So prominent indeed is the religious character of this instrument that it has by some been considered, although erroneously, as being itself “a church covenant, which also embodied a civil compact.” Their plans were more matured than those of the Providence settlers. To establish a colony independent of every other was their avowed intention, and the organization of a regular government was their initial step. That their object was to lay the foundation of a Christian state, where all who bore the name might worship God according to the dictates of conscience, untrammeled by written articles
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