Page:New England and the Bavarian Illuminati.djvu/96

 conclusion that their sympathy and enthusiasm for the French Revolution had been misplaced. 1 Two factors contributed to this result. In the first place, the changed complexion of the Revolution; in the second place, the new party alignments at home which brought the orthodox clergy, almost to a man, into the Federalist camp.

Which of these two factors was the more decisive in its power of control over the clerical mind, it would be difficult to say. As a matter of fact, the two influences were interrelated to an extraordinary degree. Political alignments, as we have seen, were interwoven closely with the question of foreign alliances. Conversely, the status of foreign affairs was bound to react strongly upon the judgments of clergymen with whom patriotic concerns were second in importance only to the interests of religion. Be that as it may, the years 1793 and 1794 saw the Federalist clergy in New England rapidly veering round to the fixed position of vehement antagonism to French principles. The following is a brief account of the course they pursued.

On the occasion of the annual fast in Massachusetts, April ii, 1793, the Reverend David Tappan, professor of divinity in Harvard College, preached a sermon that indicated the trend of a clerical mind. 2 In language not unmarked by vagueness, he called upon his hearers to bear witness to the present corrupted state of religion, due to the bold advance and rapid diffusion of " sceptical, deistical, and other loose and pernicious sentiments." Waxing more confident, he continued: " May I not add that a species of atheistical philosophy, which has of late triumphantly reared its head in Europe, and which affects to be the offspring


 * 1 Morse, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts, pp. 88 e t seq.


 * 2 A Sermon Delivered to the First Congregation in Cambridge, and the Religious Society in Charlestown, April n, 1793. By David Tappan. A. M., Professor of Divinity in Harvard- College, Boston, 1793.