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XXII.

happened and still subsist, in the Christian church, CHAPTER are all, in a manner, owing to the unchristian temper and conduct of those, who could not content themselves with scripture orthodoxy, with the simple, spiritual worship of the Father, enjoined by our Saviour, and with the platform of church discipline enjoined in the New Testament."*

"It is infinitely dishonorable to the all-good and perfect Governor of the world to imagine, that he has suspended the eternal salvation of men upon any niceties of speculation; or that any one, who honestly aims at finding the truth, and at doing the will of his Maker, shall be finally discarded, because he fell into some erroneous opinions." †

"To speak in reproachful language of the moral virtues, which consist summarily in the love of God and man, and an imitation of the divine perfections, comparing them to filthy rags, is absurd, and approaches near to profanity and blasphemy." ‡

It would be easy to multiply evidence of the irreconcilable doctrines and religious views, which were thus pressed upon the College by the contending theological parties; but enough has been adduced to exhibit the manner and spirit in which they were respectively advanced and defended. From the governors of the College these views of Chauncy and Mayhew received no public countenance; but they were all on terms of friendship with them, and some, of professional intercourse and interchange of ministerial labors. Chauncy and Mayhew were pastors of two numerous

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† Mayhew's Discourse on Salvation by Grace, p. 103.

Mayhew's Sermon on Being Found in Christ, p. 146.

Alarm of

the Calvin

ists.

XXII.

Calvinism

settled at

*

CHAPTER Congregations, including individuals of wealth, talent, and respectability; and the leaders of the Calvinistic sect perceived, with alarm, that powerful influences in the metropolis of New England were favorable to the religious views those clergymen maintained. In this exigency they turned their attention to New Haven. That seminary had been founded, as has already been stated, under the auspices of persons discontented with the religious state of Harvard College; and, after the lapse of half a century, it was again regarded as the place of refuge in the impending dangers of the Calvinistic faith. Accordingly, in the year 1752, the clergy of Connecticut, with the coöperation of the Calvinistic sect in Massachusetts, sedulously began the task of "settling and securing orthodoxy in the Yale Col College at New Haven, and to preserve it, in all the governors thereof, upon the best foundation that human wisdom, directed by the general rules of God's word, could devise." And in November, 1753, the President and Fellows of that seminary passed votes, declaring that "the students should be established in the principles of religion, according to the Assembly's Catechism, Dr. Ames's Medulla' and 'Cases of Conscience,' and should not be suffered to be instructed in any different principles or doctrines;" "that the Assembly's Catechism, and the Confession of Faith, received and established in the churches of this colony, (which is an abridgment of the Westminster Confession,) contain a true and just summary of the most important doctrines of the Christian religion, and that the true sense of the sacred Scriptures is justly collected and summed up, in these com

lege.

* See Appendix, No. III.

President Clap's History of Yale College, p. 75.

XXII.

positions, and all expositions of Scripture pretending CHAPTER to deduce any doctrines or positions contrary to the doctrines laid down in these composures, we are of opinion, are wrong and erroneous; - and that every President, Fellow, Professor of Divinity, or Tutor in said College shall, before he enter upon the execution of his office, publicly consent to the said Catechism. and Confession of Faith, as containing a just summary of the Christian religion, and renounce all doctrines and principles contrary thereto, and shall pass through such examination, as the Corporation shall think proper, in order to their being fully satisfied that he should do it truly, and without any evasion or equivocation."* These measures for perpetuating Calvinism in the land, were highly approved by all of that faith; and an accession of students to Yale Colleget about this time, greater than at Harvard, was regarded as an omen of the advantages to be derived from a close adherence to Calvinistic doctrines.

* Ibid., p. 62.

+ See Appendix, No. IV.

CHAPTER
XXIII.

the Episco

CHAPTER XXIII.

Effects of the Controversies in the Congregational Church.-Policy and Increase of the Episcopal Church. Alarm of the Congregationalists. - Death of Dr. Colman. His Merit and Professional Rank. -No Funeral Discourse published on his Death. — His Life by Turell. His Character. - His Friendship with Thomas Hollis. - His Services to the College. - Connexion between the College and the Inhabitants of the First Parish of Cambridge, for Public Worship. A new Congregational Church built. - Death and Character of Henry Flynt and of Edward Wigglesworth.

DURING the theological disputes, which ensued upon the first visit of Whitefield to New England, the Episcopal clergy kept aloof, and many individuals, wearied with sectarian controversies, sought a quiet Increase of refuge from them in the Episcopal communion. The pal Church. principal rectors of that church were stipendiaries of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and it was the standing injunction of the Society to its missionaries, "to avoid controversy, and to make the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and the duties of a sober, righteous, and godly life, as resulting from such doctrines, the chief subjects of their sermons." Although Dr. Cutler, who, as rector of King's Chapel, stood at the head of the Episcopal clergy of Massachusetts, early controverted Whitefield's opinions on "forms of worship," " regenera

* Humphrey's History of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 70. Edit. 1730.

tion," "instantaneous conversion," "the salvation of infants dying after baptism," and "the falling away from grace," he did not publicly enter into the contests which divided the Congregational clergy. But he was a keen observer of them; and the representations he transmitted to the Episcopal hierarchy in England, of the confusions, disturbances, and divisions, which were the fruits of the labors of Whitefield and his followers, are graphic and severe. He consoles himself with the fact, that they have resulted in "the growth of the (Episcopal) Church in many places, and its reputation universally; and it suffers no otherwise than as religion does, and that is sadly enough." +

CHAPTER

XXIII.

Causes of

this in

crease, as

stated by

Secker.

The circumstances which concurred to cause the growth of Episcopacy about the time of Whitefield's first visit to New England, are thus stated by Secker, Archbishop afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, in his answer to Dr. Mayhew. "A further augmentation of the Church of England was occasioned by the wild enthusiasm that prevailed in several of the New England churches, even before Mr. Whitefield came among them, but was mightily increased by him and the strolling teachers that followed him; as did likewise their extending spiritual censures to mere trifles; with their endless contentions and confusions on the settling of ministers and on various occurrences besides. All which things disgusted and wearied out many of their people, and induced them to seek a peaceable refuge in our communion."†

* Whitefield's Seventh Journal, p. 24. Edit. 1741.

† See Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, by John Nichols. Vol. II. pp. 545-547.

† An Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations on the Charter and VOL. II.

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