USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Templeton > Historical discourse in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the formation of the First Congregational Church in Templeton, Massachusetts : with an appendix, embracing a survey of the municipal affairs of the town > Part 5
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before 1780. A large number of these were after- ward received to " full communion," and are included in the numbers already given. The vote just quoted has never been rescinded; the church expressly refusing to do so, July 30, 1807. But it has long been obsolete. In fact, no person has " owned the covenant" in that sense, in this church, since 1791.
During the century, there have been sixteen hundred and forty-one baptisms in this church. Twenty-three were in Rev. Mr. Pond's ministry, - all children. In Rev. Mr. Sparhawk's ministry, there were eleven hundred and sixteen, only ten of them adults ; in Rev. Dr. Wellington's, the number is five hundred and two, of whom fifty-six were adults. In the two intervals, when there was a vacancy in the pastoral office, no baptisms are recorded.
The varying numbers of children baptized at dif- ferent periods may serve to indicate the different states of public sentiment on the subject. Thus we find that the average of baptisms of children here, in the first half-century of the church, was twenty- two per annum; in the second half-century, the average number has been ten per annum. In the first seven years of Mr. Sparhawk's ministry, the population being at first but small, the number was a hundred and fifty-eight; but in the next fourteen years of his ministry, from 1768 to 1782, there were five hundred and sixty children baptized, - an ave- rage of just forty a year. Yet, in his last fourteen years, there were only a hundred and sixty-two, - an average of about twelve a year; and, of the children
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baptized in Dr. Wellington's ministry, more than four-fifths were in the first twenty-five years. This striking change, which has thus been progressing for upwards of sixty years, was of course promoted, in some part, by the formation of the Baptist society, and the influence of their views. But it is evident that the extent of the change has been far greater than can be ascribed to that source alone. This is not the occasion to offer any extended remark upon the subject ; but I cannot refrain from suggesting, that the principal cause is to be found in the un- scriptural and untenable views of the rite which were prevalent in the last century. There can be no doubt that infant baptism was then often regarded as, in itself, an efficacious sacrament. In the Roman- Catholic church, baptism, whether of infants or of others, had been regarded as a saving ordinance. The spiritual condition of a baptized child, whether living or dying, is deemed by the Roman Catholics wholly different from that of the unbaptized. After the Protestant Reformation, this rite, being still re- tained as a sacrament, continued to carry with it associations more or less similar. The Articles and Catechism of the Established Church of England, as well as the writings of many of her divines, strongly indicated the theory of baptismal regeneration of infants. In the theology of the Puritans, too, there was maintained to be an essential difference, as to their relations to the divine promises, between bap- tized and unbaptized children. These views, not derived, as we think, from Scripture, but inherited
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from the church of Rome, pervaded, to a great extent, the whole body of the people in New Eng- land, though with more or less vagueness of impres- sion as to their doctrinal basis. They thought, that, in the act of baptism, the spiritual condition of the infant was then and there materially changed. I know of no evidence that Rev. Mr. Sparhawk him- self held any such doctrine, and have reason to think he did not. But it is unquestionable, that ideas of the sort largely influenced the people throughout the country. This explains the fact, that so many in- fants, seventy-five and a hundred years ago, were baptized as soon as practicable after birth, very often during the first week of their lives. But such con- victions gradually became weakened, or faded away. A corresponding alteration of the practice took place. The result has been, that now the number of bap- tisms of infants is everywhere small, compared with what it once was. It has served as an instructive lesson against permitting a religious usage to rest upon irrational grounds. But there are other grounds, of great significance, why parents should dedicate their offspring to God, in infancy, by this religious rite. Those grounds look to the usage, not as the observance of a ritual law, nor as undis- tinguished from the personal consecration and pro- fession of faith which the adult believer makes of himself by receiving baptism, but rather as an im- pressive consecration and symbolic rite in which the parents are primarily concerned, and the child through them. When parents, believing in the
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gospel, thus testify their desire and intent that the child shall grow up under Christian nurture, and be regarded, from the first dawning of its intel- ligence, as dedicated to its heavenly Father, its Saviour, and the influences of the Divine Spirit bestowed from the Father through the Son, then the spiritual beauty and improvement of this rite is felt with power. May we not believe, that in coming times, on a more just and scriptural and practical foundation than was the usage of the past, such consecrations will become general in every Christian community ?
The number of deaths in this town, or funerals attended, in the first half-century, was not recorded in the church-books; nor are there means for deter- mining how many marriages were then solemnized.
I proceed to complete the statistics of the century, by giving the number of councils participated in for the settlement of ministers; and the elections of deacons. The number of ordaining or installing councils which this church has attended - one or more delegates being always appointed beside the pas- tor - is fifty-seven. Of these, twelve were in the first half-century, and forty-five in the second.
It has been the usual practice in this church to have three deacons. Five different persons were chosen and accepted during the first half-century, and five others during the second half. The first choice was made in March, 1763, of CHARLES BAKER, who lived on the Phillipston territory. He did not
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accept till the following year, upon a renewed elec- tion. He continued in office till the formation of the church in Gerry, in 1785. In 1767, two others were appointed, - JONAS WILDER, who had been chosen in December, 1763, and then declined, but now accepted ; and PHINEAS BYAM, who at first delayed his acceptance, but is called deacon in the records a few months after: he officiated for forty years. In 1780, PAUL KENDALL was elected deacon : he served about forty-five years. In 1789, Deacon Jonas Wilder having previously removed to Lancas- ter, N.H .; and Deacon Charles Baker been dismissed, to form, with others, the church in Gerry, - JOSIAH WILDER was appointed deacon, Timothy Parker hav- ing declined. He continued upwards of a quarter of a century. In 1807, on the death of Deacon Byam, JONATHAN CUTTING, sen., was elected : he resigned in 1830, at the age of upwards of eighty years. Upon the death of Deacon Josiah Wilder in 1818, THOMAS FISHER was chosen. He died about four years after- ward, and Deacon EZEKIEL PARTRIDGE was appointed in his place. In 1825, Deacon Paul Kendall having resigned on account of his advanced age, the church chose his son Paul Kendall for successor: but he declined, as did also John Bigelow; and Deacon JEREMIAH LORD was chosen. The vacancy caused by Deacon Cutting's resignation was filled, in 1830, by the election of Deacon LEONARD STONE.
Such is the survey of our past history. It im- presses us with a sense of gratitude to that Providence
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which watched over the feeble settlement, and has brought it to the days of its strength, and established its institutions. It impresses us also with a sense of reverence and honor for those true-hearted men who laid the foundations of what we so highly prize.
And now we have arrived at the threshold of the second century of our religious organizations here. We are looking forward to the future. What a flood of thoughts and profound emotions rush into the mind as we make the contemplation ! We shall change, and pass away. A few years now suffice to make great alterations, by death and changes of resi- dence, in any religious society. When even another half-century has gone, how few of all this congrega- tion will be here! - how few of us then will be remaining on earth ! And, as we think of this, let us to-day seriously put it to our consciences, how we are using our present privileges, and what we ought to ask God to enable us to do for the future. But, however it may be with any of us, these institutions of religion, as we trust, are to remain. The sacra- ments are still to be administered here, and the doors of the sanctuary opened for the public worship of God, in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, as it has been for a hundred years past. Here the Sunday school, with its gospel instructions and persuasions bearing upon the tender minds of the young, is to be perpetuated. The social influences of Christianity are to be cherished, and the beautiful neighborhood charities of our religion cultivated. And, as we look forward to the century now to come, what anticipa-
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tions - joy and sorrow mingling, yet hope and encouragement predominating - fill the vista of the years ! Great changes must be looked for in the fu- ture, as well as in the past. How extensive these changes may be, we know not. New forms and usages may displace the present, as ours, in some measure, have those of the past. More light may break forth from God's word. Christian philanthropy may find out new methods and new objects. Let us trust that this church will ever be candid toward all new claims, views, and obligations ; that its members will ever seek to act up to the light God at any time giveth. But this we are sure of, that, amid whatever changes of forms and usages, principles do not change. There are central truths of religious faith and duty, not obscure, nor hard to receive, by which Christianity exercises all its practical power over men. These are likewise the everlasting principles, in harmony with which the Almighty's moral government over his children is perpetually administered. These, there- fore, are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The same God is for ever to be worshipped and obeyed; the same Saviour for ever trusted in as the Light of the world, as the divinely appointed Media- tor for our salvation. And, in the coming century, on this basis we are to uphold and make effectual the institutions that have been transmitted to us. We are to build on the foundations of the past.
One hope and expectation cherished by the fathers is, indeed, to be disappointed. When they formed our present organization, they trusted and believed
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that their posterity here would be united together, on the broad basis of our simple Congregational platform and usages, into one church fellowship, - into one combined Christian co-operation. That anticipation is not fulfilled. But let us not lament over the divi- sions of the past. We may trust they were, at least in the main, conscientiously taken up. Those differ- ences and separations were nothing peculiar to this town, but are similar to what God's providence has permitted to exist everywhere, perhaps to be over- ruled for greater results than we now comprehend. Consider how in the past, and now, doctrinal diver- sities have always accompanied freedom ; and how many separations have arisen, in consequence, among those that alike acknowledge the authority of Jesus Christ, and receive the same written word. Surely it must be a disheartening contemplation to any one, whatever his own views may be, if he cannot think that all this is really of providential import. Sad and gloomy must be the anticipation to one who cannot think that - to be controlled, at length, by the power of the common faith in the one Lord and Master of us all - these diversities are working together as a part of that mighty combination of influences, guided by the Divine Spirit, which. shall bring in the time when the nations of the world will become obedient unto our God and his Christ.
But let us judge as we may as to any doctrines or creeds in their abstract or practical import, the existing separations, while they continue, may be conducted honorably and amicably. We have agreed
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to differ. It remains for this church of Christ, on the foundation of its own conscientious convictions of truth and duty, to persevere, in the century to come, in fulfilling the trust we have received from the past. We are not chained down to any traditional, human articles of speculative doctrine. This church never adopted any sectarian name or pledges. It is not unity of doctrinal opinion that we need or require, but the loving surrender of the heart to Christ as the Lord of all ; sincere repentance for sin; prayer and daily struggle for that " holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." In the oneness of this faith, in the bond of charity and peace, maintaining the same broad platform of fellowship as was here of old, we offer a cordial greeting to all, of every name, who take Christ for their Master and Saviour, and receive the Scriptures as containing the rule for their faith and practice. Accordingly, there are and always have been among us differences of views as to the meaning of passages of Scripture and as to doctrinal conclusions. Why should it not be so ? Why should not neighbors and friends worship to- gether and work together, and cherish a mutual fellowship, even if they do come to different con- clusions on those points which have exercised the minds of thinking men for so many ages, and on which the wisest and best of mankind have differed ? This is the position we take; and whether it is one right and safe, and for the good of the cause of religion, let experience and the judgment of posterity decide.
المن الحل
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As we go forward in the coming century to the responsibilities that lie before us, let it be with gratitude and hope. We have the inheritance of our institutions from the past. We have its sacred memories to encourage us on. See to it, my friends, that you fulfil the duties which rest upon you to sus- tain these institutions. Cherish not only a care for the religious welfare of your own borders, but like- wise an active and generous missionary spirit. Culti- vate enlarged Christian sympathies with humanity everywhere. Cherish refined and ennobling social influences, attended by considerate and adequate charities. Take heed to all that belongs to the religious education of the young, not only in the Sunday school, but still more at home. Reverence all Christian rites. Encourage the regular attend- ance on public worship. Come into the house of God to offer personally the sacrifices of praise and prayer. Speak often one to another of these things. Bring hither hearts touched with a genuine contri- tion, and looking upward for the offered mercy. And, with the growth of your own faith, knowledge, piety, and charity, work onward in anticipation of the gra- dual diffusion, far and wide, of a free, pure, rational, practical Christianity. Let us try to do each our part " in this great work of ages." As we are blessed now by what the fathers handed down to us, at such cost and with such exertion on their part, so let us transmit what shall bless the generation to come. Meanwhile, it is for us to show the value of our faith by its fruits. The strength of that testimony
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to the century now before us will depend upon the tone and spirit of the Christian life that shall be nurtured here. It will be determined by the vigor and comprehensiveness of our benevolence; by the fidelity shown to our missionary duties ; by the fer- vency and genuineness of our devotion, public and private ; by the measure of our experience of the gospel's power to support the soul in temptation, in affliction, and in the hour of death.
God grant that here the persuasions of our religion may long continue to make their way to many hearts ! Here may disciples of Christ long strengthen each other in every practical duty taught by our faith ! Here may they unite, in hallowed sympathy, gene- ration after generation, worshipping the common Father of all through the one only Saviour, and seek- ing the life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit and Comforter sent down from heaven !
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APPENDIX.
NOTE A. - PAGE 4.
GRANT OF THE TOWNSHIP.
THE lands here were regarded as the property of the Pro- vince of Massachusetts. The Legislature, in the last century, granted public lands more with reference to the policy of opening new settlements than with a view to making them a source of profit to the treasury. In 1728, application was made to the General Court for grants of wild lands in com- pensation for military services in the Narraganset-Indian War. The merciless destruction of those Indians and their habitations took place in 1675; but certain promises made to the soldiers to give them gratuities in land had never been fulfilled. Those claims, though fifty years old, were brought forward by the soldiers who survived and by the heirs of others, and were recognized by the General Court, June 15, 1728. It granted two townships, each of six miles square, and ordered notices to be posted up in every town in the Province, for soldiers and their representatives to present evidence of their claims. A convention of those who brought forward their claims was ordered to be held in the summer of 1730. They were ordered to meet, not in Boston, but in Cambridge, " by reason of the small-pox being then in Boston." At that meeting, the number of those entitled was found to be much larger than had been
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expected ; and Thomas Tileston, Esq., and others, were made a committee to ask the General Court for more town- ships. They were directed by the General Court to meet again, in Boston, in the autumn, " as the distemper is now out of Boston." The petition for more land was acted upon favorably by the House of Representatives, Dec. 30, 1730; and it was determined, June 1, 1731, that every one hundred and twenty grantees should have six miles square of land. A list of those entitled to receive land was presented in the House of Representatives, and accepted, Jan. 17, 1731 (old style). The concurrence of the Executive Council and of the Governor was still necessary to give validity to the grant ; there being no Senate during the Provincial govern- ment. On the next day, Jan. 18, the House of Representa- tives, anxious for the passage of the grant, sent a special message to the Council Board, urging the justice of the measure, and setting forth earnestly and eloquently the valor and merit of the soldiers engaged in the Narraganset expe- dition. The fact of the promises concerning land having been made to them was stated in this message in the follow- ing words : " A proclamation was made to the army, in the name of the government, when they were mustered on Dedham Plain, where they began their march, that if they played the man, took the fort, and drove the enemy out of the Narraganset country (which was their great seat), they should have a gratuity in land, beside their wages." In June, 1732, further claims of soldiers were allowed, under the authority of a committee ; and a township was drawn by each one hundred and twenty. The township drawn at that time by our proprietors seems to have been within the terri- tory of New Hampshire, " west of Ponocook and Suncook." The Narraganset township No. 3 was the present town of Mount Vernon, N.H. ; and No. 5 was the present town of Bedford, N.H. But, in 1745, the courts decided that under the grant by King James I. to Capt. John Mason, in 1621, his great-grandson, John Tufton Mason, was enti- tled to an immense territory in New Hampshire, includ-
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ing the Narraganset townships above named. The titles to those lands, resting upon the grant from the General Court of Massachusetts, of course failed. The owners of the Mason title, however, were disposed to make liberal terms with actual settlers. In October, 1733, our proprietors, not liking the tract first assigned, voted to lay out a township here, " on the back of Rutland," - the boundaries of Rut- land at that time comprehending Barre, which was called " Rutland District," - to be in place of the one they drew the year before at Boston ; and, in February following, the location and survey were accepted and confirmed, agrecably to the following extract from the records of the General Court. The date is old style, and corresponds to Feb. 23, 1734 :-
TUESDAY, Feb. 12, 1733.
A plat of a township for the Narraganset soldiers, bounded south-westerly on the township granted to Capt. Lovel's soldiers ; * south-easterly mostly on Rutland, t and partly on the Narraganset township No. 2 by Wachusett ; } north-easterly partly on said town- ship, and partly on unappropriated land, and partly on the new township laid out on Miller's River ; § beginning at Rutland north- erly corner, and running north thirty-nine degrees west by the needle, three hundred and ten perch, to a hemlock ; from thence, west eighteen degrees north, three hundred and forty perch, to a white pine; from thence, north thirty-four degrees west, one thou- sand two hundred and eighty perch (to the said province town) ; from thence, south, three hundred perch, to a white pine; from thence, eight hundred and sixty perch, to a beach-tree, the north- easterly corner of the said town granted to Capt. Lovel's soldiers ; from thence, south thirty-four degrees east, one thousand eight hun- dred and twenty-four perch, to a heap of stones in Rutland line ; from thence, east thirty degrees north, to the place where it began : - being the contents of six miles square, and an allowance of three hundred acres for the Mine Farm (so called), and a hundred acres for a pond in said tract.
In the House of Representatives, read, and ordered that the plat be accepted, and that the lands set forth and described in the within plat of the Narraganset township No. 6 (exclusive of the Mine Farm, so called) be and' hereby are confirmed to a hundred and twenty of the original grantees, their heirs and assigns, -- viz., that
* Petersham. t The part which is now Barre. # Westminster. § Athol.
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society of them of which Mr. Samuel Chandler and others were appointed a committee for regulating the said township No. 6 (so called), at a general meeting of the grantees the 6th of June, as by their votes and orders may appear, - provided the plat contains no more than the quantity of land within mentioned, and does not inter- fere with any former grants.
In Council, read, and concurred.
Consented to,
J. BELCHER [ Governor ].
NOTE B. - PAGE 8.
FORTY-ACRE HOUSE-LOTS.
These lots were designed for earliest cultivation. The committee appointed by the proprietors to lay out the lots consisted of Samuel Chandler, James Jones, Joshua Richard- son, Jolmn Longley, and Joseph Fassett. Mr. Chandler and his son were paid for twenty-three days' time in lotting out the town. Jonas Houghton, and Messrs. Hosmer, Jones, and Farrar, were paid, June 25, 1735, for their services as surveyors. There must have been considerable inconve- nience and want of economy in the mnode adopted of laying out all the forty-acre lots before it had been fully decided where the roads of the township should be located ; though, in a portion of the surveyed lots, mention is made of reserva- tions for roads through them. It was, moreover, voted, in January following, that any proprietors that should " be uneasy with the lots they had drawn have liberty to drop them, and lay out forty-five acres of any of the upland not lotted out, doing it at their own cost, within two years [and making their lots], in a regular form." May 8, 1751, similar leave was granted, provided it should be done within six weeks, and the quantity taken not more than forty acres. It was a condition of the grant by the Legislature, that sixty families should be settled on as many lots within seven
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years. In 1737, it was voted by the proprietors, that the owners of sixty of the lots, designated by drawing numbers, should pay into the treasury the sum of twelve pounds cach, old tenor, and that the other sixty lots should be settled within three years, and that each proprietor who settled his lot should receive eight pounds from the treasury out of the money paid by the " non-settlers." But it was not found practicable to effect settlements so carly. The General Court allowed some delay ; and it was voted, Sept. 16, 1742, that any, who, within two years from that time, would settle their lots according to the required terms, should be entitled to the eight pounds. But settlers did not come in ; and the proprietors voted, in 1743, to give twelve pounds, old-tenor currency, additional to the former bounty, to each of the first ten or any smaller number of families, who, before Sept. 1, 1744, would " build a good dwelling-house, and in- habit the same, agrecably to the act of the Great and General Court, and be an inhabitant in said township at that time." But the war between France and England which immediately came on, and in which many Indian tribes were engaged as allies of the French, wholly sus- pended, for several years, all plans of building, or cultivat- ing land, within the township. The proprietors held no meeting for the transaction of business between March, 1744, and October, 1749; peace having been declared pre- vious to the last-named date.
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