they have but halfe ye witte to their malice, they will stope my course when they see it intended, for which this delaying serveth them very opportunly. And as one restie jade can hinder, by hanging back, more then two or 3. can (or will at least, if they be not very free) draw forward, so will it be in this case. A notable experimente of this, they gave in your messengers presence, constraining ye company to promise that none of the money now gathered should be expended or imployed to ye help of any of us towards you. Now touching ye question propounded by you, I judg it not lawfull for you, being a ruling Elder, as Rom. 12.7. 8. & 1. Tim. 5. 17. opposed to the Elders that teach & exhorte and labore in ye word and doctrine, to which ye sacrements are anexed, to administer them, nor convenient if it were lawfull. Whether any larned man will come unto you or not, I know not; if any doe, you must consiliu capere in arena. Be you most hartily saluted, & your wife with you, both from me & mine. Your God & ours, and ye God of all his, bring us together if it be his will, & keep us in the mean while, and allways to his glory, and make us servisable to his majestie, and faithfull to the end. Amen.

Leyden, Des: 20. 1623.

Your very loving brother,
JOHN ROBINSON.

BRADFORD'S ACCOUNT OF ROBINSON'S DEATH, WITH LETTER
FROM ROGER WHITE.

About ye begining of Aprill [1626] they heard of Captain Standish his arrivall, and sent a boat to fetch him home, and ye things he had brought. Welcome he was, but ye news he broughte was sadd in many regards; not only in regarde of the former losses, before related, which their freinds had suffered, by which some in a maner were undon, others much disabled from doing any further help, and some dead of ye plague, but also yt Mr. Robinson, their pastor, was dead, which struck them with much sorrow & sadnes, as they had cause. His and their adversaries had been long & continually plotting how they might hinder his coming hither, but ye Lord had appointed him a better place; concerning whose death & the maner therof, it will appere by these few lines write to ye Govr & Mr. Brewster.

Loving & kind frinds, &c. I know not whether this will ever come to your hands, or miscarie, as other my letters have done; yet in regard of ye Lords dealing with us hear, I have had a great desire to write unto you, knowing your desire to bear a

parte with us, both in our joyes, & sorrows, as we doe wth you. These are therfore to give you to understand, that it hath pleased the Lord to take out of this vaell of tears, your and our loving & faithfull pastor, and my dear & Reved brother, Mr. John Robinson, who was sick some 8. days. He begane to be sick on Saturday in ye morning, yet ye next day (being the Lords day) he taught us twise. And so ye weeke after grew weaker, every day more then other; yet he felt no paine but weaknes all ye time of his sicknes. The phisick he tooke wrought kindly in mans judgmente, but he grew weaker every day, feeling litie or no paine, and sensible to ye very last. He fell sicke ye 22. of Feb: and departed this life ye 1. of March. He had a continuall inwarde ague, but free from infection, so yt all his freinds came freely to him. And if either prayers, tears, or means, would have saved his life, he had not gone hence. But he having faithfully finished his course, and performed his worke which ye Lord had appointed him here to doe, he now resteth with ye Lord in eternall hapines. We wanting him & all Church Govrs, yet we still (by ye mercie of God) continue & hould close togeather, in peace and quietnes; and so hope we shall doe, though we be very weake. Wishing (if such were ye will of God) that you & we were againe united togeather in one. either ther or here; but seeing it is ye will of ye Lord thus to dis pose of things, we must labour wth patience to rest contented, till it please ye Lord otherwise to dispose. For news, is here not much; only as in England we have lost our old king James, who departed this life aboute a month agoe, so here they have lost ye old prince, Grave Mourise; who both departed this life since my brother Robinson. And as in England we have a newking Charls, of whom ther is great hope, so hear they have made prince Hendrick Generall in his brothers place, &c. Thus with my love remembred, I take leave & rest,

Leyden, Aprill 28.
An°: 1625.

Thus these too great

near aboute one time.

Your assured loving freind,

ROGER WHITE.

princes, and their pastor, left this world Death maks no difference. . . .

Their other freinds from Leyden writ many leters to them full of sad laments for ther heavie loss; and though their wills were good to come to them, yet they saw no probabilitie of

means, how it might be effected, but concluded (as it were) that all their hopes were cutt of; and many, being aged, begane to drop away by death.

BRADFORD'S TRIBUTES TO ROBINSON.

Yea such was ye mutuall love, & reciprocall respecte that this worthy man had to his flocke, and his flocke to him, that it might be said of them as it once was of yt famouse Emperour Marcus Aurelious, and ye people of Rome, that it was hard to judge wheather he delighted more in haveing shuch a people, or they in haveing such a pastor. His love was greate towards them, and his care was all ways bente for their best good, both for soule and body; for besids his singuler abilities in devine things (wherin he excelled), he was also very able to give directions in civill affaires, and to foresee dangers & inconveniences; by wch means he was very helpfull to their outward estats, & so was every way as a commone father unto them. And none did more offend him then those that were close and cleaving to them selves, and retired from ye commōe good; as also such as would be stiffe & riged in matters of outward order, and invey against ye evills of others, and yet be remisse in them selves, and not so carefull to express a vertuous conversation. They in like maner had ever a reverente regard unto him, & had him in precious estimation, as his worth & wisdom did deserve; and though they esteemed him highly whilst he lived & laboured amongst them, yet much more after his death, when they came to feele ye wante of his help, and saw (by woefull experience) what a treasure they had lost, to ye greefe of their harts, and wounding of their sowls; yea such a loss as they saw could not be repaired; for it was as hard for them to find such another leader and feeder in all respects, as for ye Taborits to find another Ziska.* And though they did not call themselves orphans, as the other did, after his death, yet they had cause as much to lamente, in another regard, their present condition, and after usage.- From Bradford's Journal.

Mr. John Robinson was pastor of that famous church of Leyden, in Holland; a man not easily to be paralleled for all things, whose singular virtues we shall not take upon us here to describe. Neither need we, for they so well are known both by friends and enemies. As he was a man learned and of solid

* John Ziska, the Hussite, the blind general and leader of the Bohemian insurgents, who was never defeated.

judgment and of a quick and sharp wit, so was he also of a tender conscience and very sincere in all his ways, a hater of hypocrisy and dissimulation, and would be very plain with his best friends. He was very courteous, affable, and sociable in his conversation, and towards his own people especially. He was an acute and expert disputant, very quick and ready, and had much bickering with the Arminians, who stood more in fear of him than any of the university. He was never satisfied in himself until he had searched any cause or argument he had to deal in thoroughly and to the bottom. And we have heard him sometimes say to his familiars that many times, both in writing and disputation, he knew he had sufficiently answered others, but many times not himself; and was ever desirous of any light, and the more able, learned, and holy the persons were, the more he desired to confer and reason with them. He was very profitable in his ministry and comfortable to his people. He was much beloved of them, and as loving was he unto them, and entirely sought their good for soul and body. In a word, he was much esteemed and reverenced of all that knew him, and his abilities (were acknowledged) both of friends and strangers.- From Bradford's First Dialogue; spelling modernized.

The words of John Robinson here brought together are chiefly the letters, messages, and reports of addresses preserved by Bradford and Winslow, the words not embodied in the three-volume edition of Robinson's works. Those volumes, published in 1851, were edited with a memoir by Robert Ashton, secretary of the Congregational Board, London. They contain Robinson's more important theological and controversial works,-" Defence of the Doctrine propounded by the Synod of Dort," A Justification of Separation from the Church of England," "The People's Plea for the Exercise of Prophecy," etc., and also the essays written during the last part of Robinson s life, and published in the year of his death, 1625, republished in 1628 and 1642. These essays, far too little read, are sixty-two in num. ber, upon a great variety of subjects.- Man's Knowledge of God, Authority and Reason, Heresy and Schism, Wisdom and Folly, Books and Writings, Riches and Poverty, Marriage, Youth and Old Age, etc.

John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, who, more than any other, influenced and formed the founders of Plymouth, has until this latest time been very inadequately treated by our historical scholars, although having due recognition in the general histories of the Pilgrim Fathers. Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter devoted a careful chapter to his services in his invaluable work on 'Congregationalism as seen in its Literature"; and Edward Arber reprinted various important words of his, especially showing his kind feeling toward the Church of England, in his "Story of the Pilgrim Fathers." Just as this leaflet is prepared, however (1903), there is published the scholarly and thorough volume, "John Robinson, the Pilgrim Pastor," by Rev. Ozora S. Davis, which fully meets the need which has so long been felt. To this work the student is referred for completest information concerning one who was not merely the great early representative of the Congregational polity of the fathers of New England, but a cardinal force in our early political life.

THE DAY-BREAKING, IF NOT THE SUN-RISING OF THE GOSPELL WITH THE INDIANS IN NEW ENGLAND. LONDON, PRINTED BY RICH. COTES, FOR FULK CLIFTON, AND ARE TO BEE SOLD AT HIS SHOP UNDER SAINT MARGARETS CHURCH ON NEW-FISH-STREET HILL, 1647.

A True Relation of our beginnings with the Indians.

Upon October 28. 1646. four of us (having sought God) went unto the Indians inhabiting within our bounds, with desire to make known the things of their peace to them. A little before we came to their Wigwams, five or six of the chief of them met us with English salutations, bidding us much welcome; who leading us into the principall Wigwam of Waaubon, we found many more Indians, men, women, children, gathered together from all quarters round about, according to appointment, to meet with us, and learne of us. Waaubon the chief minister of Justice among them exhorting and inviting them before thereunto, being one who gives more grounded hopes of serious respect to the things of God, then any that as yet I have knowne of that forlorne generation; and therefore since wee first began to deale seriously with him, hath voluntarily offered his eldest son to be educated and trained up in the knowledge of God, hoping, as hee told us, that he might come to know him, although hee despaired much concerning himself; and accordingly his