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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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vrays experience a softened and melancholy emotion when we reflect upon his rapid decline and premature death . His delicate constitution could not bear the rigours of the new climate , and the privations incident to the early settlement . The sufferings of one short year , the severities of a single winter , carried him off . As the termination of his life approached , he seemed to have been admitted to clearer views of the results of
the great enterprise which he had been called to conduct . His soul soared into those higher regions , from which the scenes of futurity can be discerned . In his dying hours he repeatedly uttered the prediction , which has already been so wonderfully fulfilled . ' He was persuaded , ' he said , < that although the
Lord was calling him away , he would raise up others to carry on the work that was begun , and that there would yet be many churches of the Lord Jesus Christ in this wilderness . ' While he sleeps by the side of their fathers , may our children of every generation venerate his character and cherish his memory .
Such was Francis Hig ^ inson ! We have cause to bless Providence that a character so bright and beautiful in all the attributes which can adorn the man , the patriot , and the Christian , was selected to take the lead in that great work commenced- at the formation of this Church , and which will never be finished
while error and bigotry remain — ' the further reformation of religion in the world , '"—Pp . 9—11 . The next name on the list , and a noble one it is , is that of Roger Williams . He " was chosen to succeed Francis Hig ginson , in opposition to the strong and repeated remonstrances of the Church in Boston , to which some of his peculiar
principles had given offence . He and his worthy colleague , Mr . Skelton , fearlessly exposed themselves to the reproaches of the ministers of the colony , by expressing their disapprobation of the institution of a Pastoral Association . They predicted that it would give rise to a Presbytery , aud they called upon the churches , if they valued their liberties , to resist the first movements towards
such a tyranny . The institution , which alarmed these vigilant guardians of the independence of the Congregational Churches , still exists under the name of the Boston Association , and although , to the honour of its members be it spoken , it has never produced the results which were apprehended , the ministers of this Church , in opposing it , did not think and act without reason . They argued with
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the wisdom of philosophers , they looked forward with the vision of prophets . The step , which they reprobated , has always been the first step in the progress of spiritual domination . It was by extensive associations , in the first instance of ministers , and then , of churches , that the primitive congregations were
gradually despoiled of their freedom , and brought in captive to enlarge the dominions of hierarchies- —to swell the power of bishops and popes . It has been by the means of them , that Presbyteries and Consociations , too often perverted into the worst forms of aristocracy by which human society can be oppressed , have in more modern times risen into
being" Roger Williams was faithfully and resolutely protected by the people of this place , through years of persecution from without ; and it was only by the persevering and combined efforts of all the other towns and churches that his separation and banishment were finally effected . The late learned historian of
Salem , the Rev . Dr . Bentley , says , with great justice of Mr . Williams , that * he was not afraid to stand alone for truth against the world / It was his good fortune to find in John Endicott , and in many others of his congregation in Salem , kindred spirits , ready and willing to take the same noble aud magnanimous stand . They adhered to him long and faithfully , and sheltered him from all assaults . And when at last he was
sentenced , by the General Court , to banishment from the colony , on account of his principles , we cannot but admire the fidelity of that friendship , which prompted many of the members of his congregation to accompany him in his exile , and partake of his fortunes , when an outcast upon the earth . It was in the midst of winter that they were thus driven forth from the civilized world . Can vou
not , my hearers , contemplate in imagination a deserted and destitute company of men , women , and children , struggling through the deep snows of an unexplored wilderness ? The storm is raging over their heads , bending the strong oak , swinging the lofty pine , and shaking from their branches a constant accumulation
of the drifts , beneath which they are almost buried from sight . —Chilled with the frosts , and worn down by fatigue , how slowly they make their way ! Who are they ? They are the minister of this Church , and a chosen band of his faithful flock ; and they are the victims of a bigoted interference , on the part of the other churches , in the affairs of that to
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Critical Notices . — Theological . 47
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/47/
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