[84] Cooke preached before the Convention of Congregational Minis. ters, 1776.—Am. Quar. Register, for 1839.
1777
Feb. 6, 1777, it was voted that the training band vote with the freeholders. Also voted to make out a separate list from the town's valuation. Fast Day, Aug. 28, 1777, Mr. Cooke's sermon was on Isaiah 10: 5, 6, 7 and 12 and 13 v. Repeated on April 26, 1780, and April 25, 1782.Theme: Tyrants in all ages have been the greatest scourges to the world * * * * Assyria of old was what Britain now is to America. * * * * The Brethren in this Land admonished for the prevalence of impiety, Sabbath-breaking, neglect of God's house and ordinances, and Family prayer among those who call themselves Christians; for profane swearing, which has not only crept into our armies, but is publicly heard in our streets, and out of the mouth of Babes who should be taught to speak our great Redeemer's praise; for falsehood, injustice, intemperance, uncleanness and the oppression of covetousness so general and loud through the land.In the last half of 1777 he was again engaged on the exposition of John. In a sermon (Dec. 15, 1777) he remarks, ‘Where there is prejudice in hearers, the speaker preaches in vain.’ In this year Mr. Cooke delivered at Lexington, a sermon for a memorial of Lexington Battle, which was printed. The title page is as follows:
‘The violent destroyed: And oppressed delivered.—A Sermon, preached at Lexington, April 19, 1777. For a Memorial of the Bloody Tragedy, barbarously acted by a party of British Troops, in that Town and the Adjacent, April 19, 1775.—By Samuel Cooke, A. M., Pastor of the Second Church in Cambridge.—The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. Ps. v. 6. Thus saith the Lord, Let it suffice you, O Princes of Israel, remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice; take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God. Ezek. XLV. 9.—Boston: Printed by Draper and Phillips, for Thomas Leverett and Nicholas Bowes, in Cornhill. M. Dcc.LXXVII.’ Text, Exodus XVII. 14, 15, 16. Pp. 81. ‘The occasion of this anniversary * * * * is for a memorial of the tragical commencement of the present unjust and unnatural war: and particularly the innocent blood cruelly shed at the doors of this house’—（p. 19), i. e. on Lexington Common. The diary of Rev. John Marrett, a native of Cambridge, and pastor of the church in Woburn Second Precinct (now Burlington), describes the first anniversary celebration of the Battle at Lexington, as follows: ‘1776, April 19. Fair and windy—wind northwest. Rode to Lexington, ’
