In the year 1634. Roger Williams of New-England, an Assistant to Mr. Kalph Smith Pastor at Plymouth, 1where, having vented divers singular opinions, he was dismissed, went to Salem, which place in a years time he filled with Principles of rigid Separation, tending to Anabaptistry, as that it is not lawful for an unregenerate Man to pray, or take an Oath, in special not the Oath of Fidelity to the Magistrate. He forbade any of his Church-members to hear the godly Ministers of England when occasionally they went thither. He taught that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the First Table; that there should be an unlimited Toleration of all Religions; that to punish any Man for his Conscience was Persecution. He separated not only from the Churches of Old, but of New-England also, as Antichristian. After that, he would not pray, or give thanks with his own Wife or Family, because they went to the Church-Assemblies. He kept private Meetings by way of separation from, and opposition to the Church-Assembly; and being banished as a disturber of the Peace, he sat down at a place called Providence, and there fell to Anabaptistry, renouncing Infant Baptism. And after a while he told his People, that he was out of the way himself, and had misled them, for he could not find that any on Earth had power to administer Baptism, and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity as well as the first, and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles; and so they dissolved and turned Seekers.
In the year 1634. Roger Williams of New-England, an Assistant to Mr. Kalph Smith Pastor at Plymouth, 1where, having vented divers singular opinions, he was dismissed, went to Salem, which place in a years time he filled with Principles of rigid Separation, tending to Anabaptistry, as that it is not lawful for an unregenerate Man to pray, or take an Oath, in special not the Oath of Fidelity to the Magistrate. He forbad any of his Church-members to hear the godly Ministers of England when occasionally they went thither. He taught that the Magistrate had nothing to do in matters of the First Table; that there should be an unlimited Toleration of all Religions; that to punish any Man for his Conscience was Persecution. He separated not only from the Churches of Old, but of New-England also, as Antichristian. After that, he would not pray, or give thanks with his own Wife or Family, because they went to the Church-Assemblies. He kept private Meetings by way of separation from, and opposition to the Church-Assembly; and being banished as a disturber of the Peace, he sat down at a place called Providence, and there fell to Anabaptistry, renouncing Infant Baptism. And after a while he told his People, that he was out of the way himself, and had misled them, for he could not find that any on Earth had power to administer Baptism, and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity as well as the first, and that they must wait for the coming of new Apostles; and so they dissolved and turned Seekers.
- 1Answ. to Exceptions, p. 170.
