USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > The early history of the First church of Christ, New London, Conn. > Part 13
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2 Conc. There was therefore provision made for the accom- plishing of this end. * * I think that what God * * * intended was to glorifie his mercy and the salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ, and in order to that, permitted the fall, and so gave his son to redeem. * * * Man's fall would indeed render him a subject properly capable of mercy, but withal it would render him unworthy. * * * The justice of God would interpose and challenge the guilty. Therefore God did provide an Atonement for us.
3. And hence it follows that this mercy shall most certainly be applied; for nothing would be more unworthy of God than to suppose that, though he had prepared and made provision for it, that yet nothing shall come of it. *
* * God hath pur- posed to show mercy unto men; provided mercy for us in Christ ; offers that mercy to men in the Gospell, and then leaves the matter wholly to us whether we will choose or re- fuse, and hence it follows that it depends on the will of man whether the purpose of God shall take effect or no. *
* We know the promises of the Lord shall stand. Psalm xxxiii, 11. * * That the efficacy of the divine purpose doth not depend upon reluctant wills of sinners, but the mercy which he hath purposed to bestow upon man shall take effect, and we shall be saved.
4. Whereupon it became necessary that this mercy should be offered to men and accepted by them, for this purpose of God was in no ways destructive of, or repugnant to human nature, or that method of Government which God in his in- finite wisdom did exercise over them. * *
* God would deal with him (man) as with a reasonable creature in bringing him to (bim). * * * God, when he made man at first * * * prescribed a law to him with threatenings and promises, and placed him under its government. When man fell
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he remained a reasonable creature still and therefore the same generall method of government over him was as proper as at first. *
* * The mercy he intends for men (or for any) must be offered, and they be brought to partake of it in a rational way i. e. by their own acceptance. *
5. This acceptation was, as to man, wholly impossible, for it was not only above his power, but contrary to his disposition. The fall brought a dreadful curse on all mankind. It did not oaly expose him to divine wrath in the world to come, but did wholly disable him from, yea render him the mortall enemy to the service and will of God. *
And how can it be imagined that fallen man, so blind as not to know what makes for his own happiness, and so much an enemy to his own good as not to regard what he is told about it, should ever of his own accord fall in with the Gospell offers of mercy ? Especially consider tis so contrary to our pride,
* * * but to put the matter out of all doubt, the word fully declares the acceptance impossible by our own strength. Rom. wiii, 7: " Because the carnal mind is enmity against the law of God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
6. There was therefore a necessity that means should be used with those whom God will save that they may be brought to accept the mercy tendered them. I speak of an hypothetical necessity, considering what God had purposed ; for if none had been used, but all mankind left to the inclina- tion of their own wills it is no hard matter to resolve what the enmity of their own hearts would put upon them ; and if, as the case now is, when God affords us so many means, and so great assistance, the righteous can scarcely be saved, then certainly we may conclude that if there was nothing done to breathe life into dry bones, even the elect should perish. Wherefore God having determined to show mercy to them, and that it should be offered so that they should accept it, it became requisite that if unwilling they should be made will- ing, it was promised, "thy people shall be made willing in the day of thy power." *
The operation of the spirit is not a blind impulse upon the
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hearts of men. * * But as God hath made men free and rational agents, so when he doth by his spirit incline their hearts to close with the Gospell offers, he doth it in a rational way, and brings them to see that it is highly reasonable that . he should do so. Wherefore not only the spirit acts in you but you act also and willingly yield yourself to the Gospell call.
7. The ministry of God's word is a fit and proper means for
this. * * It is peculiarly adapted to this end, viz. to persuade men to accept this offered mercy. *
8. Hence, lastly, it follows that this is one great end in giving a Gospell ministry to men. * In the text the
* He is sent servant was sent to such as were bidden. * * not to inform them * * * but to persuade them to accept the invitation to come, and therefor he uses an argu- ment to press the matter upon them without delay, for all things are ready."
This, it must be said, is strong meat. Men and women accustomed to listen to such preaching were little likely to be weak. The doctrines emphasized leave no room to doubt that the author was a Cal- vinist.
The years of revivals had not yet come. But such stalwart preaching prepared the ground, and main- tained the Church upon that firm evangelical basis, which his predecessors in office had established, and from which it has never been moved.
The pastorate of Mr. Saltonstall covered a period when stringent Sabbath laws were in force. They were promptly executed. Their enforcement may seem to us severe, but it was in keeping with the spirit of the times. No law was treated as a dead
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letter. It expressed the prevailing public sentiment.
Several entries upon the records of the Church and of the town, show that the morals of those times were not always spotless. There were breeches of virtuous living, violations of the law of social purity, riotous disturbances of the peace, quite as flagrant as any which occur now. Nevertheless those who were at the front were great men and women. Leaders in the beginnings of any people are made great by the necessities which called them forth. Strong hands and quick eyes must lay the foundation blocks. Men in colossal periods are of necessity strong ; just as men lifting great weights must have brawny muscles lying along their thighs and arms and chests. Go into a furnace where men handle great masses of iron. See how their sinews are swollen with strength. Go into the workshop of the ages where Titans are forging great destinies, or casting great constitutions. Power and might are graven on every face, because these men are hand- ling mighty problems, and establishing great princi- ples. The men who have to do with the beginnings of the Church, of the State, are compelled to be great. The men who laid here the foundations of civil and religious liberty were great men. Among them all, as by far the ablest man of his day in Con- necticut, must be placed Gurdon Saltonstall-states-
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man, scholar, preacher, and Christian gentleman of the courtly type of the olden days. He was a con- spicuous figure in the civil and religious history of Connecticut, and of New London, for thirty-seven years. He was a man of indomitable will, and was made of the same heroic stuff as the old Scotch Cove- nanters. He was a born statesman, and ended his life as chief magistrate of the Colony of which his great grandfather was one of the original patentees. He left the pastorate for the office of Governor Jan- uary 1, 1708. Nearly twenty years had elapsed since he came to New London to assume charge of the Church. Sixteen of these years he had been its regularly ordained pastor. We now turn to the gubernatorial office to trace his further career.
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XI.
GURDON SALTONSTALL, GOVERNOR.
January, 1708 .- September, 1724.
To leave the pastorate for the civil office of Goy- ernor was a step so unusual as to cause remark. Nor were the remarks always favorable. Thus Backus, in his Ecclesiastical History of those times, said, in an ill-natured vein: "Governor Winthrop died there (in Boston) November 27, 1707, upon which a special meeting of their General Court was called to choose a new Governor. By a law then in force, he was to be chosen out of a certain number of men in previous nomination ; but they broke over this law, and elected an ordained minister for their Governor; and he readily quitted the solemn charge of souls for worldly promotion, and was sworn into his new office January 1, 1708, after they had re- pealed the law which they had broken." It was so unprecedented that the pastor of a Church should be summoned to leave his sacred calling, to attend to affairs of State, that the Assembly, by whom he was chosen, sent a committee of eight, including three
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deputies and the speaker of the House, to wait upon him in New London, and urge his acceptance of the office. This committee were charged with a letter addressed to the town, by the Assembly, "using arguments to induce them to acquiesce in the result." As a further persuasion a gratuity of £100 was given to New London, " as a compensation in part for de- priving the town of its former minister, Mr. Salton- stall," and to enable them to settle another pastor. The vote as recorded in the Colonial Records reads, "this Assembly upon the motion and desire of the inhabitants of New London and the arguments by them insisted upon, do grant to the said inhabitants £100 in pay out of the next countrie rate, towards the settling of a minister there." This vote was passed at the May session of 1708, when Governor Saltonstall took his seat after his first election by the people to be the fifth Governor of the State. Consid- ering the man, and the price for ministers now-a- days, the State got the best end of the bargain. The fact that the Assembly repealed the law which stood in the way of his election, so that he might be elected by the people, and the fact that he was re-elected every year till his death, September 20, 1724, prove that the Colony thought so too. There could not be stronger testimony to his conspicuous gifts of admin- istrative ability, to his justice as a magistrate, and to
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his sagacity as a statesman, than his repeated re-elec- tion by his fellow citizens.
There is no record of town or Church relating to this event. It is likely that some were quite willing to have him go. Such a man as he would be sure to make enemies. He was too strong and positive in his convictions not to encounter opposition. But the loss to the Church and to the town was great, when such a leader and pastor was taken from them. The action of the Assembly shows that opposition was expected. Probably it was encountered. There is some evidence that the loss was felt.
It is doubtful whether any other instance can be found in which the pastor of a church left the pulpit for the chair of state. But the early New England parson was a conspicuous factor in civil life. While he rarely took the reins of government into his own hands, yet his advice was always sought on important occasions; and that advice was often the basis of political action. Thus it was said of John Cotton "that whatever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, or set up as a practice in church, if of an ecclesiastical concern- ment." As early as 1634 Rev. Mr. Cotton preached to the deputies and officers who were to conduct the affairs of state. For the early thought of govern- ment was a theocracy, and the Bible was the chief
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political manual. So the minister, who knew most of the word of God, was resorted to for wisdom and guidance. From this preaching to the deputies by John Cotton came the practice of preaching election sermons.
It is well known that Thomas Hooker was the first to enunciate the doctrine of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, when he said that "the foundation of authority is laid in the consent of the people," that " the choice of magis- trates belongs unto the people by God's own allow- ance," and that "they who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, have the right also to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them." These principles of a free State were the beginnings of constitutional govern- ment in the world, and they issued, says Mr. John Fiske, in the "first written constitution known to history that created a government, and it marked the beginnings of American Democracy, of which Thomas Hooker more than any other man deserves to be called the father."
It was Nathaniel Ward, the minister of the Church in Ipswich, Mass., that prepared The Body of Liber- ties, which was the earliest written code of that.
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Colony, and was adopted by the General Court in 1641. These facts go to show how naturally the parson of those early times appeared in politics, and help to explain how Mr. Saltonstall took so unusual a step as to leave the pulpit for the chair of state.
Some other facts shed further light upon this action. Mr. Saltonstall inherited a judicial mind, and the gift of statesmanship. It was said of him after his death that "he had a great compass of learning, was a profound divine, a great judge in the law, and a consummate statesman." So that the General Assembly acted wisely when they removed the legal restriction which made him ineligible to the office of Governor. From the first of his pastorate he was associated with the leading men of the Colony. He was interested in public affairs. In 1693 he was invited by the General Assembly to accompany Fitz- John Winthrop, who was sent to England, as the Colony's agent, "to obtain in the best way and manner he shall be able, a confirmation of our charter privileges." It does not appear that Mr. Saltonstall went. But the fact of his appointment shows how prominent he was in civil affairs, while he was yet pastor of the church.
During this period he was several times called upon to perform civil offices for the Colony. Thus in 1698
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the last Wednesday of February was appointed as a day of public thanksgiving to God for " the restora- tion of peace to the English Nation, and the success & safe return of our agent; and the Rev. Mr. [Timothy ] Woodbridge and Mr. Saltonstall are de- sired to draw a bill for that end." In 1700 he was one of a committee appointed by the General Assem- bly "for composing the differences in Haddum." At another time he was appointed on a committee to wait upon the Earl of Belmont on his arrival in New York, "in the name of the Governor, Council and Representatives of this Colony, to congratulate the happy arrival of his excellency." The election sermon which he was chosen to preach May 13, 1697, seems to have been a production of considerable power, as copies of it, by the direction of the legislature, were " divided to the several counties, proportionably according to the lists of the several counties." These incidents, not common to the life and experience of a pastor, show how naturally he was drawn into active participation in public affairs. The Hon. Fitz-John Winthrop was his friend and parishioner. His relations with Mr. Winthrop brought Mr. Saltonstall into immediate knowledge of Colonial matters.
After Mr. Winthrop was made Governor in 1698, he often called upon his pastor for advice and assist- ance. Palfrey says that during the last of his
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administration Winthrop was so disabled by gout that most of his official correspondence was conducted by his friend and pastor, Gurdon Saltonstall. The editor of the Winthrop Papers says : "It is true that his health had long been a good deal impaired, and for this reason he more than once desired to be relieved of the governorship, but the people of Connecticut were unwilling that he should retire. It is also true that he had grown to place much reliance on the wisdom and capacity of Saltonstall, who was not only his intimate friend and neighbor, but pastor of the church in which he worshipped."
When Governor Winthrop went to Boston, Novem- ber 13, 1707, to attend the second marriage of his brother, Wait Still Winthrop, as was his custom he left his affairs in the hands of Mr. Saltonstall, as Governor pro tem. While in Boston Mr. Winthrop was seized with a fatal illness and died November 27. The deputy, Robert Treat, was advanced in years. Mr. Saltonstall was acting Governor. There- fore when the General Assembly was summoned to New Haven to choose a successor to Mr. Winthrop, December 17, 1707, their thoughts naturally turned to the man who was already exercising the functions of that office, and whose experience in public affairs, as the friend and adviser of their late Governor, fitted him to hold the place as the choice of his peers.
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But the law of the Colony required, as Backus pointed out, "that the governor should always be chosen out of a list of magistrates nominated at the preceding election." Mr. Saltonstall was not in nomination, and was not eligible. Therefore at a special session, January 1, 1708, this law was repealed, and Mr. Saltonstall was chosen by the deputies to act as Governor till an election could be had by the people ; which took place in May 1708, when he was made Governor by the will of the free- men of the Colony. Thus by natural fitness, and by natural steps, he came to be the chief magistrate of Connecticut.
His official life was marked by two conspicuous events, which were destined to exert a lasting and beneficent influence upon the religious and intellectual life of the Colony. One, and not the least memora- ble, was the famous Synod of Saybrook, called by order of the Governor and General Assembly, and which produced that venerable document, the Say- brook Platform, which, it is said, he had a hand in shaping. Proposals for a scheme of government by " a classical power above the churches" had been defeated. On the thirteenth of May, 1708, the Gen- eral Assembly of the Colony, on account of " defects of the discipline of the churches of this government arising from the want of a more explicit asserting of
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
the rules given for that end in the holy scriptures," and for the " glory of Christ our head," ordered that the ministers of the several Churches should meet " at Saybrooke, at the next commencement to be held there," to prepare a "form of ecclesiastical disci- pline " to "be offered to this court at their next session at New Haven October next, to be consid- ered and confirmed by them." In obedience to this .; command the Saybrook Synod met at that place, which was then the home of Yale College, September 9, 1708, and produced the venerable document already referred to. It was submitted to the General Assem- bly, as ordered, and the following vote was passed, October 1708: "This Assembly, do declare their great approbation of such a happy agreement, and do ordain that all the churches within this government that are or shall be united in doctrine, worship and discipline, be, and for the future shall be owned and acknowledged established by law ; provided, always, that nothing herein shall be intended or construed to hinder or prevent any church or society that is or shall be allowed by the laws of this government, who soberly differ or dissent from the united churches hereby established, from exercising worship and dis- cipline in their own way, according to their con- sciences." This sounds very much like an estab- lished Church, only in this case the State Churches
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THE GOVERNOR.
were Congregational. The vote was in accord with the spirit of the Governor and of the times. A Church in some way under the protection and patron- age of the State was thought to be essential. Eccle- siastical questions, and questions of doctrine and discipline were taken to the legislature as to a sort of standing ecclesiastical body or court. The provision made for dissent, however, saved the action of the legislature from being compulsory, and opened the way for Churches which declined to come within this establishment.
This Church was among the number which availed themselves of this privilege of dissent. Dr. Field says that Mr. Saltonstall's "great influence was not sufficient to induce the church to adopt the Saybrook Platform of discipline."
The second conspicuous event, destined to exert a wide influence on the intellectual life of the Colony, and of the whole land, was the final removal of Yale College to its permanent home at New Haven. This was not brought about without a controversy. Of course Saybrook wanted to keep it. If it was to be moved, other places claimed it. John Winthrop, son of Wait Still Winthrop, wrote to his father October 24, 1717: "there is great disturbance in the Colony about the college. The last year Mr. Stonington Noyes was violent for keeping it at Saybrooke, or else
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
they should lose the old Governor's [Yale's] legacy to it, but since his son is settled in Mr. Pierpont's place and house, he has without leave or order from the Assembly or trustees moved it to New Haven, and ordered a building to be erected for the purpose, which is almost finished." Mr. Pierpont, referred to above, was one of the original trustees of the college, and pastor of the First Church in New · Haven. That Mr. Winthrop's son was wrong ap- pears from the fact that at a meeting of the trustees held at Saybrook, April 4, 1716, it was practically decided to remove the college from that town. On the 12th of September commencement was held there, and the trustees adjourned to meet at New Haven on the 17th of October, which may be regard- ed as the date of its establishment in its present home. At that meeting they voted that " consider- ing the difficulties of continuing the collegiate school at Saybrooke, and that New Haven is a convenient place for it, for which the most liberal donations are given, the trustees agree to remove the said school from Saybrooke to New Haven, and it is now settled at New Haven accordingly." This vote, which was passed October 17, 1716, was declared legal by the upper house at the October session of 1717. The commencement of that year was held at New Haven in September. The prompt action of the upper
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THE GOVERNOR.
house, confirming the action of the trustees the year before (1716) was due, in part at least, to the influ- ence of Governor Saltonstall, who favored the estab- lishment of the college at New Haven. The vote at the October session (1717) which advised the trust- ees "to proceed in that affair, and to finish the . house which they have built at New Haven for the entertainment of the scholars belonging to the collegiate school," prevailed by thirty-six votes. This vote was modified by a vote to distribute one hundred pounds among the instructors of the college, in the three competing places, Wethersfield, Saybrook and New Haven, " according to the proportion of scholars under their tuition." At the commencement Sep- tember 12, 1718, held at New Haven, the college was named after its most generous donor, Mr. Elihu Yale. His excellency, the Honorable Gurdon Salton- stall, was present, and " was pleased to crown the public exercises with an elegant Latin oration, in which he expatiated upon the happy state of the college, as fixed at New Haven, and endowed with so many benefactions. He particularly celebrated the generosity of Governor Yale, with peculiar respect and honor." Thus Governor Saltonstall's administration was identified with an educational movement of far reaching importance. He had a
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
hand in laying the foundations of one of the foremost universities not only of this, but of all lands.
Various important events of a political nature also contributed to make the period of his official life con- spicuous. Those were days of narrow resources for · the Colony; so much so that often its agent in London found it difficult to collect his.salary. There was need of money to raise troops for an armed descent upon Nova Scotia; to repel threatened attacks of the Indians ; to guard the coast from assaults by French ships; and for various other purposes. The Colony had to borrow money, and issued bills of credit, amounting in all to £33,500; all of which were finally called in, and the debts of the Colony paid.
Disputes with adjoining Colonies concerning boun- dary lines also came up for settlement and furnished perplexing questions for his administration to con- sider. The controversy with Massachusetts, which often became a quarrel between the border towns as to the ownership of property, was finally adjusted. " Upon the 13th of July, 1713, commissioners fully empowered from each of the Colonies, came to an agreement which was adopted by each court." The decision gave 107,793 acres to this Colony as an equivalent for the encroachment of Massachusetts upon its territory. Trumbull says, "the whole was sold in sixteen shares in 1716, for the sum of £683
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