comprehensive a view of the subject as possible, bringing into one conspectus what Puritanism accomplished in the Old World and in the New, and showing how in both it became the parent of free institutions, and the founder of modern democracy. I am not solicitous to clear myself from the imputation of being biassed, nay, of being very strongly biassed, in favour of the Puritans, and that for which the Puritans contended. It can serve no good purpose to lay claim to the merit of impartiality. Indeed, the parade of impartiality is always suspicious, and the assertion of it on the part of writers and authors, I have generally found to be in inverse relation to its real existence and exhibition. I fear I must be content to incur the reproach of such writers as the author of Religious Thought in England. In the preface to that able work, a work to which I gladly record my indebtedness, Mr. Hunt says: "I am dissatisfied, and I suppose most men are, with the spirit in which the history of religion in England is generally written. If it is the work of a Churchman, it takes the form of a defence of the Church of England; if by a Nonconformist, it is a defence of Nonconformity. And thus a subject which, in proper hands, might be prolific for good, is sacrificed to the glorification of a sect or a party." I trust I am as fully alive to the peril here indicated as Mr. Hunt himself; but the remedy is not to be found, as he appears to think, in endeavouring to steer a middle course, and inclining neither to the one side nor to the other. and principles, and who this is clearly impossible. Notwithstanding all that may be urged to the contrary, it is possible to take sides, and yet be scrupulously just and fair. One may believe in Puritanism intensely, and yet be keenly alive to its vices and shortcomings; and one may deal out even-handed justice to its enemies and oppressors, without shutting ones eyes to their redeeming virtues and qualities. It is for others to judge how far this aim has been realised in the presentment of Puritanism given in the following pages. For men of strong convictions do not hesitate to avow them, III. ROGER WILLIAMS: THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGIOUS IV. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND CONCLUSION 289 311 333 389 INTRODUCTION THE genius of Puritanism has been transmitted, and is capable of being expressed, in manifold forms. The name is not much more than three hundred years old, but that which it describes is older than Christianity itself. As there were reformers before the Reformation, so there were Puritans before that which we call Puritanism had sprung into existence. To their influence in the Jewish Church must be traced all that was noblest, all that was best worth preserving. Samuel was a Puritan, so was Ezra, so was Nehemiah, so was John the Baptist. It was the zeal of Puritanism that moved the Divine Son to expel the traffickers from the Temple, and so vindicate the honour of His Father's house. The Prophets of Israel, in their insistence upon righteousness, in their exaltation of the moral above the legal and ceremonial, were anticipating the very gist of the Puritan contention. It was he spirit of Puritanism that flamed up in the breast of Ambrose when he required the Emperor Theodosius, before entering the church at Milan, to make reparation for the slaughter of the citizens of Thessalonica. When Savonarola made the proud citizens of Florence to cower under his invective, and unsparingly assailed their |
