if trade and merchandize had been as inseparably annexed to them, as the shadow is to the body, in the shining of the sun; in expectation whereof, and hope of drawing the whole stream thereof to themselves, they laid out too much of their stocks and estates in building of fair and stately houses, wherein they at the first outdid the rest of the country, which had been much better reserved till afterwards, when they could have found the matter feasible; therein forgetting the counsel of the wise man, first to prepare their matters in the field, or abroad, before they go about to erect their fabrics.

Who ever

built a tower and wine press before he planted his vineyard, or proved the soil to be commodious for that purpose, that did not thereby leave behind some monument of his error and mistake? Thus the lot is cast into the lap, but the disposing thereof is from the Lord. Riches is not always to men of understanding, (of which there seemed less want in the aforesaid gentlemen, than elsewhere,) but time and chance happens to them all. It is the providence of the Almighty that rules the world, and not the wisdom and contrivements of the sons of men ; he pulleth down one and raiseth up another. However, the grace and blessing of God eminently appeared towards that people, who were brought up to a different course of life, yet did they willingly submit themselves to the pleasure of him that governs the world, when his providence put them upon another kind of employment than formerly they had been accustomed unto, and wherein they have been very successful, and, in a manner, outdone others, that by their education had much more advantage to attain the greatest skill therein.

As to the planting of Rhode Island, Providence, and the places adjoining, near the Narrhoganset Bay, in the years 1637 and 1638:

The persons who were dismissed out of the Colony of the Massachusetts, especially from Boston, or disfranchised therein for their tumultuous and seditious carriages, tending to the subversion both of church and state, being advised of an island beyond Cape Cod, and near adjoining to, or in, the Narrhoganset Bay, called

Aquidneyk, made means to purchase it' for themselves, and those that should see cause to remove their families thither, upon occasion of the troubles they met with at Boston. There were several of them men of estate and quality, who engaged in the business, and had peaceable possession of the island by lawful purchase, as well as free consent of the natives, that inhabited it before. And so, having transplanted themselves, within a few years, by the commodiousness of the soil, with other advantages that attended the planters, they soon raised two flourishing Plantations upon the island; and, not long after, the bounds of the said island proving too narrow, those that were willing to join with them in their way of living and government made purchase of some of those lands that lie upon the main, (where Mr. Williams and his friends had made some beginnings of a Plantation before, Anno 1634 and 1635,3 calling it by the name of Providence ;) by whom also was procured another neck of land not far off, in like manner, called by them Warwick."

Their civil government was by way of combination at first, until they had opportunity afterwards to purchase a Patent for themselves. The laws by which they were governed were those of England, unless in some particulars, which those laws could not reach, in which cases they made some orders and constitutions of their own.

CHAP. XLIII.

Ecclesiastical affairs, with other occurrences, at Providence and Rhode Island to the year 1643. Intercourse between them and the Massachusetts.

As to matters of religion it was hard to give an exact account to the world of their proceedings therein, by any who have not been conversant with them from the beginning of their Plantations; yet this is commonly said, by all that ever had any occasion to be among

The deed was signed by the Indian sachems March 24, 1638.-н. William Coddington, John Clark, and others, eighteen in all.—н. 3 1636.-H. Shawomet, or Warwick, was purchased of the natives,

by Gorton and his adherents, in 1642.-H.

them, that they always agreed in this principle, that no man, or company of men, ought to be molested by the civil power, upon the account of religion, or for any opinion received or practised in any matter of that nature; accounting it no small part of their happiness that they may therein be left to their own liberty, as if they were, in those things, sine jure, and not liable to give any account of what they practise or profess in the matters either of doctrine or worship; by which means it hath come to pass that the inhabitants are of many different persuasions, as Quakers, Anabaptists, Familists, Seekers, Setc. But what tendency that liberty hath had, by so long experience, towards the promoting of the power of godliness, and purity of religion, they are best able to judge that have had occasion to be most conversant amongst them.

Mrs. Hutchinson' persisting in her opinions, notwithstanding all the means which had been used both in the Court and in the church to reclaim her, she was at last ordered to remove out of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts; whereupon, on the 28th of March, 1638, she went by water to her farm at Mount Wollaston, with intent (as was supposed) there to take water with her brother Wheelwright, his wife and family, to go to Pascataqua ; but there she changed her mind, and went by land to Providence, and so to Aquidnyk, or Rhode Island, with her husband, who, with the rest of that persuasion, had purchased the island of the Indians, Plymouth men having first refused to grant them liberty to make a Plantation within their jurisdiction, as they had desired. Amongst those, who at that time removed from about Boston, divers inclined to rigid Separation, and favored Anabaptism, and they removed to Providence, purposing to join with Mr. Williams and those of his company. But others, who were the greater number, passed over to the said island, on the account of Mrs. Hutchinson, so as that side of the country, by this occasion, began to be well peopled; they all agreeing fully in one principle, not to trouble one another on the account of religion, although in other principal and fundamental points of civil power there was no small difference between them.

'See page 283.-н.

Those who took up their station at the Island, like men that are wandered out of the right way, and know not where to stop, daily invented and broached new errors, which they disseminated in their new Plantation: and since that time they have flourished well in that soil, as to outward things.

Nicholas Easton,' a tanner, that removed thither from Newbury, taught that gifts and graces were the Antichrist, mentioned in the Thessalonians, and that which withheld, &c., was the preaching of the law; and that every one of the elect had the Holy Ghost, and also the devil, indwelling in him. One Hearne maintained there, likewise, that Adam was not created in true holiness, &c., for then he could not have lost it.

At Providence, also, the devil was not idle; for whereas, at their first coming hither, Mr. Williams had made an order, that no man should be molested for his conscience, men's wives, children, and servants, in that place, claimed liberty thereby to go to all religious meetings, although never so often, and on the week day, or never so private, and, therefore, because one Verrin refused to let his wife go to Mr. Williams so often as she was called for, they required to have him censured. But there stood up one Arnold, of their own company, (who, though he was bewildered in his notions about some religious points, yet was minded not to go against the very light of nature, and dictates of right reason, no more than the express word of God,) and withstood it, telling them that, when he consented to that order, he never intended it should extend to the breach of any ordinance of God, such as the subjection of wives to their husbands, and gave divers solid reasons against it. Then one Green (who had married the wife of one Beggerly, who was yet living, and not divorced) answered, that, if they should restrain their wives, &c., all the women in the country would cry out of them, &c. Arnold answered him thus: Did you pretend to leave the Massachusetts because you would not offend God to please men, and

has

1 Thus originally written; some later hand has substituted a huge O in the last syllable, converting the name into Eason.-H.

Benedict Arnold, afterwards Governor of Rhode Island.-H.

John Greene.-H.

4 See the case of Richard Beggerly and wife, in Sav. Win. ii. 344.-H.

would you now break an ordinance and commandment of God to please women? Some of the company were of opinion, that if Verrin would not suffer his wife to have her liberty, the church should dispose her to some other man, that would use her better. Arnold then told them it was not the woman's desire to go so aside from home, but only Mr. Williams and others would have them so do. In conclusion, when they would have censured Verrin, Arnold told them it was against their own order, for Verrin did what he did for his conscience. These being the principles they acted by, it is the less wonder that they wandered so far from the truth, since they were separated from their friends in the Massachusetts; and things grew still worse and worse by the increase of their number. For a near relation' of Mrs. Hutchinson's, the wife of one Scott, being infested with Anabaptistry, and going the last year to live at Providence, Mr. Williams was imboldened by her to make open profession thereof, and accordingly was rebaptized by one Holeman,3 (a mean fellow, that went from about Salem.) Then Mr. Williams rebaptized him, and some ten more. They also denied the baptism of infants, and the having of magistrates, &c. But soon after one of their company, of a like capricious brain, started this objection, which none of them could answer, viz. if they renounced their former baptism as well, or because, it was Antichristian in its administration, then what right had Holeman to baptize Mr. Williams; which so gravelled them all, both the baptizers and the baptized, that they turned Seekers, and so continued ever after.

At Rhode Island, also, Mrs. Hutchinson exercised publicly, and she and her party (save1 three or four families) would have no magistrates; and soon after sent an admonition to the church of Boston; but the elders would not read it publicly, because she was excommunicated.

By these examples all men may see how dangerous it is to slight the ordinances of God, and the censures of his church; for it was apparent, by these their actings, that God had given them up to strange delusions. Those of the Island, likewise, had entertained two men, whom 1 A sister, says Winthrop.-H.

Richard Scott.-H. Ezekiel Holliman, one of the founders of the first Baptist church in America.-H. See Sav. Win. i. 293.-H.