v A HISTORY JAN 22 1932 &+*. A fo L SFVA^ OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, GENIUS, AND CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PRESRYTERIANISIfl: TOGETHSB WITH A REVIEW OF "THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OP THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BY CHAS. HODGE, D. D. PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AT PRINCETON, N. J." BY WILLIAM HILL, D. D. OF WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA. WASHINGTON CITY: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BT J. GIDEON, jn. 1839. 1 Entered according to the Act of Congress, on the fourteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, by Jacob Gideojj, jr. in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Columbia. — CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Reference to the present divided state of the Presbyterian Church—The loose and un- guarded manner in which Professor Hodge uses the term Presbyterian—The trua meaning of the terms Puritan and Presbyterian—Quotation from Dr. Miller upon th« subject—Professor Hodge claims the majority of the Puritans in England, and of the Pilgrims who first settled New England, as good Presbyterians, and as agreeing with the strict Scotch system—What the Scotch system of strict Presbyterianism is The Presbyterianism of Holland—The Presbyterianism of the French Protestants Professor Hodge's misrepresentation of them corrected by a quotation from Neal's History ; also, from Mosheim and others—The character of the English Presbyte- rians—The true character of the Puritans who settled New England—The kind of Church Government they introduced among them—The Cambridge Platform Quotations from it—Professor Hodge's misunderstanding of it—The Saybrook Plat- form also misrepresented —Cotton Mather's account of the first Presbyterians in New England misrepresented by Professor Hodge—Dr. Miller and Professor Hodge at variance—Dr. Plumer positively contradicting Professor Hodge. 1 CHAPTER II. Doctor Dana's letter respecting Presbyterians in New England—Relative to the colonies, or settlements, formed by the Puritans out of the bounds of New England, and in those regions within which the first Congregations and Ministers of the Presby- tery, at its formation, were located—Influence of the Puritans in Virginia—The first settlements on the Delaware river and bay, and the peninsula lying south—Tha first settlements in Maryland—Doctor Hawk's account of the same—The Union formed between Presbyterians and Congregationalists in London, in 1689 or 1690, by which Union Makemie and others were sent as Missionaiies to the American Colonies —The manner in which the Reformation was introduced in Scotland, and the genius and character of the Scotch system—The rise, character, &c. of American Presbyte- rianism contrasted with the strict Scotch plan—The location of the first Presbyterian Ministers with their Congregations— Letters from the Letter Book : 1. To New Eng- land Ministers about New Haven—2. To Sir Edmund Harrison—3. To Presbytery of Dublin—4. To Synod of Glasgow—5. To Rev. John Boyle, to be laid before the Presbytery of Dublin—6. Letter of Mr. Andrews to Mr. Prince—Remarks upon the said letter. 64 — IV CHAPTER III. ^ome further account of Mr. Andrews—His intercourse with Makemie—The agency they had in forming the Mother Presbytery—Mr. Andrews loses his high standing and influence toward the close of his life—The kind of Presbyterianism introduced into Scotland at the Reformation—The kind of Presbyterianism commenced in Ame- rica—Wherein they differed from one another—Extracts from Irvine Spence, Esq. Some mistakes which Mr. Spence fell into respecting Makemie corrected—Extracts from the Clerks' offices of Accomack county, Virginia, and Somerset county, Mary- land—Extracts from the last will and testament of Mr. Anderson, Mr. Makemie's father-in-law—Extracts from Mr. Makemie's last will and testament—Comment upon these documents—Steps taken by Mr. Makemie to supply the desolate districts of country around him with preaching—He takes a voyage to England in the year 1 704—Obtains two fellow-laborers from Ireland, Hampton and McNish, who were to be sustained for two years by Dissenting Ministers in and about London—Makemie and his Irish brethren arrive in America in the spring of 1 705—Steps taken by Ma- kemie to get them licensed to preach according to the Act of Toleration—Settles them over congregations already organized in Somerset county, on the eastern shore of Maryland—An account of the persecution and imprisonment of Makemie and Hampton in New York—The interesting pamphlet, containing a full report of these trials, providentially preserved, to be printed in the Appendix—An examination of Professor Hodge's argument to prove that all the original members of the Presbytery, except one, were from Scotland or Ireland—Professor Hodge mistakes the character of English Presbyterians—He is set right upon this subject—The character of the original members of the Presbytery, and of their congregations, and where located —A short account of the kind of Presbyterianism adopted by the Mother Presby- tery at its formation, &c. - 113 PREFATORY REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS. The history of the rise, progress, and peculiar character of Ame- rican Presbyterianism, has for some time been considered a great desideratum by many of the members of our denomination. There is certainly no other religious community, embracing such numbers and being so long in existence, who are exposed to the imputation of having practised such gross negligence in fail- ing to preserve authentic documents of their proceedings, and who still remain in such entire ignorance respecting their own history, and the founders and fathers of their church. The Episcopalians of this country, after having long neglected this subject, are begin- ning to manifest a laudable zeal relative to the events connected with their church, and are tracing its history back to the com- mencement of the colony which began its settlement at Jamestown, upon James river. The Congregationalists of New England have carefully preserved an account of both their civil and ecclesiastical affairs, from the landing of their Pilgrim Fathers upon the rock of Plymouth. The Roman Catholics have kept themselves well in- formed of their movements and changes from the landing of Lord Baltimore with his colony in Maryland. The Quakers have trea- sured, and carefully imparted to their children, a knowledge of the various incidents and fluctuations and new settlements which arose from the possessions acquired by William Penn, and the political and religious institutions introduced by their distinguished founder in Pennsylvania, Jersey, and other States of the American Union. The Baptists have their historians, who are anxious to trace their origin back to a remote antiquity. And the Methodists have in formed almost all their members in regard to the rise and progress of Methodism, from the commencement of the labors of the Rev. John Wesley in England, and the landing of Ashbury, Coke, and others in America. But to this day Presbyterians, generally, remain more entirely unacquainted with their own history than any other religious com- munity. I was utterly astonished at my own ignorance of the sub- ject, when called upon to investigate it for the purpose of preparing the present publication. And how may this general deficiency on the part of so large and intelligent a body of Christians be account- ed for ? It is attributable, no doubt, to a combination of untoward circumstances. The Presbyterian Church assumed its ecclesiastical form in America long after the establishment here of the Puritans. Episco- palians, Roman Catholics, and Quakers. It is to be presumed that individuals of the Presbyterian denomination, from a spirit of com- mercial enterprise and a desire to accumulate wealth, had emigra- ted with others at an early date of the settlement of this country, and were scattered throughout the Colonies. But these were so few, so far removed from each other, and so destitute of any bond of union, as to prevent their associating together in organized congre- gations even, and much more in a presbyterial capacity, till at quite a late period. The Episcopalians were drawn to America from a South Sea dream of wealth and empire. The Puritans, Roman Catholics, and Quakers were driven into exile, to seek a hiding- place in the wilderness, by unrelenting bigotry and persecution in the land of their nativity. But, at the time the American Colonies commenced settling, Scotland, where alone the Presbyterians were in any considerable numbers, was comparatively free from persecu- tion, and Presbyterianism was established and fortified in that na- tion by the laws of the land, and was approved of by the strong and popular sentiment of the kingdom. It is true that James, after he ascended the throne of England, did endeavor, by frequent and in- sidious attempts, to introduce a kind of half-way Episcopacy into Scotland ] and his successor, Charles I, persisted in the same ill- judged attempt, until it cost him his crown and his head. But they made poor progress in their undertaking; and although the Scotch VII people were subjected to many hardships and sufferings, they never ceased to contend for their rights, and never despaired of obtaining an ultimate triumph—so that few, if any, were induced to expatri- ate themselves on account of religion, Scotland being regarded by them as the homestead of Presbyterianism through all these trou- blous times. Ireland also, where there were a number of Presby- terians descended from Scotland, though it had been the scene of bloody massacre and persecution, was still contending for its rights, and in hopes of success— so that the tide of emigration which, at an after period, brought so many Irish Presbyterians to this country, had not then set in upon that people. These circumstances may account for the late period at which Presbyterianism made its ap- pearance in the American Colonies, as well as for the absence of materials connected with its earliest history in these Provinces.