F 68 .G64 Copy 1 THE PILGRIM FATHERS: A GLANCE AT THEIR HISTORY, CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES, -BY- HENRY M. GOODWIN, PASTOR OF FIBST CON O BE O A T 10 N A I, CBl'BCB, BOCKFOBD THE PILGRIM FATHERS. A GLANCE AT THEIR HISTORY, CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES, — IN — TWO MEMORIAL DISCOURSES, DELIVERED IN THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ROCKFORD, MAY Q3, 1870, Rev. H. M. GOODWIN. I»t7BLISHKr> BY REQUEST. ROCKFORD, ILL. : BIKD, CONICK & FLINT, STEAM BOOK A-ND JOB PRINTBR8, REGISTER OFFICB. 1S70. [The Convention ■whitli on call of the Church of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, met in the Uroadway Tabernacle in New York, on the Second of March last, to " take such action as shall seem to it expe- dient for ordering the Commemorative Services of this 250th year since the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth," passed among others the following resolution, viz : "ii«oZt)«rf, That it be earnjstly recommended that during the month of May next, every Congrega- tional Pastor set forth from the pulpit our obligations to the Pilgrim Fathers, the influence of their faith and polity upon the character of the nation ; and the duty we owe to the memory and print iples of the Fathers, to maintain, enlarge and transmit the inheritance we have receivel at their handj." This resolution sufficiently expliins the reason for the following discourses. In the publication of them, I have added a little to the historical matter for the fuller exposition of the subject.] n-??;^! DISCOURSE I. These all died in faitb, not Lavius received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, aud embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. — Hebrews XI : 13. < It is a grateful and a filial duty ■which I undertake to-daj, to speak of those venerable men from whom Ave have inherited, not only our Congregational faith and polity, but all that is noblest and best in our Political Institutions. In commemorating such men, as was truly said by Dr. Post, in the late Memorial Convention, at Chicago, we are not idolaters or man-worshippers, but we glorify the Lord of Hosts, whose instruments they were for the advancement of His king- dom, and from whom they derived their faith and principles. To idolize men is one thing ; to idealize them, by looking at them in the light of the ideas and principles they represent, is quite another. To do this for the Pilgrim Fathers, is what the Apostle, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, does for those heroes of faith whom he commem- orates, and among whom these men are worthy to be enrolled, leaving out of view their human errors and failings, and regarding them only as vehicles of a Divine power and inspiration. I propose to speak of our obligations to the Pilgrim Fathers, and to show these by considering I. Who the Pilgrims were, and what they did and suffered in this world, for the cause of God and humanity. II. Their character, faith and polity, and the influence of these upon the character of the Nation. III. The duty we owe to their memory and principles. First. Let us consider who the Pilgrims were, and whence came the principles for which they lived and died. A brief sketch of their origin and history, and some of the trials they endured before and during the planting of religious liberty in this new world, will be a fitting prelude to what may be further said of their character and principles. In this historical sketch I shall avail myself of such published docu- ments and memorials as are at hand, and will best illustrate the subject before us. All great movements in history, like great rivers, take tlieir rise far back of the age in which their greatness appears. For the rise of Puritanism, vre must go back to the great reformer Wycliffe, who lived a century and a half before the time of Luther. Born in the early part of the 14th century, he anticipated the discoveries of his more fortunate successors. He asserted the sufficiency of the Scrip- tures as a rule of faith. He denied the Pope's supremacy, the real presence in the eucharist, the validity of absolution and indulgencies, and the merit of penance and monastic vows. He protested against the ecclesiastical ceremonies, festival days, prayers of saints, and auricular confession. Finally, he denounced the canonical distinction between Priests and Bishops, and the use of set forms of prayer. " One thing, he declares, I boldly assert, that in the Primitive Church, or the time of Paul, two orders of the clergy were held suffi- cient — those of priests and deacons. No less certain am I, that in the time of Paul, presbyters and bishops were the same, as is shown in I Tim. iii. and Titus i." This shows tlie truth of the historian's assertion, that " Wycliffe was the first of Puritans, as well as of Pro- testants." " Nothing," says Palfrey, " came to the birth in the 16th century that had not lain in embryo in Wycliff's time, under the com- mon heart of England." " Though his labors did not effect an alteration in the ecclesiastical polity of his country, they made an extensive and permanent impres- sion. A numerous class of followers were raised up, by the Provi- dence of God, Avho were termed Lollards, and were found in most parts of the kingdom. These preserved the precious seed of the king- dom until more propitious days ; and though assailed by the fiercest persecutions, were enabled to hand down the sacred deposit to the times of the Lutheran reformation."* The next period in the early history of Puritanism was that of Henry VIII and the Reformation in England. This headstrong and lustful monarch, who, as Sir James Mackintosh remarks, " perhaps approached as nearly to the ideal standard of perfect wickedness, as the infirmities of human nature will allow," became the instrument of the Reformation not willingly but of contention, thinking to spite the Pope. For the reason that the Pope would not divorce him from Catharine, his wife, when he was tired of her, and wanted to marry Ann Boleyn, Henry divorced the Church of England from that of Rome, really founding a new Church in England of which he himself was the head. " In that age indeed, there seemed to be no alterna- *Price'a Hist, of Frot. Ron-Conform, i: 4. live between the supremacy of tlie Pope and the supremacy of the King. The minds of the best of men, as is the case with some even in these days, were so warped by the influence of ancient Ecclesiasti- cal precedents, that none dreamed of an ultimate appeal to Holy Scripture. * * A Church of Christ independent, as such, of hum;iji control and existing apart from State craft, was an idea almost impossible to that age. If entertained at all, it could only have been by men as humble in life as in spirit, such as afterwards rose to assert the spiritual character of the kingdom of God upon Earth." Accordingly, the King himself undertook to settle what the people should believe, and Avith this view, drew up a set of articles of religion, which, with the aid of his Parliament, were adopted as the law of the realm. These articles " set forth in the strongest lan- guage the presence of the natural body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, sanctioned communion in one kind only, denied the right of marriage to the priesthood, enforced vows of chastity, allowed private masses, and declared auricular confession to be both expedient and necessary. The most fearful penalties were attached to any opposition to these doctrines. The least was the loss of goods ; the greatest, burning at the stake, which was the punish- ment for denying the first of these articles (and which some actually suffered at Smithfield). The law was now let loose against both Pro- testants and Catholics, but with peculiar vengeance against the former. And so the new Church was founded. The work began by one royal profligate was, a hundred and thirty years later, finished by another. Henry tlie Vlllth's natural successor in Ecclesiastical politics is Charles the II."* Thus it will be seen that the so-called Reformation in England was a reformation only in name. The Church, linked inseparably to the State, was subjected to a change of masters, but not of doctrine or character. This could not satisfy enlightened and truth-loving souls, who looked to the word of God and not to decrees of councils or par- liaments for their rule of faith and practice. And this brings us to the rise of Puritanism, proper, as a distinct ecclesiastical movement. John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, was the first father of Puritan non-conformity. " History, while it has done justice to the character and abilities of this eminent man, has not done similar justice to his opinions. He appears on its pages as a conscientious opponent of all ecclesiastical ceremonies and habits that are not expressly warranted * Skeat's Uist., Free Ch's of Eng. 3, 6. by Scripture, as a sufferer for his opinions on this subject, and as a martyr for the Protestant religion ; but he was more than this. * * It was his voice which first publicly proclaimed the principles of religious freedom. He stood alone amongst the English Protestants of his age, in denying the right of the State to interfere with relig- ion."* He says in his ' Declaration': " Touching the superior powers of the earth, it is not unknown to all them that hath read and remarked the Scripture, that it appertaineth nothing unto their office to make any law to govern the conscience of their subjects in religion. God's kingdom is a spiritual one. In this, neither Pope nor King may govern. He alone is the governor of His Church, and the only law- giver." " He told the people in words proclaimed at Paul's Cross, and throughout various parts of the kingdom, that their consciences were bound only by the word of God, and that they might with it, judge 'Bishop, Doctor, preacher and curate.' " The Puritan element, of which this was the distinguishing principle, did not at first separate itself from the established Church, but sought to work its reformation while staying within it ; and it was only through much tribulation, and after long continued struggles, that the principle of religious liberty worked itself clear, and the best and purest spirits of the English Church became gradually separated from the baser portion, as gold is separated from the dross in the fire of trial and persecution, or as wheat is separated from the chaff by the tribulation of the threshing floor. The first separation of this kind occurred during the reign and under the persecution of the bloody Queen Mary. Fox, author of the book of Martyrs, records " how that besides those worthy masters and. confessors which were burned in Queen Mary's days, and otherwise tor- mented, many (both students and others) fled out of the land to the number of 800, and became several congregations at Wesel, Frank- fort, Geneva, &c." At these places, and especially at Geneva, they became familiar with forms of worship and of discipline more com- pletely purified from Popery than the forms which had as yet been adopted or permitted in their native country. When the reign of Queen Elizabeth commenced, the exiles returned, expecting that this Protestant Princess would carry out the principles of the Reformation, or at least, tolerate their own ; but in this they were disappointed. " Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, and iu December of that year, issued a proclamation forbidding any change of the *lbi(t 8. forms of religion until they sJtouhl he determined aecordiyuj to law. Immunity from Papal persecution was obtained by the change o^ rulers, but no freedom to worship according to conscience, cither as it regarded Roman Catholic or Protestants. This is a point too much overlooked, and hence much confusion as to religious parties formed at this juncture. The Queen was a good friend to Protestantism as opposed to Popery, but the bitter opponent of all Protestantism which did not square with her own and that of the State. The Act of Supremacy, declaring her the head of the Church, passed in the first year of her reign, followed closely by the Act of Uniformity, requir- ing all to worship on the State pattern and in the Parish Churches. Early in 1562, the work was completed by the adoption of the Arti- cles of Religion, and from this date, the Church of England being completely established by law, avc may conveniently trace that ' Sep- aration which, with more or less distinctness, can be traced through all subsequent English History to this day." Before tracing the history of this separation, let me speak of the difference between the Puritans and the Pilgrims, who are often con- founded by many persons. This difference was not one of name merely, but wide and fundamental. It involved nothing less than the Avhole question of enforced or free religion. The dift'crence between the two parties was considered so fundamental and irreconcilable, that the one party put the other to death for their diversity of sentiment, until the pei'secuted party fled to a new world to secure that freedom of worship which was forbidden in the old. The Puritans were reformers who remained in the Church of Eng- land, men of pure and lofty religious principle, but somewhat narrow and bigoted in their spirit ; who partook of the intolerance of the age and the Church to Avhich they belonged ; whose fiery zeal against the corruptions of their times was not tempered with the meekness of wisdom, and made them iconoclasts in the Church, and revohitionisls and regicides in the State. The Pilgrims were Separatists or Inde- pendents, who did not remaiii in the Church of England, and who in coming out from all bondage to ecclesiastical tyranny and corruption, had not only come into a larger liberty, but into a larger tolerance and charity. Their residence abroad, also, especially in Holland had developed in them wider views, and a more catholic spirit then pre- vailed at that time in England, which they carried with them to the New World. This is to be remembered in judging of the character of the early fathers of New England. New England was settled by two classes of Englishmen, who founded distinct and separate cole- 8 nies. The Pilgrim Fathers who founded the Plymouth Colony, and who planted and gave type to our institutions, were not Puritans, but Separatists, men of larger and freer and more catholic spirit, than the Puritans who came after, and settled in Salem and Boston. They were not persecutors either of the Baptists or Quakers. The Old Colony men, the men of Plymouth Rock, were not Episcopalians or Presbyterians, but Congregationalists, as the Puritans afterwards became. They were not proselytes from the Church of England, but Congregationalists from the start, bringing their principles and their Church with them, and so were the true Fathers of our ecclesiastical and civil polity, as we shall see hereafter.* Thus much by way of anticipation. Let us now trace a little more distinctly the origin or evolution of Independency, as distinct from Puritanism. " Side by side with the records of a powerful State establishment, we find the frequent, though incidental, mention of a band of humble, earnest ' Separatists,' as they were termed, protesting against errors which the Reformation in England had failed to remove, — against the assumption by any human power, however august, of that headship which belonged of right to Christ, and pleading for permission to worship according to the simplicity of form and practice of the prim- itive Christians. *' Such were the Separatists, at that day undivided on the subject of baptism and other questions which have given rise to sects having various names. They constituted, with the Roman Catholics, the ♦The distinction, liere pointed out, between the Puritans and tho Pilgrims, which many historian* have been slow to recognize, and ignorance of which has led to the accusation, still widely believed, that the Pilgrims persecuted the Quakers, is very ably and abundantly shown by Mr. Benj. Scott, F. B« AS , in a Lecture entitled " The Pilgrim Fathers neither Puritans nor Persecutors" delivered at the Friends' Institute, London, Jan. ISfifi. He shows, by the most conclusive historical proofs, that " the Pilgrim Fathers and their precursors in England, Holland, and at Plymouth, were Separatitts, and had no connection with the Puritans, who subsequently settled in New England, at Salem and Boston, in Massachusetts ; that the principles and practices of tho two parties, confounded by some careless writers, differed essentially. The Separatists ever contending for freedom of conscience and separation from the powers of the State, while the Puritans remained in connection and communion with tho State Church, and held both in England and New England that the State should bo authoritative in matters of religion. Heuco tho anti-Christian and intolerant acts Of the Puritan Colony to the Separa- tists, Ualph bmyth, Roger Williams, Isaac Robinson, John Cudworlh, and Timothy Uathorley. Hence, also, on the arrival of the Friends, tho cruel laws for whipping, banishing, and execnting for matters of religions faith and practice." He shows that " the Separatist Colony of Plymouth had no share in this intolerant conduct during the lives of the Pilgrim Fathers, and moreover, that they treated kindly, and received into their Church, both Smyth and Roger Williams, when forbidden to worship freely elaewhere, and that after the death of the Pilgrim Fathers their sons and soccessors— some of them, at least — inherited their principles, and advocated toleration of the Friends, refusing to be parties to the persecuting laws then enacted."' Persecution of the Friends by the Pilgrim Fathers was chronolog- ically impracticable. George Fox, a good authority on sach a point, says: "In 1650, many went bvyond sea, where troth alio sprang up ; and in 1856 it br«ke forth in Amtriea." only persons then objecting in England to the Church as by law estab- lished. They formed themselves, as did the early disciples, into dis- tinct associations or Churches, chose their own teachers and regulated their own affairs. The OJiurch, they maintained, was a spiritual association, and should consequently be separate from the world and its rulers, and should be governed only by the laws of Christ as given in the New Testament; hence their distinctive appellation. Their simplicity of sentiments and moral conduct rendered them unpopular in a corrupt age ; their opposition to an endowed Church made them obnoxious to the clergy, who held to the wealth and honors of the State ; their recognition of Christ as the sole head of the Church gave mortal offense to the ruling powers, and afforded opportunity for charges of disloyalty and sedition, and directed against them the persecuting power of an intolerant court and hierarchy. In a word they were the ' Nazarenes ' of the English Reformation — were re- garded ' as the filth and off-scourings of all things.' They worshipped only in secret places, — in ships moored in the river Thames, — in obscure corners in the city, in the woods and fields which surrounded London and some other towns. We should know little concerning them but for the depositions of their relentless enemies, and the noble defenses of their principles which persecution called forth, and but for the providential preservation of such documents by their oppo- nents. They dwelt almost alone, and were scarcely regarded as part of the nation. " Of course a term of reproach for the party was soon forthcoming. The occasion was furnished by one Robert Brown, who having ably advocated their principles, proved unfaithful to them, and accepted a living in Northamptonshire. This conduct of Brown caused to adhere to them the term of ' Brownists,' by which they were long known in history."* To Robert Brown is usually ascribed the honor of founding the denomination, called variously Separatists, Independents, and Con- gregationalists. But whether this honor justly belongs to him, is a question admitting of historical doubt. That he was an able advocate and expounder of their principles is conceded ; but that he fairly represented them in his life and character, no one, except their ene- mies, will pretend. " He takes a place in history, from his connec- tion with a great religious movement, which he by no means originated, and which he did quite as much to prejudice as to promote. From • Chamberlaia Scott ; tit tupra, p. 8, 9. 10 him the rigid Separatists from the Church of England, who advocated the independence of each Christian congregation in respect to all others were nickna,med Brownists."* How tliis name was regarded by Robinson, the noble pastor of the Pilgrim Church at Leyden, and the truest representative of the spirit of the Pilgrims, may be seen from the counsel which he gave to them in his celebrated parting letter. " Another thing hee commended to us, was, that wee should use all meanes to avoid and shake oft" the name of Bi'oivnist, being a mere nick-name and brand to make religion odious, and the professors of it to the Christian world, "f "Now for the other party which arose at this juncture. The Eng- lish Reformers, many of whom returned from exile on the accession of Elizabeth, were greatly disappointed to find the new establishment virtually settled, and that the principles of the Reformation had not been carried further in its constitution. The greater part of them, however, accepted the change, and with it the Royal Supremacy, Uniformity of Worship, and the Articles of Religion. Some took this course for the sake of peace and unity, others from less worthy motives ; all of them, however, hoping to eftect, in due time, further reformation — a hope which was never to be gratified. This reform- ing or Evangelical party within the Establishment were termed ' Pur- itajis,' and are known in history as the ^ Early Puritans,' to distin- guish them from a party which existed later in history, particularly at and after the period of the Commonwealth. " We have thus the origin of two parties formed at the birth of the Church of England, — parties diftering widely both in principles and practice ; the Early Puritans within the Establishment, and the Sepa- ratists, or Brownists outside of that organization, declining to recog- nize the spiritual claims of the English Sovereign, and contending for the exclusively spiritual character of His Church who had afiirmed, 'My kingdom is not of this world. ' "J; Five years after this period, which marks the date of the State Church establishment and the origin of the Separatists, we have a dis- tinct historical notice of a company of Christians meeting at Plum- mcr's Hall, in London, who were brought before the Lord Mayor, and on the 20th of June, 1567 committed to the Bridewell, a prison still existing in Blackfriars. * Pnlfrey'8 Hist, of New'Eng. p, 123. t \Vinslow'H Uypocrisit b'nmasktd, 97. I Chamberlain Scott, p. 8, 9. 11 " Gathered in the prison around the New Testament which the Reformation had placed in their hands, this little band spelled out, by the aid of the Holy Spirit's teaching, the spirituality of the true Church, its independence of the powers of the world, and its conse- quent right to self-government, subject to the laws of Christ. They accordingly formed themselves in the prison into a separate Society or Church of believers on the New Testament model, selecting pastors and officers. The original document, with the names of all the par- ties appended, has been recently found in the State Paper Office. Richard Fitz, pastor [the first pastor of the first Independent Church in England,] the deacon and several members died of the prison plague ; but though deprived of their leaders, they continued to meet in private houses after their liberation."* Next in order of date we meet with Robert Brown, who gave his name to the party, but proved unfaithful to his principles. liobert Harrison, a friend and companion of Brown, with cour- age and fidelity grasped the banner which Brown threw away, until in 1582 a law was enacted making it treason to worship except in accordance Avith the form prescribed by law. Upon this Harrison escaped to Middleburg, in Zealand, and became pastor of a Church of refugees from Protestant bigotry in high places. The first martyrs to Independency were JonN Copping and Elias Thacker, who in 1576 Avere apprehended and kept some years in prison. They were at last brought to trial and convicted of the capi- tal ofi"ensc of circulating Separatist books. These martyrs died at Bury St. Edmunds, acknowledging the supremacy of the Queen, but maintaining that in spiritual matters they owed allegiance to ' another king, one Jesus.' William Dennis, ' a godly man,' (so says the record) was excu- ted shortly afterward in Norfolk, for the same offense. Next in the noble succession we find the names of John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe, two earnest men, fellow students of Cambridge, who associated themselves with the scattered Separatists when their cause was at the lowest and apparently hopeless. Being arrested and imprisoned in the " Clink," they contrived, like Paul and Bun- yan, to omit light from their prison cell, and to write in conformation of the truth for whicli they suffered. "Dropping their scraps of manuscripts into the jug from which thoy drank, these were conveyed day by (hxy, by ' Cicely,' a faithful handmaid of Mrs. Greenwood, to •Jbidp.lO. 12 a trusty friend, \vlio sent them to Dort, in Holland, where they were printed, and conveyed to the Separatist brethren. Thus the Bible and the printing press supplied the place of the oral teaching which the State had suppressed." Being brought to trial through evidence obtained by the Puritan Clergy — who were employed discreditably as spies under the order of the Bishop of London — they were charged with having written books to lessen the Queen's prerogative in matters spiritual, and with claim- ing the right of a Church to manage its own affairs. On the 23d of March, 1592, they were condemned to die, and after several reprieves and vain entreaties to save their lives by recantation, were executed April 6th, 1593. A single extract from an extant letter of Barrowe's proves that it was simple liberty of conscience which these men claimed, and for which their lives were sacrificed. It proves also how thorough- ly they understood the principle of religious toleration, Avhich neither the Church of England nor the Puritans had yet learned. "Deal tenderly," he writes, " with tender consciences ; we are yet persuaded that we should show ourselves disobedient and unthankful to our Master except we should hold fast this cause. * * Why should our adversaries wish to persuade the civil magistrates to deal with us by the Sword, and not by the Word, by prisons and not by persuasions ? As for dungeons, irons, close prison, torment, hun- ger, cold, want of means to maintain families, — these may cause some to make shipwreck of a good conscience, or to lose their life ; hut they are not fit ways to persuade holiest me7i to any truth or dissuade them from errors.'' This roll of honor would be incomplete without adding the name of John Penry, another remarkable man, a Welshman by birth, and educated at Oxford, who joined the party just before the execution of Barrowe and Greenwood. Having aroused persecution by his honestly expressed opinion as to the evils of the established system, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he fled to Scotland with his wife and four infant children. Queen Elizabeth followed him with an autograph letter to the Scotch King insisting on his extradition. Proclamation was issued accord- ingly jfoJ^' Ws apprehension, and death denounced against any who should afford him food or shelter. With a price on his head this in- trepid Evangelist traveled from Scotland to London, and cast in his lot with the poor Separatists of Southwark. He was soon discovered, 13 however, and cast into prison ; and soon after condemned to die for imputed treason, in May, 1593. Letters written by him shortly be- fore his death are extant, which for true pathos, tender affection to his wife and children, and for resolute determination to lay down his life for the truth, are without their equal in the annals of Martyr- ology. One extract must suffice. Being pressed to save his life by recantation, he replied : '■'■ If my blood ivere an ocean sea, and every drop thereof were a life unto me, I ivould give them all for the main- tenance of this very confession. Far be it from me thai either the saving of an earthly life, the regard which I ought to have to the desolate outward state of a friendless ividow and four poor fatherless children, or any other thing, should enforce me by denial of God's truth to perjure mine own souV* Such was the spirit of that heroic band to which the Pilgrims be- longed, of whom the world was not worthy ; and with such a great price have we obtained the religious liberty we now enjoy. AVe conic now to the rise and progress of the Mayflower Church, the particular seed which God has chosen to plant in this wilderness that it may become a garden. This Church was as small and humble in its beginnings as the mustard seed of the Gospel. It took its rise at Scrooby, a village in Nottinghamshire, in the north of England, in the house of William Brewster, afterwards known as Elder Brews- ter, of the Plymouth Colony. " With a mind enlarged by study and travel, he made the acquaintance of Smith, Clyfton, Robinson, and other godly ministers in that and the neighboring counties, who were conscientiously opposed to the established Church ; and when the policy of deprivation, confiscation, fine and imprisonment was fully entered upon by government to enforce conformity, he cast in his lot with them, and welcomed them to his house (a spacious manor-house of the Archbishop of York, leased to Brewster by Samuel Sandys, eldest son of the Archbishop), and in its ample spaces offered them that Sabbath liberty of prophesying which the Churches no longer afforded. Gathering together the elect and precious few from the country round about who thought as they thought, and believed what they believed, and were willing to dare what they dared to do ; he, with Clyfton and Robinson and those others, some time during 1606, formally, to use Bradford's own words, — 'joyned themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a Church estate, in ye fellowship of ye Gospel, to walke in all His wayes, made known, or to be made known * Scott, p. 14, 16. 14 unto them, according to their heist endeavors, whatsoever it shotdd cost them, the Lord assisting them."* This little Church at Scrooby was at first under the care of Richard Cljfton, a Puritan minister who had joined the Separatist party, re- linquishing his living at Worksop. Clyfton afterwards retired to Hol- land, and was succeeded by John Robinson, M. A., who was after- wards pastor of the Church at Leyden, and organized the departure of the Pilgrims from that place to their home in the New World. While pastor at Scrooby, Robinson received into the little society there a youth named William Bradford, who also went out as one of the Pilgrim Fathers, became Governor, in course of time, of the Plymouth Colony in New England, and the historian of the Pilgrims. We have thus three of the leaders of the Pilgrims — Pastor Robinson, Elder Brewster and Governor Bradford — connected with the Separa- tist Church at Scrooby, which appears to have been a branch of that founded at Gainsborough by John Smyth of Southwark. That all these men were Separatists from conviction appears from their works and letters still extant. Robinson particularly speaks of the painful struggles which he experienced in breaking from his friends of the Puritan party. f " But after these things (continues the record,) they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them. For some were taken and clapt into prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their hands ; and the most were fain to fly and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood. Yet these and many other sharper things which afterward befel them, were no other than they looked for, and there- fore were the better prepared to bear them by the assistance of God's grace and spirit. Yet seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent they re- solved to go into the low countries, where they heard was freedom of Religion for all men ; as also how sundry others from London, and other parts of the land, had been exiled and persecuted for the same cause, and were gone thither, and lived at Amsterdam, and in other places of the land. So after they had continued together about a year, and kept their meetings every Sabbath, in one place or other, * * they seeing they could no longer continue in that condi- *SsbbbaUi at Home, March, 1867. f Bobinson's Works, vol. ii. p. 51, 52. Item, ScoUp. 17. tion they resolved to get over iuto Holland as they could, which was in the years 1607 and 1608."* It is worthy of note that the idea of exchanging persecution and death in England for exile to some foreign shore originated with the martyrs Barrowe and Penry. The former, in 1592, bequeathed a fund to aid the persecuted Church " in the event of emigration,'' while the latter, in his last letter, urged "the brethren to prepare for banishment in an unbroken companT/." Before leaving this first home of the Pilgrims, let me allude to a remarkable letter from Johii Smyth, addressed to the Church at Scrooby, of which he was pastor. In it he addresses them words which by the light of subsequent events we may almost regard as proplietic. " You are few in number," he writes, " yet, considering that the Kingdom of Heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, small in the beginning, I do not doubt that you may in time groiv up to a mul- titude, and be, as it were, a great tree full of fruitful branches."! Thus they obeyed our Lord's command — " And when they perse- cute you in one city (or country), flee ye into another." That the country to which they fled was one that had great attractions for them, may be understood from the fact that several English compa- nies of exiles had already gone over there before them ; and especially from the religious toleration that existed there. " These Provinces (the Low Countries) were of opinion not only tliat all religions ought to be tolerated, but that all restraint in matters of religion was as detestable as the Inquisition itself; and accordingly they maintained that nobody erred wilfully, or could believe against his conscience, that none but God could inspire right notions iuto the minds of men ; that no religion was agreeable to God but such as proceeded from a willing heart. Experience had also taught them that heterodox opin- ions could not so effectually be rooted out by human power or violence as by length of time." X I pass over the difficulties and perils they encountered in getting over into Holland — " For though they could not stay, yet were they not suflered to goe, but ye ports and havens were shut against them, so as they were faine to seek secrete means of conveance, and to bribe and fee ye mariners, and give extraordinarie rates for their ♦Bradford, Tlyra. Plant, Id. + Vide Chamberlain Scott, p. 10, 1i. X Brant's Hist. Kef. in Low Ouantries, i: SOS. 16 passages. And yet were they often times betrayed (many of them), and both they and their goods intercepted and surprised, and thereby put to great trouble and charge. * * In the end, notwith- standing all these storms of opposition, they all got over at length, some at one time and some at another, and some in one place and some in another, and mette together againe according to their desires, with no small rejoicing."* Robinson and Brewster we are told, " were of the last, and stayed to help the weakest over before them." Arriving at Amsterdam, they soon found that was not the place for them on account of difficulties existing between the companies already there. " So they prudently resolved to remove thence before a bad matter was made worse." It is on record in Leyden that John Robinson and 'some of the members of the new reformed religion, born in the kingdom of Great Britain, to the number of 100 persons, or thereabouts, men and women,' petitioned the magistrates for leave to come to Leyden ' by the first of May next,' to have the freedom of the city ' in carrying on their trades without being burdensome to any one.' This petition being cordially responded to, they removed about the first of May, 1609 to Leyden. But it was not the design of Providence that this precious seed should take root in Holland. " After they had lived in this city some eleven or twelve years, * * those prudent governors (Rob- inson and Brewster) with sundry of the sagest members, began to think of removal to some other place. Not out of any new fangled- ness or such like giddy humor, by which men are oftentimes trans- ported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundrie weightie and solid reasons." Among these reasons were, First, The ' hardness of the place and countrie,' which they found to be such that " few in comparison would come to them, and fewer that would bide it out and continue with them." Secondly, That "though the people bore all these difficulties very cheerfully and with a resolute courage, yet old age was beginning to steal on many of them, and within a few years more they would be in danger to scatter or sink under their burdens, or both." Thirdly, They labored under great disadvantage in regard to the education and training of their children, amidst the manifold temptations of the place, whereby they " were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, getting ye raines off their neks, and departing from their parents. * * ♦Bradford's "Plimoth Flantstion." So that they saw their postei'itie would bo in danger to degenerate and be corrupted." " Lastly (and which was not least) a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be but even as stepping stones unto others for the per- forming of so great a Avork.'"* How such an undertaking looked to them two hundred and fifty years ago, wo from one stand point can hardly conceive ; but after a full deliberation and discussion of the matter, and many particular things answered and alleged on both sides, it was fully concluded by the major part, to put this design in execution, and to prosecute it by the best means they could. Negotiations were opened with certain " merchant adventurers" in London, who held chartered grants from the Crown of portions of the New Continent. After many difficulties and protracted delays with many escapes of imprisonment, the terms were settled, and it was arranged that all Avho were ready should go out under the leader- ship of Elder Brewster, while Robinson should follow with the remain- der of the party at a future day. The negotiations, begun in 1617, did not conclude till 1G20. A vessel of sixty tons — the "Speedwell," — was purchased in Holland upon receipt of the intelligence that all was ready in London. The Church then, we are told, '' lield a solemn meeting and day of humil- iation to seek the Lord for his direction." Robinson took for his text — 1 Samuel, xxiii. 3, 4: "And David's men said unto him, see we be afraid here in Judah ; how much more, if we come to Keilah against the hosts of the Philistines. Then David asked counsel of the Lord again." When the ship was ready they had another day of solemn humiliation, their pastor speaking to them from Ezra viii. 21 : ^^And there, at the river by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of him a right way for us, and for our childri>n, and for all our snbstaiice." " The time being come to depart," Bradford tells us, " they were accompa- nied by most of their brethren to a town sundry miles off, called Delft Haven, where the ship lay ready to receive them. So they left that goodly and pleasant city .which had been their resting place near twelve years; but they knew they tvere Pilgrims, and looked not 'Bradford ; ut tup. 22. 18 mucli oil those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and (-{uieted their spirits. * * " Sundry also came from ximsterdam to see them shipped, and to take their leave of them. That night was spent with little sleep by the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and other real expressions of true Christian love. The next day, the wind being fair, they went aboard, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting ; to see what sighs and sobs did sound amongst them ; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each heart ; that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators, could not refrain from tears. Yet comfortable and sweet it was to see such lively and true expressions of dear and unfeigned love. But the tide which stays for no man, calling them away that were loath to depart, their reverend pastor falling down on his knees, and they all with Lira, with watery cheeks commended them with most fervent prayers to the Lord and his blessing. And then with mutual embraces, and many tears, they took their leave one of another : which proved to be the last leave to many of them."* Art has commemorated this interesting and pathetic scene in the well known picture of the " Embarkation of the Pilgrims." There is only one other scene in history to which it may be likened : that of Paul kneeling on the beach at Ephesus, and praying with the Elders 'of the Church, while they " fell on his neck and wept sore, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more." The " Speedwell " arrived safely at Southampton, where it fell in with the " Mayflower " with the party from London, and both vessels . put into Plymouth. The " Speedwell " was here found to be unsea- worthy, and the whole party of 102 Pilgrims, with the crew, sailed on the Gth of September in the " Mayflower," a vessel of 180 tons burden. Little is recorded of the incidents of the voyage. The first part was favorably made. As the wanderers approached the American Continent, they encountered storms which their overburdened vessel Avas scarcely able to sustain. At early dawn of the sixty-fourth day of their voyage (Nov. 9th, 0. S.,) they came in sight of the white sand-banks of Cape Cod. In pursuance of their original purpose, they veered to the south, but by the middle of the day found them- selves "among perilous shoals and breakers," which caused them to * Braiiford'8 " Plimoth Plantation," 58. 19 retrace their course. Two days after, they drew up and signed, in the cabin of the " Mayflower," the Constitution of the future Colony, their celebrated Social Compact, which was the germ, as it contained the principle of our Republican government.* After exploring the coast in their little shallop, and sending several expeditions inland, they entered Plymouth harbor under the lee of Clark's Island where they kept the Sabhath ; and at length on the memorable 21st of December, they landed on Plymouth Hock, and stepped forth on the frozen hwifree soil, henceforth to be their home. Did time permit, we might follow the history of the new Colony as they entered on the formidable work of making a settlement on that bleak and inhospitable shore, in the dead of winter, with an unknown and howling wilderness around them, filled with savage beasts and more savage men. A glance at their sorrows is afforded by the fact recorded by the historian, that in two or three months' time half of their company died, "sometimes two or three of a day ;" and of those that remained, in the time of most distress, there were but six or seven sound persons to wait upon the sick and dying. " By that time their corn was planted, all their victuals were spent, and they were only to rest on God's providence ; at night, not many times knowing where to have a bit of anything for the next day. And so, as one well observed, had need to pray, that God would give them their daily bread, above all people in the Avorld. Yet they bore these wants with great patience and alacrity of spirit, and that for so long a time as the most part of two years, "f " When the Anne arrived, the best dish they could present their friends with was a lobster, or a piece of fish, without bread or any- thing else but a cup of fair spring water. "| " Brewster, the ruling Elder, lived for many months together with- out bread, and frequently on fish alone. With nothing but oysters and clams before him, he, with his family, would give thanks that *Tho following is a copy of this remarkable docament ; the flrst compact for a fraa goTernment known to history. " In the name of Qod, amoo. Wo, whose names are underwritten, the loyal sub- jects of our dread soTereign lord. King James, by the grace of (iod, of Great Britain, France, and Ire- land King, Defender of the Faith, &c., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by theco presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together Into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtno hereof to enact, con- stitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officos, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of tho colony; anto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, wo have hereunder subscriber onr names, at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of tho reign of onr sovereign lord, King James, of Sngland, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620." t Bradford, 13C. % Ibid. 146. 20 they could ' suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sands.' Whenever a deer was taken, it was divided amongst the whole company. It is said that they were once reduced to a pint of corn, which being equally divided, gave to each a proportion of five kernels, which was parched and eaten."* Through such tribulation did these godly men enter into the King- dom of God ; with such sufferings and sacrifices did these fathers and mothers of the nation purchase for us that goodly inheritance which we possess. The question may naturally be asked, and it has been asked before, how it happened, that a company of wanderers, without military force> and with little wealth — without the sanction of a royal charter, and the power of a parent government to back them, could endure such trials, and sustain themselves so long without tumults and commo- tions ; why, in short, such a feeble band, whose numbers Avere daily thinned by disease and death, could succeed in planting this soil, which no trading adventurers were ever able to do. For it is on record that " several attempts were made to plant New England from worldly motives, but they all proved abortive." This question finds its answer in the 7'eligious character of the Colony. Worldly objects were with them secondary, and political ambition found no place among them. Religious /az'^/t enabled them to do and endure, under a sense of duty, and for the sake of God and humanity, what no mere selfish purpose was ever yet able to accomplish. They were men that feared God, and could lay down their lives for a principle ; and so they lived and " died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." As we contrast our surroundings of comfort and plenty with their sufferings and privations, let us lift our hearts in gratitude to the God of our fathers, who has given us such ancestors and such an inherit- ance. "These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." * Baylies' Hist. New Plym , i : 121. DISCOURSE II. These all died in faith, not having: received the promises, hut havint; seen them afar ofl', and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, uud conlcBsed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. — Jltbrcics XI : 13. Having shown in my morning's discourse who the Pilgrims were, and whence came the principles for which thej lived and died ; and having traced their history from the little Church gathered in Brews- ter's house in Scrooby to their exile in Leyden under the pastoral care of Eobinson, and their emigration thence in 1620 to Plymouth Rock, with a glance at the trials and sufferings they underwent for righteousness' sake, and for the planting of religious liberty on these shores, — it remains now to consider their Character and Principles, and the influence which these have had on the character of the nation. AVhat then is the secret of the Pilgrims, which has made them such a power in history, and especially in our own history I The distinguishing characteristic of the Pilgrims, that which lies at the foundation of their character, and is the essential principle of all they were, and all they did, is their religious faith. The Pilgrims were eminently men of faith. This is shown in the motive which brought them hither, and in all their precedent and subsequent history. If it was " by faith " that " Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went," — it was by the same divine principle that the I'ilgrims emigrated to this new world. In the words of Cotton Mather, " These good people were now satis- fied that they had as plain a command of Heaven to attempt a removal as ever their father Abraham had for his leaving the Chaldean terri- tories ; and it was nothing but such a satisfaction that could have carried them through such otherwise insuperable difficulties as they met withal. " They obeyed God in this act no less than if they had received an express and audible command ; and the will of God was none the less 22 clear to them because revealed inaudibly in the conscience. In obey- ing the call of duty, or what they were thoroughly persuaded was such, instead of the call of interest or worldly policy, they gave out- ward testimony that they were actuated by religious faith ; as ' the great hope and inward zeal' which inspired them was evidence to themselves. "If the Lord," says Oliver Cromwell, in one of his let- ters, " have in any measure persuaded his people, as generally He hath, of the lawfulness, nay of the duty [of any action] — this persua- sion prevailing upon the heart is /a^Y7i ; and the more the difficulties are, the greater the faith." They went out, also, not knowing whither they went, save as the Providence of God should direct them. And in being directed to the Massachusetts, instead of the New Jersey shore, as they at first steered, we see an illustration of the divine wisdom that lies hid in this simple principle of faith. They had no private ambitious schemes of their own to fulfill, as had the first settlers of Virginia, or the more recent adventurers in California and Australia. They did not come here for gain but for conscience sake. Hence they did not lay down beforehand the exact path of their pilgrimage, or fill up the map of their enterprise by their own human sagacity and foresight ; but left it for God. to determine their future destiny, guided only by the light of duty, and holding on with an unrelaxable grasp to those great, everlasting and immutable pnncijples which they carried within them. Lifted thus above mere temporal and accommodating policies and tor- tuous rules of worldly prudence, and shone upon by the calm clear light of faith, which was to them a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, — they stand apart in their character, like Abraham, more allied to God than to the rest of mankind. And this act of pilgrimage, in its very isolation from all earthly in- terests and motives, is invested with a moral sublimity and grandeur equalled only by that of the father of the faithful. The same sublime faith which moved and guided their pilgrimage hither, also supported them in all in their sojourn in this land of promise, as in a strange counti-y. If they suffered in consequence of their faith, suffering is the penalty, or rather the reward, which faith, always brings after it, and which all true heroes of faith, from Moses to Christ, have chosen in preference to worldly rewards. " By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." This was what the Pilgrims chose, and pledged themselves to, when they "joyned themselves into a 23 churcli estate in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all Ilis ways made known or to be made known unto them, accordiii" to their best endeavors, whatever it should cost them." So that their historian, Bradford, truthfully says in speaking of their sufferings : *' Yet these and many other sharper things which afterwards befel them, ivere no other than lohat they looked for, and therefore were the better pre- pared to bear them by the assistance of God's grace and spirit." Therefore, when the practical business of clearing a settlement and laying the foundations of a State had succeeded to the ideal life of the voyage ; when they began to encounter the stern realities of a pioneer life in the wilderness, Avith a wide ocean lying between them and all supplies ; when disease fell among them laying their dearest companions in the grave, and carrying off in two or three months more than half their number ; when the savage foe, with tomahawk and scalping knife was lurking behind, and famine was before, staring them in the face ; when to all earthly appearance the enterprise of establishing a religious colony was proving a failure ; — did they then abandon this great hope, and leave the ark of God in tiie wilderness whither they had brought it ? No ! They rallied around it with closer devotion, turning from their visible discouragements to their invisible Leader and Spiritual Rock. They fasted and prayed in the little churches they had planted, till deliverance came. And it did come, sometimes almost as by miracle, like God's answer to the pray- ers of Moses in the wilderness. Manna fell upon them when faint and hungry, as if out of heaven ; and water gushed out of the flinty rock. An angel of deliverance appeared for them, and routed their foes before their face. The hour of their greatest peril was the hour of their strongest and most prevailing faith ; and their independence of all earthly and self-reliances wove their souls into a closer. and more conscious dependence on God. They endured as verily seeing Him who is invisible. This enabled them like their great poet and statesman, the puritan Milton, in the midst of physical darkness, but irradiated inwardly with celestial light, to " bate no jot Of heart or hojH', but still bear up, and steer Right onward." Nor was it necessity which kept them to their purpose ; for it must not be forgotten that "had they been mindful of that country whence they came, they might have had opportunity to have returned." The " Mayflower " stood in the harbor with sails flapping for many a week ; just one-half of the party died during the first winter from 24 privation and exposure ; and Pastor Robinson still waited in Leyden witli the remnant of bis flock, to receive back the colony should the enterprise prove a failure, — but no one returned. He himself had said — and he knew what was in them — '• It is not with us as with other men, whom small things discourage, and small discontents cause to wish themselves home again."* "Oh, strong hearts and true ! not one went back in the ' Mayflower' ! No, not one looked back who had set hic> baud to that ploughing." Thus Avere planted in faith, and nurtured by efforts that availed only as they were wrought in God, those institutions which we inherit, and which may well be called sacred. When we speak of the faith of the Pilgrims, it may be supposed that we refer simply to their religious character, and mean only that they were men of pure religious principle. But we mean more than this. Faith is not merely the root and principle of religion, it is the root and essence of all greatness. "Without faith, it is not only im- possible to please God, it is also impossible to be great, or to do great things. That which the world calls genius, if it be anything really great, or transcending ordinary human capacity, is the inspiration of faith, — faith in some truth or principle which it is given to the soul to see, and which it believes and obeys : which so far as it is believed and obeyed, acts as an inspiration or supernatural power within, lift- ing the man above himself and empowering him to do, or to speak, or to create great things. " All things are possible to him that helieveth." All the really great men that have ever lived have been men of faith, generally of religious f:iith, at least faith in something unseen, which was the secret of their power. By faith Columbus went forth adven- turously over an unknown ocean, to find a continent not seen as yet, and which he knew existed only as he believed his own convictions and the revelations of science. Bv faith he overcame the incredulity and opposition of his age, and the mutinous discontent of his own crew ; and by faith he unlocked the gates of the New World, and opened a path to it for the Pilgrims which God should afterwards lead hither. And so of every otlier great and sublime achievement : it has been done not by tlie bare force of human will, or the self- taught wisdom of the human mind, but by the human will empowered, and the human mind enlightened and quickened by this divine prin- ciple of Faith. "■ Unless above himself he can Erect himseir, how poor a thing is man !" * Young's Chruniclee, p. 61, 25 Unless the human soul can connect itself with something divine, something unseen and eternal, it can neither he great nor achieve greatness ; and the bond of this connection is faith. The most alarming sign of the present time, and which, unless coun- teracted, will put the seal of impotence and degradation on this age, spite of all its boasted 'progress,' in the prevalent tendency to unbe- lief, a merely scientific and materialistic knowledge, and a denial or ignoring of all that is unseen and eternal. This ' eclipse of faith ' through Avhich our age is passing, is not more surely the harbinger of a decline of religion in its true and spiritual sense, than it is of a de- cay of inspiration, of genius, of poetry and art in all but mere mechanical imitation, of heroism and all true greatness, and a sink- ing into the abyss of materialism, and, as Carlyle would say, of ' flunkeyism,' of shams and shows, and of intellectual and moral inca- pacity. Whether we shall reach this depth, or be rescued from it, depends to a great degree on the ({uestion of how much of the spirit and faith of the Pilgrims is left in their descendants. The Pilgrims were great men because they were men of faith. They believed in God, in Truth and Duty, as more real and concerning to them than houses and lands and })hysical comforts ; and by believing and obeying these unseen and eternal realities, they were enabled to achieve great things. It is a part of their faith, moreover, and so of their greatness, that they did not deliberately plan, or consciously devise all the great and magnificent results which have come from their landing and history on these shores. This fact deserves to be pondered, for there is a deep and wise lesson contained in it. The wisdom of faith is not a human but a divine wisdom, Avhich is above the understanding of its possessor, as the power of faith is above his human will ; and this was the Avisdom of the Pilgrims. It is a fact of history that our political institutions, the Republican form of government, and the Democratic liberty of this nation have grown out of these principles of religious liberty asserted by them and embodied in their ecclesiastical polity ; yet in coming to this country they had no political designs whatever. They did not propose to themselves, or so much as dream of laying the foundations of a great republic. " Their end was religion, simply and only religion. Out upon the lone ocean, feeling their Avay cau- tiously, as it Avere, through the unknoAvn waves, exploring in their busy fancies and their prayers, the equally unknown future before them, they as little conceived that they had in their ship the germ of a vast republic that in tAvo centuries Avould command the respect and 26 attract the longing desires of the nations, as they saw with their eyes the lonely wastes about them whitening with the sails, and foaming under the swift ships of that republic, already become the first com- mercial power of the world."* But what they did not design, God designed for them and by them. The great results which have followed their enterprise were contained potentially in their principles and deeds, if not in their intention, as the oak is contained all invisibly and potentially in the small acorn which is itself unconscious of so grand a result to spring from it. Faith is a kind of instinct or instinctive wisdom, which works greater things than it purposes or knows of at the time ; like that marvellous instinct by which the bees build their comb in the hive according to the strictest rules of geometry, though not by any geometric science known to the bees themselves. The reason and wisdom of God is present in them as an unconscious power (unconscious to themselves) which they blindly obey. So God's wisdom and providence is present as a latent power Avorking in and through those who live and act by faith ; and the result is as much above their own individual wisdom as it is foreign to their purpose. Somewhat in this manner it was that our institutions were present in the fathers and founders of our history. " They builded better than they knew." " They had in their religious faith a high constructive instinct, raising them above their age and above themselves ; creating in them fountains of wisdom deeper than they consciously knew, and prepar- ing in them powers of benefaction that were to be discovered only by degrees and slowly to the coming ages."t There is a lesson here for the statesmen and legislators of our day. Faith is a better and wiser principle than expediency, in public as well as private affairs. To do right is the only true conservative policy for a nation. Pursue the straight path of manifest duty, (not destiny) and leave the future to God. Success is sure to crown the party of right in the end, since the laws and providence of God are committed to its support. To compromise or violate the right for the sake of a present success, or to avoid a present danger, is ruinous and radical in the extreme, since it arrays the laws of nature and providence against us. It is, to adopt the striking illustration of Coleridge, " like digging up the charcoal foundations of the temple of Ephcsus to burn as fuel on its altar." The way of wisdom and the way of greatness is ever the way of duty. «BuBhDell. flbid. 27 Another characteristic of the Pilgrims was their faith in the liberty and rights of Man. This was a necessary fruit of their religious faith in God. As they were of all men most faithful and loyal in their obedience to God, so they of all men were most impatient and independent of mere human authority. OvN'ning in their heart of hearts the divine supremacy of conscience, and yielding to it an abso- lute obedience, they disowned and cast off all other restraints. The first principle in their creed, a principle which is the soul of the Refor- mation, was that conscience is a sacred thing, which no man, be ho priest, presbyter or king, has any right to touch or command, but God only. And as conscience is the constituent of a man, it is im- plied in this that man is sacred, and owes allegiance therefore to no power or authority but divine, or that which derives its sanction and right to command from God. This is the principle which lies at the foundation of all true liberty, civil and religious, and is the germ of all the political progress that has been made or will be, from the Reformation to the end of time. It was this principle, growing directly out of their religious faith, and working at first as a latent power, which gave form and substance to that political fabric under whose broad arches we this day abide. It was for this that they fled into Holland, and thence to the shores of New England, that forsak- ing all else they might cleave to it and live and die for its establish- ment. Faith in man and in the sacred liberty of man for conscience sake — this was the creed written on the heart of the Pilgrims and embodied in their character. Hence their erect, manly, independent, uncompromising spirit. Hence their jealousy, not of kings only, but of all the trappings of royalty ; not only of priests and prelates, but of ceremonies and forms and rituals ; their hatred of liturgies and crosses, of stately churches and painted windows, and organs, as in- struments of worship, — of all things whatsoever that can bind the reason, or allure the senses, or any way interpose between the spirit and conscience of man and the spiritual law and worsl)ip of God. Be it that they erred by going to an extreme of rigidity, that they were too puritan in their tastes and consciences ; it was an extreme on the side of right, to counterbalance an opposite extreme of wrong and corruption. Tlicir pure and cold rigidity in morals and in worship, Avhich refused to kneel even in prayer, their stiff and stern and rugged piety, showed at lenst the stuff it was made of, no soft or doughy substance which could be moulded or beaten into whatever shape self- ish interest or priestly authority might dictate, — but like the pure granite aiguilles of the Alps, which rise cold and piercing into the I 28 sky, bare of any ornament but that which heaven supplies, as the sun- light plays on their keen and glittering summits. This aspect of the Puritan character is itself a grand assertion of the sacred dignity of man. Man is God's creature, made in his image ; and the Reason and Will of God communicated simply and directly to the conscience and reason, without any childish shows or impositions of human device, is what is binding on him. As the conscience is sacred to God alone, each individual man is the interpreter of the divine truth and will, responsible only to God. And as no authority is binding except it be divine, it follows not that human governments are null and void, nor, as is popularly maintained, that they derive their authority and power from the will of the people or ' the consent of the governed ', — (for what binding force or obliga- tion is there, least of all, what is there divine, in a mere consent of wills or a social compact ?) but that they derive it directly from God ; that human governments are binding on man only through a divine sanction ; according to the doctrine of scripture — " There is no power but of God ; and the powers that be are ordained of God." These were the great and sublime principles which the Pilgrims represented, and which they embodied in their civil and religious institutions ; and all that is great and beneficent in our political sys- tem is the legitimate growth and fruit of these. But it is all import- ant to remember, that these free principles are in their very nature religious principles, and derive their being from religious /a/^A. Faith in man, or in the liberty of man, springs only from faith in God. The liberty of man is sacred and inalienable only because of man's inalien- able allegiance to God ; and human rights are rights only because involving divine duties and responsibilities. Freedom, the world has not yet learned, does not lie in forms of government, or in any out- I ward condition or frame work of being, but in the being, or inward condition of the soul ; Avhich demands that this outward state be con- formed to it, or at least shall not hinder and oppose it. A free soul is one that owes and renders no allegiance to aught but Reason, Truth and Duty, or to God who is the substance of these ; and a free State or polity is that Avhich most effectually secures the soul in the exercise of these inalienable rights. The Pilgrims, being free souled, framed their outward civil and ecclesiastical polity to these ends or demands. It is a notable fact that the form of civil government they adopted grew directly out of their religious wants, and was only the extension of their ecclesiastical or congregational polity. 29 "The secular commonwealth," says the historian, "was designed, created, framed, for no other end than to secure the being and wel- fare of the Churches." " If then their civil polity was essentially popular, if their political institutions have grown into the most perfect specimen of a free com- monwealth which the world has ever seen, that result is to be ascribed to the popular, or as we now use the words, the democratic character of their ecclesiastical polity."* Thus from the religious character and principles of the Pilgrims, resulted that last wonder in the eyes of priestly and monarchical Europe, and that first glory in our own — " a Church without a liishop, and a State without a King." Thus freedom to worship God involved in its establishment the civil liberty and independence of the State. I mention as a third element in the character or faith of the Pil- grims, they believed in the dignity and ivortli of Mind. They held to the necessity of education, in order to the establishment and continu- ance of a true Christian State. The emancipation of the conscience from all human constraint, while it exalts man in the spiritual scale, and opens before him unlimited possibilities, demands also an emanci- pation of the reason, to enlighten the conscience and fulfill these possibilities. Hence they planted Schools and Colleges beside their Churches, in the practical persuasion that knowledge and religion cannot safely be sundered, and that both are essential to a true free- dom. Hence they inscribed upon the walls of the first College founded in New England the motto, " CIwiHo et Ucclesi