History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 30

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1 " New England's Memorial," Davis' edition, pp. 146-147. See also a tract, without date (in Boston Atheneum Library. "B. 76: Sermons"), entitled " A Direction," etc. Referred to by both Dr. Worcester and Judge White as bearing upon this question.

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this covenant was displaced by another. It was re- stored and renewed at the ordination of John Hig- ginson in 1660. In the course of time it was agaiu superseded, and for many years has not been used in the church." How much he may have meant by the expression, "at a very early period this covenant was displaced by another," we cannot tell. He does not specify as to the time or the extent of the displace- ment. He may have had in mind the preamble of 1636 ; if more than that, we cannot interpret his lan- guage, since no other changes are known to us pre- vious to 1660.

On the Stli of December, 1867, Mr. Upham deliv- ered an address at the re-dedication of the First Church building. Without intimating an abandon- ment of a former judgment, he incidentally shows that his judgment upon the matter in question was quite differeut in 1867 from that he had expressed nearly forty years before, thus : "This renewed covenant of 1636 bears the impress of the style of thought and ex- pression of Hugh Peters, whose name heads the list as from that date. . . . In most of the clauses the lan- guage and forms of thought were, as plainly appears, suggested by circumstances that had disturbed the peace and harmony of the church during the stormy agitations and conflicts of Roger Williams' period, and are therefore of temporary and retrospective in- terest. The passages that have no such special refer- ence, but express sentiments of universal and perpet- ual obligation, are inscribed on the opposite wall. It will be noticed that it begins by quoting from the covenant at the ' first beginning ' of the church. From the aspect of the document in the church book, and its entire construction and import, it is highly prob- able that what is inscribed on that tablet in German text is all that was taken from the first covenant. It is so complete in itself that the inference which the form of the document and the bearings of the contents seem to suggest, that it was the whole of that document, is almost unavoidable."

What was "inscribed on that tablet in German text " was this,-

" We covenant with the Lord, and one with another, and do bind ourselves in the presence of God, to walk to- gether in all his ways, according as He is pleased to re- veal Himself unto us, in His blessed word of truth."

And this, says Mr. Upham, "it is highly probable is all that was taken from the first covenant."

Perhaps no expression of our own opinion is called for, as to who is right in this controversy. If we have fairly placed the facts before the reader, and espe- cially if we refer him to the authorities in which he may find the merits of the question exhaustively treated (as we propose to do at the end of this ar- ticle), we shall put him in the way to form his own opin- ion for himself, if he cares to do so. We dismiss the interesting inquiry by simply calling attention, fnr- ther, to the fact that those who have sought to invali- date the long-settled opinion that the covenant "re-

newed " in 1636 is the same that was adopted at the fonnding of the church in 1629, appear to rest their argument and conclusion mainly upon the internal evidence afforded by the document itself. In resting their case upon that, they give it, as it seems to us, its best support, the weight of the historical evidence alone being insufficient to sustain their position. Both Mr. Upham and Dr. Worcester think they find in the covenant, as renewed in 1636, traces of the church agitations, and of the special controversies in- tervening between 1629 and 1636. Mr. White does not. Mr. Upham, moreover, finds that " this renewed covenant of 1636 bears the impress of the style of thought and expression of Hugh Peters." Mr. White could not discover this.

It should be borne in mind that this kind of evi- dence, while it may be strong and convincing in some cases, is peculiarly liable to take a more marked or a slighter coloring, or even an opposite hue, ac- cording to the interpreter's direction of approachi and resulting point of view. It needs a judicial im- partiality, a very complete knowledge of the religious history of the time, and a keen and much practiced literary perception, to pass intelligently and convinc- ingly upon such points. The difficulty is heightened by the circumstance that the very power of the recre- ative imagination, so necessary to reproduce vividly the life and thought of a past period, is itself often a snare and becomes an easy and frequent cause of the

misconstruction of language. We follow with cau- tion, and not without a measure of distrust, a line of argument which grounds important inferences upon what are at best only inferences from premises incap- able of verification, therefore not compelling assent.

No fact comes out more conspicuously in the early history of the Salem Church than that it intended to guard well its own independence. It was conscious of a new departure. It trod its untried way with caution, but with a firm foot. It was determined to make sure of this, namely, that the nnit of human au- thority in matters ecclesiastical should be the body of members congregating and covenanting together in church fellowship, in any one appointed place which should give it local habitation and name. Each such congregation was competent and commissioned to manage its own affairs. It need acknowledge no earthly superior. The Scriptures were its law-book. In them it would seek to find out the mind of Christ, the Head of the Church, in whom resided, for it, the ultimate sovereignty in spiritual things. It was glad to exchange assurances of mutual good-will and fellowship with the elder sister church at Plymonth. It had no intention of cutting itself off from Chris- tian fraternal relations with the churches of the mother-country, and stood with an anticipating hand of welcome stretched forth in brotherly recognition to all the New-World congregations of Christian people which it foresaw planting themselves in a long succession by its side, and all around. But each church

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

within its own borders constituted, under the Divine Head, a dominion of its own. It was in pursuance of this principle that the First Church in Salem had un- made the before-ordained ministers found within its own fold at the beginning, that it might make them ministers of its own creation and invest them with right and title to their office from itself.

In other ways, it availed of every opportunity that offered to reassert this principle. It looked with dis- trust upon a proposed affiliation of its ministers with the ministers of other churches in pastoral associa- tions, fearing that these associations would come in time to claim some power of direction and control within the churches, or would invent some form of ecclesiastical bondage, into which the churches of the colony might be drawn unconsciously, to the loss of their complete self-government. It was not long after its foundation before it conceived its independ- ence to be seriously threatened. Other churches which had sprung up around it, and such as had an honorable and weighty constituency, showed a dispo- sition to meddle in its affairs by taking cognizance of teachings by the Salem ministers, which they re- garded as not agreeing with the Scriptures, nor as being consistent with the peace and welfare of the community of new settlements in the colony. As often as there appeared to be occasion for it, this church reaffirmed, in clear and strenuous language, its purpose not to suffer its fellowship,-which it ex- tended freely and gladly as a sympathetic, helpful, brotherly communion, to all churches and all Chris- tians,-not to suffer it to become an entangling alli- ance, which might endanger its own freedom and autonomy. There was abundant justification for these precautions in the usurpation of ecclesiastical authority with which these Salem Christians had been lately only too familiar in England, and which warned them to keep a jealous guard against the forging of new fetters of spiritual domination and op- pression this side the sea, under the guise of better symbols of church order and of Christian living.

The officers of the church as first organized in Salem were, besides the pastor and teacher, one or more ruling elders, deacons and deaconesses. Between pastor and teacher no distinction of precedence ap- pears to have been observed. It is probable that in the performance of their respective duties it was found that the work of each naturally overlapped that of the other to a considerable extent, and that experience showed before long that it was better to combine the two offices in one, as was done.

The duties belonging to the office of the ruling elder were not very distinctly defined. He was an assistant to the pastor and teacher, but while under their general direction, he had an independent voice also as adviser and administrator in church affairs. The office came to Plymouth from Holland with the Pilgrim Church. That church found it in the Re- formed Churches of the Continent and referred to the

French Reformed Churches as its own precedent for establishing it, though in the French Churches the ability to teach was not held to be a necessary quali- fication for a ruling elder, as it was in the Dutch- English and American Churches.1 For a hundred and fifty years, at least, ruling elders were chosen by some churches in Massachusetts as necessary to their complete organization, although Mr. Bentley says, " the office never existed but in name, and did not survive the first generation."2 Mr. Bentley regards the office as having been designed to represent the power of the church itself on the part of its general membership, the elder standing as a permanent watchman and makeweight against all assumptions of special authority on the part of the ministers. After his brusqne and vigorous fashion he indicates how far short of answering its end was the device, by his brief and contemptnons notice of those who were elected to the place. "In the choice of an elder to rule the church, care was taken not to accept a civil officer, and Elder Honghton was appointed. He was a man of inoffensive ambition, and died in the next year after his appointment. Mr. Samuel Sharpe suc- ceeded him, but he was frequently abseut, and never possessed even the shadow of power. He died in 1658. The independence of Mr. Williams and the sover- eignty of Mr. Peters rendered the office useless in their time, and it never obtained its influence. When Mr. John Higginson, the son of Francis, in 1660, re- turned to Salem and attempted to revive the form of government which his father had adopted, Mr. John Browne was elected elder, but we find no other ser- vices but of attending, for a short time, the private instructions of the pastor, who had secured all the power." We have said that the office did not cease to be known with the first generation, or for a century and a half after, and it is true that the men called to the office even in the later years of its existence were not all colorless and valneless ciphers. But the fear of ministerial usurpation had very much died away, and the ruling elder was, in time, without functions, and disappeared. Mr. Bentley's assertion that it soon came to stand for little more than a name seems to be borne out by the history of the churches of the Mass- achusetts Colony.

Deacons, but not deaconesses, are mentioned as offi- cers chosen at the organization of the Salem Church. They received the contributions of the church and distributed them, and made provision for the table of communion, serving also in the dispensation of the bread and wine in the observance. Deaconesses, if not chosen at once by the church at Salem, were, ac- cording to custom, regularly selected in the churches of the earliest colonial period. As at Plymouth, so at Salem. They were widows by preference, of at least three-score years, withont carefully prescribed duties

1 Felt's Eccl. Hist. Vol. i. p. 34.

2 The North Church in Salom chose a ruling elder as Iate as 1826-pro- nounced by Felt " the only continuation of an ancient custom hore."

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as to details, but were appointed to carry on a general ministry of visiting and comforting among the sick, poor and distressed.

We have been more minute and explicit in specify- ing some of these forms of church-life and organiza- tion first adopted here, because this was the pioneer church. Offices, titles and usages now long familiar to every New England village were then new, or known only as existing in the English churches under other conditions, and where they had a different signifi- cance ; here, under an old name, went a new thing. New methods were on trial, and were carefully ob- served and studied, and sought to be adjusted to the circumstances of the time and people, and were not immediately and once for all fixed in an unalterable form.

Francis Higginson lived but a year after the found- ing of the church. On the 6th of August, 1630, just a year from the day when its organization was com- pleted, a day in whose doings he bore the leading part, he closed his earthly labors. He was born in 1588, and was, therefore, a little more than forty years of age when he came to Salem. He was a graduate of the famous English University of Cambridge - of Emanuel College, according to Mr. Upham ; of Jesus, says Judge White; of St. John's, says F. S. Drake (American biography); and Mr. Savage (Geneal. Dict.), seemingly warranting and reconciling all these assignments, has it : " Bred at Jesus College, Cam- bridge, where he took his A.B., 1609, but was of St. John's when his A.M. was given, 1613, though Mather asserts he was of Emanuel." He was first settled in Leicester, England, where he had so high a reputa- tion as a preacher that "the people flocked to hear him from the neighboring towns." Neal, historian of the Puritans, says, "he was a good scholar, of a sweet and affable behavior, and having a most charm- ing voice, was one of the most acceptable and popular preachers of the country." Becoming a non-con- formist he was ejected from his living and forbidden to preach in England. After this he resorted to teaching for a livelihood. He is characterized by Mr. Bentley as " grave in his deportment and pure in his morals. In his person he was slender, not tall; not easily changed from his purposes, but not rash in declaring them. His influence in giving form and direction to the first church polity in America was second to none." Mr. Bentley, by a few strokes, pic- tures some of the results of Mr. Higginson's brief ministry in the social customs of the newly-gathered community at Salem, and shows in what spirit and along what lines of influence he wrought : "He lived to secure the foundation of his church, to de- serve the esteem of the colony and provide himself a name among the worthies of New England. When he died, he left in the colony the most sacred guards upon the public manners. Cards, dice, and all such amusements, had no share of favour. Family devo- tions were inculcated and established, and the most

constant attendance on public worship. The minis- ters visited families to assist in their devotions. Con- stant care of the poor was required ; the Indians were not permitted to trade in private houses; all the inhabitants were instructed to unite in the labours which promoted their common interest; and the greatest confidence was required in all who were appointed in civil trusts." (Pp. 244-245.)

Rev. Samuel Skelton, ordained the first pastor of the church, in association with Mr. Higginson as teacher, on the 20th of July, 1629, survived his col- league four years. He had been the minister of Gov- ernor Endicott, in England, and was hield hy him in especial affection and esteem, as one to whom he had reason to look up as his spiritual father. His name is less conspicuous in the early annals of the Massa- chusetts churches than that of Higginson. He seems to have been a modest and retiring man, and is de- scribed by a contemporary as "of gracious speech, full of faith, aud furnished by the Lord with gifts from above." He was content to yield precedence to others, nor soured with jealousy when to them went the harvest of fame. "As he never acted alone," says Mr. Bentley, "he yielded to others all the praise of his best actions." The scant recognition accorded to him among those who led in church affairs in the earliest days is further explained by his biographer by the fact that "there was a want of friendship be- tween the ministers of Boston and its neighborhood and the ministers of Salem. Everything which one party did was found fault with by the other." That he was a man of positive convictions and not lacking in courage would appear from his standing forward in defense of his colleague, Roger Williams, when the latter was assailed and in danger of being over- borne by those who uttered the sentence of popular condemnation against him. Mr. Skelton was prob- ably of about the same age as Mr. Higginson, having taken his first degree in 1611, two years later than Mr. Higginson. He was of Lincolnshire, educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and died August 2, 1634.

Francis Higginson had been dead six months, and Mr. Skelton was carrying on his ministry alone in the Salem Church, when Roger Williams arrived in Bos- ton, early in February, 1631. Rev. John Wilson, minister of the First Church in Boston, was contem- plating a visit to England, and Mr. Williams was in- vited to supply his place during his absence, but de- clined on the ground that the members of that church were " an unseparated people."

April 22d, following, he was invited to Salem as an assistant to Rev. Mr. Skelton. Having already promulgated some novel and unacceptable notions deemed subversive of the just authority of the magis- trates, the Massachusetts Court interposed a remon- strance against the action of the Salem Church, and succeeded in preventing Mr. Williams' coming to Salem. He soon went to Plymouth, and even there, though the teachings of the separatists were more in

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

favor in Plymouth than in Boston, and his personal qualities gained him a large influence, his "singular opinions" were not welcome to all, and after serving a while as assistant to Rev. Ralph Smith, he applied himself to manual labors and to trade for a liveli- hood, devoting much time also to acquiring the lan- guage of the Indians, though meanwhile never losing sight of the then agitating questions of church gov- ernment, and of individual responsibility in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

In 1633 Mr. Williams obtained, not without some difficulty, a dismission from the church in Plymouth, and returned to Salem; returned accompanied by several members of the Plymouth Church, who pre- ferred to give up their home and church relations to severing the tie that bound them to their pastor. Arrived in Salem, he became an assistant to Mr. Skelton, though without formal ordination. And notwithstanding that he had come again under the censure of the Governor and Assistants of Massachn- setts for offensive writings and publications, in some of which he had denied the validity of the title of the Massachusetts Company to its territory, in that they had not the assent of the natives of the soil, yet he was invited and ordained, npon the death of Mr. Skelton, in Angust, 1634, to succeed him in the pas- toral charge of the church. In this office he con- tinued till October 19, 1635, when the opposition which his vigorous assertion of his views had aroused culminated in a sentence pronounced by the General Court that he should depart out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts within six weeks, on account of hav- ing " broached and divulged divers new and danger- ous opinions against the authority of the magistrates, as also writ letters of defamation, both of the magis- trates and churches." "The colonial records," says Arnold, the historian of Rhode Island, " fix the date November 3d." Consent was given afterwards to the postponement of his removal till spring, upon con- dition of his refraining from promulgating his objectionable doctrines. It was withdrawn subse- quently, upon the allegation that the conditions had been violated. Learning that he was to be sent at once to England, he anticipated the plans of his judges, escaping early in January to the Soutlı, through the wintry snows and storms, and finding a refuge on the banks of the Seckonk River, where he founded the State of Rhode Island.

The teachings of Mr. Williams which gave offense, to be fully understood, must be sought for and ex- amined in the history of the time, at greater length than it is possible to consider them here. They dealt largely with definitions and distinctions bearing on the relations of the civil and spiritual authorities to each other, showing their respective limits, con- stantly raising questions of much nicety and diffi- culty, and yet questions immediately and vitally practical, as affecting issues at the moment pressing upon the people. The whole field of discussion

being at the same time complicated with that larger problem which had exercised the minds of the colon- ists from the first, namely : the possibility of con- structing a civil order on a Biblical foundation. The severity of the course pursued by the magistrates and ministers has been ascribed in part, and probably not unjustly, to a feeling in the churches of Boston and the neighborhood not friendly to the Salem Church, which church had shown, from the first, a commend- able jealousy of interference by other churches, and a determination to maintain strictly its independence. It has been mentioned as a noteworthy fact that "in this court [for the trial of Mr. Williams], composed of magistrates and clergy, while some of the laymen opposed the decree [of exile], every minister, save one, approved it." 1

If it be conceded "that there were faults on both sides, and that they were faults of the age rather than of the heart," it must be conceded, too, that this marked man was before his time in the discernment and announcement of some principles ecclesiastico- political, destined to stand the test of after-trial, since, in his transmitted ideas, as well as his charac- ter and bearing during those troublons days which he spent in Salem, he grows more illustrions under the light of experience, while the proceedings of those who drove him out from their company become more difficult of apology. Roger Williams has had the credit of being the promoter, if not the cause, of the act of Governor Endicott in cutting the cross from the English colors. It is not clear what part he had in it, if any. If any, he was not the man to dis- avow it ; if any, he but represented a feeling dominant in many a Puritan's breast at the time, who, perhaps, more prudent than he, would not have counseled it, though pleased to see it done. Such was Roger Williams. "Open, bold and ardently conscientious, as well as eloquent and highly gifted, it cannot be surprising that he should have disturbed the magis- trates by divulging such opinions, while he charmed the people by his powerful preaching, and his ami- able, generous and disinterested spirit."

Mr. Williams was born in Wales in 1599, resided in London during his youth, was elected a scholar of Sutton's Hospital (now the Charter House), July 5, 1621, admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, Feb. 8, 1623, graduated B. A. Jannary, 1627, took orders in the Church of England, obtained a benefice in Lincolnshire, became a non-conformist, or "Separa- tist," and embarked at Bristol, Dec. 11, 1630, for New England. He died at Providence, R. I., in April, 1683.2

1 " Arnold, History of Rhode Island," p. 38.

2 Porter C. Bliss, in Johnson's Cyclopedia .- Since this notice of Roger Williams was prepared, intimations have come to us that new light may be expected to be let in soon, upon the origin and early days of this striking figure in the history of primitive New England. The new matter found claims to he not ooly additional to the old and hitherto. accepted story, hut corrective also. For example : It is said that " the Roger Williams who was n foundation scholar at the Charter House in

SALEM.

The infant church, already served by three minis- ters in half a dozen years, found its fourth in one born to lead, Rev. Hugh Peters, who, after filling the pastoral office for five busy and fruitful years, in which he governed and shaped with the decision of a master, was summoned away from this humbler field of labor to a broader theatre and a more famous ca- reer, in which his life assumed historical importance, and set him among the conspicuous actors of his age, ending tragically at the executioner's block. Mr. Peters was born at Fowey, in Cornwall, in 1599, the same year as Roger Williams, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking the degree of A. M. in 1622. Appointed to a London lectureship while still very young, he drew a large following by his for- cible and eloquent preaching. In 1629, it having be- come not only uncomfortable but dangerous for such as he, a Puritan and a popular preacher, to stay in England, he withdrew to Holland and became the pastor of a church at Rotterdam, whence he came to New England, Oct. 6, 1635. He was invited to take charge of the church in Salem after the departure of Mr. Williams, and was settled Dec. 21, 1636. He was an able minister and something more, a clear-sighted administrator in civil-political and politico-economi- cal affairs. Without neglecting his duties as pastor, which he discharged with rare energy and faithful- ness, he set himself diligently to improving all the social regulations and habits of the place, on which the welfare of the new community depended. In the controversies, which he inherited from Mr. Williams, he showed no sympathy with the adherents of the latter, nor toleration for the opinions which had brought on him the condemnation of the ministers and the General Court. He spent little time over the comprehensive principles and enlightened distinc- tions laid down by his predecessor as to the relative authorities of the secular and ecclesiastical govern- ments, and the rights of the individual soul under each, while he plunged with assiduous zeal into stud- ies which he deemed of a more immediate and press- ' ing importance. He gave his attention to projecting measures for promoting the business prosperity, the orderly living, the growth in population of the town; he devised measures for the better execution of the laws, for the preservation of peace and the establish- ment of beneficial industries.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538