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Transcribers Note: The typesetting in the book was poor, all errors
have been retained as printed.



               [Illustration: G. L. Brown. S. Schoff.

       LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS AT PLIMOUTH 11th. DEC. 1620.]




                                THE
                           SIN AND DANGER
                                 OF
                             SELF-LOVE
                             DESCRIBED,
                                IN A
                               SERMON
                              PREACHED
                 AT PLYMOUTH, IN NEW-ENGLAND, 1621,
                                 BY
                          ROBERT CUSHMAN.

                    WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

                              BOSTON:
                     PUBLISHED BY CHARLES EWER,
        AND FOR SALE BY CROCKER & BREWSTER, SAMUEL G. DRAKE,
              LITTLE & BROWN, JAMES MUNROE & COMPANY,
                BENJAMIN PERKINS, AND JAMES LORING.

                           DEC. 22, 1846.




                        BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH,
                                 BY
                          HON. JOHN DAVIS,

  LATE JUDGE OF THE U. S. DISTRICT COURT, MASSACHUSETTS DISTRICT.


ROBERT CUSHMAN, the author of the preceding discourse, was one
of the most distinguished characters among that collection of
worthies, who quitted England on account of their religious
difficulties, and settled with Mr. _John Robinson_, their pastor
in the city of Leyden, in Holland, in the year 1609. Proposing
afterwards a removal to America in the year 1617, Mr. Cushman and
Mr. John Carver, (afterwards the first Governor of New-Plymouth)
were sent over to England, as their agents, to agree with the
Virginia Company for a settlement, and to obtain, if possible, a
grant of liberty of conscience in their intended plantation, from
King James.

From this negotiation though conducted on their part with great
discretion and ability, they returned unsuccessful to Leyden, in
May 1618. They met with no difficulty indeed with the Virginia
Company, who were willing to grant them sufficient territory, with
as ample privileges as they could bestow: but the pragmatical
James, the pretended vicegerent of the Deity, refused to grant
them that liberty in religious matters, which was their principal
object--when this persevering people finally determined to
transport themselves to this country, relying upon James's promise
that he would _connive_ at, though not expressly _tolerate_ them;
Mr. Cushman was again dispatched to England in February 1619, with
Mr. William Bradford, another of the company, to agree with the
Virginia Company on the terms of their removal and settlement.

After much difficulty and delay, they obtained a patent in the
September following, upon which part of the Church at Leyden, with
their Elder Mr. Brewster determined to transport themselves as
soon as possible. Mr. Cushman was one of the agents in England to
procure money, shipping and other necessaries for the voyage, and
finally embarked with them at South-Hampton, August 5th, 1620.
But the ship, in which he sailed, proving leaky, and after twice
putting into port to repair, being finally condemned as unfit to
perform the voyage, Mr. Cushman with his family, and a number of
others were obliged, though reluctantly, to relinquish the voyage
for that time and returned to London. Those in the other ship
proceeded and made their final settlement at Plymouth in December
1620, where Mr. Cushman also arrived in the ship Fortune from
London, on the 10th of November 1621, but took passage in the
same ship back again, pursuant to the directions of the merchant
adventurers in London, (who fitted out the ship and by whose
assistance the first settlers were transported) to give them an
account of the plantation.[A] He sailed from Plymouth December
13th, 1621, and arriving on the coast of England, the ship, with
a cargo, valued at 500l. sterling, was taken by the French. Mr.
Cushman, with the crew, was carried into France; but arrived in
London in the February following. During his short residence at
Plymouth, though a mere lay character, he delivered the preceding
discourse, which was printed in London in 1622, and afterwards
re-printed in Boston in 1724. And though his name is not prefixed
to either edition, yet unquestionable tradition renders