Joshua 24:15 Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
[The Great Controversy pp 294] Attendance at the services of the established church was required under a penalty of fine or imprisonment. “Williams reprobated the law; the worst statute of the English code was that which did but enforce attendance upon the parish church. To compel men to unite with those of a different creed, he regarded as an open violation of their natural rights; to drag to public worship the irreligious and the unwilling, seemed like requiring hypocrisy.
No one,’ he said, `should be forced to worship, or to maintain a worship, against his own consent.’ `What!’ exclaimed his antagonist, amazed at his tenets, `is not the laborer worthy of his hire?’ `Yes,’ replied he, `from those who hire him.’” Roger Williams was respected and beloved as a faithful minister, a man of rare gifts, of unbending integrity and true benevolence.
Yet his steadfast denial of the right of civil magistrates to authority over the church, and his demand for religious liberty, could not be tolerated. The application of this new doctrine, it was urged, would “subvert the fundamental state and government of the country.” He was sentenced to banishment from the colonies, and finally, to avoid arrest, he was forced to flee, amid the cold and storms of winter, into the unbroken forest.
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!