The Humble Request
1630
Redaction, introduction and commentary by John Beardsley.
Parting words, these are to the King and Church
of England from the company that sailed for America in 1630. The writer
is unknown. By conjecture many ascribe it to Rev. White of Dorchester
or Rev. Phillips (the 6th of the signatories, below). The original conception
was perhaps drafted by a divine. Due to the tone of the present letter,
however, this editor suspects an audacious young aristocrat may have
been the final scribe, perhaps the Earl of Lincoln's brother or sister,
being Lord Charles Fiennes (the third signer here) and Lady Arbella
Fiennes Johnson, who both sailed on the ship bearing Arbella's name
in 1630. To everyone's grief died Lady Arbella died during the voyage
to America, and Charles soon returned to England.
The Humble Request of His Majesty's Loyal Subjects, the Governor
and Company late gone for New England; and to the rest of their Brethren
in and of the Church of England; for the obtaining of their Prayers,
and the removal of Suspicions, and Misconstructions of their Intentions.
REVEREND FATHERS AND BRETHREN, — The general rumor of this solemn
enterprise, wherein ourselves with others, through the providence of
the Almighty, are engaged, as it may spare us the labor of imparting
our occasion unto you, so it gives us the more encouragement to strengthen
ourselves by the procurement of the prayers and blessings of the Lord's
faithful servants. For which end we are bold to have recourse unto you,
as God hath placed nearest to his throne of mercy, which as it affords
you the more opportunity, so it imposeth the greater bond upon you to
intercede for his people in all their straits. We beseech you therefore,
by the mercies of the Lord Jesus, to consider us as your brethren, standing
in very great need of your help, and earnestly imploring it. And however
your charity may have met with some occasion of discouragement through
the misreport of our intentions, or through the disaffection or indiscretion
of some of us, or rather amongst us (for we are not of those that dream
of perfection in this world), yet we desire you would be pleased to
take notice of the principals and body of our Company, as those who
esteem it our honor to call the Church of England, from whence we rise,
our dear mother, and cannot part from our native Country, where she
specially resideth, without much sadness of heart and many tears in
our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have obtained
in the common salvation we have received in her bosom, and sucked it
from her breasts.
We leave it not therefore as loathing, that milk wherewith we were
nourished there; but, blessing God for the parentage and education,
as members of the same body, shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly
grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide her, and while we have
breath, sincerely desire and endeavor the continuance and abundance
of her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in the Kingdom of
Christ Jesus.
Be pleased, therefore, reverend fathers and brethren, to help forward
this work now in hand; which if it prosper, you shall be the more glorious,
howsoever your judgment is with the Lord, and your reward with your
God. It is a usual and laudable exercise of your charity, to commend
to the prayers of your congregations the necessities and straits of
your private neighbors: do the like for a Church springing out of your
own bowels. We conceive much hope that this remembrance of us, if it
be frequent and fervent, will be a most prosperous gale in our sails,
and provide such a passage and welcome for us from the God of the whole
earth, as both we shall find, and yourselves, with the rest of our friends,
who shall hear of it, shall be much enlarged to bring in such daily
returns of thanksgivings, as the specialties of His providence and goodness
may justly challenge at all our hands. You are not ignorant that the
spirit of God stirred up the Apostle Paul to make continual mention
of the Church of Philippi, which was a Colony from Rome; let the same
spirit, we beseech you, put you in mind, that are the Lord's remembrancers,
to pray for us without ceasing, who are a weak Colony from yourselves
making continual request for us to God in all your prayers.
What we entreat of you that are the ministers of God, that we also
crave at the hands of all the rest of our brethren, that they would
at no time forget us in their private solicitations at the throne of
grace.
If any there be who, through want of clear intelligence of our course,
or tenderness of affection towards us, cannot conceive so well of our
way as we could desire, we would entreat such not to despise us, nor
to desert us in their prayers and affections, but to consider rather
that they are so much the more bound to express the bowels of their
compassion towards us, remembering always that both nature and grace
doth ever bind us to relieve and rescue, with our utmost and speediest
power, such as are dear unto us, when we conceive them to be running
uncomfortable hazards.
What goodness you shall extend to us in this or any other Christian
kindness, we, your brethren in Christ Jesus, shall labor to repay in
what duty we are or shall be able to perform, promising, so far as God
shall enable us, to give him no rest on your beliefs, wishing our heads
and hearts may be as fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare
when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness, overshadowed
with the spirit of supplication, through the manifold necessities and
tribulations which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably,
befall us. And so commending you to the grace of God in Christ, we shall
ever rest
Your assured friends and brethren,
| JOHN WINTHROPE, Gov. |
RICHARD SALTONSTALL |
| CHARLES FINES |
ISAAC JOHNSON |
| THOMAS DUDLEY |
|
| GEORGE PHILLIPPS |
WILLIAM CODDINGTON |
&c.
Commentary by the Editor :
While all the esteemed editors before me have reverentially
read this letter and enjoyed its style and beauty as an homage to the
motherland of England, this editor finds some rude barbs therein as
well. For this was written as a parting gesture of a company that was
not at all happy with, or desirous of, the attentions of the Church
of England and royal authority. The history of New England and America
is a tale of continuous struggle against such interference.
The only Biblical reference here compares the outcast
Puritans to the church of Philippi, "which was a Colony from Rome"
Alas, England had become Rome again with King Charles and Bishop Laud
reviving Roman-style ritualism, while suppressing and persecuting preachers
of original Christian values as found in the English translations of
the Gospel.
Friendship in Christ is expressed, but qualified
"HOWSOEVER your judgment is with the Lord, and your reward with
YOUR God."
There is even some crude physical humor here. The
milk of the English church is a metaphorical pun for PAP and popery,
and years of persecution by the Crown-Church of England had already
expressed the movement of their "bowels of compassion" upon
the Puritans.
Today we can scarcely imagine the determination
and sacrifice given by these prosperous folks who abandoned their comfortable
English homes to go and suffer in wigwams in a distant wilderness. But
they could no longer practice their faith in England due to the persecution
enforced under King Charles, and their choice was God OR country. Thus
so plainly put before them by King and Church, their decision was to
abandon their country, and entrust their destiny to God's Providence.
Clearly these people were touched by God to a degree that few of us
then or now can comprehend, and they gave themselves up willingly as
tools of God's work, the foundation of our Nation.
If any readers yet think this Puritan parting from
England was anything less than a vigorous rejection of the old world
and its institutions, they may here read between the lines. If still
in doubt, they may study the history of old England, 1630-1650, when
ultimately the passionate indignation behind such verbal subtleties
became manifest, and a bloody Civil War erupted over the principles
of civil, political and religious freedoms.
Return to the Texts index
