USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. I > Part 13
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 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
To this the deputies made an addition, as follows : -
Besides those generall evills proposed to the consideration of this Honoured Court, as causes of gods displeasure (against this poore Collony) so signally manifested ; We we offer to ffurther Inquirye, whether their may not be allso sometimes perticular evills of persons standing in a publick capassitie, in Cases wherein they may be con- cerned or rather concerne themselves unnesesarilye, which may occasion publick Calamitye, - That Instance of davids numbring the people with the Sad Effects that ffollowed thereupon, and Gideons action in makeing that Ephod and the consequents that Issued ffrom the Same as allsoe Elies Indulging his Sonns in a matter wherein the worshipp of the Lord was so deeplye concerned and that dreadfull Testimony the Lord gave against it; all which considered and that we may deale nakedly and Impartially with our one [own] Soules and the Countrye we now represent in such a daye of Searching and tryeing as this is or ought to be we canot but offer the ffollowing Queres to consid- eration
I. Whether those actions that not only have in their one [own] nature a Tendencye to but doe directly Infringe any of our Church and gospell liberties (given us by god himselfe and granted to us by
1 [Mass. Archives, vol. x. pp. 288, 293.]
IOI
A PAPER FROM THE DEPUTIES.
the Honoured Court) which we ought to account as our all, be not a provokation of divine displeasure.
our law saith no Companye of men shall Joyne in any pretended way of Church ffelloshipp, Except they have the aprobation of the magistrates and Elders of the Neibouring Churches ; the meaneing of which lawe we humbly conceave, is not nor cannot in any gramaticall sence be understood, that when some magistrates apeare and declare openlye against the proceedings of any as Irregular, That others that are absent shall abett or Incourage the same before any search or Examination of the case be made : or that Neibourring Churches not approveing the same procedure yet other Churches to aprove and carye it on.
that we Inferr is, That which begetts and nesesarily norishes con- fusion, breaches disunion and divission, cannot be according to any rule of religion or order, and so not the meaneing of the lawe before ex- pressed but rather diametrically contrarye; Setting magistrate against magistrate one church against another, and so a high dishonour and provokation to the Lord.
2. We humblye Conceave it is in the libertye of every Church to Exersise all the Ordinances of god amongst themselves ; according to the rules of his one [own] apointment, the Infringing or obstructing wherof we cannot but ffeare is highly displeaseing to god.
That which we offer to Quere and Consideration ffrom the premises whether in a case lately Happening amongst us notoriously known which should have binn regulated by the law above expressed against which magistrates declared, wanting allsoe that aprobation of New Churches as was meete : all things Considered whether we have not cause to suspect and therfore inquire as being a thinge of so great concerne, whether ther may be no guilt (on any our Civill or Eccle- siastick leaders, in Incorraging and countenanceing the same against . the professed decleration of others ; standing in alike capassitye with themselves) which may if not Searched out become a trouble to our Israell considering the Examples before mentioned.
That we may free our selves and the Countrye whom we represent ffrom guilt, we Judg it our dutye If it might be, to bring any that have binn active in the premises seriouslye to consider of it and to prevent like miscariges ffor the ffuture.
As allsoe that we may declare and leave on record our deepe Sence of such Irregularityes ; and that the hands of our Honoured magis- trates might be Strengthened ; and might not dash one against another : and that our Elders might Studdy the uniteing of our poore languising sickly Churches and ardentlye Endeavour, the preventing and ob- structing of all those wayes and thinges that have any Tendencye to divission and Breaches.
The Deputyes haveing read this paper Judge meete as an addition
THE NEWBERRY
102
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
to what is already in Court to Commend to the Consideration of our Honoured magistrates
WILLIAM TORREY Cleric.1 26 (3) 1670
In their communication of May 26, the magistrates say that they have received a second report from the deputies, "charging many elders, churches and magistrates with irregularities and breach of order and law, in approving the New Church at Boston." This paper, which would seem to have been more explicit in its statements and charges than the report of which we have given an abstract, has not come down to us. Quite possibly, it was destroyed when Governor Hutchinson's house was sacked in the stormy days of 1765. The governor, we think, must have had it before him when he was writing his history ; at all events, he has preserved for us a few of its sen- tences - let us hope, the most pungent and invective - which show it to have been one of the most remarkable papers ever adopted by a legislative body.
Declension from the primitive foundation work; innovation in doctrine and worship, opinion and practice; an invasion of the rights, liberties, and privileges of churches ; an usurpation of a lordly, prelatical power over God's heritage ; a subversion of gospel order ; and all this with a dangerous tendency to the utter devastation of these churches; turning the pleasant gardens of Christ into a wilderness ; and the inevitable and total extirpation of the principles and pillars of the congregational way : these are the leaven, the cor- rupting gangrene, the infecting, spreading plague, the provoking images of jealousy set up before the Lord, the accursed thing, which hath provoked the divine wrath, and doth further threaten destruction.
As we now read the history, it does not occur to us to con- demn the "dissenting brethren," and those who approved of their course, for the "usurpation of a lordly, prelatical power over God's heritage," or for "turning the pleasant gardens of Christ into a wilderness," by the baleful introduction of strife, division, and crimination ; but in all ages, as we know, the Ahabs have insisted that not they, but the Elijahs, were the troublers of Israel.
In order that there might be no mistake as to the application of the report, the committee, says Hutchinson, " then take notice of the late transaction of churches and elders, in con-
1 [Mass. Archives, vol. x. pp. 294, 295.]
-
103
ANOTHER PAPER FROM THE DEPUTIES.
stituting the Third Church of Boston, as irregular, illegal and disorderly." 1
The magistrates asked the deputies to be somewhat more definite in their "explication " of some of the causes of God's judgments, and received the following reply : -
To the Answer of our Honoured Magistrates relateing to the depu- tyes explication of the 2d and 3d perticuler of the 11th Heade of the Causes of Gods Judgment
We cannot but with a deepe Sence be affected that such whom we hope Intend the same end yet should so disagree in the meanes or rather the malladye the cause of the Lords Controversye -
Honoured Gentlemen give us leave to maintaine our inocencye so ffar as We have binn active in this so necesarye and momentous a con- cerne against some perticulers Aserted against us by your selves
I you say we waved your proposall of makeing Inquirye into the Causes of gods Judgment, and makeing use of the advice of the Elders, To which we Answer Lett but the Bill be perused that was sent downe aboute the Same and our Answer subscribed to it and there will apeare no such thinge but our expressed willingnes to attend the motion
2 you say we Insinuate refflect traduce slander abuse Churches Elders &c : in the thinges we asert and Quere.
we Answer such a spirit Very Ill becomes persons in our present capassitye, but the Searcher of Hearts knowes we have not binn led by such a principle in what we have declared, Neither can we yet thinke uppon a serious search of what we have either Aserted or Quered But the Lord will one [own] us, and Certainly if we will not Search so as to be through, god will in a litle time doe it to purpose : Honoured Gentlemen we are now Casting the lott ffor god, If we could say there was no Achan or troubler in Churches [or] in State Well were it, But doth not the Lord spitt in our ffaces and fforce us to a stand. If we should say all was well in Churches in Elders in magistrates in other Sosyeties as to publick Guilt would not the Lord reprove us and say what meanes then the Bleateing of the sheepe &c : the Growing ffesteringe wounds of poore New England as to religon both in power and puritye ; we Assert and Quere but what we have observed and seene as a ffretting leprosie creeping in uppon Us, and ffor Which there hath binn many prayers and Teares powered fforth before the Lord ; let us not be blamed when called by god to speake Our Aprehensions ffor the greatest Interest in the World yours and
1 Hutchinson's History, vol. i. p. 249. He may have taken the paragraph we have quoted from him from the me- morial of fifteen ministers addressed to the General Court of 1671, of which we
shall speak presently; but we think he writes as one having the original docu- ment before him. Felt, in his Annals, follows Hutchinson in his reference to this report.
-
-
104
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
ours : who I hope can beare with Bretheren of a differing mind; Neither doe we see any reason to be Blamed ffor drinkeing in any notions Contrarye to our primitive and ffirst ffoundations, as not being ever Convicted of the same by your selves or any other ;
Voted by the Deputyes to be sent to our Honoured magistrates
WILLIAM TORREY Cleric 1 28 (3)
While this controversy between the two branches of the General Court was in progress, the deputy governor, Francis Willoughby, detained at his home in Charlestown by illness, was following it with the deepest interest. Unable to partici- pate in the discussions in person, he wrote a letter to the magis- trates, which was pervaded by a beautiful spirit of charity and conciliation. This letter probably made very little impression upon the opposition party at the time, but it reveals to us the amiable, candid, and devout qualities of the writer's mind and heart. After reading it we can easily believe, as Backus tells us, that he was "a great opposer of the persecutions against the Baptists." The members of the Old South certainly can never forget that in the days of its trial this excellent man opened his hospitable doors to receive the council which met for its recognition, and which extended to it the right hand of church fellowship.
Gentlemen
The allwise God seeing fit to lay me under Such a dispensation as by which I am rendered uncapable of attending upon you and upon the work that I have been called to, being Confined to my habitation.
Having varietie of visiters Sometimes, and meeting with reports, (how true I know not) that you were making it your work to be Solici- tous to know the Cause of Gods displeasure and frown upon us mani- fested in those Severall wayes which are obvious to any intelligent spirit ; It being hinted to me that the way that's taken does not seeme to produce any good Issue; but rather to beget animosities and distances of spirit one part of the Court against the other, and one person against another ; which if true, is possibly occasioned by the misrepresentation of Cases, possibly by prejudices taken up in one anothers spirits, without enquiring into the truth and reallity of things, possibly by some occasion given in some particular cases (we all, being but men, and capable of acting but as men, and so Subject to faile and miscarry in every thing we doe) I take the boldnes to hint the Same and to lay my feares before you that (if things be amongst
1 [Mass. Archives, vol. x. p. 296.]
IO5
THE DEPUTY. GOVERNOR'S LETTER.
you as they are rendered, that there should be such distances in your transactions) it may tend to the provoking of God to a further degree of displeasure, and may lay us open to greater Inconvenience both at home and abroad, when it shalbe rumour'd that you shalbe at such a distance one from another ; especially if you should rise and break up Court in such a frame.
As I beg your excuse wherein I may be defective in anything I say, so I would humbly entreat you would look upon your selves not only as men, but men eminently professing the name of God: Consider that the eyes of the world are in a great measure upon us, so that if we doe anything that may prove Inconvenient to our Selves, the name of God will not only suffer exceedingly, but we shalbe as persons without pitty, by how much we if by our pretended enquiry into the Cause of Gods anger, shall divide and break to peeces and bring suffrings upon our Selves, when the Lord by his providence hath prevented its coming by other hands. That there may be differ- ences of apprehension is nothing but whats Common. But our direc- tion in the word of God is that all things should be done in Love; and if we would doe any singular thing, as we are singular in our pro- fession, Let's manifest it in our endeavouring to Subdue our Spirits, and to carry things an end with that affection and tendernes to the name of God, and one another, that it may appear the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is breathing in us. I perswade my selfe your scope and aime is right, and for God : But the way and manner to bring about your aimes may possibly be sometimes irregular ; Let's mind the manner as well as the matter : Let the name of God be most dear and precious to us, above our private annimosities and preju- dices : Let not Jealouzy possess our spirits without sufficient ground and demonstration, and let the demonstration appear to be a Con- trivance in way of designe, before we set our selves in full opposition : For it may be upon enquiry, it may either arise from weakness or In- firmity, or from that Lattitude which we would give to others or gladly take our selves. I earnestly beg what I say may not be mis- constructed ; you know my plainess, if I err in anything Charge it to to the account of my love, and great desire the name of God may not be a sufferer by our means : And I doe earnestly beseech you that you study and contrive some way before you break up the Court, to adjorne with the demonstration of oneness and affection, that it may appear you all scope at the good of the poor Country : And that you will endeavour to have as good thoughts one of another as pos- sibly you can, retaining the Interest of the name of God among us ; Let it not be published to the world that the Government of New Eng- land is broken, and that your animosities are such that tis Impossible for you to agree in anything that may tend to the Saving the whole. Desiring a good Construction may be put upon my broken lines ; and
106
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
that you will beleeve that my scope is publike Interest ; Praying and beseeching the Lord to be with you in your Counsells and determi- nations, that his name may be gloryfied in all your transactions, with my service heartyly tendered to you I rest
yours affectionately desiring the Interest of the name of God may not be buryed, but thrive in this poor wilder- ness under your hands
FFR WILLOUGHBY 1
CHARLESTOWNE 28th. 3d. 70
In one particular the two branches of the Court were able to take harmonious action. The deputies concurred with the magistrates in the appointment of a day of humiliation to be kept throughout the jurisdiction, as set forth in the following order, in the terms of which the latter seem to have gone as far as they could in their enumeration of the evils of the times, to conciliate the former : -
Att A Generall Court of Election held at Boston the 11th of May 16-0.
The Generall Court being sencible of Gods hand upon the Country sundry yeares in divers afficting providences have been desirous to jnquire into the Causes thereof and amongst others Doe Conceive these following may be Considered : i. e.
A selfish spirit minding more our owne things than the things of Christ and of private before publick good - too much slightnes and negligence in prizing and Improoving the Government and order both civil and Sacred in church and Comon-wealth - A great and gen- erall neglect of Instructing and Governing the rising Generation both in familjes and churches. A Cooling of former life and heate in Spirittuall Communion - too great neglect in some places of a Com- fortable upholding and providing for the outward Subsistance of sun- dry faithfull ministers - too much decay of love to God and one to another and harboring groundles Jealousies accompanied with whisper- ings backbitings which wayes tend to seperate very freinds - too great abounding of Sin amongst us, as pride luxury drunckenes oppression uncleanes and divers others- these with many other sins that the Lord may upon Inquiry Convince his people of Wee desire may be Confessed bewayled and a thorough reformation indeavored and for this purpose The Court doe Appoint the sixteenth day of June next for a day of humilliation to be kept throughout this Jurisdiction and doe Commend it to the churches Elders ministers and people to keepe the same solemnly and seriously accordingly
1 [Mass. Archives, vol. x. p. 297. Mr. Willoughby died April 4, 1671.]
ยท
107
THE GENERAL COURT OF 1671.
The magistrates have past this their brethren the Deputies hereto consenting.
31 May 1670 Consented to by the Deputys
EDW. RAWSON Secretary.
WILLIAM TORREY Cleric.1
It was at this time that the Rev. Josiah Flint, of Dorchester, wrote in his diary : -
A spirit of division, persecution and oppressing God's ministers and precious saints, is the sin which is unseen, and none bear witness against. It is a great sin, and threatens a sword of divine wrath. God's seers fear it, and their bowels and compassions are moved at it.
The next election turned chiefly on the question, Who are for the old church and who for the new? and so strong was the popular feeling against the conservatives, that a majority of the members of the House of Deputies of 1670 lost their seats, and more enlightened men were chosen to succeed them. It was not then required that a deputy should reside in the town represented by him, and this made it possible for several lead- ing members of the Third Church to be returned to the new House .? Thomas Savage was elected for Andover, William Davis for Springfield, John Hull for Westfield, Hezekiah Usher for Billerica, and Thomas Brattle for Lancaster. Major Savage, who had filled the chair in 1659 and 1660, was again chosen speaker.3 A majority of the magistrates was favorable to the new church, and with the ever faithful secretary, Edward Raw- son, at his post, its friends were now prepared to bring to speedy silence the carping criticism and calumnious aspersions with which they had borne so long and so patiently.
At the opening of the session, fifteen prominent clergymen,
1 Gen. Court Records, vol. iv. p. 653. On the 8th of September, the Council appointed another fast, " taking into their serious consideration, the low estate of the churches of God throughout the world, and the increase of sin and evil amongst ourselves." It was observed September 22. - Mass. Archives, vol. x. p. 17.
2 The law of representation was changed in this regard in 1693. Hutchin- son says of the bill then passed, restrict- ing towns from choosing representatives from beyond their own limits : "This provision is generally looked upon as a privilege, and a point gained by the
people ; but it certainly was occasioned by what is commonly called the preroga- tive party in government, and, however salutary, was designed as an abridgment of liberty." Samuel Sewall, who had represented Westfield in the House of Representatives, voted for the change, and so did Thomas Danforth, John Richards, Wait Winthrop, and Jonathan Corwin. William Stoughton, John Wal- ley, and Peter Sergeant voted against the restriction. - See Sewall Papers, vol. i. PP. 386, 387.
3 Ile served again as speaker of the House in 1677 and 1678.
IOS
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
indignant at the utterances of the House of the preceding year, united in a memorial in which they protested against them in their own name and in that of their friends, and asked for a reversal of judgment upon the charges which had been brought against them.
This memorial begins with a recognition of God's goodness as manifested in the " transplantation of our fathers in this wilderness," and in his blessing "this our generation with the uninterrupted succession of a godly and able magistracy." It declares that the memorialists have not receded "from the safe and sober principles of the congregational way, laid in the first foundation of these churches by our first sound and sincere re- . formers," and they utterly disclaim "all spurious principles and practices, as those of separation, anabaptism (anarchical), con- fusion and licentious toleration, which is no part of our cause, nor of the end and design of the Lord's faithful servants when they followed him into this land." They then take up the specific charges which had been brought against them, and vin- dicate their course with regard to the formation of the Third Church. They say : -
This solemn profession we make as a vindication of our integrity and innocency from the unjust charge of innovation, which with a loud cry of clamor and apostasy is laid upon the generality of the min- isters of these churches ; [a significant clause, as showing that " the generality of the ministers " approved of the formation of the Third Church ;] which unjust charge we are the more deeply sensible of, because it hath been (if not made and managed, yet) heightened and more confidently and audibly divulged by the common and vulgar reports of the several returns of the committee chosen by the House of Deputies of the last General Court, for the discovery of the causes of God's controversies with the land, and the votes of the major part of the house thereupon, concluding determining and declaring that declension from the primitive foundation worke, innovation in doc- trine and worship, opinion and practise ... are the leaven, the cor- rupting gangrene, the infesting, spreading plague, . . . and withal plainly insinuating that the ministry are the Achan, the chief incen- diaries of wrath and procurers of judgment on the land ; as if in cast- ing the lot of God, they were taken, and the accursed thing found with them, giving instance in the late solemn transaction of churches and leders in the constitution of the Third Church in Boston, as irregular, illegal and disorderly, and so a sufficient signal of the whole discovery.
The memorialists further declare that a " sincere and sober
109
MEMORIAL FROM THE CLERGY.
zeal for the glory of God and the honour of the Gospel " em- boldens them to offer their defense " for the removal of that black cloud of calumny which is drawn over the churches and the ministry." They then, under six specifications, show the injustice of the sweeping charges made by the General Court against them, and through them upon the churches and min- isters of the colony, and add : -
The whole charge savoureth of a spirit under an extraordinary transportation, from a present, personal and passionate concern in the interest of a party, as appears by the instance of the business of the Third Church, and so of a design to scandalize that precious church of Christ, at least to hinder the consummation and confirmation of that work of God, by the peaceable settlement of that church in actual and full communion with all other churches. By a misrepre- sentation of that weighty and worthy transaction undertaken and managed in a regular way, to an orderly issue, it doth deeply charge and calumniate magistrates and churches, and consequently elders and church messengers, with dangerous design, yea, with a crime of infringing gospel and church liberties, with breach of law, and that in a factious way by abetting and encouraging that which is illegal, . . . thereby loading so great a part of the magistrates, churches and elders with the guilt and scandal of that which they suppose to be the great and criminal sin of the times, . . . and all this before they have orderly inquired into the case, or could have a regular cogniz- ance of the true state thereof, nor acknowledging the many signal manifestations of God's presence and assistance in his acceptance of and blessing upon that work.
Finally, the memorialists lament : -
" How much the Spirit of God in the hearts of many of his faithful servants hath been grieved, how much an anti-ministerial spirit hath been strengthened and emboldened, how much the hands and hearts of many that labor in the work of the ministry have been weakened, how much the spirit of many hath been prejudiced against their in- structions, and filled with groundless jealousies and suspicions by the misrepresenting and scandalizing of elders to their churches " etc.1
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.