USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 31
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
day of private prayer and humiliation in acknowledgment of his guilt and in supplication for mercy. The testimony of the faithful historian of New England 1 may well close this brief reference to these sad events, and be a witness to the religious training of the people: "Nor is it possible to avoid considering of what stuff some men and women of that stock were made, when twenty of them went to the gallows rather than soil their consciences by the lie of a confession."
The new charter of this province contained provisions which immediately affected the religious condition of Boston. The religious element was separated from the government, as a recognized feature. Membership in a church was not to be required of the voter. A property qualification took the place of the ecclesiastical. Some change in this direction was inevitable. But the religious character and purposes of the founders of the colony, and their not unwarranted judgment touching the sort of men whom the colony needed for its rulers, should remove from their arrange- ment of the suffrage any suspicion of narrowness. The new charter granted to all Protestants liberty of conscience and liberty of worship. The gover- nor had authority to reject bills passed by the Council and representatives, and the king reserved to himself the right to revise and repeal the laws; and all laws approved by the governor were to be reported to him. The king gave his sanction to an act providing for the strict observance of the Lord's day. All labor and amusements on that day were forbidden, except works of necessity and mercy. The domestic and public authorities were to see that the law was observed in all its minute particulars. This would be in accord with the principles of the founders of the province. So also would be the act which provided for the settlement and support of ministers, and secured to each town " an able, learned, and orthodox minister or ministers," who should be " suitably encouraged and sufficiently supported and main- tained by the inhabitants of such town." It was also in keeping with the principles of the first men who were here that education should be en- couraged, and enlarged arrangements made to this end. The new governor was a man from whom the ministers and churches might expect much. He was born on the banks of the Kennebec, and had become a member of the North Church in Boston. It was by the nomination of Increase Mather that he was appointed to the chief magistracy of Massachusetts Bay. Naturally, therefore, he would be somewhat under the influence of the Mathers, which meant that Puritan traditions and judgment would be favor- ably regarded, and in a good degree preserved. Sir William Phips is described as an honest and pious man, enterprising and industrious, benevolent and friendly; yet not sufficiently learned, or wise, or patient for the head of a province in a difficult time. His official career was brief, as he died in London in February, 1695, at the age of forty-four.2
1 Palfrey, Compendious History of New Eng- land, p. 124. [The story is told with more par- ticulars in Mr. Poole's chapter in this vol .- ED.]
2 [Compare Dr. Ellis's account of Phips in his chapter in this volume, and a brief notice of him in Dr. Hale's chapter. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
By the change of the charter the Quakers received an enlargement of their liberty, and were placed more nearly on an equality with other Christian denominations. The days of their persecution were over before this, but they were not highly esteemed. Thomas Chalkley, a prominent Quaker, who visited Boston in 1693, complains bitterly of the unkind manner in which he was received, and the harsh wishes which were ex- pressed regarding himself and his associates. For this there may have been a personal or temporary reason. But while they held their meetings they had no regular place of worship. Finding that they were to have a more generous recognition, they prepared for themselves a permanent place in which to meet.
In 1694 William Mumford, one of the Society, a stone-cutter by trade, bought a large lot of land in "Brattle Close or Pasture," on which the Quincy House now stands, at the corner of Brattle Street and Brattle Square. Upon this land he built a brick meeting-house, twenty-four by twenty feet, which was the first brick meeting-house in the town.1 Mr. Mumford conveyed a portion of his land to trustees who resided in different places, to be held by them " for the service and worship of Almighty God by the society or community of People called Quakers, at all and every time and times forever hereafter, when and as often as need shall require, and to and for none other use, intent, or purpose whatsoever." It was not many years, however, before it was found desirable to have a different place for their services, and Mr. Mumford purchased another lot for the Society. The changes in their outward estate under the provincial government were in keeping with those which marked their intercourse with their neighbors.
Various events of more or less consequence fell into the year 1695. On April 29, after thunder and lightning, there was an extraordinary storm of hail, so that the ground was made white, as if by fallen blossoms, and large quantities of window-glass were broken. Mr. Cotton Mather dined that day with Judge Sewall, whose new house suffered severely, and was with him in the judge's new kitchen when this occurred. "He had just been mentioning that more Ministers' Houses than others, proportionably, had been smitten with Lightening; enquiring what the meaning of God should be in it. . . . I got Mr. Mather to pray with us after this awfull Providence. He told God He had broken the brittle part of our house, and prayd that we might be ready for the time when our Clay-Tabernacles should be broken." In the same year there was great indignation against Thomas Maule, a Quaker, who is best known for his place in the House of the Seven Gables. In 1694 he published a large Pamphlet with the title Truth Held Forth and Maintained, etc. The House of Representatives took the matter up in 1695, and voted that the book was " stuff'd with many notori- ous and pernicious Lies and Scandals, not only against particular and privat persons, but also against the Government, Churches, and Ministry; and
1 [See Vol. I. 195, and the history of this and Shurtleff, Desc. of Boston, ch. xv. Compare also their later meeting-house and burial-ground in the Introduction to this volume. - ED.]
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
against those Worthies who first followed Christ into these uttermost ends of the Earth. . .. As also many corrupt Expressions in point of Doctrine, perverting the Scriptures, and subverting the True Christian Religion." The Representatives prayed that the premises might be inquired into, " and some suitable Testimony borne against the Author and his Evil Work." Maule was indicted and tried before the Superior Court at Salem in 1696, and was acquitted by the jury. Afterwards he produced another treatise, to which he gave the significant name of Persecutors Mauled with their own Weapons.
In this year, 1695, the ministers of Boston were considerably exercised upon the question of marriage, more particularly of the intermarriage of persons related to one another. In connection with several neighboring ministers they published a short treatise upon the subject. Possibly some special case of recent occurrence moved them to this action. The conclu- sion of their arguments and citations was that "it is unlawful, incestuous, and an heinous sin in the sight of God " to enter upon marriages of this character. Mr. Allen, the Mathers, and Mr. Willard, joined with others in this declaration. At the May session of the General Court a law was passed that no persons should be allowed to marry where there was " an affinity between them as declared in the Scriptures." The preface was as follows : " Although this Court doth not take in hand to determine what is the whole breadth of the divine commandment respecting unlawful marriages, yet for preventing that abominable dishonesty and confusion which might otherwise happen, - Be it enacted, &c."
In the First Church in Boston, Rev. John Bailey was associated with Rev. Mr. Allen, from July 17, 1693, until his death, Dec. 12, 1697. He was one of the ministers driven from England for nonconformity. He was a faithful and popular preacher, conscientious and sensitive, diligent and exemplary. He was accustomed to say: "Three things I desire to get: patience under the calamities of life; impatience under its moral infirmities; and earnest longings for the life to come." One of his frequent petitions has been pre- served : "May we not be of the number of them who live without love, speak without feeling, and act without life." There was a great assembly on the very cold day of his funeral, when Mr. Cotton Mather preached a suit- able discourse, from Psalm xxxi. 5. On the 8th of September, 1696, Mr. Benjamin Wadsworth became an associate pastor of the First Church, and " was inducted by the neighboring ministers
with a formality hitherto unpractised in the land." Mr. Allen gave the charge and Mr.
Benjamin Wadsworth
Increase Mather the right hand of fellowship: "Spake notably of some young men who had apostatized from New England principles, contrary to the Light of their education ; was glad that he was of another spirit." Mr. Willard joined in the laying-on of hands. Mr. Wadsworth was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1669, graduated at Harvard College in 1690, and after studying theology preached for the First Church for nearly three
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
years before he was formally installed as pastor. During the last year of Mr. Bailey's life the First Church had, therefore, three ministers. The senior pastor, the Rev. James Allen, was of English birth, and was sixty-four years old at the time of Mr. Wadsworth's settlement. He lived
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MINISTERS OF THE PROVINCE, AS SIGNING IN AN ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCIL, HELD AT BOSTON, MAY 27, 1697.
in a manner befitting the minister of the First Church in Boston. He main- tained the style of a gentleman, built himself a stone house, had a very handsome estate, and used it with hospitality. He was the steady friend of ecclesiastical order, but held the authority of Christ above any human
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
. decrees, and asserted the freedom of his own judgment and conscience, whose dictates he was ready to obey. He would shield the church both against any injustice within it, and any encroachments upon it. The three Boston churches were under the care of strong men at this time, - Allen, Wadsworth, the Mathers, and Willard. They were men to be felt, - in different ways, indeed, but for one end.
Sir William Phips was succeeded in the government of the province by Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, of the Irish peerage. This was the first time that Massachusetts had a governor who was not either one of the orig- inal settlers, or a native of the country. The new governor arrived in this country in April, 1698. From two Englishmen who visited Boston about this time we get glimpses of the town and its people. John Dunton was here in 1686, and in 1705 published in London a book which he named his Life and Errors. He seems to have been partially insane, but his book is amusing and interesting. He met many people, and saw many things in Bos- ton and the surrounding towns. He was well received, and perhaps designed to write truthfully of what he saw. He visited Increase Mather, who " is de- servedly called 'The Metropolitan Clergy-man of the Kingdom.' . And the next to him in fame . . . is his son, Mr. Cotton Mather, an Excellent Preacher, a great Writer, and, which is more than all, he Lives the doctrine he Preaches. . .. Mr. Mather's Library is the glory of New England, if not of all Amer- ica. ... I am greatly wanting to myself, if I did not learn more in that hour I enjoy'd his Company, than I cou'd in an Age spent in other men's." Of Mr. Willard he writes : "He's a man of Profound Notions; Can say what he will, and prove what he says. I darken his Merits if I call him less than a Walking Library." Of Mr. Allen: " He's a grave, Antient Divine, and now Pastor of the New Church in Boston. All that I shall say of him more is, that he's very Humble and very Rich, and can be Generous if he pleases." He was delighted with Mr. Moody's house and garden. "He that's a Lover of a good Prospect would call this house an Earthly Paradise, and the very Elisium of Boston. But that which gives it the greatest Ornament is that Learned Person that lives in it. . .. No wonder then Piscateway was so loth to lose him; for if there be a good Man in the World, 'tis He."
We have in the journal of Jasper Dankers, who visited Boston in 1680, this picture of a Fast-day service: "In the first place a minister read a prayer in the pulpit of full two hours in length; after which an old min- ister delivered a sermon an hour long, and after that a prayer was made, and some verses sung out of the psalm. In the afternoon, three or four hours were consumed with nothing except prayers, three ministers relieving each other alternately; when one was tired, another went up into the pulpit."
In 1699 Boston was favored with a visit from Mr. Edward Ward. He " was the first of a list of Londoners who have visited New England for the purpose of traducing its inhabitants, and casting ridicule upon its cus- toms and practices. From such persons have been transmitted the false traditions of our ancestry which are met with so frequently by historical
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
·
inquirers." Some of his statements are interesting in this connection, and can readily be distinguished from the inventions of his malicious wit: -
"To the Glory of Religion, and the Credit of the Town, there are four Churches, built with Clap-boards and Shingles, after the Fashion of our Meeting-houses ; which are supply'd by four Ministers. . . . Their Churches are Independent, every Congre- gation, or Assembly, in Ecclesiastical Affairs, being distinctly Govern'd by their own Elders and Deacons, who in their Turns set the Psalms ; and the former are as busie on Sundays, to excite the People to a Liberal Contribution, as our Church-Wardens at Easter and Christmas are with their Dishes, to make a Collection for the Poor. . . . The Inhabitants seem very Religious, showing many outward and visible Signs of an inward and Spiritual Grace. But tho' they wear in their Faces the Innocence of Doves, you will find them in their Dealings as Subtile as Serpents. ... Election, Commencement, and Training-days are their only Holy-days ; they keep no Saints- Days, nor will they allow the Apostles to be Saints; yet they assume that Sacred Dignity to themselves, and say, in the Title Page of their Psalm-Book, 'Printed for the Edification of the Saints in Old and New England.' " 1
At the coming of Governor Bellomont Boston contained, it is believed, " more than a thousand houses, and more than seven thousand inhabitants." The strictness and exclusiveness of the colonial times had naturally been relaxed as the years went on, and the people became established in their affairs, and entered into closer relations with other communities. The advance of business would of itself have a liberalizing influence. The widening of the franchise, which separated citizenship from membership in the church, would tend in the same direction. With these changes the established church of New England remained necessarily far in the ascendancy. Only one place for the worship of the English Church was to be found in the province, and those who supported that had received few favors from the people, and had contended against great obstacles. "Its supporters had been dispersed, and its minister had gone home discouraged at the time of the Revolution; and it recovered with difficulty from the disrepute con- tracted by its connection with the usurpation of Andros." Lord Bellomont gave the English Church the benefit of his favor. The Bishop of London had sent by him a gift of books and an assistant clergyman. The assistant died on the voyage, but another came in his place. Rev. Samuel Myles was the rector, and Rev. Christopher Bridge the assistant for several years. The Governor sought to satisfy all parties. He gave his presence on Sun- days at the King's Chapel, and on the lecture days at the First Church. He used his influence abroad for the English Church, and the Lords of Trade sought to procure the ecclesiastical supervision of the province.
About the year 1699 Elder John Emblen, the minister of the Baptist church, died. He had come from England and had served this church for some fifteen years, and seems to have been held in good esteem by his people. After his death the church wrote to England for assistance, and
1 Ward's Trip to New England, quoted in Shurtleff, iii. 169.
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
received a respectful letter in reply. It was to be several years before they would again have a settled minister.
The relations between the churches and Har- vard College were still very close at this period. The college had come into being for their sake, or rather for the religious well- being of the colony, which was their especial charge. At this particular point, while Increase Mather was at its head, it was passing through experiences which were of great interest and importance, and with which the churches had a prominent con- cern. It was a critical time in its bearing on the destiny of the institution. That is not to be described in this place; yet it . cannot be entirely passed over. The college had in its highest chair the most eminent of the clergy of Boston. The position gave in return to the man who held it great honor and influ- ence among his brethren and in the churches. The president had always been a minister. Other ministers had been very prominent in the management of the college as its overseers. In times of religious excitement or change the college would feel the movement of the churches. This is a part of the religious history of this period.
The Second Church in Bos- ton at this time shared its pastor with the college. He had re- tained his residence in Boston. The General Court had voted that the president should live in Cambridge. More than once VOL. II .- 26.
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MINISTERS, WARDENS, AND VESTRY OF KING'S CHAPEL, 1700.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
was this action taken, but the president did not move. He had the hope of removal to a greater distance, and desired to be sent to England to procure a satisfactory charter for the college. Others desired him to under- take the mission, and a petition was sent to the General Court asking public countenance and assistance for the project. With pleasant recollections of his former visit to England, he seems to have had a wish to spend his remaining years there. There were movements in the community which did not commend themselves to his judgment; nor could he have the influ- ence to which he seemed entitled, and which he thought would be for the welfare of the churches. The corporation of the college was not disposed to insist upon the residence of the president in Cambridge, but acknowledged with gratitude his manifold services, and gave him money to purchase a horse that he might more conveniently make his visits to the college. His offer to resign his office was answered by the unanimous vote of the corporation desiring that he would continue to preside over the college, which would be injured in many ways by his withdrawal. He gave his time to the college with great liberality, - passing the Sabbath with his church, and spending a large part of the other days with the college, where he admin- istered affairs with vigor and instructed the students in morals and religion. He was the better able to divide his time in this way in that he had the assistance of his active and vigilant son in his pastoral work. The proposal to move the president to Cambridge was followed up, and had the support of those who were hostile to Dr. Mather, and who thought that his influence would be lessened if he were there, and the possibility of his mission to England be made more remote. We are now concerned with these matters only as they affected his church. He was not pleased with the standing of the college with regard to its charter, and there was no president's house. But if there were no such trouble, he knew that his church would not be willing to release him, and he was not willing to cease from preaching. It was urged on the other side by a committee of the legislature that he would " preach twice a day to the students, expounding the Scriptures." He said that "exposition was nothing like preaching," and that he could not go until his church spared him. In 1698, December 16, he wrote to Lieut .- Governor Stoughton, -
" If I comply with what is desired I shall be taken off, in a great measure at least, from my public Ministry. Should I leave off preaching to 1500 souls (for I supose that so many use ordinarily to attend in our Congregation) only to expound to 40 or 50 Children, few of them capable of Edification by such Exercises, I doubt I· should not do well. I desire (as long as the Lord shall enable me) to preach publickly every Lord's Day. And I think all the Gold in the East and West Indies would not tempt me to leave preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ, which several of the Presidents in the College were necessitated to desist from because of their other work. ... I am satisfied that the Church to which I stand related will not set me at liberty. Many of them say that God has made me their Spiritual Father ; and how can they consent that I should go from them?"
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
This discussion takes us into the life of at least one church at this time. Feb. 5, 1699, there was a meeting of the brethren of the Second Church, and this question was proposed by the senior pastor : -
" Whether do you consent, that the Pastor of this church be dismissed from his relation unto, and his work in, this congregation, that he may wholly devote himself to the service of the College, and that in order thereunto he remove his habitation from Boston to Cambridge? When the vote was put in the affirmative, not one man would lift up his hand; when in the negative, every one of the brethren lifted up his hand."
But in July, 1700, a meeting of the church was held by direction of the General Court, and consent was given that President Mather should remove to Cambridge .. Accordingly he made the change in the same Boston. July.], 1699. month, and in the succeeding October removed back to Bos- ton because he did not have his manage Mother. Jamas Allen Samuel Torrey Samt willard Seter Thacker John Danforth Co. mather. Benjamin Wasworth. health in Cambridge. He ex- pressed to the Lieut .- Governor his desire that another president should be thought of. It is not necessary to pursue this matter here. At this point another church became more immedi- ately interested. When it be- came clear that President Mather would not reside at Cambridge, Rev. Samuel Willard, pastor of the Third or South Church, was appointed vice-president of the college ; and when President Mather had again informed the LATE CORPORATORS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.1 Court that he could with no conveniency live near the college, Mr. Willard was asked " to accept the care and charge of the said college, and to reside in Cambridge in order thereunto." The Council appointed a committee " to attend the meeting of Mr. Willard's church and desire their consent that he might go and reside at Cambridge to take care of the college." As the business did not prosper according to the design of the Council, a few days later "further application was made to Mr. Willard's church for their consent to his going to reside at Cambridge to take care of the college." The result at last was that, upon the close of Dr. Mather's connection with the presidency, Mr. Willard was placed in charge of the college, with the
1 [The document from which these signa- members of the late corporation, - preserved at tures, showing some of the principal Boston the State House. The paper is printed in Quincy's History of Harvard University, i. 99. -ED.] ministers, are taken, is a petition for a new char- ter of the college, in which they style themselves
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