1773 April 8 (Thursday). Mr. Mellen, returning home, calls here — acquaints me further with his own Troubles; that his people are about to call a Council; that he believes that the major part of the Church are against him, though the major part of the people, he thinks, are for him. He goes to Mr. Whitneys to dine. I visited Neighbour Nurse, She being very low and weak. When I returned found that Mr. Fish had been here: he tells Mrs. Parkman, that the best way to put an End to the Contention in Bolton, is to Settle a Minister there as fast as they can. As if the true method of quenching a Flame was to throw Oyl upon it. Unhappy People to be guided in this manner! So out of all Rule or Reason. At Eve came Messrs. Eli Whitney and Joseph Harrington. The former brought a present of a Number of Trees of some bigness, that had been graffed at the Ground. Four of them with which he much gratifyed me. But the Latter has the Affair of Bolton, and the new-published Narrative,[1] in his mind, and therefore he wants to discourse of that. I gave but few, and cautious Replys. Chiefly, That Mr. Goss was not (as I apprehended) orderly dismissed, because 1.) If he were guilty, yet it has not been made to appear by a fair Trial. The Council (large and mutual) had not found him guilty: and there had been no Trial Since. 2.) There had been no Church meeting called according to the Constitution to dismiss him — no Meeting So much as asked for according to the Platform. And 3.) The members were but few who met and did this important work, compared with the whole Church. And 27 out of 52 or 3, had, Since that Vote, received the Communion of Mr. Goss: That if they were more now who were against him, and if he were bad, and ought to be dismissed, yet there ought to be regular Steps taken in order to accomplish it. And Further, the Narrative is very defective in divers parts of it.
[1]Not clear what the “new-published Narrative” was. In 1773 there appeared The Result of an Ecclesiastical Council, Convened at Bolton, August 3, 1773, at the Desire of the Pastor and Church of Christ in that Town (Boston, 1773). Evans 12,686. See entry for August 17.