The Pilgrims of New England | Page 3

the episcopal
form of church government, and declared their approval of the
discipline and the forms adopted by the Church of Geneva, and also of
that established in the Netherlands. In order to enjoy the liberty in
ecclesiastical matters which they so greatly desired, they made up their
minds to retire to Amsterdam, under their excellent and respected
pastor, John Robinson; and this project was effected by the greater
number of their party; though some were discovered before they could
embark, and were detained and imprisoned, and treated with much
severity. Ultimately, however, they all escaped, and remained
unmolested at Amsterdam and the Hague, until the year 16O8, when
they removed to Leyden with their pastor, where they resided for
eleven years, and were joined by many others who fled from England
during the early part of the reign of James.
These men now felt that their only hope of enjoying perfect religious
liberty, and of establishing a church according to their own dearly-
loved principles, lay in a voluntary exile. Their English prejudices
made them shrink from continuing to dwell among the Dutch, who had

hitherto given them a hospitable asylum; for they feared that, by
frequent intermarriages, they should eventually lose their nationality;
and they resolved to seek a new home, where they might found an
English colony, and, while they followed that mode of worship which
was alone consistent with their views and principles; might still be
subjects of the English crown, and keep up an intercourse with the
friends they dearly loved, and the land where their forefathers had lived
and died.
The recent discovery of the vast continent of America, in several parts
of which the British had already begun to form colonies, opened to
them a field of enterprise, as well as a quiet refuge from persecution
and controversy; and thither the Puritans turned their eyes. Nor were
they the first who had taken advantage of the unoccupied wastes of the
New World, and sought in them an asylum from intolerant oppression.
Already a numerous band of French Huguenots had retired thither,
under the conduct of their celebrated Calvinistic leader, De Monts, who
was invested with the government of the district lying between
Montreal and Philadelphia, by a patent from his sovereign, Henry the
Fourth. No traces of this colony now remain, while those planted by the
English Puritans have taken root in the American soil, and flourished so
greatly, that a few years ago their descendants were found to amount to
4,000,000: so remarkably has the blessing of God, at least in temporal
matters, been bestowed on an enterprise which was, doubtless,
undertaken in dependence on His protection; and was carried out with
that fortitude and resolution which are the results of sincere piety
struggling with deep adversity.[*]
[Footnote: For this account of the cause which led to the emigration of
the Puritans, and the manner in which they effected it, the authoress is
chiefly indebted to Marden’s ‘History of the Puritans,’ and Talvi’s
‘History of the Colonization of America.’]
The idea of retiring to the shores of America was first suggested to his
followers by their pastor, John Robinson, whose influence over his
flock was almost unexampled. This influence was derived from the
purity of his life, and the holy consistency of his conduct. He was
possessed of a gentle temper; and the strictness of his religious
principles was united with a spirit of toleration towards others, which
was too little felt or practiced in those days, and which was not, as is

too often the case, changed into bitterness by the sufferings that he had
himself experienced. Well had it been for those who professed to be
guided by his example and advice, and who left the shores of Europe
with the sanction of his counsel and his blessing, if they had carried
with them the truly Christian spirit of their respected minister, and had
suffered that spirit to guide them in the formation, and during the
growth, of their infant church in America! But, as we shall presently
see, this was not the case: the mercy and toleration which the Puritan
exiles had vainly asked at the hands of their brethren at home, they
denied to others who differed from them; and, consequently, while they
have so greatly prospered in the things of this world, in religion they
have evidently declined.
Emigration being resolved on, the first step that was taken by the
Puritans, was an application to King James for an assurance of
protection and toleration in the new home which they desired to seek;
but this was more than the wary king would guarantee to them. All that
they could obtain was a vague promise, that so long as they conducted
themselves peaceably, they should not be molested; and, relying