COLONISATION OF PENNSYLVANIA - PENN'S CHARACTER - HIS FRAME OF GOVERNMENT - BASED ON THE BIBLE - CHRISTIAN LEGISLATI0N - BANCROFT'S VIEW OF PENN - HIS COLONY A NEW ERA IN LIBERTY - MEANS OF EDUCATION - COLONISATION OF NEW YORK - ITS COMMERCIAL SPIRIT - ASSUMES A CHRISTIAN CHARACTER - THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH - PURITAN AND PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENTS - EPISCOPAL CHURCH - THE HUGUENOTS - CHRISTIAN LEGISLATION OF THE COLONY - EDUCATION - A SCHOOL RELIC - NEW JERSEY COLONY - CHRISTIAN STANDARD IN LEGISLATION - COLONY OF DELAWARE - ITS CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.

In 1682, another important era in the Christian colonization of the North American continent was inaugurated. William Penn was singularly qualified to be the founder of a Christian commonwealth. He had been educated under the influence of the gospel. He had studied the origin of government, the nature of civil liberty, and the rights of man, in the light of the pure word of God, and formed the purpose of founding a Christian empire on the free and peaceful precepts of Christianity. He had a firm faith in the great American idea that man, educated by Christianity, was capable of self-government. Finding no place in Europe to try the experiment of a Christian government, he resolved to seek it in America.

The settlement of the province of Pennsylvania by William Penn formed a new era in the liberties of mankind. It afforded a resting-place where the conscientious and oppressed people of Europe might repose, and enjoy the rights of civil and religious freedom which mankind had derived as an inheritance from the Creator.

He obtained from Charles II. a grant of territory that now embraces the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. He was legally inducted to the governorship of this immense domain, in England, by the officers of the crown, and in 1682 arrived in the New World and assumed the civil government of the colony. He avowed his purpose to be to institute a civil government on the basis of the Bible and to administer it in the fear of the Lord. The acquisition and government of the colony, he said, was ''so to serve the truth and the people of the Lord, that an example may be set to the nations."

The frame of government which Penn completed in 1682 for the government of Pennsylvania was derived from the Bible. He deduced from various passages " the origination and descent of all human power from God; the divine right of government, and that for two ends, - first, to terrify evil doers; secondly, to cherish those who do well;" so that government, he said, "seems to me to be a part of religion itself," - "a thing sacred in its institutions and ends." " Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad." " That, therefore, which makes a good constitution must keep it, - namely, men of wisdom and virtue, - qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth."

The first legislative act, passed at Chester, the seventh of the twelfth month, December, 1682, announced the ends of a true civil government. The preamble recites, that, " Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and end of government, and, therefore, government in itself is a venerable ordinance of God, and forasmuch as it is principally desired and intended by the proprietary and governor, and the freemen of Pennsylvania and territories thereunto belonging, to make and establish such laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God may have his due, Caesar his due, and the people their due, from tyranny and oppression."

The frame of government contained the following article on religious rights: -

"That all persons living in this province who confess and acknowledge the one almighty and eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and who hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in no wise be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of feith and worship ; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever."

William Penn, when about planting his colony and establishing his government in Pennsylvania in 1682, caused the following law to be made: -

"To the end that looseness, irreligion, and atheism may not creep in under the pretence of conscience in this province, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That, according to the good example of the primitive Christians, and for the ease of the creation, every first day of the week, called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from their common toil and labor, that, whether masters, parents, children, or servants, they may better dispose themselves to read the Scriptures of truth at home or to frequent such meetings of religious worship abroad, as may best suit their respective persuasions."

"In the judgment of this Quaker patriarch and legislator," says Bancroft, " government derived neither its obligations nor powers from man. God was to him the beginning and the end of government. He thought of government as a part of religion itself. Christians should keep the helm and guide the vessel of state."

His object also was to carry the Christian religion to the natives. This Christian design is expressed in the charter granted by Charles II. It says, " Whereas our trusty and beloved William Penn, out of a commendable desire to enlarge the British empire, as also to reduce the savages, by just and gentle measures, to the love of civil society and the Christian religion, hath humbly besought our leave to translate a colony." This purpose was expressed by Penn in the petition he sent to the king. He says he "should be able to colonize the province, which might enlarge the British empire, and promote the glory of God by the civilization and conversion of the Indian tribes." He urged all who proposed to join the colony "to have especial respect to the will of God."

He continued to act as Governor of Pennsylvania till June, 1684, when he returned to England. Before his embarkation, he uttered these farewell words to the colony, as his parting benediction: - " I bless you in the name and power of the Lord ; and may God bless you with his righteousness, peace, and plenty, all the land over. Oh that you would eye God in all, through all, and above all the works of his hand."

One of the great features of the Christian polity of Penn was his faith and fair dealings with the Indians. Every rood of land he obtained by honest purchase, and his integrity and frankness won for him and his colony the confidence and friendship of the Indian race. Treaties of mutual advantage were entered into between them, in which it was covenanted that as long as the grass grew and the waters ran, the links in the chain of their mutual friendship should be kept bright and strong. His transactions with the Indian tribes were marked with Christian integrity, and added new lustre to his fame.

Penn, as the wise founder of a civil commonwealth, provided measures for the general diffusion of the blessings of a Christian education.

"Let men," he says, " be good, and the government cannot be bad. That, therefore, which makes a good constitution must keep it, - namely, men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that, as they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of the youth."

One of the last acts of William Penn on leaving the country for England was to grant a charter to the public school in Philadelphia, in order to secure good school-instruction equally to all the children of the community. On the seal of this institution he placed the motto, "GOOD INSTRUCTION IS BETTER THAN RICHES;" with the impressive adage, " Love ye one another."

THE CHRISTIAN COLONIZATION OF NEW YORK

Is cotemporaneous with its first settlement. Commerce and Christianity are always in genial sympathy and co-operation; and as commerce, from the beginning of the colony in 1609, was a leading motive of the first settlers, so the Christian religion pioneered its way side by side with commerce. As early as 1613, four years after the discovery of Manhattan by Hudson, Holland merchants had established several trading-posts, and in 1623 measures were taken to found an agricultural and Christian settlement. The first emigrants were those who had fled from the severity of religious persecution in the seventeenth century in the French Belgic provinces, and came with a faith tried in a fiery furnace.

The East India Company, formed in 1621, stipulated that "where emigrants went forth under their auspices, and that of the States-General of Holland, it should be tiieir duty to send out a schoolmaster, being a pious member of the church, whose office it was to instruct the children, and preside in their religious meetings on the Sabbath and other days, leading in the devotions, and reading a sermon, until the regular ministry should be established over them. An individual was often designated as a Zickentrooster, (comforter of the sick,) who for his spiritual gifts was adapted to edify and comfort the people."

In 1633 the first minister came over, and associated with him was a schoolmaster, who organized a church school. The introduction, at this early period of the settlement of the colony, of the church and school combined, cannot, therefore, be claimed as the peculiar distinction of the Puritan emigrants, as the direct aim and the provision made in the early settlements by the Dutch was to extend and preserve in the midst of them the blessings of education and religion.

The Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church of New York was the first founded in North America, and dates from the first settlement on Manhattan Island. The first religious meetings were held in a temporary building, till in 1626 an emigrant, in building a horse-mill, provided a spacious room above for the congregation. At an interview, in 1642, between a famous navigator, De Vries, and the Governor of the Colony, the former remarked "that it was a shame that the English when they visited Manhattan saw only a mean barn in which we worshipped. The first they built in New England, after their dwelling-houses, was a fine church: we should do the same." This led to the erection of a new and spacious church-edifice.

In a letter written on the 11th of August, 1628, by Rev. Jonas Michaellus, the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States, there is found the following statement: -

"We have established the form of a church, and it has been thought best to choose two elders for my assistance, and for the proper consideration of all such ecclesiastical matters as might occur. We have had at the first administration of the Lord's Supper full fifty communicants, not without great joy and comfort for so many, - Walloons and Dutch; of whom a portion made their first confession, and others exhibited their church certificates. We administer the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper once in four months.

"We must have no other object than the glory of God in building up his kingdom and the salvation of many souls. As to the natives of this country, I find them entirely savage and wild, proficient in all wickedness, who serve nobody but the devil. Let us then leave the parents in their condition, and begin with the children who are still young, and place them under the instruction of some experienced and godly schoolmaster, where they may be taught especially in the fundamentals of our Christian religion. In the mean time it must not be forgotten to pray to the Lord, with ardent and continual prayers, for his blessing."

In 1636, the Puritans of New England began to add largely to the New York colony. In ten years after the Puritan emigration began, " there were so many at Manhattan as to require preachers who could speak in English as well as Dutch." " Whole towns," says Bancroft, " had been settled by New England men, who had come to America to serve God with a pure conscience, and to plant New England liberties in a congregational way."

The colony of New York, after being under the jurisdiction of the Dutch for fifty years, passed, in 1664, to that of England. This political revolution secured a rapid colonization from various quarters. "English, Irish, Scotch, French, and Dutch, chiefly Presbyterians and Independents," now began to emigrate to the colony of New York. The Episcopalians claimed "that the province was subject to the ecclesiastical government of the Church of England, and that theirs was the religion of the state." The Duke of York, afterwards James II., maintained an Episcopal chapel in New York at his own private expense. " Ministers," said Andros, the civil Grovernor of the colony, in 1683, " are scarce, and religion wanes." " There were about twenty churches, of which half were destitute of ministers. But the Presbyterians and Independents, who formed the most numerous and thriving portions of the inhabitants, were the only class of the people who showed much willingness to procure and support ministers."

The seventeenth century, constituting an important era of Christian colonization of the New World, brought to the North American colonies the rich Christian contribution from the Huguenots of France. All the colonies gave them a heart-welcome as refugees from a frenzied and cruel religious persecution. They were ardent lovers of liberty, and declared that, with " their ministers, they had come to adore and serve God with freedom." These Christian exiles were warmly welcomed to the colony of New York, and became one of the richest portions of the population. In 1662 they had become so numerous that the colonial laws and official papers were published in French as well as in Dutch and English. The French church in the city of New York became the metropolis of Calvinism, where the Huguenot emigrants out of the city came to worship.

"The character of the first Huguenot settlers," says Dr. De Witt, " was eminently worthy, both here and in other parts of the State and the United States. An interesting fact is related concerning the first settlers of New Rochelle, in Westchester county. When they entered the forests, and with toilful labor engaged in clearing and cultivating the fields, they resolved, in the spirit of deep piety which they brought with them, to unite with their brethren in New York in the public worship of the Sabbath, though at a distance of twenty miles. Such was their reverence for the sanctification of the Sabbath that they would take up their march on foot in the afternoon of Saturday, and reach New York by midnight, singing the hymns of Clement Marol by the way. Engaging in the worship of the Sabbath, they remained till after midnight, and then took their march in return to New Rochelle, relieving the toil of the way by singing Marot's hymns." " Happy and proud," says Bancroft, " in the religious liberty they enjoyed, they ceased not to write to their brethren in France of the grace which God had shown them."

In 1665, the colonial legislature of New York passed the following act in reference to Christianity and its ordinances: -

"Whereas, The public worship of God is much discredited for want of painful [laborious] and able ministers to instruct the people in the true religion, it is ordered that a church shall be built in each parish, capable of holding two hundred persons; that ministers of every church shall preach every Sunday, and pray for the king, queen, the Duke of York, and the royal family; and to marry persons after legal publication of license."

It was also enacted that " Sunday is not to be profaned by travelling, by laborers, or vicious persons," and "church-wardens to report twice a year all misdemeanors, such as swearing, profaneness. Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, and all such abominable sins." "Persons were punished with death who should in any wise deny the true God or his attributes." These were the laws of the colony of New York until 1683.

The following paper will show better the attention that the early settlers of New York paid to education, and is an amusing relic of colonial antiquity. It belongs to the ancient local history of Flatbush, Long Island: -

ART. 1. The school shall begin at 8 o'clock and go outt att 11; shall begin again att 1 o'clock and ende att 4. The bell shall bee rung beefore the school begins.

ART. 2. When school opens, one of the children shall reade the morning prayer as it stands in the catechism, and close with the prayer before dinner; and inn the afternoon the same. The evening school shall begin with the Lord's prayer and close by singing a psalm.

ART. 3. Hee shall instruct the children inn the common prayers and the questions and answers off the catechism on Wednesdays and Saturdays, too enable them too say them better on Sunday inn the church.

ART. 4. Hee shall bee bound too keep his school nine months in succession, from September too June, one year with another, and shall always bee present himself.

ART. 5. Hee shall bee choirister off the church; ring the bell three tymes before service, and reade a chapter off the Bible inn the church between the second and third ringinge off the bell; after the third ringinge he shall reade the ten commandments and the twelve articles off ffaith and then sett the psalm. In the afternoone after the third ringinge off the bell hee shall reade a short chapter or one off the psalms off David as the congregatione are assemblinge; afterwards he shall again sett the psalm.

ART. 6. When the minister shall preach at Broockland or Utrecht he shall be bounde to reade twice before the congregatione from the booke used for the purpose. Hee shall heare the children recite the questions and answers off the catechism on Sunday and instruct them.

ART. 7. Hee shall provide a basin off water for the baptism, ffor which hee shall receive twelve stuyvers in wampum ffor every baptism from parents or sponsors. Hee shall furnish bread and wine ffor communion att the charge off the church. Hee shall also serve as messenger ffor the consistories.

ART. 8. Hee shall give the funerale invitations and toll the bell; and ffor which hee shall receive for persons off fifteen years off age and upwards twelve guilders; and ffor persons under fifteen, eight guilders; and iff hee shall cross the river to New York hee shall have ffour guilders more.

[The compensation of the schoolmaster was as follows:]

1st. Hee shall receive ffor a speller or reader three guilders a quarter; and ffor a writer ffour guilders ffor the daye school.

Inn the evening ffour guilders for a speller or reader, and five guilders ffor a writer per quarter.

2nd. The residue off his salary shall bee ffour hundred guilders in wheat (of wampum value) deliverable at Broockland Fferry with the dwellinge, pasturage and meadowe appurtaininge to the school.

Done and agreede on inn consistorie, in the presence off the Honourable Constable and Overseers, this 8th daye off October, 1682.

I agree to the above articles, and promise to observe them.

                                                JOHANNES VON ECHKELLEN.

NEW JERSEY

Became an independent colony in 1664. " Its moral character was moulded by New England Puritans, English Quakers, and Dissenters from Scotland." An association of church-members from the New Haven colony resolved with one heart " to carry on their spiritual and town affairs according to Godly Government;" and in 1668 the colonial legislative Assembly, under Puritan influence, transferred the chief features of the New England codes to the statute-book of New Jersey. New Jersey increased in population and prosperity under the genial presence of Christian institutions, and became distinguished for intelligence, industry, and enterprise. "The people," says Bancroft, "rejoiced under the reign of God, confident that he would beautify the meek with salvation."

The Christian teachings of the Quakers, in union with Presbyterian and Anabaptist influences, made New Jersey, in its colonial structure, a model Protestant republic. " These were interwoven into the earliest elements of the political society of New Jersey, and constitute one of the beautiful historical incidents of the age. The people have always enjoyed a high reputation for piety, industry, economy, and good morals." They received and practised such Christian lessons as the following, given by their friends in England, in 1681; -

''Friends that are gone to make plantations in America, keep the plantations in your own hearts, that your own vines and lilies be not hurt. You that are governors and judges, you should be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and fathers to the poor, that you may gain the blessing of those who are ready to perish, and cause the widow's heart to sing for gladness. If you rejoice because your hand hath gotten much, if you say to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence, you will have denied the God that is above. The Lord is ruler among nations; he will crown his people with dominion."

The high standard of Christian morality in the colony of New Jersey was indicated by the motto on the provincial seal, - ''Righteousness exalteth a nation." A proclamation made by Governor Basse, in 1697, contains the following Christian record: - "It being very necessary for the good and prosperity of this province that our principal care be, in obedience to the laws of God, to endeavor as much as in us lyeth the extirpation of all sorts of looseness and profanity, and to unite in the fear and love of God and one another, that, by the religious and virtuous carriage and behavior of every one in his respective station and calling, the blessing of Almighty God may accompany our honest and lawful endeavors, I do therefore, by and with the advice of the Council of this province, strictly prohibit cursing, swearing, immoderate drinking, Sabbath-breaking, and all sorts of lewdness and profane behavior in word and action; and do strictly charge and conmand all justices of the peace, sheriffs, constables, and all other ofiioers within the province, that they take due care that all laws made and provided for the suppression of vice and encouraging of religion and virtue, particularly the observance of the Lord's day, be duly put into execution."

DELAWARE

Had a Christian colonization. Gustavus Adolphus, of the royal family of Sweden, projected an enterprise to aid in the Christian settlement of the New World. Its object, though in part commercial, was declared to be for the benefit of the "whole Protestant world." In 1637, two vessels, fitted out by the Government of Sweden, carried out a band of emigrants with their Christian teachers, and in the spring of 1638 they sailed into Delaware Bay and began the Christian colonization of that region. In 1640 the colony received Christian emigrants from New England. It continued a political connection with the colony of Pennsylvania till 1704, when it became an independent commonwealth.