CHAPTER IX. The posterity of good men a subject for inquiry. Hereditary merit disclaimed. The Scripture method of treatment of the subject of posterity. The descendants of Mr. Hooker viewed in their different professions and stations in the church and in the country, and their relations to general society. Concluding reflections. In a country like New England, peopled to a considerable extent at first by Puritans, the lapse of more than two centuries has rendered it natural to inquire respecting their descendants. Especially is this an inquiry of some interest, relative to the posterity of men who bore a prominent part in the formation of its fundamental institutions, civil, political, and religious. Their residence, number, character, positions in the church, in the state, and in relation to the literature, professions, morals, and benevolent enterprises of the country; and also to its interests agricultural, commercial, financial, manufacturing, &c.—all these are points for inquiry. And last, though not least, we naturally wish to learn how, in the more retired, domestic, and social relationships of life, they have been concerned in giving character to general society. For, after all that may be said relative to the public or professional worth and eminence of individuals, the fundamental elements of good and happiness in the civil state, are found in its domestic and social circles, in the homes of its families, and in the characters of those who fill those homes. If there be not moral and intellectual worth there, it exists nowhere. If it does exist there, it is sure to find its way into the fabric of the state. Thomas Hooker came to New England, that he with his associates then, and their posterity after them, might first of all worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; and next, that they might enjoy that civil liberty which is the proper associate of religious freedom. He did not seek these ends in vain, as we have seen in former chapters. He assisted in laying the foundations upon which the New England States especially and their churches, have been built up; and by which, in confederacy with the other states in our Union, they have labored to found and confirm this republic. Every faithful historian of our country recognizes and most fully declares what Winthrop, Haynes, Cotton, Hooker, Eaton, Davenport, and their associates accomplished, in furtherance of the religious order, civil stability, social happi ness, and prosperity which have been so richly enjoyed. While, however, this subject of inquiry is considered, and while its results may show, in the case of any given worthy or father of New England, that his descendants have sustained, in good measure, his reputation, an utter disclaimer is here entered against the doctrine of hereditary merit, in all its branches. Men are worthy of respect, not because the blood of good and worthy ancestors runs in their veins, whether those ancestors were in the high walks of society in a republican country, or in the ranks of royalty or nobility, in a kingdom or empire. They are worthy of respect, simply and alone, on the ground of their own personal worth.Men are great in learning and the arts, or by their influence in the concerns of a commonwealth or nation, not through ancestry, but according as they have devoted themselves to study and the acquirement of knowledge, and have employed their talents, attainments, sagacity and experience in promoting the true and best interests of the country of their birth or adoption, and of the world at large. Men are virtuous, not as descendants of the virtuous, but as being themselves the steady and diligent practicers of virtue, and its firm exemplifiers and advocates amidst the tests of virtue to which they are daily called, in such a world as this. And men are christians, not by virtue of a godly parentage and ancestry, but " by the grace of God," and through the active exercise of that grace, in lives of obedience to the divine requirements, as revealed in the sacred Script ures. Furthermore, in our contemplations of this subject, we are to be religiously mindful of the instructions upon it, which the God and Father of all men has given us in his word. Without giving the least countenance to pride of ancestry, in any of the human family, the Scriptures give instructions and promises, which encourage fidelity, and confirm the hope of future good and happiness to themselves and theirs, in all those who will rightly receive them, and endeavor to profit by them. Early in the history of the world, God began to speak to man of his posterity, as to be the subjects of reward or retribution according to character and conduct in parent and posterity. At the giving of the law upon Sinai, one of the solemn announcements of the divine character and government was: "For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Every generation of men has had experience of the divine fidelity to this declaration, in fulfilling alike the threatening and the promise thus given. For the encouragement of his people, God has said, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee and thy seed after thee." The divine condescension has thus been attended with distinct intimations to men, that their choice of good and right ways would take hold on their own good and that of their posterity. "Choose life, that thou and thy seed may live." And as an all-important requisite to holiness, and thence blessedness, for this life and for eternity, God has proffered his own grace, to renew and sanctify: "I will pour my Spirit upon my seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as the grass, and as willows by the water-courses.— One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand and sur |