TO ALL WHO HONOR THE MEMORY OF

THE PILGRIM FATHERS,

AND ESPECIALLY TO THE

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST IN NEW HAVEN,

WHICH I SERVED IN THE PASTORAL OFFICE THROUGH MORE THAN FORTY

YEARS, THIS ENDEAVOR TO BRING FORTH FRUIT IN

OLD AGE" IS RESPECTFULLY OFFERED.

PREFACE.

A FEW words will sufficiently explain to the reader of this book the design of the author.

The history of Protestant Christianity in the United States of America is the history, not of a national church, but of voluntary churches. I have attempted to show how it began, and to trace the origin and development of the idea which generated the churches of New England.

It is hardly necessary to say that the Baptist churches a name which, in the United States, comprehends more churches than any other save one-are constituted on the same platform of polity with the church which came in the Mayflower. I have had no occasion to speak of them or of their influence in giving character to our American civilization; inasmuch as the history of churches bearing that name, on this side of the Atlantic, begins later than the latest date in the volume now submitted to the public. It has been claimed for those churches that, from the age of the Reformation onward, they have been always foremost and always consistent in maintaining the doctrine of religious liberty. Let me not be understood as calling in question their right to so great an honor.

My life has been too busy for researches among the remotest sources of history. The story in this volume is derived chiefly from works which may be found in all good libraries. Instead of going to the British Museum that I might inspect the editio princeps of some Separatist book

for which the author was hanged, I have made use of the abstracts and extracts in Hanbury's "Historical Memorials." The documents which were collected, arranged, and published by the late Dr. Alexander Young, with his careful annotations, in those two volumes, the "Chronicles of the Pilgrims" and the "Chronicles of Massachusetts," were worth more to me for my purpose than the originals from which he copied them could have been. Inasmuch as I had before me Bradford's "History of Plymouth Plantation," transcribed and published at the expense of the Massachusetts Historical Society, with annotations by its learned secretary, Mr. Deane, there was no need of my crossing the ocean to consult the venerable autograph which, having been stolen from the Prince Library when the Old South Meeting-house was occupied by British soldiers, was found after many years in the library of Fulham Palace. I have been as well provided for the work which I have attempted as I could have been if the Bishop of London and the Queen of Great Britain had not said their "Non possumus," or if the omnipotent Parliament had authorized the rendition of the precious relic to its rightful proprietor.

The Prince Library can not be named without honorable mention of its founder, Thomas Prince, the earliest American bibliographer, whose "Annals of New England"—though less important as an authority since the recovery of Bradford's History than it was when Dr. Young incorporated much of it into his "Chronicles"-is so helpful a guide in the study of our history, whether of church or state. The title of his work shows that he did not forget how different is the task of the annalist, collecting facts. and arranging them in strictly chronological order as in a table of dates, from that of the historian, who, dealing with the same facts, describes them in their significance and their natural connections. Whatever disappointment may

be experienced by a reader who opens Felt's "Ecclesiastical History of New England" with the expectation of finding on its pages a continuous and lively narrative, the reason of that disappointment will be that, while all the facts of the story are there, the book, instead of being really history, is little else than a chronological arrangement of events, set down with exemplary carefulness and diligence, but almost as dry as a volume of statistics. I take pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to the annalists and to the collectors and editors of historical documents-to Felt, Young, Prince, and Hanbury, as well as to the Anglican Strype. I do not profess to have gone behind them for the facts which they give me; but, on the other hand, I do not regard my work as bearing any resemblance to theirs. I have only attempted to construct a story out of the materials which they, and others like them, have provided.

This book, then, is offered to readers as a history digested from materials which others have prepared for me. It makes no profession of bringing to light new facts from documents heretofore inedited, or from black-letter books heretofore overlooked. It simply tells an old story, giving perhaps here and there a new interpretation or a new emphasis to some undisputed fact. My purpose has been to tell the story clearly and fairly, not for the instruction or delight of antiquarians, nor merely for those with whom church history is a professional study, but for all sorts of intelligent and thoughtful readers. He who writes only for scholars, or for the men of some learned profession, can say, "Fit audience let me find, though few;" but my labor has been thrown away if the story which I have written is not so told as to invite the attention and to stir the sympathies of the many. Those who read the story will understand, I trust--what many are ignorant of, and what