Lux Mundi : On the Day March 5 1743

America’s First Christian Journal Begins

On the Day March 5 1743

Khen Lim

Thomas Prince (Image source: Sotheby's)

No matter how much today’s progressives, politically-correct fanatics and liberal revisionists might want or force us to believe, Christianity is the bedrock of American culture. It is also the country’s founding religion and on that point alone, its history in America is the history of the nation at large. Nothing changes that regardless of the efforts to whitewash Christianity in deference to Islam or any other political ideology.

Christianity identifies American history and in this country, it is also the source of historical records that tells us of God’s hand in the centuries leading to today. In fact, history is His story – God’s story – as told in the Old and New Testaments. Here, Scripture is a real record of God’s relationship with His people. In the same way, on this day, two-hundred and seventy-four years ago, in 1743, Boston clergyman Thomas Prince recorded America’s relationship with God and called it ‘The Christian History.’

The early years

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Boston's Old South Church today (Image source: Travel Guides for Austin, Boston...)

Born to Samuel Prince Esq and Mercy Hinkley in Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1687, Thomas Prince (1687-1758) was a Congregational minister, scholar and historian who, in 1703, attended Harvard University before graduating five years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

While there, his interest in books began when he “chanced in my leisure hours to read Mr. Chamberlain’s Account of the Cottonian Library, which excited in me a zeal of laying hold on every book, pamphlet and paper, both in print and manuscript, which are either written by persons who lived here or that have any tendency to enlighten our history” and therein, he began the establishment of his “New England Library.”

Following his successful tenement at Harvard, he initially returned home and taught for a brief time at home in Sandwich, Massachusetts while working on his Master’s degree before setting his sights for Barbados and then England where he ministered for two years, in 1709 and 1711 respectively.

Then he went home to pastor the distinguished Boston’s Old South Church upon being ordained as a minister in 1718. There, he remained until his death in 1758. In fact, in the decade he spent in Europe between graduating from Harvard and settling in New England, Prince’s tenure at the Boston church was a particular highlight in his life if not for his involvement in The Christian History.

Discovery of history

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A Chronological History of New England et al (Image source: Skinner, Inc.)

It was in England that Prince began to collect texts on early American history with the idea that he would soon write about it himself but that didn’t materialise for a lack of time. A noted scholar, he did eventually devote much of his time – and money – gathering volumes amounting to about 1,500 works or more that revealed New England’s early history. He would later use them, sometime in 1736, to write a chronological history of the area called ‘A Chronological History of New England in the Form of Annals.’

This was also a period in history where Puritans were no longer sure of what they had ‘rediscovered’ in England as to whether in society, they were reformists looking forward or small-minded hick town billies contended with their backward lot. As a Puritan, Prince had wondered aloud about this but he felt eventually gratified when Londoners “wondered as much at my carriage and deportment as at the fairness and accuracy of my language.”

Despite all of this, the mystery of God’s spirit was a stronger drawcard for him and he found himself immersed in the revival movement that later was called the Great Awakening. Feeling a longing for home, he returned in 1717 together with a woman he met while preaching in Coombes, England as well as her brother and thirty other parishioners whom he inspired with his preaching.

Named Deborah Denny, he married her on October 30 two years later and had four daughters and a son. Through his voyages across the Atlantic en route home, God had protected him as he seemed to have a knack for failing to board the ships he was meant to travel on, only to discover that in each case, the ship sank and everyone drowned.

On his arrival home in Boston, his popularity took him by surprise. Maybe it was the way he was attired. Dressed in his English russet coat and wearing the customary wig, he must have cut an impressive – and important – figure coming off his ship.

Furthermore, locals had always reserved admiration for those who had gone to sojourn in England but preferred to find their way back home and in this regard, Prince was not just no exception but people saw him as proof that life in New England was better than anywhere else in the world. Having come home, invitations came to preach in different churches but he chose to settle on Boston’s prestigious Old South Church.

From his early experiences during his university days, his avid interest in history and theology was obvious but so was his affinity towards science, which led him to publish a report on the Aurora Borealis, which he witnessed during his time in England.

He was also a great supporter of smallpox inoculation particularly in view of the Boston epidemic of 1721-22. Like many of his fellow Puritans, Prince was equally as taken in by God’s work in people and the nations around. He was convinced that God didn’t just deal with individuals but also with the entire nation in which case, he was alluding to how the Lord looked over the interests of the commonwealths of New England.

God’s faithfulness

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Admiral d'Anville (Image source: Paulus Swaen)

And therein, Prince humbly remembered the war between England and France in 1746 that resulted in a flotilla of sixty-four battleships filled with 11,000 warring men sailing from Nova Scotia and headed for New England. Called the Duc d’Anville Expedition (June-Oct 1746), this was the largest military force to make its way to the New World just before the American Revolution.

France despatched the flotilla that first captured Nova Scotia with the help of ground forces from Quebec. From that point, Admiral d’Anville (whose real name was Jean-Baptiste Louis Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld de Roye) was ordered to “consign Boston to flames, ravage New England and waste the British West Indies,” sending fears and tremors from the eastern seaboard all the way to New York.

The threat was so intimidating that Governor Shirley declared a Fast Day in order that every American could fervently pray for God’s deliverance from the impending peril at hand. All told, some 6,000 troops – mainly men from Massachusetts – some of whom were veterans of the old French War armed with their antiquated weapons while some were younger men who donned on their hunting shirts with their muskets in hand, gathered at the Boston Common to do what they could to defend Boston.

New England colonists in prayer (Image source: friendsofgod.org)

From the Old South Church pulpit, Prince led services with a day of fasting and prayer throughout Boston. When the service began, the day was calm and nobody expected anything different other than the trepidation of a French devastation. But as Prince began praying: “Deliver us from our enemy! Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the waters to the eastward! Raise Thy right hand. Scatter the ships of our tormentors and drive them hence. Sink their proud frigates beneath the power of Thy winds!”

All of a sudden, the sky darkened and a vicious storm emerged, shuddering the windows of his church. The congregation was met with a darkening shadow that enveloped the interior. The gathering wind was violent enough to strike the church bell twice. With both arms now raised, Prince declared:

“We hear Thy voice, O Lord! We hear it! Thy breath is upon the waters of the eastward, even upon the deep, the bell tolls for the death of our enemies!”

Bowing his head in complete humility, Prince then looked up and then gazed at his congregation filled “with a countenance illuminated with hope.” Greatly encouraged for what he believed was God’s providence, he prayed boldly for the wind to unsettle and disrupt the French flotilla, saying, “Thine be the glory, Lord. Amen and amen!”

The French flotilla faces devastation (Image source: friendsofgod.org)

As it turned out, a large portion of the war fleet was destroyed off the coast of Nova Scotia. In fact the expedition was considered a “complete failure.” Like the Spanish armada of 1588 who succumbed to horrific seafaring conditions as they sought to destroy Elizabeth I’s England, the French was devastated by countless storms and deadly winds.

The d’Anville expedition took an arduous three months just to across the Atlantic Ocean and during that time, much of the crew including the soldiers were afflicted with either typhoid or scurvy. Amidst one of the storms, some of the ships sustained serious damage after being struck by lightning. In one case, ordnances exploded, killing over thirty men.

By September 1746, at least two ships in the fleet were forced to return to France owing to critical and unsustainable damage following a powerful gale and if this weren’t enough, one of the returning ships, Le Raphael, was successfully attacked and captured by an English warship. The remaining ship, Le Mars, survived but only to sink in Chebucto Bay (today’s Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia) during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) after hitting a rock; hence that place is today known as Mars Rock.

By the time the heavily damaged fleet arrived in Nova Scotia later that month, hundreds had perished and hundreds more had become very ill. All told, according to historian Catherine Drinker Bowen, 4,000 took ill with 2,000 dead including d’Anville who suffered a stroke and died six days after arrival. His Vice-Admiral Cornelle “threw himself on his sword.” Only forty-four of the original sixty-four ships anchored in Chebucto Bay. Six days after arrival, d’Anville himself died from a stroke and was summarily buried there.

The history of New England

Inside the Chronological History of New England et al (Image source: Maggs Bros. Ltd.)

There was little doubt that Prince was unsurprised by the turn of events. What many predicted was going to be an unavoidable annihilation never materialised. Prince knew with every bit of certainty that God was looking out for them in New England.

Even though his first foray into writing turned out disappointingly poor sales, to Prince, the history of his home country and how Christianity had shaped its society and culture were important. Despite the unexpectedly slow sales, there was no denying that Prince’s first volume was extraordinarily rich in detail but perhaps it was too much too early in the piece. The seemingly lack of readership might be due to the possibility that it was “written for a higher purpose than to amuse its reader.”

Undeterred, Prince proceeded with the second volume, which he published in three parts, covering history up to 1633 before a continued lack of interest forced him to discontinue the format. By now, Prince’s work was not just about the tiniest details others might overlook but it was also unerringly accurate.

He said, “I cite my vouchers to every passage and I have done my utmost, first to find out the truth and then to relate it in the clearest order. I have laboured after accuracy and yet, I dare not say that I am without mistake nor do I desire the reader to conceal any he may possibly find.”

Even though his two-volume history of New England turned out to have fallen short in terms of publishing success, there is no doubt that he had begun to set for himself a reputation for not just historical writing but one who was more capable of accurate recording than anyone else in that era. His work in this regard had gone on to influence historians including Jeremy Belknap (1744-1798) and Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780) and became the reference point for more than half a century thereafter.

However it was ‘The Christian History,’ which he wrote seven years later, in 1743, that he was even more famous for. A revivalist-style periodical – the first of its kind in America – Prince reported on the religious revivals that were mushrooming throughout Europe and then spread quickly to the United States.

Although it only lasted two years, there was no doubt that it was the most critically acclaimed cultural artefact to cover the eighteenth-century revival movement beginning from the New England seaboard, offering itself as the most remarkable resource for such studies especially when it came to the ‘Great Awakening’ that had set the country ablaze with a fervour for Christ.

The Christian History

The Christian History (Image source: James Cummins Bookseller)

‘The Christian History,’ in collaboration with his son, Thomas Prince Jr. acting as editor, offers the reader an even closer scrutiny of Prince’s earlier history of New England as it presents its details in a more quantitative manner.

Prince’s details here provide not just a useful window into what life was about but a tantalising glimpse into the intricate divisions among the supporters of the Great Awakening as well as how its detractors would surprisingly align themselves and the general social attitude among the people that shaped and defined the power of the revivalist movement from different perspectives. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very focused religious magazine that carried accounts of the astounding “propagation and revival of religion (Christianity).”

Right from the beginning, Prince’s son outlined the general thrust of ‘The Christian History,’ focusing on submissions from New England ministers so that readers may reliably learn of the true accounts of the revival movement. With that in mind, the plan was to reproduce extracts from the “most remarkable” stories about revivalism of the time through letter-style narratives from as far and wide as England and Scotland to Georgia so that in the end, readers might better perceive how the world took to the awakening.

To that end, the inaugural seven issues of ‘The Christian History’ beginning March 1743 focused on the awakening in Kilsyth, Scotland, where Prince Sr. wrote in the editorial, “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country: So Solomon observed in his day and so we find it in ours.” And indeed, ‘The Christian History’ offered that rare opportunity in that period for revivalists to exchange dialogue even across the Atlantic in the defence of the awakening movement.

In one case, Prince shared with the ministers, writing, “The bodies of some of the awakening are seized with trembling, fainting, histerisms [sic] in some few women and with convulsive motions in some others, arising from the apprehension and fear of the wrath of God…”

For example, in response to critics who accused the crowds at the awakening of being under the Devil’s spell, Scottish minister James Robe (1688-1753) used ‘The Christian History’ to ask ministers throughout its wide readership how best to respond. It mattered not whether the critics would even read the pro-revivalist publication but even if most of them didn’t (I think some did – ed.), Robe offered them something very purposeful to chew on.

The revival movement

George Whitefield (Image source: Whitefield's Prayer)

Not surprising of course, Prince was himself a strong supporter of the revival movement. His initial support obviously took root before ‘The Christian History’ bore fruit. More evidently, it was likely sparked by his invitation in September 1740 to the English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) to preach in Boston.

This was at a time when there was an increasing wave of religious scepticism in light of emerging but confounding scientific discoveries. Prince’s aim therefore was to reconcile science with orthodox theology. This was particularly evident in his writings such as ‘Earthquakes the Works of God’* and ‘An Account of a Strange Appearance in the Heavens’** the latter of which he described the Aurora Borealis phenomenon that he witnessed during his time in England.

* The actual full name is ‘Earthquakes the Works of God & Tokens of His Just Displeasure. Two Sermons on Psal. XVIII. 7. At the Particular Fast in Boston, Nov. 2. and the General Thanksgiving, Nov. 9. The Second Edition Corrected. [Four Lines from Psalms].’

** The actual full name is ‘An Account of a Strange Appearance in the Heavens on Tuesday Night, March 6 1716 As It was Seen Over Stow-Market in Suffolk in England.’

George Whitefield was of course someone well known and best remembered for his very animated, fiery and often emotively-charged preaching. Having first preached at the age of twenty-one, Whitefield (pronounced wit-field) was comparatively very unorthodox in his style. While Anglican ministers then were somewhat aloof, detached and emotionally controlled, Whitefield was engaging, emotional and filled with drama.

Grippingly at the seat of one’s pants, his was theatrical but so creatively charged that one observer said, “I could hardly bear such unreserved use of tears.” To him, Whitefield was “frequently so overcome, that, for a few seconds, you would suspect he never could recover.”

But then he would respond, saying, “You blame me for weeping but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourself, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction?”

Whitefield was an American sensation almost to the point of being a cause célèbre. In fact what historians called the Great Awakening was catalysed by his very moving sermon in 1739 called the ‘New Birth.’ In effect, Professor Richard L. Bushman in his book entitled ‘The Great Awakening’* referred to the revival movement as “more like the civil rights demonstrations, the campus disturbances and the urban riots of the 1960s combined.”

* The full title is ‘The Great Awakening: Documents on the Revival of Religion, 1740-1745 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)’

Despite his ardent belief in the movement, he did not suffer fools gladly. In the case of James Davenport (1716-1757), Prince condemned his fanaticism and his bizarre, if not delusional conduct, which became a point of contention in the same year that ‘The Christian History’ was first released.

Declared the year before, in 1742, as “enthusiastical [sic] impressions and impulses, and therefore disturbed in the rational faculties of his mind,” Davenport gathered a crowd around him and encouraged all of them to burn and destroy immoral books and luxury items including fancy clothes as proof of their commitment to God.

Leading by example, he stripped off his trousers before everyone and threw it into the fiery blaze, prompting a woman in the crowd to rush out and pulled them out of the bonfire before returning them to him. In the process, she chastised Davenport, urging him to get a hold of himself. “This act broke Davenport’s spell,” the historian Thomas Kidd wrote, suggesting under no uncertain terms that he had gone off the rails. His stunt eventually caused the crowd to quickly disperse.

Three weeks after the event, the Boston Weekly Post Boy wrote that Davenport had shown signs of distress, unusual behaviour and actions that the writer felt were indicative of demonic possession. Davenport himself published a year after, admitting to have been overcome by ‘demonic spirits.’

Interestingly in the same year, he also wrote ‘An Account of the Revival of Religion in Boston in the Years 1740-1742’ in which was his account of the revival of Christianity that was in line with his support of the Great Awakening. Although it was intended for proper publication, it went no further than being a letter entitled, ‘The State of Religion at Northampton in the Country of Hampshire, About 100 Miles Westward of Boston’ and it invariably made its way into the three January editions of ‘The Christian History’ dated 14, 21 and 28.

A recording milestone

The Christian History volumes (Image source: William Reese Company)

In establishing ‘The Christian History,’ Prince sought pastors to provide feedback of their experiences to him. To do that, he travelled throughout New England and visited one church after another not just to preach but to record the congregation responses that he then committed into his periodical. One such feedback was from Jonathan Edwards in December 1742 who wrote a detailed letter back to Prince, recording the spiritual situation in Northampton:

“There has been vastly more religion kept up in the town, among all sorts of persons, in religious exercises, and in common conversation; there has been a great alteration among the youth of the town, with respect to revelry, frolicking, profane and licentious conversation and lewd songs; and there has also been a great alteration amongst both old and young, with regard to tavern-haunting. I suppose the town has been in no measure so free of vice in these respects for any long time together, for sixty years, as it has been these nine years past. There has also been an evident alteration with respect to a charitable spirit to the poor though I think with regard to this, we in this town as well as the land in general, come far short of Gospel rules. And though after that great work nine years ago, there has been a very lamentable decay of religion affections and the engagedness [sic] of people’s spirit in religion; yet many societies for prayer and social worship were all along kept up and there were some few instances of awakening and deep concern about the things of another world, even in the most dead time.”

By faithfully documenting the revival and its effects throughout the American colonies, Prince and his son had wanted to do their part in preventing the Great Awakening from fading. That way, he hoped that the future of America could turn to ‘The Christian History’ to remind themselves of God’s faithfulness and for the community to come together for the greater good of Christ, to evangelise and share the Word in a hope to bear encouragement to new Christians and to, where possible, inspire new ones to convert.

That it only ran for two years was both sad and unsurprising; the former because it was a wonderful historical record that could have gone on to even greater things and the latter because it was probably too ahead of its time for the populace to appreciate the depth of such an achievement.

Remembering Prince

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Princeton, MA (Image source: Town of Princeton)

Prince went on to be so influential that Massachusetts have named a street and a town after him. Prince Street is in the North End of the city of Boston where the infamous Boston Mob was racketeering in the Seventies while on the other hand, Princeton is a town of scenic beauty in Worcester County with a population of about 3,413 (as of 2010) that was named after him because of his stature within the local community as well as his ownership of a part of the land used to form the town. Also as part of the will of a certain blacksmith by the name of Cyprian Stevens (1647-1722), it was henceforth given to him in 1727.

Within the town of Princeton, the Thomas Prince School was named after him. There was also a printing company by the name of The Prince Association, formed in 1858, that was named in honour of him. Belonging to Boston’s Old South Church where Prince was once its pastor and now deposited at the Boston Public Library is the Thomas Prince Collection, named as such because it comprises the entire personal library belonging to Prince. Also in the collection is a copy of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book and also John Eliot’s Indian Bible of 1663 not to mention also, Prince’s personal correspondence.

Located in Boston, the Prince Society for Mutual Publications, founded in 1858, that publishes ‘rare works either in print or manuscript that is related to the history of America is described in ‘The Cambridge History of English and American Literature’ as “one of the most honoured of American historical organisations.”

Despite its short-lived existence, ‘The Christian History’ endures today in spirit and in name. It continues to endeavour in bringing evangelicals together, to share in the glory to God about what Christ has done for all of us throughout the world. In ‘The Rise of Evangelicalism,’ author Mark Noll acknowledges its significance, saying, “Journals like Prince’s brought international evangelicalism to an important new stage.”

“Revivalistic Calvinism was becoming a public matter and in so doing, was beginning to blur its boundaries with others in the English-speaking world who were uncertain about Calvinism abut nonetheless dedicated to revival. Evangelical self-consciousness increased measurably as articles from magazines were circulated, read publicly and reprinted in other papers.”

Without a shadow of doubt, Thomas Prince left behind far more than just a collection of works including ‘The Christian History.’ What he gave to the world was his prodigious God-given intellectual legacy, the likes of which we are hardly ever going to witness again in today’s times.

Dr Charles Chauncy (1705-1787), minister of the First Church in Boston and also a Congregational clergyman and often Prince’s ideological nemesis admitted posthumously that, “Prince possessed all the intellectual powers in a degree far beyond what is common. He may be justly characterised as one of our great men… [and] deserves to be remembered with honour.”

And in the end, Prince’s meticulous and impeccable approach and his deep respect for history and unerring facts was what makes his works as historically important as it is still in print today.

Lux Mundi

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Sunday, March 05, 2017

On the Day March 5 1743

America’s First Christian Journal Begins

On the Day March 5 1743

Khen Lim

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