921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Rev. Samuel WhiLing. 189
of religion differing from th6se of the magis-
trates; if legislatures and courts of justice
could interfere with the private discipline of
churches,whow could the liberty of the colo-
nists have been preserved? Would they not
have been crushed by foes more dangerous than
Star-chamber courts or Spanish inquisitions?
While we thank, with tears of gratitude, our
fathers who wrenched from the king his sov-
ereignty over the American colonies, let us not
forget those earlier heroes, who, in the pulpit,
first announced the principles which their
descendants, a century later, maintained by a
revolutionary war, mprinciples which alone
have given moral grandeur to this republic.
Rev. Samuel Whiting was one of the few
brave, conscientious, disinterested and states-
manlike Puritan clergymen to whom we are
chiefly indebted for whatever of liberty in government
or religion was preserved or main-
tained in the colony of Massachusetts Bay.
He demanded that the magistrates should not
interfere in matters of the Church. From the
plain duty of Christians to do unto others that