“I humbly conceive it to be the duty of the civil magistrate to break down that superstitious wall of separation (as to civil things) between us Gentiles and the Jews, and freely (without their asking) to make way for their free and peaceable habitation amongst us.
“As other nations, so this especially, and the kings thereof, have had just cause to fear that the un-Christian oppressions, incivilities and inhumanities of this nation against the Jews have cried to Heaven against this nation and the kings and princes of it.
“For the removing of which guilt, and the pacifying of the wrath of the Most High against this nation, and for the furthering of that great end of propagating the Gospel of Christ Jesus; It is humbly conceived to be a great and weighty duty which is upon this state, to provide (on the Jews’ account) some gracious expedients for such holy and truly Christian ends.”
It may be that this stand taken by Roger Williams influenced Cromwell in his later treatment of the oppressed people. Without openly welcoming them back into England, he did, as one writer has put it, allow them to enter by the back door.
Poverty was still a heavy handicap to Roger Williams. To raise needed funds, he was not ashamed to turn to any kind of employment so long as it was honorable. Thus we read of his giving language lessons to the sons of a member of Parliament. As to his methods, they were both reasonable and interesting. There was no forcing of dry old set formulas upon his pupils to be learned by heart. Instead, he substituted what would be called to-day the “natural method”—that is, he taught those words and phrases in most common use by means of easy conversations. Happy students, to have a teacher who thought grammar rules a “tyranny”! So well did these lessons succeed that after Roger Williams returned to America, he taught his own three boys in the same way.
Once more the poor of London were his debtors. His own wants were never of so much importance as those of his neighbors. As on the previous visit, he helped supply the needy with fuel.
One episode of Roger Williams’ stay in London was amusing, yet pathetic as well. All the years he had spent in New England he had not forgotten the kind friend of his youth, Sir Edward Coke. It therefore occurred to him, now that he was in his native land once more, to make inquiries after the daughter of the famous judge, Mrs. Anne Sadlier. He did so in a courteous letter, at the same time sending her one of his discourses that had recently been printed. The good lady had the rudeness to return it, saying that she read little beyond a few standard religious works. That she looked upon her father’s former protegé as a dangerous advanced thinker is shown by her saying bluntly that she believed his “new lights would prove but dark lanterns.” In reply, Roger Williams referred her to the volumes covering his late controversy with John Cotton. Shocked beyond measure at the mere title “Bloody Tenent,” Mrs. Sadlier did not attempt to read further and tartly told her correspondent not to trouble her again. With more persistence than wisdom, Roger Williams did write still once more. Mrs. Sadlier was thoroughly roused by the sermon-like epistle he sent and in anything but lady-like language, told the writer he had a “face of brass.” Poor Roger Williams was silenced at last.
With this spirited correspondence Mrs. Sadlier left the following memorandum: “Full little did he (Sir Edward Coke) think that he (Roger Williams) would have proved such a rebel to God, the king and his country. I leave his letters, that, if ever he has the face to return into his native country, Tyburn may give him welcome.”
In spite of his busy days and the importance of the errand which was keeping him in England, Roger Williams was very homesick at times. He yearned to see the faces of his sons and daughters. He longed, too, for his gentle wife—his “dear yoke-fellow”—and even proposed her joining him over-seas in several of his letters. One of the pamphlets he published while abroad (the one that Mrs. Sadlier rejected) was in the form of a letter addressed to Mrs. Williams. It had been written some time before on the occasion of her recovery from a dangerous illness while he was absent from home working among the Indians. Though there is more of the sermon than love-letter about it, still we find these exquisite lines:
“My dear love, since it pleaseth the Lord so to dispose of me, and of my affairs at present, that I cannot often see thee, I desire often to send to thee.... I send thee (though in winter) an handful of flowers made up in a little posy, for thy dear self and our dear children, to look and smell on.”