would, or is bound to do. For your lordship sees, no man clearer, that they which have gotten so much power in and over the church will not let go their hold." "I know no reason," his correspondent replies from Ireland, "but you may as well rule the common lawyers in England as I, poor beagle, do here; and yet that I do, and will do, in all that concerns my master, at the peril of my head. I am confident that the king, being pleased to set himself in the business, is able, by his wisdom and ministers, to carry any just and honourable action through all imaginary opposition, for real there can be none; that to start aside for such panic fears, fantastic apparitions, as a Prynne or an Eliot shall set up, were the meanest folly in the whole world." *

When the affairs of the kingdom were managed in this manner, it is not surprising that the great mass of the people should become disaffected. The religion of the puritans alone prevented them from rising in rebellion against their relentless oppressors. Multitudes left the kingdom, exporting with them their wealth. The majority repaired to New England, where town after town rose up in quick succession, the monuments of England's tyranny, and the living germs

* Strafford Letters, i. 111, 173.

† Neal (i. 546,) states that in twelve years of Laud's administration "there went over about four thousand planters, carrying over with them in materials, money, and cattle, etc., not less than to the value of one hundred and ninety-two thousand pounds." He also states, "it has been computed that the four settlements of New England drained England of four or five hundred thousand pounds in money (a very great sum in those days,) and if the persecution of the puritans had continued twelve years longer, it is thought that a fourth part of the riches of the kingdom would have passed out of it through this channel."

of America's future greatness. Suffering in the mother country prepared the colonists to endure hardships in the land of their adoption; and the conscientious motives that had compelled them to emigrate, guided them now in all their commercial and civil pursuits, and gave them a character and influence unparalleled in any other part of the world. We must refer the reader to the history of the puritans for particular details respecting the more prominent persons amongst the emigrants of this period.* There are two points, however, that demand notice, as bearing upon our subject. The first relates to the intercourse that was kept up between the New England settlers and their old associates in this kingdom, and the second to the manner in which the system of emigration was checked.

It is not likely that, after the lapse of a few years, any of the colonists would retain anything more than a general interest in English affairs. Fully occupied with new pursuits and scenes, it was hardly to be expected that they would have much leisure to bestow upon the state of parties at home, whether political or ecclesiastical. They were now at liberty; and thanking God for it, they sought to turn it to the best account. This, however, was not equally the case with those of their friends, who, for various reasons, chose to remain in their native land. Amidst the change from bad to worse that was going on, they often turned their thoughts to their former companions in distress, now freed from bondage, and enjoying ease in a distant part of the world. They received all tidings respecting them with great avidity, and from time to time many of their number, encouraged

*Neal, part ii. cap. v. vi.

by the report of their success, imitated their example, and crossed the seas to join them. Now and then, however, intelligence was received that pained the minds of some at least of the puritans at home. Their old friends, they heard, had changed their sentiments and practices on many important points; were becoming more and more like the separatists; and therefore stood in need of friendly counsel respecting the dangers incident to their state of liberty. There is something pleasing in the circumstance that, amidst their own manifold trials, the puritans at home could take so deep an interest in the religious condition of their friends abroad. At the same time, they were not in the right position to judge how far the changes, of which they heard such exaggerated reports, were necessary to the consistent carrying out of their own avowed principles. Connected as they were with a dominant system, there were innumerable influences tending to bias their judgment in favour of an imperfect development of those principles; and the theme of separation had been discussed amidst so many prejudices, that the practice of separation had become at length quite a bugbear, even with men whose consistency could be maintained only in connexion with it. At length, however, or in 1637, some of the ministers in and about London addressed a letter to "their brethren" in New England, asking for information respecting their practices, and calling upon them to justify the same. This letter was, in part, as follows:

"While we lived together in the same kingdom, we professed the same faith, joined in the same ordinances, laboured in the work of God, to gain souls unto his kingdom, and maintained the purity of wor

ship against corruptions, both on the right hand and on the left. But since your departure into New England, we hear, and partly believe, that divers have embraced certain opinions, such as you disliked formerly, and we judge to be groundless and unwarrantable.

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These, and others such like, which we omit to reckon up, are written and reported to be the conmon tenets in New England; which are received with great applause, maintained with great confidence, and applauded as the only church-way wherein the Lord is to be worshipped! And letters from New England have so taken with divers in many parts of this kingdom, that they have left our assemblies, because of a stinted liturgy; and excommunicated themselves from the Lord's supper, because of such as are not debarred from it; and being turned aside themselves, they labour to ensnare others, to the grief of the godly, the scandal of religion, the wounding of their own souls, if they did advisedly consider the matter, and great advantage of them that are wily to espy, and ready to make use of, all the advantages to prejudice the truth.

"Beloved brethren! if you stood in our places, we are well assured it would be no small grief unto you, to hear and see the people led aside, to the disgrace of the Gospel, upon weak and groundless imaginations; and, in rash and inconsiderate zeal, to deal with that which is of God as if it were of man! And if it be to us grief of heart, to hear that you have changed from that truth which you did profess, and embrace that for truth which, in former times, upon sound grounds, you did condemn as erroneous, we

hope you will not be offended. You know how oft it hath been objected, that nonconformists in practice are separatists in heart,' but that they go cross to their own positions, or smother the truth for sinister ends. They of the separation boast that they stand upon the nonconformists' ground; a vain-glorious flourish, and slight pretence! But both these are much countenanced by your sudden change, if you be changed as it is reported. How shall your brethren be able to stand up in defence of their innocency and the uprightness of their cause, when your example and opinion shall be cast in their dish? Must they leave you now, with whom they have held society? Or, will you plead for separation, which you have condemned as rash and inconsiderate? You know that they who have run this way, have fallen into manifold divisions; and may you not justly fear lest the same befall you ? Some warnings you have had alalready; and have you not cause to fear, every day, more and more? Error is very fruitful, and will speed apace. A crack in the foundation may occasion a wide breach in the building, where there will not be means, or mind, to amend it. Experience, every day,

may tutor us herein.

"But to let pass all inconveniences, our request, in all meekness and love, is, that if these, or any of the forementioned opinions, be indeed your tenets, you would be pleased to take a second review of your grounds, and send us your strongest reasons that have swayed you on these matters. And if we shall find them, upon due examination, to be such as will carry weight, we shall be ready to give you the right hand of fellowship: if otherwise, you shall receive our just