USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > An address delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the First Baptist church, Boston, June 7, 1865 > Part 1
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.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Gc 974.402 B65ne 1988966
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 8379
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/addressdelivered00neal_0
10/26/59-wow
AN
ADDRESS
DELIVERED ON THE 200th Two Hundredth Anniversary
OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON,
JUNE 7, 1865,
BY
ROLLIN HEBER NEALE, D. D.
PASTOR.
BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 1865.
At a meeting of the Church, held Tuesday evening, June 20, 1865, the following votes were passed : -
" That it is desirable that the address delivered at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of organization of this Church, by our pastor, Rev. R. H. Neale, should be published, with such other historical matter as may be useful for future reference, and that the pastor be requested to fur- nish a copy for that purpose.
" Voted, That brethren Cyrus Carpenter, W. HI. Brewer, C. A. Turuer, and D. P. Simpson, constitute a committee with full power to carry out the purposes of the preceding vote."
Cambridge Press.
DAKIX AND METCALY.
1988966
istorical Address.
1
-
ISTORICAL A DDRESS.
WE are assembled, my brethren, to commemorate, by religious and social services, THE Two HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY of our existence as a Church.
According to the record, this church was organized "on the 28th of the third month, 1665." Our fa- thers, however, in numbering the months, began with March, and not with January; so that May was their "third month." Allowing ten days for a change in the calendar from "old to new style," makes what was their 28th of May our 7th of June. It is, therefore, two hundred years ago to-day since this church was formed. To me, the pastor, and to the present membership, and to those who have sus- tained these relations heretofore, this is an occasion of much interest. It is natural that we should wish to review our history, and speak of the way in which the Lord hath led us. A similar gathering of per- sonal and Christian friends met here three years ago, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of my own settle-
6
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
ment. We then spoke of old times, when many of us were young, and before others were born. A generation had arisen who looked upon modern his- tory as quite ancient, and who now, I presume, re- gard my pastorate as extending into the shadowy past, before the Shawmut Avenue Church was formed, or the Harvard Street Church, or Bowdoin Square, or the Union Temple, and before the present pastor of the Bethel-a child of our own - had thought of en- tering the ministry, and before the pastor and con- stituent members of the Southac Street Church had escaped from Virginia. Thirty years ago, however, Boston was no mean city. Her merchants and scholars had a wide and well-earned fame. Her clergymen, of all denominations, were men of sub- stantial worth, and the Baptists, I remember, were in the very zenith of their glory. The Union Lec- ture was then in existence. This was looked for- ward to through the week, and regarded as the crowning feature of the Sabbath. A large congrega- tion of the four churches assembled on Sunday even- ing. The pastors had the grateful privilege of listening to a brother minister. They officiated them- selves alternately, each in his own pulpit: Mr. Hague at the First Church, Baron Stow at Baldwin Place, Howard Malcom at Federal Street, and Dr. Sharp, then in the fulness of his strength, at Charles Street.
7
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
It would be a pleasure to me, though attended with a feeling of sadness, to linger around these well- remembered scenes, to speak of the friends who first welcomed me to Boston, to say a word of my loved and lamented associates at Newton, and pay a heartfelt tribute to that good professor who has re- cently left us; but it is not permitted me to-day to indulge in personal memories. I must go to a re- moter past,- to a period before the Revolution, almost a century before Washington was born, -to the time when there were only a few small colonies scattered here and there, at Jamestown, New Haven, Hartford, and Providence. Settlements had begun on the capes and along the South Shore, near to the old landing-place at Plymouth, and more numerous and enterprising ones at Salem and Lynn, and particu- larly in and about Boston, where then as now the people took a prominent lead in public affairs. I am not about to give a history of the Baptists, ex- cept as I must necessarily speak of an origin and experience with which our brethren in New England are more or less connected.
Nor is it my purpose to attempt a history of our denominational principles. This would carry me back to the third of Matthew, and the river Jordan, and all through the Acts of the Apostles, - to a succes- sion of saints and martyrs during the first three centuries, and to numerous bodies of Protestants that
8
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
arose one after another, from the accession of Con- stantine to the Reformation, in Italy and Germany, in the mountains of Switzerland, and the valleys of Piedmont and Savoy; communities who long before the time of Luther had steadily refused all affiliation with the Church of Rome. Their spiritual instincts spurned the adulterous union of Church and State. Their reverence for the word of God, and for the injunctions and example of Christ, resisted the inno- vations and assumptions of the Papal power. They were of course hated by that power. They were compelled to hold their meetings in secret places, in forests, in dark ravines, in mountain fastnesses,- being driven, like the saints of old, to dens and caves of the earth. They were generally known as Wal- denses, though called at different places and periods by various names. Slight and comparatively unim- portant shades of opinion existed among themselves, but they were agreed in the substantial truths of Christianity, and especially in their experience of its life and power. All were loyal to Christ and his cross, - to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is known, also, that many or most of them held to the distinc- tive principles of our denomination, -namely, baptism by immersion, a converted church membership, and the inalienable right of civil and personal freedom in all matters of religious faith. Our creed, therefore, as Baptists, whether right or wrong, can be traced to
9
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
a respectable origin, and through a distinguished and worthy lineage. I feel interested in this fact only as a matter of history, and because one loves to know that others agree with him in sentiment, but not as a proof that our creed is correct, or that ours is the only infallible church. Truth is not determined by majorities, nor by decisions of councils, nor votes in a convention, nor is it confined to any ecclesiastical body; nor is the Holy Spirit limited to names, or sects, or systems of theology. Doctrines are no bet- ter, nor churches nor ministers, because of any real or supposed line of apostolical succession. Their worth depends rather upon conformity to the sacred oracles, upon their resting directly on the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. If we speak not according to this word, it is because there is no truth in us.
But I will proceed to the appropriate subject of my address. The first record on our books is as follows : -.
" The 28th of the third month, 1665, in Charles- town, Massachusetts, the Church of Christ, commonly, though falsely, called Anabaptists, were gathered to- gether, and entered into fellowship and communion with each other; engaging to walk together in all the appointments of their Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, as far as he should be pleased to make known his mind and will unto them, by his B
10
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
word and Spirit, and then were baptized, Thomas Gould, Thomas Osborne, Edward Drinker, John George - and joined with Richard Goodall, William Turner, Robert Lambert, Mary Goodall, and Mary Newell, who had walked in that order in Old Eng- land, and to whom God hath since joined Isaac Hull, John Farnham, Jacob Barney, John Russell, Jr., John Johnson, George Farley, Benjamin Sweetser, Mrs. Sweetser, and Ellis Callender, all before 1669."
It was thirty-five years after the settlement of Bos- ton before the Baptists of the colony formed them- selves into a church. Their name and sentiments, however, were known before this time. Roger Wil- liams had been here, and Obadiah Holmes. "Sister Moody," a very respectable and wealthy lady, had lived at Lynn, and had been asked, not very politely, to leave the place. "Brother Witter" was there still, and had been arrested for entertaining " suspi- cious strangers " from Newport. Persons connected with other societies were subjected to annoyance, be- cause of their Baptist sympathies. The Rev. Henry Dunster was obliged on this account to resign the Presidency of Harvard College, and make way for successors who it was thought would be more true to "Christ and the church." It is well known that our Puritan ancestors were exceedingly intolerant of all opinions and practices that differed from their own. In saying this, I am not unmindful of their many
11
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
virtues. 'We glory in being their descendants. Their heroic energy and stern morals have made New Eng- land what it is, the glory of all lands, with its thrift and enterprise, its benevolent institutions, its indom- itable people, its fruitful farms and smiling villages its " busy cities and resounding shores, its schools and churches peering out from every valley and crowning every hill-top." But these earnest men were not, perfect. That they had a profound reverence for the Deity is undoubted. Still their religion was often hard, dry, and juiceless, partaking more of. law than of grace, more of fear than of love. With the most humiliating confessions of sin was mingled a remarkable degree of self-complacency. They were the chosen people of God, the only true Israel, and all others were barbarians, Amalekites, the children of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Their civil polity and church discipline were one and the same, - a strange combination of the temporal with the spiritual power ; an iron framework, dark, strong, and inexorable, after the Old Testament pattern. It was a theocracy as in the Hebrew commonwealth; God was the immediate Sovereign, whose laws had already been promulgated from Mount Sinai, and written as upon tables of stone, and they were the appointed executors of the divine will. It was not so much a union of Church and State as a complete absorption of the State in the Church. The minister and magistrate were united,
12
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
and enforced alike the duties of the first and second table. No civil functionary presumed to act in any important public affairs without first taking counsel of the clergy, nor the clergy without consulting the Mosaic ritual. The Bible was to be literally fol- lowed. Heresy was to be treated as an indictable offence, and witchcraft punished with death.
The people marvellously resembled their govern- ment. They were full of humanity and love while they remained in the New Testament; but they grew stern among the prophets, and absolutely ferocious when they got back as far as Leviticus and Deuterono- my. Like Israel, on entering Canaan, they were ready to drive the Hittites and Perizzites and Jebuzites out of the land. This spirit reached its height in the time of Cromwell, between 1648 and 1660, when the Pu- ritans had full sway. The Quakers, Episcopalians, and Baptists were put down. That is, as far as it is possible to put down the free spirit "whose essence is ethereal." The cords, it was found, often broke in tightening. Thought became the keener, and words the sharper. The smothered fires were the more intense and terrible, as beneath the heaving sides of Etna or Vesuvius. There is really no adequate apol- ogy for this conduct of the Pilgrims. No defences set up in their behalf, not even the old stereotyped one, that it was the fault of the times, is at all sat- isfactory. This is the standing apology for every sin.
13
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
It is better to say, that good and wise men as the Puritans were in general, yet in this thing they were unwise and wicked. John Winthrop, the best of the early magistrates, honestly acknowledged the wrong on his dying bed. Being asked to sign an order for the banishment of some person for heterodoxy, he refused, saying, " I have done too much of that work already."
When Charles the Second came to the throne, in 1661, the American colonies were of course called to account for their sympathy with the Great Rebel- lion. The loyalty of Massachusetts had been more than suspected, and with good reason. The people were Puritans of the straitest sect. They had shouted for Cromwell. They had sent the Browns out of the country for keeping Christmas and reading the Prayer Book. They still harbored the regicides. Commis- sioners were accordingly sent over from England, soon after the restoration, to rectify this state of things.
Charles, though more of a Catholic than a Prot- estant, and not much troubled probably with religion of any kind, was yet the official head of the English Church. Episcopalians, therefore, must be no longer persecuted. The Quakers had strangely ingratiated themselves into royal favor, and they must hereafter be unmolested. The whole policy of Puritan intoler- ance was thus checked, especially during the pres- ence of the King's commissioners. This was in the
14
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
winter of 1664-65. Thomas Gould and his compan- ions were now, some in the Congregational churches; others had letters of dismission from England, " to join any church of the same faith and order with themselves, wherever God in his providence should cast their lot;" and some had made no profession at all.
Taking advantage of this auspicious period, when the hand of persecution was stayed, and the temple of Janus was shut, they ventured to meet together for worship; and, as we have seen, organized them- selves into a regular Baptist Church " on the 28th of the third month, 1665."
They were, however, still pursued by their vigilant and conscientious neighbors. A warrant was issued to the constable of Charlestown, commanding him in the name of his Majesty, Charles the Second, to dis- cover where these people were assembled, and require that they should attend the churches which were es- tablished by law ; and if they should refuse a prompt and strict compliance with this order, he was to report their names and places of abode to the nearest magis- trate. Decisions against them were often pronounced by the General Court. I will not weary you by read- ing them. They are all in the chronicles of that time. The following may serve as a specimen of their gen- eral character: " This court taking the premises into consideration, do judge meet to declare that the said
15
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Gould and company are no orderly church assembly, and that they stand justly convicted of high presump- tion against the Lord and his holy appointment, as also the peace of this government, against which this court doth account themselves bound to God, his truth, and his churches here planted, to bear their testimony ; and do therefore sentence the said Thomas Gould, William Turner, Thomas Osborne, Edward Drinker, and John George, such of them as are freemen, to be disfranchised, and all of them, upon conviction before any one magistrate or court, of their further pro- ceeding therein, to be committed to prison until the General Court shall take further order with them."
When their first house of worship was built, in 1679, they were forbidden to occupy it. The marshal was ordered to keep it closed, which he accordingly did ; and posted the following paper on the door :
" All persons are to take notice, that by order of the court, the doors of this house are shut up, and that they are inhibited to hold any meeting therein, or to open the doors thereof, without license from authority, till the court take further order, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
" EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary."
While enduring these vexations, the Baptists remon- strated earnestly and persistently, but carefully re- frained, in word and action, from all disrespect to the
16
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
constituted authorities. "Respect for magistracy," was always their motto. " But it was wrong and incon- sistent," they said to the governor, " to do the same things here in America, of which they had complained in England." The governor felt the force of this ap- peal, and ordered a public disputation, after the custom of those days, to discuss the principles in question.
Six learned Congregational ministers were selected to argue the cause with the Baptists, in the presence of His Excellency and the honorable Council. The controversy was appointed to be held in Boston the 14th of April, 1668, at nine o'clock, in the morning. The Baptists were on hand promptly at the appointed hour, each with his New Testament, ready marked and the leaves turned down. Nothing pleased them better than an opportunity for free speech and Scripture quo- tations. They came from all quarters. Three brethren were sent from the church in Newport to assist their brethren in Boston, it was said, though the Boston Baptists then, as now, felt abundantly competent to manage their own affairs. Providence, no doubt, was ably represented. The followers of Roger Williams were always courageous and fond of dispute, and, like the sons of Rhode Island in the late conflict, were never known to flee or flinch in the presence of an enemy. But when they met, they found the controversy all on one side. The Baptists were denounced as schismatics. They might hear what their opponents had to say, but
,
17
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
were not allowed to answer. Two days were thus occu- pied ; at the close of which, Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, minister of the church in Cambridge, pronounced against them that sentence in the 17th chapter of Deuteronomy, beginning with the 8th verse, and ending with these words : " And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to min- ister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the Judge, even that man shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel."
In circumstances like these, this church began their history. For over half a century they stood alone, and bore the responsibilities and the whole weight of theological odium which rested upon the Baptist name and cause in the Colony of Massachu- setts. They must have had, and did have, during the first seventy years of their experience, a painful sense of isolation. They were separated from their brethren in England. No sister churches were in the neighborhood. No Baptist associations, as now, with letters and delegates, pleasant countenances, and kindly words to cheer and sustain them. Rev. John Miles, who had recently emigrated with a remnant of his flock, from Wales, was at Swansea, and occasionally made a visit to Boston; and sometimes a good brother or two would come up from Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations ; but in general, our brethren were shut out from public sympathy, and lived in
C
18
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
constant dread of the emissaries of government. They met in the houses of the different members of the church at Charlestown, Noddle's Island, and in Back Street, now Salem Street, until the erection of their first sanctuary, in 1679.
For fourteen years, they could not dwell even in taber- nacles. Their first meeting-house was an unpretending structure, at the foot of an open lot running down from Salem Street to the mill-pond, and on the north side of what is now Stillman Street. The mill-pond was a large sheet of water which flowed in from Charles River, and covered all that part of the city, including Causeway and Merrimac Streets, Haymarket Square, and Endicott Street, down to the old Charlestown bridge. In 1771, under the popular ministry of Dr. Stillman, the first house was taken down and a larger one erected on the same spot. An addition was made twenty years later, making the whole building 57 by 77. The lot on which it stood formed a spacious and beautiful area in front of the church. There were two vestries, one in the rear, and a larger one on the north side. In that humble edifice, the church worshipped for over a hundred and fifty years. It is fraught with precious memories. It is associated with conference and prayer, with baptismal and sacramental occasions, and with a succession of pastors and members whose influence will be felt forever. There Wayland and Winchell and Stillman preached, and others, back to the time of
19
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
John Russell and Thomas Gould. At the dedication of the second house, on the same locality, Dr. Stillman preached in the morning from Ezra v. 11: "We are the servants of the Most High God, and build the house that was builded these many years ago." And in the afternoon, from Haggai ii. 7: "I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts." About this time, the church voted to introduce Watts's Psalms and Hymns, instead of the version of Tate and Brady, which had been previously in use. It is said that the house was built at the water-side for convenience in baptizing. This may have been the motive; I think very likely it was. But if so, it was only in imitation of primitive example. Our Saviour taught his disciples on the borders of the lake, and John preached in Enon, near to Salem, because there was much water there. It was made a reproach against this church at first that its ministers were uneducated. But this was a matter of necessity. They could obtain no other. They selected and encouraged the best gifts they had. They chose their spiritual guides from among themselves, men in whose wisdom and religious experience they had the fullest confidence. They preached with little or no compensation, and until the settlement of the younger Callender, without the sanction of an ecclesiastical council. Thomas Gould, being the principal man in forming the church, was very naturally selected as its first pastor. John Russell, who was a member of the
20
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
church at the same time, was also authorized, whenever needed, to conduct religious services. Mr. Gould's pas- torate continued ten years. Isaac Hull was appointed his successor, and Mr. Russell still continued as an asso- ciate pastor, or elder, as these experienced and trusted brethren were very appropriately called. Mr. Russell was ordained in 1679, but died the next year. He is described as a wise and worthy man. Previous to his death, he wrote an account of the trials through which the church had passed. This was published in England, with a preface signed by several brethren of the Baptist denomination, among whom was William Kiffin, an em- inent merchant of London, whose two grandsons suf- fered a cruel death at the hands of James the Second, and also Hansard Knollys, a man prominent among the English Baptists of the 17th century, and whose name is now widely known from its connection with the Lon- don Historical Society. Mr. Russell made no preten- sions to scholarship, but " plainly spoke what he did know." He was a shoemaker by trade, and probably worked at his profession after entering the ministry. This was made a subject of ridicule by the learned divines of Boston. One of them wrote a reply to his narrative, and put as a motto on the title-page, " Cob- bler, stick to your last." Another, a Mr. Hubbard, referring to the same account, says, "One John Russell, a wedder dropped shoemaker, has stitched up a pam- phlet, in which he endeavors to show the innocency
21
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
of those commonly (though falsely, he says) called Anabaptists."
A Mr. Willard remarked, "Truly, if Goodman Rus- sell be a fit man for a minister, we have but fooled ourselves in building colleges and instructing children in learning." Dr. Mather, who was always strongly armed with Old Testament quotations, published a piece in which he accused the Baptists of the sin of Jeroboam in making priests of the lowest order of the people. Mr. Russell was an old man when he entered the pastoral office, and soon slept with his fathers. At his decease, the church appointed Ellis Callender " to be helpful in carrying on their worship in the fore- noon, and Edward Drinker to officiate in the afternoon, in the absence of Elder Hull." Mr. Hull, the associate of Mr. Russell, was also advanced in years when called to assume the spiritual oversight of his brethren. Owing to his age and infirmities, the church wrote to England for an assistant. Rev. John Emblem was obtained, who continued in that office about fifteen years, until his death in 1699. Mr. Hull also con- tinued in the pastoral office until his death, though unable to perform its active duties. At what time or in what year of his age he died is unknown ; probably, however, about the year 1690. The records of the church at that time were imperfectly kept. There is no record at all from 1696 to 1708, a period of twelve years. Most of this time the church were des-
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.