USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. III > Part 56
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NE MARCIT 31 1729 00UTC
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CHAPTER X.
1740-1744.
MR. WHITEFIELD'S FIRST VISIT. - THE REVIVAL PERIOD.
T HE period to which we have come is known in our re- ligious annals as that of the Great Awakening. During the time covered by the last chapter, there were revivals of religion of great power and interest in the central part of Massa- chusetts and in Connecticut, one of the most memorable being that which took place at Northampton under the ministry of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. In 1739, George Whitefield, who had spent four months in Georgia, and who had returned to Eng- land for full ordination as a presbyter in the Established Church there, came again to these shores, and after preaching to im- mense congregations in Philadelphia and New York, went to Savannah, to enter upon the living to which he had been pre- sented by the Trustees of Georgia. The pastors of Boston were greatly impressed by what they heard of his remarkable endowments and great success as a preacher of the gospel, and were anxious that he should visit New England ; and Dr. Col- man and Mr. Cooper, the ministers of Brattle Street Church, endeavored to prepare the way for his coming by warmest com- mendation of himself and his work in a preface written by them to a sermon on the Character and Preaching of Mr. Whitefield, by the Rev. Josiah Smith, of Charleston, South Carolina.1 In this preface it was said: As to the person referred to and named, "he is the wonder of the age; and no one man more employs the pens, and fills up the conversation of people, than he does at this day : none more admired and applauded by some, contemned and reproached by others : the common lot of the most excellent men the world has ever had to show!" Of his coming to Boston, and of the religious condition of the town at that time and during the twenty years immediately preceding,
1 Mr. Smith preached a sermon in ciples - which was printed in Boston in 1742- Jesus Persecuted in His Dis- 1745.
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MR. PRINCE'S RETROSPECT.
we have an account by Mr. Prince, the substance of which we shall give, for the most part in his words.1
Going back to the time of his return from Europe in 1717, Mr. Prince says : "On my said return, there were five congre- gational churches settled with pastors in this town, though now they are increased to five more. The pastors were Dr. Increase and Cotton Mather of the North Church ; Mr. Wadsworth with Mr. Foxcroft chosen his colleague of the Old Church ; Mr. Colman and Cooper of the Church in Brattle Street ; Mr. Sew- all of the South Church ; and Mr. Webb of the New North : All most happily agreeing in the Doctrines of Grace, as laid down in the shorter and larger Catechisms and Confession of Faith, drawn out of Scripture by the venerable Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as well as the Confession of Faith agreed to by our New England Synods, and almost the same with the other. And this Town and Country were in great tranquility both civil and religious. But though there were many bright examples of piety in every seat and order ; yet there was a general complaint among the pious and elderly per- sons, of the great decay of Godliness in the lives and conversa- tions of people both in the town and land, from what they had seen in the days of their fathers. There was scarce a prayer made in public by the elder ministers without some heavy lamen- tation of this decay: In their sermons also they frequently mourned it : And the younger ministers commonly followed their example therein."
"In the spring of 1721, the eight ministers who carried on the public Lecture, taking into consideration the lamentable defect of piety among our young people, agreed to preach a course of sermons at the Lecture to them. The audiences were consider- ably crowded : And while the Word of God was loudly sound- ing, he lifted up his awful Rod, by sending the small-pox into the town, which began to spread to our general consternation : Scarce a quarter of the people being thought to have had it ; and none of the numerous youth under eighteen years of age, it being so many years since that fatal pestilence had prevailed among us. The sermons were quickly printed, with another
1 This narrative appears in the second volume of the Christian History, pub- lished in 1743 and 1744, "containing accounts of the revival and propagation of religion in Great Britain, America,"
etc. The idea of the publication origi- nated with the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. The form was probably suggested by the Weekly History of the Progress of the Gospel, printed in London.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
added by the venerable Dr. Increase Mather, for further benefit. Many of the younger people especially were then greatly awak- ened: And many hundreds of them quickly after swept into eternity.
"In the spring of 1722, the distemper left us : But so little reformed were the surviving youth, that at the end of the sum- mer the pastors agreed to move their churches to keep in each successively a Day of Prayer and Fasting to ask of God the effusion of his Holy Spirit, particularly on the rising generation. And the churches readily received the motion. But though a solemnity appeared on many, yet it pleased the holy God to humble us and sparingly to give the blessing.
" And though in the spring of 1726, in an awakening view of ยท the deplorable decay of Family-Religion, as a principal source of all other decays, the pastors went into a course of public lectures on that important subject; yet they had the further sorrow to see those lectures too thinly attended to expect much benefit from them.1
" But after all our endeavours, both our security and degener- acy seemed in general to grow, 'till the night after the Lord's Day, October 29. 1727 ; when the glorious God arose and fear- fully shook the earth through all these countries. By terrible things in righteousness he began to answer us, as the God of our Salvation.
"On the next morning a very full assembly met at the North Church for the proper exercises on so extraordinary an occasion. At five in the evening a crowded concourse assembled at the Old Church ; and multitudes unable to get in, immediately flowed to the South, and in a few minutes filled that also. At Lieutenant Governor Dummer's motion, who was then our Com- mander in Chief, the Thursday of the same week was kept as a Day of extraordinary Fasting and Prayer in all the churches in Boston ; not merely to intreat for sparing mercy, but also to implore the Grace and Spirit of God to come down and help us
1 The several subjects in this course of lectures were these: Dr. Cotton Mather, Job viii. 6, on Household Piety in general; Mr. Colman, 2 Sam. vi. 20, on Family Worship; Mr. Thacher, Gen. xviii. 19, on Family Instruction ; Mr. Sewall, I Sam. iii. 13, on Family Gov- ernment; Mr. Prince, Lev. xxiii. 3, on Family Sabbatizing ; Mr. Webb, Psalm ci. 2, on Family Example ; Mr. Cooper,
Ezek. xvi. 20, on Improving the Cov- enant relating to Children ; Mr. Fox- croft, Col. iii. 18, 19, on Conjugal Duties ; Mr. Checkley, Col. iii. 20, 22-24, on the Duties of Children and Servants ; Mr. Waldron, Prov. xiv. II, on the Character and Doom of Wicked Houses ; Mr. Gee, Eccl. vii. 14, on Family Providences, especially afflictive, Improved. Mr. Sewall's sermon was preached May 12.
503
SPECIAL SERVICES.
to a sincere repentance and returning to him. And as the Houses of public Worship were greatly crowded, the people were very attentive.
"The ministers endeavoured to set in with this extraordinary and awakening Work of God in Nature, and to preach his Word in the most awakening manner ; to show the people the vast difference between conviction and conversion, between a forced reformation either in acts of piety, justice, charity, or sobriety, by the mere power of fear, and a genuine change of the very frame and relish of the heart by the supernatural efficacy of the Holy Spirit ; to lead them on to true conversion and unfeigned faith in Christ, and to guard them against deceiving themselves.
" In all our congregations, many seemed to be awakened and reformed : And professing repentance of their sins and faith in Christ, entered into solemn covenant with God, and came into full communion with our several churches. In ours, within eight months after, were about eighty added to our communi- cants. But then comparatively few of these applied to me to discourse about their souls, 'till they came to offer themselves to the Communion, or afterwards : The most of those who came to me seemed to have passed through their convictions before their coming to converse with me about approaching to the Lord's Table : though I doubt not but considerable numbers were at that time savingly converted." 1
This awakened interest in spiritual concerns, however, did not long continue, and " a spiritual slumber seemed soon to seize the generality, even the wise as well as foolish virgins." During the next three or four years there was a greater declension than ever, and so dissatisfied were the pastors of the town with the condition of things, that in the summer of 1734 they agreed to propose another course of days of prayer and fasting among their several congregations, to humble themselves before God for their unfruitfulness under the means of grace, and to ask the effusion of his Spirit to revive the power of Godliness among them, which the people "readily complied with and observed."
The 20th of August was the day set apart for the purpose by the South Church ; 2 " And though the sovereign God," says Mr. Prince, " was pleased to give us now and then a sprinkling,
1 Among those who joined the South Church at this time were the pastor's daughter, Deborah Prince, and members of the families of Dawes, Kneeland,
Alden, Green, Oliver, Franklin, Fleet, and Morse.
2 See ante, p. 469. Both the pastors preached.
504
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
for which his Name be praised, yet the parching drought con- tinued, and he made us wait for a larger effusion."
The pastors who were thus anxious and well-nigh discouraged about the spiritual life of their churches heard with the deepest interest of the work of grace "in the westerly parts of the country," -at Northampton and the adjacent towns, and in " the neighbouring colony of Connecticut." "The solemn rumour of that surprizing Work of God resounding through the country, was a special means of exciting great thoughtfulness of heart in many irreligious people ; and great joy in others, both in the view of what the mighty power and grace of God had wrought, and in the hopeful prospect that this blessed Work begun would go on and spread throughout the land. And as this excited the extraordinary prayers of many, so it seemed to prepare the way in divers places for that more extensive revival of religion which in five years after followed." In the mean time, how- ever, the general decay of piety in the town seemed to go on. At the South Church, while some applied for membership, a few only came to their ministers in concern about their souls ; and it was the same in the other congregations.
But from the year 1738 the pastors had "received accounts of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, as a very pious young minister of the Church of England, rising up in the spirit of the reformers, and preaching their doctrines first in England and then in America, with surprizing power and success," and there was a general desire that he should visit New England. He ac- cepted, as soon as he was able, the invitation to come hither, and on Thursday evening, September 18, 1740, he arrived in Boston.
We learn from his journals that he was met four miles from the town, on the road to Bristol and Newport, by one of Governor Belcher's sons and other gentlemen, by whom he was conducted to the house of Mr. Staniford,1 a brother-in- law of Dr. Colman. At the request of several ministers and others who had called upon him, he led their united devotions in thanksgiving for his safe arrival and prayer for a blessing on his labors. Among those who called the next morning was Mr. Josiah Willard, the secretary of the province, with whom he
1 We suppose this to have been John Staniford, who owned five or six acres of land bounded by Bowdoin Square, Green Street, Chambers Street, and N. I. Bowditch.
Cambridge Street, and an estate on what is now Tremont Row, near Howard Street. See the " Gleaner" Articles by
505
MR. WHITEFIELD'S ARRIVAL.
had been in correspondence for some time. Governor Belcher received him with the utmost respect, and requested fre- quent visits from him. He attended service at King's Chapel, and afterward had an interview with four or five ministers of the Church of England, who began to discourse, not on the moral and religious condition of the town, but on the validity of Presbyterian ordination, and to question him on some of the doctrines which he preached. He did not give them an oppor- tunity to deny him their pulpits ; it should be said, however, that they treated him with more civility than he had received from other ministers of his own church.1 In the afternoon of the same day, as Mr. Prince tells us, Dr. Sewall and he made him a visit ; " found several ministers and other gentlemen of the town with him, and that Dr. Colman and Mr. Cooper had engaged him to preach this afternoon in their House of public Worship : and in about an hour we went to the place which quickly crowded with two or three thousand people. He began with a short and fervent prayer : and after singing, took his text from John xvii. 2. (" As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.") Gave us a plain, weighty regular dis- course : representing that all our learning and morality will
1 For an account of Mr. Whitefield's visit to New England from an Episcopa- lian point of view, see Foote's Annals of King's Chapel, vol. i. pp. 503-514. The letters of Dr. Cutler, of Christ Church, could have been written only by one who had been born, brought up, and ordained in the Congregational body, and then had gone over to another denomination. Mr. Commissary Price's sermon on Mr. Whitefield was not unlike the generality of the preaching about him in the Eng- lish Church at home at the time. On the other hand, Mr. Foote points out that when Mr. Whitefield came to Bos- ton in 1747, he visited Mr. Isaac Royal, a worshipper at King's Chapel, at his residence in Charlestown ; and that when he died at Newburyport, in 1770, the Rev. Edward Bass, afterward bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Mas- sachusetts, was one of the pall-bearers.
The journals show that in 1740 Mr. Whitefield passed a night (October 10) at Mr. Royal's, "a young rich man."
This was at the mansion in Medford, then a part of Charlestown, which Mr. Royall had just inherited, with a large fortune, from his father. In 1740 he was about twenty-one years of age. On his mother's side he was a descendant of Jacob El- jot, one of the founders and first deacons of the South Church. His grandfather, Asaph Eliot, owned the covenant there in 1679, and his mother, Elizabeth Roy- all, became a member in 1707. He was a man of high character and devout spirit. He was perplexed as to his duty at the time of the Revolution, but was prevailed upon to adhere to the cause of the Crown, and he left the country, to which he was much attached, never to return. " While he was known to have much in common with the little band of loyalists who were gathered about Bos- ton and Cambridge, yet he was still faith- ful to the people's church, and most of his family ties held him to the popular cause." - The New England Royalls, by Edw. D. Harris, p. 23.
506
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
never save us ; and without an experimental knowledge of God in Christ we must perish in hell forever. He spake as became the Oracles of God, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And especially when he came to his application, he addressed himself to the audience in such a tender, earnest and moving manner, exciting us to come and be acquainted with the dear Redeemer, as melted the assembly into tears.
"Next morning, at Dr. Sewall's and my desire," continues Mr. Prince, "he preached at the South Church to further ac- ceptance. He spake with a mighty sense of God, eternity, the immortality and preciousness of the souls of his hearers, of their original corruption, and of the extreme danger the unre- generate are in; with the nature and absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy Ghost ; and of believing in Christ, in order to our pardon, justification, yielding an acceptable obedi- ence and obtaining salvation from hell and an entrance into heaven. His doctrine was plainly that of the reformers : De- claring against putting our good works or morality in the room of Christ's Righteousness, or their having any hand in our jus- tification, or being indeed pleasing to God while we are totally unsanctified, acting from corrupt principles, and unreconciled enemies to him: which occasioned some to mistake him as if he opposed morality. But he insisted on it, that the tree of the heart is by original sin exceedingly corrupted, and must be made good by regeneration, that so the fruits proceeding from it may be good likewise; that where the heart is renewed, it ought and will be careful to maintain good works ; that if any be not habitually so careful, who think themselves renewed, they deceive their own souls ; and even the most improved in holiness, as well as others, must entirely depend on the Right- eousness of Christ for the acceptance of their persons and ser- vices. And though now and then he dropped some expressions that were not so accurate and guarded as we should expect from aged and long studied ministers ; yet I had the satisfaction to observe his readiness with great modesty and thankfulness to receive correction as soon as offered."
On Sunday morning Mr. Whitefield attended service at Brat- tle Street and listened to Dr. Colman. In the afternoon he preached "to a very thronged auditory, and with great and vis- ible effect, at Mr. Foxcroft's meeting house." Immediately after, he addressed twelve or fifteen thousand people on the Common. On Monday morning he preached at the New North,
507
MR. WHITEFIELD AT CAMBRIDGE.
Mr. Webb's ; and in the afternoon he went to the New South, Mr. Checkley's, but a panic had struck the great congregation there, and when he arrived he found it in terrible confusion. There was no real cause for alarm ; but in their haste to escape from the building some threw themselves from the windows, others from the galleries, many were trodden upon, and five persons were killed.1 Mr. Whitefield adjourned the service to the Common, where, although the weather was wet, several thousands listened to him. On Tuesday he went to Roxbury, accompanied by Dr. Colman and Mr. Secretary Willard, to see Mr. Walter, the colleague and successor of John Eliot ; 2 on his return he dined with the secretary, and preached in the Second Church, Mr. Gee's, " but not to a very crowded auditory," be- cause the people were in doubt as to where he was to preach ; later he had "a thronged auditory" at the South Church, and after this he exhorted and prayed, as he did every day, at his lodgings.
Wednesday was spent at Cambridge, " the Chief college for training up the sons of the prophets in all New England." The record of this visit led to important results, and we give the ac- count as first written and published by Mr. Whitefield : "It is scarce as big as one of our least colleges at Oxford ; and, as far as I could gather from some who well knew the state of it, not far superior to our universities in piety and true godliness. Tutors neglect to pray with and examine the hearts of their pu- pils. Discipline is at a low ebb. Bad books are becoming fash- ionable among them. Tillotson and Clark are read, instead of Shepard, Stoddard, and such like evangelical writers; and, therefore, I chose to preach from those words - ' We are not as many, who corrupt the word of God ;' and, in the conclusion of my sermon, I made a close application to tutors and students. A great number of neighbouring ministers attended, as indeed they do at all other times, and God gave me great freedom and boldness of speech. The President of the College [Mr. Hol- yoke3 ] and minister of the parish [Mr. Appleton] treated me
] Dr. Sewall says : "There was a vast Assembly at Mr. Checkley's, to hear him ; but were thrown into great Confu- sion from a groundless imagination that the Gallery gave way. Several were trod to death as the Crowd press'd out of the House, 3 died almost presently, 2 since of their Wounds. I think a Lad jump'd
out of the Window, and was kill'd by the Fall. Others were grievously wounded."
2 Mr. Walter met him afterward at the governor's table, and complimented him by calling one of his sermons Puritanis- mus redivivus.
3 President Holyoke, in his Conven- tion sermon, May 28, 1741, said : " And
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
very civilly. In the afternoon I preached again in the College Yard with particular application to the students. I believe there were seven thousand hearers. The Holy Spirit melted many hearts." While at Cambridge he paid his respects to the lieutenant-governor, Spencer Phips.
On Thursday Mr. Whitefield preached the lecture in Dr. Sewall's place at the First Church, and afterward dined at the governor's with most of the Boston pastors. His journal says : " Before dinner, the governor sent for me up into his chamber. He wept, wished me good success in the name of the Lord, and recommended himself, ministers and people, to my prayers. Immediately after dinner, at the governor's motion, I prayed explicitly for them all." The governor sent him in his carriage to the ferry at the north end of the town, where he crossed to Charlestown and preached there. On Friday he preached at Roxbury, and later in the day spoke from a scaffold erected outside Mr. Byles's meeting-house in Hollis Street.1 On Satur- day he preached in the morning at Mr. Welsteed's, and in the afternoon on the Common, both times with very great effect. He dined this day with Colonel Wendell.
On Sunday morning he preached at the South Church, on the story of Zaccheus, "to a very crowded auditory, with almost as much power and visible appearance of God among us as yester- day in the afternoon," and collected about five hundred and fifty pounds currency for his orphan house in Georgia. He was
though religion is still in fashion with .us, yet it is evident that the power of it is greatly decayed. Indeed, those two pious and valuable men of God, [Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Tennent,] who have been labouring more abundantly among us, have been greatly instrumental, in the hands of God, to revive this blessed work; and many, no doubt, have been savingly converted from the error of their ways, many more have been con- victed, and all have been in some meas- ure roused from their lethargy. But the power of religion had been greatly weak- ened, and hath for a long time been too much in show and profession only." Re- ferring to criticisms upon the college, he said : " I can, from my own examina- tion of things, assure this venerable as- sembly that that society hath not de- served the aspersions which have of late
been made upon it, either as to the prin- ciples there prevalent, or the books there read ; and though such as have given out a disadvantageous report of us in these respects, I doubt not, have done it in a godly jealousy for the Churches of Christ, that are to be supplied from us, yet, blessed be God, they are at least mistaken herein; nor has that society been in so happy a state as to these things, from the time that I was first ac- quainted with the principles there, which must be allowed to be the space of four or five and thirty years at least, as it is at this day."
1 In his journal he says that he spent Friday evening with several ministers at Mr. H-n's. This was probably at Mr. Henchman's ; he was one of the deacons of the South Church, and lived in Court Street, near Tremont.
509
LECTURE AT THE SOUTH CHURCH.
taken very ill after dinner, but was able to preach at Brattle Street, where he collected four hundred and 'seventy pounds. "In both places, all things were carried, on with great decency and order. People went slowly out, as though they had not a mind to escape giving ; and Dr. Colman said it was the pleas- antest time he had ever enjoyed in that meeting-house through the whole course of his life." After sermon he felt refreshed, supped early, had an affectionate visit from the governor, preached to a great number of negroes, at their request, and with great effect, on the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, and on his return to his lodgings exhorted the crowd which was await- ing his arrival.
Early on Monday morning, September 29, he left Boston on an excursion to the eastward. He preached at Marblehead, Salem, Ipswich, Newbury, Hampton, Portsmouth, and York. At the last-named place he saw the venerable Samuel Moody, whom he had been anxious to meet. On his return, he spent the Sunday at Salem, where he preached twice, and in the Epis- copal church read prayers and assisted at the sacrament. On Tuesday he preached "with much power," both morning and evening, at Brattle Street, and on Wednesday, morning and evening, at the New North. Here "there was more of the presence of God through the whole ministration than ever he had known at one time through the whole course of his life." On Thursday he preached the lecture at the South Church.1 He had chosen another text, but it was much impressed on his heart that he should preach from our Lord's conference with Nicodemus. A great number of ministers were present ; and when he came to the words " Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things ? " he says : "The Lord enabled me to open my mouth boldly against unconverted ministers ; to cau- tion tutors to take care of their pupils; and also to advise min- isters particularly to examine into the experiences of candidates for ordination. For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; and the rea- son why congregations have been so dead is, because they have had dead men preaching to them." 2 In the afternoon he ad-
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