USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 13
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There is evidence that sometime previously to 1711 a meeting-house had been built in Kingstown, doubtless on Tower Hill. After the departure of Mr. Niles no record of Congregational worship in the town appears, until the arrival of Joseph Torrey, about 1731. He was a young man of only twenty-four, being a son of the Rev. Samuel Tor- rey, a fellow of Harvard College, of which the son was a graduate. On May 17, 1732, a church, apparently the first one in the town, was organized at that part of it called Tower Hill, and on the same day Mr. Torrey was ordained and continued in the pastorate, with un- swerving fidelity, until his death in 1791, thus completing one of the longest ministries in New England.
In connection with his sacred duties he practiced medicine, and so
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was commonly styled Dr. Torrey. It was chicfly during this pastorate that a long legal conflict, previously begun, was waged between the Congregationalists and the Church of England inhabitants, for the possession of three hundred acres of land, which had been set apart by the "Pettaquamscutt Purchasers", in 1668, "for an orthodox per- son, that shall be obtained to preach God's word to the inhabitants".
At the close of thirty years of litigation, in 1752, Dr. Torrey ob- tained a final decision of the King and Council in favor of the Con- gregationalists. After the death of the old pastor the people neglected to repair the meeting-house and, it having become dilapidated, per- mitted it to be sold at auction. Services were, however, generally maintained, alternately in a school-house at Tower Hill and in the court-house at Little Rest or Kingston Hill, until 1820, when the pres- ent Kingston meeting-house was built, the society having been reor- ganized and incorporated by the General Assembly.
The first Congregational minister to preach the gospel in Newport, so far as any record shows, was the Rev. Nathan- icl Clap, who came hither as early as 1695. It is claimed, indeed, with a considerable show of evidence, that there was an inchoate formation of a Puritan church on the island of Aquidneck, at the beginning of the settlement, not later than 1639, the organization soon becoming Baptist. Mr. Callender, in his "Cen- tury Sermon", calls the first settlers of the island of Rhode Island "Puritans of the highest form" and asserts that they "depended on the assistance of Mr. Wheelwright, a famous Congregational minis- ter", a brother-in-law of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who, however, dis- appointed them by his non-arrival. He narrates that meeting-houses were built at both Newport and Portsmouth, but never alludes to the organization of a church, as Governor Winthrop has declared was the case, although speaking of the church as having been "gathered in a very disorderly way". As, however, it is conceded that this move- ment did not result in a permanent Congregational establishment, the honor of being the pioneer of that order in Newport remains with the Rev. Mr. Clap. He was a graduate of Harvard College and had been a resident of Dorchester, Massachusetts. It does not appear that, as in the cases of Congregational ministers of those days in general, Mr. Clap was called or even authoritatively sent. He only came hither, "by the advice of the minister of Boston", and preached here for fifty years until his death. It was not until twenty-five years had elapsed after his arrival that, following innumerable discourage- ments, a church was organized in 1720, with fourteen male members, Mr. Clap being at the same time ordained and installed as its pastor.
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The new church flourished at first under this most zealous minister, but after three years he ccased to administer the Lord's Supper, alleg- ing that the church was not pure and that its members were "not of sufficiently holy conversation for the ordinance". It is not strange that, while the people revered their pastor and admired him as a truly evangelical preacher, they were still offended by his rigid and imprac- ticable discipline. Finally the church addressed Mr. Clap a respectful petition praying that he would allow them to have recourse, for sacra- mental privileges, to other churches, but without eliciting his consent. In response to a remonstrance from some of the members, the sturdy Puritan declared : "I came hither by the advice of the Rev. minister of Boston. I have continued here by his advice. I have preached the Gospel here. As for you who are trying to drive me away, I would have you consider the awful account you will have to give for the damnation of the souls that will be lost for the want of my preaching".
A colleague being proposed, Mr. Clap declined his services. When one was at length pressed upon him and permitted to occupy the pulpit a part of the time, he refused again to preach in it, and withdrawing with a part of the congregation, built a new meeting-house in Mill street, which was subsequently, for many years, used by the Unitarian Society. Notwithstanding the apparent sternness of this singular man, George Whitefield records in his journal that "his countenance was very heavenly", and that "he prayed most affectionately for a blessing on my coming to Rhode Island". "I could not but think ", he declares, "I was sitting by one of the patriarchs". Dean Berkeley, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Clap, remarks: "Before I saw Father Clap I thought the Bishop of Rome had the most grave aspect of any man I ever saw; but, really, the minister of Newport had the most venerable appearance". It was the custom of the old clergyman to walk out in a black velvet cap and a gown with a girdle, the pocket on one side of it filled with books and that on the other with cakes, with which to purchase from the boys in the street their toy tops, to show his disapproval of the vain sport. After his death, in 1745, a barrel almost full of tops was found in his house.
In Mr. Callender's memorial sermon he testifies concerning his beloved friend, Mr. Clap: "The main stroke in his character was his cminent sanctity. He was a public blessing as an able min- ister of the New Testament, an example of unspotted piety and an honor to religion".
When it became evident, in 1728, that the pastor could not be in- duced to alter his uncompromising course towards his colleague, the
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Rev. John Adams, about half the members withdrew from the First Church, and with Mr. Adams as pastor formed the Second Church of Newport. For several years, as the First Church had abandoned the original meeting-house, the Second continued to occupy it, but, in 1733, it built for itself a new meeting-house in Clarke street.
Some years after the death of Mr. Clap there were ministering, at the same time, to the Newport Congregational churches two of the most able and distinguished divines who ever presided over Rhode Island congregations, the Rev. Ezra Stiles and the Rev. Samuel Hopkins. Mr. Stiles, a graduate of Yale College and afterwards its president, was ordained pastor of the Second Church, in 1755, at the age of twenty-seven. He was one of the most learned men of the day, deliv- ering at Commencement an oration in Hebrew on Oriental Literature, and translating the Psalms directly from the original into Latin.
In 1765 he received the degree of Doctor in Divinity from the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. He was an impressive and eloquent preacher, eminent not only for piety, but for patriotism and philanthropy. Chancellor Kent testifies concerning Dr. Stiles: "He was distin- guished for the dignity of his deportment, the politeness of his address and the urbanity of his manners".
Dr. Hopkins, also a graduate of Yale College, having already served a long ministry in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was installed pastor of the First Newport Church in 1770. In theology he had, in early life, sat at the feet of Jonathan Edwards and was regarded as second only to him among the theologians of that day. His chief work was his "System of Theology", which embodied a modified form of Calvinism, often called "Hopkinsianism". His theories were peculiar to himself and naturally gave great offense. He maintained that a true Christian ought to be willing to perish forever, if it should be necessary for the glory of God and the good of the Universe. By sermons and by his famous "Dialogues", as well as by letters to public men and newspaper essays, he stirred up and organized political action against slavery, so that, in 1774, a law was passed forbidding the importation of negroes into Rhode Island Colony. There was great solemnity in Dr. Hopkins's preaching, carrying conviction to the understanding and the heart. Being a man of large stature, well proportioned and dressed, after the custom of the time, in a full- bottomed wig, he presented a very imposing appearance.
At the settlement of Dr. Stiles and for many years afterwards, up to the early years of Dr. Hopkins's pastorate, both the Congregational churches in Newport were in a flourishing condition and received
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frequent additions. But about the year 1774 the difficulties be- tween Great Britain and her American colonies began to give warning of the coming conflict. Newport declined in prosperity. Her com- merce diminished. Many dwelling-houses were emptied of their in- habitants and the churches were, naturally, in a great measure, for- saken. Dr. Hopkins sent his family away hoping to be able, remain- ing alone, to weather the storm, but, finally, in 1776, was forced to withdraw and joined them in a safe retreat in central Massachusetts. In 1775 the remnant of the Second Church met and determined that it was inexpedient to attempt to continue public worship during the winter and in the succeeding spring Dr. Stiles left Newport, both churches then being destitute of pastors and the members scattered far and wide. During the war the two meeting-houses were used as barracks. Although Dr. Stiles never returned, except for occasional ministrations, yet the Second Church was too much reduced by the war to give him a formal dismission. The long residence of these two uncommon minds in Newport could not but have exercised a perma- nently salutary influence upon the community.
The quiet introduction of Congregationalism into Kingstown and Newport might be considered an illustration of the truth that "the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation". But the advent of the order in Providence, in contrast to that as well as to the coming of the Baptists and Quakers to that settlement, was, to a large degree, a demonstration. The first ordination on Rhode Island soil to the Con- gregational ministry was that of Josiah Cotton and occurred with considerable outward circumstance and ceremony. It was about the year 1720 when the first efforts were set on foot for the establishment of a Congregational church in Providence. Regard being had to the former attitude of the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, it is not remark- able that the Congregationalists did not sooner organize themselves in Rhode Island, but rather that they felt encouraged to do it so soon. The first movement was made in Massachusetts, Rhode Island appear- ing to have been regarded there as, in a sense, missionary ground. As an opening, a conciliatory letter was written by the Rev. Peter Thacher of Milton, to the citizens of Providence, proposing to send a preacher to gather a congregation. The response, while not distinctly cordial, was sufficiently encouraging not to hinder an agent being appointed to collect funds in Massachusetts and Connecticut for building a meeting- house in the Rhode Island town. No doubt there was in Providence, as has already been intimated, a considerable number of persons who had not become alienated from the worship and order of their earlier
OLD TOWN HOUSE, PROVIDENCE.
THIS BUILDING FORMERLY STOOD ON THE CORNER OF BENEFIT AND COLLEGE STREETS AND WAS ORIGINALLY THE FIRST CONGREGA- FROM AN OLD PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
TIONAL MEETING- HOUSE IN PROVIDENCE.
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days and who were prepared to welcome the advent of the Puritan church with gratification. By 1723 a lot was conveyed, at a nominal price, to certain trustees, by Danicl Abbott, one of the patrons of Con- gregationalism in the town and subsequently deputy governor of Rhode Island. It was situated at what is now the southwestern corner of Benefit and College streets, being a portion of the orchard of Chad Brown, the first Baptist pastor of Providence, and the site of his burial place, the county court-house now occupying the position. Here was erected, in the same year, a spacious but very plain square meeting- house, without a steeple, with two rows of windows, the upper ones serving to light the broad galleries, which extended nearly around the interior. This building continued to be used for worship until 1794, when it was sold to the town and turned first into a town house and later into a police court room. In 1724 the Rev. Samuel Moody, a graduate of Harvard College and a bold, useful and resolute preacher of the gospel, labored for some time in Providence, baptizing sixteen persons, who became the nucleus of the future church. But the first regular pastor was, as has been mentioned above, Josiah Cotton, also a graduate of Harvard and a brother of Nathaniel Cotton, pastor at Bristol, the two being great-grandsons of the celebrated Rev. John Cotton, of Boston. The church was constituted in 1728 with nine male members.
For the ordination of Mr. Cotton as shepherd of this little flock, invitations were sent to twenty-three churches in Massachusetts, Con- necticut and Rhode Island, cighteen being finally represented at the ceremony by their pastors and elders. About forty Bandmen, or mounted attendants upon the ministry, were present, as well as a large number of candidates for the ministry. The arrival of this concourse and of many other visitors called together by the novelty and interest of the occasion, "the like of which", records Mr. Cotton in his Diary, "as to ministers and churches, this North America never saw", could not but have awakened a peculiar sensation in the little town, somewhat jealous, perhaps, at being taken almost by storm by its Massachusetts friends. But, true to its principles of religious liberty, it gave no recorded sign of opposition. After the sermon by the Rev. Nathaniel Appleton, the church was "embodied" by the eminent Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the old South Church in Bos- ton and author of the "Annals of New England", whose name is hon- orably perpetuated in the title of the Prince Society. At the close of the public exercises the whole council repaired to the "Great Cham- ber" of Daniel Abbott, at the foot of the hill, where a very sumptuous
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and, after so much spiritual effort, no doubt acceptable, dinner awaited it.
"Oh! that I may ever keep it in the imagination of the thoughts of my heart", is the pious ejaculation of the young pastor, in closing his account of the day, "the awfulness, the weight and the moment of this most arduous work, in which I am engaged."
But the immediate result was scarcely commensurate with the au- gustness of the opening function. For some time the church, although harmonious, continued quite feeble and tardy in striking roots into Rhode Island soil, additions being made rather slowly to its numbers. Mr. Cotton was, undoubtedly, a worthy man of considerable learning, but he appears to have lacked the qualities fitted to arouse enthusiasm. After his departure, in 1747, the Rev. John Bass and the Rev. David S. Rowland ministered to the church until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War.
It was during the pastorate of the faithful, successful and munifi- cent Rev. Enos Hitchcock, in 1795, it may be mentioned here, although not within the period strictly under consideration, that the old meet- ing-house was abandoned for a new, more spacious and in the estima- tion of the day more "beautiful" one, on the corner of Benefit and Benevolent streets.
In tracing the history of Congregationalism in Providence, it is now necessary to return to the latter part of the ministry of the Rev. Josiah Cotton. In 1743, fifteen years after his ordination, a portion of the church withdrew and set up separate worship on the western side of the river. It was at about this period that a remarkable revival of spiritual life was manifesting itself throughout New England. In 1735 had occurred, under the powerful preaching of Jonathan Ed- wards at Northampton, what he himself styled the "Great Awaken- ing", the influence of which extended far and wide. Indifference and formalism had, previously to this period, to a great extent pre- vailed, the doctrine of Personal Conversion and the need of a Christian Experience being considerably obscured. It was the time, too, when John Wesley was setting forth the gospel with such flaming zeal and when George Whitefield was summoning in trumpet tones an audience of twenty thousand on Boston Common to repent and believe. A less widely-famed revival preacher of the day, but one of similar sincerity and fervor, was Gilbert Tennent, an Irishman, who came to Provi- dence in 1741 and awakened many souls by his call to amendment of life.
Mr. Cotton did not feel himself able to endorse the course of these
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wandering evangelists, nor was he alone, it must be acknowledged, among the settled clergy of New England, in his deprecation of this departure from the regular ministrations of the gospel. Possibly, too, after the manner of his masterful race, he did not approach the consid- eration of the question in an entirely conciliatory spirit.
There was in Mr. Cotton's flock a young man named Joseph Snow, who was quite carried away by the excitement and enthusiasm of the time. He had become a member of the church three years before, but now believed himself to be first converted by the preaching of Mr. Tennent. His father, of the same name, and others of the devouter people in the church sympathized with him in longing for a higher type of Christian life than had been prevailing. Accordingly, in the year above named, amidst many painful circumstances, such as are inevitable when good men cannot agree, was started the enterprise, which resulted in that happily named organization, the Beneficent Congregational Church. Twenty-seven men from the First Church, about half of its membership, united in calling Elisha Paine, a "Sep- arate" of Windham county, Connecticut, to be their minister, a call not, however, accepted. Joseph Snow, sr., was, thereupon, elected a "rul- ing elder", while Joseph Snow, jr., for two or three years, acted as an exhorter at meetings in private houses and during the pleasant season in groves and orchards.
So great proved the acceptableness of this young man and such confidence did his brethren place in his Christian character, that he was at length induced to be ordained as their actual pastor. But very diverse was the occasion of Joseph Snow's setting apart to the work of the ministry from that which heralded the first entrance of the Puri- tan order into Providence, with its chief inspiration emanating from Massachusetts Bay. Only five churches were in this case bidden to unite in the simple services, the whole number, apparently, belonging to Connecticut. This fact by no means, however, appears to indicate a drawing of the new church towards the more rigid and Presbyterian- like form of Congregationalism prevailing at that era in Connecticut. Rather was the exact contrary true, for not the Saybrook Platform, but that of Cambridge, with its guaranty of greater independence to the local church, was adopted as the rule of discipline. The especial leaning of the Beneficent Church towards pure independence is vividly illustrated by the fact that for many years, until 1858, it did not con- sent to join the Evangelical Association of Congregational Churches in Rhode Island, established previously to 1823, being represented in it only by its pastors.
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The Connecticut inclination of the church was limited to a prefer- ence for the cast of religion prevailing particularly in Windham coun- ty, where the Great Revival had awakened the deepest interest. Al- ready down the newly opened highroad from Western Connecticut to Providence had traveled preachers aflame with the new views of the Word of God. Windham county, so far from representing the general tone of the church throughout the State, was the very hot-bed of the "Separatism" and "New Light" doctrines, which had aroused the thunders of church and state, in Connecticut. Elisha Paine, who was, as has been related, the first choice of the West Side Church in Provi- dence for pastor, had lain in Windham jail for several months on the charge of preaching the gospel without authority. Hence it was not unnatural that the church in Providence to which he had been called should be styled, somewhat derisively, the "New Light Church". Nor does it appear to have been cager to repudiate the title. Under the faithful and devout ministrations of Mr. Snow it grew and prospered and attained the distinction of being known as the "church of the common people".
By 1771 the congregation numbered one hundred and forty families, being the largest in the town. For fifty years, including the first three when he was their spiritual leader by common consent, "Father Snow" went in and out among his people and built up the strong parish, which continues as his monument to the present day. At first there existed a bitter feeling between the two Congregational churches of the town, but, by the cultivation of a conciliatory spirit on both sides and the retraction of mistaken action, a more Christian senti- ment grew up, until finally the ordinary courtesies of brethren and mutual kindly affections came to prevail between them. It was not until 1750 that the new church built its first meeting-house, fortunate- ly far away from that of the other parish, on land given by the same Daniel Abbott, who had "for £30 and of his own free bounty" helped the First Church to a lot and whose name is appropriately preserved in the little park, also his gift, adjoining the present church, on Wey- bosset strect.
So different from our own were the customs of those days, that it is recorded that the stalwart young pastor was himself the leader of the party which cut down the necessary timber in the forest and raised the new meeting-house, he having, indeed, begun life as a carpenter. It is not unlikely that Mr. Snow received wages for his work, it not being until later that a slender stipend of sixty pounds in currency, worth at that period not much more than a hundred dollars, was allowed him.
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It is to be remembered that the size of the meeting-house was sueh that for three years College Commeneements were held in it, as the largest place available before the completion of the First Baptist meeting-house. George Whitefield and Bishop Asbury are said to have preached in the building. Many must have been the exhortations of the pastor and brethren with which the old structure echoed, the church having been noted in the beginning, as well as in later days, for the profitableness of its conference meetings.
As time went on, the exeitement and ardor of the first years gave place to a more sedate and meditative turn of thought, with, perhaps, no less valuable fruitage. Two hundred and eighty-three members were added to the church during "Father Snow's" pastorate. In the year 1764 alone there was an increase of eighty-five, it being the year of Whitefield's preaching in Providence. In 1775, when the sound of war was beginning to be heard in the land, twenty-seven new members were reported, sixteen of them being men.
Thus have been reviewed all the Congregational Churches in Rhode Island belonging to eolonial times, unless, indeed, there was one at Westerly. In an old record of 1834 appears the statement, that about one hundred years previously Rev. Joseph Park, a preacher, was labor- ing at Westerly. But if he organized a church there, it long sinee beeame extinet, for one was formed in that town, as if it were a new one and not a revival, in 1843.
At the period of the Revolution there appear to have been nine Congregational churches in Rhode Island. During the conflict public worship in the one at Bristol and the two at Newport, those towns being exposed seaports, was, as we have noted, wholly suspended. In Providence there was no regular pastor at the First Church from 1774 to 1783, although the Rev. John Lothrop of Boston supplied the pulpit for some parts of 1775 and 1776. Many members of the Second Church, probably among them a goodly portion of the sixteen men, who, as we have seen, publiely professed Christ the year before the Declaration of Independence, served in important positions in the army or as honored privates. It is noticeable that the "War Govern- or" of Rhode Island, who presided over the State for the three years next after the battle of Lexington, was that most patriotic member of this chureh, Nicholas Cooke.
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