Memoir of John Codman, D. D.

Front matter

II iifH - v

PRINCETON, N. J.

Part" of the

Chapter I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS— DR. CODMAN'S ANCESTRY.

The annals of the American pulpit are yet very imperfect ; but it may well be doubted, whether any nation, in the same period, has ever produced a greater number of able and eminent ministers. Certainly no country, of equal extent, can rival New England in this respect. In its earliest settlement, and amidst its privations and hardships, the establishment of Harvard College attested the wisdom of our ancestors and their fidelity to the interests of education and religion. They knew that, without a clergy of piety and intelligence, there was little hope of a safe and flourishing Commonwealth ; hence it was their earliest care to provide the best means of education, and to send forth to their churches a well-instructed and faithful ministry. How well they succeeded, and how extensive and salutary was their influence, is seen in the high tone of morals which pervades New England ; in the strength and beauty of its social and civil compact ; in its far-reaching enterprise, its institutions of philanthropy, and its many visible tokens of primitive and intelligent piety.

To give to the world a record of the virtues and labors of the New England clergy, is one of the best methods of perpetuating the blessings with which they have enriched us. Whenever a minister has been eminent in the cause of Christ, it becomes an imperative duty to hold his character and services in grateful remembrance. If, after his death, his worth is commemorated, and his life and character are presented to the world, he is still a preacher of righteousness on the earth, while he mingles in the worship above, and praises his Redeemer in the upper temple, " not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

The important relations which the late Rev. Dr. Codman sustained to our churches, the eminent services rendered by him to the evangelical faith, the unsullied purity of his character, and the warm and grateful love of his church and people, demand that a life, thus devoted to the service of Christ, should be fully and faithfully delineated. Such a biography belongs to the ministry, of which he was an ornament and a model, and to the community, who honored him while living and deeply lamented him in death.

We shall give some account of Dr. Cod man's ancestry, because men, who have done worthily in their generation, ought not to be forgotten in subsequent ages. They were among the laity of New England, always remarkable for integrity, and enjoying a large and valuable influence, both in social and civil relations.

The earliest of the paternal ancestry of Dr. Codman, in America, was Stephen Codman, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the year 1680. His youngest son, John Codman, (the only one of eight children, who survived him,) married, in 1718, Parnel Foster, daughter of Richard Foster, a man of eminence in the Colony, whose wife was the daughter of Isaac and Mary Winslow. And it may here be mentioned, that the mother of Isaac Winslow was the first female who landed from the Mayflower, December 21, 1620. Capt. John Codman held a commission under the king, and was an officer in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery

12 MEMOIK OF DR. CODMAN.

Company in 1745. He was a highly respectable and useful citizen, and an active military officer. The circumstances attending his death were most afflictive. He had three negro slaves, named Mark, Phillis, and Phoebe, who poisoned him with arsenic. The two former were convicted and executed. The place of Mark's execution was on the northerly side of Cambridge road, about a quarter of a mile above the peninsula, and the gibbet remained until a short time before the Revolution. Phillis was burned at the stake, about ten yards from the gallows. It has been said that, in the history of the country, this is the only instance of that method of punishment under the authority of the law. It is well for New England, that her records can furnish no other example.

John Codman, son of Capt. John Codman, was born in Charlestown, in the year 1719, and died at his residence in Boston, January 17, 1792. Early in life he was deeply impressed with the importance of religion, under the eloquent preaching of Whitefield and of Gilbert Tennent, during the first visit of the former to New England. He was admitted to the church in Charlestown, at the age of twenty. About the year 1754, he married Abigail Asbury, widow of John Asbury and daughter of

John Soley, of Charlestown, an excellent woman, of strong mind and ardent piety. Mr. Codman was a decided whig, and a warm friend to his country. In February, 1770, he was one of the committee of inspection in Charlestown as to the non-importation agreement. In November, 1773, he, with many other whigs, petitioned for a meeting on the subject of the tea, which was soon to be imported, and he was one of a committee to recommend measures that should be adopted.

Hon. John Codman, the third of the name, and father of the Rev. Dr. Codman, was born in Charlestown, January 17, 1755. He was married at Lincoln, July 15, 1781, to Margaret Russell, youngest daughter of Hon. James Russell, by whom he had two children ; John, the subject of this Memoir, and Charles Russell Codman of Boston, recently deceased. The father of Dr. Codman received his early education at Dummer Academy, in Byfield, and subsequently entered the counting house of Isaac Smith, Esq. in Boston. He died at the early age of forty-eight, leaving a large estate ; and at the time of his decease was a member of the Senate of Massachusetts. The following tribute to his memory was penned by the late John Lowell, Esq. " Amidst the awful and sudden dispensations of Providence, which we are occasionally called upon to witness, few have ever produced more public regret or private calamity, than the death of this truly excellent and respectable citizen. Of manners gentle, of affections warm and glowing, of habits industrious and enterprising, with an understanding clear and masculine, with an eloquence impressive and energetic, with a heart expanded and generous, he was excellently qualified to fill and honorably to discharge the various important public and private relations in which he stood to society. As a husband, father, friend, he yielded to no one in the tender, affectionate, constant performance of all those interesting attentions which these endearing relations require. As a merchant, his assiduity, honor, fidelity, enterprise and discernment, rendered him an object of sincere respect to the old, and an excellent model to the young. As a citizen, he was generous, affable, kind, compassionate and patriotic. In public life, he exhibited capacity, information, eloquence and an ardent love for his country. In the meridian of life, in the full career of usefulness and reputation, just entering into the higher councils of the State, and while his fellow citizens were presaging his future eminence, the destroying angel aimed the silent but fatal blow, and left nothing to his affectionate survivors but unavailing regret. Regret? No. When we recollect the brightest and hitherto unnoticed trait in the character of this admirable man, we ought not to express, scarcely to feel regret. Mr. Codman died, as he had lived, a warm, sincere, pious believer in the Christian religion, its hopes, and future rewards. His death was even more honorable and distinguished, certainly more extraordinary, than his life. After a very short sickness, he yielded up his spirit into the hands of his Maker, without a sigh or a murmur, with calmness, resignation, and heroic fortitude. In the full possession of all his faculties, he died a hero, patriot, and Christian."

In the year 1791, Mr. Codman married his second wife, Catharine Amory, daughter of John Amory, Esq., a lady of singular intelligence, enlarged benevolence, and devoted piety, by whom he had six children. She died in Boston, December 22, 1831.

It seems proper to add to this account some notice of the maternal ancestry of Dr. Codman, as they occupied important stations in society, and were highly influential and useful in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of New England.

Margaret Russell, the mother of Dr. Codman, was a descendant of Richard Russell of Hereford, in the County of Hereford, in England, who came to America and settled in Charlestown in the year 1640. He was elected a Representative and was Speaker of the House for several years, and for a long time was Treasurer of the Colony. He purchased a part of the Pemaquid Patent, and most of the town of Medford once belonged to him. He died in the year 1676. To the church in Charlestown, with which he had been in Christian fellowship for many years, he bequeathed a portion of his property, the annual proceeds of which have been dispensed to the poor of that church down to the present day. He also gave one hundred pounds to Harvard College.

James Russell, son of Richard Russell, was born in Charlestown in 1640, and was elected a Councillor for the Colony in the year 1680, from which time until his death he was annually chosen, excepting during the few years of the reign of King James, when the people were deprived of the privilege of that office. He served God and his country also as Treasurer, Judge, and in other offices of the highest influence and trust. His mortal career was closed, April 28, 1709, in the full hope of a happy immortality.

Danjel Russell, son of James Russell, was born in Charlestown, November 30, 1685, and died December 6, 1763. He was for more than twenty years a member of His Majesty's Council and Commissioner of Imports, and also for about fifty years was Treasurer of the County of Middlesex. It is observable that, in the several offices which he sustained he succeeded his worthy father and grandfather. Chambers Russell, his eldest son, was Judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and the Colony of Rhode Island ; and, in the year 1752, he was appointed one of the Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature. He was heir to Charles Chambers, Esq., who came from Lincoln, in England ; and when a separation of the town of Lincoln from Concord took place, it was called Lincoln, in honor of him.

James Russell, second son of Daniel Russell, succeeded to the public honors of his ancestors as Representative, Councillor and Judge. His youngest daughter, Margaret Russell, was the mother of Dr. Codman.

Judge Russell, in a letter to his son, remarks as follows : " Our family has great reason to bless God, that its reputation has been preserved. You are of the fifth generation. In the year 1646, Richard Russell entered upon public life ; and from that time to the present, I may say that the family have had every office of profit and honor, which the public could give them in the town of Charlestown, in the County of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts ; and I do not find, that any one was left out of office for misbehavior. Let our hearts be filled with gratitude to Him who has thus distinguished us, and let us evince this our gratitude to our Maker, by a good improvement of our talents."

Such was the ancestry, and such the honorable descent of the Rev. Dr. Codman.

Chapter II

HIS EARLY CHARACTER AND EDUCATION — INCIDENTS OF COLLEGE LIFE — RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS — COMMENCEMENT OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES — JOURNEYS IN NEW ENGLAND.

Dr. Codman was born August 3, 1782, and was baptized in Brattle Street Church by Rev. Dr. Cooper. " His parents," sajs the Rev. Dr. Storrs in his funeral sermon, " educated their children faithfully in the principles of scriptural morality and strict regard to the institutions of revealed religion." At this time there was no visible departure from an evangelical faith. It was undoubtedly true, that many circumstances had lowered the standard of religious practice ; and, among these, the war of the Revolution had contributed its fatal influence. But, whatever were the causes which in twenty-five years from Dr. Codman's birth had nearly subverted the ancient faith of the churches, there was no marked distinction of doctrine, during his childhood and youth, which might prevent the appropriate influence of divine truth on his mind. It does not

20 MEMOIK OF DR. CODMAN.

however appear, that he experienced any strong religious impressions in very early life.

" Of his early youth," continues Dr. Storrs, " the prominent characteristics were a marked buoyancy of spirits, gaiety of manners, sociality of feeling, sprightliness of mind, facility of intellectual acquisition, frankness of disposition, and ardent attachment." His youthful studies were prosecuted at Andover Academy, and under the care of the Rev. Henry Ware of Hingham. He entered Harvard College in 1798, and was graduated with honor in 1802, in a class of sixty — the largest class which had been connected with the college.

His amiable deportment, his exemplary discharge of moral and social duties, greatly endeared him to his classmates and friends ; but we have no important records of his college life, and he appears to have given no remarkable indication of that firmness and fortitude, and of those rare attainments in prudence and wisdom, which, in after life, no emergency could baffle, and of which neither persecution nor flattery could disarm him.

In so large a class, it was necessary that a considerable number should be excluded from the opportunity of a public performance at commencement. In the first arrangement of the exercises,

Mr. Codman's name was omitted. The class, however, elected him to deliver a poem on the occasion of their departure from college ; and this was so creditable to him, that it induced the college government immediately to repair the injustice, as the President expressed himself, which had been done to Mr. Codman, and to assign him a commencement exercise. This affair was always a matter of pleasant reminiscence.

President Willard, who had just recovered from sickness, was present at the delivery of the poem, the following lines of which, containing an affectionate address to himself, drew tears from his eyes :

" Pause ! ye who aim the sacred desk to fill, Look, ere you strive to climb the holy hill ; Supremely blest, if with magnetic charm You lure the giddy multitude from harm, Stoop not to pluck the flowerets by the way, That bloom for seizure, but when pluck'd decay ; Receive and give to thousands of the fruit, And water with your tears Religion's root. Those who have claimed their blest abodes on high, To form new planets, risen to the sky, Belknap and Clarke, as second stars, shall guide To show, how Jesus lived, and how he died ; But, when a saint, almost expiring, strove To join the kindred spirits gone above, Thanks to Almighty power, which from the dead Raised to new life the reverend Clergy's head. —

Kind father of our literary days !

Permit thy children to express their praise To Him, who stretched his ready hand to save The guide to truth from a too early grave.

" Indulgent Heaven, with wisest motives fraught, Our greatest good, by contrast, oft hath taught, — So, from the sky, sickness commissioned came To blast the hopes of literature and fame ; Round our horizon clouds of sorrow hung, Prayer filled each heart and trembled on each tongue, Till health unveiled her rainbow to the sight, Dispersed the clouds, and bade the sun delight."

In bidding farewell to his companions, he described, with prophetic truth, his own satisfaction in after years, in recalling the scenes of his college life.

" Harvard ! thy walls now lessen from my view, Friends of my youth, classmates, a long adieu. Old time hath brought our journey to a close, Who heeds no feeling, and no friendship knows ; Relentless tyrant ! cruel were thy sway, Hard to acknowledge, harder to obey, Had not sweet memory said and promised true, That times, so pleasant, ever should be new, And penciled on the canvass of the mind In brightest colors all we've left behind."

While pursuing the study of the law in the office of his kinsman, John Lowell, Esq., the sudden death of his father was the means of changing his destined profession. In his last sickness, his father intimated a wish that his son should become a minister of the gospel. This circumstance, and the subsequent deep affliction, working on a most affectionate heart, were doubtless instrumental, through the mercy of God, in giving him religious impressions which he had never before experienced. He commenced the study of theology, in 1803, with his early instructor, Rev. Henry Ware of Hingham, with whom he remained about a year ; and then removed to Cambridge, there to continue his theological pursuits.

Dr. Tappan, the Professor of Theology, was now deceased, and he was not succeeded by Dr. Ware until June of the next year. But at Cambridge, Mr. Codman found congenial society, associates engaged in the same pursuits. He formed a particular intimacy with several students and preachers of evangelical sentiments, with one of whom, the writer of this Memoir, he entered into a peculiar and strong friendship, which lasted during his subsequent life.

At this period the preachers and students in theology, resident at Cambridge, united in a society called the Kappa Delta, from the initials of two Greek words denoting the School of Preachers. Of this society, Mr. Codman was the secretary. At the meetings, which were held in a retired room, prayers were offered and a sermon was delivered, which was subject to the criticisms of the members present. Sometimes the discourses assumed a polemical form, and important doctrines were discussed. This institution was not without its advantages. Of its members, at this period, five or six were subsequently honored with the title of Doctors in Theology.

There existed, at the same time, at Cambridge, a society designed to promote practical religion, consisting of the members of the college, but which was often attended and encouraged by the resident theological students. It was called the Saturday Evening Religious Society, and was useful in keeping alive, in a time of degeneracy, a spirit of piety. Of this society Mr. Codman was an active friend.

At this period, either at Hingham or at Cambridge, William Cooper's " Four Sermons on Predestination" were put into his hands, with a request that he would write a review of them for the Monthly Anthology. This journal was the organ of the liberal party, which had just begun to present somewhat distinctly the features of Unitarianism. It was, of course, expected that the review would be in accordance with the liberal opinions of that periodical. Mr. Codman read the book, undoubtedly under the influence of the general prejudice against the doctrines which it advocated. But " its perusal opened his eyes, for the first time, on the beautiful consistency of the doctrines there defended, with the Scriptures of truth, and on their excellency as revealing God on the throne of the universe, controlling at his pleasure the movements of rebellious man."* The review which was written did not appear in the polished though frigid pages of the Anthology, but met the public eye in the first number of the Panoplist for June, 1805.

Of the kind, sympathizing and benevolent spirit, which ever marked the character of Mr. Codman, the following instance may here be mentioned : — A young student, of Londonderry, N. H., was dangerously sick at Cambridge, and his father came to remove him to his home. Mr. Codman proposed to the writer to accompany with him, in his own sleigh, the sick man in his slow and melancholy journey. At the end of three days, the son and brother reached the bosom of an interesting family, whose gratitude to Mr. Codman was without bounds. The young student died on the fourth of March

* Rev, Dr. Storrs's Sermon.

following, crying out in his delirium, " Mr. Codman ! my friend, Mr. Codman ! " A brief account of the religious experience of this young man was given by Mr. Codman, at the next meeting of the Saturday Evening Society. He stated that, after suffering the deepest anxiety from a sense of ill-desert, and his exposure to the just punishment of sin, on one morning the light broke in upon his mind, and from that moment, as he was persuaded, he loved God and relied upon the blood of atonement, having a heart renewed by the divine Spirit, and living continually in prayer and in the hope of immortal blessedness. If any one could have witnessed the grateful welcome with which, in many a subsequent year, Mr. Codman was ever received at Londonderry, it might awaken in his heart the desire of gaining the same inestimable reward of an act of kindness.

After visiting this afflicted family in the month of May, Mr. Codman, with his friend, prosecuted his journey from Londonderry to Windsor, Vt., and Dartmouth College. At Windsor, he met with a number of his highly esteemed Boston friends, who were called thither by reason of the ordination of the Rev. Bancroft Fowler. Among them were Rev. Dr. Eckley, Rev. Mr. Channing, and Mr. Josiah Salisbury, whose sister resided in Windsor.

The candidate was minutely examined, for as yet it was deemed important that the forms of examination should be rigidly observed, though a wider latitude of faith was tolerated ; and it was not required of the candidate that he should be so explicit, on some mysterious points of Christian faith, as was soon afterwards found to be necessary. Mr. Channing made the introductory prayer. Dr. Burton, of Thetford, preached. Mr. Rowell, of Cornish, gave the right hand of fellowship, and Dr. Burroughs, of Hanover, a plain, unpolished, honest old gentleman, presided and gave the charge. Dr. Burton is known as the supporter of the Taste Scheme in theology, retaining the old and correct division of the mental faculties, the intellect, the affections, and the will. He maintained, that all holiness consists in a good taste, or a right state of the affections ; and that volitions have no moral quality, except as indicating the state of the heart. As we are depraved beings, it is necessary, in order to holiness, that a new taste be implanted by divine grace ; a benevolent, holy disposition, which finds happiness in imparting happiness. At a subsequent period he published a volume of Essays., in which he unfolded and vindicated his moral theory.

From the beautiful village of Windsor, Mr. Codman journeyed to Hanover, where he was received by President Wheelock, into a family afterwards peculiarly endeared to the writer. At this time there was one wooden college-building and a small chapel, near which was the pleasant mansion of the President. The next Sabbath was spent by Mr. Codman and his friend at Londonderry ; and they had the pleasure of listening to the preaching of President McKeen, a native of Londonderry, and the first occupant of the presidential chair of Bowdoin College.

As illustrative of the character of Mr. Codman, it may not be improper for the writer here to introduce an extract from his own journal, of May 31st : " How great is the goodness of God in giving me such a friend as John Codman ! He has presented me with an interleaved Bible, Cruden's Concordance, and Brown's Dictionary of the Bible. He has requested me to consider his property as my own. ' God,' said he to me, ' has blessed me in giving me more money than I want to use ; you have but two hundred dollars a year ; you cannot live upon it ; let my money be your own.' Never have I known a friendship so pure and fervent. May God reward him ; and may our friendship, which is founded on the religion of Jesus, be lasting as eternity."

At the time he offered me Cruden, I hesitated in receiving it, saying that he conferred obligations which I could never repay. He wrote on a piece of paper as follows : — " I am surprised to hear you speak of the reception of favors which cannot be repaid. If I have ever conferred a favor upon you, it has been amply and fully repaid. I enjoy, what is to me of infinitely more value than silver or gold, the pleasure of your society, and, I must hope, of your friendship. Let me, I beseech you, return a little of the debt, by sharing together what a merciful God has been pleased to give me. It would be my highest happiness, if we were so intimately united as to supersede all those ideas of obligation ; that we were one in heart, and life, and in all our interests."

Chapter III

HIS STUDIES WITH REV. HENKY WARE — DIFFICULTIES OF HIS SOCIAL POSITION — VOYAGE TO ENGLAND — HIS MORAL INDEPENDENCE AND THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON HIS LIFE.

At this period, 1805, there was no public seminary, with teachers devoted to the instruction of students in theology ; although some young men, resident at Cambridge, were assisted by the professor of theology in their pursuits. The candidates for the ministry in general availed themselves of the teachings and the libraries of private clergymen ; and it must be said, to the honor of those ministers, that they devoted much time and labor to qualify those under their care for the sacred office. It was considered a part of ministerial duty, to receive and educate those young men who desired to consecrate themselves to the service of Christ and the church. As the fruits of their self-denying labors, many clergymen of great eminence and piety were thus theologically educated, and became the means of extensive good to the community and the world.

Accordingly, we find Mr. Codman pursuing his studies with Rev. Henry Ware, then of Hingham. The decline in matters of religious faith, and of Christian feeling and practice, which for some years had been noticed, was now disclosing a strong opposition to Calvinistic theology. Mr. Codman was surrounded by his own family connections, and by the many friends of his early youth, who belonged to the " liberal party," so called, and was thus brought under the full influence of the new opinions. These opinions had not then taken the name of Unitarianism, but their advocates were men of the world, greatly opposed to the excitement of religious feelings, which had in them anything of anxiety for the soul, or any deep solicitude for the salvation of others. The doctrines of grace, if preached at all, were only alluded to in Scripture language, or in terms so general, or so ambiguous, as to make little or no impression. Men were exceedingly afraid of being righteous overmuch ; hence there were few prayer meetings, very little religious conference, and Sabbath evening services were by many considered reproachful or unnecessary. Happily for Mr. Codman, he resolved to take his opinion, in matters of such infinite moment, from the word of God. Not "conferring with flesh and blood," in that noble independence for which his whole life was remarkable, he determined to " choose affliction with the people of God," and to enlist the ardor of his youth, and the influence of wealth and station, and all the powers of his mind, to promote a gospel, which was despised and rejected of men. He believed it to be the gospel of the Son of God. In his own joyful experience, he had found that divine peace which no other gospel could give ; and neither the pride of the world, nor the accomplishments of life, nor the love of friends, nor any or all the combined and powerful influences which were brought to bear upon his mind, could shake his high and holy resolution. He was ready to " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord ; " and in the prayer meeting, the conference room, and private devotional duties, he found his supreme satisfaction and never-failing springs of delight. Far from being bigoted or misanthropic, a more cheerful Christian was rarely seen. He was most remarkable, even at this early period, for a sound judgment and practical wisdom ; and he united the accomplishments of the gentleman with the meekness and sincerity of the Christian, in such a manner as to call forth the respect and admiration of those who were most opposed to his religious faith.

Few men, at this day, can have any conception of the embarrassments and trials which Mr. Codman endured, as the fruit of his religious convictions.

Among his early acquaintances and friends were two young men, of great eminence as scholars and of most attractive eloquence as preachers, — Mr. Channing, who was ordained in Boston, in 1803, and Mr. Buckminster, who was ordained in 1805, and who died in about five years afterwards. Mr. Channing was the beloved minister of Mr. Codman's mother-in-law. In his preaching there was a pious fervor, in connection with literary excellence, which rendered it extremely interesting. He lived to be the head of the whole party in America, which, though very diverse in their views concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is classed together as one by the title of Unitarian.

Mr. Channing was by some years the senior of Mr. Codman. At this time, the tendencies of his mind to the evangelical faith were undoubtedly strong. It was his practice to dine, on every Saturday, with the family of Mrs. Codman ; and he therefore became familiar with Mr. Codman, whom he always regarded with esteem and affection ; and although, in after years, their views of Christian doctrine placed them in widely different relations, yet their mutual friendship and regard were never interrupted. As an evidence of the strong evangelical feelings of Mr. Channing at this period, we would state that, while Mr. Codman was pursuing his studies with Dr. Ware, he was spending a few days at home, on one of which Mr. Channing dined with the family. After dinner, he requested Mr. Codman to ride with him a few miles, and, during the ride, after much serious conversation, he expressed his fears that the religious speculations of the times were leading many astray ; and he earnestly desired that his young friend might guard his mind from the prevailing errors, and that, by a prayerful study of the word of God and an implicit faith in its teachings, he might be prepared for the solemn duties of the ministry. Mr. Channing was not, at this time, ready to give up the evangelical doctrines ; doubtless they were more or less modifled in his view ; but yet they exerted a powerful influence over his preaching and his life. Nor is it believed that this influence was wholly destroyed, in any stage of his subsequent departures from the faith of the New England churches.