So that when their laws were made, their judges were to act thereby in religious affairs, instead of the laws of God. But what followed among them may be a warning to all after ages, against confounding church and state together in their government. For disputes and divisions about grace and works, between their chief rulers and ministers, came on in Boston, and spread through all the country to a great degree. A fast was appointed on account of it, on January 19, 1637; but Mr. Wheelwright then preached a sermon which increased their difficulties, for which he was called before their general court, March 9, who dismissed him for the present; and when they met May 17, after a sharp contention, Mr. Winthrop was again chosen governor, and Mr. Vane was left out of office, and the case of Wheelwright was again deferred. A synod of ministers from all the colonies met at Cambridge, August 30, and sat three weeks, and drew up a list of eighty errors which they said were held in the country; and then the general court met September 26, and again dismissed Mr. Wheelwright, and dissolved the house of deputies, and called another for November 2, 1637. Such an instance as never was here before or since, of electing the house of deputies twice in one fall. The house they dissolved had twenty-six deputies, and the new one thirty-one, only eleven of whom were in that which was dissolved. And now they had a majority to punish those whom the synod had condemned; and they went on to banish John Wheelwright, William Aspinwall, Ann Hutchinson, and others, and to disarm seventy-six men, fifty-eight of whom were of Boston. Of these Mr. Wheelwright and some others went and planted Exeter in New Hampshire, and were dismissed and recommended to form a church there, from the church in Boston;* though Mr. Williams was excommunicated by the church in Salem, after he had been banished by the court, for things that Governor Winthrop judged to be less dangerous than the other was * Belknap's 1637.] PERSECUTIONS. 47 guilty of.* Wheelwright was banished for what they judged to be sedition and contempt of their government, and Williams for denying that they had any right to make laws, and enforce them with the sword in religious affairs. Wheelwright afterwards made a slight confession to them, and was restored to favour, but Williams never retracted his opinion about liberty of conscience, therefore they never would restore him. And how many have there been ever since, who have been more earnest for the use of force in religious affairs, than for the peace and good order of civil government! but wise men learn much by the mistakes of others. Mr. John Haynes was governor of Massachusetts in 1635, and pronounced the sentence of banishment on Williams: but he removed to Hartford in the spring of 1637, where he afterwards said to Williams, "I think I must confess to you, that the most wise God hath provided and cut out this part of his world for a receptacle and refuge for all sorts of consciences. I am now under a cloud, and my brother Hooker, with the Bay, as you have been; we have removed from them thus far, and yet they are not satisfied." This confirms what was before said of the difference between the Massachusetts and Connecticut go vernments. In September, 1638, Massachusetts made a law to compel all the inhabitants in each town to pay an equal proportion towards the support of religious ministers, though none had a vote in choosing them but communicants in their churches. And they then made another law, which said, "That whosoever shall stand excommunicated for the space of six months, without labouring what in him or her lieth to be restored, such person shall be presented to the court of assistants, and there proceeded with by fine, imprisonment, banishment, or farther for the good behaviour, as thei; contempt and obstinacy upon full hearing shall deserve." But this act was so high and glaring that it was repealed the next year. In the mean * Hutchinson's Collections, p. 71. time, as adultery was a capital crime by the law of Moses, a law to punish it with death was made at Boston, in 1631, and three persons were banished for it in 1638, and a man and a woman were hanged for it in 1644. CHAPTER III. Rhode Island planted-Their first government-Providence upon another plan-The Baptist church there-Their sentiments spreadAccount of Knollys-A law against the Baptists—And writings, also-Men in England against them-The case of Gorton and his company-Indians against them-They are banished, but obtain relief from England-Williams obtains a new charter, and writes against persecution, and Cotton against him-Owen for himThese colonies for severity; but Robinson for liberty. WHEN Such cruelty was exercised at Boston, Mr. John Clarke, his brother Joseph, and many others concluded to remove away; and when they came to Providence, Mr. Williams advised them to go to the island of Aquidnet; and he went with them to Plymouth, to inquire whether they claimed it or not; and finding that they did not, many went there, and signed a covenant on March 7, 1638, in which they said, "We whose names are under Exodus, 4. xi. 3. 2 Kings, written, do here solemnly, in the presence of JEHOVAH, incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and as he shall help, will submit our persons, lives, and estates, unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word xi. 17. Lof truth, to be guided and judged thereby. William Coddington, John Clarke, William Hutchinson, John Cogshall, William Aspinwall, Thomas Savage, William Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Sherman, John Walker, Richard Carder, William Baulstone, Edward 1638.] INCORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND. 49 Hutchinson, Edward Hutchinson, junior, Samuel Wilbore, John Sanford, John Porter, Henry Bull." This I copied from their records. Those whose names are in Italic afterwards went back, and were reconciled to Massachusetts; and most of the others were of note on the island, which they called Rhode Island. Their covenant to be governed by the perfect laws of Christ as a body politic, seemed to be preferable to the scheme of Massachusetts; yet as they could not find laws to govern such a body in the New Testament, they went back to the laws of Moses, and elected a judge and three elders to rule them. And an assembly of their freemen, on January 2, 1639, said, "That the judge, together with the elders, shall rule and govern according to the general rules of the word of God, when they have no particular rule from God's word, by the body prescribed as a direction unto them in the case." But on March 12, 1640, they changed their plan of government, and elected a governor, and four assistants; and they went on till they disfranchised four men, and suspended others from voting in their elections; afterwards Mr. Williams went over to England, and obtained a charter which included them in his government. He had procured a deed of Rhode Island for them, from the Narraganset sachems, on March 24, 1638; and another to himself of Providence, the same day. He and a few friends had been there for two years before; and when he had obtained a deed of the town, he gave a deed to Stukely Westcoat, William Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, John Green, John Throckmorton, William Harris, William Carpenter, Thomas Olney, Francis Western, Richard Waterman, Ezekiel Holiman, and such others as the major part of them should admit into fellowship and vote with them. To these he gave a right in the town freely; but they who were received afterwards, were to pay him thirty shillings a piece. And they were Chad Brown, William Field, Thomas Harris, William Wickenden, Robert Williams, Richard Scott, William Renolds, John Field, John Warner, Thomas Angell, Benedict Arnold, Joshua Winsor, Thomas Hopkins, Francis Weeks, &c. They all signed a covenant which said, "We whose names are underwritten, being desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to submit ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for the public good of the body in an orderly way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together into a township, and such others whom they shall admit unto the same, only in civil things." And I found a record afterward, which said, "It was agreed that Joshua Verin, upon breach of covenant, or restraining liberty of conscience, shall be withheld from liberty of voting till he shall declare the contrary." He restrained his wife from going to meeting as often as she desired; and upon this act against him he removed away, as their records show. And the men who were for such liberty, soon formed the first Baptist church in America. Mr. Williams had been accused before of embracing principles which tended to anabaptism; and in March, 1639, he was baptized by one of his brethren, and then he baptized about ten more. But in July following, such scruples were raised in his mind about it, that he refrained from such administrations among them.* Mr. Williams discovers in his writings, that as sacrifices and other acts of worship were omitted by the people of God, while his temple lay in ruins; and that they were restored again by immediate direction from Heaven, so that some such direction was necessary to restore the ordinances of baptism and the supper, since the desolation of the church in mystical Babylon. But these cases are far from being parallel; for the altar of God in one place in the land of Canaan, was the only place where acceptable sacrifices could then be offered; while the Christian church is not confined to any place, but Christ is with his saints wherever they meet in his name; and he says to his ministers, Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the † Reply to Cotton, p. 107. • Winthrop, p. 174. 183. |