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they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God: but "were they now living, would be as willing to embrace "further light, as that which they first received. I beseech (6 you, remember it is an article of your church covenant, "That you be ready to receive whatever truth may be made "known to you from the written word of God. Remember "that, and every other article of your sacred covenant. "But I must, herewithal, exhort you to take heed what you "receive as truth. Examine it, consider it, and compare it "with other scriptures of truth, before you receive it. For "it is not possible the christian world should come so "lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that "perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.

"I must also advise you to abandon, avoid, and shake "off the name of BROWNISTS. It is a mere nick-name, and "a brand for making religion, and the professors of it, ❝odious to the christian world."*

On July 1, 1620, this small band of christian adventurers, in number one hundred and one,+ went from Leyden to Delft Haven, to which place Mr. Robinson and the elders of the church accompanied them. They continued together all night; and the next morning, after mutual embraces, Mr. Robinson kneeled down on the sea-shore, and with fervent prayer, committed them to the protection and blessing of heaven. The leader of this new colony was Mr. William Brewster, a man admirably well qualified for the post which he occupied. After the affecting and

* Neal's New England, vol. i. p. 74-79.

+ Neal, by mistake, says their number was one hundred and twenty.— Ibid. p. 80.-Prince's Chron, Hist. vol. i. p. 103.—Evangelical Mag. vol. vi. p. 314.

Morton's Memorial, p. 6.

Mr. William Brewster received a learned education in the university of Cambridge. His first employment was in the service of Mr. Davison, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, with whom he went over to Holland, and was entrusted with affairs of great importance, particularly with the keys of the cautionary towns. He afterwards lived much respected in his own country, till the severity of the times obliged him to return to Holland. He was ruling elder of Mr. Robinson's church previous to its leaving England, and bore his share of hardships with the rest of his brethren. In this office he continued with great honour, during their twelve years truce in Holland. When he was sixty years of age, he had the courage and resolution to put himself at the head of the colony, which peopled New England. They sailed from Delft Haven, July 2, 1620, as observed above; and after a long and dangerous voyage, arrived at Cape Cod, on the coast of New England, November 9th following. Upon their first settlement, they divided the land by lat, according to the number of persons in each family; and having agreed upon some general laws, chose a governor, and called the name of the place NEW PLYMOUTH. Inexpressible were the hardships which they underwent during the first winter. The fatigues of

painful separation, Mr. Robinson, as a father in Israel, wrote a most affectionate and faithful letter to the adventurers ; which they received at Southampton, and read to the whole company, to their great comfort and encouragement. In addressing them, he says, " I am present in my best affections and most earnest longings after you. God knows how willingly and much rather than otherwise, I would have borne my first part in this first brunt, were I not held back by strong necessity. Make account of me in the mean time, as a man divided in himself with great pain, having my better part with you. And though I doubt not of your godly wisdom, I think it my duty to add some words of advice; if not because you need it, yet because I owe it in love and duty." He then proceeds to give them the most affectionate and salutary instructions. He urges them to repentance for all known sins, and generally for all that are unknown, lest God should swallow them up in his judgments. He then exhorts them to exercise a holy jealousy and serious watchfulness over their own hearts; to avoid giving or receiving offences; to cultivate forbearance and love one towards another; and to manage all their affairs with discretion, and by mutual agreement. He urges them to have a proper regard for the general good; to avoid "as a deadly plague, all private respect for themselves;" and to shew a due respect and obedience to the magistrates whom they should elect to rule over them. He observes, "that he would not so far wrong their godly minds as to think them heedless of other things, which he could say;" and concludes by expressing his earnest and incessant prayers to God for them.*

Mr. Robinson intended to accompany the remaining part

the late voyage, the severity of the weather, and the want of the necessaries of life, occasioned a sad mortality, and swept away half the colony; and of those who remained alive, not above six or seven at a time were capable of helping the rest. But as the spring returned, they began to recover; and, receiving some fresh supplies from England, they maintained their station, and laid the foundation of one of the noblest settlements in America, which afterwards proved a comfortable asylum for protestant nonconformists under all their oppressions. Mr. Brewster shared the fatigues and hardships of the infant colony with the utmost bravery. He was not an ordained minister; but being a man of considerable learning, eminent gifts, and great piety, he preached to them about seven years, till they could provide themselves with a pastor. He was held in the greatest respect both by the magistrates and the people; and after suffering much in the cause of the Redeemer, he died in peace, April 18, 1643, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.-Morton's Memorial, p. 117, 118.-Neal's New England, vol. i. p. 211, 212.-Neal's Puritans, vol. ii. p. 122.Morse and Parish's New England, p. 7–9, `

* Morton's Memorial, p. 6-9.

of his congregation to America; but before he could accomplish his design, it pleased God to remove him to a better world. He died March 1, 1625, in the fiftieth year of his age. The life of this amiable man, both in public and private, exhibited a fair transcript of those numerous virtues which elevate and adorn the human character. He possessed a strong mind, cultivated by a good education. In his younger days, he was distinguished for good sense and solid learning; and as his mind, under the influence of divine grace, began to expand, he acquired that moderate and pacific temper for which he was celebrated among christians of different denominations. His uncommon probity and diffusive benevolence highly recommended him to the Dutch ministers and professors, with whom he lived in the most perfect harmony. They lamented his death as a public loss; and as a testimony of their esteem and affection, though he was not of their communion, the magistrates, ministers, professors, and many of the citizens, honoured his funeral solemnities with their presence. Mr. Robinson was an admirable disputant; as appears by his public disputation in the university of Leyden, when the Arminian controversy agitated and divided the churches in Holland. The famous Episcopius having given out a public challenge to defend his Arminian tenets against all opponents, the learned Polydore and the chief ministers of the city urged Mr. Robinson to engage in a public disputation. But he, being a stranger, and of so mild and peaceable a spirit, signified his unwillingness; but by their repeated solicitations, he at length consented. "In the issue," our author observes," he so defended the truth, and so foiled the opposer, putting him to a nonplus in three successive disputations, that it procured him much honour and respect from men of learning and piety." The attachment which subsisted betwixt Mr. Robinson and

his people was very great. "Such was the mutual love and respect which he had to his flock, and his flock to him, that it was hard to judge whether he was delighted more in having such a people, or they in having such a pastor." His death was, therefore, a serious loss to the remaining branch of his church at Leyden. Most of them, however, after a few years, joined their brethren in New England; among whom were his widow and children. His son Isaac lived to ninety years of age, and left a posterity in

* Prince's Chronological Hist. vol. i. p. 38.

the county of Barnstaple. Mr. Robinson's church at Leyden was the first INDEPENDENT church since the reformation.

His WORKS.-1. A Justification of Separation from the Church of England, against Bernard, 1610.-2. Remarks on Mr. Smyth's Confession of Faith, 1614.-3. A Treatise on Communion, 1614.4. People's Plea for the Exercise of Prophesie, 1618.-5. Apologia justa et necessaria Christianorum, æque contumeliose ac communitæ dictorum Brownistarum ac Barrowistarum, 1619.-This was translated in 1644.-6. An Appendix to Mr. Perkins's Six Principles of the Christian Religion, 1641.-He probably wrote some others.

RICHARD STOCK, A. M.-This worthy divine was born in the city of York, and educated in St. John's college, Cambridge; where, on account of his great ingenuity, industry and progress in learning, he was much beloved by the famous Dr. Whitaker. Leaving the university, he became domestic chaplain first to Sir Anthony Cope, of Ashby in Northamptonshire,+ then to Lady Lane, of Bourton-onthe-Water in Gloucestershire. Afterwards, he became assistant to Mr. Thomas Edmunds, vicar of Alhallows, Bread-street, London; where his labours were particularly acceptable and useful. He continued for sixteen years to assist Mr. Edmunds, at whose death he accepted the pastoral charge, and continued sixteen years more, even to the end of his days. His labours were made a signal blessing to the people. Great numbers were converted, comforted, and established under his ministry. He was the means of bringing many persons to a saving knowledge of the truth, who afterwards became celebrated ministers of the gospel. Though many ministers preached to others, and not to themselves, Mr. Stock practised what he preached. His life was one uniform practical comment upon his doctrine. He was much beloved, revered and honoured; and always faithful and courageous in reproving sin.

Mr. Stock having in his younger years preached at Paul's cross, he spoke with considerable freedom against

* Morton's Memorial, p. 63.-Morse's American Geog. p. 156, 157.— Morse and Parish's New England, p. 30.

Sir Anthony Cope signalized himself in the cause of religious liberty, and was a constant friend to the persecuted nonconformists. He was burgess for Banbury in Oxfordshire; and, in the parliament of 1586, he offered a bill to the house of commons, to abolish all the penal and disgraceful laws against the puritans, to set aside the Book of Common Prayer, and to adopt a fresh one, not liable to so many exceptions. The bill was warmly supported by several able statesmen, but was rejected by the superiority of the court party.-MS. Chronology, vol. ii. p. 377. (4.)

the iniquities of the city; which some persons took so ill, that they charged him with rashness, and called him Green-head. Towards the close of life, having to preach at the election of the lord mayor, he particularly enlarged upon the same topic, and said, "that a Gray-head now spoke the same things that a Green-head had formerly done." The end of his labours was the beginning of his rest; and having finished his work, he was called to receive his gracious reward. He died April 20, 1626. He was a person of good learning, excellent talents for the pulpit, and an example to his people in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity. Wood denominates him " a constant and judicious preacher, a pious minister, and a zealous puritan and reformer of the profanation of the sabbath."+ His remains were interred in Alhallows church, where the following monumental inscription was afterwards erected to his memory:+

To the sacred MEMORY

of that worthy and faithful servant of Christ,
Master RICHARD STOCK;

who after thirty-two years spent in the ministry,
wherein by his learned labours,
joined with his wisdom,

and a most holy life,

God's glory was much advanced,
his church edified,
piety increased,

and the true honour of a pastor's place maintained;
deceased April 20, 1626.

Some of his loving parishioners
have consecrated

this Monument of their never-dying love,
Jan. 28, 1628.

Thy livelesse trunk (O Reverend Stocke)
Like Aaron's rod, sprouts out again;
And, after two full winters past,

Yields blossoms and ripe fruit amaine.

For why, this worke of piety,
Performed by some of thy flocke
To thy dead corps and sacred urne,
Is but the fruit of this old Stocke,

There was another Mr. Richard Stock, who lived about the same time, rector of Kirk-Eaton in Yorkshire, where he

* Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 61—66.

+ Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 774.

Stow's Survey of London, b. iii. p. 200.

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