第16章 清教徒的追求自由
§1
第16章 清教徒的追求自由
§2
Chap. 16 - The Pilgrim Fathers
§3
英国的改革家虽然放弃了罗马教的教义，但仍保留了罗马教的许多仪式。这样，英国的国教虽然拒绝了罗马的权威和教条，但多少仍有她的风俗和礼节搀在崇拜之中。他们主张这一切与信仰问题无关；《圣经》固然没有明文吩咐，这些礼节固然是不必需的，可是《圣经》也没有明文禁止，所以这些事在本质上不能说是坏的。况且遵守这些仪式可以减少改正教与罗马教之间的距离，所以他们竭力主张这样行，可以使罗马教徒易于接受改正教的信仰。[1]{GC 289.1}
§4
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. {GC 289.1}[1]
§5
这些论据在保守派和愿意妥协的人看来，似乎是确凿的。但另有一班人的看法却不是这样。在他们看来，这些风俗“可以跨过罗马教和改正教之间的鸿沟”的说法，正是他们反对保留这些风俗的有力理由。他们认为这些风俗正是他们从前所受奴役的标记，他们既得到解放，就没有再回到奴役中去的意向。他们推论上帝已在《圣经》中定立了敬拜他的规例，人不得随意增加或删减。“大叛教”本来就开始于人想用教会的权威来增补上帝的权威。罗马起先是吩咐人遵守上帝所没有禁止的事，最后她却禁止人遵守上帝所明白吩咐的事。[2]{GC 289.2}
§6
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. {GC 289.2}[2]
§7
许多人恳切地要恢复那作为原始教会的特征的纯洁和简朴。他们认为英国国教所设立的许多风俗乃是拜偶像的纪念，他们的良心不能同意自己参加她的崇拜。但教会方面既有国家的权威支持，就不准人对于她的仪式有什么异议。国家的律法规定人必须参赴国教的礼节，凡未经许可的宗教礼拜聚会一律禁止，违者处以监禁、放逐，或死刑。[3]{GC 290.1}
§8
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. {GC 290.1}[3]
§9
在第十七世纪初叶，那方才登位的英王声称他决心要使清教徒（译者按：即当时笃信《圣经》的基督徒）遵奉国教，不然就驱逐出境，或者予以更厉害的处分。”他们被逮捕，遭逼迫，受监禁，并看不出将来有更光明的日子。许多人认明：若要凭着良心侍奉上帝，“英国将永远不是可以居住的地方了。”有一些人终于决定到荷兰国去避难。结果他们遭遇了困难，损失和监禁。他们的计划被破坏了；他们竟被卖到仇敌手中。但他们恒忍不屈，坚贞不渝，终于得到胜利，在荷兰共和国得到了保护。[4]{GC 290.2}
§10
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, they could discern in the future no promise of better days, and many yielded to the conviction that for such as would serve God according to the dictates of their conscience, England was ceasing forever to be a habitable place.--J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, ch. 3, par. 43. Some at last determined to seek refuge in Holland. Difficulties, losses, and imprisonment were encountered. Their purposes were thwarted, and they were betrayed into the hands of their enemies. But steadfast perseverance finally conquered, and they found shelter on the friendly shores of the Dutch Republic. {GC 290.2}[4]
§11
他们逃走的时候曾撇下房屋，财产和谋生之道；而在异乡作客，人地生疏，言语风俗皆不相同。他们不得不从事新的职业以求糊口。一向以耕地为业的中年人，如今必须学习作工匠。但他们欣然努力适应环境，并没有袖手观望，怨命自怜。他们虽然时常迫于穷困，但仍为上帝所赐给他们的恩典而表示感谢，并在不受阻挠的属灵交通中得到幸福。“他们知道自己是客旅，所以不以那些事为念，只是举目望天，仰望他们最可爱的家乡，借此安慰自己的心灵。”[5]{GC 290.3}
§12
In their flight they had left their houses, their goods, and their means of livelihood. They were strangers in a strange land, among a people of different language and customs. They were forced to resort to new and untried occupations to earn their bread. Middle-aged men, who had spent their lives in tilling the soil, had now to learn mechanical trades. But they cheerfully accepted the situation and lost no time in idleness or repining. Though often pinched with poverty, they thanked God for the blessings which were still granted them and found their joy in unmolested spiritual communion. They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.--Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 12, par. 15. {GC 290.3}[5]
§13
他们在流亡和艰苦之中，爱心和信心更为坚强了。他们笃信主的应许，他在他们需要的时候也没有让他们失望。他的使者常在他们旁边，鼓励他们，支持他们。当上帝的圣手似乎指引他们渡海到一个新的地方，去为自己创设国家并把信仰自由的宝贵产业留给子孙时，他们就在天意所安排的道路上勇往直前，毫不退缩。[6]{GC 291.1}
§14
In the midst of exile and hardship their love and faith waxed strong. They trusted the Lords promises, and He did not fail them in time of need. His angels were by their side, to encourage and support them. And when Gods hand seemed pointing them across the sea, to a land where they might found for themselves a state, and leave to their children the precious heritage of religious liberty, they went forward, without shrinking, in the path of providence. {GC 291.1}[6]
§15
上帝让试炼临到他的子民，为要预备他们成就他对于他们慈爱的旨意。教会已经被降为卑，好使她得升为高。上帝行将为教会显示他的大能，使世人再一次看出决不丢弃那些依靠他的人。他已掌管万事，使撒但的忿怒和恶人的计谋反而成全他的荣美，并把他的子民带到安全之地。逼迫和流亡反而为他们打开了自由的道路。[7]{GC 291.2}
§16
God had permitted trials to come upon His people to prepare them for the accomplishment of His gracious purpose toward them. The church had been brought low, that she might be exalted. God was about to display His power in her behalf, to give to the world another evidence that He will not forsake those who trust in Him. He had overruled events to cause the wrath of Satan and the plots of evil men to advance His glory and to bring His people to a place of security. Persecution and exile were opening the way to freedom. {GC 291.2}[7]
§17
当清教徒迫不得已脱离英国国教时，他们曾团结一致地严肃立约作上帝自由的子民，“一同行在他所已经指示或将要指示他们的一切道路之上。”这是改革的真精神，也是改正教的重要原则。清教徒是抱着这样的目的离开荷兰往新大陆去找安身之处的。他们的牧师鲁滨逊约翰由于环境的关系未能和他们同去，他在这些流亡者临别的时候，向他们致辞如下：[8]{GC 291.3}
§18
When first constrained to separate from the English Church, the Puritans had joined themselves together by a solemn covenant, as the Lords free people, to walk together in all His ways made known or to be made known to them. --J. Brown, The Pilgrim Fathers, page 74. 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: {GC 291.3}[8]
§19
“弟兄们，我们今日即将分别，唯有上帝知道是否能再见你们的面。但无论上帝的旨意如何，我在上帝和他的圣天使面前嘱咐你们，只要在我跟从基督的事上跟从我。如果今后上帝用他的其他工具向你们显明任何真理，你们要随时接受，如同你们过去接受我所传给你们的真理一样；因为我深信上帝将要使他的圣言发出更多的真理和亮光。”[9]{GC 291.4}
§20
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 it 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 ever you were to receive any truth of my ministry; for I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy word.--Martyn, vol. 5, p. 70. {GC 291.4}[9]
§21
“至于我，我为目前改正教会的状况万分痛心，他们故步自封，不肯求进。路得派的人不肯相信路得所没有讲过的话；喀尔文派则固守上帝的这个伟人所留给他们的道理，其实这个人并没有看到一切的真理。这是一件极大的不幸；因为这些领袖虽然是照耀着当时代的亮光，但他们并没有参透上帝全部的旨意，如果他们生在今日，他们必须归依更进一步的亮光，正如他们从前接受当时的亮光一样。”[10]{GC 292.1}
§22
For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond 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.--D. Neal, History of the Puritans, vol. 1, p. 269. {GC 292.1}[10]
§23
“切莫忘记你们教会的誓约，在那誓约中，你们曾经同意行在上帝所已经指示或将要指示你们的一切道路之上。要记得你们向上帝并彼此之间所立的诺言和誓约，就是要接受他将来在他的《圣经》中向你们所显示的一切亮光和真理；但同时我劝你们要谨慎查考你们所要接受为真理的一切新道理，务要用《圣经》中其他经文来比较衡量，然后才可接受。因为基督教世界既是新近从那么深浓的反基督教的黑暗中出来，所以真理的完全知识是不可能立时照耀出来的。”[11]{GC 292.2}
§24
Remember your church covenant, in which you have agreed to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made 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 for truth, and compare it and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before you accept it; for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.--Martyn, vol. 5, pp. 70, 71. {GC 292.2}[11]
§25
这些清教徒渴望享受信仰自由，所以冒了梯山航海的危险，忍受开荒辟野的艰难，靠着上帝的恩典，在美洲的海岸上奠定了一个大国的基础。然而这些清教徒虽是诚实并敬畏上帝的人，但他们那时对于宗教自由的大原则还没有正确的认识。他们付出那么大的牺牲所获得的自由，他们却没有准备让别人一样享受。“就是在第十七世纪最前进的思想家和道德家之中，也只有极少数的人正确地认识到那伟大的原则，这原则乃是新约的产物，就是承认上帝为人类信仰的唯一向导。”上帝把管束信仰和裁判叛教徒的权利交托给教会的这种说法，乃是罗马教会最为根深蒂固的谬道之一。这些改革家虽然拒绝了罗马的教条，但他们还没有脱离她这种偏执的精神。罗马教长期的统治所笼罩在整个基督教界的深浓黑暗，还没有完全消散。马萨诸塞海湾殖民地的一个著名牧师曾这样说：“那造成世人反对基督教的原因正是信仰自由，所以刑罚叛教徒是绝对没有害处的。”那些殖民者通过了一条规则，指定唯有基督教徒能干预政治。这就成立了一种变相的国教，人民必须纳税来供养教政人员，官厅也有权柄镇压异端。这样，国家的权柄就执掌在教会手中了。这些办法不久就造成无可避免的结果，就是逼迫。[12]{GC 292.3}
§26
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 Gods 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 liberty. The freedom which they sacrificed so much to secure for themselves, they were not equally ready to grant to others. Very few, even of the foremost thinkers and moralists of the seventeenth century, had any just conception of that grand principle, the outgrowth of the New Testament, which acknowledges God as the sole judge of human faith.--Ibid., vol. 5, p. 297. The doctrine that God has committed to the church the right to control the conscience, and to define and punish heresy, is one of the most deeply rooted of papal errors. While the Reformers rejected the creed of Rome, they were not entirely free from her spirit of intolerance. The dense darkness in which, through the long ages of her rule, popery had enveloped all Christendom, had not even yet been wholly dissipated. Said one of the leading ministers in the colony of Massachusetts Bay: It was toleration that made the world antichristian; and the church never took harm by the punishment of heretics.--Ibid., vol. 5, p. 335. The regulation was adopted by the colonists that only church members should have a voice in the civil government. A kind of state church was formed, all the people being required to contribute to the support of the clergy, and the magistrates being authorized to suppress heresy. Thus the secular power was in the hands of the church. It was not long before these measures led to the inevitable result --persecution. {GC 292.3}[12]
§27
在设置第一个殖民地十一年之后，威廉罗哲来到了新大陆。他像早期的清教徒一样，是来享受宗教自由的；但他的看法却与他们不同，他看出当时很少人所能看到的——自由乃是人人不可侵犯的权利，不拘他的信仰如何。威廉罗哲是一个殷勤追求真理的人，他与鲁滨逊有相同的见解，就是他们还不可能是已经领受了上帝《圣经》中的全部真光，威廉“是近代基督教界第一个主张建立政府在宗教信仰自由，和人人的意见在法律面前完全平等的原则之上的人。”他声称，官厅的本分是遏制罪恶，但万不可控制信仰。他说：“群众或官厅固然可以决定人对于人的本分；但当他们试图规定人对于上帝的本分时，他们就是出了范围，而且社会也不能安全了；因为很明显地，如果官厅有了这个权柄，他就要今天定出一套意见和信条，而明天又可能另定一套；正如过去英国不同的国王和王后以及罗马教不同的教皇和议会所作的一样，这样信仰就要成为一团乱麻了。”[13]{GC 293.1}
§28
Eleven years after the planting of the first colony, Roger Williams came to the New World. Like the early Pilgrims he came to enjoy religious freedom; but, unlike them, he saw --what so few in his time had yet seen--that this freedom was the inalienable right of all, whatever might be their creed. He was an earnest seeker for truth, with Robinson holding it impossible that all the light from Gods word had yet been received. Williams was the first person in modern Christendom to establish civil government on the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opinions before the law.--Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 15, par. 16. He declared it to be the duty of the magistrate to restrain crime, but never to control the conscience. The public or the magistrates may decide, he said, what is due from man to man; but when they attempt to prescribe a mans duties to God, they are out of place, and there can be no safety; for it is clear that if the magistrates has the power, he may decree one set of opinions or beliefs today and another tomorrow; as has been done in England by different kings and queens, and by different popes and councils in the Roman Church; so that belief would become a heap of confusion.--Martyn, vol. 5, p. 340. {GC 293.1}[13]
§29
当时美洲殖民地的居民都必须参赴当地所设立之教会的聚会，不然，就要受罚款或监禁的处分。威廉极力反对这个法律；他认为英国法典中最坏的一条就是强制人在国教的教会里作礼拜。他又认为勉强人与信仰不同的人联合，乃是公开违犯他们天赋的权利；勉强不信教和不愿意的人参加公众礼拜，无异是鼓励人假冒为善。他又说：“若非本人同意，任何人都没有义务参加或以经济维持宗教礼拜。”反对他的人对于这种主张甚为惊异，说：“难道工人不当得工价吗？”他回答说：“是当得的，不过只能向雇用他的人领取。”[14]{GC 294.1}
§30
Attendance at the services of the established church was required under a penalty of fine or imprisonment. Williams reprobated the law; the worst statute in the English code was that which did but enforce attendance upon the parish church. To compel men to unite with those of a different creed, he regarded as an open violation of their natural rights; to drag to public worship the irreligious and the unwilling, seemed only like requiring hypocrisy. . . . No one should be bound to worship, or, he added, to maintain a worship, against his own consent. What! exclaimed his antagonists, amazed at his tenets, is not the laborer worthy of his hire? Yes, replied he, from them that hire him.-- Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 15, par. 2. {GC 294.1}[14]
§31
众人敬爱威廉罗哲为一个忠诚的牧师，为一个天才卓越，守正不阿，宅心仁厚的君子；但他的坚决否认国家的官吏有权干涉教会，和他所主张的信仰自由，为当局所不能容忍。他们强调，如果采纳这种新的主张，“就必颠覆殖民地政府的基础”。于是他被判逐出殖民地，最后他为避免被捕起见，不得已在风雪交加的寒冬逃到野地的森林中去。[15]{GC 294.2}
§32
Roger Williams was respected and beloved as a faithful minister, a man of rare gifts, of unbending integrity and true benevolence; yet his steadfast denial of the right of civil magistrates to authority over the church, and his demand for religious liberty, could not be tolerated. The application of this new doctrine, it was urged, would subvert the fundamental state and government of the country.--Ibid., pt. 1, ch. 15, par. 10. He was sentenced to banishment from the colonies, and, finally, to avoid arrest, he was forced to flee, amid the cold and storms of winter, into the unbroken forest. {GC 294.2}[15]
§33
他说：“我在严寒的季节中痛苦地飘流十四周之久，不知道吃饭和睡觉是什么滋味。”但“百鸟乌鸦在旷野供养我”，他时常在树穴中藏身。这样，他在雪地和绝无人迹的森林中继续他痛苦的逃亡生活，直到他在一个印第安部落中找到避难所，他曾将福音的真理教导过他们，并曾博得他们的信任和爱戴。[16]{GC 294.3}
§34
For fourteen weeks, he says, I was sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean. But the ravens fed me in the wilderness, and a hollow tree often served him for a shelter.--Martyn, vol. 5, pp. 349, 350. Thus he continued his painful flight through the snow and the trackless forest, until he found refuge with an Indian tribe whose confidence and affection he had won while endeavoring to teach them the truths of the gospel. {GC 294.3}[16]
§35
经过了几个月的颠沛流离，他终于到了那刺干塞特湾的海岸，他就在那里奠立了一个新政府的基础，就是现代第一个真真实实承认信仰自由之权利的政府。威廉罗哲的殖民地的基本原则是：“人人都应当有自由按照自己良心的见解敬拜上帝。”他那小小的一个省罗得岛成了受压迫之人的避难所，而且这一省的人数继续增多，地方渐渐繁荣起来，直到它的基本原则——政治和宗教的自由——成了美利坚共和国的基石。[17]{GC 295.1}
§36
Making his way at last, after months of change and wandering, to the shores of Narragansett Bay, he there laid the foundation of the first state of modern times that in the fullest sense recognized the right of religious freedom. The fundamental principle of Roger Williamss colony was that every man should have liberty to worship God according to the light of his own conscience.--Ibid., vol. 5, p. 354. His little state, Rhode Island, became the asylum of the oppressed, and it increased and prospered until its foundation principles--civil and religious liberty--became the cornerstones of the American Republic. {GC 295.1}[17]
§37
美国的祖先所认为自己民权之保障的宝贵文献——《独立宣言》——声称：“我们认为这些是不言而喻的：人人生来都是平等的；创造主赋予他们一些不可侵犯的权利；其中包括生命权，自由权和追求幸福的权利。”而且美国宪法以最清楚的语气保证信仰的自由不被侵犯：“在合众国出任公职，断不以宗教试验为合格的条件。”“国会不得规定任何有关设立宗教或禁止自由行使宗教权利的律法。”[18]{GC 295.2}
§38
In that grand old document which our forefathers set forth as their bill of rights--the Declaration of Independence--they declared: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the Constitution guarantees, in the most explicit terms, the inviolability of conscience: No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. {GC 295.2}[18]
§39
“编制宪法的人承认一条永恒的原则，就是人和上帝之间的关系高过一切人为的法制，而且他的信仰自由是不可侵犯的。我们不必靠辩证来确定这个真理；我们心中自然就有这种感觉。许多殉道者之所以能反抗人为的律法，而在酷刑和火焰之中忍受一切，就是因了这种感觉。他们觉得自己对于上帝的本分超过人为的法令，而且别人不得在他们的信仰上行使权力。这乃是一种天赋的原则，是任何力量所不能磨灭的。”[19]{GC 295.3}
§40
The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that mans relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate.--Congressional documents (U.S.A.), serial No. 200, document No. 271. {GC 295.3}[19]
§41
消息传到了欧洲各国，说海外有一个地方，那里的每一个人得以享受自己努力的果实，并得以按照自己良心的决定行事。于是有成千的人蜂拥到新大陆的各海口去。殖民地迅速的增加起来了。“马萨诸塞州特别定出法律，用公家的款项免费接待并支援一切逃避‘战争、饥荒，或逼迫他们之人的压迫’而横渡大西洋来到美洲的任何国家的基督徒。这样，逃亡和压制的人得以依法成为美洲殖民地的宾客了。”从美国的祖先第一次在普里穆斯登陆之后的二十年中，接踵来到新英格兰安家的人竟达二万人之多。[20]{GC 296.1}
§42
As the tidings spread through the countries of Europe, of a land where every man might enjoy the fruit of his own labor and obey the convictions of his own conscience, thousands flocked to the shores of the New World. Colonies rapidly multiplied. Massachusetts, by special law, offered free welcome and aid, at the public cost, to Christians of any nationality who might fly beyond the Atlantic to escape from wars or famine, or the oppression of their persecutors. Thus the fugitive and the downtrodden were, by statute, made the guests of the commonwealth.--Martyn, vol. 5, p. 417. In twenty years from the first landing at Plymouth, as many thousand Pilgrims were settled in New England. {GC 296.1}[20]
§43
为要达到他们所追求的目的起见，“他们只要能过着一种俭朴辛劳，仅得糊口的生活，就心满意足了。他们只求从土地中得到自己劳力合理的收获。那时没有什么发财的幻梦在他们的路上引诱他们。他们满足于他们社会缓慢而稳步的进展。他们耐心忍受旷野中的种种艰苦，用他们眼中的泪珠和额上的汗水浇灌自由的树苗，直到它在地上根深蒂固。”[21]{GC 296.2}
§44
To secure the object which they sought, they were content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality and toil. They asked nothing from the soil but the reasonable returns of their own labor. No golden vision threw a deceitful halo around their path. . . . They were content with the slow but steady progress of their social polity. They patiently endured the privations of the wilderness, watering the tree of liberty with their tears, and with the sweat of their brow, till it took deep root in the land. {GC 296.2}[21]
§45
他们以《圣经》为信仰的基础、智慧的泉源和自由的宪章。他们在家庭、学校和教会中殷勤教导其中的原则，它的果效便在俭朴、知识、纯洁和节制上显明出来了。一个人虽在清教徒的殖民地居留多年，也“看不到一个醉汉，听不到一句咒骂，遇不到一个乞丐。”这足以证明《圣经》所教导的原则乃是国家强盛的可靠保障。那几个软弱无力的孤立相隔的殖民地渐渐联合而组成了一个强大统一的国家，世人都以惊奇的目光注视着这“一个没有教皇的教会，和没有君王的国家”的和平繁荣佳景。[22]{GC 296.3}
§46
The Bible was held as the foundation of faith, the source of wisdom, and the charter of liberty. Its principles were diligently taught in the home, in the school, and in the church, and its fruits were manifest in thrift, intelligence, purity, and temperance. One might be for years a dweller in the Puritan settlement, and not see a drunkard, or hear an oath, or meet a beggar.--Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 19, par. 25. It was demonstrated that the principles of the Bible are the surest safeguards of national greatness. The feeble and isolated colonies grew to a confederation of powerful states, and the world marked with wonder the peace and prosperity of a church without a pope, and a state without a king. {GC 296.3}[22]
§47
但后来被吸引到美洲海岸的人越来越多，而他们的动机与那些初来的人大不相同。虽然有原始的信仰和纯洁仍在发挥着广泛陶冶的能力，可是，当那些单求世俗利益的人越来越多时，它的影响力也就越来越弱了。[23]{GC 296.4}
§48
But continually increasing numbers were attracted to the shores of America, actuated by motives widely different from those of the first Pilgrims. Though the primitive faith and purity exerted a widespread and molding power, yet its influence became less and less as the numbers increased of those who sought only worldly advantage. {GC 296.4}[23]
§49
早期殖民者只许教友在政府中有表决和任职的权利，这种规例造成了最恶劣的结果。这原是用来保持国家纯洁的办法，孰料其结果却使教会陷于腐化的状态中，表白信仰既是参政和担任公职的条件，许多单为属世利益所动的人就加入了教会，但他们的内心并没有改变。如此，教会之内就增添了许多没有悔改的人；甚至于在教牧人员之中，也有一些人不但相信错谬的道理，而且对于圣灵更新的能力也一无所知。这样，教会历史中自从康司旦丁直到今日所时常看到的不良后果再度出现了，这种后果是出于人们试图借助于政府的支持来建立教会，而凭借世俗的力量来维持那声称“我的国不属于这世界”（约18:36）之主的福音。教会与政府联合，表面上可以使世界更接近教会，但实际上却使教会更接近世界了。[24]{GC 297.1}
§50
The regulation adopted by the early colonists, of permitting only members of the church to vote or to hold office in the civil government, led to most pernicious results. This measure had been accepted as a means of preserving the purity of the state, but it resulted in the corruption of the church. A profession of religion being the condition of suffrage and officeholding, many, actuated solely by motives of worldly policy, united with the church without a change of heart. Thus the churches came to consist, to a considerable extent, of unconverted persons; and even in the ministry were those who not only held errors of doctrine, but who were ignorant of the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Thus again was demonstrated the evil results, so often witnessed in the history of the church from the days of Constantine to the present, of attempting to build up the church by the aid of the state, of appealing to the secular power in support of the gospel of Him who declared: My kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36. The union of the church with the state, be the degree never so slight, while it may appear to bring the world nearer to the church, does in reality but bring the church nearer to the world. {GC 297.1}[24]
§51
鲁滨逊和威廉罗哲所那么豪勇维护的大原则——真理是进步的，基督徒应当随时接受上帝圣言中所照耀的一切亮光——竟被他们的后人所忽略了。美国的改正教会——欧洲的教会也是如此——虽然受了宗教改革运动那么大的福惠，但没有在改革的道路上勇往直前。虽然时时有少数忠心的人兴起，宣讲新的真理并揭露教会所长久保留的谬道，可是大多数的人都像基督时代的犹太人或路德时代的罗马教徒一样，满足于他们祖先所相信的道理，并照他们作人的方法作人。因此宗教又堕落到徒具形式的地步；而且他们仍保留了许多错误和迷信。原来他们若能一直行在上帝圣言的光中，就必能放弃这些错误和迷信。于是宗教改革运动所引起的精神渐渐消失了，以至这时的改正教会本身竟也迫切地需要改革，几乎像在路德的时代罗马教会需要改革一样。因为这时教会中也存在着同样的世俗的欲念和属灵的愚昧，同样地尊重人的意见，并用人的理论代替上帝圣言的教训。[25]{GC 297.2}
§52
The great principle so nobly advocated by Robinson and Roger Williams, that truth is progressive, that Christians should stand ready to accept all the light which may shine from Gods holy word, was lost sight of by their descendants. The Protestant churches of America,--and those of Europe as well,--so highly favored in receiving the blessings of the Reformation, failed to press forward in the path of reform. Though a few faithful men arose, from time to time, to proclaim new truth and expose long-cherished error, the majority, like the Jews in Christs day or the papists in the time of Luther, were content to believe as their fathers had believed and to live as they had lived. Therefore religion again degenerated into formalism; and errors and superstitions which would have been cast aside had the church continued to walk in the light of Gods word, were retained and cherished. Thus the spirit inspired by the Reformation gradually died out, until there was almost as great need of reform in the Protestant churches as in the Roman Church in the time of Luther. There was the same worldliness and spiritual stupor, a similar reverence for the opinions of men, and substitution of human theories for the teachings of Gods word. {GC 297.2}[25]
§53
第十九世纪初叶《圣经》广为销行，因此便有大光照耀在世界上，但是真理的知识和信仰的实践并没有同样的进步。这时，撒但不能像中古世代一样使人听不到上帝的话；因为这时人人都可以得到《圣经》；所以为要达到他的目的起见，他就引诱多人轻看《圣经》。人们既忽略查考《圣经》，他们也就继续接受虚伪的解释，并保持许多没有《圣经》为根据的道理。[26]{GC 298.1}
§54
The wide circulation of the Bible in the early part of the nineteenth century, and the great light thus shed upon the world, was not followed by a corresponding advance in knowledge of revealed truth, or in experimental religion. Satan could not, as in former ages, keep Gods word from the people; it had been placed within the reach of all; but in order still to accomplish his object, he led many to value it but lightly. Men neglected to search the Scriptures, and thus they continued to accept false interpretations, and to cherish doctrines which had no foundation in the Bible. {GC 298.1}[26]
§55
撒但既看出他再不能用逼迫的方法扑灭真理，他便又采用了最先引起大背道并成立罗马教会的妥协的办法。但这时撒但不是引诱基督徒与异教徒联合，乃是与那些溺爱世俗的人，就是以世俗为偶像的人联合。这种联合的毒果今日并不稍减于从前的世代；骄奢淫佚竟在宗教的伪装之下滋长起来，于是教会就腐化了。撒但继续歪曲《圣经》的道理，于是那败坏千万人的遗传就根深蒂固了。教会一直高举并维护这些遗传，而没有“为从前一次交付圣徒的真道争辩。”这样，许多改革家所为之费了那么多心血，受了那么多痛苦的真理原则，竟被人轻视了。[27]{GC 298.2}
§56
Seeing the failure of his efforts to crush out the truth by persecution, Satan had again resorted to the plan of compromise which led to the great apostasy and the formation of the Church of Rome. He had induced Christians to ally themselves, not now with pagans, but with those who, by their devotion to the things of this world, had proved themselves to be as truly idolaters as were the worshipers of graven images. And the results of this union were no less pernicious now than in former ages; pride and extravagance were fostered under the guise of religion, and the churches became corrupted. Satan continued to pervert the doctrines of the Bible, and traditions that were to ruin millions were taking deep root. The church was upholding and defending these traditions, instead of contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Thus were degraded the principles for which the Reformers had done and suffered so much. {GC 298.2}[27]