storms of adversity they prophesied that its day would come. Thence the first planting of it on the American continent is an event of great importance, whether we consider the agitation which from age to age it has caused in Europe, or its workings in society since it found an asylum in the new world.

As the founder of this Church was the founder of the Commonwealth, a proper occasion has been embraced by this community to commemorate his worth as the first Christian legislator who proclaimed and established that principle of religious freedom, which constitutes the glory of Rhode-Island.* It is therefore the less needful now that I should narrate the events connected with his purchase of this territory of the Indians, and the organization of the civil government. Among the statesmen of the world he holds a singular pre-eminence, and comparing him with them, it is but just to say in the words of a living historian,† "He was the first in modern christendom to assert in its plenitude the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opinions before the law, and in its defence he was the harbinger of Milton, the precursor and superior of Jeremy Taylor." From first to last

* Judge Pitman's Centennial Address, Providence, 1836. + Bancroft's History of the United States, v. I. p. 375.

this principle has been fondly cherished throughout Rhode-Island, and has impressed its character on all her legislation. In the words of another, "In her code of laws, we read for the first time since christianity ascended the throne of the Cæsars, that conscience should be free, and men should not be punished for worshipping God as they were persuaded he required, a declaration which to the honor of Rhode-Island she has never departed from. It still shines among her laws with an argument for its support in the shape of a preamble, which has rarely been surpassed in power of thought or felicity of expression."*

It is a just matter of wonder that in that age, and from a monarch like Charles, II, a charter embodying a principle so dreaded as a source of anarchy, could have been in any way obtained. It is doubtless true that his desire to tolerate the Catholics in England, disposed him favorably towards a proposition from a Puritan colonist, which would secure to Catholics the undisturbed enjoyment of their religion in this distant part of his dominion. In such a combination of events, however, Roger Williams could not but recognise the interposition of the Supreme Providence which rules the Universe, and declared the con

*Judge Story's Centennial Address, Salem, 1828, p. 57.

victions of his mind on this point when he said "all the world may see by his Majesty's declaration and engagements before his return, and his declarations and Parliament speeches since, and many suitable actings, how the Father of Spirits hath mightily impressed his royal spirit, though the bishops much disturbed him, with deep inclination of favor and gentleness to different consciences and apprehensions as to the invisible king and way of his worship. Hence he hath vouchsafed his royal promise under his hand and broad seal, that no person in this colony shall be molested or questioned for the matters of his conscience to God, so he be loyal and keep the civil peace. Our grant is crowned with the king's extraordinary favor to this colony as being a banished one, in which his Majesty declared himself that he would experiment whether civil government could consist with such liberty. of conscience. This his Majesty's grant was startled at by his Majesty's high officers of state, who were to view it in course before the sealing, but fearing the lion's roaring, they couched against their wills in obedience to his Majesty's pleasure.”* What reason have we to rejoice that on this consecrated spot we can lift up our voices today in united testimony, and declare

* Major Mason's Letter, Mass. His. Coll., Vol. 1.

that the great moral experiment which was begun here two centuries ago by an English king has been attended with success; that here without one invasion of liberty of conscience, religion has been upheld, civil order maintained, life and property secured, justice dispensed, education diffused, the peaceful arts cultivated, social concord cherished, and a general concert of action preserved among men of conflicting religious opinions not only to attain the great ends of civil government, but also to promote the progress of society. It is a glorious result to which we bear witness, one which our forefathers saw only by the eye of faith, but saw so clearly, that the blest vision thereof made their hearts strong in the day of calamity; a result which may tell loudly on the moral advancement of our race, and which we would fain proclaim as with the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings, till it reach the ear of every dweller on the face of the earth, who in the spirit of christian love is toiling to elevate downtrodden and degraded humanity.

Without entering very minutely into the biography of Roger Williams, the knowledge of which, from various sources, is now accessible by all of us, it may be well just to glance at an outline of his life. The best accounts of him state that he was born in Wales, in 1599. From

a remark of his own, it seems probable that he became pious in his youth, for in a book written in 1673,* he says, "the truth is, from my childhood, now above three score years, the Father of lights and mercies touched my soul with a love to himself, and to his only begotten the true Lord Jesus, to his holy scriptures." He studied law under the patronage of Sir Edward Coke, but afterwards devoted himself to theology, received Episcopal orders and had the charge of a parish in England. His lot was cast in stormy times, and both his temperament and education fitted him to act some decisive part in passing scenes. Possessing an ardent love for truth and liberty, he was led by his convictions to join the Puritans, and like others of them emigrated to New-England, which had become famous abroad as the home of piety and freedom. He arrived at Nantasket in February, 1631, and on reaching Boston, and finding the church there wielding a sceptre of civil power, at once he declared himself dissatisfied with them because they had not abjured those principles on the ground of which they had been united to the established church of England. Then, he broached the great doctrine, that civil governments, being constituted only for civil and

* George Fox digged out of his burrowes.