USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Discourse delivered at Newburyport, Mass., November 28, 1856. On occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the building of the First Presbyterian Church > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01067 9253
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4487 02844623.9 A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED AT
NEWBURYPORT. MASS., NOVEMBER 28, 1856.
ON OCCASION OF THE
ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BUILDING
OF THE
1st
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
BY THE PASTOR,
REV. A. G. VERMILYE.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
NEWBURYPORT ; PUBLISHED BY MOULTON & CLARK. William H. Hure & Co., Printers-Newburyport Herald Job Press. 1856.
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1851419
1:
Vommilye, Achbel Green, 1822-1.905.
A 2344623 .9 A discourse delivered at Newburyport, Kaso., November 28, 1356. On occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the building of the First Presbyterian church, by tho pastor, Rev. A. G. Vermilyo. Newburyport, Moulton & Clark, 1856. 74p.
CHEW CARD
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NEWBURYPORT, DEC. 3, 1856.
REV. A. G. VERMILYE :- Dear Sir :
The interesting and very acceptable discourse delivered by you at the late Centennial re-dedication of the First Presbyterian Church, combines so much of its early and important history, that in behalf of the Church and Society, wo would respectfully request a copy for publication.
Very truly, your obedient servants,
ISAAC H. BOARDMAN, BENJAMIN HARROD, WILLIAM PRITCHARD, JOHN N. CUSHING, WILLIAM GRAVES,
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PREFACE.
In 1826 Rev. S. P. Williams published an excellent historical discourse upon this church, with such material as he had. At the centennial to commemorate the organization of the church in 1846, Rev. Mr. Stearns, my predecessor, carefully digested and published the history of that act ; tracing the steps minutely along to this point, but passing rapidly over the subsequent history. The present discourse was delivered at the centennial re-dedication of the house of worship ; which bas been somewhat modernized and repaired throughout, to begin another century. In some portious the discourse, as a history, is necessarily interlinear and supple- mentary ; with only such repetitions upon my predecessors, as was required to carry along the narrative.
Sometimes the authorities are given, sometimes the very language used; and the statements have been verified throughout, so far as was possible. To JOSHUA COFFIN, EsQ., Town Clerk of Newbury, and author of "History of Newbury- port," I am particularly indebted for many manuscripts and much information. My thanks are due, also, to others, for needful items.
DISCOURSE. 7
WHO IS LEFT AMONG YOU THAT SAW THIS HOUSE IN HER FIRST GLORY ?" [HAGGAI, 2 :3.
Xerxes wept, we are told, as he looked down from the hill of Abydos, to think that in one hundred years, of all his vast army, not one would be alive. Over this church the century has rolled. From the summit of these years, to which time has brought us, we look down the vale through which they travelled, and ask, "the fathers where are they ?" If all had been godly, we need not weep to think they are gone ; but many, who can doubt it, went from these seats, even from under the sound of Whitefield's voice, whose tongue dropped manna which they gathered not, to the place of weeping.
" Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory ?" Mrs. Lucy Pearson, (of Pearson's Mills,) died four years since,* aged 98, and was the oldest in the parish. She had seen and heard Whitefield ; but now there is none, to my knowledge, who remembers Parsons. Of that generation not one has come down to us. Time's unwearying scythe has swept the last lingerer into eternity. The dead of this parish are already
*There were then five generations under one roof, and twenty-five years before there were five.
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a multitude. More than eleven hundred died during the twenty-six years of Dr. Dana's ministry alone ; and in all, prob- ably, over four thousand have passed away-twice as many as the town contained when this church was built. But it is to revive the past, that we have met to-day. "The glory of chil- dren are their fathers ;" and to recall the "times that went over " them, may be alike pleasant and instructive. Why is " Old Mortality " such a favorite character, as we read of him, visiting the grave-yards of many an old kirk ; with pious care repairing the monuments, rubbing off the moss, and cutting anew the inscriptions of the covenanters and other venerable dead ? "T'is a strong feeling of our nature, implanted for our good.
This church has a noble ancestry, whose memory we would "not willingly let die." In gathering material for some account of them and their times, I find myself in part forestalled by two preceding histories ; but, without enlarging upon matters already well handled, I may, perhaps, add something to the general history. My object is, to give a bird's-eye view of this church, its ministers, struggles, customs, &c., during the last hundred years.
(1.) THE HOUSE.
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This house, it is known, was not the first occupied by the congregation. In the incipiency of their enterprise, being " a feeble folk," only twelve families, they built a much smaller edifice on High street, near Federal, and remained there about thirteen years. But the place becoming too strait, especially after the great earthquake of November, 18, 1755, which was followed by a revival in the church and au increased public attendance, in 1756, difficult as the times were with them, they erected the present building. The nails, all wrought, were imported from England. Its timbers they took from their
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farms ; good white oak, fitted to resist decay and defy the Eastern storms. On the 5th of July they began the raising, 1 and finished the 7th ; " and not one oath was heard, and nobody hurt." Rev. John Morchead, of Boston, the leading member of Presbytery, then preached a sermon from II Chronicles, 7 : 12 : "And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice." On the 15th of August, Mr. Parsons preached the first sermon in it, the people sitting on the joiners' benches. Thenceforward for nearly forty years, a congregation assembled here which was estimated at over two thousand ; the largest, probably, in America. They came from Rowley, Byfield and other adjacent towns ; one member, during Mr. Murray's ministry, even from Methuen, thirty miles distant. Atone time, the people in town waited to see whom this Society supported for office ; for having a majority of the votes, their candidate was sure to be elected. And doubtless, though such an attendance shows the extent and power of the "great awakening," they needed Whitefield's warning against the insidi- ous influence of prosperity :- " When I was here before, he told them, you were a small people in a small house ; but then you had salt. Now I find you in a great house, and everything prosperous ; but where is your salt ?"
The " first glory" of this house was certainly not in its architectural finish ; though our pious fathers perhaps thought it, in Scripture phrase, "exceeding magnifical." As there are few, if any of the kind now left, I will describe it. Immense galleries, containing one hundred pews, besides free seats for strangers, covered three sides of the building. Opposite, on the long side, (East,) was the pulpit ; under which Whitefield was first buried. In the pulpit, at the end, sat the sexton. Immediately in front below, was the Elders' seat-a large square pew, elevated three or four steps, with a table. Behind,
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and a little below them, sat the Deacons. And over all was the sounding board, hung by rods from the ceiling. An aisle ran from the pulpit, or rather the deacons' seat, to the door opposite ; and one all around in front of the wall pews, which were elevated two steps. One hundred and thirty-eight square pews were ranged upon the floor, with a chair in the centre. The seats were hung on hinges, to be raised during prayer ; and the older people still speak of the noise they made in fall- ing, which, if nervous complaints were as common then as now, must have frightened away the spirit of devotion, and indeed caused many a deprecatory request from the pulpit. Nor was it till 1801 that they thought to list them. They had no stoves till 1819 ; but there was a fire of vigorous, weather-defying picty, and that was better. Of the outside, the old clapboards and small windows have remained to the present. For some years they had no bell ; and Mr. Parsons wrote to England to enquire if some Lord or wealthy gentleman would not furnish one. The steeple was built in 1759 .* Such was this house in " her first glory." Its high pulpit, square pews and lofty ceil- ing, with other peculiarities of the past, are long since gone ; and with the alterations just made, the frame-work of 1756 alone remains. But within these oaken ribs, the same spirit lives, the church is the same.
(2.) FORMATION OF THE CHURCH.
The century preceding the "great awakening " in 1740, was, perhaps, the darkest period in the religious history of our country. This was truc of the Presbyterian church. There was, indeed, among the ministry, no open unsoundness in doc- trine, nor immorality. But as to the life of godliness, among
*Mr. Samuel Pettengill, ancestor of some of our present membors, fell from it during the work and was instantly killed.
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both ministers and people, there was a serious and prevalent declension. They retained their confession and creed, but lapsed into a cold formality. In New England things were even worse. Here the carly colonists, with the best of motives, had set up what was in effect a church establishment ; and its tyranny was sometimes scarcely less than that from which they had fled. Such is human nature. They gave occasion for Blackstone's* remark, that "he left England because of his dislike to the Lord Bishops, but he liked the Lord Brethren no better." Dissenters might freely go elsewhere, but here no man could enjoy civil privileges, unless he was a member of the established Congregational church. Numbers therefore sought its fellowship hypocritically, without picty and from selfish motives. But in time this law disfranchised many of the chil- dren of pious parents, who could not conscientiously make a profession of religion ; and what to them was even more painful than the loss of civil rights, their children remained unbaptized. Hence the convenient " half-way covenant ;" under which bap- tized parents of sober life, though not themselves communicants, by "owning the covenant " might have their children baptised ; who would then participate in " the honors and privileges of church members." Thus the church itself was secularized ; the consciences of the impenitent were quieted ; many owned the covenant, but of members in full communion, the number was small and diminishing. To remedy this, the doctrine gained currency of admitting unconverted persons to the communion as a means of regeneration. This done, what was to hinder such men from entering the ministry ? And in that day it was a position to be coveted, for other reasons than spiritual. It was for life, an office greatly respected, a secure support ; for the minister could pledge all the estate, real and personal, within certain boundaries, for the fulfilment of his obligations
*William Blackstone, an Episcopalian, the first settler of Boston.
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and contracts. The results are evident. A speculative, un- spiritual and unfruitful ministry. The searching, soul-stirring' quickening and peculiar themes of Revelation withheld, ques- tioned, denied ; a slumbering church, whose religion was but " a spectre of the ancient," godless households, depravity and vice. Such, writers of the period tell us, was too widely the condition of things in New England ; and from it Mather in his day predicted those subsequent convulsions, " in which churches would be gathered out of churches." Arminianism and other heresies were rife. Like the virgin daughter of Zion in her captivity, religion " sat in the dust, drooping and discon- solate, at the foot of the palm trees ;" or, like a pilgrim with staff in hand, seemed about to retire altogether from the land of the Puritans.
When churches are asleep and piety over wide regions almost extinct, God sometimes sends peculiar men to revive them ; men adapted to the times and places, men in whom there is such power of reproof, that listening audiences tremble or melt in tears before them. Such a man was Whitefield ; such was Gilbert Tennent. To the preaching of the former, this church owes its origin, during the great revival of 1740. There had been a previous awakening in 1727 ; following the earth- quake of that year, which excited general terror in the region. One hundred and forty-one persons united with Mr. Lowell's church, (now the Pleasant street.) A " Monthly Society " was likewise formed, having for its object the reform of irregulari- ties, public and private ; among families and in the town. One man's wife, for instance, was " discoursed " with for disturbing her husband at family prayer. One person was prosecuted for sailing on the Sabbath. Sabbath breaking, profanity and other immoralities and violations of law, were attended to "accord- ing as the good and wholesome laws of the province had pro- vided." But though good may have been done, in the way of
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suppressing vice and inciting the church to greater diligence, attention was directed, apparently, more to things outward than inward. The work lacked the radical characteristics of the " great awakening." Before the arrival of the first itine- rant, however, by whatever cause excited, an unusual religious interest was apparent, at least in Mr. Lowell's church. Forty- four were admitted to its communion in one year.
When Whitefield came, the flame burst forth with before unknown fervor. Every church and every parish around was more or less affected, and in some places to a degree of which the present generation can form but a faint idea. Mr. Lowell for a time favored the work, and his church became a resort for the awakened ; Dr. Tappan and Mr. Tucker of the first parish, (Newbury,) not approving the "new scheme." The result was, the addition of one hundred and forty-three to his church, in about eighteen months from the date of Whitefield's arrival. Upon the subsequent divisions in both parishes, which have been carefully reviewed in a previous history, I need not dwell. They issued in the formation of this church. On the : 3d of January, 1746, nineteen persons formally withdrew from the first parish, (Newbury,) and organized themselves anew. In February, (26th,) their platform and covenant was signed by twenty-four males, and twenty-two females. The following October, (16th,) the dissentients from the third parish were received into their number. Thus the scattered bands, com- prising the most zealous for the revival and its doctrines in both parishes, became henceforth "one fold " under " one shepherd." .
In the formation of this, well as that of all the separatist churches founded by Whitefield, there was involved a protest, not alone against the spiritual deadness of the old churches, but also their doctrinal errors. The old Arminianism of the pulpits no longer fed them ; it left out of sight, explained away, esteemed absurd or merely speculative, truths which they had
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come to see were vital. They regarded it as "a warping off from the pure and important doctrines originally adhered to in the churches ;"* and just so far opposed to Scripture. This view the records abundantly substantiate. In the creed of the church, adopted 1746, they renounced Arminianism on the one hand and Antinomianism on the other, as dangerous to the soul ; and planted themselves upon the Westminster Catechism. In a petition to General Court in 1748, to be set off as a sep- arate parish, they state the difficulty to be " doctrinal points, binding their consciences." Against the ministers of the par- ishes from which they seceded, at least till opposition and injustice had embittered them, they had no personal objections. They were, indeed, excellent men.t Their charge against Mr. Tucker of the first parish was, that he had denied original sin ; that where Paul says, "who were by nature children of wrath," he explained it to mean such by practice or custom ; that he did not enforce the doctrines of justification by Christ's imputed righteousness, nor of efficacious grace ; but rather laid the stress of conversion on the endeavors of mere natural men ;- and that he openly preached and printed against all creeds and confessions, as summaries and standards by which the principles of men might be examined.} This church, then, was founded on a doctrinal basis ; as the assertor of a pure Calvinism, and the faith originally received in the New England churches. This faith neither its members nor its first pastor had previously held. They had sat contentedly under different ministrations " in a time of great deadness," and
*Creed of Church.
tDr. Tucker was considered the champion of Arminianism in this region. Mr. Lowell was undoubtedly a serious, excellent and devoted minister,-although not in zeal and doctrine quite up to the revival sentiment of the day.
#One of the " New lights " meeting Dr. Tucker, said to him, "Ah, Dr. Tucker, all your good works will never carry you to heaven." " Well, sir," was the reply, "you will never go there without them." So between them, they got both sides of the truth. [ Withington's Sermon.
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would have so continued but for the "great awakening," " after which (they write to Mr. Lowell,) your doctrine grew grievous to us." Mr. Parsons, for the first two years of his ministry at Lyme, Conn., had preached Arminian principles. But it pleased God to carry him through a severe mental con- flict, in which his religious views were greatly changed, and his heart, as he ever afterwards believed, created anew in Christ Jesus. "In my natural state, (he writes,) I preached those doctrines which an unsanctified heart could put up with, agreea- bly to the refined scheme of the Arminians; but afterwards I taught the humbling doctrines of St. Paul, which we commonly call Calvinistic ; these being opposite the one to the other." From these circumstances, the church and its pastor were always strong and decided for the truth. It had been to them as " life from the dead." In the second church records at Exeter, is the following :- Voted, to fellowship with no church that is not on the platform of the Westminster Catechism ; with a note, inserted at the suggestion of Mr. Parsons. Mr. Murray, his successor, was equally decided in the same views. When Dr. Spring and others were zealously advocating Hop- kinsionism, he preached three sermons on the doctrine of orig- inal sin, "at the importunity of a number of pious and respectable members of the society," and to meet, as he says, " the late extraordinary efforts of those who are zealous for its overthrow." On the same platform, the Bible as " the only rule of faith and practice"-the Westminster Catechism as a faithful synopsis of Bible truth, all the pastors have stood , in a spirit generally unpolemic and catholic, yet firmly adhesive. And should the day unfortunately come, in a degenerate age, when pastor or people shall be " otherwise minded," shall leave their ancient faith, then may it be said, Israel is not what she was " in her first glory." If so, however, may they have the grace to remove the bones of Whitefield and
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Parsons from under the pulpit to a more congenial resting place.
An interesting item of history, not generally known in con- nection with this town, may here be noticed ; and for the reason named, I give the narrative in full.
A century previous, viz : in February, 1634, when Archbishop Land, his willing pupil Charles I, and the malignant Earl of Strafford, were making the lives of God's ministers in Ireland wearisome, a number of them determined to emigrate to New England .* And in this intention Gov. Winthrop's son, being then in England, greatly encouraged them. They resolved, however, first to send a minister and a gentleman to the gov- ernor, to try the condition of the country, and to agree for a place to settle in. These were Rev. John Livingstone and Wil- liam Wallace. But providence did not favor their voyage, and they both returned to port. Livingstone then wrote to the gov- ernor, who received the letter in July, 1634; and in Septem- ber the court assigned them this very spot to establish a Pres- byterian colony. The suggestor of the project was Dr. Robert Blair ; a name famous among the godly of that day.§ In the winter of 1635, having meanwhile received letters from the Governor and Council "full of kind invitations and large promises of good accommodation," and perceiving no appear- ance of liberty from the bondage of the prelates, the ministers, with a number from the north of Ireland and a few from Scot- land, fixedly resolved to complete their design. A ship was built, (Dr. Blair being part owner,) of about 115 tons, and called the "Eagle Wing ;" in allusion to that passage in Exodus, "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." After much toil and delay, on the 9th of September, 1636, they loosed from Loch Fergus, "purposing, (if God
* MeCrie's life of Blair.
§Grandfather of the poet.
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pleased) to pitch their tents in the plantations of New Eng- land." In all they numbered about one-hundred and forty ; among whom were Blair and Livingstone, the most eminent ministers of Ireland, and others of note both lay and clerical. The voyage was remarkable. First the master was faint-hearted and put them over to Scotland for cordage ; he also pretended a leak, and grounded the ship. Much of the bread, not being well baked, had to be thrown overboard. When nearing New- foundland, they "foregathered with a mighty hurricane," which damaged their rigging. "Then fell I siek, (writes Blair) being troubled with a great thirst, so that I could cat nothing but wasted apples." Then they sprung a leak, which gave them seven hundred strokes the half hour, and was at last stopped with wedges of beef ; they lying to, meanwhile, to beat out the storm. In the height of the storm, the rudder broke, and the men gave up for lost ; but Mr. Blair, like another Paul, confidently told them that rather than such a company should perish, the Lord would put wings to their shoulders, and carry them "as on eagles' wings " safe ashore. And now they began to think of returning, all but Mr. Blair. Whereupon they laid it upon him to pray over the matter ; agreeing that if after- wards he continued resolute, they would go forward. But hearing this he immediately fainted in a swoon ; and after lying as dead for awhile, arose and consented to return. Thus, as Mather says, after "meeting with manifold crosses, being half seas through, they gave over their intendments," conclud- ing that it was not the Lord's will they should come to New England. During all this danger, the passengers were mostly cheerful and confident, and never in all their lives. they said, . had found the day so short. For in the morning they prayed awhile alone, then in their several societies, then bad public prayer in the ship, till dinner ;- then they visited, and had public prayer till supper ; and after that family exercises, and
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prayer through most of the night. And God was with them of a truth. There was one family of five, which had crept in privily, for their own by-ends, all but one of whom died. Whilst of the rest, the same number that went in, came out, one child dying and another being born to the same inother. Had this godly company been permitted to arrive, what a blessing to New England, in a day of lamentable declension, they might have been. But God had other work in hand for them. It was to rear a race who should come hither ; the noble Scotch Irish Presbyterians of Pennsylvania and the South ; from whom issued the famous " Mechlenburg Declaration of Independence." " The first publie voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain, (says Bancroft,) came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from Scotch Irish Presbyterians."
It was a singular providence, that one hundred years later, circumstances should have made this a Presbyterian church on the spot they were, in vain, trying to reach.
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(3.) MINISTERS.
The first great name connected with the history of this church, is that of Whitefield. By his advice it was, that the separatists whom his preaching had gathered, formed them- selves into a congregation, when they could no longer, in con- science, sit under the defective Arminian preaching of Lowell and Tucker. Through his means, also, Mr. Parsons became the first pastor. Here his honored remains repose-a circum- stance which invests the church with a peculiar interest, and causes it to be extensively visited. Something of the peculiar characteristics of this people, may also be attributed, I think, to this circumstance. The earlier members ever remembered him with affectionate veneration. Mrs. Lucy Pearson at 98, would kindle when she spoke of him into youthful enthusiasm,
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