USA > Connecticut > Windham County > Historic Gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut > Part 3
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The Canterbury Separate Church, as it was now called, though unstated in the eye of the law, robbed of its birthright, deprived of legal existence and privileges, could still rejoice in the heroic stand it had taken and the liberty it had achieved-liberty at least to choose a minister "after God's heart " and their own fancy, and order its worship after the Gospel pattern. As the first church in Connecticut, and probably in New England, of avowed New Light or Separate principles, it held a most conspicuous and influential position. With eagerness it embraced the earliest opportunity to re-affirm the original church covenant, and also to guard against things that might lead to " darkness and corruption " by making some points " more plain and particular," especially with regard to admitting into the church none but true believers assured of their own conversion, and the use of civil power in securing support of the minister. This amended covenant was signed at first by some sixty church members, and by many others in the course of a few months, representing some of the most substantial families of the town.
Renewing its attempt to call and settle a minister,
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it first addressed its " dear and honored father," Elisha Paine, but the leadings of Providence clearly calling him to a wider field, it finally made choice of his brother Solomon, who, after serious spiritual conflict, accepted the call, and was formally ordained pastor of the "First or regular Congregational church of Can- terbury." This matter of ordination was accom- plished with much difficulty-the established minis- try of the colony disdainfully reprobating such irregular proceedings-but relief was procured by means of a Separate exhorter, Thomas Denison, who had been regularly ordained by Rev. Ebenezer Moulton, of Brimfield, a Baptist minister, who could trace back in ministerial succession to three of the most noted Puritan ministers of Boston. With his assistance an attempt was made in Mansfield to ordain their good brother and deacon, Thomas Marsh, as teaching elder of the Separate church. But when a great concourse of people gathered on the appointed day to witness the services, they found that the good deacon had been arrested the day previous on charge of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ without law- ful license or authority, and was " closely locked up " in Windham jail. That the services carried on that day in Mansfield by Elisha Paine and other Separate leaders were highly inflammatory in character is not surprising. Nor was the excitement lessened by the appearance upon the scene of that most formidable
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body-the Windham County Association-" fourteen learned ministers," armed with all the powers and terrors of ecclesiastic authority, hoping by this united appearing and testimony to scatter the evil forces of Separatism-attempting, says Backus, "to scatter that flock after their shepherd was smitten." But the storm evoked had passed far beyond human manipu- lation. The ministers met a most tumultuous recep- tion. Their attempted arguments and remonstrances were drowned " in unchristian and approbrious revil- ings," and they were forced to retreat, after reading a formal protest in the name of the appointed eccle- siastic authority of the county. A month later the Mansfield Separates succeeded in carrying through the ordination of another brother, John Hovey, while good Deacon Marsh was kept locked up in jail for six months.
But despite, and partly because of, these very ob- stacles and persecutions, Separatism was making great advances. Not only in Connecticut but all over New England, Christians were coming out from the established churches. "Come out from among them and be ye separate," was the cry that rang through the land. "Come out from these dead and corrupted churches ; from the abominable tyranny of those unchristian and ungodly Civil Constitutions, and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free." Every town, nearly every community, was
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stirred by this religious movement; masses of en- thusiastic Separates, breaking away from the yoke of Egyptian bondage in joyful hope of establishing a pure church and hastening forward the glorious day of gospel grace and deliverance. Ignorant, fanatical, unaccustomed to self or church govern- ment, burning with zeal and righteous indignation, how great their need of wise and competent leader- ship. One man alone, according to the church historian, Rev. Isaac Backus, was equal to the oc- casion. To one man above all others they turned for help and guidance ; Elisha Paine was the Moses to lead the Separates from Egypt to the Promised Land. From every quarter came to him letters and messengers beseeching his presence and aid, and to this work he dedicated his life and energies. Like Wesley, of later times, he went about his mission, traveling from town to town and from one colony to another, everywhere aiding in the formation and building up of Separate churches. His superior ed- ucation and sound judgment enabled him in some degree to direct and control the seething elements. " A mixed multitude " accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt. The Separate movement swept through the lowest stratum of society, in a day of compara- tive ignorance and imperfect civilization, taking in not only the ignorant, fanatical and visionary, cranks of every variety, but the sore-heads, the grumbleto-
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nians ; all who for any cause were brought into op- position to constituted authorities. To bring these scattered and disorderly congregations into anything like coherent and orderly church estate, seemed a task beyond the power of mortals. But Paine and other devoted Separates went bravely forward, trust- ing in the righteousness of their canse and the help of their divine Leader. The Mansfield Separate church adopted and published an elaborate covenant, which may be considered the official statement of New Light doctrine and practice. A pure church, perfect assurance of conversion and salvation in every member, liberty to choose and set aside its own offi- cers, and, also, to preach, exhort, and support the preacher in its own fashion, were its distinguishing characteristics. As far as possible this covenant was made the standard in other Separate churches. The destruction of Saybrook Platform was made a special object in Connecticut. "A Short View of the Con- stitution of the Church of Christ," and the difference between it and the church as established by Civil Au- thority, published by Solomon Paine, serving " as a burning torch to enlighten the conscience" in this regard. The views and practices of the several churches depended much upon the character of their leaders and the strength of the separation. In com- munities like Canterbury and Plainfield, where it in- cluded a majority of the respectable families, they
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differed little from other Congregational churches except in greater spirituality and liberty of speech. The testimony of Rev. David Rowland, pastor of the standing church of Plainfield, who by reason of his position was obnoxious to the New Lights, has great weight. He writes, at a later date-
" Although some things appeared among them at first very un- warrantable, yet considering their infant state it must be ac- knowledged by all that were acquainted with them, that they were a people, in general, conscientiously engaged in promoting truth, and Mr. Stevens, their minister, a very clear and powerful preacher of the Gospel, as must be acknowledged by all who heard him."
But while laboring "to guard against things that might lead to darkness and corruption," they ad- mitted one fatal error-the assumed possession of the "key of knowledge," by which they not only had perfect assurance of their own conversion and eter- Dal salvation, but through "the inward actings of their own souls " could test the spiritual condition of all with whom they came in contact. The adoption of this pernicious principle wrought incalculable mis- chief-leading the New Lights to despise human knowledge, to set their own personal impression against all evidence and authority, and above all to deny the possession of true religion to Christians whose experience varied from their standard. It led
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them to denounce with most scathing severity the ministry and membership of the established churches. Nothing brought the Separates into such disrepute with true friends of the Revival as the abuse and maledictions poured out upon the standing churches.
But when turned upon themselves the use of this supernatural key was even more disastrous. No one was safe from the "inward acting" of his neighbor's soul. Few of these perfectly assured and regener- ated church members escaped church censure and discipline. Their records are filled with accusations, trials, admonitions, and excommunications. With no authority back of themselves to settle their disputes, trusting to their own impulses and literal interpreta- tion of detached passages of scripture, these loosely organized bodies quickly fell into scandalous disorder and confusion. Letters coming to Elisha Paine from many New Light organizations show how widespread were these difficulties and disorders.
And against these bodies of struggling Separates were ranged all the forces of civil and ecclesiastic au- thority. To the Government of Connecticut the New Lights were simply outlaws, excluded by special act of legislation from privileges granted to other dis- senting churches. Deluded Baptists and intruding Episcopalians might claim the benefit of The Tolera- tion Act, but for the rebellious children of their own favored churches there could be no release or mercy.
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Did the New Light leaders, taunted with their own ignorance, attempt to found an academy at New London for the better instruction of young men as Christian teachers and exhorters (an experimental Northfield) ? A law was at once enacted, October, 1742, forbidding the establishment of such school or academy for young persons without liberty from the Assembly, upon very severe penalties. Should such unlawful school be established the civil authority of a town was ordered to make inspection, and proceed with such scholars and students, and such as harbor or board them, according to the law of the colony re- specting transient persons. In the same Act it pro- vided-that no person that has not been graduated in Yale or Harvard colleges, or other Protestant college, shall take the benefit of the laws of the Government respecting the settlement and estate of ministers. And while thus denying New Lights liberty of speech and worship, liberty to found and attend schools of their own order, they took from them as far as pos- sible every civil right. Separates were excluded from town offices ; men of substance and character, like Obediah Johnson, of Canterbury, when elected repre- sentative to the Assembly by a majority of his fellow citizens, was not allowed to take his seat because of holding the office of deacon in the rebellious church. Ordained Separate ministers were shut up in jail for joining in marriage their own church members. Bap-
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tisms and marriages performed by them were pro- nounced illegal. And worse than all in its effects, touching all classes, were the rates extorted for the support of the established churches. In the eyes of the law each Separate was still a member of the parish in which he resided, and obliged to pay for the sup- port of its stated religious worship. Refusing to pay, his goods were forcibly taken by the collector, and, however much exceeding the amount due, no overplus was ever returned. If goods were insufficient the men were carried to prison. These were the days of Con- necticut's " religious persecution," not bloody, indeed, but most harrassing and persistent. All over the col- ony were heard the cries of these afflicted Separates- men dragged to jail by force, wives and children left helpless at home. Instances of special hardship are noted-the poor man's only cow driven away from his door, the meat or grain laid up for winter suste- nance carried off by the merciless collector. Wind- ham jail was so crowded with victims as to require an additional story. In Norwich, where there was a strong New Light element, the contest was very bitter. The venerable mother of the church historian, Rev. Isaac Backus, was taken from her home and confined thirteen days in jail for refusing to pay her church rate. It took the constable and six assistants to carry a resistant brother to jail. Rev. Alexander Miller, of Voluntown, ancestor of the late Hon.
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William L. Gaston, of Massachusetts, tells his story in the subjoined petition :
"Whereas, we are rendered incapable upon the account of sickness and imprisonment, of sending a petition, we take this opportunity of informing your Honors of the difficulties we have met with as to our outward man because we are constrained to observe and follow the dictates of our own conscience, agree- able to the Word of God, in matters of religion, looking upon it to be God's prerogative to order the affairs of his own worship. We are of that number who soberly dissented from the Church established by Conn. and though we have no design to act in contempt of any lawful authority, or to disturb any religious society, but only to worship God according to the rules he has given us in his Word in that way now called Separation, yet have we suffered the loss of much of our goods, particularly be- cause we could not in conscience pay minister's rates, it appear- ing to us very contrary to the way that the Lord hath ordained even the present way in which ministry are maintained-Poor men's estates taken away and sold for less than a quarter of their value, and no overplus returned, as hath been the case of your Honor's poor informers ; yea, poor men's cows taken when they had but one for the support of their families, and the children crying for milk and could get none, because the collector had taken their cow for minister's rates. Neither have they stopped here, though we have never resisted them, but when our goods could no longer suffice we were taken from our families and cast into prison, where some of us have lain above two months, far distant from our families, who are in very difficult circumstances. Yea! and here we must unavoidably lie the remainder of our days unless we consent to such methods for which we can see no warrant in God's Word. No! surely it never came into his
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mind, neither hath he commanded that it should be so, that the Gospel of Peace should be so maintained ; he hath told his minis- ters how they shall have their maintenance, but not a word of imprisoning men for refusing to maintain them, surely the best things corrupted form the worst. And now, we pray you to take notice of our difficulties, and grant ns relief from bondage that we may enjoy the privileges other dissenters enjoy.
Windham Prison, May 13, 1752."
No notice was taken of this representation, and the prisoners were kept in jail till the authorities thought proper to release them. Two years later they again presented their case to the Assembly :--
" We, whose names are subscribed, because we could not in conscience pay minister's salary, which we find neither precept nor example for in the Word of God, as we understand the same. and after we had once and again suffered the loss of much of our substance, being taken from us by collectors, our bodies were taken . and cast into prison in said Windham jail, where we were closely confined, some of us above twenty miles distant from our families-where we lay some of us ten weeks in most distressing circumstances as to our bodies, and our families re- duced or exposed to difficulties too affecting to your Honors to hear, could they be related. During which time we wrote to you to inform you of our difficulties even while we were in prison, but having been informed that said letter was never read publicly and cannot be found, offer this to you.
ALEXANDER MILLER. PETER MILLER. JOSEPH SPALDING. JOSEPH WARREN."
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Elisha Paine, after the removal of his family to Long Island, returning in midwinter for household goods and stock, was arrested for rates due Mr. Cogs- well and kept for months in Windham jail, to the great inconvenience and suffering of himself and family. Petitions sent to the General Assembly for relief in numberless cases were promptly " dismissed by both houses." A formal memorial presented in 1753, from the representatives of some twenty-five New Light churches, praying for the benefit of the Toleration Act, was scornfully rejected. Men whose hearts had been stirred in childhood by stories handed down from their grandfathers of the persecutions of "Bloody Claver'ouse " and " Wicked Jeffries," now thrust their own brethren into like bondage. In vain was the parallel forced upon their notice-" We are but asking for the privileges for which our fathers bled and suffered and came to this new world."
"I can but marvel," says Elisha Paine, " to see how soon the children will forget the sword that drove their fathers into this land, and take hold of it as a jewel, and kill their grandchildren therewith." Again he writes-"The Roman Emperor was the first beast which persecuted the Christians that separated from their established religion, and by their law, fined, whipped, imprisoned and killed them ; we all own that the Pope or Papal throne is the Second Beast, which compels all under him to submit to his wor-
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ship. Now what your prisoner requests of you is a clear distinction between the Ecclesiastic Constitu- tion of Connecticut, by which I am now held in prison, and the aforesaid two thrones or beasts, in the foun- dation, constitution and support thereof." But their eyes were blinded that they could not see distinction or parallel. The mistakes, the excesses, the violence and hostility of the Separates furnished, as was said, " an awful specimen" of their need of this very sys- tem which they so bitterly denounced.
Failing in all attempts to procure relief from the government of Connecticut, the Separates were driven to appeal to the throne of Britain. Twenty Separate churches prepared a memorial, praying King George to grant them the benefit of the Toleration Act of Great Britain. This memorial was carried to Eng- land by a special deputation in 1756, and first exhibi- ted to the "Committee for the Dissenters." That body received the report with amazement, and could scarcely believe that the children of men who had fled from the domination of a State religion would have fashioned a parallel yoke for their own country- men, and that Dissenters from the church establish- ment of Connecticut were denied privileges granted to those in the mother country. This denial they deemed a plain violation of charter rights and feared that the presentation of the Separate memorial would greatly injure Connecticut. The chairman's letter of
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remonstrance and censure, and the disturbances ac- companying the French and Indian war, modified the policy of the government, and thenceforward ex- emption from rate paying under favorable circum- stances, and other slight ameliorations of treatment, was grudgingly accorded. But this leniency came too late to save the great majority of Separates. A number of their leaders were already gone, worn out with the severity of the conflict ; their churches had wasted ; the rank and file were greatly demoralized. A few churches, indeed, struggled on, holding fast to their peculiar principles, and in time secured a stand- ing among the regular Congregational churches of Connecticut, and are still represented by flourishing and influential church fellowships. But for the great. mass it was defeat and bitter disappointment-their buoyant hopes of a pure church and emancipation from Saybrook yoke blasted and destroyed. Their heroic stand for principle ; their battle for eternal rights and freedom degenerated into a noisy squab- ble with rate collectors. The more substantial ele- ment went back into the stated churches; a very respectable number allied themselves with the strug- gling Baptists ; the remnant remaining were but Pa- riahs and outcasts-" Wild Separates " as they were called; veritable terrors; violent, factious, impracti- cable, hurling anathemas upon all who disagreed with them ; their " hand against every man and every man's hand against them."
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To all outward appearance the "Separate move- ment " had failed completely. As a sect, as an organ- ization, the New Lights were indeed "Spent Lights " -spent, perhaps, but not wholly extinguished. Those poor old Separates with all their faults, follies and blunders, have indeed long since passed away-their bodies resting in forgotten graves-but we rejoice to believe that "their souls are marching on." The principles for which they contended are now recog- nized and established; the liberty for which they panted has become the birthright of every resident of this great country ; even that adamantine, inflexi- ble Platform which they so battered and berated ; that Ecclesiastic Constitution of Connecticut so sa- cred in the eyes of our grandfathers, has been set aside forever. And for these great and beneficent results the Separates helped prepare the way, and may be justly numbered with that "noble army of martyrs" which through weary ages has borne aloft the banner and shouted the battle-cry of religious freedom. Those New Light doctrines and principles that seemed at first so pernicious and revolutionary, slowly working their way into Christian conscious- ness, became the prevailing theology of the succeed- ing generation. The familiar religious conference and lay exhortation, which brought the Separates fine and imprisonment, has long been recognized as one of the most potent forces in the up-building and
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strengthening of the church. And even "the ac- cursed practise " of allowing women to speak in pub- lic, for which the Separates were severely reprobated, is becoming a marvelous factor in the evangelization and illumination of the world.
We have lost sight for a time of the chief leader in this movement-the Canterbury lawyer, so active and influential in its development. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he lived to witness the apparent fail- ure of his mission. As Separate churches died out and his services were less demanded, he accepted the pastorate of a New Light church at Bridgehampton, L. I., and passed the evening of his days in quietly administering to their needs. However great his dis- appointment, it made no change in his convictions or temper. The faith that gave him such "sweet con- tentment" when confined in jail for preaching the Gospel he so much loved, kept his soul in perfect peace. The diary of his former adversary, Rev. James Cogswell, gives us a glimpse of him in his farewell visit to his native town as late as 1769. He sent for Mr. Cogswell to come and hear him preach and returned his visit. They "discoursed in a friendly manner." Mr. Cogswell took "the old gentleman " to task for "meddling with Connecticut establish- ment " and " his notion of saving faith consisting in assurance." Mr. Paine maintained his own views, but " with a pleasant countenance," and temper free
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from bitterness and severity. A reformer without ar- rogance, a Separate without bigotry or uncharitable- ness, he stood far in advance of his generation, and the light of his teaching and example long lingered in Christian hearts. Elisha Paine died in Bridge- hampton in 1775, in his eighty-fourth year, having preached to his beloved flock till within fifteen days of his decease.
II.
WINDHAM COUNTY WOMEN OF OLDEN TIME .*
Our scant knowledge of early New England women is much to be regretted. While the deeds and lives of the Pilgrim fathers have been depicted for us in great variety of form, the Pilgrim mothers remain mostly in shadow. And as the sons of the first emi- grants went out into the wilderness to build up other homes and settlements, the daughters are even more in abeyance. We learn by the self-sacrifice of Lady Arabella Johnson, the exquisite letters of Margaret Winthrop, something of the character and tone of those women who followed their husbands over the ocean. But of the great majority of those who helped build up thousands of homes in the waste places of New England we know comparatively nothing.
"Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse," the date of birth, marriage, death, and birth of children, is all that has been left us. And yet we know that these mothers, wives, and daughters bore their full share in laying these foundations, and suf- fered even greater hardships and privations.
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