[Book review].

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Book review]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/48 (page 12)
    while the Church authorities in Salem considered themselves responsible for the maintenance of true doctrine, and for leaving no opening for Satan to enter the fold dn the form of heresy, or any kind or degree of dissent. Their fathers, the first settlers, had made the colony too hot for one of their most virtuous and distinguished citizens, because he had views of his own on Infant Baptism; they had brought him to judgment, magistrate and church member as he was, for not having pre¬ sented his infant child at the font; he had sold his estates and gone away. If such a citizen as Townsend Bishop wras thus lost to their society, how could the guardians of religion surrender their control over any church or pastor within their reach? They had spiritual charge of a community which had made its abode on the American shore for the single purpose of living its own religious life in its own way ; and no dissent or modification from within could be permitted, any more than intrusion or molestation from without. Between the ecclesias¬ tical view on the one hand, and the civil view on the other, there was small chance of harmony between town and village, or between pastor, (lock, and the overseers of both. The great point on which they were all agreed was that they were all in special danger from the extremest malice of Satan, who, foiled in Puritan England, was bent on revenge in America, and was visibly and audibly present in the settlement, seeking whom he might devour. Quarrelling began with the appearance of the first minister, a young Mr. Bayley, who was appointed from year to year, but never ordained the pastor, till 1679, when the authorities at Salem tried to force him upon the people at Salem Village in the face of a strong opposition. The Farmers disregarded the orders issued from the town, and managed their religious affairs by general meetings of their own congre¬ gation; and at length Mr. Bayley retired, leaving the society in a much worse temper than he had found on his arrival. A handsome gift of land was settled upon him, in acknowledg¬ ment of his services ; he quitted the ministry, and practised medicine in Boxbury till his death, nearly thirty years after¬ wards. His partisans wmre enemies of his successor, of course. Mr. Burroughs was a man of even distinguished excellence in the pastoral relation, in days vdien risks from Indians made that duty as perilous as the career of the soldier in war time; but his flock were divided, church business was neglected, he was allowed to fall into wTant. lie withdrew, was recalled to settle accounts, was arrested for debt in full meeting —the debt being O O