Both vessels proceeded to sea; but returned twice into port, on account of defects in the one from Delft, which was dismissed. Part of the company returned to London, the remainder betook themselves to the ship, and sailed from Plymouth the 6th of September. After many delays, difficulties and dangers, they made Cape Cod at break of day on the 9th of November, and entered the harbor on the 10th. They offered up their devout and ardent acknowledgments to God for his protection, and had thoughts of landing; but remarking that they were out of the limits of their patent, and in a sort reduced to a state of nature; and hearing some, who came from London, hint, there is now no authority over us; they, while on board, formed themselves into a civil body politic, under the crown of England, for the purpose of franiing "just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices," to which they promised "all due submission and obedience." This contract was subscribed by forty-one persons, on Saturday the 11th of November. The whole company of settlers, men, women, children, and servants, amounted to no more than one hundred and one, the exact number that left England-for one had died, but another was born upon the passage.. Enfeebled and sickly, we now behold them at the distance of 3000 miles, not only from their native country, but the hospitable land where they lately resided for years, when unfeeling persecution drove them into a voluntary banishment. They have a long and dreary winter before them, and are upon the strange. coast of an uncultivated wilderness, without a relation or friend to welcome their arrival, or an house to shelter them; without even a kind inhabitant to comfort them by tender acts of humanity, much less a civilized town or city, from which succour may be obtained on an emergency. Thus circumstanced, they are employed in making discoveries till the 20th of December, when they concluded upon a place for immediate settlement, which they afterward name New-Plymouth, in grateful remembrance of the last town they left in their native country. The winter proved remarkably mild for the American climate, though excessively severe to an English constitution; and what with disorders brought upon them through uncommon labors and fatigues, and their being exposed to the rigors of the season; and what with the scurvy and other diseases occasioned by a tedious voyage, and the want of proper accommodations while making it, they buried by the end of March, 1621, fortyfour of their little society, of whom one-and-twenty were sub scribers to the contract. The number of their dead increased to fifty by the beginning of November, when, to their great joy a Wood's New-England's Profpect, ed. 1764, p. 5. vessel vessel arrived with thirty-five settlers from London. It was years before their plantation amounted to three hundred people; when nearly so, the council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New-England, in America, granted them a patent, [Jan. 13, 1630] by which their lands were secured against all English claims. Be it noted, that they early agreed with, and satisfied the Indian proprietors. It would have been astonishing, had not these planters brought with them opinions favorable to liberty. The arbitrary proceedings of Elizabeth and James, produced a spirit of enquiry; and induced the sufferers and others to canvass. the equity of those powers which were so improperly exercised. When the film of prejudice was removed, it was easy to discern that tyranny, whether in church or state, could not be vindicated by reason or revelation; and that Heaven's permitting it, was no more a countenance to that, than any other wickedness. Beside, the Plymouthians had lived for many years among a people who had been engaged in a bloody war with a cruel unrelenting tyrant, whose sovereignty they had renounced. The frequent conversation that must have passed between the Dutch and English refugees, must have improved the attachment of the last to the cause of freedom. It might also have been hinted to them, that it began to be the sentiment of some English nobles and principal commoners, that in case of a removal to America, persons, without any charter from the crown, were at liberty to establish what form of government they pleased; and to set up a new state, as fully to all intents and purposes, as though they were making their first entrance into civil society. No wonder then, especially considering the general equality prevailing among them, that the Plymouthians, by their contract before landing, formed themselves into a proper democracy, and that it was entered in the Plymouth records of [Nov. 15, 1636] "Finding, that as free born subjects of the state of ENGLAND, we hither came with all and singular the privileges belonging to such; in the first place we think good, that it be established for an act, that, according to the [rights supposed to be wanting] and due privileges of the subjects aforesaid, no imposition, law or ordinance, be made or imposed upon them at present or to come, but such as shall be made and imposed by consent, acccording to the free liberties of free born subjects of the state and kingdom of ENGLAND, and no otherwise." They meant to continue their allegiance to the crown; to retain their connection with the mother country; to adopt the general laws of England for the rule rule of government, wherein they suited; and to be governed by their own particular acts in other instances. Persons devo.ed to church authority and particular national establishments, may exciaim against the Plymouthians for their religious sentiments; but a fair and brief statement of them, it is apprehended, will be thought the best defence that can be offered by those who candidly examine the New-Testament, and are properly impressed with the words of our SaviourMy kingdom is not of this world. When Mr. Robinson and his associates separated from the church of England, they were rigid Brownists. After his removal to Holland, and there conversing with learned divines, he being a gentleman of a liberal mind and good disposition, became moderate, as did his people; so that they who continued rigid Brownists would hardly hold communion with them. Mr. Robinson and his society did not require of those who joined them, a renunciation of the church of England. They also acknowledged the other reformed churches for true and genuine; allowed their own members occasional communion with them in the word preached and in the prayers conceived by the preacher before and after sermon, but not in the sacraments and discipline; and admitted their members, known to them to be pious, to occasional communion with themselves in the sacraments. Still it is to be remarked, that they were not admitted because of their being members of such churches, but on account of their known piety; their belonging to and continuing in such churches, was not an argument for rejecting them; nor was it the argument for their reception. Mr. Robinson, however, by his conversation and writings, proved a principal in ruining Brownism; and, in the opinion of some was the father, of others the restorer, of the independent or congregational churches. Congregational is the term used in New-England, the other is discarded, as seeming to imply too great a separation from sister churches. The Plymouthians held, that the Bible was the sole religious. code of protestants; and that every man had a right to judge for himself, and to try all doctrines by it, and to worship according to what he apprehended that directed. In doctrinal tenets they agreed with the articles of the church of England. The main difference between them and other reformed churches was about hierarchy. They maintained, that no particular church ought to consist of more persons than could worship in one congregation; that every man ought, in appearance, to be a true believer in Christ, and subject to his authority; that when there was a suitable number of such believers, who thought themselves bound in conscience to do it, they had a right to embody into a church church, by some certain contract or covenant, expressed or implied; and that, being embodied, they were to choose all their officers, who were pastors or teaching elders, mere ruling elders, meant to assist the former, and qualified to teach occasionally, and deacons who were to manage the temporalities of the church, to take care of the poor, and to officiate at the Lord's table, by providing the bread and wine, laying the cloth, carrying the elements, &c. [The custom of having ruling elders has now ceased.] The elders of both kinds were to form the presbytery of overseers and rulers. They also held, that no churches or church officers, had any power over other churches or officers, to control or impose upon them, all having equal rights and privileges. Their own officers were removable by them upon justifiable reasons; in case of capital errors, gross misconduct, and the like. When they baptised, they rejected the sign of the cross, and other ceremonies not enjoined by scripture. They received the elements of the Lord's supper, in the table-posture of the day and place in which they lived. Excommunication, they deemed to be wholly spiritual; and denied that the church or its officers had any authority to inflict temporal pains and penalties. They considered no days as holy, but the Lord's day, which they observed with great strictness. Solemn fastings and thanksgivings, as the aspects of providence required, they had a pious regard to, as agreeable to both natural and revealed religion. A better sort of emigrants never crossed the Atlantic. "They were a plain, frugal, industrious, conscientious, and loving people; and, for the day in which they lived, and considering. their education, possessed a good share of politeness. The important light in which they viewed morality, led them, in many instances to such critical exactness as would be deemed by the moderns ridiculous; from thence, however, the community derived substantial benefits. They have been stigmatized as enthusiasts; but nothing like enthusiasm is to be met with in the records of any of their transactions, either civil or ecclesiastic.. Their piety indeed was eminent and fervent, but it was also rational; and their religion was that of the Bible, and had a proper influence upon their conduct." The Plymouthians having cleared the way for other sufferers to settle in America, with less difficulty and danger than what they had experienced; the fame of their plantation spreading through the western parts of England; and the government in church and state growing more and more oppressive; the territory of the Massachusetts-Bay was purchased of the Plymouth Council [1628] and a company soon formed, who consulted on on settling a plantation, to which non-conforming puritans might emigrate in order to enjoy their own principles in full security. Their sufferings had been moderated for a few years before Elizabeth's death. The queen was far advanced in life; the next heir to the crown was a presbyterian, who had subscribed to the Scotch national covenant, and, with hands uplifted to Heaven, had pronounced, "The Scotch kirk is the rest in the world, and the service of the kirk of England au evil said mass in English, that wants nothing of the mass but the liftings;" he had interceded for some of the persecuted ministers; and the bishops were cautious of acting against a party for whom king James had declared; but upon his ascending the throne, the fears of the high-churchmen and the hopes of the nonconformists were soon ended. It was not long before the king became in the church a furious persecutor of the non-conformists, and in the state as errant a despot as his cowardice would allow. In stigmatizing for puritans, all who stood by the laws of the land, and opposed his arbitrary government, though strenuous churchmen, he strengthened the cause of the church puritans; the former, called by way of distinction' state-puritans, joining the latter, both together became at length the majority of the nation. Still the times were not mended; and the death of James made way for their becoming much worse. King Charles unfortunately took for his bosom-counsellor in religious affairs, bishop Laud, the most unqualified person for the purpose, of any to be found in his three kingdoms; he also resigned himself up to arbitrary councils. The lowering prospect thickened apace; the Massachusetts company therefore provided a safe retreat in season. They applied immediately to the improvement of their purchased terri tory; and sent out capt. John Endicott and others, with servants, to begin a plantation; who arrived at (what is now named) Salem. They soon after petitioned for a royal charter, hoping that their existence and powers would be thereby secured and promoted, They succceeded, and a charter of incorporation was granted, [March 4, 1629] making them a body politic, by the name of The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England," with as full powers as any other corporation in the realm of England. The grant and sale of the Plymouth Council was confirmed. Till the annual election by the company could commence, the governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants were specified. The mode of governing, and of admitting freemen, was prescribed. They were empowered to elect and constitute such other officers as might be thought requisite |