THE TOWN'S CHURCH AND ITS DIVORCE. 369 



less than was spent eighty years before, when we first 

 became a precinct, in 1717. Furthermore, in that eighty 

 years our population had been quadrupled and our other 

 expenditures multiplied several times. The steady de- 

 crease of religious support in its proportion to other work 

 was marked, and the preaching became more perfunctory 

 as the town grew more unwilling to support it. 



At the opening of the new century there were many 

 persons throughout New England as well as in Cohasset 

 who began to exert themselves in a more strenuous reli- 

 gious effort. The result of the effort was to bring to light 

 a profound difference of view in regard to the Christian 

 religion. Many churches in Boston and its neighbor- 

 hood repudiated the orthodox doctrines of the nature 

 of Christ, of the nature of men, and of the meaning of 

 salvation. 



These became known after some time as Unitarians for 

 their most distinguishing opposition, that against the doc- 

 trine of the Trinity. 



The more strenuous adherents to the Calvinistic theol- 

 ogy found it necessary in many communities to build new 

 churches for themselves, because the majority of the 

 parish kept for their minister a man who repudiated 

 orthodoxy. 



In Cohasset the pastor during those years of contro- 

 versy was Rev. Jacob Flint. His affiliation was obviously 

 with the Unitarians, as may be seen by several passages 

 in his "Century Discourses."* 



There were several persons in the town who were so 

 much dissatisfied with the pastor of the town's church 

 that they used their influence to procure preaching serv- 

 ices of their own. They established a Bible Reading 



* Page 8 in a note he says of Rev. Nehemiah Hobart : " It would seem from his 

 words that he did not consider Jesus Christ equal with the Father, nor the Holy 

 Spirit anything distinct from God's influence." 



Again on p. 15, where Mr. Flint makes some aspersion against the doctrine of 

 natural depravity. 



