Now we move to the Middle Colonies. Their religious history is quite varied, but also quite interesting.

What is now the city of New York was originally settled by the Dutch, who were members of the Dutch Reformed Church. (By the way, you probably remember from your American History that New York was originally called New Amsterdam.) By the time that the British would take over this Colony, New York City was well on its way to becoming a cosmopolitan community, with a population that claimed membership from several different religious groups.

Pennsylvania became a stronghold for minority groups who were elsewhere persecuted. William Penn, who was a wealthy Quaker, was granted a charter in 1681, and it would be in Pennsylvania where he began what was referred to as his “holy experiment.” This would be a refuge for Quakers, who flocked to the colonies in large numbers. But Penn encouraged other groups to migrate to Pennsylvania, as well. And so, as a result, Pennsylvania became a refuge for many different people with varied religious backgrounds and understandings—German Lutherans, Reformed, Brethren, Mennonites, Amish, and Baptists were welcomed. Many of these were of German extraction, and because they retained their German ways for several generations, they became known as “The Pennsylvania Dutch.” Later, they would be joined by a large group of Scotch/Irish Presbyterians.

One named Cecil Calvert, who was the Second Lord Baltimore, founded Maryland. And it was founded to provide a refuge for Roman Catholics.

So, we see, then, that here are these colonies—the Virginia Colony; the New England Colony; and these Middle Colonies, and we see something of their religious makeup, and how that came about.

Now, there was something that would take place in the early to middle part of the 18^th Century known as “The Great Awakening.” What was “The Great Awakening”? Well, it was something that began to take place in Europe—on the European continent—as well as in the British Isles. Many of those who were very religious in their understanding, regardless of what their religious persuasion was, had been very fervent in the practice of their religion. But over time, that religious fervor had begun to wane. And, that was the case here in America, as well.

For example, that religious fervor that motivated the Puritans especially lost its intensity from one generation to the next. Historians say that that was for many reasons, none the least of which was because they had trouble transferring that religious fervor and zeal from one generation to the next. Another reason was because they were no longer a persecuted people. They had been persecuted in England. That had caused so many of them to come to this land. When they came here and experienced the religious freedom that they had…they might have had to move around a little bit, but eventually they found sanctuary, and so they were no longer persecuted…they could practice their religion freely. Well, that contributed to their loss of fervor.

Also, the rigors of those who had been part of that settling group, who had made the arduous journey from England, and who would come to this New World where it was frontier and where the hardships were many, and many were lost to disease and to Indian raids, and all kinds of other troubles...those people tended to rely upon God. They had deep faith in God to provide for them; to provide their sustenance; to provide their safety, and that kind thing. Well, Puritans in the 18^th Century, by comparison, had attained a level of comfortable living, of safety, that would have been branded by their grandfathers as being “unspeakable luxury,” as one writer put it.

And the conclusion is that few things can extinguish the flame of fervor more quickly than material wealth. Some things never change, do they?

This brings about, then, this period that called “The Great Awakening.” There are many things that can be said about that, many things which would take place, but we’ll mention a couple of well-known figures from that time.

Probably the best known is one named Jonathan Edwards of Massachusetts. He was the son and grandson of Congregational ministers. He graduated from Yale at the young age of seventeen, and he had developed quite a reputation for both his scholarship and for his piety. In 1727, he became an assistant to his grandfather, who ministered to the church at North Hampton, Massachusetts. At the death of his grandfather, young Jonathan became the full-time minister of that church. And his sermons, they say, could hardly be categorized as “sensational.” Nevertheless they had a particular air about them. They were probably what we might categorize as “hellfire and brimstone” sermons, very much getting the attention of members of his congregation. As a matter of fact, this one, Jonathan Edwards, became so well-known for his preaching the wrath of God and these hellfire and brimstone sermons that many were, as they referred to it, “restored” in their attendance and in their fervor for the church. Many were converted, and so on. He is well-known, and some of you may be familiar with the title of one of his sermons that has lived, low, these many years: “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” That is a sermon that is still in print and still can be found. And it was in that sermon that he characterized man as being like a spider, dangling from a silk web—a silk thread—dangled over the fire of hell, and the flames licking up all around; and at any moment, one of those flames might singe that thread, and the person would fall into the fires of hell. Well, that is a picture that has been perpetuated, and is in the minds of many, even to this day.