Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/248

nected with the parish in which he now resided; and his attachment to the flock, and to the faith which he had taught it, was among the warmest affections of his heart. During the reign of those strong passions which our revolutionary struggle excited, the single circumstance of his adherence to the Church of England created him enemies among the more violent partizans, both political and puritanical. His amiable virtues, and pious life were as dust in the balance which the hand of enmity poised. For three years the doors of his church were closed; but, from house to house, he broke the bread of life to his little flock, exhorting them to submit to "principalities and powers." In this day of darkness, he was pressed to receive a lucrative clerical establishment in England; but he chose to adhere to the little community which he had planted, through "evil report and good report." Now the rage of contest had subsided, and he again led his beloved followers to the sanctuary to pay their stated services to the God of peace and consolation. When, on the first Sunday after their exile, they convened in their consecrated temple, such was the saintly expression of his countenance, and such the effect of his remarkably melodious voice, as he uttered "From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering," and such were the recollections, tender, melancholy, and soothing, which arose at the appearance of their venerated pastor