USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Taunton > The ministry of Taunton, with incidental notices of other professions > Part 18
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pardoned; he died for the ungodly, says an inspired apos- tle ; he died for the unjust, says another ; he came to seek and save that which was lost, says our Lord ; and it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of them, says the apostle. Now are you ungodly, are you unjust, are you a lost sinner, or even the chief of sinners ; then for you he died, such as these he will save, save even to the uttermost, if they will come unto God by him; his blood cleanseth from all sin; even though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, saith the Lord. Here is the door of hope, this is the door of mercy, and this the fountain to which the soft voice of invitation calls you, say- ing, come wash and be clean, turn and live, repent and be happy; whoever will, let him come, and him that cometh I will in no wise cast out. I bescech you therefore, O Dixon, by all that your soul is worth through eternity, and by ' the price of blood, the blood of God,' shed for its re- demption, that you immediately hear the joyful sound, and instantly give your whole heart's consent to the blessed covenant of gospel grace. Now compose your mind, and make a pause, one solemn, contemplative pause, and look back, once more upon your wretched life (before it trans- pires) and think, with bitter sorrow, and remorse of heart, O think how you have lived, what you have done, how you have treated the great God, his holy Spirit and blessed Son; think how you have injured your fellow-men, sinned against the light of reason, of revelation, and conscience, and thus wronged your own soul. Then look within, and you will find, you will feel, if not past feeling, a most vile heart, 'out of which have proceeded evil thoughts, blas-
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phemies, thefts, &c.' Take one more survey of this heart, and then 'repent and pray to God, if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart, and the sins of thy whole life may be both forgiven thee.' I say unto you, 'what thou doest, do quickly ;' your feet stand on slippery places, now is your time, now or never, 'now is the accepted time,' now is the day, and to you the last, the only day of salvation ; to day therefore, while it is called to day, harden not your heart. Dixon, you still breathe, your heart and your pulse yet beat, and the vital current moves, and blessed be God the curse delays, the warning voice is heard, 'you are a pris- oner of hope ;' turn, turn to the strong hold, for why will you die, O young man. In fine, justify God, condemn yourself, prostrate your guilty soul at the foot of the cross ; look up there, and plead the merit and the application of that all-virtuous blood which once pardoned a penitent thief, who died upon it, and is infinitely sufficient to par- don and save even you ; and having ascended the place of your execution, then rouse, collect and fix all your thoughts, and breathe out all your soul, in faith, repentance and prayer, saying, 'Lord Jesus, remember me in thy kingdom,' God be merciful to me a dying sinner. Farewell, poor John Dixon, and the Lord have mercy on you; to day may you be with Christ in Paradise ; amen, and 'let all the people say, amen.'
To this very numerous assembly I will now turn the ad- dress, and close my subject. Who can look around upon the numbers of all ranks, ages, sexes and complexions here present, and think of the transactions of this day, and not be reminded of that infinitely more solemn 'day in which God will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ.' Then, my friends, and perhaps never be-
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fore, shall we meet again, not merely as spectators, but as personally and deeply interested in all the momentous scenes and decisions that will then take place. The apos- tle's wish for his friend, is mine for you and myself; 'the Lord grant we may all find mercy of him in that day.' To this desirable end, may the public instructions and warnings of this day be improved, in particular that cx- emplary instance of justice upon the prisoner before us, which is this day under providence set up at the head of this county as a warning piece, let off, (as I may say,) from a cannon of our own making, a salutary law of this Commonwealth, and which speaks aloud in the ears as well as to the eyes of all that can see or hear, crying from the earth, like the blood of murdered Abel, for the life of this and other malefactors. Let all take warning, and while they see and hear, may they fear and do no more so wickedly ; ' let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour with his hands the thing which is good.' Then may this stand alone, and for the last, as it is at present the second instance of a capital execution, and the first for burglary, since this was a shire-town-youth, as well as parents, are particularly concerned in the admoni- tions of this day.
1. HERE is a most affecting instance, my young friends, before your eyes of a vicious youth, under the age of twenty-four years, brought to a disgraceful, untimely death, by the vindictive hand of public justice ; and it is at once a warning to you, and a proof that God's own words are words of truth. Look on this criminal, and be- lieve that 'he who pursueth evil, pursneth it to his own death,' and that wicked men shall not live out half their days ; believe also that he who being often reproved hard-
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eneth his neck, shall himself suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy; hearken then to the voice of a re- proof from your parents and friends, from the word and providence of God; take heed to your ways, shun the vi- ces and paths of the destroyer; 'flee youthful lusts which war against the soul,' and wound to death your own repu- tation and the bleeding hearts of your tender parents ; be- ware, especially beware of gaming, and that intemperate use of spirituous liquors to which this ill-fated youth was so infamously addicted, and which, by the confession of his own mouth, had the principal hand in bringing him to this miserable end. This is indeed a sore evil under the sun, and it is now common among men ; like a pestilence, 'it walketh in darkness and wasteth at noon day!' A most pernicious evil, full of deadly poison to the manners and morals of youth ; a detestable Pandora's box, whence issue whole swarms of plagues, more numerous "and fatal than those of Egypt, to sting and disturb mankind in all their peace of society, both in towns and families; yea, it now threatens with one mingled mass of ruin, the health and happiness, the lives, fortunes and souls of the most prom- ising part of God's creation : ' Who hath woe ? Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling ? Who hath wounds, with and without a cause ? Who hath red- ness of eyes ?' Who are poor, and steal, and take the name of the Lord in vain ? Who break up houses, commit murder, are confined to prisons, loaded with irons, and die upon the gallows? 'They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixt wine, and are mighty to drink strong drink.' This execution alas! will make the third in this county, occasioned by spirituous liquors; two men in a fit of intoxication committed murder, and suffered the
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pains of death, at Bristol, upwards of seventy-five years ago; these were Indians, and would to God that human nature might never again be so brutalized and rankly dis- graced by any but Indians alone. Could I speak in thun- der, and my voice be heard from pole to pole, it should be the friendly voice of warning to young men, entreating them, by every thing that is dear and valuable, to shun the company and the haunts of tipplers and gamblers ; 'come not nigh the door of the house, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.'
2. THIS example of condign punishment speaks aloud and home to parents and all who are entrusted with the care and education of children. Next to intemperance, as a cause, this malefactor ascribes his licentious life and ignominious death to the want of proper restraint in youth ; left to the care of a mother when young, he had, like too many others, his own way and will without control. His parent we are told is yet alive, if a parent can live who has ' travailed in birth and drawn out the breasts' to such a son ! Can words express the feelings of a parent's heart on such an occasion ; put your soul in her soul's stead this day, and imagine for once, you who are parents, if the thought is not insupportable, that this was your own son ! a son who had 'made himself vile, and you restrained him not,' a son, whose education, whose morals and immortal soul you had neglected, and now is trembling in chains, with the strangling noose about his neck, and ' made a gazing stock ' to thousands around him- at length you follow him to the place of execution; there stand the father who begat him, and the mother who bore him, beholding their son writhing in the agonies of death, and they for him, in agonies as great of living distress ; O how they
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wring their hands, and almost gnaw their tongues, while they cry, 'my son, my son, would to God I might die for thee, O my son, my son,' I am the criminal, and I the guilty thief; 'his. blood be upon us, and not upon our child ;' we are the faulty cause ; our cruel neglect of time- ly instructions, a good example, and the rod of correction, have murdered our son ! The Bible and experience both told us to train him up in the way he should go, and that when he was old he would not depart ; we were command- ed to beat him with a rod, and not spare for his crying, with a promise that he should not die an untimely death, and that we should deliver his soul from hell; but Oh! ' we are guilty, verily guilty, concerning our son, and therefore is this distress come upon us,' as a just punish- ment of our folly as well as his own; go now and write him a monster! pronounce that heart 'an heart of stone, which is not melted and moved out of its place ;' even in sympathy with such pungent parental distress; and may both the sleeping and waking hours of that parent, be per- petually haunted with all the tragical operations of this day, who can after all go home, and neglect the education of his own children; yea, let him take his rank in future with ' the cruel ostrich in the wilderness,' because he is hardened against his young, as though they were not his own.
3. THIS public example of justice adds to the proof, al- ready large, of the existence and wisdom of a special prov- idence : ' Verily there is a God that judgeth in the heav- ens and in the earth.' To deter men from vice, the Deity has mercifully mingled pain and punishment with the very nature and perpetration of it; if we look within we shall find, we shall feel a demonstration of this. Envy and
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malice, rancor and revenge, &c., are 'a generation of vi- pers' in the soul, perpetually stinging and gnawing upon it; yea, they create in that bosom, which is their nest, a little domestic hell, 'where the worm' of envy ' dieth not, and the fire' of malice 'is not quenched.' Vices torment the soul, however, not merely from their nature, and when separately indulged, but from their number and combina- tion. So numerous, and so contrary, in their desires and separate interests, that they raise a kind of civil war with- in; for while one lust is gratified, another is displeased ; while the man humours and feeds his covetousness, he is obliged to starve luxury and affront his pride ; and even should ' Beelzebub cast out devils,' or one predominant mas- ter lust conquer a number of its inferiors, there would be even in this infernal conquest an opposition, which must create pain and vexation. But if to the misery which is entailed on vice, in its nature and in their jaring numbers, we add that which both attends and follows vicious actions, we shall still have a greater proof of the wisdom and good- ness of divine providence, by which it is evidently decreed, that bold transgressors shall not only be punished in this world, but in numberless instances shall in fact be punish- ed according to the laws of a strict retaliation. I have seen (says Eliphaz) that they who plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same; his mischief (says the Psalm- ist) shall return upon his own head, and his violent deal- ings shall come down upon his own pate; and even after conscience hath long slept, and no human justice could pursue the criminal, his own iniquity has at last found him out, and by some remarkable incident in providence brought him to deserved punishment. In this view it is worthy of observation, that soon after the commitment of this prison-
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er to the goal in this town, he was providentially discover- ed late in the night upon the point of an escape from this, as he had before done from every other prison he had been confined to ; this alarmed the sheriff, who knowing and la- menting the enfeebled state of the gaol, thought it unsafe to risque a second attempt, and therefore appointed him a guard ; and to this single circumstance, however trifling or accidental it may appear, must be ascribed under provi- dence, the memorable event of this day. Rather than wicked men should go unpunished, by any neglect of gov- ernment, all-wise providence will take occasion from that neglect, and make a superannuated gaol the very means of their execution. 'The weakness of God is stronger than men,' and ever will be too strong for the guilty to escape. Let us, especially of this county, notice a providence so friendly to government, and remember that this in full can- not be done until the new proposed gaol shall be complet- ed, with every needful precaution of strength and security. Finally,
WHEN we look at this unhappy criminal, and think what would the poor wretch give that he were in our condition : Let none of us indulge, or nourish in our hearts the pride of the Pharisee, or even so much as think, in a way of boasting, what he spoke with his mouth, 'God I thank thee, that I am not as other men, or even as this malefac- tor .; ' when perhaps the principal distinction between him and numbers here present may be nothing more than the gilding of a coffin or the paint of a sepulchre ; and even of some others, the difference may consist only in this, that he is detected and condemned, but they as yet are con- cealed from human eye, while in the eye of God omnis- cient, both they and we and 'all have sinned, and come
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STEPIIEN HULL. ENOCHI SANFORD.
short of his glory.' Condemned therefore by the same law, guilty before the same God, we are all the prisoners of divine justice, and equally need repentance and pardoning mercy, through the blood of the same atonement. 'Ex- cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ;' repent there- fore, let us all, and ' be converted, that we may have re- demption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace ; and receive in the end the riches of the glory of the inheritance, in his everlasting kingdom.' Amen."
Rev. STEPHEN HULL succeeded Doctor Fobes in the ministry of Raynham. He had a previous settlement in Amesbury of this State, and was installed* in Raynham, September 9, 1812, about seven months after the decease of his predecessor. He continued Pastor till May 1, 1823, when, on his own request, he was dismissed. He after- wards preached at Carlisle. During Mr. Hull's ministry of nearly eleven years, fifty-two persons were received to the church. In 1820, there was an unusual religious in- terest, and not far from forty united with the People of God.
Rev. ENOCH SANFORD succeeded Mr. Hull, and was the fourth minister of Raynham. His ordination took place October 2, 1823. Mr. Sanford was a native of Berkley, in 1795, a graduate of Brown University in 1820, where he was called to be Tutor, at the same time with Hon. Horace Mann, a graduate of the preceding
* Rev. Elias Hull of Seabrook, N. H., offered the Introductory Prayer; Rev. Mr. Milton of Newbury, preached the sermon; Rev. Doctor Sanger of Bridgewater, gave the Charge; Rev. Mr. Barker of Middle- boro', offered the Consecrating Prayer; Rev. Mr. Gurney of Middlebo- ro', gave the Right Hand of Fellowship; Rev. Doctor Reed of Bridge- water, offered the Concluding Prayer.
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year. Mr. Sanford retained the Pastoral office in Rayn- , ham, till 1847, since which time, he has officiated at Hali- fax and North Raynham.
Rev. ROBERT CARVER succeeded Mr. Sanford and is the present Pastor. Mr. Carver was born in Taunton, graduated at Yale, in 1833, was settled for a time in Ber- lin, Mass., and afterwards installed in Raynham, Decem- ber 1, 1847.
Calvinistic Baptist Church.
DOCTOR FOBES stated in 1793, (in his Topographical de- scription of Raynham,) that "nearly one third part of the two hundred families" then in Raynham were "of the Baptist denomination." They held their meetings at first in private houses. They now have a neat place of wor- ship in the south-easterly part of the town, bordering on Middleboro'. Elder Briggs, who died not long since in a good old age, in Middleboro', preached for many years to this people. They have now no settled minister among them.
The Second Congregational Church.
THIS was formed during the ministry of Rev. Mr. San- ford, in April, 1828; when twenty-five individuals con- nected with the original church, withdrew, and established a separate meeting.
With the exception of occasional supplies from other sources, this church and society enjoyed the Pastoral labor of Rev. Simeon Doggett,* son-in-law of Doctor Fobes,
* Mr. Deane has traced the descent of his father-in-law as follows :- Thomas Doggett was at Marshfield in 1654; married 17 May, 1654, to Joan Chillingworth, widow of Thomas Chillingworth, and died Sep- tember, 1692. He left children : Rebeckah, born 29 July, 1655, Samuel,
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SIMEON DOGGETT.
until their suspension of stated public worship some two or three years since. Rev. Mr. Dogget was the first Prin- cipal of Bristol Academy. He delivered the address at its dedication and opening, the 18th day of July, 1796, which was requested for the press through a Committee of the Trustees, consisting of Mr. Joseph Tisdale, Apollos Leonard, Esq., Doctor Peres Fob'es, James Williams, Esq., and Hon. Seth Padelford. It was printed the year follow- ing by J. Spooner of New-Bedford, and is a discourse on education well worthy of publication.
Mr. Doggett died March 20, 1852, aged eighty-seven . years and fourteen days.
Union Meeting.
THIS is held in a small chapel erected by the Old Col- ony Iron Company, on the Raynham side of the river, at Squawbetty. It was consecrated by ministers of different denominations about ten years ago, and has been open for religious services of various kinds most of the time since. There is an interesting Sabbath School connected with the meeting.
who lived in Scituate many years, whose posterity settled in Boston, and John, the father of Thomas and Hannah. Hannah died without issue. Thomas, who lived in Marshfield, had children, John and Thom- as. John died without issue. Thomas married Joanna Fuller, moved to Middleboro' in 1742; became a respectable farmer, had six sons and two daughters. Of these, Simeon, born January 7, 1738, married a Pratt, and had children, Elkanalı, who died æt. 28; Abigail, who mar- ried a Weston, of Middleboro'; Thomas, who married Phebe Dean, of Taunton; and Simeon, who married Nancy Fobes, of Raynham.
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CHAPTER IX.
CHURCHES AND MINISTRY OF BERKLEY.
BERKLEY* became a distinct townt in 1735, having been like Raynham, a part of the original purchase in 1637, although a portion of it belonged to the South Purchase, and had been included in Dighton, up to the time of its becoming a separate township.
A church was organized in Berkley Nov. 2, 1737. " The Council convened for the purpose was composed of the Rev. Nathaniel Fisher, Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, and Rev. Thomas Clap, with their delegates. It then consist- ed of eighteen (forty-nine) members."#
* Whether the town was named in honor of the distinguished Bishop Berkley I am unable to say. When we remember that the residence of the Bishop, when in this country, was at Newport, R. I., a town not far removed, and that his fame as a liberal, high-minded man - the patron of learning and religion was then at its zenith, it appears not unlikely that our fathers thought to perpetuate the memory of a man, " willing to relinquish all his preferments, and to dedicate his days to the office of instructing American youth," in some such way. Tradition affirms, that the author of the " Minute Philosopher " sent the people of Berk- ley an expensive Organ, which they in the simplicity of their worship, respectfully declined accepting. We are also assured, that this same Organ is now in one of the Churches in Newport.
t It is stated in the Am. Quart. Reg. (vol. 12, p. 139,) that by the Act of Incorporation, the town was required to build a meeting-house and settle a minister.
# Richard Storrs Andros, son of Rev. Thomas Andros, communicat- ed the above facts. Rev. L. R. Eastman, now settled in Berkley, made out a catalogue of members in 1847 and reckoned fifty original members. According to the Records of the Church, which have recently passed in- to my hands, there were forty-nine. Their names were as follows : Sam- uel Tobey, Pastor ; Elkanah Babbit, Ebenezer Hathaway, Gershom
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SAMUEL TOBEY.
Rev. SAMUEL TOBEY was the first Pastor of the church in Berkley. Born in Sandwich in 1715, he graduated at Cambridge in 1733, and was ordained in Berkley Nov. 23, 1737, the same month with the organization of the church .* His ministry extended to the time of his death, which occurred suddenly Feb. 13, 1781, including a peri- od therefore of nearly forty-four years.
Crane. John French, Ebenezer Phillips, John Briggs, Ephraim Allen, Benjamin Leonard, John Hudson, Josiah Babbit, Benjamin Babbit, George Babbit, Daniel Axtell, in number fourteen : Abigail Burt, Mary Phillips, Mary Jones, Hopestill Harvey, Hannah French. Experience Myrick, Hopestill Woods, Elizabeth Holloway, Mary Babbit, Sarah Briggs, Abigail Babbit, Dorcas Jones, Hopestill Phillips, Zipporah Allen, Elizabeth Paul, Dorcas Babbit, Waitstill Axtell, Plebe Reed, Jamina Hathaway, Abigail Burt, being in number, twenty - all these belonging before to the churches of Dighton and Taunton.
Taken into ye church ye same day, and gathered with ye before men- tioned ones ye following persons : Males ; Edward Paull, Adam Jones, Benjamin Paull, Joseph Burt, Samuel Myrick, John Paull, James Phil- lips, Seth Briggs, Benjamin Babbit, Samuel Jones, Isaac Babbit, being in number, eleven - Females; Ann Briggs, Mary Phillips, Mehitable Babbit, Sarah Darling, being in number, four. The Lord bless them all. All of which being added together make a church of forty-nine persons : 25 males ; 24 females."
I have copied these names, as they appear in the catalogue of mem- bers, without regard to alphabetical or family arrangement, that the original might be strictly adhered to. This course has been pursued in previous lists, which I have had occasion to introduce in this work, that I might not, even in the small matter comparatively of collocation, de- viate from the record. Gershom Crane, and Daniel Axtell were ap- pointed Deacons. Although neither Mr. Andros nor Mr. Eastman have stated the number of the original members with perfect accuracy, the records confirm the statement of the former concerning the organization of the church : "November ye 2d, 1737. The church was Embodied by ye Rev'd Mr. Nathaniel Fisher, Benjamin Ruggles, and Thomas Clap with y' Delegates."
* The Book of Records already referred to, in the hand writing of Mr. Tobey, contains the following entries concerning the call and set- tlement of the first minister of Berkley, "January ye Ist, 1736, I was invited to preach at Berkley, and accordingly came. August ye 3d, 1736, the people of Berkley gave me a call to settle among them, in ye work of ye ministry, offering me two hundred pounds for my settlement, and one hundred for my salary. Sept. ye Ist, ensuing, I met with ye town, and by their adding to their first offer ye contribution money which should be contributed every Sabbath, and stating my salary at silver 26s per oz. I accepted yr call. November ye 23, 1737, I was ordained Pas- tor over the church and congregation in Berkley. The Rev'd Elders
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In the Church Record Book, which appears to have been kept with great fidelity by Mr. Tobey, and unlike those of many other churches has fortunately escaped the ravages of time, are to be found interesting matters per- sonal : " Sept. ye 6th, 1738, I was married to Bathsheba Crocker .* October ye 31, I moved into my House.t Will God speak well of ye House of His servants for a great while to come, and as for me and my Household, we will serve ye Lord. Celia, our first child, born August ye 29th, 1739, on Wednesday, between one and two at night. Samuel, our second child, born August ye 11th, 1741, on Tuesday, about sunset. May ye 28th, 1743, my dear child Samuel died, on Saturday, a little after sun-rising ; oh, that his death might be sanctified unto us, his Parents, for our spiritual good. June ye 5th, 1743, our third child born, on ye first day of ye week, early in ye morning. Baptized ye same day by ye name of Samuel. Sept. ye 25th, 1745, our fourth child born on Wednesday about 8 of ye clock, in ye morning, called Timothy. Nathaniel, our fifth child born August the 17th, 1747, on Monday morning, about 3 of ye clock. Isaac, our sixth child, born July ye 20th, 1749, on Thursday, between seven and eight at night. Enoch, our seventh child, born Sept. ye 2d, 1751, on Monday evening, between eight and nine of
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