INCREASE MATHER. JAMES ALLEN. [Footnote: History of Brattle St. Church, p. 55.]
Under the theocracy a subservient legislature would have voted the association “a seditious conspiracy,” and the country would have been cleared of Leverett, Colman, the Brattles, and their abettors; but in 1700 the priests no longer manipulated the constituencies, and there was actual danger to the conservative cause from their violence; therefore Stoughton exerted himself to muzzle the Mathers, and he did succeed in quieting them for the moment, though Sewall seems to intimate that they submitted with no very good grace: [1699/1700.] “January 24th. The Lt Govr [Stoughton] calls me with him to Mr. Willards, where out of two papers Mr. Wm Brattle drew up a third for an accommodation to bring on an agreement between the new-church and our ministers; Mr. Colman got his brethren to subscribe it.... January 25th. Mr. I. Mather, Mr. C. Mather, Mr. Willard, Mr. Wadsworth, and S. S. wait on the Lt Govr at Mr. Coopers: to confer about the writing drawn up the evening before. Was some heat; but grew calmer, and after lecture agreed to be present at the fast which is to be observed January 31.” [Footnote: Mass. Hist. Coll. fifth series, vi. 2.]
Humility has sometimes been extolled as the crowning grace of Christian clergymen, but Cotton Mather’s Diary shows the intolerable arrogance of the early Congregational divines.
“A wonderful joy filled the hearts of our good people far and near, that we had obtained thus much from them. Our strife seemed now at an end; there was much relenting in some of their spirits, when they saw our condescension, our charity, our compassion. We overlooked all past offences. We kept the public fast with them ... and my father preached with them on following peace with holiness, and I concluded with prayer.” [Footnote: History of Harvard, i. 487, App. x.]
Yet, although there had been this ostensible reconciliation, those who have appreciated the sensitiveness to sin, of him whom Dr. Eliot calls the patriarch and his son, must already feel certain they were incapable of letting Colman’s impiety pass unrebuked; indeed, the Diary says the “faithful antidote” was at that moment in the press, and it was not long before it was published, sanctified by their prayers. The patriarch began by telling how he was defending the “cause of Christ and of his churches in New England,” and “if we espouse such principles... we then give away the whole Congregational cause at once.” [Footnote: Order of the Gospel, pp. 8, 9.] He assured his hearers that a “wandering Levite” like Colman was no more a pastor than he who “has no children is a father,” [Footnote: Idem, p. 102.] he was shocked at the abandonment of the relation of experiences, and was so scandalized at reading the Bible without comment he could only describe it as “dumb.” In a word, there was nothing the new congregation had done which was not displeasing to the Lord; but if they had offended in one particular more than another it was in establishing a man in “the pastoral office without the approbation of neighbouring churches or elders.” [Footnote: Idem, p. 8.] To this solemn admonition Colman and William Brattle had the irreverence to prepare a reply smacking of levity; nevertheless, they began with a grave and noble definition of their principles. “The liberties and privileges which our Lord Jesus Christ has given to his church ... consist ... in ... that our consciences be not imposed on by men or their traditions.” “We are reflected on as casting dishonour on our parents, & their pious design in the first settlement of this land.... Some have made this the great design, to be freed from the impositions of men in the worship of God.... In this we are risen up to make good their grounds.” [Footnote: Gospel Order Revived, Epistle Dedicatory.]
They then went on to expose the abuse of public relations of experiences: “But this is the misery, the more meek and fearful are hereby kept out of God’s house, while the more conceited and presumptuous never boggle at this, or anything else. But it seems there is a gross corruption of this laudable practice which the author does well to censure; and that is, when some, who have no good intention of their own, get others to devise a relation for them.” [Footnote: Idem, p. 9.] They even dared to intimate that it did not savor of modesty for the patriarch “to think any one of his sermons, or short comments, can edifie more than the reading of twenty chapters.” [Footnote: Idem, p. 15.] And then they added some sentences, which were afterward declared by the venerable victim to be as scurrilous as other portions of the pamphlet were profane.
“We are assured, the author is esteemed more a Presbyterian than a Congregational man, by scores of his friends in London. He is lov’d and reverenced for a moderate spirit, a peaceable disposition, and a temper so widely different from his late brothers in London.... Did our reverend author appear the same here, we should be his easie proselites too. But we are loath to say how he forfeits that venerable character, which might have consecrated his name to posterity, more than his learning, or other honorary titles can.” [Footnote: Gospel Order Revived, pp. 34, 35.]
No printer in Boston dared to be responsible for this ribaldry, and when it came home from New York and was actually cast before the people, words fail to convey the condition into which the patriarch was thrown. At last his emotions found a vent in a tract which he prepared jointly with his son.
“A moral heathen would not have done as he has done. [Footnote: Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matters, Preface.]... There is no one thing, which does more threaten or disgrace New-England, than want of due respect unto superiors. [Footnote: Idem, p. 10.]... It is a disgrace to the name of Presbyterian, that such as he is should pretend unto it. [Footnote: Idem, p. 12.]... and if our children should learn from them, ... we may tremble to think, what a flood of profaneness and atheism would break in upon us, and ripen us for the dreadfullest judgments of God. [Footnote: Idem, p. 7.]... They assault him [the aged president] with a volley of rude jeers and taunts, as if they were so many children of Bethel.” [Footnote: Idem, p. 8.] Among these taunts some struck deep, for they are quoted at length. “‘Abundance of people have long obstinately believed, that the contest on his part, is more for lordship and dominion, than for truth.’ But there are many more such passages, which laid altogether, would make a considerable dung-hil.” [Footnote: Idem, p. 9.] They dwelt with pathos upon those sacred rites desecrated by these “unsanctified” “young men” in their “miserable pamphlet.” “The Lord is exceedingly glorified, and his people are edified, by the accounts, which the candidates, of the communion in our churches give of that self-examination which is by plain institution ... a qualification, of the communicants. Now these think it not enough to charge the churches, which require & expect such accounts, with exceedingly provoking the Lord. But of the tears dropt by holy souls on those occasions, they say with a scoff, ‘whether they be for joy or grief, we are left in the dark.’” [Footnote: Collection of Some of the More Offensive Matters, p. 6.] But the suffering divines found peace in knowing that Christ himself would inflict the punishment upon these abandoned men which the priests would have meted out with holy joy had they still possessed the power.