Thomas Hooker, graduate and fellow of Cambridge, England, and
practically founder of Connecticut, was born in 1586. He was dedicated
to the ministry, and began his activities in 1620 by taking a small
parish in Surrey. He did not, however, attract much notice for his
powerful advocacy of reformed doctrine, until 1629, when he was cited
to appear before Laud, the Bishop of London, whose threats induced him
to leave England for Holland, whence he sailed with John Cotton, in
1633, for New England, and settled in Newtown, now Cambridge, Mass.

Chiefly in consequence of disagreements between his own and Cotton's
congregation he, with a large following, migrated in 1636 to the
Connecticut Valley, where the little band made their center at
Hartford. Hooker was the inspirer if not the author of the Fundamental
Laws and was of wide political as well as religious influence in
organizing "The United Colonies of New England" in 1643--the first
effort after federal government made on this continent. He was an
active preacher and prolific writer up to his death in 1647.




HOOKER

1586-1647

THE ACTIVITY OF FAITH; OR, ABRAHAM'S IMITATORS

_And the father of circumcision to them who are not of circumcision
only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father