396 ROBINSON'S FAREWELL ADVICE. However, he desired in that CHAP. possible some of his brethren of Scotland might take XXV. offence at his act; which he desired to avoid in regard 1619. of the opinion the English churches, which they held communion withal, had of us." rendered thanks to Mr. Robinson, and respect to be only a spectator of us.' These things I was earnestly requested to publish to the world by some of the godly Presbyterian party, who apprehend the world to be ignorant of our proceedings, conceiving in charity that if they had been known, some late writers and preachers would never have written and spoke of us as they did, and still do as they have occasion. But what they ignorantly judge, write, or speak of us, I trust the Lord in mercy will pass by. In the next place, for the wholesome counsel Mr. Robinson gave that part of the church whereof he was 1620. pastor at their departure from him to begin the great work of plantation in New England, — amongst other wholesome instructions and exhortations he used these expressions, or to the same purpose: "We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again. 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 1 Cotton, in his Way of Congregational Churches Cleared, page 8, says, "I have been given to understand, that when a reverend and godly Scottish minister came that way, (it seemeth to have been Mr. John Tarbes,) he offered him communion at the Lord's table; though the other, for fear of offence to the Scottish churches at home, excused himself." ROBINSON'S FAREWELL ADVICE. 397 XXV. yet to break forth out of his holy word. He took oc- CHAP. casion also miserably to bewail the state and condition of the Reformed Churches, who were come to a period 1620. 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, yet 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,1 at least that part of it whereby we promise and covenant with God and one with another, to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made known to us from his written word; but withal exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to examine and compare it and weigh it with other Scriptures 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 that full perfection of knowledge should 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, being a mere nickname and brand to 2 380 XXV. THE PILGRIMS AT LEYDEN. CHAP. that division or disagreement in the church of Leyden was the occasion, nay cause, of the first plantation in New England; for, saith the author, or to this effect, when they could no longer agree together, the one part went to New England, and began the Plantation at Plymouth, which he makes the mother, as it were, of the rest of the churches; as if the foundation of our New England plantations had been laid upon division or separation, than which nothing is more untrue.' For I persuade myself, never people upon earth lived more lovingly together and parted more sweetly than we, the church at Leyden, did; not rashly, in a distracted humor, but upon joint and serious deliberation, often seeking the mind of God by fasting and prayer; whose gracious presence we not only found with us, but his blessing upon us, from that time to this instant, to the indignation of our adversaries, the admiration of strangers, and the exceeding consolation of ourselves, to see such effects of our prayers and tears before our pil Leyden, under Master Robinson's 1 Hutchinson, too, in his Hist. of Mass. ii. 451, says, “During eleven or twelve years' residence in Hol land, they had contention among themselves, and divided, and became two congregations." This is a misstatement; they had no contention among themselves. Governor Bradford says in his Dialogue, "They lived together in love and peace all their days, without any considerable differences, or any disturbance that grew thereby, but such as was easily healed in love; and so they continued until with mutual consent they removed into New England." They left Amsterdam for Leyden, as appears from page 34, in order to avoid being drawn into the controversy that was then springing up between Smith's company and Johnson's church. |