New England’s Piety and Decline
As long ago as 1637, a faithful minister of the Church of England, Mr. Edward Symons, expressed himself this way in a sermon later printed: “At New England now the Son of Comfort begins to appear, and the glorious Day-Star to show itself. But in later ages times will come when the clouds will overshadow and darken the sky there. Many now promise themselves nothing but successive happiness there, which for a time through God’s mercy they may enjoy; and I pray God they may a long time. But in this world there is no happiness perpetual.” What an observation, or I almost said an inspiration, now so dismally verified among us!
Some who knew New England best have affirmed that the world will do it a great injustice unless it acknowledges a measure of religion, loyalty, honesty, and industry among its people beyond that found among any other people of comparable numbers.
A few years ago, I published a book mentioning several memorable acts of witchcraft committed in this country. The excellent Baxter honored its second edition with a kind preface, in which he found reason to say, “If any are scandalized that New England, a place of as serious piety as any I can hear of under heaven, should be troubled so much with witches, I think it is no wonder. Where will the devil show most malice but where he is hated, and hates most?” I hope the country will continue to deserve and live up to the charitable judgment expressed by that reverend man of God.
Anyone traveling through this wilderness will see it richly studded with churches of the gospel. Their pastors are holy, capable, hardworking overseers of their flocks, lively preachers, and virtuous in their lives. In their various neighboring associations, they have held meetings to consider church matters of common concern.
Before admitting people to sacred communion, these churches have carefully examined their experiences of regeneration, as well as their knowledge, belief, and blameless conduct. Yet others whose Christian attainments are less advanced but promising are not ordinarily denied baptism for themselves and their children.
These churches are cautious about using anything in God’s worship for which they cannot see God’s authorization. Yet among them, the names Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Antipaedobaptist are absorbed into that of Christian. People of all those persuasions are received into our fellowship when their visible goodness has recommended them.
These churches usually manage their own discipline under the direction of their elders, but call upon synods for help in emergencies or grievances. Finally, they are churches in which multitudes grow ready for heaven every day. As fast as these are taken away, others daily rise to take their places.
Through the presence and power of the divine institutions thus maintained in the country, we remain so fortunate that I suppose no land in the universe is freer from the corrupting and degrading vices of ungodliness. Most people are still so disposed that swearing, Sabbath-breaking, sexual immorality, drunkenness, and the like make a person a monster or goblin in common estimation, rather than a gentleman.
Nevertheless, we must humbly confess to our God that we have miserably declined from our predecessors’ first love. We may boast a little when others try to trample upon us, and venture to say, “Wherein soever any is bold (we speak foolishly) we are bold also.”
The first settlers of these colonies were a chosen generation. They were so pure that they disliked many things elsewhere which they thought needed reform. Yet they were also so peaceable that they chose voluntary exile in a squalid, dreadful American wilderness rather than live in disputes with their brethren. Those good men imagined they would leave their descendants in a place where they would never see incursions of profanity or superstition. A famous person returning from here could declare in a sermon before Parliament, “I have now been seven years in a country where I never saw one man drunk, or heard one oath sworn, or beheld one beggar in the streets all the while.”
Great people such as Budaeus and others mistook Sir Thomas More’s Utopia for a country that actually existed. They encouraged some ministers to undertake a charitable voyage there. They might now certainly have found their mistake realized in truth: New England was a true Utopia.
But alas, the children and servants of those old settlers inevitably supply many degenerate plants. A number of people have now arisen with inclinations different from those of our Joshuas and the elders who outlived them. Those two things, our holy ancestors and our fortunate advantages, make our failures of duty and our spiritual disorders as provoking to God as the most outrageous wickedness committed elsewhere. These are spiritual disorders in which the rest of the world is overwhelmed, and God’s ministers are accordingly severe in their warnings against them.
Briefly, the interests of the gospel that brought our fathers to these ends of the earth have been too much neglected and put off. Many who have not fallen into extreme wickedness have nevertheless undervalued the benefits of a sound education. Some, especially our young people, have become excessively and abominably vicious when they have gone abroad beyond the restraints imposed on them here.
Thus New England’s happiness has lasted only for a time, as was foretold, rather than for a long time, as was desired for us. Various calamities have long followed this settlement. We have every imaginable reason to attribute them to heaven’s rebuke for our many apostasies. We make no proper use of our disasters unless we “Remember whence we are fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” Yet we may consider our afflictions further. There is another cause of them, and he must be given his due.
