USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. I > Part 35
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February 5. 1696-7 This evening Mr. Willard, [Edward] Brom- field, [John] Eyre, [Peter] Sergeant. [Theophilus] Frary, [James] Hill, [Nathaniel] Williams, [Nathaniel] Oliver, [Samuel] Checkly, [ Benja- min] Davis, [John] Wally, [Simeon] Stoddard, met at my house. Mr. Willard pray'd. Then discoursed what was best to be done relating to the desires of some for a meeting; whether twere best to call one, or no. Mr. Willard shewed his resentments of the disorderly carriage in striving to bring in Mr. Bradstreet, after only thrice preaching, and that in that way, he should not be settled with us till he Mr. W. was in his Grave. That he had a Negative, and was not only a Moderator. Shew'd his dislike of the Person and his Preaching, inferiour to the ministerial Gifts of others. Before the Meeting broke up, I said his Preaching was very agreeable to me, I thought not of him, had no hand in bringing him to preach, had prejudices against him, was ready to start at first when any spake of fixing on him ; yet as often as he preached, he came nearer and nearer to me. Spake this chiefly because all that Mr. Willard had said of Mr. Bradstreet, had been exceedingly undervaluing : and because Mr. Willard said no body had been with him to speak to him about Mr. Bradstreet but Mr. Stoddard. Mr. Oliver said if Mr. Willard were so averse, had rather let it rest. Sometimes said were now ready for a new Meeting-house. Some, Let us call Mr. Bailey. At last agreed to mention the matter to the church after the Afternoon Exercise.
Sunday February 7. Mr. Willard recapitulats how long he had been our Pastor ; near 20. years ; and near 18. years alone, had to his
ism. He seldom, if ever, appeared with a coat, but always wore a plaid gown, and was commonly seen with a pipe in his mouth. But it was principally for his classical attainments that Mr. Brad- street was distinguished ; and in illustra- tion of this, an anecdote is told of hin, that when introduced to Governor Bur- net, who was himself a fine scholar, it was said of him by Lieutenant-Governor Tailer, who introduced him, ' Here is a man who can whistle Greek.'" - Buding- ton's History of the First Church, Charles- town, pp. 113, 114.
Mr. Bradstreet died December 31, 1741, aged 72.
1 Writing to Governor Partridge, at Portsmouth, January 7, 1696-7, Sewall said : -
"Tis God who has sent you to the Province of Newhampshire, and there He has given you a Day : how long or how short, He only knows : Our concern is to work the works of Him that sent us while the day lasts. Mr. Willard has on many Lords Days been exorting his Congregation from those words Jno 9. 4, which brought them now to my mind."
303
THE REV. SIMON BRADSTREET.
measure served God faithfully, was desirous of Help, lay not in him, yet had none: if what he propounded more than a year ago had been attended, might have made for the glory of God. Ask'd if now were ready to pitch on any ; if were, then must have a Fast. None speaks ; at last Capt. Ephr. Savage desired might meet in som dwelling house, many were there present which were not of us. Mr. Willard assented, and on Mr. Sergeant's motion, appointed to meet at his house 15. Inst. at 2. p m. When at our house, some said Charlestown being before us, to call a Fast after they had call'd Mr. Bradstreet would be evil spoken of : the person of their desires being gon. Some said that Fasting now at Charlestown and here was but a Trick ; not just so : but tending that way. Mr. Willard said Charlestown would be before us. do what we could; and if they call'd him 'twas not fit for us to meddle till he had given his Answer : som look'd at this as Artifice in the Ministers to prevent the South Church. For when Mr. Willard propounded Mr. Pemberton by name, 1695, No Fast preceded. If Mr. Willard had not so propounded, believe the thing had been issued at that time : but many look'd on it as an Imposition and tending to infringe their Liberty of choice. I had been with Mr. Willard the day before, and told him some scruples that I was not just ready to act till had enquired further.
February 9. I visit Mr. Willard : spake with him after he began, about our conference last sixth day, told him the reason of my speak- ing as I did ; because had heard he should say, I forc'd the Church Meeting : whereas I intended not so ; but as we had engaged silence, I told him my heart ; as I said I always did when he confer'd with me and enquired of me in such cases. He said was sorry he propounded Mr. Pemberton as he did. Seem'd to resent my saying; That the Negative was a high point, and better not to talk of it then (which at the conference) term'd it a check, I think parted good friends. Much vilified Mr. Bradstreet ; hardly allowed him any thing but a Memory, and the Greek Tongue, with a Little poesy. I said what shall Charles- town doe? Answer was, Let them do as they please. (Sewall.)
Here the journal fails us for a time, and we know of no further action until a year and a half later.1
Sixth-day, October 14. 1698. Church Meeting at the South church. Put in votes for election of a minister Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton had Thirty seven votes, and Mr. Jabez Fitch, Twenty three. I think
1 Not to break the course of the nar- very convenient; A living Brook run- rative, we quote here from Sewall's ning by it; and throw Mr. Baxters." Diary as follows : -
This was in Medfield, and had been the
House and the Orchard Capt Frary hath given to the Ministry, which lies
Sept. 17. 1697. " I view Mr. Baxters homestead of Capt. Frary's father. Mr. Baxter had been ordained five months before. - Hist. of Medfield, pp. 105-108.
304
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Mr. Oliver and Davis did not vote. In the Nomination September, 30, Mr. Fitch had Thirty six, and Mr. Pemberton Twenty one. (Sewall.)
During the fortnight which succeeded the nomination, a good deal of work had been done among the brethren, as we judge, in the interest of Mr. Pemberton. Mr. Fitch, who had won the hearts of so many, was son of the Rev. James Fitch, of Norwich, Connecticut, a graduate at Cambridge in the class of 1694, and on the resignation of Mr. Hubbard, at Ipswich, he accepted an invitation to settle there.1 Mr. Pemberton received at length a hearty call from the Third Church, but not until another year and more had passed." There was no imperative need for im- mediate action, and it was better to wait than to force an issue while the church was so divided in its preferences.
A party of progress was at this time coming into prominence in the churches of Eastern Massachusetts, of which we shall speak presently. It is worthy of notice that the three young men who had been especially thought of in connection with the colleagueship at the Third Church, Mr. Pemberton, Mr. Brad- street, and Mr. Fitch, were all identified with it.
We have already had evidence that the church maintained the purity of its membership and the orderly administration of its affairs by the exercise of a vigorous discipline, and by the enforcement of the ecclesiastical penalties authorized by the Cambridge Platform. The first record which details the vari- ous steps taken in dealing with a refractory member relates to Roger Judd,3 who had withdrawn in an irregular way from the
league with the Kev. John Rogers, Oc- tober 24, 1703, but as he did not receive a sufficient support, he moved to l'orts- mouth, N. II., and was installed there in 1724. Ile died November 22, 1746, in his seventy-fifth year. Felt says of him : " Ilis mind was strong and richly stored with learning. Ilis heart was swayed by benevolent affections, and eminently sanctified by the Spirit of grace. Ilis life was long, not only as to years, but also as to usefulness."
2 The church in Charlestown had been very desirous to settle Mr. Pemberton as colleague pastor with Mr. Morton. It gave him a call in November, 1694, but he was then very young, only twenty-two, and he preferred to remain in residence
1 Ile was ordained at Ipswich, as col- at Cambridge. In a record left by Mr. Morton, it is said: "On this day, Feb. 11. 1697, we had a public fast ; Mr. Wil- lard and myself preaching and other ministers assisting in prayer." At this service, a committee representing both the church and the inhabitants was chosen, and Mr. Pemberton would prob- ably have received a second call, if it had not been understood that he would de- cline it, if given. " Major part of the Boston ministers advised to the choice of Mr. Pemberton ; " but Mr. Willard, no doubt, was still hoping to bring him to the South Church. Mr. Bradstreet was ordained as the eighth minister of the Charlestown church, October 26, 1698.
3 Roger Judd seems to have been em- ployed in some dependent position by
305
ROGER FUDD'S CASE.
communion of the church, had treated it and its minister with marked disrespect, and had connected himself with the congre- gation worshipping in King's Chapel. Judge Sewall says in his journal. June S, 16SS : "in the Even, Capt. Hill and I discourse with Roger Judd and Mrs. Willey." King's Chapel was com- pleted at or near that time, and if the conversation, as we sup- pose, had reference to the irregularity for which Judd came under discipline more than ten years afterward, the church was certainly very patient in dealing with him. Of Mrs. Willey we know nothing : her name does not appear on the register of the church, and there is no other reference to her in the journal. Mr. Willard's statement of Roger Judd's case is as follows : -
At a meeting of the Church Jan. 22 1698[-9]
Roger Jud was called for, and not appearing, his case was repre- sented, as followeth.
On Octob' 15 1698. Having bin informed that our Brother Roger Jud was resolved to desert this Church, on some disgust taken, I re- quested Deacon Frary and Deacon Williams, to signify to him, how disorderly it would be for him so to do: and, the sacrament being to be administred the next day, and some brethren having bin dissatis- fied at somthing of his carriage at a meeting of the Church, somtime before, I desired them to tell him from me, that there was no scandall alledged against him, so as that the Church would renounce commu- nion with him ; to which, they report that he answered, that if the Church did not renounce Communion with him, he renounced it with them, and would come at them no more; or words to that purpose. He accordingly withdrew from the Communion, and ceased from as- sembling with us in the publick worship of God for a considerable time : and I had reports that hee pretended Reasons that carried mat- ter of Scandall in them. I thereupon thought it a duty to enquire into it, and accordingly desired that he might be warned to meet me at Capt. Sewals on Decr 13. Capt. Sewal was desired to notify it to him, and reports that he refused it, but said that he would tarry at home till the time appointed, that if I had anything to say to him, I might come to his house and have opportunity : but as to my author- ity to enquire as an officer, he acknowledged it not nor would comply with it. I went at the time appointed, and Deacon Frary met us there, whom I desired to call him, and to acquaint that if I had any personall offense against him, it was my duty to come to him, but I had none, but it was a publick scandall, in which the Church was con- cerned, and it belonged to mine office, that I should enquire into it, for which reason I called for him. The Answer returned by Mr. Judge Sewall, who frequently mentions 1690, and became the sexton of King's his name. He was made a freeman in Chapel in 1701.
306
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Frary's report was, that his house was his castle ; if I had anything to say, I might come ; but it must be alone ; and if I brought any with me, he would not speak to me, but as for coming to me, as an officer, he should not, for he neither acknowledged me to be so to him, nor the Church of which I was, to have anything to do with him. On this I sent for Brother J. Wheeler, and desired him to go with Deacon Frary, and deliver the same message to him ; who went and returned with the same answer. Whereupon I thought it necessary to refer it to the cognizance of the Church, and accordingly desired Capt. Savage and Capt. Checkly, on Jan. 17. to warn him to appear before you this day, except he would the next day, Jan. 18. come to Captain Sewals, on a private enquiry : who were no better treated, as they say, but all was refused by him.
Roger Jud, not appearing to make any reply to these allegations, and the brethren mentioned giving their Testimony to the severall Al- legations forementioned ; I gave my sense of the case in the follow- ing words.
The matter of Offense, is not his going off from this Church ; for wee acknowledge there is a lawfulness to do so, provided it bee or- derly ; but the manner of it. I know none of any persuasion, but who reckon that there is a Discipline appointed by Christ in his Churches : and a person who is orderly become a member of one Church, is lyable to be proceeded with in way of Discipline in that Church till he orderly removes his immediate relation to another. I know no Church that will admit a member of another Church which they hold Communion withall, who renounceth Communion with the Church he was of, and asks it of those, till they have enquired into the matter. I never did determine the nature of the offense which this Brother was called to Answer for, but only intended to enquire into it, that the Scandall might be removed, according to the order of the Gospel. I determine that whether the Scandall foregoing were just, or only taken, yet the man that by Contumacy utterly refuseth to comply with the Gospel orders, and instead of that re- nounceth all the authority to which he before submitted himself sol- emnly, of his own accord and desire, is under the qualification Matt 18. that hee will not hear the Church, and accordingly to bee looked on as an Heathen and publican, and when patience and lenity hath bin used with him ; if he persists and grows more resolute in it, he deserves to be put from the Communion of such a Church : and if no act pass of this nature, hee may at pleasure come and communicate at the Lords Table with us, which cannot but be an offense to all that rightly un- derstand the case.
The summe of the offense is, that having declared his renouncing Communion with this Church and accordingly deserted it, he refused to give an account of it, when orderly Called to it, and declared that
307
CASES OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
he neither owned himself subject to the minister nor the Church, which amounts to contumacy.
It was hereupon voted and consented to, that for this offense, our Brother Roger Jud be put from the Communion of this Church, and made incapable of fellowship in all the Ordinances of the Gospel with them, till God shall give him repentance
Which sentence was accordingly declared, by me,
SAML WILLARD Teacher.
This admirable statement might well be commended to those in our own day, who, having changed their principles or their preferences, turn their back upon covenant obligations solemnly undertaken in past years, and join themselves to a new denomi- nation before they have received regular dismission from the old one. Judd's excuse to Judge Sewall was that he had come into the church (in 1684) by the importunity of Deacon Eliot and others, and that now " twas his conscience to go to the Church of England." If his conscience had been as quick in the recog- nition of the rights of his Christian brethren as in the appre- hension and assertion of his own, he would have conformed to the rules to which he had subjected himself, and the transfer of his membership to another denomination could have been ac- complished without friction and without reproach.
Sabbath-day Jany 22, Brother Roger Judd is cast out of the Church for his contumacy in refusing to hear the Church, and his contemp- tuous behaviour against the same, and Mr. Willard the Pastor. Re- fus'd to be there. (Sewall.)
Three other instances of discipline are recorded immediately after the statement of Roger Judd's case : -
At a church meeting June 12 1698, Rebekah B. was admonished and suspended for an habitual excess in drinking.
At a church meeting Jan. 21. 1699
Deliverance Pollard, now Wright, was restored.
At a church meeting Febr. 16. 1700
Sara W. was admonished and suspended for fornication.
A blank page intervenes in the record book, and then the following entries appear : -
At a Church meeting, Jan 24 1699.
Then was the Honoured John Walley esquire, and Capt. Saml Checkly, chosen to joyn in the Oversight of the Seats in the meeting house, with the Honoured Wait Still Winthrop, Samuel Sewall and Peter Sergeant esq'rs.
308
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
At a Church meeting, Febr. 13 1699.
Then it was proposed :
That there be liberty to make three pews in the room of the two long seats, and to take in part of the Alley.
That there be liberty to make pews at the end mens and womens seats, taking away only one of the seats, with some small addition from the Alleys. The womens seats not to be medled with, unless those that are now seated be satisfactorily provided for.
Voted, that it be left to the discretion of the Overseers of the Seats to act as they judge convenient in regard of the forecited proposalls.
On the first Monday in June, 1699, Mr. Willard preached the sermon before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and John Walley was for the second time chosen captain.1 Lord Bellomont dined with the company at George Monk's, and afterward delivered the commissions. He had recently arrived in Boston, having spent a year in New York, which, with Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire, constituted his government.
We have said that a party of progress was coming into prom- inence at this time in eastern Massachusetts. It consisted for the most part of the younger men, both ministers and laymen ; and its purpose was to secure certain changes, not in doctrinal statement, but in the administration of church affairs. The proposed changes, as we look back upon them, seem slight and unimportant ; they related chiefly to the method of admitting members to the church, and to the reading of the Scriptures, without comment, in the public services of the Lord's Day. The real significance of the movement, however, was an earnest desire for more liberty in the study and interpretation of the Word of God, and for a broader and richer religious life. The men who resisted it were led by the Mathers, father and son, and the personality and leadership of those able and energetic and ambitious men were, perhaps, quite as much the issue in the controversies that followed as the changes which were aimed at in the government and worship of the churches. The move- ment began in Harvard College, of which Dr. Increase Mather was then the president. John Leverett and Ebenezer Pember- ton were tutors ; Thomas Brattle was treasurer, and his brother, the Rev. William Brattle, was minister of the Cambridge church. President Mather furnished an Epistle Dedicatory addressed " to the church in Cambridge, and to the students in
1 John Walley had been captain in time in 1707. He was also a councillor 1679, and he was chosen for the third and judge.
309
DR. MATHER'S ATTACK ON THE TUTORS.
the, college there," for a Life of Jonathan Mitchell written by his son, and he availed himself of the opportunity to extol particularly and pointedly Mr. Mitchell's opinions with regard to the forms to be used in the admission of members to the church. He said : " To admit persons to partake of the Lord's Supper without any examination of the work of grace in the heart, would be a real apostasy and degeneracy from the churches of New England." The "examination " insisted upon was a public one, - some "practical confession, or some rela- tion of the work of conversion."1 He reminded his readers of the many countries and places, which, after possessing a faithful ministry, had become, through "young profane mockers, and scornful neuters, overgrown with thorns and nettles, so that the glory of the Lord had gradually departed." " Mercy forbid," said he, "that such things should be verified in Cambridge." As Mr. Mitchell had once been a tutor in the college, the pres- ident went out of his way to commend his example to "the tutors," and praying that they might have wisdom to follow it, he solemnly warned them not to " become degenerate plants, or prove themselves apostate."
1 As an example of a written " rela- tion," we print the following, which was presented by a granddaughter of Major Walley, when she was admitted to the Third Church in 1744. She was then twenty years of age, and she died four years later.
" I desire to be humbly thankfull, that God has favoured me beyond such Mul- titudes of my Fellow Creatures, by or- dering my Birth in a Land, where the joyfull Sound of the Gospel is heard, where I have been early baptized and religiously educated; but I would be deeply humbled, that I have forgotten my Covenant-Obligations, that I have been so often deaf to the Calls of God in his Word and Providence, and that I have so often resisted the Strivings of his Holy Spirit. I hope God has dis- cover'd to me my Sinfull Miserable Con- dition by Nature and by Practice, and Convinced me that Eternal Punishment is my just Desert; But blessed be his holy Name, that he has found out a Way for the Recovery of Lost Sinners, even by sending his Son Jesus Christ to save them. I hope God has enabled me by Faith to fly to this only Saviour and to
trust in his perfect Righteousness alone for Justification and Salvation, and [ hope I am willing that Christ should teach and Rule me, as well as save me [And I hope that Looking to Jesus, I mourn for my Sins, and am willing to turn from them to God by Jesus Christ.] " I have had Desires for some Time to come to the Lord's Table, but have been kept back by Fears of Coming un- worthily ; but the ill State of health in which 1 have lately been, I hope has been a Means of quickening me in this Matter; and Many places of Scripture have encouraged me, particularly that I'assage in 14. Luk. 21. Bring in hither the poor and the Maimed and the halt and the blind. I hope it is from some Degree of Love to Christ, that I now desire to obey his dying Command, Do this in Remembrance of me; and in so doing I desire to depend on him alone both for Strength and Righteousness.
" I humbly offer myself to your Com- munion, asking your prayrs for me, that I may bring forth much of that Fruit, whereby God may be glorified, and so adorn this my Profession.
" BETHIAH WALLEY."
,
310
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
" The time, manner, and language of this publication could not but have been deeply offensive to the Brattles, Leverett, and Pemberton. Under the mask of advice, it was a reproof given to them before the students of the college and the world, with an evident design, in connection with their known opinions, to load them with the reproach of degeneracy and apostasy." An address " thus personal and magisterial " naturally strengthened the purpose of the tutors to identify themselves with those " who were preparing to vindicate their right to construe the Scrip- tures for themselves, and no longer to subscribe to the infallibility of the authors of the Cambridge Platform." 1 Thomas Brattle, a man of large wealth, took the lead in organizing a new church in Boston, land was purchased in what was afterward called Brat- tle Square, and the building of a meeting-house was begun. Of this meeting-house it has been said : " It was a simple house, but its erection marked an advance in freedom of opinion, and especially in the practical expression of opinion." A call was extended to Benjamin Colman, a graduate of the college in the class of 1692, and a member of the Second Church in Boston, - the church of the Mathers, - who had been preaching for some time in England, under the authority of the London Pres- bytery. He accepted the call, and before embarking for home, at the suggestion of his friends here, he obtained ordination from that presbytery. "This invitation," he wrote, "was ac- cepted by me, and the more acceptable it was, by reason of the kind and encouraging letters which accompanied it from my excellent friends, the Hon. John Leverett, the Rev. William Brattle, Ebenezer Pemberton, Simon Bradstreet, and others." 2
Mr. Colman arrived in Boston on the Ist of November, 1699, and immediately began to preach in the new house of worship. On the 17th, a declaration of principles, or " manifesto," was published by those who were about to organize the new church, in reply to some severe attacks which had been made upon them.
1 Quincy's Hist. of Harv. Univ., vol. i. pp. 129, 130.
2 Mr. Pemberton wrote to Mr. Col- man, his contemporary for three years in college : --
" With this you will receive a kind in- vitation to return to your own country, which you cannot but have a great ten- derness for, and your affection I trust will constrain you to comply, and hope it will not be to your disadvantage.
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