The Glorious Revolution in America

8 Massachusetts Bay: Demise

8 Massachusetts Bay: Demise The Reforming Synod Despite the terrible scourge of King Philip's War, the cycle of sin and calamity continued in Massachusetts, greatly upsetting those whose task it was to keep the public conscience. The punishment of war, it seemed, had not wholly satisfied God's justice. True, some of the earlier sins had been expiated. As far as they knew, "Marry Moor" and her friends had ceased their fornication; Alice Thomas had given over the keeping of a "brothel-house." Even the dancing school had been "put down."l Nevertheless, the war had hardly ceased when fire broke out in Boston, and although the "Lord sent much rain, moderated the spreading of it," He had not acted in time to save some fifty buildings left in ashes, including Increase Mather's North Meetinghouse and parsonage.Not much later smallpox was discovered, brought by an English ship, and before it was over, about 180 colonists in Boston had died and another eighty in Charlestown in a year or more's 1. "Diary of John Hull," A.A.S. Trans, and Coll., Ill (1857), 232; C.O. 5/903, p. 105; CSPCol., 1675-1676, #849. 143 144 The GloriousRevolutionin America time. It was clear to many that God's controversy with New England was far from over.2 Probably the disastrous fire and an epidemic of smallpox had something to do with calling the "Reforming Synod" in 1679. Still, other troubles, some less sharply defined, nonetheless serious, were certainly evident. King Philip's War had profoundly disturbed Puritan society, and not just as a bloody punishment of its people for sins committed. Despite determination among many to close ranks and go on, the devastation and its aftermath of related problems shook the confidence of a people who could not afford to doubt the success of perseverance. Some of the cockiness which earlier characterized their doings was gone. Massachusetts had sustained a blow which blunted somewhat the sharpness of its purpose and endeavor; the war unsettled a lot of people, adding new strains to a society which was not at full spiritual strength and was unable properly to exert control in the accustomed ways over its people.3 But this was not the worst of it. Having published their sins to the world, Bay colonists continued to commit them; in fact, according to the clergy, they had violated already the public vows and solemn promises made in the very crucible of war. Differences appeared among people and their churches; new meetinghouses were erected, and although on the pretense of worshiping God, they really laid groundwork, if not for schism and heresy, at least for dividing and weakening the community, undermining the proper establishment of churches "in one faith &order of the gospell." On top of these internal difficulties were the frightening developments in England, where the King's men challenged the sanctity of the charter, ignored the meaning of the covenant, and humiliated their agents. To restore their spiritual confidence, to save the community from further destruction and resist interference from abroad, the General Court, urged by the clergy, summoned a Synod to meet in September of 1679,"to enquire into the causes of Gods displeasure . . . and scripture expedients for Reformation." And then, as if to mock them, on August 8 fire again swept through Boston; having begun in an alehouse, before sunrise the next day it had "consumed the body of the trading part of the town." 4 2. Hull, "Diary," pp. 242, 243, 244; M.H.S. Proc., 2d ser., XIII, 411; Mather, "Autobiography," A.A.S. Proc., 71 (1961), pt. 2, 302-3. 3. For the war's spiritual and other damage, see Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 20-21, 22-23, 31-32; Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk, pp. 243-44, 249-50. 4. Mass. Arch., Ecclesiastical, 1637-1679, 10, 196-98; Shurtleff, ed., Recs. Mass. Bay, V, 215, 213; Mather, "Autobiography," p. 305; Hull, "Diary," pp. 245, 246. Massachusetts Bay: Demise 145 When the Synod met, God gave Increase Mather the opportunity to do some "peculiar Service." He preached on the first day of the meeting to the assembled elders and messengers, and throughout the proceedings deftly prevented the dragging up of old and controversial business, like the Half-Way Covenant, which certainly would have threatened their unanimity. At its close the Synod presented the...