but, in the language of her memoir, "being then young and modest, she thought it a kind. of virtue to submit to the judgment and practice of most churches, rather than to defend a singular opinion of her own; she not being then enlightened in that great mistake of the national churches." Her husband was led, however, to investigate the point, being urged by her to consider it with direct reference to the case of their infant child. He proposed his doubts to a large number of ministers, assembled at his own table, "none of whom," says Mrs. Hutchinson, "could defend their practice with any satisfactory reason, but the tradition of the church from the primitive times, and their main buckler of federal holiness, which Tombes and Denne had excellently overthrown." He then asked them to say, what in their opinion, he ought to do? Most of them answered, that he ought to conform to the custom of the church, though the point were not clear to him. One, however, said, if he acted without faith in the warrant of God's word, his act would be a sin. The consequence was, the child was not baptized, and from that day, that excellent couple took their stand with those whom they had hitherto considered as practising an enormous error.* Such, in that age, was the general free

Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of

dom of thought, so powerfully were the minds of men roused to religious inquiry, that people of other times may well marvel at the promptness with which they carried out their convictions of truth, even though they went athwart inveterate prejudices, and time hallowed customs.

But while we are impressed with a view of the conscientiousness, piety and moral courage of the men who in those and preceding times united with the Baptists, we must not forget the fact, that with their distinguishing principle touching the constitution of the church, the doctrine of absolute liberty of conscience was identified. This cannot be expressed in clearer terms, than it is in the confession of faith, which was published by a number of Baptists in London, as early as the year 1611, under the reign of James I. The article on that point declares, "that the magistrate is not to meddle with religion, because Christ is the King and Lawgiver of the church and conscience."*

Nottingham Castle and town; Representative of the county of Nottingham in the Long Parliament, and of the town of Nottingham, in the First Parliament of Charles II, &c.—Vol. II, p. 102-4, London, 4th ed. 1822.

* Crosby, Vol. I, app. 71. When that confession was pub. lished, Mr. Robinson of Leyden put forth some strictures on those portions of it which he deemed unsound. The article quoted above was one of those parts, and is copied from his transcript of it.

That confession was issued by some members of the church which was under the care of that same Mr. Smyth, whose example, it was predicted in Plymouth, that Roger Williams would follow. Not a single sentence can be found in the writings of Williams himself in succeeding years, which sets forth that important principle with greater simplicity, comprehensiveness or force.

Indeed, the more fully we examine the subject, the more clearly shall we see, that in every age where men have studied the bible, and have come to the same conclusions as Roger Williams touching the constitution of the church, they have agreed with him in the doctrine of religious liberty; that at all periods, and in every country where there has been a sufficicnt degree of freedom to speak, together with a diffusion of scriptural knowledge, a class of men have risen up who were the avowed opponents of tradition in religion and ecclesiastical power in the state; that thence Roger Williams is only to be regarded as one of a SACRED SUCCESSION of men, who have derived the great idea which distinguished them from no source but the oracles of God, and who have been anointed by the Divine Spirit to be the preachers of this truth to the world, or called to suffer as its martyrs.

With this fact in view, while the enlightened christian examines the record of the past, in order to find there traces of "the true church," it will be well to bear in mind an important principle, which is thus beautifully expressed by Milton:

From

"Truth, indeed, came once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape, most glorious to look upon; but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, then strait arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of that wicked Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search which Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down, gathering up every link still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever shall do till her Master's second coming. He shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection."*

* Areopagitica, published in London, 1644.

It was with good reason that Dr. Featley* declared in the middle of the seventeenth century, that during the reigns of Edward and Elizabeth, anabaptistry had lain like fire covered up in ashes. If so it was not for want of exertion on her part to extirpate it. Proclaiming herself the sovereign of the church, she felt the least difference of religious opinion to be an infringement on her personal dignity. She breathed the spirit that reigned in the bosom of Henry VIII, when she replied to a petition of the House of Commons for church reform, "Her Majesty takes your petition to be against the prerogative of her crown. For by their full consents it hath been confirmed and enacted (as the truth herein requireth) that the full power, authority, jurisdiction and supremacy in church causes, which heretofore the Popes usurped and took to themselves, should be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." It glowed in her soul, when in her speech to the Parliament in 1586, she said, "there be some fault finders with the order of the clergy, which so, may make a slander to myself and the church, whose over

* This gentleman was a Presbyterian and a zealous controversialist. In 1644, he entreated "the most noble Lords," that Milton might be cut off "as a pestilent Anabaptist." The poet was cited to appear before the House of Lords to give an account of his principles.