USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Lectures on the history of the First Church in Cambridge > Part 8
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first two ministers is indicated by the publication of Shepard's largest treatise, based upon the " Parable of the Ten Virgins," under the direction of Mitchel, with a Preface by him, in which he earnestly commended it to his own people, as a choice and precious treasure for their hearts to feed upon. Mitchel's preaching appears to have been very systematic. " He preached over a great part of the body of Divinity." " He made a most entertaining exposition of the book of Genesis and part of Exodus ; he made many incomparable dis- courses on the first four chapters of John ; occasional subjects he also handled with much variety; he likewise kept a monthly lecture, where he largely handled man's misery by sin and salvation by Christ, and entered on the doctrine of obedience due thereupon, and vast assemblies of people from all the neighboring towns reckoned it highly worth their pains to repair unto that lecture.""
His ordinary labors were quite enough for him. But he was obliged to engage in others, less to his taste, yet needing to be done. Singularly his first public trial came from one from whom he could have expected only comfort and support. Henry Dunster, President of the College, and a member of this church, was, to use the language of Cotton Mather, " unaccountably fallen into the briars of antipædo-baptism ; and being briar'd in the scruples of that persuasion, he not only forbore to present an infant of his own unto the Baptism of our Lord, but also thought himself under some obligation to bear his testimony in some sermons against the administration of baptism to any infant whatsoever." This seems to have been in 1653; of course this made a great excitement in the church and the community.
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The brethren of the church were somewhat vehement and violent in the expression of their dissatisfaction with the position taken by one so eminent. They thought that for the good of the congregation, and to preserve abroad the good name of the church, he should cease preaching until he " had better satisfied himself in the point doubted by him." The Divine ordinance which he opposed was held in the highest veneration by our fathers. It had come to them from the earliest days of the church, and was sanctified before them by all the saintly associations of life. It connected them with God by his ancient covenant. It was a heavenly boon to the child upon whom parental faith and fidelity bestowed it. Its meaning and value and authority had been carefully taught by their first minister, of blessed memory. With the boldness and decision with which they set themselves against all wrong, all encroachment upon religious ordinances, they lifted up their voice against one who presumed to contradict what the church had always held, and to deny where Shepard affirmed ; and not even his sacred calling, nor his lofty official position, could shield him from censure. If Dunster might claim any consideration by virtue of his character and office, it was to be remembered, on the other hand, that it was especially important that such a man should be right, and should be held to " the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." But it was not merely because it swerved from the faith of the church, and opposed what was deemed an important duty and an inestimable privilege, that this new doctrine was so greatly dreaded and opposed. For a hundred years the name Anabaptist, denoting primarily one who held that the adult believer, though he had been baptized in in-
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fancy, should receive the rite again, had been associated with fanaticism and extravagance. In Germany this sect denied the authority of magistrates, opposed all laws, made war against governments, rejected nearly all the Christian doctrines, and were guilty of the most sedi- tiou's and vicious practices. There is no necessary connection between their views regarding baptism and the enormities into which they hurried. But the his- toric connection was enough to alarm the colonists here in the critical period of their infancy. The dreaded name was promptly applied to Dunster and those of like judgment, who could accept the religious doctrine im- plied in it, but could never have done the deeds which had attended it in the Old World. It is not to our present purpose to trace the conflicts of the Puritans with those who opposed their religious opinions and usages. But it is due to the Puritans that it should never be forgotten that their active proceedings were not against persons who simply differed from them in points of doctrine, but against those who added to such differences a hostility and opposition to the order of things which the first settlers had secured at the cost of expatriation. To have tolerated them, and let them have their way, would have endangered the liberty and peace which had been purchased at a heavy cost. Very likely they went farther than was necessary in their opposition to some who came among them. They may have exaggerated their peril. But they are not entirely without excuse. It is hard to transfer ourselves to their place. We do not claim for them perfection either in judgment or practice. They were men. But they were grand men, of heroic virtue ; an ancestry of whom we have yet to prove ourselves worthy. Mr.
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Peirce, in his excellent history of the University, com- menting upon the case of Dunster, makes these distinc- tions, which deserve notice : "Facts like these exhibit our worthy ancestors to some advantage, even with re- spect to a virtue in which they have been supposed not to abound, - charity for those who differed from the orthodox standard of faith. They were rigid, rather than cruel; intolerant, but not inquisitorial ; and they seem even to have been willing that men should enjoy their peculiar sentiments without moles- tation, so long as they refrained from obtruding them upon the public, and conformed to those regulations which were deemed necessary for the good order of society.". Let not our sympathy for those who claim to be persecuted blind us to the fact that our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers had some rights. They had paid dearly enough for liberty to do as they pleased under the law of God. For those who differed from them the world was wide, and there were more genial spots than this New England coast.
Keeping in mind the inestimable value of the ordi- nance in question, and the practical significance of the term Anabaptist, it is not surprising that we find in 1644 a decree of the Court that any persons who should openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants, or should go about secretly to draw others from the ap- probation or use of the ordinance, or should purposely depart from the congregation when it was administered, or deny the lawful authority of the magistracy, and should obstinately continue in this opposition after due time and means of conviction, should be sentenced to banishment. This was not a decree against mere error- ists, but against fanatics and seditious persons. It was
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prompted by the prudence of men themselves banished for conscience' sake, and for liberty and quiet in the truth ; who dreaded to see here the turbulent scenes which had been witnessed abroad, and who were com- pelled to mark the beginning of similar causes here, which would " bring guilt upon us, infection and trouble to the churches, and hazard to the whole common- wealth." Of this law Winslow wrote that it was designed always to remain a dead letter, unless there should arise some extraordinary necessity for enforcing it. Two years after the passage of the law the Court itself de- clared, " For such as differ from us only in judgment, .... and live peaceably amongst us, without occasion- ing disturbance, &c., such have no cause to complain ; . for it hath never been as yet put in execution against any of them, although such are known to live amongst us." Another law was passed " for banishing such as continued obstinate after due conviction." The preamble asserts that " experience hath often proved, that since the first rising of the Anabaptists, about one hundred years since, they have been the incendiaries of common- wealths, and the infecters of persons in main matters of religion, and the troublers of churches in all places where they have been, and that they who have held the bap- tizing of infants unlawful have usually held other errors or heresies together therewith."
Both on religious and political grounds it was no small thing which Dunster did when, in so sacred a matter, he set himself against the sentiment of the churches and the rulers. There was no danger that he would be led into the excesses which were so much dreaded. But even the ideas which he advanced upon the simple matter of baptism would work incalculable
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mischief. It must have been with reluctance that this church resisted his influence and rebuked his conduct, for, besides his official station, he had been to them, after Shepard's death, in the place of a pastor. But he was of their own brotherhood, and with that inflexible ad- herence to right and duty which characterized them they moved against him. It was a trying position which Mitchel was placed in, - called to oppose his own Presi- dent, a man greatly revered and beloved. He was slow to proceed against him. He thought the church too much excited, and said " that more light and less heat would do better." But the matter sorely oppressed him. He felt his own weakness to grapple with the difficulties : " This business did lie down and rise up, sleep and wake with me." A personal interview with Dunster even brought the young minister into doubts and scruples whether he was himself in the right. Yet he thought it was not hard to discern that such thoughts were from the Evil One. They interrupted his study for the Sab- bath, so that it was with difficulty he prepared his sermon. " After the Sabbath was over," he writes, " and I had time to reflect upon the thoughts of those things, those thoughts of doubt departed, and I returned unto my former frame." He fasted and prayed ; he sought help from the neighboring ministers ; then publicly and formally opposed the new teachings of the venerated President. He is said to have " preached more than half a score of ungainsayable sermons " upon the sub- ject thus brought before the church, and to have ren- dered good service to other churches in the same cause. The steadfastness with which his church still clings to the blessed ordinance of infant baptism is a witness to his fidelity and success.
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It appears that Dunster was indicted by the grand jury for disturbing the ordinance of baptism in this church. The records of the County Court contain the presentment against him. "Severall witnesses tendered to attest uppon their oathes respectively, that uppon the Lord's daye, July the 30th, 1654, Mr. Henry Dunster spake to the congregation in the time of the publique ordinance to the interruption thereof without leave, which was also aggravated in that he, being desired by the Elder to forbeare, and not to interrupt an ordinance of Christ, yet notwithstanding he proceeded in way of complaint, to the congregation, saying, I am forbidden to speake that in Christ's name which I would have tes- tified." Dunster afterwards acknowledged that for the manner, he had not spoken seasonably, but for the matter, " I conceived then, and so do still, that I spake the truth in the fear of God, and dare not deny the same or go from it untill the Lord otherwise teach me." The Court ordered that Dunster, " at the next lecture at Cambridge, should (by such magistrate as should then be present) be publiquely admonished and give bond for his good behavior." Dunster kept his place in the College till 1654, when the General Court passed a vote commend- ing it to the pious care of the officers of the College and the selectmen of the several towns, not to permit any persons to be continued in the office of instructing the youth in the College or schools, that have manifested
themselves unsound in the faith. As the views of Dunster were well known, it is probable that he con- sidered this vote as directed against himself ; and after five months he resigned his office, and his resignation was accepted. It is reported that the great mass of ministers and magistrates would have retained him in
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the office he had filled so well, if he could have been persuaded to indulge in his peculiar opinions in silence. This could not be effected. Some ground for the report, which in itself is reasonable enough, is afforded by the fact that his successor, Chauncy, was known to believe that the Lord's Supper should be administered in the evening of every Lord's Day, and that baptism should be administered to infants and adults only by the dip- ping or plunging of the whole body under water. He was inducted into office upon his agreeing not to dissem- inate or publish such tenets, or to oppose the received doctrines therein. He doubtless adhered to his agree- ment, for when he had been in town above a year or two the " church kept a whole day of thanksgiving to God for the mercy which they enjoyed in his being here."
In a petition of touching pathos, Dunster begged the privilege of remaining in the President's house through the winter, to which the General Court agreed. He afterwards removed to Scituate, where he ministered to the congregation which Chauncy had left, and where he died in 1659. He was a man of a remarkable spirit. He bore himself with dignity and meekness through his trials. He would not censure the conduct or motives of those who had been influential in bringing about his removal. In his last will he called Chauncy and Mitchel his reverend, trusty, and judicious friends, and appointed them appraisers of his library. He directed that his body should be brought to Cambridge, that he might lie near the College he had loved so fondly and served so faithfully. He was laid in the old church- yard, but the stone which marked the place disappeared. His grave was, however, quite clearly identified some
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twenty-five years ago, when a new tablet was placed over it. The esteem in which Mitchel held this great, good man, is evinced by an elegy which he wrote after Dunster's death, a portion of which I copy, as a tribute to his own catholic spirit : -
" Where faith in Jesus is sincere, That soul, he saving, pardoneth ; What wants or errors else be there, That may and do consist therewith.
And though we be imperfect here, And in one mind can't often meet, Who know in part, in part may err, Though faith be one all do not see 't.
"Yet may we once the rest obtain, In everlasting bliss above, Where Christ with perfect saints doth reign, In perfect light and perfect love : Then shall we all like-minded be, Faith's unity is there full-grown ; There one truth all both love and see, And thence are perfect made in one."
Mitchel was called to bear a part in another impor- . tant public matter, and this also had reference to the baptism of children. The first settlers of this country were, for the most part, members of the church, and their children were duly baptized. But in the course of time there sprang up another generation of children, many of whose parents had not renewed the baptismal vows and become church-members, and who, therefore, were not entitled to receive baptism according to the rules then in force. It was felt that the children of baptized persons should have a different position from Indians or other pagans who might hear the word of God. It was held by many, that if baptized parents, even if not regenerate, were willing to renew the baptismal
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covenant, and become subject to church discipline, their children could properly be baptized. This feeling and practice were growing up in the churches, when a synod of the elders and messengers of the churches was called. This was held in Boston in the spring of 1662. Mr. Mitchel was a member of this synod. The result was, the declaration of the independence of each church, and of the duty of the communion of churches, - that is, Congregationalism. It was a frequent saying of Mitchel's, that " the spirit of Christ is the spirit of communion." In regard to the matter of baptism, the result was, substantially, that the members of the visible church are subjects of baptism, and that children are members of the same church with their parents, and when grown up are under the care of that church. But this does not of itself admit them to full communion. Yet when they understand and publicly profess the faith, and are upright in life, and own the covenant, and give themselves and their children to the Lord, and submit themselves to the government of the church, their children are to be baptized.
This result was chiefly composed by Mitchel, and when it was opposed, its defence fell largely upon him. Thus did he have an important part in shaping the early policy of our churches. This decision in regard to baptism is known as the " Half-way Covenant," inasmuch as it granted baptism to the children of certain persons who were not considered qualified for admission to the Lord's Table. There arose in connection with this the practice of administering baptism to adults who were not esteemed regenerate, but who owned the covenant and submitted themselves to the care of the church, and were of proper moral character. This gave such persons
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a certain standing in the community, and was of especial value as long as suffrage was confined to church-mem- bers, and there were many persons born here, or who had immigrated hither, who otherwise would be denied the full privileges of citizens, for which they were fitted by age and character. Our own church records, besides the list of members in full communion, contain two lists, both beginning in 1696, the earliest date to which our present complete records reach. Of these two subordi- nate lists, one is headed, " Persons who owned the cove- nant in order to their children's being baptized." This extends to 1828. The other is headed, " Persons adult who owned the covenant and were baptized." This ex- tends to 1782, and is quite largely made up of the names of negro servants. The use of the "Half-way Covenant " for children seems to have continued in this church until the division of the parish, although during the later years but few persons availed themselves of its pro- visions.
There must always have been, as there are now, those who esteemed it a hardship to be denied the sacraments of the church because they did not profess a personal faith in the Saviour, and give evidence to themselves and others that they had been born of the Spirit of .God. To these we may answer, in the words of an old writer, " that Christianity is to be begun with repent- ance, and not with the sacraments "; that the promise is, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; and that for the penitent, trustful, obedient friends of Christ the doors of the church stand open wide.
Mitchel was accounted a man wise in council, and of great acuteness, so that the churches far and near sought his assistance in difficult matters. His brethren
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relied much upon his judgment. Yet he felt his own inadequacy to the work thus put upon him. Once, after he had acquitted himself admirably in an impor- tant matter, we find him writing, " How do I mar God's work, and mar what he gives me therein, by my own folly ! Sometimes I am ready to resolve to put forth myself no more in public work, but keep myself silent, and unengaged, as I see others do." Then fol- lows a prayer for wisdom. He seems to have been happiest in his study and among his own people. Yet he would not refuse a wider service. A few of his published writings still remain to instruct us.
From this more public ministerial life of Mitchel we come to consider events more confined to our own town and church. What was Cambridge in Mitchel's day ? He became the minister in 1650. We have an es- timate of the number of persons and of their estate, made by the selectmen in 1647, from which it appears that there were then here one hundred and thirty-five rata- ble persons, ninety houses, about twenty-six hundred acres of land, two hundred and eight cows, one hun- dred and thirty-one oxen, twenty horses, with other property of different kinds, making up a total valuation of £9,765 16 s. 1 d., -less than $ 50,000. Johnson de- scribes Cambridge in 1652 as "compact closely within itself, till of late years some few straggling houses have been built. It hath well-ordered streets and comely, completed with the fair building of Harvard College. The people are at this day in a thriving condition in outward things." He confirms what others have said, that they "have hitherto had the ministry of the word by more than ordinary instruments."
Attention was given to the cultivation of orchards,
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The orchard of the College is mentioned in the town records. The first license for an inn appears to have been given in 1652. In 1656 a committee was appointed to execute the order of the General Court for the im- provement of all the families in spinning and clothing. About 1660 "The Great Bridge" was built, at the end of what is now Brighton Street. A house of correction was erected about the same time. In 1662 Mr. Mitchel and Captain Daniel Gookin were appointed by the General Court "licensers of the press."
About the time of Mitchel's ordination the second meeting-house was completed, which was a house about " forty foot square, and covered with shingle." It stood on Watch-house Hill, very near the spot where Dane Hall now stands. The town records furnish many little incidents which are of interest as illustrating the ways of our fathers in the church. In 1652 the church agreed to divide the farm in Shawshine, and assigned five hundred acres to Mr. Mitchel. The meeting-house and school-house were cared for, that they might be kept in good order. In 1656 the people on the south side of the river requested that they might have " the ordinances of Christ amongst them, distinct from the town." But the town did not think it expedient to grant their request, and thus divide the church. A few years later the inhabitants of Cambridge village had become so numerous that they formed a distinct con- gregation for worship, and they were granted an abate- ment of "one half of their proportion of the minister's allowance, during the time they were provided of an able minister according to law." In 1664 a new church was organized in Cambridge village, which afterwards took the name of Newton, from the original
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name of this place. This new church was composed principally of a colony from our church. John Eliot, son of the Apostle Eliot, a graduate here in 1656, under Mitchel's ministry, was the first pastor. In 1658 the elders and deacons and selectmen were appointed " a constant and settled power for regulating the seating of persons in the meeting-house." In 1660 sundry young men received permission "to build a gallery on the south beam," but the new seats were to be under the control of the seating authorities. In 1661 Mitchel received a further grant of twenty acres of land. In 1662 Mr. Corlet's scholars were so few that the town made him an allowance of £ 10. The town afterwards voted him an annual grant of £20. There are votes
from time to time regarding the pastor's maintenance. In 1665 the constables were ordered " to make a con- venient horse-block at the meeting-house, and causeway to the door, and to get the windows and roof repaired by the first opportunity." In the same year we find the selectmen calling upon several single men and in- mates of this town " to give an account of their abode and orderly carriage," and they were required to give satisfaction of their orderly submission to family gov- ernment, or otherwise they must expect the selectmen would order their abode as the law enjoined. In 1666 Thomas Fox was ordered "to look to the youth in time of public worship, and to inform against such as he find disorderly." In 1661 the town was districted for the catechising of the youth. Elder Champney and Mr. Oakes were appointed for the families south of the bridge, Elder Wiswall and John Jackson for those at the new church, and so on.
We are indebted to Mr. Mitchel for a list of the mem-
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bers in his day, the only church list which we have reaching farther back than 1696, if we except one re- cently made up from many sources. The original man- uscript, in Mitchel's handwriting, is now in the posses- sion of the First Parish. We have a copy of the original. The list was printed a few years since by the Rev. Dr. Newell. It is entitled " The Church of Christ at Cambridge, in N. E., or, the Names of all the Members thereof that are in Full Communion ; together with their children who were either baptized in this Church, or (coming from other churches) were in their minority at their present joyning ; taken and registered in the 11 month, 1658." The catalogue was continued through Mitchel's ministry. The first names are Thomas Shepard, Jonathan Mitchel, Richard Champney, Edmund Frost, Captain Daniel Gookin, Mr. Charles Chauncy. There are the names of other persons who took an active part in public affairs in their time. Our Triennial Cata- logue gives us the names of many persons who during their stay here must have been connected with this congregation. Among the students of this time were William Stoughton, Leonard Hoar, Michael Wiggles- worth, Thomas Shepard, Increase Mather, Samuel Wil- lard, Solomon Stoddard, Abraham Pierson, and others who became men of influence. The minister endeavored to aid the young men in acquiring such knowledge and principles as would always be of service to them. A scholar himself, he was in sympathy with all sound learning. His influence extended thus to all the churches. Many were the men who were better preachers because they had been under his teaching. In this way his life repeated itself. President Mather said that in his day there were not above two or three of our churches but
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