THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT - THE MAGISTRATE'S AUTHORITY POPULAR GOVERNMENT - THE TRUE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY- REQUISITES TO A FREE GOVERNMENT - ITS DANGERS - THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF RUL- THE NECESSITY OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT TO THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND INTRODUCTION. THIS collection of Sermons presents examples of the politicotheological phase of the conflict for American Independence, a phase not peculiar to that period. Its origin was coëval with the colonization of New England; and a brief review of some leading points in our history will afford the best explanation of its rise and development. There is a natural and just union of religious and civil counsels, not that external alliance of the crosier and sword called "Church and State," - but the philosophical and deeper union which recognizes GOD as Supreme Ruler, and which is illustrated in this volume of occasional Discourses and "Election Sermons," a title equivalent, in the right intent of the term, to" political preaching." There is also a historical connection, which is to be found rather in the general current of history than in particular instances. In this we may trace the principle, or vital cord, which runs through our own separate annals since our fathers came to the New World, and also marks the progress of liberty and individual rights in England. "New England has the proud distinction of tracing her origin to causes purely moral and intellectual, a fact which fixes the character of her founders not the destroyers of and planters as elevated and refined, cities, provinces, and empires, but the founders of civilization in America." The word clergie is in itself historical, meaning, in the Norman tongue, literature. In early times, when learning was almost exclusively with the clergy, they, by this monopoly, held almost the whole power of church and state. We may see an illustration of this union of civil and ecclesiastical functions in the Annals of the See of Bath and Wells, which yielded from its diocesan list to the civil state of England six Lord Chancellors, eight Lord High Treasurers, two Lords Privy Seal, one Master of the Rolls, one Lord President of Wales, one principal Secretary of State; and to higher Episcopal office, five Archbishops of Canterbury, three Archbishops of York, and, says the annalist of the diocese, "to the Protestant Episcopal Church, the cause of Monarchy, and of Orthodoxy, one MARTYR, William Laud." But, of all the names in that priestly catalogue, to ARTHUR LAKE belongs the transcendent honor, the highest distinction; for it was his missionary spirit that originated the movement which led to the colonization of Massachusetts, an enterprise greatly indebted for its success to the unhappy zeal of his immediate successor in the office of bishop, the "martyr" Laud. As this execrable1 prelate embodied the principles and spirit of the hierarchy; as he had a controlling agency in the settlement of New England, by "harrying" the Puritans out of Old England; and as he has ever been remembered with abhorrence by their descendants, some of whose early Puritan "prejudices," not yet eradicated, may very possibly reach future generations, mention of a characteristic act in his official life may be per 1 For an opposite view of Archbishop Laud's character, and the principles involved in it, read his "Life and Times," by John Lawson Parker. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1829. tinent to our inquiry. It was this: Mr. Leighton, a Scotch divine, being convicted of writing a book denouncing the severities of the hierarchy, Bishop Laud pulled off his hat when sentence was pronounced on the offender, and gave God thanks for the victory. This was in the Star Chamber, and in keeping with the general tone of proceedings which prevailed in this court, in the council, and in the government generally, during Laud's time. Mr. Leighton "was severely whipped; then, being set in the pillory, his ear was cut off, his nose slit, and his cheek was branded, with a red-hot iron, S. S., as a Sower of Sedition. On that day week—the sores on his back, ears, nose, and face not being cured— he was whipped again at the pillory, in Cheapside, and the remainder of his sentence executed by cutting off his other ear, slitting the other side of his nose, and branding his other cheek." This man, Laud, who conceived, perpetrated, revelled in, and recorded in his private diary these disgusting details, was by Charles I. promoted step by step in Episcopal office, till, in 1633, three years after the outrage on Leighton, and the next after his brutality on Prynne,—this man was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate of the Episcopal Church, the representative man of the hierarchy. The New Englanders always spoke of him as "our great enemy." Early in the next year 1634 this primate, "with my Lord Privy Seal," after an examination in council of Governor Cradock1 prominent in early Massachusetts The house built on his plantation, in 1 Governor Mathewe Cradock, though annals, never set foot in New England. what is Medford, in 1634, is yet standing, one of the precious memorials of early times. Brooks' History of Medford honors him as "the founder " of the town, and contains a picture of the house. After the removal of the colony from Cape Ann to Salem, in 1626, under Governor Conant, some of the persevering members of "the Dorchester Company," which had originated the enterprise of colonizing Massachusetts, effected, with new associates, a new organization, for continuing and expanding the colonization of New England, which was at a later period- March 4, 1628-9-"confirmed " by charter from Charles I. Of this new "company" Cradock was appointed the first governor, and John Endecott was and other friends of the colonists, and of "all their correspondence" with "the brethren" in New England, called them all " 'imposturous knaves," promised "the cropping of Mr. Winthrop's ears," the loss of the colonial charter, and a “general governor" over all the colonies, to do his bloody behests. "If Jove vouchsafe to thunder, the charter and the kingdom of the separatists will fall asunder," and so end "King Winthrop, with all his inventions, and his Amsterdam and fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages, and other abusive ceremonies, which exemplify his detestation of the Church of England, and contempt of his Majesty's authority and wholesome laws"! Winthrop's ears were not cropped, and Laud became a- 66 martyr"! From such a gospel the New England Puritans fled; and in the celebrated pulpit at Saint Paul's Cross, in London, its clergy preached often and bitterly against the New England colonies and planters, especially Massachusetts, who, by limiting their franchise to members of their own communion, kept out of political power those enemies' who followed them hither, and who would have overturned the Commonwealth, which some attempted, as in the case of Child, Vassal, the infamous Maverick, and others. When the Colony became a State, with an educated people, the bars were let down, and suffrage was extended. the first, if not the only, governor of the colony under this charter. - Massachusetts Col. Rec., "The Landing at Cape Ann," and authorities there cited. See note 1, p. xxiii. 1 In the admirable state paper from Massachusetts Bay to the Parliament, in 1651, they say: "We, being men able enough to live in England with our neighbours, and being helpfull to others, and not needing the help of any for outward thinges, about three or four and twenty years since, seeing just cause to feare the persecution of the then bishops and high commission, for not conforming to the ceremonies then pressed upon the consciences of those under their power, we thought it our safest course to get outside of the world, out of their view, and beyond their reach, coming hither at our proper charges without the help of the State,. having expended, first and last, divers hundreds of thousands pounds." |