USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 20
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 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Before the year closed, in which the people of the Old South saw their meeting-house desecrated and their parsonage de- stroyed, one more heavy blow fell upon them: their young min- ister, the Rev. John Hunt, sickened and died. When the gates of the town were shut after the battle of Lexington, he was visiting friends in Brookline, as we have said, and was forbidden to pass the barriers, unless he would pledge himself to remain. He then retired to Northampton to stay with his relatives there until Providence should open the way for his return to the people of his charge. He had a delicate constitution, and his health had been undermined by "the want of exercise, and the fatigue of study and public service." It became apparent that a pulmonary disease had fastened itself upon him, " and he had little doubt that it would have a fatal issue." " His mind," says Dr. Sprague, "now became more than ever absorbed in endeavouring to satisfy himself in respect to his own spiritual state. During the early part of his illness, he suffered much from doubt and appre- hension ; but, in the progress of it, his mind became composed, and, for a considerable time previous to his death, the cloud seemed to have entirely passed away. He conversed with great freedom and interest, not only in reference to his own im- mediate prospects, but on other subjects connected with re- ligion, until within two or three weeks of his death, when both his body and mind had become so feeble that he was scarcely able to converse at all." He died on the 30th of December, in his thirty-first year.1 His funeral sermon was preached by the
1761, perhaps until his death in 1768. Charles Dabney was living in it in 1770. Benjamin Pierpont hired it for business purposes in 1771; Gilbert Deblois was then keeping a wholesale and retail store in the next building, on the corner of Spring Lane.
1 The congregation was in no condi-
tion at the time of Mr. Hunt's death, or for several years afterward, to erect a monument over his grave, and nothing was done until 1811. When Dr. Eckley died, and arrangements were in progress for his funeral, a committee was ap- pointed "to consider the propriety of erecting a monument over the remains
.
t
r
180
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Rev. John Hooker, from Job xiv. 19: "Thou destroyest the hope of man." In the application of his subject, the preacher said : -
Here is now before this assembly, the remains, and all that could die, of one that with great propriety might be called "the hope of man ; " one from whom the public had raised expectations ; who shone in a distinguished sphere of life and with eminent lustre - a burning and a shining light ; one of singular accomplishments and furniture for usefulness in the church of Christ ; one that was the hope of his parents and the comfort of the family ; the hope of his native town - lately the hope of Boston - the hope of these New-English churches. But now he is cut down as a flower, and withered in the morning of life : his sun, before it reached the meridian, is set in darkness. . .
The Father of spirits had endued him with an amiable natural dis- position, a modest, sweet pacific temper ; and superior natural genius and intellectual powers, improved and adorned by many valuable ac- quirements ; which the good spirit inclined him to consecrate to the service of God in the gospel of his Son. Within these eight or ten years past, a great revolution has taken place in the moral state of his mind : it pleased God to touch his heart with a serious attention to matters of religion and his own eternal well being. After various painful solicitudes and enquiries concerning the character of the blessed God and his conduct toward mankind -the real divinity of the Gospel and the doctrines he saw it contain - and the true ground of a sinner's hope towards God, he gained a good degree of satisfac- tion in his own mind, as to these things, and embraced the gospel as divinely true and the sovereign only relief of his own spirit : he there- upon devoted himself to studying and preaching it to others.
He entered into the christian ministry from principles of conscience ; but with much diffidence and much self denial ; - his natural disposi- tion leading him to a more active course, and well knowing that a sedentary studious life was unfriendly to his health, he yet preferred this to a much more lucrative business which offered itself to his choice in competition with it. He dared not neglect making trial at least, of
of the late Rev'd Mr. John Hunt, for- merly pastor of this Church, which lays deposited in the Cemetry of North- ampton without any monument." There could not have been many in the con- gregation who had known the young pastor who died thirty-six years before ; but a monument was erected, of which we show an illustration at the head of this chapter, with the following epitaph : " The Reverend John Hunt A. M. Pas- tor of the Old South Church in Boston Died Dec 30 AD 1775 Æ 31 As an
Orator Scholar & Divine he gave bright presage of future eminence and his brief and exemplary life he devoted to the good of his fellow men until he was sum- moned to higher services By consent of his friends in Northampton where he drew his first and last breath the Church and Congregation in Boston who or- dained him Sept 25 AD 1771 and whose ornament he shone untill death have raised this memorial of his worth his more lasting praise being in heaven to shine as the stars for ever and ever."
C
F C
18I
MR. HUNT AS A PREACHER.
preaching the gospel. In the year 1769 he began to preach with un- common acceptance : the approbation he met with encouraged him to continue : till providence, after some time, opened the way for his set- tlement at Boston, September 25, 1771 : where he continued his pub- lic labours, with great acceptance both to his own congregation and the people of the town in general - till the fatal 19th of April last.
Indeed his public services as long as he lived everywhere met with singular approbation ; he was truly a "workman that needed not to be ashamed." In prayer he was peculiarly copious, grave and solemn, with an unusual variety and pertinency of sentiment and language : and perhaps in no part of public exercise did he more excel than in this. As a preacher he was eminent ; his compositions were correct, manly and elegant ; his sermons were rational, judicious and instruc- tive - enriched with striking and important sentiments - adorned with a variety and noble turn of thought - enlivened by a strong ani- mated and delicate stile - recommended by a delivery remarkably grave, deliberate and emphatical with a pathos and energy becoming the pulpit, and calculated to give every idea he meant to convey, its full weight upon the mind.
His imagination was lively and conducted with judgment. He had a ready invention, with a singular dexterity in collecting well judg'd images and metaphors, and contrasting ideas and expressions so as to engage the hearer. A lively and beautiful imagery usually appeared in all his compositions. He appeared fully possessed in his own thoughts of what he aimed to express ; and to endeavor to convey it to the understanding and heart of his hearers ; so that he usually commanded the attention of his auditors in an uncommon degree. It ever appeared to be his principal concern in his public discourses, to do good : he was solicitous to instruct the mind and affect the heart ;- not merely to please ; but to please in order to profit ; - not to amuse his hearers with the empty sound of language or the speculations of philosophy, but to "feed them with that knowledge and understand- ing " which should save their souls.
He loved and he preached the peculiar doctrines of the gospel as they were understood by the fathers of this country, but with a most agreable openness and candor of mind. The doctrine of redemption thro' a mediator and atoning sacrifice he was particularly attached to, and dwelt much upon it in the course of his life ; and it was the hope and comfort of his heart in death.
Mr. Hooker, towards the close of his sermon, spoke very sympathetically of the Old South Church, and of the almost unexampled trials through which, within a few years, it had been called to pass :-
With great pleasure, was it in my power, I should now address my-
182
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
self to the bereaved flock, broken and scattered and without a shep- herd ; - driven by cruel violence far from their own homes ; - their house of prayer, which they left behind, vilely prostituted to the most disgraceful uses ; - their beloved pastor now cut off by death ; when he was far from any of his flock, and none of them near him to close his eyes or follow him to the grave - such is the disposal of the only wise God.
The dealings of Providence have been peculiar of late years towards that church and congregation. Though they have been from the be- ginning favored with a bright series of burning and shining lights, whose praise is still in all the churches ; yet of late they have been bereaved in a very uncommon manner. Mr. Hunt is the sixth pastor of that church, that has been separated from it within seventeen years. Two were dismissed yet living : He is the fourth that has been taken away by death in that time ; - Mr. Prince in the year 1758 - Mr. Cumming in 1763 ; Dr. Sewall in the year 1769 : - last of all this our deceased friend and servant of Christ, whose remains we are now to commit to the dust. And now the church and congregation itself, together with the rest of that miserable town, is scattered abroad to the four quarters of the country. But Christ the redeemer of his peo- ple still lives and reigns and has all power in Heaven and in earth given into his hands. - Pity them, O thou compassionate head of the church, and "gather them in thine arms and carry them in thy bosom " and return them to their own habitation ; and again send forth labor- ers into thine harvest.
This afflicted church had indeed seen "the hope of man" destroyed. We cannot doubt, however, that in this, the darkest hour in its history, and in its dispersion, many of the members were able to make their own, the words of the psalmist : "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God."
Oft dwell my thoughts on those thrice happy days, When to thy courts I led the willing throng ; Our mirth was worship, all our pleasure praise, And festal joys still closed with sacred song.
By Jordan's banks with devious steps I stray, O'er Hermon's rugged rocks and deserts drear : E'en there thy hand shall guide my lonely way, There thy remembrance shall my spirit cheer.
In rapid floods the vernal torrents roll, Harsh sounding cataracts responsive roar ; Thine angry billows overwhelm my soul, And dash my shatter'd bark from shore to shore.
183
"HOPE THOU IN GOD."
Yet thy sure mercies ever in my sight, My heart shall gladden through the tedious day ; And 'midst the dark and gloomy shades of night, To Thee I'll duly tune the grateful lay.
Rock of my hope! great Solace of my heart ! O ! why desert the offspring of thy care, While taunting foes thus point the invidious dart - " Where is thy God? abandon'd wanderer, where ?"
Why faint, my soul ? Why doubt Jehovah's aid ? Thy God, the God of mercy still shall prove ; Within his courts thy thanks shall yet be paid ; - Unquestion'd be his faithfulness and love.1
1 [From Bishop Lowth's paraphrase of the Forty-second Psalm.]
-
st
n
e
S
.
1717
A.D.
CHAPTER V.
1776-1799.
REHABILITATION.
T HE British troops took their departure from Boston on Sunday the 17th of March, 1776, and the gates of the town were immediately thrown open to the army under General Washington. The siege had lasted less than a year, but it left marks of desolation which were not easily effaced. Hundreds of houses had been pulled down, many more had been damaged, much personal property had been destroyed, and many families were reduced from affluence to poverty. The summer that fol- lowed the evacuation was a sickly one, and the inhabitants who had escaped before or during the siege were slow to return. The Provincial Congress which had been in session at Water- town did not remove to Boston until November 12.1
One who on the afternoon of the 17th of March landed "at the bottom of the Common, near the high bluff which was taken
The first issue of the Boston Gazette, town, was on the 4th of November, 1
after its return to Boston from Water- 1776.
185
A SCENE OF DESOLATION.
away a few years ago to make Charles Street," recorded long afterward in the Columbian Centinel the impressions made upon him during his first walk through the desolated town :-
On crossing the Common, we found it very much disfigured, with ditches, and cellars, which had been dug by the British troops, for their accommodation when in camp. To our great regret, we saw several large trees lying in the Mall, which had been cut down that morning. We were informed that the tories were so exasperated at being obliged to leave the town, that they were determined to do all the mischief possible, and had commenced destroying that beautiful promenade ; but it being told to some of the Selectmen, they went in haste to General Howe, and represented the circumstance, who kindly sent one of his Aids to forbid the further destruction of the trees, and to reprimand the tories for their conduct. General Howe could not but feel some degree of grateful regard and sympathy for the people of Massachusetts, as they had erected a monument in Westminster Abbey to the memory of his brother, whose urbane and gentlemanly deportment had gained the esteem and respect of the Massachusetts forces, and who was killed in a battle with the French and Indians in 1758.
The Mall was originally laid out with only two rows of trees, a third was added a few years before the war, which we found were all cut down for fuel, together with the intire fence which surrounded the Common, as was also a large magnificent tree which stood on the town's land, near the school-house, in West Street, of equal size with that which now stands in the middle of the Common, both of which I suppose to be aboriginals.
On passing into the town, it presented an indescribable scene of desolation and gloominess, for notwithstanding the joyous occasion of having driven our enemies from our land, our minds were impressed with an awful sadness at the sight of the ruins of many houses which had been taken down for fuel-the dirtiness of the streets - the wretched appearance of the very few inhabitants who remained during the siege - the contrast between the Sunday we then beheld com- pared with those we formerly witnessed, when well-dressed people, with cheerful countenances, were going to and returning from Church, on which occasion Boston exhibits so beautiful a scene -but more especially when we entered the Old South Church, and had ocular demonstration that it had been turned into a riding-school, for the use of General Burgoyne's regiment of cavalry, which formed a part of the garrison, but which had never ventured to pass the barriers of the town. ... All these circumstances conspired to fill the mind with sombre reflections. But amidst the sadness of the scene, there was a pleasing satisfaction in the hope that men capable of such atroci-
I86
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
ties, could not have the blessing of Heaven in their nefarious plan of subjugating our beloved country.1
Religious services had not been altogether suspended during the siege. Dr. Eliot, Dr. Mather, and one of the Baptist pas- tors had remained at their posts, and Dr. Byles had stayed in the town, but had been inactive.2 The Thursday Lecture was preached for the last time on the 30th of November, by Dr. Eliot, who took his text from the message to the church in Sardis : "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." Four months later, the same faithful pastor had the privilege of reopening the lecture, and General Washington and many of the American officers were among his auditors.3 Dr. Chauncy, Dr. Cooper, and Mr. Lathrop soon came back, but Mr. Howe had died at Hartford,4 a few 1 [Col. Centinel, November 17, 1821. Recollections of a Bostonian, No. II.]
2 " Dr. Mather Byles having rendered himself unpopular by his adherence to British principles, his people would not suffer him to preach after their return. The church laboured under great difficul- ties. At length they invited Mr. Eben- ezer Wight [Harvard College, 1776] to take the pastoral charge over them. He was at a loss how to act, and pru- dently asked advice of the Association of Ministers ; and they were as much at a loss to determine what advice to give. No desire was expressed by that church to call a council, having no specific charges to make against the doctor. He had never been dismissed ; therefore there was no vacancy. He had not been active in political affairs; and the chief objection against him seemed to be, that he had indulged himself in a natural vein of low wit and ridiculous punning, which destroyed their respect. In February, 1778, they determined to proceed in their own way, and not to consider Mr. Wight as a colleague pastor. They invited the neighbouring churches to assist in his ordination. Dr. Eliot, ever circumspect, obtained a vote of his church, 'that they would assist, provided a majority of the other churches, who were invited, would be willing to do so.' This was the case, and the Rev. Mr. Wight was ordained accordingly." - Historical Notices, by Ephraim Eliot, pp. 27, 28. Mr. John
Clarke, Harvard College, 1774, was or- dained July 8, 1778, as colleague with the venerable Dr. Chauncy at the First Church.
3 " Thursday last [March 28, 1776,] the lecture which was established and has been observed from the first settle- ment of Boston without interruption until within these few months past, was opened by the Rev. Dr. Eliot. His Ex- cellency General Washington, the other general officers, and their suites, having been previously invited, met in the Council Chamber [Old State House], from whence, preceded by the Sheriff with his wand, attended by the members of the Council who had had the small pox, the Committee of the House of Representatives, the Selectmen, the Clergy, and many other gentlemen, they repair'd to the old Brick Meeting House, where an excellent and well adapted dis- course was delivered from the 33d chap- ter of Isaiah, 20th verse. [‘ Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities : thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habi- tation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be bro- ken.']." - Mass. Gazette, April 4, 1776. After service there was "an elegant din- ner," "provided at the public expense," at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, on the corner of Kilby and State Streets.
4 August 25, 1775.
187
THE SECOND CHURCH.
months before Mr. Hunt's death at Northampton. Dr. Pem- berton resided during the siege at Andover. His health had been feeble, and for several months before he left his pulpit had been supplied by others. Indeed, for a long time previously he had generously relinquished his salary, and from the begin- ning of February, 1774, had not received anything from the parish. "I cannot ascertain," says Dr. Robbins, " that after the evacuation of the town, he once appeared in the pulpit. It is probable that his increasing infirmities prevented him even from attending worship. No notice is made of him at this time on our records ; nor have I been able to ascertain anything more concerning the circumstances of his death than is con- tained in a single sentence in an old newspaper : 'On Tuesday morning last, Sept. 9, 1779 [1777], departed this life, after a long confinement, the Rev. Dr. Pemberton ; his funeral to be attended this P. M. at three o'clock.' " 1
The congregation at the New Brick, considerably diminished in numbers, had a meeting-house, but no active pastor. The congregation which had been accustomed to assemble in the Old North had a pastor but no meeting-house. The former society gladly offered its hospitality to Mr. Lathrop and his parishioners, and it was natural that the two should soon unite their forces. They worshipped together for the first time, March 31, 1776; on the 6th of May, 1779, they "agreed upon and adopted a plan of perpetual union, and were thenceforth incorporated under the name of the Second Church." 2
Few churches have been favored with such prosperity as was enjoyed by the Third Church during the first century of its existence, and especially during the joint pastorate of Dr. Sewall and Mr. Prince ; and few churches have been called to endure such trials as it passed through in the twenty years which fol- lowed Mr. Prince's death. At the close of the siege of Boston, its meeting-house was unfit for occupancy, it was without a minister, and the families of the congregation were widely dis-
1 Robbins's History of the Second Rev. William Whitwell, of Marblehead, Church, p. 192. Dr. Pemberton was in and granddaughter of William Whitwell of the Old South. He died in 1835. The name was an honorable one in the churches and schools for nearly a century and a half. his seventy-third year. The Continental Journal of October 9, 1777, contains a full and appreciative notice of him. His son, Ebenezer Pemberton, the third of the name, graduated at Princeton in 2 Robbins's History, p. 130. When Dr. Samuel Mather died, June 27, 1785, most of the members of his congregation joined themselves to the Second Church. 1765, and was principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, from 1786 to 1795. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the
188
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
persed. Some of these, which had identified themselves with the cause of the Crown, never returned ; the rest, as they came back, joined themselves for the time to other congregations. More than a year elapsed before arrangements were made for bringing together those who had been scattered abroad. The following paragraph, in the handwriting of Dr. Eckley, appears in the list of members, between the dates of March, 1775, and November, 1778 :-
Remark. Owing to the possession of the Town by the British Troops in 1775 and 1776, to the demolition of the internal part of the house of Worship, with the Death of one of the Ministers, and Dis- mission of the other, the members of the Old South Church were dispersed, and did not again assemble in a Church State, by them- selves, until November, 1777.1
The minister of King's Chapel, and a majority of his pa- rishioners, had gone away from Boston with the royal troops ; those who remained now generously placed their house of wor- ship at the disposal of the Old South Church and Congregation. Nothing has been preserved of the correspondence between the two parishes at this date, except the following letter from Mr. Scollay to Dr. Bulfinch, which was copied into the records of King's Chapel :2-
1 [On the 30th of May, 1875, at the beginning of the centennial celebrations, Dr. Manning preached a sermon on The Old South During the Revolution, from Psalm xliv. I : " We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." He thus spoke of . the state of the church and congrega- tion immediately after the siege of Bos- ton : -
" Without a pastor, without a sanctu- ary, few in numbers and greatly impov- erished, their strong men in the armies of the new nation, the future full of uncer- tainties, we can ascribe it only to the spe- cial favor of God, that their name and or- ganization survived. King's Chapel was the instrument which God chose to save them in this exigency. . .. In the midst of the general worldliness, the spirit of war, and the influences coming from in- fidel France, we marvel that the church had spiritual life enough to go into
King's Chapel, and sustain Christian ordinances within its walls. So little ac- customed as they were to being without a pastor, [from 1670 to 1769 the church had never been without a pastor,] we wonder where they found courage and wisdom, in those times of weakness and peril, to hold up their sacred banner, and at length to choose for themselves a leader under Christ. Nothing but the good hand of God upon them can ex- plain their escape. The angel of his presence defended them, and brought them out of their sore trials, into a large place. He made them able to walk on- ward through those days of feebleness, and in due season brought them again into a sanctuary which their own hands had made ready."]
2 We are indebted to Mr. Foote for a copy of this letter in advance of the publication of the second volume of his Annals, and for the picture at the head of this chapter.
:
S
189
FIRST SERVICE IN THE CHAPEL.
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.