Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 255
For the expressions in another letter, addressed by him to the
Governor and assistants, he was sentenced at the same court to be
disfranchised.
At the Court held Oct. 2, 1660, the printed letter of Mr.
Cudworth was read, and Mr. John Brown, who was present, testified
that he did receive a letter subscribed by James Cudworth,
of Scituate, and that, according to his best recollection, it was
substantially the same as the one then read. The bonds for £500,
of Mr. Cudworth, were cancelled, and the Court ordered that a
civil action should be commenced against him at the next following
March term of the Court. When the day came, no action was
brought. The absurdity of men sitting as judges, in a case where
they themselves were the plaintiffs, was too glaring, and they
wisely determined to drop the action.
The firmness displayed by Gen. Cudworth, in these trying
times, will ever be a monument to his memory, more endearing
than brass or granite. Rather, than violate his convictions of
right and of duty, he submitted to disfranchisement, ejection from
office, and to be placed under a bond for a larger sum than the
whole colony could have'paid in coin. He did not come over in
the Mayflower ; but he had adopted as his own, the principles of
those who did, and no earthly power could make him swerve from
them. Some speak lightly of those principles ; but it is ignorance
of their character which makes them do so.
The Pilgrims came over with their bibles in their hands, and
that holy book was the only creed, to which mem-
in their hearts ;
bers of their church were required to give their assent. They
held that Christ was the only bishop to whom they owned allegiance,
and that the gorgeous vestments of the priests of the
Catholic and English churches, and the ceremonial observances
required, were anti-Christian, and not in conformity with the
usages of the Apostolic age. They came here that they might
have liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences, to establish a pure and simple form of worship for
themselves and their posterity. They held that the conscience
was free, that man was not responsible to his fellow man for his
faith, but to God alone.
These principles lie at the bottom of all that is tolerant in
religion, liberal in politics, or worth contending for. The Pilgrims
took another step in advance of the prevalent opinions of
their time. When about to embark from Leyden, their reverend
pastor, in his farewell address, says : "I charge you before God
and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you
have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more
truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. I cannot suffi-
ciently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are
come to a period in religion, and will go at present no further than
the instruments of their reformation, Luther and Calvin were