men who brought an unquenchable moral
enthusiasm to the support of a clearly defined purpose. They had counted
the cost and made their choice; and every instinct of proud and
self-contained men disposed them to minimize the difficulties which they
encountered in the New World and to exaggerate those which they had
overcome in the Old. Having staked their judgment on the wisdom of the
venture, they were bound to be justified in the event. To admit that
life on the physical and moral frontier was less than they had imagined
would be a humiliating confession of failure; and worse than a
confession of failure; for God had appointed this refuge for them, and
not to abide in it in all contentment would be to cavil at his purpose,
to question his decree. With the instinct of true pioneers they
therefore idealized the barren wilderness, pronouncing its air most
healing, its soil most fertile; and with unfailing optimism proving, by
the very sufferings they endured, how practicable, how spacious and
attractive was the habitation which they had set themselves to fashion.

Thus it was that the very influences which relaxed the hold of the
Puritan ideal upon the mass of the people served only to strengthen its
hold upon their leaders. With resolution stiffened by every obstacle,
magistrates and clergy pressed on to the appointed task, never doubting
that they were called upon to justify the ways of God to man. Drawing
their inspiration from Geneva and the ancient Hebrew code, they assumed,
with a courage as sublime as it proved futile, to foster moral and
spiritual excellence by decrees of state. Indifference or opposition
only called them to a stricter rule; for every physical disaster, every
denial of the creed or departure from the straight line of life, was
thought to be God's judgment upon them for some want of faith or failure
in the law. And in later years the chastisements of the Lord were
many:--the desolating King Philip's War; persistent interference with
their chartered Liberties; dissensions in the Boston Church and quarrels
of magistrates and clergy; the rise of "an anti-ministerial spirit" and
the growth of worldliness and lax living among the people. "What are the
reasons that have provoked the Lord to bring his judgments upon New
England?" Such was the primary question which the Synod of 1679 was
called upon to answer. "Declension from the primitive foundation work,
innovation in doctrine and worship"--this, accord