USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > An old New England church, established religion in Connecticut; being an historical sketch of the first Church of Christ and the Prime ancient society, Fairfield, commemorating the two hundred and seventieth anniversary of public worship in the town > Part 3
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himself and his service thereby to prevent their being made des- olate by his departing from them." Three texts were used- Ezek. 18-3, Rev. 2-3, and Zach. 1-3.
The christian reader is informed that the "discourse shews the great danger of a People's departing from God by sin; it will cause God to depart from them, as we here find threatened. The way to escape this Judgment is to be instructed-Be thou instructed lest. This word of commination was directed and spoken first at Jerusalem, but reacheth to us now in New Eng- land, who stand in like circumstances before the Lord, as Jeru- salem then did. A parallel People with them, both in respect of privilege and provocation, Profession and Prevarication. They were highly favored of God, so have we been. They deeply revolted from God, so have we done. . . We in this land are greatly degenerate. New England Israel was once Holiness unto the Lord. What are we now?"
This sermon which, printed in Boston by Samuel Green in 1685, covers forty-four pages and has fifty-two divisions and sub-divisions, sets clearly and forcibly before us the state of mor- als in Connecticut society of the second generation. " The Rev- erend and Pious author," writes the editor of the little book, "having the sense of what he spake upon his own heart, may will also to affect the heart of others." For Mr. Wakeman had become " exceeding tremendously suspicious " that "Christian defections and rampant, colonial sins " would bring down awful punishment upon his people. "New England's name hath been much set by," he remarks ; "much more than now New Eng- land's credit and repute is brought many pegs lower than some- times."
Mr. Wakeman had been appointed by the General Court in 1696 to accompany several ministerial brethren to Windsor and ad- vise concerning serious troubles in that parish. A wise conserva- tive counsellor, a man of large affairs and generous impulses, he often served his people and the colony in the adjustment of quar-
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rels and difficulties. But we note with peculiar satisfaction that his own parish was kept comparatively free from the heated and acrimonious neighborhood conflicts which frequently marred the peace of various settlements.
The Fairfield townsmen were liberal in their support of the minister, but in 1668 some of them suggested a change of method in raising church funds. Mr. Wakeman did not favor making any part of the preacher's maintenance a matter of voluntary contribution. He therefore appealed to the General Court which shared his view of the case. "Established Religion " signified to his mind the backing of civil government in the work of the church. He was the servant of Connecticut not less than a mag- istrate or law-maker and as such the state stood in duty bound to support him.
A sermon preached at Fairfield in October 1672 and printed in Cambridge by Marmaduke Johnson in 1673, gives us another view of social needs in the colony. The discourse is entitled, " A Young Man's Legacy to the Rising Generation." It is a commemorative address preached "upon the death and at the desire of John Tappin of Boston." The man of moral stability and spiritual power is the man demanded for service. It is such servants of God who will stem the current of vice, irreligion and iniquity and help to redeem the land from impending doom.
It seems strange that demoralizing changes should have swept over Connecticut before the seventeenth century. The very strenuousness and intensity of early life in the wilderness, however, stimulated the rough, perverse side of human nature. It was war to the knife with beasts, Indians, marauders-it was fierce struggle with stony soil, harsh, cruel winters here and unfriendly patrons across the sea. These things perhaps stirred unwontedly the baser passions and impulses of our fore-fathers and made the fight for nobler social and spiritual conditions much the harder when once the first settlers had lost their fresh enthusiasm and succeeding generations followed along the lower levels of thought and aspiration.
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What was to be done for the renewal of pure Christianity and the development of better social conditions ?
One answer to this question was the movement to found a college in the colony. It was believed that a lack of convenient facilities for the education of the ministry worked to the injury of Connecticut. The ministers who convened at New Haven in 1700 to discuss higher education and take such means as seemed advisable for the founding of a college numbered ten-Noyes of Stonington, Chauncey of Stratford, Buckingham of Saybrook, Pierson of Killingly, Mather of Windsor, Andrew of Milford, Woodbridge of Hartford, Pierpont of New Haven, Russell of Middletown and Webb of Fairfield. The action taken by these clear visioned men is so familiar to us all that it requires no rehearsal. The original plan was modified and expanded so that an institution was organized whose object was for "instruct- ing youth in the arts and sciences, who may be fitted for public employment both in Church and Civil State." The prime aim naturally was a training of men for the ministry. The founders and trustees were all ministers and the first gifts came from these honored servants of the colony.
But it needed something more than a college to resist the downward trend of life and cope with the social and moral beset- ments of the times. So the Legislature considered ways and means in connection with the Established Religion and the appar- ent decline of spiritual vitality. The result will be noted as we proceed in the narrative of parish life. We remark however that this early period in the history of Fairfield shows that the arrangement by which the town at one time acted in the capac- ity of a civil organization and at another time in the capacity of a religious body did not satisfy any party. It did fairly well so long as everybody in the town was Puritan in faith and practice. But it was found impossible to keep the community screwed up to this high standard. There were numerous lapses-new emi- grants came to the plantation bringing lower ideals with them-
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the infection of indifference or antagonism to the Puritan spirit spread abroad-a second generation of men grew up whose asso- ciations blinded them to the inmost life of their stalwart, devout predecessors. A cry for larger freedom sounded through New England. The first great change in the relation between Church and State in Connecticut was at hand-the inevitable impulse toward the broader view of the question had taken possession of the leaders. It was a distinct advance in the right direction which the colony made, as we shall see, but it did not savor of haste or radicalism. Some of the strongest advocates and most loyal supporters came from the Church in Fairfield. The impress of their words and works has lasted through the later years of progress.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM IS APPROVED
THE Second period in the history of the Prime Ancient Society extends from the date of the Saybrook Platform in 1709 to the year 1818 when the disestablishment of the State Church occurred.
This is the long season-a century and more-when warfare spiritual, ecclesiastical, ethical, political and social raged with violence and Fairfield was one of the chief storm centers. Many a hard fought battle between Old Lights and New Lights, members of the Established Religion and Dissenters, Patriots and Tories, Consociationists and Anti-Consociationists, Congregation- alists and Church of England people was fought to the finish on this parish soil.
The " defects of the discipline of the churches of this gov- ernment " moved the Legislature, 1708, to call a Synod which convened at Saybrook September 9th. The results of this important convention were laid before the General Court at its October session and approved by the following vote :
"The Reverend Ministers delegates from the elders and messengers of the churches in this government, met at Saybrooke Sept. 9th, 1708, having presented to this Assembly a Confession of Faith, Heads of Agreement, and regulations in the Adminis- tration of Church discipline, as unanimously agreed and con- sented to by the elders and messengers of all the churches in this government. This Assembly do declare their great approbation of such a happy agreement, and do ordain that all the churches within this government that are or shall be thus united in doc- trine, worship and discipline, be, and for the future shall be owned and acknowledged established by law. Provided always
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that nothing herein shall be intended and construed to hinder or prevent any society or church that is or shall be allowed by the laws of this government, who soberly differ or dissent from the united churches hereby established, from exercising worship and discipline in their own way, according to their consciences."
The Court then ordered at its next session in May 1709 that the General Association should "revise and prepare for the press " the Platform adopted at Saybrook. This small volume -the first book published in Connecticut-Governor Saltonstall had printed in New London. The edition of 2,000 copies was paid for by the Colony and sent to four prominent individuals in different parts of Connecticut for distribution. Lieut-Governor Gold received at Fairfield 327 copies which he scattered through this portion of the territory.
" At a Consociation or meeting of the Elders and messen- gers of the County of Fairfield at Stratfield March 16th, 1709," the Saybrook System was accepted. Rev. Joseph Webb, Deacon John Tompson and Mr. Samuel Cobbet represented this church. This body which embraced all the churches of the county, believed that the Saybrook Confession and Discipline was extremely liberal. The Fairfield Consociation voted that it had power "Authoritatively, Judicially and Decisively to determine ecclesiastically affairs brought to their cognizance." This stricter interpretation of the Synod's Platform and Action was the unanimous voice of the delegates. The Church in Fairfield consistently adhered to that interpretation and gave the colony several of its most sturdy and powerful champions. (A more extended narrative of the Stratfield Council and the Fairfield Consociation is given in Chapter VII-a paper read at the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the organization of the Council in Bridgeport. )
The change in system relieved the Government to a consid- erable extent in respect to interference in ecclesiastical matters, yet paternalism was still manifest. In 1823 "The Court taking
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into consideration the representation of the General Association at Hartford on this instant May, respecting the circumstances of the old first parish in Fairfield, by reason of the infirmities that have long time attended the Rev. Mr. Joseph Webb, pastor of that church, he being now disabled and through weakness and infirmity not able to carry on the work of the gospel ministry among his people, to the great grief of the good people in that Society ; Upon consideration of which this Court recommends it to said Society, to agree with some other orthodox minister as soon as conveniently they can and call him to the help of Mr. Webb in the work of the ministry."
This kindly interest and oversight did not always avail in' such cases. It was hard to find men to fill the delicate office of an assistant in the parish and it was equally hard to satisfy all parties concerned in the choice of a helper.
Mr. Webb had discharged his duties in town and colony with distinguished success, but frail health trammeled his activ- ity in the very prime of his usefulness. It was largely owing to this fact that missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel were eager to press their work in Fairfield.
The fresh adjustment of church and parish in harmony with the plan of Saybrook had worked well in many towns. It imparted a certain vigorous impulse to the Religious Establish- ment here and for a time there was less complaint of moral decline and spiritual indifference. A stronger, better organiza- tion of church forces helped to shape local affairs into a more satisfactory condition. It was no longer town and church-the townsmen exercising a controlling influence in the affairs of the church. The town attended to its own affairs, while the parish composed of tax payers identified to a greater or less extent with the church, elected its moderator, clerk, prudential committee, school committee, collector, tithing man and other necessary officers. Every property holder in the parish was taxed for the support of the Established Religion unless he presented a certifi-
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cate to the effect that he worshipped with some other church, in which case his tax was given to the support of the minister des- ignated as his pastor.
The Saybrook system continued in force until 1784 when the revision of the statutes omitted all reference to it and thereby quietly authorized the lapse of its legal authority. A tax for the support of religion however was imposed by the state until the present Constitution was adopted in 1818.
The method of procedure in organizing a new church is clearly illustrated in the case of Norfield-a part of the Fairfield parish. Application was made to the General Court by certain men in 1757 and the request that Norfield be constituted a dis- tinct parish was granted.
"At a meeting of the inhabitants of Norfield in the town and county of Fairfield " -I quote from the records of the par- ish-"legally warned by a writ given out by Robert Waker a squire justice of the peace for the county of Fairfield, and David Coley and Nathan Morris and David Godfrey of said parish, on the 23rd day of June, legal action was taken, officers elected and committes appointed in accordance with the instructions of the general court. Nathaniel Squier was chosen moderator, Daniel Andrews clerk, David Coley, David Adams and John Lyon parish committee. It was voted to appoint Nathaniel Squier. Nathan Morris, David Buckly and Daniel Andrews, a committee to give Mr. Samuel Sherwood of Fairfield, ' a call to preach with us upon probation.' "
On July 4th the second parish meeting was held and it was voted that Mr. Samuel Sherwood be invited "to settle with us in the work of the ministry " and that we "give him fifty pounds lawful money a year for the first three years and at the end of three years, sixty pounds a year annually." The com- mittee was to consult Mr. Sherwood respecting the date of his ordination.
" At a council of the western district of Fairfield county
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convened at Norfield at the desire of the committee of said peo- ple and notified by the moderator of the last council (moderator of consociation) met on August 16th, 1757," Noah Hobart of Fairfield was chosen moderator. "The committee of said Norfield parish appeared in council and produced a copy of the act of the general assembly constituting them an Ecclesiastical society, also a copy of the vote of the people choosing Mr. Samuel Sherwood to settle among them in the work of the gospel ministry." These papers and Mr. Sherwood's acceptance of the call were examined, then the candidate was questioned as to " his experimental acquaintance with religion, his views in under- taking the work of the ministry, his principles and thoughts and approbation of the Saybrooke Platform and Confession of Faith." His answers being satisfactory, the council voted " unanimously and cheerfully" to proceed (the next day) at 7 a. m. with his ordination.
On the morning of the 17th of August-one hundred and fifty years ago to-day-" a number of persons of the above parish whose names are hereafter mentioned, appeared in council and produced a certificate from neighboring churches of their being members in full communion and in good standing and subscribed to the following covenant : We the subscribers having been admitted to communion with churches professing the doc- trines and practicing the discipline agreed upon by the general consociation of the churches of Connecticut at their meeting in Saybrooke 1709, and being inhabitants of the parish of Norfield, do agree to become a particular church on the constitution afore- said and covenant with each other to walk together in brotherly love and christian approbation of the reverend council convened to 'ordain a minister in this place and if we may be received and owned as one of the Consociated churches of this district, Aug- ust 17th, 1757." Twelve men including the candidate for ordi- nation signed this paper. "The council approved of this motion and accordingly admitted and owned them as one of the Conso-
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ciated churches of this district. The church then proceeded to invite Mr. Sherwood, one of their members, to take the pastoral charge of them. Mr. Sherwood accepted their invitation. The council unanimously voted the above minute and proceeded to the ordination."
The sermon on the occasion was preached by Rev. Noah Hobart of Fairfield.
CHAPTER VII.
" THE EPISCOPAL SEPARATION."
AMONG the laity there was no more zealous champion of the Established Religion in Connecticut than Lieut-Governor Gold. Inheriting the robust characteristics of his father and profiting by the opportunities presented him, he entered vigorously into the life of his day, giving himself unstintedly to public affairs both in church and state. An ardent advocate of Consociationism, a consistent believer in the Confession and Discipline of the Estab- lishment, a tireless opponent of the Church of England, as represented by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he brought down upon himself the bitter reproaches of men who organized and sustained the "Episcopal Separation" in Con- necticut. Fairfield was certainly the "chief seat of opposition to the Church of England; " and doubtless the presence and activity of Governor Gold, "its eminent persecutor," as Beards- ley calls him, had something to do with the intensity of feeling manifest here. But it is for us impartially, dispassionately to take a survey of the situation.
Dissenters in England, abused, ostracised, hunted in some cases like wild beasts, had fled to New England in order that they might worship God as conscience and reason directed. They established towns and churches in the wilderness-follow- ing the simple forms suggested by their study of the New Testa- ment and the exigencies of circumstances. After passing through great straights they prospered and their churches multiplied. Plantations were blessed with faithful ministers-school and college entered upon the work of education. The colony assumed a kind of pleasant attractiveness to settlers.
Uninvited there came to these parishes men who remained
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loyal to the Church of England. Knowing full well that the Established Religion was Congregational and that all settlers were taxed for its support, they insisted upon moving into these parishes. And when the favorable opportunity presented itself they agitated the organization of a Dissenting Society-an " Episcopal Separation.". The appeal for help sent to the Home Country resulted in the formation of a Missionary Society which speedily supplied with missionaries the regions where some movement favorable to the Church of England had been manifest.
Naturally men like Governor Gold and associates whose ancestors had suffered persecution in England did not regard with kindness the attempts of newcomers to bring into the community the organization which had harried the first adventurers out of the mother country. It was believed firmly that the introduction of Episcopacy into New England would result eventually in fresh tyranny like to that which had formerly distressed Pilgrim and Puritan before they crossed the sea.
Let us recal the fact that Church and State were intimately conjoined with few exceptions in all parts of Christendom-that the support of religion by public, common tax was nearly uni- versal-that the form of religion which prevailed in a state was the Establishment supported by this taxation. It therefore seemed to the fathers in Connecticut that a stroke was aimed at the very life of the colony when the "Episcopal Separation " took form and missionaries from the Church of England appeared in these parts. Such fears seem to us not only groundless but absurd-not so however to the people of the Established Re- ligion in this colony. When old prayer-books which had been hidden in oak chests for one or two generations were brought out and new prayer-books supplied by friends of the movement began to circulate in town, waves of excitement passed back and forth over the community like rough, fitful winds playing across the waters of the Sound, lashing the body into violent commotion.
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The fear which agitated the minds of men in Mr. Webb's parish had a political source. A Church of England flourishing in Connecticut must inevitably seek the expulsion of a Congre- gational order and introduce the dominancy of a prelatical clergy. The presence and authority of men so closely identifled with a tyrannous home government was believed to signify ultimately loss not only of the religious freedom which the colonists had enjoyed but likewise the loss of their civil independence. It had been a delightful and soul-satisfying liberty which these Puritan settlers and their descendants had exercised in Connecticut. In their minds the Church of England, a vital part of the Home Government, stood for old time slavery and harassment. Do you marvel that the men who thought deeply upon these sub- jects, whose fathers had been stripped of rights and driven into exile, whose early experiences had been highly seasoned with persecution or the vivid story of it-do you marvel that these earnest men yielded to wide-spread alarm and faced the mission- aries of the S. P. G. with such warfare as they were able to com- mand.
When the Rector of Yale College and his little company felt con- strained to enter the Church of England the stroke fell with awful force upon the parish of Fairfield. Mr. Webb a founder and trustee of the college, intimately concerned in its prosperity and a leader in the colony, broken in health and crippled in labor, was unable to breast the storm raging in the neighbor- hood.
Mr. Johnson wrote enthusiastically to the society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts on June 11th, 1724, " the whole town would I believe embrace the Church if they had a good minsiter at Fairfield. I have a vast assembly every time I visit them."
But Mr. Johnson was mistaken. He had not really felt the pulse of the people. A small number of families responded to his missionary activity. The condition of Mr. Webb invested
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such effort. The " strong minister " which Mr. Johnson desired came to Fairfield in the person of Mr. Henry Caner, certainly one of the most faithful and eminent missionaries which served in his day and generation, but there was no such desertion of the Established Religion as Mr. Johnson suggested. On the contrary the Established Church in Fairfield entered upon a fresh and splendid campaign-one of the most prosperous periods in its history.
The Reverend Noah Hobart, grand-son of the Reverend Peter Hobart of Hingham, Massachusetts, became pastor of this church, February 7th, 1733. He was a man of large attain- ments, fine scholarship, keen intellect and tremendous energy, admirably adapted for the work to which he was called, serving this parish forty full years, and contributing most liberally to its growth and influence. The "Episcopal Separation" discovered in him a controversialist whose powers rendered him a conspic- uous and splendid leader. No sooner was he settled in the parish than he entered the arena of controversy. His sermons, addresses and papers on "Consociationism," and "Episcopal Sep- aration " are a part of Connecticut Ecclesiastical History. The people of the parish rallied to the sound of his clarion notes while the churches of the Establishment in the colony rejoiced in his powerful and efficient championship.
"It certainly is, in some circumstances, a necessary part of a Minister's Duty, to write upon Controversy and even to contend earnestly for the Faith," says Mr. Hobart in the preface to one of his books. "It has pleased the Lord of the Harvest to assign my particular Station in his Field in the midst of the Episcopal Separation. For though the Progress of it has not been in any Degree equal to the Reports that have been spread abroad ; yet I suppose it has prevailed more in the County of Fairfield than in any other part of New England."
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