USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The history of Charlestown, Massachusetts > Part 3
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" 'Twas nor a solecism nor any absurdity to affirm that Christ Jesus hath more variety of righteousnesses for to make others righteous than he hath
1 The church of Malden censured Mr. Lynde for his testimony against Mr. Matthews. At a council held in Boston, March 4, 1651, a letter signed Edward Rawson, secretary, was addressed to the Malden church, in which they were requested, before they proceeded so far as excommu- nication, to consult the neighbor churches. This was done, the letter says, " without any intention or desire in the least to infringe the liberty the Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased for his church."- Mass. Hist. Col., vol. xxviii. p. 325. 2 It is in Mass. Archives, Vol. Ecclesiastical.
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to make himself righteous: no more than it is to say that he hath more variety of graces, as restraining grace (or fear of men) or renewing grace (as repentance from dead works) to bestow on others for to make them gracious, than he hath in himself for to make himself gracious."
This defence, certainly not free from " inconvenient" expres- sions, was unsatisfactory to the Court ; and a special commission was instituted to examine Mr. Matthews on doctrinal points. For consenting to be ordained, he was fined ten pounds, which he was ordered to pay within a month, provided he did not make "an humble acknowledgment of his sin ;" and for ordaining him, the Malden church was summoned to answer at the next Court.
The commission consisted of "Mr. Simon Broadstreet, Mr. Samuel Simonds, Captain William Hawthorne, Captain Edward Johnson, Mr. John Glover, Captain Eleazer Lusher, Captain Daniel Gookin, Mr. Richard Brown and Captain Humphrey Ather- ton,"-gallant and able men, doubtless, but severely representa- tive of the intolerance of the times. The Court, however, pro -. vided for an addition to it, by instructing the commission to call in " the reverend elders " in case of difficulty.
Mr. Matthews was cited to appear on the 11th of June ; and on the 15th, he favored this ecclesiastical tribunal of civilians and soldiers with the following confession : -
" To ye Honored Committee of ye Generall Court appointed to examine some doctrinall points delivered att Hull and since yt time at Malden by M. M.
Honored of God and of his people ;
" Haveing given you an account of my sence and of my faith in ye con- clusions wch were accused before you, I thought good to acquaint you, yt, if any among you (or others) should count that faith a fansie, and that sence to be non-sence, I desire yt God may forgive them : I doe, conceav- ing yt such doe not yet soe well know what they doe, as they shall know hereafter.
" Yet in case yt this should reach any satisfaction to such as are (yett) unsatisfied with my expressions for to know that I doc acknowledge yt there be sundrie defeets in sundry points yt I have delivered, I doe hereby signifie yt through merey I cannot but sce and also ingenuously confesse yt some of my sayings are nor safe nor sound in the superlative degree : to wit : they are not most safe ; nor yett eyther sound or safe in a comparative degree ; for I easily yeald yt not onely wiser men probably would, but also I my self possiblie mouyht have made out 1 x's mynd and my owne meaning in termes more sound and more safe than I have done had I not been too much wanting both to his sacred majesty, whose unworthy mes- singer I was, and also to my hearers, and to my self, for wch I desire to be humbled, and of wch I desire to be healed by ye author of both. As I
1 Christ's mind.
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doe not doubt but yt conscientious and charitable-hearted Christians (whose property and practise it is to put uppon doubtfull positions not ye worst construction but ye best) will discerne, as I doe, yt there is a degree of soundness in what I doe owne, though but a positive degree.
" However it is and (I trust) for ever shall be, my care to be more circum- spect than I have hitherto been in avoyding all appearances yt way for ye time to come, yt soe I may ye better approve my self through ye grace of Christ and to ye Glory of God, such a workman as need not be ashamed. In ye interim I remayne amongst his unworthy servants ye most unworthy, and
Boston this 13th of ye 4 month, 1651.
Your accused and condemned fellow-creature to command in ye things of Christ Marmaduke Matthewes.
The hint which the ingenious preacher gave his stern tribunal, to act as charitable-hearted Christians, was lost upon them. In two days (June 17) the committee declared themselves "much unsa- tisfied " with the confession, finding " several particulars weak, un- safe and unsound, and not retracted by him ;" 1 and the marshal proceeded to collect the fine. But the " condemned " was a poor subject for fines : " he lived above the world, and depended wholly upon providence for the support of himself and family."2 The officer could only find a library ; and the General Court, in Octo- ber, permitted the execution "to be respited until other goods appear besides books." 3
Meantime Mr. Matthews appears to have retained the confidence of his congregation, or the majority of it."4 It was his custom
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xxxi. p. 30.
2 Dr. Calamy, Non-Conformist Memorial, vol. iii. p. 504.
3 Colony Records.
4 Even Johnson, (book iii. chapter 7,) than whom none treated heresy more sternly, seems loth to give up Matthews. Notwithstanding what had passed, he says, "he will not miss to mind him in the following meeter,"- perhaps one of his most expressive verses.
" Mathews ! thou must build gold and silver on That precious stone, Christ cannot trash indure, Unstable straw and stubble must be gone, When Christ by fire doth purge his building pure, In seemly and in modest terms do thou Christ's precious truths unto thy folk unfold,
And mix not error with the truth, least thou Soon leave out sense to make the truth to hold :
Compleating of Christs Churches is at hand, Mathews stand up and blow a certain sound,
Warriours are wanting Babel to withstand,
Christs truths maintain, 't will bring the honors crown'd."
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
to make no visits but such as were properly ministerial, and to receive none but in a religious manner ; and ties thus formed were not to be weakened by fines. The female portion of his flock sent to the General Court, October 28, 1651, the following petition, - valuable as a record of the names, and christian spirit, of the early matrons of the town : -
" To the Hon'd Court ;
" The petition of many inhabitants of Malden and Charlestown of Mistick side humbly sheweth :
" That the Almighty God in great mercie to our souls as we trust, hath, after many prayers, endeavors, and long waiting, brought Mr. Matthews among us, and put him into the work of the ministry : By whose pious life and labors the Lord hath afforded us many saving convictions, direc- tions, reproofs and consolations, whose continuance in the service of Christ if it were the good pleasure of God, we much desire : and it is our humble request to this honourd Court, that you would please to pass by some personal and particular failings (which may as we humbly con- ceive be your glory and no grief of heart to you in time to come) and to permit him to employ those talents God hath furnished him withal. So shall we your humble petitioners with many others be bound to pray &c. 28-8-51.
Mrs. Sergeant,
Sarah Bucknam.
Eliz. Mirrable. Sarah Osbourn.
Joan Sprague.
Thanklord Sheppie.
Jane Learned.
Fran. Cooke.
An Hett.
Elizabeth Carrington,
Eliz. Knowker.
Mary Pratt.
Bridget Squire.
Bridget Dexter.
Eliz. Green.
Mary Wayte.
Lydia Greenland.
Joan Chadwicke.
Sarah Hills.
Margaret Pemerton.
Margret Green.
An Bibble. Han. Whitemore.
Helen Luddington.
Eliz. Green.
Eliz. Green.
Susan Wellington.
Wid. Blancher.
Mary Rust.
Joana Call.
Eliz. Adams.
Eliz. Grover.
Rachel Attwood.
Rebec Hills.
Han. Barret.
Marge Welding."
At the same time, 1651, October 28, Mr. Matthews addressed another confession " to the honored Court," declaring that he was " in some measure sensible of his great insufficiency to de- clare the counsil of God unto his people;" that he "was very apt to let fall some expressions that are weak and inconvenient ;" but that it was hiis desire "to avoid all appearances of evil therein for time to come as in all other respects whatsoever." 1 But the Court continued inexorable; neither the petition nor the confes- sion procuring a remittance of the fine.
Meantime the General Court, at a full meeting October 24, 1651, arraigned the Malden Church for its share of the sin in or-
1 This document is printed in Mass. Hist. Col., vol. xxxi. pp. 31, 32.
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
daining Mr. Matthews. The defence of the church, dated Octo- ber 28, is a manly and well prepared document. It argues, first, that the offensive expressions delivered at Malden were not so much before ordination as after, and " for the business of Hull," Mr. Matthews had undergone his punishment and "stood clear in law :" second, that in case they had "swerved from any rule of Christ " they should have been proceeded with " in a church way," for they " both owned and honored church communion ;" third, that they had invited two churches, before ordination, to pursue this course, and were ready to reply to any charges of "sin " they had committed : fourth, they begged the Court to consider what passed between them and the magistrates, and " that no return was made only by Mr. Nowell :" fifth, that it was with grief of heart they seemed " to wave or undervalue " the " advice of any magis- trate or church, but considering the liberty of the churches allow- ed by law to choose their own officers and apprehending him (Mr. Matthews) to be both pious, able and orthodox, as the law provides, we proceeded." The gist of the document, however, is contained in the last specification,- a part of which reads as follows :-
" Our plea is, that we know no law of Christ or the country, that binds any church of Christ not to ordain their own officers without advice of magistrates and churches. We freely acknowlege ourselves engaged to any that in love afford any advice unto us, but we conceive a church is not bound to such advice farther than God commends it to their under- standing and conscience. And if a church act contrary to such advice, we see not how, or by what rule, they are bound to take offence against a church of Christ in that respect,- namely, for not attending that advice, or that a church of Christ so doing should be concluded offenders in any court of justice, and so plead our laws allow every church free liberty of all the ordinances of God according to the rule of the scripture ; and in particular, free liberty of selection and ordination of all their officers, from time to time, provided they be pious, able and orthodox. And that no injunction shall be put upon any church officer or member, in point of doctrine or discipline, whether for substance or circumstance, besides the Institutes of the Lord."
This remarkable plea did not prove a valid one with the Court. In three days, October 31, the church received the fol- lowing sentence : -
" Ordered, that the members of the Church of Malden shall be fined for their offences the sum of fifty pounds, which shall not extend to any person that hath given this Court satisfaction, and that consented not to Mr. Matthews' ordination. And it is further ordered, that the said fifty pounds shall be levied by execution on the estates of Mr. Joseph Hills, Edward Carrington and John Wait, who are hereby impowered to make proportion of the said sum on the rest of the members of the church, ex- cept before excepted."
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Subsequently, the church was charged, "speedily to consider the errors Mr. Matthews stands charged with in Court." An ecclesiastical council, composed of messengers of the churches of Charlestown, Cambridge, Lynn and Roxbury, was gathered, which considered the whole case and reported to the Court, May 26, 1652. On this day, in answer to petitions, the Court declared it saw no cause to remit the church's or the pastor's fine, " the country being put to so great trouble, charge and ex- penses in the hearing of the cause." On the 19th of October, however, the fine of Mr. Matthews was remitted in full, and ten pounds of that of the church.
But the General Court, firmly established its power over the churches : it aimed to preserve them as well from incompetent as from heretical pastors. In 1653 it prohibited any to preach or prophecy without the consent of neighbor churches or the county court. This called forth a letter of remonstrance from the Salem church, in which the first reason against this law is this : -
" First, because it intrencheth upon the liberties of the several churches, who have power (as is confessed by all the orthodox) to choose and set up over them, whom they please for their edification and comfort without depending on any other power and if a breach be once made into these libertics, we know not how far it may proceed in time, there being such a leading example as this." 1
But this was of no avail. The law was sustained; and churches if in the view of the Court schismatical, or acting in a corrupt way, or " contrary to the rule of the word," fared no better than individuals ; the civil magistrate might put forth his coercive power as the case required.2
In a short time, individuals of the majority submitted to the Court. Several,3 in May, 1655, "humbly acknowledged the offence they gave to the Court and several churches about ordain- ing Mr. Matthews," and prayed for a release from ££ 13. 6s. 8d., the remainder of their fine. Edward Carrington, one of the three made responsible for the whole fine followed, October 28, 1658, their example. Hle states that the Lord had convinced him of the evil of being of the majority; but that it was not in his
1 Felt has preserved the whole of this excellent letter in his Annals of Salem, p. 533. Sce also Woburn Memorial in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xxxi.
2 Cambridge Platform, chap. xi. 9.
3 Their names were, Joseph Hills, Abram Hill, John Waite, Jno. Sprague, Ralph Shepherd, John Upham, James Greene and Thomas Call.
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
power to collect fines of " his poor, unable and absent brethren ;" and he prays that some meet person may be appointed to receive these fines, or that they be remitted, or that he may be allowed to pay his proportion, and be released from the rest. The magistrates voted to accept his part of the fine, and to give the remainder " to the town for a town stock; " but the deputies would not consent to it." 1 The General Court finally referred the whole subject of abating the fines to the Middlesex County Court; which, June 19, 1660, ordered the majority of the church to " give a clear account of all their proceedings" to a commission of three, Richard Sprague, Edwin Oakes and Ephraim Child; who were instructed to report at the next Court. This does not appear to have been done : but in 1662 the same Court abated ten pounds of the fine of Edward Carrington.
Mr. Matthews soon returned to England, where he continued to preach, in Swansey, in a small chapel, by the connivance of the magistrates. "He had," writes Dr. Calamy, "no estate, but subsisted by the piety of his children, of whom two or three were sober conformists, and by the kindness of relatives and friends, which made him sometimes pleasantly say ; " he was comforta- bly maintained by the children of God, his own children, and the children of the world." " He lived to a good old age, and con- tinued useful to the last. He died about 1683." 2
During nearly thirty years, there are but few allusions on the records to Malden. Mr. Matthews was succeeded, as early as 1654, by Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, a distinguished divine and physician ; who for nearly half a century, until 1705, was the regu- lar pastor of the church. He was of feeble constitution, and for twenty years unable to discharge the duties of his office. Yet the people generously supplied him with aid. Benjamin Bunker,3 from 1663 to 1669, Benjamin Blackman in 1679, Thomas Chee- ver and Mr. Upham, preached at Malden. In 1662 the church
1 In the proceedings in this, from first to last, there was far from una- nimity. In the vote of censure (May 1651) fifteen of the deputies record- ed their names as " contradicentes ;" and in October of the same year, ten,- among the latter Richard Bellingham the deputy governor. 2 Non-Conformist Memorial, vol. iii. p. 11.
3 Benjamin Bunker was the son of George Bunker, of this town, (see p. 83,) a graduate of Harvard College in 1658. He settled at Malden, 1663, December 9, and died February 2, 1670. It was his father, George, that signed the remonstrance in Mr. Wheelright's favor and was disarmed. The reader is requested to make the correction on pp. 73,74.
17
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
had so far regained the good opinion of the Court as to ob- tain a grant of one thousand acres of land which was laid out at Worcester. The early records of Malden are lost. There are no church records until Dr. Thatcher's ministry, and no town records before 1678,- when the by-laws, curious and quaint though they are, indicate a thriving community, striving to maintain the blessings of health and order. 1
CHAPTER XVI.
Ecclesiastical History - 1640 to 1650. - Thomas Allen. - Theological Controversies. - Samuel Gorton. - The Baptists. - The Cambridge Platform. - Death of Thomas Allen.
REV. Zechariah Symmes remained sole pastor of the church but a few months. In the year Harvard died, Thomas Allen arrived in Boston. He was the son of John Allen, a dyer of Norwich, born in 1608, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1631. He was minister of St. Edmunds, of the city of Norwich, where about 1636, he was silenced by Bishop Wren, for refusing to read the Book of Sports and conform to other innovations ; and hence emigrated to this country. In 1639, January 11, he was admitted a member of the church of Boston, in the records of which he is called " a student." On the succeeding June 9th, at his own desire and that of the Charlestown church, he was dismissed from Boston ; admitted to this church December 22, and probably soon after became its teacher.
During the eleven years of the joint ministry of Messrs. Symmes and Allen, the churches were occupied with interesting and impor- tant questions, that supplied the place, though in a moderate degree, of the Antinomian strife. There was the controversy respecting Gorton ; the synod that established the Cambridge Platform; the commencement of the Baptist controversy, and of the proceedings
1 Wright's Historical Discourse on Malden. Mr. Wright furnishes no facts about Matthews, and does not mention his name.
.
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
against the Malden church and minister. The Charlestown records of this date, afford no information of the action of this church upon these subjects. They only contain the record of one hundred and twenty-three persons admitted from 1639 to 1651, with an imperfect list of the baptisms.1
Samuel Gorton was imprisoned in this town on account of his opinions. He was, in the language of the time, a minister of "very heretical principles, a prodigious minter of exorbitant novelties, even the very dregs of familism ;" 2 in the judgment of to-day, " a wild but benevolent enthusiast, who used to say, Hea- ven was not a place, there was no Heaven but in the hearts of good men, no hell but in the mind." 3 'The magistrates judged him worthy of death,- the deputies of the lighter penalty of im- prisonment,-" to be kept at work and to wear such bolts and irons as might hinder his escape." In 1644, March 7, he was released on the condition that he should leave the Colony in four- teen days. Perhaps this notice will be a sufficient introduction to the following extract : -.
" When this order of the Court was presented to Samuel Gorton, by the constable of Charlestown, bringing a smith with him, to file off his bolts, he told the constable he was not willing to part with his irons on these terms, but expected fairer terms of release, than were therein ex- pressed, desiring him to go to Master Nowell, who lived in that town, and declare so much unto him. In short time the constable returned, bring- ing divers of the chief men in the town with him, and commanded the smith to fall to work to file off his bolts, who did accordingly, and so took them from him, leaving the said Gorton either to walk abroad, on such conditions, or else stay at his peril." 4
The increase of the Baptists caused great alarm in the colony. They were treated with double injustice by our fathers ; who first associated them with the savage reformers of Munster ; and then inflicted upon them excommunication, fines, imprisonment and banishment. The colony law of 1644 reads as follows : -
" If any person within this jurisdiction shall either openly condemn or oppose the baptism of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others from the approbation or use thereof, or shall purposely depart the congregation at the ministration of the ordinance, or, &c., and shall appear to the Court willfully and obstinately to continue therein after due time and means of conviction, every such person shall be sentenced to banishment." 5
1 The inquirer will find a valuable catalogue of the admissions into the church from 1632 to 1787 in Rev. W. I. Budington's History of the First Church of Charlestown.
2 Hubbard, p. 402.
3 Bancroft's Hist., vol. i. p. 419.
4 Simplicity's Defence against Seven Headed Policy, p. 75,
5 Savage's Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 175.
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Persons were fined for reading Anabaptist books. Probably for offences of this nature Stephen Fosdick, of this town, was fined twenty pounds ; and, May 7, 1643, was excommunicated 1 from the church. In 1647 he petitioned the Court, that as his house, burnt while in the sheriff's hands, was worth fifteen pounds, he might be released by paying the remaining five pounds. 2 A few years later, (1664,) on making an acknowledgment and confession, the church granted him absolution. The record of this is in the following words :
" The covenant of the church being (for the summe of it) a solemn promise or engagement to walk with God, and with his people according to the word of God, I do now heartily approve of it, and close with it, and am sorry that I have at any time spoken against it: Having neglect- ed likewise to hear the church in their dealings with me for my offence, I do unfeignedly repent thereof, and desire God and his people to forgive me."
"This was read to the church, accepted by all as satisfactory ; he was (the brethren consenting) received to that state of communion which he had before his excommunication ; and by the sentence of the Eldership declared to be soe restored." 3
A petition, praying the Court to abrogate the laws in relation to Anabaptists and foreigners, has on it the name of Robert Sedgwick and others, of this town; the Court declared, in reply, that these laws "should not be altered or explained at all; " and in 1646, a counter petition, prayed for their enforcement.
The other exciting religious topic of this period was the synod that closed its labors in 1648. " It went on," Winthrop writes, " comfortably, and intended only the framing of a confession of faith, &c., and a form of church discipline." This was the cele- brated Cambridge Platform, which continued, in the main, to be the rule of the ecclesiastical polity of Massachusetts, until the adoption of the constitution of 1780; " and is still of some influence in the construction of difficult topics." 4
The ministry of Mr. Allen in this country closed in 1651, when he returned to England. In January, 1657, he was chosen pastor of the Congregational Church in Norwich, where he continued until he died, September 21, 1673, aged sixty-five years. He was greatly beloved, and is characterized as " an able, practical preacher."
1 Church Records.
2 Mass. Archives.
3 Church Records.
4 Savage's Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 330.
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HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Mr. Allen was the author of several works, the titles of these are as follows : - An Invitation to Thirsty Sinners to come to their Saviour : The way of the Spirit in bringing Souls to Christ : The Glory of Christ set forth, with the Necessity of Faith; in several sermons. A Chain of Scripture Chronology, from the Creation to the Death of Christ, in seven periods,- which has been much commended.1 A letter written by him, relating to the preaching of the gospel among the Indians, may be found in Mas- sachusetts Historical Collections, vol. xxxiv. p. 194.2
1 Non-Conformist Memorial, vol. iii. p. 11.
2 Rev. Thomas Allen, (see p. 75,) probably married the widow of John Harvard. They had in this country, 1, Mary, born January 31, 1640 : 2, Sarah, born August 8, 1641, buried April 21, 1642 ; 3, Elizabeth, born and died, 1612 : 4, Mercy, born and died, 1646. They had also a
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