9 Majesty. It was the peculiarity of the right thus invaded and defended, that lent to the Puritans their crowning advantage. Religion is the profoundest and most universal affection of our nature. Apparently the cause of innu-' merable differences and endless controversies, it is, nevertheless, the one common and principal element which controls the actions of all men. It sustained the Puritans. It gradually won for them the respect and sympathies of men. and of nations. The right assailed brought equally conscience and the love of liberty, the two most elastic and enduring springs of activity, into resistance. Its invasion was sacrilegiousT^ecause it assumed to add to the Divine cbinmandihentd, and to take away from disobedience to them the curses that are written against it in the Book of Life. Primitive apostolical eloquence, which reminds us of the inspired apology of Paul before Agrippa, revived in its defence. The Puritans spake from their prisons after this manner: “Upon a careful examination of the Holy Scriptures, we find the English hierarchy to be different from Christ’s institution, and to be derived from Antichrist, being the same the Pope left in this land, to which we dare not subject ourselves. We farther find that God has commanded all that believe the gospel to walk in that holy path and order which he has appointed in his church. Wherefore, in the reverend fear of his name, vve have joined ourselves together, and subjected our souls and bodies to those laws and ordinances, and have chosen to ourselves such a ministry of pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons, as Christ has given to his church on earth to the world’s end, hoping for the promised assistance of his grace in our attendance upon him, notwithstanding any prohibition of men, or what by men, can be done unto us. We are ready to .prove our church order to be warranted by the word of God, allowable by her Majesty’s laws, arid no ways prejudicial to the sovereign power, and to disprove the public hierarchy, worship, and government by such evidence as our adversaries shall not be able to withstand, protesting, if we fail herein, not only willingly to sustain such deserved punishment as shall be'inflicted upon us, but to become conformable for the future, if we'overthrow1 not our adversaries. * * * We therefore, in the name of God arid of our sovereign the Queen, pray that we may have the benefit of the laws and of the public charters of the land, namely, that we may be received to bail, till we be by order of law convicted of some crime deserving of bonds. We plight our faith unto God, and our allegiance to her Majesty, that we will not commit anything unworthy of the gospel of Christ, or to the disturbance of the common peace and good order of the. land, and that we will be forthcoming at such reasonable warning as your lord ships shall command. Oh, let us not perish before trial and judgment, especially imploring and crying out to you for the same. However, we take the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and his angels, together with your own consciences, and all persons in all ages, to whom this our supplication may come, to witness that we have here truly advertised your honors of our case and maze, and have in all humility offered to come to Christian trial.” How sublimely, and yet with touching effect, does this opening of their cause by the Puritans illustrate the Divine instruction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom? Let us consider now the scope and full import.of the Puritan principle. That scope is not narrowed by any failure of the Puritans themselves to comprehend it, or even by any neglect on their part to cover it fully, in their own political conduct. Christianity is the same, however narrowed or perverted by erroneous creeds or practices among the faithful. Nor is the real merit of the Puritans diminished, because they did not fully comprehend all possible applications of the principle they maintained. Human progress is only the following of an endless chain, suspended from the throne of God. The links of that chain are infinite in number. The human hand can grasp only one of them at once. The Puritan principle of the inviolability of the right of conscience, necessarily covers the inviolability of all the acknowledged natural rights of man, as well those which concern his duty to himself and his duty to others, as those which arise out of his direct duties towards God. Certainly the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, the beneficent Father and Preserver of all life, the universal Lawgiver and Judge of all moral beings, is not in any human sense a jealous and exacting God, incensed by the withholding of homage due to himself, and yet regardless of the neglect of other human duties which he has prescribed. Assuredly, when he commands us not only to walk humbly before Himself, but also to perfect our own nature, and to do justice and love mercy towards other men, he has given us the same absolute right to the free exer
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