George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[462] goodness infinite joy, in evil infinite woe, and, recog-

Chap. XVIII.}

nizing no other abiding distinctions, opposed secretly, but surely, hereditary monarchy, aristocracy, and bondage: Massachusetts owned no king but the King of heaven; no aristocracy, but of the redeemed; no bondage, but the hopeless, infinite and eternal bondage of sin. Calvinism invoked intelligence against Satan, the great enemy of the human race; and the farmers and seamen of Massachusetts nourished its college with corn and strings of wampum, and in every village built the free school. Calvinism, in its zeal against Rome, reverenced the Bible even to idolatry; and in Massachusetts, the songs of Deborah and David were sung without change; hostile Algonquins, like the Canaanites, were exterminated or enslaved; and a peevish woman was hanged, because it was written, ‘the witch shall die.’

‘Do not stand still with Luther and Calvin,’ said the father of the Pilgrims, confident in human advancement. From Luther to Calvin, there was progress; from Geneva to New England, there was more. Calvinism,—I speak of its political character, in an age when politics were controlled by religious sects; I pass no judgment on opinions which relate to an unseen world,—Calvinism, such as it existed, in opposition to prelacy and feudalism, could not continue in a world where there was no prelacy to combat, no aristocracy to overthrow. It therefore received developments which were imprinted on institutions. It migrated to the Connecticut; and there, forgetting its foes, it put off its armor of religious pride. ‘You go to receive your reward,’ was said to Hooker on his death-bed. ‘I go to receive mercy,’ was his reply. For predestination Connecticut substituted benevolence. It hanged no