USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Discourses comprising a history of the First Congregational Church in Providence; delivered June 19, 1836, after the close of a century from the formation of the church > Part 1
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Gc 974.502 P948ha 1852026
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01067 6606
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DISCOURSES
COMPRISING A HISTORY
OF THE Ist.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
IN PROVIDENCE, R.I.
DELIVERED JUNE 19, 1836.
AFTER THE CLOSE OF A CENTURY FROM THE FORMATION OF THE CHURCH.
BY EDWARD B. HALL, PASTOR.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY.
PROVIDENCE : PRINTED BY KNOWLES, VOSE & CO. 1836.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/discoursescompri00hall
1852026
NOTE.
THE Discourses here offered call for a word of preface. The first century of the existence of this church expired in 1828. Circumstances prevented then the usual notice of the fact. The church being unwilling to let the occasion pass entirely, requested me to notice it. The present has been thought an appropriate time, as the first day when we again as- semble in the house of our solemnities, after a tempo- rary suspension for repairs and alterations, and as the year, and nearly the month, which mark the close of two centuries from the settlement of this town and state.
I have only to ask, that the errors of statement or inference into which I may have fallen, may be as- cribed to the circumstance of my yet new connexion with this Society, and my very recent acquaintance with the facts which I am called to present. These facts have been drawn from imperfect records, and different, perhaps not always accurate, sources. But it is my happiness, and chief ground of confidence, that they have been submitted, in substance, to the judg- ment of one still among us, whose knowledge and accuracy are known to all.
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DISCOURSE I.
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JOB VIII. 8. Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers.
To say that we feel an interest in the history of our church- es, is but saying that we are interested in the history of New England. To be ignorant of the history of our churches, or indifferent to it, is to be indifferent and ignorant of the men from whom we descended, and of the institutions by which they secured and transmitted our highest privileges and choicest blessings. There are none of us who are indifferent. Ignorant we may be, unconcerned we are not and cannot be. It is unmeaning, it does but betray ignorance, for any to say that they care only for our civil polity and progress, and not for our religious. Our civil has been our religious polity. Or rather, the religious preceeded and controlled the civil. Re- ligion led the way. It laid the foundation. It reared the su- perstructure. It built not the church only but the school, it founded the college, it guarded the laws, it wielded the power, it threw its strong voice and stronger energy into all the forms and fashions, the institutions and interests, of the new State, and the new world.
We are made to smile, as well as to mourn, when we hear the modern aspirant for fame and professor of all wisdom,
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sneering at the boasted power and blessings of religion, in any period of the world, in any portion of rude or advanced society. And the smile becomes amazement and pity, when the sneer is pointed at New England. New England, the child of re- ligion ! wafted in the Pilgrims' barque, planted on the Pil- grims' rock, baptized in the Pilgrims' tears, tears both of suf- fering and of gratitude. And what but religion, has crowned with such unexampled success and undying glory, the strong- est wishes of the Pilgrims' heart-nerving the arm, sustaining the courage, guiding the counsels, inspiring the generous sac- rifices and vigorous perseverance, which have made the wil- derness and the solitary place glad for them, and caused that that which was to them indeed a desert, should to us blossom as the rose.
With what kind of religion, as regards at least its external form, with what order of church polity and discipline, are we to connect the influence of which we speak, in the settlement of New England ? It is in no spirit of boasting or exclusion, that we reply, the Congregational order. Not that we sup- pose this alone did the work, or that the power of religion re- sides in its mode of government, or that any order is the only true and acceptable. On the contrary, we regard it as the chief glory of the Congregational churches, that while they reserve to themselves, they extend freely to all, the liberty of deciding the question of order, believing that the Head of the church gave to all this liberty, and that the purposes of relig- ion are best answered by guarding it sacredly, and exercising it independently, with no fear but of God, and no appeal except to Christ. It is therefore chiefly, though we acknowledge it is not only, as historical fact, that we trace to Congregational churches the influence which gave to New England its first and best impulse. In the history of Congregational churches, we read a large and most important portion of the history of
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religious liberty. It was about twenty years before the land- ing of our fathers at Plymouth, that a Society of Christians in the North of England separated from the established church, " and as the Lord's Free People, joined themselves by cove- nant into a church-state, to walk in all his ways, made known, or to be made known to them, according to their best endeavors, whatever it might cost them."* Here is the true spirit of Protestant and independent Congregationalism. It was in this spirit that these dissenters left their homes and crossed the wide waters, believing, as they said, that "the sun shines as pleasantly on America, as on England, and the sun of right- eousness much more clearly," though they themselves were to open the forest and the soil, which would permit either sun to act in its power. It was in this spirit that the Plymouth colo- ny, in 1641, passed an ordinance in these words: "That no injunction shall be put on any church or church member, as to doctrine, worship or discipline, whether for substance or cir- cumstance, beside the command of the Bible." It was in this spirit, that all the early churches in this country were found- ed, each distinct and independent, in the making of its laws, in the choice of its pastor and officers, and in all its regulations ; guarding their independence most suspiciously, carrying it out more consistently and fearlessly, than even their own churches in later times. Few churches except Congregation- al were founded in New England during its early periods .- As late as 1700, there were, as I find it stated on authority believed to be accurate, few Episcopalians, no Methodists, and with the exception of Rhode Island, very few Baptists; not a church of Baptists in Connecticut, and but two or three in
* Prince's New England Chronology. Prince and Norton give to this movement the early date of 1602. Neal dates the regular formation of the First Independent Congregational church at 1616, under Mr. Henry Ja- cob, a friend and convert of Robinson.
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Massachusetts, while the Congregational churches in New England then were nearly one hundred and fifty .*
Here we find Rhode-Island made an exception to the gen- eral prevalence of Congregationalism. The statement is a common one, and is founded in truth, as a comparative view. But when given as a positive assertion, and applied to the first settlement of Rhode Island, it needs qualification. It is well known that Roger Williams and his associates came here as Congregationalists.t The first church which they formed in Providence, is stated by several writers to have been Congre- gational, and this it must have been, so far as it was of any order, or had any regular organization. But it is more proba- ble that this little company formed no separate church at first, but worshipped, as they were able, after the manner of the church they had left in Salem, which we know was Pædo- baptist and rigidly Congregational. The first church in New- port also, gathered in 1640, under the Rev. John Clarke, we are told, "was Congregational and Pædobaptist, and continued so about four years, when it became Baptist."} It is also to be observed, that these and other churches, which afterward became Baptist, remained, and do still remain, Congregation- al in their general form and government. The First Baptist Church in Providence, formed in 1639, the first in America, has never bound itself by a creed, or used any articles of faith.|| This is true also of most of the old Baptist churches in this Colony. They are supposed, besides, by many of their own order, to have had at first open communion, Nor have any of
* History of Dissenters. + Appendix, Note A.
# Dumont's Brief Notice, &c .- on the authority of Dr. Styles' Mss .- Is it not probable, however, that, both in Newport and Providence, the first settlers, though Congregationalists for the most part, did not at once organize a church, and that the first church regularly formed was Bap- tist ?
||Appendix, Note B.
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these churches ever relinquished their separate independence, but continue, though associated for pastoral purposes, distinct and uncontrolled societies ; adhering thus to the first principle of Congregationalism.
It is difficult to learn precisely what were the religious opin- ions and order of the first settlers of Rhode-Island. They seem to have been dissenters from all orders, and most of them were in character, if not in name, Independents and Seekers truly .* The most that can be confidently affirmed, is that they held various opinions, and that they changed their opin- ions when they saw fit, without admitting the right of any one to call them to an account for the change. They would therefore probably have been compelled, had they not been inclined, to allow to each other and to all, perfect freedom of opinion, where there were so many divisions and each a mi- nority. Without meaning to detract in the least from the glory that belongs to them, as being the first community in the new or old world, who incorporated with their principles of government the fundamental article of Liberty of Con- science,t we cannot overlook the fact, that this measure, honorable and noble as it was, did not abate prejudice, nor prevent the more private, but not least baneful or least crimi- nal kinds of persecution. We find it recorded, that "our fath- ers of this church and society had to plead the right of con- science, as contained in the fundamental law of the Colony, against reproach and insult." We have no wish to dwell up- on the fact; we advert to it only, as we have made all these prefatory remarks, in explanation of the circumstances in which our own history begins.
That history finds its first date in 1720, the same year that the Congregational church in Newport, the first in the colony,
* Appendix, Note C.
t Appendix, Note D.
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was organized. The church here was not organized for some years after. But the first movement towards it was made in the year just named, 1720; and the individuals who made it, not having the ability to accomplish their object unassisted, sent out one Dr. Hoyle to get aid from the neighboring prov- inces. This aid was obtained, chiefly from Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the first house of worship was erected " on or near the ground," says the record, "now improved as a burying ground on the west side of the great bridge."* We are told that the "disposition of the monies in the purchase of the land and locating the house, was very much if not wholly, according to the notion and humor of the said Hoyle ; for though he had set up the house and partly covered it, the sit- uation of it was so disagreeable to those that were in town, and their patrons and friends abroad, that it was taken down (some have said pulled down under the covert of the night.)" The objection to the location of the house seems to have been, that it was so far out of town, though not far west of Mr. Wil - son's present church. A compromise was at last made with Dr. Hoyle, who seems to have taken good care of himself, if not of the Society, by which he gave them for all the money he had collected, one acre of land, in the same place where the house had been erected by him. This lot was used as the first burying-ground of this Society, and so continued until the purchase of the present burying-ground in 1785.
In 1723, a favorable lot was obtained of Daniel Abbot, sup- posed by many to have been given by him; and his general character would authorize the belief. On that lot a house was soon after erected, in which the society worshipped seventy- two years, and which still stands as the Town House, hav-
* Meaning the old burying-ground near the present junction of Pawtux- et and High streets.
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ing now been built 113 years .* We should expect at the present day, to hear the cry of interference, if not of foreign speculation, should the land for the erection of a church, be conveyed, as that was, to three clergymen, one in Bristol and two in Massachusetts, "with their oldest deacon and their suc- cessors, as Feofees in trust for the Presbyterian or Congrega- tional Society in Providence."
The first name here given to this Society, Presbyterian, I know not how to explain. It is found in the earliest records and deeds, and was long the popular if not only name. It was the first name that met my own perplexed ear when I first in- quired what church this was, and it is still better known prob- ably, at least by those in the vicinity, than any other name,- And yet no reason is given for it. There is no intimation, that I can find, of a Presbyterian order existing here at any period. There is not now, and never has been, that I can learn, a Presbyterian church in Rhode-Island, and but two or three, in all New England. It is therefore very singular, that any churches should have taken and retained the name, and es- pecially that they should call themselves Presbyterian or Congregational, as if these were synonymous terms.+
For some time after its formation, this Society depended upon neighboring ministers for the supply of the pulpit. The first minister who was in any way connected with it was the Rev. Samuel Moody, of York, Maine; whose services were so ac-
*This is thought by many to have been the first Congregational Meet- ing-House erected in Rhode-Island. The church in Newport, though formed earlier, is supposed not to have had a house so early. This how- ever may be doubted. There is reason to think there was a house in New- port earlier, as they built a second in 1729, which is still standing; and is this very month, having been purchased and almost rebuilt by the Unita- rian Society, dedicated anew to the worship of God.
tThe orthodox churches in Providence are commonly called Presbyte- rian now, though in their formal title and government they are wholly Congregational. I am inclined to think, that the name originated in the old and obstinate defence of Presbyterian or Congregational ordination, as. opposed to the claims of Episcopacy ..
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ceptable, that messengers were sent to his people, and great exertions made, to obtain him as a permanent pastor. But all that his society were willing to grant,-and this is more than every society is willing to grant to others, however desti- tute-was that he might remain in Providence and preach three months. This he did, to the great satisfaction and ap- parent edification of the people. He came in 1724, when six- teen persons were baptised by him, whose names are given in the record, and who are to be regarded as constituting in some sense the first church. Mr. Moody graduated at Harvard College in 1697, and died in York at an advanced age. He continued to correspond with this Society, and to aid them by occasional visits, and must be considered as one of their best friends in their greatest need .*
In 1726, the first Bell was procured, with much difficulty and not without foreign aid. But being soon broken "by some unlucky stroke," as we are told, "it was sent back to London to be run anew." It was not replaced till near the time of the first ordination.
The first stated minister of this Church and Society, was JOSIAH COTTON, one of that family whose names are so promi- nent in our early history. He had graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1722. He was ordained here the 23d of October, 1728 ; and the event, though the church was very small, and the society still feeble, attracted no little attention, as we gather from the minute and original account of it which we have found on a loose memorandum, written by Mr. Cotton himself. t
At this ordination, the first of the kind in Providence, and the third in Rhode-Island, the sermon was preached by Mr.
* Allen's Biog. Dic. contains a brief notice of Mr. Moody's character, from which we give an extract in the Appendix, Note E.
t This account is so peculiar, and says so much for the simplicity and humble devotion of Mr. Cotton, that we give it entire in the Appendix, Note F.
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Nath. Appleton of Cambridge, and a church was embodied, consisting of nine male members, beside the Pastor, whose names he has given in the note to which we have just refer- red. The Confession of Faith and Covenant, which these in- dividuals subscribed, is too long to be here inserted. It is de- cidedly Trinitarian and moderately Calvinistic, but not harsh or at all exclusive. It is in the common language of that day, and its temper is more than commonly humble and charitable. Before the first communion, the Church received from a few friends in Boston, complete furniture for the pulpit and both ordinances. Joseph Bagley and Timothy Carpenter were the first Deacons.
The ministry of Mr. Cotton continued for a term of nine- teen years. Of these the first fifteen were undisturbed and happy. It was a period of extreme feebleness with the church as to their pecuniary ability, and they were then, as for many years afterward, obliged to seek aid from abroad. But they were at peace among themselves and with those around them, and additions were made to their numbers. I find no record of important changes or material facts, until the year 1742, when this Church began to feel, what few churches in New England wholly escaped-the pernicious effects of the great Whitefield revival. We are not in the habit, and I desire we may never be, of speaking contemptuously of any of the ac- tual or supposed operations of God's spirit. But it is a duty to speak decidedly of that, whose end as well as beginning we can see, that which is no longer matter of conjecture, but of history, and whose results are too strongly marked to be unnoticed or mistaken by any. Of the excitement that prevail- ed about the middle of the last century, the period now under review, there can be but one opinion. And if the impartiali- ty of our opinion is doubted, there are witnesses whom none
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will question. I have one before me of the highest authority, who was closely connected with the scenes of which we speak. I refer to Dr. Stiles, then Pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport. In his full, valuable, and truly catholic discourse on Christian Union, delivered in 1760, before the Congregational Convention assembled at Bristol, he makes these general remarks, which will help us to understand the causes of the only schism, that this church has ever expe- rienced.
" One source of different sentiment, were the unhappy ex- cesses into which our churches have been transported in the late enthusiasm that has prevailed since the year 1740. In the public mistaken zeal, religion was made to consist in ex- travagancies and indecencies, which were not according to the faith once delivered. Multitudes were seriously, soberly, and solemnly out of their wits. The scriptures were in dan- ger of being neglected for the indistinguishable impulses of the spirit of God; sober reason gave way to enthusiasm ; the terrors of eternal damnation, instead of subserving rational and sober convictions, were improved to throw people into that con- fusion, frenzy and distraction, which unfitted them for the genial illuminations of the Holy Spirit. Besides this, the standing ministry were aspersed, and represented under abu- sive suspicions of being unconverted, legalists, arminians. And as they were thus publicly and indecently vilified, so it was taught as a duty to forsake their ministrations, and form into separate assemblies. And as was natural to expect, our churches were hereby rent and torn and thrown into convul- sions and confusions, to the great dishonor of the general cause."*
There is no reason to suppose, that these remarks were in-
* Discourse on the Christian Union, page 50.
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tended for any particular place, for unhappily there were too many places to which they would apply. But had this church been in the mind of the writer, he could hardly have described more exactly the scenes it had witnessed, and from the effects of which it had not then recovered, though nearly twenty years had passed. We have seen that the Covenant of the church was open to no suspicion of heresy, unless the not being infallible and exclusive was heretical. Nor is there any evidence that this Covenant had been departed from, or that Mr. Cotton's mode of preaching had changed, or that his character was not highly exemplary and irreproachable. But he did not escape reproach. Some of his own church brought against him the charge of " not being evangelical enough."- This charge was clothed in the most offensive language, and accompanied with violent and indecent epithets. He was called " an opposer of the work of God's spirit, a preacher of damnable good works or doctrines, a hypocrite, &c." His church was honored with equally beautiful and consistent epi- thets. It was called "Babylon, Egypt and Anti-Christ, whom God would destroy ; their priests were hirelings and wolves in sheep's clothing ; therefore, they said, it was their duty to come out from among them and be separate." They did come out. They took the name of SEPARATES, and a very appropriate name it was .* On the 7th of March, 1743, about half the church, with many of the congregation, formal- ly withdrew, and "set up a separate meeting, where they at- tended the exhortation of a lay brother, who had been brought up in the business of house carpentry." The record goes on to say of them-" they were entertained on the Lord's day with loud vociferous declarations of the downfall of Babylon, and
* They passed also by the name of New Lights, the more general name given to the zealots of that day. This name has until recently been com- mon in this connexion.
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the necessity of coming out and being separate, and not touch- ing the unclean. Such like exhortations were liberally held out, and freely, for hirelings in their esteem were the bane of the church."*
They however did not witness the downfall of Babylon .- The church remained firm. They upheld their Pastor. They patiently examined thirteen "articles of grievance," brought against him, and found them to be wholly without reason. They returned not railing for railing, but reasoned both pri- vately and publicly with their unreasonable brethren, t expos- tulated, warned, entreated, all in vain. They sent commit- tee after committee for conference and conciliation. They could get not even argument in return, but usually encoun- tered the bald allegation, that "Mr. Cotton had come, not in the spirit of God, but in the spirit of the devil," as one of the leaders said to his face. In these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at, that the seceders were publicly admonished by the church, censured, and suspended from the privilege of the ordinances. The committee who were sent to read this admonition and suspension to the " backsliding brethren," re- ported that they met with very unchristian usage. They had been vehemently told, that "their Pastor was leading them, and his hearers, right down to hell, &c." The only excuse that the Separates appear to have offered, at any time, for this violation of Christian and common decency, was that they believed themselves to be " the major part of the church," and had thus a right to exercise authority. And they engaged, if it could be made to appear that they were
* That ministers should be "hirelings" seems to have been a great stumbling-block to these seceders, and an unpardonable sin. We are in- formed, however, that their own minister, before his death, found both truth and comfort in the text-" the laborer is worthy of his hire."
t The record says, " They were beyond measure obstinate and implaca- ble in their temper."
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not the majority, to acknowledge that they had done wrong, and to return. This is the only circumstance in the whole transaction, which indicates, on the part of the seceders, any sense of their possible infatuation or error. But this is at once destroyed by the fact, that when they found they were really a minority, they forgot or disregarded their promise and refused to return .* A mutual council was afterward agreed upon, and other attempts made at reconciliation, but nothing was effected. The Seceders formed a new church, or perhaps considered themselves already a church, and in 1747, one of their number, Joseph Snow, Jr., was constituted minister of the gospel and Pastor of the new church.
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