The Litchfield County post. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1826-1829, 1827-03-15
THE PURITANS.


The following extract from the Edin-
burgh Review, in the article on Milton's
Doctrine of Christianity, was published a
few months since, in several of the journals
of this country. We present it to our rea-
dcrs, not for its novelty, but for its beauty
and exalted merit. Ii is evidently the pro-
duction of a mind not circumscrbed with
in the limits of ordinary contemplation
and should it chance to catch the eye which
has surveyed it in other journals, we hope
that no reader will feel the time as misap-
piled in the re-perusal.
We would speak first of the Puritans,
the mos' remarkable body of men, perhaps,
which the world has ever produced. The
odious and ridiculous part of their charac-
ter lie on the surface. He that runs may
read them; nor have there been wanting
attentive and malicious observers to point
them out. For many years after the res
toration, they were the theme ofunmeas-
ured invective and derision. They were
exposed to the utmost RIGHTEOUSNESS of the
press and of the stage, and at the time
when the press and the stage were most Ii
centious. They were not men of letters
they were as a body, unpopular; they
could not defend themselves and the pub
lie would not take them under its protec-
ton. They were therefore abandoned,
without reserve, to the tender mercies of
the satirsts and dramatists. The ostenta-
tious simplicity of their dress, their sour
aspect, their nasal twang, theirstif' posture,
their long graces, their Hebrew names, the
Scriptural phrases which they introduced
on every occasion, their contempt of hui
man learning, their detestation of polite
amusements, were indeed fair game for the
laughers. .... ...
The Puritans were men whose minds
had derived peculiar character from the
daily contemplation of superior beings and
eternal Interests. Not content with ack-
nowledgiug, in general terms, an over-ru-
ling Providence, they habitually ascribcd
every event to the will of the Great Being,
for whose power nothing was too vast, for
whose inspection nothing was too minute. To
know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was
with them the great end of existence. They
rejected with contempt the ceremonious
homage which other sects substituted for
the pure worship of the soul. Instead OF
catching occasional glimpses of the Deity
through an obscuring veil, they aspired to
gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and
commune with him face to face. Hence
originated their contempt for terrestrial
distinctions. The difference between the
greatest and meanest of mankind seemed
to vanish, when compared with the bound
less interval which separated the whole
race from him on whom their own eyes
were constantly fixed. They recognized
no title to superiority but his favour: and,
confident of that favour, they dospised all
the accomplishments and all the dignities
of the world. If they were unacquainted
with the works of philosophers and poets,
they were deeply read in the oracles OF
God. If their names were not found in
the registers of heralds, they felt assured
that they were recorded in the Book OF
Life. If their steps were not accompanied
by splendid train of mcnials, legions Of