Michael Wigglesworth

“ Thou liv'st in sin, thy sins will grow the stronger;
And then it will an harder matter prove
To leave those wicked haunts that thou dost love.
The Black'moor may as eas'ly change his skin;
As old Transgressors leave their wonted sin.
And who can tell what will become of thee,
Or where thy Soul in one day's time may be?
We see that Death never old nor young men spares,
But one and other takes at unawares;
For in a moment, whilst men Peace do cry,
Destruction seizeth on them suddenly.
Thou who this morning art a lively wight,
May'st be a corpse and damned Ghost ere night. ”

“ The things of God; who little prize his Favor.
Farewell, I say, with your Fool's Paradise,
Until the King of Terrors you surprise,
And bring you trembling to Christ's Judgment Seat,
To give Account of your Transgressions great.
Farewell, New England, which hast long enjoy'd
The Day of Grace, but hast most vainly toy'd
And trifled with the Gospel's glorious Light;
Thou may'st expect a dark Egyptian Night.
Farewell, young Brood and rising Generation,
Wanton and proud, ripe for God's Indignation,
Which neither you nor others can prevent,
Except in Truth you speedily repent. ”

“ The popularity of Wigglesworth dated from the appearance of his poem, and continued for more than a century. Expressing in earnest words the theology which they believed, and picturing in lively colors the terrors of the judgment day and the awful wrath of an offended God, it commended itself to those zealous Puritans, who had little taste for lofty rhyme or literary excellence. The imaginative youth devoured its horrors with avidity, and shuddered at its fierce denunciation of sin. ”

“ Lament and mourn you that must burn
amidst those flaming Seas:
If once you come to such a doom,
for ever farewell ease.
O sad estate and desperate,
that never can be mended,
Until God's Will shall change, or till
Eternity be ended!
If any one this Questi-on
shall unto me propound:
What! have the years of Sinners' tears
no limits or no bound?
It kills our heart to think of smart,
and pains that last for ever ”

“ If, then, thou neither canst his Wrath endure,
Nor any ransom after death procure;
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If neither Cries nor Tears can move his heart
To pardon thee or mitigate thy smart,
But unto Hell thou must perforce be sent,
With dismal horror and astonishment,
Consider, O my Friend, what cause thou hast,
With fear and trembling (while as yet thou may'st) ,
To lay to heart thy sin and misery,
And to make out after the Remedy.
Consider well the greatness of thy danger,
O Child of wrath, and object of God's anger.
Thou hangest over the Infernal Pit
By one small thread, and car'st not thou a whit? ”

“ Like to Christ's glorious Body, glorious made.
Thus Christ shall thee again to me restore,
Ever to live with him and part no more.
Meanwhile my Soul shall enter into Peace,
Where Fears and Tears, where Sin and Smart shall cease. ”

“ Canst thou account sin sweet, and yet confess
That first or last it ends in bitterness?
Is sin a thing that must procure thee sorrow,
And wouldst thou dally with't another morrow?
O foolish man who lovest to enjoy
That which will thee distress, or else destroy! ”

“ For the last century, however, the reputation of the Day of Doom has waned, and few at the present day know it except by reputation.
The author of this book, whose wand had summoned up such images of terror, was neither a cynic nor a misanthrope, though sickness, which generally brings out these dispositions where they exist, had long been his doom. His attenuated frame and feeble health were joined to genial manners; and, though subject to fits of despondency, he seems generally to have maintained a cheerful temper, so much so that some of his friends believed his ills to be imaginary. ”

“ The true explanation may be, that he sacrificed his poetical taste to his theology, and that, for the sake of inculcating sound doctrine, he was willing to write in halting numbers.
The author of the Day of Doom, belonging to the straitest sect of Puritans, was, like many others of that sect, a man of generous feeling toward his fellows. Rev. Dr. Peabody calls him "a man of the beatitudes." Obedience to the supreme law gave a heavenly lustre to his example and a sweet fragrance to his memory. ”

“ It was natural that a father who had endured so much for conscience' sake should desire to see his only son a clergyman; and, although the father's means were not large, the son was devoted to the ministry and given a thorough education. Michael, after nearly three years of preparatory studies, entered Harvard College in 1647. Here he had the good fortune to have for a {5} tutor the excellent Jonathan Mitchell, "the glory of the college," and famous as a preacher. ”

“ Ezekiel Cheever, who at that time taught school in his own house, and under him in a year or two I profited so much through ye blessing of God, that I began to make Latin and to get forward apace. But God who is infinitely wise and absolutely soverain, and gives no account concerning any of his proceedings, was pleased about this time to visit my father with Lameness which grew upon him more and more to his dying Day, though he liv'd under it 13 years. ”

“ And that yet he might more Faithfully set himself to do Good, when he could not Preach he Wrote several Composures, wherein he proposed the edification of such Readers as are for plain Truths, dressed up in a Plain Meeter. These Composures have had their Acceptance and Advantage among that sort of Readers; and one of them, the Day of Doom, which has been often Reprinted in both Englands, may find our Children till the Day itself arrive.
It pleased God, when the distress of the Church in Malden did extremely call for it, wondrously to restore his Faithful Servant. ”

“ These godly parents of mine meeting with opposition and persecution for Religion, because they went from their own Parish church to hear ye word and Receiv ye Lords supper &c, took up resolutions to pluck up their stakes and remove themselves to New England: and accordingly they did so, Leaving dear Relations, friends and acquaintance, their native Land, a new built house, a flourishing Trade, to expose themselves to ye hazzard of ye seas, and to ye Distressing difficulties of a howling wilderness, that they might enjoy Liberty of Conscience and Christ in his ordinances. ”

“ Benjamin Bunker was ordained pastor of the church at Malden. It seems that a distinction was observed at this time in New England between pastor and teacher. Wigglesworth calls Bunker "pastor" in some verses composed on his death, while on the title-page of this work he calls himself "teacher." After Wigglesworth became sole minister, he was probably considered the pastor. Bunker held this office over six years, till his death, Feb. 3, 1669-70. In the elegy on the death of his colleague, Wigglesworth highly extols Bunker's piety and usefulness. ”

“ From his Exemplary Life I will single out one thing, his EARLY RELIGION. Our Wigglesworth was a Godly child, and he held on living to God and Christ until the Seventy-Fourth Year of his Age.
When he lay a Dying, some one spoke to him about his having secured his Interest in the Favor of Heaven, and his Assurance of that Interest. He Replyed, [Me-thoughts like my Polycarp,]
I bless God I began that Work betimes, and ere I was Twenty Years Old I had made thorow work of it. ”

“ For first, notwithstanding his great weakness of body, yet he Lived til I was so far brought up as that I was called to be a fellow of ye Colledge and improved in Publick service there, and until I had preached several Times; yea and more than so, he Lived to see and hear what God had done for my soul in turning me from Darkness to light and from ye power of Sathan unto God, which filled his heart full of joy and thankfulness beyond what can be expressed. ”

“ But when I was now in my fourteenth year, my Father, who I suppose was not wel satisfied in keeping me from Learning whereto I had been designed from my infancy, and not judging me fit for husbandry, sent me to school again, though at that time I had little or no disposition to it, but I was willing to submit to his authority therein and accordingly I went to school under no small disadvantage and discouragement, seing those that were far inferior to me, by my discontinuance now gotten far before me. ”

“ The following is the substance of an article published in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," for April, 1863, written by John Ward Dean, Esq., of Boston:
A century ago no poetry was more popular in New England than Wigglesworth's Day of Doom. Francis Jenks, Esq., in an article in the Christian Examiner for Nov., 1828, speaks of it as "a work which was taught our fathers with their catechisms; and which many an aged person with whom we are acquainted can still repeat, though they may not have met with a copy since they were in leading strings ”

“ Even many who consider them erroneous in doctrine, are willing to allow that they were strict in morals; that, if they were wrong in faith, they were right in life; that, if their creed was opaque, their hearts were luminous ”

“ Ever since then I have been pressing after the Power of Godliness, the Power of Godliness! For more than Fifty Years together I have been Laboring to uphold a Life of Communion with God; and I thank the Lord I now find the Comfort of it!
Words that contain in them A History of a Life more Valuable than I have seen a Volume in Folio.
{119} EPITAPH. (BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY REV. COTTON MATHER.)
THE EXCELLENT
WIGGLESWORTH;
REMEMBERED BY SOME GOOD TOKENS.
His Pen did once Meat from the Eater fetch ”

“ Cotton Mather, D.D., son of Increase, who probably derived his information from his father.
While a tutor, he prepared himself for the ministry, and before his father's death he had preached several times. He was invited, probably in the autumn of 1654, to settle at Malden, as the successor of Rev. Marmaduke Matthews, but owing to long-continued sickness was not ordained there till 1656. The precise date of his ordination is not known, but it must have been subsequent to August 25, 1656, for his letter of dismission from the church at Cambridge bears that date. ”

“ By a lover of New England's prosperity."
Mr. Wigglesworth borrowed little from other poets, and what he borrowed was probably from the commentaries and theological treatises with which his library abounded, rather than from the poets. Not that his style is wholly prosaic, for there are passages in his writings that are truly poetical, both in thought and expression, and which show that he was capable of attaining a higher position as a poet than can now be claimed for him. ”

“ We should have mourn'd, we should have turn'd
from sin at thy Reproof,
And been more wise through thy advice,
Mat. 11:22.
for our own soul's behoof.
CLXI.
They are answered.
"But Nature's light shin'd not so bright,
to teach us the right way:
We might have lov'd it and well improv'd it,
and yet have gone astray." ”

“ And the Lord brought them hither and Landed them at Charlstown, after many difficulties and hazzards, and me along with them, being then a child not full seven years old. After about 7 weeks stay at Charlstown, my parents removed again by sea to New Haven in ye month of October. In our passage thither we were in great Danger by a storm which drove us upon a Beach of sand where we lay beating til another Tide fetcht us off; but God carried us to our port {11} in safety. Winter approaching we dwelt in a cellar partly under ground covered with earth the first winter. ”

“ And for his outward estate, that was so far from being sunk by what he spent from year to year upon my education, {12} that in 6 years time it was plainly doubled, which himself took great notice of, and spake of it to myself and others, to ye praise of God, with Admiration and thankfulness. And after he had lived under great and sore affliction for ye space of 13 years a pattern of faith, patience, humility, and heavenly mindedness, having done his work in my education and receiv'd an answer to his prayers, God took him to his Heavenly Rest, where he is now reaping ye fruits of his Labors. ”

“ And their own lustre 'reaves them of their sight.
Great are their Dangers, manifold their Cares,
Through which, whilst others sleep, they scarcely Nap,
And yet are oft surpriséd unawares,
And fall unwilling into Envy's Trap.
The mean Mechanic finds his kindly rest;
All void of fear sleepeth the Country Clown;
When greatest Princes often are distrest,
And cannot sleep upon their Beds of Down.
Could Strength or Valor men Immortalize,
Could Wealth or Honor keep them from decay,
There were some cause the same to Idolize,
And give the lie to that which I do say. ”

“ Which Law is just; and therefore must
such suffer endless pains.
CXLII.
"Eternal smart is the desert
ev'n of the least offense;
Rom. 6:23.
2 Thes. 1:8, 9.
Then wonder not if I allot
to you this Recompense;
But wonder more that since so sore
and lasting plagues are due
To every sin, you liv'd therein,
who well the danger knew.
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CXLIII.
Ezek. 33:11.
Exod. 34:7,
and 14:17.
"God hath no joy to crush or 'stroy,
and ruin wretched wights;
But to display the glorious Ray
of Justice he delights.
To manifest he doth detest,
and throughly hate all sin,
Rom. 9:22. ”

“ Note.—In the foregoing Autobiography the original spelling is retained. In the following poems the spelling is modernized. The use of the acute accent ( ́) to indicate the former pronunciation of the final ed as a separate syllable will be obvious; in other exceptional cases the old apostrophe is retained. In a few instances the termination tion is divided by a hyphen, to indicate its pronunciation as two syllables (she-on) . The modern double commas are also used to mark quotations. ”

“ Mass. The last edition, prior to the present, was published in Boston in 1828, by Charles Ewer.
Besides the Day of Doom, Mr. Wigglesworth published, in 1669, "Meat out of the Eater; or, Meditations concerning the necessity and usefulness of Afflictions unto God's Children." The "fourth edition" appeared in 1689, and subsequent editions in 1717 and 1770. In 1686 he preached an Election Sermon, which was printed by the colony. Among his unpublished writings is a poem entitled "God's Controversy with New England, written in the time of the great Drought, Anno 1662. ”

“ As he was Faithful to the Death, so he was Lively to the Death.
It was a surprise to us to see a little, feeble Shadow {118} of a Man, beyond Seventy, preaching usually twice or thrice in a week, Visiting, Comforting the Afflicted, Encouraging the Private Meetings, Catechising the Children of the Flock, and managing the Government of the Church, and attending the Sick, not only as a Pastor, but as a Physician too ”

“ MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH,
PREACHED AT MALDEN, JUNE 24, 1705.
BY THE REVEREND DR. COTTON MATHER.
He was Descended of Eminently Religious Parents, who were Sufferers for that which was then The Cause of God and of New-England. While he was yet a youth, he was marvellously concerned that he might have an Heart filled with the Spirit of God. This Concernment upon his mind appeared especially in his watchful Endeavors to have Spiritual Sins chased out of his cleansed Heart. Pride, the Sin of Young Men, yea, of all Men; Pride, the Sin which few Men try or trouble themselves about ”

“ From Cambridge he made his remove to Malden, and was their Faithful Pastor for about a Jubilee of years together.
It was not long after his coming to Malden that a sickly Constitution so prevailed upon him, as to confine him from his Publick Work for some whole seven of Years. His Faithfulness continued when his Ministry was thus interrupted. The Kindness of his Tender Flock unto him was answered in his Kind Concern to have them served by other Hands. He took a short voyage unto another Country for the Recovery of his Health ”