USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. III > Part 58
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1 Referring to Brattle Street, the Old hold three thousand people." The ca- pacity of these meeting-houses could not have been very closely calculated.
South, and the New North, Mr. Prince says, " The least of which I suppose will
519
SOME RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL.
noon, at the Old Church." " Nor were the people satisfied with all these Lectures : But as private societies for religious exer- cises, both of younger and elder persons, both of males and females by themselves, in several parts of the town, now in- creased to a much greater number than ever, viz. to near the number of thirty, meeting on Lord's-Day, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings ; so the people were constantly employ- ing the ministers to pray and preach at those societies, as also at many private houses where no formed society met ; and such numbers flocked to hear us as greatly crowded them, as well as more than usually filled our Houses of public Worship both on Lords-Days and Lectures, especially Evening Lectures for about a twelvemonth after."
As to the South Church, says its pastor : "Within six months from the end of January 1740-I, were three score joined to our communicants : the greater part of whom gave a more exact account of the work of the Spirit of God on their souls in effectual calling, as described in the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, than I was wont to meet with before : be- sides many others I could not but have charity for, who re- frained from coming to the Table of Christ for want of a satisfying view of the work of renovation in them. Mr. Ten- nent being so exceeding strict in cautioning people from running into churches, taking the sacred Covenant, and receiving the Lord's Supper the seal thereof, 'till they had saving grace ; that diverse brought to very hopeful dispositions, yea, some I doubt not, to embrace the Saviour in all his offices, were through fear and darkness kept from coming into full communion. Or other- wise, many more I believe, would have entered ; who had they the like experiences a year before, I doubt not would have readily offered themselves, and we should have as readily re- ceived them, and would now, as some of the most hopeful Christians. So far did Mr. Tennent's awakening ministry shake their hopes and hinder them, that those whom I appre- hended to be thirsty, and thought myself obliged to encourage, I found the impressions of his preaching had discouraged. Yea, some who had been in full communion were made so suspicious of themselves, as to refrain partaking ; and I had no small pains to remove their scruples." 1
1 The whole number received into not equalled and surpassed until the the membership during the year ended March, 1742, was sixty-nine. This was
year 1827. Twenty-one owned the cov- enant in 1741, many more than in any
520
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
" In this year 1741," says Mr. Prince, "the very face of the town seemed to be strangely altered." And writing to Dr. Isaac Watts, in the autumn of the same year, Dr. Colman said : " Thanks be to God, in our Province the impressions of religion grow and increase in a happy, wise, sedate manner, such as gives a joyous prospect relating to the next generation, that our young ones will be wise, grave devout parents to their children. I know not how to admire the pleasant gracious work of .God : our Lectures flourish, our Sabbaths are joyous, our churches increase, our ministers have new life and spirit in their work."1 We have similar testimony from a prominent layman. Mr. Secretary Willard wrote as follows to Mr. Whitefield : "There has been so evidently the finger of God, in directing you into this Province, and (after your departure) the Rev. Mr. Tennent, through your earnest and importunate request to him, and in the wonderful success that has attended both his and your min- istry, as also the labours of our own ministers for some months past, that many that like not the work are sadly put to it, to keep their eyes shut against the evidences of it." 2
There had been a terrible fire in Charleston, South Carolina ; three hundred houses in the best part of the town had been destroyed, and a cry for help reached the Northern communities.
year since that time. Among them was Thomas Prince, Jr., who was, no doubt, one of those to whom his father referred as prepared for full membership, but held back from asking for it by the dis- couraging character of Mr. Tennent's preaching. This young man edited and published the Christian History, under his father's supervision, and evidently took the deepest interest in the advance of the kingdom of Christ in the world. He died, much lamented, September 30, 1748, aged twenty-six. He graduated at Harvard College in 1740, and in the catalogue his name stands first in the list. The class had twenty-two mem- bers, and among them were Samuel Adams, the Revolutionary patriot, George Bethune, Benjamin Stevens, and Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard College from 1774 to 1780.
The Rev. Mr. Prince's opinion on qualification for full membership and
participation in the communion was as follows : "It seems to me that where there is a thirst for Christ and his spiritual benefits, that thirst is raised by the Spirit of Christ : And in raising such a thirst, he qualifies for them, shows his readiness to satiate it, invites, requires, and gives sufficient grounds for coming to him at these Pipes of Living Waters; though we may'nt be sure whether this thirst arises from a renewed heart or no: And thither therefore should we come with a humble sense of our emptiness and unworthiness, and with our thirsty souls reaching forth to Him, to receive from his open, offered and overflowing fulness. If I am mistaken, I desire to see it."
1 Mr. Prince's narrative of the Re- vivals from which we have quoted, is to be found in the Christian History, vol. ii. pp. 374-400.
2 Whitefield's Journal.
521
GOVERNOR BELCHER SUPERSEDED.
At a Meeting of the South Church and Congregation, May 20. 1741.
Upon reading the Brief emitted by His Excellency the Governour with the advice of His Majesty's Council, for Exciting to a charitable Contribution, for the necessitous sufferers by the late dreadful Fire in Charlestown, South Carolina ;
Voted,
That there be a public Collection on the Lord's Day, the 31st of this Instant May, to be put into the Hands of Francis Foxcroft, Jacob Wendell and Anthony Stoddard Esqrs. and invested in such Things as the Governour and Council shall judge to be most for the service and relief of the most necessitous Sufferers by the late fire in Charlestown : And to be transmitted to Messrs. Benjamin Savage, Thomas Cooper and Joseph Moody, of said Charlestown, Merchants, to Distribute according to their best Discretion to the said necessitous Sufferers only.
JOSEPH SEWALL.
Soon after this, Governor Belcher was superseded in his high office by Governor Shirley. The position of a royal governor in Massachusetts was always a trying and difficult one ; there was a perpetual resistance on the part of the representatives of the people to the prerogative which it was his duty to maintain, and Mr. Belcher, with all his personal influence and popularity, succeeded no better in harmonizing the differences between the crown and the province than did some of those who had gone before him or who were to follow him. Palfrey admits that " the general course of his administration had been not other- wise than advantageous to the provinces which he governed." He had made bitter enemies in Massachusetts by his opposition to the Land Bank, and in New Hampshire, on a question of boundary; while in London he was compromised by the cir- cumstance that his brother-in-law, Richard Partridge, who sometimes acted as his agent there, was agent also of the friends of the Land Bank. Intrigues for his overthrow at court had long been in progress, and at length, by a combination of cir- cumstances, they were successful.1
1 " Whilst Mr. Belcher, by his vigor- ous opposition to the Land Bank, was rendering himself obnoxious to one half the people of the province, measures were pursuing in England for his removal from the government. Besides the at- tempts which we have mentioned from New Hampshire, which had never been laid aside, there had always been a dis-
affected party in Massachusetts who had been using what interest they had in England against him. Lord Wilmington, President of the Council, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the Admiralty, all had a favorable opinion of Mr. Belcher. So had Mr. Holden, who was at the head of the dissenters in England, and all
522
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Thomas Hutchinson, writing from London to Judge Lynde, at this time, said that several incidents had concurred to pro- mote the ultimate success of these schemes ; " but," he added, " I had it from Lord President's own mouth that Governor Bel- cher's security for some time had been his steady conduct in the affair of the money, and that his brother Partridge's patron- izing the Land Bank when before the House of Commons had done his business." 1
The same authority, in his History, says : -
A few weeks' longer delay would have baffled all the schemes. The news arrived of his negativing thirteen counsellors and displacing a great number of officers concerned in the Land Bank, and his zeal and fortitude were highly applauded when it was too late. Being in London at this time, I had opportunity of fully informing myself of these facts. Certainly, in public employments no man ought to be condemned from the reports and accusations of a party without a suf- ficient opportunity given him to exculpate himself, - a plantation gov- ernor especially, who, be he without guile or a consummate politician, will infallibly have a greater or lesser number disaffected to him.2
The following is an account by a participant in the proceed-
upon one occasion or another had ap- peared for him. The most unfair and indirect measures were used with each of these persons to render Mr. Belcher ob- noxious and odious to them." - Hutch- inson's Hist. of Mass., vol. iii. pp. 355, 356.
The chief points of the intrigue against Governor Belcher have been thus summed up : "His enemies charged him, I. With being friendly to the Land Bank scheme; 2. With having counte- nanced the waste of the king's timber ; and 3. With contriving the ruin of the dissenting church in New England. The first charge was so far from being true that most of the opposition to his admin- istration in Massachusetts arose from his decided opposition to the Land Bank. The second was equally false, and origi- nated with the adherents of Dunbar, in New Hampshire, who sent a forged rep- resentation to London, using the names of J. Gilman, Joseph Lord, George Ger- rish, Peter Thing, and John Hall, of Exeter. The third had no better foun- dation, and was supported only by forged
anonymous letters addressed from Mas- sachusetts to dissenting clergymen in England."- Jacob B. Moore, in Am. Quarterly Register, May, 1841.
Governor Belcher wrote to Henry Sherburne, July 20, 1741 : "The change in this province was certainly the most surprising and unexpected to all my friends, being done soon after the most solemn and sacred promises to the con- trary. But there is no faith in man, whose 'heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.' God alone is unchangeable, and there must thy trust be fixed." He also wrote to Dr. Watts, March 2, 1743: " If the late change that has passed over me from a glaring public station to an obscure pri- vate life may lead me to a more close communion with God, even to a life hid with Christ in God, happy, for ever happy and glorious, will be the ex- change."
1 The Diaries of Benjamin Lynde and of Benjamin Lynde, fr., p. 222.
2 [Hutchinson's History, vol. iii. p. 358.]
523
GOVERNOR SHIRLEY SWORN IN.
ings of the transfer of office from the retiring to the newly appointed governor : -
Friday, August 14. The procession met in this manner - a com- mittee of the Council and Representatives, viz : ... to the number of . .. , about II o'clock, waited on the Hon William Shirley Esq. attending till 12 at his house ; then proceeded in order, with several of the old Council viz : Adam Winthrop Esq. Judge Dudley, Lewis Wadsworth etc Esqs. who walk'd in company with Mr. Shirley, the High Sheriff Winslow and officers marching before, till they joyned the Guards and militia, who had waited and drawn up before Governor Belcher's street gates ; and then immediately Governor Belcher, with several gentlemen, Justices of the Peace, etc., and only myself of the old Council, according to direction (as also the others of the old Council should) joyned Mr. Shirley in his Procession. Thus, after a short compliment, Governor Belcher walked in the middle, Mr. Shir- ley on his right hand, and Lt. Governor Phipps on his left ; then fol- lowed Lynde and Winthrop, Dudley etc. In the Council Chamber, the Commission in form was read by Secretary Willard, and then Governor Shirley, by the Secretary, was sworn, viz : upon the Evan- gelists, the usual oath, and then, to his Administration oaths as usual. Upon which finished, Governor Belcher rose up and taking Governor Shirley by the hand, surrendered the chair to him with a very friendly, cheerful and courteous congratulation, wishing him all happiness and prosperity in all his administrations and government ; upon which Gov- ernor Shirley from the Chair returned him the same compliment of thanks for his good wishes; and after the Proclamation, both Gov- ernors and the Lt. Governor, Shirley in the middle, with the Council in order, proceeded to dinner with them at Withered's.1
The new governor was a worshipper at King's Chapel, and naturally the Episcopalians in the town were much pleased with the change. The Rev. Roger Price thus wrote, when the first rumors of it came to hand : -
There is a current report here that our present Governour, Mr. Bel- cher, who is a rigid Dissenter and a bitter enemy to the Church, is in some danger of being put out of his Government for Male administra- tion ; which is matter of great joy to the Majority of the people here, and in particular, you may judge, to every true member of the Church, under whose despite and Oppression we have long groan'd. It is likewise rumour'd that Mr. Shirley, an Old England Gentleman, not unknown to the Duke of Newcastle, is like to succeed him. This doubly adds to the publick satisfaction, which is as general as can well be imagin'd, from the good character the Gentleman has establish'd
1 [The Lynde Diaries, pp. 114, 115.]
524
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
here, by his Generous and Courteous behaviour and experienc'd abili- ties ; and so unexceptionable will this change be, that I believe Mr. Belcher's own Friends, which indeed are but few, would scarce mur- mur at it. I must own I heartily wish him success.1
When Mr. Belcher went to England, a year or two later, he speedily vindicated his character and conduct, and exposed the baseness of the means which had been employed for his over- throw. He was restored to the royal favor, and was promised the first vacant government in America. For this he had to wait several years. In 1747 he was appointed to the governor- ship of the province of New Jersey, and he took the oaths at Perth Amboy on the 10th of August. Here " he ruled with success, and with satisfaction to himself and the people," 2 un- til his death, which took place at Elizabethtown, August 31, 1757, in his seventy-sixth year. His body, at his request, was brought to Cambridge, to be buried with his father and grand- father. Princeton College, of which he was one of the chief founders and promoters, stands as his most enduring and illus- trious monument.3 President Burr said of him in his funeral sermon :
The scholar, the accomplished gentleman, and the true Christian were seldom more happily and thoroughly united than in him. His ears were always open to real grievances. The cause of the poor, the widow, the fatherless, as well as of the rich and great, was by him favorably heard, and the wrongs of all readily and impartially re- dressed. He was indeed a minister of God for good unto his peo- ple.
In the autumn of 1741, the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, one of
1 [Foote's Annals of King's Chapel, vol. i. p. 529.]
2 Palfrey's History of Mass., vol. iv. P. 562.
3 "Measures were taken during the administration of Governor Morris to obtain a charter for a college, but with- out success, and not until October 22, 1746, was there one obtained, during the administration of President Hamilton, but nothing had been done before the arrival of Governor Belcher to perfect the institution. Soon after he reached New Jersey Governor Belcher interested himself to secure a more perfect char- ter, and otherwise to promote its suc- cess. On the 14th September, 1748, the
second charter passed the great seal of the province, and continues to be the fundamental instrument of the institu- tion (modified in some few instances by subsequent legislation) to the present time." Governor Belcher received the first honorary degree conferred by the college, that of A. M., in 1748. His son Jonathan received the same degree from it in 1756, and Mr. Whitefield in 1754. The college was removed from Newark to Princeton in 1756, and the first build- ing erected there was named by Gov- ernor Belcher Nassau Hall. - New Jersey Archives, First Series, vol. vii. p. 116, note. Princeton Triennial Cata- logue.
525
THE REV. MR. WHEELOCK'S VISIT.
the founders of Dartmouth College, visited Boston, and the fol- lowing is from his private journal : -
Oct. 6. Set out for Boston. Met by dear Mr. Prince and Mr. Bromfield about eight miles from Boston. Came in to Mr. Brom- field's. Soon after my arrival, came the Hon. Josiah Willard, Secre- tary, Rev. Mr. Webb and Mr. Cooper, and Major Sewall, to bid me wel- come to Boston. At six o'clock, rode with Mr. Bromfield in his chaise to the north end of the town, and preached for Mr. Webb to a great assembly. After sermon, returned to dear Mr. Webb's ; pleased with the conversation of dear Mr. Gee.
Oct. 8. Went to Dr. Colman's meeting ; preached with considera- ble freedom. Dined with the Doctor. Went with Mr. Rogers to Mr. Prince's. Preached to a full assembly. After meeting, was followed by a great throng of children, who importunately desired me to give them a word of exhortation in a private house, which I consented to do, though I designed to go and hear Mr. Prince, who, being by, de- sired that I would have it publicly, which I consented to.
Oct. 9. Visited this morning by a great number of persons under soul trouble. Refused to preach, because I designed to go out of town. Just as I was going, came Mr. Webb, and told me the people were meeting together to hear another sermon. I consented to preach again. A scholar from Cambridge being present, who came to get me to go to Cambridge, hastened to Cambridge, and, by a little after six, a great part of the scholars had got to Boston. Preached to a very thronged assembly, many more than could get into the house, with very great freedom and enlargement. I believe the children of God were very much refreshed. They told me afterwards, they believed that Mather Byles was never so lashed in his life. This morning, Mr. Cooper came to me, in the name of the Hon. Jacob Wendell Esq., and earnestly desired a copy of my sermon, preached in the forenoon of the Lord's day for the press. O, that God would make and keep me humble.1
Novr 8. 1741. The Brethren of the Church and Congregation stay'd and Voted,
I. That 88 pounds, the whole of the last Collection for charitable and pious uses, unappropriated, be given to the Poor of this Church and Congregation to supply them with Wood and other Necessaries.
II. That there be another Public Collection for Charitable and pious Uses on the Anniversary Thanksgiving Novr 12. Current.
nel Jacob Wendell lived on the corner of School and Common (now Tremont) streets. He married Sarah, daughter of James Oliver; and Elizabeth Wendell, who joined the South Church September
1 [ The Great Awakening, p. 203. Colo- 22, 1765, we suppose to have been their daughter. Colonel John Wendell, neph- ew and partner of Jacob Wendell, lived on the corner of Prison Lane (Court Street) and Tremont Street, next door to Deacon Henchman.]
526
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Novr. 12. Collected . 93. 18. 0 Appropropriated to the Fund for Charitable and pious uses 5. O. o
98. 18. 0
JOSEPH SEWALL.
The first serious division in any of the Boston churches, growing out of the recent revivals, took place this winter. Mr. Mather was dismissed from the colleague pastorate of the Sec- ond Church, December 21. Thirty men and sixty-three women, members of the church, who were his friends, withdrew with him ; the number that remained with Mr. Gee were eighty men and one hundred and eighty-three women. Mr. Mather had caused dissatisfaction on the part of many by what was consid- ered by them to be a want of explicitness in his doctrinal state- ments, and it is evident that he was out of sympathy with Mr. Gee on the subject of Mr. Whitefield's preaching and its results.1 Suspicions and charges of impropriety of conduct were also current against him. "Mr. Mather, on finding that such a state of things existed, asked a dismission. The church refused to grant it, and proceeded to an investigation of the charges. Not being able to agree as to the truth of the accusa- tions, or to bring about any satisfactory issue, they called in the aid of an ecclesiastical council. The churches invited to form the council were the Rev. Dr. Colman's, Dr. Sewall's, Mr. Webb's, Mr. Foxcroft's, and Mr. Checkley's. So far as can be ascertained from various sources, - for the matter is not clearly stated on the church records, - the council held two meetings. The result of the first was a letter of advice to the church, on one part, and Mr. Mather, on the other, as to their several du- ties till the time to which the council adjourned ; perhaps with the hope that, before the adjourned meeting, the difficulty might be healed." Thereupon the church voted that if Mr. Mather would comply with the advice given to him, it would attend upon his ministry and strive to effect a reconciliation until the time to which the council was adjourned. Mr. Mather, on his part, promised that he would use all proper means to en- lighten his mind on certain subjects mentioned by the council ; that he would endeavor to be more frequent and distinct in
1 The Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., says : "This was in 1740 and 41, and possibly had some connection with the religious
excitements of that period, about which his colleague, Mr. Gee, was so zealous." - Two Discourses, p. 23.
527
THE REV. SAMUEL MATHER.
preaching on the nature, and pressing the necessity, of regen- eration by the spirit of grace ; and that he would endeavor, fur- ther, to beware of anything in his sermons or conversation which might tend to discourage the work of conviction and conversion then in progress. Harmony, however, was not re- stored. The church voted that Mr. Mather had not satisfacto- rily fulfilled his engagement, and when the adjourned meeting of the council was held the church was advised to dismiss Mr. Mather, and to continue his salary for one year, the ministers promising to give their services in preaching as often as re- quested, in order to encourage and help the church under the pecuniary burden. "The separated party, with Mr. Mather, afterwards sent a letter to the church, offering to return ; or, if not allowed to do so, expressing their conscientious purpose to build a new meeting-house. The church voted that their return, and the resettlement of Mr. Mather, would not be con- sistent with the peace and edification of the church." 'They proceeded to erect a house of worship in Hanover Street, at the corner of North Bennet Street, a site occupied in later years by the Universalists.1
On the IIth of January, 1741-2, most of the associated pas- tors of the town agreed on a course of days of prayer in their several churches, " to bless the name of God for spiritual bless- ings already received in the remarkable revival of his work among us and in many other places ; to seek of God the more plentiful effusion of his Holy Spirit ; that the Lord would pre- serve us and his people from everything that hath a tendency to quench his Spirit and obstruct the progress and success of his good work; and that it may go on and prosper, 'till the whole land shall be filled with the blessed fruits of the Spirit." The action of the South Church was as follows : -
Feby 14. Lord's Day. 1741-2
The Brethren of the Church stay'd and Voted, That the 26th of this Instant be observed as a day of Prayer, to ask of God the more
1 Robbins's History of the Second Church, pp. 120-123. Dr. Robbins adds: "The fact that so many persons of good character supported Mr. Mather, and undertook the arduous and expen- sive work of building a new church to sustain him, would seem to afford good reason to doubt whether the charges of impropriety were well founded. From
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