The Landing of the Fathers

A SERMON, PREACHED AT PLYMOUTH, DECEMBER 22d. 1773.

Being the Anniversary Thanksgiving, in commemoration of the Landing of the FATHERS there, A. D. 1620.

To the ancient and respectable town of PLYMOUTH, To all the descendants from the first PLANTERS of the OLD PLYMOUTH COLONY, and To his native Country, The following SERMON is inscribed,

By their assured Friend, and very humble Servant, C. TURNER.

AN ANNIVERSARY THANKSGIVING SERMON.

Who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbable, with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

THAT Isaiah should speak of Cyrus, as the person designed of God to restore the jewish captivity, and call him by name near two hundred years before he was born, is truly remarkable. It has been thought this extraordinary prophecy was shewn to Cyrus, by the prophet Daniel; which p. 8excited the Persian monarch to favor the restoration of the jewish ecclesiastical and civil state.

ZERUBBABLE, [He was called also, by the Chaldeans, Sheshbazzar, and so named, perhaps on occasion of his being promoted to be one of the King of Babylon's life-guards. It was an antient custom for Princes to give new names to those whom they saw fit to promote and distinguish; as appears by a number of instances in the old-testament; to which custom there may be an allusion in our Lord's promise to the church in Perg • mos, that he would give to him that should over come, a white stone, and in the stone a new name written.] is supposed to have been grandson to Jeconiah King of Judah, and the eldest surviving branch of the royal family of David; and for that reason appointed by the King of Persia, to be the first Governor of the returning Jews.

MANY of the Jews had so little confidence as to the success of the enterprize, that they chose rather to continue still at Babylon, where they had formed connections, and some of them had acquired estates, than to engage

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p. 10heartless, concerning the success of their enterprize, in it's infancy, should have occasion of rejoicing, if their lives were spared, on seeing the temple rise into a noble finished structure, in spite of all opposition, under the conduct of Zerubbable, supported of God, and assisted by concurrent aids of the divine super-intending gracious universal providence.

p. 10THE seven, here mentioned, are the seven eyes, before spoken of in this prophecy, to be engraved on the head-stone of the temple, as emblems of the Heavenly Angels, called the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth, to signify, that he uses the instrumentality of Angels, in taking the providential oversight of the world, and that his care and government of the world, by their ministry, in concurrence with other methods, is universal.

THE jewish temple and commonwealth could not rise without the blessing of providence. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. p. 11This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbable, saying, not by might, nor by power; but by my spirit [my providence] saith the Lord of hosts,

THE Governer of Judah, and his people, accompanied with those seven, the eyes of the Lord, i. e. aided by divine providence, might joyfully hope for prosperity; and that, by divine assistance, they should succeed, is the prophet's encouraging voice, in this passage of holy scripture?

SIMILAR, in their animating design and tendency, are the following expressions of this public spirited Man of God. Who art thou oh great mountain? Before Zerubbable thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the head [chief] stone thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE! GRACE! unto it, in acknowledgment of it's denoting the Messiah, that great instance and dispenser of grace to the world, [It has been supposed, that this head-stone with the seven eyes engraved on it, was designed to represent Jesus Christ, attended by angels, in the gracious care and government of the church and world. The thought may receive an illustration from Christ's being called, the stone which is become the head of the corner, and a chief corner stone, elect, precious, laid in Sion; as also, from the following words in Revelation, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.] in testimony of desire, that p. 12the divine gracious blessing might ever attend the temple service; and in demonstration of gratitude, for the savor of God, in prospering the work. The hands of Zerubbable have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it.

p. 12WHEN our fathers crossed the atlantic, to escape being subjected, either to the iron jaws of English civil and prelatical tyranny, or the insupportable difficulties of residing on the eastern continent; and settled in this place ▪ to erect a temple of freedom and religion; it was indeed with them, in certain respects, a day of small things. In emigrating from England, maintaining p. 13themselves in Holland, and transporting themselves to these shores, their interest was diminished. Their numbers were small: their company, when they arrived, including every person pertaining to their families, scarcely exceeding one hundred people; and nearly one half of them, God saw fit to remove by death, within the space of a few months after their landing. Small were their accommodations of life, and means of subsistance: it was, at times, with great difficulty they could procure the essential necessaries of life. And small was their power, compared with that of their cruel Indian neighbors, and (I wish I could say less cruel) European persecutors.