Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/261

 PELEG heath's MINISTRY. 207 The twelve years of Mr. Heath's ministry, from 1728 to 1740, found him now and then in open conflict with a part of the Church and the town, and his abilities were often more than a match for their combined wisdom. It is fair to the pastor as well as the people to say that much of the disturb- ance during Mr. Heath's ministry was due to the low state of piety in the Church, and to the low state of morals in the community. The New England Churches had adopted the "Half Way Covenant," by which, unregenerate persons, who had received baptism in infancy or as adults, could be re- ceived into membership and enjoy all the privileges of the Church, except that of partaking of the Lord's Supper. A professed moral life was all that was required to maintain a standing in the Church, even though the person might be a transgressor of half the commandments. Church discipline was lax, and the standard of the religious life was very low and formal. The two preaching services on Sunday, and the monthly preparatory lecture before Communion were the only public meetings of the Church. With no religious papers and few books, no Sunday Schools nor prayer meetings, it can be seen how easy it was for the people to fall into care- less habits of living, and how hard it was for the clergy to live very far above the level of their congregations, inasmuch as the towns-people, church members and others, determined the standard and the stay of the ministry to a great extent. The discussions of the pulpit were largely on doctrinal rather than ethical topics, and the sermons were little adapted to check the wayward, or elevate the spiritually minded. Puri- tanism had lost much of its vital power, and worldliness had taken possession of the hearts and lives of men. Drinking habits were universal, and the clergy usually went to their pulpits from their side-boards, and returned at the close of the service to the same solace. Custom approved and con- science did not condemn many sinful and vulgar habits which the Christian world now avoids and denounces. Let us re- member and judge with charity, while we review the times so far from and so unlike our own.