The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | страница 226

The European Union in Prophecy
16. The Pilgrim Fathers
The English Reformers, while renouncing the doctrines of Romanism, had
retained many of its forms. Thus though the authority and the creed of Rome were
rejected, not a few of her customs and ceremonies were incorporated into the worship
of the Church of England. It was claimed that these things were not matters of
conscience; that though they were not commanded in Scripture, and hence were
nonessential, yet not being forbidden, they were not intrinsically evil. Their
observance tended to narrow the gulf which separated the reformed churches from
Rome, and it was urged that they would promote the acceptance of the Protestant
faith by Romanists.
To the conservative and compromising, these arguments seemed conclusive. But
there was another class that did not so judge. The fact that these customs "tended to
bridge over the chasm between Rome and the Reformation" (Martyn, volume 5, page
22), was in their view a conclusive argument against retaining them. They looked
upon them as badges of the slavery from which they had been delivered and to which
they had no disposition to return. They reasoned that God has in His word established
the regulations governing His worship, and that men are not at liberty to add to these
or to detract from them. The very beginning of the great apostasy was in seeking to
supplement the authority of God by that of the church. Rome began by enjoining what
God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined.
Many earnestly desired to return to the purity and simplicity which
characterized the primitive church. They regarded many of the established customs
of the English Church as monuments of idolatry, and they could not in conscience
unite in her worship. But the church, being supported by the civil authority, would
permit no dissent from her forms. Attendance upon her service was required by law,
and unauthorized assemblies for religious worship were prohibited, under penalty of
imprisonment, exile, and death.
At the opening of the seventeenth century the monarch who had just ascended
the throne of England declared his determination to make the Puritans "conform,
or . . . harry them out of the land, or else worse."--George Bancroft, History of the
United States of America, pt. 1, ch. 12, par. 6. Hunted, persecuted, and imprisoned,
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