USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The history of the First church, Charlestown, in nine lectures, with notes > Part 4
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1 Winthrop, I. 127.
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church of Christ, but in consequence of the place being remote from the ministers already settled, he chose to accept the call of this church.1
Mr. Symmes was born in Canterbury, England, April 5, 1599, His father, the Rev. William Symmes, was ordained in 1588, and exercised his ministry at a period in English history, when it exposed him to great suffering. His grand parents were persons of piety, and befriended the Protestant clergy during the Marian persecution. He received his education in the University of Cambridge, and gave evidence of piety at a very early period of life. After leaving the university, he was chosen in 1621 to be a lecturer at Atholines in London ; but being frequently harrassed by processes from the Bishops' courts, for his non-conformity to certain instituted ceremonies of public worship, he removed to Dunstable in 1625, and thence, his troubles still continuing, to this country.2 Johnson bestows marked praise upon his wife Sarah, "whose courage," he says, " exceeded her stature," being "indued with graces which fitted her for a wilderness condition," and " undergoing with much cheerfulness the difficulties of those times of straits."
Previously to the admission of Mr. Symmes, fifty-four had been received into the church, twenty-five males and twenty- nine females ; and sixteen had been baptized, nine males and seven females.
In about a year after the settlement of Mr. Symmes, the difficulty between the church and their pastor, Mr. James, came to a crisis, and resulted in his dismission.
A council was convened in March, 1636, composed princi- pally of ministers, who were sent by the churches as being best qualified to judge in the case of a fellow minister.
It seems that Mr. Symmes and many of the brethren had taken offence at certain remarks of the pastor, and had dealt with him both in public and private, but without receiving satisfaction. Upon the hearing of the whole case, the council judged that " the pastor (by his natural temper a melancholic man and subject to jealousies) had been to blame, for speaking as of certainty, that which he had only conceived out of
1 Johnson's Won. Work. Prov. ch. xxxii.
3 Mather's Mag. I. 414.
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jealousy ; and also that the rest had not been without all fault, for of the two witnesses produced against him, one was the accuser. They advised, therefore, that if the breach could not be healed, the " pastor and such as sided with him, should ask a dismission," and this was accordingly done.1
Although these facts compel us to believe that Mr. James was chiefly to blame, yet the distance of time at which we are removed from the transaction, should cause us to form as fa- vorable an opinion as the circumstances will allow.
After Mr. James's dismission, which may be dated on the 11th of March, 1636, he removed to New Haven, where he was employed in teaching, until 1642, when he joined Rev. Mr. Knowles of Watertown, and Mr. Thompson of Braintree, who were on their way to Virginia, in compliance with very urgent letters which had been received in Boston from that colony, requesting that able and pious ministers of the gospel might be sent to them. They were received very affectionately, and gladly heard by the people, but returned in about a year, in consequence of the interference of the government of the colony, who would allow none but such as were episcopally ordained, to exercise the functions of a Christian minister.2
This enterprise is interesting, as the first home missionary undertaking, and awakened deep interest at that time in Boston.
After this Mr. James returned to England, and was settled in the parish church of Needham, but resigned his charge August 24, 1662, because he could not in conscience approve of the ceremonies which were then imposed upon the ministers of the established church in conducting the public worship. After his ejectment he gathered a Congregational church, and had a pretty numerous society. He lived to a very advanced age, and was regarded as a very holy good man.
It is a painful proof of the extremes to which religious in- tolerance went in those days, that " when he died, the clergy- man who came in his place would not allow him to be buried in any other part of the church-yard, but that unconsecrated corner left for rogues and excommunicates ; though the clergy- man owed his benefice to the noble uprightness of Mr. James's heart." 3
1 Hubb. 190. Winthrop, I. 182. 2 Bacon's Ilist. Dis. 57. Hubb. 410. 3 Prince, 413.
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Some writers have confounded Mr. James with his son, Rev. Thomas James, who in 1648 was settled in East Hampton, Long Island, the first pastor of the church in that place, where he died, 1696.1 His grave is to this day an object of interest to strangers who visit the church-yard of that ancient town, from the peculiarity of its situation ; it is apart by itself, with its head-stone towards the east, while all the other dead are laid with theirs towards the west. He is said to have been a faithful and successful pastor, and that to fix his counsels in the hearts of his people, and remind them that they must meet him again, he gave it in charge to his friends on his death-bed, that they should bury him (on the east side of the grave-yard) with his head to the east, in the opposite direction from that in which his people were laid, that in the morning of the resurrection he might meet them face to face.2
For the purpose of exhibiting the state of religion at this period, it is necessary to give some account of the synod of 1637, the first convened in New England. The occasion of this assembly was the dissemination of certain religious tenets, regarded by our fathers as at variance with the gospel ; they originated with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who came to this country in the same ship with Rev. Zechariah Symmes.
" This gentlewoman," says Hubbard, " was of a nimble wit, voluble tongue, eminent knowledge in the Scriptures, of great charity, and notable helpfulness, especially in such occasions, where those of that sex stand in need of the mutual help of each other ; which was the opportunity usually taken for in- sinuating into the spiritual state of those she came amongst, telling them of the danger of being under a covenant of works; by which means the 'affections of those that labored under wants, and bodily infirmities, were notably prepared to become susceptible of any moral impressions; especially such as seemed to tend to the exalting of free grace, and depressing of the erea- ture and leaving all for Christ to do, and as when the devil attempted to ruin mankind by the insinuation of a new divinity, he began with Eve, and by her surprised her husband ; the same course is still found the most successful for that end : and was to admiration at this time verified in and about Boston. 7 3
1 Note 21. 2 New York Observer, vol. xx. 130.
3 Hubb. Hist. p. 283.
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It is not necessary, and would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible, to define precisely the points of difference between the Hutchinsonians and the great body of the people and clergy who opposed them ; they were, when theoretically considered, extremely subtile, to be apprehended by those only whose minds are well informed on theological subjects and trained to metaphysical distinctions. " "Tis believed," says Mather, "that multitudes of persons, who took in with both parties did never to their dying hour understand what their difference was : by the same token, in the height and heat of all the difference, when some ships were going from hence into England, Mr. Cotton in the whole congregation, advised the passengers to tell our countrymen at home, that all the strife here was about magnifying the grace of God; the one person seeking to ad- vance the grace of God within us, as to sanctification ; and another person seeking to advance the grace of God towards us, as to justification ; and Mr. Wilson stood up after him, de- claring on the other side, that he knew none that did not labor to advance the grace of God in both." 1
But notwithstanding the small difference of the opposing opinions, and " though the truth might easily have united both," there grew at length to be a wide difference in doctrine as well as spirit, some among the advocates of the new opinions falling into gross and destructive errors ; this however may have been the consequence of heated controversy and partizan warfare. It is incredible at the present day what intense ex- citement the new opinions created, and to what extent the civil as well as religious affairs of the colony were involved. "The expedition against the Pequot Indians was most shamefully discouraged, because the army was too much under a covenant of works ; and the magistrates began to be contemned, as being of a legal spirit, and having therewithal a tang of anti-Christ in them ; nor could the ordering of town lots or town rates, or any meetings whatsoever escape the confusions of this contro- versy." 2
At first the ministers, " awakened by these noises about the temple," had several meetings, but without effect in composing the differences ; and then the General Court called a synod of
1 Magnalia, II. 410.
2 Magnalia, II. 411.
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all the churches in the country. The synod met at Cambridge (then called Newtown) 30th of August, 1637, and was com- posed of about twenty-five ministers, together with delegates from the churches, and the magistrates of the colony. The moderators were the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, and Rev. Peter Bulkley, of Concord, " two as able and judicious divines as any the country afforded." 1
In the first place, the erroneous opinions that were prevailing among the people, were reported to the assembly by a com- mittee, and then were debated ; one day was given for the de- fendants, another for the opponents, after which the synod came to a result. Eighty-two erroneous opinions and expres- sions, which had been uttered in the country by several men at several times, were condemned. Some were offended at the number of the errors charged, and demanded who the authors were ; denying that such errors existed, and that to say so was a slander upon the country. But whatever may have been true in regard to the existence or prevalence of these errors, they were condemned by the synod unanimously.
After this a conference ensued between Mr. Cotton, teacher of the church in Boston, who was regarded as having encour- aged the Hutchinsonians, and the synod, for the purpose of establishing an agreement between this great divine and his brethren. Five questions were proposed to him, respecting " the order of things in our union with the Lord Jesus Christ ; the influence of our faith in the application of his righteousness; the use of our sanctification in evidencing our justification ; and the consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ by men, yet under a covenant of works." 2
" In the first handling of these questions," says Winthrop, "either party delivered their arguments in writing, which were read in the assembly, and after, the answers to them, which spent much time without any effect ; but after they came to open dispute, the questions were soon determined ; for so they came to understand each other better." 3
Before the synod broke up, on the last day of the session, the public exercising of women's gifts, in a set assembly, as had been the practice of Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been ac-
1 Hubbard, p. 999. 2 Magnalia, II. 441
3 Winthrop's Jour. I. 239.
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customed to meet sixty or more every week, to resolve ques- tions of doctrine and expound Scripture, was agreed to be disorderly and without rule.
It had also been the custom in many congregations for the ministers to allow their people to propose questions after sermon, and the practice having given rise to great abuses ; it was de- cided that a private member might ask a question publicly for information, yet this ought to be done wisely, sparingly, and with leave of the elders ; but for a member to reprove the doctrines which had been delivered, and reproach the elders, and that with bitterness, was utterly condemned.
In looking back upon the religious enthusiasm of this period, we may characterize the sentiments then embraced as belong- ing to the Antinomian school, and as quite similar both in their origin and moral influence, to the doctrines of modern perfec- tionism.
'The assembly broke up on the 22d September, and on the 26th Mr. Davenport, who had just then arrived from England, and was soon after settled in New Haven, preached by previous request of the assembly from Phil. iii. 16, " Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." He laid down in his sermon " the occasion of differences among Christians, declared the effect and fruit of the assembly, and with much wisdom and sound argument persuaded all to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." The result of the synod was in an unusual degree productive of peace in the churches and good order in the community.1
After the dismission of Mr. James, Mr. Symmes, who had been settled as teacher, became the pastor of the church. The office of teacher was vacant for about three years ; during a part of this time, however, the Rev. John Harvard supplied the pulpit as an assistant to Mr. Symmes.
This gentleman, whose munificent bequest to the cause of education has made him immortal by giving his name to the college at Cambridge, was admitted a member of this church with Anna Harvard his wife, 6th November, 1637, having on
1 For a more minute account of the synod, sce Winthrop's Journal, I. 237. Hubb. Hist. ch. xl. Mather's Mag. 11. 440. 1 Mass. Hist. Coll. Ix. 26.
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the 6th of August been admitted a townsman, " with promise of such accommodations as we best can."
The confidence that was reposed in him by the inhabitants, is shown by their vote of 26th of April, 1638, by which " Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. Zechariah Symmes, Mr. John Greene, Mr. John Harvard, Lieut. Ralph Sprague and William Learned, were desired to consider of something tending towards a body of laws." In the distribution of land and privileges of com- mons, he was among the most favored inhabitants. The house which he occupied was near the meeting-house on the side of this hill, and was subsequently owned by the Rev. Thomas Shepard.
Mr. Harvard received the degree of M. A. from Emanuel college, Cambridge,1 and died of consumption in this place, September 14, 1638. The sum which he bequeathed to the college was half his estate, and amounted probably to £779, 17s. 2d.
Johnson, who must have known him, as well as heard him preach, has composed a few verses upon him; the sentiment of which is, that " If Harvard could have been satisfied with the enjoyment of earthly riches, he would never have crossed the ocean; but the glory of Christ had so attracted him, that nothing would content his soul, short of an experience of his love. And then he calls upon him from the midst of his hea- venly joys to tell of his blessedness among the saints. He says that Harvard preached and prayed with tears, and evidences of strong affection, and that his own heart had been delighted with his ministrations. Scarce had he opened his eyes upon the churches of Christ here, before he was called to eye that Saviour face to face ; death drew him away from his scanty joys on earth, because the full joy for which he longed could only be found in heaven." 2
The precise spot of his interment is at present unknown; but the summit of the burying hill has been appropriated to a monument to his memory erected by the graduates of the col-
1 Harvard received his first degree, 1631, and became M. A. 1635. See Hist. Coll. 3d Series, vol. 7.
? Won. Work. Prov. B. ii. ch. xii.
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lege, to which he has given his name, and of which he is justly regarded as the founder.
After the death of Harvard, which took place on the 14th of September, 1638,1 Mr. Symmes was left without any stated helper in the work of the ministry, until about the year 1640, when the Rev. Thomas Allen was chosen and ordained teacher of this church.
This gentleman was born in the city of Norwich, England, in 1608, received his education in Caius college in Cambridge, and afterwards became minister of St. Edmund's in his native city ; he was silenced by Bishop Wren in 1636 for refusing to read the Book of Sports. He came to this country at the age of thirty, and became a member of this church December 22, 1639; the date of his ordination has not been preserved, but it was probably in this or the following month.2
The number admitted to the church during the preceding five years from December 22, 1634, when Mr. Symmes was ordained, to December 22, 1639, was one hundred and three, forty-five males and fifty-eight females ; the number baptized was seventy-three, thirty-six of whom were males.
During the period of ten or eleven years, in which Mr. Allen discharged the duties of teacher to the church, there is little certain information to be obtained respecting the state of reli- gion. The devoted Eliot was successfully prosecuting his labors among the Indians, and his mission must have been calling forth the prayers and benefactions of our fathers. And it was during this period, in 1648, that the churches were called together in their second general synod, to form their ecclesiastical constitution. When our fathers arrived here, their views of church government and order, were as indeter- minate, as their views in respect to civil government. There was no little diversity among them at first, and the unanimity of views that prevailed was chiefly owing to the powerful in- fluence of Mr. John Cotton, teacher of the church in Boston, whose book entitled "'The Book of the Keys," was by general consent adopted as a guide in regard to the order of the churches.
It seemed desirable that the views and practices of the
1 Note 13. 2 Note 22.
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churches should be harmonized, and a general directory formed for the guidance of the churches in future. Accordingly the General Court passed a bill convening a synod, by way of in- vitation to the churches, rather than express command. Letters were sent to the churches in the Plymouth and Connecticut jurisdictions, and on the 15th of August, 1648, the council as- sembled, and in less than fourteen days completed the work assigned them. For the present, instead of framing for them- selves a confession of faith, they received, for substance of doc- trine, the one which had then been recently set forth by the assembly of divines at Westminster.
" Our churches here," say they, " as, by the grace of Christ, we believe and profess the same doctrine of the truth of the gospel, which generally is received in all the reformed churches of Christ in Europe, so especially we desire not to vary from the doctrine of faith and truth held forth by the churches of our native country. Now by this our professed consent and free concurrence with them in all the doctrinals of religion, we hope it may appear to the world, that as we are a remnant of the people of the same nation with them, so we are professors of the same common faith, and fellow-heirs of the same com- mon salvation."
From the framers of the Westminster Confession, however, and the dominant party in England at that time, who were Presbyterians, they differed in regard to their principles of church order and discipline. The chief points of difference were these two; that none but visible saints should be received to the seals or sacraments ; and that the decisions of the pres- bytery or classis, should be only advisory, and not authoritative, the consent of the brotherhood being necessary to make an act binding.
The Cambridge Platform, in which this synod resulted, is a lucid exposition of the principles of primitive Congregationalism ; it became, so far as the independency of our churches would allow, the religious constitution of New England; and such in the main it still continues to be.1 In point of execution it is
1 See note 23. We are told by Mather that Mr. John Cotton, Mr. Richard Mather, and Mr. Ralph Partridge were appointed by the synod, each of them to draw up a Scriptural model of church government, and that it was chiefly out of Mr. Mather's model the Platform was taken. Mather, vol. I. p. 409, 11. 182.
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unrivalled ; no document of the kind can be produced exhibi- ting more discrimination, or greater precision and strength of style ; and the principles, by which it is characterized, are a perfect vindication of our fathers from the charge of a selfish and aspiring ambition. No unprejudiced man can read this constitution of our churches without being convinced that its framers were men of elevated principles, as free from self-seek- ing, as they were opposed to the exercise of arbitrary power in others.1 In the possession of solid learning and commanding abilities, they were too sure of possessing a better sort of influ- ence, to hanker after that which is attached to place, and con- ferred by human enactment.
As I remarked in the last Lecture, most of our churches were formerly supplied with a teacher, a pastor, and one or more ruling elders. In the Platform, it is maintained that "the office of pastor and teacher is distinct. The pastor's special work is, to attend to exhortation, and therein to administer a word of wisdom; the teacher is to attend to doctrine, and therein to administer a word of knowledge ; and either of them to administer the seals of the covenant." And then they assert that " forasmuch as both pastors and teachers are given by Christ for the perfecting of the saints, and edifying of his body," they should both be considered church officers, and not the pastor for the church, and the teacher for the schools. One of the most prominent peculiarities of our fathers was an attacli- ment to a learned ministry ; it was their aim-and in it they were successful-to have 'a scholar to their minister in every village ; ' it was not enough for them to be exhorted and excited by extempore appeals from the sacred desk ; they looked to their ministry also for sound instruction, and treas- ures that were new as well as old. The religion they professed was eminently a thoughtful one ;- its foundations were laid in a personal examination of the word of God ; its superstructure was raised of truth cemented with searching intelligence ;- a religion as unlike to that which usurps the name of orthodoxy
1 " The New England Platform of church discipline," says Dr. Eliot, " composed at the desire of the people by laymen and ministers, contains ideas as favorable to the wishes of the brethren as the pastors. In all disputes, where the ministers have been accused of making an improper use of their powers, or usurping authority, recourse has been had to their foun- dation of church government, and generally their opposers have been successful." 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. x. 2.
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in many places, as is the rank and colorless mushroom unlike the oak ! The spirit of Puritan piety was a spirit of thought, of investigation, of learning.
Accordingly, during the earlier periods of the history of this church, the congregation enjoyed the labors of two ministers, one of whom was to instruct them with thoroughly studied sermons on the great problems of human life and salvation, the other to exhort them and visit them as a pastor. They did not expect both of these services from one and the same indi- vidual. They respected themselves too much to believe that they could be instructed by the easy labors of a man who was spending the greater part of his time in visiting them during the week. Their teacher they expected to be a student, and to make him such, they asked but one discourse a-week from him, and released him from the burden of pastoral visitations. What a contrast to the conduct of some few in our churches at the present day! The duties of the teacher and pastor have been united; the labors that were anciently assigned to two educated men, are now imposed upon one, and this too when the number of souls committed to his charge is twice as great, when the number of services expected from him on the Sab- bath and during the week is much greater, and when he is under a moral necessity of devoting no small portion of his time and thoughts to one or more of the great benevolent asso- ciations of the age. Some, however, are found complaining of their minister, because his sermons are not replete with such instruction and eloquence as would require at least a weck's labor ; or else because his visits are not as frequent as they suppose his duty and his usefulness require.
In addition to the teacher and pastor, each church was also supplied with a ruling elder, who was commonly an educated man, but did not derive a salary from his office. His duty was " to join with the pastor and teacher in those acts of spiritual rule, which are distinct from the ministry of the word and sacraments committed to them."
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