cotton s arrival there was a strong to secure but cotton was timid in action and he was nothing if not orderly and was an elder entitled as such to be proceeded with in a church way first as leader and of the clergy cotton expressed his charitable conviction that s violent chap ii dealt with forces in colony planting book ni note id the governor s verse s new england biography course did rather spring from scruple of conscience than from a principle the clergy proposed to try to convert him by argument not so perhaps from hope of success as from a conviction that this was the orderly and rule impatient to snuff out at once replied that they were deceived in him if they thought he would condescend to learn of any of them but the elders now proceeded in the way prescribed by cotton s system from scripture the individual church must deal with its own member the sister churches might with a church cotton and for example could appeal to the boston church to appeal to the church to appeal to and in this order much of the correspondence went on it was perhaps when his desire to act promptly against the was thus by cotton s prudent and intricate in that relieved his emotions by what is happily the only example of his verse that has survived let men of god in courts and churches watch o er such as do a lest that ill t g bring forth a to poison all with and vice if men be left and otherwise combine my s i die no the of religious freedom xii the most substantial grievance of the rulers against was his opposition to the oath in order to make sure of the loyalty of the in this time of danger a new oath of fidelity to be taken by had been practical men are wont to put aside minor scruples in time of danger david eats the sacred when he is but would rather starve than a of it he did not believe in enforced oaths they obliged the wicked man to a religious act and thus invaded the soul s freedom cotton says that s scruples excited such an opposition to the oath that the were not able to enforce it he thus throws a strong light on the weakness of the age and the conduct of as well as that of the rulers the age was in love with and on this side was the product of his time in such an age a scruple maker of ability and originality like might be a source of danger during the year following was several times before the court he was charged with having broken his promise not to speak about the patent with opposing the oath with maintaining certain scruples in opposition to the customs of the times as that a man should not return thanks after a meal or call on an child to give thanks for his chap ii note ii scruples small and great forces in colony planting book iii savage s s journal i mass i food these were not more trivial certainly than half a hundred scruples then but they chanced to be � a fault in a scruple the sense of proportion was feeble in of that day and neither nor his understood the comparative magnitude of his greater and the of those petty scruples about which like the whole world he was very busy religious freedom and the obligation of grace after meat could then be put into the same as years went by although the mind pf was never from he came to see clearly what was the real battle of his life no better fortune can befall a great spirit than such a of vision the extended works of s later life are written mainly to overthrow the bloody of persecution it was this of soul liberty as the matter of the law that lifted him above all others who paid of their little garden was certainly richard brown the ruling elder of the church at seems to have submitted to the remonstrance of the against his too charitable judgment of the roman churches of afterward the indian advanced peculiar opinions also but he was and convinced who had denied that the of a were was brought to book about this time and he the prophet of religious freedom itself was forced to bend its neck at last the town had been refused its land on marble neck because of its of and having under s protested in a letter to the churches against the injustice of spiritual by financial robbery the of were now turned out of the court with characteristic violence protested further against the double injustice to he was promptly put under arrest and this severity brought swift conviction to his mind so that he humbly and submitted the same day the only bond of unity between the rash leader and was a common tendency to go to extremes in spirit the heroic long who rested in what he called the strength of his opinions in spite of and was far removed from a leader who bent before the first blast and who became in later life the in the xiii remained the one resolute stubborn and and even s fellow elder and the whole church at might be argued into by the sharp of the clergy or out of their convictions by the logic of the but could not be in his very nature his chap ii mass i s journal i trial forces in colony planting note banished note self spirit was able to face or the great was set to dispute with him s refined arguments were drawn out by linked to he proved to the satisfaction of everybody but the that it was not lawful for with his opinions to set food before his child 