The Claims of Puritanism

LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. BY REV. ORVILLE DEWEY. Pastor of the Firit Congregational Church, in New-Bedford. BOSTON : PRINTED BY TRUE & GREENE. PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 1826, ^1 HARVAHD e:;''L'_£GE LIBRARY HECEtVEO iTl^JUGri THE \ GRADUATE SCHOuL OF^ ■k CommonUiraltfi of :ffnumtitUuutit». HOUSB OP REPRESENTATIVES, Mat 31, 1826. ORDERED, That Messrs. Thater, of Braintree,6ARRT of Boston, Tatlor, of Northampton, be a Committee to present the thanks of this House to the Rev. Mr. Dsw£t, for his discourse, and request a copy for the press. Mest P, W. WARREN, Clerk. «# 0^ Some of the topics of the following Discourse^ will be found to be more fully discassed than it was convenient to do at the time of its delivery. SERMON. PSALM LXXIII 2, 3. I WILL OPXir MT MOUTH IN A PARABLB ; I WILL UTTER DARK SAT iires OF OLD : which we have heard and known, and our FATHERS HAVE TOLD US. There is a peculiarity in the circumstances of this occa- sion, which strongly marks the origin of our chril institutions. That the opening of a Legislative Assembly, that the com- mencement of a new political year, should be solemnized with the delivery of a sermon, is a custom, peculiar if not to our own Commonwealth, at least to the New England States, and would be thought a singular feature in the habits of any people. We are reminded at once, of those days when the deliberations of Parliaments were interrupted to make way for the solemnities of religion, when the dignity of legisla- tive functions was exchanged for fasting and prayer, and when the proud eloquence of the orator was obliged to yield for a while to the stern exhortion of the preacher. We are reminded in other words^ of the days of the Puritans. The transition, therefore, will not be difficult, from this occasion, to the character and claims of Puritanism. Speak- ing as I do to those who are descendants of the Puritans, I need make no apology for undertaking to vindicate them from some portion of the unmeasured obloquy and abuse which have been heaped upon their memory- The time has come, I beheve, to do them this justice. The liberal spirit of the age more than warrants — ^it encourages even the humblest attempt to do this. And surely, if the general lib- erahty of the age, is a warrant for our theme, the filial rela- tion which we bear to Puritanism may be fairly considered as a claim upon us.

Nor let it be thought that the tie of descent has preserved us altogether, from that general injustice which has follow- ed for three centuries, the name of Puritans. I doubt if we are not even yet, half-ashamed of our fathers. The faults ■M. ■ of the age stilrobscure to our eyes the virtues of the men. The mistakes and singularities of the sect, disguise from our view their piety aiiJ heroism. And still, too, there lingers amidst our Repubhcan simplicity, an incongruous and weak admiration for orders and titles. If the men who came to these shores had been the possessors of fortune and honor, if they had been Piinces, instead of being Puritans — ^ifa band of warriors had come, though from the slaughter of half the world — or if there had come a body of nobles and cavaliers, with stars and coronets, with shields and banners, though they had been driven from their native land, for the freedom of their morarls, and not for the freedom of their cooeciences — ^if this had been our origin, there may be those to whom it wpuld be more welcome than to look back to the untitled names and unadorned virtues of the Fathers of New-England. And yet I am not afraid to aver, that there never was a nobler ancestry commemorated in the annals — no, nor in the legends of ftny people, than that which it is our privilege, if not our pride, to call our own. And although to some this may appear as a parable and a dark sayings I shall undertake to show, according to the real import of those words, in our text, that it is a matter of fact and of history- To vindicate the honors of Puritanism in America, therefore is the principal and ultimate object of what I have now to offer- But, to open the way for this, I shall invite youy first, to consider the character and claims of the Puri- tans of England. The Puritans arose in England ab^ut the middle of the sixteenth century, as early as the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth. They took their name, not as is commonly sup- posed from pretending to a purer character than their fellow christians, but from their preferring a simpler, and as they apprehended, on this account, ^ purer mode of worship. They were at first, distinguished as a religious body ; but the most important influence by far, which they have exert- ed in the affairs of the world, they have exerted' as a po- litical body, in the cause of political liberty. This honor, however, does not belong to the Puritans alone : and the oblo- quy which has fallen to their Jot, has rested upon them, chiefly as pioneers in the cause of free institutions. It was the same body, actuated by the same principles which about the middle of the seventeenth century, took the name of Non- Conformists, — embracing the Independents,Presbyterians and Quakers. And it is the same body still, the same in its ori- gio, the same in the great principles of religious independ- ence, which, in later times has fallen under the denomina- tion of Dissenters* Let me now observe, that the odium which has attached to this great and increasing body of the people of England, began where their name has ended-— tn their dissent. …