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Appendix.
[From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1859.]
In 1638
Thomas Fuller came over from
England to
America, upon a tour of observation, intending, after he should have gratified his curiosity by a survey of the wilderness world, to return.
While in
Massachusetts, he listened to the preaching of
Rev. Thomas Shepard, of
Cambridge, who was then in the midst of a splendid career of religious eloquence and effort, the echo of which, after the lapse of two centuries, has scarcely died away.
Through his influence,
Mr. Fuller was led to take such an interest in the religion of the
Puritan school, that the land of liturgies and religious formulas, which he had left behind, became less attractive to him than the ‘forest aisles’ of
America, where God might be freely worshipped.
He has himself left on record a metrical statement of the change in his views which induced him to resolve to make his home in
Massachusetts.
These verses were collected by
the Rev. Daniel Fuller of
Gloucester from aged persons, who declare that the author was urged, but in vain, to publish them.
Now, after the lapse of two centuries, we will favor the world with a few of them, which will serve as a sample:—
