USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
VOL. I. 10
146
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Whitefield, who had left behind him on his first visit a legacy of enthusiasm, from which had sprung all this evil and discord, was now preparing to return and itinerate again these Eastern colonies. The cords of union, which, at his ordination, bound him to the Church of England, had become so loosened that he was no longer held as one of her clergy, and he had separated from Wesley, as Wesley finally separated from the Church, because he could not unite with him on his views of free grace, and bring him over to his own Calvinistic doctrine of election. "Had he not renewed his visit," said Dr. Cutler, in a letter dated December, 1744, "enthusiasm might have subsided sooner. He has brought town and country into trouble. Multitudes flock after him, but without that fervency and fury as heretofore. For some are ashamed of what is past; others, both of teachers and people, make loud opposition, being sadly hurt by the ani- mosities, divisions, and separations that have ensued upon it, and the sad intermissions of labor and busi- ness ; and observing libertine principles and practice advancing on it, and the Church little ruffled by such disorders, but growing in numbers and reputation."
The association of Congregational ministers in the County of New Haven, convened in February, 1745, formally disapproved, in a pamphlet which was exten- sively circulated, of his itinerancy, his doctrines, his whole course; and declared, among other things, that they could not "reconcile his conduct and practice in publicly praying and administering the sacrament among Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the extempore way, with his subscription and solemn promises and vows at the time of his Episcopal ordi-
147
IN CONNECTICUT.
nation, nor see how his doing so was consistent with moral honesty, Christian simplicity, and godly sincer- ity." They noted the "numbers of illiterate exhort- ers swarming about as locusts from the bottomless- pit"; and after censuring the Boston ministers for "ca- ressing, applauding, and following the said Whitefield," they improved the occasion to "send their public thanks to the Reverend and Honored Gentlemen of Harvard College, the Reverend Associations and par- ticular Ministers, who had appeared so valiant for the Truth against the errors, enthusiasm, and encroaching evils of the present day." The General Association of Connecticut divines followed their example, and a few months later deemed "it needful to declare, that, if he should make his progress through this govern- ment, it would by no means be advisable for any of their ministers to admit him into their pulpits, or for any of their people to attend his administrations." There was harmony of sentiment at this period be- tween the two New-England colleges, Harvard and Yale, from both of which students were expelled who sympathized with the New-Light Theology, and per- sistently refused to have any yoke put upon their consciences. And at Yale, President Clap and the Tutors signed a declaration condemnatory of the principles and designs of Whitefield, which "offended some, without effectually conciliating others." In that declaration, prepared as a letter and printed, the sign- ers thus referred to the effect of his "slanders upon the colleges," and especially their own:
"Sundry of the students ran into enthusiastic errors and disorders, censured and reviled their governors and others; for which some were expelled, denied
148
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
their Degrees, or otherwise punished; and some with- drew to that thing called the Shepherd's Tent. And we have been informed, that the students were told that there was no danger in disobeying their present governors, because there would in a short time be a great change in the civil government, and so in the governors of the College. All which rendered the government and instruction of the College, for a while, far more difficult than it was before."1
All these movements, so far from weakening the Church of England, inspired fresh confidence in her order, her doctrines, her worship. Care was taken that her members should not increase in New Haven ; and hence no students, except the children of pro- fessed churchmen, were allowed to attend upon the ministrations of the Society's Missionary. But the good seed planted here in faith was already beginning to germinate. In the spring of 1745, Dr. Johnson wrote to the Secretary thus: "As there is such a growing disposition among the people in many places to forsake the tenets of enthusiasm and confusion, so there is a like disposition increasing in the College, where there are already ten children of the Church, and several sons of dissenting parents, that are much inclined to conform. I was there last week, and was much pleased with the exercises; among the rest, there was one layman, a person of good character, (besides Messrs. Marsh and Mansfield, mentioned in my last,) who desired me to mention him to the So- ciety as a candidate for the ministry;" and more than a year later he again wrote these most encouraging words: "A love to the Church is still gaining in the
1 The Declaration, pp. 11, 12.
149
IN CONNECTICUT.
College, and four more, whose names are Allen, Lloyd, Sturgeon, and Chandler, have declared themselves candidates for Holy Orders; and there seems a very growing disposition toward the Church in the town of New Haven, as well as in the College, so that 1 hope, ere long, there will be a flourishing church there."
Let it be said here that all honor and gratitude are due, from us who share the benefit, to the laymen of those days, for keeping the fires of the Church burn- ing in places where they had no steady watchmen for their souls save schoolmasters and catechists. We
ought to grow more and more in love with a system which possesses the inherent elements of perpetuity, and which can live and flourish in the midst of ram- pant enthusiasm, while sects and theories change, tot- ter, and crumble from confusion into separation and decay. The Church never substitutes inward, un- thinking impulse's for truth and reason and right rules of conduct. Her scriptural formularies under God are her safeguard. Whatever may be the lan- guage of the pulpit, and the false or fanciful inter- pretations put upon the Divine Word, the plain truth is always propounded from the desk. The Church teaches her children to follow the well-worn track of duty, and thus to walk side by side in faith with those who have entered it before them and passed on, claim- ing the fulness of the promises, to their final reward. It would be a sinful mistrust of the good providence of God to fear that the help vouchsafed to her in former days will not be continued in the time to come. Rather let us rejoice that the Church recog- nizes in every difficulty and danger a fresh call to
150
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
watchfulness and prayer; that even when the fearful anxieties and desolations of civil war bow down the hearts of the people with sorrow, she yet invites her children all the more earnestly to remember the hope still set before them, and to fulfil, as best they may, the simple yet solemn obligations which the posses- sion of this hope requires. Personal piety, the adorn- ment of the individual man with all the graces of the Christian character, never fails to win the tribute of public admiration, and to command some respect for the very body to which he belongs. Hence it was not only a right and sound faith, but a right and con- sistent practice, on the part of the members of the Church, that so contributed to her rapid advancement amid the vast disorders and dissensions which followed the first visit of Whitefield to New England. It is the same combination of a right faith and a right practice that now and always must contribute to her prosperity, and send through the land her richer and larger influences.
151
IN CONNECTICUT.
CHAPTER XI.
THE EPISCOPAL CLERGY KEEPING ALOOF FROM SECTARIAN CONTROVERSIES; AND THE GENERAL PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH.
A. D. 1747-1752.
AN undue excitement on religious subjects is natu- rally followed by a season of spiritual declension. The popular mind, yielding to the pressure of outward cir- cumstances, accepts that which, in calmer hours, it is quite ready to throw off, and the return to quietude and contentment is often no more than the sinking down into a state of barrenness and indifference. It is but the motionless, unrippled expanse of waters which follows the raging of the angry storm.
The enthusiasm, kindled by the repeated visits of Whitefield to New England, having consumed, like a fire in the woods, all that was light and inflammatory, now began to subside, and the religious body which had been most affected by it looked with sorrow, not only upon its own distractions and disorders, but upon the decay of vital godliness. The Episcopal clergy of Connecticut, in all the stations at which they were placed, watched narrowly the progress of events, and both in their public and private ministrations pre- sented the discriminating marks between true and false religion, and thus won over to the Church many who had else been lost in the mazes of infidelity or
152
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
in the depths of despair. They pursued a wise policy in the midst of the popular discontents, and kept aloof from the sectarian controversies and from the pro- longed contentions which most commonly arose out of the settlement of pastors over divided flocks. They were ever ready to defend their own faith and prac- tice. They allowed no misrepresentations of the doc- trine, discipline, and worship of the Church to go un- noticed; but they could not forget that, so far from finding their sphere of usefulness in strife and theo- logical dispute, it was a prominent injunction of the Society to all its Missionaries, "That the chief subjects of their sermons should be the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and the duties of a sober, righteous, and godly life, as resulting from such doctrines." Hence, the Church grew under their wise and pru- dent ministrations; and those who at first came from curiosity within reach of their lessons, abated their prejudices, and were soon found, with Prayer Books in their hands, joining in the responsive notes of the Liturgy, and feeling that they had missed much in coming so late to the knowledge of its preciousness.
The Church would have grown much more rapidly had there been more Missionaries. Writing to the Bishop of London in the spring of 1747, and referring to the vacancies in Connecticut at that time, Dr. Johnson said: "I am now alone here on the sea-coast, without one person, in orders, besides myself, for more than one hundred miles; in which compass there is business enough for six or seven ministers; and those northward have their hands full; so that my burden is at present insupportable; nor have we yet leave for any to go home, though there are five or six valuable
153
IN CONNECTICUT.
candidates. Unless, therefore, the Society can pro- vide, or your Lordship can think proper to ordain on such titles as can be made here, (which in some places, though not without much hardship, may, I believe, be made equal to thirty pounds sterling per annum,) the Church must soon decay apace; meantime it is really affecting to hear the cries and importunities of people from several quarters, and not have it in one's power to help them."
But it was not long before some of these importu- nities were heeded. In the year 1747, the Rev. Joseph Lamson, who encountered so many perils in obtaining Holy Orders, and returned to this country with the loss of his companion and fellow-sufferer, was added to the list of the Society's Missionaries in Connecticut, succeeding the Rev. Mr. Caner at Fairfield. His first appointment, as we have seen in a former chapter, was to act as an assistant to the Rev. Mr. Wetmore at Rye, whose daughter he afterwards married; and he was charged with the special duty of officiating to the people in Bedford, North-Castle, and Ridgefield. The latter place, though in the Colony of Connecti- cut, and geographically "within the bounds of the parish or mission of Fairfield," had been for some time under the care of Mr. Wetmore, as had the mem- bers of the Church of England living in other locali- ties bordering on the Province of New York. There was now no Missionary stationed between Fairfield and Rye; and Mr. Lamson, after his removal to Con- necticut, continued to officiate at intervals, as his con- venience would allow, in the church at Ridgefield. He is also mentioned, in the proceedings of the So- ciety for 1748, as "serving Norwalk," then with the
154
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
neighboring villages grown to be a parish "of one hundred and five families, which exceeded the num- ber of any other church in the government, except the church in Stratford." The scarcity of laborers and the plenteousness of the harvest imposed addi- tional duty upon the clergy of Connecticut at this period. The Episcopalians in Stratfield (now Bridge- port) had become so numerous that they proceeded, under the guidance of Mr. Lamson, in 1748, to erect a house of worship, which was called St. John's Church, and opened, as usual, for services before it was completed. It was the eighteenth church built in the colony; and among the seven principal proprie- tors whose names have been preserved, was Colonel John Burr, a man of eminent abilities, and possessed of a large estate. He was educated in the faith of Congregationalism, and zealously promoted its inter- ests until the extravagances of Whitefield and his followers appeared, when he turned his attention to the Episcopal Church; and finding her doctrines and government to be consistent with the Word of God, he embraced them, and passed the remainder of his days in her communion, - as generous now in the sup- port of Episcopacy as he had before been in the sup- port of Congregationalism. In writing to the Secre- tary of the Society, in the autumn of this year, Mr. Lamson says: "I have formerly mentioned a church built at Stratfield, a village within the bounds of Fair- field, in which they are very urgent to have me offi- ciate every third Sunday, because we have large con- gregations when I preach there. The people living in the town and westward are very much against it, because Mr. Caner used to keep steadily to the church
155
. IN CONNECTICUT.
in town, but then there was neither church nor con- gregation at Stratfield." Mr. Lamson supplied this village, however, with stated ministrations; for in 1764 he reported to the Society that he had offici- ated in the church at Stratfield "one Sunday in four for several years."
Mr. Ebenezer Dibblee, a native of Danbury, a grad- uate of Yale College, and for some time a licentiate among the Congregationalists, returned from Eng- land late in October, 1748, whither he had been for Holy Orders. After the disappointment occasioned by the melancholy death of Mr. Miner, he had acted as a lay reader "in the united parish of Stamford and Greenwich"; and so acceptable had been his services to the people, that they "humbly entreated the Ven- erable Society to compassionate their circumstances and admit him to be their missionary, with such sal- ary as they might think fit to allow." Besides as- sisting to defray the expenses of his voyage to Eng- land for ordination, they had pledged themselves to contribute liberally towards his maintenance ; and when there was a prospect that the vacant parish at Nor- walk might share in his ministrations, they interposed objections, and claimed that the churchmen there had neither manifested any interest in favor of Mr. Dib- blee, nor borne their part in providing the means for his subsistence.
The "poor petitioners," as they termed themselves, "in the towns of Stamford and Greenwich," finally obtained their missionary; and the churchmen in Nor- walk and Ridgefield united in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the appointment of Mr. John Ogilvie, a native of New York city, and a graduate of Yale
156
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
College in the same class with Bishop Seabury. He for a time, "with the approbation of the Connecticut clergy, read the Liturgy and sermons among them to their entire satisfaction." He also officiated for them a few Sundays after his ordination in 1749; but though welcomed by the people, and greatly admired by them as a preacher, they were thrown into fresh commo- tion when they found that he was about to remove to Albany, in the Province of New York, a step which the Honorable Society might have been less reluctant to authorize, had not the Norwalk people been guilty of "imprudence in their conduct" relating to a pre- vious appointment for their Mission. They were un- fortunate in their next effort to secure the ministra- tions of a permanent pastor; for the gentleman who, in 1751, was sent, through their instrumentality, to England for Holy Orders, Mr. John Fowle of Boston, a graduate of Harvard College, proved not to be "an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile." After a ministry of several years' continuance among them, he was dismissed, for misconduct, from the service of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and returned to Boston, where he died.1 The vacant par- ish was again thrown upon the generosity of Mr. Dibblee at Stamford, and others of the neighboring clergy, for occasional services, and what had hitherto been, under the ministry of the Caners, the most flourishing church in the colony, was checked in its growth by these unpropitious events.
In the same vessel which brought Mr. Dibblee back to this country came the Rev. Richard Mansfield, a
1 " Mr. Fowle, my predecessor," said Leaming, " sold the library belong- ing to the Mission, and put the money in his own pocket."
157
IN CONNECTICUT.
classmate of his, and a graduate of Yale College in 1745. He was a native of New Haven, the son of Congregational parents ; and it illustrates the degree of Puritan bitterness which prevailed at that time against the Church, that even his own sister, upon hearing that he had sailed for England to receive or- dination from her Bishops, prayed that he might be lost at sea. Another classmate, the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, born at Middletown, had arrived safely a few weeks before them, and was sent as an assistant to the venerable Honeyman at Newport; but he sub- sequently returned to Connecticut, and was long one of her most honored and learned ministers.
Mr. Mansfield was appointed to the Mission lately served by Mr. Lyons; and he followed the example of his predecessor in selecting Derby for his residence, which was about the centre of his extensive charge, or midway between Waterbury and West Haven. Being "one of the holiest and most guileless of men," he dis- armed enemies of their prejudices against the Church, and gained over many to her excellent ways, by com- bining in his own character the good Christian and the faithful minister. We shall have occasion to speak of him and his labors in future periods of our history.
Dr. Johnson, in a letter to the Society, under date of September 29th, 1748, glances at the progress of Episcopacy in Connecticut, and thus refers to the prosperity of his own parish: "As to the Church in this town, it is in a flourishing condition, one family having been added, and more looking forward, and thirty-one have been baptized, and eight added to the communion, since my last; our new church is almost finished, in a very neat and elegant manner, the archi-
158
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
tecture being allowed in some things to exceed any- thing done before in New England. We have had some valuable contributions, and my people have done as well as could be expected from their circum- stances, which are generally but slender; but there is one of them who deserves to be mentioned in par- ticular for his generosity,-Mr. Beach, brother of the Reverend Mr. Beach, who, though he has a consid erable family, has contributed above three thousand pounds, our currency, to it already, and is daily doing more, and designs to leave an annuity, in perpetuum, toward keeping it in repair."
The worthy Missionary at Stratford, though dis- abled for a time by the fracture of a limb, was most industrious at this period in his sacred vocation. He kept his eye upon other places, but especially upon his native town, and improved all his visits among his kindred and friends to the advantage of the Church. The record of his ministrations in Guilford for a quarter of a century is more frequent than in any place of New Haven County except West Haven. In the same letter from which the above extract was taken, he writes: "Scarce ever was there a people in a more bewildered, confounded condition than those in this colony generally are, as to their religious af- fairs, occasioned by the sad effects of Methodism, still in many places strangely rampant, and crumbling them into endless separations, which occasions the most sensible of them to be still everywhere looking toward the Church as their only refuge. I have this summer been solicited to visit several places. I have rode as much as I could, particularly to Guilford and Branford, where I have preached to great numbers,
159
IN CONNECTICUT.
which Mr. Graves also has done, and I believe those two towns will in a little time be prepared to make a mission ; at the former they are building a church, and designing it at the latter.
"Middletown and Wallingford are also joining, in order to another mission in due time; and they are going forward with their church at Middletown, where a sensible, studious, and discreet young man, one Mr. Camp, bred at our College, is reading service and ser- mons, and begs me to mention him to the Society as a candidate, and that he may hope in due time to be employed in their service."
Nine Episcopal clergymen were present at the an- nual Commencement of Yale College in 1748, and meeting together, "consulted the best things they could" for the interests of the Church. It was in that year that Seabury graduated, and the younger son of Dr. Johnson; and among the candidates for the higher degree of Master of Arts were five who belonged to the Church, in which number was included Thomas Bradbury Chandler, afterwards the distinguished ad- vocate for an American Episcopate. He was the son of a farmer, born in Woodstock, Ct .; and the predi- lections of his childhood were for Congregationalism, a system of faith in which he had been educated, and which he seems to have renounced for the apostolic order of the Church while yet he was a student in College. He went to England for ordination in the spring of 1751, bearing with him a letter from Dr. Johnson, to the Bishop of London, and also a copy of the joint answer of the clergy to a paper of pro- posals in reference to the objections of Dissenters to sending Bishops to America. The Connecticut clergy
160
HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
aimed to secure these educated youths for the vacant missions within the colony, and for any new ones which might be created. They had found by experi- ence that the natives of the soil were its most suc- cessful cultivators, and, therefore, as fast as these young men declared for Episcopacy, appeals went over to the Bishop of London and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to receive them into their care and consideration, and to allow the representa- tions and desires of churchmen in the most promising localities to be their title to Holy Orders. "I am de- sired," said Dr. Johnson, writing March 30th, 1750, "by sundry of both people and candidates, to beg the direction of the Society how to proceed; whether £30 from the people can be accepted for a title, and, if so, to whom they can apply for orders, since they can have no title from the Society for a long time. They would, however, in the mean time, do as they best can; and I beg to be under the Society's direc- tion and control, that if no Bishop should come over into these parts, we may be advised time enough for them to go home in the fall, whether orders can be had upon such a title, and from whom."
The Rev. Matthew Graves, the Missionary at New London, reported early in the autumn of 1748, "I have visited and spent a fortnight at Hebron, in which time I read prayers and preached nine sermons in the church, and at the houses of the people;" and on "my return," he remarks, "I did duty in the new church at Norwich, baptized a child, and churched its mother. The parent used many arguments to stand surety, but I told him the canons and rubrics, and the practice of others, was my rule. The week before I went to
161
IN CONNECTICUT.
Hebron I received an earnest invitation from the in- habitants of Branford, which is about forty miles hence. I happily, on my way thither, met Dr. John- son, ten miles this side, at a place called Guilford, where he read prayers, and baptized three children, and I preached to a large congregation. Two days after, I performed service at Branford to a most agree- able sight of auditors, who behaved very well, and some of the chief of the Presbyterians came to my lodgings and returned me thanks. As for the people of New London, I am afraid they will never be unani- mously reconciled to a regular minister. I despair, though I shall continue to act in the best manner I can for the glory of God and their edification."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.