REV. John Myles and the Founding of the First Baptist Church in Massachusetts; An Historical Address Delivered at the Dedication of a Monument in Barr - Henry Melville King, Revised Edition, Paperback

• Release Date   9/12/2013
• ISBN-13   9781230439969 | 978-1-230-43996-9
• ISBN   123043996X | 1-230-43996-X
• Format   Paperback
• Author(s)   Henry Melville King
• This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... REV. JOHN MYLES AND THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS. By a remarkable reaction in public sentiment the English people who had beheaded Charles I on the afternoon of January 30, 1649, being unable to endure longer his oppressive and tyrannical unsurpation of power, were ready almost with one consent, when Cromwell died, to re-establish the throne and welcome a king. For nearly ten years they had enjoyed under the Protectorate an unusual measure of liberty and religious toleration. It is true that the government of the Great Commoner was never wholly acceptable to the people, and became, as it progressed, increasingly unpopular. The people became more and more dissatisfied, and hoped to find stability and rest by a return to royalty and the reinstatement of the Stuart line, under which they were encouraged to believe they might preserve the liberties which they had enjoyed for a brief time. It has been truly said by a recent student of the period: "Cromwell did not himself hold the highest conceptions on the subject (of religious liberty), but he put in practice the views he did hold. By him the leading sects were all tolerated. The nation was ready for no such freedom, but the people were forced to concede each other's rights. The English government was as little representative as at any period in his history. Yet this short specimen of limited toleration (for such it was) led many men to see its desirability. The nation went back heartily to the domination of overbearing kings, but never quite forgot the days of Cromwellian freedom." It is the old and oft repeated story of human history, the people longing for "the leeks and the onions and the garlic" of a bondage from which they had escaped, and needing the...