The Parish of James City.

I NOW enter upon the Parish of James City—the landing-place of our first forefathers—the seat of he first civil and religious establishment on the shores of North America. It dates its beginning about two hundred and fifty years ago. But it found a place in the hearts of pious and philanthropic men at a still earlier period, and we must go back to that period with our preparatory remarks. We are greatly mistaken, if we suppose that the missionary spirit, after slumbering from the early ages, was aroused to life and action only within the last hundred years. Instances may be shown, in which Kings and Queens of our mother-country and Church, moved to it by the pious zeal of Bishops and other ministers, have commanded, that together with the sword and artillery of war, and the implements of commerce and husbandry, the sword of the Spirit and the trumpet of the Gospel should be sent, with armies and navies and colonists, to the uncivilized nations of the earth. I confine my references to what the religious principle has done in behalf of the Colony of Virginia.

The domestic troubles of the English State and Church, the controversies with Romanists, Puritans, and other disaffected bodies, delayed and hindered any great schemes for Christian colonization and missionary enterprise, just as civil wars prevent foreign aggressions and conquests. To the Rev. Richard Hakluyt the chief praise is due, for stirring up the minds of Christian statesmen and people to the duty of finding out barbarous countries, in order to their conversion to the Christian faith. To his friend, Sir Philip Sydney, he dedicates his first collection of voyages and discoveries, in 1570. In 1587, he republishes Peter Martyr's history of the New World, with a preface, dedicating it to Sir Walter Raleigh, together with another work on Florida, in which he urges him to persevere in the good work he had begun in Virginia. In both of them he urges Sir Walter to prosecute the work from the only true motive and design, the extension of Christ's religion,—" The glorie (sic) of God, and the saving of the soules (sic) of the poor and blinded infidels." The numerous volumes collected and published by this laborious and zealous man on this subject have come down to our day, and are a most valuable depository of missionary information. After holding various preferments (sic), he settled down as Prebendary (sic) of Westminster, and continued till his death, in 1610, to watch over the infant Colony of Virginia. The honour (sic) of being buried in Westminster Abbey was conferred on this man of a large soul. It deserves to be mentioned, that he not only by his pen and the press urged on the Christian colonization of Virginia, but sought and obtained the honour (sic) of being one of those to whom Virginia was consigned, by letters-patent from King James, that he might the more effectually labour (sic) for her welfare. To his exertions the expeditions in 1603, and again in 1605, may in a great measure be ascribed. The language used by the King, in the terms of the patent for Virginia, in 1606, shows also the religious character of the movement. One design was, that " so noble a work may, by the Providence of God, hereafter tend to the glorie (sic) of his divine majestic, in propagating of Christian religion to such people as sit in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages (living in those parts) to human civility and quiet government." Another evidence of the operation of the religious feeling in those who first engaged in the settlement of Virginia may be seen in what one writes, who went out with Weymouth in 1605, in regard to a proposal of some of the natives, that " the company would push their discoveries further." It was declined, he says, on this ground:—"We would not hazard so hopefull (sic) a businesse (sic) as this was, either for our private or particular ends, being more regardful of a public goode (sic), and promulgating God's holy Church, by planting Christianity, which was the interest of our adventurers as well as ours."

In the following year, December, 1606, the first little colony came to Virginia, bringing with it the first minister of James City, the Rev. Robert Hunt. Mr. Wingfield, the first President of the Colony, gives the following account of his appointment:—" For my first worke (sic), which was to make right choice of a spiritual pastor, I appeal to my Lord of Canterbury,—his grace,—who gave me very gracious audience in my request. And the world knoweth whom I took with me, truely (sic) a man, in my opinion, not any waie (sic) to be touched with the rebellious humour (sic) of a papist spirit, nor blemished with the least suspicion of a factious schismatic." In a narrative, kept by Stukeley and others, it is written, "On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwell, but by unprosperous (sic) winds were kept six weeks in sight of England; all which time Mr. Hunt, our preacher, was so weake (sic) and sicke (sic) that few expected his recovery. Yet allthough (sic) we were but twenty miles from his habitation, (the time we were in the Downes,) and notwithstanding the stormy weather, nor the scandalous speeches of some few, little better than atheists, of the greatest rank among us, suggested against him, all this could never force from him so much as a seeming desire to leave the businesse (sic), but preferred the service of God, in so good a voyage, before any affection to contest with his godless foes, whose disastrous designs, could they have prevailed, had even then overthrown the businesse (sic), so many discontents did there arise, had he not only with the water of patience and his godly exhortations, but chiefly by his devoted example, quenched those flames of envy and dissention." It is very certain, that notwithstanding the piety which prompted the expedition, and the devotion of Mr. Hunt and some others who embarked in that vessel, there was a considerable proportion of most unworthy materials on board, as shown by their opposition to Hunt and Captain Smith, two men who seemed to know no fear, but that of God. The future conduct of the larger portion of the Colonists, after their arrival, too well established this fact. The company in England appears to have apprehended something of this, from their instructions, in which they say to the Colonists at their departure, that " the way to prosper and have success was to make themselves all of one mind, for their own and their country's good; and to serve and fear God, the giver of all goodness, since every plantation which he did not plant would certainly be rooted out." Although Captain Smith was appointed one of the Council of the Company, a violent opposition was made to his having a seat on their arrival. " Many," it is said in the narrative already quoted, " were the mischiefs (sic) which daily sprung from their ignorant, yet ambitious spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher, Mr. Hunt, reconciled them, and caused Captain Smith to be admitted of the Council." The next day, the Holy Communion was, for the first time, administered in Virginia. The number composing the first congregation at Jamestown was one hundred and four or five. "A circumstance," says the Rev. Mr. Anderson, author of three most laborious and interesting volumes on the Colonial Churches, "is mentioned in President Wingfield's manuscript, which I cannot find recorded elsewhere, which shows, in a very remarkable manner, the careful and pious reverence manifested by the Colonists for the due celebration of Christ's holy ordinance, in their sad extremity." He says that when "the common store of oil, sack, vinegar, and aqua-vitae, were all spent, saving two gallons of each, the sack was reserved for the communion- table."

In proof of the religious character of Captain Smith, as a part of the history of James City Parish, I quote the following account of the first place of worship in the same, in a pamphlet published in 1631, by Mr. Smith, some years after his History of Virginia, and entitled, "Advertisements for the unexperienced (sic) planters of New England, or elsewhere, &c." To the Rev. Mr. Anderson's labours (sic) we are indebted for the revival of this pamphlet. "

"Now, because I have spoken so much for the body, give me leave to say somewhat of the soul; and the rather, because I have been demanded by so many, how we began to preach the Gospel in Virginia, and by what authority, what churches we had, our order of service, and maintenance for our ministers ; therefore I think it not amiss to satisfie (sic) their demands, it being the mother of all our Plantations, entreating pride to spare laughter, to understand her simple beginnings and proceedings. When I went first to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang an awning (which is an old sail) to three or four trees, to shadow us from the sun; our wall were rails of wood, our seats unhewed (sic) trees, till we cut planks, our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighbouring (sic) trees; in foul weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better, and this came by way of adventure for new. This was our church, till we built a homely tiling like a barn, set upon crotchets (sic), covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so was also the walls. The best of our houses were of the like curiosity, but the most part far much worse workmanship, that could neither well defend wind nor rain, yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three mouths the holy communion, till our minister died, (the Rev. Mr. Hunt.) But (after that) our prayers daily with an homily on Sundays, we continued two or three years after, till more preachers came, and surely God did most mercifully hear us, till the continual inundations of mistaking directions, factions, and numbers of unprovided (sic) libertines near consumed us all, as the Israelites in the wilderness." "Notwithstanding, (he says,) out of the relicks (sic)of our mercies, time and experience had brought that country to a great happiness, had they not so much doated (sic) on their Tobacco, on whose furnish foundation there is small stability."

Of the piety of Captain Smith we have further evidence, in the account given of the survey of Virginia, when he and his valiant comrades fell into so many perils among the Indians. "Our order was daily to have prayer with a psalm, at which solemnity the poor savages much wondered." On Smith's return to Jamestown, notwithstanding all former opposition, such were his merits and such its difficulties, that the Council elected him President of the Colony; and the first thing done was to repair the church, which, during his absence among the Indians, had, with other houses, been destroyed by fire. Characteristic, and evincive of piety in him, is the statement of it:—"Now the building of the palace was stayed as a thing needless, and the church was repaired."

In what year the first minister, Mr. Hunt, died, is not now known, but that there was a vacancy for some years is declared in the foregoing passage from Captain Smith's last pamphlet. The next was the Rev. Mr. Bucke, who came over with Lord De la War, in the year 1610. •'The many disasters which had befallen the first emigrants to Virginia, so far from discouraging either the statesmen or the Christians in England, and causing them to abandon the enterprise, only stirred them up to more active exertion. In the year 1609, a new company, called the London Company, was formed, and a new charter, with a larger territory and more privileges, was granted. Twenty-one of the peers, including a number of the bishops, and many of the first clergy and merchants of the kingdom, were among those who are mentioned in the charter. Mr. Edwin Sandys, the pupil of Hooker, the two brothers John and Nicholas Ferrar, one of them a pious divine, and both of them most active members of the board which managed the concerns of the company, are worthy of special mention. That a spirit of true piety to God and love for the souls of the heathen burned in the breasts of many of the members of the company, cannot be questioned. It is evident from the selection of the Governor, who was a man of sincere piety; and had his health been continued, so as to allow of a longer residence in America, much might have been expected from his example and zeal. The spirit which predominated in the company may also be seen in the minister chosen for the new expedition, the Rev. Mr. Bucke, a worthy successor to Mr. Hunt, and from the sermons preached at their embarkation. Two of them were published, and are still extant. One of them, the first ever preached in England on such an occasion, was by the Rev. Mr. Crashaw, preacher at the Temple. "Remember," he says, "that the end of this voyage is the destruction of the devil's kingdom, and the propagation of the Gospel." After upbraiding those who were anxious for acquiring wealth by voyages, but indifferent to this, he says, " But tell there of planting a church, of saving ten thousand souls, and they are senseless as stones; they stir no more than if men spoke to them of toys and trifles; they laugh in their sleeves at the silliness of such as engage themselves in such matters." To Lord De la War himself, who was present, he speaks as follows:—"And thou, most noble Lord, whom God hath stirred up to neglect the pleasures of England, and, with Abraham, to go from thy country and forsake thy kindred and thy father's house, to go to a land which God will show thee, give me leave to speak the truth. Thy ancestor many hundred years ago gained great honour to thy house, but by this action thou augmentest (sic) it. He took a king prisoner in the field of his own land, but by the godly managing of this business thou shalt take the Devil prisoner in open field and in his own kingdom; nay, the Gospel which thou carriest (sic) with thee shall bind him in chains, and his angels in stronger fetters than iron, and execute upon them the judgment that is written; yea, it shall lead captivity captive, and redeem the souls of men from bondage, and thus thy glory and the honour (sic) of thy house is more at the last than at the first. Go forward therefore in the strength of the Lord, and make mention of his righteousness only. Looke (sic) principally to religion. You go to commend it to the heathen: then practise it yourself; make the name of Christ honourable (sic), not hateful unto them." Another sermon was preached at White Chapel, London, in the presence of many honourable (sic), worshipful adventurers and planters for Virginia.

At its close he says, ''If it be God's purpose that the Gospel shall be preached through the world for a- witness, then ought ministers to be careful and willing to spread it abroad, in such good services as this that is intended. Sure it is a great shame to us of the ministry, that can be better content to set and rest us here idle, than undergoe (sic) so good a worke (sic). Our pretence of zeal is clear discovered to be but hypocrisy, when we rather choose to mind unprofitable questions at home, than gaining souls abroad." From the above we shall see that the true missionary spirit, and missionary sermons and addresses to those about to embark on some foreign work, are not peculiar to our day, though, blessed be God, they are increased among us. For some cause, which need not now be dwelt upon, Lord Do la War did not sail until the following year, though Mr. Bucke went over sooner, in a vessel with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Summers. On reaching there, after having been wrecked themselves, and long detained at the Bermuda Islands, they found the Colony in a most deplorable condition, the greater part having been cut off by the Indians, and the remainder almost in a state of starvation. On landing, the first place visited by Gates was the ruined and unfrequented church. " He caused the bell to be rung, and such as were able to crawl out of their miserable dwellings repaired thither, that they might join in the zealous and sorrowful prayer of their faithful minister, who pleaded in that solemn hour for his afflicted brethren and himself, before the Lord their God." After a few days, the provisions being nearly out, the whole Colony embarked for Newfoundland," none dropping a tear, because none had enjoyed one day of happiness." "When this departure of Sir Thomas Gates, full sore against his heart, was put in execution," says Mr. Crashaw, "and every man aboard, their ordnance and armour (sic) buried, and not an English soul left in Jamestown, and giving, by their peal of shot, their last and woeful farewell to that pleasant land, were now with sorrowful hearts going down the river,—behold the hand of Heaven from above, at the very instant, sent in the Right Honourable (sic) De la War to meet them at the river's mouth, with provision and comforts of all kind, who, if he had staid but two tydes (sic) longer, had come into Virginia and not found one Englishman." They all now returned to Jamestown. On landing, Lord De la War, before showing any token or performing any act of authority, fell down upon his knees, as Paul upon the sea-shore, and in presence of all the people made a long and silent prayer to himself. After which he arose, and, going in procession to the church, heard a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Bucke; at the close of which he displayed his credentials to the congregation, and addressed them in a few words of admonition and encouragement. The author from whom the above statement is taken, and who was Secretary and Recorder of the Colony, (Strachy, who wrote a narrative of all the proceedings of the same,) gives us the following sketch of the church, which he says the Governor had given order at once to be repaired: —

"It is in length threescore foot, in breadth twenty-four, and shall have chancel in it of cedar, a communion-table of black walnut, and all the pews of cedar, with fair broad windows, to shut and open, (as the weather shall occasion,) of the same wood, a pulpit of the same, with a Font hewn below, like a canoe, with two bells at the west end. It is so caste, as it be very light within, and the Lord-Governor and Captain-General doth cause it to be kept passing sweet, and trimmed up with divers flowers, with a sexton belonging to it; and in it every Sunday we have sermons twice a day, and every Thursday a sermon, having true preachers, which take their weekly turns; and every morning, at the ringing of the bell about ten o'clock, each man addresseth himself to prayers, and so at four o'clock before supper. Every Sunday, when the Lord-Governor and Captain-General goeth to Church, he is accompanied by all the counselors(sic), captains, other officers, and all the gentlemen, with a guard of Halberdiers in his Lordship's livery, (fair red cloakes (sic),) to the number of fifty, on each side, and behind him. His Lordship hath his seat in the Quoir (sic), in a great velvet chair, with a cloth, with a velvet cushion spread before him, on which he kneeleth, and on each side sit the council, captains, and officers, each in their place, and when he returneth home again, he is waited on to his house in the same manner."

In the foregoing, it is said that there were true preachers, who took their weekly turns, which shows that there were more than the Rev. Mr. Bucke in the Colony at this time; and we do read of a most venerable old man, by the name of Glover, who came over with Sir Thomas Gates, upon his second return to Virginia, and who was doubtless one of the true preachers (perhaps it should read two) spoken of above. In the account of the decorations of the church under Lord De la War, and the pomp and circumstance of his own attendance at church, the reader will not fail to perceive some of the peculiarities of the Laudian school. That school was not very far off, in our Mother-Church, at this time. Some of those concerned in promoting and preparing this expedition of Lord De la War were, I doubt not, somewhat inclined to it. The secretary, Strachy, who has given this account, was, it is believed, the person who had much to do in drawing up the code of "Laws, moral, martial, and divine," which is so much tinctured with Romish and martial discipline, and which has ever been the reproach of the Church and State of Virginia, though its penalties were so seldom enforced, and the worst of them were soon abolished. One, at least, of those excellent men, "the Ferrars," was somewhat inclined to a monkish religion. This, however, is the only instance in which such decorations and pomp are mentioned in the history of Virginia. Only a few years after this, the Rev. Mr. Whittaker speaks of the simplicity of our worship and liberality of our discipline in the following words: — " But I much more muse, that so few of our English ministers that were so hot against the surplice and subscription come hither, where neither of them are spoken of."

Having alluded to the Ferrars, the two brothers, as zealous and active friends of the Colony, and especially labouring (sic) for its religious condition, it is due not only to them, but to the whole family, to add a few more words. The father was a wealthy merchant in London, and a promoter of all the good works in which the sons were engaged. The mother was also like-minded. The two sons, John and Nicholas, were highly-educated and talented men, labouring (sic) zealously, as members of the London Company, until it was dissolved by the tyranny and covetousness of King James, by a kind of Star Chamber operation, in the year 1624, the year before his death. John, the elder, then entered into the House of Commons, and sought to promote the best interests of the Colony in that place. Nicholas, after debating the question whether he should remove to Virginia and seek her welfare here on the spot, or devote himself to the ministry at home, determined on the latter. In the words of Mr. Anderson, who duly appreciated his worth, I make the following statement:— "

In 1626, Ferrar was ordained by Laud, then Bishop of St. David's. From that period, to the time of his death, which took place in 1637, he gave himself up to those duties, with an ardour and steadfastness of devotion which the world has never seen surpassed. It forms no part of the present history, to relate the particulars of the economy which he then established in his house, and in the church; still less can it be required to enter into any explanation of the personal austerities exercised by himself and the members of his family—austerities not exceeded, as his biographer justly observes, by the severest orders of monastic institutions. It is clear that such rigorous observances were not required by that branch of the Church Catholic of which Ferrar was an ordained minister, and the exaction of them on his part may therefore, have justly been disapproved of by many who loved and snared the piety which prompted them. There is reason also to think that his own life was shortened by the hardships of fast and vigil which he endured."

As it is well known that such a type of personal religion is often accompanied by an excessive regard to the ceremonial, the pomp and show of public worship, decoration of churches, &c., we may thus account for the fact that Lord De la Ware, who may have sympathized with the rising school of Laud, in England, introduced some parade, which had never been before, and, as we believe, never was afterward seen in the Colony. In connection with this, we add that when George Herbert, a brother in soul to Nicholas Ferrar, was about to die, he sent some poems to Ferrar, which were published, and which showed how he sympathized with him, in his hopes from America. The two following lines are evincive of this :—

"Religion stands tiptoe in our land,
Heady to pass to the American strand."