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The Great Controversy 1888
Lord’s free people, “to walk in all his ways, made known or to be made
known to them.” Here was the true spirit of reform, the vital principle
of Protestantism. It was with this purpose that the Pilgrims departed
from Holland to find a home in the New World. John Robinson, their
pastor, who was providentially prevented from accompanying them,
in his farewell address to the exiles said:—
“Brethren, we are now erelong to part asunder, and the Lord
knoweth whether I shall live ever to see your faces more; but whether
the Lord hath appointed that or not, I charge you before God and his
blessed angels to follow me no farther than I have followed Christ.
If God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his,
be as ready to receive it as you ever were to receive any truth by my
ministry; for I am very confident that the Lord hath more truth and
light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word. For my part, I cannot
sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are
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come to a period in religion, and will go no farther than the instruments
of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go any farther
than what Luther saw, and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they
were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a
misery much to be lamented; for though they were burning and shining
lights in their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of
God, but were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further
light as that which they first received.
“Remember your church covenant, in which you have agreed to
walk in all the ways of the Lord, made known or to be made known
unto you. Remember your promise and covenant with God and with
one another, to receive whatever light and truth shall be made known to
you from his written Word. But, withal, take heed, I beseech you, what
you receive as truth. Examine it, consider it, compare it with other
scriptures of truth before you receive it; for it is not possible that the
Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian
darkness, and that perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.”
It was the desire for liberty of conscience that inspired the Pilgrims
to brave the perils of the long journey across the sea, to endure the
hardships and dangers of the wilderness, and with God’s blessing to lay,
on the shores of America, the foundation of a mighty nation. Yet honest
and God-fearing as they were, the Pilgrims did not yet comprehend
the great principle of religious toleration. The freedom which they