USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 2 > Part 4
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382
MEETING OF PRESBYTERY.
[1770-1780.
could not be rejected, yet, except his once mentioning the satisfaction" [atonement], " any Arian or Socinian might have preached the same. With him I most fully agree. As I had not been present to hear the reasons why he had been ap- pointed to preach on that subject, I said but little, only desired to have some things explained, which I found Mr. H. was ready to do. It passed approved. Then an attempt was made to give him a minute intimating that he was cleared from the charges brought against his orthodoxy by good old Mr. Campbell (Rev. James Campbell, of the Bluff church, N. Carolina) at last pres- bytery ; but as Mr. Campbell had only given in his charges in writing, and these were not read because Mr. T-t was not present and Mr. C. being absent, they were opposed as being false, on which I spoke with some earnestness, which dis- obliged Mr. H. and Mr. L., neither of whom liked to see me there. It was agreed to give him a minute intimating that his sermon was approved, and that no further notice would be taken of any general surmises of his heterodoxy, and that Mr. C. should be written to, and if he did not appear to make his charge against Mr. T. good (both being present at next meeting of presbytery), or send some excuse for not attending for that purpose, that the affair should be dropped. Thus," says Mr. Simpson, perhaps very uncharitably, "was this noto- rious Arian and Socinian approved and allowed to sit among us, by his artful sermon and dissembling subscription, being supported by those who are of the same sentiments with him.'
Mr. Simpson's journal is mostly written in shorthand, only the consonants being noted down. It was his practice espe- cially to abbreviate proper names, giving only the consonants. Who the Rev. Mr. T-t was, so severely charged, we know not. There was a Rev. James Tate who came from Ireland to Wilmington about the year 1760, and for his support opened a classical school, the first one in the place. While residing in Wilmington, he was accustomed to take excursions for preach- ing through New Hanover and the adjoining counties in North Carolina. In the course of his visits he baptized the children of the Scotch and Irish families without inquiry into the Christian experience of the parents. He received a small fee for each baptism, either in money or in cotton yarn ; and this appears to have been all his salary and all the remuneration for his journeyings and services .- (Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, p. 178.) Mr. Simpson was a great advocate for sound doctrine, quick to discover and to suspect error, and insisted much on warm. evangelical piety. The controversy in this
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MEETING OF PRESBYTERY.
1770-1780.]
presbytery reminds us much of that between Moderatism and its opponents, and the "New and Old Lights," in Scotland in these and subsequent years.
" The next business," says Mr. Simpson, " was to examine the credentials of two gentlemen, both ordained, who offered themselves to be members. The first was Mr. Henderson, chaplain to the Royal Scots, stationed at present at St. Augus- tine, who has a call from Edisto, and I believe will accept of it when he receives letters from the governor there [St. Augus- tine], Colonel Grant, or from the general-in-chief. His tes- timonies from a presbytery and synod in Scotland were very full, and he was received very unanimously. He seems to be a young man of a very promising countenance, about thirty years of age or better, and in the after-business of the day appeared to be a very sensible and judicious person. The other gentleman was he who preached two Sabbaths at Pon Pon," [Mr. Simpson had before, in his journal, alluded to his suspicion that the presbytery intended to settle him there], " was at Beaufort last week, and a spectator at Wiltown on Sabbath. His credentials were very insufficient. A scrawl on a small bit of paper from one minister in Donegal presby- tery to the northward, testifying that he had been two years at Edinburgh in Scotland, studying philosophy, and two years with the great Mr. or rather Dr. Moncrief, professor of divinity to the Anti-Burgher Seceders in Scotland, and afterwards with the subscriber (Proudfoot) to the northward; had joined the above presbytery ; was licensed and ordained, but had no charge; brought no letters nor anything else that was gen- uine, nor any account of his coming out to the southward. Another bit of paper contained an ill-wrote, interlined scrawl, signed by one who called himself Presbytery Clerk, to the same purpose. When asked why he had no mission from the presbytery or synod, he had little to say. When asked why he brought no letters, he said he had some to gentlemen in Virginia, but did not think to come so far as here. When asked why he wanted to be admitted a member with us, he said he liked the country. Some objections were made bv all present, except Mr. H., who was most strenuous for his being admitted fully. It was offered to be proved, that the synod to the northward had for some years past an act, that no preacher or minister should be sent to the southward without a mission from the synod, as many worthless young men had come along of their own accord, and done much mischief in the back parts [of the country] ; some with forged missions,
384
DINE AT POINSETT'S.
[1770-1780-
others fled from censure. It was also offered to be proved, that the whole presbytery of Donegal was very lately dis- united from the synod, and in general looked upon to be very heterodox; but this also was dropped. I insisted most stren- uously that he should not be received as a minister, but be admitted to preach within our bounds till he produced better credentials and we heard more of him. Mr. R[ichardson] testified that he was generally refused in the back country for want of credentials. I was once very near carrying it, only to permit him to preach and perform ministerial duties till we hear from the northward ; but Mr. H., who was determined to have him in at all events to strengthen their party, said he had never seen me at presbytery before, and did not know whether or not I was to be esteemed a member ; and that I had no right to judge there till that question was determined, which he intended to have agitated in the afternoon. This was thought exceedingly rude from him, and had the appear- ance of breeding bad blood; but I begged the brethren to be silent, and in the afternoon the question should be put, as it was a matter of indifference to me whether I was a mem- ber or not. The vote was then put, and all, even those who objected, voted to receive him as a full member, which sur- prised me much, and gave me great concern, as his prac- tice in those parts where Mr. R. is conversant, has been very unbecoming, and at Pon Pon, the billiard-room and tavern were the only places he liked to frequent ; and his whole behavior was very unbecoming a minister or a private Christian. I was also persuaded he will be no honor to the presbytery. But we are now on a trial of strength." * * * "We adjourned and went to dinner all together at Poinsett's, one of the first public-houses in town, where dinner was bespoke. We now made ten ministers in all. All the brethren prayed me not to resent Mr. H.'s conduct ; and the moderate party, viz., the moderator, Messrs. Martin, Richardson, and Alison, entreated me not to desert them. I said little, but assured them I would own no fault, nor would I submit to any censure for my absence. They assured me none was intended. We were all very friendly and social at dinner, after which we went back to the meeting-house, and then the question was brought on by reading a minute of the last presbytery desiring the clerk, Mr. Latta, to write me to attend, or to give my reasons for not attending, or they would not any longer look upon me as a member of their body. I informed them I never received
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MEETING OF PRESBYTERY.
1770-1780.]
any such letter. Mr. Latta owned he did not write me, as it was agreed the present moderator should write me in a very different strain, which I 'acknowledged to have received. Mr. H. denied his knowledge of that letter, and said he would not have agreed to have the presbytery beg my attendance. Mr. Latta owned that he consented to that letter, but it was not agreed upon in presbytery. The moderator owned that he wrote by the consent of the rest. Messrs. Martin and Alison owned the same. As I saw they were like to quarrel among themselves, I said I would cut the matter short by- giving a general account of my reasons. I then mentioned the liberty I had from the presbytery, on my going to an Inde- pendent congregation, to attend or not as I saw proper ; that I attended for some years, but could not see the use of it, as the presbytery had no authority over my congregation, and had, under their hands, given up their authority over me, though I reserved my seat in presbytery; that afterwards great sickness and numerous deaths for some years occurred in my congregation, which was well known through the whole province ; that at last the sickness attacked and carried off my own family ; that since, I had been busily employed in settling a new congregation [Salt Ketcher] and constantly preaching in three vicinages to the southward, the burden of which for several years lay wholly upon myself; that these things taken together, with the liberty I had, constituted my reasons for not attending ; that I thought myself better em- ployed than in doing so. Mr. H. wants to deny the liberty spoken of, because it did not appear on the minutes. I gave reasons why it was not there, and offered to prove it by bring- ing lay witnesses who were then present, the ministers being dead who constituted the presbytery, excepting Mr. Baxter, who for some years has not been looked upon as a member. Mr. H. argued that presbytery then did what they had no right to do. I answered, I did not come to defend that presby- tery, who I knew did many things very wrong and arbitrary. They acknowledged my great activity and diligence in the ministry, and some of them said more of my great usefulness in the cause of religion than I choose to repeat, and expressed great satisfaction in seeing me there. Mr. H. was pleased to do the same and to pass some great compliments, but insisted that the authority of presbytery should be kept up, and that I should at least own that I had been negligent, and promise obedience for the time to come. It was answered by Mr. Henderson and others, that my coming there was an
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مدينة أبوساء حذالسخذ hand
386
MEETING OF PRESBYTERY.
[1770-1780.
acknowledgment of the authority of presbytery ; that I could not be required to acknowledge a fault, as my reasons were really sustained, and it was to be presumed I would attend more constantly. Upon which I got up and answered for my- self, that if I had declined or denied the authority of pres- bytery, I would not have come at all; as for owning myself negligent or in fault, I would not, as I was not conscious of any ; neither would I submit to any censure for what was past ; that I had promised obedience to the presbytery in the Lord, and was willing to stand to it; that if they as a presbytery withdrew the liberty I formerly received, I would no longer plead that excuse, and that my future attendance was my intention if I saw it would be for edification. Upon which all parties declared their great satisfaction, and none more heartily than Mr. H. He stood up and made an apology for what he had said, adding that he had always been for leaving me entirely to myself, and allowing me to come or not as I thought proper, and applied to the brethren for the truth of what he said; but added further, he was. sure Mr. Martin had more cause to apologize than he, for he always thought Mr. Martin treated me with great severity in my absence. Mr. Martin stood up and owned it; but said his high regard and friendship for me was well known; that he thought my ab- sence a great hurt to the presbytery ; that it alienated the whole southward from them, and that the greatest body of serious people, both in town and country, were affected by it, and looked shy upon the presbytery on that account ; and that what he said and did was not to drive me from, but bring me back to, the presbytery, which was now happily accom- plished, and he looked upon it as a most happy circumstance, and that if I never had attended, he would not have con- sented to their excluding me, and that he thanked God for what he now saw. The honest moderator, too, repeatedly blessed God for it, and none of the old members were silent except Mr. T. The new member, Mr. Henderson, also ex- pressed himself handsomely. In short, many more compli- ments were paid me on this occasion than I desire or would think it fit for me to express. Mr. Maltby and Mr. Martin could not contain themselves, but kept talking of it after we were gone to Mr. H.'s house, where we drank tea together.
"The next business was a petition from some people in a quarter of the Long Canes, where Mr. Miller, formerly deposed and excommunicated, lives, requesting his being restored to the ministry. Mr. R[ichardson] produced a writing against it,
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387
1770-1780.] MR. SIMPSON'S DILIGENCE AND USEFULNESS.
but without any debate it was rejected. I was requested to give an account of his affairs, being the only member living where they happened. I declined it, and referred them to the books, which it was thought best not to read. Poor creature ! he was present, though not seen. The people [of Long Canes] were encouraged to try for the gospel in a better way, and promises were made of assistance to be given them.
"The next thing was the reading of the Beaufort letter, which they were well pleased with, and with what had been done there, and appointed me to supply according to their request, and proceed in doing all the services among them I could. I also obtained the moderator to make them one visit, other supplies were appointed, and the whole was concluded by a most excellent prayer by the moderator. We then went to Mr. Hewat's and drank tea together, with a glass of wine, and parted in great harmony and friendship."
We thus have preserved to us in the diary of Mr. Simpson a very full and contemporaneous account of one of the sessions of the earliest presbytery of South Carolina, of which scarcely any other memorial is in existence. We see it in full opera- tion, its jurisdiction extending, imperfectly perhaps, into the up-country of South Carolina and over a portion of North Carolina, performing its duties with a creditable measure of faithfulness, if not with the utmost harmony among its mem- bers. We are admitted in some measure into the social life of Charleston and the adjacent country, and cannot but regret that Mr. Simpson had not been more constant in his attend- ance upon its sessions, as in his copious and communicative diary we should in that case have possessed a complete history of the ecclesiastical state of the churches of the presbytery through the entire period of his ministry in this country.
Mr. Simpson, by his journal, appears to have been very sedu- lously employed in the duties of the ministry, not only within the bounds of his own congregation, but in adjacent neighbor- hoods. On the 2d of October he goes to Charleston to pro- cure land-warrants. He remarks that " there were two hundred that day petitioning for land, a sure sign that the province is thriving." And he thus alludes to the premonitory symptoms of the war of the Revolution : "There was a great confusion in town occasioned by some merchants having imported goods and offering to sell them contrary to the very just and very necessary public resolutions to import only some coarse ne- cessary articles from Great Britain until Parliament repeals
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MR. SIMPSON'S DILIGENCE AND USEFULNESS. [1770-1780.
some very cruel and oppressive acts for taxing us contrary to all the principles of liberty and the constitution. Yet such is the avarice of some, that rather than deny themselves the usual profits of trade, they will expose all our posterity to slavery, even though they have signed and solemnly engaged to observe the public resolutions. The general committee at last prevailed with the delinquents to give up their goods to be stored, but not till the mob were just going to tar and feather them, and in that condition to cart them round the town, which has been with good success practised in some of the northward colonies."
The alternate encouragements and discouragements of a gospel minister, are mirrored on almost every page of this journal; the prevalence of wickedness at Jacksonborough gave him great pain. "I was grieved," he says, (Journal, April, 1770,) "to hear of the wickedness which prevailed at Jacksonborough, which is a place of good trade, being by all accounts the most profane place and the most notorious for wickedness in all the province. Great is the need of faithful ministers in this place, and very little is the prospect of use- fulness. Wickedness of all sorts is at the greatest height I almost ever heard of. Every species of debauchery is gloried in and boasted of, and that in a place where religion prevailed much and by the posterity of many eminently godly ancestors. These things greatly discourage, grieve, and dis- tress me, and make me tremble at the thoughts of coming among them as their minister." (He had received a call to Bethel, Pon Pon, within whose bounds Jacksonborough was.) Mr. Simpson's plain, faithful, frequent preaching, his constant visiting, praying with, comforting, and exhorting the dying and distressed, rendered him acceptable and beloved by the people of God; and although there were persons prejudiced against him who endeavored to detract from his influence, he was on the whole widely popular. His services were sought for by the neighboring churches. He still labored at the Salt Ketcher church (which he founded) a portion of liis time. In addition to this he had an earnest call to settle at Pon Pon, very numerously signed. The people at Beaufort also asked that his services as a supply should be continued to them. His people at Indian Land (Stoney Creek) plead for his continuance among them, and presbytery yielded to their request that he shouldremain pastor of the church he had so long served. On Lord's-day, April 5th, 1772, after service, he gave an exhortation to the negroes, and gave away some Bibles
389
LEAVES AMERICA.
1770-1780.]
and hymn-books and other pious pieces, and a great many spelling-books among them, sent him by some gentleman in New York. "The eagerness and desire of these poor crea- tures for Christian knowledge," he remarks, "is both pleasant and amazing, as I have lately liad occasion to talk with great numbers of them who came to my house for books. I have discovered some very striking instances of true piety and real religion among them, which before I knew not of. I have with great pleasure observed that Christian knowledge and the good effects of it spreads much among these poor slaves, who have great reason to bless God that they were ever brought into this land of captivity, where many of them are brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The slavery of these poor creatures is in general not worse than the service of the laboring part of mankind over the whole world in the freest nations, and far from being so severe as was the state of the common people in Europe some centuries ago, and is still the condition of many European nations. Their service and labor is absolutely necessary for the improvement of this prov- ince, it being undeniably evident that white people cannot possibly labor and cultivate the lands in these lower parts of the country ; and undoubtedly the bringing these people to this country is a most wise and merciful providence both for them and us and the European nations generally, when our rice, which can only be cultivated in such a climate and such low lands, is in the greatest demand, and is yearly more and more so, being the food and nourishment of thousands." In June, 1772, Mr. Simpson sailed from Charleston for Scotland with his two daughters, for whose education he was anxious to provide, taking two of his servants with him; took his leave of Indian Land (Stoney Creek) church on the 24th of May, 1772, in a farewell discourse from Col. iv. 18, delivered to a numerous congregation, deeply moved at parting with their pastor who had labored among them faithfully for seventeen years. On the 3d of June he sailed from Charleston for Scot- land. His original intention was to have returned in about eighteen months to the scene of his labors in Carolina, and he made a strenuous effort to do so in June, 1774 ; but the war be- tween the colonies and Great Britain soon interposed insur- mountable obstacles. On the 3d of August, 1774, on examin- ation of his American credentials, he was received a member of the Established Church of Scotland, and became minister of the new church or chapel at Port Glasgow, where his preaching was largely attended and remarkably blessed. On
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FEELINGS AS HE VIEWS THE CONTEST.
[1770-1780.
the 16th of August, 1775, for example, he admitted to the com- munion "in the morning about one hundred and sixty-five, and more in the afternoon, being mostly young persons converted within the last twelve months." At the communion which fol- lowed, on Lord's-day, 27th, of which his journal gives a full description, seventeen tables were served. "About seven at night," he says, "I went down and served the last table. There were about eighteen hundred communicants." During all this time he was receiving pressing invitations from his people to return. His heart was with America in all its troubles, and his denunciations of the tyranny of the British government were most emphatic. The analogy between the war then waging and that in America under the Lincoln dynasty is most striking. Tuesday, October 10th, 1775, he received accounts from Carolina " of the most dreadful con- fusion and distress prevailing there, so that the ruin of that most flourishing province seems inevitable. The provincial congress, who meet from time to time to watch over the rights and liberties of the people, have intercepted letters from the ministers of state to their tools in that province, persuading them to stir up the Indians to fall upon the white people, to subdue them to the tyranny of government, and to stir up the negroes to a general insurrection for the same horrid pur- pose. This has exasperated the people there almost to mad- ness. And as the king's fleets and troops were to support the Indians and negroes in this most villainous affair, the whole province is now in arms to oppose the king's troops, who were daily expected when these letters were wrote (August 19th.") April 27th, 1776 : " This day there has been a great concourse of people about this town and Greenock to see a large fleet of transports set off for America, aboard of which are three thousand Highlanders to be employed to subdue that country and forge chains for that brave people, which will undoubtedly revert upon ourselves, and destroy our liberty as well as theirs, if the tyrannical measures of government take place. But I hope God will order it otherwise. People in this poor unhappy land are so blinded to their own destruc- tion that there is nothing to be heard but curses and abuses of the poor Americans, and vain boasts of what vengeance and destruction shall fall upon them by fire and sword, the absolute conquest and desolation of the provinces being de- termined on by the ministry. These things are very grievous and distressing to me, yet am obliged to hear them daily and hourly, and render it very difficult to determine what course
391
EXPEDITION OF JOHN PAUL JONES.
1770-1780.]
to steer, both in private conversation and public prayers, so as not to wound my own conscience nor to give offence to any." *. * "There have between thirty and forty thousand land forces sailed for America this spring, a great part of whom are Germans, besides many ships of war. Yet the Americans are making a brave, noble defence, and they have met with great losses, and have hitherto had great success. Great pains is also taken to divide them among themselves, and, though there are not wanting traitors and ministerial tools amongst them, yet there is a most amazing and surprising unanimity. The English and Irish are much averse to this horrid war. The base and degenerate part of the Scots are the principal tools employed to enslave the brave Americans, which for- bodes awful things to this poor back-slidden land, of whom there are yet, blessed be God, many brave and free spirits who write nobly in defence of the American cause." His journal is full of these allusions to American affairs, and his prayers were earnest and frequent for the success of the colonies. On the 25th of April, 1778, he is "surprised to see such numbers of people on the beach and the town in a great commotion. On inquiry, learned that Capt. Crawford, of one of the king's cutters, had brought in account that yesterday morning, some- where off the Loch of Belfast, an American privateer had taken a small sloop of war named the Drake ; that the captain, first lieutenant, and twenty-six . men were killed ; that it had happened so near this river, that Capt. Crawford being in some of the lochs, heard the firing, and that he went out, but the firing was over. We had received accounts yesterday that the same privateer, about the middle of the week, had gone to Lord Selkirk's house, near Kilcudbright, and plundered it of all the plate, but took nothing else. His lordship at London ; that they had behaved with great politeness to Lady Selkirk, refusing her gold watch and jewels thoughi offered them, and that on the same night of April the 23d they had landed two of their boats with a number of their men at Whitehaven, spiked up some of the cannon, and set fire to some ships there ; but that one of their number deserting, gave the alarm, and that only two of the ships were much damaged, the rest were got out in time, and the crew made off to their ship. * * * Thus we are unhappily destroying one another, and all Europe is amazed at our folly and madness." The reference thus made is to the noted expedition of John Paul Jones in the Ranger, who alarmed the whole coast of Scotland, and returned to Brest with two hundred prisoners of war.
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