Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 257
It had admitted to the half-way covenant persons who entered into
the Abrahamic covenant by virtue of the "relation '" of their grand-
fathers, and it had now admitted persons without any public "rela-
tion." We cannot see from any evidence extant that the visit of
Whitefield, the wonderful revivals of religion at Northampton, Hat-
field, Longmeadow, and so on down the valley, with its protracted
meetings, its crying out of convicted souls, its falling in fits upon the
fioor, etc., had any effect upon the Springfield church. There is no
evidence of a Springfield revival at this time. The most remarkable
revival of the country, and one whose fame had penetrated England
and Scotland, — the Northampton revival of 1735, — made no impres-
sion whatever U{)Ou Springfield. We do not see that JNIr. Breck ever
drew up a new covenant of reformation, as Stephen Williams, of
Longmeadow, Jonathan Edwards, and others did. But we know that
the church prospered and morals improved. When Breck took the
cluu'ch, there were less than seventy members in the church. During
Breck's first year — and it should be remembered that half of this
time the dissatisfied were still fighting him in court and precinct
meetings — there were no less than twenty-five admissions to full
communion, while twenty-five mt)re " owned the covenant." This
was a notable ingathering. These admissions, be it remembered,
were recorded before the rule adopted by the church abolishing a re-
lation of experiences. When we consider the history and principles
of the Congregational church, it must be admitted that the throwing
open the door of the communion to all honest persons, upon the be-
lief that it was a converting ordinance, and the waiving of the relation
of experiences, were perilous steps for the Springfield church to take.
In dealing with Springfield, we are, in a large sense, writing the
history of a hundred plantations. Townsliips were growing out of
the gardens planted by the churches, and in these townships was the
spirit of democracy. The American Declaration of Independence was
really written early in the eighteenth century, when out of a dismal
religious reaction, and a health}'^ counter revival, and a hundred con-