Errand into the Wilderness by Perry Miller

Author:Perry Miller [Miller, Perry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, World, Philosophy, History & Surveys, Modern, Religion
ISBN: 9780674041073
Google: oKfCbW3B1xkC
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2009-07-15T22:27:20+00:00

VI

To modern eyes the theory of the Virginia promoters seems remarkable because it prohibited them from advocating the enterprise on frankly secular or economic grounds, although the strength of the economic motive emerges clearly enough from their pages. They could not argue that men should go to Virginia merely for estates, for staples, or for England’s welfare; instead they had to find methods of subordinating these aims to the higher interests of Christendom. They could justify the Company only by an appeal to Protestant theology, to providence, the epic of Christian history, the Fall of man, and the scheme of regeneration, to a divine covenant and the means of grace. What may seem to us a needlessly roundabout procedure was imposed upon the age by its allegiance to certain Christian assumptions, by its yet unshaken belief in the unity of the world in the single purpose of God. Only when they could shelter economic and national ambitions under spiritual warrants were they free to pursue them. John Smith had his moments of realistic insight, in which he saw wealth and not religion as the dominant consideration; more often he combined them in the mannor of his contemporaries:

So then here is a place a nurse for souldiers, a practise for marriners, a trade for marchants, a reward for the good, and that which is most of all, a businesse (most acceptable to God) to bring such poore infidels to the true knoweldge of God and his holy Gospell.83

Official publications of the Company fused the divine and the earthly by pointing out that the action concerned “God, and the advancement of religion, the present ease, future honor and safety of the Kingdome, the strength of our Navy, the visible hope of a great and rich trade, and many secrett blessings not yet discovered.”84 Alderman Johnson was a businessman who at the conclusion of his Nova Britannia would not “hold you longer with many words (being near exchange time, as I take it).” He was no otherworldly ascetic, and could appraise the buccaneering voyages of the Elizabethans for their financial worth: “the days and reign of Queen Elizabeth brought forth the highest degree of wealth, happiness and honor that ever England had,” but he, no less than the clerical writers, took care to warn his fellows that they would fail if under the pretense of religion “that bitter root of greedy gain be not so settled in our hearts”; there is indeed an “assured hope of gain” in the business, but “look it be not chief in your thoughts.”85

Sermons delivered in London, like Crashaw’s in 1610, or in Virginia, like Whitaker’s Good Newes from Virginia, the text of which was sent to London in 1613, illustrate more fully the manner in which secular ambitions were interwoven with religious. Profit is the last end of the voyage, said Crashaw; though assuredly it will be profitable in time. The potential return depends entirely upon our most directly seeking it: “Now the high way to obtaine

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.