USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > A history of the Episcopal church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state > Part 16
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and who hath appointed it." He depicted the state of the times with much power. He observes, "Through the unmerited mercies of God, health is restored to our habitations, and we are delivered from the late distres- sing sickness, the small pox, rash, and measles ; and though the first swept numbers in proportion to the in- fected, yet the two last threatened, and blessed be God, only threatened many more. It becomes us, my breth- ren, to call to mind what concern then seized our souls, what construction we put on those voices of God, and how well we have answered the ends of those correc- tions. Sure we have not forgot so soon the fear that filled our hearts when almost all that were able fled from their houses, while the infected were forced into the pest-houses of the public, and others (too quick for the inquisitors) shut up their own."
" We have seen the sick abandoned to mercenary or ignorant attendance, excluded from the face of their physician and their friends, deprived of the last duties of the Divine, and buried with the burial of an ass ! And what service have we, the survivors, done to the God who did then accept of the atonement, and com- manded the destroying angel to cease so soon from punishing ? Have we considered aright what God did then for us, and can we (with a good conscience) say that we (in particular) have mended our manners, or that the complexion of Christianity in this colony in general
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is bettered by that calamity ? O! that we could say so in truth! oh, that those afflictions had proved effec- tual in forming Christ in our hearts, or that we had heard or understood the voice of the rod ; been inwardly acquainted, and made our peace with the God that sent it. I am afraid that the impression and promises of that sad season are, for the most part, worn out of our minds, and therefore has God reserved us to be awakened in the
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2nd place, by the loud and calamitous call of a wast- ing war."
" It is an elegant and ancient observation, that if men did listen to the laws of Christ, and postpone their ambi- tion and interest to His admonition and counsels, all countries would soon combine in an inviolable league of love. The rules of Christianity are inconsistent with all kinds of war but defensive ; for which reason Chris- tian princes, while they wield the sword with one hand, they waive their manifesto with the other. The church daily prays for peace, and I dare say every good man wishes there was no such thing as war in the world ! But alas ! offences will come, and our sins do many times cry so much louder than our prayers-that are made to prevent evil-that the sword is made the instrument of God's vengeance, though managed by the hands of men."
" The miseries of war are so many, and effects of it so tragical and uncertain, that David preferred falling 24A
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into the hands of God, and being exposed to the raging pestilence, than falling into the hands of men and being subject to the mischiefs and miseries of this merciless murder of men. The worst effect of pesti- lential sickness is death ; where many are infected, there also many recover, with all the benefits of mortification about them, and their devotions raised higher by their deliverance."
" Famine also is a less violent and raging judgment ; as there are often more means to prevent it, and prudent methods to bear up under it. It is true, it often brings diseases that determine in death. It is true also, that the humanity of men and charity of Christians do often relieve it ; and when they cannot do that, they can die in each others arms, with mutual devotions, which is a kind of comfort in death itself."
" But war breaks in like beasts of prey; it worries many it does not kill ; wounds many it does not destroy ; kills whole troops it never touches ; and leaves none secure or undispersed. War throws off all reverence for law and religion, that its barbarities may be the more immortal ; it survives death itself, and prosecutes those it kills with want of burial."
" Commanders are commonly arbitrary, inferiors inso- lent, and all rapacious and deaf to complaint. (Inter arma silent leges) is as certain a truth, as that (nulla fides pietasque vires qui castra sequuntur,) Marius told
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some petitioners for justice, that he could not hear the voice of the law for the noise and clatter of weapons, And Pompey professed to another, that he could not think of the law in armor. Military men, accustomed to violence, think violence itself no crime; and plunder and spoil, instead of an evil, they esteem their privilege and reward. Indeed, they that have the fairest fortunes are most exposed; nor can any man enjoy any thing, but at the mercy of a domineering martialist.
" Were one to travel the world and visit the scenes of war, how might he trace this wasting monster by her terrible footsteps in all places distinguished with blood ; on this side, houses without inhabitants, palaces of princes demolished, cities sacked and rifled, and things sacred seized with unhallowed hands; on that, the shrieks of abused and affrighted women, the heart- melting moans of helpless and fatherless children, the wounding woes of the widow and childless parent ; and every where torrents of tears trickling down from the eyes of those that are undone. Then might he also observe the insulting soldier making merry with the miseries of men, and so unconcerned at the overthrow he has occasioned, that he often esteems them his glory and happiness. Good God ! how humiliating it is to behold hundreds and thousands cut off in a day, that cost as many mothers (for many years together) an infinite expense of tenderness, trouble, and pains to bring forth,
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nourish, and nurture into men. To see all these, of every quality and condition, slain and slaughtered in an undistinguished confusion, surely the roaring of cannon, the blood, fire, and smoke, with the cries of the wound- ed and the groans of the dying, must be terrible even to the troops themselves, till they are made desperate and insensible by the ardor and ecstacy of battle; and what is the more melancholy meditation to a religious mind, is the irremediable mischief and misery of those who are surprised and slain in their sins."
" One would think that those who carry their lives in their hands, and eat their bread on the borders of death, should be the best prepared for it. But there is reason to fear that a great part of the soldiery are a sort of men that, by a loose life, are very unfit to die ; and by dying so suddenly, die a double death, and sink into a sad eternity."
" It is storied of Philip of Macedon, that he said he could sleep securely in his camp, if his friend Antipater were by awake ; but how much safer do they sleep who are protected by Providence, guarded by angels, and watched by a never-sleeping sentinel-the Great Watch- man of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps ? But war, it seems, is not the only warning given to repent ; but
" Thirdly-We are warned also by the uncommon inclemencies of a cold and long winter. 1
" The elements have been armed with such piercing
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cold and suffocating snows, as if God intended the air that he gave us to live and breathe in should become the instrument to execute his vengeance on us, for our ingratitude to his goodness, and our trangression of his law. We may contemplate to our comfort the wisdom and power of God in the beautiful structure of the hea- vens, and his wise sorting of the seasons, for the benefit and delight of man. But as no human skill can count the number of the stars, nor call them by their names, so exceeds the utmost art of astronomy, for either extreme heat or extreme cold, otherwise than by the distance of the sun; yet what we see have variations and vicissi- tudes that do not always correspond to that cause. It is no small comfort to consider God's care to provide food for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and to supply their starving importunity. And our grati- tude grows, as we are assured all this is ultimately intended as a kindness and bounty for the souls of men. But how of late has the grazier groaned to see the severity of the season, to hear his herds and his flocks making moan for their meat; and after a few fruitless complaints uttered in accents peculiar to their kind, drop down and die, and disappoint the increase and expecta- tion of the spring."
" With what amazement do we behold and can ill en- dure God's sudden and intolerable cold, that proceeds from the breath of his nostrils! The snow that looks
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so white, innocent, and light, as if it would bear down and oppress nothing, yet we see it hides and covers the earth from the warmth and light of the sun ; and thus does also the ice turn rivers into rocks, and the sea (as it were) into dry land. We see the fluid element, which yielded to the smallest force become so hard and rigid, that it resists the impression of the traveller's foot, and the weight of beasts and burthens with a firmness supe- rior to the driest land. Boreas has so far entered into the chambers of the south, that he hath sealed up the sun and intercepted his dissolving influence ; and south- ern snows are signs of that planet's impotent efforts to regain his usurped dominions. The great Luminary that rules the day, has now advanced and displayed his banner on this side of the Line, yet so faint are his ar- mies, tho' innumerable and each atom harnessed in fire, that they cannot force the frost to give ground, nor dis- solve the intrenchment of snow. No arm that is not almighty can melt or open what Orion has shut up, bound in bands, and hardened; or freeze and make fast what the Pleiades have loosed and softened ; the first being the constellation, which in the Omnipotent's hands be- get and begin the winter ; as the other are the orbs that attend the advancing Spring."
" How many sad remembrancers do remain, to remind us of the past winter ? The husbandman and the mari- ner, the rich and the poor, have already sensibly felt its
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bad effects, and though the dissolved rivers have opened their mouths, returned to their channels and offer their usual administrations to navigation, fishing, and com- merce; yet, alas ! are not the cattle now corrupting in in the fields, and that after they have consumed most of the corn that might have maintained us to that time?'
" Famine of food, which though (blessed be God,) we do not yet feel, we have notwithstanding some reason to fear. Whatever second causes concur to occasion a scarcity of food, nature becomes the hungry man's ex- ecutioner and tormentor, racking him with an impatient and importunate appetite, when there is nothing to allay or relieve it."
It must be a sad spectacle to behold numbers of faint and famished creatures, like walking ghosts and inhabi- tants of the grave, and nothing to allay their hunger. It blasts the beauty of youth and the comely complexion of old age, weakens the strength of the mighty and puz- zles the prudence of the wise, to provide but a small relief, nay, whenever policy and strength remain, the fury of famine turns them into instruments of violence. This cruel calamity will turn a city into a wilderness, and make man prey upon his own kind, with a ferocity exceeding the most savage creatures, and hunger will drive men to the most desperate designs."
" When the multitudes of Rome were enraged for the want of corn, the wise Cato was unwilling to interpose
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with the rioters. Now if any thing be wanting to lend life to this imperfect picture, refer to Eusebius who saw one and says : 'In the city so many died that there were not men to bury them, nor ground to cover them with. In the country the houses were desolate, and pa- rents who brought their children to market to make money to assuage their hunger, died in the place before the chapman came. Ladies of the best quality were forced to beg their bread, and those that walked the streets were more like images than men. Some were so feeble that they were not able to ask an alms, and others stretching out their hands to receive, dropped down dead before they had hold of it. If any of the richer sort were disposed to bestow their charity, he was forced to desist, or be in danger of being pressed to death by the multitude and violence of the necessitous. Finally, all the streets were full of dead bodies, nor was there any to bury them, as the living expected every moment to die themselves.' God forbid, that we should ever be exposed to such extremity ; but how easy it is for the same God to afflict us with the like evils, if we have given greater or even as great provocations as sinners that have suffered before us ! Let us therefore fly to God with an early and earnest importunity, since none but HE can remove what we feel, or avert what we fear."
Liberal extracts from this eloquent discourse are here
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given, because the copy before us is probably the only one now extant.
To show that Dr. McSparran's picture of the frightful severity of the winter of 1740 is not exaggerated, we quote some other authorities. Watson, in his " Historic Tales of Olden Times in Pennsylvania," speaks of it thus : " The winter of 1740-1, a great snow. This win- ter was very severe during the continuance of the great snow. It was in general more than three feet deep. The back settlers (says the Gazette) subsisted chiefly on the carcasses of the deer found or lying round them. Great part of the gang of the horses and cows in the woods also died. Ten or twelve deer are found in the compass of a few acres, near the springs. The chief se- verity was in February. Many deer came to the plan- tations and fed on hay with the other creatures. Squir- rels and birds were found frozen to death. By the 19th of March the river became quite open. Old Mrs. Shoe- maker, whom I knew," continues Watson, " told me of her recollections of that severe winter to the above ef- fect. Her words were that all the tops of the fences were so covered that sleighs and sleds passed over them in every direction. James Logan's letter of 1748 calls it the hard winter of 1740, as a proverbial saying, 'it was one of remarkable severity, the most rigorous he has ever known here.' - Kalm says it began the 10th of December and continued to the 13th of March, old style, 25A
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and that some of the stags came to the barns to eat with the cattle, and became domesticated thereby."
The following is from the R. I. Republican, dated the 26th day of February, 1840, communicated by Henry Bull, Esquire : " It is stated in a paragraph recently published in several papers, that during the cold winter of 1740, a man drove a horse and sleigh on the ice from Hurlgate, near New York, to Cape Cod. That this feat was actually performed is rendered highly probable by the following memorandum made by Gov. William Greene, of Warwick, and found among his papers by one of his descendants, Richard W. Ward, Esquire, of the city of New York. It gives, we believe, the most au- thentic and particular account of that extraordinary win- ter that is extant :
" MEMORANDUM OF THE WINTER OF 1740, O. S.
" This winter by all accounts, was the coldest known in New England since the memory of man. It began in the early part of November with extreme cold, and so continued with considerable snow until the first week in December. The weather was then fine and warm for three or four days, (the General Assembly sitting at Newport.) Soon after this, the weather was again so excessively cold, that the Narragansett Bay was soon frozen over, and the people passed and repassed from Providence to Newport ,on the ice, and from Newport to Bristol. Occasionally, however, the ferry boat pass-
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ed to Fox Hill. The storms of snow fell one upon another until it was almost knee deep, and it lay until the 11th or 12th of January, when a sudden thaw laid the earth bare in spots for a few days. This was again succeeded by violent cold weather, and in a very few days by snow storms till the 28th, 29th and the said three days, there was a great driving snow storm, 30th of January, (the General Assembly then sitting at Warwick, by adjournment,) when for the greater part of which fell full three feet deep, in addition to what lay on the ground before. The snow having drifted, the tops of the stone walls and other fences were covered, and so hard was the crust in many places the cattle fre- quently passed over them."
" The prevailing winds during the principal storms of the winter were from the north, northwest, and west ; some considerable snows fell with the wind at southwest, south, and southeast."
" The ice broke up from Warwick Neck down the bay, about the 3rd or 4th of March, but continued fast up the river, so that the inhabitants still passed from Warwick to Bristol, as was creditably reported. The snow in the woods where it had fallen on a level, was supposed to be three feet deep on the 10th of March."
" During the great snow the last January, there was a great loss of both cattle and sheep ; some were smoth-
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ered, and a great number of sheep were driven into the sea by the wind."
" The weather continued extremely cold till the 23rd of February, which was a fine warm day, and thawed the snow to that degree that the ground was bare in spots for two or three days. Then came another severe storm with excessive cold weather, and so continued till the 10th of March, when it became somewhat milder, and the snow began to thaw moderately until the 14th of March, when the wind was southwest and the weather foggy. The snow thawed rapidly, and spots of ground were bare in the plain lands, but the greater part of the snow still remained. On the 15th the weather was mo- derate and so continued till the 19th, when it again be- came cold with some rain. The 22nd was a fine warm day; 23rd and 24th considerable snow ; 25th snow, and the weather cold for the season; the snow gradually dis- appeared without any rain to make a sudden freshet. The last of the ice went out of the Cowesit (Warwick) bay the 30th and 31st of March, but some of the snow continued to lay in drifts by the fences till the 15th of April."
" The spring came slowly on, and during the greater part of it, the weather was cold with severe gales of wind from the west and nothwest. My hay was gone the 15th of April, and out of 322 sheep I lost nearly one half."
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"In the midst of the winter it was frozen from the main to Rhode Island, and from thence southward out to sea. It was reported by the inhabitants that they could see nothing but ice." .
There were more than thirty snow storms besides small flights not worth mentioning. The spring was so back- ward that in the first week in May the woods at a dis- tance appeared to be dead. The first peach-trees were in bloom on the 27th of May ; apple-trees on the 13th."
Dr. McSparran in a letter to Henry Cary in Ire- land, 1752, says : As from my house I can see the Atlantic ocean, I have seen it froze as far as the human eye could reach"-undoubtedly referring to the same winter.
" Oct. 14, 1742. Between two and three o'clock in the morning, died suddenly in the chamber with Col. Daniel Updike and Mr. John Checkley, junr., Captain William Walker, of Providence, F. R. S., and was interred in the churchyard of St. Paul's, Narragansett, the 15th of said month. The funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Mc- Sparran."
John Checkley-a name of high repute in the early history of Episcopacy in America.
He was born in the city of Boston, in 1680, of English parentage. His parents must have been in easy circumstances, for after giving him the best advantages in Boston, under the celebrated Ezekiel Cheever, they sent him to England. He finished his studies at the University of Oxford, and then set out upon a course of travels on
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the continent. He went over the greatest part of Europe, and " col lected some valuable curiosities, such as paintings, manuscripts, &c." (Elliot's Biog. Dict. p. 105.) These facts are important in the illustration of Checkley's future career ; showing that his en- trance into orders, late in life, must have been from the purest attachment to the church, and from no wordly considerations. They are quite sufficient to rebut all the slanders which have been brought against his want of piety. His earnest and uncompromising devo- tion to Episcopacy in New England-during an era when almost all New England was thoroughly impregnated with Puritanism-of course exposed him to that censure ; for a Puritan condemns one's pretensions to piety when he differs, or rather presumes to differ from himself, just as recklessly as a Romanist, under similar circumstan- ces, would condemn his pretensions to orthodoxy.
Checkley returned from his travels, and fixed himself in his native place. The date of his return is not given us, but it is known that he was in Boston in 1715 ; for during that year he published a tract against the Calvinistic theory of predestination, which made some stir in the land of the self-esteemed elect, and provoked 'an answer. About this time, he married the sister of the Rev. Dr. Miller, Epis- copal missionary at Braintree, now Quincy, by whom he had two children, John and Rebecca.
What Checkley's employments now were is not known. Proba- bly he pursued a life of literary leisure. One thing, however, is very certain, he was always devoted to the best interests of the church, and continually on the alert to promote them.
He published in 1723, a pamphlet which is deserving of careful recollection ; for it was the forerunner of the controversy upon Epis- copacy on this continent. Its title is, " A modest proof of the order and government settled by Christ and his apostles in the church, by showing-1. What sacred offices were instituted by them. 2. How those offices were distinguished. 3. That they were to be perpetual and standing in the church. 4. Who succeed in them, and rightly execute them to this day." It was during this same year (1723) that Dr. Cutler, then Rector or President of Yale College, conformed to the Church of England, and was settled over Christ Church, Boston. Doubtless this pamphlet, not to say other circumstances,
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brought him and Checkley into close contact, and insured their union and action in reference to the great contemplated synod of the Puri- tans, which was to sit in 1724-5 ; ostensibly in respect to " the judg- ment of heaven," as Cotton Mather represented, but really in respect to that greatest of judgments, in a Puritan's view, which the king talked of inflicting upon America, viz., the sending a bishop over. But of that matter more presently.
Checkley continued his zeal for Episcopacy without abatement. Not content with his " modest proof," he, in the same year, (1723) republished Leslie's famous Short and Easy method with the Deists, to which he subjoined a discourse concerning Episcopacy. Now this, in Puritanical logic, was adding insult to injury ; and as the times were getting ominously dark-the President of Yale College become an apostate, and an actual live bishop about to be intruded upon the inheritance of the saints-it became necessary to make a serious demonstration. Accordingly, intimidation was attempted by the penalties of law. Checkley was arrested as a libeller, and a disturber of the public peace. He was tried. The jury were a little qualmish, and pronounced him guilty, if publishing in defence of Episcopacy was a libel. The court at once decided it such, and pronounced the following judgment.
"Suffolk, ss. At a court of Assize, &c. Nov. 27, 1724.
Checkley, The Court, having maturely advised on this
adsect special verdict, are of opinion that the said JOHN Dom. Reg. CHECKLEY is guilty of publishing and selling of a false and scandalous libel. It is therefore considered by the Court, that the said JOHN CHECKLEY shall pay a fine of fifty pounds to the king, and enter into recognizance in the sum of one hundred pounds, with two sureties in the sum of fifty pounds each, for his good behavior for six months, and also pay costs of prosecution ; standing committed until this sentence be performed.
Att'd SAMUEL TYLEY, Clerk."
Such was the amiable decree of the laws of freedom, and within the purlieus of Faneuil Hall, "the cradle of liberty," upon an unfortunate churchman, for the mere utterance of his opinions about
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