USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Lectures on the history of the First Church in Cambridge > Part 9
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that were supplied with ministers from this College, which was thus faithful to the pious design of its founders. Mitchel formed plans for the prosperity of the College, of which one was " A Model for the Education of Hopeful Students at the College in Cambridge." He proposed to have septennial subscriptions by the more worthy and wealthy persons, to be disposed of by trus- tees for the benefit of promising students. " But through the discouragement of poverty and selfishness the proposals came to nothing." There is another little glimpse at Mitchel's influence in the case of one Single- tary, a young man of twenty-three, who was in prison at Ipswich on a charge of slander in calling one Godfrey a witch. There, as he testified, he heard strange noises, and a crackling and shaking as if the house would have fallen. He was naturally frightened. " Yet, consider- ing," he says, " what I had lately heard made out by Mr. Mitchel at Cambridge, that there is more good in God than there is evil in sin; and that although God is the greatest good, and sin the greatest evil, yet the first Being of evil cannot weane the scales or overpower the first Being of good ; so, considering that the author of good was of greater power than the author of evil, God was pleased of his goodness to keep me from being out of measure frighted."
These times which we have been reviewing were eventful days for England. Thomas Shepard died in 1649, the year in which Charles I. was beheaded, and the Commonwealth declared. It was a period which called for all the prudence of these colonies, lest they should in some way become involved in the affairs of the mother country. They admired the valor of Crom- well, who was the champion of their own theories. But
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they refrained from soliciting any favors from the Pu- ritan Parliament. Massachusetts kept silence when Cromwell was made a monarch. Her public records do not even allude to his death. She took advantage of the time when England was busy, and proceeded to coin money, which might be construed as a pretension of independence. She suffered at the Restoration in the persons of Hugh Peter and Henry Vane, and saw her- self dishonored in George Downing. But she was able to shelter three men who had signed the death-warrant of the King and fled from the vengeance of Charles II. Of these Whalley and Goffe came immediately to Cambridge, where they intended to reside. The Act of Indemnity, from whose mercy they were excepted, did not reach this country for several months. Meanwhile, and for three months afterwards, they were treated with consideration, though at last there was a division of feeling among the magistrates regarding their duty. They were admitted into the best society here. They attended public worship and lectures, and took part in private devotional meetings, and were received to the Lord's Table. In showing them such favor, Mitchel was not aware of their exact relation to their government. He wrote afterwards in his own vindication, " Since I have had opportunity, by reading and discourse, to look into that action for which these men suffer, I could never see that it was justifiable."
It is evident that the people had enough to talk about during the ministry of Mitchel. We know what sub- jects occupied their thoughts. With what sadness must Elder Frost and Elder Champney have conferred upon Dunster's sad defection and the church's duty ! How earnestly must Deacon Bridge and Deacon Marriot have
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discussed the Half-way Covenant ! while every ship which brought news from England must have brought commotion into the whole community. They were stirring times. It was a good day to live in. The men were equal to their place. It is interesting to mark what was taking place in the world while this church was thus moving on its way. The Waldenses were persecuted by the Piedmontese ; Quakers were suffering in Massachusetts ; Pascal died, and Jeremy Taylor ; the first idea of a steam-engine was suggested; "The Pil- grim's Progress " was published; Eliot's Bible was printed ; London was smitten with the great plague, and devastated by the great fire ; the Triple Alliance was formed for the protection of the Netherlands, - and there were many other events of general importance.
This second pastorate ended with the death of Mitchel, July 9, 1668, after a ministry of eighteen years. It was more than three years before the church had another pastor. The pulpit in the interim was occupied by President Chauncy and others, as appears from an ap- propriation made for their payment. The President was voted £ 50 and thirty loads of wood. At the same time £ 30 was voted to Mistress Mitchel. In this interval there is an order that the constable see that certain persons who keep without the meeting-house during the services on the Sabbath, spending their time unprofit- ably and dishonoring God, do attend upon public worship. Steps were taken, also, to build a house for the entertainment of the minister whom the Lord should send " to make up the breach that his afflicting provi- dence hath made in this place." There is this memo- randum in the year 1669 :-
" At a publick meeting of the church and towne to
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consider of suply for the ministry (the Lord having taken away that reverant and holy man from among us, Mr. Jonathan Micthell, by death). It was agreed upon at the saide meeting that theare should be a house eyther bought or built for that ende, to entertayne a minister, and a commity was chose for that purpose which tooke care for the same, and to that ende bought fower akers of land of widdow Beale, to set the house upon, and in the year 1670 theare was a house earected upon the sayd land of 36 foote long and 30 foote broad, this house to remaine the churches, and to be the dwel- ling place of such a minister and officer as the Lord shall be pleased to supply us withall during the time hee shall supply that place amongst us."
The house was built in the present College grounds, on a glebe of four acres, nearly opposite the end of Holy- oke Street. In 1726 a new front was put upon the house. Another order directed that the school-house should be taken down and set up again, and an allowance of 40 s. was made to Mr. Corlet "for repairing of his house where he kept school." The town was again districted for the catechising of the children. Thus the parish work went on. After Mr. Mitchel's death, an attempt was made to secure Mr. William Stoughton, of the class of 1650, for pastor. This was unsuccessful, and he is afterwards found in the law and holding office in the State. The remembrance of his benevolence is preserved among us in the name of one of our College Halls, which was erected at his expense. An effort was then begun to re- call Mr. Urian Oakes from England. He was born in England about 1631, and brought to this country by his pious parents in his childhood. 3 He was a lad of small as he never was of great stature. He possessed a sweet
THE OLD PARSONAGE : BUILT IN 1670.
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nature, which he retained, and observers said that if good-nature could ever carry one to heaven, this youth had enough to carry him thither. He was a precocious boy. At the age of nineteen "he published a little parcel of Astronomical Calculations," or an Almanac for 1650. He graduated here in 1649, but continued to reside in College and board in commons until 1653. We get a little insight into the state of things here, in finding among the articles with which he paid his ex- penses, a calf, a sheep, wheat, sugar, etc. He received from the College an allowance for his scholarship. He preached his first sermon at Roxbury, but "about the time of the Rump" returned to his native country, where he became chaplain to one of the most noted persons in the realm. He was then settled at Titch- field, where, as the historian narrates, after the man- ner of the silk-worm he wove his own spirit into " garments of righteousness for his hearers." In 1662 he was silenced, with all the nonconformist ministers. For a time he taught school. He then ventured to resume preaching. In one season he received a letter from this church, with a messenger, Mr. William Man- ning, and a letter from several magistrates and ministers, inviting him to come over and become the pastor here. He accepted the invitation. But the sickness and death of his wife hindered his coming. It does not appear when he was married, but his wife is thought to have been the daughter of the famous William Ames. The call was renewed, but a long sickness of his own delayed his acceding to the wishes of the church, so that there came to be doubt whether the church should longer wait for him. After debating the matter, the church was found willing to wait until the spring of
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1671, and in July of that year he arrived ; or, as the Magnalia expresses it, "The good Stork flew over the Atlantic Ocean to feed his dam." John Taylor went to accompany the chosen pastor to New England, and we have an account of the disbursement of money for the travelling expenses of the party. There seems to have been one of those unfortunate misunderstandings which will arise to mar the best intentions, for there is this memorandum : "Let it bee taken notice of that Mr. Prout does demand £ 13 more due to him." Let us hope that Mr. Prout was satisfied. In the town records is a report of a meeting of the church and town, July 16, 1671, at which it was voted : " 1st, To acknowledge thankfulness to Mr. Oakes for his great love and self- denial in parting with his friends and concerns in Eng- land to come over to us. 2d, To manifest unto him the continuance of the earnest and affectionate desires of the church and people, that, as soon as well may be, he would please to join in fellowship here in order to his settle- ment and becoming a pastor to this church. 3d, To entreat him forthwith to consent to remove himself and family into the house prepared for the ministry. 4th, That the deacons be furnished and enabled to provide for his accommodation at the charge of the church and town, and distribute the same seasonably for the com- fort of him and his family. 5th, That half a year's payment forthwith be made by every one according to their yearly payment to the ministry ; and the one half of it to be paid in money, and the other half in such pay as is suitable to the end intended."
That in these changes the old pastor was not for- gotten is evident from the next record which concerns us: " Voted, that there be a rate made of £ 20 and
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paid to Mistress Mitchell for her supply." Mr. Oakes became a member of this church, and was ordained ·pastor, November 8, 1671. The church had so deep a sense of the Divine favor in giving them such a minister, that they kept a day of public thanksgiving, when Mr. Oakes preached from St. Paul's words, " I be nothing," in which he sought to turn the thoughts of men from himself to the Lord whom he served. The new minister resided in the new parsonage, which con- tinued to be occupied by the pastors until Dr. Holmes removed from it to a house of his own. The account of disbursements for the ordination is a relic of the olden time, containing, as it does, "3 bushells of wheate, 2 bushels } of malt, 4 gallons of wine, beefe, mutton, sugar, spice and frute, and other small things," with similar items, amounting in the aggregate nearly to £ 10. In 1672 Oakes was made a Freeman. In 1673 he preached the annual Election sermon, in which he de- clared himself in favor of all moderation, and as com- passionate towards the infirmities of others, but as regarding " an unbounded toleration as the first-born of all abominations." He asserts, what must always be remembered, that New England was " originally a plan- tation not for trade but for religion."
After the death of President Chauncy, Leonard Hoar, a graduate of 1650, a clergyman and physician, was chosen President. From his day the office has uniform- ly been filled by one of the sons of the College. Mr.
Hoar's administration was an unfortunate one. There soon came to be " uncomfortable motions and debates." The students took a strong dislike to him, and did all they could to ruin his reputation. Cotton Mather says, they " turned cudweeds and set themselves to travestie
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whatever he did and said, with a design to make him odious." He says also, "I can scarce tell how," but he fell "under the displeasure of some that made a figure in the neighborhood. . . . In a day of temptation, which was now upon them, several very good men did unhappily countenance the ungoverned youths in their ungovernableness."
Quincy thinks that Oakes was one of these injudi- cious good men, and intimates that he was moved to this opposition out of disappointment because he was not himself chosen to the place. But this is mere con- jecture. With others, he resigned his seat as a member of the Corporation, and would not return when re-elected.
Dr. Hoar was a man of learning and of great moral worth, and was considerate and diligent, but he could not overcome the opposition and bring the College out of its low estate. The Court passed a vote in 1674, " that, if the College be found in the same languishing condition at the next session, the President is concluded to be dismissed without further hearing." There was no improvement, and in the ensuing spring the Pres- ident resigned. On the day of his resignation, Oakes resumed his seat in the Corporation. He was urged to accept the Presidency, but refused, and was appointed superintendent of the College, with the rank and duties of president. He held this office four years. After unsuccessful attempts to fill the vacancy, in 1679 Oakes was again unanimously elected president, and he then accepted the office, retaining the pastoral care of the church. The House of Representatives made a grant of £ 90 per annum in country pay, in addition to the regular salary, to provide such assist- ance in the work of the church as should be found
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necessary. The church extended to Mr. Nathaniel Gookin " a call to be helpful in the ministry, in order to call him to office in time convenient." Mr. Gookin accordingly came to the assistance of the pastor. Pres- ident Oakes proved himself "faithful, learned, and indefatigable in all the services " belonging to his new station. Small and poor as the College was, hard as were those early times, it was a station accounted worthy of any man's acceptance. He who held it ranked as head of the clergy, which was really as the head of everything. It was a part of the bold foresight and adventurous hope of the fathers that their college would be a power and blessing in the land. It was the solitary seat of advanced learning, and this made the position of president one of high honor.
I find little in the town records during Oakes's min- istry which it is interesting to notice. In 1673 there is an order for a gallery in the meeting-house, " from the east beam to the west beam, so far as the roof do not hinder, like that on the other side." In 1675 there was a committee appointed by the selectmen "to have inspection into families, that there be no by-drinking, or any misdemeanor, whereby sin is committed, and persons from their houses unseasonably." The next year Daniel Cheaver was appointed "to sit amongst the little boys at the northeast end of the meeting-house, to see there be no disorder amongst them." In 1678 there was a feeling that the pastor was not sufficiently pro- vided for, and the town made him a gratuity. In the same year leave was given to three men " to lengthen the south gallery to supply them for a seat on the Sabbath Day." This would indicate that the house was full. Among the students were Nathaniel Gookin,
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Thomas Shepard, Cotton Mather, John Leverett, William Brattle, and others who served their generation well.
Mr. Oakes was eminent for his knowledge and his piety, and was a very engaging and useful preacher. He is described as " an uncomfortable preacher," because he drove men to despair of seeing such another." Pres- ident Mather says, " If we consider him as a divine, as a scholar, as a Christian, it is hard to say in which he did most excel." Another, regretting that more of his works were not given to the press, remarks, " Four or five of his published composures are carried about among us, like Paul's handkerchiefs, for the healing of our sick land." He was for many years subject to a quartan ague, which frequently made him unable to discharge his duties, and at last he was seized with a malignant fever. He had been sick but a day or two when his church, having assembled on the Lord's Day expecting to have the Lord's Supper administered to them, " to their horror found the pangs of death seizing their pastor, that should have broken to them the Bread of Life." He died on the 25th of July, 1681, in the fiftieth year of his age, and the tenth year of his min- istry here, having been for six years also the head of the College. He was buried in our ancient God's-acre. Some years since the slab which had marked the spot was found in use in the covering of a culvert in one of our streets, and was converted into a step for a neigh- boring church. It was discharged from that service with the design of building it into our new church. But through some mistake it slipped from our hands, and is now supposed to form part of the foundation of the house of a member of this parish. Another stone, with an elaborate inscription in Latin, now covers the place where his dust reposes.
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We have one memento of his burial in a charge upon the College book of £16 16 s. 6 d., for scarfs and gloves, and £8 14 s. for twelve rings, at Mr. Oakes's funeral. Thus passed away another man who had ministered to our church, who "fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." I have given very brief illustrations of the poetical gifts of our first two ministers, and will now read to you a small portion of an elegy composed by Mr. Oakes upon one whom he describes as ".that rev- erent, learned, eminently pious, and singularly accom- plished divine, my ever honored brother, Mr. Thomas Shepard, the late faithful and worthy teacher of the church of Christ, at Charlestown, in New England."
" Oh ! that I were a poet now in grain ! How would I invocate the muses all To deign their presence, lend their flowing vein, And help to grace dear Shepard's funeral ! How would I paint our griefs, and succors borrow From art and fancy, to limn out our sorrow !
" Cambridge groans under this so heavy cross, And sympathizes with her sister dear - Renews her griefs afresh for her old loss Of her own Shepard, and drops many a tear. Cambridge and Charlestown now joint mourners are, And this tremendous loss between them share.
" Farewell, dear Shepard ! thou art gone before, Made free of Heaven, where thou shalt sing loud hymns Of high triumphant praises evermore, In the sweet choir of saints and seraphims. Lord ! look on us here, clogged with sin and clay ! And we, through grace, shall be as happy as they.
" My dearest, inmost bosom-friend is gone ! Gone is my sweet companion, soul's delight ! Now in a huddling crowd I'm all alone - Almost could bid all the world good-night.
Blest be my Rock ! - God lives - Oh ! let Him be As He is all, so All in all to me !"
LECTURE VI.
" MY COVENANT WILL I NOT BREAK, NOR ALTER THE THING THAT IS GONE OUT OF MY LIPS." - Psalm 1xxxix. 34.
TT was, in the interest of liberty and piety that our fathers separated themselves from the church and the land in which they were born and nurtured, and made a new nation and established new churches on these open shores. They planned, endured, achieved, with a faith which no hardship could break, no toil ex- haust. They had confidence in themselves and their undertaking ; and beneath this, for its support and life, was their confidence in God. They accounted them- selves in covenant with him, and they followed whither his hand pointed them. Their confidence has proved well founded. Success, more ample than they sought or saw, has crowned their work. Their monument is on every side of us. While we read the annals of this ancient church, we recognize the great goodness of God. Through all changes he has been its friend. We grate- fully acknowledge that his assurance has been fulfilled :. " My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."
We have already traced the history of this church from its beginning in 1636 to the death of its third pastor, the Rev. Urian Oakes, in 1681. When Mr. Oakes accepted the Presidency of the College, in 1679, the church gave " a call to Mr. Gookin to be helpful in
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the ministry, in order to call him to office in time con- venient." In 1680 it was voted by the town, that, of the maintenance annually allowed to the ministry, Mr. Nathaniel Gookin should have £ 100, and the remainder be paid to Mr. Oakes. After the death of President Oakes, his assistant was invited to the pastorate, and was ordained on the 15th of November, 1682. On the. same day Deacon John Stone and Mr. Jonas Clark were ordained ruling elders of the church. The record of the charges of Mr. Gookin's ordination is preserved, and affords a glimpse of the usages on such occasions. The whole amount of the charges is £ 13 14s. 2 d., and the account includes " provision for 80 persons," with " burnt wine," sugar, "flower," "porke," "hay for the horses," and similar items. In this year, 1682, it was voted by the town "that 500 acres of the remote lands, lying between Woburn, Concord, and our head line, shall be laid out for the use and benefit of the ministry of this town and place, and to remain for that use forever." Such was the " provident and pious at- tention " of the people to the wants of those who served them in holy things.
The Rev. Nathaniel Gookin was a son of Major-Gen- eral Daniel Gookin, of whom mention has been made in another place, the friend of the Apostle Eliot in his labors among the Indians, and a man distinguished for his integrity, benevolence, and piety. Of this son and his ministry we know less than of either of the other ministers of the church. The records are very incom- plete, and in the history of his times he seems to have had less part than most of those who have filled this pastorate. He was born in Cambridge, October 22, 1658, graduated in 1675, and died in 1692, in the thirty-
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fourth year of his age, and the tenth of his ministry. It is good testimony to his character and ability that he was called to be the associate of President Oakes, and that, after his service in that capacity, he was intrusted with the care of the church. The prominent facts of his life praise him, even while we are not able to follow him from year to year. His son and grandson were successively ministers at Hampton, N. H., and are highly commended for their worth and works. Of the latter it is said that he was " both ways descended from those who have been stars of the first magnitude."
There are a few traces of our Mr. Gookin's ministry yet to be seen. We have an account of the money paid him from time to time for his services. The amounts are small, sometimes less than a pound, at other times £ 10 and more. There is a record of the contri- butions on the Sabbath day. The sum collected in this way was usually about one pound. Of the pastor's salary some £50 appears to have been collected in the church. It is interesting to notice the care of the poor by the church in those days. Contributions for their relief, and frequently for a single person, were made on the Sabbath. We have the minute record of the sums raised and the method in which they were em- ployed. There were also collections from time to time for the redemption of captives. The laudable custom of a contribution on every Lord's Day prevailed here in early times. At one time the scholars made their con- tribution, which was entered by itself, and appropriated according to their wish for the benefit of the minister. I find the students' contribution only in the interval after Mr. Gookin's death.
I have a small, oblong, leather-covered book which
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has in it the name of Joseph Baxter of the class of 1693, and also of Benjamin Colman of the class of 1692, and afterwards the first minister of the Brattle Street Church, in Boston. It contains reports of sermons preached by Mr. Gookin in 1690, when both of these young men were students here. Occasionally there is the report of a sermon by some other preacher. Judging from these notes, which were carefully written, the sermons were thoughtful, thorough, practical, vigorous, and fitted to awaken and retain the interest of the hear- ers. Mr. Gookin was a Fellow of the College, and no doubt gave to his public duties and to his private re- lations with the students his best care and thought.
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