CHAPTER VII.

WHITEFIELD IN AMERICA.

WHEN this continent was discovered by the English, it lay within the limits of that vast territory which the pope, although himself ignorant of its existence, conferred on Spain :—and, in these times, papal grants were "holy ground." Accordingly, Henry VII. was afraid to colonize it. Henry VIII. had not time. Edward VI. had not power. Queen Mary had not inclination. Elizabeth had not spirit. She sanctioned, but never seconded, the attempt of Raleigh in Virginia. The credit of colonizing North America belongs to James I. He had before tried the experiment of colonial towns in the highlands of Scotland, in order to improve the clans; and although it did not answer all his expectations, it confirmed him in the policy of the system. Unhappily, his ecclesiastical policy was not equally wise. He derided and denounced the puritans and nonconformists. And, alas, bishops ascribed this to inspiration; and even Lord Bacon justified it!

Amongst many who fled from this tyranny to the continent, for refuge, was the congregational church of the great and good John Robinson. In 1609, they settled in Leyden, and remained for some years. But the unhealthy climate, and especially the unhallowed sabbaths of the city, determined them to emigrate to America.

This resolution was not adopted hastily, nor without much prayer. The exiles felt for their children; and shrunk from the danger of their being absorbed in the mass, or assimilated to the morals, of a foreign nation. And, what gave irresistible effect to all their ordinary motives was,—they felt it to be their

supreme duty to spread the gospel amongst the heathen, and to perpetuate the Scriptural system of christian churches.

It is not to the credit of Dr. Robertson, that he withheld the fact of their missionary spirit. He says, with an ill-concealed sneer, "They began to be afraid that all their high attainments in spiritual knowledge would be lost; and that the perfect fabric of policy which they had erected would dissolve, and be consigned to oblivion, if they remained longer in a strange land." The historian understood the character of Charles V.; but he was incapable of appreciating the character of John Robinson and his church, even although the Scotch martyrs furnished a clue to it. It requires, however, more than philosophical discrimination, to discern mental or moral greatness in the zeal of poor men for unpopular truth. The character of the first nonconformists must remain a mystery to mere philosophers, until the New Testament become "The Book of the Church."

A brief sketch of the character and principles of the founders of the first American churches, will justify this remark. Now, that Hume, and writers of his stamp, should designate the Plymouth pilgrims, weak or wild fanatics, is only what might be expected. Nor is it at all surprising, that even Robertson should call them enthusiasts and Brownists. It is, however, a matter both of surprise and regret, that such an historian as Grahame should have called them Brownists, in the face of a solemn injunction which he himself transcribes, and in which Robinson disavows the name, as "a brand for making religion odious." Even Baylie, the bitter enemy of the first dissenters, declares that "Robinson was the principal overthrower of the Brownists, and became the father of independency." Hornius also distinguishes the independents from the Brownists, and calls them Robinsonians. Governor Winslow also, in his "Grounds of planting New England," says, that "the Brownists were settled in Amsterdam, and would hardly hold communion with the people of Leyden." Besides, there is a work of Robinson's, which bears the following title: "A Just and Necessary Apology for certain Christians, no less contumeliously than commonly called Brownists or Barrowists."

The fact seems to be,-that Robinson had been, at first, a stricter dissenter than the generality of the nonconformists; and, by publishing his "Justification of Separation from the Church of England," in answer to Bernard's "Separatists' Schism," which was chiefly directed against the Brownists, he thus subjected himself to the charge of being one of them. But both his spirit and his system were of a far higher order. He was, in the best sense of the name, an independent, or congregationalist.

What he was as a scholar and a divine, may be judged from his masterly answer to Bernard, and from his signal triumph over the successor of Arminius at Leyden. The university of Leyden prevailed on Robinson to accept the challenge of Episcopius; and he silenced the impugner of Calvinism. In such estimation was he held at Leyden, that all the rank and talent of the city attended his funeral, and agreed to his interment in the chancel of their principal church.

Such was the man who formed the sentiments and the character of the men who formed the first church in New England. He himself was prevented from joining them there, by the intrigues of a faction in the Virginian company in this country; but his mantle and spirit were carried there by his elder and members. And nobly did they exemplify the principles of their pastor!

What these principles were, is not matter of conjecture. As to faith, the pilgrims held the doctrinal articles of the reformed churches; and, accordingly, admitted to communion in their own church the pious members. of all protestant churches who chose to unite with them.

This open communion, and unshackled freedom of conscience, were, however, peculiar to the independents. The puritans who colonized Massachusetts Bay, availed themselves, at first, of these privileges; but they did not extend them so freely when they settled their own churches.

Agreeably to the spirit of the church in which they were educated, they soon began to govern religion, instead of submitting to be governed by it; and thus practical intolerance was grafted upon speculative liberty, as slavery still is, on American

republicanism. The puritans were much upbraided for this by the church of England, whilst her own offsets in the southern provinces of America could hardly subsist; but, when they obtained a legal settlement, she soon fenced them by a sacramental test.

Even-handed justice, however, has not yet been rendered to the American puritans. Both eulogy and censure are still too unqualified. Their errors were the universal errors of their

whereas their virtues were peculiar to themselves. God, indeed, "sifted three nations, that he might sow New England with the finest wheat." Magnalia.

A sketch of the rise and progress of religion in America will illustrate this. Its origin, although of recent date, was coeval with the discovery of the rock of Plymouth. The pilgrims had formed themselves, by covenant, into a church and a state, even before they landed; and thus Plymouth became a settlement and a sanctuary on the same day. The voice of praise and prayer first awoke the echoes of its forests; and before a tree was cut for fuel, or climbed for food, tears of gratitude had anointed the rock as an EBENEZER.

Webster, a member of congress, has depicted this scene with great power and pathos. "The morning that beamed on the first night of their repose, saw the pilgrims already established in their country. There were political institutions, and civil liberty, and religious worship.

"Poetry has fancied nothing in the wanderings of heroes, so distinct and characteristic. Here was man, indeed, unprotected, and unprovided for, on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness; but it was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Every thing was civilized but the physical world. Institutions, containing in substance all that ages had done for human government, were established in a forest. Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature; and, more than all, a government and a country were to commence, with the very first foundations laid under the divine light of the christian religion. Happy auspices of a happy futurity! Who could wish that his country's existence had otherwise begun? Who would desire to go back to the ages of fable? Who would wish for an origin ob

scured in the darkness of antiquity? Who would wish for other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other ornaments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, that her first existence was with intelligence; her first breath, the inspiration of liberty; her first principle, the truth of divine religion?”

In a similar spirit, WHELPLEY, of New York, says, "On the day they felt the firm earth, for weal or for woe, they adopted it as their country; they looked off to the surrounding hills and snow-clad ranges, and felt that these must henceforth be their horizon; they surveyed the deep and frowning forest, with its savage tenantry, and resolved to subdue and make it the abode of pure religion; they looked along the far-sounding shore, and resolved to explore its depths and islands, and point out to their children the places of cities, and the marts of commerce; they looked up to the broad heavens, where dwelt their covenant God, and, in prayer, resolved to build Him a house for his worship, wherever under these heavens, like Jacob, they rested on their pilgrimage."

Vivid and touching as these pictures are, they are, perhaps, surpassed, as to effect, by the simple journals of the pilgrims themselves; from which PRINCE drew the materials, and, in a great measure, the language, of his "Annals ;"—a book almost unknown now in this country.

"1620. Dec. 20. This morning, after calling on Heaven for guidance, they go ashore again, to pitch on some place for immediate settlement. After viewing the country, they conclude to settle on the main, on a high ground facing the bay; a sweet brook running under the hill, with many delicate springs. On a great hill they intend to fortify, which will command all round; whence they may see across from the bay to Cape Cod. And here, being twenty in number, they rendezvous this evening; but a storm rising, it blows and rains hard all night; continues so tempestuous for two days, that they cannot get aboard, and have nothing to shelter them.

"21st. Dies Richard Bretterige, the first who dies in this harbour.

"23d. As many go ashore as can; cut and carry timber for a common building.