396 XXV. ROBINSON'S FAREWELL ADVICE. CHAP. possible some of his brethren of Scotland might take 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. However, he desired in that 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 1See on page 21, the terms of the covenant here alluded to, by which they agree to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made known or to-be made known unto them." In his book on Religious Communion, printed in 1614, Robinson says, p. 45, "He miscalls us Brownists;" and on the title page of his Apology he speaks of "certain 398 ROBINSON'S FAREWELL ADVICE. CHAP. make religion odious and the professors of it to the XXV. Christian world. And to that end, said he, I should 1620. be glad if some godly minister would go over with you 7 before my coming; for, said he, there will be no difference between the unconformable 2 ministers and you, when they come to the practice of the ordinances but of the kingdom. And so advised us by all means Christians, contumeliously called Brownists." See this matter set right by Dr. Holmes, in his Annals, i. 572. Some account of Brown will be given hereafter. to 1 They had engaged a minister with them. See page 85. That is, the nonconforming clergy, who had not separated from the church. This prediction was remarkably fulfilled in the case of the Massachusetts colonists. Higginson, in 1629, in taking his last look of his native land from the stern of his ship, exclaimed, "We will not say as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving of England, Farewell, Babylon! Farewell, Rome! But we will say, Farewell, dear England! Farewell, the Church of God in England, and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to New England as separatists from the Church of England." Gov. Winthrop, too, and his company, on their departure in 1630, in their address "to the rest of their brethren in and of the Church of England," say, "We desire you would be pleased to take notice of the principals and body of our company, as those who esteem it our honor to call the Church of England, from whence we rise, our dear mother, and cannot part from our native country, where she specially resideth, without much sadness of heart, and many tears in our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have obtained in the common salvation, we have received in her bosom and sucked it from her breasts. We leave it not therefore as loathing that milk wherewith we were nourished there, but blessing God for the parentage and education, as members of the same body, shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide her, and while we have breath, sincerely desire and endeavour the continuance and abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in the kingdom of Christ Jesus; wishing our heads and hearts were fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of suppli cation." These professions were undoubtedly heartfelt and sincere. And yet no sooner were these Nonconformists in a place where they could act for themselves, than they pursued precisely the course taken by the Separatists, adopted their form of ecclesiastical discipline and gov. ernment, and set up Independent churches. Higginson, though a presbyter of the Church of England, was ordained over again by the members of his own congregation at Salem. Phillips, afterwards the minister of Watertown, who signed the above address with Winthrop, declared soon after his arrival, that if his companions would "have him stand minister by that calling which he received from the prelates in England, he would leave them." And when Mr. Cotton came over in 1633, “by his preaching and practice he did by degrees mould all their church THE PILGRIMS NOT EXCLUSIONISTS. 399 XXV. to endeavour to close with the godly party of the king- CHAP. dom of England, and rather to study union than division, viz. how near we might possibly without sin 1620. close with them, 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."1 Many other things there were of great and weighty consequence which he commended to us. But these things I thought good to relate, at the request of some well-willers to the peace and good agreement of the godly, (so distracted at present about the settling of church government in the kingdom of England,) that so both sides may truly see what this poor despised church of Christ, now at New Plymouth in New England, but formerly at Leyden in Holland, was and is; how far they were and still are from separation from the churches of Christ, especially those that are Reformed. 'Tis true we profess and desire to practise a separation administrations into the very same form which Mr. Phillips labored to introduce into the churches before;" so that after a while there was no perceptible difference between the Puritans of Massachusetts and the Separatists of Plymouth. See Mather's Magnalia, i. 328; Hutchin son's Mass. i. 487; Morton's Memorial, p. 146; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 74, xv. 186. We have here this celebrated farewell discourse of Robinson in its original form. Winslow was present and heard it, and either took it down from memory or from the notes of his pastor. It appear ed in print for the first time in 1646, in this work, and all succeeding writers, such as Mather, Prince "Words," says Prince, speak- 400 XXV. V. ROBINSON NOT A RIGID SEPARATIST. CHAP. from the world, and the works of the world, which are. works of the flesh, such as the Apostle speaketh of. And Ephes. as the churches of Christ are all saints by calling, so we desire to see the grace of God shining forth (at least 9. seemingly, leaving secret things to God) in all we admit ii. 11, 12. into church fellowship with us, and to keep off such as 19-21. 1 Cor. vi. Ephes. openly wallow in the mire of their sins, that neither the holy things of God nor the communion of the saints may be leavened or polluted thereby. And if any joining to us formerly, either when we lived at Leyden in Holland or since we came to New England, have with the manifestation of their faith and profession of holiness held forth therewith separation from the Church of England, I have divers times, both in the one place and the other, heard either Mr. Robinson, our pastor, or Mr. Brewster, our elder, stop them forthwith, showing them that we required no such things at their hands,' but only to hold forth faith in Christ Jesus, holiness in the fear of God, and submission to every ordinance and appointment of God, leaving the Church of England to themselves and to the Lord, before whom they should stand or fall, and to whom we ought to pray to reform what was amiss amongst them.2 Now this re 1 Cotton too says, "When some Englishmen that offered themselves to become members of his church, would sometimes in their confessions profess their separation from the church of England, Mr. Robinson would bear witness against such profession, avouching they required no such professions of separation from this or that or any church, but only from the world." Way, p. 8. 2 In 1634, nine years after his death, there was published "A Treatise of the lawfulness of hearing of the ministers in the Church of England; penned by that learned and reverend divine, Mr. John Robinson, late pastor to the English church of God in Leyden; printed according to the copy that was found in his study after his decease." From this rare work I extract the concluding paragraph. "To conclude. For myself, thus I believe with my heart before God, and profess with my tongue, and have before the world, that I have one and the same faith, hope, spirit, baptism, and Lord, which I had in the Church of England, and none other; that I esteem so many |