美國語文第六冊 第192期:新英格蘭清教徒先輩的品格(4)

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自由的原則和對專制勢力奮起反抗，在清教徒心中深深扎根，

it was not more so than their piety and sense of religious obligation.

這與他們的虔誠和宗教責(zé)任感如出一轍。

They were emphatically a people whose God was the Lord.

他們都強(qiáng)調(diào)以上帝為君主的人。

Their form of government was as strictly theocratical, if direct communication be excepted, as was that of the Jews;

如果接受直接交流的話，他們的政府體制嚴(yán)格符合猶太人的神權(quán)政治;

insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them entirely distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

就此程度而言，很難說在他們中間存在完全有別于教會(huì)裁判權(quán)的民權(quán)。

Whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered themselves into a church;

一旦他們中有些人在一座城鎮(zhèn)定居下來，他們很快就會(huì)組建一個(gè)教堂;

and their elders were magistrates, and their code of laws was the Pentateuch.

其中年長者是地方法官，所依據(jù)的法典則是《摩西五書》。

These were forms, it is true, but forms which faithfully indicated principles and feelings;

這些雖然是一些組織形式，但實(shí)際上忠實(shí)于原則和情感，

for no people could have adopted such forms, who were not thoroughly imbued with the spirit, and bent on the practice, of religion.

因?yàn)闆]有誰會(huì)采納這樣沒有完全激發(fā)基督教精神，而傾向于宗教常規(guī)的形式。

God was their King; and they regarded him as truly and literally so, as if he had dwelt in a visible palace in the midst of their state.

上帝是他們的王;他們將上帝視為真正和真實(shí)的存在，仿佛他就住在他們國家一個(gè)能看得見的宮殿里似的。

They were his devoted, resolute, humble subjects; they undertook nothing which they did not beg of him to prosper;

他們是他虔敬、堅(jiān)決且謙恭的臣民;他們只要祈求他保佑他們繁榮興旺，什么都可以承擔(dān);

they accomplished nothing without rendering to him the praise;

他們不吝對他的贊美，任何事業(yè)都可以完成;

they suffered nothing without carrying their sorrows to his throne; they ate nothing which they did not implore him to bless.

只要向他傾訴衷腸，任何困苦都不在話下。