[43]
No. 1250 is a sermon on Isaiah 58:13, 14, dated Nov. 18, 1770, and repeated at Medford Nov. 24, 1771.
No. 1252 is a sermon on General Thanksgiving, on Dec. 6, 1770, the same repeated at Fast, July 14, 1774—‘on Acts from England’— the same on May 11, 1775; and on Dec. 29, 1776; and ex temp. [on the time] April 18, 1779, the last having special reference to the anniversary of the battle here April 19, 1775 (see 1779). The text is Lament.
3:21, 22. The discourse is longer than the average, and appears to have been a favorite subject of the author's. Allusion is made in the latter part of the discourse to the fact ‘that God preserved our fathers, and he is able yet to protect us and save us from being brought under absolute subjection to men whose will is their law and whose tender mercies are cruelty; to still the hands of men who are trampling upon our rights and wantonly endeavoring to revel with the fruits of our painful labors; we have not deserved this * * * God has given us the fruits of the earth in plenty by crowning the year with his goodness, general health has been enjoyed through the land—though, alas, the destroying angel has received a commission greatly to lay waste in this place!
We cannot pass the solemnities-of this our annual festival without dropping a tear over the graves of our friends consigned to dust, who will no more praise God among the living as we desire to do this day. And I cannot close without leaving a solemn warning with all the young people present carefully to avoid those extravagances too common on the evening and night of this day
* * * Out of nineteen that have been followed to the congregation of the dead this present year, the greater part, thirteen, of them probably were the last occasion like this praising God with us in his house.’
It was voted in this year that a man's school be kept fourteen weeks.
When the new school-house was finished, the Precinct decided to sell the old one at auction, and the proprietors of the old school-house, who subscribed to building thereof, were asked to give up their rights to the Precinct.
By a memorandum in the
Precinct Book we find that on Nov. 12, 1770,
Edward Wilson bought the old school-house at public vendue, for which he gave a note of hand to the Precinct treasurer.
Mr. Cooke preached the ‘Election Sermon’ for the year 1770, which was printed, a ‘discourse that must have “come home to men's business and bosoms.”
’—J. Wingate Thornton.
The following is a copy of the title-page:
‘A Sermon Preached at Cambridge, in the Audience of his Honor Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief; The Honorable His Majesty's Council, and the honorable House of Representatives, of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New ’
