Within a year of its formation, the Smyth congregation “seeing….that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent . . . resolved to go into the Low Countries.” The reason for leaving, according to Bradford, was government oppression: “they . . . were hunted and persecuted on every side . . . some were taken and clapped up in prison . . .” John Smyth presented a similar picture: “wee suffer bonds, losse of goods, banishment & death.”

About the same time considerable support was given by Episcopalians, Methodists, and certain Presbyterians to a proposal that the Christian faith be pronounced the established religion and that certain taxes be divided among the several denominations. The Baptists strenuously opposed the idea. After several years of debate the issue came to a head in the 1784-1785 session of the General Assembly. James Madison, whose ideas ran counter to those of Patrick Henry on this point,

Shortly after his return to England Helwys published a little book entitled The mistery of Iniquity , which set forth for the first time in England the concept of complete religious freedom. With rare courage the former country squire of Broxtowe Hall sent a copy of his new book with an inscription to King James I. In words as eloquent as they are bold, Helwys admonished the king to heed a principle that must have been strange to one of James's background.

Epictetus, "Why, then, do you call yourself a Stoic, why do you deceive the multitude, why do you act the part of a Jew40, when you are a Greek? Do you not see in what sense men are severally called Jew, Syrian, or Egyptian? For example, whenever we see a man halting between two faiths, we are in the habit of saying, “He is not a Jew, he is only acting the part.” But when he adopts the attitude of mind of the man who has been baptized and has made his choice, then he both is