USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > North Middleborough > Backus Memorial Baptist Church, 1756-1956 : bicentennial, May 25-27, 1956 > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 N7924b 1904589
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
V
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 6875
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7
1. FERREIRA
'56
Backus Memorial Baptist Church 1756~1956
BICENTENNIAL
Ic 974.402 N79246 May 25 - 27, 1956
this first 1
North Middleborough, Massachusetts
Dedicated to
LIBERTY
in the proclamation
of
TRUTH
1904589
REV. ISAAC BACKUS, the first pastor of the First Baptist Church, Middleborough, 1756=1806.
BACKUS MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH
BACKGROUND AND EARLY LIFE OF ITS FOUNDER
Whether or not the description, "self-made man," can truly be applied to anyone, this is surely not descriptive of the founder of the First Baptist Church of Middleborough- at least not without reservation. Isaac Backus earned acclaim for leadership in many fields of endeavor by real diligence, but, if we look at his ancestry, both maternal and paternal, we shall sec that he inherited an aptitude for greatness. Look- ing first to his father's side of the family, we find that the earliest representative of the family name in America was William Backus, who, about 1637, came from England on the Rainbow and settled in Saybrook, Connecticut. After- ward, in 1660 (1659 in records using old style dating, for New Year's Day until 1752 was March 25th), William and one of his sons, Stephen, were among the thirty-eight settlers and founders of Norwich, Connecticut. By consent of his fellow-planters, William Backus gave the town its name. The home which he built in 1660 is still standing and in excellent condition. William Backus is the great-great grandfather of Elder Isaac Backus. A brief word about Elder Isaac's grand- father, Joseph Backus, should not be omitted. In the early 1700's he was a leading figure in the town and for several years represented Norwich in the Legislature of Connecticut. In his day the trend was toward a state church and toward civil-government control of the churches. Joseph Backus was adamant against his own church's agreement to accept con- trol of the Church by the State. For his opposition he was censured and finally expelled from his church. For several years he made journeys to Ipswich and Boston (where he visited the Mathers) and to other places in the interest of ccclesiastical independence. His home church in Norwich, at last in 1716, decided against approval of control by the civil government. We shall see his zeal and untiring efforts for religious liberty duplicated in the life of his illustrious grandson.
We owe to Isaac Backus' own pen the information that his mother, Elizabeth Tracy Backus, "sprang from the family of Mr. Winslow, who came over to Plvmouth in 1620." Isaac Backus' great-great grandfather, Josias Winslow, was a brother of the Mayflower Winslow. Pages could be written about Edward Winslow, this earliest relative of Isaac Backus in
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America, but a few particulars will reveal something of the versatile character of the man. He was one of the leaders of the Mayflower pilgrims. It is cspecially worthy of our notice that in that first summer after their arrival in the new land, when the Pilgrims at Plymouth were anxious for friend- ship with the Indians, Governor Bradford sent Edward Wins- low and another Pilgrim to visit Chief Massasoit. In Wins- low's Diary he speaks of what is now called the Taunton River: "Upon this river dwelleth Massasoyt." Enroute to the meeting with the great Indian chicf, Winslow and his com- panion found a friendly tribe of Indians, the Namascheucks, they so calling the men of Namaschet," at Titicut on the Taunton River in the northwest part of Middleborough. Herc, on July 4, 1621, thcy exchanged gifts and spent the night with the Indians. In the same ycar Massasoit made a treaty with the Pilgrims, the earliest recorded in New England. It was faithfully observed for 54 years.
Edward Winslow is called "one of the founders of Plym- outh Colony." He served three terms as Governor of the Colony and made frequent voyages in the intervals between to England in the service of Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies. How significant that, when visiting Britain in 1635, he was im- prisoned for 17 weeks by Archbishop Laud on a charge of heresy! (Specifically the charges were that he taught in the church, though a layman, and performed a marriage as a magistratc.) This relative of our Separatist Baptist Isaac Back- us was a Separatist Puritan, and opposed the state church of England just as Isaac Backus a little over a century later was to oppose the established church of Massachusetts. Moreover, the established church of Massachusetts was the "separatist church" of Governor Winslow's day! Hc as well as our Elder Backus was zealous for the proclamation of the Gospel; in England in 1648 he was instrumental in founding "the Society for promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England." In December, 1747, when Isaac Backus first came to Titicut, he found there an Indian church, very likely the result of the missionary activity of the society which Gov- ernor Winslow had organized in London a century before.
Such is the picture afforded by a few glimpses of the ancestors of Isaac Backus. It is lamentable that so little is known of his own childhood and youth. His writings reveal only fragments of his early life; and his first biographer, Dr. Alvah Hovey, President of Newton Thcological Institution,
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Birthplace of Isaac Backus
though he published a thorough and remarkable Life of Baekus, wrote a half century after the death of the Elder- too late to diseover undocumented information about Backus before he became a public figure. We do know that Isaac Back- us was born in Norwich on January 9, 1724, the fourth of clev- en children. The wonderful old house in which he was born has recently been torn down. It was built in 1660 on a 90 aere traet of land and had 22 rooms with 10 fireplaces and two chimneys; an adult eould stand ereet in the dining room fireplace. The upstairs floors were made of 19 to 21 ineh planks. The house was put together with handmade nails and the doors hung on handmade butterfly hinges. The native wood paneling was so solid that in recent years serews eould not be driven into the walls. A recent resident of the old homestead says that the paneling sold for $15,000 a year ago when the house was sacrificed to elear the route for a new superhighway! Wreckers were unable to break the beams of the house and they had to be sawed for removal. Baekus says of his home that he was there "well edueated in the Chris- tian religion and also in the principles of eivil liberty." His father, Samuel Baekus, died when Isaae was 16. Samuel was a farmer and the owner of the only industry in Yantic, the
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Iron Works. To Isaac's mother fell the responsibility of 11 children, one of whom was a baby; she was an excellent woman of fervent Christian character, and Backus' writings often indicate his deep respect and love for her.
CONVERSION AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY
Though in a religious home with the early training of a devout Christian mother, Isaac Backus did not come to a personal experience of salvation until his eighteenth year. In his own account he says that he had "secretly imagined that it would abridge his personal liberty and comfort." In 1740 and '41, the revival of religion known as the Great Awak- ening was stirring the country under the preaching of Jona- than Edwards, George Whitefield, and others. Backus had no opportunity to hear the foremost of the revivalists, but he came under profound conviction of his sinfulness and utterly hopeless condition. He writes, "God laid open to me the plague of my own heart and the folly of seeking life by my own doings." On August 24, 1741, as he was plowing alone in the field, his past life seemed to unroll before him. He says:
I saw clearly that it had been filled up with sin and per- ceived I could never make myself better, should I live ever so long. I was enabled by divine light to see the perfect righteousness of Christ and the freeness and rich- es of His grace with such clearness that my soul was drawn forth to trust in Him for salvation. And I won- dered that others did not come also to Him who had enough for all. The Word of God and the promises of His grace appeared firmer than a rock, and I was aston- ished at my previous unbelief. My heavy burden was gone, tormenting fears were fled, and my joy was un- speakable.
Though anxious about conditions in the "regular church" in Norwich, which had become a state church since his grand- father's day, Backus united with it for about three years, hoping for reformation. The hopes of Backus and others soon changed to despair as conditions grew worse: members were received into the church without satisfactory evidence of conversion; the ordinances (the Lord's Supper and baptism ) were administered to those who did not even profess to be Christians; discipline of those "whose walk was evidently con- trary to the Gospel" was lacking; there was increasing loss
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of independence of the local church and control by outside couneils; and a large group of the members felt that many essential teachings of Scripture were omitted from the preach- ing of their pastor. In the "regular churches" educated men, "if orthodox in doctrine and regular in their lives," werc admitted to the ministry without necessity of personal faith. Thirty men, including one deacon, and a large number of women withdrew at one time from the Norwich church and others followed. The majority of the church became 'Separ- atists" and "out-voted the Old Church at the Town Meetings," declaring they would no longer pay the rates of the minister, as they were conscientiously opposed to the union of Church and State. The General Court interfered and imposed a special tax; those who would not pav were imprisoned. Fortv or more people were imprisoned within a single vear, both men and women, and these imprisonments continued for sev- cral years. Among those imprisoned for nonpayment of the church tax in 1752 were Isaac Backus' mother and brother. His mother had been regularly attending and supporting the Separate Church for seven years at the time of her arrest. The 54-year old Widow Backus is described at the time of her arrest as "sick, and, thickly wrapped in clothes to pro- duce perspiration, sitting near the fire by her stand and reading the family Bible. The officers thought that, under the circumstances, she would yield and pay the rates. But Mrs. Backus was not the woman to abandon her religious prin- ciples." Her letter about her imprisonment has been called a prison epistle-
Norwich, Nov. 4, 1752. My dear Son; I have heard some- thing of the trials amongst you of late, and I was grieved till I had strength to give up the case to God, and leave my burden there. And now I would tell you something of our trials. Your brother Samuel lay in prison twenty days. October 15th, the collectors came to our house and took me away to prison, about nine o'clock in a dark, rainy night. We lay in prison thirteen days, and were then set at liberty, by what means I know not. Whilst I was there a great many people came to see me, and some said one thing and some said another. Oh the in- numerable snares and temptations that beset me! more than I ever thought of before. But oh, the condescen- sion of Heaven! though I was bound when I was cast into
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this furnace, yet I was loosed and found Jesus in the midst of the furnace with me. Oh, then I could give up my name, estate, family, life and breath freely to God. Now the prison looked like a palace to me. I could bless God for all the laughs and scoffs made at me. Oh the love that flowed out to all mankind; then I could for- give as I would desire to be forgiven, and love my neigh- bor as myself. Deacon Griswold was put in prison the Sth of October, and yesterday old brother Grover, and they are in pursuit of others, all which calls for humilia- tion. This church has appointed the 13th of November to be spent in prayer and fasting on that account. I do re- member my love to you and your wife, and the dear children of God with you, begging your prayers for us in such a day of trial. We are all in tolerable health, ex- pecting to see you. These from your loving mother,
ELIZABETHI BACKUS.
The separation of these members from the Norwich Church remained permanent in spite of persecution and resulted in the formation of a large body of "Separate" or "New-Light" churches. Soon after the Separate Church was organized in Norwich, Backus entered the ministry. Hc describes his call in September 1746 as follows:
Hitherto a private life had been my choice and delight, but a new scene was before me, which I had no idea of till I was led into it in the following manner. Being at a certain house where a number of the saints were wet, the command, "pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest," was read and spoken upon. A conviction seized my mind that God had given me abilities which His church had a right to the use of, and which I could not withhold with a clear conscience.
Almost immediately Backus set out upon the first of a long series of preaching tours, of which he made at least eight in the next twelve months.
HIS COMING TO TITICUT
Late in 1747, Backus visited Rev. Joseph Snow, pastor of a Separatist Church in Providence, who told him of a needy field in Massachusetts and came to Titicut with him for a visit. Snow and Backus preached alternately for 10 days,
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Copyrighted, 1893.
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Backus preaching 24 sermons. As Backus says, "They ap- pearcd to be in reality hungering for spiritual food." Backus was visited by the Precinct Committee and invited to become minister of the parish upon approval of the neighboring pas- tors. He did not accept the conditional invitation of the Precinct Committec, but he did accept the invitation of the people of Titicut parish and was ordained pastor of the Sep- aratist Church there on April 13, 1748. Although Backus continued his cvangelistic tours beyond his parish, travelling 800 miles during his first year at Titicut, the membership of the home church almost doubled in that first year.
As has been mentioned before, Backus found an Indian church at Titicut when he came there; there were three Indian churches in Middleborough. In his letter to the Massachu- setts Historical Society in 1794, Backus refers to John Cotton's letter of Scpt. 14, 1674, in which he called Ketchiquut (the Indian name for Titicut ) "a place of praying Indians." Says Backus: "A Baptist church was formed among them. When I came into the place in 1747, John Symons was the minister of
Elder Backus' homestead on Plymouth Street
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that church. One of the Indians in Titicut was prevailed with to give five acres for their mccting house lot, and two others gave each of them fifteen aeres of good land for the ministry." This Indian mecting house was built in 1675 on what is now Pleasant Strcet. (Its location may be scen on the map on page 8.) As the Indians removed from Titicut, they sold their lands, the last being sold around 1760.
During his early ycars in Titicut, Baekus bought a small farm "for upwards of 83 pounds" from an Indian woman, Hannah Robbin; this was his home for the rest of his life. On November 29, 1749, Backus married Susanna Mason of Rehoboth, a descendant of Sampson Mason, one of the found- ers of Swansea and a member of the Baptist church there, which was founded in 1663. When Backus was 76 years old, he described his wedding and concluded: "Thus Susanna Mason of Rehoboth became the companion of my life for ncarly fifty-one years, and the greatest temporal blessing which God ever gave me; for which I trust I shall praise him to eternity."
BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN TITICUT
David Weston, in his account of "100 years of Baptist history" dates the beginning of the movement of formation of Baptist churches by secession from New Light or Separate churches at about the year 1750. In 1750 there were in all America only 58 Baptist churches. The movement which led Backus and other Separatists to withdraw from the "regular church" quite naturally eventuated in their adoption of Bap- tist principles: They objected to church membership of any except believers; a regenerate church membership is the out- standing doctrine of the churches they formed.
In August 1749, members of the Separate Church in Titicut began to be disturbed and to debate heatedly over the question of baptism. Backus tried "in his secret approach- es to the throne of grace, to give up this case to God." His inability to arrive at a quick decision on the problem indi- cates his desire for honesty and for the Holy Spirit's guid- ance. For a time he would think the Baptist way right; then he would return to the manner of baptism of his church. In September 1749, during Backus' absence from his church, a Baptist elder, Ebeneezer Moulton of Brimfield, visited Titi- cut, preached, and immersed ten members of Baekus' church. These "Baptist brethren" attempted to form a Baptist church
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Early "baptistry," a stream alongside present Terwilliger residence
in February 1750, but it was soon dissolved, and some of them joined the Baptist Church in Swansea. Baekus was greatly troubled. "No tongue can tell the distress I now felt," he says. He prayerfully studied the Scripture; finally on August 22, 1751, he submitted to immersion himself by Brother Benjamin Pieree of Warwick, R. I. In his Diary Backus writes, "Then and afterwards in the evening I felt a sweet calmness of mind, and some things opened with special clearness. Blessed be God." For more than four years he continued ministering, on the principle of open communion, in the Separate Church, many of its members being Baptists and others cleaving to the principles and praetiees of pedobaptism. Thus it was that for a decade Baekus was numbered among the Separa- tionists of New England Congregationalism.
The ealmness which Backus felt in his own mind after submission to immersion was not the mood of the church for these four years. Sueh varianee of opinion among the people eaused strife, though sincere efforts were made on both sides. In his History Backus comments that "edifieation, the great end of Christian society, was marred instead of be-
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ing promoted." And David Weston writes concerning the situation in Titicut:
The Baptist and the Separate Congregational churches were bound together by the closest of ties. The former left the latter from no ill feeling but with heartiest love, and this love continued, on both sides, after their separation. Their members had been converted together in the Great Awakening; together they had come out from the Standing Order; together they had suffered and were still suffering for the truth; they had the same ene- mies and oppressors; they felt the force of the same un- just and cruel laws; their plundered goods were sold at the same auctions, and their bodies confined in the same prisons; they had many kindred views and feelings, by which they sympathized most closely, and in which there were no others to sympathize with them.
The time for the formation of a Baptist church in Titicut had come. Though still reluctant to sever ties with the people
First site of the First Baptist Church in Middleborough (north corner of present Stewart property)
"Aye, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod: They have left unstained what there they found- Freedom to worship God!"
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who loved him and were loved by him, it seemed the only thing to do. He wrote to his mother about it:
I am convinced that it is neither agreeable nor expedient for those who differ so widely about the first ordinance of the gospel (viz., baptism) as we do, to try to go on together in the special ordinances of the church; yet, at the same time, I would earnestly labor to main- tain all Christian love and freedom in things wherein we are agreed. . . For aught I know this news may be grievous to your mind; which grief, because of the tenderness of love between us I would be loath to cause; yet I am persuaded you are sensible that every one must practise according to the clearest light he has, let who will be of a different mind.
On January 16, 1756, several people met in the home of Isaac Backus and organized the "Baptist Church of Christ in Middleborough Bridgewater and Raynham." In his Manu- script Diary, Backus wrote:
And my soul had a very weighty sense of the greatness of the affairs before us and of the infinite importance of carefully keeping to the rules of Christ's house both in admitting members, and also in after dealings with them. And had not my soul believed that Christ would go before me, I should not have dared to step forward, but being satisfied of that (after some free discourse with our brethren who do not see with us,) I read the Articles and Covenant which I had drawn, and then proceeded, solemnly, in the presence of God and his people, to sign them; and the following brothers and sisters signed with me, viz., Timothy Briant and John Hayward, Mary Caswell, Esther Fobes and my dear consort. And there appeared a good degree of solemnity and sense of divine things in acting therein.
Elder Backus was ordained as their pastor on June 23rd of that year, and their first deacon, Nathaniel Shaw, was or- dained August 14th. For almost a year no plans were made about building a meeting house. Then, on December 30th, the members (now 14 of them ) met at Backus' home, "chose Lieut. Benj. White Moderator, and agreed to build a house on Paul Hathaway's land." On the 23rd of December, 1757, it
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was "raised." The building was not completed until the spring of 1761, which indicates that for five years the church met at the pastor's home. The Records disclose that there were 41 members bv the end of 1760.
Deacon Nathaniel Shaw was the principal builder, but all the members, including the pastor, entered into the labor. The work seems to have been modeled after the building of Solomon's temple:
One contributed one thing, another that; some "fell timber" in the forests, some "worked at the swamps," some "drew laths from the swamp," some made board nails-others shingle nails or lath nails, some furnished pine boards, others oak boards, and others "oak clap- boards." And so the house was builded.
The building was 36 feet long and 30 fcet broad. "The pews were 5 fect deep all around the house. There were 10 or more gallery pews." The location of the church may be found on the early map of Titicut. (See page S.)
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THE CONFESSION OF FAITH AND COVENANT OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST IN MIDDLEBOROUGH BRIDGEWATER AND RAYNHAM-
(1) We Believe that there is but one only the living and true God, who is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchang- able in his Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness & truth. (2) That there are three Persons in the God-head, the Father, Son, and holy Ghost who are but one God, the. same in Substance equal in power and glory. (3) That the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testaments are the Word of God which he hath given as our only perfect rule of faith and practice. (4) That God who is infinite in knowledge and perfectly views all things from the begining to the end of time, hath foreordained that whatsoever comes to pass, either by his order or permission shall work for the eternal glory of his great Name.
(5) In the Begining God created heaven and earth, the sea & all that in them is; and he upholds & governs all things by the word of his Power. (6) That God made man in his own image in knowledge righteousness and true holiness, and made with him a Covenant of Life the Condition whereof was perfect obedience. (7) Man being left to himself, soon fell from that happy and glorious estate in which he was made by eating the forbidden fruit; whereby he brought himself and all his posterity into a state of death. (8) Man being thus dead, his help & recovery is wholley in & from God. (9) God the Father of his mear good pleasure from all eternity hath chosen a number of poor lost men, in Christ Jesus to eternal Salvation. (10) Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God hath come and taken on him human Nature, and in that nature hath yielded a perfect obedience to the law that we have broken, & suffered death for our Sins: and hath brought in a compleate and everlasting Righteousness, and hath risen & ascended to the right hand of God & ever livith to make Intercession for us. (11) The holy Ghost, and he only can & doth make a particular application of the Re- demption purchased by Christ to every Elect Soul. (12) The Spirit of God applies this redemption by convincing us of our sinful lost & miserable condition, and then discovering ye glorious Saviour as he is offered to us in the gospel in his sutableness aud sufficiency and enabling us to imbrace him
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