USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Brief history of the First Church in Plymouth, from 1606 to 1901 > Part 5
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The First Church in Plymouth
the average, making up in devoted service, and Ephraim Little large-hearted benevolence, what he lacked in conventional ac- 1699. quirements-a good and faithful minister, painstaking in his work, and tenderly solicitous of the needs of the sick and poor. He ministered to the church for twenty years, winning and keeping the esteem and affection of his people, and never growing weary in well-do- ing, until failing health compelled him to relinquish his duties. During his later ministry, there came another birth ecclesiastical, and a church was founded at the North end of the town, known as
Jones
River Parish, afterwards
The Kingston Kingston. One wonders how a Church 1717. church, never very strong, either in wealth or numbers, could survive these repeated defections. But, one of its domi- nating ambitions was to spread the truth, and proclaim the humane Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and the faithful souls, who stood by it through all its trials, were comforted by the thought, that every new society was not only a jewel in its crown of rejoicing, but witnessed to its increase of faith, and the extension of the kingdom of righteousness.
On the 23rd of November 1723, M' Little was called to his rest, at the age of 84. His grave is on Burial Hill, by the side of so many good town's- folk whose temporal and spiritual interests he so faithfully tended.
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For five years the church was without a settled pastor, the pulpit being supplied for some time, by neighboring ministers. It was too weak to offer any great material inducements to clergymen seek- ing settlements, and this difficulty was considerably enhanced, by the somewhat fastidious tastes of the community, in the matter of choosing a minister. It had enjoyed the services of many able and learned men, scholars and preachers, who loved their pro- fession for its honour and usefulness, and not for its worldly advantages, and was not, therefore, easily satisfied.
On the 29th of July 1724, the Rev. Nathaniel Leonard was ordained to the long vacant pulpit. His advent on the scene was Nathaniel Leonard shortly marked by stirring 1724. movements in the stagnant pools of religious conventiona- lism, and there was a return to something like the fiery zeal of the Quaker Revival. A considerable number of people were again dissatisfied with the cold dignified régime of a learned ministry and ancient customs. They sighed, as religious people do, at regular intervals, for something more demon- strative and sensational. Not heeding the quiet processes of growth with which Nature perfects her creations they conclude that things which make no noise must be dead.
In the midst of this rising tide of religious fervour came another exodus of church members. Twenty- five persons, in good and regular standing, formed
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a new church at Manomet Ponds, and the ranks of the faithful were once more depleted. The Manomet Depressed by the loss, and probably Church 1738. desiring to recruit its strength, the church against the conviction of many of its staid members, threw in its lot, with one of those periodic convulsions, which ushered in " The Great Awakening." People were called upon to give oral proof of their conversion. It was not enough to be a Christian by baptism, or formal affili- ation with the church, but every Christian by pro- fession was expected to give the precise date and circumstance of an inward and spiritual change, and to be able to say something about it, to shout in chorus, if nothing better could be done. Pure liv- ing must be supplemented by vigorous hallelujahs, and more or less frantic gesticulations.
In the year 1743, one Andrew Croswell, an itin- erant preacher, visited the town, determined to take the kingdom by violence. All true disciples were invited to stand up and be counted. Regular mem- bers of the church, who were living quiet and devout lives, were told that their righteousness was only as filthy rags, and people to whom religion was a slow spiritual growth, and who had never been accus- tomed to sound the loud timbrel, to whom "the unconscious was the alone complete," were classified among the unconverted. Shallow zealots, often ignorant and inexperienced, were invited to testify, as if anything they could say about the higher and holier life, was worth listening to. Hysterical
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women and phenomenal children took to declama- tion and prophecy, and the whole town was thrown into a state of wild commotion.
It was not long before the sober element in the community began to ask questions. There was an awakening of the intellect as well as of the emotions. What is called " a revival " is very apt to provoke scepticism.
M' Leonard seems to have been captivated, and carried away, by the excitement. His attitude on this matter caused disaffection and indifference in the parish. Zealous observers of ordinances, and regular attendants at public worship, showed their disapproval of his action, by neglecting their relig- ious duties. At last, the disaffection ripened into revolt. M' Josiah Cotton, whose deeply spiritual character was not to be questioned, invited the min- ister to call a meeting of the Parish to discuss the following questions : -
I. " Whether a sudden and short distress, and as sudden joy, amounts to the repentance described and required. (2 Corinthians VII 9-11)
2. Whether the judging and censuring others as unconverted, against whose lives and conversation nothing is objected, be not too pharisaical, and contrary to the rule of charity, prescribed in the Word, and a bold intrusion into the Divine prerog- ative.
3. Whether that spirit which leads us off from the Scriptures, or comparatively to undervalue them, be a good spirit: as for instance, the disorder and
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confusion in our public meetings, contrary to the Scripture rule (1 Corinthians XIV) the breaking in upon the order and religion of families, by fre- quent unseasonable evening lectures, without Script- ure precept, or example (except an extraordinary case).
4. Women and children teaching and exhorting in the public assemblies, contrary to the apostolical direction. Many other things might be mentioned but are omitted. But, inasmuch as it has been publicly suggested, that three-fourths of this church are unconverted, we would humbly move, that we may meet together, in order to know whether they are in charity with one another, and also, that the admission of members, may not be too hastily pushed on, till we are better satisfied concerning the spirit that stirs up people to their duty herein." Whether M' Leonard deemed it prudent to keep all this inflammable material out of a church meeting, or did not wish to be drawn into a personal contro- versy, is not known; but the questions were not submitted to a public meeting.
M' Cotton, however, was bent upon forcing an issue. He, and eighty others like minded, decided to seek separation from the church. They petitioned for dismissal, and their request was granted, and in 1744, a new church was formed, to be called The Third Church and Congregation in Plymouth. The new community erected a place of worship in King Street, now Middle Street.
The year 1744 was noticeable on account of a
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visit to Plymouth of the great English Revivalist the Rev. George Whitefield, one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of his time. While acting as servitor . at Pembroke College, Oxford,
George Whitefield he came under the influence and the of John and Charles Wesley. Methodists 1744. His zeal and piety induced the Bishop of Gloucester to ordain him deacon in 1736, but so great was his power as a preacher, that he was sent on an Evangelistic tour, and drew vast multitudes to hear him. Wesley in- vited him to go to Georgia as a missionary. He accepted the call, and arrived in America on the 17th of May 1738, only to remain, however, for a very brief period. He returned to England to receive priest's orders, and to secure contributions towards his work in Georgia. During his absence from his native land, Wesley had diverged some- what from Calvinism, and this change led White- field to withdraw from the Wesleyan communion. He returned to America in 1744, and commenced his preaching itinerary. It does not appear, that he owned any great gift of thought, or wide range of knowledge, or scholarship. He had none of the philosophic genius of Jonathan Edwards, or the organizing gift of John Wesley. His success as a preacher was due to his great elocutionary and dramatic power, a phenomenal voice, and a spiritual magnetism, which attracted attention, and held it. He subdued men to serious thought by his stern denunciations of sin, and captivated their hearts, by
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his searching pathos. His visit to Plymouth, at this time, was doubtless intended, like his later visit in 1754, as an antidote to the Arminianism, which had taken firm root in the community, and was thought to have wrought much mischief. He preached several times, and always to crowded congregations.
The old meeting-house, which had stood for more than sixty years, resisting wind and weather, and a stroke of lightning, was The Third Meeting- in poor condition, and the so- House 1744
ciety resolved to erect a new structure on the same spot. The building was quickly reared, and the opening service was conducted by the pastor, with great re- joicing.
In 1744-5 the church lost by death the last of its ruling elders, Mr. Thomas Faunce. He had held this responsible position for many years, and had shared with the minister the care and supervision not only of the material, but the spiritual interests of the community. The office of a ruling elder was next in importance to that of the minister, and was always held by a person of good education and accredited moral and religious standing. Mr. Faunce stood in few respects, if any, behind his eminent predecessors, in the exercise of his sacred office.
In the autumn of 1755, owing to increasing physical weakness, Mr. Leonard was compelled to resign his ministry. His resignation was accepted
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on condition that his services should be maintained until the settlement of his successor. Then fol- lowed an interregnum of several years, in which the society made unsuccessful efforts to obtain a suitable pastor.
*
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CHAPTER VIII. Creed, or no Creed?
T HE Rev: Chandler Robbins D.D. was called to the Plymouth Church, and or- dained in 1760. He was the son of the Rev. Philemon Robbins, and a graduate of Yale Chandler Robbins College. By birth and educa- tion his tendencies were towards 1760 rigid Calvinism, which though firmly rooted in Connecticut, was subject to attacks from ministers and laymen in Massachusetts. The spirit of the age was against it. The air was charged with scepticism both as to its reasonableness and Scriptural authority. John Robinson's injunction, that the Pilgrims and their descendants, should keep their minds open to new revelation was on the eve of a severe test. Mr. Robbins set himself to check the rising tide of liberalism in Plymouth, always bearing himself with becoming dignity, selfrespect, and courtesy, towards those who differed from him ; but resolutely bent upon stemming the waves which threatened his headland of faith. There is something pathetic in the way men stubbornly resist the inevitable tides of thought. Argument is of no avail, per- suasion does not count, facts are brushed aside. The old dogmas must be retained at all hazards, if not in substance, then in form, and new trenches must be dug around the assaulted citadels. Mr.
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Robbins addressed himself to the task in good earnest, and began to tighten the cords of belief, and against all the traditions of Pilgrim history, to encircle the community with doctrinal defences. In 1772, he introduced for consideration a number of attached articles affecting affiliation with the church. The door of the Half-way Covenant, opened some years before, must be closed, and admission to the church be through the wicket-gate of special election. Article VI raised the question "whether it be the opinion of the church, that the half-way practice of owning or entering into covenant, which has of late years been adopted by this church, be a Script- ural method - or a practice warranted by the word of God, and so to be persisted in." On the one side it was urged, that children born of visible be- lievers, and baptized in infancy, were properly and truly members of the visible church, and, therefore, might claim the privileges of church members, when they arrived at adult age, and so by owning the covenant, it is not to be understood, that they qual- ified themselves thereby for the privileges of the covenant- they had a right to them before - but it is needful that they should acknowledge what their parents did for them.
On the other hand, it was pleaded, that Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are both seals of the cove- nant, viz, the Covenant of Grace. And that, con- sequently, they who had a right to one seal, had a right also to the other, and yet, they had no right from the word of God, to make a distinction be-
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The First Church in Plymouth
tween the two seals, as if one was more holy than the other - that would be a dangerous tendency to put aside what God had joined together .* This dispute, arising out of neglect of the Lord's Sup- per, divided the parish so seriously, that it was not deemed expedient, in the interests of unity and peace, to proceed further with it. The issue was a technical one, and since men and women of unques- tioned probity, and exemplary Christian character, were arrayed on both sides, it was not deemed ad- visable to push it to an extremity.
It was natural that the church should unite with the town in support of the independence of the col- onies. Discontent with taxes and exactions had long been rife in the breasts of Plymouth merchants, and James W. Warren and Isaac Lothrop chosen to represent the town in the Provincial Congress were instructed to support any movement of the colonies against British oppression. Dr. Robbins advocated resistance and independence, and the town was put in a state of defence. Many obnox- ious royalists felt uncomfortable and retired. Dur- ing the Revolution, the community suffered from the suspension of trade and commerce, and the fear of invasion, and in 1778-9, there was great distress, so that the people, through their selectmen, had to petition his Excellency Jonathan Trumbull Esq., Captain-General, Governor and Commander-in- Chief, in and over the State of Connecticut, and the Honorable Council of said State, for the absolute
* The First Church Records.
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necessities of life. M' James Warren writing to Jonathan Trumbull, urged immediate aid " Many of the inhabitants of the town, who have been used to an affluent living have been for weeks destitute of bread, which, in addition to their peculiar suffer- ings from a total loss of their chief dependence for a subsistence, renders their case truly pitiable." * Starvation did not, however, weaken their loyalty to liberty, for when in the year 1775, General Gage proposed to locate the " Queen's Guards " at Plym- outh, and the opinion of M' John Watson was asked as to the wisdom of this step, the latter re- plied, " It is my opinion that it will not be prudent to bring your company here, for the people are in a state of great excitement and alarm." " Will thev fight?" asked the Captain of the Guards. "Yes" replied John Watson, "like devils." In 1783, the conflict was brought to a close, and the town re- sumed its wonted activities, and set to work to repair the ravages of eight years of war.
The Third Church and Congregation settled in King Street in 1744, came to an end in 1776, and returned to the ancient fold thereby strengthening the forces of liberalism in the community.
The religious controversy was silenced but not settled. On the IIth of December 1794, a meeting of the precinct was convened to hear a report from a committee, of which D' Robbins was chairman, relating to certain proposed alterations in the disci- pline and practice of the church, which committee
* Trumbull Papers. Collections of the Mass. Historical Society.
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was to meet a committee of the church to discuss the question and to report. The report of the church committee is as follows -
" The committee appointed, whereof the pastor was chairman, was not of so conciliatory and accom- modating a nature as your committee were sincerely desirous might take place. In respect to the first Article, that the children of baptized parents of sober life and conversation, and professing their belief in the Christian Religion should be admitted to baptism, the committee of said church would not agree to any qualified sense whatever, nor were the committee of the church so far to extend the terms of admission into its communion as to embrace all persons of sober life and conversation though un- feigned believers in the Christian Religion, unless they would subscribe to certain articles of faith, which have indeed been the subject of dispute, among Christians of great eminence and piety, but which were never heard of as a term of communion amongst the Apostles and primitive Christians. Nothing more could be obtained on this head, than that baptism may be administered by a neighbour- ing minister. Upon the whole your committee are constrained to lament the narrow policy of the church, in excluding from its communion, many exemplary Christians, merely on account of their different conceptions of some points of doctrine, about which learned and good men, have enter- tained a great variety of opinions, and this cir- cumstance is more especially a source of regret, at
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this enlightened period, when the principles of civil and religious liberty are almost universally under- stood and practised. For whatever stress some persons may be disposed to lay on matters of mere speculation, the benevolent genius of the Gospel, will teach its votaries, amidst all their differences of opinion, to exercise mutual candour and indulgence, that they may if possible, preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. "; Not- withstanding this report, which represented the feel- ing of a large section of the church, D' Robbins again raised the issue in 1795, in the shape of a creed, as a test to Christian fellowship. He formu- lated a Calvinistic Confession of Faith and insisted that subscription to it, should be made the test of fellowship. A creed in the First Church, and among descendants of the Pilgrims was an innova- tion. Neither John Robinson nor his successors, had ever proposed anything of the kind. The Pil- grims had their religious beliefs, to which they clung tenaciously, but it never occurred to them, to imitate their oppressors, and try to inflict upon others the stigmas, penalties, and disabilities, from which they had themselves escaped, at great cost. Such a step must not be allowed to pass unchal- lenged. The liberals, therefore contemplated a second departure from the church. Their respect for the personal character of D' Robbins forbade any action inside the church, which would seriously affect his position. They contemplated a division
* Records of The First Church.
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and the establishment of a new society. Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and the creed was tolerated for a little while. But, when on June 30th 1799, D' Robbins died, after thirty-nine years of faithful service, the desire for more liberal preaching revived. An opportunity presented itself for the election of a pastor answering to the progressive spirit of the age, and to the needs of a majority in the church and the precinct. A large number of people who considered themselves both orthodox and evangelical, but not Calvinistic, and who had sat uneasily under the ministry of D' Robbins, felt that they were entitled to some consideration in the choice of a minister, and, therefore, combined to choose some one in harmony with their needs and principles. The choice fell upon M' James Ken- dall, who graduated at Harvard in 1796, and was a tutor at the College, when called to Plymouth. He was elected by a considerable James Kendall majority in the church, and an over- whelming majority in the precinct. 1800. Unlike so many Congregational Churches, at this time and after, the First Church resisted Calvinism so completely, that there was no ground left for dispute or litigation. The Church and the Parish were of one mind, and the forces of opposition were in a minority. The change thus wrought was more in the nature of growth than rev- olution. It had come slowly, imperceptibly, as the morning gently scattering the mists of night, as the opening spring giving new energy to a sleeping
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world. The Church and its new minister were well within the lines of Evangelical Congregationalism, and certainly more in harmony with the spirit of the Forefathers, than those who resisted the change. It is wrongly supposed that Unitarianism had some- thing to do with the division; but liberalism did not take that form until twenty years later. At the time Dr. Kendall was ordained, neither Channing, Emerson or Parker had spoken the words, which lifted so many New England churches from their moorings. No: the change in the Plymouth Church came from within, and not from without, was a growth of the divine spirit in the human heart, and not a sudden conversion. The records of the church give no indication of bitterness of feel- ing, or angry resentment. The theological transi- tion from Dr. Robbins to Dr. Kendall was placid, if not pleasant, and when in September 1800, the un- satisfied minority sought separation, it was not with any evident signs of ill-will, although the intellectual and social cleavage was pronounced.
The following extracts from the Records of the First Church, indicate the spirit which actuated those who remained, and those who went out. On the 17th of September 1800, the following petition signed by fifteen men and thirty-five women was presented to a meeting of the church.
"We request that all the members, male and female that wish to be dismissed from their relation to the First Church in Plymouth, and that any male or female desiring hereafter a dismission from
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either church, to join the other, be dismissed if recommended to the other."
The meeting adjourned for a week to consider the question, not desiring to do anything, or to permit anything to be done, hastily.
" The church agreeable to adjournment met on the following week, at the house of the pastor, when the petitioners explained their meaning in the clause respecting the dismission of members from one church to the other, hereafter, with a recommendation. They said, they had nothing further in view, by injecting the clause, than that the removal of relations from one church to the other in future, be regulated according to the usual practice of this, and other Congregational churches in New England. They also relinquish their pre- tended claim to the church furniture, being con- vinced that it was given to the First Church, the present members are not exclusively entitled to it, and therefore, had no right to the disposal of it. They asked only for the privilege of using it, a cer- tain time, till it was convenient for them to furnish their own table."* The following petition and resolutions were then presented.
" We the subscribers being members of the First Church of Christ in Plymouth, request to be dis- missed, and establish in a church estate among our- selves, by the name of the Third Church in Plymouth.
Resolved, That the petitioners be dismissed from
* Records of the First Church.
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their special relation to the First Church of Christ in Plymouth, in order to be set off into a distinct church by the name of the Third Church of Christ in Plymouth, agreeable to their request. The vote was passed in the affirmative unanimously.
The church further voted, That they have the privilege of using the furniture at their communions for two years.
The meeting then closed as usual, and dissolved in harmony. May the great Head of the church smile upon these transactions that they may con- tribute to the more rapid advancement of his king- dom among us !" *
So ended, amicably and peacefully, although not without deep feeling, the first separation in the church, into which dogmatic differences had entered. Both parties, those who stayed, and those who left, acted conscientiously and loyally. The old First Church was firmly convinced that it was supported in its action by the authority of Scripture and the traditions of Pilgrim history.
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