ملح

AN

ACCOUNT

OF

THE CONTROVERSY

IN THE

FIRST PARISH IN CAMBRIDGE.

1827-1829.

PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO A VOTE OF THE CHURCH.

Boston:

T. R. MARVIN, printer, 32, congress STREET.

1829.

ABOUT three years since, there being an unusual attention to religion in the First Parish in Cambridge, meetings for religious purposes were held in the evening of a week day, as they had been, occasionally, in the parish for thirty years. At first they were held at a private dwelling house; but this not being sufficiently large to accommodate them, they were soon after transferred to the court house. A lecture was also opened at the meeting house on Sabbath evening. Both these exercises have been continued, with occasional intermissions, ever since. These and other facts, pertaining to the interior state of the Church and Society, are presented by the Pastor in his correspondence with the Committee of the Parish. There also is given an exposition of the subject of his exchanges with neighboring ministers, and of his gradual discontinuance of exchanges with ministers, who avowed "liberal principles," as they' are called, -principles, which are at variance with those of the pastor and church of Cambridge. Almost all the ministers who were in the neighboring churches at the time of the settlement of the present pastor in Cambridge, having rested from their labors, and those who succeeded them having generally avowed, or given reason to believe they had embraced, the liberal principles; such discontinuance of exchanges had become general, but without animosity, or denunciation.* The reason of the discontinuance was doubtless well understood, and by judicious ministers, of the two different denominations referred to, it was declared to be a good and sufficient reason.

* Ministers of the liberal principles, about this time, associated, by the name of "The Unitarian Association."

The first notice of dissatisfaction with the ministry, or of disaffection to the minister of the parish, was expressed in a memorial, signed by a considerable number of the parishioners, dated July 9, 1827, and presented to the pastor on the 20th of the same month. That the excitement which induced this measure was very recent, appears from the memorial itself.

"The order, peace, and harmony," say the memorialists, "with which your church and society have walked together for the long period of thirty five years, are matter of grateful recollection to those of your subscribers, who have, from your introduction to them until the present time, listened to your instructions, and are alike honorable to you, and to those who have attended your ministrations at the altar. Your memorialists feel that this state of things is giving way to disaffection and disunion." In the conclusion of the memorial, they say, "the subscribers, impelled by duty, and influenced by the desire of promoting the happiness and the best interests of you and your parishioners, join in recommending to you a return to that liberal system of professional exchanges, which you formerly practised, and in requesting you to exchange a reasonable proportion of the time with such respectable clergymen of liberal sentiments in this vicinity, as have heretofore been admitted into your pulpit, and with others of similar character." *

To this memorial the pastor on the 27th of July, gave the following answer.

Brethren and Friends,

I have attended to your memorial with the thought and care, which my regard to its subscribers and the importance of the subject required; and "for this cause have bowed my knees to God" for light and guidance. Conscious of having sought the peace, as well as the religious improvement and salvation of the church and people of my pastoral charge during a ministry of thirty five years, and equally conscious that there is no change either in my desire or aim still to promote their peace and welfare, I could not but be concerned at an occurrence which seemed to have an unfavorable aspect upon both. On receiving the first notice of the circulation of a memorial, I thought, and still think, that an interview with your pastor, before any paper had been drawn up and names solicited for it, would have been more favorable to truth and peace. It might have prevented one mistake, at least, in your memorial, which, with the remark subjoined to it, is adapted to excite an unkindly influence. The passage I refer to, is what, you say, "was sometime since heard by you with regret," concerning my "determination not to permit the introduction of men of liberal religious sentiments to my pulpit." Such a determination I never uttered; and the remark subjoined,

* The papers and documents are of too great length to be published here, entire; but nothing that has an important bearing upon the case, on either side of the question, is intentionally omitted.

concerning the light in which such ministers" were henceforth to be considered," I never made.

If the object of the memorial is, to introduce principles greatly at variance with those of your own minister into the ministrations of the sanctuary, you will indulge me in candidly presenting to you the difficulties and dangers, that would be apprehended from so diversified and indefinite a course of public service.

There are ministers designated as liberal, who are decidedly of the opinion, that an exchange with ministers of the original principles of the New England churches is not advisable.

Such exchanges have been sometimes found unacceptable and injurious. Exception has been taken to a discourse, delivered by a minister of preeminent character for theological learning and talents, orthodoxy and charity, on an exchange with a minister denominated liberal; and the preacher has been interrogated upon the subject in the broad aisle, before he had left the church in which he had performed the service.

Ministers and churches denominated liberal, no less than those of most other denominations, appear to consider it neither useful nor expedient, to have very diverse and opposite doctrines delivered to those who compose their stated religious assemblies. The subject of ministerial intercourse is believed to be uniformly left to the discretion of the pastors, who are, or ought to be, the best judges of what is profitable for their hearers, and who, as having a high personal responsibility, are bound religiously to determine what is right and consistent for themselves.

Precedents, whether in civil or ecclesiastical concerns, are no farther obligatory, than the cases and circumstances are the same, or so similar as to present a fair evidence of an obligation to regard them. The religious principles now avowed by many churches and ministers, it is well known, are essentially, or very widely, different from those which were held by the same churches and their ministers thirty years ago; and this difference has become more strikingly apparent within the last few years.

Ministers and churches of both these descriptions may believe, that an interchange of public services, where the principles are known, or believed, to be greatly at variance, would be generally unprofitable, often dangerous, and, not unfrequently, injurious. The pulpit, it might be feared, would become a place of controversy, or of such diversity of doctrine, as would tend to produce either skepticism, or an indifference to all religion.

The responsibility of a minister extends to his entire ministry. Men of the legal profession know it to be a maxim in Law," He that does by another, does by himself." It is alike true in the Gospel. Were a Christian minister to be knowingly and willingly instrumental to the introduction of religious principles which he believes to be dangerous to the souls of his people ;-should any thus perish by his means, their blood would be required at his hand.

The principles upon which this church and congregation were originally settled, and which have been uniformly maintained, are essentially the same as those of the first churches of New England; and these are the principles which I held and taught at the time of my settlement here, and which I have never found reason to alter.