(the like whereof we have not seen extant from any part of America,) and in which respect it hath pleased both Houses of Parliament [freely'] to grant unto him and friends with him, a free and absolute Charter of civil government for those parts of his abode: and withal sorrowfully resenting, that amongst good men (our friends) driven to the ends of the world, exercised with the trials of a wilderness, and who mutually give good testimony each of other, (as we observe you do of him, and he abundantly of you,) there should be such a distance; we thought it fit (upon divers considerations) to profess our great desires of both your utmost endeavors of nearer closing, and of ready expressing [of1] those good affections (which we perceive you bear each to other) in the actual performance of all friendly offices; the rather because of those bad neighbors you are like to find too near [unto'] you in Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the West of England and from Ireland; that howsoever it may please the Most High to shake our foundations, yet the report of your peaceable and prosperous Plantations may be some refreshings to Your true and faithful friends, NORTHUMBERLAND, ROBERT HARLEY, JOHN GURDON, COR. HOLLAND, JOHN BLACKISTON, ISAAC PENNINGTON, MILES CORBET, P. WHARTON, Upon the receipt of the said letter the Governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts found, upon examination of their hearts, they saw no reason to condemn themselves for any former proceedings against Mr. Williams; but for any offices of Christian love, and duties of humanity, they were very willing to maintain a mutual correspondency with him. But as to his dangerous principles of Separation, unless he can be brought to lay them down, they see no reason why to concede to him, or any so persuaded, free liberty of ingress and egress, lest any of their people should be drawn away with his erroneous opinions. || Blacklistow 'Inserted from Winthrop.-H. ⚫ Dated March 14, 1643. See it in Hazard, i. 538-40.-H. He had so much interest sometimes with the people of Rhode Island, as well as Providence, as to be chosen their Governor,' (whether before or since his obtaining the Charter, specified in the letter above, is not much material,) but, for the most part, he hath contented himself with a private and retired life; nor will his outward estate admit of any other; on which account he hath many times been an object of charity to divers persons of the Massachusetts, that way disposed. But as to the differing sorts of religion found at Rhode Island; those of the persuasion of the Quakers, as they have had great resort to the place of late years, so are they at present the prevailing party there, or lately were so. They have been strenuously opposed in their damnable opinions by Mr. Roger Williams, who, though himself had vented divers strange notions about Separation, yet, apprehending the danger of the Quakers' principles, which do overthrow the very fundamentals of Christian religion, he stoutly engaged with sundry of their chief leaders in a public dispute, since published by himself, Anno 1677.2 But forasmuch as it will be very difficult, in an historical way, to give a particular and distinct account of all the affairs of that Colony, without much reflection upon the persons, or relations yet surviving, of some that were much concerned therein, no more shall be added; only intimating the fear of their *righteous* neighbors round about them, that the Spanish saying of the English nation may not unfitly be applied to them of Rhode Island, " bona terra, mala gens. CHAP. XLIV. Ecclesiastical affairs, with other occurrences, at Pascataqua and the places adjacent. Contests between Mr. Cleeves and Mr. Vines about the bounds of Ligonia. 3 MR. WHEELWRIGHT, as was declared before, being sentenced to depart out of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts, was not so ill grounded in the truth as to be carried away with any dangerous errors of the Antinomian doctrine, therefore, refusing to go along with the He held the office from 1655 to 1657, being succeeded by Arnold.-H. See page 209.-H. 3 See pp. 276, 280.-H. rest of that sect, removed, with some few that adhered to him, to Pascataqua, and seated themselves upon some of the upper branches or falls of that river, and called the place Exeter; looking at it [as] altogether without the bounds of the Massachusetts'. In this place they gathered a church, and walked together in an orderly Christian way, till it appeared, by the stretching the line of the Massachusetts more northward, that the place where he first settled was yet within the liberties of the Massachusetts, which, as is judged, occasioned his removal, soon after, from thence into the Province of Maine, to a Plantation since, by the inhabitants, called Wells. Captain Underhill, after those stirs at Boston, had taken a voyage to England, and returning again to New England, in the year 1638, was intended to have removed after Mr. Wheelwright, for whose sake he had not long before incurred the displeasure of the Court of the Massachusetts. In order thereunto petitioning for three hundred acres of land, formerly promised him by the Court, he was, by occasion thereof, questioned for some speeches uttered by him in the ship, as he returned lately from England, viz., that they at Boston were zealous, as the Scribes and Pharisees were, and as Paul was before his conversion; which he denying, they were proved to his face by a sober woman, whom he had seduced in the ship, and drawn to his opinion; but she was afterward better informed in the truth. Among other passages, he told her how he came by his assurance, saying, that, having long lain under a spirit of bondage, and continued in a legal way near five years, he could get no assurance, till at length, as he was taking a pipe of the good creature tobacco, the Spirit || set || home upon his heart an absolute promise of free grace, with such assurance and joy, as he never doubted since of his good estate, neither should he, whatsoever sin he should fall into; (a good preparative for such motions as he familiarly used to make to some of that sex.) He would neither confess nor deny the words, but objected against the validity of ||fell || 1 See pages 223, 242.-H. In December, 1638. See Sav. Win. i. 281; Farmer's Belknap, p. 20.-H. 3 Between April 17th and July 14th, 1643. See Maine Hist. Coll. i. 260 – 2; Farmer's Belknap, p. 32.-н. a single testimony, and withal said he was still of the same opinion he had been of, about the petition or remonstrance, and that his retractation was only as to the manner, and not the matter. Whereupon his said retractation (which he had lately delivered to the Governor, to be presented to the Court) was read, wherein he professeth how that the Lord had brought him to see his sin in condemning the Court, and passing the bounds of modesty and submission, which is required in private persons, &c., and in what trouble of spirit he had been in for it, &c. Upon this the Court committed him for abusing them with a shew of retractation, when there was no such thing intended by him. The next day he was called again and banished. The Lord's Day after, he made a speech in the assembly, shewing that, as the Lord was pleased to convert Paul as he was persecuting, &c., so he might manifest himself to him as he was making moderate use of the good creature called tobacco. He professed withal that he knew not wherein he had deserved the sentence of the Court, and that he was sure Christ was his, &c. The elders reproved him for his speech, and Mr. Cotton told him that he did break a rule, publicly to condemn the Court, unless he had privately convinced the magistrates, or some of them; and told him, also, that although God doth often lay a man under a spirit of bondage, while he is walking in sin, as Paul was, yet he never sends such a spirit of comfort but in an ordinance, as he did to the same Paul by Ananias, and therefore advised him well to examine the revelation and joy which he pretended to. The next Lord's Day, this Captain Underhill, having been privately dealt with upon suspicion of incontinency with a neighbor's wife, and not hearkening to it, was questioned for it before the church, and put under admonition. The woman was young and beautiful, [and] withal of a jovial spirit and behavior, and it was known that he did daily frequent her house, and was divers times found there alone with her, the door being locked on the inside. He confessed it was ill, because it had an appearance of evil in it, but his excuse was, that the woman was in great trouble of mind, and some temptations, and that he resorted to her to comfort her, and that, when the door was found locked upon them, they were in private prayer together; but this practice was clearly condemned also by the elders, affirming that it had not been of good report for any of them to have done the like, and that they ought, in such case, to have called in some brethren or sisters, and not to have locked the door. They also declared, that once he procured them to go unto her, telling them that she was in great trouble of mind; but taking her, (upon the sudden, it seems,) they found no such matter. However, it seems the church, not having sufficient matter of conviction and proof of what he was suspected as guilty of, left him only under an admonition, and he, like a profane person, as was sometime said of Cain, that he went from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt on the east of Eden, so this gentleman went to the eastward, and made a great bluster among the inhabitants of Exeter and Dover, and ambitiously affected the government amongst them. Those of Dover had about this time gotten one Mr. Burdet1 to be their minister. This Burdet, upon a pretended quarrel with the bishops and ceremonies of the Church of England, had, about the year 1634, left Yarmouth, in England, and, coming over into New England, was brought to Salem, where he was received a member of their church, and was employed to preach amongst them for a year or more, being an able scholar, and of plausible parts and carriage. But finding the discipline of the church as much too strict for his loose conscience, as the other was, in pretence, too large, he left his brethren at Salem, out of love to his friends at Pascataqua, where he continued for some time in good esteem (at least in appearance) with Mr. Wiggans, that had the power of a Governor thereabouts, until he declared himself of what sort he was; for the tree is not known but by its fruits. The General Court of the Massachusetts had left it with 1 See page 221.-H. 5 VOL. VI. SECOND SERIES. |