THE REV. OLIVER PEABODY. 441 given to Anthony Stoddard Esq. Deacon Henchman and Mr. James Pemberton, who were appointed a committee to receive the Legacy bequeathed to this church by Mrs. Anne Mills; for their care and pains taken in that Affair. JOSEPH SEWALL.1 "In consideration of the danger the town and country" were "in from the small pox," the "Friday lecture [October 31] at Mr. Colman's was turned into a day of prayer." Mr. Webb preached in the morning, from the words, "Prepare to meet thy God;" and Mr. Colman, in the afternoon, from the text, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" Dec. 17. Mr. Peabody was Ordain'd to the Pastoral Office over the Church in Natick consisting of 4 English and 3 Indians. Mr. Appleton began with Prayr. Mr. Coleman being Confined by Illness, I preach'd from Jer. 3. 15. I will give you Pastors. Mr. Baxter gave the Charge. Mr. Williams (westown) the right Hand of Fellowship and Concluded with Prayr. O Lord Bless this little Flock, and let there be added to them many of such as shall be Saved. Pour out thy Spirit on thy Servant, that he may approve himself a Pastor after thine Heart. Turn the poor Indians from darkness to light. O when shall the time to Favour them come! (J. Sewall.) At a church Meeting Decr 30. 1729. Voted; -I. That the last Possessors who had a right to Pews in the Old Meeting House, and desire a consideration in the New Meeting House, shall bring in their claims and desires in writing to Deacon Henchman on or before the 20th of Janry next; that there may be such allowance made to them as the church shall determine. II. That the Honble. Coll. Fitch, and Anthony Stoddard Esq., with the committee for building, be a committee to consider and propose to the church, the tenure and conditions by which persons are to hold their Pews, and such Rules and Orders as are needfull about them; To number and value the Pews below and in the Galleries, and to propose the way and method for the Disposition of them. III. That no person be allowed to enter and take possession of any pew before he produce to the above said committee a certificate or Receipt under the Treasurer's hand, that he hath paid the price of it. JOSEPH SEWALL. The new meeting-house was nearly ready for occupancy, but Judge Sewall did not live to take possession of it with his brethren. How he felt after the work of demolition and of reconstruction had been fairly entered upon, we do not know; but 1 [Oct 29. "We had a Church Meet. Difficulties! Let the Building be speedily ing. O Lord pity us under our present finish'd may it be thy Will." (J. Sewall.)] perhaps it was well that he should not long survive the hallowed walls within which he had worshipped for more than fifty years. He "had served his own generation by the will of God;" and another generation had now come forward, which, with the new house of worship, would desire other new things to which he might be unable to give his approval. With a different administration, there was to be the same spirit; the inner life of the church was to be as it had been from the beginning, although some of the outer conditions and accessories would be changed. But all this Judge Sewall, if he had lived much longer, might not have been able to understand; and like Simon Bradstreet and Joshua Scottow, both of whom he had helped to lay in their peaceful graves many years before, he might have shed "old men's tears" over the degeneracy of the times. As it was, he had attained to a venerable age; he was seventeen years old when the South Church was founded, and he had sat under the preaching of its first five ministers; he took his bachelor's degree at college under Presi 1 Joshua Scottow died January 20, 1698. In 1691 he wrote a pamphlet, entitled "Old Men's Tears for their own Declensions, mingled with Fears of their and Posterities further falling off from New England's Primitive Constitution. Published by some of Boston's Old Planters and some others." In 1694 he printed a larger work, "A Narrative of the planting of the Massachusetts Colony, Anno 1628," and dedicated it to Simon Bradstreet. Both publications are full of lamentations over the prevailing degeneracy from the principles and practices of the fathers. 2 In the communion service of the Old South, there is a flagon, represented above, on which the Sewall arms and the date 1730 are engraved, and which was given, no doubt, to commemorate Judge Sewall's membership in the church. The late Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Burlington, Mass., in a memoir of his ancestor printed in 1841, in the American Quarterly Review, said: "The arms of John Seawale, Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, 1380, are thus described by Fuller: S. (sable) cheveron betwixt three gadd-bees argent,' which are precisely the same with those handed down by painting, tradition, or otherwise among all the Sewalls now known to reside in New England and Lower Canada, as their family arms." DEATH OF SAMUEL SEWALL. 443 dent Chauncy, and his master's degree under President Hoar, and he had seen six later presidents; he had lived under twelve governors and acting governors, and had served under nine of them. He had been a member of the judiciary forty-four years, and for ten years chief justice of the province. He had seen his son installed as one of the pastors of the church in which he had labored and prayed so long, and which he loved so well. How important and how lasting a work he had done for this church, in committing so much of its early history to paper, he could not have had the faintest conception, nor have his successors in the membership understood until very recently. Had he foreseen this, he certainly would have said, in the words of Israel, what indeed he might well. have said as it was, "It is enough." After "about a month's languishment," he died, on the 1st of January, 1729-30, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Dec 26. My Father seems to grow weaker. At different times He repeated to me the Creed and the Lord's prayr. Mention'd that text, If any man Sin, we have an advocate with the Father. When ask'd what wee should Pray for-Answer, to this Effect, that he might follow the Captain of his salvation. In general, He speaks but little. Dec 29. I read to him 11 John 23-27 &c. My Father took notice and spake of what was read - that we were beholden to Martha. Spake of the brazen Serpent-of Looking to Jesus-He the only remedy. Jan 1. I was call'd up about 4 cl. (or something before) found my Father dying. He seem'd to enjoy the use of his reason. I pray'd with him, then Mr. Cooper. C[ousin] Chauncy came in and Pray'd. My Honoured and dear Father Expir'd about 35 minutes after 5 A. M. Near the time in which 29 years agoe, He was so affected upon the Beginning of this Century, when he made those Verses to usher in the New Year, Once more our God vouchsafe to Shine. (J. Sewall.) On the following Lord's day, at the Old Brick, where the congregations of the First and Third Churches were worshipping together, Mr. Chauncy preached in the morning, from John xi. 25: "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;" and, says Mr. Sewall, "made an honorable mention of my father." Mr. Prince preached in the afternoon, from Isaiah lvii. 1: "The righteous perisheth." The funeral took place on Wednesday the 7th. "Bearers, the Honble Coll. Tailor, Simeon Stoddard, Judge Davenport, Coll. Fitch, Daniel Oliver. Mr. Bromfield was appointed; but being ill, Mr. Secretary Willard stood in his Room. A fair cold Day." On Thursday, Mr. Prince preached the Lecture in Mr. Sewall's turn, and took for his text, 1 Sam. vii. 15-17: "And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord." "Gave my Father a modest and true Character." On Sunday the 11th, Mr. Sewall preached to the same congregations as above, from Psalm xxvii. 10: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." In recognition of the long and eminent services of. Samuel Sewall in church and state, the members of the Old South, in 1884, placed a memorial tablet upon the walls of their present meeting-house; other commemorative tablets were erected at the same time, and appropriate addresses were made Sunday evening, October 26, which were printed.2 Stately and slow, with thoughtful air, 1 The News-Letter which contains the notice of his death gives the following epitome of his character : "He was universally and greatly reverenc'd, esteemed and beloved among us for his eminent Piety, Learning and Wisdom; his grave and venerable Aspect and Carriage; his instructive, affable and cheerful Conversation; his strict Integrity and regard to Justice; his extraordinary tender and compassionate Heart; his neglect of the World; his abundant Liberality; his catholick and publick Spirit; his critical Acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures in their inspir'd originals; his Zeal for the purity of instituted Worship; his constant, diligent and reverent Attendance on it, both in the Church and Family; his Love for the Churches, People and Ministers, the civil and religious Interests of this Country; his tender Concern for the aboriginal Natives; and as the Crown of all, His Moderation, Peaceableness and Humility; which being all united in the same Person, and in an high Degree and Judge Sewall left no will. His sons, 2 For an appreciative and affectionate estimate of Judge Sewall's character, see the address on this occasion by the Rev. George E. Ellis, D. D., LL. D., now president of the Mass. Hist. Society. The members of the Old South are under lasting obligation to Dr. Ellis, and the other editors of the Sewall Papers and Letters, for the labor performed by them in preparing the five volumes for publication and in carrying them through the press. |