Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader | Page 8

372, 373, 374, 375
WILDE, RICHARD H. 186, 330 WILLIAMS, ROGER 1 WILLIAMS,
WILLIAM R. 40 WILLIS, NATHANIEL P. 204, 205, 365, 366
WILSON, ALEXANDER 255, 256 WINTHROP, JOHN 10, 11 WIRT,
WILLIAM 176 WOOLMAN, JOHN 17 WOOLSEY, THEODORE D.
161 WORTHINGTON, JANE T.L. 237

CHOICE SPECIMENS
OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE.
* * * * *

CHAPTER I
.
RELIGIOUS WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND
EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
=_Roger Williams, 1598-1683._= (Manual, pp. 480, 512.)
From his "Memoirs."
=_1.=_ EXTENT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in one ship,
whose weal and woe is common, and is a true picture of a
commonwealth, or a human combination or society. It hath fallen out,
sometimes, that both Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be
embarked into one ship. Upon which supposal, I affirm that all the
liberty of conscience, that ever I pleaded for, turns upon these two
hinges; that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks, be forced
to come to the ship's prayers, nor compelled from their own particular
prayers or worship, if they practice any.... If any of the seamen refuse
to perform their service, or passengers to pay their freight; if any refuse
to help, in person or purse, towards the common charges or defence; if
any refuse to obey the common laws or orders of the ship concerning
their common peace or preservation; if any shall mutiny and rise up
against their commanders and officers; if any should preach or write,
that there ought to be no commanders nor officers, because all are equal
in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws, nor orders, no
corrections nor punishments,--I say I never denied but in such cases,
whatever is pretended, the commander or commanders may judge,
resist, compel, and punish such transgressors, according to their deserts
and merits.
* * * * *
=_Cotton Mather, 1663-1728._= (Manual pp. 479, 512.)
From the "Antiquities," or Book I, of the "Magnalia."
=2.= PRESERVATION OF NEW ENGLAND PRINCIPLES.
'Tis now time for me to tell my reader, that in _our age_, there has been
another essay made, not by French, but by English PROTESTANTS, to
fill a certain country in America with _Reformed Churches_; nothing in
_doctrine_, little in _discipline_, different from that of Geneva.
Mankind will pardon _me_, a native of that country, if smitten with a

just fear of encroaching and ill-bodied _degeneracies_, I shall use my
modest endeavors to prevent the loss of a country so signalized for the
profession of the purest _Religion_, and for the protection of God upon
it in that holy profession. I shall count my country _lost_, in the loss of
the primitive _principles_, and the primitive _practices_, upon which it
was at first established: but certainly one good way to save that _loss_,
would be to do something, that the memory of _the great things done
for us by our God_, may not be _lost_, and that the story of the
circumstances attending the foundation and formation of this country,
and of its preservation hitherto, may be impartially handed unto
posterity. THIS is the undertaking whereto I now address myself; and
now, _Grant me thy gracious assistances, O my God! that in this my
undertaking I may be kept from every false way._
* * * * *
=_Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758_=. (Manual, p. 479.)
From the "Inquiry, &c., into the Freedom of the Will."
=_3._= MEANING OF THE PHRASE "MORAL INABILITY."
It must be observed concerning Moral Inability, in each kind of it, that
the word Inability is used in a sense very diverse from its original
import.... In the strictest propriety of speech, a man has a thing in his
power, if he has it in his choice, or at his election; and a man cannot be
truly said to be unable to do a thing, when he can do it if he will. It is
improperly said, that a person cannot perform those external actions
which are dependent on the act of the will, and which would be easily
performed, if the act of the will were present. And if it be improperly
said, that he cannot perform those external voluntary actions which
depend on the will, it is in some respect more improperly said, that he
is unable to exert the acts of the will themselves; because it is more
evidently false, with respect to these, that he cannot if he will; for to
say so is a downright contradiction: it is to say he cannot will if he does
will. And in this case, not only is it true, that it is easy for a man to do
the thing if he will, but the very willing is the doing; when once he has
willed, the thing is performed;