USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 36
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Whitefield spent about three months in Boston and its vicinity on his second visit. He came again in 1754, when "thousands waited for, and thousands attended on, the word preached." Ten years later he returned, and was received "with the usual warmth of affection." He had collected
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Whitefield 1
1 [This cut follows a portrait of Whitefield now hanging in Memorial Hall at Cambridge. Engraved portraits are numerous. Dr. Dexter enumerates, in the bibliography appended to his Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, the various publications which the "Great Awaken- ing " called forth; and some of the chief of them . are noted as for and against Whitefield in the Prince Catalogue, p. 65. The files of the news-
papers of the day, particularly Fleet's Evening Post, show with what acrimony the friends and opponents of Whitefield opposed each other. When Foxcroft of the First Church published his Apology, Fleet opened his columns to severe rejoinders. That editor also waged a paper war with the Rev. Joshua Gee on the same point ; and under the pseudonym of Deborah Shearman he or some one in his alliance wrote
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
money in Great Britain for the benefit of the sufferers by the great Boston fire of 1760, and received the thanks of the people of the town. At the time of this fourth visit his health was impaired, but he preached with the usual results, and was held back when he would go Southward. In 1770 he was here once more, and preached in Boston and in other towns. But his work was drawing to a close. He died at Newburyport, Sept. 30, 1770. For thirty years his influence had been felt in New England. It is impossi- ble to state its results. The converts of the "Great Awakening," in which he was so prominent, were numbered by tens of thousands. If our figures were precise, they would but slightly express the influence of this wonderful movement. The thoughts of all the people were stirred, for good or ill, and an abiding impression was made upon the minds and hearts of the com- munities which knew its presence and its power. It stands as a marked feature in the history of the times. We take leave of the life of Mr. White- field with the testimony of Dr. Pemberton: "The longer he lived, the more he evidently increased in purity of doctrine, in humility, meekness, pru- dence, patience, and the other amiable virtues of the Christian life."
There remain no other striking events in the religious history of the provincial period. The first established Episcopal church had outgrown its house, and the corner-stone of the new King's Chapel was laid in 1749. Governor Shirley, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, and Peter Faneuil were the chief promoters of the project. It was not till 1753 that the construction of the new building, without and about the walls of the old, required the So- ciety to seek a temporary home elsewhere. The building as then left was not complete ; its portico was not added till 1789, and the spire, planned for its tower, has never been added to this day. In the Congregational churches the work went on, with its orderly succession of sermons and lectures, with the varied influences of the Great Awakening. In the First
provoking open letters to the preacher. Buck- ingham, Personal Reminiscences, i. 135.
Whitefield's Journal shows considerable en- tries regarding his work in Boston, and Tyer- man, in his Life of Whitefield, London, 1876, makes sufficient extracts, with other illustrative matter. This latter work, however, is not always accurate on New England affairs, quoting com- mendable and indifferent authorities with equal readiness. Thomas Prince's Christian History (see Mr. Goddard's chapter in the present vol- ume) is a principal contemporary record of these times, being issued between March 5, 1743, and Feb. 16, 1745. There is something concern- ing the opposition of Cutler, Chauncy, Holyoke, and Wigglesworth, with extracts from their pub- lications and from others given in Tyerman, ii. 12, 123, etc. There is not a little conflict of tes- timony, however, among the Boston ministers. Colonel John Phillips in his MS. diary records Whitefield's form of benediction : "The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep
your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his dear Son Christ Jesus our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be amongst you, and remain with you; and the whole Israel of God, now, henceforth, and for- evermore, amen, Lord Jesus, amen, and amen." He says of Whitefield's preaching : "Jan. 9, 1744-45. Mr. Whitefield preached at Mr. Webb's, p.m. There were many cried out, Robinson's daughter and others. Such a disturbance that made Mr. Whitefield leave off before he had done his sermon." Again, "a crying out, and he desired the person to come to him that even- ing." "June 19, 1745. Mr. Whitefield preached his farewell sermon at Mr. Webb's at 5 o'cl. p.m., from Ephesians 6 chap., from verse 10 to the end of the 19th verse ; a full assembly. He hath been gone about a fortnight to Londonderry and the towns about there; came back yester- day." The reader owes these extracts to the kindness of Mr. Wendell Phillips. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
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Church Mr. Foxcroft died in 1769, after a long ministry. His colleague, Dr. Chauncy, though differing from him in his views both of theology and of policy, paid generous tribute to his memory.1
Henry Caner James Gordon John Box
5 Franklanc
lyng 9 John Gibbins
KING'S CHAPEL.2
In the Second Church Mr. Gee died in 1748. Mr. Samuel Checkley, Jr., was settled as colleague pastor in 1747, and remained as sole pastor for the twenty years following Mr. Gee's death. Mr. Checkley was the son of the first pastor of the New South Church; he was born in Boston, graduated at Cambridge in 1743, and died in 1768. " He is said to have been distinguished for a peculiar sort of eloquence, and an uncommon felicity in the devotional service of public wor- ship." In 1768 Mr. John Lath- rop was installed in the pastoral office. His ministry was long and useful, covering nearly fifty years.
In the Old South Church Rev. Thomas Prince died in 1758,3 after a pastorate of forty years. He was a good minister, an instructive preacher, a noted scholar. He turned his attention to historical studies, and rendered important service to all who would know the early history of New England. The remains of his library are now in the care of the city, and are greatly valued for their antiquarian wealth. Mr. Prince revised the New England version of the Psalms, and his book was adopted by the Church for use in public worship. In 1769 Rev. Joseph Sewall died, after a service of fifty-six years, during which he had four colleagues. He was distinguished for his fervor and devotion, and was known as "the good Dr. Sewall " and " the weeping prophet." For some time before his death he was carried into the pulpit in a chair, and sat while he taught the people. Four very short pastorates were those of Alexander Cumming, Samuel Blair, John Bacon, and John Hunt. The ministry of Mr. Cumming was closed by his death in 1763.4 Mr. Blair was called to the presidency of the
1 [In a sermon printed in Boston in 1769. noon, the Revd Mr. Prince departed this life See items from it in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. after a month's languishment."- N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. 1865, p. 60. - ED.] Reg., 1854, p. 364. - ED.]
2 [The signatures are of the minister, the two wardens, and a committee of the vestry of the chapel, appended to a petition, Mar. 14, 1747, ask- ing for more land to enlarge their edifice. - ED.]
3 [Miss Mary Fleet records it in her diary : "Sunday, between 5 and 6 o'clock in ye after-
4 [He had been ordained as colleague of Dr. Sewall in 1761 ; and in the Massachusetts Gazette of March 2 appeared a long account of the cere- monies and of the "very grand entertainnient " given at Dr. Sewall's house, which, "though capa- cious," was not sufficient for all the guests .- ED.]
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
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College of New Jersey, but declined the office. On account of his health and of troubles in connection with the Half-way Covenant, he resigned in 1769. The congregation were dissatisfied with Mr. Bacon, and he retired and entered upon civil life. Mr. Hunt, on returning from Brookline in 1775, was shut out of Boston by the British troops, and retired to Northampton, where he died in the same year.
The Reverend Jefeph enall)
JOSEPH SEWALL.
[NOTE. - The above cut follows Pelham's engraving of a portrait, by Smibert, belonging to the Essex Institute, Salem. There is an engraving in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., January, 1856. A portrait owned by Mr. Salis- VOL. II. - 31.
bury was recently exhibited in the Old South Loan Collection. Buckingham, New England Magazine, 1832, speaks of a miniature likeness engraved on copper by Nathaniel Hurd in 1764. -ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
In the Brattle-Street Church Mr. William Cooper died in 1743. Dr. Colman, in his funeral sermon, presents him as a man distinguished for his piety and his learning; for the fervor of his preaching and of his prayers; for his boldness and independence; and for the success of
DR. SAMUEL COOPER.1
1 [Copley painted several portraits of Dr. Cooper which, according to A. T. Perkins's list of Copley pictures, are in the possession of the Society, of Rev. Dr. Lothrop, and of Dr. O. W. Holmes, which last is "very fine, half-length,
with wig and bands." A likeness also hangs in the rooms of the Historical Society, from which the present cut is engraved. An engraved like- ness appeared in the Boston Magazine, 178.1. - ED.]
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
his long life.1 In May, 1746, Samuel Cooper, his son, was called to be the successor of his father, and the colleague of Dr. Colman. He gradu- ated in 1743 at Harvard College, where he had taken high rank as a scholar, and was marked out for a brilliant career. Dr. Colman preached the ordination sermon from. Isaiah vi. 8. This was among his last public acts. In the following year he died, after a ministry of forty-seven years, - a man of pure heart and a liberal spirit; of large intellectual attainments ; a persuasive and impressive preacher.
In the New North Church Mr. Andrew Eliot was settled in 1742. He graduated at Harvard College in 1737. He preached the sermon at his ordination. He entered on his ministry Andrew Elion in a time of great excitement, and re- tained the position for thirty-six years, and for most of the time was the sole pastor of the church. He was a plain preacher, but the people liked to hear him. He was honored for his wisdom and manliness, and was held in veneration after his death.2 The Rev. John Webb died in 1750. He graduated at Cambridge in 1708, and was for thirty-six years the minister of this church. "When I consider the whole of his character," said his surviving colleague, "I cannot but think him one of the best of Christians, and one of the best ministers."
At the New South Church Mr. Penuel Bowen was settled in 1766, as colleague with Mr. Checkley, and he was dismissed in 1772. He afterward . went to South Carolina and entered the Episcopal Church. He was a Harvard graduate of 1762. Mr. Checkley died in 1769, after a pastorate of fifty years. He graduated at Cambridge in 1715, and was the first pastor of this church, to which the labors of his long life were given. In 1773 Mr. Joseph Howe began a pastorate which was ended by his death in 1775.
1 [" Dec. 4, 1743. Rev. Mr. William Cooper preached at our meeting, and it was the last sermon he preached with us or anywhere else. He was at lecture the Tuesday evening follow- ing, and that was the last time he was abroad. He continued indisposed with a cold until Sab- bath day, and then was taken with an apoplectic fit. Dr. Colman stayed the church, and they appointed a fast to be kept the next day. The next day, Dec. 13, Rev. Mr. Cooper died about six o'clock in the morning, and the Committee met at Colonel Wendell's, and we sent four men about to warn the Church and Congregation to meet in the meeting-house at 3 o'clock, and we voted to be at the whole charge of the funeral ; and accordingly we subscribed between 600 and 700 pounds, and the next day we got £847 IOS., and others put in so as to make up £895 IOS. Mr. Cooper's whole family, consisting of ten persons, and Dr. Colman, were put into mourn- ing, and 29 rings for the association ; and Gov- ernors Shirley and Belcher, and President and Mr. Appleton, and three layers out, and Mr. Foye and spouse, and four doctors and Rev. Adding-
ton Davenport had rings; and 12 doz. of men's and women's gloves ; and Messrs. Prince, Webb, Foxcroft, Checkley, Welsteed, and Gee, who were the pall-bearers, had black glazed gloves and weeds hanging down ; and the deacons and moulings had black glazed gloves, and weeds in their hats. The funeral was of a Thursday, Dec. 15, 1743 ; it was a very large funeral ; there were 160 men of the Church and Congregation went before the corpse, and Dr. Colman rid in a shay before the corpse. On the Sabbath fol- lowing Dr. Sewall preached at our meeting, A.M., a funeral sermon from I Thessa. iv. 14, and Dr. Colman a funeral sermon from John xi. 35."-Colonel John Phillips, MS. Diary. - ED.]
2 ""' It was a pleasant day,' saith Father Gan- nett on the fly-leaf of his almanac, 'Sept. 15, 1778, when near four hundred couples and thirty- two carriages followed his remains from his house, before the south side of his meeting-house, into Fore Street, up Cross Street, through Black Horse Lane, to Corpse [sic] Hill.'"- Dealings with the Dead, i. 92.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
He graduated at Yale College in 1765, the first scholar of his class. After teaching with success for a few years, he visited Boston and was invited to the pastoral office. He was a remarkable man, in the judgment of those who knew him, and would have adorned his profession.
In the New Brick Church Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton was installed in 1754, and remained in charge of the church until his death in 1777. He was the son of the minister of the Old South Church, whose name he bore, and graduated at Harvard in 1721. He was distinguished as a scholar. He was settled for twenty-six years in New York, where he had a useful ministry. His piety was fervent, like his father's. His sermons were "correct in diction and style," and at first he attracted crowds of hearers, although in his old age he did not retain his popularity. “His connection with the Society was never formally dissolved, but gradually loosened, till at length it existed merely in name." After Mr. Pemberton's death this church was incorporated with the Second Church, from which it had originally come out.
The West Church received as minister in 1747 Mr. Jonathan Mayhew, of the noted missionary family of Martha's Vineyard. He was the son of the Rev. Experience Mayhew, and was born in 1720, and graduated at Harvard College in 1744. He was a distinguished preacher and writer, and entered vigorously into the controversies of his times. Although he was a bold man, and ready to give free expression to his views, his position with regard to the person and work of Christ, and doctrines related to . these, which were then earnestly discussed, cannot be precisely and satis- factorily determined. He is counted with the more liberal men of his day. He opposed the proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in its attempts to introduce bishops into the colonies, and to change their ecclesiastical condition. With the same ardor he strove to promote in the people the love of liberty, and to secure for them its full and just benefits. " Beloved for his pastoral fidelity and gen- erous deeds, distinguished for his genius and intellectual strength, eminent in both Englands as a scholar and divine, revered as a true lover of liberty and ardent Christian patriot, this noble man died at Boston, July 19, 1766, aged forty-five years, mourned by the great and the good."
The three churches connected with the Church of England had their succession of rectors and assistants, and pursued their work and worship according to their own preferences; and they gained proselytes through the dissensions in the Congregational churches, but they were, of course, less identified with the people and their history than the churches which have been already described.
In the First Baptist Church Mr. Condy died in 1768, after a ministry there of nearly thirty years, during which he was "well esteemed among his associates." In 1765 Rev. Samuel Stillman was installed as pastor. On account of some discontent with the views of Mr. Condy, and because he had " opposed the late work of God in the land," in 1743 a Second Baptist
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Church was formed, which worshipped for a time in a private house, and then in a schoolhouse, until, in 1746, it had a meeting-house in Back Street, afterward Salem Street. The Rev. Ephraim Bownd was the minister from 1743 to 1765. There were here a few followers of Robert Sandeman, who
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1
1 [There are several engravings of Mayhew, - one in Bradford's Life of Mayhew; another in Thornton's Pulpit of the Revolution ; a very rude one by Paul Revere prefixed to a volume of Mayhew's sermons. Thomas Hollis caused an engraving of him to be made in 1767 by
Cipriani, which has this inscription : "Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., pastor of the West Church in Boston, - an assertor of the civil and religious liberties of his country and mankind, who, over- plied by public energies, died of a nervous fever, July viii., MDCCLXVI., aged xxxxv." Richard
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
came from Glasgow in 1764. They held their first meetings in the Masons' Hall, in private houses, and at the " Green Dragon," until they had a small wooden building at the foot of a lane leading to the mill-pond. This was burned in 1773, and after a time was replaced by a meeting-house in the rear of Middle. or Hanover Street.
There were a few Methodists where now there are so many. Among the British soldiers who came in 1768 were some Methodists who, it is said, made the beginning of a society. About 1772 a small society was. formed, which became extinct. While there was some preaching in the interval, it was not till 1790 that Methodism was fairly introduced into the town.
At the college the office of president became vacant by the death in 1769 of Edward Holyoke, who had filled it for thirty-two years. "He was lamented, as a man and an officer, with unaffected expressions of sorrow ; for notwithstanding his advanced years, it was difficult to supply his loss. . . . His administration was at once the longest and one of the most prosper- ous in the annals of Harvard College." The Rev. Samuel Locke, pastor of the Sherburne church, was chosen president, and was inaugurated in March, 1770. In December, 1773, he resigned and returned to Sherburne, after an administration " disturbed by political turmoils," and leaving little which is remembered. The Rev. Samuel Langdon, of Portsmouth, entered upon the duties of the office in October, 1774, and remained in the position for nearly six years.
At the close of this period there was among ministers and people more of a spirit of inquiry, more questioning of doctrines, more breaking from accus- tomed methods of belief and teaching than in the years before. In 1756 there appeared in Boston an edition of Evelyn's Humble Inquiry, which denied the deity of Christ. It was afterwards said by some that Mr. Mayhew was concerned in introducing the book, but of this there is no proof. "An answer was prepared by President Burr of Princeton, and a sermon by Pemberton on the divinity of the Saviour appeared, with a preface bearing the signatures of Sewall, Foxcroft, and Prince, and lamenting, without naming, the recent republication, which had been 'to the great grief and offence,' they said, ' of many amongst us.'" The discussion continued, with assertion and protest, with question and answer. There were the signs of a change. But it was not till 1785 that Unitarianism, as it was at length called, became a " substantial reality" in Boston, by the action of the Society wor- shipping in King's Chapel, which, in consequence of the doctrinal change
Jennys, Jr., painted and engraved a portrait, which was published by Nathaniel Hurd, before 1768. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1866, p. 210.) A crayon portrait by Copley was unfortunately destroyed in the Boston fire, November, 1872. (N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., October, 1873, p. 370. A. T. Perkins, List of Copley Pictures, p. 84.) A portrait said to be of Mayhew was given in
1874 to the Congregational Library by Mr. Ralph Dunning of Georgetown, D. C. An Eclogue sacred to the Memory of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, printed by Fleet, 1766, is thought to have been written by Joseph Green. A life of Mayhew, by Alden Bradford, was published in Boston in 1838. Quincy takes his measure in his Harvard University, ii. 66. - ED.]
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of its own minister, adopted a modified form of the English liturgy in place of the original, excluding all acknowledgment of the Trinity. In 1787 the wardens and the congregation ordained the minister, Rev. James Freeman, in " a solemn and appropriate form." He was declared " Rector, Minister, Priest, Pastor, teaching Elder, and public Teacher" of the Society. This remained for many years the only Society of any note in New England which was confessedly Unitarian.
We are thus brought to the days and events in which Massachusetts was to cease to be a province. It was not a sudden change. The training of the people prepared them for the work to which they were called. They were the sons of men and women who had bought at a heavy price the right to be free, and they were prepared to complete the purchase, though the cost was again heavy.
In the churches liberty had been nurtured. There the people had been taught the authority of conscience, the sovereignty of duty, the demands of justice and right. They had been trained in choosing their rulers, even their religious teachers, and liberty had grown within the parish lines by a force which could not be resisted. They were loyal to rightful government, but they claimed the right to say what government was rightful. Not court- ing independence, they were determined upon liberty. By the very consti- tution of their churches they were predestined to be free. During the period we have been reviewing, as in the years before, the ministers had borne an active part in shaping the thoughts and executing the will of the people. In the very early days of the Colony the " Election Sermon " was established by appointment of the Governor and Assistants. By the charter of 1691 the last Wednesday of May was established as "Election- day; " and a little later the artillery election-day was established. "On these occasions," writes the contemporary historian of the Revolution, " political subjects are deemed very proper; but it is expected that they be treated in a decent, serious, and instructive manner." The sermons which dignified these days had a wide circulation among those most likely to be influenced by them. "Thus, by their labors in the pulpit, and by furnish- ing the prints with occasional essays, the ministers have forwarded and strengthened, and that not a little, the opposition to the exercise of that parliamentary claim of right to bind the colonies in all cases whatever." The first Provincial Congress, in 1774, acknowledged gratefully " the public obligation to the ministry as friends of civil and religious liberty, and invoked their aid" in the attempt to restore harmony between Great Britain and these colonies. "We cannot but place great hopes in an order of men who have ever distinguished themselves in their country's cause." The ministers were ready to do more. In 1750 Jonathan Mayhew had preached on the Lord's day after the 30th of January "concerning unlim- ited submission and non-resistance to the higher powers. . .. Let us all learn to be free and to be loyal; let us not profess ourselves vassals to the lawless pleasure of any man on earth; but let us remember, at the same
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with." This was the spirit of the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts. The Rev. Joseph Howe, of the New South Church, wrote in August, 1774: "The Bostonians ac- quire courage every day. How can it be otherwise, when all the continent are pitying and supporting them, and above all when we have that God to go to who heard our fathers when they cried unto Him, and who, we trust, will hear us also, their immediate descendants?" At the public Thanks- giving, appointed by Congress in 1774, the Rev. William Gordon maddened the king's friends and encouraged the patriots with his bold words: "But should the country be wasted for a few years, and a number of its inhabi- tants be destroyed, ere the wished-for salvation is granted, how soon, after having secured its liberties, will it regain its former prosperity ; yea, become far more glorious, wealthy, and populous than ever?" At the annual convention of Congregational ministers, held by special invitation of the Provincial Congress at Watertown, June 1, 1775, they sent to the Congress a letter, in which they said: "Deeply impressed with sympathy for the distresses of our much-injured and oppressed country, we are not a little relieved in beholding the representatives of the people, chosen by their free and unbiassed suffrages, now met to concert measures for their relief and defence, in whose wisdom and integrity, under the smiles of Divine Provi- dence, we cannot but express our entire confidence." They also expressed their readiness to serve by rotation as chaplains to the army. The preachers preached loyalty and liberty. The people heard and heeded. When loy- alty came to mean liberty, and allegiance was to be transferred to the gov- ernment of the people, loyalty was still taught, and the people still gave heed. There were no more patriotic assemblies than those which were gathered under the roofs of the meeting-houses. There were no more stanch friends of the people, no more steadfast assertors of their right to life and liberty, than the men whom the people had called to be their lead- ers into the kingdom of heaven. The spirit of the ministers and the churches, forwarding the toils and sacrifices which made a nation out of colonies, makes it fitting that with the uprising for freedom and independ- ence we bring to a close the story of the religious temper and movements of the Provincial Period.
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