<p> CHURCH HISTORY II LECTURE 36 BAPTISTS IN AMERICA I 1600-1800</p><p>The following is taken from John T. Christian’s book: “A History of the Baptists” (1922) The first Baptists on this continent were found in New England. That portion of the country was settled by the Separatists and the Puritans. The first named of these parties established Plymouth Colony and were known as the Pilgrim Fathers; the Puritans at a later date occupied Massachusetts Bay. One point must be kept clearly in mind. In what is now called Massachusetts, there were in the early days two colonies, two centers of life and influence, very distinct one from the other. There was the little colony of Plymouth, beginning in 1620, and the larger colony of the Massachusetts Bay, beginning in 1628, which centered around Salem, Boston and Charleston. These colonies were about forty miles apart, a wilderness separated them by the land route, so that the principal intercourse was by water. But they were not so far separated by distance and physical difficulties as their general ideas and ways of looking at the great questions which were then up for consideration. So these two little confederacies, for a time, lived much to themselves. The people at Plymouth were called Pilgrims; the people at the Bay were called Puritans. The people at Plymouth were called Separatists, and those at the Bay were Non-Conformists and these words conveyed entirely separate ideas (Increase N. Tarbox, Plymouth and the Bay, The Congregational Quarterly Magazine, April, 1875, XVII 239, 241).</p><p>Most of the Separatists were North of England men. They denounced the Church of England as corrupt and they wholly separated from its communion. When the heavy hand of persecution fell on them they migrated to Holland. The surroundings in the Netherlands were not favorable to them. The language was harsh, the climate undesirable, and their environments were not satisfactory in many directions. So they crossed the seas and established themselves at Plymouth as "the forerunners of an innumerable host." The Puritans on the other hand did not break with the Church of England. They dissented from many of its tenets but did not separate from it. They thought that the church ought to be reformed and remodeled. When the Puritans met with no success in this direction they likewise sought a home in the New World. Rev. Francis Higginson, on leaving England, in 1629, is reported to have said: "We will not say, as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving of England: Farewell, Babylon! Farewell, Rome! But we will say, Farewell, dear England, and all the Christian friends there. We do not go to New England as separatists from the Church of England; though we cannot but separate from the corruptions of it. But we go to practice the positive part of church reformation; and propagate the gospel in America" (Cotton Mather, Magnalia, Lib. III. Sec.1).</p><p>Cotton Mather states that "many of the first settlers of Massachusetts were Baptists, and that they were as holy and faithful and heavenly people as any, perhaps in the world" (Mather, Magnalia, II.). "As our brethren in the mother country," says Benedict, "had been much intermixed with the dissenting pedobaptists, it is highly probable that the early emigrants of this class in the infant colony, continued to do so for the first years of their settlement here. And while they continued in this state of quiescence or concealment, they met with no trouble or opposition.</p><p>Persecutions had begun against the Baptists in 1635, and were inflicted subsequently in the name of the law in many places, in Dorchester, Weymouth, Rehobeth, Salem, Watertown, Hingham, Dover, N. H., and Swampscott. So numerous were the offenders that on November 13, 1644, the General Court, passed a law for the Suppression of the Baptists. The law was as follows: “Forasmuch as experience hath plentifully and often proved, that since the first rising of the Anabaptists, about one hundred years since, they have been the incendiaries of the commonwealths, and the infectors of persons in main matters of religion, and the troublers of churches in all places where they have been; …which opinions, if they should be connived at by us, are like to be increased amongst us, and so must necessarily bring guilt upon us, infection and trouble to the churches, and hazard to the whole commonwealth; it is ordered and agreed, that if any person or persons, within </p><p>1 this jurisdiction, shall either openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants, …every such person or persons shall be sentenced to banishment” (Backus, History of the Baptists In New England, I.359, 860).</p><p>------</p><p>The following is taken from David Benedict’s book: “A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, and other Parts of the World” (1813) The following table, taken from Morse’s Geography, exhibits in one view the settlements of the different States, and the names of those by whom they were effected. Quebec 1608 By the French. Virginia 1610 or 1611 By Lord De la War. Newfoundland June, 1610 By Governor John Guy. New York New Jersey about 1614 By the Dutch. Plymouth 1620 By part of Mr. Robinson’s congregation. [and the list goes on]</p><p>By this table it appears that a permanent settlement was effected in Virginia ten years before the fathers of New England landed at Plymouth. Some temporary settlements had been made in the country about twenty years before. Most of the first settlers of America were merely worldly adventurers, who were induced to encounter the dangers of a distant voyage, and the hardships of a wilderness from the prospects of temporal advantages. Those who came from England, which was by far the greatest number, were for the most part Episcopalians. There were however, intermixed in almost all the different companies of emigrants, dissenters of different names, and among them we have reason to believe there were of the Baptists a few. It does not appear that there were in any of the colonies, any religious establishments, which acquired much permanency, or that carried their acts of intolerance to any considerable degree, except in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The Episcopal church was the established religion of the Carolinas, but it had neither the spirit nor power of persecuting dissenters, to any great extent. Maryland was founded by Roman Catholics, but they, different from their brethren in the old world, were always tolerant and mild. Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers, who, like the Baptists in Rhode Island, would never establish any religious laws, and of course there could be no religious persecutions. New York and New Jersey were settled by a mixture of people of many nations and religions, but it is probable a majority of the settlers were Episcopalians.</p><p>------</p><p>The following is taken from www.ReformedReader.org Authorities differ very much as to the beginning of Baptist History in America. By some good authorities it has been maintained that the first Baptist church in America was organized by Roger Williams at Providence, R. I., in the year 1639. Other historians, who are just as reliable, dispute this claim. According to Vedder, "Sometime about March, 1639, therefore, Williams baptized Ezekiel Holliman; and thereupon Holliman baptized Williams. Eleven others obeyed their Lord in this way, and the first Baptist church on American soil was formed." Williams had been banished from Salem, Massachusetts Colony, where he was pastor [a non-Baptist church], because of his teachings with regard to the religious liberty and the separation of church and state and had come to what is now Providence and founded a settlement based upon the above named ideas, thus giving to the world "its first government" whose corner- stone was "absolute religious liberty." But Jarrell maintains, in his Baptist Church Perpetuity, that Hansard Knollys, who had come to America among the Puritan immigrants, was the pastor of a Baptist church which had been organized at Newport by John Clark in 1638, the year before Roger Williams organized the Providence Church. Ray supports Jarrell's claim in the following statement: "We consider it a point now fully made out, that the Newport, and not the Providence Church is the oldest Baptist church in</p><p>2 America." On the other hand, Cramp puts the organization of the Newport Church by Dr. John Clark as late as 1644. Thus goes the argument, but we are inclined toward the conclusion that the church at Providence, founded by Roger Williams, has the best of the argument. But soon afterwards, Baptist churches sprang up in all of the colonies with varying degrees of success and persecution attending them. The first Baptist church in Delaware originated in 1770 from an immigrant Baptist church from Wales.</p><p>------</p><p>Some wrongly assert that John Smyth started the first Baptist Church in America. But, Smyth left England with the Brownists and started a church in Holland, and then later died there. He was baptized by a convert that was in his company there in Holland.</p><p>The following is what is inscribed on Doctor John Clarke's Tombstone as Dr. Graves read it in 1834. “To the Memory of Doctor John Clarke. One of the original purchasers and proprietors of this island and one of the founders of the First Baptist Church of Newport, its first pastor and munificent benefactor; He was a native of Redfordshire, England, and a practitioner of physic in London. He, with his associates, came to this island from Mass., in March, 1638, O. S., and on the 24th of the same month, obtained a deed thereof from the Indians. He shortly after, gathered the church aforesaid, and became its pastor.” Thus, we learn that in 1638 Dr. John Clarke was one of the founders, and sole Pastor, of that First Baptist Church of Newport, Rhode Island. And, from other history we know that Roger Williams didn’t begin the church in Providence until March of 1639. (collated internet searches done by Pastor Warner)</p><p>------</p><p>The following is taken from John T. Christian’s book: “A History of the Baptists” (1922) Benedict admits that "the more I study on this subject, the more I am unsettled and confused" (Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, 443. See king, The Mother Church in America, 1896). It is a matter, however, of no particular moment to the general historian. Nothing depends on it. In any event, the Baptists of America did not derive their origin from Roger Williams. Benedict (p. 364) mentions the names of fifty-five Baptists churches, including the year 1750, in America, not one of which came out of the Providence church.</p><p>"From the earliest period of our colonial settlements," says J. P. Tustin, "multitudes of Baptist ministers and members came from Europe, and settled in different parts of this continent, each becoming the center of an independent circle wherever they planted themselves" (Tustin, A Discourse delivered at the Dedication of the Baptist Church and Society in Warren, R I., 38). Mr. Tustin continues: "It is a fact generally known, that many of the Baptist churches in this country derived their origin from the Baptist churches in Wales, a country which has always been a nursery for their peculiar principles. In the earlier settlements of this country, multitudes of Welsh emigrants, who left their fatherland, brought with them the seeds of Baptist principles, and their ministers and members laid the foundation of many Baptist Churches in New England, and especially in the middle states." The churches, therefore in this country, were for the most part made up of members directly from England and Wales.</p><p>James D. Knowles (Memoir of Roger Williams, 169 note. Boston, 1834), has raised this question and answered it as follows: The question which has been asked, with some emphasis, as if it vitally affected the Baptist churches in this country; "By whom was Roger Williams baptized?" has no practical importance. All whom he immersed were, as Pedobaptists must admit, baptized. The great family of Baptists in this country did not spring from the First Church in Providence. Many Baptist ministers and members came, at an early period, from Europe, and thus churches were formed in different parts of the country, which have since multiplied over the land. The first Baptist church formed in the present State of Massachusetts, is the church at Swansea. Its origin is 3 dated in 1663, when the Rev. John Myles came from Wales, with a number of the members, of a Baptist church, who brought with them its records. Of the 400,000 communicants now in the United States, a small fraction only have had any connection, either immediate or remote, with the venerable church at Providence, though her members are numerous, and she has been honored as the mother of many ministers.</p><p>------</p><p>The following is taken from David Benedict’s book: “A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, and other Parts of the World” (1813) The beginning of our brethren in America will be related under the head of each respective State, and the banishment of Roger Williams may be found under that of Rhode Island. The church which he founded at Providence, in 1639, was the first of the Baptist denomination in the American continent. The first church in Newport, Rhode Island, founded in 1644, by Dr. John Clark, was the second; the second in that town, formed in 1656, was the third; the church in Swansea, begun by John Miles, in 1663, was the fourth; and the first in Boston, founded first in Charlestown, in 1665, by Thomas Gould, was the fifth. In forty years from the founding of the last mentioned church, there arose eleven more in the following order: Seventh- Day, Newport, 1671; Tiverton, Rhode Island, 1685; Middletown, New Jersey, 1688; Pennepeck, now called Lower- Dublin, Pennsylvania, 1689; Piscataway, New Jersey, the same year; Charleston, South Carolina, 1690; Cohansey, New Jersey, 1691; 2d Swansea, 1693; Welsh-Tract, Delaware, 1701; Groton, Connecticut, 1705; Seventh-Day, Piscataway, New Jersey, 1707. </p><p>The first church in Philadelphia was in reality formed in 1698, although it has generally been dated in 1746, when it was re-organized. Thus in almost a hundred years after the first settlement of America, only seventeen Baptist churches had arisen in it. Nine of them were in New England. Of these seventeen churches, only four, that is, the three in Massachusetts, and the one in Connecticut, were put to any trouble on account of their religious principles; and of these four, the one at Boston felt most of the hard hand of civil coercion.</p><p>EPOCH SECOND: PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATION (1707-1739) In 1707, the Philadelphia Association was formed of the five following churches, viz. Pennepeck, Middletown, Piscataqua, Cohansey, and Welch Tract. This Association was the first in America; it has always maintained a regular and respectable standing, and has been from its commencement to the present time one of the most important institutions of the kind. From 1707 till 1740, about twenty new churches were raised up in different parts of the United States; some were of an Arminian cast; but most of them adopted the Calvinistic faith. Three or four became extinct in a few years, but the rest remain till the present time. During the period under consideration, no very remarkable event appears to have occurred. The churches in New England, except those in Rhode Island, were persecuted and fleeced; those in other parts were left at liberty to serve God, and dispose of their property as they pleased. </p><p>EPOCH THIRD: REVIVALS (1740-1790) About 1740, a very powerful work of grace began in New England, and prevailed much in other parts of the United States. It was, by way of derision, called the New Light Stir. This work commenced under the ministry of that honored servant of God, the famous George Whitefield, who was then travelling as a flaming itinerant along the American coast. Many ministers opposed his course, but many others caught his zeal, ran to and fro with the tidings of salvation, and knowledge was almost every where increased. This work began generally among the Pedo-baptists, and where they opposed it, separation ensued. And here originated the term Separates, which was first applied to Pedobaptist and afterwards to Baptist churches. [Those that followed Whitefield’s evangelical zeal were known as separates.] </p><p>4 Separate Churches were formed all over New England. In many parts of the country there was hardly a town or parish in which they were not to be found. Some pushed on their zealous measures to an enthusiastic extreme, but most of them acted a sober and rational part; their views were highly evangelical, and their maxims of gospel discipline were generally clear and consistent. They took the Bible alone for their guide, and of course, Baptist principles soon prevailed amongst them. Pedobaptists were seen persecuting their brethren, and casting them into prison because they were too religious. The clergy of Connecticut determined that the New Light Stir was not according to law; they therefore stimulated their rulers to attempt its regulation. Many Baptist churches arose out of those Separate societies, and the late venerable Backus of Middleborough, Hastings of Suffield, and a number of other Baptist ministers, were at first of their connection. Out of the New Light Stir arose a considerable number of churches, which adopted the plan of open communion. But very few of these open communion churches [had any longevity.]; some were split to pieces by the embarrassing policy, and others had adopted the practice of communing with baptized believers only [; I assume that this was ‘close’ communion, in that all that practiced believers baptism back then were Baptists]. The zealous New-Lights kept together, as long as they could; but opposite principles about baptism, necessarily lead them to divide into distinct communities. Most of those, which did not become Baptists, have fallen in with the parish churches, so that very few of the ancient Separate churches remain. </p><p>Towards the conclusion of the American war, and for a number of years subsequent to the termination of that serious conflict, there were very extensive revivals of religion in different parts of the land, and Baptist principles almost every where prevailed. In ten years, beginning with 1780, and ending with 1789, considerably over two hundred churches were organized in different parts of the United States. In 1790, John Asplund published his first Register of the Baptist denomination in America. This singular man had, in eighteen months, traveled about seven thousand miles, chiefly on foot, to collect materials for this work. it was a new attempt of the kind in America, and is as correct as could be expected. By this it appears, there were, at the date of it, in the United States, and in the Territories, eight hundred and sixty eight churches, eleven hundred and thirty two ministers, including those who were not ordained, and sixty-four thousand nine hundred and seventy-five members. </p><p>Sandy Creek Baptist Church is both the oldest organized church and the oldest surviving religious structure in Randolph County. A recognized landmark in religious history, it is noted by the nearby state historic marker as the “Mother of Southern Baptist Churches.” The congregation at Sandy Creek was founded by the “Separate Baptist” minister Shubal Stearns (1706-1771), a Boston native who led a group of eight families into the area in 1755. Most colonial or “Particular” Baptists were members of the Philadelphia Association and advocated a strict Calvinist theology of “what will be, will be.” Separate or “New Light” Baptists broke with this practice and proposed active campaigns to win converts with Sunday Schools, revivals and missionary work. Stearns’ efforts to awaken the religious impulses of the back country were wildly successful, with his original congregation of eight families mushrooming into 606 members by 1770. In June 1758 Stearns formed the Sandy Creek Association, an organization including not only the original church but three nearby offshoot congregations. The association soon grew to include members all over the South, and as far west as the Mississippi. Baptist historian Morgan Edwards noted in 1772 that “It, in 17 years, is become mother, grandmother and great grandmother to 42 churches, from which sprang 125 ministers, many of which are ordained and support the sacred character as well as any set of clergy in America.” In 1830 the Sandy Creek Association backed the creation of the new Southern Baptist Convention, and the two organizations soon combined. </p><p>(See Supplemental materials)</p><p>5</p>