Digital Select Works of Roger Williams from LOGOS.COM

by Samuel L. Caldwell; Roger Williams; John Cotton; Reuben Aldridge Guild and John Russell Bartlett

Published by LOGOS.com  https://www.logos.com/product/49833/select-works-of-roger-williams    SALE PRICE:  $79.99  Ships 4/27/2020

Format: Digital
Publishers: Narragansett Club; Sidney S. Rider, 1863–1881
Overview
Gathering the most significant writings of Roger Williams, this collection highlights the legacy of a powerful agitator for religious liberty, and the cofounder of the first Baptist church in America.

Explore the early call for a “wall of separation” between church and state as found in the writings of Roger Williams. This collection features his most famous work on religious liberty and church and state relations, The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, as well as his later defense of the work, The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody. Williams’ ideas are further explored and debated in his voluminous correspondence with John Cotton, John Winthrop, and other religious figures, as well as his open letter to the Westminster Assembly, all included here. These and other works provide insight into seventeenth-century debates within the Church of England, the early efforts towards protecting freedom of conscience in the American colonies, the boundaries between church and state, and much more.

Collects Roger Williams’ most important writings
Includes the first dictionary of Native American languages and culture published in English
Contains letters exchanged between Williams and John Cotton, John Winthrop, and other religious figures
Opens a window into the development of early North American colonies

Product Details
Select Works of Roger Williams
Author: Roger Williams
Volumes: 9  Pages: 3,128

Partially included
Value if sold separately
Bloody Tenent of Persecution $17.95
Christenings Make Not Christians and the Lost Letters of Roger Williams $16.95
Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health $3.95
George Fox Digg’d Out of His Burrowes $21.95
John Cotton’s Answer to Roger Williams and Queries of Highest Consideration $17.90
Key into the Language of America  $15.95
Letter of John Cotton, and Roger Williams’s Reply  $5.90
Letters of Roger Williams  $17.95
The Blood Tenent Yet More Blood $18.95
Total value if sold separately:  $137.45

Benefits of Logos Edition
In the Logos edition, the Select Works of Roger Williams is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key into the Language of America  282 Pages                                                                                                 Published during Roger Williams’ first trip back to England to negotiate a charter for his colony, Providence Plantations, this volume is the first account of Native American languages and culture ever published in English. Printed by John Milton’s publisher, it became a huge success in England, informing the British people about the customs of a people they were highly curious about. Williams presents mainly Narragansett phrases and translations, along with cultural notes and observations. They are grouped by subject—ranging from greetings and family business to religion and marriage. This historic work is notable for not only its content, but also its tone, as Williams combats attitudes of superiority in English readers towards Native peoples.

Letter of John Cotton, and Roger Williams’ Reply 110 Pages                                                                                 After being banished from Massachusetts for his separatist views and support for religious toleration, Roger Williams exchanged a series of polemical letters with John Cotton—one of the most distinguished scholars and divines of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the preeminent minister there—who Williams blamed for his banishment and saw as a representative of the non-separated church he opposed. Though Cotton was also technically a nonconformist, he did not wish to separate from the established Anglican Church, but reform it. This volume reprints John Cotton’s first letter to Roger Williams, written soon after his banishment, which was later published as a small pamphlet in London, appearing in 1643. It also contains Williams’ response, in which he examines Cotton’s letter piece by piece, reprinting it almost entirely in his reply, and responding to the charges and claims of each part.

George Fox Digg’d Out of His Burrowes 590 Pages                                                                                           Examine the final installment in the epistolary debate between John Cotton and Roger Williams. This letter from John Cotton closes the discussion he began with his first letter to Williams about 10 years earlier. In it, as editor J. Lewis Diman notes, Cotton seeks to “convince Williams of the insufficiency of those grounds which had led him to reject the fellowship of the Massachusetts churches.” The letter provides insight into the dispute between the nonconformist and separatist positions, as well as offering, incidentally, discussion that provides the most complete account of the proceedings against Williams.

Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health    86 Pages                                                                                               This group of letters, compiled and edited by John Russell Bartlett, provide insight into the life and thought of Roger Williams. The most significant portion of letters are the “Winthrop Papers,” letters written to John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts and his son John Winthrop Jr., who served as governor of Connecticut. Also included are letters to John Endicott, Simon Bradstreet, Thomas Hinckley, and others, spanning from 1632 to 1682.

The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience  Pages: 443
Though known for his devotion to religious liberty and tolerance of religious minorities—including Quakers—in Rhode Island, Roger Williams was involved in a strange public controversy with prominent Quaker leader, George Fox. In 1672, Williams penned 14 propositions against the Quaker religion, challenging Fox—who was visiting Rhode Island at the time—to a debate. When Fox left without responding, three of his followers accepted the invitation. This work was published in 1676. It records the debate and surrounding events, and eventually spurred Fox to publish a reply the following year.

The Blood Tenent Yet More Bloody Pages: 547
Experience the devotional side of Roger Williams’ writings with this private letter to his wife Mary. Once while he was working away from home, Williams learned that Mary had been gravely ill and nearly died. Following this serious episode, she was facing anxieties about her own salvation, and he penned this letter to comfort and reassure her of God’s grace revealed in Scripture. Gain insight into Williams’ own faith and convictions with this letter, in which he notes that “the weakest child of God may get assurance of his spiritual life and blessedness, and the strongest may find discoveries of his Christian growth, and the means of it.”

Letters of Roger Williams Pages: 430
Roger Williams’ most famous work, this 1644 text was written after his banishment from Massachusetts, while he was in England obtaining a charter for his own colony. Framing the work as a dialogue between “Truth” and “Peace,” Williams launches a harsh attack on the religious persecution in New England, arguing for toleration of all religious convictions, and separation between church and state.

John Cotton’s Answer to Roger Williams and Queries of Highest Consideration Pages: 275
After the publication of Bloody Tenent of Persecution, John Cotton published a response to the work called The Bloody Tenent, Washed, and Made White in the Blood of the Lamb. In this volume, Roger Williams continues the debate with a reply to Cotton’s response, published in 1652, in which he further defends his position, arguing for the protection of freedom of conscience.

This volume also contains Queries of Highest Consideration, published while Williams was in England to obtain a charter for Providence. In this brief treatise—an open letter to the Westminster Assembly and the “dissenting brethren”: Jeremiah Burroughs, Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, Sidrach Simpson, and William Bridge—Williams discusses the distinct provinces of civil and ecclesiastical authority.

Christenings Make Not Christians and the Lost Letters of Roger Williams  Pages: 365
In this brief discourse, Roger Williams takes issue with the labeling of Native Americans as “heathens,” and argues against the antagonism and prejudice packed within such terminology. “How oft have I heard both the English and the Dutch . . . say, these heathen dogs, better kill a thousand of them then that we Christians should be endangered or troubled with them . . .” he notes. Responding to this attitude, he proposes: “Who are then the nations, heathen, or gentiles, in opposition to this People of God? I answer, all people, civilized as well as uncivilized, even the most famous states, cities, and the kingdoms of the world: for all must come within that distinction. 1 Corinthians 5 within or without.”

About Roger Williams
Roger Williams (1603–1683) was born in London. He took holy orders in the Church of England, but became a Puritan while studying at Cambridge. As a separatist, he left England for the New World with his wife Mary in late 1630. Arriving in Boston in 1631, Williams refused a position to minister at the Boston church due to the fact it was not a separated church, and eventually found his way to preaching in the Plymouth church, before deciding it too was not separate enough. In 1635, Williams was convicted of sedition and heresy and banished from Massachusetts for views that were deemed dangerous.

In 1636, Williams and a group of followers began a new settlement called Providence, founded on the separation of church and state, political democracy, and the protection of religious liberty. It became a haven for separatists, Quakers, Jews, and other minorities. Williams came to believe in credobaptism. He was baptized in 1638, and involved in founding the first Baptist church in America. Williams was also deeply interested in learning the culture and language of the Native Americans, and is remembered as an advocate for fair dealings—from questioning the Massachusetts Bay colony’s acquisition of land, to forming lasting friendships and alliances with the Narragansetts, and keeping the peace between Rhode Island and the surrounding Native Americans for 40 years. Williams’ ideas about religious tolerance and the separation of church and state, while not widely accepted by his contemporaries, became foundational principles in the creation of the United States more than a century later.

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