USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Contributions to the ecclesiastical history of Essex County, Mass., 1865 > Part 29
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Another modification of the original practice related to the inward spir- itual character of those persons for whose children it was designed to se- cure Christian baptism. The Synodists held that "there ought to be true saving faith in the parent, according to the judgment of rational charity, or else the child ought not to be baptized ; " and the existence of such faith, at least in its "initial" stage, was, in the absence of positive evi- dence to the contrary, to be presumed in the case of all persons who had been baptized in infancy. They were to be looked upon as believers, though their faith might yet be in a latent or germinal state. And such faith, though sufficient to entitle them to baptism for their children, was not deemed sufficient to entitle them to admission to the Lord's Table, and all the privileges of full communion. Presumptive evidence of jus- tifying faith was enough for baptism, while positive and palpable evi- dence of such faith was requisite to full communion.
It was an easy step, and one almost sure to be taken, from such a posi-
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tion to the more consistent one, that if such persons were really Chris- tians, and had saving faith at all, they were entitled to all Christian . ordinances, though conscientious scruples about the duty of coming to the Lord's Supper should be respected. This was the view actually adopted by many churches, and their practice conformed to it. In a discourse on " Covenant Engagements," preached at Dorchester Dec. 6, 1801, the author, Rev. T. M. Harris, says : " Because of the scruples of some con- scientious persons, it was antiently allowed. in the discipline of some of our churches, that they should take the covenant upon themselves, and have their children baptized, but be excused from coming to the Lord's Table till such fears as they might have imbibed with respect to eating and drinking unworthily should be removed." Confirmatory of this statement, is the following vote of the church in West Amesbury, in 1790, that " those who wish to offer their children in baptism join with the church, and have a right to all the ordinances and privileges of the church. But if any have doubts with regard to their preparation for the Lord's Supper, they may have the liberty to stay away from that ordinance until their doubts shall be removed." In such cases, persons owning their baptismal covenant were debarred from full communion, not by the church, on the ground that they had not made the requisite " Christian proficiency," or did not give evidence of that "exercised faith " which was a necessary qualification for the Lord's Supper, but by their own doubts, or conscientious scruples.1
A still further departure from the original Synodical plan was that by which the Half-Way Covenant became, what many have mistakenly supposed it was at first designed to be, a mere arrangement by which any persons who wished might have their children baptized, though they were regarded by themselves and by the church as unregenerate, and wholly unfit for full communion. The idea of "initial" or presumptive
1 The church in West Springfield, Sept. 4, 1785, adopted a series of resolutions, among which are the following :
" 2. That they who have been baptized in infancy ought, as soon as they arrive to proper age, seriously and solemnly to renew their baptismal covenant," &c.
"3. That they who are qualified for such solemn renewal of their covenant are also qualified for complete communion in all gospel ordinances.
"4. That, still, a church ought to treat scrupulous persons with tenderness ; and if she judges them qualified for all the privileges, she ought not to exclude them from all, because they doubt their meetness for one.
"6. That they who have made, or may hereafter make, a public profession of re- ligion in this church (i. e., by ' owning the covenant') shall be considered as complete members of the church, and as having a right to come to the Lord's Table when they see the way open to it, - first signifying this their intention to the pastor, and by him to the church." - Dr. Sprague's Historical Discourse at West Springfield, p. 65.
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faith was practically lost sight of ; and any person, though supposed to be unconverted, might, by owning the covenant, receive baptism for his children. This was the form in which the Half-Way Covenant was . practised in many of our churches during the latter half of the last cen- tury.
But, in some few churches, the perversion of it was still greater. Not only were unregenerate persons, - regarded as such, - provided they had been baptized, encouraged to offer their children for baptism, but to avail themselves of all church ordinances and privileges. Mr. Stoddard, of Northampton, said : " It is a scandal if they do not " (come to the Lord's Supper), " and the church may call them to an account for their neglect. It is a visible contempt cast on the ordinance." He held that the sacrament of the Supper was a converting as well as an edifying or- dinance, and could rightly and profitably be used, as well as other means of grace, by those who did not deem themselves, and were not deemed by others, to be Christians. Through the great influence of Stoddard, his views gained considerable currency in the Connecticut Valley, but not, as I can learn, elsewhere. No trace of them is to be found in the records of any of the churches in this vicinity ; although there was a time when one of our churches was disposed to carry them into practice, if we may credit Lechford, who, speaking of a period some twenty years prior to the meeting of the Synod of 1662, says : " Of late, some churches are of opinion that any may be admitted to church fellowship that are not extremely ignorant or scandalous ; but this they are not very forward to practise, except at Newbury." 1
In yet another particular was there, in process of time, an important deviation from the original practice, sanctioned by the Synod. At first, those claiming baptism for their children on this half-way system, were required publicly to profess their assent to "the doctrine of faith," and solemnly own the Covenant before the church, "wherein they give up themselves and their children to the Lord, and subject themselves to the government of Christ in the church." This profession of faith, and own- ing of the covenant was as public and solemn, as in the case of persons received to full communion. And in some places it was the custom publicly to propound them, one or two weeks beforehand.2 The Cove-
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, vol. 3, p. 80.
" There was a strong party in the colony of Connecticut who were for admitting all persons of a regular life to a full communion in the churches upon their making a profession of the Christian religion, without any inquiry with respect to a change of heart, and for treating all baptized persons as members of the church." - Trumbull's Hist. Conn., vol. 1, p. 297.
2 Prince's Christian Hist., Vol. I. p. 111. White's N. E. Congregationalism, p. 50.
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nant thus publicly owned was, in many cases, the same used at the admission of candidates for full communion, with slight verbal altera- tions. such as, instead of the promise to attend to all the ordinances of the gospel, a promise to " strive to qualify themselves for the Lord's Sup- per, or to attend to all the ordinances as soon as they shall see the way clear to do so."
Sometimes a covenant was prepared entirely distinct from that used at the reception of persons to full membership.1 As a matter of his- torical interest, I will give a few specimens of the forms of the Half- Way Covenant used by the churches in this region.
The following was used by the church in West Amesbury : " You do here, in the presence of God and this assembly, own and profess your serious belief in the Christian religion, as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures. And professing your repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, you do give up yourself to the Lord Jehovah, who is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and receive him as your God and portion. You do give up yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and rely upon him as the Head of his people, in the covenant of grace, and as your prophet, priest, and king forever. You do also own your baptismal covenant, and obligations thereby to be the Lord's. You do submit to the laws of his kingdom, as they are administered among this his people, and will herewith be at pains to gain that further preparation of the sanctuary which may embolden your further ap- proaches to the enjoyment of God in all his ordinances.
" This you profess and promise. 0
" We then acknowledge and receive you as a disciple of Christ, prom- ising, as God shall enable us, to watch over you with patience, meekness, and brotherly love, praying that the God of peace and love may dwell amongst us, and be glorified in us.
"Now to him who is able to keep you," &c. - See Jude 24, 25.
The following was used by the church in West Boxford : "You
1 The following, according to Cotton Mather, is the form of Half-Way Covenant, adopted by one church in 1692. " You now from your heart, professing a serious belief in the Christian religion, as it has been generally declared and embraced by the faithful in this place, do give up yourself to God in Christ ; promising with his help to endeavor to walk according to the rules of that holy religion all your days ; choos- ing God as your best good, and your last end, and Christ as the prophet and priest, and the king of your soul forever. You do therefore submit unto the laws of his kingdom, as they are administered in this church of his ; and you will also carefully and sincerely labor after those more positive and increased evidences of regeneration which may further encourage you to seek an admission unto the table of the Lord." Magnalia, Vol. II. p. 314.
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believe that the Scriptures were given by inspiration of God, and that they are the only perfect rule of faith and practice, and you promise to govern yourselves by the rules and precepts of Christianity. so far as you may be enabled by the grace of God. And it is your desire to attend upon all its ordinances and institutions, and you will, so far as you may find satisfactory evidence in your own mind of being duly qualified. You desire to be deeply humbled before God for all your sins, and to repair to the blood of the everlasting covenant for cleansing. Believing that there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, you would trust to His merits for pardon of sin and acceptance with God. Believing, also, in the divine appointment of the ordinance of baptism, and desirous of having this covenant set upon your children, you wish unreservedly to dedicate them to God, and do promise, so far as you may be enabled, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You will consider yourself under the watch, and subject to the discipline of this church, and you engage to be watchful over yourself, and, so far as you may be enabled, to command your children and pious household after you to keep the way of the Lord."
The following was used by the church in Rowley, and is the same which Phillip Henry drew np for the private use of his children : 1 " I take God the Father to be my chiefest good, and highest end; I take God the Son to be my only Lord and Saviour; I take God the Holy Spirit to be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and lawgiver; and take the people of God to be my people in all conditions. I likewise devote and dedicate unto the Lord my whole self, all I am, and all I have, and all I can do. And all this I do deliberately, freely, sincerely, and forever."
The following was used by the First Church in Ipswich, and, with the exception of the last two paragraphs, is substantially the same as that which was, and is still, used at the admission of members to full communion : " You profess to believe the eternal Jehovah, who is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be the one only living and true. God ; you desire truly to know him, to believe in him, to love and obey him, and to be made happy in the enjoyment of the blessed fruits of his love.
" You profess to believe, that all mankind are fallen from God into a state of sin and misery, and that they are justly exposed to his wrath and curse.
" You profess to believe, that God the Father so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him might not perish, but have everlasting life ; and that Jesus Christ is the
1 Davies' Sermons, Vol. III. p. 452.
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only begotton Son of God, and the only Saviour of lost man ; and you desire truly to believe on him and to be subject unto him in all his sav- ing offices.
" You profess to believe, that it is the office and work of the Holy Spirit to make application of the redemption purchased by Christ, unto all who shall be saved ; and desire that he may be your teacher, saneti- fier, and comforter.
" You profess to believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments to be the word of God, and a perfect rule of faith and practice ; and you desire to receive them as such.
" And while you desire to be the Lord's, and promise by his grace to govern yourself by the rules of the gospel, you give up your children to Him, solemnly engaging that you will sincerely endeavor by precept and example to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
" You submit yourself to the watch and care of this Christian church, promising, by divine assistance, to live as the grace of God, which bring- eth salvation, teacheth you.
" Do you consent to the covenant thus proposed ? We then consider you as under our watch and care; and your children entitled to the privilege of baptism. It is our duty to watch over you with faithfulness and love, and to conduct towards you, in every respect, as friendship and religion require. It is our heart's desire and prayer to God, that you and your children may be interested in the covenant of grace, and mnade meet for an inheritance with the saints in light."
Sometimes a special covenant was prepared to meet some individual case, or perhaps was presented by the person who desired to come into this half-way relation to the church. Of this kind is the following from the records of the North Church in Newburyport, dated June 25, 1769 : "I acknowledge my wilful departure from the blessed God, and my insufficiency to recover myself by any thing in my power ; but must depend on the free mercy of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ, for justification and redemption, which I am not without hopes that God has enabled me to do; and I desire that the ordinance of baptism, which Christ has instituted, may be administered upon my child, being con- vinced that it is my duty to offer it up to God in baptism, to be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit ; and I hope I shall be enabled to bring it up in the fear of the Lord; and I shall think myself under obligations to come up to all Christ's ordinances, as soon as I shall see my way clear. I own this church to be a true church of Christ, and shall submit myself to it as such, and would humbly beg your watch over, and prayers for me."
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THE HALF-WAY COVENANT.
In the records of a majority of our churches, no distinct form of the Half-Way Covenant is to be found, and the probability is, that the same one was used, both for half-way, and for full membership. But what- ever the form used, it was publicly owned, or assented to before the church. This, it is believed, was for a long period the universal prac- tice. But at length it began to decline, when the notion became preva- lent, that persons might claim baptism for their children, who were consciously and professedly unregenerate, without even "initial faith." The owning of the Covenant was less insisted on, and gradually went into disuse.
The following is from the records of the First Church in Haverhill, under date of April 30, 1789: "Whereas it has been customary for persons in order to obtain baptism for their children, to make a public profession of faith called 'owning the Covenant,' and as this condition may hinder some persons (though otherwise qualified) from complying with the institution ; voted, that it be no longer required, but the children of all baptized persons may be admitted to this holy ordinance unless they (the parents) have forfeited this privilege by scandalous immor- ality."
All the churches did not dispense with the "owning the Covenant " by such formal action, but they all did come to dispense with it. In some of them for a time it was owned privately to the pastor, instead of publicly before the church. But even this was at length dropped ; and any baptized persons, not openly and grossly immoral, could bring their children and have them baptized without any owning of the Covenant, either in private or public. This was the mere ghost of the original plan of the Synodists ; and, as might be expected, soon disap- peared altogether, as the clear light of a sounder theology and a purer piety began to shine upon the churches. No trace of it, I believe, is to be found in this region of a later date than 1825.
This scheme has been justly characterized as a mischievous innova- tion, but I am inclined to think that the mischief caused by it has been overestimated. It has been often affirmed that it brought into the church a multitude of unconverted persons. But such was not the case, except in that limited region, in the valley of the Connecticut, where Stoddard's views prevailed. It rather had the tendency to keep converted persons out of the church. They stopped at this half-way house, - flattering themselves that, having done something, they were safe, or, at least, in a hopeful state. In this manner, the Half-Way Cov- enant unquestionably did harm. It may also have encouraged that false and pernicious doctrine which was so prevalent during the last century in regard to the use of means of conversion ; but I doubt whether it was
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as largely responsible for the prevalence of that doctrine as some have supposed. It was not, at first, regarded at all as a means of conversion, but only a means of developing that "initial faith " which was presumed to be already implanted. And when this idea of "initial faith " was lost sight of, and professedly unregenerate men "owned the covenant," the inconsistency of it was not felt, because the notion of " unregenerate doings " had already gained currency. It was extensively believed that unregenerated men could do some things which are holy, or morally right and pleasing to God. This notion was not so much the effect as the cause of the modified forms of the Half-Way Covenant which were adopted. We wonder how men believing themselves to be unconverted, could seriously take such solemn and stringent covenants. But the prac- tice accorded perfectly with the spirit of the age. Unconverted men were accustomed to maintain family worship, and to do many things which we think can be consistently done only by professing Christians. It was a common thing for them, as well as for members of the church, to take special covenants for special purposes, or on special occasions. A few facts will illustrate the views and practice of that period in regard to persons who were not regarded as Christians. In 1705, Rev. Samuel Danforth, of Taunton, gave an account of the taking of a covenant, which he had prepared for the purpose, by all the adults of his congre- gation. He says it was "read to the Brethren and Sisters " (i. e., the church merely) " in the forenoon, - they standing up, as an outward sign of their inward consent, to the rest of the inhabitants. In the after- noon, they " (i. e., the " rest of the inhabitants ") " standing up also when it was read ; and then every one that stood up brought his name, ready writ on a paper, and put into the Box, that it might be put on Church Record. We gave liberty to all men and women kind, from sixteen years old and upwards, to act with us, and had three hundred names given in to list under Christ against the sins of the times. The whole acted with such gravity, and tears of good affection, as would affect a heart of stone, - parents weeping for joy, seeing their children give their names to Christ." 1
President Edwards gives an account of a somewhat similar proceed- ing in his congregation at Northampton in 1742. He prepared a cove- nant which covers more than four pages in Prince's Christian History, and which, besides a promise to abstain from a long list of specified sins, includes the following, which certainly covers the whole ground of Chris- tian duty : "And we now appear before God, depending on Divine grace and assistance, solemnly to devote our whole lives to be laboriously spent
1 Prince's Christian History, Vol. I. p. 111.
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in the business of religion, - ever making it our greatest business, with- out backsliding from such a way of living, nor hearkening to the solici- tations of our sloth, and other corrupt inclinations, or the temptations of the world that tend to draw us off from it; and, particularly, that we will not abuse an hope or opinion that any of us may have of our being interested in Christ, to indulge ourselves in sloth, or the more easily to yield to the solicitations of any sinful inclinations, but will run with per- severance the race that is set before us, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling." This covenant, he says, he first showed to some of the principal men, then to the people in their several societies or meet- ings in different parts of the town, then to the whole congregation in public, then deposited a copy of it in the hands of each of the four dea- cons, that all might examine it. " Then the people in general, that were above fourteen years of age, first subscribed the covenant with their own hands, and then, on a day of Fasting and Prayer, all together presented themselves before the Lord in his house, and stood up, and solemnly manifested their consent to it as their vow to God."1 It is not strange that the Half-Way Covenant should be practised in an age when such transactions were common, and were approved by the best and most dis- tinguished men in the church.
It is by many supposed that President Edwards opposed the Half- Way Covenant, and virtually killed it. But he only opposed the Stod- dardian form of it, which encouraged unregenerate men, as such, to come to the Lord's Table. For aught that appears to the contrary in his pub- lished writings, he could consistently have approved and administered that form of it, then generally current among the churches, and very likely did so. But his discussion of the requisite qualifications for com- munion unquestionably had great influence in preparing the public mind for the rejection of the half-way scheme of church membership. The principles which he established were directly and effectively applied to the whole subject by such " New Divinity " men as Hopkins and Bella- my and Spring, in their discussions with Hemmenway, Mather, Tappan, and Dana. The Edwardian or Hopkinsian school of divines are mani- festly entitled to a large share of the credit of driving out of the churches all the various forms of the Half-Way Covenant which had been current for nearly a century and a half.
But the uprooting of this evil, there is reason to believe, was attended with some unhappy results. It is a notorious fact that, about the time the Half-Way Covenant was laid aside, household baptism fell exten-
1 Prince's Christian History, Vol. I. pp. 373-78.
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sively into disuse. In sweeping away the rubbish which had accumula- ted about it, the ordinance itself was well-nigh swept away. This may have been owing, in part. to a natural reaction from an exaggerated and superstitious notion of the value of the ordinance ; but it was probably owing more to the fact that the great and precious truth, which is the real and scriptural basis of the ordinance, was lost sight of, - viz., that the children of believers, by virtue of the organic unity of the family, and the special covenant founded thereon, sustain peculiar relations to the church, and may reasonably be expected to grow up as Christians, and to take their place in the church just as they do in the State.
The theological drift which bore away the Half-Way Covenant was one which emphasized individual conversion as a supernatural and in- stantaneous change rendered necessary by the universal and total deprav- ity of mankind, and emphasized it at the expense of proper ideas of the organic and educational forces of the family and church. The result was, an intense individualism in religion, which left no natural basis for household baptism, and which had its complete embodiment in the Bap- tist denomination.
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