shall behold with a discerning eye the inside of that work which God hath been doing among us the three years last past: it would seem chiefly to have been his aim to bring his people into such a frame as this; for in this tract of time there hath been (as we may say) a great silence in heaven, as if God were pleased to stand still and be as a looker on, to see what his people would be in their latter end, and what work they would make of it, if left to their own wisdom and politic contrivances. And as God hath had the silent part, so men, and that good men too, have had the active and busy part, and have, like themselves, made a great sound and noise, like the shout of a king in a mighty host; which, while it hath been a sound only and no more, hath not done much hurt as yet; but the fear and jealousy thereby caused hath put the whole body out of frame, and made them apt to fall into great confusions and disorder.

And if there be thus arisen a general dissent and disagreement of parts (which is not, nor ought to be, accounted the less considerable because it lies hid and kept in under a patient silence), why should there not be as general a confession and acknowledgment of what each may find themselves overtaken in, and cannot but judge themselves faulty for? this kind of vent being much better than to have it break out in flames of a forward and untimely wrathful spirit, which never works the righteousness of God, especially since what hath been done among us may probably have been more the effect of temptation than the product of any malicious design; and this sort of temptation is very common and incident to men in power (how good soever they may be) to be overtaken in, and thereupon do sudden unadvised actions, which the Lord pardons and overrules for the best, evidently making appear that it is the work of the weak and fleshly part, which his own people carry about with them too much unsubdued; and therefore the Lord thinks fit, by this means, to show them the need of being beholden to their spiritual part to restore them again, and bring them into their right temper and healthful constitution.

And thus, while each dissenting part is aggravating upon it self-faultiness and blame, and none excusing, but all confessing they deserve, in one sort or other, reproof, if not before men, yet in God's sight, who knows how soon it may please God to come into this broken, contrite, and self-denying frame of spirit in the good people within the three nations, and own them, thus truly humbled and abased, for his temple and the place of his habitation and rest, wherein he shall abide forever? of whom it may be said, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;

God shall help her, and that right early, or with his morning appearance; at which time he will sit silent no longer, but Heaven will speak again, and become active and powelfru in the spirits and hearts of honest men, and in the works of his providences, when either they go out to fight by sea or by land, or remain in council and debates at home for the public weal, and again hear the prayers of his people, and visibly own them as a flock of holy men, as Jerusalem in her solemn feasts: "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, saith the Lord, to do it for them: and then they shall know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they are my people, and that ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men that have showed yourselves weak, sinful men, and I am your God, that have declared myself an all-wise and powerful God, saith the Lord God."

POSTSCRIPT.

READER,- Upon the perusal of this discourse, thou wilt quickly perceive that these two things are principally aimed at in it by the author: First, to answer in some measure that which is called for by those in power, when they publicly profess they desire nothing more than conviction, and to find out the hidden provocations which either have or yet may bring forth the Lord against these nations, in the way which at present they are in.

Secondly, to remove out of the minds and spirits of the honest party, that still agree in the reason and justice of the good old cause, all things of a private nature and selfish concern (the tendency whereof serves but to foment and strengthen wrath and divisions among them), and in place thereof to set before them that common and public interest, which, if with sincerity embraced, may be the means of not only procuring a firm union among them, but also of conserving them herein.

In order to this, the author hath not been willing so much to declare his own opinion, or deliver any positive conclusions, as to discuss the business by way of question and answer, and thereby make as near a conjecture as he can of that wherein the several dissenting parts may with better satisfaction meet together, and agree upon a safe and righteous bottom, than to remain at the distance they do, to the apparent advantage of the common enemy, the approaching ruin of themselves, and needless hazard, if not loss, of the cause they have been so deeply engaged in ; especially considering that, when once they shall be found beginning to come forth to one another in such a condescending, self-denying spirit, cleansed from the stain of

hypocrisy and deceit, they may be well assured that light will spring up among them more and more unto a perfect day; and then those things which at present we have next in view, will prove as shadows ready to flee away before the morning brightness of Christ's heavenly appearance and second coming, through which they will be heightened and improved to their full maturity, to the bringing in that kingdom of his that shall never be moved.

And because an essay hath been already made in a private way to obtain the first thing, that is to say, conviction, which chiefly is in the hand of the Lord to give, the same obligation lies upon the author, with respect to the second, for the exposing of it as now it is unto public view, and therein leaving it also with the Lord for his blessing thereunto.

Sir Henry Vane's famous tract, "A Healing Question," etc., was published in 1656, as a response to Cromwell's proclamation of March 14, 1656, calling upon the people to observe a general fast for the purpose of "applying themselves to the Lord to discover the Achan who had so long obstructed the settlement of these distracted kingdoms.' "In this treatise," says Forster (see his life of Vane, in his Statesmen of the Commonwealth), "Vane enforced his old doctrines of civil and religious liberty, and added some theories and recommendations concerning the construction of a civil government, which are in the last degree striking and memorable. He here proposed, in fact, for the first time in the records of history, the expedient of organizing a government on certain fundamentals not to be dispensed with,' which was thought visionary' and impracticable by the world till the world learned to venerate the name of Washington." The way which Vane proposed for establishing a constitution, namely, by a general council or convention chosen for the purpose, was, as Forster observes, "exactly that which more than a century after was adopted by Washington and his immortal associates."

6

"This production," says Upham (see chap. xii of his life of Vane, in Sparks's American Biography, vol. iv), is one of the most remarkable political papers ever written. It contains the great principles of civil and religious liberty in a complete exposition, and lays down the rules to be observed in constructing a civil government. It develops and illustrates, perhaps it may with safety be said, for the first time, the idea of a written constitution or body of fundamental laws, by which the government itself is to be controlled, restrained and limited. The paper signed by the Pilgrims, in the Mayflower, on the 11th of November, 1620, previous to their landing at Plymouth, is one of the most interesting documents in the history of civilization; but, as it is merely an agreement to form a political society, and does not contain any restrictions upon the future government of the society, it cannot be considered as a Constitution. This plan [proposed by Vane] of a constitution, to be agreed upon in the beginning, by which the people impose restrictions upon the exercise of their own sovereignty and fix the boundaries within which their own legislative and civil power shall be confined, constitutes the great peculiarity of the governments, federal and state, within the American Union."

It is important here, however, when considering the question of the origin of written constitutions, to remember the "Instrument of Government," by which Cromwell's protectorate was instituted. This "Instrument of Government," in forty-two articles, drawn up by Lambert and others, and adopted by the Council of State in December, 1653, was strictly a written constitution. For the provisions and nature of this remarkable "anticipation of modern constitutions," as Ranke calls it, see Ranke's History of England in the Seventeenth Century, vol. iii, p. 113, etc., and Green's History of the English People, vol. iii, chap. xii.

But fifteen years before the "Instrument of Government" was framed in England, and eighteen years before Vane's proposition of a "fundamental constitution," on January 14, 1638, the first constitution of Connecticut was adopted by a general assembly of the planters of the three towns of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor, at Hartford. This was in fact the first written constitution, in the modern sense of the term, known in history. See the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut," Old South Leaflets, No. 8.

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- Roger Williams and Sir Harry Vane, the two men deepest in thought and bravest in speech of all who spoke English in their day, and equal to any in practical statesmanship. Sir Harry Vane - in my judgment the noblest human being who ever walked the streets of yonder city- I do not forget Franklin or Sam Adams, Washington or Fayette, Garrison or John Brown. But Vane dwells an arrow's flight above them all, and his touch consecrated the continent to measureless toleration of opinion and entire equality of rights. We are told we can find in Plato ‘all the intellectual life of Europe for two thousand years.' So you can find in Vane the pure gold of two hundred and fifty years of American civilization, with no particle of its dross. Plato would have welcomed him to the Academy, and Fénelon kneeled with him at the altar. He made Somers and John Marshall possible; like Carnot, he organized victory; and Milton pales before him in the stainlessness of his record. He stands among English statesmen preeminently the representative, in practice and in theory, of serene faith in the safety of trusting truth wholly to her own defence. For other men we walk backward, and throw over their memories the mantle of charity and excuse, saying reverently, 'Remember the temptation and the age.' But Vane's ermine has no stain; no act of his needs explanation or apology; and in thought he stands abreast of the age -like pure intellect, belongs to all time. Carlyle said, in years when his words were worth heeding, "Young men, close your Byron and open your Goethe.' If my counsel had weight in these halls, I should say, 'Young men, close your John Winthrop and Washington, your Jefferson and Webster, and open Sir Harry Vane.' It was the generation that knew Vane who gave to our Alma Mater for a seal the simple pledge, Veritas." Wendell Phillips, in his Harvard address on the Scholar in the Republic.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
With Bibliographical and Historical Notes and Outlines for Study.
PREPARED BY EDWIN D. MEAD.

This Manual is published by the Directors of the Old South Studies in History and Politics, for the use of schools and of such clubs, classes and

individual students as may wish to make a careful study of the Constitution and its history. The societies of young men and women now happily being organized everywhere in America for historical and political study can do nothing better to begin with than to make themselves thoroughly familiar with the Constitution. It is especially with such societies in view that the table of topics for study, which follows the very full bibliographical notes in this manual, has been prepared. A copy of the manual will be sent to any address on receipt of twenty-five cents; one hundred copies, fifteen dollars. Address Directors of Old South Studies, Old South Meeting House, or D. C. Heath & Co., 5 Somerset street, Boston.

OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS, GENERAL SERIES.

No. 1. Constitution of the United States 2. Articles of Confederation. 3. Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's Farewell Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's "Healing Question." 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's Inaugurals. II. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 12. The Federalist, Nos. 1 and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787.-etc. Price, five cents per copy; one hundred copies, three dollars. Directors of Old South Studies, Old South Meeting House, Boston.

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