Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-05
THOMAS HOOKER.

R0tHOn0u8n-F1I0I HI S6IACD VA | Special Biographical Discourses By Rev. MT. James - Founders | Who Built WeIl-Lessons From the l Life of Thomas Hooker - A Dis course of Great Interest Delivered Last Evening.
 At the Second Congregational church, Fair Haven East, the pastor, Rev. D. M. James, last evening delivered the first in special series of discourses which promise to be of great interest. These sermons are to be on stThe Great Leaders in Con- necticut Congregationalism;" subject for last evening was ''Thomas Hooker" The speaker handled his subject in thorough manner, treating on the different lines of thought in way that carried the atten- tion of his hearers throughout. Below is 6 synopsis of the discourse:
 THOMAS HOOKER.
 Tonight we begin series of biographi- cal sketches including t'The Great Leaders in Connecticut Congregationalism." This series comments itself to our kindly con- sideration on the ground that it seeks to extend our acquaintance and to deepen our interest in person and principles modern and local. We are largely what we are, because others were what they were. To have an intelligent understand telligent Knowledge of the past. The genesis of the civil and religious life of our commonwealth must be under stood in order to appreciate it's subsequent history. The men who l lived and wrought in the succeeding peri ods of our ecclesiastical life must be | studied in order to determine the kind as we'll as the degree of obligation under which we are placed to them. | We begin the series with 'Thomss Hooker" the first pastor of the First church in Hartford in 1636: Davenport had not yet appeared in New Haven. The organized. There was no New Haven col ony to consult or to compete with the Con | necticut colony on the banks of the Con- | necticut river. The three towns of Wind | sor, Hartford and Wethersfeld with their l three churches were organized about the | same time and for substantially the same | reasons. The men who settled the towns | and composed the churches came respec l lively from the towns of Dorchester, New l town and Watertown in the Massachusetts | colony. John Warham was pastor. at Windsor, Thomas Hooker at Hartford and Henry Smith at Wethersfeld. The man who was by far the most conspicuous 1 figure in the young colony was Thomas Hooker, the pastor of the First church at Hartford. Johnson calls him "the undis- l puted leader" of the Connecticut colony | until his death in 1647.
 l Let us endeaVor to answer two questions l in reference to this leadership. Why was l he leader? and whither did he lead?
 Contesting life with more than ordinary natural ability, the influences that sur rounded his preparatory and university training we'll fitted him for brilliant ca reer. He was born in the midst of relig- ious revolution in England and educated in the "nursery" of Puritanism. The place of his birth was the hamlet of Marfeld in the county of Leicester, England, -1586. So little is known about his home life that it is impossible to determine the influences which surrounded his childhood. The hamlet of Marfeld contained only half a dozen families. The parish of Hilton, to l which it belonged, was small and the vicar unknown. At the age of fourteen he en tered the grammar school at Market Bos- l worth, twenty-five miles from Marfeld, where he was surrounded by influences that were in sympathy with with the Puritan cause. From here, in 1904, he went to Emanuel college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of A. B. in 1908, and A. M. in 1911. He is about twenty sever years of age and for at least seven years he has been 'fin the focus of Puritanism and in the midst of some of the most con siderable actors in the great events of tn. times" Out of this college went Hooker acquainted with the principles and frei with the spirit of Puritanism. He did no cherish them in silence, but became leade
 among the now conformist clergy in tn
 Church of England. The Puritans ant | f;e@s Io&a 4oJ o1~o
 began his work as lecturer and preacher il
 Chelmsford in 1926 and soon became tn
 object of hatred and persecution. He no
 only influenced the people, but he drsI
 around him a large circle of sympathizin 1 ministers. Samuel Collins in writin
 about him said: "There be divers youn ministers about us that spend their tim l in conference with him and return hom and preach what he hath brewed. Gu
 peoples pallats grow so out of taste tha , no food contents them, but of Mir. Hooker dressing. All mems tongues, eyes an ! ears in London and all the counties abou ing and expecting what will be the conclu l sion of Hooker's business" He was drive | out of England and took refuge in Ho
 land, and in 1883 came to New Englan6 ; and became pastor of the church in New town.
 Up to this date his life had been full c | change. He found no ''continuing city. l Newtown was not to be his home an : Massachusetts colony was not to be th
 scene of his greatest work.
 In less than three years they began t \ look elsewhere for suitable place { which to remove both town and churcl
 Their eyes rested on Connecticut, an hither they came in 1636.
 to oooar+o;,, tho roo1 cor,e< $ for their removal, yet in these causes W discover the real forces which shaped th policy of the new settlements. In thei
 petition to the general court for permit - sion to remove to Connecticut the reason stated were narrowness of territorial lin it's, desire to rescue fruitful Connecticl
 from the Dutch and "the strong bent
 their spirit to move thither." The lai !. reason was vaguely stated, but it was tt . one that could not easily be answered. I'll = general court could enlarge their territor,
 could provide against the encroachmeni
 of the Dutch, but it could not satisfy ''tt D strong bent of their spirits to move
 This 'strong bent of spirit" was superb
 duced by radical differences of opinion c
 vital questions of civil and ecclesiastic polity between the leaders in Newtown an
 the leaders in Boston. John Cotton and Go,
 ernor Winthrop in Boston, Thomas Hool
 CT and Governor Haynes in Newtown wei
 strong characters, with definite opinion
 having the courage of their convictions. Y,
 they represented fundamental differenc,
 in administering the affairs of the colon,
 Hubbard states that tafter Mr. Hooker
 coming over it was observed that many ,
 the freemen grew to be very jealo, |. of their liberties. Cotton and Winthrc
 were not friendly to democracy. The = sought to establish theocratic form government and to maintain a privilege
 class. They held that the veto DOW
 rested in the governor and his assistan
 and not in the people. Winthrop claim,
 that it "was unsafe to refer matters counsel or indicature to the body of u people, because the best part is always u ,, least and of that best part the wiser pa
 is always the lesser" The rights of vc
 ing and holding office were limited
 membership in the church and membe N ship in the church was determined
 rigid examination in matters of person
 experience.
 These two principles, the encroachmen
 of privileged class upon the rights of t
 people, and the restriction of franchise v church membership, which the majori
 imposed on the Massachusetts colony, we
 sufficient to produce the restlessness whi
 prevailed at Newtown and to confirm t
 purpose of Hooker and others who sy1 pathiZed with him to remove beyond t ta limits of her authority and to found " civil and religious colony of their own. ts The second question remains to be a
 swered, viz. s'Whither did he Leadq" 2 :" theology his leadership was along VI
 established calvinistic lines, vet l