tiona. churches, . . . the difference is so small (if moderately pondered) between them and us, as we dare not for the world deny communion with them." So far, indeed, had the Pilgrim pastor and his church advanced toward what in earlier years they would have deemed a dangerous laxity, that on one oc66 to hold communcasion they were ready, as it might seem, ion with" the theoretically national Church of Scotland.1 The same witness reports "the wholesome counsel" which the Pilgrims received from their pastor "at their departure from him to begin the great work of plantation in New England." That wholesome counsel may have been given in the sermon on the day of prayer before the embarkation. It may have been spoken in more informal exhortation on

Winslow, in Young, p. 388-396. "A godly divine coming over to Leyden, in Holland, where a book was printed anno 1619, as I take it, showing the nullity of the Perth Assembly [one of the books for which Brewer and Brewster were brought into trouble, see ante, p. 272], whom we judged to be the author of it, and hidden in Holland for a season to avoid the rage of those evil times, . . . this man being very conversant with our pastor, Mr. Robinson, and using to come to hear him on the Sabbath-after sermon ended, the church being to partake of the Lord's Supper, this minister stood up and desired he might, without offense, stay and see the manner of his administration and our participation in the ordinance. To whom our pastor answered in these very words, or to this effect: 'Reverend sir, you may not only stay to behold us, but partake with us if you please; for we acknowledge The minister the churches of Scotland to be the churches of Christ,' etc. also replied to this purpose, if not also in the same words, that for his part he could comfortably partake with the church, and willingly would, but that it is possible some of his brethren in Scotland might take offense at his act; which he desired to avoid in regard of the opinion the English churches, with which they held communion withal, had of us. However, he rendered thanks to Mr. Robinson, and desired, in that respect, to be only a spectator of us."

It should be observed here that, according to Winslow's report, Robinson, in giving the invitation, professed to acknowledge (not the National Church, but) the churches of Scotland, and that the Scotchman, in his reply, said nothing about the Church of England as having a bad opinion of Separatists, but mentioned "the English churches," meaning those parish assemblies in which there was a Puritan administration of the Gospel.

the day of their leaving Leyden, when, as Winslow tells, "the brethren that stayed feasted us that were to go," and the pastor's house, after their tears, resounded with psalms and joyful melody. It may have been a portion of what was uttered while they were in their last meeting at Delft-Haven. We may even suppose the reporter to have thrown together his recollections of what their wise and loving pastor said on various occasions in view of their expected departure. It is enough that we have it from a credible reporter, and that every word of it is not only accordant with Robinson's character and way of thinking, but might even be confirmed by quotations from his writings.

"We were ere long to part asunder; and whether ever he should live to see our faces again, was known to the Lord. But whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he charged us, before God and his blessed angels, to follow him no further than he followed Christ; and, if God should reveal any thing to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry; for he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word. He took occasion also miserably to bewail the state and condition of the Reformed churches, who were come to a period in religion, and would go no further than the instruments of their reformation. As, for example, the Lutherans: they could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; for whatever part of God's will he had further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And so also (saith he) you see the Calvinists: they stick where he left them; a misery much to be lamented, for though they were precious shining lights in their times, God had not revealed his whole will to them, and were they now living (saith he), they would be as ready and willing to embrace further light as that they had received.

Here also he put us in mind of our church covenant, or at least that part of it whereby we promise and covenant

with God, and one with another, to receive whatever light or truth shall be made known to us from his written Word. But withal he exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to examine and compare it, and weigh it with other Scripture of truth before we received it. For (saith he) it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and full perfection of knowledge break forth at once.

"Another thing he commended to us was that we should use all means to avoid and shake off the name of Brownist, that being a mere nickname and brand to make religion and the professors of it odious to the Christian world. And to that end (said he), I should be glad if some godly minister would go over with you before my coming; for there will be no difference between the unconformable ministers and you, when they come to the practice of the ordinances out of the kingdom. And so he advised us to close with the godly party of the kingdom of England, and rather to study union. than division, viz., how near we might possibly without sin close with them, rather than in the least measure to affect division or separation from them. And be not loath to take another pastor or teacher (saith he), for that flock that hath two shepherds is not endangered but secured by it."

These retrospective details have arrested the progress of our story; but they help us to realize what was going on while the Speedwell and the Mayflower, at Southampton, were receiving their freight and passengers for a transatlantic voyage. A few Christian people, earnest in their faith, selfsacrificing in their zeal, long trained under the discipline of hardships and of suffering for Christ, taught by a devoted pastor who had brought them out of "the bitterness of separation" into more catholic sympathies, and bound by covenant to receive whatever new light might shine upon them from the Word of God, were going forth to develop, in a new world beyond the ocean, that conception of organized Christianity which had been given to them, but for which there was not room enough in the old world of Europe. They

were not, consciously, political reformers, going to organize civil government on a new theory; nor does it appear that they had formed a definite judgment on the question whether the government which had protected them in Holland was theoretically better than that which had driven them out of England. Far less were they dreaming of a reconstructed civilization which should abolish the distinction of rich and poor, and all the ills that flesh is heir to; their industrious spirit abhorred even the temporary and limited communism into which they were forced by the mercantile spirit of their partners. Nor had they a new scheme of Christian doctrine to provide for. They held in all sincerity what was then the common Protestant orthodoxy. What had been given to them, as that for which they were to testify and to suffer in behalf of coming ages, was an idea new to that age, and rejected by the wise and the mighty-the recovered idea of the Christian church in the primitive purity of its separation from the world, and in the primitive simplicity of its government. What would be the consequences of their attempt to realize that idea in the colonization of America, they could not be expected to know. But we, who live at this day, can see that their theory of the church necessitated a new theory of the relations between the church and the state. In their theory, beginning at the postulate of “reformation without tarrying for any," the church is nothing else than the spontaneous association of "the Lord's free people" for spiritual fellowship; and neither king nor Parliament can put a man into a church or put him out of it. Let that theory be recognized in the beginning of a commonwealth, and, unless the opposite theory come in afterward with prevailing force, all churches in that commonwealth, whatever their pretensions, will be simply voluntary churches, dependent on the state for nothing but protection against violence. The outcome of that theory, when political organisms shall have been moulded by its influence, will be a new era of religious liberty.

CHAPTER XV.

THE VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER," EXPLORATION, AND

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

A VOYAGE across the Atlantic, two hundred and fifty years ago, might be accomplished, perhaps, in thirty days. When those two little vessels-the Mayflower and the Speedwellsailed from Southampton (1620, Aug. 5=15), with a hundred and twenty passengers, and all the material provided for founding a colony in the wilderness, there was time to complete the voyage, if prosperous, before the autumnal equinox. After such a voyage, there would still be time, in the early days of autumn, to make the needful preparation for safety and comfort through the winter. But hardly were they at sea when the Speedwell was reported so leaky that both ships put back to the port of Dartmouth for repairs. Two weeks of fine weather and prosperous winds had been lost when they sailed again (Aug. 23-Sept. 2). A hundred leagues from Land's End, the master of their misnamed Speedwell declared that he must return or sink; and so, once more, they turned back. This time they put in at Plymouth. There the Speedwell was discharged, as unfit for such a voyage; and there was no time, if there had been means, to provide a substitute. Some of the company were so far discouraged by these disasters that they were, at least, willing to wait for another opportunity. Chief among these was Cushman, exhausted by so many months of incessant labor, enfeebled by illness, and depressed under the feeling that what he had done in the matter of the contract with the Adventurers was disapproved by his brethren. Others, in consideration of their weakness, or of the young children in their care, were selected as those who could best be spared, or who were least fitted