USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Lectures on the history of the First Church in Cambridge > Part 2
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the original Puritan ground, loving the Established Church, reluctant to leave it, willing to conform to its rules and customs in many things, unwilling to conform in others. Being such a man as he was, and the tem- per of the rulers what it was, the result could hardly be other than separation, gradual at first, but complete at last. He was busy at this time with what seemed to
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LECTURE I.
him weightier matters than forms and ceremonies. " The course I took in my preaching was, first, to show the people their misery. Second, the remedy, Christ Jesus. Third, how they should walk answerable to his mercy being redeemed by Christ." He finished his three years, and remained about half a year longer, at the request and charge of the people, when Laud, Bishop of London, summoned him to answer for preaching in his diocese. The Bishop was in a rage, and "looked as though blood would have gushed out of his face, and did shake as if he had been haunted with an ague-fit." At the request of Shepard that he would excuse him, the Bishop railed upon him. " You prating coxcomb, do you think all the learning is in your brain ?" At last the sentence came. "I charge you that you neither preach, read, marry, bury, or exercise any ministerial functions in any part of my diocese ; for if you do, and I hear of it, I'll be upon your back and follow you wherever you go, in any part of this kingdom, and so everlastingly disenable you." Shepard asked mercy for the poor town, and prayed that he might catechise on Sabbath afternoons. The Bishop answered, "Spare your breath ; I'll have no such fellows prate in my diocese. Get you gone, and make your complaints to whom you will !" "So away I went, -and blessed be God that I may go to him." The wrath of man praises God: the rage of Laud gave this church of ours its first minister. Not just then. Shepard was silenced there. "I did think it was for my sins the Lord did set him thus against me." Samuel Stone, who preceded him in the ministry here, received, by Shepard's proposal, the Lectureship he relinquished, and was sent with it to Towcester, Shepard's birthplace, where he accomplished much
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good. It is interesting to find their names, afterwards to be associated here, so early united beyond the seas.
But the oppressed, silenced preacher was not alone. He found friends. The Harlakendens were so many fathers and mothers to him. He remained about six months with them, and "the Lord let him see into the evil of the English ceremonies." Then the Bishop was again upon him, and cited him to appear before his court, when he charged him to depart the place. He was then invited to go to Yorkshire and be chaplain in the family of Sir Richard Darley, at a town called But- tererambe. He was unwilling to go so far from his present post, unless compelled to do so. " I did not desire to stir till the Bishop fired me out of this place." The Bishop was not long in doing this. A few days after he had ordered Shepard away, he held a visitation in a neighboring town. With a companion, one Mr. Weld, already excommunicated, Shepard travelled to the place, discussing as they went the plan of going to New Eng- land. They thought it was better to go to Ireland and preach there. That was not God's plan for Shepard, or for us. They drew near to hear the Bishop's speech, when Weld was recognized by the Bishop, and arrested for being on forbidden ground, and Shepard was saved from the same fate by being seized away by watchful friends while the officers were looking for him. He was again urged to accept the position in Yorkshire, and decided to do so; " the rather because I might be far from the hearing of the malicious Bishop Laud, who had threatened me if I preached anywhere." It was a weary, perilous journey, and late on Saturday night he ruched the house where he was to serve. The prospect was dismal enough. He found " divers of them at dice
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LECTURE I.
and tables." He was far from all friends, " in a pro- fane house," "in a vile, wicked town and county," with small likelihood of doing any work, and the consciousness of ill-desert burdening his troubled soul. But things were to come out better than this homesick stranger dared to think. Sir Richard treated him kindly, and he found three servants who were friendly. The name of one of these stands upon the list of the members of our church. Another, the knight's kinswoman, with the hearty approval of the family, became Shepard's wife, and came hither with him. The words of the preacher were blessed to those with whom he labored. A sermon, on the occasion of the mar- riage of one of the daughters of the house, wrought great changes for the better with all the household. But the life of Shepard was not to be spent in that obscurity. His good wife was unwilling to remain there, and another Bishop was on his track. The Lord gave him a call to the town of Heddon, in Northumber- land, a place where he "might preach in peace, being far from any Bishops," and thither he went. He found friends, and his labors were blessed, but his tarry was of more importance in that, as he has written it, " I came here to read and know more of the ceremonies, church government and estate, and the unlawful standing of Bishops than in any other place." The poor man had troubles in all their variety. For some reason he re- moved from Heddon after a year's preaching, and came to a town near by, where he dwelt "in a house which we found haunted with the Devil as we conceived, for when we went into it a known witch went out of it, and being troubled with noises four or five nights together, we sought God by prayer to remove so sore a
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trial ; and the Lord heard and blessed us there, and re- moved the trouble." But there was no rest, for the Bishop put in a priest who would not suffer him to preach publicly any more, and no efforts could secure him the liberty, so that he preached up and down the country and in a private house. But things were work- ing well. The wrath of man was beginning to praise God more clearly. At this time there came to him a call from divers friends in New England to come over to them, and many in Old England desired him to go, and promised to accompany him. Cotton, Hooker, Stone, and Weld had already come, and to his mind the Lord seemed to have departed from England with them. Shepard resolved to come with his friends, to seek here the liberty and purity which he could not find in England. He has left us the reasons of his decision, which were in all respects honorable and sufficient. He was willing to stay and to suffer, if that was best, but he turned with relief to the door of escape which the Lord had opened. " I saw no reason to spend my time privately, when I might possibly exercise my talent publicly in New England." Let us cherish the memory of Margaret Shepard. "My dear wife did much long to see me settled there in peace, and so put me on to it." He came down from the North with his wife and child, in a ship laden with coals, coming "in a disguised manner," and at length reached his old home at Earles-Colne, where he waited privately at the house of his friend Richard Harlakenden, the brother of Roger. After a prolonged delay, the ship was ready to sail. It was very late in the year, but he would not turn back. Soon after he sailed there came a violent storm, and the heavily laden ship was nearly driven upon the
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LECTURE I.
sands, and for a time all hope was gone. Prayer brought help. The wind abated, the anchor held, and boats came from the shore, and the tossed preacher and his little family were again upon the land. God's time was not yet. After a sickness of two weeks his child died, and was buried privately at Yarmouth. The father did not dare to be present at the burial, lest the officers of the church should seize him. His afflictions and dis- appointment made him more ready to remain in England. He found the reason for his troubles in his own guiltiness, and feared he had gone too far in sep- aration from the " Assemblies in England." He had
not gone too far. Why should he stay ? Honorable martyrdom is honorable, yet one is not called to throw away his life. This young minister must have bread for his household, must preach the gospel, must preach it in its own freedom and its own simplicity. That sea- girt isle, dear as it was, was not all the world. God had his plan, which he was leisurely working out.
Which way should the poor man turn ? He was offered a vacant house in Norfolk, owned by an aged, pious woman, and there he passed the winter out of sight of his enemies, with his expenses defrayed by Roger Harlakenden. Though he could not preach pub- licly, he was busy with his pen, and wrote some things which we can read to-day. Out of this time came his treatise entitled " Certain Select Cases Resolved; spe- cially tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings. In a letter to a pious friend in England." Silenced, his words went out to the end of the world. In the spring of 1635 he went up to Lon- don with his good friend, to prepare again to leave
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England. It was dangerous ground, for his great enemy, Laud, ruled there. He found a very private place, where another son was born to him, who, like the former one, was named Thomas. This was he who was after- wards pastor of the First Church in Charlestown, and was succeeded in that pastorate by his son Thomas. The birth of this child was kept secret, so that he was not baptized till he was brought to New England. The officers found out in some way that Shepard was in London, but he escaped to another house the very night they came to search for him. Then the Lord seemed to make his way plain to come to New England, and in August he embarked with his wife and child, his brother Samuel who had befriended him in his troubles, Mr. Roger Harlakenden, and other precious friends, lament- ing the loss of their native country when they took their last view of it. It is supposed that Shepard sailed under the name of his brother, inasmuch as the list of passen- gers has the name of "John Shepard, husbandman, aged thirty-six." It was exceedingly difficult for ministers to escape from England, and it may have seemed necessary to resort to this disguise. We cannot help regretting his course, while we cannot doubt that he acted consci- entiously. It is possible that the register of his name may have been made by some one else. The ship was the " Defence," of London, and she was " very rotten and unfit for such a voyage, and at the first storm began to lenk badly, so that the passengers thought they might have to turn back." There were many storms, but after "a longsome voyage " they reached Boston, where they were welcomed by many friends with much love. On the second day after their arrival Shepard enme with his family to Mr. Stone's, in Newtown. This
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LECTURE I.
was just at the time when the congregation here were preparing to remove to Connecticut. Shepard and his friends, numbering about sixty persons, purchased the houses of the Hooker Company, and decided to remain here until they could find a better place ; a few of the former congregation remained with them. On the 1st of February, 1636, O. S., they organized their Church, with the assistance and fellowship of the neighboring churches. Soon after Mr. Shepard was installed as pastor. Here beginneth the present First Church in Cambridge.
Here we must pause. But as we bring the past into the present, shall we not gain an impulse which shall bear us on through all the work which is given us to do ? "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh." It is something to have an hon- orable record for two hundred and thirty-four years. It has been gained by the piety, devotion, and gener- osity of those who have been before us. This church has been rich in saints, and is blessed still through those who have fallen on sleep. They were thoroughly in earnest, from first to last. Their labors, example, spirit, are our inheritance. Their tears and prayers, - "are they not in thy book ? " We have planned well for the generations to come. Should we not, while we glory in those which are passed ? Where will you set the name of that first minister ? When ? In what spirit ? has come to be our turn to build a meeting-house. We shall do it. We shall do it well. It has begun well, on paper and in stone. We should not blush if we saw the phantom " Defence " sail up our river, and yield its burden of men to these seats and this pulpit, and send the former residents of Cambridge beneath the shade
It
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of our venerated Elm. A good present is secure thus far! What shall another Sabbath show ? O my brethren, join heartily in the good work which comes to you to-day. Let every hand help it forward, every voice speak words of cheer, every treasury yield its treasure. With promptness and decision we will give as it is given to us. Two centuries, and more, speak to us from the ground where our first sanctuary stood, and from the unknown grave of Thomas Shepard. We hear. We will heed. The generous beginning we have already made shall have a grand consummation. And here and in our finished sanctuary the praise shall be to Him of whom are the fathers, unto whom is our homage for ever and ever.
LECTURE II.
"FOR THEY GOT NOT THE LAND IN POSSESSION BY THEIR OWN SWORD, NEITHER DID THEIR OWN ARM SAVE THEM: BUT THY RIGHT HAND, AND THINE ARM, AND THE LIGHT OF THY COUNTENANCE, BECAUSE THOU HADST A FAVOR UNTO THEM." - Psalm xliv. 3.
H ISTORY is the record of God's plan. It is easy to trace his working in the deeds of our fathers. We praise the men, yet the honor which we pay them goes beyond, and rests on him. For love of him and his truth, for the freedom of the conscience which he had implanted, for liberty to worship him in simplicity and purity, for the privilege of widening his kingdom and blessing those who should come after them, they deserted a land they loved, and the church in which they had been reared, to found on these open shores a free state and a free church. They accomplished their in- tent, and wrought out greater things than they imagined. The homage of a continent is their due ; the world owes them admiration. But while we honor them, we glorify Him whom they served, whose hand and arm gave them the land in possession, the light of whose countenance in the constancy of his favor made them a people. In tracing the history of a church we follow out the lives of the good men who laid its strong foundation and began the enduring superstructure. Yet all is of God. Unto him be the glory of all we admire, the gratitude for all we enjoy.
It was on the first day of February, in the year of our
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Lord 1636, that this First Church in Cambridge was organized. It was the year in which, on a later day, Henry Vane was chosen governor of Massachusetts. A man of twenty-three years, born of an ancient line, son of a Privy Counsellor of England, prizing the pure ordinances of the gospel more than the preferments of Court, sent hither by the command of the King who knew his desire to come, whom Milton has described as
" Young in years, but in sage counsel old.
On thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son."
Sagacious, vigorous, prompt, restless in any condition which might be improved, eager for reform, willing to lead the way; entering on his office amid the enthusiasm of the people, with John Winthrop for his deputy and successor ; after the troubled service of a single year to seek the stirring scenes of his native land to find in them " higher and harsher fortunes "; to die on Tower Hill after the Restoration, speaking for liberty and right, praying calmly and confidently through the blast of trumpets, "Father, glorify thy servant in the sight of man, that he may glorify thee in the discharge of his duty to thee and to his country."
Yet brief and disturbed as were his tarry and service here, there came to him rare honor, in that he was per- mitted to preside over the first assembly of men "in which the people, by their representatives, ever gave their own money to found a place of education." "The ancient world in all its monarchies or republics," Eng- land with its ancient schools and universities, furnished no precedent for the public action out of which rose Harvard College.
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LECTURE II.
That was in September. This was the time when John Hampden, of Buckinghamshire, determined to re- sist the imposition of a tax for ship money, laid upon people who never saw a ship, by a fiction of government which made a country a hundred miles inland border upon the sea, and refused to pay the assessment of twenty shillings upon his estate. He was defeated in the courts, but out of his defeat grew larger liberties than he sought, and the King who had beaten him went through the window of Whitehall Palace and laid his head upon the block. That was in the year in which the first pastorate of this church came to an end, by the death of a man whom Charles's Primate had driven across the seas. The reforms which were entered upon by the Long Parliament were felt in these colonies, distant but closely allied with the mother-land. Strafford was beheaded, Laud imprisoned to be afterwards beheaded, and many other persons of unhappy notoriety, bishops, judges, officers, were reckoned with for their deeds of op- pression. England promised to become a home for free- men. There was less need for men to flee the country. Those who would have come hither waited for a new world in the old land. Emigration stopped. In 1640 some four thousand families, embracing about twenty-one thousand persons, had come to New England. For a century and a quarter after that "it is believed that more had gone from hence to England than had come from thence hither." For two hundred years there was noth- ing which could be called an immigration. The Puritan ranks abroad were reinforced by New England men. Many of the early graduates of our College sought service in the busy field from which their fathers had turned away in a time when there was less to do and
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less to hope. It is said that the abler part of the first graduates always returned to England to render there the service of their lives. The effect of this turning of the tide is manifest. New England needed the men whom Old England claimed. But the contest for liberty and right must be waged on both sides of the wide sea. The cause was one. The victory would be the common advantage. Still, the colony, left to itself, would have but a slow growth, and the state would be delayed. Remembering this, the vigor and advance here will seem the more remarkable.
I take up our own history again. It is coming into quiet out of tumult. The field seems narrower. Yet the deeds done upon it were of wide and lasting influence. Our church history blends with the colonial history, which widens into our national career, and takes a large place in the annals of the world. It was a simple thing done on that winter day, but the end is not there, is not yet. Thomas Shepard and his company, about sixty persons in all, had purchased the houses of Thomas Hooker and his company, and were ready to form themselves into a church. Governor Winthrop has described the proceedings at length. The magis- trates were informed of the desire of these new-comers and gave their approbation. The neighboring churches sent their elders, by invitation, to give their assistance. A great assembly was convened. It was a grand com- pany, containing as it did the chief men of the churches and of the colony. The two Winthrops we must imagine here, and Dudley, and Haynes, and Vane, and Peters, and Wilson, and Cotton, and Mather, and Hook- er, and Stone. It is a fine sight as we look back upon it. Mr. Shepard and two others who were afterwards
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LECTURE II.
to be chosen to office sat together in the elders' seat. I think that one of the two was Edmund Frost, who preceded Shepard to these shores, and was made one of the first ruling elders of the church. The other may have been Thomas Marriot, who was one of the first
deacons. " The elder of these began with prayer. Mr. Shepard prayed with deep confession of sin, and ex- ercised" out of that glowing passage of St. Paul, "That he might present it to himself a glorious church." The cause of the meeting was declared, and it was asked how many were needful to form a church and how they should proceed. Some of the ancient ministers con- ferred together, and reported that seven was a fit num- ber. In accordance with their further counsel, those who were to form the church, beginning with Mr. Shepard, made confession of their faith and of their personal religious experience. Then the covenant was read and assented to. Mr. Cotton of Boston, on behalf of the churches, gave the right hand of fellowship. Mr. Shepard made an exhortation, explaining the nature of the covenant and urging his associates to stand firm to it, closing with "a most heavenly prayer." The Elder then announced that the church proposed to choose Mr. Shepard for their pastor, and gave the members of the council thanks for their assistance, " and so left them to the Lord." At a subsequent day, which cannot be pre- cisely determined, Mr. Shepard was installed in the pastoral office.
Let us linger for a moment upon the constitution of this church. At its beginning and during its early years, as at a later time, it numbered among its members various men of influence, whose names are found in other connections. Of Shepard himself I can speak
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better in another place. We know through what toils and trials he found the repose of this wilderness and liberty to preach the Word. Besides his Autobiography, he left a small book in which he had recorded " the confession of divers propounded to be received, and who were entertained as members." From that and other sources we learn the names of many of the early mem- bers of the church, and something of their history. So long as the law required the freeman to be a member of the church, the list of freemen gives us the names of many members. If there were any complete church records prior to 1696 they have disappeared, and we are compelled to gather up the fragments of our early life wherever they can be found. Happily, many of the events in which this church and its ministers bore a part were of sufficient public importance to gain a place in the histories of the times. Among those early mem- bers was John Haynes, Governor of Massachusetts when the church was organized, who came over with Thomas Hooker and John Cotton ; a man of good family, rich enough to be able, generous enough to be willing, to refuse the salary of his office. " A heavenly man," Roger Williams said. He married Mabel, the sister of Roger Harlakenden, and in 1637 removed to Connecticut, where he was made governor. A man of sterling worth, of courteous manners, of public spirit, who never lost the confidence of those whom he served in his high station, and filled a large place in the rising state. There was Roger Harlakenden, of that house which protected and supported the young Shepard and his family in the days of their persecution, who came with them to this country, and after three years was called up higher. Winthrop ways of him, "He was a very godly man, and of good
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LECTURE II.
use both in commonwealth and in church. He died in great peace, and left a sweet memorial behind him of his piety and virtue." As he was lieutenant-colonel, he was buried with military honors, but now no man knoweth of his grave. And Richard Champney, ruling elder of the church, descended from Sir Henry Champ- ney, one of the thirty brave warriors who fought in 1066 at the battle of Hastings, under William the Conqueror. There was Samuel Green, who came in 1632, and was for fifty years a printer, whose greatest work was the Indian Bible, which he and Marmaduke Johnson brought out. John Dunton speaks of him in terms of great friendliness, while he lavishes admiration on his wife. And Matthew Day, the first known steward of the Col- lege, son of the first printer ; who died in 1649, and in his will left 20 s. to his minister, and " a table-cloth and napkins not yet made up" to his minister's wife, and gave tokens of remembrance to little Samuel and Jeremy Shepard. There was Thomas Cheeseholme, the second steward of the College, a tailor by trade, but apparently the first person in Cambridge licensed to keep a house of entertainment and to draw wine. And Edward Winship, for many years honored by his fellow- citizens with election to office, and giving to the town his daughter Joanna, who was long the maiden school- mistress. And Nathaniel Eaton, of whom we do not boast, who was the first head of the embryo College, but who, for beating his tutor and abusing his students, with other misdemeanors, was thrust from his place and fined, and subsequently cast out of the church.
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