...pure. As one early leader, Nathaniel Ward, said, after naming a list of unacceptable religions, they "shall have free Liberty to keep away from us, and...come to be gone as fast as they can, the sooner the better."3 Did the Puritans mean that? Yes; dissenters were often tried and physically punished, sometimes...

...Colony, that all Familists, Antinomians, Anabaptists, and other Enthusiasts, shall have free I .iberty he effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, m Secondly, I dare averre, that God doth no where in his word tolerate Christian States, to give Tolerations...

...The Simple Cobbler of Aggatvam (1647), "to be the Herauld of New-England so farre, as to proclaime to the world, in the name of our Colony that all Familists,...gone as fast as they can, the sooner the better." The founders of Massachusetts did not cross the Atlantic to separate the church from the state, although...

...proclaimed boldly, I dare take upon me, to be the Herauld of New England so farre, as to proclaime to the world, in the name of our Colony, that all...come to be gone as fast as they can, the sooner the better.101 Although a minister himself, Ward was not interested in debate; on the contrary, he regarded...