make up a diocesan church under one diocesan bishop; and several of these diocesan churches make up a provincial church under one archbishop; and the two provincial churches in the kingdom, viz. of York and Canterbury make up a national church under one primate, viz. the archbishop of the latter, in which national church there were about forty different sorts of officers, as among the Papists. The Separatists held that neither of these churches were such sort of churches, nor their officers such sort of officers, as Christ has instituted, neither for matter, form nor power; the matter of right, christian churches being only visible saints separate from the rest of the world, or as the 19th article of the church of England has it, a congregation of faithful men, or faithful christians; the form being a voluntary consociation of such faithful christians, not forced by human sanctions, and their powers being confined to the mere laws of Christ, both in worship, government, and discipline. From such unscriptural churches, they therefore judged themselves obliged to separate, and set up such sort of churches and church officers, discipline, and worship only as they found in the Apostles' days. And then the Church of England order, discipline, and worship being not according to Christ's pure appointment, but polluted with human mixtures which she refused to leave, the Separatists at first went further, and rigidly renounced communion both with her and her officers, as popish and antichristian, and ever even with those who held communion with her. But as for their censoriousness, I cannot find but the Church of England writers against them were as censorious and rigid in those times as theirs.

But the Puritans allowed the faithful christians of the several parishes to be true christian churches, and their qualified ministers to be true christian ministers; that neither their being restrained by human laws in the exercise of the powers and privileges Christ had given them, nor their having by such laws, both corrupt members, canons and ways of worship imposed upon them, neither destroyed their rights nor christian character; and that since a separation was not allowed by the then reigning powers, and their setting up purer churches within the kingdom was not practicable; they therefore judged they ought to remain in the church established, groaning under their burdens, and laboring for her reformation.

Mr. Robinson at first indeed went off among the more rigid Separatists in 1602, but as Baily informs us, by conversing in Holland with Dr. Ames and Mr. Parker, he grew more moderate, as we observed before; yet insisting that the unscriptural ceremonies, canons, and mixt communion in the Church of England, were sufficient grounds of separating from her, and of erecting churches on the Scripture bottom, without denying communion to her pious members when they desired it of him.

But how strenuously soever the Puritans opposed the separation, yet he was so well acquainted with them, that in his answer to Mr. Barnard in 1610, he says, 'I doubt not but Mr. Barnard and a thousand more ministers in the land, were they secure of the magistrates' sword, and might they go on with his good license, would wholly shake off their canonical obedience to their ordinaries, neglect their citations and censures, and refuse to sue in their courts; could they but obtain license from the magistrate to use the liberty they are persuaded Christ has given them, they would soon shake off the prelates' yoke, and draw no longer under the same in spiritual communion with all the profane in the land, but would break those bonds of iniquity, &c.' Governor Bradford also treating of the afflictions of Mr. Robinson's people in Holland and of the grounds of their removing to America, says 'it was thought that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many and take away those discouragements; yea their pastor would often say, that many of those who both wrote and preached now against them, if they were in a place where they might have liberty, and live comfortably, would do as they did.

But a farther account of the rise, sufferings, principles and progress, both of the Puritans and Separatists, I must refer to the authors before mentioned; especially Mr. Neal's elaborate and valuable history of the Puritans in two octavos, which was a branch of English history the nation wanted, and which ought to be read by every lover of religious liberty.

I shall only observe, that archbishop Parker dying in May 1575, Grindal succeeded him, who grew more moderate, and the church enjoyed some quiet; for which Sacheveral calls him that false son of the church and perfidious prelate. But he deceasing in July, 1583, Whitgift is made archbishop of Canterbury; who, as we learn from Fuller, Strype, and

the Register, persecutes the Puritans and Separatists with unrelenting rigor to his death in February 1603, 4; as does also his successor Bancroft to his, in November 1610. And then Abbot being set in his place, though he shows no mercy to those of the separation, yet seeing the Puritans more strictly adhere to the doctrinal articles than the rest of the church, grows more indulgent to them till October 1627 ; when king Charles I. sequesters him from his jurisdiction and transfers it to bishop Laud and others, as we read in Eachard; who says, Laud was an aspiring and fiery man, a lover of pomp and ceremony, an active opposer of antiarminianism, a mortal opposer of Puritans; that his heart was entirely set upon the advancement and grandeur of the church [i. e. not the laical but clerical part; or as Eachard in another place more clearly calls it the advancement of the clergy's grandeur] which the archbishop brought to that height, as it shewed rather a rivalship than resemblance of the Church of Rome, in which he had the hearty concurrence of the king, and grew in such favor with him, as to be made bishop of London in 1628, archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, and to govern without a rival in church and state. Fuller says, he was over severe in his censures; in the Star Chamber was always observed to concur with the severer side, and that it was most apparent he endeavored a reconciliation between Rome and England. And the continuation of Baker's Chronicle,* that he was a busy man, over violent in his proceedings, and never ceased to persecute the Puritans.

Of these English Puritans were the greater part of the settlers of the Massachusetts Colony. They had been chiefly born and brought up in the national church, and had hitherto lived in communion with her. As their ministers had been ordained by her bishops, they had officiated in her parochial churches, and till now had made no secession from them; though with multitudes of others, laboring under grievous impositions, conflicting with many difficulties, and looking earnestly for better times, till the highflying bishops both increased the ceremonies, and grew so rigorous in imposing them, as to allow no worship in the church without them; yea so severely prosecute those who could not in conscience use them, as to let them live no longer in their native land in

* Viz. that edition of Baker's Chronicle, printed in 1660.

quiet. Finding therefore the impositions growing, losing all further hopes of reformation and indulgence there, and New England opening her arms to embrace them, they judged they now ought to improve the offer, and rather choose a hideous wilderness three thousand miles across the ocean; that here being free from all restraint, they might set up churches in their worship, matter, form and discipline, entirely after the New Testament model; enjoy these great and christian liberties without disturbance, and transmit them as what they accounted the dearest legacy to their perpetual

successors.

SECTION II.

1630. King of G. Britain, Charles I.-France, Lewis XIII.-Spain, Philip IV.

THE situation of Salem pleasing us not [for the capital town,] we consult about some other; to this purpose some are sent to the Bay to search up the rivers for a convenient place; who returning, report they have found a good one upon Mistick river; but others seconding these, find another we like better, three leagues up Charles river,* whereupon we unship our goods into other vessels,

and in

July with much cost and labor, bring them to Charlestown, on the north side the mouth of Charles river. dd

July. Arrive at Charlestown, governor Winthrop, deputy-governor Dudley, sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Johnson, Ludlow, Nowell, Pynchon, and Bradstreet, with the Massachusetts Colony Charter, as also Mr. Wilson and Phillips ministers, with about fifteen hundred people,† brought over in

** I suppose this was at the place whence the Dorchester people were ordered

to remove.

+ By Mr. Wilson's yearly allowance out of the public treasury beginning on July 10, Mcr it seems as if on that day the fleet arrived at Charlestown; and Johnson saying that 'July 12, or thereabouts, [this people] first set foot on this western end of the world; where arriving in safety, men, women and children, on the north side of Charles river they landed near Noddel's island.' By this western end of the world, he may mean at Charlestown, but if he meant at Salem, he should have said June 12.