“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.”
[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.
[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.