. i. p. 17.

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ceeded in the Concord pastorate by his son Edward, who was born and educated in England. Edward was a man of remarkable piety and devotion; and, following in the ways of his father, made poetry when occasion demanded. In his time occurred King Philip's war; but the Indians spared the town, because, they said, the Great Spirit loved the Concord people, for Mr. Bulkeley was a great pray." A large settlement of Indians had been formed within the limits of Concord, where Eliot labored, and a thriving church had been gathered among them. This terrible war, however, cooled the missionary zeal of the Concord people; while the Indian settlement was nearly destroyed, and never flourished again. Edward Bulkeley, though lame and of a feeble constitution, was much respected for his talents, irreproachable character, and piety. His daughter Elizabeth became the second wife of the Rev. Joseph Emerson of Mendon in 1665. The Emerson family was a very honorable one of Durham or York, a member of it being knighted by Henry VIII. It had long been a family of ministers. Thomas Emerson of Ipswich came to America about the year 1635, and was the first of the family in this country. His son Joseph preached in Ipswich for a short time, then settled in Wells for two or three years, and became the first minister in Mendon in 1667; when that town was destroyed, during King Philip's war, he went to Concord, and there died Jan. 3, 1680. His son Edward, born in Concord in 1670, married Rebecca Waldo of Chelmsford in 1697. The Waldo family had been London merchants, and were descended from a stock of the Waldenses.

Edward Emerson had a son Joseph, who entered Harvard College in his fourteenth year, graduated in 1717, and began to preach when he was eighteen, "to general acceptance." He was ordained in Malden Oct. 31, 1721, and preached there forty-five years, being out of his pulpit only two Sundays in all that time. He married Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Moody of Maine, and died in 1767. His son Joseph was the first pastor of Pepperell; while another son, William, was

the pastor of the Concord church at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

Edward Bulkeley was succeeded by his colleague, the Rev. Joseph Estabrook, who died in 1711. The next Concord pastor was the Rev. John Whiting, who was dismissed after twenty-one years' service. He was succeeded by Daniel Bliss, whose daughter married the first William Emerson. Bliss is well described by the epitaph in one of the Concord cemeteries,—

“Of this beloved Disciple and Minister of Jesus Christ 'tis justly observable, that, in addition to his natural and acquired abilities, he was distinguishedly favoured with those eminent Graces of the Holy Spirit (Meekness, Humility, and Zeal) which render him peculiarly fit for and enabled him to go thro' the great and arduous work of the Gospel Ministry, upon which he entered in the 25th year of his age. The Duties of the various Characters he sustained in life were performed with great strictness and fidelity. As a private Christian, he was a bright Example of Holiness in Life and Purity in Conversation. But in the execution of ye ministerial office he shone with Peculiar Lustre; a spirit of Devotion animated all his performances; his Doctrine drop'd as ye Rain, and his lips distilled like the Dew; his Preaching was powerful and searching; and he who blessed him with an uncommon Talent in a particular Application to ye Consciences of men, crowned his skilful endeavor with great success. As ye work of the Ministry was his great Delight, so he continued fervent and diligent in ye Performance of it, till his Divine Lord called him from his Service on Earth to the Glorious Recompense of Reward in Heaven, where, as one who has turned many unto Righteousness, he shines as a star for ever and ever."

Another religious controversy came at this time, and was heartily joined in by the Concord pastor. It was caused by the great revival of 1740, and the demand of Jonathan Edwards that only converted persons should be admitted to the churches. It was really a renewal of that discussion in which Peter Bulkeley had taken part, and which had constantly continued, in one form or other, to agitate the New-England churches, in spite of the banishment of Roger Williams, Ann Hutchinson, the Quakers, and many others who departed from the accepted forms of faith. Rigid as was the Puritan theology, it had in it the elements of the wid