son, "blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, for the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush, and for the blessing which came upon the head of his servant, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren." Add your testimony to his this day, that God's providence is rich, his judgments deep, his promises sure; for I call you to record that the hopes of that venerable pilgrim have fully been realized, and not one thing hath failed of all that he saw by the eye of faith. Here freedom has been established, religion enshrined, persecution condemned; here civil order and the right of private judgment have met together, and thus righteousness and peace have embraced each other.

It is a matter of just and special congratulation too, that this church, is united in maintaining the same great doctrines which were professed on the day of its formation. Roger Williams was celebrated in his day, as a preacher of the very principles of evangelical religion which were the distinguishing doctrines of those great reformers, Luther and Calvin, and which, in another century shone forth with such effulgence in the preaching of Whitefield. They

have been sustained by no state patronage, they have not even been embodied in a creed, but subjected to free discussion, and received as the doctrines of the bible, they have held their sway simply by their moral power. They have endured every trial, are still retained amongst us, and loved as well as ever. Standing as she does on the ground of her early faith, while the very churches which once censured her freedom as the prolific source of every error have gone far from what they then called orthodoxy, she is prepared from the experience of two centuries, to urge afresh upon the whole professing church of Christ, this great lesson, that whatever truth may be, she needs not to be guarded by the edicts of states, or the set phrase of synodical articles, but would fain shine by her own pure light, and be permitted to have free course that she may glorify herself.

While by the light of history, we look around upon the present state of the world, a few facts replete with meaning, connected with important practical lessons, force themselves upon our attention.

I. The success of the principle which was embodied in the constitution of this church. That principle, reduced to its simplest expression, is, that the christian dispensation acknowledges no tie which can unite a human being to

the visible kingdom of God on earth, except a voluntary profession of faith in Christ. This involves as an essential part of true christianity, the idea of religious liberty. No one can be forced to a voluntary profession, to a cheerful obedience. Hence results the sentiment, that the magistrate has no right to interfere in the affairs of conscience-hence the disconnexion of the church and the state. This too, of course, excludes infant baptism from any place in the present dispensation, which is adapted only to intelligent, free, responsible beings. The first of these necessary consequents, the first to take full possession of the mind of Williams, has been the first to triumph in this country. Its progress has been slow, but sure. It has advanced amidst mighty strugglings. In 1638, a man was fined in Massachusetts, for writing against the law for the support of religion, and another for reading it.* In 1656, the United Colonies joined in recommending to the courts, to pass laws forbidding the Quakers to enter within their jurisdiction.† Rhode-Island refused to comply, and even appealed to England for aid to enable her to carry out the principles of her charter. In New-York, Episcopacy was estab

*Mass. His. Coll.

+ Trumbull's History of Connecticut.

lished in the four first counties, where all dissenters were obliged to pay to the established clergy, except so far as the Dutch churches, by virtue of an original stipulation, gained an exemption.*

In Carolina and Georgia the support of religion was enforced by law,† and even in Maryland, more liberal than they, liberty was so defined that some who are called christians, could not hold offices of trust, and it was enacted that "Any one speaking reproachfully against the Blessed Virgin or the Apostles, shall be fined five pounds." In 1659-62-93, the Assembly of Virginia, made it penal in parents, to refuse to have their children baptized.|| The very year when measures were commenced for the erection of this house, the Baptist Association of Virginia, appointed a day of fasting, as they said, "to pray for our poor blind persecutors, and for the releasement of our brethren."¶In that State their desires were remarkably accomplished. Their influence as a people has been

* Dr. Styles's Discourse on Christian Union. Boston, 1761. + Dr. Styles's Disc.

+ Bancroft, I, p. 276.

§ Chalmer's Pol. Ann. I, 218.

Jefferson's Notes, p. 229.

¶ Dr. Semple's History of the Baptists in Virginia.

widely felt on this question there, and we have the testimony of Washington in one of his letters, that the denomination "have been throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously, the firm friends of civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious revolution." The same testimony has been reiterated by Jefferson, who brought all the energy of his mind to co-operate with them in promoting a principle which was with him merely an element of his political philosophy, but which was with them a primary doctrine of religious belief.

It was not until 1811, that true religious liberty began to be known in Massachusetts. Before that period, all were taxed to support the established order, and an association was formed among the Baptists to protect their members from illegal oppression. At that time, the law was so modified as to allow every man to pay his tax for the support of that worship which he chose to attend, provided that a certificate of his intention were duly filed with the town clerk. For that change, the efforts of Backus, Leland,† Baldwin, and others, had long been preparing the way. But it was not till 1834, that the last political link which united the church and the

* Benedict, II, 481.

+ Benedict, II, 267, 482.