John Robinson was the pastor of the English Separatists who became known as the Pilgrims. Although he remained in Leiden when part of his congregation sailed for America, his sermons and letters helped prepare them for the dangers and responsibilities of their journey.
Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, explains how Robinson used Scripture to counsel the emigrants before the Mayflower departed. His influence traveled with the Pilgrims even though he never reached Plymouth himself.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
00:00:10
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habeeb and this is our American stories, the show where America is the star and the American people you to share. Another story is Robert Morgan, who’s the author of one hundred Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. Let’s take a listen.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: After King Henry the eighth severed ties with Rome and appointed himself the head of the Church of England in fifteen fifty three, three groups of Protestants emerged. First the Anglicans, who continued within the traditions of their church. Secondly the Puritans, who wanted to work within Anglicanism to reform and to purify it, And third separatists and dissenters, who were determined to establish their own ends pendant congregations. Over the next one hundred years or so, the Puritans and the separatists faced extreme pressure from the English crown, and this compelled many of them to flee their country. One of these men was named John Robinson born in fifteen seventy six. He had gotten his education at Cambridge, which was a hot bed of Puritanism. It was the intellectual center of the Puritan movement, and during his studies there, John Robinson adopted the belief system of the Puritans. After graduation, he became the pastor of Saint Edward’s Church in Norwich, England. But King James the First put so much pressure on the Puritans that Robinson found it impossible to continue being a pastor. As a result, he began meeting with other separatists in the home of William Brewster in the village of Scruby. There was also a sixteen year old who worshiped with the same small congregation, and his name was William Bradford. John Robinson became the spiritual leader of this group and the pastor of this informal church. But it was the church that met in this house which contained the seeds of the United States of America. When these Christians faced the eminent possibility of imprisonment, they had to make a very hard decision. John Robinson, William Brewster, William Bradford, and the others left their native land of England and emigrated to Holland. John Robinson began pastoring his congregation, which was now in the Dutch city of Leiden. The church flourished and tripled in size there, but these dissenters grew concerned at how easily their children were being assimilated into the Dutch culture. They were strangers in the land. Somehow, an idea arose in their hearts to emigrate to the New World, where they could establish a colony to freely pursue their English customs while retaining religious liberty. It was a breathtaking idea. With the exception of Jamestown, no English colony had survived in the New World, and Jamestown was hardly an exception. It was a disaster. Of the thirty six hundred settlers sent to Jamestown, three thousand of them had perished. Going to the New World must have seemed to these dissenters like colonizing the moon. Yet they felt compelled to go. They said, it is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments caused to wish themselves home again. As William Bradford would later write, they knew they were pilgrims. Their beloved pastor John Robinson was heartbroken when he realized he couldn’t leave the bulk of his congregation to travel with these pilgrims. He hoped to join them later, but death kept him from fulfilling his dream. Unable to go himself, Robinson led his church in a very emotional send off. About one hundred and twenty five members signed up for the first voyage, with the rest planning to come later. Robinson proclaimed the Day of Solemn Humiliation, on which he delivered a passionate sermon based on Ezra chapter eight, verse twenty one, which is about Ezra leading the remnant of Jews from exile to the promised land. Robinson’s text apparently encompassed the paragraph from verses twenty one to twenty three, which says, then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to REQUI west of the King and escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the King saying the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against those who forsake him. So he fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. After his sermon, Robinson led the congregation in powering our prayers to the Lord. Then he traveled with the pilgrims to the harbor, where the reverend pastor, it has said, fell down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery eyes, commended them with the most fervent prayers to God. From deafshaven. The pilgrims sailed to Southampton, where they boarded a creaky little ship called the Mayflower. This group of pilgrims ended up upon Cape cod and established the Mayflower Compact. They went on to establish the city of Boston and began building homes in churches and schools, including Harvard University. They wanted to establish a nation based on Biblical Judeo Christian values. Nothing like this had ever been done before in history, and it was their love for liberty and freedom that paved the way for the values that were later incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Great Puritan Migration, led by John Winthrop, occurred between sixteen thirty and sixteen forty, resulting in the establishment of the Massachusetts Bake Colony. But before the Puritans were there there were the Separatists, the Pilgrims who came to Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower in sixteen twenty and the search of freedom and for the sake of the Gospel.
00:07:06
Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Robert Morgan, who’s the author of one hundred Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith, the story of the Pilgrims, the story of the real founders of this country. Here on our American Story plee habib here and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.”
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