Thus had one century changed the absolute reverence and
affectionate regard of the Pilgrims for their church, their ministers,
and their meeting-houses, to irreverent and obstinate desire for personal
satisfaction. No wonder that the ministers at that date preached and
believed that Satan was making fresh and increasing efforts to destroy the
Puritan church. The hour was ready for Whitefield, for Edwards, for any
new awakening; and was above all fast approaching for the sadly needed
temperance reform.
In the seventeenth century a minister was ordained and re-ordained at
each church over which he had charge; but after some years the name of
installation was given to each appointment after the first ordination, and
the ceremony was correspondingly changed.
XX.
The Ministers.
The picture which Colonel Higginson has drawn of the Puritan minister is so
well known and so graphic that any attempt to add to it would be futile.
All the succeeding New England parsons, as years rolled by, were not,
however, like the black-gowned, black-gloved, stately, and solemn man whom
he has so clearly shown us. Men of rigid decorum, and grave ceremony there
were, such as Dr. Emmons and Jonathan Edwards; but there were parsons also
of another type,--eccentric, unconventional, and undignified in demeanor
and dress. Parson Robinson, of Duxbury, persisted in wearing in the pulpit,
as part of his clerical attire, a round jacket instead of the suitable
gown or Geneva cloak, and he was known thereby as "Master Jack.
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