VI. Wigglesworth- Day of Deliverance Drawing Nigh

A unique witness with a poetic bent now appears - MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH (1631-1705), minister, physician, and poet of Maiden, Massachusetts. Born in Yorkshire, England, he came to Massachusetts Bay with his Puritan parents when only seven, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. He went to school to Ezekiel Cheever, who will be noted a little later, and completed his education at Harvard, where he was soundly converted. Tutoring from 1652 to 1654, he began preaching in 1653, without ordination. He was ordained in 1656 and preached at Maiden. He also studied and practiced medicine. He was offered the presidency of Harvard in 1684, but declined it because of ill-health.PFF3 89.1

Called by Tyler the “rhymer of the Five Points of Calvinism,” he phrased in verse the faith of Puritan New England. His poems stress the prevalent concept of total depravity - the most of men doomed in advance to “an endless existence of ineffable torment.” Such was the general theme. One poem was called “God’s Controversy with New England.” Wigglesworth is rated as the most representative poet of New England. ^{50Moses C. Tyler, History of American Literature, vol. 2, pp. 23-25; Thomas J. Wertenbaker, The First Americans, p. 243.}PFF3 89.2

In 1653 Wigglesworth dreamed of the “dreadful day of judgment,” and so wrote the noted book-poem, The Day of Doom (1662). Called “an epic of New England Puritanism in dramatic form,” it had an immediate sale of 1,800. As in all of New England there were then only 36,000 settlers, it can be rightly named a best seller - one to every twenty persons. It ran through sixteen editions and was much read in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The bibliographer Evans declares that for a century it was more popular than any other book save the Bible and exercised an influence secondary only to the Bible and Shorter Catechism. ^{51Charles Evans, American Bibliography, vol. 1, p. 15.} It pictured death, the resurrection, and the advent in dramatic form. Ardently religious, Wigglesworth wrote only to “serve God.”PFF3 89.3

The opening lines read:PFF3 90.1

“Still was the Night, serene and bright,
When all Men Sleeping lay,
Calm was the Season and carnal Reason,
Thought it would last for ay:
Soul take thine Ease, let Sorrow tease,
Much good them hast in store;
This was their Song, their Cups among,
The Evening before.”PFF3 90.2

Then comes the great surprise.PFF3 90.3

“For at Midnight, brake i’orth a Light,
Which turn’d the Night to Day,
And speedily an hidous cry
Did all the World dismay.
Sinners awake, their Hearts do ake,
Trembling, their Loins surprizeth,
Amaz’d with Fear with what they hear
Each one of them ariseth.PFF3 90.4

“They rush from Beds with giddy Heads,
And to their Windows run,
Viewing this Light which shone more bright
Then doth the Noon-Day Sun;
Streightway appears (they see’t with ‘Fears)
The Son of God most dread,
Who with His Train comes on amain,
To Judge both Quick and Dead.PFF3 90.5

“Before his Face the Heavens give place,
And Skies are Rent Asunder,
With mighty Voice and hidous Noise
More terrible than Thunder
His Brightness damps Heaven’s glorious Lamps,
And makes them hide their Heads
As if afraid and quite dismay’d,
They quit their wonted steads.PFF3 90.6

“Ye Sons of Men that durst contemn
The Threatenings of God’s Word,
How chear you now? your Hearts (I trow)
Are thrill’d as with a Sword,
Now Atheists blind, whose Brutish Mind
A God could never see:
Dost thou perceive, dost thou believe.
That Christ thy Judge shall be?” ^{52Michael Wigglesworth, The Day of Doom (1711 ed.), pp. 1, 2.}PFF3 90.7

The moving lines depict the consternation of earth’s potentates, captains, and men of might, the lamentation, the hiding in rocks and caves, the cry to insensate boulders for shelter, the corning of the Judge, the smoking mountains, the supernal glory, the sounding trump, the rising of the dead to judgment.PFF3 91.1

“The Judge draws nigh, exalted high,
Upon a lofty Throne,
Amidst the Throng of Angels strong,
like Israel’s holy one.
The excellence of whose Presence,
and awful Majesty,
Amazeth Nature, and every Creature,
doth more than terrific.PFF3 91.2

“The Mountains Snioak, the Hills are shook,
The Earth is rent and torn,
As if she should be dean disolv’d.
or from her Centre born.
The Sea doth Roar, forsake the shoar,
and shrinks away for fear:
The Wild Beasts flee into the Sea,
as soon as he draws near;PFF3 91.3

“Whose glory bright, whose wondrous might,
Whose Power Imperial,
So far surpass, whatever was
in Realms Terrestrial,
That Tongues of Men (nor Angels Pen)
cannot the same express.
And therefore I must pass it by.
least speaking should transgress.” ^{53Ibid., p. 4.}PFF3 91.4

Sucli were the scenes made vivid and fresh to all in this remarkable poem. Finally, in a Postscript to the Reader, the advent note rings out:PFF3 91.5

“The Day of your Deliverance draweth near.
Lift up your Heads, ye upright ones in Heart.
Who in Christ’s Purchase have obtained a part,
Behold he Rides upon a Shining Cloud,
With Angels Voice, and Trumpet sounding loud.
He comes to save his Folk from all their Foes,
And plague the Men that Holiness oppose.
So, Come Lord Jesus, quickly come away.
We pray thee come, hast our Redemption Day.” ^{54Ibid., p. 67.}PFF3 91.6