Main currents in American thought

[6] Quoted in J. T. Adams, The Founding of New England, p. 194.

[7] Walker, Thomas Hooker, etc., p. 122.

[8]Ibid., p. 125.

[9]Ibid., p. 88.

[10]Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline, Introduction.

[11]Ibid., Part II, pp. 66, 72.

[12]Magnalia, Vol. II, p. 495.

[13] For the date, see Rhode Island Historical Society, Vol. VIII, p. 156; Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. VI, p. 599.

[14] The Seekers were thus described by a contemporary English pen: “Many have wrangled so long about the Church that at last they have quite lost it, and go under the name of Expecters and Seekers, and do deny that there is any Church, or any true minister, or any ordinances; some of them affirm the Church to be in the wilderness, and they are seeking for it there; others say that it is in the smoke of the Temple, and that they are groping for it there—where I leave them praying to God.” (Paget, Heresiography; quoted in Masson, Life of Milton, Vol. III, p. 153.)

[15] The Biblical authority for Separatism Williams found in both general and specific injunctions. The former, in the second commandment, in the third chapter of Daniel, in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation—the “wine of her fornication” being the ceremonial and ordinances of the English church—and in the Song of Solomon. The latter were: Revelation, 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins....”; Isaiah, 53:11: “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not the unclean thing; go ye out in the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord”; II Corinthians, 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” On these texts he based his argument with Cotton for the total separation of the New England churches. (See Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. I, p. 300.)

[16] For much of the material made use of here, I am indebted to The Political Theory of Roger Williams, a dissertation by Dr. James E. Ernst of the University of Washington.

[17] “Letter to the Town Clerk of Providence,” in Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. VI, p. 401.

[18] “The Bloudy Tenent,” in Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. III, p. 349.

[19] “The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloody,” in Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. IV, p. 187.

[20] “The Bloudy Tenent,” in Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. III, p. 398.

[21] See Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. III, pp. 214, 355, 366.

[22] “The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloody,” in ibid., Vol. IV, p. 487.

[23] “The Bloudy Tenent,” in ibid., Vol. III, p. 248.

[24]Ibid., Vol. III, p. 248.

[25] “The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloody,” in ibid., Vol. IV, p. 222.

[26] “The Bloudy Tenent,” in ibid., Vol. III, p. 76.

[27] Preface to “The Bloudy Tenent,” in ibid., Vol. III, p. 3.

[28]Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. VI, p. 51.

[29] “Letter to the Town of Providence,” in Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. VI, p. 263.

[30] Duguit, Law in the Modern State, p. 51.

[31] Gooch, History of Democratic Ideas, p. 80.

[32]Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. VI, p. 268.

[33] Masson, Life of Milton, Vol. II, p. 563.