USA > New York > Suffolk County > Riverhead > Bi-centennial : history of Suffolk County, comprising the addresses delivered at the celebration of the bi-centennial of Suffolk County, N.Y., in Riverhead, November 5, 1883 > Part 4
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Two hundred years! As one stands under the shadow of the pyramids which looked down upon the exodus of Israel, or even under the English Cathedral roofs which sheltered the followers of the Conqueror, two hun- dred years seem but a little time; as yesterday when it is passed. But in a country like ours, where everything is new, this story of the exodus of our fathers is a venerable and sacred possession. And we do well to cherish it, not only because it is the most venerable possession we have, but because in its principle and its motive, it appeals to that which is best and truest, and most permanent in the universal human heart. It was from no impulse of momentary pique, or of disappointed selfishness, nor from any greed of gain, or passion of adventure, or ambition of discovery, that these men left the old for the new, the known for the unknown. There was in truth a divine call, pressing its authority upon them, summoning them, as ingenuous and true men have been called in every age-as Abra- ham himself was called- to go out not knowing whither they went, relin- quishing country, and kindred, and father's house, the graves of their sires, and the precious traditions of many generations. They felt the weight of human tyranny; there was doubtless in many a heart the spring and im- pulse of repressed indignation. But after all, they felt like one of old who could look up and say:
" When men of spite against me join "They are the sword, the hand is Thine."
They felt the sword, but they recognized more the hand that was behind it. It was for God that they came. A deep reverence for religion, and a desire to divorce it from all accretions of superstition and to cleanse it from all the profanations of licentiousness, a profound regard for public morals, a love for the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the family, and a determination to uphold the authority and the sanctity of each by safeguards of just law, and pure government, these motives overtopped the feeling of indignation and the sense of injuries received at the hands of any human authority.
In one of the public squares of Boston there stands a statue, recently erected to the memory of John Winthrop. It represents the old first Gov- ernor of Massachusetts as stepping from a gang-plank to the shore, hold- ing in one hand the charter of the newly formed colony, and pressing to his heart with the other the Word of God; the latter copied carefully from the old family Bible, which the Governor himself brought over with the charter, and which is now in the possession of his honored descendant, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. The sentiment of the statue is true to fact. With all respect for human laws the fathers loved the divine. They would have faith with freedom, religion with liberty; a liberty as Governor Win- throp himself defined it, "to do that only which is good and just and honest.
The founders of our religious institutions in Suffolk County were of these New England puritans. There are no honors belonging to Massa- chusetts or Connecticut which we may not equally claim for our own an- cestors. North Sea was another Shawmut, Southold a repetition of Quin- nipiac. Even when in 1664, Charles II., by letters patent to the Duke of York, cut off these eastern towns from their political connection with New England, the ties of religious and ecclesiastical sympathy refused to be severed. Their brethren were on the northern main. To them they looked for counsel, and when they needed it for material help, and did not look in vain. And to this day Long Island is essentially a part of New En-
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gland in feeling, in moral character, in intelligence, in social customs, in speech, in family surnames, as it ought to be, in the speaker's humble opinion, in geographical and political allotment.
Such having been the point of departure, and such the motives and in- fluences under which progress was begun, we turn now to view the process of moral and religious development. The chief formative influence with- out doubt, at that time was the pulpit. The ministry was not subordinate to, so much as it was co-ordinate with, the magistracy. Indeed, in some respects the latter was subordinate. All civil regulations being based upon the Mosaic code, and the minister being the authorized interpreter of that code, to him the magistrate often looked for judicial direction. The func- tion of the pulpit in those days was large. The minister had to read and think for the entire community. He was the fountain not only of Theol- ogy, but of Philosophy, moral, political, social, natural. No review or newspaper invaded his province. The pews had never read in advance of the Sunday's sermon. The pulpit was the type of that modern invention, the phonograph, which gathers into its ear whatever voices may be stir- ring in the air, and grinds them out again with an intonation of its own, for the benefit of the curious bystanders. What the ministers were think- ing about in those days, what were the subjects which enlisted religious and speculative thought, is a question which it would be interesting to fol- low out. It was not Evolution. It was settled more firmly in their minds, than the everlasting hills upon their foundations, that the universe visible and invisible was created out of absolute non-entity in six literal days of twenty-four hours each. It was not Inspiration. The Book as they held it in their hands was the immediate product of the breath of God, blowing through human lips and tremulous in the penman's stylus. The Hebrew of the Old Testament was, by that fact, acknowledged the Holy tongue once spoken in the Earthly Paradise and to be spoken again by all redeemed souls as the one dialect of Heaven. It was not Eschatol- ogy. The last things to be revealed were as fixed and palpable to their anticipations, as were the unchangeable facts of the past to their memory. What then were they thinking about? If anyone shall wish two hundred years hence to know what themes engaged the thoughtful men of this year of grace 1883, I leave for him now this piece of advice: that he go to the libraries of our Colleges and Theological Seminaries and hunt up, if they are then in existence, the Commencement programmes containing the themes of our graduates. Your Commencement orator prides himself in wrestling with the problems of the time.
Now during the first century of our country's history there was a suc- cession of remarkable men filling the pulpits of these churches who were graduates of Harvard College. These were:
I. Nathaniel Brewster, in Brookhaven, 1665-'90.
2. Joshua Hobart, in Southold, 1674-1717.
3. Joseph Whiting, in Southampton, 1680-1723. Of whom Cotton Mather writes in the Magnalia: "Joseph is at this day a worthy and pain -- ful minister of the Gospel, at Southampton, on Long Island."
4. John Harriman, in Southampton, 1675-'79.
5. Joseph Taylor, in Southampton, 1680-'82.
6. George Phillips, in Brookhaven, 1697-1739.
7. Ebenezer White, in Bridge-Hampton, 1695-1748.
. 8. Nathaniel Huntting, in East-Hampton, 1696-1746. .
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9. Timothy Symmes, in Aquebogue, 1738-1750.
IO. Sylvanus White, in Southampton, 1727-1782.
These men, whose pastorates averaged 32.9 years, or, if we make no account of two brief pastorates, of four and two years, respectively, more than 40 years, were leavening the thought and directing the morals, and in- "spiring the piety of their time. Our fathers learned from these men sobri- ety of thought, accuracy of judgment, reverence for life. They filled the civilization of their day with fine forces which perpetuated their influence to these later times.
If now you look at the Commencement programmes of Harvard Col- lege* for this period, you will learn something about the questions politi- cal, theological, speculative, social and scientific, that were filling the minds of thoughtful men and so percolating downwards from them into the thought of the community. You will find that, while they were still under the fringes of the cloud of medieval superstition in some respects, they were fast emerging into the clearer light of modern time. While they were still maintaining great respect for constituted authority, they were already claiming the right to investigate its foundations, and criticise its action and, if need be, revolutionize its methods. You can hardly fail to detect the germs of our revolutionary movements when you read from the pro- grammes of the middle of the seventeenth century such questions as these:
" Is a monarchical government the best ?" Affirmed in 1698.
"Is the royal power absolutely by divine right ?" Denied in 1723.
"Is civil government originally founded in the consent of the people?" Affirmed in 1725.
"Is unlimited obedience to rulers taught by Christ and His apostles ?" Denied in 1729.
"Is the voice of the people the voice of God?" Affirmed in 1733.
" Are we bound to observe the mandates of Kings, unless they them- selves keep their agreements with their subjects ?" Denied in 1738.
"Is it lawful to resist the Supreme magistrate if the commonwealth can not otherwise be preserved ?" Affirmed in 1743, by Sam. Adams.
Thought was progressing and ripening very evidently. There is great advance here upon that first proposi.ion, " that monarchical government is best " in 1698. The culmination comes in 1770, when these two ques- tions are discussed, and the affirmative maintained:
"Is a government tyrannical, in which the rulers consult their own in- terest more than that of their subjects ?"
"Is a government despotic, in which the people have no check upon the legislative power ?"
The farmers were about ready for Lexington and Concord then. Among these questions here and there appear hints also of that conflict which was then in the far future, which we have now passed, and which may well be called our country's second Revolution. "Is it lawful to sell Africans ?" No! was the response from the Commencement boards of 1724. "Is it lawful to subject Africans to perpetual bondage?" No! in 1761. Mark the ominous date ! " Are the offspring of slaves born slaves ?" "No!" said these men of Suffolk in Massachusetts, and of Suffolk on Long
*For the questions which follow, I am indebted to an exceedingly interesting paper, read before the Mass. Historical Society in June, 1880, by the Rev. Edward J. Young, late Professor of Hebrew in Harvard College.
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Island, in 1766-the responses which their sons in 1866, had reasserted, and vindicated, and forever established, with their blood.
Contemporaneous with this activity of thought in politics were other discussions which would sound strangely enough to us. Science had not yet passed out of Alchemy into Chemistry, or out of Astrology into Astron- omy. Men still believed in an Elixir of Life, a universal solvent, and the possibility of converting all metals into gold. They still believed in the possibility of squaring the circle, and that the earth was the centre of the starry sphere. In 1674 it was maintained that the starry heaven was made of fire; in 1687, that there is a stone that makes gold; in 1703, that metals can be changed into one another alternately; in 1762, that the heavenly bodies produce certain changes in the bodies of animals; in 1767, that all bodies, not even excepting metals and stones, are produced from seed. The question was still mooted in 1699, whether there is a circulation of the blood, and whether there is a universal remedy. And for many years after it was believed that a certain powder existed which would infallibly cure all wounds by being sprinkled upon the weapon that produced them.
Then turning to questions more immediately related to our subject of Religious Progress, we find that during the same period, while much of their thinking was characterized by discussion and hairsplitting, such as the school-men would have delighted in, much of it also was really in ad- vance of the time and touched upon themes that are vital even now. They seemed to delight in chopping logic as though immortal interests de- pended upon the argument, and yet they did frequently come down to matters intimately related to the conduct of life. Three times, at least, during this period the question was discussed with more solemnity than such a question would admit of to-day before the highest court of our land, whether, if Lazarus, by a will made before his death, had given away his property, he could legally have claimed it after his resurrection." " Is the soul transmitted by generation, or is it in every case an immediate creation by God?" "Do angels have matter and form?" "Is the Pope or the Turk to be regarde l as Anti-Christ?" "If a man is born deficient in one limb, will he ve deficient in the same limb on the day of Resurrec- t.on." " Will the blessed in the future world after the last judgment make use of articulate speech, and will that be Hebrew ?" But notwithstanding all this which seems very childish to us, they were making real progress in many ways. You cannot withhold your profoundest respect for men who were maintaining in the sime public way, a hundred and fifty years ago, that charity and mutual tolerance among the professors of christianity are most conducive to the promotion of true religion; that a faithful inquirer into the truth of the sacred Scriptures, even though he should fall into error, may not be called a heretic; that the limits of church fellowship should not be narrower than those of eternal salvation; that disputes re- lating to theology are generally injurious to religion; and that the toler- ation of every religion tends to promote true religion.
I have dwelt thus at length upon these questions because they show better than any other indices accessible to me what our representative men and religious leaders were thinking about during our first century, what they deemed important and vital. They reflect the spirit and temper of the century. They show us that while doctrine remained substantially unchanged, theological asperities were even then softening. They ex- hibit, also, the operation of a principle that is ever true, that as men of
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diverse theories draw near to a crisis of common danger, as our Colonies did towards the close of their first century, they begin to grow charitable and mutually lenient.
In 1764 Whitefield passed through Suffolk County on his way through the provinces, awakening generally a degree of enthusiasm such as had never been experienced before in America, and such as, perhaps, under the changed conditions, would be impossible now. He preached in Southold, Bridge-Hampton and East-Hampton, but for some reason, but little is known of these labors or of their results. From the silence with which in some narratives of the time his work is passed over, and from a few well- ascertained facts, the great proto-evangelist of America seems not to have been received with any great favor. Dr. Buell's "Narrative of the remark- able revival in East-Hampton in the year 1764," a book which holds in the religious literature of Long Island a place like Jonathan Edward's " Narra- tive of the surprising work of God in Northampton in 1735," in the reli- gious history of New England, does not deign to notice the fact of White- field's visit to that church in the very year of which it treats. Mr. White or Southampton, positively refused to recognize him as the messenger of God and closed his pulpit door against him. His action has seemed to some invidious and unchristian. But in view of the spirit that was abroad in the air at the time, I am not ready to take a place with those who charge the cautious minister of Southampton with any lack of charity or of fidelity. For twenty years previous to this there had been abroad a spirit of discord and of disorganization in the churches both upon the Island and on the main-land of New England. And this had been in no small degree owing to Whitefield's own injudicious conduct and unwarrantable inuendoes con- cerning the ministry of our churches. Coming from a country in which the clergy were proverbially perfunctory in the discharge of their office and lacking in the spiritual graces to be looked for in their profession; where the shepherd's principal business seemed in many cases to be only to shear the flock and eat the mutton; it was natural, perhaps, for Whitefield to take it for granted that the same conditions existed in America. In entire sin- cerity doubtless, but ignorant of facts, he started the cry of wolf where no wolf was, and caused a panic of apprehension and suspicion in many a hitherto peaceful flock. He raised the charge of an unconverted ministry in a somewhat indefinite way, and without intending it, caused wide-spread and measureless disaster. Suffolk County had no small share in spreading and intensifying the pest. The Rev. James Davenport, of Southold, was a good man doubtless in the ground of his character, but he lacked the good sense and intellectual balance so characteristic of his earliest predecessor and of his latest successor in that pastorate. Carried away by an enthusi- astic impulse he aspired to be an imitator if not a rival of Whitefield. He succeeded in imitating what was objectionable in his pattern without at- taining to its excellencies. He became an itinerant and went up and down among the churches like a baleful, flaming torch. He claimed to know the secret things of God. He could discriminate as by intuition between true and false professors. He dared to be precise in his charges where Whitefield had only been indefinite. He called upon churches to boycott the ministers who had been their spiritual leaders for a generation, and as they valued their soul's salvation, to no longer attend upon their ministra- tions. And as all this was mixed up with some doctrinal truth which was like the weight of the axe-head to drive home the divisive edge of error, he
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succeeded in doing damage which was never repaired from that day to this. Added to the personal virulence of his tirades he made use of a noisy declamation, of sensuous appeals, of shoutings and groanings and stampings, of picturesque descriptions of the joys of heaven and the tor- ments of hell, which tended to wound the sense of true religion in the house of its friends, and to bring it into contempt with its foes. And as he affected to be an imitator of Whitefield, so he also had his satellites, and the baleful contagion spread. There is extant a letter addressed to this disturber of the peace and purity of the churches, written by the Rev. Theophilus Pickering of Ipswich, Mass., which after reciting the facts that Davenport had been expelled from the colony of Connecticut, and that the associated pastors of Boston and Charlestown had closed their pulpits against him, closes with this incisive language: . "I add no more but my earnest prayer that your heart may be kept from secret workings of spiritual pride, and your head from illusive imagi- nations; and that (if the Lord will) you may have a safe and speedy re- turn to your pastoral charge at Southold, on Long Island."
It is no wonder then that after he had kindled this fire brand, however unintentionally, Whitefield himself should have been received with cold- ness in some places, and in others not received at all. I think, without doubt, Minister White had the piety and the prudence of his people on his side. I do not think his conduct, under the circumstances, is open to the charge of uncharitableness or a mere self-protecting timidity. And all the more when I find that a few years later, in those same commencement theses at Harvard, it was affirmed (1769), that " enthusiasm brings more injury to the cause of Christ than open impiety;" and, (1770), that "the Christian Religion has received more injury from its friends than from its enemies."
. Nevertheless that spiritual movement known as the "Great Awaken- ing," which was felt in both hemispheres, and which was a blessed renova- tion of society, accomplished for the East end of Long Island as great things, perhaps, as for any other part of the land. The churches were purified and strengthened. The old half-way covenant system which had long been in very general use, and which had introduced into the churches a great number of quasi members who made no pretensions to anything more than a formal piety, weakened and finally came to an end. Multi- tudes were brought out of a religion of formalism into a religion of reality. . The facts are so abundantly recorded in the pages of Buell and Beecher and Prime, as to need no recapitulation here. The "Great Awakening " came none too soon to fortify the graces of courage and of faith against the ex- traordinary demands which were soon to be made upon them. The long and trying years of the Revolution were drawing on. One measure after another was being attempted for the entire subjugation of the colonies to the Crown or to the Parliament. The time was just upon our fathers, when the forcible seizure of their homes, the spoliation of their farms, the rapac- ity of their enemies, the treachery of their neighbors, their long isolation from their fellow countrymen on the mainland, the compulsory mainte- nance of an invading army, and the remorseless brutality of an inhuman soldiery for seven weary years, would make the peaceful farms of Suffolk the most unenviable abodes in the land. Let us thank God that he sent them the baptism of faith and hope and heaven-born courage, and gave them the bright visions of a better country, even an heavenly, before the
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fearful baptism of war. And after the war, and consequent upon the inev- itable letting down of more.s which war brings with it, there came in that worse than pestilence of French infidelity. Infected by the poisonous vapors that steamed up and floated over the sea from the cauldrons heated by Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau, little knots of men in East- Hampton, Southampton and Southold, formed themselves into infidel clubs, and both spurned the name, and threw off the restraints of Christ- ianity. But thanks to that same "Great Awakening," the infection di I not spread far or take deeply. Than at the close of its first century, Religion in Suffolk county never presented an aspect more fair, more hopeful, more radiant, since the days of the first settlement.
The religious character of our second century may be broadly and generally distinguished from that of the first, by saying in a word that re- ligious thought was now brought into more intimate relations to practical life. And this may be fearlessly said in view of facts, notwithstanding that the men of a hundred and fifty years ago if they were to visit us now, would probably think that the children had become sadly recreant to the princi- ples and example of their fathers. The world at large has been growing better for two hundred years, and we believe that Suffolk county has not been an exception to the general rule. As we look about us now from the height of this Bi-centennial year. notwithstanding all that we see of politi- cal trickery and self-seeking, of intemperance and Sabbath breaking, of al- leged tyranny of capital and unreasonable and mutinous temper of labor, of profanity of speech, and what is worse, profanation of the most sacred relationships of life, the words of the wise men are nevertheless emphati- cally appropriate, "Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."
It does not come within my province to speak of the growth of wealth, the developement of agriculture and commerce, the advance of society in the amenities of civilization and the refinements of living, the immense progress of the arts and sciences of invention and discovery, the means of rapid transit and of more rapid communication of thought, which have made our once insulated borders to be as closely knitted to the rest of the continent as any inland county. But there are greater, brighter, better things than these to be chronicled, without which, all these would be but an increasing and burdensome curse. With all this there has been a pro- portionate and even-stepping advance in those virtues and graces which constitute the Christian Culture, which, as I said in the beginning, is the true outcome of Religious Progress.
There is the fruit of Charity in greater abundance and of finer quality than our fathers ever dreamed of producing, from the stock of their relig- ions institutions. A hundred years ago a single denomination had things all its own way. The Congregational Order, or as it had then become in Suffolk county, the Presbyterian church, was virtually the established church of the Northern and Eastern colonies. And if it did not imitate the established church of old England in actual persecution of dissenters, it did imitate it in the feeling of contempt for those who refused to ac- knowledge its exclusive right. There are those in this assembly who can- not forget how, as one after another little knots of Christian believers, de- sirous of a freer expression, and a more elastic method of worship, and a more exalted enthusiasm than the old forms seemed to permit, separated themselves from the ancient folds, they were looked at with suspicion, or
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