ak in the congregation, according as the Lord
had given him talents, either to make inquiries for his own instruction,
or to prophesy for the edification of others, and that at all times and in
all places they ought to reprove folly and open their lips to justify
wisdom; and that no servant of Jesus Christ had any authority to restrain
any fellow-servant in his worship, where injury was not offered to others.
No dispute, however, occurred, and Mr. Clarke, his friends paying his fine
without his consent, was soon released from prison, and directed to leave
the colony. His companion Obadiah Holmes shared a severer fate; for, on
declining to pay his fine of thirty pounds, which his friends offered to
do for him, he was publicly whipped in Boston.

Mr. Clarke died at Newport, April 20, 1676, aged about 66 years, resigning
his soul to his merciful Redeemer, through faith in whose name he enjoyed
the hope of a resurrection to eternal life.

His life was so pure, that he was never accused of any vice, to leave a
blot on his memory. His noble sentiments respecting religious toleration
did not, indeed, accord with the sentiments of the age in which he lived,
and exposed him to trouble; but at the present time they are almost
universally embraced. His exertions to promote the civil prosperity of
Rhode Island must endear his name to those who are now enjoying the fruits
of his labors. He possessed the singular honor of contributing much
towards establishing the first government upon the earth, which gave equal
liberty, civil and religious, to all men living under it.

Ann Hutchinson.

A woman who occasioned much difficulty in New England, soon after its
first settlement, came from Lincolnshire to Boston, 1635, and was the wife
of one of the representatives of Boston. The members of Mr. Cotton's
church used to meet every week to repeat his sermons, and discourse on
doctrines. She set up meetings for women, and soon had a numerous
audience. After repeating the sermons of Mr. Cotton, she added reflections
of her own; she advocated her own sentiments, and warped the discourses of
her minister to coincide with them. She soon threw the whole colony into a
flame. The progress of her sentiments occasioned the synod of 1637, the
first synod in America. This convention of ministers condemned eighty-two
erroneous opinions, then propagated in the country. Mrs. Hutchinson, after
this sentence of her opinions, was herself called befor