nominal connection of the colonists with the English Church. "On landing at Boston, he found himself unable to join its church. He had separated from the Establishment in England, which wronged conscience by disregarding its scruples: they were an 'unseparated people,' who refused to renounce communion with their persecutors. He would not suffer the magistrate to assume jurisdiction over the soul by punishing what was no more than a breach of the first table, an error of conscience or belief. They were willing to put the whole Decalogue under the guardianship of the civil authority. The thought of employing him as a minister was therefore abandoned; and the Church of Boston was, in Wilson's absence, commended to the exercise of prophecy." He would soon become a pilgrim in the midst of pilgrims, an exile from the land of his adoption; for he had the temerity to assert that "no one should be bound to worship, or to maintain a worship, against his own consent." "The civil magistrate may not intermeddle even to stop a church from apostasy and heresy his power extends only to the bodies and goods. and outward estate of men." To the minds of the Puritans, these were monstrous heresies. There could be no room for such a man in Massachusetts. He must go away, or be punished till he will submit.

The Antinomians, fresh from the school of Genevan theology, and determined to carry out the system of Calvin to what they deemed its extreme logical results, must obtrude their heretical notions upon "the Lord's heritage," and accuse even the Puritans of being " priest-ridden magistrates," " under a covenant of works." They had been emancipated from the bondage of the law. The Holy Spirit lived in and controlled them, and his teachings were superior" to the minis try of the Word." Anne Hutchinson, a woman of ability "and profitable and sober carriage," was their leader. "John Wheelright, a silenced minister," and "Henry Vane, the governor of the colony," sustained her. Indeed, the orthodox faith and the State religion were in peril; for "scholars, and

members of the magistracy, and the General Court, adopted her opinions." What was the remedy? Not argument, not the advancing light of reason and the skilful interpretation of the word of God. It was too early for this. The law must exclude such persons from the jurisdiction of the colony. The ministers insisted, and the civil magistrates exiled Wheelright, Anne Hutchinson, and Aspinwall from the territory of Massachusetts, as "unfit for the society of its citizens." "The rock on which the State rested was religion. A common faith had gathered and still bound the people together. They were exclusive; for they had come to the outside of the world for the privilege of living by themselves. Fugitives from persecution, they shrank from contradiction as from the approach of peril. And why should they open their asylum to their oppressors? Religious union was made the bulwark of the exiles against expected attacks from the hierarchy of England. The wide continent of America invited colonization: they claimed their own narrow domains for the brethren. Their religion was their life: they welcomed none but its adherents; they could not tolerate the scoffer, the infidel, or the dissenter; and the whole people met together in their congregations. Such was the system, cherished as the stronghold of their freedom and happiness.' It is unnecessary to extend the history. The Quakers and the Roman Catholics, the witches and the infidels, shared the same fate; a few even suffering the death-penalty for heretical contumacy. True religious free dom must bide its time in Massachusetts.

* Bancroft, i. 368.

CHAPTER IX.

THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED.

As we found Virginia the representative colony of the Southern, so we find Massachusetts the representative of the Northern group. In discussing the principles which controlled the formation of Puritanic institutions in this colony, I have, to a large extent, described those of all New England and the Middle States. Marked divergences will appear in detail; but in the grand fundamental position, that true religion is the life and organizing force of liberty, they all agree. Christian regeneration, freeing the soul of the individual from the bondage of sin, becomes the origin of cravings for outward freedom. Persecution in some form becomes the occasion for asserting these sacred rights; and the high control of Providence converts the Puritan into the Pilgrim, and the Pilgrim into the founder of a State.

MAINE.

The district of Maine, which had been colonized by the French, and entered by Pring and Waymouth and Argall, was temporarily colonized by the English in 1607. Popham, the Chief Justice of England, and Gorges, the Governor of Plymouth, were the movers and patrons of the first expedition to this country. On the 8th of August, our adventurers reached" America, near the mouth of the Kennebec, and, offering public thanks to God for their safety, began their settlement under the auspices of religion, with a gov

ernment framed as if for a permanent colony;" but the colonists were not of the right stamp, and after a severe winter and many misfortunes, leaving the dead body of their president, George Popham, as if in charge of the right of soil, they returned to England, and "did coyne many excuses" for their failure.

This hardy territory, which had been included in the enormous grant made to the enterprising Capt. Smith and his companions in 1620, and became a portion of New England to be ruled absolutely by the Plymouth Company, was granted in part to the Pilgrims in 1623. A patent was conceded to Gorges and Mason; and their far-famed "Laconia" included the whole country between the sea, the St. Lawrence, the Merrimack, and the Kennebec; "and, under the auspices of a company of merchants, permanent settlements were formed on the banks of the Piscataqua."

But the bigoted and indomitable Gorges was not satisfied. Three years later, he set himself thoroughly at work to counteract the Roman Catholics and the French monarch in their determined purpose to claim the eastern coast of North America. His effort, however, resulted in the grand failure of Sir William Alexander and his timid Scotch settlers, with his splendid paper order of nobility, and a war with New France, in which the English gained a barren victory, and received the surrender of the starved garrison of Quebec; but, under the genius of Richelieu, they were compelled to surrender all their conquests, and the French extended their boundary down into the district of Maine as far as the Penobscot.

To encourage agriculture," a district of forty miles square, named Lygonia, and stretching from Huntswell to the Kennebunk, was set apart for the first colony of farmers;" but the emigrants were ridiculed and discouraged by the more successful patrons of the forest and the sea.

The persistent Gorges, however, was not to be discouraged. He obtained a right to the whole territory between

the Kennebec and New Hampshire. He accepted the appointment of Governor-General of New England, that he might set forward the enterprise; but Providence, much to the satisfaction of Massachusetts, defeated his plans.

Maine is small in 1636; but she has succeeded in the organization of a court at Saco, and will struggle on against wind and tide until she falls into the arms of Massachusetts. It is vain to contend against destiny. Gorges is dead. Piscataqua, Gorgeana, and Wells could, "by unanimous consent, form themselves into a body politic; " but they were too weak for so formidable an undertaking. Massachusetts stretched her old convenient grant over the territory; and in May, 1652, Maine lost her "independence," very much to the comfort, it would seem, of those who preferred stability and strength to struggle and mere form. Let us rejoice that the privileges of the English Church in the district were not to be interfered with.

In May, 1677, when Charles II. had succeeded the Protectorate, and the Indian war was raging, Massachusetts is relieved of Maine by royal orders. The king does not like to have these Puritans cover too much ground. They may become impertinent and troublesome some day. He, moreover, wants the territory for Monmouth, his reputed son. Of course, the king could do as he liked; but Yankee shrewdness came to the help of the great colony. Her representative men ascertained the rightful owners of the grant to Gorges, and quietly bought out "the State of Maine" for some six thousand dollars. Massachusetts found both the French and the Duke of York in her way; but as "proprietary" she organized the government, using "a little gentle force" when it was absolutely necessary.

The religion of Maine was thus far only partly Puritan. It appears not to have assumed any decided character. But it must be noticed, that all the attempts at colonization in that territory were made under strictly worldly influences. It was, in truth, a most persistent attempt, upon the part of