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THE
BLOODY TENET OF PERSECUTION
Roger
Williams
1644
Roger
Williams, born in London in 1604 and educated at Pembroke
College, Cambridge, emigrated as a Puritan to Massachusetts
in 1630. In 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts
Bay Colony due to his Baptist views and advocacy of
the rights of Indians. He moved south, where he purchased
land from the Indians and founded the town of Providence.
He was president of Rhode Island from 1654 to 1658.
Williams’s belief in religious tolerance led Rhode Island
to become the first colony to offer religious freedom.
Understanding that religious "persecution for the cause
of conscience" was counterproductive, Williams called
for liberty not only for Christians but also for Jews,
Turks, "anti-Christians," and pagans.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
FIRST,
that the blood of so many hundred thousand souls of Protestants
and Papists, spilt in the wars of present and former ages,
for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted
by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.
Secondly,
pregnant scriptures and arguments are throughout the work
proposed against the doctrine of persecution for causes
of conscience.
Thirdly,
satisfactory answers are given to scriptures, and objections
produced by Mr. Calvin, Beza, Mr. Cotton, and the ministers
of the New English churches and others former and later,
tending to prove the doctrine of persecution for cause of
conscience.
Fourthly,
the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience is proved
guilty of all the blood of the souls crying for vengeance
under the altar.
Fifthly,
all civil states with their officers of justice in their
respective constitutions and administrations are proved
essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors,
or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship.
Sixthly,
it is the will and command of God that (since the coming
of his Son the Lord Jesus) a permission of the most paganish,
Jewish, Turkish, or antichristian consciences and worships,
be granted to all men in all nations and countries and they
are only to be fought against with that sword which is only
(in soul matters) able to conquer, to wit the sword of God
s Spirit the Word of God.
Seventhly,
the state of the Land of Israel, the kings and people thereof
in peace and war, is proved figurative and ceremonial, and
no pattern nor president for any kingdom or civil state
in the world to follow.
Eighthly,
God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted
and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity
(sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war,
ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in
his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions
of souls.
Ninthly,
in holding an enforced uniformity of religion in a civil
state, we must necessarily disclaim our desires and hopes
of the Jew's conversion to Christ.
Tenthly,
an enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or
civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the
principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh.
Eleventhly,
the permission of other consciences and worships than a
state professeth only can (according to God) procure a firm
and lasting peace (good assurance being taken according
to the wisdom of the civil state for uniformity of civil
obedience from all sorts).
Twelfthly,
lastly, true civility and Christianity may both flourish
in a state or kingdom, notwithstanding the permission of
divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or Gentile.
Source:
Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State
of New-York (E.B. O'Callaghan ed., 1853-57).
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