USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The history of the First church, Charlestown, in nine lectures, with notes > Part 20
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I have no disposition to rake over the ashes of this ancient contro- versy, or unnecessarily to say one word in disparagement of Mr. Gould. But when his narrative is adopted as unmingled truth, as it has been by Backus and Benedict, who have incorporated it into their respective histories, notwithstanding its contrariety to the official records of the church, and apparently without an effort to sift the evi- dence on both sides, it is sufficiently obvious that great injustice is done to the memory of our fathers. Whoever will take the pains to look into Willard's Reply to Russell's Narrative, will find that the statements made by Mr. Gould and reiterated by writers of that denom- ination since, were from the first contradicted. Increase Mather, in the preliminary address to the Reader, says he verily believes that the
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Anabaptists, by their fallacious narrative, have offended God, inasmuch as the things they have misrepresented were not done afar off, but at home, where right information was easy to be had ; if they had been willing to have known and that others should know the truth. " As for those," he says, " of the Antipedobaptistical persuasion, who differ from us only in that particular, I would speak to them as unto breth- ren, whom (their error-for so I believe it is-notwithstanding) I love, and would bear with, and exercise the same indulgence and compas- sion towards them, as I would have others do to me, who feel myself compassed with infirmities. I have been a poor laborer in the Lord's vineyard, in this place, upwards of twenty years ; and it is more than I know, if, in all that time, any of those that scruple infant baptism, have met with molestation from the magistrate merely on account of their opinion." " I truly profess," he says, " that if any men, either of the Presbyterian or Congregational (or never so much of my) per- suasion, in matters referring to church discipline, should behave themselves as the Anabaptists in Boston, in New England, have done, I think they would have deserved far greater punishment than any thing that to this day hath been inflicted upon them."
And in regard to the particular cases of Gould and Osborn, Mr. Willard, at that time pastor of the Old South Church, says, in reply- ing to Russell's Narrative, that " the narrative and truth are strangers, whereof there is sufficient testimony to be found in the records of the church at Charlestown, (whereof they were members ;) and there are many faithful witnesses yet alive-who were present at these transac- tions, and can say if these things be not so-which ought to outweigh the story of a prejudiced person, who hath all by hearsay, whose very business is to palliate and lick over matters to shape them to his own turn." And then he proceeds to mention the particulars in which the Narrative had mis-stated the reasons for Mr. Gould's discipline and excommunication. He asserts that he was admonished, not for with- holding his child from baptism, or because he could not be convinced of error, but for speaking contemptuously of the ordinance, and unbe- coming conduct in the time of administration, by which, he acknowl- edged before the congregation he designed to cast disrespect upon it. " Now let the Anabaptists themselves judge, whether there be not a vast difference, between doubting about an ordinance, and professedly vilifying of it by unhandsome words and carriages ; and whether they will bear with any member of theirs, that will so contemn any of those things which are to them sacred, and acknowledged as Christ's institutions."
But I do not intend to go into the merits of this controversy. My only design has been to do justice to the church and its pastors, in opposition to those partizan representations, which by adopting with- out examination the statement of one of the parties, throws all the blame upon the other.1
¿ Backus's Hist. of the Baptists, chap. 6. Willard's Ne Sutor ultra Crepidam.
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NOTE 26,1 page 62.
OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
THE Old South Church was not only organized in Charlestown, bnt received its most important member from this church-the Rev. Thomas Thatcher, who was elected and ordained their first pastor. Hle was admitted to this church, October 24, 1669, by a letter of dis- mission from the First Church in Boston, given October 9. The original letter of this church, dismissing and recommending Mr. Thatcher to the Old South Church, is preserved among the papers of that church.
NOTE 27, page 66.
FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY.
IMMEDIATELY after the name of Mr. Symmes, in the register of deaths, is that of Mr. Francis Willoughby, who died April 4, 1671. His character and services demand a passing notice. He was Deputy Governor of the colony from 1665 to 1671. He left an estate of £4,050. His wife afterwards married Capt. Lawrence Hammond, who was likewise a distinguished citizen and leading member of the church.
There is a curious old manuscript volume, belonging to the Anti- quarian Society at Worcester, containing a journal written in a very difficult cypher, which appears from certain internal evidences, to have been written by Gov. Willoughby. I found a large loose sheet, folded between the pages of the journal, in the hand-writing of Thomas Shepard the 2d, and seeming to be a key, in part, to the cypher. But notwithstanding the aid thus afforded, and the assistance of skilful friends, I have been unable to decypher it, or even judge of the com- parative value of its contents. It is entitled " A continuation of my daily observation," and comprises a period of time from 1. 9mo. 1650, to 28. 10mo. 1651. It was certainly written in Charlestown, for on the first page is a brief account, not written in cypher, of a fire, which consumed eleven or twelve houses, 21. 9mo. 1650. In an ancient interleaved almanac, in the possession of Rev. Mr. Sewall of Burling- ton, is a notice of this fire, under the same date, as happening in Charlestown, proving conclusively that the journal was written in Charlestown. And no doubt this is the calamity to which Johnson alludes in his " Wonder Working Providence," and which he describes as a " terrible fire which happened in Charles-Town, in the depth of Winter, 1650, by a violent wind blown from one house to another, to the consuming of the fairest houses in the Town." ?
1 Misprinted 28.
2 2 Hist. Coll. viii. 24.
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NOTE 28, page 72.
MR. SYMMES.
FROM the "Gleanings" by Mr. Savage, in his late visit to England, we derive the following record of the baptism of children born to Mr. Symmes, while he was rector of Dunstable, which was from September, 1625 to 1633.
William, baptized
January 10, 1626.
Marie, .
April 16, 1628.
Elizabeth, .
January 1, 1629.
Huldah,
March 18, 1630.
Hannah,
August 22, 1632.
Rebekah,
February 12, 1633.
The following baptisms are recorded upon our church books :
Ruth, . baptized
October 25, 1635.
Zachary, . ¥
January 12, 1638.
Timothy, ¥
May 12, 1640.
Deborah,
September 6, 1642.
This is exactly the number of the children of Mr. Symmes, when Johnson wrote the following eulogy on his wife.
" Among all the godly women that came through the perilous seas to war their warfare, the wife of this zealous teacher, Mrs. Sarah Symmes, shall not be omitted, nor any other, but to avoid tediousness; the virtuous woman, endued by Christ, with graces fit for a wilderness condition-her courage exceeding her stature-with much cheerful- ness did undergo all the difficulties of these times of straits, her God through faith in Christ, supplying all wants with great industry, nur- turing up her young children in the fear of the Lord-their number being ten, both sons and daughters, a certain sign of the Lord's intent to people this vast wilderness. God grant that they may be valiant in faith against sin, Satan, and all the enemies of Christ's kingdom, follow- ing the example of their father and grandfather, who have both suffered for the same, in remembrance of whom these following lines are placed :
"Come, Zachary, thou must re-edify Christ's churches in this desert land of his, With Moses' zeal, stamp'd unto dust, defy All crooked ways that Christ's true worship miss. With Spirit's sword, and armor girt about, Thou layest on load proud Prelate's crown to crack,
And wilt not suffer wolves thy flock to rout, Tho' close they creep, with sheep skins on their back. Thy father's spirit doubled is upon Thee, Symmes-then war, thy father fighting died ; In prayer, then, prove thou like champion, Hold out till death, and Christ will crown provide."
Mather says that his epitaph "mentions his having lived forty-nine years seven months with his virtuous consort, by whom he had thirteen children, five sons and eight daughters."
HIe also preserves the following " passage, written by Mr. William Symmes, the father of our Zechariah, in a book which was made by a
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godly preacher, that was hid in the house of Mr. William Symmes, the father of William, from the rage of the Marian persecution."
: """ I note it as a special mercy of God,' (he writes in a leaf of that book,) ' that both my father and mother were favorers of the gospel, and hated idolatry under Queen Mary's persecution. I came to this book by this means : going to Sandwich in Kent, to preach, the first or second year after I was ordained a minister, Anno 1587 or 88, and preaching in St. Mary's, where Mr. Pawson, an ancient godly preacher, was minister, who knew my parents well, and me too, at school; he, after I had finished my sermons, came and brought me this book for a present, acquainting me with the above-mentioned circumstances;' and then he adds, ' I charge my sons Zechariah and William, before Him that shall judge the quick and the dead, that you never defile your- selves with any idolatry or superstition whatsoever, but learn your religion out of God's holy word, and worship God, as he himself hath prescribed, and not after the devices and traditions of men. Scripsi, December 6, 1602.'"
Of the children of Mr. Symmes, Mary was married to Capt. Thomas Savage, 15th 7mo. 1652. Elizabeth married Hezekiah Usher, and another daughter married Samuel Hough.
Zechariah graduated at Harvard College, 1657, and married Susan- na Graves, of this town, November 18, 1669, and the birth and bap- tism of their daughter Katharine, is recorded March 29, and April 2, 1676. He was ordained December 27, 1682, the first minister of Bradford, where he had previously preached fourteen years. He died there 1708, aged seventy-one.
His son, Rev. Thomas Symmes, was born February 1, 1678, gradu- ated at Harvard College, 1698, and was ordained in 1702, the first minister of Boxford. But being dismissed in 1708, he was installed the same year in Bradford, successor to his father, and died October 6, 1725, aged forty-eight. From an interesting and valuable memoir of him, by Rev. Jolin Brown, of Ilaverhill, published in 1726, we learn that he was distinguished for his eloquence as a preacher, his piety as a Christian, and faithfulness as a pastor. Ile received his preparatory education in the grammar-school, at Charlestown, under the instruction of the famous master Emerson, who was afterwards school-master at Salem, where he died. Ile was sustained at college by the help of benefactors, and distinguished himself by his scholar- ship and real piety. He was married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth Blowers, of Cambridge; his second, Hannah, daughter of Rev. John Pike, of Dover ; and his third, Mrs. Eleanor, widow of Eliezer Moody, of Dedham, and daughter of Dr. Benjamin Thomp- son, of Braintree, who survived him. He left eight children, the eldest of whom, Thomas, resided in Charlestown, and became a dea- con in the church. I have been quite desirous to make some extracts from his memoir, especially from the farewell advice he composed and left for his children, and in which he alludes very feelingly to the bap- tismal covenant, in which he had given them to God. But I must refer to the "plain memorative account " of him, annexed to the sermon preached on occasion of his death.1
1 See also Gage's Ilist. of Rowley.
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NOTE 29, page 72.
DANIEL RUSSELL.
AN elegy, composed on the death of this gentleman, is now in pos- session of the Rev. Charles Lowell, D. D., of Boston. Some further notices respecting him, and the distinguished family to which he belonged, will be given in note 57.
NOTE 30, page 72.
SEATING THE MEETING-HOUSE.
" FEBRUARY 1, 1675. Agreed with John Fosdick and Nathaniel Frothingham, to provide all timber, and build three galleries, one in the front, and one on each side in the meeting-house, and to make two seats, one before the other, in the galleries, and to make a pair of stairs to each gallery, and to alter the lower stairs going up to the men's gal- leries, so as may be most convenient for an outlet ; the side galleries to run from the front gallery home to the opposite wall; the town to find boards and nails, and to pay for the said work, when completely finished, £46 in town pay ; and if it shall appear a hard bargain, twenty shillings more.
Attest, L. HAMMOND, Recorder."
The business of assigning seats to the people, belonged formerly to the selectmen of the town. Frequent orders may be met with on the town books for seating individuals. The men and women appear to have sat on different sides of the house. The boys had one of the galleries assigned to them, and constituted a part of the congregation which the fathers of the town found it difficult to manage. The fol- lowing extract exhibits one of the expedients they devised.
"At a meeting of the selectmen, March 23, 1674. The persons hereinafter mentioned, are appointed to look after the boys, and keep them in order in the meeting-house, upon the Sabbath and lecture days, for the year ensuing, twenty-four persons being ordered to sit two for each month ; viz.,
Month 1. John Larkin, Thomas Larkin ;
2. Gyles Fyfield, Luke Perkins;
3. Thomas Adams, Richard Adams;
4. John Knight, Jr., Thomas Brigden ;
5. John Cutler, Jr., John Dowse ;
66 6. Samuel Dowse, Tymothy Cutler ;
Month 7. William Everton, Thomas Hett ;
8. John Bennet, John Goodwin ;
9. Nathaniel Kettle, Henry Balcom ;
10. Richard Tayler, Robert Barret ;
" 11. Joseph Frost, John Simson ;
" 12. Jonathan Simson, Nathaniel Hutchinson.
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"To the respective persons above written:
"GENTLEMEN-The sense of the necessity of the inspection and government of youth, at times of public worshipping of God in our meeting-house, and finding that the way taken to that end the last year, through the care and diligence of the persons attending that work, did very much reach our end propounded, we are encouraged to proceed the same way this year also, and accordingly request you respectively to take your turns in attending the said work, according to the method hereafter propounded, in which we do desire you to do your utmost, that all children and youth that are under age, may be as much within your inspection as the convenience of seats will admit of ; not permitting them to scatter up and down in obscure places, where they may be from under a due observance, wherein, if need be, you shall have the assistance of the constable. Your faithful attend- ance hereunto will doubtless be a service acceptable to God and your brethren, remembering that to be a door-keeper in the house of God, was of high esteem with holy David. We further desire your care to prevent the disorderly running out of youth in time of public worship. " By order of selectmen,
" LAWR. HAMMOND, Recorder."
This practice was continued until 1682, when Luke Perkins was appointed to attend to this business, for which he was to receive &3 per annum. The experience, however, of both ancient and modern times, has shown that children ought not to be separated from their parents, but that families ought to sit together in the house of God.
NOTE 31, page 73.
TOLERATION.
IT has been very common to reproach our fathers as having exhibited the spirit of intolerance and persecution in the worst forms. They have been represented as narrow-minded bigots in their attachment to their own sentiments, and fierce persecutors in their indiscriminate hatred to all who differed in any measure from them. No candid per- son, acquainted with the character of the Puritans and with the times in which they lived, will hesitate to pronounce this representation false and slanderous. They were the pioneer reformers of the age in which they lived ; and if they failed to carry out their principles consistently, they only fell, in these respects, into the opinions that reigned univer- sally around them. Those who came after them, and took their prin- ciples for granted, were able, in the light of their experience, to see clearly the results to which those principles led. The fathers of New England effected a wider separation between the church and the state than had ever existed before-erected a wider platform of religious freedom than the laws of any other people allowed ; and if they did not go to the full extent of what we now regard as just and expe- dient, we convict ourselves of bigotry, if we severely censure them.
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When we consider the state of christendom at that time, and reflect at what cost they had planted themselves here to establish their own prin- ciples of church order, and how dangerous opposition and dissent were to their institutions in their feeble beginnings, we may well won- der that they practiced as much toleration as they did. The Rev. Mr. Albro, in his eloquent and ingenious " Discourse on the Fathers of New England," delivered December 22d, 1844, maintains that no instance of persecution, properly so called, can be justly imputed to them. Whether we are prepared to admit this or not, we shall be persuaded, upon investigation, that justice has not been done to either the principles or the conduct of our fathers in respect of toleration. We do not believe that they are justly chargeable with a persecuting, intolerant spirit ; and we do not claim for them on the other hand, the merit of having discovered and carried out consistently, the principle of religious toleration. No one body of men are entitled to this praise ; but we believe that among those who have contributed to this great result, no class of men bore a more honorable and efficient part than our fathers.
The following extracts from several election sermons, will exhibit the light in which this doctrine was held by the fathers. The first is from Mr. Shepard's sermon, from which I have made extracts in the Lecture ; the second is from Rev. John Higginson's election sermon of 1663; and the last from Rev. W. Stoughton's, of 1668.
" Let the magistrate's coercive power in matters of religion be still asserted, seeing he is one who is bound to God, more than any other men, to cherish his true religion; and as the good kings of Judah, commended for it in Scripture, Asa, Jehosaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, &c., therefore are they to be principal instruments in furthering the reformation aforesaid ; and I would leave it with any godly, sober Christian to consider and answer, whether the interest of religion hath not as good a title and plea for the magistrate's protection, as [not any irreligion which self-conceit and humor hath wedded any unto, but] any worldly interest whatsoever ? and how woful would the state of things soon be among us, if men might have liberty without control, to pro- fess, or preach, or print, or publish what they list, tending to the seduction of others ! and though the enemy soweth tares, which cannot be many times plucked up without danger to the wheat, and are there- fore let alone, yet would I hope none of the Lord's husbandmen will be so foolish as to sow tares, or plead for the sowing of them; I mean in the way of the toleration aforesaid, when as it may be prevented, the light of nature and right reason would cry out against such a thing." 1
" The cause of God and his people among us is not a toleration of all religions, or of the heresies and idolatries of the age we live in. I say, not a toleration of these so far as we have liberty and power for to help it. How inconsistent would such a toleration be with the love of the one true religion revealed in the word of God ? would not such a . state be guilty of having other gods, where such a toleration is ? is not
1 Shepard's Election Sermon, p. 38.
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the end of civil authority, that men may live a quiet and peaceable life, in godliness as well as honesty? but not in the ways of ungodliness, no more than in the ways of dishonesty ; in a word, the gospel of Jesus Christ hath a right paramount, all rights in the world; it hath a divine and supreme right to be received in every nation, and the knee of ma- gistracy is to bow at the name of Jesus. This right carries liberty along with it, for all such as profess the gospel, to walk according to the faith and order of the gospel. That which is contrary to the gospel, hath no right, and therefore should have no liberty. But the laws which have been made for the civil government here, with respect unto religion, whereby you have declared your professed subjection to the gospel, and your non-toleration of that which is contrary thereunto ; this will be a name and a glory to New England so long as the sun and moon endure." 1
" Circumstantial diferences ought not to breed substantial divisions ; that would be a monstrous and gigantine birth. It is a wrong done to the Christian naine, so much as to question, whether that diversity of apprehension in lesser and dubious matters amongst the Lord's people, ought to be borne withall, which can and doth suffer a regulation, in order to the unity and peace of the whole. But yet, the true Chris- tian, gospel liberty, was never unto this day a womb big with licen- tiousness. And here there is one position, that methinks can never be denied by any that have but the common principles of reason entire ; viz., ' That no persuasion or practice can ever, in the conscience of the contrary-minded, have a good right to public liberty and counte- nance, which, being thoroughly attended to, doth indeed tend to the undermining, and so in the issue, to the overthrow of the state of these churches, in that wherein it is of God, and hath been largely and plentifully owned by him. And of this case, and the application thereof, those who are in authority may, and ought to judge. And further, who can therefore think it much, if such opinions (as are not only in themselves, but even in the minds of those who hold them, un- churching to so many precious societies of Christ, I mean as to their visible church state) be very harsh and unpleasant, and the uncontrolled scope of them much more distasteful ? Certainly, a weaker body can- not, ought not to do that, or suffer that upon itself, or in itself, upon the account of charity to another, which a stronger body may, and in some cases may be bound to do or suffer." ?
1 Rev. John Higginson's Election Sermon, May 27, 1663.
? Rev. W. Stoughton's Election Sermon, April 29, 1668.
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NOTE 32, page 76.
EPITAPH OF THOMAS SHEPARD.
THE following Latin epitaph, Mather says, was engraved on Shep- ard's tomb-stone :
D. O. M. S. Repositæ sunt hic Reliquia Thoma Shepardi, Viri Sanctissimi, Eruditione, virtute, omnigenâ, moribusq. suavissimis ornatissimi ; Theologi Consultissimi, Concionatoris Eximii : Qui Filius fuit Thomæe Shepardi Clarissimus, Memoratissimi Pastoris olim Ecclesia Cantabrigiensis ; Et Ecclesia Caroliensi Presbyter docens ; Fide ac vita verus Episcopus : Optimè de Re literaria Meritus : Quâ Curator Collegii Harvardini vigilantissimus ; Qua Municipii Academici Socius Primarius. Τα του Ιησού Χριστού, ού τα εαυτού Ζητων. In D. Jesu placidè obdormivit, Anno 1677, Dec. 22. Atatis suæ 43. Totius Nov-anglia Lachrymis Defletus ; Usq ; et Usq ; Deflendus.
NOTE 33, page 78. OAKES'S ELEGY.
As a further testimonial of Mr. Shepard's worth of character, and Mr. Oakes's affection for his friend, I have transcribed a considerable part of the elegy written by Mr. Oakes, on occasion of his friend's death. "The elegy," says Dr. Holmes,1 " rises, in my judgment, far above the poetry of his day. It is of Pindaric measure, and is plain- tive, pathetic, and full of imagery."
" An elegy upon that reverend, learned, eminently pious, and singu- larly accomplished divine, my ever honored brother, Mr. Thomas Shepard, the late faithful and worthy teacher of the church of Christ, at Charlestown, in New England, who finished his course on earth, and went to receive his crown, December 22, 1677, in the forty-third year of his age .- In fifty-two stanzas.
I.
Oh! that I were a poet now in grain ! How would I invocate the muses all To deign their presence, lend their flowing vein, And help to grace dear Shepard's funeral ! How would I paint our griefs, and succors borrow From art and fancy, to limn out our sorrow !
1 ] Hist Coll. vii. 53.
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XXII.
Art, Nature, Grace, in him were all combined To show the world a matchless Paragon, In whom of radiant virtues no less shined, Than a whole constellation ; but he's gone ! He's gone, alas ! down in the dust must lie As much of this rare person as could die.
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