USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 55
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But it was when turned upon themselves that the "key of knowl- edge" did the greatest injury. " Absolute certainty " of the spiritual condition of another on admission to church membership, did not prevent extreme distrust afterward. If a brother or sister did not feel a positive interflowing of sympathy and affection with some particular person, some hidden sin was the cause which must be sought out, detected, confessed and brought to judgment before they could com- mune together at the Lord's table. Every church member considered himself his brother's keeper. The most trivial derelictions from duty were noted and reported, and espionage and tale-bearing encouraged as if they were cardinal virtues. No other cause so hastened the decay and disintegration of the Separate churches as this constant watching, fault-finding and disciplining. Probably one-half of these members, received only upon certain knowledge of their conversion and piety, were subjected to church discipline. Every man was at the mercy of the "inward actings " of his neighbor's soul. The Canterbury church, with all its glowing fervency and affection, had within three years sus- pended or cut off more than one-third of these perfectly known, fully assured disciples. The brothers, John and Ebenezer Cleveland, expelled from Yale College for fidelity to this church, were both cast out from it for presuming to question its infallibility. It happened thus :-
A fast was appointed, June 14, 1749, because of the drought, mortal sickness and abounding iniquity, at which time Ebenezer Cleveland took occasion to hand in a paper, stating "That he had long labored under great trials by reason of certain erroneous opinions which he believed were held by certain members of the church, but had feared to declare them lest he should excite displeasure, but since God had put
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it into their hearts to set apart this day to unbind the burthened ones, he would come with his burthen and lay open his mind by asking if they held certain opinions contained in thirteen specific questions, praying that they might be delivered from such erroneous tenets, and declaring that until this difficulty was removed he must subscribe himself their aggrieved brother." This letter fell like a bombshell upon the assembled brethren. That several of these erroneous tenets were actually held by the church was abundantly proved afterward from the pastor's own sermons, but instead of admitting that such a thing could be possible, or that by some unguarded expressions they had given occa- sion for mis judgment, they broke out into eries and tears, "that a dear brother who had so often refreshed their souls should come in the very language of the opposing world against them." As the answer- ing of the questions as they stood would lead to strife and debate con- trary to the rule of fasting, the church considered his fault, and voted, " That his bringing these things into ye church in such a manner was contrary to ye word and Spirit of God, and that the church was forbid to answer them that day." And when they went on with the work of the day, and the pastor solemnly prayed, "Lord, convince Brother Ebenezer Cleveland of his sin in that he hath brought this against the face of thy Word and Spirit "-that irascible brother was so overcome by the injustice of his treatment as to exclaim, "That's a lie !" in a loud voice.
This complicated offence necessitated immediate and stringent dis- cipline. Brothers Elisha and Solomon Paine " told him wherein he had trespassed, and endeavored to offer light, which he refusing to hear by breaking in upon them with loud speeches," they prayed over him with Deacon Boswell, "till they found their hearts inflamed with a divine love to that dear wounded brother, and then, with a spirit of meekness, told him his fault, inviting him in the bowels of love to repent and return," but he, though willing to reflect upon himself for rashness of temper and improper interruption of worship, justified his presentation of the paper, and declared, " that he held the same mind yet as to facts." The " violence of his temptation " preventing him from listening to arguments, Solomon Paine attempted to reach him by writing, showing him, that it was not simply the matter but the manner of the accusation that was offensive, craftily accusing in an obscure manner and implying that the church actually held these errors without first taking the proper Gospel steps to convince and reclaim it. The true ground of his trials, he alleged, was not that the church held errors, but in his own " casting away or denying the Key of Knowl- edge which Christ gave to his church, i. e., their knowledge to act under the present teaching, agency and government of the Holy
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Ghost." That this attempt to discover the sentiments of the church was a legitimate use of the particular key given to the offender appa- rently never occurred to Mr. Paine and the brethren, and failing in all efforts to bring him to repentance, they unanimously voted him, " under censure by the Word and Spirit of God, and admonished him of the evil and danger of leaning to his own understanding, denying the power of godliness, and of going to preach under the influence of that spirit of the Beast which all the world wandered after, and hath cast down many strong men wounded." Mr. John Cleveland, settled as pastor in Ipswich, then came to the relief of his brother in a very large letter, proving from Mr. Paine's own words that he held many of the tenets in question, and severely criticising both the spirit and form of the censure, whereupon he was, with very little ceremony, " cast out of the church." The offending Ebenezer, after continuing two or three years " as a heathen man and a publican," was restored to fellowship. His violent temper, and opposition to the errors which the superior education of himself and his brother had detected, carried him on in hostility and apostacy till he was "so awfully left of God as to accuse the church of blasphemy and horrible errors." After earnest prayer and wearisome conflict " his lovely soul was at length set at liberty," and upon confessing to God and the church his dreadful sins and the root of bitterness which had worried him, he was joyfully taken back to its arms and heart, " without further confession as to the matters of fact for which he was censured." The doubtful points occasioning this great rupture and difficulty, were this very pretension of absolute knowl- edge, certain irregularities in admitting members, ordaining ministers and holding councils, and "the accursed practice of women's speaking in public."
In the majority of cases the result was less happy, and after sufficient delay the church would be forced to proceed to the last dread act of excommunication. Some excellent brethren, for reasons more or less weighty, were thus formally cut off. The church, "gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit," unanimously declared, " That such had rejected the Kingdom of Christ and chosen the kingdom of darkness, and therefore, by the command of Christ and the obedient act of the church, were delivered unto Satan for the distruction of the flesh, and all company with them as brethren forbidden." "And when the awful sentence was pronounced, the Holy Ghost fell with power and majesty, witnessing to ye word that it was bound in Heaven, ye brethren lifting up heart and hand as the heart of one man, witnessing their Amen to ye witness of ye Holy Spirit."
A somewhat amusing instance of this mischievous intermeddling in South Killingly, excluded an excellent deacon from church fellowship
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under the flagrant charge, That having lately buried his wife, " he had backslidden from God and kept company with a carnal young woman and courted her, and on that account went on Sabbath day night, and such sircomstances attending as gave grate cause to ye enemy to blasfeam, and made declaration of his union to her on ye Lord's day before the Assembly, to the grate greaf of many and ye turning of ye lame out of the way"-for which the church, "with uplifted hands to Heaven, declared him to be to them as an heathen man and a publican." The aggrieved deacon, unable to find justice or mercy at home, vindicated his conduct and motives before Solomon Paine as an "imbassinder of Jesus Christ and his father in the Gospel," declaring :-
That, though a backsliding creature in general, yet, at the time specified,; he stood in his lot, both in private communion and public improvement; that if by the disparaging epithet applied to the young woman in question, they meant that she was an open profane, scandalous opposer of ye works and ways of God, it was utterly false, and nobody had ever heard that she was accounted such a person, and while attending upon his wife in her last sick- ness she had manifested a tender conscience, a teachable mind and a regard for the work, ways and power of God; but if they meant she was in a state of nature and void of grace, it was not a point for them to settle, and he believed she was converted. The pastor had urged that it was inexpedient to be in pursuit of a wife so soon after the former was dead, but the Scripture taught, That if the husband was dead, the woman was loosed by law, and he thought it was much the same with the inan. God hath said, 'It is not good for man to be alone." Where there is a true united love mutually concurring in ye minds of ye two parties for any to say such a covenant is not suitable is to be wise above what was written. As to his going to see that person on Sabbath day night, while he had a clear conscience before God in ye errand he went on and the matter and manner of performing it, as to the timing of it- his inconsiderately taking that time which, he held, belonged to the Sabbath, without considering the evil consequences thereof-he was wrong, and had confessed it before the church, and would freely confess it at the feet of his fellow creatures. That this frank confession and the declaration of his intended union. which he felt constrained to make upon the Lord's day before the congregation, should have caused such offence and scandal, prejudicing the minds of many and wounding the cause of God, was very unexpected and unaccountable to the simple-hearted deacon, who was ready to make con- cessions in every circumstance wherein he conceived he had gone out of the way. But all his excuses failed to satisfy the church or still the clamor raised against him, and ' grieved, wounded and oppressed, deprived of the outward benefits of ye ordinances of ye Gospel and ye fellowship of Christians,' he besought the wise Solomon 'to way these things in ye ballence of the Sanctuary,' and advise as to farther procedure.
The result of this pathetic appeal is not recorded, but it may be hoped that the injured deacon was restored to his former standing. The above are but specimens of the mischievous effects of the injudi- cious application of " the key of knowledge." Had it been plucked from the Tree of Knowledge with Eve's famous apple, it could scarcely have wrought greater discord and confusion.
Another cause of failure was the disreputable character of many of the Separates. Their movement reached the lower stratum of society,
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stirred up and excited its most inflammatory and revolutionary ele- ments. Vagaries and fanaticisms now finding vent in innumerable " isms," were concentrated in this one body. It took in the lowest and most ignorant in an age of comparative coarseness and barbarism. While the leaders and many of the adherents of the Separates were persons of character and standing, the rank and file were filled up from the lower classes. All that from any cause were dissatisfied with the existing churches or civil government joined with the Separates. Compulsory rate-paying and church attendance brought them many followers, nor did possession of the key of knowledge keep out from their churches many unworthy members. The "inward actings of their own souls" seldom inclined them to reject any one who expressed hostility to the church establishment and Saybrook Platform. Many lawless, turbulent and disorderly spirits were thus received into church membership who could not be kept in check by all their stringency of discipline. These loosely-organized churches, with no fixed standard of discipline and no authority higher than themselves to appeal to, found it wholly impossible to maintain order and decency. Their mem- bers were guilty of open and scandalous offences, and attempts at disci- pline but led to more confusion and anarchy. The most pitiful cries for help were sent to the Paines and other Separate leaders. The
reconstructed, purified, perfect churches were cast into the furnace of affliction and trial. " Wolves, bears and the boar of the wilderness were rending the lambs to pieces." "The Devil had come down with great rage, devouring saints and sinners, seducing and leading astray in droves." A Windham Separate went about the country "with a proclamation of liberty and an opening of the latter day glory, exclaiming against the legal bondage of praying every night and morn- ing in families, whether persons felt a spirit of prayer or not ; declaring that if they had not a spirit of prayer, God did not then call them to pray ; and so of other duties." Others in Windham, still more advanced, " asserted that they had passed the first resurrection and were become perfect and immortal ; and one of them declared that he was Christ." A Canterbury Separate had it revealed to him by the Spirit that a certain single woman would become his wife, though he had then a wife and children, and persisted in this delusion in spite of church discipline and excommunication, till his wife and two children died under circumstances so suspicious as to leave little doubt of his own complicity therein, though he was acquitted upon trial before Court for lack of sufficient evidence. The parties most concerned in this scandalous affair were cut off from the church, together with their relatives, " who had shown a covering spirit and kept back part
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of the truth when under oath." In Voluntown, " the unwearied adver- sary of Zion " not only incited some in the church by delusive visions and revelations " to overhaling baptism and nullifying marriage, but also to overhale church discipline and ordinations." Even the orderly Brunswick church did not escape demoniac visitation. Blunt John Palmer writes to Solomon Paine, "That Joshua, son of Capt. Lemuel Bishop, is possest with an unclean spirit, full of rage, threatening the deth of his pearants and his wife." The distressed parents had appealed to the church and their dear brother Solomon Paine, to come to their house and hold a day of fasting and prayer on account of this son. The church heard and opened the case and spread it before the Lord, and found they were called to attend a fast at Captain Bishop's, whereupon their pastor sent report of their distress and mutual desires to Brother Paine, wishing him to understand, " that when I say it is the desire of the church, I have greater witness than that of the church." The infant churches in Chestnut Hill and Thompson were quickly rent asunder by intestine quarrels ; those in Aslıford, Woodstock and Wind- ham were torn in pieces and utterly annihilated. Earnest and devoted Christians who had aided in the Separate movement as a new dispensation of religious freedom and purity were amazed and over- whelmed by these disgraceful manifestations. Many could exclaim like Elizabeth Chandler of Woodstock, when her soul was plunged under grief at the disruption of the church in her neighborhood :--- " I would not write a line counter to ye work of God if I knew where it was, but I have got so bewildered and sunk that I can't tell where the work of God is."
The Separate churches were also weakened by the spread of Baptist sentiments. Previous to the Revival, these views had scarcely gained a hearing save in the regions bordering upon Rhode Island, but now they were widely promulgated and often accepted. Great sympathy existed between the Baptists and Separates. Agreeing mainly in the manner of religious worship, in matters of doctrine and discipline, in opposition to the church establishment and compulsory rate paying, the only essential point of difference was the mode and subjects of Baptism. For a time, this difference was no bar to co-operation and fellowship. The Paines, Stevens and Marsh labored among the Bap tist churches, and " lively " Baptist exhorters and elders were welcomed in Separate pulpits. Many were converted through this interchange of labor, and so great were the love and sympathy between the two bodies that attempts were made to walk together in mutual church communion and fellowship. But soon difficulties arose. The Baptists were unwilling to commune with those they deemed unbaptized, and the Separates, who held the Abrahamic Covenant as the very foundation
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of their faith, could not consent to re-baptize those sprinkled in infancy. Solomon Paine, after the happy resolution of his own doubts upon that point, was exceedingly zealous in opposition to what he called Ana-baptism. After much jarring and bickering a council was called at Exeter, Rhode Island, May 23, 1753, " to settle the terms of communion respecting difference of opinion as to mode and subjects of water baptism," and unite the Baptist and Separate churches in Christian fellowship and association. Twenty-seven churches answered to this call. Canterbury and Plainfield churches were not present, but sent excuses by Elders Paine and Stevens. After three days' confer- ence it was agreed, "That if any baptized by sprinkling or in infancy and belonging to a Congregational church, desired baptism by plunging and went to a Baptist elder and was immersed ; or, if a brother had his child baptized, neither should be censurable." Open communion was formally established. The moderator of the council declared, "That all the churches of this body are one church ; that the words dip and sprinkle shall cease, and baptize be only used." This settlement proved satisfactory to neither party. No real union was effected and the difficulties increased. When those baptized in infancy were led down into the water, Separates refused to witness it because in their view they were already baptized, and to repeat it would be taking the sacred name in vain. When an elder sprinkled infants, "contrary to the Word and Spirit of God," the Baptists felt a like difficulty. Hard feelings, debate and contention resulted, and edification was marred instead of promoted by this attempt at "mixed communion." The Canterbury and Plainfield churches refusing to concur in the acts of the Exeter council, Elder Babcock of Westerly refused to act with Solomon Paine in an ordination at Stonington, and for giving his reasons to the latter church, the Canterbury church entered process against him as a transgressor. So great was the jangle, that Paine joined with Babcock in calling a general meeting of Separate and Baptist churches, "to search into these matters and effect a gospel settlement." Elders and brethren from twenty-four churches in Connecticut, eight in Massachu- setts, seven from Rhode Island, and one from Long Island, accordingly met in Stonington, May 29, 1754, " to hear the controversy between Baptists and Congregationalists." After long and tedious debate, union was found impracticable. Solomon Paine attributed the breach "to bad temper and conduct in the Baptists," but his keener-sighted brother " gave in his mind, that the difficulty sprung from the nature of oppo- site principles." Either one party sinned in making infants the sub- ject of baptism, or the other, in cutting them off. To himself it was clear, " that infants were once the subjects to be sealed with the seal of Abraham's faith that there was but one covenant of grace
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and that had Abraham's seed in it," and if we " allow a person to have Abraham's faith, why not his privilege." If God had " cut off' infants by forbidding water to be put on them," they should "never tolerate the practice of putting it on; but if not, let none dare to forbid it, but do it in proper office and time."
Convinced by these arguments, the main body of the Separates, " declared non-communion with such as professed to have light against infant baptism." Some rejected Believer's Baptism "as against both law and Gospel." This decision greatly affected the relation between the two bodies. From allies they had become rivals. The Baptists were now able to promulgate their distinctive principles with more free- dom and force, and gained many proselytes. In many towns, a bitter partizan spirit was developed. In Plainfield, where the Separates had the ascendency, an attempt was made to take some town action con- cerning Baptists, but the only result was to add to their numbers. Many Separates, not favored like Solomon Paine with especial revela- tions, embraced Baptist sentiments and united with these churches. Some churches which retained the practice of mixed communion became in time wholly Baptist. The question of Baptism proved a potent element of discord in the Separate churches, iuciting bitter con- flict and animosities, diminishing their strength and hastening their dissolution.
Against these irregular, illegal, separated churches, weakened by internal dissensions and errors in doctrine and practice, were arraigned all the terrors of civil and ecclesiastic authority. The establishment and promotion of religion had been the chief end and care of the Government of Connecticut, and the settlement of worship made com- pulsory in every township. For its better regulation and perpetuity, the wisest and best men of the Colony had carefully perfected a system by which every community was united in religious association ; every inhabitant made a member of a religious society, paying his proportiou for the maintenance of public worship, while attendance upon this worship was secured by penal enactments. A collegiate school, estab- lished by Government, provided for the training of competent and orthodox ministers ; County Associations enabled them to act with greater efficiency, and Consociations aided in regulating discipline and suppressing abuses. The institutions of religion were thus permanently established in every corner of Connecticut, and every family and indi- vidual brought within their influence. A more beautiful and effective system, its founders believed, could not have been devised, nor one better fitted to secure the highest good of the communities. Nothing apparently was lacking to its triumphant success but-the consent of the persons embraced in it. That any number of persons should object
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to this admirable arrangement was a new evidence of natural corrup- tion and total depravity. That any should compare it with the false, corrupt State religions of the Old World was profanation if not blas- phemy. Persons unable to see the beauties and excellencies of this system were clearly unfit to govern themselves in religious matters. The rulers in church and state honestly believed that the religious interests of the communities demanded the maintenance of the legal Establishment, and that they did God service in enforcing the laws against its opposers. The hostility, mistakes and excesses of the Sepa- rates were an "awful specimen," as was said to Plainfield, of their stringent need of this very religious system they so denounced. To in- trust religious ordinances to such hands would be desecration and sacri- lege. Thus reasoning, the supreme civil and ecelesiastic authorities used every means in their power to destroy and root out Separatism. Legislative Assembly, Judicial Courts and General Association alike
condemned the Separates. As far as possible, the rights of citizenship were taken from them. No Separates were allowed to hold official positions. Such men as Obadiah Johnson and Thomas Stevens, Sen., old and respected citizens, fathers of the town, when chosen representa- tives by fair majorities in Canterbury and Plainfield, were "expelled out of their Legislature for being members and deacons in those Sepa. rate churches." Baptisms and marriages performed by their ordained ministers were pronounced illegal. Both Solomon Paine and Thomas Stevens were imprisoned in Windham jail for joining in marriage some of their own church members. And while every possible civil right was taken from them, every legal due was most rigorously extorted. As members of a stated religious society they were bound to support its stated religious worship. Baptists, Episcopalians and even Quakers could be indulged with Acts of Toleration, but for the disobedient and rebellious members of their own Established churches no exemption was allowed. The General Assembly expressly declared, "That those commonly called Presbyterians or Congregationalists should not take benefit by these acts ; and only such persons as had any distinguishing character by which they might be known from the Presbyterians, or Congregationalists, and from the Consoci ated churches established by the laws of the Colony, might expect its indulgence." The unhappy Separates were thus left at the mercy of rate collectors. Refusing to pay, their goods were forcibly levied, and though their value often far exceeded the amount assessed, no overplus was returned. From Obadiah Johnson were taken, in successive years-" a yoke of oxen, a good cow and calf, three good fat hogs, two good cows," for the support of Mr. Cogswell. In those days of poverty and scarcity, these extortions, together with what they chose to pay for the support of
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