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 24
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was honored by a theological doctorate from the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, became a strong defender of the " old di- vinity" against the opinions, of which Dr. Bellamy, Dr. Hop- kins, Dr. West of Stockbridge, and Dr. Edwards, were the fathers and supporters. Some of the peculiarities of the "new divinity" which Dr. Dana opposed, were the denial of the im- putation of Adam's sin to his posterity,-the assertion of man's natural ability to love God and keep his command- ments,-the denial of the tendency or fitness of the means of regeneration to accomplish their end,-the hypothesis that sin, in all instances in which it occurs, is on the whole better for the universe than holiness would be in its place, and is therefore not merely permitted by the Father of lights, but preferred to holiness in its stead, and introduced by his positive efficiency,-and the dogma, generated by some strange speculations about disinterested benevolence, that a willingness to be damned for the glory of God is an essential condition of salvation. The new light men and their suc- cessors, much as they venerated President Edwards, much as they honored Bellamy and some of the others as Edwards's favored disciples, did not all become new divinity men. Some of them, at least, astounded at the stupendous dogmas of Hopkins and West, were willing to acknowledge Dana as orthodox in comparison with these inventors of new divin- ity, and to forget the heresy and schism of his youth, for the sake of the strength with which he could lead them to war against such metaphysical giants as those of Bethlehem, and Stockbridge, and Newport.
Another cause which operated to overcome the public pre- judice against him, was his early and decided position in favor of our national independence. There was a time, while the revolution was approaching, when public senti- ment in Connecticut had by no means become unanimous as to the expediency of attempting to stand against the Brit- ish government, or of taking any measures which might sever the tie between the colonies and the parent empire. The eastern part of the State was somewhat in advance of
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the western, and, if I mistake not, the "new lights," as a body, were a little before the old light or conservative party as a body. So slow was Governor Fitch in coming up to the grand movement of the day, and consenting to the adop- tion of strong measures, that during the agitations conse- quent upon the stamp act, he lost the confidence of the peo- ple and lost his office. It was not far from this time that Dr. Dana, then a young man, was invited to preach in Mr. Whit- telsey's pulpit on one occasion while the legislature was in session in this place. Many, particularly of the eastern mem- bers, would have refused to hear so suspected a preacher, if they had not understood that he was strongly on their side in politics. Their curiosity, and their confidence in his po- litical orthodoxy, overcame their dislike of his ecclesiastical irregularity. His audience therefore included all the lead- ing political men of the colony. Expecting, or at least hoping for such an audience, he had prepared himself for the occasion. His text was, Heb. xi, 24, 25. "By faith, Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." And though to men not in the habit of looking for a double sense, the sermon might have seemed far enough from having any political bearing, there were few in that audience who did not see the meaning. As the preacher illustrated and vindicated the conduct of Moses "when he had come to years," it became very plain that Connecticut, having come to years, was old enough to act for herself, and trusting in the God of Israel, to refuse to be any longer de- pendent upon Pharaoh. As he held up for imitation the faith of the great Hebrew lawgiver, whom all the blandishments of royalty could not pervert, whom the wrath of the king could not deter, and who renounced the court and identified himself with the cause of the wronged and oppressed people, there was no hearer who did not see for himself, in the con- trast, the picture of those timid politicians of the times, who were likely to become the tools of the court. No man was
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ever more than he a master of that sort of eloquence, in which "more is meant than meets the ear." The prejudices of his auditors were vanquished. From that time forward, whenever the General Assembly held its session at New Ha- ven, it was expected of course that Mr. Whittelsey would grat- ify the members by exchanging once with his brother Dana .*
At Dr. Dana's installation here, the council consisted of twelve ministers and twelve delegates. Among the minis- ters, were Dr. Edwards and Mr. Austin, of the two younger Churches in this town; and these, I believe, were the only ministers in the council who would be considered decided " new divinity" men. The council met at nine o'clock in the morning. The preliminary questions having been at- tended to, Dr. Dana, instead of being examined as examina- tions are usually conducted on such occasions, read to the council, a written statement of his religious opinions, con- cise, cautious, but clear and comprehensive, with some pun- gent allusions to the "new divinity" of the times. After the reading of this document, Dr. Edwards, as the champion of a newer and more thorough orthodoxy, undertook to exam- ine him by asking him questions. The questioning being finished on Dr. Edwards's part, Dr. Dana retaliated, by pro- posing a series of questions for the examiner to answer. Both had prepared themselves beforehand; and both appear to have brought their questions in writing to the place of meet- ing, Dr. Dana doubtless anticipating some such collision. Dr. Edwards, as appeared afterwards, did not obtain satisfac- tion. Whether Dr. Dana was satisfied, we are not informed.t
For some years before the death of Mr. Whittelsey, there had been so much of peace among the Churches in New Ha- ven, that the monthly sacramental lectures were united, and were preached at the three houses of worship in rotation. But immediately after Dr. Dana's installation, the ministers of the other two Churches refused to hold so much com-
* This incident is related on the authority of the late Judge Chauncey, one of the hearers of the sermon.
t Appendix, No. XIII.
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munion with him, being advised to that course by their friends West, Smalley, and others, on Dr. Edwards's repre- sentation that Dr. Dana, besides being opposed to the " new divinity," was unsound respecting the Trinity, the doctrine of election, and the doctrine of future punishment. "Yet," says Dr. Stiles, in recording this fact, "all the rest of the council were satisfied that the Dr. was sound as to all these points." In relation to the doctrine of the Trinity, his con- fession of faith at his installation, though cautious in its state- ments, holds forth distinctly the doctrine recognized as ortho- dox. Respecting a future state of punishment, his printed sermons are explicit in denying the possibility of any salva- tion or repentance hereafter to those who die in their sins .* I think, however, notwithstanding Dr. Stiles's testimony, that his doctrine of election was nothing more than that which is commonly known as the Arminian doctrine on that subject.
The ministry of Dr. Dana in this Church was for the most part peaceful and quiet; but none who remember that the great end of the ministry is to " win souls," and by the bless- ing of God, to bring men under the full power of the gospel of Christ, can call it successful. The average annual addi- tion to the number of communicants during his ministry of sixteen years and a half, was only between five and six- ninety three in all. Two services on the Lord's day, the monthly sacramental lecture, the occasional catechising of the children, and the annual public fast and thanksgiving, were all the religious meetings known in the congregation ; and very little more was known, I believe, in any other con- gregation here. So far as I can judge by tradition or by reading Dr. Dana's sermons, the hearer under his preaching did not often feel that he was hearing that upon the immedi- ate acceptance of which his soul's salvation was depending. The preacher, though he deemed it a point of orthodoxy to believe in the tendency of means to the spiritual renovation of men, did not believe in that constitutional ability of men
* See his sermon on that subject, in Sermons to Young People, 381.
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to repent upon the hearing of the word, which brings the sinner under an immediate responsibility. The tendency of his preaching was not so much to lead men to immediate re- pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, as it was to put them upon using the means of grace, in the expectation that salvation would somehow be the result. Un- der such a ministry, whether it be called "old light," " old divinity," or " old school," or by any other name of ortho- doxy, vital religion, the turning of men from their sins to God, cannot be expected greatly to prosper.
Yet it deserves to be noticed, that the period of Dr. Dana's ministry in this Church, especially the former part of it, was the period immediately following the revolutionary war, when the disastrous and demoralizing influences of that long conflict were felt most powerfully in all the Churches ; and when the country in the joy of its new liberty, and in its sympathy with the hopes and horrors of the French revolu- tion, was continually blazing with intense excitement-the period in which the long darkness that ensued upon the ex- travagances of 1740, was just the deepest-the period in which the ministry of so gifted and evangelical a divine as the younger Edwards, came to an end in this very town for the want of success *- the period just before the com-
* The history of Dr. Edwards's ministry cannot be given here. The first century in the history of the Church to which he ministered will soon be completed ; and then I trust his successor will do him ample justice. Ile was dismissed from the charge of the White Haven Church and Society, at the request of the Society, and by his own consent, May 19, 1795. The grand reason offered for his dismission was, that the Society-which at his ordination, twenty six years before, was far the largest and wealthiest in New Haven-had so strangely diminished that there was no alternative but that of dismissing the minister or dissolving the Society. All parties, how- ever, the Church, the parish, and the council, united in the most ample tes- timonials to his faithfulness and his abilities. Dr. Edwards was afterwards pastor of the Church in Colebrook, whence he was called to the presidency of Union College. He died at Schenectady, Aug. 1801, aged 56.
The Rev. Samuel Austin was ordained over the Fair Haven Church Nov. 1786. He was dismissed Jan. 1790, was afterwards pastor of the First Church in Worcester, Mass., and then President of the University of Vermont. He retired from that station in 1821, and died at Glastonbury, Dec. 1830, aged 70.
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mencement of those great, successive, spreading religious awakenings, which characterize the last forty years of our ecclesiastical history. The fact, that during such a period, the ministry of Dr. Dana was not eminently successful, is not at all wonderful. Let us thank God, not that we are better than the men of those days, but that we live in better times.
The year 1795 is marked by the appearance of a new light in the ecclesiastical history of New Haven, and not of New Haven or Connecticut only, but of America. In that year, President Dwight, one of the most eloquent, accom- plished and successful of preachers, as well as one of the most evangelical of theologians, came to the presidency of Yale College. From that time, the Churches here began to be conversant with preaching of a higher order, not so much in respect to style and manner, as in respect to weight and clearness of thought, and cogency of application, than any they had for a long time before been accustomed to hear. From that time, too, there began to come forth young preachers, formed not only by his example as a model, but by his moulding power as an instructor, whose labors in their various spheres, are his greatest and most enduring me- morial.
Dr. Dana, by his discretion, and his dignified propriety of conduct ; by his diligence and courage in visiting the sick, especially in times of pestilence, when some other ministers retreated from the danger; by the venerable beauty of all his public performances, particularly his prayers ; and by his unquestionable reputation for learning and wisdom; con- tinued to hold the affections of the people much longer than most men could have done in similar circumstances. Those times were, not less than the present, times of change. White wigs, and cocked hats, and the staid formal manners of the days before the revolution, were fast losing all their venerableness. The love of novelty, always strong in human nature, was stimulated by the great changes, political, com- mercial and moral, consequent upon the revolution which had made us an independent nation, and upon the adoption
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of the Federal Constitution, which, by compacting the union of the States, had not only secured their growth and pros- perity, but had subjected them to the most powerful mutual influences. In this town, there were some peculiar local causes which operated to awaken the desire of change. The two societies of White Haven and Fair Haven, having dis- missed their pastors through acknowledged inability to sus- tain them, had reunited in one Society, (Nov. 27, 1796,) the largest and strongest in the town, and in these respects the most likely to attract new comers. This United Society had settled as its pastor, the Rev. John Gemmil, from Pennsylva- nia, whose full-orbed popularity at his first coming here soon began to wane, and who, after a ministry of four years, was dismissed, Nov. 22, 1802, leaving not many friends behind him. Amid all these disturbing influences, and notwith- standing the growing infirmities of age, Dr. Dana appears to have lost nothing of the respect of his own people or of the community.
But in the winter of 1804-5, he was confined for some time by illness; and the pulpit was supplied by Mr. Moses Stuart, then recently licensed as a candidate for the ministry. Hardly any two things, both worthy to be called preach- ing, could be more unlike than the preaching of the old pas- tor, and that of the young candidate. Dr. Dana, partly from the circumstances in which he was placed at his first settle- ment in Wallingford, when all ears were open to catch any inadvertent expression which might be construed into hetero- doxy, and partly from the natural cautiousness of his temper, had acquired the habit of preaching on many of the most im- portant and stirring topics of Christian doctrine, with some- thing of that diplomatic vagueness, if I may so call it, which leaves little impression upon the feelings, and less upon the memory. The consequence was, especially as he grew old, that to the majority of hearers, and particularly to the young, his sermons were wanting in impressiveness, containing no strong points strongly urged home upon the moral sensibili- ties, or strongly debated with the intellectual faculties. Ac-
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cordingly, when the old man was once silent for a season, and a young man of strong impetuous eloquence occupied his pulpit, the people, and especially the younger part of them, found out all at once that their pastor, then three score and ten years old, was indeed an old man. Arrangements were immediately commenced to obtain the services of Mr. Stuart as colleague with Dr. Dana. This effort failed, because of the reluctance of the candidate, to be connected with a colleague who, it might be presumed, did not regard the movement with cordial approbation. On the 30th of July, 1805, the Society by vote signified their will " that Dr. Dana retire from his pastoral labors." 'This vote was in effect the dismission of the aged pastor, the Society having reserved to itself, at the time of his settlement, the power of dispensing with his pastoral services whenever it should seem proper to do so. The relation of Dr. Dana to the Church and Society was formally dissolved by an ecclesiastical council, in December, 1805 ; and then the way being clear, the Society immedi- ately elected Mr. Stuart to be their pastor. On the 20th of January, 1806, the Church concurred with the Society in the call. The ordination of Mr. Stuart took place on the 5th of March. What has taken place since that date may be considered as belonging to the history of our times, and will therefore be passed over with only a few general notices.
The ministry of Mr. Stuart, though short, was signalized by a memorable revival of religion, which marked the begin- ning of a new order of things in the history not only of this Church, but also of that in the United Society. The ordina- tion of the Rev. Samuel Merwin, in the other Church, took place about a year before the ordination of Mr. Stuart in this. From the date of Mr. Stuart's settlement, all ancient differences between these Churches were buried in obliv- ion. At sacramental lectures, and on many other occasions, the two Churches were united as one. Frequent exchanges of pulpits on the part of the two pastors, tended to increase the mutual affection between the Churches, and the sense of a common interest. Thus the seriousness, and the awakened
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attention to the things of religion, which pervaded one congregation, was felt equally in the other ; and better days were enjoyed in New Haven than had ever been known here before.
On the ninth of January, 1810, Mr. Stuart, after having served the Church as pastor a little less than four years, was dismissed at his own request, the Church and Society reluc- tantly consenting. Having been invited to the professorship of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Ando- ver, he considered himself called in the providence of God to relinquish the pastoral office, and to be employed in form- ing the minds and hearts of others, for the service of the spi- ritual temple.
For two years after the removal of Professor Stuart, the Church was without a pastor. On the 8th of April, 1812, the vacancy was filled by the ordination of the Rev. Na- thaniel W. Taylor. In this ordination, Dr. Dana officiated as moderator of the ordaining council, joined in the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, and in the name of the council gave the charge to the candidate. During the min- istry of his immediate successor, his stern and wounded feel- ings had forbidden him to unite with this Church in public worship. Still more had he felt himself forbidden to sit un- der the preaching of the man, for whom the Society had treated him, in his old age, with what he esteemed great disrespect. He had therefore withdrawn, and at the College chapel had attended on the ministry of President Dwight. The effect of this had been in one important respect happy. Formerly he had entertained strong prejudices against the President, looking upon him as tinctured with the "new di- vinity" not only of his grandfather, the first Edwards, but also of his uncle and theological teacher, the second. But his six years' attendance on the preaching of the President, and especially his hearing that four years' course of sermons on the doctrines and duties of religion, which, since it was given to the public, has been read by so many thousands of intelligent men in all evangelical denominations with equal
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admiration and profit,-went far to annihilate his prejudices. He is said to have acknowledged, not only that he thought much better of Dr. Dwight than formerly, but also that the preaching of Dr. Dwight had led him to new views of some important subjects. Accordingly he saw with gratification the progress of measures for the settlement of one of Dr. Dwight's favorite pupils over what had once been his own beloved flock. Occasionally he came to the old meeting house, to join in the worship which he had formerly been accustomed to lead. The sight of his venerable form in the old place awakened old affections. The Society expressed by vote their pleasure at seeing him, and their desire that he would attend there in future. The gentleman who was ap- pointed to communicate to him this vote, lately gave me some account of the interview. "Dr. Dana," said he, pre- senting a copy of the vote, "I have a communication for you from the Society." "Please to read it, Sir," said the old man in reply, putting the paper back into the hands of the other, and straightening himself up to a little more than his usual dignity. The vote was read distinctly, and with due emphasis. "Please to read it again, Sir," said the doctor, still sitting in stiff and antique dignity, with his thin ghastly countenance unmoved, as if he were something between a ghost and a monument. Again the communication was read, with earnest desires that it might make a favorable im- pression. "It is well," said the old man, and his voice quiv- ered and broke as he uttered his reply, "I know not but that I may say, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." On the first Sabbath after Mr. Taylor's ordination, Dr. Dana, at the invitation of the young pastor, took his seat in the pulpit; and there he was seen thenceforward every Sab- bath till his last sickness. He died in August of that year, (1812,) at the age of 77 .* The sermon at his funeral was
* Dr. Dana was one of the Fellows of Yale College from 1799 till his death. The following is believed to be nearly a correct catalogue of his published works.
Sermon on the death of John Hall, Esq. 1763.
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preached by Dr. Dwight. His remains rest in the new bury- ing ground.
During the ministry of Mr. Taylor, which continued eleven years and a half, the years 1815 and 1816, and the years 1820 and 1821, were signalized by large accessions to the communion of the Church.
Mr. Taylor was dismissed in December, 1822, according to the advice of a council, called for the purpose of giving light to the Church on the question, whether he ought to accept the professorship of Didactic Theology, then recently estab- lished in Yale College. However the congregation may have been a loser by that decision which removed him from the immediate oversight of their spiritual interests; and how- ever he in that more conspicuous station has been exposed to buffetings which in the pastoral office he might have avoided, the great and common cause, the cause of Christian truth and of the world's salvation, has been, we trust, the gainer.
The present pastor first stood in this pulpit on the first Sabbath in October, 1824, having been ordained the week before to the work of an evangelist. He was installed on the 9th of March, 1825, and is now in the fourteenth year of
Two Sermons on faith and inscrutable Providence, preached at Cam- bridge. 1767.
A Century Discourse in Wallingford. 1770.
Examination of Edwards on the Will. 1770. Published anonymously.
Examination, &e., continued. 1773. Published with his name.
Sermon on prayer. 1774.
Christmas sermon in the Episcopal Church, Wallingford.
Discourse on capital punishments. 1790.
Sermon on the African slave trade. 1791.
Sermon at the installation of Rev. Abiel Holmes at Cambridge. 1792. Sermon on practical Atheism. 1794.
Sermon at the ordination of Rev. E. Waterman at Windham. 1794.
Sermon preached at the funeral of President Stiles, 1795.
Two Discourses, I. On the new year : II. On the completion of the 18th century. 1801.
Sermon on the death of Ebenezer Grant Marsh. 1803.
Sermon on the character of seoffers, preached in Hartford. 1805.
Sermons to young people. 1806.
Three sermons in the American Preacher.
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his official relation to this Church. The years 1828 and 1831, were years in which God was pleased to crown a most imperfect ministry with blessed success. The years 1832, 1835, and 1837, though less distinguished than the two first mentioned, are also to be remembered with gratitude.
Having made this acknowledgment of the goodness of God, I will not attempt at this time to review my own min- istry any farther than to say, that in the constant kindness of a most affectionate people, in the wisdom and frankness with which those gifted with wisdom have ever been ready to counsel me, in the forbearance with which my imperfections and errors have been treated, and in the stimulus which the presence of an intelligent community, accustomed to judge by the highest standards, has afforded, I have had great oc- casion for gratitude to the Providence that has cast my lot here, and for humiliation, that amid such advantages my cor- respondent profiting has not been more manifest to all men.
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