Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

70 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE E'AMILIES.
good management succeeded in reconciling the opposing factions.
He held that when a man joined a church he retained all his civil
rights, that a member was not subject to discipline on account of
his political opinions, only for breach of covenant or immoral
acts.
No pastor of the Barnstable church was ever more beloved
and respected by his people than Mr. Billiard. I have heard
those who differed with him in politics speak as kindly of him as
those with whom he agreed. No man was better qualified to perform
the duties which Divine providence had allotted to him. He
was discreet, courteous, affable in his manners, and candid in all
his statements, never uttering a word to which the most censorious
could object. His neighbor, the Hon. Edward Bacon, one of
the deacons of his church, for a long time refused to attend
church meetings on account of the violent political hostility of
some of the brethren. Mr. Hilliard, by his prudent management,
reconciled the contending factions, and restored harmony and
good feeling.
Those who knew him will say, "he possessed an easy pleasant
elocution and a devotional manner, and his discourses were
plain in language, and replete with judicious sentiments, well arranged,
instructive, and truly evangelical. While he was respected
for his talents and acquisitions and made himself pleasing
in social intercourse, he also possessed an amiable temper, kind
and sympathetic feelings, and the genuine benevolence of the gospel."
(Allen.)
While at Barnstable he published two fast day sermons in
1774, and after his removal to Cambridge, in 1785, a sermon at
the execution of three persons ; in 1788 a sermon delivered at the
ordination of Rev. Henry Ware ; in 1789, two, one at the ordination
of Rev. B. Howard, and the other at that of Rev. John Andrews.
In 1788 he published a Dudlean Lecture.
He left Barnstable on account of his health. The salt air he
thought had impaired his usefulness, and that it would be imprudent
for him to remain. At a parish meeting held April 30,
1783, a committee was chosen to confer with Mr. Hilliard, and endeavor
to induce him to withdraw his request for a dismission.
They were authorized to grant him leave to be absent for six or
twelve months, to pay his expenses while absent, and that meantime
his salary should continue and, if at the expiration of that
time, he had not recovered his health, they would then grant his
dismission if he so requested.
To this request Mr. Hilliard made a verbal reply through the
committee that waited on him. He said he had several times
travelled for his health, but on his return to Barnstable he soon
found that the climate was hurtful to him. His physician had. ad-