General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Dr. Cutler, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Whitemore, and
Mr. Brown, who repaired to England for holy orders. Dr. Cutler had the
misfortune to spend his life and great abilities in the fanatical,
ungrateful, factious town of Boston, where he went through fiery
trials, shining brighter and brighter, till he was delivered from
New-England persecution, and landed where the wicked cease from
troubling. Dr. Johnson, from his natural disposition, and not for the
sake of gain, took pity on the neglected church at Stratford, where
for fifty years he fought the beast of Ephesus with great success.[37]
The Doctor was under the bountiful protection of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, incorporated by William
III., to save from the rage of republicanism, heathenism, and
fanaticism, all such members of the Church of England as were settled
in our American colonies, factories, and plantations beyond the sea.
To the foresight of that monarch, to the generous care and protection
of that society, under God, are owing all the loyalty, decency,
christianity undefiled with blood, which glimmer in New-England. Dr.
Johnson having settled at Stratford among a nest of zealots, and not
being assassinated, other dissenting ministers were induced to join
themselves to the Church of England, among whom were Mr. Beach and Mr.
Penderson. These gentlemen could not be wheedled off by the Assembly
and Consociation; they persevered, and obtained names among the
Literate that will never be forgotten.
The four remaining towns of Fairfield County, viz. _Newtown_,
_Reading_, _Danbury_, and _Ridgfield_, lie behind the towns on the
sea. I shall describe the last of them, which is _Danbury_. It has
much the appearance of Croydon, and forms five parishes, one of which
is episcopal, and another Sandemanian; a third is called Bastard
Sandemanian, because the minister refused to put away his wife, who is
a second wife. The town was the residence, and is now the tomb, of the
learned and ingenious Rev. Mr. Sandeman, well known to the literary
world. He was the fairest and most candid Calvinist that ever wrote in
the English language, allowing the natural consequences of all his
propositions. He taught that a bishop must be the husband of one
wife--that is, he must be married before he was ordained--and, if he
lost his wife, he could not marry a second; that a bishop might dress
with ruffles, a red coat, and sword; that all converted brothers and
sisters, at their coming into the Church, ought to salute with an holy
kiss; that all true christians would obey their earthly king: for
which tenets, especially the last, the _Sober Dissenters_ of
Connecticut held him to be a heretic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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