b. Opinion of Captain John Smith, 1630
Smith's Works (Birmingham edition), 926, 958.
The following passages come from the introduction to Smith's "Pathway to the Inexperienced," his last pamphlet, written in 1631, to support the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Smith wrote at the home of a brother of John Winthrop's first wife, and seems to have been well acquainted with the Puritan leaders.
Pardon me if I offend in loving that [which] I have cherished truly, by the losse of my prime fortunes, meanes, and youth. If it over-glad me to see Industry her selfe adventure now to make use of my aged ende[a]vours, not by such (I hope) as rumour doth report, a many of discontented Brounists, Anabaptists, Papists, Puritans, Separatists, and such factious Humorists: for no such they will suffer among them, if knowne, as many of the chiefe of then (John Winthrop etc.) have assured mee; and the much conferences I have had with many of them, doth confidently perswade me to write thus much in their behalfe. ...
They have ... God's true Religion (they say) taught amongst themselves, the Sabbath day observed, the common Prayer (as I understand) and Sermons performed, and diligent catechising ... and commendable good orders to bring those people [natives] with whom they have to deale ... into a Christian conversation ... which done, in time, ... may grow a good addition to the Church of England.
[Smith evidently had some doubts on the matter, as his parenthetical expressions show. But he had confidence enough to dedicate this booklet to the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York.]
61. Political Principles of the Puritans
From John Calvin's Institutes (1559; translation of 1813, III, 517-551).
a. [Attempt to justify a union of church and state]