William Bradford

“ This year Mr. Smith resigned his ministry, partly by his own wish, thinking it too heavy a burden, and partly at the persuasion of others. So the church looked out for some one else, having often been disappointed in their hopes before. But it pleased the Lord to send them an able and godly man, Mr. John Rayner, meek and humble in spirit, sound in the truth, and every way unreprovable in his life and conversation. After some time of trial they chose him as their minister, the fruits of whose labours they enjoyed many years with much comfort, in peace and good agreement. ”

“ He was tender-hearted and compassionate with those in misery, especially when they were of good birth and rank and had fallen into want and poverty, either for religion’s sake or through the oppression of others; he would always say that of all men such deserved to be most pitied. None displeased him more than those who would haughtily and proudly exalt themselves, having risen from nothing, and having little else to commend them than a few fine clothes, or more means than others. ”

“ So it is the English themselves who have been the chief supporters of the French; and the colony at Pemaquid, which is near them, not only supplies them, but constantly gives them intelligence of what is passing among the English—especially among some of them. So it is no wonder that they still encroach more and more upon the English, and supply the Indians with guns and ammunition to the great danger of the English settlers, whose homes are scattered and unfortified. For the English are mainly occupied with farming, but the French are well fortified and live upon trade. ”

“ I pray you therefore, Sir, set your wisdom and patience to work, and exhort others to do the same, that things may not proceed from bad to worse, making our divisions like the bars of a palace; but that a way of peace may be kept open, where the God of peace may have entrance at His own time. If you are wronged, it is to your honour to bear it patiently ”

“ We bear you always in our breasts, and our hearty affection is towards you all, as are the hearts of hundreds more who have never seen your faces, but who doubtless pray for your safety as their own, as we do and ever shall—that the same God which has so marvellously preserved you from seas, foes, and famine, will still preserve you from all future dangers, and make you honourable among men, and glorious in bliss at the last day. ”

“ Let none argue that this is due to human failing rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.”
Thus in civil as in religious matters, Bradford’s sure instinct led him always to follow the guidance of a wise and benevolent Providence, working for the rational and natural evolution of mankind, which humanity could expedite only by a plain, unsophisticated reliance upon truth and goodness, as incarnate in the divine character and life of Christ. ”

“ In defiance of established law and order, and of the accepted, orthodox view of it, this little body of people pursues an ideal, vital to the peace of their souls, with a tenacity which implies certain loss of personal freedom and confiscation of property, with risk of death. Rather than be compelled to abandon the pursuit of their ideal, these people voluntarily exile themselves from England, thereby depriving themselves of loved homes and dear friends and worldly possessions. ”

“ Where is the meek and humble spirit of Moses and of Nehemiah, who re-edified the walls of Jerusalem and the state of Israel? Is not the sound of Rehoboam’s bragging daily among us here? Have not the philosophers and all wise men observed, that even in settled commonwealths violent governors bring either themselves or people or both to ruin? How much more in the building of commonwealths, when the mortar is scarcely hardened which is to bind the walls. ”

“ The Lord I hope will [248] give us patience to bear these crosses and that great God Whose care and providence is everywhere, and especially over those who desire truly to fear and serve Him, direct, guide, prosper, and bless you so that you may have the power, as you have the will, to take off this heavy burden which now lies upon me for your sakes,—and, as I hope, for your ultimate good and that of many thousands more. For had not you and we joined together, New England might have been scarcely known, and would not, I feel sure, be inhabited by such honest English people as it now is. ”

“ John Robinson in Holland to the Pilgrims departing from Southampton for New England:
Loving Christian Friends,
I salute you all heartily in the Lord, as being they with whom I am present in my best affections and most earnest longings, though I am constrained for a time to be bodily absent from you. I say constrained, God knowing how willingly, and much rather than otherwise, I would have borne my part with you in this first brunt, were I not by strong necessity held back for the present. ”

“ Those reformers who saw the evil of these things, and whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for his truth, shook off this yoke of anti-Christian bondage and as the Lord’s free people joined themselves together by covenant as a church, in the fellowship of the gospel to walk in all His ways, made known, or to be made known to them, according to their best endeavours, whatever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. ”

“ Upon this occasion let me be bold to exhort you seriously to consider the disposition of your Captain, whom I love, and am persuaded the Lord in great mercy and for much good has sent to you, if you use him right. He is a man humble and meek among you, and towards all, under ordinary circumstances, but if this merely come from a humane spirit, there is cause to fear that, on occasions of special provocation there may be wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God’s image, which is meet. ”

“ Treaties and wars, alliances and royal marriages, all are but the flotsam and jetsam on the surface of this ever increasing, ever multiplying river,—sublime in the far-flung grandeur of its streamlets and tributaries, its still deeps and its raging cataracts—not one department of the whole landscape of human life, in all its variety, but reveals its vague new workings or its established deep-set currents. ”

“ Some would crawl out on all fours to get a little water, and sometimes die by the way, not being able to get home again. But the people of the English trading-house, though they were at first afraid of the infection, seeing their woful condition and hearing their pitiful cries, had compassion on them, and daily fetched them wood and water and made them fires, and got them food whilst they lived, and buried them when they died. Very few of the Indians escaped, notwithstanding that they did what they could for them at great risk to themselves. ”

“ If the modern student sets up before his mental vision a moving panorama of the history of Europe through the Middle Ages, the most striking general feature is undoubtedly the irresistible course of the growing stream of Freedom, touching and fructifying every section and institution of human life—the inevitable outcome of the evolution of Christianity made manifest in things temporal, and breaking through the ecclesiastical bounds so long set for it, as exclusively pertaining to things spiritual. ”

“ But as for food, they were all alike, except some who had got a few peas from the ship that was last here. The best dish they could present to their friends was a lobster, or a piece of fish, without any bread, or anything else but a cup of fair spring water. The long continuance of this diet, and their labours, had somewhat abated the freshness of their complexions. But God gave them health and strength and showed them by experience the truth of that word (Deut. viii, 3) : “Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth a man live.” ”

“ James Sherley, one of the chief friends of the plantation, who lay at the point of death, praising his love and helpfulness in everything, and much bemoaning the loss his death would be to them, for he was the stay and life of the whole business; also that he proposed to come over this year and spend the rest of his days with them. But he who thus wrote of another’s illness, knew not his own death was so near. It shows that a man’s ways are not in his own power, but [171] in His hands, Who has the issue of life and death. Man may propose, but God doth dispose. ”

“ Indeed it is our calamity that we are, beyond expectation, yoked with some ill-disposed people, who, while they do no good themselves, corrupt and abuse others.
The rest of the letter stated that they had subscribed to the conditions according to his desire, and sent him the previous accounts very exactly; also how the ship was laden, and in what condition their affairs stood; that the arrival of the new people would bring famine upon them unavoidably, if they did not receive supplies, in time,—as Mr. Cushman could more fully inform him and the rest of the adventurers. ”

“ After some deliberation among themselves and with the captain, they tacked about and resolved to stand for the southward, the wind and weather being fair, to find some place near Hudson’s River for their habitation. But after they had kept that course about half a day, they met with dangerous shoals and roaring breakers, and as they conceived themselves in great danger,—the wind falling,—they resolved to bear up again for the Cape, and thought themselves happy to get out of danger before night overtook them, as by God’s providence they did. ”

“ While we ourselves are ready to take every opportunity to further so hopeful an enterprise, it must rest with you to put it on its feet again. And whatever else may be said, let your honesty and conscience remain approved, and lose no jot of your innocence amidst your crosses and afflictions; and surely if you behave yourselves wisely and go on fairly, you will need no other weapon to wound your adversaries; for when your righteousness is revealed as the light, they, who have causelessly sought your overthrow, shall cover their faces with shame. ”

“ I cannot but take occasion here to wonder at the marvellous providence of God, that, notwithstanding the many changes these people went through, and the many enemies they had, and the difficulties they met with, so many of them should live to very old age. It was not only their reverend elder—for one swallow makes no summer, as they say—but many more of them, some dying about and before this time, and some still living, who reached sixty or sixty-five years of age, others seventy and over, and some nearly eighty, as he was. ”

“ Having found a good haven and being brought safely in sight of land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries of it, again to set their feet upon the firm and stable earth, their proper element. ”

“ We propose to keep the Friendship and the White Angel, as regards last year’s voyages, on the general account, hoping that together they will produce profit rather than loss, and cause less confusion in our accounts and less disturbance in our intercourse. As for the White Angel, though we laid out the money and took bills of sale in our own names, none of us had so much as a thought of separating from you in any way this year, because we did not wish the world (I may say Bristol) to see any breach between Mr. Allerton and you, or between him and us, and so disgrace him in his proceedings. ”

“ It is great arrogance for any man or Church to think that he or they have so sounded the word of God to the bottom as to be able to set down precisely a Church’s practices without error in substance or circumstance, and in such a way that no one thereafter may digress or differ from them with impunity. Indeed it is not difficult to show that the Reformed Churches differ from each other in many details. ”

“ We think it only right that everything belonging to the common stock shall be kept together and increased, rather than dispersed for any private ends whatever; and that after your necessities are met, you shall send over such commodities as the country affords, to pay the debts and clear the engagements here, which amount to not less than £1400. Let us all endeavour to keep an honest course, and see what time will bring forth, and what God in His providence will work for us. We are still convinced that you are the people who must make the settlement a success when all others fail and return ”

“ It appears that some of our people, who happened to go northward in their boat, met some Indians, who told them that they were within half a day’s journey of your plantation, and offered to take letters to you; so we could not forbear to salute you with these few lines, bearing our good will and service to you, in all friendly kindness and neighbourhood. If it should happen that any goods that come to us from our native country may be serviceable to you, we shall feel ourselves bound to accommodate you either for beaver or any other merchandise. ”

“ May God in his mercy grant that the moral impulse which founded this nation may never cease to control its destiny; that no act of any future generation may put in peril the fundamental principles on which it is based—of equal rights in a free state, equal privileges in a free church, and equal opportunities in a free school. ”

“ This, while it made many praise God that the truth had so famous a victory, procured him much honour and respect from those learned men and others who loved the truth. So far from being weary of him and his people, or desiring their absence, had it not been for fear of giving offence to the government of England, they would have conferred upon him some public honour. Indeed, when there was talk of their departure to America, several men of prominence in the country tried to induce them to become naturalized, and even made them large offers to do so. ”

“ May America and Great Britain go forward charged with the privilege of a common stewardship for the liberties of mankind! May the glorious witness of these brave lives, whom we commemorate to-day, enrich us, whose course on earth is not yet run, with the inspiring vision of the sanctity and self-abnegation of true patriotism! ”

“ If they borrow anything of you let them leave a good pawn.... It is probable he will settle southward of the Cape, for William Trevor has lavishly told what he knew (or imagined) of Capawack, Monhegan and the Narragansetts. I fear these people will hardly deal as well with the savages as they should. I advise you therefore to signify to Squanto that they are a distinct body from us, and we have nothing to do with them; that we must not be blamed for their faults,—much less can we warrant their fidelity. ”