USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Contributions to the ecclesiastical history of Essex County, Mass., 1865 > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
The mixed system of freewill offering, and legal constraint, did not long answer the purpose. In 1692, one of the first acts under the new charter granted by William and Mary, was an act, " For the settlement and support of ministers and school-masters," one section of which reads thus, " And further be it enacted, That every minister, being a person of good conversation, Able, Learned, and Orthodox, that shall be chosen by
1 Mass. Colonial Records.
2 Acts of Commissioners of the United Colonies, Vol. I. p. 20.
8 Mass. Colonial Records, Vol. IV. p. 199.
4 Cong. Quarterly, Vol. I. p. 661.
265
PARISH LAWS AND MINISTERIAL SUPPORT.
the major part of the inhabitants of any Town, at a Town-meeting, duly warned for that purpose (Notice thereof being given to the Inhabitants, Fifteen Days before the time of such Meeting), shall be the Minister of such Town ; and the whole Town shall be obliged to Pay towards his settlement and maintenance each man his several proportion." 1
Thus the old practice at length gave way to the new ; and, for more than a century and a quarter, public worship was almost universally maintained by taxation legally assessed upon all within town or parish limits. But this system was attended with evils, which the General Court tried to remedy by a great amount of special legislation. As one has well observed, " the friction thus introduced into the machinery of these Congregational churches was hard to be overcome. Nor did any lubricating process, however often and thoroughly applied, entirely stop the creaking, till legal compulsion had given place to the voluntary prin- ciple again, as it was in the beginning, and as it is now." 2
The law, at first, made no exemption and no allowance for any diver- sity of opinion, or scruples of conscience. All within each town or parish must be taxed to support Congregational ministers. Many were, of course, restive under this intolerant law, and sought in many ways to evade it. This induced the General Court, in 1702, to pass an addi- tional law, entitled, " An Act more effectually providing for the Support of Ministers," the preamble of which runs thus : "Whereas, in some few Towns and Districts within this Province, divers of the Inhabitants are Quakers, and other Irreligious Persons, averse and opposite to the
1 This Act gave the right of choosing ministers to the towns, which had before been regarded as belonging to the church, where one was organized. But at an adjourned session of the General Court, the same year, that part of the Act which gave the choice of minister to the town was repealed, and in the place of it, it was enacted, " That each respective gathered Church in any Town or Place, within this Province, that at any time shall be in want of a Minister, said Church shall have power, according to the Directions given in the Word of God, to choose their own Minister; " and the major part of the inhabitants, concurring with the choice of the church, the person thus chosen shall be the minister, "towards whose Settlement and maintenance all the inhabitants and ratable Estates " in the town, " shall be obliged to pay in proportion." It was also enacted, that in towns where no church was gath- ered, the major part of the inhabitants, with the advice and approval of " three neigh- boring ordained ministers," should " choose and call an Orthodox, learned, and pious person to dispense the word of God to them."
In 1695, it was enacted, that in case the town or precinct do not concur with the choice of the church, a council of the elders and messengers of three or four churches shall be called, and if they approve the action of the church, the person chosen shall be the minister, and be supported as already provided; "otherwise the church shall proceed to the election of another minister."
2 Rev. J. S. Clark, D. D.
34
266
TIIE CHURCHES OF ESSEX NORTH.
Publie Worship of God, and to a Learned Orthodox Ministry ; and find out ways to Elude the Laws provided for the Support of such, and per- vert the good intentions thereof, to the Encouragement of Irreligion and Prophaneness ; For Remedy Whereof, &c., Be it Enacted, &c., provid- ing for the more stringent enforcement of the Law of 1692." 1
But at length, in 1728, the work of exemption for scruples of con- science was initiated. In that year, a law was passed that "none of those persons commonly called Anabaptists, nor any of those commonly called Quakers, shall have their polls taxed towards the support of the ministers of the churches established by law ; provided such persons do usually attend the meetings of their respective societies on the Sabbath, and live within five miles of the place of such meetings ; provided, also, they subscribe a declaration of fidelity to the government, and of their faith in God and in the inspiration of the Scriptures." This was the entering wedge of toleration, which it took more than a century to drive home ; but the legislative blows upon it were frequent, and almost every blow told. In 1729, the law was modified so as to exempt the real and personal estates, as well as the polls, of Baptists and Quakers. In 1731, an aet " to the intent that it may better be known who are Quakers " was passed, directing the assessors 'of each town annually to hand a list of Quakers to the town clerk, who was to enter it on the town records. If any persons were omitted, they could have their names entered on the list if two members of the society certified that they believed them to be Quakers. This act was to be in force five years, and was renewed in 1737 for ten years. A similar act relating to the Baptists was passed in 1734, to be in force five years, which was renewed in 1740 for seven years. In 1739, the law relating to the exemption of Baptists was so modified as to require of those who would be exempted a certificate from the minister and two principal members of some Baptist church, setting forth that they conscientiously believed such persons to be of their
1 In 1716, an additional act was passed, "for the rendering of said Laws more ef- fectual, and to prevent the growth of Atheism, Irreligion, and Prophaneness ; " which provides that towns and districts that neglect to make suitable provision for the main- tenance of their minister, shall be presented to the Grand Jury, and the court shall "rigorously put the laws in execution." And in case the orders of the Court of Jus- tices are not observed, the delinquents are to be reported to the General Court, which shall send them "an able, learned, and Orthodox minister," and provide for his sup- port " by adding so much to the proportion of Town or District of the Public Taxes, from time to time, as they may judge sufficient for that end. And the additional sums, so laid as aforesaid, shall be assessed, collected, and paid into the Public Treas- ury, together with the other Public Taxes, and shall be drawn out thence by warrant from the Governor," &c., "and be duly paid to the minister." This law was to con- tinue in force seven years.
1
267
PARISH LAWS AND MINISTERIAL SUPPORT.
persuasion, and to be regular attendants on public worship on the Sab- bath in their church. As many persons obtained exemption, under this law, who were not Baptists, by presenting certificates from churches which were not regularly constituted, or which had no real existence, in 1752 it was enacted that no minister nor members of any Baptist church should be qualified to give the legal certificate unless that church itself should have obtained, from three other Baptist churches in this or the neighboring provinces, a certificate that they esteem such church to be of their denomination. These laws, exempting Quakers and Baptists, were renewed from time to time, with slight changes in the mode of granting certificates, and so continued in force till the adoption of the Constitution in 1780.
The Episcopalians, or " members of the Church of England," as they called themselves, were the third denomination that obtained exemption. In 1735, a law was passed to this effect, - that Episcopalians and their estates should be rated for the support of public worship, the same as others ; but the treasurer of the town or parish receiving their tax should pay over the same to the minister of the church where they usually worshipped, provided the minister and wardens of that church first certified that such persons were members of the Church of England, and usually worshipped with them. This law was to be in force seven years, and was renewed in 1742, and thenceforth secured exemption for that denomination. Why a difference was thus made between them and Quakers and Baptists, as to the mode of exemption, does not appear. They were to be taxed under the general law, and then have their pro- portion paid over from the town or parish treasury for their own denomi- national use ; while Quakers and Baptists were not to be taxed at all, but were left to support public worship for themselves, if they chose, in their own way.
The Presbyterians were the next to complain that they were unrea- sonably taxed, and to pray for exemption. The Separatists in Newbury having formed a new church in 1746, and being unable to procure from the General Court an act of incorporation as a distinct Congregational parish, in 1748 adopted the Presbyterian form of government, and then claimed, as Presbyterians, the same exemption which had already been accorded to other dissenting denominations. But it was not until 1752 that they obtained relief, and then not, as they had hoped, in such a way as to be put on the same footing as Quakers and Baptists and Episcopa- lians. In that year, by a special resolve, in answer to a petition, certain individuals mentioned by name, belonging to the Presbyterian church and society in Newbury, residing within the limits of the first and third parishes, were, with their estates, exempted from taxation in those par-
268
THE CHURCHES OF ESSEX NORTH.
ishes. The same exemption was subsequently extended to other indi- viduals. But by no general act of exemption did Presbyterians obtain the same privileges which were enjoyed by other exempted denomina- tions.
In 1780, the Constitution was adopted. By the third article in the Bill of Rights, the principle on which Episcopalians had before been exempted was extended to all denominations. Towns and parishes were required to support public worship. All persons were to be taxed, but all monics paid in were to go, if desired, to support ministers of the de- nomination to which those who paid it belonged. This did not, as some have supposed, give full liberty to all to go to meeting where they pleased, and be taxed there only. The Supreme Court decided that a person must be of a different denomination from the parish in which he lived, to have a right to withdraw his taxes for the support of worship elsewhere.1 Congregationalists must become something else, or they could not secede, and set up worship for themselves, without still being obliged to pay their taxes to the parishes from which they seceded. No general laws were passed to carry this provision of the Constitution into effect till 1800 ; so that, for twenty years, the people were living under the operation of the former laws on the subject, except so far as these were modified by special legislation. In 1794, an act was passed incor- porating several religious societies in Newburyport, which provided "that all inhabitants of said Newburyport shall be, and hereby are, entirely exempted and freed from paying taxes, either for their polls, or estates lying within the bounds of said town, towards the payment of any charges or expense for the settlement or support of any teacher or teachers of Piety, Religion, and Morality, or support of public worship, in any place or society therein, other than that wherein they usually attend publie worship." This was ample toleration, but it was only for a single town. But, in 1800, a law was passed to carry into effect the provisions of the Constitution, by which all were to pay their tax into the treasury of the town, parish, or society in which they lived, but could, on certifying that they belonged to a different denomination, with- draw it for the support of worship where they attended. But this did not satisfy all; and, in 1811, another law was passed, making it easier for persons of another denomination to withdraw their taxes to be ap- plied where they worshipped. Still there was no relief for seceders of the same denomination. They must still pay to the old parish. In 1820, a State Convention was called for revising the Constitution. The third article of the Bill of Rights was long and ably discussed ; and an
1 Journal and Debates of the Mass. Convention of 1820, p. 400 (ed. of 1853).
269
PARISH LAWS AND MINISTERIAL SUPPORT.
amendment was adopted providing that all ministerial taxes should be applied to the support of the ministry on which those who paid them attended. But this amendment, when submitted to the people, was re- jected by a large majority of votes. But, in 1833, an amendment was adopted which removed all restrictions, and allowed to all full liberty to belong to what parish or society they pleased, and to pay only where they belonged ; or to belong nowhere, and pay nothing, - thus securing a full return to the voluntary principle of the early Puritan Fathers.
The old compulsory parish law of taxation, with all its modifications, worked disadvantageously to the Congregational churches in this vicinity. It may have helped keep some feeble churches alive, and some feeble ministers in their places. But we have seen that it led to the first intro- duction of at least three different denominations into Essex North. It caused much ill-feeling and litigation. In one instance, it subjected the members of an Orthodox church (West Haverhill), which had with- drawn from the parish, to a tax for the support of Universalist preacli- ing, for the space of two years ; their proportion of the tax being two- thirds of the whole assessed. And when some refused to pay their assessment on the ground of its injustice, warrants were issued against them, and one of them was imprisoned.
It may, in this connection, be remarked, that, as a general thing, the ministers of Essex North have been cheerfully and comfortably main- tained. In olden times the salary was nominally small, at least such it sometimes seems to us, as we read that it ranged from £50 to £150, that is, from about $160 to $500. But we are apt to underrate the relative value of a pound in those days. The salaries of the early governors was not so large as that of many ministers ranging from £50 to £100. Then, there was in nearly all cases the parsonage, and quite a farm attached. Besides, there was a settlement donation often equal to the salary for two or three years, e. g. Mr. Chandler of, Georgetown was to have a stated salary of £110, and £300 for settlement. Sometimes, in addition to the stipulated salary, the minister was to have so many cords of wood, twenty or thirty, also the "contributions of strangers," and special contributions three or four times a year for his benefit.
The depreciation in value of the paper currency at one period caused considerable embarrassment, but in most cases the people seem cheer- fully to have made up the loss to their ministers. In 1779, Dr. Tappan, of West Newbury, whose nominal salary was £80, had £1,600 voted him. The same year Dr. French, of North Hampton, N. H., whose nominal salary was £150, received for it, £12,000. It is said that Dr. Tucker, of Newbury, once sent a wheelbarrow to the treasurer to bring his quarter's salary home.
270
THE CHURCHES OF ESSEX NORTH.
THE HALF-WAY COVENANT.
There was a practice prevalent among the churches of New England generally during the last century, adopted I believe by all the churches of Essex North, and by some of them continued through the first quar- ter of the present century, but now universally laid aside, which seems entitled to some mention in this discourse. I refer to what is now called the Half-Way Covenant. It was not so called by its originators and friends ; but probably received this designation in derision from those who at length opposed and overthrew it. But it will be convenient to retain the name, especially as it is so aptly suggestive of the thing. That we may the better understand the facts gleaned from the history of our own churches illustrative of the subject, it may be well to go back and inquire into the origin and nature of the Half-Way Covenant.
The early Puritan Fathers held most strenuously, in opposition to the views prevalent in their day through a large part of the Christian world, that only regenerated persons should be admitted to full communion, and all the privileges of the church. They also attached great impor- tance to household baptism, and held that the children of believers, as included in the covenant of their parents, were in a qualified sense members of the church. Such children were regarded as under the watch and discipline of the church ; and were often dismissed with their parents from one church to another. Most of the early settlers were church members in full, and, as a matter of course, had their children baptized. But many of those children, on reaching mature age and becoming heads of families, did not feel prepared to own their baptismal covenant, and come into the full communion and fellowship of the church ; and so could not have the ordinance of baptism administered to their children. This was the occasion of much grief to the godly grand- parents. As Cotton Mather observes, "The good old generation could not, without many uncomfortable apprehensions, behold their offspring excluded from the baptism of Christianity, and from the ecclesiastical inspection that is to accompany that baptism ; indeed it was to leave their offspring under the shepherdly government of our Lord Jesus Christ and his ordinances, that they had brought their lambs into this wilderness." 1
What shall be done? Shall they, on the one hand, make " No eccle- siastical difference," between their children who have been baptized and educated in the church, and " Pagans who might happen to hear
1 Magnalia, Vol. II. p. 277.
271
THE HALF-WAY COVENANT.
the word of God in their assemblies ?" This, they think, will be " quickly to abandon the biggest part of the country to heathenism." Or shall they, on the other hand, with the English Episcopalians and Scotch Presbyterians, lower the terms of communion, so that all who have been baptized, and are outwardly moral, though unregenerated, may be admitted to all the privileges of the church? This they fear will bring into the church a " worldly part of mankind, and so work mischief." In this dilemma they found themselves. To solve the diffi- culty, at the motion of certain ministers in Connecticut, a Council, or Synod of ministers, was convened at Boston, in 1657; and in 1662, another and larger Synod was convened at the same place, composed of ministers and messengers of the churches. Substantially the same result was reached by both Synods in regard to baptism, viz., " Church mem- bers who were admitted in minority " ( ¿. e. who were baptized in child- hood), "understanding the doctrine of faith, and publicly professing their assent thereto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning the covenant before the church, wherein they give up themselves and their children to the Lord, and subject themselves to the government of Christ in the church, their children are to be baptized."
This decision caused a great and mischievous innovation upon the good old Congregational way. Some of the churches, one at least, had in practice anticipated the result of the Synods. Thus in 1655, the First Church in Ipswich, among other votes relating to the subject, passed the following: "5. We judge that the children of such adult per- sons " (those baptized in infancy), "that were of understanding and not scandalous, and shall take the covenant, that their children shall be baptized." This is precisely the ground taken by the Synods; and quite possibly the hand that shaped this vote, shaped the Synodical result also ; for the vote of the church of Ipswich was passed about the time that Rev. T. Cobbet began his ministry there, who was a member of both Synods. But while a very few churches may have anticipated this result, it was evidently an innovation upon the practice of most of them. At first it met with extensive and strenuous opposition, but gradually gained ground, and at length was almost universally adopted by the New England churches. It has often been said that its adoption was due to political, quite as much as to religious considerations. By a law passed in 1631, the elective franchise was limited to members of the church, and the Half-Way Covenant scheme, it is alleged, was devised to enable those who were not communicants, to exercise the rights of freemen. This view is put forth by scores of writers, and yet, so far as I can discover, it is unsupported by facts.
1. This reason does not appear in the discussions which the new
272
THE CHURCHES OF ESSEX NORTH.
measure called forth. Cotton Mather gives a summary of the arguments advanced on both sides, but makes no allusion to this.
2. There is no evidence that persons admitted to this half-way mem- bership in the church, were thereby invested with any of those civil rights from which non-church-membership had excluded them. They were not entitled to vote, even in ecclesiastical affairs,1 and henee we infer that they were not entitled to vote in civil affairs, and so were as much as ever disfranchised by the law of 1631.
3. The law of 1631 was, by royal order, repealed in 1644, or so far modified that any person, obtaining from a minister a certificate that he was a man of Orthodox principles and good morals, could be admitted to the rights of freemen, even though not a member of the church at all.
4. The whole controversy on the subject originated in the Connecticut colony, where there never was any law which, like that in the Massachu- setts Bay colony, restricted the right of suffrage to church members.
These facts, I think, show conclusively that the motive which led to the adoption of the Half-Way Covenant was not a political one. The originators and promoters of the new scheme were evidently actuated by purely religious considerations. And it would have been comparatively harmless in practice if its original form and spirit had been retained. But it underwent various changes, all of which lowered it, and increased its mischievous tendencies. Facts illustrating the nature of these changes are found in the history of the churches of Essex North.
According to the original plan, those who sustained this qualified church membership, and were entitled to the ordinance of baptism for their children, must themselves have been baptized in infancy. The Synod of 1662 describe them as " church members who were admitted in minority." By " church members " they of course meant, not mem- bers in full communion, but members by baptism ; and by "admitted in minority " they evidently meant, baptized in infancy or childhood on the strength of their parents' faith. The action of the Synod had reference exclusively to this particular class of persons, - viz., those who had been baptized by their believing parents, but who had not yet come into full communion with the church. But, in the course of time, others, who had not been baptized in infancy, children of unbelievers, began to desire baptism for their children. Seeing this privilege accorded to those ,who made no professions of piety, they naturally claimed it, and were not denied; and so it became customary for any who desired it, irrespective of the question whether they were " church members ad-
1 Magnalia, Vol. II. pp. 303 and 305.
273
THE HALF-WAY COVENANT.
mitted in minority," to have their children baptized. Thus we find on the records of our churches many entries similar to the following, made by Rev. Edmund Noyes, pastor of the First Church in Salisbury : " Dec. 14, 1755. Thos. Eaton owned ye Covenant, and was baptized ;" and on the list of baptism, under the same date, "Josiah, Jedediah, Mercy, Olive, Rhoda, children of Thos. Eaton." This was a greater " enlarge- ment of baptism " than was contemplated by the Synodists.
Another departure from the original intent of the half-way plan of the Synods was, great laxity in regard to the morality of those who availed themselves of its provisions. At first, they must be "not scandalous in life,"- that is, a man must be free from outward immorality, or he could not have his children baptized, even though he had himself been bap- tized in infancy, and had owned the covenant. This condition was vir- tually, if not formally, set aside in many of our churches. Persons guilty of the grossest breach of morality were admitted to the privileges of the Half-Way Covenant. True, usually they must first make a for- mal confession ; but such confessions, in multitudes of cases, were evi- dently a mere form, unaccompanied by any proof of repentance or reformation. The great aim seemed to be, to have as many children as possible baptized ; and the tendency was to break down all those barriers which a purer age had thrown around the ordinance. The old records of many of our churches are full of cases where persons charge- able with heinous offences are said to have given satisfaction to the church, and were " restored to charity," and allowed to have baptism administered to their children. And that must have been a marvellously large charity which could so easily be satisfied that the persons in ques- tion came within the rule, "not scandalous in life !"
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.