Guilty of preaching religious liberty in England, separatist leader Roger Williams fled to Boston on FEBRUARY 5, 1631.
He pastored briefly before being banished in 1636 by Puritan leader John Cotton, who himself had been persecuted by Anglicans in England.
Befriended by the Indians of Narragansett, Williams founded Providence Plantation, Rhode Island – the first place where church government was not controlled by state government.
In 1639, Williams organized the first Baptist Church in America.
His “notorious disagreements” with Puritan leader John Cotton over the Massachusetts General Court censoring his religious speech led Roger Williams to publish The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Conscience Sake and Mr. Cotton’s Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered in 1644.
In it, Roger Williams first mentioned his now famous phrase, “WALL OF SEPARATION”:
“Mr. Cotton…hath not duly considered these following particulars.
First, the faithful labors of many witnesses of Jesus Christ, existing in the world, abundantly proving,
that the Church of the Jews under the Old Testament in the type and the Church of the Christians under the New Testament in the anti-type, were both SEPARATE from the world;
and that when they have opened a gap in the HEDGE, or WALL OF SEPARATION, between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broken down the WALL itself, removed the candlestick, &c. and made his garden a wilderness, as at this day.
And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be WALLED in peculiarly unto Himself from the world,
and that all that shall be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world and added unto His Church or garden…a SEPARATION of Holy from unHoly, penitent from impenitent, Godly from unGodly.”
Rev. Roger Williams was alluding to Isaiah 5:1-7, that when God’s people sin, He judges them by allowing his vineyard to be trampled by an ungodly government:
“My well-beloved hath a vineyard…And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine… and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem…judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard…When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?…
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I WILL TAKE AWAY THE HEDGE thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and BREAK DOWN THE WALL thereof, and it shall be trodden down…
For the vineyard…is house of Israel…and he looked for judgment, but found oppression.”
Roger Williams’ understanding – if God’s people sin, government will trample their rights, but if God’s people repent “He will restore His garden” having it “walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world” – led to the foundational Baptist tenet to keep government out of the church.
Baptist churches began in other colonies, such as Virginia.
James Madison wrote to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819:
“The English church was originally the established religion;…Of other sects there were but few adherents, except the Presbyterians who predominated on the west side of the Blue Mountains.
A little time previous to the Revolutionary struggle, the Baptists sprang up, and made very rapid progress…
At present the population is divided…among the Protestant Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Methodists.”
Baptist churches began in Connecticut, which had established the Congregational Christian denomination as the official State Church from 1639 to 1818.
With religion under each individual States’ jurisdiction until 1947, the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut complained of their second-class status in letter to Jefferson, October 7, 1801:
“Religion is at all times and places a matter between God and Individuals – That no man ought to suffer in name, person or effects on account of his religious opinions
– That the legitimate power of civil Government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor:
But Sir…what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights…
Sir, we are sensible that the President of the united States is not the national Legislator & also sensible that the national government cannot destroy the Laws of each State;
but our hopes are strong that the sentiments of our beloved President, which have had such genial effect already, like the radiant beams of the sun, will shine & prevail through all these States…
We have reason to believe that America’s God has raised you up to fill the chair of State…
May the Lord preserve you safe from every evil and bring you at last to his Heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Glorious Mediator.”
Jefferson replied, January 1, 1802:
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship,
that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions,
I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all his natural rights…
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man.”
In his 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805, President Thomas Jefferson stated:
“In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government.
I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities by the several religious societies.”
Jefferson wrote to Samuel Miller, January 23, 1808:
“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.
This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States.
Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General government. It must then rest with the States as far as it can be in any human authority….
I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines….
Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets.”
William J. Federer is a nationally known speaker, best-selling author, and president of Amerisearch, Inc., a publishing company dedicated to researching America’s noble heritage.
To learn more about the author please visit William Federer
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