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William Bradford is one of the most interesting figures in the history of New England. He is the noblest of the Puritans a type of their best element, an exponent of their highest effort, a pioneer in their struggle for liberty for justice, and for law.
It was a religion fit to inspire men who were to be called upon to fight for freedom, whether in the marshes of the Netherlands or on the moors of Scotland. In a church, moreover, based upon such a theology there was no room for prelacy. When, therefore, upon the news of Elizabeth's accession to the throne, the Protestant refugees made their way back to England, they came as Calvinistic Puritans.
It was natural that he should even afterwards remain still more statesman than general just like Cromwell, who also transformed himself from a leader of opposition into a military chief and democratic king, and who in general, little as the prince of Puritans seems to resemble the dissolute Roman, is yet in his development as well as in the objects which he aimed at and the results which he achieved of all statesmen perhaps the most akin to Caesar.
He succeeded in subduing the country; but the effect of his conquest was a terrible famine in the North, where the food had been destroyed. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, all Ireland was subject to England. THE PURITANS. Uniformity in the forms of religious worship was ordained by law in England, and the queen was bent on enforcing it.
It is the Lord's will, Lois, and thou canst not escape from it. And again he would have taken her hand and drawn her towards him. But this time she eluded him with ready movement. 'I do not acknowledge it be the Lord's will, Manasseh, said she. 'It is not "borne in upon me," as you Puritans call it, that I am to be your wife.
Who, on looking back, can now refuse to admire the political aspirations of the English Puritans, or decline to acknowledge the beauty and fitness of what they did? It was by them that these States of New England were colonized. They came hither, stating themselves to be pilgrims, and as such they first placed their feet on that hallowed rock at Plymouth, on the shore of Massachusetts.
But the figure which most attracted the public eye, and stirred up the deepest feeling, was the Episcopal clergyman of King's Chapel, riding haughtily among the magistrates in his priestly vestments, the fitting representative of prelacy and persecution, the union of church and state, and all those abominations which had driven the Puritans to the wilderness.
Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up. Imprudent to defend the liberty of the press! Why? Because the defense was unsuccessful? Does success gild crime into patriotism, and the want of it change heroic self-devotion into imprudence?
The Puritans had now been five years at Plymouth. So little were they acquainted with the geography of the country that they supposed New England to be an island. Floating rumors had reached them of the Dutch colony at the mouth of the Hudson. Governor Bradford commissioned Mr.
How is it that they are not ashamed, who say, that ministers have their own places and callings, when they would fain abide in them, and with heavy hearts are thrust from them. Sect. 3. Neither is this all the injury which is occasioned by the ceremonies, they make godly and zealous Christians to be mocked and nick-named Puritans, except they can swallow the camel of conformity.
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