USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 8
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the court, he compiled a system of laws founded chiefly on the laws of Moses, which was considered by the legislative body as the general standard ; though they never formally adopted it, and in some instances varied from it.1
These principles were fundamentally the same with those, on which were grounded all the persecutions which they had endured in England, and naturally led to the same extremes of conduct which they had so bitterly complained of in those civil and eccle- siastical rulers, from whose tyranny they hael fled into this wilder- ness. They had already proceeded a step farther than the hierarchy had ever attempted. No test-law had as yet taken place in England ; but they had at one blow cut of all but those of their own communion, from the privileges of civil offices, how- ever otherwise qualified. They thought that as they had suffered so much in laying the foundation of a new state, which was sup- posed to be " a model of the glorious kingdom of Christ on earth,"* they had an exclusive right to all the honors and privileges of it ; and having the power in their hands, they effectually established their pretensions, and made all dissenters and disturbers feel the weight of their indignation.
In consequence of the union thus formed between the church and state on the plan of the Jewish theocracy, the ministers were called to sit in council, and give their advice in matters of religion and cases of conscience which came before the court, and with- out them they never proceeded to any act of an ecclesiastical nature. As none were allowed to vote in the election of rulers
(1) Hutch. Coll. Papers, p. 161.
ny into the Romish Church, which all the churches of Christ complain of." In reply to this, the author says, " it would well have become you to have better digested your own thoughts, before such words had passed through your lips ; for you will never be able to produce any good author that will con- firm what you say. The truth is quite contrary ; for that I may instance in Rome itself : Had Churches been rightly managed when the most consider- able part of that city embraced the Christian faith, in the ceasing of the Ten Persecutions, that only such as had been fit for that estate, had been admitted in church-fellowship, and they alone had had power, out of themselves to have chosen magistrates, such magistrates would not have been chosen, as would have given their power to the Pope ; nor would those churches have suffered their pastors to become worldly princes and rulers, as the Pope and lis Cardinals are ; nor would they have given up the power of the Church from the Church into the officers hands, but would have called upon them to fulfil their ministry which they had received of the Lord ; and if need were, would by the power of Christ have compelled them so to do : and then where had the Pope's supremacy been, which is made up of the spoils of the ecclesi- astical and civil state ? but had by the course which now we plead for, been prevented."]
* " I look upon this as a little model of the glorious kingdom of Christ on " earth. Christ reigns among us in the commonwealth as well as in the " Church, and hath his glorious interest involved in the good of both societies " respectively. He that shall be treacherous and false to the civil government, " is guilty of high treason against the Lord Jesus Christ, and will be proceed- " ed against as a rebel and traitor to the King of kings, when he shall hold his " great assizes at the end of the world." President Oakes's Election Ser- mon, 1673.
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but freemen, and freemen must be church members ; and as none could be admitted into the church but by the elders, who first examined, and then propounded them to the brethren for their vote, the clergy acquired hereby a vast ascendency over both rulers and people, and had in effect the keys of the state as well as the church in their hands. The magistrates, on the other hand, regulated the gathering of churches, interposed in the set- tlement and dismission of ministers, arbitrated in ecclesiastical controversies and controled synodical assemblies. This coercive power in the magistrate was deemed absolutely necessary to pre- serve " the order of the gospel."
The principle on which this power is grounded is expressed in the Cambridge Platform in terms as soft as possible.1 "The " power and authority of magistrates is not for the restraining of " churches, or any other good works, but for the helping in, and " furthering thereof, and therefore the consent and countenance " of magistrates when it may be had, is not to be slighted or " lightly esteemed ; but, on the contrary, it is a part of the honor " due to christian magistrates to desire and crave their consent " and approbation therein : which being obtained, the churches " may then proceed in their way with much more encouragement " and comfort." This article (like divers others in that work) is curiously and artfully drawn up, so that there is an appearance of liberty and tenderness, but none in reality : for although the mag- istrate was not to restrain any good works, yet he was to be the judge of the good or evil of the works to be restrained ; and what security could churches have that they should not be restrained in the performance of what they judged to be good works? They might indeed think themselves safe, whilst their rulers were so zealous for the purity of the churches of which themselves were members, and whilst their ministers were consulted in all ecclesi- astical affairs ; but if the civil powers had acted without such consultation, or if the ministers had been induced to yield to the opinion of the magistrates, when contrary to the interest of the churches, what then would have become of religious liberty ?
The idea of liberty in matters of religion was in that day strange- ly understood, and mysteriously expressed. The venerable Hig- ginson, of Salem, in his sermon on the day of the election, 1663, speaks thus : " The gospel of Christ hath a right paramount to " all rights in the world ; it hath a divine and supreme right to be " received in every nation, and the knee of magistracy is to bow " at the name of Jesus. This right carries liberty along with it, " for all such as profess the gospel, to walk according to the faith " and order of the gospel. That which is contrary to the gospel " hath no right, and therefore should have no liberty." Here the question arises, who is to be the judge of what is agreeable or contrary to the gospel? If the magistrate, then there is only
(1) Chap. 17. Sec. 3.
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a liberty to believe and practice what the magistrate thinks right. A similar sentiment occurs in the sermon of the learned President Oakes on the same occasion, in 1673: "The outcry of some " is for liberty of conscience. This is the great Diana of the " libertines of this age. But remember that as long as you liave " liberty to walk in the faith and order of the gospel, and may " lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty, you " have as much liberty of conscience as Paul desired under any " government." Here the question recurs, would Paul have sub- mitted to walk according to the opinion which the magistrate might entertain of the faith and order of the gospel ? But this was all the freedom allowed by the spirit of these times. Liberty of conscience and toleration were offensive terms, and they who used them were supposed to be the enemies of religion and gov- ernment. " I look upon toleration (says the same author) as the " first born of all abominations ; if it should be born and brought " forth among us, you may call it Gad, and give the same reason " that Leah did for the name of her son, Behold a troop cometh, " a troop of all manner of abominations." In another of these election sermons,1 (which may generally be accounted the echo of the public voice, or the political pulse by which the popular opinion may be felt) it is shrewdly intimated that toleration had its origin from the devil, and the speech of the demoniac who cried out, " what have we to do with thee, let us alone, thou " Jesus of Nazareth," is styled " Satan's plea for toleration." The following adinonition to posterity, written by the Deputy- Governor Dudley, is another specimen.
" Let men of God in courts and churches watch
" O'er such as do a toleration hatch ;
" Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice,
" To poison all with heresy and vice.
" If men be left and otherwise combine,
" My epitaph's, I dy'd no libertine."2*
The champion of these sentiments was Cotton, who though eminently meek, placid and charitable, yet was strongly tinctured with the prevailing opinion, that the magistrate had a coercive power against heretics. The banishment of Roger Williams, minister of Salem, occasioned a vehement controversy on this point. Williams having written in favor of liberty of conscience, and styled the opposite principle "the bloody tenet ;" was an- swered by Cotton, who published a treatise, in 1647, with this strange title, " The bloody tenet washed, and made white in the " blood of the Lamb." In this work, he labors to prove the law- fulness of the magistrate's using the civil sword to extirpate lier- etics, from the commands given to the Jews to put to deatlı blas-
(1) Shepard's Election Sermon, 1672. (2) Morton's Memorial, p. 179. [257 of Judge Davis's edition.]
* [These verses, says Morton, were found in his pocket after his death.]
.
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phemers and idolaters. To the objection, that persecution serves to make men hypocrites, he says, " better tolerate hypocrites, and " tares than briars and thorns. In such cases, the civil sword " doth not so much attend the conversion of seducers, as the pre- " venting the seduction of honest minds by their means." He' allows indeed, that " the magistrate ought not to draw the sword " against seducers till he have used all good means for their con- " viction : but if after their continuance in obstinate rebellion " against the light, he shall still walk toward them in soft and gentle " commiseration, his softness and gentleness is excessive large to " foxes and wolves ; but his bowels are miserably straitened and " hardened against the poor sheep and lambs of Christ. Nor is it " frustrating the end of Christ's coming, which was to save souls, " but a direct advancing it, to destroy, if need be, the bodies of " those wolves, who seek to destroy the souls of those for whom " Christ died." In pursuing his argument, he refines so far as to deny that any man is to be persecuted on account of conscience " till being convinced in his conscience of his wickedness, he do " stand out therein, not only against the truth, but against the light " of his own conscience, that so it may appear he is not persecuted " for cause of conscience, but punished for sinning against his " own conscience." To which he adds, " sometimes it may be " an aggravation of sin both in judgment and practice that a man " committeth it in conscience." After having said, that " it was toleration which made the world anti-christian," he concludes his book with this singular ejaculation, " the Lord keep us from being " bewitched with the whore's cup, lest while we seem to reject " her with open face of profession, we bring her in by a back " door of toleration ; and so come to drink deeply of the cup of " the Lord's wrath, and be filled with her plagues."
But the strangest language that ever was used on this, or per- haps on any other subject, is to be found in a book printed in 1645 by the humorous Ward of Ipswich, entitled, " The Simple Cob- · ler of Aggawam." " My heart (says he) hath naturally detested " four things ; the standing of the Apocrypha in the bible : for- " eigners dwelling in my country, to crowd out native subjects in- " to the corners of the earth : alchymized coins : toleration of · " divers religions or of one religion in segregant shapes. He that " willingly assents to the last, if he examines his heart by day- " light, his conscience will tell him, he is either an atheist, or an " heretic, or an hypocrite, or at best a captive to some lust. Poly- " piety is the greatest impiety in the world. To authorize an un- " truth by toleration of the state, is to build a sconce against the " walls of heaven, to batter God out of his chair. Persecution of " true religion and toleration of false are the Jannes and Jambres " to the kingdom of Christ, whereof the last is by far the worst. " He that is willing to tolerate any unsound opinion, that his " own may be tolerated though never so sound, will for a need,
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" hang God's bible at the devil's girdle. It is said that men ought " to have liberty of conscience and that it is persecution to debar " them of it : I can rather stand amazed than to reply to this ; it " is an astonishment that the brains of men should be parboiled in " such impious ignorance."
From these specimens, (of which the reader will think he has had enough) it is easy to see how deeply the principle of intoler- ancy was rooted in the minds of our forefathers. Had it stood only in their books as a subject of speculation, it might have been excused, considering the prejudices of the times ; but it was drawn out into fatal practice, and caused severe persecutions which can- not be justified consistently with christianity or true policy .- Whatever may be said in favor of their proceedings against the Antinomians, whose principles had such an effect on the minds of the people as materially affected the foundations of government, in the infancy of the plantation ; yet the Anabaptists and Quakers were so inconsiderable for numbers, and the colony was then so well established that no danger could have been rationally appre- hended to the commonwealth from them. Rhode-Island was set- tled by some of the Antinomian exiles on a plan of entire religious liberty ; men of every denomination being equally protected and countenanced, and enjoying the honors and offices of government. 1 The Anabaptists, fined and banished, flocked to that new settle- ment, and many of the Quakers also took refuge there ; so that Rhode-Island was in those days looked upon as the drain or sink of New-England ; and it has been said that " if any man had lost " his religion, he might find it there, among such a general mus- " ter of opinionists." Notwithstanding this invective, it is much to the honor of that government that there never was an instance of persecution for conscience sake countenanced by them .- Rhode-Island and Pennsylvania afford a strong proof that tolera- tion conduces greatly to the settlement and increase of an infant plantation.
The Quakers at first were banished ; but this proving insuffi- cient, a succession of sanguinary laws were enacted against them, of which imprisonment, whipping, cutting off the ears, boring the tongue with an hot iron, and banishment on pain of death, were the terrible sanctions. In consequence of these laws, four persons were put to death at Boston, bearing their punishment with pa- tience and fortitude ; solemnly protesting that their return from banishment was by divine direction, to warn the magistrates of their errors, and intreat them to repeal their cruel laws ; denounc- ing the judgments of God upon them ; and foretelling that if they should put them to death, others would rise up in their room to fill their hands with work .* 2 After the execution of the fourth per-
(1) Callender's Century Sermon, 1738. (2) Sewel's History of the Qua- kers.
* The following passages extracted from William Leddra's letter to his
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son, an order from King Charles the second, procured by their friends in England, put a stop to capital executions .*
Impartiality will not suffer a veil to be drawn over these dis- graceful transactions. The utmost that has been pleaded in favor of them, cannot excuse them in the eye of reason and justice. The Quakers, it is said, were heretics; their principles appeared to be subversive of the gospel, and derogatory from the honor of the Redeemer. Argument and scripture were in this case the proper weapons to combat them with; and if these had failed of success they must have been left to the judgment of an omniscient and merciful God. They were complained of as disturbers of
friends, written the day before his execution, March 15, 1660, shew an ele- gance of sentiment and expression, not common in their writings.
" Most dear and inwardly beloved,
" The sweet influence of the morning star, like a flood, distilling into my " innocent habitation hath so filled me with the joy of the Lord in the beauty " of holiness, that my spirit is as if it did not inhabit a tabernacle of clay, but " is wholly swallowed up in the bosom of eternity from whence it had its being."
" Alas, alas! what can the wrath and spirit of man that lusteth to envy, ag- " gravated by the heat and strength of the king of the locusts which came out " of the pit, do unto one that is hid in the secret places of the Almighty ? or " to them that are gathered under the healing wings of the Prince of Peace ? " O my beloved, I have waited as the dove at the window of the ark, and have " stood still in that watch, which the master did at his coming reward with the " fulness of his love; wherein my heart did rejoice that I might speak a few " words to you, sealed with the spirit of promise. As the flowing of the " ocean doth fill every creek and branch thereof, and then retires again toward " its own being and fulness and leaves a savour behind it; so doth the life " and virtue of God flow into every one of your hearts, whom he hath made " partakers of his divine nature ; aed when it withdraws but a little, it leaves " a sweet savour behind it, that many can say they are made clean through " the word that he has spoken to them. Therefore, my dear hearts, let the " enjoyment of the life alone be your hope, your joy and your consolation. " Stand in the watch within, in the fear of the Lord which is the entrance of " wisdom. Confess him before men, yea before his greatest enemies. Fear " not what they can do to you : Greater is he that is in you than he that is " in the world, for he will clothe you with humility and in the power of his "' meekness you shall reign over all the rage of your enemies." Sewel's Hist. Quakers, p. 274.
* [The Mandamus of King Charles is dated at Whitehall, the 9th day of September, 1661, and is directed " To our trusty and well-beloved John En- decott, esquire, and to all and every other the governor or governors of our plantations of New-England, and of all the colonies thereunto belonging, that now are or hereafter shall be, and to all and every the ministers and officers of our plantations and colonies whatsoever within the continent of New-Eng- land." There is a copy of it in Hazard's Collections, ii. 595, in Sewel's His- tory of the Quakers, i. 475, and in the Journal of George Fox, pp. 326, 327. Fox gives the following account of its being presented to the governor. It was brought over in 1661, by Samuel Shattock, who had been banished by the government of Massachusetts for being a Quaker. He and Ralph Goldsmith, the commander of the ship in which they came, " went through the town [of Boston] to the governor's, John Endecott's door, and knocked. He sent out a man to know their business. They sent him word their business was from the king of England, and they would deliver their message to none but the governor himself. Thereupon they were admitted in, and the governor came to them ; and having received the deputation and the Mandamus, he put off his hat and looked upon them. Then going out, he bid the friends follow. He went to the deputy governor, and after a short consultation, came out to the friends, and said, 'We shall obey his majesty's commands.'" George
Fox, Journal, folio. p. 326.]
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the peace, revilers of magistracy, " malignant and assiduous pro- " moters of doctrines, directly tending to subvert both church and " state ;" and our fathers thought it hard, when they had fled from opposition and persecution in one shape to be again troubled with it in another.1 But it would have been more to their honor to have suffered their magistracy and church order to be insulted, than to have stained their hands with the blood of men who de- served pity rather than punishment. The Quakers indeed had no right to disturb them; and some of their conduct was to an high degree indecent and provoking ; but they were under the influ- ence of a spirit which is not easily quelled by opposition. Had not the government appeared to be jealous of their principles, and prohibited the reading of their books before any of them appeared in person, there could not have been so plausible a pretext for their reviling government. It was said, that the laws by which they were condemned, were grounded on the laws in England against Jesuits. But the case was by no means parallel, (as the Quakers pleaded) their principles and practices not being equally detrimental to society.2 It was moreover urged in excuse of the severities exercised against the Quakers, that the magis- trates thought themselves "bound in conscience to keep the pas- sage with the point of the sword : this (it was said) could do no harm to him that would be warned by it : their rushing on it was their own act, and they brought the blood on their own heads. Had they promised to depart the jurisdiction and not return with- out leave, the country would have been glad to have rid them- selves of the trouble of executing the laws upon them. It was their presumptuous returning after banishment, that caused them to be put to death."3 This was the plea which the court used in their address to the king ; and in another vindication published by their order, the unhappy sufferers are styled " felones de se," or self-murderers.4 But this will not justify the putting them to death, unless the original crimes for which they were banished had deserved it.5 The preamble to the act, by which they were condemned, charges them with "altering the received laudable custom of giving respect to equals and reverance to superiors ; that their actions tend to undermine the civil government and destroy the order of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship, by withdrawing from orderly church fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox professors of the truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereto, frequently meet- ing themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds of the sim- ple, whereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected." Did these offences deserve death ? Had any government a right to terrify with capital laws persons guilty of no other crimes than
(1) Hutch. Coll. Papers, p. 327. (2) Sewel's History Quakers. (3) Mass. Records. (4) Sewel, b. 6, p. 272. (5) Ibid. p. 199.
9
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these, especially, when they professed that they were obliged to go the greatest lengths in maintaining those tenets which they judged sacred, and following the dictates of that spirit which they thought divine ? Was not the mere "holding the point of the sword" to them, really inviting them to " rush on it," and seal their testimony with their blood ? and was not this the most likely way to strengthen and increase their party? Such punishment for offences which proceeded from a misguided zeal, increased and inflamed by opposition, will never reflect any honor on the policy or moderation of the government ; and can be accounted for only by the strong predilection for coercive power in religion, retained by most or all of the reformed churches ; a prejudice which time and experience were necessary to remove .*
* From the following authorities, it will appear that the government of New- England, however severe and unjustifiable in their proceedings against the Quakers, went no farther than the most eminent reformers ; particularly the Bohemians, the Lutherans, the celebrated Calvin and the martyr Cranmer.
In the war which the Emperor Sigismond excited against the Bohemian reformers, who had the famous Zisca for their general ; " The acts of barbarity which were committed on both sides were shocking and terrible beyond ex- pression. For notwithstanding the irreconcileable opposition between the re- ligious sentiments of the contending parties, they both agreed in this one hor- rible point, that it was innocent and lawful to persecute and extirpate with fire and sword, the enemies of the true religion, and such they reciprocally appeared to be in each others eyes." Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. 3. p. 261.
" It were indeed ardently to be wished, that the Lutherans had treated with more mildness and charity those who differed from them in religious opinions. But they had unhappily imbibed a spirit of persecution in their early education. This was too much the spirit of the times, and it was even a leading maxim with our ancestors (this author was a Lutheran) that it was both lawful and expedient to use severity and force against those whom they looked upon as heretics. This maxim was derived from ROME; and even those who separated from that church did not find it easy to throw off all of a sudden that despotic and uncharitable spirit, that had so long been the main spring of its government and the general characteristic of its members. Nay in their narrow view of things, their very piety seemed to suppress the gen- erous movements of fraternal love and forbearance, and the more they felt themselves animated with a zeal for the divine glory, the more difficult did they find it to renounce that ancient and favorite maxim, that whoever is found to be an enemy to God, ought also to be declared an enemy to his country." Mosheim, vol. 4, page 437.
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