USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Wakefield Congregational church; a commemorative sketch. 1644-1877 > Part 3
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The church has received at different times valuable tokens of regard from its own members. Legacies have been left it by Dea. Kendall Parker in 1755, by Thomas Burnap in 1773. and by Dea. Aaron Bryant in 1870. The aggregate amount of these gifts is now $1400, the interest of which is used for the relief of members of the church who need it, and for church expenses. Articles of silver plate have been given by Hou. Atherton Haugh, Lient. John Pool. Dea. Nathaniel Stow, Peter Emerson, John Pratt. Thomas Pool. Kendall Goodwin, Dea. Jonathan Temple, Joseph Burnap, Jonathan Nicholls, Joseph Hopkins and Rev. Renben Emerson. A few of the articles were, some years since, for reasons that were deemed sufficient, changed into other forms, but most remain as they were given, and all are in the church service.
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The pleasure of going back over the records of a church whose history covers so many years is no common one. They reveal toil, suffering, joy. prayer, conflict and triumph. They admit us into many homes, reveal the secret of some disgrace, and explain why, while some families rose, others receded. They show how the prosperity of good men slow- ly increased, and how successive generations found growing strength in the same faith. As we read them. we trace in many channels the good results of the word of God. We see evidences of increasing charity, desire to do right, and care in balancing the seales of justice ; and the conviction gains strength that a Christian Church, standing by itself. without aid from bishops or synods, is fully competent to settle difficulties. preserve harmony, keep the gospel pure. and commend religion to men. We gain, also, new impres- sions of the power for good which is lodged in the hands of a few christian people. By a wise direction of the affairs of a church, giving due honor to the institutions of religion. welcoming the faithful preaching of the gospel, setting before men an example of self-restraint, generosity, frugality. and Christian honor. they can do much to mould that public opinion out of which wise laws, virtuous habits, and sound principles spring. The worth of the gospel appears in a new light, and excites deeper feelings of confidence and gratitude.
From this rapid sketch of the history of this church we may well gain new lessons of fidelity to both God and man. While we do not worship our fathers, let us not forget them. nor leave incomplete the work they have committed to us. Their God is our God. Their work is our work ; and may our record be as bright as theirs.
CONCERNING EIGHT PASTORS.
EPHESIANS 4. 11-And he gare some. apostles ; and some, prophets; and some. evangelists; and some. pastors and teachers.
It was a mark of divine wisdom in Christ that he exalted that which was interior and spiritual, above that which was exterior and formal. Though he established a visible church. he yet so devised it that its strength should not lie in any carefully adjusted orders, or in any graded and balanced ecclesiastical authority, but rather in the truth of which it was to be the pillar and the ground. Nevertheless, he did not omit to provide instruments through whose agency that truth should be brought often and effectively to the minds of men. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. led by his spirit and commissioned by his providence, were sent forth as students of his will, expounders of his law, and - preachers of the good tidings of his grace.
These terms, used by St. Paul, do not indicate definite and distinct ranks in an outward organism, but rather classes of teachers, often intermingling with each other, and to be em- ployed as the circumstances of men, or the exigencies of the cause, might require their services. There are apostles now. if the word be used in its literal sense, to denote those sent forth as the Lord's messengers. There are prophets, if the word be used in one of its accredited meanings, to refer to those skilful to explain the truths of religion. And as for pastors and teachers, the church has never forgotten that if the gospel is to win the place it deserves in the faith and love of mankind, it must have a class of men set apart to declare it-men not specially inspired, nor consecrated by the laying
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on of apostolic hands, nor dependent upon any alliance with earthly power, but simply rendered capable by the devo- tion of time and energies, to expound the gospel, and justify the ways of God to men.
The Puritans of New England adhered with great firmness to this conviction. They esteemed the minister as, in some respects, the most important personage among them. not be- cause he assumed high prerogatives, nor because his office awakened their awe, but because he was a more reliable in- terpreter than others, of the will of Him in obedience to whom they had crossed the sea. The records of this church afford sufficient evidence that its founders were abreast with their brethren throughout the colony in their devotion to this Puritanic and Christian idea : and its history, so far as light is thrown upon it by the character of the ministry it has sus- tained, shows little departure from the ground taken two hundred and thirty-two years ago.
Of this ministry I am now to speak. My plan will inchide brief sketches of the lives of the first eight pastors, the last of whom rested from his work at an advanced age, in 1860.
REV. HENRY GREEN.
This name stands first upon the list. The time and place of Mr. Green's birth are unknown. On arriving in the country he first went to Watertown. Being a young man of scholarly habits, his services as a teacher were in requisition. Coming to this place as early as the year 1645. though not a minister, the church elected him to that office. thereby asserting at the outset the anti-prelatical principle. to maintain which they had left their native land. The proof of this statement is found in JJohnson's "Wonder Working Providence." Sketching the origin of this church, he says- ".The people ordained a minister from among themselves-a young man of good abilities and very humble behavior, by the name of Green."# No account of his ordination exists.
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Cotton Mather. in his Magnalia. Vol. 1, Page 214. includes Mr. Green among those who-
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but probably, after the primitive method, the Deacons of the church laid their hands upon him. and solemnly set him apart to be their minister. The time of his service was short. for in three years he died. The place of his burial is doubt- less near us, but the exact spot is not known.
REV. SAMUEL HAUGH.
Mr. Haugh was born in Boston. England. in 1620, and came to this country in 1634. His father, Hon. Atherton Haugh, was a man of some note, having been mayor of Boston, Eng., and came to our Boston as one of the Colonial Assistants. He accompanied his pastor, Rev. John Cotton ; and though a pillar of the first church in Boston. he was a disciple of Anne Hutchinson. Tradition, however, does not say that the preaching of the son disseminated here the antinomian heresy. The son entered the first class in Harvard College, but did not graduate. With other board- ers in the family of a Mr. Nathaniel Eaton, in Cambridge, he was subjected to severe discipline and short rations, and. having made complaint to the authorities, a suit, which was carried to the General Court and occasioned not a little dis- turbance, was the consequence ; and one writer adduces this as the probable cause of his failure to take a degree. Be this as it may, the account of the affair which is given at length in a confession of Mrs. Eaton, which Winthrop de- tails in his history, excites a good deal more sympathy for the boarder than for the host.
Mr. Haugh began his ministry here in 1648, but. in accord- ance with a practice then common and pursued long after- ward, he was not ordained till two years later. The church then numbered about twenty members, and had just com- pleted its first place of worship on Albion street. Mr. Haugh, who was a man of wealth, having property in Bos-
"exercised their ministry first in England," and brought the gospel to this country. As, however, he gives no facts about his having preached in England, and as he knew so little of him as to be ignorant of his first name, it is probable that his judgment was based rather on a surmise than a kuown fact.
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tou, Cambridge, and Braintree, owned and occupied the ground on which the town hall and adjacent buildings now stand. The service of Mr. Haugh continued twelve years. Being in attendance upon the memorable synod which was held in Boston in 1662, he was seized with disease, and died in that city, at the age of forty-two.
We have from his pen nothing save his will, which is given at length in the town history, and a few pages in our church records. He was master of a very delicate style of penman- ship, of which, however, if the reader would obtain the mas- tery, he must be very patient and somewhat inventive. Some of the entries made by him, while showing a zeal for church order and purity, might be thought to betray undue care for ministerial dignity. "High and ill language given to the Pastor," and suspicions that certain young men "laughed and jeered at the Minister," and an. "offensive libel made and published by singing it," were, in his view, ade- quate reasons for resorting to discipline. ITis station in life, perhaps, made his ears too susceptible to possible slights. His style of expressing his thoughts was very accurate and pleasing, and the spirit by which he was actuated seems to have been a devoted one.
REV. JOHN BROCK.
The successor of Mr. Haugh was Rev. John Brock, who became possessed not of his pulpit alone. Upon an early page of the records we read this entry in his handwriting- "John Brock, called by the church to officiate among them after Mr. Haugh's decease at Boston, and dismissed to them from the Dedham church, was joined to them the Lord's day before ordination, and Nov. 13, 1662, he was ordained, and the day after, he was married to Mrs. Sarah Haugh, a widow indeed." Mr. Haugh had died less than six months before. We are not enlightened as to the reasons which led Mrs. Haugh to content herself with so short a widowhood, though we can easily see why she did not reject the advances of such a man as Mr. Brock. Alone of all the pastors of this church,
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he has arrived at the distinction of having his name quoted. and peculiarities described, in Cyclopedias and histories. Rev. Cotton Mather wrote a sketch of his life ; and other writ- ers, and especially the compilers of the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, have made copious extracts from it. For the purpose of giving a glimpse of the writer of the sketch as well as the subject of it, I will quote some of its characteristic paragraphs : "Designing to write the lives of some learned men who have been the issue and the honor of Harvard College, let my reader be rather admonished than scandalized, if the first of these lives exhibit one whose goodness was above his learning, and whose chief learning was his goodness. If any one had asked Rev. John Brock what art he pursued, he might truly say-My art is to be good.' He was a good grammarian chiefly in this-that he still spoke the truth from his heart. He was a good logician chiefly in this-that he presented himself unto God with a reasonable service. IIe was a good arithmetician chiefly in this-that he so numbered his days as to apply his heart unto wisdom. Hle was a good astronomer chiefly in this- that his conversation was in heaven. It was chiefly by being a good Christian that he was a good artist." "Good men," he continues, "that labor and abound in prayer to the great God, sometimes arrive at the assurance of a particular faith for the good success of their prayers. The wondrous melting's, the mighty wrestlings, the quiet waitings, the holy resolves, that are characteristic of a particular faith. are the works of the Holy Spirit. Eminent was Mr. Broek for this grace." He then gives several examples of direct, immedi- ate, and special answers to Mr. Broek's prayers. Other men wrote of him in the same strain. declaring that he "lived as near God as any man on earth."
Several items in the records illustrate his earnest Christian spirit. He speaks as it with contempt of a certain difficulty: between brethren, resulting in their "falling into a quarrel -; ling passion over a few cocks of hay." He labors to raise the tone of piety, and enters heartily into the plans of the ministers to hold the churches up to the primitive
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standard. It was, however, in his pastorate, and by his counsel, that the mischievous half way covenant was intro- duced into this church. Yet it was then an untried measure, and one into which the churches felt themselves to be driven ; and they who see its disastrous results have no right to ques- tion either the integrity or the judgment of those who, hay- ing no light of experience to guide them, followed the best light they had.
Mr. Brock was born in Stradbrook, Eng. ; graduated at Harvard ; preached at the Isles of Shoals ; and came hither in 1662. He died in 1688, after a pastorate of twenty-six years. at the age of sixty-eight.
REV. JONATHAN PIERPONT,
The fourth pastor, was born in Roxbury, in 1665; gradu- ated at Harvard in 1685 ; was for a while tutor there ; and was ordained here in 1689. Two years later, at the age of twenty-six, he married ; and it illustrates both the custom of the time, and his own filial spirit, to say that he did not take that important step till he had asked the consent of his parents.
The few records which Mr. Pierpont left of himself show that he was a man of clear mind, precise habits, and a deeply religious spirit. That he was a man of more than ordinary power in the pulpit, may fairly be inferred from the fact that he received at least five calls before accepting that from this church. A circumstance that had weight in finally leading him here, existed in the fact that, being present at the funeral of Mr. Brock, and seeing the deep affection of the people for him, he formed a high estimate of them. Mr. Pierpont worked effectively not alone as a preacher. Coming hither on the 28th of November, he appointed a fast for the 6th of December, another for February 27th, another for May 29th ; and on the 26th day of June, after a preparation of that sort, he was ordained as pastor. Like his predecessor, he was a believer in prayer, and made frequent appointments of prayer meetings with members of his own church and with
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neighboring ministers. It is a mistake to suppose that prayer meetings are only a modern practice in our churches. There were fewer stated ones formerly. yet. prayer meetings were common, at least in Mr. Pierpont's pastorate. Instances are given in the town history. Another is furnished me by the pastor of the church in Danvers, Mr. Rice, from the diary of one of his predecessors. Rev. Joseph Green writes, under date of July 2d. 1708. as follows: "I went with B. Putnam to Reading (Wakefield ). to Dea. Fitches, to spend the day in prayer for him, he being almost blind, and old Mr. Weston quite blind. and other disconsolate and deaf. Mr. Pierpont began ; I prayed : Dea. Fitch, Landlord Putnam and Dea. Bancroft then sung the 146th Psalm; and I con- cluded with a short prayer and a blessing." That the pastor of this church should secure the co-operation of a minister living eight miles away. and spend hours in prayer, to give religious help and comfort to a few old. deaf, blind and dis- consolate people. is a fact that sheds a good deal of light upon the motives and character of the man. Yet this was not an isolated occurrence, but rather an illustration of a practice common with New England pastors of the period. Indeed, in a subsequent pastorate, fifty years later, there is an account in our records of the assembling of several minis- ters here, to pray with a man and his wife who had "fallen into an 'enthusiasticall' state of mind."
The death of Mr. Pierpont. in 1709. was regarded as a pub- lic calamity, and was mentioned in terms of great regret in the diaries of prominent men in Boston and elsewhere. He was but forty-four years old. and had been pastor twenty years.
REV. RICHARD BROWN.
Born in Newbury in 1675, and graduated at Harvard in 1697, Mr. Brown became an instructor in his native town in 1700, and continued in that calling eleven years, when he came to this place. He was ordained the next year, and dis- charged the duties of his office twenty years, dying in 1732, at the age of fifty-seven.
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The most quaint and peculiar records in our church book are from his pen. His accounts of the establishment of a singing school, and of his anxiety to proceed in strict legal methods in church meetings. and of various matters of disci- pline, reveal him to us as a careful. perhaps whimsical, active and progressive man. His diary confirms this general im- pression, and leads us to infer that his feelings were devout and vigorons, though sometimes escaping the control of sound judgment. He had been here eight years when he copied the ancient covenant from records that are now incom- plete ; and the church solemnly renewed it. From the list of members then made, we learn that the church-which then covered the territory embraced in the towns of Melrose, Stoneham, Reading, North Reading, Wilmington and Lyn- field-numbered 236. Within twelve years from that time. however, three churches were formed chiefly from its mem- bership-those of Lynnfield, North Reading and Stoneham- and the number remaining was 184. Mr. Brown, therefore. was pastor when the church reached its most extended influ- ence, and sent out three of its five colonies.
The last entry in Mr. Brown's diary is characteristic of the man, and with it I will close my sketch of him. .. Sept. 12. 1719. I am this day forty-four years old, and have received from God 44,000 mercies, for which I have made but poor returns. The Lord pardon, and make me thankful. I do humbly renew my love with God this day, and give myself to him-my whole self-and resolve that by his grace I will labor to live more closely with him."
Before proceeding to speak of the three succeeding pas- tors, a few remarks of a general nature may well be made. Each of the pastors of this church had his special rounds of duty to fulfil within the bounds of his own parish : but they were all in sympathetic connection with men outside their own field. and keenly alive to those general religious influ- ences which, as every one knows. at times encouraged, and at other times almost convulsed, the churches of New Eng- land. It was, therefore, wholly natural that their position
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on certain questions. both of polity and theology, should be affected by external influences. Doubtless the first two pas- tors accepted the doctrines that none should be allowed to vote in publie matters but church members, and none should be allowed to join the church save such as had been con- verted and baptized. But when numbers of moral and in- dustrious men came to the colony, and, because not men- bers of the church, could not vote, though paving as liberally as others toward the support of both civil and religious institutions ; and when many children of church members , were in like manner and for the same cause disfranchised, great changes of opinion upon the points in question took place. And the third pastor of this church, in obedience to the advice of the Synod of 1662, counselled an abandonment of the old ground, to such an extent as to affirm that a man of moral life might become a member of the church so far as to possess the right to have his children baptized-which would carry with it civil rights-by simply declaring his ae- ceptance of the religion of the Bible, without believing him- self, or being believed by others. to be a converted man. Rev. John Brock, when he thanked God that this church had unanimously approved that doctrine, was under the influ- ence of external opinions, and acting in concert with the lead- ing minds of the colony ; and he did not foresee that the plan whose adoption seemed to call for gratitude would result in the admission of many to the church who could not give a heartfelt adhesion to Puritan doctrines, nor sympathize with the religious life that had been nourished under them. But laborious and earnest Christian men always do more good than harm, and, if in some respects they fail, God appoints to them successors, who, sustained by the good transmitted to them, are better able to withstand the evil. It was so in this church. If in the middle of the seventeenth century one pastor erred, in the middle of the eighteenth another was sent to rectify the error.
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REV. WILLIAM HOBBY.
The sixth pastor, and in some respects the ablest man who has ever ministered here. was Rev. William Hobby. He was born in Boston in 1707 : graduated at Harvard in 1725 ; settled here in 1733 ; and died after a ministry of thirty-two vears, in 1765. at the age of fifty-eight.
Judged by his writings, he was a man of clear and vigor- ous understanding, extensive reading, strong purposes, and a devout spirit. Tradition says of him that he had a high opinion of ministerial dignity ; was somewhat pompous : wore a big wig and large knee buckles ; and was haughty and reserved. This may be true, but it should be considered in connection with well-known facts about New England society of that period. When royal governors occupied the executive chair in Boston, and His Majesty's officers dis- ported themselves in the higher social circles of the province. and scions of nobility were possessing themselves of landed estates to found families, there was a strong tendency in all the towns to break up society into grades. The more wealthy and intelligent, with the minister, formed one grade ; and. as there were no inherited privileges to assist them in pre- serving their superiority. they sought to keep the semblance of it by rules of etiquette. distinctive dress, and reserved manners. This was, therefore, rather the fault of society than of individuals. But if Mr. Hobby was reserved, his reserve was not assumed to conceal ignorance, or shield indo- lence. He was a thorough student, an apt and able writer. and an effective public speaker.
In the year 1741, Rev. George Whitefield, in his tour through the country, stopped in this town and preached on the common. Mr. Hobby heard him, and confessed that "he went to pick a hole in Whitefield's coat, but that the preacher picked one in his heart." He at once espoused the cause of Whitefield, and entered warmly into the controversy which followed the second visit to America of that famous man. The first visit had been welcomed by all classes ; but the sec- ond was the signal for the outbreaking of an opposition as
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violent as it was unaccountable. Whether, during the four years elapsing between the first and the second, it had been discovered that the doctrines preached by Whitefield were not harmonious with those held by many of the ministers, or from some other cause, it was evidently determined that his path should be a rough one. Harvard College, though it had before welcomed him, now entered the lists against him. Her Faculty published their noted "Testimony," which was as re- markable for what it did not contain as for what it did. Its writers had little to say in reproof of the low state of religion, but much in condemnation of the preacher who sought to stir .. up the churches. They asked for peace, but did not seem to suspect that, through the half-way covenant, many might have entered the churches, and some the ministry, who were unconverted, and would naturally be excited on hearing their religion called in question. They fell into the mistake of condemning as a cause of divisions and heartburnings, what was only an occasion of them; and, while Whitefield was striking at the cause, they struck at him. Many ministers joined them. Associations emulated them in publishing each its "Testimony." Dr. Chauncey, pastor of the 1st church in Boston, not only wrote, but travelled-visiting at least four of the provinces, to counsel and warn the churches, Con- necticut passed laws forbidding a minister, if uninvited, to preach in the pulpit of another ; and Dr. Finley, afterward President of Princeton College, was actually carried out of that jurisdiction as a vagrant, for breaking those laws.
But Whitefield was not without friends; and one of the strongest and boldest of these was the pastor of this church. He wrote a long, able and vigorous pamphlet in his defence. . He took up the salient points in the various attacks upon him, and, in excellent temper, with some wit and great acute- ness, turned them against his assailants. Many of his para- graphs are well worth transcribing; a few of them are as follows :
"Does he not preach the same Faith, the same Lord, the same Baptism? It is true, indeed, he is in labors more abun- dant, in zcal more flaming, and in success more remarkable.
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