The Gospel-Covenant; or The Covenant of Grace Opened … Preached in Concord in New-England
Title
The Gospel-Covenant; or The Covenant of Grace Opened … Preached in Concord in New-England
Subject
Peter Bulkeley
Description
A man of inherited wealth, the Reverend Peter Bulkeley (1583-1659) attended St. John’s College in Cambridge. He left England because his religious nonconformity placed him at odds with Archbishop Laud. Along with fur trader Simon Willard and some twelve families, Bulkeley settled Concord, which was incorporated in September of 1635, and gathered the Concord church at Cambridge in July of 1636. He not only served as minister to the new town (from 1636 until 1644 with the assistance of John Jones, then on his own until his death), but also invested in Concord’s development. He paid for and owned the town grist mill, built on the pond created by damming the Mill Brook for power.
Peter Bulkeley was highly respected both locally, in Concord, and more widely in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He corresponded with his colleagues in the Colonial clergy, and gained a reputation for his Gospel-Covenant, first published at London in 1646. This book was a collection of sermons that Bulkeley had preached on the controversial issue of the relationship between works, grace, faith, justification, and salvation.
In September of 1835, two hundred years after Peter Bulkeley arrived in the New World, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the keynote address at Concord’s celebration of the bicentennial of its incorporation. In the address, he drew attention both to the abiding presence in Concord of descendants of the founding families and to his own relation to the best-known of the town’s settlers: “ … the race survives whilst the individual dies. In the country, without any interference of the law, the agricultural life favors the permanence of families. Here are still around me, the lineal descendants of the first settlers of this town. Here is Blood, Flint, Willard, Meriam, Wood, Hosmer, Barrett, Wheeler, Jones, Brown, Buttrick, Brooks, Stow, Hoar, Heywood, Hunt, Miles,—the names of the inhabitants for the first thirty years; and the family is in many cases represented, when the name is not. If the name of Bulkeley is wanting, the honor you have done me, this day, in making me your organ, testifies your persevering kindness to his blood.”
Peter Bulkeley was highly respected both locally, in Concord, and more widely in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He corresponded with his colleagues in the Colonial clergy, and gained a reputation for his Gospel-Covenant, first published at London in 1646. This book was a collection of sermons that Bulkeley had preached on the controversial issue of the relationship between works, grace, faith, justification, and salvation.
In September of 1835, two hundred years after Peter Bulkeley arrived in the New World, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the keynote address at Concord’s celebration of the bicentennial of its incorporation. In the address, he drew attention both to the abiding presence in Concord of descendants of the founding families and to his own relation to the best-known of the town’s settlers: “ … the race survives whilst the individual dies. In the country, without any interference of the law, the agricultural life favors the permanence of families. Here are still around me, the lineal descendants of the first settlers of this town. Here is Blood, Flint, Willard, Meriam, Wood, Hosmer, Barrett, Wheeler, Jones, Brown, Buttrick, Brooks, Stow, Hoar, Heywood, Hunt, Miles,—the names of the inhabitants for the first thirty years; and the family is in many cases represented, when the name is not. If the name of Bulkeley is wanting, the honor you have done me, this day, in making me your organ, testifies your persevering kindness to his blood.”
Rights
All material is courtesy of the William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library
Creator
Peter Bulkeley
Publisher
Concord Free Public Library
Date
1646
Collection
Tags
Citation
Peter Bulkeley, “The Gospel-Covenant; or The Covenant of Grace Opened … Preached in Concord in New-England,” William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library, accessed May 20, 2025, https://mail.sc.concordlibrary.org/items/show/2005.