CONTENTS. UNLIMITED SUBMISSION AND NON-RESISTANCE TO THE HIGHER POWERS PAGE -APPEAL TO HEAVEN, 187 THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT- THE MAGISTRATE'S AUTHORITY POPULAR GOVERNMENT-THE TRUE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY- REQUISITES TO THE NECESSITY OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT TO THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND INTRODUCTION. THIS collection of Sermons presents examples of the politicotheological phase of the conflict for American Independence, a phase not peculiar to that period. Its origin was coëval with the colonization of New England; and a brief review of some leading points in our history will afford the best explanation of its rise and development. There is a natural and just union of religious and civil counsels, not that external alliance of the crosier and sword called "Church and State," but the philosophical and deeper union which recognizes GOD as Supreme Ruler, and which is illustrated in this volume of occasional Discourses and "Election Sermons," a title equivalent, in the right intent of the term, to "political preaching." There is also a historical connection, which is to be found rather in the general current of history than in particular instances. In this we may trace the principle, or vital cord, which runs through our own separate annals since our fathers came to the New World, and also marks the progress of liberty and individual rights in England. "New England has the proud distinction of tracing her origin to causes purely moral and intellectual, a fact which fixes the character of her founders and planters as elevated and refined, not the destroyers of cities, provinces, and empires, but the founders of civilization in America." The word clergie is in itself historical, meaning, in the Norman tongue, literature. In early times, when learning was almost exclusively with the clergy, they, by this monopoly, held almost the whole power of church and state. We may see an illustration of this union of civil and ecclesiastical functions in the Annals of the See of Bath and Wells, which yielded from its diocesan list to the civil state of England six Lord Chancellors, eight Lord High Treasurers, two Lords Privy Seal, one Master of the Rolls, one Lord President of Wales, one principal Secretary of State; and to higher Episcopal office, five Archbishops of Canterbury, three Archbishops of York, and, says the annalist of the diocese, "to the Protestant Episcopal Church, the cause of Monarchy, and of Orthodoxy, one MARTYR, William Laud." But, of all the names in that priestly catalogue, to ARTHUR LAKE belongs the transcendent honor, the highest distinction; for it was his missionary spirit that originated the movement which led to the colonization of Massachusetts, an enterprise greatly indebted for its success to the unhappy zeal of his immediate successor in the office of bishop, the “martyr" Laud. As this execrable1 prelate embodied the principles and spirit of the hierarchy; as he had a controlling agency in the settlement of New England, by "harrying" the Puritans out of Old England; and as he has ever been remembered with abhorrence by their descendants, some of whose early Puritan "prejudices," not yet eradicated, may very possibly reach future generations, mention of a characteristic act in his official life may be per 1 For an opposite view of Archbishop Laud's character, and the principles involved in it, read his "Life and Times," by John Lawson Parker. 2 vols. 8vo. London 1829. tinent to our inquiry. It was this: Mr. Leighton, a Scotch divine, being convicted of writing a book denouncing the severities of the hierarchy, Bishop Laud pulled off his hat when sentence was pronounced on the offender, and gave God thanks for the victory. This was in the Star Chamber, and in keeping with the general tone of proceedings which prevailed in this court, in the council, and in the government generally, during Laud's time. Mr. Leighton "was severely whipped; then, being set in the pillory, his ear was cut off, his nose slit, and his cheek was branded, with a red-hot iron, S. S., as a Sower of Sedition. On that day week - the sores on his back, ears, nose, and face not being cured — he was whipped again at the pillory, in Cheapside, and the remainder of his sentence executed by cutting off his other ear, slitting the other side of his nose, and branding his other cheek." This man, Laud, who conceived, perpetrated, revelled in, and recorded in his private diary these disgusting details, was by Charles I. promoted step by step in Episcopal office, till, in 1633, three years after the outrage on Leighton, and the next after his brutality on Prynne, - this man was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate of the Episcopal Church, the representative man of the hierarchy. The New Englanders always spoke of him as "our great enemy." Early in the next year- - 1634 — this primate, "with my Lord Privy Seal," after an examination in council of Governor Cradock1 1 Governor Mathewe Cradock, though prominent in early Massachusetts annals, never set foot in New England. The house built on his plantation, in what is Medford, in 1634, is yet standing, - one of the precious memorials of early times. Brooks' History of Medford honors him as "the founder" of the town, and contains a picture of the house. After the removal of the colony from Cape Ann to Salem, in 1626, under Governor Conant, some of the persevering members of " the Dorchester Company," which had originated the enterprise of colonizing Massachusetts, effected, with new associates, a new organization, for continuing and expanding the colonization of New England, which was at a later period-March 4, 1628-9-"confirmed " by charter from Charles I. Of this new "company" Cradock was appointed the first governor, and John Endecott was |