921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Third Generafion. 2 I
leading clergymen of the colony were engaged
as partisans or counsellors."* These divisions
were of great importance to the churches and
to the people. In the peaceful town of Con-
cord, they lasted for more than three quarters
of a century. Mr. Whiting's church was
nearly evenly divided, when (March, i737) he
approved of the proposition to join with the
town in calling another mi_aister. The town
voted, 4_ to 33, to call and settle another minister
with him. This, however, did not accom-
plish the purposes of the " new lights," who
desired the entire control of the pulpit; and
this they effected by the machinery of an
ecclesiastical council, composed of clergymen
who were opposed to his views, and from
whom they obtained the advice to dissolve
their pastoral relations with him. This was
voted, and assented to by Mr. Whiting, but
not without objection by his adherents. He
preferred peace, and the society of those who
accorded with his own opinions. After his
separation from the old church, he con-
Shattuck's Concord, p. 167, I68.