Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/158

 their livings and from the kingdom. What was England's great loss was America's great gain, for a grand tidal wave of emigration swept across the Atlantic to our shores. Godly men and women, clergy and laity, made up this exiled band, too true and earnest to yield a base compliance to the edict of conformity. For thirteen years have the dissenters from Mr. Newman's church waited for a spiritual guide, but not in vain; for among the number who sought a refuge from religious oppression, we find John Myles, of Swansea, Wales.

How our Baptist brethren have conducted themselves during these years, and the difficulties they may have occasioned or encountered, we know but little. Plymouth, liberal already, has grown more lenient towards church offenders in matters of conscience. Mr. John Brown, a citizen of Rehoboth, and one of the magistrates, has presented before the court his scruples at the expediency of, coercing the people to support the ministry, and has offered to pay from his own property the taxes of all those of his townsmen who may refuse their support of the ministry. This was in 1655. Massachusetts Bay has tried to correct the errors of her sister colony on the subject of toleration, and has in turn been rebuked by her example. Leaving the membership awhile, let us cross over to Wales to find their future teacher and pastor, John Myles.

Wales had been the asylum for the persecuted and oppressed for centuries. There, freedom of religious thought was tolerated, and from thence sprung Oliver Cromwell and John Myles. About the year 1645, the Baptists in that country, who had previously been scattered and connected with other churches, began to unite in the formation of separate churches, under their own pastors. Prominent among these was the Rev. Mr. Myles, who preached in various places with great success, until the year 1649, when we find him pastor of a church which he organized in Swansea, South Wales. It is a singular coincidence that the termination of Mr. Myles's pastorate at Swansea, and the separation of the members