[181] [By the 35th of Elizabeth, all subjects of the realm above sixteen years of age, were compelled to attend church under the penalties of fine and imprisonment. Collier’s Eccles. Hist. vii. 163. The pilgrim fathers of New England adopted a similar obnoxious and persecuting law. In the year 1631, it was enacted by their general court, “that no one should enjoy the privileges of a freeman, unless he was a member of some church in the colony.” “Every inhabitant was compelled to contribute to the support of religion, and the magistrates insisted on the presence of every man at public worship.” Knowles’s Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 44. Bancroft’s Hist. of U. States, i. 369.]
[182] [“I know of no constraint at all that lieth upon the consciences of any in New England, to come to church.... Least of all do I know that any are constrained to pay church duties in New England. Sure I am, none in our own town are constrained to pay any church duties at all. What they pay they give voluntarily, each one with his own hand, without any constraint at all, but their own will, as the Lord directs them.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 146. Mr. Williams thus rejoins, “If Mr. Cotton be forgetful, sure he can hardly be ignorant of the laws and penalties extant in New England that are, or if repealed have been, against such as absent themselves from church morning and evening, and for non-payment of church duties, although no members. For a freedom of not paying in his town (Boston) it is to their commendation and God’s praise. Yet who can be ignorant of the assessments upon all in other towns, of the many suits and sentences in courts.” &c. Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody, p. 216.]
[184] [“It is not true that the New English do tolerate the Indians, who have submitted to the English protection and government, in their worship of devils openly.... It hath been an article of the covenant between such Indians as have submitted to our government, that they shall submit to the ten commandments.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 148. On the contrary Mr. Williams re-asserts, that certain tribes of the Indians “who profess to submit to the English, continue in the public paganish worship of devils—I say openly, and constantly,” and that their practices are in utter opposition to the ten commandments they had professed to receive. Bloody Tenet, &c. p. 218.]
[185] [But “that is a civil law whatsoever concerneth the good of the city, and the propulsing of the contrary. Now religion is the best good of the city: and, therefore, laws about religion are truly called civil laws, enacted by civil authority, about the best good of the city.... Here will be needful the faithful vigilancy of the Christian magistrate, to assist the officers of the church in the Lord’s work: the one to lay in antidotes to prevent infection, the other to weed out infectious, noisome weeds, which the sheep of Christ will be touching and taking.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 151.]
[186] [See before, p. [27]. Also, Tracts on Lib. of Conscience, p. 220.]
[187] [In this paragraph Mr. Williams refers the above quotation to Tertullian, but by an evident mistake or slip of the pen; we have, therefore, inserted in the text “Jerome,” instead of “Tertullian,” as in the copy.]
[188] [“The Lord, through his grace, hath opened mine eye many a year ago to discern that a national church is not the institution of the Lord Jesus.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 156.]
[190] [“It is an untruth, that either we restrain men from worship according to conscience, or constrain them to worship against conscience; or that such is my tenet and practice.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 157. “I earnestly beseech,” says Mr. Williams, “every reader seriously to ponder the whole stream and series of Mr. Cotton’s discourse, propositions, affirmations, &c., through the whole book, and he shall then be able to judge whether it be untrue that his doctrine tends not to constrain nor restrain conscience.... And a cruel law is yet extant [in New England] against Christ Jesus, muffled up under the hood or veil of a law against anabaptistry.” Bloody Tenet yet, &c., p. 233.]