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MR. WILLIAMS sent this letter to Connecticut, dated June 22, 1670, and then sent a copy of it to the General Court at Plymouth, which was preserved in the Winslow family, and now published by a Society who are all Pædobaptists.

The wisdom of God in these affairs appears very wonderful; for MR. WILLIAMS was the most acquainted with the Indian language, and had the most friendship with them of any man in New England; and as he settled at Providence in the spring or summer of 1636, so Governor Endicot went with an army in August that year, by water, to force the Pequots to terms, which they refused; and in September, sent their ambassadors to the Narragansets to join with them against the English. And they observed to them, that if they helped to subdue the Pequots, the English would overrun all the country. Whereas they were now so much scattered and weak, that if the Indians would all unite against them, they need not to come to open battle, but only to shoot them as they went about their business, kill their cattle, and fire their hay and buildings, and they would be forced to leave the country.

These are the ideas given in MAJOR MASON'S History of the Pequot War, which I have. But instead of this, WILLIAMS prevailed with Miantonomo, the Narraganset Sachem, to come to Boston in October, 1636, when he entered into a treaty to join with the English against their enemies, which was a great means of saving the country! And if Governor Winthrop, and other rulers, could have

acted their own minds, WILLIAMS would have been honoured and rewarded for these services, but cruel ministerial tyranny prevented it.

These,

from your old friend,

ISAAC BACKUS.

It may be also remarked, that when MR. ROGER WILLIAMS, for denying THE MAGISTRATE's interference with conscience, was banished the state of Massachusetts, and driven into the wilderness amidst the rigours of a New England winter, HE and his friend Oldey, and Thomas Angel, an hired servant, were at the mercy of the savages of the desert! Coming over the river in a canoe, they were saluted by the Indian word, signifying, what cheer?—They came round Fox point, until they met with a very pleasant spring, which runs to this day nearly opposite the Episcopal Church. Settling on this spot, they, from a grateful sense of the preserving goodness of God, assigned it the name of PROVIDEnce, now the flourishing capital of the state of Rhode Island! Here, with difficulty, a Baptist church was formed; small, but bound together in harmony and peace. They first met for worship, like the ancient Druids, in a grove, unless in wet or stormy weather, when they assembled in private houses. MR. WILLIAMS, after four years, resigned his pastoral office, and went to England, to procure a charter for his infant colony. On his return, he preached among the Indians with great success. Indeed, MR. WIL

LIAMS wrote an account of the Indians, on which the Lords of the Admiralty bestowed high commendation. It was he, by his influence among these transatlantic savages, who prevented immense bloodshed, and rescued from destruction the inhabitants of the adjacent country *.

An earlier communication of Mr. Backus to MR. RICHARDS, dated 1792, runs thus—

"Your thoughts of writing the Life of ROGER WILLIAMS, I heartily approve of, and am willing to contribute my mite towards it. I am glad you have got his first piece on the bloody tenet, which I never saw, though I have taken much pains to obtain it. As to the place of his birth, Mr. Morgan Edwards, when he collected materials for the Baptist History, before he and others prevailed with me to undertake it in 1771, gives this account, viz. "It is said that MR. ROGER WILLIAMS was born in Wales, and had a liberal education under the patronage of the famous Sir Edward Coke, under whom he also studied law, and by whose interest he obtained episcopal orders, and a parish. 'Tis also said, Sir Edward, one day

* See Dr. John Rippon's Baptist Register for March, 1802, with thanks for his communications. It is to be regretted that this periodical work should have been discontinued. It contains an interesting account of the formation of the above first Baptist Church in America, by Mr. Roger Williams, at Rhode Island. They now meet in a handsome edifice with a lofty steeple, of which Dr. Rippon, in his Register, has given an engraving. This, indeed, is only one of the many public buildings by which the pleasant town of Providence is distinguished.

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observing a youth at church taking notes of the serinon, and the people crowding, beckoned to him to come to his pew; and seeing how judiciously he minuted down the striking sentiments of the preacher, was so pleased that he entreated the parents to let him have the lad." This account Mr. Edwards received from some of the fathers at Providence, and the latter part of it they were not so clear in as the former part; but I know of nothing against the truth of either. Mr. William Hubbard, one of the greatest ministers in his day in New England, in his manuscript History in 1680, says, February 5, 1631, arrived Mr. William Peirse at Nantasket: with him came ONE MR. ROGER WILLIAMS, of good account in England, for a godly and zealous preacher; he had been some years employed in the ministry in England.' His letter, which is in our History, vol. 1. p. 421, gives the best account of his age that ever I saw. The original letter, written with his own hand, is preserved. By it he appears to have been born in 1599, and so was in his thirtysecond year when he came to Boston first, in a ship which sailed from Bristol in England. He died between Jan. 16, and May 10, 1683.

Hist. vol. i.

p. 515, and this is the nearest account that I ever could find of his death. I have often felt ashamed for my countrymen, that have neglected to preserve better memorials of so great a man, and so good a friend to the souls and bodies of ALL, as far as he could extend his influence !"

Thus MR. ROGER WILLIAMS, according to the

Rev. Isaac Backus, died 1683, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, being fifty-two years after his arrival in the United States of America. He was married, and left several children, whose descendants forming respectable connexions, greatly multiplied in succeeding generations. This disinterested and heavenly-minded MAN was interred by the colony of Rhode Island with every possible solemnity!

Nor let the preceding narrative of ROGER WILLIAMS be despised. He was one of that venerable host of sufferers for conscience sake, of whom the world was not worthy; and of whom even HUME has remarked, speaking of the oppressive dynasty of the Stuarts-" So absolute was the authority of the crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved by THE PURITANS alone; and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution!" After this asseveration, biographical particulars of such characters must be acceptable. It may be safely asserted, that no individual is more entitled than Roger Williams to the notice of posterity. As a Christian, as a minister, and as a legislator, he demands our sincere and warm admiration. Indeed, when I reflect upon this truly evangelical patriot crossing and recrossing the Atlantic for the annunciation of complete religious liberty to both Worlds, methinks I behold the divinely-commissioned angel in the Revelations, reappearing-with one foot on the American Continent, and the other on the British Isles, in the midst of the sea, lifting up his arm, and swearing

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