Lordships' favorable constructions of what herein shall appear amiss ; wishing his Majesty a long and peaceable reign, and your Lordships health and prosperity under his government.
- Your Lordships most humble servants,
- SAMUEL CRANSTON, Governor.
- Your Lordships most humble servants,
Newport, on Rhode Island, the 27th of May, 1699.
John Russell Bartlett, editor, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, in New England (Providence, 1858), III, 373-375
20. An Historical Sketch of New England (1720)
Daniel Neal was an intelligent historian, one of the few careful writers of his time. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 157-158; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 130. — For previous New England history, see Contemporaries, I, Part V.
The inhabitants of New-England. THE Inhabitants of New-England are the Posterity of old English Puritans or Nonconformists to the Church of England, who chose to leave their native Country, and retire into a Wilderness, rather than submit to such Rites and Ceremonies in Religion as they apprehended sinful. They did not differ with the Church in any of the Articles of her Faith, but they scrupled the Vestments, kneeling at the Sacrament, some Parts of the Common- Prayer, and the promiscuous Admission of all Persons to the Communion ; for these things they were silenced and deprived of their Livings, which put great Numbers of the Ministers under a Necessity of removing with their Followers to America.
Their Numbers and military Strength. The Number of Planters that went over to New-England before the Year 1640, were about 4000; after which for the next 20 Years they had no Increase but what sprung up from among themselves ; In the Reigns of King Charles II. and King James II. great Numbers of Dissenters, both Ministers and People went over, to avoid the Hardships they suffer d from the Church ; and it deserves to be taken Notice of, that the Increase of the English Plantations abroad depends very much on the Treatment the Dissenters from the Established Church of England meet with at home : When they are allowed the free Exercise of their Civil and Religious Liberties, they love their native Country too well to leave it ; but when they are