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Samuel Willard
Written By Dave Hendrick
In evaluating those Puritan ministers involved in the Salem witch trials, we would certainly have to regard the Rev. Samuel Willard of Boston as one of the virtuous clergymen, as he was opposed to the trials and tried to influence public opinion against them in 1692. Undoubtedly, great things had long been expected of Willard, as his family lineage bespeaks that of a man destined to make an impact upon the community.
Willard was born in the town Concord, Massachusetts Bay in 1640. His place among the town's leaders was virtually assured from birth, as his father, Simon Willard, was the founder of Concord. Willard soon set out on the familiar course for young aspiring ministers, enrolling at Harvard where he would study long enough to receive his Master's Degree in 1659. Indeed, Samuel Willard could very well be remembered solely for his fiery devotion to the Puritan church, as he was well known for his vicious denunciations of any attempts to water down the Puritan tenets of predestination, irresistible grace, total depravity, and perseverance of the saints. Willard was also known for his staunch support for the continued marriage between church and state, and held strong opposition to the creeping Quaker and Baptist influences in the community. In these ways, Willard's sermons were heavily influential to men who would take up the Puritan cause after his death, Jonathan Edwards in particular. Nevertheless, it is Willard's role in the witch trials that concerns us here.
Willard's past experience seems to make him a fine candidate to speak out about the trials of the 1690s, as he played a crucial role in heading off a potential outbreak of hysteria some twenty years prior to the Salem episode. In 1671, while ministering in the frontier town of Groton, Massachusetts Bay, Willard was witness to a number of strange acts that befell one of his servants, a young girl of sixteen by the name of Elizabeth Knapp. Knapp seems to have exhibited a number of the symptoms that would be made famous by the "afflicted" girls of Salem village twenty years later. Indeed, Knapp was observed to act in a "strange and unwonten" manner, and often fell into violent fits and complained of being attacked. When Knapp eventually accused the specter of a neighbor of attacking her, Willard insisted she put an end to such accusations at once, for the neighbor was a person of "sincere uprightness before God." Also, Willard seems to have exercised good judgment in being hesitant to believe that the devil afflicted the girl, writing that "Whither shee has covenanted with the Devill or noe, I think this is a case unanswerable, her declarations have been soe contradictorye. . . . ". Although Willard was yet to denounce the idea of Satan using a person's image or specter to attack another person, here he seems to have used impeccable judgment in not rushing to conclusions about why his young woman appeared afflicted.
Willard's role in Salem also presents a man concerned that innocent people must be protected from the misinformed and vicious elements in the Puritan society. When Governor William Phips sought guidance from some of the learned clergy in the area, Willard was one of the several who signed "The Return of Several Ministers." This document acknowledged that while the devil might be responsible for the afflictions found in Salem, it urged the court to exercise great caution to prevent the innocent from being convicted. The ministers further discounted the reliability of spectral evidence by asserting that the devil could impersonate the likeness of any person, even an "innocent" without that person's permission. Although the court in Salem ignored this caution, spectral evidence was eventually called into question the trials lost their theological foundation. The work of Willard and his like minded colleagues also shows that to whatever extent clergymen in Salem may have contributed to the witchcraft outbreak, Willard and other Boston ministers tried to quell its spread.
A level-headed moderate concerning witchcraft, Willard is thought to have written a sixteen page fictional dialogue between two ministers who hold opposed points of view on the Salem trials. One minister represented the views of the Salem clergy, the other represented the Boston ministers. The dialogue, entitled "Some Miscellany Observations on our present debates respecting Witchcrafts: A Dialogue between 'S' and 'B'" is clearly the work of one who saw great injustice in the theological and legal aspects of the trials. Among Willard's chief complaints is the fact that so often a confession coupled with further accusations resulted in an acquittal, while a denial of guilt virtually guaranteed one's conviction. Among the Boston minister's key arguments in the dialogue is that "witches" who ultimately confess and accuse other witches are not to be trusted, because, after all, they're witches! When the Salem clergyman decries using too much caution, allowing many witches to go free, Boston replies that "the more horrid the crime is, the more cautious we ought to be in making any guilty of it." Boston's point being that relying on the suspect spectral evidence was no basis from which to ruin men and women's lives and cast a permanent stigma upon their family name.
Samuel Willard continued to be a tireless anti-trial activist well after the trials had passed. In 1694, he pushed for a reconciliation between the pro and anti-Samuel Parris factions within Salem village. Willard was also known to ask, in public ceremony and sermon, for God to forgive the atrocities that had taken place in Salem at the hands of overzealous townsfolk.
Bibliography
Peterson, Mark. "Ordinary Preaching and the Interpretation of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis by the Boston Clergy," Essex Institute Historical Collections.
Robbins, Stephen. "Samuel Willard and the Specters of God's Wrathful Lions," The New England Quarterly.
Samuel Willard (1640-1707)
Today, many Christians are turning back to the puritans to, “walk in the old paths,” of God’s word, and to continue to proclaim old truth that glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no new theology. In our electronic age, more and more people are looking to add electronic books (ePubs, mobi and PDF formats) to their library – books from the Reformers and Puritans – in order to become a “digital puritan” themselves. Take a moment to visit Puritan Publications (click the banner below) to find the biggest selection of rare puritan works updated in modern English in both print form and in multiple electronic forms. There are new books published every month. All proceeds go to support A Puritan’s Mind.
“The Covenant of Redemption is only applied by grace to all the redeemed, and only they are to receive its benefits.”
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Biography of Samuel Willard (1640-1707):
Samuel Willard (1640-1707) was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and has been deemed “the last puritan.” However, on two accounts this would be untrue. First, puritanism surrounds those nonconformist ministers who remained in the Church of England in order to “purify it.” Secondly, those ministers who left the Church of England were called pilgrims, not puritans. Certainly Willard’s doctrine was in accordance with Puritanism, and the Reformed Theology of the day (as was Jonathan Edwards later), but strictly speaking, it would be better to deem Mr. Willard a reformed Preacher of the Gospel, than “a puritan.”
Willard attended Harvard and graduated in 1659, studying divinity after his conversion to the Gospel. After graduating from Harvard, he was ordained a minister in Groton, Massachusetts in 1664, where he served as pastor until 1676 (until the town was attacked by Indians in 1676, during King Philip’s War). He was then called to the Old South Church in Boston, and became the second most important preacher of the New England Calvinistic Church of the day, after Increase Mather (1639-1723). John Dunton (1659-1733), an English bookseller, said, “He’s a man of profound notions, can say what he will, and prove what he says,” commenting on Willard’s scholarly abilities with Scripture. He had a keen ability for preaching with excellent delivery. For example, his son-in-law, Rev. Samuel Neal, preached for him in the Old South church one Lord’s Day, and the sermon being considered very poor, the congregation requested that he should not be invited to fill the pulpit again. Mr. Willard borrowed the identical sermon and read it to the same congregation, which immediately requested a copy for publication.
Willard strenuously opposed the Salem witchcraft trials, and tried to influence public opinion against them.
When Increase Mather retired from the presidency of Harvard, Mr. Willard, being vice-president, succeeded to the government of that college, serving in 1701 until 1707.
In keeping with a Reformed emphasis on the Gospel, Willard’s preaching centered on the doctrine of the covenant (of which the work “The Doctrine of the Covenant of Redemption,” masterfully demonstrates). He opposed Arminianism by preaching the Reformed doctrines of predestination, total depravity, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints as standards of Gospel truth, consistently magnifying the sovereignty of God’s divine grace through Jesus Christ’s redemptive work.
Willard opposed Antinominanism by writing and preaching vigorously on the historic Reformed emphases of revelation, justification, and sanctification. Throughout his ministry he propagated and defended New England’s biblical and orthodox stance on infant baptism, an educated pastorate, and the alliance of church and state in religion (opposing both Baptist and Quaker theology).
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