The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards

9 | The New England Way in an Age of Religious Ferment

Chapter Nine THE NEW ENGLAND WAY IN AN AGE OF RELIGIOUS FERMENT The English struggle and the Puritan triumph in England stimulated the confidence and aggressiveness ofthe New Englanders. They lent their energies to support of God's cause and developed a closer relationship with the English government than would have been conceivable in the 1630s. At the same time they were aware of the danger that the fragmentation of the English Puritan movement could pose to the New England Way. If Presbyterianism triumphed in Old England it could lead to attempts to impose that discipline on the Bible Commonwealths. The seductive ideas of English sectaries threatened to spread to America if not zealously guarded against. So, while the colonists broadened their involvement in "foreign" affairs during the period of the Puritan Revolution and the Interregnum, they were also forced to meet new internal challenges to the stability of their social and religious experiment. Defending Congregationalism When the Westminster Assembly convened in England in 1643, three New England clergymen—John Cotton, John Davenport, and Thomas Hooker—were invited to take seats in it. Though a return to England had some attraction for all three, they declined. It had become obvious from English reports that the assembly would be dominated by Presbyterians, with few supporters of the New England (Congregational) Way in attendance . Listening to the advice of Thomas Goodwin and other English Congregationalists, Hooker and the others decided they could best aid the reform cause by their writings, by perfecting the model of their churches, and by defending those churches against Presbyterians in their own midst. 13 2 THE P URITAN EXPERIMENT For the Presbyterian minority in New England, of little significance in the 1630s, had assumed new importance as Presbyterians rose to power in England. Thomas Parker and James Noyse were cousins. The former was pastor of the Newbury, Massachusetts, congregation and the latter was teacher. They administered their congregation not as a gathering of saints, but as a reformed parish. They opened baptism and the Lord's Supper to all but notorious sinners. Their practices represented a significant deviation from the polity of the New England churches as commonly practiced and was far closer to the ecclesiastical system advocated by Presbyterians and practiced in Scotland. In September of 1643, Parker and Noyse were asked to discuss their viewpoint at a meeting with their clerical brethren at Cambridge. John Cotton and Thomas Hooker jointly presided over that Cambridge Assembly of 1643. Clergymen from the various colonies were entertained in the new buildings of Harvard College. Both sides presented their arguments , and the majority expressed disapproval of some of the Newbury church's practices. Parker and Noyse agreed to consider the points made by their colleagues but remained unconvinced. Noyse prepared a treatise expressing his dissent and dispatched it to England for publication. Parker wrote to a friend sitting in the Westminster Assembly, setting forth his belief that the churches of New England "have a great need of help in the way of Discipline, and we hope that we shall receive much light from you." Parker's English correspondent published the letter in an attempt to undercut the arguments of English Congregationalists. When copies were received in New England, the majority of the American Puritans, apprehensive of just such "help" from a Presbyterian England, were considerably alarmed. It soon became apparent that Newbury was not the only congregation with a pastor eager to exercise the autocratic authority identifiable with Presbyterianism. Peter Hobart, pastor of Hingham, was another. By 1645, Hobart had become accustomed to denying his congregation any significant voice in church affairs. When he and his family began to exercise undue power in civil affairs as well, it became a matter for the intervention of the magistrates. Most of the inhabitants of Hingham, Massachusetts, including the Hobart family, were immigrants from the English town of the same name. Anthony Eames was a member of a minority of settlers from the West Country of England. Nevertheless, his neighbors had chosen Eames to be commander of Hingham's militia band. When the band was raised to the status of a company in 1645, its members chose Eames captain and submitted his name to the colony magistrates for approval. But Eames was not An Age ofReligious Ferment 133 allied with the Hobarts. His independence worried the pastor's family, and they used their influence to secure the company's reversal...