The Puritan Religious Idea

There is no better way of iinding out what Winthrop and his friends had in mind when they came to Massachusetts than to consult their own written words. Aud when we do this we seo at once tliat their aim was the construction of a theocratic state which should be to Christians, under the New Testament dispensation, all that the theoeracy of Moses and Joshua aud Samuel has been to the Jews in Old Testament days. They should be to all intents and purposes freed from the jurisdiction of the stuart kmg, and so iar as possible the text of the Holy Scriptures shoiüd be their guide both in weighty matters of general legislation and in" the shaping of the smallest details of daily life. In such a scheme there was no room for religious liberty as we understand it. No doubt tho text of the Scriptures may be interpieted in many ways, 6nt among all these men there was a substantial agreement as to all important points, and nothing could have been further froni their thoughts than to found a colony which should aflford a field for new experiments in the art of right living. The state they were to found was to oonsist of aunited body of belie vers; citizenship itself was to be co-extensive with church membersmp; and in suoli a state as thero was in Romo or Madrid. This was the idea which drew Winthrop and his followers from England at a timo when they might have staid there and defied perseoution with less trouble than it oost them to cross the ooean and found a new state.