USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 33
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Leaving the new church thus equipped for its work, we turn to bring other matters to the same time. In the year 1700 the Legislature of Mas- sachusetts passed an act requiring Jesuits and Popish priests to leave the
1 [Heliotypes of Benjamin Colman and Wil- liam Cooper are given herewith, from engravings by Pelham. A portrait of Colinan by Smybert hangs in Memorial Hall, Cambridge. There is an engraved likeness of him, with a memoir, going somewhat into the history of the Mani- festo Church, in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1849. The chief life of Colman is by E Turell, Colman's son-in-law. Quincy (Harvard Uni-
versity, ii. 79) says it is "the best biography ex- tant of .any native of Massachusetts, written during its provincial state." Tyler, American Literature, ii. 171, gives a careful estimate of his intellectual character. Mr. Colman's sermon at the ordination of Cooper was printed, 1716, and it was accompanied by Mr. Cooper's confession of faith, with his answers to the questions pro- posed to him by Mr. Colman. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
province by the 10th of September. A similar decree was made in the same year in New York. This was in accordance with the law of Eng- land. The reason for these enactments here was that such Jesuits and Popish priests " as have lately come, or for some time have had their residence in the remote parts of this province, and other adjacent terri- tories, have endeavored to seduce the Indians from their obedience to the king of England, and to excite them to hostilities against his govern- ment." There were no persons in Boston at that time who would be affected by this legislation; but it is an indication of the feeling of the people toward the Romish Church upon political grounds. It is well known that their feeling, so far as it was based on religious considerations, was much deeper. Happily, loyalty to the king and fidelity to truth and liberty were in accord in their minds with regard to these matters. In this year Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton was settled as colleague pastor with Mr. Willard over the South Church. He Eben ?. Pemberton was the son of one of the founders of this church; he was born in Boston in 1671, and graduated at Harvard College in 1691. He continued his residence at Cambridge, was appointed Tutor and Librarian, and was a Fellow of the College from 1707 to 1717. He was ordained on Aug. 28, 1700, when sermons were preached by both Mr. Willard and himself. He was a young man of quick mind, a hard student, and of ardent piety. He gave promise of great usefulness when he was placed in his new and lofty station.
In 1701 Lord Bellomont died in New York. "Perhaps he died of sheer disappointment and mortification." Upon Stoughton, the Lieut .- Governor, the administration again devolved. He, too, died before the end of the year ; a stern man, wilful, independent, determined to do his duty at all hazard, and finding, it is reported, after the prosecution of the imagined witches, over which Sewall fasted and prayed, " no reason to repent of what he had done with the fear of God before his eyes." He cared nothing for popular favor ; but " he was helped by the friendship of the clergy, which he took as much pains to secure as he ever thought it worth while to bestow for any amiable purpose." The Council, acting under the charter, was the chief executive authority in the province in the interim which followed the death of Stoughton. There was a man waiting for the place. Joseph Dudley was appointed governor by King William. The king died before Dudley was ready to leave England, where he had been devoting himself to his own interests, and had succeeded in gaining the favor of the dissenting ministers, whose judgment would have its influence with their brethren on this side of the sea. The king was not willing to make what would be so unpopular a nomination in the province. But Dudley was able to change the royal mind by a petition which indicated a change in the mind of Massachusetts, and by a letter from Cotton Mather, who with his father had been active in removing him from power, by which he was authorized to say that
The Pain D' William Cooper
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
" there was not one minister nor one of the Assembly but were impatient for his coming." The king died, but on the second day of Queen Anne's reign a new commission was issued, and in June, 1702, Joseph Dudley reached Boston as the Governor of the Province. With him came the Lieut .- Governor, Thomas Povey, "a stranger sent, whom we knew nor heard anything of before." The new Governor was well received. A delegation from the Council went down the harbor to meet him. He was congratulated on his safe arrival; and his attention was called to the black clothes which testified to the sorrow felt for the king's decease. The peaceable accession of the queen was acknowledged with thanksgiving, and the coming of his Excellency was recognized as " a very fair first- fruit of" the new reign; "for which we bless God and Queen Anne." There also came with the Governor an ancient minister. In answer to an inquiry, the Governor said it was George Keith. He had been a minister among the Friends, but was at this time connected with the English Church. He " had converted many in England," and had been sent over by the Bishop of London, with a salary of two hundred guineas a year. " I look'd on him," writes one of the committee of reception, " as Helena aboard. This man crav'd a Blessing and return'd Thanks, though there was the chaplain of the Ship and another Minister on board."
At this time we find more strenuous efforts made to establish Episcopacy here. We come upon Governor Dudley, on the third Sabbath after his arrival, at King's Chapel, listening to Mr. Myles, who inveighs vehemently against schism. What seemed to the other ministers the real schism was to have more effective assistance.
In the days of the Commonwealth there had been formed in England a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England. After the Restoration a new society was formed for the same object, whose field extended beyond New England into "parts adjacent." Naturally the immediate application of the funds of this organization was made by the dissenting or Congregational churches, for there were no others here for a long time; and when an Episcopal church was established in Boston, it was very much in need of funds for its own support, although it contained men who were in authority and many connected with the army. An attempt was made to divert the money given for the instruction of the Indians to the support of the struggling English Church. The design failed, and a new society was incorporated by the king, in 1701, and called "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." This was to be under Episcopal control and in the interests of the Episcopal Church. The instruction of the heathen was not named among its objects. It was "to instruct our loving subjects in our plantations in the principles of true religion; " to provide for the support of an orthodox clergy, and for the ordinances of the church. This meant the extension of the English Church; and the churches in whose sight the work was to be done so regarded it. It was with jealous eyes they looked upon it. It is to be
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
remembered under what circumstances these colonies had been created. The new society went to the old towns of New England, and set up the English clergy in their government and worship. The religious establish- ments already there were to be assailed, and their adherents drawn to the new ways. In 1712 we find Mr. Colman complaining to the Dean of Peterborough that the funds of the society had been used to create divisions and to hinder the progress of the gospel. As the plan was unfolded, it was found that it contemplated appointing bishops for New England, and establishing schools and colleges which should be under the influence of the English prelates, that the youth might be drawn from the ways of their fathers to the ways which their fathers had abandoned. The new church received accessions, but the New England clergymen for the most part resisted all efforts to draw them from their loyalty to their own churches. In 1722 Timothy Cutler,1 Rector of Yale College, and six other Congregational ministers, chiefly of Connecticut, gave in their adherence to the Episcopal Church. They were in a region where " the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel" had made a liberal bestowment of its funds. It was a grievous thing to the churches when the head of one of their colleges thus turned against them. We can readily imagine the sensation produced in Boston when the tidings reached the ministers here. We can safely con- jecture the theme of many a sermon, and many a conference and prayer. The matter was to come closer. Timothy füllen Mr. Cutler sailed at once for England, where he received Episcopal ordination, and was made a Doctor in Divinity. A society was established in Bos- ton for him, and he returned as a missionary, with a yearly salary of sixty pounds sterling. It was in 1724 that he arrived in Boston. At once he made a claim, in connection with the rector of King's Chapel, to be .re- ceived to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. The feeling which Mr. Cutler's defection had caused was intensified by this proceeding. It was regarded as an attempt to have the control of the Congregational college shared with the Episcopal Church. It was a very tender point; there was none more sensitive. The college was open to all who chose to seek its training; but the government of the college by right belonged with the churches and the purposes in which it had its origin. The overseers declared that Mr. Cutler and Mr. Myles had no right, under the constitu- tion, to sit as Overseers of the College. They appealed to the General Court, and the answer was the same. The plan in this part had failed, and this project was abandoned. The churches had the comfort of renewed security in the possession of the revered school.
1 [A heliotype after an engraving of Cutler by Pelham is given in the present chapter. An account of his family is given in Abner Morse's Genealogical Record of several families having
the name of Cutler, 1867. Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. ch. xvii., traces the effects of Cutler's advent to Boston. He was born in Charlestown in 1683. - ED.]
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
The Diary of Judge Sewall, though the record of one man's life, gives us many glimpses of the religious current in this period. A few references to it may connect us more intimately with the times : -
1700. "Having been long and much dissatisfied with the Trade of fetching Negros from Guinea, at last I had a strong Inclination to Write something about it ; but it wore off." Reading Bayne's Commentary on the first chapter of Ephesians he began to be uneasy. He was shown a petition to the General Court to free a negro and his wife unjustly held in bondage. There was an attempt to discourage the bring- ing of negroes by laying a duty of forty shillings upon each one. Cotton Mather resolved to publish a sheet to exhort masters to labor for the conversion of their black servants. At length the good Judge, far in advance of his times, published his memo- rial against Slavery, entitling it, The Selling of Joseph.1
1701. He was disturbed because Josiah Willard had cut off his full head of hair and put on a wig. The Judge gave an earnest admonition and referred the offending brother to Calvin's Institutes. When, later, Mr. Willard preached for Mr. Pemberton, the Judge attended service at Mr. Colman's, partly out of dislike to the hair-cutting, and partly " to give an Example of my holding Communion with that Church who renounce the Cross in Baptisme, Humane Holydays, etc., as other New-english Churches doe." Mr. Colman's people were much gratified by his presence.
1702. Feb. 19. "Mr. I. Mather preached from Rev. xxii. 16, - bright and morning Star. Mention'd Sign in the Heaven, and in the Evening following I saw a large Cometical Blaze, something fine and dim, pointing from the Westward, a little below Orion." He learned that a line drawn to the comet would strike just upon Mexico, and that he must look towards Mexico to view the comet, which suggested changes there. " I have long pray'd for Mexico, and of late in those Words, that God would open the Mexican Fountain."
June I. " Ministers were disgusted because the Representatives went first in the Proclaiming the Queen, and that by order of our House."
Oct. I. " The Governor and Council agree that Thorsday, Oct. 22, be a Fast Day. Governor moved that it might be Friday, saying, Let us be Englishmen. ... I suggested to Major-General that the Drought might be mention'd ; Mr. Winthrop spake, but the Governor refused." 2
Nov. 10. "Mr. Leverett comes from Cambridge ; open the Court in the Meet- ing-house, because the Town-house is very near a house that has the Small Pocks ; so that people are afraid to goe' there. . .. Sat in the Deacon's seat."
1703. Aug. 2. " It is said the Colors must be spread at the Castle every Lord's Day in honor of it. Yesterday was first practiced. If a ship come in on the Lord's Day, Colors must be taken down. I am afraid the Lord's Day will fare none the better for this new pretended honor."
1704. March 5. "The dismal News of the Slaughter made at Deerfield is cer- tainly and generally known ; Mr. Secretary came to me in the morning, and told me of it. I told Mr. Willard, by which means our Congregation was made a Bochim. 'Tis to be observed that the great Slaughters have been on the Third day of the week, our Court day."
1 [See Mr. Scudder's chapter in this volume. terfere with the provincial religious days for Thanksgiving and Fasting, and to have a hand
-ED.]
2 The royal Governors were inclined to in- in wording the proclamations.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
June 30. The Judge went to the execution of six pirates, who elsewhere are said to have " dyed very obdurately and impenitently, hardened in their sin," though great efforts had been made for their reformation.1
1705. Sept. 10. He tried to prevail with ministers to have the Lord's Supper celebrated once in four weeks, as it was in the time of Cotton and Wilson. He thought it would be an honor to Christ, and a great privilege and honor to Boston to have the Communion in one of the four churches on every Lord's Day. "We have nothing to do with moneths now; Their Respect now ceases with the Mosaical Pedagogy."
We turn now from the suggestive pages of this Diary. In the First Church the pastor, Mr. Allen, had become so infirm through age that he seldom took any part in the Sabbath services, and on May 10, 1705, Rev. Thomas Bridge was installed as colleague with him and Mr. Wads- worth. Two of the elders of the church joined with the ministers in the laying-on of hands. Mr. Bridge was born in England and educated there. He was a merchant before he was a minister. After travelling abroad, he preached in the West Indies, and then came to Boston. He is described as a sincere and humble man, full of love for the civil and religious liberty of this country. " Prayer was his gift, and the Bible his library."
In the same year, 1705, the religious atmosphere was disturbed by an effort made by the Boston Association of Ministers to change the platform of the churches. Sixteen proposals were sent out for the consideration of the associated ministers in different parts of the country. These proposals were not without their good points ; but they were opposed to the spirit and habit of Congregational churches. It was proposed that the ministers' meetings should have an ecclesiastical character, and should assume some of the matters usually committed to the churches; that these associations, with the addition of a lay element, should constitute standing councils, whose decisions should usually be authoritative, and that no one should be allowed to preach unless he had the written testimonial of an association. These proposals took away from the churches much of the independence and authority of which Congregational churches have always been very jealous, and it was impossible to gain consent to them. The answer to them was made by the Rev. John Wise, of Ipswich, a stout defender of civil liberty against encroachment, and a military chaplain of martial spirit and skill. He entitled his answer The Churches' Quarrel Espoused. It was a very shrewd and sharp attack and defence. It overthrew the proposals and strengthened the traditional principles of the churches, which settled down more firmly on their old platform. Mr. Wise followed this victory, in 1717, by another publication called A Vindication of the Government of New England Churches, - a very clear demonstration of the New England polity, and one which had a large influence in its day.2
1 [See further in Mr. Scudder's chapter. - p. 494, and Tyler, History of American Litera- ture, ii. 104; also, Mr. Goddard's chapter in this 2 [See Dr. Dexter's Congregationalism, etc., volume. - ED.]
ED.]
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
In 1707 the Rev. Samuel Willard died, -the minister of the South Church and vice-president of the College. He was in his sixty-eighth year, and had been an important man in public affairs. He was a man of large ability and of extensive learning. "His death was a severe blow to his church and to the college, and regarded as 'an awful rebuke to the whole land.' . . . That he was diligent and laborious is shown by the number of his publications. His common sermons were fit to be preached before assembled clergymen." His principal work was a course of monthly lec- tures on the Shorter Catechism, - A Complete Body of Divinity. These lectures were read at the college, and were listened to by crowds of people from Boston. They constituted "the first folio on theology published in this country, and the largest which had been published here on any subject, being a very expensive undertaking for the then Western Churches in America." 1
On Oct. 28, 1707, John Leverett was chosen President of Harvard College. It was a disappointment to the Mathers, who had hoped, and not without reason, that one of them-and it mattered little to them whether it was the father or the son - would be chosen to that most distinguished office. It was not alone that this office had passed be- yond their grasp which tried and provoked them; but they had been forced to see the college come under the influence of men who were in sympathy with the new religious move- Contr. Aug. 14. 2710 Es? how" most humble sont everett. ment which had found expression in the Manifesto Church. In his religious opinions Leverett was in agree- ment with the Brattles. The Mathers were not men to be quiet under either wrong or misfortune. They were disturbed before by the course of public affairs, and the public and private life of the Governor. Dudley had been imprisoned with Andros by the party with which the Mathers were promi- nently associated. On the accession of Dudley to the chief place in the province they greeted him with respect and admiration. The father described the Governor to himself as " blessed with rare accomplishments, natural and acquired," and " beyond all others advantaged to serve and honor Christ, by promoting the welfare of his churches." The Governor on his part acknowledged that " if he ever had a spiritual father, Mather was the man." Cotton Mather used his office to give the new governor warning and advice against Leverett and Byfield the speaker, though the force of the admonition seems to have returned upon his own head.
In July, 1707, there was printed in London a tract of about forty pages,
1 [These two-and-fifty Lectures make nine hundred and fourteen double column pages, - the work of nineteen years. Tyler, American Literature, ii. 168. A heliotype after Pelham's VOL. II. - 28.
engraving of Willard, which appeared in this fo- lio, is given in Vol. I. Quincy, Hist. of Harvard University, i. ch. viii., draws the character of Willard. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
entitled A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New England. Of this pamphlet "it is evident that Rev. Cotton Mather was the inciter and perhaps the compiler." It was a severe arraignment of the Governor for his maladministration of his office, by which New England had been brought under many disadvantages. It was very plain that whatever friend- ship, or semblance of friendship, there had been between these ministers and the Governor was now at an end. No single cause for this change need be sought. The part which Dudley had in placing Leverett at the head of the college was sufficient to bring matters to a crisis, and to draw upon the Governor the power of their anger.
Under the date of Jan. 20, 1708, Increase Mather wrote to Governor Dudley a letter heavy with the gravest charges. He was charged with " bribery and unrighteousness; " with contrivances to ruin the country ; with "hypocrisy and falseness in the affair of the college;" with the shedding of innocent blood; with the neglect of the worship of God. The writer justified himself especially in his reproof, because the Governor had called him his spiritual father, if he had any; and because it was thought that he had been influential in procuring the appointment of the Governor. On the same day Cotton Mather wrote to him in a similar strain, in a letter less orderly and particular, but quite as severe and very much longer. To these epistles Governor Dudley replied on Feb. 3, 1708. The reply is more calm than the circumstances would lead one to expect. If it is not marked with the confidence of a man who has the assurance of his con- science that the charges against him are without reason, it is still the utterance of a man who feels that his adversaries are vulnerable and not without fault.
"Why, then, have you permitted me to go on in these evils, without admonition, till you tell me I have ruined myself, family, and country? And how can you clear yourselves from having a hand in so extensive desolations? . .. I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good ministers, your equals in the province, have a share in the government of the college, and advise thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all will be well. I am an honest man, and have lived religiously these forty years to the satisfaction of the ministers in New England ; and your wrath against me is cruel, and will not be justified."
The conduct of the Mathers did not have the approval of their ministe- rial brethren. Mr. Pemberton talked very warmly about Cotton Mather's letter to the Governor. "Said if he were as the Governor, he would hum- ble him, though it cost him his head." Mr. Colman preached on Febru- ary 5, from Galatians v. 25. "'Tis reckon'd he lash'd Dr. Mather and Mr. Cotton Mather and Mr. Bridge for what they have written, preach'd, and pray'd about the present contest with the Governor."
The Memorial published in England in 1707 was received and read in this country. It was soon followed by a pamphlet on the other side : A Modest Enquiry into the Ground and Occasions of a late Pamphlet, intituled
.
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New England. By a Disin- terested Hand. It was designed, of course, to be a justification of Dudley. It was followed in its time, in 1708, by another publication on The Deplor- able State of New England By Reason of a Covetous and Treacherous Governour and Pusillanimous Counsellors. Whatever was written, and with whatever justice, Dudley did not possess and could not regain the
THE "OLD BRICK " OR FIRST CHURCH.1
confidence and esteem of the people over whom he was placed. He re- . mained in office for a few months after the death of the queen, when one Colonel Burgess was appointed in his place, with William Tailer as lieut .- governor. Burgess was induced to decline the position offered to him, and Samuel Shute was appointed governor,2 with William Dummer, Dudley's son-in-law, for lieut .- governor. In 1720 Dudley died. The alienation
1 [There is another view of this building, niscences of it by Mr. William Hayden in the which stood from 1713 to 1808, in Rufus Ellis's appendix. See also Drake, Landmarks, 84, etc. -ED.] Last Sermon Preached in the First Church, Chauncy Street, May 10, 1868, with some remi- 2 [See Dr. Ellis's chapter in this vol. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
from him of the Mathers seems not to have been removed. What is perhaps of more moment, after the election of Leverett the Mathers, though still by virtue of their pastoral office overseers, " ceased all official interference in the affairs of the college," although the younger did not refrain from an open expression of his discontent with the management of college affairs. We find him in 1718 writing to Governor Shute! "Though the College be under a very unhappy government, yet for my own part I earnestly desire that it may go on as easily and as quietly as possible. . . . For some reasons I desire to keep at the greatest distance imaginable from all the affairs of Harvard." But the association of his name with the col- lege was not so soon to cease.
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