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Not so had Benjamin Randall read his Bible. This was not the teaching he had heard from the lips of Whitefield. He believed that the atonement of Christ rendered salva- tion possible to all. This was the gospel he had hitherto preached and he knew no other gospel. When, therefore, he was asked why he did not preach the doctrine of election as held by Calvin, he made the prompt reply, "Because I do not believe it." A long and earnest discus- sion followed, but Randall could not be moved from the position he had taken. With renewed interest he turned to the Scriptures, resolved not only to know so far as it was possible what the Bible teaches, but to follow its teachings whithersoever they might lead. No new light for him, however, broke from its pages, and his study of God's Word only made more clear what he regarded as the rocky strength of his position.
Those were strenuous days in religious circles, and the
1 Article X : 1 and 2.
2 History of the Baptists of New England (Weston's Ed.,) Vol. 2, p. 232.
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lines of the contestants were more and more sharply drawn. In July, 1779, at the Baptist meeting-house in Gilmanton, N. H., Mr. Randall was called upon to answer for himself in a public assembly. A debate followed the presentation of his views and this was continued the greater part of two days. It was a sort of summer school in theology to the large audience called together by the discussion. "I have no fellowship with brother Ran- dall in his principles," said his leading opponent at the close of the discussion. It is worthy of note that neither Mr. Randall nor those who were in agreement with him were disfellowshiped by the churches with which they were connected. Those are supposed to have been days of church discipline, when there was much "hewing to the line," but while there were discussions, we do not read of heresy trials. "I applied to the church to which I belonged for a dismission," says Mr. Randall, "but they would never grant it. Neither was there ever a com- mittee appointed by the church to labor with me, that ever I knew of, and so they let me alone." 1
Those Baptist fathers along the frontier of southwest- ern Maine and over the border in New Hampshire were evidently men who, while contending stoutly against what they believed to be erroneous and harmful doctrine were unwilling to make the holding of such doctrine an occasion for exclusion from church membership. They would allow time for the further and better understanding of the teachings of God's Word, yet more on the part of their opponents it may be, than on their own part. They thus in nowise assailed the Christian character of Randall and those in agreement with him, and left them to work out their own destiny as followers of a common Master.
But the breach that separated Randall from his Baptist brethren continued to widen. In August, 1779, a branch of the Berwick Baptist church in Barrington, N. H., was organized as an independent church. Rev. Tozer Lord, who in October, 1776, was ordained as pastor of the Bap-
1 Life of Elder Benjamin Randall by John Buzzell, p. 80.
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tist church in Lebanon, Maine, but had accepted anti- Calvinistic views, became pastor of the Barrington church. In March, 1780, Mr. Randall united with this church without dismission from the Berwick church. His ordina- tion to the work of an evangelist followed at New Durham April 5, 1780. Mr. Lord preached the sermon and Edward Lock, who united with the Baptist church in Gilmanton, N. H., in 1775, gave the hand of fellowship. Mr. Lord continued to preach in Barrington several years, although his home was in Acton, Maine. In 1800, he removed to Athens, Maine, where he died in March, 1830. He never formally connected himself with the Freewill Baptist denomination, although in sympathy with the movement. Mr. Lock, in December, 1779, requested dismission from the Baptist church in Gilmanton in order to unite with the separate or independent church in London and Canter- bury, N. H. A council, called to consider this request, was held Feb. 16, 1780. It was the decision of the council that Mr. Lock had departed from the faith, and should confess his error and return. This he declined to do, and a few weeks later he received ordination at the hands of Rev. Tozer Lord and united with the London and Canter- bury church. About two years later a majority of the members of this church, including Lock, went over to Shakerism.1 The church of which Rev. Tozer Lord was pastor lost its visibility about the same time.
Having been ordained, Benjamin Randall proceeded to organize at New Durham, N. H., a church consisting of brethren and sisters who were in agreement with him in his doctrinal views. His own account of this transac- tion is as follows : "There being a considerable number of brethren and sisters at New Durham and its vicinity, we had it in contemplation to embody as a church by our- selves, and were still of opinion that there must be some written articles of faith, and a written covenant for us to sign; although we concluded that the scriptures of
1 In 1792 Mr. Lock, having lost his interest in Shakerism, removed to Chesterville, Me., and was restored to membership among the Freewill Baptists.
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truth were the only rule of faith and practice." He accordingly prepared thirteen articles, and also a cov- enant.1 "After the above named articles and covenant were drawn up," says Randall, "and laid before the mem- bers on the 30th of June, 1780, we all, in a solemn man- ner, by prayer and supplication to the Lord, covenanted together in the fear of God, and signed our names to the above instrument. This is the beginning of the now large and extensive connection called Free Will Baptist." 2
At the time, however, Mr. Randall and his associates had no thought of founding a new denomination. "They organized simply as a Baptist church, hoping that the power of the truth and Christian forbearance would yet enable them to work harmoniously with their Calvinistic brethren."3 Indeed the church organized by Mr. Randall was "The Baptist church at New Durham."
But, according to his biographer, Mr. Randall still labored "under peculiar trials in his own mind; for although he was confident that God had converted his soul, and had called him to preach the gospel, there were several passages of scripture which he did not fully under- stand, and as he was now placed as the mark of opposi- tion, his opposers would often throw those passages in his way, in order to confute him, viz., such as Rom. 8: 29, 'Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate,' &c. Eph. 1: 4, 'According as he hath chosen us in him,
1 The covenant prepared by Mr. Randall was as follows :
"We do now declare that we have given ourselves to God : and do now agree to give ourselves to each other in love and fellowship; and do also agree to take the scriptures of truth for the rule of our faith and practice, respecting our duty toward God, our neighbors and ourselves.
"We do promise to practice all the commands in the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so far as they are now, or shall be made known to us by the light of the Holy Spirit of truth, without which, we are sensible, we cannot attain to the true knowledge thereof. We also promise to bear each other's burdens, and so fulfil the law of love, which is the law of Christ. We do further agree to give liberty for the improve- ment of the gifts of the brethren, and to keep up the worship of God, and not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. We do likewise further agree not to receive any person into fellowship, except they give a satisfactory evidence of a change in life and heart; and also promise to submit to the order of the Gospel as above. Amen."
2 Buzzell's Life of Elder Benjamin Randall, p. 84.
3 Stewart's History of the Freewill Baptists, p. 55.
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before the foundation of the world.' And Rom. 9: 13, 'Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.' 'Many are called, but few are chosen, &c.'" Mr. Randall made no attempt to reconcile these passages with his teachings, but simply said he believed that if they were "fully under- stood they contained a sense which run parallel with the universal call of the gospel." And yet he was troubled on account of these passages. But there was an end of his trial in July, 1780. He had a manifestation, an experience. "I saw," he says, "all the scriptures in per- fect harmony ; and those texts, about which my opposers were contending, were all opened to my mind ; and I saw that they ran in perfect connection with the universal love of God to men-the universal atonement in the work of redemption, by Jesus Christ, who tasted death for every man-the universal appearance of grace to all men, and with the universal call of the gospel." The "scene was withdrawn," and Mr. Randall had no further trial with reference to the meaning of those passages of Scripture. Whether he was in the body or out of the body at the time, he said he could not tell. His biographer very naively adds, "It would doubtless have been very gratify- ing to my readers, if Elder Randall had given a short specimen of his extraordinary view of the construction and plain meaning of those controverted subjects, to which he alludes."
In February, 1781, Mr. Randall organized a church in Tamworth, N. H., and during the same year he organized another church in Barrington. Then he made a journey eastward as far as the Kennebec river. In eighteen months there were nine churches in the new fellowship. In each of these churches Mr. Randall established a monthly meeting, and these were so arranged that he could conveniently attend them, and they, by their mes- sengers, could also visit each other. Later quarterly meetings were added, and at length yearly meetings as the necessity for a more compact organization appeared.
The communion question arose in the New Durham
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church. At a conference Sept. 12, 1781, this inquiry was raised, "Is it duty to commune occasionally with such as have not been baptized by immersion ?" There was "long · labor" and then the question "was referred for further consideration." At a quarterly meeting held in March, 1784, the Woolwich church introduced the question in this form : "Is it right to commune occasionally with persons who have never been baptized by immersion ?" The answer of the meeting was this: "It is the mind of the meeting that we need not trouble ourselves about this question now, as we have never had any trial with it." Early in 1785, however, the church in New Durham took up the question again, and the following vote was passed : "We believe it duty, for the future, to give leave to such brethren as are not baptized by immersion, whom we fellowship in the spirit, to commune with us occasionally if they desire it." It was not until several years after- ward, however, that the record is found of "a general invitation ;" but church membership was implied.1
The growth of the new movement was not rapid. In 1790, there were in the churches connected with it only eight ordained ministers, ten licensed preachers and about four hundred members. But from this time a larger degree of prosperity was manifest. Commencing with 1797, a widespread revival was in progress in New Eng- land as elsewhere in the country, and the churches con- nected with the new movement naturally shared in the results. In 1804, when these churches in the Province of Maine petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for incorporation as a religious body, they had a membership of about two thousand.2
In the action which was taken with reference to incor- poration this language was used : "Voted, that it is the mind of this meeting to petition the General Court of Massachusetts, that all the Freewill, Antipedo Baptists in
1 Stewart's History of the Freewill Baptists, pp. 100, 101.
2 Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 272.
2
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said state may be incorporated into a society by the above name."
Inasmuch as at the beginning of the movement separa- tion from the Baptists by Randall and his associates was not anticipated, the churches they organized were regarded by themselves as' Baptist churches. Those who joined them were for some time designated by others as Randallites, General Provisioners, Freewillers, Open Com- munionists, in the absence of any designation of their own. In the certificates given by an ordaining council in 1799, the term "Freewill Baptist," occurs. Stewart says : "Here for the first time, in all the old records or historical papers, do we find the term Freewill Baptist.
Let it be remembered that Randall and his associates refused to acknowledge the name Freewill Baptist for twenty years after the separation, and when they first placed it upon their records, in preserving a copy of the above certificates, it was certainly not received with favor. Many of the fathers lived and died objecting to the name, but a majority finally acquiesced in its use. As the denomination has too often been content to occupy the retired place assigned it by others, so the name finally assumed was by no means the one of their choice, but the one their opposers had fastened upon them."1
It is plain from this narration that the Freewill Baptist movement had its beginning among the Baptists of Maine, and was one of the results of the great religious awak- ening in New England which followed the preaching of Whitefield during the period marked by his successive visits, beginning in 1740 and continuing until his death at Newburyport in 1770. The impassioned, even eloquent presentation of gospel truth which characterized Mr. Whitefield's evangelistic activity was in striking contrast with the formal, unimpassioned preaching of the minis- ters into whose pulpits he came. "His fame as an evan- gelist had preceded him and had enkindled anticipation of the beneficial results to follow his coming. His meth -.
1 History of the Freewill Baptists, pp. 175, 176.
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ods were novel, and his endowments for his undertaking certainly large. The ministers of New England at this period, with very few exceptions, preached from closely written manuscripts, which must generally have been held in the hand, and often near to the eyes, and their preach- ing was with few graces of manner or elocution. Here suddenly appeared among them a young man of twenty- six years of age, whom nature had endowed with some of the greatest gifts of an orator, -a splendid physique, a marvelous voice, a vivid dramatic power, -one who seemed to pour forth his torrent of apparently unpremeditated eloquence without fatigue or study. It was a novel expe- rience to listen to such a man. American congregations had never heard the like."1
The influence of Whitefield's evangelistic labors in his visitations of 1740, 1744, 1754, 1764 and 1770, extended to the remotest part of New England. In many a heart, doubtless, as in that of Benjamin Randall, the tidings of Whitefield's sudden death made an impression which his gospel message, however eloquently delivered, failed to produce. But the influence of the great evangelist was even more widely carried by the itinerating preachers who caught his spirit and went everywhere preaching the word. Also lay-exhorters and gospel workers there were, men without the training of the schools, who having experienced the grace of God in their own hearts were moved, divinely as they believed, to go forth and tell what great things God had done for their own souls.
Whitefield was a Calvinist and believed strongly in the elective purposes of God ; but none the less did he exhort men to repent of their sins and grasp by faith the hand of one mighty to save, as if everything depended upon their own unaided efforts. It was so with those who caught his spirit and followed in his footsteps. The appeal of preacher and lay-exhorter was made to men and women as if the choice was with them whether they would
'1 Some Aspects of the Religious Life in New England, by George L. Walker, D. D., pp. 92, 93.
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forsake their sins and lead a new life, or continue unre- pentant. It mattered not how strong their creeds were in asserting the sovereignty of God and his elective purposes, they bore down upon their hearers for an immediate decision, urging them to flee at once from the wrath to come. Calvinism and Arminianism were terms unknown, or if known were unheeded. Man was a sin- ner, Christ was a Saviour, and those who had not already renounced their sins should do so and accept Christ as Redeemer and King.
It was this kind of preaching and exhorting that pre- pared the way in the Province of Maine for the movement which was commenced by Benjamin Randall and led to the establishment of Freewill Baptist churches. It was because he was familiar with this kind of preaching, and had heard no other, that Randall was led to suppose he was in full accord with his Baptist brethren in proclaiming free grace and teaching that the gospel call is to all, that the Holy Spirit enlightens all, and that to every one is given the ability to accept or reject the provisions of the atonement made by Christ. He had heard no other gos- pel, and he preached that which he had received.
The position which Randall held at that time is in entire harmony with that which Maine Baptists hold at the pres- ent day. The opposition which he encountered among his Baptist brethren was based upon doctrinal expressions like those in the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. But these were already undergoing modification in Baptist circles in New England. The discussions which had their origin in the Freewill movement aided in this modification. Much more powerful, however, was the influence of Andrew Fuller, the gifted pastor of Kettering, England, who in 1785, in opposition to the hyper-Calvinistic views of his brethren, published his "Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation." A conflict followed in which Fuller bore a heroic part. His "Calvinistic and Socinian Systems Examined and Compared," and his "Gospel its Own Witness," were powerful instruments in modifying the
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extreme views that had hitherto been held by Baptists in England. These writings found their way into New Eng- land and aided in bringing about a like result here.
This modification of doctrinal views was recognized in the New Hampshire Articles of Faith adopted in 1833, and which found ready acceptance in our New England Bap- tist churches. Article VI., on the freeness of salvation, reads as follows : "We believe that the blessings of salva- tion are made free to all by the gospel, that it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial, peni- tent and obedient faith; and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth but his own inherent depravity and voluntary rejection of the gospel ; which rejection involves him in an aggravated condem- nation."
Because of this doctrinal change among Baptists, the Freewill Baptist movement failed to make the impression which it otherwise doubtless would have made. After the early discussions in the Baptist churches occasioned by the views of Randall and his associates, no further notice of the movement seems to have been taken. The minutes of the Baptist associations in Maine at the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth contain no references to it. One would not learn from these minutes that any such movement was in progress. The labors of Baptists and Freewill Baptists in general were not on the same fields, and the fields on which the Baptists spent their strength were as many and as large as they could in any way properly cultivate with the labor- ers at their command.
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CHAPTER V.
POTTER, MACOMBER, CASE.
Nathaniel Lord, who with Benjamin Randall and two others was baptized by Rev. William Hooper on the day of Mr. Hooper's ordination, became pastor of a Baptist church in Wells. Its constituent members were from converts in connection with Mr. Lord's evangelistic labors, and they called him to be their shepherd and guide. The church was recognized October 10, 1780, by a council con- vened at Wells, composed of delegates from the churches in Berwick, Brentwood, Stratham, Epping, Deerfield and Sanford, and consisted of fourteen members.
In Coxhall, now Lyman, a Baptist church of twenty- nine members was constituted March 5, 1782, in the dwell- ing house of Jacob Rhodes and Simon Locke. The latter, as a licensed preacher, had aided in the formation of the church, and was ordained as its pastor, a relation which he sustained forty-nine years. A faithful preacher of the gospel, he lived a useful life, and entered into rest Sept. 6, 1831.
In the summer of 1782,1 Rev. Nathaniel Lord of Wells,2 on his way from the islands of the Kennebec where he had held religious services, stopped in Potterstown now Bowdoin and preached. A revival had been in progress in
1 "In 1781 there was no appearance of any Baptists or ministers of that order in Maine, eastward of the county of York. In 1782 God did visit these ends of the earth in mercy, and many reformations were experienced in our towns and plantations." Narration of the Experience, Travels and Labours of Elder James Potter, p. 25.
? "Of the early life of Mr. Lord, we have no information. From the beginning of his ministry with this church [Wells] till death closed up his work on earth, 1832, at the age of 78 years, he officiated as pastor 18 years with the church in Wells, and 28 with the church at Berwick. It is said of him that 'he was eminently useful as a preacher and pastor.' The last sermon he preached was an affectionate address to his brethren, from the words, "See that ye fall not out by the way." Millet's History of the Baptists in Maine, p. 36.
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the place several months. Among Mr. Lord's hearers was James Potter, who had united with the Congregational church in Harpswell, but by his subsequent study of the Scriptures had been led to embrace Baptist views, both as to the subjects and the act of baptism. "I saw myself unbaptized," wrote Mr. Potter "and all others, who were not baptized by immersion upon a profession of faith." His friends labored with him. "They attempted to prove," he says, "that Enon was a small place of water, and Jordan not more than ankle deep." But he was immovable from the position he had taken. He did not, however, at once withdraw from the church with which he was connected. Mr. Lord preached twice at Potters- town. "After service was over," says Mr. Potter,1 "he went out and sat down with about fifty young Christians around him, and we did rejoice and praise God together. I then spoke to him, and informed him that I heard he was a Baptist. He said he was. I desired him not to tell one word of what he held to, because they say I am a Bap- tist-and I will relate to you what I believe. I did so, concerning the faith and order of the primitive church of Christ, as I received it from the Scriptures. He said if I believed what I had told him, I was a Baptist, for I had told everything the Baptists believe and hold."
Mr. Potter was at that time forty-eight years of age, having been born in Brunswick, Feb. 22, 1734. He was a prosperous farmer, a man of influence, and his conversion at the age of forty-seven made a deep impression upon the community in which he lived. An earnest desire that all about him should inherit like precious faith filled his soul, and he visited his neighbors and friends urging them to accept Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer. A pow- erful revival of religion followed. The work extended to other towns. Mr. Potter spent a week in Litchfield, and a work of grace was commenced there. Then he went to the southeast part of Brunswick, and a religious interest
1 Narration of the Experience, Travels and Labours of Elder James Potter, p. 17.
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was awakened there. Afterwards he visited Bowdoin- ham, where he preached from house to house, and "as many as forty gave satisfactory evidence of a change; numbers likewise came from Pownalborough, some of whom professed to find peace." Of his experiences in these evangelistic labors he has left an interesting record. "I found in every place that I visited," he says, "num- bers to attend, but the best of all was that a divine power attended to awaken, convince and convert sinners. To many it was a strange thing, to see such a worldling leave his business and become a preacher, which they never had seen before. Some of the clergy cavilled much with me : one of them asked me if I thought God ever sent me to preach? I answered yes. He asked when I spoke to the people, if I called it preaching? I told him I delivered what was given me, and left it with those who heard me to call it what they pleased. He asked me if I took a text of Scripture? I answered that I commonly began with a text, and quoted many others while speaking. If (said he) you are called of God, why do you not work miracles? I answered that man never did work a miracle, but Jesus Christ, being with his ministers, works miracles by them. I then asked him if he discovered amongst his people those who confessed they had been trusting to refuges of lies, and inquiring what they should do to be saved? Others who had been wicked, profane persons, becoming sober, righteous and godly? These, I told him, were mir- acles which God wrought by his ministers." 1
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