THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER AND RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY. MAY, 1848. iam Powell ART. I. THOMAS SHEPARD, AND THE EARLY FA- A NEW interest has been awakened of late years in the history of the early settlement and the early settlers of New England, and several valuable contributions have been made to our literature upon this subject. A closer investigation of the character and principles of our Puritan fathers has, in most cases, served only to deepen our respect and admiration. Even the grave errors with which they have been charged admit of great palliation, if not of complete defence. They had shining virtues, whose quenchless light will illumine the ages, and against which a petty detraction, like a serpent hissing at the sun, spends its foul breath in vain. Their faults were, in part at least, the faults of the age in which they lived. They did a great and good work in their day; and should be held, and will be held, in eternal honor for what they did. The largeminded lover of liberty and truth in our own times finds so much to thank them for, that he is slow to reproach them, even where at first sight they seem to have deviated widely * Lives of the Chief Fathers of New England. Vol. I. The Life of John Cotton. BY A. W. MCCLURE. Boston: Mass. Sabbath School Society. 1846. 12mo. pp. 305. Vol. II. Lives of John Wilson, John Norton, and John Davenport. By A. W. McCLURE. Boston: Mass. Sabb. School Society. 1846. 12mo. pp. 305. Vol. III. The Life of John Eliot, with an Account of the Early Missionary Efforts among the Indians of New England. By NEHEMIAH ADAMS. Boston: Mass. Sabb. School Society. 1847. 12mo. pp. 323. Vol. IV. The Life of Thomas Shepard. By John A. ALBRO. Boston: Mass. Sabb. School Society. 1847. 12mo. pp. 324. VOL. XLIV. - -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. III. 29 from the course which he, standing on a higher point of view, sees to be the wisest and best. It is a narrow, an ungrateful, an unjust spirit, which, passing by their many and great merits, sneers at their failings,-forgetting their childlike piety, laughs at the superstitions which were sometimes incorporated with it, or, turning away from their noble sacrifices for conscience and truth, points scornfully to their own intolerance towards the heretics and agitators of their jurisdiction. "It is too much," says Macaulay, "that the benefactors of mankind, after having been reviled by the dunces of their own generation for going too far, are to be reviled by the dunces of the next generation for not going far enough. Our Pilgrim fathers were men; had their faults; committed mistakes; sinned, too, no doubt, in some of their doings or sayings; and, as we believe, held, mingled with the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, an erroneous system of theological doctrines, derived from Calvin, not from Christ. was only what was to be expected. "It is not possible,' said Robinson, in his noble parting address to the first little band of exiles, "it is not possible that the Christian world should have come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that perfection of knowledge should break forth at once. We do not claim for the fathers of New England an exemption from human error and frailty; we do not demand for them an unqualified and extravagant admiration; but we do maintain that a fair and candid judgment of their merits, judgment, also, by the light and standard of their own times, will place them high among the true heroes and benefactors of mankind. We owe them, the world owes them, a debt of gratitude and reverence never to be cancelled or forgotten. This We therefore hail with satisfaction every well-performed endeavour to retouch and bring out the fading inscriptions on their venerated tombs, to revive the memory of their virtues, and to keep it in fresh lustre in the eyes of their posterity from generation to generation. We thank the individuals to whom we owe the publication of the works which stand at the head of this article for what they are doing towards this object. "The Publishing Committee of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society," as is stated in the Introduction to the first volume, have determined "to prepare a series of biographical sketches of some of the distinguished men who were God's instruments in making this 1848.] McClure's Life of Cotton. 323 country what it is. These volumes will collect and present in one view every thing which relates to them, that can be recov. ered from scattered confusion and from oblivion. It is intended that this exhibition shall bring out the characters, actions, sufferings, and principles of these remarkable men in such form as may interest and profit the general reader, and not be unuseful to such as may be studious of the early history of our country."— p. vii. The plan of the proposed publication, as expressed in the attractive title, "Lives of the Chief Fathers of New England," is certainly one which will meet the cordial approbation of all who love the memory of our ancestors; and if it be well carried out, the work cannot fail to be an acceptable and useful one. The volumes which have already appeared have, on the whole, given us much satisfaction. Saving a few passages in which the doctrinal views of the writers come into collision with our own, we give them a cordial welcome. Coming as they do from Orthodox sources, and designed specially, we suppose, for the Orthodox community, we regard it as a good sign of the times that there is so little to be objected to on this score. The first two, by Rev. A. W. McClure, were originally prepared by him, we believe, for a series of Sunday evening lectures, delivered at the Park Street church in Boston. This, perhaps, will account for the rhetorical and somewhat florid style of portions of them; and for the sermon-like close of some of the chapters, a little different, we think, from what it would have been, had they been written only for the eye. There is, however, a glow, vigor, and warmth about the style which will make it agreeable to most readers. It is sometimes deficient in simplicity, elegance, and ease, is occasionally careless and incorrect, - but is almost always graphic and spirited. Mr. McClure gives us the biographies of the first four ministers of the Boston church, Cotton, Wilson, Norton, and Davenport, all of them men of high repute in their day for piety, virtue, and talent. About half of the first volume, which purports to be the biography of Cotton, is taken up with general matter relating to the history of the Puritans, and to the principles and merits of the Congregational system as adopted by our fathers. We were at first disposed to object to this, as not being exactly in place, nor expected, in a professedly biographical narrative. But the portions of the book to which we refer are so well written, and contain so clear and vigorous a vindication of Congregationalism, that we are on the whole glad to see them introduced where they are, as we think them more likely to be generally circulated and read in this form, than if they were published by themselves or in an argumentative treatise. So with the second volume, containing the lives of Wilson, Norton, and Davenport. A considerable portion of it is devoted to a defence of our fathers against the oft-reiterated charges of persecution, bigotry, and intolerance. It contains an interesting and forcible statement of the considerations which may be urged to justify or to extenuate their course. In both these volumes there are passages containing theological sentiments to which we do not agree, flings at Arminian and Unitarian opinions, and lamentations over the apostasy of some of the present generation from the old dogmatic faith and ecclesiastical order of the New England churches. But they are only what we might expect from an Orthodox writer feeling strongly on the subject, and sometimes letting his zeal get the better of his judgment. We have no disposition to criticize or to be offended with them. It is not to our present purpose to discuss the points on which they touch. The lives of Eliot and Shepard, in the third and fourth volumes, are very free from objectionable matter of this kind. Their writers had wisdom and good taste enough to know that it is not always necessary or judicious to hang out their sectarian flag. The life of the Roxbury Apostle,' by Mr. Adams, contains a full account of the Indians of New England, of their interviews with Eliot, of their questions and religious confessions. Some of these last, we think, might have been omitted without impairing the value or interest of the work. Mr. Adams introduces, also, some remarks upou the position and claims of Congregationalism, which are so just and liberal, that we would gladly help to circulate them as widely as possible by transferring the substance of them to our own pages. "It is not to be understood," he says, "that Mr. Eliot, as a true Congregationalist, supposed that any form of church government was imposed by Christ or the Apostles upon the Christian church, as being in any way essential to the existence of a true church of Christ. With regard to the appointment of any special form of church government, it would seem that there is a wise silence in the New Testament. The genius of Christianity forbids an adherence to any form of ecclesiastical order as essential to the existence of a church of Christ. This truth was declared by Christ at Jacob's well to the Samaritan woman. p. 63. 1848.1 "Our preference for the Congregational form of church government is not properly founded on any prescriptions in the New Testament, but on our convictions that this form is most accordant with the genius of Christianity, and of republican institutions. But so surely as we insist on Congregationalism as having any 'divine right or authority, and we seek to propagate Congregationalism with such convictions, we are as surely High-Churchmen and Puseyites as can anywhere be found. To insist on the absence of all forms, and on the perfect simplicity of worship, with a sectarian spirit, shows as great an attachment to a form of worship as though we urged the adoption of all the ceremonies of the cathedral. We may be as bigoted in favor of simplicity as of any thing else, and a Quaker and a Congregationalist may be as much a formalist and a Churchman as any other.”. p. 64. "He who says, 'No church without simplicity of worship,' and he who says, 'No church without a bishop,' are two extremes which meet. At the same time, we shall be the degenerate sons of men who made such sacrifices for purity in worship as did the Pilgrims, unless we adhere to our simple and beautiful mode of church government and worship, as preferable to any other.". - p. 65. There is another passage, however, relating to a different subject, in which the author's comments may startle our readers a little, as they certainly did us. They contain what seems to us very strange and questionable doctrine, and such as will hardly be accepted in our days, even with so Orthodox an indorsement, however it might have passed current in the days of Eliot. We do not remember to have seen it anywhere so openly and broadly stated before. We imagine that there are very few preachers, however pious and pureminded (for, according to Mr. Adams, they must be eminently such to do the work of imprecation acceptably), who will venture, even "in their nearest approaches to God," upon a practical application of this doctrine; and that there are few congregations, however sound in faith and devout in feeling, who would tolerate it. They feel that Jesus and not David, that John of Ephesus and not his namesake of Roxbury, are to be our guides and examples in this matter. They cannot easily forget the dying prayer of the Saviour, nor the rebuke which he once administered to the beloved disciple, who, in the childhood of his faith, not yet knowing what manner of spirit he was of, but full, no doubt, of “ righteous indignation," wished to call down fire from heaven, a |