A HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN THE MIDDLE STATES BY HENRY C. VEDDER Professor of Church History in Crozer Theological Seminary Author of A Short History of the Baptists The Dawn of Christianity With explanatory footnotes added by Bradley S. Cobb 2017 Cobb Publishing 2017 A History of the Baptists in the Middle States, revised edition, is copy- right © Bradley S. Cobb, 2017. All rights reserved. A digital edition (pdf) of this book is available free of charge from the Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary (www.TheCobbSix.com/Jimmie- Beller-Memorial-eLibrary/) This book in its updated form may not be reproduced in part or in whole without the written permission of the publisher. Permission is granted without contact for those who wish to reference this book in their writings (whether in print or digital or otherwise), or in any setting where the material will be given away. For all inquiries, contact us: [email protected] 479-747-8372 TheCobbSix.com ISBN-13: 978-1541243170 ISBN-10: 154124317X CONTENTS CHAPTER I: Early Days in New York .................................................. 9 CHAPTER II: The Early Days In New Jersey ..................................... 26 CHAPTER III: Early Days In Pennsylvania And Delaware ................ 37 CHAPTER IV: The Growth Of Organization ...................................... 55 CHAPTER V: The Western Movement: Its Results And Significance 68 CHAPTER VI: Evangelism And Revivals ........................................... 92 CHAPTER VII: The Period Of Controversies ................................... 106 The Disciples of Christ Controversy ........................................... 106 The Anti-Mason Controversy ..................................................... 116 The Adventist Controversy ......................................................... 118 The Missionary Controversy ....................................................... 122 CHAPTER VIII: Baptists And Education .......................................... 125 Hopewell ..................................................................................... 125 Education Societies ..................................................................... 128 Columbian College ..................................................................... 130 Madison University and Hamilton Seminary ............................. 131 Rochester ..................................................................................... 138 Crozer Theological Seminary ..................................................... 144 Lewisburg (Bucknell University)................................................ 147 Vassar College ............................................................................ 149 Academies ................................................................................... 150 CHAPTER IX: Work For The Young The Publication Society ........ 152 Sunday Schools and the Publication Society .............................. 152 Young People’s Society (Christian Endeavor) ........................... 159 CHAPTER X: Baptists And Bible Work ........................................... 170 CHAPTER XI: A Comparative Study Of Progress ............................ 184 5 APPENDIX A .................................................................................... 197 APPENDIX B STATISTICS REGARDING BAPTIST PROGRESS ............... 199 APPENDIX C ..................................................................................... 201 APPENDIX D .................................................................................... 204 APPENDIX E ..................................................................................... 207 PREFACE This history is founded on original sources. Second-hand authori- ties on the subject are few, incomplete, and untrustworthy, and there was nothing to do but seek and study the original documents. The task was the more difficult because the path was practically unbroken. There was from the first no lack of materials, but nobody had ever undertaken to sift and combine them. There were no successes of predecessors to emulate, no blunders to profit by; all had to be done for the first time. That it is done as it should be done, as it might be done, is not claimed. The author is sure of but one thing: that he has worked with diligence, and a faithful effort to tell the story truthfully, without so overloading it with details as to make it confusing or wearisome. Someone who shall undertake the task in future years, with documents in the meantime ac- cumulated, will avoid the mistakes of this book and make a far better one. Probably every reader will note omissions, and among them things that he will think he had a right to look for in such a book. The chief reason for such omissions is lack of space. The author has examined many thousand volumes and files of documents, to say nothing of man- uscripts and pamphlets amounting to many more thousands, and in few cases has he failed to find something germane to his subject, or to make note of some interesting fact or anecdote. Long before he began to write, he found himself in possession of material sufficient to make several volumes like this, and that without any “padding.” It became at once a serious question what to include in such a sketch, and what might be excluded with least loss to the reader. This was a delicate problem; that it is correctly solved in all cases the writer does not flatter himself. Those who compare this volume with the others of the series to which it belongs will find certain things related here that may be found in them, as well as other things that do not form part of the exclusive history of Baptists in the Middle States. From the nature of the case, this overlapping of narratives could not be avoided. The Baptists of the Middle States were not isolated from their brethren in other sections, and their story could not be told without frequent reference to things that are also part of the history of the New England and Western Bap- tists. But it is believed that, in every such case, the point of view in this book differs sufficiently from that of other writers, while also the 7 grouping of facts and the coloring of the story have sufficient individu- ality to justify the retelling of an episode already recounted. For all matters of consequence the authority is indicated in foot- notes.1 These have been made as few as possible; it would have been more easy to double their number and length, but the constant danger has been that the notes might become so voluminous as to swallow up the text. In all cases the most accessible edition has been chosen for reference. For example, the references to Backus are to the Newton re- print of 1871, and those to Benedict are to the one-volume edition of 1848, instead of, in either case, the rare first editions so dear (in every sense of the word) to the bibliophile. Fitting acknowledgment should here be made to those who have aided so courteously, often at no small trouble to themselves, to make the history accurate and full. A list of all to whom application has been made for help would fill at least a page; and not one case is recalled in which aid has been refused or grudgingly given. In particular, thanks are due to Mr. Henry E. Lincoln, for many years the librarian of the American Baptist Historical Society, who was unwearied in his efforts to place at the author’s disposal the treasures of a once invaluable col- lection of Baptist documents, and whose special knowledge of Baptist literature has been of utmost service. Grateful mention should also be made of the courtesy of Prof. Ralph W. Thomas, of Hamilton, N.Y., curator of the Colgate Historical Collection, now the most valuable li- brary of Baptist literature in the world, and to become more and more valuable to all Baptist historians, through the wise liberality of its founder, as the years pass by. Great help has also been derived from the valuable collection of books, pamphlets, and MSS., many of them ex- tremely rare, bequeathed to Crozer Theological Seminary by the late Horatio Gates Jones. This includes what is now probably the only com- plete set of the Materials of Morgan Edwards (but a small portion of which was ever printed), without which so large a part of early Baptist history would be a blank. Friends all over the country have given or loaned copies of valuable documents, rare books, tracts, Minutes, etc., and to one and all the author returns his most hearty and sincere thanks. H.C.V. Crozer Seminary, January, 1896. 1 Footnotes enclosed by brackets [ ] are generally explanatory of obscure or archaic words/phrases, and have been added for this 2017 edition. CHAPTER I: ON the 9th of September, 1609, Hendrick Hudson sailed into New York Bay in the “Half Moon” and cast anchor. His prophetic eye be- held the waters of this bay — then, as now, the most beautiful in the Western Hemisphere — filled with ships from every land and its shores occupied by teeming cities. He named the region New Netherland, and marked the isle of Manhattan as the site of a new colony. The Dutch were among the most enterprising colonizers of the seventeenth centu- ry, and the glowing reports brought back by Hudson stimulated them to make immediate trial of the possibilities of this new region, which promised profits as large as they had already obtained in their East In- dian colonies. Private enterprise was first in the field. Merchants of Amsterdam sent vessels to trade with the Indians in 1612, and the first settlement and fort was established on Manhattan Island,