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TWO 
 
 CONTAINING THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OE THE 
 
 OLD NORTH and NEW BRICK CHURCHES, 
 
 UNITED AS THE 
 
 SECOND CHURCH D^ BOSTON, 
 
 DELIVERED MAY 20, 1821, 
 
 COMPLETION OF A CENTURY 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 DEDICATION OF THE PRESENT MEETING-HOUSE IN MIDDLE STREET. 
 
 BY HENRY WARE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH AND SOCIETY. 
 
 1867 
 
 BOSTON ?/;v ^ . ,; 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JAMES W. BURDITT, NO. 94, COURT STREET. 
 Sewell Phelps, Printer. 
 
 1821. 
 
 .opy2. 
 

SERMON I. 
 
 THE OLD NORTH CHURCH. 
 
 HAGGAI II. 3. 
 
 Who is left among you that saxo this House in her Jirst glory ? — 
 
 The house, my brethren, in which wc assemble to worship, 
 has been occupied a hundred years. It was dedicated to 
 that holy service to which it has always been sacred, on the 
 tenth day of May, 1 721 ; — a centurj from which date, allow- 
 ing for the difference of style, is this very day completed. 
 An epoch so interesting, so fitted to recall the remembrance 
 of past years, and to cxcile to salutary contemplation on the 
 vicissitudes of a transitory world, and the dispensations of 
 an unchanging God ; I am not willing to pass without explicit 
 and large notice. It has been customary in our churches, 
 on such an occasion, to review the way through which God 
 has led them, and recount the history of his providence to 
 their fathers. It is a good custom. And I doubt not, breth- 
 ren, that you will be interested to go back with me, and trace 
 the story of this church, and the character and doings of 
 its ministers and people. To this object I purpose to devote 
 the discourses of this day ; and though none are left that saw 
 ihe first glory of this house, wc may thus all learn what it 
 was, may find that it has at no period been withdrawn, and is 
 not, even now, wholly departed. 
 
We are not confined, however, in this survey, to the his- 
 tory of the last hundred years, but are led back through the 
 seventy years previous. It is well known to many of you, 
 though probably not to all, that the church in this place is 
 formed by the union of two churches. When the Old North 
 meeting-house, which stood at the head of North Square, 
 had been destroyed by the British troops at the commence- 
 ment of the revolutionary war, the minister and people unit- 
 ed with the minister and people worshipping in this house, 
 and became one church and congregation with them. The 
 late venerable Dr. Lathrop, who so long ministered here, 
 was ordained not over the church in this place, but over the 
 church in North Square, and became pastor of the church 
 in this place by the transfer of his relation after his own 
 meeting-house had been destroyed. We are therefore 
 equally interested in the history of the Old North, as of the 
 New Brick* church, for it was equally the home of our an- 
 cestors. It is a history, too, that deserves our attention ; for 
 it was the second religious establishment in this important 
 place, and numbers amongst its ministers some of the re- 
 markable names of New England. To this, therefore, I ask 
 your first attention. 
 
 The town of Boston having been settled in 1630, ten 
 years after the landing at Plymouth, the first building for 
 publick worship was erected in 1632. This was sufficient for 
 the accommodation of the inhabitants for nearly twenty 
 years. The population had then so increased as to render 
 another building necessary ; and accordingly the people in 
 the north part of the town, Avhich was most populous, built 
 the second meeting-house, at the head of North Square, in 
 
 * The present building retains its original name of the New Brick. 
 The church is known by the style of the Second Church, as it was a min- 
 ister of the Second Church under whom the union was made. The name 
 of the Old North is dropt. 
 
1C49.* The church was gathered there on the fifth day ol 
 June the next year, and consisted at first of seven mem- 
 bers. (1.) A sermon was preached on the occasion by Sam- 
 uel Mather, — a native of England, but educated at Harvard 
 College, — who was earnestly solicited to remain as pastor of 
 the church; but for reasons of which wc know nothing he 
 went to England, and was for twenty-one years minister in 
 various places, an eminent and respected man. (2.) After- 
 ward Mr. Norton, minister of Ipswich, who two years after 
 became minister of the first church in this town ; and Mr. 
 Davenport of New Haven, who seventeen years after also 
 became minister of the first church — both of them among 
 the distinguished men of that period ; and " sundry others 
 who were officers in other churches, but likely to remove 
 from the places where they were ;'"'| were invited, unsuccess- 
 fully, to take charge of this infant church. For a few years, 
 therefore, one of the brethren, Michael Powell, conducted 
 the worship of God's house, and to such satisfaction that he 
 would have been ordained Teacher, had it not been for the 
 interference of the General Court, who " Avould not suffer 
 one, that was illiterate as to academical education, to be call- 
 ed to the teaching office in such a place as Boston ;"| — a 
 circumstance which is well worth noticing, as it exemplifies 
 the jealous care with which our fathers guarded the dignity 
 and character of the publick institutions of religion. After 
 four years passed in this state, Mr. John Mayo, who on ac- 
 count of some "difficulties and discouragements" had left his 
 church at Nosset in Plymouth colony, was called to the 
 pastoral office here, and ordained the 9th of November, 
 1635. At the same time, Mr. Powell was ordained as Ruling 
 
 * I do not find any account of the Dedication, and cannot tell whether 
 the meeting-house was first occupied in 1649 or 1650. 
 
 (1.) The figures refer to the notes at the end of the sermons. 
 
 X Church Records. 
 
6 
 
 Elder of the church. Mr. Powell was soon after incapaci- 
 tated for all labour by a paralytick affection, and his office 
 became vacant.* I do not find that it was ever again filled. 
 
 About this time,t Increase Mather, brother of him before 
 mentioned, returned to this country, and was soon invited to 
 the office of teacher in the Second Church. After two 
 years' hesitation he accepted on certain conditions, and was 
 ordained the 27th day of May, 1664. 
 
 The pastor and teacherj continued labouring together 
 until the year 1670; when Mr. Mayo's increasing infirmities 
 made it necessary for his ministry to cease. Three years 
 afterward he removed to Barnstable, and there spent the 
 remainder of his days with his daughter. He died at .Yar- 
 mouth in May, 1676, advanced in years, but at what precise 
 age is not known. We have no means of acquainting our- 
 selves with his history or character beyond what is here 
 stated. (3.) 
 
 After the removal of Mr. Mayo, Dr. Mather held his of- 
 fice alone, until his son, Cotton Mather, was ordained as a 
 /^ 8S~ colleague. May 1 3, 1-GBT. During these years the church 
 appears to have been prosperous, growing with the growth 
 of the town. A great misfortune however befell them in the 
 burning of the meeting-house in 1676. (4.) It was rebuilt 
 the next year, and then stood for a century. The prosperi- 
 ty of the church after this event may be inferred from the 
 circumstance, that within six years it became necessary to 
 
 * He died January 28, 1672—3. 1 September, 1661. 
 
 \ In the early records of the church these titles are applied alternately 
 to the ministers as they were settled, evidently without any difference in 
 the nature, tenure, or duties of the office. Cotton Mather says, (Rat. 
 Disc. p. 42.) that when the churches had more than one pastor, " one of 
 them formerly was distinguished by the name of teacher ; though in re- 
 gard of their work and their power among these churches, it has been so 
 much distinctio sine differentia, that more lately the distinction is less re- 
 garded." 
 
build a gallery for the better accommodation of the hear- 
 ers. (5.) 
 
 Indeed the character and reputation of Increase Mather 
 were such, that we should expect to find a crowded attend- 
 ance on his ministrations. He was one of the eminent men 
 of his times, and few possessed and wielded a wider influence. 
 And although there were those, as there always will be 
 around an elevated man, especially if he take a leading part 
 in political transactions, who were inimical to his authority; 
 yet in church and state, in religious and in civil aflairs, he 
 was looked up to as a leader, equally active, distinguished 
 and trusted. This was partly owing to the peculiar state of 
 society amongst the early puritan settlers, who in their de- 
 sign of forming a " Christian Commonwealth," naturally 
 placed much of the power of government in the hands of 
 the rulers of the church : and the authority, which was in 
 the first years exercised by the holy and able ministers who 
 led the feeble colonists,* and by their energy and prayers 
 sustained them in their dark days of fear and danger : 
 continued to abide to the last with Increase Mather. We 
 must not, however, attribute too much to the character of 
 the age ; much, doubtless, was owing to the rare qualities of 
 the man. For three generations (6.) that family was distin- 
 guished by extraordinary gifts. There were many men 
 amongst them on whom nature had bestowed the power to 
 be great, and they evidenced that power in the influence 
 with which they swayed their fellow men. Increase Mather 
 had his full share of these qualities. Ardent, bold, enter- 
 prizing, and perhaps ambitious 5 conscious of his own pow- 
 er, religiously sensible of his obligations to exercise it 
 
 * No instance of this authority is more remarkable than that of Cot- 
 ton, minister of the first church. "Whatever," says Hubbard, "Mr. 
 Cotton delivered was soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, or sei 
 up as a practice in th<: church, if of an ecclesiastical concernment." 
 
•8 
 
 usefully ; born and trained in a young colony struggling with 
 hardships, and forcing its way through peril and fear; his 
 mind fashioned by a father, who for conscience' sake had 
 quitted all and settled in this hopeless land, and who had all 
 the zeal and firmness which characterized the puritans of 
 that age, a race eminently formed " to do and to dare ;" — 
 thus gifted and educated, he became peculiarly fit, and no 
 wonder it was felt that he was fit, to have an ascendency 
 and exercise a control. He had received the best educa- 
 tion of his own country, he had completed it abroad, he 
 had been driven from place to place, suffering for his reli- 
 gion, and presented with strong temptations to abandon it, 
 thus acting a hurried and various part in the most trying 
 times in the mother country — and after this discipline, so 
 calculated to give firmness and character, he returned to la- 
 bour in the service of this infant state. (7.) Nothing can be 
 conceived more likely to prepare a man to act well his part 
 in so peculiar a scene. He soon became eminent. Talents, 
 learning, and virtue are always commanding. In that age 
 a religious spirit was indispensable to honour and power. 
 Mather had all. He was conspicuous for rigid piety where 
 all were rigid, and eminent for talents and knowledge, where 
 many had been eminent before him. It therefore is not 
 strange that he acquired a control to which few are equal, 
 and received and held honours which would not now be be- 
 stowed upon ministers. 
 
 We find proofs of his ascendency in several remarkable 
 transactions. When King Charles II. in 1683, demanded 
 from the colonies an unqualified resignation of their char- 
 ters, it was principally by the authority and influence of 
 Increase Mather that the people refused to make the surren- 
 der. He not only wrote upon the subject, but went to them 
 in publick meeting, and exhorted them not with open eyes to 
 rush upon their ruin, but to do their duty and trust the event 
 
9 
 
 to God.* The example of Boston decided the question 
 throughout the country ; and this is one of the early in- 
 stances in which the lead was taken by this town in those 
 spirited measures of opposition to arbitrary oppression, for 
 which the descendants of the puritans have been always 
 distinguished. The charter, however, was forfeited ; and a 
 governour was sent overt with unlimited authority to make 
 and administer what laws he might please. This authority 
 he exercised in a most oppressive manner; which at length 
 so excited the indignation of the people, that it was resolved 
 to send an agent to England to represent their grievances to 
 the king. (8.) No one was found so fitted to this important 
 labour as Dr. Mather, who accordingly sailed for England 
 in April, 1688. During that year the English revolution 
 took place, and it was not until four years after that he ac- 
 complished his commission and returned home. Upon his 
 arrival^ with a new governour and another charter, the Gen- 
 eral Court appointed a day of solemn thanksgiving, with 
 honourable mention of his exertions in behalf of the state. 
 But the satisfaction which it yielded him was not unmixed. 
 Many were dissatisfied with the result of his negotiations,!! 
 and parties were formed. Some of his old friends forsook 
 him, and he found, like others before him, that the troubles 
 and anxieties of political eminence are very insufficiently 
 compensated by its honours. 
 
 * " The clergy," says Hutchinson, " turned the scale for the last time. 
 The balance which they had held from the beginning, they were allowed 
 to retain no longer." 
 
 t By James, in 1686. ^ May 14, 1692. 
 
 II His task was undoubtedly a very difficult one, and he was himself 
 far from being altogether satisfied with tlie terms he was able to obtain. 
 This he acknowledges in the pamphlet whicii he published on the sub- 
 ject : but complains of the unreasonableness of those, who accused him 
 of having done nothing, because he had not accomplished all that wa^ 
 desirable. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 But his peculiar distinctions and happiness were in the 
 church. He was eminently fitted for the work of the min- 
 istry, and held high rank as a writer and a preacher. His 
 manner is represented to have been grave, dignified, and im- 
 pressive. He never carried his notes into the pulpit, gene- 
 rally committing his sermons to memory, and oftentimes 
 preaching extempore, — especially during the years in which 
 he was president of the college, when he had little leisure 
 for writing : for so devoted to him were his flock, that they 
 would consent to his holding that office only on the condi- 
 tion that he continued their minister ; and when it was made 
 necessary for the president to reside in Cambridge, he resign- 
 ed the office for his people's sake. (9.) His sermons are 
 written in a manly and forcible style, less marked than 
 might be expected by the peculiar faults of the age, and 
 contain passages of the most powerful eloquence. His fa- 
 vourite topicks appear to have been those of practical reli- 
 gion, which he inculcated in all the severe strictness and 
 occasional superstition of that age, and with great energy 
 and warmth. Few sermons present a stronger image of the 
 entire sincerity of the writer, and the anxious workings of 
 his own feelings. They are remarkable for their copious 
 historical illustrations,* which appear to have presented 
 themselves spontaneously to his mind ; and not less so for 
 iheir frequent lamentations over the degeneracy and depart- 
 ing glory of New England. He bewailed in most pathetick 
 strains the rapid decline, which he witnessed, from the strict- 
 ness of the first settlers, and was often sounding the alarm of 
 an exemplary vengeance to overtake that evil and perverse 
 generation. " The interest of New England," he says, " is 
 changed from a religious to a worldly interest." " Such sins 
 as formerly were not known in New England, have now be- 
 
 * This is true as a general remark, though particularly so of his occa- 
 sional sermons. 
 
11 
 
 come common, such as swearing, sinful gaming, &,c. ; yea, 
 the present generation, as to the body of it, is an unconvert- 
 ed generation." He elsewhere adds to this catalogue of sins, 
 drunkenness, tavern hunting, even on Saturday evening, and 
 neglect of the sabbath, the ordinances, and family worship. 
 He cries out also against the lax discipline of the church, 
 and the common substitution of a merely historical belief, 
 for the rigid saving faith, which was once regarded as essen- 
 tial. (10.) These complaints sound strangely in our ears, 
 who have been taught to believe that the manners of that 
 age were universally pure, and to regard them with venera- 
 tion as presenting a model for imitation. But such com- 
 plaints are made in every age. There are always those 
 that imagine the world is going backward, because it is not 
 guided by their own rule, and does not resemble the picture 
 their fancy has drawn of times that are past. And we should 
 be comforted amidst the lamentations of present degeneracy, 
 that they were equally loud a hundred and thirty years ago, 
 and on account too of the same sins, which are said to be 
 our peculiar curse. No doubt changes were perpetually 
 occurring ; and those who had known the country w^hen it 
 consisted, as we may say, of but one little family, w'ould 
 readily imagine every departure from the simplicity and 
 strictness of family discipline and order to be evil ; and yet 
 it might be not only unavoidable, but upon the whole advan- 
 tageous. The anxiety of Mather upon this head is a most 
 honourable proof of his devotion to the welfare of religion 
 and of his country; it was the spirit of genuine piety and 
 patriotism. But it evinced also how much he was governed 
 by the impressions of education, and the circumstances of 
 the times in which he lived. 
 
 And these had made such impression ori his mind, that 
 he looked as fearfully on the growing charity, as on the 
 growing vices of the age. He docs not a[)j)ear to have been 
 bigoted or uncandid in his own private feelings. While in 
 
12 
 
 London, he tells us, " he did his utmost to promote a union be- 
 tween the Presbyterian and Congregational churches ;" and 
 in a neighbouring town he assisted to ordain a minister of the 
 Baptist denomination, and spoke with satisfaction of the part 
 he had taken in it. And yet he could declaim loudly against 
 toleration, and pronounce it to be fraught with the deadliest 
 evils. " Toleration," he says, " of all religions and persua- 
 sions is the way to have no religion at all left." " I do 
 believe that Antichrist hath not in this day a more probable 
 way to advance the kingdom of darkness."* (11.) 
 
 This alarm in regard to the state and prospects of the 
 country was mingled with that superstition of the age, which 
 likened the Commonwealth to the commonwealth of Israel, 
 and which accordingly expected perpetual interpositions of 
 providence in favour or judgment. Every calamity — storm, 
 fire, and sickness — he represented as special visitations of 
 God for the sins of the people, and endeavoured with all the 
 energy of his eloquence to rouse them to a sense of their 
 sins, that they might by repentance avert the wrath.t On 
 the appearance of the comets in 1680 and 1682, which he 
 verily believed to be the forerunners of calamity, and pub- 
 lished a considerable treatise in support of the opinion (12.) — 
 he came forward with loud exhortations to repentance and re- 
 formation, denouncing the irritated anger of heaven, and con- 
 fidently predicting a heavy day of vengeance and darkness. 
 
 It is not at all strange, when we consider the character 
 of the times in which he lived, that his ardent and devout 
 mind, which had been trained to " see God in every thing 
 and every thing in God," should be thus affected with super- 
 stitious notions of the government of the world and the ap- 
 pearances of the heavens. The strongest and best minds 
 
 * Election Sermon, 
 t His sermons on such occasions were principally preached at the 
 Thursday Lecture, and appear to have made an impression, as I find som^ 
 of them passed through two editions, and some through a third. 
 
13 
 
 are as liable as others to submit to the prevalent opinions oi' 
 the age, and their doing so is no proof of deficiency in tal- 
 ents or in judgment. The character of this eminent man 
 stands upon other grounds ; and while it can be sustained up- 
 on them, it is but a small thing that in some points it par- 
 takes of the infirmities of the world in which he moved. 
 
 Such was the man by the light of whose instruction and 
 example our church was blessed for more tiian sixty-two 
 years, and who for sixty-six years was a preacher of the 
 gospel. He died August 23, 1723, in the eighty-fifth year 
 of his age ; — undoubtedly one of the most distinguished men 
 of the day ; " one who was indeed a great man while yet 
 but a young man, and a notable preacher of Christ in some 
 of the greatest churches of England and Ireland, before he 
 had been twenty years in the world. A great man, and one 
 adorned with great endowments of knowledge and learning 
 and prudence, which qualified him for stations and actions 
 and even an agency for his country, wherein the most emi- 
 nent persons in the nation, and three crowned heads took a 
 kind notice of him." Indeed, whether you consider the ex- 
 traordinary honours that attended him while living, or the 
 general sentiment which has followed his memory, or consult 
 the writings which he has left behind him; you will pro- 
 nounce him a man richly endowed by nature, richly furnish- 
 ed hy education, and deservedly numbered with the most 
 pious, learned, and useful men of New England. The day 
 of his death was a day of general mourning. An honoura- 
 ble funeral was given him, such as few citizens had been 
 known to receive before, and every testimony of affection 
 and veneration accompanied him to the tomb. The feelings 
 of that day have passed away ; the eyes that knew him and 
 wept for him have long been scaled in death ; and other 
 generations have risen and gone by and been forgotten. But 
 the name of Increase Mather still lives ; and when hundreds 
 of generations shall have sunk to irrecoverable oblivion, he 
 
14 
 
 shall still be hailed, as one of the early worthies of New 
 England. 
 
 The most important event relating to these churches, 
 which occurred in the latter part of his ministry, was the 
 division of his church, and the establishment of two new 
 congregations. With the increase of the town, the Old North 
 had become excessively crowded, and inconvenient for the 
 worshippers. A secession accordingly took place, and the 
 New North was built in 1714. In 1721 a difficulty arose 
 among that people about the settlement of a minister, which 
 issued in a separation and the building of the New Brick. 
 In this difficulty the pastors of the Old North took an almost 
 paternal interest, and the ordination of the first minister of 
 the New Brick was the last which Increase Mather attended. 
 Of these events 1 shall speak further in another place. 
 
 Cotton Mather, who had been colleague with his father 
 for thirty-nine years, survived him but four years and a half. 
 He died, after an illness of five weeks, February 13, 1728, 
 the day after he had completed his sixt}? -fifth year, having 
 been minister forty-four years. He was a man of equal 
 fame with his father ; and although I have already detained 
 you so long, it is impossible to proceed without dwelhng at 
 some length on the character of the son. 
 
 His original powers of mind were doubtless equal to 
 those of his father, and his industry and learning far superi- 
 our ; but he was deficient in judgment and good taste, and 
 therefore, with all his attainments, became rather an extraor- 
 dinary than a great man. His character was a very mixed 
 one. You would regard him with wonder and admiration, 
 but hardly with a feeling of entire confidence. His religious 
 sense was as strong as his father's, but it was mingled with 
 more superstition, and was perpetually bordering on fanati- 
 cism, and running into the unprofitable observances of the 
 ascetics. The desire of being useful was clearly one of his 
 powerful ruling principles, and few men have formed so ex- 
 
15 
 
 lensive systcmatick designs of active usefulness ; yet he in- 
 jured this by talking too much about it, and by a little too 
 much parade in it. It is not easy to arrive at satisfactory 
 views of his character. There was a mixture in it of so many 
 qualities apparently inconsistent, some exciting your vene- 
 ration and some your pity, that it is difficult to arrange them 
 in one view so as to form a connected whole. While you 
 look with astonishment at his labours, and acknowledge his 
 praiseworthy zeal, you are mortified and vexed to find the 
 most excellent designs frustrated, and the most indefatigable 
 exertions wasted, through the mere want of a discriminating 
 judgment. It makes you melancholy to observe, that after 
 a life of almost incredible industry, after publishing three 
 hundred and eighty-two books, large and small, and leaving 
 others of vast labour behind him ;* after years spent in un- 
 wearying efforts to do good, to extend knowledge, and pro- 
 mote religion, which, if well judged, might have placed him 
 in the foremost rank of great men ; — his name and works are 
 viewed by posterity rather as phenomena to be talked about, 
 than as substantial blessings. 
 
 His principal work, the Magnalia, has been much sought 
 after as a curiosity ; and that it has been so regarded is 
 proof sufficient that its merit is (juite equivocal. As a store- 
 house of documents and facts relating to the early history of 
 the country, it may be consulted with advantage ;t but it is 
 
 • The principal of these is his favonrite work, about which he was oc- 
 cupied for many years, Biblia Americana ; a learned illustration of the 
 scriptures of the Old and New Testament. It was proposed after his 
 death to publish it in three volumes folio, but the design was dropped for 
 want of sufficient encouragement. It is now in the library of the Histo- 
 rical Society. 
 
 t " He knew more of the history of this country," says Dr. Cliauncy, 
 " from the beginning to this day, than any man in it ; and could he have 
 conveyed his knowledge with proportionable judgment, and tiie omission 
 of a vain show of much learning, he would have given the best history of 
 it." 
 
16 
 
 so strangely written as to become heavy in the reader's 
 hands, and so mingled with the credulity and puerility of the 
 author's own mind, that even Neal, a cotemporary writer and 
 correspondent, hardly ventured to cite him as an authority. 
 Indeed, he was credulous to a deplorable degree of weak- 
 ness, giving easy credit to all tales of supernatural appear- 
 ances, providential interposition, and diabolical agency ; re- 
 lating them as matters of sober history ; and by his authori- 
 ty and influence feeding the flame of superstition and perse- 
 cution in which so many unhappy wretches perished on the 
 accusation of witchcraft in 1692. That he not only fell in 
 with this popular delusion, but rather fostered and excited 
 it,"* I am afraid is too plain to be doubted. He set his seal 
 to all that was believed and done, to the shame of himself and 
 his country, by publishing on the subject what aided the fury 
 of the times, and will witness against him to the latest gene- 
 ration. 
 
 • I confess I have not been able to see so clearly into this matter as 1 
 could desire. The whole history of that delusion it appears to me lies 
 very much in the dark. In regard to the agency of Cotton Mather, I 
 presume it will not be questioned, though it may not be easy to decide 
 precisely what was its nature or extent. Neal makes it evident that he 
 favoured the delusion ; and Watts, in a letter to Mather, tells him, Mr. Neal 
 " hopes you will forgive him that he has not fallen into your sentiments 
 exactly." Hist, of JV, E, vol. i. Hist. Coll. vol. v. But there is no ne- 
 cessity of going so far for testimony, while we have his " Wonders of the 
 Invisible World," — the work to which I have alluded above. Mr. Brattle 
 of Cambridge, in a letter published in the Historical Collections, says that 
 Increase Mather " did utterly condemn" the proceedings of this period ; 
 and that " the Rev. Elders throughout the country, except three, are very 
 much dissatisfied." Cotton Mather is not named as one of the three, and 
 therefore probably when this letter was written had changed his opinion. 
 For he did finally acknowledge in writing that things had been urged too 
 far. Yet, in the life of his father, written thirty-two years after the delu- 
 sion was at its height, he expressed his firm belief, that all was to be attri- 
 buted to supernatural agency. I wish it were clear that he did not do 
 more than any one in urging this belief to its fatal consequences. 
 
17 
 
 As a preacher, he differed much from his father ; having 
 iess strength, and more rhapsody, loss dignity, and more de- 
 clamation. The quaintness and singularity of his style was 
 not well suited to the gravity of the pulpit, and appears to 
 have been a subject of complaint even during his life time.* 
 And yet there was so much warmth and zeal, so much 
 earnestness and sincerity, so evident and pious longing to do 
 good, " his spirits were so raised and all on fire," to use the 
 expression of one who knew him well,t that his faults seem 
 to have disappeared in his excellencies, and his preaching 
 was impressive and effective. He seems to have been fond 
 of dwelling on doctrinal subjects. " He was a vigorous de- 
 fender,'' says his colleague, " of the reformed doctrines of 
 grace, and of the mysteries of revealed religion, which he 
 ever regarded as the excelling glory of the Christian dispen- 
 sation." In other words, he was a zealous Calvinist, and it 
 is certain that he was quite thorough in its creed. He did 
 not forbear to state its tenets in their most contradictory and 
 revolting form ; — as if he gloried in being able to set them 
 before him in full array, and thought to magnify the merit 
 of that faith, which could receive them notwithstanding their 
 intrinsick difficulties.^ 
 
 He was as zealous in his adherence to the Congregational 
 mode of church discipline, as to the articles of his creed. 
 This was a matter of great interest at the early periods of 
 
 * Neal complains, in a letter to Dr. Colman, of " the puns and jingles 
 that attend all his writings ;" and Mr. Prince, in his funeral sermon, says 
 that " in his style he was somewhat singular, and not so agreeable to the 
 gust of the age." 
 
 t Funeral sermon by Mr. Prince. 
 
 I This remark will be found principally exemplified in a sermon on 
 Election and Reprobation, and his '' Address" on Quakerism, entitled 
 Little Flocks guarded against grievous Wolves. Also, in the complaints 
 which he makes in the Magnalia of Baxter's departing in some respects 
 from the strictness of the Calvinjstick faith. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 our history, when all remembered it freshly as the cause in 
 which their fathers were driven from their homes, and were 
 exceeding jealous of any attempt to innovate in matters of 
 discipline, or to introduce, under any pretence, the burdens 
 of the Episcopal church. " No church upon earth," he 
 says, " so notably makes the terms of communion run paral- 
 lel Avith the terms of salvation."* It was through this watch- 
 ful and suspicious fear of innovation, that the church was 
 induced, in 1697, to send a letter of admonition to the 
 church in Charlestown "for betraying the liberties of the 
 churches by putting into the hands of the whole inhabitants 
 the choice of a minister." (13.) 
 
 The sentiments which he expressed concerning tolera- 
 tion were much more just and rational than those which I 
 have quoted from his father, and mark the growing liberali- 
 ty of the age. " Persecution," he says, " for conscientious 
 dissents in religion is the abomination of desolation ; a thing 
 whereof all wise and just men will say, Cursed be its anger, 
 for it is fierce, and its wrath, for it is cruel."t He says else- 
 where, that he " abhors it ; has preached against it, and writ 
 against it ; he would have the Quakers treated with all imagi- 
 nable civility, and not have the civil magistrate inflict the 
 damage of a farthing for their consciences." With an incon- 
 sistency, however, perhaps not very rare, he refrained from 
 all " civility" in his own treatment of them, and took every 
 occasion to abuse them and make them odious.J He is not, 
 however, the only man, who has imagined nothing short of 
 imprisonment and the stake to be persecution. There are 
 many, who with the utmost virulence have gone on destroy- 
 ing reputation and influence, while they were sedately talking 
 
 * Letter to Lord Barrington. 
 
 t Right Hand of Fellowship at the ordination of Mr. Prince, 1718. 
 
 % See divers passages in the Magnalia, and his Address, or Quakerism 
 Displayed, which abounds with something like scurrility. 
 
19 
 
 of toleration and the rights of conscience; — as if they 
 thought, with some theorists on government, that life, liberty 
 and property arc the only good of man, and that influence 
 and a good name, which make life liberty and property 
 worth having, may be wantonly taken away without in- 
 justice. 
 
 In the contrast which I have mentioned, between what is 
 to be admired and what is to be deplored, it would not be 
 strange if we erred in our estimate of his character. His 
 foibles thrust themselves upon our notice, and will not be 
 hidden — while to learn what should redeem them, we must 
 be acquainted with all the history and habits of the man. 
 That there was something in these to redeem them, is clear 
 from the great influence he sustained both in church and 
 state, notwithstanding his palpable imperfections. He was 
 more than once instrumental of great good to the state by 
 this influence in times of excitement and confusion ; and in 
 the church he was certainly an object of great respect, and 
 in spite of his assuming, to say the least, all the consequence 
 that belonged to him, yet he was able to retain that conse- 
 quence. Still it is clear, on the other hand, that it was then 
 felt that something was wanting to complete the man ; for in 
 two vacancies* in the presidency of the college, when his 
 unquestioned learning and talents and age gave him a clear 
 claim to the oflice, and the people, who regarded him as a 
 prodigy, called aloud for his election, yet the place was de- 
 nied him, and given to men his inferiours in every respect, 
 except judgment. This failing was palpable, and universally 
 admitted, and this prevented him from being one of the 
 greatest of men. 
 
 From his very childhood he had been distinguished by 
 his attachment to religion and to books. He was graduated 
 
 • In 170G, when President Lcverctt was chosen, and in 1726, when Di . 
 Colman, Dr. Sewall, and Mr. Wadsworth were successively elected. 
 
20 
 
 at the age of sixteen, the next year joined his father's church, 
 and began to preach when eighteen, having by great pains 
 cured himself of a stammering in his speech, which once 
 threatened to forbid him the profession. His ministerial 
 gifts were at once appreciated, and having been for some 
 time assistant to his father, he was ordained as his colleague 
 May 13, 1684. (14.) In this situation, the arduous duties of 
 which he was far from slighting or neglecting, he was able 
 to read and write more than any man probably ever did in 
 America. " There were scarcely any books written," says 
 Dr. Chauncy, " but he had some how or other got a sight of 
 them. He was the greatest redeemer of time I ever knew." 
 This was the opinion expressed by all who knew him, and it 
 gained for him many honours, and an extensive correspond- 
 ence among distinguished men abroad. 
 
 In the duties of the ministerial office he appears to have 
 been eminently faithful and successful. He was much in the 
 habit of private admonition and instruction, endeavouring, in 
 his own peculiar way, to start some advice or reproof from 
 every occurrence, and perpetually inventing new devices for 
 doing good. " To do all the good he could to all," says one* 
 who knew him intimately, " was his maxim, his study, his la- 
 bour, his pleasure." — He was full of private labours to this 
 end, and he favoured and assisted many publick institutions 
 for this object. It was he that, in spite of obloquy, insults 
 and threats, introduced the practice of inoculation for the 
 small pox as a bar to the fatal ravages of that disease ; and 
 with the same ardour and disinterestedness, gave his time to 
 other purposes of publick good, civil, as well as moral and 
 religious. A book, which he wrote upon this subject of doing 
 good,t is perhaps his most valuable work. Dr. Franklin at- 
 tributed to it all his usefulness and eminence in life ; and I 
 
 • Mr. Prince. 
 t " Essays to do good." It has been republished within a few years 
 ^t Boston. 
 
21 
 
 think no one could read it without receiving enlarged notions 
 of his capacity and obligation to do good, and being stimu- 
 lated to better attempts. With these active works of reli- 
 gion, he united an austerity of private discipline, that would 
 have honoured a monastery. He kept frequent days of fast- 
 ing, and nights of watching, sometimes for two and even three 
 days together — regularly once a month, and occasionally 
 once a week. 
 
 But it is impossible to proceed in particulars. I have 
 gone far enough to shew what I intended, that, notwithstand- 
 ing his great defects, which strike you at first view, and can- 
 not be concealed, he absolutely was, as he was always ac- 
 kiowledged to be, a most wonderful man. It is barely doing 
 him justice to say, in the language of his colleague,* that " the 
 capacity of his mind, the readiness of his wit, the vastness 
 of his reading, the strength of his memory, the variety and 
 treasures of his learning, in printed works and in manuscripts, 
 which contained a much greater share, the splendour of vir- 
 tue, which, through the abundant grace of God, shone out in 
 the constant tenour of a most entertaining and profitable con- 
 versation ; his uncommon activity, his unwearied applica- 
 tion, his extensive zeal, and numberless projects of doing 
 good ; these things, as they were united in him, proclaimed 
 him to be truly an extraordinary person." When he died it 
 was felt as a publick loss, and he was honoured with a funeral 
 of uncommon splendour. He was mourned, according to Dr. 
 Colman's expression, " as the first minister in the town — the 
 first in age, in gifts, and in grace — the first in all the provin- 
 ces of ^lew England for universal literature and extensive 
 services." (15.) 
 
 Cotton Mather was alone in the care of the church only 
 four months during his whole ministry, Joshua Gee being or- 
 dained colleague with him soon after the death of his father. 
 
 • Mr. Gee'B Sermon on his death. 
 
22 
 
 Mr. Gcc is represented on all hands as having been a very 
 supcriour man — not possessing popular talents, but of great 
 profoundness and learning, excelling in argument, and capa- 
 ble of rising to any height of excellence ; but unhappily of 
 an indolent habit, which prevented his making that use of his 
 advantages, which would have secured to him the ascenden- 
 cy for which he seems to have been formed. His character 
 was particularly marked with zeal and fervour. He was 
 somewhat bigoted to high Calvinism, and somewhat bitter 
 in controversy. — He was an earnest promoter of the religious 
 excitement, which prevailed throughout the country after 
 Whitfield's first visit; and refused to open his eyes to the 
 evils which attended it, even after many of its friends h^d 
 become convinced of then* existence. And when the Con- 
 vention, in 1 745, felt it a duty to bear testimony against cer- 
 tain errours in doctrine and practice, which prevailed to the 
 great confusion of the churches, — he warmly and rather pas- 
 sionately opposed them ; and was the occasion of a separate 
 Convention in the following September, which issued a coun- 
 ter testimony. (16.) With all his great qualities, he was, as this 
 transaction proves, rash and over-ardent ; so that Dr. Chaun- 
 cy, Avho knew him well, said, " it was happy Mr. Gee had 
 an indolent turn ; for with such fiery zeal and such talents^ 
 he would have made continual confusion in the churches." 
 
 His ministry in this church continued for twenty-five 
 years. He had been an invalid for many years, and died, 
 after a lingering illness. May 22, 1748, in the fifty-first year 
 of his age. (17.) 
 
 He enjoyed the society of his venerable colleague but 
 four years. When at his death the people looked round for 
 one to succeed him, their choice fell upon his son, Samuei 
 Mather, who was ordained over them June 21, 1732, about 
 four years after his father's death. (18.) He was recommended 
 to them, not only by their respect for the ancient family, but 
 by his own character for diligence, zeal and learning, of 
 
23 
 
 which he certainly possessed an uncommon share. He had 
 already made himself known by several publications, espe- 
 cially by his Life of his father. He continued in the minis- 
 try but nine years, when, on account of some dissatisfaction 
 with his preaching, which was thought by some to be not 
 sufficiently explicit upon certain points of doctrine, together 
 with some other grounds of uneasiness, a division took place 
 in the church, and he with one party withdrew and erected 
 a separate place of worship. This was in 1740 and 41, and 
 possibly had some connexion with the religious excite- 
 ments of that period, about which his colleague, Mr. Gee, 
 was so zealous. He continued to be the minister of a sepa- 
 rate congregation until his death, at the advanced age of 
 seventy-nine years.* By his own directions he received a 
 private funeral. Most of those who at that time were wor- 
 shipping with him, returned to this church ; and some are 
 with us still. 
 
 After the removal of Mr. Mather, Gee remained sole pas- 
 tor, until, in his declining health, Samuel Checkley was united 
 with him the year before his death. (19.) He was the son 
 of an eminent minister of the New South church, and is said 
 to have been distinguished for a peculiar sort of eloquence, 
 and an uncommon felicity in the devotional service of pub- 
 lick worship. He published nothing, except one sermon on 
 the death of Mrs. Lydia Hutchinson, and left the records of 
 the church so imperfect, that little can be learned from them 
 of its state and fortunes during his connexion with it. He 
 died, after a ministry of twenty-one years, on the 19th of 
 March, 1768. 
 
 He was succeeded in the ministry by the late Dr. Lalhrop, 
 (20.) whom you well knew, and whom all thit knew honoured. 
 During his ministry the Old North meeting-house was de- 
 
 * June 27, 178.'>. 
 
24 
 
 stroyed, and the church and congregation formed a union 
 with those worshipping in this house. 
 
 Having thus brought down the account of the ancient 
 church to the period of the union, I leave it for the present, 
 that I may resume it in the afternoon, when I shall first have 
 followed the history of the New Brick to the same period. 
 
SERMON U. 
 
 THE NEW BRICK CHURCH. 
 
 1 THIS morning spoke to you of the origin, establishment, and 
 history of the Old North church, and of the lives and char- 
 acters of its ministers, until its union with the New Brick at 
 the close of the revolutionary war. I now go on to a simi- 
 lar account of the New Brick church. It originated in cir- 
 cumstances not very honourable or happy. It had its birth, 
 not from the regular overflow of increasing population, nor 
 was it a separation of brethren in the spirit of Christian love, 
 but it was the offspring of heated passions and violent dis- 
 sention. The circumstances, as far as can be positively 
 ascertained, or are important to be known, appear to have 
 been the following. 
 
 The New North church was established in 1714. It was 
 regularly and peaceably gathered in the necessary course 
 of a growing population. They had ordained one min- 
 ister, the Rev. John Webb, and, agreeably to the custom 
 of the times, were desirous of settling another in connexion 
 with him. In consequence of some irregularities in the pro- 
 ceedings of those who were most active in the aflair, " they 
 fell," as their records express it, " into unhappy and divided 
 circumstances." The principal ground of division was in 
 regard to inviting a minister already settled. Many desired 
 4 
 
26 
 
 to call to this place Mr. Peter Thacher, then over the 
 church in Weymouth, a preacher of great popularity. Oth- 
 ers esteemed it contrary to Congregational usage and princi- 
 ples ; and in this dispute, fermented probably by private and 
 local circumstances, of which we have little account, their 
 passions became heated, and they approached at last, in a 
 state of exasperation which gave little promise of unanimity, 
 to the choice of a minister. The choice fell upon Mr. 
 Thacher, which was ratified in the congregation by a major- 
 ity of one, and that, it is said, was obtained by the casting 
 vote of the minister. A great storm of trouble ensued. 
 The ministers of the town, who unanimously agreed in dis- 
 approving the measures of the majority, interfered, and ad- 
 vised a reference of their difficulties to a council. This not 
 being done, they gave the church to understand that they 
 wished not to be invited to attend at the ordination. — The 
 ordaining council was composed of only two ministers, one 
 of whom came with the consent of his church, accompanied 
 by delegates ; and the other alone, in opposition to the vote 
 of his church. The most violent attempts were made to 
 prevent their proceeding, and it was only by being conduct- 
 ed by a private passage, that the council obtained possession 
 of the meeting-house. Here a scene of the most outrageous 
 and disgraceful tumult occurred. It is difficult to give credit 
 to all the stories of the indecencies which were acted there ; 
 it is certain, however, that after one more ineffectual attempt 
 at a mutual council, the ordination proceeded in the midst of 
 a disorder little inferiour.to the uproar in the theatre at 
 Ephesus. The discontented members separated themselves, 
 to the number of forty, and in the course of the next year 
 erected the building in which we now worship. (1.) 
 
 This house was dedicated on the 10th of May, 1721. A 
 day of prayer and fasting was kept on the occasion, and two 
 discourses were delivered, one by Cotton Mather, many of 
 whose congregation were engaged in the new design, and the 
 
27 
 
 athcr by Mr. Wadsworth, minister of the first church, and af- 
 terward president of Harvard College. The house appears 
 to have been regarded, at that time and for many years 
 after, as a building of uncommon elegance and taste. The 
 preacher expressed only the common opinion, when he 
 said, " I suppose there is not in all the land a more beautiful 
 house built for the worship of God, than this whereof you 
 now appear to make a dedication to the Lord. But what 
 will it signify," he added, " if the beauty of holiness be want- 
 ing." A church was gathered amongst the worshipfiers. 
 May 22 of the next year, consisting of ten persons, six of 
 whom were from the New North, and three of them had 
 been original members of that church. (2.) One of the 
 deacons chosen at this time, Thomas Lee, lived to be ninety 
 years old, and died in 1769, having survived all the original 
 members of this church and congregation. 
 
 On the same day, William Waldron was ordained the first 
 pastor. (3.) His ministry was short, being only of five years' 
 continuance, when he died at the age of thirty. The inte- 
 rests of the church appear to have flourished beneath his 
 care. If we may judge by the representations of those who 
 knew him, he was a man of uncommon promise. In the ma- 
 ny sermons which were published on occasion of his death,* 
 he is spoken of, not in the language of common-place eulogy, 
 but in the genuine accents of imaffccted lamentation, and 
 sincere respect and love. There appears to have been a 
 mixture of the severity and simplicity of an apostle, with 
 affability and urbanity, which secured to him respect as a 
 minister and warm attachment as a friend. Ministerial cour- 
 age was an eminent trait of his character, and this was unit- 
 ed, as you might expect to find it, with great activity in the 
 service of the gospel. His death appears to have excited 
 
 * I have in my popses^sion a volume containing sermons on tlie occasion 
 by C. Mather, Webb, Foxcroft, (with a dedication by Cooper,) and Wads- 
 worth. Sam. Mather also published a sermon. 
 
28 
 
 a very unusual sympathy, not solely, it would seem, on ac- 
 count of his own distinguished worth, but as " he was the 
 youngest minister by fourteen or fifteen years that had yet 
 died in Boston," and because there had been, for several 
 preceding years, a succession of deaths among the younger 
 ministers almost as remarkable as that, which has desolated 
 our churches for the last twenty years.* These circum- 
 stances doubtless contributed, together with the rapidity of 
 his disease, to produce the deep and general feeling with 
 which he was lamented.! 
 
 After an interval of about six months, William Welsteed, 
 who had been for some time a respected tutor at the college, 
 was invited to fill the place vacated by the death of Mr. 
 Wtddron, and was ordained on the 27th day of May, 1728. 
 He preached his own ordination sermon. He continued to 
 hold the office of pastor singly for a little more than ten 
 years, when Mr. Ellis Gray was united with him as a col- 
 league ; in which relation they remained together fifteen 
 years. (4.) 
 
 During this period of time, I am unable to say particu- 
 larly what was the state of the congregation. I cannot learn 
 that it was remarkably flourishing or remarkably otherwise, 
 
 * " We have seen within these few years many other sorrowful instan- 
 ces of early death among those of the ministerial order, and many more 
 among Christians of a private character. I could reckon up above a 
 dozen in the ministry, that have in a few years past been removed by mor- 
 tality in their youth, or in the meridian of their days, who were all useful 
 in their places and some of them eminently so." FoxcrofVs Sermon. 
 
 He gives in a note a list of twenty-one who had lately died within the 
 state, of whom " several were under thirty, and the most not above for- 
 ty." Within what period of time, it is not stated. Mr. Cooper, refering 
 to the same mortality, says, " the removal of valuable and excellent per- 
 sons is, alas, no uncommon thing in this land of dying.'''' C, Mather, in 
 the preface to his sermon, speaks in a similar strain. 
 
 t Foxcroft says, " I find his death as much regretted amongst us as 
 almost any I have known ;" and Cotton Mather speaks of the " sorrow, 
 yea, a general, a very uncommon sorrow." 
 
29 
 
 but it probably enjoj^cd about the ordinary share of pros- 
 perity. The two pastors were not among the most distin- 
 guished in town, though faithful and highly respectable men. 
 During the great religious excitements of this period, they 
 appear to have fallen in with the current. I find, however, 
 from a well written, serious, animated sermon, delivered 
 in 1742, at an ordination, by Mr. CIray, that he was fully 
 aware of the dangers and evils of that period, and did not 
 hesitate to speak of the " discord, division, bitterness, clam- 
 our, wrath, evil speaking, groundless surmises and jealous- 
 ies," which prevailed in the churches. Neither of the min- 
 isters, however, were among the leaders on either side, 
 though possibly it was to his opinion on this su Inject that 
 Welsteed alluded, when he said, in his last illness, " I have 
 in some things thought differently from my brethren, but I 
 thank (jlod I have constantly meant well." 
 
 It was at this period, that our evening lecture before the 
 communion was established ;* and at the same time the sea- 
 son of the communion was changed from every fourth week, 
 to the first sabbath of every month. After two months, how- 
 ever, the vote was reconsidered, and the old term of rotation 
 restored, which continues unchanged to the present time. 
 It was during this period, the year after the ordination of 
 Mr. Welsteed,t that the custom was drojipcd of singing by the 
 separate reading of each line. Jn 1735, after much debate, 
 it was determined to have two Ruling Elders in the church ; 
 an office which had become almost obsolete, and which, after 
 this attempt to revive it, sunk forever.J In 1751, [July 10,] 
 Watts' Psalms and Hymns were introduced in the worship of 
 the sabbath, and continued in use until superseded by Bel- 
 
 * March 15, 1741. t July 31, 1729. 
 
 X This matter of the Ruling Elders was debated at numerous churcli 
 meetings from March 17, 1735, to November 11, 1736 ; — at which lime 
 only one person (Deacon James Halsy) had been found to accept the of- 
 fice, and the church at last voted not to choose another. 
 
30 
 
 knap's Collection in 1817, [Nov. 9,] — a period of sixty-six 
 years. 
 
 The circumstances attending the death of these two min- 
 isters were remarkable and melancholy. Gray died sudden- 
 ly on Lord's day, January 7, 1 753, in the thirty-seventh year 
 of his age, and fifteenth of his ministry. We have little means 
 of knowing intimately his character, but he is represented 
 to us as a man much respected, of early and uniform piety, 
 remarkably given to hospitality, and directing his life, says 
 Samuel Mather,* as if he had perpetually in view Paul's de- 
 scription of his own conversation ; — " that in simplicity and 
 godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of 
 God, he had his conversation in the world." If we might 
 Judge of his gifts in preaching by the two sermons which I 
 have seen, we should assign him quite a respectable rank 
 as a writer, and as a man of talents and piety. 
 
 His colleague, Welsteed, survived him not quite four 
 months. He died on the 29th of April, having been struck 
 with palsy the preceding Sunday, just after the commence- 
 ment of the morning service, having lived fifty-seven years, 
 and been minister twenty-five. Here was the melancholy 
 spectacle of a church in mourning for two pastors at once, 
 both cut off suddenly in the midst of life. And to render 
 the visitation yet more affecting, they both died of the same 
 disease, both died on the sabbath, on the communion sab- 
 bath, at the same time of day ; each having preached for 
 the last time to his own people, and the last sermon preach- 
 ed by both being on the same subject — " redeeming the time, 
 because the days are evil."* 
 
 Welsteed is characterized as a man of eminent sincerity 
 and integrity, " good natured, contented, patient, and always 
 ready to every good oflice of morality and religion, and 
 conscientiously diligent in his ministerial labours, especially 
 
 * Sermon after the death of Welsteed and Gray. 
 
31 
 
 in his preparation tor the pulpit." In preaching, it was re- 
 marked of him, that " he was careful not to insist on those 
 points, about which wise and good Protestants have different 
 sentiments ;" but confined himself to " those doctrines of re- 
 ligion, which are not disputed amongst sound Protestants, 
 and the impressive duties of repentance, faith, love and uni- 
 versal and constant obedience." This sufficiently expresses 
 to us the nature of his views of religion, and it is corrobo- 
 rated by the circumstance, that he derived particular sup- 
 port in his last days, " from his upright walk before the 
 Lord, and his consciousness of it." This fact is mentioned 
 by the preacher on his death with great emphasis, as if to 
 mark the character of his faith.* , 
 
 After the death of Gray and Wclsteed, the pastoral office 
 was vacfint eleven months, ajid was then filled by the in- 
 stalment of Ebcnezer Pemberton, previously minister of a 
 Presbyterian church in New York, and a preacher of un- 
 common popularity, who attracted crowds by his captivat- 
 ing manner. In the earlier part of his life, he had been 
 chaplain at Castle William, and in 1727t had been ordained 
 minister of a Presbyterian church in New York. The or- 
 dination took place in the Old South church, and Dr. Col- 
 man preached. After a ministry in that city of twenty-two 
 years, he, together with his colleague, Alexander Cumraing, 
 were obliged to relinquish their places on account of dissen- 
 tions in the congregation, although it is said they took no 
 part in the disputes. This was during the vacancy occasion- 
 ed by the death of Mr. Welsteed, and he was soon invited to 
 succeed him. The installation took place the 6th of March, 
 1754, and his ministry lasted twenty-three years. (5.) 
 
 It was during his ministry that the Old North meeting- 
 house was destroyed ; and when the inhabitants returned to 
 their homes, after the evacuation of the town, this mecting- 
 
 • S. Mather's sermon. t August 9. 
 
32 
 
 house being sufficiently large to accommodate both congre- 
 gations, they worshipped together for three years, and then 
 a junction was formed which has proved perpetual. (6.) 
 Dr. Pemberton died before this event at the advanced age of 
 seventy-two.* During the last years of his life, he had lost 
 that extraordinary popularity, which followed him at first, 
 and his manner was thought to be even so disagreeable, that 
 the congregation in consequence became extremely thin. 
 He was esteemed however as a faithful minister, and is stat- 
 ed to have been particularly remarkable for a " fervid kind" 
 of piety. " He vehemently aspired after the spirit of the 
 gospel, and had the consolations of it during a long and try- 
 ing sickness."! He was a strict Calvinist, the last min- 
 ister of that faith in this church, in his earlier days exceed- 
 ing zealous against hereticks, though in later life he grew 
 more candid. In these particulars he resembled Whit- 
 field, of whom he was a warm admirer and adherent, and 
 whose eulogy he pronounced at his death. He was not a 
 man of remarkable powers of mind, but well acquainted 
 with books, and had the command of a style not only cor- 
 rect, but elegant and oftentimes beautiful. He published a 
 volume of sermons a few years before his death, on salva- 
 tion by grace, which, besides the ordinary views of that sub- 
 ject, which you might expect from one of his faith, contain 
 many appeals and exhortations that are not wanting in pa- 
 thos and power. 
 
 When Dr. Lathrop took charge of these churches, after 
 their union, he had been ordained over the Old North elev- 
 en years ; and he afterward accomplished a faithful and 
 honourable ministry of thirty-nine years. Of his life, char- 
 acter and labours, you do not need, brethren, that I should 
 speak to you ; for they are familiar to your memories. Ma- 
 ny of you have grown up from childhood under his minis- 
 
 * September 15, 1777. t Dr. Eliot, Biog. Dictionary. 
 
33 
 
 try, and retain for him a filial and affectionate respect ; and 
 all can remember his venerable and serene old age, when 
 for years he presented the only hoary head that appeared 
 in our pulpits, was the father amidst a numerous clergy 
 much younger than himself, and became an object of in- 
 creasing interest and value as he drew nearer his home. No 
 one, who ever knew him at all, can forget the benignity of 
 his appearance, the apostolical simplicity of his character, 
 his gentleness and affectionatencss of disposition, and his de- 
 votion to the best interests of his country and of man. Af- 
 ter a long life, in which he gave himself much to publick 
 cares, and was the faithful patron of many of our best insti- 
 tutions, he passed to his reward on the 4th day of January, 
 1816, at the age of seventy-six years. 
 
 His successor was ordained on the first day of the next 
 year. (7.) The history of the remaining time I need not re- 
 peat. It has been a season of tranquillity and prosperity, for 
 which we should be devoutly thankful. And I congratulate 
 you, my brethren, that the century, which began in discord and 
 strife, we have seen close in perfect harmony ; that the con- 
 gregations, which separated from each other with hostile 
 feelings and enkindled passions, we see walking together in 
 love, and minding the things that make for peace, and unit- 
 ing as sister churches in the nearest offices of Christian fel- 
 lowship. Long, long may this continue ; never may it be 
 interrupted ; may no greetings, but those of love, ever pass 
 between them ; — but when, century after century, to the end 
 of time, this day shall come round, may they be still found 
 striving together only in love and good works — with one 
 faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all. 
 
 We have thus looked back upon the history of this unit- 
 ed church through a scries of one hundred and seventy 
 years. We have traced its ancient branch from that time, 
 when there was but one other in the town, and when the 
 whole neighbouring country, instead of a flourishing land of 
 
34 
 
 civilized inhabitants, presented to view only an uncultivated 
 desert, trodden by savages, with here and there a few settle- 
 ments, which had been reared as cities of refuge for perse- 
 cuted puritans — who tilled the fields with their armour girded 
 on, and kept their sabbaths and their fasts with muskets by 
 their sides ; from that perilous and romantick period we 
 have traced it, step by step, seeing it grow under the abun- 
 dant blessing of Heaven, and the toils of celebrated men, 
 till it has sent off one after another company to erect new 
 altars to the Most High, and at length blended itself with a 
 younger church, which it had favoured in a day of weakness 
 and fear, and then received again to its bosom the remnant 
 of those, who had once gone from it in the day of division. 
 We have traced the other branch from its birth, precisely a 
 century ago, and followed it through the various discipline 
 of God's judgment and mercy ; till at length it was reconcik 
 ed to its sistei-, and received beneath its roof its venerable 
 ancestor: and now, to-day, we rejoice together in the way 
 through which God has led us these forty years of our 
 union. We notice the vicissitudes of the world, the flight of 
 time, the providence of God toward our land, and gather les- 
 sons of wisdom from a consideration of the past. We look 
 up to Him who planted and watered this vine, and has caused 
 successive generations to see its beauty and partake of its 
 fruit, and exclaim with the pious king of Israel, The, Lord our 
 God be with iis as he was with our fathers ; let him not leave us 
 nor forsake us ! 
 
 In the period which we have been thus surveying, two 
 changes have taken place of such magnitude and importance, 
 that they cannot escape our observation. The first is in re- 
 gard to the observance of the ordinances of our faith. In 
 the days of our fathers, the number of those, who felt so far 
 bound to their religion as to observe its peculiar rites, was 
 much larger than amongst ourselves. During the ministry 
 of the Mathers, the average number of those annually ad- 
 
35 
 
 mitted lo the communion of the church, was twenty ; in se- 
 veral years rising above fifty, and in that preceding the 
 death of Cotton Mather, amounting to seventy-one. The 
 number during his ministry was eight hundred and forty- 
 eight ; more than the whole number of communicants for the 
 last seventy years. With respect to the other ordinance, the 
 difference is quite as remarkable. The number of baptisms 
 during the last thirty-nine years of the period just mention- 
 ed, was three thousand three hundred and eighty-four ; being 
 a yearly average of eighty-six, and rising in several instan- 
 ces to more than one hundred and thirty. This shows the 
 difference of Christian fidelity in regard to the positive ap- 
 pointments of religion. Not that there is probably less real 
 Christianity. There is no reason to believe, that the general 
 mass of the community is worse in faith or in practice than 
 at that time ; in many respects it is certainly better. But in 
 those days there was a strict adherence to all the forms and 
 external observances of the gospel, on which it was the char- 
 acter of their faith to lay peculiar stress ; whilst we are too 
 much satisfied with a very general regard to what we call 
 the spirit of religion, and are prone to undervalue its positive 
 institutions. So that, while our places of publick worship 
 are as fully and seriously attended, and the purposes of 
 Christianity in ordinary life as well accomplished, the table 
 of the Lord witnesses a thinner attendance,* and more of our 
 children grow up without baptism. It is undoubtedly a bet- 
 ter understanding of the nature of our Lord's kingdom, which 
 elevates the spirit above the form. But why will not men 
 learn, that they may avoid one extreme without rushing to 
 
 * Though I speak here in general terms, I refer 'particularly to this 
 church ; for I am not able to decide how far it may be warranted as a 
 general remark. I know myself of many exceptions. To take for exam- 
 ple the church in West Boston ; it appears from a sermon lately published 
 by the pastor, that the admissions to that church for tlie last sixteen years 
 have been twenty on an average ; which is et^ual to the best days of the 
 Mathers. 
 
36 
 
 the other ? When will they feel the force of that admonition 
 of our blessed Lord — These ought ye to have done, and not to 
 have left the other undone ? 
 
 The other change, to which I alluded, is that which has 
 taken place in the views of religious faith, which have been 
 here presented and professed. This is a most important and 
 happy change. The church was established on those doc- 
 trines, into which men settled when they first broke from the 
 Romish domination, which had been confirmed amidst the 
 passion and excitements of contention with the English 
 hierarchy, and were finally set in an authorized form during 
 the violent storms of a civil and religious war. These doc- 
 trines our ancestors held, and the founders of this church 
 received them as they were fashioned and exhibited by the 
 Assembly of Divines at Westminster. One of the eminent 
 puritans, the minister of the first company of pilgrims, had 
 warned our fathers not to bind themselves to the faith as 
 then established. His great mind perceived that the refor- 
 mation was not yet accomplished. He was assured, he said, 
 that God had still more light to break forth from his holy 
 word ; and he exhorted them not to stick where Calvin and 
 Luther had left them, for they saw not all things. And yet, 
 for a long time there they did stick. But at length the light 
 he had predicted broke forth, and the eyes of one church 
 after another were opened. For nearly fifty years, the doc- 
 trines of Calvin have not been heard within these walls ; but 
 a milder, happier faith has won sinners to heaven, and com- 
 forted the hearts that tremble at God's word. Brethren, I 
 congratulate you on the change. I rejoice with you, that we 
 are not bound down to any form of words of human device, 
 nor enslaved by the fear of man to any set of opinions pub- 
 lished to the world by pope, council, or assembly. I joy 
 with you, that we can say to-day, the Bible only is our creed ; 
 we drink from none but this fountain of living waters ; we 
 have not committed, and we will not commit, either of the 
 
37 
 
 two evils, the forsaking this, or the going to other cisterns, 
 broken cisterns, that can hold no water. — You cannot value 
 your privilege too highly. If there be any loud call for your 
 gratitude to-day, it is for this blessing, in which it has pleas- 
 ed God to distinguish you beyond your fathers. And I en- 
 treat you, consider, if they, less favoured in the rights of 
 conscience and the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, 
 were yet so devoted and zealous men, of whom the world 
 was not worthy, — consider what manner of persons you 
 ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Put not 
 from you their love of the scriptures, their faithful at- 
 tendance on the publick and private worship of God, their 
 eminent and firm attachment to principle, their fidelity in the 
 religious education of their children. Let it never be said, 
 that with increasing privileges there is a decreasing religion. 
 But, as you ho})e at last to join them in that world, where 
 your errours and their errours shall be alike removed, and 
 all shall see with one eye, let it not be then found, that with 
 your better knowledge you have fallen short in the race, 
 while their higher attainments rise up to your shame and 
 condemnation. 
 
 The occasion reminds us what a changing and dying 
 world we live in. This house has stood for a hundred years 
 — and rvho is there left among you that sazo it in its first glory ! 
 Every one of the crowd that thronged it then has long since 
 departed to his eternal home. Five successive ministers 
 have laboured here, and gone to their account. Even in the 
 memory of many present, every seat has changed its occu- 
 pant. You seek the friends whom you once met here, and 
 they are gone. Time has more than once swept clean these 
 seats ; and how soon will it be done again ! The celebration 
 of a day like this, no man can hope to see twice. When 
 Xerxes looked upon his immense army, and thought that in a 
 hundred years not one of that multitude would be living, he 
 was overcome by the reflection, and wept aloud. I would not 
 
38 
 
 have you weep^ brethren, as the same thought passes your 
 mind in looking round you now ; — for the Christian in his 
 church should regard time and death with other views, than 
 the heathen at his army's head ; — but I would to God you 
 would pause and consider. The time is short. A century ! 
 What is a century? Ask the man of eighty^ who has almost 
 seen that term, and he will tell you it is as yesterday Avhen 
 it is past; it is but as a day and a night, and he that has sur- 
 vived it, does not feel that he has lived longer than when he 
 had lived but twenty years. Yet in that space what changes 
 occur ! The strong men and women, and the very children of 
 this assembly, shall in that time be no more numbered among 
 the living; the youngest child here, yea, the very infant that 
 we have this day offered in baptism, shall have witnessed all 
 the fortunes of life, and perhaps worn a grey head for years, 
 and perchance grown weary of a helpless and burdensome 
 old age, and then slumbered for years in the mighty congre- 
 gation of the dead, before a century shall close. In a cen- 
 tury, cities flourish and decay, the boundaries of nations are 
 broken up, and the earth changes all its inhabitants again 
 and again. Observe what has taken place just around you 
 during that which has now past. Instead of eleven churches 
 in this town, you find twenty-eight, and all have been built or 
 rebuilt within that time excepting two.* You find a flour- 
 ishing city instead of a small town, a sovereign state for a 
 dependent colony, a mighty nation for a few scattered prov- 
 inces. And who can number the changes in the old eastern 
 world ! — the improvements, that have carried the sciences 
 and arts to an unequalled perfection, and the convulsions 
 and revolutions, that have removed again and again the 
 landmarks of empire, and elevated the low and depressed 
 the high amongst the nations, like the heaving of the earth 
 in the throes of an earthquake ! All this has been ; and yet 
 
 * The New Brick and the Old South. 
 
39 
 
 what is a century? He that should have lived through all, 
 and look on the world in its present state, would almost feel 
 as if the whole had been effected in a moment, by the wand of 
 enchantment: — the time has fled like a dream. What then 
 Avill time be to those, who know, as we do, that we have 
 probably a small part of such a period to live ! Oh, that we 
 might learn so to number our days, that we should apply 
 our hearts unto wisdom ! 
 
 Finally, brethren, permit me to congratulate you on the 
 prosperous condition in which this day finds you. These 
 walls have stood a hundred years, — and they still stand firm. 
 Whilst you have seen most of your sister churches com- 
 pelled to destroy the ancient temples, in which they and 
 their fathers had worshipped, lest they should fall upon 
 them in ruins, and burdened with the costly labour of rear- 
 ing other places of worship; you have the privilege of still 
 assembling in this house of your ancestors, consecrated by 
 age, and by the devout breathings of great and pious men 
 of the times that are gone by; where the word of lilc 
 has been preached to four successive generations, where ev- 
 ery spot is hallowed as your appropriate religious home, and 
 the very ground on which you stand is holy. There is 
 something solemnly pleasing in the thought, that the walls 
 which are echoing back the voice of your preacher and the 
 songs of your praise, have resounded with those of venera- 
 ble men, whose praise is in all the churches, that have long 
 been sleeping in the dust, and are strangers to all themes but 
 those of religion. And there is something delightful in the 
 hope, that our children and children's children shall sit 
 where we have been sitting, and seek the inspiration of Hea- 
 ven on the same spot where we have found it. This hope, 
 my friends, is yours. God, it is true, may commission his 
 elements, and they shall shake this house to its founda- 
 tions at once. The earthquake and storm have hitherto as- 
 sailed it in vain, and it has thrice been rescued from devour- 
 
40 
 
 ing flames.* Another visitation may destroy it without rem- 
 edy. But in the ordinary course of providence it may see 
 this day return, — and listen to the devout thanksgivings of 
 those who shall assemble here — without one of us amongst 
 them — to celebrate the mercy of Him, who, in the midst of 
 change and death, is forever the same. And when that day 
 shall come, oh, may it find our children wiser and purer and 
 worthier that we. If God have any more light to break forth 
 from his word, may it be theirs to see it and rejoice in it. 
 And we too will rejoice in it, — as we doubt not the spirits of 
 the good men that came up here to dedicate this house, are 
 rejoicing in the greater light which God has poured upon us. 
 May that day find all the darkness of errour and superstition 
 which clouds our faith removed, and all the sins which defile 
 our lives banished, and as many surrounding the table of 
 their Lord, as worship at the altar of their God. Happy 
 they that shall see that day ! Thrice happy they that shall 
 walk in that light ! Yea, happy even these venerable walls, 
 that shall have witnessed the gathering knowledge and grow- 
 ing virtue of many generations, and shall then hear prayers 
 of warmer devotion, and the out-pouring of hearts lifted 
 nearer to heaven, and shall learn something of that purer 
 and more perfect worship, which is to be the employment 
 and glory of the temple above ! In that temple there shall 
 be no change of day and night, and no revolution of time ; 
 a thousand years shall be but as one uninterrupted day ; and 
 no returning century shall warn us that life is drawing near- 
 er to its close — for that life shall have no close. In that 
 glorious temple, in that unchanging day, may it be our 
 happiness to meet those venerable saints, who have crowded 
 these courts before us, and the multitude of our posterity, 
 
 * A memorandum of Deacon Tudor in 1779 informs us, that " the 
 sudden judgments of an earthquake, terrible storm, and fire have all three 
 done damage to the meeting-house within his remembrance ;" and records 
 three instances in which it was in imminent danger of being consumed 
 by fire. 
 
41 
 
 who shall have received the beginning of that life on this 
 spot, where their fathers worshipped. This is our heart's 
 desire and prayer, that the power of the gospel may always 
 be exhibited here in preparing men for salvation. 
 
 And in that great decisive day. 
 When God the nations shall survey, 
 May it before the world appear. 
 Thousands were born to glory here. 
 
NOTES TO SERMON I. 
 
 (1.) p. 5. THE names of those first gathered in the church were, Mi- 
 chael Powell, James Ashwood, Cliristopher Gibson, John Philips, George 
 Davis, Michael Wills, John Farnham. The original covenant is an instru- 
 ment of some length, not at all in the manner of articles of faith, but sim- 
 ply an expression of unworthiness, of dependance on Jesus Christ, and ol 
 resolutions to walk agreeably to the gospel. The form, which was adopted 
 and used in the reception of members afterward, was in these words : 
 
 " You do in this solemn presence, give up yourself, even your whole self, 
 you and yours, to the true God in Jesus Christ, and to his people also ac- 
 cording to the will of God, promising to walk with God and with this 
 church of his, in all his holy ordinances, and to yield obedience to every 
 truth of his, which has been or shall be made known to you as your duty, 
 the Lord assisting you by his spirit and grace. 
 
 " We then, the church of Christ in this place, do receive you into the 
 fellowship, and promise to walk towards you, and to watch over you as a 
 member of this church, endeavouring your spiritual edification in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord." 
 
 (2.) p. 5. Samuel Mather was the son of Richard Mather, who 
 came from England for conscience' sake in 1635, and was for many years 
 a worthy minister in Dorchester. He was nine years old when he accom- 
 panied his father to New England, and was in the second class that was 
 graduated at Harvard College. He was so much beloved as an instructer 
 afterward, that, on his quitting the place, the students " put on tokens of 
 mourning in their very garments for it." He went to England in 1650, to 
 the disappointment of more than one church which had greatly desired his 
 settlement. After five years spent in England and Scotland, he went to 
 Dublin, and became senior fellow of Trinity College. Here, upon the 
 king's restoration, he preached two sermons against the revival of the cere- 
 monies of the English church, which were full of poAver and spirit, for 
 
44 
 
 which he was silenced,* He then returned to England, and preached with 
 great reputation until the act of conformity in 1662, under which he was 
 one of the two thousand sufferers. He then returned to his church in Dub- 
 lin, and preached to them without molestation in a private house the re- 
 mainder of his life. He died October 29, 1671, aged 45— greatly respected 
 and of extensive reputation as a preacher. During his last residence in 
 Dublin, he had a pressing invitation from one of the churches in this town, 
 according to Dr. Calamy, to become their minister. 
 
 (3.) p. 6. There is little known of Mr. Mayo, excepting what is con- 
 tained in the records of the church in the handwriting of Increase Mather. 
 I copy it here, because it has often been said, that nothing is known of him 
 except that he was minister of the Second Church ; and the records have 
 been so carelessly examined, that in the Collections of the Historical Soci- 
 ety (HI. 258.) it is asserted, that "neither the time of his ordination nor 
 decease is to be found in the records of the church." 
 
 " In the beginning of which year, [16'72,] Mr. Mayo, the Pastor, like- 
 wise grew very infirm, inasmuch as the congregation was not able to hear 
 and be edified ; wherefore the Brethren (the Pastor manifesting his concur- 
 rence) desired the Teacher to take care for a supply of the congregation, 
 that the worship of God may be upheld amongst us, which was for the pre- 
 sent by him consented to, as Christ should enable him. 
 
 "On the 15th day of the 2d monlh, 1673, Mr. Mayo removed his per- 
 son and goods also from Boston to reside with his daughter in Barnstable, 
 where (and at Yarmouth) since he hath lived a private life ; as not being 
 able (through the infirmities of old age) to attend the work of the ministry. 
 The •^—— day of third month, [May,] 1676, he departed this life at Yar- 
 mouth, and was there buried." 
 
 I will add here, that through the kindness of the Rev. E. Q. Sewall, 
 who examined at my request the church and town records of Barnstable, I 
 have learned that Mr. Mayo was one of the original settlers of that town, 
 but from what place he came does not appear. The Hon. John Davis has 
 also favoured me with the sight of a passage in the records of the Plymouth 
 church, which informs us that Mr. Mayo was Teacher in the church at 
 Barnstable, while the Rev. John Lothropp was Pastor there, and was thence 
 removed to Eastham [Nauset] upon the gathering of a church in that place, 
 and was afterward settled in Boston. The Rev. Mr. Shaw of Eastham in- 
 forms me, that he cannot find that such a person ever was minister in that 
 place ; that previous to his own settlement, there had been but three min- 
 
 * These sermons I met with in the Boston Athenaeum, and found in 
 them passages in the finest style of that peculiar puritan eloquence, which 
 is so happily imitated in Walter Scott's Romances. 
 
45 
 
 isters, Mr. Treat, Mr. Webb and Mr. Cheever, with the exception of Mr. 
 Osborn, who removed to another part of the town now called Orleans. 
 He thinks, therefore, that Mr. Mayo's residence must have been only oc- 
 casional in the town. — That nothing of Mr. Mayor's ministry appears on 
 the church records of Eastham, does not, I think, argue any thing against 
 his having been minister there ; for he left no records at all of his ministry 
 in Boston, and, if it were not for the testimony of otiier men, would not be 
 known to have resided here. 
 
 (4.) p. 6. This fire broke out at five oVlock in the morning, November 
 27. It burnt forty-five dwelling houses, and several warehouses, besides 
 the meeting-house. Its progress was stopped by a heavy rain. The follow- 
 ing vote is all the notice contained in the records of this event. It would 
 appear from the last clause, that it was customary at that time for some of 
 the pews to be entered by a door through the side of the house. 
 
 " At a church meeting at our Deacon Philips his house, 3 of 10 month, 
 1676. 
 
 " Voted and agreed, that Mr. Richards, Brother CoUicot, Brother Phil- 
 ips, Brotlier Tyril, Brother Hudson, be appointed as a committee, in order 
 to the rebuilding of a meeting-house, for the comrf'ortable attending the 
 
 publick worship of God — and that Mr. K , Mr. W. Taylor, Mr. Mid- 
 
 dlecott, and Mr. Anthony Checkley, be desired to join with the committee, 
 in order to the transacting this affair. It was also agreed, that in case any 
 that built pews in the meeting-house should see cause afterwards to leave 
 them, the pews should be disposed of, not by them, but as the church 
 should see cause. And that no pews should be made with a door into the. 
 street.'''' 
 
 (5.) p. 7. This was in 1682. Whether there were no gallery before, 
 or wliether this were an additional gallery, is not absolutely certain. The 
 records of the church only say, " it was agreed that a gallery should be 
 built for the boys to sit in, and that the place where they at present sit 
 should be improved for pews." The probability is, that this was the galle- 
 ry which, as I have been told, run along behind tiie pulpit. 
 
 (6.) p. 7. The first was Richard Matl)er, born in 1596, who, having 
 suffered for non-conformity, came to New P^ngland in 1635, and was or- 
 dained pastor of the church in Dorchester, August 23, 1636. He was " a 
 distinguished ornament of the churches," very useful in the several synodo 
 of that century, an able writer in their defence, and a solid, judicious 
 preacher. Mr. Higginson of Salem, speaking of his rei)iy to Mr. Davenport, 
 said that " he was a pattern to all the answerers in the world." He died 
 April 22, 1669, while moderator of a council in Boston, — which occasioned 
 the following epitaph : Vixtrat in synodit., moritur moderator in illis.-^He 
 
46 
 
 left fovir sons : Samuel, the first, was mentioned in a former note. TLe se- 
 cond, Nathaniel, born in England, March 20, 1630, and graduated at Har- 
 vard College, 1647. He was minister for some years in England, and being 
 ejected among the two thousand in 1662, went to Holland and settled at 
 Rotterdam, succeeded his oldest brother at Dublin in 1671, afterward took 
 charge of a church in London, and died July, 1697, aged 67. " There is 
 upon his tomb-stone a long Latin inscription by Dr. Watts, Avhich ascribes 
 to him a high character for genius, learning, piety, and ministerial fidelity.'* 
 The third son, Eleazar, was born May 13, 1637, and graduated at Har- 
 vard College in 1656 ; was ordained first minister at Northampton in 
 1661, and died July 24, 1669, aged 32. He appears not to have been 
 inferiour to either of his brothers. The fourth son was Increase, — born June 
 21, 1639, graduated 1656. 
 
 (7.) p. 8. Increase Mather began to preach the year after leaving 
 college, and upon invitation from his brother in Dublin, sailed for England 
 July 3, 1657. He proceeded master of arts in Trinity College, Dublin, the 
 next year, " performing the usual exercise with great applause,"* and was 
 chosen fellow ; but not being able to remain on account of ill health, went 
 to England, and for some time preached at Torrington ; then went to the 
 Island of Guernsey as preacher, on invitation of the governour; from 
 thence, at the solicitation of his friends, removed to Gloucester, and again, 
 after some time, returned to Guernsey, where he was at the. time of the 
 restoration. It was then required, that he should conform to the establish- 
 ed church, or give up his living, and he accordingly returned to England. 
 Here "he was offered a living of several hundreds a year, if he would for- 
 sake his principles ; but he chose rather to trust God's providence, than 
 violate the tranquillity of his own mind ;"* and therefore he returned to 
 New England after an absence of four years. In a memorandum now be- 
 fore me, written with his own hand, he says, " Providence so ordered, that, 
 the Bishops and Ceremonies prevailing in England, I was constrained (that 
 so I might keep my conscience pure) to leave that land ; and being strange- 
 ly disappointed and released as to an engagement I was under to go for 
 Holland, I was returned to New England in September, 1661." He was 
 the next week after his arrival invited to preach at the North Church, and 
 continued preachuig until ordained. May 27, 1664. His father gave him 
 the charge. 
 
 I have said in the sermon that his settlement was conditional. The con- 
 ditions were, " if hereafter the Lord should call me to greater service else- 
 where, or in case of personal persecutions, wherein not they but I shall be 
 aimed at, or of want of health, or if I should find that a competent mainte- 
 
 * Non-conformist's Memorial, II. 245, 246. 
 
47 
 
 ■ance for me and mine should not be offered, — then (my relation to theni 
 Qotflrithstanding) I would be at liberty to return to England, or to remove 
 elsewhere." From the account of his son in the Remarkables, it seem* 
 that he was far from having a comfortable maintenance during many year^, 
 and was even distressed with poverty. 
 
 (8.) p. 9. This is according to the representation of Hutchinson and 
 others. The following minutes iu the church records would seem to give a 
 little different complexion to the affair. 
 
 "October 30, 1687. After the sermon and service of the afternoon 
 ended, I desired the brethren of the church to stay iu the meeting-house, 
 and proposed to them, that their officers might in their name draw up an ad- 
 dress of thanks to the king for his declaration, wherein he does promise us 
 the free exercise of our religion, and that he will maintain us in the enjoy- 
 ment of our rights and possessions. I told the brethren I would take their 
 silence for consent. All were silent. Nemine contradicente. 
 
 "Deceiuber 11, 1687. I desired the brethren to stay, and acquainted 
 them, that it was thought needful that some one should be sent witli an ad- 
 dress of thanks to the king, for his gracious declaration ; and that it had 
 been proposed to me that I should go on the service. I told them, if they 
 said to me, go, I would cast myself on the providence of Grod, and go in his 
 name ; but if they said to me, stay, I would not stir. 
 
 " Major Richards and Way declared their willingness and free 
 
 consent that I should go. I said to the brethren, if any of them were oth- 
 erwise minded, I desired they would express themselves. Also, I would 
 take their silence for consent. They were tlien all silent, and so did unan- 
 imously consent." 
 
 The account in the Remarkabks agrees with this : — " Tiie superioui 
 gentlemen thought, that a well qualified person going over with the addres- 
 ses of the churches to the king, might obtain some relief to the growing 
 distresses of the country.'" The voting of addresses was strenuously opposed 
 by many, who thought they discovered popery at the bottom. Hutchinson 
 quotes a letter from President Danforth to Mather, dated November 8 oi 
 this year, in which he expresses his apprehensions very strongly, 
 
 (9.) p. 10. He was twice chosen president of the college ; first in 
 1681, when he declined the office because his church refused to part with 
 him ; and again in 1684, when he accepted it on the condition of still re- 
 taining hie rt^ation to his church. He relinquished the place in September, 
 1701, on account of an act of the General Court requiring the president 
 to live at Cambridge. In the liemarkablcs of his life it is intimated, that 
 this vote wag aimed against him, personally, and was a measure which hib 
 pnemicB carried for the very purpose of removing him. Dr. Eliot, in hif 
 
48 
 
 Biographical Dictionary, attributes his resignation to the pressure of age 
 and infirmities. I find only the following vote of his church on this subject : 
 
 " The Brethren of the church being assembled at the desire of the Gov- 
 ernour and the General Assembly, and messengers from both houses in the 
 General Assembly coming to them with a motion, that they would consent 
 unto the removal of their Teacher's residence to the College in Cambridge — 
 the ensuing vote was passed : — Being under the sense of the great benefit, 
 we have long enjoyed, by the labour of our Reverend Pastor, Mr. Increase 
 Mather, among us, it must needs be unreasonable and impossible for us to 
 consent that his relation to us, and our enjoyment of him and them should 
 cease. 
 
 " Nevertheless, the respect we have to the desire and welfare of the 
 publick, does compel us to consent, that our good Pastor may so remove 
 his personal residence to the College at Cambridge, as may be consistent 
 with the continuance of his relation to us, and his visits of us with his pub- 
 lick administrations, as often as his health and strength may allow it." 
 
 (10.) p. 11. The expressions quoted in this place are from his Election 
 Sermon, 1677. Sentiments and passages of a similar character may be 
 found in his two sermons on the Comets, 1680 and 1682, in his volume of 
 sermons on Providence, 1688, and in his series of discourses on the Beati- 
 tudes, 1717. 
 
 When I made this reference, I intended to quote here a few remarkable 
 passages of some length ; but my notes are swelling to such a size, that I am 
 forced to omit them. 
 
 (11.) p. 12. It was not till after the sermons were in the press, that I 
 was able to procure the Remarkabki; or I should have modified the state- 
 ment in this paragraph. In the thirteenth article of that book, we have an 
 account of his change of sentiments on the subject of toleration ; by which 
 it appears, that the expressions I have quoted represent him only as he was 
 in the earlier part of his life. This article is by far the best and most elo- 
 quently written passage, which I have met with in all Cotton Mather's 
 works. Probably much of the illustration, and even the language, is taken 
 from his father. 
 
 (12.) p. 12. The Treatise here referred to was published in 1683, 
 and gives " an historical account of all the comets which have appeared 
 from the beginning of the world," together with " the remarkable events 
 which have followed them," and, as he supposed, were predicted by them. 
 It is a work of considerable labour, showing an extensive acquaintance with 
 history, and written in a very good style. The credulity of the age peeps 
 out in some curious stories, — which I intended to copy when I referred to 
 this place, but am compelled to omit for want of room. 
 
49 
 
 (13.) p. 18. " 1697, 4a. 6m. [August.] This day the church voted 
 a letter of admonition to the church in Charlestown, for betraying tlie hb- 
 erties of the churches in their late putting into the hands of the whole in- 
 habitants the choice of a minister." 
 
 I have noticed this vote particularly, because it is sometimes attempted 
 to make us believe, that the choice of ministers by the people, instead of 
 the church, is a modern innovation, opposed to the uniform usage in times 
 past. Here is an example to tiie contrary of as long ago as one hundred and 
 twenty-four years ; and the example and opinion of the church in Charles- 
 town are as valuable in settling the question of usage, as those of any other 
 church. It satisfies us that usage is not invariable, and that the principle, so 
 far from being settled, was actually contested from the first. Accordingly, 
 Cotton Mather acknowledges, " Many people would not allow the church 
 any privilege to go before them in the choice of a pastor." Ratio Disci- 
 plincB, p. 16. And from the following passage (^Rat. Disc. p. 17.) it is evi- 
 dent that the congregation had not only, in some instances, claimed and ex- 
 ercised the right against the cliurch, but that the church had often found it 
 necessary, in order to preserve the appearance of a control, which they felt 
 they could not exercise, to resort to so numerous a nomination, as to leave 
 none for the people to choose whom they had not chosen. — " The churches 
 do, sometimes, by their vote, make a nomination of three or four candi- 
 dates, for whom the majority of the brethren have so voted, that whomsoev- 
 er of these the choice falls upon, it may still be said, — the church has cho- 
 sen him." So that, even at that time, the principle was so far acknow- 
 ledged unsound, as to be satisfied witli a mere form and show. 
 
 (14.) p. 20. Cotton Mather was invited to assist his father in preach- 
 ing, once a fortnight, September 27, 1680, (having been graduated two 
 years.) The following February he was requested to do it " once every 
 Lord's day." In December, 1682, the church expressed their great satis- 
 faction, and desired that his labours might still be continued with a view to 
 his settlement. In January, 1683, they gave him a unanimous call, and 
 another impatient one in August, 1684. There is an errour in the sermon 
 respecting the date of the ordination. It was in 1685 — as will be seen by 
 the following extract from the church records : 
 
 ''2d month, [April,] 5th day, 1685. The brethren stayed in the meet- 
 ing-house and unanimously consented, that tlie 13th day of May should be 
 the day for my son Cotton's ordination as their pastor ; and that letters 
 should be sent to the two churches in Boston, to Charlestown, Cambridge, 
 Roxbury, Dorchester, to desire them to send their messengers to give us the 
 rigid hand of fellowship ; that Mr. Allen and Mr. Willard should be de- 
 sired to join with myself in imposing hands." 
 
50 
 
 (15.) p. 21. The ministry of the two Matiiers continued dining sixty- 
 four years, besides nearly three years that passed before the ordination of 
 Increase. The record of church members during this period is very careful 
 and complete, there being no less than three separate catalogues. The whole 
 number is eleven hundred and four. The record of baptisms is complete 
 only after the year 1689, from which time to 1728, (thirty-nine years) the 
 whole number recorded is three thousand three hundred and eighty-four. 
 
 The first instance of any one being received to baptism by the half-way 
 covenant, as it is called, appears to have been January 15, 1693 ; when I 
 find the following minute : — " Received into covenant Mary Sunderland ; 
 and her son John baptised. They being the first so admitted, in pursuance 
 of the church's addresses unto me for that purpose and practice." The 
 half-way covenant has been laid aside since April, 1786. 
 
 Collections for charitable and religious purposes were frequent during 
 this period, and I have been surprised at the amount of them. £62 for re- 
 deeming captives from the Indians ; £53 for redeeming two persons from 
 Turkish captivity ; £80 for relieving three young men from the same ; £44 
 for the relief of the poor inhabitants of frontier towns in the east ; £53 at fast 
 for the poor, and £60 the same year at thanksgiving for propagation of the 
 gospel ; and in 1726 a large contribution was distributed, partly for the 
 support of the ministry in destitute places, and partly for the distribution of 
 Bibles and other pious books. The church had an " Evangelical Treasury,'''' 
 for the purpose of promoting religious objects, and distributing Bibles, from 
 which considerable sums were frequently appropriated. This was not very 
 different from a Bible society. 
 
 It may gratify some to see in this connexion, a copy of a memorandum, 
 which I found amongst Deacon Tudor's papers, of the collections in the 
 difierent churches " for the sufferers in the great fire, March 20, 1760, on 
 and round Oliver's Dock, part of King Street, &c." It may serve as 
 another link between the charity of Boston at the present day, and the 
 year 1698 — when C. Mather said in a sermon, " For charity, I may indeed 
 speak it without flattery, this town has not many equals on the face of the 
 earth." 
 
 Brattle Street, £3407. Old South, 1860. King's Chapel, 960. West 
 Church, 992. First Church, 1050. New Brick, 445. Old North, 418. 
 New North, 1467. Mr. Mather's, 140. Federal Street, 209. Mr. Cundy's 
 188. Mr. Bound's, 145. 
 
 (16.) p. 22. The pamphlet published by the Convention was entitled, 
 "The Testimony of the pastors of the churches in the Province of the 
 Massachusetts Bay in New England, at their annual Convention in Boston, 
 May 25, 1743, against several errours in doctrine, and disorders in practice, 
 which have of late obtained in various parts of the land, Ac." Mr. Gee 
 
51 
 
 published " A Letter to the Rev. Nathaniel Eells, Moderator of the late 
 Convention, &c. containing some remarks on their printed Testimony." 
 In this he complains that the title of the pamphlet was afcfeulated to mis- 
 lead ; that the pamphlet itself was adapted to give false impressions abroad 
 and at home of the state of the churches ; that owing to the thinness of 
 the Convention, the real opinion of the ministers of the province was not 
 represented ; and that no testimony was suffered to be brought forward in 
 favour of the revivals in the land ; and in order to attain these objects, he 
 p\iblishes the design of another meeting of ministers, to be held the day af- 
 ter commencement, [Jidy 7.] The result of this meeting was " The Tes- 
 timony and Advice of an Assembly of pastors of churclies in New Eng- 
 land, &c." which, at the same time that it spoke favourably of the great 
 religious work, acknowledged that it was accompanied with evils and dan- 
 gers, and warned against them. It was signed by fifty-three ministers, and 
 by fifteen others, M'ho ndded a stronger protest against itinerancy, and the 
 intruding into parishes without consent of their ministers. Besides these, 
 separate testimonies to about the same purport from absent ministers, were 
 added in an appendix, and increased the whole number of names to one 
 hundred and eleven. 
 
 Gee's attack upon the Convention was answered very satisfactorily by 
 Mr. Prescott of Salem, and Mr. Hancock of Braintree, who make it evi- 
 dent that he wrote in great hastiness of temper, and under the influence of 
 what he regarded a personal affront. They prove several of his statements 
 to be incorrect, and completely defend the doings of tlie Convention. Dr. 
 Chauncy, who had been personally assailed by Mr. Gee, defended himself 
 in a letter published in the Boston Evening Post of June 24th, and Mr. Gee, 
 according to Mr. Hancock, retracted. 
 
 Another meeting of the "Assembly" was held in September, 1745, 
 when a further defence was attempted of the religious excitements of the 
 country. This second " Testimony" was signed by Prince, Webb and 
 Gee, of Boston, and twenty-one others. 
 
 There were also published, in this feverish season, two " Testimonies" of 
 laymen against the prevalent evils of the churches. 
 
 (17.) p. 22. Mr. Gee's parents were members of this church, to 
 which they were admitted by dismission from the old church, May 2, 1697. 
 He was himself admitted to the church May 13, 1716 ; was graduated at 
 Harvard College, 1717; called by the church, October 22, 1723 ; ordained 
 December 18. [He had been a candidate at the New Brick with Mr. Wal- 
 dron in 1721 ; and had a call to settle in Portsmouth in 1723.] The 
 council consisted of " the six churches of the united brethren in this town, 
 and the church in Roxbury." C. Mather gave the charge. On the 19th 
 day of the next February, I find the following record of C. Matlier : — " The 
 first baptism administered by Mr, Gee ; and indeed tfie first that has beeu 
 
52 
 
 administered by any hands but those of Mather (father and son) in the Old 
 North church for more than half a hundred years together." 
 
 It would seem, from the records of the church, that Mr. Gee was a great 
 promoter of prayer meetings for the revival of religion, which were frequent- 
 ly held during his ministry. The church is also indebted to him for the es- 
 tablishment of a library for the use of its pastors, to which he made large 
 donations of valuable books. The church originally exercised a constant 
 superintendence over its concerns by a committee, and provided occasion- 
 ally for its increase. For a long time, however, this has been neglected, 
 and many of the books have been lost. There are now about a hundred 
 volumes, principally old folios, and many of them very valuable. 
 
 It was during the ministry of Mr. Gee, in 1733, that the celebrated dif- 
 ficulties in the first church in Salem occurred, which occasioned its exclu- 
 sion for some time from the communion of many of the churches of the 
 state. The Old North church, as appears from the records, which are full 
 and minute upon this subject, took an active and leading part in this work 
 of inquiry and discipline. After writing to and visiting the church and min- 
 ister in Salem, it summoned an ecclesiastical council to proceed in the busi- 
 ness, and "join with us in taking the second step of the third way of com- 
 munion, wherein we have been visiting the first church of Christ in Salem." 
 The minister and church refused to be disciplined, and were in consequence 
 shut out from Christian fellowship for many years. It is not until October, 
 1745, that I find a letter of penitent acknowledgment, entreating to be re- 
 stored to communion, was received and acted upon by the Old North 
 church, who took off the sentence of nou-communion, with the express 
 exception of the late minister. 
 
 (18.) p. 22. Mr. Mather was chosen, January 28, 1732, by sixty-nine 
 votes out of one hundred and twelve. The council at his ordination was 
 composed of the churches of Boston, Roxbury, Charlestown and Cambridge. 
 Dr. Colman gave the charge. 
 
 The number of the church that withdrew with him were thirty men and 
 sixty-three women ; the number that remained were eighty men and one 
 hundred and eighty-three women. The date of their dismission is Decem- 
 ber 21, 1741. The house which they built [at the corner of North Bennet 
 Street] is now occupied by a society of Universalists. 
 
 (19.) p. 23. Mr. Checkley was ordained September 3, 1747. The 
 churches invited to the council were, the First Church, the New South, the 
 Old South, Brattle Street, New North, New Brick, and the church in 
 Charlestown. The church in Hollis Street was afterward added. Mr. Gee 
 being at this time confined by sickness, the father of the candidate was re- 
 quested to give the charge. 
 
53 
 
 The conjunction of cliurch and society in the management of their 
 temporal concerns, first took place in May, 1760 ; at which time it 
 was agrecfl, that the committee, chosen annually on the first Tuesday of 
 May, should consist of tlic deacons, together with five members of the 
 church, and four of the congregation. 
 
 (20.) p. 23. The preliminary steps to the choice of Dr. Lathrop, were 
 taken by the church and society, March 10, 1768. It was intended to or- 
 dain him as colleague to Mr. Checkley, who had been for a long time 
 dangerously ill, and died on the 19th day of the same month. The elec- 
 tion was made by a unanimous vote, both of church and congregation ; 
 the number of the former being twent3'-five, and of the latter sixty-seven. 
 The ordination took place May 18, 1768. The council was composed of 
 the churches of Norwich and Lebanon, Connecticut ; the Old South, the 
 New Brick, the New North, and the churches in Hollis Street and Brattle 
 Street. Dr. Sewall was moderator. Dr. Eliot introduced the service with 
 prayer ; the pastor elect preached from Philip, i. 17 — knowing that I am 
 set for the defenct of the gospel ; Dr. Pemberton prayed and gave the 
 charge ; Dr. Sewall then prajed ; and Mr. Byles gave the right iiand of 
 fellowship. 
 
 The practice of reading the lines of tlie psalms separately, was abolish- 
 ed May 26, 1771. 
 
 In January, 1773, a monthly church meeting was established for encour- 
 agement and assistance in matters of religion. 
 
 April 16, 1786. After several meetings, the church renewed their cov- 
 enant engagements, with a new " declaration of faith and form of confede- 
 racy." At the same time a system of discipline and order in regard to 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper was drawn up and established. The chief 
 design of this was to remove the obstacles which prevented the access of 
 Christians to the table, to abolish the half-way covenant, and provide for the 
 baptism of the children of every baptised parent, — receiving no publick 
 confession of faith, except from those who design to keep all the ordinances 
 of the Lord. Upon this system the church has ever since acted. 
 
NOTES TO SERMON 11. 
 
 (1.) p. 26, I BELIEVE that I have fairly stated the controversy at thl? 
 time, which has not, even yet, lost all its interest. Some small circum- 
 stances I have gathered from tradition, but principally from the pamphlets 
 published on this occasion, which I found in the Boston Athenaeum, — to 
 which copious repository of choice and rate publications relating to the 
 history of this country, I am under many obligations. The first is, " An 
 Account of the reasons why a considerable number (about fifty, whereof 
 ten are members in full communion) belonging to the New North church 
 in Boston, could not consent to Mr. Peter Thacher's ordination." It has 
 this motto : " Ministers shall not be vagrants, nor intrude themselves of 
 their own authority into any place which best pleaseth them." It is a 
 pamphlet of sixty pages, being a collection of documents interwoven with 
 an angry history of the whole matter. In reply, there is " A Vindication 
 of the New North church from several falsehoods spread in a pamphlet 
 lately published, &c. ; by several members of that church :" to which are 
 added, two postscripts by Mr. Webb and Mr. Thacher. Then was adver- 
 tised, but I do not know whether it was published, " An Answer to a scan- 
 dalous and lying pamphlet, intituled, a Vindication, &c." The New 
 North people wrote with most moderation, though they were clearly in the 
 wrong ; while the advocates of the New Brick, though on the right side, 
 lost all command of their temper, and wrote with great heat and passion. 
 
 There was also published, "A brief Declaration of Mr. P. Thacher and 
 Mr. J. Webb, in behalf of themselves and their church." This Avas in reply 
 to a pamphlet of Increase Mather, entitled " A Testimony to the good order 
 of the churches ;" blaming the proceedings of the New North as Anti-con- 
 gregational, and threatening them with ecclesiastical discipline and censure. 
 Webb and Thacher declared their intention to conduct regularly, accord- 
 ing to Congregational discipline, and defended their doings as such. 
 
55 
 
 The two Malliers sent a letter to the dissatisfied party the day preced- 
 ing the ordination, earnestly entreating them to be quiet, and do nothing 
 disorderly. It appears to have had no effect. 
 
 "July 19, 1722. It was agreed upon and voted, that the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper should be administered in the revolution of every fourth 
 sabbath from August 12, 1722." 
 
 (2.) p. 27, TitE names of those gathered into a church state at this 
 time Mere, Alexander Sears, Solomon Towusend, William Lee, Nathaniel 
 Loring, Moses Pierse, Daniel Pecker, Josiah Baker, Henry Wheeler, John 
 Waldo, James Tilestone. S. Townsend and W. Lee were cliosen the tirst 
 deacons. 
 
 The original covenant is not a profession of faith, except so far as a be- 
 lief in the Christian religion, and in the doctrine of the trinity, is asserted ; 
 but is rather an engagement to walk strictly in the commandments and or- 
 dinances of the gospel. It being the custom of many churches at that time 
 to reqiiire a relation of the religious experiences of those who offered them- 
 selves for admission, a vote was passed, (August 9, 1722,) " that we would 
 receive them with, and encourage their making of relations according to the 
 usage of many of our New England churches ; but will not impose them on 
 such as we shall find averse to them. But upon having our charity satis- 
 fied any other way, we will look upon them meet for our fellowship, and 
 admit them to it." 
 
 The persons who commenced the building were in number twenty-four, 
 whose names are recorded in the proprietors' books. The number increas- 
 ed to forty before the work was completed. The building committee (cho- 
 sen December 12, 1720) consisted of John Frisel, Thomas Lee, Jonathan 
 Montfort, Alexander Sears, James Tileston, James Pecker, and Edward 
 Pell. This last named gentleman drew tiie plan of the house. — The choice 
 of pews was made May 8, 1721, the first choice being given to John Frisel 
 and William Clark, " for their good will and great benefactions to said 
 work ;" — then to the building committee ; — and then to the other proprie- 
 tors in an order determined by lot. 
 
 At the dedication, Dr. Increase Mather was first desired to preaci), but 
 excused himself on account of his great age. He commenced the morning 
 service with prayer, which was closed with prayer by Mr. Cooper. The 
 afternoon service commenced with prayer by Dr. Colman, and vva« closed 
 by Mr. Prince. 
 
 A time-piece was presented to the eliurcii by Mr. Barret Dyrc in June 
 of this year. It kept its place in the meeting-house until 1820, when it was 
 removed, and its place supplied wiUi a uew one at the expense of Samuel 
 Parkmuu, Esq. 
 
56 
 
 There was no cellar under the house until the year 1762. It was com' 
 pleted at the cost of a thousand pounds, and, after some difficulties, paid 
 for by subscription. 
 
 In front of the pulpit were originally two pews, the one for the Elder''s 
 seat, the other for the Deacon's seat. They were thrown into one in 1766, 
 " as has been lately done at the Old North, and at Mr. Cooper's," (Brattle 
 Street.) 
 
 A second gallery was originally built only at the west end, and never, 
 I believe, on either of the other sides. This was closed up and converted 
 into a hall for a singing school and other purposes, in 1808. A vote passed 
 in January, 1751, " to build an upper gallery for the women at the east 
 end of the meeting-house, if the money can be raised by subscription." 
 This however was not accomplished. — There was no access to the gallery 
 originally, except by stairs within the meeting-house, of which there were 
 three flights ; at the north-west, south-west, and south-east corners. The 
 
 stairs in the north-west corner were removed in . The south porch 
 
 was so altered as to contain stairs for the accommodation of the singers in 
 1801. In 1821 it was taken down, rebuilt of a larger size, so as to contain 
 stairs of an easy access, and those which remained in the south-east and 
 south-west corners were removed. At the same time all the remaining 
 square pews were taken down, and long pews erected in their room. 
 
 The first bell was hung in 1743, and the same year the meeting-house 
 was for the first time painted. This bell was removed and sold In 1780, and 
 the bell of the Old North, which was larger, was hung in its place. It was 
 injured in 1792, and forbidden to be rung, except in case of fire, till it was 
 recast in the same year, and was the first bell from the foundry of the late 
 Paul Revere, Esq. — which appears by the following inscription upon it : 
 "The first church bell cast in Boston, 1792, by P. Revere." 
 
 (3.) p. 27. Mr. Waldron was chosen minister, September 26, 1721, 
 by a vote of the proprietors, fifty out of sixty-three. The other votes were for 
 Mr. Gee. At his ordination, Mr. Sewall commenced with prayer ; Dr. Cot- 
 ton Mather preached from 1 John, iv. 7 ; Dr. Increase Mather gave the 
 charge ; Mr. Wadsworth the right hand of fellowship ; and Mr. Waldron 
 closed with prayer. 
 
 " August 23, 1725. Voted, that Mr. Waldron be supplied with constant 
 help for six months ensuing from this day." — A vote of this nature was fre- 
 quently passed in both churches, while there Avas but one minister ; it being 
 thought that the strength of one was inadequate to the whole duty. 
 
 Mr. Waldron died September 11, 1727. 
 
 (4.) p. 28. January 16, 1727. Mr. Welsteed was chosen by a vote 
 of fifty -four out of sixty-four. At his ordination, Mr. Sewall and Mr. Coop- 
 
51 
 
 KV prayed ; Dr. Colman gave the charge ; and Mr. Walter the right hand of 
 fellowship. " One of the first acts of the church aftrr thi? ordination was to 
 reconsider and renew the vote about relations, passed August 9, 1722. — A 
 truly Christian act." 
 
 The reading of the scriptures, as part of the publick service, commeuced 
 in 1729, as appears by a vote of April 14,— " that the Bible Capt. Henry 
 Deering has made an offer of to the church, in order for Mr. Welsteed's 
 reading and expounding, be accepted." 
 
 December 22, 1736. Mr. William Hooper received a unanimous call to 
 settle as colleague with Mr. Welsteed. He, however, on the third day of 
 the next month, received a unanimous call from the West Church, on that 
 day gathered, over which he was ordained May 18th, 1737. He afterward 
 received Episcopal ordination, and was rector of Trinity Church. 
 
 In January, 1731, fifty pounds were collected at a contribution for the 
 relief of the inhabitants of Marblehead, distressed by the small pox. 
 
 Mr. Gray was elected by a unanimous vote, April 3, 1738. The coun- 
 cil at the ordination consisted of " the united churches in Boston, the 
 churches of Rumny Marsh, (Chelsea,) Roxbury, Cambridge, and Charles- 
 town." The pastor elect preached, from Isaiah vi. 5 — 8 ; Mr. Welsteed 
 and Mr. Webb prayed ; Dr. Colman gave the charge ; and Dr. Sewall the 
 right hand of fellowship. — The part taken by Mr. Webb is the earliest no- 
 tice we have of a reconciliation with the New North church. 
 
 " August 22, 1739. Unanimously voted, to desire Mr. James Halsy to 
 take his proper place in the Elder's seat. 
 
 " Voted, to leave the affair of making a stairway in the westernmost 
 porch with the committee." This was never done. 
 
 (5.) p. 31. Dr. Pemberton was chosen, December 31, 1753, by a 
 vote of fifty-four out of fifty-six, two persons not voting. The vote of the 
 church was unanimous. He had resigned his charge at New York, by ad- 
 vice of the Synod, on the 18th of November, and Was at that time in corres- 
 pondence with this church, who had expressed their strong desire to receive 
 him as their minister. Part of this correspondence appears on the pages of 
 the proprietors' records ; as also a copy of the doings of the Synod, by 
 which he was dismissed with honour, and recommended as " a regular min- 
 ister, of an exemplary, pious conversation, who has to an uncommon degree 
 maintained the dignity of the ministerial character ; — eminently endowed 
 with ministerial abilities, whose labours have been acceptable and highly 
 esteemed throughout these churches." 
 
 The council at the installation, March 6, 1734, consisted of the First, 
 the Old South, and the New North churches. By whom the several parts 
 were performed, I cannot learn. No entry is made upon the church book 
 of records during Dr. Pembertou's ministry, except the names of a few bap- 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 tiscd and admitted to communion. The catalogue of church members, from 
 the bei^inning, is exceedingly imperfect, so that no estimate at all can be 
 made of the number. 
 
 It was during his ministry, [August, 1757,] that taxes were first laid for 
 the support of the gospel in this society. Dependance had been previous- 
 ly had upon voluntary contributions collected every Sunday ; but this 
 mode had been found the occasion of so much confusion, embarrassment 
 and debt, that it was now abolished. For many years, the income was in- 
 sufficient to pay Dr. Pemberton's salary, and he every year generously relin- 
 quished his claim to the deficiency. 
 
 " October 7, 1762. Voted, that the singers sound the base at the end of 
 the lines, whenever they think proper." I copy this vote simply because I 
 do not know what it means. 
 
 In 1763, an attempt was made to settle a colleague with Dr. Pemberton, 
 and Mr. Tennant was the man intended for the place. Circumstances, how- 
 ever, prevented the design from being accomplished. 
 
 In May, 1771, the first Baptist church requested that the use of the New 
 Brick meeting-house might be allowed them for worship, during the time 
 that they should be building ; and accordingly, from June 23 to December 
 8, the two congregations worshipped together, their ministers preaching al- 
 ternately the half of each sabbath. Dr. Stillman's first sermon was preach- 
 ed from Psalm cxxxiii. 1, and his last from 2 Corinthians, xiii. 11. In this 
 place also it may be mentioned, that in June, 1802, when the New North 
 society were about rebuilding their meeting-house, an invitation was given 
 them to attend worship with this church, and the two congregations united 
 in the services of the sabbath, until the completion of the new meeting- 
 house in May, 1804. 
 
 (6.) p. 32. The British troops, during the blockade of Boston, treated 
 the churches with particular disrespect. The steeple of the West Church 
 they destroyed, because they supposed it had been used as a signal staff; 
 the Old South they turned into a circus, or riding school ; the Old North 
 they took down for the sake of the fuel, of which its massy timber afforded 
 abundance ; " although there were then large quantities of coal and wood 
 in the town. The house, which was built in 1677, was in very good repair, 
 and might have stood many years longer, had not those sons of violence, 
 with wicked hands, razed it to the foundation.'' Church Records. 
 
 The two societies worshipped together from the 31st of March, 1776 ; 
 but the plan of perpetual union was not proposed until May 6th, 1779. On 
 that day, which was the day of the state fast, a vote was passed, "that the 
 two said churches should be united as one body," and a committee was ap- 
 pointed, of three from each society, with the deacons, to take the necessary 
 measures toward accomplishing the affair. The committee on the part of 
 
59 
 
 the Old Nortli were, Samuel Austin, Col. Proctor, and Joseph Kittel ; of 
 the New Brick, William Paine, Newman Greenough, and Thoiiias Hichborn. 
 
 The deacons were three ; John Tudor, Brown, and Greenough. 
 
 The committee reported on the 27th of June, and the union took place 
 without one dissenting voice, in the most amicable manner, and under the 
 most auspicious circumstances. The whole proceedings are recorded by 
 Deacon Tudor with great minuteness. 
 
 In January, 1780, Dr. Lathrop's salary was raised from one hundred to 
 two hiindred dollars a week ; in May to four hundred ; in September to 
 eight hundred. In December, £2000 were raised to purchase his winter^s 
 wood. 
 
 The large Bible, which was used in the Old North church, was presented 
 by the committee, in behalf of the society, to the second church in New- 
 ton, at tlie time of Mr. Greenough's settlement there, in 1781. 
 
 In 1781 I find record of a baptism by immersion of a child about ten 
 years old, at the particular request of the mother, " a bathing tub being 
 prepared for that purpose in the meeting-house." 
 
 (7.) p. 33. On this occasion, the Rev. President Kirkland introduced 
 the religious service with prayer ; Dr. Ware preaciied from Philip, iv. 17, 
 / desire fruit that may abound to your account ; Rev. Mr. Fiske of West 
 Cambridge made the ordaining j)rayer ; Dr. Allyn of Duxbury gave the 
 charge ; Rev. Mr. Parkman presented the right hand of fellowship ; Dr. 
 Holmes of Cambridge made the concluding prayer. 
 
 I HAVE said nothing in the sermon of the Synods in which Increase 
 Mather was engaged. At the time of his arrival from England in 1662, the 
 country was much excited and divided about the result of the Synod which 
 had set in the spring of that year, and which had published certain proposi- 
 tions relating to church membership. The fiHh of these, which provided, that 
 the children of all who have been baptised in infancy, and are not scanda- 
 lous in life, and make publick profession of faith, are entitled to baptism, 
 — was the occasion of warm discussion. Mr. Mather, though but a young 
 man, distinguished himself in the opposition to the Synod, who appointed 
 Mr. Mitchel of Cambridge, so mtich praised by Baxter, to answer him. 
 Mather was convinced by the arguments of Mitchel, and afterward publish- 
 ed in defence of the proposition he had opposed. — The other writers in the 
 controversy were Dr. Chauncy, president of the college, against the Synod, 
 who was answered by Mr. Allin, of Dedham ; — and Mr. Davenport of New 
 Haven, who was answered by Mr. Mather the elder, father of Increase, 
 
 He was also an important member of the Synocl of 1679, by which he was 
 appointed one of the preachers, and moderator at its second session in 1680. 
 
60 
 
 This was the Reforming Synod, called together to consider " What are the 
 evils that have provoked the Lord to bring his judgments on New England ; 
 and what is to be done that so those evils may be reformed ?" Mr. Emerson, 
 in his History of the First Church, informs us, that this was occasioned by 
 the long continued controversy between the First and Old South churches, 
 and that the inquiry was in fact aimed against the Old South. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 20, for 1684, read 1685. 
 
 22, for 1745, read 1743. 
 
 -^— — for September, read July. 
 
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