... It is a very dark day with us; and we need pity,
prayers and counsel. [Footnote: Rev. Joseph Webb to Dr. C. Mather.
_Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii. 131.]
* * * * *
From the tone in which these tidings were received it is plain that the
charity and humility of the golden age of Massachusetts were not yet
altogether extinct among her ecclesiastics. The ministers published their
"sentiments" in a document beginning as follows:--
"These new Episcopalians have declared their desire to introduce an
usurpation and a superstition into the church of God, clearly condemned in
the sacred Scriptures, which our loyalty and chastity to our Saviour,
obliges us to keep close unto; and a tyranny, from which the whole church,
which desires to be reformed, has groaned that it may be delivered.... The
scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men with the Papists is, perhaps,
more than what they have themselves duly considered." [Footnote: The
Sentiments of the Several Ministers in Boston. _Mass. Hist. Coll._
second series, ii. 133.] In "A Faithful Relation" of what had happened it
was observed: "It has caused some indignation in them," (the people) "to
see the vile indignity cast by these cudweeds upon those excellent
servants of God, who were the leaders of the flock that followed our
Saviour into this wilderness: and upon the ministry of them, and their
successours, in which there has been seen for more than forescore years
together, the power and blessing of God for the salvation of many
thousands in the successive generations; with a success beyond what any of
them which set such an high value on the Episcopal ordination could ever
boast of!.
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