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 2
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
1
17
though but 16 when she heard him. They had listened to his mateliless eloquence, and witnessed his glowing zeal. They were his spiritual children, they were the custodians of his body. They felt that it became them to be, like him, zealous in every good word and work. And in the tone of their piety, they were remarkable. Nor has it ceased to have an influence, that here are the boucs of Whitefield. As they have success- ively stood over his venerable remains, the pastors have felt it; at the thought have " kindled with new fire," have tried like him. in the words of his own maxim, "to preach as Apelles painted, for eternity."
So much has been written of Whitefield, that little can now be added. In person of a middle stature, a slender body in youth, fair complexion and a comely appearance, he was in temper sprightly and cheerful, and moved with great agility and life. In speaking he used much gesture, but with great propriety : every accent of his voice, every motion of his body, spoke.t His imagination was lively, and sometimes (as Dr. Samuel Spring remarked of. him,) " he touched the smiles, that he might afterwards draw the tears." He had, too, a habit of standing up and looking about, whilst the people were assem- bling ; alert from beginning to the end, indeed as he always was, for any incident which might give point to his discourse, or " prove an arrow shot at a venture."# But his preach- ing was not always cqual. Garrick's remark was doubt- less true, that his sermons, as specimens of oratorical art, never reached their fullest power till the fiftieth repetition.
Prince's account.
#As an instance, Mrs. Pearson said, that once a young woman came in dressed gaily, and as the fashion was, with black patches all over the face. Whitefield immediately a Idressed her, " Young woman, did you pray before you came hither? You enter the honse of God in the attire of the harlot." She at once crouched down and began to tear the patches off; and however rude the speech, it was the means of her conversion. Mrs. P.'s mother told him she was very fond of dancing; his reply pierced her conscience. " My dear friend, do you not know that every step you dance is on the brink of hell?"
3
18
Mr. Parsons first heard him at New Haven before the ministers, scholars and rector ; and notes the address as having little manners and no connection, the most undigested piece he ever heard. So with his manner. Of another sermon Parsons writes, "in most of his gesture and generally in his voice he gave his discourse life ; but not through the whole of it-it was a mixture of apt similitudes, with sentences that perhaps could not be justified ; yet full of warm affection." Where lay his wonderful power? Here even women walked twenty miles to hear him. It was his incomparable voice and whole manner; every air so natural, every expression so easy, careless, and full of compassion and feeling, so moving, earnest, winning, melting-together with his vivid fancy, which heated every truth he uttered and sent it glowing into the conscience and heart .*
" He followed Paul-his zeal a kindred flame,
ยง His apostolic charity the same."
Dr. Smalley, who heard him when a boy, thus describes his impressions : " I was altogether absorbed in the services of this bold preacher, his stern look, his great voice, his earnest words ; and as I thought of my soul, and of Christ, and salva- tion, I was so carried away in my feelings, as not to know where I was. I could not keep my eyes off from him. I saw him in his prayer, his eyes wide open, looking on high ; and I certainly thought that he saw that Great Being up there, with whom he was talking and pleading so earnestly, and I looked up to the same place that I might see him too."
The question has frequently been asked, were the results of his preaching permanent and happy ? Here they were emi- nently so. In Northampton, where, under the ministry of
* When a cast was taken of Whitefield's skull, the artist remarked that by drawing a line from the orifice of the ear to the top of the head, what was rarely found in the head of a great and good man, the larger part of the brain fell behind the ear-indicating more feeling than intellect. A cast was sent, without name, to London ; to try the skill of the phrenologists. We speak of Webster's logical powers; but was it not his imagi- nation fully as much, that made him the pre-eminent orator ?
19
Edwards, three hundred were added to the church whom he regarded as " savingly brought home to Christ," in a few years almost the whole church turned against and drove him away, for holding that none ought to be admitted to the Lord's supper, but such as gave satisfactory evidence of conversion .* There was no such falling away here. True, there were minds that staggered under the mighty vision of gospel verities, long withheld, and now so vividly presented. No revival the church has ever seen was without its faults. From extreme deadness and doctrinal error of one kind, many would naturally rush to an opposite extreme. And where God's spirit was so evidently moving, it was not to be expected but Satan should be abroad, deceiving some and inciting others to "more ungodliness."t " Wherever God erects a honse of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there."
But of the reputed converts in 1740, about one hundred and forty, Parsons writes in 1754, that but 4 or 5 had fallen away openly. In 1767 he again writes favorably of the most in the church as solid and steady ; though an Antinomian preacher near by was very zealous, and had perverted some who twenty- six years before were accounted converts. Many of his spiritual children were alive when Dr. Dana came, and he speaks of them as among the "most distinguishing, judicious and tender hearted Christians he ever knew." Whitefield died, as you know, in 1770, at the house of Rev. Mr. Parsons. Portsmouth desired his body, and gentlemen from Boston, in a "manner
*Dr. Hodge's History of Presbyterian Church.
tMr. Parsons writes, (1754,) " Some among us who seemed for a time to run well, have since fallen away, some into gross wickedness, and others into wild enthusiasm, and have embraced several strange doctrines ; some affirm they have undergone something equivalent to death, and therefore are now immortal without any remains of [sin ; yea, beyond the possibility of sinning ; others ramble about, and when they can get admit- tance, creep into houses and teach the audience that human learning is the cause of driving away the spirit of God from the churches; one of this sort has lately been among my people, inculcating these principles. The principle seems to be taking with a few weak people, but I trust God will not suffer Satan to go on in this way."
20
pretty sovereign, made a sort of demand for it, and seemed to claim as their right to do as they pleased." But Mr. Parsons, though he " would not contend about his body," refused con- sent to any removal from the place where he had desired to be laid. Therefore he is with us to this day ; and " Thou, tomb, shalt safe retain thy sacred trust, Till life divine reanimates his dust."*
REV. JONATHAN PARSONS.
Born at West Springfield, November 30, 1705 ; graduated at Yale College, 1729 ; studied theology partly under di- rection of Rev. Elisha Williams, the President, and for a short time under Rev. Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton ; ordained and settled at Lyme, Conn., March 1731 ; installed at Newburyport, March 19, 1746, by the following form. After a sermon, Mr. Parsons proposed that the church should vote anew upon his settlement. The vote was taken by the clerk, and passed unanimously in the affirmative. The pastor elect then said, " In presence of God and these witnesses, I take this people to be my people ;" and the clerk replied for the rest, "In the presence of God and these witnesses, we take this man to be our minister."
Mr. Parsons, the first settled minister, ought ever to be held in respectful remembrance by this church. He was the nurse of its infancy in troublous times. Amid many breakers, the wild surges of fanaticism and the shoals of Arminianism now
*Whitefield was buried in his gown, cassock, bands and wig ; and as late as 1784 the body seems to have been but little impaired, although the skin was "discolored and blackish." lu the same vault lie Rev. Mr. Parsons and Rev. Mr. Prince ; the latter a blind preacher, whose lite was marked by many striking interpositions of a kind Providence. lle died in town at the house of his son in 1791 ; and out of respect for him as a man of tiod, he was lakt in the vault with Whitefield. Sometime anterior to 1327, a part of Whitefield's right arin was abstracted by a visitor, as a present to a friend in England. Philip In his life of W. mentions that he had knowu who had it for ten years ; p. 519. In September 1549, Rev. Mr. Stearne, the pastor, received a box from England with the bone enclosed. It was replaced, and the remains have since been more carefully guarded against such antiquarian depredators.
21
crested with angry and opposing waves, with a sometimes timid and distracted crew, he safely piloted the church's way. And if, in the legacy the fathers left you, of a gospel faith and gospel hopes, there is anything you value ; if, reared in this heritage, the church's soundness and the fathers' piety, have been any blessing to yon or shall yet be to your children, you owe much to him, as, under God, the instrument. Previous to his settlement, (March 1746,) the congregation had for three years been under a young preacher from Byfield, Mr. Joseph Adams, a man of piety and gifts, but inexperienced and somewhat indiscreet in his zeal. When Parsons came, he found among them " a number of serious Christians who appeared to be understanding, solid, and in some measure established in the main points of Christian doctrine. But many others appeared of an Antinomian turn, full of vain confidence, self-conceit and false affections ; and some that were the greatest Christians in their own esteem, were worldly and covetous." His work was, therefore, before him ; to build up the doctrines of Christ in a community and part of the land where they were evidently " run down." And for the duties of his position he was by nature and grace remarkably qualified. In person he was of middle stature, light complexion, with blue eyes and a some- what prominent chin, His countenance was commanding and strongly marked with character, his voice clear, rich and flexible ; so that his elocution became solemn and majestic, alarming or persuasive and melting, as occasion required. As a sermonizer he was correct, natural, casy and clear in method, with a rich and lively imagination, in matter weighty and pun- gent, combining usually both doctrinal and practical in the same sermon. Ilis favorite themes were those of the cross, human depravity, the new birth, justification by faith, sanctifi- cation and the like, upon which he reflected the light of a elcar and sober mind, mellowed by a most happy experience. Add
22
to this, unusual gifts in prayer, in extempore utterance, also, when he resorted to it, a fine and varied scholarship, and we have no reason to doubt the description of him, as both a pop- ular and eminently successful preacher. Whilst as a pastor, his own experimental knowledge of truth and of error, his faithfulness and caution, acquired from large observation of revivals, made him a blessing indeed .* And if his naturally choleric and rather unlovely temper sometimes made him enemies, the ready amend, his sensibility, open liberality and kindness, won the constant respect and affection of his people. Nor was his influence unfelt abroad. He corresponded exten- sively with leading men here and in England; with Dr. Gillies, Dr. John Erskine, Dr. Thomas Gibbons, Dr. Finley, Dr. J. Rogers, Dr. Sprout, Dr. Eleazer Wheelock of Lebanon, Conn., and others. He was one of those who gave inception to Dart- mouth College ; and visited the governor concerning it. And being a warm revivalist and friend of Whitefield's, he was much consulted by the friends of the revival.
Such was the man whom Providence raised up to mould the character of the infant church. But good Mr. Parsons dwelt all his days in the tents of Kedar. His change of opinion at Lyme, made him bitter enemies who followed him even here with their slanders. The surrounding clergy were mostly disaffected towards him. For several years at the beginning he lived in jeopardy of his life ; the low and vulgar sometimes even reviling and pelting him with stones in the street. How bitter the state of feeling must have been, and how unexpected was kindness from those of other societies, one entry in his diary plainly shows ; in
*At his ordination Mr. Parsons, too hastily discarding the views of his learned teachers publicly rejected the platform of the Connecticut churches. For two years he was an Armin- lan. After his conversion he became a zealous revivalist. and strayed, it would seem, to the brink of the precipice, over which many others fell. But grace reclaimed him; and having by itinerating some, enlarged his observation of the wildness and errors that were springing up, his whole influence was thrown against the fanaticism of the times.
23
1746 he writes : " made some business with Deacon Nathaniel Coffin, the town clerk. He treated me kindly, and kept me much longer than I expected. Blessed be God that he gave me favor with man, though he never came to hear me preach." Nor was he ever more comfortable. In 1754 his constitution, which was delicate, for the time sank under his perils and labors ; and a nervous rheumatism, with little prospect of recovery, induced him to ask for a colleague or a dismission. Subsequently the spread of Anabaptism, Antinomianism, and Pelagianism in the neighborhood greatly troubled him, he being almost alone among them in the opposition. One of the former sort invaded his own congregation in his absence, and had nearly made a breach among them. Whilst those ministers even who were Calvinistic in doctrine, seemed steadfastly bent to destroy Presbyterianism. These things led him in 1768 and again in 1771, notwithstanding his age, to think of a removal ; being tired, he said, of living among Independants, who were responsible to nobody. But in 1772 his public labors were suspended by sickness. He died July 19, 1776, aged 71, after a ministry here of thirty years ; and now lies beside his be- loved friend Whitefield.
REV. JOHN MURRAY.
Born in Ireland, May 22, 1742-educated at the University of Edinburgh-settled at Philadelphia, at Boothbay, Me., and finally at Newburyport, June 4, 1781.
After the death of Parsons, for several years the condition of the church was gloomy and critical. Their Elijah was taken away, and where was an Elisha ? Delay and candidates led to dissension. Some were for changing the government. The original members, who had carried the church through so much opposition and persecution, were old and passing away. That virulent crop of error, which succeeded the great revival, was
24
rapidly spreading. Whilst, in so large a congregation, many were of course to be found who knew and cared little concern- ing doctrine or government, and might easily be led or imposed upon. The wisdom and diligence of the session, however, saved the church. And after repeated disappointments and a five years actual vacancy, Mr. Murray became pastor in 1781, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of a few.
There has never been a more devoted minister in this town, nor, except Whitefield, a greater preacher ; one who attracted larger audiences or held them in more fixed attention through discourses, which were ordinarily an hour, and often two and more in length ; yet some preferred Mr. Parsons. It is related of Murray, that one of his early opposers gave him a text at the church door, as a test of his qualifications. IIe laid aside his intended sermon, and discoursed with such ability as dis- armed prejudice, and called forth the extravagant saying of Mr. Parsons, that he had not been surpassed since the days of the apostles. There were others in town of eminence and reputation, but as a pulpit orator he far excelled. Of the most distinguished among them, a stranger remarked that "he was a planet too near the sun to give much light." When Mr. Murray preached his thanksgiving sermon* of two hours length for the peace, a gentleman from another society, being mean- while under great concern of mind over a spoiling dinner, fre- quently and resolutely took his hat to leave. But Mr. Murray's eloquence as often arrested him, till at last he whis- pered, "let the dinner go, I must hear it out." As another illustration of his oratorical power it is related, that during the war, at a crisis in our affairs, Newburyport was called upon to furnish a full company for actual service. But owing to discouragement, arising from a depreciated currency and
*Entitled "Jerubbaal, or tyranny's grove destroyed and the altar of liberty finished." A distinguished lawyer of Boston recently proposed to have it re-published.
-----
-----
25
the state of the army, the officers labored three days in vain. On the fourth it was moved that Mr. Murray be invited to address the regiment then under arms. Having accepted the invitation, he was escorted to the parade, and thence by the whole regiment to the church. There he pronounced an address so spirited and animating, that the audience were wrapt in attention, and tears fell from many eyes. Soon after the assembly was dismissed, a member of the churchi came forward to take the command, and in two hours the company was filled. In manner, I am told, he was slightly pompous, but dignified in presence, courteous, sincerely kind, and by his people enthusi- astically beloved. In various labors abundant, he had often the pleasure, also, under the divine favor, of seeing abundant results. Dr. Green mentions that during his brief sojourn at Philadelphia, of a few months only, more were added to the church than during the whole of Gilbert Tennent's ministry. When he went to Boothbay there was no organized church, and a general inattention to religion. Under his ministry a pow- erful revival commenced, which continued through two years, and extended into the adjoining towns ; his own lodgings being often crowded with enquirers, even till three o'clock in the morning. His private diary of this period indicates a man of deep picty and uncommon, ministerial devotedness .* And to his prayerfulness, meekness, good will and patient endurance of injuries, as well as faithfulness in his vocation in subsequent life, biographers and those who remember him bear ample tes- timony.
Mr. Murray's usefulness, however, was circumscribed, and his
*Greenleaf's Feelesiastical Sketches. Mr. Murray's plan of visiting, as noted in his diary, deserves allusion. First, salute the house. Second, compare the list with the family, mark them who can read-catechisables-covenanters-church members. Third, address-1. Chil- dren to engage in early religion ; 2. Young ones to reading, secret prayer, the Sabbath, good company, good houses, good tongues, conversion. Fourth, address parents; 1. About their spiritual state; 2. Secret devotion ; 3. Family worship, government, catechising ; 4. Sabbath, &c. If church members, see what profit-if in error or vice reclaim, in divisions heal, if poor help. Lastly, exhortation to all-pray.
4
26
mistake , en first. Mag
life embittered by a prejudice and odium which clung to him till death. In this town and the vicinity, the pulpits were generally closed against him, and some of the pastors would not even speak to him. Some of this prejudice lay equally against the church, in which he shared as their minister ; for the old enmities still existed. Even to his day, the Presbyte- rians were contemptuously styled the " Joppa people"-a very honorable name, however, which first became local through a prayer meeting (one of the many which characterized the church,) " in the house of one Simon, (Pierce) by the sea-side." But it resulted mostly from an early difficulty in Ireland, to be presently mentioned. So decided were Dr. Spring's feelings towards him on this account, that he would put his hand behind his back, when Mr. Murray offered his ; and at a funeral where both officiated, he left the room during Mr. Murray's prayer .* His last days, too, were farther embittered by a breach in his congregation. During the long sickness which confined him, with heart-broken sadness, he saw from his window crowds of his former admirers rushing after Rev. Mr. Milton, a new star whom he had himself invited to town. And when one said something to him of his friends, he answered, " My dear child, I do not know that I have a friend in the world." But still he was an example of patience, resignation, and piety in his adver- sity. It was his wish that he might have a long sickness ; that he might show to all his firm and continued belief in the doctrines he had preached-and during it he asked to have the children and all who would, call on him for this purpose. Thus he continued to the end ; and died in peace, repeating the
*Dr. Spring was very decided and strong In all his feelings. Ilo fully belleved the state- ments against Mr. Murray, and hence bis course. He would have been as decided a friend, as an ancedote which has been mentioned to me may show. At New York he expressed a desire to call upon Aaron Burr. His son toll him that Burr had fallen so low that any acquaintance with him was undesirable. But he said, " I have stood side by side with him ju the same battle-in the hottest of it, I saw that little man carrying off the body of his commander on his shoulder-I must go ;"-and he did.
27
assurance that his enemies had but increased the frequency of his errands to the throne of grace. His closing hours were indeed a triumph, full of Christian aspiration and hope ; when he repeated the lines of that hymn :-
" Death may dissolve my body now, And bear my spirit home! Why do my minutes move so slow, Nor my salvation come ?"
and gave up the ghost, March 13, 1793, aged 51.
I now approach that stain upon his memory, which, also, darkened and saddened his life-as yet unrelieved by any con- nected statement, but to which, as I believe, a milder coloring may truthfully be given. He was charged with "forging his license," or rather a certificate relating to the license .*
Mr. Murray was from Ireland ; where he united with the church at fifteen, and began the ministry at eighteen ; having received license, as he claimed, at Alnwich, Northumberland, (Eng.,) from the "class of Woollers-Isaac Wood, Moderator ; Robert Treat, Clerk." The offense, therefore, with which he was charged, occurred at the age of 18 ; and the other acts alleged against him in connection with the matter, before he was 23. His license having been questioned in the Irish Pres- bytery of Ballymena, he sent it to some in Edinburgh to have it attested by such as knew the hands that signed it. Instead of taking better steps, they wrote on the back of the same sheet a certificate attesting that " he had indeed gone to Northum- berland ; had certainly been licensed there-had preached several times in Scotland, in consequence thereof-and was well approved by them ;" and then sent it to him signed by themselves, with the words Moderator and Clerk of Presbytery,
*My authorities arc-Parsons' MSS letters ; Minutes of Philadelphia Presbytery ; Memo- randa of my grandfather, Ebenezer Hazard, Esq. ; Murray's " Appeal to an impartial public ;" a letter to a writer in the Spy of 1774 ; Confessions before Presbytery at Salem ; Protest of members thereof ; his will.
28
annexed to their names, which they were not. This certificate caused the trouble of his whole life. For being shown in the Synod of Ulster at Londonderry, (although by another in his absenec, he always said,) it immediately became an object of attention. He was now accused of forgery. Meanwhile his Scottish friends had written to him, owning the fraud but beseeching him not to ruin them, as their prospects were good in the church. And rather than ruin them, and give his own enemies a triumph, which at that age he was too proud to endure, he defended the paper as genuine. From Ireland he came to New York, when hardly 21; and was in May, 1765, ordained and settled for several months as Gilbert Tennent's successor in Philadelphia. The charge followed him. The Presbytery of Philadelphia appear to have proceeded with great wisdom and delicacy in the matter. But the first wrong step had plunged him in the mire, and cach succeeding one sunk him deeper. " The frown of a holy God was on the thing, he writes, and every measure of defence either promised or actually taken by the authors of the paper only increased the embarrassment of him whom they meant to defend." Ilis whole character now became suspicious. Other things were alleged, but never judicially investigated, although influencing the result. And finally, as he did not appear to defend himself* and the case seemed conclusive, Presbytery deposed him. The Presbytery of the Eastward, however, afterwards judicially annulled the sentence, on several grounds ; his humiliation and confessions not only, but informalities and as they believed injustice in the proceedings of his case .;
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.