helpless women and children, their persecutors at length dismissed them, to find a shelter as they could, among their friends;-homes, they had none.

In the mean time, those on board the ship, separated from their friends and families, and destitute even of a change of clothing, endured a terrible storm, and narrowly escaped foundering at sea. After fourteen days of peril and suffering, they at length reached Amsterdam; and there found, among their exiled countrymen who had preceded them, a resting place from the raging elements and from the wrath of man.

In subsequent attempts to escape from England, the poor church were more successful; and in the course of the year, the divided families, and separated friends were permitted to embrace each other in a foreign land—but a land of religious liberty.

Mr. Robinson, and his college friend and endeared associate in the care of the afflicted church, Elder Brewster, were the last to leave their native shores; "having tarried, to help the weakest over before them."*

Arrived in Holland, they found the exiled churches in Amsterdam divided in sentiment, as has been already related. Their ancient friend and fellow sufferer, Smyth, and his church, to whom the new comers seem first to have attached themselves-were at war with the London church, under Mr. Johnson; and were fast verging into Arminianism, and other errors: and Mr. Johnson and his church were far from being perfectly agreed among themselves. It did not require much time for such men as Mr. Robinson and Mr. Brewster, to foresee, that, if they and their friends remained at Amsterdam, it would be well nigh impossible to avoid falling into the contentions which were beginning

* Bradford.

to show themselves. They, therefore, wisely proposed to the church to remove to Leyden; a city about nineteen miles from Amsterdam. This arrangement, though attended with much inconvenience, and "though they knew it would be very much to the prejudice of their outward interest, as it proved to be; yet, valuing peace and spiritual comfort above other riches,"* the church soon determined to move. They accordingly, about a year after their arrival in Holland, removed to Leyden; between the close of the year 1608 and April of 1609.

Mr. Clyfton, and probably some members of the original North-of-England church, remained at Amster. dam, where Mr. Clyfton died, sometime after the year 1612.†

↑ Belknap, and others after him, have supposed that Clyfton (1 follow the orthography of his contemporaries) died before the arrival in Amsterdam of Robinson and Brewster, with the remnant of their church.-See Am. Biog. Art, Robinson, Vol. II. p. 157. Balies' Memorial, Vol. I. p. 11.

These writers are, however, evidently mistaken, as appears from the fact that Clyfton published, in 1612, a work entitled, " An Advertizement concerning a book lately published by Christopher Lawne and others against the English exiled church at Amsterdam, by Richard Clyfton, Teacher of the same Church." Now this was three or four years, at least, after Robinson and his church had removed to Leyden. The church of which Clyfton was teacher at Amsterdam, was Johnson's; from which Ainsworth and his friends separated about December, 1610. It seems altogether likely that Clyfton was alive in 1613; for we have a work of Ainsworth's, under that date, entitled "An Animadversion to Mr. Richard Clyfton's Advertizement, etc. Amst., A. D. 1613." Clyfton was a man of learning and talents; and, like all the leading Separatists, an able controversial writer. Ainsworth once spoke of him and Robinson, as “two worthy soldiers of Christ." To be coupled

CHAPTER XIX.

MR. ROBINSON'S CHURCH IN LEYDEN.-HIS WRITINGS.

Arrived in Leyden, the members of the exiled church made the best arrangements in their power to procure a comfortable subsistence. This, however, was no easy task. Most of the brethren had been trained to husbandry; but in a populous city,-a city of islands, intersected in every direction by the different streams of the Rhone and numerous canals-there was, of course, little scope for farmers. The exiles were, therefore, obliged to devote themselves to trades, and almost any lawful calling which the wants of the city encouraged. William Bradford, afterwards the governor of Plymouth, bound himself out as an apprentice to a silkdyer. Elder Brewster, after expending a handsome fortune in the service of this poor church, found employment as a school-master among the Dutch and after a while obtained means to open a printing-office; in which were printed many valuable books against the hierarchy, which could not get license in England.*

with John Robinson is sufficient honor to any man.-See Hanbury, p. 180, and Chap. 14, passim.

Elder William Brewster, of whom I intend to speak more fully in the sequel of the history of this church, deserves a passing notice here. He was a gentleman of education and fortune; both of which he devoted to the cause of this poor church, over which he was made a ruler. His house in England was the place of their public meetings; and his table the support of all who came. He suffered severely by the persecution and removals of the church; and was finally reduced to comparative penury. He was every way a fit associate for such a man as John Robinson.

* Mr. Thatcher (History of Plymouth) says, that a Latin copy

Our ancestors were honest, and laborious in their respective callings; and the Dutch soon learned to value them as customers or laborers. By patient industry and exemplary uprightness, they were able to secure a moderate but comfortable living in the city of their exile. In the mean time their number gradually increased by emigrations from England, until the church contained three hundred communicants.

Controversy with Hall and Bernard about Separation, etc.

All this time their devoted pastor was not idle. Besides preaching" thrice a week" and "other manifold labors," Mr. Robinson found time to write "sundry books." The first work which came from his pen after his removal from England, was written at Amsterdam, near the close of the year 1609; and entitled "An Answer to a Censorious Epistle." This" Epistle" was written by Joseph Hall, afterwards bishop Hall; ycleped "the moderate bishop Hall :" but, judging from his reply to Robinson, ‘moderate' was a sad misnomer when applied to Hall.

The leading design of Robinson in his "Answer, etc.” seems to have been, to state briefly the grounds on which he and his brethren had separated from the Church of England. And this he does with his characteristic clearness; with comprehensive brevity; in a style both terse and chaste; with point and spirit; and yet, with courtesy, and a freedom from unchristian acrimony, the more noticeable, because so unlike the controversial style of that age.*

*

of Cartwright's Commentaries on the Book of Proverbs, published at Elder Brewster's press, 1617, is now in the possession of the pastor of the first church in Plymouth, Mass.

* The work is entire in Hanbury's XIth chapter. The scarcity and value of the tract has induced me to place the whole of it in the Appendix No. 2.

Near the close of the next year, 1610, Mr. Robinson published another work of the same general character with that just noticed, though much more voluminous; entitled, "A Justification of Separation from the Church of England. Against Mr. Richard Bernard, his invective, intituled, 'The Separatist's Schism.' By John Robinson. Gen. 1: 4. 2 Cor. 6: 14.—Anno D. 1610." Quarto. pp. 476–9.

Bernard appears to have been a conforming Puritan, vicar of Worksop, a small town near the northern borders of Nottinghamshire. This was the neighborhood in which the churches of Mr. Clyfton and Mr. Smyth were originally gathered. Bernard himself, at one time, seems to have been well disposed towards the Separation, and to have actually formed a portion of his own congregation into a sort of Separate church. Whether this was a stroke of policy, to prevent his people from joining Mr. Smyth's church, or the result of honest conviction, is not altogether certain. However this may have been, it is certain that Mr. Bernard turned to be the enemy of the Separatists; and came forth, as Ainsworth says, "to fight against the Truth, which, but a while since, he would needs seem to favor: but things not succeeding according to his expectation, he hath changed his love into hatred." *

Bernard's attack upon his former friends called forth three answers; the fullest is that of Mr. Robinson, now under consideration. The spirit of the work is very much like the preceding; the style is somewhat more free and diffuse; because designed for a particular answer to Bernard, and a popular defence and justification of himself and friends separating from the Church of England. Robinson seems to have known his opponent well-probably from their vicinage in England-and he tells the world some

* In Hanbury, p. 173, and elsewhere, to p. 179.