USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Mendon > Centurial history of the Mendon association of Congregational ministers, with the Centennial address, delivered at Franklin, Mass., Nov. 19, l851, and biographical sketches of the members and licentiates > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01811 4931
GENEALOGY 974.4 B581M
A
CENTURIAL HISTORY
OF THE
MENDON ASSOCIATION -
OF CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS, WITH
THE CENTENNIAL ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT FRANKLIN, MASS., NOV. 19, 1851,
AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE MEMBERS AND LICENTIATES.
BY REV. MORTIMER BLAKE.
BOSTON: PUBLISHED FOR THE ASSOCIATION, BY SEWALL HARDING, - 113 WASHINGTON STREET. 1853.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by MORTIMER BLAKE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
ANDOVER: JOHN D. FLAGG, STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER.
INTRODUCTION.
THE history of this volume is as follows. At a meeting of the Mendon Association at Foxboro, April 16, 1850, on motion of Br. M. Blake, it was voted, that there be a Com- mittee chosen to prepare a History of Mendon Association. Brs. M. Blake and T. Thacher were appointed. Mr. Thacher soon after decided to remove to California, and the subject remained untouched until the next year ; when, upon examination of the few ancient documents in possession of the scribe, it was found that the Association had nearly reached the close of its first century. The fact was inform- ally communicated to some of the members, at the meeting of the State Association at Wrentham, in June, 1851, and at the next regular meeting, at Auburndale, August 12th, it was decided to observe the centennial day, November 19th, with appropriate public services. Franklin was selected as a central and very appropriate place for the meeting, and Rev. M. Blake was appointed to deliver an address. The scribe was instructed to issue special invitations to attend, to all the living former members and licentiates.
An account of the meeting is abridged from the Congre- gationalist of the following week.
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INTRODUCTION.
"The first public service was held on Tuesday evening, 18th inst. This was of the nature of a conference, in which a number of the older licentiates and former members of the body, participated. The time was mostly given up to his- torical reminiscences; and to feeling allusions to the great and good who were once with us, but now are passed away. Rev. Dr. Ide remarked : 'I joined the Association thirty-seven years ago. It was a large and flourishing body, but now all of them but one are dead. I have seen eighteen beloved brethren laid in the grave. At the time of joining, I was not only the youngest, but the feeblest and weakest of them all, and did not expect to live long; but through help obtained of God, I continue unto the present day- I have belonged to the Association fifteen years longer than any other member.' He proceeded to speak of his fellow- laborers in the ministry; said that God had blessed their labors. He had witnessed signal and glorious revivals of religion in every church in the Association.
" Rev. J. O. Barney alluded to Dr. Emmons as the instru- ment of his conversion, by one sermon, which he heard when he was a very wicked boy.
" Rev. M. Moore spoke of the fathers that approbated him in 1812, - Emmons, Fisk, Howe, Wilder, Holman, Dickin- son, Thompson, all now dead but the last-named, who was present.
" Rev. D. Brigham said he should rather go down to the regions of the lost from almost any other place than Franklin, divine truth had been there so plainly exhibited.
" Rev. Messrs. Perkins, Cobb, and Harding, made brief and pertinent allusions to the brethren who used to converse with them at the meetings of this body. Every heart seemed to be full ; and the fact was more than once spoken of, that it must be a terrible guilt which continues in impenitence, after having enjoyed the ministry of such able and godly men.
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INTRODUCTION.
" On Wednesday, at 10 o'clock, A. M., some forty or more of the past members of the Association convened in the meeting-house, to attend the services of the centennial celebration. Prayer was offered by Rev. Alvan Cobb of West Taunton. After the address, the company were invited to partake of a bountiful collation provided in the vestry ; after which the brethren separated, feeling that it had been an occasion of deep and peculiar interest, and that it was good to call to mind those champions of the faith, who lived to shape the morals and theology of happy New Eng- land, and to behold with exultation and gratitude the fruits of their toil."
The author of the address, given upon the above occasion, was by vote requested to prepare the same for publication, with a list of the members and licentiates from the begin- ning, and such notes and historical appendix as he deemed appropriate. Hence the following volume, and the long delay of its publication.
A desire to make the biographical sketches as complete as possible, and the delays of an extensive correspondence with reference to this end, have deferred the publication of the address to this date. And after all our researches, some vacancies must be left, which it is hoped may yet. be filled, should another edition ever be called for.
The author feels it due to himself to add, that the discourse was prepared during the anxieties of a distressing and doubt- ful sickness of one of his family, which compelled him to select a general theme, and less appropriate than undisturbed leisure would have permitted.
It is also due to the members of the Association to say, that the compiler is alone responsible for the manner in which their vote to publish its History has been executed, - as but the plan of the work, and not its details, has been submitted for their approval.
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INTRODUCTION.
The volume, as it is, is offered to the public, as the first contribution from the unexplored annals of ministerial associations, towards the yet unwritten ecclesiastical history of New England.
MORTIMER BLAKE.
Mansfield, Mass., Nov. 19, 1852.
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
I. SAMUEL, 2, 30, 1. c. 3
" THEM THAT HONOR ME I WILL HONOR, AND THEY THAT DESPISE ME SHALL BE LIGHTLY ESTEEMED."
THESE words express the general reason why God would disinherit the house of Eli from the high priest's office, which had been entailed upon it forever. "His sons had made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." They had brought the services of the sanctuary into contempt with the people by their profligacy, and he had only opposed weak remonstrances instead of the decisive measures which became his office. Wherefore, God, jealous of his worship, determined to transfer the high-priesthood to another branch of the Aaronic family.
God announced this rejection, not only by a vision to young Samuel, but by the mouth of " a man of God " sent to Eli with the particular message, -" The Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever ; but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me ; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
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HISTORY OF
This doom, I may observe, was afterwards accom- plished when Solomon removed Abiathar, - the last high-priest of the line of Ithamar, of which line Eli was the first, - and placed Zadoc, of the house of Eleazer, in the high-priest's office.
The general principle on which this ejection proceeded admits of a great variety of special applications. But the present occasion, as well as the occasion on which God uttered the words of the text, points out the parti- cular application to be selected : viz. to ministerial labor and ministerial success.
God honors the ministry which honors him, and that which despises him, he lightly esteems.
This proposition may require some explanatory obser- vations ; first, in respect to the manner in which ministers as such, may honor or despise God ; and, secondly, the manner in which God expresses his honor or disesteem of their ministry : -
I. I observe, then, that God possesses certain rights which belong to him, as the Sovereign Ruler of the uni- verse, and he justly claims that these rights shall be cordially yielded unto him by his intelligent creatures. Those who cheerfully render unto God the glory due unto his name, honor him. They who deny or indiffer- ently treat his claims, despise him. Every one who cordially submits to the government of God, and loves his sovereign authority over himself, honors him. He who resists that sovereignty, despises his Maker.
In particular, that ministry of the Gospel honors God, which makes the Divine glory the prime incentive to labor for the salvation of men, - which exhibits the foundations of the Gospel as laid deep in the sovereign
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MENDON ASSOCIATION.
grace of God, or his " just liberty " to treat his guilty creatures according to his holy pleasure, - and which draws the motives to repentance from the inherent evil of sinning against the rightful claims of the Almighty.
But that ministry despises God which represents the plan of Redemption to be a device chiefly of God's pity to men; as if it were their deliverance from misery which first and most moved him to the thoughts of their salvation ; and which makes the sinner's safety his own prime motive of endeavor.
The former exalts God as a sovereign, and abases: transgressors. The latter exalts man, and makes the: wisdom and mercy of God mere servants to secure man's. endless happiness. One mode of preaching the Gospel makes the glory of God the end of all his doings, and the redemption of sinners a means to illustrate that glory. The other mode of preaching makes human happiness the chief end of all God's works and of man's efforts.
All the various systems of religious doctrine and styles of religious teaching may be put into one or the other of these classes, as their tendency and effect are to exalt God or abase him. And according to this their character, God honors or lightly esteems them.
II. The indications of God's approval or disapproval of our ministry are not difficult of detection, if a sufficiently long period be subjected to examination.
The temporary popularity of any doctrines, measures, or men, is obviously no criterion, for they may be con- genial to the natural heart.
The honor which God bestows descends first into the heart, - making that pure and joyful ; and then displays itself in the life ; as the transfiguration-glory of Christ
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HISTORY OF
beamed outwards through his countenance, and caused his raiment to be white and glistering.
God honors the ministry of those who honor him, by giving a success evinced in the purity, stability, and harmony of the church, and its enlargement by genuine revivals of religion. The ministry which he lightly esteems is unacknowledged by the Holy Spirit, and leads men into dangerous errors, or lulls them in security, apathy, and the sleep of eternal death.
The fruits of a ministry honored of God, are the edification of the church and the conversion of sinners. The fruits of a ministry he lightly esteems, are the church's virtual extinction and sinners' ruin.
After this lengthy definition of the terms of the text, I come to its demonstration. And the occasion reminds me, that I may pass by the many logical reasons which confirm its truthfulness, and confine myself to what may be termed its historic illustration.
And I will assert, that the history of religion, from the earliest times, shows that God has honored that ministry which has honored him, and that which has despised him he has lightly esteemed. Especially does the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom in this New England most significantly illustrate this assertion. I say especially, because here the ministry has brought forth its fruits unhelped and unhindered by many causes which have obscured its agency elsewhere. So that the actual results of every species of ministration can be here ap- proximately ascertained. Such a cursory glance as we can now give to this field with reference to this single point, will make the truth of these observations sufficiently obvious.
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MENDON ASSOCIATION.
The beginning of each of the three centuries of our religious history, has been marked by a new and striking phase, whose results have been developed in the remain- der of each century.
The first century bore the impress of the pure and devoted ministry of the Puritan preachers.
The second century was marked by the labors of Edwards and his coadjutors and opposers, in the great revival beginning in 1735, and extending onwards to the disturbances of the Revolution.
The third century has witnessed the reanimation of evangelical religion, and its collision with the ripened fruits of Arminianism.
Omitting subordinate causes, the chief agency in these fluctuations of our Religious History belongs to the character and aim of the pulpit ministrations.
A hasty review of these three periods of our history will show, that when the ministry has exalted God, by clearly presenting his sovereignty, and by exposing the fallacy of self-righteous hopes, true religion has flourished, and the churches have been strengthened and multiplied. When ministers in their preaching have obscured the sovereignty of God and the essential distinction of saints and sinners, the wise and foolish have slumbered together.
.
Let us take this review.
I. The first ministers of these colonies were eminently godly and self-denying men. With talents fitted by nature and by study to take possession of the highest places of influence and honor in England, and most of them actu- ally occupying them, they conscientiously resigned lucra- tive and important situations, because they could not, in them, worship God as he required ; and they came here,
-
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HISTORY OF
with the like-minded of their flock, where no civil author- ity should vie with the claims of God. Such men would not, and did not, dimly apprehend nor obscurely present the truths of God, to obey which they had already sacri- ficed so much. They were the beloved associates of Bates, and Howe, and Baxter, and Owen ; and like these well-known defenders of the faith, they put foremost in their preaching the great truths of the sovereignty of God, and his electing purposes ; a Divine Redeemer and his vicarious atonement.
Some who love to boast of a Puritanic descent for the sake of their legacies, studiously obliviate the fact of the high Calvinism of those worthies. But if they have not left learned and scientific systems of theology, it in no wise follows that they lightly esteemed the great princi- ples of the doctrines of grace. These doctrines were not the points at issue between themselves and the church they left, and they called not for a labored defence when the protestant world were remarkably harmonious on the chief points of doctrine.
In examining the theology of the first ministers of New England, we are not to forget the main object for which they came hither. Says President Oakes in his election sermon of 1673, " It is worthy to be remem- bered by these churches, that it was not on account of any peculiar sentiments in doctrinal matters, that our wise and good fathers left their native country, and came into this then howling wilderness ; for they agreed to the doctrinal articles of the church of England, as much as the conformists to that parliamentary church, and indeed much more so than most of them. But it was from a pure respect to ecclesiastical discipline and order, and to
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MENDON ASSOCIATION.
a more refined worship, that these excellent men, our an- cestors, transplanted themselves, with their families, to this land." And to this same purport agrees the pre- face to the confession of faith adopted by the synod of 1679. "There have been some who have reflected upon these New England churches, for our defect in this mat- ter, as if our principles were not known : whereas it is well known, that as to matters of doctrine, we agree with other Reformed churches. Nor was it that but what concerns worship and discipline, that caused our fathers to come into this wilderness, while it was a land not sown, that so they might have liberty to practise ac- cordingly."
The Theology of the Puritans will therefore not be found drawn up in voluminous systems, scientifically defined and lengthily argued. Yet New England had a Theology from the beginning, and her first ministers were very par- ticular to state the fact to the world.
The historian of Harvard University may gravely wonder that there was not " some form of sound words, some creed, some catechism, some medulla Theologia," yet there was a creed; publicly adopted by the Pastors and messengers of all the churches in the colonies. The synod of 1648 distinctly declare -" Our churches here, as (by the grace of Christ) we believe and profess the same doctrine of the truth of the Gospel, which generally is received in all the Re- formed churches in Europe, so especially we desire not to vary from the doctrine of faith and truth held forth by the churches of our native country." The same assertion is substantially repeated by every succeeding synod even to the last.
Now the confession of the Westminster Assembly - . -
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HISTORY OF
the Savoy confession, and the New England confession of 1680 are known. Let the querist review those expo- nents of the faith of our fathers, mark the central ob- ject of their belief,-the prominence of special grace in Redemption, - and let him ponder, whether the men who ventured their lives for their faith would belie their pub- lished creeds in their pulpit ministrations, and dimly ex- hibit in the desk truths which they laid at the basis of their theological system.
Their works- thanks to the Doctrinal Tract and Book Society - will soon be accessible to moderns, and we can see if Jesus Christ on the throne of his glory was not the end of their preaching, as he was of their conversion !
Say the venerable Higginson and Hubbard, in their testimony to the order of the Gospel in the churches of New England, "We that saw the persons, who from four famous colonies, assembled in the synod, that agreed on our Platform of church discipline (that is, the synod of 1648), cannot forget their excellent character. They were men of great renown in the nation from whence the Laudian persecution exiled them : their learning, their holiness, their gravity, struck all that knew them with ad- miration. They were Timothies in their houses, Chry- sostoms in pulpits, Augustines in their disputations. The prayers, the studies, the humble inquiries, with which they sought after the mind of God, were as likely to pros- per as any men's upon earth, and the sufferings wherein they were confessors for the name of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, add unto the arguments which would persuade us, that our gracious Lord would reward and honor them, with communicating much of his truth unto them."
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MENDON ASSOCIATION.
Our mathematics may be confounded by their inter- minable subdivisions of a subject, our rhetorical taste may be offended at their far-fetched illustrations, and our ex- egetical rules at the application of some of their proof-texts, but we cannot deny that they emphatically exalted God as the just Disposer of all things, and abased man as a sinner deserving endless punishment for his guilty re- bellion.
They bowed with silent deference to the word of God, and most devoutly followed what they believed to be its teachings, whether they wished to test a doctrine, found a state, or forestall a vicious practice.
And need I say, God honored the ministry of those worthy men ? Dr. Increase Mather tells us, " In a ser- mon before the houses of Parliament and the Westminster Assembly the preacher exclaimed, 'I have lived in a country seven years, and all that time I never heard one profane oath, and all that time I did never see a man drunk in that land. Where was that country ? It was New England.'"
But God bestowed more than these temporal blessings. His Holy Spirit was present in those primitive churches, and under the faithful, energetic aim of his sword of truth, " the slain of the Lord were many."
It is said of Mr. Shepard, of Cambridge, that " he scarce ever preached a sermon, but some or other of his congregation were struck with great distress of soul, and cried out aloud in agony, " What shall I do to be saved." Though his voice was low, yet so searching was his preach- ing, and so great a power attending as an hypocrite could not easily bear it, and it seemed almost irresistible."
The first forty years of our churches' history was a
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period of almost continuous revivals. The influences of God's grace came down, not as in these later times, in occasional showers, but as the gentle dew, continually descending upon the earth. " It was a common question for those who were detained at home, to put to their friends who had attended meeting, whether anybody appeared to be wrought upon to-day."
In consequence of this blessing upon ministeral fideli- ty, the churches increased and multiplied.
In the Cambridge synod of 1648, twenty-eight years after the first settlement in New England, were repre- sented thirty-nine churches. These were in the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts. Add the four churches in the Connecticut colonies, and the three in New Hamp- shire, and there were, in a population of less than thirty thousand, forty-six churches, each with its sanctuary and most of them with two ministers each ; being a place of worship and one or two ministers for every six hundred . and fifty souls. The ablest of these churches were poor- er in this world's goods than many congregations now who think the scanty support of one minister a burden too great to bear. But those godly men prised the faithful minis- try of the word, more than bodily luxuries; and God blessed them in soul and estate. In fifty years, the num- ber of churches arose to seventy-six, although the reac- tion in favor of puritanism in England under Cromwell, had nearly arrested the flow of immigration.
And in all those churches there was one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; " and they continued steadfast in the Apos- tles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers," until certain men crept in unawares into the pulpits of New England, and gave to the silver trumpets
MENDON ASSOCIATION. 17
of the Gospel an unwarranted utterance. Then the days of our Zion's glory for a time passed away. God as a holy Sovereign, before whom the wicked shall not stand, was de- spised, and in return, his long favored heritage was light- ly esteemed.
The causes of a temporary desertion had been for some time at work. What has been termed the half-way cov- enant was proposed in 1662, and extensively adopted, by which persons of not scandalous lives, yet not pretending to be regenerated men were, on owning the covenant, ad- mitted to the privileges of church-membership.
No prudential reasons could arrest the evils of this rad- ical innovation upon the constitution of the churches, not the least of which evils was the introduction of unconverted men into the ministry. This woful fact was even justi- fied. Even the acute Stoddard, of strong Presbyterial tendencies, and who had been a main cause of making this breach in the walls of Zion, -publicly argued that "unconverted ministers have certain official duties which they may lawfully perform,"-and, consequently, upon which the people may lawfully attend.
The character of their pulpit ministrations speedily re- vealed the character of such incumbents. The Gospel ' was clothed in a dress, which fettered its athletic grasp. Unregenerate doings became the key to open the king- dom of Heaven. It was preached and believed, that im- penitent men may prepare the way for their own regen- eration, and that while they are busy in their self-right- eous formalities, they are doing very well. The germ of Arminianism was not only dropped in a prepared soil, it was tilled and watered : and rapidly it struck its roots down wards and shot its branches upwards.
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HISTORY OF
The Holy Spirit, thus deprived of his office-work, re- turned for a season to heaven. The churches dwindled away, or were filled with ungodly members, and Zion's banners of past victories hung drooping in the dust. There was sorrowful occasion for the pathetic lament of the aged Increase Mather, who at first earnestly stemmed the changing tide, but whose fading eye failed to detect the real inlet of the flood of evils. "Look into our pulpits," says he, " and see if there is such a glory there as once there was. New England has had teachers eminent for learning, and no less eminent for holiness, and all minis- terial accomplishments. When will Boston see a Cotton and a Norton again? When will New England see a Hooker, a Shepard, a Mitchell, not to mention others ? 'Look into our civil state. Does Christ reign there as once he did ? How many churches, how many towns are there in New England, that we may sigh over them, and say, 'Thy glory is gone.'"
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