reading omens and pointing fingers

Despite missionary progress, by the late 1660s many ministers were convinced that the colonies were straying from their covenant with God and losing their way. The evidence of God’s displeasure seemed manifold. Severe droughts were followed by destructive floods. Caterpillars and mildew devastated wheat crops. Fire and smallpox claimed property and lives. Conflict consumed communities, and prominent churches suffered schism, including the first churches of Boston and Hartford. In 1664 a comet blazed across the sky, and three years later a “zodiacal” light appeared, shaped like a spear and pointed at New England. It troubled many that the esteemed ministers of the founding generation were dying. “Is not the Lord packing up the chief goods he hath and removing them away?” asked Northampton pastor Eleazer Mather. “When God dismisseth his righteous ones, it is a sign that he himself will be gone ere long.” 

Ministers concluded that God had a “controversy” with New England. They used special occasions such as elections or fast days to warn that God was disciplining his people and that if they did not repent, discipline would lead to judgment. Such sermons became known as “jeremiads” because, like the ancient prophet Jeremiah, they warned of God’s looming judgment. They were sure God had a covenant with New England, similar though not identical to his ancient covenant with Israel. “The Lord hath said of New England, surely they are my people,” William Stoughton preached. God “singled out New England . . . above any nation or people in the world.” True, “God had his creatures in this wilderness before we came, and his rational creatures too, a multitude of them, but as to sons and children that are covenant born unto God, are not we the first such a relation?” 

To be God’s first people meant being held to a higher standard. If they obeyed God, he would bless them, but if they disobeyed, he would punish them. “God hath given New England many days of prosperity,” warned Simon Willard’s son Samuel, “but meanwhile sin hath been growing upon us.” As God’s watchmen, ministers had to warn the people, identify their sins, and call them to repentance. 

Unfortunately, ministers did not always agree about what those sins were. Many ministers lamented congregations’ failure to bring young adults into church membership. “You may fear that your children one day will curse you and wish that they had been the children of Indians,” warned Eleazar Mather. They fretted that the founding generation’s passion for God’s kingdom had given way to obsession with land and economic prosperity, resulting in pride, conflict, and exploitation. They complained about lack of financial support and challenges to their authority and about the increasing toleration of Baptists and other dissidents, which produced such “diversity of opinions” that people “know not what to believe.” Towns petitioned for a formal investigation of “the causes of God’s displeasure against the land,” triggering intense debate among the colony’s leaders. They did not say much about evangelizing America’s first people, let alone injustice toward Indians. Samuel Danforth, Eliot’s colleague in Roxbury, did not even mention missionary work when discussing New England’s purpose.

Tuininga, Matthew J.. The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (pp. 194-195). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.