Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/125
exercised over the Churchmen, Quakers, and Anabaptists, in consequence of which they first felt the efforts of those gentle weapons in New England, whisperings and backbitings, and were at length openly stigmatised as Arminians and enemies of the American vine. This conduct of the Sober Dissenters increased the grievious sin of moderation; and near twenty ministers, at the head of which was Dr. Cutler, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Whitmore and Mr. Brown, who repaired to England for orders. Dr. Cutler had the misfortune to spend his life and great abilities in the fanaticial, ungrateful, and 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 of Stratford, where he fought the beast of Ephesus with great success. The doctor was under the bountiful protection of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, incorporated by William the Third, 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. Punderson. These gentlemen could not be wheedled off by the Assembly and Consociation; they persevered and obtained names among the literati that will never be forgotten.
The compiler of the Wetmore Memorial remarks that: "The sentiments of this enthusiastic churchman and loyalist, which we have so extensively quoted, should be read by the younger members of the family, with several degrees of allowance.
Mr. Wetmore received his ordination as a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church from the hands of the Right Reverend Edmund Gibson, D.D., Lord Bishop of London, England, whither he had repaired for that purpose.