USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston : to which is added a History of the New Brick Church > Part 12
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The proprietors of the house in Hanover-street, having sold their property in it to the Methodists, and settled up their affairs, voted to take the deed of the church in Freeman Place in their corporate name, and to call their former minister to resume his official relations to their body, in order that this society might be fully entitled, according to the terms of the law, to the name and records of the " Second Church."
Such is a correct statement of the principal facts per- taining to the history of the loss of the church-edifice in Hanover-street ; concerning which, false impressions have gone abroad. One of these is, that the society was forced to sell because it was too poor to pay for the building. Those who know the truth know well that the parish could have discharged their debt without difficulty, had there only have been unanimity of feeling among its members. Some of you are aware of the fact, that wealthy indivi- duals pledged themselves to the pastor to carry the church through its embarrassments, provided the society would unite upon the plan he proposed. The sole causes of the sacrifice of the building, I assert without fear of contradiction, were but these two : first, the want of unanimity, to which I have just referred ; and, secondly, a belief on the part of many judicious and able men in the society, that, even
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if the debt should be paid, the location of the church was such as to make it difficult, if not impossible, in the course of a few years, to find a congregation, of our mode of faith, in the north part of the city, large enough to fill and support it. The latter cause accounts in part for the former. It ex- plains the lukewarmness and indisposition with regard to the liquidation of the debt on the part of some who always had been before, and have been since, most devoted to the welfare of the society, and most unsparing in their pecuniary contributions. Neither their judgment nor their feelings went with the movement to build or to sustain so large and costly a church in a position unaccommodating to themselves, and, as they supposed, unfavorable to the prospect of a flourishing congregation of their own house- hold of faith.
One additional remark I feel constrained to make, be- fore leaving this painful retrospect. I would do justice and give honor in their turn to those few of my old parishioners who paid the heavy assessment, retained the proprietorship of their pews, and stood by their meeting-house to the last. We are bound to believe, that they acted, as they supposed, for the best interests of the society. The way they wished to take, and for themselves did take, to free the church from debt, was a simple, straightforward, and summary one. It would obviously have been effectual at once, had all the proprietors agreed to it. Some who took this method, did it, we know, at a pecuniary cost they were ill able to bear. For their manly and conscientious sacrifice, they deserve, and shall have, our respect. Nor can I for- bear, on this occasion, to express the gratitude and esteem
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I feel towards those members of our society whose homes and local attachments bind them closely to the northern part of the city, but who have steadily and unweariedly followed this church in its migrations, helped to sustain it in its days of trial, and generously contributed to provide for us this new sanctuary, so far from their own doors. How beautiful, how honorable, and how sacred, are those religious affections, and that Christian friendship, which thus show themselves stronger than all local attachments, and all sectional prejudices and interests !
And now, my friends, as we review the recent history of our church, let us ponder well the lessons it so impres- sively teaches. They are lessons which the whole religious community has need presently to learn. They are lessons which many Christian societies would do well to heed. For our experience is involved with principles of deeper interest and wider concern than any that affect merely the condition of a single church. It has important connec- tions with the ecclesiastical manifestations and religious tendencies of the present age. It is illustrative, admoni- tory, exemplary.
The thought that was at the root of our misfortunes is one that, to a greater or less degree, influences nearly all modern Christian organizations and enterprises ; and, wheresoever and howsoever it is involved with them, cor- rupts their purity and weakens their power. This thought, it is true, did not shape itself into distinct form, in the mind of any of our parishioners ; nor did they suspect, perhaps, its existence in their hearts. Their purpose, as they understood it, was to do honor to their society ; their
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wish, to strengthen and advance their church. But how great the error to imagine that religion can be supported and advanced except by a religious spirit ! How fatal the mistake to suppose that it is dependent, for its vitality and success, upon measures of worldly policy, upon exterior adornment, upon the patronage of the wealthy, the favor of the fashionable, the countenance of men in high places, or upon any thing which the wit of man can devise, or the hand of man construct, except under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and through the inherent power of a living faith and piety! This looking at religion from without, this consulting for it in externals, this constant regard to what will make it attractive, imposing, comfortable, in- fluential, according to a worldly estimate, - this it is which, as much as any thing else, draws away attention from the weightier matters of Christianity, emasculates faith, uses up religious feeling, and steals away from Chris- tian enterprise the very secret of its energy.
How small the debt religion owes, in our day, to those who build her costly temples ! How small her obligation to those who, to provide splendid accommodations for her meek spirit and her simple rites, entangle her hallowed interests with pecuniary embarrassments and disputes, and connect her sacred name with obloquy, by involving it with debts, mortgages, and financial schemes. When great reverence, combined with great wealth and a munificent spirit, burning to give some equal expression to its high emotions, builds itself into a majestic pile as spontaneously as David's adoration wrought itself into a majestic psalm, man can admire with a glow of devotion; and God per-
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haps, to whom the offering is made, approve, accept, and consecrate. But when pride, without means or without self-sacrifice, strains, contrives, borrows, and begs, to raise a splendid edifice ; or when a love of show, with ample means, lavishes expense and ornament upon the house of prayer, to gratify itself under pretence of honoring God, - good sense and piety are alike ashamed, and Christianity is injured rather than advanced. Religion is more attractive and strong, unsheltered, unadorned, in groves or caverns, or in the wilderness under the open sky, with no contributions of wealth or art, than in marble temples which ambition and pride have built, and at gorgeous altars where she can- not minister without a feeling of incumbrance and restraint, because the pavement beneath, and the arches above her, are not freely and entirely her own. She loves the place where the poor come with the rich ; where want is not reminded of its coarse attire ; where worldly distinctions are not recognized ; where, if there be magnificence and beauty, they are the free offerings of reverence and love, - like the costly presents of frankincense and gold which the Eastern Magi laid before the infant Saviour; not as if he cared for such things, nor to heighten the effect of his own meek loveliness, but as tokens of their veneration, emblems of his sovereignty, symbols of the more precious offerings of the heart with which men should appear before him.
Oh! how much in this age do we need to have our attention turned from the outward to the inward of religion and the holy life ; to have our thoughts carried down from the surface to the profounder depths of Christian doctrine
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and Christian experience! How much do we need to have impressed upon us the truth, that religion can advance no faster and no further than its own spirit rises, enlarges, becomes more intense and more pure, in the hearts of God's individual children; that temples and altars cannot make or propagate religion, except so far as religion makes and uses them; that wealth, power, learning, art, cannot spread Christianity, till she has first inspired and conse- crated them; that the root of true Christian usefulness and strength grows in the silent depths of the devout and faithful spirit; and that Christ can come in the world only through the secret gates and the everlasting doors of hearts that open inwardly towards heaven !
Such lessons as these, it is to be hoped, we, my friends, have learnt thoroughly, through the chastisement that their misunderstanding has brought upon us. And if it be so, and if our misfortunes, widely observed, may have helped to impress these same truths more deeply upon the whole religious community, those misfortunes have been worth their cost; and, in view of the spiritual result to which Providence has made them instrumental, we have more reason, I think, for thanksgiving than for regret, - espe- cially, since we have survived and been supported through them,- especially, since the good God, who saw fit to bring us down, has been pleased at length to raise us up, - especially, since there mingle with the remembrance of our suffering, sweet recollections of his gracious succor,- especially, since on looking back we can now say, as did the Seventy returning to Jesus from the arduous mission on which they went out, without purse or scrip or staff,
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" We have lacked nothing." We have never been without a covert; we have never been deprived of the bread of heaven; we have never been destitute of the sympathy of the churches; we have never been without the most liberal and ample contributions from amongst ourselves for the honorable maintenance of worship; we have never been without a perfect trust, that He who led us into the wilderness would find us a path, if we waited his time, through cloud and trial, to a higher condition of individual virtue, and a position of more elevated usefulness.
And we have not been disappointed of our hope, -- who ever waited upon Him, and was disappointed ? At the very last extremity, as it seemed to us, in the hour of greatest darkness, the hour of our deliverance came. The star of promise, that, shining before us in our prayers, had led us hopefully on, seemed setting for ever; but it was only going down because its ministry was needed no more when the bright reality to which it had been guiding us was close at hand.
But I must bring this lengthened discourse to a close. I have endeavored to lay before you what could be ga- thered up from our records that seemed worthy of recital. I have attempted to do justice to the characters of all my predecessors in the ministry of the Second Church. I have reviewed with you the history of the remote and the recent past; traced all the way through which the Lord our God hath led us; recalled the beautiful days of our former peace, and the dark days of our later trial. And now, as we look back, every painful incident, brightened and interpreted by the light of our present joy, seems to
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us but a necessary part of a needed discipline, - a veiled minister of Divine Love, under a deep veil, guiding us and helping us, though we knew it not, to the green pastures and the still waters, and the blessed re-union which we are enjoying to-day.
As one after another I have called the names of our venerated pastors and teachers, and recounted their valua- ble labors, I have felt as if their spirits, evoked for a while from their different stages of ascent up the holy heights, had, one after another, come back to us, with attending trains of the saints whom they led to glory, till at length they all have gathered over us, smiling to behold our joy, . and blessing God together with us, that he " hath extended mercy to us, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in" the city that was dear to them, and is dear to us, as "Judah and Jerusalem."
Seeing, then, that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us renew our vows of fidelity and love to God, and to each other; and, taking the sacred ark that has been entrusted to our charge, upon our shoul- ders, and to our hearts, bear it on prayerfully and steadily and hopefully into another century.
And now, my friends, I give place to the oldest and most venerable of my predecessors, and join you, as an attentive listener, to the pregnant words of his last " Testi- mony to the Churches :" -
" I am now in the eighty-fourth year of my age, and under a feebleness in the valley of the shadow of death, - wherein the Lord is yet a light unto me, and makes it but
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a shadow of death,-and I am every hour waiting and longing for my dismission to a better world. In these circumstances I do declare, that the principal design upon which these colonies were first planted was to profess and practise and enjoy, with undisturbed liberty, the holy reli- gion of God our Saviour, exhibited in the Sacred Scrip- tures, and rescued from the inventions and abuses [of man]; and more particularly to set up churches for our Lord Jesus Christ, that shall keep themselves loyal to him, their glorious King, and faithful to the religion of the Second Commandment .... It is now the dying wish of one who has been for about threescore and six years, after a poor manner, but, I hope, with some sincerity, serving the best of Masters, in the blessed work of the gospel, that the churches may stand firm in the faith and order of the gospel, and hold fast what they have received, and let no man take away their crown. But there may be danger of a generation arising which will not know the Lord, nor the works done by him and for him among his people here. And therefore, from the suburbs of that glorious world into which I am now entering, I earnestly testify unto the rising generation, that, if they sinfully forsake the God, the hope, and the religious ways of their pious ancestors, the glorious Lord will severely punish their apostasy, and be terrible from his holy places upon them. Now, the Lord our God be with you, as he was with your fathers ! Let him not leave you nor forsake you! Lord, let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children." *
Signed, Increase Mather, Nov. 10, 1722.
Chandler Hoblus
HISTORY OF THE NEW BRICK CHURCH.
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IT has already been stated in the preceding pages, that, on the sixth day of May, 1779, the Second Church adopted a plan of perpetual union with the New Brick, in which it was agreed that both should take the name and continue the records and line of descent of the older of the two, -the Second Church. We have, therefore, as descendants in part from that religious body, and possessors of its records, a commemorative duty to discharge to the New Brick Church. This obligation I attempted to fulfil in two discourses preached on the sabbath immediately before the demo- lition of the Old Meeting-house in Hanover-street, which our society inherited from the last-named branch of its ancestry. Those discourses are not now to be procured, and were never exposed for sale ; fewer, through a strange mistake, having been printed than were subscribed for. A new edition of them, as some of my readers are aware, has been several times called for by our society ; and individuals have generously offered to take upon themselves the whole expense of a reprint. But the offer has been hitherto refused, partly in anticipation of this volume, in which I supposed it might be necessary to use them. After, consultation with the committee for the publication of this book, I have concluded to republish here the strictly historical part of the discourses referred to, with little more abbreviation than is necessary to avoid repeating what has already been said in the History of the Second Church relating to the junction of the two churches, and events subsequent thereto.
HISTORY
OF THE
NEW BRICK CHURCH.
IT is a cause of unfeigned regret, that the otherwise grati- fying retrospect of the annals of the New Brick Church is alloyed by a review of the circumstances under which it originated. The only blot upon its records stains their very first page. Its foundation was laid in dissension and alienation between brethren of one faith, inhabitants of one neighborhood, and members of one church.
It is an ungrateful task to search out and expose the weaknesses of our fathers. Nor have I any heart for un- covering the long-buried animosities that once subsisted between two churches, which for these many years have been united together in the closest intercourse, and the most exemplary harmony. But I should be unfaithful to the duty which devolves upon me, if I were to suffer my- self to be deterred, by the painfulness of the undertaking, from a candid and faithful statement of the facts and merits of the controversy which resulted in the building of this house. Besides, the history of this singular trans- action is of itself not devoid of interest, and is still often
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alluded to, though with a very imperfect knowledge of the facts of the case. An indefinite impression prevails in the community that there was something wrong in the origin of the New Brick Church, though precisely what the wrong was is not understood. It becomes, therefore, an act of justice to its founders to free their memory from all sweeping and vague imputations, and to lay open with discrimination and candor the real nature and amount of their offending.
At the commencement of the year 1719, there were two congregational churches at the north part of Boston, which was then the most respectable and fashionable sec- tion of the town. The one at the head of the North Square was under the pastoral charge of Drs. Increase and Cotton Mather; and the other at the corner of Clark and Hanover, then called North-street, under the care of the Rev. John Webb. Both churches were flourishing and fully at- tended, perfectly harmonious within themselves and with each other, and amply adequate to the accommodation of all in the neighborhood who might desire to meet in them for worship. But the latter, in conformity to the custom of the times, began to be desirous of settling an assistant pastor for the more effectual furtherance of the work of the ministry. The attention of several members of the church was attracted by the popularity and eminent gifts of the Rev. Peter Thacher, then over the church in Weymouth. A determination seems to have existed on the part of some of the New North Society, from the very first of the movement towards settling a colleague, to secure his services, if possible, at all hazards. No sooner
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was this purpose apparent than many of the congregation began to manifest signs of disapprobation, - disapproba- tion founded upon the conviction that it was not right for a wealthier society to entice away from a poorer their minister. " Weymouth," said they, "in God's sight, is as precious as Boston; and the souls there, of as great worth as the souls here. And to the common objection, that it is a pity that Mr. Thacher, being so bright a light, should smoke out his days in so much obscurity, we answer, first, bright lights shine brightest in the darkest places; and, secondly, bright lights are the obscurer for burning in a room where there are more, and as bright." *
No other adequate motive can be assigned for their op- position or their subsequent doings. Mr. Thacher himself was in all respects such a minister as would be likely to please their taste, to gratify their pride, and to build up the church. There was nothing objectionable in Mr. Webb, to excite their aversion. Nor do I find in any quarter so much as a hint, that there were any latent causes of divi- sion previously existing between the members of the society themselves. Nor were the characters of those who composed the opposition such as to warrant the supposition that they were originally actuated by unwor- thy motives, or lightly instigated to the course they took, or moved by any cherished feelings of hostility towards their own church. On the contrary, there are not wanting indications, on the part of some of their number, of strong attachment to the interests of the New North Church. Several of them had been amongst the most influential of
* See Appendix F.
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HISTORY 0F
the original founders of that society, of the first signers of the covenant, and of the building committee of the church; one had been donor of part of the communion plate, and, more recently, of a bell; and one had been the first choice of the church for the office of deacon.
No other cause can be found for the origin of their disaffection, save that which is assigned by themselves, viz. an insuperable objection against calling a minister away from his flock, and disapprobation of the measures taken by Mr. Thacher's friends to unsettle him at Weymouth.
It is some satisfaction, then, to be assured that there was a foundation in conscience and principle for the movement of the founders of this church, however blame- worthy may have been the heat exhibited by them in the course of the controversy. There is no reason to doubt, that they were perfectly sincere in what they said in their " memorial" to the New North Church, written in the very height of the difficulty. "We should think ourselves obliged to love, honor, and respect you more than ever, if you would wholly lay aside Mr. Thacher, who, you know, is the sole cause of all our uneasiness." When we take into view the fact that the two parties were nearly equal in numbers, and that Mr. Thacher was finally elected by a majority of only one (and that, as has been said, the cast- ing vote of the minister), it seems strange that the feelings of the memorialists should not have been more regarded. It seems strange that the New North Church and its pastor should have persisted in their purpose of settling Mr. Thacher, against the wishes of so large a portion of the congregation; against the unanimous advice of the
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clergy of the town; against the general sense of the reli- gious community, and at the risk of their own dismem- berment. There can be no reasonable doubt, that, by a more moderate and pacific course on their part, the diffi- culty might have been healed, and those subsequent dis- turbances prevented which are a perpetual disgrace to all who were concerned in them. The counsel of such men as the two Mathers, Benjamin Wadsworth, Benjamin Col- man, Joseph Sewall, Thomas Prince, and William Cooper, -all of them names justly celebrated in the churches of Boston, - was precisely such as the spirit of Christianity would have dictated. " We apprehend," say they, in a letter signed by them all, "that it would be best that the New North should not push on the settlement of Mr. Thacher, and that you should not engage in the building of a new meeting-house. A patient waiting may cool and calm spirits that are discomposed and heated. Time, by the help of God, may give more light to us, to you, to Mr. Thacher, Mr. Webb, and the New North, in the present affair, than we have hitherto had. In a way of patient waiting, and humble supplications to heaven, Providence may possibly clear up the matters that are dark at present; so that all concerned may at last join in some issue that may be holy, peaceable, and comfortable. Patient and prayerful waiting is, therefore, what we think best at pre- sent, and what we advise you to; and also that you and your brethren, with whom you are dissatisfied, would take opportunities to confer together in a spirit of meek- ness, for the quieting and reconciling your spirits, that you may again be united in love as formerly. But, if conten-
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tions and division should prevail, how greatly would it dishonor God, gratify the devil, grieve the godly, and hurt yourselves and others too !"
But the passions and prejudices of both parties had now become too warmly enlisted to suffer them to give heed to the instructions of Christian wisdom and love. The New North Church pushed matters to extremity, and appointed a day for the installation of Mr. Thacher. The Boston ministers signified their unwillingness to sit on the installing council. The day appointed for the installation arrived. The church in Milton, under the care of a relative of the candidate, and the church in Rumney Marsh, or Chelsea, under that of the Rev. Mr. Cheever, were the only churches represented on the council. In- deed, the former was not fairly represented at all, since it had voted not to give its assistance, and its pastor at- tended the council in opposition to its vote.
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