Soon, in logical and honest sequence with the principles which they
professed, followed a system of persecution rivaling that of which
they complained in England. To be true to themselves and creed, they
were obliged to adopt it. We may do as we please; we may say that the
fanatical notion, the horrid Erinnys, the baleful mother of woes
innumerable, that the dogmas of religion may rightfully be enforced by
the sword of the civil, power, dominated the world, and in this way
account for their conduct; or apologize for it by the necessities of
their situation, and the peculiarities of their creed; or combine
these causes, and so extenuate what cannot be defended.

I can well understand how a Puritan of 16--would justify his rigor.
His opinion of himself would be like that of the amiable Governor
Winthrop, as found in his first will, (omitted, however, in his
second,) as one "adopted to be the child of God, and an heir of
everlasting life, and that of the mere and free favor of God, who hath
elected me to be a vessel of glory." Such was the Puritan in his own
eyes. He was the chosen of heaven. He had, for the sake of the Gospel,
abandoned his country and the comforts of civilization, to erect (in
the language of Scripture which he loved to use) his Ebenezer in the
wilderness. He wanted to be let alone. He invited not Papists or
English Churchmen, or any who differed in opinion from him, to throw
in their lots with his. They would only be obstacles in his way,
jarring-strings in his heavenly antique-fashioned harp. Away with the
intruders! What right had they to molest him with their dissenting
presence? The earth was wide: let them go somewhere else. They would
find more congenial associates in the Virginia colony. He would have
no Achans to breed dissension in his camp. With bold heart and strong
hand would he cast them out. His was the empire of the saints; an
empire, not to be exercised with feebleness and doubt, but with vigor