USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The history of the First church, Charlestown, in nine lectures, with notes > Part 12
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But there was no general religious movement in this vicinity until the autumn of 1740, when the Rev. George Whitefield arrived in Boston, being invited by some of the most eminent ministers and laymen. The week after his arrival, he preached in this place, and says, " A gracious melting was discernible through the whole congregation, and I perceived much freedom and sweetness in my own soul." And again he preached in this place a short time after (being accompanied by Mr. Cooper, of the Brattle street church, in Boston ) " with much demonstra- tion of the Spirit," and collected £156 for his orphan house-a sum of money which shows how powerfully his magic eloquence wrought upon the benevolent sympathies of the people.
Mr. Whitefield remained in this vicinity about a month, preaching to immense congregations, and with results apparently the most happy. After he left, the attention of the people continued, and for two years, the revival seemed to deepen and extend.
" In this year, 1741," says Mr. Prince of Boston, " the very face of the town seemed to be strangely altered. Some who had not been here since the fall before, have told me their great surprise at the change in the general look and carriage
1 For a full history of this religious movement, compare Pres. Edwards's " Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England ;" Dr. Chauncey's " Seasonable Thoughts;"' Tracy's " Great Awakening;" Bacon's " Historical Discourses," and Dutton's "Ilistory of ile North Church in New Haven."
2 Edwards's Narrative of Surprising Conversio.s.
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of people, as soon as they landed .- And one of our worthy gentlemen expressing his wonder at the remarkable change, informed me, that whereas he used with others on Saturday evenings to visit the taverns, in order to clear them of town inhabitants, they were wont to find many there, and meet with trouble to get them away; but now, having gone at those seasons again, he found them empty of all but lodgers." 1
About eighty persons appear to have been gathered into our church as fruits of this revival.
Had these been the only consequences of that excitement, we should have occasion for unmixed gratitude to God. But a wild fanaticism sprung up, to which even the sober and judi- cious for a time gave their influence, and which brought the genuine work of God into discredit with no small part of the community. The fervent piety and Christian zeal of Mr. Whitefield, are as unquestionable, as his eloquence and power over human hearts. But his career, for brilliancy and success, was so bewitching, that many lost sight of its erratic character, and seemed to forget that if it should be sanctioned as a pre- cedent, it would be the destruction of the regular ministry, and in the end productive of infinitely more evil than good.
The confusion and extravagance which followed in the train of the great revival of 1740, constitutes one of the saddest and yet one of the most instructive lessons of our religious history. There is a great law in the moral world, as in the natural, that action and re-action are equal. To whatever extent we go beyond the bounds of reason in our efforts to promote the cause of truth, to at least an equal extent will that cause recede, and error gain ground. Before the days of Whitefield, practical religion was, no doubt, at a low ebb; and when the awakening began, one extreme begat another-the new movement derived an impulse from the pre- vious neglect into which spiritual religion had fallen. But the final issues of that religious "awakening," like those of every other, have fully proved that true religion can never be per- manently advanced, except by the instrumentality of God's appointment-a regular and settled ministry. It cannot admit of a doubt, that, while Mr. Whitefield's apostolic labors were
1 Tracy's Great Awakening, p. 120.
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attended by many of the happiest results, they were likewise productive of no small amount of evil, by giving dignity to itinerants, who, as a class, always have been injurious to a community, in which the institutions of religion are estab- lished.
Mr. Whitefield was succeeded, as might have been anticipated, by men who had little else than their zeal to commend them ; who, mistaking a blind impulse for a monition of the Spirit of God, left their appropriate sphere of action, and taking upon themselves the supervision of the ministry, and the care of all the churches, proceeded to examine their brethren and fathers in the ministry, pronounce upon their character and usefulness, and thus trumpet their own censoriousness, while they spread division and alienation through the community. These cleri- cal itinerants were again, in their turn, imitated and followed by lay exhorters, who added ignorance to zeal, and rapidly brought their cause into contempt.
Of the former class, one of the most notorious was the Rev. James Davenport, of Southold, Long Island. Impelled by enthusiastic impulses, he left his own people unprovided for, and began to itinerate among the churches. He arrived at Charlestown, Friday evening, June 25th, 1742. Till this event, the revival of religion had happily advanced among the people. On the Lord's day he attended public worship, and communed with this church. From a manuscript journal, 1 1 learn that Mr. Prentice preached that morning from Matthew v. 6 : " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteous- ness, for they shall be filled." In the afternoon Mr. Abbot preached from 2 Corinthians v. 14, 15: "For the love of Christ constraineth us," &c. ; but Mr. Davenport " stayed at his lodg- ings from an apprehension of the ministers being unconverted, which greatly alarmed us," says Prince. The next day Mr. Davenport went to Boston, and the associated pastors of Boston and Charlestown being then assembled, they sent a communica- tion to him, and requested an interview, to which he readily consented. In the declaration which they published on Friday, they say that Mr. Davenport " appeared to them truly pious;"
1 By the kindness of G. A. Kettell, Esq., I have been put in possession of several little MS. voluines containing very full notes of the sermons preached in Charlestown for many successive years.
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but so misguided that he was acting to the great disservice of religion, and that they therefore judged it to be their duty not to invite him into their places of worship. But they availed themselves of this opportunity to repeat their "testimony to the great and glorious work of God among them."
This was signed by the two pastors of this church, and all the ministers of Boston, except Dr. Chauncey.
"By this declaration, however," says Mr. Prince, " many were offended ; and some days after, Mr. Davenport thought himself obliged to begin in his public exercises to declare against us also ; naming some as unconverted, representing the rest as Jehoshaphat in Ahab's army, and exhorting the people to separate from us: which so diverted the minds of many from being concerned about their own conversion, to think and dis- pute about the case of others, as not only seemed to put an awful stop to their awakenings, but on all sides to roil our passions and provoke the Holy Spirit, in a gradual and dreadful measure, to withdraw his influence." 1
A disputatious and censorious spirit prevailed ; and lamenta- ble was the state of things that ensued after the "great awakening."
So strongly were a large portion of the ministers excited against these recent disorders and extravagances, that the Gen- eral Convention of Congregational Ministers in Massachusetts, at their annual meeting, in May, 1743, bore testimony against several errors in doctrine, and disorders in practice ; among which were "itinerancy," lay preaching, censorious judgment of others, and enthusiastic emotions mistaken for the operations of the divine Spirit.
While all these errors no doubt existed, and as such deserved censure, still the action of the Convention gave offence to a large proportion of the ministers of the colony, because no recognition was made of God's grace in the recent glorious awakening.
Accordingly a meeting was called of such as were "persuaded there has of late been a happy revival of religion, through an extraordinary divine influence." About ninety pastors of churches responded to this call, and met in Boston, July 7, 1743.
> Christian Hist, II. 408, quoted by Tracy.
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They drew up a paper entitled "Testimony and Advice," which was a warm hearted and grateful acknowledgement of the grace of God in the late revival, and an earnest exhortation against the disorders which had been brought to the prejudice of a genuine work of God's grace. This paper was signed by most of the ministers in this vicinity, and a large number from different parts of New England. The two pastors of this church united with fourteen others in signing the Testimony, "for the substance of it, excepting that article of itinerancy, or min- isters and others intruding into other ministers' parishes without their consent, which great disorder they apprehended not sufficiently testified against therein."
In this " 'Testimony and Advice," they say-
" We, whose names are hereunto annexed, pastors of churches in New England, met together in Boston, July 7, 1743, think it our indispensable duty, (without judging or censuring such of our brethren as cannot at present see things in the same light with us,) in this open and conjunct manner to declare, to the glory of sovereign grace, our full persuasion, either from what we have seen ourselves, or received upon credible testimony, that there has been a happy and remarkable revival of religion in many parts of this land, through an uncommon divine influ- ence ; after a long time of great decay and deadness, and a sensible and very awful withdraw of the Holy Spirit from his sanctuary among us." And then after " freely declaring their thoughts as to this work of God," they say-
" And now, we desire to bow the knee in thanksgiving to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that our eyes have seen and our ears heard such things. And while these are our sentiments, we must necessarily be grieved at any accounts sent abroad, representing this work as all enthusiasm, delusion and disorder."
That there had been " irregularities, extravagances and dan- gerous mistakes," they admitted ; but they regarded them as spots in the sun.
Concerning the statements and views of the pastors attending this meeting, Mr. Prince says, that very few complained of errors or disorders in the parishes they belonged to ; and that others declared that where there had been some disorders at first, yet in a little while they saw and owned their mistakes,
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and that both errors and disorders were greatly magnified and multiplied, and existed to the greatest degree in those places where the ministers opposed the work.1
Indeed, it is manifest, that the great body of the pastors were disposed to make a just discrimination ; while they acknowl- edged with gratitude the fact of the late revival, they were opposed to irregular ministrations, and to the excesses with which some of the friends of the work were chargeable.
But besides this moderate class, there were others who were verging to opposite extremes.
There were on the one hand those hot-headed, but well-mean- ing men, who were so intent upon immediate results, as to be careless of the principles upon which they acted, and the con- sequences that were likely to ensue. Of these, the most promi- nent was the Rev. James Davenport. But it is due to this gentleman to say, that during a portion of his career, he was obviously insane, and that he was finally brought to perceive his errors, and publish an humble confession.
There were those on the other hand who confined their at- tention to the disorders and errors that were to be found in con- nection with the revival, and were unwilling to admit the exis- tence of a work of God, but pronounced it all a pernicious enthu- siasm. Of these, the principal leader and champion was Rev. Dr. Chauncy, one of the pastors of the First church, Boston. This gentleman wrote and published much in opposition to the religious movements of the day. While Edwards and other friends of the revival, from the warmth of their interest in it, gave too much encouragement to mere ebullitions of excitement, and spoke with indiscreet lenity of errors, which they ought pointedly to have condemned ; Dr. Chauncy was led by his disgust for the excesses of the day, to overlook and deny what was really a " great awakening " of our slumbering churches to truth and righteousness. It is melancholy as well as instructive, to observe the pro- gress of Dr. Chauncy's mind. Putting himself in the attitude of an opposer, and starting with premises which were in the main both scriptural and reasonable, he prosecuted the course he had taken, till he left the platform of the Fathers, and in
¿ Tracy's Great Awakening, chap. xvi.
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the advocacy of heresy, drew after him the venerable church of Wilson and Cotton, of which ours had been the twin sister, and with which, till then, it had been united in the same faith and hope.
The great lesson which the history of this period is fitted to teach, is, that the mistakes and indiscretions of the friends of truth, are of all the most hurtful, and instead of being palliated and forgiven because of their connection, they should on that very account be the more severely dealt with. One extreme begets another. And when our churches, awaken- ing from deep lethargy, pushed certain truths of our religion to an extreme which disturbed the analogy of faith, they paved the way for the introduction of fundamental error.
LECTURE VIII.
PSALM Ixxvii. 11-13.
I WILL REMEMBER THE WORKS OF THE LORD; SURELY I WILL REMEMBER TRY WONDERS OF OLD. I WILL MEDITATE ALSO OF ALL THY WORK, AND TALK OF THY DOINGS. THY WAY, O GOD, IS IN THE SANCTUARY : WHO IS SO GREAT A GOD AS OUR GOD !
IN the previous Lectures I have detained your attention upon memorials of the first century ;- of the last hundred years I shall speak more briefly-the facts are for the most part familiar, and of some of them the time has not come to write a full and impartial history. Besides this, during the last century religion occupied a smaller share of the public attention than previously ; ecclesiastical affairs receded from the field of public discussion, and political matters grew in importance and interest, until at length the energies of both clergy and people were absorbed in the struggle for national independence. I shall, therefore, pass very rapidly over our later history, and avoid for the most part those personal details which I have made it a point to collect in regard to the previous pastors.
After the great awakening which followed the visit of Whitefield to our country, and of which a narrative was given in the last Lecture, little or nothing occurred to diversify our religious history till the Revolution. The church remained under the joint ministry of Rev. Messrs. Abbot and Prentice, until the death of Mr. Abbot, which took place April 19, 1774, after a ministry of more than fifty years, a longer period of time than any other pastor ever served the church. He was honor- ably interred by the town, and the body was borne to the grave by Dr. Appleton, Mr. Storer, Dr. Mather, Dr. Byles, Mr. Pren-
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tice and Mr. Cook. He would have completed his seventy- second year the 15th of June following.1
Mr. Abbot was an orthodox and able minister, and main- tained a respectable standing among the clergy of his day. A number of his manuscript sermons are among us, and so far as I am enabled to judge, they are characterized by sound doctrine and ministerial faithfulness. Of his published produc- tions, I have perused only a sermon preached before " The Honorable Artillery Company, June 2, 1735."2 The text was taken from the triumphant song of Moses: "The Lord is a man of war." Exodus xv. 3. The discourse maintains the doctrine, that " The Lord God of Israel, is eminently a man of war." This startling proposition he carries out into the follow- ing particulars : " He is the chief and absolute monarch and commander of all the creatures which he has made; he dis- poses men's hearts to engage in wars and battles ; he musters the forces together, and leads them as their general into the field of battle; he instructs the people in the art and mystery of war, and endows them with martial skill and valor ; he hath the absolute disposals of all the weapons in the day of battle ; he causes it to continue or cease whenever he pleases, and over- rules the great events of it, and gives success and victory to whomsoever he pleases." From the character of God as thus described, he derived the following inferences and reflections : " We see something of the majesty and glory of the God of Israel, for which he is greatly to be feared and praised by his people ; we see hence the lawfulness of war and of the military art ; since God is styled a man of war, the office of a soldier should be esteemed an honorable profession and employment ; since the Holy God is styled a man of war, all soldiers and men of war should be holy ; we see hence where soldiers must repair for, and to whom they must give the glory of their military skill, valor and success in wars, viz., to the God of armies, who is eminently a man of war ; we learn that war is a most sore and desolating judgment inflicted by the Lord him- self." This representation of the divine character and of the moral nature of war, would not only be offensive to the advo-
1 Note 45.
2 Note 46.
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cates of what are called "peace principles ;" but would be objected to by all classes of Christians at the present day, as being alike untrue to the interpretation of Scripture and to the spirit of the gospel. There is no doubt that our fathers looked upon war with different feelings from what we are accustomed to do ; and that in this respect the spirit of Chris- tianity is more correctly apprehended now, than formerly ; yet the sermon of which I have just given a synopsis, can hardly be looked upon as a faithful index of the public sentiment at that day, or indeed of the author's own principles; it has a greater apparent than real contrariety to the reigning opinions of modern Christians. But if a choice must be made between two extremes, the error of our fathers is a less mischievous one than that modern extravagance which denies to individuals and communities the inalienable right of self-defence, dissolves the bands of government, and supplants the authority of law with idle talk of moral suasion.
The death of Mr. Abbot, left Mr. Prentice the sole pastor of the church, and dissolved the last colleague pastorship which has existed in this church. There is a tradition that an unhappy difference existed between these associate ministers ; and the story is probably not altogether without foundation; and this we may believe without charging these excellent men with any greater infirmities than belong to men generally. The occasion if not the cause for this, lay in the indeterminate and somewhat inconsistent relations of two pastors, sustaining the same relations to the same people. This infelicity did not originally attach to the associate ministry, as established by the puritan fathers of our churches. They, you will remem- ber, divided the duties of the ministry into two distinct classes, to correspond with the scriptural titles teacher and pastor, giving to one the business of doctrinal instruction, and to the other that of exhortation and pastoral visitation. The only practical objection that can be brought against this distinction, is the difficulty of maintaining it ;- after the death of the elder Shep- ard, it seems to have been lost sight of, and each minister was settled with the title of pastor, and ordained to the discharge of the same duties. Hence arose those practical difficulties which have resulted in the general discontinuance of a col-
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league ministry. No man, however excellent his disposition, or superior his qualifications, can work happily and well, unless his duties and his rights are clearly defined and carefully respected. The experience of mankind, in all the relations of life, has shown this to be the principal law upon which the harmony of men is dependent ; most of the bickerings and alienations of human life, arise in the beginning from a misap- prehension of common rights or mutual obligations ; and oftentimes the only method of composing these differences, notwithstanding the utmost good feeling on one or both sides, is that adopted by Abram, when he said unto Lot, " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee ? Separate thy- self, I pray thee, from me : if thou wilt take the left-hand, then 1 will go to the right; or, if thou depart to the right-hand, then I will go to the left." That must indeed be a perfect char- acter, which, in the continual friction of daily contact, does not present unevenness enough to fret and inflame some pecu- liarities of disposition in another. It is dangerous to interfere with the regular operation of the laws which the Creator has established. There can be no unity without some one acknowl- edged head ; and without unity there can be no harmony. God, therefore, has organized individuals into families, and families into communities. Some duties and rights belong ex- clusively to the individual ; others to the head of the family ; and others again to the head of the community. If these relations of society are disturbed, these rights and duties com- mingled, confusion and conflict will inevitably be the conse- quence, and that too, notwithstanding the utmost excellence of personal character. We should be inclined, therefore, to refer any differences that may have existed between Mr. Abbot and Mr. Prentice, to the confusion of their relations to the church ; and would not remember them to the prejudice of either, but forget them, or remember them only in connection with the important moral lesson they illustrate.
Mr. Abbot died, as the date shows, just before the outbreak of the Revolution. On the 17th of June, in the following year, the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the town reduced to ashes, and the people, with their surviving pastor, scattered to
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find temporary homes as they might, in the neighboring towns. I may not dwell upon this memorable scene ; it belongs rather to the civil than the ecclesiastical historian. It is impossible to portray, as without experience it is impossible to conceive, the dismay of the people, when flying from their homes, the sepul- chres of their fathers, and their ancient sanctuary, they looked behind them only to behold one wide conflagration spreading desolation from shore to shore. We cannot doubt that as the combatants on yonder hill, saw the flames shoot up and wind around the spire of our church, till, like a faithful sentinel, the first to meet the enemy, it fell first among the dwellings over which it had seemed to watch for three quarters of a century ; we cannot doubt that the sight sent a more desperate determi- nation to the hearts of the patriots who were immortalizing themselves and the soil on which they stood, by their deeds of heroic valor, and deepened, in the minds of the spectators on the heights of Boston, the conviction, that the last tie was sundered which bound the daughter to the mother country !
We cannot tell how much was lost in that conflagration- how much that would have cast light upon the antiquities of this church and town-how much that might have served to connect us with the pilgrim fathers; our communion plate, however, bearing in their inscriptions testimonies of the early piety of the church-our ancient and invaluable records, to- gether with those of the town, were by some trust-worthy hands preserved ; and that this much was accomplished amid the bewildering excitement and terrors of that day, cannot fail to be a matter of grateful surprise.
" At this time," say our church records, "upwards of three hundred and eighty dwelling houses and other buildings, valued at £156,960 1Ss. Sd., were consumed, and two thousand per- sons reduced from affluence and mediocrity, to the most aggra- vated exile."
'The Rev. Mr. Prentice retired to Cambridge, where he continued to reside during the remainder of his life. In a short time, however, the people began to return in considerable numbers, and the town to rise again from its ashes. After an interval of something like three years, the public worship of God, and the ordinances of religion, were re-established under
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the ministry of the now aged Prentice. "The first adminis- tration of the Lord's supper," says Mr. Prentice (as quoted by Dr. Morse in the church records) " in Charlestown, since the destruction by the cruelest British enemies, was November 8, 1778, with great solemnity and fulness of members beyond expectation."
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