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and what the world has seen, we may well suppose, that this was not a lesson to be learned at once. From the age of Saul of Tarsus down to the oppressions of Archbishop Laud, the visible Church has contained within her own bosom men, who under the specious pretext of zeal for the truth, have disregarded and trampled under foot the most sacred and important rights of man. The Reformation did much to weaken prejudices, which were founded in ignorance and superstition, and to advance and establish the principles of religious liberty; but the rights of man, as a moral being-as a creature bound by the laws of Jesus Christ, were not in a good degree understood, until the catastrophe of the scene, which was exhibited in the days of James and Charles, and which issued in the expulsion of the Pilgrims of New-England. The contest of the Puritans was one into which they were drawn with reluctance, and was a contest for principle. It was not so much their opposition to ecclesiastical establishments, or their inveteracy toward the Church of England, but their love of 66 pure and undefiled religion," and their purpose to enjoy it, that constrained them to leave their native shores. To adopt the language of what may with no impropriety be called their own manifesto,—“ That the inspired Scriptures contain the true religionthat nothing is to be accounted the Protestant religion, respecting either faith or worship, but what is taught in them-that every man has the right of judging for himself, of trying doctrines by them, and of worshipping according to his apprehension of the meaning of them"*-these were the sentiments, which

Prince's New-England Chronology, p. 91.

inspired them with so much self-denial and intrepidity; and which, notwithstanding their comparative weakness, they resolved, under God, should never be renounced.

In those countries where the principles of religious toleration have acquired their maturity, the constitution and laws smile with equal favour and protection on all sects and denominations. If the law of the land lay me under no restriction, as to the doctrines I shall believe and the duties I shall practise ; if in the form of my worship they leave me to the dictates of my own conscience, and to my present and eternal responsibilities; I surely enjoy all the religious liberty, which an honest man can desire. I will not ask that my opinions should escape the ordeal of severe discussion, or that my conduct should be exempt from scrutiny and censure, where it deviates from the line of rectitude; I will not plead for that "magnanimous liberality" which exults in indifference to all opinions, and which is satisfied only with contempt of the truth: nor will I complain of the vigilance and fidelity with which the constituted authorities of the Church throw the shield of her maternal discipline around "the faith once delivered to the saints." And if, on the other hand, I may be allowed a candid examination of the sentiments of others; if I may disapprove and censure what in my judgment demands censure and disapprobation and if, in the enjoyment of these rights, no sect or persuasion can claim any preeminence, except what it derives from the validity and excellence of its principles, what is this but religious liberty? We are not insensible that there

are those who "complain that they have no religious liberty, unless they have liberty to have no religion at all." It is somewhat amusing to see what impatience of contradiction, and what a morbid sensibility some men discover to every thing that looks like a discussion of their favourite creed; and if we, my friends, have not become the abettors of this bigoted liberality, we owe much to the decision of our forefathers. With honest exultation, be it said, there is no spot on the globe where the rights of conscience are more sacredly revered than in New-England. There every man thinks for himself on subjects of the greatest moment. The spirit of discussion and inquiry is encouraged to an extent almost without a parallel; and if the Church had been as watchful in the exercise of a vigorous discipline on the one hand, as the State has been in guarding the rights of private judgment on the other, the benefits of this spirit would have been extended with fewer of its evils. I am well aware that liberty of conscience is one of those things which is easily abused; but when I consider the mischiefs, which an intolerant spirit has spread through the earth, the groans with which it has filled all Europe, and the rivers of blood it has shed, I feel grateful to a good Providence that I am a descendant of the Pilgrims. I ask no man to relinquish his opinions because they differ from mine, unless I can show him that they differ from the Bible. What I give, I claim; and what I claim, is the privilege of all. Painful as it was, the struggle of our fathers was not in vain. It will not soon be forgotten in Britain, that the Dissenting interest once had the

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ascendancy over the Establishment,* and that when royal oppression and ecclesiastical violence combined to bring in arbitrary power, both the Prince and the Prelate were brought to the block. That the American States have not been so slow to learn, is in no small degree owing to the high sense which our fathers cherished of the rights of conscience. It is now an unquestioned axiom, that religious freedom is the sacred and inviolable right of every man. It is no longer disputed that a man may worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and be notwithstanding entitled to the protection of the laws, and to all the immunities of a citizen. And what Christian, what patriot, but will rejoice that this most important principle has been so highly esteemed and so jealously guarded by the American people, that it holds a prominent place, not only in the several State Constitutions, but in the great bond of our National Confederation? Ever since the establishment of the Plymouth colony, the Western World has in this respect been unfolding a splendid and consoling pros¬ pect. At no period for these last two hundred years, has the afflicted Church from any quarter of the globe looked in vain for a secure retreat, or the daughter of Zion been denied an inviolable asylum.

There is a second point of view in which the colonization of New-England may be considered very important; and that is, the influence of this event on American literature. Piety may be fraught with the most benevolent desires, and in retired spheres of

* The writer does not mean to say, the Dissenting interest was ever formally established by the English government; but that it had the popular ascendancy. In the latter part of the reign of Charles I, and until the retoration of Charles II, it actually exercised a predominant influence.

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action may mature and carry into effect the most be neficent designs; but piety without learning, in a more extended province, accomplishes little, either for the honour of God, or the benefit of mankind.

Through wisdom an house is builded, and by understanding it is established." Lock up the treasures of knowledge from the great mass of the community, and you doom them to a condition of intellectual meanness and poverty, at no great remove from "the horse and the mule which have no understanding." Few have more sacredly felt the impor tance of the general diffusion of learning and science, than our forefathers. A very respectable writer of our own country has remarked, "that it might be expected the colonists of New-England would be most early and zealous in their attention to literature.

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character both for learning and piety, and the circumstances attending their establishment, were a sufficient pledge of their disposition to promote the interests of knowledge, which they well knew to be one of the most important pillars of the Church as well as the State."* It is no partial or extravagant representation to say, that they were men of vigorous talent, enlarged views, and uncommon learning.† America has not seen a more manly and gigantic race than that which took

* Miller's Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century.

+ There is a very interesting fact related by Prince, in his New-England Chronology, which redounds much to the honour of the Rev. Mr. Robinson, the patriarch of the Plymouth colony. Soon after the Curators of the University of Leyden had invited Simon Episcopius, a professed Arminian, to the divinity chair in that institution, an event deeply deplored by the Churches, and especially by Polyander, the Calvinistic professor, Episcopius published several Arminian Theses, which he engaged to defend against all opposers. Mr. Robinson, being earnestly requested by Polyander and the divines of the city to accept the challenge, consented to enter the lists with Episcopius, and completely foiled him, not merely once, but a second of

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