USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 7
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
their fellow citizens to the performance of a difficult and respon- sible but most patriotic duty. To assist in meeting the enor- mous expenses of the French war, the British government pro- posed to raise a revenue from the colonies, without their action or consent. As part of the machinery for enforcing this taxa- tion, writs of assistance were issued, which enabled the officers of the customs forcibly to enter stores and dwellings at any and all times, to search for contraband goods. Great excitement and indignation among the people of the province were the result; and at the February term of the Superior Court the question of the validity of the writs was to be argued .. Oxen- bridge Thacher and James Otis were retained for the people. Of Mr. Thacher Mr. Tudor says, in his Life of Otis : "Unas- suming and affable in his deportment, of strict morality, punctual in his religious duties, and with sectarian attachments that made him, like a large majority of the people, look with jealousy and enmity on the meditated encroachments of the English hie- rarchy, he was in all these respects fitted to be popular. To these qualities he joined the most pure and ardent patriotism and a quick perception of the views of those in power." Mr. Otis had resigned a position as advocate-general for the crown, and found himself, in this celebrated cause, in antagonism to Jeremiah Gridley, the attorney-general, with whom he had studied law, and for whom he had a high respect and regard.1 The occasion is historic, and need not be enlarged upon in these pages ; nor need we recall the fiery eloquence of James Otis, in denunciation
1 Mr. Otis never was a communicant at the Old South ; his wife became a member in 1764. Mr. Tudor says that when Mr. Otis was a candidate for the legislature in 1761, he met a gentleman of great shrewdness and capacity, who had served as a representative from Bos- ton, and "a friendly conversation took place between them, in which the satire, if it bears a little hard on the character of those times, is perhaps not wholly in- applicable to most others. Otis observed, 'They talk of sending me to the next General Court.' ' You will never succeed in the General Court.' 'Not succeed ! And why not, pray ?' 'Why, Mr. Otis, you have ten times the learning and much greater ability than I have, but you know nothing of human nature.' 'In- deed! I wish you would give me some
lessons.' 'Be patient, and I will do so with pleasure. In the first place, what meeting do you go to?' 'Dr. Sewall's.' 'Very well, you must stand up in sermon time, you must look devout and deeply attentive. Do you have family prayers ? ' 'No.' 'It were well if you did : what does your family consist of?' 'Why, only four or five commonly, but at this time I have in addition one of Dr. Sewall's saints, who is a nurse of my wife.' 'Ah ! that is the very thing : you must talk religion with her in a serious manner ; you must have family prayers at least once while she is in your house : that woman can do you more harm or more good than any other person : she will spread your fame through the con- gregation.'"- Life of Fames Otis, pp. 91, 92.
----
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THE INSTALLATION.
of the writs, which placed him at once in the front rank of pa- triots and orators. It will be enough to quote a few words from the account of the trial given by John Adams : " Every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independ- ence was born."
The day of installation came, - the first that had been seen at the Old South by that generation, to be followed by two others in less than ten years. The services were opened with prayer by Mr. Appleton, of Cambridge. Mr. Cumming preached the sermon from I Tim. iv. 16: "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." The charge was given by Dr. Sewall, with prayer before and after ; and the right hand of fellowship by Mr. Pemberton, whose colleague Mr. Cumming had been in New York.
Cotton Mather, in prescribing the method of procedure on such occasions, says that after the public religious exercises " the Council, with other strangers of note retire, according to a direction given ; where (to use the words of the Bohemian Discipline) Cænatur modeste, cum Timore Domini, piis et amicis Colloquiis." A committee had been appointed two or three weeks before, as we have seen, to provide the usual entertain- ment on this occasion, and adequate and appropriate prepara- tion, no doubt, had been made. The attendance of guests was large; many distinguished personages, including the governor, the lieutenant-governor, and the judges of the Superior Court had been invited ; and it was necessary to lay tables in two or three houses. The greatest concourse was at Dr. Sewall's, where the governor dined. All this was set forth somewhat sensationally in the newspapers. The entertainment was de- scribed as " very sumptuous and elegant ; " at Dr. Sewall's house, it was said to have been "grand," and large quantities of what remained were reported to have been given to the poor. There was exaggeration in these statements. The entertainment had been in all respects worthy of the congregation by which it had been prepared ; but the character of the congregation itself, no less than that of the respectable committee of arrangements to whose hands the matter had been confided, would give assurance that there had been no extravagance, and that nothing had been
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
proposed in a spirit of ostentation. It is not strange, however, that there should have been some comment and criticism on the part of those who did not know all the facts of the case ; and if there were any one on the watch for an opportunity to find fault with the church and its venerable pastor, we may well suppose that he would not allow the occasion to pass without notice. That there was such an one we think we shall be able to show.
It would seem that in the country towns, particularly, there had been such frequent irregularities and disorders in connec- tion with ordination services as had created a public scandal. The days for such services had been made general holidays, and people had been in the habit of gathering together, some of them coming many miles, to indulge in festivity and frivolity. In January, 1759, the subject had been brought to the notice of the council of the province, and by it had been referred to the convention of ministers for consideration, and for such action as might seem advisable. At the convention in May, a report was agreed to, recommending the discontinuance of feasts upon ordination days, and the following vote was adopted : -
That the resolve of the Honourable Council, together with the pre- ceding answer thereto, and declaration thereon, be recommended to be read by one of the ministers assisting at any fast preparatory to an ordination, to the church and society wherein such ordination is proposed, and by all ministers who shall assist at any ordination, to their respective assemblies (provided they are in the same vicinity) the Lord's day preceding the ordination ; and also by all other ministers in the neighbourhood, to their several congregations, at the same time ; they adding such exhortations as they may think proper for accom- plishing this so much desired reformation.
Dr. Sewall was moderator in the convention this year, and the report and recommendation, of course, bore his attestation, although he and others questioned the expediency of the action taken. The end in view was a good one, and the means pro- posed may have accomplished something in the right direction ; but attempts at sumptuary legislation, whether in church or state, are seldom permanently successful, and the present in- stance was no exception to the rule. Now if, as has been in- timated, there were some one in the town who was on the look- out for an opportunity to attack Dr. Sewall, - some one who was jealous of his personal and clerical influence, and of the prominence of his church ; some one, especially, who was not in
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THE ENTERTAINMENT.
accord with him in all his theological opinions, - such an one would be very likely, under such circumstances, to put in an appearance in the newspaper columns of the period. Not that such a person, probably, would write over his own signature ; nor, if a minister, would he necessarily present himself in cleri- cal garb, but in that of a layman ; nor, if he were shrewd, would he make positive assertions, but would limit himself rather to insinuations, and to the repetition of what, as he would claim, had been told to him by others. Precisely this person we find in the Boston Gazette of March 9, 1761, with four columns of criticism upon the entertainment which followed Mr. Cumming's installation. He appears as a countryman, an honest farmer,1 who is much perplexed by what he has heard, and who is troubled by the apparent inconsistency between the action (which he quotes) of the convention in 1759, with Dr. Sewall's name attached, and the feasting at the parsonage in Milk Street, on the 25th of February, 1761. He says, referring to what he had read in the paper the week before : -
I might perhaps have doubted a little the justness of it, as it seems to reflect so much dishonor on the ministers that attended, had it not been for two things, one is that several of my honest neighbours who go to market, were in Boston that day ; and have since confirmed your account to me. The other is, that these people assured me, the price of provisions was raised a quarter part in Boston, for several days before the late instalment, by reason of the great preparations therefor, and the readiness of the ecclesiastical caterers to give almost any price that was demanded. This they declare; and farther add, that many Boston people complained, the town had, by this means, in a few days lost a large sum of money ; which was as it were levied on, and extorted from them. If the poor were the better for what remained of so plentiful and splendid a feast, I am very glad : but yet think it a pity, the charity was not better timed. And some may perhaps doubt after all, whether the charity of the fragments, were sufficient to atone for the ostentation of the feast : and indeed I have transiently heard, that a considerable and very respectable part of that society, expressed their utter dislike of its proceedings in this respect.
The publishers of the paper, Messrs. Edes and Gill, append a note, in which they offer their columns for any reply to their country correspondent, but make no remarks on his letter further than to contradict his intimation that they belonged to the Old South parish, or that they had sought in their report to
1 He might have called himself Rusticus. See The Congregationalist, April, 1884.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
add to its consequence.1 Our first thought would be that such an impersonal and irresponsible attack was altogether unworthy of notice or answer. We are glad, however, that it was replied to, because from the newspaper controversy that followed we are able to glean some information which otherwise we should not possess.2 For instance, we gather from the letters on both sides that Dr. Sewall's preference would have been that there should be no entertainment on the occasion, not because he feared anything like excess, but perhaps out of deference to the feeling which had prompted the action of the convention in 1759. We learn, also, that between the time when this action was notified to the churches and the settlement of Mr. Cum- ming - less than two years - there were twelve ordinations in the country towns at which entertainments were provided, con- trary to the recommendation of the convention ; and, further, that the entertainment at the Old South installation, which was made the occasion of so much carping and unworthy criticism, was nothing more than a substantial dinner, and on the critic's own estimate cost only about fifty pounds lawful money.3 And
1 "Tho' we have complied with the Request or rather Demand of our Coun- try-correspondent, in publishing the long Letter above ; yet we must inform him that he is mistaken in thinking we be- long'd to the Old South parish ; or aim'd at aggrandizing that ancient and respec- table Society in the Account we gave of the late Instalment. For we declare, we aim'd only at giving a true and impartial Account of Facts, according to our best Information. As to the justness and pertinency of these Remarks on that Account, we do not think it our Province to say any Thing ; but chuse to submit this to the Judgment of our Readers : And we shall readily insert any Thing offered by Way of Answer to them, ac- cording to our Profession and Practice." - Boston Gazette.
2 We will quote a few sentences from a reply which appeared in the Boston Gazette of April 6, 1761 : -
" There is a certain faculty which some men have of blasting the reputation of others, without speaking in direct terms of falsehood. The writer in your paper of the 9th ult. would do well to consider, that even the misconduct of men may be
unfairly represented, and to exhibit the failings of others in more aggravated colours than is strictly just, is real slander, and argues a malevolent heart. . .. He himself conceeds that such ac- counts in common newspapers, are not always authentick, and relies upon the testimony of his honest neighbours who were at market that day, and confirm'd the account : but as these honest market- men were neither guests nor attendants at the sumptuous entertainment ; and as this writer might have been inform'd of the truth, from some worthy minister in the country, who dined with the council, his publishing an account which in his own opinion, seemed to reflect so much dishonor on the ministers who attended the instalment, upon so unsolid grounds as the hear-say of marketmen, was hardly, if at all consistent with the character of a man truly good, who 'taketh not up a report against his neighbour.'"
3 The soi-disant countryman said in his third letter : "There were six tables that held one with another eighteen persons, upon each table a good rich plumb pud- ding, a dish of boil'd pork and fowls, and a corn'd leg of pork, with sauce proper
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MR. CUMMING'S PREACHING.
yet again, we learn anew from the correspondence before us - and this is why we give so much space to what upon the surface appears to be so utterly insignificant - that religious partisans, especially those who employ the press and write anonymously or under an alias, are never at a loss for a pretext, when they desire to attack their brethren, and that when they think they can make a point in favor of themselves they are apt to be as oblivious to the principles of common honesty as they are in- different to the injunctions of Christian charity.1
Mr. Cumming was married, soon after his settlement, to Elizabeth, daughter of Ezekiel Goldthwaite, for many years register of deeds for the county of Suffolk. Whether he oc- cupied the old parsonage, when it was vacated by Mrs. Prince, we do not know; in 1766 it had been and then was occupied by the Hon. John Osborne,2 whose house was burnt in the fire of 1760.
Mr. Cumming's preaching was more metaphysical than that of Dr. Sewall and Mr. Prince. One of his speculations was, that in the work of conversion love comes before faith, -that a man must love God and truly repent of his sins before he be- lieves in Christ. Another was, that a sinner, before he can be
for it, a leg of bacon, a piece of alamode his excuse, I would much sooner become his apologist myself, than endeavour to aggravate his misconduct in this affair ; beef, a leg of mutton with caper sauce, a piece of roast beef, a roast line of veal, a roast turkey, a venison pastee, besides · which, after all proper allowance for in- chess cakes and tarts, cheese and butter. firmities, whether bodily or mental, must appear very unjustifiable to any impartial judge." Half a dozen cooks were employed upon the occasion, upwards of twenty tenders to wait upon the tables; they had the best of old cyder, one barrel of Lisbon wine, punch in plenty before and after dinner, made of old Barbados spirit. The cost of this moderate dinner was upwards of fifty pounds lawful money."
1 The following paragraph shows the thinly veiled malice of the critic, in his attempt to justify himself against what had been complained of in his attack on the venerable Dr. Sewall : -
" I have said nothing of him, but what was relative to the particular affair of the instalment; and nothing but what was grounded on plain facts. If these are such as to make his character appear 'in an odious light to the world,' I am very sorry for it; tho' I am far from saying, they are sufficient to do this. And so far as age and infirmities may justly plead in
Three or four generations later, in 1884, another clerical fault-finder wrote some letters, under a pseudonym, to a "religious " paper in another city, about an.installation at the Old South, in which the entertainment prepared for the coun- cil and invited guests was made the sub- ject of malicious criticism. We shall not refer to these letters again, and only mention them now for the purpose of classing them with the "countryman's " letters in 1761.
2 Mr. Osborne died August 27, 1768, in his eightieth year.
May 30, 1764. " Election at Concord, the small pox being at Boston, I not there. Capt. Osborn and Cushing re- signed, Capt. Watts out; I chose a counsellor, and Ruggles, Tyler and Goffe chosen." - Lynde Diaries.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
accepted, must acknowledge that it would be righteous in God to cast him off forever. Mr. Croswell, who, because of the iso- lated position which he occupied among the Boston clergy, was able to wield a free lance, attacked this latter position in one of his sermons, in the course of which he made the remark that "a damning God is not an object of love."1 Mr. Cumming heard of this, and in a conversation with the Rev. Joseph Bel- lamy characterized it as blasphemous. Mr. Croswell, when the criticism came to his knowledge, printed a "Letter," to which Mr. Cumming responded with " Animadversions " on the " Let- ter." 2 We quote from Mr. Cumming in order that his views may be set forth in his own words : -
In a conversation with Mr. Bellamy, about mens different notions of the Deity, on which they build their systems of vertue and reli- gion, I mentioned, by way of instance, a position delivered in a ser- mon by Mr. Croswell. It was to the best of my remembrance in the following words : A damning God is not an object of love. Mr. Bel- lamy ask'd, what I thought of it. My answer was, that it was blas- phemy : For, if it was true, no wise and good being, could or ought to love God ; in as much as it was unquestionable, that he came under this denomination. A few days afterwards Mr. Bellamy, meeting with Mr. Croswell, ask'd him, whether ever he had delivered such a posi- tion. He own'd that he had - and ask'd, who inform'd him of it. Mr. Bellamy answered, that I did. He ask'd again, what I said of it - Mr. Bellamy reply'd, " He said, it was blasphemy." Not long after this conversation, meeting Mr. Croswell in the street, he demanded of me, whether I had told Mr. Bellamy that he had preached blasphemy. I answered, that I had heard him deliver the sentiment above recited ; and that it appear'd such to me. He reply'd that his meaning was, that no man can love God while he looks on him as one that will damn
HIM. Sir, said I, there is no meaning you can put upon it, but what is liable to the same charge. The position appeared so extreamly in- jurious to the divine character, that it surprized me to find any dispo- sition shewn, much more an attempt made to put a good meaning upon it. This was in effect to maintain and support the position. It supposed that true, at least in some respect, which if it be in any, all foundation of the love and worship of God is destroyed for ever. A position so directly subversive of all the foundations of vertue, seem'd not entitled to the priviledge of being explain'd. It ought to have been absolutely retracted. But to confess the truth, the explanatory
1 Of course, he used the word not in its old English sense, but in the modern theological sense.
2 The " Animadversions " are in the
Prince Library; also Mr. Croswell's sermon, preached October 17, 1764, " Free Justification Through Christ's Redemption."
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THE DOCTRINE OF SHEPARD AND HOOKER.
position seem'd to me at bottom, just as bad as the original sentiment. The one is blasphemy in the very matter of it ; and the other is equally so in its spirit and import : The malignancy of the one is obvious and open ; of the other, more latent and involved.1
Further on in the pamphlet, Mr. Cumming thus explains his understanding of the doctrine in controversy : -
My doctrine, I own, is the same with Mr. Sheperd's : and with him, Mr. Hooker, I apprehend, agrees ; tho' his expression be not so guarded as to cut off all occasion of exception. The doctrine we maintain, that hath given occasion to the above imputation [that a person must be contented and willing to be damned, or made misera- ble forever] may be summed up in these particulars. I. That it is just in God, and consistent with every branch of his character, forever to cast off and destroy all sinners as such. 2. That with respect to every sinner, it is an act of sovereign grace to save him, or to do any thing towards this end. If the former be true, the latter must be so of consequence. All the grace and glory of the gospel, fundamentally depends on the truth of these propositions. There is no glory in the gospel, if either of them be false. No glory can be seen in the gos- pel, if the truth of them be not clearly seen and felt. And hence, 3. A sinner must see it righteous in God to cast him off for ever : So that if he should never shew him mercy, but destroy him, his mouth may be stopped ; all murmurings and heartrisings against God sub- dued, as dealing unrighteously or hardly with him; or in any wise in- consistently with his character, promises, or declarations. And if he be not in effect bro't to this, he will never believe in Christ. The light in which he views things is utterly inconsistent with this act. For a sinner to believe in Christ, while he is not sensible of the justice of God in his destruction, while he is full of heart-risings against God on this account, is impossible. For he doth not admit and feel that to be true, which this act, in it's very nature supposeth, and is built upon, as a fundamental ground. He can't accept salvation as meer grace ; for he doth not see it to be so in it's own nature. And he can't see it to be so in it's nature, while he doth not from real conviction see and acqui- esce in it that his destruction is a righteous and becoming act in God.2
Mr. Cumming was to have brought out a second pamphlet in reply to Mr. Croswell, but he did not live to complete it. Each party sought to show that Dr. Sewall was on his side, but, in
1 [There was a theory of human gov- ernment in favor with the Tory statesmen of the time, that answered to this view in theology. " America must fear you before she can love you," said Lord
North to Alderman Beckford, in Novem- ber, 1768, when the latter was urging a policy of moderation and kindness.]
2 [Animadversions on the Rev. Mr. Croswell's Late Letter, etc., pp. 1, 2, 7, 8.]
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
our opinion, the venerable pastor took very little pleasure in discussions of this kind.
At a church Meeting March 24. 1761.
The Paragraphs in the Rev. Mr. Prince's last Will relating to the Libraries were read, and are as follows -
" I give to the old South Church in Boston all my Books which are in Latin, Greek, and in the oriental Languages to be kept and remain in their public Library for ever.
And I hereby desire the said church to make a rule and order that the key of said Library shall always be kept by one of their Pastors.
Item, Whereas I have been many years collecting a Number of Books, Pamphlets, Maps, Papers in Print and manuscript, either publish'd in New England, or pertaining to its History or public-Af- fairs, to which Collection I have given the name of the New England Library ; and have deposited it in the steeple chamber of the old South Church : And as I made the said Collection from a public view and desire that the memory of many important Transactions might be preserv'd, which would otherwise be lost; I hereby bequeath the said Collection to the said South Church for ever. But to the end that the same may be kept entire, I desire that this Collection may be always kept in a different Apartment from the other Books, and that it may be a rule that no Person shall borrow any book or paper there- from ; but that any Person whom the Pastors and Deacons of said Church for the time being, shall approve of, may have access thereto, and take copies thence."
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