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POLITICAL MEANING OF THE FIVE POINTS.

CHAP. archs of that day feared as republicanism, and which Charles II. declared a religion unfit for a gentleman, is expressed in a single word-predestination. Did a proud aristocracy trace its lineage through generations of a high-born ancestry, the republican reformer, with a loftier pride, invaded the invisible world, and from the book of life brought down the record of the noblest enfranchisement, decreed from all eternity by the King of kings. His few converts defied the opposing world as a world of reprobates, whom God had despised and rejected. To them the senses were a totally-depraved foundation, on which neither truth nor goodness could rest. They went forth in confidence that men who were kindling with the same exalted instincts, would listen to their voice, and be effectually "called into the brunt of the battle" by their side. And, standing serenely amidst the crumbling fabrics of centuries of superstitions, they had faith in one another; and the martyrdoms of Cambray, the fires of Smithfield, the surrender of benefices by two thousand nonconforming Presbyterians, attest their perseverance.

Such was the system, which, for a century and a half, assumed the guardianship of liberty for the English world. "A wicked tyrant is better than a wicked war," said Luther, preaching non-resistance; and Cranmer echoed back, "God's people are called to render obedience to governors, altho' they be wicked or wrong-doers, and in no case to resist."-" Civil magistrates," replied English Calvinism,-I quote the very words, in which, under an extravagant form, its champion asserted the paramount power of general principles, and the inalienable rights of freedom,-"civil magistrates must be servants unto the church; they must remember to submit their sceptres, to throw down

CALVINISM MOULDED THE LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

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their crowns before the church, yea, as the prophet CHAP. speaketh, to lick the dust of the feet of the church.' To advance intellectual freedom, Calvinism denied, absolutely denied, the sacrament of ordination; thus breaking up the great monopoly of priestcraft, and scattering the ranks of superstition. "Kindle the fire before my face," said Jerome meekly, as he resigned himself to his fate; to quench the fires of persecution forever, Calvinism resisted with fire and blood, and, shouldering the musket, proved, as a foot-soldier, that, on the field of battle, the invention of gunpowder had levelled the plebeian and the knight. To restrain absolute monarchy in France, in Scotland, in England, it allied itself with the party of the past, the decaying feudal aristocracy, which it was sure to outlive; to protect itself against feudal aristocracy, it infused itself into the mercantile class, and the inferior gentry; to secure a life in the public mind, in Geneva, in Scotland, wherever it gained dominion, it invoked intelligence for the people, and in every parish planted the common school.

In an age of commerce, to stamp its influence on the New World, it went on board the fleet of Winthrop, and was wafted to the Bay of Massachusetts. Is it denied that events follow principles, that mind rules the world? The institutions of Massachusetts were the exact counterpart of its religious system. Calvinism claimed heaven for the elect: Massachusetts gave franchises to the members of the visible church. vinism rejected the herd of reprobates: Massachusetts inexorably disfranchised Churchmen, royalists, and all world's people. Calvinism overthrew priestcraft in Massachusetts, none but the magistrate could marry; the brethren could ordain. Calvinism saw in

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PROGRESS FROM CALVINISM.

CHAP. goodness infinite joy, in evil infinite woe, and, recogXVIII. nizing no other abiding distinctions, opposed secretly,

but surely, hereditary monarchy, aristocracy, and bondage: Massachusetts owned no king but the King of heaven; no aristocracy, but of the redeemed; no bondage, but the hopeless, infinite and eternal bondage of sin. Calvinism invoked intelligence against Satan, the great enemy of the human race; and the farmers and seamen of Massachusetts nourished its college with corn and strings of wampum, and in every village built the free school. Calvinism, in its zeal against Rome, reverenced the Bible even to idolatry; and in Massachusetts, the songs of Deborah and David were sung without change; hostile Algonquins, like the Canaanites, were exterminated or enslaved; and a peevish woman was hanged, because it was written, "the witch shall die."

"Do not stand still with Luther and Calvin," said the father of the Pilgrims, confident in human advancement. From Luther to Calvin, there was progress; from Geneva to New England, there was more. Calvinism, I speak of its political character, in an age when politics were controlled by religious sects; I pass no judgment on opinions which relate to an unseen world, Calvinism, such as it existed, in opposition to prelacy and feudalism, could not continue in a world where there was no prelacy to combat, no aristocracy to overthrow. It therefore received developments which were imprinted on institutions. It migrated to the Connecticut; and there, forgetting its foes, it put off its armor of religious pride. "You go to receive your reward," was said to Hooker on his death-bed. "I go to receive mercy," was his reply. For predestination Connecticut substituted benevolence. It hanged no

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witches, it persecuted no heretics. Its early legislation CHAP. is the breath of reason and charity; and Jonathan Ed-~ wards did but sum up the political history of his native commonwealth for a century, when, anticipating, and in his consistency excelling, Godwin and Bentham, he gave Calvinism its political euthanasia, by declaring virtue to consist in universal love.

In Boston, with Henry Vane and Anne Hutchinson, "Calvinism ran to seed;" and the seed was "incorruptible." Election implies faith, and faith freedom. Claiming the Spirit of God as the companion of man, the Antinomians asserted absolute freedom of mind. For predestination they substituted consciousness. "If the ordinances be all taken away, Christ cannot be;" the forms of truth may perish; truth itself is immortal. "God will be ordinances to us." The exiled doctrine, which established conscience as the highest court of Whit appeal, fled to the island gift of Miantonómoh; and the records of Rhode Island, like the beautiful career of Henry Vane, are the commentary on the true import of the creed.

Faith in predestination alone divided the Antinomians from the Quakers. Both reverenced and obeyed the voice of conscience in its freedom. The near resemblance was perceived so soon as the fame of George Fox reached America; and the principal followers of Anne Hutchinson, Coddington, Mary Dyer, Henry Bull, and a majority of the people, avowed themselves to be Quakers.

Thus had the principle of freedom of mind, first asserted for the common people, under a religious form, by Wickliffe, been pursued by a series of plebeian sects, till it at last reached a perfect development, coinciding with the highest attainment of European philosophy.

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THE THREE RACES IN PRESENCE OF ONE ANOTHER.

CHAP.

By giving a welcome to every sect, America was XVIII. safe against narrow bigotry. At the same time, the moral unity of the forming nation was not impaired. Of the various parties into which the reformation divided the people, each, from the proudest to the most puny sect, rallied round a truth. But as truth never contradicts itself, the collision of sects could but eliminate error; and the American mind, in the largest sense eclectic, struggled for universality, while it asserted freedom. How had the world been governed by despotism and bigotry; by superstition and the sword; by the ambition of conquest and the pride of privilege! And now the happy age gave birth to a people which was to own no authority as the highest, but the free conviction of the public mind.

Thus had Europe given to America her sons and her culture. She was the mother of our men, and of the ideas which guided them to greatness. The relations of our country to humanity were already wider. The three races, the Caucasian, the Ethiopian and the American, were in presence of one another on our soil. Would the red man disappear entirely from the forests, which, for thousands of years, had sheltered him safely? Would the black man, in the end, be benefited by the crimes of mercantile avarice? At the close of the middle age, the Caucasian race was in nearly exclusive possession of the elements of civilization, while the Ethiopian remained in insulated barbarism. No commerce connected it with Europe; no intercourse existed by travel, by letters, or by war; it was too feeble to attempt an invasion of a Christian prince or an Arab dynasty. The slave-trade united the races by an indissoluble bond; the first ship that brought Africans to America, was a sure pledge, that,