.. It is a sensible addition, unto their horrour, to see the
horrid character of more than one or two, who have got themselves
qualified with Episcopal ordination, ... and come over as missionaries,
perhaps to serve scarce twenty families of such people, in a town of
several hundred families of Christians, better instructed than the very
missionaries: to think, that they must have no other ministers, but such
as are ordained, and ordered by them, who have sent over such tippling
sots unto them: instead of those pious and painful and faithful
instructors which they are now blessed withal!" [Footnote: "A Faithful
Relation of a Late Occurrence." _Mass. Hist. Coll._ second series, ii.
138, 139.]
Only three of the converts had the fortitude to withstand the pressure to
which they were exposed: Cutler, Johnson, and Brown went to England for
ordination; there Brown died of small-pox, but Cutler returned to Boston
as a missionary, and as he, too, possessed a certain clerical aptitude for
forcible expression, it is fitting he should relate his own experiences:--
"I find that, in spite of malice and the basest arts our godly enemies can
easily stoop to, that the interest of the church grows and penetrates into
the very heart of this country.... This great town swarms with them
"(churchmen)," and we are so confident of our power and interest that, out
of four Parliament-men which this town sends to our General Assembly, the
church intends to put up for two, though I am not very sanguine about our
success in it.
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