1669. that the letters concealed would have been evi- SEC. VII. dence, that the church at Newhaven refused a dismissal to her pastor; but only have shown an unwillingness to make it her immediate act.* A degree of blame attached to both sides. On one side more simplicity and uprightness of conduct was to have been expected; and those of the other were too curious and meddlesome. The event was not fortunate for any body. Mr. D. shortly died; Newhaven church became divided, and long remained destitute of a pastor; and First Church, besides losing a respectable portion of her members, was engaged, for fourteen years, in a controversy with the New, or Third church. This quarrel is said to have been terminated, in consequence of a danger, which happened to both churches, through an attempt to make an episcopal establishment in the town. From this mo̟ment they exerted their joint efforts to oppose the missionaries of the English bishops. At first however, the contention was so sharp, that First Church refused to join in acts of communion with the Third; and fines, and even imprisonments were, in some instances, the result of a fiery and misdirected zeal.† Mr. Bellingham was now governour; and, being warmly opposed to the seceders, he called the council together with a view of quashing the design, on the presumption, that the erection of a new edifice would militate with the publick safety. To be sure, the forming 1669. SEC. VII. of a new church, at that period, was a design of vaster magnitude,than at the present day; for nearly the whole country were enlisted on one side or the other of this unpleasant warfare. But the council were not equally apprehensive with his excellency of ensuing mischief. The general court at length interfered in favour of First Church, and raised a committee to inquire into those prevailing evils, which were the probable cause of God's displeasure towards our land. * The following is part of their report. "Declension from the primitive foundation work; innovation in doctrine and worship, opinion and practice; an invasion of the rights, liberties, and privileges of churches; a usurpation of a lordly prelatical power over God's heritage; a subversion of gospel order; and all this with a dangerous tendency to the utter devastation of these churches; turning the pleasant gardens of Christ into a wilderness; and the inevitable and total extirpation of the principles and pillars of the congregational way; these are the leaven, the corrupting gangrene, the infecting spreading plague, the provoking image of jealousy set up before the Lord, the accursed thing, which hath provoked divine wrath, and doth further threaten destruction." One seems at a loss, on whom to fix this general invective. It was well understood, at that day, to be aimed at the Third Church, and the ministers consenting to its organization. * Hutch. i. 249. The bitter pill contained in the report produced SEC. VII. retchings in the stomach and burnings in the 1669. heart. At its next session, the general court was addressed by a portion of the clergy too respectable to be neglected, and in language too solemn and pathetick to be silenced. The deputies were now delicately reminded of the services of the clergy, in the early settlement of the country; and of the happy union, that subsisted between Moses and Aaron, of whom it was said, that, if the former conducted the people, the latter transported the ark of the covenant. They were assured of the loyalty of the ministers; of their inflexible regard to the principles of congregationalism; and of their hatred of disorder and licentiousness. The ministers thought it necessary thus to vindicate themselves from the charge of innovation and apostasy, which had been implied, if not expressed, in the abovementioned report. They insinuated, if they did not feel, that they had suffered from the rage of a party, who had endeavoured to widen, instead of healing, the breach between First and Third Church, and to misrepresent and disguise the business in the view of the community. They hoped, an apology would be readily found for their conduct, if they had erred; and, if they had been wronged, that their wrongs would be redressed. They concluded with a declaration of the purity of their intentions, and of their wish to resist, if possible, the antiministerial spirit, which was rising and spreading in the country, and which, through the sides of the clergy, was wounding the cause of religion. SEC. VII. This address made a serious and salutary im1669. pression on the court. They saw the necessity of giving it a kind and respectful answer. Having therefore apologized for the imprudent warmth, that might have actuated their body, the preceding year, they proceed to express their wishes for conciliation, equity, and peace. They decreed, that all papers referring to the late unpleasant controversy should be accounted useless; and that no odium ought to rest upon those ministers, who had been instrumental in establishing the Third Church. In doing this, however, care was taken to secure the authority of the magistrates; and due caution was administered against questioning the rectitude of legislative proceedings. It will hence be seen, what sort of connexion subsisted between the civil and ecclesiastical orders of the state. Various causes operated, at times, to diminish the influence of the christian minister. As new settlements were made, parishes were multiplied. The means of subsistence and of knowledge to the pastors of these little flocks were necessarily narrow; and they not infrequently complained, that they prophesied in sackcloth. Want of knowledge and of wealth was consequently want of power. Yet, with all their poverty and the disadvantages of their situation, they possessed their full share of talents and virtue, and were therefore not to be contemned nor neglected. They remembered the views, which planted Newengland; and, if they had not 1669. the learning, they were still animated with the SEC. VII. spirit, of their predecessors. Though the civilians of that day acknowledged and revered their piety, yet they provided with a jealous eye against the increase of hierarchical rule. So that the churches, notwithstanding their professions and boast of independency, were actually under a kind of political control; and, on the contrary, through the influence of the clergy, magistrates, who were annually elected, were occasionally displaced, when they were thought to have infringed against the rights of the church. The most acrimonious and lasting dispute, which took place between First Church and any of its sisters, on the subject of Mr. Davenport's removal, was that between this and the church at Dedham. Letters are now preserved in First Church records, which mark the heat of the ecclesiastical thermometer,at that disputatious period. The majority of First Church adhered steadily to their choice of Mr. D. and their attachment to his person. In this agitated condition of things,it was not to be expected, that the church would receive large accessions. In 1669, two men only and six women were received, as members. Twenty male and nineteen female infants, in that year, were baptized. But, after Mr. Oxenbridge was associated in the pastoral care, in the following year, fifty-four persons, thirty-five of whom were women, seated themselves at the Lord's table. In that year also, thirty-one male and twentyeight female children were baptized. 1670, |