USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > Memorials of the First Church in Dorchester : from its settlement in New England, to the end of the second century : in two discourses, delivered July 4, 1830 > Part 4
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Mr. MATHER, with his family, tarried some months in Boston. Im- mediately invitations were made to him from Plymouth, Roxbury, and other towns, to settle with them, but by the advice. of Mr. COTTON, Mr. HOOKER, and other friends, he accepted that of Dorchester.
He assisted Mr. ELIOT and Mr. WELD, in 1640, in making the New England version of Psalms.
The usefulness and the praise of this eminent divine was great in all the Churches. He was a member of all the Ecclesiastical Councils and Synods in Massachusetts, that met during his ministry here.
In 1646, a Synod was called to prepare rules for the better ordering of the affairs of the Churches. After various discussions, two clergy- men of Massachusetts, and one of Plymouth colony, were appointed to draft, each of them, a model of Church discipline and polity, for the adoption of the succeeding session. These were the Rev. JOHN CoT- TON, of Boston, Rev. RICHARD MATHER, of Dorchester, and the Rev. RALPH PARTRIDGE, of Duxbury. Mr. MATHER's model was made choice of, received the sanction of the Synod, in 1648, and, under the name of "the Cambridge Platform," has ever since been considered as the Ecclesiastical law of the Churches of Massachusetts.
Of the Synodical Council, which met at Boston, June 4, 1657, and of the Synod in 1662, Mr. MATHER was a very influential member ; and the determination of the questions stated in their result, was in a great degree owing to positions which he had advanced and supported .- Indeed such respect was paid to his judgment, that "In Ecclesiastical Councils to which he was frequently invited, and in weighty cases where the General Court frequently consulted ministers, his opinion was much relied upon and generally adopted."
His wife died in 1654 ; and on the 26th of the 6th month, 1656, he mar- ried Sarah, the widow of the famous JOHN COTTON, who survived him.
He left four sons in the ministry; one of whom, Eleazer, pastor of the Church at Northampton, died about three months after his father. Samuel was a teacher of a Church at Dublin, in Ireland; Nathaniel was minister at Barnstable, in Devon, Great Britain, and afterwards at
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Rotterdam, in Holland; and Increase, was minister at Boston, in New England, and afterwards President of Harvard College.
The publications of Mr. RICHARD MATHER, were 1. The Discourse about the Church Covenant; and the Answers to xxxii questions, pub- lished in 1639, which pass under the name of the Elders of New England. 2. A modest and brotherly answer to Mr. Charles Herles' book, against the Independeney of the Churches, 1646. 3. A heart-melt- ing exhortation, &c., to his countrymen of Lancashire, 1650. 4. . A Cute- chism, 1650. 5. A treatise of Justification, 1652. 6. A letter to Mr. Hooker, to prove that it is lawful for a Minister to administer the Sacra- ment to a congregation that is not particularly under his care. 7. Elec- tion Sermon, 1660. 8. An answer to the Essay of Mr. Davenport, against the propositions of the Synod, 1662 .* And 9thly, A farewell exhortation to the Church and people of Dorchester. ['This last, he dis- tributed in all the families ; and yet a copy is not to be now found.]
Mr. MATHER left a large number of writings on Church government and controversy, which are preserved in the Cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society. Those which I have perused are the following :
1. An answer to objections against imposition of hands at ordination.
This is a manuscript of eleven pages ; and is dated 26th Octo- ber, 1635.
2. An apology for the Churches of New England, against the excep- tions of RICHARD BERNARD, minister of Batcombe, in Somersetshire, sent to us in two books, one written to the Governour, Magistrates and Commons ; the other, to the Ministers, and Elders of the Churches.
This is a manuscript of one hundred pages, in the hand-writing of RICHARD MATHER.
Governour WINTHROP, in his Journal, records "1638, Sber. About two years since, one Mr. BERNARD, a minister at Batcombe, in Somer- setshire, in England, sent over two books in writing, one to the Magis- trates, and the other to the Elders, wherein he laid down arguments against the manner of our gathering Churches, &c., which the Elders could not answer till this time, by reason of the many troubles about Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions, &c."
The original copy of Mr. Bernard's book, which was sent to the ministers, very fairly written, is contained in a volume of manuscripts of Rev. JOHN COTTON, now in the possession of the Hon. JOHN DAVIS.
* Of this book Mr. HIGGINSON of Salem, remarked " that Mr. MATHER shewed himself, a pattern to all answerers to the end of the world." And the late Dr. ELIOT pronounces it " an able discussion, and as liberal as it is masterly."
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In the same volume is a precious treatise, which has never been printed, entitled, Considerations brief but necessary about toleration in religion, humbly tendered to them in authority, by JOHN ROBINSON, Pas- tor of the English Church at Leyden.
3. An answer to nine reasons brought by JOHN SPILSBURY, in the 25th and 26th pages of his book, to prove that infants ought not to be baptized. 3. 6 month, 1646.
This is a manuscript of sixty-six pages. Mr. SPILSBURY was Pastor of a Baptist Church in London.
4. A manuscript of ninety-five pages, inscribed A model of Church Government, 1648. On the first leaf of which he has made this record -" The Synod at Cambridge having nominated sundry of the Elders to draw up each of them a several model of Church Government; and amongst others, having nominated me for one for that service; to the end that out of those several models there might be one proposed, such as the Synod should jointly agree upon. I therefore, upon this occasion and call, drew up this that follows, and presented it to the Synod at their next meeting, which being then by the Synod deliberately read and perused, they afterwards agreed upon that which is now printed and published ; which work of theirs and this of mine being compared, it may appear that the doctrine herein by me expressed and delivered, was well approved of by that reverend and judicious assembly."
R. M.
The Rev. JOHN NORTON was appointed to revise this model, and to insert such amendments as were proposed in the Synod, in order for publication.
5. THE PLATFORM, as it was prepared for the press; in the hand- writing of Mr. MATHER.
6. The answer of the Elders to the exceptions against the Platform.
This is a manuscript of forty-three pages. It is very curious and interesting, particularly as the names of the principal objectors are placed in the margin. It commences with stating-" According to the order of the much honoured General Court, bearing date 26. 3mo. 1651 ; and in obedience thereunto, the Elders of this jurisdiction, or so many of them as could be conveniently obtained to come together, have seriously perused the papers imparted to us by the Secretary, as the answers of the Churches concerning the platform of discipline, and divers other papers from particular brethren, &c. &c."
7. An answer to xxi questions, sent from the honorable General Court at Hartford to the honorable General Court at Boston, and by them proposed to certain Elders of both jurisdictions, which they called together
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and appointed to confer and debate upon, and present their resolutions concerning them to the said General Courts, respectively.
This is a manuscript of twenty-one pages ; and is dated 19th, 4mo., 1657. From a note of Rev. INCREASE MATHER'S, it appears that it was sent to London and published. I cannot, however, find a printed copy in any of our public libraries.
8. An answer to arguments for the government of the Churches in the hands of the people.
A manuscript of seventy-eight pages. The title, and two first pages lost .- It is a learned treatise on ecclesiastical polity.
There is also a small quarto volume of 550 pages in manuscript, pre- served in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, entitled "A plea for the Churches of New England; divided into two parts, the former containing a survey of Mr. W. R. his book, entitled a narration of Church courses in New England; wherein the manifold mistakes and misreports contained in the said narration are discovered; and such arguments and objections against the said Churches as are contained in his marginal animadversions are weighed and answered; the other con- taining positive grounds from Scripture, and reason for justification of the way of said Churches, contrived into an answer to sundry questions collected and raised out of the several chapters of the Narrator's dis- course.
By RICHARD MATHER, Teacher of the Church at Dorchester, in New England.
This bears the Imprimatur of JOSEPH CARYL, April 28th, 1646; but was never printed. It is an elaborate vindication of the order and discipline of our Churches against the exceptions of WILLIAM RATHBONE.
NOTE K.
Rev. JOSIAH FLINT was the son of Rev. Henry Flint, of Braintree ; born August 24th, 1645 ; graduated at Harvard College in 1664.
The only publication of his that I have met with, is an Epistle Dedi- catory, to Mrs. Bridget Usher, his aunt, prefixed to a Sermon of the Rev. Leonard Hoar, President of Harvard College, on the death of Lady Mildmay. Printed at Boston, by John Foster, 1680.
NOTE L.
Rev. JOHN DANFORTH was the son of the Rev. Samuel Danforth, of Roxbury; born November 8, 1660; graduated at Harvard College in 1677, and was afterwards a fellow of the Corporation.
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'The following obituary notice is from the New England Weekly Journal, for Monday, June 1, 1730.
"On May 24, last, died at Dorchester, the Rev. Mr. JOHN DAN- FORTII, the very worthy and faithful Pastor of the Church of Christ in that place, aged about 70 years ; who was one greatly qualified by many bright accomplishments for the Evangelical Ministry, and was eminently a man of God and a man of prayer; a close and profitable preacher of sound principles ; a pattern of all the virtues of the chris- tian life, and zealous for the cause of God and religion among us ; greatly beloved and valued while living, and now lamented at his death ; and his memory will be always precious to those who had the honour and pleasure of an acquaintance with him."
The following character is extracted from Mr. BLAKE's Manuscript Annals.
" He was said to be a man of great learning. He understood the Mathematics beyond most men of his function. He was exceedingly charitable, and of a very peaceful temper. He had a good taste for poetry. He took much pains to perpetuate the names of many of the good Christians of his flock, by writing Inscriptions and Epitaphis for their grave stones ; and yet the world is so ungrateful that he has not a line written to preserve his memory. He was buried in Lieut. Gov. Stoughton's tomb ; and there also lieth his consort, Mrs. Elizabeth Danforth."
He published several occasional Sermons. 1. A Sermon on the De- parture of the Rev. Joseph Lord and his Church, to go to Carolina. 1697. 2. A Fast Sermon, before the General Court, on Exod. ix. 33, 34. 1703. 3. The Blackness of sinning against the Light ; a Sermon on Rom i. 21. 1710. 4. Judgment begun at the House of God. 1716. 5. Two Sermons on the Earthquake. 1727. He also published A Poem on the death of Rev. Peter Thacher of Milton, and Samuel Danforth of Taunton.
Mr. DANFORTH preached the Artillery Election Sermon in 1693, and the Election Sermon in 1697; but I do not know of their being printed.
NOTE M.
Rev. JONATHAN BOWMAN was born at Lexington, in the year 1707 ; and graduated at Harvard College in 1724. He was ordained at Dor- chester, November 5, 1729. The Churches sent to were Lexington, Roxbury, Scituate, Braintree, Milton, and Stoughton. Rev. Mr. ILAN- cock preached from 2 Cor. xi. 28; Mr. DANFORTH gave the Charge, and Mr. WALTER the Right Hand of Fellowship.
1
1
1
i
1 1
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Mr. BOWMAN died March 30th, 1775, aged 68. Though a good scholar, and a handsome composuist, yet such was his diffidence, that he declined preaching on public occasions, and never consented to have any of his sermons printed.
NOTE N.
The following Obituary Notice is inserted from the public papers.
"MOSES EVERETT, Esq., of Dorchester, whose death was lately an- nounced, was born in Dedham, of respectable parents, July 15, O. S., in the year 1750. He was the youngest but one of nine children. He pursued his studies, with a view to enter College, under the care of Mr. BALCH, the Minister of Dedham, (whose daughter he afterwards married) and after the usual course of preparation, was admitted at ' Cambridge, and received his first degree in 1771. His education had been with a view to the profession of a Christian Minister, which, on leaving College, he adopted. When the Church in Dorchester became vacant by the dismission of Mr. BOWMAN, he was invited to preach there ; and, September 28th, 1774, was ordained to the pastoral charge of that ancient and respectable town, then consisting of one parish. He remained in this ministry eighteen years, and performed the duties of it to the satisfaction and improvement of his people. At the end of that period, the declining state of his health compelled him to relin- quish an office, which he was too feeble to fulfil, and too conscientious to neglect; and in the year 1793, he requested and obtained a dis- mission.
"The approbation of his townsmen distinguished Mr. EVERETT in his retirement ; and the next year after he left the pulpit, he was elected one of the Representatives of Dorchester, in the General Court, and took his seat accordingly ; but the prevalence of different opinions on politics prevented him from being returned again. Afterwards he received a commission of Justice of the Peace, was made Special Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Norfolk County, and in the year 1808 was appointed to fill the vacancy on the bench of that Court, occasioned by the death of his brother, OLIVER EVERETT, Esq. In this situation he acted with integrity and ability, and held it till the abolition of the Court. This was the last duty, of a public nature, that he was called upon to exercise. His health continued feeble, and by repeated paralytic shocks he was deprived of vigor, and finally of life."
During his ministry he published, A Sermon before the Society of Young Men in Dorchester, February 1, 1778; and, A Sermon at the Ordination of his brother, Rev. OLIVER EVERETT, to the pastoral care of the New-South Church in Boston. 1782.
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THE NEWBERRY
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He died March 25, 1813, leaving a widow and ten children ;- one by his first wife, one by the second, and eight by his relict, the third.
A Sermon was delivered at his funeral, by his successor, on Joshua i. 2, which was printed.
NOTE O.
I. The FIRST CHURCH, gathered in England, March, 1630 ; removed to New England, and began to settle at Dorchester, June 6th, O. S., of the same year.
II. The SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, was gathered January 1, 1808; a Meeting-house having been built, and dedicated October 30, 1806 ; and Rev. JOHN CODMAN, D. D., ordained the Pastor, Decem- ber 7, 1808.
III. The THIRD CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY was formed in 1813; its Meeting-house dedicated October 6th, of that year ; and the Rev. EDWARD RICHMOND, D. D., installed Pastor, June 25, 1817.
IV. An EPISCOPAL METHODIST SOCIETY, in the South part of the town, was formed in 1811; the first place of worship dedicated May 6th, 1818; and the present place of worship, September 24th, 1829.
V. HAWES' PLACE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY, in Sonth Bos- ton, incorporated February 19, 1818; Church gathered October 17, 1819; Rev. LEMUEL CAPEN installed Pastor, October 31, 1827.
VI. ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, [Episcopal] consecrated June 24th, 1818. Rev. J. L. BLAKE, Rector.
VII. The Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to ST. AUGUSTINE, South Boston.
VIII. EVANGELICAL CALVINISTIC SOCIETY, South Boston, formed December 10th, 1823; Meeting-house dedicated March 29th, 1825; present Pastor, Rev. Mr. FAIRCHILD, installed November 22d, 1827.
IX. BAPTIST SOCIETY, South Boston, formed January 16th, 1828; Rev. THOMAS DRIVER installed April 16th, 1829 ; Meeting-house dedi- cated July 22d, 1830.
X. VILLAGE CHURCH, in the South part of Dorchester, gathered March 18th, 1829; Introductory prayer by Rev. E. Beecher of Boston; Sermon by Rev. R. S. Storrs of Braintree ; Consecrating prayer by Rev. Samuel Green of Boston; Fellowship of the Churches by Rev. John Codman, D. D .; Concluding prayer by Rev. William Cogswell of Ded- ham. The Church consisted of 27 members, 21 of whom were from the Second Church in Dorchester. Their Meeting-house was dedicated September 1, 1829. The exercises of the occasion were, an Introduc- tory prayer by Rev. Dr. Fay of Charlestown; Lessons of Scripture by Rev. Mr. Fairchild of South Boston; Dedicatory prayer by Rev. Dr.
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Codman ; Sermon by Rev. Professor Stuart of Andover; Concluding prayer by Rev. Dr. Wisner of Boston.
Rev. DAVID SANFORD, a graduate of Brown University, was install- ed Pastor, July 14, 1830. The Introductory prayer was made by Rev. E. Smith of Hanover ; Sermon by Rev. Dr. Jenks of Boston; Conse- crating prayer by Rev. Samuel Gile of Milton ; the Charge by Rev. Dr. Codman ; Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. Ebenezer Burgess of Dedham; Address to the people by Rev. R. S. Storrs of Braintree ; and concluding prayer by Rev. Wm. Eaton of Middleborough.
XI. UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY, South Boston, formed May, 1830.
NOTE P.
" Vestra autem pietas, Viri Exules, que maluit patriam, quam Evan- gelium, deserere, commodisque carere temporariis quam permiscere sacris a Christo alienis, egregiam sane meretur laudem." BULLINGER. Præf, in Comment. Apocalypt. p. 16.
NOTE Q.
The General Court, in their address to CHARLES II. in the year 1661, say, "We supplicate your Majesty for your gracious protection of us in the continuance both of our Civil and Religious liberties, according to the Grantces' known end of suing for the Patent, conferred upon this Plantation. Our liberty to walk in the way of the Gospel, with all good consciences according to the order of the Gospel, was the cause of our transporting ourselves, with our wives, and our little ones, and our substance, from that pleasant land, over the Atlantic Ocean, into the vast wilderness; choosing rather the pure Scripture Worship, with a good conscience, in this remote wilderness, than the pleasures of England, with submission to the impositions of the then so disposed and so far prevailing hierarchy, which we could not do without an evil conscience. We are not seditious, as to the interest of Cæsar ; nor schismatical, as to matters of Religion. We distinguish between Churches and their impurities. We could not live without the public worship of God, nor be permitted the public worship, without such a yoke of subscription and conformity as we could not consent unto with- out sin. That we might, therefore, enjoy divine worship, without human mixtures, without offence to God, man, and our own consciences, we with leave, but not without tears, departed from our Country, kindred, and fathers' houses, into this Patmos."
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NOTE R.
Dr. COTTON MATHER, speaking of "that party in the Church of England, who, resolving that the Reformation should never proceed one jot further than the first essay of it in the former century," says, " they made certain unscriptural canons, whereby all that could not subscribe and practice a multitude of, by themselves confessedly, purely human inventions in the worship of God, were accursed, and ipso facto excommunicate ; and by the ill obtained aid of bitter laws to back these canons, did, by fines and goals and innumerable violences, contrary to the very Magna Charta of the nation, ruin many thousands of the so- berest people in the kingdom ; and who continually made as many Shibboleths as they could for the discovering and extinguishing all real godliness, and gave not over till they had thrown all into the lamentable confusions of a civil war. The Churches of New England say, 'come not into their secret, O my soul !' We dare not be guilty of the schism which we charge upon that party in the Church of England. And if any faction of men will require the assent and consent of other men to a vast number of disputable and uninstituted things, and, it may be, A MATHEMATICAL FALSEHOOD among the first of them, and utterly re- nounce all Christian communion with all that shall not give that assent and consent, we look upon those to be separatists. WE dare not be so narrow spirited. The Churches of New England profess to make only the substantials of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION to be the terms of our sacred fellowship. We dare make no difference between a Presbyte- rian, a Congregationalist, an Episcopaliun, and an Antipado Baptist, where their visible piety makes it probable that the Lord Jesus Christ hath received them." Magnalia, Book III. p. 12.
NOTE S.
Mr. HUBBARD, in his General History of New England, p. 118, de- clares, "It is certainly known that the old Nonconformists and good old Puritans of Queen Elizabeth and King James his time, did in many things not symbolize with the Separatists, whose way and form of dis- cipline was always disowned and disclaimed, yea, publicly condemned, by the writings of the learned Nonconformists of that age, such as Mr. Robert Parker, Dr. Ames, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Hildersham, that mal- leus Brownistarum, as he used to be called; especially as to their notions about separation from the Church of England, as anti-christian. The one endeavouring only a reformation of some corruptions, retained, or crept into the Church, as they thought, either before or after its
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reformed state ; the others, not content therewith, stood as stifly to maintain a necessity of abrogating and disannulling their former church state, and begin all anew, as if things had been so far collapsed in the days of our fathers, that, like a vessel once infected with the contagion of leprosy, it must be broken in pieces to be new cast and moulded, or else to be judged unclean and unfit for the service of God. It is affirmed by some who had more reason to be best acquainted with the said Mr. Higginson when he first went over thither, that Mr. Hildersham, upon their first removing, advised him and other Ministers looking this way, to agree upon their form of Church government before they came away from England. The which counsel, if it had been attended, might have prevented some inconveniency that hath since fallen out, or at least have saved some of the succeeding Ministers from the imputation of departing from their first principles, because they were not publickly professed and declared when the foundation of their Church order was here laid in the beginning of things."
In further illustration, I here insert a letter from the famous JOIN COTTON of Boston, in Lincolnshire, England, three years before he came to this country, to Rev. SAMUEL SKELTON of Salem, New Eng- land. I transcribed it from an ancient manuscript, which bore the en- dorsement, " copied out June 13, 1631, by me RICHARD MATHER ;" and have since collated it with an original in Mr. COTTON's own hand- writing, in a small quarto volume of his adversaria in the possession of the Ion. JOHN DAVIS, of Boston.
" Beloved Sir,
"I am glad to hear of your health by others, though I do not hear that you have written to any of your friends in these parts by this last return. I thank you for your loving entertainment of Mr. Coddington and his wife, (my loving and Christian neighbours) into your house. Only as the death of so many of the former plantation hath been grievous to me, so hath it not a little troubled me that you should deny the Lord's Supper to such godly and faithful servants of Christ as Mr. Governour, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Coddington, whereof the three latter were known unto you to be men of an upright heart and unblameable life, and the first might have been evidenced unto you to be no less by their approved testimony. My grief increased upon me when I heard you denied baptism unto Mr. Coddington's child, and that upon a reason worse than the fact; because he was not a member of any particular reformed Church, though of the Catholic. And that which added wonder to my grief was that I heard you admitted one of Mr. Lathrop's congregation not only to the Lord's Supper, but his child to baptism upon sight of his testimony from his Church, whereas
5.
Mr. Coddington, bringing the same from the Chief of our Congre- gation, was not accepted.
A quartain ague (some fits whereof I have already borne) hath so weakened my body and prostrated my spirits, that I am not fit to write my mind of these things; yet the unfeigned love I bear you, and the desire I have that peace and truth may dwell amongst you, hath constrained me to bear witness against your judgment and practice in a word or two.
Two things I conceive herein to be erroneous ; first, that you think no man may be admitted to the Sacrament though a member of a Cath- olic Church, unless he be a member of some particular Reformned Church. Secondly, that none of the congregations in England are par- ticular Reformed Churches but Mr. Lathrop's and such as his. For the first, we do not find, (neither is it credible) that the Eunuch [Acts viii.] was a member of any particular congregation, yet Philip baptized him; neither yet did he baptize him into any particular congregation which he should betake himself unto after his baptism ; his calling, it may be, requiring his necessary absence in a foreign court. But you will say, he made profession of his faith, before baptism, v. 37: neither do I deny that it is meet for parents (whether they be members of a particular Church or no) to profess their Covenant with God to them and their seed, whereof baptism is a seal; and you know all English congregations require it. But this I deny that he made profession to become a member of Philip's particular Church : and besides, such a profession as he made to Philip, I dare say the servants of God whom you have refused have made as great, yea larger unto yourself.
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