USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > Celebration of the 275th anniversary of the First Church of Christ : Lynn, Massachusetts, Sunday, June ninth nineteen hundred seven > Part 2
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Hence, it may be interesting, as well as profitable, to trace the development of theological thought in the history of our church with a view to clearing our own vision and suggesting our working principles for the future. We are favored in having a complete list of ministers with
* This refers to "The New Theology." The figures are from statements in The Congregationalist.
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Address - Rev. George W. Owen, A.M.
the dates of the beginning and the end of each pastorate. The general course of our history is well known through several popular and unpopular works; but the teaching of the church has never been treated in a comprehensive way. The material for this subject is found mostly in scattered sermons and treatises that are distributed among the vari- ous libraries in this county.
The claim has formerly been made that this is the oldest church in America that has changed neither its location nor its faith. Upon the souvenir post card, published for this occasion, the second part of this claim has been al- tered to the effect that the church has not changed its de- nomination. A general survey of the history shows that belief of pastors and people has been constantly changing, surging forward and then backward like the waves of the sea. Yet we believe that as the tide steadily rises, in spite of the rush and recession of the waves, so the fluctuations have been only incidents in the progress of truth and righteousness.
Our theological history may be divided into four periods. The first period begins with the organization of the church in 1632 and extends through the pastorate of Jeremiah Shepard, which terminated in 1720. Stephen Bachiler, the first pastor, was a man of independent spirit, not noted for his discretion. His later life was clouded and we know little of what he actually preached in Lynn .. The other pastors of this period were Samuel Whiting, Thomas Cobbet, and Jeremiah Shepard.
The church was born about one hundred years after the Reformation. Popular thought had reacted from the.
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supremacy of the church, and had attached supreme au- thority to the Bible as the word of God and the infallible rule of faith and practice. The doctrine of the justifica- tion of each individual through his own personal faith made every believer a priest. Since every believer had direct communication with God, the voice of God could be found most surely in the collective voice of believers; therefore pope and priest were unnecessary, the authority of believers as such being the foundation for the independ- ent or autonomous church.
Calvinism was almost a synonym for Protestant the- ology. The logical foundation of Calvinism is the doc- trine of the sovereignty of God. He has created all things for His own glory and both by purpose and by action is working out that glory through the sin and damnation of some, and through the righteousness and salvation of others.
Current theological thought then gives us these three great foundation truths: the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of believers and the sovereignty of God. It is natural that in the early period of our church history we should find these three Reformation doctrines strongly present.
During the pastorate of Samuel Whiting, a Lynn lay- man, named Edward Holyoke, published a book called "The Doctrine of Life and of Man's Redemption," which probably gives a more thorough outline of early local theology than any other writing. By an elaborate exposition of Scripture he enforces the current theology of his time with certain variations. The following para-
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phrases and quotations will give an idea of his views. God is one in essence, three-fold in personality, a Being that cannot be conceived or comprehended by the human mind, but Who is revealed in Scripture. The fall of man was occasioned by the mediation of fallen angels, who, col- lectively constitute the devil. The Bible chronology then in vogue is inerrant. There were 2513 years of tradition before Moses, and 3960 years from the first promise in Genesis iii, 15, to the death of our Lord. Whoever doubts the exactness of these dates is accursed.
Concerning the doctrine of election we read (Page 17) : "God hath decreed what shall be the estate of the cor- rupted masse of mankind; that some shall be the seed of Satan, and the children of perdition, and that some shall be elected, predestinated, and adopted Sons of God, by Faith in Christ, and heirs of salvation." Again we find the following: "The Mighty Elohim the eternall Be- ing hath created and disposed all things in Christ for the good of his Elect." (Page 9, section 13.)
Through racial connection with Adam all mankind de- serve eternal punishment. But Christ by His sacrifice has satisfied the demands of justice so that reconciliation is possible. (Page 189.) Therefore God has power to choose whom He will to be benefitted by this satisfaction and to be saved. Of the unregenerate it is said, "His prayer is turned into sin." The poor unelected outcasts have no alternative by this system but to con- tinue in infidelity and wickedness, waxing worse and worse, with no prospect but an eternity of woe; and they have no complaint to make because by racial connection
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with Adam they are guilty and condemned. God is all- wise and all-powerful and disposes all things according to His wisdom, having mercy on some when all deserve damnation.
In his book on the vindication of baptism for the children of church members, Thomas Cobbet clearly implies this same doctrine when he says that not all children of church members are elect, but they are externally, federally, and ecclesiastically members of the kingdom and have a right to receive its outward tokens.
One regrettable element of this early period is its vindic- tiveness. Holyoke's tender regard for the unenlightened is expressed in the phrase, "Idolatrous heathen and such like, blind, ignorant sots." (Page 9.) He further says: " All other religions * * are abominable, and all com- munion with such is no better then the communion with devills." (Page 53.) He says that those who teach any other doctrine are to be accursed. (Pages 54-55.)
Even the devout Whiting considered Quaker doctrines dangerous and seductive, although he believed that the others were too severe upon the Friends: and the saintly Shepard called the Indians "monsters of Cruelty." Re- ferring to the plague of small-pox, he said: " The Lord swept away thousands of those Salvage tawnies, those cursed Devil worshippers."
But the teaching was not all gloomy and vindictive. Although the emphasis was largely upon the sterner as- pects of doctrine, yet the practical freedom of man's will was recognized, and in the practical work of these pastors there was a great deal of good sense and brotherliness.
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1231501 Address - Rev. George W. Owen, A.M.
On June 15, 1648, Margaret Jones was executed at Boston for being a witch. From this event to the melancholy spectacle on Gallows Hill, in Salem, in 1792, those unfortu- nate victims who were accused of complicity with the devil were often before the courts. In his Memoir of Rev. Samuel Whiting, William Whiting, Esq., says (page 100) : " While this horrible madness ruled the minds of the mnem- bers of the General Court, the magistrates, and most of the clergy, there was one minister of the gospel, Rev. Samuel Whiting, who, from disbelief in the existence of witchcraft, or from obedience to the dictates of an en- lightened conscience, gave no countenance to the persecu- tion of the so-called witches."
The reason for this cannot be that there were no persons in Lynn who might have been suspected; for if the Lynn of that time was a forerunner of later Lynn, it would not have been without such a thriving religious eccentricity. Such is the prominence of our city that anything strange or heretical that is believed or practiced anywhere is not worth notice if it has no adherents in Lynn! In the ab- sence of this persecution in Lynn, we have evidence of the good common sense of our early ministers and their staunch followers.
In spite of his close theological distinctions, Thomas Cobbet, in his discourse on prayer advised all to avoid quibbling over matters of doctrine. Says he, "The heads and hearts both of Preachers and Professors shall bee so busily and continually taken up with endless disputes, that they shall have little leisure or list to attend the practicals of Religion, wherein the life and power of pure Religion
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doth mainly consist. Disputing times about the Specu- latives of Religion, are wont to be declining times in the Practicals, and Vitals thereof. Witness former ages wherein the School-men and their notions flourished, but purity and power of Religion withered." In spite of the narrow vice in which the theology of the time held him, we see here a generous, practical spirit longing for the best things in church and in society.
The first church covenant in Lynn is not known, but it was probably similar to that in Salem which we quote: " We covenant with our Lord and with one another, and we do bind ourselves in the presence of God, to walk together, in all His ways, according as He is pleased to reveal Him- self to us." It is difficult to harmonize the theological dis- putings of contemporaneous writers with the generous and progressive spirit of this simple covenant. It may be that because the church was homogeneous there was little need of an elaborate statement of faith; but I think that the germs of religious freedom were working, and that we find the highest expression of the religious life in this simple dependence upon the guiding presence of God rather than in the dogmatism of the theological dis- courses.
This first period, then, was strong in the faith, in- tolerant, vindictive, and yet characterized by a practical sense of brotherhood and a spirit of progress in practical affairs.
The second period in the theological history of our church begins with the ordination of Nathaniel Henchman in 1720, and extends to the ordination of Otis Rockwood
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in 1818. Obadiah Parsons was accused of immorality. Isaac Hurd seems to have been a man of spotless charac- ter, but of Unitarian tendencies, and soon resigned .* In the other three men of this period, whose collective minis- tries covered about eighty years, Nathaniel Henchman, John Treadwell and Thomas Cushing Thacher, we find Christian gentlemen of a high order.
The fact that the church declined in membership, and was rent with dissensions during a large part of this time, has been regarded by previous writers as a providential punishment for the unorthodox doctrines that these men preached; but I am convinced that other reasons must be assigned. An examination of their extant sermons does not show that they were unorthodox except in the points of Calvinism that history has rejected. The most serious charge against them is that they were Arminian, which means that they believed in the freedom of the will and the universal call of God as ordinarily held to-day. There is no indication of any doctrine that would have caused difficulty in an ordination council among present-day Con- gregationalists. Their preaching resembled more that of our own time than did the preaching of Jeremiah Shep- ard, or Otis Rockwood, or Parsons Cooke. They believed in the Bible as the "standing revelation of God;" they believed in the final judgment; they believed in Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God and the Saviour of men.
From the sermons of Thacher, I quote the following sen- tences : "Immortality was the privilege conferred by God upon human nature in a state of innocency; but
* He returned later to Calvinistic belief.
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death was a part of the punishment inflicted upon fallen man." "'God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions.' By his apostasy from God, how dreadful was his fall! The primitive rectitude of his nature was per- verted; the moral image of God upon his soul was quite obscured * * But blessed be the Lord our Redeemer, who has made atonement for our sins, reconciled us to God, and 'given us the spirit of adoption.' Hence the right- eous are now the children of God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, and by the renewing of their minds, through the influence of the Holy Spirit."
In 1795, it was the sad duty of Thacher to preach the funeral sermon of eight seamen who were drowned in a wreck off from Lynn Beach. There was only one sur- vivor from the wreck, and he, being present at the service, in the presence of the eight corpses of his drowned ship- mates, was addressed in these words : "Perhaps I may never see you more; certainly I do not expect again thus publicly to address you. Let me, then, most affectionate- ly exhort you, by the solemnities of a dying hour, as you value your own soul, and by a regard to that Providence which has preserved you, to repent of all your sins, to turn unto the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whose merits alone are founded our hopes of pardon, grace and glory. Never will a man be less excusable than you will be, if you now neglect this loud call of Providence, if you do not devote the remainder of your days to the service of that God who has, and can only sustain you."
In July, 1803, Mr. and Mrs. Miles Shorey, who lived on Boston Street, were killed by lightning. In the funeral
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sermon Mr. Thacher says that through confession and re- pentance we are saved "by the dying love of a crucified Redeemer." He insists that this love is available for all. "'Come unto me,' is a universal call, and if we are obedient to the call, God assists us with the aid of the spirit." "Freely the fountain flows, unrestricted is the Divine be- nignity."
It is very evident that according to our judgment of his- tory, the doctrines that I have just quoted would not ac- count for a serious decline in the history of the church. They are not more heterodox than the doctrines of the Methodist Church, which has had a numerical success far exceeding that of our own body. They are not more heter- odox than the teachings of Henry Ward Beecher, Lyman Abbott, George A. Gordon, the two eminent divines in whose presence I have the honor to be upon this platform,* and many other ministers whose preaching has attracted thousands. We cannot say then that these men did not build up the church simply because they were not ortho- dox.
We must remind ourselves also that a small follow- ing is not an infallible sign of heterodoxy. Some prophets of truth have had a small hearing in their own day, and some heresies have attracted their thousands. We must judge of the truth on its own merits and not simply by its apparent success.
Some reasons may be suggested for the falling off of church membership. I suggest first, the unsettled state of thought. Layman and minister alike had begun to chal-
* Rev. JAMES M. WHITON, Ph. D.
Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D. D.
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lenge not so much the basis of the Calvinistic theology, as some of the conclusions to which its adherents and also its opposers forced it. Since it was not longer practicable to kill or banish all who differed from the old views, there- fore the discordant elements were left to fight the matter out together. As they had not yet learned to do this peaceably, and as both sides were intolerant, it is no wonder that the church did not grow.
Out of this conflict were born other churches. Had there been less intolerance among our membership there might have been fewer deflections. The ministry of this period inclined to liberal views, though it was not Unita- rian. Now if Jeremiah Shepard and Parsons Cooke are to be excused from narrowness and dogmatism because of the spirit of the time, certainly Henchman and Treadwell and Thacher are to be excused for liberalness on the same ground.
The first serious trouble was over the refusal of Mr. Henchman to permit the evangelist, Whitefield, to preach in his pulpit. Our pastor was as fearless as Parsons Cooke in his attitude and writings concerning this matter, and I think his reasons were as good as those urged later by Parsons Cooke against Henry Ward Beecher. For a con- siderable time, Mr. Henchman seems to have been the only one bold enough to sign his name to his writings against Whitefield, and every one who hates the principle of anonymous writing, must admire him for his manliness. Nor was his attitude more bitter than that of the evan- gelist, Whitefield, who wrote of a criticising pamphlet : "The Design of the pamphlet itself is base and wicked, * *
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intended to eclipse the great work in New England and in- validate the testimonies," etc. This is an assertion of mo- tive, as presumptuous as anything written by Henchman.
It should be borne in mind that our pastor had as col- leagues many of the New England ministers, and also the faculty of Harvard College, who strenuously opposed White- field. Whitefield declared that his design was, "to hew Stones for the Temple of God, and leave him to lay them where He pleas'd." Upon the title page of his pamphlet, Henchman quoted Proverbs xxvii, 12: "The prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." History has proven that it is not al- ways a wise thing to hew stones and leave them lying about unless careful provision is made for putting them into a building.
We should bear in mind, also, that cautiousness is not only excusable but proper, especially when the means for investigating the record and actions of a travelling preach- er are as limited as they were in those days. Deprive yourself of the mail train, the ocean liner, the telegraph, the telephone ; let a travelling preacher stand before you, who is discountenanced by many worthy ministers, and whose methods seem far from dignified and sane; would you vote to admit him to this pulpit, or would you, like Henchman, demand proof of his ministry ? Experience has proven, even in Lynn, that the membership of a church can distrust the opinion of accredited ministers, and put their confidence in a stranger at the expense of the church and its life. I am not criticising Whitefield, I am excusing Henchman.
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We must give the laymen their share of the bad reputa- tion of this period. When Saul wished the death of David he sent him out to fight with the Philistines, saying, "Let not my hand be upon him but let the hand of the Philis- tines be upon him." Parsons Cooke tells of one or more individuals who were instrumental in getting Obadiah Parsons here, believing that he was an unworthy man and secretly desiring that his coming would work havoc in the church. Whether Obadiah Parsons were guilty or not it would seem that some of the laymen who helped to en- gage him were guilty. They would not kill the church, but would like to see Parsons do it.
During this period occurred the Revolutionary War, with its terrible distractions and its bad effect upon relig- ious life. It has been noted elsewhere, as well as in Lynn, that those who engaged in the conflict were likely to be- come demoralized, and even if they survived to return to their native places, often came back alienated from the church. John Treadwell, pastor at this time took a whole- some and righteous interest in the conduct of the war. He is ever remembered as having carried his musket and powder into the pulpit with his Bible. Before the war we were distracted; after it, we were demoralized. Lynn is said to have had its own little tea party when several women besieged a Tower Hill baker and destroyed his tainted tea.
The Half Way Covenant has frequently been referred to as a source of havoc and an indication of heterodoxy; but aside from its political features, the provisions of this Covenant are generally accepted to-day.
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The period indicates the depression that comes from strife, rather than the truth or falsity of any system of doctrine. Let us no more think of this period as one in which Satan had a mortgage on our church, but as a time of storm and stress through which God was working out His purpose to "make Himself an everlasting name."
The third period of our theological history extends from the year 1818 to 1864, and includes the names of Otis Rockwood, David Peabody, and Parsons Cooke. They were not only strong in the faith but they were men of exceptional personalities. Rockwood and Cooke were men of great decision and force. They gave through the gospel trumpet no uncertain sound. Parsons Cooke was almost as dogmatic as R. J. Campbell, of London, is to- day, but on a different basis. Peabody excelled as a scholar and a Christian gentleman.
Twelve living members of this church, some of whom are present this morning, have been in membership fifty years or more, and consequently will recall much of the preaching of this time. One of these, Miss Eunice Sher- lock, was a member of the church twenty-four years dur- ing the pastorate of Parsons Cooke, and as he died forty- three years ago, she has been in continuous membership for sixty-seven years.
This period, which some present can recall, was a time of undiluted Calvinism, when the Westminster Confession sat on the right hand of the throne of power and the church prospered. Immediately after his ordination, Mr. Rock- wood began to preach the doctrines of total depravity and election which had fallen into disuse during the preceding
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century. The effect was two-fold. The doubters, being repelled, found refuge with the Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, or in the formation of the Unitarian Society. On the other hand, the conservative element, strengthened and united, formed a harmonious, though much reduced company, with a definite faith and an earnest purpose. Other churches had been established to which those of dif- ferent beliefs could go, and though appealing to a limited constituency, the growth of this church was more rapid than it could be under conditions of discord.
The growth of the church is to be attributed probably more to this establishment of harmony, and to the de- cision and earnestness of the ministers, than to the quality of the doctrines preached. There is little doubt that in our day the teaching of Thacher or Henchman would at- tract a greater number of conscientious worshippers than would that of Parsons Cooke or Otis Rockwood. If this is true, it shows that it was not the possession of undiluted truth, but the fact of a harmonious and united constitu- ency that accounts for the rejuvenation and new growth in material things.
In passing, I wish to remark concerning a statement that I have frequently heard. Several have told me that one of our former pastors used the expression that "hell is paved with the skulls of infants." I believe that this is absolute- ly without foundation and charge each one to produce his evidence before quoting this remark. We have enough to answer for, but I have found no proof that my worthy pre- decessors ever carried damnation to such an extent as this.
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Address - Rev. George W. Owen, A.M.
In the second volume of his Centuries, Dr. Cooke, with his usual force, denies the charge that he or any Calvinist teaches infant damnation. He says, "The show of such teaching is made out in the quotation by cutting from its connection a passage in which the doctrine is taught, not that infants are actually damned, but that they are justly liable to condemnation." (Page 27.) He is answering a series of editorials in Zion's Herald, in 1855, by the Rev. Daniel Wise, D.D., attacking Dr. Cooke's first volume. The point of the controversy is not whether infants are damned, which neither Dr. Cooke nor Dr. Wise believed, but whether Calvinistic theology sanctions such belief.
The saying, "Hell is paved with infant skulls," in one form or another has been charged against Calvinistic the- ologians and preachers for an indefinite time, and may have originated before the time of Calvin. It probably had its origin with the enemies of the system and not with its preachers. The opponents were not slow to see that it is a logical outcome of the strict doctrine of election, and eagerly picked up anything which implied it.
Some of the early theologians believed that unelected infants went to a place of mild condemnation, or to a Limbus Infantum, where there was no positive suffering, while there were not the full joys of heaven. (cf. Augus- tine, Dante.) On the other hand, Irenæus says, "Christ came to save all men by Himself," and he seems to imply that little children are among those who are born again and saved through the merits of Christ.
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