ROGER WILLIAMS, THE BAPTISTS, AND PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Roger Williams migrated from England to escape religious persecution and came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631. Roger Williams was a Christian minister who originally held Puritan beliefs. While he did have lasting influence on the Puritans with regard to respecting the property rights of the native Americans, he was banished from his Salem Church and driven from the Colony by state authorities, because he defended the right of the American Indians to practice their own religion. He eluded the authorities and migrated to Rhode Island where he was granted land from the Narragansett Indians and founded Providence in 1636 on the northern tip of the Narragansett Bay. Roger Williams was greatly loved by the Indians because he respected their individuality. He actually attempted to learn their language, and published a Key to the Indian Language of America later in England.

Roger Williams is noted for his defense of religious freedom, and is considered one of the first to believe in the separation of Church and State. He founded the Baptist Church in America in Providence in 1638. In 1644 he obtained a Royal Charter from England and established the Providence Plantation, which became a haven of religious tolerance for Protestants.

That same year he also wrote his famous book The Bloody Tenent of Persecution in defense of religious freedom. A portion of the Bloody Tenent was written as a dialogue between Truth and Peace. He concludes the dialogue: "The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. Amen."


THE BLOODY TENENT OF PERSECUTION
The following are the opening paragraphs to the Bloody Tenent of Persecution.

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 cause 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 forts).

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.


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