Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 18:69 (Jan 1861)
Article: Review Of Palfrey’s History Of New England
Author: Ralph Emerson

BSac 18:69 (Jan 1861) p. 178

Review Of Palfrey’s History Of New England1

Ralph Emerson

Many will unite with us in the belief that any good history of New England is better for the great purposes of Christian education than any other uninspired literature. By Christian education we mean, not simply the acquisition of knowledge, however diversified and important, nor simply the right training of the intellect, but also and chiefly the right training of the heart and the shaping of the grand principles and purposes of life; in a word, it is such a training as is best fitted to form immortal minds for all the purposes for which God has made them. If one is to form himself for splendid military achievements, let him adopt, like Charles XII. of Sweden, the life of Alexander as his favorite book. But if he is to aim at a crown that will never fade, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let him first of all select the only book of infallible instruction on the nature of that kingdom and the way to secure it, and next, the book which gives the best account of the most earnest, protracted, successful attempts ever made to emulate, not an Alexander or a Caesar, but those higher characters whose names are enrolled in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, who out of weakness were made strong, subdued kingdoms, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, counted not their lives dear unto themselves; of whom the world was not worthy.

And where, among uninspired annals, shall we find this best book for the purpose? Where, but in the history of

BSac 18:69 (Jan 1861) p. 179

the early settlement of this country by the Puritans? They, of all men since the days of the Apostles, both professedly and really took the Bible without note or comment for their guide, their law, and the charter of their hopes.

It has been slanderously said of them that they instituted a theocracy. None but God himself could institute a theocracy. But while the Puritan immigrants never pretended that God ruled them by miraculous indications of his will, they did believe in the guidance of his Providence and Spirit to those who properly sought it; and they did (the most formally in the New Haven Colony) avouch the laws which God had already given in his word as their supreme guide, to be applied wherever applicable in the letter and everywhere in their spirit. And this it is — adopted and carried out so conscientiously and so long by the state, the church, the family, the individual — precisely this, that made the Puritans what they were, and their early descendants what they became.

And be it so, that they made some mistakes in applying God’s laws; it was a thousand times better than to have no higher law. The...