-210-

AUGUST

30, 1637 --Massachusetts. At Newtown, later named Cambridge, a synod meets to discuss the doctrinal tenets of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. Peter Bulkeley from Concord and Thomas Hooker from Hartford are chosen as moderators. John Davenport is present is Thomas Shepard who opens with prayer.
     About eighty questions will be heard --some blasphemous, others erroneous, and all unsafe. Thus after sitting for twenty-four days, the synod will condemn all her doctrines and ban gatherings in her house; for twice a week she has conducted public lectures to sixty or eighty people.
     Her doctrinal impurities are judged: 1.) The Person of the Holy Spirit dwells in a justified person, and 2.) No sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification --hence she was an antinomian; and 3.) The souls of men are mortal by generation, but made immortal by Christ's purchase.
     She will be banished from Massachusetts Bay, and excommunicated from her church. She will first find refuge on an island in Narragansett Bay, but will later move to New York in 1643 at which time she and seven of her eight children will be murdered by the Indians.

30, 1658 --England. The farmer of Huntingdon was unnoticed until he was more than forty years of age, but became the best officer in the British army and the greatest statesman of his day. He has brought Justice, Prosperity and Religious Peace to England. Nova Scotia submitted to his demands without a struggle. The Dutch sued for peace. Louis XIV was humiliated and the Protestant exiles of the Piedmont enjoyed temporary rest from their persecutors.
     Oliver Cromwell lies dying at age fifty-nine. "The Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of His pardon and His love as my soul can hold I am more than a conqueror through Christ that strengtheneth me." In four days he will expire.
     As colonel of a troop of cavalry, his regiment has become known as Cromwell's "Ironsides." It was never defeated and was composed of "men of religion." They did not swear or drink, and advanced to the charge singing hymns. They carry the Soldier's Pocket Bible of 1643,drawn up by Edmund Calamy, the Elder, and issued for use in the Army of the Commonwealth.
     Mr. Cromwell was limited by defects such as make imperfect the best of men, but Philip Schaff says of him that he was "a man of sincere devotion to duty and to the ideal of what a Christian man should be. No sour fanatic, he was strict in banishing not merely vice but the folly that leads to vice."
     On May 25, 1660, Charles II will land in England. The monarchy will be restored, England has refused the chaste, Godly influences of Oliver Cromwell and will receive the King in ecstasy. Men will gather around buckets of wine in the streets and will drink the king's health on their knees. The bells in every steeple will resound while bonfires will be so numerous it will appear as though London is encircled with a halo. As the king passes from Dover to London, every hill will appear covered with people. The trees will be filled with spectators.
      On the evening of his arrival, he will debauch a nineteen-year-old wife of one of his subjects. He has himself in very early life become debauched in both mind and heart. A selfish libertine, he has become reckless in his profligacy, and bowed his neck to the yoke of lewdness. “His delight,” says John Evelyn was in "concubines and cattle of that sort;" and “from the day of his entrance into London" observed George Bancroft, "to the last week of life, he spent his time in toying with his mistresses and listening to love songs." When the English Commons impeaches Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, the king will be able to think only how to get the Duchess of Richmond to court again. And, when the war with the Dutch experiences serious disasters, "the king did still follow his women as much as ever," and will take more pains to make friends of the rival beauties of his court than to save his kingdom.
     "When he is drunk," observed Mr. Bancroft, "he will be a good-natured, subservient fool. In the Council of State, he will play with his dog, never minding the business, or making a speech, memorable only for its silliness."
     On the last morning of his life, he will bid his attendants open the curtains of his bed and the windows of his bedchamber, that he might once more see the sun. "For God's sake, send for a Catholic priest," he will cry in the desire for absolution; but will check himself lest he should expose the Duke of York to danger. His nearly last wish will be that his servants "Do not leave poor Nelly Gwyn to starve."
     It is ironic that England should have such a lewd king when in the colonies lewdness and adultery were punished by death on the gallows.



    
 

Previous   Next