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98 _ The Nonconformist. No. VIL
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...
the congregation , there were some of those brethren , who , in a day of temptation , broke forth into schismatical practices that were justly offensive unto all the churches in this wilderness .
"Our Anabaptists , when somewhat of exasperation was began , formed a church at Boston , on May 28 , 1665 , besides one which they had before at Swansey . Now they declared our infant baptism to be a mere nullity ; and they arrogate unto themselves the title of Baptists , as \ l none were baptized but themselves .
" The General Court , " continues Mr . Mather , " were so afraid lest matters might at last , from small beginnings , grow into a new Minister tragedy , that they enacted some laws for the restraint of Anabaptistical exorbitances . *
Can we wonder , after reading these short extracts , that exercising the right of private judgment should , in all preceding periods , have called down on the heads of the Baptists
the severest punishment , and on their memories the greatest odium , from those who possessed less light and knowledge than the New-England settlers ?
In the year 1031 , the 6 th of Charles I ., Roger Williams arrived in New England , and was invited to become an assistant preacher at Salem , near Boston ; but the Governor and council of the Massechusetts interposed their authority against the appointment . Mr . Williams had " refused
to join the Church at Boston , because they would not make a public declaration of their repentance for holdingcommunion with the Church of England while they lived there . " This was one of their objections to him ; but another was probably the more
weighty— " because he declared it as his opinion , that the civil magistrate might not punish any breach of the firs t table . " This denial of the magistrate ' s right to acontroul over religion , they forbore to punish for the
present ; and Mr . Williams became the minister of a congregation at Plymouth . Here he preached between two and three years , till finding a difference of opinion between himself and the leading members of his con-_ ^ - ¦ _ , ¦ - -r-- ¦ *• — - - ¦ * ¦ ¦ . » .. , .-. . _ . ^ , * Hist , of New England , B . vii . p . 27 .
The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...
gregation , he " requested a dismission to Salem , " whither he was again invited . He had now embraced the opinion of the Baptists , and was probably one of the first public opposers of infant baptism in the New World .
The distinguished figure he afterwards made , will , I hope , be a sufficient apology for these prefatory remarks . I feel happy in bringing him forward to your notice , for , in the judgment of Dr . Gordon , who , as an Independent , was perhaps a more competent judge
than a member of any other denomination could be , " Roger Williams justly claims the honour of having being the first legislator in the world , in its latter ages , that fully and effectually provided for and established a free , full and absolute liberty of conscience * ' His denial of the magistrate ' s right
to interfere in religious matters , having' at length procured his banishment , he sought and found an asylum among the Indians in Rhode Island . His kind , pacific and benevolent conduct won their hearts , and two of their distinguished Sachems made him a considerable grant of land . " It
was not price nor money ( said he twenty years afterwards ) that could have purchased Rhode Island . Rhode Island was obtained by love ; by the love and favour which that honourable gentleman Sir Henry Vane and myself had with that great Sachem
Miantinomu , " & c He subsequently remarks , " 1 having made covenant of peaceable neighbourhood with ali the sachems and natives round about us , and having , in a sense of God ' s Trierciful providence unto me in my distress , called the place Providence , I
desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience" Iu the full spirit of this desire , he admitted such as were seeking a place in which to worship God agreeably to the dictates of their consciences , to a share in his lands . Those who
were thus received signed a covenant , in which they promise obedience to laws ,-made by the consent of the major part of the inhabitants for the good of the body , only in civil things . He obtained a charter for the colony ,
at a great expense to himself , which he was never wholly repaid - and experienced the greatest ingratitude from those whom he laboured to protect , enrich and make happy . He was , however , at times the President
98 _ The Nonconformist. No. Vil
98 _ The Nonconformist . No . VIL
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 98, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/30/
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