Life of Roger Williams

Preface

In New England, the name of Roger Williams is now a household word. As one of the earliest advocates, and the first legislator of religious liberty, his fame has recently been more widely diffused. An admirable poem, by Judge Durfee, entitled " Roger Williams in Banishment," was reprinted in this country in 1840, and in 1848 Williams's " Bloudy Tenent of Persecution Discussed " was published by the Hanserd Knollys Society, with a biographical introduction by the able ' ditor, E. B. Underbill, Esq. But, until now, no exnded life of Williams has appeared in England.

In describing the conduct of this extraordinary man, as well as that of his persecutors^ truth has compelled the Author sometimes to censure where he would gladly praise, but he has endeavoured to maintain the strictest impartiality. The spirit of Williams was eminently catholic ; and his name and memory are the property, not of a single denomination, but of the whole Christian world.

In preparing the present volume, the writer has spared no pains to obtain information from every source, whether contained in MSS. or printed works, and many facts relative to Williams's early life are now for the iv PREFACE.

first time presented to the public. He is happy here to ofier his acknowledgments to Lord H. Vane, and to several clergymen and literary gentlemen, for courteous replies to his inquiries, and for some valuable facts.

A Memoir of Roger Williams was published in the United States in 1834, by Professor Knowles. It is a work of great research, and very useful for reference, but too much encumbered with documents, and too minute in its local details, to interest English readers. To this volume the writer is largely indebted.

In the numerous extracts given from the manuscripts of Williams, no alteration has been made, except to modernize the orthography, and to correct the punctuation when necessary to render his meaning more perspicuous.

No portrait of Williams is known to exist. One, indeed, has been published in the United States, purporting to be such, but it is spurious, being, with slight alterations, the likeness of Benjamin Franklin, which appeared in an edition of his works printed in Philadelphia about half a century ago.

At a crisis when the public mind, in this and other countries, is so strongly excited on questions of civil and religious liberty, the great principle advocated by Roger Williams — that civil rulers have no authority to prescribe, enjoin, or regulate religious belief — demands the most serious consideration of every church and of every government.

Contents

PAGE

Preface iii

Chapter I

Historical Notice of the First Settlements of New England — Opinions of the Puritans on Ecclesiastical Affairs 1

CHAPTER n.

Early Life of Williams— His Education at Salters' Hall— Studies at Oxford— Is admitted to Orders— Becomes a decided Nonconformist . .

CHAPTER in.

Roger AVUUams embarks for America— He arrives in Boston— His Opinions on Ecclesiastical Polity— He is invited to Salem— The General Court interferes — He removes to Plymouth 12

CHAPTER IV.

Williams returns to Salem— He disapproves of the Ministers' Meetings —His Treatise against the King's Patent— Controversy about the Cross in the Military Colours

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

rAQE

Proceedings which led to the Banishment of Roger Williams — His Opposition to the Freeman's Oath— Various Charges against him — The Decree of Banishment — He leaves Salem 24

CHAPTER VI.

Williams's Journey through the Wilderness to Narragansett Bay— He visits Massasoit— Proceeds to Seekonk, and begins a Settlement— He crosses the River, and founds the Town of Providence 31

CHAPTER VII.

The Indian Tribes in New England— Purchase of Lands from the Indians — Settlement of the Colony at Providence — Freedom of its Government

CHAPTER VIII.

The Pequod War— Williams prevents the Indian League, and saves the Colonies from Destruction— Services to Massachusetts — Letter to Governor Winthrop— The Defeat and Ruin of the Pequods 43

CHAPTER IX.

Condition of Providence— Law to protect Conscience — Mrs. Hutchinson is banished from Massachusetts— Her Adherents are welcomed at Providence— Settlement on Rhode Island commenced — The Agency of Williams in its Purchase 51

CHAPTER X.

League of the New England Colonies — The Settlements in Rhode Island excluded— Williams's first Visit to England— Publishes his Key to the Indian Languages — Obtains a Charter — His Letter to Cotton — The "BloudyTenent"— He returns to America— His Reception at Boston and Providence 58

CONTENTS. VU

CHAPTER XI.

PAGE

Williams's Eiforts in preventing a general Indian War — Form of Government under the Charter — Spirit of the Laws — Dissensions— Williams's Letter to the Town of Providence— Coddington's Commission —Oppressive Policy of the other New England Colonies— Persecution of John Clarke and others in Massachusetts— Letter of Sir Richard Saltonstall— Williams and Clarke appointed Agents to the Mother Country . . 70

CHAPTER XII.

Williams and Clarke sail for England — Coddington's Commission revoked, and the former Charter confirmed — Letter of the General Assembly to Williams— Publishes his Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and theirPreservatives—" The Hireling Ministry "—Rejoinder to Cotton— Correspondence 78

CHAPTER Xin.

Williams's Correspondence with the Daughter of Sir Edward Coke— His Intercourse with Sir Henry Vane, CromweU, and Milton .... 88

CHAPTER XIV.

Williams returns to America — His Letter to Governor Winthrop — Reorganization of the Government — He is elected President of the Colony — His Letter to the Government of Massachusetts — His Letter on Civil and Religious Liberty , 102

CHAPTER XV.

Letter from Cromwell— Williams attempts to establish Friendly Relations with Massachusetts — Severe Laws against the Quakers in the other Colonies— Rhode Island refuses to join in the Persecution— Letter to John Clarke— Williams retires from the Presidency 113

CHAPTER XVI.

The King grants a new Charter— Williams appointed an Assistant- Charges against Rhode Island refuted — Controversy with the Quakers —Philip's War— Services of WilUams 121

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

PAGE

Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Colony — Williams's Religious Opinions —His Labours as a Minister— His Letter to Governor Bradstreet— His Death 132

CHAPTER XVIII.

General Estimate of his Character— Spread of his great Principle- Concluding Observations 138

I. Williams's Letter to Major Mason 145

II. Extract from Sir Henry Vane's Healing Question propounded, &c. —The Charter granted by Charles H. to Rhode Island, July 8,

1663 156

III. Genealogy of the Cromwell Family .173

LIFE OF EOGEE WILLIAMS.

Like Israel's host, to exile driven, Across the flood the pilgrims fled ;

Their hands bore up the ark of Heaven, And Heaven their trusting footsteps led,

Till on these savage shores they trod,

And won the wilderness for God."

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS OF NEW ENGLAND — OPINIONS OF THE PURITANS ON ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.

In the days that are past, when men, who were in advance of their age, discovered new truths in religion or philosophy, they were usually called to suffer or die in their defence. The seed fell on an ungrateful soil, was often watered with blood, and remained buried for ages, until at length a genial season caused it to spring up and bear abundant fruit.

Roger Williams was more favoured. He suffered, indeed, for the noble principle he was the first to proclaim in the New AVorld ; but he afterwards bore it in triumph to the sanctuary he himself had provided, founded a state in accordance with it, embodied it in his own laws, and thus acquii-ed immortal fame, as the earliest legislator and true champion for a full and absolute liberty of conscience.

To enable the reader intelligently to peruse the life of B this eminent individual, it will be necessary to present a concise narrative of the first settlement of New England, and to consider the basis on which the colony of Massachusetts Bay erected the fabric of their society.

In September, 1620, a company of English Protestants, exiles for religion, set sail for a new world; and, after a long and boisterous passage of sixty-three days, were safely moored in the harbour of Cape Cod. In the cabin of the 3IayJiower, before they landed, they formed themselves into a body politic, " to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws " as should be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony they had undertaken to plant, "for the glory of God and advancement of the christian faith, and honour of their king and country." This volmitary compact was signed by the whole body of men, forty-one in number, who, with their families, amounted to one hundred persons. The spot where the company fixed a permanent settlement, on the 11th of December, they named Plymouth, in remembrance of the hospitalities they received at the last English port whence they embarked.

These colonists had left England, on account of the oppression they endm-ed, so early as 1608, and settled at Ley den, in Holland, where they attained " a comfortable condition, grew in the gifts and grace of the Spirit of God, and lived together in peace, and love, and holiness." The magistrates of the city said, " Never did we have any suit or accusation against any of them." But they felt as men in exile ; and a foreign language, and the lax morals prevalent in that comitry, induced the pilgrims to change their abode, and seek an asylum in the New World. The farewell address delivered to them by their pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, breathes a freedom of opinion greatly in advance of his age : — " I charge you, before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no fmiher than the instruments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. I beseech you remember it — 'tis an article of yomchurch covenant, that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God."

The settlements composing the colony of Massachusetts Bay occurred a few years later. This magnificent enterprise was conducted under the direction of the Plymouth Company, who obtained a patent, by which a number of the nobility and gentry of England, their associates and successors, were constituted "the council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing, of New England, in America." The council for New England, in 1628, sold to several gentlemen, among whom were John Humphrey and John Endicott, a belt of land stretching across the whole breadth of the continent, extending three miles south of the river Charles and the Massachusetts Bay, and tln-ee miles north of every part of the river Merrimac. In June, of the same year, a company of emigrants, under the direction of the enterjjrising and intrepid Endicott, sailed for Naumkeag, since called Salem, where they made a permanent settlement. The patent from the council at Plymouth gave a right to the soil, but no powers of government. A royal charter, which bears the signatm-e of Charles I., passed the seals March 4th, 1629, a few days only before the kmg, in a public state-paper, avowed his design of governing without a parliament. By this charter, the associates were constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. They were empowered to elect, annually, for ever, out of the freemen of said company, a governor, a deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, and to make laws not repugnant to the laws of England; no provision requiring the assent of the king to render the acts of the body valid.

A powerful impulse was thus given to the fi-iends of colonial enterprise ; and, immediately, an emigration, unparalleled for its extent and the great respectability of the emigrants, was projected.

The Rev. Francis Higginson, an eminent nonconforming minister, of a truly catholic spirit, received an invitation to conduct another band of pilgrims to the shores of New England. He was a graduate of the university of Cambridge, and ranked among the most eloquent and pious in the realm. Higginson, earnestly desiring to propagate the gospel among the Indians, considered the invitation as a call from heaven. On leaving the scene of his labom-s for London, people of all ranks crowded the streets to bid him farewell. Thi^ee additional ministers joined the company. AMien about to lose sight of theii- native land — the home of their fathers, and the dwelling-place of their friends — Higginson took his children and others to the stern of the ship, and said : — " TFe will not say, as the Separatists were wont to say, ' Farewell Babylon ! — farewell Rome ! ' but Farewell dear England ! — farewell the church of Christ in England ! though we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it." He then concluded with a fervent and appropriate prayer for the king and the church in England, and for themselves and the expedition.

In June, 1629, tliis pious band of two hundred individuals arrived at Salem, where they hoped to kindle the light of the gospel amid the darkness of heathenism, and to plant a church free fi'om the corruptions of human superstition.

Many persons of large fortune, and superior education, resolved to remove with their families to Massachusetts, provided the power, conferred by the charter of the colony, and the seat of government, should be transferred to America. This important measure was fully acceded to, and on the 28th of April, 1630, John Winthrop, who had been chosen governor — a man whose mental endowments derived lustre from the noblest moral qualities — sailed \\dth his associates in the Arabella from Yarmouth. The whole number of vessels employed during the season was seventeen, and they carried over more than fifteen hundred passengers. In June and July, the fleet which bore Winthi'op and his companions arrived at Salem. The fii-st care of the colonists was to select the most suitable places for the new plantations, and it was not long before they were settled in Boston and the adjacent villages.

Before leaving the land of their nativity, they published to the world the reasons for their removal, and bade an affectionate farewell to the chm-ch of England. " Our hearts," say they, "shall be fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness." Their fervent piety, their unwavering faith in Divine Pro\idence, and their desire to form a pure chm-ch, enabled them to encounter every hardship with undaunted com^age. Many of this band of emigrants were men of large hereditary wealth, and high endowments ; scholars of varied and profound learning; civilians, who had attained official rank, power, and fame ; and divines, who had won the highest respect in their native land, and who were among the holiest and most gifted men of the age. Nor must we forget that there were many distinguished ladies who accompanied their husbands — Christian women, accustomed to the indulgences and refinements of life, and whose sincere reKgious faith gave them fortitude to endm-e the severest sufferings, and rendered them patient in their deepest sorrows, —

" What sought they thus afar ?

Bright jewels of the mine ?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — They sought a faith's pure shrine ! "

In order clearly to understand the causes of the oj^position Avhich Roger Williams encountered, in a colony planted by such men, we must briefly advert to the opinions they held on ecclesiastical affairs.

From the days of Elizabeth to the period we are now considering, there had existed in England a perpetual conflict between the prelatical party and the pui'itans; — the former determined to enforce strict uniformity; and the latter, strongly opposed to the popish ceremonies still retained in the church. The pmitans, as a body, at first desired reform, and not schism ; but when they were di'iven out from the communion of the chm'ch by cruel persecution, they united in forming societies more in accordance with their views of the New Testament model. Some approved of the presbyterian form of government, others of the independent, and a few preferred a modified episcopacy. Enlightened as these confessors were on the great doctrines, and on many of the minor points of church government, they still remained in ignorance of one very important principle — the natm-e of true religious liberty. Great as their sufferings had been, from the persecutions of the established chm-ch, they had failed to discover the malignant som^ce of this evil. They did not perceive, that whenever the state usm'ped power to legislate for conscience, a principle was set up which must inevitably lead to persecution and injustice — that to place the sovereign in the room of the pope was another form of antichrist, whose claims, if not so arrogant, were more inconsistent, than that of a pretended infallible head. They did not perceive that this assumed power of the state to govern the chm-ch was the great barrier to the carrying out of the reformation, and to the fai'ther scriptural changes they so fervently desired. If they had been so far tolerated that they could have remained in their own land, they would, like the English nonconformists, have found out, in the progress of time, their mistake ; but when they became legislators themselves, in the colonies they so nobly founded, theu^ error was a fruitful source of strife and division. Misled by analogies with the Mosaic institutions, they confounded the state with the church, the citizen with the Christian, and assumed themselves, though fallible men, the power exercised under the Jewish theocracy, by a Divine King and Infallible Legislator.

The principles of the puritans, who sought the shores of New England to establish religious liberty for themselves and their posterity, have been greatly misunderstood. What they meant by religious freedom was not an unlimited freedom of conscience. Universal toleration they regarded as a crime, and considered it a solemn duty to

God to oppose error and suppress false doctrines, if necessary, even by force. While we lament and condemn their conduct, a candid mind will remember that the true gromids of liberty of conscience were not then embraced by any sect of christians. All parties appeared to think themselves the sole depositories of truth, and that every opposing doctrine must be suppressed.

At tliis period, it was not the chm-ch of England alone that was intolerant ; even later, the Scotch commissioners in London remonstrated, in the name of their national church, against a " sinful and ungodly toleration in matters of religion ;" whilst the whole body of the English presbyterian clergy, in theii' official papers, protested against the schemes of Cromwell's party, and solemnly declared, "that they detested and abhorred toleration." The excellent Richard Baxter, a man noted in his day for moderation, said, "I abhor unlimited liberty or toleration for all." Edwards, another celebrated divine, observed, " Toleration will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another Amsterdam, a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon."

The fii'st settlers of New England were not, therefore, singular in believing themselves bound in conscience to extirpate every noxious weed from the garden of the Lord, and *' to use the sword of the civil magistrate to open the understandings of heretics, or cut them off from the state, that they might not infect the church or injure the public peace."* While, however, in forming a judgment of the pilgrim fathers, we fully admit these extenuating circumstances, our admiration must be increased for the fomider of Rhode Island, as the first legislator whose enlarged understanding and expansive charity led him to recognise the doctrine of entire religious freedom ; and to renounce the almost universal error of liis age.

* Callender, in R. I. Hist. Coll. iv, p. 71.

Chapter II

EARLY LIFE OF WILLLIMS — HIS EDUCATION AT SALTER'S HALL — STUDIES AT OXFORD — IS ADMITTED TO ORDERS — BECOMES A DECIDED NONCONFORMIST.

The seventeenth century has been justly called, by Dr. Chalmers, " the Augustan age of Christianity." It was the age of Howe, Baxter, Owen, Goodwin, and other eminent divines, who, by their preaching and wi'itings, effected a second reformation in the cliristian chm-ch.

At the commencement of this eventful period, when the intellect had received a powerful impulse, manifested in every form of inquiry, Eoger Williams was born, in an obscure country parish, amid the mountains of Wales. It is deeply to be regretted that so few memorials exist of his early history. Until now, even the chiistiaii name of his father, the place of his birth and education, and other incidents of his youthful days, were unknown, or rested merely on tradition. The present writer, for many years past, has spared no pains in inquiries respecting that period of his life, and he has been successful in obtaining several facts, which are now for the first time published.

Roger Williams, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, was the son of William Williams, of Conwyl Cayo, a parish situated near Lampeter, in the county of Carmarthen, South Wales. Here his ancestors had resided on their own small estate for many generations, at a place called Maestroiddyn fawr, in the hamlet of Maestroiddyn. In addition to other documentary evidence now in the possession of the author, the following record is copied from the archives of the university of Oxford: — "Rodericus Williams filius Gulielmi "Williams, de Conwelgaio, Plcb. an. nat. 18, entered at Jesus college, April 30, 1624." It appears from this record that Williams was born in the year 1606. Scarcely any of the parochial registers of Wales are fomid to go farther back than the times of the Commonwealth, and the earliest date of those of his native parish is 1694. Other facts, however, confirm the record preserved in the archives at Oxford. There is now living at Conwyl Cayo — or as it is more frequently called simply Cayo — a venerable patriarch, nearly one hundred years old, who is apparently of the same family with Roger Williams. The mental powers of this aged Nestor are still vigorous, and his memory tenacious with respect to circumstances which have long since transpii'ed. He says he has heard his grandfather mention "that the great Roger Williams, who was educated at Oxford, was one of his family, and that he went over the sea after being a clergyman for a few years in England." He asserts that his grandfather lived to the age of ninetyeight ; and that his great grandfather reached nearly the same advanced period. He says, also, that, at one time, there were two letters in the possession of his family which had been received by his great grandfather from Roger Williams.

No allusion to his parents is found in the writings of Williams, but he has left us one fact respecting his early years, which is of all others the most important. Near the close of his life he says, " from my cliildliood, now about three score years, the Father of lights and mercies touched my soul with a love to himself, to his only-begotten, the true Lord Jesus, and to his holy scriptm-es." This remark justifies the belief that his parents were pious, that he was educated mth care, and that religious principles had, at a very early period, a decided influence upon his mind.

At what age, or for what object, he was removed from the rm-al seclusion of his native hamlet to the busy scenes of London we have no record, but we find him, when a mere youth, in the metropolis.

The next authentic fact respecting his early history is found ill a note appended by Mrs. Sadleir, the daughter of

Sir Edward Coke, to one of Williams's letters addressed to herself: — "This Roger Williams, when he was a youth, would, in a short-hand, take sermons and speeches in the Star Chamber, and present them to my dear father. He, seeing so hopeful a youth, took such liking to him that he sent him in to Sutton's Hospital." * His age at that time could not have been more than fifteen years. This incident seems to indicate that his parents were in a respectable station in life, since it is evident he had received a good elementary education ; and the circumstance that his short-hand notes attracted the attention of the great lawyer is a proof of his early mental superiority.

The records of Sutton's Hospital — now the Charter House — fui'nish no other particulars than the foUomng — that Roger Williams was elected a scholar of that institution, June 25, 1621, and that he obtained an exhibition, July 9, 1624.

It appears from the register of his matriculation, at Oxford, to which we have abeady referred, that he entered at Jesus college, April 30, 1624. Cayo, the place of his bii'th, with Llansawell, is a consolidated parish, the great tithes of which belong to the head of Jesus college. This may account for his being a member of that college, and, perhaps, supported, in part, by the head. It may be added, that this college was founded by Dr. Hugh Price, in 1571, to extend the benefits of learning to the natives of Wales, and has always been a favom-ite resort of students from the Principality. The records fm-nish no evidence how long he remained at the imiversity, but his writings testify that he prosecuted his studies with industry, and drank deeply at the fountains of learning. At that period, logic and the classics formed the chief subjects of study in the prescribed course; but he devoted himself to other collateral branches. He was well versed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and several of the modern languages. There is a tradition that, after the completion of his residence at Oxford, he commenced the study of the law under

* MS. letter of Roger "Williams to Mrs. Sadleir in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.

the patronage of Sii' Edward Coke ; but, however this may be, the legal documents which proceeded from his pen exhibit a knowledge of general principles of equity and jurisprudence, that would have been creditable to the profession. Tliis knowledge qualified him for his duties as legislator of the colony he founded, and was of great value to him in his subsequent coui'se. It is quite evident, however, that the ministry of the gospel was his chosen pursuit ; for he had been admitted to orders, in the chm-ch of England, previous to his arrival in America. It is said, that he assumed, while in this country, the charge of a parish, and that he was held in high repute as a preacher. In his rejoinder to the Rev. John Cotton he speaks of riding together with that gentleman and the Kev. Mr. Hooker to and from Sempringham, Lincolnshire. Mr. Cotton was minister of Boston, in that county, for nearly twenty years before he settled in Massachusetts. The excellent Dr. Williams was at that time the bishop of Lincoln, who connived at the nonconformists, and spoke with some keenness against the ceremonies of the church. The subject of om- narrative had already embraced the tenets of the persecuted pui-itans, and all these circimistances render it very probable that his charge was in the diocese of Lincoln.

The intolerable oppressions of Laud, and the arrogant demand of absolute submission to the ceremonies of the English chm^ch, forced him to seek that religious liberty amid the wilds of America that was denied to him in the mother country. Higginson, Cotton, Hooker, and many other learned and pious ministers, had been silenced, and Williams could not expect that he would be suffered to preach, for his refusal to conform appears to have been most decided. We are not surprised, therefore, to find him among the early emigrants to New England.

Chapter III

ROGER WILLIAMS EMBARKS FOR AMERICA — ARRH^S IN BOSTON — HIS OPINIONS ON ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY — HE IS INVITED TO SALEM — GENERAL COURT INTERFERES — REMOVES TO PLYMOUTH.

On the 5th of February, 1631, a ship from Bristol sailed into Boston harboui", and, after a tempestuous voyage of sixty-six days, the exiles vdth joy espied the heights of the three-hilled city. It was the Lyon, Captain William Pierce. Among the passengers was a " yomig minister, godly and zealous, having precious " gifts, whose mind was of a philosophic cast, and w^hose opinions were marked by a strong individuality. This minister was Roger AVilliams. His arrival is recorded by Governor Winthrop, in his Journal,* and appears to have occasioned joy to the churches of the infant colony. He was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Mary Williams, a lady w'ho appears to have been of a kindred spirit, and who lived to share with her husband the vicissitudes of life for half a century.

When Williams fii-st became a resident of the new city of the pilgrims, the land of hope and promise,

" The ark of freedom and of God,"

nothing less than a special revelation from heaven would have led him to anticipate a second exile, and that exile to be inflicted by the hands of brethren. But it is om- painful duty to record the mortifying fact, that he soon foimd the civil and ecclesiastical authorities arrayed against him, and that the lords brethren of Massachusetts were in some respects as intolerant as the lords bishops of England. The grand idea that " a most flom-ishing civil state may stand, and be best maintained, with a full liberty in religious concernments," had not yet found a place in the minds of men, and received no echo in the hearts of the colonists. Liberty of conscience had been held and asserted, in a modified form, by the Waldenses, by Helwisse, by Luther and his associates, and by others of a former age; but to Roger Williams belongs the high honom- of having introduced it into legislation. The great doctrine he announced, when he first trod the shores of New England, and which he defended thi'ough life, was, — that the ci%'il magistrate should restrain crime, but had no right to interfere in matters of conscience, and to punish for heresy or apostasy. He contended that " the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus " — that the power of the civil magistrate " extends only to the bodies, and goods, and outward estate of men."* " The removal of the yoke of soul oppression, as it v^ill prove an act of mercy and righteousness to the enslaved nations, so it is of binding force to engage the whole and every interest and conscience to preserve the common liberty and peace." f He maintained that "the people were the origin of all free power in government," but that they were " not invested by Christ Jesus with power to rule in his chm'ch ; " that they could give no such power to the magistrate, and that to " introduce the civil sword " into the kingdom of Christ was " to confound heaven and earth, and lay all upon heaps of confusion." He maintained the novel doctrine, that the ecclesiastical should be totally separated from the civil power ; and boldly demanded that the church and the magistracy should each act within its appropriate sphere.