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 1665. 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.


JOHN MYLES.

Leaving the membership awhile, let us cross the sea to Wales to find
their future pastor and teacher--John Myles.

Wales had been the asylum for the persecuted and oppressed for many
centuries. There freedom of religious thought was tolerated, and from
thence sprung three men of unusual vigor and power: Roger Williams,
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 Reverend 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, in South
Wales. It is a singular coincidence that Mr. Myles's pastorate at
Swansea, and the separation of the members from the Rehoboth church, a
part of whom aided in establishing the church in Swanzey, Massachusetts,
occurred in the same year.