Part 3

Mr. JOHN ROBINSON was pastor of that famous church of Leyden, in Holland; a man not easily to be paralleled for all things, whose singular virtues we shall not take upon us here to describe. Neither need we, for they so well are known both by friends and enemies. As he was a man learned and of solid judgment, and of a quick and sharp wit, so was he also of a tender conscience, and very sincere in all his ways, a hater of hypocrisy and dissimulation, and would be very plain with his best friends. He was very courteous, affable, and sociable in his conversation, and towards his own people especially. He was an acute and expert disputant, very quick and ready, and had much bickering with the Arminians, who stood more in fear of him than any of the university. He was never satisfied in himself until he had searched any cause or argument he had to deal in thoroughly and to the bottom; and we have heard him sometimes say to his familiars that many times, both in writing and disputation, he knew he had sufficiently answered others, but many times not himself; and was ever desirous of any light, and the more able, learned, and holy the persons were, the more he desired to confer and reason with them. He was very profitable in his ministry and comfortable to his people. He was much beloved of them, and as loving was he unto them, and entirely sought their good for soul and body. In a word, he was much esteemed and reverenced of all that knew him, and his abilities [were acknowledged] both of friends and strangers. But we resolved to be brief in this matter, leaving you to better and more large information herein from others.

Mr. RICHARD CLIFTON was a grave and fatherly old man when he came first into Holland, having a great white beard; and pity it was that such a reverend old man should be forced to leave his country, and at those years to go into exile. But it was his lot; and he bore it patiently. Much good had he done in the country where he lived, and converted many to God by his faithful and painful ministry, both in preaching and catechizing. Sound and orthodox he always was, and so continued to his end. He belonged to the church at Leyden; but being settled at Amsterdam, and thus aged, he was loath to remove any more; and so when they removed, he was dismissed to them there, and there remained until he died. Thus have we briefly satisfied your desire.

_Young men._--We are very thankful to you for your pains. We perceive God raiseth up excellent instruments in all ages to carry on his own work; and the best of men have their failings sometimes, as we see in these our times, and that there is no new thing under the sun. But before we end this matter, we desire you would say something of those two churches that were so long in exile, of whose guides we have already heard.

_Ancient men._--Truly there were in them many worthy men; and if you had seen them in their beauty and order, as we have done, you would have been much affected therewith, we dare say. At Amsterdam, before their division and breach, they were about three hundred communicants, and they had for their pastor and teacher those two eminent men before named, and in our time four grave men for ruling elders, and three able and godly men for deacons, one ancient widow for a deaconess, who did them service many years, though she was sixty years of age when she was chosen. She honored her place and was an ornament to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, especially women, and, as there was need, called out maids and young women to watch and do them other helps as their necessity did require; and if they were poor, she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or acquaint the deacons; and she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer of Christ.

And for the church of Leyden, they were sometimes not much fewer in number, nor at all inferior in able men, though they had not so many officers as the other; for they had but one ruling elder with their pastor, a man well approved and of great integrity; also they had three able men for deacons. And that which was a crown unto them, 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. And what their condition hath been since, some of you that are of their children do see and can tell. Many worthy and able men there were in both places, who lived and died in obscurity in respect of the world, as private Christians, yet were they precious in the eyes of the Lord, and also in the eyes of such as knew them, whose virtues we with such of you as are their children do follow and imitate.

_Young men._--If we may not be tedious, we would request to know one thing more. It is commonly said that those of the Separation hold none to be true churches but their own, and condemn all the churches in the world besides; which lieth as a foul blot upon them, yea even on some here in New England, except they can remove it.

_Ancient men._--It is a manifest slander laid upon them; for they hold all the Reformed Churches to be true churches, and even the most rigid of them have ever done so, as appears by their Apologies and other writings; and we ourselves some of us know of much intercommunion that divers have held with them reciprocally, not only with the Dutch and French, but even with the Scotch, who are not of the best mould, yea and with the Lutherans also; and we believe they have gone as far herein, both in judgment and practice, as any of the churches in New England do or can do, to deal faithfully and bear witness against their corruptions.

Having thus far satisfied all your demands, we shall here break off this conference for this time, desiring the Lord to make you to grow up in grace and wisdom and the true fear of God, that in all faithfulness and humility you may serve him in your generations.

_Young men._--Gentlemen, we humbly thank you for your pains with us and respect unto us, and do further crave that upon any fit occasions we may have access unto you for any further information, and herewith do humbly take our leave.

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THE PILGRIMS’ ARRIVAL AT CAPE COD.

_From Bradford’s History._

Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed y^e God of heaven, who had brought them over y^e vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all y^e periles & miseries thereof, againe to set their feete on y^e firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on y^e coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadfull was y^e same unto him.

But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader too, when he well considers y^e same. Being thus passed y^e vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by y^t which wente before), they had now no freinds to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. It is recorded in scripture as a mercie to y^e apostle & his shipwraked company, y^t the barbarians shewed them no smale kindnes in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they mette with them (as after will appeare) were readier to fill their sids full of arrows then otherwise. And for y^e season it was winter, and they that know y^e winters of y^t cuntrie know them to be sharp & violent, & subjecte to cruell & feirce stormes, deangerous to travill to known places, much more to serch an unknown coast. Besids, what could they see but a hidious & desolate wildernes, full of wild beasts & willd men? and what multituds ther might be of them they knew not. Nether could they, as it were, goe up to y^e tope of Pisgah, to vew from this willdernes a more goodly cuntrie to feed their hops; for which way soever they turned their eys (save upward to y^e heavens) they could have litle solace or content in respecte of any outward objects. For sumer being done, all things stand upon them with a wetherbeaten face; and y^e whole countrie, full of woods & thickets, represented a wild & savage heiw. If they looked behind them, ther was y^e mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a maine barr & goulfe to seperate them from all y^e civill parts of y^e world. If it be said they had a ship to sucour them, it is trew; but what heard they daly from y^e m^r. & company? but y^t with speede they should looke out a place with their shallop, wher they would be at some near distance; for ye season was shuch as he would not stirr from thence till a safe harbor was discovered by them wher they would be, and he might goe without danger; and that victells consumed apace, but he must & would keepe sufficient for them selves & their returne. Yea, it was muttered by some, that if they gott not a place in time, they would turne them & their goods ashore & leave them. Let it also be considred what weake hopes of supply & succoure they left behinde them, y^t might bear up their minds in this sade condition and trialls they were under; and they could not but be very smale. It is true, indeed, y^e affections & love of their brethren at Leyden was cordiall & entire towards them, but they had litle power to help them, or them selves; and how y^e case stode betweene them & y^e marchants at their coming away, hath allready been declared. What could now sustaine them but y^e spirite of God & his grace? May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: _Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto y^e Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie, &c. Let them therefore praise y^e Lord, because he is good, & his mercies endure for ever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of y^e Lord, shew how he hath delivered them from y^e hand of y^e oppressour. When they wandered in y^e deserte wildernes out of y^e way, and found no citie to dwell in, both hungrie, & thirstie, their sowle was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before y^e Lord his loving kindnes, and his wonderfull works before y^e sons of men._

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William Bradford, the great governor of the Plymouth colony, was born at Austerfield, a little village in Yorkshire, in 1588, the same year (the year of the Spanish Armada) that John Winthrop, the great governor of the Massachusetts colony, was born at Groton, in Suffolk. While yet a youth, he became a member of Brewster’s little congregation at Scrooby, near by; and in 1608 he escaped with the others to Holland, and became a leading member of the church at Leyden, taking an active part in the removal to New England in 1620. Upon Carver’s death, in 1621, he was elected to succeed him as governor; and he continued to hold this office, with two slight breaks, to the time of his death, in 1657.

No other person understood so well the history of the Plymouth colony. It is therefore singularly fortunate that he became the colony’s historian,--as, similarly, Gov. Winthrop became the historian of the Massachusetts colony. His “History of the Plymouth Plantation” may properly be called our New England Old Testament,--the Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, and Judges of the Plymouth settlement. The remarkable story of the loss of the MS. from the Old South Meeting-house, where it was preserved in the Prince Library, at the time of the British Evacuation of Boston, and its discovery in the Bishop of London’s library at Fulham in 1855, has been told by Charles Deane in his introduction to the volume, published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and in the _Proceedings_ of the Society, 1855 and 1882; also, more fully, by Justin Winsor, in the _Proceedings_ for 1882. It is an interesting fact that the third volume of Winthrop’s History, long lost, was found, in 1816, in the tower of the Old South Meeting-house, where, like Bradford’s History, it had been kept in Prince’s New England Library.

Bradford’s Letter Book, containing copies of important letters addressed to him, was lost, like his History. Fragments were rescued in a grocer’s shop in Halifax, and printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. _Collections_, iii., and in Young’s Chronicles. In vol. iii. of the _Collections_ may be found his “Account of New England in Verse.” His “Word to Boston” and “Word to New England” appear in vol. xxvii. of the same: and two others of his poems in the _Proceedings_ for 1870,--“Some Observations of God’s Merciful Dealings with us in this Wilderness,” and “A Word to New Plymouth.” A little piece called “Epitaphium Meum” was printed by Morton in his Memorial. Bradford’s letters to Winthrop are printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. _Collections_, 4th series, vol. vi.

In conjunction with Edward Winslow, Bradford wrote “A Diary of Occurrences,” covering the first year of the colony, which may be found in the Mass. Hist. Soc. _Collections_, viii. and xix.

Bradford’s First Dialogue, given in the present leaflet, was first printed in 1648. It was copied by Morton in the records of the Plymouth Church, and thence reprinted by Young in his “Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers,” in 1841. It is of the highest historical value, giving fuller accounts than we have elsewhere of many of the first English Independents. Bradford’s Second Dialogue is lost. Deane says, “I have never seen it, nor any reference to it.” The Third Dialogue, “Concerning the Church and the Government thereof,” was published in the _Proceedings_ of the Mass. Hist. Soc. for 1870, with an important historical introduction by Charles Deane.

Mather included a biography of Bradford in his _Magnalia_. This was reprinted in the first series of Old South Leaflets.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] That is, the Dialogue was held or written in 1648.

[2] Here something seems to have been omitted.

[3] Some word is here omitted.

Transcriber’s Notes

The year on page 24 “born at Austerfield, a little village in Yorkshire, in 1688” was corrected to 1588.

Italics are represented thus _italic_, superscripts thus y^n.