a moveable stand. The house is warmed by two furnaces in the lower apartment, the heat ascending through a niche on each side of the door. The front is four feet wider than the body of the church, has a tower projecting 11 feet, and rising 87 feet in height, with encircled octagon pillars at the corners, surmounted with ornamental pinnacles, and has wings, with similar pillars at their cornices and on the sides. The wings contain the stairs which lead to the singers' gallery and to the belfry. The front door is pannelled and of a low arch, over which is a quartrefoil band. Above this is the front window, 36 feet high and 12 feet wide, containing 540 diamond lights, and is divided like the side windows, into three divisions, with gothic scrolls at the bottom. The whole expense of this superb building, including the cellar, does not exceed $10,000. In the afternoon on the day of the dedication, the pews were offered at auction, and 103 were sold at an advance above the appraisal of nearly $1800. The amount of sales has been sufficient to defray the expense of building the new house, to pay the pew holders in the old house, and leave a surplus of about $2,500.

During the building of this house, the workmen refrained entirely from the use of ardent spirits.

The first house of worship in this town was erected in 1648; it stood lower down in the town square than the site of the present house, and was furnished with a bell. In 1683, another was built on the same spot, 45 feet by 40, and 18 feet in the walls unceiled, gothic roof, diamond glass, with a small cupola and bell. In 1744, a third church was erected on this consecrated ground; the raising commenced on the 17th of July, and on the 29th of the same month it was opened for public worship. The dimensions were about 72 by 64 feet, and the spire was 100 feet high, surmounted with a handsome brass weathercock. In the same year a seceding society erected a meetinghouse in Middle street; this was the effect of great zeal in new light limes, and there was no other secession during the remainder of the last century. Since the commencement of the present century, eight houses for public worship have been erected here, either by new societies or by rebuilding.

The ancient church stands at the present time on a firm basis, and is in prosperity, worshipping the God of our fathers, rejecting some of their dogmas, but cherishing the same essential principles of christian faith and practice, and acquiescing to the fullest extent in the free enjoyment of each individual in the mode of worship which conscience may dictate.

In the year 1819, Dr. Francis Le Baron, then in public ser

vice at New York, presented an elegant set of desk bibles for the use and benefit of the first church and society in Plymouth, as a testimony of his respect and regard for the society, with which his ancestors had been connected, and the church where he received christian baptism.

In 1822, Hon. Judge Davis, having had the loan of the church records for the purpose of compiling a new edition of Morton's New England Memorial, with considerable additions, and having for that purpose extracted several pages from said records, proposed to vest the copy-right of this new edition of the Memorial in the first church and society of Plymouth, the profits to be applied to the relief of the poor. But subsequently, he proposed that the copy-right should be transferred to the Pilgrim Society, on the condition that the said society deliver to the first church one hundred and ten copies of said work for every 3000 copies which they may publish, and in the same proportion for a greater or less number, being in full for a consideration of the transfer.

It is remarkable that the meeting-house, which was built in 1683, was, on the 3d of June, 1715, struck by lightning, and considerably shattered, and on the 22d of November, 1831, the present house, when nearly finished, suffered a similar fate; the north-east pinnacle was entirely destroyed, with some other damage, and the whole edifice narrowly escaped conflagration. Fortunately the building was insured, and the expense of repairs paid by the underwriters. A few years since, a large elm tree, standing within a few yards of the same place, was so much injured by lightning, that it died soon after. These incidents serve to show the expediency of lightning-rods and of insurance.

In closing this history, our spirits are animated with the prospect of amendment in our moral world, and in our day. The unrighteous spirit of intolerance and persecution binding down the human mind by bonds of religious faith, is evidently on the wane. We have a cheering hope that our moral feelings will no longer be disturbed by the practice of aspersing the characters of pious and exemplary men on the grounds of difference of opinion in mysterious points of doctrine. This uncharitable temper has too long been a scourge to society, and we can have no sympathy with proceedings so manifestly inconsistent with the christian character. By indulgence these guilty passions gain strength, harden the heart of man, and lead to licentiousBut we rejoice that the day has arrived when every citizen may think as he pleases upon subjects of religion, and quietly offer his devotions in whatever temple, and whatever form his own judgment and conscience may prescribe for him.

ness.

A learned and candid spirited clergyman, having perused the foregoing church history, offers the following as a closing paragraph:

In reading over the foregoing pages, the writer would unite with his candid readers in a grateful acknowledgment of the rich mercies of the God of Heaven to this most ancient church of the United States. The band of Pilgrims, who stepped upon this inhospitable shore 212 years ago, with no support but the Almighty arm, so often made bare for their protection, have now become a great people. And we trust they are destined by Divine Providence, as they have hitherto done, still to perform an important part in forming the character of the American church, and the American empire.'

N. B. Church and Parish are two distinct bodies; the church is a religious body, and the parish is a civil body. The civil law has no control over a church, as such. A church is a religious society altogether independent, and governed by the principles of the religion which its members profess. A congregational church, according to the definition given in what has been called the New England Platform, 'is by the institution of Christ, a part of the militant visible church, consisting of a company united in one body by an holy covenant, for the = public worship of the Lord Jesus.' Now a church is without power or authority in temporal matters, of course not amenable to any earthly tribunal. The character of a minister of the gospel, settled according to the common mode in New England, is the pastor of the church and the minister of the parish. The practice of the country has been for the church to give the minister a call to become their pastor, but no salary is stipulated by them. The relation between the church, as a church, and their minister, has always been considered a spiritual relation only. A church is at liberty, by a vote, to withdraw themselves from their pastor, if a part only, those who are in the minority and in his favor, will still be his church. Those who withdraw themselves are no longer of the church. Should the whole withdraw, he is still the minister of the parish and entitled to his salary, provided his misconduct do not forfeit it. By the old State laws, the church members had the sole right of electing the minister of the parish; and when a majority of those members had agreed on the man, although the parish were to a man against him; yet the advice of five neighboring churches being had, the man was settled, became the minister of the parish and the court of sessions had a right to assess the inhabitants for his support. The law which authorised this piece of religious tyranny was the never failing source of dissention and division, and finally compelled the government to pass sundry

If the church do

acts of toleration for the relief of the people. not agree that the teacher chosen by the parish, in which they are inhabitants, shall be their pastor, they may choose another; but they cannot expect the parish to maintain him. The first principle in a civil corporation is, that a majority shall govern, and it is the duty of the religious body to acquiesce. A law under the old constitution, gave the church a power, (five churches advising thereto,) to settle the minister within the voice of the parish: and, by the same act, if there were 300 voters in the parish, and the church consisted of 20`members, the town could have a minister, if ten of the 20 were against it. But now the town, as a town, have the vote to themselves. When a minister is settled, the church, as a church, have no right to dispose of the money of the parish."

The following are the names of Deacons of the church in

John Carver,

Plymouth.

chosen in Leyden, 1620..

Samuel Fuller,

APPENDIX.

THE foregoing pages will be found to contain a just display of the character sustained by our puritan fathers, and show that their sacrifices, their disinterested patriotism, their exemplary integrity, and their reverence for a pure religion were without a parallel in the records of history. It was, with them, a primary object to avoid all cause of war with the natives, but they were compelled in their own defence to a cruel warfare with Philip and his allies, and were in imminent danger of a total extermination, within the first half century of their settlement. The natives, from a jealousy of encroachments, became the aggressors by acts of enormities and crimes. The colonists never possessed themselves of the Indian's land, without paying a fair and full price for what they bought. (See page 133.) After the war, the English, it is true, availed themselves of the right of conquest; but lands were allotted to the surviving Indians, who remained in the country, amply sufficient for their support. Should it be inquired, what is the character and prosperity of the descendants of the puritans; it may be replied, that every community having religion and justice for its basis will be prosperous and happy. The state of society in the ancient town is, in common with the whole of the old colony of Plymouth, remarkably peaceable, orderly, and happy. The names of our ancestors are embalmed in our bosoms, and are objects of consecrated memory. Their religious and school institutions are deemed by all good men sufficiently important to be appreciated as their worth and character deserve.

We venerate the memory of the pilgrim fathers for their re-, ligion, their patriotism and their institutions. They were, it is true, deeply imbued with the principles of Calvin, and were, in some measure, tinctured with the spirit of bigotry. Liberal christians of the present day have abandoned many tenets, which our fathers conscientiously maintained, and are zealous advocates for the exercise of mutual charity and brotherly love, that heavenly grace that beams from the breast, of the father of mercies, and which gives joy to good men and to angels.

Few crimes or aggravated violations of law have been known