descriptions, he bestowed upon it the name of NEW ENGLAND. From this period the Southern Colony was called VIRGINIA, and the northern NEW ENGLAND. The interest elicited by the accounts given of the country by Captain Smith had no other effect than to induce private adventurers to prosecute the trade with the natives. None were induced to emigrate, nor was the prospect of gain sufficiently encouraging to lure the company to attempt any settlement. Men could not be induced to abandon their homes, ease, comfort, or luxury, for the sake of an uncertain, or at least a distant advantage either to themselves or to their country. The shores were too wild, the climate was too harsh, and the end too precarious, to inspire or to encourage a spirit of enterprise or adventure. Happily, however, for the interests of mankind, there was a spirit which could face all these difficulties, and endure all these sacrifices and privations-which could brave every danger and welcome any disaster, with the prospect, however distant or contingent, of accomplishing its purposes-a spirit which, under whatever trials, or at whatever sacrifices, under whatever circumstances, or in whatever clime, could still live and glow in the bosom of its possessor-a spirit whose exalted purposes were in part accomplished the very moment it alighted on this "wild and rock-bound coast." It was a spirit which sought-"freedom to worship God." The warfare against the Church of Rome commenced by Luther, led many of the countries of Europe to separate themselves from her communion and abjure her authority. In some instances this rupture was sudden and violent, leaving no traces of the ancient superstition, but adopting an entirely new form of worship, of doctrines, and of discipline. Such was the case with the institutes provided by Calvin, and adopted by many of the estates of Germany. The simplicity of these, but more particularly their hostility to the papal doctrines and ordinances, were so much admired by the more zealous of the Reformers, that they were adopted in Scotland, in the United Provinces, the Dominions of the House of Brandenburgh, in those of the Elector Palatine, and by the Hueguenots of France. In England a different policy seems to have been pursued, and the progress of the principles of the Reformation was more cautious and deliberate. She abolished at first only those doctrines and institutions of Rome which were more prominently repugnant to the principles of freedom, or savoured too much of superstition, or of human invention. The changes in her ecclesiastical polity were likewise either retarded or accelerated according as it suited the various tempers, sentiments, and even the caprices and passions of her successive sovereigns. The butcherous and bloody persecutions which followed the succession of Mary to the throne in 1554, compelled many distinguished advocates of protestantism to seek refuge on the continent of Europe. They were received with sympathy and found a more congenial home in various cities of the United Provinces. A large number of them collected at Geneva, where they associated together under the institutes of Calvin. On the accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, and the consequent ascendancy of Protestantism, they returned again to England, with deep rooted hostility to the Church which had persecuted them, ardently attached to their own institutions, but with strong inclinations in favor of a republican form of government. Their efforts, however, at a participation in the revision of the forms and observances of religion, and more particularly of what was called the liturgy, were unsuccessful. They found Elizabeth not quite so liberal and yielding to their views as her proclamations and promises had led them to expect. Proud in the consciousness of her superior learning and abilities, as well as her accomplishments in the school of theology, she considered herself capable alone to undertake the task of expurgation. Guided more by policy than by principle, she sought to conciliate the followers of Rome, by retaining something of the pomp and parade of external worship, rather than to provoke their hostility by any wide departure from the canons of the papal hierarchy. But instead of conciliating them she found it afterwards necessary to recommend and adopt rigorous laws to secure her person and her crown against their treasonable designs, while she had already alienated the confidence of the reformers. Her fear of the former, and her dislike of the political sentiments of the latter, infused a spirit of vindictive bitterness into her administration, which at length ripened into extreme intolerance. At her suggestion an act was passed by Parliament, requiring an absolute conformity to the system which she had devised and which was established as the Church of England; its ceremonials and forms being subject to the revision of the Queen. In the exercise of this discretion she issued a proclamation prohibiting all preaching, and confining the services of the Church to the reading of the Gospels and Commandments, without comment or exposition, together with the Litany and the Apostles' Creed. These ordinances were opposed by the advocates for a further reform, and the consequence was that many of the most distinguished and popular of the clergy were deprived of their benefices, fined and imprisoned. A court was erected called the "High Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs," whose trials were summary, whose decisions were arbitrary, and whose inflictions were almost as odious and cruel as the penalties of the Inquisition. Confiscation, deposition, banishment, imprisonment and death, were among its penalties. These it is true were in some cases inflicted on the plea that the zealous hostility of the Reformers to the religious establishment, amounted to treason against the crown; and at that day there might have been a show of plausibility in the apology, for so intimately blended were the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom, that a reform could not be sought in the one without essentially opposing, and perhaps undermining, the existing administration of the other. But having reviewed it sufficiently for our present purposes, we will here leave the general subject, and turn our attention to that small and devoted band, of more humble and less erring piety, who chose rather to seek an asylum where they might follow the dictates of their own consciences, without fear of provoking the inflictions of intolerance, or offending against the civil administration. CHAPTER II. EVEN among the reformers a variety of opinions had obtained with regard to the doctrines and the discipline of religion; and rival sects had long contended with each other respecting them. Some of these, were reduced to a system by one Robert Brown, then a popular preacher, under which he collected a large number of followers. He taught that the established church was corrupt, antichrist-that its ministers were unlawfully ordained that its discipline, its ordinances, and its sacraments were alike unscriptural and invalid, and prohibited all communion with it. He held that the scriptures taught that any association of Christians, meeting to worship God, and united for that purpose, constituted in and of themselves a church, having exclusive control over all its affairs, independent on any other sect or society, and amenable only to the great head of the church, Christ-that the priesthood was not a distinct order in the church-that the office itself did not confer any superior sanctity of characterthat any man qualified to teach, might be chosen by his brethren for that purpose, and set apart to those functions, by the laying on of their hands that for cause shown he might also be by them deposed or discharged from that station. He further insisted on a public profession of faith; and that the general affairs of the church should be regulated by a majority of its mernbers. It needs scarce a moments reflection to understand how a system so democratic in its principles, and admitting such a liberty of discipline, was calculated to excite all the odium of the civil as well as ecclesiastical jurisdiction of England-doctrines so heretical and so damning, so wholly subversive of all the received and cherished maxims of government, could not be tolerated; accordingly full and heavy were the vials of wrath poured out upon their advocates. To render their situation still more embarrassing their leader, Brown, was induced to abandon them, and to conform to the established church. |