Sketches of the life and travels of Rev. Thomas Ware, who has been an itinerant Methodist preacher for more than fifty years

Front matter

SKETCHES

OF

THE LIFE AND TRAVELS

Preface

TO

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE.

The writer of the following sketches has neither capacity nor disposition 'to employ his pen merely for the purpose of amusing his fellow men. But having been called, in the order of Providence, to act a part upon the stage of life at a period when every thing connected with the history of this great nation was stamped with interest, he may, without ostentation, perform the humble task of recording some things which passed under his observation, and thus preserving from oblivion incidents connected with those days, which might otherwise be lost.

In surveying the past, he has reason to regret that he has kept a record of so small a proportion of what might have been useful and interesting to posterity. But a conviction of the importance of making a register of every thing worth preserving, at the time, came too late. In regard to this, the writer has been guilty of a fault too common with the soldiers of the revolution, and the first Methodist preachers in this country.

Still there were many things connected with his early experience, which, from their peculiar nature, or the circumstances under which they occurred, made an impression upon his mind never to be erased. This induced him to note them down at the time of their occurrence. From the scraps containing such notices, the following sketches are principally made out.

As it is the object of the following narrative to instruct, rather than amuse — to give correct information relative to the facts alluded to in it, rather than dazzle the imagination of the reader with an exhibition of marvellous events, the writer claims, as the chief merit of his production, strict fidelity to truth. He has recorded only what he has seen, and heard, and experienced.

If the work possess no other interest, it is believed that the circumstance of the writer's connection with the early Methodist preachers, and acquaintance with the history of the Church since its organization, will give it a degree of value in the estimation of many. The humble individual, who furnishes these brief sketches for the perusal of posterity, was a companion in labour and suffering with the Methodist preachers of 1784. He was present at the Christmas Conference in that year, when the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was organized. He has lived, however, to witness great changes. His " old companions dear" are all gone. He lives as in a new world; yet not new, because, though other men inhabit it, they are engaged in the same cause. Methodism, in its radical principles and prominent features, is the same as when the writer first entered the field. That it may continue so to the end of time, and equal the highest expectations of its early friends and advocates, as an instrument of spreading evangelical holiness through these lands, is the sincere prayer of

T. W.

Salem, N. J., March 28, 1839.

REV.

MEMOIR

OF THE

THOMAS WARE.

Chapter I

Mr. Ware's account of his ancestors — His birth — Early religious training — Doctrinal views of his parents — Death of his father — Distress and gloom of his mother — Partakes of her spirit of despondency— Troubled with the subject of doctrines — Methodists begin to be talked of in that country — The minister of the parish induced, in consequence, to dwell largely on the doctrine of decrees — Attends school — Contracts a friendship for an eccentric schoolmate, and endeavours to shake off his seriousness — His friend endeavors to reason him out of his Calvinistic views, but to no purpose — Becomes less serious, and more fond of play — Anecdote of a preacher who revived the agitation about Methodists, by representing them as driven from England by their antagonists, and therefore flocking to America — Arminianism, not understood by those who were led to hold it a dreadful heresy — Doctrinal disputes among the people — Students who played at. cards, and excused themselves when rebuked, by taking shelter under the doctrine of decrees — School broken up in consequence of the schoolhouse being burned — Mr. Ware returns to his mother, and aids her on her little farm — Greatly harassed again on the subject of doctrines.

My paternal grandfather was an Englishman by birth, and a captain in the British service under Queen Anne. I remember him well, as he lived until I was sixteen years old. His personal appearance was fine, and his mind cheerful. The caresses, anecdotes, and lessons of instruction, received from him, are among my earliest recollections. He had high notions of liberty, and was the first man I ever heard eulogize the Indian character. Most people seemed to think the Indians ought to be exterminated.

When this venerable old man came to spend a few days with us, we were always delighted, and vied with each other in our efforts to please him. His company was interesting on account of the cheerfulness of his spirits, and the stories with which he was always ready to entertain us. He was in the habit, too, of advising my father with respect to the education of his children. — On this subject he used to say, the mind must be made strong as well as the body. Though minds differed — some being natu rally stronger and others weaker — yet much depended upon management in their education. And in view of this, a beginning could not too soon be made to guard children against the fears which vulgar stories about ghosts, &c, were calculated to produce, and to store their minds with correct ideas. My grandfather lived to the great age of more than fivescore years. To his uniformly cheer-

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE.

I I ful temperament, as a means under God, I have always attributed his long- life.

My maternal grandfather, whose name was Reed, I never saw. He was a native of Scotland. On his passage from that country, he was wrecked off the capes of Delaware, and lost all but his life. He reached the shore by clinging to some fragments of the broken ship, and was found nearly exhausted on the beach by a farmer, named Garrettson, who took him to his house. With this person, who rescued him from his perilous condition, he was contented to remain. He afterward married a daughter of his benefactor. He died at middle age, leaving a large landed estate, and a numerous offspring.

My grandmother Reed I knew well. She possessed fine powers of mind, and a happy faculty of communicating her thoughts. Although not very conversant with books, she knew much of the history of the world, and her conversation was always rendered interesting by her numerous anecdotes about former days, when the country was infested with beasts of prey and savage men. The young people were delighted with her society, and profited too, as she was accustomed, in entertaining them with her conversation, to draw many of her anecdotes from the Scriptures, which she would tell in a soft and pious strain, that made an impression on my mind lasting as life. She was one of the few whose condition may be said to be enviable in old age. With intelligence and cheerfulness beaming in her countenance, and the law of kindness dwelling on her tongue, her last days were among her most happy days. Who that have had the pleasure of being conversant with such a person in the decline of life, ha ve not felt a wish mingling with secret aspirations of the heart to God that they might live to be old, and their last days be equally tranquil and happy?

My father and mother were pious persons, and lived, while they were permitted to live together, in the fear of the Lord. But my father died in the prime of life — I think at about thirty-eight years of age. My grandfather Ware used to say that he was the kindest of all his sons. He was the only one of them who professed to know that God for Christ's sake had forgiven his sins. His mind was improved by considerable reading. Milton was his favourite poet; and persons of good taste were always delighted to hear Paradise Lost read by him. He loved his family much ; and in the estimation of those who knew him best, he was considered one of

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE.

the most excellent men. These amiable parents taught me the fear of the Lord, by both precept and example. The whole deportment of my father tended to fix in me a habit of serious reflection on the subject of religion; and his triumphant death made an impression on my mind that time could not obliterate. He left my mother a widow with eight children, the eldest only seventeen years.

Respecting the date of my birth there is no authentic record, a part of the family register having been by accident so effaced as to render it illegible. For the only knowledge I have of it, therefore, I am indebted to the memory of my excellent mother, from whom I learned that it was the 19th of December, 1758.

Though my father and mother were both pious, they did not agree in their views of doctrine. My mother was a firm believer in the Presbyterian faith ; but my father was not, and refused to join the church unless he could be permitted to think for himself on the subject of divine decrees. He believed, as my mother often told me, in the universality of the atonement ; but, in compliance with her wishes, suffered me to learn the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Alas! how many children are injured, and go halting all their days, for want of skilful nursing.

MEMOIR OF RET. THOMAS WARE.

It had been usual for my mother, in my father's absence, to pray with her children morning and evening. But after his death she was tempted to abandon it. The scene was deeply afflicting. She collected her children, as usual, around her. While thus seated, eight in number, and the eldest only in her seventeenth year, she attempted to read, but could not. She sat and wept. My eldest sister at last said, " My dear mother, why do you weep?" "Alas!" replied she, "death has made you all orphans, and your mother a disconsolate widow. I am not worthy to fill the place of your excellent father. Had I been so, and you been dutiful children, we should not have been left in this forlorn condition. Go, my children, and pray for yourselves. These little ones, (meaning the younger four of the number,) I will take with me into my closet." On hearing these remarks from my bereaved and much afflicted mother, I arose quickly, went out into the field, and wept bitterly. I said to myself, It is doubtless as my mother has said ; at least we have been naughty children.

No wonder that a providence so mysterious as the removal of my father in the prime of life, should deeply affect my poor afflicted mother. The gloom which hung over her mind, occasioned by his death and her being 1 left with eight young children, who were destined no more to see the smiling face or hear the charming voice of so kind and affectionate a father, was heightened by the doubts she often indulged about her own election, or gracious state, as she would express it. She was harassed with fears, that what she had fondly taken for saving grace, was nothing more than common grace.

About this time, a neighbour who had long been a communicant in the church had fallen into doubts respecting his election, and in his despondency had taken his own life. This man, she now concluded, had never been operated upon by any thing more than common grace. And it occasioned her much painful exercise and sore conflict of mind.

Listening to those who came to console my mother under the pressure of her grief and the doubts which were preying upon her feelings, a spirit of melancholy seized me, and I became subject to desponding fears. In this state I wandered in lowly places ; and having heard that departed spirits did sometimes return as messengers of good to those they loved on earth, I often invoked my father's appearance, hoping that for the love he bore to us while he was with us, he would return and tell me if my mother's name and my own were written in the book of life.

From this, some idea may be formed of the gloom cast over the morning of my days in consequence of my early instruction in the principles of the Calvinistic faith. There are some minds which cannot digest the doctrine of decrees as set forth in the system of Calvinism. And such was mine.

It was not long before the younger two of our family were taken away by death. As they died in infancy, there were no just grounds to doubt of their being happy. But to a mind exercised as mine then was, there was no satisfactory assurance of it ; for, according to our creed, the condition of infancy could not be considered as a security against being finally lost. There were three, one brother and two sisters, older than myself ; and none of these appeared to give themselves any uneasiness about our little Lydia and Enoch, whom we had followed to the grave, not doubting that they were with their father in heaven. Why it was that I alone should infer, from our common creed, that they were more likely to be in hell than in heaven, I am at a loss to conceive, unless Providence designed that I should be the means of bringing our family to embrace the doctrinal views of my father, rather than those of my mother, who herself died in principle a Methodist. In the distinguishing features of my father's faith I was never instructed until I became a Methodist, and my mother's prejudices had somewhat subsided. She then told me that my father was a Methodist in his views, and, she doubted not, would have joined them, if he had lived to hear them.

When the Methodists began to be talked of in our section of the country, our ministei, fearing lest their principles should be intro - duced and infect the minds of his people, was led to dwell largely on the doctrine of divine decrees, which, being opposed by some, occasioned much controversy among all classes.

At this time I was attending school. Among my school-mates was one, named Constantine, some years older than myself, for whom, notwithstanding some peculiarities of character which rendered him offensive to others, I contracted a strong attachment. He was ordinary in his person, and possessed great muscular strength. His genius was of the highest order, — especially in the study of the mathematics. By competent judges he was considered to possess a maturity of thought far above his years. His fellow-students hated him ; but it was probably because they dreaded his wit and satire. They were cautious not to go too far, lest bruin, as they called him, would give them a deadly hug. By some, too, he was deemed as a prodigy of wickedness, because he did not believe in the decrees of God, as set forth in our Catechism and Confession of Faith. He had, what some thought, the audacity to say, that the time spent in learning them was worse than lost. This extraordinary young man, who was, in fact, a good-natured and fast friend, laboured hard to persuade me out of my Calvinistic views. But he could not succeed. Becoming weary, however, with my continued struggles of mind, and concluding that noth ing was to be gained by self-consuming care, I made an effort to dismiss serious thoughts from my mind, and soon became as passionately fond of play as any in the school.

The noise about the Methodists had died away. For a considerable time little was said of them, except now and then a silly tale or groundless report was put in circulation respecting them. One of these was, that they preached that there were children in hell not a span long. This was stated in a circle of persons, all of whom, except one, were predestinarians. An individual remarked that it might be true; "but there are," said he, "two

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE. J 9

kinds of Methodists ; the followers of Wesley, and those of Whitefield. The latter are predestinarians, and some of them do probably preach such doctrines ; but it ill becomes us, who are predestinarians, to circulate this tale."

Soon after, a preacher of this class — one of the most rigid predestinarians of that age — came into the place, and revived the clamour against the Methodists. The story which was put in circulation w T as, that the two Mr. Hills, Richard and Rowland, had written them down in England, and that they were flocking to America ; and a clergyman of an adjoining parish, apprehending, as it seemed, that there was no time to be lost, commenced a course of sermons on the decrees of God, in which he extended their application to the falling of every leaf in autumn. He told the people that England was overrun with a set of wild fanatical heretics, who had revived the errors of James Arminius, and would, it was feared, inundate America with their damnable Arminian, Pelagian, and popish heresies. Many, however, were not very well pleased with the old gentleman's strong doctrine and harsh invectives.

As to Arminianism, they knew not what it meant, but thought it must be something very bad. Some, however, took the liberty to draw their own conclusions from what the parson preached, and argued that if it were true, no one could consistently be blamed for any thing he thought, said, or did. During this agitation, a son of Col. S., one of the minister's principal parishioners, returned from college, with two of his fellow-students, to spend a short time at home. He and his companions were studying for the law. They attended church for two successive Sabbaths, and listened to the discourses of the preacher on divine decrees. On the following Sabbath, however, instead of attending service, while the parson was pursuing his subject in the church, they were playing at cards in a pleasant shade near it, without any apparent concern about being concealed from public view. Of this daring impiety the pastor was readily informed ; and on the following day, in company with two of his elders, he waited on Col. S., whose son had evidently taken the lead in this open contempt of the day, the ordinances, and the minister of God. The clergyman opened the subject to the father ; and the son was called in to answer for himself. The youth frankly confessed what he had done ; and on being sharply rebuked for an offence so enormous and shocking to the moral sense of all good people, he boldly took refuge under the doctrine taught him from the pulpit. " If your reverence please," said he, " the Lord made me to do this bad deed ; and I hope you will excuse, or at least pity me — seeing it was from all eternity decreed ;" and then drew from his pocket, and handed to the preacher, an abstract which he had taken of one of his sermons, in which it was affirmed that the decrees of God extended to all the actions of men. With this repartee the colonel saw that the parson was evidently embarrassed; nor could he relieve him other than by an exercise of his parental authority in reproving his son for being guilty of so wicked an act as playing at cards on the Sabbath, and obtaining from him a promise that he would not be guilty of the like again. But the son gave point to the whole, by begging of his father, in tjie most respectful manner, that he would forbear urging his demand with too much decision, lest he should be guilty of greater impiety, not knowing how the decrees of God might run.

This circumstance was a subject of much conversation in our neighbourhood. By some the young student was highly commended ; and by others severely censured. Had those who applauded the boldness and intrepidity of the youth, laid the blame at the mi-

5|2

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE.

nister's door, as they ought to have done, and, in renouncing the doctrine he had taught, sought for the truth, it might have been a beneficial occurrence to them ; but being led to suppose that what the minister taught, false and absurd as it appeared to them, was the doctrine of the Bible, because it was preached from the pulpit, some were led to think and speak lightly of that holy book.*

The school-house in which I attended school when I contracted an acquaintance with the eccentric Coustantine, whom I have mentioned, having been burned down, and the school thereby broken up, I w r as deprived of the means of regular instruction — there being no other one within my reach. My time w r as now employed in aiding my mother to cultivate her small farm ; and, by the assistance she gave me, I improved some in reading. A code of laws drawn up by our excellent teacher, for the government of his pupils, and copied by my friend Constantine, I had carefully preserved ; and also a fragment of my father's journal, when a school-boy. These

* After a lapse of many years from this occurrence, I travelled the district embracing the place where it transpired, and inquired of an intelligent gentleman who belonged to the same church at the time, whether he recollected it. He replied that he did very well, and that the preacher immediately changed his course, and undid what he had done before.

were calculated to carry my mind back, and cause me to think of events that were past Some of my first attempts at journalizing had also been preserved. As portrayed in these, I have often looked at myself with much interest, and viewed myself as ayoungimmortal, left as it were alone, in search of intellectual food, or doomed to go without. The lower animals are instinctively directed to what is good for them, and select the nutritious from among the poisonous. Man has no such instinctive faculty to obtain what is needful for the mind. On the contrary, he too often shows the keenest relish for the deadly poison. I had indeed a pious mother ; but her education was too defective in this respect, essentially to benefit me. Her thirst for Christian knowledge led her to read much ; and she could read well. Her precepts and example were also highly instructive and beneficial ; yet her occasionally pleading for the necessity of continuing in sin until death, and the like, by no means contributed to satisfy my inquiring mind. As she was deeply afflicted, however, and needed all the aid I could give her toward supporting the family, a sense of duty induced me to remain for a time with her.

MEMOIR OF REV. THOMAS WARE.

Chapter II

Mr. Ware leaves nis mother, and goes to live with an uncle — His uncle an irreligious and trifling man — Was brought to hear skeptical conversation among those who frequented his uncle's house — Was caressed by them, and much injured — The war breaks out — His feelings in favour of the revolution — He becomes ardent in the cause of freedom by reading — His uncle takes opposite sides — He leaves his uncle, and volunteers in the service — Reflects upon his course — Is carelessly exposed with the rest of the regiment at Perth Amboy, and threatened with punishment for his remarks on the occasion — Volunteers to reinforce General Washington on Long Island ; but is prevented by the enemy, and falls sick at Powle's Hook.

In my sixteenth year, my mother thinking she could spare me, I left my native town, and went to live with an uncle in Salem, N. J., about twenty miles distant. This uncle was an ingenious mechanic ; and deemed, in the circle in which he moved, a ready wit. — But he was lax in his moral and religious principles. He was in the habit of indulging in sarcasms on all occasions calculated to call them forth, especially in reference to the institutions and habits of the people of New-England. He had made himself familiar with their history, and particularly detested their treatment of the Quakers ; probably the more, because his mother was of that order; and their blue laws, as they were called, which he appeared to understand well, were particularly offensive to his feelings, and the subject of his severest remarks.

My creed, also, which had so much bewildered my mind, but which I now began t t trouble myself but little about, was often made the subject of my uncle's biting ridicule. Habitually listening to the skeptical conversations of those who frequented his house, and who appeared to be the gayest and happiest people in the world, I soon imbibed their spirit and sentiments, and joined with them in their merriment. Having learned some of their songs, and being favoured with a good voice, I was soon caressed by them, as being able to sing a good song, and say some smart things.

While I was residing with my uncle, the quarrel between us and the mother country became more threatening, and the alarm of war waxed louder and louder. I was young and ardent; and all my feelings were on the side of America. I was delighted, therefore, to hear the bold and unfaltering voice of the undaunted Henry raised in defiance of the sovereign who was endeavouring to crush us, and of his minions among us. Still more delighted was I when I learned that, seeing we must resort to arms in defence of our rights, the election for a commander-in-chief fell upon Washington, the youthful hero whose skill in saving the vanquished army of the ill-fated Braddock was a pledge for his success when his country should need his services. Braddock's defeat was well understood, and much talked of ; and in connection with it, the emi nent skill displayed by young Washington in rescuing the army from being entirely cut off was familiar to all. I knew a man who had been a soldier under Braddock, and had heard him speak of Washington as every way superior, in person, demeanour, courage, and skill in war. In such a cause, and under such a leader, my ardent feelings inclined me to desire to serve my country.

The spirit of liberty was abroad. A sense of the rights of man with which the American people were imbued, had roused the people from their lethargy, and produced some of the greatest statesmen and heroes the world ever saw. The invincible spirit they manifested had spread itself among all classes, and agitated the whole civilized world. The general feeling which prevailed had some redeeming influence on me, as it directed my mind to a particular object. I had an ardent desire to peruse the news of the day, and this led me to improve in my reading. If I heard any thing interesting read in the periodicals of the day, I borrowed the paper and read it over myself, while it was yet fresh in my memory, which aided me very much. The cause of freedom was advocated, too, by the free circulation of pamphlets, one of which was very popular, and had much influence on the minds of the people generally. There were doubtless some who did not approve of it ; but they were silent. In all conversations among the people you would hear the measures of the British government toward this country condemned as arbitrary beyond endurance, and that we were justified in resisting them, and throwing off the yoke. The pamphlet which so ably advocated these views, as all agreed, I procured, and got persons to read it for me who could read well, and then read it myself, by which I continued to improve in the art of reading, and became more deeply imbued with the spirit of the revolution. I w r as at this time in the seventeenth year of my age.

An elderly man, having heard me say that I claimed to understand the principles of the revolution, and meant to be governed by them, inquired what they were. I replied, " Never to invade the rights of others, nor suffer others to invade mine, at the risk of life. But understand me, sir, I do not mean as a duellist, for no man in his individual capacity has the right of life and death f and I proceeded to explain an invasion of rights, as consisting in attempts to compel us to believe and act contrary to the dictates of our rational convictions.

When the struggle commenced, my uncle was on the side of America. But on the declaration of independence, he changed sides. Influenced by the views and feelings I have expressed, I left him, and volunteered as a soldier in the service. In seventy-six, I was one of the nine thousand quartered at Perth Amboy.

After I had enlisted, one said to me, " You are an adventurous youth — it is a desperate cut — independence or the halter." All seemed at first to agree in dispensing with such articles as were taxed, in a way, as they thought, to oppress the colonies. But they were not equally united in having recourse to arms in defence of their alleged rights. The chief difficulty seemed to be, a fear that we should not be able to contend with a power which we had been accustomed to consider invincible ; and then, to those actively engaged in the conflict, it would probably be death instead of independence. This, I doubt not, led many to take neutral ground. But on such ground circumstances would not long permit them to remain. All who professed to occupy it were represented as disaffected, and constantly pressed on the subject until many became really so, and went over to the enemy. Others pleaded conscientious scruples against bearing arms, and were excused on that account, though their property was laid under requisition to support the war. Having now 7 abjured my king, and taken up arms against him, I had time to think and reason with myself on the part I had taken in this great national conflict ; and some of my reflections I can never forget while memory lasts. The cause I held to be just. On this point I had no misgivings. But whether w r e should be able to sustain our ground, appeared to me a much more doubtful question. There must be, I was sure, much hard fighting, and many valuable lives sacrificed, to gain the boon of our independence, if we should succeed at last. And what will they gain, thought I, who fall in the struggle ? The thanks of their country 1 No ; they will be forgotten. But then the principles for which we were contending, it appeared to me, were worth risking life for. Our example would be followed by others, and tyranny and oppression w 7 ould be overthrown throughout the world. Still the question recurred, " Can you meet the martialled hosts of the British nation — you, who know little or nothing of the arts of war, and whose officers know not much more than yourselves — with any hope of success V This was an appalling view of the subject. Yet, with the views I entertained of the justness of our cause in the sight of Heaven, I could not doubt, and resolved for one on liberty or death. "But there is a hereafter," was suggested to my mind. True, thought I, but I will do the best I can, and trust in God. And so it was, that as a soldier in the army I was more devout than when at home ; and I prayed until a confidence sprang up within me, that I should return to my home and friends in safety, or not be cut off without time to make my peace with God.