by Brian Post
The Puritan Minister: Herman Melville on Jonathan Edwards
About Jonathan Edwards, fanatical one,
Pale sot of the Puritan religion,
The industrious Puritans, devoted and timorous,
How obliviously they make their decisions.
From his icy-cold glare, from his soul-scorching maw
They have damnation and sin to dread,
But the unwitting zealots follow close behind
And before his high pulpit they tread.
But, a digression.
I am reminded about the attitudes of captains on certain mutinous vessels toward their impressed crewmen. The weekly reading of the manifesto to the crew carried an ursine air about it, serving consistently to remind the men of their punishment for clandestine scheming and outright rebellion. The captains were as herdsmen overseeing and manipulating their flock of sheep through verbose eloquence and the occasional rattan. Each captain was a Daniel(1), treading tentatively about his ship and entrusting all faith into the manifesto. Such was Edwards, controlling his throng through equivocal and sententious sermons, and never allowing skepticism to arise about his sapience of all things holy.
To return.
In raw wooden studs and roughly-hewn timber,
They look for a haven when condemnation's abroad,
An asylum in the jaws of faith:
They are friends; and friendly guide him to sinful prey,
Yet never partake of another's confession-
Punishment and condemnation to the confessed sinners and
swindlers,
Pale ravener of soul and religion.
(1) The biblical Daniel, betrayed by his fellows and thrown into the lions den by King Darius after disobeying his law of worship. God protected Daniel from the lions because of his faith, and Daniel emerged unscathed the next morning.