Lights," who, although opposed to separation and the excesses of revivalists, denounced persecuting measures. The "New Lights," by their persistent resistance, eventually gained a majority in their favour, and in turn imposed regulations in Yale College in accordance with their views. A third order of agitators now appeared, demanding unrestricted liberty in matters of conscience, and evincing at the same time fiercer hostility to all creeds and confessions. In the spring of 1744, a pamphlet was printed in Boston, attributed to Colonel Elisha Williams, President of Yale College, entitled Tract on "The Essential Rights and Liberties of Protestants, a Seasonable Plea for the Liberty of Conscience, and the Right of Private Judgment, in matters of religion, without any control from human authority;" being a letter from a gentleman in the Massachusetts Bay to his friends in Connecticut, wherein some thoughts on the origin, end, and extent of the civil power, with brief considerations on several late laws in Connecticut, are humbly offered, by a Lover of Truth and Liberty." The author avows himself a follower of Locke in his views of the origin and end of civil government. He adopts the positions that "all men are naturally equal in respect of jurisdiction or dominion one over another"; that "we are born free, as we are born rational"; and that "the fountain and original of all civil power is from the people, and is certainly instituted for their sakes." He proceeds to show that "the members of a civil state do retain their natural liberty, or right of judging for themselves in matters of religion"; and that the rights of conscience "sacred and equal in all, are, strictly speaking, unalienable." He denies the power of the civil authority "to make or ordain articles of faith, creeds, forms of worship, or Church government, to establish any religion of a human form and composition, as a rule binding to Christians, much less to do this on any penalties whatsoever"; and asserts the right of every Christian "to determine for himself what Church to join himself to," and of every Church" to judge in what manner God is to be worshipped by them, and what form of discipline ought to be observed by them," etc. He examines, section by section, the Connecticut laws of 1742 and 1743, and shows their injustice, and that they abridge that Christian liberty to which all British subjects are entitled by the Act of Toleration"; and, in conclusion, adds these words of warning :— * "It has commonly been the case that Christian liberty, as well as civil, has been lost by little and little; and experience has taught that it is not easy to recover it when once lost. So precious a jewel is always to be watched with a careful eye; for no people are likely to enjoy liberty long that are not zealous to preserve it." Elisha The author of this consistent statement of the principle of religious liberty was an extraordinary man, and served his country as a divine, college president, judge, and military commander. Dr. Doddridge, who met him in England, says of him— Williams. "I look upon him to be one of the most valuable men upon * New Englander, April, 1876, p. 304. earth; he has, joined to an ardent sense of religion, solid learning, consummate prudence, great candour, and sweetness of temper; and a certain nobleness of soul, capable of contriving and acting the greatest things, without seeming to be conscious of having done them." Views Liberty." The views of Williams on the question of religious liberty were adopted by men of another spirit. Dr. Gale, a bitter opponent of the adopted by Assembly's Catechism and the Savoy the "Sons of Declaration of Faith, in conjunction with Thomas Darling, of New Haven, the tutor and friend of Ezra Stiles, Jared Ingresol, and others, were associated in a political club, in 1755, called the SONS OF LIBERTY, and were trained together for their future course of action. Patrick defeats the We may note also that in a suit instituted in November, 1763, in Hanover, Virginia, by James Maury, for the recovery of his stipend in tobacco, Patrick Henry defeated the Clergy by an impassioned appeal to the Court, in which he denounced the decision of the Council at home, declaring the King, by whose authority such a decision was proclaimed and enforced, to be not the father, but the tyrant of his people, the exulting crowd seized the orator and carried him to receive an ovation from the multitude without. Whilst the atmosphere of the American provinces was charged with such elements, the Anglican Clergy were employed in every practicable way, to obtain a change in the civil government, which should be for their advantage. It is startling under these circumstances to find Dr. Samuel Johnson, an Anglican clergyman, in a long report to the Archbishop of Canterbury, July 13, 1760, writing to this effect: "And here, my Lord, I beg leave to add a few words of that colony (Conn.) in general, though it might, perhaps, hurt the Church were I known to write so freely. I am humbly of opinion that every thing being taken into Samuel Johnson and the the account, that for its bigness is the best of all his "Commonmajesty's provinces in America. All the disadvan. wealth of Hypocrites." tages it labours under are owing to its wretched constitution, being little more than a mere democracy, and most of them upon a level, and each man thinking himself an able divine and politician, hence the prevalency of rigid enthusiastical and conceited notions and practices in religion, and Republican and mobbish principles and practices, next door to anarchy, in polity, and hence frequent feuds and factions in both and every thing is managed by profound hypocrisy and dissimulation, so that they may in effect be called a commonwealth of hypocrites. I speak of the prevailing bulk, who all conspire to keep men of true, sober, and honest principles and integrity out of places, and such indeed as they abhor to have any hand in their public affairs, the rest having almost lost all notion of any king or kingdom to which they are accountable. This state of things makes multitudes very inquisitive after better principles, and many, from too much indignation run into the wild extreme of boundless latitude and freethinking; while many (I hope the most of those that are inquisitive) seem to sit down in the golden mean of the Church of England, if they could be provided for; so that it is of the utmost importance for the best weal of that colony and its eastward neighbours, that the Church be propagated and, if possible, supported, and if at the same time their CHARTERS were DEMOLISHED and they could be reduced under one form, and managed by wise and good governors and council appointed by the king, I believe they would in a little time grow a good sort of people, and be the best of all the provinces."* * Lambeth MSS., 1125. CHAPTER X. CONGREGATIONAL Churches in England, untrammelled by general courts, consociations, or councils, moved onward with the quietness of domestic order. In a time of spiritual lethargy, they were liable to silent decay; but with the revival of Christian affection they were drawn together by common sympathies most refreshing to witness. Though independent, they were not isolated. They rejoiced with each other in seasons of prosperity, and when they suffered from spiritual declension they sought the counsel, the help, and the prayers of sister churches in a manner indicative of their thorough sincerity and mutual confidence. We have an illustrative instance in the following letter from the Church at Basingstoke to the Church at the Three Cranes, London : "To y Church of Christ under y pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. John Hill, of London. "The Church of Christ at Basingstoke wisheth grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. "BELOVED IN OUR LORD,-Since it hath pleased our great Lord in His sovereign pleasure and holy dispensations to afflict us, by removing from us ye past year, and now again lately, several useful persons, whereby we are much reduced and |