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 . TORICAL DISCOURSE 
 
 J 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE 
 SECOND CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, IN PROVIDENCE, 
 
 NOVEMBER 7, 1839. 
 
 By WILLIAM HAGUE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 <■ 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 
 B. CRANSTON AND COMPANY. 
 
 BOSTON : GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN. 
 
 183 9. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen 
 hundred and thirty-nine, by B. Cranston and Company, in the 
 Clerk's Office of the District Court of Rhode-Island. 
 
At a meeting of the Committee appointed by the First 
 Baptist Church and the Charitable Baptist Society, of the City 
 cf Providence, to make arrangements for celebrating the com- 
 pletion of the second century since the establishment of said 
 Church and Society, held November 11, 1839, 
 
 It was voted unanimously, That the thanks of this Commit- 
 tee be returned to the Rev. William Hague, for his historical 
 discourse delivered at the celebration on Thursday last, and 
 that he be requested to furnish a copy for the press. 
 
 Voted, That the Chairman and Secretary be requested to 
 communicate the above vote to Rev. Mr. William Hague. 
 A true copy : 
 
 F. WAYLAND, Sec-ry. 
 
 Providence, Nov. 12, 1839. 
 Reverend and dear Sir : 
 
 The undersigned, by the direction of the Committee, have 
 the honor to communicate to you the above votes ; and they 
 are happy to assure you, that they are 
 With great respect. 
 Dear sir, 
 
 Your ob't serv'ts, 
 
 NICHOLAS BROWN, 
 F. WAYLAND. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 It is mentioned by the father of history, at the 
 commencement of his immortal work, that he 
 was prompted to write by a desire to preserve past 
 events from obhvion, and to perpetuate the just 
 renown which belonged to men of departed gen- 
 erations.* Not unmindful of these motives, still 
 higher ones animate us in meeting here to-day 
 to commemorate the scenes and actors of a for- 
 mer century. We too would wish like the 
 Grecian sage to rescue the past from being for- 
 gotten, to give honor to whom honor is due, but 
 most of all, to contemplate afresh those great 
 principles which our fathers cherished with a 
 love stronger than death, to bring our tribute of 
 praise to the altar of God who enabled them to 
 establish on these shores the religion and the 
 freedom for which they suffered, and hath given 
 
 * Herodotus, Clio. §1. 
 
8 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 US reason to exclaim at this day, " the lines have 
 fallen to us in pleasant places, we have a goodly 
 heritage." 
 
 Two hundred years have now passed, since 
 was founded in the colony which had become 
 known as the asylum of oppressed consciences, 
 this Church, the first of the Baptist name which 
 was planted on the continent of America. Al- 
 thou2fh that event occurred in a small commu- 
 nity, in the midst of a savage wilderness, yet it 
 was not shrouded in complete obscurit3r.*= Its 
 founder was among the lights of his age, the 
 friend of Cromwell and of Milton,f and like his 
 companions, an exile on account of his faith. 
 It was the grief and wonder of the Puritans 
 among whom he first ministered, that a man so 
 learned and so eloquent, so disinterested and so 
 pious, could not submit himself to the laws of 
 their church establishment, but claimed for man 
 as man of every nation and of every creed, the 
 same liberty of conscience which he demanded 
 for himself. Not understanding as he did the 
 nature of the christian dispensation, nor the full 
 meaning of the truth that the weapons of Christ- 
 ianity are not carnal but spiritual, not carrying 
 out in all its length the maxim of Chillingworth, 
 
 * Winthrop's Journal, p. 174. 
 t Knowles's Memoir, p. 25, 264. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 9 
 
 that " the bible alone is the religion of Protest- 
 ants," nor confiding in the power of merely 
 moral means to promote the triumphs of the 
 church, they expressed at once the height of his 
 offence, their dislike of his sentiments, and their 
 apology for persecution, when they said that 
 " his principles tended to anabaptistry."* 
 
 In this age and in this commonwealth, it is 
 not easy for one adequately to conceive of the 
 feelings of abhorrence with which the rulers 
 of the Church and the State, both in Old and 
 New England, and throughout all Christendom, 
 looked upon the rise of what they thought to be 
 so portentous an evil. Sometimes the more 
 clear sighted among them spoke of it in a man- 
 ner which indicated a dread of its moral power, 
 while others treated it as a weak vagary of un- 
 quiet minds, destined soon to expire without 
 leaving scarcely a trace of its existence. Baxter 
 said, that at one time when England had little 
 experience of its tendency and consequents, 
 people used to speak of it as a temporary conceit 
 
 * The expression of the ruling elder of Plymouth was, that 
 he would run the same course of rigid separation and anabap- 
 tistry, which Mr. Smyth, at Amsterdam, had done ; and it is 
 said by Morton and Hubbard, that having removed to Salem, 
 " in one year's time he filled that place with principles of rigid 
 Beparation and tending to anabaptistry." — Backus, I. p. 56. 
 
10 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of some heated spirits.* For the most part those 
 who looked attentively at its nature and opera- 
 tion, were inspired with a strange dread of its 
 influence, and a feeling of relentless hostility 
 toward it. Three hundred years are just com- 
 pleted since the edict of Henry VIII, which 
 proclaimed a general pardon for almost all her- 
 etics except the Anabaptists.f That very year, 
 thirtyone of them were martyred at Delft in 
 Holland, the men being beheaded and the wo- 
 men drowned.J It was certainly a remarkable 
 year, for three men and one woman (called " Do- 
 natists, new dipt,") bore faggots at St. Paul's 
 cross, and one man and woman were burnt at 
 Smithfield.^ This spirit of persecution is not 
 so much to be wondered at as to be deplored. 
 In a country where ecclesiastical and civil power 
 were united, where every native was supposed 
 to be born into the church as well as the state, 
 where baptism had become both the seal of sal- 
 vation and the sign of citizenship, where the 
 parish register furnished to the ruler the statistics 
 of population and to the individual the proof of 
 his civil birthright, who can tell with what tcr- 
 
 * Sylvester's Baxter, part I. 41. 
 
 t Acts and Monuments, II. 358. 
 
 t Dutch Martyr, lib. II. p. 123, quoted by Crosby. 
 
 § Stocs chron. in Fuller, B. 5. p. 229. § 11. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 11 
 
 rors the very name of aiiabaptistry was invested ! 
 As its chief and essential element, it proclaimed 
 that the christian dispensation recognises no 
 bond of union with the visible chm'ch, except 
 a voluntary profession of christian faith. With 
 what a decisive meaning did it strike at the 
 established order of things in Europe : how 
 directly was it seen to aim its blow at every 
 legal bond which united the church and the 
 state ! Here and there, in one and another 
 age, as these principles sprung up in some 
 congenial soil or some obscure recess, the foot 
 of civil power was put forth to crush them. 
 At different times and in different countries 
 they had appeared and passed away, had flour- 
 ished for a while in peaceful obscurity, then be- 
 ing brought out to the light, received their chief 
 attestations from the voice of expiring martyrs. 
 No wonder that to many anabaptistry would 
 seem as the chimera of some erratic mind, 
 destined only for a short period to ruffle the 
 surface of society and then for ever disap- 
 pear. Yet wherever the spirit of religious in- 
 quiry has been much awakened, wherever the 
 word of God unbound hath moved the hearts of 
 the people, there anabaptistry hath appeared ; 
 appeared too amongst the sincere, the humble, 
 the devout men of the earth. Over their minds 
 the principle reigned with power, and amidst 
 
12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Storms of adversity they prophesied that its day 
 would come. Thence the first planting of it on 
 the American continent is an event of great im- 
 portance, whether we consider the agitation 
 which from age to age it has caused in Europe, 
 or its w^orkings in society since it found an asy- 
 lum in the new world. 
 
 As the founder of this Church was the found- 
 er of the Commonwealth, a proper occasion has 
 been embraced by this community to commem- 
 orate his worth as the first Christian legislator 
 who proclaimed and established that principle of 
 religious freedom, which constitutes the glory of 
 Rhode-Island.* It is therefore the less needful 
 now that I should narrate the events connected 
 with his purchase of this territory of the Indians, 
 and the organization of the civil government. 
 Among the statesmen of the world he holds a 
 singular pre-eminence, and comparing him with 
 them, it is but just to say in the words of a liv- 
 ing historian,! ''He was the first in modern 
 Christendom to assert in its plenitude the doc- 
 trine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of 
 opinions before the law, and in its defence he 
 was the harbinger of Milton, the precursor and 
 superior of Jeremy Taylor." From first to last 
 
 * Judge Pitman's Centennial Address, Providence, 183G. 
 t Bancroft's History of the United States, v. I. p. 375. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 13 
 
 this principle has been fondly cherished through* 
 out Rhode-Island, and has impressed its charac- 
 ter on all her legislation. In the words of an- 
 other, " In her code of laws, we read for the first 
 time since Christianity ascended the throne of 
 the Cassars, that conscience should be free, and 
 men should not be punished for worshipping God 
 as they were persuaded he required, a declara- 
 tion which to the honor of Rhode-Island she has 
 never departed from. It still shines among her 
 laws with an argument for its support in the 
 shape of a preamble, which has rarely been sur- 
 passed in power of thought or felicity of expres- 
 sion."* 
 
 It is a just matter of wonder that in that age, 
 and from a monarch like Charles II, a charter 
 embodying a principle so dreaded as a source of 
 anarchy, could have been in any way obtained. 
 It is doubtless true that his desire to tolerate 
 the Catholics in England, disposed him favorably 
 towards a proposition from a Puritan colonist, 
 which would secure to Catholics the undisturbed 
 enjoyment of their religion in this distant part of 
 his dominion. In such a combination of events, 
 however, Roger Williams could not but recog- 
 nise the interposition of the Supreme Providence 
 which rules the Universe, and declared the con- 
 
 * Judge Story's Centennial Address, Salem, 1828, p. 57. 
 
 2 
 
14 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 victions of his mind on this point \yhen he said 
 '• all the world may see by his Majesty's de- 
 claration and engagements before his return, and 
 liis declarations and Parliament speeches since, 
 and many suitable actings, how the Father of 
 Spirits hath mightily impressed his royal spirit, 
 though the bishops much disturbed him, with 
 deep inclination of favor and gentleness to dif- 
 ferent consciences and apprehensions as to the 
 invisible king and Avay of his worship. Hence 
 he hath vouchsafed his royal promise under his 
 hand and broad seal, that no person in this colo- 
 ny shall be molested or questioned for the mat- 
 ters of his conscience to God, so he be loyal and 
 keep the civil peace. Our grant is crowned with 
 the king's extraordinary favor to this colony as 
 being a banished one, in which his Majesty de- 
 clared himself that he ivould ex'periment whether 
 civil government could consist with such liberty 
 of conscience. This his Majesty's grant was 
 startled at by his Majesty's high officers of state, 
 who were to view it in course before the sealing, 
 but fearing the lion's roaring, they couched 
 against their wills in obedience to his Majesty's 
 pleasure."* What reason have we to rejoice 
 that on this consecrated spot we can lift up our 
 voices today in united testimony, and declare 
 
 * Major Mason's Letter, Mass. His. Coll., Vol. 1. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15 
 
 that the great moral experiment which was begun 
 here two centm'ies ago by an Enghsh king has 
 been attended with success ; that here without 
 one invasion of hberty of conscience, rehgion has 
 been upheld, civil order maintained, life and 
 property secured, justice dispensed, education 
 diffused, the peaceful arts cultivated, social con- 
 cord cherished, and a general concert of action 
 preserved among men of conflicting religious 
 opinions not only to attain the great ends of civil 
 government, but also to promote the progress of 
 society. It is a glorious result to vWiich we bear 
 witness, one which our forefathers saw only by 
 the eye of faith, but saw so clearly, that the blest 
 vision thereof made their hearts strong in the day 
 of calamity ; a result which may tell loudly on 
 the moral advancement of our race, and which 
 we Vv^ould fain proclaim as with the voice of 
 many waters and the voice of mighty thunder- 
 ings, till it reach the ear of every dweller on the 
 face of the earth, Avho in the spirit of christian 
 love is toiling to elevate downtrodden and de- 
 graded humanity. 
 
 Without entering very minutely into the bi- 
 ography of Roger Williams, the knowledge of 
 which, from various sources, is now accessible 
 by all of us, it may be well just to glance at an 
 outline of his life. The best accounts of him 
 state that he was born in Wales, in 1599. From 
 
16 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 a remark of his own, it seems probable that he 
 became pious in his youth, for in a book written 
 in 1673,* he says, '' the truth is, from my child- 
 hood, now above three score years, the Father 
 of lights and mercies touched my soul with a 
 love to himself, and to his only begotten the 
 true Lord Jesus, to his holy scriptures." He 
 studied law under the patronage of Sir Edward 
 Coke, but afterwards devoted himself to theo- 
 logy, received Episcopal orders and had the 
 charge of a parish in England. His lot was 
 cast in stormy times, and both his temperament 
 and education fitted him to act some decisive 
 part in passing scenes. Possessing an ardent 
 love for truth and liberty, he was led by his 
 convictions to join the Puritans, and like others 
 of them emigrated to New-England, which had 
 become famous abroad as the home of piety and 
 freedom. He arrived at Nantasket in February, 
 1631, and on reaching Boston, and finding the 
 church there wielding a sceptre of civil power, 
 at once he declared himself dissatisfied with 
 them because they had not abjured those prin- 
 ciples on the ground of which they had been 
 united to the established church of England. 
 Then, he broached the great doctrine, that civil 
 governments, being constituted only for civil and 
 
 * Crcorge Fox digged out of liis burrowcs. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 17 
 
 secular ends, the magistrate hath no right to in- 
 terfere in the affairs of conscience. He seems 
 at that time, to have fully matured the truth 
 that a church established by civil law, can not 
 be, as to its outward order, a true church of 
 Christ ; that so far as civil authority enforces 
 religious duties, so far the church which allows 
 it becomes a " kingdom of this world," and not 
 the spiritual empire of which Jesus Christ is the 
 only sovereign. Giving offence to the rulers in 
 Boston, by avowing opinions so adverse to their 
 ecclesiastical polity, he went to Salem, where he 
 was YvTell received, and chosen teacher by the 
 church. At this the court in Boston marvelled 
 much, and raised such an excitement against 
 him, that in less than a year, he removed to 
 Plymouth, where he was associated with Mr. 
 Ralph Smith, the Pastor, as an assistant teacher. 
 We have the testimony of Governor Bradford to 
 the excellent character of his ministry, but his 
 distinguishing doctrine of human liberty, which 
 was involved in his idea of the spirituality of 
 the christian dispensation, was the cause of an 
 opposition to him, which disposed him in 1663 
 to listen favorably to a call from the church in 
 Salem, to return to that place. Of all the 
 churches in Massachusetts, that of Salem was 
 most attached to the principle of independency, 
 2* 
 
IS HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and maintained it most resolutely.* The next 
 year he was ordained their pastor, on which 
 accomit the court in Boston manifested strong 
 hostility to them, refusing even to hold inter- 
 course with them touching matters of civil just- 
 ice, until they retraced their steps. Thrice 
 was he called before them to answer to several 
 accusations. One was, impugning the justice of 
 that patent by virtue of which the colony held 
 her lands, inasmuch as it paid no regard to the 
 rights of the Indians. Another was, calling the 
 estabhshed church of England antichristian. — 
 I'he third was, saying that an oath ought not 
 to be enforced on an unregenerate man, which 
 assertion being based on the opinion that an 
 oath is an act of worship^ was defended by an 
 argument remarkable for its simplicity and 
 strength. But the worst of all was, declaring 
 that " the magistrate ought not to punish the 
 breach of the first table, otherwise than it did 
 disturb the civil peace." His sentiment on that 
 subject is thus expressed in his own words :f — 
 '' As the civil permission of all the consciences 
 and worship of all men in things merely spiritu- 
 al, is no ways inconsistent with true Christianity 
 and true civility, so, it is the duty of the magis- 
 
 * Upham's 2d Cent'y Disc. p. 41. 
 t Hireling Ministry, p. 36, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 19 
 
 trate to suppress all violences to the bodies and 
 goods of men for their souls' belief, and to 
 provide that not one person in the land be re- 
 strained from or constrained to any worship. 
 ministry, or maintenance, but peaceably main- 
 tained in his soul [liberty] as well as corporal 
 freedom.''* 
 
 At the General Court in 1635, two letters were 
 produced against him, the sentiments of which 
 he boldly defended, and the next morning his 
 sentence of banishment was pronounced. It 
 stands recorded in the State papers of that day. 
 proclaims as the '' head and front of his offend- 
 ing" his doctrine touching the authority of mag- 
 istrates, and commands him to depart out of the 
 jurisdiction of the Commonwealth within six 
 weeks, on penalty of forcible expulsion. The 
 very rulers who had before sought to get rid of 
 
 * Judge Pitman well suggests, tliat two other charges men- 
 tioned by VVinthrop were thrown in for the sake of effect. 
 These were, that a man ought not to pray with unrcgenerate 
 persons, nor to give thanks after sacrament or after meat. 
 It is probable that what Mr. Williams uttered on these point? 
 was connected with the fact that men indiscriminately were 
 constrained to these duties, and that the church forms treated 
 all as regenerate. Certain it is that the letter which several 
 of the nobility and gentlemen of England wrote to the rulers 
 of Massachusetts in behalf of Mr. Williams, asserted that each 
 party spoke well of the other, except in regard to religioug 
 liberty. 
 
20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 two men among them on account of their cher- 
 ishing Vv'hat was deemed too great an attachment 
 to the forms of the Church of England, now 
 banish another for defending the rights of all 
 who were persecuted for conscience's sake. 
 
 Such was the excitement which the publica- 
 tion of this sentence produced in Salem, that 
 the government considered it expedient at first 
 to allow him to remain through the winter. 
 But on hearing that a number of persons resorted 
 to his house, that about twenty of them had been 
 drawn to his opinions, and that they intended to 
 depart together to erect a new plantation about 
 the Narragansett Bay, the court feared the spread 
 of his contagious doctrines from thence through 
 all the churches of their commonv/ealth, and re- 
 solved to crush in the bud a plan so dangerous. 
 Thence they sent him a peremptor^^ order to re- 
 pair forthwith to Boston to be shipped. He 
 replied that he could not come without hazard 
 of his life. On this a pinnace was sent with a 
 commission to Captain Underbill, to take him 
 by force. But their design was anticijiated, and 
 wlien they reached his house, they found that 
 he had been gone tlu'ee da^^s. In the midst of 
 winter, this venerable pilgrim, this apostle of re- 
 ligious liberty, went forth from his home, like the 
 patriarch Abraham, not knowing whither he 
 went. Yet like Abraham, he walked by faith. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 He moved with a firm unfaltering step. Who 
 can tell what perils he braved, what hardships 
 tried his soul ? Who can adequately picture the 
 dangers which beset the path of the lonely 
 traveller through an unexplored forest, amidst 
 piercing cold, and drifting snows, uncertain at 
 every step where to find firm footing, making 
 his bed now under the covert of a reck, now in 
 a hollow tree, and only relieved at times by the 
 luxury of an Indian wigwam ? No wonder is it 
 that he said in his old age, he felt " the effects of 
 those severities/' But well may we wonder that 
 his spirit was undaunted, that his bodily strength 
 endured. Deeply must he have felt that he 
 was made strong by the power of the mighty 
 God of Jacob ; a sentiment which he has ex- 
 pressed with sweet simplicity in stanzas which 
 allude to the fact that when exiled by his 
 brethren, the hearts of the savages were open to 
 receive him. 
 
 " How kindly flames of nature burn 
 In wild humanitie — 
 
 God's providence is rich to hi-s, 
 
 Let none distrustful be ; 
 In wilderness in great distress, 
 
 These ravens have fed mc. 
 
 Lost many a time, I 've had no guide, 
 
 No house but hollow tree ; 
 In stormy win'cr night, no fire, 
 
 No food, no company. 
 
22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 God makes a path, provides a guide, 
 
 And feeds in wilderneps ; 
 His ^lorioiss name while earth remains, 
 
 O that I may confess."* 
 
 True bcECVolencG, though it always confers 
 inward peace, is not always attended in this 
 world with visible and outward reward. It was 
 otherwise in the case of Mr. Williams. He was 
 the first Christian Missionary to the Indians in 
 North- America. While at Plymouth and Salem, 
 he says, '' My souVs desire was to do them gcod. 
 God was pleased to give me a painful patient 
 spirit to lodge with them in their fdthy, smoky 
 holes, to ^ain their tonprue." Little did he 
 think, however, while he was taking such 
 pains to impart to them the knowledge of eter- 
 nal life, that he was preparing the means of his 
 own temporal salvation. Yet so it was. The 
 knowledsre of their lanajuaa-e, which he thus 
 gained, enabled him to hold intercourse with 
 tlicm in the wilderness, to awaken their sym- 
 pathies, and to command their confidence ; and 
 after having been warned by the Plymouth gov- 
 ernment to leave Seekonk, where he " first 
 pitched and began to build and plant," it enabled 
 him as he sailed around yonder point, to answer 
 the friendly cry of " WJiatchcer^''^-\ witli which 
 
 * Key, oliap. II. &cc. 
 
 i" A friendly grcctiiij, '.vhieh tlic Indians had karned from 
 the En'riifih. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 23 
 
 the Indians hailed him there, in words that won 
 upon their hearts. Thus, led by a " right way 
 to a city of habitation," his spirit was deeply 
 touched with a sense of the interposition of God, 
 and tiience he says, in view of the counsel and 
 advice which he received, "as to the freedom 
 and vacancy of this place, and many other pro- 
 vidences of the Most Holy and Only Wise, 1 
 called it Providence."* 
 
 It is not to be supposed that a man so devout 
 as he, could reach the end of his pilgrimage, 
 without, like the ancient patriarch, erecting an 
 altar and calling upon the Lord. There is no 
 reason to doubt that he immediately com.menced 
 public worship. He who had panted to preach 
 the gospel to the Indians, who amidst his trials 
 in Massachusetts had become almost exhausted 
 with his ministerial labors, constantly conversing 
 and preaching thrice a week, he certainly could 
 not long remain on this spot, which by its very 
 name he had solemnly consecrated, without en- 
 deavoring to promote the institutions of religion. 
 Thence we are not surprised to learn from Win- 
 throp, " that he was accustomed to hold meet- 
 ings both on the Sabbaths and on week days."t 
 Those who had been members of the church in 
 
 * Major Mason's Letter, 
 t Vol. 1, p. 283. 
 
24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Salem would naturally regard hirn as their pas- 
 tor still. It is a just remark of his biographer, 
 that Mr. Williams may have judged it to be 
 most conducive to the peace and welfare of his 
 little colony, to erect at first no district church, 
 but to gather the inhabitants into one assembly 
 for worship until the number should have so 
 increased, as to enable them to form separate 
 churches, and maintain public worship conform- 
 ably to then- own views. If so, it was an event 
 of extraordinary character, a thing quite unpre- 
 cedented in the annals of the world, for the 
 founder of a colony to prepare the way for the 
 division of the people into sects, relying only on 
 argument and pursuasion to induce a conformity 
 with his own opinions. How strong must have 
 been his faith in the moral power and ultimate 
 prevalence of ti^ath ! How clearly must he have 
 seen that the union which christians should 
 desire, is not so much a formal blending of all 
 sects into one body, as a mhty of spirit, cherished 
 in spite of speculative differences, a mutual 
 respect for each other's moral freedom, which 
 inspires the hearts that feel it, with an abhor- 
 rence of all unchristian or unmanly means of 
 
 Having reached a land Avhere in religious 
 things he could speak and act without restraint 
 or fear, he began to carry out the principle he 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 25 
 
 had adopted to their legitimate results. He 
 counted not himself to have already attained or 
 to be already perfect, but cherished the spirit of 
 that admirable farewell address, delivered by 
 the excellent Robinson of Leyden to the first 
 Puritan company which sailed for New England. 
 "I charge you," says he, ''before God and the 
 blessed angels, to follow me no further than you 
 have seen me follow Christ ; if God shall reveal 
 anything to you by any other instrument of his, 
 be as ready to receive it, as you were to receive 
 any truth by my ministry ; for I am verily per- 
 suaded that he has more truth yet to break forth 
 out of his holy word. For my part I cannot 
 sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed 
 churches who are come to a period in religion, 
 and will go at present no further than the instru- 
 ments of their reformation. The Lutherans 
 cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther 
 saw ; whatever part of his will our God has 
 revealed to Calvin they will rather die than 
 embrace it, and the Calvinists you see stick fast 
 where they were left by that great man of God, 
 who yet saw not all things. But take heed 
 what you receive as truth, examine it, consider 
 it, and compare it with other scriptures before 
 you receive it, for it is not possible the christian 
 world should come so lately out of such thick 
 anti-christian darkness, and that full perfection 
 
26 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of knowledge should break forth at once."* In 
 accordance with such a sentiment, Mr. Williams 
 proceeded to study more largely the will of God. 
 His mind was naturally clear sighted and impul- 
 sive, and doubtless ever disposed to carry a 
 principle out to its just conclusion or else to give 
 it up altogether. He had already obtained lucid 
 views of the spiritual nature of the Christian dis- 
 pensation, of the supremacy of Christ's word as 
 the rule of faith and practice, of the free and vol- 
 untary character of genuine religion. It is not 
 surprising therefore that he became dissatisfied 
 in what was called a baptism, which resulted 
 from no act of choice on his part, which was ad- 
 ministered in unconscious infancy, which was 
 defended by reasonings that tend.ed to blend the 
 Jewish and Christian dispensations, and which 
 were thence at war with the spiritual constitu- 
 tion of the Christian church. As to the mode of 
 it, his knowledge of the force of language would 
 lead him to unite with the whole Greek church, 
 when they say of the sprinkling or pouring 
 practised in Western Europe, " it is no baptism.'' 
 As to the subjects of it, he could find no warrant 
 for applying the rite to unconscious beings in 
 the New Testament. There was no escaping 
 the conclusion therefore, that according to the 
 
 * Ncal, vol. I. p. 490. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 27 
 
 command of Christ it was his duty to be 
 baptized on a profession of his faith. In his 
 view, this could not justly be called anabaptism, 
 or second baptism, inasmuch as he could not 
 admit that he had ever been baptized at all, and 
 the rite which had been applied to him in his 
 infancy, was classed by him amongst the cor- 
 ruptions of Christianity. 
 
 The difficulty which immediately arose how- 
 ever, was the want of a proper administrator, for 
 at that time no ordained minister could be found 
 in America, who had been immersed on a pro- 
 fession of his faith. A regard for order, would 
 naturally lead Mr. Williams and those who were 
 with him, to wish for such a person ; and if any 
 of them had laid any stress on the prevalent idea 
 of the necessity of a regular succession of bap- 
 tized ministers from the apostles, in order to 
 administer baptism properly, their case would 
 be somewhat embarrassing. The same question 
 had been discussed in London a short time be- 
 fore, in the year 1633, in a Baptist church which 
 was formed by an amicable secession from a body 
 of Independents, of which Rev. John Lathrop 
 was the minister. Some of the members follow- 
 ing out the same principles which Roger Wil- 
 liams promulgated in Massachusetts, came to the 
 conclusion that there was no divine warrant for 
 infant baptism. Among these was Kiffin, a 
 
28 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 princely merchant well known in the court of 
 Charles 11. , and from whom that monarch conde- 
 scended to ask a loan of thirty thousand pounds ] 
 a request to which Kiffin replied that he could 
 not command so much money just then, but at 
 the same time presented to his Majesty one third 
 of that sum. Kiffin left a manuscript containing 
 an account of the formation of the new church, 
 to which Crosby in his history of the Baptists, 
 makes a reference.* It seems that some of 
 these were very desirous to receive baptism in 
 a manner the least objectionable ; and though 
 there were Baptists in EnglaiKl who could have 
 administered the ordinance to them, they chose 
 to send to the Netherlands, where there were 
 those whose baptism was said to have descended 
 from the Waldensian Christians. One of their 
 
 * Thomas Crosby was a Mathematical teacher in London, 
 the early part of the last century, and a deacon of the church 
 of which Dr. John Gill was Pastor. He was led to publish 
 his history of the Baptists, by the following circumstance : — 
 Having heard that Mr. Neal was preparing a history of the 
 Puritans, he placed in the possession of that writer many val- 
 uablc materials from which a just representation of the condition 
 and progress of the Baptists might have been drawn. But 
 on the publication of Ncal's work, it appeared that little use 
 had been made of these papers, and that to the subjects of 
 which they treated, the partialities of that author had rendered 
 him incapable of doing historical justice. For an illustration 
 of Ncal's failure at this point, see Dr. Price's History of Pro- 
 tcstant Nonconformity, vol. II. p. 319. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 iiumlDer, therefore, Mr. Richard Bloimt, who 
 understood the Dutch language, was commis- 
 sioned to go for this purpose. On his return, 
 he baptized Rev. Samuel Blacklock, and these 
 two baptized the rest, " whose names are in the 
 manuscript, to the number of fifty three."* 
 
 Most of the Baptists in England however, it is 
 said, regarded this as " needless trouble, and what 
 proceeded from the old popish doctrine of right 
 to administer sacraments by an uninterrupted 
 succession, which neither the Church of Rome 
 nor the Church of England could prove to be with 
 them. They affirmed therefore, and practised 
 accordingly, that after a general corruption of 
 baptism, an unbaptized person might warranta- 
 bly baptize, and so begin a reformation. "f 
 
 In the year 1609, a treatise was published in 
 Holland, by Rev. Mr. Smyth, in which, says 
 Crosby, he defended the two following princi- 
 ples : — First, that " upon the supposition of the 
 true baptism being lost for some time, through 
 the disuse of it, it is necessary there should be 
 two persons to unite in the administration." 
 The second is, that ^' the first administrator 
 must be a member of some church, who shall 
 
 * Crosby's History of the Baptists, vol. 1. p. 182, London 
 edition, 1738. 
 
 t Persecution Judged and Condemned, p. 41, quoted by 
 Crosby. 
 
 3* 
 
30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 call and empower him to administer it to the 
 other members."* 
 
 On these latter principles, Mi*. Williams and 
 his friends seem to have acted ; for IMi'. Holli- 
 man, who was afterwards a Deputy from the 
 town of Warwick to the General Court, was 
 appointed by the little community, to baptize 
 Mr. Williams, and then he baptized the rest.f 
 Backus thinks it probable, that he concluded 
 that his case was similar to that proposed by 
 Zanchius, Professor of Theology at Heidel- 
 berg, in his commentary on the fifth chapter 
 of Ephesians. He supposes a Turk, by reading 
 the New Testament, to become converted, and 
 to be the means of converting his family to 
 Christ. Not living in a christian country, nor 
 having access to christian ministers, Zanchius 
 desires to know whether he must necessarily 
 live without practising the christian ordinances ? 
 He answers in the negative, saying that he may 
 be baptized by one of his own converts, " be- 
 cause he is a minister of the word, extraordi- 
 narily stirred up of Christ ; and so as such a 
 minister, may, with the consent of that small 
 church, appoint one of the communicants and 
 provide that he be baptized by him." But it is 
 
 * Crosby, I. p. 100. 
 
 t Backus's Hist. vol. I. p. 105-6. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 31 
 
 supposed by some, that one higher than Zan- 
 chius, even the great head of the Church himself, 
 has anticipated such a case, and has provided for 
 it by direct legislation ; for in that part of the 
 eighteenth chapter of Matthew, where Christ 
 converses with his disciples, respecting the 
 discipline of the church, he says, " where two 
 or three are gathered together, or associated, in 
 my name J there am I in the midst of themP 
 Those have reason for their opinion, who think 
 that Christ intended to lay the proper basis for 
 a true church, and in effect declares that when- 
 ever any unite by solemn covenant, in his name, 
 to walk together in obedience to his command- 
 ments, there he will be to ratify and bless their 
 union ; and that thence they have from his word 
 as much authority for their acts as a church, as 
 they would have if his personal presence were 
 revealed among them, and they were to receive 
 a commission directly from his lips. A church 
 thus united would be bound to take his word 
 as their rule, to observe all things whatsoever 
 he has commanded them; to appoint their 
 bishops and their deacons, and to do every thing 
 decently and in order ; and would thus exem- 
 plify the great principle that succession arises 
 from order, and not order from succession. 
 
 In regard to a case of baptism, however, like 
 that of Mr. Williams's, it is worthy to be men- 
 
32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tioned, that in every age and in every church, 
 baptism by the hands of a layman has been 
 deemed vahd in case of necessity. Numerous 
 authorities might be adduced to show this, but 
 suffice it now to name Potter, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, Avho says, in the age of Tertullian, it 
 was permitted to laymen to baptize when neces- 
 sity required it ; and in the time of Ambrose, it 
 was the common opinion that laymen may bap- 
 tise in cases of extreme danger, neither can any 
 instance be produced where this practice was 
 condemned by any council.* 
 
 Thus was formed (in March, 1639, according 
 to Winthrop,) the first Baptist church in Amer- 
 ica. The members who first constituted it were 
 ten in number, and their names were these : — 
 Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, William 
 Harris, Stuckley Westcot, John Green, Rich- 
 ard Waterman, Thomas James, Robert Cole, 
 Francis Westcot, and Thomas Olney. 
 
 It is quite remarkable that the work of found- 
 ing this Church, devolved chiefly on a man who 
 had been at first a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, and was a Paedo-Baptist when he em- 
 igrated to America, instead of some one of that 
 multitude of Baptists who were then living in 
 England and in Holland. Although the cir- 
 
 * Potter on Church Government, p. 233-4. Phila. 1824. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 cumstances in which the baptism of the first 
 members of this Church occmTcd were quite ex- 
 traordinary, and excited at first some question as 
 to the vahdity of the rite, yet it is now generally 
 regarded as satisfactory, according to the princi- 
 ples admitted by all protestant Christians. For 
 as we have seen, according to the sentiments 
 generally held by the Baptists themselves, it 
 must be admitted to be valid, and in the view of 
 Pasdo-Baptists, Mr. Williams was, of course, 
 qualified to administer Christian ordinances. 
 Nevertheless, if it were otherwise, the question 
 would not have so much practical importance, 
 as some who have made but slight inquiry into 
 the subject have been disposed to think. An 
 impression has to some extent prevailed, that 
 Roger Williams may be justly called the head 
 and founder of the Baptist denomination of 
 America, and also, that of what was considered 
 in his day the hefi^esy of religious liberty, he has 
 the credit of being not only the promulgator, 
 but the author. Historical justice requires that 
 we give to both of these points some attention. 
 Touching the first, a few words will suffice . 
 Comparatively few of the members of this 
 Church have derived their baptism from Roger 
 Williams, and comparatively few of the Baptists 
 of America have sprung from this body. For 
 more than half a century, this Church has had 
 
34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ministers, whose baptism had no connexion 
 with that of Mr. Wilhams. As early as 1663, a 
 Baptist church, mider the ministry of the Rev. 
 John Miles, of whom Mather speaks respectful- 
 ly,* emigrated from Swanzea, in Wales, to Wan- 
 namoiset, within the bounds of the Plymouth 
 Colony, of which they received a grant, and 
 called it Swanzea, the name which the town- 
 ship now bears. None but a Baptist church has 
 ever existed there. In the words of Professor 
 Knowles, ''of the 400,000 Baptist communi- 
 cants now in the United States, a small fraction 
 only have had any connexion, either immediate 
 or remote, with the venerable Church at Provi- 
 dence, though her members are numerous, and 
 she has been honored as the mother of many 
 ministers." 
 
 The second point just suggested, will require 
 a more ample notice. 
 
 Roger Williams is worthy of all praise for 
 the profound and lucid views which lie took, of 
 the nature of religious liberty, and of its be- 
 ing an essential element in the constitution of 
 a christian church. He did not consider the 
 belief of it necessary to salvation, but a church 
 established by law, and enforcing its creed, 
 he regarded in its outward constitution to be 
 
 * Ecclesiastical History of New-England, p. 27. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 anti-christian. He saw that it contained an 
 element altogether irreconcilable with the ge- 
 nius of Christianity, and one which indicated a 
 profound mistake as to the real character of the 
 present dispensation. He justly judged it there- 
 fore to be a part of the grand apostasy. When 
 a man has once a clear and strong faith like that 
 in the doctrine of ''soul-freedom," he never for- 
 sakes it. The principle incorporates itself with 
 the essential elements of his mind, modifies his 
 opinions of the relations of men, the nature of a 
 church, and the end of civil government. Then, 
 it is no longer enough for him that his creed be 
 tolerated ; he feels it to be an injury inflicted on 
 himself, and on the cause of man, that any hu- 
 man power should assume the right to tolerate. 
 He regards such an assumption in any class of 
 men, as partaking of the nature of a conspiracy 
 against human liberty, as raising obstructions to 
 the exercise of such an intelhgent heartfelt faith 
 in Christ as the gospel demands, and as being 
 directly opposed to the spirit of that moral pro- 
 bation, in which God has chosen to place the 
 world under the government of Messiah. Hence 
 Williams says, "It is the will and command of 
 God, that since the coming of his Sonne (the 
 Lord Jesus) a permission of the most Paganish, 
 Jewish, Turkish or anti-christian conscience and 
 Avorships be granted to all men, in all nations 
 
36 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and countries ; and they are only to he fought 
 against with that sword, which is only (in soule 
 matters) able to conquer, to wit, the sword of 
 God's Spirit, the word of God."^ Again he 
 speaks of " thousands and tens of thousands, yea 
 the whole generation of the righteous, who since 
 the falling away (from the first primitive christ- 
 ian state or worship) have and do err fundament- 
 ally concerning the true matter, constitution, 
 gathering and governing of the church ; and 
 yet far be it from any pious breast to imagine, 
 that they are not saved, and that their souls are 
 not bound up in the bundle of eternal life."f 
 
 Now, whence was it, that this great assertor 
 of human freedom obtained such clear percep- 
 tions of a principle, which was in his day so 
 much abhorred, but which has since won such 
 majestic triumphs, and is still going on from 
 conquering to conquer? Why was he in the 
 discovery of moral and political truth, so far in 
 advance of the leading men of New England, 
 and that too in an age, when all the subjects 
 which pertain to man's social and religious con- 
 dition were so hotly agitated ? Was it that he 
 possessed a clearer intellect or a more profound 
 philosophy than they ? No where could the 
 
 * Introduction to the " Bloody Tcncnt." 
 t Bloody Tencnt, p. 20. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 37 
 
 materials be found, to construct the least plausi- 
 ble proof of such a position. A passage in one 
 of his works will give us some clue to a proper 
 answer to this inquiry. It relates to a man of 
 some learning, but of more piety, in humble life, 
 a Baptist minister, and pastor of a church in 
 London. It was the excellent Samuel Howe, 
 successor to John Canne, author of the marginal 
 references to the bible. His church suffered 
 bitter persecution from the clergy and bishops' 
 courts, on account of their sentiments touching 
 liberty of conscience ; and when he died, a 
 guard was placed around the parish church, to 
 prevent his friends from giving him decent burial. 
 Nevertheless, many followed him to the grave, 
 which was in the highway, and a funeral ad- 
 dress was delivered from a brewer's cart. He 
 had followed the occupation of a shoe maker, 
 was distinguished for great natural genius, and 
 was the author of a small treatise, entitled " The 
 Sufficiency of the Spirit's Teaching." His em« 
 ployment was hinted at in some commendatory 
 lines prefixed to the work by a friendly hand^ 
 and in the style of the times j 
 
 What How ? how now ? hath How such learning^ found. 
 To throw Art's curious image to the ground ? 
 Cambridge and Oxford may their glory now 
 Veil to a Cobbler, if they know but How. 
 
 4 
 
38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 This man died in 1641, and of him, Ro^er 
 WiUiams says, " Amongst so many instances 
 dead and living, to the everlasting praise of 
 Christ Jesus, and of his Holy Spirit, breathing 
 and blessing where he listeth, I cannot but 
 with honorable testimony remember that emi- 
 nent christian witness and prophet of Christ, 
 even that despised and yet beloved Samuel 
 Howe, who being by calling a cobbler and with- 
 out human learning, (which yet in its sphere 
 and place he honored,) who yet I say, by search- 
 ing the holy scriptures grew so excellent a text- 
 uary, or scripture-learned man, that few of those 
 high rabbis that scorn to mend or make a shoe, 
 could aptly or readily from the holy scriptures- 
 outgo him. And however, (through the oppres- 
 sion upon some men's consciences even in life 
 and death, and after death, in respect of biu-y- 
 ing, as yet unthought and remedied,) I say, how- 
 ever he was forced to seek a grave or bed in the 
 highway, yet was his life and death and burial 
 (being attended with many hundreds of God's 
 people) honorable and (how much more at his 
 rising again) glorious.* 
 
 If then, while in England, Roger Williams 
 held friendly communings with men of such a 
 
 * Hireling Ministry, None of Christ's, Lon. 1652, p. 11, 12.. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 39 
 
 spirit, who were publishing there at the hazard 
 of reputation, and property, and hfe, the same 
 principles which have since attracted the states- 
 man's eye a-s he has seen them shining among 
 the statutes of this commonwealth, we need be 
 at no loss to conjecture whence he drew them. 
 He learned them from men who derived them 
 from the Bible. The fact is, that although in 
 New-England he seemed to stand alone, there 
 were many in Old England with v/hom he had 
 common sympathies, who cherished the same 
 sentiments, who in some instances suiTered for 
 them the loss of all things, clung to them under 
 galling bondage, and proclaimed them amidst the 
 foes of martyrdom. 
 
 An allusion has already been made to the fact, 
 that before Mr. Williams left Plymouth, an ap- 
 prehension was expressed by the ruling Elder 
 there, '' that he would run the same course of 
 anabaptistry, that Mr. Smyth, of Amsterdam, had 
 done." This man was once a minister of the 
 Church of England, but having spent nine 
 months in studying the controversy between 
 that Chiuch and the Puritans, he joined the lat- 
 ter, and is spoken of as a leading man among 
 them in 1592. In 1606, he settled at Amster- 
 dam, over the Puritan Church there, and from 
 having begun to question the validity of infant 
 
40 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 baptism in the Church of England, he gave it 
 up altogether. Then, changing his views as to 
 the nature and design of baptism, he became 
 the head of a secession from the Puritans, and 
 formed a Baptist Church. It was reported by 
 his enemies, that he had baptized himself, and 
 thence they called him a Se-Baptist. That, 
 however, was an ill-grounded report, inasmuch 
 as there is no proof of it, and it is contrary to 
 those principles contained in his writings which 
 have already been stated. Against Mr. Smyth 
 and other Separatists from the Established 
 Church, the celebrated Bishop Hall took up his 
 pen, and speaks of him in a manner which indi- 
 cates the eminence he held among the ministers 
 of that day. Alluding to him in an address to 
 Mr. Robinson of Leyden, he says, '' what is be- 
 come of your partner, yea, your guide ? Wo 
 is me, he hath renounced Christendom with our 
 church, and hath Avashed off his former waters 
 with new, and now condemns you all for not 
 separating farther, no less than we condemn you 
 for separating so far. He tells you true ; yoiu* 
 station is unsafe ; either you must go forwai'd to 
 him, or back to us. All your Rabbis cannot 
 answer that charge of your rebaptized brother. 
 If we be a true church, you must return ; if we 
 be not, as a false church is no church of God, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 41 
 
 you must rebaptize. If our baptism be good, 
 then is our constitution good."* 
 
 About the year 1611, Mr Smyth died, and was 
 succeeded by Mr Helwisse, in company with 
 whom the church returned to London, in 1614. 
 When we consider the reasons for that event, it 
 presents a subhme moral spectacle to which 
 history has not done justice. Although the 
 spirit of persecution was still raging in England, 
 they became impressed with the idea that to 
 fly from it, betrayed a want of courage and of 
 true fidelity to Christ. Believing that they 
 were converted to God in order to be lights in 
 the world holding forth the word of life, they 
 felt bound, they said, to let their light shine by 
 their conversation amongst the wicked, as the 
 greatest means of converting them and destroy- 
 ing anti-christ's kingdom : overcoming (not by 
 flying away, but) by the blood of the Lamb, and 
 by the icoi^d of their testimony, "not loving their 
 lives unto the death. Speaking of the Divine 
 goodness to Israel under the ancient dispensation 
 they say, '^ did God thus respect his work and 
 people then, as all must put to their helping hand, 
 and none must withdraw their shoulder lest oth- 
 
 * Bishop Hall's Apology of the Church of England, p. 722, 
 794, quoted by Ivimey. 
 4* 
 
42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ers should be discouraged, and is there no regard 
 to be had thereof now ; but any occasion, as fear 
 of a httle imprisonment or the like, may excuse 
 any both from the Lord's work and the help of 
 their brethren, that for want of their society and 
 comfort are exceedingly weakened, if not over- 
 come ?" These sentiments are expressed in a 
 tract which they put forth, entitled, 'Persecution 
 for Religion judged and condemned." If any 
 should say, that in returning to England, they 
 erred in judgment, all must admit that an im- 
 pressive moral glory invests their characters, in 
 the attitude which they then assumed, since they 
 were not fanatics courting martyrdom, but calm 
 defenders of the rights of man. It is said by 
 an able critic of the present day, that in the trea- 
 tise which they published, ''they maintained 
 with admirable explicitness, the impolicy and 
 wickedness of persecution. They chose their 
 ground with judgment, and defended it with 
 scriptural fidelity ; and the arguments which 
 they employed, are suited to every age and to 
 every form of persecution. The distinct pro- 
 vince of politics and religion, of God and the 
 magistrate, is clearly marked, and the absurdity 
 of persecution is thence argued. This was 
 putting the question on its right basis, and enti- 
 tles the authors of this treatise to the gratitude 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 43 
 
 and admiration of posterity."* This event oc- 
 curred during the youth of Roger WiUiams, and 
 we may reasonably suppose that his mind might 
 have been strongly influenced by such an exhibi- 
 tion of the principles of freedom, and by the illus- 
 tration of their power in so noble an example. 
 
 In considering the workings of his thoughts, 
 it is interesting to observe how Williams's views 
 of the spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom, pre- 
 served him from the errors of some men, high in 
 political life, who were connected with the Bap- 
 tists, and with whom he associated in England. 
 I refer to such men as Major-General Harrison, 
 second in command in Cromwell's army, togeth- 
 er with others, who though advocating liberty 
 of conscience in all its latitude, were expecting 
 the government of the world to be given to the 
 saints, and the coming of Messiah's reign with 
 great outward glory. These were called Fifth 
 Monarchy-men, and among them were a num- 
 ber of Baptist ministers, such as Feake and 
 Simson, to whom Mr. Williams refers in a letter 
 to Governor Winthrop, soon after his return from 
 England. " Surely, sir," he observes, " he (Ma- 
 jor-General Harrison) is a very gallant, most 
 deserving, heavenly man, but most high flown 
 
 * Dr. Price's History of Protestant Nonconformity, vol. I, 
 p. 519-20. 
 
44 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 for the kingdom of the Saints, and the Fifth 
 Monarchy now risen, and their sun never to set 
 again. Others, as to my knowledge, the Pro- 
 tector, Lord President Lawrence, and others at 
 helm, with Sir Henry Vane, (retired into Lin- 
 colnshire, yet daily missed and courted for his 
 assistance,) are not so full of that faith of mira- 
 cles, but still imagine changes and persecutions 
 and the very slaughter of the witnesses, before 
 that glorious morning, so much desired of a 
 worldly kingdom, if ever such a kingdom {as 
 literally it is by so many expounded) be to arise 
 in this present world and dispensation."* Gen- 
 eral Harrison was naturally of an ardent temper- 
 ament ; "of such vivacity," says Baxter, " hilar- 
 ity and alacrity, as another hath when he hath 
 drunken a cup too much." And though it might 
 be supposed that his favorite theory would com- 
 mend itself to such a glowing spirit as that of 
 Roger Williams, yet it is pleasing to see that the 
 latter, in all his reasonings, seemed to act under 
 a deep impression of that saying of Christ, " The 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation, 
 for the kingdom of God is within you." 
 
 A close view of the condition of England in 
 that day, will convince us that the sentiments of 
 the Baptists must have been long and deeply at 
 
 * Knowlcs's Memoir, p. 2G3. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 45 
 
 work there, for as soon as the pressure of a per- 
 secuting government was removed, they rose up 
 a great multitude which astonished every be- 
 holder. Dr. Featley, their great and bitter op- 
 ponent, says of their spreading sentiments, '' this 
 foe in the reign of Q,ueen Elizabeth and King 
 James, and our gracious sovereign, (Charles I,) 
 till now was covered in England under the ashes; 
 or if it broke out at any time, by the care of the 
 ecclesiastical and civil magistrates, it was soon 
 put out. But of late, since the unhappy distrac- 
 tions which our sins have brought upon us, the 
 temporal sword being otherwise employed, and 
 the spiritual locked up fast in the scabbard, this 
 sect among others has so far presumed upon the 
 patience of the state, that it hath held weekly 
 conventicles, rebaptized hundreds of men and 
 women together in the twilight, in rivulets and 
 some arms of the Thames. It hath printed 
 divers pamphlets in defence of their heresy, yea, 
 and challenged some of our preachers to dispu- 
 tation."* Baxter also says, that those who at first 
 were but a few in the city and the army, had 
 within two or three years, grown into a multi- 
 tude, and were beginning to expect some of them 
 that the baptized saints would judge the world.f 
 
 * Featley's Dippers dipt, — Prefaratory Epistle, 
 t Works XX, 297. 
 
46 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 He wrote much against them, but in the spirit 
 of christian candor he says, ''upon a review of 
 my arguments with Mr. Tombes upon the con- 
 troversy about infant baptism, I find I have 
 used too many provoking words, for which I am 
 heartily sorry, and desire pardon both of God 
 and of him."* " And for the anabaptists," he 
 says again, '' though I have written and said so 
 much against them, as I found that most of them 
 were persons of zeal in religion, so many of 
 them were sober, godly people, and differed 
 from others, but in the point of infant baptism ; 
 or at most, but in the points of predestination, 
 free-will and perseverance."! Considering the 
 character of controversy in those times, such a 
 testimony as this reflects as much honor on 
 Baxter himself, as it gives to the Baptists of 
 that age. 
 
 Undoubtedly their increasing influence must 
 have been a subject of wonder, since Baxter 
 found occasion to say, that many joined them 
 for the sake of preferment. Baillie, a high 
 Presbyterian, and a commissioner from Scotland 
 to the Westminster Assembly, complained that 
 they were growing more rapidly than any other 
 
 * Sylvester's Baxter, part II, p. 240. 
 tOrme's Life of Baxter, I, p. 77. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 47 
 
 sect ill the land.* Indeed they numbered among 
 them, men of the highest talents both in the 
 church and the state. In the first, were Tombes, 
 Jessey, and Dyke, Gosnold, Knollys and Denne,f 
 who had held priestly orders in the Established 
 Church ; the three first of whom were under 
 Cromwell's comprehensive policy, appointed 
 among the Triers of all candidates for the par- 
 ish ministry of England, and the fourth was a 
 popular preacher of London, having a congrega- 
 tion of three thousand persons. There were also 
 Collins, a pupil of Busby; De Veil, a convert 
 from Judaism, who in the Romish church of 
 France, and in the established church of Eng- 
 land, was much respected ; Dell, a chaplain of 
 Lord Fairfax, and till the Restoration, head of 
 one of the Colleges in the University of Cam- 
 bridge ,* and Vavasor Powell, a celebrated Evan- 
 gelist of Wales, who was as devoted to the spread 
 of the gospel in that principality, as were after- 
 wards, Thomas Delaune, Benjamin Keach, and 
 John Bunyan, in England. 
 
 Well known among them too, were Overton,J 
 a friend of Milton, who in 1651 was second in 
 command under Cromwell in Scotland, Admi- 
 
 * Baillie's Letters, I, p. 408. See Appendix, A. 
 
 t See Appendix, B. 
 
 t Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. IV, p. 71, Lond. ed. 1828, 
 
48 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ral Penn, of the English navy, father of the 
 American Colonist, Fleetwood, Cromwell's son- 
 in-law, General Ludlow, a friend of Harrison, 
 who endeavored to convince him of his error 
 touching the Fifth Monarchy, and also the 
 Chancellor of Ireland. They abounded in Crom- 
 well's army, and were at one time his best 
 friends, and at another, his most dreaded foes ; 
 for in a letter addressed by Captain Deane, to 
 Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, it is stated that 
 " what occasioned Oliver CromAvell, after he 
 usurped the government of Lord Protector, to 
 discharge at once, all the principal officers of his 
 own regiments, upon other pretences, was, for 
 that they were all Anabaptists."* These, while 
 they disapproved the execution of Charles I, 
 were equally opposed to the usiupation of Crom- 
 well. 
 
 It would be improper to mention so many 
 names of that day, without giving place to those 
 of Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson, who were dis- 
 tinguished for intellectual greatness, urbanity of 
 manners and lofty piety. A manuscript on 
 baptism, accidently found in the room of a sol- 
 dier, met the eye of Mrs. Hutchinson. It led 
 her to search the Scriptures on that subject, and 
 then to embrace the sentiments of the Baptists ; 
 
 * Quoted by Crosby, vol. II, p. 5. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 but, ill the language of her memoir, " being 
 then young and modest, she thought it a kind 
 of virtue to submit to the judgment and prac- 
 tice of most churches, rather than to defend a 
 singular opinion of her own ; she not being then 
 enlightened in that great mistake of the national 
 churches." Her husband was led, however, to 
 investigate the point, being urged by her to 
 consider it with direct reference to the case of 
 their infant child. He proposed his doubts to 
 a large number of ministers, assembled at his 
 own table, ''none of whom," says Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson, " could defend their practice with any 
 satisfactory reason, but the traditio7i of the 
 church from the primitive times, and their main 
 buckler of federal holiness, Avhich Tombes and 
 Denne had excellently overthrown." He then 
 asked them to say, what in their opinion, he 
 ought to do ? Most of them answered, that he 
 ought to conform to the custom of the church, 
 though the point were not clear to him. One, 
 however, said, if he acted without faith in the 
 warrant of God's word, his act would be a sin. 
 The consequence was, the child was not bap- 
 tized, and from that day, that excellent couple 
 took their stand with those whom they had 
 hitherto considered as practising an enormous 
 error.* Such, in that age, v/as the general free- 
 
 * Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of 
 
 5 
 
50 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 dom of thought, so powerfully were the minds 
 of men roused to religious inquiry, that people 
 of other times may Avell marvel at the promptness 
 with which they carried out their convictions of 
 truth, even though they went athwart inveterate 
 prejudices, and time hallowed customs. 
 
 But while we are impressed with a view of 
 the conscientiousness, piety and moral courage 
 of the men who in those and preceding times 
 united with the Baptists, we must not forget the 
 fact, that with their distinguishing principle 
 touching the constitution of the church, the 
 doctrine of absolute liberty of conscience was 
 identified. This cannot be expressed in clearer 
 terms, than it is in the confession of faith, 
 which Y\ras published by a number of Baptists 
 in London, as early as the year 1611, under the 
 reign of James I. The article on that point 
 declares, " that the magistrate is not to meddle 
 with religion, because Christ is the King and 
 Lawgiver of the church and conscience."* 
 
 Nottingham Castle and town ; Representative of the county 
 of Nottingham in the Long Parliament, and of the town of 
 Nottingham, in the First Parliament of Charles II, &c. — Vol. 
 II, p. 102-4, London, 4th cd. 1822. 
 
 * Crosby, Vol. I, app. 71. When that confession was pub- 
 lished, Mr. Robinson of Leyden put forth some strictures on 
 those portions of it which he deemed unsound. The article 
 quoted above was one of those jwirts, and is copied from his 
 transcript of it. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 51 
 
 That confession was issued by some members 
 of the church which was under the care of that 
 same Mr. Smyth, whose example, it was pre- 
 dicted in Plymouth, that Roger Wilhams would 
 follow. Not a single sentence can be found in 
 the writings of Williams himself in succeeding 
 years, which sets forth that important principle 
 with greater simplicity, comprehensiveness or 
 force. 
 
 Indeed, the more fully we examine the sub- 
 ject, the more clearly shall we see, that in every 
 age where men have studied the bible, and have 
 come to the same conclusions as Roger Williams 
 touching the constitution of the church, they 
 have agreed with him in the doctrine of relig- 
 ious liberty; that at ail periods, and in every 
 comitry where there has been a sufficient degree 
 of freedom to speak, together with a diffusion 
 of scriptural knowledge, a class of men have 
 risen up who were the avowed opponents of tra- 
 dition in religiofi and ecclesiastical power i?i the 
 state; that thence Roger Williams is only to be 
 regarded as one of a SACRED SUCCESSION 
 of men, who have derived the great idea which 
 distinguished them from no source but the ora- 
 cles of God, and who have been anointed by 
 the Divine Spirit to be the preachers of this 
 truth to the world, or called to suffer as its 
 martyrs. 
 
52 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 With this fact in view, while the enhghtened 
 christian examines the record of the past, in or- 
 der to find there traces of " the true church," it 
 will be well to bear in mind an important prin- 
 ciple, which is thus beautifully expressed by 
 Milton : 
 
 '^ Truth, indeed, came once into the world 
 with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape, 
 most glorious to look upon ; but when he as- 
 cended, and his apostles after him were laid 
 asleep, then strait arose a wicked race of deceiv- 
 ers, who, as that story goes of that wicked 
 Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt 
 with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, 
 hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, 
 and scattered them to the four winds. From 
 that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, 
 such as durst appear, imitating the careful search 
 which Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, 
 went up and down, gathering up every link still 
 as they could find them. We have not yet 
 found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever 
 shall do till her Master's second coming. He 
 shall bring together every joint and member, 
 and shall mould them into an immortal feature 
 of loveliness and jDcrfection."* 
 
 * Areopagitica, published in London, 1G44. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 53 
 
 It was with good reason that Dr. Featley* 
 declared in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, that during the reigns of Edward and Eliz- 
 abeth, anabaptistry had lain like fire covered up 
 in ashes. If so it was not for want of exertion 
 on her part to extirpate it. Proclaiming herself 
 the sovereign of the church, she felt the least 
 difference of religious opinion to be an infringe- 
 ment on her personal dignity. She breathed the 
 spirit that reigned in the bosom of Henry VIII, 
 when she replied to a petition of the House of 
 Commons for church reform, "Her Majesty takes 
 your petition to be against the prerogative of 
 her crown. For by their full consents it hath 
 been confirmed and enacted (as the truth herein 
 requireth) that the full power, authority, juris- 
 diction and supremacy in church causes, which 
 heretofore the Popes usurped and took to them- 
 selves, should be united and annexed to the 
 imperial crown of this realm. ' ' It glowed in her 
 soul, when in her speech to the Parliament in 
 1586, she said, '' there be some fault finders with 
 the order of the clergy, which so, may make a 
 slander to myself and the church, whose over- 
 
 * This gentleman was a Presbyterian and a zealous contro- 
 versialist. In 1644, he entreated " the most noble Lords," that 
 Milton might be cut off "as a pestilent Anabaptist." The poet 
 was cited to appear before the House of Lords to give an ac- 
 count of his principles. 
 
 5* 
 
54 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ruler God hath made me ; whose negUgence 
 camiot be excused, if any schisms or errors he- 
 retical were suffered. All which if you my Lords 
 of the clergy do not amend, I mean to depose 
 you."* We need not wonder therefore at the 
 fact that in the latter part of her reign an act 
 was passed, ordering all Anabaptists to leave the 
 country, under penalty of imprisonment or con- 
 fiscation of property. This decree shows that 
 they existed in England to a considerable extent, 
 which confirms what is stated by Dr. Some, 
 who wrote against the Puritans in 1589, '^ that 
 there were several Anabaptistical Conventicles 
 in London and other places," and that '' some 
 persons of these sentiments had been at the uni- 
 versities." It is highly probable, therefore, that 
 a large number of the learned Puritans who left 
 the national church, carried out their principles 
 to this conclusion. The opinions with which 
 Dr. Some charges them are precisely the same 
 as those for which Roger Williams suffered, 
 namely, " that the ministers of the gospel ought 
 to be mEuntained by the voluntary contributions 
 of the people — that the civil power has no right 
 to make or impose ecclesiastical laws — that the 
 high commission court was an anti-christian 
 
 * Hansard's parliamentary History, Vol. I, 834. Strype' 
 Life of Whitgift, I, 494. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 55 
 
 usurpation — that those who are quaUfied to 
 teach ought not to be burthened by the civil 
 power — that though the Lord's prayer be a rule 
 and foundation of prayer, yet it is not to be used 
 as a form, and that no forms of prayer ought to 
 be imposed on the church — ^that the baptism 
 administered by the Church of Rome is invalid 
 — that a true constitution and discipline are es- 
 sential to a true church, and that the worship 
 of God in the estabhshed church is in many 
 things defective." 
 
 It is worthy of note, that archbishop Whit- 
 gift's charges against the Baptists are of precise- 
 ly the same character, while at the same time 
 he observes, that their influence among the peo- 
 ple was increased by their appearance of extra- 
 ordinary piety.* If, as has been said, Roger 
 Williams was far in advance of his age, how 
 much more were these men in advance of 
 theirs. Their doctrine of human liberty they 
 learned from no school of political philosophy, 
 nor discovered it by any superior sagacity of 
 their own, but it was an article of their religious 
 faith^ received directly from that ''word Avhich 
 giveth understanding to the simple." 
 
 * Slrype's Life of Whitgift. This prelate, of an intolerant 
 lordly spirit, was truly after Queen Elizabeth's own heart, 
 and Strype says she used to pun upon his name, calling hira 
 ««herWhite.gift." 
 
56 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 About 1575, in the eighteenth year of Ehza- 
 beth, the fires of Smithfield were rekindled. 
 Two Dutch Baptists, John Wielmaker and 
 Henry Ter Woort, were condemned to be burnt 
 there. In regard to this, an eloquent letter in 
 the Latin language was addressed to the Queen, 
 by John Fox, the martyrologist of the Church of 
 England, in order to dissuade her from such an 
 act of cruelty. In it he says, " there are ex- 
 communications and close imprisonments ; there 
 are bonds ; there is perpetual banishment, burn- 
 ing of the hand and whipping, or even slavery 
 itself. This one thing I most earnestly beg, 
 that the flames of Smithfield, so long ago extin- 
 guished by your happy governments, may not 
 be again revived."* This appeal had no eifect on 
 the heart of Elizabeth, except to gain a month's 
 reprieve, at the end of which as they refused to 
 recant, these men were led forth from their pris- 
 on to an honorable martyrdom. 
 
 During the preceding reign of Mary, the Bap- 
 tists, no doubt, among the other sufferers, had 
 their share of trial. She is often by protestants 
 called the '' bloody Mary," though it may well 
 be questioned whether, as to her real character, 
 she deserved to have that epithet attached to 
 her name, any more than her father Henry, or 
 
 * Fuller, b. 9, p. 104, § 13. London, 1656. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 57 
 
 her sister Elizabeth. True, her spirit weis fierce 
 and intolerant ; but so was their's. She, how- 
 ever, was surrounded with every incentive to 
 persecution ; for, in addition to her veneration 
 for the Romish church, she was prompted by a 
 sense of personal honor. She knew that her 
 father's secession from the see of Rome, was not 
 for the sake of conscience, but from the impulse 
 of lawless passion. With her, protestantism Avas 
 not the cause of religion, but the cause of Anne 
 Boleyn ; and Catholicism was not only the cause 
 of religion, but the cause of her repudiated and 
 dishonored mother. Before coming to the throne 
 she had been closely watched, denied the mass, 
 and the privilege of worship according to her 
 wishes. Who can wonder then, at the rebound 
 of her spirit when the day of her power came, 
 associated as the whole subject of controversy 
 was with mere family bickering ; a fact gloried 
 in at Rome to this day, where is exhibited at 
 the Vatican library, on the one hand, Henry's 
 defence of popery, and on the other, his love 
 letters to Anne Boleyn, written from Rome at 
 the time he was seeking a divorce from Catha- 
 rine of Arragon. 
 
 A striking instance of the persecuting spirit of 
 Mary's reign, is mentioned by Spanheim, who 
 says that Daniel George, of Delft, in Holland, 
 died in London, and was honorably interred in 
 
58 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 St. Lawrence's church. Three years after, it 
 was discovered that he was an anabaptist ; then 
 his corpse was disinterred and burnt, his picture 
 was also burnt, and his followers were sought 
 after v/ith the most rigid scrutiny. At that time 
 too, a society of persons, whom Brandt denomi- 
 nates in his History of the Reformation,* the 
 low-country exiles, was broken up, and after a 
 northern journey, found several congregations of 
 Baptists at Wismar. 
 
 One of the mildest and most religious princes 
 that ever sat on the English throne, was the 
 brother of Mary, Edward YI ,• and one of the 
 most touching spectacles presented to us in 
 English history, is that of this young monarch in 
 tears, arguing with Cranmer against the neces- 
 sity of signing the death-warrant of Joan Bo- 
 cher, commonly called Joan of Kent. She was 
 a Baptist, a pious and useful woman. " She 
 was," says Strype, " a great disperser of Tyn- 
 dal's New Testament, and was a great reader 
 of scripture herself; which book also, she dis- 
 persed in the court, and so became known to 
 certain women of quality, and was particularly 
 acquainted with Mrs. Anne Askew. She used 
 for greater secresy to tie the books with strings 
 under her apparel, and so pass with them into 
 
 * Vol. I. b. IV. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 59 
 
 the court."* As Cranmer was insisting on her 
 death, he was deeply affected with the reply of 
 the young King, who said, '' if I do wrong, since 
 it is in submission to your authority, you shall 
 answer it before God." But neither the argu- 
 ments of justice, the plea of mercy, or the tears 
 of youthful royalty could avail to stay the hand 
 of a bigotry, which in such cases, extinguished 
 all the sympathies of human nature. 
 
 From some remarks of Sir James Mackintosh, 
 it seems to be a clear point, that though the 
 Baptists suffered from persecution in the reign of 
 Edward VI, yet the Papists were comparatively 
 free. '' The fact," he says, '' that the blood of 
 no Roman Catholic was spilt on account of 
 religion in Edward's reign, is indisputable."! 
 
 It is said by Bishop Burnet, that none of the 
 events of this reign tended so much to injure 
 Cranmer, as the part he took in the burning of 
 George Van Pare, a Dutch Baptist. His manly 
 virtue, his consistent piety, his serenity at the 
 stake, won the sympathies of the people, so that 
 when Cranmer himself was burnt in Mary's 
 reign, " they called it a just retaliation." 
 
 From Bishop Burnet, we learn that in 1549 
 there were many Anabaptists in England, who 
 
 » Strype's Ecc'l Mem. vol. II, p. 214. 
 
 t Mackintosh's History of England, II, 271, 318. 
 
60 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 had fled from Germany. ^' They held, that 
 infant baptism was no baptism, and so were 
 rebaptized. "* Many books were written against 
 them ; but in 1550, they were denied the mer- 
 cy which was dispensed to others ; for '^ last of 
 all," says Burnet, " came the King's general 
 pardon, out of which those in the tower or other 
 prisons on account of the State, as also all Ana- 
 baptists were excepted."! This is very similar 
 to what took place in the preceding reign, when 
 the Baptists were excluded from the act of 
 grace, published by Henry VIII, under whose 
 direction too, in 1536, was issued the national 
 creed, approved by " the whole clergy of the 
 realm," declaring that '' infants must needs be 
 christened, because they be born in original sin, 
 which sin must needs be remitted, which cannot 
 be done, but by the sacrament of baptism, 
 whereby they receive the Holy Ghost, which 
 exerciseth the grace and efficacy in them, and 
 cleanseth and purifieth them by his most se- 
 cret virtue and operation." Is it not remark- 
 able that the Baptists of that day were the chief 
 defenders of the doctrine of infant salvation, as 
 it is now held, and drew down on their heads 
 
 * Burnet, II, p. 143. 
 
 t History of the Reformation abridged, p. 13. History of 
 the Reformation, II, p. 143. London, 1750. Sec Strypc, M. 
 II, 1, 369. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 61 
 
 the thunders of the hierarchy, because they 
 made no distinction ^' between the infant of a 
 Christian and a Turk," but said that all might 
 be saved without baptism ? 
 
 We have already noticed a fact connected 
 with the dissemination of TyndaPs translation 
 of the scriptures in England. No man of his 
 times did more than he, to break the power of 
 tradition over the human mind, by rousing a 
 spirit of inquiry, and exalting God's word as the 
 only rule of a christian's faith. Coming from 
 the borders of Wales, where the spirit of Wick- 
 liffe still lingered, he seemed to be clothed with 
 that spirit as with a garment, and to walk in the 
 light of that morning star of the reformation. 
 Firm in the belief that the bible in itself pos- 
 sessed the redeeming principle which was needed 
 to renovate a benighted and worldly church, 
 and charmed with the beauty of truth in its own 
 simplicity, he contemplated with grief the state 
 of Christendom ] while he was musing the fire 
 burned, and he was possessed with a zeal which 
 mocked resistance, to spread through his coun- 
 try the gospel of Christ in the vernacular tongue. 
 He fell a martyr in the best of causes, being 
 burnt as a heretic in Flanders, in 1532, while 
 preparing a new edition of the bible. Although 
 we know of no instance of Tyndal's immersing 
 any on a profession of their faith, yet it is certain 
 
62 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 that in his writings he set that distinctly forth 
 as the true baptism which the scriptures incul- 
 cate.* 
 
 Although the Baptists of that age had no his- 
 torian of their own, and the allusions to them by 
 various writers are tinctured with prejudice, yet 
 sufftcient evidence of their number and their 
 power exists, in the declarations of their oppo- 
 nents, and the edicts of courts. The testimony 
 of a man like Bishop Latimer, ought not to be 
 overlooked, who in a sermon before Edward VI, 
 referring to the Baptists of the preceding reign, 
 said, " they who were burnt here in divers 
 parts of England, as I heard of credible men, (I 
 saw them not myself, ) went to their death even 
 intrepid as ye will say, without any fear in the 
 world, cheerfully. Then I have to tell you 
 what I heard of late, by the relation of a cred- 
 ible person and worshipful man, of a town of 
 this realm of England, that hath above five 
 hundred heretics of this erroneous opinion in it 
 as he said."f 
 
 A fact like this must strengthen very much 
 the position of those Avho say that a large pro- 
 
 * The obedience of all degrees proved by God's worde, im. 
 printed by Wyllyam Copland, at London, 1561. See Appen- 
 dix C. 
 
 i Crosby, vol. I, p. 62. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 portion of the followers of WicklifFe and the 
 Lollards were Baptists. Certain it is, that the 
 writings of Wickliife were soon carried into Bo- 
 hemia, and quickened the spirit of reform which 
 was glowing in the bosoms of Jerome of Prague, 
 and John Huss. A letter written from that 
 country to Erasmus in 1519, directly states that 
 the followers of Huss received no rule of faith 
 but the bible, and admitted none into their 
 communion but those who had been immersed, 
 rejecting at the same time the rites and ceremo- 
 nies of the church. Indeed, the council which 
 condemned Wickliffe, convened at Blackfriars 
 in 1382, accused him of saying that the infants 
 of believers could be saved without baptism, and 
 '' that none were members of the church visible, 
 who did not appear to be members of the chmch 
 invisible ; and that none had a right to church 
 membership who did not make a public profes- 
 sion, and profess obedience to Christ." Various 
 protestant and catholic writers agree in saying 
 explicitly that Wickliffe rejected infant baptism, 
 and thence support the opinion that his senti- 
 ments were the same as those of the modern 
 Baptists. Starck, court preacher at Darmstadt, 
 in his History of Baptism, says, as the Bohe- 
 mians who were WicklifRtes, rejected infant 
 baptism, it is probable that he did so himself.* 
 
 * Starck's History of Baptism, Leipsic, 1789, p. 117. 
 
64 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 During this long period, including the rise of 
 WicklifFe and the Reformation, while the Bap- 
 tists were thus suffering in Great Britain, there 
 were not wanting those on the continent of Eu- 
 rope who avowed the same opinions, and braved 
 the like hazards. While in England many of 
 them were suffering the loss of all things, among 
 whom was Sawtry, the first English martyr, 
 their principles were at work in other lands. 
 Opposed as they were to the existing system of 
 making the baptismal register an instrument of 
 state police, in 1528, the Senate of Zurich 
 issued an edict against rebaptization, under the 
 penalty of being drowned. Two years before 
 that, a man was drowned at Zurich for the same 
 offence. It was Felix Manz, of noble family, 
 who, together with Grebel, first originated a 
 Baptist Society at Zurich, and both are said, 
 by Meshovius, a catholic writer, to have been 
 men of extensive learning.* About the same 
 time, there were public discussions on that sub- 
 ject in Switzerland, between Oecolampadius and 
 some Baptist teachers at Basle, and also between 
 others of the same faith, and the ministers of the 
 established church at Berne. Even Zuinglius, 
 at one time, avowed his conviction that the sen- 
 
 * Meshovius, lib. II, c. I. Apud Gill, vol. II, p. 272. Lon- 
 don, 1773. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 65 
 
 timents of the Baptists were true. They were 
 broached at Wittenberg in 1522, and made a fa- 
 vorable impression on the mind of Melancthon.* 
 Luther made a powerful effort to save his amia- 
 ble friend from their influence, and afterwards 
 procured the banishment of Carlostadt and several 
 others, for maintaining principles so obnoxious to 
 the ruling powers, and which he thought would 
 endanger the progress of the reformation. " I 
 confess," says Dr. Haweis, " I have always hon- 
 ored Carlostadt. In learning, he was Luther's 
 equal ; in some of his opinions respecting the 
 eucharist, more scriptural, and only beneath him 
 in a commanding popularity of address. The 
 obstinacy of Luther's character is indefensible. 
 He claimed the authority to dictate, which he 
 was himself so averse to allow the Pope. Let us 
 drop a tear over human infirmity, learn by expe- 
 rience to bear and forbear, and remember always 
 that the best of men are but men at best."f 
 
 From the evidence which history furnishes 
 of the extensive spread of Baptist sentiments, it 
 needs no comment of ours to show the absurdity 
 of a statement which has been often repeated, 
 
 * See Appendix D. 
 
 t History of the Revival and Progress of the Church of 
 Christ, &c. By Rev. T. Haweis, LL. B. and M. D., Rector 
 of All-Saints, Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire. Worcester ed. 
 1803, p. 29, 34. 
 
 6* 
 
66 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 that the Baptist denomination in Europe, origi- 
 nated in the movements of some fanatics in Mun- 
 ster, a city of WestphaUa, in the early part of the 
 sixteenth century. It might task our ingenuity 
 or our charity to account for this, did we not 
 know that even men well versed in history, 
 seldom take much trouble to ascertain the truth 
 of ill reports touching a despised or dreaded sect ; 
 a truth illustrated by the fact, that for many 
 years in a neighboring state, the name of Roger 
 Williams was but little known, except as an 
 anabaptist, an opposer of government, and a dis- 
 turber of the public peace. Bishop Burnet 
 however, candidly acknowledges that the Bap- 
 tists have been unjustly injured, by being iden- 
 tified with the men who engaged in the pohtical 
 disturbances of Munster. He attributes the rise 
 of the Baptists in Germany, to their carrying 
 out the principles of Luther, regarding the suffi- 
 ciency of the Scriptures, and the rights of private 
 judgment ; * and in this the Catholic writers 
 agree with him, who charge Luther with being 
 the father of the German Baptists, and say that 
 when he persecuted them, " he let out the life 
 of his own cause."! They themselves declared 
 that they learned their principles from that great 
 
 * Burnet's History of Reformation, II, 176. 
 t Robinson's Ecc'l Researches, p. 543. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 67 
 
 reformer ; an assertion which reminds us of 
 the fact, that Melancthon confessed that Luther 
 and he were here attacked in a " weak point," 
 and in reviewing the whole matter said, " the 
 questions concerning baptism affected me, and 
 in my opinion not without good reason."* 
 
 Tlie truth is, the revolution at Munster arose 
 from two causes. First, the galling slavery of 
 the feudal system which pressed sorely on the 
 peasants ; secondly, the spirit of liberty which 
 the writings of Luther had done much to arouse, 
 and which was diff'used among the people of the 
 country, by the preaching of Thomas Muncer, 
 a Baptist Minister, who had been a parish priest, 
 and afterwards, a disciple of Luther. The ex- 
 ample of Luther too, must have had a powerful 
 effect. Had he not kindled a fire near Witten- 
 berg, assembled ten thousand people of all orders, 
 publicly burnt the Pope's decree and the ca- 
 nons of the church, and been declared by the 
 Emperor and Princes, an enemy of the holy 
 Roman empire ? Even peasants groaning under 
 civil bondage, could reason from such an exam- 
 ple, tending as it did to elicit those latent sparks 
 of love to liberty, which lie deeply hidden in 
 the bosoms of the multitude. Nevertheless, the 
 troubles at Munster were commenced in 1532, 
 
 * Planck's History of Protestant Theology, Vol. II, p, 47. 
 
68 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 by Bernard Rotman, a Lutheran minister, not a 
 Baptist.* Some months after, the peasants were 
 in arms ; Mmicer drew up for them their mani- 
 festo of twelve articles, copies of which were 
 presented to the princes, scattered through Ger- 
 many, setting forth in a convincing maimer, the 
 justice of their cause, and has drawn from 
 Voltaire an eloquent eulogium.f It is said that 
 at the close of it, they appealed to Luther, 
 who answered by showing that a state of servi- 
 tude is not inconsistent with religion, and that 
 their complaints against tythes, indicated a wish 
 to annihilate civil government. J The army of 
 the peasants was composed of men of various 
 characters, among whom were the most ignorant 
 and wild fanatics ; but no denomination of 
 christians is responsible for their proceedings, 
 nor even Luther himself, who did more than 
 any other man, to rouse those spirits, which at 
 last, no earthly power could control. 
 
 During the long night which preceded the 
 rise of Wickliffe, the general ignorance was so 
 great, that few thought for themselves. The 
 Papal government was then in the height of its 
 power, and among the nations which lay beneath 
 
 * Dr. Gill's Collections, vol. II, 271. 
 
 t Additions to General History, vol. 30. See Appendix E. 
 
 t Robinson's Ecc'l Researches, p. 552. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 69 
 
 the shadow of its wings, scarcely one durst peep 
 or mutter. Still the light of primitive Christian- 
 ity was not entirely extinguished, nor the spirit 
 of inquiry utterly crushed. Here and there it 
 would now and then break forth, not only awak- 
 ening hope amongst the oppressed, but spread- 
 ing alarm amongst the powerful ; 
 
 " For though the structure of a tyrant's throne, 
 Rise on the necks of half the suffering world, 
 Fear trembles in the cement." 
 
 If we look any where for the exhibition of an 
 uncorrupt Christianity, the brightest spots to be 
 found are the valleys of Piedmont, and of Wales. 
 Among the former, secluded from the world, 
 lived men remarkable for their simple manners 
 and their pure faith, who never acknowledged 
 the dominion of Rome. They were called 
 Waldenses and Albigenses ; they existed in dif- 
 ferent societies, but were generally distinguished 
 for their love of religious liberty, and with sin- 
 gleness of heart opposed the authority of the 
 bible to human tradition. Archbishop Usher 
 considers them as constituting some of the links 
 in that chain of apostolic succession, which was 
 with him an important and a favorite subject. 
 Occasionally advocates of their sentiments ap- 
 peared in different countries. As some independ- 
 ent and powerful mind would study their doc- 
 trines and catch their spirit, and thence proceed 
 
70 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 to give them free expression, all society would be 
 moved, and a new proof would be furnished of the 
 power of truth to make its way amidst the great- 
 est obstacles. About the year 131.5, (in the 
 Avords of Fuller, an English historian,) Walter 
 Lollard, that German preacher, or as Peter Perin 
 calls him in his history of the Waldenses, one of 
 their barbs, (or pastors,) came into England, a 
 man in great renown among them ; and who was 
 so eminent in England, that, as in France, they 
 were called Berengarians, from Berengarius, and 
 Petrobrusians, from Peter Bruis, and in Italy and 
 Flanders, Arnoldists, from the famous Arnold of 
 Brescia; so did the Waldensian christians for 
 many generations after, bear the name of this 
 worthy man, being called Lollards." 
 
 At the time when Cromwell held the balance 
 of power in Europe, an event occurred which 
 engaged his warmest s^^mpathy in behalf of the 
 Waldenses of Piedmont, '^ who," says Godwin, 
 " were regarded as having entertained the prin- 
 ciples of the reformed religion before Luther, 
 and as never having bowed the neck to the 
 Roman Catholic superstition."* By an edict of 
 the Duke of Savoy, they were commanded to 
 adhere to the Catholic faith. They refused, 
 and a dreadful persecution followed. The news 
 
 * Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. 4, p. 205. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 71 
 
 touched the heart of Cromwell, roused that love 
 of liberty which had been the presiding principle 
 of his conduct until after the battle of Worces- 
 ter when ambition turned him, and led him to 
 utter the memorable sentence, that " God regards 
 the right of conscience, and authority over it, 
 to belong to himself alone . ' ' With characteristic 
 energy, he immediately despatched Sir Samuel 
 Morland, under-secretary to Thmioe, to Turin, 
 and sent letters to France and other powers, 
 demanding redress.* 
 
 Morland having executed his mission, wrote 
 a history of these victims of persecution, in 
 which he presents a most affecting picture of 
 their faith and suffering. Lovers of scriptural 
 simplicity, nothing could induce them to submit 
 to the authority of Rome. Their history was 
 also written by Ghesannion,f a Frenchman, who 
 denies what had been said by some, that they 
 rejected the sacrament of baptism, but says, 
 •' they only counted it unnecessary to infants, 
 because they are not of age to believe nor capa- 
 ble of giving evidence of their faith." This 
 remark however, is not of universal application ; 
 some of them practised infant baptism, but a 
 
 * Jones's Ch. His. vol. II, p. 322. 
 
 t Jones spells his name Chassagnon ; Crosby, Chassanian ; 
 Ivimey, Chessanion. 
 
72 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 large portion of them rejected it as a human 
 invention. 
 
 One of the most recent and celebrated works 
 in Ecclesiastical History which has appeared on 
 the continent of Europe, is by M. De Potter, 
 who, in a compendious account of these people, 
 says, they called the Pope antichrist, opposed 
 the payment of tythes, abolished the distinctions 
 in the priesthood, denied the authority of coun- 
 cils, rejected all the ceremonies of baptism except 
 simple ablution, and laying stress on the truth 
 that in infancy there can be no actual conversion 
 to the christian faith, they therefore baptized 
 anew all those who left the Romish Church, 
 wishing to embrace their doctrines. 
 
 They asserted that the efficacy of sacraments 
 depended on the character of the recipient, that 
 the sanctification of the bread and the wine took 
 place in the mouth of the worthy communicant 
 and not in the hands of the priest who conse- 
 crated the elements without possessing the pu- 
 rity demanded by his office — that an honest 
 layman had more power to absolve the faithful 
 from their sins than a bad priest, that the wor- 
 ship of God consisted more in practical virtues 
 than in ceremonies, that a priest who set himself 
 up for a mediator between heaven and men, 
 offended God, dishonored religion, and degraded 
 himself. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 73 
 
 They rejected the doctrine that marriage is a 
 sacrament ; denied that the church had the right 
 to ordain celibacy for her ministers ; refused to 
 worship saints and relics, saying that God only 
 is to be adored ; abohshed the customs of the 
 church touching hoHdays, altars, masses, relig- 
 ious chants, bells, pontifical ornaments, images— 
 the worship of which appeared to them as idol- 
 atry ; and wax tapers, for which they said God 
 had given no command. In a word, they rejected 
 every thing lohich they did not find enjoined in 
 the gospel, and the sacred scriptures. Thence, 
 moreover, they condemned prayers for the dead,' 
 indulgences, pilgrimages, the doctrine of purga- 
 tory, admitting only a heaven and a hell, and 
 prohibited oaths, allowing only simple affirm- 
 ation."* 
 
 In surveying ecclesiastical history, it is inter- 
 esting to see how the faith of this people, having 
 found an asylum amidst the rocks and moun- 
 tains, the dens and caves of the earth, would 
 thence go forth to extend its influence even unto 
 high places. In the year 1215, this fact became 
 a matter of complaint to the Pope by the Bishop 
 of Aries, who said that some heretics had taught 
 there, that it was to no purpose to baptize chil- 
 dren, since they could have no forgiveness of 
 
 * De Potter, vol. VI, p. 405. See Appendix, 
 7 
 
74 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 sins thereby, no faith, no charity." In that year 
 the Lateran Council, under Innocent III, decreed 
 that "the sacrament of baptism performed in 
 water with invocation of the Trinity, is prof- 
 itable for salvation, both to adult persons and 
 also to infants, by whomsoever administered in 
 the form of the church."* That Pope himself 
 declared that " unless the sword of the faithful 
 extirpated the Waldenses, their doctrine would 
 soon corrupt all Europe."! 
 
 In the time of Henry II, some of them 
 appeared in England, and in the year 1160, a 
 council was summoned at Oxford to examine 
 them. "When asked who they were," says 
 Rapin, " they answered that they were christians 
 and followers of the apostles."t " From the acts 
 of this council we learn," says De Potter, " that 
 these publicani (as they were called) were spread 
 abroad extensively in France, Spain, Italy and 
 Germany, and on account of the lenity shown 
 to them, had multiplied like the sand of the sea, 
 and at last had come to penetrate even into Eng- 
 land. They were about thirty persons, as many 
 men as women, all Germans, and were living 
 
 * Opera Innocent tertii, tome 2, p. 776. Apud Wall. voL 
 II, 242. Ed. London, 1720. 
 
 t Spanheim's Ecc'l. Annals. London, 1829. 
 
 X Rapin's Hist, of Eng. I, 350. Ed. Lend, folio, 1732. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 75 
 
 under the direction of one named Gerard, who 
 alone among them had received some education, 
 and spoke various languages. He was orthodox 
 in his opinions touching the divinity, but he 
 rejected the sacraments, especially the baptism 
 of infants, the eucharist (transubstantiation) and 
 the marriage of the catholics, (that is as a sacra- 
 ment). They were banished from Oxford, and 
 no one was allowed to receive them, or render 
 them the least assistance. These unhappy be- 
 ings wandered through the country without 
 finding an asylum, and as it was a very rigorous 
 season, they perished from hunger and cold. 
 This pious severity, says William of Newbridge, 
 purged England of so pestilential a heresy."* 
 
 There is reason to think that in the middle of 
 the twelfth century, congregations of Walden- 
 sian Baptists were gathered in Switzerland and 
 France, under the name of Apostlici, for in the 
 year 1147, we find Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 
 complaining against the Earl of St. Gyles for 
 favoring one of their noted teachers, named 
 Henry, who is charged with '' hindering infants 
 from the life of Christ, the grace of baptism 
 being denied them."t This Henry was a friend 
 of the celebrated Peter de Briiis, and was truly 
 
 * Guilelm. Nubrigcns, quoted by De Potter, vol. 6, 391. 
 t Mosheim, Cent. XII, Part II, Chap. 5, §8. 
 
76 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 a kindred spirit. He held private assemblies, 
 to whom he taught his doctrines, which were 
 distinguished by nothing peculiar, except his 
 entire rejection of infant baptism, the authority^ 
 and ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Ber- 
 nard, who became famous as a crusade preacher, 
 having procured the condemnation of Abelard, 
 the distinguished advocate of Free Inquiry,"^ 
 proceeded at length to attack Henry and his 
 adherents in a most bitter and calumnious spirit. 
 His object at last was gained ; for in about 1148, 
 his victim died in prison. Both Henry and 
 Peter de Bruis were simple hearted christians, 
 zealous teachers, bold reprovers of the corrupt 
 morals of the papal clergy, and standing together 
 against a host of opponents, counted not their 
 lives dear for the sake of truth. f Peter was 
 burned to death at St. Gyles, in the year 1150. 
 The sentiments of these two men concerning 
 baptism, were alike ; for of the latter, Mosheim 
 observes, "it is certain that one of his tenets 
 was, that no persons whatever, were to be bap- 
 tized before they came to the full use of reason. J 
 
 * Guizot, History of Civilization, p. 165. N. Y. Ed. 1838. 
 
 t " Like Peter de Bruis and Henry, the Waldenses were free 
 from all heresies of opinion, and sought only to restore an 
 apostolic purity of practice." Gicseler, II, 376. Phil. ed. 
 1836. 
 
 X Mosheim, Cent. XII, p. 2, c. 5, §7. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. / 7 
 
 But there was another, who with these, 
 formed a trio of heroic and devout defenders of 
 the primitive faith, another, whose name should 
 be embalmed in the memory of every friend of 
 religion and of man ; I mean, Arnold of Brescia, 
 also a disciple of Peter de Bruis. This very 
 year seven centuries are completed, since his 
 condemnation by the Lateran Council, and in 
 sixteen years afterwards, his execution occurred 
 at Rome, where his body was burned, and the 
 ashes were cast into the Tiber. He was at first 
 a reader of the church at Brescia, then travelled 
 in France where he studied with the famous 
 Abelard, and became one of the most profound 
 scholars and eloquent preachers of Italy.* His 
 voice was first heard in the streets of Brescia, 
 declaiming against the wealth and licentiousness 
 of the established clergy ; and from attacking 
 them, he proceeded to reason against the union 
 of church and state, infant baptism, and transub- 
 stantiation. The Pope branded his opinions 
 with the name of " heresy of the politicians," 
 and banishing him from Italy, he fled to Switz- 
 erland, where he taught the people of Zurich 
 to frame a free constitution. Ere long, however, 
 he boldly resolved to plant the standard of 
 reform in the very heart of Rome. Yindicating 
 
 * Dr. Allix, churches of Piedmont, p. 171. 
 
 7* 
 
78 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the spirituality of the church, rehgious Uberty, 
 and the rights of the people, he uttered "thoughts 
 that breathed and words that burned ;" the city 
 was roused, many nobles joined his cause, and 
 the doctrines of reform prevailed. Rome again 
 heard, says Sismondi, "the words Roman re- 
 public, Roman senate, comitia of the people."* 
 The change which followed, was the most 
 remarkable event of the twelfth century. The 
 civil power of the Pope was suspended. " He 
 is but your bishop," said Arnold to the Romans; 
 " let him therefore have spiritual jurisdiction. 
 The government of Rome, its civil establish- 
 ments and territories belong to you." Propo- 
 sitions to this effect were made to the Pope. 
 Innocent II died of mortification at Arnold's 
 success. The succeeding Popes, Celestine and 
 Lucius, reigned but a short time, and could do 
 nothing to re-establish the papal power. The 
 senators then refused to accord in the consecra- 
 tion of Eugenius III, unless he would assent to 
 the separation of the spiritual from civil juris- 
 diction, on which account he withdrew from 
 Rome, and was consecrated in a neighboring 
 fortress. He was succeeded by Adrian IV, into 
 whose hands Arnold was delivered by the inter- 
 position of the German Emperor. His principles 
 
 * Sismondi's History of Italian Republics, p. 33. Lend. 
 1832. Encyclopedia Britannica, article Arnold. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 79 
 
 long survived him, and Arnoldist, became another 
 name for a friend of liberty and rehgion. 
 
 The wide extent to which sentiments similar 
 to those of Arnold of Brescia had spread, may- 
 be learned from a celebrated letter, which was 
 written in the year 1140, and which Dr. Allix has 
 translated. He says,* ^' Mabillon has preserved 
 the letter of Evervinus Preepositus, of Stein- 
 field, in the diocess of Cologne. Evervinus 
 first describes a class manichaeans ; then another 
 order of heretics. These latter, he charges with 
 denying, 1st, that the body of Christ is made on 
 the altar, 2d, asserting that the apostolical dig- 
 nity had been lost by the wickedness of the 
 priesthood, 3d, denying the sacraments, except 
 baptism, which they give only to those who are 
 come of age, alleging that place of the gospel, 
 '' whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved ; "4th, rejecting the mediation of saints, 
 5th, the virtue of fasting, 6th, denying the 
 doctrine of Purgatory, and, 7th, asserting this 
 great principle, "all other things observed in 
 the church, which have not been established by 
 Christ himself or his Apostles, they call super- 
 stitious."! After calling on St. Bernard to aid 
 
 * Page 145. 
 
 t This letter of Evervinus, may be found, in the Latin lan- 
 guage, in Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, vol. II, p. 360, 
 
80 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 in resisting these mischievous principles, he says, 
 " I let you know also, that those of them who 
 have returned to our church, told us, that they 
 had great numbers of their persuasion scattered 
 almost every where, and that amongst them, 
 were many of our clergy and monks ; and as 
 for those who were burnt, they in the defence 
 they made for themselves, told us, that this their 
 heresy, had been concealed froin the times of the 
 martiirs until noio^ and that it had been pre- 
 served in Greece and some other countries."* 
 Who is not struck with admiration at the 
 thought, that the hand of Providence should 
 have brought down to these days, so clear a 
 testimony to the characters of those faithful 
 ones, who, in ages of the grossest superstition, 
 never bowed their knees at the shrines of papal 
 idolatry ? Here we have the testimony of a 
 learned ecclesiastic, given seven centuries ago, 
 that men, who, Ave know, if they were now liv- 
 ing would be called by our name, declared in 
 
 note. In his text, however, Gieseler does not, like AULx, mark 
 the distinction which Evervinus makes between these two 
 orders of heretics. The latter class were Orthodox Baptists. 
 When it is said, that they denied all the sacraments except 
 baptism, it must be remembered that the catholics have seven 
 sacraments, and they considered a man as giving up the 
 Lord's Supper, if he denied transubstantiation. 
 * Dr. AllLx, p. 143. Lond. Ed. 1690. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 81 
 
 their own behalf with their dying breath, that 
 they had broached no innovation^ bnt held those 
 principles which had been handed down from 
 the age of primitive Christianity. Here the 
 persecutors, the apostates, and the martyrs, unite 
 ixi leaving a memorial in honor of '^ a great cloud 
 of witnesses, of whom the world was not wor- 
 thy." 
 
 Prom facts like these, it is clear that those 
 have reason for their opinion, Avho say that the 
 Baptists may trace the history of their senti- 
 ments through the old Waldensian churches. 
 Mosheim, who was far from having any bias in 
 favor of such a position, justly observes, that 
 before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay 
 concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, 
 persons who adhered tenaciously to the princi- 
 ples of the modern Dutch Baptists.* The va- 
 rious representations given of the Waldenses by 
 different writers, may be easily accounted for, if 
 we remember that perfect liberty of conscience 
 was cherished amongst them, that they wor- 
 shipped not the idol of uniformity, and that 
 they furnished a shelter, as far as they could, 
 for all dissenters who were persecuted by the 
 established church. f Their opponents not only 
 
 * Ecc'l History, Cent. XVI, sect. Ill, P. II, c. 3, § 2. 
 t Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches, p. 440. 
 
82 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 followed them with menaces and groundless 
 calumnies, but distorted the confessions which 
 they made under the influence of intimidation. 
 But the most learned historians of Europe are 
 setting this point in a clearer light ; and touch- 
 ing it, I quote a name of high authority when I 
 mention that of Starck, court preacher at Darm- 
 stadt, who says in his history of baptism, that 
 " if instead of looking only at particular confes- 
 sions, we follow out their general mode of 
 thinking, we find that they not only rejected 
 infant baptism, but rebaptized those who passed 
 from the Catholic church to them, and that 
 although the anabaptists held a connexion with 
 Munzer, Storck, Grebel, Stubner, and Keller, 
 the Waldenses were their predecessors."* 
 A century before Arnold of Brescia, Berenga- 
 rius, Archdeacon of Angiers, and Bruno, his 
 Bishop, made some attempts at reformation. It 
 is evident that their efforts excited much atten- 
 tion, and spread a feeling of alarm amongst the 
 clergy. The Bishop of Liege wrote to Henry 
 I, King of France, saying, '' there is a report 
 come out of France, and which goes through all 
 Germany, that these two do maintain that the 
 Lord's body (the host) is not the body, but a 
 
 * Starck's History of Baptism, p. 115, 118. Lcipsic, 1789. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 83 
 
 shadow or figure of the Lord's body ;* and that 
 they do disannul lawful marriages, and as far as 
 in them lies, overthrow the baptism of infants."! 
 About the same time, too, it is evident that the 
 spirit of nonconformity was abroad in Italy, for 
 according to Dr. Allix, D'Achery informs us, 
 that in 1025, a Synod was held at Arras, by 
 Gerard, Bishop of Cambray and Arras, to examine 
 some disciples of Gundulphus, whose doctrines 
 had spread into the diocess of Liege and Cam- 
 bray, in the low countries. It appears that they 
 rejected all authority in religion except that of 
 Christ and the Apostles, and all the peculiarities 
 of the Romish church. The Bishop said, the 
 reason these men gave for rejecting infant bap- 
 tism was this : '' Because to an infant that neither 
 wills nor runs^ that knows nothing of faith, 
 is ignorant of its own salvation and welfare, in 
 whom there can be no desire of regeneration or 
 confession, the will, faith and confession of 
 another, seem not in the least to appertain. "J 
 Such a mode of reasoning on the ground of 
 religious faith, apart from the authority of the 
 
 * Luther held to consubstantiation. He therefore regarded 
 Berengarius aa a heretic, while the disciples of Calvin praised 
 him.— Gieseler's Ecc'l Hist. II, p. 111. 
 
 tWall, II, 21G. Allix, 123. 
 
 X The great stress laid by the Romanists on baptism, prob. 
 ably led some of them to disregard it entirely. Sec Allix, 95. 
 
84 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 church, was not at all in keeping with the spirit 
 of that age, and it shows that there were men 
 who would have purilied and elevated the 
 national mind, had it not been for that alliance 
 between the Church and the State, which was 
 designed to crush in the germ every undertaking 
 which looked toward the improvement of the 
 people. 
 
 Such was the state of nonconformity in 
 Italy. They had good reason for saying that 
 they introduced no innovation ; for apart from 
 the proofs which they might have brought 
 from their own country, there are for us, strong 
 corresponding ones in Wales, where there is 
 good reason to believe that the gospel was intro- 
 duced as early as the year 63, and where it was 
 preserved in a great degree free from the cor- 
 ruptions of Romanism. In the year 596, when 
 Austin was sent into England by that most pol- 
 itic and ambitious Pope, Gregory VII, he found 
 it much easier to bring the Pagan Saxons to his 
 terms, than the old British bishops. It would 
 be a natural supposition that as Constantino was 
 himself of British origin, and had promoted 
 Christianity in his own country with royal mu- 
 nificence, that religion must have deteriorated 
 from its primitive simplicity. Nevertheless, 
 Austin found it in a state of comparative purity, 
 for the British bishops of that day, were like 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 85 
 
 those of whom Dupin speaks, at an earlier 
 period, who were freely supported by their breth- 
 ren, and who would have deemed it beneath 
 them to accept of the Emperor's allowance.* 
 The demands which Austin made of them, shed 
 some light on their condition, and need no 
 comment. They were these ; first, they should 
 keep Easter after the Romish manner ,• and 
 secondly, that they should give cliristendome 
 to children, TJiey abjured his authority, and 
 refused compliance, although he endeavored to 
 dazzle them with a miracle. Austin was in- 
 censed, and threatened to enforce his demands 
 with the sword ; a menace which was after- 
 wards put in execution against a class of men, 
 whose most heinous fault in the sight of Rome, 
 was a desire to preserve their religious freedom, 
 to maintain the spirituality of the church, and 
 to keep it independent of the state. 
 
 I trust no apology is necessary for my thu^ 
 causing to pass in review before you on this 
 occasion, a class of men to whom we owe a debt 
 of gratitude, and who deserve to be held in last- 
 ing remembrance, who proclaimed through evil 
 and through good report the same great princi- 
 ples, for the sake of which Roger Williams came 
 as a pilgrim to these our shores, for the opera- 
 
 * Rapin, p. 29. 
 
 6 
 
86 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tion of which this commonwealth fmiiished the 
 first clear fields wherein this Chm'ch stands as- 
 the first sacred memorial. I have done it the 
 more readily, because there is to some extent, a 
 popular impression that he was the father of 
 our denomination in this country, and also that 
 by his political sagacity, he discovered the worth 
 of that great principle of unlimited religious 
 liberty which is so essential to the peace and 
 progress of states, which only of late years has 
 triumphed in New- England, and which is only 
 beginning its conquests in other lands. I have 
 wished to show that he derived that principle 
 from his Bible, that it was a primary element of 
 his religious faith, that he held it in common 
 with many contemporaries in England, who had 
 received it as a moral heritage from the earliest 
 times. Lured by the sound of religious liberty 
 in America, he crossed the ocean ; and when he 
 found in Boston a church enforcing its creed by 
 the sword of the magistrate, he at once declared 
 it to be anti-christian, and refused to unite with 
 it unless they abjured that principle. Having 
 thus on his first landing, announced the truth 
 which was so dear to him, he ceased not to 
 maintain it, until he had seen the wrath of man 
 overruled for its promotion, and had established 
 here a commonwealth in which the Church was 
 disconnected from the State, and rehgion was> 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. ST 
 
 proclaimed to be free. To him then belongs not 
 the honor of making a moral discovery, but the 
 honor of nobly maintaining a truth for which he 
 knew others were contending even unto death ; 
 the honor of a distinguished place in a long line 
 of faithful witnesses which is seen through the 
 vista of ages stretching into the dim distance, 
 but which shall shine with immortal glory in 
 that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be 
 made manifest, when the first shall be last, and 
 the last first. 
 
 The character of Roger Williams is an inter- 
 esting subject of study. The more we contem- 
 plate it, the more shall we be struck with the 
 rare combination of virtues which formed it ; 
 the more shall we admire the strength of his 
 mind and the enlargedness of his heart, the warm 
 attachment which he felt for his own opinions, 
 connected with a deep respect for the right of 
 private judgment in others ; the zeal with which 
 he maintained his own mental independence, 
 and his ^' godly jealousy" for that of his neigh- 
 bor ; the frankness with which he avowed his 
 sentiments, and the heroic fortitude with which 
 he defended them ; the clearness with which he 
 saw the bearings of a principle, and the unflinch- 
 ing fidelity with which he carried it out to its 
 just conclusion. This last trait of his character 
 
S8 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 explains an act of his life, which to many has 
 seemed at the first quite unaccountable. I mean, 
 his leaving the church a few months after its 
 constitution, and joining the Seekers, who, as 
 they looked over Christendom and saw the cor- 
 ruptions which generally prevailed, concluded 
 that the divinely authorized ministry of the 
 church had been lost, and that before any could 
 be empowered to administer ordinances, a new 
 apostleship must be commissioned. His mind 
 seems to have been pressed with difficulties 
 touching the right of a church to revive a lost 
 institution, and his conclusion was only a logi- 
 cal deduction from what was then a popular 
 principle, that the authority of a ministry to 
 dispense ordinances depended on the evidence of 
 an apostolic succession. In his view the line of 
 that succession could not be traced; for he would 
 as soon have thought of calling the christian 
 dispensation itself a failure, as of admitting the 
 Romish priesthood to be the authorized minis- 
 try of Christ. In regard to that body of men, it 
 appears that very many, during ages before him, 
 had declared the same opinion ; but instead of 
 leading them to wait for a new apostleship, it 
 prepared them to feel the force of the truth, that 
 since all Christ's commands are to be obeyed, 
 the church hath power at any period to restore 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 89 
 
 to their pristine purity those lost rites which he 
 has enjoined.* 
 
 Touching this latter principle, the mind of Mr, 
 Williams seems to have been troubled with 
 doubts, and as he looked at the history of Christ- 
 endom, as far as the outward constitution of the 
 church was concerned, he was struck with the 
 signs of a general apostacy. His eye rested on 
 times when the whole field of his vision was 
 occupied by churches which were strictly na- 
 tional, identified with the civil state, and thence 
 in his view, anti-christian, since Christ himself 
 had said, '^my kingdom is not of this world. " 
 That view however was connected with a fervent 
 charity towards individuals in all communions 
 as christian men, for he said that even the whole 
 generation of the righteous^ had thus fallen 
 away. In the church of Rome he saw that the 
 ordinances of the New Testament had been 
 absolutely lost ; in regard to baptism the whole 
 eastern church agreed with him in this opinion;! 
 and when he looked to England, he saw there a 
 persecuting national church, which had, by a 
 mere political accident become separated from 
 Rome, with a monarch as ambitious and as 
 craven as Pontius Pilate for its head, yet pro- 
 
 * Mr. Smyth's reasoning, 1609, quoted by Ivimey, I, 118. 
 t See Appendix, G. 
 
90 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 claimed Defender of the Faith. What homage 
 could a clear sighted honest thinker like Roger 
 Williams, pay to the peculiar authority of such 
 a priesthood ? It could challenge no respect 
 from him, any more than the divine commission 
 of Mahomet. And if it were true that the 
 validity of christian ordinances depend on a 
 regular apostolic succession, the only logical 
 alternative then left for him was, that the 
 ordinances must be forever abandoned, or that a 
 new apostleship must be commissioned from 
 Heaven.* His acting on that conclusion, proved 
 the fidelity of his mind to the principles which 
 he embraced, and displayed the moral greatness 
 of his soul. And if we ourselves were convinced 
 that such a principle were true, who of us would 
 not pursue the same course ? Far sooner would 
 I wait with longing eyes for a new apostleship 
 to be raised up by an Almighty hand, than 
 believe that a worldly hierarchy like that which 
 threw its dazzling splendors around the altars 
 of the Pope and Henry VHI, could boast itself 
 pre-eminently of a commission which had de- 
 scended from the skies, and bore the seal of 
 Christ. 
 
 It is remarkable, that notwithstanding all the 
 hai'dships which Mr. Williams endured, he 
 
 * See Appendix, H. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 91 
 
 should have Kved more than half a century after 
 his arrival in this country, and enjoyed a vigor- 
 ous old age. Vigorous indeed it was, for it 
 would seem that after he had completed three- 
 score years and ten, his physical force had not 
 abated, and his mind glowed with all the ardor 
 of his youth. What an, extraordinary object is 
 presented to our attention, when we contemplate 
 him at the age of seventythree, embarking in a 
 small boat, and plying the oar through that day 
 and until the ensuing midnight, in order to reach 
 Newport at the appointed time to engage in a 
 public discussion with George Fox, on those 
 points of theology wherein they differed ! Truly 
 in such an instance, we scarcely know at which 
 to wonder most, his bodily strength, his intel- 
 lectual energy, or that intense religious fervor 
 which animated his bosom. Yet doubtless, 
 more admirable than either of these, was that 
 fine control over all the elements of his charac- 
 ter, exerted by his favorite doctrine of religious 
 liberty. However strong might have been his 
 aversion to any class of sentiments, however 
 pungent his invective, he never betrayed one 
 wish to infringe on the freedom of an opponent, 
 or to use any other than moral means in promo- 
 ting his opinions. The strength of his language 
 only indicates the warm attachment which he 
 felt for his principles, which makes the more 
 
92 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 remarkable Avhat his whole life proved to be 
 true, that he would fain yield to every man the 
 same liberty which he claimed for himself, and 
 would have contended as earnestly for the rights 
 of an adversary as for his own.* 
 
 When near fourscore, we find that he was 
 engaged in preaching to the Indians, and after- 
 wards, amid great debility, he was employed by 
 his fireside, in writing out those discourses for 
 
 * There is reason to think, that to some extent, an unfair 
 estimate of Mr. Williams's personal character has been derived 
 from the warmth of his language in public controversy. In 
 regard to this, much allowance is to be made for the manner 
 of the times. Certain it is, that he possessed in a large meas- 
 ure that magnanimity of mind, that honesty and generosity, 
 which not only command the esteem of men, but gain their 
 hearts. Thence Dr. Bentley says, " in Salem, every body 
 loved Mr. Williams. He had no personal enemies under any 
 pretence ; all valued his friendship. Kind treatment could 
 win him, but opposition could not conquer him. He was not 
 afraid to stand alone for truth, against the world." He had 
 always a tenderness of conscience, and feared every offence 
 against moral truth. He breathed the purest devotion. He 
 was a friend of human nature, forgiving, upright, and pious.'* 
 
 In connexion with this testimony, it is proper to observe, 
 that in some way, Mr. Williams's biographer has been led into 
 a mistake on one point. He says, " it appears that Mr. Wil- 
 liams so disliked Mr. Harris, that he would not write his name 
 at length, but abbreviated it thus, ♦' W. Har."— [Knowles, p. 
 299, note.] The fact, however, is, that in various manuscripts 
 of Williams's, I have seen the name fully written, and every 
 case of abbreviation is in accordance with his usual style of 
 penmanship. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 93 
 
 circulation among them.* He thus filled thirty- 
 sheets of manuscript, and then asked aid of his 
 friends in Boston, to enable him to publish them, 
 saying, '' he that hath a shilling and a heart to 
 countenance and promote such a soul-work, 
 may trust the great paymaster for an hundred 
 or one in this life." Although he had oppor- 
 tunities of accumulating wealth, yet his sacri- 
 fices for the good of the colony were immense, 
 and from tlie fact just mentioned, it seems that 
 he died in a condition of honorable poverty. We 
 are struck in this case, with a view of the benev- 
 olence of his heart and his untiring industry, 
 which indeed can be no better proved than by 
 the fact, that while Hving in London, as agent 
 of the colony, he earned his own support by 
 teaching languages, contrived when their funds 
 failed, to pay their debts and maintain their 
 credit, and at the same time living in habits of 
 friendly intercourse with Milton, pursued with 
 him a course of mutual instruction in the knowl- 
 edge of various tongues. Constantly employed 
 in some pursuit of literature, or work of faith, or 
 labor of love, he closed his earthly pilgrimage 
 early in 1683, in the eightyfourth year of his 
 age, and was interred in his own family burial- 
 ground, '' with all the solemnity which the col- 
 
 » Letter to Gov. Bradetreet, 2 His. vol. VIII, p. 196. 
 
94 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ony was able to shew."* His bones were laid 
 not far from where we are now assembled ; near 
 the spot where he first touched our shores, and 
 where, probably, he first announced that name 
 which constitutes this place a memorial of the 
 good Providence of God. No marble marks his 
 grave. Although the existence of our common- 
 wealth be a sufficient monument of his fame, 
 yet may the day soon come, when for our own 
 sakes we shall see among us some fit memorial 
 of that extraordinary man, which shall daily 
 remind us of his character, and warm the hearts 
 of our children with the remembrance of his 
 virtues. 
 
 Among those who were driven from Massa- 
 chusetts, soon after the departure of Roger 
 Williams, was Mr. Chad Brown, who came to 
 Providence in 1636, and was ordained to the 
 ministry of this church about three years after its 
 formation. He was one of the town proprietors, 
 and from the day of his arrival to the present 
 time, his name has been well known, in this, 
 his adopted home. He was the ancestor of a 
 large and respected family, who have for many 
 years past, continued, by their public spirit 
 and their liberality, to identify themselves with 
 the fortunes of the town, with the cause of 
 
 * Calender, p. 147. Elton's edition. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 95 
 
 literature and Christianity. Contemporary with 
 Roger Williams, he possessed a cooler tempera- 
 ment, and was happily adapted to sustain the 
 interests of religion, just where that great man 
 failed. Not being affected by the arguments of 
 the Seekers, he maintained his standing firmly 
 in a church which he believed to be founded on 
 the rock of eternal truth, even " the word of 
 God which abideth for ever." We know only 
 enough of his character, to excite the wish to 
 know more, but from that little it is clear, that 
 he was highly esteemed as a man of sound 
 judgment, and of a christian spirit. Often re- 
 ferred to, as the arbitrator of existing differences, 
 in a state of society where individual influence 
 was needed as a substitute for well-digested 
 laws, he won that commendation which the 
 Saviour pronounced when he said " blessed are 
 the peace makers, for they shall be called the 
 children of God." 
 
 We know not how long the ministry of Mr. 
 Brown continued, but we find that Mr. Wick- 
 enden, who at one time was imprisoned in New- 
 York for preaching there without a license from 
 the officer of the crown,* was ordained by 
 Mr. Brown. Mr. Wickenden officiated also in 
 
 * Jubilee Sermon by the Pastor of the First Baptist Church. 
 N. Y. 1813. 
 
96 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Providence J and with his name is connected our 
 fii'st intelligence of the rise of a controversy, 
 which was long agitated in this town, and 
 throughout the commonwealth. It appears that 
 many in that day, who were studying the con- 
 stitution of the primitive church, regarded the 
 declaration of Paul, in Hebrews, 1 : 2,* as con- 
 taining a summary of essential principles, among 
 which it was contended, that the imposition of 
 hands on every baptized christian, held a distinct 
 place. Although it is now very generally admit- 
 ted, that '' the laying on of hands" mentioned in 
 that passage, is an allusion to the appointed sign 
 by which the apostles conferred the extraordi- 
 nary gifts of the spirit,! a knowledge of which 
 was of course received by their converts among 
 the first elements or lessons of Christianity, yet 
 then, many excellent men supposed that the 
 phrase referred to di perpetual ordinance^ designed 
 to succeed baptism, the reception of both which, 
 was as necessary to constitute a true profession 
 of Christianity, as repentance and faith were nec- 
 essary to constitute a spiritual christian. With 
 
 * Therefore, leaving the first principles of the doctrine of 
 Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foun. 
 dation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, 
 of the doctrine of baptism, and of laying on of hands, and of 
 resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 
 
 t See Acts 19 : 6, and 8 : 17, 18. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 97 
 
 this view of the case, they felt justified in urging 
 the laying on of hands after baptism, as a term 
 of church communion. It might, indeed, seem 
 remarkable, if this passage were designed to be a 
 comprehensive summary of the essential princi- 
 ples of outward and inward Christianity, that the 
 communion itself were not mentioned in it. Still 
 it was regarded by many in that light, and after 
 awhile, they were known by the name of Six 
 Principle Baptists, although they were distin- 
 guished from others by only a single article, all 
 agreeing as to the other five points mentioned in 
 the passage. In 1652,* Rev. William Vaughan, 
 of Newport, embraced this view, and hearing 
 that a church had been formed in Providence 
 on this basis, under the care of Rev. Mr. Wick- 
 enden, he repaired hither, and having received 
 that rite himself, obtained the aid of Mr. Wick- 
 enden in forming a similar body at Newport.f 
 
 At that time. Rev. Gregory Dexter was en- 
 gaged in preaching the gospel here. He had 
 been a stationer in London, and had officiated 
 as a preacher among the Baptists of that city. 
 Having incurred the displeasure of the govern- 
 ment by too free a use of his press, he fled to 
 America, and in 1644, arrived at Providence. 
 
 * Samuel Hubbard, quoted by Backus, vol. II, p. 96. 
 t Comer's MSS. in the possession of R. I. His. Society. 
 
 9 
 
98 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 He was a correspondent of Roger Williams, and 
 printed his Key to the Indian Language, at 
 London, in 1643. It is probable that he, and 
 Mr. Green, of Boston, were the only two in 
 New-England who understood well the art of 
 printing at that time ; at any rate it is certain 
 that Mr. Dexter used to go regularly to Boston, 
 from year to year, to aid the latter in the publi- 
 cation of his almanac. It is said of him that 
 he was remarkable for a grave and earnest man- 
 ner which never forsook him, and was ahvays 
 intent on the Avork of the ministry. When Mr. 
 Vaughan visited Providence in 1652, in order to 
 procure the aid of Mr. Wickenden in forming a 
 church which should hold the laying on of hands 
 as a divine ordinance, Mr. Dexter accompanied 
 them to Newport, and seems to have taken part 
 in that service ; from which we may infer that 
 he had united with those who had formed a 
 separate church here under the care of Mr. Wick- 
 enden. After a while, the latter removed his 
 residence a short distance from the town, to the 
 place now called Olneyville, and then the whole 
 care of his ministry devolved on Mr. Dexter, 
 who lived to the advanced age of ninety years. 
 During this period, the church was favored 
 with the pastoral services of Rev. Thomas 
 Olney. From Hartford, in England, he had 
 emigrated to Salem, and was banished from that 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 99 
 
 place with his family, in 1639, the year of his 
 arrival in Providence. His name has a place 
 among the signatures to the civil covenant in 
 1640, and is found in various connexions after 
 that time. Backus speaks of him as officiating 
 in the ministry immediately after Roger Wil- 
 Hams's death, and Comer, in his manuscript, 
 says that he continued the pastoral care of 
 the church after Mr. Wickenden left it, in 1652. 
 The breach which then arose out of the contro- 
 versy about laying on of hands as a divine rite, 
 Avas afterwards healed, as the practice was adopt- 
 ed by the church, although it was not made an 
 indispensable term of communion or member- 
 ship. In succeeding years, however, it is not 
 probable that any entered the church without it, 
 and the doctrine of the imposition of hands was 
 unanimously received for more than a century. 
 We know not the year when Mr. Olney's 
 ministry was closed, but he was succeeded by 
 Rev. Pardon Tillinghast, the ancestor of a nu- 
 merous family amongst us. He was a native 
 of England, emigrated to Connecticut, and came 
 thence to Providence, where, for more than half 
 a century, his life adorned the religion which he 
 preached. It was an honorable testimony borne 
 of him by governor Jenckes, derived from those 
 who knew him, that he " was a man exemplary 
 for his doctrine, as well as of an unblemished 
 
100 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 character,"* a testimony well confirmed by his 
 acts of disinterested benevolence. Certainly it 
 was not without reason that Morgan Edwards 
 said, that the ministry of this church had been 
 expensive to the ministers themselves, though 
 it had cost the people but little ; for the first 
 house of worship which this church possessed, 
 was built by Mr. Tillinghast, in 1700, at his own 
 expense. Before that year, they had worshipped 
 in a grove, and in private houses when the 
 weather was inclement. For his own services 
 he would receive no pecuniary compensation, 
 but he did not fail in his preaching to inculcate 
 the principle maintained by Paul, that they 
 who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, 
 and that although he waved his own right to 
 maintenance, it was the duty of the church to 
 provide for those who should succeed him. 
 Governor Jenckes quotes his words on that sub- 
 ject as the words of a man whose name was 
 honored, and whose opinions had weight with 
 those whom he addressed. He died in 1718, 
 and was interred in the burial place of his family 
 "in a good old age." 
 
 The year succeeding the death of Mr. Til- 
 linghast, Rev. Ebenezer Jenckes, brother of the 
 
 * Gov. Jenckes's letter in Backus, II, 115. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 101 
 
 Governor, was ordained to the pastoral office.* 
 He was born in Pawtucket, in 1669, and was 
 the first American minister who preached in 
 Providence. It is pleasing to see that at so 
 early a period, the sons of Rhode-Island were 
 employed in the christian ministry, that the 
 church in the wilderness was not only blessed 
 by her sons " that came from afar," but by those 
 who were "nursed at her side." Mr. Jenckes 
 belonged to a family who have been known as 
 liberal friends of literature and religion. His 
 father, a native of Buckinghamshire in England, 
 was a pious man, and the first who built a house 
 in the town of Pawtucket. His brother, the 
 Governor, a member of this church, was for a 
 number of years, ambassador of the Colony to 
 the Court of St. James, and distinguished not 
 only by the urbanity of his manners and his 
 intellectual endowments, but by the graces of 
 religion. His son, Daniel Jenckes, who was for 
 forty eight years an active member here, was for 
 forty years a member of the General Assembly, 
 Chief Justice of this county, and a munificent 
 donor to the college and the church. He, him- 
 self, is spoken of as a man highly esteemed for 
 his talents and his piety, who declining most of 
 the public ofldlces which were urged on his 
 
 * Church Records, p. 6. 
 
 9# 
 
102 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 acceptance, discharged the duties of the sphere 
 in which he moved, with honor and fidehty. 
 
 From a remark in Backus's Church History, 
 it appears that Mr. Jenckes was not sole Pastor 
 of the church, but a colleague of Rev. James 
 Brown. The latter was a grandson of the 
 minister of that name, whom we have already 
 spoken of as the companion and successor of 
 Roger Williams, and the grand-parent of those 
 four brothers,* whose names are so widely 
 known as being intimately associated with the 
 commercial character of Providence ; whose 
 persons and actions, whose amity, enterprise and 
 public spirit, are embalmed in the recollections 
 of many who hear me, and with whom a number 
 amongst us stand connected in ties of endearing 
 relationship. They have gone from this the 
 scene of their youth, their manhood and their 
 age, but neither is their name extinct or their 
 spirit departed. If while surveying the past, we 
 might be permitted to breathe a wish for the 
 future prosperity of Providence, it would be 
 that all her sons might emulate the examples of 
 these men of other generations, and exhibit their 
 virtues on a scale proportioned to their own 
 advantages; for then, indeed, would her "mer- 
 
 * See Appendix, I. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 103 
 
 chants be princes," and wisdom and knowledge 
 would be the stability of her times. 
 
 During the ministry of Mr. James Brown, an 
 event occurred, which shoAved that more impor- 
 tance began to be attached to the imposition of 
 hands at that time, than during preceding years. 
 The church at Newport had been blessed with 
 a revival of religion, and with the hope of pro- 
 moting one in Providence, Mr. Walton, a young 
 minister of liberal education, was invited to 
 preach here. He was willing to practice the 
 laying on of hands, but not as a divine ordinance, 
 necessary to church fellowship. Mr. Windsor, 
 then a deacon of the church, was the leader of 
 a party, who urged the imposition of hands as a 
 term of church communion. Newport was then 
 virtually the capital of the Colony, and Governor 
 Jenckes was residing there, for the sake of con- 
 venience as a public officer. He wrote to Mr. 
 Brown on the subject, confirming Mr. Walton's 
 view, that laying on of hands " should be no 
 bar to communion with those who have been 
 rightly baptized," and saying that he had been 
 informed by ancient members of this church, 
 that such had been the opinion of Baptists 
 throughout the colony from the earliest times. 
 Mr. Brown perfectly accorded in this sentiment, 
 and strongly remonstrated with Mr. Windsor 
 and his friends against this rigid innovation. As 
 
104 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 far as the case admitted, he thus evinced an 
 enlargedness of mind, which it is always pleas- 
 ing to observe in a christian teacher. This 
 event was among the last acts of his life, for he 
 died the following year, 1732, at the age of 
 sixty-six. His remains were laid in his own 
 burial place, at the north end of the town, where 
 a stone marks his grave. 
 
 The year following Mr. Brown's death, Mr. 
 Windsor was ordained to the ministry, and con- 
 tinued in that office twentyfive years. He was 
 born in Providence, in 1677. His ancestors 
 came from Berkshire, in England, and from the 
 town which bears their name, situated on the 
 bank of the Thames. Being settled in the pas- 
 torship, his sentiments touching the importance 
 of the imposition of hands of course prevailed, 
 and from that time the practice of the church 
 became more rigid. His ministry was long and 
 successful. Mr. Thomas Burlingham, a native 
 of Cranston, was ordained at the same time with 
 Mr. Windsor, and for a while aided him in his 
 work. But a church having been formed in his 
 native town, Mr. Burlingham resigned his con- 
 nexion here in order that he might labor there 
 the more effectually. 
 
 In 1758, Mr. Windsor died, and the following 
 year his son, Samuel Windsor, Jr., was ordained 
 to the pastoral office. He served the church ten 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 105 
 
 years, and then requested them to look out for 
 a successor. The number and arduousness of 
 his duties, the claims of his family, and the dis- 
 tance of his residence from the place of worship, 
 were the reasons he assigned for this request. 
 At that time. Rev. Dr. James Manning was 
 officiating as President of Rhode-Island College, 
 which had been commenced in 1765, under his 
 direction, at Warren. It was for several years 
 a matter of doubt where the college would be 
 permanently established, but in 1770, it was 
 determined by the Corporation, that the College 
 edifice '' be built in the town of Providence, and 
 there be continued for ever." The removal of 
 Dr. Manning to this town was hailed by the 
 church as a happy event, supposing as they did, 
 that by calling him to be their minister, they 
 would carry into effect Mr. Windsor's wishes. 
 Immediately on his arrival he was requested to 
 occupy the pulpit, and as the first sabbath on 
 which he preached happened to be the day for 
 administering the Lord's Supper, he was invited 
 by Mr. Windsor to participate with the church. 
 Soon after that, suspicions seem to have arisen 
 among some, that Dr. Manning held the impo- 
 sition of hands rather too loosely, and that he 
 practised it more to accommodate the con- 
 sciences of others, than to meet the demands of 
 his own. A party of these v/as soon formed, 
 
106 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 with whom Mr. Windsor himself sympathized 
 and acted. Still it was thought by some, that 
 this was only " the ostensible reason" of their 
 dissatisfaction, and that they must have some 
 other one more weighty. This was found in 
 the opposition of Mr. Windsor to the introduc- 
 tion of music in public worship, which it was 
 supposed Dr. Manning favored. On that point 
 the sentiment of the (Quakers seems to have 
 prevailed, and singing was discarded, as unau- 
 thorized by the New Testament. What diver- 
 sity of opinion once existed touching a point 
 which seems clear to us, may be inferred from 
 the fact, that in 1691, a work was published in 
 London, by the celebrated Keach, entitled, 
 " The Breach Repaired in God's Worship : or 
 the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, 
 proved to be a holy ordinance of Jesus Christ." 
 In this, the author proceeded to show — what it 
 is to sing — that there can be no proper singing 
 without the voice, that the essence of singing is 
 no more in the heart or spirit than the essence 
 of preaching," and to elucidate other points 
 connected with the subject. It is probable that 
 singing was first laid aside in times of persecu- 
 tion, on account of the danger of practising it, 
 and that afterwards it was difficult to revive 
 every where a due sense of its worth as a 
 divine appointment. In regard to this, the 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 107 
 
 teachings of the New Testament seem to us 
 to be quite explicit, and that the church is left 
 to select her own songs and modes of singing ; 
 yet it is worthy of note, that among the 
 Scotch Presbyterians there has been more oppo- 
 sition to the introduction of metrical hymns, 
 than there ever was in this place to the intro- 
 duction of sacred music into worship. Such 
 discussions may seem fastidious now, but it must 
 be remembered that after Popery had long made 
 void God's word by man's tradition, the spirit 
 which produced a reformation would be naturally 
 characterized by an extreme and sensitive jeal- 
 ousy touching every practice on which the seal 
 of divine authority was not clearly seen. On 
 this latter point Mr. Windsor strongly insists ir» 
 his letter to the church touching the controversy 
 before us, though the stress of his argument is 
 applied to the doctrine of laying on of hands. 
 After a series of church meetings, the whole 
 matter was decided in favor of Dr. Manning, 
 who thence became the pastor of this church, 
 while Mr. Windsor afterwards became the 
 founder of a new church in Johnston, which 
 exists to this day. 
 
 For three years Dr. Manning preached to great 
 acceptance, but without much visible success in 
 promoting the conversion of men as sinners unto 
 Christ. But in 1774, one of those wide-spread 
 
108 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 revivals of religion, with which the American 
 Church has from the first been remarkably blest, 
 pervaded the town of Providence. Its beginning 
 was obscure, but its end was glorious. At a 
 time when there seems not to have been known 
 among the congregation any instance of attention 
 to the nature and necessity of personal religion, 
 
 /\ two colored women were made the subjects of 
 renewing grace and were united to the church. 
 Soon afterwards others were awakened, and ere 
 long the truths of religion became the subjects 
 of thought and conversation in almost every 
 family. Although before that time there had 
 been a good attendance at church, yet now the 
 sanctuary was found to be by far too small. In 
 the history of this church, no event had occurred 
 
 ' since its formation, which we can contemplate 
 
 with so much pleasure. It is delightful to place 
 ourselves in imagination amidst the scenes of 
 that year, to picture before us the able and faith- 
 ful preacher who then officiated here as he stood 
 up amidst the large assemblies of the people who 
 thronged around him, listening as they did to the 
 gospel with intense attention as a message from 
 the skies, the very word of God which worketh 
 eftectually in them that believe, to mark the 
 lively interest which was kindled in every 
 bosom and beamed from every eye as one after 
 another came forth '' on the side of the Lord,'- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 109 
 
 and professed his faith in pubhc baptism — to 
 contemplate the fresh springs of spiritual life 
 which were then opened in many a house when 
 the family altar was first erected there, and 
 parents and children bowed together, to worship 
 the common Father and Redeemer in spirit 
 and in truth. The wise men and the busy men 
 of this world may deem the subjects of politics 
 and commerce more fitting themes of popular 
 thought and excitement, yet scenes like those, 
 which this town then presented, were such as 
 now awaken "joy in heaven among the angels 
 of God." 
 
 As the fruits of that revival, one hundred and 
 four persons were united to the church, a gene- 
 rous spirit was fostered in the community, and 
 fresh encouragements were furnished to those, 
 who had already projected the erection of the 
 house of worship in which we are now assembled. 
 That subject was discussed in February, 1774, 
 when, at a meeting of the society, it was re- 
 solved, " that all would heartily unite as one 
 man in all lawful ways and means to promote 
 the good of the society, and particularly attend 
 to and revive the affair of building a meeting- 
 house for the public worship of Almighty God, 
 and to hold Commencement in." It appears 
 from the records that the whole matter was 
 conducted with a high degree of unanimity, zeal, 
 10 
 
110 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and promptitude. A committee of two persons, 
 Messrs. Joseph Brown and Jonathan Hammond, 
 were immediately appointed to proceed to Bos- 
 ton, "in order to view the different churches 
 there, to make a memorandum of their several 
 dimensions and forms of architecture." A suit- 
 able lot of land was selected and bought, the 
 same month. The draught of the house was 
 made by Joseph Brown, Esq., a member of 
 the church, and Mr. Sumner, who also super- 
 intended the building. It was completed and 
 dedicated in May, 1775, on which occasion 
 Dr. Manning preached from Genesis, 28 : 17, — 
 " This is none other but the house of God, 
 and this is the gate of heaven." While we 
 contemplate with pleasure, the spiritual en- 
 largement with which this church was at that 
 time favored, we have reason to congratulate 
 ourselves that those who erected this house of 
 worship for us, have left such a memorial of 
 their religious devotion, and of taste for archi- 
 tectural beauty.* 
 
 The same year in which the foundation of 
 this building was laid, a number of persons 
 belonging to the church and congregation, ani- 
 mated with a desire to provide for the support of 
 the ministry of religion, the education of their 
 
 * See Appendix J. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Ill 
 
 children, and necessary aid to the poor, organized 
 themselves into a body politic for these purposes, 
 and were incorporated by a charter under the 
 title of the Charitable Baptist Society in the 
 town of Providence, in the colony of Rhode- 
 Island and Providence Plantations, in New- 
 England. The charter conferred no power of 
 raising money except by contribution, or sub- 
 scription ; and as the proprietors afterwards 
 agreed to pay an annual assessment on their 
 pews, to raise a regular income for repairs, the 
 powers of the society were so enlarged in 1808, 
 as to enable them to tax their property for this 
 purpose. In 1832, the powers of the society were 
 still further enlarged, so as to enable them to 
 lay assessments on the pews, for the support of 
 the ministry, and for other necessary expenses. 
 This was regarded by some as an infringement 
 on the voluntary principle, but certainly without 
 good reason, since no one was thus taxed except 
 by his own consent. 
 
 In looking back to the history of those times, 
 we cannot but regard it as a remarkable and 
 happy event, that this temple was finished and 
 the society so firmly organized, before the com- 
 mencement of the American Revolution. In 
 1776, independence was declared, and war pro- 
 claimed. In that fearful contest, Rhode-Island 
 acted an important part, and bore her share of 
 
112 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 suffering. War is generally regarded as a 
 scourge, on account of the physical evil which 
 it inflicts ; but its moral eff'ects are still more to 
 be dreaded. During that of the revolution, the 
 operations of literature and religion were para- 
 lyzed, the church was scattered and the college 
 was broken up. The young men of the former 
 were draughted for the army, and the edifice of 
 the latter was used first as barracks for our mi- 
 litia, and then as a hospital for the French army 
 under Count Rochambeau. For the space of seven 
 years Dr. Manning's collegiate exercises were 
 suspended, but he continued to discharge the 
 duties which devolved on him as pastor of the 
 church, and to these he devoted himself with 
 untiring zeal. He was admirably fitted for that 
 crisis. It was a season of great distress, many 
 families left the town, and from the records of 
 the church in 1777, we see that members of it 
 who were possessed of personal and real estate, 
 were not able to avail themselves of its benefits, 
 and were objects of commiseration. It was the 
 delight of Dr. Manning to aid the needy, and to 
 throw the sunshine of christian sympathy around 
 the path of the afliicted. His knowledge of the 
 world, his courtly manners, his christian meek- 
 ness, combined with great energy of character, 
 enabled him to move at ease with every class of 
 society, and to promote the good of all. In a 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 113 
 
 recent memoir, which forms an elegant tribute 
 to his memory by one of om* fellow-citizens, it 
 is stated, that '' he enjoyed the confidence of the 
 general commanding in this department, and in 
 one instance in particular, had all the benevolent 
 feelings of his heart gratified, even at the last mo- 
 ment, after earnest entreaty, by obtaining from 
 General Sullivan, an order of reprieve for three 
 men of the regular army, who were sentenced to 
 death by that inexorable tribunal, a Court Mar- 
 tial. The moment he obtained the order revok- 
 ing the sentence, he mounted his horse at the 
 General's door, and by pushing him to his 
 utmost speed, arrived at the place of execution 
 at the instant the last act had begun, which was 
 to precipitate them into eternity. With a voice 
 which none could disobey, he commanded the 
 execution to stay, and delivered the General's 
 order to the officer of the guard. The joy of 
 the attending crowd, seemed greater than that 
 of the subjects of mercy ; they were called so 
 suddenly to life, from the last verge of death, 
 they did not, for a moment, feel that it was a 
 reality."* 
 
 * John Howland, Esq. President of R. I. His. Soc'y ; quoted 
 by Prof. Goddard, in his late memoir of Rev. James Manning, 
 D. D. 
 
 10* 
 
114 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The pressing exigencies of that period, urged 
 Dr. Manning to obey the call of his country, in 
 accepting several important trusts in civil life. 
 On a trying occasion, there was committed to 
 him an embassy from this commonwealth to the 
 state of Connecticut, the object of which he 
 accomplished most successfully. In 1786, he 
 was appointed to represent the State of Rhode- 
 Island in the Congress of the United States, 
 where it was aptly said of him that he " held 
 the pen of a ready Avriter," and was master of 
 all the great questions before the House. In 
 1788, he attended, as a visiter, the Convention 
 which met in Boston for ratifying the Constitu- 
 tion, where, " on the last day of the session, 
 before the final question was taken, Governor 
 Hancock, the President, invited him to close 
 the solemn convocation with thanksgiving and 
 prayer. Dr. Manning, though, as Dr. Water- 
 house thinks, taken by surprise, immediately 
 dropped on his knees, and poured out his heart 
 in a strain of exalted patriotism and fervid devo- 
 tion, which awakened in the assembly a mingled 
 sentiment of admiration and awe." The impres- 
 sion which he made must have been extraordi- 
 nary, for it appears from the statement of Dr. 
 Waterhouse, who dined in a large company after 
 the adjournment, that Dr. Manning became the 
 theme of general conversation, and had not Dr. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 115 
 
 Stillman at that time been filling a very wide 
 sphere with remarkable energy and success, a 
 church would have been built in Boston for Dr. 
 Manning's acceptance.* 
 
 When the war was over, and the members 
 of the church who had been separated were 
 restored to each other, two church meetings 
 Avere held, one in Providence, the other in Paw- 
 tucket, in order to renew their solemn covenant 
 to walk together in the commands and ordinances 
 of the Lord. Mingled with the joy of peace, 
 there was a mournful recollection of that happy 
 religious progress which the war had arrested, 
 and that "bloom of possession which had faded 
 away." Amidst the general thanksgivings for 
 political quiet, the church gathered around the 
 altar of the Lord, and dedicated themselves to 
 him afresh. 
 
 When the affairs of the College began to 
 revive. Dr. Manning felt that the number of his 
 duties and his cares were too great for him. 
 On that account, in 1791, he resigned his pas- 
 toral office, and preached his farewell sermon in 
 April of that year. His relation to the church 
 had been an endearing one, and while they all 
 wept at that parting scene, they little thought 
 how soon they would be called to pay the last 
 
 * Memoir of Manning by Professor Goddard, p. 12. 
 
116 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 sad tribute of affection and friendship at his 
 tomb. Two months after that time, while 
 engaged in family worship, he fell in a fit of 
 apoplexy, in which he remained for six days, 
 almost unconscious of any thing, and then 
 expired. He was aged fiftythree years, and if, 
 like his friend. Dr. Stillman, whom he much 
 resembled in character, he had prayed that he 
 might not outlive his usefulness, that prayer 
 Avas truly fulfilled in the time and manner of 
 his death. 
 
 A glance at the character of Dr. Manning, and 
 of the eventful times in which he lived, is 
 adapted to awaken in the mind a pleasing sense 
 of that wise adaptation of means to ends, which 
 may be traced more or less in all the workings 
 of that holy Providence which led him hither, 
 to present an impressive view of the great truth 
 which Cowper felt Avhen he said, 
 
 God gives to every man 
 The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, 
 That lifts him into life, and lets him fall 
 Just in the niche he was ordained to fill. 
 
 He was born in Elizabethtown, N. J., October 
 22d, 1738, graduated at Princeton College in 
 1762, with the highest honors of his class, and 
 having preached a short time at Morristown, 
 became a resident of Rhode-Island in 1763. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 117 
 
 Here he has left many memorials of a useful life, 
 and a name that will be always fragrant. 
 
 Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D. D. was the succes- 
 sor of Dr. Manning in the ministry. A little 
 before the death of the latter, young Maxcy 
 was hcensed by the church to preach, having 
 graduated three years before, at the age of 
 nineteen years. The following year he was 
 ordained to the pastorship, and appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Divinity in the College. The next 
 year, 1792, he succeeded Dr. Manning in the 
 Presidency. Not long after, he resigned the 
 pastorship of the church, and in 1802, accepted 
 the Presidentship of Union College at Schenec- 
 tady, N. Y. He remained there only two years, 
 and then removed to Columbia, S. C, having 
 been elected President of South-Carolina Col- 
 lege. Over that institution he presided sixteen 
 years, until the time of his death, in 1820. He 
 was an accomplished scholar, an efficient in- 
 structor, and an eloquent preacher. His writings 
 breathe the spirit of a pure Christianity, and 
 indicate that he was both a sound theologian, 
 and a clear reasoner. One of the most lucid 
 exhibitions which we have ever seen of the 
 doctrine of the atonement, came from his pen, 
 and among the theological articles which the 
 discussions of his day called forth, few produc- 
 tions have done more to meet the difficulties, 
 
118 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and determine the opinions of young inquirers. 
 We come now to speak of the ministry of 
 one, whose form and features seem to be inti- 
 mately associated with this place in the recol- 
 lections of many of us, and whose very voice 
 seems still to linger around these walls. For 
 thirty six years, the Rev. Stephen Gano went in 
 and out before this people as their pastor, and 
 with a character " known and read of all men" 
 commanded the esteem of all, as a man, a christ- 
 ian and a minister. It is always pleasing to 
 speak of the life of any individual, to the very 
 community in whose midst he lived, when all 
 accord in the acknowledgment of his moral 
 worth, and are glad to do him honor ; but espe- 
 cially IS it a grateful thing to do so in the case 
 of one who was set as a teacher and guide of 
 the people, when those who knew him best 
 esteemed him most, confessed that he practised 
 what he preached, and adorned the doctrine of 
 God in all things. Such a man was Dr. GanOy 
 who though he passed the greater part of his 
 manhood in this place, from first to last main- 
 tained that beautiful consistency, that dignity 
 of life and manners, which when calmly sur- 
 veyed in retrospect, is fitted deeply to impress 
 the heart with a sense of the reality and the 
 power of religion. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 119 
 
 Mr. Gano, was born in the city of New- York, 
 December 25th, 1762. His father was the 
 Rev. John Gano, for many years pastor of the 
 First Baptist Church of that city. As his name 
 imports, he was of French extraction, being de- 
 scended from a family of Huguenots, who, with 
 many others, fled from the dominions of Charles 
 IX, after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in 
 1699. They obtained lands of the English 
 near New- York, settled a township, and called 
 it New-Rochelle, in honor of that city which 
 was the strong hold of Protestantism in their 
 father-land. 
 
 It was the intention of Mr. Gano's father, that 
 his son should pursue a collegiate course of 
 education, under the direction of his uncle. Dr. 
 Manning. But when the war of the Revolution 
 broke up the college, his attention was diverted 
 to the study of medicine, which he pursued 
 with Dr. Stites, a maternal uncle, in New- 
 Jersey. The father being a chaplain in the 
 American service, the son became connected 
 with it as a surgeon, and on the return of peace, 
 practised medicine in his native State. At that 
 time, in all his habits and associations, he was 
 far from giving any promise of ever becoming a 
 rehgious man. But in regard to that, all human 
 reasonings were baffled by the power of Him 
 who is able to save to the uttermost ; and the 
 
120 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 truth that man is saved by sovereign grace, was 
 by his own conversion so displayed to his mind, 
 as to make an impression that could never be 
 erased. 
 
 Soon after this great spiritual change, although 
 his profession opened before him a fair path to 
 wealth, his heart turned towards the christian 
 ministry. At the age of twentythree he was 
 ordained by the first Baptist church in New- 
 York. He was soon zealously employed as a 
 preacher at Hudson, in his native State, and in 
 1792, was invited by this church to preach first 
 as a candidate, and afterwards was cordially 
 received as a pastor. At that period the town 
 was just beginning to rise from its prostration 
 by the war, and the church embraced only one 
 hundred and sixtyfive members. It is pleasing 
 to observe, however, that within the sphere of 
 his influence the revival of religion was con- 
 comitant with the revival of commerce, and that 
 the early years of his ministry were brightened 
 with remarkable success. During the thirtysix 
 years of his pastorship, he was blessed with nine 
 of those auspicious seasons which we denomi- 
 nate revivals of religion, in each of which the 
 number of the church was much enlarged, and 
 the pulse of piety greatly strengthed. The first 
 of these was in 1793, and the last in 1820, when 
 the number of the church amounted to 648, of 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 121 
 
 whom 147 were baptized that year. Doubtless 
 there are many here who feel that memory loves 
 to linger around those sacred scenes, to recal 
 those happy seasons when the river side became 
 a place '' where prayer was wont to be made," 
 and when under the guidance of this venerable 
 servant of the Lord, youth, and manhood, and 
 decrepid age, hastened together, to yield them- 
 selves up to God in the appointed symbol of 
 self-consecration. Into the spirit of such occa- 
 sions Dr. Gano entered with all the energy of 
 his heart ; never did he seem to be more happy 
 and impressive, and in respect to them, few 
 ministers have had their warmest desires more 
 largely gratified. 
 
 The destitution of preachers which followed 
 the Revolutionary War was very great, and the 
 demand for the preaching of the gospel in this 
 neighborhood and commonwealth was quite 
 urgent. To this exigency, Dr. Gano was ad- 
 mirably fitted. Having an athletic frame, great 
 muscular energy, strength of voice, and much 
 interested in making excursions of a missionary 
 character, he had reason to believe that many 
 seals of his ministry were scattered over a wide 
 extent of country, and doubtless many such will 
 appear at last as stars in his crown of rejoicing. 
 With those qualities which rendered Dr. 
 Gano's preaching so acceptable to the great mass 
 
122 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of the people, who indeed " heard him gladly," 
 there was combined a sound practical judgment, 
 a power of discriminating character, and a steady 
 self-command, which rendered him weighty in 
 counsel, and a most useful member of various 
 ecclesiastical bodies. For nineteen years in 
 succession, he presided at the meetings of the 
 Warren Association, whose members felt, when 
 they first met without him, that a strange and 
 melancholy chasm had been made among them, 
 and that they had lost the aid of a beloved and 
 venerable father. The impression of his charac- 
 ter upon the younger ministry around him, was 
 indeed a most happy one ; for they saw in him 
 the rare combination of a strict integrity in 
 maintaining his own opinions, with great enlarg- 
 edness of heart regarding those who differed 
 from him. He was always courteous without 
 compromising truth, and zealous without big- 
 otry. Of the liberality w^hich arises from indif- 
 ference to religious sentiment, he knew nothing; 
 that which springs from christian love, which 
 embraces in spiritual fellowship '' all who hold 
 the Head, even Christ," he possessed an ample 
 measure. Dignified without affectation, and 
 manly without sternness, his meekness most 
 distinguished him, and his "gentleness made 
 him great." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 123 
 
 The manner of Dr. Gano's death, was quite 
 a contrast to that of his uncle and predecessor, 
 Dr. Manning. Both were ripe for heaven, but 
 the latter was called suddenly there, while the 
 former was led slowly through the dark valley. 
 The fatal sickness of the latter was passed in a 
 state of insensibility ; the former lingered many 
 days in exquisite pain. The latter could say 
 but little of the state of his mind or the prospects 
 before him ; the former could proclaim the high 
 praises of God amidst protracted agonies. His 
 disease was described by his physician. Dr. Levi 
 Wheaton, as a dropsy of the chest, and by a 
 post mortem examination, his lungs were found 
 inundated and compressed to an extraordinary 
 degree. For nearly seven months, from Jan- 
 uary 26th to August 18th, it made painful 
 progress. The following note occurs in his 
 memoranda, under date of January 27th. Had 
 a severe attack of my breast complaint last night, 
 after I had retired ; was obliged to bleed myself 
 copiously, and obtained relief. Oh, blessed God ! 
 give me an habitual preparation to meet the pale 
 messenger, whenever he comes. 
 
 During the three succeeding months, he 
 preached occasionally. His last sermon was 
 delivered on the 27th of April, from Romans 5 : 
 4, on the subject of christian experience. Twice 
 after that day he was permitted to attend the 
 
124 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 sanctuary, and then for three months more, to 
 use hite own language, wearisome days and 
 nights were appointed to him. '' But I bless 
 God," said he, "I feel perfectly willing to have 
 it just as it is. I have resigned myself into his 
 hands, knowing he will not inflict one pain too 
 much." His extraordinary fortitude seemed to 
 spring directly from his faith in God, which was 
 at all times equal to the emergency. I remember 
 well the emphasis with which a friend who 
 visited him in his sickness, and had just come 
 from his bed-side, expressed the sentiment, that 
 he had never seen such a lamb-like, unmurmur- 
 ing suiferer, amidst pains so exquisite. 
 
 During this period, his mind was sustained by 
 meditations of an elevated and cheering char- 
 acter, and he found some hours for reading a few 
 favorite books, such as Fuller's Life of Pearce, 
 and Jay's Lectures. " This" said he, " is the 
 kind of reading which my soul loves." No book 
 suited him then, which did not tend to guide 
 his mind to the cross of Christ. When visited 
 by one of his aged friends. Deacon Joseph Mar- 
 tin, an officer of the church, he said with much 
 emphasis amidst great weakness, '•' I am glad to 
 have an opportunity to express to you that the 
 doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ is my 
 support — it is the rock on which my soul rests 
 in the last hour." " Ah, Doctor," was the reply, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 125 
 
 ^' you still hold to that." '' That doctrine holds 
 me," said he, "or I should sink." 
 
 On the afternoon of Sunday, the 17th of 
 August, his mind was filled with unusual joy 
 and transport. Heaven broke upon his sight. 
 "Not a cloud," he said, " but all clear sunshine. 
 I have been trying to find a dark spot, but all is 
 bright." I feel filled with God and Christ." 
 
 Oh if my Lord would come and meet, 
 
 My soul would stretch her wings in haste, 
 
 Fly fearless through death's iron gate, 
 Nor feel the terrors as she passed. 
 
 His desire was realized on the following after- 
 noon, Monday, August 18th, 1828. On August 
 20th, a funeral discourse was delivered by Rev. 
 Dr. Sharp, of Boston, from Proverbs 10 : 7, — 
 " The memory of the just is blessed." 
 
 After the death of Dr. Gano, the church re- 
 mained more than a year and a half without a 
 pastor. They then united in a call to Rev. 
 Robert Everett Pattison, who had been Professor 
 of Mathematics at Waterville College, but was 
 at that time pastor of the second Baptist Church 
 in Salem. The invitation was accepted, and 
 he was settled March 21st, 1830. He remained 
 pastor of the church more than six years, during 
 which time the connexion between them be- 
 came increasingly happy. Under his ministry 
 IP 
 
126 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 a fresh impulse was given to the progress of 
 rehgion, and those interests of the church and 
 society which had languished during the declin- 
 ing days of Dr. Gano, and while the church 
 had been destitute of a pastor. After the arduous 
 labors of a year, he was pleased to observe a 
 renewed attention to religion gradually extend- 
 ing itself, and before he resigned his charge, he 
 had baptized two hundred and three individuals 
 into the name of Christ. 
 
 His departure from this place was rendered 
 necessary by his declining health. His resig- 
 nation of the pastoral office was accepted August 
 11, 1836. He then entered upon a new sphere 
 of duties, which he yet fills with renovated en- 
 ergy and with gratifying success. 
 
 In looking back upon the history of this church 
 from its formation to the present time, we can- 
 not but feel that we are loudly called upon to-day . 
 to bow our heads in solemn worship, before the 
 Lord, while in this temple of our solemnities, we 
 remember how great things he hath wrought for 
 us. We are assembled near the spot, where our 
 founder lifted up his voice in words of praise, that 
 he had passed through the great and terrible 
 wilderness, and had found at last the promised 
 land. Well may we catch the same notes of 
 thanksgiving, well may we cry in the words of 
 the ancient patriarch touching his once exiled 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 127 
 
 son, ''blessed of the Lord be his land, for the 
 precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for 
 the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the 
 precious things of the earth and the fullness 
 thereof, for the good-will of him that dwelt in 
 the bush, and for the blessing which came upon 
 the head of his servant, and upon the top of the 
 head of him that was separated from his breth- 
 ren." Add your testimony to his this day, that 
 God's providence is rich, his judgments deep, 
 his promises sure ; for I call you to record that 
 the hopes of that venerable pilgrim have fully 
 been realized, and not one thing hath failed of all 
 that he saw by the eye of faith. Here freedom 
 has been established, religion enshrined, perse- 
 cution condemned ; here civil order and the 
 right of private judgment have met together, 
 and thus righteousness and peace have embraced 
 each other. 
 
 It is a matter of just and special congratula- 
 tion too, that this church, is united in main- 
 taining the same great doctrines which were 
 professed on the day of its formation. Roger 
 Williams was celebrated in his day, as a preacher 
 of the very principles of evangelical religion 
 which were the distinguishing doctrines of those 
 great reformers, Luther and Calvin, and which, 
 in another century shone forth with such efful- 
 gence in the preaching of Whitefield. They 
 
128 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 have been sustained by no state patronage, they 
 have not even been embodied in a creed, but 
 subjected to free discussion, and received as the 
 doctrines of the bible, they have held their sway 
 simply by their moral power. They have en- 
 dured every trial, are still retained amongst us, 
 and loved as well as ever. Standing as she 
 does on the ground of her early faith, while the 
 very churches which once censured her freedom 
 as the prolific source of every error have gone 
 far from what they then called orthodoxy, she 
 is prepared from the experience of two centuries, 
 to urge afresh upon the whole professing church 
 of Christ, this great lesson, that whatever truth 
 may be, she needs not to be guarded by the 
 edicts of states, or the set phrase of synodical 
 articles, but would fain shine by her own pure 
 light, and be permitted to have free course that 
 she may glorify herself 
 
 While by the light of history, we look around 
 upon the present state of the world, a few facts 
 replete with meaning, connected with important 
 practical lessons, force themselves upon our 
 attention. 
 
 I. The success of the principle which was 
 embodied in the constitution of this church. 
 That principle, reduced to its simplest express- 
 ion, is, that the christian dispensation acknowl- 
 edges no tie which can unite a human being to 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 129 
 
 the visible kingdom of God on earth, except a 
 vohintary profession of faith in Christ. This 
 involves as an essential part of true Christianity, 
 the idea of religious liberty. No one can be 
 forced to a voluntary profession, to a cheerful 
 obedience. Hence results the sentiment, that 
 the magistrate has no right to interfere in the 
 affairs of conscience — Whence the disconnexion of 
 the church and the state. This too, of course, 
 excludes infant baptism from any place in the 
 present dispensation, which is adapted only to 
 intelligent, free, responsible beings. The first 
 of these necessary consequents, the first to take 
 full possession of the mind of Williams, has 
 been, the first to triumph in this country. Its 
 progress has been slow, but sure. It has 
 advanced amidst mighty strugglings. In 1638, 
 a man was fined in Massachusetts, for writing 
 against the law for the support of religion, and 
 another for reading it.* In 1656, the United 
 Colonies joined in recommending to the courts, 
 to pass laws forbidding the Q^uakers to enter 
 within their jurisdiction.! Rhode-Island refused 
 to comply, and even appealed to England for aid 
 to enable her to carry out the principles of her 
 charter. In New- York, Episcopacy was estab- 
 
 « Maes. His. Coll. 
 
 t Trumbull's History of Connecticut. 
 
130 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 lished in the four first counties, where all dis- 
 senters were obliged to pay to the established 
 clergy, except so far as the Dutch churches, by 
 virtue of an original stipulation, gained an ex- 
 emption.* 
 
 In Carolina and Georgia the support of reli- 
 gion was enforced by law,f and even in Mary- 
 land, more liberal than they, liberty was so 
 defined that some who are called christians, 
 could not hold offices of trust, J and it was 
 enacted that " Any one speaking reproachfully 
 against the Blessed Virgin or the Apostles, shall 
 be fined five pounds."^ In 1659-62-93, the 
 Assembly of Virginia, made it penal in parents, 
 to refuse to have their children baptized. 1| The 
 very year when measures were commenced for 
 the erection of this house, the Baptist Association 
 of Virginia, appointed a day of fasting, as they 
 said, '' to pray for our poor blind persecutors, 
 and for the releasement of our brethren. "H In 
 that State their desires were remarkably accom- 
 plished. Their influence as a people has been 
 
 * Dr. Styles's Discourse on Christian Union. Boston, 1761. 
 
 t Dr. Styles's Disc. 
 
 t Bancroft, I, p. 276. 
 
 §Chalmer's Pol. Ann. I, 218. 
 
 II Jefferson's Notes, p. 229. 
 
 IT Dr. Scmplc's History of the Baptists in Virginia. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 131 
 
 widely felt on this question there, and we 
 have the testimony of Washington in one of 
 his letters, that the denomination " have been 
 throughout America, uniformly and almost unan- 
 imously, the firm friends of civil liberty, and the 
 persevering promoters of our glorious revolu- 
 tion."* The same testimony has been reiterated 
 by Jefferson, who brought all the energy of his 
 mind to co-operate with them in promoting a 
 principle which was with him merely an element 
 of his political philosophy, but which was with 
 them a primary doctrine of religious belief. 
 
 It was not until 1811, that true religious lib- 
 erty began to be known in Massachusetts. 
 Before that period, all were taxed to support the 
 established order, and an association was formed 
 among the Baptists to protect their members 
 from illegal oppression. At that time, the law 
 was so modified as to allow every man to pay 
 his tax for the support of that worship which he 
 chose to attend, provided that a certificate of his 
 intention were duly filed with the town clerk. 
 For that change, the efforts of Backus, Leland,t 
 Baldwin, and others, had long been preparing 
 the way. But it was not till 1834, that the last 
 political link which united the church and the 
 
 * Benedict, II, 481. 
 
 t Benedict, II, 267, 482. 
 
132 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 State was destroyed, and every man was left free 
 to pay much or little, any thing or nothing, for 
 the support of religion. The bill to that effect 
 was passed several times in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, but was lost in the Senate, till at 
 last being referred directly to the people, it was 
 carried at the ballot-boxes by an immense ma- 
 jority. The legal support of religion was pleaded 
 for on the same ground of state necessity as 
 that of common education ; but since that day 
 religion has not declined, and no act has been 
 more popular than the increase of the tax for 
 secular education. It has been lately said by 
 one of her most gifted sons, " Massachusetts may 
 blush, that the Catholic colony of Lord Balti- 
 more, and the (Quaker, the blameless (Quaker 
 Colony of Penn, were originally founded on the 
 principles of christian right, long before she felt 
 or acknowledged them."* 
 
 We have remarked, that from the great prin- 
 ciple which distinguishes us as a people, namely, 
 that a voluntary profession of faith is the only 
 tie which can rightfully connect a human being 
 with Christ's visible kingdom, it follows that 
 infant baptism has no place under the Christian 
 dispensation. As we understand it, coming as 
 it is said in the place of circumcision, it is a part 
 
 * Judge Story's Centennial Address, p. 57. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 133 
 
 of Judaism and not of Christianity. In connex- 
 ion with the spread of rehgious hberty, we may 
 well marvel that this other doctrine is now so 
 widely extended ; that though opposed at first 
 by wisdom, learning, and power, it now num- 
 bers a larger body of supporters than any one of 
 the denominations opposed to it.''^ This is 
 indeed no proof of its truth ; but the fact of its 
 success in this country, shows its adaptation to 
 take hold of the popular mind, and to win its 
 way by merely moral force to universal respect, 
 and a general reception. By its own inward 
 energy, only, would we wish it to succeed ; God 
 forbid that it should ever gain wide conquests 
 in any other way. What it has done, however, 
 shows it to possess great moral strength, and 
 makes it worthy of the study of every inquiring 
 mind. This will lead us to consider, 
 
 II. What are the chief elements of its power ? 
 Where lies the secret of its success ? We an- 
 swer : First, In its simplicity.— It is easily under- 
 stood, very plain, as well as exceedingly obvious. 
 It is not necessarily the result of long theological 
 -or philosophical reasonings, but meets the eye 
 of the inquirer on the very surface of the New 
 Testament. Those, therefore, who have not 
 
 * American Almanac, 1839. 
 
 12 
 
134 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 yielded fully to it, have felt themselves pressed 
 with many difficulties. — Secondly, In its har- 
 mony with a christian's first convictions of the 
 spirituality of religion. When a man first feels 
 that the kingdom of God is within him, that 
 voluntary faith is the only bond which can 
 connect him with Christ's invisible kingdom, 
 then the doctrine that a voluntary profession of 
 faith is the only tie which can unite him with 
 the outward church, strikes in with the deepest 
 emotions of his soul. His heart responds to the 
 truth, that in regard to his outward as well as 
 his inward relations to christiemity, '' old things 
 have passed away, and all things have become 
 new." Thirdly, In the extent and importance 
 of its bearings. — It is at once seen to produce 
 the most far-reaching consequences. The prin- 
 ciple that personal faith is the only bond of 
 union with the church, involves the idea of the 
 spiritual nature of Christianity, the voluntary 
 character of the christian dispensation, and 
 destroys the possibility of religious persecution. 
 How can persecution exist where this principle 
 gains sway ? There is no point on which out- 
 ward force can operate ; it hath no object at 
 which to aim. Men must of necessity be left 
 to themselves, in order that they may freely 
 *' choose whom they will serve." It strikes an 
 effective blow at all church-estabhshments, at 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 135 
 
 all state-patronage of religion. It produces reli- 
 gious liberty, not on the ground of expediency, 
 but demands it as a necessary condition of the 
 progress of true Christianity. It stands forth in 
 direct contrast to that theor^r of church constitu- 
 tion, defended ably by that great writer who is 
 well designated, " the judicious Hooker." '' We 
 hold," says he, " that seeing there is not any 
 man of the Church of England, but the same 
 man is also a member of the commonwealth, 
 nor any member of the commonwealth who is 
 not also of the Church of England ; therefore, 
 as in a figure triangle, the base doth diifer from 
 the sides thereof, and yet one and the selfsame 
 line is both a base and also a side — a side simply, 
 a base if it chance to be the bottom and underlie 
 the rest ; so, albeit properties and actions of one 
 do cause the name of a commonwealth, qualities 
 and functions of another sort, the name of a 
 church to be given to a multitude, yet one and 
 the selfsame multitude may in such sort be both. 
 Nay, it is so with us, that no one pertaining to 
 the one can be denied also of the other." '' Our 
 state is, according to the pattern of God's own 
 elect people ; which was not part of them, the 
 church of God ; but the selfsame people, whole 
 and entire, were both under one chief Governor, 
 on whose supreme authority they did all de- 
 pend." If Psedo-Baptism would fairly maintain 
 
136 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the relative position which once belonged to the 
 rite of circumcisionj it must acknowledge this 
 representation of the ecclesiastical polity to be 
 just and true. 
 
 Now the great principle of the Baptists derives 
 its power, from its standing forth in its simplic- 
 ity, clearness and integrity, as the antagonist 
 of this and every theory from which church 
 establishments arise. It declares at the outset, 
 that no human being can be born into the 
 christian church, or be baptized into it except 
 on a voluntary profession of faith. Thence, it 
 asserts that no creed can be enforced by law. 
 that the magistrate has no right whatever to 
 interfere in matters purely spiritual. In regard 
 to this point, the Baptists have uniformly in 
 ages past, taken higher ground than any sect of 
 Protestants. The latter in their plea for religious 
 liberty, have generally been content to ask or 
 demand toleration ; the former have declared it 
 to be a violation of the spirit of Christianity for 
 any human power to assume the right to tolerate. 
 The latter have shown in practice, that a church 
 establishment may be rendered compatible with 
 their systems ; the former have proved that theii- 
 fundamental principle is the set antagonist of an 
 established religion. The latter coming out 
 from the bosom of the Romish Church, protested 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 137 
 
 against her corruptions of doctrine, not against 
 her union with the state ; the former spoke of 
 her as anti-christian on account of that one fea- 
 ture. The former and the latter hold many 
 sentiments of vital worth in common, sufficient 
 to form the basis of a true spiritual fellowship ; 
 but in regard to the outward constitution of the 
 church, the latter retain, as we think, an element 
 of Judaism, with which the creed of the former 
 can never coalesce. 
 
 And while we lament that this difference yet 
 exists, we feel bound to adhere to it from a 
 sense of duty to God, from loyalty to truth, and 
 for the welfare of the world. Yes, we say for 
 the welfare of the world ; for we believe that 
 the element of power which has been so much 
 dreaded on the continent of Europe, under the 
 name of Anabaptism, is the very thing which is 
 needed for the reformation of Christendom. 
 The evils which exist in the Protestant churches 
 of the continent, the moral torpor, the cold 
 formality, the persecuting spirit, arise mainly 
 from the establishment of a state-religion, from 
 the prevalent idea, as Locke expresses it, '' that 
 a man can inherit his religion as he does his 
 lands." Alas ! how little is gained in such a 
 case by the battle of mitre against mitre, of 
 one hierarchy against another, of the triumph of 
 12* 
 
138 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 protestantism over catholicity ! Within the pale 
 of either, doubtless, there are pious persons, 
 who, amidst the rubbish of the creeds, cull out 
 the essential elements of the christian faith, 
 practise them in their life, and find their way to 
 heaven. But the tendency of that order of things 
 under which they live, is to lead the great mass 
 to substitute the outward service of Christianity 
 for its inward spirit, the form for the power, the 
 sign for the thing signified. Some simple pow- 
 erful principle is needed, which can be easily 
 apprehended by the multitude, and in its work- 
 ing heave from its very base this mighty fabric 
 of secular corruption. Such is the principle 
 of which we speak, which we believe will 
 be in God's hand as "a new sharp thresh- 
 ing instrument, having teeth, to thresh the 
 mountains, and beat them small, and make 
 the hills as chaff." All ages have proved its 
 power. It glowed in the heart of Arnold of 
 Brescia, when by his words all Rome was in- 
 spired to rise and dethrone the Pope. It reigned 
 in the bosoms of the Waldenses, when they 
 were anathematized by the priesthood, harassed 
 by inquisitors, driven from their homes amidst 
 the snows of winter, scattered through Bohemia, 
 Poland, Lithuania, Provence, the caverns of the 
 neighboring Alps, and yet remained faithful unto 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 139 
 
 death. It quickened the spirit of Milton, when 
 he cried — 
 
 Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 
 
 Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
 Forget not ; in thy book record their groans 
 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
 Mother and infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
 
 O'er all tli' Italian fields where still doth sway 
 A triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
 
 A hundred fold, who having learned thy way, 
 Early may fly the Babylonian wo I 
 
 It kindled in his heart a pure devotion, when, 
 having returned from Italy to take part in the 
 contest for freedom at home, he breathed his 
 prayer to Heaven, saying, " Thou, therefore, 
 that sitst in light and glory unapproachable, 
 Parent of angels and men ! next, Thee I im- 
 plore Omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost 
 remnant, whose nature thou didst assume ; inef- 
 fable and everlasting Love ! And thou, the 
 third subsistence of divine Infinitude, Illumi- 
 nating Spirit, the joy and solace of created 
 things. One tri-personal Godhead, look upon 
 this thy poor and almost spent and expiring 
 church, leave her not thus a prey to these im- 
 portunate wolves that wait and think long till 
 
140 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 they devour thy tender flock, these wild boars 
 that have broke into thy vineyard, and left the 
 print of their polluting hoofs on the souls of thy 
 servants ! O let them not bring about their 
 damned designs that stand now at the entrance 
 of the bottomless pit, expecting the watchword, 
 to open and let out those dreadful locusts and 
 scorpions, to reinvolve ns in that pitchy cloud 
 of infernal darkness, where we shall never more 
 see the sun of thy truth again, never hope for the 
 cheerful dawn, nor hear the bird of morning 
 sing !"* We believe it is a principle which will 
 be caught by other mighty minds, and diffuse its 
 inspiring energy through coming generations, 
 till at last the church shall stand forth in the 
 beauty of her pristine independence, and though 
 our outward order may not be uniformly ob- 
 served, the victories of a spiritual and apostolic 
 Christianity shall be hailed and celebrated 
 through the nations, on whom the sun of right- 
 eousness will then have arisen with healing in 
 his beams. 
 
 III. Although I have occupied so much time 
 in looking back upon the annals of the past, yet 
 I cannot forbear ere I close, to call upon you, in 
 view of the lessons of history and our position 
 
 * Milton's prose works, p. 933. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 141 
 
 in the world, to feel the necessity of our cultiva- 
 ting as a people the elements offuttire progress. 
 It would be ruinous to any community to count 
 themselves already to have attained, or to be 
 already perfect. The spiritual nature of Christ- 
 ianity and the possession of liberty, urge us alike 
 to put forth all our moral might in doing good, 
 promoting virtue, in exemplifying and extending 
 the influence of pure religion. Liberty is a 
 sacred trust, a gift of heaven, and he who has it, 
 may well '' rejoice with trembling," lest he prove 
 unfaithful to it. Liberty is only a means of 
 good ; spiritual progress is the end to which it 
 stands properly related, and he who loses sight 
 of this connexion, may err as fatally in idolizing 
 liberty as others have erred in idolizing uniform- 
 ity. Liberty only removes the burdens with 
 which the human spirit has been heavy laden, 
 and gives all the powers of the mind and the 
 affections of the heart free play ; it does not hold 
 forth the grand and ultimate object of exertion. 
 This, Christianity holds forth, Avhen she bids us 
 labor to promote the good of mankind, the true 
 dignity of the church, and the honor of him who 
 hath called us to glory and virtue. 
 
 In '' reaching forth to things which are before,' ' 
 we are loudly called upon by the signs of the 
 times Avhich utter the voice of Providence, to be 
 zealous in the diffusion of light and knowledge 
 
142 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 among ourselves and around us. To set a high 
 standard of secular and christian education for 
 our youth, and to furnish every facihty to our 
 rising ministers for the cultivation of knowledge, 
 should be considered not only as a wise policy, 
 but an imperative duty. To the first object, 
 the whole public are becoming more and more 
 alive ; the second demands of us a more con- 
 centrated attention. In pursuing it, the conduct 
 of our ancestors in England, may shed light 
 upon our way. As soon as sufficient liberty 
 was allowed them for open and efficient organi- 
 zation, a Baptist convention in London, called 
 upon all the churches to raise a general fund for 
 a twofold purpose ; first, to aid poor churches, 
 and secondly, " to assist those v/ho may be dis- 
 posed for study, have an inviting gift, and are 
 sound in fundamentals, in attaining to the 
 knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
 languages." As early as 1689, measures were 
 taken to carry this design into effect, and while 
 we rejoice to see that from their deep poverty 
 " the riches of their liberality abounded," Ave 
 would fain open our eyes and hearts to the 
 influence of such an example. 
 
 It becomes us too, to cherish in a higher 
 degree than ever, the missionary spirit. As it 
 exists in a free and enlightened mind, it is 
 another name for christian philanthropy. It 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 143 
 
 was the glory of the first age of Christianity, and 
 1 trust that in future times, it will appear to 
 have been the glory of the present century. In 
 ages past, establishments of religion have tended 
 to destroy it, not only because they corrupted 
 the church, but because, from its very nature, 
 an established church is anti-7nissionary. Where 
 a state directs ecclesiastical affairs, its relation 
 to other states, forbids much agency in the 
 spread of religion, because religion then assumes 
 a national and political aspect. However pure 
 may be the faith of the church, and however 
 desirous she may be to extend it, she is crippled 
 by such a connexion. After this country became 
 independent of England, the English Church 
 could not even consecrate bishops for America, 
 until an act of Parliament had given her liberty 
 to do so. Thence, Dr. Provost and Dr. White, 
 went over to England, '' and on the 4th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1787, were consecrated according to an 
 act of Parliament^ by Dr. Moore, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury.* Since that day, the Episcopal 
 church in this land has become, as a church, 
 devoted to the cause of missions, and appears in 
 a new and noble attitude, which she could never 
 have assumed had not the formal bond between 
 her and the church of England been broken. 
 
 •Caswell's America and the American Church. 
 
144 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 In no period since the times of the apostles, 
 have christians been urged by stronger motives 
 to engage in the work of missions, than are those 
 of the present day. What numerous doors are 
 open ! what facihties are furnished for spreading 
 knowledge ! what means of multiplying power ! 
 what wide and inviting fields are ready for the 
 harvest ! and what a remarkable combination of 
 events, have roused our church at large, to en- 
 gage in the enterprise ! In the year 1807, a young 
 man left the University of this city, professedly 
 a Deist. Having been induced to commence a 
 resolute examination of the evidences of Christ- 
 ianity, his conversion was the consequence. 
 Longing then to spread the gospel in some Pagan 
 land, he sailed for India on his heavenly errand. 
 While on his way, being earnestly engaged in 
 studying the bible, prayerfully and anew, in 
 order to ascertain the will of God, as to the 
 proper mode of building up the church on heathen 
 ground, he was led to embrace our doctrines 
 touching the constitution of the church. He 
 then appealed to us for co-operation. The 
 church heard the call, concerted measures for 
 his support, and sent him many helpers. Since 
 then she has lifted up her eyes, looked upon the 
 world as the field of her labor, and is seeking to 
 send broadcast over it the good seed of the 
 word. Mr. Judson, our first missionary, still 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 145 
 
 lives, surroiTiided with many converts and fel- 
 low-workers, and our Board of Missions have 
 now under their care, 66 stations. Of these 15 
 are among the Indian tribes of America, 16 in 
 Europe, 2 in Africa, and 33 in Asia. These 
 embrace 45 churches containing 2000 members, 
 68 schools containing 1500 pupils, and there are 
 connected with them 106 missionaries and as- 
 sistants, 43 of whom are preachers. 
 
 Important, however, as is missionary zeal 
 springing from love to truth and goodness, we 
 are called upon by the voice of the Divine 
 Spirit, the voice of his word, and the voice of the 
 universal church, to cherish in connexion with 
 it, an enlarged and cordial spirit of christian 
 union. It is not a documentary union of sects 
 of which we speak, which in the present state 
 of the world is not practicable, and which if it 
 were, would accomphsh but little good. It is 
 not any visible fellowship produced by laying 
 our scruples of conscience as a sacrifice on the 
 altar of uniformity. It is a union of spirit ; that 
 which Jesus desired that his followers might so 
 exhibit as to make an impression on the world 
 of the holy power of his religion ; that which 
 he inculcated when he rebuked his disciples for 
 opposing one, who did good in his name with- 
 out being united to their visible association. 
 Notwithstanding the collisions of ecclesiastical 
 13 
 
146 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 bodies, many signs indicate that the hearts of 
 christians at large, are throbbing with desire for 
 a hoher and firmer union than has heretofore 
 existed. It is breathed more often from the 
 hps of prayer, it is uttered from the pulpit, pro- 
 claimed by the press, and now and then devel- 
 oped in some new " plan of union. " It is an 
 auspicious omen. It is a mark of progress. It 
 is a natural result of the freedom of religion. 
 It might justly be expected, where truth " is not 
 bound,'* where discussion has full scope, that in 
 process of time there would be diffused among 
 christians a more accurate knowledge of each 
 other's position, and that thence there would be 
 awakened a deeper sense of those inward affin- 
 ities which are far stronger bonds than any out- 
 ward formularies. For ourselves we have no 
 new plan of union to propose. We believe in 
 none. But we have firm faith in the workings 
 of a free Christianity to produce that enlarged- 
 ness of heart, that regard for the right of private 
 judgment, that respect for mental independence, 
 that candor, courtesy, and love of truth, from 
 which a real and enduring union will arise. 
 We cannot legislate it into being. Only let us 
 as christians develope in action the principles 
 that are common to us, tliink more of our points^ 
 of agreement than of difference, respect each 
 other's liberty, declare our opinions franldy and 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 147 
 
 fraternally, and '• as far as we have attained 
 walk by the same rule and mind the same 
 thing," and then will the Saviour's prayer for 
 the oneness of the faithful already have been 
 fulfilled in us, and the elements of a union will 
 have begun to germinate which will expand 
 into a more beauteous bloom, and ripen into 
 richer harvests of enduring fruit, in proportion 
 to the increase of light, the progress of society, 
 and the advance of a christian civilization. 
 
 Full as we are of hope for the future, confi- 
 dent that goodness rules the universe, that the 
 Almighty is carrying forward a profound plan to 
 a glorious issue, which shall make known even 
 in heavenly places his manifold wisdom, it is a 
 natural wish that we could live to see the effects 
 of various causes now at work, on the destinies 
 of men. At such a moment we are touched 
 with a fresh and vivid sense of the shortness of 
 life. How brief the space allotted to us here ! 
 Yet the wish to live, though it spring from an 
 interest in the fortunes of our race, pertains to 
 the weakness and the childhood of our nature, 
 not to its manly wisdom. The religion of Christ 
 discloses to us higher relations and brighter 
 scenes than those which engage us now, in 
 which, however, our sympathies with mankind 
 shall not cease. We are following fast in the 
 track of departed generations. Our destinies 
 
148 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 will soon be linked with those, whose names we 
 have celebrated, whose actions we have praised 
 or censnred, and who are now reaping the 
 results of those elements of weal or wo, which 
 were here at work in the formation of their 
 character. The thought is apt to cast over the 
 soul a shade of melancholy, which, however, 
 prepares it to feel the truth, that it should be 
 our great care on earth to leave some substantial 
 proof that we have not lived in vain, that thus 
 each of us, here and hereafter, 
 
 " An angel's happiness may know ; 
 May bless the earth while in the world above. 
 The good begun by us shall onward flow, 
 In many a branching stream, and wider grow." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. — Page 47. 
 
 Baillie's letters furnish ample proof of the aversion 
 which the Presbyterian party cherished against a tol- 
 eration of other sects. Speaking as one of the West- 
 minster Assembly, he says, " we have begun a business 
 of great consequence. In the time of this anarchy, the 
 divisions of the people do much increase ; the Inde- 
 pendent party grows, but the Anabaptists more." " A 
 mighty faction is arisen to prefer liberty of conscience 
 for all sects." He (John Godwin) is a bitter enemy 
 to Presbytery, and is openly for a full liberty of con- 
 science to all sects, even Turks, Jews, Papists. This 
 way is very pleasant to many men. That faction 
 increases mightily in number, hopes, and pride ; but if 
 it pleases God to give us good news from York, we will 
 tell them more of our minds." — [Letters II, 14-15.] 
 
 " Our next work is, to give our advice what to do 
 for suppressing of Anabaptists, Antinomians, and other 
 sectaries. This will be hard work ; yet so much as 
 concerns us, will be quickly despatched ; I hope in one 
 session." — [11, 55.] 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note B.— Page 47. 
 
 John Tombes, B. D., was one of the most learned 
 theologians and eloquent preachers of England in the 
 seventeenth century. He was born at Bewdly, in 
 Worcestershire, in 1603, was educated at Oxford, and 
 when only twentyone years of age, was appointed Cat- 
 echetical Lecturer at Magdalen Hall. He continued 
 to be employed at the University about seven years, 
 and then was settled in the parish of Lemster. First 
 amongst those who sought a reformation of the church, 
 he preached a sermon on that subject, which was print- 
 ed by an order of the House of Commons. On this 
 account much opposition was excited against him, so 
 that when the civil war commenced, some of the king's 
 forces coming into his neighborhood, he was driven 
 from his home and plundered of all his property. 
 
 He fled to Bristol, and was well received. Through 
 the kindness of General Fiennes, who commanded 
 there, he became minister of the parish of All-Saints, 
 in that city. But in 1643, Bristol having been taken 
 by the king's party, Mr. Tombes was again driven 
 from his home, and with difficulty escaped to London. 
 
 While residing in London, his sentiments on the sub- 
 ject of baptism became fully matured. He had com- 
 menced the investigation of the subject at Oxford, and 
 there became satisfied that every passage of scripture 
 quoted in favor of infant baptism is invalid, except one. 
 That one was, I. Cor. 7 : 14. "For the unbelieving 
 husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving 
 wife is sanctified by the husband ; else were your 
 children unclean ; but now are they holy." But after 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 reasoning with one of the Baptists at Bristol, and read- 
 ing the comments of Camerarins, Musculus, Melanc- 
 thon, and Beza, on the passage, he gave it up entirely. 
 
 He then called together several of the London min- 
 isters, told them of his difficulties, and asked them if 
 they could help him. The question he proposed, was, 
 " what scripture is there for infant baptism ?" He 
 received no satisfactory answer. 
 
 When the Westminster assembly of divines met in 
 London, for the avowed purpose of reforming religion 
 in England and Scotland, Mr. Tombes was informed 
 by one of them, that a committee had been appointed 
 to consider the subject of infant baptism. He immedi- 
 ately drew up in Latin his reasons for doubting of the 
 lawfulness of that practice, and sent them to Mr. Whit- 
 aker, the chairman of the committee, expressing the 
 wish that they would either remove his objections, or 
 extend their reform to that ordinance. They did nei- 
 ther of these, but in the end, passed a vote censuring 
 those who should deny baptism to infants, or dispute 
 on that subject. 
 
 About four years after that, he published his treatise 
 against infant baptism, and his examen of Mr. Marshal's 
 sermon, in both of which he exhibited extensive learn- 
 ing and diligent research. 
 
 At length the people of Bewdly, his native town, 
 called him to be their minister. While there, he con- 
 tinued to discuss the subject of infant baptism, and 
 seeing at last no prospect of a reformation in the estab- 
 lished church on this point, he was baptized on a pro- 
 fession of his faith, and gathered a separate church, 
 although he continued to occupy the parish pulpit. 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 While residing at Bevvdly, he had a public discus- 
 sion with Baxter, on the subject of baptism, in relation 
 to which it is said by Anthony Wood, (in his Athense 
 Oxonienses, being " an exact account of all the writers 
 and bishops who have had their education at the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford from the year 1500 to 1600,") "that 
 all scholars there and present, who knew the way of 
 disputing and managing arguments, did conclude that 
 Tombes got the better of Baxter by far."* 
 
 Mr. Tombes was a powerful writer. Several of his 
 sermons adapted to the times, were printed by order 
 of Parliament. He enjoyed the esteem of Bishop 
 Sanderson and also of Bishop Barlow. Dr. Calamy, 
 in his Life of Baxter, speaking of Mr. Tombes, says 
 of him, " Vv^hom all the world must own to have been 
 a very considerable man and an excellent scholar, 
 how disinclined soever they may be to his particular 
 opinions." The catalogue of his works contains the 
 titles of twentyeight volumes. Having heard that the 
 Baptists were persecuted in Massachusetts, he sent his 
 examen of Marshall's sermon to the ministers, with the 
 following letter : 
 
 To all the Elders of the Churches of Christ in New- 
 England, to the Pcistor and Teacher of the Church 
 of God at Boston, there, present. 
 Reverend Brethren, 
 
 Understanding that there is some disquiet in your 
 churches about Pa^dobaptism, and being moved by 
 some that honor you much in the Lord, and desire 
 
 * Alhen. Oxon. vol. Ill, p. 1063 — quoted in Orme's Life of 
 Baxter, II, p. 248. 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 your comfortable account at the day of Christ, that I 
 would yield that a copy of my examen of Master Mar- 
 shall his sermon of infant baptism might be transcribed 
 to be sent to you ; I have consented thereto, and do 
 commend it to your examination, in like manner, as 
 you may perceive by the reading of it, I did to Master 
 Marshall. Not doubting but that you will, as in God's 
 presence, and accountable to Christ Jesus weigh the 
 thing; remembering that [saying] of our Lord Christ, 
 John 7 : 24, Judge not according to appearance, hut 
 judge righteous judgment. To the blessing of him who 
 is your God and our God, your judge and our judge, I 
 leave you and the flock of God over which the Holy 
 Ghost hath made you overseers, and rest 
 
 Your brother and fellow-servant 
 
 in the work of Christ, 
 
 JOHN TOMBES. 
 From my study at the Temple, in London, May 
 25th, 1645. 
 
 The manuscript referred to in this letter, is in the 
 Antiquarian Library at Worcester. 
 
 Henry Jesse y, M. A., was a native of Yorkshire, 
 the son of a clergyman of the Church of England, and 
 early became a student of St. John's College, Cam- 
 bridge. When tvventyone years of age, while at the 
 University, he became a decided christian, and then 
 began to direct his studies with reference to the minis- 
 try. In 1627, he received episcopal ordination, and 
 in 1633, became Rector of Aughton, in Yorkshire. 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the course of a year, however, he was removed from 
 his parish, for refusing to practise all the cerenrionicvS 
 enjoined by the Rubric and Canons, and for presuming 
 to remove a crucifix which had been set up there. 
 
 In 1635, he visited London, in company with his 
 friend and patron. Sir Matthew Bointon, and being 
 highly esteemed as a preacher, was invited by a con- 
 gregational church to become their pastor. He 
 accepted their invitation in 1637, and labored among 
 them successfully. It appeared however that from 
 year to year, larger and larger numbers of his church 
 were adopting the sentiments of the Baptists, and join- 
 ing that denomination. Many of them being persons 
 of note, the subject of baptism engaged his attention. 
 A fresh study of the scriptures and of antiquity, led 
 him to change his views of the mode ; and he thence 
 proceeded to practise immersion only, although he 
 applied it to infants. The reasons which he assigned 
 to his church for this change, were, 1st, the original 
 meaning of the term rendered baptism ; 2d, the exam, 
 pies of baptism in the scriptures ; 3d, the spiritual 
 mysteries of which the rite is an emblem, namely, the 
 death and resurrection of Christ, our own death to sin, 
 and rising to newness of life. It was not till 1644, 
 that he became convinced that there was no warrant 
 in the scriptures for applying the rile to infants, and 
 then he was baptized on a profession of his faith, by 
 Rev. Hansard Knollys. 
 
 Being well versed in the Greek and Hebrew lan- 
 guages, the Syriac and Chaldee dialects,, and a devoted 
 student of the Bible, he meditated a new translation of 
 the Old and New Testaments. By his correspondence. 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 he engaged Mr. Row, Hebrew Professor at Aberdeen, 
 and other literary men in this undertaking. They 
 advanced far in their design, but the turn given to pub- 
 lic affairs both in church and state, by the restoration, 
 defeated all their purposes. 
 
 Mr. Jessey was distinguished in his day for his inter- 
 est in the welfare of the Jews. When intelligence 
 reached England, that those of them who were living 
 at Jerusalem, had been reduced to a state of extreme 
 suffering, he exerted himself in their behalf, and in a 
 short time three hundred pounds sterling were collected 
 and sent to them. In 1650, when the Jews were per- 
 mitted to return and trade in England as formerly, he 
 wrote a treatise on the Messiah, addressed to them, 
 which was highly commended by a number of the 
 assembly of divines, and was prepared in Hebrew for 
 dispersion amongst the Jews of all nations. 
 
 Distinguished for his piety, industry and learning, 
 Mr. Jessey commanded universal esteem. He was 
 for the most part free from persecution, until the res- 
 toration, when he was committed to prison for non- 
 conformity, and died there in the triumphs of faith, on 
 the 4th of September, 1663, in the sixtythird year of 
 his age. His life was published in 1671, and from it 
 Crosby has drawn the materials of the ample sketch 
 which we find in his pages. 
 
 Daniel Dyke, was born at Epping, in Essex, in the 
 
 year 1617. He was the son of a clergyman of the 
 
 Church of England, was educated at Cambridge, and 
 
 became rector of Great Haddam, in Hertfordshire. 
 
 14 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 When Cromwell came to be Lord Protector, Dyke 
 was appointed one of his chaplains in ordinary, and in 
 1653, when examiners were appointed by government 
 to try such as should be admitted to livings in the estab- 
 lished church, he was chosen to be one of them. 
 Not long after he left his rectorship in the established 
 church, he became minister of the Baptist church in 
 Devonshire Square, London, where he labored until 
 his death, in 1688. 
 
 John Gosnold was a minister of the Church of 
 England, and was ejected by the act of uniformity. 
 He united with the Baptists on the ground of their 
 conformity to the Scriptures in the constitution of the 
 church. He thought that he saw in the Bible no more 
 authority for infant baptism, than for the other ceremo- 
 nies which are sanctioned by tradition and the authority 
 of councils. He became pastor of a church in London, 
 and notwithstanding the change in his sentiments, he 
 continued to be intimate with many men of high stand- 
 ing in the establishment. Dr. Tillotson, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, used to attend his week-day 
 lecture. Dr. Calamy says of him, " He was bred in 
 the Charter-house School, and in Pembroke Hall, 
 Cambridge ; and was afterwards Chaplain to Lord 
 Grey. He was against infant baptism. He was 
 deprived of his liberty of preaching, and forced to hide, 
 though he was always peaceably minded, and never 
 gave any disturbance to the government." He died 
 in the year 1678, in the sixtythird year of his age, and 
 was interred at the burying ground near Bunhillfields, 
 where a tombstone was erected to his memory. 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 Hansard Knollys was a native of Chalkwell, in 
 Lincolnshire, was well educated at home, and gradu- 
 ated at the University of Cambridge. He became 
 pious while at the University, and after he left it, was 
 master of the free school at Gainsborough. He was 
 ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough, first a deacon, 
 then a presbyter of the church of England, and after- 
 wards received the living of Humberton from the 
 Bishop of Lincoln. He had not possessed it more than 
 three years, before he began to feel scruples of con- 
 science touching the usages of the church, such as the 
 sign of the cross in baptism, the surplice, and the ad- 
 mission of men promiscuously to the Lord's Supper. 
 He thence resigned his living, yet preached in different 
 parishes, with the connivance of the bishop, whose 
 personal feelings toward him seem to have been friendly. 
 He afterwards joined the Baptists, and preached with 
 great success in London, It appears that he was much 
 strengthened in his change of opinion, by finding that 
 inasmuch as while preaching in the establishment his 
 labors were not the means of converting any one, yet 
 " when he set out upon another foundation, and expe- 
 rienced more of God's teaching and assistance in the 
 work, he quickly found to his comfort, that from thence- 
 forward he continued to receive many seals of his 
 ministry." He appears to have been a man of fin© 
 scholarship, and having been forced to fly to New-Eng- 
 land to escape the persecution of the high commission 
 court, is honorably mentioned by Cotton Mather among 
 those " whose names deserve to live in our books for 
 their piety." 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 Henry Denne was a graduate of the University of 
 Cambridge, received orders from the Bishop of St. 
 David's, in the year 1630, and was settled in the parish 
 of Pynton, in Hertfordshire. At a visitation held in 
 his county in 1661, he was appointed to preach the 
 sermon to the clergy and gentry. With a heart set 
 on the reformation of the church, he exposed the exist- 
 ing abuses with a fearless and powerful eloquence. 
 Much excitement followed that occasion, and it seemed 
 at that time, that Mr. Denne would have been satisfied 
 with the established church, if conformity to the papal 
 ceremonies were not enforced. But when in the 
 change of times, the government avowed the intention 
 to reform religion, Mr. Denne devoted himself more 
 closely to the study of the scriptures, in order to aid in 
 that great work. By this means he became convinced 
 that infant baptism has no warrant in the bible, and 
 following out his conviction, was baptized on a profes- 
 sion of his faith, in 1643, and joined the church which 
 was then under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Lamb. 
 He afterwards suffered much, but was faithful unto 
 death. He possessed great force of character, mani- 
 fested an enlightened and warm attachment to his 
 opinions, and did much to promote them by public dis- 
 cussion. His writings breathe a christian spirit, and 
 do honor both to his intellect and his heart. 
 
 William Collins was copastor of a Baptist church 
 in London, in connexion with Dr. Nehemiah Coxe. 
 After obtaining the esteem of Busby, young Collins 
 travelled in France and Italy, and on returning to his 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 own country, rejected every offer that was made to 
 induce him to johi the establishment, " for it was con- 
 science not humor that made him a dissenter." In his 
 funeral sermon which was printed in London in 1702, 
 it is said, that having set apart a day for fasting and 
 prayer, in order to seek divine direction as to the dis- 
 posal of himself in the exercise of his ministry, on that 
 very evening he received an invitation to settle as a 
 pastor, from a church which met in that part of Lon- 
 don called Petty France. The coincidence made a 
 favorable impression on his mind, and a connexion was 
 formed which continued until his death. 
 
 Carolus Maria De Veil, D. D. was a native of 
 France. He was born of Jewish parents, and edu- 
 cated in the Jewish religion. By the study of the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament, compared with the 
 statements of the Evangelists, he became convinced of 
 the Messiahship of Jesus, and professed himself a 
 christian. The announcement of this so enraged his 
 father, that with a drawn sword he attempted to kill 
 him, but was prevented by some who were present. 
 De Veil joined the Roman Catholics, was celebrated 
 among them as a preacher, and was made Doctor of 
 Divinity in the University of Anjou. 
 
 In 1672, he published his Commentary on the Gos- 
 pels, and from the learning he there exhibited, he was 
 appointed to aid in writing against the Huguenots, the 
 chief opponents of the Romish Church in France. 
 Being thus led to study the Protestant controversy, he 
 was convinced of his error and became a Protest- 
 14* 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 ant himself. Threatened with persecution, he fled to 
 Holland, and thence crossed to England, where he 
 became intimate with the most eminent men of the 
 church of England, such as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and 
 Compton, Bishop of London. 
 
 In 1678, he published a new edition of his Commen- 
 tary, and corrected the popish errors with which it 
 abounded. Being urged to prosecute his literary 
 labors, the Bishop of London gave him free access to 
 his library. There he met with some writings of the 
 English Baptists, and was struck with the fact that they 
 so clearly developed the true Protestant principles. 
 In the Bishop's family there was a young woman who 
 was much ridiculed by the other domestics for being a 
 Baptist. By means of her, however, he obtained an 
 interview with Rev. Hansard Knollys, at the house of 
 a nobleman near at hand, where Mr. Knollys used to 
 visit. Afterwards he became acquainted with Gos- 
 nold, and united with the Baptists under his ministry. 
 It is said that on this account he lost most of his former 
 employments, and most of his old friends, except Dr. 
 Tillotson, who was distinguished for a noble magnan- 
 imity of mind, which led him to esteem the merits of 
 other men, however much they differed in opinion 
 from himself. 
 
 De Veil was held in high esteem among the Protest- 
 ants in France. A very friendly letter from Claude 
 was prefixed to his Commentary on the Acts, which 
 was published in 1685. We do not hear of his being 
 settled over any church after he united with the Bap- 
 tists, but that they, " in consideration of his abilities* 
 
APPENDIX. 168 
 
 on his dismission from his place, raised him a salary 
 which he enjoyed till his death."* 
 
 William Dell,M. A., was educated at the University 
 of Cambridge, and was a clergyman of the church of 
 England, officiating in the parish of Yeldon, in Bedford- 
 shire. Nothing is known of his holding any connexion 
 with the Baptists, until the civil wars, when the subject 
 of reforming the church became agitated. To that 
 question he brought all the energy of his intellect, and 
 all the warmth of his heart. Deriving from his Bible 
 clear views of the spirituality of the present dispensa- 
 tion, he announced the sentiment, that " to make the 
 whole kingdom a church was a mystery of iniquity." 
 It is said by Dr. Calamy, that Baxter's most frequent 
 disputes with Dell, was about liberty of conscience^ 
 " that is, that the magistrate had nothing to do in mat- 
 ters of religion by constraint or restraint, but every 
 man might not only hold and believe, but preach and 
 do in matters of religion what he pleased." 
 
 In the year 1645, Mr. Dell became chaplain in the 
 army, and preached regularly at the head-quarters of 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax. He was intimate with Oliver 
 Cromwell, and the leading men of those times. In 
 1646, he was appointed to preach before the House 
 of Commons on a public fast-day. In the course of 
 his sermon he took occasion to speak of the evil of 
 persecution, and of using external force in promoting 
 religion. The preacher who followed him, animad- 
 
 * Crosby 4 : p. 259. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 verted on that part of Mr. Dell's discourse, and defended 
 the right of the magistrate to interfere in matters of 
 conscience. This led to public discussion by means 
 of the press, and thus Mr. Dell stood forth as a leader 
 of the party who favored religious liberty, and Mr. 
 Love, his opponent, a Presbyterian, was at the head of 
 those who advocated persecution. 
 
 In 1649, Mr. Dell was appointed master of Caiua 
 College, Cambridge, and retained his station until he 
 was ejected by the act of uniformity. 
 
 Vavasor Powell was a native of Radnorshire, in 
 South Wales, where his name has been well known for 
 nearly two centuries, and not only there, but through- 
 out the whole Principality, has been remembered with 
 sentiments of reverence and affection. He was born 
 in 1617, was educated at Jesus College, in Oxford, and 
 went into orders in the established church, about the 
 year 1640. In his youth he was of a gay and impet- 
 uous turn of mind, yet, while at Oxford, made great 
 proficiency in the knowledge of languages, and in 
 various branches of literature. 
 
 A considerable time elapsed after he became a cler- 
 gyman, before he knew any thing of experimental reli- 
 gion. In his early days he had been much addicted to 
 a profanation of the Sabbath, and an instance of this 
 kind was made the occasion of arousing his attention 
 and converting him to God, " Being one Lord's day, 
 a stander-by, and beholder of those that broke the 
 Sabbath by divers games, and being there himself, in 
 his clerical dress, or as he calls it, in the habit of a 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 foolish shepherd, he was ashamed to play with them, 
 yet took as much pleasure therein as if he had ; a 
 certain Puritan in the mean time passing by, and seeing 
 him there, came to him, and very mildly asked him, 
 " Doth it become you. sir, that are a scholar, and one 
 that teacheth others, to break the Lord's Sabbath thus?" 
 To which he answered, like the scoffers in Malachi, 
 " Wherein do I break it ? you see me only stand by ; 
 I do not play at all." " But," replied he, " you find 
 your own pleasure herein, by looking on, and this God 
 forbids in his holy word." So he opened his Bible and 
 read these words, in Isaiah, 58 : 13, particularly that 
 expression, " Not finding thy own pleasure upon the. 
 Sabbath day^ Such was the pertinency of the pas- 
 sage, and the power that came with the word, that he 
 was quite silenced and so far convicted, as to resolve 
 never to transgress in this way again. 
 
 From this small beginning, a thorough change of 
 mind and character soon ensued, to which the ministry 
 of the pious and zealous Walter Cradock and other 
 puritans, who were beginning to break out in Wales, 
 greatly contributed. He soon became established in 
 knowledge, and began to preach among his country- 
 men in the character of an itinerant evangelist.* 
 
 After this era of his life, Mr. Powell became an in- 
 trepid champion of the Cross, and his history is full of 
 adventure. He suffered much from persecution, which 
 waxed hotter in proportion to his increase of popularity 
 
 * Cambro — British Biography, by Rev. William Richards. 
 LL. D., p. 143. London, 1820. 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 as a preacher. On that account, in 1642, he left 
 Wales, and went to London. 
 
 The intrepidity of his character may be judged of 
 in some degree from the fact, that while residing at 
 Dantford, in Kent, the plague broke out in the town. 
 Many houses were shut up, and the dead bodies were 
 carried out by his chamber wall and window, yet did 
 he not suspend his labors, but preached constantly three 
 times a week ; and though some that had the sickness 
 upon them came to hear, both he and his family escaped 
 the contagion. 
 
 Vavasor Powell was at one time a warm friend of 
 Cromwell, on account of his love of religious liberty; but 
 when Cromwell seized the protectorate, Powell openly 
 denounced him as an usurper, and earnestly remon- 
 strated against it with the men in power. Neverthe- 
 less, he was the first of the nonconformist ministers 
 who suffered under the reign of Charles II. Even 
 before the arrival of the king, the agents of the gov- 
 ernment had marked him for their prey. The most 
 relentless persecution was then carried on in Wales, 
 without respect to age or sex. Mr. Powell was cruelly 
 treated, and at last died in prison, in October, 1670, in 
 the 53d year of his age, and the 11th of his imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Dr. Richards says, " he bore his last illness with 
 great patience, and would bless God and say ho 
 * would not entertain one hard thought of God for all 
 the world,' and could scarcely be restrained at the 
 very height of the disorder from acts of devotion, and 
 from expressing his sentiments of zeal and piety." His 
 remains were deposited in Bunhili Fields, in the pres- 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 ence of an innumerable crowd of dissenters, who 
 attended him to his grave. The inscription on his 
 tomb, drawn up, as Wood says, by his dear friend 
 Edward Bagsham, describes him as " A successful 
 teacher of the past, a sincere witness of the present, 
 and an useful example of the future age ; who in the 
 defection of many, found mercy to be faithful ; for 
 which being called to many prisons, he was there tried, 
 and would not accept deliverance, expecting a better 
 resurrection." Dr. Toulmin observes that Dr. Grey, 
 after Wood, has vilified Mr. Powell, by retailing the 
 falsehoods of a piece entitled Strena Vavasoriensis, 
 Mark Noble is also to be classed among the vilifiers 
 of this good man, without regarding the pieces written 
 in his defence. Noble represents him as a fool, a poor 
 infatuated wretch, a wild enthusiast, a seditious person, 
 fifth-monarchy man, and one who perhaps aspired to 
 be prime minister to King Jesus, &c. But there is no 
 truth in all this, at least not in the sense in which this 
 violent writer would have it understood. Men of his 
 complexion will always despise, revile and persecute 
 such men as Vavasor Powell. Neal, indeed, followed 
 by Palmer, calls him a fifth-monarchy man ; but if he 
 was so, it is certain he was not of the same sort with 
 Venner and his violent adherents, but rather more in 
 the way of thinking of such men as Sherwin, and 
 Bishop Newton. Dr. Toulmin says, " that Mr. Pow- 
 ell's sentiments were those of a Sabbatarian Baptist," 
 which is a very great and unaccountable mistake. 
 Any one who consults the history of his life with any 
 degree of attention, may easily see that he was deci- 
 dedly a First-day Baptist. In the 119th page of that 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 book, we are plainly told that " he was a very strict 
 and conscientious observer of the Sabbath day," viz. 
 the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, "not 
 doing or speaking, on that day, what he saw lawful 
 upon other days ; attending the duties thereof, from 
 evening to evening," &c. With the above assertion 
 of Dr. Toulmin, we may venture to class that notable 
 declaration of Messrs. Neal and Palmer, that Mr. 
 Powell was driven from Wales, for want of Pres- 
 byterial ordination. Driven from Wales indeed he 
 was, not for want of a Presbyterial ordination, but 
 rather for want of high church malignity and intol- 
 erance ; or, in other words, for quitting the ruling, 
 or Laudean faction, and joining the Puritans, and 
 preaching as he did about the country. So active and 
 laborious was he in the duties of the ministry, says Dr. 
 Toulm.in, that he frequently preached atjwo or three 
 places in a day, and was seldom two days in the week 
 throughout the year out of the pulpit ! He would 
 sometimes ride a hundred miles in the week, and preach 
 in every place where he could gain admittance, either 
 by night or by day. He would often alight from his 
 horse, and set on it any aged person whom he met with 
 on the road on foot, and walk by the side for miles 
 together. He was exceedingly hospitable and gene- 
 rous, and would not only entertain and lodge, but 
 clothe the poor and aged. He was a man of great 
 humility, very conscientious and exemplary in all rela- 
 tive duties, and very punctual to his word. He was a 
 scholar, and his general deportment was that of a gen- 
 tleman. In 1642, when he left Wales, there were not 
 above one or two gathered churches ; but before the 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 Restoration there were above twenty distinct societies, 
 consisting of from two to five hundred members, chiefly- 
 planted and formed by his care and industry, in the 
 principles of the Baptists." 
 
 Thomas De Laune, was a native of Ireland, the son 
 of Roman Catholic parents. He received his education 
 in his own country, under the patronage of the gentle- 
 man who owned the estate on which his parents lived. 
 He was converted when a young man, and afterwards 
 became a teacher of a grammar school in London, and 
 the minister of a Baptist church. Dr. Calamy, one of 
 the Chaplains to Charles II, having invited the non-con- 
 formists to bring forth their strong reasons that they 
 might be fairly discussed, Mr. De Laune published hia 
 immortal " plea," the best work in defence of non-con- 
 formity that was ever written. It passed through 
 twenty editions, and Defoe, who wrote a preface to the 
 eighth edition, says " the work is perfect of itself ; never 
 author left behind him a more finished piece ; and I 
 believe the dispute is entirely ended. If any man ask 
 what we can say why the Dissenters differ from the 
 church of England, and what they can plead for it, I 
 can recommend no better reply than this ; let them 
 answer in short Thomas De Laune, and desire the 
 querist to read the book." Great as were the merits 
 of his work, it was the occasion of his being cast into 
 Newgate prison, where he languished and died. As 
 Defoe observes, " few clearer heads, greater scholars 
 or masters of argument, ever graced the English 
 nation." 
 
 15 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 In relation to John Bunyan, whose name is men- 
 tioned in connexion with that of De Laune, it would 
 be superfluous to say one word here, for the purpose 
 of giving information respecting his life or character. 
 But in view of a passage which occurs in Southey's 
 Life of Bunyan, I cannot forbear observing in this 
 place, how faint a glimpse the poet laureate seems to 
 have had of the truth, that religious liberty is an ele- 
 ment of the religious faith of the Baptists. Southey 
 defends the prelates of Bunyan's day, against the charge 
 of high-handed oppression in committing him to prison 
 for preaching the gospel. He thinks that Bunyan 
 should not have persisted in preaching with the spirit 
 of a martyr, but should have considered, " that he was 
 neither called upon to renounce any thing that he did 
 believe, nor to profess any thing that he did not be- 
 lieve ; that the congregation to which he belonged, 
 held, at that time, their meetings unmolested ; that 
 he might have worshipped when he pleased, where 
 he pleased, and how he pleased ; that he was only 
 required not to go about the country holding conventi- 
 cles ; and that the cause for that interdiction was, not 
 that persons were admonished in such conventicles to 
 labor for salvation, but that they were exhorted there 
 to regard with abhorrence that Protestant Church 
 which is essentially part of the constitution of this king- 
 dom, from the doctrines of which church, except in 
 the point of infant baptism, he did not differ a hair's 
 breadth. This I am bound to observe," he says, 
 " because Bunyan has been, and no doubt will continue 
 to be, most wrongfully represented as having been the 
 victim of intolerant laws, and prelatical oppression." 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 It would seem, to say the least, that Dr. Southey 
 could not have seen all the points of the case when 
 he penned this paragraph, since it is so evident 
 that Bunyan considered the mere fact that a Pro- 
 testant church should be essentially a part of the 
 constitution of a kingdom, as a flagrant violation of the 
 constitutional laws of Christianity. He felt his own 
 religious liberty — his liberty of preaching the gospel 
 to be invaded, and he meant to maintain it, even unto 
 death. At the same time, he meant to say nothing 
 which should tend to disturb the public peace, or alien- 
 ate men's hearts from the civil government. Southey's 
 own account of Bunyan's interview with the Clerk of 
 the Peace, shows this. After he had lain several 
 months in prison, the clerk visited him, to persuade 
 him to obedience. " But Bunyan insisted that the law, 
 being intended against those who designed to do evil in 
 their meetings, did not apply to him. He was told that 
 he might exhort his neighbors in private discourse, if 
 he did not call together an assembly of people ; this he 
 might do, and do much good thereby, without breaking 
 the law. But, said Bunyan, if I may do good to one, 
 why not to two? and if to two, why not to four, and so to 
 eight, and so on ? Aye, said the Clerk, and to a hun- 
 dred, I warrant you ! Yes, Bunyan answered, I think 
 I should not be forbidden to do as much good as I can. 
 They then began to discuss the question whether under 
 pretence of doing good, harm might not be done, by se- 
 ducing the people, and Bunyan allowed that there might 
 be many who designed the destruction of the govern- 
 ment : let them, he said, be punished, and let him be 
 punished also should he do any thing not becoming a 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 man and a Christian ; if error or heresy could be proved 
 upon him, he would disown it, even in the market place; 
 but to the truth, he would stand to the last drop of his 
 blood. Bound in conscience he held himself, to obey 
 all righteous laws, whether there were a king or not ; 
 and if he offended against them, patiently to bear the 
 penalty. And to cut off all occasion of suspicion as 
 touching the harmlessness of his doctrines, he would 
 willingly give any one the notes of all his sermons, for 
 he sincerely deeired to live in peace and to submit to 
 the present authority. " But there are two ways of 
 obeying," he observed ; " the one to do that which I 
 in my conscience do believe that I am bound to do, 
 actively ; and where I cannot obey actively, there I 
 am willing to lie down, and to suffer what they shall 
 do unto me." And here the interview ended, Bunyan 
 thanking him for his " civil and meek discoursing," and 
 breathing a wish that they might meet in Heaven." 
 
 Note C— Paoje 62. 
 
 The following are Tyndal's words contained in the 
 book referred to, and extracted by Ivimey. After 
 reprobating severely the conduct of the Romish clergy 
 for using a Latin form of words, he says, " The wash- 
 ynge without the word helpeth not; but thorow the 
 word it purifyeth and clcnseth us, as thou readest, 
 Eph. 5. How Christe clenseth the congregation in the 
 founteine of water thorow the word : the word is the 
 promise which God hath made. Now as a preacher 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 in preaching the word of God saveth the hearers that 
 beleve, so doeth the wasshinge in that it preacheth and 
 representeth to us the promise that God hath made 
 unto us in Christe, the wasshinge preacheth unto us 
 that we are clensed wyth Christe's bloude shedynge 
 which was an offering and a satisfaction for the synne 
 of al that repent and beleve, consentynge and submyt- 
 tyne themselves unto the wyl of God. The plungyne 
 into the water sygnyfyeth that ive die and are hurid with 
 Chryste as coserning ye old life of synne which is Ada. 
 And the pulling out agayn sygnyfyeth that we ryse 
 again with Christe in a new lyfe ful of the holye gooste 
 which shal teach us, and gyde us, and work the wyll 
 of God in us ; as thou seest Rom. 6." 
 
 Note D.— Page 65. 
 
 Professor Sears, of Newton Theological Institution, 
 having once mentioned to the author in conversation, 
 some remarks which he had heard from Dr. Neander, 
 touching the case of Melancthon, in accordance with 
 what is stated of him on page 65, in answer to a 
 letter of inquiry for my own private information on that 
 point, incidentally suggests the following additional 
 facts. Planck, in his celebrated history of the Protest- 
 ant Theology, in speaking of the divine manifestations 
 to which some of the anabaptists laid claim, says, 
 " though their revelations were not real, yet with such 
 an honest enquirer after truth as Melancthon, it did not 
 follow that all their doctrines were false. The former 
 15* 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 he could therefore leave to their own fate, and yet not 
 deny that the strength of their reasons in regard to 
 infant baptism, made a strong, and according to his 
 convictions, reasonable impression upon his mind." 
 
 " The elector wishing to quell the controversy, dis- 
 suaded the Wittenburg theologians from discussing the 
 subject of infant baptism, saying he could not see what 
 benefit could arise from it, as the article was not of 
 much importance, and yet the rejection of it would 
 create great excitement, since it had been so long hal- 
 lowed in the church by the influence of Augustin, its 
 defender. Melancthon said, that he " was agreed with 
 the Elector, that the article of infant baptism was not 
 of much importance, and that it were better not to have 
 any thing to do with it, than that great doubts respect- 
 ing it be excited." After confessing that the question 
 was one of little importance, it was natural that he 
 should follow the advice of the Elector in regard to 
 his connexion with these men. Whether it were right 
 in him to be so quickly, and as it would seem, so gladly 
 convinced, we leave it for theology to determine."* 
 
 Note E.— Page 68. 
 
 An analysis of this manifesto, may not be uninter- 
 esting to some readers. 
 
 I. In the first article, the peasants set forth the ben- 
 efits of public religious instruction, ask permission to 
 
 ♦Geshicte des Protestantischen Lehrbegriffs, v. II, p. 47, 5Q. 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 elect their own ministers to teach them the word of 
 God without the traditions of men, and that they may 
 have power to dismiss them if their conduct be repre- 
 hensible. 
 
 II. In the second, they represent that the laws of 
 tithing in the Old Testament, ought not to be enforced 
 under the present dispensation, and pray that they may 
 be excused from all tythes except that of their corn, 
 which they desire might be applied to the support of 
 their teachers, the support of the poor, and the payment 
 of public taxes. 
 
 III. In the third, they declare their former state of 
 slavery to be disgraceful to humanity, and inconsistent 
 with the religion of Christ — declare their willingness to 
 submit to the control of magistrates, but not to be 
 slaves, unless slavery could he proved right from the holy 
 scripture. 
 
 IV. In the fourth, they complain of the injustice of 
 the game laws, which had prevented them from taking 
 birds or wild animals, or even chasing away those 
 which devoured their herbage. They ask that pri- 
 vate privileges may yield to public benefit. 
 
 V. The fifth complains that a few men claimed all 
 the forests, and that the poor could hardly obtain wood 
 for fuel or repairs. It asks that this matter might be 
 adjusted by the government ; or by the proprietors, if 
 the forests could be proved to be private property. 
 
 VI. The sixth set forth the innumerable and ill-timed 
 services, which the lords obliged their tenants to per- 
 form, which were increasing every year, and which 
 had become absolutely intolerable. They ask for ad- 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 justment according to the laws of equity, and of Christ- 
 ianity, and the warrant of ancient custom. 
 
 VII. The seventh complains of abuses connected 
 with the tenures of their lands, which had been charged 
 with oppressive fines, not embraced in the original 
 grants. 
 
 VIII. In the eighth, they speak of the annual rents 
 of their farms having been so much increased, as to ex- 
 ceed the worth of the land. They beg the princes to 
 see that these are so adjusted, that they may gain a 
 livelihood by their labor. 
 
 IX. The ninth complains of new laws being daily 
 made, creating new crimes and new penalties, and all 
 this not for the improvement of society, but for pre- 
 tences to extort money. They ask that justice may 
 not be left to private caprice, but administered accord- 
 ing to ancient written forms. 
 
 X. The tenth complains that the common lands 
 which had been allowed to the poor for pasturage, had 
 been monopolized by the lords, merely to maintain 
 their horses for luxury and needless wars. 
 
 XI. The eleventh declares that the demand of he- 
 riots (or fines to be paid to the lord on the death of a 
 tenant,) was the most inhuman of all oppressions. 
 That the affliction of the widow and fatherless children 
 made no impression on the officers, who increased the 
 sufferings of the bereaved, by swallowing up all their 
 property. They required that this custom should be 
 utterly abolished. 
 
 XII. In the twelfth they declare that they were 
 willing to retract any demand which could be proved 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 contrary to the word of God ; and that though this 
 memorial contained a list of their present grievances, 
 they did not mean by this to preclude the liberty of 
 making such future remonstrances as might be found 
 necessary. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that if these fair 
 and forcible representations had been properly attended 
 to, the peasant war in Germany had never broken out, 
 and the scenes of Munster had never been enacted. 
 But when such appeals were set at naught, what could 
 have been expected of a mighty mass of men driven to 
 desperation ? The standard of revolt once lifted up, 
 drew all orders of enthusiasts around it, and when 
 fanaticism once gained the ascendancy, there was no 
 human voice that could " still the voice of the waves 
 and the tumults of the people." 
 
 Note F.— Page 73. 
 
 The words of De Potter, relating to the views of the 
 Vaudois, concerning baptism, are here given : " lis 
 attaquerent les sacremens, reprouvant toutes les cere- 
 monies du bapteme, hormis la seule ablution : encore 
 eurent-ils soin que cet acte de regeneration au christ- 
 ianisme, ne fut pas jamais confere a des enfans en bas 
 age ; et c'est pourquoi ils rebaptisaient de nouveau 
 toutes les personnes qui abandonnant 1' eglise Romaine 
 demandaient a embrasser leur doctrine." 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note G.— Page 89. 
 
 The decisive manner in which the Greek Church 
 expresses the sentiment that the Romish Church has 
 annihilated baptism, may be seen by the following 
 extract from a work of Alexander de Stourdza, a 
 writer of the Greek Church. It was published at 
 Studgart in 1816. Speaking of baptism, he says, 
 " The Western church has done violence both to the 
 word and the idea, in practising hapism by aspersion, 
 the very enunciation of which is a ludicrous contradic- 
 tion. In truth the word haptizo has but one signification. 
 It signifies literally and perpetually to immerse. Bap- 
 tism and immersion are identical ; and to say baptism 
 by aspersion, is the same as to say immersion by 
 aspersion, or any other contradiction in terms. Who, 
 then, perceiving this, can hesitate to render homage to 
 the sage fidelity of our church, always attached to the 
 doctrine and ritual of primitive Christianity." 
 
 During the spring of the present year, while travel- 
 ling in Greece, the author was struck with the fact that 
 it is impossible for a Greek to associate any idea with 
 the term baptism, except that of immersion. At Ka- 
 laimachi, a village on the Gulf of Athens, I was intro- 
 duced to a learned Greek who spoke various languages. 
 We conversed respecting my country and his own. 
 Among other subjects of inquiry, I spoke of the Greek 
 church, and took occasion to say to him, the Italian 
 church does not practice baptism as you do. As if to 
 correct my inadvertent phraseology, he immediately 
 rejoined, " Baptism ! oh no ! no — they have rantismy 
 (sprinkling) ; we have baptism.'" 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 Note H.— Page 90. 
 
 The doctrine that a series of ordinations transmitted 
 in a visible succession from the apostles, is necessary 
 to constitute a valid ministry in the church, if strictly 
 followed out to its legitimate conclusion^ would lead any 
 one of us, either to become a seeker, and wait for a 
 new apostleship, or else to unite with the church of 
 Rome. While Roger Williams, acting on this prin- 
 ciple, came to the one conclusion, we have known those 
 who were led by it to the other. The sentiment we have 
 here stated, was in effect most strongly asserted by the 
 x\rchbishop of York, in the British Parliament, during 
 the debates of the year 1558. The bill before the 
 House, was for attaching the supremacy of the church 
 to the Queen of England. The archbishop said, that 
 if the church of England vvithdraw from the church of 
 Rome, she would by that act directly forsake and fly 
 from all general councils ; and he proceeded to prove 
 that the first four councils of Nice, Constantinople, 
 Ephesus and Chalcedon, had acknowledged the suprem- 
 acy of Rome.* He then presented to their view this 
 alternative for consideration. Either the church of 
 Rome is a true or false one. If she be a true church, 
 then we will be guilty of schism in leaving her, will be 
 excommunicated by her, and the church of England 
 will become herself a false church. If the church of 
 Rome be a false church, then she cannot be a pure 
 source of apostolical succession; and the church of 
 
 ♦Hansard's Parliamentary History, Eliz. 1558. 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 England must be false, because she derived her ordi- 
 nation and sacraments from that of Rome. 
 
 The question we know was decided in favor of sep- 
 aration from Rome ; but the speech of the Archbishop 
 presents to the successionist, the horns of a dilemma, 
 between which it would seem difficult to choose. 
 
 We have said that the principle of lineal descent 
 from the Apostles would lead one directly to the 
 Church of Rome, because we suppose that if the line 
 of succession can be traced to any one of the Apostles, 
 it can be traced to Peter. Yet, who can bring forth 
 the register to show an unbroken chain of ordinations 
 from him ? In the days of Ezra, those who would be 
 acknowledged as priests, were required to prove their 
 right by the genealogical register.* On the principle 
 of Apostolic succession, we may make the same requi- 
 sition now. And in answering such a demand for histor- 
 ical proof, we hear Bishop Stillingfleet saying, " We 
 find bishops discontinued for a long time in the greatest 
 churches. Where was the Church of Rome, when 
 from the martyrdom of Flabia and the banishment of 
 Lucius, the church was governed by the clergy ?"t 
 
 The learned Cardinal Bellarmine says, " For above 
 eighty years, the church, for want of a lawful Pope, 
 had no other Head than what was in heaven." 
 
 That celebrated Cardinal and historian Baronius, 
 who had well nigh filled the Papal chair himself, says, 
 " How deformed was the Roman Church, when harlots 
 no less powerful than vile, bore sway at Rome, and at 
 
 » Ezra, II. 62. 
 
 i" Irenecum, p. 576. 
 
APPENDIX. IQJ 
 
 their pleasure changed sees, appointed Bishops, and 
 what is horrible to mention, did thrust into Peter's 
 chair, their own gallants, /a/^e Popes! What kind 
 of Cardinals can we think were chosen by these mon- 
 sters ?*" « Come here," says Stillingfleet, « to Rome, 
 and here the succession is as muddy as the Tiber 
 itself." The Church of England in the Homily for 
 Whit-Sunday, declares that " the Popes and Prelates 
 of Rome, for the most part, are worthily accounted 
 among the number of false prophets and false Christs, 
 which deceived the world for a long while;" and 
 prays that the gospel may be spread abroad, «'to the 
 beating down of sin, death, the Pope, the devil, and all 
 the kingdoms of anti-christ." Various historical chasms 
 might be pointed out, but we have only room to quote 
 these admissions of successionists themselves, which are 
 weighty on account of the source from which thev 
 come. 
 
 Godwin, in his history of the bishops, has shown 
 that among the English Bishops, many links are want- 
 ing which cannot be supplied. He has shown, too, at 
 what enormous prices the English Bishops bought 
 their ordinations, in the eleventh century, when simony 
 prevailed in Italy and England. They committed a 
 crime in view of which Peter pronounced Simon Magus 
 to be m the gall of bitterness, and to have no part or 
 lot m the kingdom of Christ. Then there are decrees 
 of councils, pronouncing null aw^ mV^ all those ordi. 
 nances, wherein any simonaical contract existed. The 
 
 »Baronius, Tom. X, and Rights of the Christian Church 
 quoted m Eclectic Review, vol. V, p. 382, 384. 
 
 16 
 
182 APPENDIX. 
 
 facts which the providence of God has developed, indi- 
 cate that it is not his design that his church should be 
 nnade dependent for her ministry, on an outward and 
 visible succession. Was not this plainly shown, when 
 between Leo IV, and Benedict III, a wicked woman 
 filled St. Peter's chair ? 
 
 Note I.— Page 102. 
 
 The four brothers whom we have referred to, as 
 grandsons of the Rev. James Brown, deserve to be held 
 in lasting remembrance, as illustrations of the truth, that 
 " the generation of the upright shall be blessed," and 
 as bright examples of those virtues which make in- 
 creasing wealth a blessing to the individual, and to 
 society. The man of business or of fortune, who iden- 
 tifies his happiness with the public welfare, and devotes 
 his wealth to the promotion of Christianity, multiplies 
 his own sources of enjoyment, and at the same time 
 becomes a benefactor to his race. In this country, 
 especially, where a mercantile spirit is so widely spread, 
 we should hold those in honor, whose lives convey just 
 lessons concerning the true use of money. With great 
 propriety, this may be said to have been done by these 
 four gentlemen, of whom we speak : John, Joseph, 
 Nicholas, and Moses Brown. 
 
 John Brown, Esq. was a liberal promoter of relig- 
 ion and literature in the town of Providence. He was 
 warmly attached to the interests of the Baptist Society^ 
 
APPENDIX. 183 
 
 and laid the foundation stone of the College, in 1769. 
 He was distinguished by untiring industry, and by a 
 sound practical judgment, so that although he was 
 engaged in many enterprises, he seems to have suc- 
 ceeded in all that he undertook. He doubtless pos- 
 sessed much of a public spirit, which he evinced in his 
 efforts for the improvement of the town. In his day, 
 Main-street was a sandy and disagreeable walk ; he 
 first caused it to be paved, and although at that time 
 he had twenty sail of ships abroad upon the sea, he 
 might be seen busily engaged in the work himself, in 
 order to be sure that it was properly done. In view 
 of his great success as a merchant, it is gratifying to 
 be able to say of him, that " his liberality kept pace 
 with his riches." 
 
 Joseph Brown, LL. D., was long an active member 
 *jf this church, and though engaged in mercantile busi- 
 ness, was distinguished as a lover of science, and espe- 
 cially for his attainments in natural philosophy. For 
 this, his genius particularly disposed him, yet he seems 
 to have been equally at home within the realm of taste. 
 This temple, which he planned, is a proof to us, that 
 he must have been devoted to, at least, one of the fine 
 arts, for no one could have succeeded in producing a 
 structure of such nice and fair proportions, without 
 having given much attention to the study of architec- 
 ture. He was a warm friend of the college, in which 
 he held the office of Professor of Experimental Philos- 
 ophy. As a citizen he was peculiarly useful, for such 
 was his knowledge of philosophical naechanics, com- 
 bined as it was with good taste, that he was consulted 
 
184 APPENDIX. 
 
 about almost every thing which pertained to improve- 
 ment in the arts. He died in December, 1785. Mrs. 
 Ward, of Providence, and Mrs. Rogers, youngest 
 daughter of Dr. Gano, are all who remain of his pos- 
 terity. 
 
 Nicholas Brown, Esq. was educated to business 
 from his early youth, and was as distinguished for the 
 exhibition of all the social and mercantile virtues, as he 
 was for his success in commerce. Though " diligent 
 in business," his mind and heart were too enlarged 
 to be engrossed by that alone ; he cherished a lively 
 interest in the welfare of his country, the progress of 
 learning and religion. " He was an early, persevering 
 and zealous patron of the college, and a most exem- 
 plary member of the Baptist Society. The language 
 of his conduct was like that of the patriarch of old, 
 " as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 
 His religious zeal was the effect of a rational convic- 
 tion of the great truths of the christian revelation ; 
 truths which had been his study for many years, and 
 in which his knowledge was deep and extensive. His 
 awful reverence for the Deity impresssed every one 
 who heard him speak, or saw him write the sacred 
 name of the Great Creator and Governor of the world. 
 It was his custom, and he often desired others, to write 
 it in capitals." 
 
 " He was from sentiment a lover of all mankind, espe- 
 cially of good men. He was not ashamed of the gospel 
 of Christ, nor of the poorest of his disciples. His 
 manners were plain and sincere. He was a faithful 
 friend and a good companion, and combining with his 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 t3xcellent social qualities a general knowledge of the 
 world, of books, and of men, his conversation was 
 always pleasing and instructive." 
 
 Being generally regarded as a man of piety, and 
 expressing always his religious sentiments with great 
 decision, it seemed remarkable to many that he should 
 have doubted the propriety of his becoming a member 
 of the church. A high sense of the dignity of the 
 christian profession, connected with an humble estima- 
 tion of himself, seem to have prevented his taking a 
 step to which his principles and his habits would natu- 
 rally and consistently have led him. 
 
 He died on the Sabbath, May 29, 1791, about noon. 
 On the following Tuesday, his remains were borne to 
 the church, where a funeral sermon was preached by 
 Rev. Dr. Stillman. A numerous train of relatives and 
 friends followed him to his grave, in the north burying 
 place, for it was justly said of him, that " as in his life 
 he was universally esteemed, so at his death he was 
 universally lamented." Mr. Brown had followed six 
 children to the tomb, one of whom, Moses Brown, died 
 at the age of 16, just after he had graduated at the 
 College, and had awakened the warmest hopes respect- 
 ing his future character and life. We are happy to 
 say at this day, that two children yet survive him, 
 Hon. Nicholas Brown, and Mrs. Hope Ives, widow of 
 Thomas P. Ives, Esq. 
 
 The last of this excellent fraternity of whom we 
 
 have spoken, was Moses Brown, who lived to the 
 
 extraordinary age of 97 years, and died on the 6th day 
 
 of September, 1836. Venerable for his age, but still 
 
 16* 
 
186 APPENDIX. 
 
 more so for his intelligence, integrity, and piety, he 
 long remained among us, the representative of a gene- 
 ration that had passed away. From first to last he 
 exhibited a character formed on the principles of a 
 religion which was his guide in life, and his support in 
 death. 
 
 At the age of thirtyfive, Mr. Moses Brown joined 
 the Society of Friends. In doing this, he doubtless fol- 
 lowed his convictions of duty. He ever manifested as 
 became him, an interest in religious institutions, and 
 liberally supported those of the sect to which he be- 
 longed. He was a founder and patron of the Yearly 
 Meeting Boarding School in this city, was its Treasurer 
 about fiftythree successive years, and manifested a deep 
 interest in the moral and religious improvement of the 
 pupils. 
 
 Like those of his family of whom we have already- 
 spoken, Mr. Brown ever cherished a generous interest 
 in the welfare of the community, the commonwealth 
 and the country. Though his disposition and his prin- 
 ciples led him to keep aloof from party strife, he never 
 failed to exercise the rights of suffrage whenever he 
 saw any important principle to be involved in the issue. 
 He was engaged with his brothers in active business 
 only about ten years, and as early as 1773 he with- 
 drew from the bustle and stir of trade, to that retire- 
 ment in this vicinity, which his natural turn of mind 
 qualified him to enjoy. There, living in a style of great 
 simplicity, and maintaining habits of regularity and tem- 
 perance, he passed through a serene and vigorous old 
 age. His intellect was never impaired, his cheerfulness 
 was habitual, and he maintained until his death a lively 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 interest in all that was passing around hinfi. A friend 
 of education, of peace, of universal emancipation, and 
 of the spread of the bible, his head, and heart, and purse 
 were devoted to the promotion of these objects. 
 
 Note J.— Page 110. 
 
 When we consider that this house was built while 
 Rhode-Island was yet a colony, we cannot sufficiently 
 admire the enlarged and liberal spirit of the men of 
 those times. In addition to what is said in the discourse, 
 it may be well to mention here, that the lot on which 
 the church stands, bounded as it is by four streets, and 
 enclosed with a picket fence, is 150 feet long on Main 
 street, westward, toward which the house fronts. The 
 floor of the building is laid 80 feet square. It formerly 
 contained 126 square pews, but in 1832 these were 
 taken away and 144 slips were substituted. There 
 are large galleries on the south and north. Formerly 
 there were two galleries on the west ; in 1832 the 
 upper one was taken down, to make room for a large 
 organ, a donation from Hon. Nicholas Brown. It is of 
 American manufacture,* and cost f 4000. The clock 
 with which the house is furnished, and which cost $125, 
 was presented also by Mr. Brown ; and the chandelier 
 which contains 24 lamps, and cost 8500, was presented 
 by his sister, Mrs. Hope Ives. The roof and galleries 
 are supported by 10 fluted pillars, of the Doric order. 
 The spire at the west end, is 200 feet in height, and is 
 
 * Made by the Messrs. Hook, of Boston. 
 
188 APPENDIX. 
 
 one of the most beautiful models in the country. It 
 was at first furnished with a bell, made in London, 
 weighing 2515 pounds, and upon it was the following 
 motto : — 
 
 " For freedom of conscience the town was first planted, 
 Persuasion, not force, was used by the people ; 
 
 This church is the eldest and has not recanted, 
 Enjoying and granting bell, temple and steeple." 
 
 This last specification was doubtless made with 
 peculiar emphasis, since in England dissenters have 
 ever been forbidden the use of bell or spire. 
 
 That bell was split by ringing in the year 1787, 
 and was afterwards recast at Hope Furnace. The 
 weight of it is 2337 pounds, and the inscription on it 
 is, " This Church was formed A. D. 1639, the first in 
 the State, and the eldest of the Baptists in America." 
 
 In June, 1837, a committee was appointed, consist- 
 ing of Messrs. Pardon Miller, Truman Beckwith, 
 Richard Smith, Asa Pearce, and Amasa Mason, to 
 carry into effect the reconstruction of the Vestry. It 
 was formed anew and made more spacious. It is now 
 76 feet long and 46 wide, and will conveniently seat 
 600 people. In this change, particular regard was 
 had to the accommodation of the Sabbath School, which 
 meets there on Sunday mornings, and embraces 440 
 scholars, and 52 teachers. Mr. Richard Eddy is the 
 Superintendent. Several Bible Classes meet with the 
 Sabbath School. A lecture is held in the vestry on 
 Wednesday evenings. The meetings of the Church 
 are also held there. The Church at this time embraces 
 561 members, and has five deacons, viz. John Hill, 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 John Dexter, Nathaniel Bump, Varnum J. Bates, and 
 Henry P. Yeomans. 
 
 In 1838, a baptistery was added, built on such a plan 
 that when it is used, all the congregation can witness 
 the holy rite to which it is consecrated. Formerly 
 the church resorted to the river on baptismal occasions; 
 but the growth of the city has of late years made that 
 inconvenient. When we remember that spacious bap- 
 tisteries are among the oldest relics of christian anti- 
 quity in Europe, we have reason to believe, that the 
 extensive revival of the primitive baptism would give 
 rise to the building of large and convenient baptisteries 
 in all our cities. Many centuries ago, in Pisa, Flo- 
 rence, Rome, and other cities, there was one great 
 baptistery to which all the churches resorted. At 
 Nocera de Pagani, near Naples, there is one which 
 dates its origin back to the third century. These, 
 though forsaken now, or visited only as objects of curi- 
 osity, stand there as witnessess of the past, and the tes- 
 timony which they bear, awakens in our hearts the 
 hope that the simplicity of ancient times will be re- 
 stored. Ere the lapse of another century, we trust 
 that such means of honoring God's ordinance, will 
 have become common in this country. 
 
 It is but a just tribute which we owe to the memory 
 of a departed friend, to acknowledge our obligations to 
 the Rev. John Stanford, D. D., for the interest which 
 he manifested in the history and welfare of this church, 
 and the care which lie took in arranging our earliest 
 
190 APPENDIX. 
 
 records. He came to Providence in the autumn of 
 1787, and supplied the pulpit of this church for one 
 year. The following notice of the invitation which 
 was presented to him, to accept the pastoral care of 
 the church, is copied from the church record, under 
 date of December 31, 1787. " This afternoon, the 
 principal part of the male members of the church and 
 society, attended to the call of Mr. John Stanford, 
 Minister, now of New-York, but sometime of England, 
 to take the pastoral charge of this church and society, 
 for the term of one year." In the evening of the same 
 <lay, the joint committee of the church and society met 
 at the house of Nicholas Brown, Esq. to report the 
 above call of Mr. Stanford. Mr. Stanford being affected 
 with the unanimity of the church and congregation, de- 
 clared he had no desire or inclination to take the charge 
 of any church, but would duly attend to their invitation 
 and return an answer by an appointed messenger. 
 
 1788, January 1. " Mr. John Jones waited on Mr. 
 John Stanford to receive his answer to the Church's 
 invitation." In his reply, Mr. Stanford said, that he 
 would be willing to supply the church temporarily, but 
 without any expectation of a settlement as Pastor, and 
 that he " would attempt to adjust the scattered affairs 
 of the church, that the people may be better able to 
 settle finally with any other minister whom they might 
 choose." Having fulfilled his design, he returned to 
 New-York, and labored there many years, as Chaplain 
 to the humane and criminal Institutions of that city. He 
 died January 14, 1834, in the 80th year of his age. An 
 interesting memoir of him, has been written by Rev. 
 Charles G. Sommers. 
 
191 
 
 The following inscription was copied from President Man- 
 ning's Tomb Stone, April, 1830. 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 The Rev. JAMES MANNING, D. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT 
 
 OF RHODE-ISLAND COLLEGE. 
 
 He was born in New-Jersey, A. D. 1738, 
 
 Became a member of a Baptist Church, A. D. 1758, 
 
 Graduated at Nassau Hall, A. D. 1762, 
 
 Was ordained a Minister of the Gospel, A. D. 1763, 
 
 Obtained a Charter for the College, A. D. 1665, 
 
 Was elected President of it the same year, 
 
 And was a member of Congress, A, D. 1786. 
 
 His person was graceful. 
 
 And his countenance remarkably expressive 
 
 Of sensibility, cheerfulness and dignity. 
 
 The Variety and Excellence of his Natural Abilities, 
 
 Improved by Education and enriched by Science, 
 Raised him to a rank of Eminence among Literary 
 
 Characters. 
 
 His Manners were engaging, his Voice harmonious, 
 
 His Eloquence natural and powerful. 
 
 His Social Virtues, Classic Learning, Eminent Patriotism, 
 
 Shining Talents for instructing and governing Youth, 
 
 And Zeal in the Cause of Christianity, 
 
 Are recorded on the Tables of many Hearts. 
 
 He died of an Apoplexy, July 29, 1791, 
 
 iEtat 53. 
 
 The Trustees and Fellows of the College have erected 
 
 this Monument. 
 
 1793. 
 
192 
 
 h.IH ^' f, '^"T"'^ ■"'=""? "^ ">" Charitable Baptist Society 
 held in the Committee Room of the First bJJm '' 
 House, on Monday evening, December 9 h AD 183 J::'. 
 
 Mor::! '"""" " ''-"-' «»-~ B^z? 
 
 /* «,as .oted. That the Clerk of this Soeiety be reouested 
 to enelose and seal a copy of the Rev. Mr. Hague's CenteS 
 Discourse, together with such other document' as the Con „ 
 mal Committee may direct, and place the same with a suulbfe 
 .nscriptmn m the archives of the Society, to be opened in the 
 
 A true copy from the records of said Society. 
 Attest, 
 
 GAMALIEL LYMAN DWIGHT, 
 Clerk of the Charitable Baptist Society. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 In order to guard agamst any mistake as to the dale of the 
 
 formation of this Church, it may be well to state, t, at the 
 
 proper time for the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary 
 
 occurred in March ; but by a vote of the Church its observa: ^ 
 
 E»aAT™.-Of the two or three misprints which may be 
 found m t IS work, it is not necessary to direct the reader' 
 ntion to any except one on page 34-for .,W™, Zl 
 
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