USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. III > Part 24
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One request more you have is that you may have Communion with us at the Lords table in which we desire you Brethren to beare with us that we cannot as to our present light fullfill your desire, and you may the rather beare with us herein because yourselves have laid a new barr in avouching as we conceive your departure to be an act of your obe- dience and that high if we rightly understand you, Now if it were obedience, we would gladly know the scripture Command for it, that soe we may see your necessity of so doing to avoid sin, and our sin in gainesaying you therein,
Yet in order to the accomplishment of your desire and that this division may be forever buryed in the fuller Amnestie, we would rejoice that the Lord may guide in his way to prevent any the like unhappy breach in any of the Churches of Christ among us.
Thus have we deare Brethren received and Considered your over-
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
ture with all Brotherly kindnes, and we hope that neither that from you nor this from us will hinder, but further your and our indeavour of a fuller understanding one of another, neverthelesse whereto we have attayned let us walke by the same rule farewell beloved Brethren we are Yours to love and to esteem you in the Lord
19th 6th mo : 1673
JOHN OXENBRIDGE, Pastor
JAMES ALLEN Teacher
reserving mine owne understanding and exception
JOHN WISWELL Elder
with the Consent of the Brethren
Their Elders voted to send their ruling elder Mr. Wiswell 1 to see if
any of our sisters would confesse their fault, then they
[20]. (6th) would indeavour to git them a generall dismission to some Church in order.
The only sermon of Mr. Thacher which has come down to us in print was preached on a public fast-day, March 26, 1674. Its text was Isaiah lviii. 5, 6. It was published four years later, with an Address to the Reader by Increase Mather,2 and with the following title, which sufficiently suggests its scope : "A Fast of God's Chusing, Plainly Opened For the help of those poor in spirit, whose hearts are set to seek the Lord their God in New England, in the solemn Ordinance of A Fast, Wherein is shewed I. The nature of such a Fast. 2. The Testimony God will give thereunto of his gracious acceptation. 3. The special Seasons wherein God will bear witness to such a Fast. 4. Some helps to Faith that it shall be so. 5. Why such a Fast is so acceptable and successfull. 6. How much this con- cerns Gods people in New England. Preached on a Fast Called by Publick Authority, on 26. 1. 74."
1 [Elder Penn had died October 30, 1671.]
2 Mr. Mather said in his Address : "It is marvellous to consider (for his Spirit knoweth what shall come to pass in the world, and inclineth the hearts of his Messengers accordingly,) how God many times causeth the words of his Servants in their publick Ministrations to fall in with his providential dispensations ; of which we have some instance in the Ser- mon herewith emitted, which was de- livered some years agoe, even a little before our late troubles. The Lord knew that Boston, yea, that New Eng- land would have cause for many days of
Humiliation, and therefore stirred up the heart of his Servant beforehand to give instructions and Directions concern- ing the acceptable performance of so great a duty. Some that were affected in hearing the Word preached, and that did in short hand take what was de- livered, have importuned the Reverend Author to give way unto its publication, unto whose desires he hath at last con- ceded. And I know not but that the publication of what is in this way pre- sented may be as seasonable as the preaching of it at first was." The Ad- dress is dated April, 1678, six months before Mr. Thacher's death.
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20I
ADDRESS OF THE WOMEN.
We come now to the closing sentences of the Third Church Narrative : -
The sisters being the wives of the first dissenters and now are the third Church in Boston whose dismission from the first Church was soe often sought but in vaine, and who had [27] (6) 1674. bin now above 3 yeares and a half denyed Communion with the said Church ; made their addresse to the 3d Church for their admission with them where they had enjoyed Communion all this time. the Addresse followeth : -
Reverend and much Esteemed in the Lord.
Having long tyme wated in hope of the reconcilliation of the churches and obteining a dismission to yourselves and after all at- tempts and Endeavours used by yourselves having this for answer respecting ourselves That they looked at themselves as discharged from any Covenant duty to us and that wee cease to stand in any memberly relation to them And that wee have upon our owne ir- regular choyce, gone out from them and from any further Authority of their church Wee therefore intreate you to receive us into church membership with yourselves, considering that meerly for, holding church Communion with yourselves wee are brought into the same Condition with you in relation to that Church whereof both you and wee were members, For our dismission was at first desired, and that according to the first Council you were advised upon that churches refusall to take it up by a peaceable secession, which you did, and according to order joyned together into a church Society, and officers being orderly chosen and ordeyned with you, wee thought it our duty to hold Communion with you being involved in the same Cause, which holding of Communion they call our irregular going out from them &c for which indeed they never dealt with us singly or together according to any knowne order of the Gospell, but according to their vote on 24: 2d 1670 in these words [wee doe declare that wee cannot have Com- munion with such of ours at the Lords table who have and doe com- municate with them untill they give satisfaction.] they have refused Communion with us: and so (as may be Conceived) wee ly under the same rule of Joyning to you and being received by you, as you did of Joyning together and receiving each other in your first Coali- tion for they themselves being interpreters wee have made a Seces- sion from them upon their refusing a dismission unto us, by holding church Communion with yourselves and so are hopelesse of help from them, except wee would renounce communion with you which we cannot in Conscience do, Besides wee understand that it hath bene the advice of many of the Reverend Elders severall tymes at the Election Courts Assembled and under the hands of some of the most Ancient of them, that we should joyne unto you and be received by
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
you, which advice concurring with the Counsell given yourselves by the Second Council in the same case, wee submit unto and accordingly desire the benefit thereof ; Earnestly intreating the god of all grace so to fill us with his Spirit, that wee may be fit to renew our Covenant with him and with your church, and to walke in covenant with him- selfe and with yourselves unto all gratious acceptation with him and to his Eternall glory by Christ Jesus our Lord, wee are bold to sub- scribe ourselves, Dearely Beloved in the Lord.
Your Sisters in the Lord and fellowship of the Gospell. August 27 : 1674
MARGREATT THACHER ELIZABETH ALDEN LIDIA SCOTTOW
ELIZABETH GIBBS ELIZABETH BECK ELIZABETH RAINSFORD
MARY NORTON JUDITH HULL ELIZABETH ROCKE
JOHANNA DAVIS
SARAH OLIVER SUSANNA DAWES
HANNAH FRARY
MARY SAVAGE
SARAH PEMBERTON
MARY SALTER MARY ELLET JOHANNA MASON
ELISHUA THIRTON
REANIS BELCHER ALICE HARPER
SARA WALKER
MARY BRACKIT
SARAH BODEMAN RACHEL RAWSON
MARY TAPEN
Delivered and thus superscribed to Elder Rainsford ffor the Rev- erend Elders and Brethren of the 3d Church of Christ in Boston.1
Upon the publishing of their addres unto the Church, the sisters owning of it publiquely, they were all admitted members of this 3d Church. [October 16. 1674.]
This narrative preceding was by Mr. Sam : Sewall, Deacons Ellyot and ffrary and Josh. Scottow comitted to the reverend Sam : Torry the onely surviving Secretary of the last Councill, and the Assemblies Moderator at Mr. Thatchers Ordination, by him to be examined and compared with records of transactions relating to 3d Church he after having it diverse moneths in his Custody returned it with full approbation, and that this is the true coppy of that which past his examination
Attests 2 : ffe[bruary] 169[ ]
1 [We have corrected this letter by the original, which is on the files of the Old South Church. It was written by John Hull, and the names of Joanna Davis, Ranis Belcher, Mary Brackett, Susanna Dawes, Sarah Pemberton, Jo- anna Mason, Alice Harper, and Sarah Bodman are in his handwriting. Lydia Scottow and Elizabeth Rock did not join the church until the 8th of January, 1674-5. Joanna Davis's name does not appear on the church lists.]
2 [After the certificate of Mr. Scottow,
JOSH : SCOTTOW 2
who, as we judge, drew up the Narrative, is the following : -
BOSTON January 25 91-2
Having seen a transcript of the 3d Churches proceedings containing one hundred sixtysix pages of writeing and being desired to passe my judgement on the worth of the writeing therof do accordingly judge it to be worth the summe of foure pounds three shillings money
ELIEZER MOODY.]
& with
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AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES OF MRS. THACHER, MRS. NORTON AND OTHERS.
203
JUDGMENT OF THE MINISTERS.
The final appeal of the women upon which the church acted, as a formal application for admission to its membership, was supported by the judgment of an assembly of ministers con- vened in the preceding month of May, in a document written by the Rev. Thomas Cobbett, which has been preserved on the files of the Old South : -
Upon a motion made by the South church of Boston unto such Elders of other churches as were there assembled upon the 28 of May, 1674, for the resolution of this following question,
"What is our duty towards those members of the Old church who were and still are secluded from communion with that church in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, only because of their participation with us therein, and who also desire to join in church fellowship with us ? "
Those elders, having inquired into and labored after a right un- derstanding of the true state of the Question as it ariseth from mat- ter of fact and relates unto matter of practice in the great duties of church communion and communion of churches, do, humbly and in the fear of God, offer our sincere understanding of the case stated in this question : and, 2dly, our advice and counsell thereupon.
I. That the church inquiring, respecting both its constitution and administrations both of Doctrine and worship, is, and ought to be acknowledged, a true church of Christ, standing right in the order of communion of churches in all respects ; free and clear from any just scandall or offence given or taken. As appears by the oft renewed acts and constant practise of Communion, and by the right hand of fellowship orderlye and mutually given and taken between them and generally all other churches as occasion doth require.
2. That therefore communion with this church in the participation of the Lord's supper duely and regularly administered is not morall evil, nor justly offensive unto any other church, any of whose inoffen- sive members shall orderly and occasionally for their own edification and comfort desire to communicate with them therein, by virtue of Communion of churches.
3. That therefore for any other church to seclude or suspend a con- siderable number of their own (otherwise inoffensive members) from communion with themselves in that holy sacrament, meerly and only for participation with that church therein is not justifiable as to the grounds and reasons thereof : but seems to us to be crosse to the rules and order of the communion of churches, and so to their peace and union.
4. That so to seclude and suspend such and so many members in- definitely from church communion without the ordinary improvement and application of rules of church discipline, or any orderly proceed-
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HISTORY OF. THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
ing in a church way, to call them before the church in public church assembly to convince them of the evil and sinfullnesse of the fact, to reduce, recover them and restore them and that singly and severally, each one by themselves, and to let such and so many members to live and ly for divers years together under such a suspension without any further proceeding in any church is not justifyable for the manner of it, there having ben no regular forensicall exercise of judiciall power by the church according to known scripture rules of church discipline, nor any liberty or opportunity granted to reputed offenders either to clear their innocency, if innocent, or to hear the church and expresse their repentance if guilty, and therefore we cannot judge such a seclu- sion and suspension to be any regular church censure.
5. That therefore any such declarative act of any church whereby they do in such a way and manner sentence any or so many of their own members unto non-communion with themselves and so conse- quently with all other churches it being neither properly an Ecclesi- asticall admonition nor excommunication. It is not (de jure) binding either in foro Dei aut conscientiæ, and is therefore no reall regular bar either unto those members from joining with another church, neither unto another church from receiving them into their fellowship, there having ben all due means used for their reconciliation to and dismission from the said church unto that which they find more for their edification and consolation in the Lord; and yet, it proving in vaine and appearing altogether impossible and (as to man) after so many years waiting utterly hopelesse, that it should be obtained for the future.
In such a case we judge
That such members may joyne, and such a Church unto whome they desire to joyn may receive them into their fellowship without the transgression of any rule of Church order or any just cfience given unto the church unto which they did belong, provided they be in a capacity, by a convenient vicinity and other necessary circumstances, to walk with that church constantly in the course of church fellowship, and come according to their church-Covenant.
This judgment was signed by the following clergymen : Samuel Whiting, Sr., of Lynn, John Eliot, of Roxbury, Peter Hobart, of Hingham, Thomas Cobbett, of Ipswich, John Sher- man, of Watertown, William Hubbard, of Ipswich, John Higgin- son, of Salem, John Wilson, of Medfield, Jeremiah Hubbard, of Topsfield, Samuel Phillips, of Rowley, Joseph Rowlandson, of Lancaster, Seaborn Cotton, of Hampton, N. H., and John Hale, of Beverly.
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CHAPTER IV.
1675-1683.
PHILIP'S WAR. - THE QUAKERS. - RECONCILIATION.
U TPON the abatement of the agitation on the Synodical ques- tion, there was a brief period of quiet in the colony. The historian says: "The state of things at this period furnishes no especially exciting topics for conversation. There is no present menace of disturbance from England. The agitation about the Synodical question is abated. Quakers cause little apprehen- sion, and Baptists are getting to be kindly regarded. Now and then a villager who has been at the Thursday lecture in Boston brings back news respecting the King's attitude towards Hol- land, or the measures of Parliament against the Duke of York, or the conjectured policy of Lord Danby, or the annoyances of English or Scottish Nonconformists. The politics of town and parish are from time to time presenting some new aspect ; courtships and marriages, births and deaths, claim notice ; militia training days make a recreation and a sort of festival ; and all the year round, the doctrine delivered in the last Sun- day's sermons is matter for thought and discourse during the week. In the marts of business, interests are more various, and social intercourse has more activity and show. But everywhere alike there is a general appearance of security, prosperity, so- briety, good order, and content." 1
The quiet of this time, we are told, also, was undisturbed by any general apprehension of danger from the aborigines. "For more than a generation there has been no war with them, 1 Palfrey's History, vol. iii. pp. 136, 137.
-
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
though there have been occasional difficulties and quarrels. The youngest person of European parentage who has seen war on this continent is already almost too old for military service." 1
But this brief period of quiet was to be interrupted, and fol- lowed by years of terror and disaster.
Massasoit, the friendly chieftain, died in 1660, leaving two sons, Wamsutta and Metacomet, who, being ambitious of high- sounding European names, came by order of the court at Plym- outh to be called Alexander and Philip. Alexander lived only two years after his father, and in 1662 Philip became chief sachem of the Pokanokets. From the very first, this wily savage was suspected by the colonists of Plymouth, to whom he professed allegiance and attachment. In August, 1662, they summoned him to a conference with them, when he made many protestations of friendship, and promised to adhere faithfully to the treaty engagements of his father and brother ; the English, on their part, engaging to afford to him and his people " such friendly assistance, by advice and otherwise, as they justly might," and " at all times to carry friendly towards them." But Philip was almost constantly under suspicion, although he strangely succeeded in defending himself against the charges of hostility and conspiracy which, with a good deal of circumstan- tiality, were from time to time brought against him. In 1671, during one of his periods of contumacy, he came to Boston, and seems to have made a favorable impression upon the leading men here, for some of them wrote to Plymouth in his behalf, at the same time offering their assistance in bringing about a friendly settlement of the pending quarrel. This proposal for arbitra- tion was accepted, and Major-general Leverett, Mr. Danforth, and Mr. Davis went to Plymouth, and with Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, who had joined them, "had a fair and deliberate hearing of the controversy." The result was, that after listen- ing to all that Philip had to say for himself, in his relations with the Plymouth authorities, the arbitrators "adjudged that he had done a great deal of wrong and injury respecting the premises, and also abused them by carrying lies and false stories unto them ; and they persuaded him to make acknowledgment of his fault, and to seek for reconciliation." He made full submission to the Plymouth magistrates, by an instrument dated September 29 of the same year, and, in sign of fealty, he engaged to pay yearly a tribute of five wolves' heads, besides a hundred pounds
1 Palfrey's History, vol. iii. p. 132.
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PHILIP'S WAR.
in three years to defray the charge which he had now occa- sioned. The quiet thus obtained continued until 1674, when the governor of Plymouth was informed by Sausaman, a " pray- ing Indian " and a preacher, who had been taught at Cambridge, that Philip was endeavoring to raise new troubles, and to engage all the sachems round about him in a war. Hearing that he was again under suspicion and that he would probably be sent for by the court, he went of his own accord to Plymouth, in March, 1675, and once more made earnest protestations of his innocence. These did not satisfy the assistants, but, "not having full proof, and hoping that the discovery so far would cause him to desist, they dismissed him friendly," with some words of admonition and warning. Soon after Sausaman dis- appeared, and his murdered body was found in a pond. Philip, who lived at Mount Hope, now a part of the town of Bristol, was daily becoming more bold, and at length on Sunday, the 20th of June, commenced hostilities by a raid on Swanzey, the nearest of the English towns to his territory ; two houses were then burned, and three days later twelve more were rifled ; a day or two afterward, several of the inhabitants were massacred, and their bodies treated with barbarous indignity.
We do not propose to narrate the events of the three years following the outbreak at Swanzey, known in our history as King Philip's War, which, spreading from Plymouth Colony, over- ran a large part of New England. Central Massachusetts was desolated, and almost every settlement beyond the Piscataqua was laid in ashes. "It was a succession of ruthless ravages on a larger or a smaller scale. Outlying houses were fired by night, while their inmates slept. Husbandmen at their work, and women at the well, and travellers on the road, were shot down. Only in the large towns could an Englishman leave his door with safety. Every bush near it might hide a watchful marksman." Of the eighty or ninety towns in Plymouth and Massachusetts, ten or twelve were wholly destroyed, and forty others were more or less damaged by fire, making together nearly two thirds of the whole number. There was scarcely an English family in the two colonies that was not in mourning. Impoverishment was added to bereavement. At the termina- tion of hostilities, the debt which had been incurred by the colony of Plymouth is believed to have exceeded the value of the whole personal property of its people.1
1 In this sketch, we have followed fourth and fifth chapters of the third closely Dr. Palfrey's account in the volume of his History.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
The members of the Third Church bore their full share of the responsibilities and perils of this terrible time. William Davis, as we have seen, went to Plymouth as an arbitrator in 1671, when, it was hoped, arrangements had been made to secure a permanent peace between the red men and their white neigh- bors. As soon as the intelligence of the first attack on Swanzey reached Boston, the Council, in response to an appeal from Governor Josiah Winslow, decided to send messengers to the Narragansett and Nipmuck tribes which were within the juris- diction of Massachusetts, to prevent, if possible, an alliance on their part with Philip, and so to circumscribe the limits of the revolt. These messen- gers were Edward Hutchin- son, Seth Perry, and Wil- liam Tower. On the 24th of June, when news of the gen- eral outbreak came to hand, and a further appeal from Plymouth had been received, Thomas Savage and Thomas Brattle were sent in haste to Thomas Sabago Philip, on a mission of peace ; but when they reached Swan- zey they saw that the time for negotiation and remon- strance was past, and they returned to Boston without speak- ing with him. On the same day it was resolved to raise a company of foot soldiers and a troop of horse; Daniel Hench- man was appointed to the command of the former, and Thomas Prentice of the latter. Other troops were raised as the war went on, and the management of the campaign was entrusted to Major Thomas Savage.1 Benjamin Gibbs held a captain's commission. John Hull was treasurer-at-war, and some of the account books, a journal and two ledgers, kept by him at
1 Edward Rawson, as secretary of the Council, wrote to the governor of Con- necticut, June 28, 1675 : -
" Major Generall Denison was chosen for to goe General of these forces, but he being taken ill Captain Savage is sent Commander-in-chief, Captain Pren- tis commanding the horse, Captain
Henchman and Captain Mosley Captains of the foot. Our eyes are unto the Lord for his presence with them, and hope you will not be wanting in your prares and watchfulness over the Indians, and particularly we request you to use your utmost authority to restrain the Mon- hegins and Pequods."
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SOLDIERS IN PHILIP'S WAR.
the time are extant. His "system of book-keeping was a sort of double entry, or 'a mixed method.' It was very ex- haustive, giving to every department of the colony's transac- tions a separate ledger account, as well as to every person men- tioned in the journal." In these accounts we find three of his fellow church-members, Theophilus Frary, Jacob Eliot, and John Morse, recorded as commissaries of subsistence. We find, also, on the rolls, the names of the following members of the Third Church and congregation : Joseph Belcher, who was wounded in the knee and had his horse killed under him ; Perez Savage, who was severely wounded early in the campaign ; Nathaniel Davenport, Mr. Thacher's son-in-law, one of the six captains killed in the action of the 19th of December ; Moses Paine, Asaph Eliot, Ebenezer Hayden, William Manly, Samuel Veazie, Simon Daniel.1 In February, 1675-6, Major Savage was placed in command of an expedition for operations in the cen- tral part of Massachusetts. His son-in-law, Benjamin Gillam, was second in command, and we recognize in the lists, as Third Church men, Gilbert Cole, David Raynsford, Henry Phillips, Richard Woodye, Manasseh Beck, Benjamin Thurston, Thomas Savage, Jr., William Gerrish, William Pollard.2
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