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• Memoir of Rev. John Robinson.
• Section I.: Mr. Robinson, a Puritan In Norfolk. (1575—1604.)
• Section II.: Mr. Robinson a Separatist At Scrooby. (1604—1608.)
• Section III.: Mr. Robinson an Exile At Amsterdam. (1608, 1609.)
• Section IV.: Mr. Robinson a Pastor At Leyden. (1609—1625.)
• Section V.: Mr. Robinson, His Character and Writings.
• The Preface.
• Prefatory Notice By the Editor.
• Chapter I.: Of Man's Knowledge of God .
• Chapter II.: Of God's Love.
• Chapter III.: Of God's Promises.
• Chapter IV: Of the Works of God, and His Power, Wisdom, Will, Goodness, Etc., Shining In Them.
• Chapter V.: Of Created Goodness.
• Chapter VI.: Of Equability, and Perseverance In Well-doing.
• Chapter VII.: Of Religion, and the Differences and Disputations Thereabout.
• Chapter VIII.: Of the Holy Scriptures.
• Chapter IX.: Of Authority and Reason.
• Chapter X.: Op Faith, Hope, and Love: Reason, and Sense.
• Chapter XI.: Of Atheism and Idolatry.
• Chapter XII.: Of Heresy and Schism.
• Chapter XIII.: Of Truth and Falsehood.
• Chapter XIV.: Of Knowledge and Ignorance.
• Chapter XV.: Of Simplicity and Craftiness.
• Chapter XVI.: Of Wisdom and Folly.
• Chapter XVII.: Of Discretion.
• Chapter XVIII.: Of Experience.
• Chapter XIX.: Of Examples.
• Chapter XX.: Of Counsel.
• Chapter XXI.: Of Thoughts.
• Chapter XXII.: Of Speech and Silence.
• Chapter XXIII.: Of Books and Writings.
• Chapter XXIV.: Of Good Intentions.
• Chapter XXV.: Of Means.
• Chapter XXVI.: Of Labour, and Idleness.
• Chapter XXVII.: Of Callings.
• Chapter XXVIII.: Of the Use and Abuse of Things.
• Chapter XXIX.: Of Riches and Poverty.
• Chapter XXX.: Of Sobriety.
• Chapter XXXI.: Of Liberality and Its Contraries.
• Chapter XXXII.: Of Health and Physic.
• Chapter XXXIII.: Of Afflictions.
• Chapter XXXIV.: Of Injuries.
• Chapter XXXV.: Of Patience.
• Chapter XXXVI.: Of Peace.
• Chapter XXXVII.: Of Society and Friendship.
• Chapter XXXVIII.: Of Credit and Good Name.
• Chapter XXXIX.: Of Contempt and Contumely.
• Chapter Xl.: of Envy.
• Chapter Xli.: of Slander.
• Chapter Xlii.: of Flattery.
• Chapter Xliii.: of Suspicion.
• Chapter Xliv.: of Appearances.
• Chapter Xlv.: of Offences.
• Chapter Xlvi.: of Temptations.
• Chapter Xlvii.: of Conscience.
• Chapter Xlviii.: of Prayer.
• Chapter Xlix.: of Oaths and Lots.
• Chapter L.: of Zeal.
• Chapter Li.: of Hypocrisy.
• Chapter Lii.: of Sin, and Punishment From God.
• Chapter Liii.: of Rewards, and Punishments By Men.
• Chapter Liv.: of the Affections of the Mind.
• Chapter Lv.: of Fear.
• Chapter Lvi.: of Anger.
• Chapter Lvii.: of Humility and Meekness.
• Chapter Lviii.: of Modesty.
• Chapter Lix.: of Marriage.
• Chapter Lx.: of Children and Their Education.
• Chapter Lxi.: of Youth and Old Age.
• Chapter Lxii.: of Death.
• Introductory Notice By the Editor.
• Preface.
• Chapter I.: Of Predestination.
• Chapter II.: Of Election.
• Chapter III.: Of Falling Away. Adversaries. (page 78.)
• Chapter IV.: Of Free-will.
• Chapter V.: Of the Original State of Mankind.
• Chapter VI.: Of Baptism. (pages 129—176.)

SECTION II.

mr. robinson a separatist at scrooby.
(1604—1608.)

Mr. Robinson left Norwich, virtually if not nominally a Separatist. Cambridge being the direct road to the northern part of England, he probably visited his alma mater, resigned his fellowship of the college, and bid adieu to his Puritan friends and brethren in that town. The resignation of the fellowship being in 1604, this may be regarded as the year of his formal connexion with the Separatists, and as the commencement of a new era in his eventful life.

It required no ordinary faith and moral courage to abandon the Church at this juncture. Persecution awaited him at every step. The determination of the king and the bishops was to imprison, fine or banish all dissidents from the dominant Church. He had counted the cost; and in proportion to the difficulties he felt in coming to the final decision, such was the strength of his present convictions. Like Abraham he went out, not knowing whither he went: like him, too, he trusted in the wisdom and faithfulness of God, who was his “shield and exceeding great reward.”

He proceeded to “Lincolnshire, his county,” and the parts adjacent, where he found a considerable number of Separatist brethren, who met for worship as often as they could escape the Argus eyes of their persecutors. They had previously constituted themselves into a church, by solemn covenant with the Lord and with each other, in the fellowship of the gospel, “to walk in all his ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatever it should cost them.”*

This solemn and memorable transaction took place, it is generally believed, in 1602,† when Mr. Smyth and Mr. Clyfton were associated in the oversight of the church.

Mr. Robinson arrived in 1604; their numbers had so increased as to render it expedient that they should form two distinct bodies, and worship in different localities; Mr. Smyth and Mr. Clyfto'n were chosen pastors of the respective churches, both of whom subsequently became exiles for conscience' sake, and settled at Amsterdam. Mr. Robinson remained with Mr. Clyfton's portion of the church, and was shortly afterwards chosen his assistant in ministerial labours, and on the removal of Mr. Clyfton to Holland, succeeded to his office.

This devoted band ordinarily met at Mr. Brewster's mansion “on the Lord's-day, which was a manor of the bishop's, and with great love he entertained them when they came, making provision for them, to his great charge, and continued to do so while they could stay in England.”*

Mr. Brewster was a gentleman of fortune; he was educated at Cambridge, and was now living on his manorial estate at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire.

The location of this first Separatist church has long been an object of investigation and doubt. The difficulty appears to be solved by Joseph Hunter, Esq., in his valuable “Collections,” concerning the first colonists of New England. The following is a summary of Mr. Hunter's proofs, identifying Scrooby, Notts, as the village, and Mr. Brewster's house as the manor, in which, when practicable, they worshipped. Governor Bradford, who was originally one of the church, and whose birthplace and residence were at Austerfield in the vicinity, states distinctly, that Mr. Brew-ster's house was a “manor of the bishop's.”* This description of the house furnished the key to the difficulty. Scrooby is about one mile and a half south of Bawtry in Yorkshire, and from which Austerfield is about the same distance north-east, and both not far distant from the adjacent county of Lincoln. Mr. Hunter says, “I can speak with confidence to the fact, that there is no other episcopal manor but this, which at all satisfies the condition of being near the borders of the three counties.” The Brewsters were residents at Scrooby: the manor place which they occupied originally belonged to the Archbishops of York, and had been leased to Sir Samuel Sandys, son of Dr. Sandys the Archbishop, in 1586. The Brewster family were now tenants of Sir Samuel, and were occupants of the mansion of the Sandys. This fact serves both as an identification of the place, and as an explanation of the circumstance, that the Sandys took great interest, at a subsequent period, in promoting the settlement of the pilgrims, under the direction of Mr. Brewster, on the shores of the Atlantic.

Scrooby must henceforward be regarded as the cradle of Massachusetts. Here the choice and noble spirits, at the head of whom were Brewster and Bradford, first learned the lessons of truth and freedom. Here, under the faithful ministration of the pastors, they were nourished and strengthened to that vigorous and manly fortitude which braved all dangers, and here too they acquired that moral and spiritual'courage which enabled them to sacrifice their homes, property and friends, and expatriate themselves to distant lands, rather than abandon their principles and yield to the attempted usurpations on the liberty of their consciences.

The spirit of the times, however, required that they should obtrude themselves as seldom as possible on public notice. They were objects of suspicion and distrust, and liable, if detected, to imprisonment and fine. Persecution was partially suspended during the early part of the reign of James I., but the proceedings of the monarch at the Hampton Court Conference, in 1604, unmasked his character and designs, and spread alarm and consternation through the puritanical ranks in all parts of the kingdom. His determination was to suppress the Nonconformists of every name, and especially the Separatists, who had become extremely obnoxious to the ecclesiastical authorities.

Unable to conceal themselves from the inquisitions of the spy, or to enjoy the liberty of worship they so earnestly desired, Mr. Smyth and his church resolved to flee into Holland and seek an asylum at Amsterdam. They arrived, after encountering many difficulties, in the year 1606. In the course of a few months Mr. Clyfton and several of his church adopted the same course and settled in the same city, uniting themselves with their former companions, in the church under the care of Mr. Francis Johnson and Mr. Henry Ainsworth.

Mr. Robinson was now left with the remnant of the flock. Month after month rolled away, and no abatement of the fury of the dominant party was visible. His church, with himself, resolved on following their companions to the United Provinces, where toleration, at least, if not perfect freedom, was allowed to all natives and foreigners.

Thrice was the attempt made at expatriation before they could succeed. They first resolved to sail from Boston. They formed a common fund, and hired a vessel. To avoid suspicion they embarked at night, and at the moment when they expected the vessel to be loosed from her moorings, they were betrayed by the captain and seized by the officers of the town. They were plundered of their goods and money, arraigned before the magistrates, and committed to prison till the pleasure of the lords in council should be known. They were dismissed at the expiration of a month, seven of the leading persons being bound over to appear at the assizes.

The following spring a second attempt was made. They hired a small Dutch vessel, and agreed to meet the captain at a given spot on the banks of the Humber near Grimsby, Lincolnshire. After a delay of some hours, a part of the company, chiefly men, were conveyed to the vessel in a boat. When the sailors were about to return for another portion of the passengers, the captain saw “a great company of horse and foot, with bills and guns,” in full pursuit of the fugitives on shore. He immediately hoisted sail and departed with the men he had on board, leaving their wives and children, and the remainder of the pilgrim company with Mr. Robinson, to the tender mercies of their pursuers. A few of the party escaped, the others were seized and hurried from one magistrate to another, till the officers, not knowing what to do with so large a company, and ashamed of their occupation in seizing helpless, homeless, and innocent persons, they suffered them to depart and go whither they pleased.

Other attempts at expatriation were subsequently and successfully made. The persecuted Separatists at length reached the hospitable shores of Holland, and rejoined their families and friends in the land of strangers, thankful to their Almighty Father that they had escaped in safety from the “fury of the oppressor,” and the perils of the deep.

Bradford thus concludes his simple and touching narrative of these adventures: “Yet I may not omit the fruit that came hereby. For by these so public troubles in so many eminent places, (Boston, Hull, Grimsby, where they were seized or imprisoned,) their cause became famous, and occasioned many to look into the same; and their godly carriage and Christian behaviour was such as left a deep impression in the minds of many. And though some few shrunk at those first conflicts and sharp beginnings, (as it was no marvel,) yet many more came on with fresh courage, and greatly animated others; and in the end, notwithstanding all these storms of opposition, they all got over at length, some at one time and some at another, and met together again, according to their desire, with no small rejoicing.”*

[*]Vide “ Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims,” page 20.

[†]Mr. Hunter doubts the accuracy of this date, from the statement made by Bradford in his journal.—” So, after they had continued together about a year, and kept their meetings every Sabbath in one place or another, exercising the worship of God among themselves, notwithstanding all the diligence and malice of their adversaries, they, seeing they could no longer continue in that condition, resolved tc get over into Holland as they could, which was in the year 1607-8.”—Hunter's Collections, page 26. Young's Chronicles, page 24.

It is evident, however, that the phrase “about a year” does not refer to the period between the covenant-taking and the final emigration of the church, which was manifestly about six years, but to the time when Mr. Robinson became sole minister of the remaining portion of the Church, and the resolution adopted to exile themselves as Providence should open the way.

[*]Life of Brewster, in Young's Chronicles, page 465.

[*]Young's Chronicles, page 465,

[*]Vide Young's Chronicles, pages 81, 82.