USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > Thirteen historical discourses, on the completion of two hundred years : from the beginning of the First Church in New Haven, with an appendix > Part 16
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# Church Records.
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so great an innovation, the imperfection of our church records does not permit us to know. It may be presumed, that, as Mr. Pierpont came from Massachusetts, where the views of the synod had entirely prevailed, and where no less a man than Increase Mather, who at first wrote ably against the synod, had yielded to the compound force of numbers and of arguments, and had gone over to the prevailing opinion,- his influence was not exerted against the introduction of the halfway covenant here.
The erection of a new meeting-house had been resolved upon in the year 1668, immediately after Mr. Davenport's re- moval to Boston; and the edifice, after some delays, had been finished in 1670 .* But very soon after the ordination
* At a town meeting, 7th Sept. 1668, " the town was acquainted that the committee for the meeting-house had agreed with Nathan Andrews to build a new meeting-house for £300, and he to have the old meeting-house ; against which no man objected." A year afterwards, it was " ordered that if Na- than Andrews need help for the carrying on of the work of the new meet- ing-house according to agreement, there shall be liberty to press such help as is necessary for that end." At a meeting, 14th March, 1670, " the town was informed that the occasion of this meeting was in reference to the new meeting-house, it going on but slowly ;" and a tax was laid to expedite the work. On the 15th of April, the builder, Nathan Andrews, made a commu- nication which seems to have resulted in some modification of the contract ; and it was resolved to borrow £50 of the trustees of the Grammar School, " to be repaid at or before this time twelvemonth." On the 3d of October, " the committee appointed for the seating of the people in the new meeting- house, informed the town that they had prepared something that way for a present trial, which was now read to the town." On the 14th of November, the old meeting-house was ordered to be sold " to the town's best advantage."
In April, 1681, " there being a bell brought in a vessel into the harbor, it was spoken of, and generally it was desired it might be procured for the town ; and for the present it was desired that Mr. Thomas Trowbridge would, if he can, prevail with Mr. Hodge, the owner of it, to leave it with him until the town hath had some further consideration about it." In August, " the owner of the bell had sent to have it brought to the Bay in Joseph Alsop's vessel ;"" " and it having lain so long, it would not be handsome for the town to put it off." Thereupon, " after a free and large debate," it was voted that the bell be purchased. The price was £17. In April, 1682, the town was informed that the bell was now " hanged in the turret ;" and in November, the townsmen " had agreed with George Pardee for his son Joseph to ring the bell for the town's occasions on the Sabbaths and other meetings, as it
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of Mr. Pierpont, the number of attendants on public worship was found to be so great, that enlarged accommodations were necessary. The first step was, to fill up some empty places with seats; that being found insufficient, the galleries were brought forward, so as to make room for one additional seat in front of each gallery. Ten years afterwards, it was de- termined to enlarge the house itself; but the determination was not carried into effect till two years later.
In the year 1697, another great change was made in the mode of supporting the ministry. After the support of the ministry was transferred, in 1677, from the Church to the town, it had been customary, from year to year, to grant a tax, or rate, of one, two or three pence in the pound, " for the encouragement of the ministry ;" and the avails of this tax, whether more or less, belonged to the minister or min- isters for the time being. But now a regular salary was pro- posed ; and "after a long debate, the town, by their vote, granted to pay the Rev. Mr. James Pierpont annually, while he shall preach the word of God to us, the sum of £120 in grain and flesh," at fixed prices, "also to supply him with fire-wood annually." This vote being communicated to Mr. Pierpont, he answered that he approved of it and accepted it, " until the providence of God should bring his family into such circumstances as that the salary would not support him in laboring at the altar." "I accept it," he said, " the more willingly, because I understand the offering is made with a general cheerfulness, wherein God himself is well pleased, provided that due care be taken that this offering be brought into the house of God without lameness, or reflections on the ministry in the respective years." The hint which he thought proper to give in accepting the grant, was not an unwise one. The minister under the former methods of support, received from year to year, just what the people chose to give him.
was wont to be by the drum, and also to ring the bell at nine of the clock every night." The town bell was to be sent to England in 1686, to be new cast and made bigger for the town's use. Mr. Simon Eyre offered to carry it out and back freight-free.
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They must of course give cheerfully. He had no legal claim upon them. They had made no contract with him. What- ever they gave was simply " for his encouragement," and was the free expression of their confidence and love.
One of the first persons received byMr. Pierpont to the full communion of the Church, was an aged man, known here by the name of James Davids. He had come to this place not far from the time of Mr. Davenport's removal. There was that in his dress and manners, in his great acquaintance with the public affairs of England and of Europe, and in his obvious desire of retirement, which led several of the most intelli- gent persons in the town to regard him, from the first, as one of those whom the restoration of the monarchy had made exiles from England, and whom their pastor had ex- horted them beforehand to shelter and protect. Mr. Jones, in particular, recognized him as one of King Charles' judges, whom, in his youth, he had often seen in London and West- minster ; but with him, of whose fidelity Whalley and Goffe had made so full an experiment, the perilous secret was safe. The retired stranger, who had his lodgings with Mr. Ling, received much of the confidence of those who became ac- quainted with him. He was twice married ; by his first wife, the widow of his friend Ling, he acquired a house and a con- siderable property. He attended to some little business, which gave him the title of a merchant, and sometimes he aided in the settlement of estates. Mr. Street named him as one of his executors .* He was greatly and generally re- spected, not only for his intelligence, but for his piety. After his death, when another revolution in England had placed William and Mary on the throne, it became generally known that the equivocal initials on his grave-stone, " J. D. Esq." designated the last resting place of John Dixwell the regicide.t
In no respect, did the ministry of Mr. Pierpont disappoint the expectations which had been formed concerning him in
* Probate Records. t Stiles, 125-167.
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his youth. Under his pastoral care, the people were at peace among themselves. As his prudence and amiableness, when he first came among them, were the means of bringing them together after long continued and painful divisions, they could not but regard him as a benefactor ; and, through all his ministry, they gave him their full confidence and hearty veneration. Their is no reason to doubt, that while he la- bored here, there was in the Church much of true and living piety. We have not indeed so many striking accounts of individuals in that day, as we have of those in the preceding age ; but we know that the piety of the first generation could not be extinct in the second. We know too, that though declension had commenced throughout New England, there were spirits every where that bewailed the declension, and hungered and thirsted for the days of old.
The progressive religious declension of those times, the worst effects of which were felt a few years later, resulted from various causes, some of which we shall do well to notice.
. 1. There had now been formed more of a union of Church and State, than had existed at the beginning. At first, the Church was independent of the State, though the State was not entirely independent of the Church. But now the min- isters of the gospel being supported by the towns in their civil capacity, and the government taking upon itself more and more the care not only of morals, but of religion and religious reformation, religion was becoming secularized. There was continually less dependence upon God, and the power of the truth, to make men holy, and more dependence upon the civil magistrate, to make them put on the form of godliness.
2. The operation of the half-way covenant system was doing away the visible distinction between the Church and the world, and continually diminishing that conviction of the necessity of spiritual religion, which the old Puritans left so strongly impressed upon the minds of the people. Under this system, there was a class of men, making no pretension at all to any experience of the renewing influences of God's
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grace, and entirely neglecting the communion of the Lord's table, who were yet religious enough to be in covenant with God and with his people, and to give their children to God in baptism.
3. That sort of theology in which the half-way covenant system had, in part, its origin, was continually exerting, unobserved, an influence unfavorable to spiritual religion. There is a sort of theology, nearly allied in its shape and statements to the truth, and ever ready to creep into orthodox Churches while men sleep, which, while it recognizes in form the necessity of spiritual renovation, feels that the un- regenerate man is not to be blamed much for being unregen- erate merely, or at least forgets that the sin of living without God and without a vital union to Christ, is the root and es- sence of all other sins, and is itself the very sin which brings the wrath of God forever upon him who does not forsake it. That theology which,-feeling that if the natural man uses the means of grace, and keeps within the bounds of outward morality and good order, he is doing all, or about all that he can do,-hesitates to urge home upon him the practicability and duty of immediate reconciliation to God, is ever fruitful in expedients to make matters easy with those well edu- cated and respectable people, who love the world and the things that are in the world, more than they love God. Such theology had crept into New England before the synod of 1662. Such theology is the basis of its famous proposi- tions touching the subjects of baptism, and of every argument that was urged in defense of the scheme. In opposition to all those arguments, Mr. Davenport maintained that " worldly mindedness whereby men forsake and reject God and his covenant, to serve the world," was of itself an offense suffi- cient to debar all half-way covenanters from offering their children in baptism. "The religion of such," said he, "is no better than that of the Shechemites who took upon them the religion of the Jews, and were circumcised, only for worldly ends."* In the same strain, his good colleague, Mr.
* Another Essay, &c., 24.
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Street, argued, "that such as have been baptized in the Church, and have lived under precious means and great light, until they are married and have children, and all this while have neglected the main thing that doth concern them, which is, to believe, and upon their believing, personally and for themselves to take hold of the covenant, are under very great sin and offense,"* sufficient to exclude them, notwithstand- ing their own baptism in infancy, from all Church privileges. The operation of the half-way covenant was, to propagate and confirm the bad theology in which it originated ; and that bad theology, as it grew, promoted religious declension. It was indeed as Mr. Street said, "an uncouth way, and very unpleasant divinity."
4. Besides the demoralizing effect of Indian wars, noticed in another connection, there was the constant excitement of great political agitations and changes, and the constant fear of losing all their dearly acquired liberties. These excitements and fears occupied the minds of the people, and combined with other influences to hinder the prosperity of religion. After the restoration of the monarchy, the whole British em- pire was, for a long course of years, in a state of alarm and distrust, and in the almost constant expectation of great and disastrous changes. Towards the close of the reign of King Charles II, the government made an attack on all the great municipal corporations of the kingdom, hating them as cita- dels of protestantism, and as examples of that freedom which it was determined to suppress. The charter of the city of London, after a formal trial and a most able defense, was taken away and declared to be forfeited, by a judgment of the court of king's bench. Most of the other great towns of England, in like manner, fell before the march of usurpation. Their charters were resumed; their democratic privileges were annihilated; and they became, by the new constitu- tions that were given them, mere dependencies of the king.
* Considerations, &c., 68.
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All this while, Edward Randolph, the steady and invete- rate enemy of New England, was indefatigable in his efforts to destroy by the same process the charters of the colonies. What days of fear were those for the people of New Eng- land ! If their charters were taken away,-if they were re- duced to that abject dependence on the crown, to which their enemies designed to bring them, every thing that they loved and valued would be gone, and the great ends for which these colonies were planted would be defeated. Meanwhile all minds were perplexed, and all hearts troubled, with tales of popish plots, and the dread of popish ascendency.
In 1684, the base, profligate, traitorous Charles II, died, seeking at the hands of popish priests some consolation amid the terrors of his death bed. He was succeeded by James II, his brother, a little less profligate, and not a little less plia- ble, who had been for years a conscientious, and therefore a bigotted papist. Immediately a new government was ap- pointed over Massachusetts, the charter of that colony having been taken away by a judicial sentence. In December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andross, who had previously been governor of New York, and who in that capacity had been known as of an arbitrary and selfish temper, landed at Boston with a com- mission from James II, as governor of New England ; and soon Massachusetts began to know what it was to be gov- erned by a tyrant. Randolph was made censor of the press. Nothing could be printed but with his license. The people were threatened that none but Episcopal ministers should be allowed to join persons in marriage. One of the meeting houses in Boston was occupied, against the remonstrance of those who owned it, for the service of the Church of Eng- land. The appointment of a day of public prayer, by several Churches in concert, was interfered with by the governor, who told them that they should meet at their peril, and that his soldiers should guard the doors of their meeting houses, to keep them away. The witness in a court, was compelled to swear by the superstitious and unbecoming form of kissing a book; and any that scrupled the lawfulness of so doing,
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were fined and imprisoned. There was but one judge of probate for the whole province, and he the governor, by whom, and by his clerks, the most exorbitant fees were ex- acted. All deeds and titles to land were held to be of no value ; and every man who had a farm or a house, must ac- quire a new title from the governor, which was not to be had without paying for it roundly.
In Connecticut, however, the free government under the charter continued for nearly a year after the arrival of An- dross. But on the 31st of October, 1687, the General As- sembly of the colony being in session at Hartford, Sir Ed- mund Andross appeared at the head of a company of regular soldiers, and demanded their charter, declaring the govern- ment under it to be dissolved. The governor at that time was Robert Treat, of Milford,* who had with great bravery and ability commanded the forces of the colony in the war with Philip. He replied to the demand of Andross ; he rep- resented the labors, and sufferings, and the expense, by which the colonists had acquired and planted the country, and the blood and treasure by which they had defended it ; he ad- verted to what he had himself done and suffered; he spoke of the pain with which they must surrender privileges, so dearly bought, and so long enjoyed. Evening stole over the Assembly, while the debate was prolonged. The invaluable charter,-invaluable to them in their weakness and inability to assert their inalienable liberties,-was brought in, and laid upon the table, soon to be formally surrendered. A multitude of the people had assembled, and were beholding, with stern countenances, that sad spectacle, the extinction of their lib- erty. Suddenly the lights are extinguished; there is no confusion, no rush of the multitude, no uproar,-but when, after a moment of darkness, the candles are lighted again, the charter has vanished. No discovery could be made of it,
The fact is creditable to the old New Haven colony, that it gave to Con- necticut two governors in succession, after the death of Gov. Winthrop. The two were Leete, and Treat.
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or of the hands by which it had been carried away .* An- dross, unable to clutch the precious document, was obliged to content himself with the simple suppression of the free gov- ernment, and a declaration that the colony was annexed to Massachusetts. His procedure was formally entered in the ' records, and "FINIS" was written at the bottom. Then Connecticut came under the same rule with New Hamp- shire, Massachusetts, and Plymouth. Randolph in one of his letters boasted, that Andross and his council " were as arbitrary as the great Turk." Every thing was done on the principle that the spoils belong to the victors ; and all who saw the paralysis of industry and enterprise, and the gloom that settled down upon so many villages, felt that "when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn."+
But in April, 1689, two years and a half after the arrival of Andross, the intelligence came to Boston, that William, the prince of Orange, had landed in England to restore the ancient liberties of the people. Immediately, without wait- ing to know the success of that enterprise, the people of Bos- ton and the vicinity rose in arms, seized the royal governor and his secretary, put them in prison, and called their old governor and his council to resume the government. On the ninth of May, at the usual time of the general election at Hartford, the charter came forth from its concealment in the old oak before the Wyllys house ; and the free government of Connecticut was reestablished as before the interruption.
Amid such fluctuations and alarms,-such excitements of fear and hope in regard to secular and civil interests,-how
* The charter was carried away and concealed by Capt. Wadsworth of Hartford. After the revolution in England, and the accession of William and Mary, as the charter of Connecticut had never been formally surren- dered, and as no judgment had been given in any court of law against it, it was still valid; and while Massachusetts was obliged to obtain a new char- ter with limited privileges, Connecticut has ever enjoyed, (with the sole in- terruption of nineteen months under Andross,) the powers of self-govern- ment, as perfectly as at this moment.
1 Trumbull, I, 355-375. Dr. Trumbull's account of the usurpation of Andross, is one of the ablest passages in his two volumes.
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could religion be expected so to revive, as to throw off the oppression of other incumbrances ?
In those days of slow but sure declension in morals and religion, the pastor here was not wanting in faithfulness or in wisdom. He was greatly respected in the colony, and was among the foremost of the ministers in every underta- king for the common welfare of the churches.
In 1692, the ministers of this county united in proposing to the several towns a lecture to be carried on in the several towns, the great object of which was, "to further religion and reformation in these declining times."* In the same year, we find that there was a quarterly meeting of the min- isters for some public purpose, which Mr. Pierpont was to at- tend, and in attending upon which he was to be provided with a man and horse at the town's charge.
The efforts at reformation in that age, throughout New England, seem to have been characterized by too much reli-
* The entire record of the proceedings of the New Haven town meeting in respect to the proposal for a lecture, deserves to be copied ; for it illus- trates both the state of morals, and the expedients adopted for promoting re- formation.
" At an adjournment of the town meeting, the 2d day of May, 1692.
" A proposal in writing, presented from the Rev. Elders of this county, for a lecture to be carried on in the several towns, was read and thankfully ac- cepted, and the conditions thereof well approved : and accordingly [it was] by the town seriously recommended to the authority, town officers, and heads of families, to take the utmost care they can to prevent all disorders, espe- cially on lecture days ; and particularly, that there be no horse-racings on such days, it being a great disorder. And the heads of families are also to take care that none of their children or servants be allowed or suffered to frequent the ordinary or ordinaries, or any private houses for tippling, neither with strangers or others, on such lecture days, upon penalty of the law.
" The town unanimously voted the above written as their mind, and desired their hearty thanks to be returned to the Rev. Elders for their pious and great care to further religion and reformation among us, IN THESE DECLINING TIMES. Voted nemine contradicente."
Young people making their attendance on the services of a lecture day a pretext for horse-racing and tippling ! And this so common, that the propo- sal to set up a new lecture must needs be guarded by proceedings in town meeting " to prevent disorders !" No wonder they talked with emphasis of " these declining times."
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ance on the formal movements of public bodies, whether re- ligious, as synods, councils and Churches, or secular, as legis- latures, county courts and town meetings ; and by too little dependence on the power of God in the spiritual renovation of individuals. The "reforming synod" of 1679, with the expedients which it recommended-the many similar efforts by smaller conventions of ministers-the orders of courts and magistrates for the suppression of vice, or for the promotion of religion and reformation-the setting up of lectures-the votes of towns-and most of all, the efforts to get every body " within the reach of ecclesiastical discipline"-were of little avail. Good men saw the progressive declension, and be- wailed it ; but there was no reviving and restoring energy .*
In the year 1698, Mr. Pierpont, in connection with the Rev. Mr. Andrew of Milford and the Rev. Mr. Russel of Bran- ford, concerted the plan of founding a college ;; or rather they revived the design which lay so long upon the heart of Dav- enport, and upon which he expended so many earnest efforts, but the completion of which it was not given him to see in this world. There can be no doubt that those three men, contriving the establishment of a college for Connecticut, in- tended that it should be established in New Haven ; but they were magnanimous and wise enough not to connect the de- sign, at its first proposal, with any particular location. By much deliberation among themselves, and much consultation with others in various parts of the colony, their plan was gradually matured ; and in the course of the following year,
* See Mather's whole chapter on the Reforming Synod. Magn. Book V, Part IV. See also Trumbull, I, 467. A specimen of the interference of county courts with expedients for religious reformation, is found in the New Haven County Records, under the date of Nov. 8, 1676.
" The County Court, being sensible of a hopeful advantage to the further- ance of religion and reformation, by settling an able lecture where it might be aptest and of the greatest concourse to attend the' same, do recommend it, and desire the Rev. Mr. Elliot to begin a monthly lecture at New Haven the first Wednesday in March next, and so continue until this Court shall ap- point some other to succeed."
t Trumbull, I, 473.
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ten of the principal ministers in the colony were designated by the common consent of those most interested, to stand as trustees for founding and governing the institution. In 1700, those ministers met in this place, and formally organized themselves into a body or society to found a college in Con- necticut. The institution thus begun was temporarily placed at Saybrook, and had no settled habitation till it was removed to this place in the year 1716 .*
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