INTRODUCTION. 15 Jer. 1. 24. 22. thee, and thou art taken, O Babel, (bishops) and thou INTR. wast not aware: thou art found and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord." But will they needs strive against the truth, against the servants of the Lord, what! and against the Lord himself? Do they provoke the Lord to anger? Are they stronger 1 Cor. x. than he? No, no, they have met with their match. Behold, I come against thee, O proud men, saith the Jer Lord God of hosts; for thy day is coming, even the time that I will visit thee. May not the people of God now say, and these poor people among the rest, The Lord had brought forth our righteousness: come, let Jer.!. us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. Let all flesh be still before the Lord, for he is raised Zech. ii. up out of his holy place.1 10. 13. Psalm This poor people may say among the thousands of Israel, When the Lord brought again the captivity of ev Zion, we were like them that dream. The Lord hath vs. 3 rejoice. They They went weep- vss. 5,6. they shall return done great things for us, whereof we Do ye not now see the fruits of your labors, O all ye servants of the Lord that have suffered for his truth, Annals, i. 229; Troubles at Frank- "he professed that he could never 16 INTRODUCTION. INTR. and have been faithful witnesses of the same? Rev. And ye little handful amongst the rest, the least amongst the thousands of Israel? You have not had a seed time, but many of you have seen a joyful harvest. Should ye not then rejoice, yea, again rejoice, and xix. 1,2 say, Hallelujah! salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, be to the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments. v. 6. But thou wilt ask, What is the matter? What is done? - Why, art thou a stranger in Israel, that thou shouldst not know what is done? Are not those 2 Sam. Jebusites overcome, that have vexed the people of Israel so long, even holding Jerusalem even until David's days, and been as thorns in their sides for many ages, and now began to scorn that not any David should meddle with them; they began to fortify their tower, as that of the old Babylonians. But these proud Anakims are now thrown down, and their glory laid in the dust. The tyrannous bishops are ejected, their courts dissolved, their canons forceless, their servicebooks cashiered, their ceremonics useless and despised, their plots for Popery prevented, and all their superstitions discarded, and returned to Rome, from whence they came; and the monuments of idolatry rooted out of the land, and the proud and profane supporters and cruel defenders of these, as bloody papists, wicked atheists, and their malignant consorts, marvellously overthrown. And are not these great things? Who can deny it? xix. 11. But who hath done it? Even he that sitteth on the Rev. White horse, who is called Faithful and True, and judgeth and fighteth righteously, whose garments are vs. 13. dipped in blood, and his name was called The Word INTRODUCTION. 17 of God; for he shall rule them with a rod of iron; for INTR. it is he that treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God; and he hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah! vs. 15. See how this holy man's spirit was elevated and his.... heart raised up in praising of the Lord in consideration of the downfall of the proud prelacy; as he and many more of the saints had good reason, who felt the smart of their bitter and cruel tyranny; who are, indeed, a limb of Antichrist. And if the generality of the saints had been thus sensible of this great and marvellous work of God, possibly that proud hierarchy had not got up so soon again as they have done, soon after this good man's departure out of this world.' Nevertheless, we doubt not but that God will bring them down in his good time. For undoubtedly all those that will not that the Lord Jesus should reign over them, but instead thereof exercise an usurped lordly power over the poor saints of God, shall be brought and slain before him, and (without repentance) shall, together with the beast and false prophet, be thrown into the Rev lake burning with fire and brimstone. When Babylon cometh into remembrance before God, then shall the saints with the angel say, Thou art just and holy, Re because thou hast judged these things; for they, (viz. the whore of Rome and the prelates, their adherents,) have shed the blood of the saints. to drink; for they are worthy. xix. 20. xvi. 5. Give them blood v. 6. 1 Gov. Bradford died May 9, 1657. Charles II. was restored and Episcopacy reestablished in 1660. 18 INTRODUCTION. INTR. The exordium being concluded, I shall come more nearer my intended purpose, viz. in reference unto the Church of Christ at Plymouth in New England, first begun in Old England, and carried on in Holland and 1 at Plymouth aforesaid. CHAPTER I. OF THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF THIS CHURCH AND PEOPLE. I. mis. WHEN, by the travail and diligence of some godly CHAP and zealous preachers, and God's blessing on their labors, as in other places of the land, so in the north Impriparts, many became enlightened by the word of God, and had their ignorance and sins discovered by the word of God's grace, and began, by his grace, to reform their lives and make conscience of their ways, the work of God was no sooner manifest in them, but presently they were both scoffed and scorned by the profane multitude, and the ministers urged with the yoke of subscription,' or else must be silenced; and the poor people were so urged with apparitors and pursuivants and the Commission Courts, as truly their 1 Subscription to the book of common prayer, the rites and ceremonies, and all the thirty-nine articles. See Fuller, iii. 68; Prince, p. 99. This was the celebrated Court of High Commission, so called because it claimed a larger jurisdiction and higher powers than the ordinary courts of the bishops; its jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom. It was provided for by the Act of Supremacy, passed in 1559, but did not go into full operation till 1584. It was an ecclesiastical court, consisting of forty-four 2 persons, twelve of whom were |