Chapter XXXIV: Appendix: NOTE A. p. 23 (6)

A document exists, purporting to be an act of the town, with a preface, signed by Gregory Dexter, and entitled “An instrument, or sovereign plaster, to heal the manifold sores in this town or plantation of Providence, which do arise about lands.” This document says: “1st. That act, to divide to the men of Pawtuxet twenty miles, is hereby declared against as unjust and unreasonable, not being healthful, but hurtful. 2. Whereas great and manifold troubles have befallen both ourselves and the whole colony, by reason of that phrase, “up streams without limits, we might have for the use of our cattle,” for preventing future contention, we declare that our bounds are limited in our town evidences, and by us stated, about twenty years since, and known to be the river and fields of Pawtucket, Sugar Loaf Hill, Bewett’s Brow, Observation Rock, Absolute Swamp, Oxford and Hipe’s Rock. **** No other privilege, by virtue of the said phrase, to be challenged by this town, viz. that if the cattle went beyond the bounds prefixed in the said deed granted to him, [Mr. Williams] then the owners of the cattle should be no trespassers, the cattle going so far in one day to feed as they might come home at night. 3. And whereas some of us have desired of the colony leave to purchase for this town some enlargement, which was granted, and by the great diligence of our said neighbor, Williams, with the natives, more land is bought, adjoining your said bounds,” &c.

Footnote 318:

In 1659, Mr. John Winthrop, Major Humphrey Atherton, and associates, purchased of the Narraganset sachems two tracts of land, joining to the Bay, one lying to the southward of Mr. Smith’s trading-house, and the other to the northward of it, and settled it with inhabitants. 1 His. Col. v. p. 217.

In 1657, Mr. William Coddington and Mr. Benedict Arnold purchased, of the same sachems, the island Canonicut, which, in 1678, was incorporated as a township, by the name of Jamestown. Ibid.

In the same year, Mr. John Hull, Mr. John Porter, and three persons more, purchased a large tract of land, in the southern parts of the Narraganset country, and called Petaquamscut Purchase. Ibid.

Footnote 319:

Hubbard, chap. lxiv.

Footnote 320:

Hawes’ Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims, p. 149.

Footnote 321:

Dr. Wisner’s Historical Discourses, p. 10.

Footnote 322:

Hawes’ Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims, p. 150.

Footnote 323:

A resolution to alter the third article of the Constitution of Massachusetts, as a preparatory step towards the repeal of the laws for the support of religion by taxation, has been adopted by the people, since the text was written. It will, undoubtedly, be followed by a repeal of the laws.

Footnote 324:

It is an honorable proof of steadiness of character in the people of Rhode-Island, that they have continued to prosper under this charter for one hundred and seventy years. No interruption of the government has occurred during this long period, and no attempt has been made to resist it. No community ever enjoyed more perfect freedom, and yet none was ever more quiet and obedient to the laws. It is a gratifying evidence, that a truly free government is more stable than any other. The growth of the State has made some provisions of the charter operate unjustly. Providence, for example, with sixteen thousand inhabitants, sends only four representatives to the General Assembly, while Portsmouth, with seventeen hundred inhabitants, sends four, and Newport, with eight thousand, sends six. An attempt was made, a few years since, to obtain a new Constitution, but it did not succeed.

Footnote 325:

See the charter, Appendix, G.

Footnote 326:

It is worthy of notice, that on May 9, 1663, the town of Providence voted, that “one hundred acres of upland and six acres of meadow shall be reserved for the maintenance of a school in this town.”

Footnote 327:

At this session, Captain John Cranston was licensed to practise physic, with the title of “Doctor of Physic and Chirurgery.”

Footnote 328:

Mr. Williams felt a great esteem for Mr. Clarke. In the library of Brown University, is a copy of “The Bloody Tenet yet more Bloody,” bequeathed to the library by the Rev. Isaac Backus. On a blank leaf are these words, in Mr. Williams’ hand writing: “For his honored and beloved Mr. John Clarke, an eminent witness of Christ Jesus, against the Bloody Doctrine of Persecution, &c.”

Footnote 329:

For documents on the subject of boundaries, see 1 His. Col. v. pp. 216–252. See also, 2 His. Col. vii. pp. 75–113, Rhode-Island State Papers, furnished by the Hon. Samuel Eddy.

Footnote 330:

Political Annals, b. i. c. xi. pp. 276, 279.

Footnote 331:

Holmes’ Am. Annals, vol. i. p. 336.

Footnote 332:

Walsh’s “Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain,” pp. 427–435.

Footnote 333:

This was the Rhode-Island doctrine and practice from the beginning. It was deeply rooted in all hearts. Among the deputies to the General Assembly, in 1675, the name, “_Toleration_ Harris,” occurs.

Footnote 334:

He says, in this year, that Rhode-Island colony “has been a colluvies of Antinomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, Arminians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters, every thing in the world but _Roman Catholics_ and true Christians—though of the latter, I hope, there have been more than of the former among them.”—Magnalia, b. vii. c. iii. s. 12.

Footnote 335:

Magnalia, b. vii. c. ii. §8.

Footnote 336:

In thus living disconnected with any church, he followed the example of Milton and Cromwell. Of Milton, Toland says: “In his early days, he was a favorer of those Protestants, then opprobriously called by the name of Puritans. In his middle years, he was best pleased with the Independents and Anabaptists, as allowing of more liberty than others, and coming nearest, in his opinion, to the primitive practice; but in the latter part of his life, he was not a professed member of any particular sect among Christians; he frequented none of their assemblies, nor made use of their peculiar rites in his family.” Ivirney’s Life of Milton, p. 251.

Footnote 337:

In a letter, dated May 8, 1682, he requests Governor Bradstreet, of Boston, to assist him in printing some “discourses, which (by many tedious journies) I have had with the _scattered English_ at Narraganset, before the war, [Philip’s war, of 1675–6] and since.” 2 His. Col. viii. p. 197.

Footnote 338:

Mr. Williams says, that Mr. Eliot promised a suit of clothes to an old Indian, who, not understanding him, asked another Indian, what Mr. Eliot said. This reminds us of the well known anecdote respecting his translation of the Bible:—While Eliot was engaged in translating the Bible into the Indian language, he came to the following passage in Judges, 5:28: “The mother of Sisera looked out at the window, and cried through the _lattice_,” &c. Not knowing an Indian word to signify lattice, he applied to several of the natives, and endeavored to describe to them what a lattice resembled. He described it as frame work, netting, wicker, or whatever occurred to him as illustrative, when they gave him a long, barbarous and unpronouncable word, as are most of the words in their language. Some years after, when he had learned their dialect more correctly, he is said to have laughed outright, upon finding that the Indians had given him the true term for _eel-pot_. “The mother of Sisera looked out at the window, and cried through the _eel-pot_.” Bigelow’s History of Natick, p. 84. This anecdote illustrates the difficulties of translating, and may suggest a useful caution to translators.

Footnote 339:

“February 19, 1665. Ordered, That Roger Williams shall have his first choice, after William Hawkins and John Steere, of the fifty acres of land on the east side of the north line, which beginneth seven miles from Fox’s Hill, west.”

“June 4, 1666. It is granted unto Roger Williams, that he may change three acres of land lying in the neck, and take it up somewhere about the third lake, if it may, with conveniency, without damage to the highways, or other men’s lands, which are already laid out.”

September 30, 1667, he was allowed to change three acres of land, which was laid out to him, in addition to his house lot, and take it up in any part of the common which is not prohibited.

May 2, 1667, there were laid out to him “fifty acres between the seven mile and the four line.” This four mile line seems to have been the original line, about four miles west from Fox’s Hill. Additional land being purchased of the Indians, the seven mile line was established, June 4, 1660, beginning seven miles west of Fox’s Hill, and running north to Pawtucket river, and south to Pawtuxet river.

Footnote 340:

John Howland, Esq. says: “I think there must have been a bridge at Weybosset before 1712.” Perhaps the bridge ordered to be built over Moshassuck river, in 1662, and to which Mr. Williams’ letter may refer, was intended to be somewhere between the present Great Bridge and Smith’s Bridge, for the purpose of getting access to the natural meadows at the head of the cove. The mention of “hay time,” and the references of Mr. Williams to the “hopes of meadow,” may strengthen this supposition. Mr. Howland says, “I have frequently been told by Nathan Waterman, that teams and men on horseback used to cross the river (before his day) across the clam bed, opposite Angell’s land (at low tide) and land somewhere on the western shore. The Thomas Olney lot was where the Knight Dexter tavern now is, and Angell’s was the next south, including part of the Baptist meeting-house lot, and Steeple street. In front of this, lay the shoal place, called the clam-bed.” May 14, 1660, in a petition of the town to the General Assembly, against an assessment on the town of thirty pounds, to build a prison at Newport, the town said, that they had just spent one hundred and sixty pounds in building a bridge. April 27, 1663, George Sheppard gave all his lands west of seven mile line to the town, for “maintaining a bridge at Weybosset.”

Footnote 341:

R. I. Lit. Rep. vol. i. pp. 638–640.

Footnote 342:

“I had in mine eye the vindicating of this colony for receiving of such persons whom others would not. We suffer for their sakes, and are accounted their abettors. That, therefore, together with the improvement of our liberties, which the God of heaven and our King’s Majesty have graciously given, I might give a public testimony against their opinions, in such a way and exercise, I judged it incumbent upon my spirit and conscience to do it (in some regards) more than most in the colony.” p. 26.

Footnote 343:

This remarkable man was born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, in 1624. He was placed as an apprentice to a grazier, but, at the age of nineteen, he thought himself called to forsake every thing else, and devote himself to religion. In 1648, he began to preach, and adopted the peculiar language and manners which have distinguished his followers. He incurred persecution, was often imprisoned, and treated with great severity. In 1669, he married, and soon after visited America, where he remained two years, and made many proselytes. He returned to England, and after many sufferings, he died in 1690, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His works form three folio volumes. “He was undoubtedly a man of strong natural parts, and William Penn speaks in high terms of his meekness, humility and temperance.”—Ency. Amer. art. George Fox.

Footnote 344:

The letters were sent, through some friends of Mr. Fox, to the Deputy Governor Cranston. They were dated July 13, but Mr. Cranston did not receive them till the 26th, which, as he said, excited his surprise. There was some room for suspicion, that the letters were purposely concealed till Mr. Fox had gone.

Footnote 345:

“God graciously assisted me in rowing all day, with my old bones, so that I got to Newport toward the midnight before the morning appointed.” p. 24.

Footnote 346:

In the General Assembly, in 1672, it was voted, that the deputies should receive two shillings per day. A law was passed, exempting from military duty persons who had conscientious scruples. On September 2, 1673, it was enacted, that every person who sold liquor, so that any one became drunk, or who kept a gaming house, should be fined six shillings. Constables were appointed to watch on the “first day of the week” against all “deboystness.” There was, about this time, a trial of an Indian, by a jury, half of whom were Indians. In 1679, a fine of five shillings was imposed for employing an Indian or other servant on the first day; and the same fine, or sitting in the stocks three hours, for gaming, playing, shooting, or sitting drinking in an alehouse “more than necessity requireth,” on the first day. It does not appear, that there was any rule, by which to judge of the “necessity.” The doctrine of total abstinence was then unknown.

On the 11th of March, 1674–5, Mr. Williams acknowledged the receipt from Benjamin Hernden of six shillings, ninepence, making up eleven pounds, “for the house and land sold to him, which was John Clawson’s.”

Footnote 347:

Backus, vol. i. p. 510.

Footnote 348:

Callender, p. 73.

Footnote 349:

Backus, vol. i. p. 418.

Footnote 350:

Hubbard’s Narrative, p. 55, edition of 1775. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 406, says, that the Narragansets, in 1675, were supposed to have 2000 warriors. Mr. Callender, p. 75, thinks that Hubbard’s and Hutchinson’s accounts may be reconciled, by supposing that the four thousand warriors to be raised by the Narragansets included other Indians within their influence.

Footnote 351:

Callender, p. 75.

Footnote 352:

The following memorandum appears on the records of Providence, about August 30, 1676, after the death of Philip:

“By God’s providence, it seasonably came to pass, that Providence Williams brought up his mother from Newport in his sloop, and cleared the town by his vessel of all the Indians, to the great peace and content of all the inhabitants.” The Indians, here mentioned, were probably prisoners.

Footnote 353:

Baylies’ History of Plymouth, part iii. p. 114. Thatcher’s Indian Biography, vol. i. p. 309. Backus, vol. i. p. 424.

Footnote 354:

Thatcher’s Indian Biography, vol. i. p. 162. Morton, Appendix A. A. p. 425.

Footnote 355:

Backus, vol. i. p. 466.

Footnote 356:

Mr. Harris soon after went to England, on this business, but the vessel was captured by an Algerine or Tunisian corsair, and he was sold for a slave. His family, in Rhode-Island, redeemed him; by the sale of a part of his property. He arrived in England, but died there. He was an able man, and we may hope, a good man, notwithstanding some infirmities. His quarrels with Roger Williams were very discreditable to them both. On which side the most blame lay, we cannot now decide.

Footnote 357:

Backus, vol. i. p. 421.

Footnote 358:

In 1679, a fine of five shillings was enacted for “riding gallop in Providence street.” This implies, that the town was becoming populous again, after the Indian war, during which it suffered much. Previously to the war it contained about 500 inhabitants, but many of them removed to Newport. A rate of sixty pounds, ordered in 1679, was apportioned thus: Newport, eighteen; Portsmouth, eleven; Providence, four; Warwick, four; Westerly, four; New-Shoreham, four; Kingstown, six; East-Greenwich, three; Jamestown, six.

Footnote 359:

Referring to the great comet of 1680. which was supposed to have approached so near to the sun, as to be heated two thousand times hotter than red hot iron.

Footnote 360:

2 His. Col. viii. p. 196.

Footnote 361:

Page 110.

Footnote 362:

Backus, vol. i. p. 515.

Footnote 363:

She was certainly alive in November, 1679.—Backus, vol. i. p. 478.

Footnote 364:

See Appendix H. for some account of his grave, and of his family.

Footnote 365:

Bloody Tenet, p. 18.

Footnote 366:

The copy now before me belongs to the library of Harvard College, having been borrowed in accordance with the very liberal regulations of that noble collection of books. This copy was presented by the second Thomas Hollis, and it contains, on the title page, in his hand writing, I presume, the words, “_A curious tract._” It is pleasant to connect the names of Williams and Hollis.

Footnote 367:

It was prepared under great disadvantages. He says: “When these discussions were prepared for the public, in London, his time was eaten up in attendance upon the service of the Parliament and city, for the supply of the poor of the city with wood, (during the stop of the coal from Newcastle, and the mutinies of the poor for firing.) These meditations were fitted for public view in change of rooms and corners, yea, sometimes (upon occasions of travel in the country, concerning that business of fuel,) in variety of strange houses, sometimes in the fields, in the midst of travel, where he hath been forced to gather and scatter his loose thoughts and papers.” Bloody Tenet made More Bloody, p. 38.

Footnote 368:

2 Cor. 5: 11, 20.

Footnote 369:

Mark, 16: 16.

Footnote 370:

Bishop Taylor’s Liberty of Prophesying, sec. 14.

Footnote 371:

“Humani juris et naturalis potestatis, unicuique quod putaverit colere. Sed nec religionis est cogeere religionem, quæ suscipitsponte debet, non vi.”

Footnote 372:

Bloody Tenet, p. 185.

Footnote 373:

Bloody Tenet, p. 214.

Footnote 374:

The laws, in some of our States, which make clergymen ineligible to certain civil offices, are unjust, and inconsistent with our republican institutions. Every man has equal civil rights, and the exclusion of any class of men from the enjoyment of any of those rights, is an odious proscription. It is, indeed, desirable, that no clergyman should accept a civil office, because his duties as a minister of the Gospel ought to be sufficient to occupy his mind. But he has a right, as a citizen, to be elected to any office; and to exclude him is an assumption of the power to establish a national religion, for if a man may be excluded from office, because he is a minister, he may, by the same authority, be invested with office, because he is a minister. It is remarkable, that those who clamor so loudly against church and state, do not see any inconsistency in the exclusion of clergymen, as such, from office.

Footnote 375:

Life of Jeremy Taylor, Am. ed. p. 37.

Footnote 376:

Mr. Williams speaks of this work, in his rejoinder to Mr. Cotton’s reply: “Dr. J. Taylor, what an everlasting monumental testimony did he publish to this truth, in that his excellent discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying.” pp. 316–17.

Footnote 377:

Works, vol. x. pp. 45–7.

Footnote 378:

In 1649, the Assembly of Maryland enacted, “that no persons _professing to believe in Jesus Christ_, shall be molested, in respect of their religion, or in the free exercise thereof, or be compelled to the belief or practice of any other religion, against their consent, so that they be not unfaithful to the proprietary, or conspire against the civil government. That persons molesting any other in respect of his religious tenets shall pay treble damages to the party aggrieved, and twenty shillings to the proprietary. That the reproaching any with opprobrious epithets of religious distinctions, shall forfeit ten shillings to the persons aggrieved. That any one _speaking reproachfully against the Blessed Virgin_, or the Apostles, shall forfeit five pounds, but blasphemy against God shall be punished with death.” Chalmers’ Pol. Ann. vol. i. p. 218. These latter provisions might easily be made terrible engines of persecution, in the hands of ill-disposed magistrates.

Footnote 379:

2 Mass. His. Col. viii. p. 79.

Footnote 380:

There is a thin book, in the Library of Harvard College, which purports to be a copy of this work, but it contains only the Preface and Dedicatory Epistles.

Footnote 381:

Alluding to the “Eikon Basilike,” a book, which purported to have been written by Charles I. and which, it is thought, contributed to the restoration of his son. It was, however, an imposition, Dr. Gauden being the real author. Mr. Williams, it seems had sagacity enough to doubt its authenticity. Milton assailed it with his “Eiconoclastes.”

Footnote 382:

N. E. Firebrand Quenched, p. 9.

Footnote 383:

See Humphrey Norton’s letter to Governor Prince, of Plymouth, Backus, vol. i. p. 322.

Footnote 384:

Works, vol. i. p. 689.

Footnote 385:

Iliad, A. 1. 210, 211.

Footnote 386:

See pages 57 and 58 of this volume.

Footnote 387:

Century Discourse, p. 17.

Footnote 388:

1 His. Col. vi. p. 249.

Footnote 389:

Bloody Tenet, pp. 116, 243.

Footnote 390:

See Appendix I.

Footnote 391:

“Major Mason—famous for his services, while captain, in the Pequod war. He was a soldier in the Low Countries, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, one of the first settlers of Dorchester, Mass, in 1630. He afterwards removed to Windsor, Conn. He put an end to the Pequod war, in 1638; was appointed, soon after, Major General of the Connecticut forces, and in May, 1660, was elected Deputy Governor of that colony. He died at Norwich, in the seventy-third year of his age, in 1672 or 1673. An account of the Pequod war was published by him, republished in Hubbard’s Narrative, and by Rev. T. Prince. In the fourth volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections, a curious poem is published, of Governor Wolcott’s, giving an account of his predecessor Winthrop’s embassy to the Court of Charles II., to obtain a charter, in which Mason is mentioned with the highest eulogies. Winthrop is made to give the King a relation, among other things, of the Pequod war, and says:

‘The army now drawn up: to be their head
Our valiant Mason was commissioned;
(Whose name is never mentioned by me,
Without a special note of dignity.’)

“In granting the charter, Charles speaks thus:

‘Chief in the patent, Winthrop, thou shalt stand,
And valiant Mason place at thy next hand.’”

G.

Footnote 392:

Commonly called Massassoit.

Footnote 393:

The Scituate here mentioned, must be in Massachusetts, as there was no town of that name in Rhode-Island till 1730.

Footnote 394:

It has been alleged, with a view to lessen Mr. Williams’ claim to the honor of being the chief agent in establishing liberty of conscience in Rhode-Island, that the preceding charter contains no provision for the protection of religious liberty. But it may be replied, that the instrument conveyed full power to establish any form of government, and enact any laws, which the inhabitants might deem proper, provided that they were not repugnant to the laws of England. The charter is in very general terms. It prescribes no mode of civil government, and omits, of course, any reference to religious affairs. The principles of Mr. Williams and his friends were well known to the gentlemen who signed the charter. Mr. Williams could desire nothing more than entire liberty to the inhabitants to regulate the civil and ecclesiastical concerns of the colony according to their own pleasure.

Footnote 395:

“Mr. Williams sold from his estate a lot, forty-eight feet wide on the street, to Mr. Gabriel Bernon, a very respectable French gentleman, of great property, and sincere religion, who came from Rochelle, France, where he had suffered much, and had been imprisoned two years, on account of his religion, which led Mr. Williams greatly to esteem and respect him. He was born at Rochelle, April 6, 1644; lived ten years at Newport and Narraganset, and died in Providence, February 1, 1736, in the ninety-second year of his age. He had ten children by his first wife, eight of whom, with herself, came with him to this State. He had four children by his second wife, Mary Harris. He was buried under the old Episcopal church, and was the ancestor of many respectable families, in various parts of the State, in which are great numbers of his posterity, connected with the names of Coddington, Helme, Whipple, Crawford, Jenckes, Allen, Tourtellot, &c.

“The lot thus sold to Mr. Bernon contained the famous spring where Mr. Williams landed, when he came to Providence in a canoe, with Thomas Angell, in 1636. Governor Hutchinson says: “The inhabitants have a veneration for a spring, which runs from the hill into the river, above the great bridge. The sight of this spring caused him to stop his canoe, and land there.” Mass. His. vol. ii, p. 41.

“This is the same lot where Mr. Nehemiah Dodge is now building a large brick house, near the stone Episcopal church, a few feet eastward of the spring, of which there is now no appearance, otherwise than at the bottom of his well, of a considerable depth, from which it finds a covered outlet to the river; an instance, among a thousand others, of the great alteration in the town, since its first settlement.”

Footnote 396:

These towns were, in the order of their settlement or incorporation: Providence, 1636; Portsmouth, 1637–8; Newport, 1638–9; Warwick, 1642–3; Westerly, 1665; New Shoreham, 1672; East-Greenwich, 1677; Jamestown, 1678; North-Kingstown, and South-Kingstown, 1722; Smithfield, Glocester, and Scituate, 1730; Charlestown, 1738. In 1730, the whole number of inhabitants in the colony, was 17,935. The towns of Burrillville, Cranston, Cumberland, Foster, Johnston, North-Providence, Little-Compton, Middletown, Tiverton, Coventry, West-Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond, Barrington, Bristol, and Warren, have been since added, making the total number of towns thirty-one. Population, in 1830, 97,212.

Footnote 397:

This list shows how unjustly some persons, who have chosen to vilify Rhode-Island, have made the Baptists responsible for every thing which was done, or neglected. The Baptists have always, perhaps, been more numerous than any other denomination, but they have been a minority of the whole community. In 1738, it seems, they had but nine, out of thirty religious societies or churches.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FULLER’S WORKS, COMPLETE.

LINCOLN, EDMANDS & CO. have recently published this valuable work, in two large octavo volumes, on a fair burgeois type and fine paper, at the very reasonable price of 6 dollars. The cost of the former edition (14 dollars) precluded many students from replenishing their libraries; and they are now gratified in being able to possess a work so replete with _doctrinal_ arguments and _practical_ religion. No Christian can read Fuller without having his impulses to action quickened—and every student ought to _study_ him, if he wishes to arm himself against the attempts of every enemy.

Since this edition has been issued, several periodicals have noticed it with full commendation. We have recently given extracts from notices in the Boston Recorder, Christian Watchman, &c.—and we now make a few extracts from an able review of the work, which appeared in the October number of the American Baptist Magazine. It was written by the President of a College, at the South, and is admired for its elegant and just view of the sentiments of this great author.

He says:—“This work, in the material and style of execution, is highly creditable to the American press. The publishers, in issuing this work, have conferred an obligation upon community, and will, doubtless, be rewarded in a liberal return of their investment. Mr. Fuller was among the few extraordinary men who have ever appeared in this world. He possessed great vigor of intellect, an uncommon share of good sense, inflexible integrity, and the most ardent love for truth. All his powers, therefore, were early consecrated to the service of the church. His mind was turned, even before he entered the ministry, to the study of those great truths, which involve the highest honor of God, and the dearest interests of man. These truths he embraced with all the affections of his heart, and maintained with wonderful acuteness, and by invincible arguments; for they were indeed the sheet-anchor of his soul. He possessed very clear and consistent views of human depravity, and of the grounds of moral obligation. To gain them, however, he had to endure heavy trials and severe studies.

“The grand design of Mr. Fuller, as a writer, was to produce moral action. He believed in the divine purpose, that the rest of heaven shall be gained through constant vigilance and labor. In this way the Christian character is to be formed, and the soul fitted for future blessedness. But notwithstanding the necessity of this painful care and effort, man is much inclined to be heedless and slothful; and this proneness has been strengthened by ingenious and plausible theories in religion. Of this truth Mr. Fuller had abundant evidence. In his life and travels, he witnessed the hyper-calvinistic, or antinomian spirit, sweeping over the churches, withering up, like the Sirocco’s blast, their vital principle, and converting them into barren wastes. Nor was the influence of this spirit confined to professors. Its legitimate tendency is, to keep both saints and sinners in a state of inaction. For it exalts the former above obligation, and sinks the latter below it. This spirit he knew had its origin in the false notion, that human apostacy releases sinners from the duties of piety, and that the gospel dispensation is designed to render the law useless, and to excuse the people of God from complying with its requirements. Over these things Mr. Fuller prayed and wept. And when he took up his pen, it was his chief purpose to correct these errors, and thus to rouse the church from their paralyzing influence. In accomplishing his object, he resorted to no unwarranted expedients. He believed that God had provided adequate agents to sway the soul, and that these are principally three: truth, motive, and the influences of the Divine Spirit. Truth convinces the understanding, motive affects the heart, and the Spirit overcomes the will. The great cause, he believed, why the means of salvation have produced so little effect, is—that their power has been greatly weakened by human devices. Truth has been eclipsed, conscience stupified, and the heart allured by unscriptural motives. The constant aim, therefore, of this eminent man, was to disperse the darkness, in which truth was involved, that it might shine forth in all its heavenly lustre. He labored to remove from the divine law the deadening swathe with which it had been bound, by those who feared its edge, that it might act with unobstructed force. It has been said of the immortal Butler, that he has done more than any other man to restore to conscience her sovereign sway in the human soul. So we may say, that Fuller has, probably, done more than any other divine, to restore to the law of God, or to gospel truth, its sacred dominion in the economy of grace. Truth and the voice of conscience are the two great ruling powers in the moral world. Hence the well-being of society requires, that they should be constantly kept in the clearest light. And that man, who is the instrument, in giving these chief elements of power the freest action upon the human mind, renders the most important service to his fellow-men.

“There is another light in which we are anxious the publications of Mr. Fuller should be viewed—in their adaptedness to prevent two evils, to which the Christian world at the present day are peculiarly exposed. These are, first, losing sight of that mysterious and divine agency, on which the success of all their efforts must depend. And, second, failing to keep in full view those cardinal truths of the gospel, by which they must gain and support all their victories in the empire of darkness. In every period the church has been inclined to forget her dependence on divine influences; but, perhaps, never so much so, as in the present.

“Though for thirty years we have been conversant with the writings of Mr. Fuller, yet we must say, that this revision of them has greatly heightened them in our estimation. And viewing them in the light we do, we cannot but indulge the belief, that they will, for ages yet to come, continue to enlighten and bless the church of Christ.”

This edition was printed from a London edition, just revised, by Mr.
A. G. Fuller, who says, in his preface, “In presenting to the public
what has long been called for, viz. a complete edition of the works
of my revered father, it is unnecessary to offer any remarks on the
character of the writings, most of which have for many years been
before the public, and must now be supposed to stand on their own
merits. It may, however, be proper to state, that the present
edition not only contains a great number of valuable pieces which
had been before unavoidably omitted, but also a portion of original
manuscript, part of which is woven into the memoir, and part
inserted in the last volume.”

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. 3. Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 5. Enclosed black-face font in =equals=.

End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of Roger Williams, by James D. Knowles