USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield, 1636-1886 : history of town and city, including an account of the quarter-millennial celebration at Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886 > Part 22
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This confession, which the council eventually pronounced ortho- dox, is full of expressions out of the ordinary, and demonstrates Breck's original bent ; while giving what the Scriptures teach, his ar- ticles of faith were strung together with " and so " and " therefore," making thus his continued appeals to reason and the fitness of things. His reference to the wicked who "are made willing in ye day of his Power to go to Christ for life " was a defence and a com- mentary in one breath as to his charitable hope about the heathen.
But the council had stirring business on hand. There sat the wigged divine from Connecticut, waiting his chance to attack the young theologian. Mr. Clap first submitted his documentary evidence, which the scribe read to the council, and then he began his address. Whatever it was, - whether sharp as Breck's lashing words to the Windham divine, or soft and insinuating, - no one at this late day can tell. Mr. Breck was soon on his feet with protestations, and the
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moderator was compelled to protect Mr. Clap against interruptions. The latter had spoken for a long time, and there was evidence of commotion in the street below. At one time a minister attempted to enter the chamber, but he was refused, as it was contrary to the stipulations under which the dissatisfied were submitting their evi- dence. At another time a messenger rode up to Mrs. Brewer's in hot haste. He called for Mr. Clap, and the latter suspended his speech long enough to hold a private conversation. Then the messenger "rode away with convenient speed." In a few moments Mr. Clap's speech was once more interrupted by the entrance of a civil officer, sword at his belt, bearing a warrant for Mr. Breck's arrest. The cloud had burst. The mysterious movements of strangers and judges and ministers and yeomen were explained. The civil law had been invoked to prevent a congregational church ordination, and his Majesty's justices were asked to pass on the theology of a ministerial candidate. Great was the astonishment of the council when they were left with no minister to ordain, but greater the consternation of the people who ran through the streets as Breck was carried a prisoner to the town-house, where Justices Stoddard, Pomeroy, and Dwight sat in waiting. This was the hour of Mr. Clap's triumph. His face is said to have been radiant with satisfaction. The dissatisfied were there in great numbers, as well as the indignant members of the church and the precinct friends of Breck. Indeed, there was danger of an ontbreak, but wiser and more dignified counsels prevailed. The petition upon which the warrant was issued had been hastily drawn up and signed that morning, and was as follows : -
To the Honbie JOHN STODDARD. E. EBR PUMROY and TIMOTHY DWIGHT Esqrs, his Majesties Justices of ye County of Hampsh".
The complaint of us the Subscribers some whereof are of the First Church and others of the First Precinct in Springfield in saide County, shows to your Honours
That are now in this Town assembled a Number of Gentlemen some whereof are known and other some are unknown to us to name. Some of the Principle
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heads of those we know, viz : The Reyd Ministers the Red Wm Cooper, Wm Welstead and Sam' Mather all of Boston in the County of Suffolk. Clerks, and Win Cooke of Sudbury in the County of Suffolk. Clerk, Now we say that the said Number of men have set up and do assert the Power of an Ecclesiastical Conneil in this Town. And whereas Mr. Robt Breck has had a Call to the Pas- toral office of the Church here, tho as we apprehend not according to Law, and we have Exhibited agt the said Breek Sundry articles of Charge for that in Gen- eral he has broched and vented many articles of Faith wholly subversive of the most Holy Faith of our Christian Religion, as well as been guilty of moral Immoralities, Now the said number of men having asserted the Power aforesaid do also assert their Power to hear Judge and act upon the said articles, although we say they have no Juridicial Power therein for these Reasons namely for that this Church never at all applied to those churches from whom they Respectively Pretend to be Delegated, Neither secondly can their be any Pretence that those Churches were applied to send in their advice and Council in those articles, but in fact so it is that the sd Mr. Breek has apply'd Personally to them at his own election while this Church did not know that those Churches were apply'd to. So that in fact they are here as they say with a Proper Juridical Power in the Prem- ises and do pretend to assert maintain and exercise the same. Now we say as much as they were applied to in no other manner but as above being Chosen Judges by Mr. Breck himself while we are Deny'd the Liberty of Choosing others to Joyn them therein, is an Invasion of our Natural Rights as men, and it is a Method of Judging which neither the Platform of these Churches nor the Law of this Province or Nation do in the Least Countenance and therefore their Pretences thereto and Exercise of the same is against the Law and Peace of our Sovereigne Lord the King his crown and Dignity. Your Complainants therefore Pray for Justice.
SPRINGFLD Oet 8th 1735.
JOHN WORTHINGTON
EBR WARRINER
R. HARRIS
O. COOLEY
B. WAIT
D. CADWELL
JOHN CHAPIN
H. CHAPIN
S. BLISS
E. WARNER
JED BLISS
L. BLISS.
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
It is a curious fact that with the exception of John Worthington and H. Chapin not one of the above men was in full communion with the Springfield church.
A number of the ordination council appeared to defend the pris-
THE READING OF MR. BRECK'S CONFESSION OF FAITH.
oner before the judges, and Mr. Clap was at once put on the witness stand. He was followed by Kirtland and others. That night Breck slept in the custody of the law. The next morning (October 9) the ordination council assembled again in Mistress Brewer's house and attempted to continue its investigation, the whole town being at fever heat and many people being present from the surrounding country. Clap and Kirtland refused to obey the summons of the council, the
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latter gentleman saying that his evidence could be obtained from the justices at the town-honse.
A curious episode took place before Mistress Brewer's house that morning. A copy of Breck's confession had been secured, and a young man mounted a white horse and proceeded to read it to a large crowd, consisting of both friends and foes of the young minister. The crowd both applauded and showed signs of disapproval. One of the dissatisfied who witnessed the demonstration said afterward : " The old horse stood astonished at what was doing, and if he had had the tongue of Balaam's ass he would have reproved the madness of the prophet."
It may be here remarked that Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow. and Messrs. Hopkins, Reynolds, Bull, and Ashley, with " a person of distinction from Connecticut," had come to Springfield from Northampton with the justices a few days before, and that the first plan had been to arrest the council itself, but two of the justices re- fused to sign such a warrant. It is also known that on Monday, the 6th, Captain Pynchon, Jr., went to Northampton with the complaint, and the plan to arrest Breck seems to have been decided upon suddenly after the plan to arrest the council failed.
The closing scenes of this drama are soon told. Mr. Breck was ordered by the justices to be taken to Connecticut, where he had preached his heretical sermons. a friend being detailed to accompany him as a mark of distinction, and many of the sorrowing and indig- nant congregation following their young hero until well out of town. That was a dark and an exciting night for Springfield. Some rejoiced, some feared evil results, and some were bowed in anguish. The next day a public meeting of humiliation and prayer was held. The suspense was not long. The Connecticut judges had no notion of putting chains upon a Massachusetts congregational council. Breck was discharged, and he returned at once. It was the ordination party that now triumphed.
The action of these Hampshire justices was brought up in the
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House of Representatives on the 9th of December following, and, after a long debate, the principal parties to the dispute were summoned to Boston on the 24th of the same month, in order that " this House may better Judge what may be proper for them to do in so Extraor- dinary affair, and for protecting and Defending the Churches in the free and peaceable exercise of those Libertys and priviledges which are secured to them by Law."
On the 26th of December the House declared the council regular, and resolved that " Altho the Justices had Right by Law to Enquire into the Extraordinary Facts charged upon Mr. Breck, yet they ought not by any means to have Interrupted that Church and Eclesiastical Council while they were in the Exercise of their just Rights Enquiring into the Same." This is a very important decision, and is a stake in the great boundary line between the civil and religious jurisdiction which was subsequently more fully delineated.
We soon find the Springfield church setting January 27, 1736, as the day of Mr. Breek's ordination. Dr. Cooper came on from Boston and preached the ordination sermon. We cannot omit the fact that a few days later Mr. Breck was joined in marriage to Eunice Brewer, Rev. Stephen Williams graciously performing the ceremony. Their engagement probably took place during the dark days when the Hampshire association was trying to drive Breck out of the valley.
At the February meeting of the precinct twenty-three men re- corded their protest against the support of Breck, upon the ground that he was not an orthodox minister. They were William Pynchon, Jr., Robert Harris, John Worthington, Ebenezer Warriner, Benjamin Wait, Ebenezer Warner, Daniel Cadwell, Jedediah Bliss, Samuel Bliss, Henry Chapin, Simon Smith, Increase Sikes, Jr., Abner Ely, Obadiah Cooley, Abel Bliss, Timothy Bliss, Pelatialı Bliss, John Chapin, Luke Bliss, Joseph Ashley, Thomas Horton, David Chapin, and John Chapin, Jr.
The dissatisfied were soon at it again, and subpoenas were sent
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to all the Connectient witnesses to appear at the May term in Spring- field. But Mr. Clap and Kirtland had no taste for further fight, and in a joint letter to William Pynchon, Jr., in April, they query whether a second Springfield journey would " not look with the aspect of an unwearied pursuit of a personal controversie." This hint was taken, and we find the dissatisfied on the 18th of November, 1736, taking a receipt from the precinct committee for £6 18s., costs of court ordered at the Angust session.
The young minister and a congregational principle had received recognition, and Rey. Robert Breck began a ministry which extended through half a century.
It is an irony of events worth mention, that fourteen years later Jonathan Edwards found himself compelled to make a plea against a council of local ministers to investigate the issues between himself and his Northampton church. He was reminded that in the Breck con- troversy he had taken just the other view, objecting to the presence of foreign ministers ; and his reply was that ordination councils and advisory councils were two different things. Mr. Edwards argued that churches were not obliged in every case to "submit to the neighboring ministers and them only." At the famous council of February, 1750. at Northampton, Mr. Edwards returned to the sub- ject by saying, among other things, " Mr. Stoddard & Mr. Williams of Hatfield, formally went, when invited to a council at Norwich in Connecticut and, if I mistake not, to another Council at Lebanon ; which surely they would not have done if they had thought the law of God and nature settled such an establishment in vicinities." And we may add, to complete the record of this struggle in church polity, that Mr. Edwards carried his point by securing invitations for min- isters from the east to join the council. It sounds quite like fiction, moreover, when we record the fact that Mr. Breck sat in this council, and gave the casting vote which dismissed Edwards from his North- ampton church.
Mr. Breck began his ministry under depressing circumstances.
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Young as he was, however, he developed the very genius of diplomacy. In any new project of the advancement of the church he was quite inclined first to consult those most hostile to him. It is a great pity that the records are so silent upon the career of this remarkable man. He evidently had a broad, stalwart common sense which kept him from extremes.
Hardly was he under way in his new work when Whitefield appeared in this valley. While no bigot, Mr. Breck proved him- self a firm champion of his creed. He had evidently little de- sire to see his people crying out in hysterical felicitations over an anticipated eternity of bliss. It was remarked along the valley that Mr. Breck rather snubbed young Mr. Whitefield, for the latter was yet under thirty. Mr. Whitefield's journeyings greatly stimulated the wonderful revivals in religion which were breaking over the valley. That Mr. Breck distrusted the effect of special religious re- vivals may be safely accepted as a fact. In later years one of his congregation openly said that Mr. Breek opposed the " late stir" in religion.
It is of passing interest to note that our contentious friend Rev. Thomas Clap rode with Jonathan Edwards to Boston in 1743, and that afterward Mr. Clap circulated the curious report that Edwards understood Whitefield to say that he had a design of " turning out of their places the greater part of the clergy of New England, and of supplying their pulpits with ministers from England, Scotland and Ireland." Mr. Edwards publicly denied making such a charge, but Mr. Clap reiterated it ; and there the matter rests.
The discourtesy charged upon Mr. Breck toward the English Methodist is undoubtedly overdrawn. There is no sufficient reason to doubt the statement made in the accounts of Whitefield's first Ameri- can journey, that he preached in Springfield in 1740 on his way with Jonathan Edwards from Northampton to East Windsor. If Mr. Breck had refused the use of the meeting-house, and Whitefield had really preached, say, at West Springfield, it seems that the circum-
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
stance would have been noted in the diary of the journey. JJust as Whitefield was leaving the village, on horseback, the animal stumbled on a defective bridge, and threw the brilliant revivalist over the animal's head. Whitefield said afterwards, " My mouth was full of dust. I blew a little, but falling upon soft sand got not much damage. After I had recovered myself and mounted my horse, God so filled me with a sense of his sovereign, distinguishing love and my own unworthiness that my eyes gushed out with tears." His neglect to re- flect upon the Springfield surveyors of highways did his forbearing spirit great credit.
We think that Mr. Breck's objection to Mr. Whitefield was of a later growth. Some years afterwards Whitefield returned to America, distinguished, portly, and richly dressed. The picture evidently did not please Mr. Breck. In a Connecticut minister's diary of 1764 is this : " Mr. Whitefield came along ; People seemed very fond of gazing on him. He rode in his chariot with a gentleman - had a waiter to attend on him, and Sampson Occum, ye Indian preacher, who rode on one of the horses, there being three to ye chariot. Messrs. Breck and Whitney came and dined here. Mr. Breck said he did not know but I was right in asking Mr. Whitefield to preach ; however, he believed he would not have done it." Ellen D. Larned, who wrote the History of Windham County, remarks after the above quotation, " If Mr. Breck of Springfield, always inclined to arminian- ism and heterodoxy, could thus seruple, it may be seen that the can- tious pastor (Rev. James Cogswell) did indeed run some risk in extending civilities to the great pulpit orator."
It was about the time of the second visit of Whitefield that Joseph Ashley, a member of the Springfield church, charged Mr. Breek with a refusal to admit into his pulpit Whitefield, Wheelock, and Dewey. The church promptly voted that Ashley had " manifested a censo- rious and uncharitable Spt towards this Chh and the Pastor of it." This, however, does not prove that Whitefield was actually excluded at the time of his first visit.
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SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886.
These were trying times for the First Church. Mr. Breek went into the pulpit just at the turning of the tide in New England. The waters were broken by eross-currents, and noise and confusion were everywhere. Men's speech was changing. Old English words and phrases with New England meanings were in common use, while other words and phrases were falling into disuse ; conversation was more deliberate and cold. The very costuming of the people was peculiar. The Puritan garb was originally of thorough Quaker caste, the difference being that the Puritans regulated it by law, and the Friends made it a matter of duty. The result was that the broad- brim and the Puritan cap were gradually put away, and the three- cornered hat and lace and ruffles were growing in favor. William Pynchon died with a Puritan skull-cap hanging by his bedside, but his son John left a wig, and garments covered with gold lace. John Pynchon's sons wore cocked hats.
The first and second generations of ministers were warm in their devotion to the principles of the Puritan. Whitefield found the third generation quite cold and undemonstrative. He even spoke of many of the New England divines as unconverted. He noticed in the Bos- ton congregations that "jewels, patches, and gay apparel " were commonly worn by the women, while little boys and girls were " dressed up in the pride of life : and the little infants that were brought to baptism were wrapped in such fine things, and so much pains taken to dress them, that one would think that they were brought thither to be initiated into, rather than renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world."
There is enough in our records to show that in Springfield the same elements were at work. Arminianism and Calvinism were at logger- heads ; poverty and riches were on indifferent terms, and even vice and error were abroad in the fields. The First Church practised the half-way covenant, so that men might be admitted to baptism on the virtues of their grandfathers. Mr. Breck had been ordained but a few weeks, when a peculiar case came before the society. Daniel Par-
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sons, Jr., and wife, desired to " own ye Cov' in order to have their child baptised. It was objected by some yt they had a child born w'in about seven months after marriage we being consider'd by ye chh, and after some time of consideration, It was on the 22nd of Angust put to vote whether ye sd Daniel Parsons & wife should be admitted to the Privilidges yt yy saught for & pass'd in ye neg." Daniel Parsons seems to have been a man of some local note. At any rate, in 1738, the town granted him liberty to build a grist-mill and a dam across the Chicopee river. But Mr. and Mrs. Parsons were not content to rest with the refusal of baptism to their child ; and on the 18th of November, after much debate, the church, under pressure, laid down the rule : " That every p'son having a child seven months after marriage wthout any other proof or Demonstration of yr guilt, shall be call'd upon and treated as Innocent p'sons." This was simply a recognition of the old custom of " troth-plight" or "hand- fast," which was practised in England to the Puritan era. In the " Christian State of Matrimony," published in 1543, is this passage : " Every man lykewyse must esteme the parson to whom he is hand- fasted, none otherwyse than for his owne spouse, though as yet it be not done in the church ner in the streate. After the hand-fastynge and makyng of the contracte, the churchgoyng and weddyng should not be defferred too longe, lest the wyckedde sowe hys ungracious sede in the meane season."
The First Parish, in the early part of Mr. Breck's ministry, put a liberal construction upon the rule requiring a declaration of convic- tion of sin on the part of candidates for church-membership. It was formally voted that it " did not look upon ye Making a Relation to be a necessary term of Comunion."
It appears that Widow Abigail Parsons, who wanted to join the church in full communion, was troubled in her mind about the usual way of making a " relation " of her religious experiences, and had desired to be excused from it. The Springfield church had certainly gone as far as the most liberal Congregationalist could have desired.
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
It had admitted to the half-way covenant persons who entered into the Abraliamic covenant by virtue of the "relation " of their grand- fathers, and it had now admitted persons without any public "rela- tion." We cannot see from any evidence extant that the visit of Whitefield, the wonderful revivals of religion at Northampton, Hat- field, Longmeadow, and so on down the valley, with its protracted meetings, its crying out of convicted souls, its falling in fits upon the floor, etc., had any effect upon the Springfield church. There is no evidence of a Springfield revival at this time. The most remarkable revival of the country, and one whose fame had penetrated England and Scotland, -the Northampton revival of 1735, - made no impres- sion whatever upon Springfield. We do not see that Mr. Breck ever drew up a new covenant of reformation, as Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, Jonathan Edwards, and others did. But we know that the church prospered and morals improved. When Breck took the church, there were less than seventy members in the church. During Breck's first year - and it should be remembered that half of this time the dissatisfied were still fighting him in court and precinct meetings - there were no less than twenty-five admissions to full communion, while twenty-five more "owned the covenant." This was a notable ingathering. These admissions, be it remembered, were recorded before the rule adopted by the church abolishing a re- lation of experiences. When we consider the history and principles of the Congregational church, it must be admitted that the throwing open the door of the communion to all honest persons, upon the be- lief that it was a converting ordinance, and the waiving of the relation of experiences, were perilous steps for the Springfield church to take.
In dealing with Springfield, we are, in a large sense, writing the history of a hundred plantations. Townships were growing out of the gardens planted by the churches, and in these townships was the spirit of democracy. The American Declaration of Independence was really written early in the eighteenth century, when out of a dismal religious reaction, and a healthy counter revival, and a hundred con-
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fusing things, political and social, came a common faith in self-gov- ernment. One can find ground high enough in Springfield during the first quarter of the eighteenth century to look straight into the revolutionary war.
But it would be uncandid to neglect to say that many in Spring- field in Breck's time deplored the liberality he encouraged. It prob- ably soon drove some from the parish. And we have at least one. Joseph Ashley, who absented himself permanently from divine ser- vice. When the church demanded his reasons, he replied that he " look'd upon the Chh as no chh of Christ, and the g'ter Part of the members of it to be carnal - Being ask'd the reasons of his enter- taining such concerning the chh, He said that most of the Discourse of most of the members was upon worldly matters, and that he ap- prehended such Discourse was mostly delightfull to them. And further he objected against the manner of admission of members practic'd in this Chh, because they did not require a pticular acet of their Experiences, but accepted of a Profession of dedicating themselves to God, and a Life and Conversation corresponding thereto." The church lost no time in voting that Ashley had left its communion for reasons which had not been substantiated.
The increase of church-membership that attended Mr. Breck's ministry was remarkable beyond the fact that the church seems to have avoided special religions excitement. The congregation gath- ering on Springfield Mountains drew heavily from the First Parish, more being dismissed to Springfield Mountains than any place else for some years.
When we say that not a third of the Springfield inhabitants were full communicants, we do not say that the churches were empty on the Sabbath. Everybody went to church, as a rule, and the meetings on lecture days were largely attended, and at night, when the nine- o'clock bell sounded, the village-folk prepared for bed. The routine of their daily life was indeed correct, but the spirit of the pioneers had gone, and the new life dawning upon the people was destined to
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