he governor and one of the council to repair to the
church. He came at the time of the court of assistants, and upon the
lecture day, after sermon, the pastor called him forth and declared the
occasion, and then gave him leave to speak; and, indeed, it was a
spectacle which caused many weeping eyes, though it afforded matter of
much rejoicing to behold the power of the Lord Jesus in his ordinances,
when they are dispensed in his own way, holding forth the authority of
his regal sceptre in the simplicity of the gospel. He came in his worst
clothes, being accustomed to take great pride in his bravery and
neatness, without a band, in a foul linen cap pulled close to his eyes,
and standing upon a form, he did, with many deep sighs and abundance of
tears, lay open his wicked course, his adultery, his hypocrisy, his
persecution of God's people here, and especially his pride, as the root
of all which caused God to give him over to his sinful courses, and
contempt of magistrates. * * * * * He spake well, save that his
blubbering, etc., interrupted him, and all along he discovered a broken
and melting heart and gave good exhortations to take heed of such
vanities and beginnings of evil as had occasioned his fall. And in the
end he earnestly and humbly besought the church to have compassion on
him and to deliver him out of the hands of Satan."

In truth, the Captain "did protest too much." This well-acted and
well-costumed piece of vainglorious repentance was not his first
appearance in the Boston meeting-house in this role. Twice before had he
been the chief actor in a similar scene, and twice had he been forgiven
by the church and by individuals specially injured. He was not alone in
his "blubbering," as Winthrop plainly puts it. The minister at Jedburgh,
Scotland, for similar offenses, "prostrated himself on the floor of the
Assembly, and with weeping and howling, entreated for pardon." He was
thus sentenced:

"That in Edinburgh as the capital, in Dundee as his native town, in
Jedburgh as the scene of his ministration, he should stand in sack-cloth
at the church door, also on the repentance-stool, and for two Sundays in
each place."

The most striking and noble figure to suffer public penance in American
history was Judge Samuel Sewall. He was one of the board of magistrates
who sat in judgment at the famous witchcraft trials in Salem and Boston
in the first century of New England life. Through his superstition and
by his s