ures to repair his mistake, and the resolution of the civil authority to expel the two leading Antinomians, quiet was at last restored. A synod held at Cambridge conduced much to the restoration of quiet. That body drew up a list of the errors to be condemned. When it was asked, what was to be done with them, the zealous Mr. Wilson bluntly exclaimed ;—" Let them go to the devil of hell, from whence they came ! " This fiery outbreak may be more easily excused in this "son of thunder," if we consider the corrupt and demoralizing tendency of the heresy in question. Of Antinomianism an old writer says ;-" It ham-strings all industry, and cuts off the sinews of men's endeavors towards salvation. For ascribing all to the wind of God's Spirit, which bloweth where it listeth, it leaveth nothing to the oars of man's diligence."

This controversy ran out into nice and complicated speculations, which are exceedingly wearisome and well-nigh unintelligible. Almost the only thing that relieves the painfulness of this violent contest, is the fact that the church retained as its ministers the heads of the opposing parties. There appears to have been no thought of removing either of them. There can be no more striking proof of the prudence and

good temper of the ministers; or of the moderation and reasonableness of the people, even amid the tempest of excitement. Both Mr. Wilson and his colleague suffered much reproach, but lost not their benevolence and charity.

"Let narrow natures, how they will, mistake,

The great should still be good for their own sake."

6*

CHAPTER III.

Decision in religion not bigotry. Odium attached to bigotry. Fathers of New England wrongfully reproached. Timid defences of their memory. Veneration cherished for them. Bigotry not confined to any class. President Edwards. Independence of char. acter frowned down. Spurious liberality. True liberality. Weigand Von Theben. Augustine. Dr. Owen. Thomas Fuller. Characteristics of the Puritans. Their cheerfulness. Their shades of difference. English Independents the main champions of toler. ation. Dr. Owen at Oxford. Dr. Goodwin. Alledged intolerance in New England compared with actual intolerance elsewhere. Mather to Lord Barrington. Object of the Pilgrims in emigrating. Liberty for their own consciences. Injustice of disorganizing intruders. Feelings of our fathers toward them. Hubbard. Necessity in those times of banishing the turbulent and seditious. W. Stoughton. Governor Winthrop. Katharine Chidley. Special necessity for excluding Church of England men. Hon. Josiah Quincy. The first author of free toleration. United Provinces of Holland. HENRY JACOB. London Baptists. The Puritans, like Shakspeare, to be tried by the standard of their own age. D'Israeli. Macaulay. Puritan administration compared with that of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, &c. Bartholomew Act. English laws against absence from public worship. Virginia laws. Temper of Roger Williams. Windmill on fire. Peculiar opinions of Williams. Necessity of his exclusion Williams and Gorton. Hon. J. Q. Adams. Origin of the Baptists. Fears of the Puritans. Law of 1644. Declaration of 1646. Peaceable Baptists never molested. Speedy and entire toleration. Abusive Quaker pamphlets. Bishop Burnet. Rhode Island treatment of Quakers. Misdeeds of the Quakers. Would be punished for such conduct at the present day. History of proceedings. Quaker treatment of Williams. Reflec tions on the whole subject.

IN the character of Mr. Wilson there was a singular mixture of qualities. Although there

have been many other examples of this mixture, and although it is required by the gospel to be in every believer, yet there are many who are unable to comprehend the possibility of it. Mr. Wilson blended an intense love of truth with as intense a hatred of error. He abhorred the error, and loved the errorist, with equal fervor. In our day, such a character is not easily understood. Every man is now regarded as a relentless bigot, who is not an easy liberal, believing that one man is as likely to be right as another, and who attaches no importance to abstract principles, whether true or erroneous.

Mr. Wilson combined a most compassionate and loving nature, with a flaming zeal for orthodoxy. His dread of false doctrines and their practical influence was extreme. He would have had all the power of the magistrate exerted for their suppression and exclusion. Had it been possible, he would have drawn a sanitary cordon around the colony, established a theological quarantine, and sternly prohibited the smuggling in of infectious heresies. And yet the benevolence of his heart was most expanded, and glowed with pity to the mistaken men whose errors he anathematized without mercy.

In this respect, he was one of the best speci

mens of our Puritan fathers, who were so enamored of the truth, that they watched over its purity with all the fire of passion and all the jealousy of love. Their zeal impelled them to lift at once the sword at the first advances of its assailants. Not every bosom is capable of feeling this fervid sentiment. They felt it and it filled them with the spirit of power. Had they not felt it, they would have had no nerve to accomplish their mighty deeds.

"The laboring bee, when his sharp sting is gone,
Forgets his golden work, and turns a drone;

Such is their nature, if you take away

That generous rage wherein their noble vigor lay."

It ought to be conceivable, that love to man may make us hate what is hurtful to man. Το love him, is to hate that which injures him; and to hate it the more, the more injurious it may be.

of

"It is thy skill

To strike the vice, but spare the person still:
As he, who, when he saw the serpent wreathed
About his sleeping son, and as he breathed
Drink in his soul, did so the shot contrive,
To kill the beast, but keep the child alive."

Happy indeed is he, who can boldly lift his hand, and strongly strike at error, from feelings pure benevolence toward such as may be its victims. Thrice happy is he of whom it may be justly said,